A Not-So-Stuffy Theologian on the Love of God

It has been too long since there was a post on this blog from Mr. Strom, so I thought I would give a little food for thought, since there has been plenty of examples of food for eating.

These four things in the highest manner commend the love of God towards us: (1) the majesty of the lover; (2) the poverty and unworthiness of the loved; (3) the worth of him in whom we are loved; (4) the multitude and excellence of the gifts which flow out from that love to us. (a) God loves us (who, constituted in the highest preeeminence and happiness, needs us not and is not bound to love us; indeed can most justly hate and destroy us if he so willed). (b) Men are beloved, not only as empty and week creatures, but as sinners and guilty, rebellious servants, who so far from deserving it, are on the other hand most worthy of hatred and punishment. (c) He in whom they are beloved is Christ (Eph. 1:5-6), the delight of his heavenly Father and the "express image of his person" (Heb. 1:3), than whom he could give nothing more excellent, nothing dearer, even if he had given the whole universe. (d) The effects of his love are both man in number and great in value (viz., all the benefits by which salvation is begun in this life and perfected in the other and, what is the crown and sum of all the blessings, the gift of God himself, who imparts himself to us as an object of fruition both in grace and in glory). --Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology

What manner of love is this?!

A Third Way for Jekyll

This past couple of weeks I have been plodding my way through Keller's The Reason for God, and it has been very helpful on a variety of levels. However, the sine qua non of Keller's stuff is his insight into the depravity of our own righteousness. Particularly clear on the matter is his exposition of this quote from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,

I resolved in my future conduct to redeem the past; and I can say with honesty that my resolve was fruitful of some good. You know how earnestly, in the last months of the last year, I labored to relieve suffering; you know that much was done for others....[But as] I smiled, comparing myself with other men, comparing my active goodwill with the lazy cruelty of their neglect...at the very moment of that vain-glorious thought, a qualm came over ma, a horrid nausea and the most dreadful shuddering....I looked down...I was once more Edward Hyde.

Keller goes on to explain "Like so many people Jekyll knows he is a sinner, so he tries desperately to cover his sin with great piles of good works. Yet his efforts do not actually shrivel his pride and self-centeredness, they only aggravate it. They lead him to superiority, self-righteousness, pride and suddenly -- look! Jekyll becomes Hyde, not in spite of his goodness, but because of his goodness." (p. 182-3)

Those who know the story know that Dr. Jekyll despairs and takes his own life when he comes to the horrifyingly insightful realization that his attempts to atone for his sins merely fuel the fire. But there is another way, a miraculous way that would have healed the sickness inside of Jekyll. In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus makes the Jekyll in all of us an over that would have stopped the tragic end to that story. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (ESV)

I plead with you who do not know the Savior, Unload!