086. THERE ARE SOME WHOM GOD LOVES

THERE ARE SOME WHOM GOD LOVES arises from the fact that some of the links in the argument are suppressed. It is a sort of enthymeme; and an enthymeme, as one has said, is a syllogism in which the major is married to the minor, but the marriage is kept secret. There is no false logic. All we need is to supply the links that are omitted: then the demonstration shines out with unequaled clearness and beauty. It is my purpose to take this argument of Jesus for the resurrection, and, without adding anything to it, simply to expand what is here condensed. If I am not mistaken, three great truths are here implied, and the first of them is this: There are some whom God loves.

More precisely, there are men upon whom God has set a peculiar love. "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" means just this. It is a declaration of God’s interest and friendship and care for Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Abraham is called "the friend of God," not because he is friendly to God, but because God is friendly to him. He has been chosen by God, called out from Ur of the Chaldees, separated for God’s service and possession. This is the meaning of God’s assurance in Genesis 18:19. "I have known him "—set on him my special regard—" in order that he may command his children after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord." God has selected Abraham to be the father of the faithful, the beginning of a new line of believers, the founder of a spiritual kingdom of God upon the earth. And Abraham has responded to God’s choice. He has chosen God, as God has chosen him. In his sacrifice of Isaac, he has shown that he trusts God’s word more than he trusts any earthly ground of hope; he loves God more than he loves his only son. Abraham has entered into a living relation to God,—a spiritual oneness with him. He has no interests apart from God’s interests; God is his inheritance; his life is in God. Like David after him he can say, "O God, thou art my God," meaning thereby not simply that he worships God, but that he possesses God.

What is true of Abraham is in its measure true of Isaac and of Jacob. Both of them at the critical times of their lives make choice of God, believe his promise, make God’s interests theirs. And this faith attracts God’s special regard, ensures his favor. He recognizes his relationship, bond, and obligation to them, as they have recognized their relationship, bond, and obligation to him. He enters into covenant with them, as they enter into covenant with him. As they call him, so he calls himself, "their God." But for God to say to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, "I am thy God," means more than it does for Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob to say to him, "Thou art my God." The love of mortal man is small and faint, compared with that of God. Man’s expressions of love must always be discounted, because of his imperfect knowledge of himself, his changefulness, his untruth. It is only when God is with us, when our conscience bears us witness in the Holy Ghost, that earthly expressions of affection are absolutely trustworthy. Happy those who can say, "Our loves in higher love endure," for only that higher love is unchanging. But it is that higher, that infinite, that eternal love that speaks in the words "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." In these woras the mighty God condescends to bind himself as in a marriage covenant with children of the dust. The words imply that henceforth their interests are his interests, their future is his future, their life is his life. Everything that concerns them is a matter of concern to him.