5. 117, Is 465 61% ete. Dorner has an original investigation of the relation of love to righteous- ness in his System of Christian Ethics, pp. 68-93). We may add that it is of the essence of love in God as in man that it does not remain a mere self- enclosed or inoperative principle, but reveals itself in acts for the benefit ot the ἘΠ πὰ object. It is impossible to believe in a God of love who, as Carlyle said, ‘does nothing.’ The religion of the Old Testament, therefore, and of the New as well, is pre-eminently that of a God who reveals His gracious purposes in history, and acts for man’s salvation (Ps 103% 7, Ro 5° etc.).
(B) The NT Doctrine of the love of God pre- supposes that of OT, and stands in no essential contradiction with it (as Marcion supposed), but perfects and completes it in the full revelation of the character of God in His Son, and in the dis- covery of His plan of love for man’s salvation,— in the gospel. It is serena a striking fact— especially for those who would have us find the whole revelation of Christ in the Synoptics—that, as remarked above, Jesus in no single saying in these Gospels speaks directly of the ‘love’ (ἀγάπη) of the Father, or uses the corresponding verb (ἀγαπᾷν). The impartial beneficence of the Father is indeed urged as an example (Mt 5”); and the Father is set before us as rewarding, hearing prayer, giving good gifts, forgiving trespasses, caring for His children, as for the lilies and the fowls, revealing Himself to babes, avenging in- juries to His little ones, etc. (¢.g., Mt 6! δ. δ. 38:8 10-81 11% 188 19.14), But perhaps even these deter- minations do not carry us essentially beyond the bounds of OT. Yet there is a new significance in the very name ‘Father,’ the depth and tender- ness of which are revealed in the relation of the
Father to the ‘beloved’ Son (ἀγαπητός) ; and the whole spirit, character, and gracious words and deeds of Jesus are a revelation of the meaning of love in God which is altogether new. It is in the Gospel of St. John that we have the assurances that those who are in union with the Son are loved with the same infinite and tender love with which the Son Himself is loved by the Father (Jn 14°: 3 17*-*5), In Ac the word ‘love’ is not used of God’s attitude to men, though God’s acts of grace (χάρις frequently) in the sending of His Son, raising Him from the dead, exalting Him to heaven, sending the Spirit, granting forgiveness of sins, salvation, and healing through His name, are abundantly extolled (Ac 2. 3. 41:12 10% 134-89 etc.). Itis, however, in the Pauline and Johannine Epes that this doctrine of the marvellous love of God, as revealed in the gift, incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and glorification of the Son, and in the salvation and eternal life that have come to men through Him, with unspeakable spiritual blessings and privileges here, and ever- Jasting glory hereafter, is discovered in its full- orbed splendour (Ro 5° 8 8*-%, 1 Jn 31 45:13 etc.). In so far as God desires the salvation of all (1 Ti 115 24 4°), and has provided in the mission and sacrifice of His Son for the salvation of all (1 Ti 28, 1Jn 2? 4), His love embraces the whole world (Jn 3!6),—this extension of the blessings of salvation to the Gentiles on equal terms with the Jews being the peculiar ‘mystery’ of God, which had been hid from earlier ages, and which St. Paul was commissioned to reveal (Eph 3:5}; in this sense the NT doctrine is a transcending of the ‘ particularism ’ of the OT, Gal 5°, Col 3" ete.). Nevertheless, the love of God is not in NT, any more than in OT, a vaguely diffusive, indis- criminating affection, but has for its peculiar objects those in union with Christ, who, as chosen in Him (the elect one, Is 42!, Mt 1915) before the foundation of the world, and foreordained to the adoption of children, and all spiritual blessings, according to the good pleasure (εὐδοκία) of His will — ‘the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His will’ (Eph 1*™) —are conducted by God (‘foreknown,’ ‘ fore- ordained,’ ‘called,’ ‘justified,’ ‘ glorified’) to the glory destined for them (Ro 8*, cf. Jn 6°” etc.). The highest form of love, alike in God and man, is not a matter of vague impulse, but in- volves intelligent choice (diligo), the grounds of choice lying sometimes in the objects loved, but in the case of God, in dealing with the unworthy, lying solely in His own good, wise, and holy will (χάρις, Eph 2% ete.). The exponent of this love οἱ God to us is Jesus Christ, whose own love is joined with God’s as part of the same manifesta- tion of the divine character (Jn 107, Ro 5°", Eph 3” 52, 1 Jn 4, Rev 1° ete.). In the com- assion, tenderness, devotion, grace of Jesus in {is earthly life; in His hope for the vilest, and yearning aeaive to bring them back to God; in
is self-sacrifice and surrender of Himself for His sheep (Jn 10"-14), we have the ‘interpretation ’ (ἐξηγήσατο, Jn 118) of the Father's heart to us. Love, as thus exhibited, is not simply complacency in the good ; it unites itself also with the bad, yearns over them with inexpressible tenderness and sorrow (Mt 9357), identifies itself so closely with them that their sin and shame and sorrow are felt and shared as if they belonged to the loving One Himself,— love, in other words, becomes substitutionary, and in the case of Christ propitiatory (Mt 8'7 9", Lk 15, Jn 1038, 1 Jn 494), The last and all-comprehen- sive word on this subject is spoken by the Apostle of Love when he sums up the whole significance οἱ the gospel revelation in the saying —‘Gop 15 Love’ (1 Jn 4°).