that lie represents the wicked world as incapable of coming to Him that it might have life (8" '-' 14'" lU^j, and as requirin" first of all a 'drawing' from the Father to enable it to come (6"- ") ; so that only those hear or believe on Him who are ' of God'(S", cf. 15" 17"), who are 'of his sheep' (IG-''). There is undoubtedly a strong emphasis thrown on the universality of Christ's mission of salvation ; He has been sent into the world not merely to save some out of the world, but to save the world itself (3'« 6" 12" 17=', cf. 1-^ 1 Jn 4''' 2-). Hut this universalit3- of destination and eli'ect by which it is ' the world ' that is saved, does not imply the salvation of each and every individual in the world, even in the earlier stages of the developing salva- tion. On the contrary, the saving work is a pro- cess (17=") ; and, meanwhile, the coming of the Son into the world introduces a crisis, a sifting by which those who, because they are 'of God,' 'of his sheep,' are in the world, but not of it (l.")'" 11"), are separated from those who are of the world, that is, of their father the devil (S*''), who is the I'rince of tliis world (12" 14»" l(i"). Obvi- ously, the dillerence between men that is thus manifested is not thought of as inhering, after a dualistic or semi-Gnostic fashion, in their very natures as such, or as instituted by their own self-framed or accidentally received dispositions, much less by their own conduct in the world, which is rather the result of it, — but, as already pointed out, .as the efi'ect of an act of God. Ail goes back to the will of God, to .accomplish which, the Son, as the .Sent One, has come ; and therefore also to the consentient will of the Son, who gives life, accordingly, to whom He will (5='). As no one can come to Him out of the evil world, excejit it be given him of the Father (6"', cf. 6**), so all that the Father gives Him (G"-^") and only such (O'"), come to Mini, being drawn thereunto by the Father (6"). Thus the Son h.as'his own in the world' (13'), His 'chosen ones' (13'8 IS'"-'"), whom by His choice He has taken out of the world (Ij'" 17'- '■*•'*); and for these only is His high-priestly intercession ofl'ered (17"), as to them only is eternal life communicated (10-'' 17'-', also S'"- ^ o-* 6''"- " 8'-). Thus, what the dogmatists call gratia prrBveniens is very strikingly taught ; and especial point is given to this teaching in the great declar.'itions as to the new birth recorded in Jn 3, from wliieh we le.'irn that the recreating Spirit comes, like the wind, without observation, and as He lists (3"), the mode of action by which the Father 'draws' men being thus uncovered for us. Of course this drawing is not to be thought of as proceeding in ,■1 manner out of accord with man's nature as a I^isj'chic being; it naturally comes to its mani- lestation in an act of voluntary choice on man's own part, and in this sense it is ' psychological ' and not 'jihysical'; accordingly, though it be God that 'draws,' it is man that 'comes' (3=' 0''-'" 14"). There is no occasion for stumbling therefore in the ascription of 'will' and ' responsihility ' to man, or for puzzling over the designation of 'faith,' in which the ' coming ' takes eli'ect, as a ' work ' of man's ((>-■■'). Man is, of course, conceived as acting humanly, after the fashion of an intelligent and volunlary agent ; but behind all his action there is ever postulated the all-determining hand of tloil, to whose sovereign operation even the blindness of the unliidieving is attributed hy tin' evangelist (12^"'-), while the receiitivity to the light of those who believe is repeatedly in the most emphatic way ascribed by Jesus Himself to God alone. Although with little use of the terminology in which we have been accustomed to expect to see the doctrines of the decree and of election ex pressed, the substance of these doctrines is her' set out in the most impressive waj'.
B6
PREDESTINATION
PREDESTINATION