Finally, this prophetic utterance exhibits the intrinsic nobility of redemptive religion. It and it alone
\nrepresents Jehovah’s eternal love as the source from which it primordially springs, and from which
\nit perennially renews itself. <\/p>\n
This divine declaration, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (31:
\n3), is by no means from Jeremiah’s standpoint the commonplace which our over-familiarity with
\nthat attribute, not seldom at the expense of due regard for other attributes in the nature of God, has
\nmade it. The prophet means to describe by this term something quite extraordinary, something wellnigh
\ninconceivable, a supreme wonder in that land of wonders which religion can never cease to be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nLove is to him the highest form of the spiritual embrace of person by person. To ascribe it to God in
\nconnection with a creature is at the farthest remove from being a figure of speech. <\/p>\nIt means that in
\nthe most literal sense He concentrates all the light and warmth of His affection, all the prodigious
\nwealth of its resources, his endless capacity of delight, upon the heart-to-heart union between the
\npious and Himself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnd what God for His part brings into this union has a generosity, a sublime
\nabandon, an absoluteness, that, measured by human analogies, we can only designate as the highest
\nand purest type of devotion. <\/p>\nIt is named love for this very reason, that God puts into it His heart
\nand soul and mind and strength, and gathers all His concerns with His people into the focus of
\nthis one desire. It is when speaking of this that Scripture employs its boldest anthropomorphisms.
\nHere nothing but the absolute and unqualified are in place. He who would give God less than this
\ntotal by a mere fraction would give Him nothing at all. In saying this we do not, of course, refer to
\nthe imperfect performance, but to the principle that regulates the obligation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe reason lies in the
\nnature and position of God as the Highest Good, the one supremely desirable reality, besides whom
\nand apart from whom it were folly to seek aught in heaven or on earth. <\/p>\nStrictly speaking such a state
\nof mind pertains only to the creature. God is the receiver, not the practicer of religion. And yet,
\nconsidering His absolute devotion to His people, we cannot but speak of it in terms of reciprocity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIn point of fact the occurrence of even the shadow of such a surrender to God in us is made possible
\nonly by the marvel of its occurrence in God. <\/p>\nWe love God, but can do so only because He loved us
\nfirst. Thus the supreme force of religion must issue from the disclosure of God’s sovereign love to
\nus. No other divine attribute, taken by itself, is deep and wide enough to engender and support that
\nmovement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe prophet was well aware of this, for he distinguishes love even from lovingkindness,
\nplacing the former back of the latter. Kindness is a noble attribute; only, if we may apply to such
\nthings our frail human language, it is not the first-born among the divine virtues. <\/p>\n“Chesed” is the
\nloyal, tender attachment practiced in daily intercourse by reason of some original, more ultimate
\nunion preceding it. If the primordial love did not lie back of it, Jehovah’s kindness could never
\nbe an assured possession of Israel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWere kindness or mercy or longsuffering our reliance, then the
\nperfection of confidence would have to remain hopelessly beyond our reach. <\/p>\nKindness carries the
\nnecessity of ever-repeated renewal in itself. It is like a reservoir, full and rich indeed, but not like the
\nfountain except by grace of the fountain’s supply.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nBut, since the fathomless tide of the divine love
\nrises irresistibly underneath it, we know that it can never fail; but will prove at every point more than
\nequal to our needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finally, this prophetic utterance exhibits the intrinsic nobility of redemptive religion. It and it alone represents Jehovah’s eternal love as the source from which it primordially springs, and from which it perennially renews itself. This divine declaration, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (31: 3), is by no means from Jeremiah’s standpoint the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2212\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purposedriven.ca\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}