A Brief Notice of "The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God" by D.A. Carson.
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On Page 40, Mr. Carson says: "In John 15, Jesus tells His disciples, “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you” (15:9). Thus we move from the intra- Trinitarian love of the Father for the Son, to the Son’s love of His people in redemption. Jesus thus becomes the Mediator of His Father’s love. Receiving love, so has He loved. Then He adds, “Now remain in My love. If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love” (15:9b-10)."

On page 64, he writes, "And this, brothers and sisters, we have learned from God as He has disclosed Himself in His Son; for “we love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Here is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10)."

God has revealed Himself fully in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. As Darby observed, "The Son,...the manifestation of the grace and love of the Father, and of God's love to the world, when this guilt was already there in lawless sin and lawbreaking; the express image of the subsistence of God, in whom the Father was seen."

On Page 49, Carson attributes Heb. 1:3 to the exalted Christ as the Upholder of all things by the word of His power. Here, we may observe that the declaration of God concerning the Lord Christ does not confine to the post Ascension epoch only, but it applies to the Son as both the Creator and the Upholder of "all things by the word of His power," v2, throughout all history, i.e., since the beginning of the creation. Colossians 1 also confirms this: "And He is before all things, and by Him, all things consist." Col. 1:17.

The book overall is a wonderful meditation on the love of God, and its various aspects. The author especially dwells much on that eternal relationship and mutual love between the Father and the Son being the spring and source of His love towards His own.

[2019]

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