The Plan of Salvation

THE DIFFERING CONCEPTIONS

Of him are ye in Christ Jesus.—I Cor. 1: 30.

I THE DIFFERING CONCEPTIONS

HE subject to which our attention is to be

directed in this series of lectures is ordinarily

spoken of as “The Plan of Salvation.” Its more technical designation is, ‘“‘The Order of Decrees.”’ And this technical designation has the advantage over the more popular one, of more accurately defining the scope of the subject matter. This is not commonly confined to the processes of salvation itself, but is generally made to include the entire course of the divine dealing with man which ends in his salvation. Creation is not uncommonly comprehended in it, and of course the fall, and the condition of man brought about by the fall. This portion of the sub- ject matter may be looked upon, however, certainly with some propriety, as rather of the nature of a presupposition, than as a substantive part of the subject matter itself; and so no great harm will be done if we abide by the more popular designation. Its greater concretness gives it an advantage which should not be accounted small; and above all it has the merit of throwing into emphasis the main matter, . salvation. ‘The series of the divine activities which

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are brought into consideration are in any event sup- posed to circle around as their center, and to have as their proximate goal, the salvation of sinful man. When the implications of this are fairly considered it may not seem to require much argument to justify the designation of the whole by the term, ‘‘The Plan of Salvation.”

It does not seem necessary to pause to discuss the previous question whether God, in his saving activi- ties, acts upon a plan. That God acts upon a plan

/in all his activities, and therefore also in his saving _, activities, is already given in Theism. On the es-

tablishment of a personal God, this question is closed. For person means purpose: precisely what distin- guishes a person from a thing is that its modes of action are purposive, that all it does is directed to an end and proceeds through the choice of means to that end. Even the Deist, therefore, must allow that God ' has a plan. We: may, no doubt, imagine an extreme form of Deism, in which it may be contended that _ God does not concern himself at all with what hap- pens in his universe; that, having created it, he - turns aside from it and lets it run its own course to

any end that may happen to it, without having him- self given a thought toit. It is needless to say, how- ever, that no such extreme form of Deism actually exists, though, strange to say, there aré Some, as we shall have occasion to observe, who appear to think that in the particular matter of the salvation of man God does act much after this irresponsible fashion. (iat a THE DIFFERING CONCEPTIONS

What the actual Deist stands for is law. He con- ceives that God commits his universe, not to unfore- seen and unprepared caprice, but to law; law which God has impressed on his universe and to the guid- ance of which he can safely leave his universe. That is to say, even the Deist conceives God to have a plan; a plan which embraces all that happens in the universe. He differs with the Theist only as to the modes of activity by which he.conceives.God to carry out this plan. Deism involves a_ mechanical conception of the universe. God has made a machine, and just because it is a good machine, he can leave it to work out, not its, but his ends. So we may make a clock and then, just because it is a good clock, leave it to tick off the seconds, and point out the minutes, and strike the hours, and mark off the days of the month, and turn up the phases of the moon and the accompanying tides; and, if we choose, we may put in a comet which shall appear on the dial but once in the life of the clock, not erratically, but when and where and how we have arranged for it to appear. The clock does not go its own way; it goes our way, the way which we have arranged for it to go; and God’s clock, the universe, goes not its way but his way, as he has ordained for it, grinding out the in- evitable events with mechanical precision.

This is a great conception, the Deistic conception of law. It delivers us from chance. But it does so, only to cast us into the cogged teeth of a machine, It is, therefore, not the greatest conception. The

greatest conception is the conception of Theism, which delivers us even from law, and places us in the

: 1 pe immediate hands ofa person. It is a great thing to

be delivered from the inordinate realm of aimless chance. The goddess Tyche, Fortuna, was one of the most terrible divinities of the old world, quite as terrible as and scarcely distinguishable from Fate. It is a great thing to be under the control of in- telligent purpose. But it makes every difference whether the purpose is executed by mere law, acting ‘automatically, or by the ever-present personal con- trol of the person himself. There is nothing more ordinate than the control of a person, all of whose actions are governed by intelligent purpose, directed to an end. .

If we believe in a personal God, then, and much nore if, being Theists, we believe in the immediate control by this personal God of the world he has made, we must believe in a plan underlying all that God does, and therefore also in a plan of salvation. The only question that can arise concerns not the reality but the nature of. this ‘plan. As to its nature, however, it must be admitted that a great une _ differing opinions have been held. Indeed, pretty “nearly every possible opinion has been announced at one time or another, in one quarter or another. Even if we leave all extra-Christian opinions to one side, we need scarcely modify this statement. ( Lines of divi- sion have been drawn through the (hunth: parties