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<\/a><\/p>\n(Elvet Methodist Church where CKB often preached in Durham)<\/p>\n
If God had been intending to coerce all human
\nbeings into accepting the risen Jesus by a manifestation of unmistakable
\nsupernatural power, he might have saved himself the trouble and pain of
\nthe Incarnation. Why go through all the motions of the ministry of Jesus if in
\nthe end all people were to be dragooned by main force into the right camp?
\nPractically, and that is not quite the same as logically, you cannot coerce
\nthe love we have just been talking about. As I write this, a pleasing memory
\ncomes into my mind from the distant past. It must have been in 1938 that
\nthe plans for the Cambridge Evangelistic Campaign fell through, and some
\nof us joined in an Oxford mission in Stafford. I remember how we teased a
\nhuge and very gentle rowing blue, 14 or 15 stone of him, as he stood on a
\nsoapbox and brandished a huge fist in the face of the crowd, declaring with
\nthe greatest vigor, \u201cmy friends this is a Gospel of love.\u201d He knew, I am sure, as
\nwell as any of us, that you cannot make people love by shaking your fist at
\nthem. You cannot coerce love. If ever God tried it, the response would not
\nbe love.
\nI do not mean that the time will never come when God will draw a line
\nunder the sum, and bring the patient process to an end. But Easter means
\nthat the pleading with people, the waiting for the response of love that
\nmarked the ministry of Jesus, goes on and is extended to cover all persons
\nof all ages and places. \u201cWe love,\u201d said John in the First Epistle, \u201cbecause he
\nfirst loved us.\u201d Our love is a response. God\u2019s love is not. It is as Anders Nygren
\nsaid, uncaused, unmotivated love; or as Charles Wesley said \u201che hath loved,
\nhe hath loved us because he would love.\u201d There is no charm, no attractiveness
\nto elicit his love. But ours is response. And it is in some respects the
\nsupreme miracle of Easter that the response is still possible and the offer
\nis still open. \u201cWell\u201d we might say, \u201cI gave him his chance, I was willing to be
\nfriends, but he wouldn\u2019t have it, so I have finished with him now.\u201d How natural
\nand how common. But it is not the way God asked. God could have, on
\nGood Friday, closed the offer with a bang. But Easter means the offer of love
\nstands open yet; \u201cand he who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I
\nwill love him, and will manifest myself to him.\u201d\u2014 C.K. Barrett<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Elvet Methodist Church where CKB often preached in Durham) If God had been intending to coerce all human beings into accepting the risen Jesus by a manifestation of unmistakable supernatural power, he might have saved himself the trouble and pain of the Incarnation. Why go through all the motions of the ministry of Jesus if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a><\/p>\n