God's Demanding Love
But does not God do man an injustice by requiring in His law what man cannot do? The reference here is to the demand of love. For the thought from which we proceed in this post is really the right or the just claim of God’s love. It is His love that demands everything. Already that demand of His love is denied from many sides. Apparently the thought is in the minds of many that love only gives and that its nature in the highest sense is opposed to demanding. Immediately we think of the love of Christ, Who having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love (John 13: 1). These words about Christ also intend to say that He in His love gave everything without even placing any condition on those who were His own. The fact of the matter is, however, that in itself man’s love does not have a single right or claim to love in response. When human love also can assert the right and claim of love in response,...
