Wise parents nudge their children away from dependence toward freedom, for their goal is to produce independent adults. Lovers, however, choose a new kind of voluntary dependence: possessing freedom they gladly give it away. In a healthy marriage, one partner yields to the other’s wishes not out of compulsion but out of love. That adult relationship reveals, I believe, what God has always sought from human beings: not the clinging, helpless love of a child who has no real choice, but the mature, freely given commitment of a lover.-Philip Yancy, Reaching for the Invisible God, P. 223
What do Calvinists think of this? I imagine they would pretty much stick with the part about God treating us as children. Certainly much of the language of the bible is like this: God’s relation to the nation of Israel, etc. However, some of it really isn’t. The church as the bride of Christ. Do you treat your bride like a child? Not unless you’re an ass. So why does God use that imagery over and over again if he still means to treat us as children in all our relating? I don’t think that’s what the Lord is looking for in the church, as mentioned above.
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February 11th, 2008 at 12:22 AM
This is a fascinating study: the ways God relates to us. I can think of several more off the top of my head. God uses almost every human relationship as yet another picture to us of how He relates to us.
A Sibling
Pr 18:24 – A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
A Parent
De 1:31 – There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.”
A Lover
Re 21:9 – Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.”
A Friend
Joh 15:15 – No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
A Judge
2Ti 4:1 – In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:
A Boss
Lu 5:5 – Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
An Artist
Ro 9:21 – Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
A Seer
Ps 139:1 – O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
A Teacher
Ps 86:11 – Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
A Congressman or President
De 7:11 – Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.
A Pastor
Ps 23:1 – The Lord is my Shepherd
A Celebrity
Hab 3:2 – Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O Lord. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known;