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Originally Posted by dnlgfnk
Well then...you need to take that up with Jesus because he clearly qualified His Father's love for him. In fact, that teaching, too, in John 10 was received by Jesus from the Father, so you'll have file a formal complaint with him, as well.
Meanwhile, not only can the Father's love be conditional, but it must be conditional due to the Father's holy character. Meditate on this: God can only delight in, rejoice over and express his everlasting lovingkindness to those whose lives reflect his holy character and whose hearts delight in Him and love Him. This is precisely why the scriptures contain so many passages that either qualify God's love that he has for his covenant people or that expresses his hatred toward unrepentant sinners. As stated previously, Jesus' teaching in John 10 is perfectly consistent with a large body of scripture.
Just as God cannot swear by anyone except himself, since no one is greater than he, neither can he love anyone whose character does not measure up to His. Since only the Son has ever loved the Father perfectly and always kept his commandments perfectly, then only those in Christ can in turn be loved by the Father. In other words, the Father loves his covenant people strictly on the basis of the person and work of Jesus Christ. And that, sir, is the very essence of conditional love! You can take this incredible truth to the bank!
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So the Father's love for the Son, expressed at his baptism, e.g., "Thou art my beloved Son" (Lk 3:22), was contingent upon fulfilling Jn 10:17? The immutable Father's love could change? The eternal exchange of love between Father and Son in the inner life of the Trinity was conditional?
The context of Jn 10:17 is that Christ's whole life is an offering to the Father (Heb 10:5-7). They are eternally of the same mind and will, so that Christ would "set his face toward Jerusalem" in freedom to lay down his life, imaging the Trinitarian life and love whereby the Persons pour out and receive Divine love in an eternal exchange. In his Divine nature which informed his human nature, even in the Incarnation Christ was participating in Trinitarian life and love!
I'm not disputing unconditional election per se, but your Trinitarianism is a bit off.
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No, the immutable love the Father had for the Son could never change, any more than God-incarnate could ever sin! (Meditate on this truth.) But it doesn't follow that the Father cannot love the Son because his character is just as holy and righteous as his. If God could love anyone who is less than him morally, i.e.
who falls short of his glory (Rom 3:23), then this would make him a sinner! It would make him flawed. It would make him incomplete; for he would be loving someone who is imperfect. He would be loving imperfection itself (sin, corruption)! This is precisely why God's love for repentant sinners
must be grounded in Christ's perfections -- because Jesus never fell short of God's glory. In fact, this is also precisely why none of God's born again children can ever lose their salvation, since both God's love and his grace toward the elect find their ground in Christ! This is why to a true believer Jesus Christ is
EVERYTHING to him in the fullest sense of this term.
As I suggested the other day, did you read the messianic 91st Psalm? Ponder verse 9 which starts off with "
IF".
