Question: What do you think of the Passion Play?
Answer: To make the Lord Jesus and His finished work the subject of an entertainment is sacrilegious. Think how horrible it must be in the eyes of God, the Father, that men should dare to personify His beloved Son in the hour of His deep suffering as an atoning sacrifice.
Answer: Certainly because the feast is here regarded as that into which professors may enter, but from which they will inevitably be finally excluded when passed under the divine scrutiny; even as many pass muster now among Christians and outwardly enjoy divine things, who will however eventually be shut out from heaven.
Question: Is it right to use the text “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” in speaking to the unconverted? It seems very appropriate, and yet the Lord says, “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you.”
Answer: Certainly. Your question however raises the old and well-worn one of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Both are true and Scriptural, but incapable of being intellectually reconciled by our finite capacities, darkened as they are by sin. Responsibility throughout Scripture is pressed on unbelievers, “Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life,” while God’s electing Grace shows us that after all it is His drawing that brings us. We know no better illustration of the two truths than the familiar one of the door over which is written on the outside, “Whosoever will let him come,” while on the inside is written, “Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.” Some taking their stand outside, deny what is written within, while others from within, deny the free grace that is inscribed without. The Bible student knows that both are true and also that, although difficulties can be easily raised by cavilers, the truth of election forms no barrier for any soul really in earnest.