The Last Farthing

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. MATTHEW 5:25–26

This chapter takes up the point at which MacDonald stands furthest from the historic faith of the church, and it is important to be both fair and plain. MacDonald believed in judgement. He believed in hell. He wrote about it in some of the most terrible pages in the Unspoken Sermons. But he hoped, and in the end taught, that hell would not be the last word for anyone — that God’s love would pursue every soul through every darkness until at last it came home.

No escape from righteousness

MacDonald’s sermon The Last Farthing, in the second series, takes the Lord’s words about the prisoner who will not come out until he has paid the uttermost farthing. He read them first as a warning, and a fierce one. There is no escaping the demands of righteousness. God will not let anyone off. “No, there is no escape. There is no heaven with a little of hell in it—no plan to retain this or that of the devil in our hearts or our pockets.” Whatever we owe to God and to our neighbour must be paid, and the sooner we begin, the better.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:10

He then tried to imagine what the outer darkness might be. He pictured it as utter loneliness: a soul that in life cared for nothing but itself, now shut up with nothing but itself, without a sign of God or of any other being, the endless and unavoidable presence of self. It is one of the most searching passages he ever wrote, and no reader who takes it seriously will think MacDonald made light of hell.

The door that opens

But MacDonald read the prison as having a door. The Lord said that the prisoner would not come out until he had paid the last farthing; MacDonald took this to mean that when the last farthing is paid, he will come out. And he believed that the darkness itself is the means of his paying it. “God in the dark can make a man thirst for the light, who never in the light sought but the dark.” The very misery of the prison, he thought, might at last teach the soul to loathe itself and to long for something beyond itself; and the first faint thinning of the darkness would be welcomed as a messenger from God. “Nay, there must be hope while there is existence; for where there is existence there must be God; and God is for ever good, nor can be other than good.”

He was careful to say that the way out is not easy or quick. It is the way of repentance, step by step, a little less dark at each step. But he was confident that the God who made each soul to be His child would never stop drawing it. The sermon ends: “there can be no deliverance for human soul, whether in that prison or out of it, but in paying the last farthing, in becoming lowly, penitent, self-refusing—so receiving the sonship, and learning to cry, Father!”

The fire of His distance

The same hope is stated, as a matter of belief, in the creed that MacDonald set out in his sermon Justice. There he wrote that God, in His mercy, “will hold his children in the consuming fire of his distance until they pay the uttermost farthing,” until they drop the purse of selfishness and rush home to the Father and the Son. And he added: “I believe that no hell will be lacking which would help the just mercy of God to redeem his children.”

This is the view usually called Christian universalism, or the hope of universal restoration. It was held by a few in the early church, most famously Origen, and it has been held by some since. It has never been the teaching of the church at large, and it was not the teaching of the Reformers or of the evangelical tradition. MacDonald held it not out of softness about sin, but out of a conviction about the goodness of God so strong that he could not believe God would ever give up on any of His children.

Weighing it

It must be said clearly that on this point MacDonald goes beyond, and against, what Scripture teaches. The Lord Jesus spoke more often of hell than anyone else in the Bible, and He spoke of it as final. At the end of the parable of the sheep and the goats He said that the wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal — using the same word of both. He spoke of the fire that never shall be quenched, and of a great gulf fixed, so that those who would pass from one side to the other cannot. The writer to the Hebrews says that it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgement. Nowhere does Scripture hold out a second chance after death, or a hope that the lost will at last be saved.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. MATTHEW 25:46

And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. LUKE 16:26

MacDonald read the Lord’s word about the last farthing as a promise that the prison would open. But the Lord gave it as a warning, and its force is the same as His other warnings: settle the matter now, while you are in the way. The gospel’s urgency rests on the truth that now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation. MacDonald believed that urgency too — he pleaded with his readers to pay what they owed at once — but his hope blunts it, and readers who share his hope may find it easier to put off repentance.

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 CORINTHIANS 6:2

It is right, too, to say that C. S. Lewis, who loved MacDonald more than any other writer, did not follow him here. In The Great Divorce, where he made MacDonald his guide on a visit to the borders of heaven, Lewis has his teacher turn the narrator away from speculation about universal salvation, as a question that creatures still inside time cannot answer, and insist on the reality and seriousness of the choice every soul makes. Lewis believed that hell is real and that some will choose it for ever. He learned from MacDonald the goodness of God and the seriousness of holiness, and he left his master’s universalism behind.

What may the evangelical reader learn from MacDonald here? Several things, and they are worth having. MacDonald is right that God is good and only good, and that He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He is right that there is no escape from the demands of righteousness, and no heaven with a little hell in it. He is right that hell is the condition of a soul shut up in itself, and that self-will is its principle. And he is right that the remedy is to become lowly, penitent and self-refusing, and to learn to cry Father. The reader who holds, with Scripture, that the judgement is final will find in MacDonald’s pages a powerful reason to repent now, while the door stands open — and a powerful reason to plead with others to come in.

As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die? EZEKIEL 33:11

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Is there a debt of love, justice or honesty that you owe to God or to your neighbour? Settle it now, while you are in the way.

2. Read MacDonald’s picture of the outer darkness in The Last Farthing. Where do you see the beginnings of that self-enclosed loneliness in your own heart?

3. Read Matthew 25:31–46 and Luke 16:19–31. Let the Lord’s own words about judgement sober you.

4. Pray for someone you love who does not yet know Christ, and ask God for an opportunity to speak to that person of Him.

5. Read 2 Corinthians 5:10–21 and give thanks that, in Christ, God has reconciled you to Himself.

A PRAYER

Righteous Father, there is no escape from Your demands, and I would not escape them; I would be made righteous.

Forgive me for my unpaid debts of love and justice, and for the self that wants to live shut up in itself.

Thank You that Your Son has paid what I could not pay, and that now is the day of salvation.

Make me lowly, penitent and self-refusing, teach me to cry Father, and send me to plead with others while the door is open, through Jesus Christ. Amen.