20. How a Moral Character Is Achieved

How a Moral Character Is Achieved To advance in our thought, any action for the purpose of achieving a moral character must be such as to meet two requirements. The first requirement is for an action of such a nature as to be capable of actually accomplishing the achievement of a personal character. The only action capable of bringing man out of innocence into a positive character of his own is for him to make the choice involved in that one last and all-inclusive issue of wills: God’s and his own. For it is the will that is creative of character, and it is one’s own will acting on a life choice, that creates one’s own character, the kind of character achieved resulting from the nature of the choice made. The second requirement is that the action shall be under such circumstances that the choice made will be valid. This makes it necessary that the action shall be absolutely unforced in any way, that it may be upon the entire responsibility of the actor, and so it must be perfectly free.

Inducements, of course, should and therefore must be brought to bear in the way of persuasion. They must therefore be accompanied by full and complete information as to what is involved in the choice. Action in ignorance, or with any of the facts withheld that are essential to a fully intelligent choice, could not of course be valid. All the facts and issues must be fully known, that the responsibility of the actor may be fully his own, for ignorance of any necessary facts would constitute negative disability. The choice, in order to be valid, must also be free on the positive side from all that could have the effect of force, even to the slightest degree. God must therefore not present Himself, in bringing the choice to an issue, in such majesty, power and glory as to overawe man, for an awestricken man will yield to anything. This would constitute a form of coercion, and would remove responsibility from the actor to the one bringing the coercion to bear. When God put the supreme choice of wills before Adam and Eve in just the simple, natural and perfectly understood prohibition which He gave them, He therefore opened before them such an action as would be perfectly capable of accomplishing for them positive moral characters of their own, and it was valid in that it left them wholly free from every semblance of coercion, and fully informed on the whole issue, action and outcome both ways, which were involved in the choice set before them.

Then besides the inducement of the clearest possible warning that the choice of their own wills in eating the fruit would bring death, God also had frequent loving fellowship with them, that they might have full knowledge of His purpose for their happiness as the reason behind His prohibition of the fruit.

These inducements would appeal to their wills, where the choice was to be decided, through their intellects, as they clearly understood the warning of death as the negative reason for the prohibition, and also to their hearts, as they saw and felt the appeal of His love for them, as the positive reason for the response of their love in the choice of His will.