33. Is Man's Rescue Possible?

Is Man’s Rescue Possible?

We will first recall the pertinent facts we have already found concerning the nature of God, as they relate to His purpose of love toward man. The spontaneous outflow of the spiritual life of such a Being as reason demands God should be, toward all moral beings in His universe, is love. His love must therefore be, in the nature of things, the active outgoing toward all moral beings of such a life as forms the perfect embodiment of that which ought to be. That which ought to be is such a condition of perfect moral being as love cannot help desiring for its objects, and as moral perfection cannot help insuring to all who come within the realm where it operates. Holiness thus defines the necessary character, and love the necessary outgo of such a Being as God must be. A condition of moral being which could be defined as that which ought to be, is a condition of perfect and permanent moral happiness and joy, because it is a condition of perfect holiness. That is, a condition of perfect wholeness, completeness, of that kind of character whose sole motive is the undeviating expression of sacrificial love toward God and all other moral beings. In other words, a character like God’s. The love of God can therefore seek nothing short of this condition for every one in His moral universe, and still be in harmony with His own holiness of character. In order for God actively to seek such a blissful state for those He loves, He must will it to be so by creating and maintaining by His will those conditions which make such a happy state an eternal certainty. And what God wills for His moral universe constitutes His moral government. (Matthew 6:10).

God’s moral government is therefore His holy love actively seeking the perfect moral welfare and permanent happiness of those He created as objects on whom to lavish His love forever (see Ezekiel 33:11). This makes it perfectly clear that the law of God, from its most simple requirement of Adam and Eve in the Garden, to its full expression in the Ten Commandments, is the transcript of His holy and loving will for man. Its sole purpose is thus to win voluntary, eager and whole-hearted yieldedness of the will of man to His will, that thus His love may be satisfied in man’s perfect happiness. No matter how God’s governmental law is elaborated, that single principle always sums it up, and that single purpose is always its object. That object is therefore always infallibly accomplished, and that end for which He created the dominant craving for happiness in every heart, in all who meet the single condition of submission to His will.