48. Will God's Throne Fall?
Will God’s Throne Fall? The conclusion is inescapable. If God’s justice, which man’s sin has trampled under foot, is not saved from the possibility of such dishonor and forever established in the place of honor, the foundation of His throne will thus be removed. And yet if mercy, which man in no wise deserves, is not exercised to the full, His throne will fall for want of support, His sovereignty will end, and everything of moral value will be forever lost. But justice will fail, if mercy abates the action of it one iota. And yet mercy will fail also, if its action is limited by justice to the slightest degree. Of what use is a law which cannot be enforced by the execution of the penalty on the guilty; and yet where is mercy, if it does not prevent that enforcement? If God pardons the sinner, what becomes of justice? And if He does not, what becomes of mercy?
How can God be sovereign in His own universe if He does not fulfil the obligations of a sovereign and enforce His laws; and yet again, how can He be sovereign if He cannot exercise a sovereign’s prerogative of mercy and set that enforcement aside? If He ceases to exercise either justice or mercy, how can He maintain His throne and government, and continue to be sovereign? The honor of a government lies in punishing the lawbreaker. And yet the glory of a government lies in forgiving the lawbreaker. Can there be some way found by which both the honor and the glory of God’s government may be forever established?
Only one answer to such questions can be given. Salvation must first establish God’s sovereignty, which sin has defied, in such a way that He can execute the penalty on sin, for that is His obligation as Sovereign; and at the same time His sovereignty must also be established in such a way that He can righteously exercise His sovereign prerogative of forgiveness toward the sinner.
Salvation must therefore begin in the very Being of God. Both He and His government must be saved from the effects of man’s sin. His holiness and His love, His justice and His mercy, must forever stand unaffected by what man’s sin has thrust into the moral universe.
2. In the second place, salvation must be made available to thewhole race of man. This must include full provision for the complete and eternal rescue of all who are willing to be rescued, and this rescue must be so wrought out that it will in no wise put a sanction on sin. This will mean that the sinless must be protected and the sinful rescued, in the same act, from the effects of sin.
Out of such stern necessities grows the unshakable conclusion that when the Bible says that God is the uncompromising foe of sin, it says in so many words that He is love. And if one should say that He would ever forgive sin in any way that would in the least minimize or excuse it, in so many words he will have said that God is not love. He must prevent sin from doing what its very nature compels it to do to its victims, and through them to those it seeks to make its victims. If He should not do this, the sinless could not trust Him, and if even their confidence was impossible, where would the sinner come in? “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:18).