The Desire of God - for Man

Except for reasons within Himself, largely undisclosed -- self-obligations because of plans He made or desires He felt -- God had no need of us at all. We were not necessary to His eternal being or welfare; He was not, nor ever will be, dependent on man for anything. Neither is there any other being superior to or equal to Himself to whom He is responsible or answerable. Except God had willed it, man would never have existed. In the beginning He chose to create man of His own free will, and by that choice alone did man become necessary to God. But back behind that necessity lay desire; had He not desired us He would not have chosen to make us, and therefore to stand in need of us. God obligated Himself because of His desire. Desire is a most powerful motivating force, attracting and drawing to itself. Choice is a determinative, decisive force; will is the great driving force; but desire is the motivating force. These are all great and wonderful powers, capable of accomplishing much; but, great though they are, they are not the greatest of all forces, for all of them are conditioned by love. God's love is the greatest of all powers, for all His other forces and powers and principles spring from it, and by it are made entirely benevolent. Underlying God's desire for us is His great love. From love arose desire, leading to decision and choice and purpose and will, by all of which we are made necessary to God. Being conscious of this necessity within Himself, the Lord also just had to provide purchasing power; He had to pay for what He wanted, and He could not find it anywhere else but in Himself, hence the redemption. What sheerest grace this is.

Having all these great powers within Himself, God found it comparatively simple to fulfil His own desires to create salvation for men because it only involved Himself. He required none other to help Him, so He thought through the situation, made plans, and went about His self-imposed task with deliberation. Between them, the members of the trinity speedily fixed aims and means, allocating roles and works to each person according to their natural eternal relationship. God fully realized what the cost of His decision would be; the decisions were not easy, but since the cost was to be borne by the three alone, they felt justified in what they were doing, and were fully prepared to meet their own demands. They therefore went ahead with the redemption they planned, and in the fullness of time fulfilled their joint will. There was no difficulty on that score; the only difficulty lay in availability; would people want to be purchased? Would fallen creatures wish to be redeemed? How could that be assured?

To human minds, even after they have been enlightened, the task God set Himself was vast beyond comprehension or compass, and the conviction grows that solutions and answers could not have been easy to find, even for Him. The further the mind enquires into it, the more the mysteries involved in it mount in number. Paul deals with some of them in the epistle, but by no means all; there are far too many. Those he does deal with are probably the easiest of them all and are answered from the standpoint of a fully persuaded man, as he confesses, which is an admission that he gave much thought to the problems before he was himself 'persuaded'. He also realized that not all the questions men could ask can be answered. At one point he asks, 'who art thou O man that repliest against God?' and openly rebukes the man who asks such questions as, 'why doth He yet find fault?' and, 'Why hast thou made me thus?' He leaves us in no doubt that he believes men ought not to ask some questions and later makes plain his reason for so saying -- everyone needs mental renewal; he also points out the way we all may attain to that blessed state.