Number 62
Showing the
Harmonious Cooperation of the Creator's Justice, Wisdom, Love and Power
THE DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES
FOR HUMAN SALVATION
Why Evil was Permitted
AN EPITOMIZED
STATEMENT OF THE DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES
A recent writer has truly said: "The
summary want of the age is that last philosophy into which shall have been sifted
all other philosophy, which shall be at once catholic and eclectic, which shall be the
joint growth and fruit of reason and faith, and which shall shed forth through every walk
of research the blended light of discovery and revelation."
Many who admit that such a philosophy can emanate
from God only, and that the Bible should reveal it, nevertheless fail to find it there,
because they do not seek it in an orderly or philosophical manner. Such we advise to read
a book of 350 pages entitled "The Plan of the Ages," which presents the soul
satisfying outlines of the divine plan of human redemption in a form that is acceptable to
humble and consecrated reason. This little tract is a crumb of its teachings.
The careful and reverent student of the sacred
Scriptures will find, in the light now due to the household of faith, that the Word of God
presents a complete and systematic plan for the salvation and development of the human
race, which for ages has been in operation, which, up to the present time, has been a
success in its gradual development, and which in due time will be gloriously completed.
The past six thousand years of human history have been necessary to work out that plan to
its present degree of development, and one thousand years more will witness its full
consummation in the restitution of every willing member of the race to the original
likeness of God, and their establishment in righteousness, with the eternal ages of glory
and blessing before them.
Such is the scope of God's plan which he formed
before the foundation of the world, to be wrought out in Christ, who is the Alpha and
Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, the First and the Last of Jehovah's direct
creation--his only begotten Son--Rev. 1:8,10; John 1:14,18; Col. 1:13. "By him
were all things made, and without him was not anything made that was made." "He
is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. By him were all things
created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible; whether they be
thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers; all things were created by him and for
him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." (John 1:3; Col.
1:15,17) In him also "we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of
sins." Col. 1:14.
God, having thus honored his Son by making him his
instrument or agent for the accomplishment of all his grand designs, declared to men:
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him." He "hath
exalted him to be a Prince and a Saviour," and "would have all men honor the Son
[as the Father's agent and representative] even as they honor the Father." (Matt.
17:5; Acts 5:31; John 5:23)
Nor does the Son claim higher honor than to be the
Father's agent and messenger, "the messenger of the [Jehovah's] covenant" (Mal.
5:1); for he says, "I came not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me," and "My Father is greater than I." John 6:38; 5:30; 4:34; 14:28) To
us, as to the apostle, "there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things;
and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things; and we by him." 1 Cor. 8:6
After the creation of angels came the creation of
man, a being adapted to live on the earth and to be its lord and king. Man, as well as the
angels, was created in the divine image--that is, with faculties of reason, conscience
etc., capable of discerning right and wrong. Man, as a king of earth and perfect, as
created, was only "a little lower than the angels" (Heb. 2:7, 9), and
that little consisted in his being limited by his nature to the earth, while the angelic
nature, being spiritual, has a wider range for observation and hence a broader plane for
reasoning. To be an image of God implies freedom of choice or will with respect to one's
own conduct. With such freedom man was originally endowed by his Creator, and the
alternatives of good and evil were placed before him as a necessity to his trial for
lasting life, though not without warning on God's part as to the blessed results of
righteousness and the baneful results of evil. On account of man's inexperience, implicit
obedience to God's will was required of him for his safety and protection, as well as for
a test of his loyalty to his rightful Lord and Sovereign. Nevertheless,
God, by divine intuition, foresaw the course that
Adam would take and the fall of the whole race with him into death, and also the lessons
which that experience with sin and death might be overruled to teach them when, in due
time, through the merit of Christ's sacrifice, he would grant them remission of sins upon
their repentance and turn to righteousness. He therefore determined to let man take his
chosen course, and to inflict on him its just penalty, and then in due time to deliver him
from it with a great salvation.
God foresaw that, even with good intentions, man's
limited knowledge and experience would continually offer temptations to doubt the wisdom
of divine arrangements, if not to disobey them; he therefore embraced this opportunity to
convey to all of his creatures, as well as to man, a fuller conception of himself, in
order that they might the more fully and heartily worship and obey him. As a revelation
and illustration of his attributes--Justice, Wisdom, Power and Love--God placed his human
son in his own image--perfect though inexperienced, and but slightly informed respecting
his Creator's attributes--on trial, in order that he might gain a valuable experience, yet
foreknowing that, although in every respect fairly tried, he would, in the use of his own
free will, fall into sin. But God did not purpose to abandon his disobedient and
death-deserving creature to eternal ruin, but provided a way of redemption whereby he
might be just and yet the justifier of the truly penitent and believing (Rom. 3:26), so
that the painful experience gained under the reign of sin and death might eventually,
under this overruling influence of divine providence, serve the more firmly to establish
them in righteousness and willing loyalty to God.
The trial in Eden was merely a test of obedience, or
loyalty to God. The fruit of the forbidden tree was good (for all the trees of the garden
were good) and was desirable to make one wise; and had they proved their loyalty to God by
obedience, probably the restriction would in due time have been removed.
Knowledge is a blessing only to those who are subject
to the divine will. This, God had arranged that man should acquire by experience, and
angels by example: The penalty of man's disobedience was death--"In the day that thou
eatest thereof, dying thou shalt die." The penalty was fulfilled to the letter: the
dying began as soon as the penalty was pronounced, when they were cast out of Eden and
restrained from eating its life-sustaining fruits; and it was completed within the
thousand-year day, as predicted. (2 Pet. 3:8) The penalty, death, being gradually and not
suddenly inflicted left the condemned pair free to propagate their species, yet subject to
the weakness and all the penalty under which they themselves groaned.
Thus, by one man's disobedience, sin entered into the
world, and death by (as a result of) sin; and thus death passed upon all men, because all
are sinners and imperfect by heredity. Rom. 5:12
Sin, and death its penalty, by thus gaining control
of Adam, controlled the world, and reigned from Adam to Moses--with but few divine
promises, even, to illuminate the dark way. Then "the law came by Moses,"
offering lasting life to any one who would observe it in every particular. But in their
fallen condition none of the condemned race was able to obey it, and by it to gain the
reward of life. As God had designed, however, the law did serve a purpose: it served to
show the helplessness of man for his own justification; and it served to point out, as
from another than the corrupt and condemned seed of Adam, the holy, harmless, undefiled
Lamb of God, whose sacrifice, --as Adam's substitute or Redeemer, satisfied the claims of
justice, bought the world from the slavery of sin and death, and made possible the gospel
offer of forgiveness and lasting life, not through our righteousness in keeping God's law
(which is impossible by reason of the weakness of the flesh), but by our acceptance of
Christ as our Master, and of his ransom-sacrifice as the satisfaction for our sins before
God.
It might be supposed that the work of blessing the
world should have begun at once when the sacrifice for sin was accepted by the Father, as
signified by the giving of the spirit of adoption at Pentecost; but not so. Another
feature of the divine plan had first to be accomplished, viz.: the selection and
development of the Church to be joint-heirs with Christ in his glory and kingdom and work
of blessing the world. This was from the beginning a part of the divine plan; and
therefore the glorious reign and work of blessing the world could not begin at Christ's
resurrection, nor at Pentecost, but had to be delayed until the selection of all its tried
and faithful members could be accomplished. Or, to state it otherwise, the Father's
appointed time for blessing the world is during the seventh thousand years, and had it not
been for his purpose to select the Church, the "bride" or "body" of
Christ, to share with him in the work of blessing the race, there need not have been two
advents of our Lord. One would have been sufficient; for he could have come now, in the
end of the sixth thousand years, could have redeemed all and at once begun the great work
of blessing and restoring mankind.
He came to redeem the world eighteen centuries
previous to the appointed time of blessing, so as to leave time, before that day, for the
selection of his bride from among the redeemed race.
As the occasion of man's fall became God's
opportunity for exhibiting to all his creatures his wonderful character from every
standpoint--his justice, his wisdom, his power and his love--so it also became an
opportunity for the testing in all points of his only begotten Son, preparatory to his yet
higher exaltation (Phil. 2:8-10) to the divine nature, with all which that implies of
glory, honor and immortality, and of position next to the Father, that all men should
honor the Son even as they honor the Father. And the same occasion, as pre-arranged of
God, also makes possible the calling, selection and trial of the Gospel Church, now soon
to be completed and made joint-inheritors, with our Lord and Savior, of glory, honor and
immortality, and like him to be exalted far above men and angels, even to the divine
nature. 2 Pet. 1:14
Only the justice of God's character has yet
been made manifest to the world, and much of its glory is sadly beclouded by human
tradition, which falsely declares the wages of sin to be eternal torment instead of
"everlasting destruction." God's love for his creatures, the wisdom of
his plan of salvation, and his power to save, are as yet but partially revealed,
and even distortedly seen by but few indeed.
God's justice has been revealed to all for the
past six thousand years in the reign of death, the penalty which he prescribed for sin.
God's love began to be revealed eighteen hundred years ago, but not seeing all of
the plan, few rightly appreciate the love. Nevertheless, "In this was manifested the
love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we
might live through him." (1 John 4:9) The wisdom of the Lord's plan will not
be appreciated until the Millennial Sun of Righteousness has arisen, revealing those
features of his plan which then will bring blessings to all the billions which his justice
condemned, and which his love redeemed. But the power of God will not be
seen in its fulness until well on in that Millennial Day. Although partially revealed in
the work of creation, the grandest and fullest exhibition remains to be shown in the
resurrection from death of those redeemed ones, who, accepting of the gracious provisions
of his love, bow in glad submission to all his just requirements.
It is a mistake made by many to suppose that
Jehovah's justice and his love are ever in conflict with each other. Both
are perfect--his love never desires or attempts what his justice does not
endorse: his justice and his love must both approve every act for which his power
is exercised. With men, because of lack of wisdom and power, love and justice often
conflict. Man's love often has gracious designs which he has not the wisdom or power to
accomplish except by violatingjustice. We must gauge our views by the infinite and stay
close to the revelation he makes of his plans, not seeking to make plans of our own for
God. God's plan, when clearly seen, fully vindicates his justice as well as his love.
The plan of redemption devised by divine wisdom is the essence of unfathomable love
based upon uncompromising justice, and will be fully accomplished by divine power.
The first act of God's love was to provide a ransom
for Adam, and thus for all his race, since it was by his transgression that all fell
into sin and death. Until the ransom was given nothing was done in the way of saving the
world: promises and types of coming salvation were made, but nothing more could be done.
God had rendered a just sentence, and the penalty could not be set aside: it had to be
met.
Before Adam and his family could be released from the
death sentence by a resurrection, the life of another man not under the sentence had to be
paid as its corresponding price, that God might be just in justifying and accepting back
to harmony and life all who believe in Jesus and turn unto God in his name. (Acts 4:12)
And having accepted Christ as the ransom of all such, the apostle assures us that now
"he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
Thus we see, from God's own declaration, that since
Christ died for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, or
rather, since he ascended up on high, and there appearing in the presence of God on our
behalf presented the price of our redemption and became Lord of all, of both the living
and the dead, there is no longer any legal hindrance in the way of the return of all
mankind to fellowship with God, and to all the blessings and privileges lost under the
penalty of the first transgression. The only difficulties remaining are on man's part. In
his fallen condition his mind is sick as well as his body. He inclines to believe falsely
and is disinclined to believe in so great a salvation, such "good tidings of great
joy which shall be unto all people." Besides, he is weak through the fall, and does
those things which he often does not at heart approve and leaves undone much that at heart
he really desires to do, and there is no help in himself. Some assistance in overcoming
sinward tendencies must reach him or else the cancellation of past sin and the opportunity
for reconciliation will be a valueless offer.
This necessity, which we recognize, is fully met in
those features of the divine plan which are yet to be fulfilled. He who redeemed all is
appointed to be both king and judge of all; for God "hath appointed a day in which he
will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained,"
Jesus Christ. (Acts 17:31) That is, he will righteously grant the world a new, individual
trial for eternal life, having cancelled the sentence of the first trial by the
propitiatory sacrifice of his Son.
And the redeemed, tried and glorified Church, the
faithful bride of Christ, is to share with her Lord in this great work, as kings and
priests and judges. (Rev. 5:10; 1 Cor. 6:2,3) As kings they will rule the world in
righteousness, enforcing and establishing order and justice and truth; as priests they
will teach the people, and through the merit of the one sacrifice for sins forgive the
penitent, and cleanse and help them out of their weaknesses--mental, moral and physical;
as judges they will judge of the measure of the guilt of all in respect to their course in
the future as well as in their past lives, judging not by the hearing of the ear, nor by
the sight of the eye, but by an infallible judgment for which they will be abundantly
qualified by their exaltation to the divine nature.
While the promise of God to the Church is a change
of nature from human to divine, to be effected at the second advent of her Lord, as
the completion of his resurrection--the first resurrection (2 Peter 1:4; 1 Cor.
15:50-53; Phil 3:10-11; Rev. 20:6)--the provision of God's plans for the world at large is
quite different, viz.: a "restitution" or restoration to all the
grand qualities and powers of the human nature (an earthly likeness of the divine), now so
sadly blurred and defaced by the six thousand years of slavery to sin and death.
Rightly to appreciate human restitution, it
must be remembered that every excellent quality exhibited among men is but an imperfect
exhibition of what belongs to each perfect man, whether it be logical acuteness,
mathematical precision, aesthetic taste, art, wit, eloquence, poetic imagination, music,
or any other intellectual grace or moral refinement; and that these, to a higher degree
than we have ever seen them exhibited by any fallen men, will, in the process of
restitution, become, as at first designed by the Creator, the endowments of each obedient
member of the human family. With the restitution of perfect mental and moral balance to
man, the original king of earth, will come also a blessing through man to all his
subjects--the beasts of the field, the fowl of heaven, and the fish of the sea (Psa.
8:6,8); and the ordering of the earth itself is likewise promised.
The "times of restitution of all things which
God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began" (Acts
3:19-21) are, we believe the Scriptures to teach, just at the door. Soon the last members
of the body of Christ will have finished their course, and then, with their glorious Head
and all the other members of the body, they will shine forth as the sun for the blessing
of the entire redeemed race.
