The Greatest Reconciliation by W. E. HASKELL

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 11, 1909

The Greatest Reconciliation

By W. E. HASKELL

— No. 3

What It Cost

W. E. HASKELL

The world's history contains many records of thrilling conquests made and held by force, but none like the following, wherein the greatest rebels are reconciled and become the most devoted, loyal subjects, conquered and held by the power of love alone.

As we have seen, God's law contains all good and no evil, and in sin is all evil and no good; therefore sin must be punished and destroyed. If the sinner, by his own choice, becomes one with, and inseparable from, sin, he must of necessity be destroyed with sin. But God has devised means whereby sin may be punished apart from the sinner, and this plan becomes effectual in behalf of each and every one who in faith will choose to separate from sin.

But how can the sinner's stubborn, rebellious, unbelieving will be won to such a choice? Sin is deceitful, and so blinds and perverts the sinner's mind that right and wrong, good and evil, become reversed in his judgment. He thinks he is right, and the law wrong; and therefore he is at enmity with both the law and the Lawgiver. Heb. 3:13; Prov. 16:2; Isa. 5:20; Rom. 8:7. As it is lost confidence in God, unbelief in his love, which leads to the first deliberate step in sin (Heb. 3:12), so the first step in returning to God must be by the way of faith, of confidence restored. Heb. 11:6; Isa. 30:15.

But how can this be accomplished? That first step in sin strengthens the unbelief which led to it, and confirms the sinner's belief that he is right, and that God is wrong. So there would be no way by which the unbeliever, of himself alone, could ever again have faith in God. There is seemingly no more thankless, hopeless effort than that which love attempts for the ungrateful and unbelieving. Doubt misunderstands and perverts everything that can be done—thinks there is some selfish end back of every loving act. Any ordinary effort that God might have made to help sinners back to the right would only have been so misjudged, by reason of their unbelief, as to appear to them new evidence that God was wrong. As they could not foresee nor understand the awful consequences of sin, neither could they see nor understand the need of the awful penalty of death. So the penalty which expressed hatred of the sin only, would be misunderstood by them as expressing hatred of the sinner also. How can God, while making plain his hatred of sin, still make equally plain his love for the sinner?

As a consequence of his unbelief, the sinner hates God. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” This unbelief, this enmity, is a great barrier of misunderstanding,—a wall of partition,—primarily between man and God, and secondarily between man and man, nation and nation, race and race. It even takes that which of itself is good, and so perverts and builds with it that it becomes a part of these separating walls. How can the unbelief be overcome, the enmity be destroyed, the barricading walls broken down and taken out of the way? How can the sinner be reconciled to God?

There must be some extraordinary, overmastering display of love sufficient to break down and conquer every doubt, and convince that God is love. Love must be revealed to the uttermost.

The highest expression of love is in the sacrifice it makes, in the self-denial and suffering it endures. Fully to reveal an infinite love would require an infinite sacrifice and an infinite self-denial. And this supreme revelation God made in behalf of his enemies. He did it in the very act of giving his beloved Son, who also gave himself, to exchange places with the sinner. It could be made in no other way. Concerning this, God has said, “What could have been done more . . . that I have not done?” Isa. 5:4. Every resource was exhausted. The accumulated love of eternity was fully, completely expressed. John 3:16.

Brayton, Tenn.