GOD'S GIFT IN CREATION AND REDEMPTION
By P. T. Magan
EVERYTHING that has life has received that life from God through His dear Son. Creation was but a wondrous gift of life,—one great, grand work of giving. The vitalizing energy that is in the sun is but a part of the life of God, placed there by the Creator. All the life that is in the earth, in the mold of the eternal valleys and the soil of the everlasting hills, came forth from God, the Life-giver. The strength of the munitions of the rocks is His also. And the life that is stored up in ocean, river, lake, and laughing stream flows into each from God, the Eternal Spring. The majesty of the giant trees of the forests is a majesty born of life,—of life begotten of God. So, too, every rustling leaf on modest bush and shrub is whispering to the gentle breezes, as they pass by, the song of the life it enjoys from God. And the beautiful flowers catch up the strain, and mingle their glad voices in praise to Him to whom they owe their being. “There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.” It is God's life that every being in the created universe uses. Whether we use it for weal or for woe, for good or for evil, whether to the joy or to the sorrow of the giver, it is God's own life just the same. “Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins,” He plaintively says through the prophet Isaiah. When the thief puts forth his hand to steal, he uses the power—the life—of God. When the oppressor uses his brain to plan the ruin of the fatherless and the widow, he employs the power of God to accomplish his foul purpose. God could withdraw from the thief the power to steal, and from the oppressor the ability to oppress. But to do this would be to withdraw from each his life, his chance for eternity. And in the loving hope that some day their hearts may change, and the life even as currents of their souls set in an opposite course, God leaves His life, His power, with them. All the life that man enjoys is a gift from God. Every vital breath he draws is an inhalation of the divine. Though he knows it not, he is atmosphered in God's life all the time. To the Athenians the apostle Paul said: “In Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.” There is a spring of life constantly flowing from God to all His creatures. As much life as there is in the universe, God has given. The Creator has put that much of himself into His works. “His strength setteth fast the mountains.” “The sea is His, and He made it.” He gave His strength to the mountains; He expended His power, His life, upon the sea. How beautifully has Solomon, speaking of Christ and creation, told all this:— “The Lord formed me as the first of His way,
The first of His works of old.
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning,
Or ever the earth was.
When there were no depths, I was brought forth;
When there were no fountains abounding with water.
Before the mountains were settled,
Before the hills was I brought forth:
While as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields,
Nor the beginning of the dust of the world.
When He established the heavens, I was there:
When He set a circle upon the face of the deep:
When He made firm the skies above:
When the fountains of the deep became strong:
When He gave to the sea its bound,
That the waters should not transgress His commandment:
When He marked out the foundations of the earth:
Then I was by Him, as a master workman:
And I was daily His delight,
Rejoicing daily before Him;
Rejoicing in His habitable earth;
And my delight was with the sons of men.
Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me:
For blessed are they that keep my ways.
Hear instruction, and be wise,
And refuse it not.
Blessed is the man that heareth me,
Watching daily at my gates,
Watching at the posts of my doors.
For whoso findeth me findeth life,
And shall obtain favor of the Lord.
But he that sinneth against me [“misseth me,” margin] wrongeth his own soul:
All they that hate me love death.”
God's life went into the heavens when He “established them.” It was the vital power, or life, of the Creator that “made firm the skies above.” The Master Workman gave just so much of himself,—He freely gave of His life to His created works. And when one thinks of all that is around him in this way, how easy it is to see God in everything and everywhere. Christians often talk about having given up the world for Christ. But in a deeper, truer sense this is not so. To become a Christian is to become more capable of enjoying all God's life, and power, and joy that is in the created works around us. The one who lives apart from Christ—that is, the one who does not recognize Him, and voluntarily accord to Him His proper place in his life—loses all that is purest and best in life. “He that sinneth against me [“misseth me,” margin] wrongeth his own soul.” He who sins against Christ, misseth Christ. He fails to receive a precious gift, a wondrous addition to his life. He misseth something, and consequently he “wrongeth his own soul.” He deprives his soul of its life, for “all they that hate me love death.” To receive Christ is to receive life,—life to flesh and blood and bone, as well as life to soul and spirit. And to sin is to miss this wondrous gift. It is to hate the Saviour. It is to love death.283 Viewed in this light, the work of redemption was but the grand sequel of the work of creation. The former was a manifestation of the law of love, imparting life. The latter was an exhibition of the law of “self-renouncing love.” It was a continuation of the former work. It was a second and more costly investment of life, in order that the first might be redeemed. “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Speaking of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah said: “And He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death.” In creation Christ poured out His soul, His life; but in redemption He poured out His soul—His life—unto death. Christ gave His life. But His life was the life of God, and when He gave up His life, He gave up the life of God. “Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being originally in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped to be on an equality with God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, His human form. As seen by John on Patmos, yea, the death of the cross.” Christ gave up the form of God,—forever to be in the form of a man. And to all eternity He wears His human form. As seen by John on Patmos, “He stood a Lamb, as it had been slain;” that is, He bears the marks of the crucifixion through all the ceaseless ages.