God’s Willingness to Save
WE do not use the term “willingness” to indicate that God is to some extent indifferent,—willing that man should be saved, and just as willing that he should be lost; for God’s willingness is all on the side of man’s salvation. He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Eze. 33:11. “Who willeth [desireth] that all men should be saved.” 1 Tim. 2:4. These are a few expressions of God’s willingness to save mankind. “But,” says one, “if He is so willing that all should be saved, why does He not save all? He is all-powerful.” True, but God saves man in a way which will give man the greatest happiness. To be happy, man must be “willing.” It is “the willing and the obedient” that will eat the good of the land. Isa. 1:19. And to be willing, man must have free choice in the matter. To save man regardless of his choice is to make of him a mere machine. It would add nothing to man’s happiness, but rather to his misery, to do that for him which was contrary to his will or choice. It would give God no more pleasure than any of His material works. To save man against man’s will or choice would be but the triumph of almightiness against feebleness, and it would degrade man from the sentient, intellectual, possibly capable being that he is to one who had no volition or will of his own. For man’s highest good and happiness, for the Creator’s highest glory, man’s will must be left free. It is a sacred enclosure into which even Deity will not enter arbitrarily. Man must also for his highest good and the glory of God (for God’s glory is always ultimately man’s greatest good) build up a character through the exercise of faith in God. One consideration will serve to show the reason of this. If man were left to himself, if he had it within his own power to develop a righteous character, yet how narrow, how circumscribed would it be! Self would be its center, self its circumference, self would be its height and depth. But with faith in an Infinite Being he would ever be reaching out after the infinite possibilities and perfections of beauty found in that Being. In contemplating Him, man would be ever drawn out of himself to broader, higher, and more unselfish aims and objects. All this God set before man in the beginning. The awful consequences of unbelieving transgression, and the infinite possibilities and blessings of faithful obedience, were set before him, and he was given his choice, with the earnest, loving admonition to do the right. Later on God presents the same great possibilities and dread consequences. After Moses had set before Israel the righteous commandments of God, he said: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live; that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him; for He is thy life, and the length of thy days.” Deut. 30:19, 20. Over and over in His word has God said the same thing. Over and over in the open book of nature has He told man that transgression means suffering and death, while obedience means life and happiness. But God has not only warned. His love and mercy have been manifest in the abundance of His goodness, in temporal blessings bestowed, in the light of truth revealed, and all the blessings to the nations which have come through that truth. Many of these blessings and mercies have been given to the world at an immense sacrifice of time, and blood, and lives of God’s servants; and every moment of time, every drop of blood shed, every life taken, said to the world that God loved man and was anxious to save him. And at last Heaven gave its brightest Jewel, its most glorious Being save the Father, even the Son of God, to show HOW MUCH God loved the world, how much He desired it to be saved. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. This act was not on God’s part alone. The Father and Son are one. John 10:30. Jesus “gave Himself” to redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us “unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Titus 2:14. This is how much God loved us, how willing He is we should be saved. It is not willingness as men count it, it is infinite desire fed with infinite love. But with the infinite love is the infinite wisdom and prudence in its exercise. Eph. 1:8. This infinitely wise love has laid down the conditions of man’s salvation to be implicit faith in God, such faith as will lead to complete submission to God’s will. This is for man’s best and highest good. In fact, it was the only way that an infinitely wise God could do, and hence the only way which could be for man’s highest happiness. Then, reader, why not submit to God’s way? It matters not how sinful you are, how weak, how poor, how blind, how wretched, Jesus bids you come just as you are. He loves you when in sin; He loves you that He may save you. He died that He might make you strong, and rich, and clear-sighted, and happy. All fulness is in Him. He pleads His own blood for you, that He may save you, and take you, poor as you are, and make you “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” Let not the enemy deceive you with the thought that there are no consequences to follow a continued course in sin. In choosing the sin you choose the consequences. Let him not deceive you in saying that God is not willing; He is anxious, “Turn ye, turn ye,” He says, “why will ye die?” “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”