CONSIDER HIM by G. W. Rine

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 28, 1903

“CONSIDER HIM”

By G. W. Rine

BY PROF. G. W. RINE

“THY KINGDOM COME.”

Immediately following the foregoing words of the Lord’s Prayer is this petition: “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Never since the fall of man, save in the life of Jesus Christ, has the will of God been done in earth as it has been and is done in heaven. The absolute and universal law of life among the heavenly hosts is God’s will expressed in His law. Ever since men began to multiply on the earth, sinners, the transgressors of the divine will, have largely preponderated over the saints.

But the very fact that our Lord taught us to make this petition is itself the pledge that the petition will sometime be realized. It is a guaranty that the time will come when “the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Hab. 2:14. “The whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 John 5:19), is the express testimony of Inspiration. The works of the devil are in evidence everywhere. But we have the assurance of Holy Writ that “for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8. Most assuredly the works of the devil are sin. Sin, therefore, is doomed to destruction. Hence we read: “But now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” Heb. 9:26. It is evident that when sin shall be no more, sinners will be no more. When the prophet beheld in rapt vision the ultimate restitution of all things, he exclaimed: “Thy people also shall be all righteous.” Isa. 60:21. O, the wondrously blessed truth, that the time will come when the righteous will of God will be done in earth as it is done in heaven!

We know that when our world was swung into space by the hand of its Creator, that He pronounced it “very good.” But as the consequence of the advent of sin, the earth bringeth forth thorns and thistles. A large part of its surface is a desolate, arid waste. It has become the habitation of disease, pestilence, and death. But our God has not forgotten the work of His hand. The earth shall be restored to its pristine perfection, to its Edenic glory. For “God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited.” Isa. 45:18. The Holy Spirit through Peter speaks of the “restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:21. O what a thought, that the devil, and all incorrigible sinners, and all sin, and the awful havoc that sin has wrought, shall sometime be no more! The devil shall not have his way. His hellish project has been eternally canceled by the blood of the Lamb.

In Gen. 1:26, 28, and in the 8th psalm, it is explicitly stated that man, under God, was originally given dominion over the earth with all its lower forms of life. But when man was seduced by the arch-fiend, he surrendered his dominion, his authority to his conqueror. Thus Satan usurped the authority originally vested in man. We see therefore why our Lord characterized His arch-enemy as the “prince of this world.” The colloquy between Christ and Satan in the wilderness of temptation makes it evident that Satan claimed the earth as his domain. When, according to the record, Satan had taken Christ up into a high mountain and had shown Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment, he said to Him: “All this power will I give Thee, and the glory of them; for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If Thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be Thine.” Luke 4:6, 7. Christ did not dispute Satan’s claim, but He effectually rebuked his audacity in trying to compass the fall of the second Adam as he had of the first. Christ well knew that the only way that He could wrest the earth from the tremendous grip that the devil had upon it, that the only way to effect the restitution of all things, and thus cause the kingdoms of this world to become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, was to pass through the awful ordeal of the cross. And thanks be to God, Christ did climb the steps of Calvary; He did wear upon His holy brow the crown of thorns—the curse of the earth—and thus triumphantly wrought the “redemption of the purchased possession.” And now “this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” (Matt. 24:14)—the end of the horrible tragedy of sin. Then “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.” Rev. 21:4. Then, O Son of the Highest, shalt Thou receive “the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.” Ps. 2:8.

Think not that the eternal purpose of God in creating this world will not be consummated. The devil shall not be able to frustrate the designs of the Almighty. “The earth hath He given to the children of men.” Ps. 115:16. This planet is infallibly destined to be the endless home of a redeemed humanity under the glorious sovereignty of the King of kings. “Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5)—the earth purified and rejuvenated. As our earth was once the paradise of a sinless humanity under the first Adam, so she is gloriously destined to become again the paradise of a sin-purged humanity under the second Adam.

To All by Faith.

Our Lord declares, through Peter, that “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which . . . the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. . . . Nevertheless we, according to His promise look for new heavens and a NEW EARTH, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:10–13. So John, in holy vision, “saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” Rev. 21:1. Likewise, through one of the Old Testament prophets, the Lord assures us: “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.” Isa. 65:17.

This was the promise or covenant made to Abraham—the glorious promise of a rehabilitated earth. (See Genesis 13, 17 and 22.) As expressly stated in Rom. 4:13, this promise comprehended the whole world.

It was through Abraham’s seed that the promise was to be realized by Abraham and his children. In Gal. 3:16 it is plainly declared that that Seed is Christ. Those of us who are not the children of Abraham in the flesh need to remember the words of Paul: “So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” Again: “If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:9, 29.

“But,” asks the uncredulous reader, “did not Abraham’s seed realize the promise when under Joshua they were put in possession of the land of Canaan?”—No; that inheritance was only an earnest of the real and eternal inheritance. Reading Acts 7:2–5, we learn that God gave Abraham no inheritance in Canaan, “no, not so much as to set his foot on.” Note the following clear-cut declaration, found in Heb. 11:9, 10. “By faith he [Abraham] sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”

Ah, the children of God are the heirs, not of a mere form, not of government bonds and railway stocks, not of mere millions of gold—but of the world; yea, of “all things.” For “He that overcometh shall inherit all things.” Rev. 21:7. Paul addressing the saints, declares, “and all things are yours.” Yes, when our sin-scarred earth shall emerge from the fires of God, resplendent in her pristine glories, then shall our blessed Lord and King exclaim, “Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Then “the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad . . . and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.” Then we “shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree.” Then “shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.”

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, . . . and the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together. . . . They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” No thorns, no thistles, no deserts, no sorrow, no sickness, no pain, no death, no graveyards, will be in that glorious Beulah land! But the Lamb of God shall be in her midst; and where He is there is life—full, rich, endless, buoyant, lyrical LIFE. For, “there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Grant, our Saviour, that we may all be of the ransomed of the Lord, who “shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” And Thine shall be the honor, and the glory, and the power forever. Amen.