The Basis of Salvation Is the Love of God
By G.
The basis of salvation is the love of God. It was because “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. It is because of His love that He desires to imbue all of His creatures with the spirit of love. But this can not be until all who are “enmity against God” are brought into harmony with Him. God can not dwell in any one who is antagonistic to His law. To say that God is in every person and in everything is to identify Him with sinners and with the results of sin. Paul says of the Gentiles that they are “alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness [margin, ‘hardness’] of their heart.” Eph. 4:18. Two can not walk together except they be agreed, and it is impossible to please God—to walk with Him—without faith. Amos 3:3; Heb. 11:6. So it was not till after his conversion that Paul could say, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Gal. 2:20. There is a time coming when God will be “all in all,” and that time is designated as “the end.” 1 Cor. 15:24–28.