p. 6 | THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD by H. F. Phelps

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 17, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 37.

THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD.

By H. F. Phelps

BY H. F. PHELPS.

“The government of God is not as Satan would make it appear, founded upon blind submission and unreasoning control.”—Steps to Christ, p. 43. On the contrary, it is founded upon the principle of love, and in most complete harmony with reason itself. And that principle of love is expressed in his law of justice and righteousness (Ps. 97:2; 89:14; 119:172); and it is such because it is love. Being a law of love it is unchanging in its nature, for love can not change. That law is the manifestation of that principle of love, for its divine Author is love. 1 John 4:8. Therefore it is written, “Love is the fulfilling of the law” of love. Rom. 13:10. Love can not work evil to any being in the universe of God.

Inasmuch as “God is love,” he is and can be nothing else but love. God is perfect, and is therefore perfect love. There is no unkindness in God, for “love suffereth long, and is kind.” 1 Cor. 13:4. Envy, pride, impatience, thoughts of evil, hatred, anger, and wrath are all of the flesh, and not of God. These are not in the nature of God, for “God is love.” All these are of the carnal mind, of sinful flesh, and are not of God; for all evil thoughts come from within the carnal man. Matt. 15:19.

Sinful Flesh is Changeable.

Sinful flesh is changeable in its very nature, because sin is a change and reversal of the purposes of God. Hence sinful flesh is subject to fits of envy, anger, and hatred. It smiles and frowns, gives out sunshine and storm; it is good-natured and evil-natured; utters good thoughts and evil thoughts; can speak well of a person at one time and evil at another; can love them and then hate them. It is a conglomeration of envy, hatred, love (I speak of love in an accommodated sense), of anger, wrath, strife and murder. All this, and more, is in the same heart at the same time, and comes from the same person. But all this is of the devil, for sin began with him and is from him, and he delights in it. “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, . . . He is a liar, and the father of it.” John 8:44. He is “the prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), and has so studied the laboratory of nature that he can cause sudden changes in the condition of the atmosphere, and can bring the stormy tempest and the cyclone, to bring suffering, ruin and death, in which he takes delight. He works in the hearts of the children of disobedience. And being a murderer and a liar, he would have mankind believe that all the misery in this life, and even death itself, is from God. He would have men believe that God, who is love, is just such an one as himself.

Unchangeable.

But God is an unchangeable being. Love can never be anything else than love, therefore God is unchangeable. “But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” Ps. 102:27. Christ was the very image of the character of the Father, and of him it is said: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and

to-day, and forever.” Heb. 13:8. “I am the Lord, I change not.” “With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

The Law Unchangeable.

In order that this point may be made plain, if possible, look at the law of God, which is, as often stated, a transcript of the character of God, a representation of that character which is love, a representation of that God who is love. The law is therefore love. And being such, in its very nature it is as unchangeable as the throne of the eternal One. God himself, his nature, his character, and his government are unchangeable; and the law which is the foundation of that government is also unchangeable. That law is the foundation of his throne. “Righteousness and judgment are the establishment [margin] of his throne.” Ps. 97:2. And that righteousness, the law, is unchangeable and enduring as the eternal ages. “All his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever.” Ps. 111:7, 8. “Thy word is true from the beginning; and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever.” Ps. 119:160. “My righteousness shall not be abolished.” Isa. 51:6. “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” Ps. 89:34. “And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17.

God’s character and the character of his law is therefore unchangeable love. He does not love at times and hate at other times. He does not get angry at one time and love at other times. Being love itself, he does not get mad, and seek for revenge upon his creatures, even tho they are sinners. He is not even angry because sin exists, for he does not get angry as men get angry. In the words of another: “God is love.” His nature, his law, is love. It has been; it ever will be. ‘The high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,’ ‘his ways are everlasting,’ changeth not. With him ‘is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.’ Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love. . . . The history of the great conflict between good and evil, from the time it first began in heaven to the final overthrow of rebellion and the total eradication of sin, is also a demonstration of God’s unchanging love.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 34.

God loves the sinner, but he does not love the sin. Sin is all out of harmony with the character of God, contrary to his very nature; therefore, in the very nature of the case, sin is an antagonizing force, and will never be otherwise while it exists. There is no harmony between God and sin, and never can be. This is not so because God changes, but because sin is a wicked, inexcusable, changeable thing. Therefore God is opposed to sin, and hates sin, but not as men hate a thing. But even tho sin exists, God does not, as do men, become angry; for this would make him like a man, a changeable being. But such a thing, in the very nature of the case, can not be, and it never will be, for such a thing is an utter impossibility; for “God is love.”

No Disagreement.

Then how can it be that the Scriptures speak of the wrath of God? the wrath of the law? the anger of God? the judgments of God? The Scriptures are correct, of course. When God speaks, it is so. Even tho we may not understand it, it is so nevertheless. Again, in the very nature of the case, there can be no disagreement. What we need to do is to look, not for the disagreement, for there is none; but for the agreement, for harmony is there. If we think there is not harmony, it is because we are out of harmony with the word, and can not see as we should. The disagreement is with us, and not with the word.

Ordained to Life.

Paul, by the Holy Spirit, in speaking of the law, said: “And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.” Rom. 7:10. Did the law kill? Was there any change in that which was ordained to life? That law is unchangeable. But “was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid.” Indeed, that which is good in itself, and came from the Author of all goodness, could not work death, for it was ordained to life; and God ordained it thus, and for nothing else. It was never ordained to death, hence could not produce death. Then how was it found to be unto death? Listen! “For sin . . . slew me.” Verse 11. It was sin that did the work. “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” There was no change in the nature of the law, or in that for which it was ordained. The wicked work was done by sin, the perversion of the law. “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” The law, then, is just as good as when it first came into existence, but sin has brought all evil. And sin brings death, for “the wages [or result] of sin is death.” Rom. 6:23. And it is sin that condemns. Sin is wrath, and anger, and torment, and suffering, and sorrow, and torture, and judgment, and agony, and destruction. All this, and more, comes of sin, and is sin, and the result of sin.

But our God delights not in the death of even the wicked. Eze. 18:23. He created men, that they might be eternally happy in him; and he delights in having men turn again from all their wickedness in which is death, that they may still be made eternally happy in the enjoyment of his love. God takes no delight in sin, or any of its consequences. As he is nothing else than love, that which is called God’s wrath, and judgments against sin, are but the manifestations of his love in wiping sin out of existence. And those who will not submit to God, that they may be cleansed from all sin, and made pure and white by his almighty power, but remain inseparably connected with the sin, must at the last perish with the sin. Not because he desires to destroy and get revenge upon the sinner; no, no! but the sin must go. Still, there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God. Rom. 8:38, 39. And when at the last all the terrible results of sin shall come upon the sinner, it will be with the greatest reluctance that the Father of love turns away and leaves him to his fate, to perish, to be filled with the results of sin.

Thus we can see that when man at last suffers the wrath of the law, the judgments of God, in the terrible realities and sufferings of the day of judgment, they are but reaping the results of their own choice, their own course, being filled with their own ways. God gave all intelligent creatures the power of choice, and ever stands as the God of love that he is, with outstretched hands, pleading with those that have made the fatal mistake, to turn from the evil, the wrath, the anger, the judgments, that are in the very course that they have chosen. And when all that an infinite God could devise, has been set aside as a thing of naught, they will be left and “filled with their own devices.” Prov. 1:24–31.

Origin of the Law.

Let us follow the subject still further. Why did God make a law? Could not God have given us some other law? This was an utter impossibility. Even the Creator could not have given a different law. No other law could give eternal happiness to created beings. But when that which was ordained to life was found to be unto death, why could not that law have been changed in order to meet the then existing changed relations? This last word gives the key to the whole subject, and will show us that this was also an impossibility. God’s laws are not arbitrary. God did not manufacture a law by which to govern his creatures. If he had done this, it could not have been anything else than an arbitrary law. Had these laws been arbitrary, they would have also been despotic, and the authority of the Creator, would have been despotic, and he a despot. This is just what Satan would have men believe. This is his charge against the government of God. Therefore, as God’s laws are not arbitrary, we conclude that the law of God, which is the foundation and support of his government, simply grew out of the relations of created beings. Let us see if this is not correct.

When there were no created beings there were no relations in existence. But just as soon as created intelligencies came upon the scene of action, that moment certain relations sprang into existence. These relations were not created; but they existed in the very nature of the case. These relations were, first: The relations between the Creator and the created; and out of that relation at once sprang the principle of supreme love to the Author of all their happiness. The love of the Creator was everlasting, for he says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.” Jer. 31:3. This was so because he would make the created eternally happy in his love. Therefore the love of the created should be supreme. And so Christ says: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment”—first in point of existence as well as that of importance.

Just as soon as there were other created beings, at that moment existed other relations, as between one another, and out of these relations grew the principle of loving one another. And so Christ says: “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matt. 22:39, 40. Have these two great principles ever changed? Can they ever be changed? All will at once respond, This is an impossibility. The creature may change, but God never changes. His love, his character, his law, are all unchangeable. These relations and obligations will ever exist. It follows that, as upon these two great commandments, first given to intelligent creatures, growing out of relations, hangs all the law and the prophets, these also are unchangeable and can never fail. In the very nature of things this

is so; and it is an utter impossibility for even the Creator to change the moral law in any one of its ten precepts. And as no man can love his neighbor as himself and violate either of the last six of the commandments; so also is it a fact that men can not love God with all the heart and refuse obedience to any one of the first four commandments. Even that so-much-hated Sabbath commandment remains unchanged in all its love, inviting the most reverent attention and obedience. And the person who refuses to obey this command, ignores the relation that exists between himself and his Maker, and thereby tramples upon the first great command of supreme love to God which grows out of those relations.

The Law Is Love.

Thus it becomes a true proposition that, because the Creator is love and unchangeable in his very nature and character, and the law is but a transcript of that character, so also the law is love and only love. Even the Ten Commandments, which are said to condemn the sinner and demand the life of the transgressor, even these are only love, and ever have been love, and ever will be love, and nothing else but love, unchangeable and as enduring as the relations out of which they grew; and being ordained to life, they have never been changed, and are still inviting to life. Invitingly they stand, pleading with the sinner to obey and live. Sin, not the law, condemns and demands the death of the sinner. The law says, Look, believe and live; and they point to its divine Author, the Creator, as the only one that can give the needed strength by which to obey. They point to him as the one in whom is perfect obedience. Sin says, You are a transgressor and must die; while God the Father, and Christ the Creator, and the law of love say, “Why will ye die?” “Look unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved.”

Thus while sin demands the life of the transgressor, demanding first our service in bondage as slaves, and has naught to pay but death, for “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23), all the universe of God, even everything in creation, everything that came from the hand of God, even the law itself, stands pleading with the sinner to surrender to God, to look and live, to believe and be saved from the power of sin that would destroy. It invites the sinner to salvation, in order that he might obey these first great, grand principles and live forever, which was the purpose of God’s everlasting love. This is God’s everlasting, eternal purpose; it was such in the beginning, and he is able to accomplish that which he has begun. He is not only able, but abundantly willing, and according to his immutable promise, he will do it. And it will very soon be realized. Praise to his great and holy name.