GOD REQUIRES IMPOSSIBILITIES.
The above may seem unreasonable, unjust, and inconsistent, but it is none of these, altho it is strictly true. A correspondent writes us from Missouri that we are inconsistent, in teaching that obedience to the commandments of God is necessary, and then saying that “the term ‘saint’ is applied only to those whom God has made holy. Man of himself is a2sinner. ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ Man can not make himself one whit better by anything which he may do of himself.” We think there is no inconsistency or conflict in these statements. Note:— 1. God requires obedience to his law. That obedience means life. Disobedience means death. “In the way of righteousness [right doing] is life.” Prov. 12: 28. “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.” Matt. 19: 17. God has given us in ten commandments the summary of all moral principles; the transgression of these is sin (1 John 3: 4; Rom. 7: 7), and “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6: 23). The death is in the sin as the tree is in the seed; for “sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death.” (James 1: 15, R. V.) So much for God’s requirements. 2. Man is a sinner. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3: 23.) The glory of God, therefore, is that of which man would not have come short if he had not sinned. The opposite of sin is righteousness, goodness. The law, the reflect of God’s character, is righteous and good, and spiritual (Ps. 119: 138, 142, 144; Rom. 7: 12, 14); and if man had by faithful obedience wrought out the law in his own character, he would have been righteous and holy and good and spiritual, glorifying God by bearing much fruits of righteousness (John 15: 8; Eph. 5: 9). But man, instead of doing this, sinned, became a slave of sin, under bondage to sin. (Rom. 7: 14.) Therefore it is now true that there is “none righteous, no, not one.” “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Rom. 3: 10, 12.) God’s glory is his goodness. (Ex. 33: 18, 19.) Man, a sinner, can not do God’s goodness; in other words he can not keep God’s good, holy, and righteous law. Man can not of himself do what God requires of him. Jesus says, “Without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15: 5.) Therefore God requires of sinful man impossibilities. Man can not of himself do them. The burden of Paul’s argument in Rom. 7: 7–25 is to show that the law is holy and good and spiritual, but he, a carnal man, could not keep it. 3. Is God, therefore, unjust?—By no means. While he requires of sinful man what sinful man can not do, he has made provision in the requirement for the doing of what he requires. Does he say, “Honor thy father and thy mother”?—He who in faith will submit to do the command will find in the command itself power to perform it. Does God say, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy”?—He who in faith submits to the power that gave the command, will find in the command power to perform it. “The words that I speak unto you,” says the Word of God, “they are spirit and they are life.” (John 6: 63.) That word recreates, makes holy, cleanses the heart, that wholly receives it. The sinner is thus made righteous by the power of the word through faith. See John 15: 3; 17: 17; Eph. 5: 26; 1 Peter 1: 22. Then, being made righteous, man can, by the grace of God, and only by his grace, do righteousness; for “he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He [God] is righteous.” (1 John 2: 7.) God makes us righteous that we may walk righteously. The tree must be good in order to bear good fruit. This great truth is illustrated by the impotent (powerless, helpless) man at the pool of Bethesda. See John 5: 1–9. He had in himself no power to rise and walk, but when Jesus spoke and the man received his words, those words gave power to obey. See also the miracle recorded in Acts 3: 1–16. The word of God is all-potent to do for us or in us just what it commands to be done, or promises to do if we will receive it. So while God demands impossibilities of carnal man, he will in the very requirement, if it is received with all the heart, make the carnal man spiritual, able by his grace to be obedient in all things.