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THE CHARACTER OF GOD

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 21, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 21.

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THE CHARACTER OF GOD.

By S. N. H.

BY S. N. H.
“God is love,” is the declaration of the inspired penman. God can not manifest himself different from his character; therefore every manifestation of God is an expression of his love. He is unchangeable in his character; for, with him “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” On every leaf of the forest, on every stone of the mountain, on every blossom, from the tiniest flower to the queen of lilies, is written, “God is love.” If man had never sinned and lost the image of his Creator, he would have seen in nature the same infinite love that was revealed in the life and death of the Son of God.
It was sin that caused this last special manifestation of the love of God. That love existed and was shown in nature before. There was no more love because man sinned but the great heart of God was touched by human wo. God’s love manifested in the death of Christ, existed before Christ came, and it would have been in nature if the mind had not been blinded by sin. If man had remained loyal to divine law, his capacity to know, to enjoy, and to love, would have continually increased. He would have constantly gained new treasures of knowledge, discovered fresh springs of happiness, and obtained clearer and yet clearer views of the unmeasurable, unfailing love of God.
When sin first entered this world, and it became necessary for Christ to die to save a lost race, then, in sympathy with its divine Author, the operation of all nature was changed. The decaying leaf, the withering grass, and the garb of death that yearly clothed all nature, was an unmistakable testimony of the awful nature of sin, which required the death of the Son of God. But the sprouting tree, the germinating of the seed sown, the reproduction of the grain, the reviving of nature in the spring, taught also the resurrection of the dead. This was a different manifestation of the love of God than would have been made if man had never sinned. Christ died for the redemption of this planet and its inhabitants, which had been separated from the great continent of heaven by sin. It also settled the question before the universe that infinite love was the basis of all the requirements of God, and that he sought the happiness of all of his created intelligences. It was a demonstration of the one great fact that “God is love.”
For about twenty-five hundred years there were no books to reveal the Gospel. The creation of God and the operations of nature were God’s text-book of the Gospel. The written word directs our mind to nature, as illustrating the truth of the Gospel. Said Christ: “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.” Mark 4: 26-29. Here is the planting of the seed, its growing up of itself, its ripening off for the harvest, and finally the harvest itself illustrates the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or the kingdom of God. The word is a different manifestation of the Gospel, but it aids the mind to a correct understanding of the truth as taught in the operations of nature. There is in the word a warning against every sin, and instruction unto every act of righteousness. As object lessons of sin and its tendency we have the record of various characters left in the Scriptures. We also have every act of righteousness and God’s approval of it in the lives of the righteous. Perfection is not found in any one person, but every character recorded is necessary to make a complete revelation of sin and righteousness.
The one great truth announced to Satan, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen 3:15), has been developedmore and more by the written word. It has come in different ways, adapted to the people under varied circumstances and adapting itself to man as he has sunk lower and lower in sin and vice. Finally Christ came. “In him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;” “for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” 2 Cor. 5: 21. He brought into humanity, not a new love, or an increased love from what existed in the beginning, but a revelation of that love and purpose of God, which existed both in nature and revelation. It was “now made manifest by the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” 2 Tim. 1:10. “We have not an High Priest which can not be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Heb. 4: 15. He lived our life in sinful nature, without sin, that we might live his life of righteousness and partake of the divine power that was in Christ Jesus .
Even more than this, God has so mysteriously connected our life with his that we are clothed with his righteousness, and by a living faith in him, “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” Nothing in any way that concerns our peace is too small for him to notice. There is no chapter in our experience too dark for him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for him to unravel. He makes even our mistakes to work not only for our good but for the advancement of the cause of Christ.
O, what matchless love is this! In all of God’s creation, in the operations of nature, in the written word, in the characters and events recorded in the Bible, in the life and death of the Son of God, even in every circumstance of our own life if we love God, is a revelation of the life of Christ, which is an illustration of the love of God. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” Rom. 11:33. Such is the love of God manifested toward the human family.