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THE ONE WAY

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 11, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 27

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THE ONE WAY.

By M. S. Babcock

ADAM and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you.” Isa. 59: 2, margin.
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.”
“And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.” “There shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him.” “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people.” “God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” “They shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.”
Thus reads the record, the two witnesses to God’s truth and the facts of human history to the end. Man was, is not, yet may be and abide, in the actual presence of God. Man saw, sees not, and yet may see; His face and live. Tho there be “one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all,” still the Creator was and is no part of the creature, nor ever will be.
“The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.” He speaks, and it is; breathes, and it lives; radiates His ceaseless activity and power, but retains all He is without loss or lesion. He reveals what He is by what He does, and still Himself continues the same throughout eternity. Giving doth not impoverish, nor withholding His hand enrich, the eternal God. No friction, no waste, no want. Furthermore, “we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.” O, the mystery!
Of His crowning creation we read that the first Adam was made “upright.” Moment by moment God gave him power to overcome everywhere, at all times, in every experience.
The wise man says (Eccl. 7: 29), “God hath made man upright,” literally Israel, “he will rule as God.” An Israelite, an overcomer, God made him to be and remain, that humanity and the Lord God might dwell face to face in the same perfect home, united in heart and life, always. What God did, and planned for man to do, by no possibility could be better. The very law of God’s own being permeated and connected with Himself, man, made in His own image, so that he, man, might be a prince with God and “rule as God.”
“But they have sought out many inventions.” From love of God to love of self; from Godlike prince to servile slave; from plenty to penury; from priceless peace with God to direful death and destruction; a change from the love of the law of God to the love of a brief life lived in the face of self and Satan, the prince of “inventions,”—these be fruits of human inventions against the plan, the purpose, the law of God, ordained unto life.
Your “iniquities” have separated. “Your sins have made Him hide His face from you.” God’s foreordained plan will prevail. His Word shall not return unto Him void. The law of life remains the same—supreme love to God, and love of thy brother man as if he were thyself. “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son.”
Still to the overcomer runs the assurance that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish”—might not suffer complete separation from the source of life in lawlessness—but “live by means of Him” (Syriac) in lawfulness. “We [sons of God] know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”
Mark well: “I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my heart.” “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” “Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.” “I will never forget Thy precepts; for with them Thou hast quickened me.” “Thy law do I love.” Delight in the law is the mark of discipleship, Christian rectitude. “Let Israel hope in the Lord; and He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” “Unto you first, God having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (transgression of the law, lawlessness). “I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” “I will put My laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.” “Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity.” “The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies.” But “his iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden by the cords of his sins.” “Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and hast consumed us, by the hand of our iniquities” (margin).
This is our lesson: In all ages, iniquity and sin, transgression of God’s law, at the last bring death and destruction—complete separation from God. So in all ages, love of God and love of His law shown in the keeping of it all through Christ, delivers from iniquity and sin, and restores to Paradise and life eternal in the presence of the Lord God, face to face. There is no other name under heaven nor any other way given, that can give liberty to the captive. M. S. BABCOCK.