"That They Might Understand"
By Clarence Santee
It is a matter of surprise to note the different means God has made use of to cause us to understand His love toward us, the work of His hands. By inspiration Job says, "Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee: Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands." Job 14:15. Again God says, "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." Jer. 31:3. No man can fathom or comprehend that love. The angels can not measure it. The Holy Spirit says that "the angels desire to look into" these things. 1 Peter 1:12. We may illustrate, to assist the imagination to center upon it, and the mind to grasp it; but the depths beyond are still unexplored. Yet there is restfulness in the knowledge that it is boundless on every hand where we may turn. Sin like the setting in of mortification, or of leprosy, had seized upon a part of God's great family of the universe, and the whole felt its influence. "The wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:23. "Death [came] by sin." Rom. 5:12. There was but one remedy. "The fountain of life" must be poured into that dark "abyss" until the darkness would be turned into day, and the charnelhouse of the dead be replaced by the city, the river, and the throne, of life. The whole body — the universe — was endangered by the affected part. The cleansing must reach as deep and as wide as the poison had penetrated. An eminent writer has said:9 "To the angels and the unfallen worlds the cry, 'It is finished,' had a deep significance. It was for them as well as for us that the great work of redemption had been accomplished. They with us share the fruits of Christ's victory. Not until the death of Christ, was the character of Satan clearly revealed to the angels or to the unfallen worlds." "Had Satan and his host been left to reap the full result of their sin, they would have perished; but it would not have been apparent to heavenly beings that this was the inevitable result of sin. A doubt of God's goodness would have remained in their minds as evil seed, to produce its deadly fruit of sin and wo." — "Desire of Ages," pages 758, 764. Some of the angels in heaven failed in the test of faithfulness, as well as men upon earth; and a doubt left in the hearts of the inhabitants of the unfallen worlds, would have been seed later to bear an evil harvest. The arch-deceiver had indeed laid his plans of rebellion wide and deep. The universe had been touched. Can God's love provide a ransom broad enough to cleanse all? To make the universe secure, the last seed of doubt as to the wisdom of the Creator must be taken away. The seed of sin will never die of itself. The Creator of all can die for all. But can He die the sinner's death? Can He enter the dark stream which has no other shore, which has no ray of light to penetrate the dark beyond? Can He pay the debt? The final death of the sinner will have no hope, not one ray of light. It will be a leap into eternal darkness. Jesus did pay the penalty to the uttermost. In the language of another let us read: "It was not bodily suffering which so quickly ended the life of Christ upon the cross. It was the crushing weight of the sins of the world, and a sense of His Father's wrath. The Father's glory and sustaining presence had left Him, and despair pressed its crushing weight of darkness upon Him, and forced from His pale and quivering lips the anguished cry, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' . . . Angels have witnessed the scene of suffering until they can look no longer, and hide their faces from the horrid sight. Christ is dying. He is in despair. His Father's approving smile is removed, and angels are not permitted to lighten the gloom of the terrible hour. . . . Even doubts assailed the dying Son of God. He could not see through the portals of the tomb. Bright hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the tomb a conqueror, and His Father's acceptance of His sacrifice. The sin of the world, with all its terribleness, was felt to the utmost by the Son of God. The displeasure of the Father for sin, and its penalty, which is death, were all that He could realize through this amazing darkness. . . . The fierce temptation that His own Father had forever left Him, caused that piercing cry from the cross, 'My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?' . . . Denied even bright hope and confidence in the triumph which will be His in the future, He cries with a loud voice, 'Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.'" No son of Adam, when left by the sustaining hand of God, has any basis of hope. The vital cord is severed. A nameless dread of the future will take the place of even the faint, uncertain hope that lingers while abused mercy still is pleading. Jesus, in His last decision, made choice of eternal death for Himself if need be, rather than that guilty man should perish. While bowed in the garden it was said of Him: "The awful moment had arrived which was to decide the destiny of the world. The heavenly hosts waited the issue with intense interest. The fate of humanity trembled in the balance. . . . He sees the power of sin, and the utter helplessness of man to save himself. The woes and lamentations of a doomed world arise before Him. He beholds its impending fate, and His decision is made. He will save man at any cost to Himself. . . . He left the courts of heaven, where all was purity, happiness, and glory, to save the one lost sheep, the one world that had fallen by transgression, and He will not turn from the mission He had chosen." — "Spirit of Prophecy," volume 3, pages 99, 100. "Every pang endured by the Son of God upon the cross, the blood drops that flowed from His head, His hands and feet, the convulsions of agony which racked His frame, and the unutterable anguish that filled His soul at the hiding of His Father's face from Him, speak to man, saying, It is for love of thee that the Son of God consents to have these heinous crimes laid upon Him." — Id., page 163. This love wherewith He has loved us, can not be compared with that of men, tender tho at times that has been. We think of David and Jonathan; of Paul, who could say that he was willing to bear Israel's curse from God, if thus he might save some of them; of Moses, who could pray that his name be blotted out rather than that God should destroy the rebellious who had clamored for his death. Yet these are but drops from the great unmeasured fountain. God's love was manifested toward sinners, not righteous men. Rom. 5:8. The same love still continues. God says that His is "an everlasting love." The heart of God has a place for every son and daughter of Adam, every soul born into this world. Who, knowing that love, can turn a deaf ear to the calls of God's Spirit, and grieve it away until its pleading voice is heard no more? If you have grieved it long, still He invites you. True love never fails. Trust Him now, and He will accept and lead you.