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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 17, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 42.

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LIFE AND IMMORTALITY. No. 2.

Some Thoughts upon God's Character.

THE "Fountain of Life" is with God. Ps. 36:9. All life comes from Him, flowing out into all parts of His living universe. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." Acts 17:28. "He is the living God, and an everlasting King." Jer. 10:10. "He is thy life." Deut. 30:20.
2. God is "righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works." Ps. 145:17. He, therefore, does nothing that is unrighteous. He can command no unrighteous law; He can do no unrighteous deed; He can countenance no unrighteous thing. He is righteous and only righteous, holy and only holy.
And this is true not only in the sense of exact justice, but God's righteousness is the righteousness of love, of power, of wisdom; for "God is love." 1 John 4:8. "Great is our Lord, and of great power; His understanding is infinite." Ps. 147:5. "There is no searching of His understanding." Isa. 40:28. "Abba, Father," said Jesus, "all things are possible unto Thee." Mark 14:36. Said the prophet, "There is nothing too hard for Thee." Jer. 32:17. God is therefore wisely righteous, powerfully righteous, lovingly righteous. Such must be His plan concerning man and the bestowal of His life.
3. God's law must therefore be righteous; and so Inspiration declares, "The righteousness of Thy testimonies is everlasting." Ps. 119:144, 172. "Harken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law." Isa. 51:7. God's law is His righteousness, and the written law must be the written expression of that righteousness.
4. Being a "righteous," "holy," and "perfect" Being, God must be unchangeable in character. And thus His Word declares: "I am the Lord, I change not." Mal. 3:6. "With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17.
5. He could therefore give only an unchangeable law as the rule of character. "All His commandments are sure. They stand fast forever and ever." Ps. 111:7, 8. He declares by His prophet, "My righteousness shall not be abolished." Isa. 51:6. Jesus declares, "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16:17. He could give no other law of character, no other rule for man's conduct, save that which was the expression of His own character. The righteousness of His law is everlasting, because it is His righteousness, and He is the everlasting God.
6. This will still further appear when we learn that God's requirement of man, for which He gave His law, is that man shall be like his Creator in character. "Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy." Lev. 19:2. "But like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy." 1 Peter 1:15, 16, R.V. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Matt. 5:48.
7. God's holy, unchangeable law is therefore the law of His life; and as with Him "is the Fountain of Life," His life must flow out to that being whose character is to be like His own, in harmony with that law. Or, to state it in another form, that law is simply the formal expression of the working of God's love.
8. The nature of God's law is the nature of Himself, righteousness and life. On its positive side the whole law is embodied in two great principles,—love to God and love to man. "Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked Him a question, tempting Him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto Him, 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. 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. 22:35-40.
This was not the expression of a new sentiment, the enunciation of a new principle. Jesus quoted both from the very instruction He had before given through Moses (see Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18); and this great truth was recognized by the Jewish scribe (see Mark 12:32, 33). The negative side of that law is expressed in ten precepts forbidding and revealing its transgression. Ex. 20:2-17; Rom. 7:7; 1 John 3:4.
9. In the light of the above scriptures, he who ever lived in perfect harmony with God's everlasting law would be in the eternal possession of God's everlasting life. For "the commandment . . . was ordained to life." Rom. 7:10. "In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death." Prov. 12:28. "The Spirit is life because of righteousness." Rom. 8:10.
10. As God is the source of all righteousness and life, so is He the source of all power. "Power belongeth unto God." Ps. 62:11. "There is no power but of God." Rom. 13:1. "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him." Rev. 5:13.
God, the righteous, the holy, the perfect, the all-powerful, the unchangeable One, is the Source of all life, and bestows this life in harmony with His holy, unchangeable law.
The reverse side of this will be seen in our next.