Editorial by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 3, 1912

Editorial

By Editor

The Triumph of God's Purpose

THERE is nothing that can fill the Christian's heart with deeper gratitude and purer, more satisfying joy than the knowledge of the fact that when redemption's work is finished, man will be restored to the rights which he forfeited in the fall, and to the position which he had held up to that time. In that fact is the triumph of the purpose of God; and that is cause for satisfaction. But to man there must be a feeling of personal restoration; for through Christ he regains what he lost in the gamble with Satan. The deed to his birthright is placed once more in his hands. The mortgage is lifted, never again to encumber the inheritance; and once more he can look into the face of Him who made him, with no intervening veil of sin and its consequences to hang between. Out of rebellion into obedience, out of variance into harmony, out of separation into reconciliation, out of prodigality into sonship, out of slavery into freedom, out of poverty into everlasting riches, out of self and into Christ,—this, all this, comes in the restoration.

Because of disobedience the right to partake of the fruit of the tree of life was taken from man, lest he should continue to eat, and so make sin perpetual. But in the restoration that right comes back to him. In Rev. 22:14 we read: "Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have the right to come to the tree of life." The King James Version has it, "That they may have right to the tree of life," etc. In the beginning mankind had right to the tree as well as the right to come to it. It was for the service of mankind, and man would always have had right to the tree—ownership in it—if he had not been disobedient. Week's translation has it, "That the right of the tree of life may be theirs;" and the Interlinear Literal Translation reads:

"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that shall be their authority to the tree of life." While the last translation would seem to make the keeping of the commandments a passport to the tree, all agree in the thought of the restoration to man of the right which he forfeited in Eden, the right to come to, partake of, and possess the tree of life. The food of immortality hangs on its boughs; and when redemption is finished, and the prohibition against partaking of that tree is removed, man is back again in full possession of his forfeited inheritance. What a transport of joy will thrill the souls of the redeemed when permission is once more given to eat of that tree! To that company salvation is a completed reality, and the stamp of immortality is set upon their being.

But that work in its completeness does not stop with mankind. The earth has shared in the curse, and it, too, must undergo a renovation. "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." The prophet goes on to say: "The voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying." Isa. 65:17, 19. Sin brought sorrow and crying into the world. The restoration removes all cause for sorrow. How great must be the transformation from the old to the new when even the remembrance of the nightmare of sin shall be wiped from the thoughts of the redeemed!

The apostles Peter and John refer to this same triumphant climax of the work of God when they say: "Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth;" "for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. . . . There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." 2 Peter 3:13; Rev. 21:1-5.

That is the glorious consummation of the long, patient, loving work of God in the earth,—a work that not only removes sin, but removes the very possibility of another such sad experience in the universe of God. The redeemed hosts can then shout, "Home once more! back into Father's arms!" C. M. S.