IT is evident that everything for man’s weal or woe, and for creation itself, hangs upon what God is. For on Him everything must depend, “seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things,” and that it is “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:25, 2825Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; (Acts 17:25)
28For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. (Acts 17:28)). Now, if He is the source and sustainer of life, all that lives is absolutely dependent on Him for existence. When He withdraws His hand, death must follow. This is simple enough to the mind that is not infidel, and therefore, in the majority, there is the free acknowledgment of His preserving care, and an ordinarily upright soul will render thanks for daily mercies. This is but seemly, and it is well pleasing to God.
But, seeing that sin has played such havoc with our moral perception, and vitiated our appreciation of goodness, leading us to ignorance of God and His ways, it is most important that we should know what He is essentially, and not merely creaturely. We need to know (may I say reverently?) His moral character.
How does God present Himself to us in this respect? Can we place our fullest reliance on Him in all matters relating to truth and righteousness? Can the anxious soul count on unswerving fidelity on His part? Oh, how much depends on a correct answer to this question for a soul that is no longer rocked to sleep on the couch of indifference and false security, but that has found out the awful fact of guilt and inherent sinfulness, and wishes to know, beyond all else, whether God has committed Himself, in infinite grace, to the fulfillment of all He has been pleased to write. Are His words trustworthy The answer is plain. They are. He has committed Himself to all that He has said. He may be fully trusted. “That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings” (Rom. 3:44God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. (Romans 3:4))-and in every one of them-will be demonstrated shortly. “God is true,” and therefore the soul of man, no matter how darkened, or in what depth of perplexity it may be, may reckon on perfect sincerity in God, nay, on a love that spared not His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, and that we might live through Him (1 John 4:9, 109In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9‑10)). God is worthy of all confidence.
Let me advance three very important statements which bear closely on this subject: ―
First― “Thou canst not look on iniquity” (Hab. 1:33Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. (Habakkuk 1:3)). Here we find one of three impossibilities. God cannot regard iniquity. That which is crooked and morally unequal He cannot allow nor tolerate. He is absolutely holy. Any deviation from perfect rectitude, the least trace of evil, the faintest breath of sin, is abhorrent to Him.
To the sinner He is gracious indeed, but sin He ever condemns. His holiness, therefore, becomes to as a ground of confidence. He can make no compromise with sin.
God has pledged Himself to all that He has said. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Mark 13:3131Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. (Mark 13:31)).
Now, is it not wonderful that God, to whom nothing is impossible, cannot lie, cannot play false, cannot deceive? In His character that element, which is, alas, part and parcel of our own, is utterly absent. He is the true God. He who makes the constellations revolve in their orbit, and on whom all depend for life and breath, is He on whose integrity man may assuredly rely.
Once more― “He cannot deny himself” (2 Tim. 2:1313If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. (2 Timothy 2:13)). Man is inconsistent, changeful, variable. But in Him there “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:1717Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (James 1:17)). He is, in every sense “The same yesterday, and today, and forever” Hebrews 13:88Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8)). He is absolutely righteous. What infinite comfort this truth carries to poor needy fickle men! And what a solid foundation it lays for faith.
“Thou canst not look on iniquity.”
“God that cannot lie.”
“He cannot deny himself.”
We thus have holiness, truth, and righteousness as integral parts of the character of “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
He is holy in what He is.
He is true in what He says.
He is righteous in what He does.
And therefore the heart of man may fully confide in Him.
We have to learn the wretched infidelity of our own hearts, and are humbled thereby, but let us remember that “God is love,” and that all He does, even to the judgment of the impenitent hereafter, is in full accord with that which is His blessed nature. He is light as well as love. And for our eternal weal we must know Him as revealed to us. It is life eternal.
J. W. S.