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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Life After Death (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 61. Two Flaming Proclamations
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Two Flaming Proclamations
It will clear the ground, too, and help to sharper thinking, to remember the meaning of a phrase like "the wrath of God." It does not mean that God is angry in the common usage of that word. May I use a very homely phrase simply to make things clearer? It does not mean that He is "mad at you," in the common use of that term. Merely to put the thing that way makes it clear at once to thoughtful people that, of course, it does not. Yet may I remind you that the unthinking crowd unthinkingly has just that idea, especially when under the sway of some gifted religious demagogue.
Now, a little thinking into the character of God reveals the fact that the wrath of God is His purity blazing out against impurity. It is his fine sense of justice flaming out against rank injustice, His honesty burning as a fire against all dishonesty, deception, and trickery of every sort.
His wrath is never against man, except as the man gets so tangled up in the bad to which he's committed himself that the two are inseparable. "The wrath of God is revealed . . . against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men" (Rom_1:18).
Now, look at the Scriptures on the principle that controls God in this matter. On the very first leaf of the Book man is entrusted with the power of free choice and action (Gen_2:16-17). His continued good fellowship with God is conditioned on his own choice. Not to eat of the tree would keep him in touch with God. He is told not to eat. Yet it is a matter of choice. He can eat if he will. He has the ability.
Yet if he do, the break fellows at once. "Dying, thou shalt die"; a beginning, a process, a finished result. The worst result is plainly stated at once as a help and a warning. God Himself, man's Fellow in the garden, is the wooing by His mere presence, the pleading, that he do not eat of the tree. There would be separation. It would naturally be heart-breaking to God. There at the very start, is the statement of the fundamental principle of free choice.
On the last page of the Book is the same identical thing (Rev_22:11-15 paraphrased). It is connected with that most winsome picture of the future life in the presence of God. But there's a bit of ugly black coloring in the picture. Then comes the bit emphasizing this unchangeable principle of God's great love for man, the principle of utter free choice.
Listen: "He that is set on being unrighteous, let him be wholly free to follow his choice, even here, and do unrighteousness." And the faithful warning word is graciously added, "and it will be with an ever increasing momentum."
"And he that is set in his choice to go on to the unrestrained depths of lustful passionate indulgence shall be left utterly free to follow his choice, and it will be found that the slant down gets steadily steeper and sharper."
Then the other side is put in the same two degrees. "He that is set in his choice to follow only the right and pure and good will be wholly free to follow the bent of his choice, with an ever increasing ease of movement upward."
"And he that chooses to climb the hill toward the highest peak of personal purity and holiness or wholeness, perfection of character, will have the fullest freedom in following his bent or choice. And he will find, too, the steepest heights more easily climbed as he goes up."
And when Jesus comes to straighten things out, He will give "to each man according as his choice has been." And his blessing is given those who have insisted on right choice in spite of difficulties and opposition. These now do the thing that goeth hand-in-hand with right choice. They go for cleansing to the blood of the Lamb (Rev_22:14 with 7:14). And "without" are those whose choice leads and leaves them there.
Those two passages stand like two flaming proclamations at the beginning and end of this Book of God. He means that there shall be no ignorance nor mistake nor misunderstanding on this unwavering principle that controls Himself, this highest rarest gift of God to man, of free choice.
Now, all the way between, the Book is simply crammed with statements and illustrations of this same thing. Open almost anywhere, at random, and you will find pleadings to choose the right, warnings against persistence in wrong choice, and illustrations of those who do, and those who do not, make right choice.
Here then is the clear unmistakeable rare principle of strong love that controls God in His dealings with the man who is set against God's way of things. It is an unvarying principle. Love never faileth. It was so at the beginning.
It has been kept up, unflagging, all along the way. It stays clear through to the unending end. Man's freedom of action is never interfered with by so much as half the breadth of a narrow hair.