There is no power in the universe except the power of God.
This is plainly taught in the Scriptures, and is so self-evident as to need no argument. Some will ask: "How then is man responsible for his actions? Why isn't he as irresponsible as the beasts, or the plants of the field?"
To many who ask this question, it seems unanswerable; but really it is a very shallow question, and shows wonderful lack of thought. It is really a sufficient answer to the question, to say that God did not make man to be a beast nor a vegetable.
To say that God ought to save a man regardless of his actions, since all the power that is in him is the power of God, and therefore man is not responsible for his acts, is inconsistent, in that it demands that God shall treat us as both vegetables and men. God does not save the beasts nor the vegetables of the field. He who wishes to disclaim all responsibility for his own acts, ought not to expect that God do anything else with him than let him go to destruction, just as He does to other things that are irresponsible.
But the plants of the field, and the beasts, although irresponsible, fulfill the object of their existence, in that they do not resist the will of the Lord, while man does not do this; and therefore he cannot possibly be treated as an irresponsible being.
It is God's power in man, and yet every man has perfect freedom. God made man in His own image, to be a companion for himself; but a cowering slave could not be a companion for God. There must be no fear, no restraint, in perfect companionship.
Now it is utterly impossible for any man to exist apart from the power of God. No man can keep himself alive. So God mercifully exercises His own power in man's behalf, and whoever loves life will yield to that power. And since God's power is infinite, it follows that whoever yields to that power has unlimited freedom of action. Only the one who tries to resist the power,--he who rejects it,--finds himself fettered and limited.
God does not compel anybody to love Him, since love cannot be forced. So if a person does not wish to love the Lord he need not; but all those who hate Him, love death, (Proverbs 8:36; But he that sins against me wrongs his own soul: all they that hate me love death) for He is the life. (Deuteronomy 30:20; John 14:6)
Thus everybody has before him the choice of life or death, and can have whichever he chooses. (Deuteronomy 30:19) Surely that is fair. If man hates the life of God, if he refuses to yield to God's power, then he inevitably finds himself hampered and bound, because there is no power but of God, and he is shutting himself off from the source of supply.
But if he yields to the power in its fullness, if he chooses life, then he is as free as God himself, for the power which works in him unrestrained is the power that fills and upholds the universe. He can do whatever he pleases, and all that he does will prosper. "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper." (Psalm 1:3)
Nowhere in the universe will such a man feel any restraint to his effort, for nowhere will he come to the limit of the power that works in him.--Present Truth, July 7, 1898.