Why did God create me, that I should come into the world to be lost, if I do not obey His laws? Why are all the millions brought into the world to suffer and be lost? Why did God create the angels so that they could sin?
I apprehend from these questions that you think you would much prefer that God had brought you into this world incapable of sinning; but I am sure that when you give the matter real thought you will be perfectly satisfied that it is as it is.
God could have made you so that you could not sin, but it would not have been you; it would have been something else far different. God has made many things that cannot sin, as, for instance, trees and stones; would you prefer to be like them? Would you not rather be a thinking man than an inanimate thing? Would you not far rather be a human being, with all the responsibilities of a human being, than to be even the most intelligent beast?
There are wonderful possibilities in humanity,--wonderful privileges,--but there is never any great gift without corresponding responsibility. One does not commit priceless treasures to irresponsible creatures. But know, and let everybody else know, that God never created anybody to sin. He never brought anybody into existence to be lost. Read the following words every day, until they are so firmly fixed in your mind that you could not forget them if you should try: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved." (Ephesians 1:3-6) "God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:9) "We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." (2 Thessalonians 2:13)
And, "[He] is no respecter of persons," (Acts 10:34) singling out some to be saved, and others to be lost; but: "[He] will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:4)
If God's purpose were carried out, not a soul would ever be born into the world, except with the certainty of everlasting life. It never was, and is not now, His will that children should be brought into the world for destruction, although since the base and profligate, as well as the righteous, have the power of reproduction, there are millions brought into the world, who would have been better off if they had never been born; yet even these have an equal chance for salvation with the children of godly parents.
God's laws are not arbitrary; they are not rules which He has thought out, and then imposed on His creatures; they are simply His life--His nature. Would you prefer to live in a world of chance? a world where no one could ever tell beforehand what would be the result of any act? Would you like, for instance, to have the world so ordered (or, rather, so disordered) that fire would be as likely to freeze your potatoes as to bake them? Would you like to have it so that you could never know when you stepped on the ground whether it would bear you up, or let you drop into the abyss below? Do you not think that it is a great advantage to have things so regulated that you can know what to depend on, and can always be sure that definite results will follow certain causes?
You wonder why God made you so that fire would give you pain if you thrust your hand into the blaze; well, suppose it would not; would you like to have it so that it would not warm you? Will you blame Him because you are ill if you overeat? Would you ask, "Why does He give us things to eat, so that we can thus injure ourselves?"
You do not need to overeat, and it is certainly a great blessing to be allowed to enjoy food.
Can you not see from these questions that law is that by which the universe exists?--that it is simply life? and that the possibility of deliberately choosing to dispense with life, by going contrary to it,--which is transgression,--means also the possibility of infinite and ever-increasing bliss with God? The fact that we have been created with the possibility of sinning, shows that we have been created to be companions of God himself, and sharers of His Government. We share with God the Divine right of choice,--of perfect freedom of will. It is a glorious heritage.
It is an indescribably blessed privilege, to be linked with Divinity by living cords-to be children of the Highest. It is with the deepest reverence, and with a heart too full of gladness for utterance, that I say that we have equal privileges with God. I do not say that we have equal wisdom and power, but that we--all mankind--have equal privileges. God has not reserved anything for himself exclusively, but has made us sharers of every blessing in equal measure with himself; and though we are necessarily inferior to Him in power and wisdom, all His wisdom and power are at our service; for He lives only for us; and Jesus Christ, who is "the power of God, and the wisdom of God, ... [is] of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." (1 Corinthians 1:24,30)
When you feel like complaining because you were born a child of Adam, subject to sin, remember that the genealogy of Jesus Christ as the Son of God is traced through Adam. (Luke 3:23-38) Read that list of names, and then look up the characters of some of the men in the list. They were the ancestors of Christ, yet He preserved His soul pure, because He kept in immediate touch with the Father of all. We may do the same; for He has taught us to say, "Our Father, which is in heaven;" (Matthew 6:9) and we know that as "we are His offspring, ... in Him we live, and move, and have our being." (Acts 17:28)
He is able to do for us "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us." (Ephesians 3:20) "His Divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." (2 Peter 1:3)
When you are considering your ancestry, and mourning because you were born of sinful parents, do not leave out of the account the fact that God is the first of your line, and that He is infinitely greater than all your other ancestors combined; and that His life is infinitely more powerful than theirs. Then why not rejoice that the righteous God, the everlasting King, the Almighty Creator and upholder of the universe is your ancestor, rather than mourn because there are a few feeble, sinful mortals in the line? You can inherit from God direct, without any reference whatever to your earthly parents, if you choose.
Have you never heard of what is called "atavism"? If you have not heard the word, you have certainly seen the thing. It means, literally, "pertaining to a great-grandfather," and is used to describe the skipping of several generations in the transmission of family characteristics. Thus, a child may have a great gift for music, although the parents know nothing of it, and have no appreciation of it; but it will be found that some more remote ancestor was a musician. The child inherits some things directly from his grandfather or great-grandfather, and not at all from his parents.
Well, everything in nature is but an illustration of some phase of grace; and here we find that our heirship from God is part of that natural order of things of which we sometimes so thoughtlessly complain. The new birth is, if you please, an example of atavism--all the generations between us and God are skipped, and we are made "partakers of the Divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Peter 1:4)
God, however, is not by any means a "remote ancestor." "He [is] not far from everyone of us." (Acts 17:27)
He is our immediate Parent, nearer to us than those we call our parents on earth; for a mother can forget even her sucking child, but He cannot forget us. "In Him we live." (Acts 17:28)
Is it not simply glorious, and gloriously simple? Come, let us rejoice together that God has made us just as He has, and that even our heaviest affliction is light and "but for a moment, [and] works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;" (2 Corinthians 4:17) for nothing can be against us, since God is for us. "Of His own will He begat us with the words of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures." (James 1:18)--Present Truth, July 17, 1902.