Take the case of Saul of Tarsus. I have referred to him elsewhere as a
man who went as far as man could go in crime. But he was arrested and
saved in a moment. And mark you, he was not coerced. No violence was
done to his perfect freedom. Every man is free; that is his birthright;
in Saul's case he was not asked to surrender an iota of it. Yet by some
mysterious divine power he changed in a moment of time. Henceforth he
was a new man, with a new heart, new ideals, new hopes, new ambitions,
a new life.
Now what I contend is, that the power and grace that could so radically
and so quickly change a man like that, is not to be limited to this
little span of life, nor to the most incorrigible transgression. What
are a few years of time to Him whose power, whose presence, whose love,
fill all eternity? I imagine that He who knew how to convert Saul in a
moment, can convert the most abandoned of mankind.
Then, as I said, there is another class of men to be considered. I mean
the heathen, and all those who never had the means of knowing the way of
life. What about the untold millions that passed away in the darkness?
Will not the grace and power that redeemed such a man as Saul be
available in their case? Yes! we think that--judged by the highest
standards we know--there would be far more mercy for them, and the work
of saving them would be a thousand fold easier. But we are dealing here
with power and love that are infinite. No doubt the sin that has to be
overcome is great; but we believe it will come true again that "where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound." After all, it is infinite
grace against human sin. In such a case, it is not hard to forecast
which will win the day. God will evermore be triumphant.
O yes! the ransomed of the Lord will come home at last. What a day it
will be when they will come to Zion with songs! The old prophecy will
then have its complete fulfillment: "They shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."
Though I lay so much stress on the omnipotence of divine love, I do not
forget that divine wrath must be reckoned with as well. "God is angry
with sinners every day." "Tribulation, and anguish upon every soul of
man that doeth evil." "Our God is consuming fire." But the essential
thing is love. "God is love." It is a constituent of His character.
That could not be said of wrath. It is but the dark shadow of love. In a
state of innocence it could not exist. When sin is done away, wrath will
be seen no more.
If we only go back far enough in our thought we will certainly come to a
time when divine wrath could not exist. Go back to the time before the
angels sinned. Go back to the time before there was sin of any kind in
all God's universe. But mark, no matter how far that takes you
back--there was an eternity of sinlessness before it. Yes; an eternity
of sinlessness. There was no wrath then. It could not exist. Therefore
we could not say that it was a constituent of the divine character. No;
but it was a potentiality of the divine character. It could have no
existence until sin appeared. But love is from everlasting. It is by far
the mightier attribute. It is of the very essence of God. United with
infinite wisdom and power, we would expect it to have the final victory.