OFFSPRING OF GOD

OFFSPRING OF GOD

The Biblical doctrine of man is that he is the creation of God; that his creation was a separate act, by which—although related to everything beneath him in the earthly scale of being--he was placed at an infinite distance from these lower forms, and given the right and the power to reign over them as the representative to them of the God from Whom all had come; that the nature of this act was that of an inbreathing of the breath of lives, whereby man became offspring of God, in the Divine image and likeness. Animals differ greatly in this respect.

This conception of man necessarily involves the conviction that in the deepest fact of his personality, which is spiritual, he has in his very nature the closest relationship with God; a relationship which must be maintained if man is to realize his own life, fulfill his destiny, become experimentally what he is potentially. This necessity abides, in whatever condition man may find himself. Nothing can possibly be substituted in the spirit-life of man, for its direct access to God, and dealing with Him, without disaster of the most complete kind eventuating in the experience of man. Moreover, wherever that disaster has eventuated, nothing can set it right but the return of man to this relationship with God, which he has lost. All this, as we have said, is not based upon a law imposed upon man apart from the facts of his nature; it is inherent in his nature. To be alienated from the life of God is to be destroyed.

The Biblical doctrine as to the nature of God is that He is love. That is the final and inclusive truth. While that is the final revelation of the Bible concerning God, we need the Biblical interpretation of love, or else we may wander very wide of the mark in our exposition of this truth. God is holy and just, as surely as He is merciful and full of compassion. All these things are so because He is love. All this being so, the fact that man's first obligation is that of right relationship with Him is still more obvious. To be right with Him is indeed to be conformed to His likeness, tο share His nature; it is to be love, and such love as is holy and just, merciful and full of compassion. These are the things that make personal life really strong and beautiful, and apart from which human fellowship can never be brought to perfection of realization.