Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-02-15
Pastor Russell's Sermon

have coerced him into obedience as a
slave. But such He desires not God
most evidently has the very highest |
ideals in respect to His Government
and. all Of His subjects. All His work
is perfect, and He will not allow it to
get away from the perfection in which
He created His intelligent creatures,
Every variation from the perfection, |
therefore, must be the result Of dis
obedience; and the unultemble Law is |
that the disobedient shall perish.
Mans Experiences a Lesson.
We may say, then, that God not only |
foreknew that the conditions under
which man was created would result In !
temptation, in sin; but without causing |
the temptation, and without giving amy |
excuse for the disoyulty, He deter |
mined to permit it, Some suppose that |
the permission Is to be everlasting, hut |
the Scriptures assure us to the con |
trary The reign Of sin and death He |
purposed to permit for six thousand |
years. Then by bringing in the Mes
sianic Kingdom, He purposes to abol- |
ish sin and death, lifting to human per.
fectiOn the willing and Obedient and |
destroying in the Second Death all the
unwilling and disobedient.
The sending of His Son was part Of
Gods Plan. He put the death penalty |
upon humanity, knowing at the time
that 1t would require the death Of an
obedient Sacrifice for human redemp-
ton, and purpOsing in advance that
He would provide such Redeemer as
would willingly gladly, become mans
surety, mans Ransom-price. Thus the
permission Of evil has resulted In the
manifestation of Gods Love in man
ner that otherwise would hardly have
been revealed. The infiction Of the
death sentence for so long has, like
wise, demonstrated the persistence Of
Divine Justice and its penalty.
The recovery Of the dead by a resur-
rcction will demonstrate, as nothing
else could. the Power of God. And
when the entire Plan of God shall
have been outworked, and shall have
been made known to angels and men.
as whole it will demonstrate the Wis
dom Of God as 1t never could have
been known, had He, not adopted Che
plan He did Of temporarily permitting
a reign of sin and death.
"Many Sons to Glory"
Another thing made possible by the
permission Of sin has been the special
I call of an Elect Church during this
Gospel Age. The Bible declares that
the Elect Church are begotten Of the
Spirit throughout this Age, and must
be born OF the Spirit in the Resurrec-
tion. Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the Kingdom Of God" The need of
Redeemer opened the way for the Lo-
gos to leave the Heavenly nature and
become a man. This opened the way
for Jesus to demonstrate His love and
loyalty by obedience unto death, "even
unto the death Of the cross philip
plans 2:S.) And this great sacrifice
and the obedience constituted not only
the Ransom-prlce for Adam and his
race, but also the basis on which the
Heavenly Father highly exalted His
Son far above angels, principallties
and powers, to His own right hand
to the Divine nature.
Similarly the exaltation Of the
Church to be the Bride Of Christ, His
joint-her In the Kingdom, and par
taker with Him Of the Divine Nature,
Was made possible by the permission
Of sin. The Heavenly Father could
Justly permit members Of the fallen
race, Of the same disposition as Jesus.
and justified and sanctihed through
Iim, to sacrfcially lay down their
lives as members Of the Body Of Christ,
and by thus suffering with Him to be
accounted worthy also of reignIng with
Him in glory, honor and immortality
in His Kingdom.
"HsIleujahl What saViOrI"
"What a God. Infinite in Wisdom,
Justice, Love and Power"
Is It any wonder, in view Of this
work that God has outlined for His
Son and the Church, that He should
consider It necessary to give us lessons
and tests In faith, I'm loyalty, In obe'
dience? IL 1t any wonder in view Of
the work which He has for us to do for
mankind, that the Redeemer Himself
was given experiences in suffering, that
lie might be n merciful and faithful
High Priest in the things Of God in re-
atiOn to humanity
The better we understand the Bible,
the more clearly we see that the re-
demption which God has provided
through Jesus sacrifice is to be world.
wide in It's effect. The race was not
condemned individually, but as Il whole
in one man, Father Adam, on account
Of sin. Similarly, the race has been
redeemed us whole by the "Man
Christ Jesus, who gave Himself Ran
som for ALL Timothy 80 6,
The fact that God did not deal with
any Of the human family except the
Hebrews for four thousand years does
not mean that lie loved the Hebrews
only, nor that the Hebrews only will
ultimately receive the Divine blessing
and a share In the redemptiye work.
It means that during that time God