 |  |
and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever"
(Rev. 5: 13).
If the words `every creature' are construed as inclusive of mankind, then the rest of
the book of Revelation, with its revolt, blasphemy, wickedness and wrath is inexplicable,
but if they refer to creation apart from men and angels, all is harmony.
Throughout the Scriptures we find references to the perfect submission of all creation
to the will and power of the Creator.
"Fire and hail; snow and vapors; stormy wind, fulfilling His word" (Psa. 148: 8).
"He sendeth forth His commandment upon earth; His word runneth very swiftly. He
giveth snow like wool; He scattereth the hoarfrost like ashes. He casteth forth His ice
like morsels: Who can stand before His cold? He sendeth out His word and melteth
them: He causeth His wind to blow, and the waters flow" (Psa. 147: 15-18).
There is, however, no need to multiply these evidences. The reader will call to mind
many a passage where sun and star, or the humbler creatures of earth are revealed as
entirely subservient to the Divine Will. God has always been `all in all' as Creator.
without this perfect alignment creation would vanish and the whole fabric turn to chaos.
He upholds all things and by Him all thing consist. That, therefore, cannot be a future
goal which has always been in existence from the beginning. When we look again at
I Cor. 15: 28, we find that it is in a context that speaks of rule, authority, power, enmity,
resurrection, immortality, sin, law, death and victory. These terms do not belong to
science, they are out of place when dealing with creation as such, they are entirely related
to man, his nature, his fall, his redemption and his final oneness with God. The goal of
the ages expressed in the words "That God may be all in all" therefore looks to the one
great exception in the earth--to man, the moral, reasonable creature, who can and did, by
the very fact that he was moral and not mechanical, come under the category of `ought'
and in connection with whom even God uses the contingent "IF". God Who is already
`all' in creation, will one day be `all' within the moral realm; but whereas in the realm of
irresponsible creation "He spake, and it was done", the question never arose as to
whether fire and hail, snow and vapours, or stormy wind, would or world not fulfil His
Word; the creation, constitution and the probation of the first man, a responsible
creature, as recorded in Gen. 1:-3: reveals an entirely different proposition. Here, the
Lord does not `speak' and find it done. In the material world, He had but to say "Light
be", and "Light was", but in the moral and the spiritual world, no such instantaneous
command or response was or is possible. In the very nature of the moral world,
compulsory obedience, compelled love, coerced sanctity or commanded affection are
impossible. Where probation has no place in the obedience of creation to the laws of its
being, time and experience are essential factors in the work of grace in the moral sphere.
It may have been necessary that the fitting of the earth for man should occupy six days,
followed by one day's rest, in order that it foreshadow the course of the ages, but the
reader of the Scripture is made abundantly alive to the fact, that God was under no more
physical necessity to occupy six days in the work, than He Who fainteth not nor is weary,
was under any necessity to have the seventh day set apart for rest. With regard to man,
however, and the purpose of his creation, time, probation, testing, experience, suffering,
faith, hope, reward, punishment, all have their place, and it is therefore of the very nature