This objection I easily overcome by saying that God is not a murderer, because when a judge has heard a case and passed sentence he is not a murderer. He only is a murderer who kills a man under the influence of some wrong personal emotion, as anger, hate and greed. If a judge yields to influences of this sort, he also is a murderer however imposingly he sits upon his seat. On the other hand, when such motives are absent, even a private person is absolved from the charge of murder, as when one restrains force by force or slays a wicked and godless foe in open war. And since God cannot be exposed to influences of that kind, He cannot commit murder. The law and the divine nature are again reconcilable in this way. To kill in accordance
with law is not forbidden to man. Therefore to kill is not contrary to the nature of God. For if the law may kill, the Deity also may kill. When a judge, the guardian of justice and right, sentences one to death with judicial impartiality, he is free from any stain of guilt, and can God, who is the essence of justice and whose are all things in the universe, commit murder when He slays a man? He can do naught but what is just and holy. It is true, then, that the law, when we look at it closely, is in essence God’s character, will, and nature.
Therefore, whenever the law of God is proclaimed it has a wonderfully quickening effect upon whatever possesses the knowledge of God. Hence it follows that those creatures who have not the knowledge of God derive no satisfaction or advantage from the hearing of the law. When, therefore, God communicates His will to man by the law, by this communication He assures us of two things, one, that we are born to attain to a knowledge of God, the other, that we are destined to enjoy Him. These things are manifest, because if we were not born to attain to a knowledge of God, He would not present and manifest Himself to us, and when He discloses Himself to us, He gives proof enough that we ought to lay hold on Him. This part of the matter is readily comprehended by anybody.
The other, though thus far not expounded, is yet easily deduced from the first, namely:—If man had not been created to enjoy God, it would be superfluous to have a knowledge of Him. For the same end would await man and beast. Man would get nothing from the knowledge of God more than the mere fact of having lived, if after this life he did not live and enjoy Godand that is the lot even of the brute. But since God manifests Himself unto us, and presents Himself for a more intimate comprehension, this is done not vainly, but to the end that we shall possess Him, and fully comprehend Him with whom we have begun fellowship here. And if a good part of mankind are bound over to everlasting imprisonment and chains, and though they deserve that for their rebelliousness, yet they were born by Divine Providence to the end that, being made examples of, they might proclaim His justice. For even the Evil Spirit, damned because of his pride, does he not commend to us the justice of God, as soon as we consider him? Equally so, therefore, do the rest who are damned by the same judgment.
That man was born, then, to know and enjoy God follows of necessity, from the fact that God by the law communicates His will and character to man. No other living creature has such knowledge and understanding of Him, and yet they all exist and live and manifest their activity in Him. And since, as I hinted a little while ago, that which has no knowledge of God, revolts from His law and will, and the flesh is the property of those that have not the knowledge of God, it follows that the spirit is receptive for holy things, but the flesh resists, as I have said. For the maker reserved intact unto each part its own character, that man might be a wonderful work. For if the flesh laid aside its dullness and rebelliousness at the coming of the spirit, or if the spirit upon union with the flesh sank to its level, man would be either an angel or a brute. In order that man remain a special kind of creature, each part of him must retain its special characteristics. Hence, while we are willing to embrace the law according to the desire of the mind, another law which has been written upon our members, that is, the flesh, resists, so that through the wickedness of the flesh we perform not what in the integrity of the spirit we really desire. And since the strength of each is not its own but God’s in it, who is the being, existence and power of all things, it comes to pass that of His will and knowledge the flesh growls at the spirit, just as the spirit desires to obey His commands. Thus the law seems to be given in vain, since the ever rebellious flesh rejects it and can never be so tamed and subdued as not to revolt again, and the spirit seems wrongfully damned for the wantonness of the flesh, since whatever the flesh does, it does of and through God.
After having thus set forth many statements I would make answer to this objection, which is the real gist of this chapter, or, rather, 1 would sum up the answer already given more at length, and say, “So difficult a problem must be approached with a reverent and religious spirit” Even Paul, the chosen instrument of God, coming to consider the problem closely, exclaimed in view of its vastness, “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” [Rom. 11:33]. How much more is it to be treated with fear and trembling by the average preacher, such as I do not yet call myself! But having learned that to the believer nothing is impossible and that