Sunday, January 15, 2023

Making Manifest the Character of God to the Fallen Children of Earth

"The law of Jehovah was burdened with needless exactions and traditions, and God was represented as severe, exacting, revengeful, and arbitrary.  
He was pictured as one who could take pleasure in the sufferings of His creatures. 
--The very attributes that belonged to the character of Satan, the evil one represented as belonging to the character of God.  
--Jesus came to teach men of the Father, to correctly represent Him
before the fallen children of earth. 
--Angels could not fully portray the character of God, but Christ, who was a living impersonation of God, could not fail to accomplish the work.  
--The only way in which He could set and keep men right was to make Himself visible and familiar to their eyes. . . . 
 
Christ exalted the character of God, 
attributing to Him the praise
and giving to Him the credit
of the whole purpose of His own mission on earth, to set men right through the revelation of God. 
 
In Christ was arrayed before men the paternal grace and the matchless perfections of the Father.  
In His prayer just before His crucifixion, He declared, I have manifested thy name.  I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. [John 17:6,4]  
When the object of His mission was attained, the revelation of God to the world, the Son of God announced that His work was accomplished, and that the character of the Father was made manifest to men.
E.G.W.