The Moral Character of God

The Moral Character of God

The knowledge of God is the basis of true religion. God is a Spirit, as to His nature; almighty, all-knowing, and everywhere present; searching the hearts and trying the thoughts of men. As to His moral attributes, it is said, "God is love," and "God is light;" by which we are to understand, that He is both benevolent and holy. Yes; so holy, that the very heavens are unclean before Him. He is also so inflexibly just, as to be compelled, by the infinite perfection of His nature, to reveal His wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; and, at the same time, He is a God Who  cannot lie, but will fulfill every word of promise or threatening. Oh, my reader, dwell upon this view of the divine character, infinite hatred and opposition to sin; infinite purity, immutable justice, inviolable truth. Pause and ponder! Can you lift up your eyes, and bear the sight of this glorious God, when the cherubim veil their faces with their wings, as they stand before the great while throne, and say one to another, "Holy holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty!" When the prophet filled with terror, fell prostrate, exclaiming, "Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips!" Oh the deep depravity, the utter sinfulness of man before this holy God!

You must understand the moral law. You must know the spirituality of the law, by which I mean, that it demands the obedience of the mind and heart; and is made for the soul's innermost recesses, as well as for the actions of the life. God sees and searches the mind, and therefore demands the perfect obedience of the heart, and forbids its evil dispositions. By the law of God, as interpreted by Christ, even sinful anger is murder, and unchaste thoughts are adultery. The law demands from every human being sinless, perfect obedience, from the beginning to the end of life, in thought, word, and deed; it abates nothing of its demands, and makes no allowances for human weakness (Matt. 5:17-48; James 2:10-11). The perfection of the law is a tremendous subject; it is an awful mirror for a sinful creature to look into.

You must understand the design of the law; it is not given to save us, but to govern us and condemn us; to show us what sin is, and to condemn us for committing it (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 3:20). You can know nothing, if you do not know the law. "Sin is the transgression of the law;" but how can you know sin if you do not know the law? Oh, inquirer, how many, how great are your transgressions, if every departure from this law, in feeling as well as in action, is a sin! Nor is this all;for to fall short of the law is sin, no less than to oppose it. Read what our Lord has said; "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all you soul, and with all your mind; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself." Alarming representation! Have you thus loved God, and your neighbor? Confounding and overwhelming question! What a state of sin have you been living in! Your whole life has been sin, for you have not loved God; and not to love God, is all sins in one. Who can think of greater sin than not loving God? To love the world, to love trifles, to love even sin - and not to love God!

But this leads me to remark, that it is necessary you should understand the evil of sin. Men think little of sin - but does God? What turned Adam and Eve out of paradise? Sin! What drowned the old world in the flood? Sin! What destroyed God's own city, and scattered His chosen people as vagrants over the face of the earth? Sin! What brought disease, accidents, toil, care, war, pestilence, and famine into the world? Sin! What has converted the world into one great burying-place of its inhabitants? Sin! What lights the flames of the bottomless pit? Sin! What crucified the Lord of life and glory? Sin! What then must sin be? Who but God, and what but his infinite mind, can conceive of its evil nature?

Did you ever consider that it was only one sin that brought death and all our woes into the world? Do you not tremble, then, at the thought that this evil is in you? Some will attempt to persuade you that sin is a trifle; that God does not take much account of it; that you need not give yourself much concern about it. But what says God Himself, in His Word, in His providence, in the torments of the damned, in the crucifixion of His Son? You have not only sin enough in yourself to deserve the bottomless pit, and to sink you to it, unless it be pardoned; but sin enough, if it could be divided and distributed to others, to doom multitudes to perdition.

But it is not enough to know your actual sins, you must also clearly understand your original and inherent depravity of heart. There is the sin of your nature, as well as the sin of your conduct. Our Lord has told us that "those things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart, and they defile the man; for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matt. 15:18-19). The heart is the polluted fountain from whence all the muddy streams of evil conduct flow! The heart is the great storehouse of iniquity! Men sometimes make excuse for their evil deeds by say
ing, that they have good hearts at bottom; this, however, is an awful mistake, for every man's heart, not excepting the most wicked, is really worse than his conduct.

Why do not men seek, serve, and love God? Because the carnal mind is enmity against Him. Why do sinners go on in sin? Because they love sin in their hearts. This was not the original condition of man, for God created Adam in his own image; that is, in righteousness and true holiness; but, by disobeying God in eating the forbidden fruit, our first parent fell into a state of sin, and we, having descended from him, since the fall, inherit his corruption (Rom. 5:12-21). It is of vast consequence for you to know, that you are thus totally corrupt in your very nature, and through all you faculties; for without this knowledge you will be taken up with a mere outward reformation, to the neglect of an entire, inward renovation. If you saw a man, who had a bad and loathsome disease of the skin, merely applying outward lotions, you would remind him that the seat of the disorder was in his blood, and admonish him to purify that by medicine. You must first make the tree good, said our Lord, for good fruit cannot be born by a bad tree. So your heart must be renewed, or you can never perform good works. You not only need the pardon of actual sin,but you need also the removal of original sin. You must have a new heart, a right spirit, or you cannot be saved. Read Psalm 51; 53; John 3:1-8; Gal. 5:19-25; Eph. 4:17-24.

~John Angell James~