Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/147

 from proving that others will have no future hope of escape, proves rather the contrary of this ; for we are first-fruits un- to God of his creatures. Our escape from death in Adam to life in Christ is but a foretaste of the deliverance of who- soever wills to be delivered from the bondage of corruption [death] to the liberty of life proper to all whom God shall rec- ognize as sons. All who will may be delivered from death. to life, regardless of the distinctions of nature God has pro- vided for his sons on different planes of being. The Gospel age is the trial-day for life or death to those called to the divine nature.

But God has appointed a day, in which he will judge the world. How can this be? Has God changed his mind? Has he concluded that his decision in the trial of the first man and the general sentence were unjust, too severe, that he now concludes to judge the world individually? No; were such the case, we should have no better guarantee of a just decision in the future trial than in the past. It is not that God considers his decision in the first judgment unjust, but that he has provided a redemption from the penalty of the first judgment, in order that he may grant another judg- ment (trial) under more favorable conditions to the entire race all having then had experience with sin and its results; God has not changed one iota from his original purpose, which he formed before the world began. He distinfily informs us that he changes not, and that he will by no means clear the guilty. He will exadl the full penalty which he justly pronounced. And that full penalty has been paid by the Redeemer or substitute whom God himself provided Jesus Christ, who, " by the grace [favor] of God, tasted death for every man." Our Lord having bought Adam and his race, with his own life, can now legally, justly, give a new offer of life to them all. And this offer to all is called the NewCovenant,sealed,ratified or made operative by his death. - Rom. 14:9; John 5:22; Heb. 10:16, 29; 13:20, 21.

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