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BULLETIN ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THREE

REASON, REDEMPTION AND
THE CONTINUATION OF THE HUMAN RACE TO THIS POINT

God made all things, including the container units for matter and man, time and space. In particular, He made freedom, and gave it in important aspects, including loyalty, love and obedience OR NOT, to  man.
 

Man fell, but his sin did not obliterate his schema, his nature, and God has foreknown each of His people and those not, before time began and over the top of time, all of which is open to Him, being merely a creation of His. He does not force: it is contrary to faith and love to force. In that milieu these things cease to exist. What uses them in religion is irrelevant therefore, to truth.

But what do we humans do  ? We ponder and prioritise and estimate, assess, dispose things in our minds, choose things ... and God knew us, not just our coming works, nor for salvation, were they relevant, before we were even  created (cf. Ephesians 1:4). He knew the way of each, the essence and inclination of the (as yet uncreated) heart, analogous but far beyond the power of an architect to know a building before he even builds it. But this includes the disposition of each in freedom, exposing those who are His. This did nothing to force, and did not depend on mere performance with its variables: it was  divine awareness of the desire and disposition of each freely made spirit, person. Time, we remember is merely a creation, with no exclusion zones for the Almighty.

Man duly chose. It was the negative choice. This has limited man ever since, but it has not limited God concerning man. He knows.

But why did not He not simply consign the failed human race, especially since He foreknew them, to the rubbish, like an author throwing something he wrote, away ? Clearly, He has a purpose for His creation (especially of man), other than simply abandoning it. He is not subject to time, and all things are manifest before Him, nor is He caught unawares.

What then ? Just as a lion may tenderly lick the young cub, in a way very far from being red in tooth and claw, so this aspect of the Lord's tenderness shows. So does man's continuance, ruinously, often ridiculously and riotously rebellious though he be (cf. Ephesians 2, 4:17-19). While man piles up reasons for his being cast into ruin, even complaining that it is often neither convenient nor comfortable (a very special kind of rebel!), God has presented His remedy. The reason is His love, and His provision to cover the case, in retaining the human race for so long. This reason is startling in its coverage, but marvellous in its motivation. He is keen to redeem, pay in justice for the wrongs of those who will be His - the invitation being to all, adequate for all, and vested in the ransom wrought by Jesus Christ, who is His Personal Expression or word and spoke and acted accordingly when on earth (cf. John 15:21-27).

He even sent Him to  earth AS a man, that is in human form through a virgin, and predicted the same centuries before doing it, and in the Bible (cf. SMR). Indeed, in the biblical record (Genesis 3:15), He is seen straight after man's fall and failure, to announce a human  deliverer, one who will be hurt in the deliverance of man from sin and its source, but achieve the liberation to be available to man.

So far in our history, the entirety of those to be redeemed, those who have availed themselves of His ransom in Christ, and will do so (Revelation 6:10-11), is not finished, and history waits. That time will come, it will certainly come. The day of completion will duly arrive, and the reason for man's continued existence on this planet will go. Indeed, the Redeemer will come before it goes!

Wait for it, says the Bible.

So we have the answer: God keeps this whirling world, a very colossus of sin, going till His purpose is fulfilled, reaping in the interim, and saving His people. Religions without remedy are without reason; but the Bible has a complete, and necessary answer, its dimensions being noble like the grand Creator Himself. Reason, redemption  and continuation, all are aligned.