Chapter 91—To Draw Us to God
I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with
lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jeremiah 31:3
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The Lord of life and glory clothed His divinity with humanity to
demonstrate to man that God through the gift of Christ would connect us
with Him. Without a connection with God no one can possibly be happy.
Fallen man is to learn that our Heavenly Father cannot be satisfied until His
love embraces the repentant sinner, transformed through the merits of the
spotless Lamb of God.
The work of all the heavenly intelligences is to this end. Under the
command of their General they are to work for the reclaiming of those who
by transgression have separated themselves from their Heavenly Father. A
plan has been devised whereby the wondrous grace and love of Christ shall
stand revealed to the world. In the infinite price paid by the Son of God to
ransom man, the love of God is revealed. This glorious plan of redemption is
ample in its provisions to save the whole world. Sinful and fallen man may
be made complete in Jesus through the forgiveness of sin and the imputed
righteousness of Christ.
In all the gracious deeds that Jesus did, He sought to impress upon men
the parental, benevolent attributes of God.... Jesus would have us understand
the love of the Father, and He seeks to draw us to Him by presenting His
parental grace. He would have the whole field of our vision filled with the
perfection of God’s character.... It was only by living among men that He
could reveal the mercy, compassion, and love of His heavenly Father; for it
was only by actions of benevolence that He could set forth the grace of God.
Christ came to manifest the love of God to the world, to draw the hearts
of all men to Himself.... The first step toward salvation is to respond to
the drawing of the love of Christ.... It is that men may understand the
joy of forgiveness, the peace of God, that Christ draws them through the
manifestation of His love. If they respond to His drawing, yielding their
hearts to His grace, He will lead them on step by step, to a full knowledge of
Himself, and this is life eternal.
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