Chapter 89—The Character of God Revealed in
Christ
Said the Saviour: “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” And God
declared by the prophet: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man
glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he
understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise
loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these
things I delight, saith the Lord.”
No man, without divine aid, can attain to this knowledge of God.
The apostle says that “the world by wisdom knew not God.” Christ
“was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world
knew Him not.” Jesus declared to His disciples: “No man knoweth
the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” In that last
prayer for His followers, before entering the shadows of Gethsemane,
the Saviour lifted His eyes to heaven, and in pity for the ignorance of
fallen men He said: “O righteous Father, the world hath not known
Thee: but I have known Thee.” “I have manifested Thy name unto the
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men which Thou gavest Me out of the world.”
From the beginning it has been Satan’s studied plan to cause men
to forget God, that he might secure them to himself. Hence he has
sought to misrepresent the character of God, to lead men to cherish
a false conception of Him. The Creator has been presented to their
minds as clothed with the attributes of the prince of evil himself,—as
arbitrary, severe, and unforgiving,—that He might be feared, shunned,
and even hated by men. Satan hoped to so confuse the minds of those
whom he had deceived that they would put God out of their knowledge.
Then he would obliterate the divine image in man and impress his own
likeness upon the soul; he would imbue men with his own spirit and
make them captives according to his will.
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