The Universal God

JEREMIAH 29:1, 4-14—The word “universal” as used in the title of this lesson is intended to convey the thought of God’s great love for his creatures and his desire that through obedience to his instruction they keep themselves in a position in which he is able to bestow the fullness of his blessing upon them. God’s love and mercy is not universal in the sense that they have no limitations. The expression, “boundless love of God,” for example, might be misunderstood, since he has decreed that all those who willfully continue to disobey him must die. Thus God’s justice establishes a limit to the exercise of his love and mercy.

The Scripture citation for the lesson tells of God’s love for his typical people Israel whom he had permitted to be taken captive into Babylon, and of his desire that during the period of their captivity they prepare themselves for their return to their own land. This captivity had come to the nation as a punishment for its sins, yet through the prophet, God explained to them that he had caused it for their good and not because he was spiteful toward them.

One of the sins of God’s typical people was their inclination to place confidence in the messages of false prophets, or “diviners,” rather than in the words of the Lord that were sent to them through his true and holy prophets. They refused to heed the messages of Jeremiah, preferring to believe those who told them that the nation was in no danger, those who prophesied, “Peace, peace.” (Jer. 6:14; 8:11) Now calamity had come upon the nation, and the Lord, through Jeremiah, took occasion to warn them again of the evil results of allowing themselves to be influenced by false prophets.

The tone of this whole message is that of God’s solicitude for the peace and prosperity of his people. They had sinned but he still loved them, and he wanted them to return to him and serve him with their whole heart. God is not vindictive, but merciful and kind, and ever ready to forgive and bless his people when they come to him in the spirit of true repentance and ask for his mercy.

This reassuring fact is quite generally recognized by professed Christians of all denominational groups; and to some extent, at least, all the professed followers of Jesus endeavor to emulate that divine principle of mercy enunciated by Jesus when he told Peter that he should forgive those who sinned against him, not seven times only, but seventy times seven. Yes, Jesus believed in giving a person many chances, not merely a “second chance.”

But a strange and unscriptural philosophy has developed throughout the centuries to the effect that while God can keep forgiving a person over and over again while he remains alive, the moment of death automatically puts an end to any further exercise of divine mercy. This is a human limitation which has been placed upon God’s love and mercy, a limitation suggested by the poet when he wrote:

“Men make God’s love too narrow
By false limits of their own;
And they magnify his vengeance
With a zeal he will not own.”

There is no scriptural authority for supposing that death is the dividing line between divine mercy and divine wrath. This is purely a human measuring line. The scriptural fact is that God has promised to awaken the dead and extend his mercy toward them under conditions favorable to their acceptance of the Redeemer and their obedience to divine law. The matter that determines whether or not God will continue to extend his mercy toward an individual is the degree of knowledge against which he sins.

God’s mercy will be withdrawn from a person even before he dies if he continues to sin willfully against the measure of light which makes him fully responsible. God does not need to wait until a person dies in order to determine if he is a willful sinner. On the other hand, those whose hearts and minds have not been enlightened with the truth, and who are still blinded by the “god of this world,” who is Satan, the devil, do not have their status before God changed simply because they die. (II Cor. 4:4) They are to be enlightened with the truth when they are awakened from the sleep of death, and if then they continue to oppose God’s will, they will be destroyed from among the people in what the Revelator describes as the “second death.”—Acts 3:23; Rev. 20:6,14; 21:8

JEREMIAH 31:3—Here we have a beautiful statement of God’s abiding love for his people, Israel. It is described as an “everlasting,” or age-lasting love—a love that lasts to a consummation. It is a love which has continued toward Israel from the very beginning, and will continue on into the Millennium. Individual Israelites may finally prove to be willful sinners and die the second death, but the nation, the earthly “seed,” will be recovered, “drawn” back to harmony with God by the power of his loving-kindness.

It is well to notice from this text the manner in which God draws his people. It is not through fear, by holding the threat of hell-fire over them, but by his loving-kindness. Service rendered to God through slavish fear is not acceptable to him. It is by the warmth of his love that he draws men and women to himself, and eventually his love will be revealed to the whole world.

QUESTIONS

In what sense does our lesson present God as “universal”?

Is God’s love without bounds or limits?

Does God’s attitude toward a person change because he dies?

What is the determining factor in the continuance or withdrawal of God’s favor toward an individual?

Is fear a proper motive for serving God?

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