Steps to Christ

by Ellen G. White

Chapter 1: God's Love for Man

Nature and revelation alike testify of God's love.

Our Father in heaven is the source of life, of
wisdom, and of joy. Look at the wonderful and
beautiful things of nature. Think of their marvelous
adaptation to the needs and happiness, not only of
man, but of all living creatures. The sunshine and
the rain, that gladden and refresh the earth, the hills
and seas and plains, all speak to us of the Creator's
love. It is God who supplies the daily needs of all
His creatures. In the beautiful words of the psalmist
—
"The eyes of all wait upon Thee;
And Thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest Thine hand,
And satisfiest the desire of every living thing."
       Psalm 145:15, 16.
God made man perfectly holy and happy; and the
fair earth, as it came from the Creator's hand, bore
no blight of decay or shadow of the curse. It is
transgression of God's law—the law of love—that
has brought woe and death. Yet even amid the
suffering that results from sin, God's love is
revealed. It is written that God cursed the ground for
man's sake. Genesis 3:17. The thorn and the thistle
—the difficulties and trials that make his life one of
toil and care—were appointed for his good as a part
of the training needful in God's plan for his uplifting
from the ruin and degradation that sin has wrought.
The [p. 10] world, though fallen, is not all sorrow
and misery. In nature itself are messages of hope and
comfort. There are flowers upon the thistles, and the
thorns are covered with roses.
"God is love" is written upon every opening bud,
upon every spire of springing grass. The lovely birds
making the air vocal with their happy songs, the
delicately tinted flowers in their perfection
perfuming the air, the lofty trees of the forest with
their rich foliage of living green—all testify to the
tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to
make His children happy.
The word of God reveals His character. He Himself
has declared His infinite love and pity. When Moses
prayed, "Show me Thy glory," the Lord answered, "I
will make all My goodness pass before thee."
Exodus 33:18, 19. This is His glory. The Lord
passed before Moses, and proclaimed, "The Lord,
The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-
suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin." Exodus 34:6, 7. He is "slow
to anger, and of great kindness," "because He
delighteth in mercy." Jonah 4:2; Micah 7:18.
God has bound our hearts to Him by unnumbered
tokens in heaven and in earth. Through the things of
nature, and the deepest and tenderest earthly ties that
human hearts can know, He has sought to reveal
Himself to us. Yet these but imperfectly represent
His love. Though all these evidences have been
given, the enemy of good blinded the minds of men,
so that they looked upon God with fear; they thought
of [p. 11] Him as severe and unforgiving. Satan led
men to conceive of God as a being whose chief
attribute is stern justice,—one who is a severe judge,
a harsh, exacting creditor. He pictured the Creator as
a being who is watching with jealous eye to discern
the errors and mistakes of men, that He may visit
judgments upon them. It was to remove this dark
shadow, by revealing to the world the infinite love of
God, that Jesus came to live among men.
The Son of God came from heaven to make manifest
the Father. "No man hath seen God at any time; the
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him." John 1:18. "Neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Matthew
11:27. When one of the disciples made the request,
"Show us the Father," Jesus answered, "Have I been
so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known
Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the
Father?" John 14:8, 9.
In describing His earthly mission, Jesus said, The
Lord "hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the
poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised." Luke 4:18. This was His work. He went
about doing good and healing all that were
oppressed by Satan. There were whole villages
where there was not a moan of sickness in any
house, for He had passed through them and healed
all their sick. His work gave evidence of His divine
anointing. Love, mercy, and compassion were
revealed in every act of [p. 12] His life; His heart
went out in tender sympathy to the children of men.
He took man's nature, that He might reach man's
wants. The poorest and humblest were not afraid to
approach Him. Even little children were attracted to
Him. They loved to climb upon His knees and gaze
into the pensive face, benignant with love.
Jesus did not suppress one word of truth, but He
uttered it always in love. He exercised the greatest
tact and thoughtful, kind attention in His intercourse
with the people. He was never rude, never needlessly
spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a
sensitive soul. He did not censure human weakness.
He spoke the truth, but always in love. He
denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity; but
tears were in His voice as He uttered His scathing
rebukes. He wept over Jerusalem, the city He loved,
which refused to receive Him, the way, the truth, and
the life. They had rejected Him, the Saviour, but He
regarded them with pitying tenderness. His life was
one of self-denial and thoughtful care for others.
Every soul was precious in His eyes. While He ever
bore Himself with divine dignity, He bowed with the
tenderest regard to every member of the family of
God. In all men He saw fallen souls whom it was
His mission to save.
Such is the character of Christ as revealed in His
life. This is the character of God. It is from the
Father's heart that the streams of divine compassion,
manifest in Christ, flow out to the children of men.
Jesus, the tender, pitying Saviour, was God
"manifest in the flesh." 1 Timothy 3:16. [p. 13]
It was to redeem us that Jesus lived and suffered and
died. He became "a Man of Sorrows," that we might
be made partakers of everlasting joy. God permitted
His beloved Son, full of grace and truth, to come
from a world of indescribable glory, to a world
marred and blighted with sin, darkened with the
shadow of death and the curse. He permitted Him to
leave the bosom of His love, the adoration of the
angels, to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred,
and death. "The chastisement of our peace was upon
Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Isaiah
53:5. Behold Him in the wilderness, in Gethsemane,
upon the cross! The spotless Son of God took upon
Himself the burden of sin. He who had been one
with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that
sin makes between God and man. This wrung from
His lips the anguished cry, "My God, My God, why
hast Thou forsaken Me?" Matthew 27:46. It was the
burden of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its
separation of the soul from God—it was this that
broke the heart of the Son of God.
But this great sacrifice was not made in order to
create in the Father's heart a love for man, not to
make Him willing to save. No, no! "God so loved
the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son."
John 3:16. The Father loves us, not because of the
great propitiation, but He provided the propitiation
because He loves us. Christ was the medium through
which He could pour out His infinite love upon a
fallen world. "God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto Himself." 2 Corinthians 5:19. God
suffered with His Son. In the agony of Gethsemane,
the death of [p. 14] Calvary, the heart of Infinite
Love paid the price of our redemption.
Jesus said, "Therefore doth My Father love Me,
because I lay down My life, that I might take it
again." John 10:17. That is, "My Father has so loved
you that He even loves Me more for giving My life
to redeem you. In becoming your Substitute and
Surety, by surrendering My life, by taking your
liabilities, your transgressions, I am endeared to My
Father; for by My sacrifice, God can be just, and yet
the Justifier of him who believeth in Jesus."
None but the Son of God could accomplish our
redemption; for only He who was in the bosom of
the Father could declare Him. Only He who knew
the height and depth of the love of God could make
it manifest. Nothing less than the infinite sacrifice
made by Christ in behalf of fallen man could express
the Father's love to lost humanity.
"God so loved the world, that He gave His only-
begotten Son." He gave Him not only to live among
men, to bear their sins, and die their sacrifice. He
gave Him to the fallen race. Christ was to identify
Himself with the interests and needs of humanity.
He who was one with God has linked Himself with
the children of men by ties that are never to be
broken. Jesus is "not ashamed to call them brethren"
(Hebrews 2:11); He is our Sacrifice, our Advocate,
our Brother, bearing our human form before the
Father's throne, and through eternal ages one with
the race He has redeemed—the Son of man. And all
this that man might be uplifted from the ruin and
degradation of sin that he might reflect the love of
God and share the joy of holiness. [p. 15]
The price paid for our redemption, the infinite
sacrifice of our heavenly Father in giving His Son to
die for us, should give us exalted conceptions of
what we may become through Christ. As the
inspired apostle John beheld the height, the depth,
the breadth of the Father's love toward the perishing
race, he was filled with adoration and reverence;
and, failing to find suitable language in which to
express the greatness and tenderness of this love, he
called upon the world to behold it. "Behold, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons of God." 1 John
3:1. What a value this places upon man! Through
transgression the sons of man become subjects of
Satan. Through faith in the atoning sacrifice of
Christ the sons of Adam may become the sons of
God. By assuming human nature, Christ elevates
humanity. Fallen men are placed where, through
connection with Christ, they may indeed become
worthy of the name "sons of God."
Such love is without a parallel. Children of the
heavenly King! Precious promise! Theme for the
most profound meditation! The matchless love of
God for a world that did not love Him! The thought
has a subduing power upon the soul and brings the
mind into captivity to the will of God. The more we
study the divine character in the light of the cross,
the more we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness
blended with equity and justice, and the more clearly
we discern innumerable evidences of a love that is
infinite and a tender pity surpassing a mother's
yearning sympathy for her wayward child.