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If the question be asked, how came it that Christ's will always acted with the Father's as no other man's ever did, it is here that the object of God's manifestation becomes apparent. There never could have been such an obedient man if God had not produced him and made him what he was; but God does not stultify Himself in any part of His work. Therefore, though God, in Christ, produced one who was righteous under all trial, He did not tie or force His will, but gave him that complete independence of volition, and that ample opportunity of disobedience which gave acceptability to his obedience, and value and force to it as an example to us. The principle involved in God's procedure towards man absolutely required this. The object aimed at throughout is the voluntary consecration of independent will to His glory. It is for the development of this result that all these ages of evil are allowed. The prevalence of evil is the necessary foundation of righteousness. If it were not for this element of the work of God, the world's history is without an explanation. Take it away, and we are in darkness. The long reign of evil is the measure of the value God attaches to the voluntary obedience of independent will. The evil has come through the impartation of this power of independent will. Man has misused it, and hence the reign of evil; but the gloriousness of the obedience of a multitude who will come out of this great tribulation, is so great as to be more than a compensation for the night that broods over the world.

Robert Roberts