Genesis 18:25 That be far from you to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked… I. GOD IS A BEING OF MORAL RECTITUDE. 1. God ought to be a Being of moral rectitude. He knows what is right and wrong respecting His own conduct, and respecting the conduct of all other moral beings in- the universe. He ought therefore to feel and act according to His moral discernment of what is right in the nature of things. And as He feels much more sensibly His obligation to moral rectitude than any other being, so we have far more reason to believe that He possesses moral rectitude, than that any other being in the universe does. 2. God claims to be a Being of moral rectitude. "When Moses requested Him to show him His glory, The Lord passed by before him, 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, and that will by no means clear the guilty." 3. God has made His rational creatures capable of discerning His moral as well as natural attributes. He has implanted in their minds a moral sense, by which they can distinguish moral beauty from moral deformity in moral characters. But can we suppose that He would have done this, if He knew that His own moral character would not bear examination? 4. God has not only made us capable of judging of His moral rectitude, but commanded us to do it. "Judge, I pray thee, between Me and My vineyard." "Are not My ways equal? are not your ways unequal? saith the Lord." His knowledge of His own moral perfections is the only ground upon which He can, with propriety, or even safety, appeal to us in respect to His moral rectitude. 5. God has not only commanded His intelligent creatures to judge of His moral rectitude, but has placed them under the best advantages to judge. He has placed them all in a state of trial, and in different parts of the universe, where they have had great opportunities and strong inclinations to examine His conduct with the strictest scrutiny. Now, if the greatest and best of God's intelligent creatures, after their strictest scrutiny of His conduct in the various parts of the universe, have not been able to discover the least moral defect or imperfection in His character and conduct, we may confidently believe that He possesses the perfection of moral rectitude. And to close this connected train of reasoning, I would observe — 6. That God has appointed a day for the very purpose of giving all His intelligent creatures the best possible opportunity of judging of His moral rectitude. The day of judgment is called the day of "the revelation of the righteous judgment of God." II. How ABRAHAM COULD KNOW THAT GOD IS A BEING OF MORAL RECTITUDE. 1. Abraham could not know the moral rectitude of God by knowing what God would do to promote the highest happiness of the universe. 2. Abraham could not know the moral rectitude of God by knowing that the punishing of the innocent would not promote the highest good of the universe. 3. Though Abraham could not know what would be right or wrong for God to do, either by knowing what had a direct tendency to promote the highest good of the universe, or what had an indirect tendency to promote that great and important object, yet he could know what was right or wrong for God to do to answer any purpose whatever, by knowing that right or wrong or moral good and evil are founded in the nature of things. Moral good, which consists in true benevolence, is morally right in its own nature. And moral evil, which consists in selfishness, is morally wrong in its own nature.IMPROVEMENT. 1. If God be a Being of moral rectitude, then He can never do evil that good may come. 2. If God be a Being of moral rectitude, then He can never approve of His creatures' doing evil that good may come. 3. If God be a Being of moral rectitude, then He will not punish the finally impenitent the less, on account of the good they have done in the world. 4. If God be a Being of moral rectitude, then it is morally impossible that He should ever injure any of His creatures. 5. If God be a Being of moral rectitude, then all the objections which have been made or can be made against His conduct are altogether groundless. For He has always acted agreeably to the moral rectitude of His nature. 6. Since God is a Being of perfect moral rectitude, all His works will eventually praise Him. They will deserve and receive the approbation and praise of all His holy creatures. 7. If God be a Being of moral rectitude, then the weight of His wrath will be insupportable to the finally miserable. They will know that He does not punish them from malice, revenge, or malevolence, but from true, pure, disinterested benevolence and justice. (N. Emmons, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? |
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