I protest, therefore, against all teaching which gives the impression that the exceeding goodness of God towards man is not the natural and necessary outcome of his being. As if the idea of God admitted of his being less than he is, less than perfect, less than Jesus Christ! Less than Love absolute, less than entire unselfishness! As if the God revealed to us in the New Testament were not his own perfect necessity of loving-kindness, but one who has made himself better than, by his own nature, by his own love, by the laws which he willed the laws of his existence, he needed to be!

If it be answered that we have fallen, and God is thereby freed from any obligation, that is but a lie. No amount of wrong-doing in a child can ever free a parent from the divine necessity of doing all he can to deliver his child; the bond between them cannot be broken. It is the vulgar, worldly idea that freedom consists in being bound to nothing. Not such is God’s idea of liberty! The more children he creates, with the more claims upon him, the freer is he as creator and giver of life, which is the essence of his Godhead: to make scope for his essence is to be free. Our Lord teaches us that the truth, known by obedience to him, will make us free: our freedom lies in living the truth of our relations to God and man. God could not be satisfied with himself without doing all that a God and Father could do for the creatures he had made—that is, without doing just what he had done, what he is going to and will do, to deliver his sons and daughters, and bring them home with rejoicing. 

Commentary

by Dale Darling

George MacDonald writes with a holy, objective view I yearn to know, not understand. His yes is a profound yes! and his no is a finality. In this, he contrasts Truth and lie, Light and darkness, Love and hate, Life and death. To live eternally without God is hell. And so it is just now.

"It is the vulgar, worldly idea that freedom consists of being bound to nothing," writes MacDonald. In our day, as in his, those which profess such sentiments stumble in self-possessed darkness, bumping into themselves at every turn with self congratulation, ever louder as empty clanging cymbals. How I loathe doing so, as though a disconnect between God's will due to my disobedience could make me free. "Not such is God's idea of liberty! Our Lord teaches us that the truth, known by obedience to Him, will make us free: our freedom lies in living the truth of our relations to God and man."

To know He forgives gives us liberty, and responsibility, to forgive, to live in love as He first loved, and always loves, us.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift. Since rejoicing will be great on our arrival home, how shall we now live? In liberty that has nothing to do with secular government or worldly opinion.

Rejoice!