God's Amazing Grace

How Long Must Heaven Suffer? June 30

I and my Father are one. John 10:30. AG 189.1

God Himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was one with the Father.^{68SDA Bible Commentary 5:1108.} AG 189.2

Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All heaven suffered in Christ's agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach His ideal, brings grief to Him. When there came upon Israel the calamities that were the sure result of separation from God—subjugation by their enemies, cruelty, and death—it is said that “his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.” “In all their affliction he was afflicted: ... and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old” (Judges 10:16; Isaiah 63:9). AG 189.3

His Spirit “maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” As the “whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together” (Romans 8:26, 22), the heart of the infinite Father is pained in sympathy. Our world is a vast lazar house, a scene of misery that we dare not allow our thoughts to dwell upon. Did we realize it as it is, the burden would be too terrible. Yet God feels it all.^{69Education, 263, 264.} AG 189.4

Not a sigh is breathed, not a pain felt, not a grief pierces the soul, but the throb vibrates to the Father's heart.^{70The Desire of Ages, 356.} AG 189.5

He who knows the depths of the world's misery and despair, knows by what means to bring relief.... Although human beings have abused their mercies, wasted their talents, and lost the dignity of godlike manhood, the Creator is to be glorified in their redemption.^{71Education, 270.} AG 189.6

In order to destroy sin and its results He gave His best Beloved, and He has put it in our power, through cooperation with Him, to bring this scene of misery to an end.^{72Education, 264.} AG 189.7

With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world! How soon might the end come—the end of suffering and sorrow and sin! ^{73Education, 271.} AG 189.8