341. To believe that a person who lives a good life and holds a proper belief is not saved, but that God has freedom to save or damn at His whim anyone He wishes, would enable the person who is lost justifiably to accuse God of lack of mercy and unforgivingness, not to say cruelty. In fact it would amount to denying that God was God, and to asserting that what He said in His Word was worthless and that His commandments were of no, or at any rate trifling, importance. Moreover, if a person who lives a good life and holds a proper belief is not saved, he too can convict God of breaking His covenant which He made on Mount Sinai and wrote with His finger on two tables. It is evident from the Lord's words (in John 14:21-24) that God cannot avoid saving those who live in accordance with His commandments and have faith in Him. Indeed anyone who has a religion and sound reason can convince himself of this, if he reflects that God, who is continually present with man, giving him life and the ability to understand and love, must inevitably love him, and by His love link Himself to those who live a good life and hold a proper belief. This is surely something God has imprinted on every human being and on every living thing. Can a father or mother reject their young children, can a bird reject its chicks, an animal its whelps? Not even tigers, panthers and snakes can do this. For God to act differently would be contrary to the order in which He is and according to which He acts, as well as contrary to the order He imposed by creation on man.
[2] Now just as it is impossible for God to damn anyone who lives a good life and holds a proper belief, so in the reverse case it is impossible for God to save anyone who lives a wicked life and as a result holds a false belief. This second proposition is also contrary to order, and therefore contrary to His omnipotence, which can only proceed by way of justice; and the laws of justice are immutable truths. For the Lord says:
It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one dot of the law to fall out. Luke 16:17.
Anyone who knows anything of the essence of God and of man's free will can grasp this, For example, Adam was free to eat of the tree of life, and of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If he had only eaten of the tree or trees of life, would it have been possible for God to drive him out of the garden? I hardly think so. But after he had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, would it have been possible for God to keep him in the garden? Again, I hardly think so. Likewise I hardly think God could cast any angel who had been received into heaven down to hell, nor admit anyone judged a devil into heaven. Neither of these things are possible for God by His own omnipotence, as may be seen in the section on the Divine omnipotence (49-70 above).
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