Sweetser's Universalism Explained, part eight

Continued from Sweetser’s Universalism Explained, part seven

It was necessary, therefore, in order to save men, that in some way God should reveal His great love to mankind. This He gas done through His Son Jesus Christ, whom He sent into the world for the special purpose of saving it. “We have seen and do testify,” says the Bible, “that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world,” that is to says of the human world, the world of humanity, all mankind. That is what Universalists believe about Christ. They believe that he is the Son of God — not God, but the Son of God in a way which is past our comprehension (Matt. 11:27). They believe in his divine humanity, and that by virtue thereof he is the very brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person, so that in seeing him we see the Father, just as in looking upon a photograph we may be said to see the original. In him we see a reflex of God’s fatherly character; in him we see God’s love revealed as nowhere else in all the universe; and in him we also see an example of righteousness, of that perfect humanity which we all must attain to before we can be fully saved. Thus it is that he saves us from the sinfulness which curses us, — by revealing God’s love to us, and so inspiring us to give our affection to Him in return; by giving us a perfect example of righteousness; by his sympathy for us, for we have not an [sic] high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin; and by demonstrating for us the glorious truth of immortality, without which all our labors would be but in vain. Thus he becomes to us “the way, the truth, and the life.” Thus he draws us to himself, and through himself to God the Father. Thus he sheds abroad the Holy Spirit in our hearts and transform us by degrees into his own divine likeness.