But there is more here.  The chief characteristic of an absolute sovereign is the imperial power to choose, to decide.  Man was made an absolute sovereign in his own will.  God is the absolute sovereign.  He has made man an absolute sovereign in one realm, that of his will, his power of choice.  There is one place where man reigns alone, an absolute autocrat, where not even God can come save as the autocrat desires it, that is in his will.  And if that “can” bother you, remember that it was God’s sovereign act that made it so.  So that God remains sovereign in making man a sovereign in the realm of his will.  There every man sits in imperial solitude.

Here then is the picture of man fresh from the hand of God.  A spirit, in a body, with an unending life, partly infinite, like God in his capacity for love, for holiness, and wisdom, with the gift of sovereignty over the lower creation, and in his own will.  Like Him too in his capacity for fellowship with God.  For only like can have fellowship with like.  It is only in that in which we are alike that we can have fellowship.  These two, God and man, walking side by side, working together, friendship in spirit; partnership in service.

This man is in a garden of trees and bushes, with fruit and flowers and singing birds, roses with no pricking thorns, soft green with no weeds, and no poison ivy, for there is no hate.  And he is walking with God, talking familiarly as chosen friend with choicest friend.  Together they work in the completion of creation.  God brings His created beings one by one to man to be catalogued and named, and accepts his decisions.  What a winsome picture.  These two, God and a man in His likeness, walking and working side by side; likeness in being; friendship, fellowship in spirit; partnership, comradeship in service.  And this is God’s thought for man!

Man’s Bad Break.

Then come the climax and the crisis.  A climax is the climbing to the top rung of the ladder.  A crisis is the meeting place of possible victory and possible disaster.  A single step divides between the two—­the precipice-height, and the canon’s yawning gulf.

It was a climax of opportunity; and a crisis of action. God’s climax of opportunity to man. Man’s crisis of action.  God made man sovereign in his power of choice.  Now He would go the last step and give him the opportunity of using that power and so reaching the topmost levels.  God led man to the hill of choice.  The man must climb the hill if he would reach its top.

Only the use of power gives actual possession of the power.  What we do not use we lose.  The pressure of the foot is always necessary to a clear title.  To him that hath possible power shall be given actual power through use.

This opportunity was the last love-touch of God in opening up the way into the fulness of His image.  With His ideal for man God went to His limit in giving the power.  He could give the power of choice.  Man must use the power given.  Only so could he own what had been given.  God could open the door.  Man must step over the door-sill.  Action realizes power.