THOUGHTS FROM THE GARDEN 09.16.2013 OUR PART IN THE PLAN OF SALVATION The body, which God calls his temple, should be preserved in as healthy a condition as possible. Many act as though they had a right to treat their own bodies as they please. They do not realize that God has claims upon them. They are required to glorify him in their bodies and spirits, which are his. While they give themselves up to the gratification of unhealthy appetites, and thus bring disease upon themselves, they cannot render to God acceptable service. None should remain in ignorance of God’s claims. All his promises are on conditions of obedience. All should work for themselves. They should do that which God requires them to do, and not leave God to do for them that which he has left for them to do. It is a sacred duty which God has enjoined upon reasonable beings, formed in his image, to keep that image in as perfect a state as possible. Those who bring disease upon themselves, by self-gratification, have not healthy bodies and minds. They cannot weigh the evidences of truth, and comprehend the requirements of God. Our Saviour will not reach his arm low enough to raise such from their degraded state, while they persist in pursuing a course to sink themselves still lower. {4aSG 148.1} All are required to do what they can to preserve healthy bodies, and sound minds. If they will gratify a gross appetite, and by so doing blunt their sensibilities, and becloud their perceptive faculties so that they cannot appreciate the exalted character of God, or delight in the study of his Word, they may be assured that God will not accept their unworthy offering any sooner than that of Cain. God requires them to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. After man has done all in his power to insure health, by the denying of appetite and gross passions, that he may possess a healthy mind, and a sanctified imagination, that he may render to God an offering in righteousness, then he is saved alone by a miracle of God’s mercy, as was the ark upon the stormy billows. Noah had done all that God required of him in making the ark secure, then God performed that which man could not do, and preserved the ark by his miraculous power. {4aSG 148.2} Our Redeemer, laying aside his glory and majesty, to take human nature, and to die man’s sacrifice, was a miracle of God. It was God’s wise arrangement to save fallen man. God requires his people to be laborers together with him. He requires them to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, and present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is the only service he will accept from reasonable mortals. Jesus has stooped very low in order to reach man in his low estate. And God requires of man to make earnest efforts, and deny self, that he may preserve his vigor of mind, and elevate himself, and imitate the example of him in whom was no guile. Then will he be benefited with the atonement of Christ. As the Lord bade faithful Noah before the flood, Come thou, and all thy house, into the ark, he will, previous to the time of trouble, say to his faithful saints, who have been preparing for translation, “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth, also, shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” {4aSG 149.1} Christ took not on him the nature of angels, but the nature of man, that he might acquaint himself with the temptations with which he was beset, and help man in his fallen state, and by his own humiliation and death elevate men to become heirs with him to his Father’s kingdom. Christ endured the strongest temptations of Satan, that he might experience in himself the severest conflict which the children of men would have with the fallen foe, and that he might sustain those who should come to him for strength in their temptations. {4aSG 149.2} Satan caused the fall of the first Adam, and he boasted to the angels that he should succeed with the second Adam, Jesus Christ, by approaching him through the appetite. Before Christ entered upon his ministry, Satan commenced his series of temptations. He knew that he could lead astray through the appetite sooner than in any other way. Eve fell in consequence of appetite when she had every kind of fruit good to satisfy her wants. Christ suffered a long fast of forty days, and endured the keenest hunger. Satan came to him with his series of temptations while thus weak and suffering, tempting him to do a miracle for his own sake, to appease his hunger, and by so doing give him evidence that he was the Son of God. “And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” Christ answered him with Scripture. “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Christ refers to his Father’s law. The words of God spoken from Sinai are the conditions of life. These words obeyed will give man again free access to the tree of life, that our first parents forfeited all right to by disobedience. Their transgression made it needful for Christ to come to reconcile fallen man to God by his own death. {4aSG 150.1} The scene of Christ’s temptation was to be a lesson for all his followers. When the enemies of Christ, by the instigation of Satan, request them to show some miracle, they should answer them as meekly as the Son of God answered Satan, “It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” If they will not be convinced by inspired testimony, a manifestation of God’s power would not benefit them. God’s wondrous works are not manifested to gratify the curiosity of any. Christ, the Son of God, refused to give Satan any proof of his power. He made no effort to remove Satan’s “if,” by showing a miracle. The disciples of Christ will be brought into similar positions. Unbelievers will require them to do some miracle, if they believe God’s special power is in the church, and that they are the chosen people of God. Unbelievers, who are afflicted with infirmities, will require them to work a miracle upon them, if God is with them. Christ’s followers should imitate the example of their Lord. Jesus, with his divine power, did not do any mighty works for Satan’s diversion. Neither can the servants of Christ. They should refer the unbelieving to the written, inspired testimony for evidence of their being the loyal people of God, and heirs of salvation. {4aSG 150.2}
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 18:36:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015