I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. Philippians 3:8.

To love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves is to keep the first four and the last six commandments. God has given to us a large field in which we may work; and in doing the work appointed us of God, we will not lift up ourselves but will exalt Christ. We will cherish love for God and love for our brethren and for all people. Love will soon die out of the heart if it is left without cultivation; we can only keep divine love in the soul by doing the words of the Master. Are there not many claiming to keep the commandments who are living in transgression of the sacred precepts? We cannot keep the law of God unless we give to our Creator and Redeemer our undivided affection. It is impossible to keep the last six commandments unless we keep the first four….

When we come into close sympathy with Jesus, He will impart His love, and this will flow out in loving acts, in tender compassion to others. When we fail to love God supremely, we surely fail to love our neighbor as ourselves. When you love God with all your heart, might, mind, soul, and strength, you will be as a living stream in the desert to all around you. There will be no expressed doubts, no sowing of tares in your suggestions. You will not rest satisfied with a meager experience….

There is no standing still in the Christian life. The followers of Jesus see ever before them higher things to be attained, and they will not be satisfied with a low standard. There is great danger in being satisfied, in not pressing forward for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus….

In the truth, Jesus is unfolded in all His matchless loveliness; but of what advantage will be our knowledge of truth if it does not lead us to Jesus, if it does not increase our knowledge of Him and our love for Him? As soon as you surrender your whole heart to God, you will render self-denying, cheerful obedience. God requires that we shall be found in Him, not having our own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ. When, with grateful appreciation of His love, we open the door of our heart to Jesus, saying, “Come in,” the heavenly Guest is with us. When we love Jesus, we love all whom Jesus loves.—Signs of the Times, September 22, 1890.

From From the Heart

Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. Hebrews 4:1.

Jesus, our compassionate Savior, is the way, the truth, and the life. Why will we not accept His gracious offer of mercy, believe His words of promise, and not make the way of life so hard? As we travel the precious road cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in, let us not overcast it with doubts and gloomy forebodings and pursue our way murmuring and groaning, as though forced to an unpleasant, exacting task. The ways of Christ are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. If we have made rough paths for our feet and taken heavy burdens of care in laying up for ourselves treasures upon the earth, let us now change and follow the path Jesus has prepared for us.

We are not always willing to come to Jesus with our trials and difficulties. Sometimes we pour our troubles into human ears and tell our afflictions to those who cannot help us, and neglect to confide all to Jesus, who is able to change the sorrowful way to paths of joy and peace. Self-denying, self-sacrificing, gives glory and victory to the cross. The promises of God are very precious. We must study His Word if we would know His will. The words of inspiration, carefully studied and practically obeyed, will lead our feet in a plain path where we may walk without stumbling. Oh, that all, ministers and people, would take their burdens and perplexities to Jesus, who is waiting to receive them and to give them peace and rest! He will never forsake those who put their trust in Him….

It is our duty to love Jesus as our Redeemer. He has a right to command our love, but He invites us to give Him our heart. He calls us to walk with Him in the path of humble, truthful obedience. His invitation to us is a call to a pure, holy, and happy life—a life of peace and rest, of liberty and love—and to a rich inheritance in the future, immortal life. Which will we choose—liberty in Christ, or bondage and tyranny in the service of Satan? Why should we reject the invitation of mercy and refuse the proffers of divine love? If we choose to live with Christ through the ceaseless ages of eternity, why not choose Him now as our most loved and trusted Friend, our best and wisest Counselor?—Signs of the Times, March 17, 1887.

From From the Heart

Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! Galatians 3:21.

The law and the gospel cannot be separated. In Christ mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. The gospel has not ignored the obligations due to God by men and women. The gospel is the law unfolded, nothing more nor less. It gives no more latitude to sin than does the law. The law points to Christ; Christ points to the law. The gospel calls us to repentance. Repentance of what? Of sin. And what is sin? It is the transgression of the law. Therefore the gospel calls sinners from their transgression back to obedience to the law of God. Jesus in His life and death taught the strictest obedience. He died, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty, that the honor of God’s law might be preserved, and yet humanity not utterly perish.

The work of salvation in both the Old and New Testament dispensation is the same….

Satan is working with all his deceptive power to ensnare the world. He would have them believe that this great sacrifice was made in order to abolish God’s law. He represents Christ as opposed to the law of God’s government in heaven and in earth. But the Sovereign of the world has a law by which to govern His heavenly intelligences and His human family, and the death of His Son fixes the immutability of that law beyond any question. God has no intention of doing away with His great standard of righteousness. By this standard He can define what a correct character is….

It is necessary that every intelligent being shall understand the principles of the law of God. Christ through the apostle James declares, “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” These words were spoken this side of the death of Christ; therefore the law was binding upon all at that time….

People may talk of freedom, of gospel liberty. They may assert that they are not in bondage to the law. But the influence of a gospel hope will not lead sinners to look upon the salvation of Christ as a matter of free grace while they continue to live in transgression of the law of God. When the light of truth dawns upon their minds, and they fully understand the requirements of God and realize the extent of their transgressions, they will reform their ways, become loyal to God through the strength obtained from their Savior, and lead a new and purer life.—Signs of the Times, February 25, 1897.

From From the Heart

That you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:6.

Supreme love to God will be shown by every man or woman who is a true follower of Jesus Christ…. We are His creatures, the work of His hands, and He is justly entitled to reverence, honor, and love….

In love, with a desire to elevate and ennoble us, God provided for us a standard of obedience. In awful majesty, amid thundering and lightning, He proclaimed from Mount Sinai His ten holy precepts….

God saw the sinner’s hopeless condition. He looked with sorrow upon the world, which was steadily growing more and more degraded and sinful. He could not change His law to meet our deficiencies; for He says, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” But in His great love for the human race, in His desire that we should not be left to meet the penalty of our transgression, but that we should be elevated and ennobled, He “gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Christ laid aside His royal robes and came to this earth, bringing with Him a power sufficient to overcome sin. He came to live the law of God in humanity, that by partaking of His divine nature, we also might live that law….

Before the universe of heaven, before the fallen angels, and before those whom He had come to save, Christ lived the law of God. By His supreme obedience to its requirements, He exalted and enforced it. By His purity, goodness, beneficence, devotion, and zeal for the glory of God, by His unsurpassed love for others, He made known the perfection of the law. By His blameless life He illustrated its excellence….

Obedience must come from the heart. It was heart work with Christ…. If we draw near to God, the unfailing source of strength, we shall realize the fulfillment of the promise, “Ask, and ye shall receive.” …

As Christ lived the law in humanity, so we may do if we will take hold of the Strong for strength. As we realize that we can do nothing of ourselves, we shall receive wisdom from on high to honor and glorify God. And as we behold “the glory of the Lord,” we shall be changed into the same image, “from glory to glory.”—Signs of the Times, March 4, 1897.

From From the Heart

So shall I keep Your law continually, forever and ever. Psalm 119:44.

How wonderful in its simplicity, its comprehensiveness and perfection, is the law of Jehovah! …

There is no mystery in the law of God. The feeblest intellect can grasp these rules to regulate the life and form the character after the divine Model….

The infinite sacrifice which Christ has made to magnify and exalt the law testifies that not one jot or tittle of that law will relinquish its claims upon the transgressor. Christ came to pay the debt which the sinner had incurred by transgression, and by His own example to teach us how to keep the law of God. Said Christ, “I have kept my Father’s commandments.” In consideration of all the facts so clearly establishing the claims of God’s law, with heaven and eternal life in view to inspire hope and induce effort, it is inconceivable how so many professing to be servants of God can set aside His law and teach sinners that they are not amenable to its precepts. What a fatal delusion! Satan first devised this heresy, and by it he enticed Eve into sin. The sad results of that transgression are before us….

Christ came to teach us the way of salvation. And when the shadowy services of the former dispensation were no longer of any value—when type had met antitype in the death of Christ—then we might expect that if the law of ten commandments were no longer binding, Christ would declare its abrogation. If the Old Testament Scriptures were no longer to be regarded as a guide for Christians, He would make known the fact….

Holy prophets have foretold the manner of Christ’s birth, the events of His life, His mission, and His death and resurrection. In the Old Testament we find the gospel of a coming Savior. In the New Testament we have the gospel of a Savior revealed as prophecy had foretold….

There is no discord between the teachings of Christ in the Old Testament and His teachings in the New….

In the very last message to His church, by way of Patmos, the risen Savior pronounces a benediction upon those who keep His Father’s law: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”—The Review and Herald, September 14, 1886.

From From the Heart