Daily Devotional

January 12, 2019

Christ’s Perfect Obedience Can Be Ours

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Romans 5:19, NKJV.

[Scripture tells] the story so important for every human being to know. On the one hand is presented the disobedience of Adam, with its consequences; on the other, the obedience of Christ. The Garden of Eden was disgraced by Adam’s disobedience; but as by that one transgression many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One, many are made righteous.

The world has been honored with the presence of one Man who was wholly and entirely obedient – One who not only believed and taught the claims of God’s law, but who lived the law. His whole life was a representation of its holy principles. His obedience was manifested in the awful agony He endured in the Garden of Gethsemane; and through His suffering He has brought pardon to the disobedient.

When Christ gave to His disciples the conditions of salvation, He said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Self-denial and crosses lie directly in the path of every soul who will follow Jesus. Our advance heavenward will be opposed at every step; for Satan will come in many ways to mislead, to deceive, and to clothe sin with the appearance of good….

I would urge you … carefully to consider the self-denial and self-sacrifice that Christ has endured in your behalf, that you, if you choose, may have that happiness and peace in this life which He alone can give, and an eternity of bliss by and by. Then will you not become missionaries for Christ? Are you not willing to deny self for His sake? to consider how you can do Him service who has done such service for you in redeeming your soul from the power of sin and Satan? When upon earth, Christ said of Himself, “I am among you as he that serveth.” He did not strive to obtain the highest place; for He was meek and lowly in heart. He invites you to learn of Him, to wear His yoke – the yoke of obedience to every precept of Jehovah. – Youth’s Instructor, April 1, 1897.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 47.

Daily Devotional

January 11, 2019

Israel Pledges to Obey God’s Commandments

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the Lord has said we will do, and be obedient.” Exodus 24:7, NKJV.

Preparation was now made for the ratification of the covenant, according to God’s directions. [Exodus 24:4-8 quoted.]

Here the people received the conditions of the covenant. They made a solemn covenant with God, typifying the covenant made between God and every believer in Jesus Christ. The conditions were plainly laid before the people. They were not left to misunderstand them. When they were requested to decide whether they would agree to all the conditions given, they unanimously consented to obey every obligation. They had already consented to obey God’s commandments. The principles of the law were now particularized, that they might know how much was involved in covenanting to obey the law; and they accepted the specifically defined particulars of the law.

If the Israelites had obeyed God’s requirements, they would have been practical Christians. They would have been happy; for they would have been keeping God’s ways, and not following the inclinations of their own natural hearts. Moses did not leave them to misconstrue the words of the Lord or to misapply His requirements. He wrote all the words of the Lord in a book, that they might be referred to afterward. In the mount he had written them as Christ Himself dictated them.

Bravely did the Israelites speak the words promising obedience to the Lord, after hearing His covenant read in the audience of the people. They said, “All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Exodus 24:7). Then the people were set apart and sealed to God. A sacrifice was offered to the Lord. A portion of the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled upon the altar. This signified that the people had consecrated themselves – body, mind, and soul – to God. A portion was sprinkled upon the people. This signified that through the sprinkled blood of Christ, God graciously accepted them as His special treasure. Thus the Israelites entered into a solemn covenant with God. – Manuscript Releases 1:114, 115.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 46.

Daily Devotional

January 10, 2019

Obey From Principle

Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble. 2 Peter 1:10, NRSV.

Eternal life is worth your all, and Jesus has said, “Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). He who does nothing, but waits to be compelled by some supernatural agency, will wait on in lethargy and darkness. God has given His Word. God speaks in unmistakable language to your soul. Is not the word of His mouth sufficient to show you your duty, and to urge its fulfillment?

Those who humbly and prayerfully search the Scriptures, to know and to do God’s will, will not be in doubt of their obligations to God. For “if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine” (John 7:17). If you would know the mystery of godliness, you must follow the plain word of truth – feeling or no feeling, emotion or no emotion. Obedience must be rendered from a sense of principle, and the right must be pursued under all circumstances. This is the character that is elected of God unto salvation.

The test of a genuine Christian is given in the Word of God. Says Jesus, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him…. If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (Verses 21-24).

Here are the conditions upon which every soul will be elected to eternal life. Your obedience to God’s commandments will prove your right to an inheritance with the saints in light. God has elected a certain excellence of character; and everyone who, through the grace of Christ, shall reach the standard of His requirement will have an abundant entrance into the kingdom of glory. – Christian Education, 117, 118.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 45.

Daily Devotional

January 9, 2019

Jesus Showed That We Can Obey

Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. 1 John 3:24, NKJV.

“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).

“He that hath my commandments” means a person that hath light upon what constitutes the commandments of God, and will not disobey His commandments, although it might seem an advantage to do so….If it were not possible for us to keep the commandments of God, we should all be lost. But under the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant of grace, every provision for salvation has been made. “By grace ye are saved.” “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” …

There are but two classes in our world, the obedient and the disobedient, the holy and the unholy. When our transgressions were laid upon Jesus, He was numbered among the unholy on the sinner’s account. He became our substitute, our surety, before the Father and all the heavenly angels. By imputing the sins of the world to Jesus, He became the sinner in our stead, and the curse due to our sins came upon Him. It becomes us to contemplate Christ’s life of humiliation and His agonizing death; for He was treated as the sinner deserves to be treated. He came to our world, clothing His divinity with humanity, to bear the test and proving of God. By His example of perfect obedience in His human nature, He teaches us that we may be obedient.

And the apostle writes, “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” It is here plainly revealed that all who believe in Jesus Christ become partakers of the divine nature. Let divinity and humanity cooperate, and fallen human beings may be more than conquerors through Christ Jesus. – The Signs of the Times, April 24, 1893.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 44.

Daily Devotional

January 8, 2019

God’s Word the Supreme Authority

Then Samuel said: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22, NKJV.

The word of the Lord is to be obeyed without question; it is to be the supreme authority in our life. Saul departed from the express commandment of the Lord, and sought to quiet the compunctions of conscience by persuading himself that the Lord would accept his sacrifice and overlook his disobedience. When Samuel, the prophet, came to meet him, Saul acted as though he regarded himself as a righteous man, and exclaimed, “Blessed be thou of the Lord; I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”

But the unmistakable tokens of his disobedience were so manifest that his assertion of obedience was of little weight. “And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God.” “And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.” …

The Word of God is to be of supreme authority. The Lord says, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” God could not change one tittle of His law without ceasing to be supreme. People cannot bend the law of God to suit their ideas, and, failing to bring it into harmony with themselves, they break its commands and violate its precepts. All too late the world will learn that they cannot judge the Word of God, but that the Word of God will judge them. Would that everyone would consider how foolish and how wicked it is to contend with God! Would that they would cease to oppose their will against the will of the Infinite! Those who oppose God will yet learn that in so doing they have forsaken the only path that leads to holiness, happiness, and heaven. – The Signs of the Times, January 9, 1896.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 43.