As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Colossians 2:6.

“Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” …

Obedience to the law of God is sanctification. There are many who have erroneous ideas in regard to this work in the soul, but Jesus prayed that His disciples might be sanctified through the truth, and added, “Thy word is truth.” Sanctification is not an instantaneous but a progressive work, as obedience is continuous. Just as long as Satan urges his temptations upon us, the battle for self-conquest will have to be fought over and over again; but by obedience, the truth will sanctify the soul. Those who are loyal to the truth will, through the merits of Christ, overcome all weakness of character which has led them to be molded by every varying circumstance of life.

Many have taken the position that they cannot sin because they are sanctified, but this is a delusive snare of the evil one. There is constant danger of falling into sin, for Christ has warned us to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation. If we are conscious of the weakness of self, we shall not be self-confident and reckless of danger, but we shall feel the necessity of seeking to the Source of our strength, Jesus our righteousness. We shall come in repentance and contrition, with a despairing sense of our own finite weakness, and learn that we must daily apply to the merits of the blood of Christ, that we may become vessels fit for the Master’s use.

While thus depending upon God, we shall not be found warring against the truth, but we shall always be enabled to take our stand for the right. We should cling to the teaching of the Bible and not follow the customs and traditions of the world, the sayings and doings of humanity. When errors arise and are taught as Bible truth, those who have a connection with Christ will not trust to what the minister says, but, like the noble Bereans, they will search the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so. When they discover what is the word of the Lord, they will take their stand on the side of truth. They will hear the voice of the true Shepherd saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Thus you will be educated to make the Bible the man of your counsel, and the voice of a stranger you will neither hear nor follow.—Signs of the Times, May 19, 1890.

From From the Heart

Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Romans 7:12.

Those who desire salvation should fix their mind upon the cross of Calvary. It is there that sinners may behold what sin has done. There they can see the infinite sacrifice that has been made to redeem them from the penalty of the broken law of God. As transgressors realize their lost condition, they see in Christ their only hope of salvation. From the cross they learn precious lessons of the life … of the Son of God, who gave Himself for us. Calvary portrays the matchless attributes of the divine character. As they look to the cross, they will hate sin, for they will understand that it was sin that rejected, reproached, denied, scourged, and crucified the Majesty of heaven….

The cross of Calvary tells how Christ has magnified the law and made it honorable. It required the infinite merits of His blood to make an atonement for those who receive His love and follow in His footsteps. Sinners may obtain pardon and peace only through Him who has loved us and who will wash us from our sins in His own blood. Those who have been convinced of sin before the law and have exercised repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ cease to make void the law of God….

We could never have known the value of Christ except through an understanding of the exalted claims of the law of Jehovah. We could never have appreciated the depth of the pit from which Christ has rescued us except through a comprehension of the excellence of the precepts of truth. Never could we have understood the depth of the love of God which is in Christ Jesus unless we could have beheld the marvelous character of the law of heaven and earth. In the light of that holy law, sinners see the Redeemer as He is—full of mercy, compassion, goodness, and love; and by looking to Jesus and by contemplating His matchless love to such sinners as themselves, their hearts are filled with gratitude and heavenly peace….

Although the law of God is of a holy and unchangeable character, the adversary of God and humanity, the first great rebel who transgressed its precepts in heaven, has led men and women in all ages to war against God…. As sinners see that sin is the transgression of the law and that the law is the foundation of God’s government in heaven and in earth, they make haste to place their feet in the path of righteousness, that they may be without offense.—Signs of the Times, July 6, 1888.

From From the Heart

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. 1 Thessalonians 5:23.

Christ represents the truth as a treasure that is hid in the field, for which, if men and women would possess it, they must search diligently. In the field of revelation are hid the unsearchable riches of Christ…. Every part of the field of revelation is to be diligently explored and searched with persevering effort, in order that precious jewels of truth may reward the diligent seeker and may be restored to their proper framework in the plan of redemption. Let the shaft sink deep into the mines of truth. If you come to the searching of the Scriptures with contrition of soul, with a humble, teachable spirit, rich and precious treasures will reward your search….

In the teachings of Christ, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is made prominent. What a vast theme is this for contemplation and encouragement! What treasures of truth did He add to the knowledge of His disciples in His instruction concerning the Holy Spirit, the Comforter! He dwelt upon this theme in order to console His disciples in the great trial they were soon to experience, that they might be cheered in their great disappointment….

And yet, though Christ made much of this theme concerning the Holy Spirit, how little is it dwelt upon in the churches! The name and presence of the Holy Spirit are almost ignored, yet the divine influence is essential in the work of perfecting the Christian character….

The Lord has given us a divine directory by which we may know His will…. Those who are guided by the Holy Spirit have cast their anchors within the veil wherein Jesus has entered for us. They search the Scriptures with eager earnestness and seek for light and knowledge to guide them amid the perplexities and perils which at every step compass their path….

To the sincere, contrite heart, truth is truth; and if it is allowed, it will sanctify the soul and transform the character into the divine image…. Those who realize what is the character of the work that they must do in order to represent Christ will walk softly and tremblingly before God, looking unto Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of their faith. They dare not trust themselves, they dare not kindle a fire of their own and walk in sparks of their own kindling, for the Lord has said that all such shall lie down in sorrow. The Lord has entrusted to His people the treasures of sacred truth.—Signs of the Times, August 14, 1893.

From From the Heart

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8.

The purpose and plan of grace existed from all eternity. Before the foundation of the world it was according to the determinate counsel of God that humanity should be created, endowed with power to do the divine will. But the defection of the human race, with all its consequences, was not hidden from the Omnipotent, and yet it did not deter Him from carrying out His eternal purpose, for the Lord would establish His throne in righteousness. God knows the end from the beginning: “Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” Therefore redemption was not an afterthought—a plan formulated after the fall of Adam—but an eternal purpose to be wrought out for the blessing not only of this atom of a world but for the good of all the worlds which God has created.

The creation of the worlds, the mystery of the gospel, are for one purpose, to make manifest to all created intelligences, through nature and through Christ, the glories of the divine character. By the marvelous display of His love in giving “his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” the glory of God is revealed to lost humanity and to the intelligences of other worlds. The Lord of heaven and earth revealed His glory to Moses when he offered his prayer to Jehovah in behalf of idolatrous Israel and pleaded, “Shew me thy glory.” …

It is the privilege of every follower of Christ to behold the glory of God, to understand His goodness, and know that He is a God of infinite mercy and love…. Jesus came to reveal the Father, to make His glory known before humanity. No one was excluded from the privileges of the gospel….

The mystery of the gospel had been spoken in Eden when the lost pair were first in the guilt of transgression, for God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” If Satan could have touched the head with his specious temptations, the human family would have been lost, but the Lord had made known the purpose and plan of the mystery of grace, for “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”—Signs of the Times, April 25, 1892.

From From the Heart

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. Galatians 6:15.

The grace of Jesus Christ alone can change the heart of stone to a heart of flesh and make it alive unto God. Men and women may perform great deeds in the eyes of the world; their achievements may be many and of a high order in the sight of others, but all the talent, all the skill, all the ability of the world, will fail to transform the character and make a degraded child of sin a child of God, an heir of heaven. We have no power to justify the soul, to sanctify the heart….

How the wondrous provision of the plan of God for the salvation of mankind widens and exalts our ideas of the love of God! How it binds our hearts to the great heart of Infinite Love! How it makes us delight in His service, as our hearts respond to the drawing of His loving kindness and tender mercy! …

This is the work that is before us. We are to have the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. Through faith our lives are to be hid with Christ in God. We shall then be God’s hidden ones; for the value of Christian character is not discerned by the world. The world admire honesty, and the manifestations of the virtues and graces of Christian character; but at the same time they make a jest of true Christian conscientiousness because it is a rebuke to their own lives of sin. The living stones that shine in the spiritual temple of the Lord are a great annoyance to Satan, and he ever seeks to cut off the light and eclipse the Sun of Righteousness by interposing his shadow between the soul and God….

Before human beings and angels, Christians are required to show by precept and example the value of Christian character. Those who receive Christ as their personal Savior will be able to do this, and for them Christ has gone to prepare mansions in heaven. There are some who declare that all are entitled to a place in heaven, and in the same breath they acknowledge that all are not fitted for that heavenly abode. If all … would but accept the truth as it is in Jesus and give it a place in the inner sanctuary of the soul, that they might become sanctified through it, they would be fitted for heaven….

Those whose lives are hid with Christ in God, who have been clothed upon with His righteousness, will have a right to the inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.—Signs of the Times, May 2, 1892.

From From the Heart