Evidence of Our Allegiance, October 14

If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15.

Let this point be fully settled in every mind: If we accept Christ as a Redeemer we must accept Him as a Ruler. We cannot have the assurance, the perfect, confiding trust in Christ as our Saviour, until we acknowledge Him and are obedient to His commandments. Thus we evidence our allegiance to God. We have then the genuine ring in our faith. It works by love. Speak it from your heart: “Lord, I believe Thou hast died to redeem my soul. If Thou hast placed such a value upon my soul as to give Thy life for mine, I give my life and all its possibilities in all my weakness into Thy keeping.” The will must be brought into complete harmony with the will of God.^{16Manuscript 24, 1890.}

Today the invitation is given: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:28, 29). Christ has rest for all who will wear His yoke and learn His meekness and lowliness of heart. Here we are taught restraint and obedience, and in this we shall find rest. Thank God that in humility and obedience we shall find just that which we all need so much—the rest that is found in faith and confidence and perfect trust. We must not manufacture an oppressive yoke for our necks. Let us take the yoke of Christ and in entire obedience draw with Him….

“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10). This is the yoke which Christ invites us to wear—the yoke of obedience. Can we not say, “Lord, I take Thee at Thy word; I receive Thy promise. I come to Thee because I need Thee as a personal Saviour. I must have an abiding Christ. I am dependent on Thee. Thou art mine.” Christ says, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them”—not in pretense, but with the whole mind, heart, soul, and strength—“he it is that loveth me” (John 14:21). This is the true test of character. We must be doers of the Word.^{17Letter 66, 1898.}

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Power for Obedience, October 13

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10.

Some who claim to believe in Jesus Christ as their Saviour have said, “No one can keep the law.” On this point the words of Christ are decisive. He states, “I have kept my Father's commandments.” And He is our example in all things….

In the Sermon on the Mount Christ plainly declared His mission. “Think not,” He said, “that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17). He came to carry out literally every specification concerning which the prophets had borne testimony. He who existed with the Father before the creation of the world, Himself gave the prophecies recorded by holy men—the prophecies that He came afterward to fulfill….

Christ's position with His Father is one of equality. This enabled Him to become a sin offering for transgressors. He was fully sufficient to magnify the law and make it honorable…. He separated the precepts of Jehovah from the maxims and traditions of men. He held up the Ten Commandments as an expression of truth in all its purity….

Christ came to the world to counteract Satan's falsehood that God had made a law which men could not keep. Taking humanity upon Himself, He came to this earth, and by a life of obedience showed that God has not made a law that man cannot keep. He showed that it is possible for man perfectly to obey the law. Those who accept Christ as their Saviour, becoming partakers of His divine nature, are enabled to follow His example, living in obedience to every precept of the law. Through the merits of Christ, man is to show by his obedience that he could be trusted in heaven, that he would not rebel.

Christ possessed the same nature that man possesses. He was tempted in all points like as man is tempted. The same power by which He obeyed is at man's command.^{15Manuscript 48, 1893.}

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Happiness in Obedience, October 12

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Colossians 1:12, 13.

Our future eternal happiness depends upon having our humanity, with all its capabilities and powers, brought into obedience to God and placed under the control of Divinity. Many have no faith in Jesus Christ. They say, “It was easy for Christ to obey the will of His Father, for He was divine.” But His Word declares He was “in all points tempted like as we are” (Hebrews 4:15). He was tempted according to and in proportion to His elevation of mind, but He would not weaken or cripple His divine power by yielding to temptation. In His life on earth Christ was a representative of what humanity may be through the privileges and opportunities granted them in Him….

When Satan tempted our first parents … he tried to flatter them into believing that they should be raised above the sphere of humanity. But Christ, by the example He has set before us, encourages the members of the human family to be men, obeying the Word of God within the sphere of their humanity. He Himself became a man—not a bondslave to Satan to work out his attributes, but a man in moral power, obedient to the law of God, which is a transcript of His character. Those who would rebel against subjection to a wise and good law emanating from God are slaves to an apostate power.

Jesus became a man that He might mediate between man and God, … that He might restore to man the original mind which he lost in Eden through Satan's alluring temptation…. Disobedience is not in accordance with the nature which God gave to man in Eden.

Through the moral power Christ has brought to man, we may give thanks unto God who hath made us meet for the inheritance with the saints in light. Through Jesus Christ every man may overcome in his own behalf and on his own account, standing in his own individuality of character.^{14Letter 121, 1897.}

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The Test of Our Actions, October 11

Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established. Proverbs 16:3.

Let us feel thankful that we have the privilege of committing our works to God. We are to remember that we are not pieces of inanimate mechanism, but intelligent beings, able to choose the right and refuse the wrong, with a clear conscience and a pure purpose. We are to aim at consistency in all our works.

We are to commit our way to the Lord, testing it by His searching laws. “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5). We cannot commit our way to God if we are working out deeds of injustice. “If I regard iniquity in my heart,” the psalmist declares, “the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18). When we commit our way to the Lord we are to search the heart through and through, casting out all evil, that Christ may fill it with His righteousness. We are to seek the Lord in prayer, putting at the beginning of our petitions repentance for sin….

God's law is the test of our actions. His eye sees every act, searches every chamber of the mind, detecting all lurking self-deception and all hypocrisy. All things are naked and open to the sight of Him with whom we have to do. But He will receive all who come to Him with contrite hearts and a true purpose to forsake every wrong….

In all our business transactions, in every word and deed, we are to maintain a pure purpose and a clear conscience. We are to commit our works to God and then leave them in His hands. Our work is to be done in the strictest integrity. Nothing is to be cherished that we cannot carry into the heavenly courts. As we labor let us ask God's help, realizing that this is the only thing that can keep our work free from selfishness…. Look upward with intense sincerity, for you need constant draughts of the refreshing air of heaven. We need to live in constant communion with our heavenly Father…. Perform your duties as if in the sight of a holy God.^{13Letter 406, 1906.}

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God's Law Changeless and Eternal, October 10

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5:17, 18.

If Satan's work had succeeded in heaven the law of God would have been changed, but this could not be, for His law was a transcript of His character and as unchangeable as His character. If any change was possible in the law of God it would have been made then and there and saved the rebellion in heaven. But as it was not altered to meet the request of Satan, he … lost his high and holy position in the heavenly courts.

After his fall he worked upon the minds of Adam and Eve and seduced them from their loyalty…. Now if the law of God could have been changed and altered to meet man in his fallen condition, then Adam would have been pardoned and retained his home in Eden; but the penalty of transgression was death, and Christ became man's substitute and surety. Then was the time, could the law of God have been changed, to have made this change and retained Christ in the heavenly courts, that the immense sacrifice made to save a fallen race might have been avoided. But no, the law of God was changeless in its character and therefore Christ gave Himself a sacrifice in behalf of fallen man, and Adam lost Eden and was placed with all his posterity upon probation.

Had the law of God been changed in one precept since the expulsion of Satan from heaven, he would have gained on earth after his fall that which he could not gain in heaven before his fall. He would have received all that he asked for. We know that he did not…. The law … remains unalterable as the throne of God, and the salvation of every soul is determined by obedience or disobedience…. Jesus, by the law of sympathetic love, bore our sins, took our punishment, and drank the cup of the wrath of God apportioned to the transgressor…. He bore the cross of self-denial and self-sacrifice for us, that we might have life, eternal life. Will we bear the cross for Jesus? ^{12Letter 110, 1896.}

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