THE only way, then, to self-government is to reach beyond ourselves toward righteousness, to find the power of righteousness reigning in us, to govern ourselves and hold us in the way of righteousness. And that leads inevitably to a Person who is the source of righteousness, and that is God. Then where alone does self-government lie?—In God in Jesus Christ. Now, do not forget that. It is literally true. Self-government for man lies alone in God, as man, in Jesus Christ in the flesh.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 9.1

Therefore, self-government is not simply a divine principle. It is that, and it is more than that; it is a divine attribute. As certainly then as ever you or I, or any other man under heaven or in heaven, shall ever attain to self-government, it must be by being a partaker of the divine nature; that there shall abide in us the divine attribute of self-government from divinity himself. There are no two ways about that; and there is no stopping short of it.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 9.2

You can see that by a thought. Who alone in this universe has the power, of himself, perfectly to govern himself, without any reference to any other person or thing?—Only God. Then do you not see that it is settled and manifested to the whole universe, both in principle and in practice, that there is nobody in this universe who is of himself capable of perfectly governing himself—nobody but God? Then do you not see that truly self-government is a divine attribute, not simply a principle? It is divinity itself. And the only way that you and I can expect self-government, unto which by the third angel’s message we are called, is by constantly partaking of the divine nature, by having God manifest in our flesh.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 9.3

Reorganization, we have found, pushes back power from the General Conference to the union conferences, and does not stop at the union conferences, nor at the State conferences, nor at the churches, nor at the individual; it stops only at God and in God. And that is where it belongs. Then you can see that, in a word, reorganization in the cause of God, in the third angel’s message, means that God alone shall be all and in all to every soul that has named the name of Christ. And so it is written: “I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; ... and the head of Christ is God.”ARSH May 13, 1902, page 9.4

Now let us look at self-government from the other side. Let us begin with the beginning, with man with God, and look at it from that side. God made the man, and put him in the garden—not to manage himself, nor to run things himself, apart from God; for we read, “I have created him for my glory.” “He shall glorify me.” Man is created to glorify God. Now what is it to glorify God? Jesus has defined that thing, and made it perfectly plain: “When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth; for he shall not speak of himself,“—not that he shall not talk about himself, but he shall not set himself forth and speak from himself apart from God, “but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak; and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me.” The Holy Spirit is sent into the world to glorify Christ.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 9.5

In whatever way it is that the Holy Spirit glorifies Christ, in that we have the illustration and the example of how we are to glorify God. There is given the divine example as to how to glorify God. He tells us: “He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.” Then the Holy Spirit receives that which is Christ’s, shows it to us, causes us to see Christ. And what also is in that?—The Father. Then the Holy Spirit is sent into this world to glorify God in Jesus Christ—and so are you and I. We are sent to glorify God; we are created to glorify God. Then as certainly as the Holy Spirit glorifies God in Christ by taking the things that are God’s in Christ and causing us to see them, so man, created to glorify God, was created to receive the things of God, and cause all others to see them. Then man was made to make God manifest. And this was to be, and is to be, at the man’s own choice.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 9.6

Here comes in now the secret of self-government in himself. When God made the man, he put him in the garden of Eden, and put there all the trees pleasing to the eye and good for food, and also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the man had perfect free access to all. Man had just as free access to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as to any other tree in the garden. The Lord told him not to eat of it, that is true; but he did not set a fence around it, he did not shut it away from the man. Then when God fixed things that way, and made the man to glorify God, to have God appear in the man, is it not plain that he made the man to have God appear, at the man’s own choice?ARSH May 13, 1902, page 9.7

Man was left perfectly free to choose God’s way, and to have God appear in him; or to refuse God’s way, and choose another way. Then where does self-government lie?—In the choice. Do not forget that. The principle, the idea, of self-government lies in the freedom of choice. The power of self-government lies in God in Jesus Christ.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.1

As to who shall govern him depends upon the man’s choice, whether it shall be the power of sin, which is the annihilation of all government, or whether it shall be the power of righteousness, which is the essence of all government. Whether it shall be self-government or annihilation for man depends upon the power with which the man allies himself by his choice.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.2

A little further: the man was made to stand with God, and to govern himself by the power of God, at his own choice. And the man was just as free to choose some other governor, and to attempt to govern himself in some other way. And he did choose the other way. Yet when he chose that other way, it was Satan’s way that the man chose.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.3

Adam did choose that other way. The choice was his, but the way was Satan’s. He chose the way of Satan; he accepted the word of Satan. In accepting that word of Satan’s,—words express thoughts,—he accepted the thought of Satan. That thought was an expression of the mind which produced the thought. When Adam accepted that thought, he partook of the mind which produced the thought that was expressed in the word that he accepted. And that word, that thought, that mind, was Satan’s. And that is how it is that the natural mind, the carnal mind, is “enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.4

And that is why it is that even God cannot make that mind subject to his law. It is Satan’s mind, and that mind is confirmed, and absolutely hardened against God, in the way of sin and self.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.5

Was not Satan invited to return from his wrong course? He refused; and when he refused, he simply, with those who chose with him to refuse, confirmed himself in a darkness of sin that is simply impenetrable. There is no ray of light from God that can ever penetrate the realm of sin where Satan and his angels have chosen to abide.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.6

That being so, you see that the natural mind is the very mind of Satan, which has confirmed itself against God, against all government, against all righteousness, and abides in the confirmed enmity against God which Lucifer and his company chose for themselves. That is why it is that that mind cannot be subject to the law of God.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.7

Then that being so, what is essential in order that we shall become ourselves subject to the law of God?—Another mind. But in order to have another mind, which is subject to the law of God, what is essential as to this mind that is enmity against God, which is not subject to the law of God, and cannot be subject to the law of God?—Nothing short of annihilation.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.8

In reading of this false government, which is anarchy, we read two or three expressions which show us that we are enslaved, enslaved to sin, and in captivity to the law of sin. There is the difference: God’s service, God’s government, is absolute freedom; the other government, which is anarchy, is absolute slavery.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.9

God made the man to choose. He made the man to be happy with God and in God, at the man’s own choice alone. Now in order for that to be, in order for you and me to be happy all the time, even with God, we must be free to choose all the time to be happy with God. Then it comes to this, that God will not hold you and me this minute to the choice which we made the previous minute to serve him. You and I choose this minute to serve God. We are just as free the next minute to choose not to serve him. And when we, being free that next minute to choose not to serve God, instead of choosing not to serve him, just as freely of our own choice choose to serve God, and we do that each moment, moment by moment as the breath we take,—that is freedom. That is perfect freedom.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.10

Then also you see that the man who lives that way can always do just what he pleases. He is perfectly free to do just as he pleases; and the only thing that pleases him, the only thing with which he is or can be at all pleased, is the service of God. And he chooses that, just as he gathers his breath, just as gladly as he gathers his breath, just as he takes in the air by which he is surrounded. Just as he takes that into his lungs, so gladly he gathers up his choice, and throws it on the side of God. That is perfect freedom.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.11

[Question: “Why should he not be free from the consciousness and the fact of sin?”]ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.12

Thank God, he should be free from it. There is no reason why he should not be. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” That is, free from sin and sinning.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.13

That is God, and that is God’s way, the way of perfect freedom. Now the Lord will not take even his way with us, without our choice. And Satan cannot take his way with us without our choice. But when a man has once chosen,—there is the mischief with him,—he will hold him, he will hold the soul in bondage to that choice forever; and nothing but the power of God can ever break off the bondage that Satan puts upon a soul by means of that one single choice. Satan cannot do anything with you and me without our choice, and he will spend a lifetime to get you and me to choose only once. That is all he wants. And when you and I have chosen the things of Satan only once, then he puts on the clamps; he binds about and confirms that bondage, that slavery, which we have chosen, and of his own will he will never let up nor loosen that power, to all eternity. But, thank the Lord, there is One who has come in, who can break off that cruel power of sin and Satan, and who will say to all around, Loose this soul, and let him go—as he did of Lazarus, who was bound hand and foot. Think of it. The record is not read closely many times.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.14

Lazarus was there in the grave. They rolled away the stone. Then Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth.” And the record is, Lazarus came forth “bound hand and foot” with the graveclothes. And after Lazarus had come forth,—I do not know how, we cannot tell how, except that it was by the power of God, we know that much,—when Lazarus had come forth by the power of God, “bound hand and foot” with the graveclothes, then it was that Jesus said, “Loose him, and let him go.” And that is the very power that goes with you and me in the preaching of this gospel of reorganization, which is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the third angel’s message. To any soul in this world, bound hand and foot with the bondage and the ligaments of Satan all round about, there is a power that goes with you and me, a power which by the gospel of Jesus Christ is given to you and me, to say to that man, Come forth, and he will come forth. Though bound hand and foot, he will come forth, for that power of the gospel can cause him to come forth. And then that same blessed word which brings the power can say to all, to Satan with all his crowd, “Loose him, and let him go.” And there he stands a new man, loosed from his bonds, and free in God through Christ Jesus our Lord. That is self-government, thank the Lord.ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.15

Now one more thing that goes with that. I want you to see how it all comes. Jesus Christ bought this right to loose men from the power of Satan. He put himself where we are, just as we are, and by human experience—divine-human, of course—he worked it out, and in that way he bought the right. He himself became subject to all that flesh is heir to. God made him to be sin. In all things like as we are, he met this governor, this anarchist, in his own territory, on his own ground, and put himself, finally, dead, into the power of him that had the power of death itself. And being there, dead, he broke the power of him that had the power of death. And when he, dead, can break the power of him who had the power of death, what can he not do since he is alive forevermore?ARSH May 13, 1902, page 10.16

May 6, 1902

May 20, 1902