Loading...
Larger font
Smaller font
Copy
Print
Contents
From Trials to Triumph - Contents
  • Results
  • Related
  • Featured
No results found for: "".
  • Weighted Relevancy
  • Content Sequence
  • Relevancy
  • Earliest First
  • Latest First
    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents

    Christ Wants Only Willing Surrender

    Christ does not compel men to receive Him. Satan and men actuated by his spirit seek to compel the conscience. Under a pretense of zeal for righteousness, men who are confederated with evil angels bring suffering on their fellowmen in order to “convert” them to their ideas of religion; but Christ ever seeks to win by revealing His love. He desires only the willing surrender of the heart under the constraint of love.TT 284.2

    On another occasion James and John requested through their mother that they occupy the highest positions in Christ's kingdom. These young disciples cherished the hope that He would take His throne and kingly power in accordance with the desires of men.TT 284.3

    But the Saviour answered, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They answered confidently, “We are able.”TT 284.4

    “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized,” Christ declared. Before Him was a cross instead of a throne! James and John were to share their Master's suffering—one destined to swift-coming death by the sword, the other, longest of all to follow his Master in labor, reproach, and persecution. “But to sit at My right hand or at My left,” He continued, “is not Mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” Mark 10:38-40, RSV.TT 284.5

    Jesus reproved the pride and ambition of the two disciples: “Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant.” Matthew 20:26, 27. In the kingdom of God, position is the result of character. The crown and the throne are tokens of self-conquest through the grace of Christ.TT 284.6

    Long afterward, the Lord Jesus revealed to John the condition of nearness to His kingdom: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.” Revelation 3:21. The one who stands nearest to Christ will be he who has drunk most deeply of His spirit of self-sacrificing love—love that moves the disciple to labor and sacrifice even unto death for the saving of humanity.TT 285.1

    Larger font
    Smaller font
    Copy
    Print
    Contents