January 20, 1909

Truth's Power to Sanctify

EGW

There is only one power that can guide the heart and mind in paths of truth and righteousness. We must know the love of Christ in our individual experience. This love in the soul will purify the entire being and renew it in the likeness of God. More and more familiar are we to become with Christ's divine human life; we are to make it ours by personal experience, until it can be said of us as it was said of Him, “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity.”ST January 20, 1909, par. 1

The prayer of Christ for His disciples was, “Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth.” Truth may occupy a small compass, but it will ever be effectual for the perfecting of the church of Christ. If studied and obeyed, the word of God works in the heart, subduing every unholy attribute. The Holy Spirit comes to convict of sin; and the faith that springs up in the heart works by love to Christ, conforming us in body, soul, and spirit, to His own image.ST January 20, 1909, par. 2

Meet All Our Needs

The truths of the word of God meet man's great practical necessity,—the conversion of the soul through faith. These grand principles are not to be thought too pure and holy to be brought into the daily life. They are truths which reach to heaven and compass eternity, yet their vital influence is to be woven into human experience. They are to permeate all the great things and all the little things of life. Received into the heart, the leaven of truth will regulate the desires, purify the thoughts, and sweeten the disposition. It quickens the faculties of the mind, and the energies of the soul. It enlarges the capacity for feeling, for loving.ST January 20, 1909, par. 3

When in our Christian experience the word of God becomes our meat and our drink, the righteous character of Christ will be revealed in us. Beholding Him in the study of His word, we learn to love and practise His virtues and living the word of God before a world fallen through sin, we are changed into the same divine image. When we really receive Christ as our Redeemer, our life becomes one with His life. We are born again, not of flesh, but of the Spirit; and day by day we learn to reveal more fully the sacred principles that mark the sons and daughters of God. Partakers of the life of Christ, we are partakers of His nature, and reproduce in our lives the very characteristics that made His life that of no other man.ST January 20, 1909, par. 4

Lifting Up Christ

The Lord would have us very earnest in making the truth of the Gospel our hope and crown of rejoicing. A sincere belief in Christ's sacrifice in our behalf will beget in the soul an intense desire to lift up Christ before men and to magnify His great grace. It will awaken a determination to represent Christ in the individual experience and to create a desire in other souls for the truth of the Gospel.ST January 20, 1909, par. 5

The figure used by the disciple John, in which the believer is represented as eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, is an illustration of the growth of Christian experience. “As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father,” the Saviour declared, “so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me.” As we partake of Christ's experience of self-denial and self-sacrifice, we are making Him a part of our life. But to feast upon Christ we must trust Him fully; we must claim the salvation He has provided. Unless we hunger and thirst for His righteousness, we can never rejoice in Him as our Saviour, or receive the benefits of His perfect life.ST January 20, 1909, par. 6

A Creative Power

The leaven of truth works a change in the whole man, making the coarse refined, the rough gentle, the selfish generous. By it the impure are cleansed, washed in the blood of the Lamb. Through its life-giving power it brings all there is of mind and soul and strength into harmony with the divine life. Man with his human nature becomes a partaker of divinity. Christ is honored in excellence and perfection of character. As these changes are effected, angels break forth in rapturous song, and God and Christ rejoice over souls fashioned after the divine similitude.ST January 20, 1909, par. 7

The apostle Peter exhorts us, “As He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” And Paul exhorts, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.”ST January 20, 1909, par. 8

“Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.”ST January 20, 1909, par. 9