Importance of Seeking True Knowledge
Far more than we do, we need to understand the issues at stake in
the conflict in which we are engaged. We need to understand more
fully the value of the truths that God has given for this time and the
danger of allowing our minds to be diverted from them by the great
deceiver.
The infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption
reveals the fact that sin is a tremendous evil. Through sin the whole
human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination
corrupted. Sin has degraded the faculties of the soul. Temptations
from without find an answering chord within the heart, and the feet
turn imperceptibly toward evil.
As the sacrifice in our behalf was complete, so our restoration from
the defilement of sin is to be complete. There is no act of wickedness
that the law will excuse; there is no unrighteousness that will escape
its condemnation. The life of Christ was a perfect fulfillment of every
precept of the law. He said; “I have kept My Father’s commandments.”
John 15:10
. His life is our standard of obedience and service.
God alone can renew the heart. “It is God who worketh in you
both to will and to work, for His good pleasure.” But we are bidden:
“Work out your own salvation.”
Philippians 2:13, 12
, A. R. V.
The Work That Requires Our Thought
Wrongs cannot be righted, nor can reformations in character be
made, by a few feeble, intermittent efforts. Sanctification is the work,
not of a day, or of a year, but of a lifetime. The struggle for conquest
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over self, for holiness and heaven, is a lifelong struggle. Without
continual effort and constant activity there can be no advancement in
the divine life, no attainment of the victor’s crown.
The strongest evidence of man’s fall from a higher state is the fact
that it costs so much to return. The way of return can be gained only
by hard fighting, inch by inch, every hour. By a momentary act of
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