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A Divine-Human Partnership, May 30
Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me
understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.
Psalm 119:73
.
The human organism is the handiwork of God. The organs employed
in all the different functions of the body were made by Him. The Lord
gives us food and drink, that the wants of the body may be supplied. He
has given the earth different properties adapted to the growth of food for
His children. He gives the sunshine and the showers, the early and the
latter rain. He forms the clouds and sends the dew. All are His gifts....
But all these blessings will not restore in us His moral image unless
we cooperate with Him, making painstaking effort to know ourselves,
to understand how to care for the delicate human machinery. Man must
diligently help to keep himself in harmony with nature’s laws. He who
cooperates with God in the work of keeping this wonderful machinery in
order, who consecrates all his powers to God, seeking intelligently to obey
the laws of nature, stands in his God-given manhood, and is recorded in
the books of heaven as
a man
.
God has given man land to be cultivated. But in order that the harvest
may be reaped, there must be harmonious action between divine and
human agencies. The plow and other implements of labor must be used at
the right time. The seed must be sown in its season. Man is not to fail of
doing his part. If he is careless and negligent, his unfaithfulness testifies
against him. The harvest is proportionate to the energy he has expended.
So it is in spiritual things.... There is to be a copartnership, a divine
relation between the Son of God and the repentant sinner. We are made
sons and daughters of God. “As many as received him, to them gave he
power to become the sons of God” (
John 1:12
). Christ provides the mercy
and grace so abundantly given to all who believe in Him. He fulfills the
terms upon which salvation rests. But we must act our part by accepting
the blessing in faith. God works and man works. Resistance of temptation
must come from man, who must draw his power from God. Thus he
becomes a copartner with Christ.
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