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The Grand, Central Truth, August 3
Forasmuch as ye know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things,
as silver and gold, ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot.
1 Peter 1:18, 19
.
The Word of God is the grand instrument which convicts the unconverted,
convincing them of their need of the sin-pardoning Saviour.
The plan of salvation combines the holy influences of past and present light.
These influences are bound together by the golden chain of loving obedience.
Receiving Christ by faith and bowing in submission to God’s will constitutes men
and women sons and daughters of God. By the power which the Saviour alone can
give they are made members of the royal family, heirs of God and joint-heirs with
Christ....
To love God with all the heart, to be a partaker with Christ in His humiliation
and suffering, means more than many understand. The atonement of Christ is the
great central truth around which cluster all the truths that pertain to the great work
of redemption. The mind of man is to blend with the mind of Christ. This union
sanctifies the understanding, giving the thoughts clearness and force....
The world is our field of missionary toil, and we are to go forth to our labor
surrounded with the atmosphere of Gethsemane and Calvary....
Even more than God abhors infidelity, He abhors indifference in religious mat-
ters, because religious pretention without genuine religion is a continual stumbling
block to sinners. The more cold and formal men are in the religious life, the more
they are filled with egotism, and egotism always works against Christ. You may
have much knowledge, but unless you are the possessor of true, pure religion, your
knowledge is worthless to Christ....
God forbid that of you should be spoken the words, “I know thy works, that thou
art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou
sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest
not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel
thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment,
that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and
anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke
and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (
Revelation 3:15-19
).
Every soul may become rich in spiritual treasures. Amid the terrible iniquity
of this world men may serve God so faithfully that He can bestow on them eternal
riches. He will work for those who serve Him faithfully. He can humble the most
bitter persecutors of His people, making them friends through a belief of the truth,
or removing their power to harm (
Letter 122, 1901
).
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