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Resurrection Power Now, March 5
Be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law,
but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith: that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and
the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.
Philippians 3:9, 10
.
The twenty-first chapter of Matthew, telling of the journey of Christ to
Jerusalem at the time of His triumphal entry, is a powerful chapter, and one
that we need to study and understand. We need to take warning from the lesson of
the pretentious fig tree that bore no fruit. It represents those who profess to serve
God, whose names are on the church books, but who bear no fruit in their lives
to the glory of God. My heart is longing to see the Man, who was despised and
rejected, crowned and seated upon His throne....
Through the agency of the Holy Spirit, God works a moral change in the lives
of His people, changing them into the likeness of Christ. Then, when the last
trumpet call shall reach the ears of the dead who sleep in Christ, they will come
forth to a new life, clothed with the garments of salvation. They enter in through
the gates into the City of God, welcomed to the happiness and joy of their Lord.
Would that we all could understand and ever keep in mind the joys that await those
who keep their eyes on the pattern Christ Jesus, and in this life seek to form a
character like His.
The Word of God contains our life insurance policy. To eat the flesh and drink
the blood of the Son of God means to study the Word and to carry that Word into
the life in obedience to all its precepts. Those who thus partake of the Son of
God become partakers of the divine nature, one with Christ. They breathe a holy
atmosphere, in which only the soul can truly live. They carry in their lives an
assurance of the holy principles received from the Word—their lives are worked
by the power of the Holy Spirit, and they have an earnest of the immortality that
will be theirs through the death and resurrection of Christ. Should the earthly
body decay, the principles of their faith sustain them, for they are partakers of the
divine nature. Because Christ was raised from the dead, they grasp the pledge of
their resurrection, and eternal life is their reward.
This truth is an eternal truth, because Christ Himself taught it. He has engaged
to raise the righteous dead, for He gave His life for the life of the world. “As the
living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me” (
John 6:57
). “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall
never hunger” (
Verse 35
).—
Letter 82, March 5, 1907
, to O. A. Olsen, president,
Australasian Union Conference.
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