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Chapter 16
103
determined that this gift shall be so mystified that it will become as
nothingness (
Letter 280, 1904
).
(
Matthew 28:5, 6
;
Luke 24:5, 6
;
2:19
;
John 10:17, 18
;
Acts
13:32, 33
.)
When the voice of the angel was heard saying, “Thy
Father calls thee,” He who had said, “I lay down my life, that I might
take it again,” “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it
up,” came forth from the grave to life that was in Himself. Deity
did not die. Humanity died, but Christ now proclaims over the rent
sepulcher of Joseph, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” In His
divinity Christ possessed the power to break the bonds of death. He
declares that He had life in Himself to quicken whom He will.
“I am the resurrection, and the life.” This language can be used
only by the Deity. All created things live by the will and power of
God. They are dependent recipients of the life of the Son of God.
However able and talented, however large their capabilities, they
are replenished with life from the Source of all life. Only He who
alone hath immortality, dwelling in light and life, could say, “I have
power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again.” All
the human beings in our world take their life from Him. He is the
spring, the fountain of life (
Manuscript 131, 1897
).
“I am the resurrection, and the life.” He who had said, “I lay
down my life, that I might take it again,” came forth from the grave
to life that was in Himself. Humanity died: divinity did not die. In
His divinity, Christ possessed the power to break the bonds of death.
He declares that He has life in Himself to quicken whom He will.
All created beings live by the will and power of God. They are
recipients of the life of the Son of God. However able and talented,
however large their capacities, they are replenished with life from
the Source of all life. He is the spring, the fountain, of life. Only He
who alone hath immortality, dwelling in light and life, could say, “I
have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again.”
...
Christ was invested with the right to give immortality. The life
which He had laid down in humanity, He again took up and gave
[1114]
to humanity. “I am come,” He says, “that they might have life, and
that they might have it more abundantly” (
The Youth’s Instructor,
August 4, 1898
).