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Chapter 1
151
His Father, and press on in the blood-stained path (
Manuscript 140,
1903
).
When Jesus took human nature, and became in fashion as a man,
He possessed all the human organism. His necessities were the
necessities of a man. He had bodily wants to be supplied, bodily
weariness to be relieved. By prayer to the Father He was braced for
duty and for trial (
Letter 32, 1899
).
4 (
chs. 10:18
;
17:3
). Christ’s Life Was Unborrowed
—“In
Him was life; and the life was the light of men.” It is not physical life
that is here specified, but eternal life, the life which is exclusively
the property of God. The Word, who was with God, and who was
God, had this life. Physical life is something which each individual
received. It is not eternal or immortal; for God, the Lifegiver, takes
it again. Man has no control over his life. But the life of Christ was
unborrowed. No one can take this life from Him. “I lay it down of
myself,” He said. In Him was life, original, unborrowed, underived.
This life is not inherent in man. He can possess it only through
Christ. He cannot earn it; it is given him as a free gift if he will
believe in Christ as his personal Saviour. “This is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent.”
John 17:3
. This is the open fountain of life for the
world (
The Signs of the Times, February 13, 1912
).
12, 13
. See
EGW comment on 2 Corinthians 5:17
.
14 (
Philippians 2:6-8
;
Colossians 1:26, 27
;
2:9
;
Hebrews 1:3
;
2:14-18
; see
EGW comment on Luke 2:40, 52
). The Incarnation
an Unfathomable Mystery
—In contemplating the incarnation of
Christ in humanity, we stand baffled before an unfathomable mystery,
that the human mind cannot comprehend. The more we reflect upon
it, the more amazing does it appear. How wide is the contrast
between the divinity of Christ and the helpless infant in Bethlehem’s
manger! How can we span the distance between the mighty God
and a helpless child? And yet the Creator of worlds, He in whom
was the fullness of the Godhead bodily, was manifest in the helpless
babe in the manger. Far higher than any of the angels, equal with the
Father in dignity and glory, and yet wearing the garb of humanity!
Divinity and humanity were mysteriously combined, and man and
God became one. It is in this union that we find the hope of our
fallen race. Looking upon Christ in humanity, we look upon God,