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and women reaching the highest standard; and when by faith they lay
hold of the power of Christ, when they plead His unfailing promises,
and claim them as their own, when with an importunity that will not
be denied they seek for the power of the Holy Spirit, they will be made
complete in Him.
Having received the faith of the gospel, the next work of the be-
liever is to add to his character virtue, and thus cleanse the heart and
prepare the mind for the reception of the knowledge of God. This
knowledge is the foundation of all true education and of all true service.
[531]
It is the only real safeguard against temptation; and it is this alone that
can make one like God in character. Through the knowledge of God
and of His Son Jesus Christ, are given to the believer “all things that
pertain unto life and godliness.” No good gift is withheld from him
who sincerely desires to obtain the righteousness of God.
“This is life eternal,” Christ said, “that they might know Thee the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”
John 17:3
.
And the prophet Jeremiah declared: “Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the
rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise
loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in
these things I delight, saith the Lord.”
Jeremiah 9:23, 24
. Scarcely can
the human mind comprehend the breadth and depth and height of the
spiritual attainments of him who gains this knowledge.
None need fail of attaining, in his sphere, to perfection of Christian
character. By the sacrifice of Christ, provision has been made for the
believer to receive all things that pertain to life and godliness. God
calls upon us to reach the standard of perfection and places before
us the example of Christ’s character. In His humanity, perfected by
a life of constant resistance of evil, the Saviour showed that through
co-operation with Divinity, human beings may in this life attain to
perfection of character. This is God’s assurance to us that we, too, may
obtain complete victory.
[532]
Before the believer is held out the wonderful possibility of being
like Christ, obedient to all the principles of the law. But of himself
man is utterly unable to reach this condition. The holiness that God’s
word declares he must have before he can be saved is the result of the
working of divine grace as he bows in submission to the discipline and