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The Desire of Ages
could tell whence or how He came. Many who were present had never
before seen Him; but in His hands and feet they beheld the marks of
the crucifixion; His countenance was as the face of God, and when
they saw Him, they worshiped Him.
But some doubted. So it will always be. There are those who find
it hard to exercise faith, and they place themselves on the doubting
side. These lose much because of their unbelief.
This was the only interview that Jesus had with many of the be-
lievers after His resurrection. He came and spoke to them saying, “All
power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” The disciples had
worshiped Him before He spoke, but His words, falling from lips that
had been closed in death, thrilled them with peculiar power. He was
now the risen Saviour. Many of them had seen Him exercise His power
in healing the sick and controlling satanic agencies. They believed
that He possessed power to set up His kingdom at Jerusalem, power to
quell all opposition, power over the elements of nature. He had stilled
the angry waters; He had walked upon the white-crested billows; He
had raised the dead to life. Now He declared that “all power” was
given to Him. His words carried the minds of His hearers above earthly
and temporal things to the heavenly and eternal. They were lifted to
the highest conception of His dignity and glory.
Christ’s words on the mountainside were the announcement that
His sacrifice in behalf of man was full and complete. The conditions
of the atonement had been fulfilled; the work for which He came to
this world had been accomplished. He was on His way to the throne
of God, to be honored by angels, principalities, and powers. He had
entered upon His mediatorial work. Clothed with boundless authority,
He gave His commission to the disciples: “Go ye therefore, and teach
all nations,” “baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of
the world.”
Matthew 28:19, 20
, R. V.
The Jewish people had been made the depositaries of sacred truth;
but Pharisaism had made them the most exclusive, the most bigoted,
of all the human race. Everything about the priests and rulers—their
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dress, customs, ceremonies, traditions—made them unfit to be the
light of the world. They looked upon themselves, the Jewish nation, as
the world. But Christ commissioned His disciples to proclaim a faith