Saved Only “in Christ”
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question: “When the Son of man cometh, shall He find faith on the
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earth?” We must cherish a living, active faith. The permanence of our
faith is the condition of our union.
a union with Christ by living faith is enduring; every other union
must perish. Christ first chose us, paying an infinite price for our
redemption; and the true believer chooses Christ as first and last and
best in everything. But this union costs us something. It is a union
of utter dependence, to be entered into by a proud being. All who
form this union must feel their need of the atoning blood of Christ.
They must have a change of heart. They must submit their own will
to the will of God. There will be a struggle with outward and internal
obstacles. There must be a painful work of detachment as well as a
work of attachment. Pride, selfishness, vanity, worldliness—sin in
all its forms—must be overcome if we would enter into a union with
Christ. The reason why many find the Christian life so deplorably hard,
why they are so fickle, so variable, is that they try to attach themselves
to Christ without first detaching themselves from these cherished idols.
After the union with Christ has been formed, it can be preserved
only by earnest prayer and untiring effort. We must resist, we must
deny, we must conquer self. Through the grace of Christ, by courage,
by faith, by watchfulness, we may gain the victory. [
Testimonies for
the Church 5:228-231
.]
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