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Standing by Principle, July 1
O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
Psalm 119:97
.
Let those who talk of principle as if they would not on any account depart from
it be sure that they understand the principles laid down in the Word of God for
our guidance. There are some who follow false principles. Their idea of principle
is misleading. Following right principle means the faithful doing of the first four
and the last six commandments. In obedience to these divine commands, we eat
the flesh and drink the blood of Christ, appropriating all that is embraced in the
atonement made on Calvary. Christ will stand by the side of all who receive Him
as their Saviour. To them He will give power to become the sons of God. “The
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (
John 1:14
).
The One here referred to as the Word is the Son of God, who was the Comman-
der in the heavenly courts, and who came to this world to open heavenly things to
fallen human beings. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the Word that
was with God before the world was. In clothing His divinity with humanity, He
became possessed of two natures, the divine and the human. And because of this,
He was fully able to accomplish for the human race their complete redemption,
and their restoration to the privileges of the higher life.
He began His earthly life as human beings begin theirs, coming to this world
as a helpless babe. And while here, He lived the life that every human being may
live who will receive the great gift that the Lord made to our world in sending His
Son to work out the plan of salvation.
Christ bore the penalty of sin, the stroke of divine justice, that human beings
might not be left to perish. He bore in His body the sentence pronounced against
sinners. This is the science of salvation, which can safely be searched into, and
which it is profitable to strive to understand....
Those who continue in transgression will be judged according to their refusal
of light. They choose to stand on the side of the prince of darkness, to become the
helping hand of him who, if it were possible, would deceive the very elect. They
refuse the wonderful gift of heaven, and though they may profess righteousness,
and talk of “adherence to principle,” they are at the same time following principles
opposed to the noble principles of heaven, and they teach others to follow the same
corrupting principles.—
Manuscript 161, July 1, 1903
, “The Peril of Rejecting
Light.”
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