Today we are going
to do something a little different than what we've been doing these last few
days or so. We are going to study from a
book- one of the very first books I was blessed to read before I returned to the
Lord in 1982-83. The book is called
'Steps to Christ' by E.G. White.
We are going to
study from this book and use our Bibles throughout it all, never taking the
author's word for truth, but only God's word.
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Steps to Christ
Chap. 1 - God's Love
for Man
Nature and
revelation alike testify of God's love. Our Father in heaven is the source of
life, of wisdom, and of joy. Look at the wonderful and beautiful things of
nature. Think of their marvelous adaptation to the needs and happiness, not
only of man, but of all living creatures. The sunshine and the rain, that
gladden and refresh the earth, the hills and seas and plains, all speak to us
of the Creator's love. It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His
creatures. In the beautiful words of the psalmist-- "The eyes of all wait
upon Thee; And Thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest Thine
hand, And satisfiest the desire of every living thing." Psalm 145:15, 16.
God made man
perfectly holy and happy; and the fair earth, as it came from the Creator's
hand, bore no blight of decay or shadow of the curse. It is transgression of
God's law--the law of love--that has brought woe and death. Yet even amid the
suffering that results from sin, God's love is revealed. It is written that God
cursed the ground for man's sake. Genesis 3:17. The thorn and the thistle--the
difficulties and trials that make his life one of toil and care--were appointed
for his good as a part of the training needful in God's plan for his uplifting
from the ruin and degradation that sin has wrought.
The world, though
fallen, is not all sorrow and misery. In nature itself are messages of hope and
comfort. There are flowers upon the thistles, and the thorns are covered with
roses. "God is love" is written upon every opening bud, upon every spire
of springing grass. The lovely birds making the air vocal with their happy
songs, the delicately tinted flowers in their perfection perfuming the air, the
lofty trees of the forest with their rich foliage of living green -- all
testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God and to His desire to make His
children happy.
The word of God
reveals His character. He Himself has declared His infinite love and pity. When
Moses prayed, "Show me Thy glory," the Lord answered, "I will
make all My goodness pass before thee." Exodus 33:18, 19. This is His
glory. The Lord passed before Moses, and proclaimed, "The Lord, The Lord
God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin." Exodus 34:6, 7. He is "slow to anger, and of great
kindness," "because He delighteth in mercy." Jonah 4:2; Micah
7:18.
God has bound our
hearts to Him by unnumbered tokens in heaven and in earth. Through the things
of nature, and the deepest and tenderest earthly ties that human hearts can
know, He has sought to reveal Himself to us. Yet these but imperfectly
represent His love. Though all these evidences have been given, the enemy of
good blinded the minds of men, so that they looked upon God with fear; they
thought of Him as severe and unforgiving. Satan led men to conceive of God as a
being whose chief attribute is stern justice,--one who is a severe judge, a
harsh, exacting creditor. He pictured the Creator as a being who is watching
with jealous eye to discern the errors and mistakes of men, that He may visit
judgments upon them. It was to remove this dark shadow, by revealing to the
world the infinite love of God, that Jesus came to live among men.
The Son of God came
from heaven to make manifest the Father. "No man hath seen God at any
time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath
declared Him." John 1:18. "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Matthew 11:27.
When one of the disciples made the request, "Show us the Father,"
Jesus answered, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not
known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest
thou then, Show us the Father?" John 14:8, 9.
In describing His earthly mission, Jesus said,
The Lord "hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent
Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and
recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised." Luke 4:18. This was His work. He went about doing good and
healing all that were oppressed by Satan. There were whole villages where there
was not a moan of sickness in any house, for He had passed through them and
healed all their sick. His work gave evidence of His divine anointing. Love,
mercy, and compassion were revealed in every act of His life; His heart went
out in tender sympathy to the children of men. He took man's nature, that He
might reach man's wants. The poorest and humblest were not afraid to approach
Him. Even little children were attracted to Him. They loved to climb upon His
knees and gaze into the pensive face, benignant with love.
Jesus did not
suppress one word of truth, but He uttered it always in love. He exercised the
greatest tact and thoughtful, kind attention in His intercourse with the
people. He was never rude, never needlessly spoke a severe word, never gave
needless pain to a sensitive soul. He did not censure human weakness. He spoke
the truth, but always in love. He denounced hypocrisy, unbelief, and iniquity;
but tears were in His voice as He uttered His scathing rebukes. He wept over
Jerusalem, the city He loved, which refused to receive Him, the way, the truth,
and the life. They had rejected Him, the Saviour, but He regarded them with
pitying tenderness. His life was one of self-denial and thoughtful care for
others. Every soul was precious in His eyes. While He ever bore Himself with
divine dignity, He bowed with the tenderest regard to every member of the
family of God. In all men He saw fallen souls whom it was His mission to save.
Such is the
character of Christ as revealed in His life. This is the character of God. It
is from the Father's heart that the streams of divine compassion, manifest in
Christ, flow out to the children of men. Jesus, the tender, pitying Saviour,
was God "manifest in the flesh." 1 Timothy 3:16.
It was to redeem us
that Jesus lived and suffered and died. He became "a Man of Sorrows,"
that we might be made partakers of everlasting joy. God permitted His beloved
Son, full of grace and truth, to come from a world of indescribable glory, to a
world marred and blighted with sin, darkened with the shadow of death and the
curse. He permitted Him to leave the bosom of His love, the adoration of the
angels, to suffer shame, insult, humiliation, hatred, and death. "The
chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are
healed." Isaiah 53:5. Behold Him in the wilderness, in Gethsemane, upon
the cross! The spotless Son of God took upon Himself the burden of sin. He who
had been one with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that sin makes
between God and man. This wrung from His lips the anguished cry, "My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Matthew 27:46. It was the burden of
sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul from
God--it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God. But this great
sacrifice was not made in order to create in the Father's heart a love for man,
not to make Him willing to save. No, no! "God so loved the world, that He
gave His only-begotten Son." John 3:16. The Father loves us, not because
of the great propitiation, but He provided the propitiation because He loves
us. Christ was the medium through which He could pour out His infinite love
upon a fallen world. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto
Himself." 2 Corinthians 5:19. God suffered with His Son. In the agony of
Gethsemane, the death of Calvary, the
heart of Infinite Love paid the price of our redemption.
Jesus said,
"Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I
might take it again." John 10:17. That is, "My Father has so loved
you that He even loves Me more for giving My life to redeem you. In becoming
your Substitute and Surety, by surrendering My life, by taking your
liabilities, your transgressions, I am endeared to My Father; for by My
sacrifice, God can be just, and yet the Justifier of him who believeth in
Jesus."
None but the Son of God could accomplish our
redemption; for only He who was in the bosom of the Father could declare Him.
Only He who knew the height and depth of the love of God could make it
manifest. Nothing less than the infinite sacrifice made by Christ in behalf of
fallen man could express the Father's love to lost humanity.
"God so loved the world, that He gave His
only-begotten Son." He gave Him not only to live among men, to bear their
sins, and die their sacrifice. He gave Him to the fallen race. Christ was to
identify Himself with the interests and needs of humanity. He who was one with
God has linked Himself with the children of men by ties that are never to be
broken. Jesus is "not ashamed to call them brethren" (Hebrews 2:11);
He is our Sacrifice, our Advocate, our Brother, bearing our human form before
the Father's throne, and through eternal ages one with the race He has
redeemed--the Son of man. And all this that man might be uplifted from the ruin
and degradation of sin that he might reflect the love of God and share the joy
of holiness.
The price paid for
our redemption, the infinite sacrifice of our heavenly Father in giving His Son
to die for us, should give us exalted conceptions of what we may become through
Christ. As the inspired apostle John beheld the height, the depth, the breadth
of the Father's love toward the perishing race, he was filled with adoration
and reverence; and, failing to find suitable language in which to express the
greatness and tenderness of this love, he called upon the world to behold it.
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God." 1 John 3:1. What a value this places
upon man! Through transgression the sons of man become subjects of Satan.
Through faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ the sons of Adam may become
the sons of God. By assuming human nature, Christ elevates humanity. Fallen men
are placed where, through connection with Christ, they may indeed become worthy
of the name "sons of God."
Such love is without
a parallel. Children of the heavenly King! Precious promise! Theme for the most
profound meditation! The matchless love of God for a world that did not love
Him! The thought has a subduing power upon the soul and brings the mind into
captivity to the will of God. The more we study the divine character in the
light of the cross, the more we see mercy, tenderness, and forgiveness blended
with equity and justice, and the more clearly we discern innumerable evidences
of a love that is infinite and a tender pity surpassing a mother's yearning
sympathy for her wayward child.
*******
Truth, nothing but
truth has been written here. The love of God is truly unfathomable.
I've heard people question the reality of God existing, and I can't imagine a life without Him. I would have no hope if I had to imagine life without a loving Creator, willing to redeem me from my sins. To believe we have no sins, that we aren't inherently sinful doing things we often regret because we know they are wrong, then are we delusional. You know it, I know it. If you've NEVER done a single thing you regret then I want to know about it. The majority of people have done a lot of things they’ve regretted throughout their lives. Why does regret exist if there is no wrong. There is wrong and there is right, and that is sin and no sin. When we ignore the truth, we only hurt ourselves. Yet those who are determined to believe we are the delusional ones, can never find forgiveness for their sins if they don’t even believe in sin. Our loving Creator has given us life and redemption from the sins we've filled our lives with. Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior died so we could live. All glory, praise and honey to our Savior, our King, now and forever.
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