Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White
| In Christ We May Have Perfect Humanity |
|
|
Today's Text:
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. John 15:4
|
|
The Message:
Satan wished to change the government of God, to fix his own seal to the rules of God's kingdom. Christ would not be brought into this desire, and here the warfare against Christ commenced and waxed strong. Working in secrecy but known to God, Lucifer became a deceiving character. He told falsehood for truth.
He was expelled from heaven, and apparently Christ was alone with him in the wilderness of temptation. Yet He was not alone, for angels were round Him just as angels of God are commissioned to minister unto those who are under the fearful assaults of the enemy. Christ was in the wilderness with the one with whom there was war in heaven, and the one whom He overcame; and Satan was defeated.
Now Satan meets Him under different circumstances, as the glory that was round about Him is no longer visible. He has humbled Himself, taken upon Himself our nature.... What mental anguish Christ passed through! What grief! What torture of mind! He was face-to-face not with a hideous monster, as is represented with bat's wings and cloven feet, but a beautiful angel of light, apparently just from the presence of God.... It is impossible to take in the depth and the force of these temptations unless the Lord shall bring us where He can open these scenes before us by a revelation of the matter, and then it can only be but partially comprehended.... Our Lord's trial and test and proving shows that He could yield to these temptations, else the battle was all a farce. But He did not yield to the solicitude of the enemy, thus evidencing that human nature, united with the divine nature by faith, may be strong and withstand Satan's temptations. Christ's perfect humanity is the same that we may have through connection with Christ. As God, Christ could not be tempted any more than He was not tempted from His allegiance in heaven. But as Christ humbled Himself to our nature, He could be tempted. He had not taken on Him even the nature of the angels, but humanity, perfectly identical with our own nature, except without the taint of sin.... Here the test to Christ was far greater than that of Adam and Eve, for Christ took our nature, fallen but not corrupted, and would not be corrupted unless He received the words of Satan in the place of the words of God.-Manuscript 57, 1890 (Manuscript Releases 16:180-183). |
|
|
Commentary:
My friend, in the life that Christ lived here on this earth, He offers us His life in place of our own if we would but cooperate with Him in the transformation of our characters. Though our lives have been corrupted by sin, He has wrought out a perfect life that He may impart that life to us. This is the salvation that God offers to us, a total transformation of our characters to His. "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:" (Colossians 1:27).
This is our hope that we may become children of God through the indwelling of the Spirit of God in our lives. This work Satan is set against. He ever seeks to corrupt our image of God that we may not partake of the divine nature and be transformed into its perfect image. The false doctrine of the trinity corrupts the picture of God and thus we are corrupted by it. By looking unto a triune god, which is in reality three gods in one, we are not looking unto the One true God which is the Father.
The Bible teaches us that there is only one true God and that is the Father, and He is revealed to us by His Son. Jesus prayed in John 17:3 saying "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." Eternal life is found only in the Son of God for it says in 1 John 5:11, 12 "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."
The trinity does not teach that it is the Spirit of Christ that lives within us, but that of another spirit called "God the Holy Spirit", an altogether different being from the Father and the Son. So what it is teaching is another gospel from the gospel of the Bible for it introduces another way of salvation through another mediator other than the Son of God. To this the Scriptures say "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8), "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;" (1 Timothy 2:5)
My friend, the trinity teaches another gospel and destroys the whole foundation of what we believe as Seventh-day Adventists. God is the one that laid the foundation of the movement and unless we turn away from the false doctrine of the trinity we cannot be saved, for it corrupts the image of God and disconnects us from the only One that can transform us into the image of God.
May God open our eyes to this great deception of the enemy of souls today.
God bless,
|
|
|
Video of the Week
If you understand what the Trinity theology teaches, you will understand that it is an anti-Gospel theology; that it denies the foundation of the Gospel. Join Imad as he shares four foundational truths of the gospel and reveals how the Trinity denies each one of them. This is a powerful message from Imad Awde.
|
Comments
Post a Comment