In Gethsemane Our Destiny Hung in the Balance

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

In Gethsemane Our Destiny Hung in the Balance

Today's Text: And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. Mark 14:32

The Message:      As Christ left the disciples, bidding them pray for themselves and for Him, He selected three-Peter, James, and John-and went still farther into the seclusion of the garden. These three disciples had seen His transfiguration; they had seen the heavenly visitors, Moses and Elias, talking with Jesus, and Christ desired their presence with Him on this occasion also....      Christ expressed His desire for human sympathy, and then withdrawing Himself from them about a stone's cast, He fell on His face and prayed, saying, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done."...      The superhuman agony with which He had been wrestling had brought Him to His disciples, longing for human companionship. But He was disappointed; they did not bring to Him the help He expected from them....      Hear that agonizing prayer of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane! While the disciples were sleeping beneath the spreading branches of the olive trees, the Son of man-a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief-was prostrate upon the cold earth. As the agony of soul came upon Him, large blood drops of perspiration were forced from His pores, and with the falling dew moistened the sod of Gethsemane....      Here the mysterious cup trembled in His hand. Here the destiny of a lost world was hanging in the balance. Should He wipe the blood drops from His brow and root from His soul the guilt of a perishing world, which was placing Him, all innocent, all undeserving, under the penalty of a just law? Should He refuse to become sinners' substitute and surety? Refuse to give them another trial, another probation?      Separation from His Father, the punishment for transgression and sin, was to fall upon Him in order to magnify God's law and testify to its immutability. And this was to settle forever the controversy between the Prince of God and Satan in regard to the changeless character of that law.      The Majesty of heaven was as one bewildered with agony. No human being could endure such suffering; but Christ had contemplated the struggle. He had said to His disciples, "I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" Now is the "hour, and the power of darkness."-Manuscript 42, 1897.

Commentary: My friend, the great sacrifice that was wrought out in the garden of Garden of Gethsemane was done out of God's love for us.  Jesus, the Son of God, was given as a sacrifice for our transgressions, that we may be restored back into favor with God.  The battle that was being fought in the garden would determine the destiny of humanity and the universe for all eternity. Though Jesus was the One who was to be sacrificed for our sins, who was to take upon Himself the condemnation of sin in our behalf, He was not the only one to suffer there in the garden.  The Father whom from eternity past bore His Son from His very own person, struggled with giving up His Son to die for our sins.  But His love for humanity is the reason why He consented to the plan of salvation. In this great battle between the Prince of Life, and the prince of darkness, the victory of the world, and the universe was accomplished in Gethsemane.  Christ committed to drinking the cup of woe in our behalf and forever sealed our salvation. In the message to the church of Laodicea, the Faithful and True Witness of God, reveals the apostate condition of His end-time people.  Though they are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" (Revelation 3:17), there is still hope for them.  He says "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." (Revelation 3:21).  He is offering to us the privilege of reigning with Him, if we overcome our sins.  But in order for us to overcome, we must overcome even as He overcame.  Meaning that we must overcome in the same way that He overcame.  We must go through Gethsemane; we must buy of Him gold tried in the fires of affliction, that through it our faith will be perfected. In Gethsemane Christ completely surrendered His will to the Father in the plan of redemption.  In like manner we too must completely surrender our wills to the Father through His Son.  We must completely surrender our hearts and minds to the working of the Spirit of Christ, that through Him we may partake of the victory that He wrought out in Gethsemane.  He says "To him that overcometh ..., even as I also overcame".  This is the promise that we may gain the victory over sin through Him. The final test that is to come to the whole world is just before us.  But before that final test comes to the world, it will come first to the people of God, "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God:" (1 Peter 4:17).  The final test that is to come to the people of God is the controversy of the trinity.  The shaking that is to come to the church comes from the straight testimony of the Faithful and True Witness to the church of Laodicea.  The message that they are "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" because of their worship of the false god of the trinity, causes a shaking within the church.  Those who accept this message will stand for the truth.  Those who resist the message will become offended and persecute those who give the undesirable message.  Through this shaking the people of God will be sifted, that the fine wheat will be separated from the chaff; the wheat from the tares. My friend, the close of probation comes first to the people of God, so that His people may be purified and made white.  Then the last message of hope may be brought to the world.  The three angels message, which calls the world back to worship the One true God, will be heralded to the world with those who have gained the victory and are filled with the Spirit of God. May you look away from the false god of the trinity and look unto the One true God through His Son Jesus Christ today. God bless,

Video of the Week Biblical Monotheism - Part 3 by Imad Awde What does the Bible say about God's Oneness? Is the one God of the Bible made up of three Persons? If the Father is God, and Jesus is God, how come there is only one God? Join Imad as he answers these questions and more in this three part series,