Our Place in History Will Be Determined by Our Characters

Christ Triumphant - A Devotional by E.G. White

Our Place in History Will Be Determined by Our Characters

Today's Text: Consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. John 11:50

The Message:      With Caiaphas the Jewish high priesthood ended. This proud, overbearing, wicked man proved his unworthiness ever to have worn the garments of the high priest. He had neither capacity nor authority from heaven for doing the work.... Virtually, Caiaphas was no high priest. He wore the priestly robes, but he had no vital connection with God....      The mock trial of Christ shows how base the priesthood had become. The priests hired people to testify under oath to falsehood, that Jesus might be condemned. But on this occasion, truth came to the help of Christ.... Thus it was shown that the testimonies borne against Him were false, that the witnesses had been hired by men who cherished in their hearts the basest elements of corruption. It was God's design that the men who delivered Jesus should hear the testimony of His innocence. "I find no fault in him," Pilate declared. And Judas, throwing at the feet of the priests the money he had received for betraying Christ, bore testimony, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood."      Previously, when the Sanhedrin had been called together to lay plans for waylaying Christ and putting Him to death, Caiaphas said, Cannot ye see that the world is gone after Him? The voices of some members of the council were heard, pleading with the others to check their passion and hatred against Christ. They wished to save Him from being put to death. In reply to them, Caiaphas said, "Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us [he might have said "a corrupted priesthood"] that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not."      These words were uttered by one who knew not their significance.... He was condemning One whose death would end the need for types and shadows, whose death was prefigured in every sacrifice made. But the high priest's words meant more than he, or those who were combined with him, knew. By them he bore testimony that the time had come for the Aaronic priesthood to cease forever....      Caiaphas was the one that was to be in office when types and shadow were to meet the reality, when the true High Priest was to come into office.... People of all characters, righteous and unrighteous, will stand in their positions. With the characters they have formed, they will act their part in the fulfillment of history.-Manuscript 101, 1897.

Commentary: My friend, we are all developing characters, either righteous or unrighteous; good or evil.  In the choices that we make day by day, our characters are being developed.  One compromise with sin will lead to another and yet another until we are in open rebellion against God.  The Jews did not become corrupted overnight, but it was the work of many generations.  Little by little the Aaronic priesthood compromised with the principals of heaven, until it only had the outward forms of righteousness while on the inside it was full of corruption. How sad it is today that the remnant church of God has followed in the same path as did the Jews of old.  Since the death of our pioneers compromise and apostacy has crept into the leadership of the church and the people have been led to worship the god of Rome.  This was foretold by the Scriptures in Jude 3, 4 saying "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."  Though this is talking about the apostacy that came into the apostolic church of old, it is also talking about what has happened to the remnant church today. Certain men crept into the church unawares and have led the minds of the people to look away from the One true God of our pioneers to the triune god of the papacy.  It is no wonder why the church is under no great persecution from Rome, for by its adoption of the trinity it is in harmony with her, and by its adoption the church will as readily receive the mark of the beast as those who worship on the first day of the week. Our characters are transformed by that which we behold, and by beholding God in the form of the trinity, the people are taking upon themselves a false righteousness and when the final test comes they will play the part that they have been formed by their characters.  This condition is of such concern to God that He sends to them a stern message of rebuke to the church of Laodicea saying "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" (Revelation 3:15-17). His message to His end-time people is stern but necessary.  He lays before them their true condition before God, that they may turn and repent.  They do not have the righteousness of Christ, but the false righteousness of that which they have been beholding.  The are wretched and miserable because they do not have the victory over sin; they are naked because the do not have the righteousness of Christ living within them, and unless they repent and turn away from the this false worship, He will spew them from His mouth. At its core the doctrine of the trinity destroys the gospel by denying that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.  It puts forth that the father-son relationship is only metaphoric, meaning not really true.  Therefore, if the Son is not really a son, then the Father is not really a father, thus denying the Father and the Son, and destroying the whole of the gospel. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son" (John 3:16).  My friend, the decision that you will make at the final crisis of the Sunday laws, is being made today.  If you are worshiping the false god of the trinity then you are preparing to receive its mark.  The Faithful and True Witness of God is laboring at the door of your heart, seeking to gain entrance that He may live His life in you.  The trinity has supplanted Christ from the hearts of His people, and has put in its place the false god of the trinity.  That is why He is pictured on the outside seeking to gain entrance. The question for you today is are you going to open the door to Him, or are you going to continue to worship a counterfeit god? God bless,

Video of the Week The Seal of God - Allen Stump This presentation from the 2018 West Virginia camp meeting studies the seal of God from Ezekiel 9 and the chapter on the seal of God from volume 5 of Testimonies for the Church by Ellen White.