p. 4 | Heaven’s Gift to Man

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 16, 1903

Heaven’s Gift to Man

How shall we express what God has given to us? When he gave his Son, he gave the most precious gift of heaven, and he gave him never to take him back again. To all eternity the Son of man will bear in his body the marks that sin made; forever he will be Jesus Christ, the Saviour, and our Elder Brother. That is what God has done for us in giving his Son to us.

This union of the divine and the human has brought Jesus Christ very near to us. There is not one too low down for Jesus Christ to be with him. He identified himself completely with this human family. In the judgment when the rewards and punishments are meted out, he says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Jesus Christ looks upon every one of the human family as his, and when humanity suffers, he suffers. He is humanity, he has joined himself to this family. He is our head, and when in any part of the body there is a throb of pain felt, the head feels that throb of pain. He has united himself with us, thus uniting us with God; for we read, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”

Jesus Christ thus united himself with the human family that he might be with us by being in us, just as God was with him by being in him. This purpose he expressed in the words of his prayer for his disciples: “And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17: 21-26. And as he was ascending, his last words to his disciples were, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” By being in us he is with us alway; and that this might be possible, that he might be in us, he took our flesh.

This also is the way in which the holiness of Jesus works. He had that holiness that he could come and dwell in sinful flesh, and glorify sinful flesh by his presence in it, and that is what he did, so that when he was raised from the dead, he was glorified. His purpose was that, having purified sinful flesh by his indwelling presence, he might now come and purify sinful flesh in us, and glorify sinful flesh in us. He “shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.” Phil. 3: 21. “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren.” Rom. 8: 29.

In this idea is bound up the whole question of predestination. There is a predestination; it is a predestination of character. There is an election; it is an election of character. Every one who believes on Jesus Christ is elected, and all the power of God is behind that election that he shall bear the image of God. Bearing that image, he is predestinated to all eternity for Christ’s kingdom, but every one who does not bear the image of God is predestinated unto death. It is a predestination of God in Jesus Christ. Christ provides the character, and offers it to any one who will believe in him.

Let us enter into the experience that God has given Jesus Christ to us to dwell in our sinful flesh, to work out in our sinful flesh what he worked out when he was here. He came and lived here that we might through him reflect the image of God. This is the very heart of Christianity. Anything contrary to it is not Christianity. “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” 1 John 4: 1-3. That can not mean simply to acknowledge that Jesus Christ was here and lived in the flesh. The devils made that acknowledgment. They knew that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh. The faith that comes by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus Christ is come in my flesh; he dwells in my flesh; I have received him.” That is the heart and life of Christianity. The difficulty with the Christianity of to-day is that Christ does not dwell in the hearts of those professing his name. He is an outsider, one looked at from afar, as an example. But he is more than an example to us. He made known to us what God’s ideal of humanity is, and then he came and lived it out before us that we might see what it is to be in the image of God. Then he died, and ascended to his Father, sending forth his Spirit, his own representative, to live in us, that the life which he lived in the flesh we may live over again. This is Christianity.

It is not enough to talk of Christ and of the beauty of his character. Christianity without Christ dwelling in the heart is not Christianity. He only is a genuine Christian who has Christ dwelling in his heart. And we can live the life of Christ only by having him dwelling in us. He wants us to lay hold upon the life and power of Christianity. Do not be satisfied with anything else. Heed no one who will lead you in any other path. “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” his power, his indwelling presence,—that is Christianity. That is what we need to-day, and there are hearts that are longing for that experience, and who will recognize it when it comes. Recognize Jesus Christ, and let him dwell in you. By following where he leads, we shall know what Christian experience is, and what it is to dwell in the light of his presence.