p. 118 | JOHN MATTESON by John Matteson

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 27, 1870

JOHN MATTESON

By John Matteson

Purity.

THIS is the passport to Heaven. “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” Matt. 5:8.

The purifying process is in this life. In the grave “there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom.” Eccl. 9:10. “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth.” 1 Pet. 1:22. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.” 1 Pet. 2:11. The soul or life in Christ is at war with fleshly lusts. And when these are conquered, the soul is purified. We live a life of daily communion with Christ. A life of trust in him. All fleshly lusts are at war with this life. Either the lusts will flourish and kill the spiritual life, or else the spiritual life will conquer, and kill the lusts. Then spiritual enjoyments will be far sweeter to us than the former gratification of perverted lusts and appetites. “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2:20. “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Chap. 6:14. “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Chap. 5:24, 25. “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, through the Spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Rom. 8:13.

How desirable is this life in the Spirit! How necessary to salvation! Yet how few attain to it. And many think they may be saved without it. What a fearful delusion. “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” Heb. 12:14, How important that we fully overcome “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” which is not of the Father, but of the world, and therefore must perish. And he that indulges the same must perish with it. “But he that doeth the will of God, abides forever.” 1 John 2:16, 17.