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Surrendering and Claiming

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 19, 1906

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 29.

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Surrendering and Claiming

By Editor

Editorial

Surrendering and Claiming

THE first step in a successful Christian experience is to surrender all to God. “Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” The next step is to claim all from God through faith in his promises. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” “All things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” He who has not surrendered fully to God has never realized his own weakness and nothingness. He who has not claimed all from God has never realized God’s power and greatness. “Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have their proper sphere, but here are powerless. They may produce an outward correctness of behavior, but they can not change the heart; they can not purify the springs of life. There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness . . . . In vain are men’s dreams of progress, in vain all efforts for the uplifting of humanity, if they neglect the one source of hope and help for the fallen race.” “It is the will of God to cleanse us from sin, to make us his children, and to enable us to live a holy life. So we may ask for these blessings, and believe that we receive them, and thank God that we have received them.” We are servants, and yet we are kings. We have nothing, and yet we possess all things. By surrendering all and claiming all, we are possessors of all things and heirs of all things. “He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.”