The Christian's Commission
By Ellen G. White
"Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." I CALL your attention especially to the commission which Christ gave to His disciples. He said, "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me . . . unto the uttermost part of the earth." But they were not fitted to present the gospel of Jesus to the world until they received the gift of the Holy Spirit. The commission Christ gave His disciples then, is our commission to-day. We are to be witnesses of Him to the world; but we can not impart heaven's light unless we have received it. We can not reveal a Saviour of whom we have no knowledge. There are many who have a legal, casual faith. They have nominally accepted Christ as the Saviour of the world, but they have no evidence in their hearts that He is their personal Saviour, that He has forgiven their sins, that they have a living connection with God, the source of all light. You can not teach others of Jesus and His righteousness, you can not portray His matchless love and the fulness of His grace, you can not picture Him as the Christian's all in all, as the comforter and guide of man, unless your own heart is filled with His love. You will not be able to present God as a God of compassion and love unless you can say, "I have tasted and know that the Lord is good." It Must Be a Personal Work
The fact that others receive blessings will not benefit your soul; unless you exercise faith in Christ on your own behalf, you will be unblessed. That others partake of food will not serve to nourish your physical strength, neither will it nourish your spiritual strength to see others rejoicing in God and His love. You yourselves must partake of the feast which your Saviour has provided. Every one of you must wash and be clean. But you say, How can I do this? Have you not told us we have no power of ourselves to cleanse our souls from one spot or stain of sin?—Yes, I have told you this, and yet I say to you, "Wash you, make you clean." God has provided a way of salvation at an infinite cost to heaven. A fountain for sin and uncleanness has been opened for Judah and Jerusalem. The Father "gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." There are many who act as tho Christ were the friend of men, but the Father were their enemy. If this were so, would God have delivered His Son to death that man might have life? Jesus says, "I and My Father are one." Philip said to Christ, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us." Jesus turned to him and said, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." Christ came into the world to do a special work. He did not come to originate truth. It was already originated. He did not come to set aside what patriarchs and prophets had spoken; for He Himself had spoken through these representative men. He Himself was the originator of truth. Every jewel of truth came from Christ. But these priceless gems had been placed in false settings. Their precious light had been made to minister to error. Men had taken them to adorn tradition and superstition. Christ came to take them out of the false settings of error and to put them into the framework of truth. He came from heaven to give the world a correct representation of the Father. Through Satan's suggestions and temptations, the Father had been represented as a being of a stern and unforgiving nature. The Christian life had been represented altogether too much as a life of hardship and sorrow. God was pictured as a being who was watching with jealous eyes, spying the mistakes and errors of men, that He might delight Himself in punishing them by the severest discipline, and that there could be no peace or joy in His service. Satan clothed the Father in his own forbidding attributes of character. All this was a false representation, and Christ came to reveal the character of God, and the nature of His service. Christians misrepresent their heavenly Father when they go mourning and groaning, as tho they were burdened with an enormous load, when their countenances are expressive of gloom and despondency, and the shadow encompasses their souls. But let them not think they are serving God in so doing; they are doing Satan's work in misrepresenting God and His service. They should go before the Father, and plead with Him for a view of His goodness. They have lost sight of Jesus and His love. Let them go to Christ and study His character, for He came to represent the Father. Shall we receive Satan's misrepresentations of our God, and go on in discouragement, lacking peace and joy in the Holy Ghost? Shall we go on mistrusting our heavenly Father's love and doubting His goodness? What greater injury could we do to our children and our friends than to give them such false impressions of Christian life? It was at an infinite cost to the Father that man's salvation was purchased. The Father suffered with the Son to bring salvation within our reach. It is not His will that one soul should perish, but that all should come to repentance and receive eternal life. He has done all that it is possible to do to save fallen man. There was5no other way by which man could be brought into harmony with His unchangeable law, save by the death of Christ. Christ became our surety, our sacrifice, Saviour, and example, and when all heaven has been poured out to us in this gift of God, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? How much we lose by doubting the love of God! Why do we not come boldly to a throne of grace, and by living faith lay hold of the merits of the blood of a crucified and risen Saviour? This must be an individual work. I can not be saved by another's faith, nor can another be saved by my faith. Every soul must be saved by his own righteousness. Can we manufacture this righteousness?— No. But Jesus has furnished it for us. When the sinner comes to Him He takes his load of sin, and gives him His righteousness. The vilest sinner may claim all that was provided in the plan of salvation through the merits of Christ. He may have the attributes of the Saviour. He may go forth to tell of a living Saviour, and to win men to the truth; for he knows what it is to lay hold of Christ by living faith. He has taken the requisite steps in repentance, confession, and restitution, and he can teach others the way of salvation. He can present Christ as one who left His royal throne, who clothed His divinity with humanity, that He might save fallen man. He can present Him as one who was rich and yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. He can go without the camp, bearing his reproach. He is willing to deny self that others may be saved.