Not in Oneself

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 12, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 19.

Not in oneself is life, tho it is so taught by some of the isms of to-day. Poor, fallen, hopeless mankind are told to look within themselves for strength and encouragement, and yet the source of life lies outside of man. “With Him [God] is the fountain of life.” Jesus declares: “I came that they might have life.” The very expression implies that the world was without the life which He had to give. Again we are told that “he that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life.” The life’s source is in God, and man only obtains life by a living connection with God through Christ Jesus. He does not obtain that by looking within himself, but by looking away from himself to Christ. When the Israelites, bitten by the poison serpents, were dying in the wilderness, they found no help in looking to themselves, or in hoping that power within themselves could save them from the deadly poison coursing through their veins. Their only hope was to look to the serpent lifted up on high in simple obedience to the word of God. It was not the piece of brass upon the pole which healed, it was faith in the living Word.