Credentials of Christ's Divinity
compiled from the writings of Ellen G. White
The Lord has instructed us to call God our Father, to regard him as the fountain of paternal affection, the source of the love that has been flowing from century to century through the channel of the human heart. All the pity, compassion, and love which have been manifested in the earth have emanated from the throne of God, and, compared to the love that dwells in his heart, are as a fountain to an ocean. His love is perpetually flowing forth to make the weak strong, to make the faint-hearted firm, and give moral courage to the wavering. God works through Christ, and man may come unto the Father in the name of the Son. Our science and our song is, "Hear what the Lord hath done for my soul. [1]
In his prayer for his disciples Christ said: "I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." (John 17:19-20) In his prayer Christ includes all those who shall hear the words of life and salvation through the messengers whom he sends. We are to look with respect upon God's workmen, remembering that they are laborers together with God. The people of God through their union with Christ become one with each other. This is the object of their sanctification, "that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 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." (John 17:21-23) [2]
Can the human mind comprehend this statement? Can we by faith comprehend the fact that we are beloved by the Father even as the Son is beloved? Could we indeed lay hold of this and act up to it, we would indeed have the grace of Christ, the golden oil of heaven, poured into our poor, thirsty, parched souls. Our light would no longer be fitful and flickering, but would shine brightly amid the moral darkness that like a funeral pall is enveloping the world. We should by faith hear the prevailing intercession that Christ continually presents in our behalf, as he says: "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 17:24-26) [3]
The Lord Jesus loves his people, and when they put their trust in him, depending wholly upon him, he strengthens them. He will live through them, giving them the inspiration of his sanctifying Spirit, imparting to the soul a vital transfusion of himself. He acts through their faculties, and causes them to choose his will and to act out his character. With the apostle Paul they then may say. "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." (Galatians 2:20) Christ impresses upon the mind of believers the fact that they are to have the glory which the Father has given him, in order that all who love and serve him may be one with God…[4]
When the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the early church, "the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul" (Acts 4:32). The Spirit of Christ made them one. This is the fruit of abiding in Christ. [5]
The church of Christ, enfeebled and defective as it may be, is the only object on earth on which He bestows his supreme regard. While he extends to all the world his invitation to come to him and be saved, he commissions his angels to render divine help to every soul that cometh to him in repentance and contrition, and he comes personally by his Holy Spirit into the midst of his church. [6]
To his church, Christ has given ample facilities, that he may receive a large revenue of glory from his redeemed, purchased possession. The church, being endowed with the righteousness of Christ, is his depository, in which the wealth of his mercy, his love, his grace, is to appear in full and final display. The declaration in his intercessory prayer [John 17], that the Father's love is as great towards us as toward himself, the only begotten Son, and that they shall be with him where he is, forever one with Christ and the Father, is a marvel to the heavenly host, and it is their great joy. The gift of his Holy Spirit, rich, full, and abundant, is to his church as an encompassing wall of fire, which the powers of hell shall not prevail against it. In their untainted purity and spotless perfection Christ looks upon his people as the reward of all his suffering, his humiliation, and his love, and the supplement of his glory,--Christ the great center from which radiates all glory… [7]
Jesus takes man into copartnership with himself, and the unity and love between Christ and his Father bear the credentials to the world of Christ's divinity. Transformed in character, the believer presents the fact that Christ alone can reshape, purify, and ennoble the soul. The love that God has manifested toward men has no parallel. Jesus says, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life" (John 10:17) for the sheep. In this expression he would prove to man that the Father's love is so large, so unbounded towards man, that he even loves the Son for the sacrifice which he made for the recovering of humanity. God himself suffered in the suffering of his Son. While Jesus walked the earth in the habiliments of humanity, he could say, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30) Having undertaken the work of redemption, the Lord spares nothing, however costly, which is essential to the completion of his design. He withholds not heaven itself, but continues to surround men with its favors, heaping gift upon gift, until the world itself is flooded with its boundless mercy and love. Jesus says, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." (John 15:11) [8]
- Signs of the Times, March 5, 1896 par. 3
- Signs of the Times, June 18, 1896 par. 5
- Ibid, par. 6
- Sabbath School Worker, February 1, 1896 par. 3
- The Home Missionary, November 1, 1893 par. 17
- Ibid, par. 23
- General Conference Daily Bulletin, February 27, 1893 par. 13
- Signs of the Times, March 5, 1896 end of par. 3
