Our Value is His Invested Value
“By rebellion and apostasy man forfeited the favor of God; not his rights,
for he could have no value except as it was invested in God's dear Son. This point must be understood.”
MS 36, 1890 in 1888 Materials p. 813.2; Faith and Works p. 21.1
How can we understand this?
Before man rebelled and apostasized, man enjoyed the favor of God.
After man rebelled he forfeited God’s favor but not man’s rights.
Man still had his rights. What rights did rebellious man have?
Man still had the right to be valued by God. And how was man valued?
Man could have value only as it was invested in God’s dear Son.
The gift of His dear Son was invested with tremendous value.
God had invested great value in His dear Son. What was this that God invested in His Son?
“The great Creator assembled the heavenly host, that he might in the presence of all the angels confer special honor upon his Son. The Son was seated on the throne with the Father, and the heavenly throng of holy angels was gathered around them. The Father then made known that it was ordained by himself that Christ should be equal with himself; so that wherever was the presence of his Son, it was as his own presence. His word was to be obeyed as readily as the word of the Father. His Son he had invested with authority to command the heavenly host.” ST, January 9, 1879 par. 2; 1SP 17.2
“The Saviour was invested with the credentials of Heaven.” {ST, March 30, 1888 par. 11}
“Christ was invested with the right to give immortality.’ FLB p. 51.5; YI Aug 4, 1898
"I receive not honor from men," Christ said… He was invested with power from above. {RH, March 26, 1901 par. 11}
And coveting the glory with which the infinite Father had invested His Son, this prince of angels aspired to power that was the prerogative of Christ alone. PP 35.2; ST, June 10, 1903 par. 1
"God committed His ideal to Christ, and sent Him into the world, invested with divinity, yet bearing humanity." ST, May 16, 1900
So the Father invested or gave His Son authority to command, right to give immortality, heavenly credentials, power, glory and even divinity. Jesus made this very clear in his discussions with the Pharisees. Ellen White gives us much insight in the Signs of the Times, November 27, 1893 beginning with paragraph 5.
Jesus said, "I and my Father are one." The words of Christ were full of deep meaning as he put forth the claim that he and the Father were of one substance, possessing the same attributes. The Jews understood his meaning, there was no reason why they should misunderstand, and they took up stones to stone him.
Had the Pharisees misunderstood his words, he could and would have corrected their wrong impression.
How could have the Pharisees misunderstood the words of Jesus? They might have thought: Jesus and his Father were one and the same person, that he was God the Father.
“He could have told them that he was no blasphemer,”
To say that he was God the Father would have been blasphemy! “The Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, is truly God in infinity, but not in personality.” MS 116, Dec 19, 1905 in The Upward Look p. 367
although he had called himself the Son of God, and that his words need not necessarily mean that he had invested himself with divine prerogatives, and made himself equal with the Father.
Jesus was of one substance with his Father because he was the Son of God, the begotten of God, begotten of God’s substance, thus by inheritance he naturally possessed all the fullness of the Godhead, his Father (1Cor 11:3).
He had been invested with divine prerogatives, he had been made equal with the Father, but he did not invest himself with divinity and equality, his Father had invested him and made him equal by bringing him forth from his own self, “tore from his bosom him who was made in the express image of His person” RH, July 9, 1895 par. 13.
Returning to manuscript 36 Ellen White continues,
“All blessings must come through a Mediator.”
The man Christ Jesus is that mediator! He is the only mediator between God and men. 1Tim 2:5. No man comes to the Father but by him. John 14:6. And nothing comes to us from the Father but through Jesus. “Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights” James 1:17 but they come to us through Jesus the Father’s “unspeakable Gift” 2Cor 9:15.
“…and whatever we possess--whether it is the gift of money, of houses, of lands, of reasoning powers, of physical strength, of intellectual talents--in this present life, and the blessings of the future life, are placed in our possession as God's treasures”
All that we have is God’s treasures.
“Every gift is stamped with the cross and bears the image and superscription of Jesus Christ. All things come of God.”
The Father is the great Source of all (DA p. 21), of whom are all things (1Cor 8:6), all things come of thee (1 Chr 29:14).
“…all flow through the one Channel--a superhuman mediation sprinkled with the blood that is of value beyond estimate”
The one Channel, the one Mediator, shed his blood to gain his right to mediate the Father’s treasures to us. But notice, his blood has value, great value, value that is beyond our wildest estimate. Why is it so valuable?
“…because it was the life of God in His Son.”
Wow! Right there my view of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was seriously changed. The life is in the blood. We know that. Without blood there is no life. Shedding blood is shedding life. And whose life is being shed? Not just the life of Jesus, though how infinitely valuable and precious that is! It was the life of God the Father Himself in His Son.
As the Father has life in Himself so has He given the Son to have life in himself. John 5:26.
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. 2Cor 5:19.
And now the Father’s desire is to come with the Spirit of His Son and make His abode in us. John 14:23.
