Belief in
Christ Means Everlasting Life
He
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. John 3:36.
When
the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the
new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself.
It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature.
The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds
in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it
but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable
to the assaults of Satan.
Christ
is ready to impart all heavenly influences. He knows every temptation that
comes to man, and the capabilities of every human agent. He weighs his strength.
He sees the present and the future, and presents before the mind the obligations
that should be met, and urges that common, earthly things shall not be permitted
to be so absorbing that eternal things shall be lost out of reckoning.
The
gifts of His grace through Christ are free to all. There is no election but
one's own by which any may perish. God has set forth in His Word the conditions
upon which every soul will be elected to eternal life-obedience to His commandments,
through faith in Christ. God has elected a character in harmony with His law,
and any one who shall reach the standard of His requirement, will have an
entrance into the kingdom of glory. Christ Himself said, "He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life."
What
an exalted position to be identified with one in whom is all perfection centered,
who is indeed the Majesty of heaven, but who loved us, although fallen, so
much that language cannot express it! He for our sakes laid aside His royal
robe, stepped down from the throne of heaven, and condescended to clothe His
divinity with humility, and became like one of us except in sin, that His
life and character should be a pattern for all to copy, that they might have
the precious gift of eternal life.
From
Devotional: Our Father Cares, p. 18, 19.
