Christ Triumphant: All Called to Be Children of God, July 21

Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. 1 John 3:2, NRSV.

First 1 John 3:1-3 quoted. Here John has a view of the measureless love of an infinite God. John cannot find language to express it, and he calls upon the world to behold it. There were types and shadows that prefigured Christ in the Old Testament. Those who had been with Christ through His ministry recorded His works in the New Testament. For three and a half years the disciples were learning lessons from the lips of Christ, the greatest Teacher the world ever knew.... What brought Him here? Adam and Eve had transgressed the law of God in Eden....

Christ looked upon our world before He came to it, and He saw that Satan's power was exercised upon the human family. And because of the transgression of Adam he claimed the whole human family. He pointed to their calamities and diseases and reflected them upon God. He said God would have no mercy upon them and they might as well be under his control. Jesus had enlisted to give His own life for the salvation of the human race. He laid aside His royal robe and royal crown that He might clothe divinity with humanity....

Since the law of God was transgressed, the sentiment prevailed that it was impossible for human beings to keep the law of God.... The human and divine were combined in Jesus Christ. He came to our world to elevate humanity in the scale of moral value with God. He passed over the ground where Adam fell. He stood against the temptations of Satan and came off conqueror. He [Satan] approached the Son of God as an angel of light, just as he may tempt you.

Jesus Christ came off conqueror in the wilderness of temptation. When upon Jordan's banks, He offered such a prayer to heaven as heaven had never listened to before. His prayer penetrated through the darkness around Him and reached the highest heavens. The heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit, in appearance like a dove of burnished gold, descended upon Him, and from the lips of the Infinite One was heard these words, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” We have not understood how much this was saying to us. You are “accepted in the beloved.” ...

Christ came here to our atom of a world, and He honored it by taking human nature upon Himself. He honored humanity in the sight of all the created intelligences.—Manuscript 16, 1893.