FOURTH QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #2
OCTOBER 12, 2024
"SIGNS OF DIVINITY".

 

No two people are alike. We share similarities in many areas, be it personality, preferences, tendencies, world view, or life experience. But none of us are an exact replica of another. There is only one you and you experience and respond to the world in a unique way specific to you. Even our individual walk with God is characterized by our unique characteristics as He relates to each of us in a personalized way. Just as an artist or a craftsman intimately knows and understands every detail of his or her created work, so is the depth that our Creator knows and understands us. Psalm 139:1-4,13-17 beautifully portrays this thought:

O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! (NKJV throughout).

Because of our inherent, God-given individuality, no two people will describe an event or remember a situation in the exact same way. Certain points will stand out to one, and to another an entirely different point will be remembered. We see this in the similarities and differences brought out in different gospel accounts. Each author had a unique, personal encounter with Christ that, inspired by the Holy Spirit, directly influenced what they chose to highlight in their writing.

What were the thoughts and themes that struck a chord in John’s heart and that he, in turn, sought to convey? Why did he bring out specific interactions and miracles? The answer is twofold. John himself, states, ”And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:30,31). John wrote what he wrote for the purpose of us believing Jesus is the Son of God and that this belief would result in us receiving life. This may seem obvious, but why is this important we recognize Jesus as the Son of God and how does that belief result in life?

Christ referenced and declared His relationship to and with the Father by the words He spoke — the Great I Am who spoke to Moses (Exodus 3:13-15,) and the Creator of all things (John 1:3, Genesis 1). He was the only begotten of the Father; the Word made flesh come to dwell with us — a Light to humanity (John 1:1-5, John 8:12), the Son of God. The miracles and signs given were done for the benefit and uplifting of humankind, revealing a heart of care and compassion for His wayward people. He sought to lift the physical burdens of this life to point to His desire and ability to lift the spiritual curse of sin (Matthew 9:6, Mark 2:10, Luke 5:24). His revelation and declaration of His divinity were not for His own gain or interest. 

What did He come to our darkened world to reveal? What was Jesus’ purpose in coming as a Light?

All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him (Luke 10:27). 

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was (John 17:15).

And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God (1 John 5:11-13).

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life (1 John 5:20).

He came to declare the Father to us and, in so doing, open our eyes to the gifts of freedom from sin and of restoration. Jesus came to tear the veil of separation that has clouded our perception of the heart and character of God. All was done so that we might see and know Him the one true God, for this is life eternal. “The object of Christ in coming to earth was to reveal God to men so that they might come to Him. Thus the apostle Paul says that ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself’ (2 Corinthians 5:19)”—Ellet J. Waggoner, Christ and His Righteousness, p. 15. 

Sin has driven what would have been an eternal wedge between us and God. But “Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins Into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18:19). What was it that the Father so desperately wants to communicate to you and me? “For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.’ Therefore ‘Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.’ ‘I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.’ Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians  6:15-17,7:1). His motive? Love for you and me.

Christ denied himself. He did not count heaven a place to be desired while we were lost, and he left the heavenly courts to suffer a life of shame, reproach, insult, and mockery. For our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich. He lived a life of self-sacrifice and self-denial, and passed over the ground that we must travel, in order to leave us an example that we might follow in his steps. And we love him, because he first loved us. We should cultivate love for Christ by yielding obedience to all his commandments. If we truly follow our Lord, we shall depart from all iniquity, the transgression of God's law, and become loyal and true to the requirements of Heaven. The church has been made the depository of precious truth, and its members are not only to believe these truths, but to disseminate their glorious light to those who sit in darkness, that souls may be brought to the Sun of Righteousness. In this way they may represent Christ to the world.Christ has said, “Without me ye can do nothing.” A great change must take place in us before we can live a true Christian life. We must become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruptions which are in the world through lust. We must be nourished by the life of the Living Vine, and then we shall become fruit-bearing branches. Christ has said, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.” The branch planted in Christ will bear the same order of fruit as he himself has borne. If we are in Christ, we shall love the things which he loved, hate the things which he hated, and be obedient unto all the commandments of God. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so will the soul pant after the things pertaining to the Spirit of God. And we shall make manifest to the world that we are the children of God by the fruits we bear.—Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, June 1, 1891, par. 3 & 4.          

Christ came to earth as God in human flesh to reveal the nature and the glory of the Father so that we may know Him and be restored to Himself. He came as a kind Shepherd, to lead us into the greenest of pastures if we will but believe and follow after Him, living as He did — in complete and total dependence upon the love and guidance of His Father. 

When Jesus was awakened to meet the storm, He was in perfect peace. There was no trace of fear in word or look, for no fear was in His heart. But He rested not in the possession of almighty power. It was not as the “Master of earth and sea and sky” that He reposed in quiet. That power He had laid down, and He says, “I can of Mine own self do nothing.” John 5:30. He trusted in the Father's might. It was in faith—faith in God's love and care—that Jesus rested, and the power of that word which stilled the storm was the power of God.—Ellen, G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 336.

The Son of Man is in need of living witnesses to stand before a world that does not know the heart and purpose of God. He is in need of a people who have seen the life of Christ and, recognizing their own inability to replicate that life, hang every hope upon His promises. 

In Christ, divinity and humanity were combined. Divinity was not degraded to humanity; divinity held its place, but humanity by being united to divinity withstood the fiercest test of temptation in the wilderness. The prince of this world came to Christ after His long fast, when He was an hungered, and suggested to Him to command the stones to become bread. But the plan of God, devised for the salvation of man, provided that Christ should know hunger, and poverty, and every phase of man's  experience. He withstood the temptation, through the power that man may command. He laid hold on the throne of God, and there is not a man or woman who may not have access to the same help through faith in God. Man may become a partaker of the divine nature; not a soul lives who may not summon the aid of Heaven in temptation and trial. Christ came to reveal the source of His power, that man might never rely on his unaided human capabilities.Those who would overcome must put to the tax every power of their being. They must agonize on their knees before God for divine power. Christ came to be our example, and to make known to us that we may be partakers of the divine nature. How?—By having escaped the corruptions that are in the world through lust. Satan did not gain the victory over Christ. He did not put his foot upon the soul of the Redeemer. He did not touch the head though he bruised the heel. Christ, by His own example, made it evident that man may stand in integrity. Men may have a power to resist evil—a power that neither earth, nor death, nor hell can master; a power that will place them where they may overcome as Christ overcame. Divinity and humanity may be combined in them.—Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, Book 1, pp. 408-409.

 

~Anya Kinsley