FOURTH QUARTER 2024
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #9
NOVEMBER 30, 2024
"THE SOURCE OF LIFE".

 

Our topic this week is vitally important to each and every one of us because it points us to Christ as both our Creator and our Re-creator/Redeemer!

As our Creator, He provides every breath we take as a gift.. As our Redeemer and Re-creator, Jesus died the second death for my sin and yours so that the entire human race would have the gift of salvation and eternal life in heaven with our Savior! God also gives each of us the choice, by exercising faith, to accept His gift or reject it. 

As we study together this week, let us look at some important thoughts about Christ as our Source of Life from Ellen White as well as the Lord’s messengers, A.T. Jones and E.J. Waggoner:

1.  E.J. Waggoner (Signs of the Times, Jan. 5,1899, p.4):

“Death is simply the absence of life. If life be taken away, death results. The words of the Lord are life and those who hear His words have life; even though dead already, they receive life through the Word. Isaiah 35:3; John 5:24, 25. Death has come upon all men, because all have rejected the Word of the Lord, the Source of life. Jesus Christ is the Word (John 1:1), and He is the life (John 1:4; 14:6). So, it is by giving men Himself that He saves them from sin and death. We are saved by His life. Romans 5:10. His life is the power that conquers death, and it conquers death because it is proof against sin, which is the cause of death. There is no unrighteousness in Him. His name is Jesus, Saviour, because He is in Himself salvation.”

2. A.T. Jones, (Gen. Conf. Bulletin, April 4, 1901, pg.1):

 “That life of God is in Jesus Christ. He is the Source of life…. But when God calls us to Him, to become connected with the life of God, we are lifted above the place we were before, and are joined to that boundless sea of the life of God. And there is the source of our life as Christians. God proposes so to connect us with Himself that we shall be conscious day by day; and all the time, that there is an inflowing of life from the throne of the living God to the heart and life of the believer in Jesus. And when we have allowed ourselves to be lifted up to that place, and to receive that flow of the life of God into our lives day by day, --O, then the power of God will be upon us! Then the power of God will be manifested in our ministry, even the endless power that belongs to the endless life of God. That is the truth…. 

“[T]here is just as much reality in finding the life of God flowing to our lives day by day, when we believe in Jesus, as there ever was in finding life flow to us day by day by our breathing when we first lived in the world. That is the divine fact. That is the true higher life. That is the true Christian life. The life that flows to us from Jesus Christ, we get from heaven day by day, by faith, as constantly as we breathe; so, that faith is the breath of the spiritual life as really as the air is the breath of the natural life. We breathe it in from Jesus Christ direct, the Life-giver. That is the Christian life.”

3. E.G. White, (Letters and Manuscripts, Vol. 17, Ms 2, 1902, Lt. 39):

“The Lord has in store great enlargement for His church, great exhibitions of His power. ‘In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.’ [Isaiah 26:1-4.] True faith in God always brings assurance and peace to the humble and contrite in heart.

“Let not man seek to fasten minds to himself. God Himself is the Founder of His church, and we have His unalterable promise that His presence and protection will be given to His faithful ones, who walk in His counsel. To the end of time, Christ is to be first. He is the Source of life and strength and righteousness and holiness. All this He is to those who wear His yoke, and learn of Him how to be meek and lowly. He will not tolerate self-exaltation. Extravagance and prodigality  are a sin in His sight.”

4. E.G. White (The Desire of Ages, Ch. 52, pg. 476):

“‘I am the Good Shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down My life for the sheep.’

“Again, Jesus found access to the minds of His hearers by the pathway of their familiar associations. He had likened the Spirit's influence to the cool, refreshing water. He had represented Himself as the light, the Source of life and gladness to nature and to man. Now in a beautiful pastoral picture He represents His relation to those that believe on Him. No picture was more familiar to His hearers than this, and Christ's words linked it forever with Himself. Never could the disciples look on the shepherds tending their flocks without recalling the Saviour's lesson. They would see Christ in each faithful shepherd. They would see themselves in each helpless and dependent flock.”

 We can see many encouraging thoughts in the quotes above when we truly see and believe by faith that Christ is our Source of Life!

We see Him providing us with His strength, righteousness and holiness. He promises us perfect peace and His everlasting strength.

And He promises us a connection with Him all the time with an inflow of life from Him to the heart and life of the believer in Jesus.

 He is the life and His life is the power that conquers death because He is in Himself salvation. It is very reassuring to know and believe that Christ is on our side and waiting to take us home!

As we continue our study revealing Christ as our Source of Life, I find that picturing Him as our Fountain of Life creates a vivid picture of His love and sacrifice for us. Let’s look together at a couple of quotes with this in mind:

5. E.J. Waggoner, (Present Truth UK., Dec. 15, 1892, pg. 387):

“’For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light.’ Psalm 36:9. ‘In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.’ John 1:4. These two texts, show very clearly that Christ is the life of all who receive Him. His life is the life of God. And we have seen that that life is righteousness; and that means that it is of the very nature of the law of God, for it is declared to be the righteousness of God.

“A fountain is a place from which water flows freely and constantly. Therefore, life may be received from God just as one would drink from a fountain to refresh himself. That this is the way that righteousness is to be obtained, the Scriptures plainly show.”

6. E.G. White, (Letters and Manuscripts, Vol. 11, Ms. 2, 1896, par. 5):

“Our life is something we receive from Christ by a study of His Word. ‘In Him was life,' original, unborrowed. [John 1:4.] He was the Fountain of life. We receive life from the Saviour which He takes back again. That life which God has given us should be put to the very best account, for as human agents we are forming our own destiny. We need to wisely choose those associates who will best fit us—body, soul, and spirit—for the future country, even the heavenly.”

As we continue our study of this week’s lesson we see Peter’s reply to Jesus’ question whether Peter was going to leave Him in John 6:68: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

E.J. Waggoner does a good job of looking at this discussion and its importance to us in today’s world.

7. E.J. Waggoner, (Signs of the Times, vol. 23, Jan. 14, 1897, pg.3):

“When many of Christ’s disciples turned from him because they could not receive his sayings, and Jesus had asked the twelve if they also would go away, Peter said, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we, believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.’ There was none other than Christ who had the words of eternal life; there is none other now. And those who hear his words, believe and are sure that he is the Son of God. They have a knowledge that is possessed by none others. 

“Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27. When the true Shepherd ‘putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee form him; for they know not the voice of strangers.’ Verses 4, 5. The true Shepherd ‘calleth his own sheep by name.’ This is how they know his voice. He speaks directly to them, to each one individually, and they know it. This is how we know the voice of the Son of God. 

“And for that voice, and that only, we are to listen. Many voices are crying, many saying, 'Lo here!’ and ‘Lo there!’ but the Shepherd’s voice is different from them all. That is the voice of One whom, when we hear it, we know to be acquainted with us, --with our past lives, and the motives and thoughts and perplexities of our individual hearts. He knows us by name; and if we will hear His voice, He will make known unto us His name. And ‘His name, through faith in His name,’ shall make us whole, as it did the cripple at the beautiful gate of the temple. Acts 3:16.”

A closing thought from Friday’s lesson is the following quote from Ellen White’s Desire of Ages, pg. 25:

“Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. ‘With His stripes we are healed.’”

Clearly, Christ is our Source of Life, as we have seen. Because of His infinite love for each of us and all of us, He made an infinite sacrifice. He wants all of us with Him forever. May we allow Jesus to change our lives and our hearts, so that we can’t keep this good news to ourselves but will have a burning desire to share it with others.

 

~John Campbell