Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

greatly reduced in power and effectiveness, but our faith would not be given the opportunity to grow. It is in a crisis where we have to walk by faith, not by sight, that the real extent of our commitment to God or self can be seen.

Gethsemane and Golgotha

In this last fearful struggle in the Garden of Gethsemane, the basic issue of the great controversy was being fought out. Christ was battling to hold fast His submission to His divine Head, while Satan was doing all in his power to enlist Him on the side where, losing faith in God, He would resort to His own devices to solve the awful problem that was coming close to crushing the life out of Him. Either Christ would resist Satan, no matter what the cost might be, or He would follow the same tragic footsteps as trod den by Lucifer, Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Re bekah and Jacob, and so many others who have made the mis take of trying to build God’s work their own way. As Jesus felt the pressure to its depth, He poured out the feel ings of His human nature and gave His problem to His Father. “Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.’” Matthew 26:39. Barely had these words escaped His pale lips when He con firmed that He would be true to his position of Son, no matter what the consequences would be, by immediately adding: “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Matthew 26:39. Christ refused to save Himself by His own plans even though His human nature shrank as much from suffering as does ours. From Gethsemane right down to the very end, Jesus reso lutely clung to His submission and trust in His Father and re sisted the temptation to be His own problem solver. The won derful demonstrations of supernatural power that were seen in His earthly life prove that He could have escaped His murder ers if He had wanted to do so. Christ could easily have saved Himself when they mockingly said: “If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe