Gods Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

done wrong and will wonder why God does not show them their errors. They will feel that He has deserted them, and is working against them, rather than for them; that He is not a covenant keeping God; and that He makes promises which He fails to keep. Until this erroneous thinking is corrected, they will find true peace and rest elusive. It is true that God is all-loving and all-powerful, and that He does not wish to see His children suffer and die. He needs a liv ing company of believers through whom He can finish the work, and, eventually, He will have such a group. But, in the meantime, it is not a question of what God wants, but of what the great controversy demands. The simple fact is that the bat tle of the ages cannot be won without sacrificial suffering by all of God’s children. This will vary in degree from case to case, de pending on the circumstances and the needs arising from them. For some of God’s children the sacrifice has to be total— Lazarus, John the Baptist and all the other martyrs being prime examples. If a believer is not willing to give all that the controversy demands, then the ultimate victory for the cause is delayed. The principle of operation needed is service to others no matter what the cost to self. Any intrusion of self-service will impede the progress of both the individual believer and the cause of God. No better example can be found of the difference between what God wants and what He must accept as necessary for the resolving of the great controversy, than in His approval of Christ as the sacrifice for sinners. There was nothing the Father de sired less, than to see Christ leave His presence, come down to this earth, and pass through a life of fearful suffering and humil iation which was to end in a cruel and undeserved death at the hands of the very people whom He came to save. If there had been any way in which God could have terminat ed the great controversy and effected our salvation without ei ther Christ or any of His other children suffering and dying, He most certainly would have used it. But there was no alternative. God’s Sacrifice