The Third Angel's Message

“LET this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery [“a thing to be seized upon and held fast”] to be equal with God; but emptied himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:5-7).

“For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Heb. 2:10).

“Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted” (Verses 17, 18). Made “in all things” like unto us, He was in all points like as we are. So fully was this so that He could say, even as we must say the same truth, “I can of mine own self do nothing.”

Of Him this was so entirely true that, in the weakness and infirmity of the flesh, —ours, which He took, —He was as is the man who is without God and without Christ. For it is only without Him that men can do nothing. With Him, and through Him, it is written: “I can do all things.” But of those who are without Him, it is written: “Without me ye can do nothing.”

Therefore, when He said, of himself, “I can of mine own self do nothing,” this makes it certain forever that in the flesh, —because of our infirmities which He took; because of our sinfulness, hereditary and actual, which were laid upon Him, and imparted to Him, —He was of himself in that flesh exactly as is the man who, in the infirmity of the flesh, is laden with sins, actual and hereditary, and who is without God.

He came “to seek and to save that which was lost.” And in saving the lost, He came to the lost where they are. He put himself among the lost. “He was numbered with the transgressors.” He was “made to be sin.” And from the standpoint of the weakness and infirmity of the lost, He trusted in God, that He would deliver Him and save Him. Laden with the sins of the world, and tempted in all points like as we are, He hoped in God, and trusted in God to save Him from all those sins, and to keep Him from sinning.

And this is the faith of Jesus: this is the point where the faith of Jesus reaches lost, sinful man, to help him. For thus it has been demonstrated, to the very fullness of perfection, that there is no man in the wide world for whom there is not hope in God: no one so lost that he can not be saved by trusting God. And this faith of Jesus, by which, in the place of the lost, He hoped in God, and trusted God for salvation from sin, and power to keep from sinning, —this victory of His it is that has brought to every man in the world divine faith, by which every man can hope in God, and trust God, and can find the power of God to deliver him from sin and to keep him from sinning. That faith which He exercised, and by which He obtained the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil, —that faith is His free gift to every lost man in the world. And thus “this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.”

This is the faith of Jesus that is given to men. This is the faith of Jesus that must be received by men, in order for them to be saved. This is the faith of Jesus, which, now in this time of the Third Angel’s Message, must be received and kept by those who will be saved from the worship of the Beast and his Image, and enabled to keep the Commandments of God. This is the faith of Jesus referred to in the closing words of the Third Angel’s Message: “Here are they that keep the Commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”