There are two great loves in the world at war--the love of self, and the love of Christ. The love of self brings unrest and death; the love of Christ means death to the fallen nature (even crucifixion) and eternal life (resurrection by the divine nature at work in the human agent), which brings rest and peace to the heart and mind renewed by the grace of Christ. The evidence of conversion--that the love of Christ has uprooted the love of self--is evidenced as all of the fruits of the Spirit without one missing are in the life as the human worker gladly wears the yoke of Christ--His law of self-sacrificing love. Apart from Christ, this experience is unattainable. In Christ, there is no limit to the depth and fruitfulness of such a divine union and communion with Him! As the Lord woke me this morning to hunger and thirst for Christ, I pray that His vital current of life, even the baptism of the Holy Spirit, will come upon me and His church, as we are in such great need of a deeper and deeper draft of the Holy Spirit whose office is to exalt the exceedingly high loveliness of Christ!
"It is the love of self that brings unrest. When we are born from above, the same mind will be in us that was in Jesus, the mind that led Him to humble Himself that we might be saved. Then we shall not be seeking the highest place. We shall desire to sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn of Him. We shall understand that the value of our work does not consist in making a show and noise in the world, and in being active and zealous in our own strength. The value of our work is in proportion to the impartation of the Holy Spirit. Trust in God brings holier qualities of mind, so that in patience we may possess our souls." {The Desire of Ages, page 330, paragraph 4}
As I read this morning more from the 1888 Materials, I was so blessed by this thought in relation to value of our work and our souls as well:
"We need a power to come upon us now and stir us up to diligence and earnest faith. Then, baptized with the Holy Spirit, we shall have Christ formed within, the hope of glory. Then we will exhibit Christ as the divine object of our faith and our love. We will talk of Christ, we will pray to Christ and about Christ. We will praise His holy name. We will present before the people His miracles, His self-denial, His self-sacrifice, His sufferings, and His crucifixion, His resurrection and triumphant ascension. These are the inspiring themes of the gospel, to awaken love and intense fervor in every heart. Here are the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, a fountain inexhaustible. The more you seek of this experience, the greater will be the value of your life." {1888 432.3}
The concept of "value" is striking. Our value as a soul increases the more we seek for the experience we are counseled to have in beholding the loveliness of Jesus. This makes sense, because the value of our work is an outflow of the value of our souls. We are all purchased with the blood of Christ, but the extent to which we allow that blood to pulse through our very experience, the time that we choose to spend at the feet of Jesus--it is this that actually changes us into His image (and Christ has infinite value!!). We, of ourselves, are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked, and can do no good thing (for the flesh is all of those things). But when by a living faith surrender we look upon Jesus and live, the character is being formed, and it is character that is of value to God. The character Christ offers us is all of the remedies to the Laodicean church: gold tried in the fire (His faith working by His selfless love), white raiment (His righteousness), and eyesalve (the anointing of the Holy Spirit to see our continual need of Jesus). Our Heavenly Father sent Jesus at the risk of failure and eternal loss to be born as our brother, to live a perfect life by faith, and to die so He could fulfill His eternal purpose of having a race of redeemed saints, fulfilling His purpose given in Isaiah 13:12: "I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir." Will you not join me in obtaining, by the righteousness (right-doing) of Christ this experience even now? What could be more important at this late hour of earth's history? Come, let us learn of Christ!!