Christ the Ground of Our Hope

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The world’s Redeemer endured sufferings commensurate to the guilt of a lost world. The sacrifice of Christ on Calvary’s cross fulfilled the demands of the law, and when a sense of sin presses upon the heart, and the burden seems intolerable, Jesus invites the sinner to look to Him and live. There is power in Christ to cleanse the soul. «Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.» The gift of life has been freely, graciously, joyously offered to fallen man. Encircling the throne of God is the rainbow of promise, that God will receive every sinner who gives up all hope of eternal life on the ground of his own righteousness, and accepts the righteousness of the world’s Redeemer, believing in Christ as his personal Saviour. It is when the sinner realises that he is without hope, lost, condemned to eternal death, incapable of doing anything to redeem himself, but accepting of Christ as his complete Saviour, that the word of God is fulfilled, when He says, «I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.»

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Under the covenant of grace, the conditions of eternal life are precisely the same as those given to man in Eden. The believing sinner, through his divine substitute and surety, renders obedience to the law of God. Mercy granted to man is the reward of the merit of Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and «purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.» Provision made for the salvation of men through the imputed righteousness of Christ, does not do away with good works, release us from our obligation to keep the law, nor lessen in the least its holy claim. Christ came to exalt the law and make it honourable, to reveal its exceeding breadth and changeless character. The glory of the gospel of grace is the imputed righteousness of Christ, providing a way of salvation through obedience to the law of God by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

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Christ must be the ground of our hope; for only through Him can we be heirs to eternal life. An immortal inheritance is presented to us on certain conditions. We cannot inherit a possession in this world unless we have a title that is without a flaw, and our right to an inheritance in the world to come, must also be clearly proved through a faultless title. The line through which the heavenly inheritance is to come is plainly revealed in the Word of God. We must come under the provisions of the Abrahamic covenant, and the requirements are, «If ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.» If we are Christ’s, our title to the heavenly inheritance is without a flaw, and in harmony with the provisions of the covenant of grace. Through grace we shall be able to make our calling and election sure, putting on the excellency of Christ in spirit and character. No one will be entitled to the heavenly inheritance who has not been purified, refined, ennobled, and sanctified. Then let us be diligent to make our calling and election sure, that an entrance may be administered unto us abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Mrs. E. G. White.