The only true life is the Christian life. This is so because it is the life of Christ, who is God, and God's life is that which animates all living things. Man can pervert that life by living to himself, but that is not true living. It is struggling against the life, which is God's, and seeking death, which in the end will be obtained.
The proper relation of man to this life is presented in the language of the Apostle Paul: "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
This is the true standpoint from which life with its various duties and problems is to be viewed: and from this standpoint the view is wonderfully simplified as compared with that obtained from the standpoint of self; because all the imaginary duties, dangers, and difficulties have vanished.
Life, as the Creator ordained it, is a simple thing, as simple as accepting a gift. It is only when a man attempts to live by his own power and wisdom that it becomes complex.
When men forget about the Creator, and put their trust in themselves, they find life to be beset by many and strange difficulties. At every turn problems are thrust upon them, which their human ability is neither able to foresee nor to successfully meet. At best, their world is but a world of chance.
God does not withdraw His providence from the lives of men when they will not recognize Him, but they frustrate and hide that providence by attempting to provide all things for themselves. The abilities which men possess were not designed to cope with the task of maintaining a pleasurable and successful existence. As much power and wisdom is required for that as for bringing existence out of nothing; which power and wisdom pertains to God alone. And the more men attempt to perform this miracle themselves, the more perplexing and unsatisfactory does their life become, and the more sadly marred by disaster and defeat.
Men are today, and always have been, greatly exercised over the maintenance of their "rights." For they have conceived, either rightly or wrongly, to be such, they have sacrificed their fortunes and their lives; they have in the defense of them endured great suffering themselves and brought distress upon others.
But how simple this problem which has so perplexed mankind becomes when viewed from the standpoint of the Christian. And that which so simplifies this, as it does the other problems of life, is the fact that from this standpoint, wherever we look, we behold the Lord Jesus Christ,--His power, His interests, His work.
It is the standpoint of the man who is crucified with Him; and as the crucified man has no life of its own, so he has no rights of his own. There are only the rights of the Saviour with whom he is identified, and who lives in him. And those rights God himself maintains.
The Christian is His witness, but God is the One who works, and whose power vindicates the right and accomplishes grand results. The Christian thinks not of any rights of his own, but rejoices in the maintenance and exercise of God's right to the love and homage of the beings whom He has created.
People are often much troubled to guard their "dignity" and save their feelings from the injuries to which they are liable from the malice or heedlessness of those about them. But what can be said of the "dignity" and pride of the person who is crucified? How much suffering and inconvenience do dead men experience from hurt feelings?
If we are crucified with Christ, and live by His life in us, we shall have no feelings but His feelings. We shall act toward those who persecute and speak evil of us, as He did toward those who persecuted Him; we shall feel toward them as He felt. And He did not feel differently toward men because they maltreated Him; He did not change because men hated Him and worked against Him. His nature cannot be affected by sin; He has never changed, but is: "the same yesterday, and today, and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8)
There is no more ill-will or purpose of revenge in the mind of God today than before sin entered the universe. We may deny Him, but still, "He abides faithful; He cannot deny himself." (2 Timothy 2:13)
His love for man has continued unchanged since the days of Adam. "His tender mercies are over all His works." (Psalm 145:9)
And so will there be love and tender mercy in our hearts toward all His works when we are identified with Christ, instead of the feelings of wounded pride which it costs us so much to bear. "[Jesus Christ is] meek and lowly in heart." (Matthew 11:29)
He tells us this in His gracious invitation to come to Him and find rest. "[He] humbled himself, and became obedient unto death." (Philippians 2:8)
On the night of His betrayal He washed His disciples' feet. But this was not an exhibition of newly-acquired humility. His form was the form of man; but His character was the character of God. He had not changed in character by taking on himself the seed of Abraham. Nor did He speak and act as a man; but, as He declared, His Father, who dwelt in Him, did the works. In every word and act, God was manifesting himself through His Son; as well when He washed His disciples' feet as when He raised the dead or rode in triumph into Jerusalem.
And so, from the Christian standpoint--from the standpoint of the recognition of the truth--we see that life has no difficulty and no problem but that of giving free course to the life of God that is in us. When we come to the cross, we find that we have been carrying too many burdens,--that we have been bearing a heavy and needless load; and we drop it and experience that relief which comes from laying a burden down. We cease trying to pervert the stream of God's life into channels of our own choosing.
And then we drop so many self-imposed responsibilities that we find we have time enough to attend to those things that pertain to our relation to God. We have time to do some work in His cause. Our time is equal to our opportunities.
This is life in its normal state, as it was ordained for man by the Creator. It is the life that Christ has placed within every man's grasp,--the life, indeed, that all men have, if they will but recognize their life as God's, and yield the control of it to Him.--Present Truth, January 24, 1895.