Too often, when God's promises to men are seen in a new and beautiful light; the only response given by professing Christians is a sighing acknowledgment that: "We do not half live up to our privileges."
And at this confession many are, content to stop, as though in making it, they had done all that was, required of them.
To some it seems impossible that they can ever live up to their privileges, for the reason that these are so great. They take too much "living up to." This is because the privileges are not seen, in their true light. Their value consists in the fact that they can be enjoyed to the full. Privileges which are not available are not privileges at all.
The greatness of the privileges which God bestows upon us consists in the fact that they enable us to "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called." (Ephesians 4:1)
He does not ask us to "live up" to anything; because in ourselves we cannot. The idea that we can do so reveals ignorance of God's way, which is as much higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth. (Isaiah 55:9) It would be as easy for the natural man to live up to his privileges as it would be for him, by taking thought, to increase his stature until his head reached to the stars.
There is one thing needful for the man who would live out his privileges, that is, live a perfect Christian life. That one thing is a Christian life. It takes a life to live, and it takes the life of Christ to live out His privileges. He does not have to live up to them, because they are His life. The man in whom Christ dwells will also live out his privileges, for he receives them in Christ. In taking Him, we take all things that pertain to life and godliness. "Of His fullness have all we received." (John 1:16)
Christ is the life of men: "In Him we live." (Acts 17:28)
The mystery of the Gospel is "Christ in you." (Colossians 1:27)
The privilege thus bestowed upon men is an inconceivable one, but the problem of how to "live it out" is solved by the fact that it is given to us as a life. Whoever does not receive it as a life does not have it at all. Those who do so receive it, find that it works in them mightily and, instead of sighing over the difficulty of living up to their privileges, they rejoice evermore over the great things that God has done for them in the unspeakable gift of His Son.
If a poor man should ask us for bread and we should offer him a plentiful supply of food, we would expect him to eat and be filled. If he simply looked over the food, and when pressed to fall to, should reply sadly that it was very kind of us to take so much trouble, but he was afraid he did not half live up to his privileges, most of us would conclude that it might do him good to go without for a while.
How must the Lord feel when, after He has at an infinite cost to himself, provided a perfect salvation for all, some treat His gifts with so little appreciation? He offers eternal life, with all that it means, in His only begotten Son, but men judge themselves unworthy of it, as did the Jews to whom Paul preached.
Everyone to whom the Lord reveals light must accept or refuse it. It does not palliate the refusal to excuse it by confessing that we do not live up to our privileges. When the judgment sits and some are found unworthy of a place in the Saviour's Kingdom, it will simply be a confirmation of the judgment that they passed upon themselves when the Lord offered himself to them in all His fullness, and they for any cause judged themselves unworthy of everlasting life.--Present Truth, January 5, 1899--Original title: Back Page.