"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).
Christ gives a character which He Himself wove from infancy to the grave, complete in every respect. Then let us receive it.
Then we need not be afraid of oppression or difficulties, or whether we can buy or sell anything at all, because the Lord has something so much better. That is the character, and that is the covering that He draws over His people so that the [seven last] plagues cannot touch them, and no power of the enemy can overcome or defile it. Thank the Lord!
When He calls upon you and me to take a position in allegiance to His law, which will forfeit our lives, which will put our lives in jeopardy, what then? Well, He simply says, let that life go. It will vanish away in a little while anyway. Here is life that will last through all eternity. "This is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (1 John 5:11).
Has He given it to us? "He that has the Son" will have life some time? "He that has the Son has life." Is Christ dead? No. He is alive. So, when we have Him, we have the life that is in Him. What kind of life is in Him?--Eternal life only. Then when I have Him, I have the life which is His, and that is eternal life, just as He says.
We cannot have that life without yielding up this one. Yield up this life and you will get one that is a great deal better. Now is the time. But if I cling to this life, when it is gone, what have I left? Nothing.
When the test comes that this life is at stake, the man or woman who has only this life will stick to it. That's the danger. One can't go through what the third angel's message must go through, with only this life that he has. Because it is all he has, he will stick to it when it is brought into jeopardy. But he who will let this life go, count it worth nothing, and take that life which is the life of God, will have a life that can never get into jeopardy. That person is safe. [1]
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