How to Enjoy Heaven, March 30
How to Enjoy Heaven, March 30
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
The design of God in giving us rich promises is stated by the apostle Peter—that we “might be partakers of the divine nature.” We must have earthly, worldly tastes transformed to the divine and heavenly. Heaven would be no heaven to you or to me if our tastes and our meditations and our temper were not Christlike. The pure and heavenly mansions which Christ has gone to prepare for His children are such as the redeemed alone can value by being made meet for them by the inward work of grace in their hearts.
I might picture to you the blessedness of heaven, the crowns laid up for the conquerors, the white linen which is the righteousness of Christ, the palm branches of victory, and the harps of gold. But all these alone will not make heaven a place of bliss for any one of us. Without any of these, if we have pure and holy characters, we would be happy, for we would have Jesus and His love. Purity and innocence and conformity to Christ’s character will make heaven enjoyable. All the faculties will be strengthened, all in harmony. Perfect bliss can only dwell in the heart where Christ reigns supreme.
Christ came to our world to die, the Just for the unjust, ... that He might elevate and ennoble men and women and stamp His divine image upon them. For this His Spirit strives with us that there may be an ever advancing vigor and perfection of spiritual life.39
We need not retain one sinful propensity.... As we partake of the divine nature, hereditary and cultivated tendencies to wrong are cut away from the character, and we are made a living power for good. Ever learning of the divine Teacher, daily partaking of His nature, we cooperate with God in overcoming Satan’s temptations. God works, and man works, that man may be one with Christ as Christ is one with God. Then we sit together with Christ in heavenly places. The mind rests with peace and assurance in Jesus.40
39Letter 4, 1895.
40S.D.A. Bible Commentary 7:943.
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