Power Of God Available To Give Us Victory, July 9

“His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” 2 Peter 1:3^L.

We are to be partakers of knowledge. As I have seen pictures representing Satan′s coming to Christ in the wilderness of temptation in the form of a hideous monster, I have thought, How little the artists knew of the Bible! Before his fall Satan was next to Christ, the highest angel in heaven. How foolish then to suppose that he approached Christ in the wilderness in any such form as is given him in the illustration The Game of Life. Some have seen that picture. After the Saviour had fasted forty days and forty nights, “he was afterward an hungered.” Matthew 4:2^L. Then it was that Satan appeared to Him. He came as a beautiful angel from heaven, claiming that he had a commission from God to declare the Saviour′s fast at an end. “If thou be the Son of God,” he said, “command that these stones be made bread.” Matthew 4:3; Luke 4:3^L. But in Satan′s insinuation of distrust, Christ recognized the enemy whose power He had come to the earth to resist. He would not accept the challenge, nor be moved by the temptation....

Christ stood by every word of God, and He prevailed. If we would always take such a position as this when tempted, refusing to dally with temptation or argue with the enemy, the same experience would be ours. It is when we stop to reason with the devil that we are overcome. It is for us to know individually that we are right in the warfare, to take the affirmative in the sight of God, and there to stand. It is thus that we obtain the divine power promised, through which we obtain “all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” 2 Peter 1:3^L.

There is such a thing as being partakers of the divine nature. We shall be tempted in a variety of ways, but when we are tempted we need to remember that a provision has been made whereby we may overcome.... Those who truly believe in Christ are made partakers of the divine nature and have power that they can appropriate under every temptation. They will not fall under temptation and be left to defeat. In time of trial they will claim the promises and by these escape the corruptions that are in the world through lust.

We think it costs us something to stand in this position before the world; and so it does. But what has our salvation cost the heavenly universe? To make us partakers of the divine nature, heaven gave its most costly treasure. The Son of God laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown and came to our earth as a little child.—Manuscript 9a, 1908.