The Glad Tidings

“The Law of Christ.”

This is fulfilled by bearing one another’s burdens, because the law of Christ’s life is to bear burdens. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6. “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” Whoever would fulfil His law must have His life in him, still doing the same work for the strayed and fallen. GTI 238.1

“In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.” Hebrews 2:17, 18. He knows what it is to be sorely tempted, and He knows how to overcome. Yea, although He “knew no sin,” He was made even to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21. He took every one of our sins, and confessed them before God as His own. Even so He comes to us. Instead of upbraiding us for our sin, He opens His heart to us, and tells us how He has suffered with the same infirmity, and that He knows all the hardship, the pain, the sorrow, and the shame. Thus He draws us to Himself, and wins our confidence. Knowing that He has passed through the same experience, that He has been down into the very depths, we are ready to listen to Him when He talks about the way of escape. We know that He is talking from experience. GTI 238.2

The greatest part, therefore, of the work of saving sinners is to show ourselves one with them. That is to say, it is in the confession of our own faults that we save others. The man who feels himself without sin, is not the man to restore the sinful. He who goes to one who is overtaken in any trespass, and says, “How in the world could you ever do such a thing? I never did a thing like that in my life, and I can’t see how anybody with any sense of self-respect could do so,” might far better stay at home. God chose one Pharisee, and only one, to be an apostle, but he was not sent forth until he could acknowledge himself to be the chief of sinners. 1 Timothy 1:15. It is humiliating to confess sin. That is true, but the way of salvation is the way of the cross. It was only by the cross that Christ could be the Saviour of sinners. Therefore if we would share His joy, we must with Him endure the cross, despising the shame. Remember this fact: It is only by confessing our own sins that we can save others from their sins. Only thus can we show them the way of salvation; for it is he who confesses his sins that obtains cleansing from them, and so can lead others to the fountain. GTI 239.1