Notebook Leaflets from the Elmshaven Library, vol. 1

A Divine Relationship

So it is in spiritual things. We are to be laborers together with God. Man is to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in him, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. There is to be co-partnership, a divine relation, between the Son of God and the repentant sinner. We are made sons and daughters of God. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” Christ provides the mercy and grace so abundantly given to all who believe in Him. He fulfills the terms upon which salvation rests. But we must act our part by accepting the blessing in faith. God works and man works. Resistance of temptation must come from man, who must draw his power from God. Thus he becomes a co-partner with Christ. 1NL 90.2

The infinitely wise and all-powerful God proposes co-operation with His frail, erring creatures, whom He has placed on vantage ground. On the one side there is infinite wisdom, goodness, compassion, power; on the other, weakness, sinfulness, absolute helplessness, poverty, dependence. We are dependent upon God, not only for life and all its blessings, but for our entrusted talents, and for all the resources required in the work we must do if we accept the invitation to work with God. Man's intellect, his understanding, his every valuable thought, the opportunities and privileges that are placed within his reach, all come from Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We have nothing of ourselves. Our success in the Christian life depends upon our co-operation with Christ, and our submission to His will. It is not a sign of pure, consecrated service for a worker to follow his own way. Every worker is to willingly obey his Leader, to receive and practice every word of God. 1NL 90.3