Sons and Daughters of God

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We Are to Be Perfect as Christ Is Perfect, May 27

We Strive for Perfection

And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Hebrews 5:9. SD 154.1

Our Saviour took up the true relationship of a human being as the Son of God. We are sons and daughters of God. In order to know how to behave ourselves circumspectly, we must follow where Christ leads the way. For thirty years He lived the life of a perfect man, meeting the highest standard of perfection.76Letter 69, 1897. SD 154.2

Our work is to strive to attain in our sphere of action the perfection that Christ in His life on the earth attained in every phase of character.77Medical Ministry, 253 SD 154.3

To go forward without stumbling, we must have the assurance that a hand all-powerful will hold us up, and an infinite pity be exercised toward us if we fall. God alone can at all times hear our cry for help. SD 154.4

It is a solemn thought that the removal of one safeguard from the conscience, the failure to fulfill one good resolution, the formation of one wrong habit, may result not only in our own ruin, but in the ruin of those who have put confidence in us. Our only safety is to follow where the steps of the Master lead the way, to trust for protection implicitly to Him who says, “Follow me.” Our constant prayer should be, “Hold up my goings in thy path, O Lord, that my footsteps slip not.” 78The Signs of the Times, July 28, 1881. SD 154.5

Every faculty with which the Creator has endowed us should be cultivated to the highest degree of perfection, that we may be able to do the greatest amount of good of which we are capable. In order to purify and refine our characters, we need the grace given us of Christ, that will enable us to see and correct our deficiencies, and improve that which is excellent in our characters.79The Pacific Health Journal, April, 1890 (The Health Reformer, April, 1877). SD 154.6

The Son of God was faultless. We must aim at this perfection, and overcome as He overcame, if we would have a seat at His right hand.80Testimonies for the Church 3:336. SD 154.7