Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers

Mercy of God Exemplified

We can see what evidence was given the priests and rulers, and how firmly they resisted the Spirit of God. Those who claim superior wisdom and piety may make most terrible and (to themselves) fatal mistakes if they allow their minds to be molded by another power, and pursue a course in resistance to the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus, represented by the Holy Spirit, was in the presence of that assembly, but they did not discern Him. For a moment they had felt the conviction of the Spirit, that Jesus was the Son of God; but they stifled conviction, and became more blind and hardened than before. Even after they had crucified the Saviour, God in His mercy had sent them additional evidence in the works wrought through the apostles. He was giving them another call to repentance, even in the terrible charge brought against them by the apostles, that they had killed the Prince of life. TM 73.1

It was not alone the sin of putting to death the Son of God that cut them off from salvation, but their persistence in rejecting light and the conviction of the Holy Spirit. The spirit that works in the children of disobedience worked in them, leading them to abuse the men through whom God was giving a testimony to them. The malignity of rebellion reappeared, and was intensified in every successive act of resistance against God's servants and the message He had given them to declare. TM 73.2