Spalding and Magan Collection

Christ Our Only Hope

As we see the condition of mankind today, the question arises in the minds of some, Is man by nature totally and wholly depraved? Is he hopelessly ruined? SpM 343.1

Men have sold themselves to the enemy of all righteousness. They can not redeem themselves. Of themselves they can do no good thing. But there is always an escape. When man sinned, Christ offered to stand as his substitute and surety, in order to provide a way whereby the guilty race might return to loyalty. He took humanity, and passed over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell. Without swerving from his allegiance, he met the temptations wherewith man is beset. SpM 343.2

Only by accepting Christ as a personal Saviour, can human beings be uplifted. Beware of any theory that would lead men to look for salvation from any other source than that pointed out in the Word. Only through Christ can men sunken in sin and degradation be led to a higher life. Theories that do not recognize the atonement that has been made for sin, and the work that the Holy Spirit is to do in the hearts of human beings, are powerless to save. SpM 343.3

Man's pride would lead him to seek for salvation in some other way than that devised by God. He is unwilling to be accounted as nothing, unwilling to recognize Christ as the only One who can save to the uttermost. To this pride Satan appealed in the temptation that he brought to our first parents. “Ye shall be as gods; ye shall not surely die,” he said. And by belief of his words, they place themselves on his side. SpM 343.4

Of Christ it is written, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” “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.” SpM 343.5

Ellen. G. White.