“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.” {Ellen White The Desire of Ages, p. 530}
What light is shed on this passage when we read it in context?
In an article written a year before The Desire of Ages Sister White wrote “”In him was life; and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). It is not physical life that is here specified, but immortality, the life which is exclusively the property of God. The Word, who was with God, and who was God, had this life. Physical life is something which each individual receives. It is not eternal or immortal; for God, the Life-giver, takes it again. Man has no control over his life. But the life of Christ was unborrowed. No one can take this life from Him. “I lay it down of myself” (John 10: 18), He said. In Him was life, original, unborrowed, underived. This life is not inherent in man. He can possess it only through Christ. He cannot earn it; it is given him as a free gift if he will believe in Christ as His personal Saviour. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). This is the open fountain of life for the world.” {The Signs of the Times, April 8, 1897 quoted in Selected Messages Book 1, pp. 296, 297} (Note: Original, unborrowed underived life can be GIVEN)
How many things did Christ receive from His Father?
“All things Christ received from God, but He took to give.” {The Desire of Ages, p. 21}
Does that include life as well? Does the Father’s life flow through His Son?
“So in the heavenly courts, in His ministry for all created beings: through the beloved Son, the Father’s life flows out to all; through the Son it returns, in praise and joyous service, a tide of love, to the great Source of all. And thus throughChrist the circuit of beneficence is complete, representing the character of the great Giver, the law of life.” {The Desire of Ages, p. 21} (Note: The Father’s original, unborrowed, underived life is in His Son. See John 5:26)
Whose life are we given?
“All believers who pass through a natural death, have, through eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God, eternal life in them, which is the life of Jesus Christ.
In dying, Jesus has made it impossible for those who believe on Him to die eternally.” {E. G. White, S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 7, p. 926} 1898
“He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His.” {The Desire of Ages, p. 25}
“Christ became one flesh with us, in order that we might become one spirit with Him. It is by virtue of this union that we are to come forth from the grave,–not merely as a manifestation of the power of Christ, but because, through faith, His life has become ours. Those who see Christ in His true character, and receive Him into the heart, have everlasting life. It is through the Spirit that Christ dwells in us; and the Spirit of God, received into the heart by faith, is the beginning of the life eternal.” {The Desire of Ages, p. 388}
“To the believer, Christ is the resurrection and the life. In our Saviour the life that was lost through sin is restored; for He has life in Himself to quicken whom He will. He is invested with the right to give immortality. The life that He laid down in humanity, He takes up again, and gives to humanity.” {The Desire of Ages, p 786, 787}
Is the Holy Spirit a third individual being different to the Father and Son?
“The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ.” {The Desire of Ages, p. 805}
Is the life of Christ a different individual being to Christ?
“Christ gives them the breath of His own spirit, the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind.” {The Desire of Ages, p. 827}
“The only way in which we can gain a more perfect apprehension of truth is by keeping the heart tender and subdued by the Spirit of Christ.” {The Desire of Ages, p. 494}
“Abiding in Christ means a constant receiving of His Spirit, a life of unreserved surrender to His service.” {The Desire of Ages, p. 676}
“Before the disciples could fulfill their official duties in connection with the church, Christ breathed His Spirit upon them.” {The Desire of Ages, p. 805}
“Through all our trials we have a never-failing Helper. He does not leave us alone to struggle with temptation, to battlewith evil, and be finally crushed with burdens and sorrow. Though now He is hidden from mortal sight, the ear of faithcan hear His voice saying, Fear not; I am with you.” {The Desire of Ages, p. 483}
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