[December 5]
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. II Peter 1:10
THE contingency is not in the doing of these things
perfectly, and regardless of the righteousness of Christ
to cover our transgressions and compensate for our
daily shortcomings; but if, added to our faith in the
imputed righteousness of Christ, we have cultivated
all these graces to the extent of our ability, we shall
not fall.
When we have done all that we can do, we
are still unprofitable servants, not daring to trust in
our own righteousness, but in the ample robe which
is ours by faith in Christ while, with consistent "diligence,"
we work out our own salvation with fear and
trembling, knowing that the righteousness of Christ
is only applied to such as desire to forsake sin and to
pursue that "holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord." Z'97-148 R2155:6 (Hymn 183)