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From Heaven With Love

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    We Shall Recognize Our Loved Ones

    The countenance of the risen Saviour, His manner, His speech, were all familiar to His disciples. As Jesus arose from the dead, so those who sleep in Him are to rise again. We shall know our friends, as the disciples knew Jesus. In the glorified body their identity will be perfectly preserved. We shall recognize those we love.HLv 535.1

    Jesus reminded His disciples of the words He had spoken before His death. “Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things.” Christ's life, His death and resurrection, the prophecies that pointed to these events, the sacredness of the law of God, the mysteries of the plan of salvation, the power of Jesus for the remission of sins—all these they were to make known to the world.HLv 535.2

    “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.” The more abundant impartation of the Holy Spirit did not take place until after Christ's ascension. But Christ breathed His Spirit upon them to impress them with the fact that without the Holy Spirit they could not fulfill their official duties in connection with the church.HLv 535.3

    The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ. Only those who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose life the Christ-life is manifested, are to minister in behalf of the church.HLv 535.4

    “Whose soever sins ye remit,” said Christ, “they are remitted; ... and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.” Christ here gives no liberty for any man to pass judgment on others. This is the prerogative of God. But on the church in its organized capacity He places a responsibility for the individual members. Toward those who fall into sin, the church has a duty to warn, to instruct, and if possible to restore. Deal faithfully with wrongdoing. Call sin by its right name. Declare what God has said in regard to lying, Sabbath-breaking, stealing, and every other evil. If they persist in sin, the judgment you have declared from God's Word is pronounced on them in heaven. The church must show that she does not sanction their deeds, or she herself dishonors her Lord. She must deal with sin as God directs, and her action is ratified in heaven.HLv 536.1

    But there is a brighter side. “Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted.” Let this thought be uppermost. Let the shepherds speak to the erring of the forgiving mercy of the Saviour. Let them encourage the sinner to repent and believe in Him who can pardon. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. Let the trembling hand of the repenting one be placed in the loving hand of Jesus. Such a remission is ratified in heaven.HLv 536.2

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