“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts...Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.” (Hebrews 3: 7,8,12)

We have seen that grace being from God, the power of grace is the power of God, able to accomplish all for which it is given- the salvation of the soul, deliverance from sin, and from the power of it, the reign of righteousness in the life, and the perfecting of the believer. All this- if only it can have place in the heart and in the life to work according to the will of God.

But the power of God is “unto salvation to everyone who believes.”

Unbelief frustrates the grace of God.

Many believe and receive the grace of God for salvation from sins that are past, but are content with that and do not give it the same place to reign against the [present] power of sin, that they did to save from sins of the past. This too is another phase of unbelief. As to the one great final object of grace- the perfection of the life in the likeness of Christ-they receive the grace of God in vain.

God does not want anyone to receive grace in vain, lest its blessed working be misrepresented to the world so people be further hindered from yielding to it. When grace is received in vain, offense is given in many things. Yet when it is not received in vain, “no offense” will be given “in anything” and the ministry will be blessed. 1

Our sins, our weaknesses, were upon Christ. For every soul the victory has been gained, and the enemy has been disarmed. We have only to accept the victory which Christ has won. Our faith in it makes it real to us. The loss of faith puts us outside the reality, and the old body of sin looms up again. That which is destroyed by faith is built up again by unbelief. 2

1. Jones, Review & Herald, Sept. 22, 1896
2. Waggoner, The Glad Tidings, p.43