You Can Only Be on One Side of the Great Controversy

As you might know, the full title of the first edition of Ellen White's book, "The Great Controversy" was "The Great Controversy, Between Christ and His Angels, and Satan and His Angels." By this longer title, we can see that the angels have taken either one side or the other. These two sides operate by two completely different sets of principles. Christ's angels are wholly and consistently devoted to His principles;—they don't live by His principles some of the time and by Satan's principles some of the time. And likewise, Satan's angels are entirely on Satan's side—they don't have partial union with Christ; they have no union with Christ. By becoming a human with the same flesh that we all have and overcoming every temptation while in that flesh, Jesus showed that it is possible to not let sin reign in our mortal bodies, as Paul said in Romans 6:12. If we think it's impossible to stop sinning, then we'll likely buy into the idea that we can keep sinning and yet be followers of Jesus. But the fact of the matter is that it is possible to stop sinning. And we need to stop sinning since sin is of the devil and so long as we sin, we are servants of sin and are giving in to Satan's side in this great controversy. But we don't need to obey the our flesh; we *can* obey the truth. To quote Paul again, "...as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification." Romans 6:19. By exercising faith - that is, trust - in Christ, we *can* do this and this is how we can play our part on Christ's side of the Great Controversy and help to bring the controversy to an end.   For more study please see: Are You Minding What Matters? https://www.bdsda.com/are-you-minding-what-matters/   2024 Sabbath School, Quarter 2: The Great Controversy – Week 1 A Branch Davidian Seventh-Day Adventist perspective on the Sabbath School lesson.  www.bdsda.com  Email us [email protected] for comments and study requests. Podcast link for "Sabbath School with Branch Davidians:" https://branchsabbathschool.libsyn.com