"It is impossible for any human mind to exhaust even one truth or promise of the Bible. One catches the glory from one point of view, another from another point; yet we can discern only gleamings. The full radiance is beyond our vision. Ed 171.1"
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
Both passages discuss the limitations of human understanding, particularly in relation to spiritual truths. 1 Corinthians 13:12 speaks of seeing dimly, while EGW describes only catching gleamings of truth.
"As we contemplate the great things of God's word, we look into a fountain that broadens and deepens beneath our gaze. Its breadth and depth pass our knowledge. As we gaze, the vision widens; stretched out before us we behold a boundless, shoreless sea. Ed 171.2"
"May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;"
Both passages use imagery of vastness to describe the incomprehensible nature of God's wisdom/love. Ephesians 3:18 speaks of comprehending breadth, length, depth, and height, while EGW uses the image of a boundless sea.
"Such study has vivifying power. The mind and heart acquire new strength, new life. Ed 171.3"
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
The EGW passage speaks of the vivifying power of study, leading to new life, which directly echoes the concept of the Spirit quickening and the words of Christ being spirit and life in John 6:63.
This experience is the highest evidence of the divine authorship of the Bible. We receive God's word as food for the soul, through the same evidence by which we receive bread as food for the body. Bread supplies the need of our nature; we know by experience that it produces blood and bone and brain. Apply the same test to the Bible; when its principles have actually become the elements of character, what has been the result? what changes have been made in the life? “Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 . In its power, men and women have broken the chains of sinful habit. They have renounced selfishness. The profane have become reverent, the drunken sober, the profligate pure. Souls that have borne the likeness of Satan have been transformed into the image of God. This change is itself the miracle of miracles. A change wrought by the word, it is one of the deepest mysteries of the word. We cannot understand it; we can only believe, as declar…
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Ellen White directly references 2 Corinthians 5:17 in this passage.
"To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:"
Ellen White directly references Colossians 1:27 in this passage.