Ten Unique, Essential Elements
1. Christ’s love is active, not merely passive. As the Good Shepherd, He is continually seeking the lost sheep. Salvation does not depend on our seeking Him but on our believing that He is seeking us. This is our believing response to His seeking us. He has taken the initiative. Those who are lost at last resist and despise His initiative in the drawing of His love. This is what unbelief means.2. It follows that it is difficult to be lost and it is easy to be saved if one understands and believes how good the Good News is. Since Christ has already paid the penalty for everyone’s sin, the only reason anyone can be condemned at last is continued unbelief, a hard-hearted refusal to appreciate the redemption achieved by Christ on His cross and ministered by Him as High Priest. The true gospel unveils this mysterious unbelief and leads to a repentance that prepares the church for the return of Christ. Human pride, praise and flattery of human beings, is inconsistent with true faith in Christ. It’s a sure sign of prevailing unbelief, even within the church.
3. In seeking lost mankind, Christ came all the way, taking upon Himself and assuming the fallen, sinful nature of man. This He did that He might be tempted in all points like as we are, yet demonstrate perfect righteousness “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom. 8:3, 4; the 1888 message accepts “likeness” to mean what it says, not un-likeness). Righteousness is a word never applied to Adam in his unfallen state, nor to holy, sinless angels. It can only mean a holiness that has come into conflict with sin in fallen human flesh, and triumphed over it. Thus “the message of Christ’s righteousness” that Ellen White was so happy about in 1888 is rooted in this unique view of the nature of Christ. If He had taken the sinless nature of Adam before the fall, the term “Christ’s righteousness” could not make sense. The 1888 “messengers” (A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner) saw that the teaching that Christ took only the sinless nature of Adam before the fall is a legacy of Romanism, the insignia of the mystery of iniquity which keeps Him “afar off” and not “nigh at hand.”
4. Thus our Saviour “condemned sin in the flesh” of fallen mankind. This means that He has outlawed sin; sin has become out of date in the light of His ministry. It is impossible to have true faith in Christ and continue in sin. We cannot excuse it by saying, “I am only human” or, “the devil made me do it.” In the light of the cross, the devil cannot force anyone to sin. To be truly “human” is to be Christlike in character, for He was and is fully human as well as divine. For the church to accept the message means a preparation for translation without seeing death.
5. It follows that the only thing God’s people need in order to prepare for Christ’s return is that genuine faith. But that is what the church lacks; she imagines herself to be doctrinally and experientially “rich and increased with goods” when in fact our root sin ever since 1888 has been unbelief. Righteousness is by faith; it is impossible to have faith and not demonstrate it in the life, because faith always works by love. Our moral and spiritual failures are the fruit of keeping alive Israel’s ancient sin of unbelief.
6. Righteousness by faith since 1844 is unique. It is “the third angel’s message in verity.” This means that it is greater than what the Reformers taught or what the popular churches understand today. It is a message of “much more” abounding grace. It makes sense with the unique Adventist truth of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary, a work that includes the full cleansing of the hearts of God’s people on earth.
7. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is not merely provisional but effective for the whole world. The only reason anybody can be lost is that he chooses to resist the saving grace of God. For those who are saved at last, it is God who has taken the initiative; for those who are lost, it is they who resist and reject God’s initiative. Salvation is by faith; condemnation is only by non-faith, which is unbelief. But true faith is distinguished from its counterfeit.
8. Thus Christ’s sacrifice has judicially justified “every man,” and has literally saved the world from premature destruction. All men owe even their physical life to Him, whether or not they believe. Every loaf of bread is stamped with His cross. When the sinner hears and believes the pure gospel, he is justified by faith. The lost deliberately negate the justification Christ has effected for them. They throw away the salvation already given them.
9. Justification by faith is therefore much more than a judicial declaration of acquittal which depends on the initiative of the sinner. Faith is an appreciation of God’s initiative, and it changes the heart. The sinner has now received the atonement, which is reconciliation with God. It is impossible to be truly reconciled to Him and not also be reconciled to His holy law. Therefore true justification by faith makes the believer to become obedient to all the commandments of God. (There is a direct link between true justification by faith and Sabbath-keeping.)
10. This marvelous change is accomplished through the ministry of the New Covenant. The Lord actually writes His law in the heart of the believer so that obedience is loved. This provides a new motivation which transcends fear of being lost or hope of reward. (Either of those motivations is what Paul means by his phrase, being “under the law.”) The Old and New Covenants are not matters of time but of condition. Abraham had faith and lived under the New Covenant. Many today live under the Old Covenant because self-centered concern is their motivation. The Old Covenant was the people’s promise to be faithful to God; the New is God’s promise to be faithful to us. Salvation comes by believing God’s promise to us, not by our making promises to Him.