The Great Sabbath Paradox
by Tom Hughes
by Tom Hughes, July 13, 2014
The Sabbath is a great paradox that is rarely talked about or understood. How could we have missed the Great Sabbath Paradox? What is it? Simply put, simply stated, it is this: Even though Seventh-day Adventists exhort the entire world to “keep the Sabbath holy,” no Seventh-day Adventist has ever kept even one Sabbath holy himself. I can hear minds whirring, and saying, “What are you talking about?”
Aren’t paradoxes grand? What does the word of God teach concerning all our best efforts at righteousness apart from Christ? “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”1 Notice the plural of righteousness. That means not just one particular attempt at accomplishing justification, but all of them. Every attempt is doomed to failure because “by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”2 So our Sabbathkeeping, even our most earnest and sincere attempt at Sabbath worship, falls far short of perfect, flawless Sabbath worship. Our prophetess puts it this way, “…passing through the corrupt channels of humanity, they are so defiled that unless purified by blood, they can never be of value with God. They ascend not in spotless purity, and unless the Intercessor, who is at God's right hand, presents and purifies all by His righteousness, it is not acceptable to God…Oh, that all may see that everything in obedience, in penitence, in praise…must he placed upon the glowing fire of the righteousness of Christ.”3 This passage makes it clear that all our worship, and even our prayers, have to be placed upon the “glowing fire,” or it is unacceptable to God.
So isn’t it paradoxical that Seventh-day Adventists are exhorting the entire world to keep the Sabbath holy, when they have never kept even a single Sabbath holy themselves! The same can be said for every one of the Ten Commandments, but the irony is especially observable when it comes to the Sabbath commandment. Nothing else so demonstrates that we have somehow managed to miss the main point concerning the law as it applies in the First Angel’s Message of gospel, sanctuary and worship.
Let’s explore these themes in the light of our special message to the world concerning the Sabbath. One cannot present the true gospel if one has a flawed view of the law of God. God’s law is a reflection of his character, and the underlying principles that the Ten Commandments reflect also reveal the dilemma God faced when Adam and Eve disobeyed that law in the Garden of Eden. It is precisely because God could not abandon his law, alter it or ignore it that man was driven from the garden. The law is “holy, and just, and good.”4 So the problem was not the law; the problem was man’s breaking of the law. “The wages of sin is death.”5 So Adam and Eve had to die. Satan sat back and thought, “I’ve got God now, and He can’t save His precious humans without saving me. I broke the law, and now so did they.”6
But Satan miscalculated. He never expected God to take man’s punishment upon himself! Being such a selfish and self-centered being, Satan was incapable of comprehending the height and depth of God’s love for fallen man, and even for Satan himself. God did everything he could to save Lucifer, to no avail, and now he would do everything he could to save the human race, including paying their penalty with the life of his “only begotten Son.” Because human beings sinned, and their fallen nature was corrupted, they were incapable of keeping God’s law. The challenge for Adam was to maintain righteousness, not to attain righteousness. That was also the challenge for the Second Adam: Jesus. Could he succeed where Adam failed and maintain the righteousness he was born with? Remember, Gabriel described Jesus as “that holy thing.”7 Jesus was born holy and had to remain that way. He didn’t have to achieve holiness. God made him holy, and Jesus said, “The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”8
So all righteousness comes from God. Remember the plan of salvation in the Old Testament? The sanctuary system was an object lesson to teach the Israelites all about God’s plan of salvation. Remember, the lamb that represented Jesus the Messiah had to be “without spot.”9 Only a perfect lamb without blemish or spot could be used, because only perfect holiness is acceptable to God.
Now let’s apply all this to the Sabbath keeping and teaching of Seventh-day Adventists. The first angel’s message calls for us to our creator who made all things. The Sabbath message is an important part of the first angel’s proclamation. But how has the church typically presented it? I suggest that we have presented it no differently than the Jewish rabbis have taught it. The Sabbath is a symbol of creation. God has commanded that we keep it. The only true day from the Torah is the seventh day, so we need to be obedient and not work on that day. How has the Adventist message been significantly different from the Jewish teachings on the subject? The law is an important part of the gospel, sanctuary, and worship because it is the foundation of God’s government, and no lawbreaker can truly worship God.
But there are many religions that teach the importance of the moral law. What are we missing in our Sabbath message that God is trying to get across to us? We are not emphasizing the most important part of the message! It’s not about our Sabbath keeping; it’s about Jesus’ Sabbath keeping! We do not receive credit for keeping even one Sabbath when it comes to keeping the law. All our righteousness is filthy and unacceptable to God unless placed upon the glowing fire of Christ’s righteousness. We are saved by his 33 years of perfect Sabbath keeping! Only his Sabbath keeping counts toward our salvation. We’ve never kept a single Sabbath perfectly.
When Jesus went to synagogue he was focused on God alone. He read the Torah with absolute purity and devotion. He sang the songs with passion and enthusiasm. His mind never wondered or drifted away from his worship of his Creator. When Jesus left the service, and went out into the world, he spent his Sabbaths serving the communities he went to. He never spent a single Sabbath overeating and sleeping away the day. His Sabbath days were totally dedicated to helping lighten the load of humanity. When you compare his perfect Sabbath keeping with our feeble attempts, even the best, most dedicated Seventh-day Adventist would have to admit that he or she falls far short of the ideal Sabbath observance that Jesus accomplished. Fortunately for all of us, by faith we can claim his righteousness, and his Sabbath keeping becomes ours! It’s credited to our account, and God looks at us as he does his son, and he is pleased with our perfect observance of his holy day!
Once we realize the ungodliness of our Sabbath keeping and appropriate the perfection of his Sabbath observance, how should we proclaim the Sabbath to others? For purposes of this article we will assume you’ve already settled the question of the law’s immutability, and agree that God’s law should be honored by our best efforts to imitate Christ’s character by the willing obedience of faith.
What does God say the Sabbath is? He declares, “I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.”9 So to God the Father, the Sabbath is a sign or symbol of righteousness by faith! He is the God who makes us holy. He sanctifies us. To sanctify means to make holy, to set apart as righteous. So the Sabbath is a sign or symbol that we don’t make ourselves holy; it’s a sign or symbol that God makes us holy through his son Jesus Christ! The Sabbath tells us to rest from our own works, and to trust in the works of Jesus Christ. When Seventh-day Adventists begin to preach the Sabbath with true humility, instead of acting as if we are the only ones “keeping the right day;” when we start admitting that we too are Sabbath breakers, and that it’s only through the righteousness of Christ that we can keep it; when we point out how the Sabbath is a symbol of righteousness by faith, then we will get the world’s attention on this important subject!
The Bible clearly teaches that one of the most important things we receive when we come to Jesus is rest from our sins through Christ’s merits. Jesus states, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”10 The word for “rest” used in this verse literally means sabbath! Jesus is saying, “When you come to me, and learn of me, and receive me, you will find Sabbath for your soul, peace and rest in me!” The writer of Hebrews expressed similar thoughts when he wrote, “a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it…For we which have believed do enter into rest,… God did rest the seventh day from all his works… There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God… For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his… Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.11
In Hebrews 4 the writer is clearly using the Sabbath as a symbol of the person of faith, as opposed to the person of unbelief, ceasing from his own works and trusting in the works of God for salvation! The Sabbath is used here, just as it is in Matthew, of being a symbol of the way we enter into a saving relationship with Jesus by entering his rest by claiming his good works as our own! The Sabbath should be preached as a wonderful symbol of grace! We should be proclaiming that we are all Sabbath breakers, but when we accept Jesus, we become Sabbath keepers because the Sabbath symbolizes righteousness by faith, renouncing our own works, trusting only in the works of Jesus Christ in our behalf, and the grace of God, who does for us what we cannot do for ourselves! Like Paul we choose to “be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.”12
So the Sabbath is a great paradoxical symbol of righteousness by faith! It’s a sign that we cannot, by our own works, make ourselves holy. It’s a symbol that we are set apart by God, and sanctified only by grace and not by our own Sabbath keeping. It’s a symbol that we have renounced our own Sabbath keeping and, like Paul, want to be found only in the righteousness of God which is by faith. But here’s the great paradox. Those who claim to be the ultimate proclaimers of the Sabbath need to repent of their self-righteousness in proclaiming a self-centered message, and instead begin to proclaim the Sabbath as the symbol of God’s grace in doing through his Son what we ourselves could never accomplish.
The Sabbath is the great leveler at the foot of the cross, pointing out how an unholy person could never keep even a single Sabbath. In Exodus 20: 8 we are told to “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” In Rev. 15: 4 the angels sing, “for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee.” Not only are we to keep the Sabbath for a day, but for a lifetime. From the moment of our birth, we must maintain the absolute holiness of twenty-four hours of every Sabbath! We must present to God only perfect, flawless Sabbath worship, every minute of every Sabbath, for that is the only kind of worship acceptable to him! No wonder it’s said about the Lamb, "Thou only art holy”! Only Jesus Christ is holy! That’s what the Bible teaches.
Christ’s perfect Lamb of God Sabbath keeping is our only true Sabbath keeping! He alone is holy! Is it a great paradox? Yes! Is it absolutely true that no human being since the fall has ever kept even one single Sabbath holy apart from Christ? Yes! Is it true that Christ kept every Sabbath absolutely holy? Yes! Does God command us to keep his Sabbath day holy? Yes! Is it paradoxical? Yes! Can we be as holy as Jesus? Can we keep the Sabbath? Can we obey his commandments? Can our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees? Can we be greater than John the Baptist? Can we keep his commandments if we love him? The answer to all these questions is Yes! But how? There is only one way: through the righteousness of Christ by faith! He alone is holy, and when you receive him as your Savior, he stands in your place and God looks at you as if you had never sinned! Hallelujah! The very Sabbath itself is a symbol of the rest we find by faith in the righteousness of Christ! When we begin to proclaim it as a symbol of grace, and meet our fellow Christians in humility at the foot of the cross, the Sabbath will be welcomed in a way that we have yet to experience. Let us make Christ and his righteousness the very center of our Sabbath message from henceforth!
Prayer – Our Father God, the Lord our Righteousness! Forgive us for arrogantly assuming that our feeble attempts at worship were acceptable in your sight. Forgive us for giving the impression to our children, families and the communities, that we were “keeping your Sabbath holy” when in fact, we were just as guilty as they were of failing to grasp the true meaning of the Sabbath. Forgive us for our pride and presumption, as we argued rather than proclaimed, as we declared them lawbreakers, when we ourselves were doing the same thing. Teach us to worship you only by placing our own sinful offerings on the glowing coals of the fire of Christ’s righteousness that our worship might be acceptable in your sight, dear Lord. May Christ’s perfect Sabbath keeping stand in place of ours! May his perfect law keeping stand in place of ours! And because of his good works alone, may you look at us as if we have never sinned is our prayer in Jesus’ name. Amen.
1 Isaiah 64:6
2 Galatians 2:16
3 Selected Messages, Book 1, Ellen G. White, pp. 344f
4 Romans 7:12
5 Romans 6:23
6 Luke 1:35
7 John 14:10, emphasis added
8 Numbers 28:3, 9, 11
9 Ezekiel. 20:12
10 Matthew 11:28f
11 Hebrews 4:1, 3, 4, 9ff
12 Philippians 3:9
Welcome and thanks, Tom
I really appreciate your topic and your linking it to the Sabbath.
I'm sure there will be a good many more specific comments as your column is read by more of us!
Tom,
An outstanding job! This article provides excellent examples of the vast gulf between the innate holiness of God, and the derived holiness of created entities (holy angels, holy people, holy time, holy places, holy objects). The holiness of created entities derives from our PURPOSE (designated for and devoted to the service of God) rather than our CONDITION (absence of impurity).
Our purpose may be to worship God but our condition results in imperfect worship. Our purpose may be to follow Jesus but our condition results in imperfect discipleship. When Jesus pronounced His disciples clean (save for one who was inwardly rebelling) He was describing their STATUS not their CONDITION. When Jesus presents us without spot or wrinkle or blemish or blame before His father, He is presenting the robe of His righteousness that we are wearing.
I do have one suggestion. This is not in a spirit of criticism. I know how hard it is to review one's own work.
His mind never wondered [sic] or drifted away from his worship of his Creator.
I think you might wish to change Creator here to Father to avoid misunderstanding. Jesus had no Creator, rather He IS the Creator. I understand that you were drawing a valid analogy with our worship experience. But your choice of wording could mislead others regarding your own understanding of Christology.
Tom,
You have presented us with a thoughtful challenge. Still, I think you've missed two foundational issues that are essential to understanding what it means to keep the Sabbath holy.
Our First Fundamental Problem with the Sabbath is that we don't understand what worship is. We generally think of worship in terms of the order of service printed in the church bulletin. Some even make the ludicrous claim that giving offerings is an act of worship. We look to define it in terms of specific acts and what music is or is not "proper" in worship when none of those things comes close to telling us what worship is. If you use a concordance and search texts containing the word "worship" you will get a few hints about it. Still, the richest understanding comes when you search for the past tense. That is where you find a series of people who worshipped. Scripture does not tell us what specific things they did, merely that they worshipped. What did they do? They expressed their adoration and praise back to God in response to an encounter they had with Him. So the most important issue in worship is not doing specific things or avoiding other acts, but whether we are having encounters with God so we will want to express our adoration and praise to Him! Since the Holy Spirit must translate our prayers to make them presentable to God, I am certain He is able to cleanse our expressions of adoration and praise and make them acceptable, however we choose to express them.
Our Second Fundamental Problem with keeping the Sabbath holy is our penchant for listing what is wrong to do on the day. I suggest reading Isaiah, chapter 58 and the stories in the Gospels telling what Jesus did on the Sabbath to stimulate thinking about what is good to do on the Sabbath instead of looking to find what is wrong or to define what should not be done. Jesus brought glory to His Father by doing good things on the Sabbath that improved the lives of others. I typically gain a far greater blessing from helping others on the Sabbath than I ever do from being in church. Why? Because I am ministering God's love and drawing their attention to Him so they will want to express adoration and praise to Him.
Welcome Tom to a place where your theology and wit will be put to the test.
So what you are really talking about is righteousness by faith – an old and well known and understood concept I would hope by now in the adventist church.
So in this context I get your play on words "nobody has ever kept the sabbath" – but to use your analogy, it would also apply to Jesus as well. After all he said that he could do nothing without his fathers help???
Why do we place so much emphasis on the symbol of a one day in seven Sabbath rest when we live in the reality of God's rest 24/7/365+? The Sabbath is the shadow, Christ is the reality.
Why did God in Genesis 2 place so much emphasis on the symbol of one day in seven Sabbath rest?
(Is there an echo on this web site?)
Jim, it was God who rested in Genesis 2 and when Hebrews 4 references the seventh day in Gen 2 it is about God's rest because His work was finished. And it is God's rest we are invited to enter through the gospel. The day for this is called Today. All I'm trying to say is that we now live in the intimate reality of the rest that Christ promised and obtained for us on the cross and that is our key message to the world, an invitation to enter God's rest.
We have already had this entire discussion on a different web page.
What does it mean for God to create Holy time? Created Holy things (as opposed to God who is innately Holy) are devoted to the service of God. That is what it means for a created thing to be Holy.
So if the God calls the seventh day which God created, Holy, does that mean that God is devoting the seventh day to self-service?
You cannot understand the Sabbath from Hebrews alone. Paul (or whoever) was writing that letter to Jews who had been studying the OT teachings of the Sabbath for their entire lives. Saying there is more to the Sabbath than memorializing creation is absolutely correct. You can find that in Deuteronomy and thoughout both the OT and the NT.
But denying the other Bible teachings regarding Sabbath because of one passage in Hebrews is bad exegesis to say the least.
Ray,
Are you suggesting, or saying, that the Sabbath is actually only a shadow or type of something that has effectively already occurred and/or has already been implemented; as the sacrifices of lambs were previously; and that as such it is obsolete?
If so, maybe this is why some of us don’t seem to understand you or even relate. If so what you should have said is “All I’m trying to say is that the Sabbath is obsolete;” that would have been more candid/direct/honest.
If not, if this isn’t your point, then we have more work to do. I think Tom’s approach is pretty good!
Stephen, could it be that much of what Tom is attempting to tie to the symbol of the weekly Sabbath, is in reality found in our direct communion with and surrender to Christ, through His indwelling Holy Spirit. As desirable as rest from our six days of work is, how much more glorious is the rest that Christ promised when we come to Him. We have rest for our souls now, not one day in seven but all day, every day. We have already entered God's rest and we rest from our works just as God did from His. God created a world and then rested from His work. Why should we try to create our own spiritual world through our own good works when we can enter God's rest, Today?
Let's not attribute to the weekly Sabbath what should be attributed to Christ.
Sorry Ray to jump in on your conversation with Stephen, but I must admit I am a little confused as to what your position is, as he says.
I hear what you are saying about eschatological rest (as scholars call it) being found in Christ today, as opposed to the weekly rest of a weekly Sabbath. By using the word 'shadow', you possibly suggest it is an aborgated Jewish ceremony, as opposed to an ongoing ritual of importance implicit to universal principles of monotheism.
To use an analogy, the Lord's Supper is only a ceremony, and does not actually have magical properties in imparting grace (unless of course you're a Roman Catholic and believe in sacramental theology, thinking the Eucharist really does impart theosis, so one literally eats their way to heaven). But just because the bread and wine are only symbols, that is not to downplay their continue importance.
You can find the eschatological significance of the Sabbath in the OT, notably in Isaiah. This is not a new teaching in Hebrews, in fact Hebrews quotes from the OT to make this point.
The Sabbath memorializes creation and redemption and restoration. Things past, things present and things yet to come.
Worshipping the Sabbath as a substitute for worshipping Christ is certainly wrong. Some Adventists have perhaps been there. But this does not in any sense obviate the Sabbath as Holy time devoted to the service of the Divine (Father Son, Spirit).
I think too many do worship the Sabbath and put it above the Lord of the Sabbath. It has always bothered me that a day should be the seal instead of Christ. The only answer is that Christ is our rest, and this is represented in the Sabbath rest. thus the Sabbath would become the symbol of Christ alone.
Isaiah refers to the "New Moon and Sabbath in the new heavens and the new earth that I make."
There is nothing in Judaism at the time of the prophets that spoke to anything far in the future. They were confident that in some future day Israel would be revived as a nation, would repopulate its ancient territory, and would exist thereafter as an ideal state. There was no teaching of an afterlife. New Testament writers' application of OT passages to their own areas of interest is the way they ignore the context of those OT prophecies and what the original author had in mind.
There is reference to an afterlife in the OT but not an immediate one into paradise. The OT Sabbath observance was instigated by God as a creation symbol and also freedom from slavery (a symbol of sin). It prefigured a Messiah that could save all who ever lived from the foundation of the world. He is a retroactive Savior and not to understand this is to miss the fairness and goodness of God. Under the New Covenant we became aware of His life and sacrifice and the rest He gives us.
Sabbath means rest. I have always found it less complicated to say that it repersents the rest we have in Jesus from our works. He is the Lord of the Sabbath, and it goes beyond just a memorial of creation to recreation.
Some here are troubled that I would draw attention to Gen 2 and Heb 4 that talk about God's rest rather than the weekly Sabbath. I have chosen three statements from this article that I personally have great difficulty with in the light of entering God's rest through the gospel that is rooted and grounded in Christ's finished work on the cross. I cannot accept the concept of justification by faith/righteousness by faith presented in this article. I have read these statements in context and simply state my convictions.
"We are saved by his 33 years of perfect Sabbath keeping!"
"The Bible clearly teaches that one of the most important things we receive when we come to Jesus is rest from our sins through Christ’s merits."
"May Christ’s perfect Sabbath keeping stand in place of ours! May his perfect law keeping stand in place of ours! And because of his good works alone, may you look at us as if we have never sinned is our prayer in Jesus’ name."
The focus of these three excerpts is on Christ's perfect law keeping, His good works, His merits, His 33 years of perfect Sabbath keeping. I am not calling Christ's perfect fulfilling of the law into question. However, I do contend that we are not saved by Christ's 33 years of perfect Sabbath keeping. It is at best a half truth to say that we receive rest from our sins through Christ's merits. Is it because of Christ's good works alone that God looks at us as if we had never sinned? This article uses "merits" and "good works" in the context of law-keeping and specifically the 10 commandments.
I would draw your attention to Calvary. It was Christ's substitutionary death on the cross that has saved us. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Forgiveness, rest from our sins can only come from Christ's shed blood, not from His "good works alone," not from "His perfect Sabbath keeping."
One died for all, therefore all died… God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. Christ took our sins on Himself on the tree. We must be careful not to let anything detract from the saving, justifying work of Christ on the cross and this is what I believe that this article does. It puts too much emphasis on Christ's perfect Sabbath keeping. When it comes to the gift of God's salvation by grace, His forgiveness, His gift of Christ's righteousness, the emphasis must be on the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Christ's perfect life climaxed on the cross. It is Christ's substitutionary work on the cross where he became sin for us that saves us, Today, it is Christ crucified that gives us entry into God's rest where we find rest for our souls.
What is now being argued here is which half of the loaf is more important? Is it Christ's perfect substitutionary life or His perfect substitutionary death?
Neither of these could have been effective for our redemption without the other. So I reject this false choice – I choose both!
Poeple seem to make this complicated don't they?
Jim, I fully agree that it is a false choice to be choosing which half of the loaf is more important. However, I also believe that the plan of salvation as presented in Scripture is a full loaf, to continue the analogy. It's a loaf that we must never start dividing in half or separating into it's parts. What I have tried to emphasise is the centrality of the cross. Everything in God's eternal plan must be seen in the light that streams from the cross of Calvary and by that I mean the atoning sacrifice of Christ resulting in His death.
I should mention that I prefer the terminolgy of "the gift of Christ's righteousness" rather than "Christ's perfect substitutionary life" although I can live with either as synonymous terms.
Let me emphasise again the centrality of the cross. The deeper our understanding of the cross, the deeper our understanding of Christ's perfect life becomes and the more sigficance we see. The more we understand about the righteousness of Christ both prior to the incarnation and for the 33 years He lived among us, the more we understand about the significance of the cross. The deeper our understanding of the cross, the deeper is our understanding of the resurrection, of Christ's ministry in the presence of His Father and of all that is yet future in the hope of the Christian faith. And the more we understand these matters that flow from the cross, the more significant the wisdom and power of God revealed at the cross becomes.
Whenever we try to divide the loaf or argue that one part is more important than the other or that one can't exist without the other, it is usually the centrality of the cross that suffers. The plan of salvation is one grand theme of the outpouring of God's love for sinners with many interlocking parts that all work together in perfect harmony because it is all from God.
With this in mind I refer back to 2 Cor 5:21 and context. If any one text can unlock the meaning of Scripture I believe this is it. The depth of meaning in this verse is simply profound, in fact, beyond the human mind to fully comprehend. If pressed, I would choose to put John 3:16 together with this one as companion key.
God made Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us, (or on our behalf). Here is one of the great statements about the substitutionary death of Christ. However, the critical point I want to make about this death is that it is part of the Great Exchange, the Great Exhange that is the heart and soul of Christianity. "So that" is the critical link. The only way that we can become the righteousness of God in Christ is through and because of Christ's substitutionary death on the cross where He became sin for us. Not only do we receive the gift of Christ's righteousness through Christ's shed blood, the statement gets even more amazing, we become the righteousness of God in Him. We are justified, sanctified, glorified, redeemed and more by the precious blood of Christ shed on the cross. God raised Christ through the power of the blood of the New Covenant.
We simply cannot divide the loaf. The centrality of the cross is the grand unifying truth that binds the whole of Scripture into the glorious truth of God's grace given freely for the sake of Christ.
Whenever we try to divide the loaf or argue that one part is more important than the other or that one can't exist without the other, it is usually the centrality of the cross that suffers. The plan of salvation is one grand theme of the outpouring of God's love for sinners with many interlocking parts that all work together in perfect harmony because it is all from God.
I am glad that Jesus Christ has completed and will complete the entire mission. When He cried-out "it is finished" on the on the cross, He was declaring that He had accomplished what he came to earth to do. This mission encompassed His entire life on earth, not just one day or one weekend, although that weekend was the culmination of everything else. When Paul calls Jesus the second Adam he is referring to more than the cross. And Paul also points-out that without the resurrection there is not much point in believing in the substitutionary life or death of Christ.
My faith is founded in His life, His death, His resurrection and His promise to restore all things. If you read Revelation you will find that there is yet one more "it is finished" to be uttered by He who calls himself the Source (arche) and the Purpose (teleos). And if you read Genesis 2 you will find His first "it is finished" pronounced when, after creating and populating space and time, He caps it off with the creation of Holy time.
I certainly agree that the cross is one of the most important chapters in the history of God's dealings with humans, but it is not the only chapter, nor even the only important chapter. It is crucial to lift up the Cross as you rightly proclaim. But that in no way diminishes lifting up Jesus in the entirely of what the Bible reveals about Him in both the OT and the NT.
I think a very concise summary of the entirety of what Scripture teaches Jesus Christ is to consider all three times where he says "it is finished". To ignore any one of these three chapters is to diminish the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. We need to lift Him up as Creator, Redeemer and coming Restorer of all things.
"I certainly agree that the cross is one of the most important chapters in the history of God's dealings with humans, but it is not the only chapter, nor even the only important chapter."
Jim, I thought I made it clear that I believe that the cross is not the only chapter. Scripture testifies that the cross is the central, unifying chapter. It is not "one of the most important" it is the most important.
Following the first "It is finished" sin entered the world. Subsequent to the third "It is finished" sin will have been cleansed from the world. It is the second "It is finished" from the cross that is the bridge between the first and the last. It is the shed blood of Christ that takes the world from what it should have been to what it will be for eternity. When John in Revelation finally was given a vision of the city, he saw no temple in it because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are it's temple. Why the Lamb and not the Great King, or the Creator or the Restorer, all of which are important? The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world will be our focus for eternity. Nothing must in any way diminish the centrality of Christ's atoning sacrifice on the cross. It's the light from the cross that illuminates the rest of Scripture.
It is Calvary that will be the key to unlock the mystery of why God created, in the full knowledge that sin would enter the world. How little do we as human beings understand what Calvary cost the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It is Calvary that will explain how it is holy and just for God to forgive sin and to restore the world to perfection and to grant redeemed sinners eternal life in the Earth made new.
The cross cannot be the most important event in Christianity; it was the Resurrection which initiated their faith in a risen savior. Had the cross been the only event, it would not have been unusual as many were crucifed during that time, rows of them lined some of the pathways, and Jesus would have been almost forgotten to history.
Imagine: what if there had been no Resurrection? That was the raison de' etre and the central message of the disciples and apostles who gained new converts to Christianity. It was ONLY the Resurrection that initated Christianity. "He is Risen" was the first message in Christianity.;
Elaine, that's why I don't like using the term "most important" in this context. I haven't found a way to edit a post on AToday once it's been comittted otherwise I would have changed it. Every aspect of the plan of salvation is important. However, it was on the cross that the justifying, sin-bearing work was done to redeem lost humanity. I can imagine that the whole of Heaven held its breath, as it were, until The Father sealed His acceptance of the atoning sacrifice by calling His Son from the grave on the Resurrection morning. You are right, we still sing the praises of the Resurrection morning for many reasons but especially because it gives us 100% assurance in everything God has done and will continue to do to assure us of the same resurrection blessing if death claims us before His return.
Perhaps my statement should be modified to the effect that it is the death of Christ, triumphing in the resurrection that is the unifying theme of Scripture.
The last two chapters of the Bible, Revelation 21 and 22—literally the back of the book—clarifies much/all of this.
Matthew 5:17-18—particularly Matthew 5:18—is an allusion to Revelation 21:1-4; isn’t it? It is finished—all will have then been accomplished—when that which is prophesied in Revelation 21 and 22 has been accomplished. That’s when the kingdom will be restored. (Someone should inform the Cleveland marketing people.) That’s when “the first heaven and the first earth…the former things are passed away.”
When on the cross Jesus said, “It is finished,” He clearly meant that His mission to earth had been successfully completed. His death on the cross made the provision that God sent Him to provide.
The provision was ratified that very day. The resurrection gives us the assurance of what Jesus accomplished and what God accepted.
"His death on the cross made the provision that God sent Him to provide." Stephen, nice words, but they tell me nothing. What did Jesus accomplish and what did God accept? Surely the gospel is in the detail that needs to be clearly defined if we are to preach it.
Jesus said that God sent Him so that those who believe on Him should not perish (which means die eternally for sin) but instead live with Him eternally. God did this because He loves us. Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross paid the penalty of sin for all sinners. God accepted His sacrifice as such payment. (This is why the veil of the temple was immediately “rent” when He died.)
So, the way of escape was provided. The sacrifice that God demanded was provided. We now have opportunity to accept it.
Now then Ray, are we in agreement? Is there anything written here or in the previous post with which you disagree?
(Shouldn’t we seek comprehensiveness and simplicity simultaneously?)
Stephen, we have agreement in the simplicity. Perhaps we need a little more detail on the comprehensiveness. Books have been written on this, of which John Stott's, "The Cross of Christ" is of great value.
"Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross paid the penalty of sin for all sinners" and the veil was rent. What does this mean for all sinners? I think we need to expand these concepts and be very specific about what they mean for every one of us.
For guilty sinners, forgiveness for all sin, past present and future is what is needed. And this is one work that Christ accomplished on the cross. When Christ paid the penalty for sin for all sinners he forgave us all our sins. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men's sins against them. Why? because Christ on the cross became sin for us. We died in Him. The death He died He died for all. In other words, forgiveness is not something we have to plead for. It is not dependent on the sincerity of our repentance or how hard or how often we confess. To accept Christ is to accept His forgiveness for all sin, past, present and future. Ours is to constantly thank God for His forgiveness. Where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.
Forgiveness is a finished work from the cross. We as human beings either accept the gift or reject it when we accept or reject Christ Himself. This is a critical message the world needs to understand about the cross. Knowing all this and to deliberately keep on sinning is the sin of unbelief that God cannot fogive because it is a rejection of His finished work on Calvary. There is no sacrifice for this sin. To reject this truth tramples the Son of God underfoot, regards the blood of the covenant as unclean and insults the Spirit if grace. Why then confess and repent? The thing that truly breaks the human heart is to realise what Christ has already gone through to forgive those sins and despite what we did to Him, He has forgiven us. "Father forgive them" was a prayer for every guilty sinner. We cannot help but confess how sinful we are in the light of God's forgiveness.
The true veil, Jesus Christ was rent on the cross. Calvary permanently removed the barrier between God and guilty sinners. When Christ shed His blood and died, He opened a new and living way, through the veil, His flesh, back to the very heart of God. The work was done. Every guilty sinner who accepts Christ treads this blood-stained path into God's heart of love. Back in the 1850's Horarius Bonar wrote a book, "The Rent Veil." It's a Christian classic and can be found at http://therentveil.com .
And there's so much more we have from Christ's finished work on the cross. We've already crossed over from death into life, we've already entered God's rest, we have the gift of the indwelling, Spirit of life, we have absolute certainty for the future…. And we've been given this ministration of reconciliation as God's ambassadors. Ours is the message of Christ crucified and risen and all that this has accomplished for the salvation of guilty sinners, by grace given freely for the sake of Christ.
Ray,
I’m beginning to appreciate the value of having one’s opinions published in a book. Other ‘smart’ people cite you as authoritative.
The simple seems complex as you expound upon the comprehensiveness of the cross. The only thing I disagreed with however was that I feel a need to confess and ask for forgiveness for sin. Once I do so, I know that I am forgiven because of the cross.
Now, you may or may not feel a need to ask for forgiveness Ray. For all I know you may not be as messed up as I am. Perhaps you’re not messed up at all. Thankfully, I know that I am forgiven; yet I need to acknowledge my condition. As I say, if you were me you would too (I know that much).
I’m glad that we have found agreement on my two previous posts however, brother.
Stephen, there's no reason to believe that I'm not as messed up as as anyone and I acknowledge it as you do. Confession is very much an outpouring of sorrow for what we have done to our Lord way too often.
I don't want to make a big deal about thanking or asking except to say that there are many struggling saints who are not sure of God's forgiveness. Unfortunately, the IJ doctrine has robbed a lot of people of the assurance of forgiveness over the years. One of the saddest things in life is trying to convince a loved one who has been an SDA all their lives that they have not committed the unpardonable sin and that they are not condemned by the one unconfessed sin on the books in the Most Holy.
The message of fogiveness is one of absolute certainty because Christ declared His atoning sacrifice on the cross "finished." No more sacrifice for sin. No more shedding of blood. Not another atonement. Our sins are gone and Christ is ours and we are His.
Ray, Yes, yes. All has been forgiven. Approach the throne of God with thanksgiving and praise, with boldness, proclaim to all, your salvation draweth nigh.
“the dilemma God faced when Adam and Eve disobeyed that law in the Garden of Eden…”
This concept does not match the Eden Story. The 10 Commandments was not the issue. Eve wanted more wisdom to understand right and wrong like God, her gullibility reveled her obvious need. Can we excuse Eve for not understanding the concept of death?
Adam wanted to support his wife standing by her side as God had instructed him through the loss of his rib. Adam’s love for God’s gift was his only fault. With honest hearts they needed further instruction and grace which would have corrected their behavior. In Eden God expected only perfection, allowing no room for learning throught mistakes. God showed no grace or mercy to human flaws, setting the tone for future generations to be war-like and exacting with each other.
So like Adam and Eve you are blaming God for what happened? Or like countless others since you are blaming God for not appropriately responding?
Who else? Who sent the tempter? Who threatened death? Who made the plan in advance, knowing what would happen? It was all a planned test but only the one who planned knew the outcome beforehand.
Yeah sure, our righteousness are as filthy rags; but Christ's righteousness is not. It is His perfect righteousness that is imputed and imparted to us. That is the major flaw in the premise of the blog. It's a classic strawman argument that fails to take into account that our salvation in terms of justification and sanctification is found in Christ alone (Gal 2:20) and not of ourselves. The blog presupposes legalism or self righteousness – and that we keep the Sabbath in order to be saved, hence the conclusion that our Sabbath keeping is just filthy rags. Obedience to God is a result of his saving grace through Christ alone which he imparts to us – and that is not in any way 'filthy rags.' That's the way grace works.
The Righteousness of Christ is our Righteousness. By FAITH in Christ we are partakers of HIS Righteousness. HE leads us into the paths of HIS Righteousness.
Adam & Eve. Eve had not a chance to escape the trap, set by God, to test the two innocents faith. And obviously Adam, athough not deceived, having tasted of the purity and sweetness of Eve, chose his faithful companion, over God's ruling. In the same circumstances what would you do?? Adam had paradise in his arms, he wanted no other. Saying God, before hand, knew that Eve would fail HIS IMPOSSIBLE TEST. What was GOD's purpose in setting up Eve & the wily Serpent in combat?? A impossible test between God's fallen Chief of all the heavenly angels, and the pure beautiful innocent creature, who had never known or tasted death?? This was totally different than the test of faith suffered by the hard armored warrior, Job, who had carved out a dynasty in the sands, who was able to say "though HE slay me, yet will i trust HIM. The first Adam wasn't the SON of GOD. Neither was Lucifer. Both failed their Creator. Just as have each and every created mankind to walk this Earth. Christ was crucified dead, He was placed in a tomb. He had the power over death, as he could raise Himself , resurrected to His Universal Spirit Being, able to assume human image or His Spiritual image instantly. He was seen entering the atmosphere bodily. Some of His intimates did not recognize Him as He assumed perhaps a partial image change.
How fast mankind, from generation to generation, tend's to forget truths. And must revisit the same mistakes, oer and oer, and retaste the bitter dregs. God said keep the SABBATH HOLY. It is a DATE of remembrance for you, that you belong to ME, you are Mine, purchased with My one and only Son's scarifice. He paid the price for your ransom. By your faith, in His merciful shedding of His GODLY Blood in your behalf, live in His Righteousness. LIFE is in the blood. My Holy Spirit will visit you, counsel you, speak through you, to others of MY perfect love. I visit hell and high waters for you. You are mine bought with a HOLY PRICE. I will search every highway, every byway, until I find each and every one of you. Earth is your domain, HEAVEN IS YOUR HOME, from EVER LASTING TO EVERLASTING. My family circle WILL BE COMPLETE. SO HELP ME. GOD. the ANCIENT of DAYS. IAM the ALMIGHTY. The KING of kings. The LORD of lords. The PRINCE of PEACE.
Ray, for a long time I have admired your resolute stand for the simple gospel. You always remain uncompromising when challenged by some who do not seem to understand the gospel.
There is much in Tom's piece that is helpful. It seems he is clear that Jesus was always righteous, from eternity, and always will be and for that reason his sabbath-keeping was a maintainence of his righteousness rather than an attainment to righteousness. So far, so good.
The element in this piece that troubles me is the loose use of "sanctify," "holy" and "righteous" as if they are synonyms. It leads Tom to claim: "He [God] is the God who makes us holy" [Emphasis Tom's]. I don't think I'm putting words into Tom's mouth by saying that he could have worded the sentence: "He is the God who makes us righteous" for he seems to equate righteousness with holiness.
The Reformation was fought over the idea of whether God made us righteous or counted us as righteous. SDAs haven't yet rid themselves of the idea that God makes us righteous. Fundamental #10 reads: "… so that in Him we might be made the righteousness of God." The real gospel is "… so that in Him we might be accounted as the righteousness of God."
The biblical word "righteous" (tsadeq/dikaiosune) is quite different to "sanctify" (qadesh/hagiazo) and "holy" (qodesh/hagiasmos). [I have tried to simplify this at the risk of missing verb forms and spelling variations]. Righteousness has to do with right doing, justice and ethical conduct according to God's law. Sanctification and holiness apply to the consecration of a person or place or thing for religious purposes. The act doesn't apportion righteousness. Righteousness and justice and proper ethical conduct belong to God alone. Proper ethics don't shift into inanimate places or things or even humans. Saints are counted righteous but they are not made righteous.
I'm quite happy with the concept: To sanctify means to set apart or consecrate as holy. But I believe it is incorrect for Tom to say: "To sanctify means to make holy, to set apart as righteous." In my opinion that is letting the ship drift into Roman Catholic waters. Yes, even the SDA church casts a line in those same waters and is one reason why it it treated with suspicion by most other Protestant churches. We must learn to define the everlasting gospel clearly.
Milton,
I totally agree with your distinction between making something righteous (or right) vs making it holy. When the Bible says that those who are "justfied" are also "sanctified" it is saying that those who are made right with God are also consecrated to the service of God. (But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11). This is the sense in which the old master of sin (to whose service we we previously devoted) is replaced by the new master of Christ (to whose service we are now consecrated). Paul is not saying we are made sinless or perfect, nor that we render perfect service. But he does say that we have a new purpose.
We are told to wear Christ like a garment (Romans 3:14). This a clear reference to the OT notion of priestly garments (you can also find this notion in Revelation). When the priest put on his holy garments he did not become sinless. But he did by this act devote himself exclusivey to his holy service. The garment covered his inner condition. You can learn this in the Mosaic code and also in Zechariah 3. (In the latter passage Joshua's earthly garment was soiled with excrement which was an abomination for a priest.) Our priestly garment is Jesus Christ.
Would you agree based upon your definitions above that when God made the seventh day holy (qadesh) in Genesis 2, that the seventh day was consecrated for a religious purpose? Some commenters have disputed this claim.
Also would you agree that the root meaning of tsadeq means to make something right? That righteous is only one way to translate this root and that the context must determine whether status or condition or both is what is made right?
I have done word studies on these Hebrew words (qadesh and tsadeq) but not on the Greek words you cite so I am not commenting on them here. Please (you or anyone else) do not start arguing with me about Greek when I am commenting on Hebrew.
Typo!
Romans 3:14 should be Romans 13:14.
The book of Romans is an amazingly balanced and comprehensive treatise if you read the whole book. And it follows a very logical and orderly progression from our condition without Christ, to salvation in Christ, our status from a human perspective, our status from a divine perspective, how to live a life of service to God. Many, many things. We need to read this whole book carefully.
Jim,
Amen!!! Like many, I wrestled with snippets of Romans for a long time. Then, when my faith had collapsed and I was struggling to reconnect with God, I read the entire book at one sitting. Wow! The lights started coming back on!
Thanks Milton. Very helpful and significant for someone who doesn't know Greek. In this light Heb 10:10 (and others like it) comes clear: "By this will we have been sanctified…" – present perfect tense – began in the past and is still current. This is not a progressive sanctification that is the work of a lifetime. It's a status we enjoy throughout our lifetime. The cross makes it our present reality – "through the offering of the body of Christ once for all."
On this basis I think it important to change one of my statements: "It is Calvary that will explain how it is righteous (replacing holy) and just for God to forgive sin and to restore the world to perfection and to grant redeemed sinners eternal life in the Earth made new."