Paul begins chapter five of Romans by referring to his thesis of justification by faith. Having established his argument with substantive evidence from the Old Testament he begins to discuss the blessings of Justification by Faith;(a)there is peace with God,(b)we have access to grace in which we stand,(c)there is cause for rejoicing in hope, so that we can glory even in tribulations,(d)there is God's love which He first demonstrated with the gift of His Son through the Holy Spirit Finally, there is salvation from God's wrath (vs9).All of this is made possible when we are reconciled to God through the death of His Son and should be the basis for endless rejoicing.To explain further the way in which salvation is made possible, Paul compares Christ to Adam. Through one man, Adam, sin and death entered the world, and the consequences have led to the death of many. In a similar way, through one man, Christ, many may now become righteous. Through Jesus' death on the cross, justification is made possible for many .Upon comparing Christ with Adam, Paul briefly mentions that with the entering in of law sin abounded. But the increase of sin has been adequately answered by the grace offered in Jesus Christ It took me a while to accept that the(wrath) spoken of in verse nine was in reference to God’s wrath. It perhaps is safe to conclude that Christ's death was to apease God's wrath.
The following is my reaction to the first 4 BRI articles. My favorite of the 4 by far was the first one on Ellen White’s comments regarding Adam and original sin. I thought Angel Rodriguez did a terrific job with the article, especially where he summarizes Ellen White’s statements in single sentences throughout the article. I thought the article was a great chronology of Adam and Eve, their first sin, and the effect of that sin on humanity and the earth. Many times throughout my reading I thought to myself, “this would be a great way to introduce this concept to Bible study candidates and new believers.” While this would be a helpful to share in its simplicity, I think the negatives would be too great. The greatest negative I came up with is that new believers would be better grounded in a simple chronology from Scripture instead of Ellen White. Let me just say that I am a huge fan of Ellen White, and her chronology has its place. I would say its place is for mature Christians with an educated confidence in the authority of Ellen White and her writings. So as tempting as it is for me to use this article with my Bible study candidates, I will save it for later, as I hope you will do too. Honestly, I was only superficially interested in the articles on original sin (the concept that later humanity is guilty for Adam’s sin). I thought the articles made great arguments in defense of the biblical position. I just personally don’t struggle with it. For me the Scriptures are clear that humanity and the earthly creation inherited a depraved state because of Adam’s sin, but nowhere do I find a solid argument to suggest that humanity is guilty for Adam’s sin each individually needs to be purified of it. If I find myself in a serious Bible study with someone on the subject I may come back and read these articles more thoroughly. I found myself in a similar place while reading the fourth article. I don’t personally struggle with the concept of universal legal justification at the cross. Based on my literal reading of Scripture this idea is a grave distortion. I feel like one has to take a very mystical approach to interpreting the verses that can be construed to teach this doctrine. I feel this mystical “in Christ” “in Adam” motif is taken to far by proponents of the universal justification teaching. Nowhere else in Scripture can I think of a place that warrants this mystical approach of interpretation. When figurative and metaphorical language is used in Scripture it is usually flagged and obvious to the reader of Scripture. There is nothing in the texts used to support universal justification to signal the reader to take a mystical interpretive method. I have heard proponents of this doctrine preach to Adventist masses in camp meetings, churches, and their books. Jack Sequiera (spelling ?) is one. There is another gentleman I have heard on several occasions. I can’t remember his first name, but I believe his last name is Livingston. He has a independent ministry in Washington D.C. He doesn’t take as an aggressive a stance as Sequiera, but his whole ministry seems based on bringing a unique healing ministry to people with extreme sinful addictions and orientations by teaching them that they have been universally forgiven, saved and empowered at the cross. He claims this understanding of salvation is bringing great victories in the lives of people. I have serious questions about this as well as his theology.
Dennis Said…. Justification is God’s act of making a sinner righteous before Him. Justification does not make us righteous but pronounces us righteous. Our righteousness comes from the sacrifice of Christ. In that He shed His blood for our sins and that His sacrifice covers our sins, allowing God to see us perfect. Justification cannot be achieved by going to church, sharing tears, singing and praising God. Justification can only be achieved through faith in God's dear son Jesus christ. Faith means to trust in God. It is casting all your care upon Him. As recorded in the Book of Romsns "There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” ROMANS 3: 22-26, NIV.
I think that Angel Rodriguez’s article, “Christ Saved the Human Race,” is an important article in terms of bringing some clarity to her statements and the doctrine of universal legal justification. Rodriguez takes some of White’s statements that seem to suggest that Christ provided justification for everybody and seeks to interpret these statements in a way that underscores the biblical understanding of salvation. However, I think Rodriguez also undercuts the truth of universal legal justification in order to come to this greater understanding. (I am only speaking of universal legal justification as it is described in the article.) Rodriguez seems to imply that the problem with universal legal justification is not that it may not be true, but that there is a mistake in the concept of it – that Christ’s justice is going to cover people who decide to continue living in their sins. But this mistaken impression of universal legal justification does not mean that there was no universal legal justification at the Cross. What it does mean is that we have to come to and propagate a better understanding of what took place at Calvary. The idea that Rodriguez expresses, that the justification was universal but that human beings must still access that justification, is well within a definition of universal legal justification. By bringing a different concept to bear on the model of universal legal justification, we can bring everyone to a more holistic understanding of salvation without offending those who believe in the universal legal justification model. I think it comes back to the way we think about different issues. Instead of trying to show how different ideas can fit together, we try to show how things must be either accepted or rejected, with no quarter given. This does not seem to be a proper way to go about trying to help people come to a more complete biblical understanding of the concept of salvation.
For some time now I have been meditating on the concept of hope. Faith hope and love – these three great things are not meant to be merely theoretical or theological. They should be the greatest experiential realities in my life. Faith, I get. I have experienced genuine faith, and recognize when I am exercising it and when I am not. I have experienced, even if very dimply, the reality of faith. I think I can safely say the same for love. Of course, I do not suppose myself to have experienced it to the depth that others have, or the depth I could. But I get it. It is a reality that I have experienced in my life.
But hope, I do not understand. The idea of hope may make sense to me, I may understand its definition, but its reality escapes me. Perhaps it is the result of its use in my culture. Maybe my lack of understanding is a result of such common expressions as “to hope beyond hope”, an expression that casts hope as the act of eagerly desiring something that will not happen in reality. But this is not the hope I find in scripture. As part of my research project, I did a word search on hope, looking for how many times Paul references it in connection with glorification, the second coming, the great event which is the hope of all who hope in Christ. I found that most of the time the word is used it is in connection with glorification. It is becoming clear to me that the hope of glorification was very much a reality to Paul.
It breaks my heart that I cannot currently say the same for myself. The second coming of Christ – the change in reality that will come on that great day – rarely go beyond the level of theoretical knowledge to me. I can wrap my mind around it, but that is all. Unlike faith and love, I have rarely experience the practical reality of hope. It makes some sense in my mind, but not in my soul.
The funny thing is that by just meditating on my lack of hope, I find myself experiencing more of it. It leads me to wonder if the hope that I feel – that I may have hope – is the only reality I may experience before the glorification is actually realized.
My desire is to better understand what hope means to a person of great faith. Paul, and as my memory serves, Ellen White, were both extremely motivated by hope. They seemed to find strength to endure hardship by focusing their attention on the glory to come at the end. My hope is that in discovering the reality of hope, and applying it as a reality in my life, I too will be able to find the strength needed to stay faithful to God through the trials that come.
So I guess the question is how does this relate to salvation? Experience is a difficult thing to base research on. In theological terms, I suppose I am interested in the relationship between hope and sanctification. Is hope a concept that will not be satisfied until glorification, or does hope play part in the ongoing process of salvation as a part of the sanctification process?
Doctrine of Salvation Blog Comment By: Daniel Yim June 12, 2009
Larry J. Kane brought out some insightful commentary in his article, Analysis of the Doctrine of Universal “Legal” Justification. In the article, Kane discusses the belief of Universal Legal Justification as taught by the 1888 Message Study Committee. The committee asserts that universal legal justification is sufficient for sinners to turn from their ways and restore the broken relationship from God. But is this belief Biblical? Kane’s position is that man’s salvation is dependent upon God’s initiative toward sinners. It is God that seeks out and saves the lost, not the lost seeking God’s love. I like Kane’s example from Genesis 3, where God promptly seeks out Adam and Eve after their sin. I also refer to the passage where Jesus tells a parable to a crowd about a man with 100 sheep. 99 are safe in the fold, but 1 has been lost. The loving shepherd is not content with his 99 in the fold, so he goes out in the night to rescue that lost sheep. As a young child reading Uncle Author’s Bedtime Stories, I remember this story very well from the pictures in the book. The shepherd comes to a ditch and pulls the little lamb, caught in some branches, unable to break free. The shepherd uses his long staff to free the lamb, place it on his shoulders and joyfully walk back home. These two examples of God’s initiative toward saving sinners, paints a picture in my mind of our condition as lost sinners. First, there is Adam and Eve, running from the presence of God, ashamed of their nakedness. They knew that something had gone terribly wrong. They felt the absence of God’s glory and in it’s place, the shamefulness of sin reigned. Then there is the lost lamb. When I remember the pictures from Bedtime Stories, I can only feel the fear and danger that the little lamb faced, all alone in the wilderness among devouring animals. The little lamb must have sensed that something was wrong. There were no other sheep with which the lamb could hide under. The shepherd’s comforting voice could not be heard. The protecting staff of the shepherd could not be felt. Thus, the little lost lamb must have known about its dire situation. My response to Kane’s article centers on the condition of the sinner’s heart. Sinners are separated from God and by human nature, we are aware of this separation. There are people who acknowledge that they are sinners. There are some who do not acknowledge that they are sinners living in a sinful world. I believe in Kane’s position that God initiates the salvation process by seeking out sinners. This is the first step towards restoration. What we as lost sheep do in response to the freely offered gift to all humanity depends on everyone’s free will choice. We are not instructed or ordered to obey and accept this gift of salvation, rather we choose to respond to the calling of God. Concerning the discussion from class time, I am reminded that justification and sanctification are closely related. The book of Romans reveals how the salvation process can be seen in successive steps of righteousness to holiness to eternal life. I see how the objective process of justification was a gift from God, which did not involve my vote or input. I did not vote on whether Christ would die for my sins or not. It happened and I can choose to accept it or reject it. In a similar manner, sanctification is what God can do in me when I allow his grace to fulfill God’s love in my life. I see how Kane’s position in his article supports what our class discussed on salvation. Christ did, so now we can respond. Christ did, so now we can allow Christ to do more. Christ did, so we will be able to be with God forever.
Through the reading Romans, “Ellen White on Salvation” by Whidden II, BRI documents related to this topic, and class lectures made me seriously think about the meaning of Salvation. What is salvation? So I looked up the dictionary; redemption: (theology) the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil. It is very simple to understand the meaning salvation God’s saving work (grace) for us from sin (lost) to eternal life. (I know you can explain this saving work in many ways. That is why there are many models to explain this.) But why there are many models of salvation? Why Theologians make this simple fact more difficult to understand? Did the thief on the right side of the cross with Jesus understand ‘righteous by faith’ when he asked Jesus to remember him? Is this from the influence of Greek philosophy? Why theologians can not see the whole picture (I mean holistically)? I do not want to assert “Just Simply Believe” is the best way to accept and to understand Salvation. However I think we need to shift our thinking to help others to understand this great fact (gift) from God through Jesus Christ.
“For God so loved the world and He gave his only begotten son whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16)”
All these complicated models and thoughts makes me much more complicated, however I found a very important lesson from Ellen White and her experience how she settled down her understanding on Salvation. That is she met true personal God and his saving grace through the Buxton camp meeting and most importantly (finally) the helps of Elder Levi Stockman. After that she settled this issue. Let me quote her saying on the below
“It is quite clear from this time on that there were no more serious ups and downs in her experience of salvation. Even the traumas of being expelled from the Methodist Church or the severe trials of the Millerite disappointments did not provoke another crisis of soul about her personal salvation.”(Whidden II, 1995, 19)
My conclusion for this struggle understanding on Salvation issue is this idea of salvation human can not explain 100% about it. We can only understand this great issue and blessing through our personal encounter with Jesus.
Hope this short reflection I struggled on Salvation help others.
(Poor human knowledge can not reach God’s great things. Maybe that is why we more anticipate Heaven and His second coming.)
For this first week, I would like to reflect on the article, “Christ Saved the Human Race” by Angel Manuel Rodriguez. In this article we can see that the Christ is the main key point of the whole issue. Of the many models of salvation discussed in class, we saw a common denominator, which was Christ. We figured that no matter how we talk about these different models of salvation, there would be no point, or would not be effective if Christ were not in these models. Therefore the overall key point that we must keep in mind is that in the issue of salvation, nothing is possible without Christ. Christ is the only key and only through Him is salvation possible. In this article I noticed couple models of salvation which we discussed about in class, which are the redemptive model and the ransom model of salvation. Looking into these models, the word that right away pops into my mind is “recovery.” I could see that here the process of salvation is to recover what was lost. When God created the world, the world and human kind were perfect and sinless. But because of sin, or the fall of man, everything was lost. The connection between God and man were disconnected, the relationship had been broken. In order for God to recover what was lost, Christ functioned as a key role(which is also only possible through Him) to bring recovery, or salvation, for mankind. I do not think this is a perfect analogy but I can recall what happened to me last week. One day, I drove over to the seminary building for class. It was a warm day and my window was open so that I can get some cool air. But as I parked my car and tried to close the window, it did not close. There was this weird sound, and the window motor was obviously working but some had fallen apart. Later that day a friend came over to help me find out what had happened to the window, we opened up and found out that the cord in the window regulator unit was frayed. The only way of fixing it is to replace the part. Later I had to order the part which took a few days for it to arrive and I had to leave my window covered with a plastic bag which was really uncomfortable to drive with. Eventually I was able to fix the window. I was able to recover the car to its full functions. This experience cannot fully explain the idea of redemptive salvation, but makes sense in some ways. The part was broken. It had to be replaced, and the part obviously had to be paid(a lot for a student, perhaps a lot for anyone). But because I had paid for it I was able to redeem, recover, or even save my car. I like the point where it says that “saved the world” does not mean it actually saved the whole human race. Christ saved the world by bridging a way for the human race to be saved by choice. Through His death, everyone are given the opportunity to be saved, but it is only those who choose to be saved will be saved. It’s the freedom of will and choice, which makes powerful. A power to choose. But this is a power which God allowed us to have. It is where we can see His greatness. I could have chosen not to fix my car window and be uncomfortable the whole time. I made a choice to fix my car. In the same way, we can choose to be saved and look for the hope of being with Jesus again.
Response To “Ellen White on Salvation” Chapters 1 & 2
It was a great relief for me to read that Ellen White had a gradual growth and understanding of the doctrine of Salvation throughout her life. Hers, I’m sure, differs from ours in that, a lot of fine tuning and gradual growth in understanding had to happen in her era as the SDA church was growing and developing. We, nowadays, seem to have all the information presented to us at once, the models are presented to us all together. In the case of sister White, it seemed like there was a point of beginning for her, based on her background and experience, and then, as she studied, and grew in understanding, age and experience, it grew. Perhaps each discovery and experience allowed her to have a more holistic understanding of salvation, and perhaps an element of one enlightened another. Maybe for her it wasn’t necessarily a matter of what was “right”, but how each related to the other, how they supported each other, but cast a new light on a very big subject. In the third chapter of the book, I especially appreciated the illustrations given in chapter three, in regards to her responses to radicals on either side of salvation spectrum. Trying to discourage, and not be associated with those who held the view of ultra holiness, whom she said didn’t even need to pray the Lords prayer because they didn’t sin, but also those on the other extreme. She had to set straight Elder Brown who would mislead people by teaching that “it was impossible for anyone to keep God’s law and that no one will get to heaven by keeping the law.” He further went on to claim that Mrs. White was “all law.” She keenly puts him back in his place and weeds out the error in his statements by responding to him the way she did. (Her response can be read on page 25 of our book.) It seems like being to quick to live or believe in one extreme or another is an issue that has to often plagued our denomination. We need to be careful to look at any doctrine or belief based on what the Bible says holistically. Yet, so many, and even myself on certain issues, just want to know the “right answer.” In the case of Salvation, as has continually come up in our discussion in class, by leaning to far one way in our viewpoints, it’s possible that we are missing part of the truth in our pursuit to find the right answer.
Thanks for your analyzing first five Chapters of Romans. I tried to understand righteous by faith clearly in that book (That is why I read whole book of Romans before the class started.) and I also read several times in English and Korean to understand it more clearly. But still the book of Romans is vague to me. Maybe Paul's writing is so delicate to me to understand. If you have any good suggestion to understand the book better, please let me know.
Hey Myoung, You got the right and the most important point, that is Christ is the center of our Salvation. I really like that. Thanks for you pointed that out!
I like your "Recovery model" and it makes sense. And you tried to explain that with your experience(I think your example is a bit awkward. But I can understand what you want to say^^) Like we discussed in the class, models can be named in variety of ways what the person emphasis on the most.
In trying to understand the doctrine of salvation, I found myself contemplating the concept of sin. A recent experience convinced me that we Christians have a terrible difficulty in appreciating the depth of salvation because our understanding of sin is so shallow.
Last week I shared this request with a group of my friends: "Well, my request is for a personal area of my helplessness. I'm normally a pretty productive person, but I seem to be inextricably caught in a bout of laziness. It's terrible! So I need prayer that God will cure me of this laziness." Strangely, the group didn't want to accept that. I got a couple friendly chuckles and some advice about letting go of my to-do lists. I protested that no, this really was a problem, and someone shared a story about a fellow classmate of ours who throws away his syllabi at the start of every term and ignores due dates and has all A's. I tried to communicate the problem wasn't really about my achievements (my grades are just fine, actually) but rather it's a problem of my character: I need to do things that I don't want to do. After a couple more rebuttals, I said, "Okay, I think I'll just pray for myself." During our time for prayer, someone did actually pray for me, but it happened to be more of a request that God would help all of us get our schoolwork done during this summer semester. This strange episode seems to me to be indicative of a rampant illness of sin-ambivalence, characterized by the inability to acknowledge specific personal sin as evil, and the overwhelming compulsion to ameliorate any (possibly justified) feelings of guilt. So we talk about our sins as if they were just personality quirks and we tend to phrase any such admission in such a way as to avoid the impression that this was not some slip or accident, but rather something very in tune with the feelings of our hearts. (Notice how in my own confession, I mentioned how I was normally a productive person, as if to say that this problem was really out of character for me.) When we talk about sin, we rather prefer to talk about sins generally, with the eager agreement that we're all sinners and the underlying feeling that there's nothing we can really do about it and we really shouldn't hold it against ourselves or each other.
On the rare occasion that someone does confess a sin, our first instinct is to make that person feel better. The first words out of our mouths are "It's okay." We assure him that a lot of people probably struggle with this and that it's nothing to be ashamed of. (I get the distinct impression from the Bible, however, that sin is exactly the thing we ought to be ashamed of.) We make sure to remove the sense of personal responsibility from the confessor at almost all costs, steering clear of any suggestion that her personal choice might be the cause. (Since alcoholism is called a disease, perhaps we've concluded that any thing we do that we don't approve of is also a disease, out of our control and not really our fault.) When we ask for prayer so often we avoid the personal. It seems to me that while we avoid making any requests that could give the right impression about our spiritual needs, we're eager to bring up to the group Aunt Sally and her disease. (But the Jesus who heals the paralytic also heals our souls... right?) I honestly and truly feel that my laziness is a sin and that it is a personal character defect that is interfering with my spiritual well-being. When Jesus bore my sins on the cross--the sins that crushed out His life--I believe that He carried my laziness. And when I choose laziness, I think that it really is an act of rebellion against God, choosing my own desires over His and rejecting His lordship in my life. In other words, I think it's really bad! It’s one of the things I need Jesus to save me from… It's strange that we can be so uncomfortable with acknowledging personal sin and yet so comfortable in committing it.
By: Fa’asoa M. Fa’asoa 6/14/09 Salvation (article 1) In an article written for the PERSPECTIVE DIGEST, vol. 14-2009 by Norman Gulley Ph.D., titled “The Good News About Last-Day Events”, a shocking but not necessarily surprising survey was done by Dr. Gulley with the following results: “…49 percent said they were worried about the pre-advent judgment; 56 percent expressed fear about last-day events; in fact, 41 percent said they would rather die than go through last-day events; 37 percent expressed the belief that they would gain entrance to heaven through Christ’s sacrifice plus their human works; 50 percent said they were no sure they would be saved if they died today; and yet 88 percent claimed they know Christ as a personal friend.” “These are stunning revelations when you realize that these represent a cross-section of Seventh-day Adventist international youth, studying a variety of majors.” Okay, okay, I can understand how one’s nerves might get frazzled over the plethora of situations presented in Revelation 13 about the last days, but to claim that “you know Christ as a personal friend,” and yet scared to death in the fearful allusion that Christ/God will not be there to protect you or even to raise you from death should anything happen to you, which Jesus-according to Luke, and many other Bible authors clarifies as a state of SLEEP?! What in the world is going on with my generation?! It causes me to wonder what the teachers in their classrooms are teaching about their so-called “personal friend” if that friend isn’t powerful enough to take them through to the end to victory; what tragedy?! This can’t be the Jesus of scripture! Speaking of whom, I must say that after reading Mr. Angel Rodriquez’s article on Adam and the Human Race via Ellen White, on the issue of Salvation, which I believe has solid connections to last day events; I am once again convinced of how desperately we all need to get to know our Saviour, our Lord, our Redeemer, our God, our Creator, and YES our true and faithful FRIEND on a personal level daily. Against the backdrop of not only: guilt, the flood of disharmonization of man’s will with GOD’S, but also the unimaginable magnitude of death and misery that has passed on to us in modernity because of Adam and Eve’s destructive and selfish choice; we would be without hope were it not for Jesus. Seriously, I don’t think that we would ever realize how terrible sin is and how horrific it’s results would be were it not for the Love of the Father who gave His only unique and precious Son, and sacrificed Him in order that we may have a fair chance of choosing for ourselves to follow GOD or not. Mr. Rodriquez hit the nail on the head by stating that, “Adam’s sin was his own sin, but it had a universal impact and negatively affected every member of the human race, who is now born in state of separation from God and unable to overcome the power of sin. He (referring to Adam…the first one) determined our fate; but thanks be to God for JESUS CHRIST, through whom we have REDEMPTION! He is now the ONE who determines our fate.” Perfect Love, the Bible teaches, casts out fear and so to me, how obvious then that my brothers and sisters who participated in Dr. Gulley’s survey-in this man’s humble opinion, perhaps did not yet understand true LOVE. They perhaps do not yet understand the LOVE of GOD that John wrote about in the third chapter verses 16, and 17 of his letter, “For God so LOVED the World (Adam’s posterity) that he gave His only unique Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life; God didn’t send His Son to condemn the World but that the World might be saved.” I believe that it would our privilege to look into getting to know Christ once again in relation to our Salvation and the assurance that we can have as a result of that friendship. He is our mediator and our Salvation, trust Him fully! Proverbs 3:5,6
Doctrine of Salvation reading Assignment. Ellen White on Salvation By Woodrow W. Whidden
It was a delight reading the views of Ellen white on the model of atonement which has in recent years grown in popularity among seventh-day Adventists. In fact this view has become so compelling for many that they have tried to make it the dominant, controlling view in Ellen White’s presentations on the atonement. Atonement was used to express all that the trinity has done and will do to reconcile sinners to Him. In the early years of Adventism some of the writers felt that the atonement did not reflect the death of Christ on the cross but refers to only His work in the Heavenly sanctuary (Holy of Holies). Ellen white made it an ambiguous clear that the work of atonement involves His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary also. She made it clear that atonement is provided for all but it becomes very effective only for those who respond to the invitation of Christ. Christ’s intercessory ministry in the Holy of Holies is part of the atonement. Ellen White saw the cross as the only supreme manifestation of God’s love. There’re el of loving moral influence that are communicated both to sinners and the unfallen beings of the universe. The death of Christ on the cross reveals how offensive sin is to God. It was a manifestation of divine wrath against sin. Upon Christ our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. Here we can see that Penal Substitution model which emphasized the justice of God in His love. This theory has been the most popular atonement model among conservatives Christians. This is one of the dominant themes in Ellen White’s thoughts about atonement. Fritz Guy commenting on the Penal Substitution theory said that “the death of Jesus is not God making someone else “pay the penalty instead of us; it’s God taking the penalty on himself.” Jesus willingly paid the price not only to secure our redemption but also to demonstrate the fullness of divine love to a confused universe.
Against ‘Elder Brown’. By: Fa’asoa M. Fa’asoa 6.15.09 Lines are drawn and the battle is on. It is the event of the summer as The Pacific Voyage sails through the west coast towards the state of Oregon with loaded words of correction for a certain ‘brother Brown.’ The year is 1878 and the disturbing news of his misstatements against Ellen White’s developing understanding and position on Salvation and God’s moral Law brought him face to face with his own accusations. Like a moth to the flame burned by the fire, Sir. Brown perhaps quickly realized why we don’t throw gasoline on live coals. If you play with fire, you will most likely get burned. Like a 12 gage silver pistol, with an ivory handle cocked and fired, Ellen white said the following words without ducking from fear of her opponent. “…Christ, Christ, only believe on Christ, when they do not do the works of Christ.” “What is the sinner to be converted from? The transgression of God’s law to obedience of it. But if he is told that he cannot keep the law of God…to what is he then converted ---from transgression of the law to a continuance in that transgression? This is absurd!” (ST, July 18,, 1878). And then there was the kicker. “When sorely pressed by what she felt was gross misrepresentation, she declared that salvation by obedience to the LAW is impossible, but salvation without obedience is also just as impossible. She declared that we are justified only by faith in the “merits” of Christ, but such faith will never excuse transgression (ST, July 18, 1878).” I would hate to have been in Mr. Brown’s shoes just then. In class today and since its’ inception, we have been batting various models around and seemed to have come to somewhat of an understanding, well okay I’ll speak for myself, that all models have their place and play very important roles to a balance and Wholistic understanding of Salvation, though not limited to this concept. Ellen White, according to Whidden II seemed, like any of us, to have had to grow from her own Wesleyan concept of Salvation to a broader and much more balanced view of this concept in her later days for which I am truly thankful. For me, unlike the comments made in class by my classmates saying how “Ellen White refused to take a stance on either side,” sister White was more thoughtful and was in process rather than having to make a stance or even take a certain attitude as she approached each issue with all the factors at play in her time. I Love sister White and would counted a privilege and an honor to someday see her in heaven with Jesus. Way to battle sister White, and a congradulatory handshake for learning Mr. Brown and all the Browns in Adventism and Christianity today, myself included.
In Romans, Paul starts out after his greeting by affirming his longing to go to Rome. He spends a considerable part of the first chapter just letting the Jews at Rome know that he is still doing everything in his power to get to Rome. Then he is bragging about the gospel which is very admirable. He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, which is a key evangelistic text used very frequently. It is the power of God for everyone who believes, for the Jews first and the Greeks as well. I like how Paul always reminds people that everyone is equally entitled to salvation. In this first chapter he really showed everyone how excited he was about the gospel. One of the things that I liked the most that I‘ve never realized before is that here Paul sounds exactly like a brand new believer. No one is able to save themselves, because the power of God and the gospel are the salvation for everyone. The gospel has provided grace so that we could all be saved. I think our church sometimes gets too caught up in being a “particular” people and not wanting to be a church that preaches too much grace. We often stress the Sabbath or the 2nd Advent before we even preach the plain fact that it is the gospel of Jesus that is the power to save everyone, Jew and Gentile alike. In Romans 2:1-4 there were many different things Paul said in this chapter that impacted me on a personal level. For one, early on in the chapter Paul talked about the kindness of God leading us towards repentance. This reminded me of an Ellen White quote that was similar. I can’t remember it word for word, but it basically said that true repentance always brings about a change in character. People who wrestle with sin are different than those who live in sin and daily pray a prayer of false repentance.
Quigley Morris Doctrines of Salvation 06/16/09 Doctrine of Salvation
Topic: Justification Thesis: Before the sin problem, God made provision through his son Jesus Christ to redeem man from sin; what Christ did to made reconciliation with God for us, cause him to live among men in the flesh, and died to save man from sin. Sin is dreadful and is always associated with death; sin disconnected man from meeting his creator as Adam and Eve did for a short time. So painful was the weight on the human race that Christ had to reconnect man to his creator. His faithfulness to the plan was consistence with the father’s will, he believed in his plan that salvation could only come to this dreadful people only through his death. His faithfulness declared to a repentant sinner you are release from the guilt of sin It is his atonement alone that made justification possible and set man free. In his life on earth Christ provided the example to a sick world, and his mission help his followers to understand when a person accept Christ as his Savior he stand accepted and justified before God. Our new status of justification becomes possible not because of who we are but because of our relationship with Christ. It is maintain by our faith in Christ and being in that advantage condition we are entitle of the reward and benefits that belong to the righteous. From the plan of salvation to his death the status depend upon faith; we become sons and daughters by virtue of our faith in Jesus and by the faith in Jesus. A man is not justified by his work or who he is but by the faith of Jesus. From Justification we get the gift of peace and it prepares the way for sanctification and glorification.
For my thoughts this week I would first of all like to say that I was tremendously blessed and helped by the article How Perfect Is "Perfect" Or is Christian Perfection Possible by Edward Heppenstall. I have bookmarked the reference to that in my Internet browser for quick access. The article helped me understand a concept I have been personally wrestling with.
But for the rest of my thoughts this week, I would like to continue exploring the topic of hope. Since my last post, I went on a trip with my wife to Milwaukee to see my sister – a spiritual giant in my life. Her husband is, as well, a challenging thinker who has a knack for helping me see things from a more helpful angle. As I wrote in my last blog, I have been wrestling with the reality of hope. The theology made sense to me, I though, but I was honestly confessing that could sense a lack of hope in my life.
I shared my thoughts with my sister’s husband as we walked around a lake in a wildlife reserve. He, being from a different culture (Slovakia) than I, did not understand at first what I was wrestling with. To him, hope was very real and easy to both understand and experience. As he understands it, hope is simply the eager expectation that all the troubles in this life (he has been battling a painful disease for the last ten or so years) will end and life anew with God will make it all worth it and more. Hope in the life to come is very real and present in his life because his current life sucks.
This gave me a bit of a different perspective. It made me think about Jesus’ disciples as they sat with Him in the upper room. Imagine this group of young men. They have been walking with Jesus for three years, full of expectations of what His mission was to accomplish. They had been filled with a false hope of what it means to be a Christian in this life. They expected present glory. But as the Passover approached, things seemed to be spinning out of control. One disciple, determined to force Jesus into revealing his glory, betrayed Him. Another, overly optimistic about his own devotion assumed that he would be able to make it through the trials ahead with strength and honor. Another still wrestled with doubt, while another wanted the Teacher to stop talking about all this dark stuff – “just tell me about the Father’s love…I don’t need to focus on this negative stuff!”
In the middle of this disappointing group is Jesus. He knows every man their better than they know themselves. He knows every heart. He knows that as soon as the shepherd is taken from them the sheep sill scatter. If anyone has the right to be worried, it’s Jesus. But He does not chastise them for their lack of faith, or say something like “you guys have NO idea what is about to happen, do you?” What he tells them – what he commands them is “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, so trust in Me….In my fathers house are many rooms…”
What Jesus gives them is hope. He lifts their minds beyond the trials to come, and invites them to meditate in the warmth of hope. By his death, Jesus would demonstrate and provide the way for the great hope to His disciples and all Christians – the hope of the resurrection.
Today was a very tricky day for me because I came to class with a divided attention for obvious reasons. However, what struck my mind was the issue of the love of God in relation to His predestination as reflected in the Pauline argument in Romans which Calvin interpreted to arrive at what is perceived in the study of the doctrine of salvation as a deterministic view of God’s predestination. The question for reflect therefore is: how can the understanding of God’s love help us avoid or affirming Calvin’s deterministic view of predestination? As I reflected on the love of God what came into my mind is the cross from the perspective of the gospel of John. By the way, going to the gospel of John was pretty obvious considering the fact I have been looking at and wrestling with the prayer of Jesus in John 17, specifically John 17:3, where Jesus observes that “this is eternal life they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you sent. What is interesting with these words of Jesus is the fact that the understanding of what constitutes eternal life ought to involve both knowing (imply intimate knowledge) the Only True God and Jesus Christ whom He sent (could this understanding also mean that Jesus’s prayer implies the need for a holistic understanding of salvation model that looks at both the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent?). In the context of the gospel of John, both God and Jesus are important figures in the work of salvation; this is because, God so loved the world that He gave his unique Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Thus, when John 17:3 is paralleled with John 3:15-17, one of the common denominators is eternal life and faith is critical. This love of God is revealed more actively on the cross where the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), was “cut off for the sins of the people” (Isaiah 53:8). What is important to note is that Jesus told Nicodemus that that the Son of Man must (literary, it is necessary) be lifted up (future divine passive) so that everyone who believes (entrust or committed to) in Him may have eternal life because (the reason is that) God loved the world and gave his unique Son so that whoever believes in him may not die but have eternal life. Notice the parallels between verses 14-18 bearing in mind that the main subject starts in v 14 and v 15 provides the object of the sentence, while verses 16 and 17 are dependent clauses: 14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. 16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but (may) have eternal life. 17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. 18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (NAS).
The main subject of (verses 14-18) is the Son of Man, the main verb is lifted up, the main object is eternal life to those who believe, and the cause for lifting Him up is the love of God. The reason why some people will be saved is because they have believed in the Son of Man who was lifted up for their sins, and those who will be condemned are those who have not believed in the Son of God: faith is central but this faith is awakened by the Love of God as one looks to the cross and sees what the Anointed Jesus has done (V 14): this is the goodness of God, even His love.
I noticed that Paul starts out strong in chapter 5 and finishes strong. Early on he establishes one of the most gospel-oriented texts in the new testament—But Christ demonstrates his own love for us in this. That while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. I am so thankful that Paul made a deliberate effort to tell everyone that Christ did not just die for the righteous but the sinner as well. This is remniscient to me of how Jesus told everyone in the gospels that He came to seek and save the lost. Paul clearly has a Christological theology. Also in this chapter Paul dwells on one of the more prevalent themes in the book of Romans which is the relationship between Adam and God and all mankind in fact. WE may have condemnation through Adam alone, but we also thankfully have redemption through Christ alone. Paul starts out chapter 6 with a question. “What shall we say then?” This shows us that he is still building on the ideas he was talking about in chapter 5. The question is the bridge between the two verses. He also asks about sinning more so that grace may abound. And he quickly asserts that would indeed be a ridiculous theology. I think there are a lot of people who practice that cheap grace theology today unknowingly. I also think this is an excellent chapter for supporting that Adventist belief of baptism by immersion. The whole vocabulary of the chapter is comparing baptism to death and buriel. How could this be accomplished by anything less than baptism by immersion? I’m sure this chapter is used a lot in evangelistic sermons. Also it was interesting that Paul made sure we all know the significance of dying with Christ early on in the chapter. This talk may have been hard for some people to digest even though it is good news. (because it is rarely easy to die to yourself) But then several verses later in verse 8 it’s almost like he’s giving the other side. First we die with Christ. We participate in the death of Christ in order that we may participate in the resurrection of Christ. I also enjoyed Whidden’s chapters on Ellen White and Salvation. It was interesting that her back drop for everything is the great controversy. That is the big picture here. I also appreciated the way she balances justification and obedience.
The beginning of class I didn’t know what to expect. I’m really enjoying the discussions because I am not as knowledge as those in my class. I want to be a sponge and learn from the professor and my classmates as we discuss doctrine and salvation. On Monday the question was ask about what is a doctrine and before then I was thinking it was more of written practices. But as the discussion went on I really liked defining doctrine as the teaching of beliefs or norms that compliment a holistic understanding. As I listened further it was stated that the Bible is the “sola scriptura” and when doctrines are written they should be biblical. But as I stated several “unwritten laws” are not biblical (jewelry, dress, etc), and I wonder if doctrines were to be biblical, and doctrines that we keep are not biblical, why were they even written? The models of salvation are really enlightening because I liked when there is “no one model of salvation” was stated. Salvation is a process that we all experience and go through or will go through if we plan to make to heaven. What was crazy to me when reading the “Ellen White on Salvation”, she was worried about salvation as a twelve year old. At twelve I just wanted to play baseballs and basketball. That lets me know I far off I was that age. The various models are all unique in their own design, but the one I am more accustomed to hearing is penal substitution. I have heard of all of them especially atonement, ransom, liberation, and moral influence, but penal substitution, taking the place and the pain for or suffering for us, is what my church preached. The lasting thought was how justification, sanctification, and glorification are all linked and depend upon one other. But when it was explained more and how righteousness bears fruits in holiness, which results in eternal life. To me this shows a how salvation is a process, but before one can get to righteousness, faith must be present to be considered righteous. This is going to get deep! I am excited to learn from others and from the professor. I’m learning that salvation is process that takes time to happen and we may never see perfection in ourselves until we reach glory. The weird thing is, aren’t we supposed to see some perfection in ourselves as we draw closer to Christ? Aren’t we supposed to see Christ in our selves, as well as others? Salvation is a deep topic in which I’m ready to go deep sea diving!
One of the more interesting subjects that we have discussed in the past week or so has been the idea of how God’s foreknowledge and predestination operates. Of course, complicating the issue is the idea that God has given us freedom and so our freedom must work in conjunction with the fact that God has not only the ability to know the future, but also to predestinate events as well. I guess I should not expect to have any idea how it operates after thinking about it for only a week, but in truth the concept does confuse me. It seems that in order for human freedom to take place, God must know the future in terms of possibilities and not actualities. But then of course the question becomes how does God know what’s going to actually happen? If He does know how things are going to happen, why does He spend any time trying to convince us of anything if He knows whether we’re going to listen or not? Does God spend a lot of time shouting at the wind? I think that, as Dr. Hanna intimated, we have to change our conception of foreknowledge and predestination. Predestination has to become this concept in which God’s only will is that we be saved and that we be free, with the idea that freedom comes first. It is then that freedom that gives us the opportunity to fulfill His second will, that we be saved. Foreknowledge, then, has to become a concept in which God knows the decisions that we will make, but does not make them for us. I still don’t know if that’s possible, but I believe in faith that it is. This all has tremendous implications for the concept of freedom. If God has predestined us to be free, then how are we really free? It seems that the freedom is being forced on us, and if that is the case, then how can it truly be free. Why don’t human beings have the option to be automatons? While I don’t understand why anyone would want that, it seems that true freedom would imply the choice of whether you wanted to be free or not. I know I haven’t said much, but any help in coming to a greater understanding of this topic would be greatly appreciated.
Comment on "The Dynamics of Salvation" from the BRI Website. This document is “A concise study of how humans are saved”.
About five or six years ago when I was in Korea as a Theology major student, one of professor gave copy of this article to me. At that time I just scanned through the article but I was not deeply interested in it. Maybe at that time I was young (people say I am still young, but I feel like I am getting more mature and physically I feel I am getting old) and I worked as a youth pastor, so my interest was on the Youth Ministry, especially events, how can I make young people stay in the church. One of the solutions was find a way to entertained them with things related to the bible and Christianity (I regret that attitude I had before).
Today, almost whole Friday, June 19, 2009, I read very carefully about this article on “The Dynamics of Salvation”. I read this not just because the attraction of the title but the brief explanation right next to the title. It says that this is a brief summary of how humans are saved (In other words, about on the Salvation). I wanted to understand more clearly about salvation and how does Seventh-day Adventist church understand this important issue. After I read the background on the statement "The dynamics of salvation", I really appreciated church leaders and scholars those who spent time for this important subject. (I highly recommend you to read the background of this document and more over the main document several times cautiously. I think you can get general view of salvation of Adventist understanding).
I personally want to quote the whole document and highlight the important words, issues, and phrases to share my understanding on Salvation (the Dynamics of Salvation) however because of lack of the page and time. Let me choose couple important words what I thought and learned from this document.
After I read this whole document seriously, one word kept echoing in my mind that is “Initiative”. Not our initiative, but God’s initiative toward us. Even, I was very touched the Great Love of Him through this word. This is good news, this is true love! One good example in the article on this issue (“Initiative”) is “In Jesus Christ the divine initiative reaches a unique climax. God had continually intervened to bring salvation; now in a supreme act of self-giving, God the Son becomes the incarnate Christ.
Another important of the divine initiative is the work of the Holy Spirit, because He energizes our will to produce faith.
There are many other important things mentioned in this document (i.e. Justification, Reconciliation, Forgiveness, Adoption, Sanctification, etc.) But I think this is what I think the most important thing I found in this document.
For this second week, I would like to reflect on chapter 7, “The Atonement” in Whidden’s “Ellen White on Salvation.” As we have dealt in class, the salvation can be seen in a subjective aspect and the objective aspect. But it is true that we cannot separate them and limit them to just one side of both aspects. If the subjective aspect is what Jesus has done for us on the cross, the objective aspect is what Jesus is doing in us now. That pretty much goes along with Ellen White’s view on atonement. I like the way the book says that “atonement is moving in a line across the history of redemption.” If the atonement, or salvation is limited to just one moment in history, it would seem more like a partial deterministic predestination. It would be as if once you are baptized, you are forever saved, so you can do whatever you want until Jesus comes back. That is not what the Bible says. The Bible tells us to continue to live as faithful Christians, living in Christian standards. Let’s say that you just bought a ticket to a show. You have just gained the right to watch the show, but you won’t be able to watch the show unless you present the ticket you have bought for the show. Even after you buy the ticket to the show, you must try to not to lose the ticket or forget the ticket is. You can’t just say that just because you bought the ticket it is as good as you have already seen the show. You never know what will happen in between. Korea has never sent any Korean to the space. We still don’t have the technology to send people on our own, until recently, Russia, in joint with our country allowed one Korean to along with them on their trip to space. Thousands of people applied for that spot. After tests and interview, finally two were chosen. After series of tests, San Ko was chosen to go to space and the other person, So Yeon Lee will be a back up. They start getting trained to go to space. Just because you are chosen doesn’t mean that you are fit to go to space. It takes training to make yourself fit to go to space. As time passed by, San Ko was disqualified because he leaked confidential information and was caught. Therefore, So Yeon Lee, who was the backup member earned the right to go to space. And last year, she successfully made it to space and returned back safely. She was the first Korean ever to go to space. I don’t think this story is the best to describe the point, but it is helpful in some sense. Yes, we are once saved by the sacrificial act of Jesus Christ our Savior. But we also need time of sanctification where we can practice to be better Christians and to make ourselves to be more fit to be in the Kingdom of God. San Ko was disqualified even though he was chosen to go to space because of his actions that should not have been done, on the other hand, So Yeon Lee was faithful. I am thankful that God has given us the process of sanctification. He has given us the time to grow, a time to practice to be a better Christian. Our actions cannot save us, it is only Jesus that can save us. But we will need to take time to mold ourselves.
This week has me thinking about salvation in a different light. Growing up I just to hear that only a 144,000 would be saved. If you didn’t look or act a certain then you’re not living up to the standard Christ would have you live. Know there is a difference between vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters. But now I see these statements of perfectionism that are invalid. These are the same sentiments that Ellen White had as child when she felt inadequate to live up to those standards. Salvation is a gift that is free and Jesus said my “yoke is easy”. Jesus said his burden is light and his yoke is easy, meaning since Jesus is the way, the truth and the light and he said he is easy, why do we humans try to make it seem hard? Salvation is a beautiful thing if one really sinks his or her teeth, but it the process that people get discouraged on. This week we’ve been talking sanctification and foreknowledge and predestination and my whole assessment is sometimes we’re trying to understand Paul, when only God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I find the whole conversation intriguing to discuss but logistics of salvation (predestination, foreknowledge, etc) are a bit tedious. I do see the discussions as informational, but I want to learn how to transfer this information to people of the world. I didn’t have any expectations or what to expect before the class, but I guess from the first week to this week I was expecting more of breaking down of each model expressed (victory, adoption, etc.). I loved the whole topic of not excluding a model of salvation because I believe that people faith in Christ is different. People are not the same and everyone may not see Christ as a victory, but more as Liberator. Some may say Christ set the example for us to follow and not as a ransom paid for us. Christ is the only way, not through faith and works alone, but together with those that is where salvation lies. The funny thing is I can see why there were so many debates about the Bible because no one really knows what the writer meant. Rice had his belief. Calvin had his belief. Wesley his and whoever wanted to put their two cents in. The fact is the salvation is given freely from Jesus Christ. Of course had a plan just in case messed up, it’s the same thing as me carrying a spare tire in my car. If I do get a flat I want to be prepared. Proverbs 29:18 states where there is no vision people perish. So is safe to say God had a vision (foreknowledge) so all the people wouldn’t perish. But as was stated this week, the people have a choice to accept God or resist him, and that’s the bottom line. Salvation is a process, of sanctification, that everyone must go through on order to make it to heaven. It’s not our place to say what someone needs to correct in their life or do differently in order to make it to heaven. It is our job (calling) to introduce them, guide them, help them, and hand them over to Christ. And the closer that person gets with Christ the things of the flesh/ world will come off (justification), not by our doing, but by the Holy Ghost, which was sent by Christ. I’ve said to myself plenty of times I will not receive any type of glory from man (I’ll have to wait until heaven: glorification). All man sees is you right now (1 Sam 16:7) and where you should be or what you’re doing wrong (even if it’s unintentional). But Jesus sees us how we were, are, and will be (predestination). He is overseeing our sanctification process and that’s why I’m glad God is the judge of me and Jesus is my attorney so I will be acquitted. My faith lies in that which is not seen, done in hope, and through the promise of Jesus Christ! I had a rough week I had a lot of thoughts on my mind. And I guess I answered my own question about how to apply it? Lol Praise God!
Doctrine of Salvation Blog Comments By: Daniel Yim June 20, 2009
The order of the acts of salvation by God as presented in Romans 8 has been discussed in light of other texts such as Romans 6 and 1 Corinthians 30. If there is a specific purpose as the order of salvation by Paul, what could that specific message for us be today? Salvation is definitely a process by which we come to Christ, are made whole in Christ, and will be eternally redeemed through Christ. A believer of Christ cannot limit the experience of salvation to a one-time event that occurred long ago.
Paul’s use of prefixes for the first two steps in his salvation order, foreknowledge and predestined, indicates a primordial act of God as compared with the final two acts, justification and glorification. When I read the passage in chapter 8 verses 29 and 30, my natural reaction to the verses tell me that each act of God is an individual act of itself as well as part of a larger picture of salvation. Granted, the NIV is not a literal translation of the original Greek, but the word “also” indicates to me that each separate act is significant of and in itself, but also, they are part of and essential to the larger picture that Paul is painting. This is a similar tone to what Dr. Hanna has presented in lecture about the timeless aroist theory on the 5 acts of salvation. Rather than viewing each act in a certain period in time, verbally describe each act in the present tense and take away the past and future tenses. This describes God’s act of salvation as in the past and future, as well as on going in our current experience.
While I do believe that there is a specific order that Paul is trying to convey to readers on the process of salvation, my personal interpretation to God’s saving grace for humanity is that God travels life with us and experiences time with us. He is next to us, carrying us through and lifting us up when we fall. Yes he knows the past and the future, but God chooses and wills to stay by our side as our guide and friend. I know what has happened in the past regarding my salvation, and I know what will happen soon when we are glorified by the grace of God’s love. But for me, it is walking in God’s love now and today that is most relevant in my salvation experience. Unless I grasp the significance of God’s presence in my life, I don’t think I will be able to understand and fully appreciate what happened at the cross and what will happen at the end of this earth.
1 Corinthians 1:30 says that Christ has become for us wisdom from God, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. If I can experience each aspect of the salvation process, then I can say that I have truly come into God’s presence. Yielding to righteousness is surrendering my will to God. Letting God lead in my life will lead to holiness and redemption.
I was blessed by the reading this week and was particularly fascinated by the explanation re the text in (John 12:31-33, 16:11) that the author seem to give an explanation that according to John, the apostle; the cross is God's judgment on sin and that the judgment of the believer, as well as the unbeliever, is in the past. I have committed that particular section of scripture to memory and never once has it crossed my mind before that John spoke of judgment in the past there. I was mindful also of the concept that it went further to state that the above depends upon acceptance or rejection of the light that Christ brings (chap. 3: 18-21). Recently I read an E.G White critic blog and the point he raised was that she and SDAs are ridiculous to relegate God to an investigator who seem unaware of the issues concerning our acts and hence have to go gather all the evidences with regards to our teaching concerning the Investigative Judgment. However the following point in my reading states it succinctly; “When Seventh-day Adventists speak of an investigative judgment, it should not be understood as meaning that God seeks information He does not have. After all, God is the Author of the books which His judgment opens. The books stand not for new knowledge that God has yet to acquire but for old knowledge that God now will expose. So the purpose of the investigative judgment on God's part is not to discover reality but to unmask it, not to find out the truth but to reveal it” The beautiful and careful choice of words re the long article on Justification by faith and Judgment by Works was really elevating, this statement resonates with me “Justification and assurance of salvation are not achieved by human works or by faith plus human works. Justification and assurance come only by the all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ as Savior” The discussions in class were a bit blurry at first but the professor was spot on with the explanation re:God's Foreknowledge and how it works.Freedom was farfectched for me until the explantion was clearly given that God has predestined humanity to freedom.And yet we can still rebel against God.Iwas enlightened
In the great majority of instances, God’s call in the New Testament is one extended for salvation. Jesus said that He came to call sinners (Matt 9:13, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:32). One example representative of Paul’s usage is 1 Corinthians 1:9, “You were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is a calling given to both Jews and Gentiles (Rom 9:24, 1 Cor 1:24). Paul uses the adjectival form of kalew, kletoj, often of Christians in Rome and Corinth. An example is Rom 1:6 where Paul describes the Roman Christians as “called ones [kletoi] of Jesus Christ.” The TDNT views kalew actually to be a technical term for the process of salvation. It is certain that this function of the divine call as a call to salvation is primary. And we have every Scriptural evidence to believe that God always makes the first move in this communication. This word picture of calling, then, strongly emphasizes the primacy of God’s initiative. What is uniquely developed in the apostolic literature is the salvation-election aspect of calling. Most strongly emphasized is God’s calling to human beings. This call is a call to obedience (Rom 1:5), belonging (Rom 1:6), peace (Col 3:15), freedom (Gal 5:13), hope (Eph 1:18 and 4:4), and suffering (1 Pet 2:21). This calling comes by God’s goodness (2 Pet 1:3) through the Gospel (2 Thess 2:14) and is a calling into the Kingdom (1 Thess 2:12). This calling has its roots in the primordial acts of God, as Rom 8:28-30 links this calling with the purpose of God, which is predestined (cf. Eph 1:11). The human response. It is very early in the record of Genesis that the Bible documents the first time that “men began to call on the name of the LORD” (4:26). In thinking on the topic of salvation, it is interesting to note that Adam and Eve never called on the name of the LORD; they were in His direct presence and had no need to call out to Him. This underscores calling as a metaphor particularly suited to salvation because it mediates divine-human interaction in the setting of the sin problem. Humans calling on the name of the Lord is the response of people to the calling of God. It is frequently portrayed in ways emphasizing it as a form of worship (as in Gen 13:4, “where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the LORD”), but it is also explicitly linked with salvation. For example, there is Rom 10:13. “’Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved’” And Psa 116:12-13 connects calling upon the name of the Lord with worship and salvation. “How can I repay the LORD for all His goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.” So again we see that this is an act of response. Further, this calling on the name of the Lord is an act of worship, a re-orientation of our selves to the eternal God. I would like to suggest that this calling might correlate with repentance, the re-orientation of our lives as a response to God’s salvation work.
Quigley Morris Doctrine of salvation BRI document Remnant Concept
Other Christians to day have had a hard time dealing with us seventh day advents because of some of our doctrinal beliefs. This is even more visible when it comes to our belief on the remnant Church of God. I do not know about you but one thing I know we are very convincing when it comes to our doctrine. Many years ago growing up I use to here my people say that we are the only true church and today some people believe that only seventh day Adventist will be save. Some of this older people still believed for someone from another denomination to be save they will have to live their church and be baptize in to the SDA church. And they use the text to support them. They would say “other sheep I have not of this fold will come to this fold” now that can drive you up a wall if you are not a SDA. The fact is because we have such a rich heritage, and we are so profound in the study of prophecy. And we have understood the Sabbath and its blessing and it’s significant we cannot boast or put down any religious group when it comes to their doctrine. We must keep in mind that it was our pioneers who said the end of the world had come, and many religious groups undermined their thinking at the time. This same people we are hoping to reach out to some day; it is wise that we should not make them see us as a distasteful group. To day we have grown well over twenty million, we have settled the matter of his coming and all the other little cracks that was standing in our way. It seems that we are being a target again not because of who we are but because of what we say. In my country SDA do not mingle with other religions on any religious matter. It is not as bad as it seems because it is the same way around, we seems to respect each other and stay away from their doctrines. One of the strong holes of SDA is our school; many of our ministers are able to go to school and become better bible teachers. They get a better understanding of the bible and can make a better applicable lesson to their churches. While this is a plus on the other hand some have become masters of their belief and have run away with some theological points that have caused more harm than good.
I agree with you that we tend to make salvation a more difficult thing than it is. Jesus' yoke is easy, and His burden is light. We must always remember that, and keep Christ before us all the time. It is all too easy to get caught up in theologizing and forget to open the door when He knocks.
On another note, if you decide that you want to freely share the information you have been working on (the presentation you made in class), I would be interested. I think there is a lot of potential there to help people "get" it.
I once read a book by Morris Venden called Salvation by Faith and Your Will. It was one of the first Christian books I ever read, and it helped form the backbone of my thinking on salvation. If you are not familiar with it, the book explains the life-long process of sanctification using the parable of going on a long road trip with Jesus. Your will is illustrated by your willingness to let Jesus drive the car. This story helped me understand the dynamics at work when I think myself a better driver than Jesus and take back the wheel, only to find myself driving headlong into traffic and running into ditches.
I have gotten a lot of mileage out of this simple illustration, though recently I have been thinking about something that seems to be missing in it. But first of all, I want to make it clear that I don’t mean to criticize this model. It is a good and helpful example, and I recognize that all illustrations fall short at some point. It could even be that Elder Venden included in his book a section addressing this problem, and I just don’t remember it. After all, it has been a while since I read it. That being said, the perceived problem I see is that I wonder if it might be possible for a person to drive across the country with someone, even allowing them to control the vehicle safely, without knowing the person. In salvation terms, is it possible for Jesus to be my Lord without being my Savior?
The reason I have been thinking about this is because I wonder if I have been going about Sanctification with the wrong motivation. I have been involving Jesus in the process, but my mindset has been completely on doing what’s right – allowing Christ the singular role in my life as the one who helps me do it. It is a Martha-like (as opposed to a Mary-like) approach. Is it possible that I have been more concerned with becoming like Christ than knowing Christ?
Having a personal relationship with Jesus is a popular notion in the church right today. The Marys in the church have been preaching this for a while. The Marthas of the church are beginning to realize it, but because they are still Marthas, they write books about how we need to have a relationship with Jesus because that is the only way we will be able to do the dishes without breaking any. So our focus becomes knowing God for the sole reason that He can make us perfect. But if my own perfection is the only motivation I have I will never do it. I don’t care enough about being perfect for that to work for me. And so I want to know something: would I be willing to sit at the feet of Jesus with my only motivation or expectation being to sit at the feet of Jesus? Would it enough for me to just be with Him, even if I come out of the experience looking more like a disciple and less like a saint?
Fortunately, I don’t need to worry about not being changed. If I am with Jesus, He will change me. I suppose what I am really getting at is an issue of putting the cart before the horse. Mary sat at Jesus feet, and as a result she was changed. But I don’t think she sat at Jesus’ feet with the intention of becoming a perfect person. Those who came to Jesus seeking perfection were usually disappointed (the rich young ruler). However, just to balance this argument out, I do recognize that Jesus never turned anyone away who came to Him wishing to be made whole.
The Article “Justification by Faith and Judgment by Works” by Ivan T. Blazen was very enlightening in light of our class discussions this past week. After reading Romans 3 and Dr. Blazen’s insights into Paul’s theology of justification of God for sinners and God’s judgment according to works helped me to understand in a deeper way the multifaceted character and executor on God’s part. My first admittance in tackling the topic is to accept the fact that as humans, we cannot fully comprehend, and thus explain the various roles that God takes on simultaneously. This lays the basis for our approach to divine works in salvation and judgment of humanity This past week in class discussion, I learned that our cooperation with God in the divine plan for salvation is necessary for God to work in us His will. But while our cooperation is necessary for God to take action because God works in love, our cooperation does not merit anything toward our salvation. It is necessary, but it has no merit in of itself in the process. This article helped me to further understand this concept as presented in class. The points made by Dr. Blazen where God has dual offices of Savior and Lord allows God to function in various roles in our salvation. I appreciate the thoughts in the article, “The cross is the means by which justification is effected; faith is the means by which justification is accepted; and good works are the means by which justification is manifested. Works of righteousness testify to the reality and vitality of justification. Their absence indicates a broken relation with Jesus.” This says to me that each part has an individual character associated with the action, yet all the parts must be seen as a process in the bigger picture and they should not be viewed as separate works in of themselves. Dr. Blazen stated that Christ cannot be divided, thus his works should not be viewed in separate parts, but as a whole. This article helped me to connect the link between God’s justification to us as sinners and what our good works of righteousness mean in the plan of salvation. We as Christians should not view our works of righteousness as coming from our flesh and bones. Rather, justification comes from Christ, and our righteous works come from Christ as well. Dr. Blazen stated that both justification and assurance come only by the all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ as Saviour. Yes, even though we do works of righteousness, these works do not have any merit in our salvation. They are just like our cooperation with God’s divine plan. They are part of the process and evidence of justification of God. I appreciate the apostle Paul’s declaration in 1 Corinthians 15 that he is what he is by the grace of God. I also have felt this way many times in ministry. I am what I am because of God. And because of the grace of God, I work harder for God’s cause. It drives me to serve and love more than what I have done in the past. All because of God’s justification of my sins.
Recently (I think it was last week) we were discussing the subject of freedom. The common argument, which Dr. Hanna expressed, is that some people are upset with God for granting us freedom. These people are upset with God because they cannot understand why God would allow us freedom when He knew that we either would, or at least had the potential to ruin it by making wrong decisions. These people argue that they would rather be robots, not realizing that the very freedom that God grants is what allows them to argue that they would not have it at all. This is such an interesting subject to me because freedom is so integral to salvation and yet some Christians are so eager to limit the freedom of others. Freedom is integral to salvation because salvation is dependent on the free human being realizing his/her need for Christ and then deciding to live by Biblical precepts. At the same time, there are Christians who seek to restrict freedom by legislating morality or by imposing their view on the Christian walk on others. I am a believer in freedom, despite the fact that at times it leads to outcomes with which I do not agree. I think that’s what Christ does too. This is the link with the paper topic that presented in class yesterday. I believe that the psychological aspect that leads others to impose particular standards of salvation is about control, an attempt to have reality look exactly like what God told them. This is a restriction of freedom, the ideology that is the building block upon which human existence is based. God gave us this foundation, and it is my personal belief (which I impose on no one) that if God in His wisdom felt it was important for us to have this freedom, then it is important enough for me to attempt to protect it.
hey folks, I posted before I was done lol! Here's the rest of my post -
But of course this makes us really uncomfortable simply because it means we have to protect the freedom of others to make bad choices. It is certainly hard to watch someone make bad decisions that you know will lead to poorer quality of life. I wonder if that is how God feels as He watches us make bad decisions. Whenever it starts to become difficult for me to stomach the way people (or society in general) are going, I am reminded of God’s treatment of Lucifer, which Dr. Hanna mentioned briefly in class. God created Lucifer to be free, and have independent thoughts. Lucifer then used that freedom to rebel against the very God who gave him that freedom. Imagine the dilemma that God is now in. God, being omniscient, must know that allowing Lucifer his freedom at least has the potentiality to cost Him His own life (in the person of Jesus Christ, who would have to die for our salvation). Yet God respects the system He has created and the freedom of Lucifer so much, that He continues to allow Lucifer freedom of thought. So when it comes to salvation and assisting God in the salvation of others, I think it is important for us to focus on the weightier matters of righteousness, and allow people the freedom to live lives that are in line with what God prescribes and not what we believe God has prescribed to us. To impose our walk of sanctification on others is, while potentially well-meaning, only a violation of God’s freedom, done in the name of trying to support God’s laws.
As I’ve been Salvation by Ellen White, I’m noticing a lot of emphasis on 1888 and Minneapolis and how there were basically two types of theories of salvation within the church at this time. And it got me to thinking how are these meeting actually read because from the book it seemed as if there was a lot of tension on the subject matter. I just think about some of the issues (different conferences, Adventist education, proper paying for educators, drug, sex, and etc.) we have in the church and how no one wants to address them (especially taboo topics with the youth). Some of these topics are being swept under the rug and it seems as if no one wants to finally address them. These issues need to be addressed because we are losing members or youth to the things of the world and we’re letting them slip because we are too worried about our own salvation. Is that what is has come too? At least they were worried about everyone’s salvation, not just their own. I mean at least they were willing to talk about salvation and their feelings on it. We’re not even at a point in our church (General Conference) where anybody is talking about anything meaningful to tweeners (in the river on the bank Adventist). Our salvation is not only dependent on what we do for ourselves, but also what we do for God’s purpose. We can’t get so caught up with self and forget others, but that what it seems we are doing. And I’m wondering what are and when are we going to do something that will gain Adventist attention to regain people’s focus back on Christ? I mean Michael’s Jackson, blew everything out the water this week? But that is what we need to have happen so we can talk about issues in the church and prepare everyone, not just ourselves, for Christ’s return. We need another meeting like 1888 to figure out how we are going to get the attention of the world to prepare them and us for the things to come. Ok, I’ve been to GC’s in the past, but I don’t see the effect of those meeting reaching the small churches or people in rural areas? Maybe it’s just me, but something needs to happen. Jesus’ life was not about himself and that’s what he wants us to understand. Sometimes we must sacrifice or own wills for God’s will. We are too selfish when it comes to salvation because we are selfish.
Before and throughout reading the "Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans" in relation to this course "Doctrine of Salvation", I asked myself many times what is Salvation? And if someone asked me “summarize or tell me the core of Romans in one English word?” I think I can say the theme of Romans is about “GOSPEL”. Like Dr. Hanna mentioned and made a better way to make my question I asked to him, Four Gospels in the New Testament (Especially I believe John 3:16) already fully and completely described what is Gospel through the life of Jesus Christ. However this book helps us understand “salvation” theologically. (i.e. Introduction 1:1-15, The doctrine of justification by faith Romans 1:16 to 5:21, the doctrine of sanctification by faith, 6:1 to 8:39, the election of Israel 9:1 to 11:36, Practical application of the Doctrine of Righteousness by faith, 12:1 to 15:13, and conclusion 15:14 to 16:27) – I got this source from the KJV study Bible.
Frankly speaking, I still could not fully understand what faith is, what righteous is, what justification is, and how these things work in God’s salvation through His son, Jesus Christ. (If I understand His salvation fully, I think I probably not here on earth but in heaven. :) Ellen White mentioned in her writings when we will be in heaven, we will study salvation for eternity. I think this implies that salvation is out of our understanding). Already reading Romans many times (maybe not many because of probably less than 100 times in my life) before I took this class and in this session and I read Romans very carefully, before this session starts and every morning I start my day, one thing came out my mind is, this book is for the logical thinkers especially for the Jews (this is my guess), who knows the Law, Abraham, and the Jewish history. If they are simple as I am, I think accepting salvation is pretty easy, but to make them convince, I think Paul needs to use their language to convince them in their level.
From this morning, I restarted again to read Romans again from chapter one. At first I read it in Korean, and then NIV, finally I close this session with KJV. I hope Holy Spirit guide me to better understanding on this issue so that I can share with confidence in Christ Jesus.
This is my personal opinion through my experience that to understand major themes of Romans, you need to understand the big picture of Romans and maybe make a chart (or diagram) will help you get a broad map. If you just focused on little bitty details, I know it also important, however it is hard to understand why I said in the beginning, Romans is a book of Gospel.
May God help you to lead many precious people into his salvation through his Son, the One and Only Jesus Christ!
For this third week, I would like to reflect on the article, “How Perfect is Perfect, or is Christian Perfection Possible?” by Edward Heppenstall. I am pretty sure we all have a similar experience. No matter how well you clean your house, there is always dust. It just seems to regenerate over and over again. Even after cleaning up the house no matter how least active you are in the house, or even while you are gone from the house, dust appears again. I think that well describes our human nature of sin. I bought a pair of white shoes last month. I really love the design and the white color and thought they would well fit with my pants. And it was just great. But after buying it, my greatest concern was how can I keep my white pair of shoes clean? No matter how I wear it clean, it just comes with a mark on it after I wear them. The only way of keeping it totally white was not to wear it. But then, I cannot just display my shoes for show, I had to wear them. Our sinful nature might be pretty similar to this. Like what the article, and the Bible says, in this world, “perfection” is not pursuing the state of “ sinlessness.” As long as the law of sin and death is operating in this world, it would be impossible to come to the state of sinlessness. That is our nature and that is how it is. The perfection which we need to pursue, therefore, is to look upon Christ and be like Him. He is truly our Savior and is a sinless being. I heard that when a child is born, or even after, parents love to hear from other people that the child looks just like the parents. Parents love to hear that the child takes the image of the parents. As much as the parents love their child, the parents would want their child to love them back and to be like them, and grow in the right way. But because we all make mistakes, the child can makes mistakes, too. But just because the child makes a mistake, would the parents abandon their child? No! They will help the child to be better person. The parents are most happy when the child is like them. God sent Jesus to be like us so that we can be like Him. As we look into Jesus and have faith in Jesus, we can become more like Him. It is our relationship with Jesus and God that is important. That is what keeps us connected to God. We cannot come to sinless state in this world, but as we are perfect in our relationship with Jesus, He will make us into sinless perfect state when He comes back to take us back to heaven. If you just look into the fathers of faith in the Bible, you will notice that each of them made fatal sins or mistakes in their life. Yet, God considered them faithful because of their relationship with Jesus. All we have to is have faith in Jesus and be more like Him and receive the grace that He gives us for free.
In Christian theology, “justification is God's act of declaring or making a sinner righteous before God” . But salvation is more than justification. Justification is the beginning of the Christian journey with Jesus Christ. It is the beginning of spiritual maturity and progress towards the image of Jesus Christ. Therefore the believer must continue in daily devotion, watchfulness, reliance on the Holy Spirit, obedience to God, struggle against sin, and avoidance of evil company. “Sanctification does not mean the abolition of sin, it still leaves in them, and sometimes it becomes very active and powerful” . “The victorious life is striving towards victory rather than matured possession of victory. The life of faith is a life of conflict and struggle” . That is why Paul wrote to the persecuted Thessalonian believers “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his body in a way that is honorable …. For God did not call to be impure, but to live a holy life” (Thess. 4:3, 4, 7). Thomas Watson stated that “it is absurd to imagine that God should justify a people and not sanctify them, that he should justify a people and not glorify” . The final stage of redemption by Jesus Christ is called glorification. True believers in Jesus Christ have “been saved”, are “being saved” and “will be saved”- which is to affirm the “already” but “not yet” character of the Christian salvation. Christ inaugurated the new process, but it has not yet arrived in fullness. The redemptive process that began before the world was formed will be brought to perfection in the new world of heavenly glory. Because “God’s work is never unfinished symphony”.
Thank you Moung Kwon on your article on perfection. This a subject that is often misunderstood. In the Book of Isaiah, the Bible says our righteousness are like filthy rags. Even if we claim to be perfect we'll still look dirty before God.
To be honest I’ve been wrestling with Paul’s explanation of the law as discussed in Romans for a while. Paul starts out by giving a metaphor that somewhat confused me. I mean metaphors are supposed to make things more clear and I wish Paul had chosen a more clear analogy. Then he spends the meat of the chapter talking about how sin took the opportunity the law provided and deceived Paul. It was interesting that he actually repeated this within a couple of verses. Verse 8 and then again in verse 11. So I think he really wanted us to know this happened. He would never have even known what sin was except for the law. He spends all these verses talking negatively about sin and then… boom! He says the law is good. I don’t understand his argument. I was encouraged by Paul’s admonition that he is human towards the end of the chapter. He says even though he wants to do good he just can’t. I related to this on a personal level. But his desire to do good is always there. It’s a little depressing but then he starts out chapter 8 with a comment that kind of defines justification. Romans 8:1. What a powerful text. I’m glad he felt the need to balance these two chapters with each other. Chapter 8 starts out with the word “therefore”, so Paul is connecting these two tensions together. Paul also clearly wanted everyone reading this passage to know from where his help and justification comes from—Jesus. He asked a powerful question about who will rescue him, then he doesn’t explain that Jesus actually came along and rescued him. He simply says, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.” This was a powerful case of less is more. He used very few words and just thanked God. The most paramount emotion of this verse was sheer gratitude. What an example of how we all should react to the gospel.
Paul seems to be coming from a very pessimistic perspective in several chapters of Romans. Paul wishes that he were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of his brothers at times. I’m not sure exactly what he’s talking about here. Paul says that not all that are descendants of Israel are Israel. And not all that are offspring of Abraham are his children. There was a lot in these chapters that referred back to the Old Testament. I know Paul was talking about the promised offspring of Abraham, who was Isaac. I think he’s illustrating the idea that just because you’re a Jew by birth, this doesn’t mean that you’re going to be justified. Paul spends considerable time in these chapters developing the idea of God’s sovereignty. He reminds us that we are the clay—not the potter. It is up to God how He will use us and to what purpose. We cannot escape testifying to the greatness of God. He can bring any triumph or calamity to glorify Himself. No matter what we cannot escape glorifying God if He so chooses. Paul’s overarching theme in these chapters definitely had much to do with God’s plan for His people. Towards the end of certain chapters Paul emphasized judgment more. Judgment is a scary thing for those who are not in the favor of God. But God’s is always slow to inflict judgment and runs to show mercy. Paul did make it clear that just because you were a Jew, this did not guarantee you justification, and just because you were a gentile this did not condemn you. Race did not affect one’s eligibility for salvation.
We were talking in class about God’s determined/open will and something Dr. Hanna said stuck with me. He suggested that most SDA’s if asked why sin does not rise up a second time in heaven, most would answer it is because God removes the possibility of sin ever rising up again. In other word He determines it to be so. Just for curiosity sake I thought I would ask around and see what people thought. In the last couple of days I asked 10 to 15 SDA’s about it. Let me just say at the outset that my survey was far from scientific, but interesting nonetheless. Just to provide a little background info, everyone I talked to was over 30 and none were pastors or seminarians. When I asked why sin would not rise up a second time I got mostly vague answers, but when I clarified the question giving the people options to choose from like: is it because God takes the possibility away or because his creations doesn’t choose to sin? all but one person said it definitely wasn’t because He took the possibility away. Noone felt able to explain exactly why they believed this or how while Lucifer first fell in perfection none would fall again post recreation, they just believed that it was against the character of God to take the possibility away. Again I don’t know how representative these results are, and I am definitely not suggesting that Dr. Hanna’s hypothesis is incorrect. Personally, even after my brief survey I still believe he is correct. I guess I am just sharing my findings with the rest of you because was genuinely surprised at the results. I challenge you to do similar surveys and post your findings if interested.
There was a few questions that made me want to run away when people brought them up, questions like recite all of the Beasts in Revelation in order off the top of your head, and of course, explain predestination. The first is about reciting information; anyone can get to the point where you can recite the answer to the first question. The deeper issue of predestination is something that needs to be struggled with, pondered over, perhaps even a little sleep needs to be lost. I so vividly remember having no words, blushing and then sheepishly saying, “you know, I really don’t know.” Perhaps part of my struggle as a leader was the desire to give a definite answer on the matter in 20 words or less. It’s like I wanted to have the answer that would forever and always put the matter at rest for them. To often we want to have the information that will silence the tough questions. Sometimes I mistakenly think that God doesn’t welcome our questions and want us to grapple with the huge issues of faith and salvation. When we ask questions that we may never come to answer, but only grow in understanding, we add colors or brushstrokes to a picture that help us see it all more clearly, but are unable to finish the painting. If we came to have absolute answers for everything related to God, we’d be missing out in so much of the wonder of growing, and diving into study because we just want to understand it a little more. It is with this same spirit then, that we can perhaps enter into more of a dialogue with members that might ask us questions. We can share with them the piece of the vastness that we’ve come to understand. My own understanding of Foreknowledge and Predestination has grown based on our discussions in class. I hope that as I come back to this topic throughout my life and ministry, I come to add a little bit more understanding and depth. It’s not to say that we don’t need to have any kind of clue, or basis for our belief. The contrary, ours is the responsibility to be continually searching and studying, so we can help guide others based on our discoveries and discussions. As God has made it possible for us to be free beings, and those free beings to make decisions that are not in accordance to His ideal plans, He is still able to work it together for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose, then our questions, however great or small, can all work together to lead us to a more accurate understanding of His huge and magnificent plan.
Ministry After Minneapolis 1888-1902 By: Fa’asoa M. Fa’asoa
How sad, yet completely understandable-from a fallen human perspective, the fact that, or so it seems to me, that when push comes to shove-perhaps more readily than not, the tendency (assuming that self instead of Christ is in control of one’s emotions and mind) is to fight against an idea, or rather a concept that we may or may not be comfortable with simply because it challenges our conventional way of thinking-perhaps pushing us to grow, or to change…(and you all know how much we llllllllllloooooovvvvveeee change don’t we? Sure we do…..lol). This seemed to be the case a bit prior and after the 1888 General Conference session kafuffle. It is the case of the, “I don’t like how you interpreted that verse in Galatians….Galatians 3:19-25 to be exact…or your take on one of the ten horns of Daniel chapter 7….so I’ll push and shove until everyone knows that my position is correct and yours is wrong”…..another sad case of the lack in Holistic thinking I’d say…..my way or the highway. Okay Okay….I’m not immune from this as well but only seeing and reporting on how readily you and I can fall into the trap of thinking deterministically and exclusively on a plethora of issues whether right or wrong from time to time. In class today, Dr. Hanna brought out the idea, and Whidden concurs that the fight wasn’t so much on “Righteousness by Faith” per say as it was, as I also see it, a perceived danger is doing away with the Moral law of God…a possible misrepresentation of the opponents view…..see Whidden/Ellen White on Salvation on pg. 80; both are so very important in my opinion. In conclusion, I want to say how thankful I am to have learned, though not perfected it yet, about Holistic thinking which has now colored how I view life as a whole, thanks to Ellen White, and Dr. Hanna….one of my favorite professors here at Andrew’s Seminary.
A closer look at Romans 8: 1 -4 from my prospective
Paul like the phrase in Christ Jesus; to me the frequent use of this expression, tell a lot about Paul’s opinion about his own strength as a man. It points to a closer relationship with Jesus, to me it means more than a follower; one should have a closer walk with Jesus. And be like Jesus who walked after the Spirit and not after the flesh. The Spirit of life is a life giver that brings life and freedom in contrast to the law of sin. This is in direct opposite to the law of sin which brings condemnation and sin. And according to Paul when we have been made free it is similar as rebirth. Then we start a new we walk in the newness of life and the Spirit. The law of sin says that we should all die; but because Christ came and set us free the authority exercised by sin is dead to those who are connected to Him. Then the law of the Spirit of life takes over our lives and motivates us to live life after the spirit and not after the flesh. So we are empowered to influence others of the saving grace of Jesus Christ through the Spirit. All this is made possible because Christ has accomplished what the law was unable to do. God send his son in the likeness of sinful man so that man might be able to more easily understand and comply with the righteous requirements of His holy law. The idea is to bring man into harmony with his creator. Man on his own has not been able to obey; and the law has not been able to help him to obey. But Christ came to make it possible for man to obey. It is as we said in class Christ had to do every thing for us; so that we might be able to get one thing Wright. And even then it is not our doing but Christ who lived in us as Paul said. The indwelling Spirit then takes control and guide and motivates the person, but only after he has surrendered his will to the Spirit. Then we are guided to walk in the Spirit and slowly our lives are being change reflecting the true image of Christ. Only then we are able to lift him up and others around will see the quality of discipleship and the connection will be made linking us to Jesus Christ.
I would like to use my last blog as an opportunity to reflect upon the great theme of this course – holistic thinking. This is the second course I have taken from Dr. Hanna, and I am beginning to see that this principle does not exclusively apply to Salvation, or to Revelation Inspiration and Hermeneutics. This principle can and should be applied to all fields of study and all areas of life. I was first introduced to the concept of holistic thinking by an undergraduate professor who used to say “the answer is yes”, meaning that when we are asking either/or questions of the Bible we need to remember that if they are both in scripture then they are both correct in their own way. At that time I began thinking about this principle, and its far-reaching implications.
In my church experiences I have found that most arguments, most problems, most divisions occur because this principle is not present. A difference of opinion arises, sides are taken and each group collects the texts and Spirit of Prophecy quotations that support their side. Each group is convinced that they are right. After all, they have the quotations and texts to prove it! And each group is completely averse to even considering the opinions of the other group for fear that the success of the other side will weaken their own Biblical position. Thus the other side (who is also supporting their position in the same way) is labeled as heretical and a division in the church occurs.
If only we could embrace a holistic approach to scripture. If we understand that one text cannot overrule another, but that we must strive for an understanding that embraces the totality of scripture, we would not see divisions among the saints. The only divisions we would see would be scriptural versus non-scriptural. What I think is so sad is that most of the divisions I have experiences have been for the sake of ideas that need not be divided. God is fully just, and He is fully merciful. Salvation would not be possible if He were only one or the other.
Holistic thinking is a tool that is always challenging me, and at the same time always helping me understand how seemingly contradictory ideas actually may work together in harmony. But recently it led me to a problem that it did not seem able to help me solve. That problem is that although the principle of holistic thinking can be clearly demonstrated by scripture, it does not seem to be a principle always used by scripture. Many of the Biblical writers said things that seem rest pretty heavily on only one side of the spectrum. Thus it was easy for me to assume that the Bible writers, like many Bible interpreters today, were making their arguments from an unbalanced standpoint. The key, as we have discussed in class, is to accept that it is okay to focus on one side of the equation, so long as we don’t do it at the expense of the other side. So it is okay to say, “God is merciful”, so long as we do not then add, “therefore He is not just”. This helps me understand why the Bible makes most of its statements from one side or the other. It is not because the Bible is having an argument with itself, but because when it describes any side of God it presents that side as being whole. God is completely merciful, so when describing his mercy it is complete. And the same can be said for His justice.
Austin Sharp Doc. of Salvation Essay – Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the god of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
This has always been a very powerful text to me, but in this class I was both enlightened and reminded of its fuller implications. I always looked at this text just as a typical comfort passage in the bible. But there are many deeper ideas represented here. For one thing, contextually all throughout the preceding verses Paul has been conveying a theme. I think this theme has largely to do with the restoration of creation. At least three different times Paul mentions creation in a state of temporal discontinuity. It is frustrated. It is in pain like a woman in labor. And just as we have contributed greatly to that pain we also will contribute to the solution to its pain. When we are glorified in Christ we will be restored to our original form and creation will then be at peace. This is the contextual theme or at least much of what Paul is talking about here. When we read this passage or quote it to others we must remember that this is the “good” that Paul is talking about. The practical application of this is deeper still. When someone young dies or something bad befalls someone who is undeserving, we read this text and expect God to do something tangible as the proof of the “good” spoken of here in this text. However, we may not always see it, because it is a deeper good that takes place on the spiritual plain. The “good” taking place here is God using this situation to contribute to the restoration of man and creation back to their perfect state. This is the good. Also Paul gives us a stipulation here in this text as well. He says in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. This shows us that there is a specific people group that this applies to. This text implies that there is an exclusivity to the divine providence of God. However, what I learned in this class was that I need to look at this text holistically. This means that when I look at this text and it says that God works for the good of those that love Him, who have been called according to His purpose, that it only includes that certain group of people. But it is not saying that God works for the good in all things for ONLY those that love God. That is probably the most important thing I’ve learned in this class, that a holistic view of scripture tells us that just because a text tells us one thing, that doesn’t negate the possibility that it could mean something else. This text does not preclude the possibility of God working in all things for the good of those who don’t love Him. I plan on preaching this theology more in the pulpit. I think we Adventists some times are guilty of an exclusivity mindset. We think that God would not condescend to work for a drug addict before he comes to Christ. But this is a powerful question. Does God work for the good of someone who is a reformed child molester? This text does not say that He won’t. This is a holistic view. And this mindset is the most valuable thing I will take away from this class. When I look at scripture, I need to think outside of the box, and consider the possibility that I’m missing something. I need to ask powerful questions about how a text relates to other texts in the bible. I need to look at how they affect each other. Many people approach a text with careful study and exegesis but they don’t look at it holistically so they miss the big picture. A holistic view is vital and it has greatly impacted my view on this text.
From our class lecture and discussions I decided to look more into the issue of the assurance of salvation. I want to take a deeper look at what the bible says about assurance and see how our lectures and discussions can influence me and my understanding in regards to this issue. This is what I have come up with so far. As we know, the bible is the only rule of faith and practice and it is therefore imperative that we first gain understanding from it. The bible presents Jesus Christ as being both God and man. It is through this understanding of the nature of Christ that we learn that Jesus is able to save through His divine and human natures combined and we can therefore believe in, and hope for, salvation through Jesus Christ. He was and is, uniquely God and uniquely man and it is through His death and resurrection that we are offered the free gift of salvation. Even though that is the base knowledge of salvation, Jesus saves, in actuality, knowing and understanding the process of salvation is very complex and I think must be understood in a holistic manner, i.e., one that encompasses the various salvation models rather than highlights one in particular. With this base knowledge we are able to move forward in the process of seeking assurance for our salvation. In the book of Romans the Apostle Paul links the gospel with the person of Jesus Christ. In Romans 1:1-5, Paul tells that the gospel of God refers to His Son, Jesus Christ, and we therefore obtain that when Paul says in 1:16 that the gospel is the power to save, he is referring to Jesus. Jesus is the power to save. This is one of many additional insights into the broad scheme of revelation that are important to seek to understand. In Romans 11:26-27 we find an important connection between salvation and sin. What this verse essentially says is that all Israel shall be saved when God takes away their sin. From this verse we can understand that salvation is linked to the taking away of sin and we are thus, saved from sin through the person of Jesus Christ because He is the power to save. From this understanding we know that God has provided redemption within Jesus. Jesus IS our redemption. This verse highlights the present function of Jesus’ salvation, His salvation is offered to us right now, in this moment, but it also reveals the need to understand His salvation on a deeper level. Because of this fact we know there are multiple aspects of salvation. Three of these aspects were revealed to me in our class discussion: 1) we are saved at the cross (past tense), 2) we are saved in our conversion and acceptance of Jesus (present tense), and 3) we will be saved when Jesus returns to free us from this sinful world (future tense). Through this understanding of salvation being a process, we can then surmise that the assurance of our salvation may result in a process of understanding as well! We are assured that Jesus died for our sins once and for all (Heb. 7:27), we are assured that all who believe in Him will have salvation (John 3:16-17), and we are assured that He is coming again soon (Rev. 22:12). I believe that our assurance then lies in the continual acceptance of His goodness and the keeping of His promises. We know our Lord is faithful and just and that His will is for all to be saved! Amen!
As I have been reading and searching through the writings of Ellen White to discover what she says about the assurance of salvation I came upon this passage and was blessed by it. In The Acts of the Apostles, Ellen White refers us to the example of Jesus as our example for Christian life. She notes Philippians 2:12 and comments on the partnership we have with Christ as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Sister White acknowledges that there is to be co-partnership between God and the repentant sinner and claims this partnership to be necessary for the formation of right principles (AA 482). Upon reading this I thought, “What a wonderful God we serve!” He has not called us to obey His will blindly or be burdened by it; rather He has provided a way for us! He has given us the example of Christ and the partnership and guidance of the Holy Spirit to help us work out our salvation! Therefore submitting to God’s will is something attainable because of the partnership He established through the working of the Holy Spirit! This idea is in harmony with the idea of synergy which is connected with divinity and humanity, and also that of monergy which is connected with God’s divinity alone. There is a synergistic working that belongs to the Holy Spirit and humanity which collaborates in the process of salvation; but there is also a solo divine element, God’s foreknowledge and predestination, which humanity has nothing to do with and must be done monergystically (by God alone). The human agent has no part in either of those functions; God alone has worked out those elements and continues to work them out without the workings of man. Our salvation is thus realized in these two ways, synergy and monergy, a co-partnership with God, and God’s workings alone throughout eternity. The work of receiving salvation is therefore found to be a joint operation. God’s will is that man would be saved and He has provided salvation for all through His Son Jesus Christ. God provides this way freely and without coercion which requires both God and man to work together. Man must submit to the will of God while God must supply the power for sinful man to overcome! Ellen White says we must be “willing to be made willing,” because in and of ourselves we are not able to bring our purposes and desires into harmony with the will of God. As we partner with Christ Jesus and seek to submit our lives to His will we know and understand that the assurance of our salvation lies in Him. The assurance of our salvation lies in the fact that Jesus, who, as Ellen White states, was one with God; linked Himself with humanity and became our Sacrifice, our Advocate, and our Brother. He bore our human form before the Father’s throne and therefore secured our redemption through eternity so that we may be lifted up from this sinful world; reflect the love of God; and share the joy of His holiness (SC 14). It is my prayer that we all continue to live in Christ, assured of His salvation, so that we may one day share in the joy of His holiness. God Bless!
My Last One Page Reflection on what I have been Learned in this session
What is a doctrine, what is Salvation, models of salvation, Salvation in Romans, orders of salvation, monergy and synergy(up to here are reflection on the class), the development and understanding of Ellen White’s doctrine of Christ’s Humanity, her teachings on salvation, and her understanding of the humanity of Christ, Justification, and perfection.(Whidden, 11), many good but heavy documents on Salvation in BRI website, and discussions and questions in the class period, especially practical, pastoral questions and answers are the most valuable discussions in the whole class period. All these learning process are very precious and fruitful experience to me to build my understanding on this (the most important) issue in my personal life and future ministry. We go through many Bible verses (especially from Romans) tried to understand this issue more clearly. We talked about sin problem, major issues relate on salvation like predestination what is the right understanding on this in relation with foreknowledge and many more. In this last time of close this class, I re-questioned myself what is the main, core, essence of salvation? Through this thinking process one clear word came out my mind that is JESUS who died for us. I also think about God’s Grace, however without Christ’s atoning sacrifice, God’s salvific work could not accomplish, and Jesus was God (and still is) in different persons. (I strongly feel there is deficiency of human language.) Last reflection (3rd one I submitted on the blog), I said the key word in Romans is “GOSPEL” but without Jesus and His sacrificial work, Paul could not write the book of Romans. And Four Gospels can not be written. Sometimes we easily lost focus on what is the essence of Salvation, that is why some people try to be perfect in the wrong way to be saved, others just believe without balance, too much talk about righteous by faith or works, and so forth without the essence. (Where is Jesus? where is God’s grace to show His love through His son on Calvary? Where is Christian spirit?) I know all these elements are important and there is a reason for each elements however if we lost the essence, these all things are meaningless. I related this with 1 Cor. 13, I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, I have the gift of prophecy, …, I do all things, without charity (love) I am nothing. You can disagree with me to apply same principles to understand on Salvation (this issue) but I am sure you can understand what I mean to.
I know we need to make a balance. We have a holistic thinking and understanding before we speak or write. Nevertheless I described this illustration, through my experience as a born Adventist I realized and noticed that we, Adventist, sometimes lost the one who is the main character of the scene. We forget, His love showing through Cross we can not imagine how big is, try to prove my understanding or thesis is right.
Dear Brothers and Sisters If we lose Him in our study of Salvation, I think our ‘A’ grade is meaningless, we all prepare to share and even now we are workers to spread the Blessed hope, Jesus Christ and His salvific work. Let us have Jesus in our thoughts, minds, and hearts. Before we say about salvation, let us meditate (or think, pray) about His love showing on the cross.
I pray that This Great(Good) News(Gospel) shall preach and share throughout the world with the core of it, Jesus our Saviour.
The past week or so we have been talking about how a biblical model of salvation must be both monergistic and synergistic. This is an aspect of salvation that has long interested me and has been one of the more difficult elements for me to live out in my own life. While I do understand it in theory and totally agree with it, it has been difficult for me to connect my theory with my practice. I understand that salvation is monergistic. Only God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit can make salvation available to the sinner. Without their work, there would be no hope for anyone to be saved and life would be meaningless. As Dr. Hanna has said repeatedly in class, only God could do the work that God does. The truth of the matter is that it seems to me that the work that we have to do is the work that only we can do. Because God is a God of freedom, he will not force us to receive salvation by faith. Only the human being can turn to God and request salvation. But as I have learned over the past week, even the synergistic element of salvation involves some level of monergism on God’s part. Only God can help us to realize that He is even present to be turned to, if that made any sense. But the part that I struggle with is the idea that there isn’t any more for me to do. As someone who has accomplished a lot in life, and feels capable to accomplish a lot more, it is difficult for me to relinquish control of my own life. I feel like, as a capable and talented person, I have the ability to help God out. And it seems to me that I have to help God out at some level right? If I don’t allow Him to guide my actions then He can’t do anything with me. Furthermore, when it is all said and done, I am the one who is actually going to be acting. It seems to me that because God does not ever remove freedom, it is not necessarily Him acting through me, but rather that He tells me what I should do and I do it of my own volition. Yet the interesting thing about it is that it is challenging enough just doing what God wants me to do. That really should be enough to keep all of us very busy anyway. Overcoming sin and our own tendencies to move away from God and what He wants for us is hard enough. Paul talked about how difficult it is to overcome ourselves even when we have a desire to do what God wants us to do. So it ends up being kind of odd that some many of us (myself included) want to do more when we can’t even handle the piece that God has given us to do. In the end it seems kind of silly to want to do more. However, so many of us do feel like we should be doing more. We would all be a lot better off if we truly got in line with the system that God has established. As I grow older I see that God really did what was best for us in the way He established and executed the plan of salvation.
The article by George W. Reid, Why Did Jesus Die? How God Saves Us, got me thinking on Christ’s sacrifice for our sins as a ransom. For me, when I think of ransom, I usually refer to those good guy bad guy movies where an innocent child is kidnapped and a ransom for the safe return of the child is demanded from the bad guys. Usually the price of the ransom is a gigantic amount such as $1 million dollars as in the case of the movie, Austin Powers. When I think of ransom, I think that the bad guy has the upper hand and the good guy must appease the bad guy in order to get the lives safely back out of harm. When a ransom is demanded by someone it means that someone has been captured and payment must be made to insure the safety of the innocent.
George Reid’s article was helpful in presenting the idea that Christ paid the ransom for our lives and God was the initiator of our salvation process. Usually, the innocent party is the one responding to the situation, like in the movies. But here with our ransom, Christ is the initiator of our souls. Romans 5:8 speaks of God’s first step, as well as 2 Corinthians 5:18. God’s work began while we were still sinners, but it didn’t stop at the cross. God’s work of ransoming us continues today as we learn to trust and obey our Father. Approaching God’s salvivic work in a wholistic sense allows me to comprehend salvation in a cosmic sense as well as in the on-going process of transformation.
So who collected the ransom for our lives? Reid notes that the Bible never mentions the collector of our ransomed lives, but that the important question lies in the price that was paid. The price for our ransom was of enormous amount that all sinners were covered by the death of his Son. Reid notes that the ransom price paid was possible only because of the love of God. First, the love of God is demonstrated through God rescuing sinners. Second, we realize our condition as sinners and finally, we can only observe the God initiate his acts of love toward sinners.
God’s act in saving sinners was not a response toward Satan’s plan. Satan does not have the upper hand in the controversy. Christ did not die on the cross to appease the anger or pain of the Father in heaven. God’s act in saving us is an act of love and will continue to reflect God’s love toward his creation for eternity. God’s love toward his creation will sustain us throughout eternity for growth and development, and this growth will never cease. There will be no end to the spiritual pursuit toward God’s love. We will never arrive at a phase of perfection, nor can we ever receive too much of God’s love. I’m glad Jesus paid the price for my sins and I will always be reminded of that great price forever.
A Reflection on the class Seating on my table enjoying my breakfast, before me is plate of steaming and yummy whole grain cereal, delicious blue grapes, succulent and sliced orange, and luscious cherries invitingly smiling at me is I chew a mouthful of well salivated grains in anticipation of tossing a cherry or two. Contemplating, enjoying and ingesting my breakfast, it downed upon my mind how already I am influenced by your exposition in our class(es) and your admonition to us that we must look at theology (reality) holistically as we interact with others. I cannot help it, but thank you so very much for sharing yourself with us as you passionately taught us those divine truths that would help us become faithful and effective communicator’s of God’ grace and love that was revealed in the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ongoing Jesus Christ’s ministry of God’s reconciliation with the fallen world from which we have been redeemed and are being saved by his Love. By the way, I am still eating and enjoying my breakfast while writing and expressing my gratitude and contemplation: the impact of your class discourse seems to be stronger than my appetite for food hungry as I am. Ooh! My cereal is gone! Hahahahahahaaaaa! I need some more! Well, I just want to express my thanks on behalf of all those who have appreciated and where bless in this class.
Our discussion the other day in class got me thinking about reconciliation and its relation to salvation. Is it a synonym for salvation? Is it a piece of salvation? Is it a phase of salvation? Is it a precursor to salvation?
This reflection doesn’t give room to fully develop answers to these questions, but here’s something to at least get the ball rolling. (For something even more stimulating, Romans 5 has a lot of fodder!)
In the Gospels and Acts, the word reconciliation is present, but relates solely to human relationships. In the Pauline epistles the word is used more theologically, to describe an action on the relationship between God and humanity, but this also where it gets a little more complicated. Exactly who was reconciled? And when? And what does that mean?
In 2 Corinthians 5:19, it says “that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s sins against them.” So it appears that the world was reconciled to God. The second half of the verse may mean either that in initiating this act of reconciliation, God did not count men’s sins against them, or there’s the possibility that it means that God actually forgave men’s sins in this act of reconciliation. This latter option would give some support to the theory of universal justification.
Is it possible, though, that the reconciliation has taken place on God’s part, but not on the part of humanity? Perhaps Paul’s concept of reconcilation has two sides, a perspective from each of the parties. I suggest this as an option because in 2 Corinthians 5:20 he uses the exhortation, “Be ye reconciled to God.” But weren’t they already reconciled to God according to verse 19? In human quarrels, it is possible for one person in the argument to have reconciled themselves to the other party, even while that other person still holds hostility.
This concept may give a good context to this passage Colossians 1:
“For God was pleased to have all His fulness dwell in [Christ], and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight…” (vv. 19-22). I have this hypothesis that maybe God did his part of the reconciling on the cross, while we still remained His enemies in our minds, and then at that time that we were reconciled to him (per 2 Cor. 5:20) we were fully reconciled to Him, presented holy in His sight. This suggestion gets some support from the very next verse (v.23) which, referring to this justification, says “if you continue in your faith.” So in reconcilation we have the (ahem) monergism of God on the cross, and the synergism of our faith response. Thoughts?
For this final week, I would like to reflect on the book of Romans. Let me put my focus on chapter 13. As I was reading about authority from this chapter, I started to think about the relationship between authority, conscience and love. Some of the authorities that I thought of in mind were for example, my parents, teachers, older people (especially for us eastern cultures), law enforcers, etc. Why would I listen to them? Why would I obey to what they say? Is it just because the law says so? Is it because I would be in trouble if I do not listen to them? Maybe with the police or the law enforcers, I would be in trouble if do not live by the law. How about our parents, teachers, or even older people? Verse 5 in this chapter talks about conscience. It is conscience in our hearts that tells us to obey or listen to these people. It is this conscience that tells us to respect these people. I believe this conscience is a calling or the voice of God talking into our hearts. These are people that God has given authority over each individuals. The fact that God placed them authority is important. There are times where things just do not seem fair to you. There are times when it isn’t just right. But the Word of God, and our conscience tells us to be obedient to the authorities. We can look at the story of David. He was being pursued by King Saul. Saul wanted David dead. While David was fleeing away from Saul, David had couple opportunities where he was able to kill King Saul. But in both opportunities, he refused to kill King Saul, because even though he was fleeing for life, even though this was not a good king, this king was appointed by God. David’s conscience was aware of all this and was telling David not to do so, because it is all from God. If we cannot even submit to authorities which God has placed upon, how can we obey and submit to God the Creator? As our conscience tells us to obey and submit to earthly authorities, this becomes a sanctifying process for us so that we can become more fond and used to God and His great authority. Our conscience must be based on love. That is what the chapter is talking about in the later part of the chapter. We cannot just submit to authorities and God’s authority by force. It must come from a voluntary heart which is based on love. Actually that is what God’s authority is. It is His love for us. Without His love, it is impossible. And so we must come with love as we submit ourselves to authority which is spoken through our salvation. Perhaps that is what salvation is. We are coming back to the order and the law of God. Because of sin, we came misplaced in order and discipline, but He calls us in love for us to come back to Him by practicing to submit ourselves to the authority. In that way we can ultimately submit directly to God. We are returning back to where we are supposed to belong as the children of God. This does not mean our actions can save us. God has already made everything possible for us to be saved. It is our response and reflection to what God has already prepared for us.
In Response To, "How Perfect is Perfect or is Christian Perfection Possible?"
There is a never-ending complexity to the simplicity of our Jesus following experience. There are so many contradictions that make no sense, but make perfect sense. Among them, the most prominent is found in Matthew 10:39, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” The contradiction, I would even use the word puzzle in this instance is one that we’ve been discussing in class and on in which Heppenstall addresses in his article, “How Perfect is Perfect or is Christian Perfection Possible?,” and that is a Christians’ journey to perfection or sanctification. He deals with the reality that we will spend our whole lives trying to imitate the character of Christ more closely, and the longer we do it, the more we come to realize our own sin. The ultimate height a human can achieve, the ultimate success that we can have is that we can show a glimpse of the divine. Once we connect to God and surrender our hearts to Him, it becomes our desire to be just like Him, and even amidst our best efforts, no matter how hard we try, we fail. Every time we fail, we beat ourselves up for it. I so keenly identified with Dr. Hannah when was sharing with us in class about how when he was young, he thought that guilt was a necessary aftermath of sin and failure, it was a good thing for him to beat himself up over whatever mistake he’d made. I know that I feel the same often. It’s almost as if we think God is more inclined to forgive us, the more shamefaced, guilt ridden and torn up we are about sin. That kind of show isn’t really what God is interested in. I think that God is more interested in us recognizing our inadequacies and learning to abide continually and depend wholly on Christ and His righteousness. How do we do that though? Like really, in our daily lives how does that manifest itself. For me, as far as I’ve been able to come in this struggle is to know that the battle against sin is lifelong, but it’s not one huge war. The battle against sin is series of many small ones, everyday we face many small battles against sin, and how we react, depend on Him and call out to Him throughout our small daily struggles is the best way to deal with the great battle. If I learn to call on Him when the temptation is small, my spirit will be ready to call on him when the temptation is huge. Knowing that in my sometimes futile pursuit of perfection (futile if I try to do it alone, which I so often do), I can stop, look up and say, I can’t even handle this small hurdle, hill, or temptation, I need you to help through it. Heppenstall later in his article states, “There are no limits to God’s power. He is always willing and able to gives us the victory. But man limits God by virtue of his lack of insight and lack of surrender. In proportion to the maturity and completeness of his knowledge will be the completeness of his surrender and victory.” In other words, the more we grow in wisdom, the more we understand that unless we surrender ourselves completely we won’t experience victory. More surrender equals more victory. We grow, there is a natural progression that happens. We grow every time we experience victory, and it’s a step forward. Not a step closer to being finished, but a step forward. That is priceless, well actually, it’s pricey. It’s the cost of the blood of our Savior that could make that possible. It’s a huge relief to me to know that perfection isn’t expected of me on my own. Just the idea of having to attain that on my own makes me want to give up. But to know that every success and victory I can and will experience is because I’m walking towards and with Jesus, that gives me inspiration and energy for the battle.
In response to, “Why did Jesus Die? How God Saves us.” (George W. Reid)
Right away Reid takes us to an original train of thought when he highlights that Salvation comes through an avenue that we have walked. Jesus walked around on this earth and lived a life similar to us, but did it differently. He brought a new dimension that hadn’t been experienced before. While humans walk through life in a half awareness of what could be. Sensing some how that there is more, but not totally being able to define or connect to it, Jesus was connected to the Power of God that we are only vaguely aware of. Before it even got to the part of the plan that involved a cross, everyday Jesus was saving us from the prison of the half lived lives we were in. Everyday that he walked he spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, he lived with purpose and joy and love, and revealed that that was the true character of God. The true character of God was the most vital thing that we’d lost track of. Reid later mentions the cosmic importance of Jesus laying down his life for us. It struck me that every time someone accepts salvation and is redeemed; there is the re-redemption of God’s character. Every time someone accepts the Cross, God’s love is once again reinforced and revealed. Reid discusses the nature of Gods love. We can forget the ferocity of his love. We write melodies to it, and we describe it in terms of parental comparisons so that we can better grasp it. But Gods’ love is so more dynamic than we can articulate. It’s relentless, aggressive and inviolable. Inviolable…never to be broken, infringed or dishonored. God’s love cannot be broken or dishonored. Nothing we can do can break that bind. If we think about salvation in terms of the price that God placed on our lives, the value he gave us, it shames the choices we make when we let sin win. God looked at each of us and long before we were walking around this earth said that we were to valuable to not have at least a shot at spending eternity with him. Yet every time we sin, and let it reign in us, we value that particular sin above our lives it seems. My need to have what my neighbor has is more valuable than the lengths that God has gone to save me from death. We don’t let God’s love have the appropriate amount of room in our lives. If we did, it would compel us…it would keep us safe. That’s gotta be what God intended all along. He saw what sin did to Lucifer, he wanted to keep us from that, keep us close to himself. And God, being who God is, couldn’t force that…He gave us the freedom to choose and built bridges to bring us if we lost our way. Us coming back to Him was a plan he had place long before the first one of us was separated.
“We can only testify to the fact that there is something indiscribably and awfully wrong with us and with the world in which we live and that the scriptures trace it back to the fall of Adam and Eve into sin.” When we meet the unbelievers and explain about Christianity, this fact is very objective. Because everyone living on this planet suffers hatred, poverty, death and all kinds of tragic things. And human kinds have questions about these things. Religions have their own way to explain the cause of the problem. And sin is one of the best answer or the only reasonable answer to explain the cause of all these problems. So, pointing and showing the current tragedy of this world and our lives is very important. And then showing that sin is the main reason for these problems is crucial. And then, it is appropriate to introduce this. “It is only through the sacrificial death of Christ as our substitute that there is hope for the human race.” So, we need to realize the seriousness of sin problem, and we need to know that the problem is so huge and no one can solve the problem. And if we know this, we should be searching for someone greater than us who can solve the problem. Jesus is the Superman we are looking for and he is able to save us from our desperate situation.
“Notice that it is not said that God stopped loving them, but rather that it was impossible for His abundant and rich love to reach them.” This sentence almost sounds like that there is one being which is stronger than God and seperates us from God. And in this situation, I think of God’s heart. We didn’t know nothing about seperation. It was God alone knew about this heartbreaknig seperation. He had to suffer it by himselves. And to solve this seperation problem, God set the plan of salvation only to be with us again. What a one-sided love this is!
“From then on a human being ‘could not overcome Satan with his human strength’.” Life is getting to know and realize that we can’t overcome Satan with our strength. We try and try to overcome Satan but it’s just impossible. And knowing this is wisdom. Knowing this and relying on Jesus and practicing it continuously is the greatest wisdom.
“But God offered Adam and Eve the opprtunity of forgiveness, salvation, and restoration to their original state through His son. This offer was not only available Adam to all his descendants.” Even though it seems like it’s unfair that the descendants of Adam had to inherit the sinful nature, we got this amazing gift which is His son. We received more glorious gift than befere the sin. And it also tells us that God considers us as His precious children because he made the greatest sacrifice.
“All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ.” Recently, I was very surprised to know that the Lord in Old Testament is Jesus. It totally changed my view on OT and God the father and Jesus. Jesus is not just the son. Prior to that Jesus is the God of the universe.
“Because man fallen could not ovecome Satan with his human strength, Christ came from the royal courts of heaven to help him with His human and divine strength combined.” Here is the true hero, true Superman. What a wonderful story of God this is. God came down to be the strength because of love.
“He is now the one who determines our fate.” Jesus is now the one who determines our fate.
“This assurance turns despair into hope, and desolation to joy; for the transforming power of God’s love makes us new men and women in Christ.” It is so simple. The gospel is so simple but at the same time, it is very deep. So, it looks like complicated but the essence of the gospel should be simple that the assurance should be simple that the assurance should turn despair into hope. This is the power of gospel which needs to be recovered its original meaning.
“It is the same story, the eternal story, the one story from Genesis to Revelation-the message of the third angel, we are told, centers in justification by faith(Evangelism, p.190)” I love this concept for it is the same story, eternal story, and one story. The everlasting gospel which is third angel’s message is not different from the original gospel. It is the same gospel. And as I wrote above, the original meaning of the third angel’s message should be recovered as the original gospel.
“Therefore it must be told and retold, probed ever more deeply, heard once and ever anew.” Yes, it is true. Our history is full of attempts to make the gospel into changed gospel. Keeping it anew is our mission.
“Our condition is hopeless. To such poverty-mental, physical, spiritual-God’s salvation comes.” It is the grace of God and mystery how God makes us to be humble. Because only when we feel hopeless, we will stop trying and stop depending on ourselves. And we will begin to look for help. And at that time, we can get help.
“No sacrifice, no gift, no act of devotion-no work of any sort-can restore the broken relationship.” Wow, is this true? Do we really believe this? The thing is even though I don’t know this is true, I can’t stop thinking that maybe some sacrifice, some gift, some act of devotion can be helpful to restore the broken relationship. But even this attempts should be put down before God, and we should approach him as we are.
“We are alienated from our true selves.” I agree again ans begin to feel relieved. Because I feel like I’m a patient who couldn’t figure out the disease I had for a long time. And now I found this doctor who dianose my disease so accurately. It doesn’t make me depressed rather it gives me hope. So, I think, as a preacher, I shouldn’t worry about the response of the people when I diagnose the disease and tell them their current status.they will be shocked but since they know that we are telling them for their life to have new life, they will not get mad but they will ask us to show them the way to life. And then we can introduce them new life, new way, Jesus.
“We are alienated also from one another.” We can say a lot of things about the reason why we have relational problem. We can say it’s because of wounds we got from the previous experience. We can explain that it’s because of our food, environment, parenting style. But the most simple and accurate cause of the problem is sin. We have to tell this to people. Once we know the biggest and true cause, we shall have solution.
“Paul declares that the only way to be right with God is to be clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ.” Perfect righteousness of God, this is true. But the way to that Perfect righteousness of God looks like far away. I want to understand the meaning and want to know the way to the Perfect righteousness of God.
“The perfect rigeteousness of Christ is the only answer to the sin problem in any man’s life, the only possibility of living like Christ here and now. ‘Our righteousness’-the best we can do and are in ourselves-are ‘as filthy rags’ (Isa 64:6).” It makes sense because I know my righteousness is just impossible. So, now I can think that I need better righteousness than mine.
“When they read the command of Christ: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect”(Matt 5:48), the effort is both condemnation and discouragement.” Yes, this is the problem for me too. I know I need ‘better’ righteousness but the ‘perfect’ righteousness feels like it’s too much. And I feel like I can’t reach to the point.
“But the testimony of all great Christians is that they have never attended to it; that the more they strived and the closer they came to Christ, the deeper was their sense of inadequacy and inherent sinfulness.” This is another kind of gospel. Because it tells me to give up my human effort for it is useless. But at the same time, it’s beautiful that the closer we come to Christ, the deeper we sense the inadequacy. I feel like it is wonderful paradox.
“the only sinlessness they have ever seen or known has been that of Jesus Christ, the only perfect and sinless man; that because of this Jesus is the whole of their salvation, the whole of their righteousness and perfection.” Aha, so the step to the perfect righteousness is this. We see ourselves. We see the sinfulness and come to Jesus. And then we try to get closer to Jesus and as we fail, we see our weakness ans Christ’s greatness.
“One of the hindrances to living the Christian life successfully is failure to understand what the Bible teaches on the nature of sin and perfection. The Bible, in applying the term ‘perfection’ to believers, never means ‘sinlessness’.” This is the real hindrance that we think perfection as sinlessness.
“A ‘perfect’ Christian is one whose heart and mind are permanently committed to Christ, cannot be moved. Noah, Abraham, and Job were all declared to be ‘perfect’ men. Yet the history of their lives shows that they were far from being sinless.” So, the point is whether we can give our heart to Christ or not. This is good news again because I can give my heart to Christ at any time. No matter how many times I fail, all I need to do is constantly giving my heart to Christ.
“But if sin includes also a man’s state of mind and heart, man’s bias toward sin, sin as an indwelling thendency, then perfection presents a totally different picture.” This statement is one of the most accurate statement to define sin.
“The Bible does teach that the genuine Christian life is one of uniform and sustained victory over all known sin. The normal Christian experience should be one of victory and not constant defeat.” This sounds very simple. It makes me to think and focus on the power of Christ. if I rely on the power with simple faith, I feel like I can do it in Christ. This is simple and great assurance.
I found Isaiah 53:11 very interesting with regards to justification. I could not hold it to myself and I thought of sending this text over the blog. This passage seems to be foundational to the understanding of Christ Jesus as our justification. What is important to note is that Jesus is the righteous-just slave of God who shall justify many by (possibly)bearing their iniqutiy. I am still studying this verse. In Romans 1:1-5 Paul talks of the good news that was witnessed by the prophets; could Paul echo or allude to Isaiah as the prophet who prophecy about the good news? And this good news relates to our justification/righteousness?
I found Isaiah 53:11 very interesting with regards to justification. I could not hold it to myself and I thought of sending this text over the blog. This passage seems to be foundational to the understanding of Christ Jesus as our justification. What is important to note is that Jesus is the righteous-just slave of God who shall justify many by (possibly)bearing their iniqutiy. I am still studying this verse. In Romans 1:1-5 Paul talks of the good news that was witnessed by the prophets; could Paul echo or allude to Isaiah as the prophet who prophecy about the good news? And this good news relates to our justification/righteousness?
I thoroughly enjoyed Edward Heppenstall’s BRI article Some Theological Considerations of Perfection. What I like most about the article is the words study on the greek words teleios and katartizo. I have read broadly on the subject of perfectionism, especially within the context of the Adventist Church, but I don’t recall having seen many of the scriptures in this article used before in this context. Looking at texts like 1 Cor. 14:20, Heb. 5:11-14; 6:1, 1 Cor. 2:6, 1 Cor. 3:1-3, Eph. 4:11-13, Phil 3:13-15 and others it is so clear to me that the Greek word teleios, translated “perfect” in many English translations of the New Testament should be more actually translated “mature.” In almost every one of the above passages Paul is contrasting immature and childlike Christians with teleios (mature) Christians. My favorite passage used in the article was Philippians 3:13-15. In this passage Paul claims the title of teleios (mature) for himself, and he calls other Christians to be like him, yet in this same passage he says, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the ark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:13-14) So obviously Paul understood biblical perfection to be something completely different from our modern definition of perfection today. The second Greek word used in the word study on perfection in Heppenstall’s article was katartizo. In many English translations this word is translated “perfect,” but instead has the connotation of “being fully equipped.” Several of the verses that caught my attention were Luke 6:40, 2 Cor. 13:11, Heb 13:21, 1 Peter 5:10, and especially Eph. 4:11,12 and 2 Tim. 3:16,17. Ephesians 4:11,12 is the familiar passage of how God gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor/teachers for the “perfecting,” or more accurately, for the “full equipping” of the saints for the work of ministry. And 2 Timothy 3:16,17 is the familiar passage about how Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be “perfect,” or more accurately, “fully equipped,” thoroughly furnished unto all good works. In my opinion, having a more accurate understanding of what teleios and katartizo really mean is so helpful. I appreciate the fact that more and more modern English translations are translating these words “mature” and “fully equipped.” I believe this will go along way in correcting the misunderstandings on perfectionism that many have today. With this being said. I don’t think this will solve problem entirely. I believe we will be battling the heresy of perfectionism until Christ returns. There seems to be something with our human nature that thrives on the idea that we, even with God’s help we can perfect ourselves entirely this side of heaven. This concept seems especially appealing to certain personality types. I sure appreciated everything Heppenstall had to say on the subject. This article is definitely going into my digital archive for future reference.
For my final blog assignment I chose to respond to Edward Reid’s BRI article entitled Why Did Jesus Die? How God Saves Us. In this article Reid appears to be arguing for a substitutionary atonement model over a Moral Influence model. He is careful not to say that the substitutionary atonement model is the only acceptable model and that Christ’s demonstration of the character of God played no part in the plan of salvation. In other words he seems to be arguing against the exclusive use of the moral influence theory. Instead he seems to be arguing for a combination of both. It is definitely not one or other in his mind. I agree with Reid that the Moral Influence theory has merit in that Christ’s death is definitely a demonstration of God’s love for sinners, and it has a powerful, motivating effect on the mind of the sinner, which is being quickened by the work of the Holy Spirit to repent from sin and live for God. But to say that this is the extent of the plan of salvation, I believe, is to miss the boat. This theory ignores the fact that Christ died to pay a ransom, price, or cosmic, divine demand. Christ’s death is not an effort to pay God off. I don’t even believe that God is the ultimate recipient of the payment. The basic reality is that sin caused a permanent rift in God’s perfect universe, and only Christ’s death could make it right. In many ways this is still a mystery. One may not connect with a particular salvation model i.e. ransom, substitution, etc., but the basic reality is that there is a whole lot more to Christ’s death and this whole salvation thing than a demonstration model of God’s love. I have experience with the Moral Influence Theory first hand. I have notices serious leanings in this direction by a prominent preacher within Adventism. I have also read a couple of books that strongly advocated this stance on salvation. I admit it is a beautiful concept. I get it, especially when today in a postmodern culture everyone is obsessed with relationships and the concept of love. I agree too that it is necessary to present the Gospel in the context of the reconciliation between God and man. I simply believe, like we were taught in class, that we need to present a holistic presentation of salvation that does not exclude any scriptural model. Because of our cultural context in North America we may even need to emphasize the reconciliation model more than the others. In addition maybe there is a place for emphasizing the death of Christ as a demonstration of God’s love above some of the facets of other models. What we cannot do, however, preach and teach only these aspects or models of salvation or else we will cease to proclaim both the full picture of what sin as well as the full picture of what Christ accomplished in His death. As kind of a side note, here is a question for someone to respond too. This is only somewhat related to the topic I have written on so far in this blog, but it is a question that interests me. And here it is. Why does the substitutionary atonement model work? I understand in a general way the rift that sin caused. I understand that the first expression of sin on this planet was by the disobedience of the first human couple. But who says that Christ can come down, do what they couldn’t (live perfectly righteous before God), die guiltless, and have His death satisfy humanity’s debt. It sounds great, but why is this allowable? I’m willing to say that I don’t understand this and maybe never will. One thing I believe for sure is that whatever the basis for substitutionary atonement, the universe, including myself, will one day understand it as fair and the genius that only divinity could orchestrate. I would be interested in anyone’s thoughts.
As I have been thinking about the different models of Salvation I find it interesting that there were discrepancies about which model is best. As we look through scripture we find a variety of models that each paint a picture of how Christ gave of Himself in order offer eternal life to us. These models range from the ransom model, which highlights the idea that Christ died to pay a ransom for us; to the reconciliation model, which states that we are reconciled to God through Christ; as well as the satisfaction model, which shows that through Christ’s sacrifice He provides satisfaction for God; and the penal substitution model, which assumes that Christ died in our place and suffered the punishment that we should have; all the way to the victory model, which simply means we have victory over sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. These are just a few of the models that exist and are dispersed throughout Christianity. Although the Universal Christian church does not have an official or creedal statement in regards to how salvation happens, there are specific denominations that have attached themselves to certain models of salvation because they have become important to them. Through the process of aligning a church to a certain model of salvation the problem arises that one model is more dominant than another and therefore leads to one church or group that believes their model is better than the others and vice versa. This problem can quickly lead to a debate about which model is the most dominant in scripture and so on. In reality, all the models are biblical and they all have importance. Trying to align with one over another or determine which one is the best seems foolish because each is found in scripture to give us a sliver of what salvation is like. I believe it is safe to say that we will never fully understand salvation and I therefore think it is safe to say that we can, and should, use every example and model found in scripture as a means of focusing our minds on the whole of salvation. When churches or people place precedence on one model over the other it can cause dissention between God’s children which in turn leaves us bickering back and forth about the greatest, most precious gift, we can ever receive, Salvation! I feel that the power of this gift is lessened when we try to figure out which aspect of it is the strongest or best. I do not have a problem with a church aligning with a certain model because of a trial or joy they have experienced, but when the choice is made to promote one model over the other just to choose a side, it becomes absurd. I believe that there is no one, single, model for salvation today. All models are biblical and all of them have importance. When we narrow our views and focus on one aspect of salvation it does not leave room for the full picture (at least as much as we can understand) of Christ’s salvation. For this reason I think it is necessary to have a holistic approach to the models of salvation because His salvation is multifaceted! We serve a risen Savior who Is, Was, and Is to come. He has been our Savior all along and He will continue to be throughout eternity. We therefore must cling to Christ Jesus who holds all the models of Salvation because He is the way, the truth, and the life.
From our study here in class we have seen just how multi-faceted the process of salvation is. With that understanding in mind I came to realize that the assurance of salvation can be multifaceted as well and therefore needs to be understood in a holistic manner too. What I want to propose here is one way of looking at assurance. Here it is: The assurance of our salvation lies in the continual submission of ourselves to God’s will. The bible teaches that God’s will is for all of us to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). If it is God’s will that I be saved, if I submit to His will, can I not have assurance of my salvation?? Let me try to explain a little further. The Bible consistently reveals Jesus as our salvation. Acts 4:12, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. Joel 3:32, all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10:9-10, if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved! 1 John 5:12 tells us that those who have the Son have eternal life and therefore our salvation lies in Christ alone. Since that is the case when can then know with certainty that the assurance of our salvation lies in Him as well! Colossians 1:21-23 says that we were once alienated from God when we were not in Him, but through Christ’s body & death we have been reconciled to Him and are presented as holy in his sight when we continue in our faith and hope in Him! Ellen White puts it plainly in Desire of Ages when she says that the law requires righteousness, which is something we don’t have. We cannot meet the claims of God’s holy law; but Christ came to earth & lived a holy life, He developed a perfect character, and HE offers salvation as a free gift to all who are willing to receive it! So Christ stands in our place…when we place ourselves in Him! From this understanding the idea that the assurance of our salvation lies in Christ and in our continual acceptance of Him is more fully realized. Colossians 2:6-7 furthers this understanding by saying that just as we received Christ Jesus as our Lord, we are to continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in our faith and overflowing w/thankfulness. Therefore receiving Jesus is not the only aspect needed. We see here again that there is a process involved. We must also continue to live in Christ and be strengthened and built up in Him! It is God who wills us to act according to His good purpose. In Steps to Christ, Ellen White says that we may have joy in our communion with Jesus because of the light of His love and the comfort of His presence, and as we commune with Him we grow and experience His love on a deeper level. She says this about being in Christ, “let us not cast away our confidence, but have firm assurance, firmer than ever before.” Therefore we see that Ellen White’s writings are once again in harmony with the word of God and that she too attests to our great need of being in Christ and experiencing His love and goodness through our personal experiences with Him. God’s will is for good in our lives, we know that from Romans 8. He works for our good and wills that we would be free from sin and be grounded in His salvation. It is God’s eternal purpose to save sinners! God’s will is to save mankind! Romans 8:29 testifies to this idea when it says that those whom God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. God foreknew that humanity would need a savior and He therefore sacrificed His own Son in order for us to have the freedom to be conformed into His likeness. It is because of God’s will that this process of salvation was established and it is that same will that we must submit our lives to in order to accept and be assured of His great and wonderful salvation.
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Paul begins chapter five of Romans by referring to his thesis of justification by faith. Having established his argument with substantive evidence from the Old Testament he begins to discuss the blessings of Justification by Faith;(a)there is peace with God,(b)we have access to grace in which we stand,(c)there is cause for rejoicing in hope, so that we can glory even in tribulations,(d)there is God's love which He first demonstrated with the gift of His Son through the Holy Spirit Finally, there is salvation from God's wrath (vs9).All of this is made possible when we are reconciled to God through the death of His Son and should be the basis for endless rejoicing.To explain further the way in which salvation is made possible, Paul compares Christ to Adam. Through one man, Adam, sin and death entered the world, and the consequences have led to the death of many. In a similar way, through one man, Christ, many may now become righteous. Through Jesus' death on the cross, justification is made possible for many .Upon comparing Christ with Adam, Paul briefly mentions that with the entering in of law sin abounded. But the increase of sin has been adequately answered by the grace offered in Jesus Christ It took me a while to accept that the(wrath) spoken of in verse nine was in reference to God’s wrath. It perhaps is safe to conclude that Christ's death was to apease God's wrath.
The following is my reaction to the first 4 BRI articles. My favorite of the 4 by far was the first one on Ellen White’s comments regarding Adam and original sin. I thought Angel Rodriguez did a terrific job with the article, especially where he summarizes Ellen White’s statements in single sentences throughout the article. I thought the article was a great chronology of Adam and Eve, their first sin, and the effect of that sin on humanity and the earth. Many times throughout my reading I thought to myself, “this would be a great way to introduce this concept to Bible study candidates and new believers.” While this would be a helpful to share in its simplicity, I think the negatives would be too great. The greatest negative I came up with is that new believers would be better grounded in a simple chronology from Scripture instead of Ellen White. Let me just say that I am a huge fan of Ellen White, and her chronology has its place. I would say its place is for mature Christians with an educated confidence in the authority of Ellen White and her writings. So as tempting as it is for me to use this article with my Bible study candidates, I will save it for later, as I hope you will do too.
Honestly, I was only superficially interested in the articles on original sin (the concept that later humanity is guilty for Adam’s sin). I thought the articles made great arguments in defense of the biblical position. I just personally don’t struggle with it. For me the Scriptures are clear that humanity and the earthly creation inherited a depraved state because of Adam’s sin, but nowhere do I find a solid argument to suggest that humanity is guilty for Adam’s sin each individually needs to be purified of it. If I find myself in a serious Bible study with someone on the subject I may come back and read these articles more thoroughly.
I found myself in a similar place while reading the fourth article. I don’t personally struggle with the concept of universal legal justification at the cross. Based on my literal reading of Scripture this idea is a grave distortion. I feel like one has to take a very mystical approach to interpreting the verses that can be construed to teach this doctrine. I feel this mystical “in Christ” “in Adam” motif is taken to far by proponents of the universal justification teaching. Nowhere else in Scripture can I think of a place that warrants this mystical approach of interpretation. When figurative and metaphorical language is used in Scripture it is usually flagged and obvious to the reader of Scripture. There is nothing in the texts used to support universal justification to signal the reader to take a mystical interpretive method. I have heard proponents of this doctrine preach to Adventist masses in camp meetings, churches, and their books. Jack Sequiera (spelling ?) is one. There is another gentleman I have heard on several occasions. I can’t remember his first name, but I believe his last name is Livingston. He has a independent ministry in Washington D.C. He doesn’t take as an aggressive a stance as Sequiera, but his whole ministry seems based on bringing a unique healing ministry to people with extreme sinful addictions and orientations by teaching them that they have been universally forgiven, saved and empowered at the cross. He claims this understanding of salvation is bringing great victories in the lives of people. I have serious questions about this as well as his theology.
Dennis Said….
Justification is God’s act of making a sinner righteous before Him. Justification does not make us righteous but pronounces us righteous. Our righteousness comes from the sacrifice of Christ. In that He shed His blood for our sins and that His sacrifice covers our sins, allowing God to see us perfect. Justification cannot be achieved by going to church, sharing tears, singing and praising God. Justification can only be achieved through faith in God's dear son Jesus christ. Faith means to trust in God. It is casting all your care upon Him. As recorded in the Book of Romsns "There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.” ROMANS 3: 22-26, NIV.
I think that Angel Rodriguez’s article, “Christ Saved the Human Race,” is an important article in terms of bringing some clarity to her statements and the doctrine of universal legal justification. Rodriguez takes some of White’s statements that seem to suggest that Christ provided justification for everybody and seeks to interpret these statements in a way that underscores the biblical understanding of salvation.
However, I think Rodriguez also undercuts the truth of universal legal justification in order to come to this greater understanding. (I am only speaking of universal legal justification as it is described in the article.) Rodriguez seems to imply that the problem with universal legal justification is not that it may not be true, but that there is a mistake in the concept of it – that Christ’s justice is going to cover people who decide to continue living in their sins. But this mistaken impression of universal legal justification does not mean that there was no universal legal justification at the Cross. What it does mean is that we have to come to and propagate a better understanding of what took place at Calvary. The idea that Rodriguez expresses, that the justification was universal but that human beings must still access that justification, is well within a definition of universal legal justification.
By bringing a different concept to bear on the model of universal legal justification, we can bring everyone to a more holistic understanding of salvation without offending those who believe in the universal legal justification model. I think it comes back to the way we think about different issues. Instead of trying to show how different ideas can fit together, we try to show how things must be either accepted or rejected, with no quarter given. This does not seem to be a proper way to go about trying to help people come to a more complete biblical understanding of the concept of salvation.
For some time now I have been meditating on the concept of hope. Faith hope and love – these three great things are not meant to be merely theoretical or theological. They should be the greatest experiential realities in my life. Faith, I get. I have experienced genuine faith, and recognize when I am exercising it and when I am not. I have experienced, even if very dimply, the reality of faith. I think I can safely say the same for love. Of course, I do not suppose myself to have experienced it to the depth that others have, or the depth I could. But I get it. It is a reality that I have experienced in my life.
But hope, I do not understand. The idea of hope may make sense to me, I may understand its definition, but its reality escapes me. Perhaps it is the result of its use in my culture. Maybe my lack of understanding is a result of such common expressions as “to hope beyond hope”, an expression that casts hope as the act of eagerly desiring something that will not happen in reality. But this is not the hope I find in scripture.
As part of my research project, I did a word search on hope, looking for how many times Paul references it in connection with glorification, the second coming, the great event which is the hope of all who hope in Christ. I found that most of the time the word is used it is in connection with glorification. It is becoming clear to me that the hope of glorification was very much a reality to Paul.
It breaks my heart that I cannot currently say the same for myself. The second coming of Christ – the change in reality that will come on that great day – rarely go beyond the level of theoretical knowledge to me. I can wrap my mind around it, but that is all. Unlike faith and love, I have rarely experience the practical reality of hope. It makes some sense in my mind, but not in my soul.
The funny thing is that by just meditating on my lack of hope, I find myself experiencing more of it. It leads me to wonder if the hope that I feel – that I may have hope – is the only reality I may experience before the glorification is actually realized.
My desire is to better understand what hope means to a person of great faith. Paul, and as my memory serves, Ellen White, were both extremely motivated by hope. They seemed to find strength to endure hardship by focusing their attention on the glory to come at the end. My hope is that in discovering the reality of hope, and applying it as a reality in my life, I too will be able to find the strength needed to stay faithful to God through the trials that come.
So I guess the question is how does this relate to salvation? Experience is a difficult thing to base research on. In theological terms, I suppose I am interested in the relationship between hope and sanctification. Is hope a concept that will not be satisfied until glorification, or does hope play part in the ongoing process of salvation as a part of the sanctification process?
Doctrine of Salvation
Blog Comment
By: Daniel Yim
June 12, 2009
Larry J. Kane brought out some insightful commentary in his article, Analysis of the Doctrine of Universal “Legal” Justification. In the article, Kane discusses the belief of Universal Legal Justification as taught by the 1888 Message Study Committee. The committee asserts that universal legal justification is sufficient for sinners to turn from their ways and restore the broken relationship from God. But is this belief Biblical? Kane’s position is that man’s salvation is dependent upon God’s initiative toward sinners. It is God that seeks out and saves the lost, not the lost seeking God’s love.
I like Kane’s example from Genesis 3, where God promptly seeks out Adam and Eve after their sin. I also refer to the passage where Jesus tells a parable to a crowd about a man with 100 sheep. 99 are safe in the fold, but 1 has been lost. The loving shepherd is not content with his 99 in the fold, so he goes out in the night to rescue that lost sheep. As a young child reading Uncle Author’s Bedtime Stories, I remember this story very well from the pictures in the book. The shepherd comes to a ditch and pulls the little lamb, caught in some branches, unable to break free. The shepherd uses his long staff to free the lamb, place it on his shoulders and joyfully walk back home.
These two examples of God’s initiative toward saving sinners, paints a picture in my mind of our condition as lost sinners. First, there is Adam and Eve, running from the presence of God, ashamed of their nakedness. They knew that something had gone terribly wrong. They felt the absence of God’s glory and in it’s place, the shamefulness of sin reigned. Then there is the lost lamb. When I remember the pictures from Bedtime Stories, I can only feel the fear and danger that the little lamb faced, all alone in the wilderness among devouring animals. The little lamb must have sensed that something was wrong. There were no other sheep with which the lamb could hide under. The shepherd’s comforting voice could not be heard. The protecting staff of the shepherd could not be felt. Thus, the little lost lamb must have known about its dire situation.
My response to Kane’s article centers on the condition of the sinner’s heart. Sinners are separated from God and by human nature, we are aware of this separation. There are people who acknowledge that they are sinners. There are some who do not acknowledge that they are sinners living in a sinful world. I believe in Kane’s position that God initiates the salvation process by seeking out sinners. This is the first step towards restoration. What we as lost sheep do in response to the freely offered gift to all humanity depends on everyone’s free will choice. We are not instructed or ordered to obey and accept this gift of salvation, rather we choose to respond to the calling of God.
Concerning the discussion from class time, I am reminded that justification and sanctification are closely related. The book of Romans reveals how the salvation process can be seen in successive steps of righteousness to holiness to eternal life. I see how the objective process of justification was a gift from God, which did not involve my vote or input. I did not vote on whether Christ would die for my sins or not. It happened and I can choose to accept it or reject it. In a similar manner, sanctification is what God can do in me when I allow his grace to fulfill God’s love in my life. I see how Kane’s position in his article supports what our class discussed on salvation. Christ did, so now we can respond. Christ did, so now we can allow Christ to do more. Christ did, so we will be able to be with God forever.
Salvation?, What is it?
Through the reading Romans, “Ellen White on Salvation” by Whidden II, BRI documents related to this topic, and class lectures made me seriously think about the meaning of Salvation.
What is salvation?
So I looked up the dictionary; redemption: (theology) the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil.
It is very simple to understand the meaning salvation God’s saving work (grace) for us from sin (lost) to eternal life. (I know you can explain this saving work in many ways. That is why there are many models to explain this.)
But why there are many models of salvation?
Why Theologians make this simple fact more difficult to understand?
Did the thief on the right side of the cross with Jesus understand ‘righteous by faith’ when he asked Jesus to remember him?
Is this from the influence of Greek philosophy?
Why theologians can not see the whole picture (I mean holistically)?
I do not want to assert “Just Simply Believe” is the best way to accept and to understand Salvation. However I think we need to shift our thinking to help others to understand this great fact (gift) from God through Jesus Christ.
“For God so loved the world and He gave his only begotten son whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16)”
All these complicated models and thoughts makes me much more complicated, however I found a very important lesson from Ellen White and her experience how she settled down her understanding on Salvation.
That is she met true personal God and his saving grace through the Buxton camp meeting and most importantly (finally) the helps of Elder Levi Stockman. After that she settled this issue.
Let me quote her saying on the below
“It is quite clear from this time on that there were no more serious ups and downs in her experience of salvation. Even the traumas of being expelled from the Methodist Church or the severe trials of the Millerite disappointments did not provoke another crisis of soul about her personal salvation.”(Whidden II, 1995, 19)
My conclusion for this struggle understanding on Salvation issue is this idea of salvation human can not explain 100% about it. We can only understand this great issue and blessing through our personal encounter with Jesus.
Hope this short reflection I struggled on Salvation help others.
(Poor human knowledge can not reach God’s great things. Maybe that is why we more anticipate Heaven and His second coming.)
For this first week, I would like to reflect on the article, “Christ Saved the Human Race” by Angel Manuel Rodriguez. In this article we can see that the Christ is the main key point of the whole issue. Of the many models of salvation discussed in class, we saw a common denominator, which was Christ. We figured that no matter how we talk about these different models of salvation, there would be no point, or would not be effective if Christ were not in these models. Therefore the overall key point that we must keep in mind is that in the issue of salvation, nothing is possible without Christ. Christ is the only key and only through Him is salvation possible.
In this article I noticed couple models of salvation which we discussed about in class, which are the redemptive model and the ransom model of salvation. Looking into these models, the word that right away pops into my mind is “recovery.” I could see that here the process of salvation is to recover what was lost. When God created the world, the world and human kind were perfect and sinless. But because of sin, or the fall of man, everything was lost. The connection between God and man were disconnected, the relationship had been broken.
In order for God to recover what was lost, Christ functioned as a key role(which is also only possible through Him) to bring recovery, or salvation, for mankind. I do not think this is a perfect analogy but I can recall what happened to me last week. One day, I drove over to the seminary building for class. It was a warm day and my window was open so that I can get some cool air. But as I parked my car and tried to close the window, it did not close. There was this weird sound, and the window motor was obviously working but some had fallen apart. Later that day a friend came over to help me find out what had happened to the window, we opened up and found out that the cord in the window regulator unit was frayed. The only way of fixing it is to replace the part. Later I had to order the part which took a few days for it to arrive and I had to leave my window covered with a plastic bag which was really uncomfortable to drive with. Eventually I was able to fix the window. I was able to recover the car to its full functions. This experience cannot fully explain the idea of redemptive salvation, but makes sense in some ways. The part was broken. It had to be replaced, and the part obviously had to be paid(a lot for a student, perhaps a lot for anyone). But because I had paid for it I was able to redeem, recover, or even save my car.
I like the point where it says that “saved the world” does not mean it actually saved the whole human race. Christ saved the world by bridging a way for the human race to be saved by choice. Through His death, everyone are given the opportunity to be saved, but it is only those who choose to be saved will be saved. It’s the freedom of will and choice, which makes powerful. A power to choose. But this is a power which God allowed us to have. It is where we can see His greatness. I could have chosen not to fix my car window and be uncomfortable the whole time. I made a choice to fix my car. In the same way, we can choose to be saved and look for the hope of being with Jesus again.
Response To “Ellen White on Salvation” Chapters 1 & 2
It was a great relief for me to read that Ellen White had a gradual growth and understanding of the doctrine of Salvation throughout her life. Hers, I’m sure, differs from ours in that, a lot of fine tuning and gradual growth in understanding had to happen in her era as the SDA church was growing and developing.
We, nowadays, seem to have all the information presented to us at once, the models are presented to us all together. In the case of sister White, it seemed like there was a point of beginning for her, based on her background and experience, and then, as she studied, and grew in understanding, age and experience, it grew. Perhaps each discovery and experience allowed her to have a more holistic understanding of salvation, and perhaps an element of one enlightened another. Maybe for her it wasn’t necessarily a matter of what was “right”, but how each related to the other, how they supported each other, but cast a new light on a very big subject.
In the third chapter of the book, I especially appreciated the illustrations given in chapter three, in regards to her responses to radicals on either side of salvation spectrum. Trying to discourage, and not be associated with those who held the view of ultra holiness, whom she said didn’t even need to pray the Lords prayer because they didn’t sin, but also those on the other extreme. She had to set straight Elder Brown who would mislead people by teaching that “it was impossible for anyone to keep God’s law and that no one will get to heaven by keeping the law.” He further went on to claim that Mrs. White was “all law.” She keenly puts him back in his place and weeds out the error in his statements by responding to him the way she did. (Her response can be read on page 25 of our book.)
It seems like being to quick to live or believe in one extreme or another is an issue that has to often plagued our denomination. We need to be careful to look at any doctrine or belief based on what the Bible says holistically. Yet, so many, and even myself on certain issues, just want to know the “right answer.” In the case of Salvation, as has continually come up in our discussion in class, by leaning to far one way in our viewpoints, it’s possible that we are missing part of the truth in our pursuit to find the right answer.
Comments on Herbert Oliphant
Thanks for your analyzing first five Chapters of Romans.
I tried to understand righteous by faith clearly in that book (That is why I read whole book of Romans before the class started.) and I also read several times in English and Korean to understand it more clearly.
But still the book of Romans is vague to me.
Maybe Paul's writing is so delicate to me to understand.
If you have any good suggestion to understand the book better, please let me know.
Thank you!
Hey Myoung,
You got the right and the most important point, that is Christ is the center of our Salvation.
I really like that.
Thanks for you pointed that out!
One more comment for Myoung
I like your "Recovery model" and it makes sense. And you tried to explain that with your experience(I think your example is a bit awkward. But I can understand what you want to say^^)
Like we discussed in the class, models can be named in variety of ways what the person emphasis on the most.
Thank you for good insights!
In trying to understand the doctrine of salvation, I found myself contemplating the concept of sin. A recent experience convinced me that we Christians have a terrible difficulty in appreciating the depth of salvation because our understanding of sin is so shallow.
Last week I shared this request with a group of my friends: "Well, my request is for a personal area of my helplessness. I'm normally a pretty productive person, but I seem to be inextricably caught in a bout of laziness. It's terrible! So I need prayer that God will cure me of this laziness."
Strangely, the group didn't want to accept that. I got a couple friendly chuckles and some advice about letting go of my to-do lists. I protested that no, this really was a problem, and someone shared a story about a fellow classmate of ours who throws away his syllabi at the start of every term and ignores due dates and has all A's. I tried to communicate the problem wasn't really about my achievements (my grades are just fine, actually) but rather it's a problem of my character: I need to do things that I don't want to do. After a couple more rebuttals, I said, "Okay, I think I'll just pray for myself." During our time for prayer, someone did actually pray for me, but it happened to be more of a request that God would help all of us get our schoolwork done during this summer semester.
This strange episode seems to me to be indicative of a rampant illness of sin-ambivalence, characterized by the inability to acknowledge specific personal sin as evil, and the overwhelming compulsion to ameliorate any (possibly justified) feelings of guilt. So we talk about our sins as if they were just personality quirks and we tend to phrase any such admission in such a way as to avoid the impression that this was not some slip or accident, but rather something very in tune with the feelings of our hearts. (Notice how in my own confession, I mentioned how I was normally a productive person, as if to say that this problem was really out of character for me.) When we talk about sin, we rather prefer to talk about sins generally, with the eager agreement that we're all sinners and the underlying feeling that there's nothing we can really do about it and we really shouldn't hold it against ourselves or each other.
On the rare occasion that someone does confess a sin, our first instinct is to make that person feel better. The first words out of our mouths are "It's okay." We assure him that a lot of people probably struggle with this and that it's nothing to be ashamed of. (I get the distinct impression from the Bible, however, that sin is exactly the thing we ought to be ashamed of.) We make sure to remove the sense of personal responsibility from the confessor at almost all costs, steering clear of any suggestion that her personal choice might be the cause. (Since alcoholism is called a disease, perhaps we've concluded that any thing we do that we don't approve of is also a disease, out of our control and not really our fault.) When we ask for prayer so often we avoid the personal. It seems to me that while we avoid making any requests that could give the right impression about our spiritual needs, we're eager to bring up to the group Aunt Sally and her disease. (But the Jesus who heals the paralytic also heals our souls... right?)
I honestly and truly feel that my laziness is a sin and that it is a personal character defect that is interfering with my spiritual well-being. When Jesus bore my sins on the cross--the sins that crushed out His life--I believe that He carried my laziness. And when I choose laziness, I think that it really is an act of rebellion against God, choosing my own desires over His and rejecting His lordship in my life. In other words, I think it's really bad! It’s one of the things I need Jesus to save me from…
It's strange that we can be so uncomfortable with acknowledging personal sin and yet so comfortable in committing it.
By: Fa’asoa M. Fa’asoa
6/14/09
Salvation (article 1)
In an article written for the PERSPECTIVE DIGEST, vol. 14-2009 by Norman Gulley Ph.D., titled “The Good News About Last-Day Events”, a shocking but not necessarily surprising survey was done by Dr. Gulley with the following results:
“…49 percent said they were worried about the pre-advent judgment; 56 percent expressed fear about last-day events; in fact, 41 percent said they would rather die than go through last-day events; 37 percent expressed the belief that they would gain entrance to heaven through Christ’s sacrifice plus their human works; 50 percent said they were no sure they would be saved if they died today; and yet 88 percent claimed they know Christ as a personal friend.”
“These are stunning revelations when you realize that these represent a cross-section of Seventh-day Adventist international youth, studying a variety of majors.”
Okay, okay, I can understand how one’s nerves might get frazzled over the plethora of situations presented in Revelation 13 about the last days, but to claim that “you know Christ as a personal friend,” and yet scared to death in the fearful allusion that Christ/God will not be there to protect you or even to raise you from death should anything happen to you, which Jesus-according to Luke, and many other Bible authors clarifies as a state of SLEEP?! What in the world is going on with my generation?!
It causes me to wonder what the teachers in their classrooms are teaching about their so-called “personal friend” if that friend isn’t powerful enough to take them through to the end to victory; what tragedy?! This can’t be the Jesus of scripture!
Speaking of whom, I must say that after reading Mr. Angel Rodriquez’s article on Adam and the Human Race via Ellen White, on the issue of Salvation, which I believe has solid connections to last day events; I am once again convinced of how desperately we all need to get to know our Saviour, our Lord, our Redeemer, our God, our Creator, and YES our true and faithful FRIEND on a personal level daily.
Against the backdrop of not only: guilt, the flood of disharmonization of man’s will with GOD’S, but also the unimaginable magnitude of death and misery that has passed on to us in modernity because of Adam and Eve’s destructive and selfish choice; we would be without hope were it not for Jesus.
Seriously, I don’t think that we would ever realize how terrible sin is and how horrific it’s results would be were it not for the Love of the Father who gave His only unique and precious Son, and sacrificed Him in order that we may have a fair chance of choosing for ourselves to follow GOD or not.
Mr. Rodriquez hit the nail on the head by stating that, “Adam’s sin was his own sin, but it had a universal impact and negatively affected every member of the human race, who is now born in state of separation from God and unable to overcome the power of sin. He (referring to Adam…the first one) determined our fate; but thanks be to God for JESUS CHRIST, through whom we have REDEMPTION! He is now the ONE who determines our fate.”
Perfect Love, the Bible teaches, casts out fear and so to me, how obvious then that my brothers and sisters who participated in Dr. Gulley’s survey-in this man’s humble opinion, perhaps did not yet understand true LOVE. They perhaps do not yet understand the LOVE of GOD that John wrote about in the third chapter verses 16, and 17 of his letter, “For God so LOVED the World (Adam’s posterity) that he gave His only unique Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life; God didn’t send His Son to condemn the World but that the World might be saved.”
I believe that it would our privilege to look into getting to know Christ once again in relation to our Salvation and the assurance that we can have as a result of that friendship. He is our mediator and our Salvation, trust Him fully! Proverbs 3:5,6
Doctrine of Salvation reading Assignment. Ellen White on Salvation By Woodrow W. Whidden
It was a delight reading the views of Ellen white on the model of atonement which has in recent years grown in popularity among seventh-day Adventists. In fact this view has become so compelling for many that they have tried to make it the dominant, controlling view in Ellen White’s presentations on the atonement. Atonement was used to express all that the trinity has done and will do to reconcile sinners to Him. In the early years of Adventism some of the writers felt that the atonement did not reflect the death of Christ on the cross but refers to only His work in the Heavenly sanctuary (Holy of Holies). Ellen white made it an ambiguous clear that the work of atonement involves His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary also.
She made it clear that atonement is provided for all but it becomes very effective only for those who respond to the invitation of Christ. Christ’s intercessory ministry in the Holy of Holies is part of the atonement.
Ellen White saw the cross as the only supreme manifestation of God’s love. There’re el of loving moral influence that are communicated both to sinners and the unfallen beings of the universe.
The death of Christ on the cross reveals how offensive sin is to God. It was a manifestation of divine wrath against sin. Upon Christ our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart.
Here we can see that Penal Substitution model which emphasized the justice of God in His love. This theory has been the most popular atonement model among conservatives Christians. This is one of the dominant themes in Ellen White’s thoughts about atonement.
Fritz Guy commenting on the Penal Substitution theory said that “the death of Jesus is not God making someone else “pay the penalty instead of us; it’s God taking the penalty on himself.” Jesus willingly paid the price not only to secure our redemption but also to demonstrate the fullness of divine love to a confused universe.
Against ‘Elder Brown’.
By: Fa’asoa M. Fa’asoa
6.15.09
Lines are drawn and the battle is on. It is the event of the summer as The Pacific Voyage sails through the west coast towards the state of Oregon with loaded words of correction for a certain ‘brother Brown.’ The year is 1878 and the disturbing news of his misstatements against Ellen White’s developing understanding and position on Salvation and God’s moral Law brought him face to face with his own accusations.
Like a moth to the flame burned by the fire, Sir. Brown perhaps quickly realized why we don’t throw gasoline on live coals. If you play with fire, you will most likely get burned. Like a 12 gage silver pistol, with an ivory handle cocked and fired, Ellen white said the following words without ducking from fear of her opponent.
“…Christ, Christ, only believe on Christ, when they do not do the works of Christ.” “What is the sinner to be converted from? The transgression of God’s law to obedience of it. But if he is told that he cannot keep the law of God…to what is he then converted ---from transgression of the law to a continuance in that transgression? This is absurd!” (ST, July 18,, 1878).
And then there was the kicker. “When sorely pressed by what she felt was gross misrepresentation, she declared that salvation by obedience to the LAW is impossible, but salvation without obedience is also just as impossible. She declared that we are justified only by faith in the “merits” of Christ, but such faith will never excuse transgression (ST, July 18, 1878).”
I would hate to have been in Mr. Brown’s shoes just then. In class today and since its’ inception, we have been batting various models around and seemed to have come to somewhat of an understanding, well okay I’ll speak for myself, that all models have their place and play very important roles to a balance and Wholistic understanding of Salvation, though not limited to this concept.
Ellen White, according to Whidden II seemed, like any of us, to have had to grow from her own Wesleyan concept of Salvation to a broader and much more balanced view of this concept in her later days for which I am truly thankful.
For me, unlike the comments made in class by my classmates saying how “Ellen White refused to take a stance on either side,” sister White was more thoughtful and was in process rather than having to make a stance or even take a certain attitude as she approached each issue with all the factors at play in her time. I Love sister White and would counted a privilege and an honor to someday see her in heaven with Jesus. Way to battle sister White, and a congradulatory handshake for learning Mr. Brown and all the Browns in Adventism and Christianity today, myself included.
In Romans, Paul starts out after his greeting by affirming his longing to go to Rome. He spends a considerable part of the first chapter just letting the Jews at Rome know that he is still doing everything in his power to get to Rome. Then he is bragging about the gospel which is very admirable. He says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, which is a key evangelistic text used very frequently. It is the power of God for everyone who believes, for the Jews first and the Greeks as well. I like how Paul always reminds people that everyone is equally entitled to salvation. In this first chapter he really showed everyone how excited he was about the gospel. One of the things that I liked the most that I‘ve never realized before is that here Paul sounds exactly like a brand new believer. No one is able to save themselves, because the power of God and the gospel are the salvation for everyone. The gospel has provided grace so that we could all be saved. I think our church sometimes gets too caught up in being a “particular” people and not wanting to be a church that preaches too much grace. We often stress the Sabbath or the 2nd Advent before we even preach the plain fact that it is the gospel of Jesus that is the power to save everyone, Jew and Gentile alike. In Romans 2:1-4 there were many different things Paul said in this chapter that impacted me on a personal level. For one, early on in the chapter Paul talked about the kindness of God leading us towards repentance. This reminded me of an Ellen White quote that was similar. I can’t remember it word for word, but it basically said that true repentance always brings about a change in character. People who wrestle with sin are different than those who live in sin and daily pray a prayer of false repentance.
Quigley Morris
Doctrines of Salvation
06/16/09
Doctrine of Salvation
Topic: Justification
Thesis: Before the sin problem, God made provision through his son Jesus Christ to redeem man from sin; what Christ did to made reconciliation with God for us, cause him to live among men in the flesh, and died to save man from sin.
Sin is dreadful and is always associated with death; sin disconnected man from meeting his creator as Adam and Eve did for a short time. So painful was the weight on the human race that Christ had to reconnect man to his creator.
His faithfulness to the plan was consistence with the father’s will, he believed in his plan that salvation could only come to this dreadful people only through his death. His faithfulness declared to a repentant sinner you are release from the guilt of sin
It is his atonement alone that made justification possible and set man free. In his life on earth Christ provided the example to a sick world, and his mission help his followers to understand when a person accept Christ as his Savior he stand accepted and justified before God.
Our new status of justification becomes possible not because of who we are but because of our relationship with Christ. It is maintain by our faith in Christ and being in that advantage condition we are entitle of the reward and benefits that belong to the righteous.
From the plan of salvation to his death the status depend upon faith; we become sons and daughters by virtue of our faith in Jesus and by the faith in Jesus. A man is not justified by his work or who he is but by the faith of Jesus. From Justification we get the gift of peace and it prepares the way for sanctification and glorification.
For my thoughts this week I would first of all like to say that I was tremendously blessed and helped by the article How Perfect Is "Perfect" Or is Christian Perfection Possible by Edward Heppenstall. I have bookmarked the reference to that in my Internet browser for quick access. The article helped me understand a concept I have been personally wrestling with.
But for the rest of my thoughts this week, I would like to continue exploring the topic of hope. Since my last post, I went on a trip with my wife to Milwaukee to see my sister – a spiritual giant in my life. Her husband is, as well, a challenging thinker who has a knack for helping me see things from a more helpful angle. As I wrote in my last blog, I have been wrestling with the reality of hope. The theology made sense to me, I though, but I was honestly confessing that could sense a lack of hope in my life.
I shared my thoughts with my sister’s husband as we walked around a lake in a wildlife reserve. He, being from a different culture (Slovakia) than I, did not understand at first what I was wrestling with. To him, hope was very real and easy to both understand and experience. As he understands it, hope is simply the eager expectation that all the troubles in this life (he has been battling a painful disease for the last ten or so years) will end and life anew with God will make it all worth it and more. Hope in the life to come is very real and present in his life because his current life sucks.
This gave me a bit of a different perspective. It made me think about Jesus’ disciples as they sat with Him in the upper room. Imagine this group of young men. They have been walking with Jesus for three years, full of expectations of what His mission was to accomplish. They had been filled with a false hope of what it means to be a Christian in this life. They expected present glory. But as the Passover approached, things seemed to be spinning out of control. One disciple, determined to force Jesus into revealing his glory, betrayed Him. Another, overly optimistic about his own devotion assumed that he would be able to make it through the trials ahead with strength and honor. Another still wrestled with doubt, while another wanted the Teacher to stop talking about all this dark stuff – “just tell me about the Father’s love…I don’t need to focus on this negative stuff!”
In the middle of this disappointing group is Jesus. He knows every man their better than they know themselves. He knows every heart. He knows that as soon as the shepherd is taken from them the sheep sill scatter. If anyone has the right to be worried, it’s Jesus. But He does not chastise them for their lack of faith, or say something like “you guys have NO idea what is about to happen, do you?” What he tells them – what he commands them is “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, so trust in Me….In my fathers house are many rooms…”
What Jesus gives them is hope. He lifts their minds beyond the trials to come, and invites them to meditate in the warmth of hope. By his death, Jesus would demonstrate and provide the way for the great hope to His disciples and all Christians – the hope of the resurrection.
Reflection
Today was a very tricky day for me because I came to class with a divided attention for obvious reasons. However, what struck my mind was the issue of the love of God in relation to His predestination as reflected in the Pauline argument in Romans which Calvin interpreted to arrive at what is perceived in the study of the doctrine of salvation as a deterministic view of God’s predestination.
The question for reflect therefore is: how can the understanding of God’s love help us avoid or affirming Calvin’s deterministic view of predestination? As I reflected on the love of God what came into my mind is the cross from the perspective of the gospel of John. By the way, going to the gospel of John was pretty obvious considering the fact I have been looking at and wrestling with the prayer of Jesus in John 17, specifically John 17:3, where Jesus observes that “this is eternal life they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you sent. What is interesting with these words of Jesus is the fact that the understanding of what constitutes eternal life ought to involve both knowing (imply intimate knowledge) the Only True God and Jesus Christ whom He sent (could this understanding also mean that Jesus’s prayer implies the need for a holistic understanding of salvation model that looks at both the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent?). In the context of the gospel of John, both God and Jesus are important figures in the work of salvation; this is because, God so loved the world that He gave his unique Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Thus, when John 17:3 is paralleled with John 3:15-17, one of the common denominators is eternal life and faith is critical. This love of God is revealed more actively on the cross where the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), was “cut off for the sins of the people” (Isaiah 53:8). What is important to note is that Jesus told Nicodemus that that the Son of Man must (literary, it is necessary) be lifted up (future divine passive) so that everyone who believes (entrust or committed to) in Him may have eternal life because (the reason is that) God loved the world and gave his unique Son so that whoever believes in him may not die but have eternal life.
Notice the parallels between verses 14-18 bearing in mind that the main subject starts in v 14 and v 15 provides the object of the sentence, while verses 16 and 17 are dependent clauses:
14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life.
16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but (may) have eternal life.
17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.
18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (NAS).
The main subject of (verses 14-18) is the Son of Man, the main verb is lifted up, the main object is eternal life to those who believe, and the cause for lifting Him up is the love of God.
The reason why some people will be saved is because they have believed in the Son of Man who was lifted up for their sins, and those who will be condemned are those who have not believed in the Son of God: faith is central but this faith is awakened by the Love of God as one looks to the cross and sees what the Anointed Jesus has done (V 14): this is the goodness of God, even His love.
I noticed that Paul starts out strong in chapter 5 and finishes strong. Early on he establishes one of the most gospel-oriented texts in the new testament—But Christ demonstrates his own love for us in this. That while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. I am so thankful that Paul made a deliberate effort to tell everyone that Christ did not just die for the righteous but the sinner as well. This is remniscient to me of how Jesus told everyone in the gospels that He came to seek and save the lost. Paul clearly has a Christological theology. Also in this chapter Paul dwells on one of the more prevalent themes in the book of Romans which is the relationship between Adam and God and all mankind in fact. WE may have condemnation through Adam alone, but we also thankfully have redemption through Christ alone. Paul starts out chapter 6 with a question. “What shall we say then?” This shows us that he is still building on the ideas he was talking about in chapter 5. The question is the bridge between the two verses. He also asks about sinning more so that grace may abound. And he quickly asserts that would indeed be a ridiculous theology. I think there are a lot of people who practice that cheap grace theology today unknowingly. I also think this is an excellent chapter for supporting that Adventist belief of baptism by immersion. The whole vocabulary of the chapter is comparing baptism to death and buriel. How could this be accomplished by anything less than baptism by immersion? I’m sure this chapter is used a lot in evangelistic sermons. Also it was interesting that Paul made sure we all know the significance of dying with Christ early on in the chapter. This talk may have been hard for some people to digest even though it is good news. (because it is rarely easy to die to yourself) But then several verses later in verse 8 it’s almost like he’s giving the other side. First we die with Christ. We participate in the death of Christ in order that we may participate in the resurrection of Christ. I also enjoyed Whidden’s chapters on Ellen White and Salvation. It was interesting that her back drop for everything is the great controversy. That is the big picture here. I also appreciated the way she balances justification and obedience.
The beginning of class I didn’t know what to expect. I’m really enjoying the discussions because I am not as knowledge as those in my class. I want to be a sponge and learn from the professor and my classmates as we discuss doctrine and salvation. On Monday the question was ask about what is a doctrine and before then I was thinking it was more of written practices. But as the discussion went on I really liked defining doctrine as the teaching of beliefs or norms that compliment a holistic understanding. As I listened further it was stated that the Bible is the “sola scriptura” and when doctrines are written they should be biblical. But as I stated several “unwritten laws” are not biblical (jewelry, dress, etc), and I wonder if doctrines were to be biblical, and doctrines that we keep are not biblical, why were they even written? The models of salvation are really enlightening because I liked when there is “no one model of salvation” was stated. Salvation is a process that we all experience and go through or will go through if we plan to make to heaven. What was crazy to me when reading the “Ellen White on Salvation”, she was worried about salvation as a twelve year old. At twelve I just wanted to play baseballs and basketball. That lets me know I far off I was that age. The various models are all unique in their own design, but the one I am more accustomed to hearing is penal substitution. I have heard of all of them especially atonement, ransom, liberation, and moral influence, but penal substitution, taking the place and the pain for or suffering for us, is what my church preached. The lasting thought was how justification, sanctification, and glorification are all linked and depend upon one other. But when it was explained more and how righteousness bears fruits in holiness, which results in eternal life. To me this shows a how salvation is a process, but before one can get to righteousness, faith must be present to be considered righteous. This is going to get deep! I am excited to learn from others and from the professor. I’m learning that salvation is process that takes time to happen and we may never see perfection in ourselves until we reach glory. The weird thing is, aren’t we supposed to see some perfection in ourselves as we draw closer to Christ? Aren’t we supposed to see Christ in our selves, as well as others? Salvation is a deep topic in which I’m ready to go deep sea diving!
One of the more interesting subjects that we have discussed in the past week or so has been the idea of how God’s foreknowledge and predestination operates. Of course, complicating the issue is the idea that God has given us freedom and so our freedom must work in conjunction with the fact that God has not only the ability to know the future, but also to predestinate events as well. I guess I should not expect to have any idea how it operates after thinking about it for only a week, but in truth the concept does confuse me.
It seems that in order for human freedom to take place, God must know the future in terms of possibilities and not actualities. But then of course the question becomes how does God know what’s going to actually happen? If He does know how things are going to happen, why does He spend any time trying to convince us of anything if He knows whether we’re going to listen or not? Does God spend a lot of time shouting at the wind?
I think that, as Dr. Hanna intimated, we have to change our conception of foreknowledge and predestination. Predestination has to become this concept in which God’s only will is that we be saved and that we be free, with the idea that freedom comes first. It is then that freedom that gives us the opportunity to fulfill His second will, that we be saved. Foreknowledge, then, has to become a concept in which God knows the decisions that we will make, but does not make them for us. I still don’t know if that’s possible, but I believe in faith that it is.
This all has tremendous implications for the concept of freedom. If God has predestined us to be free, then how are we really free? It seems that the freedom is being forced on us, and if that is the case, then how can it truly be free. Why don’t human beings have the option to be automatons? While I don’t understand why anyone would want that, it seems that true freedom would imply the choice of whether you wanted to be free or not. I know I haven’t said much, but any help in coming to a greater understanding of this topic would be greatly appreciated.
Comment on "The Dynamics of Salvation" from the BRI Website.
This document is “A concise study of how humans are saved”.
About five or six years ago when I was in Korea as a Theology major student, one of professor gave copy of this article to me. At that time I just scanned through the article but I was not deeply interested in it.
Maybe at that time I was young (people say I am still young, but I feel like I am getting more mature and physically I feel I am getting old) and I worked as a youth pastor, so my interest was on the Youth Ministry, especially events, how can I make young people stay in the church. One of the solutions was find a way to entertained them with things related to the bible and Christianity (I regret that attitude I had before).
Today, almost whole Friday, June 19, 2009, I read very carefully about this article on “The Dynamics of Salvation”.
I read this not just because the attraction of the title but the brief explanation right next to the title.
It says that this is a brief summary of how humans are saved (In other words, about on the Salvation).
I wanted to understand more clearly about salvation and how does Seventh-day Adventist church understand this important issue.
After I read the background on the statement "The dynamics of salvation", I really appreciated church leaders and scholars those who spent time for this important subject.
(I highly recommend you to read the background of this document and more over the main document several times cautiously. I think you can get general view of salvation of Adventist understanding).
I personally want to quote the whole document and highlight the important words, issues, and phrases to share my understanding on Salvation (the Dynamics of Salvation) however because of lack of the page and time. Let me choose couple important words what I thought and learned from this document.
After I read this whole document seriously, one word kept echoing in my mind that is “Initiative”. Not our initiative, but God’s initiative toward us.
Even, I was very touched the Great Love of Him through this word.
This is good news, this is true love!
One good example in the article on this issue (“Initiative”) is “In Jesus Christ the divine initiative reaches a unique climax. God had continually intervened to bring salvation; now in a supreme act of self-giving, God the Son becomes the incarnate Christ.
Another important of the divine initiative is the work of the Holy Spirit, because He energizes our will to produce faith.
There are many other important things mentioned in this document (i.e. Justification, Reconciliation, Forgiveness, Adoption, Sanctification, etc.)
But I think this is what I think the most important thing I found in this document.
For this second week, I would like to reflect on chapter 7, “The Atonement” in Whidden’s “Ellen White on Salvation.” As we have dealt in class, the salvation can be seen in a subjective aspect and the objective aspect. But it is true that we cannot separate them and limit them to just one side of both aspects. If the subjective aspect is what Jesus has done for us on the cross, the objective aspect is what Jesus is doing in us now. That pretty much goes along with Ellen White’s view on atonement. I like the way the book says that “atonement is moving in a line across the history of redemption.”
If the atonement, or salvation is limited to just one moment in history, it would seem more like a partial deterministic predestination. It would be as if once you are baptized, you are forever saved, so you can do whatever you want until Jesus comes back. That is not what the Bible says. The Bible tells us to continue to live as faithful Christians, living in Christian standards.
Let’s say that you just bought a ticket to a show. You have just gained the right to watch the show, but you won’t be able to watch the show unless you present the ticket you have bought for the show. Even after you buy the ticket to the show, you must try to not to lose the ticket or forget the ticket is. You can’t just say that just because you bought the ticket it is as good as you have already seen the show. You never know what will happen in between.
Korea has never sent any Korean to the space. We still don’t have the technology to send people on our own, until recently, Russia, in joint with our country allowed one Korean to along with them on their trip to space. Thousands of people applied for that spot. After tests and interview, finally two were chosen. After series of tests, San Ko was chosen to go to space and the other person, So Yeon Lee will be a back up. They start getting trained to go to space. Just because you are chosen doesn’t mean that you are fit to go to space. It takes training to make yourself fit to go to space. As time passed by, San Ko was disqualified because he leaked confidential information and was caught. Therefore, So Yeon Lee, who was the backup member earned the right to go to space. And last year, she successfully made it to space and returned back safely. She was the first Korean ever to go to space.
I don’t think this story is the best to describe the point, but it is helpful in some sense. Yes, we are once saved by the sacrificial act of Jesus Christ our Savior. But we also need time of sanctification where we can practice to be better Christians and to make ourselves to be more fit to be in the Kingdom of God. San Ko was disqualified even though he was chosen to go to space because of his actions that should not have been done, on the other hand, So Yeon Lee was faithful.
I am thankful that God has given us the process of sanctification. He has given us the time to grow, a time to practice to be a better Christian. Our actions cannot save us, it is only Jesus that can save us. But we will need to take time to mold ourselves.
This week has me thinking about salvation in a different light. Growing up I just to hear that only a 144,000 would be saved. If you didn’t look or act a certain then you’re not living up to the standard Christ would have you live. Know there is a difference between vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters. But now I see these statements of perfectionism that are invalid. These are the same sentiments that Ellen White had as child when she felt inadequate to live up to those standards. Salvation is a gift that is free and Jesus said my “yoke is easy”. Jesus said his burden is light and his yoke is easy, meaning since Jesus is the way, the truth and the light and he said he is easy, why do we humans try to make it seem hard? Salvation is a beautiful thing if one really sinks his or her teeth, but it the process that people get discouraged on. This week we’ve been talking sanctification and foreknowledge and predestination and my whole assessment is sometimes we’re trying to understand Paul, when only God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. I find the whole conversation intriguing to discuss but logistics of salvation (predestination, foreknowledge, etc) are a bit tedious. I do see the discussions as informational, but I want to learn how to transfer this information to people of the world. I didn’t have any expectations or what to expect before the class, but I guess from the first week to this week I was expecting more of breaking down of each model expressed (victory, adoption, etc.). I loved the whole topic of not excluding a model of salvation because I believe that people faith in Christ is different. People are not the same and everyone may not see Christ as a victory, but more as Liberator. Some may say Christ set the example for us to follow and not as a ransom paid for us. Christ is the only way, not through faith and works alone, but together with those that is where salvation lies. The funny thing is I can see why there were so many debates about the Bible because no one really knows what the writer meant. Rice had his belief. Calvin had his belief. Wesley his and whoever wanted to put their two cents in. The fact is the salvation is given freely from Jesus Christ. Of course had a plan just in case messed up, it’s the same thing as me carrying a spare tire in my car. If I do get a flat I want to be prepared. Proverbs 29:18 states where there is no vision people perish. So is safe to say God had a vision (foreknowledge) so all the people wouldn’t perish. But as was stated this week, the people have a choice to accept God or resist him, and that’s the bottom line. Salvation is a process, of sanctification, that everyone must go through on order to make it to heaven. It’s not our place to say what someone needs to correct in their life or do differently in order to make it to heaven. It is our job (calling) to introduce them, guide them, help them, and hand them over to Christ. And the closer that person gets with Christ the things of the flesh/ world will come off (justification), not by our doing, but by the Holy Ghost, which was sent by Christ. I’ve said to myself plenty of times I will not receive any type of glory from man (I’ll have to wait until heaven: glorification). All man sees is you right now (1 Sam 16:7) and where you should be or what you’re doing wrong (even if it’s unintentional). But Jesus sees us how we were, are, and will be (predestination). He is overseeing our sanctification process and that’s why I’m glad God is the judge of me and Jesus is my attorney so I will be acquitted. My faith lies in that which is not seen, done in hope, and through the promise of Jesus Christ! I had a rough week I had a lot of thoughts on my mind. And I guess I answered my own question about how to apply it? Lol Praise God!
Doctrine of Salvation
Blog Comments
By: Daniel Yim
June 20, 2009
The order of the acts of salvation by God as presented in Romans 8 has been discussed in light of other texts such as Romans 6 and 1 Corinthians 30. If there is a specific purpose as the order of salvation by Paul, what could that specific message for us be today? Salvation is definitely a process by which we come to Christ, are made whole in Christ, and will be eternally redeemed through Christ. A believer of Christ cannot limit the experience of salvation to a one-time event that occurred long ago.
Paul’s use of prefixes for the first two steps in his salvation order, foreknowledge and predestined, indicates a primordial act of God as compared with the final two acts, justification and glorification. When I read the passage in chapter 8 verses 29 and 30, my natural reaction to the verses tell me that each act of God is an individual act of itself as well as part of a larger picture of salvation. Granted, the NIV is not a literal translation of the original Greek, but the word “also” indicates to me that each separate act is significant of and in itself, but also, they are part of and essential to the larger picture that Paul is painting. This is a similar tone to what Dr. Hanna has presented in lecture about the timeless aroist theory on the 5 acts of salvation. Rather than viewing each act in a certain period in time, verbally describe each act in the present tense and take away the past and future tenses. This describes God’s act of salvation as in the past and future, as well as on going in our current experience.
While I do believe that there is a specific order that Paul is trying to convey to readers on the process of salvation, my personal interpretation to God’s saving grace for humanity is that God travels life with us and experiences time with us. He is next to us, carrying us through and lifting us up when we fall. Yes he knows the past and the future, but God chooses and wills to stay by our side as our guide and friend. I know what has happened in the past regarding my salvation, and I know what will happen soon when we are glorified by the grace of God’s love. But for me, it is walking in God’s love now and today that is most relevant in my salvation experience. Unless I grasp the significance of God’s presence in my life, I don’t think I will be able to understand and fully appreciate what happened at the cross and what will happen at the end of this earth.
1 Corinthians 1:30 says that Christ has become for us wisdom from God, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. If I can experience each aspect of the salvation process, then I can say that I have truly come into God’s presence. Yielding to righteousness is surrendering my will to God. Letting God lead in my life will lead to holiness and redemption.
Doctrine of Salvation
Herbert Oliphant
Reflection
I was blessed by the reading this week and was particularly fascinated by the explanation re the text in (John 12:31-33, 16:11) that the author seem to give an explanation that according to John, the apostle; the cross is God's judgment on sin and that the judgment of the believer, as well as the unbeliever, is in the past. I have committed that particular section of scripture to memory and never once has it crossed my mind before that John spoke of judgment in the past there. I was mindful also of the concept that it went further to state that the above depends upon acceptance or rejection of the light that Christ brings (chap. 3: 18-21). Recently I read an E.G White critic blog and the point he raised was that she and SDAs are ridiculous to relegate God to an investigator who seem unaware of the issues concerning our acts and hence have to go gather all the evidences with regards to our teaching concerning the Investigative Judgment. However the following point in my reading states it succinctly; “When Seventh-day Adventists speak of an investigative judgment, it should not be understood as meaning that God seeks information He does not have. After all, God is the Author of the books which His judgment opens. The books stand not for new knowledge that God has yet to acquire but for old knowledge that God now will expose. So the purpose of the investigative judgment on God's part is not to discover reality but to unmask it, not to find out the truth but to reveal it”
The beautiful and careful choice of words re the long article on Justification by faith and Judgment by Works was really elevating, this statement resonates with me “Justification and assurance of salvation are not achieved by human works or by faith plus human works. Justification and assurance come only by the all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ as Savior”
The discussions in class were a bit blurry at first but the professor was spot on with the explanation re:God's Foreknowledge and how it works.Freedom was farfectched for me until the explantion was clearly given that God has predestined humanity to freedom.And yet we can still rebel against God.Iwas enlightened
Calling & Salvation?
In the great majority of instances, God’s call in the New Testament is one extended for salvation. Jesus said that He came to call sinners (Matt 9:13, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:32). One example representative of Paul’s usage is 1 Corinthians 1:9, “You were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is a calling given to both Jews and Gentiles (Rom 9:24, 1 Cor 1:24). Paul uses the adjectival form of kalew, kletoj, often of Christians in Rome and Corinth. An example is Rom 1:6 where Paul describes the Roman Christians as “called ones [kletoi] of Jesus Christ.” The TDNT views kalew actually to be a technical term for the process of salvation. It is certain that this function of the divine call as a call to salvation is primary. And we have every Scriptural evidence to believe that God always makes the first move in this communication. This word picture of calling, then, strongly emphasizes the primacy of God’s initiative.
What is uniquely developed in the apostolic literature is the salvation-election aspect of calling. Most strongly emphasized is God’s calling to human beings. This call is a call to obedience (Rom 1:5), belonging (Rom 1:6), peace (Col 3:15), freedom (Gal 5:13), hope (Eph 1:18 and 4:4), and suffering (1 Pet 2:21). This calling comes by God’s goodness (2 Pet 1:3) through the Gospel (2 Thess 2:14) and is a calling into the Kingdom (1 Thess 2:12). This calling has its roots in the primordial acts of God, as Rom 8:28-30 links this calling with the purpose of God, which is predestined (cf. Eph 1:11).
The human response. It is very early in the record of Genesis that the Bible documents the first time that “men began to call on the name of the LORD” (4:26). In thinking on the topic of salvation, it is interesting to note that Adam and Eve never called on the name of the LORD; they were in His direct presence and had no need to call out to Him. This underscores calling as a metaphor particularly suited to salvation because it mediates divine-human interaction in the setting of the sin problem.
Humans calling on the name of the Lord is the response of people to the calling of God. It is frequently portrayed in ways emphasizing it as a form of worship (as in Gen 13:4, “where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the LORD”), but it is also explicitly linked with salvation. For example, there is Rom 10:13. “’Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved’” And Psa 116:12-13 connects calling upon the name of the Lord with worship and salvation. “How can I repay the LORD for all His goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.” So again we see that this is an act of response. Further, this calling on the name of the Lord is an act of worship, a re-orientation of our selves to the eternal God. I would like to suggest that this calling might correlate with repentance, the re-orientation of our lives as a response to God’s salvation work.
Quigley Morris
Doctrine of salvation
BRI document
Remnant Concept
Other Christians to day have had a hard time dealing with us seventh day advents because of some of our doctrinal beliefs. This is even more visible when it comes to our belief on the remnant Church of God. I do not know about you but one thing I know we are very convincing when it comes to our doctrine.
Many years ago growing up I use to here my people say that we are the only true church and today some people believe that only seventh day Adventist will be save. Some of this older people still believed for someone from another denomination to be save they will have to live their church and be baptize in to the SDA church. And they use the text to support them. They would say “other sheep I have not of this fold will come to this fold” now that can drive you up a wall if you are not a SDA.
The fact is because we have such a rich heritage, and we are so profound in the study of prophecy. And we have understood the Sabbath and its blessing and it’s significant we cannot boast or put down any religious group when it comes to their doctrine. We must keep in mind that it was our pioneers who said the end of the world had come, and many religious groups undermined their thinking at the time. This same people we are hoping to reach out to some day; it is wise that we should not make them see us as a distasteful group.
To day we have grown well over twenty million, we have settled the matter of his coming and all the other little cracks that was standing in our way. It seems that we are being a target again not because of who we are but because of what we say. In my country SDA do not mingle with other religions on any religious matter. It is not as bad as it seems because it is the same way around, we seems to respect each other and stay away from their doctrines.
One of the strong holes of SDA is our school; many of our ministers are able to go to school and become better bible teachers. They get a better understanding of the bible and can make a better applicable lesson to their churches. While this is a plus on the other hand some have become masters of their belief and have run away with some theological points that have caused more harm than good.
Hey Quigley,
Thank you for reminding us that grace has not given us the license to continue in our sins.
Regarding Bryant
I agree with you that we tend to make salvation a more difficult thing than it is. Jesus' yoke is easy, and His burden is light. We must always remember that, and keep Christ before us all the time. It is all too easy to get caught up in theologizing and forget to open the door when He knocks.
On another note, if you decide that you want to freely share the information you have been working on (the presentation you made in class), I would be interested. I think there is a lot of potential there to help people "get" it.
I once read a book by Morris Venden called Salvation by Faith and Your Will. It was one of the first Christian books I ever read, and it helped form the backbone of my thinking on salvation. If you are not familiar with it, the book explains the life-long process of sanctification using the parable of going on a long road trip with Jesus. Your will is illustrated by your willingness to let Jesus drive the car. This story helped me understand the dynamics at work when I think myself a better driver than Jesus and take back the wheel, only to find myself driving headlong into traffic and running into ditches.
I have gotten a lot of mileage out of this simple illustration, though recently I have been thinking about something that seems to be missing in it. But first of all, I want to make it clear that I don’t mean to criticize this model. It is a good and helpful example, and I recognize that all illustrations fall short at some point. It could even be that Elder Venden included in his book a section addressing this problem, and I just don’t remember it. After all, it has been a while since I read it. That being said, the perceived problem I see is that I wonder if it might be possible for a person to drive across the country with someone, even allowing them to control the vehicle safely, without knowing the person. In salvation terms, is it possible for Jesus to be my Lord without being my Savior?
The reason I have been thinking about this is because I wonder if I have been going about Sanctification with the wrong motivation. I have been involving Jesus in the process, but my mindset has been completely on doing what’s right – allowing Christ the singular role in my life as the one who helps me do it. It is a Martha-like (as opposed to a Mary-like) approach. Is it possible that I have been more concerned with becoming like Christ than knowing Christ?
Having a personal relationship with Jesus is a popular notion in the church right today. The Marys in the church have been preaching this for a while. The Marthas of the church are beginning to realize it, but because they are still Marthas, they write books about how we need to have a relationship with Jesus because that is the only way we will be able to do the dishes without breaking any. So our focus becomes knowing God for the sole reason that He can make us perfect. But if my own perfection is the only motivation I have I will never do it. I don’t care enough about being perfect for that to work for me. And so I want to know something: would I be willing to sit at the feet of Jesus with my only motivation or expectation being to sit at the feet of Jesus? Would it enough for me to just be with Him, even if I come out of the experience looking more like a disciple and less like a saint?
Fortunately, I don’t need to worry about not being changed. If I am with Jesus, He will change me. I suppose what I am really getting at is an issue of putting the cart before the horse. Mary sat at Jesus feet, and as a result she was changed. But I don’t think she sat at Jesus’ feet with the intention of becoming a perfect person. Those who came to Jesus seeking perfection were usually disappointed (the rich young ruler). However, just to balance this argument out, I do recognize that Jesus never turned anyone away who came to Him wishing to be made whole.
Doctrine of Salvation
Blog Comment
June 25, 2009
The Article “Justification by Faith and Judgment by Works” by Ivan T. Blazen was very enlightening in light of our class discussions this past week. After reading Romans 3 and Dr. Blazen’s insights into Paul’s theology of justification of God for sinners and God’s judgment according to works helped me to understand in a deeper way the multifaceted character and executor on God’s part. My first admittance in tackling the topic is to accept the fact that as humans, we cannot fully comprehend, and thus explain the various roles that God takes on simultaneously. This lays the basis for our approach to divine works in salvation and judgment of humanity
This past week in class discussion, I learned that our cooperation with God in the divine plan for salvation is necessary for God to work in us His will. But while our cooperation is necessary for God to take action because God works in love, our cooperation does not merit anything toward our salvation. It is necessary, but it has no merit in of itself in the process. This article helped me to further understand this concept as presented in class. The points made by Dr. Blazen where God has dual offices of Savior and Lord allows God to function in various roles in our salvation. I appreciate the thoughts in the article, “The cross is the means by which justification is effected; faith is the means by which justification is accepted; and good works are the means by which justification is manifested. Works of righteousness testify to the reality and vitality of justification. Their absence indicates a broken relation with Jesus.” This says to me that each part has an individual character associated with the action, yet all the parts must be seen as a process in the bigger picture and they should not be viewed as separate works in of themselves. Dr. Blazen stated that Christ cannot be divided, thus his works should not be viewed in separate parts, but as a whole.
This article helped me to connect the link between God’s justification to us as sinners and what our good works of righteousness mean in the plan of salvation. We as Christians should not view our works of righteousness as coming from our flesh and bones. Rather, justification comes from Christ, and our righteous works come from Christ as well. Dr. Blazen stated that both justification and assurance come only by the all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ as Saviour. Yes, even though we do works of righteousness, these works do not have any merit in our salvation. They are just like our cooperation with God’s divine plan. They are part of the process and evidence of justification of God.
I appreciate the apostle Paul’s declaration in 1 Corinthians 15 that he is what he is by the grace of God. I also have felt this way many times in ministry. I am what I am because of God. And because of the grace of God, I work harder for God’s cause. It drives me to serve and love more than what I have done in the past. All because of God’s justification of my sins.
Recently (I think it was last week) we were discussing the subject of freedom. The common argument, which Dr. Hanna expressed, is that some people are upset with God for granting us freedom. These people are upset with God because they cannot understand why God would allow us freedom when He knew that we either would, or at least had the potential to ruin it by making wrong decisions. These people argue that they would rather be robots, not realizing that the very freedom that God grants is what allows them to argue that they would not have it at all.
This is such an interesting subject to me because freedom is so integral to salvation and yet some Christians are so eager to limit the freedom of others. Freedom is integral to salvation because salvation is dependent on the free human being realizing his/her need for Christ and then deciding to live by Biblical precepts. At the same time, there are Christians who seek to restrict freedom by legislating morality or by imposing their view on the Christian walk on others. I am a believer in freedom, despite the fact that at times it leads to outcomes with which I do not agree. I think that’s what Christ does too.
This is the link with the paper topic that presented in class yesterday. I believe that the psychological aspect that leads others to impose particular standards of salvation is about control, an attempt to have reality look exactly like what God told them. This is a restriction of freedom, the ideology that is the building block upon which human existence is based. God gave us this foundation, and it is my personal belief (which I impose on no one) that if God in His wisdom felt it was important for us to have this freedom, then it is important enough for me to attempt to protect it.
hey folks, I posted before I was done lol! Here's the rest of my post -
But of course this makes us really uncomfortable simply because it means we have to protect the freedom of others to make bad choices. It is certainly hard to watch someone make bad decisions that you know will lead to poorer quality of life. I wonder if that is how God feels as He watches us make bad decisions. Whenever it starts to become difficult for me to stomach the way people (or society in general) are going, I am reminded of God’s treatment of Lucifer, which Dr. Hanna mentioned briefly in class. God created Lucifer to be free, and have independent thoughts. Lucifer then used that freedom to rebel against the very God who gave him that freedom. Imagine the dilemma that God is now in. God, being omniscient, must know that allowing Lucifer his freedom at least has the potentiality to cost Him His own life (in the person of Jesus Christ, who would have to die for our salvation). Yet God respects the system He has created and the freedom of Lucifer so much, that He continues to allow Lucifer freedom of thought.
So when it comes to salvation and assisting God in the salvation of others, I think it is important for us to focus on the weightier matters of righteousness, and allow people the freedom to live lives that are in line with what God prescribes and not what we believe God has prescribed to us. To impose our walk of sanctification on others is, while potentially well-meaning, only a violation of God’s freedom, done in the name of trying to support God’s laws.
As I’ve been Salvation by Ellen White, I’m noticing a lot of emphasis on 1888 and Minneapolis and how there were basically two types of theories of salvation within the church at this time. And it got me to thinking how are these meeting actually read because from the book it seemed as if there was a lot of tension on the subject matter. I just think about some of the issues (different conferences, Adventist education, proper paying for educators, drug, sex, and etc.) we have in the church and how no one wants to address them (especially taboo topics with the youth). Some of these topics are being swept under the rug and it seems as if no one wants to finally address them. These issues need to be addressed because we are losing members or youth to the things of the world and we’re letting them slip because we are too worried about our own salvation. Is that what is has come too? At least they were worried about everyone’s salvation, not just their own. I mean at least they were willing to talk about salvation and their feelings on it. We’re not even at a point in our church (General Conference) where anybody is talking about anything meaningful to tweeners (in the river on the bank Adventist). Our salvation is not only dependent on what we do for ourselves, but also what we do for God’s purpose. We can’t get so caught up with self and forget others, but that what it seems we are doing. And I’m wondering what are and when are we going to do something that will gain Adventist attention to regain people’s focus back on Christ? I mean Michael’s Jackson, blew everything out the water this week? But that is what we need to have happen so we can talk about issues in the church and prepare everyone, not just ourselves, for Christ’s return. We need another meeting like 1888 to figure out how we are going to get the attention of the world to prepare them and us for the things to come. Ok, I’ve been to GC’s in the past, but I don’t see the effect of those meeting reaching the small churches or people in rural areas? Maybe it’s just me, but something needs to happen. Jesus’ life was not about himself and that’s what he wants us to understand. Sometimes we must sacrifice or own wills for God’s will. We are too selfish when it comes to salvation because we are selfish.
Before and throughout reading the "Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans" in relation to this course "Doctrine of Salvation", I asked myself many times what is Salvation? And if someone asked me “summarize or tell me the core of Romans in one English word?”
I think I can say the theme of Romans is about “GOSPEL”.
Like Dr. Hanna mentioned and made a better way to make my question I asked to him, Four Gospels in the New Testament (Especially I believe John 3:16) already fully and completely described what is Gospel through the life of Jesus Christ.
However this book helps us understand “salvation” theologically.
(i.e. Introduction 1:1-15, The doctrine of justification by faith Romans 1:16 to 5:21, the doctrine of sanctification by faith, 6:1 to 8:39, the election of Israel 9:1 to 11:36, Practical application of the Doctrine of Righteousness by faith, 12:1 to 15:13, and conclusion 15:14 to 16:27) – I got this source from the KJV study Bible.
Frankly speaking, I still could not fully understand what faith is, what righteous is, what justification is, and how these things work in God’s salvation through His son, Jesus Christ.
(If I understand His salvation fully, I think I probably not here on earth but in heaven. :)
Ellen White mentioned in her writings when we will be in heaven, we will study salvation for eternity. I think this implies that salvation is out of our understanding).
Already reading Romans many times (maybe not many because of probably less than 100 times in my life) before I took this class and in this session and I read Romans very carefully, before this session starts and every morning I start my day, one thing came out my mind is, this book is for the logical thinkers especially for the Jews (this is my guess), who knows the Law, Abraham, and the Jewish history.
If they are simple as I am, I think accepting salvation is pretty easy, but to make them convince, I think Paul needs to use their language to convince them in their level.
From this morning, I restarted again to read Romans again from chapter one. At first I read it in Korean, and then NIV, finally I close this session with KJV.
I hope Holy Spirit guide me to better understanding on this issue so that I can share with confidence in Christ Jesus.
This is my personal opinion through my experience that to understand major themes of Romans, you need to understand the big picture of Romans and maybe make a chart (or diagram) will help you get a broad map.
If you just focused on little bitty details, I know it also important, however it is hard to understand why I said in the beginning, Romans is a book of Gospel.
May God help you to lead many precious people into his salvation through his Son, the One and Only Jesus Christ!
For this third week, I would like to reflect on the article, “How Perfect is Perfect, or is Christian Perfection Possible?” by Edward Heppenstall. I am pretty sure we all have a similar experience. No matter how well you clean your house, there is always dust. It just seems to regenerate over and over again. Even after cleaning up the house no matter how least active you are in the house, or even while you are gone from the house, dust appears again. I think that well describes our human nature of sin.
I bought a pair of white shoes last month. I really love the design and the white color and thought they would well fit with my pants. And it was just great. But after buying it, my greatest concern was how can I keep my white pair of shoes clean? No matter how I wear it clean, it just comes with a mark on it after I wear them. The only way of keeping it totally white was not to wear it. But then, I cannot just display my shoes for show, I had to wear them. Our sinful nature might be pretty similar to this.
Like what the article, and the Bible says, in this world, “perfection” is not pursuing the state of “ sinlessness.” As long as the law of sin and death is operating in this world, it would be impossible to come to the state of sinlessness. That is our nature and that is how it is.
The perfection which we need to pursue, therefore, is to look upon Christ and be like Him. He is truly our Savior and is a sinless being. I heard that when a child is born, or even after, parents love to hear from other people that the child looks just like the parents. Parents love to hear that the child takes the image of the parents. As much as the parents love their child, the parents would want their child to love them back and to be like them, and grow in the right way. But because we all make mistakes, the child can makes mistakes, too. But just because the child makes a mistake, would the parents abandon their child? No! They will help the child to be better person. The parents are most happy when the child is like them.
God sent Jesus to be like us so that we can be like Him. As we look into Jesus and have faith in Jesus, we can become more like Him. It is our relationship with Jesus and God that is important. That is what keeps us connected to God. We cannot come to sinless state in this world, but as we are perfect in our relationship with Jesus, He will make us into sinless perfect state when He comes back to take us back to heaven.
If you just look into the fathers of faith in the Bible, you will notice that each of them made fatal sins or mistakes in their life. Yet, God considered them faithful because of their relationship with Jesus. All we have to is have faith in Jesus and be more like Him and receive the grace that He gives us for free.
In Christian theology, “justification is God's act of declaring or making a sinner righteous before God” . But salvation is more than justification. Justification is the beginning of the Christian journey with Jesus Christ. It is the beginning of spiritual maturity and progress towards the image of Jesus Christ. Therefore the believer must continue in daily devotion, watchfulness, reliance on the Holy Spirit, obedience to God, struggle against sin, and avoidance of evil company. “Sanctification does not mean the abolition of sin, it still leaves in them, and sometimes it becomes very active and powerful” . “The victorious life is striving towards victory rather than matured possession of victory. The life of faith is a life of conflict and struggle” . That is why Paul wrote to the persecuted Thessalonian believers “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his body in a way that is honorable …. For God did not call to be impure, but to live a holy life” (Thess. 4:3, 4, 7). Thomas Watson stated that “it is absurd to imagine that God should justify a people and not sanctify them, that he should justify a people and not glorify” .
The final stage of redemption by Jesus Christ is called glorification. True believers in Jesus Christ have “been saved”, are “being saved” and “will be saved”- which is to affirm the “already” but “not yet” character of the Christian salvation. Christ inaugurated the new process, but it has not yet arrived in fullness. The redemptive process that began before the world was formed will be brought to perfection in the new world of heavenly glory. Because “God’s work is never unfinished symphony”.
Thank you Moung Kwon on your article on perfection. This a subject that is often misunderstood. In the Book of Isaiah, the Bible says our righteousness are like filthy rags. Even if we claim to be perfect we'll still look dirty before God.
To be honest I’ve been wrestling with Paul’s explanation of the law as discussed in Romans for a while. Paul starts out by giving a metaphor that somewhat confused me. I mean metaphors are supposed to make things more clear and I wish Paul had chosen a more clear analogy. Then he spends the meat of the chapter talking about how sin took the opportunity the law provided and deceived Paul. It was interesting that he actually repeated this within a couple of verses. Verse 8 and then again in verse 11. So I think he really wanted us to know this happened. He would never have even known what sin was except for the law. He spends all these verses talking negatively about sin and then… boom! He says the law is good. I don’t understand his argument. I was encouraged by Paul’s admonition that he is human towards the end of the chapter. He says even though he wants to do good he just can’t. I related to this on a personal level. But his desire to do good is always there. It’s a little depressing but then he starts out chapter 8 with a comment that kind of defines justification. Romans 8:1. What a powerful text. I’m glad he felt the need to balance these two chapters with each other. Chapter 8 starts out with the word “therefore”, so Paul is connecting these two tensions together. Paul also clearly wanted everyone reading this passage to know from where his help and justification comes from—Jesus. He asked a powerful question about who will rescue him, then he doesn’t explain that Jesus actually came along and rescued him. He simply says, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ.” This was a powerful case of less is more. He used very few words and just thanked God. The most paramount emotion of this verse was sheer gratitude. What an example of how we all should react to the gospel.
Paul seems to be coming from a very pessimistic perspective in several chapters of Romans. Paul wishes that he were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of his brothers at times. I’m not sure exactly what he’s talking about here. Paul says that not all that are descendants of Israel are Israel. And not all that are offspring of Abraham are his children. There was a lot in these chapters that referred back to the Old Testament. I know Paul was talking about the promised offspring of Abraham, who was Isaac. I think he’s illustrating the idea that just because you’re a Jew by birth, this doesn’t mean that you’re going to be justified. Paul spends considerable time in these chapters developing the idea of God’s sovereignty. He reminds us that we are the clay—not the potter. It is up to God how He will use us and to what purpose. We cannot escape testifying to the greatness of God. He can bring any triumph or calamity to glorify Himself. No matter what we cannot escape glorifying God if He so chooses. Paul’s overarching theme in these chapters definitely had much to do with God’s plan for His people. Towards the end of certain chapters Paul emphasized judgment more. Judgment is a scary thing for those who are not in the favor of God. But God’s is always slow to inflict judgment and runs to show mercy. Paul did make it clear that just because you were a Jew, this did not guarantee you justification, and just because you were a gentile this did not condemn you. Race did not affect one’s eligibility for salvation.
We were talking in class about God’s determined/open will and something Dr. Hanna said stuck with me. He suggested that most SDA’s if asked why sin does not rise up a second time in heaven, most would answer it is because God removes the possibility of sin ever rising up again. In other word He determines it to be so. Just for curiosity sake I thought I would ask around and see what people thought. In the last couple of days I asked 10 to 15 SDA’s about it. Let me just say at the outset that my survey was far from scientific, but interesting nonetheless. Just to provide a little background info, everyone I talked to was over 30 and none were pastors or seminarians. When I asked why sin would not rise up a second time I got mostly vague answers, but when I clarified the question giving the people options to choose from like: is it because God takes the possibility away or because his creations doesn’t choose to sin? all but one person said it definitely wasn’t because He took the possibility away. Noone felt able to explain exactly why they believed this or how while Lucifer first fell in perfection none would fall again post recreation, they just believed that it was against the character of God to take the possibility away. Again I don’t know how representative these results are, and I am definitely not suggesting that Dr. Hanna’s hypothesis is incorrect. Personally, even after my brief survey I still believe he is correct. I guess I am just sharing my findings with the rest of you because was genuinely surprised at the results. I challenge you to do similar surveys and post your findings if interested.
The Delicious Struggle of Predestination
There was a few questions that made me want to run away when people brought them up, questions like recite all of the Beasts in Revelation in order off the top of your head, and of course, explain predestination. The first is about reciting information; anyone can get to the point where you can recite the answer to the first question. The deeper issue of predestination is something that needs to be struggled with, pondered over, perhaps even a little sleep needs to be lost. I so vividly remember having no words, blushing and then sheepishly saying, “you know, I really don’t know.”
Perhaps part of my struggle as a leader was the desire to give a definite answer on the matter in 20 words or less. It’s like I wanted to have the answer that would forever and always put the matter at rest for them. To often we want to have the information that will silence the tough questions. Sometimes I mistakenly think that God doesn’t welcome our questions and want us to grapple with the huge issues of faith and salvation. When we ask questions that we may never come to answer, but only grow in understanding, we add colors or brushstrokes to a picture that help us see it all more clearly, but are unable to finish the painting. If we came to have absolute answers for everything related to God, we’d be missing out in so much of the wonder of growing, and diving into study because we just want to understand it a little more.
It is with this same spirit then, that we can perhaps enter into more of a dialogue with members that might ask us questions. We can share with them the piece of the vastness that we’ve come to understand. My own understanding of Foreknowledge and Predestination has grown based on our discussions in class. I hope that as I come back to this topic throughout my life and ministry, I come to add a little bit more understanding and depth. It’s not to say that we don’t need to have any kind of clue, or basis for our belief. The contrary, ours is the responsibility to be continually searching and studying, so we can help guide others based on our discoveries and discussions.
As God has made it possible for us to be free beings, and those free beings to make decisions that are not in accordance to His ideal plans, He is still able to work it together for the good of those who love Him and have been called according to His purpose, then our questions, however great or small, can all work together to lead us to a more accurate understanding of His huge and magnificent plan.
Ministry After Minneapolis
1888-1902
By: Fa’asoa M. Fa’asoa
How sad, yet completely understandable-from a fallen human perspective, the fact that, or so it seems to me, that when push comes to shove-perhaps more readily than not, the tendency (assuming that self instead of Christ is in control of one’s emotions and mind) is to fight against an idea, or rather a concept that we may or may not be comfortable with simply because it challenges our conventional way of thinking-perhaps pushing us to grow, or to change…(and you all know how much we llllllllllloooooovvvvveeee change don’t we? Sure we do…..lol).
This seemed to be the case a bit prior and after the 1888 General Conference session kafuffle. It is the case of the, “I don’t like how you interpreted that verse in Galatians….Galatians 3:19-25 to be exact…or your take on one of the ten horns of Daniel chapter 7….so I’ll push and shove until everyone knows that my position is correct and yours is wrong”…..another sad case of the lack in Holistic thinking I’d say…..my way or the highway.
Okay Okay….I’m not immune from this as well but only seeing and reporting on how readily you and I can fall into the trap of thinking deterministically and exclusively on a plethora of issues whether right or wrong from time to time.
In class today, Dr. Hanna brought out the idea, and Whidden concurs that the fight wasn’t so much on “Righteousness by Faith” per say as it was, as I also see it, a perceived danger is doing away with the Moral law of God…a possible misrepresentation of the opponents view…..see Whidden/Ellen White on Salvation on pg. 80; both are so very important in my opinion. In conclusion, I want to say how thankful I am to have learned, though not perfected it yet, about Holistic thinking which has now colored how I view life as a whole, thanks to Ellen White, and Dr. Hanna….one of my favorite professors here at Andrew’s Seminary.
Quigley Morris
Doctrine of Salvation
06/30/09
A closer look at Romans 8: 1 -4 from my prospective
Paul like the phrase in Christ Jesus; to me the frequent use of this expression, tell a lot about Paul’s opinion about his own strength as a man. It points to a closer relationship with Jesus, to me it means more than a follower; one should have a closer walk with Jesus. And be like Jesus who walked after the Spirit and not after the flesh.
The Spirit of life is a life giver that brings life and freedom in contrast to the law of sin. This is in direct opposite to the law of sin which brings condemnation and sin. And according to Paul when we have been made free it is similar as rebirth. Then we start a new we walk in the newness of life and the Spirit.
The law of sin says that we should all die; but because Christ came and set us free the authority exercised by sin is dead to those who are connected to Him. Then the law of the Spirit of life takes over our lives and motivates us to live life after the spirit and not after the flesh. So we are empowered to influence others of the saving grace of Jesus Christ through the Spirit. All this is made possible because Christ has accomplished what the law was unable to do.
God send his son in the likeness of sinful man so that man might be able to more easily understand and comply with the righteous requirements of His holy law. The idea is to bring man into harmony with his creator. Man on his own has not been able to obey; and the law has not been able to help him to obey. But Christ came to make it possible for man to obey. It is as we said in class Christ had to do every thing for us; so that we might be able to get one thing Wright. And even then it is not our doing but Christ who lived in us as Paul said.
The indwelling Spirit then takes control and guide and motivates the person, but only after he has surrendered his will to the Spirit. Then we are guided to walk in the Spirit and slowly our lives are being change reflecting the true image of Christ. Only then we are able to lift him up and others around will see the quality of discipleship and the connection will be made linking us to Jesus Christ.
I would like to use my last blog as an opportunity to reflect upon the great theme of this course – holistic thinking. This is the second course I have taken from Dr. Hanna, and I am beginning to see that this principle does not exclusively apply to Salvation, or to Revelation Inspiration and Hermeneutics. This principle can and should be applied to all fields of study and all areas of life.
I was first introduced to the concept of holistic thinking by an undergraduate professor who used to say “the answer is yes”, meaning that when we are asking either/or questions of the Bible we need to remember that if they are both in scripture then they are both correct in their own way. At that time I began thinking about this principle, and its far-reaching implications.
In my church experiences I have found that most arguments, most problems, most divisions occur because this principle is not present. A difference of opinion arises, sides are taken and each group collects the texts and Spirit of Prophecy quotations that support their side. Each group is convinced that they are right. After all, they have the quotations and texts to prove it! And each group is completely averse to even considering the opinions of the other group for fear that the success of the other side will weaken their own Biblical position. Thus the other side (who is also supporting their position in the same way) is labeled as heretical and a division in the church occurs.
If only we could embrace a holistic approach to scripture. If we understand that one text cannot overrule another, but that we must strive for an understanding that embraces the totality of scripture, we would not see divisions among the saints. The only divisions we would see would be scriptural versus non-scriptural. What I think is so sad is that most of the divisions I have experiences have been for the sake of ideas that need not be divided. God is fully just, and He is fully merciful. Salvation would not be possible if He were only one or the other.
Holistic thinking is a tool that is always challenging me, and at the same time always helping me understand how seemingly contradictory ideas actually may work together in harmony. But recently it led me to a problem that it did not seem able to help me solve. That problem is that although the principle of holistic thinking can be clearly demonstrated by scripture, it does not seem to be a principle always used by scripture. Many of the Biblical writers said things that seem rest pretty heavily on only one side of the spectrum. Thus it was easy for me to assume that the Bible writers, like many Bible interpreters today, were making their arguments from an unbalanced standpoint. The key, as we have discussed in class, is to accept that it is okay to focus on one side of the equation, so long as we don’t do it at the expense of the other side. So it is okay to say, “God is merciful”, so long as we do not then add, “therefore He is not just”. This helps me understand why the Bible makes most of its statements from one side or the other. It is not because the Bible is having an argument with itself, but because when it describes any side of God it presents that side as being whole. God is completely merciful, so when describing his mercy it is complete. And the same can be said for His justice.
Austin Sharp Doc. of Salvation Essay – Romans 8:28
“And we know that in all things God works for the god of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
This has always been a very powerful text to me, but in this class I was both enlightened and reminded of its fuller implications. I always looked at this text just as a typical comfort passage in the bible. But there are many deeper ideas represented here. For one thing, contextually all throughout the preceding verses Paul has been conveying a theme. I think this theme has largely to do with the restoration of creation. At least three different times Paul mentions creation in a state of temporal discontinuity. It is frustrated. It is in pain like a woman in labor. And just as we have contributed greatly to that pain we also will contribute to the solution to its pain. When we are glorified in Christ we will be restored to our original form and creation will then be at peace. This is the contextual theme or at least much of what Paul is talking about here. When we read this passage or quote it to others we must remember that this is the “good” that Paul is talking about. The practical application of this is deeper still. When someone young dies or something bad befalls someone who is undeserving, we read this text and expect God to do something tangible as the proof of the “good” spoken of here in this text. However, we may not always see it, because it is a deeper good that takes place on the spiritual plain. The “good” taking place here is God using this situation to contribute to the restoration of man and creation back to their perfect state. This is the good. Also Paul gives us a stipulation here in this text as well. He says in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. This shows us that there is a specific people group that this applies to. This text implies that there is an exclusivity to the divine providence of God. However, what I learned in this class was that I need to look at this text holistically. This means that when I look at this text and it says that God works for the good of those that love Him, who have been called according to His purpose, that it only includes that certain group of people. But it is not saying that God works for the good in all things for ONLY those that love God. That is probably the most important thing I’ve learned in this class, that a holistic view of scripture tells us that just because a text tells us one thing, that doesn’t negate the possibility that it could mean something else. This text does not preclude the possibility of God working in all things for the good of those who don’t love Him. I plan on preaching this theology more in the pulpit. I think we Adventists some times are guilty of an exclusivity mindset. We think that God would not condescend to work for a drug addict before he comes to Christ. But this is a powerful question. Does God work for the good of someone who is a reformed child molester? This text does not say that He won’t. This is a holistic view. And this mindset is the most valuable thing I will take away from this class. When I look at scripture, I need to think outside of the box, and consider the possibility that I’m missing something. I need to ask powerful questions about how a text relates to other texts in the bible. I need to look at how they affect each other. Many people approach a text with careful study and exegesis but they don’t look at it holistically so they miss the big picture. A holistic view is vital and it has greatly impacted my view on this text.
From our class lecture and discussions I decided to look more into the issue of the assurance of salvation. I want to take a deeper look at what the bible says about assurance and see how our lectures and discussions can influence me and my understanding in regards to this issue. This is what I have come up with so far.
As we know, the bible is the only rule of faith and practice and it is therefore imperative that we first gain understanding from it. The bible presents Jesus Christ as being both God and man. It is through this understanding of the nature of Christ that we learn that Jesus is able to save through His divine and human natures combined and we can therefore believe in, and hope for, salvation through Jesus Christ. He was and is, uniquely God and uniquely man and it is through His death and resurrection that we are offered the free gift of salvation.
Even though that is the base knowledge of salvation, Jesus saves, in actuality, knowing and understanding the process of salvation is very complex and I think must be understood in a holistic manner, i.e., one that encompasses the various salvation models rather than highlights one in particular. With this base knowledge we are able to move forward in the process of seeking assurance for our salvation.
In the book of Romans the Apostle Paul links the gospel with the person of Jesus Christ. In Romans 1:1-5, Paul tells that the gospel of God refers to His Son, Jesus Christ, and we therefore obtain that when Paul says in 1:16 that the gospel is the power to save, he is referring to Jesus. Jesus is the power to save. This is one of many additional insights into the broad scheme of revelation that are important to seek to understand.
In Romans 11:26-27 we find an important connection between salvation and sin. What this verse essentially says is that all Israel shall be saved when God takes away their sin. From this verse we can understand that salvation is linked to the taking away of sin and we are thus, saved from sin through the person of Jesus Christ because He is the power to save. From this understanding we know that God has provided redemption within Jesus. Jesus IS our redemption. This verse highlights the present function of Jesus’ salvation, His salvation is offered to us right now, in this moment, but it also reveals the need to understand His salvation on a deeper level. Because of this fact we know there are multiple aspects of salvation. Three of these aspects were revealed to me in our class discussion: 1) we are saved at the cross (past tense), 2) we are saved in our conversion and acceptance of Jesus (present tense), and 3) we will be saved when Jesus returns to free us from this sinful world (future tense).
Through this understanding of salvation being a process, we can then surmise that the assurance of our salvation may result in a process of understanding as well! We are assured that Jesus died for our sins once and for all (Heb. 7:27), we are assured that all who believe in Him will have salvation (John 3:16-17), and we are assured that He is coming again soon (Rev. 22:12). I believe that our assurance then lies in the continual acceptance of His goodness and the keeping of His promises. We know our Lord is faithful and just and that His will is for all to be saved! Amen!
As I have been reading and searching through the writings of Ellen White to discover what she says about the assurance of salvation I came upon this passage and was blessed by it. In The Acts of the Apostles, Ellen White refers us to the example of Jesus as our example for Christian life. She notes Philippians 2:12 and comments on the partnership we have with Christ as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Sister White acknowledges that there is to be co-partnership between God and the repentant sinner and claims this partnership to be necessary for the formation of right principles (AA 482).
Upon reading this I thought, “What a wonderful God we serve!” He has not called us to obey His will blindly or be burdened by it; rather He has provided a way for us! He has given us the example of Christ and the partnership and guidance of the Holy Spirit to help us work out our salvation! Therefore submitting to God’s will is something attainable because of the partnership He established through the working of the Holy Spirit!
This idea is in harmony with the idea of synergy which is connected with divinity and humanity, and also that of monergy which is connected with God’s divinity alone. There is a synergistic working that belongs to the Holy Spirit and humanity which collaborates in the process of salvation; but there is also a solo divine element, God’s foreknowledge and predestination, which humanity has nothing to do with and must be done monergystically (by God alone). The human agent has no part in either of those functions; God alone has worked out those elements and continues to work them out without the workings of man. Our salvation is thus realized in these two ways, synergy and monergy, a co-partnership with God, and God’s workings alone throughout eternity.
The work of receiving salvation is therefore found to be a joint operation. God’s will is that man would be saved and He has provided salvation for all through His Son Jesus Christ. God provides this way freely and without coercion which requires both God and man to work together. Man must submit to the will of God while God must supply the power for sinful man to overcome! Ellen White says we must be “willing to be made willing,” because in and of ourselves we are not able to bring our purposes and desires into harmony with the will of God.
As we partner with Christ Jesus and seek to submit our lives to His will we know and understand that the assurance of our salvation lies in Him. The assurance of our salvation lies in the fact that Jesus, who, as Ellen White states, was one with God; linked Himself with humanity and became our Sacrifice, our Advocate, and our Brother. He bore our human form before the Father’s throne and therefore secured our redemption through eternity so that we may be lifted up from this sinful world; reflect the love of God; and share the joy of His holiness (SC 14). It is my prayer that we all continue to live in Christ, assured of His salvation, so that we may one day share in the joy of His holiness. God Bless!
My Last One Page Reflection on what I have been Learned in this session
What is a doctrine, what is Salvation, models of salvation, Salvation in Romans, orders of salvation, monergy and synergy(up to here are reflection on the class), the development and understanding of Ellen White’s doctrine of Christ’s Humanity, her teachings on salvation, and her understanding of the humanity of Christ, Justification, and perfection.(Whidden, 11), many good but heavy documents on Salvation in BRI website, and discussions and questions in the class period, especially practical, pastoral questions and answers are the most valuable discussions in the whole class period.
All these learning process are very precious and fruitful experience to me to build my understanding on this (the most important) issue in my personal life and future ministry.
We go through many Bible verses (especially from Romans) tried to understand this issue more clearly. We talked about sin problem, major issues relate on salvation like predestination what is the right understanding on this in relation with foreknowledge and many more.
In this last time of close this class, I re-questioned myself what is the main, core, essence of salvation?
Through this thinking process one clear word came out my mind that is JESUS who died for us. I also think about God’s Grace, however without Christ’s atoning sacrifice, God’s salvific work could not accomplish, and Jesus was God (and still is) in different persons. (I strongly feel there is deficiency of human language.)
Last reflection (3rd one I submitted on the blog), I said the key word in Romans is “GOSPEL” but without Jesus and His sacrificial work, Paul could not write the book of Romans.
And Four Gospels can not be written.
Sometimes we easily lost focus on what is the essence of Salvation, that is why some people try to be perfect in the wrong way to be saved, others just believe without balance, too much talk about righteous by faith or works, and so forth without the essence. (Where is Jesus? where is God’s grace to show His love through His son on Calvary? Where is Christian spirit?)
I know all these elements are important and there is a reason for each elements however if we lost the essence, these all things are meaningless.
I related this with 1 Cor. 13, I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, I have the gift of prophecy, …, I do all things, without charity (love) I am nothing.
You can disagree with me to apply same principles to understand on Salvation (this issue) but I am sure you can understand what I mean to.
I know we need to make a balance. We have a holistic thinking and understanding before we speak or write. Nevertheless I described this illustration, through my experience as a born Adventist I realized and noticed that we, Adventist, sometimes lost the one who is the main character of the scene. We forget, His love showing through Cross we can not imagine how big is, try to prove my understanding or thesis is right.
Dear Brothers and Sisters
If we lose Him in our study of Salvation, I think our ‘A’ grade is meaningless, we all prepare to share and even now we are workers to spread the Blessed hope, Jesus Christ and His salvific work.
Let us have Jesus in our thoughts, minds, and hearts. Before we say about salvation, let us meditate (or think, pray) about His love showing on the cross.
I pray that This Great(Good) News(Gospel) shall preach and share throughout the world with the core of it, Jesus our Saviour.
The past week or so we have been talking about how a biblical model of salvation must be both monergistic and synergistic. This is an aspect of salvation that has long interested me and has been one of the more difficult elements for me to live out in my own life. While I do understand it in theory and totally agree with it, it has been difficult for me to connect my theory with my practice. I understand that salvation is monergistic. Only God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit can make salvation available to the sinner. Without their work, there would be no hope for anyone to be saved and life would be meaningless. As Dr. Hanna has said repeatedly in class, only God could do the work that God does. The truth of the matter is that it seems to me that the work that we have to do is the work that only we can do. Because God is a God of freedom, he will not force us to receive salvation by faith. Only the human being can turn to God and request salvation. But as I have learned over the past week, even the synergistic element of salvation involves some level of monergism on God’s part. Only God can help us to realize that He is even present to be turned to, if that made any sense.
But the part that I struggle with is the idea that there isn’t any more for me to do. As someone who has accomplished a lot in life, and feels capable to accomplish a lot more, it is difficult for me to relinquish control of my own life. I feel like, as a capable and talented person, I have the ability to help God out. And it seems to me that I have to help God out at some level right? If I don’t allow Him to guide my actions then He can’t do anything with me. Furthermore, when it is all said and done, I am the one who is actually going to be acting. It seems to me that because God does not ever remove freedom, it is not necessarily Him acting through me, but rather that He tells me what I should do and I do it of my own volition. Yet the interesting thing about it is that it is challenging enough just doing what God wants me to do. That really should be enough to keep all of us very busy anyway. Overcoming sin and our own tendencies to move away from God and what He wants for us is hard enough. Paul talked about how difficult it is to overcome ourselves even when we have a desire to do what God wants us to do. So it ends up being kind of odd that some many of us (myself included) want to do more when we can’t even handle the piece that God has given us to do. In the end it seems kind of silly to want to do more. However, so many of us do feel like we should be doing more. We would all be a lot better off if we truly got in line with the system that God has established. As I grow older I see that God really did what was best for us in the way He established and executed the plan of salvation.
Doctrine of Salvation
Blog Comment
Daniel Yim
The article by George W. Reid, Why Did Jesus Die? How God Saves Us, got me thinking on Christ’s sacrifice for our sins as a ransom. For me, when I think of ransom, I usually refer to those good guy bad guy movies where an innocent child is kidnapped and a ransom for the safe return of the child is demanded from the bad guys. Usually the price of the ransom is a gigantic amount such as $1 million dollars as in the case of the movie, Austin Powers. When I think of ransom, I think that the bad guy has the upper hand and the good guy must appease the bad guy in order to get the lives safely back out of harm. When a ransom is demanded by someone it means that someone has been captured and payment must be made to insure the safety of the innocent.
George Reid’s article was helpful in presenting the idea that Christ paid the ransom for our lives and God was the initiator of our salvation process. Usually, the innocent party is the one responding to the situation, like in the movies. But here with our ransom, Christ is the initiator of our souls. Romans 5:8 speaks of God’s first step, as well as 2 Corinthians 5:18. God’s work began while we were still sinners, but it didn’t stop at the cross. God’s work of ransoming us continues today as we learn to trust and obey our Father. Approaching God’s salvivic work in a wholistic sense allows me to comprehend salvation in a cosmic sense as well as in the on-going process of transformation.
So who collected the ransom for our lives? Reid notes that the Bible never mentions the collector of our ransomed lives, but that the important question lies in the price that was paid. The price for our ransom was of enormous amount that all sinners were covered by the death of his Son. Reid notes that the ransom price paid was possible only because of the love of God. First, the love of God is demonstrated through God rescuing sinners. Second, we realize our condition as sinners and finally, we can only observe the God initiate his acts of love toward sinners.
God’s act in saving sinners was not a response toward Satan’s plan. Satan does not have the upper hand in the controversy. Christ did not die on the cross to appease the anger or pain of the Father in heaven. God’s act in saving us is an act of love and will continue to reflect God’s love toward his creation for eternity. God’s love toward his creation will sustain us throughout eternity for growth and development, and this growth will never cease. There will be no end to the spiritual pursuit toward God’s love. We will never arrive at a phase of perfection, nor can we ever receive too much of God’s love. I’m glad Jesus paid the price for my sins and I will always be reminded of that great price forever.
A Reflection on the class
Seating on my table enjoying my breakfast, before me is plate of steaming and yummy whole grain cereal, delicious blue grapes, succulent and sliced orange, and luscious cherries invitingly smiling at me is I chew a mouthful of well salivated grains in anticipation of tossing a cherry or two. Contemplating, enjoying and ingesting my breakfast, it downed upon my mind how already I am influenced by your exposition in our class(es) and your admonition to us that we must look at theology (reality) holistically as we interact with others.
I cannot help it, but thank you so very much for sharing yourself with us as you passionately taught us those divine truths that would help us become faithful and effective communicator’s of God’ grace and love that was revealed in the incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ongoing Jesus Christ’s ministry of God’s reconciliation with the fallen world from which we have been redeemed and are being saved by his Love.
By the way, I am still eating and enjoying my breakfast while writing and expressing my gratitude and contemplation: the impact of your class discourse seems to be stronger than my appetite for food hungry as I am. Ooh! My cereal is gone! Hahahahahahaaaaa! I need some more!
Well, I just want to express my thanks on behalf of all those who have appreciated and where bless in this class.
Weekly Blog Reflection
Our discussion the other day in class got me thinking about reconciliation and its relation to salvation. Is it a synonym for salvation? Is it a piece of salvation? Is it a phase of salvation? Is it a precursor to salvation?
This reflection doesn’t give room to fully develop answers to these questions, but here’s something to at least get the ball rolling. (For something even more stimulating, Romans 5 has a lot of fodder!)
In the Gospels and Acts, the word reconciliation is present, but relates solely to human relationships. In the Pauline epistles the word is used more theologically, to describe an action on the relationship between God and humanity, but this also where it gets a little more complicated. Exactly who was reconciled? And when? And what does that mean?
In 2 Corinthians 5:19, it says “that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s sins against them.” So it appears that the world was reconciled to God. The second half of the verse may mean either that in initiating this act of reconciliation, God did not count men’s sins against them, or there’s the possibility that it means that God actually forgave men’s sins in this act of reconciliation. This latter option would give some support to the theory of universal justification.
Is it possible, though, that the reconciliation has taken place on God’s part, but not on the part of humanity? Perhaps Paul’s concept of reconcilation has two sides, a perspective from each of the parties. I suggest this as an option because in 2 Corinthians 5:20 he uses the exhortation, “Be ye reconciled to God.” But weren’t they already reconciled to God according to verse 19? In human quarrels, it is possible for one person in the argument to have reconciled themselves to the other party, even while that other person still holds hostility.
This concept may give a good context to this passage Colossians 1:
“For God was pleased to have all His fulness dwell in [Christ], and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight…” (vv. 19-22). I have this hypothesis that maybe God did his part of the reconciling on the cross, while we still remained His enemies in our minds, and then at that time that we were reconciled to him (per 2 Cor. 5:20) we were fully reconciled to Him, presented holy in His sight. This suggestion gets some support from the very next verse (v.23) which, referring to this justification, says “if you continue in your faith.” So in reconcilation we have the (ahem) monergism of God on the cross, and the synergism of our faith response. Thoughts?
For this final week, I would like to reflect on the book of Romans. Let me put my focus on chapter 13. As I was reading about authority from this chapter, I started to think about the relationship between authority, conscience and love.
Some of the authorities that I thought of in mind were for example, my parents, teachers, older people (especially for us eastern cultures), law enforcers, etc. Why would I listen to them? Why would I obey to what they say? Is it just because the law says so? Is it because I would be in trouble if I do not listen to them? Maybe with the police or the law enforcers, I would be in trouble if do not live by the law. How about our parents, teachers, or even older people? Verse 5 in this chapter talks about conscience. It is conscience in our hearts that tells us to obey or listen to these people. It is this conscience that tells us to respect these people.
I believe this conscience is a calling or the voice of God talking into our hearts. These are people that God has given authority over each individuals. The fact that God placed them authority is important. There are times where things just do not seem fair to you. There are times when it isn’t just right. But the Word of God, and our conscience tells us to be obedient to the authorities.
We can look at the story of David. He was being pursued by King Saul. Saul wanted David dead. While David was fleeing away from Saul, David had couple opportunities where he was able to kill King Saul. But in both opportunities, he refused to kill King Saul, because even though he was fleeing for life, even though this was not a good king, this king was appointed by God. David’s conscience was aware of all this and was telling David not to do so, because it is all from God.
If we cannot even submit to authorities which God has placed upon, how can we obey and submit to God the Creator? As our conscience tells us to obey and submit to earthly authorities, this becomes a sanctifying process for us so that we can become more fond and used to God and His great authority.
Our conscience must be based on love. That is what the chapter is talking about in the later part of the chapter. We cannot just submit to authorities and God’s authority by force. It must come from a voluntary heart which is based on love. Actually that is what God’s authority is. It is His love for us. Without His love, it is impossible. And so we must come with love as we submit ourselves to authority which is spoken through our salvation.
Perhaps that is what salvation is. We are coming back to the order and the law of God. Because of sin, we came misplaced in order and discipline, but He calls us in love for us to come back to Him by practicing to submit ourselves to the authority. In that way we can ultimately submit directly to God. We are returning back to where we are supposed to belong as the children of God. This does not mean our actions can save us. God has already made everything possible for us to be saved. It is our response and reflection to what God has already prepared for us.
In Response To, "How Perfect is Perfect or is Christian Perfection Possible?"
There is a never-ending complexity to the simplicity of our Jesus following experience. There are so many contradictions that make no sense, but make perfect sense. Among them, the most prominent is found in Matthew 10:39, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” The contradiction, I would even use the word puzzle in this instance is one that we’ve been discussing in class and on in which Heppenstall addresses in his article, “How Perfect is Perfect or is Christian Perfection Possible?,” and that is a Christians’ journey to perfection or sanctification. He deals with the reality that we will spend our whole lives trying to imitate the character of Christ more closely, and the longer we do it, the more we come to realize our own sin.
The ultimate height a human can achieve, the ultimate success that we can have is that we can show a glimpse of the divine. Once we connect to God and surrender our hearts to Him, it becomes our desire to be just like Him, and even amidst our best efforts, no matter how hard we try, we fail. Every time we fail, we beat ourselves up for it. I so keenly identified with Dr. Hannah when was sharing with us in class about how when he was young, he thought that guilt was a necessary aftermath of sin and failure, it was a good thing for him to beat himself up over whatever mistake he’d made. I know that I feel the same often. It’s almost as if we think God is more inclined to forgive us, the more shamefaced, guilt ridden and torn up we are about sin. That kind of show isn’t really what God is interested in. I think that God is more interested in us recognizing our inadequacies and learning to abide continually and depend wholly on Christ and His righteousness.
How do we do that though? Like really, in our daily lives how does that manifest itself. For me, as far as I’ve been able to come in this struggle is to know that the battle against sin is lifelong, but it’s not one huge war. The battle against sin is series of many small ones, everyday we face many small battles against sin, and how we react, depend on Him and call out to Him throughout our small daily struggles is the best way to deal with the great battle. If I learn to call on Him when the temptation is small, my spirit will be ready to call on him when the temptation is huge. Knowing that in my sometimes futile pursuit of perfection (futile if I try to do it alone, which I so often do), I can stop, look up and say, I can’t even handle this small hurdle, hill, or temptation, I need you to help through it.
Heppenstall later in his article states, “There are no limits to God’s power. He is always willing and able to gives us the victory. But man limits God by virtue of his lack of insight and lack of surrender. In proportion to the maturity and completeness of his knowledge will be the completeness of his surrender and victory.” In other words, the more we grow in wisdom, the more we understand that unless we surrender ourselves completely we won’t experience victory. More surrender equals more victory.
We grow, there is a natural progression that happens. We grow every time we experience victory, and it’s a step forward. Not a step closer to being finished, but a step forward. That is priceless, well actually, it’s pricey. It’s the cost of the blood of our Savior that could make that possible. It’s a huge relief to me to know that perfection isn’t expected of me on my own. Just the idea of having to attain that on my own makes me want to give up. But to know that every success and victory I can and will experience is because I’m walking towards and with Jesus, that gives me inspiration and energy for the battle.
In response to, “Why did Jesus Die? How God Saves us.” (George W. Reid)
Right away Reid takes us to an original train of thought when he highlights that Salvation comes through an avenue that we have walked. Jesus walked around on this earth and lived a life similar to us, but did it differently. He brought a new dimension that hadn’t been experienced before. While humans walk through life in a half awareness of what could be. Sensing some how that there is more, but not totally being able to define or connect to it, Jesus was connected to the Power of God that we are only vaguely aware of. Before it even got to the part of the plan that involved a cross, everyday Jesus was saving us from the prison of the half lived lives we were in. Everyday that he walked he spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven, he lived with purpose and joy and love, and revealed that that was the true character of God. The true character of God was the most vital thing that we’d lost track of. Reid later mentions the cosmic importance of Jesus laying down his life for us. It struck me that every time someone accepts salvation and is redeemed; there is the re-redemption of God’s character. Every time someone accepts the Cross, God’s love is once again reinforced and revealed.
Reid discusses the nature of Gods love. We can forget the ferocity of his love. We write melodies to it, and we describe it in terms of parental comparisons so that we can better grasp it. But Gods’ love is so more dynamic than we can articulate. It’s relentless, aggressive and inviolable. Inviolable…never to be broken, infringed or dishonored. God’s love cannot be broken or dishonored. Nothing we can do can break that bind. If we think about salvation in terms of the price that God placed on our lives, the value he gave us, it shames the choices we make when we let sin win. God looked at each of us and long before we were walking around this earth said that we were to valuable to not have at least a shot at spending eternity with him. Yet every time we sin, and let it reign in us, we value that particular sin above our lives it seems. My need to have what my neighbor has is more valuable than the lengths that God has gone to save me from death. We don’t let God’s love have the appropriate amount of room in our lives. If we did, it would compel us…it would keep us safe. That’s gotta be what God intended all along. He saw what sin did to Lucifer, he wanted to keep us from that, keep us close to himself. And God, being who God is, couldn’t force that…He gave us the freedom to choose and built bridges to bring us if we lost our way. Us coming back to Him was a plan he had place long before the first one of us was separated.
“We can only testify to the fact that there is something indiscribably and awfully wrong with us and with the world in which we live and that the scriptures trace it back to the fall of Adam and Eve into sin.” When we meet the unbelievers and explain about Christianity, this fact is very objective. Because everyone living on this planet suffers hatred, poverty, death and all kinds of tragic things. And human kinds have questions about these things. Religions have their own way to explain the cause of the problem. And sin is one of the best answer or the only reasonable answer to explain the cause of all these problems. So, pointing and showing the current tragedy of this world and our lives is very important. And then showing that sin is the main reason for these problems is crucial. And then, it is appropriate to introduce this. “It is only through the sacrificial death of Christ as our substitute that there is hope for the human race.” So, we need to realize the seriousness of sin problem, and we need to know that the problem is so huge and no one can solve the problem. And if we know this, we should be searching for someone greater than us who can solve the problem. Jesus is the Superman we are looking for and he is able to save us from our desperate situation.
“Notice that it is not said that God stopped loving them, but rather that it was impossible for His abundant and rich love to reach them.” This sentence almost sounds like that there is one being which is stronger than God and seperates us from God. And in this situation, I think of God’s heart. We didn’t know nothing about seperation. It was God alone knew about this heartbreaknig seperation. He had to suffer it by himselves. And to solve this seperation problem, God set the plan of salvation only to be with us again. What a one-sided love this is!
“From then on a human being ‘could not overcome Satan with his human strength’.” Life is getting to know and realize that we can’t overcome Satan with our strength. We try and try to overcome Satan but it’s just impossible. And knowing this is wisdom. Knowing this and relying on Jesus and practicing it continuously is the greatest wisdom.
“But God offered Adam and Eve the opprtunity of forgiveness, salvation, and restoration to their original state through His son. This offer was not only available Adam to all his descendants.” Even though it seems like it’s unfair that the descendants of Adam had to inherit the sinful nature, we got this amazing gift which is His son. We received more glorious gift than befere the sin. And it also tells us that God considers us as His precious children because he made the greatest sacrifice.
“All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ.” Recently, I was very surprised to know that the Lord in Old Testament is Jesus. It totally changed my view on OT and God the father and Jesus. Jesus is not just the son. Prior to that Jesus is the God of the universe.
“Because man fallen could not ovecome Satan with his human strength, Christ came from the royal courts of heaven to help him with His human and divine strength combined.” Here is the true hero, true Superman. What a wonderful story of God this is. God came down to be the strength because of love.
“He is now the one who determines our fate.” Jesus is now the one who determines our fate.
“This assurance turns despair into hope, and desolation to joy; for the transforming power of God’s love makes us new men and women in Christ.” It is so simple. The gospel is so simple but at the same time, it is very deep. So, it looks like complicated but the essence of the gospel should be simple that the assurance should be simple that the assurance should turn despair into hope. This is the power of gospel which needs to be recovered its original meaning.
“It is the same story, the eternal story, the one story from Genesis to Revelation-the message of the third angel, we are told, centers in justification by faith(Evangelism, p.190)” I love this concept for it is the same story, eternal story, and one story. The everlasting gospel which is third angel’s message is not different from the original gospel. It is the same gospel. And as I wrote above, the original meaning of the third angel’s message should be recovered as the original gospel.
“Therefore it must be told and retold, probed ever more deeply, heard once and ever anew.” Yes, it is true. Our history is full of attempts to make the gospel into changed gospel. Keeping it anew is our mission.
“Our condition is hopeless. To such poverty-mental, physical, spiritual-God’s salvation comes.” It is the grace of God and mystery how God makes us to be humble. Because only when we feel hopeless, we will stop trying and stop depending on ourselves. And we will begin to look for help. And at that time, we can get help.
“No sacrifice, no gift, no act of devotion-no work of any sort-can restore the broken relationship.” Wow, is this true? Do we really believe this? The thing is even though I don’t know this is true, I can’t stop thinking that maybe some sacrifice, some gift, some act of devotion can be helpful to restore the broken relationship. But even this attempts should be put down before God, and we should approach him as we are.
“We are alienated from our true selves.” I agree again ans begin to feel relieved. Because I feel like I’m a patient who couldn’t figure out the disease I had for a long time. And now I found this doctor who dianose my disease so accurately. It doesn’t make me depressed rather it gives me hope. So, I think, as a preacher, I shouldn’t worry about the response of the people when I diagnose the disease and tell them their current status.they will be shocked but since they know that we are telling them for their life to have new life, they will not get mad but they will ask us to show them the way to life. And then we can introduce them new life, new way, Jesus.
“We are alienated also from one another.” We can say a lot of things about the reason why we have relational problem. We can say it’s because of wounds we got from the previous experience. We can explain that it’s because of our food, environment, parenting style. But the most simple and accurate cause of the problem is sin. We have to tell this to people. Once we know the biggest and true cause, we shall have solution.
“Paul declares that the only way to be right with God is to be clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ.” Perfect righteousness of God, this is true. But the way to that Perfect righteousness of God looks like far away. I want to understand the meaning and want to know the way to the Perfect righteousness of God.
“The perfect rigeteousness of Christ is the only answer to the sin problem in any man’s life, the only possibility of living like Christ here and now. ‘Our righteousness’-the best we can do and are in ourselves-are ‘as filthy rags’ (Isa 64:6).” It makes sense because I know my righteousness is just impossible. So, now I can think that I need better righteousness than mine.
“When they read the command of Christ: Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect”(Matt 5:48), the effort is both condemnation and discouragement.” Yes, this is the problem for me too. I know I need ‘better’ righteousness but the ‘perfect’ righteousness feels like it’s too much. And I feel like I can’t reach to the point.
“But the testimony of all great Christians is that they have never attended to it; that the more they strived and the closer they came to Christ, the deeper was their sense of inadequacy and inherent sinfulness.” This is another kind of gospel. Because it tells me to give up my human effort for it is useless. But at the same time, it’s beautiful that the closer we come to Christ, the deeper we sense the inadequacy. I feel like it is wonderful paradox.
“the only sinlessness they have ever seen or known has been that of Jesus Christ, the only perfect and sinless man; that because of this Jesus is the whole of their salvation, the whole of their righteousness and perfection.” Aha, so the step to the perfect righteousness is this. We see ourselves. We see the sinfulness and come to Jesus. And then we try to get closer to Jesus and as we fail, we see our weakness ans Christ’s greatness.
“One of the hindrances to living the Christian life successfully is failure to understand what the Bible teaches on the nature of sin and perfection. The Bible, in applying the term ‘perfection’ to believers, never means ‘sinlessness’.” This is the real hindrance that we think perfection as sinlessness.
“A ‘perfect’ Christian is one whose heart and mind are permanently committed to Christ, cannot be moved. Noah, Abraham, and Job were all declared to be ‘perfect’ men. Yet the history of their lives shows that they were far from being sinless.” So, the point is whether we can give our heart to Christ or not. This is good news again because I can give my heart to Christ at any time. No matter how many times I fail, all I need to do is constantly giving my heart to Christ.
“But if sin includes also a man’s state of mind and heart, man’s bias toward sin, sin as an indwelling thendency, then perfection presents a totally different picture.” This statement is one of the most accurate statement to define sin.
“The Bible does teach that the genuine Christian life is one of uniform and sustained victory over all known sin. The normal Christian experience should be one of victory and not constant defeat.” This sounds very simple. It makes me to think and focus on the power of Christ. if I rely on the power with simple faith, I feel like I can do it in Christ. This is simple and great assurance.
I found Isaiah 53:11 very interesting with regards to justification. I could not hold it to myself and I thought of sending this text over the blog. This passage seems to be foundational to the understanding of Christ Jesus as our justification. What is important to note is that Jesus is the righteous-just slave of God who shall justify many by (possibly)bearing their iniqutiy. I am still studying this verse. In Romans 1:1-5 Paul talks of the good news that was witnessed by the prophets; could Paul echo or allude to Isaiah as the prophet who prophecy about the good news? And this good news relates to our justification/righteousness?
I found Isaiah 53:11 very interesting with regards to justification. I could not hold it to myself and I thought of sending this text over the blog. This passage seems to be foundational to the understanding of Christ Jesus as our justification. What is important to note is that Jesus is the righteous-just slave of God who shall justify many by (possibly)bearing their iniqutiy. I am still studying this verse. In Romans 1:1-5 Paul talks of the good news that was witnessed by the prophets; could Paul echo or allude to Isaiah as the prophet who prophecy about the good news? And this good news relates to our justification/righteousness?
I thoroughly enjoyed Edward Heppenstall’s BRI article Some Theological Considerations of Perfection. What I like most about the article is the words study on the greek words teleios and katartizo. I have read broadly on the subject of perfectionism, especially within the context of the Adventist Church, but I don’t recall having seen many of the scriptures in this article used before in this context. Looking at texts like 1 Cor. 14:20, Heb. 5:11-14; 6:1, 1 Cor. 2:6, 1 Cor. 3:1-3, Eph. 4:11-13, Phil 3:13-15 and others it is so clear to me that the Greek word teleios, translated “perfect” in many English translations of the New Testament should be more actually translated “mature.” In almost every one of the above passages Paul is contrasting immature and childlike Christians with teleios (mature) Christians. My favorite passage used in the article was Philippians 3:13-15. In this passage Paul claims the title of teleios (mature) for himself, and he calls other Christians to be like him, yet in this same passage he says,
I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the ark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:13-14)
So obviously Paul understood biblical perfection to be something completely different from our modern definition of perfection today.
The second Greek word used in the word study on perfection in Heppenstall’s article was katartizo. In many English translations this word is translated “perfect,” but instead has the connotation of “being fully equipped.” Several of the verses that caught my attention were Luke 6:40, 2 Cor. 13:11, Heb 13:21, 1 Peter 5:10, and especially Eph. 4:11,12 and 2 Tim. 3:16,17. Ephesians 4:11,12 is the familiar passage of how God gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor/teachers for the “perfecting,” or more accurately, for the “full equipping” of the saints for the work of ministry. And 2 Timothy 3:16,17 is the familiar passage about how Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be “perfect,” or more accurately, “fully equipped,” thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
In my opinion, having a more accurate understanding of what teleios and katartizo really mean is so helpful. I appreciate the fact that more and more modern English translations are translating these words “mature” and “fully equipped.” I believe this will go along way in correcting the misunderstandings on perfectionism that many have today. With this being said. I don’t think this will solve problem entirely. I believe we will be battling the heresy of perfectionism until Christ returns. There seems to be something with our human nature that thrives on the idea that we, even with God’s help we can perfect ourselves entirely this side of heaven. This concept seems especially appealing to certain personality types.
I sure appreciated everything Heppenstall had to say on the subject. This article is definitely going into my digital archive for future reference.
For my final blog assignment I chose to respond to Edward Reid’s BRI article entitled Why Did Jesus Die? How God Saves Us. In this article Reid appears to be arguing for a substitutionary atonement model over a Moral Influence model. He is careful not to say that the substitutionary atonement model is the only acceptable model and that Christ’s demonstration of the character of God played no part in the plan of salvation. In other words he seems to be arguing against the exclusive use of the moral influence theory. Instead he seems to be arguing for a combination of both. It is definitely not one or other in his mind.
I agree with Reid that the Moral Influence theory has merit in that Christ’s death is definitely a demonstration of God’s love for sinners, and it has a powerful, motivating effect on the mind of the sinner, which is being quickened by the work of the Holy Spirit to repent from sin and live for God. But to say that this is the extent of the plan of salvation, I believe, is to miss the boat. This theory ignores the fact that Christ died to pay a ransom, price, or cosmic, divine demand. Christ’s death is not an effort to pay God off. I don’t even believe that God is the ultimate recipient of the payment. The basic reality is that sin caused a permanent rift in God’s perfect universe, and only Christ’s death could make it right. In many ways this is still a mystery. One may not connect with a particular salvation model i.e. ransom, substitution, etc., but the basic reality is that there is a whole lot more to Christ’s death and this whole salvation thing than a demonstration model of God’s love.
I have experience with the Moral Influence Theory first hand. I have notices serious leanings in this direction by a prominent preacher within Adventism. I have also read a couple of books that strongly advocated this stance on salvation. I admit it is a beautiful concept. I get it, especially when today in a postmodern culture everyone is obsessed with relationships and the concept of love. I agree too that it is necessary to present the Gospel in the context of the reconciliation between God and man. I simply believe, like we were taught in class, that we need to present a holistic presentation of salvation that does not exclude any scriptural model. Because of our cultural context in North America we may even need to emphasize the reconciliation model more than the others. In addition maybe there is a place for emphasizing the death of Christ as a demonstration of God’s love above some of the facets of other models. What we cannot do, however, preach and teach only these aspects or models of salvation or else we will cease to proclaim both the full picture of what sin as well as the full picture of what Christ accomplished in His death.
As kind of a side note, here is a question for someone to respond too. This is only somewhat related to the topic I have written on so far in this blog, but it is a question that interests me. And here it is. Why does the substitutionary atonement model work? I understand in a general way the rift that sin caused. I understand that the first expression of sin on this planet was by the disobedience of the first human couple. But who says that Christ can come down, do what they couldn’t (live perfectly righteous before God), die guiltless, and have His death satisfy humanity’s debt. It sounds great, but why is this allowable? I’m willing to say that I don’t understand this and maybe never will. One thing I believe for sure is that whatever the basis for substitutionary atonement, the universe, including myself, will one day understand it as fair and the genius that only divinity could orchestrate. I would be interested in anyone’s thoughts.
As I have been thinking about the different models of Salvation I find it interesting that there were discrepancies about which model is best. As we look through scripture we find a variety of models that each paint a picture of how Christ gave of Himself in order offer eternal life to us. These models range from the ransom model, which highlights the idea that Christ died to pay a ransom for us; to the reconciliation model, which states that we are reconciled to God through Christ; as well as the satisfaction model, which shows that through Christ’s sacrifice He provides satisfaction for God; and the penal substitution model, which assumes that Christ died in our place and suffered the punishment that we should have; all the way to the victory model, which simply means we have victory over sin through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. These are just a few of the models that exist and are dispersed throughout Christianity.
Although the Universal Christian church does not have an official or creedal statement in regards to how salvation happens, there are specific denominations that have attached themselves to certain models of salvation because they have become important to them. Through the process of aligning a church to a certain model of salvation the problem arises that one model is more dominant than another and therefore leads to one church or group that believes their model is better than the others and vice versa. This problem can quickly lead to a debate about which model is the most dominant in scripture and so on.
In reality, all the models are biblical and they all have importance. Trying to align with one over another or determine which one is the best seems foolish because each is found in scripture to give us a sliver of what salvation is like. I believe it is safe to say that we will never fully understand salvation and I therefore think it is safe to say that we can, and should, use every example and model found in scripture as a means of focusing our minds on the whole of salvation.
When churches or people place precedence on one model over the other it can cause dissention between God’s children which in turn leaves us bickering back and forth about the greatest, most precious gift, we can ever receive, Salvation! I feel that the power of this gift is lessened when we try to figure out which aspect of it is the strongest or best. I do not have a problem with a church aligning with a certain model because of a trial or joy they have experienced, but when the choice is made to promote one model over the other just to choose a side, it becomes absurd.
I believe that there is no one, single, model for salvation today. All models are biblical and all of them have importance. When we narrow our views and focus on one aspect of salvation it does not leave room for the full picture (at least as much as we can understand) of Christ’s salvation. For this reason I think it is necessary to have a holistic approach to the models of salvation because His salvation is multifaceted! We serve a risen Savior who Is, Was, and Is to come. He has been our Savior all along and He will continue to be throughout eternity. We therefore must cling to Christ Jesus who holds all the models of Salvation because He is the way, the truth, and the life.
From our study here in class we have seen just how multi-faceted the process of salvation is. With that understanding in mind I came to realize that the assurance of salvation can be multifaceted as well and therefore needs to be understood in a holistic manner too. What I want to propose here is one way of looking at assurance. Here it is: The assurance of our salvation lies in the continual submission of ourselves to God’s will. The bible teaches that God’s will is for all of us to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). If it is God’s will that I be saved, if I submit to His will, can I not have assurance of my salvation??
Let me try to explain a little further. The Bible consistently reveals Jesus as our salvation. Acts 4:12, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved. Joel 3:32, all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Romans 10:9-10, if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved!
1 John 5:12 tells us that those who have the Son have eternal life and therefore our salvation lies in Christ alone. Since that is the case when can then know with certainty that the assurance of our salvation lies in Him as well! Colossians 1:21-23 says that we were once alienated from God when we were not in Him, but through Christ’s body & death we have been reconciled to Him and are presented as holy in his sight when we continue in our faith and hope in Him!
Ellen White puts it plainly in Desire of Ages when she says that the law requires righteousness, which is something we don’t have. We cannot meet the claims of God’s holy law; but Christ came to earth & lived a holy life, He developed a perfect character, and HE offers salvation as a free gift to all who are willing to receive it! So Christ stands in our place…when we place ourselves in Him!
From this understanding the idea that the assurance of our salvation lies in Christ and in our continual acceptance of Him is more fully realized. Colossians 2:6-7 furthers this understanding by saying that just as we received Christ Jesus as our Lord, we are to continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in our faith and overflowing w/thankfulness. Therefore receiving Jesus is not the only aspect needed. We see here again that there is a process involved. We must also continue to live in Christ and be strengthened and built up in Him! It is God who wills us to act according to His good purpose.
In Steps to Christ, Ellen White says that we may have joy in our communion with Jesus because of the light of His love and the comfort of His presence, and as we commune with Him we grow and experience His love on a deeper level. She says this about being in Christ, “let us not cast away our confidence, but have firm assurance, firmer than ever before.” Therefore we see that Ellen White’s writings are once again in harmony with the word of God and that she too attests to our great need of being in Christ and experiencing His love and goodness through our personal experiences with Him.
God’s will is for good in our lives, we know that from Romans 8. He works for our good and wills that we would be free from sin and be grounded in His salvation. It is God’s eternal purpose to save sinners! God’s will is to save mankind! Romans 8:29 testifies to this idea when it says that those whom God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son.
God foreknew that humanity would need a savior and He therefore sacrificed His own Son in order for us to have the freedom to be conformed into His likeness. It is because of God’s will that this process of salvation was established and it is that same will that we must submit our lives to in order to accept and be assured of His great and wonderful salvation.
Informative and detailed post!! Thank you !!
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