Lesson 5: "The Seen and the Unseen War"

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

The Book of Matthew

Lesson 5: "The Seen and the Unseen War"

People around the world are deeply interested in "Elijah" being sent to us. They are realizing that "he" will come as a message, just as "Elijah" came to Israel in the message of John the Baptist (Mal. 4:5, 6; Matt. 3:1-3).

 

They see that as John the Baptist prepared God's people of his day for the first coming of Christ, so "Elijah" in these last days will prepare a people for the second coming of Christ (Rev. 14:6-15).

 

John's message was a clarion call for repentance (Matt. 3:1-8). In these last days, "Elijah's" message is a call to the leadership of Christ's last days' church to "be zealous therefore, and repent" (Rev. 3:14, 19). [1] In ancient Israel, Elijah zeroed in on the top, the leader of the nation, King Ahab.

 

Just as Elijah was "zealous" and called on king and Israel to "repent" of their Baal worship and return to the true LORD (just as Jesus calls on Laodicea), so the Elijah message today will call upon God's people to "examine [themselves] as to whether [they] are in the faith. Prove yourselves" (2 Cor. 13:5).

 

That must mean a close re-examination—do we understand what God's holy word says about justification by faith? Or have we repeated ancient Israel's century-long slide down the slippery slope into Baal worship—that is, counterfeit ideas of popular Christianity that Revelation says are "Babylon"? Don't be confused and bewildered by Babylon's false version.

 

ELIJAH'S MESSAGE

"The faith of Jesus" will be Elijah's message. He "slays" the recalcitrant, unrepentant modern "priests of Baal." [2] Elijah proclaims the reconciling, "at-one-ment" message that heals the wounded hearts of those who appreciate Christ's cross.

 

The very last words of the Old Testament spell it out, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord" (Mal. 4:5). The scribes and Pharisees naturally expected that this stern old man with a white robe and flowing beard must come before the Messiah could show up. Thus when Jesus appeared on the scene He couldn't possibly be the Messiah. There had been no "Elijah" first.

 

The grand appearance of "Elijah the prophet" went right over their heads. It was all done before they knew what was going on. The message of John the Baptist had been "Elijah"! Malachi's prophecy had been fulfilled before their eyes while they were looking the other way. How dumb can God's people be? Even Jesus' disciples "asked Him, saying, 'Why ... do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?'" His answer caught them napping: "'I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him' ... Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist." It was his message (Matt. 17:10-13). Could something great happen while wonderful—wise—"we" don't know what's going on? Could we miss our long-prayed-for "latter rain"? Elijah must come!

 

When the "Elijah message" comes, what will it do? How can we recognize it, so we don't treat it as the Jews treated John the Baptist?

 

It will not be a revival of legalism, harsh, vindictive, condemnatory. Just the opposite: "He ["Elijah"] shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers" (Mal. 4:6). A message of reconciliation! And that means "atonement"—the cosmic Day of Atonement ministry centered in the sanctuary's Most Holy Apartment.

 

Elijah had no patience with the "prophets of Baal," but he had enormous patience and tenderness for the people. The people were sheep who had been led astray by their shepherds who had been supported from the national treasury. Elijah's indignation was inspired by the Holy Spirit. It was the "righteous indignation" God expresses in Ezekiel 34:2 where He says, "Woe to the shepherds [the pastors] … who feed themselves." Self-worship disguised as the worship, the ministry, of Christ! That is the essence of Baal worship. God hates it.

 

But His heart yearns toward the people who are led astray, especially the youth and the children. "Elijah's" message will heal alienated hearts. Hardness will be melted. Through "the grace of God," not through harsh legalism, buried "roots of bitterness" will be exposed for what they are and a people will realize a precious oneness with Jesus. And, of course therefore, a precious oneness with one another! "Elijah's" message will do for God's people what it did for him—it prepared him for translation. Satan will oppose that message hell-bound. But "the grace of God" will be much more abounding. God's people will respond to their High Priest.

 

"BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD"

"And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force" (Matt. 11:12). Ellen White comments:

 

"The violence here meant is a holy earnestness, such as Jacob manifested. We need not try to work ourselves up into an intense feeling, but calmly, persistently, we are to press our petitions at the throne of grace. Our work is to humble our souls before God, confessing our sins, and in faith drawing nigh unto God." [3]

 

It's probably impossible for us to imagine what happened before the days of radio or TV or any flashing electronic news that encircles the world in a moment. The news that startled people went out worldwide: when Jesus of Nazareth was being crucified, spikes driven through His wrist-bones and ankle-bones, He prayed for the men doing that, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). The news went around the world by word of mouth. Never in the history of Roman crucifixions (which were many) had a crucified victim of this unspeakable cruelty prayed for his murderers. This was news!

 

People talked about it everywhere. The news catalyzed humanity: there were those who despised the divine Victim; there were others whose hearts were deeply impressed and solemnized. Like the honest-hearted centurion that Luke has to tell us about, they said, "Truly this was a righteous man" (vs. 47).

 

In the end of time the world will again be lightened with the 1888/"Elijah" message that turns it upside down, a message that grips some hearts and reconciles them to God and to His holy law; and that goads others to enforce the "mark of the beast" against them. This will be the message of a fourth angel of Revelation 18:1-4 that brings to a triumphant conclusion the work of Christ's gospel; the message of the three angels of chapter 14 doesn't accomplish that great work; it can't.

—Paul E. Penno

 

Endnotes:

[1] The "angel" of the church of the Laodiceans has to be its leadership (see Gospel Workers, pp. 13, 14).

[2] This is the same as the "perishing" of those who disbelieve in John 3:16; the "should not perish" is in the middle voice of the Greek verb meaning those who disbelieve commit their own spiritual suicide.

[3] Our Father Cares, p. 136.

--

Raul Diaz

Lesson 4: "Get Up and Walk!"

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

The Book of Matthew

Lesson 4: "Get Up and Walk!"

It's fascinating to go through the Gospels in the New Testament. The first book, the Gospel of Matthew, begins with an introduction, with these interesting words: "the historical record of Jesus Christ." This Gospel was written from a strong Jewish perspective to show that Jesus truly is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament.

Interestingly, this is the season in the United States for preparing tax forms. There are some "lucky" souls who are getting money back while others are calculated to have to pay the government. So, let's get acquainted with Matthew. He is well noted as a publican and a tax collector, a despised profession in Palestine. His name was really Levi, the tax collector, probably a shrewd person of his profession in collecting money from every single person. In Mark 2:14-17, we see how Levi accepted Jesus' recruitment in following Him. And as a result, Jesus named him Matthew, meaning in Hebrew, "Gift of God," after Levi chose to follow Jesus, along with other disciples who had newly joined.

In the book of Matthew, there are recorded numerous accounts of Jesus' healings—at least sixteen episodes worth reading:

• Healing the Leper in Galilee (8:1-4).

• Roman Centurion for paralyzed servant, at Capernaum (8:5-13).

• Peter's mother-in-law, sick with fever, at Capernaum (8:14-15).

• Two demoniacs at a tomb, near Gadarenes (8:28-34).

• Paralytic at Capernaum (9:2-8).

• Jairus' daughter at Capernaum (9:18-19).

• Woman with issue of blood at Capernaum (9:20-22).

• Two blind men at Capernaum (9:27-31).

• Mute demoniac in Galilee (Matt. 9:32-34).

• Man with a withered hand, at Synagogue at Capernaum (12:10-13).

• Blind, deaf demoniac in Galilee (12:22-24).

• Miraculous healings at Gennesaret (14:34-36).

• Gentile woman's demoniac daughter, in the Region of Tyre and Sidon (15:21-28).

• Healing of multitudes near the eastern shore of Galilee to Decapolis (15:29-31).

• Epileptic son near the town of Caesarea Philippi (17:14-21).

• Two blind men departing Jericho (20:29-34).

Please note the amount of faith emphasized in each of these healings, and how unbelief changed to miraculous faith in those who had seen darkness change to radiant light and those who experienced deafness to hearing.

There is a heart-moving story in Matthew 8:5-13 about a Roman centurion, who exemplified New Testament faith, faith "which worketh by love [agape]" (Gal. 5:6), one of the key elements of the 1888 message. The centurion was a Gentile military officer, who presented to Jesus his bedridden paralyzed servant, who was very dear to him. The centurion was amazed at Jesus' offer to go to his home to heal the servant. During that time, according to Jewish law Jews were banned from entering the home of a Gentile. Of course, it was a shock to the centurion that Jesus would have compassion on a Gentile like him, to heal his servant in his home; he would not want any disturbance in the community that would harm Jesus.

This is the picture not only of God's redeeming love to all mankind, but one of amazing faith that Jesus had never seen in anyone like this centurion, who just preferred to hear Jesus say the order of command to send him home, in believing his servant be healed. Jesus' words to the centurion were, "Go, as you have believed, let it be done for you," and the servant was healed from that very moment. That was amazing faith on the part of the centurion, one that Jesus had to teach his disciples on the topic, lessons on faith.

The lessons we see from the centurion are:

(1) He understands his sinfulness in the light of Christ's righteousness, for he said two things: "I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof" and "neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee" (Luke 7:6, 7). The centurion's faith was a total mental trust, a heart appreciation.

(2) There was an unusual love that filled this centurion's heart, being concerned for his servant, and not for himself. This is the faith that transformed him from selfishness, as not I but Christ.

E. J. Waggoner, one of the 1888 "messengers, wrote a short one-paragraph essay about the centurion's faith: [1]

"There was one thing at which our Lord Himself marvelled while here on the earth, and that was unbelief. Many things caused great surprise to His disciples and the multitudes that attended Him, but the most surprising thing to Christ Himself was the blindness and hardness of the human heart. This so hindered in His own country that He could do no mighty work there; and "He marvelled because of their unbelief" (Mark 6:5, 6). Also when He healed the centurion's servant (Luke 7:2-9) He marvelled, not because the centurion had faith, but because His own people had less faith than did this Roman. Unbelief is a stranger thing than is the mightiest miracle ever performed; because there has been a cause for every miracle, but for unbelief there is no cause. It is not strange that God can do most astonishing things, for He is omnipotent and omniscient; but it is strange indeed that man will not believe His word. It is so strange as to be absolutely without reason. Do you believe the Lord? If not, why not?"

Waggoner, in another article [2], wrote that the account of the healing of the centurion's servant is given by both Matthew and Luke, the latter writer giving some points which are omitted by the former. He says that to get the full narrative, both accounts should be read together because the reader might suppose that the two accounts conflict, but there is no contradiction.

This story helps us understand that the essential ingredient of all true miracle healing is faith, a heart appreciation for the sacrifice of Christ. And the fact that Jesus' word, as soon as He says it is done. I too need to grow from my little faith to realize the amazing element of faith in healing.

This was the very Gospel message that reached the heart of a young Japanese friend named Sadako, who rejoices in how such faith of Jesus would heal and restore the darkness in this world around us. This is more than what I experienced in the medical field when I was working in the hospital, with patients of all kinds of ailments and diseases. And even in my journey to the Holy Land, touring all the places that Jesus walked where the very healings that took place, no matter what you are, a homeless person, a filthy wretched person, or such a worm as I, it just amazes me to realize that we are considered a valuable ownership with Him, a loving Saviour. Such love and grace increases my faith in knowing that we have the Great Physician in restoring our heart, soul, and unbelief.

—Mary Chun

Endnotes:

[1] E. J. Waggoner, "A Marvellous Thing," The Present Truth, Sept. 20, 1894.

[2] E. J. Waggoner, "The Commentary. Notes on the International Lesson. The Centurion's Faith," The Signs of the Times, Sept. 15, 1887.

--

Raul Diaz

Lesson 3: The Sermon on the Mount

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

The Book of Matthew

Lesson 3: The Sermon on the Mount

Jesus began His famous Sermon on the Mount with nine sure-cure prescriptions, each one beginning, "Happy are those who ..." (see Matthew 5:3-12, Good News Bible). Even though our lesson book (p. 22) says that "we ... must apply it [the sermon]," you may be surprised to note that not one of those nine "beatitudes" tells us what to do in order to be "happy," as though Jesus were a guru proposing a program of works. The emphasis in Jesus' message of Good News is not on doingsome good thing in order to be happy, but on believing some "Good News."

 

If happiness is contingent on our doing the right thing, we always run into the snag of realizing we can't do that thing just right. No matter how hard we try, there is always an element of failure or non-attainment. If God promises us something good on condition that we must first fulfill certain do-it-yourself prerequisites, His promises are bound to fall flat because we can't perform. God can promise us the sky, but it's a cruel trick if His promises are nullified by some impossible condition.

 

There long has been a question as to whom Jesus preached His Sermon on the Mount—to His disciples or to the multitude. Some say that God is not the Father of "all humanity" but only of those who are converted. All the rest are children of the devil. But Matthew 5:1 says that when Jesus saw "the multitudes, He went up into a mountain" and preached, about "your Father which is in heaven," and "after this manner pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven," etc. (chapters 6, 7).

 

"LOVE YOUR ENEMIES ..."

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told us to "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Matt. 5:44).

 

But no one knew what He meant. It went right over people's heads. No one really understood the true dimensions of "love" until the cross (cf. Eph. 3:18, 19). The word Jesus used for "love" was not the ordinary, day-to-day one that people used in the Greek or Latin world--it was agape. The idea was foggy; it couldn't be defined until the cross.

 

The world marvels at the miracle of Christ's resurrection after three days in the tomb; but the even greater miracle was the love He demonstrated. It was unearthly--it had never been seen since time began. Every crucifixion done by the Romans had been a demonstration of cursing, and raw hatred. Here was one where the Victim prayed for His murderers! It became talked about throughout the Empire. No advertising could have been purchased at any price that was more effective for proclaiming the gospel.

 

This love known as agape is in a different category than what we call love. Unlike the "natural" love we are born with that loves its own, or loves nice people, agape loves ugly people, mean people, unworthy people, yes, enemies. Unheard of! (Our lesson book on page 26 alludes to this idea when the author says, "the whole focus on this section [Matt. 5:43-48] deals with loving people, not just those whom anyone could love but those whom, by the world's standards, we would not generally love ..." However, the focus seems to be on our "love," not God's, and the word agape is not used.)

 

On the lips of the apostles, it became the word that "turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6). Its origin was unearthly. It had to be "poured into" emptied human hearts from an Outside source (Rom. 5:5). It couldn't be conveyed by lectures, and it can't be propagated by PowerPoint. It has to be communicated by a white hot flame burning in a human heart that has been deeply moved by the Holy Spirit.

 

PERFECTION

Our lesson (p. 26) states: "Of all the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, this has to be one of the most amazing, the most 'extreme.' To be as perfect as 'your Father in heaven'? What does that mean?"

 

A. T. Jones, one of the 1888 "messengers," in his landmark book, The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection [1], writes:

 

"Perfection in every respect is attained through the priesthood, the sacrifice, and the service of this our great High Priest at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens in His ministry in the sanctuary and the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. ...

 

"Perfection, perfection of character, is the Christian goal—perfection attained in human flesh in this world. Christ attained it in human flesh in this world, and thus made and consecrated a way by which, in Him, every believer can attain it. He, having attained it, has become our great High Priest, by His priestly ministry in the true sanctuary to enable us to attain it.

 

"Perfection is the Christian's goal; and the High Priesthood and ministry of Christ in the true sanctuary is the only way by which any soul can attain this true goal in this world. 'Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary' (Psalm 77:13)."

 

A QUIET, HEART-WARMING MESSAGE

God cannot bring His people to attention by an unprecedented fear-motivated demand for holy living. The means the Lord will employ will be a quiet, heart-warming message of "the righteousness of saints," a message that woos the heart—"righteousness by faith."

 

When that last great angel comes down with the message that will "lighten the earth with glory" it will be a message to go to "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" with the powerful impact that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount had on the world two millennia ago, because it will be simple (Rev. 18:1-4; 14:6, 7). The Lord does not overburden you (Rev. 2:24). But do study!

—From the writings of Robert J. Wieland

 

Endnote:

[1] Alonzo T. Jones, The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, pp. 87-89; Glad Tidings ed.

--

Raul Diaz

Lesson 2: The Ministry Begins

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

The Book of Matthew

Lesson 2: The Ministry Begins

The rite of circumcision was given as a sign to Abraham and his descendants of their inability within themselves to produce the Heir of promise. Abraham and Sarah's bodies were essentially dead. Isaac's birth was a miracle promised by God. Without that promise, they could not produce the ultimate Heir, which was Jesus.

 

THE CEREMONY OF BAPTISM

The ceremony of baptism is a sign that the believer identifies with the death of Christ, so they can say with Him, "of mine own self, I can do nothing." We are utterly incapable to produce righteousness by our own works because we are dead in trespasses and sin.

 

Jesus wasn't dead in trespasses and sin so why did He submit to the ceremony of baptism? John wondered why Jesus requested baptism, and His response is intriguing. "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness" (Matt. 3:15, NASB). Jesus didn't say it was to fulfill the law, but to fulfill "all righteousness."

 

Baptism was not unknown to the pre-Christian world. The book of Leviticus contains many ritual and hygienic washing requirements. The works-loving Pharisees perverted God's reasonable requirements into impossible burdens. Although baptism's origin is uncertain, it may have been derived from the Jewish custom of ritual immersions or "mikvehs." Before the devout Jew could attend worship or other ceremonies, they would perform the ritual of immersion not necessarily for hygiene or cleanliness, but for spiritual purity. Presumably, because of this symbolism, no one thought it strange that John was baptizing.

 

Generally, the explanation of why Jesus participated in baptism is that He is our example, and that is true. But He told John to baptize him to "fulfill all righteousness." The word Jesus used in Matthew 3:15, dikaiosune, is the Greek word for imputed righteousness. This is the righteousness which Christ, Who came in the likeness of our sinful flesh, accomplished for us.

 

It is always only the righteousness of Christ—He is always its ultimate value. He is the only One in the universe who possesses genuine righteousness because He went to the cross and died the "second death." His free will choice to die the second death was motivated by genuine love (agape) and that alone is genuine "righteousness."

 

The wages of sin are death, the second death. While humans can (and many will) die the second death, it does them no good as there is no resurrection without divine power. Since we don't have divine power and thus cannot resurrect ourselves, Christ did it for us and imputes this "judicial verdict of acquittal" (Rom. 5:16, REB) to us, but He is always the value, or surety of that righteousness.

 

MADE LIKE HIS BRETHREN

In order to qualify to do this for us, He had to be made like His brethren (Heb. 2:17). He laid aside the prerogatives of divinity (Phil. 2:5-8) and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh so that He could do what the law could not do, as an offering for sin He condemned sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3). None of the inhabitants of the vast unfallen universe possesses real righteousness, for none except Christ has died the "second death." No unfallen angel possesses "righteousness." They have only "holiness."

 

A. T. Jones, one of the 1888 "messengers," expressed it this way: "All our sins which we have actually committed were laid upon Him, were imputed to Him, so that His righteousness may be laid upon us, may be imputed to us. Also our liability to sin was laid upon Him, in His being made flesh, in His being born of a woman, of the same flesh and blood as we are, so that His righteousness might be actually manifested in us as our daily life. ... And to keep us from sinning, His righteousness is imparted to us in our flesh; as our flesh, with its liability to sin, was imparted to Him. Thus He is the complete Saviour. He saves from all the sins that we have actually committed; and saves equally from all the sins that we might commit, dwelling apart from Him." [1] This 1888 message concept is based on the then-prevailing belief in the Seventh-day Adventist Church of "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemning sin in the flesh."

 

Imparted righteousness is a different word in the original language—dikaiomata. It is the gift of Christ's righteousness finally appreciated, received into the heart so that the soul can never be moved; it now hates sin with such total hatred that he or she would rather die forever than yield to a sinful temptation; it is sharing that self-emptying agape with Christ, becoming a partaker with Christ of the divine nature (see 2 Peter 1:4).

 

The work of the Holy Spirit is to administer, or impart Christ's righteousness into our hearts and minds as Jesus ministers in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary. This work is specific to the individual as each participates and gives permission to the cleansing process. Revelation 14:1-5 describes a people at the close of time who "are without fault before the throne of God," who "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth." Not part way, but totally. They will refuse "the mark of the beast" and will receive "the seal of God" (Rev. 13:16, 17; 7:1-4). This process results in the righteousness becoming part of each believer, but this is possible only through faith.

 

When Christ died for the entire human race, He gave value to His sacrifice which benefitted all mankind. There is no need for anyone to die the second death because Christ has already done that.

 

We can conclude that when Jesus told John to baptize Him in order to fulfill "all" righteousness, He was including everything fallen humans need, both imputed and imparted. The Father expressed His approval by speaking, "This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." The Holy Spirit manifested Himself in the form of a dove to anoint Jesus for the ministry mission He was starting. So it is with us. We are empowered to accept by faith that the Godhead worked this out, and if we accept we will receive all power heaven has to reflect the righteousness of Christ. Pray that none of us reject this wondrous Gift.

—Arlene Hill

Endnote:

[1] A .T. Jones, The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, pp. 48, 49; Glad Tidings ed.

--

Raul Diaz

Lesson 1: Son of David

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

The Book of Matthew

Lesson 1: Son of David

The theme of our lesson in this new quarter of studies from Matthew dwells on the genealogy of Christ. In other words, Jesus learned from His earthly, ancestral heritage. By taking upon His divine nature, the fallen, sinful human nature of His earthly ancestors, He gathered up in Himself, the lessons of the ages, and overcame sin, where they had fallen.

 

As man is since he became subject unto death, this is what we "see Jesus" to be. Death could not have touched Him had He come in the sinless nature of Adam before the Fall. He is "the son of Abraham" (Matt. 1:1). That is, He took upon Himself the full heredity imposed by the genetic line from Abraham, that He might minister to them, not to the unfallen angels.

 

We can never suggest that Christ had a sinful nature. He had a sinless one; but He took our sinful nature. [1] This is the glorious gospel of hope that many have been hindered from seeing. But the Lord gave it to Seventh-day Adventists, and Ellen White said that "God commanded [it] to be given to the world." [2] It presented a Christ who knows how the sinner is tempted and can save Him from the lowest hell.

 

It has been generally assumed that getting serious about overcoming means only hard, boring work. But 1888 had good news. Here are samples from the two 1888 "messengers":

 

Writes A. T. Jones: "Jesus came to the world, and put Himself in the flesh, just where men are; and met that flesh, just as it is, with all its tendencies and desires; and by the divine power which He brought by faith, He 'condemned sin in the flesh,' and thus brought to all mankind that divine faith which brings the divine power to man to deliver him from the power of the flesh and the law of sin, just where he is, and to give him assured dominion over the flesh, just as it is." [3]

 

Writes E. J. Waggoner: "He who takes God for the portion of his inheritance, has a power working in him for righteousness, as much stronger than the power of inherited tendencies to evil, as our heavenly Father is greater than our earthly parents." [4]

 

If a people were to receive such a message wholeheartedly, would it not prepare them for translation at the coming of Jesus?

 

We are not the first people to have misunderstood a message God sent. The ancient Jews brought grief to the Messiah because they were certain they understood—but they didn't. His unheeded call to repent could hardly have brought more heartbreak to the Saviour than the lukewarm, unknowing response He has received from the last of the "seven churches" of history.

 

The Jews were expecting the Son of David to take the throne and rule in splendor. Their national rejection of Him must surely parallel our letting Him remain outside the door, still knocking for admission. The history of our spiritual forefathers demands clear understanding.

 

Some ten times Matthew speaks of Jesus Christ as "the son of David." This is spoken of in two senses: (1) Christ's legal, linear, unbroken genetic descent from David, and (2) His personal spiritual experience that was identical to David's as revealed in the Book of Psalms.

 

The marks of identification are numerous: It is obvious that in an anticipatory sense David foreshadowed Christ's experience on the cross: the piercing of His hands and His feet (Psalm 22:16), the parting of His garments among the soldiers, the casting lots for His "vesture" (vs. 18), the ridicule of the bystanders (vs. 7), the taunts of the priests and rulers (vs. 8), Christ's cry of dereliction (vss. 1, 2). All these details were literally reduplicated in Christ's experience. David wrote intimate prophecy.

 

Now can we as believers in Christ "adopt" David's experiences as ours, too? If Jesus did, why can't we? When Christ became "Emmanuel, ... God with us," His humanity required Him to pray. He could not have lived without prayer. Neither can we!

 

Identification with Christ is an essential aspect of the 1888 message. If Christ was "the son of David," identifying with David's experiences, then we too can identify with David "in Christ." We are "crucified with Christ," we "abide in Him" which means we live in Him. We identify with Christ; His experiences in battling with temptation become our experiences. Even if you have never known a moment of pain or sorrow, you can "grow up" "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" by identifying with Him in Matthew. Then when you at last meet Him face to face, you will not feel like a stranger in His presence.

 

The good news is that Jesus Christ has already identified with you. He knows what you inherited, he knows what you grew up learning, doing. He even knew your heart, lungs, arms, legs, and other organs that were put together in your mother's womb (Psalm 139:13).

 

That is not all He has written about you. He has rewritten your history, He has redeemed you and all the human family from the pit, or more literally a grave in Hell. God chose every one of us to be in Him before the earth was ever formed that we should be without blame before Him in love. He has already felt in His own person our sicknesses and pains. We will not turn our faces from His kind of love, we will not abandon Him. He for our sakes became poor that we might through His poverty become rich (2 Cor. 8:9).

 

In view of Daniel 8:14, it is time to "overcome" where past generations failed. The entire sweep of ancient history to modern times is taken in by the 2,300 years from 457 B.C. to 1844 A.D. It wasn't until after 1844 that God's people could take in all the ups and downs of Christian history and learn from it. Only then the church with the discernment of the gospel/sanctuary truth could learn to overcome the mistakes of previous generations. God's people must learn from her history.

—Paul E. Penno

 

Endnotes:

[1] "He took on Him the seed of Abraham" (Heb. 2:16).

[2] The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, p. 1337.

[3] A. T. Jones, "Studies in Galatians. Gal. 5:16-18," Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Sept. 18, 1900.

[4] E. J. Waggoner, The Everlasting Covenant, 1900, p. 66.

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Raul Diaz

Lesson 13: Rebellion

Sabbath School Today

With the 1888 Message Dynamic

Rebellion and Redemption

Lesson 13: Rebellion

We are well into the 21st century and the new millennium. Millions of Christians all around the world are convinced that it was God's original intention that what we now call this "new millennium" would have been those "thousand years" of Revelation 20. Something has delayed the finishing of Christ's gospel commission when He said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). There is a "little" issue named the great controversy between Christ and Satan that must be squarely faced by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, before it can truly proclaim the good news to everyone. This is the unmentioned "back story" of this quarter.

 

Revelation 10 says that it was God's intention that with the blowing of the seventh trumpet, when the pre-advent judgment was to begin, that "the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets" (vs. 7). In other words, God's solution to the sin-problem with Laodicea, and His victory in the great controversy with Satan is the gospel-sanctuary truth in all its clarity, understood and appreciated by His people. God's intention cannot be forever nullified.

 

The millennium is the final judgment. The second coming of Christ comes before the thousand years when the first resurrection of believers and the translation of the living takes place. He takes us to be with Him where He is. The joys of the place that He has prepared for us will delight and inspire the senses. Those who overcome even as Christ overcame are given thrones to sit upon in Heaven as promised (Rev. 3:21). We will take an active roll in the judgment process of the dead left behind along with the devil and his angels.

 

Satan has sought to keep humanity enmeshed by sin. Satan has claimed that they have proved that he is the victor in the great controversy, and untold numbers of humans have felt they must agree with him: sin is too strong for sin-natured and sin-nurtured humans ever to "overcome," they think. The 1888 message asserts that in human flesh Christ "condemned sin in the flesh" 2000 years ago; but now comes the undisputed evidence that the human race can also "condemn sin" in their human flesh. The great controversy will be declared an unqualified victory for Christ, for His professed people will no longer be childishly content to remain "lukewarm."

 

At the conclusion of the thousand years our space ship city will transport us back to this old earth where we will witness the unbeliever's resurrection. Inspired by their leader, Satan, they will take right up where they left off, in opposing the Lamb and his kingdom city. When they are arraigned before the throne of God, they will acknowledge the justice of God's ways and desire to be put out of their misery with the death penalty.

 

Far from death being a friend to mankind, it is an enemy along with the grave called "hell" (Rev. 20:14). Says Paul, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Cor. 15:26). The death penalty has never been vacated by the law of God. It is the punishment for sin. God had decreed that it be only for the devil. Jesus said, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matt. 25:41).

 

The Lord is deeply saddened that anyone else must be abandoned to this fate. The prophet Isaiah calls this His "strange act" (Isa. 28:21). It is not in God's nature to destroy those whom He loves. He gives them up to their choice.

 

Not one person, no matter how wicked, has ever as yet endured what the Bible calls "the second death" (cf. Rev. 2:11; 20:14), with the sole exception of Jesus.

 

The second death will come only at the end of the thousand years ("millennium"). When it happens at last, there will be "silence in heaven" for a "space" of time (Rev. 8:1), God and the holy angels grieving for the death of all who have chosen to end their existence by the second death. They have chosen it!

 

Ellen White declares that at the end, the lost will welcome their death by the lake of fire—so the common picture of the lost being cast screaming and yelling in protest while being thrown in is incorrect. Let us look: "A life of rebellion against God has unfitted them for heaven. Its purity, holiness, and peace would be torture to them; the glory of God would be a consuming fire. They would long to flee from that holy place. They would welcome destruction, that they might be hidden from the face of Him who died to redeem them. The destiny of the wicked is fixed by their own choice. Their exclusion from heaven is voluntary with themselves, and just and merciful on the part of God." [1]

 

The Lord Jesus Christ has done something for every man, woman, and child in the earth. The 1888 message says Christ has died the second death of everyone! "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man" (Heb. 2:9).

 

That "death" that Jesus "tasted" cannot be the first death, which is only a dreamless sleep. Therefore, it can mean only the "second death."

 

That's why the Samaritans said that Jesus is already "the Saviour of the world," and Paul says that He "is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe" (1 Tim. 4:10). That's two ways that Jesus is "the Saviour of all men"—He is practically, literally, the Saviour of those "that believe." But in a judicial sense, He is also "the Saviour of the world" in that He has died the second death of every man. "His love is bestowed alike upon all; to all he comes as a Saviour; but only those will be saved who will accept salvation." [2]

 

This is made clear in Romans 5:15-18: "God's act of grace is out of all proportion to Adam's wrongdoing. For if the wrongdoing of that one man brought death upon so many [everyone], its effect is vastly exceeded by the grace of God and the gift that came to so many by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ. ... The judicial action, following on the one offence [of Adam], resulted in a verdict of condemnation, but the act of grace [of Jesus], following on so many misdeeds, resulted in a verdict of acquittal. ... It follows, then, that as the result of one misdeed [of Adam] was condemnation for all people, so the result of one righteous act is acquittal and life for all" (Revised English Bible).

 

There can be only one response from us if we have honest hearts that can appreciate the agape of Christ: "henceforth" we are totally dedicated to Jesus, His love (agape) ever constraining us to bear our cross with Jesus, the cross whereon self is crucified with Him!

 

As so we conclude this quarter of lessons asking ourselves the question: Am I ready for God's new world? He is ready for you. Your name has been written on a dwelling there. Your place is assured by the side of the Lamb.

—Paul E. Penno

 

Endnotes:

[1] Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, p. 543.

[2] E. J. Waggoner, "Goodness Leading to Repentance. Romans 2:4," The Signs of the Times, June 23, 1890.

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Raul Diaz

Sabbath School Lesson 12 | "The Church Militant" | Pastor Paul Penno