Divine key to a finished work

This article is based on a series of devotional messages originally delivered to the General Conference family at its morning worship services. We believe that the ideas presented there deserve careful consideration by every Seventh-day Adventist minister. Therefore, at our request, Dr. Hyde has adapted his spoken messages into written form so that they might have this wider circulation. —Editors.

When we look at the horrendous accumulation of sin's consequences, it may seem futile even to suggest that the proclamation of a message could offer a modicum of hope for a solution to the sin problem.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that when God was confronted with the reality of Adam's and Eve's distrust and consequent disobedience, He proclaimed a message. But even before He offered the first gleam of hope to these saints-turned-sinners, He cried out in love and yearning for them as He still moved through the garden in the cool of the day. And when in the first blush of guilt our original parents wanted to hide themselves from God's presence, there was heartbreak in His voice—not just because they had allowed themselves to be divided and conquered by the deceiver, but more because they were now afraid of their Creator/Benefactor.

"The Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?'" (Gen. 3:9, N.I.V.).* That's the source, the origin, of the gospel: God in search of sinful man; God, the Initiator of a way to save sinful man. That way was revealed in the first declaration and formulation of the gospel, addressed actually to the serpent/deceiver: " 'And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel'" (verse 15).

Now we are living in the time of the end. And we have been talking about a finish to the work of the gospel for quite a long time—about 137 years this October. And so we want to take another look for the divine key to a finished work. We may legitimately ask whether the close of the gospel's work might not result from the proclamation of a message, as did its beginning. And so we pose the question:

Is it a new gospel?

Is that what we need? If we need a new one, what was the old one? Was something wrong with it? Does God have a collection of gospels, and does He try out a new one every so often?

Incidentally, you remember Paul's words; they are rather strong, and Paul could produce strong words: "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!" (Gal, 1:8). The word for an angel in New Testament Greek, as you know, is the same as the word for a messenger. Paul, under inspiration, is ready to condemn eternally a messenger or an angel from heaven for preaching another gospel. So how could we now expect that the divine key to a finished work would be a new or different gospel?

In fact, the Biblical testimony seems clear and consistent that the Lord has never had more than one gospel to offer. God had only one Son to send to this world. And there is only one true gospel to tell about Him. We hear its first proclamation in Genesis 3:15; and in the last book of the Bible the everlasting or eternal gospel of Revelation 14:6 is not a new one, although it is proclaimed as a part of God's last call to sinners and has emphases suited to the end-time issues of the controversy between Christ and Satan. Remember that one of the qualities of eternal persons or things is their unchangeableness. If they can change they are doubtless not eternal, not everlasting. (See Mal. 3:6.)

Around the year 1844 those who became our pioneers began to proclaim worldwide the gospel in the form and application that would meet the end-time conditions of the world. Basically, those conditions have not changed in the intervening years. The protagonists and the latent issues are the same. On the other hand, some voices among us today are privately advocating that we, as Adventists, stop teaching the nearness of our Lord's return. But were we to stop preaching that, then we would surely have to abandon the preaching of the three angels' messages of Revelation 14:6-12, because when these angels close their work the call is for the Lord to make up the harvest of the world—a harvest of grain representing the saints and a harvest of grapes representing sinners. In the climax of their work, those three angels were to be augmented by another angel, who would stress the message of the second. And through his work—his proclamation of the gospel— the whole earth would be "illuminated with his splendor" and hear his "mighty voice," or loud cry. God's last call opened with the announcement of the pre-Advent judgment hour. The "other angel" will join the three to climax that last call.

We have been told by an inspired and authoritative messenger among us that this "mighty voice" message began to be heard in our ranks around 1888. (See A. G. Daniells, Christ Our Righteousness [Washington, D.C.: Review & Herald Publishing Association, 1941], p. 56.) The message of righteousness by faith, with its fruitage in holy lives, was to sound throughout the earth. The earth would be enlightened by it. A great host of new believers would be led to unite with the people giving the message. The early and latter rains of the Holy Spirit would precede and attend the message, and a quick work would bring history's longawaited climax.

I fear that as a people we have yet to embrace that eternal gospel message, and if we do not soon receive it and share it, then someone else—maybe even the rocks— will have to give it. (See Christ Our Righteousness, p. 52.) The eternal gospel is God's method for making men and women right with God, and thus of preparing them for a finished work in the proclamation of the eternal gospel.

Made right with God—by faith

When God's chosen messengers began giving in 1888 what Ellen White endorsed as the timely last-day emphasis to the gospel, some leading lights among us feared that the security of the moral law and the Sabbath were being undermined from within—almost treasonously. The same kind of fear leaped up in the apostolic church when Paul began to give-more than lip service to the only true gospel. Protectors of the Jewish system of worship and exclusiveness (who had joined the Christian church) were even ready to put Paul to death for what they saw as an undermining of the Jewish tradition by his under standing of the true freedom of the gospel. And so, even today, we feel almost sick at heart when someone as much as mentions 1888, or Jones and Waggoner, or righteousness by faith, because the proclamation of that era seems to be so easily misunderstood and misinterpreted both by those hearing about it and sometimes by those presenting it. But please let your soul be at peace with God and your neighbor on this crucial issue: the gospel, truly presented, will neither damage nor tarnish the beloved moral law of God, or indeed any law or system of laws given by God (unless the era of its application has passed).

In a way, the moral law can take good care of itself; we do not need to fly to its defense. It has known the gospel longer than any of us have known it, and has never felt threatened by it. It is we who are threatened by the one or the other. So we come to the key text for this segment of our study: "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law" (Rom. 3:28).

These words tell us that a man is counted and treated as righteous on the basis of his faith in the all-sufficient merits of Jesus Christ, and that this righteousness has no dependence upon law-observing. It seems significant, too, that there is no time limit placed upon this assurance, no statute of limitations. But just as we are beginning to settle all the weight of our soul on this glorious promise—beginning, to know and feel that we may indeed have peace with God—someone hits an alarm and shouts, "But look at verse 31!" And when he gets us to look at verse 31, it seems as though he really wants us to forget that we ever saw verse 28. He seems to want us to feel that verse 31 so overwhelms verse 28 that we might as well forget that we ever saw it. Just when we begin to exult in the glorious truth that God counts us righteous by faith in the righteousness of Jesus, or in other words, that we are justified by faith apart from observing or doing works of law—any law—someone says with force and almost in anger: "That was all right back there when you first came to the Lord, but ... !"

But what?

Is the message of Romans 3:28 and parallel passages of Scripture just some thing to be reached for frantically and briefly to get us out of the mire of sin? Is it God's plan that after the brief moment of divine deliverance we are now to climb to heaven—with perhaps a little help from the Lord, by the Holy Spirit?

Do we really want a finished work? To see a great ingathering of souls? Do we want those who have already found peace with God to listen to the special aspects of the eternal gospel that have been entrusted to us for these last days? Would we ask them to trade their peace of heart and joy in the Lord for the uncertainty and the heavy burden of guilt that too often seem to mark the experience of Seventh-day Adventists?

What is "the theme that attracts the heart of the sinner"? Do we know? It is "Christ, and Him crucified" (E. G. White, in Review and Herald, Nov. 22, 1892). Is that what people dominantly hear from us? Or are we so afraid that cheap grace will creep in with the gospel and undermine God's law that we dare not spend time at the cross?

What are the "sweetest melodies that come from God through human lips"? The answer—"justification by faith, and the righteousness of Christ" (ibid., April 4, 1893). Made right with God—by faith! Be assured that there is no other way! Please listen to these challenging words: "The only way in which he [the sinner] can attain to righteousness is through faith. By faith he can bring to God the merits of Christ, and the Lord places the obedience of His Son to the sinner's account. Christ's righteousness is accepted in place of man's failure, and God receives, pardons, justifies, the repentant, believing soul, treats him as though he were righteous, and loves him as He loves His Son. This is how faith is accounted righteousness; and the pardoned soul goes on from grace to grace, from light to a greater light. He can say with rejoicing, 'Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.'" Ibid., Nov. 4, 1890.

At peace with the law

As we continue our attempt to identify the divine key to a finished work, note that Paul's clear teaching that a sinner is counted righteous by faith in Christ's righteousness and not by any works of law that the sinner may perform (and I take that to mean either before or after having been justified) does not in any way diminish the authority, sacredness, or centrality of the moral law in God's government of the universe. Indeed, he says, "Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law" (Rom. 3:31). We did not earlier deny the truth of this verse. We only regretted that so many of us over the past ninety or so years have wanted to brush rapidly past verse 28 to get to verse 31 with a deep sigh of relief that we are back to something that upholds the law and the Sabbath. Protectionism of the law gave rise to some of the 1888-era controversies—the identity of the law spoken of in Galatians, the nature of the old and new covenants, and the bearing these issues have on the relation ship between justification and sanctification.

But when we go back to Romans we note that Paul takes the whole fourth chapter to describe the experience of Abraham as a classic Old Testament example of one who was justified by faith. "To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness" (verse 5). And yet that faith, credited or counted to Abraham as righteousness, revealed itself in obedience— not always perfect obedience, but certainly sincere intent of obedience. Whether in leaving his home for a strange and unrevealed destination or in accepting circumcision as the covenant sign or in believing the promise of a son or finally in being willing to offer up that son, Isaac, child of promise, as a sacrifice required by God, Abraham revealed his faith in obedience.

But Paul insists that it was not the acts of obedience that were credited to Abraham as righteousness. No, it was Abraham's belief, trust, and dependence upon God. It was his acceptance of the promises of God that were credited as righteousness: "being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why 'it was credited to him as righteousness.' The words 'it was credited to him' were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification" (verses 21-25).

Then comes the peace and joy passage of Romans 5:1, 2: "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."

These blessed words of assurance are followed by some of Paul's "how much more" comparisons climaxing in verse 11 with the claim that believers are entitled to "rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation." This latter expression in the perfect tense indicates a past completed action that has ongoing effectiveness in the present. It is some thing that can be counted on. It is beyond doubt.

In his use of the comparison "how much more" (verses 10, 15, 17) Paul is contrasting the ill effects of Adam's sin upon the race with the beneficial and glorious effects of the gift of God's grace in the one Man Jesus Christ. One man's sin spread throughout the race, but one Man's righteousness is fully adequate to reconcile, justify, and bring life to many— indeed, to all who choose to believe (see verses 11-20).

A key question in our search for God's key to a finished work (in the light of the three angels' messages of Revelation 14) is this: What possibility is there that a believer can have peace with God through our Lord and yet be at enmity with the moral law of God? It seems appropriate here to remember Psalm 119:165: "Great peace [shalom] have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them [cause them to stumble]" (K.J.V.). This Old Testament assessment is clearly supported by Paul, as we have seen in Romans 3:31. The gospel holds no threat to the sacredness and perpetuity of the law. Indeed not! The gospel is the upholder, the restorer in believers' hearts, of love for and loyalty to the law.

Well, that sounded so good to some who liked to forget the call of the law, and so threatening to others who feared for the law's safety, that Paul spoke to the issue. Since this grace, he said, is such a wonderful antidote to the breaking of the law, and since it is the supreme provision of God's love, why not urge that we go right on sinning—transgressing the law more and more—so that more and more grace may be called out from the loving heart of God? (See Romans 6:1.)

Wait a minute! Paul says in answering his own rhetorical question: If the grace of Christ brought us into the experience and position of being dead to sin (since we were baptized into Christ's death—verse 3), how can we go on casually, carelessly, glibly sinning? We are not going to have sin for our master now, just because grace has been offered us in Jesus Christ! We were the slaves of sin once, but Christ has released us from that bondage. He has set us free from sin, by His grace. As a result we are now by choice "slaves to God," and the benefit we reap from that is "eternal life" (see verses 15-23).

Since the benefit of this enslavement to God "leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life," we are greatly interested in the thought that Christ Jesus provides everything to make the believing sinner "complete."

Complete in Jesus Christ

Whatever is necessary for the salvation of sinners has already been purchased in full by Jesus Christ! To be thus complete, that provision would have to supply the remedy for every need that Adam's sin, and our own, have created within us and upon us. It would seem that such completeness would have to include: forgiveness of sins; adoption back into God's family; the crucifixion of the old man of sin; deliverance from sin's full wages, i.e., death without hope of resurrection; deliverance from the power of sin in the nature we have inherited and cultivated; acceptance with God through the merits of One equal to the law; growth in grace; being under the new management of the Spirit; and development of an environment conducive to restoring the image of God in man whether by temperance, healthful living, continuing Christian education, ecology, family maintenance, or whatever. And I propose as the all-sufficient provider of all these aspects of the eternal gospel: Jesus of Nazareth, Son of man, Son of God, God with us! "Ye are complete in him" (Col. 2:10, K.J.V.)!

There are many scriptural illustrations of this great truth: (1) God's provision of coats of skins for Adam and Eve (Gen. 3:7, 21); (2) the ark for believers in Noah's day (Genesis 6-9); (3) Joshua and the angel (Zechariah 3); (4) the Vine and the branches (John 15:1-12); (5) the Divine Salesman and His all-sufficient wares (Rev. 3:18-21), and so on.

This all-sufficient provision for our salvation involves many of the divine paradoxes of Scripture. These paired opposites need to be held in the divine tension in which the Bible presents them, or we will lose our salvation moorings and drift into one extreme or another. Not all who heard and accepted Jesus in person understood all of these things, but what He presented to them in embryonic simplicity, they accepted in childlike trust and commitment. And He blessed them with His completeness from the very first day of their acceptance of Him.

And they grew in grace, daily. It remained for the apostles, under the Spirit's tutelage, to give the more complex gospel issues that became "present truth," as the all-Jewish early church opened reluctant doors to the Gentiles and also bade a limited and hesitant farewell to Jewish traditions.

Regarding the completeness that the believer has in Christ, a most moving and appealing article from the pen of Ellen G. White appeared in the Signs of the Times of July 4, 1892. (Note that the year of publication places this presentation in the time of the swelling of the 1888 mes sage—a message designed by God to fulfill the work of the angel of Revelation 18:1-4 for a finished work of the eternal gospel.) The article's major point, achieved by the repetition of the key phrase of Colossians 2:10, is that every requirement for the salvation of sinners has already been completely purchased by Jesus Christ, and that in a childlike acceptance of His "exceeding great and precious promises" (2 Peter 1:4, K.J.V.) the believer is and will be "complete in him."

The whole article inspires, but a choice excerpt must suffice for our purpose here: "Perfection through our own good works we can never attain. The soul who sees Jesus by faith, repudiates his own righteousness. He sees himself as incomplete, his repentance insufficient, his strongest faith but feebleness, his most costly sacrifice as meager, and he sinks in humility at the foot of the cross. But a voice speaks to him from the oracles of God's word. In amazement he hears the message 'Ye are complete in him.' Now all is at rest in his soul. No longer must he strive to find some worthiness in himself, some meritorious deed by which to gain the favor of God.

"Beholding the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, he finds the peace of Christ; for pardon is written against his name, and he accepts the word of God, 'Ye are complete in him.' How hard is it for humanity, long accustomed to cherish doubt, to grasp this great truth! But what peace it brings to the soul, what vital life! In looking to ourselves for righteousness, by which to find acceptance with God, we look to the wrong place, 'for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.' We are to look to Jesus; 'for we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory.' You are to find your completeness by beholding the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." "When the sinner has a view of the matchless charms of Jesus, sin no longer looks attractive to him."

Here again is the security of the moral law, the sure defense against any version of "cheap grace." He who feels that the justifying righteousness of Christ gives him a license to sin with impunity has never really seen the true meaning of the cross, of Gethsemane and Calvary.

The dominant theme

If the Seventh-day Adventist Church was indeed called into existence by God to give the emphasis of Revelation 14 and 18 to the eternal gospel (and who else is doing it, if we are not?), then it still is faced with an awesome responsibility. That responsibility is to put the glorious good news of justification by faith at the forefront, middle, and end of its presentations to the world. That was the inspired call of the 1888 era, centered in the Minneapolis General Conference session.

Of course, we do give justification a kind of lip service, but so often we want to relegate it to a secondary role—to fade it out so that sanctification can take front and center position. That seems to have been our dominant posture ever since key leaders opposed Jones and Waggoner and began to doubt Ellen White's ministry in the years surrounding 1888. We pray for the awaited restoration of God in us, which is one of the conditions of a finished work, but we seem unwilling or unable to accept the role of justification by faith in making that restoration possible.

God gave us the key to a finished work in 1888—the key to the loud cry of the third angel's message. We have succeeded too well, too often, and too long in hiding that key. Let the glorious message of complete acceptance of penitent sinners through Jesus' merits ring out! Sanctification accompanies justification, but the basis of complete acceptance never changes. The obedience even of true believers is always tarnished, if only by these "corrupt channels of humanity" in which we must dwell until the Lord comes. Always we need the incense of Christ's righteousness to make our prayers, praise, and confession "wholly and entirely acceptable." When we offer it to God, we will see answers to our prayers in the mighty movings of the Spirit of God among us and in His reaching out through us for a finished work. (See E. G. White, Selected Messages, book 1, p. 344.)

Let us as the Laodicean people open the heart door and let the Saviour in. He has everything we can possibly need. We can be complete in Him. There is no other way!