This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
Lesson 4: “Seeing the Goldsmith’s Face”
COLLEEN TINKER
Problems with this lesson:
- This lesson betrays Adventism’s ignorance of the new covenant.
- The author connects “purification” with the great controversy.
- This lesson connects sanctification (purification) with being ready/worthy for heaven.
This lesson, ironically, opens with a memory text out of one of the most powerful passages explaining the new covenant and the replacement of the ministry of death with the ministry of the Spirit. Typical of Adventism, however, the author yanked the last verse of 2 Corinthians 3—verse 18—out of the rest of the chapter and used it to reinforce the idea that the readers are supposed to be developing their character as their role to play in the great controversy.
In order to correct this misuse of the text, here is the larger context:
Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.
Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:7–18).
That last verse, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit,” loses its power when it is separated from Paul’s argument that the law is OVER. Adventists use this text to install guilt about developing that transformed image—they are to build that character and reflect the character of Christ! In context, however, the passage means something entirely different.
New Covenant Review
The only way to expose the helpless despair and wrong-headed approach of this lesson is to remind us all what the new covenant IS.
The simple gospel is that Jesus died for our sins according to Scripture, He was buried, and He rose from the dead on the third day according to Scripture (1 Cor. 15:3,4). This is the essence of the gospel of our salvation. When we believe and trust in this gospel, knowing that Jesus has completed the atonement for all our sin, when we repent and admit that we need a Savior and trust Jesus, God seals us at that moment with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13, 14).
When we believe, we pass at that moment from death to life (Jn. 5:24). We are transferred out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the Beloved Son (Col 1:13). We literally become new creations (Gal. 6:16; 2 Cor. 5:17), and we are not the same ever again.
Adventism teaches that when we “accept Jesus” (a term that is never used in Scripture), we receive Jesus’ power to help us to obey and be good and to become purified. Importantly, Adventism teaches that our obedience is directed toward the law. They have to retain the law because that is their primary argument to retain the seventh-day Sabbath.
Scripture, however, tells us the law is finished. Jesus fulfilled the law, and the entire book of Galatians, 2 Corinthians 3, Romans, and indeed the whole New Testament reveals that to return to the law is to fall from grace (Gal. 5:4).
Romans 7 explains that we cannot be “married” to two people at once; we cannot be married to the law and also to Christ.
Adventism’s great controversy motif teaches a false gospel; it teaches that one must “accept Jesus” and then turn to the law and, by prayer and accessing the power of Christ, devote oneself to purification: keeping the law more and more perfectly. In this way, they teach, one develops the character of Christ and fulfills his own purpose in the great controversy which demands that individuals vindicate God’s character by demonstrating that the law CAN be kept.
This idea is blasphemy.
Furthermore, Adventism teaches that sanctification is necessary for salvation. They teach that one is justified when he accepts Jesus, but then he must become more and more purified and obedient, and in this way he demonstrates his devotion to God and the fact that he is saved.
Scripture, however, calls us completely NEW when we trust Christ. We receive a new heart and a new spirit, as God promised in Ezekiel 36. We receive the Holy Spirit in our spirits.
We are literally born again. We are not the same people with added power; we are literally made alive.
We are born spiritually dead in sin; when we trust Christ’s payment for our sin, throwing ourselves on His mercy, we literally become spiritually alive. Literally.
This newness of life, this spiritual life that we receive, is our salvation. We immediately receive eternal life! We don’t stay saved or demonstrate our salvation-readiness by obedience.
Now we respond to the Holy Spirit instead of to the law. The Author of the law indwells us, and He teaches us to apply all of Scripture to our lives. He teaches us who Jesus actually IS.
The Holy Spirit convicts us of our bad attitudes, our heart sins, and He gives us the desire and ability to turn to the Lord before acting in the flesh.
People who have not been born again but who try to keep the law cannot depend on the Holy Spirit. In fact, this reality is what Paul explained throughout the entire epistle to the Galatians!
This week’s lesson is a travesty. It uses the last verse of one of the most clear and powerful new covenant passages in Scripture and takes it completely out of context, using it instead inside the great controversy model.
I challenge readers to get a notebook and to copy 2 Corinthians 3 into that notebook, praying that the Lord will teach you what you need to know. When done with 2 Corinthians 3, copy the book of Galatians.
I recommend the Former Adventist Podcast series on the Galatians for every Sabbath School student. They are podcast numbers 146 – 165—the last series we have completed. †
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