Fundamental Belief #10: In infinite love and mercy God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might be made the righteousness of God. Led by the Holy Spirit we sense our need, acknowledge our sinfulness, repent of our transgressions, and exercise faith in Jesus as Lord and Christ, as Substitute and Example. This faith which receives salvation comes through the divine power of the Word and is the gift of God’s grace. Through Christ we are justified, adopted as God’s sons and daughters, and delivered from the lordship of sin. Through the Spirit we are born again and sanctified; the Spirit renews our minds, writes God’s law of love in our hearts, and we are given the power to live a holy life. Abiding in Him we become partakers of the divine nature and have the assurance of salvation now and in the judgment.
In order to fully unpack this belief statement, it is necessary to distinguish between justification and sanctification. This belief statement specifically makes sanctification a part of the experience of salvation.
Justification and Sanctification
There is a great deal of confusion in Christianity regarding sanctification and the relationship between justification and sanctification. The question is really a question of how a believer is righteous.
Scripture is clear that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers leads to fruits that are evident (Gal 5:22-23, Col 3:12-15, James 2:9-17), particularly in the way we treat each other. At the same time Scripture is equally clear that converted believers are not perfect (Eccl 7:20, Rom 7:14-25, I John 1:6-10, James 3:2) in their own behavior, but are considered perfect because of Christ. We will not become righteous until the day in which we are all changed (1 Cor 15:42-53). Acknowledging our sinful flesh does not cause us to cherish or love sin because the indwelling Holy Spirit is at work changing our hearts. This is why Paul can say that his inner self delights in the law of God (Rom 7 again). Instead by acknowledging our inability to be sufficiently righteous we are continually and repeatedly drawn to the foot of the cross and the grace that is freely offered in Christ. Continually experiencing this grace fills us with joy (John 16:20-22) and encourages us to share this kind of love with others (Luke 7: 47, Matt 18:21-35).
The question surrounding sanctification is not whether God changes those who believe in Him. The real question is whether these changes that He does in us are what QUALIFY us for heaven, or if that qualification has already occurred.
One popular, but false, view of sanctification is that sanctification is the process of God helping us to become righteous people who, therefore, are worthy of eternal life.
One popular, but false, view of sanctification is that sanctification is the process of God helping us to become righteous people who, therefore, are worthy of eternal life. However, it is only Christ’s perfect life that is deserving of eternal reward. Sanctification occurs in those who have already been justified. God changes our hearts to be more like His heart, to hate sin rather than love sin. At the same time, we still live in sinful flesh and do not always act the way that we wish we would. For example, I haven’t murdered anyone this week, but I probably called someone an idiot, at least to myself, for cutting me off in traffic. And even if I didn’t call anyone an idiot this week, when I compare my love for others with Christ’s love, I know that I have not loved as He loved. The powerful story of grace is that God continues to love me in spite of this. None of us deserve salvation, no matter how much “sanctification” occurs in our lives we must still rely on the totally undeserved gift of justification.
Not a “next step”
Sanctification is not a next phase, or another step, in salvation, because we rely only on justification as our basis for eternal life. All of the changes that happen in our own lives (commonly called “sanctification”) and all of the fruits that are produced are still less than perfect so we always need the gift of justification. Justification doesn’t negate sanctification; justification doesn’t make us love sin. Knowing our need for God’s continued grace is critical in being great ambassadors of that grace with others. We can be good tour guides because we know it well.
Our personal knowledge of grace and our enthusiasm to share this grace fits well with Ephesians 2:6-10. God has great things in mind for us in sharing His love with the world. These “things” never earn us the gift, nor re-pay the gift. If we needed to repay the gift, it would no longer be a gift but a loan—or a payroll advance—for the work that we would do. But those who have experienced Christ’s love are motivated to share it. The motivation to share Christ and to physically help others, not that these are two different things, can never come from reading texts that these are important things to do if you are a Christian. They come about as an outgrowth of experiencing God’s love for us. Doing these because we read about them is just another form of legalism. If I never felt this need to share His love, I need to look to my experience of His love in the first place.
Christ pointed to two great commandments: loving God with all your heart and loving others/neighbors/enemies. Some want to focus the discussion of sin on the stone tablets rather than Christ’s teachings during His incarnation. Perhaps this is because it is much easier to verify that we and others are obeying the commandments written in stone than it is to obey the command to love AS CHRIST LOVED US. In the parable of the good Samaritan, the two who passed by didn’t break any of the Ten Commandments, but they didn’t display love and compassion for others.
Perfect obedience would also require that we consistently and continually act with exactly the same amount of love that Jesus has shown. There is nothing to suggest that anything less than total and perfect obedience in all ways is acceptable in God’s judgment. Paul’s epistles emphasize that our salvation is based on the perfect obedience of the One (Rom 5:19-21) and our acknowledgement that we fall short (Rom 3:23; I Tim 1:15) and continue to need that grace.
What Is Perfect Obedience?
Noah is pronounced blameless, or righteous, depending on the translation, before the flood. After the flood, his actions are not blameless (Gen 9:21). In Gen 17:1 Abraham is counted among the blameless, and his name change occurs. Yet in Chapter 20 he again misleads a king about the relationship between himself and Sarah. While it can be argued that he wasn’t technically lying, nonetheless, his actions in this regard directly led another person into sin. That is hardly the action of a perfect person. OT Scripture demonstrates that “blameless” people still committed sinful acts. The most reasonable conclusion is that the status of being blameless is an imputed pronouncement (“reckoned”) rather than a behavioral statement (Heb 11:6-19; Rom 4:1-11).
Paul considered himself to be the foremost among sinners (I Tim 1:15). He used the present tense indicating that he thought that was still his deserved status. One could hardly contend that Paul’s actions were more sin-filled than those around him. The most reasonable conclusion seems to be that Paul says this because of his keen recognition of the gap between his own life and the perfectness of Christ. Paul didn’t make this statement because of his humility. Instead, he points to the need we have in recognizing our own imperfection so that we can appreciate the unwarranted grace that continues to be given to us.
Paul is clear that perfection is something that occurs in our future. He says that we are sown in dishonor and weakness.
Paul is clear that perfection is something that occurs in our future. He says that we are sown in dishonor and weakness (I Cor. 15:43). This is clearly referring to the fact that until the total change that occurs with glorification, we are not perfect beings and that we all must be changed at that time in order to spend eternity with God.
Scripture clearly teaches us that the righteousness of our behaviors continually falls short of the perfect righteousness of Christ and is therefore not sufficient to save us. We must continue to rely solely on God’s grace in order to justify us for salvation.
Let’s return specifically to the wording of this belief statement, and the additional explanation given by Adventist leaders and published by the Adventist church. At face value this statement has much with which we agree, and Damsteegt’s explanation in Seventh-day Adventists Believe is even more compelling, including:
- The Holy Spirit is responsible for creating our repentance
- The faith by which we are saved is a gift from God
- We can have assurance of salvation now
Unfortunately, this statement is an example of the deceptive language common in Adventist publications. At face value it appears Adventism teaches the assurance of our salvation, but exactly the opposite is taught. For instance, Ellen White counsels,
Those who accept the Saviour, however sincere their conversion, should never be taught to say or to feel that they are saved (Christ’s Object Lessons p. 155.1).
The entire concept of salvational assurance is counter to Fundamental Belief #24 concerning the Investigative Judgment. If one’s salvation is secure, there is no point in conducting any investigation. The key to understanding this deceptive language, however, is a careful look at the beginning of the last sentence where one finds that “abiding in Him” is what provides the assurance. While this statement sounds very acceptable to evangelical ears, “abiding in Christ” has a different connotation within Adventism than within evangelicalism. Within Adventism, one “abides” in Christ by living without willful sin including observing the seventh-day Sabbath. Ellen White, in fact, specifically describes this Adventist form of “abiding”:
“In Christ, God has provided means for subduing every sinful trait, and resisting every temptation, however strong. But many feel that they lack faith, and therefore they remain away from Christ” (The Desire of Ages, p. 429.1).
Each sin moves the Adventist from the position of abiding in Christ to a point of separation from Christ. Forgiveness is possible, but not guaranteed. Adventists, like Roman Catholics, believe that only confessed sin is forgiven. However, Adventist theology takes this considerably further than the Roman Catholics. Within Adventists theology, a confessed sin is only conditionally forgiven. Jesus reviews the acts throughout the rest of your life to determine if you deserve to have that sin forgiven (Adventists call this the “investigative judgment”). If you didn’t live like you truly repented of the sin, that sin is placed back upon you.
“As to whether or not we have remained repentant of our confessed sins throughout our Christian walk is officially established when our case is reviewed by the Father and the Son out of the record books of Heaven. The question is about more than have we asked for forgiveness of each committed sin, but have we participated with Christ in the new birth experience, as explained to Nicodemus, of transformation of the character with the prevention of continued sinning. The real question to be answered is, has Christ’s character been reproduced in us?…This necessitates a review of the record books of Heaven to determine whose record of repentance and of overcoming is such that their sins shall be blotted out, and who have failed in the attempt to overcome, and to blot out their names from the book of life… During the investigative judgment, those who fail to have been truly born again (they continued sinning and failed to have Christ’s character reproduced in them) have the full guilt of any previously forgiven sins placed back upon them” (Vernon Sparks (2017), In Search of the One True Gospel: Unfolding of the Ministry of the Mediator-Priest & the First Fruits, Digital Inspiration). Note: This book is written by an Adventist but is not published by one of the Adventist church-operated publishing houses.
It is hard to find clear statements on the details of the investigative judgment doctrine from official Adventist sources which are generally worded in careful euphemisms that will make sense to any Adventist familiar with the teaching but will be sufficiently vague to limit criticism from outside the church. For example, the book Seventh-day Adventists Believe describes the same information as above, “False believers will be sifted out; the faith of true believers and their union with Christ will be affirmed before the loyal universe” (p. 354). When the official publication is read alongside the more detailed unofficial publication, it is easy to see how the relatively benign words can have an entirely different meaning.
The result of this investigative judgment doctrine is that an Adventist can never truly have confidence that they are a saved child of God.
The result of this investigative judgment doctrine is that an Adventist can never truly have confidence that they are a saved child of God. They can never be certain that they have been good enough to be fully forgiven. Ultimately, the only way that a traditional Adventist can be certain that he or she is abiding in Christ is to live without sin. This theoretical sinlessness would resolve the apparent contradictions and confusion about how an Adventist can have assurance of salvation; the assurance is found in living a sin-free life. This conditional assurance is presented by Dr. Moon in his work arguing that Ellen White taught that Adventists can have assurance, if they are “living the biblical conditions for assurance” which include not “rejecting the law”. One example of Ellen White’s teaching on assurance is:
Not one of us will ever receive the seal of God while our characters have one spot or stain upon them. It is left with us to remedy the defects in our characters, to cleanse the soul temple of every defilement (Testimonies For the Church, vol. 5, p. 214).
Not only must we have characters that are perfect, but “it is left to us to remedy” our sinfulness. It is apparent, even within these relatively orthodox-sounding statements of the official belief and unofficial explanations, that Christ’s imputed righteousness is not sufficient for our salvation. We must also change our characters to become “fit for heaven”. The little “but” attached to the true Gospel moves it from true to false. This little “but” is enough to criticize Adventism for teaching “another gospel”.
Some might wish to point out that there is considerable diversity within Adventist churches and that many members have rejected this legalism and now promote that God considers the trend of one’s life or one’s good intentions. This is part of a more pervasive false gospel, one that I refer to as the gospel of “Good Enough”. This false gospel takes many different forms:
- God knows our hearts, or He looks at our hearts;
- A “true believer” will sin less and less;
- You don’t need to be perfect, but you can’t expect God to keep forgiving the same sins over and over again;
- You don’t need to be perfect, but you aren’t truly a believer if you don’t obey;
- God doesn’t forgive a sin unless you have truly repented of that sin;
- We aren’t saved based on our obedience to the Law, but repentance means that we try harder to do God’s will.
At first glance the gospel of “Good Enough” seems like great news. Hearing that you don’t have to be perfect in order to be saved by God is refreshing to people living under the burden of strict legalism. Sadly, a salvation that is based on “Good Enough” diminishes both the holiness of God and the grace of God.
God’s standard for holiness, His criteria for obedience, is perfect and complete obedience:
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it (James 2:10).
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matt 5:48)
For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them” (Gal 3:10).
One is not obedient to the Law unless they are obeying all of the Law all of the time. Any case of disobedience turns one from being a Lawkeeper to being a Lawbreaker. One single case of disobedience means that you are guilty of breaking the whole Law and are under the curse of the Law. Jesus expanded the application of Law by making it clear that it wasn’t just our deeds that broke the Law, but also our words and our thoughts (Matt. 5:21-30). In the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus also teaches us that we are also sinning whenever we fail to do good. The only holiness that is good enough for God is complete and total holiness. The only holiness that is good enough for God is His own holiness; the holiness that is found in the Son. When we make any lesser amount of obedience and holiness acceptable to God, we have diminished the holiness of God.
Because we aren’t holy, we are reliant on the holiness of Another in our place. Christ died the death that we deserve, and we are credited with His spotless righteousness. Our “Good Enough” life can’t possibly add anything to the spotless robe of Christ’s righteousness with which we have been clothed. If our either attaining or maintaining our salvation involves us being “Good Enough”, we would have something to boast about in regards to that salvation. Yet Scripture is clear that we have nothing we can boast about (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom 4:1-8) in regards to our salvation. All of our righteous acts are nothing more than filthy rags (Isa. 64:6) before God. This shouldn’t discourage us from engaging in loving acts towards others, but rather keep those acts in the proper perspective. Those acts, no matter how good they might be, aren’t “Good Enough” to make us acceptable to God. †
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