[Author] Oh thank you Master, there is even hope for someone with a past like mine . . .
[Author] Can you believe that? In exchange for simple faith, God considers that Jesus’ righteousness is our righteousness, and He does this regardless of how blemished our past may have been. This is surely grace in its finest garb.
[SC] "Christ's character stands in place of your character,"
[Author] Incredibly amazing indeed! Can God really be so very gracious? Why should I fear the judgment if Jesus’ character is going to stand in place of my character? (1SM396.1)
[SC] "and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned." (SC62.2)
[Author] This has got to be the most incredibly amazing news ever. In exchange for simple faith, God accepts me as sinless in the present and He writes the word "unblemished" against my past. What a God! What an amazing salvation plan!
[Author] Oh thank you dear heavenly Father – your awesome kindness motivates me to draw nearer to you and it urges me to love you more.
[Author] But hold on - the incredibly amazing news continues:
[SC] "More than this, Christ changes the heart." (SC62.2)
[Author] Please notice that everything that is mentioned above takes place even before our hearts are significantly changed. As we saw in the previous chapter, this actually takes place from the first moment that we express faith in Jesus as our Saviour (see Footnote 2).
[Author] Now let us take careful note as to how God changes our hearts:
[SC] "He abides in your heart by faith. You are to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of your will to Him; and so long as you do this, He will work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. So you may say, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20. Then with Christ working in you, you will manifest the same spirit and do the same good works - works of righteousness, obedience." (SC62.3)
[Author] Please notice, therefore, that it is only as a result of Jesus working in us that we ever perform any good work or act of righteousness. This being the case, He alone must get all the credit for the simple reason that this righteousness is all His and none of ours. What a comforting thought!
[Author] But please notice from the passage above that we do have a role to play: (1) We are to maintain a secret place connection with Him and (2) we are to surrender the will to Him. That too sounds easy enough.
Thus, instead of straining to keep the law in our own strength, which is actually an outright impossibility, our efforts should focus on maintaining a vital connection with Him and, in exchange, He will write His law upon our hearts. What absolutely incredibly good news!
[SC] "So we have nothing in ourselves of which to boast. We have no ground for self-exaltation. Our only ground of hope is in . . ."
[SC] (1) "the righteousness of Christ imputed to us"
[Author] This is Jesus’ perfect righteousness that God IMPUTES, or credits, or puts to our account in exchange for our faith in Him,
[SC] (2) "AND in that [righteousness which is] wrought by His Spirit working in and through us." (SC63.1)
[Author] This is also Jesus’ righteousness that God IMPARTS to us through His Holy Spirit. This righteousness God engraves upon our hearts – and here again all the praise and credit goes to Him.
[Author] We must conclude, therefore, that Jesus gets ALL of the credit for ALL righteousness - regardless of whether it is imputed righteousness or imparted righteousness. (Please see Footnote 4). This fact is good medicine to keep us humble.
Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.
Now let us take a moment to draw a few very significant
conclusions from all of this incredibly amazing news?
Conclusion 1: "There is nothing so offensive to God or so dangerous to the human soul as pride and self-sufficiency. Of all sins it is the most hopeless, the most incurable. Self is nothing; Jesus is everything." (COL154.4; SD124.2)
Conclusion 2: The law is the definition of love and, as such, it is a transcript of God’s character. Thus obedience to such a law is not merely a matter of doing this and not doing that. True obedience is a matter of character. This being the case, we have to realise that our own filthy rag righteousness can never satisfy the demands of such a high and holy law (see Footnote 1). After all, who of us would dare to claim that our lives are a perfect reflection of God’s perfect love? This is why Jesus had to provide a righteousness outside of and beyond ourselves and, I repeat, this righteousness is all His and not a thread of it is our own.
Conclusion 3: In a world that is deeply entrenched in a system of rewards, and where grace is an almost unknown concept, many would be inclined to believe that we have to earn God’s justifying grace by living an obedient or sanctified life (see Footnote 3), but this thought has no basis in truth for the simple reason that grace that is earned is no grace at all. Grace is defined as "unmerited favor" and, this being the case, we can obviously not merit it or earn it.
"The divine favor, the grace of God bestowed upon us through Jesus Christ, is too precious to be given in exchange for any supposed meritorious work on the part of finite, erring man. Man has nothing in himself. The precious blood of Christ is wholly efficacious. The sacrifice that Jesus had made on our behalf was everything that God required, perfect and complete." (OHC118.2-3)
Nevertheless we need to take careful note that God’s grace does not lessen our obligation to obey. The encouraging truth is that it is God’s grace that gives us the power to obey – for it is God’s justifying grace that draws us to Him in wonder and amazement, and it is His grace that prompts us to invite Him to live out His life in us - and the end result is the obedient or sanctified life.
"Nothing reaches so fully down to the deepest motives of conduct as a sense of the pardoning love of Christ." (DA493.3)
But please do take careful note: First comes the justifying grace and the pardoning love, then comes the sanctified life. Enlightened theologians would even tell us that sanctification is the very purpose of justification. In other words, the purpose of God’s justifying and forgiving grace is to motivate us and to inspire us to come into close relationship with Him, that He, by living out His life in us, might enable us to obey.
In the simplest of terms, therefore, God wants us to obey Him, not because we fear Him, or because we fear the consequences of not obeying Him; He wants us to obey Him because we love Him – and it is His love for us, as is so glaringly evident in His justifying and forgiving grace, that awakens our love for Him. And love for God, and for our fellow man, is what true obedience is all about.
"It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Saviour's matchless love . . . and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul. Love awakens in the heart of the beholders. They hear His voice, and they follow Him." (DA480.3)
"God does not force the will or judgment of any. He takes no pleasure in a slavish obedience. He desires that the creatures of his hands shall love him because he is worthy of love. He would have them obey him because they have an intelligent appreciation of his wisdom, justice, and benevolence. And all who have a just conception of these qualities will love him because they are drawn toward him in admiration of his attributes." (4SP362.1)
Conclusion 4: All of which begs the question: How do we find the balance between the preaching of the law and the preaching of Jesus and His grace? The statement following gives us this balance:
"You will meet with those who will say, `You are too much excited over this matter. You are too much in earnest. You should not be reaching for the righteousness of Christ, and making so much of that. You should preach the law.
"As a people, we have preached the law until we are as dry as the hills of Gilboa that had neither dew nor rain. We must preach Christ in the law, and there will be sap and nourishment in the preaching that will be as food to the famishing flock of God.
"We must not trust in our own merits at all, but in the merits of Jesus of Nazareth. Our eyes must be anointed with eye-salve. We must draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to us, if we come in his own appointed way." (RH, March 11, 1890 par. 13)
Footnote 1: "If you would gather together everything that is good and holy and noble and lovely in man and then present the subject to the angels of God as acting a part in the salvation of the human soul or in merit, the proposition would be rejected as treason. Any works that man can render to God will be far less than nothingness. My requests are made acceptable only because they are laid upon Christ's righteousness. The idea of doing anything to merit the grace of pardon is fallacy from beginning to end. "Lord, in my hand no price I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling." (FW24.2)
"As the sinner, drawn by the power of Christ, approaches the uplifted cross, and prostrates himself before it, there is a new creation. A new heart is given him. He becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus. Holiness finds that it has nothing more to require." (COL162.4)
Footnote 2: "The moment true faith in the merits of the costly atoning sacrifice is exercised, claiming Christ as a personal Saviour, that moment the sinner is justified before God, because he is pardoned." (OHC52.5)
"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:1)
Footnote 3: JUSTIFICATION DEFINED: When God justifies us, he grants us (1) a full and complete pardon for sin - regardless of our past, (2) He declares before the universe that we are perfectly righteous, and (3) He announces to all of creation that, as far as He is concerned, we may be treated as though we always have been perfectly righteous. And this all takes place from the moment that we place our faith for salvation in Him, and in His righteousness alone. (6BC1071.8; 1SM392.2; 367.1; SC62.2)
Footnote 4: "The proud heart strives to earn salvation; but both our title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the righteousness of Christ." (DA300.1)
"The righteousness by which we are justified is imputed; the righteousness by which we are sanctified is imparted. The first is our title to heaven, the second is our fitness for heaven." (FLB116.2)
"Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy." (Micah 7:18)
"I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and will glorify Your name forever. For Your lovingkindness toward me is great, And You HAVE DELIVERED my soul from the depths of Sheol." (Psalm 86:12-13)
