First Quarter 2005 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"His Wondrous Cross"
The Story of Our Redemption

Insights to Lesson 11:
The Cross and Justification
March 5-11

(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

Our quarterly author stated that “few topics are more controversial among Christians than that of ‘justification.’” Why would this be the case? How we receive salvation is perhaps the most important and rewarding topic we could study. So what makes it such a difficult idea to understand? One of the main reasons is in the word itself. Our quarterly states it simply. “‘Justification’ is a legal declaration. A person is justified when he or she is declared acquitted by the judge.” This deals with the issues of justice and fairness, how a guilty person can be declared acquitted on the basis of another person taking their penalty for them. I have heard theologians debate these issues, but I would like you to look at the topic from the perspective of today’s young people.

This week my high school students revealed their understanding that if God has absolute power He could make any decision and change it without accountability. For them, this is the nature of power. They saw salvation as merely whatever was expedient for God at the time, so the idea that the goal of Christ’s mission on earth was to lead us out of sin by faith was not an issue.

I was taken back by this view because it showed me that the idea of God declaring a person righteous (justification) would be agreeable to the philosophy that confused my students, but would ultimately bring the destruction of one’s soul. The problem here is a twisted change in regard to the nature of authority. When it is applied to our Heavenly Father it is monstrous! God is seen as arbitrary. Much more disturbing is that He appears to be without integrity, respect, or honor--just power. Everything is focused on God’s decision to justify a person regardless of the reality of his character. Such a view of God removes any thought of true worship and heart appreciation (faith). Surely the process of justification is the God’s most honorable act. It defines His matchless love for the world. By the way, my students told me their argument was simply a result of what they had seen and heard within the actual EXPERIENCE (as opposed to what they had been TOLD) of what they had learned in home, church, and school.

In Romans we can see the fallacy of the students’ reasoning. Beginning in Romans 3:10, Paul speaks of our sinful condition. My students stated that they don’t hear much about the sinfulness of sin. Is it possible that we have, in our efforts to avoid legalism and bad self-images, neglected to honestly speak of our great rebellion and slavery to sin? They knew they were sinners, but if Jesus was our Substitute, that removed any need to bother with the thought. Since God is the absolute authority and has said that Jesus solved the problem, then the issue is a mute point. There is no need to be concerned about overcoming sin. Furthermore, why bother with going to church since there isn’t any personal need to be there? As a matter of fact, this is exactly what the students told me!

The context of this whole discussion began when we were studying why Jesus had to become a man to save us. Several students said that Jesus lived His life on earth as God, therefore His perfect obedience. They seemed shocked when I mentioned that WE are to overcome sin by the faith that Jesus exercised in our weakness.

Anyone who is acquainted with the 1888 message can see several issues these students are struggling with. Clearly they aren’t grasping righteousness by faith, justification, how Christ is our Savior, and the nature of faith itself, to name a few. But my burden for my students is summed up in something that Paul said.

“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1, 2, KJV).

What happens to us when we do not understand that Jesus came to overcome sin as our Substitute is that we totally miss the peace of God that passes all understanding. We never understand the rest that God has given us in Christ (Heb. 3:7-11, 4:1-8). By exercising Jesus’ faith, developed through suffering temptations, we are enabled to live a life of peace because we are confident that God is able to keep us from falling (Jude 24). This is what our children need and so do we.

So how does justification bring peace?

1. According to Romans 3:10-18 we are in a condition that so alienates us from God that we are most miserable. However, if we are not confronted with something better we will be most content in our ignorance.

2. God so loved the world He gave His Son to bring life and light to us in darkness. He took steps from being equal with God (Phil. 2:5-8) to reach us where we are. By His life He suffered the alienation that existed between man and God (Heb. 2:14, 15), yet He overcame sin and condemned sin in the flesh in our weakness (Rom. 8:3-5). God did this while we were yet ungodly and enemies (Rom. 5:6-10), no matter if we accept it or not. This is legal justification. By Jesus taking our sins and overcoming them He abolishes that which has alienated man from God. Man is now free from the slavery of Satan’s rule so that he can again freely choose to serve God. Such an act of legal justification provides the most powerful motivation for everyone to respond to God in a positive way (faith). It reveals the true character of God and exposes Satan for the deceiver he is.

3. Justification by faith is what Paul describes in Romans 4 in the life of Abraham. When asked the question, “How was Abraham justified?,” I didn’t always see the connection between being justified by faith and “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Abraham did not seek justification, in the sense we use the word in Romans, any time during his recorded life. Nor did he seek salvation in the typical sense we speak of, or even confess and repent of his sins in the classical prescribed way. So what is the connection? The record says he believed the promises of God, that He would bring to reality what He had promised Abraham. All the major passages in the New Testament that speak of Abraham’s faith (Rom. 4, Heb. 11:8-19, Gal. 3:6-9, 4:21-29) focus on the fact that Abraham learned to accept his total helplessness to bring the blessing of God to himself in any way and simply believed that God was able to accomplish this on His own. That faith worked. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac shows clearly that he believed that God would keep His promise of inheriting the land through Isaac, even if it meant resurrecting Isaac from the dead. This willingness to believe that God would fulfill His promises brought Abraham peace. He was free from trying to help God, which brought so much turmoil (Gen. 16, Hagar and Ishmael). Thus his faith was accounted for righteousness (he was justified by faith). So it may be with us. God requires us to obey His law (which is righteousness). When we believe as Abraham did, true faith grasps the promises of God and we act in harmony with God’s character (His law). Sin and doubt are overcome and we have peace.

“Note that when we have peace with God we are not simply at peace with Him, but we have His peace. This peace has been left on earth for men; for the Lord has said, ‘Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.’ John 14:27. He has given it to us. It is ours, therefore, already. It has always been ours. The only trouble has been that we have not believed it. As soon as we believe the words of Christ, then we have in very deed the peace which He has given. And it is peace with God, because we find the peace in Christ, and Christ dwells in the bosom of the Father. John 1:18.

“‘Great peace have they which love thy law.’ Ps. 119:165. ‘O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.’ Isa. 48:18. Righteousness is peace, because our warfare against God was our sins that we cherished. God’s life is righteousness, and He is the God of peace. Since the enmity [hatred] is the carnal mind and its wicked works, peace must be the opposite, namely, righteousness. So it is simply the statement of an obvious fact, that being justified by faith we have peace with God. The righteousness that we have by faith carries peace with it. The two things cannot be separated” (E.J. Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, p. 93).

—Robert Van Ornam

Read the study notes for lesson 12