Second Quarter 2003 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"The Forgiven"

Insights to Lesson 13: "Living the Life of Faith"

June 21-27, 2003

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

God's everlasting covenant to Abraham was His promise of the forgiveness of sins. Abraham "believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6). Someone says, "I can understand and believe that God will forgive sin, but it is hard for me to believe that He can keep me from sin." They understand the fact of sins forgiven, but not the power.

The scribes did not believe that Jesus could forgive sins. In order to demonstrate the fact that He could forgive sins, Jesus showed the power of the forgiveness of sins by healing the palsied man. "And, behold, they brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee. And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts? For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith He to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose, and departed to his house. But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men" (Matthew 9:3-8). Jesus' power for healing showed the fact of sins forgiven. As long as that man kept the faith of sins forgiven he walked in the power of the Lord.

The creative word of Jesus is a powerful force that made the heavens and the earth. When He declares a person forgiven it is not merely a book transaction in heaven (a fact), but it is a reality in the life. "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus … to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past" (Romans 3:24, 25). When God declares His righteousness, that Word creates His righteousness in the life. "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified" (Romans 2:13). Such forgiveness of sins is the perfection of the law, fitting one for glorification—"whom He justified, them He also glorified" (Romans 8:30).

The memory text for this week's lesson expresses the essence of true worship. "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8). Not in a lifetime would a sinner ever seek after that which is good if it were not for God putting His goodness into man. "There is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Psalm 53:3). "There is none that seeketh after God" (Romans 3:11). Like our father Adam we have made a complete alliance with the devil and we are enemies of God.

However God's first act of redemption was to break up the evil alliance by putting His enmity for evil into every man (Genesis 3:15). His law is written within the conscience upon which the Holy Spirit can use as an appeal to convince the sinner. Christ is "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9). Thank God for this revelation of His goodness. "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good" (Micah 6:8). And it is this very "goodness of God" that "leadeth thee to repentance" (Romans 2:4).

There are three things the Lord requires of true worshipers: justice, mercy, and humility. Humility is genuine faith—the faith of Jesus. We read in Habakkuk that "the just [One] shall live by his faith" (Habakkuk 2:4). Jesus is the only just One who has ever lived truly by faith in His Father. So all true faith must come from Him as a gift to us. But the words that introduce this famous phrase are a contrast to the Just One: "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him" (Habakkuk 2:4). Pride is the opposite of faith. Self-exaltation—the spirit of Satan—can never bestow upright living. So Jesus' faith is the opposite of pride, which is humility.

"To do justly" is to be a "doer of the law." It is not just to live a principled life, for the commandments of God are specific precepts, and God never allows Himself to be open to the interpretations of man as to how He desires to be worshiped. For example, the precept of the law is that the definite seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord and not just the principle of rest one day in seven.

"To love mercy" is godliness. For not only are one's outward actions conformable to the law of God, but so are his heart and mind. This can come about only through the writing "with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart," which is a ministry of the "new testament" (2 Corinthians 3:3, 6).

"The forgiven" is an excellent title for our quarterly. Jesus doesn't want to be the Saviour of the world. He is "the Saviour of the world" (John 4:42). When Jesus died upon the cross His last utterance was "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Our sins nailed Jesus to the cross and He forgave us along with the whole world. Indeed, the good news is that we are "the forgiven."

Thank God for the "most precious message the Lord sent" us in the 1888 era that delivers the church from any vestige of the spiritual paralysis in old covenant thinking.

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