Special Insights No. 8
Second Quarter 2007
Adult Sabbath School Lessons
“Thy Word Is a Lamp Unto My Feet”
(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)
Revelation of Hope
This week’s lesson is
about hope. In what do we place our hope? For what do we hope; why do
we hope for it; what makes it worth hoping for?
Working in the medical field I have had occasion to care for people
who had no hope. Their bodies were ravaged with disease for which there
was no cure; or they were psychological wrecks as a result of emotional
pressures that exhausted their coping mechanisms. It seemed that there
was no help for them from any source.
Some facing death who claimed to “know God” but were unsure
of their standing before Him were perhaps the most miserable. Often
I have listened to an individual, feeling the burden of personal guilt
for sins committed, lament that even though he had “done his best”
he had no assurance that God accepted him. He hoped to attain heaven,
but was never certain that he’d done enough to secure eternal
life. Such “hope” brought no consolation for him. Why?
E. J. Waggoner spoke of the same situation. “How often we hear
someone say, ‘I am so sinful that I am afraid the Lord will not
accept me!’ Even some who have long professed to be Christians
often mournfully wish that they could be sure of their acceptance with
God” (The Glad Tidings, p. 12).
Perhaps these individuals were troubled because they depended upon
their own righteousness instead of the true righteousness found only
in Christ. Or perhaps their focus was not in the right place, being
centered upon what they thought they should have accomplished, instead
of focusing on what Christ has already accomplished for them. Whatever
the reason, these persons needed some good news.
The 1888 message supplies the good news: “But the Lord has given
no reason for any such doubts. Our acceptance is forever settled. Christ
has bought us and has paid the price” (ibid.).
Our lesson for May 20 states: “At the cross, Jesus, the One through
whom all things were made (Col. 1:16), bore in Himself the penalty for
our sins. Jesus died in our place, suffered in our stead, all for us.”
Scripture tells us that Jesus didn’t just die instead of us,
but that as the “Last Adam” He died corporately as us. “For
the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One
died for all, then were all dead” (2 Cor. 5:14). Acknowledging
this fact motivates us to serve Him in love.
The loss the first Adam caused for all humanity through his rebellion
against God, the Last Adam redeemed for all humanity (see Rom. 5:17-18).
The debt already has been paid, once for all humanity, in the life and
death of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. This is astonishing good news, and
is what the hopeless in the world are yearning to hear. God already
loves them and has already forgiven them.
Monday’s lesson comment tells us that “through Jesus we
have forgiveness.” Our loving Father has “blotted [our sins]
out or swept them away” and “will remember them no more.”
Isaiah 44:22 says: “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy
transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me; I have redeemed
thee” (past tense). God’s forgiveness is so complete and
extensive that it removed our guilt as far as east is from west. This,
too, is powerful good news.
However, after giving us such good news, Monday’s lesson goes
on to state that “your sins can be forgiven by God if you just
claim His promises of forgiveness for yourself,” thus turning
hope into uncertainty. Has God actually forgiven you, or not? Are your
sins “blotted out,” or not? Are you sure? Is His forgiveness
waiting upon some action on your part?
By inserting an element of uncertainty, one of the most powerful aspects
of the Gospel to motivate change in people’s hearts is thus diminished
in strength. If God’s forgiveness is waiting on me to do something
first, then the focus is shifted from the promise of God to my own dubious
action.
The “blessed hope” is founded on the promise of God to
redeem His people from their sin (Matt. 1:21). “It was the oath
of God that ratified the covenant made to Abraham. That promise and
that oath to Abraham become our ground of hope, our strong consolation.
They are ‘sure and steadfast,’ because the oath sets forth
Christ as the pledge, the surety, and ‘He always lives.’
He upholds all things by the word of His power. Heb. 1:3. ‘In
Him all things hold together.’ Col. 1:17. Therefore, ‘when
God ... interposed [Himself] with an oath’ (Heb. 6:17), [which]
is our consolation and hope in fleeing for refuge from sin, He pledged
His own existence, and with it the entire universe, for our salvation.
Surely a firm foundation for our hope is laid in His excellent Word”
(p. 72).
“The blessing has come upon all men. For ‘as by
the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even
so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life.’ Rom. 5:18, KJV. God, who is no respecter
of persons, ‘has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places.’ Eph. 1:3. The gift is ours to keep. If
anyone has not this blessing, it is because he has not recognized the
gift, or has deliberately thrown it away” (p. 66).
“‘Do you mean to teach universal salvation?’ someone
may ask. We mean to teach just what the Word of God teaches—that
‘the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men.’
Titus 2:11, RV. God has wrought out salvation for every man, and
has given it to him; but the majority spurn it and throw it away.
The judgment will reveal the fact that full salvation was given to every
man and that the lost have deliberately thrown away their birthright
possession” (pp. 13-14).
The “birthright possession” is part and parcel of the everlasting
covenant promise. To Abraham God promised land and the righteousness
to possess it. “This gift of eternal life is included in the promise
of the inheritance, for God promised the land to Abraham and to his
seed for ‘an everlasting possession.’ Gen.17:7, 8. It is
an inheritance of righteousness, because the promise that Abraham should
be heir of the world was through the righteousness of faith. Righteousness,
eternal life, and a place in which to live eternally—these are
all in the promise, and they are all that could possibly be desired
or given” (pp. 70-71).
Scripture tells us that even though God promised Abraham this wonderful
possession, Abraham had “not so much as to set his foot upon”
in this earthly life (Acts 7:5). Did the promise of God fail? By no
means. It is an eternal promise with eternal fulfillment. God cannot
lie. The everlasting covenant promise assures to us that “by two
immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might
have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon
the hope set before us” (Heb. 6:18).
Our hope is based on nothing less than the promise of God to redeem
us through the work of Christ, our Saviour, High Priest, and soon coming
King. God knows that our promises “are as ropes of sand.”
All He asks is that we believe His promises to us, then respond appropriately.
A true heart appreciation of the cost of salvation will transform the
most vile sinner into a faithful commandment-keeper (see p. 56 and Rom.
6:16-23). This is the powerful good news that the world is hungering
for—the 1888 message of Christ and His righteousness. It is learning
that through the gift of Christ you have been forgiven of your sin even
before you know enough to ask, that brings hope and consolation to the
hopeless. May we endeavor to spread this good news far and wide. (For
further study, review the parables in Luke 15.)
—Ann Walper
(Note: A series of CDs on these lessons recorded
by this Robert J. Wieland is available from the office of the 1888 Message
Study Committee: 269-473-1888.)
Listen to the audio recording for Lesson 8 now in MP3 format.
Read Special Insights 9 |