Third Quarter 2003 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"Sanctuary Themes"

Insights to Lesson 11:
Jesus, Our Assurance
Sept. 6 - 12 2003

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

A View from Afar

Last week, the attention of millions of Americans was directed to the evening sky. “Mars will appear as big as the moon! First time in at least 5,000 years! “Never again in your lifetime will the Red Planet be so spectacular!” the reports proclaimed.

Sure enough, the sparkling orange planet studded our night sky with a brilliance never before witnessed.

With Mars plainly visible in the night sky, it was easy to believe that even more could be seen through a telescope. But suppose Mars was hidden from view. Suppose it were to simply vanish from the night sky and the only way one could locate this planet would be through the powerful lens of a telescope? Worse yet, imagine what would happen if Mars disappeared even from telescopic view? Would you still believe that Mars existed? Or would you be tempted to conclude that Mars had vanished forever?

Faith by Sight?

It is one thing to believe in Jesus when all around us are abundant tokens of His blessing and love. “Yes, I have faith in Jesus. He has provided me with shelter, food, water, family, friends, a church family, life, and health.” Like the planet Mars shining in its brilliance, the tokens of God’s mercy and love are all around us.

Enter faith, the telescope through which we view things which cannot be seen (Hebrews 11:1), and our understanding and appreciation of God’s love and mercy to us only deepens and broadens.

But what if the visible tokens of God’s favor are removed? Hardship comes. One by one, our earthly supports are removed. We lose our homes. Our friends and family reject us. The government no longer supports our freedom to worship. We lose our jobs, our income. Worst of all, our prayers echo back to us, seemingly unanswered.

It is then that our faith will be tested. The trials we now endure, be they large or small, are but field preparation for the great test to come. Faith is the channel by which God communicates to us all His love and blessings, the means by which we “see” His face. Faith will be the only effective tool in our “wilderness survival kit” during the awful time of trouble that is coming upon our world.

The Faith of Jesus

Have you ever shopped for a telescope? The staggering array of brands and features is enough to awe any star struck consumer. But the tool of faith comes in only one brand—the faith of Jesus (Revelation14:12). Our faith is worthless, powerless. Faith is not an implement that we build ourselves. Faith is a gift from Jesus. And to each person on earth He has given a measure of faith (Romans 12:3).

Spiritual Life Support

Some people in this world have sustained the terrible misfortune of an injury to the cervical spine. No longer able to use their arms or legs or even breathe or swallow on their own, these individuals are completely dependent upon life support systems. Feeding tubes, IV’s, and ventilators are all synchronized to sustain their lives. In some cases, the only physical function remaining is the ability to open, close, and focus one’s eyes.

Spiritually, the entire human race is as powerless to live according to God’s will as the severely handicapped person is able to care for himself. In fact, when Adam sinned, God had to immediately put Adam on an advanced life support system or his life would have ended the moment he sinned, severing his life from his Creator. For 6,000 years, God has continued to sustain life on our planet in spite of our rebellion. But in order for the great controversy to end, He has needed for us to “see” and “understand” this truth through the eye of faith.

Look (Through the Eye of Faith) and Live

When the children of Israel were bitten by poisonous snakes in the wilderness, Moses bade them to “look” at the serpent (Christ made to be sin for us) lifted up on the cross.

When Jesus was in Gethsemane, He pleaded with His disciples to “watch and pray.” Had they done this through the eye of faith, they would have seen what their physical sight failed to comprehend: Christ’s journey to hell in the heart-wrenching separation from the Father that sin brought upon Him.

Faith is the telescope, or means, by which we discern spiritual reality. And faith is the conduit through which Christ sustains us.

Perhaps it goes without saying that the instrument of faith will do us no good if it is pointed at ourselves or some other human. It will do us no good to put our faith in our homes, our property, our money, our reputation, or our educational status. Those things are powerless to save us eternally, though they offer the illusion of temporal security. And faith cannot function effectively when it is clogged up with the cares of this life.

Faith, in order to be of value to us, must be focused on Christ as revealed through the Word of God. He is the sole source of power in the universe (Hebrews 1:3). It is by His Word that all things, animate and inanimate, are sustained.

Faith: the Lifeblood of the Christian

Faith appreciates Christ’s ministry as our heavenly High Priest, seated at the right hand of the throne of His Father (and ours), interceding in our behalf in the Most Holy apartment of the heavenly sanctuary (Hebrews 8:1, 2).

Faith reveals Christ’s sufferings in Gethsemane where He tasted death for every man (Hebrews 2:9). It exposes sin for the hateful crime that it is. It reveals that man, by nature, is evil.

Faith tells the awful truth: the root of every sin I have ever committed is the murder of the Son of God (Acts 2:36). Horrible as this fact is, faith brings the comforting truth that I need not live in sin because “I have been crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).

Faith brings further comfort with the truth that Jesus shared the same sinful flesh common to man, thus enabling Him to rescue and aid those who are tempted (Hebrews 2:14-18). He is a sympathizing Savior and High Priest.

And finally, it is not my faith, but the faith of Jesus that reveals these things.

Like us, Jesus also lived by faith. He relied fully on His Father to sustain Him. During the trying hour when His Father’s face was hidden from view (Psalm 22:1), He rested in the knowledge of the previous glimpses of His Father’s face. On the cross, Jesus believed in His Father’s care even when hope and vision failed (Psalm 23:4).

Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine!

In Sunday’s lesson (Sept. 7) the question is asked, “If we didn’t have some sort of assurance of salvation and acceptance, who wouldn’t eventually give up the faith completely?”

If we make our assurance of salvation conditional to retaining our faith, we are in trouble! The Bible foretells a time when our feelings will tell us we have no assurance of salvation. Even as Christ felt shut out from heaven on the cross, so those who live through the final convulsions of earth’s history at the end time will be made to feel that their condition is hopeless. As they look back over their lives they will see but little good. Their feelings will tell them that hope is gone (Isaiah 54:7, 8). Our faith is not based on our feelings of assurance of salvation, but on Jesus Himself! Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!*

Friday’s lesson notes that some people “have problems with assurance of salvation.” And while we will not argue that in Christ we have assurance of salvation (1 John5:11), the truth is greater still. We have the assurance of Christ Himself. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to us. In this one unspeakable Gift, we receive all things: obedience, victory over sin, justification, sanctification, life, land, liberty, a heavenly mansion, immortality, an incorruptible form, fellowship throughout eternity with our Maker, forgiveness, pardon, the fruits of the Spirit, death to self, and spiritual gifts.

We cannot pick apart the gift of Christ and decide which part we want and which part we don’t want. Christ was given to us as a package, to be received as a whole, or not at all. Many people eagerly grasp the promises of assurance of salvation (who wants to go to hell?) and a heavenly mansion in the New Jerusalem while rejecting the call to self-denial and obedience. If we receive Christ by faith, we cannot have one and not the other.

Also in Friday’s lesson, we find a quote that points us back to the 1888 message: “In our knowledge of Jesus and his love, the kingdom of God has been placed in the midst of us … We have had presented to us by the messengers of God [Jones and Waggoner] the richest feast,--the righteousness of Christ, justification by faith, the exceeding great and precious promises of God in his word, free access to the Father by Jesus Christ, the comforts of the Holy Spirit, and the well-grounded assurance of eternal life in the kingdom of God” (Ellen G. White, Review and Herald, January 17, 1899).

The Sanctuary Cleansed—by Faith!

Received in faith, this fuller revelation of the love of Jesus for our evil, unthankful race is the only means God has of cleansing the soul temple. He cannot marry a Bride who cherishes sin in her heart. God sent a most precious message to our church more than 100 years ago that, if received, would have accomplished this soul-cleansing work in a short time.

Today it is our privilege to unite with our Savior in this heart-work. As we “behold Him” by faith we will see terrible things in ourselves which we had never seen before. Don’t be discouraged! Don’t turn away! Keep looking to Jesus! Permit His cleansing blood to wash the deepest recesses of your heart. He is preparing a people for translation.

For six thousand years we have known “in part,” we have prophesied “in part.” Now, we still see “in a mirror dimly,” but our Savior is longing to reveal His love more fully to us. No longer content for us to behold Him “by faith,” He eagerly anticipates the day when we will see Him “face to face” with no veil between (1 Corinthians 13:9-13).

* "When the mind dwells upon self, it is turned away from Christ, the source of strength and life. Hence it is Satan’s constant effort to keep the attention diverted from the Saviour, and thus prevent the union and communion of the soul with Christ. The pleasures of the world, life’s cares and perplexities and sorrows, the faults of others, or your own faults and imperfections,—to any or all of these he will seek to divert the mind. Do not be misled by his devices. Many who are really conscientious, and who desire to live for God, he too often leads to dwell upon their own faults and weaknesses, and thus by separating them from Christ, he hopes to gain the victory. We should not make self the center, and indulge anxiety and fear as to whether we shall be saved. All this turns the soul away from the Source of our strength. Commit the keeping of your soul to God, and trust in Him. Talk and think of Jesus. Let self be lost in Him. Put away all doubt; dismiss your fears. Say with the apostle Paul, ‘I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and 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) Rest in God. He is able to keep that which you have committed to Him. If you will leave yourself in His hands, He will bring you off more than conqueror through Him that has loved you.” Steps to Christ, pages 71 and 72.

Read the study notes for lesson 12