As we continue these studies on the various aspects of Christ our righteousness and justification by faith, we realize that these are very sensitive subjects that many have strong, preconceived opinions about. This is to be expected. We want to challenge your thinking and present some things that we hope will help us to better see the picture that God has given to us.
Perhaps the most common misunderstanding among Seventh-day Adventists is the concept that justification is what Jesus does for us, and sanctification is what we do for Him as the result of our justification. We cannot justify ourselves, but we think that we can obey in order to satisfy God’s requirement of righteousness. In sanctification, it seems our whole emphasis revolves around what we do.
This has become almost a galling, despairing, and hopeless subject to many people. To some it is their ticket to heaven because they are strongwilled; and because they can provide an external obedience, they feel rather comfortable in what they do. Others who might be weak feel they will never make it. We have many ideas about sanctification that are probably not true. I do not profess to understand all there is to know about it, but there are some things about it in the Bible that are quite certain.
Is sanctification what we do for Him? Or is it what He does in us? Is it what I do, or what He accomplishes in me? This statement of Paul should be familiar to us: “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 1 Corinthians 1:30. If Paul taught that Christ is made unto us sanctification, then it is apparently something that He performs on our behalf.
Paul also wrote this: “And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” Philippians 3:9-11. Paul seems to be talking about the conclusion of his experience, and he said that at some future time, he wanted to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness but Christ’s.
Many will recognize this famous quotation that has been used for years about justification and sanctification: “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.” MYP 35. What does the word “imparted” mean? We recognize that it is not the same as “imputed,” but there are similarities.
In the Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, imparted means “To bestow a share of; give from one’s own store of abundance.” Synonyms are “to transfer, dispense, grant, confer.” Therefore, in imparted righteousness, something comes from one person to another; something they give from their abundance to someone who lacks. So there are similarities as well as dissimilarities in imputed and imparted righteousness. Both come from Jesus to us. It is not something that we are performing for Him, but rather something He has which He imparts to us. It does not come to us all at once, but it does come from Him.
Paul also mentions this very briefly: “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6. The One who started it will perform it to completion. The idea here is that He carries on the work of justification, which He started, to completion.
“Christ is the great depositary of justifying righteousness and sanctifying grace.” 1SM 398. Fort Knox is the depositary of gold for the United States. Christ is the “depositary of justifying righteousness and sanctifying grace.” That grace which brings about sanctification is found in Him, not in me or someone else. Go to Him to find it; and by grace He gives it to you.
In all of these thoughts we discover that in sanctification, something proceeds from Him to us. We must go to Him to find it. This part of sanctification is usually omitted. We often ask God for help, or a little push or shove of some kind. That is not what we are talking about. It is more than a push or shove. It is more than assistance. There is literally something coming from Him to me, and it is more than power, or else we have misunderstood Paul’s statements completely. He has something I lack, and I must go to Him to receive it. It is not something I produce in and of myself.
In no way does this eliminate obedience. This is the only way you can experience obedience. There is no other way that can be found. All other obedience is but a deception. We only call it that when it really is not.
When we are seeking sanctification, we mean we are seeking righteousness. What is righteousness? We have covered this in previous chapters, but I know how quickly we forget, especially if we do not live by this principle. Let us review it and delve into it a bit more than we have in the past.
What is righteousness in relation to sanctification? “Obedience to the law is sanctification.” ST, May 19, 1890. “Sanctification is the doing of all the commandments of God.” ST, March 24, 1890. Right here is where we have trouble. Many people, because of their misinterpretations of statements like this, say that righteousness and sanctification are not obedience. They say it is not right doing, but rather right relationships. It is true that right relationships produce right doing; but the relationship is not the righteousness. We must be careful about small details like this.
Some people look at the law and immediately get out a microscope and look at themselves. Most of us have done that for years, and it has caused a great deal of misunderstanding and difficulty among us. We look to see if we are doing everything correctly. Is sanctification the avoidance of every “thou shalt not” and the correct performance of every “thou shalt”? Is that sanctification? We just read that sanctification is obedience to the law. Is sanctification the perfect living of all standards of proper entertainment, and health, and dress? Many people use these to scrutinize their character and performance to see if they are being sanctified. When we have done this for years and see some flaws—some violations of the “thou shalt nots”—we begin to think that we are not going to make it. Many feel extremely guilty and give up in discouragement.
You must look at righteousness much more carefully than most of us have done in the past. Sanctification, as we read, is obedience to the law; but what is the law? Most will answer that the law is the Ten Commandments. Yes, but what is that? What are those commandments, and what are they like? You must always go back to Jesus and see the law through His eyes. “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40. Before you can understand anything about sanctification, you must look at the law through the eyes of Jesus. As Adventists, we have emphasized the law as written on stone tablets and left Christ out of it.
The Jews had done a terrible thing to the law. They had three hundred commandments on not bearing a load, or burden, on the Sabbath. They expanded the commandments to the place where they had figured out every possible “thou shalt not” to guarantee they were not transgressing. If they could follow every one of those “thou shalt nots,” then they would be sanctified. Do you know that there are thousands of Adventists who follow the same philosophy? We have used the Spirit of Prophecy as a Talmud to find all of the “thou shalt nots” and the “thou shalts.” We think that if we can get them all cataloged in a computer, we can check ourselves all the time, and thus avoid doing wrong. But as many have discovered, you can have a million laws, and never avoid doing wrong. It does not matter how many there are or how perfectly they are adapted to us, we still do wrong. Those laws do not change character. You can invent new laws to restrict your children, but they still have problems, don’t they? They are not changed by laws any more than we are. Paul wrote about “what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh.” Romans 8:3. Remember that even though we have been justified, we still have some problems. The Lord takes care of those with His methods; but we cannot take care of them with our methods.
This fundamental interpretation of the law by Jesus is that the law is love. I do not mean the permissive kind of lust that people call love nowadays. I am looking through the eyes of Paul when he describes love in 1 Corinthians, and you know it very well. Since the law is love, this makes obedience to the law much different than we have seen it to be, and it makes sin much different, also. Hopefully you are becoming familiar with this quote from a previous chapter: “Righteousness is holiness, likeness to God, and ‘God is love.’ 1 John 4:16. It is conformity to the law of God, ‘for all Thy commandments are righteousness.’ Psalms 119:172; and ‘love is the fulfilling of the law.’ Romans 13:10. Righteousness is love; and love is the light and the life of God. The righteousness of God is embodied in Christ. We receive righteousness by receiving Him.” MB 18. God is love, and the law is a transcript of His character, so the law is love. Obedience to the law is love, so righteousness is love; and sanctification, which is obedience to the law, is love, too.
All of this is different than most of us have anticipated in sanctification. We have left out love almost entirely from the sanctified life. We have tried to look in an egocentric way at ourselves to see what our hands do, what our lips speak, what we eat, what we hear, and what we see; then we ask, “I wonder if I am sanctified?” That is not sanctification. Not in the least. The whole spirit of sanctification is totally eliminated, and we are left looking at self; and the more we look at self, the more we become like self, and the less sanctified we will ever be.
Righteousness is love, and that love is expressed in action. Therefore, in sanctification there are works, and doing, and activity. Those who are married know this. Your spouse can say they love you all they wish, but unless they perform the acts of love, you have a difficult time accepting that they love you. Love must be expressed in action. Jesus said, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15. The keeping of the commandments is prompted by our love for Jesus. If we do not love Him, forget about trying. Jesus teaches that if it comes out of a heart filled with love, then keep His law of love.
His commandments are unique--supreme love for God, and to love your neighbor as yourself. It is the activity, the doing, for God and for your neighbors that fits what Jesus taught about obedience. This is described in several places in the Bible, and we want to entrench them in our minds and put them in the context of sanctification.
Our first text deals with that time in the Judgment when the sheep and the goats are divided. “Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: Naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. Then shall the righteous answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungred, and fed Thee? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink? When saw we Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and clothed Thee? Or when saw we Thee sick, or in prison, and came unto Thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Matthew 25:34-40. According to Jesus, these are the works that are examined in the Judgment. These works were prophesied by Isaiah and describe the life of Jesus, and we are to be like Jesus in sanctification. We cannot make ourselves like Him, but He is able to make us like Him.
Here is the prophecy as described by Isaiah: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” Isaiah 58:6,7. This activity for others shows our supreme love for God and our love for our neighbor.
Job, whom I consider to be a type of Christ, wrote these words: “Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.” Job 29:12-16.
Then Job presents similar ideas but from the negative side, or what will happen if we do not do these things: “If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me…If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof…If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep [if I did not give him clothing]; If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate: Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of His highness I could not endure.” Job 31:13,16,17,19-22. If I do not use these hands and arms to bless these people in need, let my arm fall out of the shoulder blade. To just feed yourself is very selfish.
We do not understand that this is genuine Christianity. The Christianity that many of us practice is as much of a perversion of true religion as that of the Jews in Christ’s day. All attempts to be righteous of ourselves, forgetting others, is pure selfishness. We are just on an ego trip, trying to enlarge our pride so that someone will pat us on the back eventually. That is not the righteousness that the law talks about, or that Jesus ever discussed. This aiming for some high position of exaltation where we will be acclaimed righteous is not righteousness by faith in Jesus. Yet the righteousness we usually want, and for which we examine ourselves, is that kind where we reach some pinnacle of success so we will be acclaimed as righteous. That is the “well done” that God’s faithful servants will hear, we think. That is not what Christ or Job or Paul talked about; but it is so easy for us to see obedience to the law like that. When we realize that we must obey the law, we say, “I will try to do what it says and make myself righteous.”
The type of activity described in Job and Isaiah is not an occasional once-a-week thing on Community Services day. It is not suddenly getting the idea one day to go out and help the poor, or giving away Thanksgiving baskets once a year. It is a lifestyle that goes on every day that cares for the needs of all who come within our scope of activity. It is an ongoing thing, a regular routine, yet it is far more than self-discipline. It is a heart drawn out to people in need, because they are human flesh and because we cannot bear to see them in need. Christ wept, not because Lazarus was dead, but because He identified Himself with human need, with hearts that ached. His heart ached. He was one with humanity, and His heart went out to them. Is my heart drawn out to people in need? Or do I manage to live in isolation, encapsulated in a little shell of selfishness? Normally a heart is responsive somewhat, and when the grace of Christ comes in we are even more responsive; but we can become so callous in blinding ourselves to the needs of others that we come to the place where we do not even see them.
“True sanctification is nothing more or less than to love God with all the heart.” ST, May 19, 1890. “To love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves is genuine sanctification.” ST, February 24, 1890. “True sanctification comes through the working out of the principle of love. ‘And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.’” AA 560. The thought that everything about God is love is seen in these quotes. As soon as I live in this heavenly love, I live in God and He lives in me. If I do not live in that love, I do not live in God and He does not live in me. I can keep ever so many right things in the word of God, but if I do not live in that love, He does not live in me nor do I live in Him. You cannot separate God from His love. If I do not live in love for you, my neighbor, I do not live in Him.
This takes us right down to the focal point of Christ our righteousness. This love, which is righteousness and only found in God, is the whole heart of our problem. Somehow in my heart there must be a love for you like Jesus has for you. I do not naturally have that. I am naturally selfish, and that wars against this love for you and tries to prevent me from loving you as Christ loves you. I can make sanctification the enhancement of self, not the death of self; and we have invented many ideas about sanctification that only enlarges self and forgets other people. We can live like that every day of our lives and say we are being sanctified, and yet forget all about our neighbor and his needs. This is warped thinking because self is so actively engaged and wants to be built up. The Jews, who looked down their noses at their neighbors, never agreed that they were not being sanctified. It was inconceivable to them.
This is our problem. John the beloved recorded these words of Jesus: “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.” John 13:34,35. We have used this to argue with other Protestants, but I wish you would look at the concepts that Jesus was teaching apart from debate.
“To the disciples this commandment was new; for they had not loved one another as Christ had loved them. He saw that new ideas and impulses must control them; that new principles must be practiced by them; through His life and death they were to receive a new conception of love. The command to love one another had a new meaning in the light of His self- sacrifice. The whole work of grace is one continual service of love, of selfdenying, self-sacrificing effort. During every hour of Christ’s sojourn upon the earth, the love of God was flowing from Him in irrepressible streams. All who are imbued with His Spirit will love as He loved. The very principle that actuated Christ will actuate them in all their dealing one with another. This love is the evidence of their discipleship. ‘By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples,’ said Jesus, ‘if ye have love one to another.’ When men are bound together, not by force or selfinterest, but by love, they show the working of an influence that is above every human influence. Where this oneness exists, it is evidence that the image of God is being restored in humanity, that a new principle of life has been implanted. It shows that there is power in the divine nature to withstand the supernatural agencies of evil, and that the grace of God subdues the selfishness inherent in the natural heart.” DA 677,678.
Why are men and women bound to their spouse or children or parents or church? Is it by force of circumstances? By fear of being left alone? By self-interest? Or is it by love? When you begin to look at these motives and circumstances, it is amazing how few people are bound together by love. We can join churches out of fear of being lost or being wrong. We can work for God out of selfinterest. We have schoolteachers who work at a sacrificial wage out of self-interest, thinking it is their ticket to heaven. We have foreign missionaries who become missionaries out of selfinterest. I know because I have been one. I have done much in my experience about which I am embarrassed. We can hold high offices in God’s church out of self-interest, and we have great ambition for those offices, thinking that it is a step towards heaven. We can give great offerings out of self- interest, and give Bible studies out of selfinterest. We can send our children all through our school systems out of self-interest; and when they do not turn out just right, our self-interest gets in the way and we feel condemned at their failure.
Imagine the day when the world sees us bound together, not by force or self-interest, but by love. How wonderful it is to be married by love and not by self-interest. How marvelous. How nice it is to have parents who love us, and are not there by selfinterest or force of circumstances. How wonderful it is to attend a church where we are bound together by love, and not force or self-interest. This is what the Lord was talking about to His disciples—a unique, peculiar oneness in relationship that you do not find any other place in the world, where selfishness is pushed out and you never see it again. Imagine our people bound together with this unique tie, totally by love. That is what happened before the Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost.
How may I obtain this love? “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” 1 John 4:7. I must go to Him for this love, for “love is of God.” I do not have it and cannot manufacture it. I will never develop this love out of my selfish heart. It is found only in Him.
“The first four of the Ten Commandments are summed up in the one great precept, ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.’ The last six are included in the other, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ Both these commandments are an expression of the principle of love. The first cannot be kept and the second broken, nor can the second be kept while the first is broken. When God has His rightful place on the throne of the heart, the right place will be given to our neighbor. We shall love him as ourselves. And only as we love God supremely is it possible to love our neighbor impartially.” DA 607. If you see me misusing my neighbor, or my spouse, or any other person, you can be absolutely certain that God has been dethroned in my heart, and that I do not keep the first four commandments. When you see me loving my neighbor as myself, you will say, “He dwells in love, so the Lord must dwell in him.” It is that simple. Sanctification is an unusual relationship—a dwelling together first with God, and then with one another; because He lives in us and we live in Him. When our hearts are bound together with Him, we can be bound together with each other.
“Those who never experienced the tender, winning love of Christ cannot lead others to the fountain of life. His love in the heart [the first four commandments] is a constraining power which leads men to reveal Him in the conversation, in the tender, pitiful spirit, in the uplifting of the lives of those with whom they associate. In the heart renewed by divine grace, love is the ruling principle of action. It modifies the character, governs the impulses, controls the passions, and nobles the affections. This love cherished in the soul sweetens the life and sheds a refining influence on all around.” GAG 237. Does this sound like sanctification? You can see the marvelous fragrance of Christ’s love and righteousness that sweetens everybody.
“We love Him, because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. And we love each other because we respond to His love. He is the Source. I respond. Then I love you; and I take care of the last six commandments when I do that.
Sanctification is accomplished through the right relationship with Jesus. However, it is the result of that relationship, and not the relationship itself. A relationship with Christ is not righteousness. The relationship is one that continues as long as life shall last, like marriage, which is a union, a coming together in love with God. We will never part so long as both shall live. The love that connects us with Christ is accomplished through a unique, and almost contradictory, bond. “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28- 30.
The simple language of Jesus sometimes causes us to be superficial. Whenever Jesus speaks in simple terms, then dig down deep! What is He saying here? This quote provides the answer: “‘Take My yoke upon you,’ Jesus says. The yoke is an instrument of service. Cattle are yoked for labor, and the yoke is essential that they may labor effectually. By this illustration Christ teaches us that we are called to service as long as life shall last. We are to take upon us His yoke, that we may be co-workers with Him. The yoke that binds to service is the law of God. The great law of love revealed in Eden, proclaimed upon Sinai, and in the new covenant written in the heart, is that which binds the human worker to the will of God.” DA 329. Some say they do not feel bound by the law, but instead feel separated by it. That is because they do not understand that it is the law of love.
“The law is an expression of the thought of God; when received in Christ, it becomes our thought. It lifts us above the power of natural desires and tendencies, above the temptations that lead to sin.” DA 308. As soon as you put the law in Jesus, it becomes your thought. You have a new heart and a new mind that delights to do the law of God. We are tied together by the law, but that law is love, and the doing of that law is love. Supreme love for God and loving my neighbor as myself binds us together. Obedience to the law is a binding agency.
If you still do not understand, let me go a little further. “Christ’s followers have been redeemed for service. Our Lord teaches that the true object of life is ministry. Christ Himself was a worker, and to all His followers He gives the law of service—service to God and to their fellow men. Here Christ has presented to the world a higher conception of life than they had ever known. By living to minister for others, man is brought into connection with Christ. The law of service becomes the connecting link which binds us to God and to our fellow men.” COL 326. As I see His great love for me in justification, and I respond, I enter into this service of love that the law is all about. By each of us responding to His love, we all draw strangely closer to each other. In blessing and serving you, I am drawn to Him. As my heart goes out to you, my heart goes out to Him. I understand Him better because I understand you better by getting close to you. And as I seek to obey God in response to His love and because of my compassion for you, I am connected closer and closer to Jesus and to the Father; and in turn, closer and closer to you.
Obedience, then, is a fantastic thing. It is not just trying to do something for somebody else. It is not trying to stop lying about you. How can I lie about you when I love you? It would be a terrible mistake to tell a lie. The breaking of the “thou shalt nots” become impossible when I love you so much. I cannot violate those commandments, not even to a thought. When my heart is filled with love, I am drawn out to you and am sensitive to your needs. I think more and more of you and become more forgetful of self. This is a different type of obedience. This is the obedience of love. And as I begin to serve mankind that way, from a sensitive heart filled with love for them, Jesus comes down like light from heaven.
At a church I once pastored, I decided one day to visit all the members. All day long I went from home to home, and all day long I listened to their problems. My head began to ache. I am not being critical. I am just telling you what happened that day. I discovered that people develop all kinds of problems when they continually receive love but do not dispense it. If we continually hear and receive, and never pass it on to others, we become like the Dead Sea, just bitter to the taste; and it was bitter to me to hear all those people tell me their problems. When I finished visiting in those homes, I wanted to leave the ministry. I said, “Let someone else come and take care of these sheep.”
Around eight o’clock that evening, I went to visit the first non- Adventist that I had seen that day. I suppose I was not a very welcome sight to knock at her door at that time of the evening. In my depression and discouragement I was bitterly low. But she was spiritually hungry; and after she had just a little taste of the marvels of God’s grace and word, she wanted more. I had forgotten that my pockets and briefcase and brain were full of good things for hungry people, because I had not met any hungry people that day; only critical, bitter ones who had been overfed and sermon-saturated. At first, I thought she was like the rest, but she began to ask me questions, and the Lord gave me answers by His grace. And every answer was like light from heaven to her. She was overjoyed and had never seen anyone like me in her life. For about an hour I dished out a banquet, and the more I dished out, the happier she became and the happier I became. And when we had prayer, I knew that heaven had come down and glory filled our souls. She was so thankful. I did not feel I had done very much, but I was literally exuberant, and she was, too. I went home from that house and slept a beautiful sleep that night. I had forgotten about all the problems of the saints, because I had fed one hungry soul.
Friend, the world is waiting to see a group of Christians who are bound together because they love God and each other. It does not matter the color or their skin or where they are from, as long as they are bound by love. In their union there is no self-interest, no pressures, no force; just the love of Christ constraining them. How wonderful is the work of the Lord when we are constrained by love. There is nothing else like it. Somehow we have gotten the idea that we must pressure people to work for God. We bring all kinds of pressures to bear, but not love. Sanctification is not like that, and I thank God it is not.
Sanctification is the marvelous love of God manifested for me until I see it in all its glory; and it softens me up on the inside. And because of this, I am a sweeter husband, a more understanding father, a more compassionate pastor, a better neighbor, a better employee or employer. And those around me begin to see that the love of God has come down and abides in my soul.
Let us lose our fears of sanctification. It is not an impossible ladder that you have to climb for a million miles. It is not that at all. It is God coming down and tying our hearts together in love for Him, until we say, “How can I help but love Him when He loves me so much.” And with a heart so filled and overflowing, how can I help but love you? I will serve God and my fellow man in the same way that Jesus served mankind when He walked this earth; and for that marvelous life of service, the Lord will say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant…enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Matthew 25:21.
We are sanctified by His love and grace. May God help us to see this and not only to realize it, but be convicted to live the life of love and service that Christ has given to us and inspired in us by His marvelous example and love for us.