I will begin this chapter by reviewing an Ellen White quote you should now be familiar with: “Several have written to me, inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel’s message, and I have answered, ‘It is the third angel’s message in verity.’” COR 64.
Some have thought that Christ our righteousness would be a fad, but the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy teach that justification by faith is the third angel’s message in verity. If we are ever to preach the last message of God, we must do much better in understanding and experiencing this message of Christ our righteousness, or we shall never rightly preach the third angel’s message.
Often we have thought that denouncing other denominations is the third angel’s message; or that we are better than they because we do certain things; and in this legalistic context we have tried to preach the three angels messages. But Christ our righteousness—justification by faith—is that message. This is a message of love. As we study the third angel’s message, I hope you begin to see how much of God’s love is involved in this most interesting theme.
Our problem in this study involves the difference between faithfulness and unfaithfulness, for we often put it into a context that omits the real meaning of the term faithfulness. John the Revelator wrote these words about Babylon: “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen….And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Revelation 18:2,4.
How did God’s people happen to be in a place called Babylon, or in a condition called Babylon? We all know the story of how the ancient Jews ended up in Babylon, and we know that their experience is a parallel of modern Babylon. Let us review how the Jews found themselves in Babylon in the days of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. Often we say they were captured and taken over there. While that is true in one sense, it only tells part of the story. In the third chapter of Jeremiah, you can read his introduction to the reason for their captivity, and it is an interesting story. I hope that you will find it a good explanation to what happens to us as we sometimes find ourselves away from God.
“The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot [talking about the places where they worshipped idols]. And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto Me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.” “Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed My voice, saith the Lord. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” Jeremiah 3:6-9;12-14.
Return “for I am married unto you” is the language of Jeremiah. So often we forget that God took Israel as His bride when He brought her out of Egypt, and the new covenant promise makes that very clear. “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:32.
When the Lord chose them to be a peculiar people, uniquely His own, He entered into a covenant with them becoming their God and they becoming His people. He said He was a husband to them. Righteousness by faith is in the context of a love relationship. It is faithfulness to a lover that is described in righteousness by faith. The unfaithfulness of Babylon in God’s people is unfaithful to marriage vows, not just to some doctrines, not just to a church, or some ideas that people propound. It is faithfulness to a Person to whom we profess to be joined in marriage, as the Bible describes it in many places. God was Israel’s Husband, and the Old Testament makes it plain how precious she was to Him.
But Israel chose other lovers. For some reason she did not always respond to the love of her Husband; and, of course, this has reference to the idols that she worshipped. She worshipped stones and stocks, and idolatry is adultery in the spiritual realm. “That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery.” Ezekiel 23:37.
This is the unfaithfulness that the Lord is talking about. In spite of her adultery, He loved her very much and for a long time. He appealed to her over and over again through the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah; but she would not come back to Him. She persisted in her other love affairs. Before she went as a captive to Babylon, she was first captivated by the gods of Babylon. When she was captivated by their gods, she forsook her Husband and gave her affections to many others. She was found spending all of her time with them, and she had no time for her Husband. God had placed His house there with His bride. He had them build a sanctuary so He could dwell among them. This was His abiding place with His wife. He wanted to be close to her; and while He was there manifesting Himself in the Shekinah Glory, physically present in that glory, she still went off to inanimate idols and loved them more than the precious Lord Jehovah. It seems impossible, but that is what the Bible describes. They thought the gods of the heathen were more effective, more productive, and they thought they received more blessings from those gods. They envied the people outside the church.
When she withdrew her affections from her husband, He continued to appeal to her for many years. When she persisted in her love affairs with others, He finally permitted her to have her choice. Love must permit choice. Love cannot be commanded or forced. Israel was taken captive after she was captivated. She went to find out what is was to live with those lovers twenty-four hours a day, all year long. The Bible tells the story of life in Babylon and the things that went on with the idol worship. You remember how they were commanded to bow down or they would be killed. They had gone to live in a kingdom of force. Is that what they preferred to the kingdom of love back in Jerusalem where they had a choice?
She insisted on going to Babylon by constantly giving her affections and devotions to another lover. God allowed her to do what she wanted to do. Love is like that. But He still wanted her back, and He even prophesied that He would take her back. Seventy years later, all who chose to do so went back to be with Him and rebuild His house of worship. They returned only by choice, and it seems not too many wanted to go back as compared to the large number who went over to Babylon.
Unfortunately, she was more than an adulteress. The prophet said that she “hast played the harlot with many lovers.” Jeremiah 3:1. One lover was not sufficient. She sold her body for a price; and she sold her purity, her innocence, her holiness, her respect, and her affections for gain. I hope you understand we are talking about the church in all this. You must apply the literal meanings to the symbolic meanings that are found here. She sold out, turning away her affections from the One who loved her so much, to Whom she was so very precious. Yet the Lord said He loved her and wanted her. What kind of love is this that desires her after all these activities? What is the law or the love that justifies? We speak of justification by faith, but how little we really understand about it. To many it has become a trite phrase that is spoken unthinkingly.
“They say, if a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to Me, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 3:1. This is a very complex text and you must understand all that the Bible says about it. The law that God gave to Moses said that if you were married to another you could not go back to your first husband or wife. The Lord said that doing so would pollute the land greatly. His people had left Him, but He wanted them to return to Him. It would seem that this makes God a violator of the law that He gave. How could He take her back when she is married to another, which is something He forbade to take place? If you understand justification by faith in its true meaning, this becomes a precious thought.
Paul sheds light on this with these words: “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” Romans 7:1-4.
The only way that Christ could take her back was to die. Otherwise He would be a violator of His own rule. When He died, her first husband was gone, and now she was free to be married to another, even to Him who rose from the dead. Theoretically and legally, He was a new husband, for by law when you are dead, you are dead. When He rose from the grave He was a new man; and I am not saying that in a theological way at all, so do not misunderstand me. Legally she can now be married to Him and not be called an adulteress, for she was never married to the resurrected Jesus. Therefore, to justify a wife who left Him and joined herself to another, He died for all her sins, and then He arose from the grave so that she might be married to Him, a new lover, perfectly joined to Him.
My mind staggers at the concept and the depth of love presented here, and I hardly grasp the meaning. Do you? “Oh love that will not let me go,” the hymn writer wrote; and how little we understand what that really means and implies. He cannot let me go. All of these things in the plan of salvation have been done to express His great love for us, even though we have wandered so far away and given ourselves wholly to idols. Still He says He wants us back. He cannot let us go. He makes that possible by justifying love.
Paul wrote that Christ was “raised again for our justification.” Romans 4:25. Much is said in so few words. This is the love that justifies. The New Testament church had a similar experience to the Jews of the Old Testament, for the Bible teaches that Christ is married to the New Testament church. “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:2.
But the New Testament church left her lover, too, just as the Old Testament church did; and it is stated so briefly that we often pass by it. “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.” Revelation 2:4. This is the first of the seven churches that we understand to be the New Testament church. Some say she lost her first love because she could not avoid doing it, that it was a mistake; but the Bible says she left it. That’s a little different, isn’t it? She neglected, she forgot, she failed to respond to the love of her husband, and she left her first love.
This experience is described by Ellen White, and she gives both the Old Testament and New Testament concepts: “The unfaithfulness of the church to Christ in permitting her confidence and affection to be turned from Him, and allowing the love of worldly things to occupy the soul, is likened to the violation of the marriage vow. The sin of Israel in departing from the Lord is presented under this figure; and the wonderful love of God which they thus despised is touchingly portrayed: ‘I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest Mine.’ ‘And thou wast exceeding beautiful and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness [this is Christ our righteousness], which I had put upon thee. . . . But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown.’ ‘As a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord;’ ‘as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!’” GC 381,382.
This unfaithfulness, this turning away from the love of her Husband, is described in the Bible in many ways. This happened to both the Old and New Testament churches, and how little we realize what we are doing when we neglect the Lord’s cause.
One more statement from page 382: “It was by departure from the Lord, and alliance with the heathen, that the Jewish church became a harlot.” We must apply all of this to our times and begin to understand it well, or we will have difficulty with some of the things that happen to us.
James applied this to the spiritual aspects that involve us today. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4. Many times we tell our children they cannot do this or that, they cannot associate with the world or get involved with them. Over and over again they ask, “But why can’t we?” The church says the same thing to adults, and they ask, “But why can’t we?” All sorts of logical reasons are offered as to why it is okay to associate with the world, but little do we realize that it involves giving our affections to another lover. When we associate with the world, we are saying that we do not like the Husband of the church. We love something else more than Him. Of course, if you have never fallen in love with Him, affection for the world is almost meaningless. It is not until we have tasted the love of Christ for us as individuals and begin to love Him in response to His first loving us, that we begin to see the difference between Him and other lovers. Often our hearts have not been removed from the world in what we call conversion. We are still in love with everything else but Him. Too often we only love right doctrines, or we only love the church, but we do not love Him even though the church is His body. We do not make that very fine distinction; and we do not really come to love Him.
The New Testament church, just like the Jews, loved the world and the things of the world far too much, and turned her back on the greatest Lover in the universe. God called His people again out of Babylon in the Protestant Reformation, and there the preaching was justification by faith as they came out of Babylon. He still is calling His people to come out of Babylon in this day and age. Babylon today is wide spread and the book The Great Controversy makes this very plain. We understand from Revelation 17:5 that Babylon is the mother of harlots. Apparently her offspring indulge in the same practice as she does, and how true today that there are many denominations and churches guilty of adultery as described by James when he wrote: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4.
It is difficult for us to understand why someone who is friends with the world is the enemy of God, for we live in this world and like the things of this world. Apart from a love affair with Jesus, there is no way you can really understand this.
The Lord tries to make it plain in the following Bible texts: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” John 15:18,19. “I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” John 17:14. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2. “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” 1 John 2:15-17.
Love not the world. This is not a command, for love is by choice. It is not a restriction or forbidding us to do this. It is a plea. If you love God you will not love those things. True Christians are not like those in the world. But today the Christian churches, who profess to love their Master and Lord supremely, seem to have much love for the world. We love the world’s approval. In fact, we are desperate for the world’s approval. We love the world’s entertainment, the world’s food, the world’s materialism, its wealth, its styles, its fads. We love the world’s customs, its luxuries, its interests. We like its recreation, its education, its degrees, its prestige, its achievements, its attainments. In fact, we advocate them strongly in our homes first of all, then in our schools, and even in our churches. Most Christian churches do; therefore, it seems that it is acceptable if the majority is right. We forget that this is unfaithfulness to our Lover and that His mortal enemy is the world.
He says the world will hate you if you are really His. Give Him your heart for He is not willing to share you with another. He wants all your affections. Is not love like that? The Husband of the church is very different from the world, and how little we understand the difference. He is the meek and lowly One. What a clash that is with the world. He is the humble and self-denying One. The world is the complete antithesis of self-denial and humility. He said that the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man had no place to lay His head. Such was His poverty.
Do you love Him more than what this world has to offer? Do you love His kind of lifestyle better than the lifestyle of the world? He was born in a barn of peasant parents. He had no high office, no degree, no position. Twelve common men were His followers. He was despised and ridiculed. He was treated unjustly and unfairly, and finally crucified like the worst of all criminals. This individual says, “Follow Me, for I am the Husband of the church.” And we have problems with that, don’t we? When you read that Christ our righteousness is laying the glory of man in the dust, it is very meaningful when you compare your love for the world and your love for Christ.
It is no wonder that there are very few who experience Christ as their righteousness, when the clash between the world and its styles is so different from that of Jesus. We have come today to the place where we want to make Jesus like the world; therefore we make the church like the world. We try to make the two compatible, but they are incompatible. You cannot serve God and mammon, but we indulge in that type of activity. If you love the world and its ways, you love that which is the opposite of Christ’s way, of His lifestyle. If you love Christ, you love a life that is the opposite of the world’s. There is no similarity. If you love the world you hate Christ, and if you love Christ you dislike the ways of the world. All who profess to love Him supremely turn their back on the world and do not look back. Looking back is called backsliding, which is giving your affections to someone else. It is not just leaving the church, or violating some regulations of the church. Backsliding is falling away from your love affair with Christ.
Those churches that turn to the world are fallen. “But they fell by the same desire which was the curse and ruin of Israel—the desire of imitating the practices and courting the friendship of the ungodly.” GC 383. This is the great apostasy.
The New Testament church appeared quite pure under the apostles. “What was the origin of the great apostasy? How did the church first depart from the simplicity of the gospel? By conforming to the practices of paganism, to facilitate the acceptance of Christianity by the heathen. The apostle Paul declared, even in his day, ‘The mystery of iniquity doth already work.’ 2 Thessalonians 2:7. During the lives of the apostles the church remained comparatively pure. But ‘toward the latter end of the second century most of the churches assumed a new form; the first simplicity disappeared, and insensibly, as the old disciples retired to their graves, their children, along with new converts, . . . came forward and new- modeled the cause.’… To secure converts, the exalted standard of the Christian faith was lowered, and as the result ‘a pagan flood, flowing into the church, carried with it its customs, practices, and idols’…As the Christian religion secured the favor and support of secular rulers, it was nominally accepted by multitudes; but while in appearance Christians, many ‘remained in substance pagans, especially worshiping in secret their idols.’” GC 384, 385.
The church throughout the ages has formed love associations with the kings of the earth, as in Revelation 18:3 and Revelation 17:2, where we are told that she commits fornication with them. She seems to have some kind of an affinity for rulers. The Christian church is supposed to be in the kingdom of grace, which is a kingdom that has been in existence for two thousand years. In that kingdom of grace, nothing but love is used. Force is never used. And the King of that kingdom is the Lord Jesus, and we are citizens of that kingdom first and foremost above all of the nations. We have a dual citizenship, but primarily we are to be citizens of the kingdom of grace; and then secondarily citizens of the nation wherein you dwell. Yet, while professing to belong to the kingdom of grace and to serve the King of grace, it seems we have some kind of relationship with the kings of the earth. The Bible calls it an illegitimate relationship, or fornication, and the Lord does not seem to be happy about it.
“Many of the Protestant churches are following Rome’s example of iniquitous connection with ‘the kings of the earth’—the state churches, by their relation to secular governments; and other denominations, by seeking the favor of the world.” GC 383. Being in Babylon is not only loving the things and activities of the world, it is also loving the rulership and the kings and what they can provide for the church.
There are quite a few state churches. The Lutheran church in some Scandinavian countries is a state church. The Church of England is a state church. The Presbyterian Church has been a state church in Scotland. Protestants have had these affiliations, or intimacies, with kings and governments other than the kingdom of grace. Even in America today, supposedly the land of religious freedom where the conscience is supreme, it seems that many denominations are clamoring for the government to provide them with funds. Not only do we accept gifts from her, we even seek her support. Supposedly we have a Husband who supports us; but somehow we think He does not take good enough care of us because we need money from other husbands. Apparently our King is not providing for us, so we go to other kings to become intimate with them that we might receive more loans, more grants, more funds for hospitals, for students, for schools, and so on.
Churches are seeking federal and state aid. The Lord, in my understanding, is strongly opposed to this for a very unique reason. It is not a “thou shalt not” for He calls it going to another lover, and you cannot command love. Love is won, love is wooed, love is a choice. It is a response, not a demand or exaction, so He does not command it. He is amazed that after loving us so much, we would give our affections to somebody else and seek the support of somebody else. All government funds are the result of taxation. Governments do not have businesses producing a lot of money. Their business is extracting it from our pockets; and in the kingdom of men they force you to give. If you do not pay your taxes you end up in prison. And the churches that believe in love gifts, or voluntary gifts of tithes and offerings, say they would like to have some forced gifts, too.
Supposedly the kingdom of grace is not identified with the kingdoms of force, but we decided we want to be identified with them, and we ask for tax money. Every dime that any church receives from the government is tax money. Someone was forced to give that money who in good conscience may not want to give to any church. But he does not have that freedom of conscience any more when we want their money. He loses that freedom of conscience. Supposedly we want freedom of conscience for ourselves, but we do not want the other man to have that when we seek his tax money to support us. He is forced to support us when we go to the government for money. Some think that loans for hospital and students are legitimate because they pay it all back; but you need to think about that and ask the ones who paid out the money if it is all paid back. Those privileged loans have a lower interest than what Uncle Sam has to pay for the money he borrows, and he borrows billions and billions. Someone pays the difference between Uncle Sam’s interest rate and the rate you pay. The difference is paid by taxpayers. Low interest rates are available because taxpayers make up the difference between low and high interest. Taxpayers have to pay for churches or go to jail. This is true of all loans that are low interest, privileged loans.
I have difficulty with all this. I hope you understand that the Lord does, too. Some people cannot see anything wrong with this. The problem is that the church has a Husband already, and He is King. He has a government, a kingdom called the kingdom of grace, which is a kingdom of love that does not include forced taxation.
Somehow we have difficulty seeing the difference between His kingdom and the kingdoms of this world. Suppose a wife comes home to her husband with a very expensive mink coat that cost far beyond what he can afford, and he asks, “Where did you get that?” She answers, “A very nice man bought it for me.” He says, “That is interesting. I am happy for you.” Does he say that? And for some reason, the next time she kisses him, he does not seem as responsive as the time before. Later she comes home with an expensive car, and then jewelry. All the time the husband asks, “Where did you get that?” And she always answers, “From a very nice man who likes me and gives me what I want.”
Some people try to sell that kind of love these days as good or proper love, but I do not believe a word of it because as soon as you find your lover loving those things and appreciating the giver of those things, you will have to conclude that she loves those things and not you. If it does not bother you, you are saying that you do not care if you lose her affections. You do not care if she stops loving you. And you are also saying that you do not love her, either. If the husband loves his wife, he must care about her affections and where she places them. He does not want her to love other things and other lovers because he loves her too much; but he cannot force her to stay with him, and he certainly cannot force her to give her love to him, for then it would not be a choice. He is concerned about losing her love.
The Husband of the church sees us giving our affections to other things, to another lover or a benefactor, and He is afraid that soon our love for Him will be all gone. And somehow we spend less and less time with Him, and our overwhelming, consuming interest seems to be with these other things. The Husband is able to provide for the church any luxury she can possibly desire. He is able to give her everything she needs. He is the Creator of all things. Why does He not give her more? Because He knows that if He gives her all she wants, she will love things more than Him. He wants her to love Him.
The Spirit of Prophecy tells us that “the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven.” DA 20. The law of giving is the law of life, and He must lead His bride into a special kind of love which is self- forgetful, self-renouncing, self-denying. He must lead His bride into that unique quality of love, or He will lose her; and since He does not want to lose her, He does not give her everything she wants now. He gives her everything she needs and He promises that, does He not? He gives Himself to her and says He is with her always. But He asks her to deny herself of some of these things that might lure her away from Him. He asks for a self-renouncing love, for a love that forgets self and gives to others, a love that is a benefit to others, which is the law of life for earth and heaven. Strange as it might seem, the world and those in the church who go to the world, can justify their activities by saying that getting funds from the government is good for the church. Just look at how we are growing. Look at the multitudes that come in. Look at how our institutions are prospering. We are finishing God’s work, they say. The world will understand us if we get closer to them. We will understand them and win them for the Lord.
The New Testament church brought in multitudes, but what they brought into the church was paganism, that confusing amalgamation of Christianity and paganism, and they were no longer wholly Christ’s. They tried to have two lovers, but the Bible calls that unfaithfulness. Love is righteousness, according to page 18 of Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing. It is self-renouncing love, self-denying love. It is supreme love for one Person—the Lord Jesus. All of our affections, all of our esteem, all of our devotions are for Him. The center of all our life is the Lord Jesus, and we love Him with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves; and someday He will say, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
But if you divide your affections, no matter for what reason, He will ask the question, “Are you really Mine? Why do you spend so much time with other things? Why do you have so little time for Me?” And He will come to us as He did to the apostle Peter there in John 21, and He will ask, “Do you love Me more than the others?” And He will ask us the second time, “Lovest thou Me?” And the third time, “Lovest thou Me?”
Jesus today is asking for faithfulness, not because you must or have to, not because He demands it or exacts it, but because He has loved you so much that He thinks it is natural for you to love Him. And He simply asks the question, “Lovest thou Me? Will you give Me all your heart, all your affections, all your interests, all your attentions? Will you make Me the center of your whole life? Lovest thou Me?”
I believe with all my heart that the Lord has been waiting a long time for the church to respond. Don’t you? He has not been finding fault with all our activities as many say. He has been simply asking, “How can you love those things and still claim to love Me? How can you call it righteousness when it is unfaithfulness? Don’t you know that if you love Me with all your heart you will depend upon Me alone, and be faithful to Me, for you know I am faithful to you? Don’t you know you can trust Me? I will give you everything that you will ever possibly need; and in the kingdom to come I will give you things you never dreamed about.”
Let Him know today that you love Him.