Since 1844 a special urgency has rested upon those who perceive that God waits for a generation of people who will vindicate Him by truly keeping "the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12). Many are the counsels[1] to the church that emphasize the direct relationship between Christ's work in the Most Holy Place and His work in the lives of His followers on earth:
"Now Christ is in the heavenly sanctuary And what is He doing? Making atonement for us, cleansing the sanctuary from the sins of the people. Then we must enter by faith into the sanctuary with Him, we must commence the work in the sanctuary of our souls. We are to cleanse ourselves from all defilement We must `cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.' "--E.G. White, sermon delivered October 20. 1888. Reprinted in A.V. Olcon, Through Crisis to Victory, p. 267.
One of the most urgent messages of the sanctuary doctrine to Christians since 1844 is that something special is required of God's followers in terms of character development that may not have been so crucial to the development of the church heretofore. God's people attaining the quality of character that He waits for, and for which He will give them every needed divine power to achieve, significantly affects how soon Jesus can finish His work in the Most Holy Place.[2]
The urgency that should be gripping God's people on earth rests on the solemn fact that, in entering the Most Holy Place in 1844, our High Priest began the last phase of His mediatorial work which involves the character fitness of the last generation. It was God's plan to complete this work many years ago. The delay has not been due to heavenly inefficiency or a change in His plans[3] He longs to pour out the latter rain on those who have cleansed "the soul temple of every defilement" (Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 214). He longs for His people to be so settled into the truth,[4] so comfortable with His way of life, that He can impart His seal of approval and point to them without embarrassment in a worldwide mission appeal, "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12, K.J.V.). He longs to announce the end of the great controversy: "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him by holy still" (chapter 22:11, K.J.V.).
Since 1844 Jesus has been waiting for a people over whose individual records in the heavenly sanctuary He can write "Cleansed"; a people who would reflect His concern for the salvation and well-being of others, through whom all heaven could freely work in completing the gospel commission.[5]
Every day the life pattern of the professed Christian is being reflected on those records in the Most Holy Place. The urgent question arises: Is it a record that reflects a person who, by the grace of God, is overcoming sin or not? "Through the grace of God and their own diligent effort they must be conquerors in the battle with evil. While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God's people upon earth.... When this work shall have been accomplished, the followers of Christ will be ready for His appearing. "--The Great Controversy, p. 425.
In general, the sanctuary service has been God's teaching device, instructing us that He will pardon our transgressions and empower us to live a life of Christ-like obedience.[6] He will do the cleansing, the empowering, the keeping from sin, if we choose to let Him work. The cleansed overcomer will reflect both the character of Jesus and His unstinting life of service.
Specifically, the work of Jesus as our High Priest in the Most Holy Place, has a direct relationship with that movement on earth that is not only announcing the judgment--hour message of Revelation 14:6-14 but also permitting the grace of God to do His glorious work in overcoming sin.
Could any time be more glorious, more exciting, more personally satisfying, than now?[7]
Basic to Adventist thought for more than a century have been these twin concepts of a cleansed sanctuary and a prepared people. With these concepts Adventist scholars have closely connected such ideas as "the blotting out of sins," "the refreshing," and "the wedding garment which is the righteousness of the saints."
Early in Adventist history Joseph Bates expounded on the connection between the sanctuary type and antitype, especially regarding the cleansing of the sanctuary on the day of atonement. After quoting Leviticus 16:16 he wrote: "Will the reader please read these eighteen words again, and see if he cannot tell the meaning of the cleansing of the Sanctuary. Oh yes! You say, it was to cleanse the people, all of them, from their sins. Very well, do not forget it, when it comes down to you in the antitype."[8]--"Midnight Cry in the Past," Review and Herald, December, 1850, p. 21.
Stephen N. Haskell, in 1856, also saw clearly the connection between a prepared people and the completion of the gospel commission: "A theory of the Third Angel's Message never, no never, will save us, without the wedding garment, which is the righteousness of the saints. We must perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord."--"A Few Thoughts on the Philadelphia and Laodicean Churches," Review and Herald Nov. 6, 1856, p. 6.
At the 1901 General Conference, Haskell gave a series of studies on the history of the sanctuary doctrine. During his summation of basic Adventist thought on this subject he said, "We have teamed first that there is a time that Christ will enter the heavenly temple; second, that that time will be the investigative judgment; third, that the work during that period will be the perfection of character; and fourth, the more you can understand about that temple work, the more you will understand the power of the truth of God that relates to God's people and to this time in which we live.[9]--"Bible Study," General Conference Bulletin, April 7, 1901, p. 100.
In 1864, a remarkable series of articles appeared in the Review, authored by D.T. Bourdeau, in which he emphasized the special responsibilities resting on the last generation church: "Some do not see the necessity of receiving the truths applicable to the present time in order to be sanctified. They think they can be sanctified by living as other good Christians have lived. But how have good Christians in the past been sanctified? Have they not been sanctified by living up to the light that they had in their day? And if we are favored with more light than they were, if God has other duties for us to perform, can we be sanctified by merely living as they lived? Does God cause light to shine on His word in vain? ... It will require a special preparation to meet the Lord when He comes."--"Sanctification: or Living Holiness," Review and Herald, Aug. 2, 1864.
Although we have referred to only a few of the early Adventist thinkers on the subject of the sanctuary, many more could be cited. Their general understanding had a remarkable unity and fullness. They saw early and expounded forcefully that the cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven was directly related to the development of a cleansed, prepared people on earth. They argued convincingly that God required a higher character development from His church in the last generation who would be translated than from those in earlier times. The latter rain refreshing would be experienced only after, and as a result of, this character preparation. Such preparation would be a divinely assisted attainment reflected in the heavenly sanctuary by the "blotting out" of those sins that once plagued the lives of the overcomers.
W.W. Prescott was especially clear in his understanding of the connection between the third angel's message of Revelation 14, the blotting out of sins, an overcoming people, and the time when the Lord will return. In a sermon at the 1903 General Conference he said: "There is a difference between the gospel being preached for the forgiveness of sins and the gospel being preached for the blotting out of sin. Always, and today, there is abundant provision for the forgiveness of sins. In our generation comes the provision for the blotting out of sin. And the blotting out of sin is what will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord; and the blotting out of sin is the ministry of our High Priest in the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary; and it makes a difference to the people of God today in their ministry, in their message, and in their experience, whether they recognize the change of the ministry from one apartment to the other, or whether they recognize and experience the fact of the change....
"Now that should be distinctly brought out in the third angel's message; and with that, of course, will come the clearest revelation of the gospel ministry for this time, the blotting out of sin in this generation, thus preparing the way of the Lord....
"And when those truths are preached in the light of advent history and advent prophecy, they will save people from sin and from sinning now. They will prepare a people to stand in the hour of temptation that faces m, and will prepare a people to meet the Lord in the air, and so to be ever with the Lord; and that is the message to be preached in this generation."--"The Gospel Message for Today," General Conference Bulletin, April 2, 1903, pp. 53, 54.[10]
One thing is very clear: God is not a dishonest book-keeper. He will not write "Cleansed" across the record of anyone in the last generation if that person's life has not been cleansed by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Although there have been some through the years who have permitted God's grace to cleanse them from all iniquity, there is a special responsibility resting on that group in earth's last generation who will be translated. Those about whom it is said, "He that is holy, let him be holy still" (Revelation 22:11, K.J.V.), will be truly cleansed people.[11]
All of which brings us back to the main point of this chapter: Is sin inevitable and unavoidable because we are weak human beings? Although we have been studying how the two central truths of the sanctuary doctrine ("an atoning sacrifice and an all-powerful mediator") indissolubly link what Jesus has done for us with what He wants to do in us, does it really work? Will it ever work? This is the question that hangs suspended before the universe.
This is the question Satan flings into the face of Jesus. The grinding away of the years, decade after decade--needlessly--only adds to the hurt of Calvary and the torn heart of a Saviour who has pledged His word that His grace is sufficient to save His people from their sins (Ephesians 3:20; 5:27; Hebrews 4:16; Jude 24, et al.).
A clear understanding of the sanctuary doctrine will change the sad but not hopeless picture. We today have the privilege of entering the heavenly sanctuary "by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which he opened for m through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let an draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water" (Hebrews 10:19-22).
We truly enter the sanctuary and fellowship with our High Priest when there is a sincere desire to condemn sin in the flesh just as Jesus, our Elder Brother, did in His flesh (Romans 8:3, 4). Claiming the name of Jesus but not His power is not only an embarrassment to God but also the major barrier to salvation. "If those who hide and excuse their faults could see how Satan exults over them, how he taunts Christ and holy angels with their course, they would make haste to confess their sins and to put them away."--The Great Controversy, P. 489.
The continuing sins of God's people then, as well as the sins of worldlings in general, become a very important element in whether there is anything effective about what is going on in the heavenly sanctuary.
Satan, in one of his towering lies, says that obedience is impossible, that God's laws and expectations are impossible to keep. In fact, one of the flaws of the universe, Satan says, is that God is unfair in condemning those of His creation who disobey Him, became He asks the impossible. (see The Desire of Ages, pp. 761-764.)
Who is right? God or Satan? When one looks around at man's greed, violence, hatred, and infidelity, it would seem that Satan was tight in his charges. It would seem that God either is unrealistic in asking for love and unselfishness or He was unable to cope with the sin problem after it arose.
The issue simply focuses on whether Jesus is able or not; that is, whether He is an all-powerful Mediator If He cannot "cleanse" the sinner from his sins (1 John 1:9), if His "grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16) is not sufficient to keep His followers from falling into sin, if His heavenly intercession is flawed by an inability to "keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing" (Jude 24), then Satan is ultimately right. The great controversy would then be settled--God would then have been exposed as unfair, in asking too much from His creation. And He would be seen as incompetent, in not being able to handle rebellion.
Thank God, that is not what is happening! Glorious is the news that human beings can cope with temptation and be overcomers. For, standing at the heart of the universe, is the Man who has proved Satan to be a liar. For this reason Jesus had to be "made like his brethren in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest" (Hebrews 2:17); "one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sinning" (chapter 4:15); one who "learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest" (chapter 5:8, 9).
In proving Satan to be a liar, Jesus vindicated the justice of God. As high priest, pleading man's case before the universe, He is the living witness that human beings living this side of the Fall can resist sin, that God has not asked the impossible.[12] "This was to demonstrate His righteousness..., that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Romans 3:25, 26, N.A.S.B.).
But the sinless life lived by Jesus was only one phase of the glorious vindication of the character of God. The work of grace in the lives of overcoming Christians will be a further evidence of the power and glory of God. "The Saviour came to glorify the Father by the demonstration of His love; so the Spirit was to glorify Christ by revealing His grace to the world: The very image of God is to be reproduced in humanity The honor of God, the honor of Christ, is involved in the perfection of the character of His people."--The Desire of Ages, p. 671.[13]
The characters of last-day Christians who "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" are the same quality as those of Enoch, Daniel, and all the others in times past who became sanctified overcomers, in so doing vindicating the wisdom and power of God. Job's experience will be reproduced. "According to his faith, so was it unto Job. 'When He hath tried me,' he said, 'I shall come forth as gold.' Job 23:10. So it came to pass. By his patient endurance he vindicated his own character, and thus the character of Him whose representative he was." Education, p. 156. (See also Ezekiel 36:23-28, R.S.V.)
Such has been the expectation of God, and the hope of Biblical writers, especially when they focus on the end of time when the harvest of the gospel seed is to be gathered in. Why has the harvest been delayed? Such is our concern in the next chapter.
Notes: