Let's conclude this most important study on the human nature of Christ by considering how it effects the truth of the three angels' messages— that proclamation of righteousness by faith which God raised up the Advent movement to give to the whole world before the end comes.
In 1888, when Waggoner and Jones equated the three angels' messages of Revelation 14 with justification by faith, many questioned this assumption and wrote to Ellen White for her reaction. Her response was: "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' " {The Review and Herald, 1 April 1890).
The three angels' messages are a unique Adventist doctrine. They are the restoration and proclamation of the everlasting gospel in all its fullness and beauty. They are the fulfillment of one of the major predictions Christ made in Matthew 24 concerning end-time events, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (verse 14, KJV).
When the everlasting gospel of the three angels' messages has been proclaimed "to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people" (Revelation 14:6), there will be no excuse for any to be lost. Every human being who has reached the age of accountability will have made his or her final and ultimate decision—either for or against Christ. Probation will then close, and the end will come.
But what does the everlasting gospel of the three angels' messages encompass and how does it differ from what the Christian church as a whole is proclaiming today? Here, in a nutshell, is what the 1888 message perceived this most precious truth to be.
The first angel has the everlasting gospel to proclaim to every corner of this inhabited world. It is the truth of the gospel fully restored and proclaimed as God's final message of love and hope to a world lost in sin. It is a message that warns the world that the hour of God's end-time judgment has come and that mankind's only hope in the judgment is in Christ's righteousness. God raised up the advent movement to proclaim this message as its "global mission."
The second angel joins the first in proclaiming that Babylon has fallen because she has apostatized from the everlasting gospel. The word Babylon comes from the root word "Bab-el." Bab meaning "gate," while el is the Semitic word for "God." Put together the word Bab-el signifies human beings trying to reach the gate of heaven, or God, through their own efforts. The tower of Babel is a good example of how humans try to reach heaven by their own effort.
This is how Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon's great king, summed up the principle on which Babylon was based—the principle of self: "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?" (Daniel 4:30). According to the prophet Daniel, the reason the literal kingdom of Babylon fell was because Belshazzar, the king following Nebuchadnezzar, deliberately refused to recognize the God of heaven or give Him glory (see Daniel 5:17-28).
The second angel of Revelation 14 does not add to the message of the everlasting gospel; he simply informs the world that spiritual Babylon has fallen because she has made all nations accept her perverted gospel. This gospel is polluted by man's self-righteousness, a righteousness that is "filthy rags" in God's eyes; it will not stand the scrutiny of the judgment because it is polluted with self (see Isaiah 64:6).
The third angel joins the first two angels in proclaiming the everlasting gospel, but adds a solemn warning that if anyone deliberately and ultimately rejects Christ's righteousness, signified by receiving the mark of the beast, he or she will have to suffer the verdict of God's judgment by joining the devil and his angels in the lake of fire (see Revelation 14:9-12; Matthew 25:41).
The mark of the beast becomes the outward sign of self-righteousness. In the last days it will be manifested by accepting Sunday as a counterfeit day of rest in contrast to the Sabbath which symbolizes God's rest, or finished work. To receive the mark of the beast is to rest in our own righteousness for salvation in contrast to resting in Christ's finished work for us. The seal of God is placed on those who are faithful to Him and who observe the seventh day Sabbath as His day of rest, as the outward sign of justification by faith in Christ's perfect righteousness. Hence the third angel's message is justification by faith alone in verity.
But how does this message differ from the message of justification by faith preached by the popular churches of today?
The 1888 message of righteousness by faith went beyond the popular view of this doctrine preached by the Christian churches of that time, as well as today. According to the popular view, righteousness by faith means God declaring righteous the sinner who believes in Christ. It limits justification to only a forensic or legal declaration imputed to the believer and which involves no subjective experience.
In contrast, the most precious message of 1888 claimed that the truth of righteousness by faith goes beyond a legal declaration; it does in reality bring about a change of heart which makes the believing sinner obedient to all the commandments of God. This message was part and parcel of the Day of Atonement "cleansing of the sanctuary" ministry of Christ, which began in 1844 and will continue until probation closes.
One reason the 1888 message has become controversial is this unique definition of righteousness by faith. Many of those who hold strongly to the evangelical definition of justification by faith condemn anyone who adds a subjective experience to that doctrine. The Adventist Church tried to solve this controversy at the Palmdale conference in 1976, when Adventist leaders and scholars met to discuss the issues. Unfortunately, this conference failed to solve the problem, and the controversy is still being debated today: Should righteousness by faith be limited only to justification, or should it include sanctification as well?
Scripture, especially the writings of the apostle Paul, often presents the truth of righteousness by faith in contrast to righteousness by works (see, for example, Acts 13:39; Romans 3:28; 9:30-33; Galatians 2:16). All through Scripture, righteousness by faith is presented as God's way of saving sinners in contrast to man's way of saving himself. It is referred to as the new or everlasting covenant, in contrast to the old covenant. Because our works have no merit and, therefore, contribute absolutely nothing toward the justification by faith that entitles us to heaven, many insist that sanctification, important as it may be, must not be included in the doctrine of righteousness by faith.
Such an unfortunate conclusion is the result of an incomplete understanding of the gospel. It is based on a misunderstanding of what Christ saved us from in His earthly mission. By limiting the salvation Christ obtained on the cross for all mankind to only salvation from the guilt and punishment of sin, we limit the doctrine of righteousness by faith to only a forensic or legal declaration that does not include the experience of sanctification. All this is the fruit of an incorrect view of the human nature Christ assumed at the Incarnation in order to be the Saviour of the world.
Only in the light of the true and full gospel can we come to a correct understanding of the doctrine of righteousness by faith. After all, righteousness by faith simply means appropriating to oneself, or receiving by faith, what God has already accomplished for fallen humanity in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ came to save fallen humanity from every aspect of sin—its guilt and punishment, its power and slavery, as well as its nature and presence. Righteousness by faith must include all this.
According to the clear teaching of Scripture, the faith that justifies is also the faith that sanctifies, and it will also one day glorify the believer whose faith endures to the end. In his introduction to the book of Romans, this is how Paul describes receiving the righteousness of Christ: "In the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'the righteous will live by faith' " (Romans 1:17 NIV). Please notice, "from first to last" it is only by faith that we experience the righteousness of Christ.
When the Bible declares "the just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17), the living that results from accepting the truth of righteousness by faith does not begin when we go to heaven. It begins the moment we step under the umbrella of justification by faith. That is why Paul always ended his letters to the churches with counsel on how Christians who are justified by faith should live. Righteousness by faith in practical reality means "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20, NIV). Since Christ is "the same yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8), the life that He lived some 2,000 years ago in our corporate sinful humanity, He will again live in the believer today through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. This, too, is righteousness by faith, the power of God unto salvation (see Romans 8:11-14).
God's remnant people will realize all this when two things take place. First, as a church, we need to correctly understand and accept a true understanding of the human nature Christ assumed and redeemed in His earthly mission. We need to understand that in the Incarnation, He assumed our sinful human nature dominated by the law of sin in order to fully redeem mankind from every aspect of the sin predicament. This is truly the everlasting gospel, the three angels' messages.
Second, God's remnant needs to fully understand the New Testament definition of faith. Too often, faith is defined today as simply "trusting in God." Faith does definitely include trust in God, but nowhere does the New Testament use the \for A faith as a synonym for the word trust; nowhere does it limit faith to merely trusting in God. Faith involves far more.
According to the clear teaching of the New Testament, genuine faith involves three elements, all of which must be present in the believer if he or she is to experience the full truth of being justified by faith.
1. A knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ. Jesus told the Jews, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). By the word truth, Jesus was referring to Himself. He went on to say, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed" (verse 36, KJV). Incidentally, this statement was made in the context to our slavery to sin. "Whoever commits sin is a slave to sin" (verse 34). Paul brings out the same thought when he declares, "Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17, NIV).
2. Believing the truth as it is in Christ. The fact that a person hears the message of the gospel is not enough to save. A knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ must be accompanied by a belief in what has been heard. To believe means a mental assent to the truth as it is in Christ.
Keep in mind that much of the truth of the gospel may contradict our human reason or even the scientific method. For example, when the disciples informed Thomas that Jesus had risen from the dead and that they had actually seen Him personally, doubting Thomas refused to believe this information until He could verify it himself. As a result, Jesus said to him when He confronted his unbelief: "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29, NIV).
Faith is taking God at His word, even though it may disagree with our rational or human experience. When God informed Noah that the earth would be destroyed by a flood, Noah believed God even though it had never rained before. Similarly, when God told Abraham that his wife would have the promised son after she had passed the age of childbearing, he believed even though what God told him contradicted medical science and human experience (see Romans 4:16-18).
But genuine faith does not stop at a mental assent to truth; there is a third requirement that is vital to one's experience of salvation in Christ.
3. Obeying the truth as it is in Christ. It is here where most Christians come short of understanding the full meaning of New Testament faith. By limiting faith to only a mental assent to truth many have fallen into the trap of cheap grace. This is the result of an incorrect view of the doctrine of substitution, the idea that Christ saved us by bearing our sins only vicariously on the cross. Such a view, as we have already seen, leaves a big gulf between Christ and the human race He came to save. Besides, this vicarious view of substitution limits salvation to a salvation from only sin's guilt and punishment. In my opinion, a correct view of the humanity of Christ, is the only way to understand the true view of substitution and prevent the idea of cheap grace.
The apostle Peter put it like this: "Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness— by whose stripes you were healed" (1 Peter 2:24). Please note how Peter links Christ bearing our sins in His own body with our having died to sins. This is because the death of Christ was a corporate death; all men died in that one man, and faith involves understanding and obeying this truth (see 2 Corinthians 5:14).
Paul brings out the same thought when he states that we were delivered from the jurisdiction of the law as well as its condemnation, by our death in the body of Christ (see Romans 7:4). The purpose of this death is not only that we may be saved from the condemnation of the law, but also that we may bear fruit unto God and serve Him in newness of the Spirit (see verses 4, 6). All this becomes meaningful when we recognize that Christ's humanity was our corporate humanity that needed redeeming.
True Christianity is more than a mental assent to the gospel; it is a participation in Christ and Him crucified. Faith, therefore, involves obedience to die truth as is it is in Christ. The Bible, and especially the apostle Paul, makes it crystal clear that faith is obeying the truth as it is in Christ. Read the following texts and note the positive as well as the negative statements regarding the obedience of faith: Romans 1:5; 6:17; 10:16; 16:26; Galatians 5:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; Hebrews 5:8, 9; 1 Peter 4:17.
What does it actually mean to obey the gospel, and is this obedience synonymous with obeying the law?
To the second part of this question, the answer is No! Obeying the gospel is not the same as obeying the law. However, obeying the gospel does lead to obeying the law. To put it another way, the fruit of obeying the gospel is obeying the law. Obeying the gospel is what saves or justifies us from sin subjectively, but such salvation also includes salvation from the power of sin and slavery to sin, and this, in turn, produces the fruit of the Spirit—agape love, the byproduct of which is joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Such fruit is in perfect harmony with the law of God (see Galatians 5:22-24).
But what does it actually mean to obey the gospel?
The first thing we must realize is that obeying the gospel does not mean doing something. Rather, it means surrendering the will to an already accomplished truth—the truth as it is in Christ and Him crucified. Such obedience means we acknowledge and accept the life, death, and resurrection of Christ as our own life, death, and resurrection. The holy history of Christ, realized in His humanity, implicated the whole human race. He is the second Adam or mankind. So faith is saying Yes to what God did to us in Christ. A Christian, in other words, is one who is faithful to the truth as it is in Christ (see Ephesians 1:1).
Such obedience means that all aspects of our subjective salvation are based on an objective salvation already accomplished and realized in Christ and Him crucified. Righteousness by faith is therefore the righteousness of Christ made effective in the believer through the operation of the indwelling Holy Spirit (see 2 Corinthians 3:17,18). And since Christ redeemed us from every aspect of sin, righteousness by faith encompasses salvation from every aspect of sin—not just its guilt and condemnation.
With this in mind, let's turn now to consider what righteousness by faith involves and includes in terms of the three aspects of salvation—justification, sanctification, and glorification.
1. Justification. The moment one hears and obeys by faith the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, such a person immediately experiences what the Bible calls justification by faith (see Romans 3:28). He or she subjectively passes from condemnation to justification, or as Jesus put it, from death to life (see John 5:24).
As a result, the believer now experiences peace with God, since there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (see Romans 5:1; 8:1). This is because God considers the believer perfect in Christ—perfect in performance, perfect in justice, and even perfect in nature since in His humanity Christ accomplished all three for us. He did this by His birth, life, death, and resurrection. This is the good news of the gospel.
Such is the beginning of the Christian experience. The believer has been delivered from the fear of the second death (see Hebrews 2:14, 15); he or she can join Paul in declaring "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). This peace with God and the hope of eternal life is the foundation of Christian living. Unfortunately, many Adventists do not have this assurance of salvation. As a result, they are unable to experience genuine sanctification that is motivated by love, and not by fear of punishment or desire for reward. Even their confession of present sins is motivated by egocentric concerns which in itself is a sin in God's eyes because it is polluted with self.
It is crucial, then, that as a people we clearly understand what justification by faith is all about. For without this understanding, our sanctification experience will be full of frustrations and hopelessness. By limiting justification to only the forgiveness of past sins, most Adventists have been robbed of the joy and peace of salvation in Christ.
Forgiveness, wonderful as it may be, is still a negative thing and does not give us title to heaven. For the law demands perfect obedience, as well as a perfect nature (see 1 Corinthians 15:50). But this the believer already has in Christ; Jesus produced for us a perfect righteousness in our corporate sinful humanity and fully redeemed it in the resurrection. In Him we stand absolutely perfect and are fully qualified for heaven, both now and in the judgment (see Romans 10:4).
2. Sanctification. The moment the believer is justified by faith, God sends the Holy Spirit to dwell in that person. Not only does the Spirit convince our spirit that we are now the children of God and joint heirs with Christ (see Romans 8:16, 17), but He also bestows on us His most excellent gift, the gift of agape love (see 1 Corinthians 13). Empowered by the gift of agape love that "does not seek its own" (verse 5), the believer is able to follow Jesus' command to "love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those that hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you" (Matthew 5:44).
Such love is the most powerful witness to a selfish and sinful world. It proves that the gospel is not merely words, but the power of God unto salvation (see 1 Corinthians 4:20). Jesus Himself declared: "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). It is this fact, above every other, that will lighten the earth with Christ's glory. It is this that will make it possible for God to declare "Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" (Revelation 14:12).
When the fourth angel of Revelation 18 joins the three angels of Revelation 14 to give power to their messages, this witness will become a reality, and the earth will be lightened with God's glory. Then the end can come, and believers can experience glorification, the final stage of their salvation experience in Christ.
All this is part and parcel of the glorious truth of Christ our righteousness and of the experience of righteousness by faith. This is the truth that will one day swallow up every other truth. We must keep in mind that while the everlasting gospel is what Christ has already accomplished for fallen humanity in His earthly mission, the object of this gospel is more than just saving sinners from the guilt and punishment of sin, wonderful as this may be. God's purpose in saving us in Christ is also to restore His image in us— the image that sin has robbed us of.
Sin not only deprived humanity of life, it also robbed mankind of the glory of God (see Romans 3:23). Consequently, the gospel not only gives us eternal life, but it also restores the glory of God in the believer (see 2 Corinthians 3:17,18). This restoration begins the moment we are justified by faith, becomes more and more a reality during the process of sanctification, and will be fully realized at the second coming of Christ when glorification takes place.
As we grow in grace and the knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ, as we see more and more the glory of God shining in the face of Christ's humanity, as we walk in the Spirit of Christ, we become "transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). This is what Paul meant when he declared to the Christians at Rome that they were justified by faith, had peace with God, and were now standing in, or under, grace (see Romans 5:1, 2). To Paul, standing in, or under, grace meant more than a ticket to heaven; it also meant that God's grace or power was now available to the justified believers so that they might arrive at the glory of God (see verse 3).
The primary meaning of grace in the New Testament is undeserved favor—God's loving disposition towards the sinful human race which led Him to send His Son to save us (see Ephesians 1:7; 2:8, 9). However, the word grace is also used to mean the power or strength of God, made available to the justified believer in order that he or she might live the Christian life and fulfill the divine purpose. The apostle Paul often used the -word grace in this sense when applying it to his own life and mission (see 1 Corinthians 15:9, 10; 2 Corinthians 12:7-9; Ephesians 3:1-12).
In the process of sanctification, no change takes place to our flesh or sinful nature; it remains innately sinful until the second advent. Sanctification brings about a change only to our characters as they reflect more and more the loving disposition and behavior Christ revealed in His humanity and especially at the cross (Romans 5:8).
It is the experience of glorification toward which we Christians look forward when it comes to the redemption of our vile bodies (see Philippians 3:20, 21). This is the blessed hope, when we will be totally delivered from the sin problem. Until then, our own sinful natures will be our worst enemies in our battle against sin. But thank God, in our struggles with the principle of self that dwells in our members there is no condemnation, because we are in Christ Jesus (see Romans 8:1). In Him we stand perfect.
3. Glorification. This is the ultimate reality of salvation obtained for sinful humanity in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the blessed hope of justification by faith to which all believers longingly look forward. While justification gives us Christians our title to heaven, and sanctification makes us fit for heaven, glorification is when heaven will become a living reality.
Remember that during the process of sanctification no change takes place to our sinful nature. It continues to remain dominated by the law of sin, the principle of self. Because of this, the flesh becomes our greatest hindrance to living the Christian life. Paul told the Christians at Rome, that believers will be groaning within themselves, anxiously and patiently waiting for the redemption of their bodies (see Romans 8: 22, 23).
Justification by faith gives us peace with God, since Christ becomes "the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4). Sanctification by faith manifests or witnesses to the saving power of the gospel (see 2 Corinthians 3:17,18). But glorification eradicates sin from our natures and ushers in eternal life as a tangible reality (see Philippians 3:20, 21).
But all three of these experiences are the result of God's redeeming grace obtained for fallen mankind in Christ when He assumed our sinful humanity in the incarnation and redeemed it by His life, death, and resurrection. No wonder Ellen White could write "the humanity of Christ is everything to us" {Selected Messages, 1:244).
This is the full and complete gospel I believe God has raised up the advent movement to restore, proclaim, and witness to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people before probation can close and this sin-cursed world of ours can be brought to an end. A true understanding of the humanity of our Saviour, in the light of this full and complete gospel, will therefore play a vital part in finishing this God-given commission. This is why I feel it is so important that God's people stop throwing mud at each other and be willing to sit down with their Bibles and let the Holy Spirit guide them into all the truth on this important subject. May that day come soon. Amen.
Key Points in Chapter Nineteen The Three Angels' Messages