Obedience Of Faith 0828002037

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Review and Herald Publishing Association Washington, DC 20039-0555 Hagerstown, MD 21740

Copyright © 1983 by Review and Herald Publishing Association This book was Edited by Gerald Wheeler Designed by Richard Steadham Cover art by Howard Bullard Type set: 11/12 Century Schoolbook PRINTED IN U.S.A.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Venden, Morris L. Obedience of faith. 1. Christian life-Seventh-day Adventist authors. 2. Seventh-day Adventists-Doctrines. I. Title. BV4501.2.V39 1983 234'.6 83-13934

ISBN 0-8280-0203-7

Contents

Introduction

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Obedience Can Come by Faith Alone ... Because the Bible Says So

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Because of the Nature of Mankind

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Because of the Nature of Surrender

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Because of God's Control

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Because of the Sabbath Rest

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Because of the Nature of Repentance

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Because Obedience Is the Fruit of Faith 81 Because of the Example of Jesus

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Introduction

Satan's original charge against God was that His law could not be obeyed. When Adam and Eve broke it, the devil rejoiced and added another accusation, that God could not forgive man. Satan had no idea that God would pay the penalty Himself. But Jesus' life and death proved that sinners could be forgiven, and that the law of God can be obeyed, not only by Him but by those who live the life of faith as He did. This twofold message of forgiveness and obedience is the heart of the remnant mission during the time symbolized by the three angels, and the final work of Christ in heaven. Jesus, as our High Priest, provides forgiveness for sinners and power to obey. Both truths are equally necessary. It is extremely important that the remnant people understand this two-fold work of Christ in heaven, otherwise it will be impossible for them to fulfill their mission. Justification by faith-God's work for us-and the righteousness of Christ-which includes God's work in us-are the themes we are to present to a perishing world. 5

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH Revelation 14:12 describes the remnant people in the words "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." The note of victory for God's people runs through the book of Revelation. Each of the seven churches receives a promise. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree oflife, which is in the midst of the paradise of God" (Chap. 2:7). "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death" (verse 11). "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna" (verse 17). "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations" (verse 26). "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels" (chap. 3:5). "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out" (verse 12). And finally, to the church of Laodicea, God proclaims, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne" (verse 21). The Desire of Ages (p. 763), states that obedience or disobedience is the last great issue of the conflict between Christ and Satan. But we find ourselves in great difficulty. Most of us aren't doing that well on obedience. We struggle with the same faults and weaknesses and failings day after day, year after year. Repeatedly we resolve to do better, we try our best to reform, 6

INTRODUCTION we put forth strenuous effort in the attempt to live righteous lives. And we fail. And fail. And fail again. In spite of reminders that sanctification is the work of a lifetime, we would feel more comfortable if we could recognize some sort of progress. Even the assurance that Godjudges us by the direction of our lives, instead of by the occasional good deed or misdeed, offers little comfort to some of us, for our direction is apparently neither up nor down-it's just a perpetual up and down. But the remnant people are those who do keep God's commandments. The book of Revelation directs its promises to the overcomer. So there must be a way of obeying God, of keeping His commandments, of overcoming, that has so far escaped some of us . The realm of obedience must have something more that we still need to understand. This book is an attempt to explain in detail what some of us believe to be the major breakthrough in the victorious Christian life. It is that obedience comes by faith alone in Jesus Christ, which means that God's goal is to lead us into a relationship of absolute dependence upon Him, which will allow Him to do what He's always wanted to do-live His life in us. Such a relationship enables Him "to will and to do according to His good pleasure" in our lives. And whatever Jesus does is true obedience. For a long time we have held two incompatible beliefs. One , that we can keep God's 7

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH

commandments and can overcome-we've even dealt quite a bit in the past with things like perfection. And two, we have also believed that while we need God's help, we're supposed to work hard on our own obedience. Some today have become so frustrated over the feeble obedience that they have been able to produce in their own strength, that they have decided to scrap the belief in victory, obedience, and overcoming altogether, and to adjust their theology to their experience. They argue that it is impossible to obey God's commandments anyway, and thus, without realizing it, have joined the enemy in one of his major charges against God. While it is true that our acceptance with God does not result from our obedience, it in no way discredits the truth that God has power available to keep us from sinning. The person who loses heart and gives up the assurance of salvation because of his wrong behavior, simply advertises the fact that he is a legalist. By the same token, the individual who feels he has no assurance of salvation unless he can believe that imperfection is all that God expects, is also a legalist. Both groups base their guarantee of salvation upon their performance and behavior, albeit from different perspectives. It is good news to realize that there exists a third alternative. We can believe injustification by faith alone and have complete confidence in our acceptance before God based totally upon what Jesus has already done in our behalf. At the same 8

INTRODUCTION time, we can accept the truth that obedience and victory and overcoming are available, and can become realities in our lives today. Obedience is by faith alone, just as forgiveness is by faith alone. Paul said a long time ago, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him" (Col. 2:6). In this book we will carefully consider eight major reasons why obedience can come by faith alone. We'll list them briefly, and spend a chapter examining each point in greater detail. 1. Because the Bible says so. In Romans 1:17 Paul declares, "The just shall live by faith." Who are the just? Those who have accepted God's justifying grace. And here the Bible tells us that the just-those who have beenjustified-shall live by faith. 2. Because of the nature of mankind. Romans 5:19 states that one man's sin made many sinners. "Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them"-Steps to Christ, p. 18. John 3 tells us that unless we are born again we cannot see the kingdom of heaven. If that's true, then something must have been wrong with our first birth. Isaiah, centuries before, proclaimed that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Thus our very natures reveal that obedience can only come by total dependence upon another power, one outside of ourselves. 3. Because of the nature of sin. It means giving up on ourselves (Romans 9 and 10). If we stop trying to succeed on our own ability, then we must 9

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH rely upon the power of another. It is impossible to both try hard to obey and give up on ever being able to obey. Giving up negates the possibility of trying hard to accomplish something. But when we give up , or surrender, we place ourselves under the control of God. 4. God wants u s to be controlled by Him. According to Romans 6 we have two options in this world, two possibilities of who is in charge of our lives- either God, or the devil. There is no middle ground. We choose which of the two powers we want to rule over us. God's control is that of love, and if we surrender to Him, then we will be obedient. 5. God offers us rest in living the Christian life, as well as rest from the guilt of sin. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Heb. 4:9). (Notice that it is for God's people-those who have already accepted Him and become His children.) "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his" (verse 10). 6. The nature of repentance requires it . Repentance is not our own doing, but a gift (Acts 5:31 ). And what is repentance? It's sorrow for sin and a turning away from it. So if repentance is a gift, and repentance is sorrow over sin and a turning away from it, then the turning away from sin must be a gift, as well . It is not something we achieve, but something we receive. 7. In John 15 Jesu s mad e it clear tha t obedience is a fruit of faith . Fruit is the result of

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INTRODUCTION something else. You don't get it by just trying hard to produce it-it is the natural consequence of the living Vine's activities. If we are connected to the Vine we will produce fruit, spontaneously, naturally, because we can do nothing else. 8. And, finally, Jesus set the ultimate example (John 14:10). Jesus did everything in His life through power from above Him, rather than from His own inner strengths. He came to our world not only to die for us-to pay the penalty for sin-but also to show us how to live by dependence upon a higher power. Jesus lived a life of obedience by faith alone and became the greatest argument that we also can live as He did. In summary, we would like to underline the fact that obedience by faith is a subject that only the committed Christian can understand or experience. It is not simply another form of self-help, behavior modification , or positive thinking that offers outward change for those strong-willed enough to pull it off. Obedience by faith alone can come only from the heart, and only to the person in day-by-day communication with Jesus Christ. For the person who has been justified, forgiven, and been put right with God by acceptance of what Jesus has done at the cross, obedience by faith alone is a safe-and virtually essential-topic. Only someone who has accepted the restored relationship that is the object ofjustification and is once again in communion with God, will find it meaningful. Therefore this is a book only for 11

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH Christians, for those who have that relationship. Consequently, we will not spend the major portion of our time in re-emphasizing the fact that obedience is not the basis of our salvation-that how well you are overcoming does not determine your standing with God today. Or that you can never find the foundation of your assurance in your performance or behavior, whether good or bad. But for the person who has accepted of God's justifying grace and who is in relationship with God, obedience through faith in Jesus Christ becomes the good news of what God wants to do in us and through us, to glorify His name before the world and the universe.

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1 Obedience Can Come by Faith Alone Because the Bible Says So

One time, after I ordered a sandwich at an airport snack bar, I wandered off and left it sitting on the counter because I had other things on my mind. I had to go back to get it. But ifl had bought a Mercedes, there's little chance I would have forgotten to take it from the showroom. "Will a man receive that which he has bought?" Jones and Waggoner once asked. "If a man goes into a store and asks for an item, and pays for it, will he suddenly change his mind, and leave the place without taking it with him? Of course he won't. If he pays for it, it is certain that he will take it. Now Jesus has paid for us. He has paid the highest possible price for us, even His precious blood. Indeed, He gave Himself for us. Then you can be absolutely certain that He will accept us." The infinite, priceless gift of Jesus makes it certain that God has accepted us because He accepted Jesus' sacrifice. And daily we can praise God anew for that. It's only people who have already been accepted, and who know that they are, who can safely study the subject of obedience.

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OBEDIENCE OFFAITH If I am already feeling rejected, it will bring nothing but discouragement for me to even approach the topic. We all know, if we have studied what Scripture teaches, that grace--a gift from God-saves us through faith (Eph. 2:8, 9). But there is something we don't all know and that may yet become a major question among Seventh-day Adventists. We do not all realize that we live by faith, as well as come to God initially by faith. "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7). We live only by faith. Obedience comes by faith alone, plus or minus nothing. Some think today that if you're going to be friendly to faith, you've got to be hostile to obedience. And if you stress obedience, you must oppose faith. Not so. In fact, if you reject faith, you are inevitably going to be unfriendly to obedience, as well. And vice versa. The two go together. Yet many people have a gross misunderstanding of the Christian life and how overcoming and obedience are possible. The editor of the Adventist Review spoke to a congregation at the Washington Conference camp meeting a few years ago. "I have a question to ask you" he said. "How many of you believe that we are saved by faith alone?" One or two hands went up and retreated quickly. "How many of you believe that we are saved by works alone?" Again one or two hands shot up, only to vanish instantly. Then he asked, "How many of you believe that we are saved by faith plus works?" And most of the 14

BECAUSE THE BIBLE SAYS SO rest of the hands rose, waving their paper fans in the air. Observing the response , the editor commented, "I hope before we are finished today that you will all change your minds." And he proceeded to preach that we are saved by faith alone in Jes us Christ. Romans 4:5 states, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Does that mean that God justifies ungodly people? That's what it says. "To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (verse 4, 5). The church has been having some struggles with this concept. Let's admit it. The discussions over it have gotten pretty heavy in some circles. Do we really believe that we are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ, as far as our hope of eternal life is concerned? If you understand anything at all about what Jesus provided for us at the cross, then you must accept the great Bible statements that we are saved by grace, through faith. They are an integral part of the gospel. Human nature has struggled with this idea for centuries, however. The Reformers fought and died for it. It has been hard for us to realize that it is impossible for anyone ever to earn or merit God's grace or favor. Yet this fact is still the foundation of t he gospel. God is not on the merit system, but the gift system. And all we can do to hope for eternal

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OBEDIENCE OF FAITH

life is to continually accept and respond to what He's already done for us at the cross and continues to do for us day by day. Soteriology, the science of salvation, has three aspects. The first is justification by faith-the truth that Jesus at the cross made provision not only to forgive our sins but to treat us as if we had never sinned. The second goes beyond the realization that Jesus has forgiven our past sins-it includes the power, through the Holy Spirit, to enable us to have victory over our present sinning, falling, and mistakes. And the third is the hope of release from a world of sin when Jesus comes again. All three elements are good news. Although other evangelical Christians today emphasize justification by faith and what Jesus has done for us, and even a growing number stress the coming of Jesus and the glorification when He returns, the remnant church still has a unique mission, one that goes beyond even what the Reformers preached. It is the mission to build walls upon the gospel foundation. What are they? The truth that God can save us from our present sinning, from our present failures. He is interested in dealing not only with our past failures and sins but with our present and future mistakes, as well. God has not only pardon for the past but power for the present. Our Lord not only will cleanse and purify our records but our lives, as well. It is a part of the gospel that becomes particularly significant during the period depicted in the book of Revelation, a period that has overcoming and 16

BECAUSE THE BIBLE SAYS SO victory as its keynote. As I was talking with someone about how I believed that God offers us power to enable us to obey His commandments, he said, "Did you, yesterday?" How would you answer this question? "That's none of your business!" I told him. And then I added a question of my own. "Is William Miller going to be in heaven?" The person replied, "Oh, I hope so." "No, that's not the answer to my question. Is he going to be in heaven-Yes or No?" "I can't say. That's not my department." "Neither is it your department as to whether or not I kept the commandments yesterday. That's God's, and His alone." It's easy for us to slip into asking, "Who has really done it?" and miss the truth of Revelation 14:12. At the end of time there will be a group of people who keep God's commandments. They may not be identifiable to the casual observer. Even they themselves may not be aware of their own achievements-for the simple reason that it is not their own. It is God's doing. And we know that the closer we come to Jesus, the less impressed we will be with our own lives. But in spite of the fact that we cannot point to others-or to ourselves- and say, "He's done it," "She's done it," "I've done it," Revelation 14:12 is still there. It still says, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that kept the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." OOF-2

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OBEDIENCE OFFAITH Interestingly, the book of Revelation describes the commandment-keeping saints as patient. If you are going to be one of those who have the faith of Jesus, enduring to the end and keeping God's commandments, you will have patience as well. Have you ever found yourself impatient with your behavior and performance? It's an easy thing to do. And yet surely we can afford to be as patient with ourselves as God is with us. According to Romans 1:16, 17, the first reason why obedience can come by faith-and by faith alone-is simply that the Bible says so. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." Jesus' sacrifice at the cross assured salvation to everyone who would accept it. A sinner responds to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, and he comes to God, just as he is. And because of Jesus, he is put right with God. The blood of Jesus covers his sin, and he stands before God as if he had not sinned. Accepted in the Beloved, he is accounted just. And then Paul says, "The just shall live by faith." The phrase shows up several times in Scripture, first of all in Habakkuk 2:4. Paul later quotes it again in Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38. "The just shall live by faith." If the just-we who have been justified-are going to live by faith,

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BECAUSE THE BIBLE SAYS SO

then one of the first things we must do is to understand what faith is. Ellen White states in Patriarchs and Prophets, "Every failure on the part of the children of God is due to their lack of faith ."- Page 657. So faith is extremely crucial in obedience and overcoming. A great deal of misunderstanding exists over what faith is all about. A pseudofaith that is nothing more than positive thinking has been troubling the Christian world for years. But one of the greatest evidences of genuine faith is that it is totally spontaneous. It is not something that we work on or something that we work up. Ifwe could get that one point straight, it would save us from accepting the counterfeit faith so prevalent today. Faith comes as the natural result of something else. And although obedience is the fruit of faith, faith itself is also a fruit. Ephesians 2:8, 9 reminds us that we are saved by grace, through faith, and that not of ourselves. Neither the grace is our own doing, nor the faith. Both are gifts from God. God extends the gift of faith in some measure to every person. Everyone born into our world, who has any mental capacity at all, receives the measure of faith (Rom. 12:3; Education, p. 253). He has given to all of us enough faith to get started with. But it is not saving faith because everyone is not saved. In order to have that, we must have more than God originally gave each one of us. "Faith that enables us to receive God's gifts is itself a gift, of which some measure is imparted to every human being. It grows as exercised in

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OBEDIENCE OFFAITH appropriating the word of God. In order to strengthen faith, we must often bririg it in contact with the word."-Education, pp. 253, 254. Some have thought that the way to exercise faith is to force yourself to believe that something out of the ordinary is going to happen-or to get yourself into a bind, and then try to believe that God will help you out. But it is not exercising faith to write a rubber check, for example, and then wait hopefully for God to come through with the funds to cover it. That's presumption. And while this is an extreme example, it is often the case that our so-called exercising of faith, of stepping out in faith, ends up damaging our trust in God instead of building it. While God has a thousand ways to respond to our needs, the way we expect Him to work may not be one of them! Any time that we attempt to increase our faith by struggling hard to make ourselves believe a certain thing is going to occur, we are not really exercising faith. Rather it has to do with getting in contact with the Word of God. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). When we come in contact with God's Word we get in touch with a Person-Christ Jesus. And as we learn more about Him, we begin to experience a saving relationship with Him. Genuine faith, or trust, comes from the relationship. It cannot exist without the relationship. Faith is trusting another. The moment you have faith, you have at least two parties. You cannot have faith with only one. Furthermore, faith is one individual

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BECAUSE THE BIBLE SAYS SO depending upon another. How does that happen? First of all, you must have someone trustworthy; and secondly, you must get to know him. Only then will you trust spontaneously and naturally. That's what we mean by faith being the consequence of something else-it is the result of relationship. "Faith is trusting God."-Ibid., p. 253 . How do you develop a relationship? By communication. How can you communicate with God? Through His Word, the way He talks to us, and through prayer, the way we speak to Him. And through going places and doing things with Him-Christian work and service. Through these simple means, relationship can exist, and when we get to know Him, we will trust Him and naturally and spontaneously have faith in Him. So faith is never something we work on. Where we put our effort is toward the relationship with Him, our communication with Him, and as it directs our attention to Jesus, we gain faith in Him. Consider for a moment how you came to accept Jesus as your Saviour in the first place. Through His Word, either read privately or heard from the testimony of someone else , you discovered something of His love. You saw a little bit of what kind of person He is, realized how He would accept you , forgive you, cleanse you from all unrighteousness. By hearing the word preached, or by reading it for yourself, you began to become acquainted with Him. Then you responded by speaking to Him 21

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH yourself, personally, through prayer. Talking to Him, you admitted to Him your need of His free gift of salvation, His grace. Finally you accepted His offer of salvation, and He forgave and justified you. One of the first impulses you had as you experienced the peace of being right with God was to tell someone else the good news. Have you ever heard anyone tell of becoming a child of God without knowing anything about Him, without saying anything to Him, and without ever telling anyone else about it afterward? It's impossible! Colossians 2:6 says, "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." We live the Christian life exactly the same way as we began it. "The just shall live by faith." You don't put your effort toward working hard to be just, nor toward having faith. Instead you direct all of your endeavors into the trust relationship with Jesus Christ, and He gives you faith and righteousness as free gifts. Just before Jesus returns, the last great issue will not be whether or not Jesus died for our sins, whether or not He has the power to forgive us, or whether His sacrifice was enough to cover our guilt, but over the question of obedience or disobedience. The whole world must face it (The Desire of Ages, p. 763). For a long time we as a church have emphasized the need for obedience, seeing it as our mission. But we have given the impression that obedience results from a lot of hard work on our own part. We have believed that God helps those who help

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BECAUSE THE BIBLE SAYS SO themselves. Our resolutions and pledges and promises have been endless as we keep on trying, and failing, and trying again. Yet all the time Jesus stands patiently waiting, His arms outstretched, as He says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).

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2 Obedience Can Come by Faith Alone Because of the Nature of Mankind

The Bible contains a multitude ofreferences to mankind's fallen condition. Romans 5:12 states that "by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" (verse 19). It is a Bible truth that all have sinned. We-unlike Christ-are sinners because we are born in a world of sin, and whether we ever sin or not is beside the point. We are sinful. Steps to Christ declares that "Our hearts are evil, and we cannot change them."-Page 18. It's the condition of every human being entering our world. "There is none righteous, no, not one" (Rom. 3:10). "There is none that doeth good, no, not one" (verse 12). "All unrighteousness is sin," 1 John 5:17 tells us, and 1John1:8 reminds us that "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." Ephesians 2:3 reveals that we are by nature the children of wrath. According to Romans 7:18, nothing good dwells in our flesh. And Romans 8:7

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BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF MANKIND clearly tells us that "the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." The list of texts could go on and on. But one great passage of Scripture clearly proves that we are sinful by nature-the third chapter of John. Nicodemus, the intellectual, visited Jesus at night. "Master, You're a great teacher," he began. "I'm a Sanhedrin man myself, so why don't we have a discussion? Why don't we polish off a few intellectual hors-d'oeuvres?" Jesus looked straight at him. "What you need, Nicodemus, is to be born again." Nicodemus tried to change the subject, and Jesus allowed him to say his piece. But whenever he paused for breath the Master repeated, "You need to be born again." Jesus went on to remind the Jewish leader that unless someone is born again he can't ever see the kingdom of God. If no one can ever enter God's kingdom unless he has a rebirth, then something must have been wrong with the first birth. Our sinful condition comes as a result of having been born in a world in rebellion against God. It's that simple. Some have a problem with the concept. "What do you mean?" they demand. "Are you saying that sin is somehow in the genes and chromosomes?" No, I don't think we have any evidence to prove that idea. Then what is original sin? Well, we don't have in mind what Augustine did. His idea should have been labeled original guilt. But the Augsburg Confession isn't too far off-I'd like to take a

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OBEDIENCE OFFAITH similar position. We are born separated from God, and would have remained so forever, without hope, if it had not been for the cross. But because of Golgotha, we do not have to remain in that condition. God gives every one of us the option to be born again. The first symptom of being born separated from God is self-centeredness. Have you ever had trouble looking at a newborn baby and thinking of him as a sinner? Try asking yourself whether he is self-centered. Never mind that mother just got home from the hospital and isn't feeling too well yet. Nor that father worked hard all day and is terribly tired . Don't worry about its being two o'clock in the morning. If baby wants to be fed or changed or entertained, he wants it-and now! All of us were born self-centered, and apart from Christ we stay that way. We only learn to disguise it somewhat as we grow older! And it is from such self-centeredness that springs all of what we call "sins." Throughout life we-unlike Christ-continue to be sinful by nature-whether doing anything wrong or not. "None of the apostles and prophets ever claimed to be without sin. Men who have lived the nearest to God, men who would sacrifice life itself rather than knowingly commit a wrong act . . . have confessed the sinfulness of their nature."-The Acts of the Apostles, p. 561. When Paul said, "I am the chief of sinners," he didn't mean, "I'm doing wrong things all the time, I'm sinning all the time." He had also stated, "Shall we

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BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF MANKIND continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" (Rom. 6:1, 2). But he was confessing the sinfulness of his nature. He affirmed that the righteousness in his life came from Christ, who lived in him (Gal. 2:20), and not from his own resources. Let's remember here that just because I am born in a sinful state doesn't mean that I'm lost. Even though we entered the world self-centered and separated from God, He has never held us responsible for that fact. The only thing He considers us accountable for is how we respond to His offer of salvation when we have received an understanding of it. Have you ever heard the old-wives' tale that babies will be saved or lost according to the fate of their parents? It was a real relief to read one day in Selected Messages, book 2, page 260, about infants in heaven without their parents. God has never condemned us for being born in this rebellious world. Original sin doesn't mean original guilt (John 9:41; 15:22-24; James 4:17). If our hearts are evil and self-centered, and we cannot change them-if they will continue to be so at least until Christ returns-then how could we ever obey? Jesus asked in Matthew 7:16-18, "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." Can people, sinful from birth, ever bring forth good fruit? Is obedience impossible? Isaiah 61:3 gives us 27

OBEDIENCE OFFAITH an answer: "To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified." So it must be possible for naturally corrupt people to have some sort of miracle performed-through the mighty power of God-that will make them into trees of righteousness. He will enable them to bring forth good fruit-good works-that will glorify God. We call such a miracle conversion, or the new birth. It is a supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit (John 3:5), which produces a change of attitude toward God. Before conversion a person is not interested in spiritual things. He does not find joy in communion with God. But after it, the things of God attract him (Rom. 8:7; Eze. 36:26, 27). It also creates a new capacity for knowing and loving God that we didn't even have before (1 Cor. 2:14). The beginning of spiritual life, it leads to a willing obedience to all of God's requirements. However, such a bearing of fruit to the glory of God doesn't happen overnight (Mark 4:28). But conversion starts our spiritual growth, just as the sprouting of the seed is the first state of physical growth. According to Steps to Christ (p. 18), the new heart leads to a new life. Although the Holy Spirit gives the new heart instantaneously, the new life comes as a gradual result. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15, R.S.V.).

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BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF MANKIND I would like to underscore the fact that the new life arising from conversion is a process. Many young people have come to the point of conversion, given their lives over to God, and been sincere in doing so. Then they have discovered the morning after the week before that they still have problems and failures in their lives, and they conclude that they weren't really converted. Giving up, they wait for the next Week of Prayer or camp meeting or altar call. No, Jesus Himself taught the concept of growth. The prodigal son, converted in the pigpen, turned around and headed toward his father's house. He'd had a big change in his attitude toward his father, a new capacity for appreciating his love. But immediately after his conversion he was still in the pigpen-he just faced a different direction. The long trip back to his father's house still awaited him. But a person who has been born again is not going to preserve that new life unless he maintains a vital connection with God. A newborn baby, in the physical sense, is not going to grow up very fast-or even maintain the little bit of life he already has-if he refuses to eat or breathe or exercise. And if an infant Christian doesn't become involved in a personal study of God's Word, in personal prayer and daily devotion, and if he doesn't give in to the desire that he feels to tell someone else about Jesus, he will not grow as a Christian. Indeed, he will lose the life that he already has, will not stay converted. Spiritual life consists of more than spiritual birth, as important

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OBEDIENCE OF FAITH as that birth is. "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved" (Matt. 24:12, 13). Thus the spiritual life has its basis in a continuing relationship with Jesus Christ. And in order to maintain it, you must communicate with Him day by day. "Sinful man can find hope and righteousness only in God; and no human being is righteous any longer than he has faith in God and maintains a vital connection with Him."-Testimonies to Ministers, p. 367. Some of us used to think that the devotional life was for people with arthritis and white hair cramming for their finals. But not so. Rather, it is the entire basis of spiritual life and growth. Since we are sinners by nature-born sinful-we are never going to be able to produce any obedience on our own . "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6). Notice that it is talking about our righteousness. Even our righteousness, apart from Christ, has no more value than filthy rags. If we are going to produce good fruit, if we are going to have real righteousness, we will have to get it from somewhere else. The Lord is our righteousness (Jer. 23:6). He's the only source for any genuine righteousness that we have. And it is possible to have Christ dwell in our hearts by faith (Eph. 3:17). Christ will live in us (Gal. 2:20). And then, working in and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit, He produces righteousness that really is righteousness. 30

BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF MANKIND Some will reply in shock, "Christ living in you? That's pantheism!" They know that pantheism has received bad 'marks in Adventist history . Pantheism claims that God is in the leaf, the flower, the stone. But Christ indwelling in us is not pantheism-it is good Biblical truth. Which leads us to the question: If Christ dwells in us, is He going to live an imperfect life? Will what the Holy Spirit does in our lives be blemished or faulty? If it is true that I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, then is it possible for Christ to obey in me? And if the Holy Spirit wants to dwell in our hearts is it possible for Him to produce obedience? Of course it is! On one hand, I can take the position that Jesus, when He died on the cross, made provision for me to be put right with God, and I accept all of that by faith. But when it comes to living the Christian life, I've got to work hard, and sweat, and struggle, because that is largely my responsibility. However, all I can hope to produce is imperfect obedience because any effort apart from Christ is going to produce filthy rags. But on the other hand, I can still believe that Christ assumed my place on the cross and made it possible for me to be set right with God.Yet when it comes to the Christian life, I recognize that I cannot save myself in that any more than I could have at Golgotha. Jesus has to do it all there, as well. He is able to produce obedience and righteousness, which I cannot. Obedience comes only by faith, by trusting in Him for power.

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OBEDIENCE OF FAITH Put your effort where it really counts. Cease trying to fight sin and the devil in your own strength. You'll only get knots and bruises. Instead, fight the "fight of faith." Concentrate on the faith relationship with Jesus. As we accept Him, and commune with Him day by day, He will re-create us to be trees ofrighteousness, planted by the Lord. The fruits of the Spirit, the fruits of righteousness and obedience, will develop naturally in our lives. During our spiritual growth He will forgive us when we fall and fail because of our immaturity. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). Jesus, in discussing forgiveness, said that we should forgive seventy times seven. And then He added, "If your brother sins against you seven times a day, and turns again and repents, forgive him all seven times" (see Luke 17:3). That's the way His Father forgives. Even if I fall and fail seven times in a single day, God will forgive me each time. "Oh," someone protests, "that will lead to license." Luke 7:43 declares thathe who is forgiven much, loves much. And John 14:15 tells us that if we love God we·will keep His commandments. So he who is forgiven much loves much-and he who loves much obeys much. God continues to love and accept us as we grow up in Him. As we seek Him every day for communion and fellowship it allows Him to do His work in our lives.

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3 Obedience Can Come by Faith Alone Because of the Nature of Surrender

One time I went up to the platform after a camp meeting program to talk to Elder H.M.S. Richards. "I would like to have a discussion with you sometime on righteousness by faith," I said. "That's the only kind there is!" he replied. And it's true. Because of human nature, our only real righteousness comes from Jesus. There can be none apart from Him. Away from God, we are self-centered and always will be. If you are God-centered today, but choose to live apart from Him tomorrow, then you will again lapse into self-centeredness . Self-centered people are sinners, whether they ever do anything outwardly "wrong" or not. And they cannot obey. Many people have accepted the premise that it is necessary to begin with faith that Jesus is our Saviour. But then they attempt to live the Christian life by faith plus something else. I would like to state clearly and without reservation that the just live by faith just as surely as they came to God by it. There is no difference between the method of coming to God, and of staying with Him. OOF-3

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OBEDIENCE OF FAITH It's all by faith. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him" (Col. 2:6). "How am I to abide in Christ?" We are asked in Steps to Christ, page 69. "In the same way as you received Him at first." "Every failure on the part of the children of God is due to their lack of faith."-Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 657. Now, if every failure originates from our lack of faith, then there's a cause and a result. Do we put our attention on the failures, or toward the faith relationship? It's obvious, isn't it? "If you fight the fight of faith with all of your will power, you will conquer."-Testimonies, vol. 5, p. 513. Waging the fight of faith with all of my will power leaves me none to combat sin and the devil. Many of us spend our Christian life acknowledging in theory that "Yes, everybody needs God," but we think we must channel our energy and effort in trying hard to do what's right. And that is precisely the cause of our failure. One of the major reasons why obedience can come only by faith is seen in the nature of surrender itself. The theme of surrender builds on the fact that if we are sinners, and if we cannot produce one particle of genuine obedience apart from God, then all we can do regarding ourselves is to give up on ourselves. We must reject the thought that we can ever produce anything that is genuine obedience. And here we encounter a great deal of misunderstanding concerning surrender, this often-used word in Christian circles. Surrender doesn't show up in the King James 34

BECAUSEOFTHENATUREOFSURRENDER Version of the Bible. The closest thing you can find is in the last few verses of Romans 9, beginning with verse 30: "What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone." Verse 33 identifies the stumblingstone as Jesus. "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved," Paul continues. "For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge" (chap. 10:1, 2). They're ignorant about something. What is it? "For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (verses 3, 4). Some people ask whether the righteousness the passage is talking about is imputed or imparted. It makes no difference! We have already noticed that righteousness can never exist apart from Jesus. Whether it's imputed or imparted is beside the point. The person who stumbles, and does not know righteousness in either sense, is the one who is trying to produce his own. A synonym of surrender is submit. Notice that 35

OBEDIENCE OFFAITH the problem of those Paul was talking about was that they had not submitted themselves. He didn't say that they hadn't surrendered-or submitted-their sins, their bad habits, or their faults. Rather, they hadn't submitted themselves. There can be a big difference between surrendering things, and surrendering self You can find strong-willed people who become convinced that smoking causes lung cancer. And they can respond to an appeal to give it up. A determined person can discard his smoking or drinking or dancing and become a good church member. But if he does it apart from Christ, who gets the credit for it? Self. And if self did such a good job, the individual can end up even farther from self-surrender than before. But even the strongest person can produce only outward obedience, and it doesn't count, for all true obedience comes from the heart (The Desire of Ages, p. 668). So the strong-willed person can use giving up things as an escape from giving up on himself. But the real issue in surrender is the latter, and even he must come to the realization that he cannot really abandon his habits or vices. He might be able to stop the external, overt actions, but on the inside he's still the same. Only God can deal with the sin problem in the heart. A person never pushes sin out. It always gets crowded out by Jesus coming in. And whenever someone tries to eject sin by his own backbone and will power, he's going to end up in a worse 36

BECAUSEOFTHENATUREOFSURRENDER condition than when he started. A teen-ager who has given up rock music may not go back to it, but he may take up something else. Or he may succumb to pride because of his accomplishment, and pride is the worst sin of all. So the question of surrender can never focus on discarding things. Surrender is giving up on ourselves, and accepting Jesus' own words in John 15:5, "Without me, ye can do nothing." It doesn't mean that we are helpless in terms of the things that God has given everyone the ability to do, so long as He keeps our hearts beating. Without Jesus, we can still take out the garbage, make a million, or learn to water-ski. Without God we can succeed in a vocation, mow the lawn, or even curse Him. Because of His love and His respect for a person's power of choice, He will even keep the heart beating in the chest of the one who curses Him. But without God no one can produce the fruits ofrighteousness. The strongest person in the world cannot create genuine obedience toward God. And that's what John 15 is talking about. If we consider obedience important, and if obedience or disobedience is the final question the whole world will decide, then I can do only one thing relative to that obedience, and that is to give up on myself. But only through faith and trust in the One who has the power to produce genuine righteousness will that happen. "We cannot keep ourselves from sin for one moment. Every moment we are dependent upon God .... Christ lived a life of perfect obedience to 37

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH God's law, and in this He set an example for every human being. The life that He lived in this world we are to live through His power and under His instruction .... The Saviour took upon Himself the infirmities of humanity and lived a sinless life, that men might have no fear that because of the weakness of human nature they could not overcome. Christ came to make us 'partakers of the divine nature,' and His life declares that humanity, combined with divinity, does not commit sin."-The Ministry of Healing, p. 180. Here some people get nervous. And if you do, welcome to the club. My worst enemy is the one I look at when I shave every morning. I realize how far short I come, and how much I need the power that Jesus has to offer. But it is there-even while we are growing, struggling Christians, who have not yet understood how to depend upon that power all of the time. Are you interested in accepting Jesus' power for obedience? Here is how it works. The relationship with God, based on communication with Him day by day, results in faith . Faith develops the fruits of the Spirit. And the fruits of the Spirit lead to obedience. All of them spring from the relationship that comes from personal fellowship with Jesus. And He is our greatest example of such a life, because the relationship He had with His Father is the same as that which we can have. Jesus lived in our world through dependence upon the power that came from above Him, rather than from that within Himself. And He invites us to follow Him.

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BECAUSEOFTHENATUREOFSURRENDER Because true obedience can only result from a faith relationship with Jesus, we channel all our deliberate effort in living the Christian life toward maintaining this relationship. And it does take strenuous endeavor to become involved-and to remain involved-in a daily private life with God. That's why Paul calls it a fight. Jesus referred to surrender by some interesting words in His Sermon on the Mount. "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee .... And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee" (Matt. 5:29, 30). What is Jesus saying here? I'm thankful for the insight given in Thoughts From the Mount ofBlessing, page 61: "It is through the will that sin retains its hold upon us. The surrender of the will is represented as plucking out the eye or cutting off the hand." Some may say, "If I'm supposed to give up my will, that sounds as though I'm going to go through life maimed and crippled ." Some become extremely nervous at the idea. But that's exactly what surrender is all about-the submitting of our will. High achievers, capable people, brilliant performers will find it most disconcerting, and even become angry at it. But surrender is giving up our power of choice to God. Steps to Christ, page 4 7, defines will as "power of choice" right in the context . And if you read through the page, substituting "power of choice" every time you see the word "will," you can come to no other conclusion.

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OBEDIENCE OFFAITH "Oh, but I'm going to be crippled!" Well, if God invites me to give up my power of choice, then I can leave the question of whether I will be or not up to Him, can't I? But in reality, it does not handicap us. Rather it brings us the highest freedom. We'll discuss in a later chapter what it means to come under God's control. But for right now we need to recognize that obedience can be only by faith, because God invites us to give up on ourselves, to hand over our power of choice to Him. We have to use our power of choice to give it up! How can that be? God asks us to surrender our power of choice toward everything except continuing the relationship with Him. Always we have the freedom to choose whether or not to continue the relationship with Him-we never lose our ability to decide on that. But we turn over our power of choice in terms of fighting sin and the devil. Suppose you have a problem with smoking. The Lord declares that if you will surrender your power of choice toward everything except your relationship with Him, He will bring a complete change in your life: But then you hear, "Choose not to smoke." What do you do? Are you going to find victory by deciding not to smoke? No. Instead, hand over your power of choice on smoking. Exercise it toward the faith relationship exclusively! As you do that, Jesus comes in and lives His life in you, and thus He wills and does in you according to His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). 40

BECAUSEOFTHENATUREOFSURRENDER That's how Paul could say, "It is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me." And that's what's so exciting about the truth of surrender. It's available to the weakest person in the world. You don't have to be strong to be able to give up! If the religion of Jesus Christ cannot help the weakest person in the world it's no good. For too long the Christian religion has catered to will worshipers. We have tended to attract the strong-willed to the church. But any time that we do not emphasize Jesus as our only hope and our only power for obedience, we will end up with nothing more or less than a system of do-it-yourself salvation. The strong people think they can do it themselves, because they succeed outwardly. So they fill the church, and become threatened and uneasy when they hear about giving up our will, about surrendering self to Jesus. "When they see that there is no way of weaving self into the work, they reject the salvation provided."-The Desire of Ages, p. 280. Thousands of people today will accept religion-including Christianity and even Seventh-day Adventism-if they can find some way of putting themselves into the picture, some way of earning or accomplishing at least part of their salvation. When we discover that we can do nothing but fall at Jesus' feet in humility and admit that we can't produce anything, then it ~ becomes too heavy a cross to bear. But the cross is the essence of surrender, what it is all about. It involves giving up totally on self. Often someone will bring up a quotation from 41

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH book one of Selected Messages: "When it is in the heart to obey God, when efforts are put forth to this end, Jesus accepts this disposition and effort as man's best service, and He makes up for the deficiency with His own divine merit."-Page 382. Our usual approach is to interpret it, "When it is in the heart to obey God, to keep His commandments, to try hard to do what's right, then even though we never succeed, He makes up the deficiency." But if you check the context by reading the entire chapter, you will find that the dominant factor is rather, "When it is in the heart to obey God in seeking the relationship with Him, when it is in the heart to obey God in coming into fellowship with Him, when it is in the heart to obey God in opening the door as we hear His knock, then He makes up for our deficiencies. If you try to reserve that quiet corner of the day that opens the way for communion with Him throughout the day, then it is that God will make up with His own divine merit the deficiencies that the growing Christian feels." The weakest person who can't stop his smoking, drinking, or anything else, who also fears that h e does not have enough backbone to enter into a meaningful private life with God, has hope, too, because God will meet him more than halfway on that. When it comes to my attempts to overcome smoking or temper, He has to do it all. But, in terms of seeking after the faith relationship, He'll approach me wherever I am, strong or weak. I believe that ifl have only 10 percent enough willpower to reach out after God in daily Bible study, 42

BECAUSEOFTHENATUREOFSURRENDER prayer, and personal communion, He'll meet me at 90 percent. But it will take every bit of my 10 percent for it to happen. And ifl have 90 percent enough backbone and self-discipline to continue to set aside that time with God, He'll meet me with 10 percent but it will require all of my 90 percent. In conclusion, I'd like to remind you of the simple fact of reality that the growing Christian does not experience constant surrender and dependence upon God's power right from conversion onward. I wish we could, I wish we would. But if we are going to face the facts oflife as we live it, we have to admit that when God plants a tree, it is only a seedling at first. And if I discover that I have not yet known the full surrender that we have talked about here, I don't have to get discouraged. In the first place, it was not our obedience that brought us acceptance with God. God enfolds His arms around us because of what Jesus has already done. When we have responded to His offer of salvation, our acceptance with Him becomes a settled issue. So long as we continue to come to Him, He receives us just as we are. In the second place, God has always allowed for growth in the Christian life. So if I find that I am not obeying exactly as Jesus did yet, I don't need to feel alarm. But, please, let's not drag His goal, purpose, and ideal for us down to our level of performance. Just because I have not yet experienced it does not mean that it is not possible. A statement on page 64 of Steps to Christ should 43

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH appear on the flyleaf of every Bible. "There are those who have known the pardoning love of Christ and who really desire to be children of God, yet they realize that their character is imperfect, their life faulty, and they are ready to doubt whether their hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. To such I would say, Do not draw back in despair. We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged. Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God. No; Christ is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Said the beloved John, 'these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.' 1John2:1. And do not forget the words of Christ, 'The Father himself loveth you.' John 16:27. He desires to restore you to Himself, to see His own purity and holiness reflected in you. And if you will but yield yourself to Him, He that hath begun a good work in you will carry it forward to the day of Jesus Christ. Pray more fervently; believe more fully. As we come to distrust our own power, let us trust the power of our Redeemer, and we shall yet praise Him." So it's a process of growth. "As we come to distrust our own power ... " It doesn't happen overnight. But as we move more and more constantly into the stance of surrender, of total abandonment of ourselves and our own ability, as we learn to distrust self and trust in Him, we will

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BECAUSEOFTHENATUREOFSURRENDER obey-naturally and spontaneously-because we have given up on our own abilities, and are relying on Him, who lives His life in us.

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4 Obedience Can Come by Faith Alone Because of God's Control

As you sang the hymn "Have Thine Own Way, Lord" have you ever really noticed the words? "Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter; I am the clay. Mold me and make me After Thy will, While I am waiting, Yielded and still.

***** Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Hold o'er my being, Absolute sway! Fill with Thy Spirit Till all shall see Christ only, always, Living in me!" Do you know what it means to have God control you? To experience His "absolute sway" over you? 46

BECAUSE OF GOD'S CONTROL Or does the thought frighten you? What is His control all about? I used to think that we had three choices: that we could be under the control of God, of Satan, or we could be in charge of ourselves, running our own lives. Many, especially teen-agers, like that option of ruling themselves. Having experienced the thrill of breaking from the nest, they're ready to do their own thing, be their own person. And the desire to be in the driver's seat is not restricted to teen-agers. It is a part of human nature to want to be in charge. And so it comes as a surprise to discover that there is no such thing as being in control of ourselves. We are either under the control of one or the other of two powers-that's all. All that we can do is to choose which power we will let direct us. If it hadn't been for the cross, we would have remained hopelessly under the devil's power, with no other option. But Jesus at Calvary made it possible for God to give us another choice, to come under His control. Being under the domination of Satan leads to the most terrible slavery. And choosing God's control in my life brings the greatest freedom. But it's still control. We'll try and put that together before we're finished, but I'd like to direct your attention to something Paul brought out. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin" (Rom. 6:16, 17).

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OBEDIENCE OF FAITH Satan is the author of all sin. When we talk about being servants of sin, we're really saying that we're his slaves. "God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness" (verses 17, 18). To become a servant of righteousness means to become a servant of Jesus. So the question here is whether I'm a slave of Satan, or a servant of Jesus. We have no other choice. And Jesus Himself said that you cannot serve two masters-it's either one or the other. "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (verse 13). Years ago, one of our early pioneers made quite a thing out of the idea of being and yielding ourselves as instruments. An instrument is something that the artisan or the soldier uses. It operates under the control of the one who employs it. An ax in the hands of a 4-year-old will not bring down a giant tree in the forest. But an experienced woodsman can fell the tree with it. People living apart from Christ will never be able to keep the law, but when a person becomes an instrument in the hands of Christ, then obedience is possible. An instrument is a passive thing, but many of us fear the word passive. When we speak of the surrender of the will, ordinarily no one has any 48

BECAUSE OF GOD'S CONTROL problem. But if we mention any giving up of the power of choice, people's faces cloud up. Yet the book Steps to Christ clearly indicates that when we yield our power of choice to God, He takes control of us. And when that happens, it makes a complete change in our lives. There was a time that whenever I came to page 4 7 of Steps to Christ, I would say, "Oh, that again," and go on to the rest of the book. Finally one day I sat down and attempted to discover what it was actually trying to say. "Many are inquiring, 'How am I to make the surrender of myself to God?' You desire to give yourself to Him, but you are weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits of your life of sin. Your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. You cannot control you thoughts, your impulses, your affections. The knowledge of your broken promises and forfeited pledges weakens your confidence in your own sincerity, and causes you to feel that God cannot accept you." Well, I didn't have any trouble understanding that part. How did the author know me so well? I asked myself. But then it said, "You need not despair. What you need to understand is the true force of the will." And at that point I thought, Well, that's my problem all right, I need more force to my will. And with that gross misunderstanding, I again went to work to develop more willpower. I began forcing myself to do things I found it hard to do. I tried to OOF-4

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OBEDIENCE OF FAITH make myself get up at three o'clock in the morning, just to see ifl could do it. I tried to find out how far I could run, to keep myself out of the cookie jar, and so on. All the time I assumed I was developing more will power. Martin Luther had a similar problem. When he realized he wasn't making it, he sought to pay for his weaknesses by torturing his body, and whipped himself senseless in his monastery cell. But one day you wake up to the realization that you've somehow missed the point, so you go back to page 47 one more time. "What you need to understand is the true force of the will." And surprisingly enough, the very next sentence tells what the will is. "This is the governing power in the nature of man, the power of decision, or of choice." So the will is the power of choice. I was trying to develop willpower, what we call backbone-but the will is the power of choice. Will and willpower are not the same. Usually we equate willpower with discipline and grit and determination. But the power of choice is something different. It is our decision-making ability. The will is the capacity to choose-willpower is the ability to do what you've decided upon. "This is the governing power in the nature of man, the power of decision, or of choice. Everything depends on the right action of the will." So let's substitute the Steps to Christ definition of the will. "Everything depends on the right action of the power of choice."

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BECAUSE OF GOD'S CONTROL Then there must be both a right, and wrong action of your power of choice. "The power of choice God has given to men; it is theirs to exercise. You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him." Now the typical legalist who hasn't understood salvation by faith immediately begins to apply his own definitions of "choose to serve Him." He decides that he will now give up his smoking, drinking, rock records, and temper. But the devil sits back and laughs, for he knows that we will end up with nothing but bruises when we try to overcome sin in our own strength. One of the first temptations a person faces when he decides he wants to be a Christian, is to try to be good. But righteousness is not something that we were intended to seek! It is a by-product of knowing Jesus, and results from "beholding" Him. We are not told that we can choose to stop all of our bad habits. Rather that we can "choose to serve Him." The word serve suggests a little longer word servant. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness" (Rom. 6:16). "You can choose to serve Him. You can give Him your will." Now let's substitute the definition already given in the paragraph-"You can give Him your power of choice." But I thought I was a free moral agent, that I was supposed to keep my power of choice. So what 51

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH about giving it away? This is the shocking part, and I hope you have followed it closely. A lot of people criticize the concept, but I've never yet heard anyone come up with an alternate explanation. "You can give Him your power of choice; He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure [a concept taken from Philippians 2:13). Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be centered upon Him, your thoughts will be in harmony with Him. . . . Through the right exercise of the will [power of choice], an entire change may be made in your life. By yielding up your will [power of choice] to Christ, you ally yourself with the power that is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from above to hold you steadfast, and thus through constant surrender to God you will be enabled to live the new life, even the life of faith." When I first substituted "power of choice," it shocked me because I thought God would never take mine away. And it's true, He never does. But He does invite me to give it up. However, it's obvious that I have to use it to allow Him to take it over. The whole issue throughout the Christian life is whom do I want to serve. I am always free to choose another master; will always have the freedom to decide whether I want to remain Christ's servant or Satan's. That choice will always be mine. At any time I can remove myself from Christ's control.

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BECAUSE OF GOD'S CONTROL

In the end, our surrender of ourselves to God doesn't take away our freedom, but gives us the highest sense of freedom. Just how it happens, and how He does it, I'm not sure can be fully explained. "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27) is a mystery. God has never invited us to explain every one of His mysteries. But we can still be thankful for what we do know. And frankly, I'm not too happy with my performance apart from Him. So I am willing to accept with joy His control in my life. "Every soul that refuses to give himself to God is under the control of another power."-The Desire of Ages, p. 466. We don't have to elect Satan's domination-all we have to do is not to choose God's reign, and we automatically fall under the devil's mastery. "He is not his own. He may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery.... While he flatters hi:r~self that he is following the dictates of his own judgment, he obeys the will of the prince of darkness."-lbid. "But unless we do yield ourselves to the control of Christ, we shall be dominated by the wicked one. We must inevitably be under the control of one or the other of the two great powers who are contending for the supremacy of the world."-Ibid., p. 324. It doesn't say "ultimately," it says we are "inevitably" under the sway of one or the other. On the basis of such statements, I conclude that everyone in the world right now has either God or the devil controlling him. Now, I believe that control has two phases. If we 53

OBEDIENCE OFFAITH choose to enter into a relationship with God, it enables Him to guide the direction of our lives. And it will be up, even though it may go up and down.

But if we reject a relationship with God (and too many church members have ), then Satan determines our direction, and it is down. But it might be up and down occasionally.

The ultimate goal that God has for us is that He will not only govern the direction of our lives but that we will continue in relationship with Him until, by His guidance, He will lead us to be under His absolute control all the time. He will hold over us "absolute sway," by our choice-never by His force. And the Holy Spirit will possess us. You can't tell me that that kind of person won't be able to obey.

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BECAUSE OF GOD'S CONTROL The devil hopes that we will avoid a relationship with Jesus, for then he will have his chance to lead us under his absolute sway, and he will totally possess us. Devil possession manifests itself in more ways than just frothing at the mouth and rolling in the dirt. The same evil spirit dominated the Pharisees and religious leaders of Christ's day as did the demoniac in the Temple. So it is possible to be under Satanic control in refined, sophisticated ways as well. When we grasp the fact that God's rule brings freedom, then we can relax, breathe easy, and rest our case in the hands of our Creator. "When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart ... . A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan."-Ibid. "In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom .... The only condition upon which the freedom of man is possible is that of becoming one with Christ."-Jbid., p. 466. In John 8:30-36 Jesus talked about the liberty that comes to the person under God's control. "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (verse 32). But his statement insulted the people. "They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man" (verse 33). They wanted the option of ruling t hemselves. Jes us answered, "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin .... If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free

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OBEDIENCE OF FAITH indeed" (verses 34, 36). "For the law of the Spirit oflife in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh [what the four-year-old could not do with that ax because he was weak in the flesh], God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (Rom. 8:2-4). So we encounter still more reasons why obedience can come only by faith. God knows that we are incapable of producing obedience . Therefore He invites us to surrender ourselves, to give up on ourselves, and to choose the relationship by which He will lead us under His control, so that He can fulfill His law in us, "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (verse 1). The freedom that comes from being under God's control is that of love. The rule of love causes a person to do what he couldn't have done otherwise, and like it- even be thrilled with it. God changes our tastes, appetites, inclinations, desires, and motives so that they harmonize with His will. It's not a matter of staying the same on the inside, with our previous lusts, passions, and tempers, but of finding that sin is distasteful and unattractive. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of 56

BECA USE OF GOD'S CONTROL God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ " (2 Cor. 10:4, 5). "All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and ai m s, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we sha ll be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find it's highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience."-The Desire of Ages, p. 668. So we don't work on obedience-we put our attention toward knowing God, and the obedience will come as a consequence. Too many of us have wasted endless time and energy struggling for it. But when we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be one of continual obedience. "Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us."-Ibid. It won't be a matter of external behavior, while we still internally find sin attractive. If all you had to do in order to obey was to carry out your own impulses, avoid what you found distasteful, and follow that which you found desirable, would you have a hard time? Would it be a real effort? Of course not! It would be the most natural thing in the world. And when we come to the point where we have learned to know God as it is our privilege to know Him, obedience will be natural, spontaneous, and impelling. We will place 57

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH our deliberate efforts to having a relationship with God, and obedience will come as the inevitable result. But now we encounter a problem. Who of us lives under such absolute control? True, some, in every age, have allowed God to totally take over their lives. But the usual reaction is, Can you show me an example right now? And I'd like to answer, It's none of your business who's done it! It has never been our responsibility to figure out who is under God's absolute control and who isn't. Only God knows, because only He can see the heart. And if you are one of them, you would be the last one to advertise the fact, because you would be unaware of it yourself. Your mind and thoughts and attentions would be so totally fixed upon Jesus and His love that you wouldn't have time for worrying about your own prayers. But just because we won't flaunt our own spiritual growth, and just because, as we approach Jesus, the more unworthy and sinful we appear in our own eyes, doesn't mean that the closer we get, the more sinning we are going to do. There's a vast difference between feeling unworthy and sinful, and actually doing sinful things. But I still face a practical problem here. As a developing Christian, my growth pattern wavers up and down. What about those times when, because of my immaturity, I look away from Jesus and depend upon my own strength, and fall under Satan's power at that moment? Again we must always remember that "if any man sin, we have an 58

BECAUSE OF GOD'S CONTROL advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). And our acceptance with God remains unbroken as long as we continue our relationship with Him day by day. Even when we momentarily slip under the enemy's power God is still in control of our direction. We will continue to need God's justifying grace even when we come to the point of being under His rulership all of the time because of the sinfulness of our natures. The apostles and prophets confessed to the condition of their natures. We are sinners by nature. But the question is, Can the Holy Spirit so completely dominate a sinner by nature that God can live His life through him? And the answer to that is Yes. Suppose I fall and fail and sin when I'm not under God's absolute control yet. Should that discourage me? Not if we "look to Jesus." We are not to concern ourselves about what God thinks of us, but of what He thinks of Jesus. And we can take courage, even when we have sinned, because Philippians 1:6 declares, "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." "Those who make room in their hearts for Jesus will realize His love. All who long to bear the likeness of the character of God shall be satisifed. The Holy Spirit never leaves unassisted the soul who is looking unto Jesus. He takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto him. If the eye is kept fixed on Christ, the work of the Spirit ceases not until the soul is conformed to His image. The pure 59

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH element of love will expand the soul, giving it a capacity for higher attainments, for increased knowledge of heavenly things, so that it will not rest short of the fullness. 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.' "-The Desire of Ages, p. 302. But in the meantime, it is now possible to have at least part of the time all of the victories, and all of the obedience, that God ultimately wants for us. Notice 1 John 3:6: "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not." "If we abide in Christ, if the love of God dwells in us, our feelings, our thoughts, our purposes, our actions, will be in harmony with the will of God."-Steps to Christ, p. 61. What is the "if'? Anytime I am abiding in His strength, in His power, I will not sin. My feelings, thoughts, purposes, actions, will be in harmony with His will. So the variable factor is whether or not I am depending upon Him, whether or not I am surrendered to Him, whether or not I am under His immediate control at any given moment. If you read on to the next page in Steps to Christ, you will find a beautiful description of what God has done for us, how He takes away our sin and looks at us as though we had never sinned. Then there appears the following paragraph: "More than this [more than taking away our guilt], Christ changes the heart. He abides in your heart by faith. You are to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of your will to Him." Remember that the will is the power of choice. "So long as you do this, He will work in 60

BECAUSE OF GOD'S CONTROL you to will and to do according to His good pleasure."-Pages 62, 63. So long as we continue to come to Him day by day, so long as we choose to surrender to His control, Christ does the willing and doing in terms of the other choices. In matters of obedience, victory, and overcoming, we are absolutely dependent upon Him. We have no other option. Some today do not believe that we can ever obey perfectly. Yet many of them also hold that we must put forth as much effort, will power, and discipline as we can muster toward that obedience which they consider impossible! They say, Yes, you need to have a relationship with God, but you're still supposed to get in there and fight it out against sin for yourself. I'd like to maintain that anyone who takes that position has no other option available than to expect imperfect obedience. That's all we're capable of. To whatever extent we are involved in trying to obey, to that degree will the obedience be imperfect. But the person who believes that perfect obedience is possible through the grace of God, also recognizes that we must give up on ourselves and let Christ dwell within. He concludes that obedience comes by faith alone, plus or minus nothing. And if it is ever going to be a perfect reality, it will have to result exclusively through God's doing. Jesus so surrendered Himself to His Father that His Father alone appeared in His life. Ellen White tells us that Jesus didn't even make any

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OBEDIENCE OF FAITH plans for Himself. He accepted His Father's, revealed to Him on a daily basis through His personal communion with God. (See The Desire of Ages, p. 208.) But Jesus was still an individual. His relationship with His Father didn't destroy His personality or individuality. The God who created you as an individual in the first place, the One who preserved the apostle Paul's personality, and that of John the beloved, of Andrew, Mary, and Martha, can protect your own distinctive individuality as well as control your life in such a way as to give you the greatest sense of freedom possible. One of t he reasons Ellen White opposed hypnotism was because it assumes a prerogative belonging to God alone. "It is not God's purpose that any human being should yield his mind and will to the control of another, becoming a passive instrument in his hands. No one is to merge his individuality in that of another. He is not to look to any human being .... His dependence must be in God. In the dignity of his God-given manhood he is to be controlled by God Himself, not by any human intelligence."-The Ministry of Healing, p. 242. (Italics supplied.) Hypnotism plays around with something that is the exclusive right of the Creator Himself. Let us paraphrase the paragraph to show what God has in mind for us in relationship to Him. "It is God's purpose that every human being should yield his mind and will to the control of God, and become a passive instrument in His hands. He is not to look

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BECAUSE OF GOD'S CONTROL to any human being. His dependence must be in God. In the dignity of his God-given manhood he is to be controlled by God Himself." "We are to become a passive instrument in His hands?" you ask. That's what the song says, "Hold o'er my being, Absolute sway." But that word passive bothers us. Don't forget how active passive can be! Jonathan takes his armor bearer, climbs the hill, and wipes out the entire enemy force by himself. But God was controlling him. Whoever heard of going to war with clay pitchers and torches. But Gideon was being a passive instrument in God's hands, and the enemy ran. Remember Moses, Paul, Elijah, and all the rest of them. We're not talking about sitting in a rocking chair. Divine control makes us the most active we've ever been. God's control produces not only obedience but service and power to do His tasks. We will be effective in all of the activities that He has in mind for us.

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5 Obedience Can Come by Faith Alone Because of the Sabbath Rest

Pretend with me that I am an Oldsmobile dealer, and I want to give you a brand new Oldsmobile 98 with absolutely no down payment. You can take it and drive home today. Would you be interested? Think about it. Aren't you going to ask me about the monthly payments? They're $1,000 per month. And the car gets eight miles per gallon in town. Are you still interested? Offered heaven someday absolutely for free , it sounds good-at least at first. We can rejoice in the good news that Jesus paid it all (the down payment on our heavenly mansion). But what about the monthly installments, the nitty gritty, day-by-day living of the Christian life? If the "monthly payments" are going to finish us off, then the down payment on a heavenly home may not be so attractive. The fourth chapter of Hebrews opens up one of the most interesting topics relative to obedience by faith alone. "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the 64

BECAUSE OF THE SABBATH REST gospel preached, as well as unto them [Israelites, who wandered in the wilderness for forty years]: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it" (Heb. 4:1, 2). What is the gospel that was preached to them as well as to us? A number have speculated as to what it includes, and what it does not. I would like to simply take the position, based on Romans 1, that the gospel is the good news of Jesus and all that He came to accomplish. Not long ago H.M.S. Richards, Sr., stood up in front of a black audience, and said, "I want to tell you people something. I hope you'll listen carefully. Don't miss what I'm going to say. There are going to be no black people in heaven." You could have heard a pin drop. Pausing, he let that hang for .a moment, and then repeated, "I want to say it again, so you'll be sure to hear me. There are going to be no black people in heaven." Then he added, "There are going to be no white people in heaven either." Well, that helped a bit. And finally he stated, "The only kind of people in heaven will be red people, washed in the blood of the Lamb." All of us, brown and yellow, black and white, can be washed in the blood of the Lamb. That's the foundation of the gospel. Earlier we discussed three aspects of it. Jesus offers us rest on all three-rest from trying to atone for our past sins, from trying to overcome our OOF-5

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OBEDIENCE OF FAITH present sinning, and from a world of sin when Jesus comes again. According to Hebrews 4, the reason we have problems entering into rest is because of unbelief. So faith is the key. No faith, no rest. Little faith, little rest. Much faith, much rest. The first rest that God offers is that from working for His acceptance and pardon. His grace has always been free. Salvation is a gift, and that's the basis of the gospel message. "The works were finished from the foundation of the world" (verse 3). The people oflsrael had a daily reminder of the divine invitation to that rest in the lamb slain in the courtyard. But Jesus came to do more than forgive our sins. He wants to give us power to obey. Not only does He take care of the down payment but the monthly installments as well. He offers not only forgiveness for the guilt of sin but power to overcome sin in every day Christian experience. The people in the wilderness apparently did not enter into the second rest of ceasing to attempt on their own to live a good life. That's one of the reasons they couldn't enter into the third one in the Promised Land. Hebrews 4:9 speaks of the second rest when it says, "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." Paul was not speaking just of the Israelites, but to all who have accepted that "if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:29). When I first come to Christ and accept His justifying grace, I become one of God's people. But there still remains 66

BECAUSE OF THE SABBATH REST a rest for us. Hebrews 4:4 calls it the Sabbath rest. Notice, "for he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works." God rested from His works on the Sabbath day, and He also invites us, through the symbol of the Sabbath, to cease from our own efforts, both in trying to earn or merit heaven, and in attempting to obey and overcome and be victorious. He urges us instead to enter into relationship with Him where all of this can happen. How do we enter into His rest? Jesus says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). If going to Jesus would bring us rest, then what causes the burden? The fact that we haven't been establishing the necessary relationship with Jesus. If apart from Him we are burdened and weary, but if with Him we will have rest, then that leaves only one thing for us to do-go to Him, and keep going to Him. If we want to take a minicourse in the whole business of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ, we need readjust two texts. First, "Without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). Second, "I can do all things through Christ" (Phil. 4:13). Put those together, then the only possible thing left for us to do is to get with Him, and stay with Him. We've been talking about the difference between obedience by faith, and obedience by works. The person who enters into obedience by faith enters into rest on this second level, while he 67

OBEDIENCE OFFAITH who attempts to obey by his own efforts continues to be spiritually weary and heavy-laden. So Paul talks here of the Sabbath rest. God ceased from all His works, and He invites us to cease from all ours. And yet the human heart finds it hard to enter into rest. The Sabbath has always been a sign of sanctification. "I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them" (Eze. 20;12, cf. verse 20). We find the same thing in Exodus 31:13. So when Paul deals with the Sabbath rest in Hebrews 4, he is speaking primarily of sanctification. For example, look at verse 12. "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." It describes the inward Christian life. Every week, as the sun goes down and the Sabbath begins, we have a giant reminder that God wants us all to come to Him, that He will be able to give us rest. Here we discover one of the major meanings of the Sabbath. "It [the Sabbath] was to be a token of ... connection with the true God. But in order to keep the Sabbath holy, men must themselves be holy. Through faith they must become partakers of the righteousness of Christ . . . . As the Jews departed from God, and failed to make the righteousness of Christ their own by faith, the Sabbath lost it's significance to 68

BECAUSE OF THE SABBATH REST them."-The Desire of Ages, p. 283. The Sabbath points to Jesus "as both the Creator and the Sanctifier ... . The Sabbath is a sign of Christ's power to make us holy. And it is given to all whom Christ makes holy."-Ibid., p. 288. The Sabbath declares that obedience can come by faith alone. Notice in Revelation 14 that the false day of worship during the last days becomes a sign of those who have not accepted God's rest, who are trying to save themselves by their own efforts. Receiving the mark of the beast, "they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image" (verse 11). And the same passage in Revelation 14 has a verse that we have often applied only to tombstones and mortuaries, but it has a spiritual lesson as well: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: ... that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them" (verse 13). Accepting the rest that God offers from our own labors, from our own striving to produce obedience, does not mean that obedience is not important-the "works" will simply follow when we daily go to Him for the Sabbath rest. "For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief" (Heb. 4:10, 11). Have you ever labored to rest? It sounds like a paradox, but I think I've seen some people who worked hard at their resting, and I'm afraid I've been one of them on occasion. So 69

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where is the labor? We're supposed to labor to enter into rest. It is in coming to Christ for relationship with Him day by day. That's the hardest labor of all. Ellen White said that many times you won't feel like praying-but that's when you need to pray the most (see The Ministry of Healing, p. 181). Many times we won't feel like keeping that intimate relationship going. But when we realize that it is only in coming to Him that we can find the rest we seek, we will put forth whatever effort is necessary. We have spent too much of our time already in trying to fight sin and the devil in our own strength. But Jesus still offers the Sabbath rest. He asks to assume our burdens and our care, if we will but hand them to Him. I hope that you will accept the rest that Jesus extends to us on all fronts of the great plan of salvation. Both the down payment and the monthly installments are free. It's all free.

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6 Obedience Can Come by Faith Alone Because of the Nature of Repentance

Several years ago, a young nurse came to my office one Thursday afternoon. Sick and tired of her life, she said she wanted to change. She wanted Christ in her life. "You can come to Christ, right now," I told her, "and He will gladly accept you." "No, not right now," she replied, "because I have plans for this weekend." Then she went on to describe her intention to spend a lost weekend with someone else's husband. Should I have told her that she could have gone to Christ right then, even with her plans for the weekend? Or should I have advised her that she would have to scrap them, and that if she would do that, then she could approach Christ just as she was? Or should I have assured her that she only needed to be willing to change her plans, that if she came to Christ, then He would give her power to actually follow through on the change? What is repentance? How is it accomplished? Do we repent before we find Christ, or do we come to Christ in order to repent. And, finally, what does 71

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH a correct understanding of repentance teach us about obedience by faith alone? 2 Corinthians 7:10 speaks of two kinds of repentance. "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." It is possible to be sorry that you got caught, for the consequences of sin, but not for the sin itself. Judas is a prime example. Having expected quite different results, he regretted the way things turned out in his betrayal of Christ. But he felt no remorse for the sin itself-neither for trying to force Jesus to comply with his ideas of how to build the new kingdom, nor for the original basis of his sin, choosing to keep Christ at arm's length in order to remain in control of his own life. His repentance was simply a worldly sorrow-and it led to death, both physical and spiritual. Genuine, godly repentance includes two aspects-"sorrow for sin and a turning away from it" (Steps to Christ, p. 23). It sounds simple. But did you ever try to get sorry? Perhaps all of us can remember being told when we were children, "Say you're sorry." Did uttering it really make you actually feel it? If I could have convinced the young nurse to mouth the words, "I'm sorry about my plans for the weekend," would I have succeeded in bringing her to repentance? Sometimes it's fairly easy to have remorse for the end products of sinning. The alcoholic is contrite about the hangover, but not about the drinking that preceded it. It's easy to approach 72

BECAUSE OF NATURE OF REPENTANCE repentance for the morning after the night before, and be sorry for the guilt that we feel as a consequence of sin, but not find the sin itself distasteful. The nurse who visited my office had experienced regret for some of the results of her life style-and yet in spite of the bitter aftertaste, she felt no anguish over the sin itself. Or perhaps you have tried to approach repentance from the opposite angle-hoping that if you turned away from your sin, sooner or later you would experience sorrow. Unfortunately, you soon discovered that you could not break away from a sin you still found attractive and desirable. And even the strong-willed, who can stop the external behavior of a sin, still face the problem of the inward life. Long ago, Scripture reminded us that although man judges from the outward appearance, the Lord judges by the heart (see 1 Sam. 16:7). So how can we obtain true repentance? Do we come to Christ in order to repent? Or do we repent in order to come to Christ? In the area of repentance, we have too often found ourselves in the shoes of the man whose horn on his car didn't work. When he took his car to the garage, he found the door shut and a sign on it that read, "Honk for service." The chapter on repentance in Steps to Christ beautifully states the solution to our apparent dilemma. Jesus loves to have us come to Him just as we are. Repentance isn't something we do, but is a gift Jesus gives us Himself. And in order to 73

OBEDIENCE OFFAITH receive a gift we must first enter the presence of the Giver. Where do you get genuine sorrow for sin? From God, of course! You don't manufacture it yourself by trying to force yourself, or by compelling yourself to turn away your sins. All you can do is every moment to come to Jesus. Only He can bestow upon you the gift of repentance. Peter, speaking of Jesus, in Acts 5:31 stated, "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins." "Repentance is no less the gift of God than are pardon and justification, and it cannot be experienced except as it is given to the soul by Christ. If we are drawn to Christ, it is through His power and virtue. The grace of contrition comes through Him, and from Him comes justification."-Selected Messages , book 1, p. 391. This immediately settles the question of whether or not we come to God before or after we repent. If repentance is a gift, we obviously have to go to God first in order to receive it. And if repentance precedes forgiveness (Acts 5:31), then repentance also precedes justification. "Whom Christ pardons, He first makes penitent."-Thoughts From the Mount ofBlessing, p. 7. So notice the sequence. If you are a young nurse on Thursday afternoon, tired of your life style, and you'd like to have a relationship with Christ, but you have plans for the weekend, then the thing for you to do is to come to Christ just as you are. You 74

BECAUSE OF NATURE OF REPENTANCE will never become sorry enough to change your life, or even your plans for the weekend, without coming to Him to obtain the gift of repentance. So you meet Christ just as you are, and it is His responsibility to bestow upon you the gift of repentance, and to deal with your plans for the weekend. Yet how many of us have struggled-perhaps for years-.-to make ourselves sorry, to stop sinning, by trying to deal with our own personal "plans for the weekend" through our own feeble strength. It is a common problem, even among professed Christians. "Just here is a point on which many may err, and hence they fail ofreceiving the help that Christ desires to give them. They think that they qmnot come to Christ unless they first repent . . . . But must the sinner wait till he has repented before he can come to Jesus? Is repentance to be made an obstacle between the sinner and the Saviour? "The Bible does not teach that the sinner must repent before he can heed the invitation of Christ, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.' Matthew 11:28. It is the virtue that goes forth from Christ, that leads to genuine repentance."-Steps to Christ, p. 26. Romans 2:4 says that it is God's goodness that leads us to repentance. It is when we most fully comprehend His love that we best realize the terribleness of sin. By studying Jesus' life, contemplating His character and His mission, we

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OBEDIENCE OF FAITH come to repentance. Beholding His love breaks our hearts, and we realize what our sin has done to Him. My brother and I were roommates in college. Every Friday afternoon we cleaned our room together, but one particular occasion I was trying desperately to meet some deadline and didn't have time to spare. He hurried in and said, "Quick, hurry! We've got to clean the room." "You do it," I replied. "I'm too busy. I can't." As we had so many times in the past, we began to teeter on the precipice. My parents had sometimes wondered whether we would ever live to grow up, we fought so much when we were younger. But suddenly my brother relaxed and said, "That's all right. That's perfectly all right. I understand. You must be under terrible pressure. I know it must be mighty hard on you to get everything done. I'll clean the room-I'll be happy to. You go ahead and work on your paper." And he broke my heart! Putting down my paper, I helped him. When someone doesn't act against you, but exhibits loving acceptance, it wins you. The goodness of my brother led me to clean the room-even though he faked it! But when we talk about the goodness of God, it's real. It's the only kind of genuine goodness there is. When we understand the kindness, the mercy, the patience of God, as revealed in Jesus, it makes all the difference in the world. Earlier our family vacationed on an island in the middle of Gull Lake in Michigan. My brother

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and I actively engaged in our favorite pastime-fighting. We were spoiling the vacation for our parents, as well as for each other, and my father tried everything he could think of to bring us to repentance. He tried isolating us in the cabin, said we couldn't have any dessert, and eventually made us skip a whole meal. In growing desperation he forbade us waterfront privileges, and finally resorted to the hose off the tire pump. Nothing worked. Finally, the moment came when he called us into the cabin. Sitting down across from us, he struggled to think of some other way to go-but he was out of ideas. Then I saw the tears begin to form. Tears on the face of my big, strong father! This was something new to me. For the first time I realized what our fighting and scrapping was doing to him. I had disappointed and brought heartache to the one who loved me. Although I could take a whipping with the hose, I couldn't stand the tears. Suddenly, I really wanted to change. It was the worst licking I ever received. Those who enter into relationship with Christ begin to see something of His love and patience. Starting to understand something of what it cost Him to redeem humanity from sin, they realize the disappointment and heartache that sin brings to Him. And when that happens, sin somehow looks different than it did before. It's attractiveness vanishes. A true awareness of the broken heart of Jesus leads to genuine repentance. Through our relationship with Jesus a change takes place.

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OBEDIENCE OFFAITH "If you see your sinfulness, do not wait to make yourself better. How many there are who think they are not good enough to come to Christ. Do you expect to become better through your own efforts? 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.' Jeremiah 13:23. There is help for us only in God. We must not wait for stronger persuasions, for better opportunities, or for holier tempers. We can do nothing of ourselves. We must come to Christ just as we are."-Steps to Christ, p. 31. "Jesus loves to have us come to Him just as we are, sinful, helpless, dependent. We may come with all our weakness, our folly, our sinfulness, and fall at His feet in penitence. It is His glory to encircle us in the arms of His love and to bind up our wounds, to cleanse us from all impurity."-Ibid., p. 52. How many people can accept God's gift of repentance? The Lord is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). Anyone that's sick and tired of his life style and would really like to turn away from sin, but has found it impossible, should notice that the Lord wants all to "come to repentance." Did you know that coming to Christ and to repentance are the same thing? Therefore, repentance is never something you work on or work up. You simply come to Christ through study of His word and prayer, and He freely gives you the gift of repentance. So how do you repent? How does it work? First 78

BECAUSE OF NATURE OF REPENTANCE of all, the sinner- regardless of who he is, or what he has done, or what his plans are-seeks Jesus just as he or she is. Next, Jesus extends to him a gift called repentance. When the individual accepts that gift, then he is justified, or pardoned, and stands before God as though he had never sinned. Repentance is never to be an obstacle between the sinner and the Saviour. Access to Christ is available to any person who reaches the end of his own resources, recognizes his inability to save himself or obey, and chooses to come . And repentance never precedes coming to Christ, for we must come to Christ to receive His good gifts. Thus repentance is never something we do ourselves. In the days of Jesus, a whole nation of people misunderstood its nature. They attempted to do for themselves something that only God could accomplish for them. We've already looked at Judas as an example. Matthew 27:3 declares: "Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders." His self-made repentance led to dogs eating his flesh on the road to Golgotha. Involving much more than just a table of stone, a law, a broken commandment, repentance has to do with a broken heart--that of the One who loves us unconditionally. Seeing the love revealed in Jesus' life, death, and intercession for us draws us to Him, and we will personally experience the goodness of God, which transforms us. 79

OBEDIEN CE OFFAITH When we come to understand that because of our sins, because of our choosing to go our own way, that we have brought dishonor upon Christ, and have shattered the heart of our best Friend; then our own will crumble, and we will know the kind of repentance that does not need "to be repented of." What does this tell us about obedience by faith alone? If repentance is not something we do, if we must come to Christ first and then receive it as His gift, and if it is always and only a gift, then we can do nothing to earn merit, or pay for it. We must receive it through an intimate relationship with Christ. And if repentance is twofold, including both sorrow for sin and turning away from it, then both sorrow for sin and turning away from it is a gift! So we can do nothing about abandoning sin except to maintain a daily relationship with Him. Obedience can thus result only through faith alone because of the nature of repentance itself. Because repentance is a gift, then obedience must also be one, for only genuine repentance makes true obedience possible. We obtain both by seeking fellowship and communion with Him.

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7 Obedience Can Come by Faith Alone Because Obedience Is the Fruit of Faith

Jesus said, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:4, 5).

John 15 is probably one of the most outstanding passages in all Scripture on the method of obedience. It teaches us that the genuine article is the natural, spontaneous, unforced result of something else. Let's look at the chapter phrase by phrase. "Abide in me, and I in you." What does it mean to be in Christ, and have Christ in us? Some have gone through and separated all the passages that refer to Christ "in us," and all that speak of us being "in Christ." But the chairman of the New Testament department of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, has done exhaustive research on the subject with one of his classes. Their study concluded that the "in Christ," and "Christ in you" phrases mean nothing more or OOF-6

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OBEDIENCE OF FAITH less than to be in relationship with Christ, in fellowship and communion with Him. They find no difference between the two, and whether I'm talking about me being in Christ or about Christ being in me, I'm talking about being in fellowship and relationship with Him. What does the word abide mean? If you go through your Bible and do a word study on that, you'll find that it means simply to stay. The two men on the way to Emmaus said to the Stranger, "It is late in the day. Abide with us. Stay with us" (see Luke 24:29). So when Jesus said, "Abide in me, and I in you," He was inviting us to come into relationship with Him, and to continue in that union. There are two vital things for a successful Christian life. One is to get with Jesus, and the other is to stay with Him. The first is no good without the latter, and obviously, you can't remain with Him unless you have come to Him in the first place. Here we encounter one of the problems in the popular Christian world. People have labored under the delusion that if they once got with Jesus at some point in time, that took care of everything from then on. But that does nothing of the sort. Only keeping in union with Him will solve the sin problem. And how do we do that? In the same way we first went to Him! "As ye have therefore received Christ Jes us the Lord, so walk ye in Him" (Col. 2:6). It is all by faith, and the ingredients that result in faith-communication with Him. Christ next goes on to say that the branch

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BECAUSE OBEDIENCE IS FRUIT OFFAITH cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine. But notice that it is called the fruit of the vine. Don't forget that-it's the fruit of the vine, not of the branch. God doesn't want to produce fruit apart from us. Having created us in His image, He wants to develop fruit through us. But if we are the branches and we try to grow fruit while detached from the vine, we're not going to get anything at all. Solitary branches dry up and wither away. However, fruit does come through branches connected to the vine, which demonstrates another interesting point. God, even though we are under His control, never bypasses our capacities or faculties. He works through us. And how He does it while still leaving us free, probably only God Himself understands in its fullness. We can try, but we can never completely explain it. But as we have noticed, His control is one of love, and can't we safely trust Him with His own system? Now Jesus also says that we will bring forth much fruit if we abide in Him, but that without Him we can do nothing. The context is that we cannot accomplish anything toward producing fruit. Previously we observed that we could do nothing-period-unless God kept our hearts beating. But Jesus did not have that in mind here. Even though your heart is beating, He said, you cannot bear spiritual fruit apart from Me. You will wind up with nothing. Remember our mini-course in salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ: "Without me ye can do 83

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH nothing" (John 15:5), and "I can do all things through Christ" (Phil. 4:13). Since without Him we are unable to do anything, but with Him we can accomplish everything, then the only thing left for us to do is to get with Him. That is the complete and final answer to the question of deliberate human effort. "Let no man present the idea that man has little or nothing to do in the great work of overcoming; for God does nothing for man without his cooperation. Neither say that after you have done all you can on your part, Jesus will help you. Christ has said, 'Without me ye can do nothing' "-Selected Messages, book 1, p. 381. Now the same book, same author, states on p. 343 that "All that man can possibly do toward his own salvation is to accept the invitation, whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." How do we do that? Let's allow her to explain it. "In this communion with Christ, through prayer and the study of the great and precious truths of His word, we shall as hungry souls be fed; as those that thirst, we shall be refreshed at the fountain of life."-Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 113. Therefore, all that we can possibly do toward our own salvation-in all of its aspects-is to accept His invitation to communion with Him through prayer and the study of His Word. And through this, we abide in the vine. A man once cussed me out when I went to invite him to our evangelistic meetings. But he did one 84

BECAUSE OBEDIENCE IS FRUIT OF FAITH thing-in spite of his profanity-he came to the meetings. In fact, he attended every night. During those meetings, we were involved in the three tangibles of communication with God. We were studying the Bible there, we were praying, and we were telling someone else what Jesus meant to us. Communication with Jes us-beholding Him-had it's effect. The Holy Spirit brought the man to Christ, and it was a beautiful day when I walked into the baptismal pool with him. Years later I met him again, and to my joy he was still abiding in Christ through those same methods by which he came to Christ in the first place. He had been spending time in reading God's Word, in prayer, and in Christian service. And the fruit was showing! "Do you remember the day you cussed me out?" I asked him. "Oh, I never did that!" he replied. Now, if he had come to Christ during those meetings, but had never done anything about it afterward, he would have been back to cussing people again, I guarantee you. One time someone told me that in the Christian theology of salvation by faith, justification is the root, and sanctification is the fruit. But then he said that in sanctification, you've got to work really hard, fighting the devil and trying hard to overcome sin and to obey God's requirements. But if sanctification is the fruit, then it will be the result of accepting justification. Fruit is natural and spontaneous. "Yet the Saviour does not bid the 85

OBEDIENCE OFFAITH disciples labor to bear fruit. He tells them to abide in Him."-The Desire of Ages, p. 677. The labor is in abiding in Him, it is not in trying to produce fruit. "But obedience is the fruit of faith ."-Steps to Christ, p. 61. So if one is result, and the other cause, where do you place your effort and attention? If you put them toward the faith relationship, fruit will appear as an inevitable consequence. That's why some of us have taken the position that genuine obedience is natural. Others believe that the way to obey is to resist the devil, and they quote James 4:7, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." But let's not forget the rest of it-"Submit yourselves therefore to God." You might think that the passage is talking about two things, but I checked with some Greek experts, and they explained that the two phrases equate with each other. It's not that you do one thing and then the other, but rather that the way you resist the devil is by submitting yourself to God. " 'Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.' How precious to the tempted soul is this positive promise. Now if the one in trouble and temptation keeps his eye fixed on Jesus, and draws nigh to God, talking of His goodness and mercy, Jesus draws nigh to him, and his annoyances that he thought almost unbearable vanish . . . . The soul that loves God, loves to draw strength from Him by constant communion with Him. When it becomes the habit of the soul to converse with God, the power of the evil one is broken; for

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BECAUSE OBEDIENCE IS FRUIT OF FAITH Satan cannot abide near the soul that draws nigh unto God."-The SDA Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, on James 4:7, 8, p. 937. Again, our effort in living the Christian life must concentrate on drawing close to Him, giving up on self, and submitting to Him, all of which we accomplish through communion with Him. Behavioral changes occur as a result. Would you like to know for sure whether or not you are a genuine follower of Christ? The ultimate evidence is not in whether or not you are displaying a good life. That doesn't prove anything. Many people have exhibited good lives apart from Jes us, at least lives that were outwardly good. Some in our world will give you the shirt off. their back, and yet curse God in the same breath. External good behavior can result from all kinds of bad reasons. So how do you know if you are a Christian? Steps to Christ gives two tests. They involve who you love to think about and who you find yourself talking about. If you discover yourself often thinking about Jesus, and talking about him, it is probably as close as you are going to get to an accurate test of whether or not you are a genuine Christian. The early Christians received this name because that's all they could speak about. "Christ did this, and Christ said that," and finally the people who listened said, "We might as well call them Christians." What would they label us if they went by what we usually speak about? The Christian continually dwells upon Jesus,

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upon His love, His justifying grace, His life and sacrifice for us . That' s what keeps you in communion with God. And if we abide in the vine, we will bear much fruit. And it's the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, gentleness, and so forth (Galatians 5). They are inward qualities that result in outward obedience. Hebrews 12:11 and Philippians 1:11 speak about the fruits of righteousness. Obedience is always and only by faith-because it is the fruit of faith, never of our own efforts. When you come to Christ day by day, giving yourself to Him, you are abiding in Him. The experience continually reminds us that without Him a person can do nothing. And when we see our condition, and our total failure to produce fruit apart from Christ, we give up trying to bear our own, and go to our knees with Paul, admitting that we are incapable of the good which we try to perform. Only then can we discover what it means to be truly connected with the vine.

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8 Obedience Can Come by Faith Alone Because of the Example of Jesus

Although we've tried to center our attention on Him all the way through, our final proof that obedience is by faith alone, is the person of Jesus Himself. Jesus is the clinching argument, if we should call it that, because He is our greatest single example of genuine obedience, arid He did it all by faith. He accomplished it through dependence upon His Father, as He now invites us to depend on Him and His Father. Our Saviour not only died for us-paying the price for our salvation-but He lived His life on earth to be an example for us, showing us how to live. "As the Son of man, He gave us an example of obedience; as the Son of God, He gives us power to obey."-The Desire ofAges, p. 24. Jesus was never our example in justification-He didn't need any. But He was our model for sanctification. Heaven set Him apart for a holy purpose from the very beginning, and His entire life He lived through faith in another power instead of His own. "Every act of Christ's life on earth was in fulfillment of the plan that had existed from the days of eternity. 89

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH Before He came to earth, the plan lay out before Him, perfect in all its details. But as He walked among men, He was guided, step by step, by the Father's will."-Ibid., p. 147. It was thus that He became our example for the life of faith. Revelation 14:12 speaks of a people living just before Jesus comes. The passage describes three things about them. "Here is the patience of the saints." They have learned to be just as patient with themselves as God is with them, and they have refused to allow the devil to discourage them over their growing pains. Thus they don't allow the enemy to cause them to give up on their relationship with Christ when they feel unhappy with their performance . Regardless of what happens, they stay with Jesus. "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God." Obeying God's law, they don't merely give lip service, but keep the commandments of God. Finally, they have "the faith of Jesus." What kind of faith did Jesus have? It was trust, or dependence, upon another power instead of His own. If anyone could have trusted in Himself, it would have been Jesus. Not only man, He was also God and had abilities that we could never think of having. Therefore, he could have done things that for you or me would be impossible. Have you ever been tempted to transform stones into bread? While I've struggled with many temptations, I've never had any trouble with that one. Why did the devil try to get Jesus to turn rock 90

BECAUSE OF THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS into loaves? Because Satan knew He could have done it. The devil is smart enough not to waste his time tempting one of us to perform something like that. But Jesus did have access to such power. And Satan's constant attempt throughout Christ's life was to try and get Jesus to break from the faith relationship with His Father and do something on His own. Christ came to take our place, to die on the cross for our sin, and we must never forget that. But Jesus also showed us how to live through surrender to God. One time Jesus' disciples said to Him, "Lord, let us have a look at the Father. We're curious. Why can't we see the Father? Show us the Father." "Have I been with you all this time, and you haven't known me?" He replied. "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." And then He added, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works" (John 14:10). So not even Jesus' words were His own, much less His miracles or His obedience. He was so surrendered to the Father that the Father alone appeared in His life. Jesus also said in John 5:30, "I can of mine own self do nothing." He repeated the same thought in John 8:28. Christ did not mean that He could not have done anything He chose to do by the might inherent within Himself. But He came to demonstrate to us how to live, and so existed in

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dependence upon His Father, refusing to employ what He possessed within Himself. And that is precisely the way that we must live. It's a tremendous irony that Jesus, who had power within Him that He could have used, relied constantly upon a Source from above Him. And we, who have nothing within us to produce obedience, tend to depend upon what we don't have. Jesus, who was God, lived as a man, through dependence upon God. And we, who are men, try to live as God. So when we read that Jesus could do nothing of Himself, He wasn't saying that He was incapable of anything, but that He was fulfilling the plan of salvation by showing poor, weak, struggling sinners how to live through strength from above instead of from within. And it was ten thousand times more difficult for Him to remain in that surrendered stance, than it would be for you or me, because of what He had within Himself. Who has the greatest temptation to use his own power-the one who has it, or the one who doesn't? Jesus had the power, but He never used it, and He invites us to overcome in the same way that He did-through the close relationship of faith, so that the obedience comes by faith in God alone. That's the only way any of us can obey. Our Saviour not only proved that the law of God could be kept, but He makes provision for each one of us. Christ had no advantage over us (The Desire of Ages, p. 119). "Not even by a thought did He yield to temptation. So it may be with us."-Ibid., p. 123. We may follow Jesus' example of obedience

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BECAUSE OF THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS (ibid., p. 74); can overcome as He did (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 17); can obey as He did (The Desire ofAges, p. 309). The law of God can be perfectly obeyed by every child of Adam, through grace (Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, p. 49). Jesus' life in you will produce the same character as His (ibid., p. 78). "Satan had claimed that it was impossible for man to obey God's commandments; and in our own strength it is true that we cannot obey them. But Christ came in the form of humanity, and by His perfect obedience He proved that humanity and divinity combined can obey every one of God's precepts."-Christ's Object Lessons, p. 314. Christ "withstood temptation, through the power that man may command. He laid hold on the throne of God, and there is not a man or woman who may not have access to the same help .. .. Men may have a power to resist evil-a power that neither earth, nor death, nor hell can master; a power that will place them where they may overcome as Christ overcame."-Ellen G. White in The Review and Herald, Feb. 18, 1890. "Jesus revealed no qualities, and exercised no powers, that men may not have through faith in Him. His perfect humanity is that which all His followers may possess, if they will be in subjection to God as He was."-The Desire of Ages, p. 664. "The life that Christ lived in this world, men and women can live through His power and under His instruction. In their conflict with Satan they may have all the help that He had. They may be more 93

OBEDIENCE OF FAITH than conquerors."-Testimonies, vol. 9, p. 22. Can we really obey and triumph over sin as Jesus did? Can we have the same kind of faith and trust in God? Revelation 3:21, the special promise to the final church before Jesus comes again, states plainly, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." Revelation 14:12 says that God's people keep His commandments and have the faith of Jesus. His victory and obedience are available to us, as we depend upon His power instead of our own. I would like to conclude with encouragement for those who, in spite of the fact that they find themselves excited about the idea of obedience by faith alone, still realize-painfully so-that they are not yet obeying perfectly. Every day I am in desperate need of God's justifying grace. But my failure does not invalidate the fact that God has the power available to keep me from sinning. Let's stop measuring truth by our personal experience. We can be thankful today for the fact that we can have peace with God because of what Jes us did at the cross. But even more, we can have gratitude that Christ has the power to keep us from sinning. The twofold message of forgiveness and obedience is the heart of the remnant mission. It is what makes a Seventh-day Adventist. If you still have failures in your life, remember that so did the disciples. Are you disappointed about your failures? Welcome to the club. So am I. But should you be discouraged with seeking the 94

BECAUSE OF THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS faith relationship and communion with Jesus because of your sins? Ten thousands times No! Why? Because when we turn away from ourselves to Jesus, we realize that there is no chance in the world that we can be lost. Only when we look at ourselves do we go down in discouragement. And that, of course, is what the devil constantly endeavors to get us to do. He knows that ifhe can so discourage us because of our performance that we will cease to seek continual fellowship with Christ, that he will have separated us from the only possible avenue for obedience and victory-and will have taken from us our assurance of salvation as well. And so I urge you, direct your attention away from yourself to Jesus-the only source of faith-and rely upon a power from above you. Live the life of faith that Jesus did by accepting again His friendly invitation, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Rev. 3:20).

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Revelation 14:12 describes the remnant people in the words, "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." The note of victory runs through the book of Revelation. But we find ourselves in great difficulty. Most of us aren't doing that well on obedience. We struggle with the same faults and weaknesses and failings day after day, year after year. Repeatedly we resolve to do better, we try our best to reform, we put forth strenuous effort in the attempt to live righteous lives. And we fail. And fail. And fail again. In spite of Ellen White's reminders that sanctification is the work of a lifetime, we would feel a whole lot more comfortable if we could recognize some sort of progress. The remnant people are . those who do keep God's commandments. The book of Revelation directs its promises to the overcomer. So there must be a way of obeying God that has so far escaped some of us. The realm of obedience must have somethirig more that we still need to understand. This book is an attempt to explain in detail what some of us believe to be the major breakthrough in the victorious Christian life.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Morris Venden ISBN 0-8280-0203-7