IN DEFENSE OF THE FAITH
The
Truth About Seventh-day Adventists
A
REPLY TO CANRIGHT
by
William
H. Branson
11. DOING OR BELIEVING
THROUGHOUT This book
Mr. Canright gives the impression to his readers that Seventh-day
Adventists
endeavor to secure
salvation by the works of the law instead of through faith in Jesus
Christ. He quotes one
Milton F.
Gowell, whom
he represents as a former Seventh-day Adventist, as giving a true
picture of
advent experience, in
the following words:
All the doing was
indelibly impressed on my mind as a boy, but the believing on Christ for
salvation, and
resting in His finished
work, I have no remembrance of whatever.' Seventh-day Adventism
Renounced, p.
61.
Now, a statement could
hardly be made about Seventh day Adventists that would be more
completely
misrepresentative than
this one. Trusting in the law for salvation is exactly what Seventh-day
Adventists do
not do. They realize
that the law has no power to pardon a sinner or give life to the soul.
And, further, they
understand clearly that
even after conversion the human flesh, unaided by the Holy Spirit, is
entirely too
weak to keep a law so
high and holy as is the law of our God. Their dependence is ever and
always only in
Christ.
The law, however, is
the very instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to lead men and woman to
Jesus
their Savior, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. Romans 3:20. It is the law that
condemns the sinner,
and thus makes him feel
his need of a Savior. The patient must first realize that he is sick
before he will call
a physician just so,
sinners will not be constrained to flee to Christ for pardon,
justification, and eternal life
until by some means
they have been made painfully conscious of sin and of its blighting,
soul-destroying
effect upon the life.
It is by the
commandment that sin is. made to appear in its true light. On this point
Paul explains:
Wherefore the law is
holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which
is good
made death. unto me?
God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by
that which is
good; that sin by the
commandment might become exceeding sinful. Romans 7: 12,13.
Thus it is by contact
with the holy law of God that men learn that sin is exceedingly sinful
and is working
death in them. James
compares it to a looking-glass:
Be you doers of the
word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a
hearer of the
word, and not a doer,
he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he
beholds himself, and
goes his way, and
straightway forgets what manner of man he was. But who looks into the
perfect law of
liberty, and continues
therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this
man shall be
blessed in his deed.
James 1:22-25.
The law, then, is a
great mirror which reveals our true character and our actual worth in
God's
sight. It shows up
every spot, every stain that sin has made, every evil propensity of the
flesh, in fact,
everything that makes
us unfit for heaven. But the law cannot remove a single stain from our
lives or grant
us pardon for a single
transgression. Neither can it impart power whereby we can bring our
lives into
harmony with its high
standard. For this it must refer us to Jesus. Thus it brings us to
Christ.
Just as a mirror can
reveal a spot on the face and convince us of the fact that something
must be
done to remove it, so
the law points out our sins, the spots on our characters, and reveals to
us the absolute
need of cleansing. But
the mirror cannot remove the spot from the face. Soap and water must do
that. And
just so with the law.
It can reveal the plague spots of sin, but it cannot remove them. The
blood of Jesus
must do that. There is
no other remedy. This is the fountain that has been opened in the house
of David for
sin and uncleanness,
and there is no other cleansing agency for sin. Neither is there
salvation in any other:
for there is none other
name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts
4:12.
Said Mr. Canright
before he left the Seventh-day Adventists :
'Paul argues that no
one can be justified by the works of the law; and this is true of any
law, moral or
ceremonial. It is true
of the moral law as well as of the ceremonial law. 'Therefore by the
deeds of the law
there shall no flesh be
justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin;' 'for
all have sinned, and
come short of the glory
of God.' Rom. 3:20, 23.
Why can no one be
justified by the observance of the moral law? Because of the simple fact
that when you
have once broken that
law, it must always condemn you. What kind of a law would that be that
would
justify the man who
broke it? Now, all have broken the moral law, and hence it must condemn
everybody.
There is no pardon in
it. Neither could the observance of the typical law take away sins, as
we have before
shown that Paul
repeatedly affirms. 'For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and
of goats should take
away sins.' (See also
Heb. 7:18, 19; 10:14; 9:91-4.)
Consider a moment;
what is there in the shedding of the blood of an animal that could take
away a man's
sins? Absolutely
nothing. So, then, there was no law given, the observance of which could
pardon sin or
justify the sinner; and
hence Paul says to the Galatians: 'For if righteousness come by the law,
then Christ is
dead in vain.' 'For if
there had been a law given which could have given life, verily
righteousness should
have been by the law.'
Gal. 2:21; 3:21. So the great apostle truthfully argues that pardon and
justification
cannot be obtained by
law of any kind. It must come through faith in Christ, through the
unmerited mercy
of God.- The Two
Laws, pp. 68, 69.
It was for the purpose
of accomplishing what the law could not do that God sent His Son into
the world.
Thus Paul declares:
What the law could
not do, in that it was weak through 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. Romans 83, 4.
There was no weakness
in the law, but the flesh was too weak to keep it. Man had been
weakened by sin,
and had no power within
himself to do right. The righteousness of the law could not be fulfilled
in him until
the guilt of past sin
was removed, and he was strengthened by the indwelling Spirit. And to
accomplish
this, God sent His own
Son into the world, and He proved Himself to be abundantly able to do
for man all
that the law could not
do. Therefore with the law to reveal sin and with Christ to save from
sin, there is
provided for man full
and complete salvation.
When Jesus was on the
earth He lived a life in perfect harmony with the law of God. He
declared,
I have kept My
Father's commandments. John 15:10. His life was one of perfect
obedience. In Him was
no sin. He declared
that He had come to fulfill (fully keep) the law (Matthew 5:17);
and therefore the
righteousness of the
law was fully revealed in His life.
Now with us it is just
the opposite. We have all Sinned, and come short of the glory of God
... ..
as it is written, There
is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understands, there is
none that seeks
after God. They are all
gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is
none that does
good, no, not one.
Romans 3:23, 10-12. When a sinner, therefore, comes to that point in his
life where, by
contact with the law of
God, he is made to realize his lost condition and to desire a life of
holiness, he must
first deal with the
guilt of past sins. These he is powerless to remove, and to this end he
finds no help in the
law. It only condemns
and reveals the existing need of help. It is powerless to render aid.
How then can man be
justified with God? Job 25:4. The answer is at hand: If we confess
our
sins, He is faithful
and Just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9.
This, then, is the way
of salvation. It comes through confession and repentance of sin, and
through faith
that Jesus can and does
save. And when Jesus cleanses a sinner from his past sins, He does a
thorough
work; He cleanses
from all unrighteousness. Wherefore He is able also to save
them to the uttermost
that come unto God by
Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews
7:25. If the
Son therefore shall
make you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:36.
CHRIST'S RIGHTEOUSNESS BECOMES OURS
Be it known unto you
therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you
the
forgiveness of sins:
and by Him all that believe are justified. Acts 13:38, 39. Now how
does this
justification come
about? How can a man be justified from sins which he has actually
committed, and
which are recorded
against him on the books in heaven?
We answer: It is by an
act of Christ, whereby He assumes responsibility for our sin, and
imputes to us the
righteousness of His
life. He counts that our transgressions were committed by Him, for which
He paid the
penalty on the cross,
and that His obedience was performed by us. Our books of record reveal
lives of
perfect obedience to
the law, since all past sins are forgiven, and His perfect righteousness
has been
imputed to us. The
Lord bath, laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6. Thus
Jesus takes away the
sins of the world by
taking them unto Himself and placing His righteousness upon the sinner.
This He can
do without having
actual guilt attached to Himself, since He has already paid the penalty
for our sins in His
death on the cross.
When the prodigal son
returned to his father, his own tattered garments were exchanged for the
best robe in the house.
The father took away the old garments, and clothed the son in his own
rich apparel.
It was of a similar
experience that Isaiah sang in his day: I will greatly rejoice in the
Lord, my soul shall
be joyful in my God;
for He bath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He bath covered
me with the
robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns
herself with her
jewels. Isaiah 61
:10.
This process of
justification by faith is clearly stated by the great apostle to the
Gentiles in the
following language:
Even the
righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus-Christ unto all and upon
all them that
believe. For there is
no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
Being justified
freely by His grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God bath set forth
to be a
propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of
sins that are past,
through the forbearance
of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might
be just, and
the justifier of him
which believes in Jesus. Romans 3:22-26.
Thus it is the
righteousness of Christ that is received by the sinner when he turns to
God for help.
God declares Christ's
righteousness to be ours. This righteousness of Christ is declared for
the remission
(margin, passing
over) of sins that are past. It is imputed to the sinner just as
though it were actually his,
and he now stands
before God with a perfect record of purity and obedience, which he had
no part
whatever in making, but
which he has received as a gift from Christ. The sinner now appears
before God as
innocent as if he had
never sinned.
Justification,
therefore, does not come by doing the law, but by faith in Christ.
When that faith is
exercised, then
Christ's law keeping is imputed to the sinner; and thus by His obedience
the transgressor is
declared to be
righteous. As by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of
One shall many be made
righteous. Romans 5:19. It is by Christ's obedience that we are made
righteous.
He obeyed for us, and
now He substitutes His obedience for our past disobedience; and thus we
stand
justified before God.
When a man is
converted, two distinct changes take place. One is called the new birth;
the other,
justification. The
first takes place in the man himself, being wrought by the Spirit of
God. He is given a
new heart; all things
become new. The second is his changed standing in God's sight. This is
justification,
and this is the change
that is wrought by the righteousness of Christ being imputed to him.
This brings us to
a consideration of the
Christian life, or the life after conversion, and the attitude of the
newborn, justified
man to the law of God.
On this point Paul inquires: What shall we say then? Shall we
continue in sin, that
grace may abound? God
forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Romans 6:1,2.
Sin is the
transgression of the law, hence Paul is really saying, Shall we
continue to transgress the
law in order that God's
grace may be even more abundantly manifested while continuing to forgive
and
justify us? To this
he makes the most emphatic reply, God forbid.
It is, therefore, not
God's plan that converted men should transgress His law, but rather
that the
righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. Romans
8:4. Sin is no longer
to have dominion over the life. Knowing this, that our old man is
crucified with Him,
that the body of sin
might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. Let
not sin therefore
reign in your mortal
body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. Romans 6:6,12.
But it is impossible
for any man to keep perfectly the law of Jehovah in his own strength.
What
Christ said is verily
as true of Him now as before, that without Me you can do nothing.
How, then, may
God's will be
accomplished in the life? The answer is found in the words of the
beloved disciple: As many
as received Him, to
them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to those that believe
on His
name. John 1:12.
The secret is couched
in that expression, as many as received Him. Those who receive Him
find
power. The power comes
through receiving Him. Herein is revealed one of the most marvelous and
astounding truths of
the gospel-that it is God's purpose that the Christian shall actually
receive Christ into
his life and permit Him
to live and reign, there, perfecting in him the same righteousness that
was revealed
in the life of Christ
nineteen hundred years ago. This is the mystery spoken of by Paul when
he said:
Even the mystery
which bath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is. made
manifest to His saints:
to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery
among the Gentiles;
which is Christ in YOU, the hope of glory: whom we preach, warning every
man, and
teaching every man in
all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
whereunto I also
labor, striving
according to His working, which works in me mightily. Colossians
1:26-29.
Christ in you,
then, is the secret. This constitutes our hope of glory. Without this
experience we
are helpless, and for
us there is no salvation. But with Christ in control of the life, our
strivings and labors
are not performed in
human weakness, but are -according to His working, which works in us
mightily.
Again Paul talks of
this experience in his epistle to the Ephesians, thus:
That He would grant
you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might
by
His Spirit in the inner
man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you, being
rooted and
grounded in love, may
be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length,
and depth, and
height; and to know the
love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with
all the
fullness of God. Now
unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask
or think,
according to the power
that works in us, unto Him be glory. Ephesians 3:16-21. 1
Note carefully the
expressions used. We are to be strengthened with might ... in the inner
man.
This is to he
accomplished by Christ dwelling in the heart; and when He dwells in the
heart, He is able to
do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think. And this doing is not
through our poor
weakness but through
the power that works in us. And that power is Christ in person of
the Holy Spirit.
Once again the apostle
repeats it, this time in his letter o the Hebrews:
Now the God of
peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great
Shepherd of the sheep,
through he blood of
the. everlasting covenant, make you perfect in very good work to do His
will, working
in you that which is
well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for
ever and ever.
Hebrews 13:20, 21.
Here, then, the plan is
clear and plain. We can be made perfect in, every good work to do His
will. This
perfection is not
obtained by struggle and effort on our part, but through the operation
of the power of the
indwelling Christ. It
is His working in you that brings the perfection. Our working is
all a failure; His
working is always a
glorious success. When, therefore, He works in and through us, He brings
success and
perfection to our
lives, just as He worked it out in His own life when here in the flesh.
Once again the Pauline
letters repeat the blessed truth, this time the message to the Galatian
church:
I am crucified with
Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the
life which I now
live in the flesh l
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for
me. Galatians
2:20.
This is the glorious
result of having Christ live in the heart. The life that is lived is,
then, no longer ours, but
Christ lives in
me. It is His life lived over again in our flesh. We have
relinquished the throne, and He is
in control. Now we can
exclaim, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
Philippians
4:13.
Christ declares Himself
to be the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Hebrews 13:8.
When
He was on earth in the
flesh, He demonstrated that He was a commandment keeper. I have kept
My
Father's
commandments (John 15:10), He said; and David prophesied of Him:
Then said I, Lo, I come: in
the volume of the book
it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, 0 My God: yea, Thy law is
within My
heart. Psalms 40: 7,
8. Since, therefore, it is Christ's desire to do the Father's will, and
since the law of God
is written in His
heart, the life that He will live today in our flesh will also be a life
in harmony with that
law. He will literally
keep the law in us and through us, and thereby bring our lives into
perfect accord with
its holy precepts.
This is what Paul
refers to when, he says that God sent His Son to make it possible.
That the
righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. Romans
8:4. When, therefore,
Jesus was here in the flesh, He kept the law for us. Now He offers to
dwell in our
hearts by His Holy
Spirit, and keep His law in and through us. The first was a work of God
for man; the
second is a work of God
in man. The first we had nothing to do with, but to receive it by faith;
the second
we cannot accomplish,
but it is wrought in us the Spirit through faith. Thus by the
obedience of one we
are made righteous, and
justified from our past sin; and also by the obedience of One (now
obeying in 8)
we are kept righteous
day by day. This truth reveals what it is that to the Christian
Christ is all, and in all.
Colossians 3:11. We are
justified by faith in Christ, and the just must live by faith in Him.
Thus we are
saved by is life.
(Romans 5:10.)
THE FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
At is therefore clear
that righteousness comes as a result of faith. Good works in keeping the
law
of God are the logical
sequence, or fruits, of the indwelling of the Spirit God. One cannot
save himself by
keeping the law, but a
saved man will keep the law because of the fact that he is saved. It is
the fruit by
which the tree is
known.
You shall know them
by their fruits. Do men gather apes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even
so every good
tree brings forth good
fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot
bring forth evil
fruit, neither can a
corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree at brings not forth good
fruit is hewn
down, and cast into
fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Matthew 7:16-20.
Here Jesus makes it
clear that the man must first be good before he can do good. If a man
love Me, said
Jesus, he will keep
My words. John 14:23. The loving trust come first, the keeping of His
law follows.
This great truth is
further set forth in the epistle to the Romans, where Paul uses the
experience of Abraham
as an example of the
way good works testify to the present faith and righteousness:
In this way David
also tells of the blessedness of the man to whose credit God places
righteousness, apart
from his actions.
'Blessed,' he says, 'are those whose iniquities have been forgiven, and
whose sins have
been covered over.
Blessed is the man of whose sin the Lord will not take account.'
This declaration of
blessedness, then, does it come simply to the circumcised, or to the
uncircumcised as
well? For Abraham's
faith so we affirm-was placed to his credit as righteousness (Gen.
15:6). What then
were the circumstances
under which this took place? Was it after he had been circumcised, or
before?
Before, not after. And
he received circumcision as a sign, a mark attesting the reality of, the
faith and
righteousness which was
his while still uncircumcised. Romans 4:6-11, Weymouth's New
Testament in
Modern Speech.
So in Abraham's case
his righteousness was not produced by his works of circumcision, etc.,
but the works
appeared because of
that righteousness. Circumcision became a sign of the fact that he was
righteous. Now,
let us apply this to
our own experience. Do we receive righteousness before we keep the law,
or after?
Before, not after. And
we receive law keeping as a sign, a mark attesting the reality of
the, faithrighteousness
which comes to us by
believing on Christ and permitting Him to dwell in the soul. Thus our
righteousness does not
come by the deeds of the law, but the deeds of the law do witness
to its presence
and to its genuineness.
(See Romans 3:21.) Thus John the beloved declares: He that says, I
know Him, and
keeps not His
commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But who keeps His
word, in him verily
is the love of God
perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. 1 John 2:4, 5.
By this it is seen that
faith does not make void the law, but rather establishes it. (See Romans
3:31.) In fact, without
this faith-righteousness, all our efforts to keep the law are
doomed to utter failure;
but trusting Him to do
the work, our weakness is overcome, we become connected with the
boundless
power of Omnipotence,
and thus we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us.
Philippians
4:13. In this way our
faith is shown by our works, as stated by the apostle James: Even so
faith, if it hath
not works, is dead,
being alone.
Yea, a man may say,
Thou has faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works,
and I will
show thee my faith by
my works. James 2:17, 18.
|