Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “A Moment of Destiny”. There are several ideas promoted in our weekly study that cry-out for comment. So here goes:
· Sabbath, April 1 = Accurately states that “the three angel’s messages (are) Jesus’ final message of mercy”. Let us never forget this. All God’s messages and all His actions are actions of Love and Truth. Always. For that is His character and His motive. This idea is expanded upon in Sunday’s lesson.
· Sunday, April 2 “Eternal Choices” = Why is there “A Day when every human being on planet earth will make their final, irrevocable decision, either for or against Jesus”? Is this an arbitrary day, an arbitrary judgement by God? Or is it a recognition of the fact that God knows each of us. He knows the choices we will make. He need not wait for an arbitrary set date. He already knows… like He knew about Job. The book of Job is proof that God does know each of us. He even knows His angels. The day will come when that understanding of each is divulged. And there will be no one who will doubt it. That day will be determined by the right situation… which God knows, too. On that day, all will be disclosed. The truth will be seen by all. Even the truth about ourselves.
Sunday’s lesson also speaks of “delivering us from the condemnation of sin”. “Who is in a position to condemn? Only Christ, and Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us, Christ prays for us!” (Romans 8:34 Phillips). God in Christ does not condemn us, “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). So, what is this “condemnation” we are delivered from? “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things” (1 John 3:20). The condemnation in our heart and mind is the natural result of our sin. God “delivers us from… the grip of sin in our lives” (quarterly for Sunday). Hence, the condemnation we feel and experience is from sin not something from our God of love and truth. Knowing God as He really is delivers us from sin and the resulting sense of condemnation that is a natural result of violating our own conscience. God’s love for us is what heals us from our self-focus and self-preservation (sin) and the resulting condemnation and guilt we generate in our own hearts because of that selfishness. God’s love frees us from the burning need we each have to be our own God… to always promote self. Remember, any condemnation is not from our loving Father. He does not condemn… He heals the root-cause of the condemnation we sense… He heals the self-centeredness. It is we ourselves who condemn ourselves by our refusal to move-out of the darkness and into the light.
· Monday, April 3 “The Son of Man Returns” = The “Son of Man” title is so often used by God for you and me (See Ezekiel 2:1,3,6,8; 3:1,3,4,10,17… etc. etc.). A “son of man” is a human… you and me. In many places where Christ uses that name for Himself, He can also be referring to you and me, not just referring to Himself. Plug, your name into some of those scriptural uses, and it may surprise you the level of confidence our God places in us “creature(s) of clay” (Job 4: 19 GNT).
The name “Son of Man” also tells us how much God identifies with us humans. And therefore, Christ demonstrates how we humans were created to be… just like Christ. He is the “Son of Man” as much as we are the “son/daughter of man”. Christ and humans are to be synonymous.
· Tuesday April 4 “The Heavenly Judgement” = “Think about the fact that your whole life will come under scrutiny before God. What, then, is your only hope when this happens?” (question at the bottom of Tuesday’s lesson). Jesus sets this all straight when He talks to Nicodemus. Jesus does not say that our hope is in being “covered” by Jesus and His “righteousness” or by our commandment keeping. Our hope is not having Jesus as our defense attorney before the accusatory bar of the Father. He says to Nicodemus, “I am telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again” (John 3:3). That is our hope and our confidence… knowing Him as He is, and becoming born anew as the person who loves Him, trusts Him, and follows Him. Knowing God as He really is and relating to Him is our hope. “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). Our hope is not in Christ’s merits, not in His substitutionary death or some other theological manipulation… our hope is in God alone, as He is.
· Wednesday, April 5 “The Victor’s Crown.” = “A loving God has done everything He can do for us, which included offering Himself on the cross as a sacrifice for our sin” (Tuesday’s lesson). Hmmm??? What was (is) the purpose of a “sacrifice”? Pagan religions did this to appease an offended deity. Is this the purpose of Christ’s sacrifice? Does Jesus need to assuage God’s “wrath”? This cannot be so. Because, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). The sacrifice is not for God’s sake (to enable Him to forgive), the sacrifice is for our sakes (to enable us to see God carrying us and our sin). All God’s actions are for us… to change us. Not to change Him and enable Him to forgive.
The sacrifice on the cross was not some unusual act for God. “The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God” (Education pg. 263). The sacrifice on the cross is the ultimate demonstration of love. That Divine Love which changes us.
By the way, the “crown of thorns” is in fact, Christ’s ultimate crown. “Christ’s crucifixion… was to be indeed His true coronation. But (the people) did not discern this…” (Desire of Ages pg. 379). The “golden crown” of Revelation 14:14 is referencing “a crown of honor, of glory, of victory” (Wednesday’s lesson). The crown of thorns is surely that crown. If Christ’s true coronation is the cross, then the crown of thorns is that true crown. He will “make a mortal more rare than fine gold” (Isaiah 13:12) … and He makes the crown of thorns the same… makes it a crown of gold.
· Thursday, April 6 “Every Seed Produces a Harvest”. The quarterly for Thursday says, “The harvest is ripe. Sin has reached its limits”. Is that what prompts Christ to come the second time? If so, Satan is in control of when Christ comes. Is this what prompted Christ to come the first time (things being so evil)? No. It was not that. On the contrary. Finally, God had a people who took Him seriously. The people were not intermarrying with the heathen. They were honoring the Sabbath. They were readers, studiers, and memorizers of the Scriptures. They even tithed the herbs of their harvest… and had nothing forbidden in their pantries. Yet they did not know God at all. So much so, that those Pharisees hated the Son of God and killed him. This was one of the great lessons of Christ’s first advent. That keeping the rules without a relationship with the God-of-the-rules, breeds the character of a rebel.
So, what about the second coming? Will things be similar as the first coming? Revelation pictures a great Christian revival at the end. But it will be the wrong Christ. The earth’s inhabitants may be honoring God with their lips… or even their actions… but their hearts will be far from Him. They will be honoring the “god” they prefer, not the “God” as portrayed by His Son.
In the Earth’s past history, it has been so much more violent than now, so much more evil than now. Slavery was the norm for millennia. Women were relegated to mere breeders of offspring. Men were oppressed. Dictators, emperors and kings ruled. Pagan fertility worship was the norm. But now, in these modern and post-modern times, the individual has rights. In democracies and republics, we govern ourselves. Women and men are treated equitably and fairly. I don’t believe the world will be “evil” in the way we think. As EGW states in “Steps to Christ” page 30:
“God does not regard all sins as of equal magnitude; there are degrees of guilt in His estimation, as well as in that of man; but however trifling this or that wrong act may seem in the eyes of men, no sin is small in the sight of God. Man's judgment is partial, imperfect; but God estimates all things as they really are. The drunkard is despised and is told that his sin will exclude him from heaven; while pride, selfishness, and covetousness too often go unrebuked. But these are sins that are especially offensive to God; for they are contrary to the benevolence of His character, to that unselfish love which is the very atmosphere of the unfallen universe. He who falls into some of the grosser sins may feel a sense of his shame and poverty and his need of the grace of Christ; but pride feels no need, and so it closes the heart against Christ and the infinite blessings He came to give”.
The social sins that we call terribly “evil” are not esteemed as such by God. The worst evil is… pride. Spiritual self-importance. Spiritual autonomy.
It is so easy to follow the rules without following the God of the rules. We read from the Bible that at the end, the evil-people will not be so obvious (see Matthew 25: 31-45). The evil will be unseen. The evil of the heart, not of the outward. It will not be so easy for mortals like us to tell which is which. Afterall, in Christ’s day, the true evil-people were the religious people. And the truly righteous-people were prostitutes, fishermen, and the Jewish tax-extortioners who worked for the Romans. Not so easy to tell at that time, not so easy to tell at the end, either.
Thursday’s lesson at the end asks, “How well can you discern the contrast between good and evil? Why is it important that we do?” I believe this to be a bogus question. We have no business judging anyone. Christ did not come to judge anyone. He treated all with love and with truth. As His followers, we are to do the same. We are not to judge. We are to love as He loves. We are to follow our Lord and keep our eyes on Him, while loving others. All others. Period. And leave the discerning up to God. Amen… may it be so.
With brotherly love,
Jim