9 August 2001 Editorial:
Appreciating the Work of Christ

Jesus works both to will and to do His good pleasure, and that means an internal work.

Larry Kirkpatrick

We need to keep ever before us the efficacy of the blood of Jesus. That life-cleansing, life-sustaining blood, appropriated by living faith, is our hope. We need to grow in appreciation of its inestimable value, for it speaks for us only as we by faith claim its virtue, keeping the conscience clean and at peace with God. (Ellen G. White, Letter 87, 1894).

More and more it seems that our faith in Christ is thought to mean less and less. As the newer trends manifest themselves, obedience is pushed farther and farther from the center of the gospel and cast away as an ever-shrinking fruit-only. It is true to say that obedience is the fruitage of faith. But it is just as true to say that faith is the fruitage of obedience. That's the one we don't hear.

Obeying and having faith are in fact one and the same thing; neither precedes the other; neither follows the other; their occurrence is simultaneous. But somehow there is a push for disengagement. There is a desire to say that the blood of Jesus--His meritorious life intersecting with our life--does little or nothing for us. Thus the warning: "We need to keep ever before us the efficacy of the blood of Jesus." This blood is identified in inspiration as a "life-cleansing, life-sustaining" agency. Its effectual application occurs only when appropriated by "living" faith. But a faith that keeps the application of the power of Christ's life out and away from the heart, that has been made overly wary of obedience, shall ever be slow in outwardly manifesting the work of God.

Of how great interest runs this inspired sentence: "We need to grow in appreciation of its inestimable value, for it speaks for us only as we by faith claim its virtue, keeping the conscience clean and at peace with God."

How much ought we appreciate the value of Christ's life poured out for us at the cross to change us. And yet "it speaks for us only as we by faith claim its virtue, keeping the conscience clean and at peace with God." As we let our Lord make His blood effectual in our lives, as we believe by faith, we shall obey in one and the same supernatural operation. The same merits of Christ that "speak for us" in justification at the same time keep our consciences clean and at peace with God. This gospel makes an impact!

Many are running far afield of this theological perspective. They claim that they are returning to the reformation theology, pouring purity into Adventist veins. But their teachings are counter to inspiration. They are ruled by a canon within a canon, a subset of Scripture applied through a faulty lense, an unyielding dogma. They lay claim to the mantle of the great reformers, but are as much products of their own time and place as were Luther and Calvin.

God used these mighty reformers, but they were coming out of great darkness. And how few today continue--truly continue--to live by that spirit that brings newness of life, clear conscience and peace with God. How much easier to insist that one can never attain to what God insists he can, and to walk on in the shadow of destruction and all sorrows. The devil wants none to know that our God can indeed give the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is nothing sound about an Adventism that incorporates Augustinian views making mere temptation into sin, and marking off-limits the riches of His grace to replace them with the threadbare assertions of the new modelers. If we do not by faith claim its virtue--should we refuse to obey the gospel of Jesus--we will not know the experience of this "life-cleansing, life-sustaining" agency. Our consciences will still condemn the still-persisting sin in our lives that have not felt the strength of Jesus in cleansing and overcoming. O that we would appreciate ever more the power of the cross, the impact of Jesus, the presence of His Spirit, the reality of living faith, and the efficacy of the blood of He who became one of us in order to die for us, and open the doorway home.

GreatControversy.org
Y o u    H a v e    a    V o i c e

This document may be freely reproduced, distributed, and spread as the leaves of autumn. (Click here for A Statement Regarding Open Christian Document and File Reproduction Principles.)