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Blending the Law and the Gospel by Ellen White
Posted by: matt allen | Sat, May 19, 2007 11:39 pm | Tag(s): Testimonies | Permalink |
Blending the Law and Gospel
“Do we then make void the law of God through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. Rom. 3:31. {OHC 141.1} “We hear so many who are deceived by the enemy constantly claiming, “I am saved”; but . . . they show such contempt of God’s rule of righteousness that we know that they . . . know nothing of saving grace. The heart is not in harmony with the law of God, but is at enmity with that law. Thus was the great rebel in heaven. Will the Lord take men and women to heaven who have no respect for the law of His universe? . . . {O H C 141.2}“What is to bring the sinner to the knowledge of his sins unless he knows what sin is? The only definition of sin in the Word of God is given us in 1 John 3:4. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” The sinner must be made to feel that he is a transgressor. Christ dying upon the cross of Calvary is drawing his attention. Why did Christ die? Because it was the only means for man to be saved. . . . He took upon Himself our sins that He might impute His righteousness to all who believe in Him. . . . The goodness and the love of God lead the sinner to repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. The awakened sinner . . . is pointed to the law he has transgressed. It calls to him to repent, yet there is no saving quality in law to pardon the transgression of law, and his case seems hopeless. But the law draws him to Christ. However deep are his sins of transgression, the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse him from all sin. . . . {Our High Calling 141.3}
“I would call on all who would win heaven, to take warning. Do not devote your precious probationary time to sewing together fig leaves to cover the nakedness which is the result of sin. As you look into the Lord’s great moral looking glass, His holy law, His standard of character, do not for a moment suppose that it can cleanse you. There are no saving properties in the law. It cannot pardon the transgressor. The penalty must be exacted. The Lord does not save sinners by abolishing, His law, the foundation of His government in heaven and in earth. The punishment has been endured by the sinner’s substitute… In the councils of heaven, before the world was created, the Father and the Son covenanted together that if man proved disloyal to God, Christ, one with the Father, would take the place of the transgressor, and suffer the penalty of justice that must fall upon him.” Manuscript 145,1897.“This matter is so dimly comprehended that thousands upon thousands claiming to be sons of God are children of the wicked one, because they will depend on their own works, God always demanded good works, the law demands it, but because man placed himself in sin where his good works were valueless, Jesus righteousness alone can avail. Christ is able to save to the uttermost because He ever lives to make intercession for us…” Manuscript 50,1900. See James 2:8-26 – E.G. White. “The apostle James saw that danger would arise in presenting the subject of justification by faith, and he labored to show that genuine faith cannot exist without corresponding works, ( the bible says, “So speak you and so do, as they that will be judge by the law of liberty… (Law of Love) What does it profit, my brethern though a person say I have faith and not works? Can faith save them?… Even so faith if it does not have works is dead being alone…You believe that there is one God; you do well, the devils also believe and tremble…But you should know, oh vain person, that faith without works is dead.” James 2:12-20)“The experience of Abraham is presented… Thus genuine faith does a genuine work in the believer. Faith and obedience bring a solid, valuable experience. There is a belief that is not a saving faith. The Word declares that the devils believe and tremble. The so-called faith that does not work by love and purify the soul will not justify any man…Abraham believed God. How do we know that he believed? His works testified to the character of his faith, and faith his faith was accounted to him for righteousness…” Signs of The Times -May 19,1898. “You have to talk faith, you have to live faith, you have to act faith, that you may have and increase of faith: and thus exercising that living faith you will grow to strong men and women in Christ Jesus.” Manuscript 1, 1889. Jesus said, … ” If you have faith (small) as a grain of mustard seed, you can say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Matthew 17:20. (It is not the amount of faith but rather the quality of a genuine faith in Christ that matters!)“Adam was commanded to teach his descendants the fear of the Lord, and, by his example and humble obedience, teach them to highly regard the offerings which typified a Savior to come. Adam carefully treasured what God had revealed to him, and handed it down by word of mouth to his children and children’s children. By this means the knowledge of God was preserved. There were some righteous upon the earth who knew and feared God even in Adam’s day. The Sabbath was observed before the fall. Because Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command, and ate of the forbidden fruit, they were expelled from Eden; but they observed the Sabbath after their fall. They had experienced the bitter fruits of disobedience, and learned that every transgressor of God’s commands will sooner or later learn that God means just what he says…” {1SP 59.1} “The law of God is the standard of character; it is the expression of the character of God Himself. It was given to Adam and Eve in Eden. God planted for them this beautiful garden, and supplied their every want. Was it too much to ask them to respond to all His love and care by obedience to His righteous law, which, if kept, would have secured to them happiness, peace, and joy forever?” Becho, July 29, 1895 . 1}“God gave our first parents a pure and upright character, in harmony with His law; and had they remained obedient, they would have bequeathed the same character to their posterity. But they listened to Satan’s specious temptations, and transgressed this holy law, and the result was death. And the sons and daughters of Adam,(us) instead of coming into the world, as God first made man, righteous and heirs of eternal life, have been the victims of sin and death and woe. This is the result of the transgression of God’s law in Eden.” {Becho, July 29, 189“The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been,–just what it was in Paradise before the fall of our first parents,–perfect obedience to the law of God, perfect righteousness. If eternal life were granted on any condition short of this, then the happiness of the whole universe would be imperiled. The way would be open for sin, with all its train of woe and misery, to be immortalized.” {Review and Herald, Nov. 11, 1915 par. 1}“It was possible for Adam, before the fall, to form a righteous character by obedience to God’s law. But he failed to do this, and because of his sin our natures are fallen, and we cannot make ourselves righteous. Since we are sinful, unholy, we cannot perfectly obey a holy law. We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. But Christ has made a way of escape for us. He lived on earth amid trials and temptations such as we have to meet. He lived a sinless life. He died for us, and now he offers to take our sins and give us his righteousness. If you give yourself to him, and accept him as your Savior, then, sinful as your life may have been, for his sake you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned.” {Review and Herald, 11/ 11/ 1915 par. 2“The plan of saving sinners through Christ alone was the same in the days of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and in every successive generation that lived before the advent of Christ, as it is in our day. The patriarchs, the prophets, the martyrs from righteous Abel, looked forward to a coming Savior, and they showed their faith in him by sacrifices and offerings. The sacrifice of beasts shadowed forth the sinless offering of God’s dear Son, and pointed forward to his death upon the cross. But at the crucifixion type met antitype, and the typical system there ceased. {ST, February 20, 1893 par. 2“Our acceptance with God is sure only through His beloved Son, and good works are but the result of the working of His sin-pardoning love. They are no credit to us, and we have nothing accorded to us for our good works by which we may claim a part in the salvation of our souls. Salvation is God’s free gift to the believer, given to him for Christ’s sake alone. The troubled soul may find peace through faith in Christ, and his peace will be in proportion to his faith and trust. He cannot present his good works as a plea for the salvation for the soul.” “But are good works of no real value? Is the sinner who commits sin everyday with impunity, regarded of God with the same favor as the one who through faith in Christ tries to works in his integrity? The Scripture answers, ‘We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.’( See Ephesians 2:8-10) (my comments: So often only the first half of these verses are quoted- “By grace through faith are you saved not by works lest any man should boast…But as we see in verse 10, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works… that we should walk in them.) This is the work of faith obedience to the commandments is good works of love that flows out to humanity and only Christ can enable us to have this love-righteousness-obedience - good works.) In His divine arrangement, through His unmerited favor, the Lord has ordained that good works shall be rewarded. We are accepted through Christ’s merit alone; and the acts of mercy, the deeds of charity, (Love) which we perform, are the fruits of faith, and they become a blessing to us; for men are to be rewarded according to their works. It is the fragrance of the merit of Christ that makes our good works acceptable to God, and it is grace that enables us to do the works for which He rewards us. Our works in and of themselves have no merit. When we have done all that is possible for us to do, we are to count ourselves as unprofitable servants. We deserve no thanks from God. We have only done what it was our duty to do, and our works could not have been performed in the strength of our own sinful natures… We receive the grace by which to do those works which will be rewarded at His hands.” Review and Herald, Jan. 29,1895. By Ellen G. White
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List of minor characters in YuYu Hakusho | July 13th, 2007 at 6:40 amStu_Hirst…
Ulianovskiy Raion LBPD Roger Angleton Joo Janta 200 Super Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses Church of the Faroe Islands Alias (computing) Michael Walker Purolator 500 Rawa River List of minor characters in YuYu Hakusho …
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