JESUS CHRIST

 

As representative of the fallen race, Christ passed over the same ground on which Adam stumbled and fell. By a life of perfect obedience to God’s law, Christ redeemed man from the penalty of Adam’s disgraceful fall. Man has violated God’s law. Only for those who return to their allegiance to God, only for those who obey the law that they have violated, will the blood of Christ avail. Christ will never become a party to sin. Bearing the penalty of the law, He gives the sinner another chance, a second trial. He opens a way whereby the sinner can be reinstated in God’s favor. Christ bears the penalty of man’s past transgressions, and by imparting to man His righteousness, makes it possible for man to keep God’s holy law.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                        

 

 

 

God is approached through Jesus Christ, the Mediator, the only way through which He forgives sins. God cannot forgive sins at the expense of His justice, His holiness and His truth. But He does forgive sins and that fully. There are no sins He will not forgive in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the sinner’s only hope, and if he rests here in sincere faith, he is sure of pardon and that full and free. There is only one channel, and that is accessable to all; and through that channel a rich and abundant forgiveness awaits the penitent, contrite soul, and the darkest sins are forgiven. Letter 12 1892 . 11200. E G White.

 

These lessons were taught to the chosen people of God thousands of years ago [and] repeated in various symbols and figures, that the work of truth might be riveted in every heart that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. The great lesson embodied in the sacrifice of every bleeding victim, impressed in every ceremony, inculcated by God Himself, was that through the blood of Christ alone is forgiveness of sins; yet how many carry the galling yoke, and how few feel the force of this truth and act upon it, personally, and derive the blessings they might receive through a perfect faith in the blood of the Lamb of God, realizing that through Him only is forgiveness of sins, believing that when repented of He forgives them whether great or small. O! What a blessed Saviour! Justice demanded the sufferings of man; but Christ rendered the sufferings of a God. He needed no atonement of suffering for Himself; all His sufferings were for us; all His merits and holiness were open to fallen man, presented as [a] gift; will he have it? His proportionate debt of sufferings was in accordance to His measureless holiness and untainted purity. Letter 12 1892 . 11200. E G White.

 

Our great High Priest completed the sacrificial offering of Himself when He suffered without the gate. Then a perfect atonement was made for the sins of the people. Jesus is our Advocate, our High Priest, our Intercessor. Our present position therefore is like that of the Israelites, standing in the outer court, waiting and looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

When the high priest entered the holy place, representing the place where our High Priest is now pleading, and offered sacrifice on the altar, no propitiatory sacrifices were offered without. While the high priest was interceding within, every heart was to be bowed in contrition before God, pleading for the pardon of transgression. Type met antitype in the death of Christ, the Lamb slain for the sins of the world. The great High Priest has made the only sacrifice that will be of any value. The incense that is offered now by men, the masses that are said for the deliverance of souls from purgatory, are not of the least avail with God. All the altars and sacrifices, the traditions and inventions whereby men hope to earn salvation are fallacies. No sacrifices are to be offered without; for the great High Priest is performing His work in the holy place. No prince or monarch dare venture within the holy enclosure.

In His intercession as our Advocate Christ needs no man’s virtue, no man’s intercession. Christ is the only Sin-bearer, the only Sin-offering. Prayer and confession are to be offered only to Him who has entered once for all into the holy place. Christ has declared, “If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” He will save to the uttermost all who come to Him in faith. He ever liveth to make intercession for us. This makes of no avail the offering of mass, one of the falsehoods of Romanism.

The so-called intercession of the saints is the greatest falsehood that can be invented. Priests and rulers have no right to interpose between Christ and the souls for whom He has died, as though invested with the Saviour’s attributes, and able to pardon transgression and sin. They themselves are sinners. They are only human. One day they will see that their deceptive doctrines have led to crimes of every stripe and type, to adultery, robbery, falsehood. They are responsible for many terrible wrongs which men have perpetrated upon their fellow men. For all this the Judge of the whole earth will call them to account at His bar.

The case of every soul that has been imprisoned, every human being that has been tortured, has been noted. The recording angel has sustained the martyrs who would not worship idols, or allow their minds and consciences to become the instruments of men who were instigated by Satan to perform wicked deeds. These things are done under the rule of the man of sin, who has placed himself as God, sitting in the temple of God, and taking upon himself the prerogatives of God, that he may carry out his own schemes.

The mightiest human being, whatever may be his claim, is not infinite. He cannot understand infinity. Christ plainly stated, “No man knoweth the Son but the Father.” A teacher was once endeavoring to present the exaltation of God, when a voice was heard, saying, “We cannot as yet understand who He is.” The teacher nobly replied, “Were I able fully to set forth God, I should either be a god myself, or God Himself would cease to be God.”

“It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me”—not through confessionals or priests or popes, but through Me, your Saviour. “Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” This is the absolute Godhead. The mightiest created intellect cannot comprehend Him; words from the most eloquent tongue fail to describe Him. Silence is eloquence.

Christ represented His Father to the world, and He represents before God the chosen ones in whom He has restored the moral image of God. They are His heritage. To them He says, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. No man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” No priest, no religionist, can reveal the Father to any son or daughter of Adam. Men have only one Advocate, one Intercessor, who is able to pardon transgression. Shall not our hearts swell with gratitude to Him who gave Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins? Think deeply upon the love the Father has manifested in our behalf, the love that He has expressed for us. We cannot measure this love. Measurement there is none. We can only point to Calvary, to the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It is an infinite sacrifice. Can we comprehend and measure infinity?

“For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: ... therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” Here is the mystery of faith and the righteousness of Christ.

“And for their sakes,” Christ prayed, “I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe in me through their word; that they all may be one, as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me... Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Here we see the great Intercessor presenting His petition to His Father. No middle man comes between the sinner and Christ. No dead prophet, no buried saint is seen. Christ Himself is our Advocate. All that the Father is to His Son, He is to those whom His Son in His humanity represented. In every line of His work Christ acted as a representative of the Father. He lived as our substitute and surety. He labored as He would have His followers labor, unselfishly appreciating the value of every human being for whom He suffered and died.

The promise of the Father was pledged that if Christ clothed His divinity with humanity, if He endured the test and trial that Adam failed to endure, His obedience would be counted as righteousness to His people. He would conquer in their behalf, and place them on vantage ground. Thus they would be given a probation in which they might return to their loyalty by keeping God’s law. In this Christ would see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. MS 128 1897. 112800.

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