What is justification about? What really happened at the cross?

“And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” (Gen. 22:2).

The adult Sabbath School quarterly said,

“Christ, having died, died once and for all, but He is now alive forevermore. So the Christian who is baptized has died to sin once and for all and should never again come under its dominion. Of course, as any baptized Christian knows, sin doesn’t just automatically disappear from our lives once we come up out of the water. Not being ruled by sin isn’t the same as nt having to struggle with it.”

But, I say, Wait a minute! Should or should not sin bring us under its dominion when we have died to sin once and for all, or should sin not be able to bring us under its dominion when we have died to it?

The quarterly just back peddled from its opening statement, “the Christian who is baptized has died to sin once and for all and should never again come under its dominion”. Would Paul have said that? Is that what he is saying in Romans 6 through 8? Is that doctrine the cure for sin? Do we want to be cured? Are we like those people in the apostolic church? Could we die for what Jesus did for us, as they were martyred for what He did for them? Is not Laodicea completely different from Ephesus before it lost its first love? Protestantism today are apples, and the people who huddled around Paul and the apostles were oranges—a completely different set of people. They were a peculiar people, a holy generation, and the woman who fled from the dragon into the wilderness. Let us never forget what the church started as and what it is today—even after we have heard the message to Laodicea. The message can convict us of our great sinfulness before God, but it cannot redeem us from our sinfulness.

We need John the Baptist’s very unpopular message, and it will come.

“Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.

Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,

And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance…” (Matt. 3:2-8).

John got his message from the last message from God to Israel.

“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matt. 3:11,12).

 “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:

And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith the LORD of hosts.

For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from Mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?” (Mal. 3:1-7).

John’s message was not one of grace. It had hope, but it was filled with warning to the people of God for the great judgment what would come with the appearance of the Messiah. It would not be a nice day in the park. It was a super serious message of the great Judge making His final sentence upon an insolent people who dared to answer the Creator as if He were an equal, “Wherein shall we return?”

No one of Protestantism is like the apostolic church, and cannot lay claim to its blessings of justification! Instead we are more like the Jews before John stood up—almost. I say almost because, like they had, we have not yet suffered the first troubles of the coming overthrow of our world protected by God through Protestantism and the Protestant Constitution of America. But, we are on the verge of it. We are soon to see another Roman Imperator (“dictatorship”) that will finally bring us to need the God we have rejected and forgotten. When that condition arrives in America and the rest of the world shortly afterward, then we will be suffering under the Roman oppression that the Jews suffered under, and the Lord will then raise up His John the Baptist to call for repentance. Then He will have an Adventist people who are humbled and ready to hear His Law given from Ellen White. They will hear the high, high standard that they have avoided with all their heart. Some of the Adventists and Protestants will sorrow for sin and hate their total neglect of all that the Spirit of Prophecy laid out for them to be purified and ready to stand on the day of Jesus’ return. The gospel will mean something to the genuinely convicted hearers of the final version of the Law of God given to Ellen White.

Then the gospel set forth by Paul will make sense to them. They will see what The Desire of Ages was saying about the Son of God. They will be crucified with Christ. They will truly die to sin with Him. Victory over their sins will happen because they will have a will that is newly empowered and motivated by true repentance and a real justification. And the true obedience will shine in its brilliance next to the tarnished righteousness, the slag refuse of the refining process. All who will not come under the purifying exposure of their sins by the blinding presentation of the Law will be rejected. Period. The decidely rebellious will hear their judgment, “They are all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters. The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the LORD hath rejected them.” (Jer. 6:28-30). And all who will accept the humbling deliberation of the high standard, which will be spoken in the fatherly tones of John, and will surrender to the shame will receive the repentance and the faith for justification. They will be present before the Lord when the Latter Rain comes. They will stand “before the God of the earth.” (Rev. 11:4).

John had “plucked away” “the wicked”. The mighty cleaver of truth separated “the precious from the vile.” (Jer. 15:19). He remained faithful to his calling, “Thou shalt be as My mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.” (jer. 15:19). Using the last prophet Malachi, John exposed “the sorcerers” (Mal. 3:5) when he revealed the “Pharisees and Sadducees” (Matt. 3:7) by calling them “generation of vipers” (Matt. 3:7). “Who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Matt. 3:7). The religious leadership weren’t fleeing anything, as john said with the tone of serious sarcasm. They had no faith in the scriptures or they wouldn’t have led a life that utterly refused the reality of the Messiah’s coming judgment. They were the very ones who were “the adulterers, … false swearers, and … those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 3:5). The message of Malachi filled John with straight speaking as it drove him to speak for the Father who had forewarned, “I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers.”

“Whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” It was only after John’s message was given, and it was accepted or rejected, that God began His Son’s ministry of mercy and peace for everyone who did accept John’s message. “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.” (Matt. 3:12,13).

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD's hand double for all her sins.” (Isa. 40:1,2).

So, before we should ever hear the message of Christ’s grace for us we must be reintroduced to the wrath of God against sin. Then we must see His wrath diverted from our whole world and poured upon His beloved Son. It’s like a father who sees the obvious signs of rebellion from his ten-year-old and must pull off his belt and whip his son for the open rejection of the rules of the home. To protect the spread of rebellion to the other children the father must make an open show of his hatred of the son’s flagrant disregard of the family structure. The father has already given many heart-felt warnings. He has sat his son down and explained why the rules are important. But, all that was rejected; and now the judgment upon his son must be executed, or everything the father has professed to enforce will be utterly swept away as words that had meant nothing.

The father musters the whole family, mother and siblings, to witness the punishment that transgression leads to, and for them to know the real intent of the father’s mind toward insulence. The first stroke of the whipping wakes up the son to the true disposition of his father, but the whipping has not yet shown the son how deeply into rebellion his mischief has taken him. Two more strokes leave the son’s insolence and pride shaking like a leaf, but the father’s wrath is not yet satisfied. The father’s hand raises again to smite the sin in his son, but at this point the mother falls on her son to protect him from the heavy belt. Yet the beatings continue—now upon the mother. As much as the father loves his dear wife, he knows the depth of rebellion that still remains in the ten-year-old.

The older siblings are horrified but fear to stop their father. The mother suffers sorely, but can take the beatings from the father that would permanently damage the son. When the father is satisfied that the weeping son has felt the blows from the whip that his mother took for him, then the father stops. The ten-year old is sobbing, and siblings are weeping aloud. But, now all are ready to hear the message from their endeared father. “From now on, everyone will ensure that this never has to happen again. Everyone present will make sure Johnny turns from the direction into which he was going, and that he will remain humbled and fearing the life of crime to which he was heading. Everyone in this family has the duty to raise up Johnny in the life of goodness and obedience to law. Mother, what you did was exactly what Jesus did for us and you will be duly rewarded.”

Johnny now sees the wrath of his father like he never before did. He physically felt the first three strikes of the whip. He knows the pain they inflicted. And the rest of the whipping that his mother took for him he also felt—not personally, but through his mother—through her self-sacrificing love. This is the first time Johnny knew the depth of self-sacrifice that his mother had always been giving him. Her love has changed his disposition toward her. He saw something he never before realized in his mommy. He saw her loving kindness and her tender mercies. He also saw the mind of his dad toward justice. What he won’t know until much later is that what his father did to him greatly hurt his father and forced him to do what he almost couldn’t do.

Johnny’s mind now is changed toward life. Reality is different. A whole new paradigm reigns in his thinking. The father and mother reunite, although the mother must reconcile the real anger of her husband that she even never knew existed. But she is assured of his continued love for her and her original love survived the demonstration of justice. Her fervor for her husband sailed through the situation and was confirmed in the final result—a son who learned a lesson deeply and firmly, a lesson what nothing short of justice could open him to.

When we see the pounding that the Son of God, our “Mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20), has taken for us in Gethsemane and on Golgotha, then we will be delivered from our life of insolence and Laodicean disposition toward God’s Law. Jesus threw Himself between the great Judge and us, His beloved children. We have all received the first strokes through “the chastisement of our peace” from our hearts being separated from the blessedness of God’s Spirit, and from life’s “stripes” and bruises due to our transgressions.” (Isa. 53:5). But Jesus shielded us from the thunders of Sinai and its deadly bolts of lightning. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isa. 53:5).

To all who have gone to “the place, which is called Calvary” (Luke 23:33), and realized what really happened there 2,000 years ago will be crucified with Christ. All that He took in our behalf they will painfully feel. The floggings, every backhand, every shaming and silent thunders of condemnation from God, His withdrawal of life, the torture of the spikes through the Son’s wrists and Achilles tendons, the infinite separation from His God, His feared Father and His beloved Judge, we must witness. The sight of infinite justice and infinite mercy can alone give us death to sin and cause us to stop sinning.

We must die with Jesus, and we must die with the Father, the Judge who dwells alone in His position of Law enforcement. Maybe the scenario of Johnny and his father doesn’t sound realistic or lifelike, and I’m not recommending it to any father. But it is what happened at the cross, and we must know this. The wrath of God toward our sins is destructive and must remove sin from His kingdom, His house, His family.

The angels, our elder siblings, looked with horror upon the Golgotha event. They never expected such anger heaped from the beloved Father upon the Son of His bosom. The Son of God who took our eternal death even found it to be worse than anticipated. But His fidelity toward His Father never once failed, and His self-sacrificing love for the children of His hand never flagged.

When we know God and the Son of His bosom like it is our privilege to know Them, then we will receive the will that overthrows our sins. We will suddenly have a new mind for obedience to righteousness, and obedience will be easy. But, then we just exercise our will to keep the Law that has been made easy for us. To not choose to obey at this point, after receiving the heart to obey, is to obviate and obliterate the new gift of a righteous heart and mind. It is to frustrate the grace of God toward us. Disobedience stanches His reconciled Spirit toward us.

Therefore we have the following admonition:

    Many are inquiring, “How am I to make the surrender of myself to God?” You desire to give yourself to Him, but you are weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits of your life of sin. Your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. You cannot control your thoughts, your impulses, your affections. The knowledge of your broken promises and forfeited pledges weakens your confidence in your own sincerity, and causes you to feel that God cannot accept you; but you need not despair. What you need to understand is the true force of the will. This is the governing power in the nature of man, the power of decision, or of choice. Everything depends on the right action of the will. The power of choice God has given to men; it is theirs to exercise. You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him. You can give Him your will; He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be centered upon Him, your thoughts will be in harmony with Him. Steps to Christ, p. 47.

But, before anyone can do any of that they must witness the cross event and receive the power that comes with the infinite justice of God toward sin and the infinite mercy of Christ while under the infinite justice:

As your conscience has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, you have seen something of the evil of sin, of its power, its guilt, its woe; and you look upon it with abhorrence. You feel that sin has separated you from God, that you are in bondage to the power of evil. The more you struggle to escape, the more you realize your helplessness. Your motives are impure; your heart is unclean. You see that your life has been filled with selfishness and sin. You long to be forgiven, to be cleansed, to be set free. Harmony with God, likeness to Him--what can you do to obtain it?  

     It is peace that you need--Heaven’s forgiveness and peace and love in the soul. Money cannot buy it, intellect cannot procure it, wisdom cannot attain to it; you can never hope, by your own efforts, to secure it. But God offers it to you as a gift, “without money and without price.” Isaiah 55:1. It is yours if you will but reach out your hand and grasp it. The Lord says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” Ezekiel 36:26.

     You have confessed your sins, and in heart put them away. You have resolved to give yourself to God. Now go to Him, and ask that He will wash away your sins and give you a new heart. Then believe that He does this because He has promised. This is the lesson which Jesus taught while He was on earth, that the gift which God promises us, we must believe we do receive, and it is ours. Jesus healed the people of their diseases when they had faith in His power; He helped them in the things which they could see, thus inspiring them with confidence in Him concerning things which they could not see--leading them to believe in His power to forgive sins. This He plainly stated in the healing of the man sick with palsy: “That ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith He to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.” Matthew 9:6. So also John the evangelist says, speaking of the miracles of Christ, “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.” John 20:31. Steps to Christ, p. 49.

   

Then once we have the grace of God upon us, then and only then can we exercise our will for the accomplishment of righteousness.

    Desires for goodness and holiness are right as far as they go; but if you stop here, they will avail nothing. Many will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians. They do not come to the point of yielding the will to God. They do not now choose to be Christians. 

     Through the right exercise of the will, an entire change may be made in your life. By yielding up your will to Christ, you ally yourself with the power that is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from above to hold you steadfast, and thus through constant surrender to God you will be enabled to live the new life, even the life of faith.  Steps to Christ, p. 48.