MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
July 19, 2023
SPECIAL FOR ADVENTISTS ONLY (Part 2)
God’s Saving Enmity
Part 28
WHAT IS ‘THE FAITH OF JESUS’?
“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.”
Rev. 14:12, KJV.
Hereunder are context-specific, definitive definitions of the term “the faith of Jesus” interlocked in the sum and substance of the content of the prophesied proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages of Revelation 14: 6-12.
Each follows the other in orderly sequence and all are combined and comprehended in and by the third. These are earth’s final merciful warnings sent by God. They are just about to reach their stupendous climax. And, “the final events,” that is, from a definite prophesied tipping point when the critical mass of apostasy is reached, “will be rapid ones.”
The Spirit of Prophecy, which is the Testimony of Jesus (Rev. 12:17; 19:10), declares through His last-day messenger to all “who will hear His voice and not harden their hearts” (all emphasis and bracketed words supplied]:
“You inquire what the faith of Jesus is. I have seen the brethren and sisters have NOT understood the faith of Jesus in its TRUE light. They have TAUGHT that it is healing the sick, etc. It is not healing the sick, MERELY, but it is ALL THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. ‘The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.’ I saw that it [the ‘faith of Jesus’] was the whole New Testament, WHICH RELATES TO JESUS.” - Letter 4, 1857; Manuscript Releases, Vol. 5, p. 290, par. 1.
“The Faith of Jesus.’ It is TALKED of but NOT understood. What constitutes the faith of Jesus, THAT BELONGS TO THE THIRD ANGEL’S MESSAGE? Jesus becoming our SIN-BEARER that He might become our SIN-PARDONING Savior. He was treated AS we deserve to be treated. He came to our world and took OUR sins [so] that we might take HIS righteousness. Faith IN the ABILITY of Christ to save us AMPLY and FULLY and ENTIRELY is THE FAITH OF JESUS.” Selected Messages, Vol. 3, 1888 message, p. 117.(See Gen. 4: 1-6 first]. “The offering of Cain [in fact and truth, vain] was an OFFENSE to God, because it was a Christless [and bloodless] offering. The BURDEN OF OUR MESSAGE is not only the commandments of God, but THE FAITH OF JESUS. A bright light [of advancing present truth] shines upon our pathway TODAY, and it leads to INCREASED FAITH IN JESUS. We must receive EVERY ray of light, and WALK in it, that IT MAY NOT BE OUR CONDEMNATION in the Judgment.
[Note that]. Our duties and obligations BECOME MORE important as we obtain MORE DISTINCT views of truth. Light makes MANIFEST AND REPROVES the errors that were CONCEALED in darkness; and as light comes, the LIFE AND CHARACTER MUST CHANGE, TO BE IN HARMONY WITH IT [this light of the three angels’ messages].
Sins that were ONCE sins of IGNORANCE [cf. Acts 17: 30, 31] because of the blindness of the MIND, can NO MORE be indulged in WITHOUT INCURRING GUILT. As increased light is given, men must be REFORMED, ELEVATED, and REFINED by it, OR they will be MORE PERVERSE AND STUBBORN than before the light came.” – Gospel Workers, p. 162.
The ‘faith of Jesus’ belonging to the full and comprehensive Third Angel’s message is the substance of the genuine Righteousness by faith message first given in 1888 and was supposed to be “the beginning of the loud cry of the fourth angel of Revelation 18.”
But its progress was disastrously aborted by its rejection with the two special messengers God raised to deliver this special latter rain Righteousness by Faith message. That’s why the Lord’s coming has long been delayed. Satan knows just exactly how, when, where, and with whom he subtly and unseen, lays devices and snares; they spring and snap their intended victims—the designated “watchmen”— when they slowly “drift” then fall asleep in the midnight of earth’s history, as portrayed in the Parable of the Ten Virgins, Matthew 25.
If they are asleep they cannot be the ones who give the “midnight cry” that suddenly jolts them awake, five really unprepared for the anticipated even; five fundamentally prepared.
Jesus, Himself the Word, taught in parables (40 recorded in the NT as part of “the faith of Jesus”), pencil pictures of the final reward of those who “endure to the end,” heaven itself, and eternity beyond; grand outlines of prophecies (later amplified in detail by John in the Revelation starting from Daniel); illustrating gospel truth and laying down its firm foundation and platform by the inductive method (from the apparent and known to its “unknown” higher spiritual sphere); universally transcendent principles, that closely adhered to the Scriptural discipline of: “to the law and the prophets;” “to the law and the testimony;” “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little there a little;” “thus saith the Lord;” “It is written.”
And, where handling the last-day “Testimony of Jesus” is concerned, the “time and place” principle must be faithfully applied to avoid its special pitfalls. “Watch, pray,” and search the Scriptures as for hidden treasure” that “ye fall not into Satan’s unnumbered schemes, temptations, and yes, provocations.
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.