FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK;
November 11
THE SANCTUARY DOCTRINE EXPLAINS THE WAY OF SALVATION OF THE GOSPEL (Part 44)
The Real Cause of the Inexpressible Agony of the Dying Lamb of God.
When fiction, superstition, film, and traditions, but particularly the confusing and misleading teachings of “another gospel,”
are accepted as “gospel truth,”the real cause of Christ’s inexpressible suffering and pain as He hung dying on the cross will be portrayed and understood “carnally,” not spiritually.
Devastating result? Sin will not be feared, hated, and overcome; instead Christ’s sacrificial death will be used as the excuse, justification, and even the “freedom,” “liberty,” and “license” to go on sinning and still be “eternally saved” “because He already paid the price.”
“And now the Lord of glory was dying, a RANSOM for the race. In yielding up His precious life, Christ was not upheld by triumphal joy. All was oppressive gloom. It was NOT the dread of DEATH that weighed upon Him. It was NOT the pain and ignominy of the CROSS that caused His Inexpressible agony. Christ was the Prince of Sufferers; but His suffering was from a SENSE OF THE MALIGNITY Of SIN, A KNOWLEDGE THAT THROUGH FAMILIARITY WITH EVIL, MAN HAD BECOME BLINDED TO ITS ENORMITY.
“Christ saw how deep is the hold of SIN upon the human HEART, how FEW would be WILLING to break from its POWER. He knew that WITHOUT HELP from God, humanity MUST PERISH, and He saw MULTITUDES perishing WITHIN reach of abundant help! “ – E. G. White, Desire of Ages, pp. 752, 753.
The plan of salvation of the everlasting gospel is (also) based on the inalienable, eternal right of man, originally created (not evolved) in the image and likeness of the Creator, to worship Him as a free moral agent, “compelled” alone by pure love, adoration, and admiration of His matchless love, unparalleled eternal glory, omniscience, and omnipotence. It is his unalloyed joy and happiness to dwell in the sinless purity of His presence, pleasing Him in all he thinks, says, and does. Such was the example set by the “only-begotten Son” to His Father!
In short, sin is what separates man from God, starting from the fall in Eden to the close of earth’s probation. Christ the Lamb of God’s given name, Jesus, means “a Savior FROM sin.” Matt. 1:21. True love for Jesus, the Sinless Lamb of God, is to clearly see the malignity and exceeding sinfulness of sin and to abhor it, avoiding it as the vey plague of plagues by God’s empowering grace imparted through the Holy Spirit!
(To be continued).Bless all, NMF.