FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
November 12
THE SANCTUARY DOCTRINE EXPLAINS THE WAY OF SALVATION OF THE GOSPEL (Part 45)
The Dying Lamb of God Could Not See Beyond the Tomb. He Lived and Died By Faith not By Sight.
Jesus exemplified by magnification, in and His own life and teachings up to last dying moments on Calvary’s cross what “the faith of Jesus” mentioned in Rev. 14:12 comprehends.
Upon Christ our SUBSTITUTE AND SURETY was ‘laid the iniquity of us all.’ Isa. 53:6. He was counted a transgressor that He might REDEEM us from the condemnation of the law. Gal. 4:4,5; Titus 2:14. The GUILT of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The WRATH of God against SIN, terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of INIQUITY, filled the soul of His Son with CONSTERNATION. All His life Christ has been publishing to a fallen world the GOOD NEWS of the Father’s mercy and pardoning love. SALVATION FOR THE CHIEF OF SINNERS WAS HIS THEME.
“But now with the terrible weight of GUILT He bears, He CANNOT SEE the Father’s reconciling face. The WITHDRAWAL of the divine countenance FROM the Savior in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a SORROW THAT CAN NEVER BE FULLY UNDERSTOOD BY MAN. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt. [And yet how often it was and is the physical sufferings of Christ on the cross that is emphasized by the churches!].
“Satan with his fierce temptations wrung the heart of Jesus. THE SAVIOR COULD NOT SEE THROUGH THE PORTALS OF THE TOMB. Hope did not present to Him His COMING FORTH FROM THE GRAVE A CONQUEROR, or tell Him of the FATHER’S ACCEPTANCE OF HIS SACRIFICE.
“He feared that sin was so offensive to God that the SEPARATION WAS TO BE ETERNAL. Christ felt the ANGUISH which the sinner will feel when MERCY SHALL NO LONGER PLEAD for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin bringing the Father’s wrath upon Him as man’s SUBSTITUTE, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and BROKE THE HEART of the Son of God.” – E. G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 753.
It is strange and a fearful matter that we sinners, do not fear sin as much as our Savior from sin did, does, and forever will, since He is “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” And because of this unconverted state of mind and unrenewed heart, though professing to His disciples and followers, and faithful church-goers, we bask in the light of our boasted “good deeds” and righteousness,” Pharisee-like.
Then upon death we expect to be eulogized as undoubtedly worthy of eternal life, worse, that we instantly float up or wing our way to Paradise to become a guardian angel of loved ones still “left behind” on earth, etc.!’
How such ideas and thoughts so foreign and opposed to the example of Jesus and the teachings of the Holy Scriptures can be embraced as gospel truth can only be traced to the “mystery of iniquity,” the exact opposite though widely popular counterfeit of the “mystery of godliness!”
(To be continued). God bless, NMF.