Commentary on "Loving Brothers and Sisters"

STEVE PITCHER

 

Day 4: Tuesday, August 18, 2009

 

In today's lesson, the author capitalizes on the problem of doubt and the cold hearts that we all are still in the process of losing. Although part of the Ellen White quote that makes up half of this lesson includes some good statements, it including a distubring one about Satan, and two problematic statements about Christ.

About Satan, EGW says:

“Against those who are trying to obey God, he is constantly seeking occasion for complaint. Even their best and most acceptable service he seeks to make appear corrupt.”

To state that we have our “best and most acceptable” service implies that we have service for God that is less, or not, acceptable. Our Lord has said in Romans 14 that if the believer eats to the Lord, it is to the Lord, and if he does not eat, he does not eat “to the Lord.” It is not the “eating” or the “not eating” that makes it “unto the Lord.” If one is in the Lord, whether one eats or does not eat, it is to the Lord. When we are in the will of God, what we do is acceptable to him.

Jesus said that there are works of believers that will be burned up and there are works that will stand the test like gold, and they will remain, but the believer will be saved, even if all his works are burned up. It is not his works that save him, therefore it cannot be his works that will lose him. It is whether we are found in Jesus Christ or not.

Christians cannot continue to be mixed up by the arguments that Ellen White says Satan is making against us. We are to “Use every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm.” (Ephesians 6:13, NLT)

Whether we are a dentist or a patient, a teacher or a student, awake or in a coma, we can be assured we are acceptable to the Lord if we are in Christ. How can a person in a coma “keep” the commandments? It is impossible. The person in a coma cannot even see his neighbors wife to avoid coveting her. But he can respond to God, even in a coma.

Later, in the EGW quote, she says about Christ:

“He pleads their cause, and by the mighty arguments of Calvary, vanquishes their accuser.”

Unless she means that the blood of Jesus is a “mighty argument,” Satan is not vanquished by arguments. He was vanquished on the cross by the sacrifice of the Son of God. Satan now is a vanquished enemy. He stalks about like a roaring lion, Peter tells us. The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that he is “powerless.”

“through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” (Heb. 2:14b, 15.)

The very death of Jesus rendered the devil powerless. This does not mean that Satan can't get to us at times and bring misery into our lives. But this does not conquer us. It is impossible for Satan to conquer Christ.

EGW goes on to say:

“His perfect obedience to God’s law has given Him all power in heaven and in earth[.]”

This can never be. Jesus already had all power in heaven and in earth. If Jesus did not have this power in himself, how can he have given any of it to the twelve apostles? As it says in Luke 9:1:

And He [Jesus] called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases.

It is not obedience to the law that Jesus was demonstrating. It was life of very life, and light of very light. Jesus is the creator God. He is the source of all life and light in the universe. He is the one that created Lucifer, a creature, beneath himself who is not a creature. In John 2:18 Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Jesus was going to fulfill the law. Yet it was not, as EGW says, that fulfillment that allowed him to have all power in heaven and earth. He already had that power, as the Bible makes clear. To whom are you going to listen?

 

Summary

1. We all have doubts and cold hearts. Some more or less, some colder or warmer, but all believers are in the same boat spiritually. The author of the quarterly capitalizes on this for the purposes of presenting the law, yet again.
2. An EGW statement takes up half the lesson. As believers, we must understand that not every act we take in life is necessarily in or out of the will of God, in an of itself. Often, it is whether we have submitted it to the Lord or not, as Paul makes clear regarding eating or not eating, in Romans 14.
3. Satan is not vanquished by the “arguments” of calvary. He was rendered powerless by the death of the perfect sacrifice, Jesus.
4. Jesus' obedience to God's law did not give him all power in heaven and in earth. Those powers were already his by his very nature.
5. Who will you listen to, EGW or the Bible?

 

 

Copyright 2009 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised August 17, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

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