Commentary on "All Have Sinned"

GABRIEL PROKSCH

 

Day 4: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 - From the First to the Twenty-first Century

 

Overview

Today’s lesson takes the reader back to the first chapter of Romans, where the sinful rebellion of man is described. It rightly affirms that dreams of progressing via technology, education, and moral training toward a utopia of perfection, were thwarted. In fact, the last century saw more barbaric killing   than ever before. Furthermore, the lesson includes the reader as part of the ongoing problem of intractable sin: “In fact, unless we are moment by moment surrendered to God, we become part of the problem, as well.”

 

Observations

This phrase repeats the assumption of the previous day—that the believer could be in a position where he’s no longer part of the problem of sin because of right decisions; he must be “moment by moment surrendered to God”. The lesson ignores the fact that even in the most devoted believer sanctification is never complete. In other words, as long as man is not living at the level of God’s standard—at the level of perfection—as long as sanctification is a continuing process that is unfinished, man is part of the sin problem. It is supposed that Adventists are now rejecting the inherent perfectionism of the historic Adventist understanding of the investigative judgment doctrine, but statements like those above betray the fact that perfectionism is still alive in the theology of the church. Instead of rooting believers exclusively in the perfect sacrifice of Christ that is able to cover perfectly their lack of perfection and make them perfect now and forever (Hebrews 10:14), the author gives his readers the false hope of being in such perfect submission and surrender that they will no longer be part of the problem of sin. In the context of the Adventist theology that believers will have to stand before God without a mediator, this emphasis is not surprising at all.

 

Summary

1. It is true that science, culture, technology, education and moral training will not yield a perfect culture.
2. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.
3. Even “moment by moment surrendering to “go” will not yield a person pleasing to God.
4. Only the perfect sacrifice of Christ can cover our imperfection now and forever.
5. Only in Christ can we be seen as righteous—and then never because we have attained righteousness, even by God’s power. We can only be seen as righteous if we are hidden in Christ, and God sees Christ’s outside-of-us, alien-to-us righteousness and counts it ours. 

 

GO TO DAY 5

 

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