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Commentary on "A Brand Plucked From the Fire"

LESLIE MARTIN

 

Day 1: Sabbath Afternoon, May 21, 2011 - Introduction

 

A response to the SDA Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, Garments of Grace, Clothing Imagery in the Bible, Lesson 9, "A Brand Plucked From the Fire," May 21–27, 2011.

Zechariah 3:1 “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. 2 And the LORD said to Satan, ‘The LORD rebuke you, Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?’ 3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel. 4 Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, ‘Take away the filthy garments from him.’ And to him He said, ‘See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.’ 5 And I said, ‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.’ So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the LORD stood by. 6 Then the Angel of the LORD admonished Joshua, saying, 7 ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'If you will walk in My ways, And if you will keep My command, Then you shall also judge My house, And likewise have charge of My courts; I will give you places to walk Among these who stand here. 8 Hear, O Joshua, the high priest, You and your companions who sit before you, For they are a wondrous sign; For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH. 9 For behold, the stone that I have laid before Joshua: Upon the stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave its inscription,' Says the LORD of hosts, 'and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. 10 In that day,' says the LORD of hosts, 'Everyone will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree.'’” NKJV

This week’s lessons in the absg.adventist.org are introduced by the comment, “However easy to forget, the great controversy between Christ and Satan is the ultimate driving force behind reality. Wars, crime, violence, and the whole seething and boiling cauldron of human tragedy are but surface manifestations of the underlying conflict that began in heaven (Rev. 12:7)—a universal struggle that impacts not just every human but all creation (Rom. 8:20–22).” The Seventh-day Adventist concept of a “Great Controversy” with the assertion that God is somehow on trial for a supposed charge levied by Satan that He is not a fair and just God and the companion doctrine of the Investigative Judgment is not to be found in the Bible. The writings of Ellen White and the teaching of the Seventh-day Adventist church maintain that this planet’s history and the Bible (including the cross) vindicate God’s character before the universe.

“First of all, the Bible never says there is a controversy between God/Christ and Satan. The Bible always shows God as sovereign, even over evil, and Satan has never raised an accusation against God that ‘the universe’ has taken seriously. Such an idea is simply not in the Bible. The last three chapters of Job have God declaring, through His questions to Job, His own sovereign, omnicient, omni-potent power over all creation—and He NEVER answers Job's question nor reveals to him why his suffering occurred.

Romans 3:21-26 reveals the only question God had to ‘answer’. The Great Controversy (GC) says that Satan raised the questions of whether or not God was ‘fair’ in establishing a law His people could not keep, or whether He was ‘fair’ in condemning those who didn't keep it. The GC says that the purpose of the investigative judgment (IJ - now often re-named the ‘pre-advent judgment’) answers these questions to the satisfaction of the entire watching ‘universe’—whoever that includes. The IJ, in other words, explains why some people are saved and others aren't. It establishes God's ‘fairness’ and shows that Satan's claims that God requirements are too hard to keep are false. The Bible, on the other hand, reveals that the universal ‘question’ was NOT whether or not God was ‘fair’ in giving people the law and expecting them to keep it, nor is the question whether or not He is fair in punishing the wicked given the difficulty of keeping the law. Rather, according to Romans 3:25 and 26, Jesus shed his blood ‘to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.’

Did you catch that? No one ANYWHERE has ever questioned God about whether or not He is fair in punishing sinners. The question was, ‘Why did He allow sinners to go on living when they were in defiance against God?’ He had ‘passed over’ the sins people had committed during history prior to the cross. They had gone unpunished, and the sinners had not been immediately destroyed. Jesus died to show that He was justified in NOT destroying sinners at the moment of their sin. His death demonstrated that God Himself is Just and the Justifier. He is just in allowing sinners to go unpunished because He Himself took the consequences of sin. He is Just, because He became sin (1 Cor 5:21) and became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13).

He, the Just, is also the Justifier. He took our sin and took our punishment, thus demonstrating why He left sinners UNPUNISHED. He paid their price. The lie of the GC is subtle and profoundly evil. It sets up the straw-man argument that God has to demonstrate to the ‘universe’ why He is just in punishing sin. WRONG. The ‘universe’ has always known He must punish sin. The only open question was why He didn't destroy sinners immediately. The cross of Jesus demonstrates God's justice in allowing sinners to LIVE—Jesus takes their punishment. He does this so that everyone who has faith in Jesus will be justified. The GC assumes that Satan has a just question about God's ‘fairness’. Romans and the rest of Scripture show that NO ONE has a just question about God's right to punish sin. (Read Romans 9:19-26.) Colossians 2:14-15 and Ephesians 2:14 show that at the cross, Jesus disarmed and publicly humiliated Satan and his authorities and rulers by destroying the curse of sin. He nailed the law to the cross in His own body…and by nailing the law to the cross, He fulfilled it and established Himself as the object of faith and obedience.

We do not ‘answer’ Satan's questions by keeping the law and proving him a liar. We prove NOTHING to Satan. No one in the entire ‘universe’ is obligated to ‘answer’ Satan—least of all God…The Great Contro-versy is a subtle but profoundly twisted lie. God is NOT on trial. Satan has raised no objections which God is obligated to answer. Jesus is God's final word (Hebrews 1:2), and in Him, God’s justice, righteousness, our forgiveness and eternal security are realized.” (exadventist.com, exAdventist Outreach FAQ ID#319, www.formeradventist .com)

 

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Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised May 19, 2011. 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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