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Commentary on "Justification by Faith Alone"

COLLEEN TINKER

 

Day 6: Thursday, October 20, 2011 - Does Faith Promote Sin?

 

Overview

Today’s lesson discusses the question, “Does faith promote sin?” The author stresses that salvation by faith does not encourage sinful behavior, that the resurrected Christ lives in us, “daily making us more and more like Himself,” and faith in Christ does not create a pretext for sin.

 

Observations

This lesson misses the point entirely because it does not understand nor attempt to deal with the issue of being born again. When a person places their faith in the Lord Jesus, he or she is sealed with the Holy Spirit, and their dead spirit is made alive with the eternal life of the resurrected Jesus, and they are transferred out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son (Col. 1:13). They pass at that moment from death to life (Jn. 5:24). They are no longer under judgment (Jn. 3:18), but they have eternal life (Jn 3:26). They will now both see and enter the kingdom of God (Jn. 3:3-6).

The wearying discussions within Adventism about the relationship between faith and works is so much pointless verbiage. There is NO possible way to reconcile these subjects unless one understands the fact that humans are spirit-beings. They are not bodies with a life-force. They themselves inhabit mortal tents (2 Cor. 5:1-16).

When a person passes from death to life and is born of the Spirit, he is no longer under law (Rom. 3:21, 10:4). This reality means that the Author of the law, the risen Lord Jesus, has made him alive and has incorporated him into Himself as part of His body. This fact does not give anyone an “excuse” to sin. Rather, being spiritually alive completely changes our desires and thoughts.

The relentless Adventist argument that we must have the law and honor it as a sign of salvation completely misreads Scripture. The Holy Spirit does not make people more and more like Jesus in the sense Adventists are taught that concept. He does not create law-keepers.

Rather, the Holy Spirit gives one a new heart and a new spirit. Jesus Himself becomes the believer’s identity.

The question asked in this lesson is the wrong question: does faith promote sin? Unless we trust Jesus more than our commitment to lawful behavior, we remain in charge of our own lives. If we are willing to trust Him, believing that He tells the truth and will keep His promises, unless we are willing to submit our minds and fears to Him and trust Him with US, we will never understand that true faith removes us from our natural condition of being dead in sin.

When we are no longer dead in sin, we finally have the ability to surrender our temptations to Jesus at the moment we struggle. Until we are born again, however, temptation remains a battle of self-control.

For further insight into the subject of being born again, read “Delivered by Spiritual C-Section” by Delina Pryce McPhaull here: http://www.lifeassuranceministries.org/proclamation/2011/3/spiritualc-secti.html

 

Summary

  1. True faith takes us out of the condemnation of the law and places us into the kingdom of Jesus.
  2. When we place our faith in the Lord Jesus, we are born of the Spirit.
  3. True faith guarantees that we pass from death to life and gives us a new heart and a new spirit.
  4. True faith doesn’t transform our mortal selves to replicate Christ; rather, it places the actual Spirit of Jesus in us, and He becomes our life and our motivator. We become the vehicle for Him to love those in our sphere.
  5. We don’t “become like Jesus”; we become God’s children and receive every power and blessing that belong to Jesus.
  6. We receive His spiritual DNA; we don’t just “correct” our flawed behavior.
  7. We don’t become law-keepers when we are born again. We become completely new people who are alive with God’s own life.

 

GO TO DAY 7

 

Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised October 18, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.

 

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