Commentary on "Old Testament Faith"

PHIL HARRIS

 

Day 5: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - The Gospel in the Old Testament

 

Overview

The theme for today comes from this verse where Paul is quoting from Gen. 12:3 & 28:14:

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” (Gal 3:8 ESV)

Paul, along with the other apostles, goes to much effort to support the gospel message by quoting the existing Old Testament scriptures and show that what was once a prophetic mystery has now been made clear, in what we call the ‘New Testament’ scriptures.

 

Observations

In today’s lesson it is recognized that our faith’ which is centered upon the finished work of the gospel message’, is the very same faith that Abraham had in the promises of God. The lesson even agrees that all of scripture teaches that there has never been but one way of salvation. It has never been centered, even in part, upon human works, whether it be Abraham’s or our own. Faith, illustrated as ‘the faith of Abraham’, teaches us the true meaning of faith. This is foundational for understanding the gospel message and our eternally secure salvation.

In the lesson we find this statement; “the essence of the gospel, which is salvation by faith”. This makes the lesson sound very evangelical and scriptural. Mature truly evangelical Christians with good biblical training would have no trouble with most of what is said here in today’s quarterly lesson.

 

However:

For an understanding of this use of conflicting definitions of scriptural words and passages let’s turn to the epistle of Colossians where Paul is addressing the saints in the city of Colossae. These saints are simply those who have already heard and accepted the gospel message of Jesus Christ and are members of the universal church which is the Body of Christ. Paul isn’t exhorting them to repent of their sins and join the kingdom of God. Instead, he is preaching from an understanding that they have been born again by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. He is encouraging them to ‘grow in maturity’ by his ‘making the word of God fully known to them’.

In Col. 1:27 and restated again in Col. 2:3 we find the phrase ‘which is Christ in you’. Evangelical Christians understand this to be referring to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who will never depart from a Christian even upon their physical death. For an Adventist there is a conflict with the orthodox doctrine of Assurance of Salvation where a person can never be separated from the love of God. If you believe in ‘Investigative Judgment’ you cannot have this assurance of your eternal destiny in this lifetime. And, directly tied to this belief is the added belief that God’s Spirit that he breathed in Adam was nothing more than ‘air’ which is given up upon our physical death.

Evangelical Christians understand that the Spirit God breathed into mankind was metaphorically call ‘air’ and intended to portray something non-physical and unseen. It is what makes us unique and different from the created ‘animal world’. When Adam sinned his spirit died at the moment of sin because that is exactly what God said would happen. Therefore as sinners we still have a spirit but it is a dead spirit and why Jesus Christ said a person must be born again.

 

Summary

1. While the quarterly lesson appears to be very biblical by saying things in such a way that any ordinary evangelical Christians who has an understanding of scripture would be in agreement. Their opinion would change drastically if they became aware of the real Adventist definitions of biblical words and phrases.
2. We either understand that as sinners we are born with a dead spirit which must be brought to life by being “born again” as a biblical truth or you believe something different. You cannot maintain two differing sets of definitions while using the same words concerning the one and only gospel message and both arrive at God’s truth.
3. When you teach that “the essence of the gospel, which is salvation by faith” on the one hand but turn around and claim in other venues that the biblically undefined “eternal moral law” embedded within the written law of the Old Testament is still binding upon those who have received ‘salvation by faith’ there is a critical contradiction between your doctrine and what the bible teaches. You cannot agree that salvation is by faith alone and also assert that you can lose your assured eternal salvation if you don’t adhere to the requirements of the ‘eternal moral law’.

 

GO TO DAY 6

 

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.

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