We often hear the phrase “righteousness by faith,” but there are counterfeits to this most precious message. The Lord wants to give us the genuine experience that is wrought through beholding the loveliness of Jesus and being continually surrendered to Him. We want to understand what the real experience is so well, that we will recognize and not fall for the counterfeits. Those who work at banks spend their time studying the genuine bills so well that they can very quickly spot a fake bill. Let us realize how the genuine experience is wrought, and by whose power we are enabled to overcome. We want to know for ourselves how it is with our souls, and how we can be saved in God’s appointed way.
Jesus has been revealed as the Savior from sin. “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). But Christ does not arbitrarily remove sin from us if we do not yield fully to Him. By His love and grace He invites and calls us to Himself. “In the work of redemption there is no compulsion. No external force is employed. Under the influence of the Spirit of God, man is left free to choose whom he will serve. In the change that takes place when the soul surrenders to Christ, there is the highest sense of freedom. The expulsion of sin is the act of the soul itself. True, we have no power to free ourselves from Satan's control; but when we desire to be set free from sin, and in our great need cry out for a power out of and above ourselves, the powers of the soul are imbued with the divine energy of the Holy Spirit, and they obey the dictates of the will in fulfilling the will of God.” The Desire of Ages, pg 466.
| I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes |
God’s promise to us through a full surrender is genuine conversion, even real righteousness by real faith: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). We need a new heart because by nature the heart is evil. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). After Adam and Eve sinned, they, and their posterity, would have fallen natures, and the sinful, unbelieving heart that is naturally in harmony with Satan and the principle of selfishness must be exchanged for the new heart. God promised that supernatural hatred for sin in the first gospel promise: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:15). To all who come to Christ as they are, beholding His amazing grace, the heart that once hated righteousness is enabled to love God supremely, and have a true hatred for sin. This is only possible when Christ reigns on the throne of the new heart continually.
Christ’s righteousness is miraculously imputed to the fully surrendered repentant sinner on account of the blood He shed for us. His imputed righteousness cleanses our past record and gives us the supernatural ability in Him to walk in the Spirit. Yet there is more. We are given new hearts in conversion, whereby the imparted righteousness of Christ fills the soul with all of the fruits of the Spirit. It is impossible for one to be missing if the soul is living by faith upon Christ. Both the imputed and the imparted righteousness of Christ come as a gift from Him to be received in grateful faith bringing transformation to the repentant sinner. This is the miracle for want of which our world is perishing, yet it is clearly taught in Scripture and is abundantly available to all who come to Christ and gratefully comply with the conditions upon which redemption is possible in actual experience.“Righteousness within is testified to by righteousness without. He who is righteous within is not hard-hearted and unsympathetic, but day by day he grows into the image of Christ, going on from strength to strength. He who is being sanctified by the truth will be self-controlled, and will follow in the footsteps of Christ until grace is lost in glory. The righteousness by which we are justified is imputed; the righteousness by which we are sanctified is imparted. The first is our title to heaven, the second is our fitness for heaven.” The Review and Herald, June 4, 1895.
The new heart given to us through Jesus is to be kept in fresh, vital union and communion with Him. Our love will deepen, and the evidence of our conversion will be richer and more abundant at every step heavenward as we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. “The life of the vine will be manifest in fragrant fruit on the branches. ‘He that abideth in Me,’ said Jesus, ‘and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.’ When we live by faith on the Son of God, the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives; not one will be missing.” The Desire of Ages, page 676. The evidence of true conversion—of real righteousness made active in the life by real faith—is that all of the fruits of the Spirit are manifest through the repentant child of God becoming a partaker of the divine nature. And since God’s nature is love, it follows that all who have fully surrendered to Christ will obey Him to the extent that they know of His law. Real righteousness by real faith reveals Christ in the law, as justice and mercy are indissolubly united. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). But obedience is the fruit of faith active in love. “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). The divine nature needs to be fed, and we learn how that is fed, nourished, and strengthened in these beautiful and significant words: “It would be well for us to spend a thoughtful hour each day in contemplation of the life of Christ. We should take it point by point, and let the imagination grasp each scene, especially the closing ones. As we thus dwell upon His great sacrifice for us, our confidence in Him will be more constant, our love will be quickened, and we shall be more deeply imbued with His spirit. If we would be saved at last, we must learn the lesson of penitence and humiliation at the foot of the cross.” The Desire of Ages, pg 83.
The answer to our need is always the same. We are continually in need of Jesus to do any good thing. “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5). You cannot resist one sin without His abiding presence in your heart by faith. But as long as we have a living connection with Him and remain in an attitude of prayerful submission to His will, we will find that provision is made to resist every temptation, however strong. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). What precious promises we can claim and live, through abiding in Christ!
Many are waiting for Jesus to do this work for them, but are unwilling to avail themselves of the remedial agencies abundantly supplied for the soul’s cleansing and preparation for heaven. The remedy for the unconverted, Laodicean condition is the very promise given us in the quotes we just looked at. That “thoughtful hour” will cost us something. It will cost us time. The phrase “time is money” in our modern world illustrates this fact clearly. If we are too busy to spend time with Jesus and behold Him, then we are too busy to be saved. Whether it is going to bed earlier so we can wake up earlier, or saying “no” to the things that would rob us of the time that we need with Jesus, let us learn to guard jealously the hours we need for study and prayer so we may commune with our loving Father in heaven, which will cause us to be true missionaries for Him because we will reflect what we have experienced with Him.
The Christian life will, as the life of Christ’s did, appear busy to many. But there are two ways to be “busy,” so to speak. We can either be “Burdened Under Satan’s Yoke” or “Blessed Under the Savior’s Yoke”—but it all comes down to whether we have first learned to commune with Christ, receiving His saving grace that enables us through His strength to live a life of victory to His glory and honor. The rest enjoyed by the true Christian is experienced even while laboring for Him because love prompts them to duty’s delight! “Jesus says, ‘Abide in Me.’ These words convey the idea of rest, stability, confidence. Again He invites, ‘Come unto Me, . . . and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28. The words of the psalmist express the same thought: ‘Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.’ And Isaiah gives the assurance, ‘In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.’ Psalm 37:7; Isaiah 30:15. This rest is not found in inactivity; for in the Saviour’s invitation the promise of rest is united with the call to labor: ‘Take My yoke upon you: . . . and ye shall find rest.’ Matthew 11:29. The heart that rests most fully upon Christ will be most earnest and active in labor for Him.” Steps to Christ, pg 71. Without this surrender, without beholding Him, we are at the mercy of our fallen nature that is justly condemned by a holy God, and will be unable to have the consistent experience of the fruits of the Spirit flowing freely through our lives to bless others as streams of living water.
The remedy offered to the church of Laodicea is for us today: “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in
| Continual communion and surrender is what allows the gold of character to be developed |
the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see” (Revelation 3:18). Gold tried in the fire, the real, saving faith of Jesus that is wrought in our experience by beholding His loveliness through continual communion and surrender, is what allows the gold of character to be developed. “I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir” (Isaiah 13:12). How is the gold developed? Through fiery trials! “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7). Paul explains the blessing wrought through trials in this way: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:1-5). James, under the inspiration of God, wrote also: “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (James 1:2-4). Remember that God is only working out what is best for you in His plan of redemption, leading you in the way you would choose if you could see the entire picture of your life from heaven’s perspective. “But when tribulation comes upon us, how many of us are like Jacob! We think it the hand of an enemy; and in the darkness we wrestle blindly until our strength is spent, and we find no comfort or deliverance. To Jacob the divine touch at break of day revealed the One with whom he had been contending--the Angel of the covenant; and,weeping and helpless, he fell upon the breast of Infinite Love, to receive the blessing for which his soul longed. We also need to learn that trials mean benefit, and not to despise the chastening of the Lord nor faint when we are rebuked of Him.” Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, pg 100. Thank God that He loves you so much to allow you to go through trials, to come to experience the blessedness of receiving also the white raiment of Christ’s righteousness in place of all self-righteousness, and the eyesalve whereby the Holy Spirit continually reveals Jesus to you and your continual need of Him.
| The heart is sanctified by the grace of Christ |
We are living in the final closing moments of earth’s history. Jesus ministers now for us as our High Priest in the sanctuary in heaven, where every case is to be decided for eternity. We have a heaven to win and a hell to shun. “Let no one say, ‘I cannot overcome my defects of character;’ for if this is your decision, then you cannot have eternal life. The impossibility is all in your will. If you will not, that constitutes the cannot. The real difficulty is the corruption of an unsanctified heart, and an unwillingness to submit to the will of God. When there is a determined purpose born in your heart to overcome, you will have a disposition to overcome, and will cultivate those traits of character that are desirable, and will engage in the conflict with steady, persevering effort. You will exercise a ceaseless watchfulness over your defects of character; and will cultivate right practices in little things. The difficulty of overcoming will be lessened in proportion as the heart is sanctified by the grace of Christ. Earnest, persevering effort will place you on the vantage-ground of victory; for he who strives to overcome in and through the grace of Christ, will have divine enlightenment, and will understand how great truths can be brought into little things, and religion can be carried into the little as well as into the large concerns of life.” Youth Instructor, September 7, 1893. Did you catch that? The difficulty of overcoming is lessened in proportion as the heart is sanctified by the grace of Christ. We experience that grace by beholding it. We look to the Lamb of God, uplifted on Calvary’s cross, and the sight of Him attracts. We will be more deeply imbued with the Holy Spirit (whose office is to uplift and reveal Christ to us) as we spend time daily meditating upon the scenes of Jesus’ life and allowing His unselfish love to be wrought in us to bless others.
Let us gather about the cross by faith. Let us appreciate all that heaven is doing to save us from our weak, unchristlike selves. “Without the cross, man could have no union with the Father. On it depends our every hope. From it shines the light of the Saviour's love, and when at the foot of the cross the sinner looks up to the One who died to save him, he may rejoice with fullness of joy, for his sins are pardoned. Kneeling in faith at the cross, he has reached the highest place to which man can attain.” The Acts of the Apostles, pg 209. What a joy it is to kneel in prayer, kneel with our open Bibles, seeking Jesus because He has sought us out! “Through the cross we learn that the heavenly Father loves us with a love that is infinite. Can we wonder that Paul exclaimed, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’? Galatians 6:14. It is our privilege also to glory in the cross, our privilege to give ourselves wholly to Him who gave Himself for us. Then, with the light that streams from Calvary shining in our faces, we may go forth to reveal this light to those in darkness.” The Acts of the Apostles, pg 210. The light of Christ will shine from us as we have been with Him morning by morning to receive fresh supplies of grace.
Let us look and live. Let us by real faith receive the real righteousness--the power to do good from a new heart that loves Jesus fervently and our neighbor as ourselves. This miracle wrought in the life is a testimony of the powerful effect of the matchless charms of the loveliness of Jesus, of His ability to sanctify us wholly as we cooperate with Him. The experience will become even more glorious as day by day we choose to behold Jesus. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18). May this transformation be your experience through continually beholding Jesus and abiding in Him by His word through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father.
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