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Commentary on "The Priestly Garments of Grace"

RICHARD PEIFER

 

Day 6: Thursday, April 28, 2011 - Jesus, Our High Priest

 

Overview

“…unlike Aaron, however, Jesus was “without sin,” a crucial distinction, for out of His sinlessness we can claim two wonderful promises: (1) the robe of His righteousness can be ours by faith, and, thus, we know that we stand perfect before God; and (2) we can have the power to overcome temptation just as Jesus did.” (Teacher’s Quarterly, Page 62)

 

Problems

First, thanks to the lesson’s author(s) for pointing out that Jesus is not the second Aaron, thus clarifying what may have been a confusing statement in Monday’s lesson. (Does this mean that Adventism’s Christology has been clarified in an orthodox manner? I hope so. However, many Sabbath School lessons over the past few years lead me to believe that the debate still is being held.)

My issue with the quotation above, which quotation has been made in various forms several times throughout the lesson, is that the author never defines how we “overcome temptation just as Jesus did.” Thankfully, Jesus defined it for us.

I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (John 5:30)

For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me. (John 12:49-50)

It is clear, from these and other passages, that Jesus accomplished His work by living in complete dependence on His Father. Jesus could have succeeded in His own strength and by His own initiative, because He was God; but He chose to walk by faith.

You and I cannot succeed in our own strength and by our own initiative, because we are not God; be we can choose to walk by faith. Therefore, appeals to holiness and keeping the Law will serve only to prove our complete failure (which, in fact, is what the Law is supposed to do according to Romans 3:20). Instead, we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, and Author and Perfecter of our faith (see Hebrews 12:2).

Even fixing our eyes on Jesus would not be enough if we did not have the Holy Spirit actually living within our own spirits. This is the hopelessness of Adventist eschatology whereby eternal life (the indwelling Holy Spirit) is not available until after the final judgment and the Holy Spirit as an external force will be taken away, leaving people to stand alone and keep the Law alone.

But this is not the case. When we are born again we are born of the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit will not leave us for any reason. Why? Because Jesus has removed sin as the barrier separating us from God’s presence. If the Holy Spirit can leave us, that is, if we can lose salvation, then Jesus must die again to make salvation possible. This is not going to happen (see Hebrews 9:28).

 

GO TO DAY 7

 

Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised April 20, 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.

 

Official Adventist Resources

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