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Commentary on "Worship and Song and Praise"
Day 3: Monday, August 1, 2011 – A Broken heart, a Broken Spirit
Overview
“Yet, the joy comes from knowing that, despite our fallen state, God loves us so much that Christ came and died, offering Himself for us that His perfect life, His perfect holiness and His perfect character become credited to us by faith. Again, the theme of the “everlasting gospel” (Rev. 14:6) appears. Our worship should center not just on our own sinfulness but on God’s amazing solution to it: the Cross. Of course, we need that broken and crushed heart, but we always need to position that sad reality against the background of what God has done for us in Christ. In fact, the realization of how bad we are leads to joy, because we know that, despite our state, we can have eternal life anyway, and that because of Jesus, God will not count our transgressions against us. This is a truth that must always be at the center of all worship experiences, whether corporate or private.” (Teacher’s Quarterly, Page 68)
Problems
Please forgive the extended quotation above, but it perfectly represents Seventh-day Adventist belief so I included the entire paragraph.
Note the following:
- God loves us so much that Christ came and died.
- Jesus’ perfect life, perfect holiness and perfect character become credited to us by faith.
- This is described as the “everlasting gospel” of Revelation 14.
- Our worship should center not just on our own sinfulness.
- Our worship also should center on the solution to our sinfulness – the Cross.
- We need a broken and crushed heart, albeit positioned against the background of what God has done for us in Christ.
- The realization of how bad we are leads to joy.
- Why? Because we know we can have eternal life.
- Why? Because of Jesus, God will not count our transgressions against us.
There is nothing in this list that inspires worship, because this list, like all legalistic belief systems, focuses solely on sin and failure.
This list misses several critically important points:
- John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” The whole point of Jesus is life, not sin.
- Jesus’ life, holiness and character are credited to us by faith, but that would be meaningless apart from us being made alive in the first place.
- The “everlasting gospel” is not the death of Jesus. His death was necessary but insufficient to the problem. The gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (see 1 Corinthians 15:1ff). Without the resurrection, we are still in our sins (1 Corinthians 15:17).
- The Cross is not the solution to our sinfulness. The Cross provided once-for-all reconciliation for sin. The resurrection provides the solution to our sinfulness, or indwelling sin. How? The resurrection proved Jesus’ complete victory over death and demonstrated beyond doubt that He is God. Therefore, when a person comes to Jesus by faith, that person is made alive with Him (Romans 5:10, Ephesians 2:4-10). Now, because of the indwelling Spirit, we no longer need to give in to the desires of the flesh (see Galatians 5).
- We absolutely do not need a broken and crushed heart. It has been healed in Christ, or it has not been healed at all. Continually dwelling on our failures is a repudiation of faith. It is as if what Jesus accomplished for us in His death, burial and resurrection is not enough.
- The realization of how bad we are does not lead to joy. It leads to despair.
- What leads to joy is the certain knowledge that we HAVE eternal life and the God DOES NOT count our sins against us.
This last point is crucial. Adventism, and all other behaviorist philosophies, will never admit that salvation is a one-time event. They always push salvation off into the nebulous future, or claim that a person can lose it for sundry reasons. They use phrases like “can have eternal life” and “will not count;” phrases that crush the seeking heart. This is why they insist on having a crushed heart. After all, anyone who accepts this belief system, being doomed to failure, has no other option. Therefore, they expect everyone to toe the performance line, to fail and to wear that failure like some kind of sick honor.
Let me be explicit. We do not repent of our bad behavior. We repent of our bad belief. The beauty of the gospel is that you can tell someone, unequivocally, that their sins are forgiven, and have been since the Cross. Therefore, eternal life is available now as a result of Jesus’ resurrection. This kind of good news removes the fear of approaching a completely holy God and leads the person to repent of the unbelief keeping him or her from experiencing that Life and realizing the forgiveness that comes along with it.
This misunderstanding is the direct result of dragging the Mosaic Covenant into the time beyond the Christ Event. Jesus fulfilled that covenant completely in His life, death and resurrection. Proof of that fulfillment is found at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given, permanently, to all believers. Any attempt to “keep the Law” or “obey the Ten Commandments” calls Jesus a liar in regard to His victory. This is very dangerous ground.
“For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” [Galatians 2:19-21]
Summary
- The Adventist position regarding contrition is hopelessly tied to their belief that a person must obey continually in order to be saved. Their salvation is conditional upon human performance rather than upon the completed work of Jesus. Their salvation is possible only at some point in the future. This belief system cannot lead to praise and worship, but only to despair.
- By contrast, the Bible teaches that anyone who believes in Jesus HAS eternal life. Even better, this eternal life NEVER will be taken away. This person knows that his or her sins have been forgiven. This person knows that the flesh must be replaced, that this physical regeneration is in the future, and that it is guaranteed by the indwelling Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 15:50-57 and Ephesians 1:13-14). This person knows that the Holy Spirit, not the Law, teaches him or her to say No to ungodliness (see Titus 2). This person knows that God will complete what He started (Philippians 1:6, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).
Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised July 26, 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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