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Commentary on "God as Redeemer"
Day 6: Thursday, January 19, 2012 - The Cry on the Cross
Overview
There is nothing as destructive to our grasp of the atonement as modern sentimentality, which strives to conform Christ’s death to modern thinking. Jesus could not see through the portals of the tomb, however, and feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. He did this so that our destiny would not be determined by death.
Commentary
The Investigative Judgment is the Seventh day Adventist doctrine that claims Jesus rose, and then ascended to a heavenly, physical Most Holy Place. According to this belief, since 1844, he has been judging the works of man to determine our eternal destiny. The implications of this doctrine are many, and are not the Gospel we find in the Bible. First, this teaching implies the atonement wasn’t completed by Jesus’ work on the cross. It also leads one to believe that we can never be sure of salvation because we don’t know when Jesus will come to our name in the process of “investigation.” This doctrine also teaches that every sin must be confessed in order to receive salvation. The implication of confessing every sin is astounding. The idea is this: because Jesus lived a perfect life, He made absolute perfection possible, and indeed necessary, for us as well, as long as we try hard and confess every sin, then we will go to heaven one day.
The truth is that Jesus took care of the problem of sin at the cross; that he accomplished his mission and cried out, “it is finished.” The truth is that Jesus is our substitute because we can never live a sinless life. The truth is that we are complete and counted righteous when, by grace through faith, we believe that Jesus is who he says he is. The truth is that as long as Jesus lives, so will we who have by faith, accepted Jesus as our only way to eternal life. Jesus IS our life.
“I assure you: Anyone who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment but has passed from death to life.” John 5:24
This quote from Ellen White is directly in contradiction with the Word of God.
“He [Jesus] feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal....It was this sense of sin, bringing the Father’s wrath upon Him as man’s substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter...” The Desire of Ages, p. 753
Jesus gave the disciples a very different picture. He taught that he would rise again in three days. True, they didn’t understand what He was teaching. But, He taught it nonetheless. He knew even if they did not understand until hindsight gave them clarity.
Jesus is one person of our triune God. He is fully (100%) God and fully (100%) man. Because He is fully God, He could not be separated from the Father. God is spirit (John 4:24), and though Jesus died physically, He did not die spiritually.
It is true that when Jesus died and then conquered death, He made all who believe victors over death through Him.
Adventist doctrine, however, does not teach this Gospel.
The Investigative Judgment “is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death on the cross.” Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy p. 489
Summary
- The Investigative Judgment is not found in the Bible
- Jesus never feared eternal separation from the Father
- Because He died and then conquered death, we, too, can have eternal life through Him.
- Adventist doctrine does not teach this Gospel.
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised January 11, 2012. 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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