“‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Rom. 5:1). What does this mean? What is it to be justified? Both professors and non-professors often mistake its meaning. Many of the former think that it is a sort of half-way house to perfect favor with God, while the latter think that it is a substitute for real righteousness. They think that the idea of justification by faith is that if one will only believe what the Bible says, he is to be counted as righteous when he is not. All this is a great mistake” (E. J. Waggoner, The Signs of the Times, May 1, 1893).
Our Sabbath School lesson “wrestles” with those same questions, and in Wednesday’s lesson arrives at a similar conclusion: “ … an intellectual assent to the gospel is not enough, for, in that sense, “even the demons believe.”
Something our lesson did not cover, however, is one of the main “gospel truths” concerning justification by faith: “The 1888 message is especially ‘precious’ because it joins together the true biblical idea of justification by faith with the unique idea of the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary. This is a Bible truth that the world is waiting to discover. It forms the essential element of truth that will yet lighten the earth with the glory of a final, fully developed presentation of ‘the everlasting gospel’ of Revelation 14 and 18” (Ten Great Gospel Truths That Make the 1888 Message Unique, p. 34).
Justification by faith is greater than a legal declaration; it’s the “dynamite” of the 1888 message. A correct motivation for serving Christ is another term for the dynamic of genuine justification by faith. It produces heart obedience to all the commandments of God. The truth of justification by faith in the 1888 message is the missing ingredient in both “historic Adventism” and the “new theology.” Both generally follow the Arminian view, which in effect makes the sinner’s salvation dependent on his own initiative.
The Faith of Jesus: But Paul says “a man [person] is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16). Thus the 1888 message was the first powerful message in Adventism that joined “the faith of Jesus” to God’s law. Here is the 1888 idea:
“The faith of Christ must bring the righteousness of God, because the possession of that faith is the possession of the Lord himself. This faith is dealt to every man, even as Christ gave himself to every man. Do you ask what then can prevent every man from being saved? The answer is, Nothing, except the fact that all men will not keep the faith. If all would keep all that God gives them, all would be saved” (Waggoner, Signs of the Times, Jan. 16, 1896).
What exactly is the “faith of Jesus Christ”? Ellen G. White has given us a clear definition:
“The third angel’s message is the proclamation of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. The commandments of God have been proclaimed, but the faith of Jesus Christ has not been proclaimed by Seventh-day Adventists as of equal importance, the law and the gospel going hand in hand. …
“‘The faith of Jesus.’ It is talked of, but not understood. What constitutes the faith of Jesus, that belongs to the third angel’s message? Jesus becoming our sin-bearer that He might become our sin-pardoning Saviour. He was treated as we deserve to be treated. He came to our world and