Sin & Grace in the Christian Life

On this week’s White Horse Inn radio program (free download here), an important question with implications for current and former Adventists (and all Christians) is addressed: Is the salvation of Christians who die with unconfessed sin in peril? For those who grew up in the Adventist church and were taught the historic doctrine of the investigative judgment, the answer is an unequivocal “Yes”. Ellen White taught that if even one unconfessed sin was found in the heavenly record books, the professing Christian’s name would be blotted out from the Book of Life and their eternal salvation would be forfeited. For example, in The Great Controversy, she wrote, “All who have ever taken upon themselves the name of Christ must pass its searching scrutiny… Sins that have not been repented of and forsaken will not be pardoned, and blotted out of the books of record, but will stand to witness against the sinner in the day of God… Words once spoken, deeds once done, can never be recalled. Angels have registered both the good and the evil. The mightiest conqueror upon the earth can not call back the record of even a single day. Our acts, our words, even our most secret motives, all have their weight in deciding our destiny for weal or woe. Though they may be forgotten by us, they will bear their testimony to justify or to condemn.” (The Great Controversy, 1940 edition, page 552). Flying in the face of the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone, Ellen White taught in this passage a view of justification held by many of her day–God will forgive past sins, but for the present and future you are on your own. Under this teaching, if a professed Christian commits a sin at any point, the sin will not be covered by Jesus unless the believer specifically recalls the sin and asks for forgiveness.

Maybe some of us think this teaching is a leftover relic of another era, or maybe it is completely confined to the historic branch of the Seventh-day Adventist church. But is this really the case? Reflecting on his own Christian (non-Adventist) upbringing, Michael Horton, one of the hosts of the White Horse Inn, says, “In the circles in which I was raised, salvation was free for something like the first 60 days. ... There was this ‘grace period’ where the convert was lavished with good news–Christ died for sinners, no matter how big, Jesus paid it all. Wow, Jesus paid it all! Ah yes, but then came the ‘all to Him I owe’ part...just after I thought it was all of Christ, all by grace alone, suddenly the bills showed up together with all the fine print.” Horton later asks the rhetorical question that inevitably arises when discussing God’s unmerited favor, “If grace is free, won’t that lead to laziness, or license [to sin]?” Horton concludes that this fear is the reason for all of the “fine print” which turns the good news upside down.

Exploring these ideas further, the staff of the White Horse Inn conducted interviews of random evangelical Christians attending a Christian conference, asking the question, “What happens to Christians who die with unconfessed sin?” The answers may sound very familiar to some of us with ties to the historic Adventist church.

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The Therapeutic Gospel

What may be the most famous chapter in all of western literature portrays the appeal of a “therapeutic gospel.”

In his chapter entitled “The Grand Inquisitor,” Fyodor Dostoevsky imagines Jesus returning to sixteenth century Spain (The Brothers Karamazov, II:5:v). But Jesus is not welcomed by church authorities. The cardinal of Seville, head of the Inquisition, arrests and imprisons Jesus, condemning him to die. Why? The church has shifted course. It has decided to meet instinctual human cravings, rather than calling men to repentance. It has decided to bend its message to felt needs, rather than calling forth the high, holy, and difficult freedom of faith working through love. Jesus’ biblical example and message are deemed too hard for weak souls, and the church has decided to make it easy.

The Grand Inquisitor, representing the voice of this misguided church, interrogates Jesus in his prison cell. He sides with the tempter and the three questions the tempter put to Jesus in the wilderness centuries before. He says that the church will give earthly bread instead of the bread of heaven. It will offer religious magic and miracles instead of faith in the Word of God. It will exert temporal power and authority instead of serving the call to freedom. “We have corrected Your work,” the inquisitor says to Jesus.

The inquisitor’s gospel is a therapeutic gospel. It’s structured to give people what they want, not to change what they want. It centers exclusively around the welfare of man and temporal happiness. It discards the glory of God in Christ. It forfeits the narrow, difficult road that brings deep human flourishing and eternal joy. This therapeutic gospel accepts and covers for human weaknesses, seeking to ameliorate the most obvious symptoms of distress. It makes people feel better. It takes human nature as a given, because human nature is too hard to change. It does not want the King of Heaven to come down. It does not attempt to change people into lovers of God, given the truth of who Jesus is, what he is like, what he does.

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The Name of Jesus

All-searching God,
Thou readest the heart, viewest principles and motives of actions
seest more defilement in my duties
than I ever saw in any of my sins.
The heavens are not clean in thy sight,
and thou chargest the angels with folly;
I am ready to flee from myself because of my abominations;
Yet thou dost not abhor me but hast devised means
for my return to thee, and that, by the Son who died to give me life.

Thine honor is secured and displayed even in my escape from thy threats,
and that, by means of Jesus in whom mercy and truth meet together,
and righteousness and peace kiss each other.
In him the enslaved find redemption, the guilty pardon, the unholy renovation;
In him the everlasting strength for the weak,
unsearchable riches for the needy,
treasures of wisdom and knowledge for the ignorant, fullness for the empty.
At thy gracious call I hear, take, come, apply, receive his grace,
not only submit to his mercy but acquiesce in it,
not only glory in the cross but in him crucified and slain,
not only joy in forgiveness but in the one through whom atonement comes.

Thy blessings are as secure as they are glorious;
Thou hast provided for my safety and my prosperity,
and hast promised that I shall stand firm and grow stronger.
O Lord God, without the pardon of my sin I cannot rest satisfied
without the renovation of my nature by grace I can never rest easy,
without the hopes of heaven I can never be at peace.
All this I have in thy Son Jesus; blessed be his name.

Security in Christ, part II

It is said that to be a born-again Christian is to be secure in Christ. But do Christians really believe they are secure, and if so, what is the practical meaning of this security? For example, is the new believer merely secure until he commits the first sin? Is his salvation contingent upon the ability to maintain a spotless sin-free record until he dies? Can the believer lose and regain his salvation multiple times over his lifetime and perhaps even multiple times in a single day? As we saw in part I, many Christians teach that salvation can be gained or lost in such a manner. This is particularly true in the Adventist church, where the doctrine of the investigative judgment greatly destabilizes the believer by teaching that nobody knows when their name will come up in the judgment. For some, this “pre-Advent judgment” may occur during their lifetime. Accordingly, the salvation of a professed Christ-follower is contingent upon the timing of this investigative judgment. For example, if the judgment were to occur today, the Christian would be exempted from God’s grace if even one unconfessed sin was found in the heavenly records, all without the Christian’s knowledge. He would be accused, tried, judged and sentenced in absentia, unaware that his eternal fate was already sealed.

In a defining statement on this doctrine, Ellen White wrote, “All sin unrepented of and unconfessed, will remain upon the books of record. It will not be blotted out, it will not go beforehand to Judgment, to be canceled by the atoning blood of Jesus.” (Review and Herald, March 27, 1888) According to this teaching, the blood of Jesus cannot cancel the sins of the Christian unless he specifically brings to memory each sin and confesses it individually. But does the Bible actually teach this? Proponents of the investigative judgment use Hebrews 6:4-6 for biblical support, believing that an “on-again off-again” view of salvation is presented there.

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV)

In his sermon on this passage, John Piper argues that Hebrews 6:4-6 cannot be used to destabilize or disqualify true Christ-followers and he even sees this text as strengthening the believer’s security. In Piper’s understanding of the text, Christians will continue to persevere as evidence of their security. Many people turn this around to say that as long as Christians persevere, they will remain secure, but in believing this, they place the work of salvation upon their own shoulders.

At this point it is important to make the distinction between true and false converts. Many have used the term “once saved always saved” very loosely, as if making a one-time “decision for Christ” by their own initiative will secure eternal life. But the true convert is born again from above–by God’s initiative and not his own–resurrected to eternal life by God’s saving grace. As evidence of this continuing work, the born-again believer is adopted into God’s family and is sealed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14 NIV). The true convert will grow in the finished work of Christ throughout his lifetime, being maintained and sanctified by God’s ongoing work (Hebrews 10:14, Romans 8:26-30). This inward change is manifested in a life where outward works are demonstrated–not as a requirement for salvation, but as its consequence.

In his sermon on Hebrews 5:11-6:12, John Piper explores these profound truths. His observations are well worth reading and an excerpt from his sermon is found below.

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Spurgeon on the Gospel, part II

“After the gospel has been found effectual in the eternal salvation of untold multitudes, it seems rather late in the day to alter it; and, since it is the revelation of the all-wise and unchanging God, it appears somewhat audacious to attempt its improvement.”

“And so within the simple gospel, how much lies concentrated?  Look at it!  Within that truth lie regeneration, repentance, faith, holiness, zeal, consecration, perfection.  Heaven hides itself away with the gospel.”

“See what vitality the gospel has.  Plunge her under the wave, and she rises, the purer for her washing; thrust her in the fire, and she comes out the more bright for her burning; cut her in sunder, and each piece shall make another church; behead her, and like the Hydra of old, she shall have a hundred heads for every one you cut away.  She cannot die, she must live; for she has the power of God within her.”

“The gospel does not come to us as a premium for virtue, but it presents us with forgiveness for sin.  It is not a reward for health, but a medicine for sickness.”

“No real faith was ever wrought in man by his own thoughts and imaginations; he must receive the gospel as a revelation from God, or he cannot receive it at all.”

“That which is new in theology is not true; the gospel was of full stature at its very birth; no man can add to it or take away from it.”