Chapter 9
witnessing because they do not want
Revival Keys
Heirs of the Reformation
The special mission of the Seventh-
day Adventist Church is to continue
the Protestant Reformation. Its task
is to restore long-forgotten Bible
truths such as Sabbath observance,
the nature of man in death, the soon
return of Christ and the perpetuity of
God’s law. Much of the world
recognizes these truths as part of
Seventh-day Adventist beliefs,
although in recent years more
denominations are now preaching the
soon return of Jesus and other truths
which in bygone years were almost
uniquely Seventh-day Adventist.
Justification by faith
The keystone of the Protestant
Reformation is justification by faith.
The Adventist claim to finish the
work of the Reformation must
therefore embrace this vital truth
without which all of its other
deliverables are interesting but not
salvatory. Seventh-day Adventists
recognize they are not saved by
observing the seventh-day Sabbath or
having a clearer understanding of
one’s condition in death or that Jesus
is soon to return or that the Ten
Commandments are immutable.
Mankind is not saved by good works,
good advice, good theology, good
doctrines or good behavior. Those
who think this way always stand out
in any congregation. They are the
ones most reluctant to share their
belief with others. They shy from
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their neighbor to be burdened with
the same guilt borne of salvation by
works. I see no such reluctance by
those who encountered Jesus in the
New Testament. On the other hand
those who have met Christ and who
understand it is His righteousness
that accounts them as righteous
before God, are always relaxed
enough to share that good news with
anyone irrespective of whether they
are doctrinally errant.
The point is clear: Seventh-day
Adventists must embrace the truth of
justification by faith to validate their
claim as heirs of the Reformation, to
avoid bouts of legalism and to finish
the special work of preparing all
mankind for Christ’s soon return.
Without it, personal salvation for
many will always be so close but yet
so far away.
Most Adventists will readily agree
that no one is saved by keeping the
law or observing the seventh-day
Sabbath. However, some who nod
their heads in ready agreement
simultaneously lack assurance that
they really are right with God.
Others embrace the ease, speed and
simplicity of justification but adopt a
cavalier attitude towards sin because
of a perception that God always
forgives no matter how derelict the
conduct. If you are in either group
the really good news in this chapter
will benefit you.
It is dangerous to generalize but it
seems the older Adventist generation
is more prone to legalism and the
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younger one is at risk of regarding sin
in a cavalier way because of a
jaundiced view that God’s grace
comes easy. Irrespective of ‘who’s
who in the zoo’ we all need to re-
acquaint ourselves with just exactly
what is it that saves us.
May I be excused for reverting from
the style of a writer to that of a
preacher?
Conviction and choice
The Holy Spirit will always strive
with you. Your conscience will be
awakened, conviction will arise, and
a sense of need will emerge. It can
be triggered by a preacher, a
Christian writer, a Christian witness,
an act of kindness or a cathartic event
but it is always entirely the work of
God’s Spirit. It is quite unmistakable
when the Lord touches you. You
may become teary, feel
uncomfortable or develop a sense of
guilt about the way your life has
turned out or what you have done in
the past. Some people shake this off
by going into denial even though the
nagging conviction persists over days
or even weeks. At this point it is
your choice to heed the ‘still small
voice’ of the Holy Spirit or to silence
it. Maybe the pleasures of sin appeal
too much until they lose their appeal
and you respond at a later time. The
pleasures of sin are a con. Satan is a
con artist and he has been at it a long
time with many millions of victims
on his score sheet. His seductions are
the best in the business. But there’s
always a sting in the tail.
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Decision
If you choose not to respond to the
promptings of the Holy Spirit you
will most likely embark on activities
that ‘drown out’ the still small voice.
The usual strategy is alcohol, drugs,
nightclubs, illicit relationships,
commercial pursuits, companionship
with non-believers etc. The still
small voice may be less audible over
time although it will always be there
in the background, mildly audible
above your self-created noisy din. If
you are successful in business or in
academia or in some other way, it is
easy to justify your earlier decision.
A sense of false security has been
built up. Some respond to the Lord
despite temporal successes but most
are deceived by the foolishness of
riches until disaster strikes. It may be
a family tragedy, a business collapse,
a relationship breakdown, a health
wake up call or some other loss that
validates all earlier warnings that the
world really does offer zero to satisfy
the longings of the heart. All human
towers are vulnerable to speedy
destruction as 9/11 so forcibly
brought home. A cathartic event
coupled with the unmistakable
promptings of the Holy Spirit leads to
a decision either for or against God.
Some people may seek counsel from
a priest or a pastor. Others just fall to
their knees like I did and simply hand
over the controls of their life back to
God. Heaven cannot resist that sort
of prayer and all the resources of
Almighty God are brought to bear on
your life when you cast yourself
helplessly before the Lord. Surrender
is the first key to revival.
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Acceptance
You come to the Lord just as you are.
There is no other way. That’s the
second key to revival. You can never
ever make yourself good enough to
meet the King. I once had a meeting
with an Australian Prime Minister
and scrubbed up for the occasion.
You could do that before you meet
the King of Kings if you insist, but
it’s not going to make any difference
to the outcome. You’re going to be
accepted anyway. At that moment
you may not be observing the
Sabbath, know little about the state of
man in death, have a limited
comprehension of God’s law and be
somewhat indifferent about the
prospect of Christ’s soon return.
None of these things matter at that
moment because the Lord accepts
you just as you are. Your sinful past
doesn’t deter God’s acceptance of
you although it may deter you
seeking Him. You do nothing to gain
God’s favor other than letting go and
letting God. Even that prompting
also springs from God. The work of
regeneration is all His, even the first
few moments. Your bit is to just let
go. Your past and present good
works do nothing and mean nothing.
Your gift to the Smith Family a few
years ago carries no merit. It is your
surrender, allowing God to do His
great work in you that triggers
regeneration. And so it will be for
your entire Christian walk which is
nothing more than a moment by
moment repetition of exactly what
you did when you first surrendered
to God. As long as you surrender,
God does His work in you. As long
as you come as you are without
laying claim to any good work you
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may have performed, God does His
work in you. The work He does is
one of renovation moving towards
re-creation. You came just as you
were but God never leaves you that
way. He wouldn’t have it any other
way and neither would you. One
drink from the water of life triggers a
desire for more, much more.
Unholy meets Holy
How can a sinful, unholy degenerate
encounter a sinless, holy and perfect
God? How can a repeat-offender be
at one with One who is sinless? The
answer is provided in all that Jesus is
and in all that Jesus did.
Jesus is perfect, sinless and holy. He
became a man and faced all the
temptations we face but never once
yielded. His sinless life broke the
power of the devil. All of us are on
death-row, condemned to die because
we have repeatedly and willfully
broken God’s law. Sin is the
transgression of the law. The penalty
for sin is death. It must be paid and
paid it was. Jesus paid it. Only a
perfect, sinless, good God-man could
pay that penalty. Jesus paid it by His
death on the cross. His cross crosses
out all the crosses against us. All
our sins are covered by His sinless
life. When God sees you, a penitent
sinner who by faith has accepted His
free gift of salvation because of what
Jesus is and what He has done, God
doesn’t see your sin anymore but
only Christ’s perfect righteousness in
its stead. You are accounted
righteous even though on your own
you are not. In my case, God looks
at me just-as-if-I’d never sinned.
That’s what justification means. It is
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not a one-off event. As long as I trust
in Christ’s perfect record, my
appalling record is never even visible
to God. That’s the third key. Even
the faith that makes this possible
comes from God. Faith is like
breathing. As long as you breathe
you live. As long as you believe you
are justified. Justification is the
moment-by-moment outcome of my
moment-by-moment belief. I am
accounted holy even though I am not.
You are accounted righteous even
though you are not. Accept Christ,
believe in Christ, trust in Christ and
His righteousness will always be
yours. God can accept you because
He sees His Son in your place. The
thief on the cross experienced it. He
was a thief, crucified with Christ but
heading for damnation. He was
instantly justified when he accepted
Jesus. You may want to do good
works but it doesn’t change the
equation. They have no saving merit.
Someone may benefit from some
charitable act you perform and you
may feel good about it thereafter but
the act carries no merit towards your
salvation. No fly-buy benefits are
generated by your works. The ledger
shows a debit balance but with “paid”
across it. Our works don’t improve
the ledger by one cent. The fact is
the debt has been paid. It is what
Jesus did that saves you. It is His
righteousness that covers you. It is
His death that gives you life. It is His
life that puts to death your old life.
God accepted you as you were:
sinful, filthy and fallen but it is your
faith in His Son’s righteousness that
allows God to regard you as His Son.
In God’s eyes you have the
righteousness of Christ. You are at-
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one with God. That is atonement.
That is how unholy can meet Holy.
This is the message of the Old
Testament sanctuary. It is the
message of Christ’s ministration in
the heavenly sanctuary. It is a subject
into which angels desire to look. It is
the object of Satan’s vilest efforts.
Christ’s death brought atonement.
Technically the whole world is saved
by what Jesus did. But its efficacy is
for those who accept it.
Sanctification
There is no way you can experience
acceptance by God and be left exactly
the way you were. Your heart will
spring with love for what God has
done in accepting you as if you had
the righteousness of His Son. God’s
favor towards you who doesn’t
deserve any of it is known as ‘grace’.
Amazing grace indeed, how sweet the
sound that saved wretches like you
and me! There is no way you can
comprehend it fully but when you
understand even a small portion of it
you cannot remain the way you were
when you first surrendered to God.
God loved you into loving Him. Out
of love for His love you want to
know more about Him. You will not
want to offend Him or displease Him.
The Holy Spirit sees to it that a love
for God and all that is associated with
Him will well up in your heart and
mind. You will experience an urge to
want to bring your life into alignment
with His will as revealed in the Bible.
That’s the fourth key. Things you
once hated such as religion, Church
attendance, Bible reading, fellowship
with believers – you will now love.
The things you once loved such as
drinking alcohol, taking drugs,
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swearing, the pursuit of sexual and
worldly pleasure, the obsession with
commercial success and the
accumulation of material things –
these you will now hate. It is a
spiritual transformation that
confounds earthly wisdom.
The Bible calls it the new birth.
But after birth comes growth and
maturity. Bringing one’s life into
alignment with God’s will is not
compulsory but it is unavoidable
when you meet Christ. You will
want to do His will even though you
often find you do not carry it out.
You will stumble, fall, sin, lapse into
old habits and you will feel guilty.
You may even get depressed about it.
This is stupid because you are
falling into the mistake of trying to
work your way to heaven. Take off
your work clothes and accept
Christ’s robe of righteousness!
Satan will accuse you before God
every time you sin or revert to an old
bad habit you thought would
disappear the moment you accepted
Christ. Satan will present your
clumsy, stumbling case before God
and say “This is the person you have
saved? Look at him! He is still
doing the same old stuff he was doing
before he joined your side. There is
no difference here. He’s been
conned!” Listen. Stumble you will.
Fall you will. Sin you will. Besetting
sins will grab you. Sin remains but it
does not reign. Christ conquered the
power of sin through His perfect life.
Regardless of your condition it is
Christ’s condition that God sees
when He sees you. You will hate sin.
Will you succumb occasionally? Yes.
Should you get depressed about it and
say to yourself “What’s the use. I
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cannot please God. I might as well
go the whole hog and go back to my
old lifestyle”. No. That is precisely
what Satan wants you to do. So the
answer is clear: trust in Christ’s
work. Rest in Him. If you are in
Christ, no matter how many times
you fall, God sees His Son in your
place. This doesn’t mean you will
want to go on sinning in a willful
deliberate way but what it does mean
is that when you do fall because of
weakness you are forgiven when you
confess that sin to God in prayer.
Ask Him for the Holy Spirit to work
co-operatively with you to overcome
those besetting sins. The first time
you say ‘no’ to that temptation it will
be hard but the second and third time
it becomes that much easier until you
are a conqueror in Christ. This is the
work of a lifetime. Don’t get
discouraged. A famous preacher who
used to be a heavy drinker before his
conversion said “Every time I smell
beer my mouth waters”. It happens
to the best of us.
Observance of the seventh-day
Sabbath won’t save you. But the
heavenly forces it symbolizes will.
Let me explain. Given at Creation,
the Sabbath is a memorial of God’s
creative power. Observed by Christ
in death after His crucifixion, it is a
symbol of God’s redemptive power.
The combination is the most
powerful force in the universe: the
creative and redemptive power of
God. When you observe the seventh-
day Sabbath it symbolizes your rest
in Christ as the creator of the world
who also redeemed the world. Notice
I said ‘rest’. By ceasing from
worldly effort on Sabbath you are
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reminding yourself that you must
cease from your own effort in the
great work of re-creation in your life
and the great work of redemption in
your life. The work is all Christ’s.
That is how you observe the Sabbath!
Recognition that people sleep in
death won’t save you either. But the
heavenly forces that follow death
will. Only a Creator can resurrect
those whom He has created. If you
have accepted the Lord and fall
asleep in Jesus, you will be
resurrected to a new eternal life. His
own resurrection from the tomb is
your guarantee that He can break the
powers of death over your old life
while you live and restore the powers
of life when you die. When you
accept Christ He empowers you to
die to your old life and to be raised to
a new life in Him. When you die and
fall asleep in Jesus it is that same
power that raises you from the
temporary bonds of the tomb.
Knowledge about the second coming
of Christ won’t save you. Who of
you would want to meet Christ when
He returns the second time if you
haven’t met Him at His first coming?
Accept Jesus now and be assured of
your perfect standing before God
because of your faith in His perfect
Substitute and the second coming of
Christ will be an event to look
forward to and not something to fear.
Preaching to others that the law is
binding on mankind won’t save you
either. The law is a schoolmaster to
bring you to Christ. It exposes you as
a sinner. You may think you’re
pretty good but against the lofty
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standard of God’s law conviction sets
in that you have fallen well below the
mark. It’s a mirror exposing you
warts and all. It sends you to Christ
for forgiveness, acceptance,
empowerment and cleansing. By all
means uphold the law, but only as the
schoolmaster that brings people to
Jesus. The law is a standard not a
method of salvation. Ellen White
accused the Church of preaching “the
law until we are as dry as the hills of
Gilboa, that had neither dew nor
rain”1 and that we should not trust in
our own merits but the merits of
Jesus of Nazareth”.
Rest in Christ. That is all. Learn of
His perfect life and sacrifice. It will
awaken a love that springs into a life
of obedience. You will want to obey,
not to be saved but because you have
been saved. Therein lies the crucial
difference. Each time you find
yourself relying on good works to
ingratiate yourself with God you are
no better than the little horn of
Daniel, usurping the mediatorial
ministry of Christ in the heavenly
sanctuary.
Finish working to finish the work
When you understand the simple task
ahead of you, you will leap with joy.
Take off your work clothes. Do it
now. Cease working. Stop trying to
gain God’s attention and favor
because of what you think are your
good deeds. In God’s eyes they are
soiled garments unfit for heaven.
Rest in what Jesus has accomplished.
He has done it all. A perfect life. A
perfect sacrifice. Perfect law-
1
Review & Herald March 11, 1890
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keeping. Perfect Sabbath-keeping.
Perfect love towards all mankind. A
perfect knowledge of the Scriptures.
A perfect attitude towards His
enemies, towards the poor, the odd,
the unusual, the weird, the
handicapped, the sick. Jesus has
done the lot. You cannot possibly
even begin to match up. So cease
relying on your own merits. Rest in
what Jesus has done. Allow Jesus to
pick you up when you sin, seek
forgiveness and power to resume the
journey. There may be thousands of
falls along the way but allow the
Holy Spirit to lead you in the right
direction. Don’t look back. Look to
Jesus. Look forward. Walk on. God
regards you as perfect in Christ so
why rely on your clumsy efforts?
When you do this and experience the
freedom, assurance and joy that
comes with full surrender and
complete trust you will want to tell
the world. Your witness will be
powerful. Burdens are lifted at
Calvary and people will see it
immediately. Wherever freedom
from guilt is experienced Satan’s
power is broken. You cannot be free
from guilt if you are relying on
Sabbath-keeping and Commandment
keeping to gain God’s favor. You
will want to align yourself with all
those things out of love when you are
saved but not in order to be saved.
There is an old saying: when the
gospel is accurately preached people
will think you’re doing away with
the law; when the law is accurately
preached, people will think you’re
doing away with the gospel. We
must balance the two. Awareness of
one’s salvation in Christ always
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brings forth a humble and obedient
spirit borne of gratitude, not to win
heaven but because heaven has
already been won. Jesus said you
have everlasting life now when you
believe. Eternal life is not a future
thing – it is now, here, today – the
very moment you surrender.
The Lord’s return is conditional on
the gospel going to all the world, not
the truth about Sabbath observance
although that certainly follows on
from gospel proclamation. The key to
worldwide revival and revival in the
Church is a revival in our lives
awakened by an understanding that it
really is true that we really are
justified by faith alone, although the
faith that justifies is never alone.
Ellen White’s succinct counsel in SM
Vol 1 p 234 was concerned with the
need for the SDA Church to embrace
justification by faith:
“The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ, that we
might be justified by faith” (Gal
3:24). In this scripture, the Holy
Spirit through the apostle is
speaking especially of the moral
law. The law reveals sin to us
and causes us to feel our need of
Christ and to flee unto Him for
pardon and peace by exercising
repentance toward God and faith
toward Jesus Christ. An
unwillingness to yield up
preconceived opinions and to
accept this truth lay at the
foundation of a large share of the
opposition manifested at
Minneapolis against the Lord’s
message through Brethren
Waggoner and Jones. By
exciting that opposition Satan
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succeeded in shutting away from
our people in a great measure the
special power of the Holy Spirit
that God longed to impart to
them. The enemy prevented
them from obtaining that
efficiency which might have
been theirs in carrying the truth
to the world as the apostles
proclaimed it after the day of
Pentecost. The light that is to
lighten the whole earth with its
glory was resisted and by the
action of our own brethren has
been in a great degree kept away
from the world.”
Luther said:
“When I look at myself I
wonder how I can ever be
saved but when I look to
Christ I wonder how I can
ever be lost”.
I commend to you simple faith in a
perfect Substitute. I commend
resting in Him each moment of your
spiritual journey. Why worry
yourself over the exact minute
Sabbath begins or closes; rather
concern yourself with the moment
you close off from works to gain
God’s favor and the moment you
begin to genuinely trust in what
Christ has done as your Substitute.
All Sabbaths thereafter will be like no
other for you. Present the Sabbath
truth in the light of your personal
gospel experience and you will rarely
meet an objection from believers of
other denominations.
How tempting it is for the intellect to
take over and wrench out of Scripture
the niceties of theology. How
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tempting it is for the purse to take
over and give generously to a worthy
cause. How tempting it is for our
time to take over and give of that
which can never be recovered. How
tempting for our talents to take over
and to serve God in hospitals,
schools, in ministry or administration.
None of these credit one cent of our
heavenly ledger either before or after
our encounter with Christ. Our
salvation turns on none of these
although they can indeed be
worthwhile evidences of our inward
change. What says Paul?
For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith – and this
not from yourselves, it is the gift
of God – not by works, so that no
one can boast. (Eph 2:8 NIV)
Therefore since we have been
justified through faith we have
peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ through whom we
have gained access by faith into
His grace in which we now stand.
(Rom 5:1 NIV)
Therefore there is now no
condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus, because through
Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit
of life set me free from the law of
sin and death. For what the law
was powerless to do in that it was
weakened by the sinful nature,
God did by sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful man to
be a sin offering. And so he
condemned sin in sinful man in
order that the righteous
requirements of the law might be
fully met in us who do not live
according to the sinful nature but
according to the Spirit. (Rom
8:1-4 NIV).
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What shall we say then? Shall
we go on sinning so that grace
may increase? By no means!
Don’t you know that when you
offer yourselves to someone to
obey him as slaves you are slaves
to the one whom you obey –
whether you are the slaves to sin
which leads to death or to
obedience which leads to
righteousness? (Rom 6:1 NIV)
Justification determines your
standing before God. Sanctification
determines your status. (A.G Daniells
‘Christ Our Righteousness’ R&H
1941).
Justification is Christ’s righteousness
imputed to you. Sanctification is
Christ’s righteousness imparted to
you. (Ellen G. White, Review &
Herald, June 14, 1895).
Justification is 100% complete
because of what Christ has done for
you. Sanctification is Christ’s
incomplete work in you. Justification
determines your position before God.
Sanctification determines your
condition. (D. Ford ‘Right With God
Right Now’ 1999).
The freedom from guilt that comes by
faith in knowing we are right with
God because the righteousness of
Christ covers us will empower all
Seventh-day Adventists to
confidently witness to others with
genuine joy.
The revival must begin with you and
with me and then it cannot help but
spread to others. The stampede will
pick up pace across the world as it
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brings genuine revival founded on the
foundation of Christ’s righteousness
and not on the flimsy devisings of
fallen man. Sowing and reaping the
harvest will continue until Jesus
returns. It will finish the work
because we have ceased reliance on
ours.
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father we are
concerned that we could so
easily miss so great a salvation
so freely available through
Jesus. We are shamed by our
efforts to do for ourselves
what Jesus has already done
for us, shamed because our
efforts devalue the highest
price heaven has already paid
to secure our eternal freedom.
Empower us now to rest from
our works and ever teach us to
rely solely on the merits of
Christ’s righteousness. Imbue
us with your Holy Spirit to
render grateful obedience.
Instill in us the joy that comes
with freedom from guilt so we
can witness with joy to a
world in increasing distress so
the day of your return can be
hastened.
We ask all these important
things in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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