The First Process of Salvation

JUSTIFICATION

Justification is the divine act of acquittal, of declaring a repentant sinner released from the guilt of sin and restored to divine favor. In the NT the term occurs only in Rom. 4:25 and 5:16, 18, where justification is said to have been made possible by Christ’s vicarious death on the cross and His resurrection. It is the atonement that makes justification possible. Justification involves grace on the part of God and faith on the part of humanity. The verb dikaioµ, “to justify,” “to acquit,” “to reckon,” occurs some 40 times in the NT, the majority of these being in the Epistles of Paul. This fact implies that the doctrine of justification is basically a Pauline theme. It is the foundation upon which depend our relationship to God in this life and our hope for eternal life.

In the NT “to justify” means to pronounce or to declare a person to be right, or just, as, for example, in Luke 7:29, the publicans “justified God”; and in Rom. 3:4, where Paul says, “That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings.” The term also means “to acquit” those of charges brought against them, as, for example, in Acts 13:39, “justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” In the case of God justifying sinners, He does so by virtue of His favorable disposition toward them and His gracious purpose with respect to them.

Justification does not impart to the recipients, in their own right, the moral quality of being right, nor does it vest them with that quality. It simply vindicates them of the claims of the moral law against them because of their unlawful acts. It grants them the legal status of being considered as if they had never committed unlawful acts. Their new status is one they enjoy only by virtue of their new relationship to Jesus Christ, and can retain only by maintaining that relationship. But justification comprehends more than pardon alone. It not only declares a sinner righteous, but entitles him or her to all the rewards and benefits that properly belong to the righteous.

The Jew of Paul’s day commonly thought of righteousness objectively, as a legalistic and meticulous observance of the requirements of the law of Moses. The apostle presents the matter subjectively, as an inward disposition of heart and mind that leads to right action in harmony with “the law” as magnified by Jesus Christ and exemplified by His life on earth. When a person accepts Jesus Christ as his or her Saviour, he or she stands accepted before God, and enters into a new status, that of righteousness. But to begin with, this righteousness is more ideal than it is actual. It does not, as yet, consist of perfect fulfillment of the divine will, but primarily the individual has been accorded the right to an acceptable standing before God.

From first to last, this right status depends upon faith, not simply an intellectual faith (which even devils have; James 2:19), nor even merely trust (which is so often a mere passive dependence upon a superior power), but an ardent, vitalizing grasp of an intimate, personal relation to a personal Saviour. Often the apostle designates the relationship with God through Christ of one who has been justified by the expression “in Christ,” meaning a personal relationship with Christ (Rom. 8:1; etc.). Thus, believers are sons of God by virtue of their faith (Gal. 3:26). They live, metaphorically, within Christ, and literally within the orbit of His will. Justification is never attained by presumed works of merit, whether those prescribed by the law of Moses or by ecclesiastical legislation or by personal choice. “A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16; cf. Gal. 3:11). Justification is not an objective relation to a legal system of ethics, with the expectation of thereby meriting and obtaining divine approval and award (see Rom. 4:6–8; 5:17–19). The one who stands justified shall be eternally saved from wrath at Christ’s second coming (Rom. 5:9, 10). God credits us with the life of perfect obedience our Lord lived on earth.

Justification carries with it the gift of peace with God (Rom. 5:1); it prepares the way for sanctification and glorification. Justification is ever a means to an end, not an end in itself. Paul sometimes uses the word “reconciled” to signify an experience similar to that of being “justified” (Rom. 5:10, 11). Unless God did something to change our status, He would be obliged to treat us as enemies.

The Seventh-day Adventist view of justification was set forth by James White in a Review and Herald editorial in 1869, in which he wrote: “How shall man be just with God? Or to speak still more definitely, how shall a sinner become just in God’s sight? There is but one answer that can be returned to this. His is clearly the case of that class who are justified by faith without works. But how shall the man who is thus justified maintain his justification before God? By faith which produces good works. His justification is therefore, maintained as James insists, by faith and works” (34:16, July 6, 1869).

To one who misunderstood the Seventh-day Adventist position Uriah Smith replied: “Who claims that we are to be justified by the deeds of the law? We certainly do not. Justification by faith is our sole dependence, and ever has been. . . . Do you believe you have liberty now to commit any of the sins forbidden by the ten commandments? You do not; neither do we. Do you expect to be justified by faith while living in the commission of those sins? You would not. Neither do we. This is the real question in this matter; and in this we are agreed” (ibid. 37:140, Apr. 18, 1871).

Of the relationship between justification and obedience D. M. Canright wrote: “The Gospel is not given to succeed the law, but to save men from their sins, the violations of the law. Hence faith in Christ and obedience to the commandments of God should always go together. . . . Be it understood, then, that we are not seeking to be justified by the law, but by faith, as was Abraham, Rom. 4:1–4; and yet we keep God’s law as did Abraham the father of the faithful” (ibid. 43:106, Mar. 17, 1874).

Ellen White has described justification in these words: “If you give yourself to Him [Christ], and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous, Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned” (SC 62).

“The righteousness by which we are justified is imputed; the righteousness by which we are sanctified is imparted. The first is our title to heaven, the second is our fitness for heaven” (MYP 35).

“When the sinner believes that Christ is his personal Saviour, then, according to His unfailing promises, God pardons his sin, and justifies him freely. The repentant soul realizes that his justification comes because Christ, as his substitute and surety, has died for him, is his atonement and righteousness” (1SM 367).

Seventh-day Adventists believe in justification by faith alone, but also that those who have been justified by faith will aspire to make the perfection of Christ as reflected in the moral law their own pattern of life and conduct-not as a means to justification but as a result of it, out of dedicated appreciation for His infinite gift of love (John 15:10). See also Faith and Works; Law; Lawand Grace; New Birth; Righteousness by Faith; Sanctification.

The Second Process of Salvation

SANCTIFICATION 

 

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The lifelong process of character development subsequent to conversion, in contrast with justification. The latter establishes a right relationship with God, one in which the process of character development, or sanctification, becomes possible. NT writers speak of this process variously as a matter of following after righteousness and fighting the good fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:11, 12), of walking in newness of life (Rom. 6:4), of growing up into Christ (Eph. 4:15), of growing in grace (2 Peter 3:18), of being built up, strengthened, established (Col. 2:6, 7), being transformed (Rom. 12:2), of partaking of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), of patiently running the Christian race (Heb. 12:1). The goal of this process is ultimate perfection of character, the restoration of the image of God in the mind and character of God’s people. Born-again Christians are perfect before God as a result of their acceptance of Christ’s righteousness to atone for their past sins (Rom. 5:1), and of their personal commitment to cooperate with the transforming grace and power of Christ now at work in the mind and life (Rom. 12:1; Gal. 2:20). But this is relative perfection—it is theirs only by virtue of their relationship to Christ by faith. Although we must be continually growing in grace through the power of the Holy Spirit (the process of sanctification), absolute sinless perfection of character—the Christian’s hope and ultimate goal—is attained only when the mortal nature puts on immortality (Phil. 3:12–15; 1 John 3:1). See also Faithand Works; Justification; Law; Law and Grace; Righteousness by Faith.

The Nobility of the Moral Law

LAW

 Seventh-day Adventists have always distinguished the moral law, or Ten Commandments, from the ceremonial law, or the ritual requirements of the Jewish religious system. The moral law is a transcript in human language of the character and will of God, and of the principles by which His creatures are to live. Because the moral law comes from God and expresses His character, and because God’s character is changeless, the principles this law sets forth are likewise eternal.

Both the OT and the NT sum up the 10 precepts of the moral law, though often worded in the form of two great commandments-love to God (the first four), and love to our fellowman (the last six; Deut. 6:5; Lev. 19:18; Matt. 22:34–40). In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ explained some of the principles of the moral law and made a practical explanation of them to life situations. Originally God implanted these principles in the very fiber and being of Adam and Eve, together with a natural inclination to live in harmony with them. The Creator also endowed humanity with the faculty of free choice; people might choose to acknowledge the lordship of the Creator by voluntary obedience, or they might choose to disobey. Obedience would guarantee eternal life; disobedience would incur condemnation and death. Humanity would find true liberty through obedience motivated by love. The moral law has never been against humanity; it is our guarantee of freedom in Christ.

The moral law requires righteousness and condemns unrighteousness. By His perfect life as a man, Christ met all the requirements of the law and demonstrated that it is just and good. By His vicarious death on the cross He satisfied the righteous demands of the law upon transgressors. By His grace He exchanges His own perfect righteousness for humankind’s unrighteousness, and enables people to overcome every sinful tendency and to grow up, point by point, into the fullness of Christ’s perfect character. All of this is accomplished by faith, apart from works of law.

In the heart of the repentant, forgiven sinner, transformed by divine grace, there will be a sincere desire, motivated by love, to live in harmony with all the divine requirements-not in order to be saved by any supposed works of merit on his or her part, but because he or she has already found salvation by faith in the infinite grace of Christ. “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Rom. 3:31). Forgiveness for past transgressions of the divine law does not carry with it a plenary indulgence to keep on transgressing that law. “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom. 6:2).

The principles set forth in the moral law are eternal. As we have seen, the Creator implanted these principles in the hearts of our first parents when He created them. At Mount Sinai He set forth these principles in the form of 10 explicit commands, in language suitable to the condition of humanity, fallen in sin. These commands He uttered with His own voice and inscribed with His own finger upon two tables of stone.

Subsequently He revealed to Moses the ceremonial code, whose types and symbols were designed to point forward to Christ and to help humanity understand and lay firm hold on redemption through the infinite sacrifice of Christ. Its rites and sacrifices could neither actually take away sin nor set the conscience free, but they could lead to faith in the coming Redeemer, in whom they all met fulfillment and reality. Without faith in that one great Sacrifice, divinely provided and promised, they were meaningless (Heb 9:8–15).

The moral law is spiritual and can be kept only by those whose hearts have been renewed by the Spirit of God. Never in any age has its Author sought from humanity a mere outward response to the letter of the law. The moral law exercises its authority upon the inner person. It reveals sin as a conscious violation of the known will of God, thereby compelling sinners  to acknowledge themselves as such, and thus to prepare to seek for, and receive, the mercy of God in Christ. It forbids not only outward acts of transgression, but every thought and motive that would lead to such acts. It requires submission of heart as well as life to God, and in so doing exposes sin at its source and in all its forms, and points the sinner to Christ for forgiveness. All attempts to earn righteousness by adhering scrupulously to legal requirements, even those of the moral law, are futile.

Christ’s life and His teachings were altogether in harmony with the moral law. He vindicated this law, established it, confirmed it, and honored it by perfect obedience to its requirements. Those who choose to follow Christ will seek to become like Him. God’s moral law will be written on their hearts and minds. All who have been truly converted and saved by grace will find their supreme joy in loving submission to the divine authority of the moral law, for in acknowledging that authority they acknowledge the authority of its Author, Jesus Christ.

The proper function of the moral law is to make a clear-cut distinction between right and wrong, to make known to humanity the standard of conduct of which God approves, to condemn all conduct that falls short of that standard, to convict those guilty of such conduct, and to convince sinners of their need for salvation by faith in the grace of Christ. But the moral law cannot justify sinners who violate it, nor can it provide either the desire or the ability to live in harmony with its precepts, nor does observance of it ingratiate a person with God. These are improper uses of the moral law and constitute what is known as legalism, which is the belief and attempt to find salvation and acceptance with God by one’s own effort to keep the law, in contradistinction to salvation by grace alone. SDAs insist that there can be no salvation by works of law (see Legalism).

The gospel brings a change, but that change is not in the moral law. It is the transformation of believers by virtue of their new relationship to Christ. The gospel releases believers from the penalty of the law, but not from their obligation to live in harmony with its precepts.

In general, Protestants have affirmed belief in the binding force of the moral law, or Ten Commandments (see SB, Nos. 970–986), a position SDAs recognize as being in harmony with the teachings of Scripture. But when SDAs insisted that the fourth commandment requires observance of the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath as a logically inevitable corollary, they encountered the vigorous assaults of certain groups who insisted that such Pauline passages as Col. 2:14–17 indicate the abolition of all OT law in the Christian Era, including the moral law. SDAs, in turn, called attention to the sharp distinction between the moral and the ceremonial law, as to character, function, and binding force in the Christian Era. For instance, in a book entitled The Law of God (1854) J. H. Waggoner called attention to the following: “Under the Jewish dispensation were incorporated two kinds of laws. One was founded on obligations growing out of the nature of men, and their relations to God and one another, obligations binding before they were written, and which will continue to be binding upon all who shall know them, to the end of time. Such are the laws which were written by the finger of God on the tables of stone, and are called moral laws.

“The other kind, called ceremonial laws, related to various outward observances which were not obligatory till they were commanded, and then were binding only on the Jews till the death of Christ” (pp. 120, 121).

Elsewhere he says of these two laws: “By comparison, we find that two different laws are spoken of in the New Testament: one which is not made void through faith in Christ, which he came not to destroy; and another which he blotted out, and nailed to his cross” (ibid., p. 73; cites Matt. 5:17, 18 and Col. 2:14–16 to illustrate this distinction).

Concerning these two laws, J. N. Andrews wrote: “The law within the ark was that which demanded atonement; the ceremonial law which ordained the Levitical priesthood and the sacrifices for sin was that which taught men how the atonement could be made” (The Two Laws, p. 28).

“Surely these two codes should not be confounded. The one was magnified, made honorable, established, and is holy, just, spiritual, good, royal; the other was carnal, shadowy, burdensome; and was abolished, broken down, taken out of the way, nailed to the cross, changed, and disannulled on account of the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. Those who rightly divide the Word of truth will never confound these essentially different codes, nor will they apply to God’s royal law the language employed respecting the handwriting of ordinances” (ibid., pp. 31, 32).

See also Faith and Works; Law and Grace; Legalism; Justification; Righteousness by Faith; Sanctification.

For a discussion of the Hebrew and Greek terms translated “law” (tôrah and nomos) see SDADic. 641, 642.