I Timothy 3:15 speaks about the church of the living God: “… the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” I would like to look, with you, at some aspects of the church of God, which will confirm in our minds that this is “the pillar and ground of the truth.”
I am sure that none of you would argue with me, if I were to plead that Jesus is the Foundation of His Church, but I would like to present an aspect of Jesus, something about His very nature, that is everything to the true believer. It is everything that is required in reuniting sinners to the God from Whom they have become alienated by sin.
The Incarnation of Christ
If I were to ask the question, What is this aspect of Jesus that is so important? many would answer, It is His love. I would agree. It is His love that motivated Him to assume the one thing that is absolutely vital for our salvation. In Selected Messages, Book 1, 244, we find the following inspired statement: “The humanity of the Son of God is everything to us.” Now “everything” does not leave out very much, does it?
“The humanity of the Son of God is everything to us. It is the golden chain that binds our souls to Christ, and through Christ to God. This is to be our study. Christ was a real man; He gave proof of His humility in becoming a man. Yet He was God in the flesh. When we approach this subject, we would do well to heed the words spoken by Christ to Moses at the burning bush, ‘Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.’” Ibid.
When it comes to studying the incarnation of Christ, many have told us that these words, “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet” are an indication that perhaps we need to steer clear of the subject. I do not believe for one moment that is what God intended, as we shall see as we continue to read this quotation. You see, God wants His people to stand on holy ground and not on anything else. He does not want any shoe leather between our soles and holy ground.
How do we know that God wants us to study this subject? We read, “We should come to this study with the humility of a learner, with a contrite heart. And the study of the incarnation of Christ is a fruitful field, which will repay the searcher who digs deep for hidden truth.” Ibid. This is the admonition given by our Lord to His people—that we need to study this subject, and we need to study it in depth.
In Matthew 16:6 we read that Jesus was on a foot journey with His disciples, and He was speaking to them along the way, telling them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Scribes. Warning His disciples against the false doctrine promoted by these apostate spiritual leaders.
Who Am I?
And they arrived (verse 13) at Caesarea Philippi, and He said to them, “‘Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?’” Notice that He emphasized the title “the Son of man.” He did not say “. . .I the Son of God am; He said “. . .I the Son of man am,” emphasizing His humanity. Then we have the well-known reply of Peter, but before Peter’s reply, came the reply of the other disciples.
The other disciples said to Him, Well, some say that You are Elias; some say that You are Jeremias or some other prophet. Jesus brought the question a little closer to home for His disciples, because He was trying to separate their thinking from the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, which He had warned them against earlier. “He saith unto them, ‘But whom say ye that I am?’” (Verse 15.)
Peter countered with that answer that we know so well: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Verse 16.) Do you know, we all take that reply for granted?
I want you to put yourselves in the disciples’ shoes on that day. Peter knew without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was a man. He knew it. He knew where His home was. He knew His mother, Mary. He saw the perspiration trickle down His forehead under the hot Palestinian sun. He saw the dust settle on His body. He saw Him get weary. He saw Him get hungry. He saw Him get thirsty. Peter knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus was a man. But Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter recognized that, in the Man that was questioning him, there was divinity; this Man was not “just from the earth.” He was heaven come down to men.
Now, brothers and sisters, this truth, that Peter had just uttered, was the very truth that the Jewish nation absolutely refused to accept, particularly the Jewish leaders. We read in John 10:33, about the instance where they wanted to stone Jesus because of Him ascribing to Himself kinship to His heavenly Father.
Jesus asked them, “For what good work do you stone Me?” And the Jews answered Him, “For a good work we stone Thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God.” That is a truth they would not accept, that Jesus was a union of their humanity with the divinity of God.
The Theology Satan Hates
It was on this very point of truth that those same leaders condemned Jesus to die on the day of His trial before Pilate. John 19:7 says, “The Jews answered him [Pilate], We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.” Brothers and sisters, this truth, that Jesus accepted fallen humanity, took upon Himself the seed of Abraham, that He is a union of our humanity and Godhead divinity, is the truth against which Satan manifests his special hatred.
It is in opposition to this truth that Satan has raised up the citadel of sin, “Babylon,” in which a man, ununited to divinity, sits in the temple of God and attempts to show the world and himself that he is God. Satan’s counterfeit of this truth is the antichrist. It is because this truth is the foundation of the true believer’s faith, the very foundation of “salvation from sin,” that Satan has declared war on this truth and all who hold this teaching.
In Matthew 16:18, we find Jesus’ response to Peter’s tremendous declaration of faith. He says, “‘Thou art petros,’” (a rolling stone.) You see, the Greek word there is petros, and petros is a rolling stone. It is a stone that can be overturned. This is somebody who can be sifted like wheat, as was Peter’s experience.
“‘And upon this petra,’” upon this rock, this immovable, unshakable rock of truth that Peter has just uttered, that He (Jesus) was both human (like us) and divine (like His Father), a union of divinity with humanity, “‘I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’”
In verse 19, Jesus plainly declared that anyone having this truth has the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Now, brothers and sisters, right here, what we have just read, is the foundation of the true church. The corrupt understanding of what we have just read is the foundation of all false religion, because it is on these very texts that the so-called “apostolic succession” is established, by which an erring man claims to have received the keys of Peter.
The Foundation of Faith
Let us look at divinely inspired commentary on what we have just read. “The truth which Peter had confessed is the foundation of the believer’s faith. It is that which Christ Himself has declared to be eternal life.” The Desire of Ages, 412. Jesus is the mysterious combining of our fallen humanity and God’s sublime divinity. It is He who is the first born of the totally new line of beings. In Jesus we find, for the first time in the history of creation, a Being Who is a combination of both creature and Creator.
“Christ could have done nothing during His earthly ministry in saving fallen man if the divine had not been blended with the human. The limited capacity of man cannot define this wonderful mystery—the blending [of] the two natures, the divine and the human. It can never be explained… Man is privileged to be a partaker of the divine nature [because of what Jesus did for us], and in this way he can to some degree enter into the mystery.… Divinity took the nature of humanity, and for what purpose?—That through the righteousness of Christ humanity might partake of the divine nature.” The Ellen G. White 1888 Materials, 332.
“When He came to the world the first time, divinity and humanity were blended. This is our only hope. The Son of man is fully qualified to be the originator of a humanity that will blend with divinity by partaking of the divine nature.” The Signs of the Times, March 8, 1899.
The Second Adam
Looking through the Bible, some of the texts that come to mind are I Corinthians 15:45, 47. In them, we find Jesus being referred to as the second Adam. This is absolutely appropriate terminology. You see, Adam, when he was created, as he came forth from the hands of the Creator, was a unique creation; we are told by inspiration. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, we had a unique Being, begotten through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
It is Jesus, Who is called the “only begotten of the Father.” Although He existed with His Father from all eternity, it was part of the divine plan that He would be “born.” This new creature that had never existed before in the history of the universe was not created, He was born. Psalm 2:7 records these inspired words: “This day have I begotten Thee.” And you can read more about it in Hebrews 1:4–6.
Now we know that Jesus’ earthly progenirator was the Holy Spirit and that His human mother was Mary. In His discourse with Nicodemus, who came to Him by night, Jesus set out the requirements necessary for a man or for a woman to enter the kingdom of heaven. He said, “‘Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of [heaven] God.’” John 3:5.
Reunited with God
Just as He came into this world with the Holy Spirit as His progenirator, so lost and fallen human beings, who come to Him in faith, can, through the Holy Spirit, be “born again” and become a union of humanity with divinity. They can become “sons and daughters” of the living God. And Jesus is in no wise ashamed to call them brethren.
Scripture tells us that when a man or a woman is born again, he becomes a “new creature. Behold, all things are become new” (See II Corinthians 5:7–9), and I John 5:4 tells us that “whosoever is thus born of God overcometh the world.” This is the gospel. It is a firm foundational truth that Jesus is our divine-human Saviour, having accepted our fallen nature so as to reach us where we are, He is able to reunite us with the throne of His heavenly Father.
That is the gospel of salvation, and upon that gospel His church is founded. In the book Upward Look there is a cogent definition of the church. Remember that the church Jesus established is established upon the truth that He in Himself accepted man’s fallen humanity and united it with divinity. Now here is the definition of the church as it continues into the ages.
God’s Church is Not the Great Cathedral
“God has a church. It is not the great cathedral, neither is it the national establishment, neither is it the various denominations; it is the people who love God and keep His commandments.” Upward Look, 315. Now the quote is a little longer than this, and we will consider the rest of that quote as we go further in our study. But I would like to stop here and look closely at the words in this quote.
“God has a church. It is not the great cathedral.” I have heard it said that these words, “It is not the great cathedral,” means it is not the great Church of Rome. Well, I would agree, but are we not also told through the pen of inspiration that many of God’s true children are still in that fold? And then I would also ask, are cathedrals the sole property of the Roman Church?
What about Saint Paul’s? What about Winchester Cathedral? They are Anglican. So I believe that when the pen of inspiration said, “It is not the great cathedral,” inspiration was simply telling God’s people (and using as an example the most prominent form of physical edifice used as a house of worship that we know), that the church is not the house or the building where men and women come together to worship.
God’s Church is Not the Official State Church
Now the next statement, “It is not the national establishment.” What could that possibly mean? A “state church” is a good example. In the country from which I come, the Dutch Reformed Church, which is a Calvinistic Church, was the official state church. That was the religion of the state, being endorsed or “established” by the state.
However, we have even more explicit examples. What about the religion that was established at the time of the French Revolution, where the state itself became the object of veneration? Today we have the example continued in Communism, where “the state” is the all-powerful object of veneration and God is excluded.
So those words cover a connotation of where there is either a union of church and state or where the state itself is the object of veneration. But Mrs. White says the church “is not the national establishment.”
God’s Church is Not the Various Denominations
Now the next statement gets a little trickier. It says, “Neither is it the various denominations.” We remember reading in the inspired writings that, among the congregations of the fallen churches, God’s children are still to be found. (See Early Writings, 261, 278.) So when we look at these words, “Neither is it the various denominations,” can we safely exclude ourselves?
God’s Church is the People Who Love and Obey God
I believe the very next word that follows gives us clarity on this issue, telling us what “the church” is. You see, up until this point the pen of inspiration has been delineating what “the church” is not. Now she begins to delineate what it is. The prophet says, “It [the church] is the people who love God and keep His commandments.” Brothers and sisters, this is the most difficult and the most sad question that I have to pose. Do all Seventh-day Adventists love God and keep His commandments?
You see, it is easy to say that we love God with our lips, but if we do not keep His commandments and if we teach that it is impossible to keep His commandments, then we have just nullified the Bible definition of love. I John 5:1–3 says, “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth Him also that is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.”