Our study of Romans 8:3 over the last few months has been divided into four major parts. We have covered three of the four. Let’s do a quick summary.
Part 1
It was clearly seen that sinful flesh is the sinful nature, the fallen nature entailed upon man by Adam’s disobedience, and because of this sinful nature, man is unable to keep God’s law.
“Those who have permitted their minds to become beclouded in regard to what constitutes sin are fearfully deceived.” Testimonies, Vol. 9, 267. Mrs. White is writing to the church and its ministers, making this a truly terrible indictment of the church and its leaders. They have forgotten the spiritual nature of God’s law. Sin is the transgression of the law, but you cannot understand what sin is unless you understand the spiritual nature of the law; and if you don’t understand the spiritual nature of the law, then the relationship of the humanity of Jesus Christ to the law is also obscured. This is a major problem in Adventism. What was the relationship of the humanity of Jesus Christ to the law? “In His [Jesus’] humanity, He was the impersonation of the divine character. God embodied His own attributes in His Son.” The Youth’s Instructor, September 16, 1897
The dictionary gives four definitions for the word embody. They are as follows:
- To invest with or in a bodily form.
- To represent in a concrete form.
- To personify (a quality or concept in physical form).
- To make something part of a system or part of a whole.
What were the attributes of God that were embodied in His Son? “His power, His wisdom, His goodness, His purity, His truthfulness, His spirituality, and His benevolence. In Him, though human, all perfection of character, all divine excellence, dwelt.” Ibid.
Jesus was an exact replica of the divine character, born with the law of self-sacrificing love written in His human heart, full of holiness, grace, and the Holy Spirit. The law is a transcript of God’s character. Christ came as a man to be the embodiment of the law. He was the law of God, walking and talking, loving and caring.
In contrast, you and I are born with the law of selfishness written in our hearts and the natural selfishness of our nature is sin. “Selfishness is sin, and it grieves away the Spirit of Christ.” The Signs of the Times, April 13, 1891
Part 2
It was seen that the word likeness means “a form” and is therefore primarily referring to the body, the physical nature that the Father had prepared for Jesus. (See Hebrews 10:5.)
Paul wrote, “What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Romans 8:3. “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.” The Youth’s Instructor, October 13, 1898. This is not talking about His divinity. However there are Adventists today who are as confused about Jesus’ divinity as they are about His humanity.
Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). “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.’ 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 mystery is so deep that we will study it throughout eternity, but still will be unable to fully understand it.
Part 3
It was revealed that there are several warnings applicable to those who believe that the word likeness means “the same” and how this belief is a barrier to true justification and ultimately to sanctification, so the result is that a person never enters into the rest spoken of in Hebrews 4.
Confession is a prerequisite to justification. Without a correct understanding of what sin is, how can we make the type of confession that is required. Without justification there is no sanctification. The Sabbath is a sign that God is restoring—sanctifying—His righteousness and character in man by separating him from his natural selfishness.
“Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you seem to come short of it.” Verse 1. A spurious justification will lead to a spurious sanctification which will prevent one from entering into His rest, the true sanctification of the Sabbath. Someone might make an outward show of keeping the Sabbath, but if a person’s heart is not touched, they are only keeping the Sabbath out of a sense of legal obligation, and is not impressed with their need of being sanctified in preparation for the second coming of Christ.
Part 4
Our study of the fourth part of Roman 8:3 will show us how the first three parts relate to the offering of Cain and the idol sabbath or Sunday-keeping. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” Hosea 4:6. It may seem harsh when you first read this text, but God is speaking of a specific knowledge that, if lacking, demonstrates the inability to understand the spiritual character of the law of God.
“The law of God has been largely dwelt upon and has been presented to congregations, almost as destitute of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His relation to the law as was the offering of Cain.” Faith and Works, 18
Mrs. White is saying that Adventist preachers have largely dwelt upon the law of God, but that their preaching is destitute of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and His relation to the law. When this was written, Adventist preachers had been preaching the three angels’ messages and the law of God for over 40 years, so naturally they thought that they understood it. Sadly, Mrs. White says they did not, and you cannot solve a problem if you do not recognize that there is one. Multitudes of Seventh-day Adventists today, like the Jews of old, have forgotten the relationship of Christ’s humanity to the law, and the result is that many are rejecting knowledge regarding this relationship.
Seventh-day Adventists have been entrusted with the oracles of God. They have been called to give the three angels’ messages to the world, to repair the breach that has been made in the law, which involves far more than just what day you go to church. However, because many people fail to see how the humanity of Jesus is related to the spiritual nature of the law, they present this relationship as the offering of Cain. Inspiration links the offering of Cain-type worship to both the Pharisees and to Laodicea. And my hope is that we will see that—just as the Pharisees of old accused Jesus of breaking the letter of the law, of being a Sabbath-breaker—Laodicea, who is spiritually blind (Revelation 3), is unwittingly accusing Jesus of breaking the Sabbath in its spiritual realm, presenting the law apart from Jesus.
What was wrong with Cain’s offering? “The sacrificial offerings were instituted to be a standing pledge to man of God’s pardon through the great offering to be made, typified by the blood of beasts. Through this ceremony man signified repentance, obedience, and faith in a Redeemer to come. That which made Cain’s offering offensive to God was his lack of submission and obedience to the ordinance of His appointment.” The Review and Herald, March 3, 1874
Cain obeyed by offering the sacrifice, but by offering the fruit of the ground, wrought by the toil of his own hands, he disobeyed, denying his dependence upon Jesus for salvation. Cain was not a humble man. He did not like expressing his weaknesses and sinfulness, nor did he accept that he needed someone else to save him. In giving the offering of his choice rather than the offering God required, Cain slighted the blood of the atonement. “Cain brought of the fruit of the ground unto God, instead of bringing the blood of a slain lamb, the type of Christ, slain for the sins of the world.” The Signs of the Times, June 1, 1891
What is the significance of the blood of the Lamb? The great promise—enmity between the devil and God’s church—and the prophecy—He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel—found in Genesis 3:15 is fulfilled by the blood of Jesus Christ. “By virtue of His blood the enmity is abolished.” The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, 1109
“With Christ the enmity was in one sense natural; in another sense it was supernatural, as humanity and divinity were combined. And never was the enmity developed to such a marked degree as when Christ became a resident of this earth. Never before had there been a being upon the earth who hated sin with so perfect a hatred as did Christ.” Manuscript Releases, Vol. 16, 118
“This enmity is supernaturally put, and not naturally entertained. When man sinned, his nature became evil, and he was in harmony, and not at variance, with Satan.” The Review and Herald, July 18, 1882. Once man sinned, he was no longer in harmony with God, nor at variance with Satan. Satan had deceived angels and caused the downfall of Adam and Eve. He thought that he would have control over all of the human race, becoming the god of this world, and waging a worldwide rebellion against God with the full cooperation of all mankind.
But God said, “I am going to put hatred between you [Satan] and the woman [the church] and between your seed and her Seed [Christ].”
“When man sinned, all heaven was filled with sorrow; for through yielding to temptation, man became the enemy of God, a partaker of the Satanic nature. The image of God in which he had been created was marred and distorted. The character of man was out of harmony with the character of God; for through sin man became carnal, and the carnal heart is enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be [Romans 8:7].” The Signs of the Times, February 13, 1893
“By the transforming agency of His grace, the image of God is reproduced in the disciple; he becomes a new creature. Love takes the place of hatred, and the heart receives the divine similitude.” The Desire of Ages, 391. The definition of to reproduce is “to produce something that has been destroyed.” The reproduction of the character of God in man is the purpose of the plan of redemption.
Man’s nature had been ruined by sin, but God said that He would restore, through the humanity of Christ, His image, His character, in the heart of man.
“Man was originally endowed with noble powers and a well-balanced mind. He was perfect in his being, and in harmony with God. His thoughts were pure, his aims holy. But through disobedience, his powers were perverted, and selfishness took the place of love.” Steps to Christ, 17
When the divine similitude is reproduced, divine love takes the place of hatred in the heart. There is a direct reversal of what happened to man; God undoes what Satan did to man as a result of the Fall.
“When Satan heard that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, he knew that though he had succeeded in depraving human nature, and assimilating it to his own, yet by some mysterious process, God would restore to man his lost power, and enable him to resist and overcome his conqueror.” The Review and Herald, July 18, 1882
“Christ became a man that He might mediate between man and God. He clothed His divinity with humanity, He associated with the human race, that with His human arm He might encircle humanity, and with His divine arm grasp the throne of Divinity. And this humiliation [becoming a human being] on His part was that He might restore to man the original mind, the image of God, which he lost in Eden through Satan’s alluring temptations, that man might realize that it is for his present and eternal good to obey the requirements of God.” The Signs of the Times, October 14, 1897
“The excellence and value of pure love consists in its efficiency to do good, and to do nothing else but good. Whatsoever is done out of pure love, be it ever so little or contemptible in the sight of men, is wholly fruitful; for God measures more with how much love one worketh, than the amount he doeth. Love is of God. The unconverted heart cannot originate nor produce this plant of heavenly growth.” Testimony for the Church at Battle Creek, 37
The unconverted heart of man cannot originate or produce love. It is a gift that Jesus wants to give to you and it lives and flourishes only where Christ reigns. So divine love is the inherent power in the image of God.
“The law of God from its very nature is unchangeable. It is a revelation of the will and the character of its Author. God is love, and His law is love. Its two great principles are love to God and love to man. ‘Love is the fulfilling of the law.’ ” The Great Controversy, 467. When God embodied His own attributes in the humanity of His Son, His love became a tangible, living form, an exact replica of the Father’s character.
“God, who at various times and in different ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” Hebrews 1:1–4
“When God gave His Son to our world, He endowed human beings with imperishable riches—riches compared with which the treasured wealth of men since the world began is nothingness.” The Ministry of Healing, 37. When God gave His Son, He endowed human beings with the possibility of receiving a wealth of riches that this world cannot even conceive of. It is deeply saddening to see people who choose not to follow Christ because they prefer a business or a piece of real estate or a partner. Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” Mark 8:36
“Christ came to the earth and stood before the children of men with the hoarded love of eternity, and this is the treasure that, through our connection with Him, we are to receive, to reveal, and to impart.” The Ministry of Healing, 37. Try to imagine it—the hoarded love of eternity! And this Christ offers to every man, woman, and child who will accept it.
The law of God and His divine love are directly opposed to Satan’s law of selfishness. Through the promise to place enmity between the seed of the serpent and the Seed of the woman, God’s covenant to put His law and love in the hearts and minds of His people was fulfilled. It was manifested in the life of Jesus Christ, who is the living example of what God wants to do for His church. However, we have a part in this covenant as well. We must cooperate with Him by taking up our cross (Luke 9:23). It is an unpopular thing, taking up our cross, but when we do, God has promised to supernaturally instill in the hearts of His people the same hatred for sin that was manifested in the life of Jesus.
Jesus came to this world so that God could reproduce His character in the heart of man. The world can make no better offer than the one that Jesus is making to you today. Take up your cross, follow Him, and experience the miracle as God reproduces His character in your life.
Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at 316-788-5559.
