Stephen
Terry, Director
Salvation
and the End Time
Commentary
for the April 28, 2018 Sabbath School Lesson
“In
that day they will say, ‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he
saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in
his salvation.’” Isaiah 25:9, NIV
Have you ever met someone who claims they have no need
of God because they have the whole religion thing all figured out? Sometimes it
seems as though more and more of those who think like that are popping out of
the woodwork every day. One might think if so many people truly have the
answers to life, the world would be moving rapidly toward utopia, but instead
the storm clouds of war seem to be constantly present. Over the last century we
have seen phenomenal amounts of money being spent to increase arsenals of
destruction worldwide. Some countries are so flush with military money that
they see little difficulty in using $100,000 Hellfire missiles to take out
single combatants. Countries are able to rain death and destruction on
populations who have little defense or way of countering such assaults, and unlike
the more personal combat of centuries past, missile warfare has little ability
to distinguish between children cowering in the rubble of their destroyed home
and a belligerent using that same collapsed structure as an improvised fortification.
Those who lived in the relative security of countries with stable governments
with defensible borders felt relatively unconcerned about their safety from any
of the conflagration being visited upon them, but in the era of
intercontinental nuclear weaponry, everyone now has the ability to walk around with
a vague sense of dread should that nuclear button be pushed. We all believe our
own governments would never initiate such devastation without extreme
provocation, but we don’t trust the other guy’s country. Why is that? Is it because
we recognize there is something flawed or broken about mankind that prevents us
from trusting one another?
In spite of those who believe that God is an anachronism,
the Bible speaks to this basic brokenness of humanity. Whether one accepts the
account literally or metaphorically, the Bible tells us that the foundation for
the brokenness goes back a very, very long time.[i] In that account of mankind’s
fall, only one generation is born and the killing begins. Cain killed Abel, his
brother, and since then the killing has not stopped. As an echo of that descent
into darkness, nature also has become red in tooth and claw. In a strange
inversion, some would like to claim that religion is the cause of all conflict.
However, while religion has been pulled into the general maelstrom as well, the
historical facts prove the lie of that myth. For instance, one can ask, “How
did religion start World War I or World War II?” We might also ask the same
about the Vietnam or Korean Wars. Perhaps we should accept that the true cause
of conflict is a selfish greed that does not want to suffer moral restraint, an
insatiable lust for power and control, and yes, since this affliction finds
root in the hearts of all men, religious individuals are not immune. Religion may
at times be a vehicle to power, but it is not the cause. That cause lies deep
in our hearts. We see it when we drive ninety miles an hour in a seventy mile
per hour zone, if we think we can do so without getting pulled over by the
police. Some might feel they are more righteous because, while driving along at
eighty miles per hour, they would never drive ninety. They fail to see that the
same principle applies, one of selfish desire.
The Bible calls this desire “sin” and recognizes that
having it is the problem, and open action arising from the desire is only
symptomatic of the disease and not the disease itself. What we harbor in our
hearts is what we truly are.[ii] We may be inspired by
someone’s benevolence or compassion to try to emulate their behavior,
especially if we were the recipients, and we may try to pay it forward and feel
good about ourselves for a brief moment as we pat ourselves on the back for
doing something good. But this does not change out basic heart problem, and the
Bible reminds us that we are unable to maintain such behavior for long.[iii] We may point to various
individuals who have done great works such as Mother Theresa, Martin Luther
King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, or Abraham Lincoln, but reading their biographies
will reveal that any goodness they may have accomplished arose not out of an
innate righteousness but from a humble sense of how far from righteousness they
each felt they were. The Bible agrees with this assessment. While some may assert
that they are good persons, the Bible emphatically declares that no one is.[iv] Some may dress up in
clerical garb or put fancy titles to their name in an effort to impress others
with their holiness, but that is all a lie born of arrogance and a desire to
manipulate others. One does not need a title or position to serve God and their
fellow man. It was those with title and position who crucified Jesus on
Calvary. Sinful self-centeredness brings death, and not only our own. It brings
death to those around us as well.[v]
So if we cannot become good on our own, how do we then
deal with this wayward heart of ours? We are told that it is possible. The
Bible tells us we can have life instead of death.[vi] Even though we are
powerless to accomplish it ourselves, Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself on Calvary
made it possible. By necessity, because of our inability to accomplish it, it
is a gift. There is nothing we can do to earn it. We need only accept it. It is
not a begrudging gift. It is given out of love and demonstrates how great God’s
love is toward us that He would offer such a sacrifice to save us,[vii] even though we have no
merit to deserve such love. God’s love is so great that He does not desire to
condemn us and sweep us away in our sins to the death that is our natural
reward. His only desire is to save us if at all possible.[viii] While walking the
earth, Jesus did many miracles of healing and He claimed to do so in His Father’s
power. God is the great Physician, and among His skills is the ability to do
heart transplants. Those hardened hearts of ours that make it impossible to
sustain true acts of righteousness are ripe for replacement. God promises to do
just that, giving us the kind of hearts we were created to have. He removes the
stone we now carry within us and replaces it with a heart of compassionate
flesh.[ix]
How do we accomplish this surgical feat? We first have
to accept that we are in need of the surgery. The Bible calls this repentance,
and it involves recognizing that God is kind and good and we are not.[x] Because God’s basic nature
and ours are at odds, we have found it far easier to walk away from God than to
turn toward Him. When we repent, we do an about face and instead of walking
away from Him, we start walking toward Him. We recognize that He is not our
enemy, but the greatest Friend one can have.[xi] Instead of wishing to
destroy us as we deserve, He desires for us to be all that we can be, to fulfil
the potential He created us for. In our fallen state, we have become enslaved
to so many things: drugs, alcohol, greed, lust, gluttony and many other cruel
fates, but God offers to set us free from all of that.
Forty-nine days after Jesus’ resurrection, on Pentecost,
Jesus’ disciples declared this same message and people from many nations who
were gathered in Jerusalem for the festivals associated with Passover heard the
message, each in their own language, a miraculous event, since the disciples
did not normally speak those languages. Upon hearing the message, they
recognized the truth of it, and asked what they must do in the face of that
truth. Peter’s response was clear, and it is still apropos today.[xii] He told them they needed
to repent, to recognize their error and need for change and to begin that walk toward
God. They needed to give public testimony to that change through baptism.
Unlike today, where people are sometimes sprinkled or not even baptized at all,
people took baptism to mean what the word actually says, complete immersion in
water. The symbol of baptism also speaks to purification as did the Jewish
Mikveh, and the requirement for naturally flowing water as the most effective means
for purification likely had much to do with John the Baptist utilizing the Jordan
River for the rite. But to distinguish the baptism from the Mikveh
purification, Peter called for baptism to take place in the name of Jesus.
Once we have moved toward God in this way, He also moves
toward us by giving us the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is no equivocation
here. Peter does not say maybe that will happen, he says it does happen. It is
the receipt of God’s Spirit that is instrumental in replacing that heart of
stone so that we can find ourselves freed from the many chains that bind and
oppress us. Who wouldn’t want that?
