Lesson 10: “Repentance and Forgiveness”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! Magazine |
Adventist, how do you understand repentance? What do you have to do in order to experience God’s forgiveness—and what does His forgiveness cover? Do it cover the sins of which you repent? Does His forgiveness cover all of your sins, past, present and future? And what about Christ’s robe of righteousness? What is it, and what exactly does it cover? If you have His robe of righteousness, does that mean that you are counted righteous in God’s eyes, or does it mean you can actually obey?
How Are You Saved?
This week’s lesson is essentially about how Adventism teaches being saved. Of course, Adventists do not speak in terms of “being saved” but in terms of having “righteousness by faith”, or as this lesson is entitled, “repentance and forgiveness”. Always, when Adventists speak of how one pleases God enough too be ready for the Second Coming, the conversation is about perfecting one’s character, learning to obey God’s law, and being covered by Christ’s “robe of righteousness”. It’s about building up—instead of breaking down— our “relationship with God”.
What, exactly, IS our “relationship with God”, and how do we get that? More specifically, what is “Christ’s robe of righteousness”, and how do we get Christ’s it? What role does Christ’s sacrifice play in the pursuit of forgiveness and righteousness and a relationship with God?
As an Adventist, I could not explain any of these ideas fully, but I knew that my closeness to or distance from God was all my responsibility. I knew that if I felt close to God, I was doing something right, and if I was far from Him, I needed to repent.
Never, though, could I explain exactly what Christ’s robe of righteousness was or how I could actually get is in a meaningful way. Ultimately I had to decide to obey, and then God might grant me that elusive robe.
Adventists, of course, are taught never to say or to believe that they ARE saved. Actually, their theology prevents them from knowing biblically that they are saved because the Adventist gospel does not teach Jesus’ completed atonement nor the biblical reality of being born again.
Instead, Adventists are taught that their lives must be a constant litany of remembering their sins and repenting in order to have those specific sins forgiven. Sunday’s lesson this week presents a typical Adventist scenario: a woman breaks the Sabbath one deed at a time: wiping down her dirty bathroom, tossing her son’s bedding (which he had wet) into the washing machine with a few other clothes before breakfast; quickly stirring up banana bread for lunch, ironing her husband’s shirt for church—and then suddenly realizing she was destroying her Sabbath—the day she loved—and erasing its purpose: “drawing near to God”!
Of course, the author is quick to say that the purpose of this example was NOT to address how Sabbath should be kept. It was just an example of how easy it is to be distracted from important things, like Martha was, and to forget that God had given her a day to draw near to Him. This example of Sabbath-breaking was really intended to remind the reader how easy it is to “break down our relationship with God”.
After leading with a universal Adventist problem—desecrating the edges of Sabbath—the reader is plunged into the typical Adventist guilt before being reminded that if one simply repents and admits one has hurt one’s relationship with God, God sees their repentance:
In His bloodstained hands, He holds a white robe. He sees our tears of repentance and takes away our dirty clothes. He then wraps His pure robe of righteousness all the way around us. His purity covers our confessed sin—completely and perfectly. We can wash our robe in His blood (Rev. 7:14).
Almost Sounds Right
When Adventists talk about salvation and righteousness, they do not speak of an event, the miracle of believing in Christ’s finished atonement and being born again. They do speak about repenting of their sin and turning to God, of working on their characters so that they are reflecting Christ and finally ready for Jesus’ coming. To those who do not know the inner workings of Adventism, these words sound almost right; one has to look carefully at the telltale words that reveal their unbiblical beliefs.
For example, Monday’s lesson speaks of the Holy Spirit convicting the world of sin, but it applies that biblical concept (see John 16:6–11) in a way that leads people directly toward law-keeping. In fact, the author quotes Ellen White from page 300 of The Desire of Ages:
The Spirit reveals the ingratitude of the heart that has slighted and grieved the Saviour, and brings us in contrition to the foot of the cross. By every sin Jesus is wounded afresh; . . . we mourn for the sins that have brought anguish upon Him. Such mourning will lead to the renunciation of sin.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 300.
Notice that Ellen said that by every sin a person brings to the cross, “Jesus is wounded afresh”. This is not true. This belief is derived from the investigative judgment, that Jesus’ death on the cross provided the blood that would be applied in heaven, beginning n 1844, to every sin a person confesses as it’s confessed. Only when a person remembers to confess will Jesus’ blood atone for that sin, and we see above that Ellen states that every single one of those sins, Jesus “is wounded” over again. He has to apply His blood yet again to yet another sin. The impact of each individual sin wounds Jesus again.
This belief is like the Catholic belief that each time a person celebrates the mass and takes the sacraments, they are receiving Jesus’ broken body and blood all over again. Each act of contrition and repentance causes Jesus to have to cleanse us anew with His blood.
NO! Scripture is very clear that the atonement purchased by Jesus’ shed blood happened once for all. It is not applied over and over again ad infinitum as long as we remember to confess!
Look at these texts:
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God.—Romans 6:10 LSB
[W]ho does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the [sins] of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.—Hebrews 7:27 LSB
By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.—Hebrews 10:10 LSB
For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, [the] righteous for [the] unrighteous, so that He might bring you to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;—1 Peter 3:18 LSB
There is absolutely no hint of ongoing atonement. Atonement happened once for all. When we trust Jesus and believe that He has propitiated for all our sin, we are born again, made alive through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus does intercede for us forever in heaven, as Hebrews 7 teaches, but intercession is NOT atonement. He forever lives as the One who became sin for us—even eternally bearing the marks of His punishment on our behalf in His glorified body—forever standing between us and God’s wrath because He already TOOK God’s wrath on our account.
His intercession on our account is not for those who do not believe; one must trust and believe that Jesus’ blood paid for one’s personal sins, and when one has believed in His finished atonement, then he or she is filled with the Holy Spirit of promise and born from above (see Ephesians 1:13, 14).
There is no atonement going on in heaven! There is only a glorified Savior who is a SEATED high priest whose work is done! He reigns at God’s right hand.
That Elusive Robe of Righteousness
The lesson attempts to explain how we receive “Christ’s robe of righteousness” without actually admitting how Adventism defines it. For example, Tuesday’s lesson says:
Jesus suffered, died, and rose so that when we repent, His grace can work a miracle in our lives…We then grow and produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Matt. 3:8).
“No repentance is genuine that does not work reformation. The righteousness of Christ is not a cloak to cover unconfessed and unforsaken sin; it is a principle of life that transforms the character and controls the conduct.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 555, 556
Notice that this quote also contains Ellen’s words from The Desire of Ages. Notice also that the lesson teaches what Ellen said: the righteousness of Christ “is a principle of life that transforms the character and controls the conduct”. That means that Christ’s “robe of righteousness” is power from Him that enables the person to obey the law and be good. It is not IMPUTED righteousness which God credits to our account; it is literally infused righteousness, imparted obedience which a person who “repents” and turns away from worldly ways and embraces Adventist doctrine can achieve by becoming more and more self-effacing and obedient to the law.
Thursday’s lesson quotes Ellen again where she outright states that Christ’s “unblemished character” is “through faith imparted to all who receive Him as their personal Savior.” (COL, p. 310).
NO! Christ’s righteousness is not imparted to us; rather, His righteousness in IMPUTED to us when we believe! Imparted righteousness is the idea that we are given the ability to make righteous choices and to obey the law. Scripture, however, teaches us that we do not receive IMPARTED righteousness—the literal personal ability to behave righteously—but we receive IMPUTED righteousness: the personal righteousness of Christ Himself that is credited to our account. God credits us with Christ’s own personal righteousness. We do not personally BECOME righteous. Look at this passage from Philippians 3:9:
More than that, I count all things to be loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own which is from [the] Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which [is] from God upon faith,—Philippians 3:8, 9 LSB
Notice that Paul tell us he has NO personal righteousness related to the law; rather, he has, through faith, the actual, alien-to-him righteousness which is from God through faith! He does not have personal righteousness—the personal ability to meet a righteous requirement of God. He is credited with righteousness because of His belief in the righteous One who died for him!
Yet Ellen carefully taught her people that the righteousness of Christ is obedience to the law. Contrast what Paul wrote above with these statements by Ellen White:
A fig leaf apron will never cover our nakedness. Sin must be taken away, and the garment of Christ’s righteousness must cover the transgressor of God’s law. Then when the Lord looks upon the believing sinner, He sees, not the fig leaves covering him, but Christ’s own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah.—12LtMs, Ms 145, 1897, par. 6
Created in the image of God, man must not be left for Satan to rule and ruin. Christ came to this earth, and by a life of obedience showed that man could obey. He canceled the guilt resting upon the sinner. That the sinner might stand before God clothed with the robe of righteousness, He clothed Himself with the robe of sorrow.—16LtMs, Ms 66, 1901, par 14
These are only two of a great many passages where Ellen White discusses the robe of Christ’s righteousness and identifies it as the power and ability of Christ to help the Adventist to obey the law and behave well. Her teaching says that because Jesus came and kept the law perfectly, His example is available to everyone who wants to be righteous. If such a person repents, then Jesus will give him or her the imparted ability to be good, to obey, to keep the Sabbath, to draw close to God by better and better commandment-keeping
Yet the Bible teaches that the righteousness which comes from Jesus is a righteousness completely separate from the law:
But now apart from the Law [the] righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even [the] righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction;—Romans 3:21, 22 LSB
Notice that the righteousness we receive when we BELIEVE is the righteousness of God Himself! Jesus’ righteousness is not based on His perfect law-keeping. It is intrinsic to Him. It is His own character and identity. He Is Righteous. It is this personal righteousness of God Himself that is credited to those who believe in Jesus’ completed atonement, and it is a righteousness that is not defined by the law nor demonstrated by the law nor derived from the law. It is all of God—and this righteousness is why Paul explicitly taught that gentile believers are never to be required to keep the law! (Read Galatians.)
Repentance As Spiritual Discipline
The Bible clearly teaches that we are to repent of our sin and believe in the Lord Jesus and His finished atonement. Yet the Sabbath School lesson treats repentance as a personal decision to turn away from behaviors that oppose the Ten Commandments and turn instead toward Adventist doctrines and practices, asking Jesus to give them strength to obey.
This lesson never teaches that each person must BELIEVE in the finished work of Christ. The lesson treats sin as behaviors that a person does in rebellion against (or in personal weakness regarding) the requirements of the law. Scripture teaches, however, that we are born spiritually dead in sin and must be born again. We have to pass from death to life.
Salvation is not about getting our law-keeping on track. Rather, it is about becoming spiritually alive. The lesson does not teach this biblical truth because Adventism does not believe it.
It’s surprising how much of the lesson appeals to Old Testament prophetic passages to ground the Adventist idea of repentance and law-keeping in the readers’ minds. The New Testament passages teaching that Jesus died once for all, that our sin is eternally forgiven and our lives redeemed when we believe—these gospel truths are not taught. For example, the Teachers Comments refer to the book of Hosea in which the prophet is told by God to marry a prostitute and to repeatedly go and get her when she would leave him and return to her illicit life.
The point of Hosea’s assignment was to demonstrate God’s long-suffering commitment to His nation Israel. God is the One who keeps bring Israel back to Himself, just as He commanded Hosea to continually go and find his wife Gomer and bring her home. Yet the Teachers Comments use Hosea as an example of Israel’s “repentance”:
The Hebrew word shub refers to the physical action to “return.” This verb also expresses the spiritual concept of “repentance.”…The verb shub is a keyword in the book of Hosea. Repentance is a major theme throughout the book. The verb shub refers to the return of the prophet Hosea’s wife, Gomer, who has become a prostitute and has strayed from her husband (Hos. 2:&). Gomer’s unfaithfulness to her marriage vow symbolizes Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. So, shub also is used to refer to the return (repentance) of Israel to God (Hos. 35).
These comments present the story from a perspective of Gomer “returning”, a symbol of Israel’s return, or repentance. In the book of Hosea, however, it is never Gomer who returns by choice. Hosea always goes after her and gets her to come back. This story is the story of Israel and their God.
It is God who goes after His lost sheep. It is God who initiates our repentance. It is God who brings us to Himself and gives us life when we trust and believe Him.
Dear Adventist, your acceptance in God’s sight is not because you have decided to repent and change your habits and live by the commandments. Living by the commandments will only lead to failure.
The Lord Jesus has come and has inaugurated a new covenant in His blood. He has opened a new and living way to God through His body. He has initiated the one way we can be right with God: we must believe Him! We must trust His finished atonement and place ourselves at His mercy. We cannot qualify ourselves for forgiveness!
Jesus said:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”—John 5:24 LSB
Forget trying to access Jesus’ “robe of righteousness” and focus on His completed propitiation for your sin. See that you are by nature a child of wrath, deserving of eternal death, and the Lord Jesus came and opened the way you can be rescued: His eternal blood of the covenant, His new and living way to God.
Believe that He has paid for all your sin—past, present and future—and when you believe, you will pass at that moment from death to life. God Himself will give your dead spirit new life. He will give you a new heart, and He will place His Spirit in you!
Let go of your Adventism and its fear of law-breaking Instead, take hold of the Lord Jesus and see that He has fulfilled the law and given you Himself instead.
Trust Jesus today! Admit you are a sinner in need of a Savior, and trust that Jesus’ blood has fully paid for your sins. When you believe, you will be made alive, and you will pass out of death into eternal life that nothing can take away from you.
Believe Him today! You will know what it means to be forgiven. You will know what it means to be certain of your salvation with a new life that will never end. †
This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
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