Second Quarter 2003 Adult Sabbath School Lessons:
"The Forgiven"

Insights to Lesson 12: "Selfless Service"

June 14-20, 2003

(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)

What contribution to this excellent lesson can insights bring from the "most precious message" of 1888? Everybody says "amen" to what we read in the Quarterly: "We should be willing to give freely to others;" "Greatness [comes] not from being first, … but from a willingness to serve others, … the lowest rung on the ladder;" "We need to die to self, and we can do this only at the foot of the Cross;" "Only as we are filled with the fullness of what we have been given can we give to others," etc. All very true.

The problem is that we as a church have said these things over and over for a l-o-n-g time. We have been reminded time and again of what we "need," of what we "ought" to have, of what we "must do" And we can learn all this only at the foot of the Cross. But how can we learn?

Will we be told all this again 50 years from now, or 100? What will enable our message to "lighten the earth with glory"?

The Lord knew that "we" needed a clearer understanding of the cross as "the third angel's message in verity" if we are to "turn the [modern] world upside down." Therefore in 1888 He sent "the beginning" of what a little lady called "fresh light" that should grow brighter until it could indeed lighten the earth everywhere "as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost" (1SM 235). This "beginning" light that He "sent" showed a clearer reality of what Christ did at His cross. It is true, as the Quarterly often says, that only as we understand the cross can we find this motivation to die to self; yes, only this will heal us of our worldwide "disease" of lukewarmness (which simply cannot go on for centuries more!). But what can we tell the world about that cross that the Sunday-keeping Evangelical churches do not already proclaim? Can they do the work for us?

It's astounding: that final "light" will be a "fresh" presentation to the world of the cross of Christ never before seen so clearly! Seventh-day Adventists have a glorious destiny before them.

This "fresh [1888] light" about the cross focuses on two great truths: (1) It has its source in the Most Holy Apartment of the heavenly sanctuary where the Great High Priest now concentrates His special ministry; the popular churches don't have a clue of this. And (2) the unique Seventh-day Adventist understanding of the nature of man makes it possible to grasp how He died our second death on His cross. Both of these special insights slip past the understanding of Sunday-keeping Evangelical churches, or of Christians in general (and of course the wider world of pagans, Muslims, Buddhists, etc.). These clearer ideas are also unrealized by many of our current church members. Let us look:

(1) Ellen White describes the meaning of Christ's special second apartment ministry as she grasped it in an 1850 vision:

"Those who rose up with Jesus [to enter the second apartment, by faith] would send up their faith to Him in the holiest [apartment], and pray, 'My Father, give us Thy Spirit.' Then Jesus would breathe upon them the Holy Ghost. In that breath was light, and power, and much love, joy, and peace.

"I turned to look at the company who were still bowed before the throne [in the first apartment]; they did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan appeared to be by the throne, trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them look up to the throne, and pray [sincerely?], 'Father, give us Thy Spirit.' Satan would then breathe upon them an unholy influence; in it there was light and much power, but no sweet love [agape?], joy, and peace. Satan's object was to keep them deceived, and to draw back and deceive God's children. I saw one after another leave the company who were praying to Jesus in the Holiest, and go and join those before the throne, and they at once received the unholy influence of Satan" (The Present Truth, March, 1850; partially quoted in Early Writings, pp. 55, 56). To put this in simple modern English: we face only two alternatives—(a) to be filled with the Holy Spirit ministered from the Most Holy Apartment, or (b) end up fooled by a counterfeit holy spirit, that is, Spiritualism.

Christ has a special purpose in His ministry in the Most Holy Apartment: preparing a people to (a) receive the seal of God, (b) meet the final issues of the mark of the beast, and (c) be ready to be translated at His second coming. All of this has to be included in that final message that lightens the earth with glory.

(2) What is it about what happened on Christ's cross that motivates His people to die to self, and that forever heals them of lukewarmness? How can this miracle of miracles happen? Here we must tread softly, this is holy ground. We are in the inner shrine where solemn truth can only be glimpsed. On His cross, Christ comes super-intimately close to "every one" of us as our one-with-us, only-Brother dying the horror of our individual, personal second death. This is a supremely personal moment; we can't have even the intimacy of husband or wife; we stand in human aloneness before the Great White Throne.

You have in your human heart already those subterranean chasms wherein is the capacity to appreciate that horror of the second death. Even now at times "deep calleth unto deep" when we are given momentary glimpses of the ultimate reality of what the Bible calls "hell" (see Psalm 42:7; 69, etc.). This means it is possible for us kindergartners to begin to appreciate what Isaiah says is "the rock whence ye are hewn, the hole of the pit whence ye are digged" (51:1). The purpose of the High Priest in His closing ministry is to awaken individually an adequate consciousness of what He has endured for us. Our childishly egocentric "substitution" is being expanded with a grown-up concern, "Christ must be rewarded, not I." He deserves a commensurate "satisfaction" to "see of the travail of His soul." This takes place as we sense what was the weight He carried when He bore "our iniquities" (see Isaiah 53:11, 12).

Then what happens? What our Sabbath School lesson is seeking: "the agape of Christ constraineth us" to "let" self be crucified with Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15; Galatians 2:20). It's a total solution for a total problem, at last.

The message is not the old legalism dictum: "we-must-be-more-faithful," "we-must-die-to-self," "we-must-sacrifice-more," "we-must-see-the-cross," etc., all genuine needs. A "most precious message" displays Christ Himself in a "fresh light"—the light of the cleansing of the sanctuary.

Read the study notes for lesson 13