Special Insights No. 6
Fourth Quarter 2005
Adult Sabbath School Lessons
“Ephesians: The Gospel of Relationships”
(Produced by the Editorial Board of the 1888 Message Study Committee)
The Church Without Walls
The eleventh chapter of Hebrews has been described as the Hall of Faith.
The great patriarchs listed there include Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and
Moses. But amongst these giants, verse 31 records, “By faith the harlot
Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received
the spies with peace.”
As we study this week’s lesson, the story of Rahab gives us helpful
insights central to the gospel story. Please read Joshua chapter 2,
which tells us the story in detail. When Rahab told the spies, “I know
that the Lord has given you the land..... For we have heard how the
Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of
Egypt.... for the Lord your God He is God in heaven above and on earth
beneath,” where did this revelation come from?
Waggoner, in The Everlasting Covenant, p. 270 says, “The Gospel
is the power of God to salvation, and since God’s mighty power was exhibited
in the salvation of Israel from Egypt, it is evident that the Gospel
was at that time proclaimed as it has never been since. The effect of
that proclamation is shown by the words of a heathen woman, the harlot
Rahab. She then pleaded for her life and that of her family and was
told to bind a scarlet cord in the window and when destruction
came to the city she and her family would be “passed over” and their
lives would be spared. Joshua 6:25 says, “... she dwells in Israel to
this day.”
The lesson asks the question: “What was the position of the Gentiles
before they found Christ?” The 1888 message will clarify this question
and give us the answer. Thankfully, the lesson itself gives us two great
passages of Scripture to work with: Romans 3:20-31 and 5:12-18, and
I will add a third, Galatians 3:8, 9. Where were the Gentiles, and did
they find Christ? Romans 1:10-3:20 makes it clear that Jews and Gentiles
alike are all under sin: “There is none righteous, no, not one.... [and]
none who seeks after God.” “But now.... the righteousness of
God which is through the faith [of] Jesus Christ to all and on all who
believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace” (Rom. 3:10,
11; 21-24).
Let us stop here and unpack this marvelous truth. First of all the
phrase through the faith of Jesus Christ does not appear in
my translation (the NKJV); it says in verse 22, “even the righteousness
of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ.” Understanding whose
faith is referred to is important in appreciating the gospel and the
riches we have in Christ Jesus. Verse 21 uses the perfect tense: “the
righteousness of God has been manifested in the past, in the faith/obedience
of the crucified One.” The main concern of Paul in Romans 3 is to assert
the integrity of God. Earlier in the chapter, God’s faithfulness (vs.
3) and righteousness/justice (vs. 5) are called into question. Our faith
in Jesus Christ cannot prove God’s justice or righteousness. However,
God’s righteousness is made manifest by the faith of Jesus Christ who
became “a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm
the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify
God for His mercy…” (Rom. 15:8-11; see also Luke 2:25, 32).
What glorious good news. The faith of Jesus accomplished something
for every person, Jew or Gentile, without a cause. We were not the initiators,
God was. So also the Gentiles did not find Christ, He found them. Galatians
3:8 says, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the
nations by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying,
‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’” Chapter 3:14 clarifies “nations”
as Gentiles: “That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles
in Christ Jesus…” The crucial question in verse 8 is: are the Gentiles
justified on the basis of their faith or Abraham’s faith. Paul suggests
that the justification of the Gentiles comes as a blessing from God
in Abraham long before and apart from any believing on their part. God
made a covenant (His one-sided agreement) with Abraham, promising to
bless all nations, Jews and Gentiles alike, through him.
In addressing the question posed in the quarterly, “What was the position
of the Gentiles before they found Christ?,” we find several answers
in the 1888 message:
1. All men were in the same position in the first Adam. All that were
in the world were included in Adam. Adam in his sin reached all the
world without our consent and without our having anything to do with
it (A. T. Jones, 1895 General Conference Bulletin, p. 73).
2. God was the One looking out for us, not the other way around. The
text says when we were still without strength, while we were still sinners,
when we were enemies, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins,
“But God” or “But now” (Eph. 2:13).
3. God in Christ has done something for every person on planet earth
through the faith of Jesus Christ, and that is justification of life.
Jesus Christ the second Adam, in His righteousness touches all humanity.
What the second Adam did,embraces all that were embraced in what the
first Adam did (op. cit., p. 73).
4. The cross of Christ (He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world) is everything to us. It reconciles Jews and Gentiles to God
and to each other and it puts to death the enmity we have toward God
and each other (Eph. 2:14-16).
5. The agape of Christ is a self-emptying, self-sacrificing
love that seeks not her own. It breaks down the dividing walls and allows
us to deal with our fellow man as He dealt with us.
6. If we don’t resist this good news, but instead respond to the faith
of Jesus with an answering faith and receive the abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness, we Jews and Gentiles will reign in
life through the One Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:17).
One final thought comes from Waggoner in The Everlasting Covenant,
p. 271. The background text is Matthew 1:5: “Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab,
Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse.” Waggoner says, “That the
poor heathen woman of disreputable life, who could utter a lie with
a composed countenance, and with no consciousness of guilt, had a most
meager idea of the difference between right and wrong; yet God acknowledged
her as one of His people, because she did not turn away from light,
but walked in it as it came to her. She believed to the saving of her
soul. Her faith lifted her out of her sinful surroundings, and set her
in the way of knowledge; and no stronger evidence can be found that
Christ is not ashamed to acknowledge even the heathen as His brethren,
than the fact that He is not ashamed to have one of them, a harlot to
boot recorded in the roll of His ancestry after the flesh.”
Ephesians 2:19-22 describe the Gentiles as fellow citizens with the
saints, members of the household of God joined together, growing into
a holy temple in the Lord for a habitation of God in the spirit. Paul
later describes this as a mystery. The mystery is the agape
of God manifested by the church to the on-looking universe as a final
revelation of the character of God. May we allow God to work in us to
present this final revelation for His Holy name’s sake.
—Lyndi Schwartz
Note: Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is the inspired
source for many of the unique “what-Christ-has-accomplished” and “what-He
does-in-you” concepts which make the 1888 message of Christ’s righteousness
so unique. The 1888 Message Study Committee has just published Robert
J. Wieland’s accompanying commentary on Ephesians, YOU’VE BEEN “ADOPTED.”
Call (269) 473-1888 to order; ask for the special introductory price.
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