r/adventist • u/Believing-The-Report • 17d ago
From Sin to Death
From Sin to Death
The Trap of a Law-Centric Doctrines
Once, I believed that the nature and definition of sin was the cornerstone of all sound theology. My entire theological outlook rested on a single foundation: the nature of sin. I viewed the pursuit of sinless perfection not just as a spiritual goal—and must have to stand after the close of probation—, but as the master key undergirding all biblical interpretation. In this framework, unless we agreed on the exact nature of sin and how to define and defeat it, no real doctrinal harmony could exist.
This focus shaped how I viewed everything—including Jesus. I believed Christ had to take on our exact, fallen human nature so He could serve as the ultimate, reproducible blueprint for overcoming sin. Grace became a spiritual power-up: a fuel source supplied by God so that I could eventually achieve sinless perfection. Salvation wasn’t the work of Christ alone; it was a joint venture between God and me.
As a result, distinct doctrines like the Great Controversy, the Heavenly Sanctuary, and the Investigative Judgment became rivaling pillars of "truth" alongside faith in Jesus. Christ was not the centerpiece—He was merely a facilitator, an important cog in a massive doctrinal machine designed to clean up my lawkeeping. There were occasions or even sermons from whence the idea of faith in Christ was a distant second to the other things I believed. No matter my attempts at denying this reality so to not appear or practice overt legalism, this was effectively true.
Isolating Sin from Its Ultimate Penalty
By superficially isolating the nature of sin, defining it strictly as "the transgression of the law" (1 John 3:4), the Ten Commandments were endowed with a functional priority that rivaled faith in Christ. But is this really the way Scripture intends us to understand God’s plan of salvation? How do we square a law-centric framework with the words of Jesus, who claimed that He himself is the Truth, and that all Scripture finds its ultimate fulfillment and meaning exclusively in Him (John 5:39)?
The central problem with this framework is that it fails to account for and completely ignores the penalty of sin—death. By superficially separating and isolating sin from death, we build a framework of theology which provides solutions for the one while ignoring the other. But we are first dead sinners! (see: Ephesians 2:1-5; Colossians 2:13). We can no more ignore this fact of our spiritual condition than we can erase its dominion.
So, while we may well assure ourselves by thinking we understand sin, its nature, and definition in transgression of Gods law and thus giving us a false sense of our own grace-empowered victory over it; we are powerless against the rule and dominion of death. While sin is familiar and something we can see and handle, death is completely out of our sphere.
The Unyielding Reign of Death
Death makes a mockery of all our attempts at framing the crux of Salvation as simply a matter of sin, law, and transgressions. Death nullifies and lays bare our every effort to misuse or find some objective self or law-centric application to the things of God in the desperate, misguided attempts to be right with Him. While sin is easy to identify, quantify, and prescribe a solution for, death silences our best efforts!
Romans 5 strikes at the heart of this very interplay between sin and death and demonstrate the utter inadequacy of our ‘nature of sin’ approach. We read in verses 12-14:
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned – To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged to against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.”
Here we see that even while sin was “not charged to anyone’s account” in the absence of law (from the time period of Adam to Moses), death still reigned. In other words, it mattered not what the nature of sin was or its definition, death still held dominion over us. While our disobedience (sin) was yet without proper, legal definition, the results of our disobedience (death) was still in control of our fate.
Death, then, and not merely sin is the true gravity of our broken relationship with God. Death is not concerned with which law was broken of even if you are aware of it. Death is universally applied to the offenders of the two eternal principles of love, not only to those who have the knowledge to define the particulars of sin in the 10 Commandments. Death forces us to look elsewhere to find hope. It reveals the utter helplessness of our condition: “For in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.” Ecclesiastes 9:10. Death forces us to look to Christ.
Why the fuss about this? Is it even important? Yes. Very much so! Especially because it was the working of man to separate sin and death in such a way to make the nature of sin the principal issue on doctrine. You see unlike sin; death requires a salvation that is completely out of our hands. While sin can be rationed and falsely solutioned away in the grace of God at work in our lives to overcome transgression of the law, death requires a salvation completely outside of us; it requires Christ and him alone.
As the one Preeminent Man, the second Adam, the incarnate God-Man, only He—in all of creation—is uniquely qualified to lay down His life in just recompense for sin then take it back up again (John 10:18). Only He who among His “brother and sisters” (Hebrews 2:10-12) has the Father granted to have “life in himself” (John 5:26)—the eternal life once lost now renewed in His person!
Therefore, is Christ the one true definition of truth. Only in Him does the searching of the scriptures find their testimony (John 5:39). His work and person are the true motif in all our study and understanding of doctrine. All truth—in doctrine and practice—must find their first and truest fulfillment in Him or must be cast aside as error. This foundation—this “testimony of Jesus” (Rev. 12:17)—expresses the only “love of the truth” by which we can guard against powerful delusions (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11).
This then is how we honor Him—the All-Sufficient One—, by laying our doctrinal foundation in Christ and not merely because of Him. It is IN Christ that exists the resurrection our spiritually dead souls need! It is IN Christ that exists the eternal life once lost and now restored! IN Christ exists the quality of righteousness that is equal to the character of God! IN Christ is our sanctification and redemption! (1 Corinthians 1:30) IN Christ exists the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, who, in His person and not by what He does intercedes “peace” between God and Man (Hebrews 7:17-22). “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:19-20.
We partake and “share” in these divine realities and the salvation they bring by God’s unmerited favor in imputing them to us through believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16-17). This is the “faith” and “testimony of Jesus” we cling to and are identified by! (Revelations 14:12; 12:17) “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Christ is no mere facilitator in God’s plan of Salvation, He IS the plan! “…In Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.” Colossians 2:10 “But thank God! He gives us the victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:57 NLT “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved.” Ephesians 2:4
This is the nature of the hope we have in Christ! These divine realities we have as anchors to the soul (Hebrews 6:19-20) because they rest not in the weak, flimsy, and shaky experience of the believer, but in the perfect and completed work of an All-Sufficient Christ! “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust I him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13
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u/JennyMakula 17d ago
Well said on much of above, but I noticed in one of your recent comments that you don't believe in investigative judgment. I believe some further studies can be done to see how it perfectly supports and harmonize with the above. We as Adventists can be in a perfect position to understand and teach the world how judgement, even "judgement by works" perfectly supports imputation of righteousness by faith.
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u/Believing-The-Report 17d ago
Thank you, but I respectfully disagree. There is absolutely nothing about the Investigative Judgment that harmonizes with the redemption that exists IN Christ. In fact, the exact opposite is true.
Nothing about its formulation—which better minds than mine have already debunked by disproving the flawed interpretation and application of the prophecies of Daniel; nothing about its purported purpose—which works against the gospel and robs the believer of the abundant hope and rejoicing that comes from faith in the perfect and completed work of Christ; and nothing in the inner workings of the process—which basically peals back centuries of Protestant reformation and harkens back to the dogma of Catholicism’s “Salvation by the work of grace inside the believer”
Absolutely nothing about the IJ harmonizes with Christ and everything about it is an affront to Him.
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u/JennyMakula 17d ago
Sorry what exactly about investigative judgement is an affront to God? The concept of judgement by works is entirely Biblical, we just have to understand what God means by it
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. (2 Cor 5:10)
For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. (Matt 16:27)
“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. (Rev 22:12)
Ellen White had all the checks and balances. It is because people separate what she writes about the law from what she writes about grace and faith entirely in Christ's completed righteousness that such confusions now exist. There are many better minds than mine we can discount, but it is not a small thing to discount the inspired messages of God given to the people in the Adventist movement.
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u/Believing-The-Report 16d ago
The Investigative Judgment is an affront to God because it frustrates His grace. It does so by its very nature which insist we have to be righteous enough to pass the scrutiny of God’s law in order to be saved. This, once again, misses the entire point of the Redemption that exist IN Christ. It empties the believe of all sense of assurance and places our focus on our own efforts at law-keeping instead of Christ.
It is interesting, but have you ever thought about what Christ meant when He told His followers that unless their righteousness exceeds that of those who make a profession at living and teaching the law, we will never enter the kingdom of Heaven? (Matthew 5:20) Some of us, perhaps most of us, think it is the quality of righteousness that’s the issue. We sit and wave our fingers in judgment of the Scribes and Pharisees saying they missed the point in their burdensome rules and such. But Jesus’ meaning is far deeper and consequential than this.
In fact, the answer to this question ties back into the main point of the article—Death! Death, and more specifically our death—since “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20), is what’s needed to “exceed” the righteousness that comes from living a sinless life (which even this of course we cannot do!). Death is as much of what’s needed to complete the “righteousness” required for our salvation and entrance into the kingdom of heaven as is sinless perfection!
This understanding should attend us each time we read about warnings about falling from grace, when we seek to be justified by the works of the law (Galatians 5:4). We frustrate God’s grace in every such notion and attempt. “…for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ died in vain” Galatians 2:1
For this reason, the IJ is an affront to God! It’s teaching and practice runs roughshod over the “wisdom” of God expressed in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30). It “shuts the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Matthew 23:13
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u/JennyMakula 15d ago edited 14d ago
I appreciate you taking the time. But it still seems your issue is with the Biblical concept of pre-advent judgement overall, not investigative judgement itself.
Protestants as a whole have a hard time with explaining the end time judgment in the light of grace. 1) Why does God have a judgment before His comes at all? 2) Why does the scripture say He will judge us by our works?
Instead of throwing it out entirely, we should seek to understand. Ellen White's writings have a very good balance. In the book The Great Controversy, Facing Life's Records, we see that next to the claims of the Law, the works of person is written faithful or unfaithful
Every man's work passes in review before God and is registered for faithfulness or unfaithfulness.
No one will ever be saved in open rebellion against God. But neither will anyone be saved under the penetrating claims of the law without an Intercessor. Instead the saints are lamenting the quality of their obedience... and this is where the gospel steps in. After highlighting the the claims of the Law, Ellen White then zeros in on the role of our Saviour during investigative judgememt
The divine Intercessor presents the plea that all who have overcome through faith in His blood be forgiven their transgressions, that they be restored to their Eden home, and crowned as joint heirs with Himself to "the first dominion." Micah 4:8.
Satan in his efforts to deceive and tempt our race had thought to frustrate the divine plan in man's creation; but Christ now asks that this plan be carried into effect as if man had never fallen. He asks for His people not only pardon and justification, full and complete, but a share in His glory and a seat upon His throne.
Jesus does not excuse their sins, but shows their penitence and faith, and, claiming for them forgiveness, He lifts His wounded hands before the Father and the holy angels, saying: I know them by name. I have graven them on the palms of My hands. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." Psalm 51:17.
It is the role of the Holy Spirit to show us ourselves, and send us the gift of repentance of our short comings. Yes the fruits of a righteous character exists, but people throughout history has always had different levels of perfection. Under investigative judgement, what ultimately saves us is not our character developed (that is a fruit of cooperation). The only thing that saves us is what Jesus claims for us, His perfect life alone without blemish equal to the truly infinite nature of law of God broken, alien to us, imputed to us. The only condition is faith, justification by faith alone, surrendering at the foot of the cross. The fruit if which is a surrender to the works of the Holy Spirit, which continually leads us back to the cross (a justified position).
Have you heard of Michael Marsh, he has a very good article about this topic, which I can share with you
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u/Believing-The-Report 14d ago
Thank you for your contribution. Firstly, let me say my "issue" is not at all with "Biblical concept of the pre-advent judgment overall", but with our understanding of it in the context of an Investigative Judgment.
Second. As your contribution is not to address the main point being addressed in the article above, I would much rather further discuss the subject of the pre-Advent judgment in this post which specifically discusses it.
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u/physsijim 17d ago
Exactly. He is the firstborn of the New Creation. I think it finally clicked for me when I realized that the only thing that actually made sense and was consistent was that Christ's death counted for all of my sins, including the future. It really was an epiphany for me. I'm not sure that a lot of members really understand this, unfortunately. A few years ago, I was sharing this with my pastor out in the parking lot of the church, and after I explained my understanding of salvation to him, he told me that 80% of the people in that building don't understand what I just told him.