By John Thiel, Walking in the Light of 1888 Conference, Study 2, mp3

Scripture reading: Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Why is the Sabbath day so special? It is written in Exodus 31.

Exodus 31:13 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it [is] a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that [ye] may know that I [am] the LORD that doth sanctify you.

In the Ten Commandments it is identified as the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; and this is a sign of a relationship; because what does it say here? It is a sign between Me and you. He is introducing a relationship concept. He says: I want you to know that I am your Lord that is at work for your sanctification. And who is this Lord that is saying, I want a relationship with you, which the Sabbath is a sign of?

Mark 2:27 And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: 28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.

Who is the Lord that sanctifies us, that the Sabbath is a sign of? Jesus Christ. He said, The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. The Sabbath: made for man, a sign and an integrated exercise of sanctification of which Jesus is the active agent to sanctify us; and therefore He is the Lord of my life and the Lord of the Sabbath.

The Lord of Our Sanctification

Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. 10 For it became him, for whom [are] all things, and by whom [are] all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

Don’t you love the language? He is the Captain of your salvation. How does He become the captain of our salvation?

Hebrews 2:11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified [are] all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. 13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

The Captain of our salvation was made perfect. How? By suffering. This is what it says. For Him to sanctify me, He had to be made perfect. Jesus, the God of the universe, was made a little lower than the angels, in the position of man; He became the Captain of our salvation so that He could sanctify us; but both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. And what does He call them? Brethren. He is our Elder Brother. He is the Captain of our salvation. We want to really understand this. Is your heart tuned?

What did He say as He was suffering as the Captain of our salvation to be made perfect? I will put my trust in Him. In whom? In His Father. The factor that makes Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath is that the Sabbath is the sign of His work of sanctification in our life. It is connected with His own being made perfect. He passed through the process of sanctification. Notice the way He expresses it in His wonderful high-priestly prayer, where He is actually praying for us.

That Prayer of Relationship

Remember, talking of the Sabbath He said, “It is a sign … that you may know that I am the Lord that sanctifies you.” “It is a sign of our relationship.” And here He is praying to the Father:

John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

Sanctify them through the truth—the truth of Me sanctifying Myself;

John 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone,

He is not just praying for the twelve. Who is He praying for?

John 17:20 …but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

Who does that include? Do you believe? He is praying for us now. What is He praying for?

John 17:21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

Are they not endearing words? Oh how quickly they are read and not resonating in the soul. But as we contemplate this, we need to let them resonate in our being. And may the Holy Spirit draw very close to us, because we need to understand what these things are in living reality. He that sanctifieth is one with those whom He sanctifies. Now come into focus the well-known words:

Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God [among which is the Sabbath], and the faith of Jesus.

The Faith of Jesus

Here they are, the third angel’s message people. They have the patience, they have the commandments of God, and they have the faith of Jesus. How did they get there? The commandments of God. They keep the commandments of God. What did those commandments do to them to get them to the faith of Jesus? Do you remember?

How Did They Get There?

Galatians 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster [to bring us] unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. 26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

If you have faith in Christ Jesus, then the law is going to lead you along until you have the faith of Jesus. The schoolmaster—that is how they got there. Via the schoolmaster. It is again expressed here:

Galatians 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.

How did those people get there?

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live…

How?

Galatians 2:20 …by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

So when finally this company of the third angel are standing there, they have been brought through the schoolmaster experience; and that is why it says they have patience. Are you impatient with your progress? The schoolmaster is required to lead me there; and then, having had the patience, they keep the commandments of God, and they have the faith of Jesus, because the schoolmaster led them there. This is what we need to comprehend here. These are all declarations which we can talk about, and it doesn’t do much for you. This has been bandied around ever since 1888. In all my life I have seen this bandied about theologically; and I used to stand and watch the bandying of these beautiful statements, and I bled in my heart because the people were just discussing about it, but they didn’t understand and comprehend the living reality of it. I pray to God He will help us now, because apparently in 1888, the light of this faith of Jesus was required.

Why This Message Was Required

The third angel’s message is the proclamation of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. The commandments of God have been proclaimed, but the faith of Jesus Christ has not been proclaimed by Seventh-day Adventists as of equal importance, the law and the gospel going hand in hand. I cannot find language to express this subject in its fullness. {3SM 172.2}

Didn’t we also have problems comprehending it? Sister White says, I cannot find language to express this subject in its fullness.

“The faith of Jesus.” It is talked of, but not understood. What constitutes the faith of Jesus, that belongs to the third angel’s message? {3SM 172.3}

So it is talked of; it is theologically discussed. But what? Not understood. What constitutes the faith of Jesus?

Jesus becoming our sin-bearer that He might become our sin-pardoning Saviour. He was treated as we deserve to be treated. He came to our world and took our sins that we might take His righteousness. And faith in the ability of Christ to save us amply and fully and entirely is the faith of Jesus. {Ibid.}

According to this inspiration, in the time of 1888 this was the condition of the Adventist church. They did not understand the faith of Jesus. How do we stand today? Is it any better today? In fact it has deteriorated. This whole subject that we are reading here is actually directly in reference to what Sister White was writing back then in regards to Jones and Waggoner’s messages. This is what it says a little before:

When I stated before my brethren that I had heard for the first time the views of Elder E. J. Waggoner, some did not believe me. {3SM 172.1}

The reason why they were having trouble was because she had already been speaking about this subject, and they thought she got it from Waggoner. But she said, I’ve only just heard it for the first time. And that is where this whole subject was aroused.

What Is the Faith of Jesus?

What, then, is the faith of Jesus that she described there? You can read those words and still not comprehend them, can’t you? It says: The faith of Jesus is Jesus becoming our sin-bearer that He might become our sin-pardoning Saviour.

He was treated as we deserve to be treated. He came to our world and took our sins that we might take His righteousness. And faith in the ability of Christ to save us amply and fully and entirely is the faith of Jesus. {3SM 172.3}

If I just read that statement to you now, you’d say, Now I understand. Sorry; you don’t unless you explore it. They are only words on a page. We need to go into the detail of these words and appreciate what they are actually trying to communicate. Enter with me into the amplification of these words of the faith of Jesus.

The Amplification of These Words

Jesus became our sin-bearer; He became sin-pardoning Saviour. When we read He became our sin-bearer the automatic mental picture we are picking up is: There He is, He has just been condemned for our sins. We don’t go any further in our natural thinking. In fact, when I raised this subject many times in the past, I was told, This is only Jesus as our representative, that’s all; it is a forensic exercise. And because people hold that view, they have missed the whole point.

When Jesus took our sins, when Jesus was our sin-bearer, what was His experience? Let the Scriptures unfold to our understanding what was His experience, the living reality of it; because, remember, He was made perfect through suffering; He sanctified himself. He was made equal with us.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he [God] hath made him [Christ] [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Jesus became our sin-bearer to become our sin-pardoning Saviour. Here it is in this short statement above. God hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin. Think about it. Here is a perfect person, perfectly pure, perfectly holy; He has never understood the experience of sinning. And now He is made to be sin. Not just in terms of sinning, but sin itself. What an experience do you think He had?

1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,

What do you experience when something is in your body? If I as a trained nurse came to you and gave you an injection of a hallucinating drug, what would happen to you? You would hallucinate. Jesus was injected with sin. He was made to be sin; and it says our sin was in His body. What was His experience? May the Holy Spirit help us.

In Lamentations we hear Him plaintively crying out, Please, can you understand what I went through? I love this plaintive cry. He is yearning for us to understand what He went through.

Lamentations 1:12 [Is it] nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me,

He is saying, Can you comprehend what My sorrow is, which is done unto Me? What was done unto Him? Who did it? The Lord made Him to be sin. Here it is:

Lamentations 1:12 …see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted [me] in the day of his fierce anger. 13 From above hath he sent fire into my bones,

Have you ever had a drug injection into your blood vessel? Do you know the feeling? Fire into the bones.

Lamentations 1:13 …and it prevaileth against them:

I wasn’t released from it, He says; it sent fire through My system.

Lamentations 1:13 …he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate [and] faint all the day. 14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, [and] come up upon my neck:

Have you ever had a heart attack? I have been pretty close to one. It chokes you. And when Jesus was wreathed with my sin and with everybody’s sin, an overdose, it choked Him.

Lamentations 1:14 …he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into [their] hands, [from whom] I am not able to rise up. … 16 For these [things] I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me:

What did Jesus say? “I will send you another Comforter.” Where was He now? Far from Me.

Lamentations 1:16 …my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.

Can you explore His experience? Let us explore some more.

Look Upon Jesus

Gaze upon Him, until all your righteousness melts away. Psalm 22 shows us more of His experience. How did He feel when He was made to be sin?

Psalm 22:1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? [why art thou so] far from helping me, [and from] the words of my roaring? 2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

“You are not even hearing Me. You are my God and I am not getting any answers from You.” Have you ever felt like that? Have you cried to God and you don’t get an answer? How long have people cried and they haven’t got an answer, until they understand what it’s all about. Jesus had to show them the way out; and here He is in the deplorable condition of the veriest sinner; and yet He never sinned. Can you imagine the contrasting agony because He was so pure and yet He experienced the depravity of sin? He was made to be sin.

Psalm 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

Have you ever felt this melting sensation through your system, like when you are sickening for a severe flu, and you feel like all your bones are out of joint? Much worse than that, that is what Jesus experienced. And the description of His experience continues in Psalm 69. What is He doing? He is crying out: Lord, save Me!

Psalm 69:1 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto [my] soul. 2 I sink in deep mire, where [there is] no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me. 3 I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

Here is the patience of the saints. Wait. Jesus had to wait. And then the horrifying reality of His experience continues in Psalm 40. This is Jesus speaking here; He says:

Psalm 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law [is] within my heart. 9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest. … 11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me. 12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.

Mine iniquities? Whose iniquities were they? Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, therefore He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Whose iniquities were they? Ours; and He was numbered with the transgressors (Isaiah 53). And He says, I am not able to look up. Do you know what it’s like when you can’t even look up because you are so depressed by absolute condemnation? It was so bad that His heart ruptured. High blood pressure, stress, Jesus met it all.

The evil works, the evil thoughts, the evil words of every son and daughter of Adam press upon his divine soul. {RH, December 20, 1892 par. 7}

What pressed upon Him? All the evil works, evil thoughts, and evil words were His, and they were oppressing Him.

Though the guilt of sin was not his, his Spirit was torn and bruised by the transgressions of men. {Ibid.}

If he drank of the cup of suffering, he must open his breast to the griefs and woes and sins of humanity. {ST, November 25, 1889 par. 2}

His heart inside of Him received every detail of the horror of the human race. He was made not only forensically a sinner, but He was made to be a sinner. Mark my words carefully: He was made. He did not do these things. He was made to be sin who knew no sin.

Remember the schoolmaster? What does it do to us, and what does it do with Him right there? It kept on nagging, it kept on condemning, it kept on doing its work until we felt like a washed out rag. How did Jesus feel? A washed out rag. He was so devastated that He saw no hope; condemned with sin in all its dimensions in His body. What was the faith of Jesus now? Is there any faith left in that experience?

What Was the Faith of Jesus Now?

What follows is a little statement that is in harmony with what we had read in Hebrews: I will put My trust in Him. As He was hanging on the cross and He was going through this horror of what the schoolmaster has done to every sinner, what did He do?

Luke 23:46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice,

When, as recorded in Matthew, He had cried out: My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?;

Luke 23:46 …he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

What do you identify there? What did Jesus just do? He felt totally condemned; He had just cried out, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” and what does He do next? “I’m going to throw myself at Your mercy.” All condemned, all riddled with sin in His body, all affected like He expressed in Lamentations; and He says, “Here I am; I am throwing Myself at Your mercy. Into Your hands I commend My spirit; I can’t live any longer.” He gave up the ghost. I will put my trust in Him.

Psalm 69:13 But as for me, my prayer [is] unto thee, O LORD, [in] an acceptable time:

Mark those words: in an acceptable time.

Psalm 69:13 O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation. 14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters. 15 Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. 16 Hear me, O LORD…

What does He say now?

Psalm 69:16 …for thy lovingkindness [is] good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

What is He referring to here? He is referring to the God of the universe who has a heart that is described here:

Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God [are] a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

There was Jesus, made to be sin for us; the sin was so much part of Him that He said, It is Mine. And He cries to God under the sense of the condemnation of the schoolmaster, and says: Oh I’m going through a horrifying experience; where are You, God? What did Job’s wife say to Job? That is what sinners think, It’s too bad. Curse God, and die. But what did Jesus do? He knew God. He knew that when a person is so wicked and so deplorably hopeless, when there is no excuse for sin and he knows it, and he is absolutely condemned, but he goes to the Father and says, I know You; Your loving kindness is so good, Your multitude of mercies is so great that although I am condemned by my sin, I am going to throw myself at Your mercy and You will not despise me; He knew that when a sinner does that, God will not despise him. Tell me, do you ever despise somebody who has sinned against you? God doesn’t do it. God’s heart is compassionate for the veriest sinner who comes to Him in brokenness of spirit. It says it here: He will not despise such a sacrifice. As we read before:

…faith in the ability of Christ to save us amply and fully and entirely is the faith of Jesus. {3SM 172.3}

What did Jesus do when He was me? He relied upon the Father and He believed the Father.

Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe. {DA 756.3}

The Dregs

Have you ever experienced the dregs of your corruption? Jesus had every item of it.

In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father’s acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; {Ibid.}

What was the character of the Father? A broken spirit I cannot and will not despise.

He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father’s favor was withdrawn. By faith, Christ was victor. {Ibid.}

Do you want the victory over sin? You must have the faith of Jesus. What did it do? When He was overwhelmed with total depravation, drinking the last dregs of human woe and sin, made to be sin, He remembered the character of His Father, that the sacrifice that is acceptable to God is a broken spirit. Remember: in an acceptable time. There it is. What is the acceptable moment with God?  When you are broken up over the condition of your sinfulness—that is the acceptable moment when God’s character cannot despise you. That is the Father’s character. He cannot despise you. If you cry unto Him in a broken condition He cannot turn away from you. That is His nature. Don’t you love Him? What a Father. And He demonstrated His love by putting His own son into the depravation that you and I are in. Now, if Jesus suffered more than any of us with the depravation of sin, and the Father didn’t reject Him, what is He going to do with you who haven’t suffered as much as Him if you will break down before Him? This is the faith of Jesus. As condemnation of the law drives you to distraction, it reveals Jesus who sanctified Himself with you, and His faith in action. And when His faith is part of you, then God’s mercy will do for you what it did for Him.

Out of the Pit

Remember, Here is the patience of the saints.

Psalm 40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay,

Remember how He was praying: Take Me out of this mire; the waters are overflowing Me. What did the Father do as He threw Himself upon Him?

Psalm 40:2 He brought me up … out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, [and] established my goings. 3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, [even] praise unto our God:

What sort of a praise will come from that heart? Now He is saying, Look at Me, everybody;

Psalm 40:3 …many shall see [it], and fear, and shall trust in the LORD. 4 Blessed [is] that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.

It’s a lie when they say that Jesus was not in sinful flesh. Those that turn aside to lies will become Pharisees. So what are you to do continually in your sinful flesh?

Dying with Jesus

2 Corinthians 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Jesus partook of my body. He partook of my sin in His body. Do you have your sin in your body? Sorry, you can’t get rid of it; it is there in your body. But what are you to do? Always carrying in your body the dying of the Lord Jesus. Day after day after day die with Jesus, die with Jesus; so that the power of God resurrecting you every day will be your experience. That is righteousness by faith. That is the 1888 message. What is the reality of dying every day? Every moment that a sense of your sinfulness and the consequences of your sinfulness oppress you, every moment that this comes to your conscience, then cast yourself upon God’s mercy at that moment. Believe Him as Jesus did. As soon as a condemnatory memory of your sin comes up in your mind, it is not presumption if you believe that the Father will take that away from you when you cry to Him, “Lord, here I go, here is my sin, have mercy upon me,” as Jesus cried. Every moment the thoughts come, die with Jesus, die with Jesus, and the Lord will immediately restore you, because He has done it in Jesus already. This is our need. Believe in Jesus, so that you may have the faith of Jesus in action. This is what it means to walk in the light of 1888. Do that every moment. Do it every day, every moment, and God will do His part every day and every moment in raising you again. This is what is meant with the following words of Hebrews. Here was Jesus,

The Author of Our Salvation

Hebrews 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;

Who did He need to save Him? The One you need to save you. When Jesus came to save us, He didn’t come to save us in the sense that the Father comes to save us. He came to save us by showing us how we can be saved. And how? By crying unto Him as He did, so that the Father could save me and you in Him.

Hebrews 5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

He was made holy by the things which He suffered.

Hebrews 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

He would come to save us in a different way than the Father saving us. He came to save us by showing us the authorship. He wrote the book; He was the Author of the salvation. And He said, I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth of My sanctification. Being made perfect, He became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. Thus, being the Author of salvation, He is the Author of our faith, the faith of Jesus, by which we can be saved.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,

All the universe is watching;

Hebrews 12:1 …let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

What are we meant to be doing? To lay aside the sin which doth so easily beset us. Can you do it? You can’t; but in the faith of Jesus you can.

The Author of the Faith

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

You need to do this every day, to consider this.

Hebrews 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

Has Jesus? So what do you do with Jesus? Consider Him. Take hold of His faith. And we you take hold of the Author and Finisher of the faith, it becomes our faith; and the righteousness that He gained becomes our righteousness. This is how it happens. But you have to believe it. If you throw yourself into the battle of contradictory theological arguments you will never come to it. Only as you believe it does it become a reality.

God with Us

I now want to summarise this message directly from the words of A. T. Jones, from his 1895 sermons, delivered during the General Conference of 1895, seven years after 1888:

When [Jesus] stood where we are, He said, “I will put my trust in Him” and that trust was never disappointed. In response to that trust the Father dwelt in Him and with Him and kept Him from sinning. Who was He? We. And thus the Lord Jesus has brought to every man in this world divine faith. That is the faith of the Lord Jesus. That is saving faith. Faith is not something that comes from ourselves with which we believe upon Him, but it is that something with which He believed–the faith which He exercised, which He brings to us, and which becomes ours and works in us–the gift of God. That is what the word means, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” They keep the faith of Jesus because it is that divine faith which Jesus exercised Himself. {February 21, 1895 ATJ, GCB 270.1}

He being we brought to us that divine faith which saves the soul–that divine faith by which we can say with Him, “I will put my trust in Him.” And in so putting our trust in Him, that trust today will never be disappointed anymore than it was then. God responded then to the trust and dwelt with Him. God will respond today to that trust in us and will dwell with us. {February 21, 1895 ATJ, GCB 270.2}

God dwelt with Him and He was ourselves. Therefore His name is Emmanuel, God with us. Not God with Him. God was with Him before the world was; He could have remained there and not come here at all and still God could have remained with Him and His name could have been God with Him. He could have come into this world as He was in heaven and His name could still have been God with Him. But that never could have been God with us. But what we needed was God with us. God with Him does not help us, unless He is we. But that is the blessedness of it. He who was one of God became one of us; He who was God became we, in order that God with Him should be God with us. O, that is His name! That is His name! Rejoice in that name forevermore–God with us! {February 21, 1895 ATJ, GCB 270.3}

Amen.