So, Christ died, I'm freed, I'm saved. Nothing more to do.

"true faith, one that works by love and purifies the soul". What you are really saying is NO - Christ death does not save you. It only provides a means by which we can be saved. Big difference! The condition for salvation is perfect conformity to the law. Without that, no one can be saved.

Well, I've answered your question. Will you answer mine?

Perfect conformity to the law is only found in Christ's life and death.

How can we owe a debt to the law?

Last week a Russian visitor drove through our area at 168 kilometers an hour, twice the speed allowed. A reluctant policeman I know admitted to me that he had stopped the driver. Because he was not a resident the driver had to pay about a thousand dollars on the spot. His driver´s license was revoked for three months which meant that he had to leave the car and take a taxi.

Neither our traffic laws nor the ten commandments themselves prescribe the exact penalty. People with a proper license are permitted to use our roads within certain limits. If they exceed these limits they no longer have the right to drive here because that endangers our safety. In this case the driver lost his possibility of renewing the broken covenant for three months. Besides that he had to help pay the expenses of having officers on the road to ensure the safety rules are upheld.

The Ten Commandments are the Covenant of life between man and the Life Giver. If man choses to leave this covenant he no longer lives within the realms of life. The covenant needs to be restored, and throughout the whole Bible you find the ways to re-enter this covenant of life, even if you have broken the covenant.

Jesus says, Come unto me all ye who labor to earn your way back . . . Behold I stand at the door. . .

For God so loved the world . . .

Christ gave up His human life, not His divine life, because Divinity cannot die. With His divine life He was able to restore His own life which also restores the life of those who are not living within the covenant, but depend of Him for restoration. The best description of that you will find through the pages of the Desire of Ages, where you also find the Scripture references.

Just like Christ gave us His human life we too must give up our human desires that His Divinity may find access to our hearts and make the covenant (commandments) alive there. This is part of the sealing work provided by the Holy Spirit. This is the restoration of life and health.

÷The law demands perfect obedience, a righteous life. There is no other way to be saved. THEREFORE - Salvation is not a LEGAL solution to a LEGAL problem It is not legal. The essences of the Gospel is RESTORATION. The only way to be saved it so be restored into perfect conformity with the law.


The point - we are saved FROM our sins, not IN our sins. We MUST be transformed. We MUST be HEALED. This is NOT a LEGAL solution. It is a Trust/Healing solution. And guess what? It reguires work. Our works do not save us, but we must put forth effort. God will not do for us what we can do. Salvation is a stuggle. Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Ezekiel 36:26-27 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Salvation is restoration. Not legal release. The only way to be saved, it to perfectly obey the law.

Have you ever sinned? THEREFORE, your obedience is no longer perfect. Again,

Christ died because there was no other hope for the transgressor. He might try to keep God's law in the future; but the debt which he had incurred in the past remained, and the law must condemn him to death. Christ came to pay that debt for the sinner which it was impossible for him to pay for himself. Thus, through the atoning sacrifice of Christ, sinful man was granted another trial (FO, 30).

And again,

Perfect conformity to the law is only found in Christ's life and death.

So salvation is also a LEGAL problem, because the only way for you to have a perfect obedience is if Christ credits His obedience to you and covers with His righteousness all of your imperfect efforts. Yes, we must obey the law of God, but even if you never sinned again, the law will condemn you for the sins you've already committed. That's why you need Christ's righteousness in place of yours, and this is a LEGAL transaction.

You confuse our TITLE to heaven with our fitness for it.

Rosangela, did you even read, carefully, EGW's quotations? Let's compare one of your statements with hers. Whose would you believe, yours or hers? I'll take hers.

Rosangela:"covers with His righteousness all of your imperfect efforts"

EGW: "garments of Christ's righteousness are not a cloak for iniquity. Such teaching is a gross deception"

Yes, past sin must be expunged. It must be removed! All sin must be removed. You picture sin as if it were not a real thing, and more like just an accounting problem. Sin is NOT a LEGAL problem. It is a REAL problem. The ONLY title you have to heaven is your fitness for heaven. You only are fit for heaven when you have been transformed, healed, totally converted. This is the plan of salvation (which means healing). If sin were a legal problem and Christ's death solved it, then everyone has a title to heaven. Such teaching is a gross deception. It is the teaching of the Nicolaitans as EGW says.

Did the death of Christ finish the work? No. Christ's death provided the means, the know-how, the grace (Isaiah 53:11; Titus 3:5-7), but that is not sufficient to save anyone by itself. The knowledge gained needs to be applied. The healing needs to be performed, without which, no one can be saved. All must be brought back into conformity with the law. Hebrews 2:17-18 Why in all things it behooved him to be made like to his brothers, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 18 For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.

APL,

You are comparing my words with the wrong quote. Nobody is speaking here of iniquity, voluntary permanence in sin. I am speaking about imperfect efforts. So please compare my words with the right quote:

Rosangela:"covers with His righteousness all of your imperfect efforts"

EGW: Works will never save us; it is the merit of Christ that will avail in our behalf. Through faith in Him, Christ will make all our imperfect efforts acceptable to God. {FW 48.3}