GOOD THINGS TO COME by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 6, 1900

GOOD THINGS TO COME.

By Uriah Smith

Good things are what the children of men are incessantly seeking. Drowning men, seeing something near them, it may be but a straw, will eagerly clutch at it, thus betraying their overwhelming desire for something they feel the need of, to help them in their desperate strait.

Just so in spiritual matters. People will grasp at every expression of scripture which the first wild thought may suggest can be manipulated to favor something that they greatly desire to be true. Thus many have expounded, and expanded, the texts treating upon the love of God, till they have persuaded themselves that none of the human family can ever be lost, and so have lost themselves in the soundless, boundless sea of Universalism.

Others, seeing that Universalism can by no possibility be true, according to the Scriptures, have studied out what they conceive to be the next best thing to come, and that is that men who do not see fit to accept the gospel, or do not, as they describe it, have an opportunity to accept it, in this life, are to have another opportunity in a coming age, and then may accept the gospel if they will, and be saved just the same as if they accepted it now.

This idea is immensely pleasing to those who are inclined to say, Go thy way for this time; and when I have a convenient season, I will give attention to these matters. And who would not say this if he were sure there would be another opportunity after this was allowed to pass by? That second opportunity will, of course, be the “convenient season;” for then, they think, they will have had more experience, and consequently will be better prepared to act. So they dismiss the consideration of their soul’s eternal interests to the expected more favorable season in the future, and plunge the more recklessly into the vanities and frivolities of this present evil world.

This is one of the most winning enticements presented by the great deceiver. Oh, says the lover of pleasure, if I am to have another opportunity, that is all anyone can ask; I will take this world now, and run my chances for the next. This pleasing fable will doubtless quiet more souls in reference to their present duties and dangers, and lead to their ultimate ruin, than almost any other false beacon that has ever been set up. The idea of a future probation, when the errors of the present time may be corrected, and the poor heathen have an opportunity, as it is called, is most captivating to the careless and pleasure loving. Were it not for this, the easy acceptance of it by the masses would be most astonishing. Its rapid spread and great influence could otherwise hardly be accounted for. But the enemy is working it, as the capitalist would say, for “all there is in it.” He is spreading it everywhere. It is one of the dangers and perils of the last days; and even some Seventh-day Adventists are falling into the snare. This seems indeed passing strange; for the Bible is most pointed in its declarations that now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation. And it has no promises that, if a man passes one whole life, spending it without accepting the offers of a future immortal existence,—spending it in rejecting all God’s invitations, and all his offers of grace,—another life will be granted in which to accept what was freely offered here and willfully rejected,—another period of time, in which all the mistakes made in this state of existence may be corrected—mistakes, too, made in the presence of constant light, and under repeated warnings. God puts no such premium on disobedience in this life.

On this point we find an unquestionable lesson, both in the types of the Old Testament and in the plain utterances of the New, not to deceive ourselves with the hope of a second probation after this life is passed.

Thus, in Heb. 10 : 1, we read: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices

which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.” The Levitical system could not present in all its particulars, the mediatorial work of Christ, which it was designed to prefigure; and in no respect could it accomplish its real efficacy; for none of the sacrifices that system had to offer could make men perfect; that is, they could not take away sin. They could take it away only in shadow. The term “year by year” being used, shows that the reference is to the annual services of the day of atonement; and if that atonement had taken away sin, and rendered the people thereafter free from sin, as the real atonement of Christ will do, then there would have been no need of further sacrifice, and then, as verse 2 (margin) says, “they would have ceased to be offered;” for thereafter the persons would have had no sin, and would have felt no consciousness of, nor any condemnation for, sin. But the fact that an atonement was made the next year for the very same persons showed what the apostle was claiming, and trying to prove, that the sacrifices they had to offer were not effectual to cleanse from sin. And the reason for this is given in the two verses that follow: “But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.”

The task that the apostle had to perform with reference to the Jews was to remove from their minds the conception, which had taken deep root therein, that their offerings were effectual to take away sin. This, if true, nullified the claim the apostles or any one might urge of the necessity for Christ to come to take away sin; for they believed that that was already done through the offerings they had presented to the priest. This idea must be removed before they would accept Christ. But they had lost sight of the significance of the ceremonial system, the medium through which they were to show their faith in a Redeemer who was to come. That system was a means, not an end; but they had reversed this order, and made it an end, and not a means. It is necessary to bear this fact continually in mind, if we would understand many things that Paul writes in regard to the relation of the Mosaic to the Christian dispensation.

The argument that he here uses to prove his point, that the repetition of their services showed the need of Christ, would have great weight with the Hebrew mind. It also has an important bearing on the point before us; for the obvious deduction from the whole argument is that when a sacrifice is entirely efficient for the purpose that God had in view, it is not to be repeated. The sacrifice of Christ was of such a nature; and as that is the only sacrifice for the world, there is no occasion for its being gone through with again; it will not be repeated. “By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Heb. 10 :14. And this day—the gospel day—is the one that he “limiteth” (Heb. 4 :7), that is, set apart, for the operation of this offering for the children of men. Those, therefore, who do not secure its benefits while it is in force, will forever lose it. There is no second offering, no second probation for them.

The sacrifices and offerings made by men were never designed by God to be the ultimate means of accomplishing the end in view; namely, the removal of sin and the sanctification of the sinner. It was in this respect that God had no pleasure in them; and when presented in this way, and with such an intention, they were not acceptable to him. The purpose of God was the incarnation of Christ, and his divine sacrifice; for which purpose he came in a human body into this world. “A body hast thou prepared me.” And sacrifices and offerings were acceptable to God, only when used in prefiguring that sublime event, the coming of Christ into this world, in the likeness of human flesh, to die for mankind.

In Ps. 40 : 8 we read: “Yea, thy law is within my heart.” Thus Christ came into the world, lived a sinless life, and gave himself a divine sacrifice for sin. He was the antitype of all the offerings and sacrifices that had gone before. This was the advanced stage in the development of the plan of salvation, which the men of Christ’s time had been privileged to witness. Under the new covenant we come to Christ, not through the medium of an earthly sacrifice and a human priesthood, but directly “to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant.” Heb. 12 :24. And so the former system of sacrifices and offerings was taken away that the divine sacrifice, the Son of God, might appear as the antitype of all the sacrifices previously offered.

The one offering of Christ suffices for all his ministry; and when that has been offered to all men till all have accepted it who will do so, then there is no more offering to be made for sin. This one is forever. There is no further probation for those who will not accept of this. God accepted the sacrifice of his Son, and placed him at his right hand on his own throne (Rev. 3 : 21); and there he will remain as priest-king (Zech. 6 : 12, 13) till his foes are made his footstool. See Ps. 110 : 1. The Father puts all Christ’s foes under him (the Son). Christ occupies that throne to-day, and is waiting for the event that the Father has promised him, that his foes shall be made his footstool. This will be when Christ comes to dash the nations to pieces like a potter’s vessel. Ps. 2 : 8, 9. In Heb. 10 :12, 13, Paul plainly applies this situation to the present position of Christ. These foes include all who have ever lived who have not accepted him. He says, “He that is not with me is against me.” And there can be no plan consistently devised that will take those who, through one probation, have proved themselves incorrigible rebels, and place them so far back into favor as to set them upon a new probation, with nothing on their part to show that there has been a change in their dispositions which would promise a better result from another trial.

In Heb. 10 :16–19 the apostle dwells with great intensity upon the fact that there comes a time when there will be no more sacrifice for sins; and that must be when Christ has finished his work with that one sacrifice with which he has entered into the presence of the Father for us. When the ministry with this present sacrifice is finished, no other is provided. “There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” Then let no one neglect, or reject, the present opportunity; for we have no promise of any other. U. S.