White Robes by James White

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 5, 1873

White Robes.

By James White

THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION EMBRACES ALL THE AGES OF HUMAN PROBATION.

“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” Rev. 7:9, 10.

The white-robed multitude, as argued in last week’s REVIEW, embraces the redeemed from all the ages of human probation. These all unite in one triumphant song, ascribing the praises of their salvation to the divine Law-giver, and to the divine Redeemer of sinners from the transgressions of the divine law. “I and my Father are one,” saith the Son of God. They were one in creation. Said Jehovah to Jesus, “Let us make man in our image.” They are one in the redemption of sinners in all the ages, as seen in the unit song of all the redeemed from all the nations of all time—“Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” Hence the position taken, that the law of the Father, and the gospel of the Son, constitute harmonious parts of the great plan of salvation, covering the entire period of man’s probation.

The word gospel signifies a “joyful message,” or good news. The gospel is the good news of salvation from sin through Jesus Christ. We inquire, When was the good news of redemption from sin first heard? How early in the sad history of fallen man was the joyful message of salvation through the Son of God proclaimed? Was it first given in the days of Christ and his first apostles? or of Moses? of Abraham? or of Adam? These questions and the answer we shall give may open to the reader a new and profitable field of thought. We unhesitatingly answer that the gospel dates back to the time when the hope of pardon and redemption was set before the fallen representatives of our race. We distinctly trace the faith and hope of the gospel of the Son of God in that early denunciation of wrath upon Satan, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. In this sentence against the author of sin and death, we hear the gospel of our triumphant Redeemer, as verily as in the song of the angels to the shepherds as they watched their flocks by night, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will to men.” “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

Immediately after the fall, hope of a future life hung on Christ, as truly as we hang our hopes upon him. And when the first sons of Adam brought their offerings to the Lord, Cain, in his unbelief, brought an offering unto the Lord of the first-fruits of the ground. But Abel, in faith of the great sacrifice for sin, to be manifested in the distant future, brought of the firstlings of his flock. Through that lamb, Abel saw the Lamb of God, the Redeemer of the world, and set his hope upon him. In the blood of that firstling, Abel saw the figure of the blood of Jesus Christ. He looked forward to Christ, and made his offering in the faith and hope of the gospel, and through it saw the great sacrifice for sin, as truly as we see the bleeding Lamb of God as we look back to Calvary through the broken bread and the fruit of the vine at the Lord’s supper. In these emblems, we see Christ shedding his blood for our sins on the cross. Abel saw the same in the bleeding, dying firstling which he offered.

“And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering; but unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.” Gen. 4:4, 5. The sacred narrative shows that, while Abel’s act of faith in the Redeemer to come sealed his righteous character, cost him his life, and placed him at the head of the holy martyrs of Jesus, Cain’s infidelity was regarded as sinful, and was the stepping stone to the high crime of the murder of his brother, which sealed his character as a vagabond in the earth.

The great apostle, in the eleventh chapter of his epistle to the Hebrews, places Abel at the head of the faithful worthies. He speaks of his righteous act of faith in offering to the Lord in sacrifice the type of the Redeemer to come, in these emphatic words: “By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. And by it he being dead yet speaketh.” Abel laid hold of the hope that was set before him of the Redeemer to come, and in type, embraced Christ. And, as he set the seal to his faith and hope in presenting before the Lord the most fitting emblem of the dying Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, high Heaven bestowed the signal witness that he was righteous. And for nearly six thousand years, this eminent preacher of the gospel, though dead, has been speaking of his faith in Christ.

The beloved John, in contrasting the infidelity and murderous spirit of Cain with the confiding faith, pure love and obedience of those who revere the commandments of God, and lay hold of the faith of Jesus Christ, says, “Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.” Abel formed a righteous character, not only in laying hold of the Redeemer to come by faith through the figure of the firstling of his flock, but by perfecting that saving faith in the act of presenting the sacrifice before the Lord his God.

From Abel, we pass down the brief sacred history of the fallen race to Abraham, and there we find the joyful message of salvation through Jesus Christ, to be extended to the nations of the earth, proclaimed to the trusting, obedient patriarch. Paul speaks of it thus: “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” Gal. 3:8. The apostle quotes from Gen. 12:3. See also verse 7, and chap. 17:7, 8, where this promise is extended to Abraham’s seed.

The gospel of the Son of God is proclaimed to Abraham in this promise, in that it is really a promise of Christ, as argued by the apostle in Gal. 3:16, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ.” The promise to Abraham, that in him all the families of the earth should be blessed, embraced Jesus Christ as the only hope of salvation of man from all the nations, as stated by the apostle in verse 14: “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.”

The faith of Abraham embraced Christ as its glorious object. This is seen in Christ’s reply to the Jews, who boasted in Abraham as their father. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and saw it, and was glad.” John 8:56. The great plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, was opened to Abraham, and his faith reached forward even to the restitution by the Son of God.

The words of Paul show that Abraham did not receive the promised inheritance in Canaan; but, that he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange land, looking forward to the eternal city, of the immortal kingdom where Christ shall reign in all his glory upon the new earth. “By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Heb. 11:8–10.

The gospel was preached to the Hebrews in the wilderness. Mark well the peculiar expression of the apostle, as he speaks to the point: “Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” Heb. 4:2. It is a serious doubt with very many, whether the children of Israel, in the days of Moses, had the gospel of the Son of God at all. But Paul treats the subject as a settled fact, that the gospel was preached to them in the wilderness. And in his epistle to the Hebrew Christians, he states that it was also preached to them, as well as to their fathers in a former dispensation. He also testifies of the Hebrews in the wilderness, that they “were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ.” 1 Cor. 10:2–4.

Moses, and the believing Jews had the faith and hope of the gospel. Through the blood of the sacrificial offerings, they saw Christ, and by faith embraced him. Their hopes of the future life were not in the law, but in Christ. The typical system was but the shadow of good things to come, of which Christ, as a sacrifice and mediator, is the center. These good things are the body that casts its shadow back into the Jewish age. The bleeding sacrifices of the former ages were but the shadow, while Christ, bleeding on the cross, was the great reality. The blood of beasts offered by the Jews, understandingly, and in faith, as clearly pointed forward to the blood of Christ, as the Lord’s supper and baptism point back to his sufferings, death, and resurrection. J. W.