Paul's Testimony by J. C. Clemens

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 20, 1874

Paul's Testimony.

By J. C. Clemens

“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Col. 3: 3. How ample is the description here given of the condition of the believer, and how perfect the consolation which may be derived from a careful consideration of Paul's assertion together with its various connections. Paul had been a careful student of the Bible, was well versed in the law, and was eminently qualified to define man's position under that law. He also well understood and ably described the nature of the provision made for man's escape from the penalties of that law. Consequently his testimony must have great weight and his assertions much credence.

It is also worthy of remark that his testimony on this as well as other points is corroborated and sustained by the teachings of one whose wisdom cannot be questioned and whose authority cannot be gainsayed. God is not a being who makes use of meaningless terms or who makes idle promises soon to be forgotten or never to be fulfilled, and when he said, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,” the penalty of disobedience was immutably fixed. In all the power of humanity there was no means of escape from the execution of this death-sentence upon all mankind as the natural descendants of Adam, and heirs of the inheritance which his disobedience had purchased for them. Their condition then under the law was hopeless. Nothing but the endurance of the prescribed penalty could satisfy the demands of justice. Without the intervention of divine power, man could hope for no salvation. But justice forbids that divine power should be brought to bear against the execution of the penalties of a law which had its source and origin in that same divinity. In order therefore that justice might be satisfied, and man released from the bondage of sin and death, it was necessary that a sacrifice equally divine in nature with the law should be made. Nothing but a sacrifice on the part of the Godhead could overcome the enemy, death, and free man from the consequences of Adam's disobedience.

From Adam we could no longer expect to inherit future happiness or favor with God; yet while we merited nothing but his displeasure, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Mark the magnitude of the sacrifice. “He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,” &c. Christ, the only begotten son of God, relinquishing all the advantages of his position of peculiar favor and privilege in the heavenly economy, and forsaking the infinite glory and matchless enjoyments of that bright world, assumed a form and nature circumscribed by the same finite principle, susceptible to the same temptations, and in bondage to the same law of justice, with fallen man, and to accomplish, what? Their release from the condemnation which was Adam's legacy to his posterity. He came under the power of death, and so continued for a time, that he might open a door through which man might escape from the bondage of the grave and obtain the better inheritance of eternal life. That his sacrifice was acceptable and his victory over death complete, we have abundant evidence both in the fact of his resurrection and in the testimony of his followers. “As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.” This sounds as though an unqualified or unlimited redemption had been purchased for all mankind, and that no action was necessary on the part of any individual in order to enjoy the benefits of this purchase. However, a close examination of the passage in question will disabuse the candid student of the Bible of this idea; the question of heirship must first be determined.

By natural descent we are all heirs of condemnation through the transgression of our father Adam. How, then, shall we be made partakers of the redemption purchased by Christ? How shall we become heirs of the better inheritance? Only by adoption into God's family can we become heirs of any of the advantages or privileges that belong to his economy. How shall we obtain that adoption? “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.” John 1: 12. Here we find it necessary to receive Christ in order to be received of God, and the latter clause of the verse explains this reception as signifying belief. We must believe him to be sent of God, and capable of accomplishing our release from the bondage of death. We must manifest our belief by depending on him alone for that release, thereby virtually accepting of his sacrifice as the means of our redemption. Without this belief and its consequent fruits we cannot hope for adoption. Without adoption, we cannot hope for life. “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” 1 John 5:11, 12. Let us remember who hath said, “I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” John 11:25. Let us pray for grace to enable us so to believe that, living and believing, we shall in the purpose of God never die, but be reserved unto the resurrection of the just; that when Christ who is our life shall appear, we also shall appear with him in glory as Paul avers we shall if we set our affections on things above.

J. C. CLEMENS.