The messages of Dr. E. J. Waggoner and Elder A. T. Jones, presented at the 1888 General Conference Session, addressed this issue, but strangely became the focus of controversy to those who rejected the message.
Many have been unclear in their minds as to just what that message was. The safest course for us to follow is to go directly to the pen of Inspiration to see how clearly the issue has been defined for us.--Editors
"But while God can be just, and yet justify the sinner through the merits of Christ, no man can cover his soul with the garments of Christ's righteousness while practicing known sins, or neglecting known duties. God requires the entire surrender of the heart, before justification can take place; and in order for man to retain justification, there must be continual obedience, through active, living faith that works by love and purifies the soul." Selected Messages, book 1, 366.
"It is by continual surrender of the will, by continual obedience, that the blessing of justification is retained." Ibid., 397.
"He who would become a child of God must receive the truth that repentance and forgiveness are to be obtained through nothing less than the atonement of Christ. Assured of this the sinner must put forth an effort in harmony with the work done for him, and with unwearied entreaty he must supplicate the throne of grace, that the renovating power of God may come into his soul. Christ pardons none but the penitent, but whom He pardons He first makes penitent." Ibid., 393-394.
2) It incorporates the saving power of both justification and sanctification. This message provides the answer to those who claim that justification alone, without sanctification, provides our qualifications for heaven:
"This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God." Testimonies to Ministers, 91-92.
"Through Christ, restoration as well as reconciliation is provided for man." Selected Messages, book l, 363.
"Genuine faith appropriates the righteousness of Christ, and the sinner is made an overcomer with Christ; for he is made a partaker of the divine nature, and thus divinity and humanity are combined." Ibid., 363-364.
"When through repentance and faith we accept Christ as our Saviour, the Lord pardons our sins, and remits the penalty prescribed for the transgression of the law. The sinner then stands before God as a just person; he is taken into favor with Heaven, and through the Spirit has fellowship with the Father and the Son.
"Then there is yet another work to be accomplished, and this is of a progressive nature. The soul is to be sanctified through the truth. And this also is accomplished through faith. For it is only by the grace of Christ, which we receive through faith, that the character can be transformed." Ibid., book 3, 191.
3) The message of righteousness by faith leads to holiness:
"The present message--justification by faith--is a message from God; it bears the divine credentials, for its fruit is unto holiness." Ibid., book l, 359.
4) The message of righteousness by faith transforms our character:
"Christ is the Great Pattern; His character must be our character." Ibid., 362.
5) The message of Christ Our Righteousness applied to the life takes away our relish for sin:
"When we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ, we shall have no relish for sin; for Christ will be working with us. We may make mistakes, but we will hate the sin that caused the sufferings of the Son of God." Ibid., 360.
6) The message of Christ Our Righteousness sets Jesus up as the only human hope and basis of our salvation:
"There is a great need that Christ should be preached as the only hope and salvation. When the doctrine of justification by faith was presented at the Rome meeting, it came to many as water comes to the thirsty traveler. The thought that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, not because of any merit on our part, but as a free gift from God, seemed a precious thought." Ibid.
7) The message of Christ Our Righteousness establishes faith as the first condition of salvation:
"Faith is the condition upon which God has seen fit to promise pardon to sinners; not that there is any virtue in faith whereby salvation is merited, but because faith can lay hold of the merits of Christ, the remedy provided for sin. Faith can present Christ's perfect obedience instead of the sinner's transgression and defection. When the sinner believes that Christ is his personal Saviour, then, according to His unfailing promises, God pardons his sin, and justifies him freely. The repentant soul realizes that his justification comes because Christ, as his Substitute and Surety, has died for him, is his atonement and righteousness." Ibid., 366-367.
"We must learn to live by faith; then the darkest hours will be brightened by the blessed beams of the Sun of Righteousness." Ibid., 359.
8) The message of Christ Our Righteousness leads to faith and works together:
"Faith and works go together, believing and doing are blended." Ibid., 373.
"Let no one say that your works have nothing to do with your rank and position before God. In the judgment the sentence pronounced is according to what has been done or to what has been left undone." Ibid., 381; see also Matthew 25:34-40.
9) The message of Christ Our Righteousness binds law and love together:
"In presenting the binding claims of the law, many have failed to portray the infinite love of Christ." Ibid., 371.
10) The message of Christ Our Righteousness binds the gospel and the law together:
"The gospel does not weaken the claims of the law." Ibid., 373.
11) The message of Christ Our Righteousness presents faith as the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit:
"Through faith the Holy Spirit works in the heart to create holiness therein, but this cannot be done unless the human agent will work with Christ. We can be fitted for heaven only through the work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart; for we must have Christ's righteousness as our credentials if we would find access to the Father. In order that we may have the righteousness of Christ, we need daily to be transformed by the influence of the Spirit, to be a partaker of the divine nature. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to elevate the taste, to sanctify the heart, to ennoble the whole man." Ibid., 374.
12) The message of Christ Our Righteousness demands the cooperation of the human agent with God:
"Let no man present the idea that man has little or nothing to do in the great work of overcoming; for God does nothing for man without His cooperation." Ibid., 381.
13) The message of Christ Our Righteousness demands that the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus be given with equal force and power:
"The soul saving message, the third angel's message, is the message to be given to the world. The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus are both important, immensely important, and must be given with equal force and power." Ibid., book 3, 184.
14) The message of Christ Our Righteousness demands human effort:
"We are not safe if we neglect to search the Scriptures daily for light and knowledge. Earthly blessings cannot be obtained without toil, and can we expect that spiritual and heavenly blessings will come without earnest effort on our part?" Ibid., book l, 359-360.
15) There is no righteousness by faith without the fruits of righteousness:
"If by an effort of our own we could advance one step toward the ladder, the words of Christ would not be true. But when we accept Christ, good works will appear as fruitful evidence that we are in the way of life, that Christ is our Way, and that we are treading the true path that leads to heaven." Ibid., 368.
16) The message of Christ Our Righteousness calls upon the preacher to reprove sin:
"The reprover is to animate his hearers so that they shall strive for the mastery. He is to encourage them to struggle for deliverance from every sinful practice, to be free from every corrupt habit, even if his denial of self is like taking the right eye, or separating the right arm from the body. No concession or compromise is to be made to evil habits or sinful practices." Ibid., 380.
"This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure." Testimonies to Ministers, 92.
"This is a testimony that must go throughout the length and breadth of the world. It presents the law and the gospel, binding up the two in a perfect whole." Ibid., 94.
At the time of the presentation of this message at Minneapolis, Sister White stated that not one in a hundred understood that message:
"There is not one in one hundred who understands for himself the Bible truth on this subject that is so necessary to our present and eternal welfare." Selected Messages, book l, 360.
It seems to me that, if that were true at a time when the decadence in the church had not reached the alarming proportions that it has today, maybe God would now have to say that not one in one thousand really understands this message. Many today, like those of our forefathers, do not understand that the obedience to the law of God can come only through the merits of Jesus Christ:
"Righteousness is obedience to the law. The law demands righteousness, and this the sinner owes to the law; but he is incapable of rendering it. The only way in which he can attain to righteousness is through faith. By faith he can bring to God the merits of Christ, and the Lord places the obedience of His Son to the sinner's account. Christ's righteousness is accepted in place of man's failure, and God receives, pardons, justifies, the repentant, believing soul, treats him as though he were righteous, and loves him as He loves His Son. This is how faith is accounted righteousness; and the pardoned soul goes on from grace to grace, from light to a greater light." Ibid., 367.
It must be well understood that the message of Christ Our Righteousness is the only answer to both legalism and antinomianism. It is also the antidote to the Laodicean condition in our church.
"The True Witness says of a cold, lifeless, Christless church, 'I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.' Revelation 3:15-16." Ibid., 357.
There are some today, like those in the last century, who are afraid of this message. It is especially unnerving to those who have held rigidly to a legal religion, but indeed the message of Christ Our Righteousness is the only message that will enable men and women to keep the law of God:
"Some of our brethren have expressed fears that we shall dwell too much upon the subject of justification by faith, but I hope and pray that none will be needlessly alarmed; for there is no danger in presenting this doctrine as it is set forth in the Scriptures." Ibid., 372.
This message does not downgrade the law:
"Holding up Christ as our only Source of Strength, presenting His matchless love in having the guilt of the sins of men charged to His account and His own righteousness imputed to man, in no case does away with the law or detracts from its dignity. Rather, it places it where the correct light shines upon and glorifies it. This is done only through the light reflected from the cross of Calvary. The law is complete and full in the great plan of salvation, only as it is presented in the light shining from the crucified and risen Saviour." Ibid., book 3, 176.
We must remember that in this age when so many seem to be looking for new, titillating and exciting concepts, the Lord has not given us new concepts, but He has placed the old truths in the light of the third angel's message:
"Elder E. J. Waggoner had the privilege granted him of speaking plainly and presenting his views upon justification by faith and the righteousness of Christ in relation to the law. This was no new light, but it was old light placed where it should be in the third angel's message." Ibid., 168.
Yet this message is so deep and so complete that even Sister White could not express it in all its fullness, and perhaps neither will we until we reach the kingdom of heaven:
"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." Ibid., 172.
But God has given us a definition of righteousness by faith. It is broad, for it includes both the principles of justification and the principles of sanctification:
" '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? 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.
"Who is desirous of becoming truly repentant? What must he do?--He must come to Jesus, just as he is, without delay. He must believe that the Word of Christ is true, and, believing the promise, ask, that he may receive. When sincere desire prompts men to pray, they will not pray in vain. The Lord will fulfill His word, and will give the Holy Spirit to lead to repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He will pray and watch, and put away his sins, making manifest his sincerity by the vigor of his endeavor to obey the commandments of God. With prayer he will mingle faith, and not only believe in but obey the precepts of the law. He will announce himself as on Christ's side of the question. He will renounce all habits and associations that tend to draw the heart from God." Ibid., book 1, 393.
This is a message that each one of us must study, must contemplate, must commit to the Lord, invoking His power, and must share with men and women around the world. Until God's faithful people understand and believe this message and allow the Holy Spirit to envelop their lives with it, we will never share it with the world and we will never receive the latter rain.