The Third Angel's Message

WHEN the young man came to Jesus, asking, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?” Jesus answered, “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,” and cited the second table of the Ten Commandments. The young man replied: “All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” As the record says that Jesus “looking upon him loved him,” and as Jesus asked him to follow him, it is evident that the young man was a person of good intentions and honesty of purpose, and he undoubtedly supposed that he had really kept the commandments. But it is not our own estimate that is the standard of what constitutes obedience to the law; it is God’s estimate that is the standard. We might conform so strictly to the law that, according to our own estimate, we could see no point of failure; yet when our actions should be measured by God’s estimate, weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, we should be found utterly wanting.

It is not according as we see, but according as God sees, that the question of our keeping the commandments of God is to be decided. And as God sees it, it has been recorded: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” No doubt the young man, when measured by his own standard, stood at the full stature of moral character. But God’s standard declares that he had “come short.”

Even granting all the righteousness that the young man might claim by the keeping of the commandments alone, —and there are yet many like him, —yet to him to all who, like him, expect righteousness by the law, the word of Christ is, “One thing you lack yet.” All such lack the justifying blood: they lack the sanctifying power of the perfect obedience of the Son of God. In short, they lack “the faith of Jesus;” and so must ever come short until, by accepting Christ, they attain to the righteousness of God, which is by faith.

It is in Christ alone that man can reach the full stature of moral character in the sight of God. “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). However hard a man may strive for righteousness by keeping the law, yet, until he accepts Christ and finds in him the righteousness, which is of God by faith, against him the word, will ever stand, Thou hast “come short of the glory of God,” “one thing you lack yet.”

So we see that Jesus taught that those who would be his disciples must keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

Again: in his sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19, 20).

Happily we have the record of the best Pharisee that ever lived, and in his experience we have the inspired illustration of these words of Jesus: Paul says of himself, “As touching the law, a Pharisee; ... touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Yet this was not enough; for as he says in another place, “I know nothing against myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judges me is the Lord” (1 Cor. 4:4). So even though he might, so far as he could see, be blameless, yet that was not proof that he was justified; for it is God who judges: it is God’s standard of righteousness, and not our own, that we must meet, to be justified; and that standard is the righteousness of Christ, to which we can attain only by faith.

So Paul says, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: ... and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil. 3:7-9). This is a righteousness, which he had not when he was a Pharisee. This, then, is the righteousness, which exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees: and this righteousness of faith we must have while doing and teaching the commandments. In his sermon on the mount, therefore, Christ positively taught the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

James says, “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.... If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well: but if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said [“that law which said,” margin], Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.... What doth it profit, my brethren, thou a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? ... Even so faith, if IT hath not works, is dead, being alone.”

Thus James shows that the faith of Jesus is manifested in works, and that these works are the keeping of the law of God. He excludes the very idea that anyone can have the faith of Jesus with respect of persons; and respect of persons he declares to be sin, the transgression of the law. Therefore the faith of Jesus cannot be held with the conscious breaking of the commandments of God, even in a single point. In other words, James teaches as strongly as it is possible to teach, that those who have the faith of Jesus keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. John says: “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and everyone who loves him that begat loves him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:1-5). The beloved disciple therefore also teaches that Christianity, the love of God, is the keeping of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

The Lord Jesus himself, referring to God, said: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do HIS [God’s] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” (Rev. 22:13, 14). He also said, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Christ said, “If thou wilt enter into life, kept the commandments;” he also said, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”

The Third Angel’s Message, the last message from God that the world will ever hear, embodies in a single sentence these sayings of Christ: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

The Third Angel’s Message is the embodiment of the very gospel of Christ, wherein “is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16, 17).

When the Third Angel’s Message shall be finished, then the mystery of God—the gospel—shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets. And those who truly obey the Third Angel’s Message will get the victory over the Beast and over his Image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name; they will, at the last, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God; and they will be without fault before the throne of God. And it will all be through “him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.” Unto him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

We thank God for the message, which calls upon all men to “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”