Gospel Calling

By Andrew McChesney

Khamla, the bread winner of his family, fell ill in rural Laos. His legs became so heavy that he could not walk. He was confined to his house for three months.

Image © Pacific Press

With no money to see a doctor, Khamla (not his real name) resorted to all sorts of herbal medicine and traditional healers, including the shaman, or spirit doctor, in his village. Nothing helped.

Finally, seeing his desperation, someone told him about a Seventh-day Adventist pastor who had helped many people by cell phone. The man called up Pastor Sadua Lee (pictured) and asked for help.

Now, it wasn’t simply a phone call. Phone calls were something of a luxury, costing 700 Laotian Kips (8 U.S. cents) per minute. At the time, a third of the population was living on less than U.S.$1.25 a day, and nearly two-thirds were living on less than $2 a day.

The ill man begged Pastor Sadua to heal him.

“I am nobody,” the pastor replied. “I cannot heal you. But my God, who is called Jesus, can heal you if it is His will. All we have to do is ask Him.”

Khamla requested prayer, and the pastor prayed for him over the phone.

The next day, the pastor called the man to offer prayer for him again. Khamla was so excited. “I can walk!” he exclaimed.

Although his legs were weak, he was able to walk for the first time in three months. He had already gone out to work on his farm.

“Your God is so powerful,” he said. “How can I worship your God, who is called Jesus?”

The pastor told him that he could, and should, worship Jesus all the time and added that Jesus had set aside a special day for worship, the seventh-day Sabbath. The man agreed to stop work on Sabbath to worship Jesus. Seeing that he lived far from a church, he asked the pastor to help him worship on Sabbaths. That meant that the pastor would have to call every Sabbath — but he didn’t mind. If Jesus could provide Khamla with healing, He also would provide the means to pay for the calls.

Thank you for your Sabbath School mission offerings that help spread the gospel to people in Laos and other countries of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division, which will receive this quarter’s Thirteenth Sabbath Offering.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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Further Thought:

Read Ellen G. White, “Calvary,” Pages 741-757; “It Is Finished,” Pages 758-764, in The Desire of Ages.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

Professor Jiri Moskala has explained the nature of this pre-Advent judgment. God “is not there in order to display my sins like in a shop window. He will, on the contrary, point first of all to His amazing transforming powerful grace, and in front of the whole universe He, as the true Witness of my entire life, will explain my attitude toward God, my inner motives, my thinking, my deeds, my orientation and direction of life. He will demonstrate it all. Jesus will testify that I made many mistakes, that I transgressed His holy law, but also that I repented, asked for forgiveness, and was changed by His grace. He will proclaim: ‘My blood is sufficient for the sinner Moskala, his orientation of life is on Me, his attitude toward Me and other people is warm and unselfish, he is trustworthy, he is My good and faithful servant.’ ” — “Toward a Biblical Theology of God’s Judgment: A Celebration of the Cross in Seven Phases of Divine Universal Judgment,” Journal of the Adventist Theological Society 15 (Spring 2004): p. 155.

“Both the redeemed and the unfallen beings will find in the cross of Christ their science and their song. It will be seen that the glory shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of self-sacrificing love. In the light from Calvary it will be seen that the law of self-renouncing love is the law of life for earth and heaven; that the love which ‘seeketh not her own’ has its source in the heart of God; and that in the meek and lowly One is manifested the character of Him who dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto.” — Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, Pages 19, 20.

Discussion Questions:

<–Thursday

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While the two covenants can be confusing for some of us, I really appreciate a couple of things last week’s Sabbath School lesson brought out, which I believe clears up any confusion. 

While many people believe that God changed His covenant at the cross, speaking of the covenant in the Old Testament, God told us through David,

My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips. Psalms 89:34 NKJV

Here God is saying He is not going to change His covenant. So did God change His covenant at the cross? Well let’s look at God’s covenant in the Old Testament. Of course a covenant is a promise. So what were God’s promises?

In Genesis 3:15 God promises a Savior.

And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel. Genesis 3:15 NKJV

Image © Consuelo Udave from GoodSalt.com

Did God change this promise at the cross? Of course not. He fulfilled this promise at the cross.

In Genesis 12:1-3 God promises Abram a Savior, among many things. 

Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV

Were any of these promises done away with at the cross? Not at all. As a matter of fact we read in Galatians,

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:29 NKJV.

The NLT makes it even more clear at to exactly what this means. 

And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. Galatians 3;29 NLT 

Instead of God’s covenant to Abraham being changed, it was extended to everyone who believes. 

At Sinai God makes a promise,

You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” Exodus 19:4-6 NKJV

In the original manuscripts the word “obey” is “shama.” It means to listen. The word “keep” is “shamar.” it means to regard, care for or treasure. God says, ” Keep my covenant,” and we know that God’s covenant is a promise. How are supposed to keep God’s promise? We aren’t. God is telling us to listen to His voice and treasure His promise! The word “shamar” is also used in Genesis when Adam was told to shamar the garden, or keep the garden. Was Adam told to obey the garden? No, of course not. He was told to regard, treasure and care for the garden. In this passage God is telling His people to treasure His covenant promises, and by thus doing, they will be His special people,  made holy, preserved from corruption, a kingdom of priests. Was this promise changed after the cross?

by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4 NKJV

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 1 Peter 2:9 NKJV

Once again we see that God’s covenant does not change from Old Testament to New Testament. Everything promised in the Old Testament becomes reality in the New Testament – as  long as we trust in His great and precious promises. That’s because God’s covenant given to Adam, Abram and Moses is an eternal covenant as expressed in Psalm 89:34. This is why Monday’s lesson of last week brought out that the “New” Covenant was actually a renewing of the everlasting covenant God originally gave to Adam, Abram and Moses.

When God spoke of a “new” covenant in Jeremiah 31, He used the word, “hadashah,” which means to renew. Abram forsook God’s everlasting covenant when he took Hagar as his wife. He stopped trusting God’s promises and covenant and tried working things out on his own. At Sinai instead of trusting God’s promises, Israel started making their own promises, saying, “All that God said we will do.” (See Exodus 19:8) The Covenant at Sinai was never the problem. God’s Covenant was never intended to be about legalism. The Covenant God made  was all about grace. Hebrews 8:8 says the problem was with the people. They started making their own promises instead of trusting God’s great and precious promises. When people kept trying to make their own promises and work things out on their own, God had to renew the original covenant He made in  Genesis 3:15, which is based on better promises – God’s promises, rather than people’s promises. For more see Better Promises Make a Better Covenant. When Paul speaks of the “old covenant” I believe he means “old” as in “useless.” because our promises are useless. Paul is not referring to the original everlasting covenant as the old covenant. He is referring to the legalistic covenant that man made at Sinai as the old covenant as in useless. Man-made covenants are useless in both Old and New Testaments.

The “New” Covenant of grace is actually the everlasting covenant of grace found all the way through both the Old and New Testaments, beginning in Genesis 3:15. God never changed this covenant. But He renewed this covenant whenever people tried to change covenants by making their own promises. The “New” Covenant is the original everlasting covenant, which  is God making promises to man. The “old” Covenant, which is a useless covenant, is a covenant man made after God made the everlasting Covenant.  When Abram took Hagar, he was making his own legalistic covenant apart from God’s everlasting covenant. The same for the Jews when they promised at Sinai that they themselves would do what God had promised. 

Some have the idea that the law is the Old Covenan, while grace is the New Covenant. However when Paul said, “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight” in Romans 3:20, Paul was not saying anything new. Paul was stating a truth as everlasting as the original covenant. No one was ever saved by the law before or after the cross. This is showed up in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve tried to use fig leaves to cover themselves. Their fig leaves proved useless in God’s sight, just like the deeds of the law. In Genesis 3:21 an animal had to die to cover Adam and Eve. This represented Jesus dying on the cross – which is the ratification of the everlasting covenant.

So throughout the Old Testament we see the new or renewed covenant whenever God is promising mankind His grace. Throughout the New Testament we see the renewed or everlasting covenant. Maybe we could clear up a lot of confusion by just calling the New Covenant the Everlasting Covenant, and calling the Old Covenant the “useless covenant.” Remember the New Covenant is the renewing of the original everlasting covenant based on better promises – God’s promises. 

While we have grace in the Everlasting Covenant. we also have the law in the Everlasting Covenant. This is why I really appreciate how Thursday’s lesson of last week brought out how the new covenant was not about new laws, but about a new heart. 

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Ezekiel 36:26-27 NKJV

God does not give us new laws. He gives us new hearts that will trust His promises instead of relying on self. God changes our hearts so that we can keep and cherish all the promises God makes for us in His law. In the Ten Commandments God promises He will deliver us from bondage so we won’t need any other gods before us. He promises to fulfil all our temporal and emotional needs so we won’t need to steal or commit adultery. He promises us a weekly Sabbath rest to always remind us to never rely on our own works. 

After all the problem at Sinai was not the law, it was the promises the people were making. Again that is why Paul said the fault was with “them” in Hebrews 8:8. When God renews His Everlasting Covenant we will be keeping the law with all our new hearts.

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. Jeremiah 31:33 NKJV 

Now in Jeremiah 31:32 God talks about Israel breaking the covenant when He led them out of Egypt. They broke God’s covenant when they went about to establish their own covenant promises. God never asked them to make their own promises. Remember in Exodus 19:4-6 God asks them to cherish His promises. The useless covenant is mankind promising God. The Everlasting and Renewed Everlasting Covenant is God promising man. By God’s Everlasting Promises of grace in both the Old and New Testaments we have salvation from sin, and are given new hearts that can keep or Shamar, cherish the everlasting law. We escape the corruption in the world by cherishing God’s great and everlasting promises. 

by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4 NKJV

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Read Romans 3:21-26; Romans 1:16-17; and Romans 5:8. What does Redemption in the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins reveal about God?

The forgiveness of our sins implies two phases in Jesus’ mediation in the two apartments of the heavenly sanctuary. First, Jesus removed our sins and carried them Himself on the cross in order to provide forgiveness to everyone who believes in Him (Acts 2:38, Acts 5:31).

Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com

On the cross Jesus won the right to forgive anyone who believes in Him because He has carried their sin. He has also inaugurated a new covenant, which allows Him to put God’s law in the heart of believers through the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 8:10-12, Ezekiel 36:25-27).

A second phase in the ministry of Jesus consists of a judgment, the pre-Advent judgment, which was still future from the point of view of Hebrews (Hebrews 2:1-4; Hebrews 6:2; Hebrews 9:27-28; Hebrews 10:25). This judgment begins with God’s people and is described in Daniel 7:9-27, Matthew 22:1-14, and Revelation 14:7. Its purpose is to show the righteousness of God in forgiving His people. In this judgment the records of their lives will be open for the universe to see. God will show what happened in the hearts of believers and how they embraced Jesus as their Savior and accepted His Spirit in their lives.

Speaking of this judgment, Ellen G. White wrote: “Man cannot meet these charges himself. In his sin-stained garments, confessing his guilt, he stands before God. But Jesus our Advocate presents an effectual plea in behalf of all who by repentance and faith have committed the keeping of their souls to Him. He pleads their cause and vanquishes their accuser by the mighty arguments of Calvary. His perfect obedience to God’s law, even unto the death of the cross, has given Him all power in heaven and in earth, and He claims of His Father mercy and reconciliation for guilty man. … But while we should realize our sinful condition, we are to rely upon Christ as our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. We cannot answer the charges of Satan against us. Christ alone can make an effectual plea in our behalf. He is able to silence the accuser with arguments founded not upon our merits, but on His own.” — Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, Pages 471, 472.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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Read Hebrews 9:22-28. What does this passage say about the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary?

The idea that the heavenly sanctuary needs cleansing makes sense in the context of the Old Testament sanctuary. The sanctuary is a symbol of God’s government (1 Samuel 4:4, 2 Samuel 6:2), and the way God deals with the sin of His people affects the public perception of the righteousness of His government (Psalm 97:2). As ruler, God is the Judge of His people, and He is expected to be fair, vindicating the innocent and condemning the guilty.

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Thus, when God forgives the sinner, He carries judicial responsibility. The sanctuary, which represents God’s character and administration, is contaminated. This explains why God bears our sins when He forgives (Exodus 34:7, Numbers 14:17-19, the original Hebrew for “forgiving” [nose?] in these verses means “carrying, bearing”).

The system of sacrifices in the Israelite sanctuary illustrated this point. When a person sought forgiveness, he brought an animal as a sacrifice in his behalf, confessed his sins over it, and slaughtered it. The blood of the animal was daubed upon the horns of the altar or sprinkled before the veil in the temple in the first apartment. Thus, the sin was symbolically transferred into the sanctuary. God took the sins of the people and bore them Himself.

In the Israelite system, cleansing from or atonement for sins occurred in two phases. During the year, repentant sinners brought sacrifices to the sanctuary, which cleansed them from their sin but transferred the sin to the sanctuary, to God Himself. At the end of the year, on the Day of Atonement, which was the day of judgment, God would cleanse the sanctuary, clearing His judicial responsibility by transferring the sins from the sanctuary to the scapegoat, Azazel, who represented Satan (Leviticus 16:15-22).

This two-phase system, represented by the two apartments in the earthly sanctuary, which were a pattern of the heavenly sanctuary (Exodus 25:9, Hebrews 8:5), permitted God to show mercy and justice at the same time. Those who confessed their sins during the year showed loyalty to God by observing a solemn rest and afflicting themselves on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:29-31). Those who did not show loyalty would be “cut off” (Leviticus 23:27-32).

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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