What is the #1 Most Important SDA doctrine?

[Robert]

This is the trouble with discussion about what is important to Adventists -- we get bogged down in yokes and burdens - but the bottom line is that without Jesus' coming to save His people from their sins, none of the other important doctrines would have a basis on which to stand.

LynnDel

While all believers do experience growth, we can never say we are perfect this side of eternity. So if you say Jesus came to keep me from sinning (living a perfect life) then He is doing a lousy job. Everyone of us is "falling short" of God's agape love as seen in the life of Christ. Yes, we can mature, but that doesn't mean we have arrived and are without sin.

So the phrase, "He came to save His people from their sins", must be understood in a different light:

Gal 4:4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.

Christ, by being born of a woman, legally redeemed us from the wages of sin - the curse of the law - and thereby saved His people from their sins. "The wages of sin (the consequences of "sin") is death (the 2nd death), but the gift of God..."

[TreeOfLife]

Originally Posted By: Robert

But according to the law it doesn't matter. Sin is sin and you stand condemned.

You're talking from the legalistic viewpoint; that is, of the condemnation of the law, and in that sense we are all sinful and worthy of death and cannot possibly do anything to deserve or merit either justification or salvation. But what of the person who comes to Christ in faith. He is not attempting to gain justification or salvation by doing any works of the law.

How does it matter? Willful sin affects us in a way that sins which are not willful do not affect us. The person Ellen White is talking about is not trying to earn anything. Yet for this person, the kind of sin he commits does have a serious affect on Him. Does it matter? I should say it matters a great deal.

Read it again:

Quote:

The wilful commission of a known sin silences the witnessing voice of the Spirit, and separates the soul from God. Jesus cannot abide in the heart that disregards the divine law. God will honor those only who honor him.--S. of T. 1894, No. 24. {HL 306.3}

Notice also that not all sins are exactly alike and not all have the same affect. For instance, 1 John 5: 16, 17 teaches that some sins are deadly and others are not. [/quote']

Re “the wilful commission of a known sin…”

Thanks John 3:17 for your very fine post and most especially for that last quote form ST 1894!

To me dealing with the subject of ‘sin’ makes more sense when replacing said word with its real meaning, as also found in last week’s SS Study (May 4,) “Missing the Mark,” or better yet, ‘missing the point’ re some worthy specific, e.g. re any one of the 10 Commandments.

It is certainly true forever that all of us are missing the point re one specific or another, for none among us is all knowing and all wise. Thus, in that sense we are all forever sinful.

On the other hand, re any one specific where we are, or have been, blind, i.e. ‘missing the mark/point,’ God is willing to shed His light over us such that we’ll get the point we have thus far been missing and the consequent blessings of implementing the newly gained light into our every day life.

If and when we find too much security, convenience, or expedience in our old ways while being too fearful of stepping out into that which is for us still unknown we doom ourselves to the natural consequences of our old ways while forfeiting the blessings of the natural consequences of that new or added light and grace that God in His mercy is still offering us.

To top off a neglected acceptance of God’s added grace, one will by necessity be more or less consciously aware of one’s very own resistance or denial of the prodding of the Holy Spirit and one’s bad conscience will remain as an infected thorn in the flesh until it becomes more and more fully encapsulated within one’s own denial or until one dies a premature death by infection. It follows naturally that, by refusing or rejecting added grace and light of God, we are, by our very own choices, making it impossible for the Holy Spirit to keep working with us effectively or to bring us onwards towards anyone of the steps beyond that recently added grace and light which would bring one one ever so little step closer to the Kingdom of God and towards our original Father, the Creator of all. This is indeed the nature of ‘sin against the Holy Spirit which cannot be forgiven.’ That is, until one repents of one’s refusal to accept the added light one once decided to refuse…

Our pioneers once went through an important experience re added light re the exact timing of the Seventh-day Sabbath. I believe that experience of theirs serves well as an object lesson for each one among the Seventh-day Adventist people today. That is, in regards to added specific rays of light being offered us today by the great I am who is the Way guiding each one’s steps towards more Truth and towards an ever more delightful Life. And isn’t this step by step process under the intimate and personal guidance of Yeshua the Messiah, “Jesus Christ,” part and parcel of the ‘translation,’ ‘transformation,’ and ‘change’ spoken of by Paul the apostle?:

Quote:

Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

1Co 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Do not fear! Trust God’s step by little step guidance into each of those particulars that may at first seem too deep, too scary, too strange, too good to be true, too much of a characteristic of a doubting Thomas, or too much of a threat to your most important relationships or family! Do not fear, God is at the helm! Do not doubt His guidance but resist the prodding of the whispering of the neighbors and learn little by little how to not assist any power tending towards destruction, destructive status quo, and evil!

Our every decision is, in every particular, indeed an accomplishment done “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump…”

Peace over each of our families, over each of our most important relationships in life,

Tree of Life©

[John317]

Originally Posted By: John317

Then we are not under the law?

Of course we are not under the law in the sense the NT means it. We are under grace.