Part III — The Remedy

The Saviour is named by His work — Matt. 1:21, 23; Ps. 130:8:

• Matt. 1:21. "thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins" — the name is the work: He saves His people FROM their sins — not from the penalty only, and never leaving them IN them; Jesus (Heb. Yeshua) = "Jehovah saves," and what Jehovah saves from is the sin itself.
  • salvation = God saving man FROM sin — from its guilt (justification, the pardon of Matt. 1:21), from its power and dominion (sanctification, Rom. 6:14, 18, 22; John 8:36), and at last from its very presence (glorification, 1 John 3:2); the restoration of the image of God in the soul (Col. 3:10; 2 Cor. 3:18), effected by the indwelling Christ (Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20), reaching "to the uttermost" (Heb. 7:25) — not a legal status only but a Person possessed and a nature renewed.
• Matt. 1:23. "they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" — the paired name gives the method: He saves from sin by being God WITH us — and, the mystery carried to its end, God IN us (Col. 1:27); the Person present is the power that saves.
• Ps. 130:8. "And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities" — the Old Testament promise Matthew 1:21 fulfils: redemption FROM all iniquities, not toleration of them; "all" leaves no reserved sin under which the redeemed remain.
• WitnessEVCO 18.1. Waggoner: "It is a message of salvation from sin" — the everlasting gospel named in one sentence, grounded on the angel's word to Joseph in Matthew 1:21.

What sin is, He treats as bondage — and breaks it — John 8:34-36:

• John 8:34. "Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin" — Christ's diagnosis: sin is not a debt only but a slavery; the consented transgression (see “What Sin Is — Transgression, Not Inheritance”) makes the sinner a slave.
• John 8:35. "the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever" — the slave has no standing in the house; only the Son can confer a sonship that abides.
• John 8:36. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" — the freedom He gives is not nominal; "indeed" — it actually severs the slavery.
• WitnessDA 466.3. White: "Christ came to break the shackles of sin-slavery from the soul" — quoting John 8:36 itself; the soul that refuses to give himself to God "may talk of freedom, but he is in the most abject slavery" — the pardon that leaves the chains on is not the freedom Christ gives.

Made free from sin — guilt and dominion dealt with together — Rom. 6:6, 14, 18, 22:

• Rom. 6:6. our old man is crucified with Him, "that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" — the cross's stated purpose in the believer: not forgiven continuance in sin, but the end of sin's service.
• Rom. 6:14. "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" — this is grace's own definition: deliverance from sin's DOMINION; a gospel that leaves men under sin's rule contradicts the very clause that defines being "under grace" (walked in full in "Complete Victory — Overcoming as He Overcame").
• Rom. 6:18. "Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness" — the section's term verbatim, in the present tense: freedom from sin is a stated fact for the believer, issuing at once in a new servitude — to righteousness.
• Rom. 6:22. "But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" — the whole arc in one verse: freedom now, holiness as fruit, everlasting life at the end.
• WitnessWOR 71.1. Waggoner: the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness is "the blessedness of sins forgiven, and of freedom from the power of sin" — pardon and power are one blessedness, never separated in the gospel.
• WitnessLOF_ATJ 147.4. Jones, on Rom. 6:18: "Being then made free from sin, YE BECAME THE SERVANTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.... He says you are, and when He says you are, it is so.... He has made you so, for He says so" — the deliverance is received on God's word, as fact.
• WitnessLOF_ATJ 85.2. Jones: the power of God is given for "deliverance from sin and from the power of it, the reign of righteousness in the life" — and he rebukes the truncated gospel: "Many believe and receive the grace of God for the salvation from sins that are past but are content with that and do not give it the same place in the soul to reign against the power of sin."
• WitnessGTI 190.2. Waggoner: coming to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, "we become free from sin,—from transgression of the law" — with "grace to help us in the hour of temptation" and "cleansing from all sin"; the freedom reaches the very hour of the trial.

The righteousness of the law fulfilled IN us — God works the obedience — Rom. 8:3-4; Eze. 36:25-27:

• Rom. 8:3. "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" — in the very flesh He took (see “The Second Adam — The Nature Christ Took”), sin was condemned — dethroned in its own stronghold.
• Rom. 8:4. "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" — the purpose clause of the incarnation: not imputed righteousness only, but the law's righteousness wrought IN the believer by the Spirit.
• WitnessGTI 199.1. Waggoner: "And why does He make us free from sin?—In order that we may live free from sin" — Christ, who has power over all flesh, strengthens us by His Spirit "that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us."
• Eze. 36:25. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you" — the covenant promise beneath the whole New Testament: cleansing from ALL filthiness, defilement removed, not managed.
• Eze. 36:26-27. "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you... I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes" — God Himself works the walking; salvation from sin's power is a divine operation, not a human resolve — the new-birth promise in covenant form (see “Born of Water and of the Spirit — How He Lived, How We Begin”).

The power of it is not a status but a Person — Col. 1:27; Gal. 2:20:

• Col. 1:27. "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" — the mystery of the gospel is not a ledger entry only but a Person possessed; the indwelling Saviour is Himself the pledge that the work will be finished.
• Gal. 2:20. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God" — the mechanism of salvation from sin's power: the old self crucified, and an indwelling Life living the new life "in the flesh" by faith — not the man's effort, but Christ's own living.
• WitnessCT 194.1. White: "When Christ is formed within, the hope of glory, then the truth of God will so act upon the natural temperament that its transforming power will be seen in changed characters" — the authority of God over the man "not in name only, but in reality and truth."
• WitnessEVCO 23.2. Waggoner: "the power by which Christ saves men from sin is the power by which He created the worlds" — the everlasting gospel preaches Christ "the creative power of God"; salvation from sin is a Creator's act, a re-creation, not a reform.

What is being restored: the image of God — Col. 3:9-10; 2 Cor. 3:18:

• Col. 3:9. "seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds" — the old man is put OFF, deeds and all; salvation does not whitewash him, it removes him.
• Col. 3:10. "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" — the new man is renewed after the Creator's own image: salvation reverses the fall by re-creating in the soul the likeness that sin marred.
• 2 Cor. 3:18. "beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory" — the process named: progressive transformation into Christ's image by beholding Him, wrought "as by the Spirit of the Lord" — Colossians 3:10 in motion.
• WitnessDA 37.3. White: "Jesus came to restore in man the image of his Maker. None but Christ can fashion anew the character that has been ruined by sin" — He came "to reshape the marred character after the pattern of His divine character."
• WitnessEd 125.2. White: the central theme of the whole Bible is "the redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of the image of God" — salvation from sin IS image-restoration; the two are one definition.

To the uttermost — sins taken away, the devil's works destroyed — Heb. 7:25; 1 John 3:5, 8; Titus 2:14:

• Heb. 7:25. "he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" — the section's term verbatim: to the UTTERMOST — completely, to the last extremity of sin's hold; His unbroken priestly life guarantees a salvation that reaches all the way, not a partial rescue.
• 1 John 3:5. "he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin" — removal, not mere covering; the sinless One was manifested for the express purpose of taking sin AWAY.
• 1 John 3:8. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil" — sin is the devil's work; a salvation that leaves that work intact in the saved fails the very purpose for which the Son was manifested.
• Titus 2:14. "that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" — Christ's self-gift has twin objects: redemption from all iniquity and purification of a people; guilt and defilement dealt with together.
• WitnessPCP 48.2. White: "He takes away our sins, and makes us partakers of His holiness.... He is able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by Him" — removal of sin joined to impartation of holiness; the two halves of the uttermost salvation.

And at last, from sin's presence — a people without spot — 1 John 3:2-3; Eph. 5:25-27:

• 1 John 3:2. "now are we the sons of God... when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" — glorification: the last stage of salvation, deliverance from sin's very PRESENCE at His appearing.
• 1 John 3:3. "And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure" — the future likeness works backward: the hope of being like Him purifies NOW, "even as he is pure."
• Eph. 5:25-26. "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word" — the present tense of His love: sanctifying and cleansing now.
• Eph. 5:27. "That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" — the end of the everlasting gospel: a people actually cleansed from sin, not merely accounted so — the church He presents at last (ripened in "The Harvest — A People in Whom Christ Is Vindicated").

The righteousness of God, without the law, upon all them that believe — Rom. 3:21-28; 5:1:

• Rom. 3:21. "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets" — the remedy is not a better law-keeping manufactured by man but a righteousness GOD supplies; the law and the prophets witnessed to it all along.
  • righteousness by faith = Christ's own righteousness given to the believer in two inseparable modes: IMPUTED — His obedience counted to the one who believes, the TITLE (Rom. 3:24-28; Rom. 4:3-5); and IMPARTED — the same Christ living in the believer by faith, the FITNESS (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:3-4; 1 Cor. 1:30). Defined in full in the Symbol Dictionary.
• Rom. 3:22. "Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference" — "upon all": a robe placed on the believer from outside himself, without distinction of persons.
• Rom. 3:24. "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" — FREELY: grace is the spring, the redemption in Christ the channel; nothing of the sinner's enters the price.
• Rom. 3:25. "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past" — the blood, laid hold of by faith, remits sins; and the remitting DECLARES God's righteousness rather than compromising it.
• Rom. 3:26. "that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus" — the wonder of the gospel in one clause: God remains JUST — the law unbent — in the very act of justifying the believing sinner; mercy does not bend the law whose transgression is sin (see “What Sin Is — Transgression, Not Inheritance”).
• Rom. 3:27. "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith" — no flesh glories in His presence; the ground of acceptance is faith, not performance.
• Rom. 3:28. "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" — the apostolic conclusion stated as doctrine: justification is by faith, wholly apart from the deeds of the law.
• Rom. 5:1. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" — the immediate fruit: a settled standing, peace that rests on Another's righteousness and therefore cannot be shaken by our own record.
• WitnessFLB 107.2. White: "The grace of Christ is freely to justify the sinner without merit or claim on his part. Justification is a full, complete pardon of sin. The moment a sinner accepts Christ by faith, that moment he is pardoned. The righteousness of Christ is imputed to him, and he is no more to doubt God's forgiving grace." — justification defined: full pardon, imputed righteousness, received the moment faith accepts, "without merit or claim" on the sinner's part.
• WitnessFW 103.2. White: "Pardon and justification are one and the same thing. Through faith, the believer passes from the position of a rebel, a child of sin and Satan, to the position of a loyal subject of Christ Jesus, not because of an inherent goodness, but because Christ receives him as His child by adoption." — the rebel changes standing on Christ's account, not his own; no inherent goodness enters the transaction.

Counted for righteousness — the imputed title — Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3-5, 22-25:

• Gen. 15:6. "And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness." — the gospel's original arithmetic, laid down in Moses: faith COUNTED for righteousness; justification by faith is no New Testament innovation but the covenant from the beginning.
  • imputed for righteousness / counted / reckoned = to credit to the believer's account a righteousness he did not earn — the legal ground of the believer's title to heaven (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3-5; Rom. 4:22-25; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:9).
• Rom. 4:3. "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." — Paul rests his whole case on "what saith the scripture"; the doctrine is as old as Abraham.
• Rom. 4:4. "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." — earnings are wages, and wages are debt; God is made debtor to no man — so a righteousness earned would be no gift at all.
• Rom. 4:5. "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." — the scandal and the glory of the gospel: God justifies the UNGODLY who believe; the working stops, and the counting begins.
• Rom. 4:22-23. "And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him" — Abraham's ledger is a specimen page written for the world, not a private privilege.
• Rom. 4:24. "But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead" — the same crediting, on the same terms, to every believer now.
• Rom. 4:25. "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." — the ground of the imputed title is not a fiction but the delivered-up and risen Christ Himself.
• WitnessFW 18.1. White: "The point that has been urged upon my mind for years is the imputed righteousness of Christ... I have made it the subject of nearly every discourse and talk that I have given to the people." — imputed righteousness is the Heaven-urged burden of the message, not a peripheral point.
• WitnessCIHS 48.2. White: "The incense, ascending with the prayers of Israel, represents the merits and intercession of Christ, His perfect righteousness, which through faith is imputed to His people, and which can alone make the worship of sinful beings acceptable to God." — the sanctuary preaches the same doctrine: imputed righteousness ALONE makes a sinner's worship acceptable.

The righteousness is a Person — Jer. 23:6; 1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:9; 2 Cor. 5:21:

• Jer. 23:6. "In his days Judah shall be saved... and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." — the Messiah's own name settles the question forever: our righteousness is not a quality we manufacture but a Person we receive.
• 1 Cor. 1:30. "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" — the same Christ is MADE UNTO US both righteousness (the imputed title) and sanctification (the imparted fitness): one Person supplies both, and there is no righteousness of any kind apart from being "in Christ Jesus."
• Phil. 3:9. "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" — Paul the Pharisee throws his own law-righteousness away to be "found in him," wearing a righteousness whose whole origin is God.
• 2 Cor. 5:21. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." — the great exchange, imputation in its sharpest form: our sin laid on the Sinless One, that His righteousness be MADE ours "in him."
• WitnessDA 300.1. White: "The proud heart strives to earn salvation; but both our title to heaven and our fitness for it are found in the righteousness of Christ." — the exact frame of this section: TITLE (imputed) and FITNESS (imparted), both found in His righteousness, neither self-earned.
• WitnessCHR 62.1. Waggoner: "At last the sinner, weary of the vain struggle to get righteousness from the law, listens to the voice of Christ and flees to His outstretched arms. Hiding in Christ, he is covered with His righteousness... With the righteousness which is 'through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith' (Philippians 3:9), Paul was sure that he would stand secure in the day of Christ." — the 1888 messenger on Phil. 3:9: the vain striving ends where the covering begins, and the covered man possesses the very righteousness the law requires.

The just shall live by faith — Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:16-17:

• Hab. 2:4. "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith." — the two ways set side by side: the self-lifted soul is not upright in him; the just man LIVES — from justification onward — by his faith.
  • the just shall live by faith = the believer enters righteousness by faith and continues the entire Christian life by that same faith — total dependence on the word of God; the just man lives by precisely the principle by which he became just (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:3-5).
• Rom. 1:16. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" — the gospel is not advice but POWER, God's own power, unto salvation — the deliverance from sin walked in "What Salvation Really Is — Saved From Sin."
• Rom. 1:17. "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." — the righteousness revealed is GOD'S, not man's, and it is received "from faith to faith" — faith at the gate and faith the whole way; the banner text of the Reformation and of 1888.
• WitnessLOF_ATJ 38.8. Jones: "Men must not only become just by faith—by dependence upon the word of God—but being just, we must live by faith. The just man lives in precisely the same way and by precisely the same thing that he becomes just." — righteousness by faith is continuous, not a one-time transaction followed by law-works.
• WitnessLOF_ATJ 38.9. Jones: "We become just by faith; faith is entire dependence on the word of God. We, being just, must live by precisely the same thing by which we become just; that is, by entire dependence upon the word of God." — the faith that justifies and the faith that sanctifies are one faith, and Jones defines it: entire dependence on the word of God.

Imparted — Christ living in the believer — Gal. 2:20; Rom. 8:3-4; Gal. 5:6:

• Gal. 2:20. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." — the formula of imparted righteousness: the old "I" crucified, and the life now lived is Christ's own life within — the surrendered life entered at the new birth (see “Born of Water and of the Spirit — How He Lived, How We Begin”).
• Rom. 8:3. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" — what the law could not do in flesh it was weak through, God did IN that very flesh: the Son came into the nature where sin had reigned and condemned sin there (see “The Second Adam — The Nature Christ Took”).
• Rom. 8:4. "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." — the stated purpose of the whole remedy: the law's righteousness fulfilled IN us — imputed righteousness never stops short of imparted obedience; real obedience is the design, never an option.
• Gal. 5:6. "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love." — the faith that justifies is never a dead assent: it WORKS, and works by love — the imparted life is the living activity of the very faith that received the title.

Works — excluded as the root, required as the fruit — Eph. 2:8-10; James 2:17-18:

• Eph. 2:8. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" — salvation whole is the gift of God: grace the source, faith the receiving hand, and even that not of ourselves.
• Eph. 2:9. "Not of works, lest any man should boast." — works shut out at the root, absolutely; boasting is left no ground to stand on.
• Eph. 2:10. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." — the same breath that shuts works out as the root ordains them as the fruit: the saved man is God's WORKMANSHIP, created unto good works — this is the balance the whole section owns.
• James 2:17. "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." — the guard against the counterfeit: a workless "faith" is a corpse, and a corpse justifies no one.
• James 2:18. "shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works" — works are faith's only visible evidence — the proof of the living faith, never its purchase price.
• WitnessAA 563.1. White: "John did not teach that salvation was to be earned by obedience; but that obedience was the fruit of faith and love... The sanctified heart is in harmony with the precepts of God's law." — the balance in one line: obedience the fruit, never the root — and the sanctified heart really does harmonize with the law.
• WitnessCOL 312.2. White: "Righteousness is right doing, and it is by their deeds that all will be judged. Our characters are revealed by what we do. The works show whether the faith is genuine." — the judgment reads the works because the works read the faith.

The message identified — Minneapolis, 1888, and the verity — 1SM 372:

• Witness1SM 372.2. White: "Several have written to me, inquiring if the message of justification by faith is the third angel's message, and I have answered, 'It is the third angel's message, in verity.'" — the definitive identification (The Review and Herald, April 1, 1890): the message of justification by faith proclaimed by E. J. Waggoner and A. T. Jones at the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference is not a theme beside the third angel's message but that message itself, in verity — the gospel content of the third angel, whose fruit is walked in "The Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus."
• Witness1SM 372.1. White: "there is no danger in presenting this doctrine as it is set forth in the Scriptures. If there had not been a remissness in the past to properly instruct the people of God, there would not now be a necessity of calling a special attention to it." — righteousness by faith is to be preached fully and fearlessly, "as it is set forth in the Scriptures"; the "special attention" was owed to past neglect, not to novelty.

The charter promise — sin dethroned — Rom. 6:6, 14, 22:

• Rom. 6:14. "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." — the charter of this whole section: sin SHALL NOT rule the believer, stated as a future certainty, not a wish; grace, not law-under-condemnation, is the ground of the deliverance.
• Rom. 6:6. "our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" — the mechanism of the promise: union with the crucified Christ, not native effort; the body of sin destroyed so that we "should not serve sin" — "not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20; see “Righteousness by Faith — The Third Angel’s Message in Verity”).
• Rom. 6:22. "But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life" — the freedom is present and actual, bearing fruit unto holiness; the gospel result is genuine liberty from sin's service, not managed failure (see “What Salvation Really Is — Saved From Sin”).
• WitnessWOR 110.3. Waggoner, reading the whole of the fourteenth verse: "Sin has no dominion over those who yield themselves servants to righteousness... transgression of the law has no place in them who are not under the law" — sin's dominion is actually broken, not re-labeled.
• WitnessWOR 198.5. Waggoner meets the objection of this section head-on: "A questioner may say, 'You make it out that we ought never to sin any more, - you leave no room for sin.' But is not that what the Bible says?... There is such a thing as a complete surrender to Christ, - when we give up everything, and then trust to his power to keep us in that state. And I thank God that he is able to do it." — the exact question of this section, answered from Rom. 6:14 itself: no, we ought never to sin any more, and Christ is able to keep the fully surrendered.

Born of God — the life that does not practise sin — 1 John 3:8-9; 5:4, 18:

• 1 John 3:8. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." — the incarnation's stated purpose is the undoing of sin in the believer, not its accommodation; a gospel that leaves sin reigning defeats the very errand of Bethlehem.
• 1 John 3:9. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." — while the divine seed remains, the born-of-God life does not practise sin — not a sinlessness native to the flesh apart from Christ, but the new-birth life that cannot sin so long as it abides in Him (see “Born of Water and of the Spirit — How He Lived, How We Begin”).
• 1 John 5:4. "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." — the overcomer defined, and the means named in the same breath: faith — the identical faith by which Christ Himself overcame.
  • the overcomer = one in whom the born-of-God life triumphs over sin and the world — not by native strength but by Christ living out in fallen flesh the very victory He Himself won (1 John 5:4, "even our faith"; 1 John 5:18, "keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not"; Rev. 3:21, "even as I also overcame"; Gal. 2:20, "not I, but Christ liveth in me"; Rom. 6:14, 22) — the normal Christian of Revelation's promises, "made free from sin," over whom sin "shall not have dominion."
• 1 John 5:18. "whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not" — kept, guarded, untouched; the overcomer's security is real, not aspirational.
• WitnessCWCP 50.1. Jones: "That faith which He exercised and by which He obtained the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil—that faith is His free gift to every lost man in the world. And thus 'this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.'" — the faith Christ exercised, by which He "trusted God for salvation from sin and power to keep from sinning," is His free gift to every lost man: the overcomer overcomes by Christ's own victory-faith, not by manufacture but by donation.

Provision complete — no temptation compels sin — Jude 24; 1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Cor. 2:14:

• Jude 24. "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" — the keeping power and the faultless standing are both His work; falling is never made necessary.
• 1 Cor. 10:13. "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape" — with EVERY temptation a guaranteed exit: no temptation ever compels sin; sin is therefore always avoidable, and every fall is a way of escape not taken.
• 2 Cor. 2:14. "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ" — ALWAYS, with no exception clause for necessary defeat; triumph, not managed failure, is the standing gospel norm.
• WitnessUL 255.4. White: "a provision has been made whereby we may overcome.... He who truly believes in Christ is made partaker of the divine nature, and has power that he can appropriate under every temptation. He will not fall under temptation or be left to defeat." — the provision covers EVERY temptation; "he will not fall."
• RH January 14, 1909, par. 6. White, a second witness: "In time of trial he will claim the promises, and by these escape the corruptions that are in the world through lust." — the way of escape of 1 Cor. 10:13 is taken by claiming the promises in the moment of trial.

Grace sufficient — strength perfected in the very weakness — 2 Cor. 12:9; Phil. 4:13:

• 2 Cor. 12:9. "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." — provision matched precisely to weakness; His strength is perfected exactly where we are weakest, so no infirmity is an excuse for sin.
• Phil. 4:13. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." — "all things": nothing God requires lies outside the enabling of the indwelling Christ.
• WitnessMH 482.3. White: "Said the tried apostle Paul: 'He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness.... for when I am weak, then am I strong.'" — the very infirmities that seem to excuse defeat are where the power of Christ rests.
• WitnessSC 47.1. White: "Everything depends on the right action of the will.... You can give Him your will; He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ." — where the provision is appropriated: the believer yields the will, God works the doing; the choice to serve God is always available, so no known sin need be retained.

Even as I also overcame — the same victory, in the same flesh — Heb. 4:15; Rev. 3:21; 2:7; 3:12:

• Heb. 4:15. "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" — Christ met temptation on our ground, in our infirmities, and did not fall: proof that being tempted never makes sinning inevitable (the flesh He met it in: see “The Second Adam — The Nature Christ Took”).
• Rev. 3:21. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame" — the capstone: the SAME victory, held to the same standard, by the same faith, in the same flesh; Christ's overcoming is the pattern, not an exception.
• Rev. 2:7. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life" — every church-letter reward is conditioned "to him that overcometh"; the overcomer is the assumed normal Christian, and Eden restored is his inheritance.
• Rev. 3:12. "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out" — the overcomer's final settled security; the reiterated promise fixes overcoming as the condition Christ everywhere expects and enables.
• Witness3SM 139.3. White guards the "even as" from every escape-hatch: "If Christ had a special power which it is not the privilege of man to have, Satan would have made capital of this matter.... a man, tempted as a man, rendering the obedience of a man." — no advantage unavailable to us; the victory is genuinely reproducible.
• WitnessST January 8, 1902, par. 11. White: "He asked and received power to enable Him to overcome in the conflict. And those who walk in God's way may have the same power.... As He overcame, so we may overcome." — same power, same victory; and He commands "Be ye therefore perfect" because "He knows that it is possible" — the mark is not lowered.
• Witness3SM 195.3. White answers the section's question in so many words: "Shall we keep on sinning as though it were an impossibility for us to overcome? How are we to overcome? As Christ overcame, and that is the only way.... I will cooperate with divine power and through grace be conqueror." — no, we need not keep on sinning; the will, refusing surrender to Satan, co-operates with divine power.
• WitnessCH 574.1. White marks the cost: "It is only through obedience and continual effort that we shall overcome as Christ overcame." — the victory is real and reproducible, but not automatic; many desire the overcomer's reward who are not willing to endure the overcomer's toil, self-denial, and watching.

The mark never lowered — the Advocate for a fall that is possible, never necessary — 1 John 2:1; Matt. 1:21; Titus 2:14:

• 1 John 2:1. "these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father" — the aim stated plainly: "that ye sin not"; the Advocate is the provision for the one who DOES fall, but the "if" guards the mark — falling is possible, never necessary, and the standard is never lowered to managed failure.
• Matt. 1:21. "thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins" — His very name is the errand: salvation FROM sins, not accommodation in them; a gospel of managed failure contradicts the name Jesus (see “What Salvation Really Is — Saved From Sin”).
• Titus 2:14. "that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works" — ALL iniquity: the redemption's design is complete cleansing, not partial; no known sin need be retained.
• WitnessCOL 69.1. White: "Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own." — complete victory — Christ's own character in His people — is not an unreachable ideal but the very thing heaven waits for (ripened in "The Harvest — A People in Whom Christ Is Vindicated").