For many years I was haunted by the notion that I needed to be perfect in order to survive the Time of Trouble. Although no one had used the word, I nevertheless believed that I would have to be sinless in order to prevail. I have heard of people, even met a few, who believed they could go for a day or two without sinning, but I could never convince myself that I was one of them.
For a time I believed — I can even remember with great embarrassment teaching this to a Sabbath school class — that there would be a “final generation” that would be perfect and therefore able to pass through the tribulation. Once again, I could not see myself as one of them.
Again, I’m not certain that anyone around me ever explicitly said any of these things. It wasn’t so much that I had been taught these ideas, than that I had caught them from the general environment. So even though no one had said this, I believed in my very bones that my salvation depended upon what I did.
This was 40 years ago, and just about that time I began hearing something different. Having been raised a Seventh-day Adventist, if you had asked me as a child, a teenager, or very young adult what salvation consisted of, I would have said, “Keeping all the commandments of God.” Those who were old enough will recognize that this was a common description of Seventh-day Adventism. What I began hearing in the early 1970s was that salvation consisted of “A saving relationship with Jesus Christ.”
At first, of course, I interpreted a saving relationship with Jesus Christ as meaning that I was keeping all the commandments of God. But I was frustrated in my personal life, for I felt that I kept falling short. Somehow, I began reading about Martin Luther, and I read a statement of his that went something like this: we should pray to God, “Take this sin from me, for I cannot let it go.” That was the start of a journey which led me to understand that although I have a part to play, salvation is not about what I do, but about what Christ did, and about what he continually does in my life.
In a later series of posts, I will go into further detail about the seven levels of relationship, and what they tell us about a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. For now, I want to simply focus on what it takes to achieve the perfection necessary to survive the Time of Trouble.
The Bible reiterates again and again that we are saved by faith. The problem with this is that the word “faith” has come to have many meanings. For example, a person might say, “I am of the Christian faith.” In that case faith means a body of beliefs. But we’re all familiar with the text that says the devils believe — believe and tremble. For many today, the word faith means something like the opposite of knowledge. But none of these describe what saving faith looks like.
If saving faith were a body of knowledge, or a set of beliefs, then everyone who subscribed to those beliefs would be saved. But we know that’s not the case. I submit to you that the key to a saving relationship with Jesus, and the meaning of “saving faith,” is trust. You need not take my word for it. Here are two quotations from others who held the same view.
……………………….Faith is absolute trust in God–
……………………….trust that could never imagine
……………………….that He would forsake us.
……………………….………………………~Oswald Chambers
……………………….Faith is trusting God–
……………………….believing that He loves us
……………………….and knows best
……………………….what is for our good.
……………………….……………………….……….~E.G.White
We can test this another way. If we substitute the phrase “religion” for the word faith, the texts about saving faith make no sense. Similarly, if we substitute the word “beliefs,” they make no sense. On the other hand, if we substitute the word “trust” for the word “faith” in famous texts that speak of saving faith, they make perfect sense.
……………………..“whatever is not from TRUST is sin.” Rom 14:23
………………………“without TRUST it is impossible to please Him” Heb 11:6
………………………“THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY TRUST.” Rom 1:1
When we understand that saving faith means trusting God, trusting him completely, then we can begin to understand what perfection means. Those who pass through the Time of Trouble will be those who trust God completely. When we think about it, we realize this is the only way. They will have to trust God to save them physically, but they will also have to trust him to save them absolutely. They cannot have confidence in their own performance, they cannot trust that they have remembered and confessed each and every sin — it is simply beyond us. They can, and they must, trust God.
And when we think about it, we can see that this kind of perfection has been demonstrated before. Not perfection of performance, for as we have seen, no character in the Bible other than Jesus Christ had any illusions that they were without sin. But when time and eternity were on the line, there were those who trusted fully. Job surely passed this test. He did not understand, and he was never told why he had to suffer as he did. But even in his darkest moment he refused to let go of his trust in God. “I know,” he said “that my Redeemer lives.”
The three Hebrew worthies, Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, trusted God completely. They trusted that he could deliver them, and they said so. But they also said, “But if not, we will not bow down.” Daniel trusted God to the point that he allowed himself to be thrown into the den of Lions, rather than be unfaithful.
As we think about it in this sense, we can see the Christian martyrs through the ages have demonstrated this type of perfection. They trusted all, they committed all, both physical life and eternal destiny to God.
One final objection. I explained this to a pastor one time, and he said, “What if my faith isn’t 100%? What if I only trust God 45%? Or 85%?”
The answer is really quite simple: at the moment of truth, the question of trust is always binary — yes, or no. Either you curse God and die, or you refuse to. Either you bow down, or you allow yourself to be thrown into the fiery furnace. Either you recant, or you are burned at the stake.
Now, of course, these are very stark choices. And many of us wonder how we would have the courage to affirm our trust in God in the face of such drastic alternatives. How do we get to such place? How do we obtain a faith of such strength? That will be my next topic.
