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The Scriptures tell us this, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.” (James 1:17, 18)
We use the phrase “only begotten,” as it applies to Christ, to emphasize His uniqueness. Several times, in both his Gospel and his letters, John describes Yahshua as “the only begotten Son of God.” (John 3:18) There is a subtle danger, though, in making Christ so unlike us, so beyond us, that the goal of attaining His character, even through divine means, is perceived as being impossible. Of obedience to the Law, which is the nature of the divine character, it is written, “For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in Heaven, that thou shouldest say, ‘Who shall go up for us to Heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?’ But the Word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” (Deu 30:11-14)
Whether the “Word” is the written Bible, or Christ Himself, it has been made near to us, so that we may know it.
I remember many years ago, we were communicating with some Adventist brethren in Australia. They seemed to agree with us to some degree on the Gospel, but they had this belief that Yahshua, because He was fully divine, knew all things, remembered and understood all things, even in His limited, human form. We exchanged some emails back and forth about it, with me pointing out that several times He expressed the very human emotions of disappointment and surprise, which would not be possible if He had direct access to an omniscient perspective, and that it would be impossible for Him to be an Example for us if He had such a great advantage. Because they were Adventists, I was able to include statements from Ellen White, indicating that Christ, while on earth, had no benefit over an ordinary human being, but He fully depended on the Father, just as we may, and that His distress during His arrest and execution was partly because He could not see a future beyond His death. He was not permitted to know the future, including the day and hour of His own return, (Mark 13:32) which is as close to explicit Biblical proof of any doctrine as one can get… but I am sure nobody will be surprised to hear that, having accepted a belief dogmatically, they were unable to examine it from an objective perspective, and unwilling to admit error.
This is important, because to make of Christ such a superior figure means that His own personal glory, His own excellence, is responsible for His success at pleasing the Father, and since we are not only-begotten sons of God as He was, what hope have any of us at attaining everlasting life? It is only because the Father has pity on helpless sinners, they conclude, that we are saved at all.
The words of that line of thinking are not entirely wrong, of course. Nothing about us could ever satisfy the standard of holiness; however, what is always left out of this reckoning is what “conversion” actually entails. It is not merely a change in perspective. The Bible tells us, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2Cor 5:17)
We are creatures, yes, created beings, and always will we be this, but if we look upon the status of Christ as being “only begotten,” and use that as an excuse to remain further from the Father than He was, we forget our own heritage. Our destiny is to sit in the same throne as Yahshua, equal to Him before the Father, as we read, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.” (Rev 3:21) Where are the “levels” of glory? Where are the degrees of distance? There are none. We are One with the Father, and One with the Son, sitting with Them on their throne of Glory. We are there by invitation, not by right, but we are there nonetheless. Who shall dare to teach this doctrine, but the servants of Yahweh? Who shall deny this doctrine, but those who do not know Him?
Yahweh has pity on helpless sinners, but His pity is not to save us despite our sinfulness. It is “to cleanse us from all unrighteousness,” (1John 1:9) and to save us in that new, wonderful cleanliness. Our Father does all things well: decently and in order.
Yahweh made Adam, not in the same way that Christ was begotten, for we are indeed – and as the verse says – creatures; nevertheless, our claims of son-ship are no less because of that. He “begat” us through His own will, says James, (“Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth”) and that is nothing less than glorious. What Yahweh creates is inevitably “very good,” (Gen 1:31) and we rejoice that we are restored by His grace to that circumstance where, because that which is in us, Christ Himself, is “very good,” we do always those things that please our Father. (John 8:29)
This does not mean we sit back and let righteousness flow out of us without effort, or diligent service, or sacrifice. We are restored to a Christ-like character, so in order to know what that character looks like in a human life, we study His time among us. Did He sit back and provide to the world an example of passive righteousness? No, indeed… He worked. He said, “I must be about My Father’s business.” (Luke 2:49) A business, in case you haven’t realized it, is what keeps you busy. It is what occupies your life, and time, and trades your talent for results. When we are about our Father’s busi-ness, as Christ was, that is when we see righteousness truly manifest, and know that we are walking in the footsteps of our Savior.
The Father claims His saints as His children, and Yahshua “is not ashamed to call them brethren.” (Heb 2:11) This is nothing less than glorious. Angels, who were created above us, are always and forever servants. (Heb 1:14) At no time are they called sons in any sense of being begotten in the way that we are created in His likeness, or as Yahshua is in a more direct manner, and that shall ever be the case. The angels are content with their station, but mankind – because of the carnal nature that infected us through Adam – has resisted his calling from the beginning. The saints, and the 144,000 in particular, have become Sabbath-keepers, content in their appointment to glory, and have ceased to resist the most natural thing in the world: to accept the Savior and be set free from sin. We were created for holiness. We are created for everlasting life. It is easier to be saved than to be lost, when all that is required to be saved is to receive a gift infinitely expensive, but freely given.
Believe it or not, the topic of today’s study concerns the Biblical feasts. What I have been talking about so far involves a proper, Biblical perspective on the gifts that our Father has prepared for us.
This is, actually, our first meeting of the Feast of Tabernacles of 2023. While we are not feast-keepers in the Old Testament sense of the term; we, like the New Testament apostles, use the days appointed for teaching, learning, and fellowship. The Feast of Tabernacles is a time of reflecting on one’s life, because it is symbolic of the harvest of the earth. The Feast of Tabernacles represents the gathering-in of the fruits, and at the same time, the end of the religious calendar of Israel, the very end of the arrangement of symbolic rituals that represent the Plan of Salvation. The Feast of Tabernacles represents the culmination of everything that has come before it, and the outworking of all the labor that the Father and Son have done for mankind before we receive at last our everlasting inheritance.
I spent some time going over that pair of verses in James at the beginning of this study, because I want two things to be kept in mind as we consider what the feast days mean to our own, individual lives, and they are these: 1) Yahweh has created us in His image, to which He restores us through the Gospel, making us in the very likeness of Christ, and indistinguishable from Him in character regardless of our origin as “begotten” or “created,” and 2) His great gifts to us are what allow us to do His will, and to be set free from sin and death.
The whole purpose of Yahweh’s communication with mankind, through the days of the patriarchs, and prophets, and kings, and judges, and apostles, is for our good, for our blessing, and because we need it. Our greatest need is salvation, the escape from not only the consequences of sin (as many imagine) but sin itself.
That last thing is really significant for our understanding as we approach the very end. Consider that sharp contrast between those who believe in victory over sin, and those who do not. Non-believers in victory desire to escape the consequences of sin, and the consequences only. They do not want to be destroyed, or to experience eternal separation from all that is good and pleasant, but they hold on to their sin itself until what they believe to be the last moment, excusing their choices by saying it is impossible to do otherwise. Believers, who love the Father for His character, for His Person, and who are one with Him because we are filled with the Spirit of the Son, have desired, and therefore received, escape from sin itself.
This is not theology, this is love. We read, “For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” (Mat 7:8-11)
This is not theoretical religion. We have believed in our Father. We have asked for bread, and we have not received a stone. We have asked for fish, and we have not received a serpent. We have asked for salvation, and we have not received a life of continual sinning and continual repentance from dead works. This is because our Father is good, and knows how to give good gifts. Because we have truly desired freedom from sin – not just the consequences of sin, but the hateful presence of sin itself – we have been given what we have asked for. We have received the desire of our hearts, because we have asked in faith, doubting not, and holding on to the precious promises of Yahweh’s Word. We have not been presumptuous, nor have we been proud, because we are receiving what was promised, not what we have imagined we would have. We have accepted what was gifted, not what we thought we needed.
And yes, this is still about the feasts. As I mentioned, the feast days, which form the milestones along the unfolding of the Israelite religious calendar, are designed to teach us about the Plan of Salvation. Every feast, to be precise, teaches us about victory over sin, about freedom from sin. Very briefly put:
The Passover is the killing of the Lamb, representing Yahshua’s death on our behalf, taking upon Himself the penalty of our transgression, so that we might be forgiven. “The next day John seeth Yahshua coming unto him, and saith, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’” (John 1:29)
The Feast of Unleavened Bread represents the victorious life that we experience as a result of accepting Yahshua’s sacrifice. We no longer live in the leaven of hypocrisy and failure, but as the New Testament teaches, “let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (1Cor 5:8)
The Feast of Pentecost represents the receiving of the Holy Spirit by a unified Church. As individuals and as a collective Body, we are filled with the presence of Yahshua, which destroys the power of Satan to control our minds and our bodies. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1, 4) It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that maintains us in victory.
The Feast of Trumpets represents a call to judgment, a putting away of all that is carnal in preparation for standing before Yahweh. In the very chapter that speaks of the Holy Spirit being poured out, and the saints prophesying before Yah’s people and the world, we read, “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet.” (Joel 2:15, 16) “Gather the people,” we read. “Sanctify the congregation,” we hear; separate it from sin. Here we see unity, a call for unity among all men, women and children that would see life, and their sanctification, as necessary prerequisites to the divine wedding of the Bridegroom and Bride. Without the putting away of sin, without sanctification, without the overcoming of sin, none of this comes to pass.
As Adventists, we well know what The Day of Atonement represents. It is the Investigative Judgment, the final examination of the dead and the living, to see the disposition of every soul’s case. We read, “Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement; it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto Yahweh. And ye shall do no work in that same day: for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before Yahweh your God.” (Lev 23:27, 28) Because this was not fulfilled in the days of the apostles, we do not have many New Testament verses that refer to this incident; it was specifically reserved for the last days, but we do read this: “And not only so, but we also joy in Yahweh through our Lord Yahshua the Messiah, by Whom we have now received the atonement.” (Rom 5:11)
Paul then goes on to explain exactly what “atonement” means, saying, “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” (Rom 5:18, 19)
In the atonement, we receive the gift of Yahshua’s perfect obedience. Through Him we have atonement with the Father. Atonement means bringing into unity. Atonement means joining together with Yahweh, and the result of receiving that invitation, that “free gift,” is that condemnation, unrighteousness, and death are put away, and those who are atoned are “made righteous.” The Day of Atonement, in that it is about the judgment of the world, is a confirmation of righteousness to those who live in victory.
And of course, today we are in The Feast of Tabernacles. This is the follow-up to the judgment of the Day of Atonement. The harvest has ripened. All the souls that have received Christ are ready to be settled into their inheritance. We read, “Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine.” (Deu 16:13) Note those two things; grain and grapes are gathered up in the days of this feast. See what is written of the last days. At the end of the Parable of the Sower, Yahshua describes the fruitful grain, saying, “But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.” (Mat 13:8) These are the ones prepared for the harvest. We also read, “And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, ‘Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.’” (Rev 14:18)
These words explain the Feast of Tabernacles in the symbols of the New Testament. Those who represent the good grain, the wheat and not the tares, and those who represent the ripened grapes, mature and ready for use, are gathered. Those who hear the Three Angels’ Message, and prepare for judgment, these are they who have received the gift of freedom from sin, and wait for the Messiah with eagerness, and not with fear.
As I am sure some of us know, when the Jews celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, they do so in little houses that they build out of branches. These temporary structures have no true roofs, but are open to the sky. This is so that, although most Jews would not acknowledge this, they may see the return of the Son of Man in the clouds of His Father’s glory. It is written, “And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:27, 28)
The Feast of Tabernacles, and its Last Great Day, is the time when the saints receive their inheritance, the manifestation of their salvation. Those who have received all of Yahweh’s gifts shall finally receive this great blessing, the glorification of the body, and the end of all earthly suffering.
The feast days teach us about victory over sin.
Ultimately, this is the point: those who deny victory over sin have not learned the lesson of the feast days. The work and labor of the Old Testament saints, and the warnings of the New Testament evangelists, have been to them of none-effect. While they hate the result of sin, the consequences of sin, they have not learned, through familiarity with the ordinances of Yahweh and Yahshua, to hate the sin itself, the act that causes harm, the betrayal of the principles of love. That is not a spirit and character that can endure the ceaseless ages of eternity without eventually returning to the sin that it desires. Such a person cannot be saved, but must either be entirely transformed, or ultimately given over to destruction.
Ultimately, those who deny victory over sin reject the Scriptures entirely, all of its symbols, all of its lessons, for the entire work of Yahweh on man’s behalf is to free him from sin. We cannot partake of a “little bit of Gospel.” We cannot hear sermons to soothe the conscience, or challenge the spirit, but then fail to rise to the occasion. The entirety of the Scriptures, and all that it describes, including the elements of the feasts that we acknowledge in the Apostolic, New Testament, tradition, is designed to free humanity from the shackles of sin. Yahshua, who has drawn near to us, has given us the key. Yahshua, the “only begotten” of the Father in spiritual Sonship, has made Himself like unto us, whom the Father has also “begat” of His own will, and in philadelphia, in Brotherly love, has provided us with the very key to freedom.
Some have grasped the key, and thought it to be enough. Some have placed the key in the locks on their chains, and thought it to be enough. Some have even turned the key, and said, “We have done everything that has been commanded of us.” But if they will not open the locks, actually shake off the chains, and stand up as men, and woman, and children of the Most High, they are the most pitiful of all slaves, because they remain in bondage despite possessing their keys.
Every gift of Yahweh, including these days of reflection, learning, and rejoicing, are for the purpose of freeing us from sin; its consequences, yes, but also its presence, and none will survive the judgment if they do not recognize the impossible gift they have been given, and fall before Yahweh, overwhelmed with gratitude. Let us make the most of the time we have been given, whether they are holy convocations, or common days, and look for those gifts that the Father is giving to us according to our needs, for every gift that we receive from on high is designed to sanctify us for the world to come, and to equip us to bless those around us for time and for eternity.
David.
An Enduring Witness
“Presenting Christ as He was when equal with God and with Him receiving the homage of the angels, the apostle traced His course until He had reached the lowest depths of humiliation. Paul was convinced that if they could be brought to comprehend the amazing sacrifice made by the Majesty of heaven, all selfishness would be banished from their lives. He showed how the Son of God had laid aside His glory, voluntarily subjecting Himself to the conditions of human nature, and then had humbled Himself as a servant, becoming obedient unto death, ‘even the death of the cross’ (Philippians 2:8), that He might lift fallen man from degradation to hope and joy and heaven.” [Acts of The Apostles, p. 333]
“Parents are to gather their children into the home and to present Christ before them as their Passover. The father is to dedicate every inmate of his home to God, and to do a work that is represented by the feast of the passover. It is perilous to leave this solemn duty in the hands of others.” [The Review and Herald, May 21, 1895]
“I then presented before them Adam’s sin, his fall, and the gift of God to redeem Adam’s failure; the love here manifested to save man from sin and ruin. I dwelt upon the temptation of Christ in the wilderness, the victory gained in behalf of the race, and how man may overcome the seductive snares of Satan by making Christ his trust. In His name and through His merits the vilest sinner might have pardon and gain heaven through a life of obedience. I dwelt a few moments upon the nature of sin, that sin was the transgression of the law, and how through repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ the sinner might be saved with a full and free salvation. But he is not saved by the merits of the blood of Christ while he continues to transgress the Father’s law. Christ did not die to make it possible for the sinner to be saved while continuing to transgress; Christ died to evidence to the sinner that there was no hope for him while he continued in sin.” [Letter 32, 1878]