Fulcrum7 recently asked me 11 interview-style questions about the gospel of Jesus Christ and righteousness by faith. After receiving these questions, I prayed, and then did my best to respond carefully with biblical answers, which were posted on Fulcrum 7 as: “The 1888 Message: The Key to Finishing God’s Work,” Part 1 and Part 2.
Amazingly, this resulted in over 1000 comments from Fulcrum7 readers!
Many said they were richly blessed. Others raised questions. Still others disagreed with some of my conclusions. One argument against some of my beliefs was that THE REAL 1888 MESSAGE teaches that the entire world has already been legally justified by God whether individuals choose to believe in Jesus Christ or not.
This is sometimes called the “Universal Legal Justification” teaching.
I’ll call it ULJ for short.
The purpose of this follow-up article is to closely examine this ULJ teaching by the Scriptures. Before I proceed further, let me publicly state that I personally do not relish controversy. Instead, my heart’s desire is that God’s people “press together” (John 17), instead of being divided. But, we all know that we are now living in the closing days of the Great Controversy between Jesus Christ and Satan, and because of this, unfortunate controversies exist, similar to what happened in 1888. In the midst of this struggle between truth and error, we must each decide for ourselves what is right or wrong because “every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Rom. 14:12
I also want to stress that whatever we believe about ULJ, or any other issue, we should all strive (with God’s help) to obey the command, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 22:39).
Brothers and sisters, I cannot state strongly enough that this is the Law of God, which is also the standard of the judgment (Eccl. 12:13,14). When controversies rage, too often we forget these solemn truths, judge others unfairly, and attack them unjustly. In the midst of heated emotions, we also often forget that God’s law states, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). Dear reader, if any of us writes, posts, or says something about someone else that isn’t true, or if we fail to treat others fairly and to “love your neighbor as yourself” (James 2:8), notice carefully what God’s Word says:
“…you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” James 2:9
“…you are become a transgressor of the law.” James 2:11
“So speak you, and so do, as they shall be judged by the law of liberty” (James 2:8-12).
Ellen White also wrote that “Satan” himself was “the first transgressor of God’s holy law.” The Great Controversy, p. x.
Do we realize the significance of these words?
Stop. Think. James 2:8-12 says that if we break even one of the Ten Commandments, we “commit sin” and have “become transgressors of the law.” To be blunt, this places us on the side of the devil and his evil angels.
These statements also tie into the current discussion about ULJ.
Here is the core issue: Because of what Jesus Christ has already done for the entire world on the cross, is the entire world no longer “guilty before God,” which is what Rom. 3:19 clearly states? Because of Christ’s infinitely loving act on Calvary, are individual sinners no longer considered by the Ruler of Universe to be “transgressors of the law”? Is the law no longer the standard in the judgment? James wrote, “So speak you, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.” James 2:12
Is James 2:12 true or not?
In the book, 1888 Re-Examined, written by Robert J. Weiland and Donald K. Short (first published in 1987), there is a section called, “What Did The 1888 Message Say?” The book states:
(2) Thus Christ's sacrifice has legally justified "every man," and has literally saved the world from premature destruction. All men owe even their physical life to Him, whether or not they believe. Every loaf of bread is stamped with His cross. When the sinner hears and believes the pure gospel, he is justified by faith. The lost deliberately negate the justification Christ has already effected for them. P. 5 (emphasis added)
Let’s examine these statements. First, there is much I agree with. It is surely true that “Christ’s sacrifice…has literally saved the world from premature destruction.” Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). It is also true that “All men owe even their physical life to Him, whether or not they believe. Every loaf of bread is stamped with His cross.” Indeed! These are deep truths that should touch our hearts, have not been stressed enough, and should be.
But what about this part: “Christ’s sacrifice has legally justified ‘every man’”?
To answer that question, we must first define the word “justification” based on the Bible. In Romans 3:19, Paul wrote that “all the world” is “guilty before God” for breaking His “law.” The third Commandment states that “the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain” (Ex. 20:7). Thus, according to God Himself, who wrote the Ten Commandments with His own finger, those who break the “holy, just, and good” (Rom. 7:12) principles of His law of love (Rom. 13:10) are not “guiltless.” In other words, they are guilty. This is the Word of the Lord. “Therefore,” wrote Paul, “by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified [declared not guilty] in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20). Instead of justifying us, the law gives us “the knowledge of sin.”
These verses reveal that, biblically speaking, to be “justified” means to be no longer accounted as “guilty before God” as violators of His law. As Paul proceeds with his argument in verses 21-31, he makes it clear that the only way a person can be accepted by God is through “the righteousness of God revealed in Jesus Christ” (vs. 20) who mercifully kept the law for us, died for us, and satisfied the just requirements of the law for us. Alleluia! Not only that, but this “righteousness of God” in Jesus Christ is now freely available “to all and upon all them that believe” (Romans 3:22).
Notice that last part … to “all them that believe.”
Paul’s reasoning is tight, logical, and consistent. Notice his conclusion: “To declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness [not ours], that He might be just [maintaining the justice of His law], and the justifier [by declaring us “not guilty”] of him which believes in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). Again, this is the Word of the Lord.
Two years before 1888, Waggoner wrote in the Signs, “Justification has reference to the moral law. From the transgression of that, man needs justification; but the law cannot justify any sinner, it can only condemn. And so it drives him to Christ, that he may be justified by faith” (Signs of the Times, Sept. 2, 1886). Again, “The law literally drives the sinner to Christ, by shutting up every other way of freedom from guilt.” Ibid. Aug. 26, 1886. Here, E.J. Waggoner was being 100% biblical.
Here are Waggoner’s key points:
1. The word “justification” has specific reference to the moral law.
2. It is “from the transgression of that” law that man needs justification.
3. When a sinner realizes he is condemned by that law, and that Jesus Christ was condemned for his own sins on that cruel cross, he is moved and driven to Jesus Christ to be “justified by faith.”
4. “Justified by faith” simply means that, when a sinner has faith in Jesus Christ, he is then released from the law’s condemnation. Both Waggoner and EGW also taught that being “justified by faith” also changes a person’s heart and leads to heart obedience to the same law that he is now no longer considered guilty of breaking (see Rom. 5:1,5; 8:4).
Three years after 1888, Waggoner wrote: ”The case, then, stands thus: The law demands perfect and unvarying obedience, but it speaks to all the world and finds none righteous; all have violated it, and all are condemned by it (Romans 3:9-19). Present or future obedience will not take away past transgression, therefore the law cannot help us” (Signs of the Times, Nov. 30, 1891).
Again, firmly based on Romans 3:19-22, Waggoner wrote that “all are condemned” by the law, which is why all need justification which comes by faith in Jesus Christ alone.
The book 1888 Re-Examined teaches:
1. “Every man” was “legally justified” when Jesus died on the cross (p. 5).
2. “When the sinner hears and believes the pure gospel, he is justified by faith” (p. 5).
3. “Sin is a constant resisting of His grace (p. 6).
Essentially, this states that “the pure gospel” includes the idea that Christ “legally justified” “every man” on Calvary, and that this is what we should “hear” and “believe.” But what if we don’t see it quite this way? Unfortunately, according to some who believe this teaching, then we don’t believe the 1888 message! I have been personally accused of being an 1888-message denier. But I believe this is unfair.
As I read my Bible, these statements in 1888 Re-Examined do five things:
1. First, #3 redefines sin by stating that “Sin is a constant resisting of His grace.” This is confusing. Yes, sinners do resist God’s grace, but what about Satan? He sins everyday, but is he constantly resisting God’s grace? By contrast, the Bible defines sin in a simple way: “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4), and this is what Satan and sinners are doing right now. EGW wrote: “The only definition we find in the Bible for sin is that ‘sin is the transgression of the law’” (Signs of the Times, Dec. 5, 1892). I appreciate such simple statements.
2. Second, #1 denies God’s Word in Romans 3:19 (which Waggoner often quoted) stating that “every mouth should be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.”
3. Third, #1 also bypasses the biblical function of the law to show sinners today that they are “transgressors of the law,” guilty, and justly “condemned” for their personal violations of it, which is why they need Jesus Christ. “By the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom. 3:20). “You are convinced [convicted] of the law as transgressors” (James 2:9).
“The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:24).
4. Fourth, #1 teaches that “every man” today is “legally justified,” yet the Bible states the opposite, that “all the world” is actually “guilty before God” for breaking His commandments.
5. Fifth, #1 and #2 imply that “the pure gospel” is inseparably connected with ULJ, but my Bible simply says that “the gospel” is the biblical message that “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.” 1 Cor. 15:1-3
The theory of ULJ says:
1) “Every man” was “legally justified” on the cross.
2) Individuals are justified by faith when they believe they were previously “legally justified” on the cross.
But the Bible doesn’t teach this. Instead, it teaches that there is only one way to be justified, or declared not guilty, which is by faith.
One key text used to support ULJ is Romans 5:18 which says: “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” That last part is used to prove ULJ.
But does it really?
Notice that both “condemnation” and “justification” have come “to all men.” My take on this verse is that because of “the everlasting gospel” that Christ “died” for the sins of all men (1 John 2:2; 1 Cor. 15:3) and because the biblical message that “the free gift of eternal life” (Rom. 6:23) has now “appeared to all men” (Tit. 2:11), this has wondrously been “resulting in justification of life” “for all who believe” (Rom. 3:22). This interpretation perfectly agrees with Paul’s earlier statements in Romans 3:19-28 and with Romans 5:18’s immediate context that “those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life by One, Jesus Christ” (vs. 17). Those who “receive” God’s grace are abundantly granted “eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (vs. 21). Thus “justification of life” simply means “eternal life” for those who receive and believe in Jesus.
Jesus taught:
By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned (Matthew 12:37).
This man [the publican who prayed for mercy] went down to his house justified [accepted by God] rather than the other [the proud Pharisee who refused to humble himself] (Luke 18:14).
Thus, according to Jesus Christ, some are justified, and some are condemned, based on the words that come out of their own mouths, and on whether they choose to humble themselves and ask for mercy, or not. Jesus also told Nicodemus:
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).
According to Jesus Christ, those who “believe in Him” are “not condemned,” while those who don’t are “condemned already.” Why are they condemned? Because of their sins of breaking God’s law and because they have refused to believe in Jesus Christ who is the only One who can forgive sins and take them away. Jesus told the Pharisees, “If you believe not that I am He, you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). This means they will die in their sins of breaking God’s law without a Savior.
I’ll close with this enlightening statement from the Spirit of Prophecy which clearly explains the core, biblical 1888 message taught by Jones and Waggoner:
“The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:24). In this scripture [which Waggoner often quoted in his Signs articles], the Holy Spirit through the apostle is speaking especially of the moral law. The law reveals sin to us and causes us to feel our need of Christ and to flee unto Him for pardon and peace by exercising repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ [notice this law-sin-need-flee-repent-faith-in-Jesus sequence. See also Acts 20:20,21].
An unwillingness to yield up preconceived opinions, and to accept THIS TRUTH, lay at the foundation of a large share of the opposition manifested at Minneapolis against the Lord's message through Brethren [E.J.] Waggoner and [A.T.] Jones. By exciting that opposition Satan succeeded in shutting away from our people, in a great measure, the special power of the Holy Spirit that God longed to impart to them. The enemy prevented them from obtaining that efficiency which might have been theirs in carrying the truth to the world, as the apostles proclaimed it after the day of Pentecost. The light that is to lighten the whole earth with its glory was resisted, and by the action of our own brethren has been in a great degree kept away from the world (1 Selected Messages, pp. 234, 235).
Brothers and sisters, it was “by the action of our own brethren” who resisted “the Lord’s message” and “THIS TRUTH” (of Gal. 3:24) that we yet remain in this dark world of sin.
If we disagree with each other on any of the above points, let’s still treat each other respectfully.
As for me, I’m going to keep studying my Bible, comparing my character to God’s law, searching my heart, watching my words, humbling myself, repenting of whatever He shows me, looking to Jesus, trusting His love, grace, merits, and shed blood, striving (through the Holy Spirit) to overcome, preaching His gospel, teaching His Word, and trying to help prepare others for His soon return.
“Even so, Come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:21).
****
Steve Wohlberg is the Speaker/Director of White Horse Media. He is the author of 40+ books, including God’s Last Message: Christ our Righteousness. Pastor Steve also teaches two online courses, Sprouting with Steve (about health) and Grow Your Money With God (Christian stewardship). White Horse Media’s YouTube channel contains many more “present truth” biblical messages. Its online Bible school is also great for sharing with the public.