In describing Seventh Day Adventists beliefs: "Jesus' coming is when God executes His judgment, not when He investigates who is worthy to be saved." ~allexperts. com "The Investigative Judgement is a unique Seventh Day Adventist doctrine, which asserts that a judgment of professed Christian believers has been in progress since 1884." "The investigative judgment reveals to heavenly intelligences who among the dead are asleep in Christ and therefore, in Him, are deemed worthy to have part in the first resurrection. It also makes manifest who among the living are abiding in Christ, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and in Him, therefore, are ready for translation into His everlasting kingdom. This judgment vindicates the justice of God in saving those who believe in Jesus. It declares that those who have remained loyal to God shall receive the kingdom." ~wikipedia
Justification By God And Salvation
* "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we became conscious of sin. But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified [made righteous] freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. " (Romans 3:20-14)
* We "know that a man is not justified [<--Hebrew word meaning made righteous] by observing the law, but by faith in Christ Jesus. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified [made righteous] by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified [made righteous]" (Galatians 2:16).
* " In Christ, neither your most conscientious religion [keeping of all the rules and laws; punctual observance of the law] nor disregard of religion amounts to anything"--toward being justified (made righteous) before God or eternal salvation. But faith alone (in which is freely given to you and faith in Christ's righteousness and his work on the cross) justifies you before God and gives you eternal salvation. (Galatians 5:6). If we are justified (made righteous), not by our own righteous works, not by the law of Moses, but as a free gift of God through faith, there is no ground for boasting (Romans 3:27-31).
* "Therefore," says the apostle, "no man can hope to be justified [made righteous] by any law, whether it be that general law, or the particular law of Moses, and therefore to be saved: when we compare the law and man's life, we see that all men are sinners, and therefore worthy of condemnation in the sight of God." But God took that condemnation, the penalty of death on himself, satisfying perfect justice, so that we could be with him. (see Bible verse)
* If I was made righteous by my own works alone or partly by faith and partly by works, the glory of this justification would not be wholly given to God (see Bible verse).
* Christ won't be the Savior of any one who won't rely upon him as their only Savior (See Galatians chapter 5).
Righteousness And Holiness
* Christ made you righteous (Romans 3:27). Depending on the works of the law for righteousness forfits all your advantages by Jesus Christ.(Galatians 5:2-4).
* You can never be perfect. But Jesus did what you could not do. When God looks at you, He sees the righteousness of Christ.
* "We are made holy through the sacrifice Christ made in his body once and for all time." Hebrews 10:10
Being Set Right With God And Pleasing God
* "You are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ" (Galatians 2:16).
* "If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. ...Abraham entered into what God was doing for him and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own" (Romans 4:3).
* "If you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust Him to do it--you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked--well that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift" (Romans 4:5).
* "No human being can please God by self-improvement, instead we are set right before God by trusting the Messiah, not by trying to be good" (Galatians 2:16).
Being Fit Before God
* You don't have to make yourself fit before God. Jesus made you fit before God.
* "The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us right with God" (Romans 4:25).
Following The Rules
* "God made us alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins. He cancelled the debt, which listed all the rules we failed to follow." Colossians 2:13-14
* "Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of..keeping a long list of laws. [You're an insider] through what Christ has already gone through for me, destroying the power of sin" (Col 2:11).
* "If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily" (Galatians 2:21).
Who Saves?
* "Saving is his work, all we do is trust him enough to let Him do it. We neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and the saving" (Ephesians 2:10).
* "By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God" (Galatians 3:26).
A Gift
* "This is why the fulfillment of God's promise depends entirely on trusting God and his way, and then simply embracing him and what he does. God's promise arrives as a pure gift. That's the only way everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who keep the religious traditions and those who have never heard of them." (Rom 4:16)
*"You are not 'doing' anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation" (Romans 10:9).
Let me use a piece of the movie The Perfect Stranger to explain:
God is about restoring relationships. He isn't interested in people performing well enough for them. We can't possibly do that anyway.
God created people to have a relationship with Him so they could enjoy His love.
How many dishes would a child have to wash before she could get up in her father's lap and get a hug again? How many A's would she have to make in school? None. She doesn't have to do anything, she's his daughter. That's exactly how it is with us and God. We can't do anything to earn God's love.
No one is good enough to make it into Heaven no matter how hard they try. Doing all the right things, like keeping the Ten Commandments, won't get you into Heaven. Man's rebellion against God is like a huge rip in the moral fabric of the universe, with God on one side and everybody else on the other. And there's no way you can get to the other side. Because only God is big enough to fix the tear.
Mother Teresa for all her goodness, was no closer to bridging the gap than Hitler was. Both of them, based on their own merits, were still a long way from being with God.
Keeping the Ten Commandments won't get us into Heaven because no one could ever keep them well enough, because God's standard is perfection. On what basis will you stand before a perfect God and say that you've been good enough?
More than anything God wants to forgive people so they can return to Him, but God's desire to forgive can't override his perfect justice. People have to pay a penalty for breaking God's laws. And the penalty is death.
So what has to happen before he'll take us back? Well God has two options. Either God can let people pay their own penalties--which they can't do, there's no way, they'd be separated from Him forever. God's other option is to take the penalty of death on Himself. He can do that because He's God. The Creator is always greater than the creation. And for the Creator to take on the penalty of death for himself, that satisfies perfect justice.
God wants you with him. It's why he made you in the first place. But you're naturally separated from God because of the bad stuff you do. And to make good on the fact that a penalty has to be paid before you can be with God, God took your penalty on Himself and He died to pay it for you. All he wants from you is just that you trust Him and believe in the fact that he did die to pay your penalty.
