My Hope in Christ
I wrote this to a friend but felt not to send it to him, but instead to post it here.
Hi ______, as you’ve shared with me so much of SDA theology, I hope it’s ok for me to share with you now where my hopes lie. I was reading this from William Dewsbury, imprisoned for his faith for 20 out of his 67 years, out of one of the letters he wrote from prison, and found this,
“Examine your heart, and deal justly with your own soul! There is a light in your conscience, which light is from Christ. Minding it will let you see the mystery of iniquity that lodges in your heart, which is deceitful and desperately wicked. This light is the very Word of God, which was from the beginning, according as it is written in the outward testimony of the truth.
‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.’”
This stuck out to me since it is on the topic of our talk yesterday — the Word of God — and it also spoke to something else that came up — the difference between the heart, which is desperately wicked, and the light that shines in the heart, which is the Word of God.
Dewsbury goes on to write,
“Therefore, everyone arise out of your earthly wisdom, and mind this light of life in your conscience, and wait upon the power of the Lord in it, and it will bring you to judgement before the throne of the Lamb…”
Notice Dewsbury points people towards this Word in the heart, that is, the Word in the conscience — and he continues, saying that if one follows it,
“a righteous law will be opened in your heart that will cry out in your earthly heart for righteousness and true judgement. Yes, the book will be opened within you, and in it you will read all that you have done in the body, and will give an account for every idle word, and receive your reward for what you have done, which will be condemnation on all that disobeys and breaks the righteous law. And then whatever way you shift and turn to find life in outward forms, words, and practices, there the flaming sword (which is the righteous law that goes out of the mouth of the Lamb) will turn to meet you, and cut you down.”
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So not minding this light, the gate to paradise — the Kingdom of Heaven — is shut. He continues,
“And if you seek to hide yourself, as Adam did, from the Lamb when He appears in your heart, you will find that all of your fig-leaf prayers, tears, forms, doctrines, and practices from the letter, will not cover your nakedness. These served to cover your nakedness from the sight of men, but now the Lord appears in your heart, and you cannot stand before Him. Yes now, Cain in you is found out, and is driven from the Lord as a fugitive and a vagabond, notwithstanding his earthly sacrifice. And Esau in you is reprobated, never to receive the blessing, though he seeks for it with tears. And now the bondwoman and her son are cast out, and the first Adam is slain with the sharp sword, and you are made to give up your soul to God, whose it is, to do with you according to His will. And here you are truly baptized with Christ into His sufferings and death, a baptism where every power or help that you find in yourself perishes forever. And this is called “the administration of Moses,” where the flesh lies under the righteous law of God, without any hope or help, until the administration of the Prophets raises up a secret hope in your soul, that looks for the coming of a Savior.”
This reminds me of Paul’s statement, “O, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of this death!”
Dewsbury continues,
“Now the Prophets are until John, who is a burning and a shining lamp that lets you see the filthiness of your heart and condemns the earthly man in you, but also strengthens the hope in you that was raised up by the Prophets to see the beauty and excellency of Jesus Christ, which ravishes your lost and condemned soul so that you are willing to sell all for Him. And now is the Scripture fulfilled in you, that every mountain and hill are laid low, and the crooked ways are made straight, and the rough ways in you are made smooth, and a way is prepared in the wilderness of self for the salvation of God to be manifest in Jesus Christ.”
What I get from this is that the Word of God — Christ — who is holy and true, who shines into our hearts convicting us, if we do not seek to escape from Him, will shine in our hearts until He exposes all darkness. At the same time He will give us hope that there is an escape from that darkness, which He promises to give to all who seek Him with all their heart.
Dewsbury continues, ending his letter with his experience of receiving a full measure of the power — Christ — that provides the way out of that darkness:
“And in the appointed time of the Father, the Son of Man comes to your soul as lightning from the east to the west, and causes your dead soul to hear His voice, and offers it eternal life freely through His own blood. And in this prepared condition your soul hears His voice, and by the Word of His power it is made to live, and is sealed up by the Holy Spirit of promise, who bears witness with your spirit that you are His child. And so you come to witness the second Adam to be a life-giving Spirit, and Isaac the promised seed to be heir forever; and you understand that the wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life, and you see what it really is to be saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and not of works lest any should boast, and that he who has this hope in Him purifies himself, even as He is pure. And here the love of Christ truly constrains you, for you witness the work of regeneration made manifest, and to follow the Lamb wheresoever He goes.”
Finally, Dewsbury describes the fruits of the one who has received this power from on high:
“And now the love and life that you enjoy in Christ Jesus constrains you always to deny yourself, and you take up your cross daily to follow him. And you have come back into the beginning, to live in the Lord, guided by the powerful Word of faith — the light that shines in your heart — which is the light of the city of God, the New Jerusalem, to which you have come to worship the Father in Spirit and Truth. And all who come to walk in the light of the New Jerusalem are the true Israel of God, and are taught of God. And in this city there is no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, which are borrowed lights, outward dispensations, or teachings of men, for the glory of the Lord God does enlighten His city, and the Lamb is the light thereof, and the nations who are saved shall walk in His light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. And there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. And the Lord shall give them light, and in Him they shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah to the Highest.”
Just thought I’d share this so that you could know what it is that I hope for in Christ.
