SSLS 2016-12-13

2016 4th Quarter

Lesson 12, December 10-16, Job’s Redeemer

Tuesday, December 13

The necessity of Christ’s death for the human race is very apparent in the book of Job. Early in the story we see Job offering sacrifices on behalf of his children peradventure they blasphemed God during the rounds of their feasts. In one sense, we see the similarities between Job and Adam in their attempts to instill Godly values upon the generations raised up in their lifetimes.

“It was impossible, however, for Adam, by his example and precepts, to stay the tide of woe which his transgression had brought upon men. Unbelief crept into the hearts of men. The children of Adam present the earliest example of the two different courses pursued by men with regard to the claims of God. Abel saw Christ figured in the sacrificial offerings. Cain was an unbeliever in regard to the necessity of sacrifices; he refused to discern that Christ was typified by the slain lamb; the blood of beasts appeared to him without virtue. The gospel was preached to Cain as well as to his brother; but it was to him a savor of death unto death, because he would not recognize, in the blood of the sacrificial lamb, Jesus Christ the only provision made for man’s salvation.” (Ellen White, Vol. 1, Selected Messages, 231.)

While we may not be any more able than Adam to hold back the tide of human woe in which we live and dwell, we are still exhorted to join in the work of bringing the Everlasting Gospel of Christ to the world.

“Now, while we point the sinner to Jesus Christ as the one who can take away sin, we must explain to him what sin is, and show him the necessity of being saved from his sins, not in them. He must be made to feel that he must cease to transgress the law of God, which is to cease to sin. Paul makes the inquiry many years after the death of Christ, ‘Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.’ Thus saying, Paul exalts the moral law. When this law is practically carried out in every-day life, it is found indeed to be the wisdom of God. It serves to detect sin. It discovers the defects in the moral character, and in the light of the law sin becomes exceeding sinful, revealing its true character in all its hideousness.” (Ellen White, Review and Herald, September 27, 1881.)