Serious evil which has plagued the professing church is the denial of the spotlessness of the humanity of our blessed Lord both in life and in death. The enemy cannot deceive all people with one falsehood, so he has others suited to the temperaments of different individuals. Some who may affirm that the Lord Jesus was God, and that from eternity, may be trapped by heretical teachings which sully the perfection and spotlessness of His manhood; but this is equally blasphemous on the one hand, and destructive to souls on the other; for if He was not absolutely spotless and pure, He could not be the Savior of sinners. Of necessity the substitute must Himself be without any taint of sin whatsoever or He could not stand in the sinner's stead.
On this point Scripture is definite and precise; it says of Him that He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth" (1 Pet. 2:22); and that He "knew no sin" (2 Cor. 5:21). "And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin." 1 John 3:5.
As one of our poets has said,
"But spotless, undefiled, and pure,
The great Redeemer stood,
While Satan's fiery darts He bore,
And did resist to blood."
When God gave instructions to the Israelites regarding the passover lamb, He told them that their lamb had to be "without blemish"; that is, it was to be free from any blemish in order to be a type of Him who was truly so; and so we read later that we are redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Pet. 1:19)-without any imperfection or spot of defilement.
Mary was told by the angel Gabriel that "that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
And even in the types of the Old Testament, His spotless and perfect humanity is always carefully guarded; for instance, in the book of Leviticus, we have in the first four chapters the four different offerings-the burnt offering, the meat offering, the peace offering, and the sin offering. These present Christ in four different aspects, which we shall not go into here, except to state that the meat offering presents Christ in His life down here as fully consecrated to God-it is His perfect, spotless life—and the sin offering is the presentation of that blessed One in death bearing the sins of others. Now it is precisely in these two points that the enemy has attacked His personal and "relative" purity- in His pathway here as being absolutely without any taint of sin, and on the cross as the victim bearing the sins of others.
In what is said of these two offerings, the Spirit of God has anticipated the enemy's attack and has stated clearly that they are "most holy." It says of the meat offering, "It is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire" (Lev. 2:3); and "This is the law of the meat offering:... it is most holy, as is the sin offering, and as the trespass offering" (Lev. 6:14, 17). While of course the burnt offering and peace offering were most holy also, it is only of the meat offering, and sin and trespass offerings that it is so stated, thus showing the importance the Holy Spirit attaches to the very truths that would come under attack from the enemy.
These vicious attacks have sometimes come from prominent teachers whom Satan has beguiled, and their error has often been wrapped up in a great show of learning and ambiguous statements. B. W. Newton, for one, would say that He was personally holy, and yet go on to say that because of His connection with Israel He was relatively sinful. 0 the daring of that statement! Surely if we had to receive that, we would have to say with Mary, "They have taken away my Lord." Neither in Himself, nor in His connection with Adam's race, nor with the nation of Israel, was there any taint of sin whatsoever; He was "most holy."
One of the worst offenders in this heterodox teaching is the Seventh Day Adventist cult. Many people have become ensnared in their evil through reading the literature which is freely offered to the unwary. This literature is most deceptive; the rank attacks on the Person and work of our blessed Lord are obscured in a cloud of talk about the Scriptures themselves. They profess to go by the Word of God, and refer to it freely. They understand nothing of what a Christian is, for they take the place of Jews, and put themselves under the law. Great emphasis is placed on keening the Sabbath day, but this is only a part of a whole legal entanglement with a past dispensation. It is worse than the Galatian heresy from which we are to stand apart—"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Gal. 5:1.
People are apt to think that the Adventist's talk about keeping Saturday-the Sabbath—is the only difference between them and what might be termed orthodox denominations, but their whole system reeks with error. In reality they deny the deity of Christ, but their special attack is on His holy humanity. They openly charge Him with partaking of a sinful nature with evil tendencies. It is hard to understand how any Christian could read these un abashed remarks derogatory to their Savior and not burn their literature forthwith; but many have read, and do read, right over these blasphemous statements without a pause. If this doctrine is true, there is no Savior for lost mankind, and we are yet in our sins.
One thing that conceals their sinful teaching is the habit of quoting from such men, who were sound in the faith, as Martin Luther, D. L. Moody, C. Spurgeon, and many others; but what they quote from such men is immaterial to their false doctrine; it is something that does not happen to touch on vital points; but the mention of these names tends to make simple souls think that such writers endorse the whole of the printed matter in hand. Furthermore, seldom is there any mention of "Seventh Day Adventists" on their literature, but rather some simple sounding publishing house; and so, many read this poison without realizing its source. This should be a warning to all Christians to beware what they read. Be sure of the authors and the publishers of all material you read. Do not tamper with poison; the most dangerous poison is the one that is not suspected.
There are many other deadly errors in their system, including the soul-sleeping theory, which is also a denial of the truth of God. There is no such thing in Scripture as the sleep of the soul on the event of death, but rather the plainest teachings possible of the bliss of the departed soul and spirit who is "with Christ, which is far better," and of the misery of the lost as found in Luke 16.
This system of error also teaches that the lost will be raised and then annihilated. What shall God do to him who alters what He Himself has said? Scripture is abundantly plain as to the eternity of woe for those who die in their sins, and of the wicked with whom the Lord shall deal when He appears in power and glory.
Who can be the author of such a system but Satan when it attributes one of the most necessary aspects of the work of Christ in atonement to the devil himself? (the scapegoat of Leviticus 16). But surely we can expect anything from a doctrine that begins by denying the perfection in manhood and the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It is not our desire to occupy Christians with error, but rather to emphasize the truth as to the Person and work of our Lord and Savior, while at the same time to point out the insidious attacks made against Him. May God grant us to be true to Himself, and to hold with affection of heart the basic truths of our salvation and of Him who wrought it. Nothing in the whole universe shall ever undermine the Rock on which our faith is built, but tampering with evil will defile us and spoil our joy; and it will damn many souls of the lost who have not sought the truth, but have given an ear to a lie.
All these things remind us of the time that is soon coming when God Himself shall send men a strong delusion to believe a lie, "because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved" (2 Thess. 2:10).
What a terrible time for those who now despise God's Son, and salvation through Him and His finished work!