this is one of those subjects in which opposing sides have become entrenched, and are both wrong in the final analysis…the LGTers have some things right, and some things wrong, as do the fordian gracers of the world…meanwhile, what the NT, but especially egw, teaches, is that sanctification, and the personal courage and effort it takes, is the condition for limitless justification…ultimately, there is no need to feel fearful of IJ or whether we will be saved when we are doing what we can…the reality is that under this circumstance, christ adds his perfection to our efforts, and none of the accusations of satan against us can have any weight…
christ justifies our faulty sanctification that is necessarily faulty due to the fallen nature we’re born with through no fault of our own…he doesn’t justify us just because we may want to be, and while we have no interest in any cross of self-denial, occasioned because living in harmony with god is so unnatural to our inherited fallen nature…he justifies us through his own perfection because we cannot equal that perfection, even when we want to be like christ, and do our very best to be like him through the power of the holy spirit…the awful reality is that the legacy of sin we’ve all received, whether we consciously sin or not, is that we’re so tarnished and corrupted that the miraculous power of the holy spirit will only and always produce a tarnished and corrupted result that falls short of the perfection the infinite law of god calls for…do any of us feel so tarnished and corrupted and utterly helpless…of course not…but this is merely a measure of how tarnished and corrupted we all truly are…like the legacy and evidences for a worldwide flood, our fallen nature is so extensive and pervasive, there’s no tangible measure in existence outside of that corruption that can serve as an objective standard for comparison…
but the good news, which is truly good news, is that however imperfect we are, when we are doing our best, that best is turned into the perfection required by god’s law…there is no room for boasting with this arrangement…on the one hand, if we are saved, it’s because we’ve received as a gift what we couldn’t ever generate on our own, or even on our own aided by divine power…on the other hand, if we are saved, we’ll receive a crown of glory because we truly will have been overcomers of something…if we sit on christ’s throne, it’s because we’ve overcome as he overcame, and not only because he overcame…
of course the down side to this good news is that because so few are interested in the self-denial called for by the straight and narrow way, most people will be lost, even while they name the name of christ, and believe they are justified…if we could be saved without some sacrifice on our part, most people would be saved…but because of that sacrifice, which can cut to the bone - ask the rich young ruler - most people won’t make it…they’ll find some pleasing fantasy to hang their hats on without doing what it takes to bring the perfection of christ into their very nature and character…
salvation is a heavy subject…it’s one of those things in which we have to be willing to look the good, the bad and the ugly full in the face…