"LET THERE BE LIGHT" Ministries
SALVATION THROUGH the TRUTH, part 3a quotes
1) "We are all sinners, whether we have ever done anything `wrong' or not. It is not sinning that makes us sinners. It is getting born that makes us sinners....
"We are born sinners, and we sin because we are sinners. We are not sinners because we sin!...
"Since we are sinners by nature, we of ourselves are never going to be able to produce any obedience." Faith That Works, p 161-165.
"We are born sinful...Clearly Adam's sin affected the race--constituted them sinners." Issues: The Seventh-day Adventist Church and Certain Private Ministries, p 118.
"We are born sinners." SDA Senior Sabbath School Quarterly, First Quarter, January 23, 1983, p 35.
2) "...the wicked shall fall by his own wickedness...transgressors shall be taken up in their own naughtiness." Proverbs 11:5-6.
"...he is taken away in his iniquity...that wicked man shall die in his iniquity...for his iniquity that he hath committed, he shall die for it...I will judge you every one after his ways." Ezekiel 33:6, 8, 13, 20.
"It is inevitable that children should suffer from the consequences of parental wrongdoing, but they are not punished for the parents' guilt, except as they participate in their sins. It is usually the case, however, that children walk in the steps of their parents." Patriarchs and Prophets, p 306.
3) "...The flesh of itself cannot act contrary to the will of God." Adventist Home, p 127.
4) "The strongest temptation is no excuse for sin. However great the pressure brought to bear upon the soul, transgression is our own act. It is not in the power of earth or hell to compel any one to sin. The will must consent, the heart must yield, or passion cannot overbear reason, nor iniquity triumph over righteousness." Signs of the Times, October 4, 1883 (vol 1, p 379).
5) "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James 1:14-15.
6) "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil..." Romans 9:11.
7) "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings." Isaiah 7:14-16.
8) "There are many who in their hearts murmur against God. They say, `We inherit the fallen nature of Adam, and are not responsible for our natural imperfections.' They find fault with God's requirements, and complain that He demands what they have no power to give. Satan made the same complaint in heaven, but such thoughts dishonor God." Signs of the Times, August 29, 1892 (vol 2, p 508).
9) "It is the nature of sin to increase. From generation to generation sin has spread like a contagious disease. Hatred of God's law, and as the sure result hatred of all goodness became universal. The world was in its infancy, yet after sin was first introduced it soon became fearful in its proportions until it deluged the world." Signs of the Times, December 20, 1877 (vol 1, p 48).
"Through the medium of influence, taking advantage of the action of mind on mind, he (Satan) prevailed on Adam to sin....And ever since then sin has continued its hateful work, reaching from mind to mind." Review and Herald, April 16, 1901 (vol 4, p 281).
"Sin is corrupting in its nature. One man infected with its deadly leprosy may communicate the taint to thousands." Conflict and Courage, p 120.
10) "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4.
11) "...and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21.
12) "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Ezekiel 18:20.
13) "We are sinners. We will be sinners until Jesus comes, and sinners cannot produce obedience....All we can do is to give up ever hoping to produce any real obedience." Faith That Works, p 175.
"We shall never reach sinless perfection in this life." Review, May 19, 1966, p 4.
"We should remember that only when Jesus comes can we be made perfect." Ministry, December, 1965, p 9.
14) Moses tells us: "...ye shall...observe to do, all the words of this law. For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life..." Deuteronomy 32:46-47.
Joshua tells us: "But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law...to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul." Joshua 22:5.
Jeremiah tells us: "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts and will be their God, and they shall be my people....for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Jeremiah 31:33-34.
David tells us: "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." Psalms 40:8.
Paul tells us: "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Romans 2:13.
"Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:31.
"Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?...Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good." Romans 7:1, 12.
Christ tells us: "What is written in the law?...And he (Jesus) said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live." Luke 10:26, 28.
John tells us: "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:2-3.
15) "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Revelation 14:12.
"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." Revelation 22:14.
16) "Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them." Deuteronomy 27:26.
17) "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes." Psalms 89:30-32.
18) "And whosoever will not do the law of thy God...let judgment be executed speedily upon him..." Ezra 7:26.
19) "Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel." Isaiah 5:24.
20) "The only question asked in the judgment will be, `Have they been obedient to My commandments.'" Gospel Workers, p 315.
21) "For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I....For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me....But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Romans 7:14-15, 18-21, 23-24.
22) "...Who then can be saved? And he (Jesus) said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God." Luke 18:27.
"...for with God all things are possible." Mark 10:27.
"Wherefore he (Christ) is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him..." Hebrews 7:25.
23) "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Matthew 28:18.
"...for without me ye can do nothing." John 15:5.
24) "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Philippians 4:13.
25) "It was impossible for the sinner to keep the law of God, which was holy, just, and good; but this impossibility was removed by the impartation of the righteousness of Christ to the repenting, believing soul. The life and death of Christ in behalf of sinful man were for the purpose of restoring the sinner to God's favor, through imparting to him the righteousness that would meet the claims of the law, and find acceptance with the Father. But it is ever the purpose of Satan to make void the law of God, and to pervert the true meaning of the plan of salvation. Therefore he has originated the falsehood that the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary's cross was for the purpose of freeing men from the obligation of keeping the commandments of God. He has foisted upon the world the deception that God has abolished his constitution, thrown away his moral standard, and made void his holy and perfect law. Had he done this, at what terrible expense would it have been to Heaven! Instead of proclaiming the abolition of the law, Calvary's cross proclaims in thunder tones its immutable and eternal character. Could the law have been abolished, and the government of heaven and earth and the unnumbered worlds of God maintained, Christ need not have died. The death of Christ was to forever settle the question of the validity of the law of Jehovah. Having suffered the full penalty for a guilty world, Jesus became the Mediator between God and man, to restore the repenting soul to favor with God by giving him grace to keep the law of the Most High. Christ came not to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill them to the very letter. The atonement of Calvary vindicated the law of God as holy, just, and true, not only before the fallen world, but before Heaven and before worlds unfallen. Christ came to magnify the law and to make it honorable." Signs of the Times, June 20, 1895 (vol 3, p 216).
26) "Satan declared that it was impossible for the sons and daughters of Adam to keep the law of God, and thus charged upon God a lack of wisdom and love. If they could not keep the law, then there was fault with the Lawgiver. Men who are under the control of Satan repeat these accusations against God, in asserting that man can not keep the law of God." Signs of the Times, January 16, 1896 (vol 3, p 264).
27) "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways....Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." Psalms 119:1-3, 11.
"...Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not." Exodus 20:20.
28) "...Jesus findeth him in the temple, and saith unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee." John 5:14.
29) "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?...Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him...Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:1-2, 6-9, 11.
"Awake to righteousness, and sin not..." 1 Corinthians 15:34.
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins..." 1 John 2:1-2.
"And ye know that he (Jesus) was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him (Jesus) sinneth not...Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin..." 1 John 3:5-6, 9.
30) "It is Satan's constant effort to misrepresent the character of God, the nature of sin, and the real issues at stake in the great controversy. His sophistry lessens the obligation of the divine law and gives men license to sin." Great Controversy, p 569.
31) "...for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." 2 Peter 2:19.
"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Romans 6:16.
"He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed (Christ) remaineth in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother." 1 John 3:8-10.
32) "The gift of God in his beloved Son was the expression of an incomprehensible love. It was the utmost that God could do to preserve the honor of his law, and still save the transgressor. Why should man not study the theme of redemption? It is the greatest subject that can engage the human mind. If men would contemplate the love of Christ, displayed in the cross, their faith would be strengthened to appropriate the merits of his shed blood, and they would be cleansed and saved from sin. There are many who will be lost, because they depend on legal religion, or mere repentance for sin. But repentance for sin alone cannot work the salvation of any soul. Man cannot be saved by his own works. Without Christ it is impossible for him to render perfect obedience to the law of God; and heaven can never be gained by an imperfect obedience; for this would place all heaven in jeopardy, and make possible a second rebellion." Signs of the Times, December 30, 1889 (vol 2, p 345).
33) "Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin." John 8:34.
"For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." Hebrews 10:26-27.
"The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin." Deuteronomy 24:16.
"What more could he have done for his vineyard than he has done? God has made provision to supply his rich grace, to give divine power for the performance of his work. Nothing is wanting on the part of God; the lack is on the part of the human agency, who refuses to co-operate with divine intelligences. Through the plan he has devised, nothing can be done for the salvation of man save through the co-operation of man. Sinners who have been blessed with light and evidence, who know that through grace that can be supplied to them, they may meet the conditions upon which salvation is promised, and yet who decline to make the attempt, have but themselves to blame for their own destruction. We feel that of such it may be said that Christ has died for them in vain." The Home Missionary, April 1, 1895.
* Here are the links to the quotes used for the other parts in this series: