Derik's Story: The Sabbath Is Not the Main Point

One still night, many ages ago, a young woman came into a strange town frightened and hurting. She carried within herself both shame and glory. Not many people of her day were accustomed to seeing supernatural beings. Not many people in any age have considered it normal. All she had to go on were the words of an apparition that only she had seen. Who would believe that?

She must have gone into labor early in the evening because it was her first child. Before the night was over, God passed through her birth canal into the realm of humanity. He lay in a rock, carved from the side of the cave, which was congealed with centuries of animal saliva, dirt, and grains. Here, the Great Shepherd folded His defenseless Lamb into safety from the ravening world outside. Our minds can never perceive the mysteries of that night or those of the next 33 years, or, for that matter, of the next 2000. The familiarity of the story, however, has reduced it to bathrobes and tulle wings. 

Until our hearts are shaken with awe by Jesus, the story has not yet become real. The awe doesn’t come by careful study; it comes from a realm that can only be perceived by our spirits. This is the conundrum we encounter in deciphering the mystery of Spirit inhabiting flesh. If the only tool we bring to bear on the task of “knowing” God is mind, we will miss the mark altogether. Spirit produces spirit. Flesh produces flesh. The Spirit Father is the Father of our spirits. A human father produced our body and physical inheritance.

Only the Holy Spirit can awaken our inner beings to the mystery of the incarnation, the cross, the substitution of Christ’s life for ours, and the magnificence of the gospel. When He does, our hearts will burn within us, and we will never tire of searching deeper and sharing wider the wonders of His love. Everything that Israel enacted and re-enacted for 1400 years pointed to Jesus: every article in the temple, every feast, and every Sabbath. Those things were not an end in themselves. They were useless symbols except for their significance in pointing the way to the Savior.  He is the Light, He is the Bread of life, He is the Living Water, and just as surely, He IS The Sabbath.

Where are the Adventist preachers who will preach the gospel instead of the Sabbath? Where are the people who will lift up Jesus and His completed work on the cross instead of the Investigative Judgment? Where are the people of faith who will lay down their lives, not for a church or an organization or a project – but for Jesus Christ? Where is the selfless army that will storm the gates of hell to bring the lost to salvation, not a denomination? That passion arises from a deep conviction that there is one name given in Heaven and on Earth worthy to be praised, one gate through which we must pass into eternal life. It is the majestic name of Jesus Christ. Only this life purpose is worthy of our devotion. It was not until I understood this that life took on meaning. I cast off the worthless doctrines that had become ends in themselves and turned my face to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I invite you to do the same.