Introduction
The members of the General Conference appointed Primacy of the Gospel Committee (1994-2000) were given a special responsibility—to study if the Bible supports the righteousness by faith ideas taught by A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner during the years of Ellen White's endorsements (1888-1896). The primary focus of attention was to be the Bible, not with an intention to disparage Ellen White's writings, but because she herself as "the lesser light" directs us to the study of "the greater light." The Seventh-day Adventist Church must proclaim Bible truth to the world.However, as an introduction to Bible study, several serious statements of Ellen White catch our attention and direct us to a closer investigation into the biblical teaching of the "in Christ" idea (all emphasis supplied):
(1) Her astounding statement in The Desire of Ages. When the Father put His arms around Jesus at His baptism in the River Jordan, at the same time He put His arms around the entire human race "in Him." "The word that was spoken to Jesus at the Jordan, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, embraces humanity. God spoke to Jesus as our representative. With all our sins and weaknesses, we are not cast aside as worthless. 'He hath made us accepted in the Beloved'" (Eph. 1.6).1 (The Desire of Ages, p. 13.)
(2) The Emancipation Proclamation statement. Ellen White likened the entire human race to the slaves in the American Confederacy legally set free by President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1,1863: "[The Saviour's] heart of divine love and sympathy is drawn out most of all for the one who is the most hopelessly entangled in the snares of the enemy. With His own blood He has signed the emancipation papers of the race" (Ministry of Healing, pp. 89, 90).
(3) The "Christ saved the world" statements. Ellen White recognized that Christ has given salvation to every human being: "Christ... redeemed Adam's disgraceful fall, and saved the world" (My Life Today, p. 323; Youth's Instructor, June 2, 1898). "He restored the whole human race to favor with God"3 (Selected Messages, Book One, p. 343). "Christ ... acted in God's stead toward humanity, saving the race from immediate death" (Signs of the Times, May 29,1901).
(4) The wicked live because of the cross. "Never one, saint or sinner, eats his daily food, but he is nourished by the body and the blood of Christ" (The Desire of Ages, p. 660).
(5) In order to be lost, you must reject the gift of God "in Christ." "The sinner may resist this love, may refuse to be drawn to Christ; but if he does not resist, he will be drawn to Jesus ... in repentance" (Steps to Christ, p. 27).
Ellen White's conclusions: In one certain sense, the entire human race is "in Christ"; every soul has been "emancipated" in Christ; He accomplished the salvation of the world; in some special sense, every human soul eats the Lord's Supper; the "gift" that the grace of Christ gives is so effective that one must resist and reject it in order to be lost.
What does the bible say about the "in christ" idea?
God's love for the world is so strong and effective that the sinner must disbelieve in order to "perish." John 3:16-19.The Father laid upon Christ the guilt of the sins of every human being. Isaiah 53:6. He "adopted" each one in Christ. As our second "Adam," Christ has taken humanity into Himself. As surely as Adam was redeemed and saved when “the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world,” so surely is every descendant of Adam redeemed and "saved" in that same objective sense. He can receive or reject the "gift" given him "in Christ."
Thus Christ has already died the second death of every human being. Hebrews 2:9.
"Not imputing unto them their trespasses," God has credited to every human being the full benefits of the sacrifice of Christ. Our work is to tell people so. 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.
Thus Christ "eats with sinners" (Luke 15:2) because He treats them as though they were not guilty, their sins being "imputed" upon Himself. To treat a guilty sinner as though he were not guilty is due to a legal justification or "judicial... verdict of acquittal" "in Christ" (Romans 5:16, NEB).
The Father has "adopted" the entire human race "in Christ." Ephesians 1:3-6.8
The sixteen pronouns "we," "us," and "our" in Isaiah 53:1-6 include every member of the human race because the "we" is the same "all we [who] like sheep have gone astray." ("All have sinned," Romans 3:23). It follows therefore that the iniquity of "us all" which was laid upon Christ is that of every human individual. Thus, again, it is seen that Christ has adopted the human race "in Himself."
It follows also that every human soul can choose to believe and say with David, "O Lord, truly I am Thy servant, ... Thou hast loosed my bonds" (Psalm 116:16). Every human being can believe and claim there is an Attorney defending him at the judgment bar of God. 1 John 2:1, 2.
Christ is declared to be "the Saviour of the world," "the Saviour of all men." John 4:42; 1 Timothy 4:10.
Since He has "tasted death for every man," the "death" which Christ has "abolished" must be the second death.
2 Timothy 1:10. Since God wants "all men to be saved and to come unto a knowledge of the truth," He has specifically not prepared "the lake of fire" for any human being, but for the "devil and his angels." Matthew 25:41. The wicked who end up in the lake of fire will do so only because they have chosen eternal death. They "love" it because they "hate" Christ. Proverbs 8:36.
Christ has lifted for "all men" the legal condemnation ("judicial verdict of condemnation") that Adam's transgression brought upon the human race. Romans 5:16 (all versions except The Clear Word).
Reversing the "condemnation" in Adam, Christ has brought to "all men" a legal "justification unto life" in the "gift" of Himself. Romans 5:18.
The same "all" who sinned are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Romans 3:23, 24. This is not the experience of justification by faith, for "all" do not experience that; this is the foundation on which the experience can rest when the sinner does believe.
The act of justifying took place when Christ's blood was shed. Romans 5:9. In a corporate sense "we were reconciled to God by His death" long before we were even born. Vs. 10. When we believe the gospel, we "receive the reconciliation." Vs. 11.
As every human being is by creation and by nature placed "in Adam," so the same every human being is by redemption placed "in Christ" as His "purchased possession." The first and second resurrections prove the legal identity of all human beings (the saved and the lost) "in Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:22; Ephesians 1:14. But the lost have chosen to repudiate the identity already effected for them.
An adopted person is legally free to repudiate the adoption. So the sinner can choose by unbelief to repudiate his/her "election" or "adoption" "in Christ." Joshua 24:15.
As an example of how the lost repudiate their being "chosen in Christ," Esau's experience is a warning. He "had" the birthright, it was his by virtue of his birth; no one could wrest it from him; but he chose to "sell" it for a trifling sensual indulgence. Genesis 25:34; Hebrews 12:15-17.
The horror of suffering the second death will be the final realization when the lost see how they have repeated what Esau did. They will see how they "despised" their "election" "in Christ." They will understand how they had the birthright blessing (it wasn't merely "offered" to them!), they were "chosen ... in Him," "predestinated ... unto the adoption of children by [in] Jesus Christ," "accepted in the beloved," "in whom [they had] redemption through His blood." All this they will see they have despised and rejected as did Esau. The lake of fire will mercifully end the horror of a total self-condemnation they will feel. Ephesians 1:3-7; Revelation 20:12-14; Hebrews 10:29.
To "believe in Jesus" is a choice to appreciate what Christ has accomplished for us by His sacrifice in the gift of Himself. Faith is a choice for experiential identity of oneself "in Christ," to validate all that has already been accomplished for him/her. Receiving, believing, appropriating, appreciating this objective gospel results in experiencing the subjective gospel, which is a life transformed by justification by faith.
Believing and appreciating God's love is "easy" while resisting or "kicking against" it is "hard." Matthew 11:29-30; Acts 26:14.