Laodicea is Counseled: Part 5
I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Revelation 3:18
We need to thank God that the True Witness does not close His message to Laodicea with the evaluation of verse 17. After shattering our false security by telling us how wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked we truly are, Jesus goes on to reassure us that our situation is not hopeless. He offers a complete remedy for our problem. There is hope!
Just as Laodicea’s problems are many, so Christ has a multiple solution. He says, I counsel you to buy from me:
1. “Gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich”
2. “white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed”
3. “eye salve, that thou mayest see” (verse 18).
As a solution to our poverty and wretchedness, Christ offers us gold purified in the fire so that we may be even richer than we think we are! For our miserable nakedness, He offers us white raiment so that we will not appear unclothed in the judgment. And for our blindness, He offers eye salve so that we may be able to see clearly our true condition. This is the threefold remedy Jesus offers for our threefold condition.
But note a very important phrase in His solution. “I counsel thee to buy of me.” The precious heavenly merchandise Christ offers us is not free. There is a price to be paid. Normally, these things and what they signify in Scripture are presented as free gifts of God. Then why does Jesus tell Laodicea that she must buy them”
They are free gifts only to those who are poor in spirit. But for the self-righteous, like Laodicea, they are not free; they come with a price. Israel had the same problem as Laodicea – self-righteousness. Through Isaiah, God gave His sales pitch to Israel, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Isaiah 55:1. Now this makes no sense; in fact, it seems to be a contradiction. How can a person buy something if he has no money” And if he can buy without money, what is the price”
We need to understand how the word buy is being used here. It’s being used the same way we use it in everyday speech ” to exchange something you have for something you want more. In Bible times, people often exchanged goods in a barter system. If a person had too much corn growing in his garden, he would exchange it for wheat, perhaps. No money changed hands, but that was “buying” wheat, as far as the people in Bible times were concerned.
It really isn”t any different if we use money as the medium of exchange. Let”s say you pass a shop and see a lovely pair of shoes in the window. The price tag reads – $150″. You say to yourself, “They are expensive, but I like them. Should I get them or not?” Now, you have $150 in your pocket. It”s yours; you earned it through hard work. But the question you have to decide is: “Should I give up my money for this pair of shoes?” That is what buying is ” exchanging something you have for something you want more.
Laodicea may be poor in reality, but she does have something that is very valuable to her. It is her self-righteousness, produced by her works of the law. That is the basis of her pride ” the basis of our pride; even our denominational pride. When a person, or a group of people, has had great success in the religious life, it isn”t easy to give it up for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The history of the Jews demonstrates this, as does the history of our own Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1888. The more outward success we have, the harder it is to discard it all for the righteousness of Jesus. It costs a great deal to do that; it”s terribly expensive. Paul says:
“I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews” But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ.” (Philippians 3:4, 5, 7, 8)
Paul was extremely successful as a Pharisee, yet he was willing to count all his successes as mere trash in comparison to the righteousness of Christ. When the True Witness says to Laodicea, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire,” He is saying, “You must give up your self-righteousness.” That isn”t easy to do, and the more self-righteousness we have, the more difficult it is to exchange it for the righteousness of Jesus. Ellen White says:
“The people of God are represented in the message to the Laodiceans as in a position of carnal (fleshly) security. They are at ease, believing themselves to be in an exalted condition of spiritual attainment.” (3T:252)
“I asked the meaning of the shaking I had seen (in the church) and was shown that it would be caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans. This will have its effect upon the heart of the receiver and will lead him to exalt the standard and pour forth the straight truth. Some will not bear this straight testimony. They will rise up against it, and this will cause a shaking among God’s people.” (1T:181)
“They (pastors) are not willing to be deprived of the garments of their own self-righteousness. They are not willing to exchange their own righteousness, which is unrighteousness, for the righteousness of Christ, which is pure unadulterated truth.” (TM: 65)
The flesh does not give up its own righteousness without a fight. It happened in our church in 1888, and it continues to happen. The flesh says, “I worked hard for this righteousness. Why should I give it up?” But there is no room for a mixture of self in the pure gospel of Christ our righteousness. Our attitude must continually be, “Not I, but Christ.”
If anyone in the Jewish church was famous for self-righteousness, if there was anyone who could claim wonderful success, it was the apostle Paul before his conversion. He was without equal whether judged on the basis of his birth, his status as a Pharisee, or his law performance. It was zeal for God that caused him to persecute the early Christians. Yet Paul was willing to give up all this success for the righteousness of Christ. He says, “Lord, I was on fire for You, and when I persecuted Christians, I wasn”t doing it in rebellion against You. In my mind, I was serving You. Regarding the righteousness of the law, I was blameless. But those things that I thought were going to qualify me for heaven, I have come to count as rubbish compared to Christ and His righteousness.” (see Philippians 3:4-9)
Paul was willing to give up all his religious success in exchange for Christ”s righteousness. That is what the True Witness is talking about when He counsels Laodicea to “buy” gold, white raiment, and eye salve. We give up our self-righteousness, which means so much to us, in exchange for Christ”s righteousness, which can alone make us rich and clothed and able to see.
But notice that this exchange involves suffering. Paul says, “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things” (Philippians 3:8). It hurts our pride, individually and denominationally, when we give up all that we have attained through our hard work in order to accept Christ’s righteousness. It”s painful to our human natures. But we have only two options: we can cling to our own self-righteousness, which we have developed by much effort, or we can accept Christ”s righteousness, which we receive by faith alone. We cannot have both; we must give up one or the other. That is the price we have to pay; it”s a costly price, but it is the only solution to our Laodicean problems.
When the True Witness asks us to “buy” from Him gold and white raiment and eye salve, He is asking us to give up everything ” our opinion of ourselves, all that we have thought was profit to us, but is not. All this we must exchange for Christ”s righteousness, both in terms of our justification and our sanctification. The formula for both is the same ” “Not I, but Christ.” That’s an expensive price, but it is what is required to “buy” the goods the True Witness offers. Are we willing to give up self and all the success that has given us “stars in our crown” Are we willing to give up all for the righteousness of Christ” That is the price Paul the Pharisee had to pay, and it is the price we must pay as well.
That is why Ellen White says the counsel of the True Witness to Laodicea will produce a shaking in the church. “Because some ” especially those who have been successful in developing self-righteousness — will not be willing to pay the price. People who successfully produce self-righteousness usually have very strong wills. Strong-willed persons have greater success than weak-willed persons. Strong-willed persons give the rest of us a hard time in committee meetings, and they often give sinners a hard time in discipline committees. They come down hard on people. ”
Never forget that God views all our spiritual successes as filthy rags. Whatever we think is valuable in terms of our own spiritual achievements is, in God’s eyes, tainted and impure, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities (self-righteousness) like the wind, have taken us away.” (Isaiah 64:6).
We have examined the meaning of the word buy in the True Witness”s counsel. Now let”s look at the three items of merchandise He offers to Laodicea. The first is “gold tried in the fire” (Revelation 3:18). What does this represent” Peter gives us a clue:
“For a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” (1Peter 1:6, 7).
“Gold tried in the fire” is simply “faith that has been purified of self”. It is the faith of Jesus Christ, because Jesus” faith was purified by fire at Gethsemane and at the cross. In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed three times, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42). He didn’t allow self to have any part in His redemptive mission. Every trace of self was crucified in the life and death of Christ (see Luke 9:23).
When we first accept Christ, our faith is still egocentric. We accept Him either because we are afraid of the judgment or because we want to go to heaven. That is the normal experience of most Christians. But Christ wants to purify our faith of this egocentric motivation. He wants us to have what Paul calls “faith which worketh by love” (Galatians 5:6). That is the gold tried in the fire that the True Witness wants us to have.
“Faith and love are golden treasures, elements that are greatly wanting among God’s people” (Testimonies for the church 3:255). Don”t we have faith” Yes, but it is an egocentric faith. We must give it up for the faith that is motivated by agape love. We must exchange our self-centered faith for Christ”s self-sacrificing faith. Ellen White says:
“The gold tried in the fire is faith that works by love. Only this can bring us into harmony with God. We may be active, we may do much work; but without love, such as dwelt in the heart of Christ, we can never be numbered with the family of heaven.” (Christ”s Object Lessons, 158).
We must be careful when we read such a statement that we don”t read it only in the context of justification. Ellen White is writing here in terms of sanctification as well. Sanctification is the evidence of justification, and it must be reflected in us more and more. Without Christ’s agape love, we can never truly reflect His character. There must be spiritual growth so that the very life of Christ will become our life. “The gold here recommended as having been tried in the fire is faith and love. It makes the heart rich; for it has been purged until it is pure, and the more it is tested the more brilliant is its luster.” (4T:88).
So the gold Christ offers is “faith which worketh by love.” (Galatians 5:6). It is a faith that has been purged of self. That is what the True Witness is offering us. He says, “I want to offer you My faith, which is motivated by pure love, in exchange for your faith, which is self-centered.”
The second item Christ offers Laodicea is white raiment. This is the righteousness of Jesus ” both imputed and imparted. But we need to be clear that it is His imputed righteousness that qualifies us, or gives us the title, for heaven ” not His imputed righteousness plus His imparted righteousness. The righteousness that qualifies us for heaven was accomplished for us, but outside us, in the holy life and death of Christ. Imparted righteousness reproduces Christ”s righteousness within us; it gives evidence that His righteousness has been imputed to us by faith and thus fits us for heaven. This is an important distinction because some teach that the righteousness that qualifies us for heaven is a combination of the imputed righteousness of Christ (justification) plus His imparted righteousness (sanctification).
Paul says, “What shall we say then” That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.” (Romans 9:30, 31). He presents two groups of people ” Gentiles and Israel ” and two methods of achieving righteousness ” faith or law keeping. The Gentiles succeeded, and the Jews failed. Why” Because the Gentiles accepted Christ as their righteousness, while the Jews tried to become righteousness through law keeping.
Paul is saying that there can be no mixture of self-righteousness and Christ our righteousness. It is either one or the other. The moment you accept Christ”s righteousness, you must give up your own self-righteousness. The moment you uphold self-righteousness, Christ’s righteousness becomes an offense to you. Paul concludes, “Whosoever believeth on him (Christ) shall not be ashamed.” (verse 33). Those who buy the white raiment will ensure that the shame of their nakedness will not appear (see Revelation 3:18). They will not be ashamed, because they will be clothed with the imputed righteousness of Christ, the only righteousness that will be able to stand perfect in the judgment. If we appear in the judgment in our own self-righteousness, we will appear naked, because God looks not only at what we have done, but at the motive for doing it. In fact, He is concerned primarily with motive. And self-righteousness is always motivated, or polluted, with self. It”s true that our works (the imparted righteousness of Christ) will testify in the judgment that we have received His imputed righteousness, but they will not contribute in the least to our justification.
So the white raiment that the True Witness offers to Laodicea is the imputed and imparted righteousness of Christ. “The marriage of the Lamb is come”, John writes, “and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” (Revelation 19:7, 8). Christ has been waiting for generations to reproduce His character in His bride so that she might be ready for the marriage.
Is the fine linen, the white raiment, something that the bride produces for herself” Does she make herself ready through self-effort” No. It was granted that she should be clothed in white raiment. Christ clothes His bride; she does not clothe herself. “The white raiment is purity of character, the righteousness of Christ imparted to the sinner. This is indeed a garment of heavenly texture that can be bought only of Christ for a life of willing obedience” (4T:88). Here, Ellen White does not mean obedience in the sense of obedience to the law; “willing obedience” means being willing to say, “Not I, but Christ”. It is an obedience of faith that manifests itself in obedience to all the commandments of God.
Finally, the True Witness offers us eye salve. In the Middle East during New Testament times, people didn”t have sunglasses. They used a black ointment to protect their eyes from the glare of the sun and to help them see without squinting in its harsh light. The eye salve is used as a symbol of the Holy Spirit opening our eyes. The Holy Spirit guides us into all truth (see John 16:13, 14). He is the only One who can open our eyes and show us our true condition ” that our self-righteousness is like filthy rags. Ellen White writes, “The eye salve is that wisdom and grace which enables us to discern between the evil and the good and to detect sin under any guise.” (4T:88). Self-righteousness is actually sin, but it doesn”t appear to be sinful. It looks good ” until the eye salve allows us to see it in its true light.
Remember that the general context of the entire Laodicean message is “works”. The key phrase is “I know thy works” (Revelation 3:15). Are Laodicea”s works hot” Are they cold” They are neither; they are lukewarm. Christ wants our works to be hot. And they can be hot only through His imparted righteousness. He offers us His imputed righteousness so we may be clothed and not stand naked in the judgment. But He also offers us His imparted righteousness so that He may be fully reflected in us. This has to take place before the end can come. (see Revelation 18:1).
“Again and again has the voice from heaven addressed you. Will you obey this voice” Will you heed the counsel of the True Witness to seek the gold tried in the fire, the white raiment and the eye salve” The gold is faith and love; the white raiment is the righteousness of Christ; the eye salve is that spiritual discernment which will enable you to see the wiles of Satan and shun them, to detest sin and abhor it, to see truth and obey it.” (5T:233).
For this reason, God allows the last generation of Christians to go through the time of trouble. It is part of the work of producing the righteous character of Christ in us; it is part of the process of reflecting the white raiment we have “bought” from Christ. Ellen White writes:
“Their (God’s people’s) affliction is great, the flames of the furnace seem about to consume them; but the Refiner will bring them forth as gold tried in the fire. God’s love for His children during the period of their severest trial is as strong and tender as in the days of their sunniest prosperity; but it is needful to be placed in the furnace of fire; their earthliness must be consumed, that the image of Christ may be perfectly reflected.” (The Great Controversy, 621).
Notice that the time of trouble will be the real test of righteousness by faith, showing whether we have truly bought the pure white raiment of Christ. What will we have to give up in the time of trouble” We will have to abandon any attempt to hold on to self-righteousness, because the real issue in the great tribulation will be our faith. (see Luke 18:8; Isaiah 54:5-8). This refining process does not secure salvation for us. Rather, its purpose is to demonstrate to the world that the gospel “is the power of God unto salvation.” (Romans 1:16). Then God will declare to the world, “Here are My people who have the faith of Jesus. You can try them to the very limit. You cannot kill them, but you can test them.” And as we are tested, what will appear is a faith motivated by self-sacrificing love. Our anchor in the time of trouble will not be our love for God, but God’s love for us (see Romans 8:35-39). Our faith will lay hold on His love, which was manifested for sinners on the cross.
What held Jesus to the cross” Why didn”t He come down and save Himself when taunted to do so” Wasn”t He able to do that” Of course, He was able! But by faith He clung to the Father”s love. As far as His feelings were concerned. He felt the Father had forsaken Him. But by faith He believed in the love of God that never fails. (see 1 Corinthians 13:8). We need that kind of faith as well. Our faith, too, must be in God”s love and His righteousness, which He has given us freely in Jesus Christ.
Notice how Ellen White describes the faith of Jesus tried by fire at the cross:
“Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe. In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father”s acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him whom it had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father”s favour was withdrawn. By faith Christ was victor.” (Desire of Ages, 756).
Christ comes to each of us and says, “Will you please buy” Will you please give up your own self-evaluation that has deceived you so badly” Will you give up all your spiritual successes and all those badges that the church has given you for your great efforts” Are you willing to consider all that as rubbish in exchange for My righteousness””
We must each choose. I know the choice I have made. I have discovered that the righteousness which can qualify me for heaven is not a successful ministry. The only righteousness that can qualify me for heaven is Christ’s righteousness. May God help us, individually and as a church, to buy the gold, the white raiment and eye salve that will make it possible for us to reflect the character of Christ fully in these last days!