August 21, 1900

“The Sermon. The Sabbath-school Work” ^{1Sermon delivered Sabbath, July 28, 1900, in the Tabernacle, Battle Creek, Mich., and stenographically reported.} Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 77, 34, pp. 530, 531.

A. T. JONES

THE book of Galatians is God’s protest of the true gospel against salvation by formalism; against salvation by self-righteousness; against salvation by our own works. It is God’s protest forever against all formalism, against all ceremonialism of whatsoever sort.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 530.1

And that book of Galatians, of all the books in the Bible, is present truth to-day, to Seventh-day Adventists. [Voice: “Amen.”] Do you suppose that it is a mere make-up, to fill time with something only to be doing on Sabbaths, that these lessons have been arranged? Do you think that it is a mere happen-so that the book of Galatians should be brought before Sabbath-schools throughout the world now, to be studied itself, within itself, for just what it says? Do you think that it has come about without any of God’s thought at all? [Voice: “No.”] I do not suppose you do. I believe that you believe that the Lord has brought it about, that this portion of the Scriptures should be studied now.” [Voice: “Amen.”]ARSH August 21, 1900, page 530.2

Well, then, that itself shows that it is present truth now; because—do not make the mistake of thinking that all the ceremonialism in the world was forsaken when they of the Pharisees and of the Jews, in Paul’s day, were left behind. Seventh-day Adventists can be formalists and ceremonialists, just as really as could those “Pharisees which believed” back yonder. I say, They can be. A man can turn Sabbath-keeping into ceremonialism just as really as they did. True, they had other, and more, ceremonies than we have; but that makes no difference. We have ceremonies just as really as they had, even though not so many. Have not we the ceremony of baptism? Have not we the ceremony of the Lord’s Supper? Have not we the forms of worship—going to church on Sabbath, prayers, singing, etc.? Now, we can turn all that into formalism and ceremonialism, just as really as those other folks did. The principle is the same now as ever.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 530.3

Bear in mind also that the book of Galatians was not given to correct simply a particular form of ceremonialism; it was given to correct the THING. If it had been given to correct only some particular form of ceremonialism, and that was corrected at the time, what then would be the use of that book at the present time? It would not fit any other particular form or ceremony. But when the book deals only with the thing itself; when it strikes at the very root of ceremonialism in whatever form it could possibly appear,—then the book is forever present truth, and is applicable everywhere and to all people.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 530.4

Indeed, ceremonialism is the culmination of things in the world, in our day. Therefore the book of Galatians is not only present truth to us, but is likewise present truth to the whole world. What do the Scriptures say shall come in the last days?—“In the last days perilous times shall come.” There is a cause of these perilous times. What is the cause? There are nineteen or twenty causes mentioned; but one of them is that men are “lovers of pleasures mores than lovers of God,” and another is that they have a “form of godliness,” but deny “the power thereof.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5. With the Pharisees in Paul’s day—the “Pharisees which believed,” and confused the Galatian Christians—the trouble was that they had the forms of godliness but not the power.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 530.5

The gospel is “the power of God.” It is right to have the forms which God has ordained, when we first have the power of God. But it is only perdition to have only the forms.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 530.6

First of all in the gospel of God is the power of God. First of all in that “other gospel” are forms and ceremonies. In that “other gospel” the way is, Do this, do that, do the other, and you will be all right. The first thing in the gospel of God is, BE all right, THEN do this, that, or the other thing, as God calls you to do.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 530.7

And right here is where even Seventh-day Adventists are in danger of making a mistake in these times, and with relation to this very thing that is given to us to preach to the world. You have heard it said that “righteousness is right doing.” It is no such thing—except as a consequence. If you have had the idea that, rightly speaking, primarily and in itself, “righteousness is right doing,” please abandon that idea before you leave the house. [Voices: “Amen,” “amen.”] Righteousness is not that. Listen! consider something familiar: you speak of sweetness. Now, in speaking of sweetness, do you, did you ever in your life, mean, or expect, to be understood that sweetness is sweet doing? Is sweetness sweet doing? [Voice: “No.”] True. What is it? [Voice: “It is the thing itself.] It is sweet being. Richness—is that rich doing? As a consequence the doing comes, just as the quality of sweetness will impart sweetness to other things. But sweetness itself is not sweet doing; no more is righteousness itself right doing.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 530.8

The very construction of the word itself excludes the idea of righteousness being in itself right doing. Is the word “righteous-ing”?—No; it is righteous-ness. Does the suffix “ness” signify action?—No; never. It signifies quality. The suffix “ing” signifies action. Sweeten-ing tells of doing something. Sweet-n-ess tells only of being something. Right-n-ess is being: that signifies quality, essence. For the word “righteousness” is only the lengthened form of the word right-ness, which has descended from “right-ness” through “right-wise-ness” to “right-eous-ness.” Do you not all now see that there is a difference between righteousness and right doing? It is just the difference between being right and then as a consequence doing right, and being wrong and then trying to do right in order to be right.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 530.9

There is danger of Seventh-day Adventists falling into the idea that right doing is itself righteousness, rather than its being only the consequence of righteousness; and then going about to do right things, in order to be righteous. And that is exactly the case of the “Pharisees which believed,” who had confused the Galatians Christians, removing them from the true gospel, “unto another gospel,“—righteousness by works,—righteousness by doing things,—“which is not another,” because it is not a gospel at all. For, of course, if righteousness is to come to me by my doing of things, then, in the nature of things, the more things I do, the more righteousness I shall have. But in all the doing I find not rest nor peace. And so the things that I must do in order to be righteous pile up, and up, until it is so much that I see with despair that I can not do them all. Then, all that I can say is, “Well, I know I have not the peace of God: I know that I am not what I ought to be. but I have done my best, and that is the best that I can do. And if that is not enough, I can not help it; for I can not do any better.” And that is precisely the Laodicean condition: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot; I would that thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” “Because,” in pride of self-righteousness, “thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Revelation 3:15-17.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 530.10

But that will never do. Therefore to the people to-day, in those Sabbath-school lessons in the book of Galatians, as really as in the book of Revelation, it is said: “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.” Revelation 3:18. What is the white raiment?—“The righteousness of saints:” it is the righteousness of God by faith which makes saints. He says, Get it of me. You can not get it by your doing anything. It does not come that way. It is the righteousness of God, not of men. It is essence, quality; the character, the nature, of God. Get it of God by receiving it, the free gift of God. Get this righteousness, and it will impart its blessed quality, its character, to all that God calls upon you to do. Sweetness will impart its quality to whatsoever needs it. And so the righteousness of God, which is the very essence of righteousness, will impart its blessed quality of righteousness to whatsoever it touches in the heart and life of him who needs righteousness. Oh, let this righteousness touch your heart! Yea, let it dwell in your heart and life by faith. Then righteousness will be imparted to every action you perform, and to all the deeds that come from God to you to do; and thus the righteousness of the law of God will be fulfilled in you, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [Voice: “Praise the Lord!”] Yes: let all the people say, Praise the Lord.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 532.1

(To be continued.)

“The Third Angel’s Message. Its Basis in the Seven Trumpets” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 77, 34, p. 536.

“THE first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth; and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.” Revelation 8:7.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.1

The time covered by this prophecy is from 395 to 419 A.D., and related to the invasions of the Visigoths, especially under Alaric, and the great horde of barbarians under Radagaisus, in which wide regions, “which were covered with elegant houses and well-cultivated farms, ... were suddenly changed into a desert, distinguished from the solitude of nature only by smoking ruins,” causing “a secluded old man of Verona pathetically” to lament “the fate of his contemporary trees, which must blaze in the conflagration of the whole country [note the words of the prophecy—“the third part of the trees was burnt up”].”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.2

“The public devotion of the age was impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs of the Catholic Church on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union of the Roman Empire was dissolved; its genius was humbled in the dust; and armies of unknown barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of the north, had established their victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.3

“The last word, Africa, is the signal for the sounding of the second trumpet. The scene changes from the shores of the Baltic to the southern coast of the Mediterranean, or from the frozen regions of the north to the borders of burning Africa. And, instead of a storm of hail being cast upon the earth, a burning mountain was cast into the sea.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.4

“And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea; and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.” Revelation 8:8, 9.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.5

The period covered by this trumpet is from 428 to 476. “The history illustrative of the sounding of this trumpet evidently relates to the invasion and conquest of Africa, and afterward of Italy, by the terrible Genseric.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.6

“The word Vandalism has become commonplace among historians. In speaking of the decline of Rome, it is recorded that ‘Vandalism desolated her classic fields.’ The hero of Vandal aggression and destruction was Genseric.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.7

“His conquests were, for the most part, NAVAL, and his triumphs were ‘as it were a great mountain burning with fire, ... cast into the sea.’ What figure would better, or so well, illustrate the collision of navies, and the general havoc of war on maritime coasts?”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.8

“In the spring of each year they [the Vandals pirates] equipped a formidable navy in the port of Carthage, and Genseric himself, though in a very advanced age, still commanded in person the most important expeditions. His designs were concealed with impenetrable secrecy till the moment that he hoisted sail. When he was asked by his pilot what course he should steer, ‘Leave the determination to the winds,’ replied the barbarian, with pious arrogance; ‘they will transport us to the guilty coast whose inhabitants have provoked the divine justice.’” Thus the terrible Genseric became “the tyrant of the sea;” and “before he died, in the fullness of years and of glory, he beheld the final extinction of the Empire of the West.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.9

“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood; and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” Revelation 8:10, 11.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.10

The period covered by this trumpet was brief, as “a burning star,” 441-453. Of this Albert Barnes in his Notes, says: “That there would be some chieftain, or warrior, who might be compared to a blazing meteor whose course would be singularly brilliant; who would appear suddenly, LIKE a blazing star, and then disappear like a star whose light was quenced in the waters; that the desolating course of that meteor would be mainly on those portions of the world that abounded with springs of water and running streams; that an effect would be produced as if those streams and fountains were made bitter; that is, that many persons would perish, and that wild desolations would be caused in the vicinity of those rivers and streams, as if a baleful star should fall into the waters, and death should spread over lands adjacent to them and watered by them.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.11

This trumpet describes the work of the terrible Attila, with his Huns and allies. “While the Vandals under Genseric [the “great burning mountain”] for forty years were destroying the Roman power by sea, there were other clans of barbarians confederating in order to strike a decisive blow against the same power by land. All Europe and a part of Asia had been aroused to the great struggle for the mastery. Many tribes are rallying to the standard of Atilla, and the Romans are preparing to repel their terrible foe. Atilla anticipates that his best trophies are beyond the Alps. At the sound of his war-cry, all Europe musters to arms. Since Xerxes led his immense army against the Greeks, no greater body of warriors had ever assembled to act a part in the fulfillment of prophecy. The engagement that succeeded [the battle of Chalons] is recorded as one of the four decisive battles of history.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.12

“The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled on the plain of Chalons. The number of the slain amounted to one hundred and sixty-two thousand, or, according to another account, three hundred thousand persons; and these incredible exaggerations suppose a real or effective loss sufficient to justify the historian’s remark that whole generations may be swept away by the madness of kings, in the space of a single hour.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.13

“The course of the fiery meteor was changed, not stayed; and, touching Italy for the first time, the great star, after having burned as it were a lamp, fell upon the ‘third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters.’ Neither the spirit, nor the forces, nor the reputation of Attila, were impaired by the failure of the Gallic expedition. He passed the Alps, invaded Italy, besieged Aquileia with an innumerable host of barbarians. The succeeding generation could scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia. After this dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued his march; and, as he passed, the cities of Altinum, Concordia, and Padua were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.14

“Attila advanced not further into Italy than the plains of Lombardy and the banks of the Po. He reduced the cities, situated on that river and its tributary streams, to heaps of stones and ashes. But there his ravages ceased. The great star which burned as it were a lamp, no sooner fell upon the fountains and rivers of waters, and turned cities into ashes, than it was extinguished. Unlike the great mountain burning with fire, the great star that fell from heaven, after suddenly scorching a part of Italy, rapidly disappeared. One paragraph in the ‘History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ describes ‘the invasion of Italy by Attila, A.D. 452.’ Another is entitled, under the same date, ‘Attila gives peace to the Romans.’ The next paragraph describes the ‘death of Attila, A.D. 453;’ and the very next records, without any interval, the destruction of his empire.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.15

“And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.” Verse 12.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.16

This trumpet illustrates the closing up of the Roman government. Sun, moon, stars are evidently symbols that denote the rulers in the government—its emperors, consuls, and senators.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.17

The sun sends forth light of itself—the decree of the emperor is law. The moon shines with a borrowed light—the authority of the consul was dependent in some measure on the will of another. The stars shine when the night comes—the wants of the people demanded attention, and then the senate acted.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.18

“The sun was smitten.” Odoacer caused the title of emperor to cease. But one-third part only is affected—the jurisdiction of Rome then extended over only the middle division of the empire, as ceded by Constantine to his three sons. One-third part of the moon was smitten; the effect of this political calamity had the same extent as the former. When the consulship was taken away, Rome had ceded all her territory beyond the Alps.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.19

“The power and the glory of Rome, as bearing rule over any nation, became extinct. The name alone remained to the queen of nations. Every token of royalty disappeared from the imperial city. She who had ruled over the nations sat in the dust, like a second Babylon, and there was no throne where the Cesars had reigned. The last act of obedience to a Roman prince, which that once august assembly performed, was the last emperor of the West, and the abolition of the imperial succession in Italy.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.20

“Neither, at last, was the whole sun smitten, but the ‘third part.’ The throne of the Cesars had for ages been the sun of the world, while other kings were designated as stars. But the imperial power had first been transferred to Constantinople by Constantine; and it was afterward divided between the East and the West. And the Eastern Empire was not yet doomed to destruction. Even the Western Empire was afterwards revived; and a more modern dynasty arose to claim and maintain the title of emperor of the Romans. But, for the first time, after sudden, and violent, and distinctly marked and connected convulsions, the imperial power in Rome, where for so long a period it had reigned triumphant, was cut off forever; and the third part of the sun was smitten.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.21

“But though the third part of the sun was smitten, and the Roman power imperial power was at an end in the city of the Cesars, yet the moon and the stars still shone, or glimmered, for a little longer in the Western hemisphere.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.22

“But in their prophetic order, the consulship and the senate of Rome met their fate, though they fell not by the hands of Vandals or of Goths. The next revolution in Italy was its subjection to Belisarius, the general of Justinian, emperor of the East. He did not spare what barbarians had hallowed. ‘The Roman Consulship Extinguished by Justinian, A.D. 541, is the title of the last paragraph of the fortieth chapter of Gibbon’s ‘History of the Decline and Fall of Rome.’ ‘The succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian, whose despotic temper might be gratified by the silent extinction of a title which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom.’ The third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.23

“In the political firmament of the ancient world, while under the reign of imperial Rome, the emperorship, the consulate, and the senate, shone like the sun, the moon, and the stars. The history of their decline and fall is brought down till the two former were ‘extinguished,’ in reference to Rome and Italy, which so long had ranked as the first of cities and of countries; and finally, as the fourth trumpet closes, we see the ‘extinction of that illustrious assembly,’ the Roman senate. The city that had ruled the world, as if in mockery of human greatness, was conquered by the eunuch Narses, the successor of Belisarius. He defeated the Goths (A.D. 552), achieved ‘the conquest of Rome,’ and the fate of the senate was sealed.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.24

“The calamities of imperial Rome, in its downfall, were fold to the very last of them, till Rome was without an emperor, a consul, or a senate.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 536.25

“Studies in Galatians. Galatians 5:3” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 77, 34, p. 537.

“FOR I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.1

“Debtor to do the whole law.” It is curious that men, in considering this statement, have made it mark a distinction between two laws, and have made it exclude the law of God from the subject under consideration, by allowing to the word “debtor” only the sense of “obligation.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.2

They know, by the scripture, that it is the whole duty of man to fear God and keep his commandments. They know that there can not be any other scripture to contradict that. They know that every man is under obligation to keep the whole law of God, whether he is circumcised or uncircumcised. And, allowing that this term implies only obligation,—that if he is circumcised, he is under obligation to do the whole law,—they conclude that this must exclude the law of God: they conclude that it must be some law that no person is under any obligation to do unless he be circumcised; and that therefore the “whole law” here under consideration must be only the whole ceremonial law of sacrifices and offerings.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.3

On the other hand, there are those who hold themselves under no obligation whatever to keep the law of God, who bring in this text to support them in their disobedience and opposition. They will have it that only those who are circumcised are under any obligation to keep the law of God, and that it was only by being circumcised that the obligation comes; and they know that they are not under any obligation to be circumcised. From this they argue that they are under no obligation to keep the ten commandments.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.4

But both of these are wrong; both of them fail to see the thought that is in this verse. And the cause of this failure is in their allowing to the word “debtor” only the sense of “obligation.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.5

It is true that the word signifies “obligation.” But, in this place, and in every other place in its connection with men’s moral obligations, the word has a meaning so much broader and deeper than that of mere obligation that the sense of mere obligation becomes really secondary.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.6

The word “debtor” in this verse—Galatians 5:3—signifies not only that a person is in debt, and under obligation to pay; but that, beyond this, he is overwhelmingly in debt, with nothing at all wherewith to pay. If a man is debtor, and so under obligation, to pay one thousand dollars, and yet has abundance, or even only the ability to pay the one thousand dollars, that is easy enough. But if a man is debtor, and so under obligation, to pay fourteen millions of dollars ($14,000,000) and has not a single cent wherewith to pay, and is in prison besides, and has no ability whatever to make a cent wherewith to pay his debt, to that man the word “debtor” signifies a great deal more than mere “obligation to pay.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.7

And that is precisely the case here. That is the thought in this verse. That is the meaning embodied here in the word “debtor.” This because the word “debtor,” when used in connection with morals, implies, and can imply, only sin: that the man is a sinner.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.8

This word “debtor” in Galatians 5:3 is precisely the word that is used in Luke 13:4,—“Those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?”—where the word “sinners” is in the text, is “debtors” in the margin.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.9

It is the word used in the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:12). “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;” and which, in Luke’s version of the prayer, plainly expresses the thought of sin, in the words: “Forgive us our sins; for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us.” Luke 11:4.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.10

It is the same word also that is used by the Saviour in Luke 7:41, 42: “There was a certain creditor which had two debtors; the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they nothing [with which] to pay, he frankly forgave them both.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.11

It is the same word also that is used in the parable in Matthew 18:23-35. Indeed, from the verse, Luke 13:4, where the word “sinners” is used in the text and “debtors” is in the margin, the reference is direct to this parable in Matthew 18. That is the parable in which it is said that when a certain king “had begun to reckon” with his servants, “one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents,“—about fourteen million four hundred thousand dollars,—and he had nothing with which to pay. Then the lord “forgave the debt.” But, when the servant found one of his fellow servants who owed him about fifteen dollars, he would not forgive him the debt, but cast him into prison until he should pay the fifteen dollars. Then the king called up his debtor, “and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my Heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” Matthew 18:23, 35.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.12

That thought of delivering the debtor to the tormentors until he should pay all that was due to his lord, belongs with the word; for “the use of the word involves the idea that the debtor is one that must expiate his guilt.” And “sin is called hopheilema, because it involves expiation and the payment of it as a debt, by punishment and satisfaction.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.13

From these scriptures the attentive reader can begin to see that in the words of Galatians 5:3,—“he is debtor to do the whole law,“—there is far more suggested than that he is merely under obligation to accept the claims of the law upon him, and do his best to meet them. All this shows that he is not only under obligation to recognize the binding claims of the law of God, but that he is actually debtor to render to that law all the claims that it has upon him. And in this it is further shown that, of himself, he must everlastingly be debtor; because he has absolutely nothing wherewith to pay, and of himself has no means of acquiring anything with which to pay.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.14

And this indebtedness lies not only in his obligation to do the law from this time forward; it also lies in obligation to make satisfaction for all that is past,—for all the accumulations of the past, up to the present time.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.15

Accordingly, of himself, every man is everlastingly a debtor in all that is implied in this thought in Galatians 5:3, and the kindred texts that we have here cited; because “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” And whosoever would be circumcised in order to be saved and thus seek to be saved by works of self-righteousness, thereby takes upon himself the obligation to pay to the law of God his whole debt, from the beginning of his life unto the end of it. And in that, he also takes upon himself the obligation to expiate all the guilt attaching to his transgressions, and accumulated thereby.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.16

That is what it is to be “debtor to do the whole law.” That is what is stated in the words: “I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.” He is not only debtor; but, by that transaction, he himself voluntarily assumes of himself to discharge all that is involved in his indebtedness.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.17

Now it is true that every man in the world is, of himself, that kind of a debtor. It is also true that any man to-day who seeks justification by his own works, even in the doing of the ten commandments, or of anything else that the Lord has commanded, does thereby assume, and bind himself to pay, all that is involved in the indebtedness. But he can not pay. There is not with him the first element of any possibility, in himself, to pay any of the debt. He is overwhelmed and lost.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.18

But, thanks be to God, whosoever has the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, whosoever depends only on the Lord Jesus and that which Jesus has done, though he be of himself debtor just like any other man, yet, in Christ, he has wherewith abundantly to pay all the indebtedness. Christ has expiated, by punishment and satisfaction, all the guilt of every soul; and by the righteousness of God which he brings, Christ supplies abundance of righteousness to pay all the demands that the law may ever make in the life of him who believes in Jesus.ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.19

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift of the unsearchable riches of Christ. Oh, believe it! Oh, receive it! Poor, overwhelmed, lost “debtor,” “buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed.” “Yea, come, buy... without money and without price.”ARSH August 21, 1900, page 537.20