The Promise

Devotional Message at the 62nd General Conference Session, July 6, 2025

Of all Christians, Seventh-day Adventists should be known for the preaching of the gospel, and we should be secure in our salvation. Unfortunately, for many that is not so. Ask any collection of church members if they are confident of their salvation, and you’ll get a tepid response. I know, because I’ve done it. 

Our mandate is to take the “everlasting gospel” to the world. It is not just about beasts and Babylon. As important as those things are (and they are), Revelation 14 reminds us that our task, our responsibility, our privilege, is to proclaim to the world—boldly, enthusiastically, unabashedly, unashamedly, unambiguously—the gospel. We have a comprehensive message calling people back to true worship, alerting people to the judgment, inviting people out of darkness and into His marvelous light, and helping people to stand on God’s side during this earth’s last great crisis. All this remembering Jesus’ words “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32).

We believe, as Paul did, that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), and we say with him, as we recognize our hopeless case, “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:25). We don’t offer people a theory, a doctrine, or an idea about Christ. We present Christ Jesus Himself, the Savior, Redeemer, and merciful, faithful High Priest, who said, “The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37); “Come to me, all you . . . ” (Matt. 11:28). These are more than statements. They are promises. And God has promised to save all who are willing to surrender their lives to Him. It’s a promise.

Two Poles

But we have a happy knack for confusing the clear, obfuscating the obvious, and undermining the unmistakable. That might also have something to do with loving sin too much to let it go, or being so self-righteous that we can’t see our own faults. So many people find themselves lurching between two poles.

For some, the cross is the sum total of the Christian experience: “Jesus paid it all. I believe that, and so I’m content.” For others: “Yes, Jesus died for me, but I can’t have assurance until I have put every last sin out of my life.”

I had two young men approach me within the space of a year. “Pastor, I don’t think I can go to heaven,” one said. 

“What makes you so special?” I asked him. “The Bible says that anyone who believes in Jesus may have everlasting life. Don’t you believe in Jesus?” 

“Oh, yes, sure,” he stammered. 

“So what’s the problem?” I continued. 

He was ready with an answer. “I’ve been told that I can’t go to heaven until I’ve stopped sinning. And there are still sins that trip me up.” 

I looked him in the eye and said, “Welcome to Christianity.” Then I shared with him the following:

We come in faith to Jesus, and we receive everlasting life (see 1 John 5:12). This is what we call justification, and there’s no need to complicate that term. A woman with some insight once wrote that “pardon and justification are one and the same thing.”1 Forgiven of your sins, you receive a new heart and the gift of eternal life: Justified. And to put a finer point on it, “justification by faith . . . is the third angel’s message in verity.”2 

The Sanctification Continuum

Looking at the sanctuary service, you’d equate justification with the altar of burnt offering. The sacrifice bore the penalty for the sinner’s sins: justification. But the sanctuary service did not end in the outer court. The sinner progressed from the outer court to the holy place and, ultimately, to the most holy place and the presence of God Himself. This advance is what we refer to as sanctification—it’s a process, “the work of a lifetime”3 it has been said. It’s a continuum of becoming more like Jesus, of more fully reflecting His character.

Here’s how Jesus described this process in Mark 4:26-30. He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The scattered seed is the Word of God. In a person’s life, at first nothing happens. That is, nothing visible to the human eye. But God is working. Aren’t you glad God says, “My word . . . shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isa. 55:11). There is power in the Word of God. Saving power. Power to defeat temptation. Power to free you from vices and destructive habits. Power to make a new person out of you, and out of those you’re praying for—your family members, your wayward children, your loved ones who left the church years ago. God is able! Jesus says that the seed is scattered on the ground. Something is happening!

And then somehow, mysteriously, by a power completely foreign to human beings, the seed begins to sprout. And how does it do that? First, the blade. That’s the little sliver of green that pops its head up above the surface of the earth. Even though it’s not as tall as the yellow meranti tree in Borneo, which can reach up to 100.8 meters (330.7 feet) tall;4 even though it’s not like the mighty muyovu tree of Tanzania, 81.5 meters (almost 270 feet) tall;5 even though it’s not the coastal redwood of California, stretching 116 meters (380 feet) into the sky, Jesus tells us this tiny shoot of green is growing! The process is underway!

And what’s that little thing good for? You can’t eat it. What it’s good for is growing. You want to protect it, and give it the best chance possible to continue to grow. You don’t dig up your beans, because the plant isn’t fully mature. You tend to your beans. You keep the pests away. You water them. You encourage them to grow!

Feed on His Word, take time to pray, share your faith. You’ll grow.

You Will Grow

My wife and I are new grandparents. Our granddaughter is wonderful! She can’t tie her shoelaces, can’t feed herself, and can’t drive a car. But we don’t expect her to do any of those things, because she is growing. She’ll get there! Christian friend, before you think you can’t go to heaven because you’re not the finished product, keep your eyes on Jesus and grow! 

Notice the wording of Philippians 1:6: “He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Your Christian experience is an ongoing journey. After you accept Jesus you have the gift of eternal life, but you don’t want to live like a lost person. You want to live increasingly in a way that honors God. “First the blade.” 

We are “born again.” New Christians are babies. Babies grow. Friend, grow in the direction of Jesus. Feed on His Word, take time to pray, share your faith. You’ll grow.

“Then the head.” The plant is developing. It isn’t ready to eat, but it’s right where you want it to be. It isn’t ready for harvest. But it’s growing into precisely what it was created to be. It’s growing.

Now, don’t think I’m going light on sin. I’m not. Sin causes death. It caused the death of Jesus. We don’t want it. God doesn’t want it. The sanctuary service is ultimately about the putting away of sin, but today sin is still a monster we have to reckon with. Even Ellen White wrote that a noble character is “formed by hard, stern battles with self.”6 

You don’t stumble into heaven. You’re not going to trip into sanctification. “The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought. The yielding of self, surrendering all to the will of God, requires a struggle.”7 But here’s the key: “The soul must submit to God,” White writes, “before it can be renewed in holiness.”8 

When we receive Jesus, we receive everlasting life. And then we grow. How much do we grow? All we can. Just keep on growing. When Jesus comes back, those who have beheld Him will be changed. “And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). 

1 Ellen G. White, Faith and Works (Nashville: Southern Pub. Assn., 1979), p. 103.

2 Ellen G. White, in Review and Herald, Apr. 1, 1890.

3 Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1900, 1941), p. 65.

4 Mary Gagen, “The World’s Tallest Known Tropical Tree Has Been Found—and Climbed,” National Geographic, https://www.national geographic.com/environment/article/worlds-tallest-tropical-tree-discovered-
climbed-borneo, accessed July 2, 2025.

5 “Entandrophragma excelsum,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entandrophragma_excelsum, accessed July 2, 2025.

6 E. G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 331.

7 Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1956), p. 43.

8 Ibid.