GENERAL CONFERENCE.
BATTLE CREEK, MICH., 1891.
BIBLE STUDY.
LETTER TO THE ROMANS
BY ELDER E. J. WAGGONER
One motive only should actuate the minds of those who study the 
word of
God, and that is that they may by this study be drawn nearer to God. God
is no respecter of persons. He will give his Holy Spirit to any and to all who ask for it. He is just as willing to make the truths of the Bible plain to one as to another.
Draw your light straight from the Bible.
Learn the Bible from the Bible
itself. When our minds are illuminated by the Holy Spirit, although the
word will appear simple, at the same time there will be heights and
depths to it that will fill us with amazement.
Notice how plain are the words: "When we were yet without strength, in
due time Christ died for the ungodly."(Romans 5:6). Abel was without strength, and
Christ died for him.
Enoch was without strength, and Christ died for
him.
Abraham and Sarah were without strength, and Christ died for them.
"For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a
good man some would even dare to die." (Romans 5:7).
The word in the original
signifying "righteous," is a different word from the one, which is
rendered "good." The word righteous here means a man who is strictly
honest and upright, but having nothing peculiarly lovable about him.
He died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Now mark! It is the death of Christ that brings us to God; what is it that keeps us there?—It is the life of Christ. We are saved by his life. Now hold these words in your minds—"Being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Romans 5:10).
1 John 5:10: "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that 
believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." God
cannot lie, and so when we say that the words of God are not so, we
make liars of ourselves.
Now, according to this scripture, we make God a
liar, if we believe not the record that God gave of his Son. What,
then, must we believe in order to clear ourselves of that charge,—of not
believing this record and thus making God a liar? The next verse
explains it: "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."
---Some people are afraid that this idea of justification by faith, and
eternal life, will get men away from the commandments.
---But nobody but
the one who is justified by faith—who has Christ's life—does keep the
commandments; for God says that we are justified by faith, and if we say
we are not, then we make God a liar,—we bear false witness against him,
and we break the commandment.
The trouble with those who say that they are not worthy, is that they do
not feel half unworthy enough.
The whole secret of justification
by faith, and life and peace in Christ, lies in believing the Bible.
