"We teach that "sin is the transgression of the law," (1 John 3:4) and that all mankind stands guilty and condemned before God.
--If God's law could have been abolished, Christ's substitutionary death on our behalf would not have been necessary to our salvation.
--Could the law have been set aside, Christ’s death on Calvary would serve only as a beautiful exhibit of a good man's dying for a noble ideal, and setting before us a noble example.
That is indeed the position that some Christians take, popularly known as the “moral influence theory.” But this view of the atonement robs Christ's death of its legal necessity, and hence of its salvific significance.
By contrast, Seventh-day Adventists hold that God's law could not be set aside; hence a guilty sinner’s only hope is found in Christ, who bore his sins and died in his stead. How could we give greater significance to Christ as our savior and redeemer? "
F.D. Nichol
