At the General Conference session in Dallas, Texas, one of the items on the agenda was a discussion and reexamination of church doctrines. One of the beliefs that the church gave particular attention to was the doctrine of the atonement. Comments, pro and con, flew back and forth-some insisting that we believe in a complete atonement, others sure that we believe in an incomplete atonement.

I was sitting in the balcony, watching H. M. S. Richards, Sr., sitting down below on the main floor, reading his Bible, apparently oblivious to his surroundings!

One time he commented on a particular Bible Conference he had attended, “I received such a blessing that week-I was able to read through the entire New Testament while at those meetings!”

But I was just wishing he would get up and say something to help us all out when W. G. C. Murdoch went to the platform. He said, “Seventh-day Adventists have always believed in a complete atonement that is not yet completed.”

Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was a complete sacrifice. When Jesus cried, “It is finished,” He was telling the truth. He had finished the work He had come to this earth to accomplish.

“The battle had been won. His right hand and His holy arm had gotten Him the victory. As a Conqueror He planted His banner on the eternal heights. Was there not joy among the angels? All heaven triumphed in the Saviour’s victory. Satan was defeated, and knew that his kingdom was lost.” - The Desire of Ages, p. 758.

And there is nothing we can add to His sacrifice. Our good works add nothing. Our obedience or self-sacrifice add nothing. We can only accept the complete sacrifice of Christ in our behalf.

But the atonement was not yet completed. In the Old Testament analogy of the Day of Atonement, the day did not end when the high priest offered the sacrifice. The sins of the people had yet to be transferred to the scapegoat, and the scapegoat had to be sent away into the wilderness.

When Jesus died on the cross, the battle to become our Substitute for sin had been won. But the war wasn’t (and isn’t) over yet. If God intended to do nothing more toward our recovery after the cross, then we should never have known a day of pain or suffering or sorrow or death ever since. When Christ came forth on the morning of the resurrection, everybody who had ever lived and died should have come up with Him-not just the few “first fruits.”

When He ascended to heaven, all of those who had accepted Him from Adam to the thief on the cross should have gone up to heaven with Him. But that didn’t happen, as we well know.

It would be a gross misunderstanding to think that anything we can do can add anything to what Jesus did for us at the cross. It would be an equal misunderstanding to think that the entire plan of salvation was completed at the cross. The cross is the foundation of the Christian faith-but no building is completed when the foundation is completed, no matter how solid and firm that foundation may be.

The additional time necessary for Satan’s purposes to become fully known and recognized by the entire universe is also a part of God’s plan. The giving of the gospel to all the world, that each individual might have an adequate opportunity to accept or reject Him, is a part of God’s plan. The coming of Jesus in power and glory to take His children to their heavenly home is a part of God’s plan.

The thousand years in heaven, giving each person the chance to examine the records of the judgment and know that God has been fair and just, is a part of God’s plan. The final confrontation with the armies of the enemy, the unveiling of Satan before the watching throng when every knee hall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord–that’s a part of God’s plan too.

And the destruction of the wicked, root and branch, followed by the re-creation of the earth, these too are part of God’s wonderful plan for our salvation and restoration. He had only just begun.

The end will be more glorious than we can imagine, for

“since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.” Isaiah 64:4.