I love the way God speaks to us in His word! He is calling for a complete trust like the centurion had!
Matthew 8:8-13 "The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour."
While the Roman centurion is happy to respond to the gospel of God's grace as manifested in the way his servant is healed, Jesus' heart is breaking at the thought of how many among His own people who are stubbornly refusing to walk in the light of His word. The story is repeating. While many Seventh-day Adventist Christians who have had great light, but who have not walked in that light, great multitudes are about to be gathered in who will gladly respond to all the light God sends! May we realize the opportunities as did Jesus, by ministering to the souls who are open to light and truth (with the yearning prayer that it will awaken souls who have had great light, but who have not applied it). Pray for those who are resisting light, because God's Seventh-day Adventist Church is seeing revival and reformation!
We have a bright story to tell of the exceedingly beautiful loveliness of Jesus, but the warnings of the peril and lostness of the Jewish nation as a nation cannot be passed by with a mere glance. We need to see our continual need of Jesus to do anything good (from a pure heart renewed by His Holy Spirit, imbued with all of the fruits of the Spirit so not one is missing). If we do not see our great need, we are liable to think (as did the Jews) that the mere profession of acceptance of great light and privilege constitutes salvation. This is a fatal deception. Salvation comes to the soul that gladly yields the will to Christ, letting Him purify the whole heart, and renew the whole mind. Anything less than full surrender to Christ and all that He reveals is the galling experience of Romans 7, when a soul knows the good, but finds no power to perform it. But when we see our great need, we can cleave to Jesus as did the centurion, and then find the joy of a victorious Christian life made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit (as promised in Romans 8)! Beholding the loveliness of Jesus, we can be set free from our terrible lostness--even the kind of lostness described as the Laodicean condition, necessitating the remedy found alone in full surrender to Christ (Revelation 3:14-22).
"To Jesus this was an earnest of the work which the gospel was to accomplish among the Gentiles. With joy He looked forward to the gathering of souls from all nations to His kingdom. With deep sadness He pictured to the Jews the result of their rejection of His grace: 'I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' Alas, how many are still preparing for the same fatal disappointment! While souls in heathen darkness accept His grace, how many there are in Christian lands upon whom the light shines only to be disregarded." {The Desire of Ages, page 317, paragraph 4}