Mar-Apr 2008

 

  1. A RANSOM
  2. FAITH SECURES LIFE
  3. RESURRECTION OF JUST AND UNJUST
  4. THE SEVENTH DAY OR EPOCH
  5. PUBLICATIONS
  6. ANNOUNCEMENTS
  7. RESURRECTION MORN

 A RANSOM

    "There is one God, and
one Mediator between God and Men, the man Christ Jesus;
who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."
1 Tim 2: 5, 6

OUR LORD JESUS gave Himself a Ransom (corresponding price) at the beginning of His ministry, at the moment of His consecration. He continued that giving throughout His public ministry for three and one-half years. He finished the sacrifice of Himself, the “man Christ Jesus,” at Calvary. When the Father raised Him from the dead, He was the possessor, so to speak, of the value of His previous sacrifice, which He was at liberty to offer as He pleased. The making of the sacrifice was one thing and the applying of its value was another. For an example: Mr. A is in trouble, requiring $5000 for his relief. Mr. B has a property which he can sell for $5000—enough to pay A’s debt. When he sells the property A’s debt is not paid, but B now has the amount, the price, which he can give for A’s relief, if he will; and it is for him to elect how and when and where it shall be applied. So it is that Christ gave all that He had in order to purchase the world and the treasure which He saw therein—Adam and his family, sold under sin and death. When our Lord ascended up on high He did something with the merit of His sacrifice which brought a blessing to a certain class of the human race, “the household of faith.” That He made reconciliation for their sins is the Apostolic statement, and the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was in demonstration of the fact. But it is equally clear that our Lord did not make an application of His merit to all mankind, because the Holy Spirit did not come upon all humanity, nor did any message come to them announcing the forgiveness of their sins.

On the contrary, the subsequent Apostolic declaration was that “the whole world lies in the wicked one,” and that only the Church, the household of faith, has “escaped the condemnation that is upon the world.” Furthermore, the Apostle’s declaration is not that our Lord appeared in the presence of God as our Mediator, nor as the world’s Mediator, but that He appeared in the presence of God as the Church’s Advocate—but not as the world’s Advocate. All this is very plain, if our minds and hearts are in condition to receive it; but of course it will not be clear, and is not to be understood under any other circumstances.

Just what Jesus did when He ascended up on high we are not more particularly informed by the Apostle; but he pointed us to the types, the Law. Looking there we note the various details of the typical Atonement Day of Israel, which foreshadowed:

        (1) The forgiveness of sins for the Household of Faith, provided under the provisions of the Abrahamic Covenant for believers.

        (2) The subsequent forgiveness of the sins of all the remainder of the world by preparing for the sealing of the New Covenant with the blood of Christ.

This division separating the Gospel Church from the world was very distinct in the picture, and also set apart in the teachings of our Lord and the Apostles. Our Lord said, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17: 16). He ordained them to go and bring forth fruit—permanent fruit, everlasting fruitage. The Apostle declares of our Lord, “He is a propitiation (satisfaction) for our sins (the Church’s) and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2: 2). Here again a sharp line of demarcation is drawn between the “elect” Church and its blessing, and the non-elect world and the blessing that will come to them in due time.

Looking into the type again (Leviticus 16) we see that there are two separate and distinct sacrifices, and that they were not offered to God upon the mercy seat in the Most Holy both at the same time:

        (1) The blood of the bullock was first shed and first offered.

        (2) The blood of the goat was subsequently offered.

Our Lord did not die twice and the two animals did not represent him—except as Head and Body. Not only so, but the type distinctly tells us that the two offerings of the blood offered upon the mercy seat, were applicable to two different classes, the first, applied to the tribe of Levi, including the priests. The second applied to all the remainder of the people of Israel. Will anyone claim that our Lord Jesus died twice, first for the antitypical Levites, and second for the remainder of humanity? Christ certainly died once for all (Rom. 6: 9, 10; Heb. 9: 28). What, then, is the meaning of these two sacrifices that are distinctly separate applications and separate acceptances and separate blessings?

We have already answered this question in great detail in the book “Tabernacle Shadows of the Better Sacrifices” (168 pp.). A fresh reading of which we commend to you as an elaboration of the “hidden mystery” of the fellowship of the Church, the Royal Priesthood, with Jesus, the great High Priest, in their sufferings and sacrifices in the Gospel Age and in their glorious work and blessings toward the world in the future. We therein show that no man can redeem his brother, and that it is because all are sinners, all are under the death sentence (Rom. 3: 10, 23). We show also that our Lord’s death, represented by that of the bullock, applied on behalf of the household of faith, justifies them freely from all sin and permits them to become “holy and acceptable sacrifices” (Rom. 12: 1). Herein is shown that the sacrificing was all done by the Lord, that the Church’s part ends in their presentation of themselves living sacrifices. As they maintained this condition of self-denial, our Lord counted them as New Creatures, who ran for the prize of the Divine nature as members of His Body (the Church). Their humanity is counted in with His human sacrifice and its sufferings and death as the secondary part of the sin-offering.

In this way the sacrifice of Christ, Head and Body progressed for over nineteen centuries and it has now ended. Jesus, the High Priest, has accepted the last member of His Body, the 144,000th one and has finished the sacrificing (Rev. 7: 4). He will apply, in due time, beyond the vail, the blood—the blood of His members—on the mercy seat, on behalf of all the people. Then will be due that which the Lord promised through the Prophet Joel—that He will pour out His “Spirit upon all flesh,” just as at the completion and offering of the first sacrifice, He poured out His “Spirit upon His servants and handmaidens” at Pentecost. Who that has spiritual eyesight cannot see this double meaning? Note that it is not our Lord in His pre-human condition, as a spirit being, who gave Himself a ransom for all, but the MAN Christ Jesus. His is a Ransom for all, in that through His human sacrifice, all humanity shall be rescued from the sentence of sin and death and given an opportunity to hear and accept the good tidings of eternal life. This does not mean universal salvation to eternal life but rather universal salvation from Adamic condemnation. The benefit of the Ransom is not diminished for the entire human race just because it was first made available to the Church; then later it will be applied to the world through the ministry of the Church, in the next age.

“MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD
AND MEN”

As already noted, we believe that whenever the word mediator is used in the Scriptures it relates to an agreement between parties who are alienated from each other. God and the world are at enmity with each other. God has condemned the world, because of sin. That condemnation still rests upon us (except that small portion that has been blessed by the loan of Christ’s merit which has been used to justify those who came to Christ by faith—the Church. The “world still lies in the Wicked One”—is still under condemnation. A Mediator will be necessary—someone to negotiate between and reconcile these alienated parties. Our Lord Jesus came into the world to be the Savior of the world as well as the Savior of the Church (1 John 2: 2). The work which Jesus accomplished, His sacrifice at Calvary, was provided by the Divine program with a view to His becoming the Mediator between God and humanity in general—the world, unjustified. That purpose will be carried out, in the next age. It is proper to speak of our Lord Jesus as Mediator and to speak of the New Covenant as though it were already mediated, because the matter is fully initiated, foretold, promised, by the LORD and is in process of accomplishment. God will make such a Covenant with the House of Judah and the House of Israel after the Gospel age is ended (Heb. 8: 8-10). He will provide a Mediator, who will during the Millennium, mediate between God and men. It is a part of the Divine program that our Lord Jesus, together with His Church, will be that Mediator. It is, therefore, proper to speak of them as such now—to speak of the things which are not yet as though they were (Rom. 4: 17). This in no degree contradicts the thought that this Mediator is now complete in glory, ready in God’s due time, to assume their roll as the go-between the world and Jehovah.

Why should there be any delay? If the man Christ Jesus was the Mediator and the plan for a New Covenant was unalterably fixed in advance, why should it not be ratified at once? We answer again that this was one feature of the “Hidden Mystery”—“Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1: 26, 27). It is a part of the Divine purpose that Jesus be the primary member of the Mediator of the New Covenant. It is He, whose merit furnishes the redemptive price for the world and who, in due time, will apply that price for the sealing of the New Covenant (1 Cor. 12: 27). In the Divine purpose the antitypical Isaac is to include the Church: “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of the promise”—the children of the Faith Covenant (Gal. 4: 28). Jesus the Mediator, by Divine arrangement, accepted members, who were faithful as His joint-sacrificers, and are now His joint-heirs in the spiritual phase of the Kingdom. This Church class is not included in the “men” of our text—not included in the world, “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17: 16). “The world,” “men,” need the great Mediator to reconcile them to God. The New Covenant and the Millennial Kingdom, which it will inaugurate, are Divine provisions which shall bring blessings for the world, for men, to chasten them, to subdue their hearts, to cause every knee to bow and every tongue to confess to God’s glory. The Church, as the Bride, not only shared in the sufferings with their Lord while finishing their earthly sojourn, but will also participate in that glorious work of reconciling “the world” to God by the power and forces and influences of the Millennial Kingdom.

The class now exalted with their Lord was separate from the world in their time on earth. They were then a special class, who, in the midst of sin, loved righteousness and hated iniquity. They are like their Lord and Redeemer, of whom it is written, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness (Holy Spirit) more than your companions” (Heb. 1: 9).

 

ONCE WERE ENEMIES

But someone may inquire; does not the Apostle speak of some of the "household of faith" as having once been aliens, strangers, and foreigners from the commonwealth of Israel? Yes, so it was with Cornelius. He reverenced God and gave gifts to the people but despite his good heart, as a Gentile, he was still an alien from Israel's privileges and blessings. The Jews had been invited by Peter, using his first key (Matt. 16: 19), to open the door of access to the Gospel Age Church, at Pentecost A.D. 33 (Acts 2: 1-4, 38, 39).

Christ had made an end to the Law Covenant for any Jew who would then consecrate his life to God. In symbolization of this, the Law was nailed to the Cross, and then 3˝ years after Pentecost, God's favor was extended to Cornelius at his home by Peter, this time using his second key, opening the way for the Gentiles; Cornelius, being the first to enter therein in A.D. 36 when the 70 weeks of special favor to Israel ended (Acts 10: 1-48; Dan. 9: 23-27; 454 B.C.-36 A.D. = 70 symbolic weeks or 490 years).

Does not the Apostle say that some had been liars and abominable persons, “alienated, and enemies in their mind by wicked works,” and then corrected their wrong course (Col. 1: 21)? We answer, so far as works are concerned, and the Divine standards, “yes, ‘that every mouth may be stopped, and the entire world may become guilty before God,’” both Jews and Gentiles (Rom. 3: 19). Those who were pure of heart and not opposed to the light and Truth, had a different standing in the Divine estimation. Through ignorance and weaknesses they were like the whole world, yet in other respects due to their relationship to the Lord they were very different and so considered in the Lord’s estimation. These, because of their right-heartedness, were blessed in being drawn to Christ by the Father, that they might be justified by faith in the precious blood, and that they might be sanctified by a knowledge of the Truth, and thereby they were accepted as associates in the sufferings of Christ and now share in His glory and work in the spiritual phase of the Kingdom. During the Gospel Age, only such were drawn, “No man can come unto me, except the Father which sent me, draw him” (John 6: 44). We observed the difference during the Gospel Age. Some were under the influence of error, and terrified with fear of eternal torment, and may havelive outwardly according to high standards, while loving sin, but fearing to practice it. When the Truth reaches such and their fears were dispelled, they have no special inclination toward piety. Others, on the contrary, hearing of the Lord’s grace and wonderful providences, were drawn, constrained, to become followers of Jesus, even at a cost of sacrifice of temporal interests. This latter class, the Church, needed no mediator to whip them into harmony with the Divine Laws. To the extent of their ability they delighted to do God’s will. Their faith and spirit of obedience, God counted to them for righteousness. These, after justification by faith in His blood, were invited to become members of The Christ. A sufficient number of these were found to complete the membership of His Body, and to fill up the sufferings of Christ, and to constitute the very “elect” members of the Mediator who are working for the deliverance of the human race.

Let us remember that Moses was the mediator of the Law Covenant, which failed, not because of being a poor Law, but merely because its mediator was incapable of doing for the people all that they needed. God purposes to give to that nation, and other nations through them, the better Mediator; under a New Covenant or Agreement, to be sealed with His blood—the merit of His sacrifice applied indirectly through the Church. Remember how St. Peter, after telling about the times of Restitution to be inaugurated at the Second Coming of Jesus, says, “For verily Moses said unto the fathers, ‘A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from among your brethren like unto me’” (Acts 3: 22). The Prophet like unto Moses began to be raised up, initially, in the person of our Lord Jesus, the Head. The raising up process of His Body members continued throughout the age, and is now completed. That antitypical Moses, Christ and the Church, Head and Body, is to mediate the New Covenant so long promised between God and Israel (Jer. 31: 31-34). That the Apostle is not speaking of anything yet accomplished is evident from the context, “It shall come to pass that the soul that will not obey that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people” (Acts 3: 23). All of the world in general who do not obey Jesus at present are not destroyed; but, under the great Mediator between God and men, the antitypical Moses, who shall rule the world during the Millennium—all that will refuse Divine favor under the New Covenant arrangements, will not be tormented but will lose life eternally * * *