Republished from The National Labor Tribune, October 3, 1918
Columbus, O., Sept. 30. – Pastor C. T. Russell of Allegheny, Pa., preached twice here today in the McKinley Memorial Auditorium. He had large and intelligent audiences. His afternoon topic was: "A Cure for Infidelity."
His evening discourse was on "Running for Worthy Prizes," his text being, "Know ye not that they that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? Even so run that ye may obtain." (1 Cor. 9:24)
Pastor Russell said: Everywhere throughout the Scriptures the thought kept before our minds is that one may roll downward deeper and deeper into sin and degradation and that the end of that way is death, destruction; and, on the contrary, that everyone who would attain to life and the glorious characteristics of the divine character, which are conditions upon which the gift of life will be given, must strive, run and attain. In other words, a willing mind and its exercise are declared to be necessary to the attainment of divine favor, and to the life eternal which is its reward. Too many, alas, even among Christians, seem to have the impression that negative goodness may be satisfactory to the Lord – that moral willingness to abstain from wrongdoing under favorable conditions would have the divine approval.
Of course negative goodness is better than none, better than viciousness and wilful misdoing; yet there is no promise of eternal life to the morally, negatively good. Only the positively good – those who love righteousness and hate iniquity – can have the divine approval. Some may be inclined to demur to this proposition and to claim that it is asking too much of humanity that – born through heredity with a tendency toward sin, and surrounded by sinful and degrading influences – we should be called upon to surmount all of these and to attain a fixed character for righteousness – the very reverse of the one with which we were born. The query naturally and properly arises, "Are we not less favorably treated by our Creator than were the angels, who, created perfect, in the divine likeness, have merely been required to maintain that character without knowing what it is to strive, to fight, to overcome the downward tendencies that oppress the fallen race of Adam?"
Why should not man have as favorable an opportunity as the angels? Even though man, through original sin, fell into a degenerated condition, mental, moral and physical, why does not the Creator make an easier path out of the sin-and-death conditions back to His fellowship and eternal life? In other words, why is there no other way to God's favor than the rugged, narrow way on the terms of taking up the cross to follow in the footsteps of Jesus? Why are we called upon to run up so steep a hill of natural depravity to attain God's favor and life eternal?
These questions are pertinent and reasonable, and the Scriptures answer that God has appointed for the world just such reasonable opportunities for reconciliation with Himself as we might have expected. He has not proposed to violate the principles of His government nor to accept to His favor any who are out of full accord therewith; but He has provided for the world a reasonable way of return to His favor and to all that was lost through original sin. But His time has not yet fully come for opening up to the world His gracious provision for their recovery – their "restitution." (Acts 3:19-21)
Through the prophets He points out that their opportunities will be grand, all that could be asked or expected – so full, so complete, that none but wilful rejecters of the divine favor shall ultimately miss the goal of full restitution to the divine image and likeness as [NS414] Adam enjoyed it, and an Edenic home and life eternal. "The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." [Isa. 1:20; 40:5; 58:14; Mic. 4:4]
As the Apostle Peter declares, "All the holy prophets since the world began" [Acts 3:21] have told of the glorious restitution work which God will surely inaugurate in the hands of Messiah, His glorious Son, whose consort in the glory and honor of the Kingdom will be the Bride class, selected during this Gospel age. The point which generally confuses the judgment is one that is made very clear in the Scriptures, namely, that in advance of giving these restitution blessings to the world in general during the Millennial age, and on reasonable and moderate terms and conditions, God in the present time is selecting an elect class to be the Church, the Bride of Christ.
And since He intends a very high exaltation to these, an exaltation to a nature not only higher than human, but also higher than angelic – the divine nature – therefore the Lord has made the call of this Gospel age a restricted one, and has made the way to life now narrow and difficult, so that only by great exertion can any attain it. The object of this He clearly explains to be that He seeks "a peculiar people, zealous of good works" [Titus 2:14] – so zealous for truth and righteousness that they are willing to lay down their lives in their service; so full of faith that they can walk by faith and not by sight; so full of love that they would delight to do the Father's will, even at the expense of their earthly interests, in that they will love all who have the Father's Spirit to the extent that with pleasure they would lay down their lives for the brethren.
When it is seen that this specially elect class of this Gospel age is called and elected to be with Jesus in His glorious Kingdom, and to share with Him the honors of uplifting the human race out of its present fallen condition, then we see the secret, the reason, why God has made the way narrow, steep, and difficult to run in.
Although nothing in the Scriptures refers to the world of mankind in the next age running a race, we may, nevertheless, understand from the various Scriptures which delineate the terms and conditions of divine favor at that time that there will be something equivalent to a race. Some, then, may run swiftly up the highway of holiness, and by their love and zeal attain the joys of the Lord more speedily than others.
But the running, we understand, will not be compulsory; the requirements shall be that they shall walk up the highway, and even then assistance will be granted on the way. One probable reason why no running is spoken of in connection with the highway of holiness leading to life in the next age is that those disposed to run in the way of righteousness and hating iniquity, will be called out, selected, elected from the world, during this Gospel age.
These are the jewel class that our Lord refers to – He will make up His jewels at His second advent. He has indeed a glorious future for all who shall, however gradually, attain to the image and likeness of God lost in Eden. All will be in the hands of the great Mediator, who bought them with His precious blood, and who will during the Millennial age do for them everything that can be done, everything that could be asked for assistance; so that we are guaranteed that none of them shall fail by reason of any of the weaknesses of heredity, but that all who will, who desire righteousness done, may know they may attain thereto, and may at the close of the Millennial day be absolutely perfect, so as to need neither covering nor assistance further.
They will be like unto the angels; they shall have attained full perfection of human nature as God designed it; and all who refuse the lessons, corrections and chastisements of the great Mediator during the millennium shall be utterly cut off in the Second Death, as the Apostle Peter assures us. Acts 3:23
The race set before us – set before believers during this Gospel age – is the uphill one, the difficult one. It is everywhere in the Scriptures described so to be. The Lord does not wish to make it easy; He wished to make it difficult, so that it would sift and test and prove and separate to Himself all those who have the spirit of loyalty and obedience so wonderfully manifested in our dear Redeemer. These must all attain to this likeness of God's dear Son if they would be joint-heirs with Him in the kingdom; and present opportunities, call, pruning, chastening, polishing, instructions in the School of Christ, etc., are all with a view to the testing and proving and perfecting of these. These and these alone are in the race course set before us in the Gospel, and the Apostle exhorts such and none others when he says: "Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." Heb. 12:1-2
Running races was one of the favorite athletic sports in olden times, especially among the Grecians, and the Apostle takes this fact, well known to all of his readers, to illustrate thereby what should be the course of the Christians. As these runners exercised great care in their diet and in all of life's affairs, and bent every energy to their racing so the Christian should make business, pleasure, food and raiment all to bend to the central all-absorbing ambition of his new life, his Christian career. As the runner for an earthly crown of laurels and for the applause of spectators would cast away all of his clothing except the merest breechcloth, this should furnish an illustration of how the zealous [NS415] Christian would so appreciate the greater prize, the crown of eternal life and glory and immortality and joint-heirship with Jesus in the kingdom, that he would be willing to sacrifice time, influence, wealth, everything, that he might win Christ and be found in Him – a member of the Anointed One, a member of the Messiah. In our text the Apostle says many run, but only one receives the crown, and similarly our Lord declares many are called, few are chosen. The thought is that it is not enough merely to take the name of Jesus and to declare ourselves His friends. That, indeed, is comparatively easy and a great honor, that requires little sacrifice at all, we might say. The running which will get the prize signifies much more than merely taking the name of Jesus – it means the taking up of the cross to follow Him through evil report as well as through good report; it means such a zeal for Him, for His truth, for His Word, for His brethren, for the cause of righteousness which He represents, as will make us practically oblivious to all other affairs of life. This is the kind of racing that will get the prize.
To these racers by and by will come the word. "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Thou has been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things; I will make thee ruler over five cities." Matt. 25:21
As was sometimes the case in earthly races a secondary prize was given to those who endured faithfully to the end of the race, so the Lord intimates to us that He has a secondary prize for those who manifest their loyalty to Him, even though they may not put forth that degree of zeal in running which He has promised to reward with joint-heirship in the kingdom. This class is also spoken of as overcomers, while those who attain to the highest honor are described as "more than overcomers" – more than overcomers of the world and its spirit. But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him, says the Lord; and the Apostle intimates that any drawing back would be "unto perdition" – unto the Second Death. (Heb. 10:38-39)
Let us resolve, dear friends, that having tasted of the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come, and been made partakers of His holy Spirit, we shall not be of those who fall away, who draw back and renounce the Lord and His righteousness, but of those who go on unto salvation – not the salvation of the Great Company, which will be before the throne, but the salvation of the winners of the first prize, who will sit down with the Lord in His throne and constitute His Bride and joint-heirs in the kingdom.
The Apostle speaks of the hope set before us as though He would suggest that there are other hopes before the world, and invited some to one and some to another. Quite to the contrary, the Apostle assures us, "Ye are called in one hope of your calling." (Eph. 4:4)
Hence, although there will be a "little flock" of the elect who will gain the Divine nature and a "Great Company" who will receive eternal life on a lower spiritual plane of perfection, these were not separately called. It was the one call, and each one had the opportunity of making his calling and his election sure, and only his own carelessness in running the race prevented his being the winner of the chief prize. With this thought before our minds how careful should all Christians be to, as the Apostle says, "Walk circumspectly," "run with patience," "endure hardness," strive to enter in and attain all the glorious things which God has in reservation for His elect – things beyond anything that eye hath seen or ear heard or the heart of man ever imagined – things which we only know of because God hath revealed them to us through His Spirit. 1 Cor. 2:9
But while God sets forth in the present time only one hope, only the one calling, only the one invitation, the world sets forth various hopes, various ambitions, various invitations, and urges these persistently. Indeed, the large part of the required overcoming on the part of the elect is the resistance to the blandishments of the world – the resistance to the hopes and ambitions which the world holds out. Hence the Apostle, summing up the whole of our race, declares: "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." John 5:4
Only as we have faith in God and faith in the gracious promises of His Word could we possibly renounce the world, its ambitions and pleasures, and turn our backs to these to gain the glories and honors which God has promised to those who love Him and who demonstrate their love by their faithfulness in the race. The natural eye cannot see these spiritual things, hence only in proportion as we have exercised the eyes of faith, the eyes of our understanding, are we able to comprehend more and more and appreciate the length and breadth and height and depth of the Divine arrangement and to follow the same.
It is fortunate for the world that it has hope as an element of its character, that it has ambition. Could we imagine such a thing as an utter destruction of human ambitions and hopes we should be obliged to imagine a rapid degeneracy of our race into a hopeless, ambitionless condition manifest in the most degraded races of heathendom. We are not, therefore, condemning the world for having ambitions; rather we are glad that at least a small portion of humanity have ambitions, which not only propel them through life, but which [NS416] help them to stimulate others and to pull others more and more out of degradation and despondency. These men of worldly ambition are captains of industry, captains of finance, captains of politics, kings among men; and although their motive power is generally entire selfishness, nevertheless the world is better for them in some respects.
Yea, although the Christian may receive severe trials from the example of such ambitious men, he nevertheless may receive a blessing also when he compares the hopes and aims of these men with his own hopes and aims as set before him in the Gospel. Let him consider further what these men will endure and do selfishly for the sake of earthly power or influence or wealth, and see in contrast what would be the Christian's reasonable service, self-denial and energy on behalf of the King of kings, and the inexpressibly greater reward which He has promised to His faithful ones.
As we see the captains of industry giving careful attention to every detail and accomplishing large results financially – as we see politicians great and small striving for offices and honors among men, and then remember that they do not even hope to enjoy these for any length of time – we are astounded at their diligence in business and fervency of spirit in serving worldly interests, selfish interests. In contrast we say to ourselves respecting those who have heard the voice from heaven, whose eyes of understanding have to some extent opened to see the wonderful things of the divine promise and whose ears of understanding have heard the invitation to become joint-heirs with Christ in all those glorious things – what manner of persons ought we to be?
If worldly men will give their time, their thought, and will invest all their capital in the hope of still larger returns of an earthly kind – if they will sacrifice their all to attain their earthly ideals, how should it be with us who from the standpoint of faith are risking nothing when we accept the Lord's gracious declaration that if we give ourselves and all we have unreservedly to Him, then all that He has shall be ours; that His power divine will guarantee that all life's interests shall work for our highest welfare; and that if we are willing and obedient and self-sacrificing runners in this race we shall have the great prize of glory, honor and immortality, riches of grace which will never fade away, eternal in the heavens. Surely, then, the Lord's people have in the Gospel message the grandest incentive, the greatest ambition that could possibly be conceived and they should indeed, as more and more their eyes open to the riches of God's favor bestowed upon them, lay aside every weight and every besetting sin, and run with patience the race set before them.
The race course of the Christian may be viewed from different standpoints. From one viewpoint it is one race or striving from the beginning of his consecration to the Lord until death – until his resurrection. From this standpoint the course of many show variations, sometimes good running, sometimes slow, sometimes a standstill, and, we fear, sometimes a retrogression. From this viewpoint only the Lord himself knows positively who are in the race, and to what extent they are faithful to their talents and opportunities.
From this viewpoint we may not judge one another, but rather remember that the Lord is the Judge, and that His decision will come in the end of this age and be manifested by the granting to some a share in the First Resurrection and to others, the Great Company, a less favorable change and blessing. Then every man's work shall be manifested. We may see that some who seemed to be running very slowly were really laboring against heavy odds of disadvantage through an unfavorable heredity, while others – whom perhaps we thought to be swift runners in the race – may not have so high an honor from the Lord's standpoint, or perhaps they had much advantage every way over the great majority by reason of good, natural traits and characteristics.
The proper thing for each racer then is to do his best and to leave the entire matter of results to the Lord, knowing that he will receive exceedingly and abundantly more than he could have deserved as the reward for every self-denial, every faithful sacrifice in this race course in seeking to please the Lord and to win the glorious prize of the high calling now set forth. A totally different view of the racecourse, and yet one in harmony with the letter and spirit of the Word, would represent the Christian's attainment of character-likeness to the Lord. The Scriptures assure us that all the elect will be copies of God's dear Son (Rom. 8:29); that the experience and development of character which began with our consecration to the Lord and entrance to the School of Christ culminated in the attainment of the Lord's character-likeness. This experience of the Christian may be likened to a race course, too. Only those who have accepted Christ as their Redeemer and have then made a consecration of their all to the Lord are admitted to this School of Christ of this race course. When first they enter they are, of course, very deficient – they enter that they may progress in knowledge and in grace. The start is at the point of a desire of heart to do the Lord's will; the finish of this course of study or this race will be the attainment of that degree of knowledge and of love which the Lord would approve, without which we could not be fit for the Kingdom. [NS417] If death should intervene and hinder the students from learning the lesson, or in our other picture hinder the racer from reaching his goal of perfect love, then he could not receive the crown of life, he could not be considered fit for the Kingdom which is promised only to the "overcomers. "(Rev. 3:2 1)
Our confidence is, however, that whoever is accepted of the Lord as a runner in this race comes so completely under the divine supervision and care that all of his earthly interests and life itself are guaranteed to be favorable to him, that he may have the – opportunity for learning the lessons, the opportunity for running the race and proving himself an overcomer.
Starting at zero, we may divide this supposed race course by four quarter marks. The race is begun with a kind of love toward God – not the perfect love which will be reached at the end of the race, but nevertheless a love which is necessary toward even making a start. This we will call duty love; as the Apostle says, we realize that it is our "reasonable service" to seek to do the Lord's will, because we are appreciative of what He is doing for us in the redemptive work of Jesus. The duty love of this first quarter will never be lost; it will always hold a high esteem in the heart and mind of the runner.
But as he progresses to the second quarter of the course he finds that duty love has begotten in him a still higher character of love. While still acknowledging duty love he now has even a higher love, an appreciative love, or a character love. As we at first loved God and desired to serve and please Him because He had first loved us, so when we reach this second quarter in the Christian's experience and race course we have reached the point where we begin to appreciate God not merely as a benefactor, but because He is good, because of the virtues of His own character, because we are learning as we become acquainted with Him to appreciate the justice which is the foundation of His throne, and the wisdom and love and power which govern all the divine course of action toward humanity.
In this second quarter of our race we learn to try our hearts before the Lord and to worship Him in spirit and in truth – because He is good, because He is worthy of worship. Thus we now have not only the duty love, but also the love of appreciation of the Creator, and we press on into the third quarter of our race, where we begin to appreciate these same elements of character even in their imperfect manifestation in the church – the bride of Christ. This stage or degree of attainment in the race toward the mark of perfect love the Apostle refers to, saying, "See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently" (1 Pet. 1:22) and again, "We ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:16).
As we progress toward the end of this third quarter mark our love for the brethren grows so deep and strong that we learn to sympathize with them as new creatures in their battlings with the weaknesses of their own flesh in a way that we could not do when first we entered this race course.
Those who have attained to this degree of love know each other no longer after the flesh, with its weaknesses; but ignoring these they know each other according to the spirit, according to the heart-intentions and strivings, even as the Lord knows us. Their growth in knowledge and love has thus brought them to an appreciation of the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of love which they knew not at the beginning of this course, and which enables them more and more to appreciate the great divine plan which embraces all mankind in its scope and especially cares for the truly consecrated ones.
Thus we start upon the fourth quarter mark of this race course, the final stage. The duty love toward God increased to love of the divine character, and this led to the loving of the brethren, because we saw in them the same spirit of the Father, God-likeness; and this producing a deepening of our heart's love and the emptying of our hearts of selfishness and worldly views, brings us to that broader view of the whole world of mankind which enables us to look with sympathy upon all – even upon the vilest. Not that we sympathize with villainy or impurity, but that we realize that humanity is under these defilements largely through heredity and through besetting temptations; and having learned something of the divine grace and strength needful to overcome these downward tendencies in our own mortal flesh we have a growing sympathy for the poor world which knows not the Lord and has not the Almighty arm to assist out of the horrible pit and out of the miry clay.
This broader sympathy enables us to understand parts of the divine Word which at first were obscure to us, for we are now learning to look at the world and the sin which is in the world from God's standpoint of sympathy, and are therefore prepared to appreciate the love of God which has provided a way of escape from sin and death, and which ultimately shall reach to every member of the race. In this last quarter of the race, therefore, we begin to be able to fulfil our Lord's highest description of love, namely, to have love for our enemies and those who despitefully use us and persecute us. We are enabled to do this because of a fuller measure of the love of God in our own hearts and a fuller measure of knowledge and, incidentally, sympathy for the world in its degradation and blindness. Thus we reach the climax of our love – love for enemies – the mark of perfect love, the end of this race course. [NS418]
From the very earliest moment of our faith in the Redeemer, turning from sin and consecrating to God, we are covered with the merits of Christ's righteousness and have, to some extent, the mind of Christ – that is to say, we had a mind and will to do the will of God, and we entered the School of Christ that we might learn those lessons, or, under the present figure, we enter this race course that we might run to attain this condition of heart, which alone could be acceptable in God's sight – the condition of perfect love.
When we reach this climax of perfect love in our hearts it does not imply that we have reached a perfection of conduct so that the mortal body will always express perfectly this high standard of love. Indeed we may not reach this grand and desirable condition until we receive our new bodies in the resurrection; but so soon as we have attained the perfect love in our hearts it surely will have great influence and control over the words of our mouths as well as over the imaginings of our hearts.
It will surely affect our conduct toward the Lord, the brethren and our enemies in some appreciable degree that we may discern and that our neighbors and friends can discern. The New Creature may occasionally find that with a heart full of love for the brethren or for an enemy he has not been wise or tactful in the exercise and demonstration of his love, but has given offense at the very time he intended to do good. Such imperfections of the flesh, however, the Scriptures assure us, are not charged up to us as New Creatures, but the Lord, who knoweth the heart, regards our standing of perfect love and covers all the blemishes of the flesh with the merit of the Redeemer's sacrifice.
After we have reached the mark of perfect love, what then shall we do? We answer that then, for the first time, our experiences correspond closely to those of our Redeemer, who did not need to go through the school of experience and discipline and instruction to learn the different steps of love and to attain perfect love. He did not need to run this race and to reach this mark of perfect love, because, as the perfect one, He was always there; and when we reach that degree we are merely attaining in our hearts to the condition in which our Lord was from the very beginning of His ministry.
Our future experiences from that point onward are described by the Apostle, who says, "Having done all, stand" – having attained to the condition of perfect love which casts out fear, which reverences, loves the Lord in His true character, worships Him in spirit and in truth, loves the brethren and delights to lay down life in their service, and loves enemies and delights to do them good – having reached this point, stand there. But what is there to move us away from such a position when once we have attained it?
We reply that the Lord permits trials and difficulties of various kinds to come upon us at this time to test us, to prove our loyalty to these principles which at this time we clearly see. Thus it was with our dear Redeemer, Who had this love, Who saw the situation and Who was controlled by this spirit of perfect love, which led Him to present His sacrifice even unto its consummation. Thus it will be in all who are copying Him; their endeavor to stand at the mark of perfect love will mean sacrifices and self-denials of various kinds, and all of these will tend to make them strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, and to prove them to be conquerors and more than conquerors through Him that loved them. Let us, too, stand fast in the liberty, in the grace, in the love of God and of our Lord Jesus, exemplifying the same toward all with whom we have contact.
ALLEGHENY, PA., October 7, 1906 – The following is the text: "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission (of sins)," (Heb. 9:22)
He said: The Jewish Day of Atonement is at hand with its lessons, which are still more important and significant to true Christians than to Jews, because the true Christian claims and acknowledges all that Moses and the Jewish Law taught as being typical, and professes to see not only the type but also the antitype – the spiritual meaning and fulfilment in Christ of the sacrifices offered for sins according to the Jewish Law on the tenth day of the seventh month of each year, according to the Jewish calendar.
The fact that both Jews and nominal Christians are losing faith in sacrifices for sins should stir us all the more to a careful examination of the subject, to ascertain whether the doctrine of atonement for sin, of the shedding of blood, is merely a legend of the past, unworthy of further acceptance by the enlightened, or whether it represents a foundation principle of divine truth and government, the ignoring of which would mean an abandonment of the faith once delivered to the saints and necessary to their acceptance [NS419] with the Heavenly Father. "Blind unbelief is sure to err!" writes the poet, and we concur with him and perceive that the growing unbelief in the atonement for sin is the result of unbelief – the result of the rejection of the Word of God, which undoubtedly in most clear and explicit terms repeats this doctrine, our text being an illustration, "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission (of sin)." [Heb. 9:22]
But there must be a reason for the rejection of a doctrine so prominent in the Scriptures. There are two reasons for it:
(1) an error has been generally received which has discounted this statement of the Word of God, and led to its nullification and the substitution of another theory wholly opposed to it. The error was the eternal torment doctrine – that the wages of sin is eternal torment. That unscriptural proposition not only disgusts every intelligent conception of our Creator's justice and love, but it makes absurd the thought that the killing of animals in the past or even the sacrifice of Jesus at Calvary should be the price of torture.
As human thought has expanded and discerned the injustice of this doctrine of eternal torment, it has proportionately inclined to reject the Bible, which is supposed to teach that doctrine but does not teach it. And as people have rejected the Bible they have substituted for its teachings a human theory which is directly opposed to the Scriptural teaching – the Evolution theory – that men were not created but were gradually evolved from lower forms of animal life, that no Eden ever existed; that no perfect pair of the human family ever were on trial, or failed or were condemned by the Almighty, and hence that no one needed to be redeemed by the precious blood or anything else. The outcome of this theory is that if there is a God he gave evolution a start, and is merely watching how it will work itself out; and from this standpoint man's prayer should be, O Lord, let us alone until we have evolved ourselves, and wrought out for ourselves a great salvation, special uplift and human perfection.
Whatever we may say respecting the intelligence of our day and its many advantages and conveniences, we must agree with the Scriptures that so far as faith in the Bible and the God of the Bible is concerned a great falling away has occurred both amongst Jews and Christians. As a rule only the poor Jews any longer believe in an atonement for sin and enter into the celebration of the Day of Atonement.
The wealthy and educated Hebrews almost without exception are known as Liberals, which is but another name for unbelievers. They have a spirit of patriotism which leads them to conform to circumcision and an outward form of godliness in the celebration of Sabbaths and festivals, but their celebration is more from the standpoint of keeping alive patriotism by remembrance on these occasions of the doings of the past by their forbearers who had faith in these things – faith which now almost all except the poor and ignorant have lost. Indeed every intelligent and thoughtful and honest Jew would surely find it difficult to commemorate some of their festivals, for instance and especially this one, the "Day of Atonement."
Why? Because under the circumstances with them all that they can do will be a mere farce. How so? Because, according to the Law of the Day of Atonement, only a high priest of the lineage of Aaron could make the sin offering and secure to the people a covering of acceptableness with God for the year following. The Jews have no high priest to make such an atonement, to offer such sacrifice – they have no priest at all; not a Jew throughout the world could prove his lineage and right to the priestly office.
All the records are lost, as every Jew must admit. Furthermore, the Day of Atonement could not be celebrated and its sin-offering presented to the Lord in any other place than the Holy Land, nor under any other arrangement than that of the Tabernacle or the Temple. Hence for these two reasons – that they have neither a place for making the sin-offering that God will accept, nor a priest that could make the sin-atonement – for these two reasons the Jews very properly make no effort to celebrate their Day of Atonement in the manner described in the Law. What then do they do?
Year by year, on the Day of Atonement, the sincere ones confess their sins and mourn for the Lord and pray; and then at the end of the day, while knowing that no sacrifice for sins has been offered, they put away their mourning and accept matters as though they had been forgiven. But in reality they have neither representative nor mediator before the Father, and therefore as a nation they have been under divine disfavor for more than eighteen centuries, although as a people they are still heirs of certain precious promises of the far past, which the Scriptures assure us they will come to inherit by and by at the second coming of Christ. Then they shall acknowledge him and mourn for their errors of the past and the present, and then he will be merciful to them and pour upon them the spirit of prayer and supplication and blot out their sins. This is God's covenant with them, as the Apostle points out in Rom. 11:26-33.
Still more serious is the condition of those Christians who have once tasted that the Lord is gracious, who once realized that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, who once appreciated that he was a propitiation for our sins, the Church's sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world, and that we are redeemed not with corruptible things, such [NS420] as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, and that he was the antitypical Lamb of the Passover as well as the antitype of the bullock of the Day of Atonement sacrifice. To whatever extent the eyes of our understanding have been blessed and opened to this knowledge of the grace of God in Christ, to that extent has been our measure of responsibility, and in the same proportion is the guilt of those who, having once appreciated the blood of Christ, have turned from this precious faith and are now counting the blood of the Covenant wherewith they were sanctified a common thing, and are doing "despite unto the Spirit of grace." Heb. 10:29
For those who do this intelligently, with full knowledge, we can have no hope, for the Scriptures imply that there is a sin unto death – the Second Death. But we may hope that the majority of those who are now turning from Christ, from faith in him as the Redeemer, from faith in his blood as the sin atonement – turning to Evolution theories, Christian Science theories, etc. – we may hope that many of these have sinned only in part, have understood and appreciated only in part, have been blinded in part by the errors of the past, and that their sin in rejecting the blood atonement is proportionately one of ignorance and therefore pardonable with stripes.
The Apostle, when writing about how some would fall away, urges believers, "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward." (Heb. 10:35)
Those Christian people who are still struggling to hold to the Word of God, to reject the philosophies and Science so-called respecting Evolution through human conceptions of salvation contradictory to the Bible, have need of a word of encouragement. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward – hold fast to the faith once delivered to the saints. (Jude 3)
So far from rejecting God's Word let such begin afresh to search the Scriptures – to discriminate between the errors of the "dark ages," which have come down to us in the various creeds of Christendom, and the truth of the Lord's Word, which to some extent was mixed and intermingled with the errors in those creeds. Let us not make either mistake:
(1) To cast everything away and lose our faith; nor
(2) to hold on to everything of the creeds, scriptural and unscriptural, and thus to confuse our minds and hearts with the errors. On the contrary, let us do a sifting work, rejecting everything contrary to the divine Word, however ancient and honorable, and accepting everything, every statement of the Word, whether popular or unpopular with our neighbors and friends.
Those who are taking this course are finding that at this very time, when many are falling away, the Lord is providing for the truth-hungry who are looking to him in prayer and in the study of the Word. For these he is now providing a feast of fat things, an opening of the eyes of their understanding, and an appreciation of the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of the love of God as displayed in the divine plan, such as they never before had dreamed of – such as but a little while ago they would have supposed too good to be true, a mere dream of human fancy.
Truly the words of the Lord through the Prophet are fulfilled as our eyes are opened to see the beauties of his Word. When stripped of human tradition we see that as the heavens are higher than the earth so are God's ways higher than man's ways, God's plans higher than man's plans; and thus seeing the riches of God's grace, our hearts are more and more refreshed, and we are more and more enabled to follow the Apostle's admonition to stand in this evil day with our loins girded about with truth, having on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the sandals of preparation and knowledge, and the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Thus armed with all the divine panoply we are assured of victory, and that nothing shall cause us to fall. Mark how this is delineated by the Prophet David saying, "A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee. Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation." Psa. 91:7,9
Let us glance at the Jewish Atonement Day and then at its antitype, that our faith may stand not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Cor. 2:4)
Whatever man's wisdom may say respecting Evolution, we are hearkening to the source of all wisdom when we hear from the Word of God the testimony through the Apostle, "By one man's disobedience sin entered into the world and death as a result of sin, and thus death passed upon all men, because all are sinners." Rom. 5:12
In this brief statement we have an explanation of the whole situation. The Apostle here reiterates the story of Genesis, that father Adam was on trial as the head of his race, and that all of his posterity have been involved in his fall, which came upon him in harmony with the divine sentence – a fall which affected him and his posterity mentally, morally and physically – even unto death. It should be noted that the penalty was not eternal torment, but death. Unless this be dearly appreciated and understood, the Atonement for sin which God provided can not be clearly understood. [NS421] The Atonement was a life for a life – the life of Adam and his race was forfeited as a penalty for sin and the Atonement Day sacrifices offered the lives of the bullocks and goats as sin-offerings for the satisfaction of that original sin and the reconciliation to God of the sinners. The Apostle, while acknowledging that under God's arrangement those Atonement Day sacrifices did cover the sins of the Israelites for the year following Atonement Day, points out that the fact that the forgiveness and reconciliation was only for a year, so that it was not a full atonement that was affected but only a partial one. His words are, "Those sacrifices which were offered by the Jews year by year repeatedly could never take away sins nor make those coming to God under the efficacy of those sacrifices really and permanently acceptable to God." [Heb. 10:11]
The whole thing was on a temporary basis and intended, as the Apostle explains, to be a type or foreshadowing of the real sacrifices for sins, which in God's due time would accomplish a complete cancellation of the sentence against Adam and his race and bring all mankind into harmony with God as the Jews were, only much more effectually, because Moses their Mediator, during their year of sin-covering, was unable to lift them up out of their degradation and imperfection to harmony with God. On the contrary Christ, under the covering of his sin-offering, is able as the better High Priest and Mediator to lift up and bless and bring back to harmony with God all those for whom he makes atonement – and it is refreshing to remember that he is to make atonement for the sins of the whole world.
It will be remembered that the typical sin-atonement under the Jewish arrangement was divided into two parts for two classes, and that there were two distinct sacrifices. The bullock was offered first, and was not for all the people, but merely for the priestly tribe, the tribe of Levi. Then the goat was offered, not for the tribe of Levi, but for the other eleven tribes, styled "all the people."
As we have already seen, the bullock represented Christ Jesus, and the atonement made with the blood of the bullock for the tribe of Levi represented that the blood of Christ is now applied on behalf of the household of faith – believers – who are the antitypes of the tribe of Levi. In harmony with this, the record is that when our Lord Jesus ascended on high he appeared in the presence of God for us – the Church – "on our behalf."
His sacrifice effected the cleansing of our sins, but not of the world's sins, not of the sins of the Jews – merely the sins of believers. Forthwith the second part of the sacrificing of the Day of Atonement proceeded: the goat was slain, and its blood was offered as the blood of the bullock had been offered, but for a different class, for all the people. That goat represented not all believers, but merely the consecrated ones, the "Royal Priesthood," who presented their bodies living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God, their reasonable service. (Rom. 12:1)
These are permitted by God's grace to become associated sacrifices with Jesus their Head, that they may also in due time be glorified together with him as his joint-heirs in the Kingdom. (Rom. 8:17)
The great High Priest, Jesus, does all the offering; he accepts us as members of his body, and counts our suffering for righteousness' sake as part of his own sufferings, so that the Apostle could say, as all other of the same body may also say, "I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ." (Col 1:24)
When the last member of the consecrated priestly class shall have fully submitted his will to the Lord, and shall thus have finished his sacrifice at the hands of the great High Priest and as one of his members, then this second part of the Atonement Day work will be concluded, and then the blood of the goat shall be sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat, even as previously to our Lord's ascension the blood of the bullock was sprinkled in the Most Holy on our behalf. Thus seen the entire Gospel age is the antitype of the Day of Atonement. The type occupied a few years, the antitype several centuries. In the type the sacrifices were the bullock and the goat, in the antitype, as the Apostle declares, we have the "better sacrifices" of Jesus and of those whom he accepts as his very elect, and who have the promise that, "If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him." [2 Tim. 2:12]
These, by nature "children of wrath even as others," by grace have been saved from that state and adopted into the family of God as his children, assured that if they present their bodies living sacrifices they will be in God's sight "holy, acceptable sacrifices," and that if they thus follow Jesus, their pattern now, they shall be heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ; if so be they suffer with him that they may also be glorified with him. We can not at this time enter more fully into a discussion of these types but refer the interested to our small pamphlet entitled, "Tabernacle Shadows of Better Sacrifices," published by the Tract Society at a nominal price, or to be had free if so requested.
To understand why the blood is so frequently referred to in the Scriptures as the agency or channel through which sins are forgiven, and why the Jews were prohibited from using blood as food, we must bear in mind the Lord's word, "The blood is the life" [NS422] (Deut. 12:23); and again, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh atonement for the soul." (Leviticus 17:11)
So, then, wherever we read throughout the Scriptures respecting blood atonement – as, for instance, the expression, "the blood of the cross" – we are to remember that the word blood is merely symbolical of life poured out or sacrificed. The blood being the life of every creature, the shedding of the blood in every case represents to that extent the death of that creature. So far as our Lord was concerned it mattered not whether a single drop of his blood had fallen to the ground as a result of the spear thrust and the nails; it was the blood of the cross in the sense of being the life that was given for us on the cross – this it was that constituted the merit on account of which our sins could be cancelled, and indirectly the sins of the whole world.
The Apostle recognizes two classes of opposition to the Gospel message in his day, and now after eighteen centuries we may still see opposition to the Word of God from the same two directions. St. Paul said, "The cross of Christ is to the Jew a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness." [1 Cor. 1:23]
The Jew was so intent in his looking for the honors and glories of Messiah's Kingdom, and took so superficial a view of the typical atonement sacrifices of his own time, that he supposed no further sacrifices were necessary and that the glories of Messiah would at once be revealed. He did not realize the world's need to be redeemed by the precious blood – that in no other way could God be just, and yet be the justifier of him that believeth on Jesus. (Rom. 3:26)
He did not realize that a penalty for sin had been announced, and that such penalty was a death penalty, extinction, and that the divine Judge could not set it aside without compromising the righteousness, the justice of his own laws and government. He did not see that God's love proposed to meet the requirements of his own justice, and thus give to the Jews and to mankind in general an exhibition of justice and love co-ordinated in human redemption and restitution, and hence he "stumbled" at the message of the Gospel – that the blood of the cross was necessary and had been shed, and that only believers in this could be justified in God's sight. The Greeks of the apostles' day were the worldly-wise followers of Plato; and we still have the same class in our day – people too wise to accept the simple statements of God's Word respecting the recovery of the Redeemer from the power of death by a resurrection. Worldly wisdom says, "Not so; to us this story of the fall, the redemption and the resurrection is foolishness. We prefer to believe that man has been rising from a protoplasm up to his present status by evolutionary processes, and that there was no redemption because there was no fall, and that there will be no resurrection because, according to our theory, the dead become more alive in the moment of dying."
Thus the battle of the cross, the divine plan, the wisdom of God, and the power of God connected therewith, is an old story and still foolishness to the world; but the Lord declares that the time is coming when the wisdom of his plan shall be manifested and when the folly of the worldly wise shall be likewise shown. Then, the Lord tells us, he will remove the rebuke of his people; they shall no longer be called foolish, but shall be recognized as having declared the wisdom of God and the power of God as he himself revealed it in the cross of Christ. "In the cross of Christ I glory, Towering o'er the wrecks of time. All the light of sacred story Gathers round its head sublime."
Dallas, Tex., October 14 – A convention of Bible Students, Believers in the Atonement of the Precious Blood, representing Texas, Alabama, and Indian Territory, opened here yesterday. Amongst its speakers is Pastor C. T. Russell of Allegheny, Pa., whose discourse of this evening we report. His text was, "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." (Heb. 9:27, 28)
He said: Our text has long been misunderstood: to the majority of minds it signifies, Beware of doomsday, and bids humanity quake at the thought of inexpressible agonies awaiting all who have not made their peace with God through Christ. We quite agree that the Scriptures do teach, "a just recompense of reward to every soul of man that doeth evil:" [Heb. 2:2 ?]we agree that none of God's laws can be violated with impunity, that "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap;" [Gal. 6:7] [NS423] but we dissent strongly from the usual thought that the divine Creator purposed from before man's creation an awful and unjust torture, inconceivable in its severe and prolonged sufferings. This erroneous view has come to us from the "dark ages," and we thank God that gradually the eyes of our understanding are opening, so that some of the features of the nightmare of horror which once engulfed us are fading away, and our minds are attaining a saner view of the Almighty and a better understanding of his Word. Error is frequently inconsistent, as in the case before us: it claims, on the one hand, that the sufferings of the ungodly, the unregenerate, begin in the very moment of death and last through all eternity, without change or abatement; then it takes the text before us and contradicts itself, saying that the whole world of mankind will need to wait until the Day of Judgment, and that then and there they will enter upon their hopeless torment. If the one view be right the other one must be wrong, all will admit; but we hold that both these conceptions of the future are erroneous, that both of them are inconsistent with the divine testimony. Scripturally considered, the judgment of the Church takes place during this Gospel age, while the world's judgment will transpire during the Millennium. Scripturally considered, the Church, the Elect, now on trial for eternal life, will receive their reward, be glorified, fully empowered, and will then constitute the "judges of the world."
It is in harmony with this that the Apostle declares, "God hath appointed a day (the Millennial day – a thousand-year day) in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained." (Acts 17:31)
That "Man" is the great Christ, the antitypical Moses – the antitypical seed of Abraham – Jesus the Head, and the Church, the members of the body. Gal. 3:29
We are not now discussing our text: we are merely considering first the erroneous views which generally prevail respecting the Judgment. What Christian does not recognize the fact that he is now on trial as a member of the body of Christ, to determine whether or not he shall be counted worthy to maintain his blessed relationship and to have it confirmed and extended into the future glory, honor and immortality which God has promised to the faithful. By faith and consecration we join the Church of Christ at the present time on "probation," as our Methodist friends illustrate. The probationary period is our earthly life; and our Lord declares that if we are faithful to our covenant of sacrifice we surely shall have the full and blessed reward of permanent membership in his Church, his body, by participation in the First Resurrection.
He tells us that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life from the moment of our accepted consecration. He tells us that a crown of life was set apart for us at that moment, and assures us that if we are faithful he will not blot out our names and will not give the crown to another – implying that unfaithfulness would result in the blotting out of our names from the elect class and the giving of the place and the crown to another who would prove more faithful. Surely all can recognize, then, that this probationary period is the Church's judgment time, and that the rewards at the end, at the second coming of Christ will be merely such as are warranted by our course while on trial – in a word, that our trial is a testing of our faithfulness, loyalty, in harmony with our covenant of sacrifice, by which we entered the Lord's family and on account of which we received the begetting of his Spirit. In the Scripture we have quoted the Apostle shows clearly that the world's day of judgment is future, and he confirms this when he says, "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?" (1 Cor. 6:2)
Since it requires all of this Gospel age to predetermine who are the real saints who shall reign with Christ a thousand years (Rev. 20:4), since it requires all of this age to determine who shall constitute the elect judges of the world, it must be manifest to every thinking person that the world's judgment or trial-day can not come until after the Church's judgment or trial is completed. Moreover, the character of the Church's judgment or trial during this age should furnish such an illustration of the subject of trial or judgment as would forever set aside as foolish the ordinary view that has come down to us from the "dark ages," that the world's day of judgment would be a twenty-four hour day, in which Christ would merely deliver sentences against the race, ignoring all opportunities for trial, for testing them in the knowledge of the truth. Most explicitly and most reasonably the Scriptures show that the Millennial day, a thousand years long, is to be the world's period of trial, of judgment; that during that day the Sun of Righteousness will arise, and cause the mental illumination of the whole world with the knowledge of God, of truth, of righteousness.
Then all the blind eyes shall be opened, much after the manner that the eyes of our understanding are now opened to see the Lord and to understand his Word. The vail of ignorance that is now spread over all things, the Lord assures us, will be abolished, will be removed during that Millennial day, when his Kingdom shall take control of the world's affairs, banishing its sin and ignorance and superstition, and binding Satan, the prince of darkness and error. Thus will the Lord grant a trial to the world of mankind somewhat similar to the trial for everlasting life or everlasting death. The Church, [NS424] now on trial, will then, by obedience, have proved loyal to the Lord and to righteousness, and therefore worthy under the Lord's terms of life everlasting. But during this Spirit dispensation all these who are recognized as the Church and thus placed on trial are first begotten of the Spirit; hence, if their trial pass successfully, it means that they will be born of the Spirit in the First Resurrection and have eternal life as spirit beings and no longer as human beings. The world, on the contrary, will not be begotten of the Spirit and be on trial for eternity as spirit beings, but under the terms of the Lord's promise their trial will be for worthiness or unworthiness of eternal life as human beings – as inhabitors of the earth, restored to Paradisaic conditions during the Millennium. The trials are alike then, in that they mean either life eternal or death eternal. Whoever of the Spirit begotten, Spirit-enlightened ones now sins wilfully and deliberately, passes under condemnation of the Second Death, the Apostle assures us. (Heb. 4:6; 10:29-32)
Whoever of the world in the next age, after having attained a full enlightenment, a full opportunity of reconciliation with God, shall then wilfully and deliberately reject and neglect divine mercy shall die the Second Death – or, as the Apostle Paul declares, "such shall be destroyed from among the people" and "be punished with everlasting destruction." Acts 3:23; 2 Thess. 1:9
Having glanced at the erroneous views respecting the Day of Judgment and briefly presented the Scriptural view, we now turn to our text to consider it. We have already noticed the erroneous light in which it is generally viewed, and now call attention to the fact that it is not referring to the death of mankind in general nor to the judgment of mankind in general. The entire text clearly demonstrates that the Apostle is discussing the typical priests of the Jewish people and their typical sacrifices, and is fitting to these types their antitypes. After describing the sin offering of the Day of Atonement, he tells us that the earthly priests who made these sacrifices typified our Lord Jesus. Their going into the Most Holy represented the going of Jesus, our High Priest, into heaven itself, their sprinkling of the Mercy Seat and thus making atonement typified his presentation of the merit of his own sacrifice to the Heavenly Father, his application of his own blood of atonement.
The coming out of the earthly priest from the Most Holy represented the Second coming of Christ, the gorgeous robes typifying the divine glory, honor and power of Messiah. As, then, the earthly priest proceeded in his glorious robes to bless all the people, to assure them of divine forgiveness and reconciliation, and to give them comfort, encouragement and assistance during the ensuing year, so the Christ will bless all the families of the earth, encouraging, helping, uplifting them, and bringing so many as will back into full fellowship with God and back to the full perfection of God-likeness.
This is the picture the Apostle lays before our mental vision in the context. Then he proceeds to show that there was a special trial or testing upon those earthly priests before they could enter the Most Holy and make the atonement there; in order to be the officiating priests in the Most Holy they must die – not literally, not actually but in a typical manner. They did this under divine direction by taking an animal, a bullock, to represent the priest. When he laid his hands upon it, it signified that it was his representative, and when he smote the bullock and killed it and took of its blood and went into the Holy and Most Holy it illustrated how Christ, begotten of the holy Spirit, a New Creature, sacrificed his human nature and then presented his human life (represented by the blood) as a ransom price to justice for the life of Adam and all of his posterity who died through his disobedience.
Thus in type every year the Jewish priests represented far more than they knew – they represented the antitypical sacrifice of Christ Jesus. The Apostle declares that in doing this year by year continually, repeatedly, they illustrated the fact that it was not the real atonement for sin that was effected, but merely the typical one, reckoned good for the year. But the Apostle explains that Christ, having become a high priest of a higher order, enacted all of these things on a higher plane – on the antitypical plane. His sacrifice was not that of a bullock but of himself. The blood, the life, which he took into the Most Holy, even heaven itself, when he ascended on high to appear in the presence of God for us, was the real merit of his own sacrificed life. It needed not to be repeated ever, because it fully met the requirements of divine justice.
The Jews repudiated the cross of Christ – as the Apostle says, they "stumbled over it."
They were looking for a Messiah who would enter upon his glorious career as the emperor of the world, the seed of Abraham, to bless all the world, and who would associate their nation with him in this work. They were too proud and boastful of heart to accept the message that Messiah must first die, must first redeem the world, and must present the redemption blood to divine justice before he could be just and the justifier of them that believe – before he could accomplish the work of blessing Israel and all the families of the earth. The Apostle in our context demonstrates the fact that the death of Christ as the High Priest of the world was taught by [NS425] Moses in the Law during the entire period of Jewish history – that every high priest of the family of Aaron who killed the bullock thus represented his own death, his own consecration to death. And then he points out that even after passing into the Holy and partaking of the bread and then in the light of the candlestick and offering incense upon the golden altar, the high priest had the great test of all before him, for, according to the Law, if he had not performed the entire work correctly his attempt to pass under the second vail into the Most Holy would have meant his death, his extinction. This is the judgment of our life – the crisis – the test that came upon every Jewish high priest as he attempted to serve in the office of the high priest on the Day of Atonement. As thus in the type God appointed unto men, (High Priests), once to die relatively in the killing of the bullock, and after this to have a judgment or decision, Heb. 9:27, respecting their worthiness or unworthiness upon attempting to enter the Most Holy; so, according to the Apostle, it was also with Christ. Christ fulfilled all those things in the antitype.
He was offered once to bear the sins of many: he not only consecrated at Jordan when he was baptized and received the holy Spirit, but during the three and a half years of his ministry he carried out that offering or sacrifice and finished it at Calvary – there he passed under the second veil. According to the type, if his work had in any measure or degree been defective he would never have risen from the dead, he would have perished in death.
But his resurrection on the third day on the other side of the veil, a spirit being, was evidence that his work of sacrifice had been thoroughly done, that it was acceptable to the Father. The Apostle sums up his argument by pointing out that as Jesus had thus died, had thus passed his judgment, and had the evidence of divine acceptance in his resurrection, we all who believe the record and trust in him may know that the next feature in order will be the coming forth of this great High Priest in his due time to bless the world. The Apostle emphasizes this by saying that he will appear the second time without sin. This does not signify that at his first appearing he had sinned, for the Scriptures quite to the contrary declare that "in him was no sin," but he appeared the first time as a sin offering – to take the place of the sinner, to suffer in the sinner's stead; and the Apostle would have us understand that our Lord at his second advent will not be manifested as a sin offering – he has already accomplished that in the sacrifice of himself – but his second coming in power and great glory will be
The Scriptures everywhere point us to the fact that while believers in the present time may properly enough claim to be saved, nevertheless, as the Apostle says, "We are saved by hope" (Rom. 8:24); the actual salvation is to be brought unto us "at the revelation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (1 Pet. 1:13)
In other words, those who accept the Lord's message by faith now have their probationary trial now, and must wait for the salvation until the second advent of our Lord. The salvation of the elect class will be the very first item connected with the Lord's second advent. His promise is that he will come again and receive them unto himself, that he will grant them a share in his resurrection, or, as the Prophet mentions the matter, "God will help her (the Bride of Christ) right early in the morning." (Psa. 46:5)
The salvation of the Church will be immediately followed by granting the world its opportunity of salvation – the forgiveness of all sins of heredity, the punishment with stripes of every wilful sin, administered in such a corrective manner and with such encouraging assistances as will be most helpful to the world, to lift whosoever will out of sin and death conditions up, up, up gradually during the Millennial age to the full perfection, full salvation, full attainment of all that was lost in Adam and redeemed for us by the precious blood. This is the salvation which Christ brings at his second coming, the salvation which only the Church knows how to anticipate and appreciate now, the salvation of which the Apostle speaks when he says, "God will have all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 1 Tim. 2:4
The Apostle declares that the Lord will appear at the second advent "unto them that have been watching."
He is very evidently, not looking to any manifestation to the natural eye, for in that Christ will appear to those who are searching for him as much as to those who are looking for him. But the Apostle wrote under inspiration and phrased his language properly. Our Lord's second advent is not to be in the flesh, for as in the type the high priest put on the glorious garments when he came out to bless the people, so in the antitype our Lord will be clothed in the glories of the divine nature during the time of his pouring out blessings upon the human family. As no man has seen God at any time except as God was manifest in the flesh, so none will be able to see the glorious High Priest except as he shall be manifest in the flesh, for the Scriptures declare that he is the express image of the Father's person.
If, therefore, the Father's person can not be seen neither can the Son's person be seen. As the Apostle declares, the King immortal, invisible, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen or can see, is a description which fits both the Father and the glorified Son. 1 Tim. 1:17; 6:16 [NS426] Hence those who will recognize the Lord at his second coming must be those who will look for him, and they alone. And only the enlightenment of the eyes of the understanding will enable anyone to look for the presence and power and blessing of the Invisible One – not seen to the eye of flesh. The truly consecrated of the Lord's people will, therefore, earliest be ready to recognize the presence of the Son of man – to recognize manifestations of his glorious reign begun. And when these shall have passed beyond the vail to be with him, the great time of trouble will manifest to the world the change of dispensation, the consummation of this age.
Then, quickly following that manifestation, will come the Lord's manifestation to the world through his ancient worthies in the flesh; and gradually, as the eyes of understanding shall open to the situation, every eye shall see him – shall recognize that he who died on Calvary is indeed the great King through whom all the families of the earth are to be blessed in proportion as they will render obedience to the righteous requirements which then will be clearly discerned by every creature, because then the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the whole earth as the waters cover the great deep, so that none shall need to say to his neighbor, Know thou the Lord, for all of them shall know him from the least to the greatest of them. Isa. 11:9; Jer. 31:34
In conclusion, then, let us have right views of the judgment or trial time of the world in the next age – right views of our own, the Church's trial time in this age, and correct views of our text, which points out to us that the judgment or trial which came upon every priest every year when he attempted to take the blood of atonement into the Most Holy was a type or picture of the sacrifice of Christ and its acceptableness to the Father, and of the test which was upon him by which his resurrection was demonstrated, that his sacrifice as a whole was perfect and acceptable, and therefore the basis of the reconciliation for the sins of the whole world.