Christian Perfection AT Jones
Christian Perfection AT Jones
Christian Perfection AT Jones
Way to Christian
Perfection
by A. T. Jones
The Consecrated
Way to Christian
Perfection
by A. T. Jones
Copyright © 2007
Truth For The Final Generation, all rights reserved
Any portion of this book MAY be reproduced by any method.
Complete books or requested portions are available in printed
or electronic form by writing to the addresses above, by email,
or by visiting our web site.
2. Introduction 5
4. Christ As God 12
5. Christ As Man 15
8. “Made Of A Woman” 26
14. Perfection 58
19. Conclusion 91
A. T. Jones
Publisher’s Preface
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The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection
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Introduction
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The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection
so well known — that He is not all three of these at the same time. The
three offices are successive. He is prophet first, then after that He is priest,
and after that He is king.
He was “that Prophet” when He came into the world, as that “Teacher
come from God,” the Word made flesh and dwelling among us, “full of
grace and truth.” Acts 3:19-23. But He was not then a priest, nor would
He be a priest if He were even yet on earth, for it is written, “If He were on
earth, He should not be a priest.” Heb. 8:4. But, having finished His work
in His prophetic office on earth, and having ascended to heaven at the right
hand of the throne of God, He is now and there our “great High Priest,”
who “ever liveth to make intercession for us,” as it is written: “He shall be a
priest upon His [Father’s] throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between
them both.” Zech. 6:12, 13.
As He was not that Priest when He was on earth as that Prophet, so now
He is not that King when He is in heaven as that Priest. True, He is king
in the sense and in the fact that He is upon His Father’s throne; and thus
He is the kingly priest and the priestly king after the order of Melchizedek,
who, though priest of the Most High God, was also King of Salem, which
is King of peace. Heb. 7:1,2. But this is not the kingly office and throne that
is referred to, and that is contemplated in the prophecy and the promise of
His specific office as king.
The kingly office of the promise and the prophecy is that He shall be King
upon “the throne of His father David,” in perpetuation of the kingdom of
God upon this earth. This kingly office is the restoration and the perpetuation,
in Him, of the diadem, the crown, and the throne of David, which was
discontinued when, because of the profanity and wickedness of the king
and the people of Judah and Israel, they were taken captive to Babylon,
when it was declared: “And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day
is come, when iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord God; Remove
the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him
that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn,
it: and it shall be no more, until He come whose right it is; and I will give it
Him.” Eze. 21:25-27.
Thus and at that time the throne, the diadem, and the crown of the
kingdom of David was discontinued “until He come whose right it is,” when
it will be given Him. And He whose right it is, is only Christ, “the son of
David.” And this “coming” was not His first coming when He came in His
humiliation, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; but it is His second
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coming, when He comes in His glory as “King of kings and Lord of lords,”
when His kingdom shall break in pieces and consume all the kingdoms of
earth, and shall occupy the whole earth, and shall stand forever.
It is true that when He was born into the world, a babe in Bethlehem. He
was born King, and was then and has been ever since King by right. But
it is equally true that this kingly office, diadem, crown, and throne of the
prophecy and promise, He did not then take, and has not yet taken and will
not take until He comes again. Then it will be that He will take to Himself
His great power upon this earth, and will reign fully and truly in all the
splendor of His kingly office and glory. For in the Scripture it is portrayed
that after “the judgment was set, and the books were opened,” one like the
Son of man came to the Ancient of days, “and there was given Him dominion,
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should
serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Dan. 7:13, 14.
Then it is that He shall indeed take “the throne of His father David: and He
shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall
be no end.” Luke 1:32, 33.
Thus it is plain that in the contemplation of the scripture, in the
contemplation of the promise and the prophecy, as to His three offices of
prophet, priest, and king, these offices are successive; and not all, nor even
any two of them, at the same time. He came first as “that Prophet;” He is
now that Priest, and will be that King when He comes again. He finished
His work as “that Prophet” before He became that Priest; and He finishes
His work as that Priest before He will become that King.
And as He was, and as He is, and as He is to be, so our consideration of
Him must be.
That is to say: When He was in the world as that Prophet, that is what
the people were then to consider Him; and, as concerning that time, that is
what we are now to consider Him. But they at that time could not consider
Him as that Priest, nor, as concerning Him in that time, can we consider
Him as that Priest; for when He was on earth, He was not a priest.
But when that time was past, He became Priest. He is now Priest. He is
now just as truly Priest as, when He was on earth, He was that Prophet. And
in His office and work of priest we are now to consider Him just as truly,
just as thoroughly, and just as constantly that Priest, as, when He was on
earth, they and we must consider Him as that Prophet.
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The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection
And when He comes again in His glory and in the majesty of His
kingdom, and upon the throne of His father David, then we shall consider
Him as that King, which He will then indeed be. But not until then can we
truly consider Him in His kingly office, as He in that kingship and kingly
office will be.
In His kingly office we can now truly contemplate Him as only that which
He is yet to be. In His prophetic office we can now contemplate Him only as
that which He has been. But in His priesthood we must now consider Him
as that which He now is; for only that is what He now is. That is the office
in which alone He is now manifested; and that is the office in which alone
we can now actually consider Him in His own person and procedure.
Not only are His three offices of prophet, priest, and king successive, but
they are successive for a purpose. And they are successive for a purpose in
the exact order of the succession as given — prophet, priest, and king. His
office as prophet was preparatory and essential to His office as priest; and His
offices of prophet and priest, in order, are preparatory to His office as king.
And to us the consideration of Him in these offices in their order is
essential.
We must consider Him in His office as prophet, not only in order that we
may be taught by Him who spake as never man spake, but also that we shall
be able properly to consider Him in His office as priest.
And we must consider Him in His office as priest, not only that we may
have the infinite benefit of His priesthood, but also that we shall be prepared
for what we are to be. For it is written: “They shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” Rev. 20:6.
And having considered Him in His office of prophet as preparatory to
our properly considering Him in His office as priest, it is essential that we
consider Him in His office as priest in order that we shall be able to consider
Him in His office as king; that is, in order that we shall be with Him there,
and reign with Him there. For even of us it is written: “The saints of the Most
High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever
and ever,” and “they shall reign forever and ever.” Dan. 7:18; Rev. 22:5.
His priesthood being the present office and work of Christ, this having
been His office and work ever since His ascension to heaven, Christ in His
priesthood is the all-important study for all Christians, as well as for all
other people.
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Chapter 1
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weight and import of this word, “such an High Priest.” The whole of the
seventh chapter is devoted to the discussion of this priesthood. The sixth
chapter closes with the thought of this priesthood. The fifth chapter is
almost wholly devoted to the same thought. The fourth chapter closes with
it; and the fourth chapter is but a continuation of the third chapter, which
begins with an exhortation to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession, Christ Jesus;” and this as the conclusion from what had already
been presented. The second chapter closes with the thought of His being
“a merciful and faithful High Priest” and this also as the conclusion from
what has preceded in the first and second chapters; for though they are two
chapters, the subject is but one.
This sketch shows plainly that in the first seven chapters of Hebrews the
one great thought over all is the priesthood of Christ; and that the truths
presented, whatever the thought or the form may be, are all simply the
presentation in different ways of the great truth of this priesthood; all of
which is finally summed up in the words: “We have such an High Priest.”
Therefore, in discovering the true weight and import of this expression,
“such an High Priest,” it is necessary to begin with the very first words of the
book of Hebrews and follow the thought straight through to the summing
up, bearing constantly in mind that the one transcendent thought in all that
is presented is “such an High Priest” and that in all that is said, the one great
purpose is to show to mankind that we have “such an High Priest.” However
rich and full may be the truths in themselves, concerning Christ, which
are contained in the successive statements, it must be constantly borne in
mind that these truths — however rich, however full — are all expressed
with the one great aim of showing that we have “such an High Priest.” And
in studying these truths as they are presented in the epistle, they must be
held as subordinate and tributary to the great truth over all that is the
“sum,” — “we have such an High Priest.”
In the second chapter of Hebrews, as the conclusion of the argument
there presented, it is written: “Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to
be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful
High Priest in things pertaining to God.” In this it is declared that Christ’s
condescension, His likeness to mankind, His being made flesh and dwelling
amongst men, was necessary to His becoming “a merciful and faithful High
Priest.” But in order to know the measure of His condescension and what is
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the real meaning of His place in the flesh as the Son of man and man, it is
necessary to know what was first the measure of His exaltation as the Son of
God and God, and this is the subject of the first chapter.
The condescension of Christ, the position of Christ, and the nature of
Christ as He was in the flesh in the world are given in the second chapter of
Hebrews more fully than in any other one place in the Scriptures. But this
is in the second chapter. The first chapter precedes it. Therefore the truth and
the thought presented in the first chapter are essentially precedent to the
second chapter. The first chapter must be fully understood in order to be
able to follow the thought and understand the truth in the second chapter.
In the first chapter of Hebrews, the exaltation, the position, and the
nature of Christ as He was in heaven before He came to the world are more
fully given than in any other single portion of the Scriptures. Therefore it
is certain that an understanding of the position and nature of Christ as He
was in heaven is essential to a proper understanding of His position and
nature as He was on earth. And since it behooved Him to be what He was
on earth, in order that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest, it is
essential to know what He was in heaven, for this is essentially precedent to
what He was on earth, and is therefore an essential part of the evidence that
is summed up in the expression, “We have such an High Priest.”
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Chapter 2
Christ As God
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spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son He saith, Thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever [“from eternity to eternity,” German
translation].”
And again, “A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom.
Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy
God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.”
And yet again, the Father, in speaking to the Son, says: “Thou, Lord, in the
beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works
of Thine hands: they shall perish; but Thou remainest: and they all shall wax
old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they
shall be changed: but Thou are the same, and Thy years shall not fail.”
Note the contrasts here, and in them read the nature of Christ. The
heavens shall perish, but He remains. The heavens shall wax old, but His years
shall not fail. The heavens shall be changed, but He is the same. This shows
that He is God: of the nature of God.
Yet more of this contrast between Christ and the angels: “To which of the
angels said He at any time, Sit on My right hand, until I make thine enemies
thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for
them who shall be heirs of salvation?”
Thus, in the first chapter of Hebrews, Christ is revealed higher than the
angels, as God; and as much higher than the angels as is God, because He
is God.
In the first chapter of Hebrews Christ is revealed as God, of the name of
God, because He is of the nature of God. And so entirely is His nature of
the nature of God, that it is the very impress of the substance of God.
This is Christ the Saviour, Spirit of Spirit, substance of substance, of
God.
And this it is essential to know in the first chapter of Hebrews, in order to
know what is His nature revealed in the second chapter of Hebrews as man.
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Chapter 3
Christ As Man
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Bearing in mind the great thought of the first chapte,r and the first four
verses of the second chapter — of Christ in contrast with the angels, higher
than the angels, as God — we begin with the fifth verse of the second chapter,
where begins the thought of Christ in contrast with the angels — lower than
the angels, as man.
So we read: “For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world
to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What
is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest
him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him
with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou
hast put all things in subject under his feet. For in that He put all in subject
under Him, He left nothing that is not put under Him. But now we see not
yet all things put under Him. But we see Jesus.” Heb. 2:5-9.
That is to say: God has not put in subjection to the angels the world to
come: but He has put it in subjection to man — yet not the man to whom
it was originally put in subjection; for, though it was so, yet now we see it
not so. The man lost his dominion, and, instead of having all things in
subjection under his feet, he himself is now in subjection to death. And he
is in subjection to death only because he is in subjection to sin; for “by one
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned.” Rom. 5:12. He is in subjection to death
because he is in subjection to sin; for death is only the wages of sin.
Nevertheless, it stands eternally true that not unto the angels hath He put
in subjection the world to come, but unto man. And, now, JESUS CHRIST
is THE MAN.
For, though this dominion having been put in subjection to man, and
though now we see it not so; though man was given the dominion over all,
and now we see that dominion lost to that particular man, yet we do “see
Jesus,” as man, come to regain that original dominion. We do “see Jesus” as
man, come to have all things put in subjection under Him.
That man was the first Adam: this other Man is the last Adam. That first
Adam was made a little lower than the angels: this last Adam, Jesus, also we
see “made a little lower than the angels.”
That first man did not remain in the position where he was made, “lower
than the angels.” He lost that, and went still lower, and became subject to
sin; and, in that, subject to suffering, even to the suffering of death.
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And the last Adam we see in the same place, in the same condition: “We see
Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.”
And again: “Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all OF
ONE.”
He which sanctifieth is Jesus. They who are sanctified are men of all
nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples. And one man sanctified, out of
any nation, any kindred, any tongue, or any people, is divine demonstration
that every soul of that nation, kindred, tongue, or people might have been
sanctified. And Jesus, having become one of these, that He might bring
them to glory, is proof that He is one of mankind altogether; that He, as
man, and all men themselves, are “all of one: for which cause He is not
ashamed to call them brethren.”
Therefore, as in heaven He was higher than the angels, as God; so, on
earth, He was lower than the angels, as man. As when He was higher than
the angels, as God, He and God were of one; so when He was on the earth,
lower than the angels, as man, He and man are “of one.” So that, just as
certainly as, on the side of God, Jesus and God are of one — of one Spirit, of
one nature, of one substance; so, on the side of man, Christ and man are “of
one” — of one flesh, of one nature, of one substance.
The likeness of Christ to God is in substance as well as in form. And the
likeness of Christ to man is in substance as well as in form. Otherwise, there
is no meaning in the first chapter of Hebrews as introductory to the second
chapter; no meaning in the antitheses between the first and second chapters;
and the first chapter is out of place, and empty, as a basis of introduction to
the second chapter.
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Chapter 4
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But death entered only because of sin: had not sin entered, death never
could have entered. And we see Jesus made lower than the angels for the
suffering of death. Therefore we see Jesus made in the nature of man, as man
is since man sinned; and not as man was before sin entered. For this He did
that He might “taste death for every man.” In becoming man that he might
reach man, He must come to man where man is. Man is subject to death.
Therefore Jesus must become man, as man is since he is subject to death.
“For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,
in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings.” Heb. 2:10. Thus, in becoming man, it became
Him to become such as man is. Man is subject to sufferings. Therefore it
became Him to come to the man where he is, in his sufferings.
Before man sinned, he was not in any sense subject to sufferings. And
for Jesus to have come in the nature of man as he was before sin entered,
would have been only to come in a way and in a nature in which it would be
impossible for Him to know the sufferings of man, and therefore impossible
to reach him to save him. But since it became Him, in bringing men
unto glory, to be made perfect through sufferings; it is certain that Jesus,
in becoming man, partook of the nature of man as he is since he became
subject to suffering, even the suffering of death, which is the wages of sin.
And so it is written: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of
flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same.” Verse 14.
He, in His human nature, took the same flesh and blood that men have. All
the words that could be used to make this plain and positive are here put
together in a single sentence.
The children of men are partakers of flesh and blood; and, because of this,
He took part of the same.
But this is not all: He also took part of the same flesh and blood as that of
which the children are partakers.
Nor is this all: He also Himself took part of the same flesh and blood as
that of which the children of men are partakers.
Nor yet is this all. He also Himself likewise took part of the same flesh
and blood as that of which men are partakers.
Thus the Spirit of inspiration so much desires that this truth shall be made
so plain and emphatic as to be understood by all, that He is not content to
use any fewer than all the words that could be used in the telling of it. And,
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therefore, it is declared that just as, and just as certainly as, “the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same”
flesh and blood.
And this He did in order “that through death He might … deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” He
took part of the same flesh and blood as we have in the bondage of sin and
the fear of death, in order that He might deliver us from the bondage of sin
and the fear of death.
And so, “Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of
one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.”
This great truth of the blood-relationship, this blood-brotherhood, of
Christ with men, is taught in the gospel in Genesis. For when God made
His everlasting covenant with Abraham, the sacrifices were cut in two, and
He, with Abraham, passed between the pieces. Gen. 15:8-18; Jer. 34:18, 19;
Heb. 7:5, 9. By this act the Lord entered into “the most solemn covenant
known to the Oriental” or to Mankind — the blood covenant — and thus
became blood-brother to Abraham, “a relation which outranks every other
relation in life.”
This great truth of Christ’s blood-relationship to man is further taught
in the gospel in Leviticus. In the gospel in Leviticus there is written the
law of redemption of men and their inheritances. When any one of the
children of Israel had lost his inheritance, or himself had been brought into
bondage, there was redemption provided. If he was able of himself to redeem
himself or his inheritance, he could do it. But if he was not able of himself
to redeem, then the right of redemption fell to his nearest of kin in blood-
relationship. It fell not merely to one who was near of kin among his brethren;
but to the one who was nearest of kin, who was able. Lev. 25:24-28, 47-49;
Ruth 2:20; 3:9, 12, 13; 4:1-14, with the marginal readings.
Thus in Genesis and Leviticus there has been taught through all these
ages the very truth which we find here taught in the second chapter of
Hebrews — the truth that man has lost his inheritance and is himself also in
bondage. And as he himself can not redeem himself nor his inheritance, the
right of redemption falls to the nearest of kin who is able. And Jesus Christ
is the only one in all the universe who is able.
But to be the Redeemer he must be not only able, He must be a blood-
relative. And He must also be not only near of kin, but the nearest of kin;
and the nearest of kin by blood-relationship. Therefore, “as the children” of
man — as the children of the one who lost our inheritance — ”are partakers
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of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same” — took
part of flesh and blood in very substance like ours, and so became our nearest
of kin. And therefore it is written that He and we “are all of one: for which
cause He is not ashamed to call us brethren.”
But the Scripture does not stop even yet with the statement of this all-
important truth. It says, further: “For verily He took not on Him the nature
of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things
it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren,” whose blood-brother
He became in the confirming of that everlasting covenant.
And this He did, in order that wherein “He Himself hath suffered being
tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.” For He was “touched
with the feeling of our infirmities;” being “in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin.” Heb. 4:15. Being made in His human nature, in all things
like as we are, He could be, and He was, tempted in all points like as we are.
The only way in which He could possibly be tempted “like as we are” was to
become “in all things” “like as we are.”
As in His human nature He is one of us, and as “Himself took our
infirmities” (Matt. 8:17), He could be “touched with the feeling of our
infirmities.” Being in all things made like us, He, when tempted, felt just
as we feel when we are tempted, and knows all about it: and so can help
and save to the uttermost all who will receive Him. As in His flesh, and as
Himself in the flesh, He was as weak as we are and of Himself could “do
nothing” (John 5:30); so when He bore “our griefs, and carried our sorrows”
(Isaiah 53:4), and was tempted as we are, feeling as we feel, by His divine
faith He conquered all by the power of God which that faith brought to Him,
and which in our flesh He has brought to us.
Therefore, His name is called Immanuel, which is “God with us.” Not
God with Him only, but God with us. God was with Him in eternity, and
could have been with Him even though He had not given Himself for us.
But man through sin became without God, and God wanted to be again
with us. Therefore Jesus became “us” that God with Him might be “God with
us.” And that is His name, because that is what He is. Blessed be His name.
And this is “the faith of Jesus” and the power of it. This is our Saviour:
one of God, and one of man; and therefore able to save to the uttermost
every soul who will come to God by Him.
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Chapter 5
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the whole earth? This: “For every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this
side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that
side according to it.”
That is, this roll is the law of God; one commandment being cited from
each table, showing that both tables of the law are included in the roll. Every
one that stealeth — every one that transgresseth the law in the things of the
second table — shall be cut off as on this side of the law according to it; and
every one that sweareth — every one that transgresseth in the things of the
first table of the law — shall be cut off as on that side of the law according
to it.
The heavenly recorders do not need to write out a statement of each
particular sin of every man; but simply to indicate on the roll that pertains to
each man the particular commandment that is violated in each transgression.
And that such a roll of the law does go with every man wherever he goes,
and even abides in his house, is plain from the next words: “I will bring it
forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief,
and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by My name: and it shall
remain in the midst of his house.”
And unless a remedy shall be found, there that roll of the law will remain
until the curse shall consume that man, and his house, “with the timber
thereof and the stones thereof:” that is, until the curse shall devour the earth
in that great day when the very elements shall melt with fervent heat. For
“the strength of sin” and the curse “is the law.” 1 Cor. 15:56; Isaiah 24:5, 6;
2 Peter 3:10-12.
But, thanks be to God, “God sent forth His son, made…under the law, to
redeem them that were under the law.” Gal. 4:4,5. By His coming He brought
redemption to every soul who is under the law. But in order perfectly to
bring that redemption to men under the law, He Himself must come to
men, just where they are, and as they are, under the law.
And this He did; for he was “made under the law;” He was made “guilty;”
He was made condemned by the law; He was “made” as guilty as any man is
guilty who is under the law. He was “made” under condemnation as fully as
any man is under condemnation because of his violation of the law. He was
“made” under the curse as completely as any man in the world has ever been,
or ever can be, under the curse. For it is written: “He that is hanged [“on a
tree”] is accursed of God.” Deut. 21:23.
The Hebrew makes this stronger still; for the literal translation is: “He
that hangeth on a tree is the curse of God.” And this is exactly the strength
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of the fact respecting Christ; for it is written that He was “made a curse.”
Thus, when He was made under the law, He was made all that it means to
be under the law. He was made guilty; He was made condemned; He was
made a curse.
But bear in mind forever that all this He “was made.” He was none of this
of Himself, of native fault; but all of it he “was made.” And He was made it
all for us: for us who are under the law: for us who are under condemnation
because of transgressions of the law: for us who are under the curse because
of swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery,
and all the other infractions of the roll of God’s law that goeth with us and
that remaineth in our house.
He was made under the law, to redeem them that are under the law. He
was made a curse, to redeem them that are under the curse BECAUSE of
being under the law.
But for whomsoever it was done, and whatsoever is accomplished by the
doing of it, there must never be forgotten the fact that, in order to the doing
of that which was done, He had to be “made” that which those already were
for whom the thing was done.
Any man, therefore, in all the world, who knows guilt, by that very thing
knows also what Jesus felt for him; and by this knows how close Jesus has
come to him. Whosoever knows what is condemnation, in that knows
exactly what Jesus felt for him; and so knows how thoroughly Jesus is able
to sympathize with him and to redeem him. Whosoever knows the curse
of sin, “the plague of his own heart,” in that can know exactly what Jesus
experienced for him; and how entirely Jesus identified Himself, in very
experience, with him.
Bearing guilt, being under condemnation, and so under the weight of the
curse, Jesus, a whole lifetime in this world of guilt, condemnation, and the curse,
lived the perfect life of the righteousness of God, without ever sinning at all.
And whenever any man knowing guilt, condemnation, and the curse of sin;
and knowing that Jesus actually felt in His experience all this just as man feels
it; then, in addition, that man by believing in Jesus, can know in his experience
the blessedness of the perfect life of the righteousness of God, in his life to
redeem him from guilt, from condemnation, and from the curse; and to be
manifested in his whole lifetime to keep him from ever sinning at all.
Christ was made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.
And that blessed work is accomplished for every soul who accepts of that
redemption.
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“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us.” His being made a curse is not in vain: it accomplishes all that was
intended by it, in behalf of every man who will receive it. For it was all
done “that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith.” Gal. 3:14.
Still, whatever was intended by it, and whatever is accomplished by it,
there must always be borne in mind by every soul the FACT that, in His
condescension, in His emptying Himself and being “made in the likeness
of men” and “made flesh,” He was made under the law, guilty — under
condemnation, under the curse — as really and as entirely as is any soul that
shall ever be redeemed.
And having passed through it all, He is the author of eternal salvation,
and is able to save to the uttermost from deepest loss all who come unto
God by Him.
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Chapter 6
“Made Of A Woman”
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the shadow of a single degree. He was made flesh; he was made to be sin. He
was made flesh as flesh is, and only as flesh is in this world; and was made
to be sin only as sin is.
And this must He do to redeem lost mankind. For Him to be separated a
single degree, or a shadow of a single degree, in any sense, from the nature
of those whom He came to redeem, would be only to miss everything.
Therefore, as He was made “under the law,” because they are under the law
whom He would redeem: and as He was made a curse, because they are under
the curse whom He would redeem, and as He was made sin, because they are
sinners,”sold under sin,”whom He would redeem — precisely so He must be
made flesh, and “the same” flesh and blood, because they are flesh and blood
whom He would redeem; and must be made “of a woman,” because sin was
in the world first by and in the woman.
Consequently, it is true, without any sort of exception, that “in all things
it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren.” Heb. 2:17
If He were not of the same flesh as are those whom He came to redeem,
then there is no sort of use of His being made flesh at all. More than this:
Since the only flesh that there is in this wide world which He came to redeem,
is just the poor, sinful, lost, human flesh that all mankind have; if this is not
the flesh that He was made, then He never really came to the world which
needs to be redeemed. For if He came in a human nature different from that
which human nature in this world actually is, then, even though He were
in the world, yet, for any practical purpose in reaching man and helping
him, He was as far from him as if He had never come: for, in that case, in
His human nature He was just as far from man and just as much of another
world as if He had never come into this world at all.
It is thoroughly understood that in His birth Christ did partake of the
nature of Mary — the “woman” of whom He was “made.” But the carnal
mind is not willing to allow that God in His perfection of holiness could
endure to come to men where they are in their sinfulness. Therefore endeavor
has been made to escape the consequences of this glorious truth, which is
the emptying of self, by inventing a theory that the nature of the virgin Mary
was different from the nature of the rest of mankind; that her flesh was
not exactly such flesh as is that of all mankind. This invention sets up that,
by some special means, Mary was made different from the rest of human
beings, especially in order that Christ might be becomingly born of her.
This invention has culminated in what is known as the Roman Catholic
dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Many Protestants, if not the vast
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Chapter 7
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each person, in many ways, the liability to sin, inherited from generations
back, which has not yet culminated in the act of sinning, but which is ever
ready, when occasion offers, to blaze forth in the actual committing of sins.
David’s great sin is an illustration of this. Ps. 51:5; 2 Sam. 11:2.
In delivering us from sin, it is not enough that we shall be saved from the
sins that we have actually committed: we must be saved from committing
other sins. And that this may be so, there must be met and subdued this
hereditary liability to sin; we must become possessed of power to keep us
from sinning — a power to conquer this liability, this hereditary tendency
that is in us, to sin.
All our sins which we have actually committed were laid upon Him, were
imputed to Him, so that His righteousness may be laid upon us, may be
imputed to us. Also our liability to sin was laid upon Him, in His being
made flesh, in His being born of a woman, of the same flesh and blood as
we are, so that His righteousness might be actually manifested in us as our
daily life.
Thus He met sin in the flesh which He too,k and triumphed over it, as it is
written: “God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin IN THE FLESH.” And again: “He is our peace,…having
abolished in His flesh the enmity.”
And thus, just as our sins actually committed were imputed to Him, that
His righteousness might be imputed to us, so His meeting and conquering
in the flesh, the liability to sin, and in that same flesh manifesting righteousness,
enables us in Him, and Him in us, to meet and conquer in the flesh this
same liability to sin, and to manifest righteousness in the same flesh.
And thus it is that for the sins which we have actually committed, for
the sins that are past, His righteousness is imputed to us, as our sins were
imputed to Him. And to keep us from sinning, His righteousness is imparted
to us in our flesh; as our flesh, with its liability to sin, was imparted to
Him. Thus He is the complete Saviour. He saves from all the sins that we
have actually committed; and saves equally from all the sins that we might
commit, dwelling apart from Him.
If He took not the same flesh and blood that the children of men have, with
its liability to sin, then where could there be any philosophy or reason of any
kind whatever in His genealogy as given in the Scriptures? He was descended
from David; He was descended from Abraham; He was descended from
Adam; and, by being made of a woman, He reached even back of Adam, to
the beginning of sin in the world.
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In that genealogy there are Jehoiakim, who for his wickedness was
“buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of
Jerusalem” (Jer. 22:19); Manasseh, who caused Judah to do “worse than the
heathen;” Ahaz, who “made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the
Lord;” Rehoboam, who was born of Solomon after Solomon turned from
the Lord; Solomon himself, who was born of David and Bathsheba; there
are also Ruth the Moabitess, and Rahab; as well as Abraham, Isaac, Jesse,
Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah: the worst equally with the best.
And the evil deeds of even the best are recorded equally with the good. And
in this whole genealogy there is hardly one, whose life is written upon at all,
of whom there is not some wrong act recorded.
Now it was at the end of such a genealogy as that that “the Word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us.” It was at the end of such a genealogy as that
that He was “made of a woman.” It was in such a line of descent as that that
God sent “His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.” And such a descent,
such a genealogy, meant something to Him, as it does to every other man,
under the great law that the iniquities of the fathers are visited upon the
children, to the third and fourth generations. It meant everything to Him
in the terrible temptations in the wilderness of temptation, as well as all the
way through His life in the flesh.
Thus, both by heredity and by imputation, He was “laden with the sins
of the world.” And, thus laden, at this immense disadvantage, He passed
triumphantly over the ground where, at no shadow of any disadvantage
whatever, the first pair failed.
By His death He paid the penalty of all sins actually committed, and thus
can justly bestow His righteousness upon all who choose to receive it. And
by condemning sin in the flesh, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, He
delivers from the power of the law of heredity; and so can, in righteousness,
impart His divine nature and power to lift above that law, and hold above it,
every soul that receives Him.
And so it is written: “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Gal.
4:4. And “God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for
[on account of] sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of
the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
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Spirit.” Rom. 8:3,4. And “He is our peace…having abolished in His flesh
the enmity…for to make in Himself of twain [God and man] one new man,
so making peace.” Eph. 2:14, 15.
Thus, “in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren….
For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor
them that are tempted.”
Whether temptation be from within or from without, He is the perfect
shield against it all; and so saves to the uttermost all who come unto God
by Him.
God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, Christ taking
our nature as our nature is in its sinfulness and degeneracy, and God
dwelling constantly with Him and in Him in that nature — in this God
has demonstrated to all people forever, that there is no soul in this world so
laden with sins or so lost that God will not gladly dwell with him and in
him to save him from it all, and to lead him in the way of the righteousness
of God.
And so certainly is his name Emmanuel, which is, “God with us.”
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Christ, who was altogether of the divine nature, was made partaker of
human nature, in order that we who are altogether of the human nature
“might be partakers of the divine nature.” 2 Peter 1:4.
Christ, who knew no sin, was made to be sin, even the sinfulness of man,
in order that we, who knew no righteousness, might be made righteousness,
even the righteousness of God.
And as the righteousness of God, which, in Christ, the man is made, is
real righteousness, so the sin of men, which Christ was made in the flesh, was
real sin.
As certainly as our sins, when upon us, are real sins to us, so certainly,
when these sins were laid upon Him, they became real sins to Him. As
certainly as guilt attaches to these sins, and to us because of them, when they
are upon us, so certainly this guilt attached to these same sins of ours, and to
Him because of them, when they were laid upon Him.
As the sense of condemnation and discouragement of our sins was real
to us, when these sins of ours were upon us, so certainly this same sense
of condemnation and discouragement because of the guilt of these sins was
realized by Him when these sins of ours were laid upon Him.
Thus the guilt, the condemnation, the discouragement of the knowledge
of sin were His — were a fact in His conscious experience — as really as
they were ever such in the life of any sinner that was ever on earth. And
this awful truth brings to every sinful soul in the world the glorious truth
that “the righteousness of God,” and the rest, the peace, and the joy, of that
righteousness, are a fact in the conscious experience of the believer in Jesus in
this world, as really as they are in the life of any saint who was ever in heaven.
He who knew the height of the righteousness of God, acquired also the
knowledge of the depth of the sins of men. He knows the awfulness of the
depths of the sins of men, as well as He knows the glory of the heights of
the righteousness of God. And by this “His knowledge shall My righteous
Servant justify many.” Isa. 53:11. By this His knowledge He is able to deliver
every sinner from the lowest depths of sin, and lift him to the highest height
of righteousness, even the very righteousness of God.
Made “in all things” like unto us, He was in all points like as we are. So
fully was this so that He could say, even as we must say the same truth, “I
can of Mine own self do nothing.” John 5:30.
Of Him this was so entirely true that, in the weakness and infirmity of
the flesh — ours which He took — He was as is the man who is without God
and without Christ. For it is only without Him that men can do nothing.
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With Him, and through Him, it is written: “I can do all things.” But of
those who are without Him, it is written: “Without Me ye can do nothing.”
John 15:5.
Therefore, when of Himself He said, “I can of Mine own self do nothing,”
this makes it certain forever that in the flesh — because of our infirmities
which He took; because of our sinfulness, hereditary and actual, which was
laid upon Him, and imparted to Him — He was of Himself in that flesh
exactly as is the man who, in the infirmity of the flesh, is laden with sins,
actual and hereditary, and who is without God. And standing thus weak,
laden with sins, and helpless, as we are, in divine faith He exclaimed, “I will
put My trust in Him.” Heb. 2:13.
He came to “seek and to save that which was lost.” And in saving the lost,
He came to the lost where we are. He put Himself among the lost. “He was
numbered with the transgressors.” He was “made to be sin.” And from the
standpoint of the weakness and infirmity of the lost, He trusted in God, that
He would deliver Him and save Him. Laden with the sins of the world, and
tempted in all points like as we are, He hoped in God, and trusted in God
to save Him from all those sins, and to keep Him from sinning. Ps. 69:1-21;
71:1-20; 22:1-22; 31:1-5.
And this is the faith of Jesus: this is the point where the faith of Jesus
reaches lost, sinful man, to help him. For thus it has been demonstrated, to
the very fulness of perfection, that there is no man in the wide world for
whom there is not hope in God: no one so lost that he can not be saved by
trusting God in this faith of Jesus. And this faith of Jesus, by which in the
place of the lost, He hoped in God, and trusted God, for salvation from sin,
and power to keep from sinning — this victory of His it is that has brought
to every man in the world divine faith, by which every man can hope in God,
and trust in God, and can find the power of God to deliver him from sin
and to keep him from sinning. That faith which He exercised, and by which
He obtained the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil — that faith
is His free gift to every lost man in the world. And thus “this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith;” and this is the faith of which He
is the Author and Finisher.
This is the faith of Jesus that is given to men. This is the faith of Jesus
that must be received by men, in order for them to be saved. This is the
faith of Jesus which, now in this time of the Third Angel’s Message, must be
received and kept by those who will be saved from the worship of the “beast
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and his image,” and enabled to keep the commandments of God. This is the
faith of Jesus referred to in the closing words of the Third Angel’s Message:
“Here are they that keep the commandments, of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
And now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: “We have
SUCH an High Priest.” All that we have thus found in the first and second
chapters of Hebrews is the essential foundation and preliminary of His high
priesthood. For “ in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His
brethren, that [so that, in order that] He might be a merciful and faithful
High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins
of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted, He is
able to succor them that are tempted.” Heb. 2:17, 18.
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Chapter 9
Further Qualifications Of
Our High Priest
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things which were to be spoken after; but Christ [was faithful] as a Son over
His own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the
rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”
Next is cited Israel, who came out of Egypt, who were not faithful; who
failed of entering into God’s rest, because they believed not in Him. Then
upon this is the exhortation to us to “ fear, lest, a promise being left us of
entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto
us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For
we which have believed do enter into rest,” in believing in Him who gave
Himself for our sins.
We enter into rest in the forgiveness of all our sins, through believing
in Him who was faithful in every obligation and under every temptation
of life. We also enter into rest and there abide, by being partaker of His
faithfulness, in which and by which we also shall be faithful to Him who
has appointed us. For in considering Him “the High Priest of our profession”
in His faithfulness, we are ever to consider that “we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Heb. 4:15.
When we “have not an high priest which can not be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities,” we have an High Priest who can be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. And the way in which He can and is touched
with the feeling of our infirmities is that He “was in all points tempted
like as we are.” There is not a point in which any soul can be tempted but
that He has been exactly so tempted, and has felt the temptation as truly as
any human soul can feel it. But, though He was in all points tempted like
as we are, and felt the power of it as truly as any one can, yet in it all He
was faithful; and through it all He passed “without sin.” And by faith in
Him — in this His faithfulness — every soul can meet all temptation and
pass through it without sinning.
This is our salvation: for He was made flesh as man, and in all things it
behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, and to be tempted in all
points like as we are, “that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest
in things pertaining to God.” And this not only “to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people,” but also to “succor” — to run under, to run to the
aid of, to assist and deliver from suffering — ”them that are tempted.” He is
our merciful and faithful High Priest to succor — run under — us when we
are tempted, to keep us from falling under the temptation, and so to keep
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was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.” Thus, above all others, by the
oath of God, Jesus was made a Priest. Therefore, and “by ““we have such an
High Priest.”
And further, “They [of the order of Aaron] truly were many priests, because
they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: but this man, because
He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.” Heb. 7:23, 24. By
the oath of God He is made a Priest forever. He is also made a Priest “after
the power of an endless life.” Heb. 7:16. Therefore “He continueth ever.” And
because He continueth ever, He hath an “unchangeable priesthood.” And
because of all this, “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
Heb. 7:25. And “we have such an High Priest.”
And “such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not
daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and
then for the people’s; for this He did once, when He offered up Himself.
For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word
of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son [High Priest], who is
consecrated forevermore.” Heb. 7:26, 27.
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Chapter 10
The Sum
1. That He who was higher than the angels, as God, was made
lower than the angels, as man.
3. That He who was in all things like God was made in all
things like man.
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7. And that by the oath of God He was made High Priest.
Such are the specifications of the Word of God, of which the “sum” is. “We
have such an High Priest.”
And yet that is only a part of “the sum.” For the whole statement of “the
sum” is, “We have such an High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the
throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the
true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.”
On earth there was a sanctuary which man pitched, and which man
made. True, this sanctuary was both made and pitched under the direction
of the Lord; nevertheless, it is far different from the sanctuary and the true
tabernacle which the Lord Himself pitched, and not man — as far different
as the work of man is from the work of God.
That “worldly sanctuary,” with its ministry, is more briefly described, and
the meaning of it is more briefly told, in Hebrews 9, than would be possible
otherwise to do. Therefore we quote Heb. 9:2-12, inclusive: “For there was
a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and
the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the
tabernacle which is called the holiest of all; which had the golden censer,
and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was
the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables
of the covenant; and over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy-
seat; of which we can not now speak particularly.
“Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into
the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second
went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he
offered for himself, and for the errors of the people; the Holy Ghost this
signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest,
while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: which was a figure for the
time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that
could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the
conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings,
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now to appear in the presence of God for us.” And in “heaven itself,” in
the Christian dispensation, there was seen the throne of God and a golden
altar and an angel with a golden censer offering incense with the prayers of
all saints, “And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of
the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.” Rev. 4:5; 8:2-4.
Also in this same time there was seen in “heaven itself” the temple of God;
and the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His
temple the ark of His testament.” Rev. 11:19; 15:5-8; 16:1. And further there
was seen there “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne.” Rev. 4:5.
There, too, was seen one like the Son of man clothed in the high priestly
garment. Rev. 1:13.
There is therefore a Christian sanctuary, of which the former sanctuary
was a figure, as truly as there is a Christian high priesthood of which the
former high priesthood was a figure. And there is a ministry of Christ, our
High Priest, in this Christian sanctuary, as truly as there was a ministry
of the former priesthood in the former and earthly sanctuary. And “of the
things which we have spoken, this is the sum: We have such an High Priest,
who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a
minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched,
and not man.”
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Chapter 11
almost wholly lost the true purpose of the sanctuary. When the tabernacle
was made and was set up in the midst of the camp of Israel, many of the
children of Israel supposed that that was enough; they supposed that to be
the way in which God would dwell in the midst of them.
It is true that by the Shekinah, God did dwell in the sanctuary. But
even the sanctuary with its splendid furniture, standing in the midst of the
camp — this was not all of the sanctuary. In addition to the splendid building
and its furniture, there were the sacrifices and offerings of the people; and
the sacrifices and offerings on behalf of the people. There were the priests in
their continual services; and there was the high priest in his holy ministry.
Without these the sanctuary was for Israel practically an empty thing, even
though the Lord did dwell in it.
And what was the meaning and purpose of these things? Let us see: When
any of the children of Israel had “done somewhat against any of the
commandments of the Lord concerning things which should not be done,”
and so was “guilty;” then “of his own voluntary will” he brought to the
door of the tabernacle, his sacrificial lamb. Before the lamb was offered in
sacrifice the individual who had brought it laid his hands upon its head
and confessed his sins, and it was “accepted for him to make atonement for
him.” Then he who had brought the lamb and confessed his sins, slew it. Its
blood was caught in a basin. Some of the blood was sprinkled round about
upon the altar of burnt offering,” which was at the door of the tabernacle;
some of it was put “upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense, which is in
the tabernacle of the congregation;” some of it was sprinkled “seven times
before the Lord before the veil of the sanctuary;” and all the rest of it was
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poured out “at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door
of the tabernacle of the congregation.” The lamb itself was burnt upon the
altar of burnt offering. And of all this service, it is written in conclusion:
“and the priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath committed,
and it shall be forgiven him.” The service was similar in case of the sin and
confession of the whole congregation. Also there was a similar service, a
continual service morning and evening, in behalf of the whole congregation.
But whether the services were individual or general, the conclusion of it
was always declared to be “The priest shall make an atonement for him [or
them], and it shall be forgiven him.” See Leviticus chapters 1 to 5.
The course of service of the sanctuary was completed annually. And the day
of the completion of the service, the tenth day of the seventh month, was
especially “the day of atonement,” or the cleansing of the sanctuary. On
that day service was concluded in the Most Holy Place. That day was the
“once every year” when “the High Priest alone” went into the “Holiest of all”
or Most Holy Place. And, of the high priest and his service that day it is
written, “He shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall
make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar,
and he shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the
congregation.” Lev. 16:2-34; Heb. 9:2-8.
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Thus the services of the sanctuary, in the offering of the sacrifices and
the ministering of the priests, and of the high priests alone, was for the
making of atonement, and for the forgiveness and sending away of the
sins of the people. Because of the sin and guilt, because of their having
“done somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning
things which should not be done,” atonement must be made and forgiveness
obtained. Atonement is literally at-one-ment. The sin and the guilt had
separated them from God. By these services they were made at-one with
God. Forgive is literally give-for. To forgive sin is to give for sin. Forgiveness
of sin comes alone from God. What does God give, what has He given,
for sin? He gave Christ, and Christ “gave himself for our sins.” Gal. 1:4;
Eph. 2:12-16; Rom. 5:8-11.
Therefore when an individual or the whole congregation of Israel had
sinned and desired forgiveness the whole problem and plan, of forgiveness,
of atonement, of salvation, was worked out before their faces. The sacrifice
which was brought was in faith of the sacrifice which God had already made
in giving His Son for sin. In this faith sinners were accepted of God, and
Christ was received of them for their sin. Thus they were made at one with
God; and thus God would dwell in the midst of them; that is, He would
dwell in each heart and abide in each life, to make that heart and life “holy,
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” And the placing of the
tabernacle in the midst of the camp of Israel was an illustration, an object
lesson and suggestion, of the truth that He would dwell in the midst of each
individual. Eph. 3:16-19.
Some of that nation, in every age, saw in the sanctuary this great saving truth.
But as a body, in all ages, Israel missed this thought; and stopping only with
the thought of His dwelling in the tabernacle in the midst of the camp, they
came short of having His own personal presence dwelling in their individual
lives. Accordingly their worship became only outward and formal, rather than
inward and spiritual. Therefore their own lives continued unreformed and
unholy; and so those who came out of Egypt missed the great thing which
God had for them, and “fell in the wilderness.” Heb. 3:17-19.
The same mistake was made by the people after they had passed into
the land of Canaan. They put their dependence on the Lord, only as He
dwelt in the tabernacle; and would not allow that the tabernacle and its
ministry should be the means of His dwelling in themselves through faith.
Consequently their lives only increased in wickedness. Therefore God
allowed the tabernacle to be destroyed and the ark of God to be taken
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captive by the heathen, (Jer. 7:12; 1 Sam 4:10-22) in order that the people
might learn to see and find and worship God individually, and so find Him
to dwell with them individually.
After the absence of the tabernacle and its service from among Israel for
about a hundred years, it was restored by David and was merged in the
grand temple that was built by Solomon. But again its true purpose was
gradually lost sight of. Formalism with its attending wickedness more and
more increased, until in Israel the Lord was compelled to cry out: “I hate,
I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
Though ye offer Me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept
them: neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou
away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy
viols. But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty
stream.” Amos 5:21-24.
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unto Me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the
fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or
of he goats. When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this
at your hand, to tread My courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense
is an abomination unto Me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of
assemblies, I can not away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your
new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth: they are a trouble
unto Me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands,
I will hide Mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not
hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away
the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes;; cease to do evil; learn to do
well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the
widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isa. 1:10-18.
Yet His pleas were not regarded. Israel was therefore carried captive and
her land was left desolate because of their wickedness; and the like fate hung
over Judah. And still this danger to Judah was from the same great cause
that the Lord had been striving always to teach the nation, and which they
had not yet learned: the holding of the temple, and God’s presence in that
templ,e as the great end; instead of holding that as only the means to the true
end which was that by means of the temple and its ministry in accomplishing
forgiveness and atonement, He who dwelt in the temple would dwell in
themselves. And so again the Lord pleaded with His people by Jeremiah that
He might save them from this mistake; and have them see and receive the
great truth of the real meaning and purpose of the temple and its service.
Thus He said:
“Behold, ye trust in lying words, that can not profit. Will ye steal, murder,
and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and
walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before Me
in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do
all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by My name, become
a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.
“But go ye now unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name
at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel.
And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake
unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you,
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but ye answered not; therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by
My name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and
to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My
sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for
them, neither make intercession to Me: for I will not hear thee….Oh that
My head were waters, and Mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might
weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of My people! Oh that I
had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave
My people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of
treacherous men. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but
they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil
to evil, and they know not Me. Jer. 7:8-16; 9:1, 3.
What were specifically the “lying words” in which these people trusted?
Here they are: “Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the
Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, are these.” Jer. 7:4.
Thus it is made perfectly plain that the people though going through the
forms of worship and of the temple service, went through all this merely as
forms, missing entirely the purpose of the temple and its services, which was
solely that God might reform and make holy the lives of the people by His
dwelling in them individually. And missing all this, the wickedness of their
own hearts only more and more made itself manifest. For this reason all
their sacrifices, worship, and prayers, were only mockery and noise, so long
as their hearts and lives were unreformed and unholy.
Therefore the word “came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Stand in
the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear
the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship
the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways
and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not
in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord,
The temple of the Lord, are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways
and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his
neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and
shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your
hurt: then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to
your fathers, forever and ever.” Jer. 7:1-7.
Instead of allowing God’s great purpose of the temple and its services to
be met in themselves, the people utterly perverted that purpose. Instead of
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allowing the temple and its services which God in His mercy had planted
among them, to teach them how that He in truth would dwell among
them by dwelling in their hearts and making holy their lives, they excluded
all this true purpose of the temple and its services and perverted it all to
the utterly false purpose of sanctioning grossest wickedness and cloaking
deepest, darkest unholiness.
For such a system there was no remedy but destruction. Accordingly the
city was besieged and captured by the heathen. The temple, their “holy and
beautiful house” was destroyed. And with the city and the temple a heap
of burnt and blackened ruins, the people were carried captive to Babylon,
where in their sorrow and the deep sense of their great loss they sought
and found and worshiped the Lord in a way that so reformed their lives
that if they had done it when the temple stood, it would have stood forever.
Ps. 137:1-6.
God brought them back from Babylon a humbled and reformed people.
His holy temple was rebuilt and its services were restored. The people again
dwelt in their city, and their land. But apostasy again ensued. The same
course was again repeated until, when Jesus, the great center of the temple
and its services came to His own, the same old condition of things again
prevailed. Matt. 21:12, 13; 23:13-32. In their hearts they could persecute
and pursue Him to the death, and yet outwardly be so holy (?) that they
could not cross the threshold of Pilate’s judgment hall “lest they should be
defiled”! John 18:28.
And the Lord’s appeal to the people was still the same as of old — that
they should find in their own personal lives the meaning of the temple and
its services, and so be saved from the fate which had overtaken their nation
through all its history, because of this same great mistake which they were
repeating. Accordingly, one day in the temple Jesus said to the multitude
there present, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then
said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou
rear it up in three days? But He spake of the temple of His body.” John 2:19-21.
When Jesus in the temple spoke thus to that people, referring to “the temple
of His body” he was still endeavoring, as through all their history, to get
them to perceive that the great purpose of the temple and its services always
was that by means of the ministry and service there conducted, God would
dwell and walk in themselves as He dwelt in the temple; making holy His
dwelling-place in themselves, as His dwelling in the temple made that place
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holy: so that their bodies should be truly temples of the living God, because
of God’s dwelling in them and walking in them. 2 Cor. 6:16; 1 Cor. 3:16,17;
Lev. 26:11, 12; 2 Sam. 7:6, 7.
And still they would not see this truth. They would not be reformed.
They would not have the purpose of the sanctuary met in themselves, that
God should dwell in them. They rejected Him who came personally to show
to them this true purpose and the true Way. Therefore again there was no
remedy but destruction. Again their city was taken by the heathen. Again
the temple, their “holy and beautiful house,” was burned with fire. Again
they were taken captive and were forever scattered, to be only “wanderers
among the nations.” Hosea 9:17.
Again let it be emphasized that the earthly sanctuary, the earthly temple,
with its ministry and services, was as such only a figure of the true, which
with its ministry and services was then in heaven. When the thought of the
sanctuary was first presented to Moses for Israel it was stated by the Lord
to him, “See…that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to
thee in the mount.” Heb. 8:5; Ex. 25:40; 25:30; 27:8. The sanctuary on the
earth was therefore a figure of the true, in the sense of its being a pattern of
the true. The ministry and services in the earthly were “figures of the true”
in the sense of being “the patterns” of the true — ”the patterns of things in
the heavens.” Heb. 9:23, 24.
The true sanctuary of which this was a figure, the original of which this was
a pattern, was then in existence. but in the darkness and confusion of Egypt,
Israel had lost the true idea of this, as they had also of many other things
which were plain to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob; and by this object-lesson
God would give to them the knowledge of the true. It was therefore not a
figure in the sense of being a type of something to come that did not yet exist,
but a figure in the sense of being an object-lesson and visible representation
of that which then existed but was invisible, to train them up into such an
experience and true spirituality that they should see the invisible.
And by all this God was revealing to them and to all people forever that it
is by the priesthood, ministry, and service of Christ in the true sanctuary or
temple which is in heaven, that He dwells amongst men. He was revealing
that in this faith of Jesus, forgiveness of sins and atonement is ministered to
men, so that God dwells in them and walks in them, He being their God
and they His people; and thus they be separated from all the people that are
upon the face of the earth — separated unto God as His own true sons and
daughters to be built up unto perfection in the knowledge of God. Ex. 33:15,
16; 2 Cor. 6:16-18; 7:1.
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Chapter 12
Perfection
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connection, “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better
hope did [or “but it was the bringing in of a better hope,” margin]; by the
which we draw nigh unto God.” Verse 19.
By these scriptures it is perfectly plain that the perfection of the worshiper
is that which is offered and which is attained in the priesthood and ministry
of Christ.
Nor yet are these all the words on this thought. For, as already quoted in
the description of the sanctuary and its service, it is said that it “was a figure
for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices,
that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the
conscience.” That none of this could make him that did the service perfect
is its great lack. Therefore that the priesthood and ministry of Christ in the
true sanctuary can and does make perfect him who enters by faith into the
service, is the great thought and the goal of all.
That earthly service “could not make him that did the service perfect, as
pertaining to the conscience.” “But Christ being come an High Priest of
good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made
with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us.” Heb. 9:12, 12. This sanctuary,
priesthood, sacrifice, and ministry of Christ’s does make perfect in eternal
redemption every one who by faith enters into the service, and so receives
that which that service is established to give.
Further, “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an
heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve
the living God?” The blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling the unclean in the Levitical service and the worldly sanctuary
did sanctify to the purifying of the flesh: for so the word concerning it
continually declares. And that being so, “how much more shall the blood of
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,”
sanctify to the purifying of the spirit and “purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God.”
What are dead works? Death itself is the consequence of sin. Dead
works therefore are works that have sin in them. Then the purging of the
conscience from dead works is the so entirely cleansing of the soul from sin,
by the blood of Christ, through the eternal Spirit, that in the life and works
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of the believer in Jesus sin shall have no place; the works shall be only works
of faith, and the life shall be only the life of faith, and so be only the true
and pure “service of the living God.”
Again it is written: “The law having a shadow of good things to come, and
not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they
offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then
would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshipers once
purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices
there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” Heb. 10:1-4.
This again shows that though perfection was the aim in all the ministry
that was performed under the law, yet perfection was not attained by any of
those performances. They were all simply figures for the time then present
of the ministry and priesthood by which perfection is attained; that is the
ministry and priesthood of Christ. Those sacrifices could not make the
comers thereunto perfect. The true sacrifice and the true ministry in “the
sanctuary and the true tabernacle” do make the comers thereunto perfect:
and this perfection consists in the worshipers having “no more conscience
of sins.”
But since it is “not possible” for the blood of bulls and goats to take
away sins, it was not possible, though those sacrifices were offered year by
year continually, so to purge the worshipers that they should have no more
conscience of sins. The blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer
sprinkling the unclean could and did sanctify to the purifying of the flesh,
but of the flesh only: and even this was “but a figure for the time then
present” of “the blood of Christ,” which so much more purges the worshipers
that they have no more conscience of sins.
“Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and
offering Thou wouldst not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me: in burnt
offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I
come…to do Thy will, O God. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering
and burnt offerings and offering for sin Thou wouldest not, neither hadst
pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; then said He, Lo, I come
to do Thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the
second.” Heb. 10:5-9.
Here are mentioned two things: “the first,” and “the second.” What are
these two things? Which is “the first,” and which “the second”? The two
things mentioned are sacrifice, offering, burnt offerings, and offering for
sin — all as one — and the will of God. Sacrifice, offering, burnt offerings,
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and offering for sin — all as one — are “the first,:” and “the will of God” is
“the second.” “He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second.”
That is, He “taketh away sacrifice, offering, burnt offerings, and offering for
sin, that He may establish the will of God. And the will of God is “even your
sanctification” and your perfection. 1 Thess. 4:3; Matt. 5:48; Eph 4:8, 12, 13;
Heb. 13:20, 21. But this could never be accomplished by those sacrifices,
offerings, burnt offerings, and offering for sin which were offered by the
Levitical priesthood — they could not make the comers thereunto perfect.
They could not so purge the worshipers that they should have no more
conscience of sin. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sin.
Therefore, since the will of God is the sanctification and the perfection
of the worshipers; since the will of God is that His worshipers shall be so
cleansed that they shall have no more conscience of sin; and since the service
and the offerings in that earthly sanctuary could not do this; He took it
all away that He may establish the will of God. “By the which will we are
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
The will of God is “even your sanctification.” Sanctification is the true
keeping of all the commandments of God. In other words, this is to say that
the will of God concerning man is that His will shall be perfectly fulfilled
in man. His will is expressed in His law of ten commandments, which is
“the whole duty of man.” This law is perfect, and perfection of character is
the perfect expression of this law in the life of the worshiper of God. By this
law is the knowledge of sin. And all have sinned and have come short of the
glory of God; have come short of this perfection of character.
The sacrifices and the service in the earthly sanctuary could not take away
the sins of men, and so could not bring them to this perfection. But the
sacrifice and the ministry of the true High Priest in the sanctuary and the
true tabernacle do accomplish this. This does take away utterly every sin. And
the worshiper is so truly purged that he has no more conscience of sins. By
the sacrifice, the offering, and the service of Himself, Christ took away the
sacrifices and the offerings and the service which could never take away sins;
and by His perfect doing of the perfect will of God He established the will
of God. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Heb. 10:10.
In that former earthly sanctuary and service, “every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never
take away sins.” But in the service in the sanctuary and the true tabernacle,
“this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
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the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made
His footstool. For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified.” Heb. 10:11-14.
Thus perfection in every respect is attained through the priesthood, the
sacrifice, and the service of this our great High Priest at the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens in His ministry in the sanctuary
and the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. “Whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that He had said before, this is
the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I
will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of
these is, there is no more offering for sin.” Heb. 10:15-18.
And this is the “new and living way” which Christ, through the flesh,
“hath consecrated for us” — for all mankind; and by which every soul may
enter into the holiest of all — the holiest of all places, the holiest of all
experiences, the holiest of all relationships, the holiest of all living. This new
and living way He “hath consecrated for us through the flesh;” that is, He,
coming in the flesh, identifying Himself with mankind in the flesh, has, for
us who are in this flesh, consecrated a way from where we are to where He
now is, at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens in the
holiest of all.
In His coming in the flesh — having been made in all things like unto
us, and having been tempted in all points like as we are — He has identified
Himself with every human soul just where that soul is. And from the place
where every human soul is, He has consecrated for that soul a new and
living way through all the vicissitudes and experiences of a whole lifetime,
and even through death and the tomb, into the holiest of all, at the right
hand of God for evermore.
O that consecrated way! Consecrated by His temptations and sufferings,
by His prayers and tears, by His holy living and sacrificial dying, by His
triumphant resurrection and glorious ascension, and by His triumphal entry
into the holiest of all, at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the
heavens!
And this “way” He has consecrated for us. He, having become one of us,
has made this way our way; it belongs to us. He has endowed every soul
with divine right to walk in this consecrated way, and by His having done it
Himself in the flesh — in our flesh — He has made it possible, yea, He has
given actual assurance, that every human soul can walk in that way, in all
that that way is; and by it enter fully and freely into the holiest of all.
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He, as one of us, in our human nature, weak as we, laden with the sins of
the world, in our sinful flesh, in this world, a whole lifetime, lived a life “holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” and “was made” and ascended
“higher than the heavens.” And by this He has made and consecrated a
way by which, in Him, every believer can in this world, and for a whole
lifetime, live a life holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and as a
consequence be made with Him higher than the heavens.
Perfection, perfection of character, is the Christian goal — perfection
attained in human flesh in this world. Christ attained it in human flesh in
this world, and thus made and consecrated a way by which, in Him, every
believer can attain it. He, having attained it, has become our great High
Priest, by His priestly ministry in the true sanctuary to enable us to attain it.
Perfection is the Christian’s goal, and the High Priesthood and ministry
of Christ in the true sanctuary is the only way by which any soul can
attain this true goal in this world. “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary.”
Ps. 77:13.
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us,
through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an High Priest over
the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed
with pure water.” And “Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without
wavering; for He is faithful that promised.”
“For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that
burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the
sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard
entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more….But ye
are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the
Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the
Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh
better things than that of Abel.”
O, then, “see that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped
not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if
we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven.” Heb 12:18-25.
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Chapter 13
altar, and one with a golden censer offering incense, which, with the prayers
of the saints, ascended up before God. There was seen the seven lamps of
fire burning before the throne. There was seen the temple of God in heaven;
“the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony.” There it is promised and
declared that they who have part in the first resurrection and upon whom
the second death hath no power “shall be priests of God and of Christ, and
shall reign with Him a thousand years” in that priesthood. And when the
first heaven and the first earth shall have passed away, and there shall be
found no place for them; and the new heaven and the new earth shall have
been brought in, with the holy city descending out of heaven from God, the
tabernacle of God being with men, He dwelling with them, they His people,
and God Himself with them, and their God; when He shall have wiped
away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither
sorrow nor crying, neither any more pain, and the former things shall have
passed away; then, and not until then, is it declared of the city of God: “I
saw no temple therein.”
Thus it is just as certain that there is a priesthood, a priestly ministry, and
a sanctuary, in this dispensation, as that there was in the old: yes, even more
truly; for though there was a sanctuary, a priesthood, and a ministry in the
old dispensation, it was all only a figure for the time then present — a figure
of this which now is the true, and which is in heaven.
This true priesthood, ministry, and sanctuary of Christ in heaven is too
plain in the New Testament to be by any possibility denied. Yet, in the face
of all this, it is a thing that is hardly ever thought of; it is a thing almost
unknown, and even hardly believed, in the Christian world to-day.
Why is this, and how could it ever be? There is a cause. The Scripture tells
it, and facts demonstrate it.
In the book of Daniel, seventh chapter, there was seen by the prophet,
in vision, the four winds of heaven striving upon the great sea; “and four
great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. The first was
like a lion, and had eagle’s wings;” which symbolized the world-kingdom
of Babylon. The second was like a bear, which raised itself up on one side,
and had three ribs in the mouth of it; which symbolized the united world-
kingdom of Media and Persia. The third was like a leopard, which had four
heads and four wings of a fowl; which symbolized the world-dominion of
Alexander the Great and Grecia. The fourth beast was “dreadful and terrible,
and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in
pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from
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all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.” This great beast
symbolized the world-empire of Rome, diverse from all that were before it;
because it was not originally a kingdom or monarchy, but a republic. The
ten horns symbolized the ten kingdoms that were planted in the territory of
Western Rome when that empire was annihilated.
Then says the prophet: “I considered the horns [he ten horns], and, behold,
there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three
of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were
eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” The prophet
beheld and considered this little horn, clear through until “the judgment
was set, and the books were opened.” And when this judgment was set and
the books were opened, he says: “I beheld then [at that time] because of the
voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast
was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.”
Note the remarkable change in expression in this latter statement. The
prophet beheld the little horn from the time of its rise clear through to the
time when “the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” At that time
he beheld the little horn; and just now, particularly “because of the voice of
the great words which the horn spake.” And he continued to behold that
same thing — that same little horn — until the end and till its destruction.
But when its destruction comes, the word that describes it is not that the
little horn was broken or destroyed, but that the “beast was slain, and his
body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.”
This shows that the little horn is but another phase of the original fourth,
or dreadful and terrible, beast that the little horn is but the continuation
of the dreadful and terrible beast, in its very disposition, spirit and aims,
only under a variant form. And as the fourth world power, the dreadful
and terrible, beast in its original form was Rome; so the little horn in its
workings is but the continuation of Rome — of the spirit and working of
Rome, under this form.
The explanation of this, given in the same chapter, confirms that which
has been stated. For of this little horn it is said that it is to be “diverse
from the first;” that he “shall speak great words against the Most High, and
shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and
laws” of the Most High. It is also said that the “same horn made war with
the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and
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judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that
the saints possessed the kingdom.” All these things are true, and this is the
description, of latter Rome throughout.
And all this is confirmed by latter Rome herself. For Leo the Great was
pope A.D. 440 to A.D. 461, in the very time when the former Rome was
in its very last days, when it was falling rapidly to ruin. And Leo the Great
declared in a sermon that the former Rome was but the promise of the
latter Rome; that the glories of the former were to be reproduced in Catholic
Rome; that Romulus and Remus were but the forerunners of Peter and
Paul; that the successors of Romulus therefore were the precursors of the
successors of Peter; and that, as the former Rome had ruled the world, so
the latter Rome, by the see of the holy blessed Peter as head of the world,
would dominate the earth. This conception of Leo’s was never lost from the
Papacy. And when, only fifteen years afterward, the Roman Empire had, as
such, perished, and only the Papacy survived the ruin, and firmly held place
and power in Rome, this conception of Leo’s was only the more strongly,
and with the more certitude, held and asserted.
That conception was also intentionally and systematically developed. The
Scriptures were industriously studied and ingeniously perverted to maintain
it. By a perverse application of the Levitical system of the Old Testament,
the authority and eternity of the Roman priesthood had already been
established.
And now, by perverse deductions “from the New Testament, the authority
and eternity of Rome herself was established.”
Taking the ground that she is the only true continuation of original Rome,
upon that the Papacy took the ground that wherever the New Testament
cites, or refers to the to, the authority of orinianl Rome, she is now meant,
because she is the only true continuation of original Rome. Accordingly,
where the New Testament enjoins submission to “the powers that be,” or
obedience to “governors,” it means the Papacy; because the only power and
the only governors that then were, were Roman, and the papal power was
the true continuation of the Roman.
Every passage was seized on where submission to the powers that be is
enjoined; every instance cited where obedience had actually been rendered
to the imperial officials; special emphasis being laid on the sanction which
Christ Himself had given to Roman dominion by pacifying the world
through Augustus,
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“The bishops now [the latter part of the second century] wished to be
thought to correspond with the high priest of the Jews; the presbyters
were said to come in place of the priests; and the deacons were made
parallel with the Levites.
“In like manner the comparison of the Christian oblations with the Jewish
victims and sacrifices produced many unnecessary rites, and by decrees
corrupted the very doctrine of the holy Supper; which was converted,
sooner, in fact, than one would think, into a sacrifice.”
— Mosheims Ecclesiastical History, Cent. II, part II, chap. II, par. 4; and
chap. IV, par. 4.
by being born at the time of the taxing, by paying tribute to Caesar, by
saying to Pilate, ‘Thou couldst have no power at all against Me except it
were given thee from above’” — Bryce. And since Christ had recognized the
authority of Pilate, who was but the representative of Rome; who should
dare to disregard the authority of the Papacy, the true continuation of that
authority, to which even the Lord from heaven had submitted!
And it was only the logical culmination of this assumption when Pope
Boniface VIII presented himself in the sight of the multitude, clothed in
a cuirass, with a helmet on his head, and a sword in his hand held aloft,
and proclaimed: “There is no other Caesar, nor king, nor emperor than I,
the Sovereign Pontiff and Successor of the Apostles;” and, when further he
declared, ex cathedra: “We therefore assert, define, and pronounce that it
is necessary to salvation to believe that every human being is subject to the
Pontiff of Rome.”
This is proof enough that the little horn of the seventh chapter of
Daniel is Papal Rome, and that it is in spirit and purpose intentionally the
continuation of original Rome.
Now, in the eighth chapter of Daniel, this subject is taken up again. First,
there is seen by the prophet in vision a ram, with two horns which were high,
but one higher than the other, corresponding to the bear lifting itself up on
one side higher than the other. This is declared plainly by the angel to mean
“the kings of Media and Persia.” Next the prophet saw “an he goat” coming
from the west on the face of the whole earth, touching not the ground, and
he had a notable horn between his eyes. He overthrew the ram, brake his
two horns, cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him; and there
was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. This is declared by
the angel to mean “the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between
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his eyes is the first king.” The he-goat waxed very great, and when he was
strong, the notable horn was broken, and in place of it there came up four
notable ones toward the four winds of heaven. This is declared by the angel
to mean that “four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his
[Alexander’s] power.”
Out of one of these divisions of the empire of Alexander, the prophet next
saw that there “came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward
the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.” The directions
named show that this power rose and waxed exceeding great from the west.
This is explained by the angel to mean, “in the latter time of their kingdom
[the four divisions of Grecia], when the transgressors are come to the full, a
king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand
up.” “And it waxed great, even to the host of heaven; and it cast down some
of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped upon them.” “And
his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy
wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the mighty
and the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to
prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace
shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes [“He
magnified himself even to the prince of the host.” Verse 11]; but he shall be
broken without hand.”
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These specifications show that the little horn of the eighth chapter of
Daniel represents Rome from the time of its rise, at the destruction of the
Grecian Empire, to the end of the world, when it is “broken without hand,”
by that stone “cut out of the mountain without hands,” which then breaks in
pieces and consumes all earthly kingdoms. Dan. 2:34, 35, 44, 45.
We have seen that in the seventh chapter of Daniel the little horn, though
as such representing only the latter phase of Rome, yet does really represent
Rome in both its phases — Rome from beginning to end; because when the
time comes that the “little horn” is to be broken and destroyed, it is indeed
“the beast” that is “slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning
flame.” Thus the thought with which the story of the little horn closes in
Daniel 7 is continued in Daniel 8, with reference to the same power. In
Daniel 8 the expression “little horn” covers the whole of Rome in both its
phases, just as is shown in the closing expressions concerning the “little
horn” in Daniel 7; as is shown also by the expressions “the abomination of
desolation” and “the transgression of desolation,” being applied to Rome in
both its phases (Dan. 9:26, 27; Matt. 24:15; Dan. 11:31; 12:11; 8:11, 13); and
as is confirmed by the teaching and history of latter Rome itself. It is all one,
except only that all that is stated of the former Rome is true and intensified
in the latter Rome.
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Now let us read verses 11 and 12 of Daniel 8, and it will be plainly seen
that here is exactly the place where Paul found the scripture from which he
taught the Thessalonians concerning the “man of sin” and the “mystery of
iniquity:” “Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and
by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was
cast down. And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason
of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced
and prospered.”
This plainly points out that which took away the priesthood, the ministry, and
the sanctuary of God, and of Christianity.
Let us read it again. “Yea, he [the little horn — the man of sin]
magnified himself even to the Prince of the host [“against the Prince of
princes” — Christ], and by him [the man of sin] the daily sacrifice [the
continual service, the ministry, and the priesthood of Christ] was taken
away, and the place of His sanctuary [the sanctuary of the prince of the host,
of the Prince of princes — Christ] was cast down. And an host was given
him [the man of sin] against the daily sacrifice [against the continual service,
of the ministry of Christ, the Prince of the host] by reason of transgression,
cast down the truth to the ground; and it practiced, and prospered.”
It was “by reason of transgression,” that is, by reason of sin, that this
power gained “the host” that was used to cast down the truth to the ground,
to shut away from the church and the world Christ’s priesthood, His
ministry, and His sanctuary; and to cast it all down to the ground and tread
it underfoot. It was by reason of transgression that this was accomplished.
Transgression is sin, and this is the consideration and the revelation upon
which the apostle in 2 Thessalonians defines this power as the “man of sin”
and the “mystery of iniquity.”
In Daniel 8:11-13; 11:31; and 12:11, it will be noticed that the word
“sacrifice” is in every case supplied. And it is wholly supplied; for in its place
in the original there is no word at all. In the original the only word that
stands in this place, is the word tamid, that is here translated “daily,” and
in these places the expression “daily” does not refer to the daily sacrifice any
more than it refers to the whole daily ministry or continual service of the
sanctuary, of which the sacrifice was only a part. The word tamid in itself
signifies “continuous or continual,” “constant,” “stable,” “sure,” “constantly,”
“evermore.” Only such words as these express the thought of the original word,
which, in the text under consideration, is translated “daily.” In Numbers 28
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and 29 alone, the word is used seventeen times, referring to the continual
service in the sanctuary.
And it is this continual service of Christ, the true High Priest, “who
continueth ever,” and “who is consecrated forevermore” in “an unchangeable
priesthood” — it is this continual service of our great High Priest, which the
man of sin, the Papacy, has taken away. It is the sanctuary and the true
tabernacle in which this true High Priest exercises His continual ministry
that has been cast down by “the transgression of desolation.” It is this
ministry and this sanctuary that the “man of sin” has taken away from the
church and shut away from the world, and has cast down to the ground and
stamped upon; and in place of which it has set up itself “the abomination
that maketh desolate.” What the former Rome did physically to the visible
or earthly sanctuary, which was “the figure of the true” (Dan. 9:26, 27;
Matt. 24:15), that the latter Rome has done spiritually to the invisible or
heavenly sanctuary that is in itself the true.” Dan. 11:31; 12:11; 8:11, 13.
In the foot-note quotation on page 91 it is shown that in the apostasy, the
bishops, presbyters, deacons, and the eucharist, were made to succeed the
high priest, priests, Levites and sacrifices of the Levitical system. Now by
every evidence of the Scriptures, it is certain that, in the order of God, it was
Christ and His ministry and sanctuary in heaven, and this alone, that in
truth was the object of the Levitical system, and that is truly the Christian
succession to that system. Therefore when in and by the apostasy the system
of bishops as high priests, presbyters as priests, deacons as Levites, and the
Supper as a Sacrifice, was insinuated as the Christian succession to the
Levitical system, this of itself was nothing else than to put this false system
of the apostasy in the place of the true, completely to shut out the true, and,
finally, to cast it down to the ground and stamp upon it.
And this is how it is that this great Christian truth of the true priesthood,
ministry, and sanctuary of Christ is not known to the Christian world to-
day. The “man of sin” has taken it away, and cast it down to the ground, and
stamped upon it. The “mystery of iniquity” has hid this great truth from the
church and the world during all these ages, in which the man of sin has held
place in the world, and has passed itself off as God, and its iniquitous host
as the church of God.
And yet, even the “man of sin,” the “mystery of iniquity,” itself bears
witness to the necessity of such a service in the church in behalf of sins. For
though the “man of sin,” the “mystery of iniquity,” has taken away the true
priesthood, ministry, and sanctuary of Christ, and has cast these down to
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the ground to be stamped upon, and has completely hid them from the eyes
of the Christian world; yet she did not utterly throw away the idea. No, she
threw away the true, and cast down the true to the ground; but, retaining the
idea, in the place of the true, she built up in her own realm an utterly false
structure.
In the place of Christ, the true and divine High Priest of God’s own
appointment in heaven, she has substituted a human, sinful, and sinning
priesthood on earth. In the place of the continual, heavenly ministry of
Christ in His true priesthood upon His true sacrifice, she has substituted
only an interval ministry of a human, earthly, sinful, and sinning priesthood
in the once-a-day “daily sacrifice of the mass.” And in the place of the
sanctuary and the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man,
she has substituted her own meeting-places of wood and stone, to which she
applies the term “sanctuary.” Thus, instead of the one continual High Priest,
the one continual ministry, and the one continual sanctuary in heaven,
which God has ordained, and which is the only true, she has devised out of
her own heart and substituted for the only true, many high priests, many
ministries, many sacrifices, and many sanctuaries, on earth, which in every
possible relation are only human and utterly false.
And it can never take away sin. No earthly priesthood, no earthly ministry,
no earthly sacrifice, or service, in any earthly sanctuary, can ever take away
sin. In the book of Hebrews we have seen that even the priesthood, the
ministry, the sacrifice, and the service in the earthly sanctuary — the very
service which the Lord Himself ordained on earth — never took away sin.
The inspired record is that they never did take away sin, and that they never
could take away sin.
It is only the priesthood and the ministry of Christ that can ever take away
sin. And this is a priesthood and a ministry in heaven, and of a sanctuary
that is in heaven. For when Christ was on earth he was not a priest, and if
He had remained on earth until this hour, He would not yet be a priest; as
it stands written, “If he were on earth, He should not be a priest.” Heb. 8:4.
Thus, by plain word and abundant illustration, God has demonstrated that
no earthly priesthood, sacrifice, or ministry can ever take away sin.
If any such could take away sin, then why could not that which God
Himself ordained on earth take away sin? If any such could take away sin,
then why change the priesthood and the ministry from earth to heaven?
Therefore, by the plain word of the Lord, it is plain that the priesthood, the
ministry, the sacrifice, and the sanctuary which the Papacy has set up and
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operates on earth can never take away sin; but, instead, only perpetuates sin,
is a fraud, an imposture, and the very “transgression” and “abomination of
desolation” is the most holy place.
And that this conclusion and statement as to what the papal system really
is, is not extravagant nor far-fetched, is confirmed by the words of Cardinal
Baronius, the standard annalist of the papacy. Writing of the tenth century,
he says: “In this century the abomination of desolation was seen in the temple
of the Lord; and in the See of St. Peter, reverenced by angels, were placed
the most wicked of men; not pontiffs, but monsters.” And the council of
Rheims, in 991, declared the papacy to be “the man of sin, the mystery of
iniquity.”
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Chapter 14
“God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we
preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we
may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” Col. 1:26-29; Eph. 3:3, 5, 9.
But even at that same time, in the very days of the apostles, the “mystery of
iniquity” did “already work.” And it continued to work until it gained world-
power and supremacy, and even power over the saints, the times, and the law
of the Most High — standing up against the Prince of princes, magnifying
itself even to the Prince of the host, putting itself in the place of worship of
God, and passing itself off for God. And thus, again, but not this time in
God, the mystery of God was “hid from ages and from generations.” But now,
again, in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, even now, the mystery of
God which hath again been hid from ages and generations, is made manifest
to His saints to whom now “God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory: whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all
wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”
And this, as we have already quoted, is itself according “as He hath
declared to His servants the prophets.” It is not alone the prophet of Patmos
who declared that in this time, even now in our day, “the mystery of God
should be finished.” For when the angel of God made this proclamation
in the vision of the prophet of Patmos, he had already, and long before,
declared the same thing to His servants the prophets. And this proclamation
on Patmos was only the declaration of the angels that that which God had
long before declared to His servants the prophets should now surely be
accomplished; and that with no more delay. The full proclamation of the
angel is this: “and the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the
earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever and
ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and
the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein,
that there should be time [“delay,” R.V.] no longer: but in the days of the
voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of
God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets.”
Rev. 10:5-7.
The one prophet to whom this thing was more fully and more plainly
declared than to any other was the prophet Daniel. For not only did Daniel
see the rise of this little horn, and see it magnify itself “even to the Prince of
the host,” and “stand up against the Prince of princes,” and cast down to the
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ground His truth and His sanctuary and stamp upon them; but he also, and
in the same vision, saw the truth and the sanctuary of Christ delivered from
this little horn power, rescued from its blasphemous stamping, lifted up from
the earth, and exalted to the heaven where it belongs. And it was in this part
of the transactions in the vision that the heavenly ones seemed to be most
interested; for, says Daniel: “Then I heard one saint speaking, and another
saint said unto that certain saint [“the Wonderful Numberer”] which spake,
How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice [the continual
service], and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and
the host to be trodden underfoot? And He [“the Wonderful Numberer”]
said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the
sanctuary be cleansed.” Dan. 8:13, 14.
Then the angel Gabriel was commanded to make Daniel understand the
vision. He began to do so, but when in the explanation he had reached
the point concerning the many days of this vision, the astonishing and
terrible things revealed in the vision overcame the prophet, and says he: “I
Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the
king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.”
Dan. 8:27. So far as the explanation had proceeded, it was easily understood:
for it was plainly spoken that the ram represented the kings of Media and
Persia; and the rough goat the king of Grecia; and, in view of the explanation
that had already been made in the second and seventh chapters of Daniel,
the description of the next great power after Grecia was easily understood so
far as the angel could then go with the explanation. But in the very midst of
the explanation of the most important part of it, Daniel fainted: and so the
most material and essential part of the explanation was missed, and “none
understood it.”
However, the prophet sought diligently for an understanding of the
vision. And after the destruction of Babylon, in the first year of the king
of the Medes and Persians the angel Gabriel came to Daniel again, and
said: “O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.”
Dan. 9:1, 22. And it was understanding in this particular vision which he
was explaining when Daniel fainted, that he now came to give. Accordingly
he directs Daniel’s attention first of all to that vision: for he said: “At the
beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am
come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the
matter, and consider the vision.” Verse 23. Having thus directed the prophet’s
attention to the vision, the angel begins immediately to discuss the time
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the river” Euphrates, directing them to supply whatever was required by Ezra
for the carrying on of the work. It was the fifth month of the year when Ezra
reached Jerusalem, so that about half the year 457 B. C. was gone, which
would give about the year 456-1/2 as the time of the beginning of the four
hundred and ninety years and the two thousand and three hundred years.
From that time four hundred and eighty-three years were to reach “to the
Messiah the Prince,” which would reach twenty-six and one-half years into
the Christian era, or into the year A. D. 27; which is the very year of Christ’s
appearance as the Messiah in His public ministry, when He was baptized in
Jordan and anointed with the Holy Ghost. Mark 7:9-11; Matt. 3:13-17. After
this He, the Messiah, was to “confirm the covenant” “for one week” — the
remaining week of the seventy. But in the midst of that week He would
“cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” by the sacrifice of Himself
on the cross. In the midst of the week would be at the end of three and
a half of the seven years from the fall of A. D. 27. This gives the date the
spring of A.D. 31, the very time when the Saviour was crucified, and thus by
the sacrifice of Himself — the only sacrifice for sins — forever caused the
sacrifice and the oblation to cease. Then the veil of the earthly temple “was
rent in twain from the top to the bottom,” showing that the service of God
there was ended, and the earthly house was desolate.
There was yet the last half of the seventieth week remaining as the limit
of the time of special favor to the Jews and Jerusalem. This half of the week,
beginning in the spring of A.D. 31, extended to the fall of A.D. 34. In that
time “they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose
about Stephen [“went everywhere preaching the word”] traveled as far as
Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto
the Jews only.” Acts 11:19; 8:4. But when this time was expired, and the Jews
had confirmed themselves in the rejection of the Messiah and His gospel,
then was their decision accepted; and under the leadership of both Peter and
Paul the door of faith was opened fully to the Gentiles, to whom pertains the
remaining portion of the two thousand and three hundred years.
After the four hundred and ninety years of the limitation upon the Jews
and Jerusalem, there yet remained one thousand eight hundred and ten
years to the Gentiles. This period, beginning, as we have found, in the fall
of A.D. 34, reaches inevitably to the fall of A.D. 1844, and marks that date
as the expiration of the two thousand and three hundred years. And at that
time, upon the word of the “Wonderful Numberer” in Daniel 8:14, “then
shall the sanctuary be cleansed.” In 1844 also was the very time of “the days
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of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound,” and when
“the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants
the prophets.”
At that time there would be broken up the horror of great darkness by
which the mystery of iniquity had hid from ages and generations the mystery
of God. At that time the sanctuary and the true tabernacle, and the truth of
it, would be lifted up from the ground where the man of sin had cast them
down and stamped upon them, and would be exalted to the heaven where
they belong, and whence they will shine forth in such light as that the earth
shall be lightened with the glory. At that time the transcendent truth of the
priesthood and ministry of Christ would be rescued from the oblivion to
which the abomination and transgression of desolation had consigned it, and
would once more and forever stand in its true and heavenly place in the faith
of the church, accomplishing in every true believer that perfection which is
the eternal purpose of God which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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Chapter 15
The Cleansing of
the Sanctuary
people, as truly as it did the sanctuary itself. And whosoever of the people
was not included in the cleansing of the sanctuary, and was not himself
cleansed, equally with the sanctuary, from all iniquity and transgression and
sin, was cut off forever. Lev. 16:15-19, 29-34; 23:27-32.
And this was all “a figure for the time then present.” That sanctuary,
sacrifice, priesthood, and ministry was a figure of the true, which is the
sanctuary, sacrifice, priesthood, and ministry of Christ. And that cleansing of
the sanctuary was a figure of the true, which is the cleansing of the sanctuary
and the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man, from all the
uncleanness of the believers in Jesus because of all their transgressions in all
their sins. And the time of this cleansing of the true is declared in the words
of the Wonderful Numberer to be “unto two thousand and three hundred
days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed:” which is the sanctuary of Christ
in A.D. 1844.
And, indeed, the sanctuary of which Christ is the High Priest is the
only one that could possibly be cleansed in 1844, because it is the only one
that there is. The sanctuary that was a figure for the time then present was
destroyed by the army of the Romans who came and destroyed that city
(Dan. 9:26) and that sanctuary; and even its place was to be desolate “even
until the consummation.” Therefore the only sanctuary that could possibly
be cleansed at the time referred to by the Wonderful Numberer, at the end
of the two thousand and three hundred days, was alone the sanctuary of
Christ — the sanctuary of which Christ is High Priest and Minister; the
sanctuary and the true tabernacle of which Christ, at the right hand of God,
is true Priest and Minister; the sanctuary and true tabernacle “which the
Lord pitched, and not man.”
What this cleansing means is plainly declared in the very scripture which
we are now studying — Daniel 9:24-28. For the angel of God, in telling to
Daniel the truth concerning the two thousand and three hundred days, tells
also the great object of the Lord in this time as it relates to both the Jews
and the Gentiles. The seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety years ,of
the limitation upon the Jews and Jerusalem is definitely declared to be “to
finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation
for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision
and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” Daniel 9:24.
That is the true purpose of God in the sanctuary and its service in all
time: whether in the figure or in the true; whether for Jews or for Gentiles;
whether on earth or in heaven. Seventy weeks, or four hundred and ninety
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years, was the limitation set for the Jews to have this accomplished for and in
themselves. To accomplish this, to that people, of all people, Christ Himself
came in person to show to them the Way, and to lead them in this Way.
But they would not have it. Instead of seeing in Him the gracious One who
would finish transgression, and make an end of sins, and make reconciliation
for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness, to every soul, they saw in
Him only “Beelzebub the prince of the devils;” only One instead of whom
they would readily choose a murderer; only One who as King they would
openly repudiate, and choose a Roman Caesar as their only king; only One
whom they counted as fit only to be crucified out of the world. For such a
people as tha,t and in such a people as that, could He finish transgression,
and make an end of sins, and make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in
everlasting righteousness?—Impossible: impossible by their own persistent
rebellion. Instead of His being allowed by them to do such a gracious and
wonderful work for them, from the depths of divine pity and sorrow He
was compelled to say to them: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest
the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would
I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens
under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you
desolate.” “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a
nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” Matt. 23:37, 38; 21:43.
The nation to whom the kingdom of God was given, upon its rejection by
the Jews, was the Gentiles. And that which was to be done for the Jews in
the four hundred and ninety years which were limited to them, but which
they would not at all allow to be done for them — that is the identical thing
to be done for the Gentiles, to whom the kingdom of God is given, in the
eighteen hundred and ten years allotted to them. And that work is “to finish
the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation
for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the
vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” This can be done alone
in the finishing of the mystery of God in the cleansing of the true Christian
sanctuary. And this is done in the cleansing of the true sanctuary, only in
the finishing of transgression and making an end of sins in the perfecting
of the believers in Jesus, on the one hand; and on the other hand in the
finishing of transgression and making an end of sins in the destruction of the
wicked and the cleansing of the universe from all taint of sin that has ever
been upon it.
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The finishing of the mystery of God is the ending of the work of the
gospel. And the ending of the work of the gospel is, first, the taking away
of all vestige of sin and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness — Christ
fully formed — within each believer, God alone manifest in the flesh of each
believer in Jesus, and, secondly, on the other hand, the work of the gospel
being finished means only the destruction of all who then shall not have
received the gospel (2 Thess. 1:7-10), for it is not the way of the Lord to
continue men in life when the only possible use they will make of life is to
heap up more misery for themselves.
Again, in the service of the earthly sanctuary, we have seen that when the
work of the gospel in the annual course was finished in behalf of those who
had taken part in it, then all those who had taken no part in it were cut off.
“Which was a figure for the time then present,” and which plainly teaches
that in the service of the true sanctuary when the work of the gospel shall
have been finished for all those who have a part in it, then all those who do
not have a part in it will be cut off. Thus, in both respects, the finishing of
the mystery of God is the final ending of sin.
The service in the earthly sanctuary shows also that in order for the
sanctuary to be cleansed and the course of the gospel service there to be
finished, it must first be finished in the people who have a part in the service.
That is to say: In the sanctuary itself, transgression could not be finished, an
end of sins and reconciliation for iniquity could not be made, and everlasting
righteousness could not be brought in, until all this had been accomplished
in each person who had a part in the service of the sanctuary. The sanctuary
itself could not be cleansed until each of the worshipers had been cleansed.
The sanctuary itself could not be cleansed so long as, by the confessions of
the people and the intercessions of the priests, there was pouring into the
sanctuary a stream of iniquities, transgressions, and sins. The cleansing of
the sanctuary, as to the sanctuary itself, was the taking out of and away from
the sanctuary all the transgressions of the people which, by the service of
the priests, had been taken into the sanctuary during the service of the year.
And this stream must be stopped at its fountain in the hearts and lives of the
worshipers, before the sanctuary itself could possibly be cleansed.
Therefore the very first work in the cleansing of the sanctuary was the
cleansing of the people. That which was preliminary and essential to the
cleansing of the sanctuary itself, to the finishing of the transgression and
bringing in everlasting righteousness, there, was the finishing of transgression,
and the making an end of sins, and making reconciliation for iniquity, and
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bringing in everlasting righteousness in the heart and life of each one of the
people themselves. When the stream that flowed into the sanctuary was
thus stopped at its source, then, and then alone, could the sanctuary itself
be cleansed from the sins and transgressions which, from the people, by the
intercession of the priests, had flowed into the sanctuary.
And all that “was a figure for the time then present” — a “figure of the
true.” Therefore by this we are plainly taught that the service of our great
High Priest in the cleansing of the true sanctuary must be preceded by the
cleansing of each one of the believers, the cleansing of each one who has a
part in that service of the true High Priest in the true sanctuary. It is plain
that transgression must be finished, an end of sins and reconciliation for all
iniquity must be made, and everlasting righteousness must be brought in, in
the heart’s experience of every believer in Jesus, before the cleansing of the
true sanctuary can be accomplished.
And this is the very object of the true priesthood in the true sanctuary.
The sacrifices, the priesthood, and the ministry in the sanctuary which
was but a figure for the time then present, could not really take away sin,
could not make the comers thereunto perfect. Whereas the sacrifice, the
priesthood, and the ministry of Christ in the true sanctuary does take away
sins forever, does make the comers thereunto perfect, does perfect “ forever
them that are sanctified.”
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Chapter 16
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ministry of Him who gave Himself, and who was given, that He might
accomplish this very thing for every soul, and present every soul “holy and
unblameable and unreprovable” in the sight of God.
Every one whose heart is inclined to truth and right desires that this thing
shall be done. Only the priesthood and ministry of Christ can do it. Now is
the time of the complete and effectual doing of it for evermore. Then let us
believe in Him who is doing this, and trust Him in the doing of it, that He
does it completely and forevermore.
This is the time, and this is the work, of which it is written, that “there
should be delay no longer.” And why should there be delay any longer? When
the priesthood of our great High Priest is efficient, and when His sacrifice and
ministry are all sufficient, in that which is promised and in that for which
every believer hopes, then why should there be delay any longer in the finishing
of transgression, the making an end of sin, the making of reconciliation for
iniquity, and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness, to each believing
soul? Then let us trust Him to do that which He has given Himself to do, and
which He alone can possibly do. Let us trust Him in this, and receive in its
fullness all that belongs to every soul who believes in and implicitly trusts the
Apostle and High Priest of our profession — Christ Jesus.
We have seen that the little horn — the man of sin, the mystery of
iniquity — has put his own earthly, human, and sinful priesthood, ministry,
and sanctuary in the place of the heavenly and holy priesthood, ministry,
and sanctuary. In this priesthood and service of the mystery of iniquity, the
sinner confesses his sins to the priest, and goes on sinning. Indeed, in that
priesthood and ministry there is no power to do anything else than to go on
sinning, even after they have confessed their sins. But, sad as the question
may be, is it not too true that those who are not of the mystery of iniquity,
but who really believe in Jesus and in His priesthood and ministry — is it
not too true that even these also confess their sins, and then go on sinning?
But is this fair to our great High Priest, to His sacrifice, and to His
blessed ministry? Is it fair that we should thus put Him, His sacrifice, and
His ministry practically upon a level with that of the “abomination of
desolation,” and to say that in Him and in His ministry there is no more
power or virtue than there is in that of the “mystery of iniquity”? May the
Lord forever save His church and people this day, with no more delay, from
thus bringing down so low our great High Priest, His awful sacrifice, and
His glorious ministry.
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Let our trust in our great High Priest be true, and let it be truly implicit.
By protestants there is often remark made of the blind unwisdom of
Catholics in their so fully trusting to the priest. And, with respect to any
earthly priesthood, the thought is correct. And yet implicit trust of the
priest is eternally right: but it must be trust of the right Priest. Such trust in
a false priesthood is most ruinous; but the principle of implicit trust in the
Priest is eternally right. And Jesus Christ is the right Priest. Therefore every
one who believes in Jesus Christ, in the sacrifice which He has made, in
the priesthood and ministry which He exercises in the true sanctuary, must
not only confess his sins, but he must then forever implicitly trust that true
High Priest in His ministry in the sanctuary to finish transgression, to make
an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, in his heart and life.
Everlasting righteousness, remember. Not a righteousness for to-day and
sin to-morrow, and righteousness again and sin again. That is not everlasting
righteousness. Everlasting righteousness is righteousness that is brought in
and stays everlastingly in the life of him who has believed and confessed,
and who still further believes and receives this everlasting righteousness in
the place of all sin and all sinning. This alone is everlasting righteousness;
this alone is eternal redemption from sin. And this unspeakable blessing is
the gracious gift of God by the heavenly ministry which He has established
in our behalf in the priesthood and ministry of Christ in the heavenly
sanctuary.
Accordingly, to-day, just now, “while it is called to-day,” as never before,
the word of God to all people is, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted,
that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come
[“that so there may come seasons of refreshing,” R.V.] from the presence
of the Lord; and He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached
unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the time of restitution of all
things.” Acts 3:19-21.
The time of the coming of the Lord and the restitution of all things is
indeed at the very doors. And when Jesus comes, it is to take His people
unto Himself. It is to present to Himself His glorious church, “not having
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing,” but that is “holy and without blemish.”
It is to see Himself perfectly reflected in all His saints.
And before He comes thus, His people must be in that condition. Before
He comes we must have been brought to that state of perfection in the
complete image of Jesus. Eph. 4:7, 8, 11-13. And this state of perfection,
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Chapter 17
Conclusion
C hrist the Lord, the Son of God, came down from heaven and
was made flesh, and dwelt among men as the Son of man. This is an
eternal fixture in the Christian faith.
He died on the cross of Calvary for our offenses. This is an eternal fixture
in the Christian faith.
He arose from the dead for our justification. This is an eternal fixture in
the Christian faith.
He ascended to heaven as our Advocate, and as such sitteth on the right
hand of the throne of God. This is an eternal fixture in the Christian faith.
He is a priest upon His Father’s throne — a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. This is an eternal fixture in the Christian faith.
At the right hand of God, upon the throne of God, as priest upon His
throne, Christ is a “minister of the sanctuary,y and of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord pitched, and not man.” This is an eternal fixture in the
Christian faith.
And he will come again in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory,
to take His people unto Himself, to present to Himself His glorious church,
and to judge the world. This is an eternal fixture in the Christian faith.
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That Christ lived in the flesh, died on the cross, rose from the dead,
ascended to heaven, and sits on the right hand of the throne of God in
heaven, must be an eternal fixture in the faith of every Christian, in order
for that faith to be true and full.
That this same Jesus is a priest at the right hand of God on that throne,
must be an eternal fixture in the faith of every Christian, in order for that
faith to be true and full.
That Christ the Son of God, as priest at the right hand of God upon
His throne, is there a “minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord pitched, and not man,” must be an eternal fixture in the
faith of every Christian, in order for that faith to be true and full.
And this true faith in Christ the Son of God as that true priest, in that true
ministry, of that true sanctuary, at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty
in the heavens; that His priesthood and ministry finishes transgression, and
makes an end of sins, and makes reconciliation for iniquity, and brings in
everlasting righteousness — this true faith will make every comer thereunto
perfect. It will prepare him for the seal of God, and for the final anointing
of the Most Holy.
By this true faith, every soul who is of this true faith can certainly know
that in him and in his life, transgression is finished and an end of sins made;
that reconciliation is made for all the iniquity of his life; and that everlasting
righteousness is brought in to reign in his life for evermore. This he can
know with perfect certainty, for the Word of God says so, and true faith
cometh by hearing the Word of God.
All who are of this true faith can know all this just as truly as they can
know that Christ is at the right hand of the throne of God. They can know
it just as truly as they can know that He is Priest upon that throne. They
can know it just as truly as they can know that He is there a “minister of the
sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.”
and all this can be known just as truly as any statement of the Word of God
can be known, for the Word of God plainly states it all.
Therefore in this time, let every believer in Jesus rise up in the strength of
this true faith, implicitly trusting the merit of our great High Priest in His
holy ministry and intercession for us.
In the confidence of this true faith, let every believer in Jesus take a
long breath of restfulness forever, in thankfulness to God that this thing
is accomplished: that transgression is finished in your life, that you are
done with the wicked thing forever: that an end of sins is made in your
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life, and that you are free from it forever: that reconciliation for iniquity
is made, and that you are cleansed from it forever by the precious blood of
sprinkling: and that everlasting righteousness is brought into your life to
reign forevermore, to uphold you, to guide you, to save you, in the fulness
of that eternal redemption which, through the blood of Christ, is brought to
every believer in Jesus our great High Priest and true Intercessor.
And then in the righteousness, the peace, and the power of this true faith,
let every soul who knows it spread abroad to all people and to the end of the
world the glorious news of the priesthood of Christ, of the cleansing of the
sanctuary, of the finishing of the mystery of God, of the times of refreshing
come, and of the soon coming of the Lord “to be glorified in His saints,
and to be admired in all them that believe…in that day,” and to “present to
Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing,”
but “holy and without blemish.”
“Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an
High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the
heavens; a Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the
Lord pitched, and not man.”
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the
blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for
us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an High Hriest
over the house of Hod; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our
bodies washed with pure water.” And “let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without waivering; for he is faithful that promised.”
The End.
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