DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT SALVATIONS
Here note the difference between the blessing God designed for the elect church He is selecting during this gospel age and the one he purposes for the world of mankind. The church’s blessing is not “restitution,” and in harmony with this we can see no evidence of restitution anywhere about us.
The restitution work waits for the restitution time, which begins with the establishment of the kingdom. Believers of this present time receive, indeed, a faith equivalent to restitution, in that they are recognized as having their sins covered with the robe of Christ’s righteousness, reckoned as having passed from the sentence of death in Adam to a share of life in Christ reckoned as having received again the fellowship and communion with God, lost by Adam through his disobedience in Eden. All this in a sense serves as an equivalent to the “restitution” which is to come to the world in its "due time."
But the world will not get these things by faith, but will receive them actually gradually attaining to them more and more during the thousands years, until at its close all who shall have appreciated God’s favors and obeyed the voice of the great Prophet, Priest and King, will be actually perfect as perfect as was Adam in every talent, quality power and capacity, and with increased capacity through increased knowledge.
Not so the church of this gospel age. She gets none of these restitution blessings actually. She merely has them by faith, and this for a special purpose to sacrifice them to present her body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, her reasonable service (Rom. 12:1), her participation in the sufferings of Christ that she may be accounted worthy to participate in His glories the millennial glories.
The gospel invitation to the church is to lay down her life, to exchange these earthly privileges and blessings bought by the precious blood of Christ, for heavenly privileges offered to her as a reward of obedience. “To Him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I overcame and am set down with My Father in His throne”.
Glory, honor and immortality the divine nature will be the great “change” from present earthly conditions to heavenly conditions far beyond anything possible for the natural mind to appreciate, and seen even by the saints as though through a glass obscurely. This great change, which is to come to the Lord’s faithful bride in her participation in “His resurrection,” the first resurrection, the resurrection to spirit perfection, is the great hope and ambition set before us, dear brethren and sisters. It is for this that we are exhorted to lay aside every weight and every besetting sin and to run with patience sacrificing earthly things and treasures that we may have this better treasure, this pearl of great price, this participation in the kingdom with our dear Redeemer.
The apostle, in the text we have quoted, declares that these times of restitution that are coming were spoken of “by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began.” We should like to take up this subject in detail and scrutinize the testimony of all the prophets to assure all respecting the accuracy of the apostle’s statement, but suffice it now that we take the apostle’s words, calling to mind merely the various statements and promises of the law and the prophets, pointing out these glorious good things for the world of mankind, that are delayed only until the completion of the elect church. The prophets speak of the restoration of Israel to divine favor, of how their blind eyes shall be opened, that they shall see in very truth that He whom they have pierced is the Messiah indeed, who gave His life for their ransom, and that God will “pour upon them the spirit of prayer and supplication” to this end.
The Apostle Paul most clearly points out in Romans 9th, 10th, and 11th chapters, that not only the falling away of Israel was foretold in the prophets, but also their regathering their restoration to divine favor; but this he points out to us will be after the completion of the gospel church spiritual Israel. Again he declares that “They shall obtain mercy through your mercy.” The glorified church, with Christ at her head as the great King, is to dispense the mercies of God to the Jew first, but also to “all the families of the earth” Rom. 11:12, 25-33; Acts 15:16, 17. Let us, dear brethren and sisters, hold fast to these “doctrines of Christ” as set forth, not only in His own teachings that He came to seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10); that He beheld mankind as a treasure in a field and bought the whole field that He might develop the treasure; but as set forth also in the declarations of the apostles and of all the holy prophets since the world began.
While the doctrines of men would be inclined to lead us away from God to make us think of the Almighty as unjust and cruel, heartless, loveless or powerless the doctrines of the scriptures open the blind eyes and give us to see the King in his beauty the glorious majesty of the God of love, the God of wisdom, the God of justice, the God of power. They give us to see, as declared by the prophet, that “As the heavens are higher than the earth so are God’s ways higher than man’s ways and God’s plans higher than man’s plans.” From this standpoint of greater enlightenment respecting the divine character, we will have greater desire to serve and to please Him, esteeming it a great privilege to lay down our very lives in His service, counting all things as but loss and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, that we might win Him and be found in Him and be made sharers in His resurrection the first resurrection to the change of nature, to glory, honor and immortality. Phil. 3:8-11.
“NONE OTHER NAME GIVEN”
We appreciate the tender sympathy which leads to the hope that dear friends and relatives and the heathen, who have died out of Christ are “safe in the arms of Jesus.” True, they are safe in the care of him who died for all. He will not torture any of his enemies even to all eternity, as once we feared but now find to be unscriptural. But let us see that while the scriptures teach that the worst that can befall any of his enemies will be “everlasting destruction” without hope of a future life, there is a grand hope taught for the ignorant that all such shall be saved from their ignorance and be “brought to an accurate knowledge of the truth that they may be saved” in god’s due time." (1 Tim. 2:4) Let us recognize the truth of the Master’s words and build a proper faith in accordance with its statement. “He that hath the Son hath life; he that hath not the Son shall not see life” eternal. (John 8:36) God’s salvation is by knowledge and not by ignorance—" through faith in the precious blood" and not in ignorance of it; by a resurrection and Millennial Kingdom in which we are invited to share with our Redeemer and his bride and joint heirs to accomplish the uplift of all who will then prove willing and obedient.
Here note the difference between the blessing God designed for the elect church He is selecting during this gospel age and the one he purposes for the world of mankind. The church’s blessing is not “restitution,” and in harmony with this we can see no evidence of restitution anywhere about us.
The restitution work waits for the restitution time, which begins with the establishment of the kingdom. Believers of this present time receive, indeed, a faith equivalent to restitution, in that they are recognized as having their sins covered with the robe of Christ’s righteousness, reckoned as having passed from the sentence of death in Adam to a share of life in Christ reckoned as having received again the fellowship and communion with God, lost by Adam through his disobedience in Eden. All this in a sense serves as an equivalent to the “restitution” which is to come to the world in its "due time."
But the world will not get these things by faith, but will receive them actually gradually attaining to them more and more during the thousands years, until at its close all who shall have appreciated God’s favors and obeyed the voice of the great Prophet, Priest and King, will be actually perfect as perfect as was Adam in every talent, quality power and capacity, and with increased capacity through increased knowledge.
Not so the church of this gospel age. She gets none of these restitution blessings actually. She merely has them by faith, and this for a special purpose to sacrifice them to present her body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, her reasonable service (Rom. 12:1), her participation in the sufferings of Christ that she may be accounted worthy to participate in His glories the millennial glories.
The gospel invitation to the church is to lay down her life, to exchange these earthly privileges and blessings bought by the precious blood of Christ, for heavenly privileges offered to her as a reward of obedience. “To Him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I overcame and am set down with My Father in His throne”.
Glory, honor and immortality the divine nature will be the great “change” from present earthly conditions to heavenly conditions far beyond anything possible for the natural mind to appreciate, and seen even by the saints as though through a glass obscurely. This great change, which is to come to the Lord’s faithful bride in her participation in “His resurrection,” the first resurrection, the resurrection to spirit perfection, is the great hope and ambition set before us, dear brethren and sisters. It is for this that we are exhorted to lay aside every weight and every besetting sin and to run with patience sacrificing earthly things and treasures that we may have this better treasure, this pearl of great price, this participation in the kingdom with our dear Redeemer.
The apostle, in the text we have quoted, declares that these times of restitution that are coming were spoken of “by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began.” We should like to take up this subject in detail and scrutinize the testimony of all the prophets to assure all respecting the accuracy of the apostle’s statement, but suffice it now that we take the apostle’s words, calling to mind merely the various statements and promises of the law and the prophets, pointing out these glorious good things for the world of mankind, that are delayed only until the completion of the elect church. The prophets speak of the restoration of Israel to divine favor, of how their blind eyes shall be opened, that they shall see in very truth that He whom they have pierced is the Messiah indeed, who gave His life for their ransom, and that God will “pour upon them the spirit of prayer and supplication” to this end.
The Apostle Paul most clearly points out in Romans 9th, 10th, and 11th chapters, that not only the falling away of Israel was foretold in the prophets, but also their regathering their restoration to divine favor; but this he points out to us will be after the completion of the gospel church spiritual Israel. Again he declares that “They shall obtain mercy through your mercy.” The glorified church, with Christ at her head as the great King, is to dispense the mercies of God to the Jew first, but also to “all the families of the earth” Rom. 11:12, 25-33; Acts 15:16, 17. Let us, dear brethren and sisters, hold fast to these “doctrines of Christ” as set forth, not only in His own teachings that He came to seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10); that He beheld mankind as a treasure in a field and bought the whole field that He might develop the treasure; but as set forth also in the declarations of the apostles and of all the holy prophets since the world began.
While the doctrines of men would be inclined to lead us away from God to make us think of the Almighty as unjust and cruel, heartless, loveless or powerless the doctrines of the scriptures open the blind eyes and give us to see the King in his beauty the glorious majesty of the God of love, the God of wisdom, the God of justice, the God of power. They give us to see, as declared by the prophet, that “As the heavens are higher than the earth so are God’s ways higher than man’s ways and God’s plans higher than man’s plans.” From this standpoint of greater enlightenment respecting the divine character, we will have greater desire to serve and to please Him, esteeming it a great privilege to lay down our very lives in His service, counting all things as but loss and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord, that we might win Him and be found in Him and be made sharers in His resurrection the first resurrection to the change of nature, to glory, honor and immortality. Phil. 3:8-11.
“NONE OTHER NAME GIVEN”
We appreciate the tender sympathy which leads to the hope that dear friends and relatives and the heathen, who have died out of Christ are “safe in the arms of Jesus.” True, they are safe in the care of him who died for all. He will not torture any of his enemies even to all eternity, as once we feared but now find to be unscriptural. But let us see that while the scriptures teach that the worst that can befall any of his enemies will be “everlasting destruction” without hope of a future life, there is a grand hope taught for the ignorant that all such shall be saved from their ignorance and be “brought to an accurate knowledge of the truth that they may be saved” in god’s due time." (1 Tim. 2:4) Let us recognize the truth of the Master’s words and build a proper faith in accordance with its statement. “He that hath the Son hath life; he that hath not the Son shall not see life” eternal. (John 8:36) God’s salvation is by knowledge and not by ignorance—" through faith in the precious blood" and not in ignorance of it; by a resurrection and Millennial Kingdom in which we are invited to share with our Redeemer and his bride and joint heirs to accomplish the uplift of all who will then prove willing and obedient.
