DIVINE METHOD OF DEALING WITH THE CHURCH
Now, my dear brethren, we have before our minds the Ransom, the necessity for it, the time when the Sacrifice for sin was made, and the time when the merit of that sacrifice is to be applied for the world of mankind.
But, meantime, the Church receives an imputation of that merit.
We do not have that merit applied to us, however; we do not get the real thing; for that would be Restitution (to human perfection), which is not for the Church at all, not according to our Covenant of Sacrifice (Psa 50:5). We have covenanted to give up earthly things.
The Church will NOT get Restitution, therefore; and that is what our Redeemer purchased with His death. He DID NOT purchase the Divine nature, but purchased Father Adam and all of his posterity according to the flesh--human nature. The giving of our Lord's human life forms the Purchase-price (the Ransom) for Adam and his race--the world.--John 6:51.The Church has given up the human nature in sacrifice, and has been begotten to the spirit nature. Therefore we shall never reach human perfection.
But while developing as New Creatures in Christ, we need an imputation of the merit of His Sacrifice to cover our blemishes and imperfections resulting from the original sin and transmitted to us by the law of heredity. Our Lord did not need any such imputation; for He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," and the Father had agreed to accept such a sacrifice for Adam. Our Lord needed no one to make good for Him. He was acceptable to God as a full offset to Adam. As a reward for the work which our Lord was to accomplish for mankind the Father gave Him the promise of glory, honor and immortality--the Divine nature; and our Lord has attained It.--Phil. 2:8-11.
To those who, during this Gospel Age, will surrender (sacrifice) their wills to God and permit their lives to go down into Death in obedience to the Divine will, the Father has promised a share with Our Lord in His glory, honor and immortality as His Bride and Joint-heir. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a Crown of Life."(Rev. 2:10.)
But before we can present our bodies a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1) a difficulty must first be removed; for we are members of the sinner race, and God cannot recognize sinners. We have already been condemned to death in Adam. We are by nature members of that sinner race upon whom the sentence of death already rests. Before we can offer ourselves to God something must be done to release us from the death sentence resting upon us. That something was accomplished by our Lord when he "ascended on High and appeared in the presence of God FOR US"--the Church. There He made an arrangement with the Father by which the merit of His sacrifice has been imputed to those who have followed in His steps, laying down their lives in sacrifice.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IMPUTATION AND APPLICATION
The best illustration I can think of to bring out the difference between imputation and application is that of a note as contrasted with money.
Suppose that I had need for a thousand dollars to carry my business through today, but did not have that sum in ready money. But suppose a friend who had the thousand dollars would send word to me, "I will endorse your note for the sum that you need." That endorsement of a note would be equivalent to giving me the money; for the bank would accept the note as instead of the thousand dollars.
So our Lord does not give us restitution when we present ourselves to Him in sacrifice, instead, He imputes it, that is to say, we give a promissory note--we promise God that we will sacrifice our life and all that we have now, as well as all our hopes of a future restitution to perfect humanity; in other words, we give up all our earthly life rights as human beings in order to follow in the footsteps of our Redeemer. We figuratively make our note to this effect; and our Lord Jesus endorses it, gives to it a value which it otherwise would not have.
This is the imputation of our Lord's merit as it comes to the Church. This imputation does not excuse us from anything, however; for when we offered ourselves in consecration we agreed to give up EVERYTHING that we possess. All our claims to restitution are forever gone.
This is VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND, thus the Lord’s admonishment to “count the cost”, before entering into a covenant (contract) with the Father.
If we should fail in what we have undertaken as New Creatures, we cannot receive restitution with the world; for we have relinquished all our earthly life rights as human beings under our covenant. If we become careless in sacrificing our life, it would then be our Lord Jesus' duty, as our Advocate, to see that we are obliged to do what we had agreed to do.
This is the secret which has led to the formation of the Great Company class. They do not go forward to lay down their lives as was covenanted, voluntarily; and therefore they are pushed, so to speak, by Divine providence into a place where they must suffer. When brought into this position by the great Endorser, the Advocate of the Church (1 John 2:1), the really loyal ones will suffer death rather than deny God and His arrangement. But the disloyal ones will drawback from carrying out their Covenant of Sacrifice, and thus do despite to the favor of God, eventually all such will die the Second Death.
The imputation of the merit of our Redeemer's sacrifice to the Church in advance of its application for the world enables us to lay down our earthly life in order to win the great prize of glory, honor and immortality--the Divine nature. This is the most wonderful opportunity that could come to any member of the fallen race--that our Lord would impute to us that which would enable us to become sacrificers and to attain to joint-heirship with Him in His Millennial Kingdom.”
Now, my dear brethren, we have before our minds the Ransom, the necessity for it, the time when the Sacrifice for sin was made, and the time when the merit of that sacrifice is to be applied for the world of mankind.
But, meantime, the Church receives an imputation of that merit.
We do not have that merit applied to us, however; we do not get the real thing; for that would be Restitution (to human perfection), which is not for the Church at all, not according to our Covenant of Sacrifice (Psa 50:5). We have covenanted to give up earthly things.
The Church will NOT get Restitution, therefore; and that is what our Redeemer purchased with His death. He DID NOT purchase the Divine nature, but purchased Father Adam and all of his posterity according to the flesh--human nature. The giving of our Lord's human life forms the Purchase-price (the Ransom) for Adam and his race--the world.--John 6:51.The Church has given up the human nature in sacrifice, and has been begotten to the spirit nature. Therefore we shall never reach human perfection.
But while developing as New Creatures in Christ, we need an imputation of the merit of His Sacrifice to cover our blemishes and imperfections resulting from the original sin and transmitted to us by the law of heredity. Our Lord did not need any such imputation; for He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners," and the Father had agreed to accept such a sacrifice for Adam. Our Lord needed no one to make good for Him. He was acceptable to God as a full offset to Adam. As a reward for the work which our Lord was to accomplish for mankind the Father gave Him the promise of glory, honor and immortality--the Divine nature; and our Lord has attained It.--Phil. 2:8-11.
To those who, during this Gospel Age, will surrender (sacrifice) their wills to God and permit their lives to go down into Death in obedience to the Divine will, the Father has promised a share with Our Lord in His glory, honor and immortality as His Bride and Joint-heir. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a Crown of Life."(Rev. 2:10.)
But before we can present our bodies a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1) a difficulty must first be removed; for we are members of the sinner race, and God cannot recognize sinners. We have already been condemned to death in Adam. We are by nature members of that sinner race upon whom the sentence of death already rests. Before we can offer ourselves to God something must be done to release us from the death sentence resting upon us. That something was accomplished by our Lord when he "ascended on High and appeared in the presence of God FOR US"--the Church. There He made an arrangement with the Father by which the merit of His sacrifice has been imputed to those who have followed in His steps, laying down their lives in sacrifice.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN IMPUTATION AND APPLICATION
The best illustration I can think of to bring out the difference between imputation and application is that of a note as contrasted with money.
Suppose that I had need for a thousand dollars to carry my business through today, but did not have that sum in ready money. But suppose a friend who had the thousand dollars would send word to me, "I will endorse your note for the sum that you need." That endorsement of a note would be equivalent to giving me the money; for the bank would accept the note as instead of the thousand dollars.
So our Lord does not give us restitution when we present ourselves to Him in sacrifice, instead, He imputes it, that is to say, we give a promissory note--we promise God that we will sacrifice our life and all that we have now, as well as all our hopes of a future restitution to perfect humanity; in other words, we give up all our earthly life rights as human beings in order to follow in the footsteps of our Redeemer. We figuratively make our note to this effect; and our Lord Jesus endorses it, gives to it a value which it otherwise would not have.
This is the imputation of our Lord's merit as it comes to the Church. This imputation does not excuse us from anything, however; for when we offered ourselves in consecration we agreed to give up EVERYTHING that we possess. All our claims to restitution are forever gone.
This is VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND, thus the Lord’s admonishment to “count the cost”, before entering into a covenant (contract) with the Father.
If we should fail in what we have undertaken as New Creatures, we cannot receive restitution with the world; for we have relinquished all our earthly life rights as human beings under our covenant. If we become careless in sacrificing our life, it would then be our Lord Jesus' duty, as our Advocate, to see that we are obliged to do what we had agreed to do.
This is the secret which has led to the formation of the Great Company class. They do not go forward to lay down their lives as was covenanted, voluntarily; and therefore they are pushed, so to speak, by Divine providence into a place where they must suffer. When brought into this position by the great Endorser, the Advocate of the Church (1 John 2:1), the really loyal ones will suffer death rather than deny God and His arrangement. But the disloyal ones will drawback from carrying out their Covenant of Sacrifice, and thus do despite to the favor of God, eventually all such will die the Second Death.
The imputation of the merit of our Redeemer's sacrifice to the Church in advance of its application for the world enables us to lay down our earthly life in order to win the great prize of glory, honor and immortality--the Divine nature. This is the most wonderful opportunity that could come to any member of the fallen race--that our Lord would impute to us that which would enable us to become sacrificers and to attain to joint-heirship with Him in His Millennial Kingdom.”
