| The Christian Life | October 1948 |
The Consummation of God’s Purposes
WHEN we realize that God’s plan of salvation for the lost human race embraces seven thousand years of time, we instinctively know that there is a great deal more to it than simply believing on Christ and being saved, important though the redemptive work of Christ is in the divine plan. In the first place, Jesus did not come to die for the world until four thousand years after the fall of man, and during all that time God gave no definite revelation of his redemptive plan, speaking of it only vaguely through the prophets and by types and shadows, and then merely to the one little nation of Israel. It was not until Christ came and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel, that God’s people began to realize that he has a plan, an eternal purpose, and that it will not be until the “dispensation of the fullness of times” in that plan that things both in heaven and in earth will be gathered unto Christ.—Ephesians 1:10
Much of the detail of God’s plan is revealed through his Word by means of illustrations. Our first parents, for example, were tested as to their obedience to God’s will. They failed, and even though Jesus paid the penalty of their sin and thus provided a way of escape from death, no member of the race of Adam will be given everlasting life until he is tried individually. The thousand-year period during which individuals of the race as a whole will undergo this trial is spoken of in the Scriptures as a judgment day—the word judgment being used in this connection to convey the thought of this particular aspect of God’s purpose as it will be consummated during the “dispensation of the fulness of times.”
The sin of our first parents was in reality a rebellion against the Creator’s will, and the entire human race has been in rebellion ever since that time. God has assured us that this opposition to his will is to be put down, and that God’s will is ultimately to reign supreme throughout the whole earth. In order to convey to our minds what is involved in this aspect of God’s purpose toward mankind, his promises tell us of a “kingdom,” and that in this kingdom Christ will reign until all enemies are put under his feet, until God’s will is done in earth even as it is now done in heaven. The term “subjects” as used in connection with the thought of a kingdom conveys the meaning of the kingdom illustration—the world is to be made subject to the will of God.
And there is another important word used in order to convey the full scope of God’s intentions toward the human race, and that is “covenant”—the human race is to be restored to covenant relationship with God. A man might prove loyal under trial, and might fully subject his will to the requirements of God’s law, yet not be restored to covenant relationship with the Creator; so this term is used in order to give us a more complete picture of what God, through Christ, proposes to do for the fallen race. There are still other expressions used in the promises, but in our present discussion we will confine ourselves to these three—the judgment work, the kingdom work, and the making of a covenant between God and men.
The Work of Preparation
By reason of failure to “rightly divide the Word of truth,” many have grossly misunderstood the divine plan relating to God’s judgments, his kingdom, and his covenants. Practically the whole nominal church world believes that the human race is on trial during this life, that this, in effect, is God’s judgment day for all men. True, because the Bible speaks so emphatically of a future judgment day, it tries, in a distorted sort of way, to take the scriptures pertaining thereto into consideration, but the result is confusion and contradiction. It is bound to be so when it insists that the moment of death marks the full end of probation for all.
By the same token God’s promises concerning the kingdom of Christ and what it will do for the human race are misunderstood: Not knowing the plan of God, many insist that the kingdom was set up at the beginning of the Gospel age, and that it has been reigning in the earth ever since. Naturally, this viewpoint nullifies God’s promises of that future glorious kingdom which will bring peace and joy to mankind, and everlasting life to all who obey its laws. How we rejoice that now we can see so clearly that what began with Christ’s first advent was the calling and training of those who would be associate kings with Jesus, and not the full setting up of the kingdom itself.
The same principle of interpretation holds true with respect to God’s promises to establish covenant relationship between himself and the estranged human race, beginning with the “house of Israel, and the house of Judah.” (Jer. 31:31) This is called by the prophet a “New” Covenant, and the nominal church, failing to understand God’s plan, takes for granted that this new covenant began to operate between God and men when the Holy Spirit came upon the waiting church at Pentecost. It is the same mistake that is made with respect to the work of judgment and the work of the kingdom—and for the same reason.
The reason so many fail to understand these fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures correctly is that they do not see clearly the distinction between those whom God has promised to bless and those whom he will use as his channels of blessing. They fail to discern that the association of his promises of the judgment day, the kingdom, and the New Covenant with his servants of this age does not mean that this is the world’s judgment day, nor that the kingdom is now in operation, nor that we are now living under the terms of the New Covenant.
Mysteries Revealed
That which is not revealed is a mystery, and prior to our Lord’s first advent there was much of God’s plan that remained a mystery. One important feature of that plan which was not unfolded until Christ came was the fact that the “seed” of promise, the “Christ,” the great “King” and “Judge”—through and by whom God’s promises to bless the world are to be fulfilled—was to have associates who would share his glory, who would live and reign and judge with him. “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” is the way the Apostle Paul defined this mystery. (Col. 1:27) But when the mystery was revealed, God’s people learned that the “saints” were to judge the world; that they were to reign with Christ a thousand years; and were called to be “able ministers of the New Covenant.”—I Cor. 6:2; Rev. 20:4,6; II Cor. 3:6
Let us take the thought of the judgment day, for example. Paul tells us plainly that God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by Jesus—“that man whom he hath ordained.” (Acts 17:31) The Scriptures also declare that all judgment has been committed unto Jesus, who will judge the “quick and the dead at his appearing.” (John 5:22; II Tim. 4:1) Yes, the first mention of the work of judgment that was made by one of God’s prophets makes it clear that many would participate in that work. That was Enoch, who, according to Jude, prophesied that the Lord would come with myriads of his saints, to execute judgment. (Jude 14,15) And Paul wrote, “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?”—I Cor. 6:2
Over and over again the Scriptures declare that Jesus is the great King in the divine kingdom which is to dominate the affairs of the whole world. Nevertheless, the Scriptures also emphatically declare that his faithful followers of this age are to share the glory of his kingship, that they are to reign with him. This in itself is a wonderful hope of glory which should spur us on to faithfulness in laying down our lives in divine service, for it is only those who thus sacrifice all, suffering and dying with Jesus, who in the resurrection will live and reign with him.
And—what wondrous grace!—the Scriptures authorize us to include in our hope of glory the anticipation of sharing in the work of mediating the New Covenant. True, Jesus is declared to be THE Mediator of that covenant, but every faithful follower of Jesus is also said to be an “able minister” thereof, called and trained to serve as “ministers of reconciliation,” both now and in the future.—II Cor. 3:6; 5:18; 6:1,2
Practical Training
In the divine arrangements, the training of those who are called to participate with Jesus in the blessing of all the families of the earth has been placed upon a very practical basis. When Paul inquired of the Corinthian brethren, “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?” he was admonishing them to give greater diligence in applying the principles of the truth in their own lives and particularly in their dealings with one another. He reasoned that if they were to share with Jesus in judging the world, they should learn properly to apply the principles of justice and righteousness in solving the problems which arose among themselves in the church.
And this same practical training of the future blessers of the world is discerned in connection with their hope of reigning with Jesus, the King of kings. When we pray, “Thy kingdom come thy will be done, in earth even as it is in heaven,” we should remember that first of all the divine will should be done in our own hearts and lives. Full and unreserved surrender to the will of God through Christ our Head is the condition upon which we may hope to share with Jesus in the work of establishing the divine will in the hearts of the people during the Millennium. It is only as we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God that he will exalt us to kingdom glory with the Master.
Similarly, as prospective millennial-age ministers of reconciliation we are getting our training now. In the present use of the “word of reconciliation” it is our privilege whenever and wherever we find an ear to hear, to say, “Be ye reconciled to God.” Thus we serve as peacemakers even this side of the veil, in preparation for that enlarged service as “able ministers of the New Covenant,” when it will be our privilege to help bring the entire race into covenant relationship with God. What a glorious prospect, and how it behooves all of us to serve our apprenticeship faithfully!
The Kingdom at Hand
All truth people should be familiar with the many scriptures which speak of the kingdom as having its beginning with the first advent of Jesus. Paul wrote, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his [God’s] dear Son.” (Col. 1:13) We also read that “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” (Matt. 11:12) These and many other scriptures prove that the kingdom came into being at the first advent of Jesus; but those who are able to rightly divide the Word of truth understand that the kingdom reign did not begin then. They know that the kingdom has existed merely in its preparatory stage; that is, that the Gospel age is the period during which the kings who will reign in the kingdom have been and are being called and trained for this high position.
The reason we are stressing this well-known fact of truth is that we want to emphasize also that the same principle of interpretation holds true with respect to God’s promises of the New Covenant. Just as God’s promises pertaining to the setting up of a kingdom make it clear that the reigning period of that kingdom is during the Millennium, so his original promises of the New Covenant likewise identify very definitely when it will become operative, and that then it will first of all be made “with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.” (Jer. 31:31-34) Similarly, just as in the case of the kingdom promises, the promises of the New Covenant also involve too much to be fulfilled in the experiences of God’s people during the present age.
However, the New Testament does associate the church with the New Covenant of promise, just as the church during the Gospel age is associated with God’s promises of the kingdom, but when we see that the present relationship of the saints to that covenant is merely in the sense of being trained as its servants, then we will have no difficulty in discerning the perfect harmony of all the scriptures bearing on the subject. Let us then examine the New Testament references to the New Covenant and note that they imply no more than do the references of the New Testament to the kingdom and the church’s relationship thereto.
The Blood of the New Covenant
In Matthew 26:27,28 Jesus is quoted as saying to his disciples when he gave them the memorial cup that it represented the blood of the “new testament,” or New Covenant. This is sometimes misunderstood to mean that Jesus was saying to his disciples that the foretold. New Covenant had now become operative and that under its terms they were then, through his blood, being reconciled to God. But when we examine the matter more carefully we find that this is not the thought.
Hebrews 10:9 reads, “Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.” The “first” referred to in this text is the old Law Covenant, and the “second” is the New Covenant. It seems clear according to the Scriptures, that Jesus did away with the Law Covenant as a means by which Israel and the world could be reconciled to God. While the Jews who rejected Jesus were still bound by its terms, God is not using that covenant as a means of grace for his people. Yes, that covenant was taken away by Jesus just as definitely as was the typical kingdom removed by Babylon as forecast by Ezekiel and Jeremiah (Ezek. 21:25-27; Jer. 25:9-11) and later by the Romans as forecast by Jesus when he said, “Your house is left unto you desolate.”—Matt. 24:38
And Paul writes that the “first” covenant was taken away in order that the “second,” the “New” Covenant, might be established. The same is true concerning the kingdom. The typical kingdom was removed in order that the antitypical, the real kingdom, might be established. And with the removal of the typical kingdom, the real kingdom was “at hand”—it began to be established in the sense that the kings for that kingdom began to be prepared for the high office to which they were called. So it was with the New Covenant: it began to be established by Jesus; for at the beginning of the age its “able ministers” began to be tutored in the school of Christ that they might be ready, in association with him, to inaugurate that covenant at the beginning of the millennial age. That’s why Jesus said that his blood was the blood of the New Covenant. There is no other blood. The purpose for which Jesus shed his blood was that the lost race might be reconciled to God, and that work of reconciliation is to be accomplished through the New Covenant.
But let us notice how Paul sets forth the complete thought of how the blood of Christ is the blood of the New Covenant. This, as the great apostle points out, was beautifully pictured in the type. Prior to the inauguration of the typical covenant, Moses, its mediator, sacrificed animals, and then, when the covenant was enjoined upon the people, he used the blood of these animals to sprinkle “both the book, and all the people.” And then Paul adds, “Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. … It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.”—Hebrews 9:19-23
The sprinkling of “all the people” in the type points forward to the inauguration of the New Covenant; but in addition to that, as Paul explains, both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry were also sprinkled, which, he said, pointed forward to the sprinkling of the antitypical tabernacle and its arrangements—the heavenly things of this age. The Book of Hebrews plainly places the church in the same relationship to the antitypical tabernacle as the priests of Israel were to the typical tabernacle. We are a priesthood, with a hope of entering into the most holy.
We do not know how long it required for the building of the typical tabernacle and the inauguration of its services through which the nation of Israel received its blessings under the Law Covenant, but it requires the entire Gospel age to “build” and “set up” the antitypical tabernacle and initiate its priesthood. This is a necessary work in connection with establishing the New Covenant. And because this is being done in preparation for reconciling the world to God through that New Covenant arrangement, the blood of Christ which makes it possible is quite properly referred to as the blood of the New Covenant. In other words, the blood of Christ is being used during the Gospel age to make acceptable the sacrifices of those who are being prepared as “able ministers of the New Covenant.” This does not mean that they are under the New Covenant. What it does mean is that they are being prepared to administer the laws of that covenant to the people when the preparation work of this Gospel age is complete.
In Hebrews 9:14 Paul explains that the blood of Christ purges the Christian’s conscience from dead works. It is essential that this be done else we could not be acceptable to God as “able ministers of the New Covenant.” And then in the next verse Paul explains that it is for this same purpose—that is, the purging of sins—that Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant. And because of this, writes the apostle, the death of Jesus will effect the “redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament.” Thus it will be that they which are called will receive “the promise of eternal inheritance.”
In this passage, therefore, we find two things which are accomplished by the blood of Christ. The first is the purging of our own conscience from dead works, and the second is the “redemption of the transgressions under the first testament.” In Paul’s day a few in the church had actually transgressed under the old covenant, but this was not true of the Gentile converts either then or now, so what he is referring to is the manner in which the promise of Jeremiah 31:34 will be fulfilled when the New Covenant is made with the “house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.”
Paul speaks of the natural house of Israel as “they which are called.” This is not a reference to those who are invited to the “high calling.” We should remember that the nation of Israel was called to certain favors in the divine plan, and Paul refers to this in Romans 11:26-29. Here he explains that out of Sion shall come forth the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob, that this is God’s covenant with them when he takes away their sins. Then he adds, “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” Comparing this passage with Hebrews 10:16, we can see clearly that in the latter Paul is explaining the ultimate work to be accomplished by the blood of Christ, after that blood has first been used to purge our conscience from dead works. True, in the case of the Jewish converts, some of these “dead works” were their, efforts to gain life under the Law, but the whole church needs this purging in order to be prepared to administer the law of the New Covenant when it is inaugurated.
Fleshly Tables of the Heart
In II Corinthians 3:3-7 Paul illuminates further the relationship of the church to the New Covenant. It is in this passage that the church is spoken of as “able ministers” of that covenant, and Paul indicates clearly the nature of their service. He says that we are the “epistles of Christ,” written not on stone, but on fleshly tables of the heart. In verses 7 and 8 he makes it clear that he is comparing the ministry of the Law Covenant with that of the New Covenant, and that the typical ministry to which he refers is that which was conducted by Moses in connection with the Law which was “engraven in stones.”
Let us think of the tables of the Law as the epistles of Moses, and Paul is telling us that those to whom he was writing, the church, are the epistles of Christ, and that this Gospel age is the period during which these epistles are being inscribed by the Holy Spirit. In Exodus 24:12 the Lord tells Moses that the tables of the Law were given to him in order that he might teach the people. So it is with the antitypical tables of stone, the “epistles of Christ.” As “able ministers of the New Covenant” they are being prepared as the future teachers of the people. These are the Zion class, and the law of the New Covenant shall go forth from Zion. But for this to be true we must first learn that law, and be thoroughly reconciled ourselves to all of its terms, delighting in it even as did Jesus.
And we are ministers of the New Covenant now, for there are two phases of that ministry. First there is the sacrificial ministry of that covenant, and then will follow the glory ministry. The sacrificial ministry has been going on throughout the entire Gospel age, and soon the glory phase of the ministry will begin. This latter, Paul indicates, was typified by the glory on the countenance of Moses when he came down from the mount bearing the tables of the Law. If Christ is in us we have this hope of glory, for the promise is that when he shall appear—typed by Moses’ appearance to Israel when he came down from the mount—we also shall appear with him in glory.—II Cor. 3:3-12; Col. 3:4
Paul writes in Romans 8:24 that we no longer hope for that which we already see or possess, so if the glory of our able ministry of the New Covenant is as yet but a hope—and Paul makes it clear that this is so—there is just no way in which we can have the New Covenant operating now. It is being established, yes. We are being sacrificed in its interests, being baptized for the dead—our sacrifice being made acceptable through the blood of Christ. But the New Covenant cannot be made with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, and through them with all nations, until Christ appears in glory, as Moses did, and with him his “epistles;” his co-ministers, as those typical tables of stone were with Moses when he came down from the mount.
Hebrews 8:6 speaks of Jesus’ mediatorship of the New Covenant as a “better ministry.” Can there be any doubt that when Paul speaks of the church as “able ministers” of the New Covenant he meats that they share with Jesus in the work of mediatorship—that “better ministry”? And in Hebrews 9:21 the apostle speaks of the vessels of the ministry being sprinkled with blood. These vessels also are typical of things in the antitypical tabernacle arrangement, which emphasizes again our true relationship to the New Covenant, that it is as servants of that covenant, not as typed by the Israelites who were blessed under the Law Covenant.
When we keep this distinction in mind—that is, the difference between the servants and the served—then we will have no difficulty in understanding all that the Bible says about the New Covenant. For example, in that wonderful lesson of II Corinthians, chapters 5 and 6, where Paul designates the church as participating in the work of reconciliation, he speaks of it as being co-workers with God. Then he explains that this present age is the acceptable time, the day of this great salvation. In this connection he quotes from Isaiah 49:8-12, and applies it to the church. In this wonderful prophecy the Lord addresses The Christ, Head and body, and says, “I will … give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages.” (Isaiah 49:8) How could the Lord make it plainer to us that if faithful we are to be a part of that New Covenant arrangement by and through which restitution blessings are to flow to the world!
Let us then rejoice in the clarity of the divine plan. Let us be glad for the judgment-day blessings that are in store for the world, and also for the kingdom joys that are to be dispensed to all mankind in God’s due time. Let us be happy in the thought that Israel and the world are to be brought into covenant relationship with God, and that his Law will be written in their hearts and in their inward parts—that they will be restored to perfection of both mind and body.
But above all this, let us rejoice in the high honor the Lord has now offered us of being co-workers with him in accomplishing these great objectives of his plan. We are on trial now to prove our fitness to judge the world in its judgment day. We are learning obedience now as prospective rulers in the kingdom of Christ. And we are now sacrificing ministers of the New Covenant, being prepared to administer its laws, as his epistles, his co-mediators, when we shall appear with Christ in glory. Surely we can say with the apostle that these light afflictions which are but for a moment are indeed working for us “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen”—the eternal things.—II Cor. 4:17,18