THE NEW COVENANT
"Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah" (Jeremiah 31: 31).
THE New Covenant is the Scriptural name for the new arrangement between God and man which will be instituted at the beginning of the incoming Age, and by which God purposes to receive the world of mankind again into favor with Himself. The covenant relationship which Adam originally enjoyed with his Maker, and its resultant harmony with Him, was contingent upon obedience to the expressed will of God, and was forfeited by disobedience. This covenant relationship with God was renewed typically at Mount Sinai, with Israel (Ex. 19: 1-9; 24: 3-8). Through Moses as mediator, God promised that if Israel would keep His law they would have everlasting life.
The inauguration of the Law Covenant was effected by Israel's mediator, within six months after they left Egypt, through the sacrifices of bulls and of goats, the children of Israel solemnly agreeing to their part of the covenant. Later the Atonement Day sacrifices were repeated year by year continually; "for the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin" (Heb. 10: 19). Israel failed to gain the blessing promised in their Law Covenant. God foreknew that Israel would fail; but through their endeavors He was giving an object lesson which in the future would be a lasting blessing to Israel and to the whole world.
The mediation of the old Law Covenant brought Israel into a typical covenant relationship to God. The mediation of the New Law Covenant will bring not only Israel, but also all the rest of mankind, who will have come into line with the Kingdom arrangements, into actual covenant relationship with God. Then each individual will be finally tested by Jehovah, as Adam was in the beginning, to demonstrate whether or not he is worthy of everlasting life. None who fail to stand the test will be permitted to enter upon the eternal ages of blessing to follow.
THE EFFECT OF THE "BETTER SACRIFICES"
God will introduce this new Law Covenant through the Mediator of the New Covenant, Christ Jesus, in whom the entire arrangement centers, and through whom it will be carried out. He will be assisted in this work by the Church. He will be not only Mediator, but also Priest, Prophet, King and Judge. As Priest, He will uplift and bless humanity and receive their offerings (see Tabernacle Shadows, pp. 93-100). As King, He will rule mankind in righteousness; as Prophet, He will teach them; as judge, He will test them, decide and pass sentence, favorable or unfavorable. During His Thousand-year Reign He will bring the people out of their condition of death and degradation, and restore whosoever will of all mankind to the image and likeness of God, lost by Adam in Eden.
The basis of mediation on the part of the better Mediator will be the "better sacrifices" of this Gospel Age. Let us notice the Apostle's declaration regarding this matter. In referring to the types, he says, "It was therefore necessary that the patterns [types] of things in the heavens [the higher things] should be purified with these; but the heavenly [higher] things themselves with better sacrifices than these" (Heb. 9: 23). The words "heavens" and "heavenly things," as used in this text, do not refer to spiritual things; for nothing spiritual is secured by these "better sacrifices." Only human blessings, human rights, are thus secured. The word "heavens" means heaved up, or higher; and in order to understand its specific meaning in any text, the word must be defined in harmony with its context. St. Paul is here contrasting the types of the Jewish Age with the antitypes of the Gospel and Millennial dispensations.
In the antitypical arrangement the sacrifices will never be repeated. They are offered once for all. Through the "better sacrifices" the antitypical Mediator will have the power to start the world with a clean slate, as it were. Then the work of uplift, of restitution, will begin. As the Lord declares through the Prophet, "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh" (Ezek. 36: 26; 11: 19).
DEATH UNDER THE NEW ORDER
Thus Adam's sin and condemnation, which came to mankind by heredity, will no more be remembered by anyone; that is to say, it will be no more a torturing remembrance. While the lessons learned by the world through their experiences with sin and death will never be forgotten, nor their benefits lost, nevertheless these experiences will cease to distress mankind. The joys which will then be theirs will swallow up the sorrows and tears of the past; and their minds will be filled with the wonderful truths and wonderful blessings, the glorious new projects and prospects continually opening before their widening vision. To all eternity the perfected earth will be filled with a race of happy, perfect beings in the human likeness of their Lord.
The work of taking away the stony heart, and the giving of an heart of flesh will be gradual, however. Many will awake to shame, in proportion to their willfulness in sin in the past. But the disciplinary processes of the Kingdom will gradually relieve all who are amenable to the influences of righteousness and the work of reformation then instituted. By degrees their hard-heartedness will disappear, and they will become more and more tender-hearted and affectionate. No member of the human race will any longer be held accountable for Adamic sin. In Ezek. 18: 2-4, we read of present conditions: "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." But during the next Age the effects of the sour grapes of sin will be gradually eliminated. Under the New Order, whoever dies will die for his own sin, not for the sin of his fathers (Ezek. 18: 5-24).
Since all mankind are in a condition of imperfection, all will in that Day still be liable to commit sin. The only arrangement by which they can attain to eternal life will be by their adoption into the family of the MediatorThe Christwho will quicken their weak mortal bodies. Although no Divine condemnation will hold over against them for their past, yet only such as come into proper relationship with the Mediator will receive God's blessing. Under the New Covenant the special favors of the Lord will be only for the obedient. Whoever rejects the 'opportunities then offered will, at the close of 100 years of testing, be destroyed from among the people (Isa. 65: 20; Acts 3: 23).
THE SEALING OF THE NEW COVENANT
God cannot consistently enter into a covenant with people who are under His own sentence of death. Under the typical arrangement of the Law Covenant, the death of bulls and of goats was acceptable sacrificially to God; and the people of Israel, thus typically cleansed, were enabled to enter into a typical relationship with Him. This did not mean that the blood of bulls and of goats was sufficient to take away sin; but that it was a typical representation of the real sacrifices, those of the World's High Priest, Head and Body; however, it should be clearly and distinctly understood that the sacrifices of the Body members do not add anything whatever to the Ransom merit. The merit of Jesus' Ransom sacrifice is all-sufficient to offset the sins of Adam and all sins of his posterity resulting therefrom. This merit first becomes available for the Church (Heb. 9: 24), and afterward for the world; its imputation to the Spirit-begotten ones in the Gospel Age constitutes an embargo upon it. Hence the merit could not be released for the sealing of the New Covenant until after the full completion of the sacrifices of Jesus and the Church. As we read in Heb. 9: 16, 17 (see Diaglott): "For where a covenant exists, the death of produced; because a covenant is firm over dead victims [the Greek word here is plural, denoting more than one sacrifice, i.e., the sacrifice of the Head, and also the sacrifice of the Body]; since it is never valid when that which ratifies it is alive." In fact, the Ransom merit will not be released for the sealing of the New Covenant until it is released from sponsoring all of God's elect
.
If the New Covenant were sealed, made operative, during the Gospel Age, then all the blood of that Covenant must have been previously prepared, must have been already fully shed. If this were true, then the Church could have no chance of sharing in the death of Christ, which they were invited to do (1 Cor. 10: 16; 11: 25; 2 Tim. 2: 11, 12). It is evident, then, that the New Covenant is not yet sealed. The antitypical Bullock (Jesus' consecrated humanity) has been slain, and His blood (the merit of His human sacrifice) has been taken into the Most Holy, into heaven itself; there He appeared in the presence of God for His Church (Heb. 9: 24; 10: 14): both for "himself" (His Body membersLev. 16: 6; Eph. 1: 23; 5: 23; Acts 26: 14, 15) and for "his house" (Lev. 16: 6; the Great Multitude of new creatures, antitypical Levites, who also have no inheritance in the landRev. 7: 9-17; 19: 9; Num. 18: 20, 23, 24).
Thus Jesus is "the propitiation for our [the Church's] sins." Furthermore, He is the propitiation "not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2: 2); for God, who "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," is "the Saviour of all men [from Adamic death], specially of those that believe" (1 Tim. 4: 10). "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many [the Greek reads: the many, viz., Adam and the entire human race (Matt. 20: 28; Rom. 5: 15)for Jesus by the grace of God tasted death for every man (Heb. 2: 9), hence every man must receive a full, fair and free trial or opportunity to attain unto everlasting life]; and unto them that look for him [Isa. 25: 9; Rom. 8: 19] shall he appear the second time without sin [a sin-offering] unto salvation" (Heb. 9: 28); for God "will have all men to be saved [from the curse of Adamic death, for which Christ died], and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2: 4). This salvation will come to the world after the Gospel Age, during which the World's High Priest makes the Sin-offeringthe antitypical Bullock and the antitypical Goat (Lev. 16: 6, 15), the "better sacrifices [plural] than these" (Heb. 9: 23).
THE BULLOCK AND THE GOAT
In the Day of Atonement picture (Lev. 16), Aaron alone represents the entire Anointed One (Head and Body), and two different sacrifices, a bullock and a goat, are here used to represent the separateness, yet similarity in suffering, of the Body and its Head, as the Sin-offering, the Ransom merit, of course, being vested exclusively in the Head, Jesus, who invited His Body members to share with Him in His sacrificial cup, and, if faithful unto death, to sit with Him in His throne (Rev. 2: 10; 3: 21) and to reign with Him as His Bride (Rev. 21: 2; 22: 17), the Lamb's Wife (Rev. 19: 7; 21: 9), His joint-heirs (Rom. 8: 17), His queen (Psa. 45: 9, 13, 14). In sacrificing the bullock Aaron types our Lord alone, as the Head of the World's High Priest, and in sacrificing the goat he represents, primarily our Lord and secondarily "the Church which is His Body." The goat represents the Church's justified humanity, the merit of Jesus alone making it acceptable in God's sight (Rom. 12: 1).
In Heb. 7: 27, St. Paul indicates the activitythe ministryof the Body, as well as the Head of the World's High Priest, while yet in the flesh; for the World's High Priest, Head and Body, did not need laity (on each atonement day, year by year) to offer up sacrifice: first, the bullock for his own sins (Lev.16: 6), and then, the goat for the people (Lev. 16: 15); "for this he did once [during the Gospel Age], when he offered up himself," Head and Bodythe antitypical Bullock from Jordan to Calvary, and the antitypical Goat from Pentecost throughout their earthly time of suffering faithfully unto death during the Gospel Age.
Only the World's High Priest, Head and Body, could here be meant, for Jesus personally had no sin (Isa. 53: 9, 11; 2 Cor. 5: 21; 1 Pet. 2: 22; 1 John 3: 5); and the text specifies that [as antitypical of Lev. 16: 6] the High Priest here referred to offers up sacrifice first for his own sins, which, of course, the World's High Priest did have in His Body members. Thus understood, the passage is clear as follows: the World's High Priest, in His Head, first offered the humanity of His Head for the sins of the World's High Priest in His Body; and then the World's High Priest, primarily in His Head, and secondly in His Body, offered the justified and consecrated humanity of His Body (the Ransom merit being supplied exclusively by the Head, Jesus) for the people's sins. There is no way of interpreting this verse as referring to any other than the World's High Priest, Head and Body, without making Jesus a sinner.
SUFFERING "WITHOUT THE GATE"
The World's High Priest, in His Head was actually, and in His Body reckonedly (Rom. 4: 20-25; Phil. 3: 9) holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Thus St. Peter speaks of the Body members of the World's High Priest (1 Pet. 2: 5, 9) as "an holy priesthood, to offer up sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ," and "a royal priesthood, an holy nation." And, referring to "the bodies of those beasts [the bullock and the Lord's goat] whose blood is brought into the sanctuary for sin [as a sin-offering]," St. Paul shows that they were burned without the camp, that accordingly Jesus, the Head, in His consecrated humanity (the antitypical Bullock) suffered without the gate, and that the Church which is His Body in their justified and consecrated humanity (the antitypical Lord's Goat) should therefore go forth unto Him without the camp (or the gate), bearing His reproach (Heb. 13: 11-13).
Hence in the antitype Jesus and the Church suffer without the gate, without the camp. The city, Jerusalem, here stands for the nominal people of God; and for Jesus to suffer at Jerusalem, just without (outside) its gates, represents the fact that He was cast off as a blasphemer and a rebel, excommunicated and outlawed from among the nominal people of God, and thus died as an outcast from the nation. Luke 13: 33 proves this: "It is impossible for a prophet to perish outside [apart from] Jerusalem." The literal Jerusalem cannot here be meant; for many prophets died outside of it, e.g., John the Baptist, Jesus, Sts. Paul, Peter, John, etc.. But none of God's Gospel-Age prophets died apart from the nominal people of God being instrumental in their death; for these persecute or wear out God's prophets unto death. The camp signifies the same thing as the city. It was not the world in the sense of the heathen who especially persecuted Jesus and the Church, but the world or camp in the sense of God's nominal people (John 15: 18-25). To undergo such persecution and wearing out by God's nominal people is what is meant by Jesus' suffering without the gate and by the Church's going forth unto Him without the camp, as the clause, "bearing His reproach," proves. His reproach was the shame and disgrace heaped upon the Sin-offering. Hence the Church's going forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, proves that they are His associates in the Sin-offering.
A few other Scriptures that refer to the Church's ministry sacrificially as a part of the 'World's High Priest are: Matt. 16: 24; Mark 10: 35-39; John 17: 18; Rom. 6: 3-11; 8: 10, 17; 1 Cor. 15: 29-34; 2 Cor. 1: 5; 4: 10; Gal. 2: 20; Phil. 3: 10; Col. 1: 24; 2 Tim. 2: 10-12; 1 Pet. 2: 19-24; 3: 14, 17; 4: 12-14, 16, 19.
Please see E Vol. 7, pp. 461-494, for an exposition of most of these Scriptures, as proving that the Church shares in the Sin-offering.
When the World's High Priest sprinkles the blood of the antitypical Lord's Goat upon the heavenly Mercy Seat "for the people," for Adam and his race, then the great Mediator (Jesus, His Body sharing with Him as His joint-heirs in this great mediatorial work) will be ready to do the work assigned to Him for the world. But meanwhile Jesus' Ransom merit rests in the hands of justice; and on this basis He atones for the sins of Himself in His Body members, and of His house, the antitypical Levites, the Great Multitude (Lev. 6: 6; Rev. 7: 14), for whom throughout the Gospel Age He has been their advocate with the Father, for He is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2: l, 2).
WORLD-WIDE NEW COVENANT BENEFITS
The first atoning work of the New Dispensation will be the application of the blood (Jesus' Ransom merit, which during the Gospel Age was used for the Church onlyHeb. 9: 24) upon the antitypical Mercy Seat, in heaven, to make reconciliation for the sins of "all the people"Adam and his entire human family. Until that will have been done, the New Covenant cannot be inaugurated. This second presentation of the blood of Jesus, of the merit of His sacrifice, will effect the seal or making valid, of the Covenant. For many centuries the New Covenant has been promised (Jer. 31: 31-34; Heb. 8: 6-13), but it has not yet gone into effect. As soon as the blood of the Atonement shall have been applied for the sins of all the people, the New Covenant will become operative.
At the beginning of the New Dispensation the world will begin life anew, so to speak. The condemnation resting upon them for over 6,000 years will have been canceled. Satisfaction to justice will have been made for Adam, and for his posterity, who fell in him. All the resultant blessings are to come through the Redeemer's hands, as Mediator. Throughout the Millennium, all who ever will have life must obtain it through this great Life-giver (John 5: 21). None can receive a share of the blessings provided save by the terms of the New Covenant and by an earnest endeavor to live up to them. All who do so will be helped and granted grace sufficient through the Mediator.
The sprinkling of the blood upon the heavenly Mercy Seat on behalf of all mankind will take place before Restitution begins, before the legal right to live can be given even to the Ancient and Youthful Worthies. Nevertheless, although the sins of the past will be fully canceled, whoever would have God's blessing, God's approval, must become "an Israelite indeed"must become a believer in God, by believing in the Mediator, who will be God's Representative, and by placing himself in the hands of The Christ for training and uplifting. This Law of the New Covenant will be applicable to Adam and all of his race. Whoever of the world would then attain life everlasting must accept Christ and join this earthly kingdom class. The plan of God manward will not be accomplished until all sin and all willful sinners are destroyed.
The entire human race will receive some benefit from the New Covenant, irrespective of their acceptance of Christ, in that they will be awakened from the tomb and brought to a knowledge of the Truth (1 Tim. 2: 36). The Scriptures tell us that as by the offense of one man condemnation passed upon all, so by the obedience of one man the free gift comes to all, unto justification of life (Rom. 5: 12, 18, 19). Because of the application of Christ's sacrificial merit for all men, it will be just for God to awaken the world from death and give all an opportunity to attain justification to perfect life. This free gift of God through Christ does not guarantee eternal life to any except upon specific conditions. We would say, therefore, that the benefits of the New Covenant will be applicable to everyone in a limited sense. God foresaw that some would adopt this arrangement; otherwise He no doubt would have altered His Plan.
THE SIN UNTO DEATH
At the introduction of the New Age, all the accounts against humanity will have been canceled by Divine justice, and mankind will be turned over to the Mediator; for if they were kept under Divine justice, they would immediately be condemned again, because of their inability to do perfectly. Therefore, the Father will not take cognizance of sinners. During the thousand years they will be left under the merciful provisions of the New Covenant. Those who will obediently do their best will receive all the blessings of the Kingdom; and those who will not become obedient under those conditions will go into the Second Death, either at 100 years of age, or at the end of the Millennium (Isa. 65: 20).
During the Gospel Dispensation, the only ones who can commit the sin unto death (1 John 5: 16), blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matt. 12: 31, 32), are those who have been enlightened and begotten by the Holy Spirit. St. Paul says, "As touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance" (Heb. 6: 4-6, R.V.). Their sin would be willful; for it would be "blasphemy against the Holy Spirit."
Therefore only the Church are on trial for life during the Gospel Age. Only those who have been begotten of the Holy Spirit are on trial for life or death eternal in this Age; those who now die the Second Death have no opportunity for the future (Prov. 21: 16). Of those begotten of the Holy Spirit in the Gospel Age and who prove worthy of life, there will be two classes. First, the Bride or Body of Christ, the 144,000 (Rev. 7: 4; 14: 1), who will be granted the highest kind of life, the Divine nature (2 Pet. 1: 4); secondly, the Great Company (Rev. 7: 14), those who fail to attain to a place in the Bride class, but who eventually also receive life on the spirit plane, though not on the Divine plane. They will be the Bridesmaids, the virgins who serve the Bride (Psa. 45: 14, 15). (For details on the Great Company, please see E Vol. 4.)
Both classes of "new creatures" gave up their human life, their human all, when they covenanted to "be dead with Christ" (Rom. 6: 5, 8); in consecration they gave up their privileges of human restitution bought for them at Calvary's cross, when Jesus completed the laying down of His perfect human life as a corresponding price, the Ransom price, for Adam's forfeited life. This human justification was reckoned to them through their faith, which was counted for righteousness (Rom. 4: 5); thus their presentation of their human all to God was holy and acceptable in His sight (Rom. 12: 1), because it was reckoned perfect through Christ's perfection imputed to them. Having thus given up their human all, including their hope of eternal life on this earth, which Jesus came to seek and to save by paying Adam's debt for himself and his family (Luke 19: 10), these were begotten by God's Holy Spirit to a new life, a spirit life, destined to live on the spirit plane, or not at all. They have been on trial for life during the Gospel Age; and if they are not found worthy of it, the only thing remaining for them is the Second Death.
THE WORLD'S JUDGMENT DAY
As for the world, their Day of judgment, as individuals, has not yet fully come. They are still in condemnation through Father Adamnot recognized as having rights at all. Some of the world are excellent people; but even these have neither part nor lot in the salvation of the Gospel Age. The blessed arrangement for them is in the Millennial Age, when, if they yield full obedience to Jehovah's Anointed, their sins will be forgotten.
As the sins of the Church are now canceled, so likewise will the whole world go absolutely free from the condemnation of Adamic sin as soon as the merit of Christ is applied for them. They then will have all the Kingdom opportunities and privileges, if they accept of Christ, the great Mediator of the New Covenant. Nevertheless they will suffer stripes (Luke 12: 47, 48) as a result of the evil deeds done in the present lifenot as a punishment for their sins, which before that time will all have been remitted, but because of the bad habits previously formed, the character developed; for the weaknesses of the fallen nature will have left wounds, which will require more or less rigorous treatment in order to their healing. With the world it will then be true, as now with the Church, that if they shall sin against the spirit of holiness, the Holy Spirit, knowingly and willfully, the penalty will be a second condemnationto Second Death, destruction.
While our Lord Jesus said that all manner of sin would be forgiven except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, yet the Pharisees, to whom these words were addressed, could not commit this sin, because they had not the fullness of knowledge (Matt. 12: 31, 32; Acts 3: 17). Yet they might so harden their hearts by sinning against the measure of light they had that even the favorable influences of the Kingdom will not reform them (Matt. 23: 33).
FORGIVENESS OF ADAMIC SIN ABSOLUTE
When God recognizes the satisfaction of justice and cleans the slate for the sinner race, this does not mean that He has merely transferred the account to Jesus, who will hold it against them. Our Lord will not hold against mankind the things the Father has forgotten. On the contrary, as the Representative of the Father, the Lord Jesus will be glad to give to men the benefit of that forgiveness, merely holding them at a distance from the Father during the period of their imperfection, standing between as Mediator, to give whosoever will of mankind time for restoration, development of character, etc., and taking away the stoniness of their hearts and giving them hearts of flesh.
The Lord through the Prophet says, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." The Apostle Paulcalls attention to this statement. He points out that under the Law Covenant this was not done, but that the sins remained; for although atonement was made afresh for Israel year by year, nevertheless the inferior sacrifices could not take away sin (Heb. 10: 1-4; Jer. 31: 31-34; Ezek. 36: 25-29; Heb. 8: 12). When mankind becomes a part of Israel, the promises made to the Jews will apply also to the Gentiles.
"PRINCES IN ALL THE EARTH"
The Scriptures tell us that "out of Zion [the heavenly phase of the Kingdom] shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem [the earthly phase]" (Isa. 2: 3; Mic. 4: 2). When the Kingdom is set up, the Ancient Worthies will be made "princes in all the earth" (Psa. 45: 16). They will have as their associates the Youthful Worthies. This arrangement will appeal first and primarily to the Jew, who would naturally be the first to come under the new regulations. We may not say that all the Jews will do so, but that this will be true of at least a considerable number of them. In time others of the world will join. There are many well-meaning people who have not yet taken the vow of consecration to the Lord, but who would like to help rather than to hinder others. Such will in due time attach themselves to the Kingdom, which shall be "the desire of all nations" (Haggai 2: 7).
Our Lord will not hold against mankind the things the Father has forgotten. On the contrary, as the Representative of the Father, the Lord Jesus will be glad to give to men the benefit of that forgiveness, merely holding them at a distance from the Father during the period of their imperfection, standing between as Mediator, to give whosoever will of mankind time for restoration, development of character, etc., and taking away the stoniness of their hearts and giving them hearts of flesh.
The Lord through the Prophet says, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." The Apostle Paulcalls attention to this statement. He points out that under the Law Covenant this was not done, but that the sins remained; for although atonement was made afresh for Israel year by year, nevertheless the inferior sacrifices could not take away sin (Heb. 10: 1-4; Jer. 31: 31-34; Ezek. 36: 25-29; Heb. 8: 12). When mankind becomes a part of Israel, the promises made to the Jews will apply also to the Gentiles.
"PRINCES IN ALL THE EARTH"
The Scriptures tell us that "out of Zion [the heavenly phase of the Kingdom] shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem [the earthly phase]" (Isa. 2: 3; Mic. 4: 2). When the Kingdom is set up, the Ancient Worthies will be made "princes in all the earth" (Psa. 45: 16). They will have as their associates the Youthful Worthies. This arrangement will appeal first and primarily to the Jew, who would naturally be the first to come under the new regulations. We may not say that all the Jews will do so, but that this will be true of at least a considerable number of them. In time others of the world will join. There are many well-meaning people who have not yet taken the vow of consecration to the Lord, but who would like to help rather than to hinder others. Such will in due time attach themselves to the Kingdom, which shall be "the desire of all nations" (Haggai 2: 7).
In the case of the Ancient and Youthful Worthies, the earthly "princes," their freedom from imperfection will make them conspicuous among mankind. As the world come to know about these, they will say, "Are not these God's people?" Mankind will perceive that God has rewarded the Worthies by giving them an instantaneous resurrection to perfect life, and will learn that their "better resurrection" was given because of faithfulness in the past (Heb. 11: 35-40).
EXPIATION FOR WILFUL SIN
Our Lord Jesus, having laid down the Ransom-price for the sins of the whole world, has placed His Ransom merit in the hands of justice as a deposit, to be held during this Gospel Age for the benefit of the Church class. At the end of this Age He will apply it to the cancellation of the claims of justice against Adam, which will include all sins due to the fall. Jehovah God will accept the price and will remit the Adamic sins. There will be some sins, however, which will not be covered by this great Sin-offering. These are willful sins committed by members of the race, especially by the nominal people of God. As the willful sins of Adam's race are not covered by the Sin-offering, but only Adam's sin and those sins resulting from Adamic weakness, God has mercifully arranged that the sufferings of the Great Company class, the scapegoat or "Azazel-goat" class, necessary to the destruction of their flesh, which they had covenanted to sacrifice, will be utilized as an expiationnot as a sin-offeringfor these willful sins of the world (Lev. 16: 8, 10, 20-22; for details, please see Z 5462-5464; E Vol. 4, Chapter III, Azazel's Goat, especially pp. 169-175).
When the Great Company will have finished their course and the atonement for sin will have been fully accomplished and the account against the world upon the books of justice will have been fully squared, Divine condemnation will be entirely lifted from the race, and the New Covenant of blessing will then be inaugurated. Then it will be the part of the people to come up to the requirement of the New Covenant, by earnestly striving to do their best. If, however, because of imperfection, they unwittingly violate God's Law during the Mediatorial Reign, they will not be amenable to that Law; for the Mediator will stand between them and the Law.
NEW COVENANT RELATIONSHIP CONDITIONAL
As shown above, the Mediator will not hold against anyone the transgressions of this present life. But it will require long, patient effort to regain the perfection from which the first parents of the race fell. Some of mankind have fallen much farther down than others, because of having inherited greater depravity or because of a more perverse disposition and of a lesser effort to control their fallen nature. But under the gracious arrangements of the New Covenant, the great Mediator purposes to grant the necessary assistance by helping the people individually to understand the requirements of the new arrangement, by promptly punishing any attempt to do wrong, by rewarding every effort to do right, and by supplying strength, physical and mental, to meet the requirements of His righteous and benevolent rule.
By the close of the Mediatorial Reign those who have responded and made earnest effort to advance, will be brought to a condition of human perfection and of covenant relationship with Jehovah, as Adam was at the beginning. Then they must be subjected to the same test of loyalty as Adam was, with no mediator between them and God's Justice. How many will maintain that relationship, and how many will lose it and suffer destruction, we cannot know. That some will prove unworthy of life and meet this extreme penalty of willful sinthe Second Deathis clearly shown (Rev. 20: 7-9, 14, 15; 21: 8; 22: 14, 15). These are referred to also in Isa. 65: 20 as the old men who will not fill their days with good, but will selfishly use the Millennial opportunities and pretend all the time to be obeying them.
The Ancient Worthies are to be at the head of the earthly phase of the Kingdom, with the Youthful Worthies as their associates. They will form its nucleus, ruling under the glorified Church, which will be invisible. These Worthies cannot come forth from the tomb until Divine justice has been satisfied for the world; for they also are members of the fallen race. After the Mediator has made this satisfaction, the Worthies will be the first to be blessed by the New Covenant, and will be raised from the dead perfect men, in the image of God, as Adam was originally created. In their resurrection they will receive complete restitution to human perfection; for during their previous lifetime they, like Enoch, "had this testimony, that they pleased God" (Heb. 11: 5).
Soon after the awakening of their faithful prophets of old and the faithful Youthful Worthies, the Jews then living, who still retain their faith in the New Covenant promises made to them (Jer. 31: 31-34; Heb. 8: 7-12), and who have waited for their Messiah, will begin to see clearly, and will join themselves to the Worthies. Then the world will gradually come to see, and will also come under the terms of Israel's New Law Covenant by becoming a part of Israel, a part of Abraham's earthly seed (Rom. 4: 17, 18; Isa. 49: 6-12).
Covenant relationship with God means perfection, either reckoned or actual. During the Mediatorial Reign, mankind will be approaching actual perfection. But they will not enter into it as a race until the close of the thousand years. Then the Mediator will turn them over to God (1 Cor. 15: 24), and they will be privileged to enter into covenant relationship with Him, and must stand or fall individually. As we read, at that time Satan shall be "loosed for a little season"; and all who love unrighteousness in their hearts, whatever has been their outward course during their trial time, will be manifested. They will be deceived by the Adversary. "These shall go away into everlasting punishment [Greek, kolasis, cutting off, or cutting short], and the righteous unto life eternal" (Matt. 25: 46). The one class passes into life; while the other class is cut off, restrained, from life. The reward of the righteous will be everlasting life; the reward of the wicked"the devil and his angels," his messengers, all who are of his spiritwill be everlasting deathdestruction. Those who are of the Millennial "sheep" class, who go to the King's right hand of favor, will, after the final testing at the hands of God, enter upon the ages of glory beyond, the blessings of which are not revealed in the Scriptures.
THE CHURCH NOT UNDER THE NEW COVENANT
God does not make the New Covenant with the Church; rather, as our text states, He will make the New Covenant "with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah," i.e., Fleshly Israel; and it will not be made until "after those days," i.e., after the Jewish and Gospel Ages (Jer. 31: 31-34; Heb. 8: 8-12; E Vol. 6, p. 699). From Gal. 4: 22-31 we learn that Abraham's wife Sarah represents the covenant that develops the Christ, Head and Body (antitypical Isaac), that Hagar the bondwoman, by whom he also had a son, represents the Law Covenant, and that her son Ishmael represents Fleshly Israel. In our March issue (a copy free on request) we showed that Keturah, the wife or concubine which Abraham took after Sarah's death, likewise represents a covenantthe New Covenantmade in the Millennial Age, after the Sarah Covenant, the GospelAge Covenant which develops the Christ, has ceased to operate (comp. Z 4309); also, we showed that Abraham's descendants by Keturah (Gen. 25: 1-4) represent classes and subdivisions of classes which are developed in the Millennial Age under the New Covenant. (For 21 lines of Scriptural proof that the New Covenant does not operate in the Gospel Age, please see E Vol. 6, pp. 667-728).
Since the Church is not under the New Covenant it is not proper to speak of the Church as being blessed under it, although the Church receives a great blessing and privilege in respect to it. If there were to be no New Covenant, there would then be no need of a Mediator, and no need of the "better sacrifices" whereby it is to be instituted.
St. Paul's statement that God has made the Church "able ministers [servants] of the New Covenant" indicates that they have had something to do with its preparation (2 Cor. 3: 6). Unless there were the "better sacrifices," there would be no basis for that New Covenant. The sufferings of the Church during the Gospel Age have been a blessed privilege; for they have been ministers of the New Covenant in the sense that they have served it by their sacrifices and training for future service in connection with it after it shall have been inaugurated. (For details, please see Z 4331, 4595; E Vol. 7, p. 493).
While a great building is in process of erection, the men working upon its construction might be said to be greatly benefited by that building. That would not mean that they would be benefited by the use of it in the future, but that they were being benefited during its construction. So during the Gospel Age the Church receives certain rich blessings and privileges in connection with the New Covenant. Later the entire world will be blessed by it, but in a very different way.
During this Gospel Age, God has been dealing merely with the Church, not with the world. There is, however, some resemblance between God's GospelAge blessings upon the Church and those coming upon the world by and by. Then God will rewrite His Law in the hearts of mankind, as it was originally written in Adam's heart; and men will have new hearts. At the end of the thousand years all mankind will be images of God, and ready for their final testing; for those who have refused to make progress to perfection during the Messianic Reign will have been destroyed. But the Church during the Gospel Age have new hearts, right views of things, right sentiments. In their case, however, there is not a taking away of the stoniness of the human heart and making of it an heart of flesh; but there is an entirely new nature. This new nature, of course, has something to do with the flesh; for the flesh is now the servant of the New Creature. The Law of God is recognized in the flesh, under the compulsion of the New Creature.
NEW COVENANT THE CHRIST'S GIFT TO MANKIND
The New Covenant, with all that goes with it, is the blessing which The Christ gives to mankind. It is God's Covenant, and He has arranged that it shall go to the world through this Christ class, Head and Body. If, then, the Church are to give these blessings, they must first have had them. No man can give away what he does not first possess. This thought that the New Covenant is a testament, or gift, of Christ to the world is made very prominent in the Scriptures. It is a gift in which the Church shares; for every member has relinquished his restitution rights with Christ. Thus St. Paul wrote, "If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him; if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him," and all things are ours because we are His (2 Tim. 2:11, 12). These glorious things are clearly set forth in various types in the Old Testament, and are plainly stated in the New Testament. For instance, St. Paul explains that Isaac, the heir of Abraham, was a type of The Christ, Head and Body. Isaac did not receive his inheritance by a new covenant, but by the original covenant with Abraham, as does the Church (Gal. 3: 8, 16, 29; 4: 22-31).
In Mic. 4: 1-4, we read: "In the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain [Kingdom] of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains [kingdoms of earth], . . . and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." The succeeding verses of the chapter depict the influence that will be exerted. The blessings and prosperity will then be with those who will be in harmony with God.
Now it is different. "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3: 12). They "shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake" (Matt. 5: 11). These things indicate that all who are faithful to God during the present Age will have more hardship than do those who are unfaithful. Many of the worldly, even the wicked of the world, have great prosperity in the present time (Psa. 73: 12; Mal. 3: 14, 15).
The world thinks that Christians, true followers of Jesus, are making their lives miserable by the course which they pursue. But the world is greatly mistaken in this matter. On the contrary, we are enjoying ourselves greatly; we are having a good time. We have much advantage every way, in spite of our afflictions (2 Cor. 4: 17), for we know that in a very little while our trials and afflictions will all be over. We know that the glorious Kingdom of Messiah, in which, if faithful, we are to share, is about to be set up in the earth.
In the future Dispensation, God tells us, the tables will be turned. None of the wicked shall prosper. THEN whoever is unrighteous shall suffer, and whoever does righteously shall receive a blessing (Psa. 37: 1, 2, 7-17, 22). Now the wicked very often prosper, and the poor and needy and the good of earth are oppressed. When the Times of Restitution (Acts 3: 21) come to the world, all will be changed. The blessing will be of God; and the only way to gain that blessing will be by coming into harmony with the New Order of things in the Kingdom of Messiah.
Thank God for the prospect of a clean universe, in which everyone in heaven and on earth, and such as have been in the sea (the rebellious race), will glorify and praise the God of perfect wisdom, justice, love and power, and the Lamb that is seated with Him on His throne forever and ever, saying, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever" (Rev. 5: 13). To which with joy we say, Amen and Amen!
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