SCRIPTURE
STUDIES
VOLUME FIVE - THE
ATONEMENT BETWEEN GOD AND MAN
STUDY
VI
THE MEDIATOR OF THE ATONEMENT
—DAVID’S SON AND DAVID’S LORD
How
David’s Son — Joseph’s Genealogy Through Solomon — Mary’s Genealogy Through Nathan
— Abase the High, Exalt the Low — Whence Christ’s Title to be David’s Lord
— How He was Both Root and
Branch of
David — Meaning of His Title, “The Everlasting Father” — How Secured and How to be Applicable
— Who are Children of Christ — The Church His “Brethren”
— Children of the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
“Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ?
Whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.
He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit [by inspiration]
call him Lord, saying, The Lord [Jehovah] said unto my Lord [adon, master, ruler], Sit thou on my right hand, till I make
thine enemies thy footstool? If
David then call him Lord [adon, master] how is he his Son?” Matt. 22:42-45
IT SHOULD be noticed, first of all, that the discussion
of this question does not relate to our Lord’s pre-existence, but merely
to his relationship to the human family.
He became related to the human family, as we have seen, by taking
our nature, through his mother Mary.
Mary’s genealogy, as traced by Luke, leads back to David, through
his son Nathan (Luke 3:31*), while
Joseph’s genealogy, as given by Matthew, traces also back to David,
through his son, Solomon. [page 130]
(Matt. 1:6,16) Joseph
having accepted Mary as his wife, and adopted Jesus, her son, as though he
were his own son, this adoption would entitle Jesus to reckon Joseph’s
genealogy; but such a tracing back to the family of David was not
necessary, because, as we have seen, his mother came also of David, by
another line.
—————
*Joseph is here styled “the Son of
Heli,”
i.e., the son of Eli, Mary’s father,
by marriage, or legally; or as we would say, son-in-law of Eli.
By birth, Joseph was
the son of Jacob, as stated in Matt. 1:16.
But, be it noticed that our Lord’s claim to the throne of Israel
does not rest upon his mother’s relationship to Joseph, as some have
inferred. On the contrary,
had he been the son of Joseph, he would have been debarred from any
ancestral right to David’s throne, because, although David’s
successors in the kingdom came through the line of his son Solomon, and
not through the line of his son Nathan, nevertheless certain scriptures
distinctly point out that the great heir of David’s throne should not
come through the royal family line of Solomon.
If we shall demonstrate this, it will be an effectual estoppel of
the claims made by some, that our Lord must have been the son of Joseph,
as well as of Mary. Let us
therefore carefully examine this matter.
The divine proposition, clearly stated, was, first, that
unequivocally and unquestionably the great heir of the throne of the
world, the great King of Israel, should come of David’s line.
Secondly, it was also declared that he should come of the line of
Solomon, of the reigning family, only upon certain conditions.
If those conditions were complied with, he would come of that line;
if those conditions were not complied with, he would come of some other
line, but in any event must come through David’s line and be both
David’s son and David’s Lord.
Note the Scriptural statement:
“The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David; he will not turn him
from him: Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.
If thy children will keep my covenant, and my testimony that I
shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne forevermore.”
Psa. 132:11,12
“And of all my sons (for God hath given me many sons) he hath
chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of
[page 131]
the Kingdom of the Lord over Israel.
And he said unto me, Solomon thy son shall build my
house....Moreover, I will establish his kingdom forever, if
he will be constant to do my statutes and my judgments as at this
day.” 1 Chron. 28:5-7
“If thy children take heed to their way, to walk before me in
truth, with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail
thee [be cut off from thee, from the throne—margin] a man from the throne of Israel.” 1 Kings 2:4
The promise of the Messianic Kingdom in Solomon’s line, and in
the line of his posterity according to the flesh, is thus made clearly and
specifically conditional,
contingent upon a certain faithfulness to the Lord; and by all rules of
interpretation of language, the implication of this is that unfaithfulness
to the Lord would assuredly bar the posterity of Solomon and his line from
the throne of Israel, as related to the Messianic Kingdom, according to
the flesh. The question therefore arises, Did Solomon and his successors
upon the throne of Israel “take heed to their way, to walk before me
[God] in truth, with all their heart and with all their soul?”
If they did not, they are barred from being of the ancestral line
of the Messiah, according to the flesh.
We must go to the Scriptures to ascertain the answer to this
question. There we find most
unmistakably that Solomon and his royal line failed to walk after the
divine precepts. Hence we know of a surety that that line was cut off and
abandoned from being the Messianic line, and that it must come through
another ancestral line, from David. Hear the word of the Lord:
“And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father and
serve him with a perfect heart....If thou seek him he will be found of
thee, but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off forever.” 1 Chron.
28:9
“And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was
turned from the Lord God of Israel....Wherefore the Lord said unto
Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee and thou hast not kept my
covenant and my statutes which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend
the kingdom [page 132]
from thee....Nevertheless in thy days I will not do
it—for David thy father’s sake; but I will rend it out of the hand of
thy son. Howbeit, I will not
rend away all the kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son, for David
my servant’s sake and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.” 1
Kings 11:9-13
In harmony with this, the record is that the ten tribes were rent
away from the Solomonic line, directly after Solomon’s death—ten of
the tribes never acknowledging allegiance to Rehoboam, Solomon’s son and
successor. But let us hearken
to the word of the Lord respecting the tribe of Judah, and its consort
Benjamin, which remained for a time loyal to the line of Solomon, and thus
apparently associated with the promised antitypical Kingdom, and Messiah,
the great King. The last
three kings of Solomon’s line who sat upon his throne were Jehoiakim,
his son Jehoiachin (called also Jekoniah and Coniah), and Zedekiah,
Jehoiakim’s brother. Let us mark the testimony of the Lord’s Word against these
men, and his assurance that none of their posterity should ever again sit
upon the throne of the Kingdom of the Lord—actual or typical. We read:
“As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim,
king of Judah, were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee
hence....Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol?
Is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? Wherefore are they cast out
(he and his seed), and are cast into a land which they know not?
O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord: thus saith the
Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his
days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of
David, and ruling any more in Judah.” Jer. 22:24-30
“Thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, he shall have
none to sit upon the throne of David.” Jer. 36:30
Concerning Zedekiah we read:
“Thou profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day is coming,
when iniquity shall have an end: Thus saith the Lord God, Remove the
diadem, and take off the crown: this [page 133]
shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and
abase him that is high. I
will overturn, overturn, overturn it: and it shall be no more until he
come whose right it is; and I will give it to him.” Ezek. 21:25-27
Here the complete overturning of the Solomonic line is declared: it
was the line that was exalted, and which should thenceforth be debased,
while the debased or obscure line of Nathan, which had never made any
pretensions to the throne, was to be exalted in due time in its
representative, the Messiah, born of Mary, according to the flesh.
Who could ask more positive testimony than this, that the Messiah
could not be expected through the line of Solomon—all the rights and
claims of that line, under divine promises and conditions, having been
forfeited by wickedness and rebellion against God?
Thus the claim that our Lord must have been the son of Joseph, and
thus have inherited his rights and claims through Joseph, are proven
utterly false, for no man of that line shall ever sit upon the throne of
the Lord.
This changing of the kingdom from the branch of Solomon to another
branch of the house of David is clearly foretold in other scriptures, as
we read, “Behold the day is coming, saith the Lord, that I will raise
unto David A RIGHTEOUS BRANCH, and a king shall reign and
prosper....In his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely;
and this is his name that Jehovah proclaimeth him, Our Righteousness.”
Jer. 23:6—See Young’s
Translation.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, seems to have caught this proper
thought, or else was moved to speak by the holy Spirit prophetically, when
she gave utterance to the remarkable song of thanksgiving quoted by Luke
(1:46-55): “He [God] hath scattered the proud in the imagination of
their heart; he hath put
down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low
degree. He hath
filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty
away.” Here the favored
family of Solomon’s line is contrasted with the humbler family of
Nathan’s line. The diadem and crown were [page 134] removed from Zedekiah, and from the line of Solomon,
to be given to him whose right it is—the Righteous Branch from the
Davidic root.
We have seen how our Lord is the branch, or offspring or son of
David, and the line through which his genealogy is properly to be traced,
and the full accordance of the Scriptures thereto: let us now see in what
respect he was David’s Lord. How
could Jesus be both the Son and the Lord of David?
We answer that he is not David’s Lord by reason of anything that
he was as a spirit being before he was “made flesh,” and dwelt amongst
us—no more than he was David’s Branch or Son in his prehuman
existence. Our Lord Jesus became
David’s Lord or superior, as well as “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36), by
reason of the great work which he accomplished as the Mediator of the
Atonement. “To this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that
he might be Lord both of the dead and living.” Rom. 14:9
True, the Logos
might properly have been styled a
Lord, a high one in authority,
as he is styled a God, a mighty or influential one.*
Likewise the man Christ Jesus, before his death, might properly be
styled a Lord, and was so addressed by his disciples, as we read, “Ye
call me Lord and Master, and ye do well, for so I am.” (John 13:13)
As the special messenger of the Covenant, whom the Father had
sanctified and sent into the world to redeem the world, and whom the
Father honored in every manner, testifying, “This is my beloved son, in
whom I am well pleased”—it was eminently proper that all who beheld
his glory, as the glory of an Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth, should reverence him, hear him, obey him, and worship him—do
him homage—as the representative of the Father. But, as indicated by the
Apostle in the text above [page 135] cited, there was a particular and different
sense in which our Lord Jesus became
a Lord or Master by virtue of his death and resurrection.
—————
*It will be remembered that we are not now
discussing the word “Jehovah,” so
frequently translated “Lord” in the Old Testament. We are discussing other
words rendered “Lord” as in the text above quoted. “The Lord
[Jehovah] said unto my
Lord [adon—my master]. Sit
thou on my right hand,”
etc.
This particular sense in which the risen Christ was “Lord of
all”—“Lord both of the dead and the living”—is vitally connected
with his great work as Mediator of the Atonement. It was for this very
purpose that he became a man. Humanity in its depraved condition, “sold
under sin” through the disobedience of Father Adam, was helpless—under
the dominion of Sin and the sentence of death: and its deliverance from
these evils, in harmony with the divine law, required that the penalty of
Adam entailed upon his family should be fully met.
The race required to be bought back
from sin, and Christ became its purchaser, its owner—“Lord of all.”
For this very purpose he left the glory of his prehuman condition,
and became the
man Christ Jesus. And the Scriptural declaration is that he
“gave himself a ransom”—a purchase
price—for the race condemned in Adam.
Thus the whole world was “bought
with a price, even the precious blood [life] of Christ.”
But though by virtue of his having bought
the race, he has, in the eye of Justice, become its owner,
its master, “Lord of all,”
he did not purchase the race for the purpose of enslaving it, but for the
very reverse object of setting at liberty from sin and death all who will
accept the gracious gift of God through him.
And the very object of the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom
is that through it may be bestowed upon the human family the rights and
privileges of the sons of God—lost in Eden, redeemed, bought with a
price, at Calvary. It was to
obtain this right to release man that
our Redeemer became the purchaser, owner, Lord of all.
Thus by his death Messiah became David’s Lord, because David was
a member of the race purchased with his precious blood.
“The
Root and Offspring of David”
—Rev.
22:16—
Much of the same thought is presented in these our [page 136]
Lord’s words to the Church.
According to the flesh, our Lord Jesus was, through his mother, the
son, the branch, the offshoot or offspring of David.
It was by virtue of his sacrifice of his undefiled life that he
became the “root” of David as well as his Lord: for the thought
suggested by the word “root” differs somewhat from that furnished in
the word “Lord.” The
“root” of David signifies the origin, source of life and development of David.
The Scriptures declare that David was “a stem
out of Jesse:” his father therefore was his root, according to natural
generation. When and how did
Christ become David’s root or father?
We answer, Not before he “was made flesh”—it was when made
flesh that, as the man Jesus, he became related to Adam’s race through
his mother. (Heb. 2:14-18) And in that relationship to the race and to
David he was “branch,” not “root.”
How and when did he become the “root”?
We answer, By the same means and at the same time that he became
David’s Lord: the means
was his death, by which he purchased life-rights of Adam and all his race, including David’s; the time
was when he was raised from the dead, Adam’s Redeemer, the race’s
Redeemer and hence David’s Redeemer.
It was therefore not the prehuman Logos
nor yet the man Jesus that was David’s Lord and David’s Root; but the
resurrected Messiah. When
David in spirit (i.e., speaking under the prophetic spirit or influence)
called Jesus Lord, saying, “Jehovah said unto my Lord [Jesus], Sit thou
on my right hand,” etc., the reference was not to the sacrificing one,
“the man Christ Jesus,” who had not yet finished his sacrifice, but to
the victor Jesus, the Lord of life and glory, “the first born from the
dead, the prince of the kings of earth.” (Rev. 1:5)
It was of this one that Peter said, “Him God raised up the third
day....He is Lord of all.” (Acts 10:36,40) Of this one also Paul
declared that at his second coming he will display himself as “King of
kings and Lord of lords.”* 1 Tim. 6:15
—————
*See page 78.
[page
137]
“The
Second Adam”
The first “root” or father of the human race, Adam, failed,
because of disobedience to God, to bring forth his family in his own
likeness, the image of God; he not only failed to give to his posterity
everlasting life, but forfeited his own right to the same, and entailed
upon his offspring a legacy, a heredity of sin, weakness, depravity,
death. The Logos
was made flesh, became the man Christ Jesus, in order that he might be the
Second Adam, and take the place of the first Adam, that he might undo the
work of the first Adam, and give to him and to his race (or so many of
them as will accept it upon the divine terms), life
more abundant everlasting life, under its favorable conditions,
lost through disobedience.
It is a great mistake of some, however, to suppose that “the man Christ Jesus”
was the Second Adam. Oh no!
As the Apostle declares (1 Cor. 15:47), “The second Adam is the
Lord from Heaven”—the Lord who will come from heaven, and at his
second advent assume the office and duties of a father to the race of
Adam, which he redeemed with his own precious blood at Calvary.
The purchase of the race of Adam from under the sentence of Justice
was necessary before it would be possible for our Lord Jesus to be the
Life-giver or Father of the race: and this great work alone was
accomplished by our Lord at his first advent.
He comes, at his second advent, to lift up mankind by processes of
restitution, and to give eternal life, and all the privileges and
blessings lost through the first Adam.
The interim is devoted, according to the Father’s program, to the
selection from amongst the redeemed world of a class whose qualifications
were predestined—that they should all be “copies of God’s dear
Son.” (Rom. 8:29) This
class is variously called the under-priests of the Royal priesthood, the
body or Church of Christ, and the Bride of Christ, the Lamb’s wife, and
joint-heir with him in all the honors and blessings and service of his
Kingdom. [page 138]
Accordingly, the work of the future, the work of the Millennial
Age, the grand object for which Messiah will reign, is expressed by the
word regeneration.
The world was generated once through father Adam, but failed to get
life; it was generated only to sin and its sentence, death.
But the new Father of the race, the second Adam, proposes a general
regeneration. The time of this regeneration, as it shall become available
to the world, is distinctly indicated by our Lord’s words to his
disciples to be the Millennial Age. He said, “Ye that have followed me,
in the regeneration shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel,” etc. The
fact that the Church, selected during this Gospel age, experiences a
regeneration, is generally recognized by Bible students, but many have
overlooked the fact that another and separate regeneration is proposed,
and has been provided for the world of mankind, as a whole: not that all
shall experience the full regeneration, but that all shall have an
opportunity, which, if rightly used, would lead to full, complete
regeneration.
It is well, in this connection, to notice more particularly the
wide distinction between the regeneration of the Church and the
regeneration of the world: in the case of the Church many are called to
the regeneration offered during this Gospel age, and few are chosen—few
experience the full regeneration to which they are invited—namely, to
become new creatures in Christ Jesus, partakers of the divine nature. The
regeneration provided for the world, as we have already seen, is not to a
new nature, but to a restoration or restitution of the human nature in its
perfection.
And so it is written, “The first Adam was made a living soul [an
animal being], the last Adam a quickening spirit. However, the spiritual
was not first, but the animal—afterwards the spiritual.” (1 Cor.
15:45-47—See Diaglott.)
Verily our Lord Jesus in the days of his flesh did take hold on or
become identified with the first Adam and his race,
through the seed of Abraham (Heb. 2:16), and was made “lower than the
angels, for the suffering of death...that
he by the [page 139] grace of God might taste death for every man.”
But having accomplished that object he was raised from the dead a
partaker of the divine nature, the purchaser of the human family, but no
longer of it—no longer “of the earth earthy,” but the heavenly
Lord—the Second Adam, a life-giving
spirit.
The first Adam was the original “root” out of which the entire
human family has been produced, and hence our Lord Jesus in the flesh, son
of Mary, son of David, son of Abraham, was in the same sense a shoot or
branch out of Adam (but supplied, as we have seen, with an unimpaired life
from above, which still kept him separate from sinners). It was his sacrifice
of himself as the man
(in obedience to the Father’s plan) that not only secured his own
exaltation to the divine nature, but purchased to him all the race of Adam
and Adam’s right as father or “root” of the race. Thus by purchasing
Adam’s place and rights, our Lord is the Second Adam.
As he gave his own human life for that of Adam, so he sacrificed
also the possibilities of a race which he might have produced in a natural
way, for Adam’s children—that he may in due time accept “whosoever
will” of Adam’s family as his own children, regenerating them, giving them everlasting life under reasonable
terms. No longer a
“branch,” out of the root of Jesse and David, our Lord is a new root,
prepared to give new
life and sustenance to mankind—Adam, Abraham, David and every other
member or branch of the sin-blighted human family who will accept it on
the terms of the “Oath-bound Covenant.”
Like the first
work of the Lord for his Church of this age will be his work for all of
mankind who will accept it during the Millennial age.
His first work for his Church now is justification to life
(human life) in harmony with God, in fellowship with God: the same enjoyed
by the perfect man Jesus, prior to his consecration to death at baptism;
and the same enjoyed by the perfect man Adam before he
transgressed—except that theirs was actual
while ours is merely a reckoned
perfection of life. (Hence
the statement that we are “justified—by
faith.”) [page 140]
Our Lord represents himself and his Church as a grapevine; and it
furnishes us a good illustration of the branch
and root proposition.
Adam and his race were the original vine and branches, attacked by
the virus of sin, producing bad fruit and death.
Our Lord Jesus became a new branch, and was grafted into the Adamic
vine, and bore a different kind of fruit.
It is a peculiarity of the grapevine that its branches
may be buried and become roots. So our Lord, the branch ingrafted upon Adamic stock, was
buried, ceased to be a branch and became a root. His Church during this age are “branches” in him, and
likewise have their “fruit unto holiness”
(Rom. 6:22) the new life being drawn from him.
But all the branches of this age are required not only to “bear
much fruit” as branches, as he did, but also like him eventually to be
buried and with him become parts of the root
that during the Millennial age shall invigorate and sustain the regenerated
human race.
The fallen root, Adam (with the first Eve, his helpmate,) generated
the human family in bondage to sin and death; the Second Adam, Christ,
(with his Bride and helpmate), having bought the rights of the first as
well as him and his race, will be prepared to regenerate
all the willing and obedient. This
is termed “restitution” (Acts 3:19-23)—giving back to the worthy the
earthly privileges and blessings lost in the first Adam, that, as the
Lord’s vine, humanity restored may bear much fruit to God’s praise.
But be it noted, this privilege of becoming the “root” is
confined to the Christ, Head and body, “elect according to the
foreknowledge of God through sanctification of the spirit and the belief
of the truth” during this Gospel age. (1 Pet. 1:2) David and other
worthies of the past (who died before the “branch” was buried and
became the “root”) can never become parts of the root; nor will the
faithful of the Millennial age. All,
however, will be satisfied
when they attain his likeness,
whether it be the earthly or the heavenly.
Mankind will be privileged to attain his likeness as the perfect man Christ Jesus, the holy
“branch,” while the Church, his [page 141] “bride,” his “body,” his faithful
under-priests, who now fill up that which is behind of the sufferings of
Christ and are “planted with him in the likeness of his death,” shall
bear his heavenly image. 1 Cor. 15:48,49; Heb. 11:39,40
“The
Everlasting Father”
“His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God,
The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isa. 9:6
We have already noted the propriety of the title “The Mighty
God” as applied to our Lord Jesus; and few will dispute that he is
indeed the Wonderful One of all the Heavenly Father’s family; none will
dispute that he is a great Counsellor or Teacher; or that, although his
Kingdom is to be introduced by a time of trouble and disturbance incident
to the death of present evil institutions, our Lord is nevertheless the
Prince of Peace—who will establish a sure and lasting peace upon the
only proper basis—righteousness—conformity to the divine character and
plan. Now we come to the examination of the title, “The Everlasting
Father,” and find it as appropriate and meaningful as the others.
It does not, as some have surmised, contradict the multitudinous
scriptures which declare Jehovah to be the Father everlasting—“the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” as Peter expresses it. (1 Pet.
1:3) On the contrary the Scriptures clearly show a particular
sense in which this title will apply to our Lord at his second
advent—that he will be the Father of the human race regenerated during
the Millennium. Indeed, this
title is merely the equivalent of those we have just considered—the new
“Lord” of David and of mankind, the new “Root,” the Second Adam,
merely signifies the Everlasting Father—the Father who gives everlasting
life.
Since our Lord purchased the world of mankind at the cost of his
own life, and since it is by virtue of that purchase [page 142]
that he became its Lord, its Restorer, its
Life-giver, and since the very central thought of the word father is life-giver,
our Lord could take no more appropriate name or title than “Everlasting
Father” to represent his relationship to the world about to be
regenerated—born again from the dead by restitution, resurrection
processes. The world’s life will come directly from the Lord Jesus,
who, as we shall shortly see, by divine arrangement bought it and paid Justice
the full price for it. Nevertheless,
the restored world will, after the restitution process is finished,
recognize Jehovah as the great original fountain of life and blessing, the
author of the great plan of salvation executed by our Lord Jesus—the
Grand Father and Over-Lord of All. 1 Cor. 15:24-28; 3:23; Matt. 19:28
In full accord with what we have just seen is the prophetic
statement which for centuries has perplexed the wise and the unwise, the
scholar and commentator as well as the student; namely:
Instead
of Thy Fathers Shall Be Thy Children Whom
Thou
Mayest Make Princes in All the Earth
—Psalm
45:16—
The patriarchs and prophets, and especially such as were in the
genealogical line upon which our Lord took hold, through his mother Mary,
were long honored with the title of “fathers,” progenitors of Messiah;
just as the texts before cited declare David to be the root out of which
the Messiah, the righteous Branch, should spring; and that the Messiah
should be David’s son. But
all this is to be changed, when the Church, the body of Christ, shall be
completed, and joined to Jesus the Head in glory, and as the Everlasting
Father of mankind begin the world’s regeneration.
Those previously the fathers will then be the children.
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David—none of these had life, in the proper sense
of that word: they were all members of the death-condemned race.
And when Jesus took hold upon our humanity, [page 143]
and became identified with the seed of Abraham and of
David, and accomplished the work of redemption, it applied not only to the
world in general, but as well to these, his progenitors according to the
flesh. He bought all, and
none can obtain life (complete, perfect, everlasting) except through him.
“He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son shall
not see life.” (John 3:36) Hence, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and David and all the
prophets, and all the remainder of the world, must receive future and
everlasting life from Christ, or not at all; and outside of him is only
condemnation. Therefore it is
true, that when in God’s due time they shall be awakened from death, it
will be by the great Life-giver, Jesus, who will thus be their Father or
Life-giver.
In this connection it is well to notice also that the Scriptures
clearly point out the Heavenly Father as the begetter in the regeneration
of the Church, the Bride of Christ. In
proof of this, note the Scriptural statements on this subject. The Apostle
Peter declares, “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...hath
begotten us.” (1 Pet. 1:3)
The Apostle John also declares that we
are “begotten of God.” (1 John 5:18) The Apostle Paul also
declares, “To us there is one God, the Father.” (1 Cor. 8:6)
He hath sent forth his spirit into our hearts, whereby we are
enabled to cry
unto him, “Abba, Father.” (Rom. 8:15)
Our Lord Jesus testified to the same thing, saying, after his
resurrection, “I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and
to your God.” (John 20:17) John’s
Gospel testifies to the same, saying, “To as many as received him, to
them gave he liberty to become the sons of God,” and declares of such
that they are “begotten, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12,13)
The Apostle James declares of the Father of lights that “Of his
own will begat
he us with the Word of truth, that we should be a kind of
first-fruits of his creatures.” Jas. 1:18
Indeed, everything respecting the Church indicates that the
faithful of this Gospel age are not the children of Christ, but children
of his Father, begotten of the Father’s spirit [page 144]
and to the Father’s nature, and intended to be
“heirs of God, joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord, if so be that we suffer
with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Rom. 8:17
Our relationship to our Lord Jesus, on the contrary, is
specifically and repeatedly indicated to be that of brethren, and not
sons. Speaking of the Church the Apostle says, “He is not ashamed
to call them brethren,” as had been prophetically stated; “I will
declare thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of thy church will I sing
praises unto thee”; and again, “Behold I and the children [of God]
which God hath given me.” These
are the “many sons” whom the Father is bringing to glory, under the
lead of the Captain of their Salvation, Christ Jesus, and as respects this
Church, it is again stated that our Lord Jesus, in his resurrection, was
“first-born among many brethren.” Rom. 8:29;
Heb. 2:10-13
This great work of lifegiving to the world in general is deferred
until the Body of the Life-giver has been completed, until the
“brethren,” with their Lord and Redeemer, shall be received as sons of
glory, and enter upon the work of restitution. Even in the case of those
of the world (the ancient worthies), whose faith and loyalty to the divine
will has already been tested and approved, there can be no lifegiving
until the body of the great antitypical Moses (the Church) has been fully
completed (Acts 3:22,23), as it is written, “They without us [the
overcomers of the Gospel age, the Body of the Anointed] shall not be made
perfect”—not inherit the earthly good things promised to them. Heb.
11:39,40
From this standpoint of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,
and in view of the authority or lordship of earth lost by Adam and thus
redeemed by Christ, purchased by his precious blood, we see Christ’s
title to the office of Life-giver and Father to all of the race of Adam
who will accept the blessings of restitution under the terms of the New
Covenant, and from this standpoint only can we see how our Lord Jesus
could be both the Root and the Offspring [page 145]
of David, both David’s Son and David’s Father,
David’s Lord.
In this connection it may be proper to inquire, How comes it that
the Church of this Gospel Age, a part of the world, “children of wrath
even as others” (Eph. 2:3), and needing to experience as much as the
others the forgiveness of sins through the merit of the great atonement,
is, in any just sense, separate and
distinct from the world, so that they should be designated “sons of
God,” while the world should be designated sons of the Life-giver, the
Christ?
The distinction lies in the fact that the world not only had its
human life-rights purchased by the Lord Jesus, but the obedient of mankind
will have that purchased
life restored to
them by him, through the gradual processes of the Millennial age.
The Church, on the contrary, does not receive the restitution of human life
which her Lord purchased for her. The restitution life is merely reckoned
to believers of this Gospel age, in that they are justified (or made
perfect, restored as human beings) by
faith—not actually. And
this faith-reckoned human perfection is for a specific purpose: namely,
that such may sacrifice the reckoned or
imputed human life and its rights and privileges in the divine service,
and receive in exchange therefor the hope of sharing the divine nature.
Earthly life and earthly blessings were lost by Adam, and the same
and no others were redeemed for men by our Lord, and these and none others
he will eventually bestow during the times of restitution.
But the Church, the body, the Bride of Christ, is called out from
mankind first, a specially “elect” class, called to a “heavenly calling,” a
“high calling,”—to be joint-heir of Jesus Christ, her Lord and
Redeemer. As Jesus offered
his perfect sacrifice, “the man Christ Jesus,” and was rewarded with
the divine nature, so the believers of this Gospel age are permitted to
offer their imperfect selves (justified or reckoned perfect through the
merit of the precious blood of Jesus) on God’s altar; and so doing are
begotten of the spirit to be “new creatures,” “sons of the
Highest,” accepted as Christ’s brethren—members of the “royal
priesthood” of which he is the Chief Priest. [page 146]
These are drawn of the Father, not drawn of the Son, as will be the
case with the world during the Millennium. (Compare John 6:44 and 12:32.)
Those whom the Father draws to Christ he, as an elder brother,
receives as “brethren,” and assists in walking in his footsteps in the
narrow way of self-sacrifice, even unto death.
Thus they may become dead with him, and be reckoned as joint-sacrificers
with him, and thus be reckoned also as worthy to be joint-heirs with him
in the Kingdom and work which is to bless the world and give eternal life
to as many as will receive it. These, we are distinctly told, are to
“fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ”—to
“suffer with him, that they may also reign with him.” (Col. 1:24; 2
Tim. 2:12) Thus the position of the Church is particularly different from
that of the world in general, even as their calling is a high calling, a
heavenly calling, and even as its reward is to be the divine nature. 2
Pet. 1:4
This is the great “mystery” or secret which, as the Apostle
declares, is the key, without which it is impossible to understand the
promises and prophecies of the divine Word. (Col. 1:26)
The heavenly Father purposed in himself the creation of a human
race, a little lower than the angels, of the earth earthy, and adapted to
the earth in its Paradisaic condition: but he foreknew also the result of
the fall, and its opportunity for manifesting divine justice, divine love,
divine wisdom and divine power. As
he forearranged that his Only Begotten Son, the Logos, should be given the opportunity of proving his fidelity
to the Father and to the principles of righteousness, by becoming man’s
Redeemer and thus heir of all the riches of divine grace, and chief over
all, next to the Father, that in all things he might have the
pre-eminence, so he also designed that before the world of mankind in
general should be uplifted by their Redeemer, he would make a selection,
according to character and according to faithfulness, of a “little
flock,” to be joint-heirs with the Only Begotten One, and his associates
in the Kingdom, far above angels, principalities and powers, and every
name that is named.
[page 147]
Accordingly, the apostle declares, we are “elect according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the spirit.”
(1 Pet. 1:2) The Apostle Paul
corroborates the thought, saying, “Whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the
first-born among many brethren.” Further
he desired that the eyes of our understanding might be enlightened, so
that we “may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches
of his inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his
power to us-ward who believe.” He
declares that this mercy toward us came without our having done aught to
merit it; God, “when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and hath
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us, through Christ Jesus....For we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works.” Eph. 1:17-19; 2:4-10 [page 148]
GIVE STRENGTH, BLEST SAVIOR
“We seek not, Lord, for tongues of flame,
Or healing virtue’s mystic aid;
But power thy Gospel to proclaim—
The balm for wounds that sin has made.
“Breathe on us, Lord; thy radiance pour
On all the wonders of the page
Where hidden lies the heavenly lore
That blessed our youth and guides our age.
“Grant skill each sacred theme to trace,
With loving voice and glowing tongue,
As when upon thy words of grace
The wondering crowds enraptured hung.
“Grant faith that treads the stormy deep
If but thy voice shall bid it come;
And zeal, that climbs the mountain steep,
To seek and bring the wanderer home.
“Give strength, blest Savior, in thy might;
Illuminate our hearts, and we,
Transformed into thine image bright,
Shall teach, and love, and live, like thee.”
