COVERED SINS TO BE BLOTTED OUT.
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MANY make the mistake of confounding the "blotting out" of sins with the covering of sins; but the two thoughts are distinctly separate. The covering of sins takes place instantaneously, as soon as the believer has repentantly accepted of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. This covering of sin, and of all the blemishes of the believer is symbolically represented as accomplished by his putting on the "wedding garment," the pure robe of Christ's righteousness imputed to true believers. This constitutes the justification by faith of which the Apostle speaks, saying, "David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works [righteousness which he had not worked out] saying, 'Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.'"--Rom. 4:6-8.
While it brings to the believer joy and peace to realize that his imperfections are covered, and not permitted to hinder his approach to the Heavenly Father, he nevertheless properly battles against those imperfections, a continual warfare--the newly-begotten and renewed or transformed mind being resisted by the natural, depraved will of the flesh. But, nevertheless, every true child of God, rightly instructed from the Father's Word, is distinctly looking forward to the end of his warfare-probation, when his "covered" sins and weaknesses shall all be "blotted out."
This blotting out of sins, so far as the overcoming [R2194 : page 227] Church is concerned, will not be completed until the first resurrection has been completed; for, as the work of grace began by the covering of the imperfections of the flesh for believers, it will end with the complete destruction of the flesh in death, and the raising of the elect Church spiritual bodies, free from all the blemishes and imperfections which belong to these present, mortal bodies. Now the consecrated "have this treasure [the new nature] in earthen vessels:" and all know how seriously marred is every one of these vessels, so that our very best intentions and desires are liable to have more or less of blemish or imperfection, when viewed from the Divine standpoint. But by-and-by this treasure, the new will, the new creature in Christ Jesus, will be delivered into the perfect condition, the new spiritual bodies, described by the Apostle (1 Cor. 15:42-44,48-50), saying: "Thus also is the resurrection of the dead [the first or chief resurrection of the overcoming class amongst the dead]...It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption"--all the marks and blemishes of sin which belong to the earthen vessel will be destroyed, "blotted out." When buried in death, the Church is actually imperfect, dishonorable and weak, except as her Lord's robe of righteousness is her covering, and his strength is made perfect in her weakness. But all these dishonorable, weak and imperfect conditions now covered are to be completely and everlastingly blotted out with the passing of the present life; for the promise to the overcomers is, "It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown an animal body, it is raised a spiritual body"--the image of the heavenly one, our Lord.
It was in harmony with this view of matters that the Apostle wrote "We [the newly begotten spirit beings, the Church] while in this tabernacle [earthly body] do groan; not that we desire to be unclothed [that we should lose our imperfect human bodies in death, and be obliged to wait or 'sleep in Jesus' until his second coming]; but that we might be clothed upon with our heavenly house [or spiritual bodies]"-- experience the blessings of a participation in Christ's resurrection--the first resurrection.--Phil. 3:10-12; Rev. 20:6.
The Apostle had in mind the same earnest desire of
the spirit-begotten ones for the completion of the work
of grace in them at the resurrection, when he said:
"Ourselves, also, which have the first fruits of the spirit,
even we groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption
--to wit, the deliverance of our body--[the Church
--from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of full sonship]." Rom. 8:23. The "wedding
garment" of Christ's imputed righteousness, under
which are granted to us all the privileges of sons without
removing our weaknesses and frailties, leaves us
to wage a warfare with these, thus to prove our love
of righteousness and our faithfulness to the commands
of "him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous
light," and to become sharers of his sufferings,
and of the glories to follow. Through the merit of
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our robe we were begotten to the new mind, the new
nature; and it will serve every purpose until such times
as we shall have proved ourselves faithful as new creatures,
and shall be permitted to pass from the probationary
sonship to the enjoyment of the full measure
of the Father's blessing and complete adoption into
his family and nature. But there, at the moment of
transition, when being received from the begotten and
probationary stage of sonship into the everlasting state,
it is eminently proper, and all that we would ask or
desire, that every trace of the hitherto covered and forgiven
sins and blemishes should be blotted out, and
no longer need covering. And all this is a part of the
Divine provision for those who love God, "the [faithful]
called ones according to his purpose." Then, it
will be that that which is perfect having come, "that
which is in part [our present standing graciously covered
with Christ's imputed righteousness, covering
our defects] will be done away."
"Oh, hail happy day!
The tears and sorrows and battlings in strife
against the world, the flesh and the devil are all very
necessary in the present time; and we should neither
hope nor expect to be crowned as victors, without
passing through such experiences. In this battle, we
learn not to think of ourselves more highly than we
ought to think; we learn of our own weaknesses and
imperfections and our need to walk closely with the
Lord, if we would keep our garments unspotted from
the world. We learn also to trust his grace, and that
"our sufficiency is of God." We learn that "greater is
he who is on our part than all they that be against
us." We learn that the victory that overcometh the
world is neither the strength and perfection of our
flesh, nor merely the strong resolution of our minds,
but the latter helped and strengthened by him who
assures us that his strength can be perfected in our
weakness. It is here that we learn that all things are
working together for good to them that love God.
The Apostle in our text declares that the blotting
out of the Church's sin shall be in connection with
"times of refreshing" or spirit outpouring, at the second
advent of our Lord. How consistent this is with
reason, and with all the facts of the case: it was after
our Lord Jesus had bought us with his precious blood
that the Heavenly Father granted to his Church a
great blessing, a season of refreshing from the presence
of the Lord, at Pentecost, as marking his approval of all
covered by the "wedding garment," and as a foretaste
of his greater blessing, to be bestowed when her trial
would be complete, and the sins actually blotted out.
That season of Pentecostal refreshing from the Divine
presence, under the blessed influence of which Peter
was preaching when he used the words of our text,
was only an earnest or hand-payment of the great
perfect refreshment and spirit-energizing that will come
to the Lord's people at the farther end of the narrow
way, when the Bridegroom shall come to receive to
his nature and his throne and to confess her before
his Father and the holy angels. As the Apostle intimates
in our text, the very first work then will be the
complete blotting out of the Church's sins, in the first
resurrection.
And immediately following this perfecting of the
Church will come a work for the world--"times of
restitution of all things which God hath spoken by
the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world
began." This signifies a similar blessing (blotting out
of sins) upon all the world of mankind, who shall then,
after being brought to a knowledge of the truth, obediently
accept the Divine mercy under the terms of the
New Covenant. Since man as originally created was
in the moral likeness of his Creator, but has lost that
likeness by the blemishes of sin, restitution to the likeness
lost, would signify the blotting out of those blemishes
wrought by sin. But there will be a great difference
between the blotting out of the sins of the obedient,
overcoming Church and the blotting out of the
sins of the obedient ones of the world. The Church's
sins will be instantly blotted out in the moment of the
resurrection; the world's sins will be gradually blotted
out during the period of Christ's reign--during the
Millennium. The terms and conditions will be different
also. While the Church has her sins and imperfections
covered during the period of her trial, and
does not have her efforts to overcome the weaknesses
of the flesh rewarded by physical restitution, but is
rewarded instantaneously at the end of her race, according
to her faith and her endeavors to conquer, the obedient
of the world, in the next age, will, on the contrary,
have their sins blotted out, not as the reward of
faith and effort merely; but as the reward of successful
and continuous effort, which will then be possible,
and be rewarded step by step with restitution blessings
or the gradual blotting out of sins.
Describing the judgment (trial) of the world during
the Millennial Age, our Lord shows that all will
then be "judged according to their works"--not according
to their faith, as the Church is now being judged.
(Rev. 20:12,13; 1 Jno. 5:4.) Faith, which is now
difficult and therefore highly rewarded, will by and by,
when the mists have rolled away, be the most easy and
only reasonable thing; and while it will be required, being
easy it will not be specially rewarded as now. And
perfect works, which under present conditions are impossible
with all our efforts, because of our blemished
bodies, will then be the standard for which and toward
which all who attain to everlasting life will be required
to labor, building up character in breaking off evil
propensities and in bringing themselves into full accord
with righteousness in thought, word and deed.
And under the favorable conditions of that time, a
restitutionary blessing will be present to reward every
effort, not only with an upbuilding of moral character
and will-power, but also with proportionate strength
and upbuilding of the mental and physical powers.
Thus, item by item and step by step, throughout
the Millennial Age, the worthy ones of the world will
be helped out of their weakness and imperfections,
back to the perfection originally lost by the disobedience
of father Adam, the right to return to which
(by the cancellation of Adam's sentence) was secured
by the ransom-price given by our Redeemer. And
since every victory over self and sin and imperfection
will be promptly rewarded, it will be rightly seen
that the blotting out of the world's sins will gradually
progress little by little, until at the close of the Millennial
Age, all who have been willing to hear and obey
the voice of the Great Prophet (Head and Body), will
have attained to an unblemished perfection, mental,
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physical and moral, with none of the blemishes of sin
remaining.
Mankind, as originally created, as represented in
father Adam before his transgression, was in the image
of God: the mind, the will, the judgment were true
copies of the Lord's; and thus it might properly be
said that Adam had the law of God written in his
heart, in his head, in his very organization. But, this
Divine likeness has been marred, ruined by the fall.
Man's organization, mental and moral, can no longer be
said to be in the image of God. The selfish qualities have
grown at the expense of the moral and intellectual
qualities, so that he is very unlike his Creator, and
his own original, as represented in Adam. But God's
promise is that when he begins to deal with the world
under the New Covenant in the hands of the Great
Mediator, a great work will be accomplished for all
the families of the earth who will obey him through
the then exalted seed of Abraham; until all shall be
blessed and be permitted to become God's people--
"Israelites indeed," children of Abraham through faith
--multitudinous as the sands of the sea.
Then will be fulfilled the promise of the Lord
(Jer. 31:29-34), that they who die will die for their own
iniquity, and not as now, for Adam's iniquity. And
under the conditions of the new covenant, the Great
Mediator of that covenant will re-write the law of God
in the hearts of the repentant ones, as it originally was
in the heart and very organism of Adam before his
transgression: as it is written, "I will put my law in
their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; I will
be their God, and they shall be my people." This
promise does not apply to the present time, but indicates
the completed results of the Millennial work,
when the willing and obedient of mankind shall have
been brought to perfection; all their iniquities and sins
being blotted out. This is shown by the context,
which says, "They shall teach no more every man his
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neighbor and every man his brother, saying, 'Know
the Lord'; for they shall all know him, from the least
of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord:
for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
their sins no more."
This blotting out of sins for the world during the
Millennial Age will begin with Israel according to the
flesh; "to the Jew, first." So the Apostle informs us
in so many words. Read Romans 11:25-29. As spiritual
Israel is the first-fruits of all God's creatures, the
first to enter into the fullness of his blessing and be
recovered from death, so natural Israel is to constitute
the first-fruits of the nations to be saved from the blinding
influences of the Adversary, and to be granted a
blessing under the New Covenant.
But, the blessing which begins with the return of
fleshly Israel to Divine favor, will not end with them;
for as the casting away of Israel under Divine providence
resulted in the bringing in of some from amongst
the Gentiles to be joint-heirs in the Abrahamic promise
and covenant, so the blessing of Israel under the New
Covenant means, not only an opportunity of life from
the dead to them, but also a similar blessing of opportunity
for all the families of the earth; because it is
through the seed of Abraham (first the spiritual, secondly,
the natural) that all the families of the earth
are to be blessed with an opportunity of becoming children
of Abraham, who is the "father" of all who are
faithful to God. Thus, eventually, there shall none
remain except the seed of Abraham, first the spiritual
seed as the stars of heaven, and secondly, the earthly
seed, as the sands of the seashore, all partakers of father
Abraham's faith and obedience. See
Romans 11:12,15.
The original perfection of mankind (father Adam)
and the fall were symbolically represented in the first
tables of the Law which God himself prepared and
wrote, but which were broken, because of sin; they
also represented the Law Covenant, and how it was a
failure, broken so far as the people of Israel were concerned.
The hewing out of the new tables of stone,
whereon to rewrite the Law of God, symbolized the
preparation of mankind, through the justification accomplished
by the sacrifice of Christ. And not only
was the preparation of the second tablets the work of
Moses (type of Christ, Head and Body), but also the
second writing of the law on those tables was the work
of Moses and typified the work of Christ (Head and
Body) during the Millennial Age--the engraving of
the Law of God in the very hearts and constitutions
of all of mankind, willing to submit to his gracious
hands.
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That ends our tears and sorrows,
That brings us joy without alloy;
Oh, hail happy day!
No more by doubts and fears distressed,
We now shall gain our promised rest,
And be forever blest,
Oh, hail happy day!"