The Watchtower Society and John and Morton Edgar - A2Z.org

_the condemnation which rests upon the world andare now seeking to do God's will, we find in .IliS -Holy Word that we havc obtained our reprievefrom condemnation for a special .purpose, and ifwe do not use it for this purpose we have receivedthe grace of God in vain--2 Cor. VI., I.What is this special .purpose for which we receivethe grace of justifii:ation? bet us see in the 9thchapter of Luke what.-Jesus says with regard to it.In the 22nd versde explains to His disciples thatHe is about i(! suffer : " The Son of Man mustsuffer many things, and be rejected of the eldersand chief yriests and scribes, and be slain, and be-raised the third day." And then in the next twoverses I-Ie adds : " If any man will come after me,let hiill deny himself and take up his cross dailyand i*~llo~v me; for whosoever will save his lifesl~all lose. it; but whosoever will lose his life forIII~ sake the same shall save -it." In other wmds,:ile are justified, that is, we are reprieved from thesentence of condemnation which stCLl rests on theworld and are passed from death unto life, only forthe spezial p!rrpose of doing what Jesus did, layingdown our lives as He did.That is what the Apostle Paul tells us in icomansXII., 1 : " 1 beseech you therefore, brethren,''-you who are of the household of faith-" by themercies of God, that ye present your bodies a livingsacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is youireasonable service." Could that have been said tothe w~rld? No. One who has not been justified,and is not,- therefore, at peace with God throughour bord Jesus Christ, cannot present his body aliving sacrifice, for the simple resson that he has'no life of His onin to give; it has been forfeited at32, 2,