1912 Watch Tower - A2Z.org

this new arrangement meant, not only a new Mediatorfor them, but also better sacrifices and a new priesthood,who would be able to effect a satisfaction for the sins ofthe people, so that it would not be necessary to renderthe typical sacrifices thereafter year by year.--Heb. 9:11-15.This Messenger of the Covenant came unto His own,but His own received Him not, "But as many as receivedHim, to them gave He power to become the sons ofGod"--to become associated with Himself, to become identifiedwith Himself, as members of His Body. They arebegotten to a new nature, not of the will of the flesh, butonly of God.--John 1:11-13.THE LORD'S WORDS A REFINING FIREIn this sense of the word, our Lord sat as a refiner ofgold and silver--discriminating, purifying. The wordswhich He spoke were not only words of grace, of eternallife, but also words of purification, likened elsewhere to asharp, two-edged sword. (Heb. 4:12.) The ProphetMalachi compares them to fullers' soap, which would takeout all stains and leave the garment pure and white; andhe also says that our Lord will sit as a refiner of goldand silver, that the Levite class may offer to the Lordan acceptable sacrifice.This prophecy refers, as we see, to the antitypicalpriesthood and includes both the Royal Priests and theGreat Company. The work of this great Refiner is topurify the members of the Church class--not only theLittle Flock, but the Great Company as well.This refining process takes place all through the GospelAge. As the individual members of the Body ofChrist grow in grace, they are put through not only thepreliminary processes of the refining, but also the moretrying ones. Gold represents the Divine or higher orderof spirit nature, and silver, the lower order. The goldrepresents the Little Flock, and the Silver the GreatCompany.None of these would be able to make an acceptablesacrifice of himself; but the great Advocate imputes Hismerit to each who offers himself in sacrifice and thusenables him to become such. The Father permits theAdvocate to make of these acceptable sacrifices. Theyare His sacrifices, not their own. Then they are begottento the new nature and adopted into the Body of Christ.By this offering, our Lord, as the great Mediator, is gettingready for the institution of the New Covenant.THE PRESENT A WONDERFUL TIMEThe closing scenes of the Gospel Age will be the mostremarkable of the world's history. The Church will thenbe completed. We are not at liberty to guess when theend of the trouble will be. Whether all of the trouble willcome in the next two or three years we do not know.