1885 Watch Tower - A2Z.org
1885 Watch Tower - A2Z.org 1885 Watch Tower - A2Z.org
This was God's object in giving them that typical covenant. Hethus showed them their own depraved condition, to convince themthat a great remedy was needed for the great malady of sin-- that agreat Saviour was needed to deliver them from the enemy's power.The Law Covenant was given to teach this lesson, and to typify andillustrate the operations of the New Covenant coming after it, aswell as to fill up the time intervening before the right time of theintroduction of the New Covenant which it typified.The New Covenant is like its type, the Law Covenant, except thatits range will be greater; it will embrace the world represented byIsrael; its provisions will be grander and deeper as an antitype isalways superior to that which is used to typify it. Comparing thetwo, under the Apostle's direction, we can see the vast superiorityof the New Covenant over its type: The typical covenant,established or ratified or mediated by the death of bulls or goats assacrifices for original sin, was insufficient; for such sacrifices "cannever take away sins"; (Heb. 10:11), their death was not a ransom--not a corresponding price, to the death of man, not equivalent invalue to the penalty resting upon mankind for the violation of theoriginal covenant by their representative, Adam, and nothing shortof this could cancel the sin and remove its penalty really. That Godso regarded their covenant is evident from the fact that it had to berepeatedly ratified every year by the sacrifice of more bulls andgoats on the typical "Day of Atonement," thus indicating that theoriginal guilt was not blotted out and canceled, but merelyRECKONED SO for a year at a time. This process of ratifying thetypical covenant yearly, and offering life to every Israelite whowould live up to its requirements, was kept up for centuries, thoughnone of them gained the coveted boon--until the man Christ Jesus,came--a perfect man whose life came not through a father of theAdamic race, but from Adam's Father, Jehovah. Thus we seeanother use for the Law Covenant; it pointed out and served toprove the man Christ Jesus the only perfect man, and hence theonly one who could give a ransom--a corresponding price for thetransgression of the first perfect man's failure to obey the firstcovenant.But as the sacrifices by which the Law covenant was mediated wereonly typical and temporary, and hence of no lasting value tosinners, so also, the other provisions of that covenant; for instance,the law given them and which they covenanted to obey, was writtenin tables of stone, and their hearts being left in the depravedcondition, to keep the law was an impossibility--it could onlycondemn them, as out of harmony with it.Now contrast with this the New Covenant and its better conditions.The foundation of the New Covenant is sure; the mediation isthorough and complete and needs not a yearly repetition; theputting away of original sin is by "one sacrifice for sins forever"(Heb. 10:12), because the Mediator of the New Covenant mediatednot with the blood of others [bulls and goats] "but by his own
lood," by "better sacrifices" than those (Heb. 9:12 and 23), "whenHe offered up himself" (Heb. 7:27) "a ransom for all." Thus seenthe security of the New Covenant rests upon the cancellation of thepenalty of the original covenant violated by Adam ourrepresentative. A corresponding price, i.e., a ransom, is the onlycomplete settlement of the old case which would admit of a newcovenant being entered into with us. Hence the importance ofrealizing the RANSOM price given by the man Christ Jesus, themediator of the New Covenant, before we can appreciate fully itsblessed provisions. The man Jesus was not only a better sacrificethan bulls and goats, but His better sacrifice became the "surety of abetter covenant." Heb. 7:22.Notice that by the provisions of the New Covenant the sinnersreleased from the penalty of the former violated covenant, will notonly have a new trial, but will, in addition, have restored to themthe original perfections of being, whereby they shall individuallyhave as full an opportunity of rendering obedience, and meritinglife everlasting, as Adam their representative had under the firstcovenant. And their trial will be backed up by the lesson learnedfrom Adam's disobedience and their own experience under sin.This is indicated in the promise of the New Covenant--"I will putmy law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts." Thus itwas with Adam; he needed not to have God's law written on tabletsof stone, for his instruction, because his very being was permeatedwith that law. His mind (spirit) was in harmony with God's mind(spirit). Sin had not warped and twisted his judgment and madewrong to appear right. Malice, selfishness and pride had not at thattime displaced righteousness and love, the image of God in whichhe was created. And not only was his mind in harmony with God,but his body also. He had then none of the physical imperfectionsR789 : page 5and tendencies to evil that now so hinder and incapacitate, forperfect obedience to God: So deeply was the Law of God originallywritten in the perfect human organism that even the past sixthousand years of degradation, sin, ignorance, superstition, andmisery has not entirely blotted out that law; and to-day even themost degraded savages give evidence of some appreciation of rightand wrong, even without the written law. "These having not the[written] law," "show the work [or give evidence] of the law,written in their hearts ...their thoughts the meanwhile accusing orexcusing." (Rom. 2:15.) This glimmer of conscience, often sodistorted by superstition and error as to lead into deeper error,serves to illustrate what it would be to have the full Law of Godclearly and deeply written in the heart.But, moreover, the word "heart" is used to represent the center ofaffections, hence the promise of the New Covenant is not only togive mankind an intellectual knowledge of the Lord, so that theyshall need no further instruction one of another, but the law will bedeeply and lastingly engraven in the very center of the affections of
- Page 349 and 350: DEAR SIR AND BROTHER IN CHRIST. --I
- Page 351 and 352: ut I find it hard to convince them.
- Page 353 and 354: life and rights of Adam Rom. 5:17-1
- Page 355 and 356: appropriate little nutriment from t
- Page 357 and 358: of a woman partook of the woman's n
- Page 359 and 360: Has this condition already been rea
- Page 361 and 362: will be "the Saviour of all" from t
- Page 363 and 364: of the race immortal rulers. But th
- Page 365 and 366: sun over a restored earth. The rest
- Page 367 and 368: though "the smoke" or remembrance o
- Page 369 and 370: y an arrow from Death's quiver; her
- Page 371 and 372: informed --furnished unto every goo
- Page 373 and 374: subsist as the pillar and ground of
- Page 375 and 376: R783 : page 7stand at the head of t
- Page 377 and 378: "I walked," but I do emphasize deci
- Page 379 and 380: of the destroyer, and all the more
- Page 381 and 382: sake we are killed all the day long
- Page 383 and 384: we would give the truth. "Ho, every
- Page 385 and 386: much fruit from our own individual
- Page 387 and 388: gladly bearing reproach, and dishon
- Page 389 and 390: have been the smallest; and during
- Page 391 and 392: alarmed and are holding meetings to
- Page 393 and 394: ONE MEDIATOR.There is "one mediator
- Page 395 and 396: itterness and wrath and anger... be
- Page 397 and 398: How clearly the Scriptures guard us
- Page 399: cancel the penalty of the violated
- Page 403 and 404: Virgin Mary, say they, would not ta
- Page 405 and 406: eceive the message of redemption an
- Page 407 and 408: since heard and accepted have had t
- Page 409 and 410: As our Redeemer he bought us. His s
- Page 411 and 412: R792 : page 7But that their covenan
- Page 413 and 414: truly while all were under "the cur
- Page 415 and 416: the re-engrafting of the original b
- Page 417 and 418: R794 : page 8====================H.
- Page 419 and 420: would have been the same (i.e. perf
- Page 421 and 422: R795 : page 1VOL. VII.PITTSBURGH, P
- Page 423 and 424: Christ our Lord. (2 Cor. 4:6.) Pulp
- Page 425 and 426: The doctrine, in accord with both r
- Page 427 and 428: "Who would write a bulky treatise a
- Page 429 and 430: Scripture, which from their astound
- Page 431 and 432: It is small, but it is empty,And th
- Page 433 and 434: Christ? It implies first that our W
- Page 435 and 436: the blind and impotent in Judea, an
- Page 437 and 438: manner. The earnestness of the serv
- Page 439 and 440: While the offered prayer is to God
- Page 441 and 442: therefore never consciously rejecte
- Page 443 and 444: distinctly states that men who have
- Page 445 and 446: will be estimated both by God and m
- Page 447 and 448: to give a "Gospel address" on Sunda
- Page 449 and 450: denunciation is uttered in Matt. 21
This was God's object in giving them that typical covenant. Hethus showed them their own depraved condition, to convince themthat a great remedy was needed for the great malady of sin-- that agreat Saviour was needed to deliver them from the enemy's power.The Law Covenant was given to teach this lesson, and to typify andillustrate the operations of the New Covenant coming after it, aswell as to fill up the time intervening before the right time of theintroduction of the New Covenant which it typified.The New Covenant is like its type, the Law Covenant, except thatits range will be greater; it will embrace the world represented byIsrael; its provisions will be grander and deeper as an antitype isalways superior to that which is used to typify it. Comparing thetwo, under the Apostle's direction, we can see the vast superiorityof the New Covenant over its type: The typical covenant,established or ratified or mediated by the death of bulls or goats assacrifices for original sin, was insufficient; for such sacrifices "cannever take away sins"; (Heb. 10:11), their death was not a ransom--not a corresponding price, to the death of man, not equivalent invalue to the penalty resting upon mankind for the violation of theoriginal covenant by their representative, Adam, and nothing shortof this could cancel the sin and remove its penalty really. That Godso regarded their covenant is evident from the fact that it had to berepeatedly ratified every year by the sacrifice of more bulls andgoats on the typical "Day of Atonement," thus indicating that theoriginal guilt was not blotted out and canceled, but merelyRECKONED SO for a year at a time. This process of ratifying thetypical covenant yearly, and offering life to every Israelite whowould live up to its requirements, was kept up for centuries, thoughnone of them gained the coveted boon--until the man Christ Jesus,came--a perfect man whose life came not through a father of theAdamic race, but from Adam's Father, Jehovah. Thus we seeanother use for the Law Covenant; it pointed out and served toprove the man Christ Jesus the only perfect man, and hence theonly one who could give a ransom--a corresponding price for thetransgression of the first perfect man's failure to obey the firstcovenant.But as the sacrifices by which the Law covenant was mediated wereonly typical and temporary, and hence of no lasting value tosinners, so also, the other provisions of that covenant; for instance,the law given them and which they covenanted to obey, was writtenin tables of stone, and their hearts being left in the depravedcondition, to keep the law was an impossibility--it could onlycondemn them, as out of harmony with it.Now contrast with this the New Covenant and its better conditions.The foundation of the New Covenant is sure; the mediation isthorough and complete and needs not a yearly repetition; theputting away of original sin is by "one sacrifice for sins forever"(Heb. 10:12), because the Mediator of the New Covenant mediatednot with the blood of others [bulls and goats] "but by his own
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