Details

Hits: 2497

“When the fulness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4,5)

Anyone in all the world who knows guilt knows also what Jesus felt for him. And by this he knows how close Jesus has come to him. Whoever knows what condemnation is [also] knows exactly what Jesus felt for him, and how thoroughly Jesus is able to sympathize with him and to redeem him. Bearing guilt, under condemnation, and under the weight of the curse, Jesus lived the perfect life of the righteousness of God without ever sinning at all for a whole lifetime in this world of guilt, condemnation, and the curse.

Anyone knowing guilt and knowing also that Jesus actually felt in His experience all this just as he feels it, by believing in Jesus he can know the blessedness of the perfect righteousness of God in his life.

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). His being made a curse is not in vain: it accomplishes all that was intended by it in behalf of everyone who will receive it.

“In the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear…And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation for all who obey Him” (Heb. 5:7,9).

Jones, The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, p. 24

Details

Hits: 2454

“That I may…be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Phil. 3:8,9)

The righteousness which is of the law, that is, our own righteousness, is on the principle of doing something in order to live. The mere statement of the case is sufficient to show its impossibility; for life must necessarily precede action. A dead body does not do something in order that it may live, but it must be given life in order that it may do something.

Peter did not tell the dead Dorcas to do some more charitable work, to sew some more garments, in order that she might live, but in the name of Jesus he restored her to life in order that she might pursue her good works. The man that does those things shall live in them, but he must first live before he can do them.

Therefore the righteousness which is of the law is but an empty dream. Christ gives life, even the eternal and righteous life of God, which works righteousness in the soul that it has quickened. “In Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts. 17:28).

We read, “The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (Deut. 30:14), that is, the word of faith, which we preach. Is Christ so near as that? Indeed He is; for He Himself says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Rev. 3:20). It is not alone to the good that He is near, but He is “not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27).

We cannot reach out our hand without finding Him. Christ is in [near] the heart even of wicked people, waiting for them to recognize the fact that already exists, and will in all their ways acknowledge Him. Then He will dwell in their hearts “by faith.” He will then direct them in all their ways. In nothing is the love of Christ more fully shown than in His dwelling in sinful men, and enduring all their hatefulness, in order that by His patience He may win them from their evil ways.

Waggoner, The Glad Tidings, p. 42

Details

Hits: 2497

“Therefore having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Cor. 7:1)

Having become one of us, He has made this “consecrated way” our way; it belongs to us. He has endowed every soul with divine right to walk in this consecrated way, and by His having done it Himself in the flesh-in our flesh-He has made it possible that every human soul can walk in that way.

As one of us, in our sinful human nature in this world, for a whole lifetime He lived a life “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb. 7:26). By this He has made a way by which, in Him, every believer for a whole lifetime can live a life holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and as a consequence be made with Him higher than the heavens.

Perfection of character is the Christian goal-perfection attained in human flesh in this world. Christ attained it in human flesh in this world, and thus consecrated a way by which every believer can attain it in Him. He has become our great High Priest, and the High Priesthood and ministry of Christ in the true sanctuary is the only way by which any soul can attain this true goal. “Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary” (Ps. 77:13).

“Therefore, He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him since He ever lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

Jones, The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, pp. 61,62

Details

Hits: 2488

“Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

When people try to handle the law of God, they invariably pervert it, and fit it to their own ideas. The only way to have its perfection appear is to submit to it, allowing it to rule. The it will work itself out in the life. “It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

We have seen that the end or object of the law is the righteousness which it requires. So it is said that Christ is the end of the law [for those] “who know righteousness.” The law of God is the righteousness of God (see Isa. 51:6,7). But this righteousness is the real life of God Himself, and the words of the law are only the shadow of it. That life is found only in Christ, for He alone declares the righteousness of God (Rom. 3:24, 25).

His life is the law of God, since God was in Him. That which the Jews had only in form is found in fact only in Christ. In Him the end of the law is found. Does anyone say that “the end of the law” means its abolition? Very well; when they find the abolition of Christ, they will have found the abolition of the law, and not before. Only a study of the life of Christ will reveal the righteousness which the law of God requires. “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17).

The perfect righteousness of the law is found only in Him. It is in Him in absolute perfection. Therefore since Christ dwells in the heart of the believer, in Him only is the end of the law attained. “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (Jn. 6:29). “With the heart one believes to righteousness” (Rom. 10:10).

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 23,26

Details

Hits: 2496

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through…His flesh,…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Heb. 10:19-22)

Perfection in every respect is attained through the service of our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary.

This is the “new and living way” which Christ “consecrated for us”- for all mankind-by which every soul may enter into the holiest of all.

This new and living way He “consecrated for us through His flesh.” Coming in the flesh, identifying Himself with mankind in the flesh, He has consecrated a way from where we are to where He now is, at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.

Having been made in all things like unto us and having been tempted in all points like as we are (Heb. 2: 14; 4: 15), He has identified Himself with every human soul just where that soul is. And from the place where every human soul is, he has consecrated for that soul a new and living way through all the vicissitudes and experiences of a whole lifetime, and even through death and the tomb, into the holiest of all, at the right hand of God forevermore. “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11).

Oh that consecrated way! Consecrated by His temptations and sufferings, by His prayers and tears, by His holy living and sacrificial dying, by His triumphant resurrection and glorious ascension, and by His triumphant entry into the holiest of all, at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.

Jones, The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, p. 61

Details

Hits: 3009

“By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8)

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. “With the heart one believes to righteousness” (Rom. 10:10). “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (Jn. 6:29). Faith works.

Time would fail to tell of those ‘who through faith subdued kingdoms, working righteousness, obtained promises,…out of weakness were made strong” (Heb. 11: 33,34). People may say, “I cannot see how it is possible for one to be made righteous simply by believing.” It makes no difference what you can see; you are not saved by sight, but by faith. You do not need to see how it is done, because it is the Lord who does the saving. Christ dwells in the heart by faith (Eph. 3:17), and because He is our righteousness. “He also has become my salvation” (Isa. 12:2).

If when the preaching of the gospel reveals to us the law of God, we reject it and find fault with it because it condemns our course, we are simply saying that we do not desire that God should put His own righteousness upon us. But, as we receive Him by faith, and we walk in Him as we have received Him, we shall “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7).

If in anyone who has sought righteousness through Christ there is afterward found sin, it is because the person has dammed up the stream, allowing the water to become stagnant. Where there is no activity there is death. No one is to be blamed for this but the person himself. Let no professed Christian take counsel of his own imperfections and say that it is impossible for a Christian to live a sinless life. It is impossible for a true Christian, one who has full faith, to live any other kind of life.

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, p.22

Details

Hits: 2496

“In the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets” (Rev. 10:7).

The cleansing of the sanctuary and the finishing of the mystery of God are identical as to time. In the “figure of the true” in the sanctuary, the round of service was completed annually, and the cleansing of the sanctuary was the finishing of that figurative service.

The finishing of this earthly work of the sanctuary was also the finishing of the work for the people. For in that day which was the Day of Atonement (see Lev. 16:29-33), whosoever of the people did not by searching of heart, confession, and putting away of sin take part in the service of the cleansing of the sanctuary was cut off forever (Lev. 23:27-29).

And this was all “a figure for the time then present” (Heb.9:9, KJV). The earthly sanctuary and its sacrifice, priesthood and ministry were a figure of the true, which is the sanctuary and ministry of Christ. The cleansing of the earthly sanctuary was a figure of the true, which is the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary from all the sins of the believers in Jesus. And the time of this cleansing of the true is declared by the Wonderful Numberer to be “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed” (Dan. 8:14).

Indeed, the sanctuary of which Christ is the High Priest is the only one that could be cleansed in 1844, because it is the only one that there is. “He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still” (Rev: 22: 11).

“[Christ] has appeared once and for all at the climax of history to abolish sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is the lot of men to die once, and after death comes judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the burden of men’s sins, and will appear a second time, sin done away with, to bring salvation to those who are watching for Him” (Heb. 9: 26-28, NEB).

Jones, The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, pp. 81,82

Details

Hits: 2543

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…Come, and let us return to the Lord…Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord” (Hos. 4: 6; 6: 1,3).

It is commonly said that knowledge is power. That depends. If we take the statement of the poet, that “the proper study of mankind is man,” then certainly is anything but power. Man is nothing but weakness and sin.

All people know that they are sinners, that they do things that are not right, but that knowledge gives them no power to change their course. You may tell a person all his faults, and if you tell him nothing more, you have weakened rather than strengthened him.

But he who with the apostle Paul determines to know nothing “except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2) has knowledge that is power. “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (Jn. 17:3). To know Christ is to know the power of His endless life. It is for lack of this knowledge that people are destroyed (Hos. 4:6). But since Christ is the power of God, it is quite correct to say that power is the one thing that we need; and the only real power is revealed in the gospel.

And the power of earth is frail and that for a moment, while the power of God is eternal. If people would but recognize the gospel for what it is, there would not be any who would be ashamed of it. Paul said, “God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:4). The reason for this was that the cross is the power of God (1 Cor. 1:18). The power of God, in whatever form manifested, is glory, and not for shame.

“We proclaim Christ-yes, Christ nailed to the cross; and though this is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Greeks, yet to those who have heard His call, Jews and Greeks alike, He is the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:23, 24 NEB).

Waggoner, Waggoner on Romans, pp. 73,74

Details

Hits: 2642

“But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God-and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

The great thought and purpose of the true sanctuary, its priesthood and ministry, is that God shall dwell in the hearts of the people. What now is the great thought and purpose of His dwelling in the hearts of the people? The answer is, perfection; the moral and spiritual perfection of the worshiper.

Therefore, since (a) the will of God is the sanctification and the perfection of the worshipers; and (b) since the will of God is that His worshipers shall be so cleansed that they shall have no more conscience of sin; and (c) since the service and offerings in that earthly sanctuary could not do this, He took it all away that He may establish the will of God. “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb. 10:10).

The will of God is “even your sanctification.” Sanctification is the true keeping of all the commandments of God. This is to say that the will of God concerning us is that His will shall be perfectly fulfilled in us.

The sacrifices and the service in the earthly sanctuary could not take away the sins of the people and so could not bring them to this perfection. But the sacrifice and the ministry of the true High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary do accomplish this. This does utterly take away every sin.

And the worshiper is so truly purged that he has no more conscience of sin. By the sacrifice, the offering, and the service of Himself, Christ took away the earthly sacrifices and the offerings and the earthly service which could never take away sins. By His perfect doing of the perfect will of God He establishes the will of God.

Jones, The Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection, pp. 57,60