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“Therefore He is 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)

God imputes the righteousness of Christ to the believing sinner. Here is a man who has never known anything in his life except sin, never anything but the guilt of sin and the condemnation of it.

That man believes on Jesus Christ, and God imputes to him the righteousness of Christ. Then that man who never committed a particle of righteousness in his life is conscious of righteousness. Something has entered his life that was never there before; he is conscious of the joy and the freedom of it. Now God imputed our sins to Christ as certainly as He imputes His righteousness to us. But when He imputes righteousness to us who are nothing but sinners, we are conscious of it and of the joy of it. Therefore when God imputed our sins to Jesus, He was conscious of the guilt of them and their condemnation, just as certainly as a believing sinner is conscious of the righteousness of Christ and the peace and joy of it that is imputed to him, that is, that is laid upon Him.

It was our sins, our guilt, and our condemnation that were laid upon Him. He carried the guilt and the condemnation of them all, paid for them, atoned for them. Then in Him we are free from every sin that we have ever committed. Let us be glad, and praise God with everlasting joy. All the tendencies to sin- these He put forever underfoot.

Oh, He is a complete Savior. He is a Savior from sins committed, and the Conqueror of the tendencies to commit sins.

“He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death” (Rev. 2:11).

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, pp. 233,234.

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“I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day” (2 Tim. 1:12)

People say, “I have taken Christ, and now I look back and trace my life history through the day, or the week, and I cannot see anything but imperfection in what I’ve done. Then the feeling of condemnation comes over me, and I cannot stand free. How can I say, there’s no condemnation for me, when I see these failures?”

This is a subtle deception of Satan to deprive us of acceptance and peace with God. Do we expect to be justified by these deeds? If we do, we make a grand mistake in the beginning. “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight” (Rom. 3:20). Says one, “I’m afraid that I may fall.” You need not be afraid. What have you committed unto Him? Your life, and He is able to keep it. When we get over into the kingdom of God, we will not look to the best deeds that we have done, and thank God that we are justified because we have done so well. But our song of joy will be, “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (Rev. 1:5).

And so we know that when we yield ourselves to Him and die to self constantly, He does these things for us that we cannot do for ourselves. Let us look to Him continually! But when we take our eyes from Him and go into sin, He is not responsible for that.

“He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6)

Waggoner, The Everlasting Covenant, p.66

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“We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:26,27).

I have thought when I have heard one after another say, “Pray for me,” that Christ Himself prayed for us, and that the Holy Spirit Himself is making intercession for us.

While we can ask for others to pray for us, can we not appropriate the prayers that are being continually offered for us in heaven above? Christ and the Holy Spirit are praying for us. For myself, I can understand and draw encouragement this way: I lay my soul open before God, and ask Him to give me-what shall I ask for?- sometimes the words are gone, and I can think of nothing, only an inexpressible desire for something more than I have. But the Holy Spirit knows what I need, and knows the mind of God. He knows what God has to give me, and so He makes intercession for me and God gives exceeding abundantly above all I can ask or think. The Spirit of God takes those thoughts that we cannot put into words and can scarcely think, and transmutes them into words and petitions before the throne of God, and He who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the spirit.

Some say they are “going to search their hearts, and put away all the evil things that they can find to be in them.” Jeremiah says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind” (Jer. 17:9,10). We cannot search our hearts and put away all the wickedness in them. The heart will deceive us every time. Yet God can search the heart, and He does. And if we will take the result of His searching, great will be our joy. It is the Comforter who brings these sins to our hearts, that the Lord has searched out; and this very act of bringing our sins before our eyes is part of the comfort of God.

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, p. 267

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“If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:7)

I have no business to make myself out any better than God. When anyone comes to me or to you, all broken down, and confesses his wrong, we forgive him freely, and before he has told half what he might tell, we tell him that it is alright, he is forgiven, and to say no more about it.

That is just what God does. He has given us the parable of the prodigal son as an illustration of how He forgives. His father saw him a great way off, and ran to meet him. I am so thankful that God does not require me, before I can be forgiven, to go back and take up every sin that I ever committed and confess it. If He did, He would have to lengthen my probation longer than I believe He possibly can, for me to repeat the smallest part of them. Well may David say, “My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of my head; therefore my heart fails me” (Psalms 40:12). Yes, our sins are “innumerable,” but “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart-these, O God, you will not despise” (Psalms 51:17). Thus we make a covenant with God by sacrifice.

The Lord forgives freely, and we can know it. He shows us the representative sins of our lives. Sins that stand out prominent stand for our whole sinful nature, and we know that our whole life is of that same sinful character. God is infinite in love and compassion. “As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust” (Psalms 103:13,14). Shall we charge God with saying, “I‘ve shown you those sins and you’ve confessed them; but there are other sins and I will not show them to you, but you must find them out for yourself, and until you do I will not forgive you.” God does not deal with us in that way.

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, p.366

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“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18).

Think of it,-God has one only begotten Son, the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person; He is the well beloved. But, O, the wideness of His love, that He is able to take us into it, to adopt us into His family and make us share the same title that His only begotten Son shares.

The world did not recognize Him as the divine Son of God, the heir of heaven; so it will not recognize us as the sons of God and heirs of heaven. But we are the children of God now, just as much His sons now as we ever will be. The glory of the Sonship is not manifest in us, but when Christ shall appear we shall be like Him.

That throne to which we come and make our petitions is both a throne of grace and a throne of glory. The grace that is bestowed is equal to the measure of the glory that there is in that throne. That glory is by and by going to be revealed in us, so that this poor, vile body will shine like the sun. This is our assurance that the measure of that grace may be revealed in us now.

Just as our sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed, so the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the grace that is given us at this present time to endure them. The grace is equal to the glory.

By looking at these promises this way, we can see how heaven begins right here on earth. To have the Spirit of God and be the sons of God is entering upon the riches of our inheritance now. And if we continue to be the sons of God, we continue in our inheritance right along through eternity, the only difference being that when the Son of God comes, we shall have the full inheritance and glory of it.

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, pp. 267, 268

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“The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us- by me, Silvanus and Timothy- was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” (2 Cor. 1:19-22)

Saving faith is not something that comes from ourselves with which we believe on Him; but it is that something with which Christ believed- the faith which He exercised, which He brings to us, and which becomes ours and works in us,-the gift of God.

This is what the word means, “here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12). They keep the faith of Jesus, because it is that defined faith which Jesus exercised Himself.

He brought to us that divine faith by which we can say with Him, “I will put my trust in Him." That trust today will never be disappointed anymore than it was then. God responded then to His trust, and dwelt with Him. God will respond today to that trust in us, and will dwell with us.

Therefore His name is Immanuel, God with us- not God with Him; God was with Him before the world was. He could have remained there, and not come here at all, and still God would have remained with Him, and His name could have been God with Him. But what we needed was God with us. Oh, that is His name!
Rejoice in that name forever more!

“Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6)

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, p.235

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“As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14)

God has put His testimony on record and sworn to that testimony. When God has put Himself on record, what can you bring to corroborate that word? When God has spoken, will you bring up the testimony of a man to sustain it? No, the word of God is our anchor. It enters in within the veil, where the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus.

When you go to your home, to your room, recognize the voice of God speaking to you. His Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God. It means something to be a child of God. “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God” (1 Jn. 3:1). Behold it. It is too wonderful for the human mind to grasp fully. Poor, unworthy, miserable creatures, worthy of nothing, yet God has had such an infinite love for us, that He has made us worthy to be His sons; and He gives us everything that He gives to Christ.

The Father loves us just as much as He loves His only begotten Son. How do we know? By the fact that He let His only begotten Son die to save us from death. We share with Christ all the love that the Father has for Him.

Christ cannot enter into His inheritance without us because we are “joint heirs with Christ.” If you and I are joint heirs to an estate, we must have it together. By and by when Christ takes His own throne, we will take it too. And it is something that God reveals to us now. We must not put it all off to the golden streets of the New Jerusalem, to the pearly gates, and the walls of jasper. Everything that Christ has, we have now. Like David, we can say, “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good inheritance” (Ps. 16:6). Jesus says, “You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me”

(Jn. 17:23). Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, p. 267

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"Just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men…Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” (Rom. 5:12, 18,19)

Wherein was Adam the figure of Christ? In his righteousness? No; for he did not keep it. In his sin? No; for Christ did not sin. Wherein then was Adam the figure of Christ? In this: that all that were in the world were included in Adam; and all that are in the world are included in Christ. In other words, Adam in his sin reached all the world; Jesus Christ, the second Adam in His righteousness touches all humanity.

The first Adam touched all of us; what he did included all of us. What he did made us what we are.

Now, here is another Adam, Does He touch as many as the first Adam did? The answer: It is certainly true that what the second Adam did embraces all who were embraced in what the first Adam did.

Does the second Adam righteousness embrace as many as does the first Adam’s sin? Look closely. Without our consent, we were all included in the first Adam. Jesus, the second man, touched us “in all points.” The first Adam brought man under the condemnation of sin; the second Adam’s righteousness undoes that, and makes every man live again. Every man is free to choose which way he will go ; therefore he is responsible for his own individual sins. When Christ stood where we are, He said, “I will put my trust in Him.” That trust was never disappointment. The Father dwelt in Him and with Him and kept Him from sinning. And thus the Lord Jesus has brought to every man in this world divine faith, saving faith.

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, pp. 234,235

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“You did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Rom. 8:15-17).

“Abba” means Father. We realize that He is infinite in power, and so great that to Him the nations are as a drop in the bucket. Great and awesome as He is, we can call Him “our Father.” He has the tenderness of a parent, backed by the power of infinite divinity.

Some say that if they only had the witness of the Spirit, they would rejoice. What is the witness of the Spirit?

“Why,” says one, “it is a sort of feeling, and when I have it I will know that God has accepted me.” But it rests on something more substantial than a feeling.

Sometimes I feel so tired and exhausted that I hardly have any power to feel in any way. That is when I want to know that I am a child of God. Sometimes disease takes hold of us and saps all our strength, and we have no power of mind or body. We are just barely alive, conscious, but with no emotion. That is when we want the witness of the Spirit. Can we have it then? Yes, “the Spirit Himself bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (verse 16). How does He witness? “He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself (1 Jn.5:10).

What does a witness do? Bears testimony. How do I bear testimony in a court? -By telling what I know. Perhaps I back it up by my oath. The if the Holy Spirit witnesses, He must say something, must He not? Yes. God spoke by His prophets, by Jeremiah, David, Paul. Who speaks in this word, the Bible? The Spirit of God. Then what is the witness of the Spirit? The word of God is the voice of the Spirit of God. Then we have the witness in ourselves, when we have His word in our hearts by faith.

Jones, General Conference Bulletin, 1895, p.266