[Fflyleaf]
STUDIES
IN THE
SCRIPTURES
"The Path of the Just is as the Shining Light,
Which Shineth More and More
Unto the Perfect Day."
SERIES VI
The New Creation
"Henceforth Know We no Man After the Flesh:
Yea, Though We Have Known Christ After the
Flesh, Yet Now Henceforth Know We Him [So] No
More. Therefore, if Any Man be in Christ He is
a New Creature: Old Things are Passed Away; Behold,
All Things are Become New." 2 Cor. 5:16,17
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To the King of Kings and Lord of Lords
IN THE INTEREST OF
HIS CONSECRATED SAINTS,
WAITING FOR THE ADOPTION,
--AND OF--
"ALL THAT IN EVERY PLACE CALL UPON THE LORD,"
"THE HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH,"
--AND OF--
THE GROANING CREATION, TRAVAILING AND WAITING FOR THE
MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD,
THIS WORK IS DEDICATED.
To make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the
beginning
of the world hath been hid in God." "Wherein He hath abounded
toward
us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which
He hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation
of the fulness of the times He
might gather together in one all
things, under Christ."
Eph. 3:4,5,9;1:8-10
Written in 1904 by Pastor Russell
[Fi]
"The New Creation"
THE AUTHOR'S FOREWORD
MUCH of the work of every servant of God is done in the
dark--that is to say, like the weaver of a beautiful carpet we
stand at the back seeing little of the results of our labors,
and trusting that in the Lord's due time we shall hear His
"Well Done" and see some fruitage. "I shall be satisfied
when I awake in His likeness."
Nevertheless, the Lord has very graciously given us encouragement
in respect to the influence of this Volume in
various parts of the world in the hearts of God's people. The
pleasure has been ours of hearing from many respecting the
blessings received from a better understanding of the justification,
the sanctification, and the deliverance, promised
to the Church in God's Word. Many others have told us of
the blessings received from the Scriptural advice given to
husbands and wives, parents and children, in respect to the
ways of peace, righteousness and growth in grace. Many
also have informed us of great blessings and aid in respect
to the duties, privileges and obligations of Elders and Deacons,
and the Scriptural order in the Ecclesia. We rejoice in
these things and trust that the good work will go on under
Divine guidance to the praise of our Lord and for the comfort
and edification of His people.
We call attention to the fact that since this Volume was
written the light has grown still clearer respecting God's
great Covenants. We now see that the Law Covenant was a
foreshadowing of the New (Law) Covenant, which is about
to be established at the Second Coming of Jesus, by the
great Mediator, Jesus the Head and the Church His Body--
the antitype of Moses, who wrote: "A Prophet shall the
Lord your God raise up unto you from amongst your brethren,
like unto me." Moses was merely the type of this
greater Prophet, and the Law Covenant which Moses mediated
was merely a type or foreshadowing of the greater
Law Covenant of the Millennial age.
God raised up Jesus the Head of this great Mediator first,
[Fii]
when He raised Him from the dead. Since that time, He is
raising up the Church as a New Creation; and when all the
brethren of the Body of Christ shall have been gathered
from the world through a knowledge of the Truth and sanctified
by the holy Spirit and been found worthy by faithfulness
unto death, and all shall have been raised up by the
power of God from the earthly conditions to the Heavenly
conditions as the Body of Christ, the great antitypical Melchizedek
will be complete, a Priest upon His Throne--the
great Mediator of the New Covenant will be enthroned in
Divine power. Then the New Covenant will go into operation,
as God said to Israel: "Behold the days come, saith
the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the
House of Israel and with the House of Judah."
The antitypical Mediator, after paying over to Divine
Justice fully and forever the Ransom-price for Adam and
his race, will assume full control, and under that New Covenant,
thus sealed, will begin the work of blessing and restoring
all the willing and obedient of Adam's race. All who
will come into harmony with the Lord will be counted as
part of the earthly seed of Abraham, until finally, by the
end of the Millennium, all exercising faith and obedience
will be known to the Lord as the seed of Abraham. "In becoming
that seed, shall all the families of the earth bless
themselves."
Inadvertently, the name New Covenant, which belongs
to God's dealings with the world during the Millennium,
has been used in respect to the Covenant which is now in
operation during this Gospel Age with the Church. Our
Covenant, of course, is a new covenant in the sense that it is
different from the Jewish Covenant of Mt. Sinai, but it is
not THE New Covenant. The Church's Covenant is referred
to in the Bible as a "Covenant by Sacrifice." The
keeping of these matters in mind will be of benefit to the
readers of this Volume. All of these Covenants stand related
to each other. All of them were represented and typified in
Abraham and the Covenant which God made with him.
The Church is styled Abraham's Spiritual Seed and likened
to the stars of Heaven. The world of mankind as they come
[Fiii]
into harmony with God will become Abraham's earthly
seed--as the sands of the seashore. The Spiritual Seed will
be the channel of blessing for the natural seed.
The subject of Justification has not changed, but it has
expanded and clarified. If writing this Volume today, the
author would make some slight variations of language, but
without any real change as respects the meaning and application
of the word Justification.
We now see that a justification to life is one thing, and a
justification to more or less of friendship with God is
another. Abraham, for instance, and the faithful before
Pentecost, were justified to friendship with God and to have
more or less communication with Him by prayer, etc.; but
they could not have full justification until the Blood of
Atonement had been shed, and until it had been presented
to and accepted by Divine Justice--the Father. Just so the
sinner today approaching God might be said to be in the
way of justification--he would have more of God's favor
than if he faced toward sin.
We once spoke of a sinner in this condition as being justified,
because he believed in Jesus as his Redeemer and was
reaching forward to a full consecration of himself. Now we
see that while the sinner's attitude, like that of the Ancient
Worthies, might be styled "tentative justification," it would
not reach the condition of a full, complete justification
from sin until the sinner had fully presented himself in consecration
to our great High Priest, Jesus, and had been accepted of
Him in the name of the Father. Then, under the
covering of the imputed merit of Christ's sacrifice, the sinner
would be acceptable to the Father under Christ's Robe
and begotten of the holy Spirit.
Fortunate it is for the masses who have heard of Jesus
and partially believed, that their standing with the Lord is
not that of full justification, that He refuses to fully justify
any until they have become by covenant His disciples, His
footstep followers. This is because justification can come
only once to each individual, and if he should misuse that
justification and fail to get eternal life, he would be in a
worse state than if he had never been justified. If not justified
[Fiv]
and spirit-begotten in the present time, he is not of the
Church, but will have a share in the merit of Christ's sacrifice
and in the justification which His Kingdom will offer to
every member of the human family--aside from the Church
--the Church receiving that better thing which God hath
in reservation for them that love Him--glory, honor, immortality,
the Divine nature.
To many it would not seem worth-while to mention these
fine distinctions upon the subject of justification; and yet,
having received this clearer appreciation of the Divine
Plan, we have pleasure in passing it on to all who hunger
and thirst after righteousness--to all Bible Students everywhere.
May the Lord continue to bless this Volume to the good
of His people, is the prayer of the author,
CHARLES T. RUSSELL
Brooklyn, N.Y.
October 1, 1916
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