[Eflyleaf]
STUDIES
IN THE
SCRIPTURES
"The Path of the Just is as the Shining Light,
Which Shineth More and More
Unto the Perfect Day."
SERIES V
The At-one-ment
Between
God and Man
"There is One God, and One Mediator Between
God and Men, the Man Christ Jesus; Who Gave
Himself a Ransom for All, to be Testified in Due
Time." "We Also Joy in God Through our Lord
Jesus Christ, by Whom We Have Now Received
the Atonement." 1 Timothy 2:5,6; Romans 5:11
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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 1899 by Pastor Russell
[Ei]
"The At-one-ment Between God and Man"
THE AUTHOR'S FOREWORD
THE FIRST EDITION of this Volume was published in
1899. It is now in the hands of large numbers of God's
people in various languages throughout the civilized world.
Numerous letters tell us of great help received from its
pages in the elucidation of Divine Truth--in the explanation
of the Bible. Some have found special help along one
line, some along another; and some along all lines. The
chapter entitled, "The Undefiled One," relating to our
Lord's assuming earthly conditions when born the babe at
Bethlehem, has attracted special attention, and has been
declared by many to reflect a great light upon a variety of
Scriptural and scientific subjects.
With a system of theology which acknowledges its own
fallibility, and asks and expects Divine guidance and enlightenment
to the end of the Church's journey, it seems remarkable
that this Volume, written 19 years ago, requires
little correction, in order to be in full line with the latest
thought of Bible students respecting the teachings of the
Divine Word.
The keynote of this Volume is the Ransom-price. Apparently
this doctrine, from which radiates all other doctrines
connected with our salvation, has been in a great measure
lost sight of, obscured, from the time the apostles fell asleep
in death until now. Bible students have found the Ransom
to be the key which unlocks the entire Bible--which decides
at once what is Truth and what is error.
It is not surprising that, appreciating the subject and
studying it so carefully, our views respecting it have become
more and more clear. The Bible statements respecting the
Ransom have not in any wise changed, nor has our confidence
in them changed; but they are more luminous; we
[Eii]
understand them better. We hold that the Bible statements
on the subject are infallible, and that it is because we are
not infallible that our views are capable of expansion as we
search the Scriptures and are guided into the understanding
of them as promised, by the holy Spirit. We are
not demurring against the Divine Plan of gradual unfoldment,
but rejoicing in it. We have nothing to apologize for.
The Ransom looms before us more grandly with every fresh
ray of Divine Light.
Now we see that our Lord Jesus left the Heavenly glory
that He might accomplish a ransoming work for Adam and
his race. We see that His change of nature from a spirit to a
human being was with a view to enabling Him to be the
Ransom-price--a perfect man for a perfect man--Antilutron
--a corresponding price. We now see that Jesus gave
Himself to be a Ransom-price for all at the time of His consecration
at thirty years of age at Jordan. He continued in
giving the Ransom-price, that is, in laying down His life,
which in due time would constitute the Ransom-price for
Father Adam and his race. He finished this work of laying
down His life, surrendering it, sacrificing it, permitting it to
be taken from Him, when He on the cross cried: "It is finished!"
Nothing more could be laid down than was there
laid down--a Ransom, a corresponding price, for Father
Adam. But it was not paid over as a price in settlement of
Adam's account, else Adam and the entire sinner race
would then and there have been turned over to Jesus. The
price was merely laid in the hands of Divine Justice as a deposit,
to the credit of the One who had died, that He might
apply it later in harmony with the Divine Plan. Our Lord
Jesus was raised from the dead a spirit being of the Divine
nature, as a reward for His faithfulness and loyalty to God
in surrendering His earthly life sacrificially. "Him hath
God highly exalted and given a name above every name."
Jesus could not make any use of the Ransom-price while
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still on earth. He could not even bring His disciples into fellowship
with the Father. Hence He declared: "I ascend to
My God and to your God, to My Father and to your Father."
He also declared: "Except I go away, the holy Spirit
will not come." Ten days after our Lord ascended, His followers,
having met according to His direction in the upper
room, received the Pentecostal blessing--the evidence that
they had been accepted of the Father through the merit of
Jesus' sacrifice. Jesus had used as an imputation the Ransom
merit which He had deposited in the Father's hands; but
He did not give it to His disciples. It was not for them as a
possession, but for the world--"a Ransom for all." All of
Jesus' disciples renounced their share in the Ransom blessings
that are coming to the world at the Second Advent of
our Lord, that they may have a share with the Redeemer in
a still greater blessing--honor and immortality. The Ransom-price
is designed to bring to Adam and his race the
earthly life and earthly rights and honors which were lost
by Father Adam, when by disobedience he became a sinner,
the loss being entailed upon all of his family, the entire
human race. The time for giving the results of the Ransom,
viz., Restitution to Adam and his race, is after our Lord's
Second Advent, when He shall set up His Kingdom, designed
for the very purpose of bringing back the rebellious
race into full fellowship with the Father and to eternal life--
as many as will.
The Call of the Church is not to give an additional Ransom-price,
nor to add to that which Jesus gave; for His is
sufficient. The Church's invitation is to demonstrate that
they have the same spirit, disposition, that Jesus had, to do
the Father's will at any cost--even unto death; and those
demonstrating this may be accepted of the Father as members
of a Royal Priesthood, of which Jesus is the Head; as a
Bride class, Jesus being the glorious Heavenly Bridegroom.
It is required that these come back to God under a Covenant
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the same as Jesus made, "Gather My saints together
unto Me, those that have made a Covenant with Me by sacrifice."
Psalm 50:5
Not until these shall have been called and chosen and
found faithful and been glorified, will the time come for
Christ and His Bride class to take control of the world for
their uplift; and not until then will it be proper for the Savior
to transfer to Divine Justice the merit of His death,
which He placed in the Father's hands as a deposit when
dying, with the words: "Father, into Thy hands I commit
My spirit"--My life and all of its rights. When this Ransom-price
shall have been formally delivered over to Justice
in the end of this Age, it will no longer be a deposit at the
command of the Savior but will have been exchanged for
Adam and his race, all of whom will be immediately transferred
by the Father to the Son, that His Millennial Kingdom
may begin and all the families of the earth be
subjected to the Redeemer, that He may uplift them out of
sin and death conditions to all that was lost in Adam--to all
for which Jesus died to regain for man.
But the Church class, in process of selection for nearly
nineteen centuries, could not be acceptable sacrifices to
God as was their Redeemer, Jesus, because He alone was
holy, harmless, undefiled--we are imperfect, sinners, and
God does not accept imperfect, blemished, sinful sacrifices.
What, then, could be done to make us acceptable sacrifices
and to permit us to be associated with Jesus on the spirit
plane? The proper thing was done--an imputation of the
merit of Jesus was granted by Divine Justice on behalf of all
who would enter into a Covenant of Sacrifice, and for
whom Jesus would become Advocate, or Surety. This imputation
of the merit of His sacrifice to the Church by Jesus
might be likened to a mortgage, or an encumbrance, upon
the Ransom-sacrifice, which would hinder it from being
applied to the world until its application to the Church
shall be completed.
[Ev]
The Church's Covenant is to sacrifice all their earthly life
and rights, that they may become New Creatures in Christ
and joint-heirs with Him on the spirit plane.
It was on the basis of this imputation of our coming Restitution
blessings, and our own personal consecration to the
Lord, that our Redeemer, acting as our great High Priest
and Advocate, brought us into that relationship with the
Father's Plan which permitted us to receive the begetting of
the holy Spirit, and to cease to be of the human family and
become members of the spiritual family, of which Jesus is
the Head. All of the Church, therefore, are sharers with
Jesus in a work of self-sacrifice, in that we tender ourselves
to the Lord and He, as God's High Priest, offers us up as a
part of His own sacrifice. Thus we "fill up that which is behind
of the afflictions of Christ." Thus we suffer with Him
that we may also reign with Him. Not until all of the spirit-begotten
ones shall have passed into death will the merit of
Christ, placed on deposit in the hands of Justice when He
died, and mortgaged in the interest of the Church, be released
from that mortgage and be ready for full application
in the purchase of Adam and his race under the terms of the
New Covenant.
If we were writing this Volume again, we would here and
there make very minor differences of expression in harmony
with what we have here presented. We ask our readers
to have this in mind. The differences are not of a kind
that will permit us to say that the expressions in the book
are wrong--merely they are not as full and clear as they
might have been if the writing were to be done now.
For some up-to-date comments on the New Covenant,
we request the new readers to note the author's foreword to
"Studies," Volume VI.
Your servant in the Lord,
Charles T. Russell
Brooklyn, N.Y.,
October 1, 1916
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