August 24, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK :
THE THREE PHASES OF CHRIST’S WORK OF ATONEMENT ON EARTH SUMMARIZED
Jesus said: “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work.”
John 9: 4, Authorized Version.
From His prophesied baptism to His crucifixion, Jesus, the Creator incarnate into human flesh and blood nature, accomplished His appointed work and mission on earth within the specified time of three and a half years according to the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9 24-27. His work of atonement, at-one-meant, in three phases, is summed up below:
“In that first phase He met sin face to face and conquered it. In not one instance did He fail: nor one stain of sin sullied His pure soul. His body-temple was holy, a fit place for God to dwell. This stage terminated before Gethsemane.”
“The second phase included Gethsemane and Golgotha. There the sins which He had met and conquered were PLACED upon Him, that He might BEAR THEM UP to the cross [“And I, If I be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me’] and ANNUL them, this being the meaning of ‘put away,” in Hebrews 9:26. In the first phase He bore sins for the purpose of CONQUERING them and ELIMINATING them from the life. In the second phase He bore sins for the purpose of SUFFERING AND DYING for them, that in His ‘death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.’ Heb. 2:14.”
“In the third phase Christ DEMONSTRATES that man can do what He did, with the SAME help that He [in His flesh-and-blood human nature subject to both temptation and death], includes His session at the right hand of God, His high priestly ministry, and the FINAL EXHIBITION of His saints in their LAST struggle with Satan, and their glorious victory!”
“Then the death sentence, which was first pronounced upon the serpent in the garden (Gen.3:15), long delayed, will be carried out. This was made certain when Jesus [in His flesh-and-blood human nature], repelled every advance of Satan in earth.”
“It was made doubly certain when He DIED on the cross, and thus destroyed death and him that had the power of death: and it will be at last executed when Satan demonstrates that he has NOT CHANGED, that he will kill the saints as he killed Christ, and he does not hesitate to attack even the very city of God and God Himself. Then, finally, sin and sinners will be no more, and the complete end of sin will have come.” [See Rev. 20:5-15 on major events during h the ‘thousand years,’ or millenium].
“It is the first and second of these phases to which Hebrews 1:3 refers. These are included in the ‘purging of sins.’ The third phase is NOW in progress in the sanctuary ABOVE and in the CHURCH below [‘For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that OBEY NOT the gospel of God? And if the righteous SCARCELY be saved, where shall the UNGODLY and SINNER appear?’ 1 Pet. 4:17,18, KJV.].”
“Christ BROKE the power of sin in His LIFEWORK on earth. He DESTROYED sin and Satan by His DEATH.”
“He is now eliminating and destroying sin IN HIS SAINTS on earth, This is part of the ‘cleansing of the sanctuary’ [Dan. 8:14].” Book of Hebrews, pp. 59, 60.
I believe that God has given mankind, the churches, particularly those who, like Peter, one of the Twelve, are yet half-asleep in fatal self-confidence in their standing before God, during these closing hours of earth’s probation, as the signs of the time are loudly announcing, this sudden strange lock-down, quarantine, stay-home PLENTY OF TIME—- to examine ourselves whether we are firmly grounded in the definite pillars of the “faith once delivered to the saints,” in its final stage, which includes the sanctuary message in connection with the 2300 days!
I can just hope, pray, and strive to fulfill my calling to this ministry, “while it is still day,” to be a willing “watchman and light bearer” of the last merciful warnings of the third angel’s work and message. There are others doing the same work all over the world. I joined to them “in spirit and in truth.” I hope you will join us soon “for the night is soon upon us when man can work no more.” The harvest of the earth is ripe—if you have been diligently studying Bible prophecy!
My prayer is that all shall be found by the harvesting angel (Rev. 14: 14-20) as “golden wheat” not “tares” or the “chaff” that will be blown away by “the four winds of strife” when they are finally unloosed (Rev. 7: 1-3). God bless all, NMF