No. 760
“And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” (Luke 2:13-14)
At this time of year when so many people have the Savior uppermost in mind, we try to remind our readers of the “good tidings of great joy.” It does not matter that December 25th is not the correct date of our Savior’s birth, as the Scriptures do not mandate that we celebrate His birth. However, the Christian world in general celebrates it on that date, and we are happy that our Savior is specially remembered by all those who rejoice in Jesus as their Redeemer and we gladly join in this remembrance.
God’s promise that the Seed of Abraham would ultimately bless all nations has influenced thought the world over. The Jews at first thought this promise would be fulfilled in them as a nation. They thought they could prove themselves worthy through obedience to the Law Covenant and then teach all nations to keep the divine law, thus bringing the world to perfection, divine favor, and everlasting life. This hope was crushed when they found themselves unable to keep the law – instead of attaining perfection, they continued to die. Even Moses, the mediator of the Law Covenant and the special servant of God, could not attain the blessings of the law.
God then made them the promise of some better thing – of a greater Mediator and of a more successful covenant through that Mediator. The Mediator of the New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-34) was to be greater than Moses, as he himself declared: “For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me [but greater]; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.” (Acts 3:22-23) From then on, their hearts and hopes looked to the future for the accomplishment of the glorious things hoped for through this great Prophet.
“THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS”
As nations near and far heard of Israel’s hope for a great savior and deliverer, the beauty of the idea took root in every direction. Messiah was anticipated under various names and the glories of His Kingdom were pictured as a “Golden Age.”
Thus when our Lord was born, “the people were in expectation” of the promised Messiah. (Luke 3:15) For this reason, the wise men in the East were drawn to see and to worship the newborn King of the Jews. It was also for this reason that during Jesus’ ministry certain Greeks came to the disciple Philip saying, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” (John 12:21) They had heard of Him and recognized that His magic powers implied a relationship with the long-expected Messiah. The multitudes of Palestine also heard of Jesus and asked if He was the Messiah. The rulers denied it but many believed, saying, “When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done? . . . Never man spake like this man.” (John 7:31, 46)
Nevertheless, few were ready to receive Him, even among His own people. God specially revealed His Son only to those worthy of heart – those who were “Israelites indeed.” This was in harmony with the prophecy of old, “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.” (Psa. 25:14) It was also written, “In an acceptable time have I answered thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people . . .” (Isa. 49:8)
No one – including Jews, Greeks and Persian wise men – expected Messiah to first offer Himself as a living sacrifice for sinners through obedience to the Truth. None knew what a long period must elapse between the time when Messiah was “despised and rejected of men” until the time He would appear in power and great glory to establish His Empire in fulfillment of prophecy. (Isa. 53:3; Dan. 2:34; Dan. 7:13-27)
Still to this day, few understand God’s great secret or “mystery” kept hidden during past ages and dispensations. The mystery is that during the long period of the Gospel Age a saintly “Little Flock” would be selected from mankind to be Messiah’s bride and joint-heir with Him in His Messianic reign. (Col. 1:26-27) Few see that this Little Flock has been selected from every nation, people, kindred and tongue, and that they have followed the Lamb’s footsteps wherever He has gone. Few understand that with this Little Flock having filled up the measure of afflictions appointed to them, the Kingdom of Glory will be revealed and all flesh will see it together. (Isa. 40:5) All will be blessed by it – first the Jew, Abraham’s natural seed, and also the Gentile – all the families of the earth. (Rom. 1:16)
A SAVIOR – CHRIST THE LORD
The name Jesus is the Greek form of Joshua, signifying “savior.” In the Aramaic language used in Jesus’ time, the word savior signifies “life-giver.” It was only in a prophetic sense, of course, that the baby in Bethlehem was called a Savior. He would become the Savior, the Christ, the Lord, but as a baby He was none of these things.
The word Christ signifies “anointed” and in the divine purpose it was arranged that Messiah would be anointed as High Priest of Israel on a plane higher than Aaron – “after the order of Melchizedek” (who was both a priest and a king). (Psa.110:4) Every priest of Israel had to be anointed to his office before he could fill it, thus Jesus became the Christ before becoming the Savior and the Lord. It was also prophesied that Christ would be the great King, greater than David and Solomon, who typed and foreshadowed Him.
Jesus was not anointed with literal oil but with the Holy Spirit, which was typified by the oil used upon the heads of the kings and priests of Israel. He received this Holy Spirit at the time of His baptism, anointing Him for His great work of antitypical Priest and King of Israel. As the long-promised Messiah, He would bless Israel and through Israel He would bless the entire world. But as the typical priests were ordained to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, Jesus must first offer Himself as a sacrifice acceptable to God for the sins of mankind, in order that He might be the Savior or Deliverer of men from the curse of sin and death, restoring them and their earthly home to the glorious condition of perfection represented in Adam and his Eden home. Thus it was not only necessary that Jesus consecrate His life to the divine service and be anointed with the Holy Spirit, but He must also sacrificially lay down His life unto death – even the death of the Cross.
As a part of His reward, He was raised to glory, honor and immortality on the third day. As the glorified one, He was then fully commissioned and empowered to establish the long-promised, Messianic Kingdom, but He has been waiting for the Little Flock to walk in His footsteps. With the elect number completed and sharing His glory, His Kingdom will take control of earth. Satan will be bound for a thousand years and all the wonderful blessings promised in the Law, the Prophets, the Gospels, and the Epistles will be fulfilled.
We have seen how the Son of God was anointed to be both Priest and King, how He sacrificed Himself, and how He has been waiting for the due time for His Kingdom to begin. Now we consider the force and significance of the word “Savior” and look at exactly how He saves His people from their sins.
The Redeemer, glorified as the antitypical Melchizedek, “a priest upon his throne,” is to be the Savior or life-giver of the race, for whose sin and because of whose condemnation He died to bring us back to God – “the just for the unjust.” He is the life-giver to some during the Gospel Age and to the remainder during His Messianic reign in the Millennial Age. Along with His saintly bride class, He will then gradually lift up humanity from sin and death to righteousness and life eternal. All who refuse the blessings then offered will be destroyed in the Second Death, from which there will be no hope of recovery.
The glorified Redeemer has first saved His Church through a special salvation and High Calling. They have been called to suffer with Him so that they may reign with Him on the Heavenly plane. They have entered into a covenant of sacrifice with God through the merit of the Redeemer. Their salvation is made actual when they share in His resurrection, the “first resurrection,” and become kings and priests unto God, to reign with Christ a thousand years. (Rev. 20:6) The Christ, the Savior of Glory, bride and bridegroom united, will be the world’s Savior.
“FEAR NOT!”
All men realize their imperfection to at least some extent; they realize that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Men’s thoughts toward God seem to run toward fear; they fear themselves unworthy of divine favor; they fear divine wrath. So it was with the shepherds to whom the angel of the Lord announced Messiah’s birth. They were in fear. For what purpose would an angel or messenger appear to them except to pronounce a condemnation or to foretell a catastrophe? That is why the first words of the messenger were ones of assurance: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” (Luke 2:10)
So when we present mankind in general with God’s message to sinners, it is appropriate that we also begin by saying, “Fear not!” The God we preach to you is not a demon seeking to injure and torment you. He is a God of wisdom, justice and love, with complete power to successfully carry out His wise, just, and loving plan for the human race.
Satan has used this human tendency of fear as a weapon to drive man away from God and His revelation, the Bible. We should not attribute the vicious misrepresentations of our Heavenly Father contained in the creeds handed down to us from the “dark ages” to any character deficiencies of our forefathers. Rather we are to credit them to the great father of lies. (John 8:44) In the darkness of the past, he planted the seeds of what the Apostle terms “doctrines of devils.” (1 Tim. 4:1)
We thank the Lord that gradually we are getting our eyes of understanding opened to recognize the true character of God and His Son Jesus Christ, who was sent by Him and who is His express image. St. Paul identifies the problem for us, saying: “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2 Cor. 4:3-4)
God foresaw our estrangement and our enslavement by the adversary, as He tells us through the Prophet Isaiah: “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men . . .” (Isa. 29:13) These precepts are human traditions and false doctrines inspired by Satan, the adversary.
GOD’S CHRISTMAS GIFT
Intending from the first not to abandon His fallen human creatures to utter destruction, the Father purposed in advance His magnificent Christmas gift to us – the great plan of salvation now in progress – “According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Eph. 3:11) From before the foundation of the world, He purposed that Jesus would be the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. (John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:20)
But God has a “due time” for every feature of His great plan, as the Scriptures show:
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” (Gal. 4:4)
“For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Rom. 5:6)
More than four thousand years passed before the due time came to send the only begotten Son into the world to redeem it. To understand this delay we must first learn two things:
(1) Man’s experience with sin and death is part of the great lesson God designed for all mankind – learning the exceeding sinfulness of sin. They will later receive a second great lesson – learning the benefits and desirableness of righteousness. The knowledge they have gained in the first lesson will aid in making the second lesson more effective.
(2) When our dear family and friends die, it is as if they are sleeping. They have no consciousness. They experience neither joy nor sorrow, as they await the Millennial morning – the resurrection morning. (Eccl. 9:5; John 11:11; John 3:13; Acts 2:34)
Death would be absolute, as in the case of the lower animals, had not God in His great love given us the gift that provides for our redemption and resurrection. (Eccl. 3:19; John 3:16) In view of this provision, the whole world is said to “sleep in Jesus” – in the sense that their hope rests in the great work which Jesus accomplished when He gave Himself as a “ransom for all to be testified in due time.” (1 Thess. 4:14; 1 Tim. 2:6)
While Jesus was “made of a woman,” that was not the beginning of His existence, for He was with the Father “before the world was.” (John 17:5) The Scriptures make very plain that He was the very “beginning of the creation of God.” (Rev. 3:14) He was the very first and the chief of all God’s creatures:
“In the beginning was the Word [Logos] and the Word was with [the] God and the Word was [a] God.[1] . . . All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1, 3)
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
The Scriptures make clear that the Father did not compel the Son to be our Redeemer – on the contrary, He invited Him to do so and set before Him the great rewards:
(1) The privilege of proving His loyalty to the Father: “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” (Psa. 40:8; Heb. 10:7)
(2) The privilege of redeeming and restoring the fallen race: “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:28)
(3) The honor of being exalted to an even higher position than He had before He left the Father: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:9; Eph. 1:21; Heb. 12:2)
THE GIFT WILL NOT BE TAKEN BACK
While the birth of the Savior was the beginning of God’s Christmas gift to us, the gift includes much more. By obedience to the divine law, our Lord Jesus earned the right to eternal life on the human plane. By consecrating Himself to death, He laid down His perfect human life, giving it to us, and He will never take back that human life. When He arose from the dead on the third day, it was as a perfect spirit-being. (2 Cor. 3:17)
His appearances in a materialized body of flesh during the 40 days after His resurrection were very brief and few, after the manner in which angels had previously appeared in materialized fleshly bodies. His appearances were for the purpose of convincing the disciples that He was no longer dead, and to convince them also that He was no longer limited to earthly powers, as before His death. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in spirit. (1 Pet. 3:18)
Having sacrificed His perfect human life rights, the glorified Jesus ascended on high with those rights to His credit, so to speak. Those rights were sufficient to satisfy the demands of justice for the sins of the whole world. Because all mankind had been condemned through one man, all mankind could be justified, atoned for, by the sacrifice of one perfect man. (1 Tim. 2:5-6)
However, the ascended Savior did not then apply the merit of His sacrifice for the world, but as the Scriptures show, He applied it for His Church and the entire Household of Faith. Unbelievers were not covered by that application of Christ’s merit. In order to get under the merit of Christ, one must believe, renounce sin and consecrate oneself to walk in the Redeemer’s footsteps.
The gospel call has been going forth under this provision for nearly twenty centuries. According to the Scriptures, the object has been primarily for the selection of the Church of Christ, and secondarily for the blessing of the broader Household of Faith.
SAVIOR OF THE WORLD
God’s gift of the Savior will continue to bring still more blessings, however. Jesus is not merely the Savior of the Church and the Household of Faith; He is also the Savior of the world. We are not to think that those who reject the Lord’s Cross and refuse to make a full consecration of their lives during this age are condemned, either to eternal torment or to anything else. The call of the Gospel Age is a favor and a privilege. Those who respond get a special blessing and those who do not respond miss that special blessing. They are not condemned in any sense of the word because of rejecting the privilege of walking in the Master’s steps. On the contrary, the Scriptures declare that they were already condemned. As members of Adam’s posterity, they share in his death sentence; they share his weaknesses and unworthiness. They have failed to escape from that condemnation, and thus they continue under it.
But even those who lose God’s highest blessings and rewards will still have open before them great and wonderful favors of God, all of which were purchased by the Redeemer’s precious blood – by His sacrifice for our sins, by His submission of His life for the forfeited life of Adam so that Adam and all his race might be recovered from the death sentence. These blessings for the world are not yet clearly seen or appreciated except by those to whom “the deep things of God” have been revealed. (1 Cor. 2:10)
The particular point we wish to emphasize is that God has provided a salvation for the world, as well as a salvation for the Church. The Bible tells us of the general facts of these salvations. It assures us: “For God so loved the world [as well as the Church], that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
This verse contains the whole message of the Gospel in condensed form. Notice what it shows: (1) Man is perishing and in need of redemption. Note that the penalty that is upon the world is not an eternal torment penalty, but a penalty of destruction. (2) God’s love is proven by the gift of His Son. (3) The blessings are to encompass the entire world. (4) The limitations of divine grace are plainly stated – the blessings can only be obtained through a true acceptance of Christ.
While our Lord’s merit is fully appropriated during the Gospel Age for all who come unto Him, it will be fully set free when the last of the consecrated ones have passed beyond the vail. His merit has been imputed to them for the very purpose of enabling them to sacrifice, following in Christ’s footsteps. When His merit has been released by the death of the last of the consecrated, it will be again at His disposal for appropriation to the world.
In due time the knowledge of God will fill the whole earth as the waters cover the great deep and all will understand; all will hear and be able to believe in God’s goodness and in His wonderful arrangement on man’s behalf. (Isa. 11:9; Heb. 8:11) Those who will then believe, and who will then accept God’s favor on its terms of loyalty, will be blessed by Messiah’s Kingdom. The appointed work of that Kingdom will be the rolling away of the curse of sin and death and the blessing of all the families of the earth
THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE
Let us now review the unfolding of the divine plan: The Babe of Bethlehem; the Man of Sorrows; the Risen Lord; the Ascended High Priest and Advocate; the appropriation of His merit to consecrated believers; the joy of forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to God experienced by all believers; their instruction in the school of Christ; their testing and proving by trials and difficulties; the glorification of the Church with her Lord; and finally the appropriation of His merit to the world and the Millennial Kingdom reign of righteousness for the blessing of the world.
Oh, the exceeding riches of God’s grace to us through Jesus Christ! (Eph. 2:7)
By applying His merit for the world and using it to seal the New Covenant, Messiah opens the way whereby all then living may become reconciled to God – may be blessed with restitution to full perfection of mind, body and character – and have back again the paradise lost by sin, but redeemed at Calvary. The billions that have already gone down into the tomb will also be blessed by God’s great Christmas gift. The Master tells us that they will be awakened from the sleep of the Adamic death for the purpose of being resurrected out of present sin and death conditions to the glorious condition of human perfection. (John 5:28-29)
The more we examine this picture, the more enchanting it is. The glorious King and His glorious bride, the Church, will be very merciful and kind and helpful as well as very firm in dealing with poor humanity, the groaning creation. This will ensure that all who can be reformed will be reformed, while the willfully rebellious will be destroyed in the Second Death. (Acts 3:23)
GREAT JOY TO ALL PEOPLE
We are truly beginning to understand the message sent us through the angel when our Savior was born. The message is not to fear bad tidings of eternal torment and misery for all people. It is the very reverse of this, namely to, “Fear not” because the tidings are exceedingly good!
The good tidings of great joy have not yet been to all people. Even the knowledge of the Lord has reached only a small fraction of earth’s population thus far, and the message that has reached them has been generally a very unsatisfactory, unreasonable message of damnation and great misery. As we have seen, however, the great plan of the ages is rolling toward completion, bringing at every stage fresh blessings and fresh revelations of the glorious things which God purposed in Himself from before the foundation of the world. How true is God’s statement: “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:9)
How thankful we should be for the further knowledge of God’s great plan that is now streaming forth from His Word for the blessing of all whose eyes of understanding and ears of faith are open. We are truly thankful that our friends and neighbors are not in everlasting torture, thankful that they are, on the contrary, waiting for the glorious millennial morning and its opportunity of restitution bought by the blood of the Redeemer. (Acts 3:19-21)
For those who thus see the real value of Christmas Day, it is possible to be a thousand times happier and more grateful to God than others can possibly be. We should in turn seek to share the good tidings and to glorify our Father in heaven, who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN RECEIVE
Certainly the general joy of the Christmas season is very appropriate, even if it is not always appropriately expressed. The custom of exchanging gifts and tokens of love and friendship prevails everywhere the story of Jesus has gone. During this season, the less fortunate of society are often aided and remembered by those who are more advantaged. Surely this is as it should be. Although not all who have received this benevolence have experienced a lasting blessing, those giving it are almost always blessed. In this we see the truth of the Savior’s own words, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)
To give is godlike: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (Jas. 1:17) The Father has set an example of benevolence which all who know Him should strive to emulate. Consider the great gift of God’s love: “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” (2 Cor. 9:15) As we discern something of the length and breadth and height and depth of God’s love, our amazement and our joy increases and we have more desire to be likewise generous with others, especially with all who are less fortunate than us, either in material things or spiritual things.
We hope this Christmas message prompts joyful thanks to God for the gift of His only begotten Son to be our Redeemer. Hallelujah what a Savior! “Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!” (Psa. 107:31) Our best wishes to all our readers for the Lord’s blessing during the holiday season and for a blessed New Year. Let the Lord be your trust and your guide: “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” (Prov. 30:5)
(Based on writings of Pastor Russell, primarily Reprints 4714 and 5596, and Harvest Gleanings Volume II, pages 749-753.)
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[1] See Emphatic Diaglott translation.