No. 787
Some Thoughts for the Memorial
“No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.” (John 10:18)
The date for celebrating the Memorial to our Lord this year is Monday April 3, 2023 after 6:00 p.m. The calculation is based on the new moon (in Jerusalem) nearest the spring equinox (March 20, 11:24 p.m.) which is March 21, 2023, 7:23 p.m. Thus Nisan 1 commences on March 21 at 6:00 p.m. and Nisan 14 commences on April 3 at 6:00 p.m. It is our prayer that this year’s remembrance may be profitable to all who partake in sincerity and in Truth. We suggest reading the Passover chapter in Volume Six; and we pray a rich blessing upon all who partake. We are living in wonderful times, and we do not know what each day may bring; but we have the strong assurance that we can firmly trust Him who has promised to never leave us or forsake us. (Heb. 13:5)
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“And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51) The determination of Jesus as expressed in this text offers an example in perfection of the grace of patience in its true biblical meaning – cheerful continuance in well doing amid contrary circumstances. His course herein was against all human concepts as viewed by the natural man; hence, Peter said to Him, “Be it far from thee Lord: this shall not be unto thee.” And Jesus gave him appropriate correction: “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou are an offense unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” (Matt. 16:22-23)
Jesus knew full well that the “fulness of the time” had come. (Gal. 4:4-5) It was not the time to wait for His enemies to come to Him, which had He done, would have displayed only the passive grace of longsuffering. The active aggressive grace of patience was now to be perfectly revealed in and by Him. “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” (1 Pet. 2:21)
Note that those who condemned Jesus to the cross were not the beggarly elements of that time, not the irreligious. It was the “good” people who were guilty of that – those who would not cross the Gentile door lest they should be defiled for the feast. As He was, “so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17) The heathen Pilate strove to avoid the tragic miscarriage of justice; and it was the high priest of Israel who had “the greater sin” in the matter. (John 19:11) It was those people schooled in the Law, who sat down and “watched him there” – watched the tragedy of the cross as the idly curious might watch a street‑corner side show – watched the final hours of agony of the Lord of Glory with a calloused indifference that would be unbelievable were it not written in the sacred record. (Matt. 27:36)
Jesus, knowing in the final hours of that awful night, that He had finished the work God gave Him to do, resigned Himself to what was to be. (John 17:4) The time for controversy had passed, and He said to the chief priests, “But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” (Luke 22:53) And so He held His peace.
There is a lesson for us in this: The day previous and the day following our observance of the Memorial should be a time of calm meditation as far as we are able. Nor should we allow (in the words of the poet) “the maddening maze of things” to make us bitter or morose or hateful. It is a time at which we should lift our minds to the highest spiritual levels possible – to repose in the sublime reflections of the past, “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” (Heb. 12:3) “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” (Rom. 8:6) And again, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 14:17) Nor should we allow those of contrary disposition to deter us in these resolves. As it was in Jesus’ day, so it has been all through the age: “I know . . . the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.” (Rev. 2:9)
As we have now come into “the evil day” when “the end of all things is at hand,” let us embrace with full determination the Apostle’s admonition: “And above all things have fervent charity [love] among yourselves.” (Eph. 6:13; 1 Pet. 4:7-8) Of this time in which we are living Jesus stated: “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” (Matt: 24:12-13) These words are a warning to all, and blessed are they who give ear to them. He also said, “Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.” (Luke 12:1) Hypocrisy abounds in all quarters; but God’s faithful people will accept and do – particularly at this season – what St. Paul admonished: “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” (1 Cor. 5:7)
In the type the lamb was taken up five days before it was killed; and that was typical of Jesus, the Greater Lamb, presenting Himself to the Jews on Palm Sunday, five days before He was “lifted up.” (John 12:32) But there was another compelling reason for the five day interval: That most memorable of nights, when the Angel of Death would “pass over” the Jewish firstborn, was not to be approached flippantly or carelessly. As each family took up its own lamb, and removed all leaven from the home, the course of these five days would put them into a proper mental attitude and contrition of heart for that awesome night.
This is well in keeping with St. Paul’s words to all who commemorate the antitype: “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.” (1 Cor. 11:28) The examination should be not five minutes before the service, perhaps in public confessionals; and not just an hour before the service; but let each do so in “sincerity and truth” during the days preceding it. (1 Cor. 5:8)
(By Brother John J. Hoefle, excerpt from No. 20, March 15, 1957, with minor editing.)
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WHO MAY PARTAKE?
The Lord’s Supper is not for the world, nor for merely nominal believers, but only for those who accept Christ as their Redeemer and sin-bearer, and are consecrated to Him and His service. But it is not for us – nor for any man or set of men – to decide who may and who may not partake. It is our duty to point out from the Word of the Lord what are the proper qualifications for participation in the “cup” and in the “loaf,” and then to say as did the Apostle: Let every man examine himself, and then, if he think proper, let him partake. (1 Cor. 11:28)
Now that God’s people are emerging from the errors of the Dark Ages, this Memorial can be more clearly understood and the judging or examining of one’s self can be more thorough than ever before. Let each ask himself:
(1) Do I believe the Scripture teaching that I, as a member of the human family, was under that condemnation to death which passed upon all because of original sin?
(2) Do I believe that my only hope of escape from that condemnation of sin and death was through the ransom-sacrifice of the man Christ Jesus, my Lord?
(3) Do I believe He gave Himself – His flesh and blood, His humanity – as my ransom-price, pouring out His soul unto death, making His soul a sin-offering (Isa. 53:10, 12) on this behalf?
(4) Do I see that the consecration to death, made at Jordan when He was baptized, was fulfilled by His sacrifice of Himself for mankind, which beginning there, was finished on the cross when He died?
(5) Do I see that the rights under the Law, which He secured by obedience to it (the right of lasting life and the dominion of earth), were what He through that same sacrifice bequeathed to the fallen, dying race – to as many as shall accept the blessings under the conditions of the New Covenant?
(6) Do I see that His flesh and blood, thus sacrificed, stood for, represented, those blessings and favors which they purchased for us?
(7) Do I see that the partaking of the bread and wine symbols of His flesh and blood signifies my acceptance of those favors and blessings which the flesh and blood of my Lord bought for me and for all?
(8) And if I do thus heartily accept of the ransom thus memorialized, do I consecrate to the Lord my entire being, my flesh and blood, justified through that ransom?
If we can answer these questions affirmatively we clearly or fully discern the Lord’s body, give credit to His meritorious sacrifice, and may eat, should eat.
Those, however, that deny that a ransom for sin and sinners was required and given, who feel that they need not to partake of Christ’s merit, who deny that the merit of one can be imputed to another, who have cast off the wedding garment of Christ’s righteousness, who feel happier and freer in the filthy rags of their own righteousness, and who now consider the precious blood wherewith they were once sanctified a not-holy or an ordinary thing – such we advise to stay away from memorializing that in which they no longer believe; for they would merely be adding hypocrisy to unbelief. For such to partake, is to add condemnation to themselves and their no-ransom theories.
But, better still, let us advise all who have merely been entrapped into this error, by the sophistries promulgated through various channels by the great Adversary, to reject all vain human philosophies and to receive again the simple Word of God, the truths therein set forth: that all are fallen, and that the only way open for our reconciliation and restitution consistent with the divine law and sentence was the giving of the full and exact corresponding price or ransom for our sins; that in no other way could He be just and yet justify sinners. Let them recognize the fact that our Lord Jesus, as the Lamb of God, bore the full penalty for our sins in His own body on the tree, that He gave full ransom for all.
The philosophy is very plain, but if such cannot grasp it, at least let such grasp the fact that God declares it to be so, and let them return unto the Lord and He will abundantly pardon. Let them ask for the guidance of the spirit and the anointing of the eyes, that they may be able to comprehend this, the foundation of all the grace of our God in Christ. Thus in true acceptance of the broken body and the shed blood, realizing that the sacrifice was for their sins and that the blood shed [life given] seals the New Covenant for all, let them commemorate the greatest event of history, the shedding of the precious blood, the sacrifice of the precious life of God’s dear Son for our sins.
Many in the past have partaken of the emblems of the Lord’s body and blood without fully appreciating the philosophy of the ransom, who nevertheless did so with reverent appreciation of the fact that the death of our Redeemer had purged us from our guilt and relieved us from its penalty. Such discerned the real significance of the Memorial, but because of gross errors associated with the truth, they did not discern its simple philosophy as many of us may now do.
The primary participants in the Lord’s Supper were to be the Saints, the Little Flock. However, we believe there is an unbegotten class who consecrate after the closing of the high calling similar to those faithful ones who preceded the Gospel Age (see Reprint 5761). We call that class “Youthful Worthies” and believe they will be rewarded in the earthly phase of the Kingdom in honor and in service with the Ancient Worthies of Hebrews Chapter 11.
Do Youthful Worthies partake of the Lord’s Supper? Most certainly they do! They are thankful and appreciative of what our Savior has done for them. They do not “suffer with Christ,” nor will they “reign with Christ,” therefore they partake of the wine and bread, symbolizing our Lord’s death as the Lamb of God and symbolizing their tentative justification. Their trial is for faith and obedience and not for life as was the Saints trial, although they make the same kind of consecration as did the spirit-begotten: “Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger [the unbegotten], as for one of your own country [spirit-begotten]: for I am the Lord your God.” (Lev. 24:22)
(Excerpt from Reprint 2272 with pertinent additions.)
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WAS IT NOT NECESSARY?
Two of our Lord’s disciples were walking on the way from Jerusalem to Emmaus after His resurrection. They were discussing the strange and wonderful event of the few days previous, when a stranger suddenly drew near and, walking with them, said, “What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?” Not recognizing the stranger as the Lord Himself, one of them said, “Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?” (Luke 24:13-18)
Jesus asked, “What things?” They replied, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women, also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher; And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.” (Luke 24:19-24)
Then our Lord said, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” (Luke 24:25-26) In other words, was it not necessary? The necessity of those things was the great lesson that He endeavored to impart to those earnest but bewildered disciples. From the standpoint of Christians today, the necessity of those things is much more easily discerned than from the standpoint of the early disciples who were in close proximity to those marvelous events.
Nevertheless, many today thoughtlessly stumble into very erroneous conclusions based on a reckless interpretation of the Master’s plain teaching. They say: Yes, it was necessary for Christ to suffer, because the path of suffering is the only path to glory. Christ had to suffer and so all must suffer, and the glory will follow as a natural consequence. They contend that the Lord’s words teach this.
A more reflective mind would say: No, that is not sound logic; for the glory of God was not attained through suffering; neither was that of the angels, nor of the Son of God in His pre-human existence. A still more attentive mind would say: No, that was not the reason His sufferings were necessary, for as the Lord stated, the divinely inspired prophecies show that the suffering was necessary because it was a feature of God’s plan for human redemption. Unless it were a feature of that plan, God would not have required it.
The Apostle Paul explained that it was necessary to the plan in order to manifest God’s righteousness in remitting the sins of the already condemned world, showing that He is just, and yet the justifier of the condemned who believe in Jesus. God sent Jesus forth to be a propitiation, a satisfaction, a substitute for them. Jesus also freely gave His humanity – His life as a man – as a ransom for the posterity of Adam who had inherited his sin and condemnation. (Rom. 3:25-26)
The Master’s question was designed to raise our awareness of the justice and wisdom of God’s course in this matter. Suppose for a moment that God had promised mankind salvation from death without this provision, which our Lord termed as necessary. What would have been the result? Thoughtful minds will at once see that such a course would have proved:
(1) That God is a changeable God, declaring at one time that the wages of sin is death, and afterwards reversing His decision and granting life to the condemned;
(2) That either in the first or in the second case He was unjust – either that the penalty of death was too severe and, therefore, unjust, or else, if it were not unjust but a righteous penalty, that He was unjust in reversing such a righteous decision;
(3) Such a variable course would unsettle all confidence in God. We would be led to question continually His righteousness and wisdom, and could never feel assured against a sudden and unaccountable change of His attitude and dealing toward us. If He promised us life and happiness today, we could not know that tomorrow He would not take back His word and consign us to misery or death.
Such would have been our sad condition had not this necessity to which our Lord referred been fully met by the Lord’s sufferings, even unto death. He “gave himself a ransom for all,” in compliance with the wise and just plan of God for human redemption. (1 Tim. 2:6) By this means mankind is justly released from the just penalty which God pronounced against us; for a loving, benevolent Redeemer took our human nature and then sacrificed it in our behalf – thus bearing, in our stead, the exact penalty due to Adam and inherited from him by all his posterity.
Thus our debt was paid. All who have faith to believe in the promise of life through Christ are now legally free from the condemnation under which they were born, though the appointed time for their actual release has not yet come. They hold in their possession a promissory note – the sure covenant of God – sealed with the precious blood of Christ, and payable at the time appointed, the Millennial Age. Thus they are free men in Christ; they are saved by faith, though they still “walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” And, comforted by the rod of divine discipline and the staff of divine counsel and favor, they fear no evil, knowing that in due time the promise of everlasting life shall be fully verified to them. (Psa. 23:4)
ANOTHER NECESSARY FEATURE
But our Lord referred to another necessary feature in the divine plan: Was it not necessary also for the Messiah to enter into His glory? The question is to us as well as to those early disciples, and the fact that it was asked implies we should be able to discern that it was indeed necessary. It was necessary because not only do we need a redeemer to assume and cancel our past debts, but we also need an able teacher and leader – a prophet and king – to break the fetters of sin and death and lead us out of our bondage. If we were promised life and liberty without the help of a deliverer, we would still be in the same sad condition. The prison-doors of death are strong and securely bolted, and we cannot burst them open. The fetters of sin and sickness, and of mental, moral, and physical impairment are firmly clasped about us, and we do not have the power to shake them off.
And so we feel the necessity of a mighty deliverer, as well as of a loving redeemer. Thank God that we have both in His only begotten and well beloved Son. He is our Deliverer, as well as our Redeemer, Savior, Prophet, Priest, and King – strong to deliver and mighty to save. As a man He sacrificed all that He then had – His humanity – even unto death. God, accepted that sacrificed humanity as the price of our redemption, and renewed His existence to a higher nature – even to His own divine likeness.
And thus this second necessary feature of the divine plan was met. The resurrected Jesus was given all power in heaven and in earth, and is therefore abundantly able, not only to awaken the redeemed race from death, but also to fully restore all who are willing to righteousness and eternal life. Through the blessings of His kingly and priestly office, He will in due time present all the willing and obedient faultless before the presence of God, that they may enter fully into the eternal joys of His loving favor. In His presence will be fullness of joy and eternal pleasures. (Psa. 16:11)
Consider then how necessary it was that the Messiah both suffer death, and also enter His glory. Both the humiliation and the exaltation meet our necessities in such a marvelous way that we clearly recognize the fact that only divine wisdom, love, benevolence, and grace could have planned the wondrous scheme. “But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:57)
The death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ was necessary to God’s plan of salvation when viewed from a philosophical standpoint, which the Lord would have us be thoughtful enough to discern. But it was also necessary from the standpoint of prophecy. As our Lord pointed out, we should not be “slow of heart” to believe all that the Prophets have spoken.
After pointing out that it was necessary that He suffer, Jesus then traced the line of prophecy for the two disciples in detail: “And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27) Although the detail of what He said was not recorded in the account, we can read Moses and the Prophets for ourselves. He undoubtedly recounted the following prophecies from Moses:
“The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken.” (Deut. 18:15) The risen Christ was the beginning of the fulfilment of that promise. In the type, Moses led Israel out of bondage in Egypt, but the risen Christ will be the real deliverer of Israel and the world from the bondage to sin and death.
Moses also prefigured, in the divinely instituted types of the Day of Atonement, both the sacrificial sufferings of Christ, typed by the sacrifice of the bullock (Lev. 16:11), and His subsequent glory, typed by Aaron, in his robes of typical glory and beauty. In the type, after the sacrifice had been accomplished and the blood presented in the “Most Holy” as a typical propitiation for the sins of Israel, Aaron came out of the tabernacle and lifted up his hands and blessed the people, who had until then been lying prostrate on the ground, representing the whole human race in death. This prefigured the resurrection glory of Christ and His coming out of the Most Holy presence of God to bless the whole world in the Millennial Age. (See Tabernacle Shadows of Better Sacrifices.) As our Lord asked, was it not indeed necessary to the fulfilment of these divinely instituted types for the Messiah to suffer these things and to enter His glory?
Moses also testified of Christ in recording the incidents of the typical sacrifice of Isaac by his father, Abraham, who figuratively received him again from the dead. (Gen. 22:1-18; Heb. 11:19) This prefigured God’s offering of His only begotten Son and receiving Him again from the dead.
There were also the numerous Old Testament prophecies which so particularly foreshadowed the circumstances of the death of Jesus, notably:
“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. . . . And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death . . . and he was numbered with the transgressors.” (Isa. 53:7, 9, 12) In fulfillment of this prophecy, our Lord was non-resistant and made no plea or attempt to deliver Himself from death. He made His grave with the sinful human race, being crucified between two thieves, and then He was buried in the tomb of the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea. (Matt. 27:57-60)
“He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.” (Psa. 34:20) “And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.” (Zech. 12:10) The Gospel of John clearly recorded the fulfillment of both these predictions. (John 19:33-37)
“For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [sheol, the grave]; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” (Psa. 16:10) This prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus was raised from the dead and His body was miraculously removed from the tomb.
“They pierced my hands and my feet . . . They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture . . . They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” (Psa. 22:16, 18; Psa. 69:21) How minutely all of these prophecies were fulfilled! (Matt. 27:34-35)
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. . . . for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.” (Isa. 53:5, 8) He was not wounded and cut off for His own transgressions, but for ours, and our peace with God was made by the things He suffered.
The Prophets also told of His glorious reign to follow: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. . . . He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.” (Isa. 53:10; Isa. 25:8)
Yes, it was necessary to the fulfilment of all these prophecies that Christ both suffer death and also enter into His glory. All thoughtful believers may rejoice knowing: “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” (Isa. 40:5)
(Based on Reprint 4160.)
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