The Promise Yet to Be Fulfilled.

'2. THE REDEMPTION OF THE EARTH

It was remarked that the redemption of man did not contemplate merely a restoration to that state which he occupied when he was created; as he was then placed upon probation for life. But they who are redeemed from sin and death have passed through probation; they have secured eternal life; they are brought into that condition which God purposed that man should occupy when he had faithfully fulfilled his period of trial and received the boon of immortality.

In like manner, the earth will be more than restored to its primitive condition.

When man was created his dominion was not in the condition for which it was designed. He was told to “multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.” The Lord “planted a garden eastward in Eden,” and man was appointed “to dress it and to keep it.” Had he remained innocent, and retained his position in the garden, as his descendants multiplied they would have extended the garden in the process of subduing the earth, until its surface had become one vast garden—a scene of surpassing loveliness. But sin at once arrested the work. The ground was cursed; the garden was removed; the tree of life was taken away; and in its stead thorns and thistles sprung up to increase man’s cares and labors. The curse upon

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the earth, the growth of thorns and thistles, the absence of the tree of life, were no more a part of God’s original purpose concerning the earth, than sin and misery were in his original purpose concerning man. And, of course, the full accomplishment of his original purpose will bring the whole earth to a state of beauty; when the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose, and the wilderness be like Eden, even as the garden of the Lord. Isa. 35:1; 51:3.

Isa 35:1  The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. 

Isa 51:3  For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. 

Both man and his dominion must and will be placed beyond the reach of the curse; beyond the power and the danger of moral and physical evil. The wondrous mercy and love of God in providing a way of salvation at such an immense sacrifice as the gift of his own dear Son, was not appreciated by the fallen race. As men multiplied upon the earth they corrupted their way before God, and the land was filled with violence and iniquity. When they had gone astray almost without exception, the Lord determined to check this career of crime, and destroy the wicked generation. Noah alone, of all the millions living, had maintained his integrity. The purpose of mercy to the race was carried out in him.

After the flood, as the inhabitants of the earth again increased, instead of humbling themselves before the Most High, who had so wondrously made known his justice and his power, they made the flood an excuse to justify their insane ambition, and they set themselves to build a tower by means of which they might defy the power of the Almighty! In this they showed as little regard for his authority and might, as they had faith in his promise of which the bow in the cloud was a token.

But the Lord is not straitened in resources to frustrate the purposes of the rebellious. He confounded their language so that they could no longer plan and labor in concert, and they, of necessity, “left off to build it.” As the people on the earth were now divided into nations, and all going astray from the Lord, it became necessary to separate one family, one people, to preserve the knowledge of God, and by whom to develop the plan of salvation and to identify the promised seed of the woman who was to bruise the head of the serpent. In the midst of all this perverseness, Abraham stood alone, a man of singular integrity and steadfastness in the right, in so much that he was favored

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with the remarkable title of “the friend of God.”

He was constituted the father of all the faithful who should live upon the earth, even to the end of time; and to the promise made to him we are directed to look for our hope. See Heb. 6:11-20.

Heb 6:11  And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end: 

Heb 6:12  That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 

Heb 6:13  For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, 

Heb 6:14  Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 

Heb 6:15  And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 

Heb 6:16  For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. 

Heb 6:17  Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 

Heb 6:18  That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 

Heb 6:19  Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 

Heb 6:20  Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. 

Also it is said, “And if ye be Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:29.

Our heirship is, therefore, directly related to the promise made to Abraham. What is the promise? Of what are we heirs? It has been said by some that the only promise given to Abraham in which we have any interest is that of “the seed,” or of Christ. But that cannot be so, for the apostle in this same chapter, Gal. 3:16, says that the promises were made to Abraham and to Christ; not of Christ.

Gal 3:16  Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 

If we are Christ’s we are heirs of the same promises. This is further proved in Rom.8:17, where it is said that if we are the children of God we are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.”

Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 

Thus it appears that certain promises were made to Abraham and to his seed; that the seed is, primarily, Christ, and secondarily, they that are Christ’s; heirs with him of the promises. According to the Scriptures it is an important consideration for us to be acknowledged as the seed or heirs of Abraham.

Now it cannot be an important matter to be proved an heir of him who has nothing to bestow.

What, then, was the promise, what the inheritance, which we may expect to receive from Abraham, our father? That the promise was of an inheritance, of a possession, or, so to speak, of a homestead, is abundantly proved in both Testaments. Thus Paul said of Abraham: “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.” Heb. 11:9. And further in verse 13: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” As strangers and pilgrims they dwelt in the land of promise; although it was to be their inheritance, they dwelt in it as in a strange country, and died in faith of the promise yet to be fulfilled. This language is unmistakable in its import. In its obvious import it is fully sustained by the words of Stephen. The Lord said unto

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Abraham: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee....And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot  on yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.” Acts 7:3-5.

And we learn by Heb. 11 that he died without receiving it; therefore the promise remains to be fulfilled; and if to be fulfilled to him, of course “to his seed,”—all that are Christ’s.

(To be continued)

(Excerpt from-) THE ATONEMENT PART SECOND:

THE ATONEMENT AS REVEALED IN THE BIBLE

 (1884)

BY   ELDER J. H. WAGGONER