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[R4612 : page 151]

"WHEN I SHALL TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS"

BEYOND all question the Apostle applies the above words (Rom. 11:27) to the Jewish people at the conclusion of this Gospel Age, after God shall have gathered the Spiritual Seed of Abraham out of all nations. We cannot well consider this the forgiveness or taking away of their national sin, because their national sin shall have been expiated by their punishment in the past 1800 years, as St. Paul prophetically foretold, saying, "Wrath is come upon this people to the uttermost, that all things written in the Law and the prophecies concerning them should be fulfilled."

If, then, it is not their national sin that is referred to here, what sins are these? They are the individual sins of the Jew, similar to those which are upon all humanity, the sin in which they were born; as it is written, "I was born in sin, shapen in iniquity; in sin did my mother conceive me." This inherited sin comes down, we recognize, from Father Adam and Mother Eve and is termed Original Sin. It is true that God made a special arrangement with the Jewish nation whereby their Original Sin would be considered cancelled under the sacrificial arrangements of the Mosaic or Law Covenant. But, as the Apostle points out, this never brought them life nor release from Divine condemnation pronounced first against Adam. It merely extended or doubled this condemnation, as it were, because they had first the Adamic sin condemnation, and second the condemnation of their Law Covenant.

The only explanation which will fit the Apostle's words is that suggested by the Lord through the Prophet (Jer. 31:31), "This is my Covenant with you when I shall take away your sins." The Apostle shows that this taking away of their sins and the instituting of the Covenant with them, will be after this Gospel Age, when the Church, which is the Body of Christ, shall have completed the sufferings of Christ and shall have entered into his glory.

The manner of the taking away of the sins of the Jews will not be the same as that of the Church—instantaneous—but rather a gradual matter. Instead of Israel's being justified instantly to fellowship with God, they will be under the care and control of the great Mediator between God and men. And this great Mediator, Prophet, Priest and King will for one thousand years be engaged in the work of taking away their sins, according to this Covenant which God specified through the Prophet Jeremiah. And at the conclusion of the one thousand [R4612 : page 152] years he will present them perfect, blameless, irreprovable to the Father. Having then accomplished the purposes of his Mediatorial Kingdom work he will resign his dominion to God the Father, and Israel will thenceforth be in actual Covenant relationship with God.

As we have heretofore seen, it is the Divine programme to permit all nations, peoples and kindreds of the human family to come in under this New Covenant with Israel; to come under the Mediator's blessings and Millennial Kingdom; to have a share as Israelites indeed in all of the blessed opportunities for having their sins put away. And all who do not, whether Jew or Gentile, will die the Second death; as it is written, "It shall come to [R4613 : page 152] pass, that the soul that will not hear [obey] that Prophet, shall be destroyed from amongst the people."—Acts 3:23.

This thought is further confirmed by the statement of the Prophet Jeremiah (31:31-34), that the Lord would take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh and renew a right spirit. It is not supposable that this would be an instantaneous work. It is a restitution work. True, sin had a small beginning in disobedience; but under its development it has effected headiness, lovelessness of heart, degradation and selfishness of character in the whole world of mankind. It will be the work of the entire Millennial Age to eradicate this stony condition of heart and restore mankind to a proper fleshly condition of heart.

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