Gospel Truth #2
By His uplifted cross and on-going priestly ministry, Christ is drawing "all men" to repentance. His gracious love is so strong and persistent that the sinner must resist it in order to be lost.
Jones' Message was in Full Harmony
"'To him that worketh not.' If it required works I could not do enough. But oh, as we read the other night, ye have 'sold yourself for naught' and 'ye are redeemed without money.' But not without a price. But lo, He has paid the price. I have heard brethren say, 'I thank the Lord I have confidence in Him.' I thank the Lord He has confidence in me. It is little enough for a man to have confidence in the Lord, but His confidence in me I cannot grasp. And I am thankful that the Lord had that much confidence in His risk upon me.
"'Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.' Are there some in this house who know only the distressedness of that man, who tries to get it by works?
'That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.' When we as a people, as a church, have received the blessing of Abraham, what then? [Congregation: 'The latter rain.'] What is to hinder, then, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? [Voice: 'Unbelief.'] Our lack of the righteousness of God, which is by faith—that is what holds it back" (General Conference Bulletin, 1893, sermon No. 16, condensed).
Christ did His work long ago.
"He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.' When did He do that? [Congregation: 'Before the foundation of the world.'] He did it all before we had any chance to do anything—long before we were born—long before the world was made. Don't you see that the Lord is the one that does things, in order that we may be saved and that we may have Him?
"Then we can be sure that He has chosen us. He says He has.
"We can be sure that He has predestinated us unto the adoption of children.
"We can be sure that He has made us accepted in the Beloved.
"We can be sure of all these things, for God says so and it is so. Then isn't that a continual feast itself?" (ibid., No. 17, condensed).
". . . All that were in the world were included in Adam; and all that are in the world are included in Christ. In other words: Adam in his sin reached all the world; Jesus Christ the second Adam, in his righteousness touches all humanity. . . .
"Here is another Adam. Does he touch as many as the first Adam did? That is the question. . . . It is certainly true that what the second Adam did, embraces all that were embraced in what the first Adam did. . . .
The question is, Does the second Adam's righteousness embrace as many as does the first Adam's sin? Look closely. Without our consent at all, without our having anything to do with it, we were all included in the first Adam; we were there. . . . Jesus Christ, the second man, took our sinful nature. He touched us 'in all points.' He became we and died the death. And so in Him and by that, every man that has ever lived upon the earth, and was involved in the first Adam, is involved in this, and will live again. There will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust. Every soul shall live again by the second Adam, from the death that came by the first Adam. . . .
"When Jesus Christ has set us all free from the sin and the death which came upon us from the first Adam, that freedom is for every man; and every man can have it for the choosing.
"The Lord will not compel any one to take it. . . . No man will die the second death who has not chosen sin rather than righteousness, death rather than life" (General Conference Bulletin, 1895, pp. 268, 269).