Unconscious Guilt In Scripture History
(Chapter 4, Continued)
A.T. Jones, one of the agents used by the
Lord to communicate to His people the "beginning" of the Latter
Rain in 1888, emphasized that the sins buried in the human heart must come
to our consciousness before they can be blotted out. The "good
news" is that the Lord will do the work if we let Him:
Now some of the brethren here have done
that very thing. They came here free; but the Spirit of God brought up
something they never saw before. The Spirit of God went deeper than it
ever went before, and revealed things they never saw before; and then,
instead of thanking the Lord that that was so, and letting the whole
wicked business go … they began to get discouraged...
If the Lord has brought up sins to us
that we never thought of before, that only shows that He is going down
to the depths, and He will reach the bottom at last; and when He finds
the last thing that is unclean or impure, that is out of harmony with
His will, and brings that up, and shows that to us, and we say, "I
would rather have the Lord than that" — then the work is
complete, and the seal of the living God can be fixed upon that
character. [Congregation: "Amen".]
This is the blessed work of
sanctification. And we know that that work of sanctification is going on
in us. If the Lord should take away our sins without our knowing it what
good would it do us? That would be simply making machines of us. He does
not propose to do that; consequently, He wants you and me to know when
our sins go, that we may know when His righteousness comes. It is when
we yield ourselves that we have Him. (General Conference Bulletin,
1893, p. 404).
In this connection we may look at the
following from Ellen G. White:
God’s law reaches the feelings and
motives, as well as the outward acts. It reveals the secrets of the
heart flashing light upon things buried in darkness. God knows every
thought, every purpose, every plan, every motive. The books of heaven
record the sins that would have been committed had there been
opportunity … God has a perfect photograph of every man’s character
and this photograph He compares with His law. He reveals to man the
defects that mar this life, and calls upon him to repent and turn from
sin. (5 BC 1085).
"The things buried in darkness"
are clearly not "known sins" consciously concealed from others.
They are said to be "sins that would have been committed had there
been opportunity". Therefore they are not sins that have been
committed. These are "purposes" and "motives" buried
deep within the heart. How can the final blotting out of sins possibly
take place if these things never come to consciousness? It is with these
things that the Laodicean message is concerned, and this is why it will
"end in the loud cry of the third angel" once it is understood
and gladly received as the Lord intends.
3. Thus two important factors
condition the "blotting out of sins": the sins coming fully to
consciousness; and a new appreciation of the cross that provides the
dynamic that makes the experience possible.
Take away the atonement provided at the cross and no sin whatever can be
forgiven, much less "blotted out", Zechariah’s great prophecy
is clearly concerned with the "blotting out of sins", for he
speaks of cleansing from "sin and uncleanness". This prophecy
has never yet been fulfilled:
And I will pour upon the house of David
[the church leadership] and upon
the inhabitants of Jerusalem [the church], the spirit of grace and of
supplications; and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and
they shall mourn for Him. as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be
in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
… In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. (Zech.
12: 10; 13:1).
This prophecy will be partially fulfilled
in the experience of those specially resurrected who actually murdered
Christ at His first advent (DA 580). However, the "cleansing"
brought to view as contingent on this contrite vision of Christ crucified
cannot apply to them. Therefore we can expect the Holy Spirit to be
"poured" upon the church leadership and upon the church, giving
a new vision of Christ crucified, revealing our own participation in the
crime.
"The spirit of grace and of
supplications" can be none other than the Holy Spirit who "maketh
intercession for the saints according to the will ofGod" (Rom. 8:26).
In His office work of glorifying Christ (John 16:14), the Spirit will
arouse in the hearts of God’s people a new sense of oneness with Christ.
It will be a sympathy with Him closer than one’s love of an only child.
This will make possible a completely new motivation for finishing the
work: not a concern for our getting to Heaven, but a concern for His
vindication, that He receive His reward.
Is this guilt of "piercing"
Christ something that the "house of David" and the
"inhabitants of Jerusalem" have been conscious of! Obviously
not. The consciousness is only brought to light by the "pouring"
out of the Spirit. When the Lord says "they shall look upon Me
whom they have pierced", it is clear that the knowledge
of this sin or of their participation in it had not previously been
clearly realized.
If one will read Testimonies to
Ministers, pages 91-96, he will see that the uplifting of Christ in
the 1888 message would have fulfilled Zechariah’s prophecy had the
message been received by the "house of David". Certain it is
that in our day this truth is not yet clearly seen by our ministry or our
people. Zechariah’s prophecy is yet future, and so is the ultimate
"cleansing" associated with the "pouring" out of the
Spirit. When it comes it will not only take care of "sin" but
also "uncleanness".
Before we consider just how Laodicea’s
root problem is an unconscious one, how enmity against God has been and
still is today the underlying barrier to receiving the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit, let us turn again to our Bibles to consider more thoroughly
the reality of this problem of unconscious sin.
When All Unrighteousness
is Truly Cleansed |
