INSTRUCTING his hearers as to their part in salvation, the apostle Peter thus speaks: “Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send the Christ who hath been appointed for you, even Jesus: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets that have been from of old.” Acts 3: 19-21, A.R.V.
It is not our purpose to discuss in this article the plan of salvation as revealed in the sanctuary. This has been done in other articles in this issue and our last. Suffice to say that Jesus is our great High Priest in the sanctuary above; that in the records of that temple are records of the lives of men with their deeds of good or ill; that it is the object of Christ’s love, sacrifice, and ministration to lead men so to repent of their sins that all these sins may be forgiven; not only that the sins may be forgiven, but the record of them blotted out in the great judgment day, showing that they have been faithful to the end. Forgiveness is always granted whenever the repentant sinner comes and confesses his sin. Faith lays hold of the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ, and God accepts that sinner in the Beloved. But the record remains, tho the sin is forgiven, till the time of the judgment. The believer whose name was entered in the book of life, who may have run well for a season, and then yielded to sin, has his name blotted from the book of life. Rev. 3: 5. The soul who has persevered unto the end will have every record of his evil deeds blotted out. But there is to each individual soul a more important consideration than this. The work of Christ in heaven is for His people upon the earth. The blotting of a name from the book of life is no arbitrary act of God; the soul whose name is blotted out has himself decided it. He by loving sin has counted himself unworthy of everlasting life. So also when the sins of men in the last generation are blotted out of the book of God, it will be but the record that these sins have been blotted out of their own lives, that no more are they loved or cherished in the life, that victory over them is assured. Jesus declared, just prior to Gethsemane, “The prince of the world [the devil] cometh; and he hath nothing in Me.” John 14: 30. Jesus had met successfully every assault of the enemy, and had come off victorious. The victory within had been won. Let Satan make his fiercest assaults till the weakness of the human Son of God would plead for deliverance from the bitter cup, yet above all the shrinking of the flesh from the awful suffering arose the prayer, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt.” Mark 14: 36. For this disposition, this heart, this mind, God’s children need to pray. Not for this mind when the temptation is not, but when it is fiercest,—when covetousness and avarice demand the best of a trade, the shading of a statement in our own favor; when foul passion is clamoring for indulgence; when the impatient word rises hot to the lips; when allegiance to God falters before the demands of society, fashion, the world, pride, pleasure, selfishness; when all the demons of hell would lure us to pleasing sensual indulgence, lull us to the slumber of death, or goad us to rebellion,—then by the mighty power of God’s Spirit we must put to death every response of self to the tempter, and let God write upon the cleansed fleshly heart the principles of His holy law, blotting out the sin by the power of His righteousness. Then?—then shall come “seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.” When God’s Spirit is working day by day the mightiest of miracles in our own heart—its regeneration from sin—we shall walk so humbly before Him that He can entrust us with greater power and skill and wisdom in working for Him. Then shall we be ready to welcome Jesus Christ at His coming.