p. 6 | THE SABBATH by L. A. Phippeny

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 18, 1905

THE SABBATH

By L. A. Phippeny

BLESSING, SANCTIFICATION, AND KNOWLEDGE.

THERE are many who seem afraid of the word sanctification, as tho the idea of a present realization were a thing almost sacrilegious. This is not the teaching of the Word of God.

The realization of this blessed condition rests upon the same basis as that of righteousness and grace and holiness. It is not something to be attained by any deed of merit that man of his own ability can do for himself or for others, but it rests entirely upon what God can do for or through the man, measured by the man's willingness to have something done for him, or to be used as an instrument to do something for others' salvation. The Father never withholds the blessing of realization because of lack of willingness on His part; "for this is the will of God, even your sanctification." This has been His will from the beginning. Will we acquiesce, and receive the great gift?

When the Lord, at the end of six days of creative work, indicated the character of the seventh day, He defined it as a day of rest, that is, the Sabbath. The record is that He "blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,"—made it holy. What was the significance of that blessing and sanctification?

The day of itself—that is, an evening and a morning, a dark and a light part,—was not different from any other fully constituted day,—not different in these respects from any of the six days preceding. It was twenty-four hours long, all told, and each of the preceding six days of creation was the same length. The blessing and the sanctification were wholly with respect to the man made in God's image, whom the Lord had made to be His representative, and to whom the dominion was given. Otherwise the language is meaningless.

In the image of God man was created, and entered into life with fullest capacity for knowing his Creator and appreciating the wonderful thoughts expressed in the works of creation. His endowments were after the divine similitude,—a form like the form of his Maker, a brain modeled after the brain of his Maker, thinking as his Creator would think, and with a character holy, and with a purpose to fulfil the object of his creation. In him, and the possibilities before him, was manifested the Creator's master-thought concerning this dominion of earth. In the man, endowed with powers of mind and freedom of will like those of his divine Father, Jehovah rested.

What It Meant.

And the man,—what did the first seventh day mean to him?—It meant, first, last, and altogether, the lesson of creation. "I am your Creator, your Father," was the announcement made to him by the glorious Being on whom his eyes first rested. "I am the Maker of all things in heaven and in earth and in the sea. Behold in them the expression of My thoughts." And as he viewed the trees and the flowers, the verdure-clad mountains and plains, the birds and animals and creeping things in the perfection of their pristine beauty, his mind responded to the thought of the Creator in each object, and he delighted and rejoiced in the abundance of life and the revelation of the Life-giver. This could be joy uttered only in songs of gladness and in the supreme ecstasy of a realization of life everlasting. This was peace that passeth understanding.

"And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it." This was not an arbitrary blessing, not an arbitrary decree making the day holy. The holiness and the blessing were essential elements of the day, appearing and inhering in it by virtue of the attendant circumstances. There were three essentials which constituted it, without the necessity of a decree, a blessing, and a holy day: first, the Creator, a holy God; second, a perfect creation; third, man, the intelligent, free-minded creature made for communion with his Maker. Lacking the first, there would be nothing; given the first and the third, there could be no adequate conception of the character and power and greatness of the first; given the first and second, without the third, there could be no revelation of God, because there would be no intelligence to whom He could reveal Himself. It was, therefore, after the essentials were present, after the creative work was finished, man included, that the lesson of nature and nature's God, was given. There were present a holy and omnipotent Creator, a perfect creation manifesting the Creator's thoughts, and then the essential study of all studies was inaugurated, and man began learning the one great lesson. Was it not a joy? Was it not a holy and delightful day? Was not this manner of employing the day a very befitting climax to the creative work?

Could this lesson have been taught, or learned, on any other day of the week—the first, for example? Manifestly impossible. And therefore the sequence of events in the order of creation, and the establishment of the weekly cycle, was a divine and natural ordination of the seventh day for the purpose just mentioned. Following the divine example, man was to pursue the pleasurable occupation of life six days, and devote the seventh day to special contemplation of the things of nature speaking of the One who made them and him. It was to be a day of delightful reminiscences, a day made holy and honorable by all that it commemorated, a day when added blessing would come with added knowledge resulting from close communion with God.

Soul Rest.

"And God did rest the seventh day from all His works." The thought accompanying this quotation in Hebrews is that the works were finished from the foundation of the world. The lesson from these words, taught by the writer of Hebrews, is the lesson of soul rest through the Gospel. This is the lesson for us in creation's story, for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and in creation is seen and proclaimed the power of God. Salvation—redemption—is re-creation, and our Redeemer is our Creator. It was the power of the Godhead, of which He is the fulness, that was exercised through and by Him in creation and in His redemptive work. The details of redemption were planned before the world was, in eternity before, in the council of peace between God the Father and God the Son. When this world was created, every provision for every possibility was prepared from its foundation. All that creation implied, whether the creation of a world or the re-creation of a soul dead in trespasses and sins, was summed up in Christ, the Creator. In Himself, therefore, the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

When sin and death entered and separated man from God, there was only one way for man to regain life,—by re-creation, and a renewed knowledge of the Creator Redeemer. This work of re-creation is accomplished by the power of the Gospel—creative power—and its result is soul-rest, which therefore becomes the sign that redemption has been accomplished. The redeemed man knows his Redeemer. He sees Him and is glad, and rejoices in newness of life. He has ceased from the works of the flesh, and has entered into rest. Christ dwells in him, and finds in the renewed soul a place of rest, even as originally He found a resting place—an abiding place—in man, the crowning work of creation.

This indwelling Presence drives out evil, cleanses the habitation, and the man is made holy, is sanctified by reason of the Holy One enthroned within. The process is not a new process, as being something different than was ever done before; it is a repetition—a process accomplished in like manner to the first creation, a part of the plan of the work finished from the world's foundation. Blessing and sanctification now are nothing in the abstract; they are effective only as respecting souls whom the Master desires to save, and does save. "Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."

The man Adam was created holy, and the Lord rested, because there were prepared completeness, perfection, life, joy, and delight. The Sabbath day revealed God to the man, and blessing and sanctification were natural results. Therefore the day commemorated creation, and proclaimed the Creator, the true God, and signified the Holy Presence, the Sanctification. The commemorative and revelatory idea were inseparable. And the seventh day of the weekly cycle was the only day when these results could possibly find expression. The sign of redemption and the memorial of creation are the same. God's plan has not changed. It is fixed in Christ, the Creator and the Redeemer from the beginning.

And so, when the Leader would lead forth a people through whom He wished to manifest Himself, and bring redemption to the world, He said, "Verily My Sabbaths shall ye keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." The Leader was Christ; and the principles enunciated by Him, when these words were spoken, are at once recognized as the basic principles of our lesson,—principles as enduring and eternal as God Himself.

"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." Is it not worth while to let Him accomplish the blessed work in us? And then is it not fair that we should fear and tremble at His word?

[The next and fifth article in this series is entitled, "The Covenants; the Everlasting Covenant."]