[334]Honest Heart presents himself to the Lord Jesus the high priest, fully surrendering himself and agreeing to do the will of God. There is the promise on his part, then, and he is one party to the contract through his advocate, the Lord Jesus. And when Christ Jesus the high priest presents him to the Father, Jehovah, the Lord Jehovah in substance says to Honest Heart: 'In consideration of the fact that you have turned away from the wrongful course, and have come to Jesus, and have made a full surrender of yourself in consecration, thereby exercising faith in his blood shed for you and your faith in my plan; and in consideration of the further fact that my beloved Son has imputed to you his merit to make you acceptable before me, I accept you and determine that you are right or justified, and accepting you as a part of his sacrifice, I give to you my exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might become partaker of the divine nature'.—2 Peter 1:4.
[335]This is in harmony with St. James' statement: "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures". (James 1:18) The Psalmist shows that this begetting is in the nature of a contract when he says: "Gather my saints together unto me; those who have made a covenant [contract] with me by sacrifice". (Psalm 50:5) Honest Heart now being begotten has the promise of life upon the highest plane, the divine nature. He is begotten to a new hope of life. St. Peter thus writes: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a hope of life by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time". (1 Peter 1:3-5) The inheritance to which Honest Heart is now begotten is an incorruptible inheritance, which is the divine nature. This means that if he is faithful unto death, faithful to his part of the contract, he is certain to be born upon the divine plane, for the reason that Jehovah is always faithful to his part of the contract; and so Jesus says: "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life".—Revelation 2:10.
[336]Any one thus presented by Jesus to the Father, Jehovah, justified, accepted and begotten, is designated in the Scriptures as a new creature. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17) There is now a newness of life, which does not result from being transferred to another climate, but from being given a new dominating factor in our lives, namely, the will of God. Honest Heart, or whoever takes this step, now has new hopes, new aims, new ambitions, new aspirations, and new ideas. He is not looking for earthly honor and glory; but he is looking forward to the time when he might be forever with the Lord in his kingdom and be a part of the seed of Abraham according to the promise, through which the blessings of mankind will come.
[337]This one is now dead from the standpoint of a human being, as the apostle Paul puts it: "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God". (Colossians 3:3) The new creature now must be renewed, refreshed and invigorated and strengthened by knowledge, not by ordinary knowledge; but by an acquaintance with God's will and a deep appreciation of his plan. (Colossians 1:9) The world cannot know anything about this; only those who are in the relationship with the Lord. The whole world lies in the wicked one. (1 John 5:19) But now the new creature in Christ is admonished to be not conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of his mind, that he might prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.—Romans 12:2.
[338]The one begotten is begotten by the spirit of God, the holy spirit. He is also anointed. This anointing is received by reason of coming into the body of Christ. He is baptized into Christ's death; therefore baptized into Christ's body. To be baptized means to be immersed. To be baptized into Christ's death means to be immersed into the death of Christ. And so the Apostle puts it: "Know ye not, that so many of us as are baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:3,4) Baptism in water is merely a symbol of the real baptism. It would do no one any good to be baptized in water unless he had first undergone the real baptism by being immersed into Christ.
[339]All of those who are thus inducted into the body of Christ receive the anointing through the head of the Christ, Jesus the beloved One. This is illustrated or pictured by God's dealings with Israel. In the type Aaron the high priest was anointed. "He [Moses] poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him." (Leviticus 8:12) This anointing oil was poured upon Aaron's head and ran down upon his garment. (Psalm 133:2) Aaron the high priest was a type of the entire Christ, head and body. As the oil was poured upon his head and ran down to the skirt of his garments, so in antitype, Jesus the head, at the time of his baptism in the Jordan, received the anointing of the holy spirit without measure (Matthew 3:16,17); and at Pentecost his disciples received the anointing of the holy spirit. And thereafter during the gospel age all who come into Christ receive this anointing through Christ Jesus the head by virtue of being inducted into the body of Christ.
[340]Those who are thus anointed have the spirit of the Lord and by virtue of his spirit are able to understand the mystery of God and to appreciate the fact that they have the promise of being joint-heirs with Christ Jesus in his kingdom. To be anointed means to be assigned to a place in the body of Christ. "The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."—Romans 8:16,17.
SANCTIFICATION
[341]These new creatures in Christ, otherwise called members of his body, must now be transformed and made into the image and likeness of their Head. (Romans 8:29) They must be sanctified. Sanctification means to be set apart for the use of Jehovah. It means the process of making us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. (Colossians 1:12) It is the process of perfecting the saints. (Ephesians 4:12) This process begins when Jehovah accepts our consecration and begets us; and must continue until birth upon the spirit plane.
[342]Sanctification, then, is to be made holy, in the likeness of our Lord. Concerning such Jesus said: "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth". (John 17:17) The Christian now must feed upon or study the Word of God, learn its principles, learn of Jehovah's character and that of the Lord Jesus, and strive to conform his own life thereto. He now has set before him the hope of being made like the Lord in glory; and "every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure". (1 John 3:3) This process of sanctification is done by the Lord through his Word. "Both he who sanctifies and those whom he is sanctifying have all one Father, and for this reason he is not ashamed to speak of them as brethren." (Hebrews 2:11, Weymouth) Here we see the sanctifier is the Lord Jesus Christ, and those whom he is sanctifying are the members of his body; and all of these have one Father, Jehovah God; therefore all of the one body, constituting the mystery of God.