THE CLEANSING OF A BELIEVER’S SIN
(The Red Heifer)
When
an Old Testament type matches a New Testament doctrine exactly, just as the
right key (and the right key only) fits into the wards of a lock and opens it,
we know that we have interpreted the New Testament truth correctly. Such is the
case with the cleansing of a believer’s sin. That all sin, of all humanity, has been
expiated on Calvary; that a believer’s sin up to the moment of conversion is
totally forgiven and forgotten; that all believers, however, do sin after
conversion, and that that sin has equally to be confessed and forgiven; that
this forgiveness is made possible by a special and separate application of the
one great Atonement; that this cleansing
does not happen without repentance and confession;, and that without this
pardon during life a believer’s sin must appear before God for judgment:-
all this is presented for ever in the sacrifice of the Red Heifer.
Therefore,
as we should expect, the sacrifice of the Red Heifer is perfectly unique. It was the only sacrifice applied to the
People of God throughout their whole pilgrim journey; it, alone of all the
sacrifices, was slain outside the camp, And its blood, alone, was not poured
away, but burnt with the body; it, alone among the sacrifices, was an application,
not of blood, but of ashes; it alone rendered the handler of it unclean; it is
the only sacrifice which had to be of a special colour - the colour of blood;
and it was the only sacrifice stored up - in its ashes - for indefinite use.* The Passover Lamb had placed all Israel under
the Blood: the five great offerings of the Law were the Lamb passed under a
microscope - Calvary in its five great aspects: now, since conversion was typed
by the Passover Lamb (1 Cor.
5: 7), the Red Heifer, a postscript to
atonement, by its very nature as a cleansing ordinance added after conversion
and baptism, stands forth as a supplementary covering for post-baptismal sin. For it was a wilderness
ordinance, to be applied whenever sin occurred, throughout their pilgrim
journey, among the people of God, who all shared in the Heifer as a
contribution from and for the whole people.
[*
So also it is the solitary sacrifice recorded in Numbers, the book of
pilgrimage, not in Leviticus, the book of the sacrifices; and the ordinance was
given not at Sinai, but in the wilderness of Paran,
the region of exile. It is also all but
unique in being a female sacrifice - an offering for the Bride, the
Church* (cf. Deut.
21: 3; Lev. 5: 6).]
[* That
is, the church of the firstborn; all who are called out of
the body of the redeemed; all who are given a double share of the
inheritance. In other words, all who
will inherit the
The
Heifer stands forth as an immense revelation of sin, The fundamental of all
Divine Law is this:- "The soul that
sinneth" - any soul, and any sin-"it shall DIE" (Ezek
18: 4); and therefore a sentence of death is hanging over the whole
assembly, on account of sin committed after conversion and
baptism. And the believer’s defilement
is vividly expressed as the living touching carrion. The peril of a rotting corpse is the apt and
God-chosen symbol of the constant peril of us all, ringed as we are with
defilement; and of the effects of any sympathetic contact with a corpse-world.* Moral evil is as desperately infectious
as a corrupting carcase; and so the Red Heifer is slaughtered, not for those
who have committed known offences only, but for the entire assembly, every soul
needing it at some time or another.
[*
Even the cleanser was defiled (ver. 10) by the contact for the cleansing. Henry
Drummond used to say that after the confessions made to him in private he often
felt as though he must change all his clothes and take a hot bath.]
Now
it is blessedly clear that the Heifer stood, first of all, for
[*
The slaughter was not done by the priest, but the sprinkling of the blood was:
Pilate did the one, Christ the other.
**
The Red Heifer stands over against the Scarlet Beast (Rev.
17: 3) the one is Christ, the other is Antichrist; the one is blood-red
sacrifice, the other is scarlet guilt; the one is sin borne, the other is sin
lived. The scarlet has become an
obsession with the Beast. "At the first funeral I saw in
Now
the uniqueness of the sacrifice shines forth. "And a man that
is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and lay them up without the
camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the
children of
The
vital truth for the believer now emerges. The whole mass of the sacrificial system,
together with the blood-offering of the Red Heifer itself, while it completely
purges all pre-conversion sin, effects (by itself) nothing at all of effective
pardon for conscious and un-abandoned sin after conversion. "Whosoever toucheth the* dead, and purifieth not himself, defileth
the tabernacle of the Lord; because the water of separation was not sprinkled
upon him, he shall be unclean; HIS UNCLEANNESS IS YET UPON HIM."
He does not become totally un-forgiven,
and therefore lost; but remains guilty of the specific offence; and without the
application of the ash there was no forgiveness. On the other hand, since the ash is stored
outside the Camp., exactly where even an excommunicated believer is, it is immediately
accessible, and there can be instant pardon. "If"
[a vital condition] we [believers, even
including an Apostle] confess [here is
application for the ash] our sins [our
transgressions after conversion], he is faithful and
righteous to forgive us our sins [namely, the sins confessed], and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1John 1: 9).*
[*
It is of extraordinary significance, and fatal to the Roman theory, that no
priest, no Levite even, was necessary to hear the confession and effect the
cleansing by the ash, but only, a fellow-member of God’s people who was himself
clean.]
So
therefore the summoning of a believer’s un-abandoned, un-cleansed sin before
the judgment Seat of Christ stands forth unchallengeable. The pardon must be obtained on the third
day with a view to the seventh:
"the same shall purify himself therewith on the third day, and on the seventh
day he shall be clean." The third is the resurrection day
of Jesus. "Him
God raised up the third day, that
through His name every one that believeth on Him shall receive remission
of sins" (Acts. 10 40);
covering in its limitless possibilities of abundant pardon all the days until
the seventh: the seventh is the day ushered in by the Judgment Seat of Christ “there remaineth therefore a sabbath rest"
- a seventh millennium - "For the people of God"
(Heb. 4: 9); when formal pronouncement of
purification (ver. 19) is, or is not, made, and when a sinless body
is given to the already clean. Defilement contracted in the walk, unless purged
now, reappears as un-purged defilement on the seventh day, with grave
consequences, graded in gravity according to the guilt.* "The man that shall be unclean, and shall not
purify himself, shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, because he
hath defiled the sanctuary of the Lord" - he is separated from the obedient and
self-purified (1 John 3: 3) people of God in
that day (Rom. 8: 13 ; Gal. 6: 8) for "if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God
defile for the temple of God [the antitypical sanctuary] is
holy, which temple ye are"
(1 Cor. 3: 17).**
[*
It is an astonishing fact that many evangelicals, Pointing
back at the sevenfold sprinkling, neglect or refuse or deny the ash. For example, that most gracious and spiritual
writer, C. H. Mackintosh,
acknowledges the type as we have stated it:- "God has not only made provision for past sins [in the
blood], but also for present defilement [in the
ash]." Yet he also says:- "He will never impute
anything to us, because it was all, long ago, imputed to the One who died in
our stead. He will be a faithful reprover of the
unclean thing; and He can reprove all the more powerfully simply because He
will never reckon it against us" (Numbers, pp. 343, 352). This flatly contradicts the type, and takes
the whole sting out of both type and antitype - judgment on the people of God
for wrong-doing; and (if God never imputes our defilement to us) it comes
perilously near making the Most High connive at sin, while Calvary becomes a
cloak for evil conduct in the saved. God never forgives unabandoned
sin in any soul in the universe, and the believer who
dies with it must meet it again at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
**
“Even under the Law, the blood of bulls and goats was
but once applied to the nation. Thenceforward
the nation was consecrated to God. For
offences of individuals there was no second application of the blood. The
remedy was the water of purification, mixed with the ashes of the
sacrifice" (Govett).]
-
D. M. PANTON.
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NOTES
1
THE ASH UNAPPLIED
A
young opium-eater known to Pastor Hsi was converted,
and Pastor Hsi welcomed him into a father’s
affection; and then, after months of probation, he was summoned to the charge
of a pastorate. Lifted up with pride, he
began to retain missionary monies, and soon made rapid and total shipwreck. He then brought the gravest accusations
against Pastor Hsi, and the whole church was thrown
into confusion. Casting himself upon God
with prayer and fasting, Hsi appointed a day for a public
examination of the matter: and then God stepped in. Before the day dawned tidings came that he,
and two others of his family, had been suddenly called to the bar of God: and
the whole countryside exclaimed, "See the wrath of
the Christians’ God!" "If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge
of the truth" - wilfully: that is, there is no application for the
ash (Num. 19: 18) - "there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins"
- there is no second Red Heifer - "BUT A
CERTAIN FEARFUL EXPECTATION OF JUDGEMENT" (Heb. 10: 26).
THE ASH APPLIED
When
first I joined my regiment as Chaplain in
"Well," he said, somewhat more gently, "I don't want to talk about this subject at any rate."
"But I
must talk about it," I said. "It's
very real to me. And I'm here because of
my belief. I love you too dearly to
refrain from speaking to you, and urging you to come back to your old love and
faith and duty and joy." Weeks
passed on. When I saw the Lieutenant in
his tent, I would show him that I, at least, hadn’t lost my faith yet, and
refrained from provoking any discussion on the subject. He seemed to be grateful for my interest
in him, and he never again gave an expression of his unbelief, nor did
he say that which would jar on me.
After
a little there came on a battle in which our regiment lost severely. Several temporary hospitals were opened in
small dwelling-houses in different parts of the field of action. As I was occupied in one of these hospitals,
I heard that my lieutenant friend lay wounded in another. As soon as I had opportunity, I went over to
see him. His right leg had been
amputated near the hip. He lay on a cot
among many wounded. Looking up as I
approached, he said cheerily:- "The Lord has got me, Chaplain; I wouldn't serve him with two
legs, so he took away one. But now I’ll
be more of a man with one leg than I was with two." Then as I spoke
warmly of my sympathy with and interest in him, he told of his experience and
feelings. "As my leg went out from under me, and
I felt that I was gone, I said, ‘The Lord's got me, and I'm glad of it.’ You were right, Chaplain, that day you came to
my tent first. I never really gave up my
belief, or had any rest in my life trying to live without faith. And now I believe I shall live nearer the Lord
than ever, and have more comfort in Him."
He
was confident that he should soon be restored to health, and that he should use
his new strength in the Lord’s service. I had pleasant interviews with him as he
talked of his plans in Christ’s service, and he gave convincing evidence of his
Christian love and faith. But the shock
of the amputation was severer than he at first supposed, and he soon sank away
to his final rest. The prodigal had returned to his loving Father’s home.
2
It
is probably safe to say that the subject of Rapture has never been thoroughly
thought out. Some one aspect (whichever
it may happen to be) is seized upon, and studied, and supposed to be final; so
that when a general purview of all the Scripture is made, it plunges the
inquirer into complete confusion, and robs him of all certainty.
Letters
in the June Morning Star reveal the fog. "After reading so many
articles on the tribulation and pre-tribulation point of view, I have been
sorely tempted to maintain a neutral ,attitude" (H. COOKE). "Both
views appear to have Scriptural support ; and it is
difficult for an impartial student to arrive at a decision between them. In
fact, so conflicting ,and confusing are the ideas suggested by the various
passages bearing on the subject, that the present writer would welcome a
carefully-thought-out exposition of the whole matter from both standpoints"
(L. A. LONG). And the fog is only deepened by the fact that these writers
never seem to have heard of a possible reconciliation of the conflicting views.
Surely
the day must come when unbiased believers, anxious to do justice to all (even
apparently contradictory) truths and with a solemn awe of their mental
responsibility before God, will see that both sides have solid Scriptures; that
both can actually prove the presence of saints - some in and some
out of the Tribulation; that - as the God-chosen figure (Mark 4: 29) compels - the Field is reaped
solely according to the ripeness of the Grain; and that any merely automatic
removal either pre or post robs watchfulness
of all practical consequence and therefore of all sanctifying power. "One is taken,
and one is left: WATCH THEREORE."
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