The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 386

The European Union in Prophecy
creation; but Christ now asks that this plan be carried into effect as if man had never
fallen. He asks for His people not only pardon and justification, full and complete, but
a share in His glory and a seat upon His throne.
While Jesus is pleading for the subjects of His grace, Satan accuses them before
God as transgressors. The great deceiver has sought to lead them into skepticism, to
cause them to lose confidence in God, to separate themselves from His love, and to
break His law. Now he points to the record of their lives, to the defects of character,
the unlikeness to Christ, which has dishonoured their Redeemer, to all the sins that
he has tempted them to commit, and because of these he claims them as his subjects.
Jesus does not excuse their sins, but shows their penitence and faith, and,
claiming for them forgiveness, He lifts His wounded hands before the Father and the
holy angels, saying: I know them by name. I have graven them on the palms of My
hands. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
Thou wilt not despise." Psalm 51:17. And to the accuser of His people He declares:
"The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke
thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" Zechariah 3:2. Christ will clothe His
faithful ones with His own righteousness, that He may present them to His Father "a
glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." Ephesians 5:27. Their
names stand enrolled in the book of life, and concerning them it is written: "They shall
walk with Me in white: for they are worthy." Revelation 3:4.
Thus will be realized the complete fulfillment of the new-covenant promise: "I
will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." "In those days, and
in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall
be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found." Jeremiah 31:34; 50:20.
"In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of
the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it
shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem,
shall be called holy, even everyone that is written among the living in Jerusalem."
Isaiah 4:2, 3.
The work of the investigative judgment and the blotting out of sins is to be
accomplished before the second advent of the Lord. Since the dead are to be judged
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