Question.—Suppose that one of God's consecrated saints should die by some convulsion of nature—flood, fire, etc.—would such a death be sacrificial, or would it be Adamic?
Answer.—A consecrated child of God could not die the Adamic death. His death would either be the sacrificial death or the Second Death. If when he died he were a consecrated child of God, his death would be merely a completion of the consecration which he had previously made. Our lives are made holy and acceptable by the great High Priest, in whatever form death may come. But if in the meantime this consecrated child of God should turn away from Him, then it would be the Second Death. If he sin wilfully, deliberately, he commits the "sin unto death."—I John 5:16.
Question.—Was our Lord baptized in water before He was baptized of the Holy Spirit?
Answer.—The Scriptural account of our Lord's baptism at Jordan seems to imply that God made the manifestation of the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus after His baptism in water. He was baptized into death before He went into the water, in the sense that He had given up His own will; in the sense that the Apostle quotes from the Old Testament—"Lo, I come: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me; I delight to do Thy will, O My God." (Psa. 40:7,8; Heb. 10:7.) Our Lord came to do everything written in the Book concerning Him.
Our Lord was already dead to His own will; otherwise He could not have gone to John at Jordan. But God's manifestation of His acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice of Himself, apparently waited until after Jesus had performed the symbol. So we read that after He had come up out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove. God gave that outward sign, not for all, but for John, who "saw and bare record," as the Scriptures declare.—John 1:32-34.
Question.—How near to the character-likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ must one attain on this side the veil in order to have good hope of being one of the Elect on the other side of the veil?
Answer.—Jehovah God will not accept anything that is imperfect. Even our human nature presented to Him sacrificially by the High Priest needed first to be covered by the merit of the Priest Himself and to be thus perfected before being Divinely accepted. In thinking of ourselves, however, we are to remember that we have the New Creature in an earthen vessel. It is the New Creature that must have the likeness of Christ.
In the flesh we are beset by the world, the flesh and the Devil. All these things conspire to hinder the New Creature from working perfectly in the old body. The will must be nothing less than perfect. As Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart." (Matt. 5:8.) Purity of heart must be absolute.
The pure of heart are those whose intentions are pure, whose motives are pure, who desire the best—long for the best. These may have strong consolation, may have full confidence toward God respecting the glorious things He has promised; for they could do no more than the best they are able to do in the mortal body—and thus show their devotion.