“Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
Psalm 50: 5
THE Covenant of Sacrifice applies only to the Little Flock, although we as members of those who are consecrated between the Ages may apply its principles to ourselves. The act of consecration is the same for all – the giving up of one’s own will and the taking of God’s will as one’s own will. However, the uses that God makes of our consecrations differ, for example, some are of one class, and others are of a different class.
An intelligent consecration includes all that one has: first, one’s will, then one’s time, one’s strength, one’s influence, one’s mind, one’s body, one’s means – everything that one has and is. All things pertaining to the present life is sacrificed on the altar of sacrifice with the Lord Jesus; and thereafter one is to walk faithfully in His steps. The Little Flock additionally gave up the hope of perfect human life and all those restitution blessings which would otherwise have been theirs with the remainder of the world of mankind. They gave up themselves in the same way that Jesus gave up Himself, except that He was a perfect man, while they were imperfect. But He covered them with the robe of His righteousness, so that they could stand before God as though they had received full restitution. They laid down all earthly hopes for the more glorious hopes held out to the Little Flock. Jesus became their Head, and each one yielded himself day by day into His hands so that He could give them the experiences necessary for them to fulfill their Covenant of Sacrifice.
In the Covenant of Sacrifice they agreed unconditionally, without knowing beforehand what God would ask of them, to do whatever He asked. Without absolute faith in God’s character one could make no such promise with any guarantee of safety to oneself. Perhaps the best illustration to make this Covenant of Sacrifice clear is the following: God, as it were, hands us a clean sheet of paper, asking us to sign our names at the bottom of that paper, agreeing that He can write above our name anything that He wishes to write, we agreeing ahead of time, and without knowing what He might ask, that we will do that thing. We agree to this because of our confidence in God’s character of perfect wisdom, justice, love and power, because of our being assured that He desires us to win and will give us every help in order to win out in our calling.
God tested every member of the Little Flock throughout their lives, first with one thing and then with another, until every one of their qualities of character had been tested. Only when they had faithfully stood those tests, had they carried out their Covenant of Sacrifice.