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Synopsis of the Books of the Bible
John Nelson Darby
1800-1882
HEBREWS
Introduction
The important nature of the Epistle to the Hebrews demands that we should
examine it with peculiar care. It is not the presentation of Christian
position in itself, viewed as the fruit of sovereign grace, and of the work
and the resurrection of Christ, or as the result of the union of Christians
with Christ, the members of the body with the Head-a union which gives them
the enjoyment of every privilege in Him. It is an epistle in which one who
has apprehended indeed the whole scope of Christianity, considered as
placing the Christian in Christ before God, whether individually or as a
member of the body, looks nevertheless at the Lord from here below; and
presents His Person and His offices as between us and God in heaven, while
we are in feebleness on earth, for the purpose of detaching us (as walking
on earth from all that would attach us in a religious way to the earth;
even when-as was the case among the Jews-the bond had been ordained by God
Himself.
The epistle shews us Christ in heaven, and consequently that our religious
bonds with God are heavenly, although we are not yet personally in heaven
ourselves nor viewed as united to Christ there. Every bond with the earth
is broken, even while we are walking on the earth.
These instructions naturally are given in an epistle addressed o the Jews,
because their religious relationships had been earthly, and at the same
time solemnly appointed by God Himself. The heathen, as to their religions,
had no formal relationships except with demons.
In the case of the Jews this rupture with the earth was in its nature so
much the more solemn, the more absolute and conclusive, from the
relationship having been divine. This relationship was to be fully
acknowledged and entirely abandoned, not here because the believer is dead
and risen again in Christ, but because Christ in heaven takes the place of
all earthly figures and ordinances. God Himself, who had instituted the
ordinances of the law, now established other bonds, different indeed in
character; but it was still the same God.
This fact gives occasion for His relationships with Israel being resumed by
Him hereafter, when the nation shall be re-established and in the enjoyment
of the promises. Not that this epistle views them as actually on that
ground; on the contrary it insists on what is heavenly, and walking by
faith as Abraham and others who had not the promises, but it lays down
principles which can apply to that position, and in one or two passages it
leaves (and ought to leave) a place for this ultimate blessing of the
nation. The Epistle to the Romans, in the direct instruction which it
furnishes, cannot leave this place for the blessings proper to the Jewish
people. In its point of view all are alike sinners, and all in Christ are
justified together before God in heaven. Still less in the Epistle to the
Ephesians, with the object which it has in view, could there be room for
speaking of the future blessing of God's people on the earth. It only
contemplates Christians as united to their heavenly Head, as His body; or
as the habitation of God on earth by the Holy Ghost. The Epistle to the
Romans, in the passage that shews the compatibility of this salvation
(which, because it was of God, was for all without distinction) with the
faithfulness of God to His promises made to the nation, touches the chord
of which we speak even more distinctly that the Epistle to the Hebrews; and
shews us that Israel will-although in a different way from before-resume
their place in the line peculiar to the heirs of promise; a place which
through their sin, was partially left vacant for a time to allow the
bringing in of the Gentiles on the principle of faith into this blessed
succession. We find this in Romans 11. But the object in both epistles is
to separate the faithful entirely from earth, and to bring them into
relationship religiously with heaven; the one (that to the Romans) as
regards their personal presentation to God by means of forgiveness and
divine righteousness, the other with respect to the means that God has
established, in order that the believer, in his walk here below, may find
his present relationships with heaven maintained and his daily connection
with God preserved in its integrity.
I have said preserved, because this is the subject of the epistle;
but it must
be added, that these relationships are established on this ground by divine
revelations, which communicate the will of God and the conditions under
which He is pleased to connect Himself with His people.
We should also remark, that in the Epistle to the Hebrews, although the
relationship of the people with God is established on a new ground, being
founded on the heavenly position of the Mediator, they are considered as
already existing. God treats with a people already known to Him. He
addresses persons in relationship with Himself, and who for a long period
have held the position of a people whom God had taken out from the world
unto Himself. It is not, as in Romans, sinners without law or transgressors
of the law, between whom there is no difference, because all have alike
come entirely short of the glory of God, all alike are the children of
wrath, or, as in Ephesians, an entirely new creation unknown before. They
were in need of some better thing; but those here addressed were in that
need because they were in relationship with God, and the condition of their
relationship with Him brought nothing to perfection. That which they
possessed was in fact nothing but signs and figures; still, the people
were, I again say, a people in relationship with God. Many of them might
refuse the new method of blessing and grace, and consequently would be
lost: but the link between the people and God is accounted to subsist: only
that, Messiah having been revealed, a place among that people could not be
had but in the recognition of Messiah.
It is very important for the understanding of this Epistle to apprehend
this point, namely, that it is addressed to Hebrews on the ground of a
relationship which still existed , although in only retained its force
in so far as they acknowledged the Messiah, who was its corner-stone.
hence the first words connect their present state with previous
revelations, instead of breaking off all connection and introducing a new
thing as yet unrevealed.
Some remarks on the form of the epistle will help us to understand it better.
It does not contain the name of its author. The reason of this is touching
and remarkable. It is that the Lord Himself, according to this epistle, was
the Apostle of Israel. The apostles whom He sent were only employed to
confirm His words by transmitting them to others, God Himself confirming
their testimonies by miraculous gifts. This also makes us understand that,
although as Priest the Lord is in heaven for the exercise of His priesthood
there, and in order to establish on new ground the relationship of the
people with God, yet the communications of God with His people by means of
the Messiah had begun when Jesus was on earth living in their midst.
Consequently the character of their relationship was not union with Him in
heaven; it was relationship with God on the ground of divine communications
and of the service of a Mediator with God.
Moreover this epistle is a discourse, a treatise, rather than a letter
addressed in the exercise of apostolic functions to saints with whom the
writer was personally in connection. The author takes the place of a
teacher rather than of an apostle. He speaks doubtless from the height of
the heavenly calling, but in connection with the actual position of the
Jewish people; nevertheless it was for the purpose of making believers at
length understand that they must abandon that position.
The time for judgment on the nation was drawing near; and with regard to
this the destruction of Jerusalem had great significance, because it
definitely broke off all outward relationship between God and the Jewish
people. There was no longer an altar or sacrifice, priest or sanctuary.
Every link was then broken by judgment, and remains broken until it shall
be formed again under the new covenant according to grace.
Further, it will be found that there is more contrast than comparison. The
veil is compared, but then, closing the entrance to the sanctuary, now, a
new and living way into it; a sacrifice, but the repeated, so as to say
sins were still there, now once for all so that there is no remembrance of
sins; and so of every important particular.
The author of this epistle (Paul, I doubt not, but this is of little
importance) employed other motives than that of the approaching judgment to
induce the believing Jews to abandon their Judaic relationships. It is this
last step however which he engages them to take; and the judgment was at
hand. Until now they had linked Christianity with Judaism.; there had been
thousands of Christians who were very zealous for the law. But God was
about to destroy that system altogether-already in fact judged by the Jews'
rejection of Christ, and by their resistance to the testimony of the Holy
Ghost. Our Epistle engages believers to come forth entirely from that
system and to bear the Lord's reproach, setting before them a new
foundation for their relationship with God in a High Priest who is in the
heavens. At the same time it links all that it says with the testimony of
God by the prophets through the intermedium of Christ, the Son of God,
speaking during His life on earth, though now speaking from heaven.
Thus the new position is plainly set forth, but continuity with the former
is also established; and we have a glimpse, by means of the new covenant,
of continuity also with that which is to come-a thread by which another
state of things, the millennial state, is connected with the whole of God's
dealings with the nation, although that which is taught and developed in
the Epistle is the position of believers (of the people), formed by the
revelation of a heavenly Christ on whom depended all their connection with
God. They were to come forth from the camp; but it was because Jesus, in
order to sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.
For here there is no continuing city: we seek one that is to come. The
writer places himself among the remnant of the people as one of them. He
teaches with the full light of the Holy Ghost, but not those to whom he had
been sent as an apostle, with the apostolic authority which such a mission
would have given him over them. It will be understood that in saying this
we speak of the relationship of the writer, not of the inspiration of the
writing.
While developing the sympathies of Christ and His sufferings, in order to
shew that He is able to compassionate the suffering and the tried, the
Epistle does not bring forward His humiliation nor the reproach of the
cross, till quite at the end when-His glory having been set forth-the
author engages the Jew to follow Him and to share His reproach.
The glory of the Messiah's Person, His sympathies, His heavenly glory, are
made prominent in order to strengthen the faltering faith of the Jewish
Christians, and to fortify them in their Christian position, that they
might view the latter in its true character; and that they themselves,
being connected with heaven and established in their heavenly calling,
might learn to bear the cross and to separate themselves from the religion
of the flesh, and not draw back to a Judaism just ready to pass away.
We must look then in this Epistle for the character of relationships with
God, formed upon the revelation of the Messiah in the position which He had
taken on high, and not for the doctrine of a new nature approach to God in
the holiest, impossible in Judaism, but no revelation of the Father, nor
union with Christ on high.
He is speaking to persons who were familiar with the privileges of the fathers.
God had spoken to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in
different ways; and now, at the end of those days, that is to say, at the
end of the days of the Israelite dispensation, in which the law ought to
have been in vigour, at the end of the times during which God maintained
relationship with Israel (sustaining them with a disobedient people by
means of the prophets)-at the end then of those days God had spoken in the
Person of the Son. There is no breach to begin a wholly new system. The God
who had spoken before by the prophets now went on to speak in Christ.
It was not only by inspiring holy men (as He had done before), that they
might recall Israel to the law and announce the coming of the Messiah.
Himself had spoken as the Son-in [His] Son. We see at once that the writer
connects the revelation made by Jesus of the thoughts of God, with
the former words addressed to Israel by the prophets. God has spoken, he
says, identifying himself
with His people, to us, as He spake to our fathers by the prophets.
The Messiah had spoken, the Son of whom the scriptures had already
testified. This gives occasion to lay open, according to the scriptures,
the glory of this Messiah, of Jesus, with regard to His Person, and to the
position He has taken.
And here we must always remember, that it is the Messiah of whom he is
speaking-He who once spoke on the earth. He declares indeed His divine
glory; but it is the glory of Him who has spoken which he declares, the
glory of that Son who had appeared according to the promises made to
Israel.
This glory is twofold, and in connection with the twofold office of Christ.
It is the divine glory of the Person of the Messiah, the Son of God. The
solemn authority of His word is connected with this glory. And then there
is the glory with which His humanity is invested according to the counsels
of God-the glory of the Son of man; a glory connected with His sufferings
during His sojourn here below, which fitted Him for the exercise of a
priesthood both merciful and intelligent with regard to the necessities and
the trials of His people.
These two chapters are the foundation of all the doctrine of the epistle.
In chapter 1 we find the divine glory of the Messiah's Person; in chapter
2:1-4 (which continues the subject), the authority of His word; and from
2:5-18 His glorious humanity. As man, all things are put in subjection
under Him; nevertheless, before being glorified, He took part in all the
sufferings and in all the temptations to which the saints, whose nature He
had assumed, are subjected. With this glory His priesthood is connected: He
is able to succour them that are tempted, in that He Himself hath suffered
being tempted. Thus He is the Apostle and the High Priest of the "called"
people.
To this twofold glory is joined an accessory glory: He is Head, as Son ,
over God's house, possessing this authority as the One who created all
things, even as Moses had authorityas a servant in the house of God on
earth. Now the believers, whom the inspired writer was addressing, were
this house, if at least they held fast their confession of His name unto
the end. For the danger of the Hebrew converts was that of losing their
confidence, because there was nothing before their eyes as the fulfillment
of the promises. Consequently exhortations follow (chapter 3:7-4:13) which
refer to the voice of the Lord, as carrying the word of God into the midst
of the people, in order that they might not harden their hearts.
>From chapter 4:14 the subject of the priesthood is treated, leading to the
value of the sacrifice of Christ, but introducing also the two covenants in
passing, and insisting on the change of the law necessarily consequent upon
the change of priesthood. Then comes the value of the sacrifice very fully
in contrast with the figures that accompanied the old; and on which, and on
the blood which was shed in them, the covenant itself was founded. This
instruction on the priesthood continues to the end of verse 18 in chapter
10. The exhortations founded thereon introduce the principle of the
endurance of faith, which leads to chapter 11, in which the cloud of
witnesses is reviewed, crowning them with the example of Christ Himself,
who completed the whole career of faith in spite of every obstacle, and who
shews us where this painful but glorious path terminates. (Chap. 12:2)
>From chapter 12:3 he enters more closely into the trials found in the path
of faith, and gives the most solemn warning with regard to the danger of
those who draw back, and the most precious encouragements to those who
persevere in it, setting forth the relationship into which we are brought
by grace: and finally in chapter 13 he exhorts the faithful Hebrews on
several points of detail, and in particular on that of unreservedly taking
the Christian position under the cross, laying stress on the fact that
Christians alone had the true worship of God, and that they who chose to
persevere in Judaism had no right to take part in it. In a word, he world
have them to separate themselves definitely from a Judaism which was
already judged, and to lay hod of the heavenly calling, bearing the cross
here below. It was now a heavenly calling, and the path a path of faith.
Such is the summary of our Epistle. We return now to the study of its
chapters in detail.
Chapter 1
We have said that in chapter 1 we find the glory of the Person of the
Messiah, the Son of God, by whom God has spoken to the people. When I say
"to the people", it is evident that we understand the Epistle to be
addressed to the believing remnant, partakers, it is said, of the heavenly
calling, but considered as alone holding the true place of the people.
It is a distinction given to the remnant, in view of the position which the
Messiah took in connection with His people, to whom in the first instance
He came. The tried and despised remnant, viewed as alone really having
their place, are encouraged, and their faith is sustained by the true glory
of their Messiah, hidden from their natural eyes, and the object of faith
only.
"God" (says the inspired writer, placing himself among the believers of the
beloved nation). "has spoken to us in the person of his Son." Psalm 2
should have led the Jews to expect the Son, and they ought to have formed a
high idea of His glory from Isaiah 9, and other scriptures, which in fact
were applied to the Messiah by their teachers, as the rabbinical writings
still prove. But that He should be in heaven, and not have raised His
people to the possession of earthly glory-this did not suit the carnal
state of their hearts.
Now it is heavenly glory, this true position of the Messiah and His people,
in connection with His divine right to their attention and to the worship
of the angels themselves, which is so admirably presented here, where the
Spirit of God brings out, in so infinitely precious a manner, the divine
glory of Christ, for the purpose of exhorting His people to belief in a
heavenly position; at the same time setting forth in what follows His
perfect sympathy with us, as man in order to maintain their communion with
heaven in spite of the difficulties of their path on earth.
Thus, although the assembly is not found in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
save in an allusion to all comprised in the millennial glory in chapter 12,
the Saviour of the assembly is there presented in His Person, His work, and
His priesthood, most richly to our hearts and to our spiritual
intelligence; and the heavenly calling is in itself very particularly
developed.
It is also most interesting to see the way in which the work of our
Saviour, accomplished for us, forms a part of the manifestation of His
divine glory.
"God has spoken in the Son," says the inspired author of our Epistle. He is
then this Son. First He is declared Heir of all things. It is He who is to
possess gloriously as Son everything that exists. Such are the decrees of
God. Moreover it is by Him that God created the worlds.
All the vast system of this universe, those unknown worlds that trace their
paths in the vast regions of space in divine order to manifest the glory of
a Creator-God, are the work of His hand who has spoken to us, of the divine
Christ.
In Him has shone forth the glory of God: He is the perfect impress of His
being. We see God in Him, in all that He said, in all that He did, in His
Person. Moreover by the power of His word He upholds all that exists. He is
then the Creator. God is revealed in His Person. He sustains all things by
His word, which has thus a divine power. But this is not all (for we are
still speaking of the Christ); there is another part of His glory, divine
indeed, yet manifested in human nature. He who was all this which we have
just seen when He had by Himself (accomplishing His own glory and for
His glory) wrought purification of our sins, seated Himself at the right
hand of the Majesty on high.
Here is in full the personal glory of Christ. He is in fact Creator, the
revelation of God, the upholder of all things by His word, He is the
Redeemer. He has by Himself purged our sins; has seated Himself at the
right hand of the Majesty on high. It is the Messiah who is all this. He is
the Creator-God, but He is a Messiah who has taken His place in the heavens
at the right hand of Majesty, having accomplished the purification of our
sins. We perceive how this exhibition of the glory of Christ, the Messiah,
whether personal of that of position, would being whoever believed in it
out of Judaism, while linking itself with the Jewish promises and hopes. He
is God, He has come down from heaven, He has gone up thither again.
Now those who attached themselves to Him found themselves, in another
respect also, above the Jewish system. That system was ordained in
connection with angels; but Christ has taken a position much higher than
that of angels, because He has for His own proper inheritance a name (that
is, a revelation of what He is) which is much more excellent than that of
angels. Upon this the author of this Epistle quotes several passages from
the Old Testament which speak of the Messiah, in order to shew that which
He is in contrast with the nature and the relative position of angels. The
significance of these passages to a converted Jew is evident, and we
readily perceive the adaptation of the argument to such, for the Jewish
economy was under the administration of angels, according to their own
belief-a belief fully grounded on the word. And, at the same time, it
was their own scriptures which proved that the Messiah was to have a
position much more excellent and exaltedthan that of angels, according to
the rights that belonged to Him by virtue of His nature, and according to
the counsels and revelation of God: so that they who united themselves to
Him were brought into connection with that which entirely eclipsed the law
and all that related to it, and to the Jewish economy which could not be
separated from it, and whose glory was angelic in character. The glory of
Christianity-and he speaks to those who acknowledged Jesus to be the
Christ-was so much above the glory of the law, that the two could not be
really united.
The quotations begin by that from Psalm 2. God, it is written, has never
said to any of the angels, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten
thee." It is this character of Sonship, proper to the Messiah which, as a
real relationship, distinguishes Him. He was from eternity the Son of the
Father; but it is not precisely in this point of view that He is here
considered. The name expresses the same relationship, but it is to the
Messiah born on earth that this title is here applied. For Psalm 2, as
establishing Him as King in Zion, announces the decree which proclaims His
title. "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee," is His
relationship in time, with God. It depends, I doubt not , on His glorious
nature; but this position for man was acquired by the miraculous birth of
Jesus here below, and demonstrated as true and determined in its true
import by His resurrection. In Psalm 2 the testimony borne to this
relationship is in connection with His kingship in Zion, but it declares
the personal glories of the king acknowledged of God. By virtue of the
rights connected with this title, all kings are summoned to submit
themselves to Him. This psalm then is speaking of the government of the
world, when God establishes the Messiah as King in Zion, and not of the
gospel. But in the passage quoted (Heb. 1:5), it is the relationship of
glory in which He subsists with God, the foundation of His rights, which is
set forth, and not the royal rights themselves.
This is likewise the case in the next quotation: "I will be to him a
Father, and he shall be to me a Son." Here we plainly see that it is the
relationship in which He is with God, in which God accepts and owns Him,
and not His eternal relationship with the Father: " will be to him a
Father," & etc. Thus it is still the Messiah, the King in Zion, the Son of
David; for these words are applied in the first place to Solomon, as the
son of David. (2 Samuel 7:14 and 1 Chron. 17:13.) In this second passage
the application of the expression to the true son of David is more
distinct. A relationship so intimate (expressed, one may say, with so much
affection) was not the portion of angels. The Son of God, acknowledged to
be so by God Himself-this is the portion of the Messiah in connection with
God. The Messiah then is the Son of God in an altogether peculiar way,
which could not be applied to angels.
But still more:-when God introduces the Firstborn into the world, all the
angels are called to worship Him. God presents Him to the world; but the
highest of created beings must then cast themselves at His feet. The angels
of God Himself-the creatures that are nearest to Him-must do homage to the
Firstborn. This last expression also is remarkable. The Firstborn is the
Heir, the beginning of the manifestation of the glory and power of God. It
is in this sense that the word is used. It is said of the Son of David, "I
will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth." (Psalms
89:27) Thus the Messiah is introduced into the world as holding this place
with regard to God Himself. He is the Firstborn-the immediate expression of
the rights and the glory of God. He has universal preeminence.
Such is, so to speak, the positional glory of the Messiah. Not only Head of
the people on earth, as Son of David, nor even only the acknowledged Son of
God on the earth, according to Psalm 2, but the universal Firstborn; so
that the chief and most exalted of creatures, those nearest to God, the
angels of God, the instruments of His powerand government, must do homage
to the Son in this His position.
Yet this is far from being all; and this homage itself would be out of
place if His glory were not proper to Himself and personal, if it were not
connected with His nature. Nevertheless that which we have before us in
this chapter is still the Messiah as owned of God. God tells us what He is.
Of the angels He says, "He maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a
flame of fire." He does not make His Son anything: He recognises that which
He is, saying, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." The Messiah may
have an earthly throne (which also is not taken from Him, but which ceases
by His taking possession of an eternal throne), but He has a throne which
is for ever and ever.
The sceptre of His throne, as Messiah, is a sceptre of righteousness. Also,
He has, when here below personally loved righteousness and hated iniquity:
therefore God has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows.
These companions are the believing remnant of Israel, whom He has made by
grace His fellows, although (perfectly well-pleasing to God by His love of
righteousness-and that, at all costs) He is exalted above them all. This is
a remarkable passage, because, while on the one hand the divinity of the
Lord is fully established as well as His eternal throne, on the other hand
the passage comes down to His character as the faithful man on earth, where
He made pious men-the little remnant of Israel who waited for redemption,
His companions; at the same time it gives Him (and it could not be
otherwise) a place above them.
The text then returns to the glory given Him as Man, having the preeminence
here as in all things.
I have already remarked elsewhere that while, as we read in Zechariah
(13:7), Jehovah recognises as His fellow the humbled man, against whom His
sword awakes to smite; here where the divinity of Jesus is set forth, the
same Jehovah owns the poor remnant of believers as the fellows of the
divine Saviour. Marvelous links between God and His people!
Already then in these remarkable testimonies He has the eternal throne and
the sceptre of righteousness: He is recognised as God although a man, and
glorified above all others as the regard of righteousness.
But the declaration of His divinity, the divinity of the Messiah, must be
more precise. And the testimony is of the greatest beauty. The Psalm that
contains it is one of the most complete expressions we find in scripture of
the sense which Jesus had of His humiliation on earth, of His dependence on
Jehovah, and that, having been raised up as Messiah from among men, He was
cast down and His days shortened. If Zion were re-built (and the Psalm
speaks prophetically of the time when it shall take place), where would He
be, Messiah as He was, if, weakened and humbled, He was cut off in the
midst of His days (as was the case)? In a word, it is the prophetic
expression of the Saviour's heart in the prospect of that which happened to
Him as a man on the earth, the utterance of His heart to Jehovah, in those
days of humiliation, in presence of the renewed affection of the remnant
for the dust of Zion-and affection which the Lord had produced in their
hearts, and which was therefore a token of His good-will and His purpose to
re-establish it. But how could a Saviour who was cut off have part in it?
(a searching question for a believing Jew, tempted on that side). The words
here quoted are the answer to this question. Humbled as He might be, He was
the Creator Himself. He was ever the same; His years could never
fail. It was He who had founded
the heavens: He would fold them up as a garment, but He Himself would never
change.
Such then is the testimony rendered to the Messiah by the scriptures of the
Jews themselves-the glory of His position above angels who administered the
dispensation of the law; His eternal throne of righteousness; His
unchangeable divinity as Creator of all things.
One thing remained to complete this chain of glory-that is, the place
occupied at present by Christ, in contrast still with the angels (a place
that depends , on the one hand, upon the divine glory of His Person; on the
other, upon the accomplishment of His work). And this place is at the right
hand of God, who called Him to sit there until He had made His enemies His
footstool. Not only in His Person glorious and divine, not only does He
hold the first place with regard to all creatures in the universe (we have
spoken of this, which will take place when He is introduced into the
world), but He has His own place at the right hand of the Majesty in the
heavens. To which of the angels has God ever said this? They are servants
on God's part to the heirs of salvation.
Chapter 2
This is the reason why it is so much the more needful to hearken t the word
spoken, in order that they should not let it pass away form life and
memory.
God had maintained the authority of the word that was communicated by means
of angels, punishing disobedience to it, for it was a law. How then shall
we escape if we neglect a salvation which the Lord Himself has announced?
Thus the service of the Lord among the Jews was a word of salvation, which
the apostles confirmed, and which the mighty testimony of the Holy Ghost
established.
Such is the exhortation addressed to the believing Jews, founded on the
glory of the Messiah, whether with regard to His position of His Person,
calling them away from what was Jewish to higher thoughts of Christ.
We have already remarked that the testimony, of which this epistle treats,
is attributed to the Lord Himself. Therefore we must not expect to find in
it the assembly (as such), of which the Lord had only spoken prophetically;
but His testimony in relation to Israel, among whom He sojourned on the
earth, to whatever extent that testimony reached. That which was spoken by
the apostles is only treated here as a confirmation of the Lord's own word,
God having added His testimony to it by the miraculous manifestations of
the Spirit, who distributed His gifts to each according to His will.
The glory of which we have been speaking is the personal glory of the
Messiah, the Son of David; and His glory in the time present, during which
God has called Him to sit at His right hand. He is the Son of God, He is
even the Creator; but there is also His glory in connection with the world
to come, as Son of man. Of this chapter 2 speaks, comparing Him still with
the angels; but here to exclude them altogether. In the previous chapter
they had their place; the law was given by angels; they are servants, on
God's part, of the heirs of salvation. In chapter w they have no place,
they do not reign; the world to come is not made subject to them-that is,
this habitable earth, directed and governed as it will be when God shall
have accomplished that which He has spoken of by the prophets.
The order of the world, placed in relationship with Jehovah under the law,
or "lying in darkness," has been interrupted by the rejection of the
Messiah, who has taken His place at the right hand of God on high, His
enemies being not yet given into His hand for judgment; because God is
carrying on His work of grace, and gathering out the assembly. But He will
yet establish a new order of things on the earth; this will be "the world
to come." Now that world is not made subject to angels. The testimony given
in the Old Testament with regard to this is as follows: "What is man, that
thou art mindful of him; or the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou
hast made him a little lower than the angels; thou hast crowned him with
glory and honour; thou hast set him over the works of thy hands; thou hast
put all things under his feet." Thus all things without exception (save He
who has made them subject to Him), are, according to the purpose of God,
put under the feet of man, and in particular of the Son of man.
When studying the Book of Psalms, we saw that which I recall here, namely,
that this testimony in Psalm 8 is, with regard to the position and dominion
of Christ as man, an advance upon Psalm 2. Psalm 1 sets before us the
righteous man, accepted of God, the godly remnant with which Christ
connected Himself; Psalm 2, the counsels of God respecting His Messiah, in
spite of the efforts made by the kings and governors of the earth. God
establishes Him as King in Zion, and summons all the kings to do homage to
Him whom He proclaimed to be His Son on the earth. Afterwards we see that
being rejected the remnant suffer, and this Psalm 2 is what Peter quotes to
prove the rising up of the powers of the earth, Jewish and Gentile, against
Messiah. (Acts 4:26) But Psalm 8 shews that all this only served to enlarge
the sphere of His glory. Christ takes the position of man and the title of
Son of man, and enjoys His rights according to the counsels of God; and,
made lower than the angels, He is crowned with glory and honour. And not
only are the kings of the earth made subject to Him, but all things,
without exception, are put under His feet. It is this which the
apostle quotes here. The Christ had already been rejected, and His being
established as King in Zion put off to be accomplished at a later period.
He had been exalted to the right hand of God, as we have seen; and the
wider title had accrued to Him, although the result was not yet
accomplished.
To this the epistle here calls our attention. We see not yet the
accomplishment of all that this Psalm announces, namely, that all things
should be put under His feet; but a part is already fulfilled, a guarantee
to the heart of the fulfillment of the whole. Made a little lower than the
angels in order to suffer death, He is crowned with glory and honour. He
has suffered death, and He is crowned in reward for His work, by which He
perfectly glorified God in the place where He had been dishonoured, and
saved man (those who believe in Him) where man was lost. For He was made
lower than the angels, in order that, by the grace of God, He should taste
death for all things. It appears to me that the words "for the suffering of
death," and "a little lower than the angels" go together; and "so that by
the grace of God" is a general phrase connected with the whole truth
stated.
This passage then, which is thus applied to the Lord, presents Him as
exalted to heaven when He had undergone the death which gave Him a right to
all in a new way while waiting till all is put under His feet. But there is
another truth connected with this. He had undertaken the cause of the sons
whom God is bringing to glory, and therefore He must enter into the
circumstances in which they were found, suffer the consequences thereof,
and be treated according to the work He had undertaken. It was a reality;
and it was fitting that God should vindicate the rights of His glory, and
should maintain it with reference to those who had dishonoured Him, and
that He should treat the one who had taken their cause in hand, and who
stood before Him in their name, as representing them in that respect. God
would bring the captain of their salvation to perfection through
sufferings. He was to undergo the consequences of the situation into which
He had come. His work was to be a reality, according to the measure of the
responsibility which He had taken upon Himself, and it involved the glory
of God where sin was. He must therefore suffer; He must taste death. It is
by the grace of God that He did so-we, because of sin; He because of grace
for sin.
This shews us the Christ standing in the midst of those who are saved, whom
God brings to glory, although at their head. It is this which our epistle
sets before us-He who sanctifies (the Christ), and they who are sanctified
(the remnant set apart for God by the Spirit) are all of one: an
expression, the force of which is easily apprehended, but difficult to
express, when one abandons the abstract nature of the phrase itself.
Observe that it is only of sanctified persons that this is said. Christ and
the sanctified ones are all one company, men together in the same position
before God. But the idea goes a little farther.
It is not of one and the same Father; had it been so, it could not have
been said, "He is not ashamed to call them brethren." He could not then do
otherwise than call them brethren.
If we say "of the same mass" the expression may be pushed too far, as
though He and the others were of the same nature as children of Adam,
sinners together. In this case He would have to call every man His brother;
whereas it is only the children whom God has given Him, "sanctified" ones,
that He calls so. But He and the sanctified ones are all as men in the same
nature and position together before God. When I say "the same," it is not
in the same state of sin, but the contrary, for they are the Sanctifier and
the sanctified, but in the same truth of human position as it is before God
as sanctified to Him; the same as far forth as man when He, as the
sanctified one, is before God. On this account He is not ashamed to call
the sanctified His brethren.
This position is entirely gained by resurrection; for although in
principle, the children were given to Him before, yet He only called them
His brethren when He had finished the work which enabled Him to present
them with Himself before God. He said indeed "mother, sister, brother;" but
He did not use the term "my brethren," until He said to Mary of Magdala,
"Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your
Father, and to my God an your God." Also in Psalm 22 it is when He had been
heard from the horns of the unicorn, that He declared the name of a
Deliverer-God to His brethren, and that He praised God in the midst of the
assembly.
He spoke to them of the Father's name while on earth, but the link itself
could not be formed; He could not introduce them to the Father, until the
grain of wheat, falling into the ground, had died; until then He remained
alone, whatever might be the revelations that He made to them and in fact,
He declared the name of His Father to those whom He had given Him. Still He
had actually taken the human position, and He Himself was in this relation
ship with God. He kept them in the Father's name, they were not yet united
to Him in this position; but He was as man in the relationship with God in
which they also should be, when brought in by redemption into association
with Himself. That which He does in the latter part of the Gospel by John
is to place His disciples-in the explanations He gave of the condition in
which He left them-in the position which He in fact had held in
relationship with His Father on earth, and in testimony to the world, the
glory of His Person as representing and revealing His Father being
necessarily distinct. And, in seeking t associate with them, He associated
them with Himself and Himself with them when He ascended to heaven,
although no longer corporeally subject to the trials of their position.
He was not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, though risen, yea, only
when risen, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, I will praise thee
in the midst of the assembly." And speaking of the remnant separated from
Israel, He says, "Behold I and the children whom God hath given me are for
signs unto the two houses of Israel;" and again, "I will put my trust in
him"-another quotation from Isaiah 8. So in the Psalms, especially in Psalm
16, He declares that He does not take His place as God-"my goodness
extendeth not to thee," but that He identifies Himself with the excellent
of the earth-that all His delight is in them. This is again the remnant of
Israel called by grace.
Christ associates these sanctified men, godly men on earth, with Himself.
In the passage quoted it is still His place on earth: His sufferings, His
exaltation, future glory, divinity are, as we have seen added here.
Having taken this place as of, but at the head of, the chosen band-their
servant in all things, He must conform Himself to their position. And this
He did: the children being partakers of flesh and blood, He took part in
the same; and this, in order that by death He might put an end to the
dominion of him who had the power of death, and deliver those who, through
fear of death, had been subjected all their life to the yoke of bondage.
Here also (the apostle seeking always to display the glorious and
efficacious side, even of that which was most humbling, in order to
accustom the weak heart of the Jews to that portion of the gospel) we find
that the Lord's work goes far beyond the limits of a presentation of the
Messiah to His people. Not only is He glorious in heaven, but He has
conquered Satan in the very place where he exercised his sad dominion over
man, and where the judgment of God lay heavily upon man.
Moved by a profound love for man, the Son-become the Son of man-enters in
heart and in fact into all the need, and submits to all the circumstances,
of man in order to deliver him. He takes (for He was not in it before)
flesh and blood, in order to die, because man was subjected to death; and
(in order to destroy him who exercised his dominion over man through death,
and made him tremble all his lifetime in the expectation of that terrible
moment, which testified of the judgment of God, and the inability of man to
escape the consequences of sin) and the condition into which disobedience
to God had plunged him. For verily the Lord did not undertake the cause of
angels, but that of the seed of Abraham, and in order to proclaim the work
that was necessary for them, and to represent them efficaciously and really
before God, He must needs put Himself into the position and the
circumstances into which that seed were found, thought not the state they
were personally in.
It will be remarked here, that it is still a family owned of God, which is
before our eyes, as the object of the Saviour's affection and care-the
children whom God had given Him, children of Abraham after the flesh, if in
that condition they answered to the designation of "seed of Abraham" (this
is the question of John 8:37-39), or his children according to the Spirit,
if grace gives it them.
These truths introduce priesthood, As Son of man, He had been made a little
less than the angels, and, crowned already with glory and honour, was
hereafter to have all things put under His feet. This we do not yet see.
But He took this place of humiliation in order to taste death for the whole
system that was afar from God, and to gain the full rights of the second
Man, by glorifying God there, where the creature had failed through
weakness, and where also the enemy, having deceived man by his subtlety,
had dominion over him (according to the righteous judgment of God) in power
and malice. At the same time he tasted death for the special purpose of
delivering the children whom God would bring to glory, taking their nature
and gathering them together as sanctified ones around Himself, He not being
ashamed to call them brethren. But it was thus that He was to present them
now before God, according to the efficacy of the work which He had
accomplished for them; He would become a priest, being able through His
life of humiliation and trial here below, to sympathize with His own in all
their conflicts and difficulties.
He suffered-never yielded. We do not suffer when we yield to temptation:
the flesh takes pleasure in the things by which it is tempted. Jesus
suffered, being tempted, and He is able to succour them that are tempted.
It is important to observe that the flesh, when acted upon by its desires,
does not suffer. Being tempted, it , alas! enjoys. But when, according to
the light of the Holy Ghost and the fidelity of obedience, the Spirit
resists the attacks of the enemy, whether subtle or persecuting, then one
suffers. This the Lord did, and this we have to do. That which needs
succour is the new man, the faithful heart, and not the flesh. I need
succour against the flesh, and in order to mortify all the members of the
old man.
Here the needed help refers to the difficulties of the faithful saint in
fulfilling all the will of God. This is where he suffers, this is where the
Lord-who has suffered-can succor him. He trod this path, He learn in it
what which can be suffered there form the enemy, and from men. A human
heart feels it, and Jesus had a human heart. Besides, the more faithful the
heart is, the more full of love to God, and the less it has of that
hardness which is the result of intercourse with the world, the more will
it suffer. Now there was no hardness in Jesus. His faithfulness and His
love were equally perfect. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief
and weariness. He suffered being tempted.
Chapter 3
Thus the Lord is set before us as the Apostle and High Priest of believers
from among the Jews, the true people. I say,"from among the Jews," not that
He is not our Priest, but that here the sacred writer places himself among
the believing Jews, saying "our;" and, instead of speaking of himself as
and apostle, he points out Jesus as the Apostle; which He was in Person
among the Jews. In principle, it is true of all believers. That which He
has said is the Lord's word, and He is able to succour us when we are
tempted. We are His house.
For we have here a third character of Christ. He is a "Son over his
house." Moses was faithful in all the house of God as a servant, in
testimony to the things that were afterwards to be proclaimed. But Christ
is over God's house; but it is not as a servant but as a Son. He has built
the house, He is God.
Moses identified himself with the house, faithful therein in all things.
But Christ is more excellent; even as he who builds the house is more
excellent than the house. He who builds all things is God. And this is what
Christ did.For in fact the house (that is, the tabernacle in the
wilderness) was a figure of the universe; and Christ passed through the
heavens, as the high priest passed into the sanctuary. All was cleansed
with blood, even as God will reconcile all thins by Christ in the heavens
and on the earth. In a certain sense this universe is the house of God. He
deigns to inhabit it. Christ created it all. But there is a house which is
more properly His own. We are His house, taking it for granted that we
persevere to the end.
The Hebrew Christians were in danger-being attracted by their former
habits, and by a law and ceremonies which God Himself had established-of
forsaking a Christianity, in which Christ was not visible, for things that
were visible and palpable. The Christ of Christians, far from being a crown
of glory to the people, was only an object of faith, so that, if faith
failed, He was deprived of all importance to them. A religion that made
itself seen (the "old wine") naturally attracted those that had been
accustomed to it.
But in fact Christ was much more excellent than Moses, as he who has built
the house had more honour than the house, Now this house was the figure of
all things, and He who had built them was God. The passage gives us this
view of Christ and of the house, and also says, that we are this house. And
Christ is not the servant here; He is the Son over God's house.
We must always remember that which has been already remarked, namely, that
in this epistle we have no the assembly as the body of Christ in union with
Himself; nor even the Father either, except as a comparison in chapter 12.
It is God, a heavenly Christ (who is the Son of God), and a people, the
Messiah being a heavenly Mediator between the people and God. Therefore the
proper privileges of the assembly are not found in this epistle-they flow
from our union with Christ; and here Christ is a Person apart who is
between us and God, on high while we are here.
There are still a few remarks which we may add here in order to throw light
on this point, and to assist the reader in understanding the first two
chapters, as well as the principle of the instructions throughout the
epistle.
In chapter 1, Christ accomplishes by Himself as a part of His divine glory
the purification of sins, and seats Himself at the right hand of God. This
work, observe, is done by Himself. We have nothing to do with it, save to
believe in and enjoy it. It is a divine work which this divine Person has
accomplished by Himself; so that it has all the absolute perfection, all
the force, of a work done by Him, without any mixture of our weakness, of
our efforts, or of our experiences. He performed it by Himself, and it is
accomplished. Thereupon He takes His seat. he is not placed there-He seats
Himself upon the throne on high.
In chapter 2 we see another point which characterises the epistle-the
present state of the glorified Man. He is crowned with glory and honour;
but it is with a view to an order of things which is not yet accomplished.
It is the Person of the Man Christ which is presented, not the assembly in
union with Him, even when He is beheld as glorified in the heavens, This
glory is viewed as a partial accomplishment of that which belongs to Him,
according to the counsels of God, as the Son of man. hereafter this glory
will be complete in all its parts by the subjugation of all things.
The present glory therefore of Christ makes us look forward to an order of
things yet future, which will be full rest, full blessing. In a word,
bedsides the perfection of His work, the epistle sets before us the sequel
of that which belongs to Christ in Person, the Son of man, not the
perfection of the assembly in Him. And this embraces the present time, the
character of which, to the believer, depends on Christ's being now
glorified in heaven while waiting for a future state, in which all things
will be subjected to Him.
In this chapter 2 we see also that He is crowned. He is not seen sitting
there as in His original right, though He had that glory before the world
was, but, having been made a little less than the angels, God crowns Him.
We also plainly see that although the believing Hebrews are especially in
view, and even all Christians are classed under the title of Abraham's seed
on the earth, yet that Christ is viewed nevertheless as the Son of man, and
not as the Son of David; and the question is put, "What is man?" The answer
(the precious answer for us) is, Christ glorified, once dead on account of
man's condition. In Him we see the mind of God with regard to man.
The fact that Christians themselves are viewed as the seed of Abraham
plainly shews the way in which they are considered as forming part of the
chain of the heirs of promise on earth (as in Rom 11), and not as the
assembly united to Christ as His body in heaven.
The work is perfect; it is the work of God. He has by Himself made
purification of sins. The full result of the counsels of God with regard to
the Son of man is not yet come. Thus the earthly part can be brought in, as
a thing foreseen , as well as the heavenly part, although the persons to
whom the epistle is addressed had part in the heavenly glory-participated
in the heavenly calling-in connection with the present position of the Son
of man.
The remnant of the Jews, as we have said, are considered as continuing the
chain of the people blessed on earth, whatever heavenly privileges they may
also possess or whatever their especial state may be in connection with the
Messiah's exaltation to heaven. We have been grafted into the good
olive-tree, so that we share all the advantages here spoken of. Our highest
position, and the privileges belonging to it, are not here in view.
Accordingly, as writing to Hebrews and as one among them, he addresses
them, that is to say, Christians and believing Israelites. This is the
force of the word "us" in the epistle; we must bear it in mind, and that
the Hebrew believers always form the word "us" of which the writer is also
a part.
No one ought to harden his heart; but this word is especially addressed to
Israel, and that until the day when Christ shall appear. In speaking of it,
the author returns to the word that had formerly been addressed to Israel;
not now in order to warn them of the danger they would incur by neglecting
it. but of the consequences of departing from that which they had
acknowledged to be true. Israel, when delivered out of Egypt, had provoked
God in the wilderness (it was indeed the case also of Christians in this
world), because they were not at once, and without difficulty, in
Canaan.Those to whom he wrote were in danger of forsaking the living God in
the same way; that is, the danger was there before their eyes. They should
rather exhort each other, while it was still called to-day, in order that
they might not be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.This word "to-day"
is the expression of the patient activity of God's grace towards Israel
even unto the end. The people were unbelieving; they have hardened their
hearts; they have done so, and will alas! do so to the end, until judgment
come in the Person of the Messiah-Jehovah, whom they have despise. But
until then God loves to reiterate, "Today, if ye will hear my voice." It
may be that only a few will hearken; it may be that the nation is
judicially hardened, in order to admit the Gentiles; but the word "today"
still resounds for every one among them who has ears to hear, until the
Lord shall appear in judgment. It is addressed to the people according to
the long-suffering of God. For the remnant who had believed it was an
especial warning not to walk in the ways of the hardened people who had
refused to hearken-not to turn back to them, forsaking their own confidence
in the word which had called them, as Israel did in the wilderness.
As long as the "today" of the call of grace should continue, they were to
exhort one another, lest unbelief should glide into their hearts through
the subtlety of sin. It is thus that the living God is forsaken. We speak
thus practically, not with reference to the faithfulness of God, who
certainly will not allow any of His own to perish, but with regard to
practical danger, and to that which would draw us away-as to our
responsibility-from God, and for ever, if God did not intervene, acting in
the life which He has given us, and which never perishes.
Sin separates us from God in our thoughts; we have no longer the same sense
either of His love, His power, or His interest in us. Confidence is lost,
Hope, and the value of unseen things, diminish; while the value of things
that are seen proportionately increases. The conscience is bad; one is not
at ease with God. The path is hard and difficult; the will strengthens
itself against Him. We no longer live by faith; visible things come in
between us and God and take possession of the heart. Where there is life,
God warns by His Spirit (as in this epistle), He chastises and restores.
Where it was only an outward influence, a faith devoid of life, and the
conscience not reached, it is abandoned.
It is the warning against so doing that arrests the living. The dead-they
whose consciences are not engaged, who do not say, "To whom shall we go?
thou has the words of eternal life"-despise the warning and perish. This
was the case with Israel in the wilderness, and God sware unto them that
they should not enter into His rest. (Num 14:21-23) And why? They had given
up their confidence in Him. Their unbelief-when the beauty and excellence
of the land had been reported to them-deprived them of the promised rest.
The position of the believers to whom this epistle is addressed was the
same as this, although in connection with better promises. The beauty and
excellence of the heavenly Canaan had been proclaimed to them. The had, by
the Spirit, seen and tasted its fruits; they were in the wilderness; they
had to persevere to maintain their confidence unto the end.
Observe her-for Satan and our own conscience when it has not been set free,
often make use of this epistle-that doubting Christians are not here
contemplated, or persons who have not yet gained entire confidence in God:
to those who are in this condition its exhortations and warnings have no
application. These exhortations are to preserve the Christian in a
confidence which he has, and to preserve, not to tranquillise fears and
doubts. This use of the epistle to sanction such doubts is but a device of
the enemy. Only I would add here that, although the full knowledge of grace
(which in such a case the soul has assuredly not yet attained) is the only
thing that can deliver and set it free from its fears, yet it is very
important in this case practically to maintain a good conscience, in order
not to furnish the enemy with a special means of attack.
Chapter 4
The apostle goes on to apply this part of Israel's history to those whom he
was addressing, laying stress on two points: 1st, That Israel had failed of
entering into rest, through unbelief; 2nd, That the rest was yet to come,
and that believers (those who were not seeking rest here, but who accepted
the wilderness for the time being) should enter into it.
He begins by saying, "Let us fear lest, a promise being left us of entering
into his rest, any should seem to come short of it," not attain to it. For
we have been the objects of the proclamation of glad tidings, as they were
in times past. But the word addressed to them remained fruitless, not being
mixed with faith in them that heard it: for we which have believed do enter
into rest. The rest itself is yet to come, and it is believers who enter
into it. For a rest of God there is, and there are some who enter into it:
inasmuch as it is written, "They," that is, those (pointing out a certain
class who are to be excluded) "shall not enter into my rest."
God had wrought in creation, and then rested from His works when He had
finished them. Thus, from the foundation of the world, He has shewn that He
had a rest, as in the passage already quoted, "If they shall enter into my
rest;" but this, shewing that the entering in was yet in question, shewed
that into God's rest in the first creation man had not entered. Two things
then are evident-some were to enter in, and the Israel to whom it was first
proposed did not enter in because of their unbelief. Therefore He again
fixes a day, saying, in David, long after the entrance into Canaan,
"Today-as it is written-today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your
hearts."
Here a natural objection occurs to which the passage gives a complete
answer, without speaking of the objection itself. The Israelites had
indeed fallen in the wilderness, but Joshua had brought the people into
Canaan which the unbelievers never reached; the Jews were there, so that
they did enter into the rest as to which the others failed. The answer is
evident. It was long after this that God said by David, I sware in my
wrath, if they shall enter into my rest." If Joshua had given rest to
Israel, David could not afterwards have spoken of another day. There
remains therefore a rest for the people of God. It is yet to come; but it
is assured by the word of God-a truth, the bearing of which is immediately
seen with regard to the connection of the believing Jews with the nation,
in the midst of which they were tempted to seek a rest that, for the
moment, faith did not afford them, and being enfeebled saw but dimly before
it. To have God's rest was still to be waited for. Faith alone acknowledged
this, and sought for none in the wilderness, trusting to the promise. God
still said "Today."
The state of the people was worse than the rest that Joshua gave them; which, as their own Psalms prove, was no rest at all.
As to the order of the verses, the exhortation in verse 11 depends on the
whole course of what precedes, the argument having been completed by the
testimony of David coming after Joshua. After the creation God indeed
rested; but He said after that, "If they shall enter into my rest," so that
men had not entered into that rest. Joshua entered into the land; but the
word by David, coming long after, proves that the rest of God was not yet
attained. Nevertheless this same testimony, which forbade the entrance into
rest because of unbelief, shewed that some are to enter in: otherwise there
was no need of declaring the exclusion of others for an especial cause, nor
warning men that they might escape what hindered their entering in. No
parenthesis is needed.
Now, as long as any one had not ceased from his works, he had not entered
into rest; he who has entered into it has ceased from work, even as God
ceased from His own works when He entered into His rest. "Let us therefore
use all diligence" is the exhortation of the faithful witness of God, "that
we may enter into that rest"-the rest of God-in order that we may not fall
after the same example of unbelief.
We should especially observe here, that it is the rest of God which is
spoken of. This enables us to understand the happiness and perfection of
the rest. God must rest in that which satisfies His heart. This was the
case even in creation-all was very good. And now it must be in a perfect
blessing that perfect love can be satisfied with, with regard to us, who
will possess a heavenly portion in the blessing which we shall have in His
own presence, in perfect holiness and perfect light. Accordingly all the
toilsome work of faith, the exercise of faith in the wilderness, the
warfare (although there are many joys), the good works practiced there,
labour of every kind will cease. It is not only that we shall be delivered
from the power of indwelling sin; all the efforts and all the troubles of
the new man will cease. We are already set free from the law of sin; then
our spiritual exercise for God will cease. We have already rested from our
works with regard to justification,and therefore in that sense we have now
rest in our consciences, but that is not the subject here-it is the
Christian's rest from all his works. God rested from His works-assuredly
good ones-and so shall we also then with Him.
We are now in the wilderness; we also wrestle with wicked spirits in
heavenly places. A blessed rest remains for us, in which our hearts will
repose in the presence of God, where nothing will trouble the perfection of
our rest, where God will rest in the perfection of the blessing He has
bestowed on His people.
The great thought of the passage is, that there remains a rest (that is to
say, that the believer is not to expect it here) without saying where it
is. And it does not speak in detail of the character of the rest, because
it leaves the door open to an earthly rest for the earthly people on the
ground of the promises, although to Christian partakers of the heavenly
calling God's rest is evidently a heavenly one.
The apostle then sets before us the instrument which God employs to judge
the unbelief and all the workings of the heart which tend, as we have seen,
to lead the believer into departure from the position of faith, and to hide
God from him by inducing him to satisfy his flesh and to seek for rest in
the wilderness.
To the believer who is upright in heart this judgment is of great value, as
that which enables him to discern all that has a tendency to hinder his
progress or make him slacken his steps. It is the word of God, which-being
the revelation of God, the expression of what He is, and of all that
surrounds Him, and of what His will is in all the circumstances that
surround us-judges everything in the heart which is not of Him. It is more
penetrating than a two-edged sword. Living and energetic, it separates all
that is most intimately linked together in our hearts and minds. Whenever
nature-the "soul" and its feelings-mingles with that which is spiritual, it
brings the edge of the sword of the living truth of God between the two,
and judges the hidden movements of the heart respecting them. It discerns
all the thoughts and intentions of the heart. But it has another character,
coming from God (being, as it were, His eye upon the conscience), it brings
us into His presence; and all that it forces us to discover, it sets in our
conscience before the eye of God Himself. Nothing is hidden, all is naked
and manifested to the eye of Him with whom we have to do.
Such is the true help, the mighty instrument of God to judge everything in
us that would hinder us from pursuing our course through the wilderness
with joy, and with a buoyant heart strengthened by faith and confidence in
Him. Precious instrument of a faithful God, solemn and serious in its
operation; but of priceless and infinite blessing in its effects, in its
consequences.
It is an instrument which, in its operations, does not allow "the desires
of the flesh and of the mind" liberty to act; which does not permit the
heart to deceive itself; but which procures us strength, and places us
without any consciousness of evil in the presence of God, to pursue our
course with joy and spiritual energy. Here the exhortation, founded on the
power of the word concludes.
But there is another succour, one of a different character, to aid us in
our passage through the wilderness; and that is priesthood-a subject which
the epistle here begins and carries on through several chapters.
We have a High Priest who has passed through the heavens-as Aaron through
the successive parts of the tabernacle-Jesus, the Son of David.
He has, in all things, been tempted like ourselves, sin apart; so that He
can sympathize with our infirmities. The word brings to light the intents
of the heart, judges the will, and all that has not God for its object and
its source. Then, as far as weakness is concerned, we have His sympathy.
Christ of course had no evil desires: he was tempted in every way, apart
from sin. Sin had no part in it at all. But I do not wish for sympathy with
the sin that is in me; I detest it, I wish it to be mortified-judged
unsparingly. This the word does. For my weakness and my difficulties I seek
sympathy; and I find it in the priesthood of Jesus. It is not necessary, in
order to sympathize with me, that a person should feel at the same moment
that which I am feeling-rather the contrary. If I am suffering pain, I am
not in a condition to think as much of another's pain. But in order to
sympathize with him I must have a nature capable of appreciating his pain.
Thus it is with Jesus, when exercising His priesthood. He is in every
sense beyond the reach of pain and trial, but He is man; and not only has
He the human nature which in time suffered grief, but He experienced the
trials a saint has to go through more fully than any of ourselves; and His
heart, free and full of love, can entirely sympathize with us, according to
His experience of ill, and according to the glorious liberty which He now
has, to provide and care for it. This encourages us to hold fast our
profession in spite of the difficulties that beset our path; for Jesus
concerns Himself about them, according to His own knowledge and experience
of what they are, and according to the power of His grace.
Therefore, our High Priest being there, we can go with all boldness to the
throne of grace, to find mercy and the grace suited to us in all times of
need: mercy, because we are weak and wavering; needful grace, because we
are engaged in a warfare which God owns.
Observe, it is not that we go to the High Priest. It is often done, and God
may have compassion; but it is a proof that we do not fully understand
grace. The Priest, the Lord Jesus, occupies Himself about us-sympathises
with us, on the one hand; and on the other, we go directly to the throne of
grace.
The Spirit does not here speak positively of falls; we find that in 1 John
2. There also it is in connection with communion with His Father, here with
access to God. His purpose here is to strengthen us, to encourage us to
persevere in the way, conscious of the sympathies which we possess in
heaven, and that the throne is always open to us.
Chapter 5
The epistle then develops the priesthood of the Lord Jesus, comparing it
with that of Aaron; but, as we shall see, with a view to bring out the
difference rather than the resemblance between them, although there is a
general analogy, and the one was a shadow of the other.
This comparison is made in chapter 5:1-10. The line of argument is then
interrupted, though the ground of argument is enlarged and developed, till
the end of chapter 7, where the comparison with Melchizedec is pursued; and
the change of law, consequent on the change of priesthood, is stated, which
introduces the covenants and all that relates to the circumstances of the
Jews.
A priest then as taken from among men (he is not here speaking of Christ,
but of that with which he compares Him) is ordained for men in things
pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; he
is able to feel the miseries of others because he is himself compassed with
infirmity, and offers therefore for himself as well as for the people.
Moreover no one takes this honour to himself, but receives it, as Aaron
did, being called of God. The epistle will speak farther on of the
sacrifice-here of the person of the priest, and of the order of the
priesthood.
So that Christ glorified not Himself to become a High Priest. The glory of
His Person, manifested as man on the earth, and that of His function, are
both of them plainly declared of God: the first, when He said, "Thou are my
Son, this day have I begotten thee" (Psalm 2); the second, in these words,
"Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec." (Psalm 110)
Such then in both personal and official glory is the High Priest , the
expected Messiah, Christ.
But His glory (although it gives Him His place in honour before God, and
consequent on redemption, so that He can undertake the people's cause
before God according to His will) does not bring Him near to the miseries
of men. It is His history on earth which makes us feel how truly able He is
to take part in them. "In the days of his flesh," that is , here below, He
went into all the anguish of death in dependence on God, making His request
to Him who was able to save Him from it. For, being here in order to obey
and to suffer, He did not save Himself. He submitted to everything, obeyed
in everything, and depended on God for everything.
he was heard because of His fear. It was proper that He who took death on
Himself, as answering for others, should feel its whole weight upon His
soul. He would neither escape the consequences of that which He had
undertaken (compare chapter 2), nor fail in the just sense of what it was
thus to be under the hand of God in judgment. His fear was His piety, the
right estimation of the position in which sinful man was found, an what
must come from God because of it. For Him however to suffer the
consequences of this position was obedience. And this obedience was to be
perfect, and to be tried to the utmost.
He was the Son, the glorious Son of God. But thought this was so, He was
to learn obedience (and to Him it was a new thing), what it was in the
world, by all that He suffered. And, having deserved all glory, He was to
take His place as the glorified Man-to be perfected; and in that position
to become the cause of eternal salvation (not merely temporal deliverances)
to them that obey Him; a salvation which taken in consequence of His work
of obedience, saluted by God as "High Priest after the order of
Melchizedec."
That which follows to the end of chapter 6 is a parenthesis which refers to
the condition of those to whom the epistle is addressed. They are blamed
for the dullness of their spiritual intelligence, and encouraged at the
same time by the promises of God; the whole with reference to their
position as Jewish believers. Afterwards the line of instruction with
regard to Melchizedec is again resumed.
For the time, they ought to have been able to teach: nevertheless they
needed that some one should teach them the elements of the oracles of
God-requiring mild instead of meat.
We may observe that there is no greater hindrance to progress in spiritual
life and intelligence than attachment to an ancient form of religion,
which, being traditional and not simply personal faith in the truth,
consists always in ordinances, and is consequently carnal and earthly.
Without this people may be unbelievers; but under the influence of such a
system piety itself-expended in forms-makes a barrier between the would and
the light of God: and these forms which surround, preoccupy, and hold the
affections captive, prevent them from enlarging and becoming enlightened by
means of divine revelation. Morally (as the apostle here expresses it) the
senses are not exercised to discern both good and evil.
But the Holy Ghost will not limit Himself to the narrow circle and the weak
and futile sentiments of human tradition, nor even to those truths which,
in a state like this, one is able to receive. In such a case Christ has not
His true place. And this our epistle here develops.
Milk belongs to babes, solid food to those who are of full age. This
infancy was the soul's condition under the ordinances and requirements of
the law. (Compare Gal 4:1, seqq.) But there was a revelation of the Messiah
in connection with these two states-of infancy and of manhood. And the
development of the word of righteousness, of the true practical
relationships of the soul to God according to His character and ways, was
in proportion to the revelation of Christ, who is the manifestation of that
character, and the center of all those ways. Therefore it is that, in
chapter 5:12,13 the epistle speaks of the elements, the beginning , of the
oracles of God, and of the work of righteousness; in chapter 6:1, of the
word of the beginning, or of the first principles, of Christ.
Chapter 6
Now the Spirit will not stop at this point with Christians, but will go on
to that full revelation of His glory which belongs to them that are of full
age and indeed forms us for that state.
We easily perceive that the inspired writer tries to make the Hebrews feel
that he was ;acing them on higher and more excellent ground, by connecting
them with a heavenly and invisible Christ; and that Judaism kept them back
in the position of children. This moreover characterises the whole epistle.
Nevertheless we shall find two things here: on the one hand, the elements
and the character of doctrine that belonged to infancy, to "the beginning
of the word of Christ," in contrast with the strength and heavenly savour
that accompanied the Christian revelation; and, on the other hand, what the
revelation of Christ Himself is in connection with this last spiritual and
Christian system.
But the epistle distinguishes between this system and the doctrine of the
Person of Christ, even looked at as man , although the present
position of Christ gives its character to the Christian
system. The distinction is made-not that the condition of souls does not
depend on the measure of the revelation of Christ and of the position He
has taken, but-because the doctrine of His Person and glory goes much
farther than the present state of our relationship with God.
The things spoken of in chapter 6:1,2 had their place, because the Messiah
was then yet to come: all was in a state of infancy. The things spoken of
in verses 4,5 are the privileges that Christians enjoyed in virtue of the
work and the glorification of the Messiah. But they are not in themselves
the 'perfection" mentioned in verse 1, and which relates rather to the
knowledge of the Person of Christ Himself. The privileges in question were
the effect of the glorious position of His Person in heaven.
It is important to attend to this, in order to understand these passages.
In the infancy spoken of in verses 1, 2, the obscurity of the revelations
of the Messiah, announced at most by promises and prophecies, left
worshipers under the yoke of ceremonies and figures, although in possession
of some fundamental truths. His exaltation made way for the power of the
Holy Ghost here below: and on this the responsibility of souls which had
tasted it depended.
The doctrine of the Person and the glory of Jesus forms the subject of
revelation in the epistle, and was the means of deliverance for the Jews
from the whole system which had been such a heavy burden on their hearts;
it should prevent their forsaking the state described in verses 4 and 5, in
order to return into the weakness and (Christ having come) the carnal state
of verse 1 and 2.
The epistle then does not desire to establish again the true but elementary
doctrines which belonged to the times when Christ was not manifested, but
to go forward to the full revelation of His glory and position according to
the counsels of God revealed in the word.
The Holy Ghost would not go back again to these former things, because new
things had been brought in in connection with the heavenly glory of the
Messiah, namely, Christianity characterised by the power of the Holy Ghost.
But if any one who had been brought under that power, who had known it,
should afterwards abandon it, he could not be renewed again to repentance.
The former things of Judaism must be, and were, left behind by that into
which he had entered. Christians could not deal with souls by them; and, as
for the new things, he had given them up. All God's means had been employed
for him and had produced nothing.
Such a one-of his own will-crucified for himself the Son of God. Associated
with the people who had done so, he had acknowledged the sin which his
people had committed, and owned Jesus to be the Messiah. But now he
committed the crime, knowingly and of his own will.
The judgment, the resurrection of the dead, repentance from dead works, had
been taught. Under that order of things the nation had crucified their
Messiah. Now power had come; which testified of the glorification of the
crucified Messiah, the Son of God, in heaven; and which by miracles
destroyed (at least in detail) the power of the enemy who was still
reigning over the world. These miracles were a partial anticipation of the
full and glorious deliverance which should take place in the world to come,
when the triumphant Messiah, the Son of God, should entirely destroy all
the power of the enemy. Hence they are called the "powers of the world to
come."
The power of the Holy Ghost, the miracles wrought in the bosom of
Christianity, were testimonies that the power which was to accomplish that
deliverance-although still hidden in heaven-existed nevertheless in the
glorious Person of the Son of God. The power did not yet accomplish the
deliverance of this world oppressed by Satan, because another thing was
being done meanwhile. The light of God was shining, the good word of grace
was being preached, the heavenly gift (a better thing than the deliverance
of the world) was being tasted; and the sensible power of the Holy Ghost
made itself known, while waiting for the return in glory of the Messiah to
bind Satan, and thus accomplish the deliverance of the world under His
dominion.
Speaking generally, the power of the Holy Ghost, the consequence of the
Messiah's being glorified above, was exercised on earth as a present
manifestation and anticipation of the great deliverance to come. The
revelation of grace, the good word of God, was preached; and the Christian
lived in the sphere where these things displayed themselves, and was
subjected to the influence exercised in it. This made itself to be felt by
those who were brought in among Christians. Even where there was no
spiritual life, these influences were felt.
But, after having been the subject of this influence of the presence of the
Holy Ghost, after having tasted the revelation thus made of the goodness of
God, and experienced the proofs of His power, if any one then forsook
Christ, there remained no other means for restoring the soul, for leading
it to repentance. The heavenly treasures were already expended: he had
given them up as worthless; he had rejected the full revelation of grace
and power, after having known it. What means could now be used? To return
to Judaism, and the first principles of the doctrine of Christ in it, when
the truth had been revealed, was impossible: and the new light had been
known and rejected. In a case like this there was only the flesh; there was
no new life. Thorns and briars were being produced as before. There was no
real change in the man's state.
When once we have understood that this passage is a comparison of the power
of the spiritual system with Judaism, and that it speaks of giving up the
former, after having known it, its difficulty disappears. The possession of
life is not supposed, nor is that question touched. The passage speaks, not
of life, but of the Holy Ghost as a power present in Christianity. To
"taste the good word" is to have understood how precious that word is; and
not the having been quickened by its means.
Hence in speaking to the Jewish Christians he hopes better things and
things which accompany salvation, so that these things could be there and
yet no salvation. Fruit there could not be. That supposes life.
The apostle does not however apply what he says to the Hebrew Christians:
for, however low their state might be, there had been fruits, proofs of
life, which in itself no mere power is; and he continues his discourse by
giving them encouragement, and motives for perseverance.
It will be observed, then, that this passage is a comparison between that
which was possessed before and after Christ was glorified-the state and
privileges of professors, at these two periods, without any question as to
personal conversion. When the power of the Holy Ghost was present, and
there was the full revelation of grace, if any forsook the assembly, fell
away from Christ, and turned back again, there was no means of renewing
them to repentance. The inspired writer therefore would not again lay the
foundation of former things with regard to Christ-things already grown
old-but would go on, for the profit of those who remained steadfast in the
faith.
We may also remark how the epistle, in speaking of Christian privileges,
does not lose sight of the future earthly state, the glory and the
privileges of the millennial world. The miracles are the miracles of the
world to come; they belong to that period. The deliverance and the
destruction of Satan's power should then be complete; those miracles were
deliverances, samples of that power. We saw this point brought into notice
(chap. 2:5) at the beginning of the doctrine of the epistle; and in chapter
4 the rest of God left vague in its character, in order to embrace both the
heavenly part and the earthly part of our Lord's millennial reign. Here the
present power of the Holy Ghost characterises the ways of God,
Christianity; but the miracles are a foretaste of the coming age, in which
the whole world will be blessed.
In the encouragements that it gives them, the epistle already calls to mind
the principles by which the father of the faithful and of the Jewish nation
had walked, and the way in which God had strengthened him in his faith.
Abraham had to rest on promises, without possessing that which was
promised; and this, with regard to rest and glory, was the state in which
the Hebrew Christians then were. But at the same time, in order to give
full assurance to the heart, God had confirmed His word by an oath, in
order that they who build upon this hope of promised glory might have
strong and satisfying consolation. And this assurance has received a still
greater confirmation. It entered into that within the veil, it found its
sanction in the sanctuary itself, whither a forerunner had entered, giving
not only a word, and oath, but a personal guarantee for the fulfillment of
these promises, and the sanctuary of God as a refuge for the heart; thus
giving, for those who had spiritual understanding, a heavenly character to
the hope which they cherished; while shewing, by the character of Him who
had entered into heaven, the certain fulfillment of all the Old Testament
promises, in connection with a heavenly Mediator, who, by His position,
assured that fulfillment; establishing the earthly blessing upon the firm
foundation of heaven itself, and giving at the same time a higher and more
excellent character to that blessing by uniting it to heaven, and making it
flow from thence.
We have thus the double character of blessing which this book again
presents to our mind, in connection with the Person of the Messiah, and the
whole linked by faith with Jesus.
Jesus has entered into heaven as a Forerunner. He is there. We belong to
that heaven. He is there as High Priest. During the present time therefore
His priesthood has a heavenly character; nevertheless He is priest,
personally, after the order of Melchizedec. It sets aside then the whole
Aaronic order, though the priesthood be exercised now after the analogy of
Aaron's but, by its nature points out in the future a royalty which is not
yet manifested. Now the very fact that this future royalty was connected
with the Person of Him who was seated at the right hand of the Majesty on
high, according to Psalm 110 fixed the attention of the Hebrew Christian,
when tempted to turn back, on Him who was in the heavens, and made him
understand the priesthood which the Lord is now exercising; it delivered
him from Judaism, and strengthened him in the heavenly character of the
Christianity which he had embraced.
Chapter 7
The epistle, returning to the subject of Melchizedec, reviews therefore the
dignity of his person and the importance of his priesthood. For on
priesthood, as a means of drawing nigh to God, the whole system connected
with it depended.
Melchizedec then (a typical and characteristic person, as the use of his
name in Psalm 110 proves) was king of Salem, that is king of peace, and, by
name, king of righteousness. Righteousness and peace characterise his
reign. But above all he was priest of the Most High God. This is the name
of God as supreme Governor of all things-Possessor, as is added in Genesis,
of heaven and earth. It is thus that Nebuchadnezzar, the humbled earthly
potentate, acknowledged Him. It was thus He revealed Himself to Abraham,
when Melchizedec blessed the patriarch after he had conquered his enemies.
In connection with his walk of faith, the name of Abraham, victorious over
the kings of the earth, is blessed by Melchizedec, by the king of
righteousness, in connection with God as Possessor of heaven and earth, the
Most High. This looks onward to the royalty of Christ, a Priest upon His
throne, when by the will and the power of God He shall have triumphed over
all His enemies-a time not yet arrived-first fulfilled in the millennium,
as it is commonly expressed, though this rather refers to the earthly part.
Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedec. His royalty was not all, for Psalm 110
is very clear in describing Melchizedec as priest, and as possessing a
lasting and uninterrupted priesthood. He had no sacredotal parentage form
whom he derived his priest hood As a priest, he had neither father nor
mother; unlike the sons of Aaron, he had no genealogy (compare Ezra 2:62);
he had no limits assigned to the term of his priestly service, as was the
case with the sons of Aaron. (Num 4:3) He was made a pries, like-in his
priestly character- to the Son of God; but, as yet, the latter is in
heaven.
The fact that he received tithes from Abraham, and that he blessed Abraham,
shewed the high and preeminent dignity of this otherwise unknown and
mysterious personage. The only thing that is testified of him-without
naming father or mother, commencement of life, or death that may have taken
place-is, that he lived.
The dignity of his person was beyond that of Abraham, the depositary of the
promises; that of his priesthood was above Aaron's, who in Abraham paid the
tithes which Levi himself received from his brethren. The priesthood then
is changed, and with it the whole system that depended on it.
Psalm 110 interpreted by faith in Christ-for the epistle, we need not say,
speaks always to Christians-is still the point on which its argument is
founded. The first proof the, that the whole was changed, is that the Lord
Jesus, the Messiah (a Priest after the order of Melchizedec, did not spring
evidently from the sacredotal tribe, but from another, namely, that of
Judah. For that Jesus was the Messiah, they believed. But, according to the
Jewish scriptures, the Messiah was such as He is here presented; and in
that case the priesthood was changed, and with it the whole system. And
this was not only a consequence that must be drawn from the fact that the
Messiah was of the tribe of Judah, although a Priest; but it was requisite
that another priest than the priest of Aaron's family should arise, and
one after the similitude of Melchizedec, who should not be after the law of
a commandment which had no more power than the flesh to which it was
applied, but who should be according to the power of a never ending life.
The testimony of the psalm to this was positive: "Thou art a priest for
ever after the order of Melchizedek."
For there is in fact a disannulling of the commandment that existed
previously, because it was unprofitable (for the law brought nothing to
perfection); and there is the bringing in of a better hope, by which we
draw nigh to God.
Precious difference! A commandment to man, sinful and afar from God,
rep]aced by a hope, a confidence, founded on grace and on divine promise,
through which we can come even into God's presence.
The law, doubtless, was good; but separation still subsisted between man
and God. The law made nothing perfect. God was ever perfect, and human
perfection was required; all must be according to what divine perfection
required of man. But sin was there, and the law was consequently without
power (save to condemn); its ceremonies and ordinances were but figures,
and a heavy yoke. Even that which temporarily relieved the conscience
brought sin to mind and never made the conscience perfect towards God. They
were still at a distance from Him.. Grace brings the soul to God, who is
known in love and in a righteousness which is for us.
The character of the new priesthood bore the stamp in all its features, of
its superiority to that which existed under the order of the law and with
which the whole system of the law either stood or fell.
The covenant connected with the new priesthood answered likewise to the
superiority of the latter over the former priesthood.
The priesthood of Jesus was established by oath; that of Aaron was not. The
priesthood of Aaron passed from one person to another, because death put an
end to its exercise by the individuals who were invested with it. But Jesus
abides the same for ever; He has a priesthood that is not transmitted to
others. Thus He saves completely, and to the end, those that come unto God
by Him, seeing that He ever lives to intercede for them.
Accordingly "such a high priest became us." Glorious thought! Called to be
in the presence of God, to be in relationship with Him in the heavenly
glory, to draw near to Him on high, where nothing that defiles can enter,
we needed a High Priest in the place to which access was given us (as the
Jews in the earthly temple), and such a one as the glory and purity of
heaven required.What a demonstration that we belong to heaven, and of the
exalted nature of our relationship with God ! Such a Priest became us: "
Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, exalted above the
heavens"-for so are we, as to our position, having to do with God there-a Pr
iest who needs not to renew the sacrifices, as though any work to put away
sin still remained to be done, or their sins could still be imputed to
believers; for then it would be impossible to stay in the heavenly
sanctuary. As having once for all completed His work for the putting away
of sin, our Priest offered His sacrifice once for all when He offered up
Himself,
For the law made high priests who had the infirmities of men, for they were
men themselves; the oath of God, which came after the law, establishes the
Son, when He is perfected for ever, consecrated in heaven unto God.
We see here that, although there was an analogy and the figures of heavenly
things, there is more of contrast than of comparison in this epistle. The
legal priests had the same infirmities as other men; Jesus has a glorified
priesthood according to the power of an endless life.
The introduction of this new priesthood, exercised in heaven, implies a
change in the sacrifices and in the covenant. This the inspired writer
develops here setting forth the value of the sacrifice of Christ, and the
long-promised new covenant. The direct connection is with the sacrifices;
but he turns aside for a moment to the two covenants, a so wide-embracing
and all-weighty consideration for the christian Jews who had been under the
first.
Chapter 8
Chapter 8 in this respect is simple and clear; the last verses only give
room for a few remarks.
The sum of the doctrine we have been considering is, that we have a High
Priest who is seated on the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a
Minister of the heavenly sanctuary which is not made with hands. As such,
He must have an offering to present there. Jesus, were He on earth, would
not be a Priest; there were priests on earth according to the law, in which
all things were but figures of the heavenly things; as Moses was told to
make all according to the pattern that was shewn him in the mount. But the
ministry of Jesus is more excellent, because He is the Mediator of a better
covenant, spoken of in Jeremiah 31, which is here quoted; a clear and
simple proof that the first covenant was not to continue.
We again find here that particular development of the truth which was
called for by the character of the persons to whom this letter was
addressed.
The first covenant was made with Israel; the second must be so likewise,
according to the prophecy of Jeremiah. The epistle however in this passage
only makes use of the fact that there was to be a second covenant, in order
to demonstrate that the first was to last no longer. It had grown old, and
was to vanish away. He recites the terms of the new covenant. We shall find
that he makes use of it afterwards. In that which follows, he contrasts the
services that belonged to the first with the perfect work on which
Christianity is founded. Thus the extent and the value of the work of
Christ are introduced.
Although there is no difficulty here, it is important to have light with
regard to these two covenants, because some have very vague ideas on this
point, and many souls, putting themselves under covenants, that is, in
relationship with God under conditions in which He has not placed them-lose
their simplicity, and do not hold fast grace and the fullness of the work
of Christ, and the position He has acquired for them in heaven.
A covenant is a principle of relationship with God on the earth-conditions
established by God under which man is to live with Him. The word may
perhaps be used figuratively, or by accommodation. It is applied to details
of the relationship of God with Israel, and so to Abraham (Gen.15), and
like cases; but, strictly speaking, there are but two covenants, in which
God has dealt with man on earth, or will-the old and the new. The old was
established at Sinai. The new covenant is made also with the two houses of
Israel.
The gospel is not a covenant, but the revelation of the salvation of God.
It proclaims the, great salvation of God. We enjoy indeed all the essential
privileges of the new covenant, its foundation being laid on God's part in
the blood of Christ, but we do so in spirit, not according to the letter.
The new covenant will be established formally with Israel in the
millennium. Meanwhile the old covenant is judged by the fact that there is
a new one.
Chapter 9
The epistle, recounting some particular circumstances which characterised
the first covenant shews that neither were sins put away, nor was the
conscience purged by its means, nor the entrance into the holiest granted
to the worshipers. The veil concealed God. The high priest went in once a
year to make reconciliation-no one else. The way to God in holiness was
barred. Perfect, as pertaining to the conscience, they could not be through
the blood of bulls and of goats. These were but previsionary and figurative
ordinances, until God took up the real work itself, in order to accomplish
it fully and for ever.
But this brings us to the focus of the light which God gives us by the Holy
Ghost in this epistle. Before proving by the scriptures of the Old
Testament the doctrine that he announced and the discontinuance of the
actual sacrifices-of all sacrifice for sin, the writer, with a heart full
of the truth and of the importance of that truth, teaches the value and the
extent of the sacrifice of Christ (still in contrast with the former
offerings, but a contrast that rests on the intrinsic value of the offering
of Christ). These three results are presented:-first, the opened way into
the sanctuary was manifested, that is , access to God Himself, where He is,
second, the purification of the conscience; third, and eternal redemption
(I may add the promise of an eternal inheritance).
One feels the immense importance, the inestimable value, of the first.
'The believer is admitted into God's own presence by a new and living way
which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His
flesh; has constant access to God, immediate access to the place where He
is, in the light. What complete salvation, what blessedness, what security!
For how could we have access to God in the light, if everything that would
separate us from Him, were not entirely taken away through Him who was once
offered to bear the sins of many? But here it is the precious and perfect
result, in this respect, which is revealed to us, and formally proved in
chapter 10, as a right that we possess, that access to God Himself is
entirely and freely open to us. We are not indeed told in this passage that
we are seated there, for it is not our union with Christ that is the
subject of this epistle, but our access to God in the sanctuary. And it is
important to note this last, and it is as precious in its p]ace as the
other. We are viewed as on earth and being on earth we have free and full
access to God in the sanctuary. We go in perfect liberty to God, where His
holiness dwells, and where nothing that is contrary to Him can be admitted.
What happiness! What perfect grace! What a glorious result, supreme and
complete ! Could anything better be desired, remembering too that it is our
dwelling-place? This is our position in the presence of God through the
entrance of Christ into the sanctuary.
The second result shews us the personal state we are brought into, in order
to the enjoyment of our position; that we may, on our part, enter in
freely. It is that our Saviour has rendered our conscience perfect, so that
we can go into the sanctuary without an idea of fear, without one question
as to sin arising in our minds. A perfect conscience is not an innocent
conscience which, happy in its unconsciousness, does not know evil, and
does not know God revealed in holiness. A perfect conscience knows God; it
is cleansed, and, having the knowledge of good and evil according to the
light of God Himself, it knows that it is purified from all evil according
to His purity. Now the blood of bulls and goats, and the washing repeated
under the law, could never make the conscience perfect. They could sanctify
carnally, so as to enable the worshiper to approach God outwardly, yet only
afar off, with the veil still unrent. But a real purification from sin and
sins, so that the soul can be in the presence of God Himself in the light
without spot, with the consciousness of being so the offerings under the
law could never produce. They were but figures. but, thanks be to God,
Christ has accomplished the work; and, present for us now in the heavenly
and eternal sanctuary, He is the witness there that our sins are put away;
so that all conscience of sin before God is destroyed, because we know that
He who bore our sins is in the presence of God, after having accomplished
the work of expiation. Thus we have the consciousness of being in the light
without spot. We have the purification not only of sins but of the
conscience, so that we can use this access to God in full liberty and joy,
presenting ourselves before Him who has so loved us.
The third result, which seals and characterises the two others, is that
Christ, having once entered in abides in heaven. He has gone into the
heavenly sanctuary to remain there by virtue of an eternal redemption, of
blood that has everlasting validity. The work is completely done, and can
never change in value. If our sins are effectually put away, God glorified,
and righteousness complete, that which once availed to effect this can
never not avail. The blood shed once for all is ever efficacious.
Our High Priest is in the sanctuary, not with the blood of sacrifices,
which are but figures of the true. The work has been done which puts sin
away. This redemption is neither temporal not transitory. It is the
redemption of the soul, and for eternity, according to the moral efficacy
of that which has been done.
Here then are the three aspects of the result of the work of Christ:
immediate access to God; a purged conscience; and eternal redemption.
Three points remain to be noticed before entering on the subject of the
covenants, which is here resumed.
First, Christ is a High Priest of good things to come. In saying "things to
come",the starting-point is Israel under the law before the advent of our
Lord. Nevertheless, if these good things were now acquired, if it could be
said, "we have them," because Christianity was their fulfillment, it could
hardly be still said-when Christianity was established-"good things to
come."
They are yet to come. These "good things" consist of all that the Messiah
will enjoy when He reigns. This also is the reason that the earthly things
have their place. But our present relationship with Him is only and
altogether heavenly. He acts as Priest in a tabernacle which is not of this
creation: it is heavenly, in the presence of God, not made with hands. Our
place is in heaven.
In the second place, "Christ offered himself, by the eternal Spirit ,
without spot, to God."
Here the precious offering up of Christ is viewed as an act that He
performed as man, though in the perfection and Value of His Person. He
offered Himself to God-but as moved by the power, and according to the
perfection of the Eternal Spirit. All the motives that governed this
action, and the accomplishment of the fact according to those motives, were
purely and perfectly those of the Holy Ghost; that is, absolutely divine in
their perfection, but of the Holy Ghost acting in a man (a man without sin
who, born and living ever by the power of the Holy Ghost, had never known
sin; who, being exempt from it by birth, never allowed it to enter into
Him); so that it is the Man Christ who offers Himself. This was requisite.
Thus the offering was in itself perfect and pure, with out defilement; and
the act of offering was perfect, whether in love or in obedience, or in the
desire to glorify God, or to accomplish the purpose of God. Nothing mingled
itself with the perfection of His intent in offering Himself.
Moreover, it v.was not a temporary offering, which applied to one sin with
which the conscience was burdened and which went no farther than that one
an offering which could not, by its nature, have the perfection spoken of,
because it was not the Person offering up Himself, nor was it absolutely
for God, because there was in it neither the perfection of will nor of
obedience. But the offering of Christ was one which, being perfect in its
moral nature, being in itself perfect in the eyes of God, was necessarily
eternal in its value. For this value was as enduring as the nature of God
who was glorified in it.
It was made, not of necessity, but of free will, and in obedience. It was
made by a man for the glory of God, but through the Eternal Spirit, ever
the same in its nature and value.
All being, thus perfectly fulfilled for the glory of God, the conscience of
every one that comes to Him by this offering is purged; dead works are
blotted out and set aside; we stand before God on the ground of that which
Christ has done.
And here the third point comes in. Being perfectly cleansed in conscience
from all that man in his sinful nature produces, and having to do with God
in light and in love, there being no question of conscience with Him, we
are in a position to serve the living God. Precious liberty! in which,
happy and without question before God according to His nature in light, we
can serve Him according to the activity of His nature in love. Judaism knew
no more of this than it did of perfection in conscience. Obligation towards
God that system indeed maintained; and it offered a certain provision for
that which was needed for outward failure. But to have a perfect
conscience, and then to serve God in love, according to His will-of this it
knew nothing.
This is christian position: the conscience perfect by Christ,
according to the nature of
God Himself; the service of God in liberty, according to His nature of
love acting towards others.
For the Jewish system, in its utmost advantages, was characterised by the
holy place. There were duties and obligations to be fulfilled in order to
draw near, sacrifices to cleanse outwardly him who drew near outwardly.
Meanwhile God was always concealed. No one entered into "the holy place :"
it is implied that the "most holy" was inaccessible. No sacrifice had yet
been offered which gave free access, and at all times. God was concealed:
that He was so characterised the position. They could not stand before Him.
Neither did He manifest Himself. They served Him out of His presence
without going in.
It is important to notice this truth, that the whole system in its highest
and nearest access to God was characterised by the holy place, in order to
understand the passage before us.
Now the first tabernacle-Judaism as a system-is identified with the first
part of the tabernacle, and that open only to the priestly part of the
nation, the second part (that is, the sanctuary) only shewing, by the
circumstances connected with it, that there was no access to God. When the
author of the epistle goes on to the present position of Christ, he leaves
the earthly tabernacle-it is heaven itself he then speaks of, a tabernacle
not made with hands, nor of this creation, into which he introduces us.
The first tent or part of the tabernacle gave the character of the
relationship of the people with God, and that only by a priesthood. They
could not reach God. When we approach God Himself, it is in heaven; and the
entire first system disappears. Everything was offered as a figure in the
first system, and even as a figure shewed that the conscience was not yet
set free, nor the presence of God accessible to man. The remembrance of
sins was continual]y renewed (the annual sacrifice was a memorial of sins
and God was not manifested, nor the way to Him opened).
Christ comes, accomplishes the sacrifice, makes the conscience perfect,
goes into heaven itself; and we draw nigh to God in the light. To mingle
the service of the first tabernacle or holy place with christian service is
to deny the latter; for the meaning of the first was that the way to God
was not yet open; the meaning of the second, that it is open.
God may have patience with the weakness of man. Till the destruction of
Jerusalem He bore with the Jews; but the two systems can never really go on
together, namely, a system which said that one cannot draw nigh to God, and
another system which gives access to Him.
Christ is come, the High Priest of a new system, of "good things," which,
under the old system, were yet " to come ;" but He did not enter into the
earthly most holy place, leaving the holy place to subsist without a true
meaning. He is come by the (not a) more excellent and more perfect
tabernacle. I repeat it, for it is essential here: the holy place, or the
first tent, is the figure of the relationship of men with God under the
first tabernacle (taken as a whole); so that we may say, " the first
tabernacle," applying it to the first part of the tabernacle, and pass on
to the first tabernacle as a whole, and as a recognised period having the
same meaning. This the epistle does here. To come out of this position, we
must leave typical things and pass into heaven, the true sanctuary where
Christ ever lives, and where no veil bars our
entrance.
Now it is not said, that we have " the good things to come." Christ has
gone into heaven itself, the High Priest of those good things, securing
their possession to them that trust in Him. But we have access to
God in the light by virtue of Christ's presence there. That presence
is the proof of righteousness fully established; the blood, an evidence
that our sins are put away for ever; and our conscience is made perfect.
Christ in heaven is the guarantee for the fulfillment of every promise. He
has opened an access for us, even now, to God in the light, having cleansed
our consciences once for all-for He dwells on high continuously-that we may
enter in, and that we may serve God here below.
All this is already established and secured; but there is more. The new
covenant,of which He is Mediator, is founded on His blood.
The way in which the apostle always avoids the direct application of the
new covenant is very striking.
The transgressions that were imputed under the first covenant, and which
the sacrifices it offered could not expiate, are by the blood of the new
covenant entirely blotted out. Thus they which are called -observe the
expression (ver. 15)-can receive the promise of the eternal inheritance;
that is to say, the foundation is laid for the accomplishment of the
blessings of the covenant. He says, " the eternal inheritance," because, as
we have seen, the reconciliation was complete, our sins borne and canceled,
and the work by which sin is finally put away out of God's sight
accomplished, according to the nature and character of God Himself. This is
the main point of all this part of the epistle.
It is because of the necessity there was for this sacrifice-the necessity
that sins, and finally sin, should be entirely put away, in order to
the enjoyment of the eternal promises
(for God could not bless,as an eternal principle and definitively, while
sin was before His eyes), that Christ, the Son of God, Man on earth, became
the Mediator of the new covenant, in order that by death He might make a
way for the permanent enjoyment of that which had been promised. The new
covenant, in itself,did not speak of a Mediator. God would write His laws
on the hearts of His people, and would remember sins no more.
The covenant is not yet made with Israel and Judah. But meanwhile God has
established and revealed the Mediator, who has accomplished the work on
which the fulfillment of the promises can be founded in a way that is
durable in principle, eternal, because connected with the nature of God
Himself. This is done by means of death, the wages of sin and by which sin
is left behind; and expiation for sins being made according to the
righteousness of God, an altogether new position is taken outside and
beyond sin. The Mediator has paid the ransom. Sin has no more right over
us.
Verses 16, 17 are a parenthesis, in which the idea of a " testament " (it
is the same word as "covenant " in the Greek, a disposition on the part of
one who has the right of disposal) is introduced, to make us understand
that death must have taken place before the rights acquired under the
testament can enjoyed.
This necessity of the covenant being founded on the blood of a victim was
not forgotten in the case of the first covenant. Everything was sprinkled
with blood. Only in this case it was the solemn sanction of death attached
to the obligation of the covenant. The types always spoke of the necessity
of death intervening before men could be in relationship with God. Sin had
brought in death and judgment. We must either undergo the judgment
ourselves or see our sins blotted out through it having been undergone by
another for us.
Three applications of the blood are presented here. The covenant is founded
on the blood. Defilement is washed away by its means. Guilt is removed by
the remission obtained through the blood that has been shed.
These are in fact the three things necessary. First the ways of God in
bestowing blessing according to His promise are connected with His
righteousness, the sins of those blessed being, atoned for, the requisite
foundation of the covenant, Christ having withal glorified God in respect
of sin when made sin on the cross.
Second the purification of the sin by which we were defiled (by which all
things that could not be guilty were nevertheless defiled) is accomplished.
Here there were cases in which water was typically used: this is moral and
practical cleansing. It flows from death, the water that purifies proceeded
from the side of the holy Victim already dead. It is the application of the
word-which judges all evil and reveals all good-to the conscience and the
heart.
Third, as regards remission. In no case can this be obtained without the
shedding of blood. Observe that it does not here say " application." It is
the accomplishment of the work of true propitiation, which is here spoken
of. Without shedding of blood there is no remission. All-important truth!
For a work of remission, death and blood-shedding must take place.
Two consequences flow from these views of atonement and reconciliation to God.
First, it was necessary that there should be a better sacrifice, a more
excellent victim, than those which were offered under the old covenant,
because it was the heavenly things themselves, and not their figures, that
were to be purified. For it is into the presence of God in heaven itself
that Christ has entered.
Secondly, Christ was not to offer Himself often, as the high priest went in
every year with the blood of others. For He offered up Himself. Hence, if
all that was available in the sacrifice was not brought to perfection by a
single offering once made, He must have suffered often since the foundation
of the world. This remark leads to the clear and simple declaration
of the
ways of God on this point- a declaration of priceless value. God allowed
ages to pass (the different distinct periods in which man has in divers
ways been put to the test, and in which he has had time to shew what he is)
without yet accomplishing His work of grace. This trial of man has served
to shew that he is bad in nature and in will. The multiplication of means
only made it more evident that he was essentially bad at heart, for he
availed himself of none of them to draw near to God. On the contrary, his
enmity against God was fully manifested.
When God had made this plain, before the law, under the law, by promises,
by the coming and presence of His Son, then the work of God takes the
place, for our salvation and God's glory, of man's responsibility-on the
ground of which faith knows man is entirely lost. This explains the
expression (ver. 26) " in the consummation of the ages."
Now this work is perfect, and perfectly accomplished. Sin had dishonoured
God, and separated man from Him. All that God had done to give him the
means of return only ended in affording him opportunity to fill up the
measure of his sin by the rejection of Jesus. But in this the eternal
counsels of God were fulfilled, at least the moral basis laid, and that in
infinite perfection, for their actual accomplishment in their results. All
now in fact, as in purpose always, rested on the second Adam, and on what
God had done, not on man's responsibility, while that was fully met for
God's glory. (Compare 2 Tim. 1:9, 10; Titus 1:1, 2.) The Christ, whom man
rejected, had appeared in order to put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. Thus it was morally the consummation of the ages.
The result of the work and power of God are not yet manifested. A new
creation will develop them. But man, as the child of Adam, has run his
whole career in his relationship with God: he is enmity against God.
Christ, fulfilling the will of God, has come in the consummation of ages,
to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and His work to this end is
accomplished. This is the moral power of His act, of His sacrifice
before God; in result, sin will be
entirely blotted out of the heavens and the earth. To faith this result,
namely, the putting away of sin, is already realised in the conscience,
because Christ who was made sin for us
has died and died to sin, and now is risen and glorified, sin (even as made
it for us) left behind.
Moreover, this result is announced to the believer- to those who are
looking for the Lord's return. Death and judgment are the lot of men as
children of Adam. Christ has been opened once to bear the sins of many; and
" unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin
unto salvation," not to judgment.
For them, as to their standing before God, sin is even now put away: as
Christ is, so are they; their own sins are all blotted out. Christ appeared
the first time in order to be made sin for us, and to bear our sins; they
were laid upon Him on the cross. And, with regard to those who wait for
Him, those sins are entirely put away. When He returns, Christ has nothing,
to do with sin, as far as they are concerned. It was fully dealt with at
His first coming. He appears the second time to deliver them from all the
results of sin, from all bondage. He will appear, not for judgment, but
unto salvation. The putting away of sin on their behalf before God has been
so complete, the sins of believers so entirely blotted out, that, when He
appears the second time, He has, as to them nothing to do with sin. He
appears apart from sin, not only without sin in His blessed Person-this was
the case at His first coming-but (as to those who look for Him) outside all
question of sin, for their final deliverance.
"Without sin" is in contrast with " to bear the sins of many." But
it will be remarked, that
the taking up of the assembly is not mentioned here. It is well to notice
the language. The character of His second coming is the subject. He has
been manifested once. Now He is seen by those who look for Him. The
expression may apply to the deliverance of the Jews who wait for Him in the
last days. He will appear for their deliverance. But we expect the Lord for
this deliverance, and we shall see Him when He accomplishes it even for us.
The apostle does not touch the question of the difference between this and
our being caught up, and does not use the word which serves to announce His
public manifestation. He will appear to those who expect Him. He is not
seen by all the world, nor is it consequently the judgment, although that
may follow. The Holy Ghost speaks only of them that look for the Lord. To
them He will appear. By them He will be seen, and it will be the time of
their deliverance; so that it is true for us, and also applicable to the
Jewish remnant in the last days.
Thus the christian position, and the hope of the world to come, founded on
the blood and on the Mediator of the new covenant, are both given here. The
one is the present portion of the believer, the other is secured as the
hope of Israel.
How wonderful is the grace which we are now considering!
There are two things that present themselves to us in Christ-the attraction
to our heart of His grace and goodness, and His work which brings our souls
into the presence of God. It is with the latter that the Holy Ghost here
occupies us. There is not only the piety which grace produces; there is the
efficacy of the work itself. What is this efficacy? What is the result for
us of His work? Access to God in the light without a veil, ourselves
entirely clear of all sin before Him, as white as snow in the light which
only shews it. Marvelous position for us ! We have not to wait for a day of
judgment (assuredly coming as it is), nor to seek for means of approach to
God. We are in His presence. Christ appears in the presence of God for us.
And not only this: He remains there ever; our position therefore never
changes. It is true that we are called to walk according to that position.
But this does not touch the fact that such is the position. And how came we
into it ? and in what condition ? Our sins entirely put away, perfectly put
away, and once for all, and the whole question of sin settled for ever
before God, we are there because Christ has finished the work which
abolished it, and without it in God's sight. So that there are the two
things- this work accomplished, and this position ours in the presence of
God.
We see the force of the contrast between this and Judaism. According to the
latter, divine service, as we have seen, was performed outside the veil.
The worshipers did not reach the presence of God. Thus they had always to
begin again. The propitiatory sacrifice was renewed from year to year-a
continually repeated testimony that sin still was there. Individually they
obtained a temporary pardon for particular acts. It had constantly to be
renewed. The conscience was never made perfect, the soul was not in the
presence of God, this great question was never settled. (How many souls are
even now in this condition!) The entrance of the high priest once a year
did but furnish a proof that the way was still barred that God could not be
approached, but that sin was still remembered.
But now the guilt of believers is gone, their sins washed away by a work
done once for all; the conscience is made perfect; nor is there any
condemnation for them. Sin in the flesh has been condemned in Christ when a
sacrifice for sin, and Christ appears ever in the presence of God for us.
The High Priest remains there. Thus, instead of having a memorial of sin
reiterated from year to year, perfect righteousness subsists ever for us in
the presence of God. The position is entirely changed.
The lot of man (for this perfect work takes us out of Judaism) is death and
judgment. But now our lot depends on Christ, not on Adam. Christ was
offered to bear the sins of many
-the work is complete, the sins blotted out, and to those who look for Him
He will appear without having anything, to do with sin that question having
been entirely settled at His first, coming. In the death of Jesus, God
dealt with the sins of those who look for Him; and He will appear, not to
judge, but unto salvation-to deliver them finally from the position into
which sin had brought them. This will have its application to the Jewish
remnant according to the circumstances of their position; but in an
absolute way it applies to the Christian, who has heaven for his portion.
The essential point established in the doctrine of the death of Christ is,
that He offered Himself once for all. We must bear this in mind, to
understand the full import of all that is here said. The tenth chapter is
the development and application of this. In it the author recapitulates his
doctrine on this point, and applies it to souls, confirming it by scripture
and by considerations which are evident to every enlightened conscience.
1. The law, with its sacrifices, did not make the worshipers perfect; for,
if they had been brought to perfection, the sacrifices would not have been
offered afresh. If they were offered again, it was because the worshipers
were not perfect. On the contrary the repetition of the sacrifice was a
memorial of sins; it reminded the people that sin was still there, and that
it was still before God. In effect the law, although it was the shadow of
things to come, was not their true image. There were sacrifices; but they
were repeated instead of there being one only sacrifice of eternal
efficacy. There was a high priest, but he was mortal, and the priesthood
transmissible. He went into the holiest, but only once a year, the veil
which concealed God being unrent, and the high priest unable to remain in
His presence, the work being not perfect. Thus there were indeed elements
which plainly indicated the constituent parts, so to speak, of the
priesthood of the good things to come; but the state of the worshipers was
in the one case quite the opposite of that which it was in the other. In
the first, every act shewed that the work of reconciliation was not done;
in the second, the position of the high priest and of the worshiper is a
testimony that this work has been accomplished, and that the latter are
perfected for ever in the presence of God.
Chapter 10
In chapter 10 this principle is applied to the sacrifice. Its repetition
proved that sin was there. That the sacrifice of Christ was only offered
once, was the demonstration of its eternal efficacy. Had the Jewish
sacrifices rendered the worshipers really perfect before God, they would
have ceased to be offered. The apostle is speaking (although the principle
is general) of the yearly sacrifice on the day of atonement. For if,
through the efficacy of the sacrifice, they had been permanently made
perfect, they would have had no more conscience of sins, and could not have
had the thought of renewing the sacrifice.
Observe, here, that which is very important, that the conscience is
cleansed, our sins being expiated, the worshiper drawing nigh by virtue of
the sacrifice. The meaning of theJewish service was that guilt was still
there; that of the Christian, that it is gone. As to the former, precious
as the type is, the reason is evident: the blood of bulls and of goats
could not take away sin. Therefore those sacrifices have been abolished,
and a work of another character (although still a sacrifice) has been
accomplished-a work which excludes all other, and all the repetition of the
same, because it consists of nothing less than the self devotedness of the
Son of God to accomplish the will of God, and the completion of that to
which He was devoted: an act impossible to be repeated, for all His will
cannot be accomplished twice, and, were it possible, it would be a
testimony of the inadequacy of the first, and so of both.
This is what the Son of God says in this most solemn passage (vers. 5-9),
in which we are admitted to know, according to the grace of God, that which
passed between God the Father and Himself when He undertook the fulfillment
of the will of God-that which He said, and the eternal counsels of God
which He carried into execution. He takes the place of submission and of
obedience, of performing the will of another. God would no longer accept
the sacrifices that were ordered under the law (the four classes of which
are here pointed out), He had no pleasure in them. In their stead He had
prepared a body for His Son; vast and important truth! for the place of man
is obedience. Thus, in taking this place, the Son of God put Himself into
the position to obey perfectly. In fact He undertakes the duty of
fulfilling all the will of God, be it what it may-a will which is, ever
"good, acceptable, and perfect."
The psalm says in the Hebrew, " Thou hast digged ears for me,"
translated by the
Septuagint,"Thou hast prepared me a body ;" words which, as they give the
true meaning, are used by the Holy Ghost. For " the ear" is always employed
as a sign of the reception of commandments, and the principle of obligation
to obey or the disposition to do so. " He hath opened mine ear morning by
morning" (Isa. 1), that is, has made me listen to His will, be obedient to
His commands. The ear was bored or fastened with an awl to the door, in
order to express that the Israelite was attached to the house as a slave,
to obey, for ever. Now in taking a body, the Lord took the form of a
servant. (Phil. ii.) Ears were digged for Him. That is to say, He placed
Himself in a position in which He had to obey all His Master's will,
whatever it might be. But it is the Lord Himself* who speaks in the passage
before us: " Thou," He says, " hast prepared me a body."
Entering more into detail, He specifies burnt offerings and offerings for
sin, sacrifices which had less of the character of communion, and thus had
a deeper meaning; but God had no pleasure in them. In a word the Jewish
service was already declared by the Spirit to be unacceptable to God. It
was all to cease, it was fruitless; no offering that formed part of it was
acceptable. No; the counsels of God unfold themselves, but first of all in
the heart of the Word, the Son of God, who offers Himself to accomplish the
will of God. " Then said he, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is
written of me, to do thy will, O God." Nothing can be more solemn than thus
to lift the veil from that which takes place in heaven between God and the
Word who undertook to do His will. Observe that, before He was in the
position of obedience, He offers Himself in order to accomplish the will of
God, that is to say, of free love for the glory of God, of free will; as
One who had the power, He offers Himself, He undertakes obedience, He
undertakes to do whatsoever God wills. This is indeed to sacrifice all His
own will, but freely and as the effect of His own purpose, although on the
occasion of the will of His Father. He must needs be God in order to do
this, and to undertake the fulfillment of all that God could will.
We have here the great mystery of this divine intercourse, which remains
ever surrounded with its solemn majesty, although it is communicated to us
that we may know it. And we ought to know it; for it is thus that we
understand the infinite grace and the glory of this work. Before He became
man, in the place where only divinity is known, and its, eternal counsels
and thoughts are communicated between the divine Persons, the Word-as He
has declared it to us, in time, by the prophetic Spirit- such being the
will of God contained in the book of the eternal counsels, He who was able
to do it, offered Himself freely to accomplish that will. Submissive to
this counsel already arranged for Him, He yet offers Himself in perfect
freedom to fulfill it. But in offering He submits, yet at the same time
undertakes to do all that God, as God, willed. But also in undertaking to
do the will of God, it was in the way of obedience, of submission, and of
devotedness. For I might undertake to do the will of another, as free and
competent, because I willed the thing; but if I say '"to do thy will," this
in itself is absolute and complete submission. And this it is which the
Lord, the Word, did. He did it also, declaring that He came in order to do
it. He took a position of obedience by accepting the body prepared for Him.
He came to do the will of God.
That of which we have been speaking is continually manifested in the life
of Jesus on earth. God shines through His position in the human body; for
He was necessarily God in the act itself of His humiliation; and none but
God could have undertaken and been found in it; yet He was always, and
entirely and perfectly, obedient and dependent on God. That which revealed
itself in His existence on earth was the expression of that which was
accomplished in the eternal abode, in His own nature. That is to say (and
of this Ps.40 speaks), that which He declares, and that which He was here
below, are the same thing; the one in reality in heaven, the other bodily
on earth. That which He was here below was but the expression, the living,
real, bodily manifestation of what is contained in those divine
communications which have been revealed to us, and which were the reality
of the position that He assumed.
And it is very important to see these things in the free offer made by
divine competency, and not only in their fulfillment in death. It gives
quite a different character to the bodily work here below.
In reality, from chapter 1 of this epistle, the Holy Ghost always presents
Christ in this way. But this revelation in the psalm was requisite to
explain how He became a servant, what the Messiah really was; and to us it
opens an immense view of the ways of God, a view, the depths of
which-clearly as it is revealed, and through the very clearness of the
revelation-display to us things so divine and glorious that we bow the head
and veil our faces, as having had part as it were in such communications,
on account of the majesty of the Persons whose acts and whose intimate
relationships are revealed. It is not here the glory that dazzles us. But
even in this poor world there is nothingto which we are greater strangers
than the intimacy of those who are, in their modes of life, much above
ourselves. What then, when it is that of God! Blessed be His name! there is
grace that brings us into it, and that has drawn nigh to us in our
weakness. We are then admitted to know this precious truth, that the Lord
Jesus undertook of His own free will the accomplishment of all the will of
God, and that He was pleased to take the body prepared for Him in order to
accomplish it. The love, the devotedness to the glory of God, and the way
in which He undertook to obey, are fully set forth. And this-the fruit of
God's eternal counsels -displaces (by its very nature) every provisional
sign: and contains, in itself alone, the condition of all relationship with
God, and the means by which He glorifies Himself.
The Word then assumes a body, in order to offer Himself as a sacrifice.
Besides the revelation of this devotedness of the Word to accomplish the
will of God, the effect of His sacrifice according to the will of God is
also set before us.
He came to do the will of Jehovah. Now faith understands that it is by this
will of God (that is, by His will who, according to His eternal wisdom,
prepared a body for His Son) that those whom He has called unto Himself for
salvation are set apart to God, in other words, are sanctified. It is by
the will of God that we are set apart for Him (not by our own will), and
that by means of the sacrifice offered to God.
We shall observe that the epistle does not here speak of the communication
of life, or of a practical sanctification wrought by the Holy Ghost:
the subject is the Person of Christ
ascended on high, and the efficacy of His work. And this is important with
regard to sanctification, because it shews that sanctification is a
complete setting apart to God, as belonging to Him at the price of the
offering of Jesus, a consecration to Him by means of that offering. God
took the unclean Jews from among men and set them apart -consecrated them
to Himself; so now the called ones, from that nation, and, thank God,
ourselves also, by means of the offering of Jesus.
But there is another element, already pointed out in this offering, the
force of which the epistle here applies to believers, namely, that the
offering is "once for all." It admits of no repetition. If we enjoy the
effect of this offering, our sanctification is eternal in its nature. It
does not fail. It is never repeated. We belong to God for ever according to
the efficacy of this offering. Thus our sanctification, our being set apart
to God has-with regard to the work that accomplished it-all the stability
of the will of God and all the grace from which it sprang; it has, too, in
its nature, the perfection of the work itself, by which it was
accomplished, and the duration and the constant force of the efficacy of
that work. But the effect of this offering is not limited to this setting
apart for God. The point already treated contains our consecration by God
Himself through the perfectly efficacious offering of Christ fulfilling His
will. And now the position which Christ has taken, in consequence of His
offering up of Himself, is employed in order clearly to demonstrate the
state it has brought us into before God.
The priests among the Jews-for this contrast is still carried on-stood
before the altar continually to repeat the same sacrifices which could
never take away sins. But this Man, when He had offered one sacrifice for
sins, sat down for ever at the right hand of God.
There-having finished for His own all that regards their presentation
without spot to God-He awaits the moment when His enemies shall be made His
footstool, according to Psalm 110: "Sit thou at my right hand until I make
thine enemies thy footstool." And the Spirit gives us the important reason
so infinitely precious to us: "For he hath perfected for ever them that are
sanctified."
Here (ver. 14) as in verse 12, on which the latter depends, the word " for
ever " has the force of permanence-uninterrupted continuity. He is ever
seated, we are ever perfected, by virtue of His work and according to the
perfect righteousness in which, and conformably to which, He sits at the
right hand of God upon His throne, according to that which He is personally
there, His acceptance on God's part being proved by His session at His
right hand. And He is there for us.
It is a righteousness suited to the throne of God, yea, the righteousness
of the throne. It neither varies nor fails. He is seated there for ever. If
then we are sanctified-set apart to God-by this offering according to the
will of God Himself, we are also made perfect for God by the same offering,
as presented to Him in the Person of Jesus.
We have seen that this position has its origin in the will, the good-will
of God (a will which combines the grace and the purpose of God), and that
it has its foundation and present certainty in the accomplishment of the
work of Christ, the perfection of which is demonstrated by the session at
the right hand of God of Him who accomplished it. But the testimony-for to
enjoy this grace we must know it with divine certainty, and the greater it
is, the more would our hearts be led to doubt it-the testimony upon which
we believe it must be divine. And this it is. The Holy Ghost bears witness
to us of it. The will of God is the source of the work; Christ, the Son of
God accomplished it; the Holy Ghost bears witness to us of it. And here the
application to the people, called by grace and spared, is in consequence
fully set forth, not merely the fulfillment of the work. The Holy Ghost
bears us witness, " Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."
Blessed position! The certainty that God will never remember our sins and
iniquities is founded all the steadfast will of God, on the perfect
offering of Christ, now consequently seated at the right hand of God, and
on the sure testimony of the Holy Ghost. It is a matter of faith that God
will never remember our sins.
We may remark here the way in which the covenant is introduced; for
although, as writing to "the holy brethren, partakers of the heaven]y
calling," he says, "a witness to us," the form of his address is always
that of an epistle to the Hebrews (believers, of course, but Hebrews, still
bearing the character of God's people). He does not speak of the covenant
in a direct way, as a privilege in which Christians had a direct part. The
Holy Ghost, he says, declares, "I will remember no more," & etc. It is this
which he quotes. He only alludes to the new covenant, leaving it aside
consequently as to all present application. For after having said, "This is
the covenant," & etc., the testimony is cited as that of the Holy Ghost, to
prove the capital point which he was treating, that is, that God remembers
our sins no more. But he alludes to the covenant (already known to the Jews
as declared before of God) which gave the authority of the scriptures to
this testimony, that God remembered no more the sins of His people who are
sanctified and admitted into His favour, and which, at the same time,
presented these two thoughts: first, that this complete pardon did not
exist under the first covenant: and, second, that the door is left open for
the blessing of the nation when the new covenant shall be formally
established.
Another practical consequence is drawn: sins being remitted, there is no
more oblation for sin. The one sacrifice having obtained remission, no
others can be offered in order to obtain it. Remembrance of this one
sacrifice there may indeed be, whatever its character; but a sacrifice to
take away the sins which are already taken away, there cannot be. We are
therefore in reality on entirely new ground-on that of the fact, that by
the sacrifice of Christ our sins are altogether put away, and that for us,
who are sanctified and partakers of the heavenly calling, a perfect and
everlasting permanent cleansing has been made, remission granted, eternal
redemption obtained. So that we are, in the eyes of God, without sin, on
the ground of the perfection of the work of Christ, who is seated at His
right hand, who has entered into the true holiest, into heaven itself, to
sit there because His work is accomplished.
Thus all liberty is ours to enter into the holy place (all boldness) by the
blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, that is His flesh, to admit us
without spot into the presence of God Himself, who is there revealed. For
us the veil is rent, and that which rent the veil in order to admit us has
likewise put away the sin which shut us out.
We have also a great High Priest over the house of God, as we have seen,
who represents us in the holy place.
On these truths are founded the exhortations that follow. One word before
we enter on them, as to the relation that exists between perfect
righteousness and the priesthood. There are many souls who use the
priesthood as the means of obtaining pardon when they have failed. They go
to Christ as a priest, that He may intercede for them and obtain the pardon
which they desire, but for which they dare not ask God in a direct way.
These souls-sincere as they are-have not liberty to enter into the holy
place.They take refuge with Christ that they may afresh be brought into the
presence of God. Their condition practically is that in which a pious Jew
stood. They have lost, or rather they have never had by faith, the real
consciousness of their position before God in virtue of the sacrifice of
Christ. I do not speak here of all the privileges of the assembly: we have
seen that the epistle does not speak of them. The position it makes for
believers is this: those whom it addresses are not viewed as placed in
heaven, although partakers of the heavenly calling; but a perfect
redemption is accomplished, all guilt entirely put away for the people of
God, who remembers their sins no more. The conscience is made perfect-they
have no more conscience of sins-by virtue of the work accomplished once for
all. There is no more question of sin, that is, of its imputation, of its
being upon them before and, between them and God. There cannot be, because
of the work accomplished upon the cross. The conscience therefore is
perfect; their Representative and High Priest is in heaven, a witness there
to the work already accomplished for them.
Thus, although the epistle does not present them as in the holiest, as
sitting there-like in the Epistle to the Ephesians-they have full liberty,
entire boldness, to enter into it. The question of imputation no longer
exists. Their sins have been imputed to Christ. But He is now in heaven-a
proof that the sins are blotted out for ever. Believers therefore enter
with entire liberty into the presence of God Himself, and that
always-having no more for ever any conscience of sins.
For what purpose then is priesthood? What is to be done with respect to the
sins we commit? They interrupt our communion; but they make no change in
our position before God, nor in the testimony rendered by the presence of
Christ at the right hand of God. Nor do they raise any question as to
imputation. They are sins against that position, or against God, measured
by the relationship we are in to God, as in it. For sin is measured by the
conscience according to our position. The perpetual presence of Christ at
God's right hand has this twofold effect for us: 1st, perfected for ever we
have no more conscience of sins before God, we are accepted; 2nd, as priest
He obtains grace to help in time of need, that we may not sin. But the
present exercise of priesthood by Christ does not refer to sins: we have
through His work no more conscience of sins, are perfected for ever. There
is another truth connected with this, found 1 John 2: we have an Advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous. On this our communion with the Father and with His Son Jesus
Christ is founded and secured. Our sins are not imputed, for the
propitiation is in all its value before God. But by sin communion is
interrupted; our righteousness is not altered-for that is Christ Himself at
God's right hand in virtue of His work; nor is grace changed, and " he is
the propitiation for our sins;" but the heart has got away from God,
communion is interrupted. But grace acts in virtue of perfect
righteousness, and by the advocacy of Christ on behalf of him who has
failed: and his soul is restored to communion. Nor is it that we go to
Jesus for this; He goes, even if we sin, to God for us. His presence there
is the witness of an unchangeable righteousness which is ours; His
intercession maintains us in the path we have to walk in, or as our
Advocate He restores the communion which is founded on that righteousness.
Our access to God is always open. Sin interrupts our enjoyment of it, the
heart is not in communion; the advocacy of Jesus is the means of rousing
the conscience by the action of the Spirit and the word, and we return
(humbling ourselves) into the presence of God Himself. The priesthood and
advocacy of Christ refer to the condition of an imperfect and feeble, or
failing, creature upon earth, reconciling it with the perfectness of the
place and glory in which divine righteousness sets us. The soul is
maintained steadfast or restored.
Exhortations follow. Having the right thus to approach God, let us draw
near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. This is the only thing
that honours the efficacy of Christ's work, and the love which has thus
brought us to enjoy God. In the words that follow, allusion is made to the
consecration of the priests-a natural allusion, as drawing near to God in
the holiest is the subject. They were sprinkled with blood and washed with
water, and then they drew nigh to serve God. Still, although I doubt not of
the allusion to the priests, it is quite natural that baptism should have
given rise to it. The anointing is not spoken of here-it is the power or
privilege of the moral right to draw nigh.
Again, we may notice that, as to the foundation of the truth, this is the
ground on which Israel will stay in the last days. In Christ in heaven will
not be their place, nor the possession of the Holy Ghost as uniting the
believer to Christ in heaven; but the blessing will be founded on water and
on blood. God will remember their sins no more; and they will be washed in
the clean water of the word.
The second exhortation is to persevere in the profession of the hope without wavering. He who made the promises is faithful.
Not only should we have this confidence in God for ourselves, but we are
also to consider one another for mutual encouragement; and, at the same
time, not to fail in the public and common profession of faith, pretending
to maintain it, while avoiding the open identification of oneself with the
Lord's people in the difficulties connected with the profession of this
faith before the world. Besides, this public confession had a fresh motive
in that the day drew nigh. We see that it is the judgment which is here
presented as the thing looked for-in order that it may act on the
conscience, and guard christians from turning back to the world, and from
the influence of the fear of man -rather than the Lord's coming to take up
His own people. Verse 26 is connected with the preceding paragraph (23-25)
the last words of which suggest the warning of verse 26; which is founded,
moreover, on the doctrine of these two chapters (9 and 10), with regard to
the sacrifice. He insists on perseverance in a full confession of Christ,
for His one sacrifice once offered was the only one. If any who had
professed to know its value abandoned it, there was no other sacrifice to
which he could have recourse, neither could it be ever repeated. There
remained no more sacrifice for sin. All sins were pardoned by the efficacy
of this sacrifice: but if, after having known the truth, they were to
choose sin instead, there was no other sacrifice by virtue even of the
perfection of that of Christ. Nothing but judgment remained. Such a
professor, having had the knowledge of the truth and having abandoned it,
would assume the character of an adversary.
The case, then, here supposed is the renunciation of the confession of
Christ, deliberately preferring-after having known the truth-to walk
according to one's own will in sin. This is evident, both from that which
precedes and from verse 29.
Thus we have (chaps. 6, 10.) the two great privileges of Christianity, what
distinguishes it from Judaism, presented in order to warn those who made
profession of the former, that the renunciation of the truth, after
enjoying these advantages, was fatal; for if these means of salvation were
renounced, there was no other. These privileges were the manifested
presence and power of the Holy Ghost, and the offering which, by its
intrinsic and absolute value, left no place for any other. Both of these
possessed a mighty efficacy, which, while it gave divine spring and force,
and the manifestation of the presence of God on the one hand, made known on
the other hand the eternal redemption and the perfection of the worshiper;
leaving no means for repentance, if any one abandoned the manifested and
known power of that presence; no place for another sacrifice (which, more
over, would have denied the efficacy of the first), after the perfect work
of God in salvation, perfect whether with regard to redemption or to the
presence of God by the Spirit in the midst of His own. Nothing remained but
judgment.
They who despised the law of Moses died without mercy. What then would not
those deserve at the hand of God, who trod under foot the Son of God,
counted the blood of the covenant, by which they had been sanctified, as a
common thing, and did despite to the Spirit of grace? It was not simple
disobedience, however evil that might be; it was contempt of the grace of
God, and of that which He had done, in the Person of Jesus, in order to
deliver us from the consequences of disobedience. On the one hand, what was
there left, if with the knowledge of what it was, they renounced this? On
the other hand, how could they escape judgment? for they know a God who had
said that vengeance belonged unto Him, and that He would recompense; and,
again, the Lord would judge His people.
Observe here the way in which sanctification is attributed to the blood;
and, also, that professors are treated as belonging to the people. The
blood, received by faith, consecrates the soul to God; but it is here viewed
also as an outward means for setting apart the people as a people. Every
individual who had owned Jesus to be the Messiah, and the blood to be the
seal and foundation of an everlasting covenant available for eternal
cleansing and redemption on the part of God, acknowledging himself to be
set apart for God, by this means, as one of the people-every such
individual would, if he renounced it, renounce it as such; and there was no
other way of sanctifying him. The former system had evidently lost its
power for him, and the true one he had abandoned. This is the reason why it
is said, " having received the knowledge of the truth."
Nevertheless he hopes better things, for fruit, the sign of life, was
there. He reminds them how much they had suffered for the truth, and that
they had even received joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that
they had a better and an abiding portion in heaven. They were not to cast
away this confidence, the reward of which would be great. For in truth they
needed patience, in order that, after having done the will of God, they
might receive the effect of the promise. And He who is to come will come
soon.
It is to this life of patience and perseverance that the chapter applies.
But there is a principle which is the strength of this life, and which
characterises it. In the midst of the difficulties of the christian walk
the just shall live by faith; and if anyone draws back, God will have no
pleasure in him. " But," says the author, placing himself as ever in the
midst of the believers, "we are not of them who draw back, but of them
that believe unto the saving of the soul." Thereupon he describes the
action of this faith, encouraging believers by the example of the elders
who had acquired their renown by walking according to the same principle as
that by which the faithful were now called to walk.
Chapter 11
It is not a definition of this principle, that the epistle gives us at the
commencement of chapter 11, but a declaration of its powers and action.
Faith realises (gives substance to) that which we hope for, and is a
demonstration to the soul of that which we do not see.
There is much more order than is generally thought in the series given here
of examples of the action of faith, although this order is not the
principal object. I will point out its leading features.
1st. With regard to creation. Lost in reasonings, and not knowing God, the
human mind sought out endless solutions of existence. Those who have read
the cosmogonies of the ancients know how many different systems, each more
absurd than the other, have been invented for that which the introduction
of God, by faith, renders perfectly simple. Modern science, with a less
active and more practical mind, stops at second causes; and it is but
little occupied with God. Geology has taken the place of the cosmogony of
the Hindoos, Egyptians, Orientals, and philosophers. To the believer the
thought is clear and simple; his mind is assured and intelligent by faith.
God, by His word, called all things into existence. The universe is not a
producing cause; it is itself a creature acting by a law imposed upon it.
It is One having authority who has spoken; His word has divine efficacy.
He speaks, and the thing is. We feel that this is worthy of God; for, when
once God is brought in, all is simple. Shut Him out, and man is lost in the
efforts of his own imagination, which can neither create nor arrive at the
knowledge of a Creator, because it only works with the power of a creature.
Before, therefore, the details of the present form of creation are entered
upon, the word simply says, " In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth." Whatever may have taken place between that and chaos forms no
part of revelation. It is distinct from the special action of the deluge,
which is made known to us. The beginning of Genesis does not give a history
of the details of creation itself, nor the history of the universe. It
gives the fact that in the beginning God created; and afterwards, the
things that regard man on the earth. The angels even are not there. Of the
stars it is only said, " He made the stars also ;" when, we are not told.
By faith then we believe that the worlds were created by the word of God.
But sin has come in, and righteousness has to be found for fallen man, in
order that he may stand before God. God has given a Lamb for the sacrifice.
But here we have set before us, not the gift on God's part, but the soul
drawing near to Him by faith.
By faith then Abel offers to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain-a
sacrifice which (founded on the revelation already made by God) was offered
in the intelligence which a conscience taught of God possessed, with regard
to the position in which he who offered was standing. Death and judgment
had come in by sin, to man insupportable, although he must undergo them. He
must go therefore to God, confessing this; but he must go with a substitute
which grace has given. He must go with blood, the witness at the same time
both of the judgment and of the perfect grace of God. Doing this, he was in
the truth, and this truth was righteousness and grace. He approaches God
and puts the sacrifice between himself and God. He receives the testimony
that he is righteous- righteous according to the righteous judgment of God.
For the sacrifice was in connection with the righteousness that had
condemned man, and owned too the perfect value of that which was done in
it. The testimony is to his offering; but Abel is righteous before God.
Nothing can be more clear, more precious on this point. It is not only the
sacrifice which is accepted, but Abel who comes with the sacrifice. He
receives from God this testimony, that he is righteous. Sweet and blessed
consolation! But the testimony is made to his gifts, so that he possessed
all the certainty of acceptance according to the value of the sacrifice
offered. In going to God by the sacrifice of Jesus, not only am I righteous
(I receive the testimony that I am righteous), but this testimony is made
to my offering, and therefore my righteousness has the value and the
perfection of the offering, that is, of Christ offering Himself to God. The
fact that we receive testimony on God's part that we are righteous, and at
the same time that the testimony is made to the gift which we offer, (not
to the condition in which we are), is of infinite value to us. We are now
before God according to the perfection of Christ's work. We walk with God
thus.
By faith, death having been the means of my acceptance before God, all that
belongs to the old man is abolished for faith; the power and the rights of
death are entirely destroyed - Christ has undergone them. Thus, if it
please God, we go to heaven with out even passing through death. (Compare 2
Cor. 5:1-4.) God did this for Enoch, for Elijah, as a testimony. Not only
are sins put away, and righteousness established by the work of Christ, but
the rights and power of him who has the power of death are entirely
destroyed. Death may happen to us-we are by nature liable to it; but we
possess a life which is outside its jurisdiction. Death, if it come, is but
gain to us; and although nothing but the power of God Himself can raise or
transform the body, this power has been manifested in Jesus, and has
already wrought in us by quickening us (compare Eph.1:19); and it works in
us now in the power of deliverance from sin, from the law, and from the
flesh. Death, as a power of the enemy, is conquered; it is become a "gain"
to faith, instead of being a judgment on nature. Life, the power of God in
life, works in holiness and in obedience here below, and declares itself in
the resurrection or in the transformation of the body. It is a witness of
power with regard to Christ in Romans 1:4.
But there is another very sweet consideration to be noticed here. Enoch
received testimony that he pleased God, before he was translated. This is
very important and very precious. If we walk with God, we have the
testimony that we please Him; we have the sweetness of communion with God,
the testimony of His Spirit, His intercourse with us in the sense of
His presence, the consciousness of walking according to His word, which we
know to be approved by Him -in a word, a life which, spent with Him and
before Him by faith, is spent in the light of His countenance and in the
enjoyment of the communications of His grace and of a sure testimony,
coming from Himself that we are pleasing to Him. A child who walks with a
kind father and converses with him, his conscience reproaching him with
nothing-does he not enjoy the sense of his parent's favour?
In figure Enoch here represents the position of the saints who compose the
assembly. He is taken up to heaven by virtue of a complete victory over
death. By the exercise of sovereign grace he is outside the government and
the ordinary deliverance of God. He bears testimony by the Spirit to the
judgment of the world, but he does not go through it. (Jude 14, 15) A walk
like that of Enoch has God for its object, His existence is realised-the
great business of life, which in the world is spent as if man did
everything-and the fact that He is interested in the walk of men, that He
takes account of it, in order to reward those who diligently seek Him.
Noah is found in the scene of the government of this world. He does not
warn others of the coming judgments as one who is outside them, although he
is a preacher of righteousness. He is warned himself and for himself; he is
in the circumstances to which the warning relates. It is the spirit of
prophecy. He is moved by fear, and he builds an ark to the saving of his
house. He thus condemned the world. Enoch had not to build an ark in order
to pass safely through the flood. He was not in it: God translated
him-exceptionally. Noah is preserved (heir of the righteousness which is by
faith) for a future world. There is a general principle which accepts the
testimony of God respecting the judgment that will fall upon men, and the
means provided by God for escaping it: this belongs to every believer.
But there is something more precise. Abel has the testimony that he is
righteous; Enoch walks with God, pleases God, and is exempted from the
common lot of humanity, proclaiming as from above the fate that awaits men,
and the coming of Him who will execute the judgment. He goes forward to the
accomplishment of the counsels of God. But neither Abel nor Enoch, thus
viewed, condemned the world as that in the midst of which they were
journeying, receiving themselves the warning, addressed to those who were
dwellers therein. This was Noah's case: the prophet, although delivered, is
in the midst of the judged people. The assembly is outside them. Noah's ark
condemned the world; the testimony of God was enough for faith, and he
inherits a world that had been destroyed, and (what belongs to all
believers) righteousness by faith, on which the new world too is founded.
This is the case of the Jewish remnant in the last days. They pass through
the judgments, out of which we, as not belonging to the world, have been
taken. Warned themselves of God's way of government in the earth, they will
be witnesses to the world of the coming judgments, and will be heirs of the
righteousness which is by faith, and witnesses to it in a new world,
wherein righteousness will be accomplished in judgment by Him who is come,
and whose throne will uphold the world in which Noah himself failed. The
words, " heir of the righteousness which is by faith," point out, I think,
that this faith which had governed a few was summed up in his person, and
that the whole unbelieving world was condemned. The witness of this faith
before judgment, Noah passes through it: and when the world is renewed, he
is a public witness to the blessing of God that rests on faith, although
outwardly all is changed. Thus Enoch represents the saints of the present
time; Noah, the Jewish remnant.
The Spirit, after establishing the great fundamental principles of faith in
action, goes on (ver. 8)to produce examples of the divine life in detail,
always in connection with Jewish knowledge, with that which the heart of a
Hebrew could not fail to own; and, at the same time, in connection with the
object of the epistle and with the wants of Christians among the Hebrews.
In the previous case we have seen a faith which, after owning a
Creator-God, recognises the great principles of the relations of man with
God, and that onwards to the end upon earth.
In that which follows, we have first the patience of faith when it does not
possess, but trusts God and waits, assured of fulfillment. This is from
verse 8 to 22. We may subdivide it thus:-first, the faith which takes the
place of strangership on earth, and maintains it because something better
is desired; and which, in spite of weakness, finds the strength that is
requisite in order to the fulfillment of the promises. This is from verse 8
to 16. Its effect is entrance into the joy of a heavenly hope. Strangers in
the land of promise, and not enjoying the fulfillment of promises here
below, they wait for more excellent things-things which God prepares on
high for those who love Him. For such He has prepared a city. In unison
with God in His own thoughts, their desires (through grace) answering to
the things in which He takes delight, they are the objects of His peculiar
regard. He is not ashamed to be called their God. Abraham not only followed
God into a land that He shewed him, but, a stranger there, and not
possessing the land of promise, he is, by the mighty grace of God, exalted
to the sphere of His thoughts; and, enjoying communion with God and the
communications of His grace, he rests upon God for the time present,
accepts his position of strangership on earth, and, as the portion of his
faith, waits for the heavenly city of which God is the builder and the
founder. There was not, so to speak, an open revelation of what was the
subject of this hope, as was the case with that by which Abraham was called
of God; but walking closely enough with God to know that which was enjoyed
in His presence, and being conscious that he had not received the
fulfillment of the promise, he lays hold of the better things, and waits
for them, although only seeing them afar off, and remains a stranger upon
earth, unmindful of the country whence he came out.
The special application of these first principles of faith to the case of
the christian Hebrews is evident. They are the normal life of faith for
all.
The second character of faith presented in this part is entire confidence
in the fulfillment of the promises- a confidence maintained in spite of all
that might tend to destroy it. This is from verse 17 to 22.
We next find, the second great division, that faith makes its way through
all the difficulties that oppose its progress. (Ver. 23-27.) And from verse
28 to 31 faith displays itself in a trust that reposes on God with regard
to the use of the means which He sets before us, and of which nature cannot
avail itself. Finally, there is the energy in general, of which faith is
the source, and the sufferings that characterise the walk of faith.
This general character belongs to all the examples mentioned, namely, that
they who have exercised faith have not received the fulfillment of the
promise; the application of which to the state of the Hebrew Christians is
evident. Further, these illustrious heroes of faith, however honoured they
might be among the Jews, did not enjoy the privileges that Christians
possessed. God in His counsels had reserved something better for us.
Let us notice some details. Abraham's faith shews itself by a thorough
trust in God. Called to leave his own people, breaking the ties of nature,
he obeys. He knows not whither he is going: enough for him that God would
shew him the place. God, having brought him thither, gives him nothing. He
dwells there content, in perfect reliance on God. He was a gainer by it. He
waited for a city that had foundations. He openly confesses that he is a
stranger and a pilgrim on earth. (Gen. 23:4) Thus, in spirit, he draws
nearer to God. Although he possesses nothing, his affections are engaged.
He desires a better country, and attaches himself to God more immediately
and entirely. He has no desire to return into his own country; he seeks a
country. Such is the Christian. In offering up Isaac there was that
absolute confidence in God which, at His command, can renounce even God's
own promises as possessed after the flesh, sure that God would restore them
through the exercise of His power, overcoming death and every obstacle.
It is thus that Christ renounced His rights as Messiah, and went even into
death, committing Him self to the will of God and trusting in Him; and
received everything in resurrection. And this the Hebrew Christians had to
do, with respect to the Messiah and the promises made to Israel. But, if
there is simplicity of faith, for us the Jordan is dry, nor could we indeed
have passed it if the Lord had not passed on before.
Observe here that, when trusting in God and giving up all for Him, we
always gain, and we learn something, more of the ways of His power: for in
renouncing according to His will anything already received, we ought to
expect from the power of God that He will bestow something else. Abraham
renounces the promise after the flesh. He sees the city which has
foundations; he can desire a heavenly country. He gives up Isaac, in whom
were the promises: he learns resurrection, for God is infallibly faithful.
The promises were in Isaac: therefore God must restore him to Abraham, and
by resurrection, if he offered him in sacrifice.
In Isaac faith distinguishes between the portion of God's people according
to his election, and that of man having birthrights according to nature.
This is the knowledge of the ways of God in blessing, and in judgment.
By faith Jacob, a stranger and feeble, having nothing but the staff with
which he had crossed the Jordan, worships God, and announces the double
portion of the heir of Israel, of the one whom his brethren rejected-a type
of the Lord, the heir of all things. This lays the ground of worship.
By faith Joseph, a stranger, the representative here of Israel far from his
own country, reckons on the fulfillment of the earthly promises.
These are the expressions of faith in the faithfulness of God, in the
future fulfillment of His promise. In that which follows we have the faith
which surmounts every difficulty that arises in the path of the man of God,
in the way that God marks out for him as he journeys on towards the
enjoyment of the promises.
The faith of the parents of Moses makes them disregard the king's cruel
command, and they conceal their infant; whom God, in answer to their faith
preserved by extraordinary means when there was no other way to save it.
Faith does not reason; it acts from its own point of view, and leaves the
result to God.
But the means which God used for the preservation of Moses placed him
within a little of the highest position in the kingdom. He there came to be
possessed of all the acquirements which that period could bestow on a man
distinguished alike by his energy and his character. But faith does its
work, and inspires divine affections which do not look to surrounding
circumstances for a guide of action, even when those circumstances may have
owned their origin to the most remarkable providences.
Faith has its own objects, supplied by God Himself, and governs the heart
with a view to those objects. It gives us a place and relationships which
rule the whole life, and leave no room for other motives and other spheres
of affection which would divide the heart; for the motives and affections
which govern faith are given by God, and given by Him in order to form and
govern the heart.
Verse 24-26 develop this point. It is a very important principle; for we
often hear Providence alleged as a reason for not walking by faith. Never
was there a more remarkable Providence than that which placed Moses in the
court of Pharaoh; and it gained its object. It would not have done so if
Moses had not abandoned the position into which that Providence had brought
him. But it was faith (that is to say, the divine affections which God had
created in his heart), and not Providence as a rule and motive, which
produced the effect for which Providence had preserved and prepared him.
Providence (thanks be to God !) governs circumstances; faith governs the
heart and the conduct.
The reward which God has promised comes in here as an avowed object in the
sphere of faith. It is not the motive power; but it sustains and encourages
the heart that is acting by faith, in view of the object which God presents
to our affections. It thus takes the heart away from the present, from the
influence of the things that surround us (whether they are things that
attract or that tend to intimidate us), and elevates the heart and
character of him who walks by faith and confirms him in a path of
devotedness which will lead him to the end at which he aims.
A motive outside that which is present to us is the secret of stability and
of true greatness. We may have an object with regard to which we act: but
we need a motive outside that object-a divine motive- to enable us to act
in a godly way respecting it.
Faith realises also (ver. 27) the intervention of God without seeing Him;
and thus delivers from all fear of the power of man-the enemy of His
people. But the thought of God's intervention brings the heart into a
greater difficulty than even the fear of man. If His people are to be
delivered, God must intervene, and that in judgment. But they, as well as
their enemies, are sinners; and the consciousness of sin and of deserving
judgment necessarily destroys confidence in Him who is the Judge. Dare they
see Him come to manifest His power in judgment (for this it is, in fact,
which must take place for the deliverance of His people)? Is God for us the
heart asks-this God who is coming in judgment? But God has provided the
means of securing safety in the presence of judgment (ver. 28); a means
apparently contemptible and useless, yet which in reality is the only one
that, by glorifying Him with regard to the evil of which we are guilty, has
power to afford shelter from the judgment which He executes.
Faith recognised the testimony of God by trusting to the efficacy of the
blood sprinkled on the door, and could, in all security, let God come in
judgment-God who, seeing the blood, would pass over His believing people.
By faith Moses kept the passover. Observe here that, by the act of putting
the blood on the door, the people acknowledged that they were as much the
objects of the just judgment of God as the Egyptians. God had given them
that which preserved them from it; but it was because they were guilty and
deserved it. No one can stand before God.
Verse 29. But the power of God is manifested, and manifested in judgment.
Nature, the enemies of God's people, think to pass through this judgment
dry-shod, like those who are sheltered by redeeming power from the
righteous vengeance of God. But the judgment swallows them up in the very
same place in which the people find deliverance-a principle of marvelous
import. There, where the judgment of God is, even there is the deliverance.
Believers have truly experienced this in Christ. The cross is death and
judgment, the two terrible consequences of sin, the lot of sinful man. To
us they are the deliverance provided of God. By and in them we are
delivered and (in Christ) we pass through and are out of their reach.
Christ died and is risen; and faith brings us, by means of that which
should have been our eternal ruin, into a place where death and judgment
are left behind, andwhere our enemies can no longer reach us. We go
through without their touching us. Death and judgment shield us from the
enemy. They are our security. But we enter into a new sphere, we live by
the effect not only of Christ's death, but of His resurrection.
Those who, in the mere power of nature, think to pass through (they who
speak of death and judgment and Christ, taking the christian position, and
thinking to pass through, although the power of God in redemption is not
with them) are swallowed up.
With respect to the Jews, this event will have an earthly antitype; for in
fact the day of God's judgment on earth will be the deliverance of Israel,
who will have been brought to repentance.
This deliverance at the Red Sea goes beyond the protection of the blood in
Egypt. There God coming in the expression of His holiness, executing
judgment upon evil, what they needed was to be sheltered from that
judgment-to be protected from the righteous judgment of God Himself. And,
by the blood, God, thus coming to execute judgment, was shut out, and the
people were placed in safety before the Judge. This judgment had the
character of the eternal judgment. And God had the character of a Judge.
At the Red Sea it was not merely deliverance from judgment hanging over
them; God was for the people, active in love and in power for them.
The deliverance was an actual
deliverance: they came out of that condition in which they had been
enslaved, God's own power bringing them unhurt through that which otherwise
must have been their destruction. Thus, in our case, it is Christ's death
and resurrection, in which we participate, the redemption which He therein
accomplished, which introduces us into an entirely new condition
altogether outside that of nature. We are no longer in the flesh.
In principle the earthly deliverance of the Jewish nation (the Jewish
remnant) will be the same. Founded on the power of the risen Christ, and on
the propitiation wrought out by His death, that deliverance will be
accomplished by God, who will intervene on behalf of those that turn to Him
by faith: at the same time that His adversaries (who are those also of His
people) shall be destroyed by the very judgment which is the safeguard of
the people whom they have oppressed.
Verse 30. Yet all difficulties were not overcome because redemption was
accomplished, deliverance effected. But the God of deliverance was with
them; difficulties disappear before Him. That which is a difficulty to man
is none to Him. Faith trusts in Him, and uses means which only serve to
express that trust. The walls of Jericho fall down at the sound of trumpets
made of rams' horns, after Israel had compassed the city seven days,
sounding these trumpets seven times.
Rahab, in presence of all the as yet unimpaired strength of the enemies of
God and His people, identifies herself with the latter before they had
gained one victory, because she felt that God was with them. A stranger to
them (as to the flesh), she by faith escaped the judgment which God
executed upon her people.
Verse 32. Details are now no longer entered into. Israel (although
individuals had still to act by faith), being established in the land of
promise,furnished less occasion to develop examples of the principles on
which faith acted. The Spirit speaks in a general way of these examples in
which faith re-appeared under various characters and energy of patience,
and sustained souls under all kinds of suffering. Their glory was with God,
the world was not worthy of them. Nevertheless they had received nothing of
the fulfillment of the promises; they had to live by faith, as well as the
Hebrews, to whom the epistle was addressed. The latter, however, had
privileges which were in no wise possessed by believers of former days.
Neither the one nor the other was brought to perfection, that is, to the
heavenly glory, unto which God has called us, and in which they are to
participate. Abraham and others waited for this glory; they never possessed
it: God would not give it them without us. But He has not called us by the
same revelations only as those which He made to them. For the days of the
rejected Messiah He had reserved some better thing. Heavenly things have
become things of the present time, things fully revealed and actually
possessed in spirit, by the union of the saints with Christ, and present
access into the holiest through the blood of Christ.
We have not to do with a promise and a distinct view of a place approached
from without, entrance to which was not yet granted, so that relationship
with God would not be founded on entrance within the veil-entrance into His
own presence. We now go in with boldness. We belong to heaven; our
citizenship is there; we are at home there. Heavenly glory is our present
portion, Christ having gone in as our forerunner. We have in heaven a
Christ who is man glorified. This Abraham had not. He walked on earth with
a heavenly mind, waiting for a city, feeling that nothing else would
satisfy the desires which God had awakened in his heart; but he could not
be connected with heaven by means of a Christ actually sitting there in
glory. This is our present portion. We can even say that we are united to
Him there. The Christian's position is quite different from that of
Abraham. God had reserved some better thing for us.
The Spirit does not here develop the whole extent of this " better thing,"
because the assembly is not His subject. He presents the general thought to
the Hebrews to encourage them, that believers of the present day have
special privileges, which they enjoy by faith, but which did not belong
even to the faith of believers in former days.
We shall be perfected, that is to say, glorified together in resurrection;
but there is a special portion which belongs to the saints now, and which
did not belong to the patriarchs. The fact that Christ, as man, is in
heaven after having accomplished redemption, and that the Holy Ghost, by
whom we are united to Christ, is on earth, made this superiority granted
to Christians easily understood. Accordingly even the least in the kingdom
of heaven is greater than the greatest of those who preceded it.
Chapter 12
The epistle now enters on the practical exhortation, that flow from its
doctrinal instruction, with reference to the dangers peculiar to the Hebrew
Christians-instruction suited throughout to inspire them with courage.
Surrounded with a cloud of witnesses like these of chapter 11, who all
declared the advantages of a life of faith in promises still unfulfilled,
they ought to feel themselves impelled to follow their steps, running with
patience the race set before them, and above all looking away from every
difficulty to Jesus, who had run the whole career of
faith, sustained by the joy that was set before Him, and, having reached
the goal, had taken His seat in glory at the right hand of God.
This passage presents the Lord, not as He who bestows faith, but as He who
has Himself run the whole career of faith. Others had traveled a part of
the road, had surmounted some difficulties; the obedience and the
perseverance of the Lord had been subjected to every trial of which human
nature is susceptible. Men, the adversary, the being forsaken of God,
everything was against Him. His disciples flee when He is in danger, His
intimate friend betrays Him; He looks for some one to have compassion on
Him and finds no one. The fathers (of whom we read in the previous chapter)
trusted in God and were delivered, but as for Jesus. He was a worm, and no
man;His throat was dry with crying. His love for us, His obedience to His
Father, surmounted all. He carries off the victory by submission, and takes
His seat in a glory exalted in proportion to the greatness of His abasement
and obedience, the only just reward for having perfectly glorified God
where He had been dishonoured by sin. The joy and the rewards that are set
before us are never the motives of the walk of faith-we know this well with
regard to Christ, but it is not the less true in our own case-they are the
encouragement of those who walk in it.
Jesus, then, who has attained the glory due to Him becomes an example to us
in the sufferings through which He passed in attaining it; therefore we are
neither to lose courage nor to grow weary. We have not yet, like Him, lost
our lives in order to glorify God and to serve Him. The way in which the
apostle engages them to disentangle themselves from every hindrance,
whether sin or difficulty, is remarkable; as though they had nothing to do
but to cast them off as useless weights. And in fact, when we look at
Jesus, nothing is easier; when we are not looking at Him, nothing more
impossible.
There are two things to be cast off: every weight, and the sin that would
entangle our feet (for he speaks of one who is running in the race). The
flesh, the human heart, is occupied with cares and difficulties; and the
more we think of them, the more we are burdened by them. It is enticed by
the object of its desires, it does not free itself from them. The conflict
is with a heart that loves the thing against which we strive; we do not
separate ourselves from it in thought. When looking at Jesus, the new man
is active; there is a new object, which unburdens and detaches us from
every other by means of a new creation which has its place in a new nature:
and in Jesus Himself, to whom we look, there is a positive power which sets
us free.
It is by casting it all off in an absolute way that the thing is easy-by
looking at that which fills the heart with other things, and occupies it in
a different sphere, where a new object and a new nature act upon each
other; and in that object there is a positive power which absorbs the heart
and shuts out all objects that act merely on the old nature. What is felt
to be a weight is easily cast off. Everything is judged of by its bearing
on the object we aim at. If I run in a race and all my thought is the
prize, a bag of gold is readily cast away. It is a weight. But we must look
to Jesus. Only in Him can we cast off every hindrance easily and without
reservation. We cannot combat sin by the flesh.
But there is another class of trials that come from without: they are not
to be cast off, they must be borne. Christ, as we have seen, went through
them. We have not like Him resisted even to the shedding of our blood
rather than fail in faithfulness and obedience. Now God acts in these
trials as a father. He chastises us. They come perhaps, as in the case of
Job, from the enemy, but the hand and the wisdom of God are in them. He
chastises those whom He loves.
We must therefore neither despise the chastisement nor be discouraged by
it. We must not despise it, for He does not chastise without a motive or a
cause (moreover, it is God who does it); nor must we be discouraged, for He
does it in love.
If we lose our life for the testimony of the Lord and in resisting sin, the
warfare is ended; and this is not chastisement, but the glory of suffering
with Christ. Death in this case is the negation of sin. He who has died is
free from sin; he who has suffered in the flesh has done with sin. But up
to that point, the flesh in practice (for we have a right to reckon
ourselves dead) is not yet destroyed; and God knows how to unite the
manifestation of the faithfulness of the new man, who suffers for the Lord,
with the discipline by which the flesh is mortified. For example, Paul's
thorn in the flesh united these two things. It was painful to him in the
exercise of his ministry, for it was something that tended to make him
contemptible when preaching, and this he endured (for the Lord's sake), but
at the same time it kept his flesh in check.
Verse 9. Now we are subject to our natural parents who discipline us after
their own will: how much more then to the Father of spirits, who
makes us partakers of His own holiness!
Observe here the grace that is appealed to. We have seen how much the
Hebrews needed warning-their tendency was to fail in the career of faith.
The means of preventing this is doubtless not to spare warning, but yet to
bring the soul fully into connection with grace. This alone can give
strength and courage through confidence in God.
We are not come to Mount Sinai, to the law which makes demands on us, but
to Sion, where God manifested His power in re-establishing Israel by His
grace in the person of the elect king, when, as to the responsibility of
the people, all was entirely lost, all relationship with God impossible on
that footing, for the ark was lost; there was no longer a mercy-seat, no
longer a throne of God among the people. Ichabod was written on Israel.
Therefore in speaking of holiness he says, God is active in love towards
you, even in your very sufferings. It is He who has not only given free
access to Himself, by the blood and by the presence of Christ in heaven for
us, but who is continually occupied with all the details of your life;
whose hand is in all your trials, who thinks unceasingly about you, in
order to make you partakers of His holiness. This is not to require
holiness on our part-necessary as it must ever be-it is in order to make us
partakers of His own holiness. What immense and perfect grace! What a
means! It is the means by which to enjoy God Himself perfectly.
Verse 11. God does not expect us to find these exercises of soul pleasant
at the moment (they would not produce their effect if they were so): but
afterwards, the will being broken, they produce the peaceable fruits of
righteousness. The pride of man is brought down when he is obliged to
submit to that which is contrary to his will. God also takes a larger (ever
precious) place in his thoughts and in his life.
Verse 12. On the principle then of grace, the Hebrews are exhorted to
encourage themselves in the path of faith, and to watch against the
buddings of sin among them, whether in yielding to the desires of the
flesh, or in giving up christian privileges for something of the world.
They were to walk so courageously that their evident joy and blessing
(which is always a distinct testimony and one that triumphs over the enemy)
should make the weak feel that it was their own assured portion also; and
thus strength and healing would be administered to them instead of
discouragement. The path of godliness as to circumstances was to be made
easy, a beaten path to weak and lame souls; and they would feel more than
stronger souls the comfort and value of such a path.
Grace, we have already said, is the motive given for this walk; but grace
is here presented in a form that requires to be considered a little in
detail.
We are not come, it says, to Mount Sinai. There the terrors of the majesty
of God kept man at a distance. No one was to approach Him. Even Moses
feared and trembled at the presence of Jehovah. This is not where the
Christian is brought but, in contrast with such relationships as these with
God, the whole millennial state in all its parts is developed; according
however to the way in which these different parts are now known as things
hoped for. We belong to it all; but evidently these things are not yet
established. Let us name them: Sion; the heavenly Jerusalem; the angels and
general assembly; the Church of the firstborn, whose names are inscribed in
heaven; God the Judge of all; the spirits of the just made perfect; Jesus
the Mediator of the new covenant, and finally, the blood of sprinkling
which speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Sion we have ,spoken of as a principle. It is the intervention of sovereign
grace (in the king) after the ruin, and in the midst of theruin, of
Israel, re-establishing the people according to the counsels of God in
glory, and their relationships with God Himself. It is the rest of God on
the earth, the seat of the Messiah's royal power. But, as we know, the
extent of the earth is far from being the limits of the Lord's inheritance.
Sion on earth is Jehovah's rest; it is not the city of the living God-the
heavenly Jerusalem is that, the heavenly capital, so to speak of His
kingdom, the city that has foundations, whose founder and builder is God
Himself.
Having named Sion below, the author turns naturally to Jerusalem above; but
this carries him into heaven, and he finds himself with all the people of
God, in the midst of a multitude of angels, the great universal assembly
of the invisible world. There is however one
peculiar object on which his eye rests in this marvelous and heavenly
scene. It is the assembly of the firstborn whose names are inscribed in
heaven. They were not born there, not indigenous like the angels, whom God
preserved from falling. They are the objects of the counsels of God. It is
not merely that they reach heaven: they are the glorious heirs and
firstborn of God, according to His eternal counsels, in accordance with
which they are registered in heaven. The assembly composed of the objects
of grace, now called in Christ, belongs to heaven by grace. They are not
the objects of the promises, who, not having received the fulfillment of
the promises on earth, do not fail to enjoy them in heaven. They have the
anticipation of no other country or citizenship than heaven. The promises
were not addressed to them. They have no place on earth. Heaven is prepared
for them by God Himself. Their names are inscribed there by Him. It is the
highest place in heaven above the dealings of God in government, promise,
and law on the earth. This leads the picture of glory on to God Himself.
But (having, reached the highest point, that which is most excellent in
grace) He is seen under another character, namely, as the Judge of all, as
looking down from on high to judge all that is below. This introduces
another class of these blessed inhabitants of the heavenly glory: those
whom the righteous Judge owned as His before the heavenly assembly was
revealed, the spirits of the just arrived at perfection. They had finished
their course, they had overcome in conflict, they were waiting only for
glory. They had been connected with the dealings of God on the earth,
but-faithful before the time for its blessing was come-they had their rest
and their portion in heaven.
It was the purpose of God nevertheless to bless the earth. He could not do
so according to man's responsibility: His people even were but as grass. He
would therefore establish a new covenant with Israel a covenant of pardon,
and according to which He would write the law in the hearts of His people.
The Mediator of this covenant had already appeared and had done all that
was required for its establishment. The saints among the Hebrews were come
to the Mediator of the new covenant: blessing was thus prepared for the
earth and secured to it.
Finally, the blood of Christ had been shed on earth, as that of Abel by
Cain; but, instead of crying from the earth for vengeance, so that Cain
became a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth (a striking type of the Jew,
guilty of the death of Christ), it is grace that speaks; and the shed blood
cries to obtain pardon and peace for those who shed it.
It will be observed that although speaking of the different paths of
millennial blessing, with its foundations, all is given according to the
present condition of things, before the coming of that time of blessing
from God. We are in it as to our relationships; but the spirits of the just
men of the Old Testament only are here spoken of, and only the Mediator of
this new covenant: the covenant itself is not established. The blood cries,
but the answer in earthly blessing has not
yet come. This is easily understood. It is exactly according to the
existing state of things, and even throws considerable light on the
position of the Hebrew Christians and on the doctrine of the epistle. The
important thing for them was, that they should not turn away from Him who
spoke from heaven. It was with Him they had to do. We have seen them
connected with all that went before, with the Lord's testimony on earth;
but in fact they had to do at that time with the Lord Himself as speaking
from heaven. His voice then shook the earth; but now, speaking with the
authority of grace and from heaven, He announced the dissolution of
everything which the flesh could lean upon, or on which the creature could
rest its hopes.
All that could be shaken should he dissolved. How much more fatal to turn
away from Him that speaketh now, than from the commandments even of Sinai!
This shaking of all things (whether here or in the analogous passage in 2
Peter) evidently goes beyond Judaism, but has a peculiar application to it.
Judaism was the system and the frame of the relationships of God with men
on earth according to the principle of responsibility on their part. All
this was of the first creation, but its springs were poisoned; heaven, the
seat of the enemy's power, perverted and corrupted; the heart of man on
earth was corrupt and rebellious. God will shake and change all things. The
result will be a new creation in which righteousness shall dwell.
Meanwhile the first fruits of this new Creation were being formed; and in
Christianity God was forming the heavenly part of the kingdom that cannot
be moved; and Judaism-the centre of the earthly system and of human
responsibility-was passing away. The apostle therefore announces the
shaking of all things-that everything which exists as the present creation
shall be set aside. With regard to the present fact he says only, " we
receive a kingdom
that cannot be moved;" and calls us to serve God with true piety, because
our God is a consuming fire; not- as people say-God out of Christ, but our
God. This is His character in holy majesty and in righteous judgment of
evil.
Chapter 13
In this next chapter there is more than one truth important to notice. The
exhortations are as simple as they are weighty, and require but few
remarks. They rest in the sphere in which the whole of the epistle does:
what relates to the Christian's path as walking here, not what flows from
union with Christ in heavenly places. Brotherly love, hospitality, care for
those in bonds, the strict maintenance of the marriage tie and persona!
purity, the avoiding of covetousness: such are the subjects of exhortation,
all important and connected with the gracious walk of a Christian, but not
drawn from the higher and more heavenly sources and principles of the
christian life as we see in Ephesians and Colossians. Nor, even though
there be more analogy-for the Epistle to the Romans rests in general in
life in Christ in this world, presenting Christ's resurrection, without
going on to His ascension -are the
exhortations such as in this latter epistle. Those which follow connect
themselves with the circumstances in which the Hebrews found themselves,
and rest on the approaching abolition and judgment of Judaism, from which
they had now definitely to separate themselves.
In exhorting them (ver. 7) to remember those who have guided the flock, he
speaks of those already departed in contrast with those still living. (Ver.
17.) The issue of their faith might well encourage others to follow their
steps, to walk by those principles of faith which had led them to so noble
a result.
Moreover Christ never changed; He was the same yesterday, today, and for
ever. Let them abide in the simplicity and integrity of faith. Nothing is a
plainer proof that the heart is not practically in possession of that which
gives rest in Christ, that it does not realise what Christ is, than the
restless search after something new- "divers and strange doctrines." To
grow in the knowledge of Christ is our life and our privilege. The search
after novelties which are foreign to Him, is a proof of not being satisfied
with Him. But he who is not satisfied with Jesus does not know Him, or, at
least, has forgotten Him. It is impossible to enjoy Him, and not to feel
that He is everything, that is to say, that He satisfies us, and that by
the nature of what He is, He shuts out everything else.
Now with regard to Judaism, in which the Hebrews were naturally inclined to
seek satisfaction for the flesh, the apostle goes farther. They were no
longer Jews in the possession of the true worship of God, a privileged
worship in which others had no right to participate. The altar of God
belonged now to the Christians. Christians only had a right to it. An
earthly worship, in which there was no entering within the veil, into God's
own presence in the sanctuary, could no longer subsist-a worship that had
its worldly glory, that belonged to the elements of this world and had its
place there. Now, it is either heaven or the cross and shame. The great
sacrifice for sin has been offered; but by its efficacy, it brings us into
the sanctuary, into heaven itself, where the blood has been carried in; and
on the other hand it takes us outside the camp, a religious people
connected with the world down here, into shame and rejection on earth. This
is the portion of Christ. In heaven He is accepted, He has gone in with His
own blood- on earth cast out and despised.
A worldly religion, which forms a system in which the world can walk, and
in which the religious element is adapted to man on the earth, is the
denial of Christianity.
Here we have no continuing city, we seek the one which is to come. By
Christ we offer our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. By sharing also
our goods with others, by doing good in every way we offer sacrifices with
which God is well pleased. (Ver 16)
He then exhorts them to obey those who, as responsible to God, watch over
souls, and who go before the saints in order to lead them on. It is a proof
of that humble spirit of grace which seeks only to please the Lord.
The sense of this responsibility makes Paul ask the saints to pray for him,
but with the declaration that he had assuredly a good conscience. We serve
God, we act for Him, when He is not obliged to be acting on us. That is to
say, the Spirit of God acts by our means when He has not to occupy us with
ourselves. When the latter is the case, one could not ask for the prayers
of saints as a labourer. While the Spirit is exercising us in our
conscience, we cannot call our selves lahourers of God. When the conscience
is good we can ask unreservedly for the prayers of the saints. The apostle
so much the more asked for them because he hoped thus the sooner to see
them again.
Finally, he invokes blessing upon them, giving God the title he so often
ascribes to Him-" the God of peace." In the midst of exercise of heart with
regard to the Hebrews, of arguments to preserve their love from growing
cold, in the midst of the moral unsteadiness that enfeebled the walk of
these Christians, and their trials in the breaking down of what they
considered stable and holy, this title has a peculiarly precious character.
The Spirit sets them also in the presence of a risen Christ, of a God who
had founded and secured peace by the death of Christ, and had given a proof
of it in His resurrection. He had brought Christ again from the dead
according to the power of the blood of the everlasting
covenant. On this blood the believing people might build a hope that
nothing could
shake. For it was not, as at Sinai, promises founded on the condition of
the people's obedience, but on the ransom which had been paid, and the
perfect expiation of their disobedience. The blessing was therefore
unchangeable, the covenant (as the inheritance and the redemption) was
everlasting. He prays that the God who had wrought it, would work in them
to grant them full power and energy for the accomplishment of His will,
working Himself in them that which was well pleasing in His sight.
He urges them to give heed to exhortation; he had only sent them a few words.
He who wrote the letter desires they should know that Timothy had been set
at liberty; he himself was so already; he was in Italy; circumstances which
tend to confirm the idea that it was Paul who wrote this letter-a very
interesting point, although in nowise affecting its authority.
It is the Spirit of God who everywhere gives His own authority to the word.
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