J. N. Darby.
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Hebrews 1.
The Spirit of God in this epistle distinguishes between the way in which God spoke, or dealt, in time past and now. So in Romans 3 the apostle speaks of Christ, "whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past." There he applies the death of Christ to the sins committed before He came. The day of atonement in Israel was for the putting away of past sins. He had been bearing with them all the year, and then when the sacrifice came on that day, the sin was all put away and all bright in the presence of God. There is the day of atonement yet to come for Israel as a nation, when in their land. Then the other part was "to declare at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him," etc. This is for the present time. By ascending before God on high, He establishes a present righteousness - all sins forgiven and we made the righteousness of God in Christ. Romans 3:25 gives it historically, for the sins of all who were saved in the Old Testament times are put away by this sacrifice; but we may apply it immediately, and see that not only our past sins are put away, but we stand in righteousness for the present.
Verse 1. "God who at sundry times," etc. That was before the time came for the revelation of Himself. Messages were sent through others. They had communications from God, for He spake to them through the prophets: but now we have the manifestation of Himself. The Son of God has now come. "God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." Thus the word is so exalted. "Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name." His name up to that time was exalted. He had made Himself known to Abraham as the Lord Almighty, telling him to trust His power, when he had to walk up and down as a stranger, with none to take care of him. Then again He was made known to Nebuchadnezzar as the most High God, higher than any of the gods of the nations; and to Abraham too He was called thus, when he returned from the slaughter of the kings. He will take it again when the kingdom comes. Then, again, He was known by the name Jehovah - "I am" - the practical force of which is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." All these names were glorious; but the word He has magnified above all. The word is that which tells all that God is - holiness, love, wisdom, etc. His word expresses His thoughts and feelings; it is the revelation of Himself. God speaks by Christ. Everything that Christ did was the manifestation of God. Who could heal the leper but God? "I will, be thou clean," are His words. Who could raise the dead but God? "Lazarus, come forth!" "I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me," John 17:8. He has committed His words to us, to be the vessels of His testimony according to our measure. "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true."
336 We are not only brought to God now, but to God revealing Himself, God manifest in the flesh. Christ came declaring the Father. "Believe me that I am in the Father … or else believe me for the very works' sake." What a blessed place we have in Christ, having Him as the revelation of God to us! The mind of God is brought before us in Christ. "The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart." This is what makes Scripture so precious. It is indeed the written word, but the revelation of God. "No prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation." You have got the mind of God in writing, and there it is stable and imperishable - in contrast to traditions merely handed down from one to another. There cannot be the church speaking, without Scripture. If the church can say anything, itself, then Christ's words go for nothing. I have another master over me. I am speaking of authority now, not of gift, which, of course, there is in the church for the bringing out of truth. But authority in the church trenches on the lordship of Christ over His house. It is a great thing to treasure in our souls that we have this revelation of God in Christ; and the beginning of the next chapter takes us up on the ground of possessing it. "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." These were Jews to whom the apostle was writing, and they had heard the Lord Himself speak, and afterwards His apostles; and that is the reason why Paul did not put his name to this as to other epistles, when inditing them. You Jews hear what God Himself has said to you. You have heard Him. Thus, the apostle only confirmed what He had said. It is blessed thus to see how Paul drops his own apostleship (he was not, it is true, the apostle of the circumcision), and only speaks of the twelve who confirmed Christ's own words.
337 In this chapter we have first the glory of Christ shewn in His being "heir of all things." He was the Son of the Father, and the everlasting Father, by virtue of His own power; and He will take everything. He will inherit all things. If a Son, we may say, then an Heir; for it is even said of us, "If children, then heirs." All that is the Father's is His. "He shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you." Psalm 8 is alluded to in chapter 2, when in the counsels of God it is appointed that as a Man He should take all things; but in this chapter we have this same One as the Son of God and "heir of all things"; and for this glorious reason, He "made the worlds." In Colossians we have it - they "were created by him and for him." There it is His title over creation, but as "the image of the invisible God, the first-born," etc. So here it is "heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds." He is distinguished from God the Father - the right hand of His power. By wisdom He planned and by power He wrought. Christ is that wisdom and that power.
Verse 3. "The express image of his person." Christ was the outshining of God's glory. This is more than testimony made by the prophets in other ages. John 12:38-41, in connection with Isaiah 6, shews the shining out of His glory very remarkably. See also Genesis 1:26-27 in connection with this word, "the express image of his person."
"Upholding all things," etc. Of course this is a divine act. Who could keep the universe going? How could it all go on without God, so that not a sparrow falls to the ground without Him? How could it be without Him who made it? Though He has established the order of all things, it is He who is keeping it all going. The one actually acting and possessing all is Christ. We see His glory in all this.
Another divine work there is spoken of in His having "purged our sins"; and it is just as much a divine act to purge our sins as to create a world, and in one sense far more difficult, because sin is so hateful to God. It would be easy enough for Him to create another world out of nothing. He could look at His creation and say it was all "very good"; but He is so holy, He cannot look upon sin. Therefore there is something He must take away, and He does come to put sins away. We have sinned against God, and it is impossible for any to forgive the sin but the person sinned against. We have sinned against God, not man primarily, and man cannot forgive sins. This is another reason why God should be the only One who can forgive sins.
338 Mark another thing. He must purge before He can forgive. In passing through this world, man has to pass over a great deal, and get through as well as he can: but God cannot do this. He "is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity." Then if God is to have anything to do with us, He must purge sin. There is this dreadful necessity, that God should be occupied with our sins; and He had love enough and power enough to do it. If He passed it over, He would have to give up His holiness. Therefore there was this moral necessity of His holiness, that if He is to have any such poor sinners in His presence, He must cleanse us. So there must also be the feet-washing, if we are to have part with Christ.
"When he had by himself purged our sins" - it must be by Himself. No one could help Him in it; angels could have nothing to do in it, though they were sent to minister to Him when engaged in the work. Man could not, for man can do no more than his duty; if he did more, it would be wrong. It must be a divine work to purge away sin. There is a divine necessity upon God to do it - and that by Himself, because He could not allow sin. This is how I am purged. Because He could not bear sin, He must take it away Himself, and "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." It is a work that has been done: not anything that He will do, and may do - not something yet to be done. It is done, and He has sat down. We then no longer have a prophet coming to tell us He will do it, but there is the testimony of the Holy Ghost that it has been done.
"The brightness of God's glory," it is said, not the Father's. Sin is connected with God as its judge, not with the Father. He "sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high." The whole work is accomplished and so perfectly done that He can take His own place again, and with the blessed difference, that He goes back as a Man, which He never was before. Stephen saw Him as the "Son of man," standing on the right hand of God. Here He has "sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high." He has taken our sins, and yet is on the right hand of the throne of God. This shews that the righteousness wrought out was so perfect and divine, that though He has taken our sins, He could sit down on the throne of God, and not soil it. He had a right, of course, on the ground of His divine Person; but there is more than that here. Divine righteousness is presented to God, as an accomplished thing, just as the divine Son was manifested to man when He came down amongst us. It is all divine glory throughout.
339 Psalm 2, "Kiss the Son," etc. Blessed is the man who trusteth in God: but cursed the man who trusteth in man; Jer. 17. We find in the prophets certain traits in mystery, as it were, to display the divine Person of the One who was coming in humiliation. See Isaiah 50:3-5. The same glorious Person who said, "I clothe the heavens with blackness," etc., says, "The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious," etc. In Daniel 7 again, see verse 13 - "the Son of man," brought before "the Ancient of days," and in verse 22, He is giving out Himself to be "the Ancient of days," Heb. 1:7. "Who maketh his angels spirits," etc., but He does not say make when speaking of the Son. "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." See Psalm 45:1-7; Heb. 1:9. He whose throne is for ever and ever has been put to the test; and He loved righteousness and hated iniquity while amongst us, and has brought us up as His fellows out of our iniquity. See the contrast in the connection in which "fellows" is mentioned here, and in Zechariah 13:7, where Jehovah speaks of the man, His fellow, who has been "wounded in the house of his friends."
Thus we see the glory of Christ shining through the Old Testament continually, but in this chapter it is fully brought out. He is owned as God, though a man, and glorified above all others.
Verses 10, 11, etc. See Psalm 102:24. "Thy years are throughout," etc., is in answer to verse 23, and first clause of verse 24. This is still more pointed and precise. Jesus, in His humiliation, breathes out His broken heart to Jehovah. The Psalm anticipates the rebuilding of Zion. If so, where would this smitten Messiah be? If cut off in the midst of His day, how could He be there? God's answer is, that He, the holy sufferer, is Jehovah, the creator and disposer of all things. What a testimony to His unchangeable deity!
340 This is the time of grace, when those who are to be His companions in the glory are being gathered out (His fellows, v. 9).
Verse 13. Angels have a very blessed place and office, but it is never said to them, "Sit on my right hand," etc., but Jehovah did say so to the man, Christ Jesus. He has His own place there.
What a blessed Saviour we have! The Lord Himself has come and taken up our cause. The One whom we look to, and lean upon as a Saviour, is the Lord Jehovah.
Then, besides the glory of His Person, there is the other blessed truth, essential to our peace, to see what a wonderful salvation we have: our sins completely purged away! There is a wonderful and divine glory in this salvation, and divine and ineffable love - the love of One who is not like an angel who could only do His work when told.
Our souls are thus called to worship Him who clothes the heavens with blackness, who indeed made all things, even Jesus, the Son of God.
Hebrews 2.
The first four verses of this chapter are an exhortation founded on the preceding one. Observe, this epistle does not begin with an apostolic address, as the others do; but Paul puts himself entirely among these Jewish believers, and speaks of Christ as their Apostle, not himself; and throughout he is unfolding all the riches of Christ, to keep them from sliding back into Judaism. Though the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed to Paul, as that of the circumcision was to Peter, yet is Paul the one used to these Hebrew believers. In chapter 1:1-2, God hath "spoken to us"; that is, Paul puts himself among them. In the Hebrews the church is not addressed as such, but the saints individually - not in their aspect of oneness with Christ. Even in the Epistle to the Romans it is said, "Whom he justified, them he also glorified"; but here we get Him only "crowned with glory and honour." Further, I would remark, as it is not of union with Christ of which the apostle speaks here, responsibility is pressed; continual "ifs" and warnings flow from this. These warnings do not one whit touch the final perseverance of the saints, as the doctrine is called; though I would rather say, the perseverance of God, His faithfulness, for He it is who keeps us to the end. "If you continue" does not throw a doubt on your continuance. The quickening work of the Spirit of God is scarcely referred to in this epistle, save in one or two cases. In chapter 2:2, "The word spoken by angels" means the law given at Sinai. In these verses the whole Jewish nation is addressed, while those only who had faith would receive the warning. And I would notice that the warnings of God are not merely against sin, but not to let slip truth, etc. Christ came into the world, not imputing their trespasses unto them, but they added to their rebellion of heart by rejecting Him who came to warn them. Neglecting salvation is despising it. By the rejection of Christ the Jews bound their sins upon them. To have broken the law was bad enough, but to reject grace was worse; and these first four verses press this upon them.
341 God's purpose for man (v. 5, and following) is to set him over everything, but that purpose is still unfulfilled. "The world to come" is not heaven, for that does exist now; but it is the habitable earth to come, not this earth in its present state. The Jews expected a new order of things; they looked for blessing and peace, and they were right, for so it will be. The present world is in subjection to angels. God's hand is not seen directly, but His angels are ministering spirits to the heirs of salvation. Everything in this world, however mercifully ordered in providence, is a proof of sin - the clothes we wear, the houses we live in, etc. All this was not God's purpose. He is not, as I said, now acting directly. He permits and overrules, but He draws His own people from the world (delivering us "from this present evil world"), and then teaches them to walk through it as not of it. He protects us through His angels; they are His ministers in His providential dealings; v. 6. But it is a Man who is to be set over the world to come. Once (in Adam) dominion was committed to man, but he lost it; v. 8, etc. God's purpose, that is, His order of things, is not thereby touched. Now we see Jesus crowned, and when we are, then all things will be accomplished. The Head is now glorified, and the members are down here in suffering. Christ is sitting at God's right hand, waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.
342 Take Psalm 2 and compare it with Psalm 8. God says, "Yet have I set my king upon the holy hill of Zion." Christ is come, and is not yet set there as king. Now Psalm 8 shews that, though rejected as Messiah, Jesus took the place of Son of man. So when Peter confesses Him as the Christ, Jesus charges him straitly not to tell any, for the "Son of man [His title in Psalm 8] must suffer many things," etc. Sin must be put away before God could set up His kingdom. We are now passing through that order or state of things which is not yet put under Jesus. Christ has gone through this very world, and been tempted, before He took His place as Priest, that He might succour them that are tempted. This is not sin, for we do not want sympathy in sin, but help and power to get out of and overcome it, and all this we have in Him. He went perfectly through reproach and tribulation. All that Satan could do to stop Him in His godly course, Satan did; but all was in vain. The Lord "resisted unto blood." We need to pray God for help to judge sin, each in himself. Sympathy in distress and suffering is another thing, and this we have, as well as forgiveness.
I began by saying there were two things - the purpose and the ways of God. Now, the latter it is our privilege to trace, while the former remains still unaccomplished. Instead of being merely Son of David, Christ is Son of man. He takes possession in our nature - not, of course, in the state in which it is in us, but still in our very nature. Now, as to the ways of God, we get these in verse 10: "By the grace of God he tasted death," etc. Mark this well - our sin brings us to the same place which, by the grace of God, He took. Perfect grace and perfect obedience we find in Him. When Christ came, as in Psalm 40, to do the will of God, God's majesty needed to be vindicated; and I would say unhesitatingly that God's truth, His righteousness, His love, His majesty, were all vindicated by the death of Christ - aye, far more than they would have been had we all died. In anticipation of this He said, "I have a baptism to be baptised with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!" His love could not fully flow forth till then. In the words, "It became him," I find the character of God; while in the expression, "many sons," I find the objects of His love. He could not bring us to glory in our sins. We get Christ taking up the cause of this remnant; and where, historically, did He begin? It was in John's baptism that He outwardly identified Himself with His people, that is, with the sanctified ones; v. 11. See Psalm 16:2-3. His association was with the saints; and there cannot be a step in the divine life in which Christ does not go along with us. Christ, in all that He is, is with us in the smallest fibre of divine life, from the repentance which is at the beginning. Not, of course, that He had aught to repent; yet His heart is with us in it. This is as true now, as it will be when manifested in glory; v. 16. There was no union of Christ with the flesh. The associates of Christ are the excellent of the earth; while in grace one of His sweetest titles was "the friend of the publicans and sinners."
343 Verse 12 is a quotation from Psalm 22:22, where Jesus in resurrection takes the place of leader of the praise of His brethren. Our songs should therefore ever accord with His. He has passed through death for us; and if our worship express uncertainty and doubt instead of joy and assurance in the sense of accomplished redemption, there can be no harmony, but discord, with the mind of heaven.
Verse 13 is quoted from Psalm 16, where, as also elsewhere, Christ on earth takes the place of the dependent Man. He is specially thus described in Luke's Gospel, where it is so frequently recorded that He prayed. Again, "Behold, I and the children," etc. This passage from Isaiah 8:18 is particularly applicable to these Hebrew believers. While waiting for Israel, He and His disciples are for signs.
In verse 14 we find the consequence of His association with us. In these latter verses we have these two things: He took our nature that He might die; and also that He might go through temptation. We were alive under death; then Christ comes, and He takes upon Him all the power of Satan and death, and destroys thus him that had the power of death. By His death He made propitiation for sin. The feelings of His soul, and the temptations of Satan, were before His actual death, in the garden of Gethsemane, where His language was, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." This was because of Satan's power; for He said, "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." But all this He went through, as part of His appointed sufferings. In the first three Gospels we have His cry in Gethsemane. In John we have His remembrance of His mother, and His other cries ("I thirst!" and "It is finished!") on the cross; and this is in character with that Gospel in which His divine aspect is given. After the conflict with Satan was over, Christ took up the cup from His Father's hand. They who were sent to secure Him had no power against Him, for they all fell back; but He gave Himself up. Satan pressed the cup upon Him, but He took it from the hand of His Father.
344 As regards temptation, I shall hope to speak more about it another time. I would only now say that succouring is not dying instead of me; but now that I am going through this world I need succour. The ark in Jordan was like Christ preceding us through the waters of death, which to Him overflowed its banks, while we follow dry-shod. For what is dying to the Christian? It is passing away from all sorrow into the presence of the Lord - the happiest moment in a Christian's existence.
Hebrews 3.
The first title of our Lord in this chapter is connected with the first part of the epistle; the second, namely, the priesthood, refers to what follows afterwards. In chapter I also we have His qualification for being the Apostle; in chapter 2, His qualification for the Priesthood. He was the Divine Messenger for the testimony He was to bring to earth; and He is gone up on high to exercise His Priesthood on behalf of a needy people down here where He has been. "God manifest in flesh justified in the Spirit … received up in glory," referring to His having come down here and become man. He must be in the holy place in order to carry on His work as Priest; but He must be a man. Therefore what He was on earth fitted Him, as it were, for this work. There is a third character connected with Christ brought out in this third chapter; Christ set "over his own house."
In this epistle we do not get the unity of the body at all; we get a Mediator speaking to God for us and speaking from God to us: "Let us hold fast the profession," etc. If He spoke of the unity of the body, that is inseparable; there is one Holy Ghost uniting the members to the Head - "ye in me, and I in you." It is not so here. Therefore profession is spoken of, and the possibility of that being not true profession; yet assuming it might be sincere, "we are persuaded better things of you," etc. (chap. 6). There might be all these privileges, and no fruit, but falling away. These Hebrews had made a public profession of having embraced Christ, and received a heavenly calling. In speaking of the body of Christ, we know it is perfect - no possibility of a false member getting in; but in a living congregation I may address them as hoping they are all saints, but the end proves. No man can tell the end, whether they will all persevere; but if there is life, we know they will.
345 "Apostle of our profession" - it could not be said Apostle of life. We never can understand this epistle properly, unless we get hold of this truth. In Ephesians, where the body is more the subject, I do not get such an expression as this, "that he might sanctify the people with his own blood."
The character of this epistle not being understood is the reason many souls are tried and exercised by passages they find in it. They are addressed with the possibility of their not having life, and so not continuing to the end. The church supposes a body in heaven. "Heavenly calling" does not necessarily imply that, because they are called to heaven, they are part of the body of Christ. The kingdom and the body are different. "Head over all things to the church" is wider, too, than the kingdom. Kingdom implies a king; a body implies a head. The church is precious to God. Everything that Christ has, I have; the same life, the same righteousness, the same glory. If my hand is hurt, I say it is I who am hurt. Paul was converted by this truth, "Why persecutest thou me?" It shews what grace has done for us - taken us out of ourselves. The body of Christ shews out the fulness of redemption, and the purpose of God respecting it. But another aspect of the people of God is that they are down here in infirmity, but having this heavenly calling. In this condition I need One in heaven; and there is not an infirmity, a need, a sorrow, an ache, an anxiety, but it draws out sympathy and help from Christ. This draws out my affections to Him. But before the priesthood is taken up, Moses is spoken of as a type: "Christ Jesus, faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house." The house is the place where God dwells; and there is another thing here - the Head of the house administering it.
God has met His people according to the need in which they were. In Egypt they need redemption, and He comes to redeem. In the wilderness they were dwelling in tents, and He would have a tent too. In getting into the land they wanted One to bring them in, and there is the captain of the Lord's host. Then, when they are in the land, He builds His palace, His temple. There is rest. We are not come to the temple yet - we have not rest: we get the tabernacle now, and "there remaineth a rest." There was a temple existing when these Hebrews were addressed, but that was not for us.
346 The temple is a dwelling for God. There never was a dwelling-place for God until redemption came in. Scripture never speaks of man getting back to innocency, or the image of God. God did not dwell with Adam; though in the cool of the day He came to walk with him. Neither did He dwell with Abraham. "The earth hath he given to the children of men" - "the heavens are the Lord's." But when redemption comes in, God is forming something for Himself. Thus, in Exodus 15:13, "habitation" refers to what they had in the wilderness (Exod. 29:44-46), but verse 17 to the rest at the end.
There were visits to Abraham (Abraham will dwell in heaven), but God could not have a habitation among men until He had made known redemption to them. The nature and character of God require it. Love is God's character: to enjoy God I must be with Him. Holiness is His nature. We are made sons of God ("the servant abideth not in the house for ever," etc.). In the divine nature communicated to us, we are capable of being at home in that house of God, and redemption gives the title.
The individual Christian is a temple now; but the temporary provisional thing is God dwelling with us. The full blessed thing is our dwelling with God; John 14. I go not away to be alone there, but to have you there. "I go to prepare a place for you." In verse 23 the Father and the Son make their abode with us till we are taken to abide with them. God's having a house, as a general thought, is the consequence of redemption. Here in Hebrews it is rather alluded to as to administration than dwelling. "Habitation of God," is the present thing; "temple" is future in Ephesians 2. It is spoken of in a larger and more vague way in Hebrews, because here it takes in profession. He that built all things is God. In one sense creation is His house; in another, Christ has passed through the heavens, as High Priest, into the heaven of heavens (through the two veils, as is represented in the type), into the holiest. In a third sense the body professing Christianity is His house, "whose house are we," etc. - the saints. There may be hypocrites amongst them; but they "are builded together for an habitation of God," etc. Christ administers in it, as Son over His own house. Moses was but servant in the building. There is immense comfort for us in this; first, because it is perfectly governed; second, when we look at the house, we may see all sorts of failures coming in; but though all may be failure, the One who administers in the house cannot fail. Therefore, though all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's, Paul could say, "Rejoice in the Lord alway," etc. There is One whom nothing escapes. Anyone who has a real care for the church of God, need never distrust. Paul, in looking at the Galatians, sees so much wrong that he does not know what to think of them: he changes his voice towards them. Ye that are under the law, hear the law. But in the next chapter he says, "I have confidence in you through the Lord." Christ is over His own house. Two things follow then. He will turn everything to blessing - Paul in prison, etc.; and there is present good too. When all the joints and bands do not act as they ought, the immediate ministry of Christ is more experienced. Christ connects everything with His glory; and faith connects the glory of the Lord with the people of the Lord. Moses did so. Faith does not only say, the Lord is glorious, and He will provide the means for His own glory; but it sees the means for it. Moses said, "Spare the people," when with God; and when he came down amongst them, he "cut off the people," because he was alive to God's glory (in the matter of the calf in the camp).
347 We have to count upon Christ for the church, not upon itself. Thus Paul, when tried by Nero, passes sentence as it were upon himself (Phil. 1:23-25); he settles it that he shall be acquitted. Why? Because he sees it is more needful for them - one single church. It was divine teaching and faith in exercise which made him to judge thus.
There is failure on the part of the church down here as to responsibility, but Christ has perfect authority in His church, and He has interest in it. We have not to make rules for the church; it is the Master must govern the house, not the servants. There is one Master, and that is Christ. He is over the church, and not the church over Him. "Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence," etc. Ah! people say, don't you be too confident, because there is an "if." But, I ask, what have you got? What he presses is, that you should not let it go. Is that to be used to hinder my having the confidence? What did they believe? That Christ was come - a heavenly Saviour to them, and this far better than an earthly one. Do not give up that. There is a fear of giving up that confidence, not of their being too confident. What am I to distrust? Myself? Oh! I cannot distrust myself too much. But is it Christ you distrust? Will His eye ever grow dim, or His heart grow cold? Will He leave off interceding? A proof that I am a real stone in the house is that I hold fast the confidence, etc. Those high priests under the old dispensation were continually standing; but. He has sat down, because the work is all done. They needed for every sin a new sacrifice: sin was never put away. They needed a fresh absolution from the priest every time sin came up. Now, He says, "their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." If you are under law, it is another thing; you have not got the confidence. If you talk of distrust, what do you distrust? If you trust in man at all, it is a proof you do not see that you are lost. If you give up confidence in yourself, and say, I am lost already, it is another thing. No one that has really come to redemption, has in the substance of his soul confidence in himself; and no Christian will say, you ought to distrust Christ. Our privilege is to have confidence in Christ as a rock under our feet, and to rejoice in hope of the glory of God. His righteousness has brought Christ into the glory as a man, and the same righteousness will bring me in.
348 Does another person say, I do not know whether I have a portion in it? You are under the law: God may be ploughing up your soul - exercising it for good; but you have not been brought to accept the righteousness of God. The soul in this state has not accepted the righteousness of God for it, instead of ours for Him. You are still depending on your own heart for comfort and assurance. It is a very serious thing to get the soul so empty of everything that it has only to accept what God can give. It is an awful thing to find oneself in God's presence, with nothing to say or to present. You never get love to Christ until you are saved; and it is the work of God's Spirit. The prodigal found what he was by what his father was. Did the prodigal doubt his interest when the father was on his neck?
349 The remainder of this chapter takes up the people of Israel - the professing people in the wilderness. They did not get into the land, but their carcases fell in the wilderness. It is speaking of them on the road. The "to-day" quoted from Psalm 115 never closes for Israel, till God has taken up the remnant at the end of His dealings with them, after the church is gone up to heaven.
Verse 14. "Partakers" is the same word as that translated "fellows" in chapter 1. You are fellows of Christ if you are of this company. This place with the fellows is yours if you go on to the end. This kind of statement does not touch the security of the saints. Both Calvinists and Arminians might say, He will reach heaven, if he holds fast to the end. The certainty of salvation is the certainty of faith, and not that which excludes dependence upon God for every moment. I have no doubt that God will keep every one of His saints to the end; but we have to run the race to obtain eternal glory. Holding fast the faithfulness of God, it is important, along with this, to keep up the plain sense of passages such as the present, which act on the conscience as warning by the way. There is no uncertainty, but there is the working out our own salvation with fear and trembling. In 1 Corinthians 9:27, personal Christianity is distinguished from preaching to others. It is not a question of the work, but of the person being a castaway, and this means disapproved or reprobate, that is, not a Christian. Compare 2 Cor. 13. In Romans 2 eternal life is spoken of as the result of a course which pleases God. No doubt, His grace gives the power; but it is the result of a fruit-bearing course. In a word, it is equally true that I have eternal life, and that I am going on to eternal life. God sees it as one existence, but we have to separate it in time. Walk that road, and you will have what is at the end of it. This does not interfere with the other truth, that God will keep His own, and that none shall pluck them out of His hand. Our Father says as it were, That is my child, and I watch him all the way, and take care to keep him in it.
Hebrews 4.
The word of God is connected with the apostleship; chap. 3:1. In the last verses the priesthood of Christ is the subject. These are the two means of our being carried through the wilderness - the word of God, and priesthood of Christ. Israel were treated as a people brought out of Egypt, but liable to fall by the way. So the warning to these Hebrews (chap. 4:1), "as to seeming to come short;" the word is softened. In chapter 3 we have seen them addressed as a body brought out under the name of Christ, but admitting the possibility of hypocrites among them.
350 There are two distinct things connected with the people - redemption, and being carried on when brought out into the wilderness.
The Epistles to the Hebrews and to the Philippians both address saints as in the wilderness. In Philippians it is more personal experience that is spoken of, for example, "I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer." In both it is as passing through the wilderness, and not yet in the rest.
Verse 1. We have "His rest." Not merely rest, but God's rest: and this makes all the difference. It is not merely as tired ones, and glad to rest: we are going into the rest of God. There is an allusion to creation when God saw all that He had made very good. He delighted in it, and rested. Spiritual labour now is not rest, nor the worry and plague of sin. God will rest in His love; Zeph. 3:17. How could He rest here? Not till He sees all those He loves perfectly happy. How can He rest where sin is? Holiness cannot rest where sin is. Love cannot rest where sorrow is. He rested from His works in the first creation, because it was all very good; but when sin came in, His rest was broken. He must work again. God finds rest where everything is according to His own heart. He is completely satisfied in the exercise of His love.
When conflict and labour are over, we shall get into the rest in which He is. That is the promise. "A promise being left us of entering into his rest" - God's own rest. If affections have not their object, they are not at rest. They will have this then, and we shall be like Him. There will be also comparative rest, even for this poor creation, by-and-by.
These Hebrews who are addressed, are compared to the Jews who came out of Egypt, some of whom fell; but he says, "We are persuaded better things of you," ye "are not of them that draw back into perdition." What had they got? Their Messiah on earth? No. He was gone, and they were left strangers as to what was here below, and not having reached heaven either. That is what every Christian is: the state of his heart is another thing.
351 Verse 2. "Gospel preached." We have glad tidings preached to us as well as they. The apostle is speaking of the character of those who go in (heaven, God's rest, the promise for us, as Canaan was for Israel). Unbelievers do not go into rest - believers do. That is the door they go in by.
As to God's creation, there is not rest for them in it - it is not come for them. "If they shall enter," etc. This means they shall not, but God did not make the rest for no one to enter. He begins again; v. 7. David came five or six hundred years after Moses, and in Psalm 95 he says, "To-day after so long a time," etc. If they did not get into the rest by Joshua, there "remaineth a rest to the people of God." That is not come at all yet. It is to be under the new covenant, when Christ comes, the Messiah according to their own scriptures.
"He that is entered into his rest hath also ceased from his own works," not only from sin. When God ceased, it was not from sin, but from labour. Godly works are not rest. God rests in Christ. I have ceased from my works, as regards my conscience, because I have ceased from works for justification. I have not ceased from godly works - that rest is not come yet. Labouring to enter in here does not mean as to justification. "There remaineth a rest." We have the former, but there is more we wait for.
The two means of carrying us through, spoken of before, are the word applied by the Spirit, and the Priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We never get union with Christ spoken of here; there is no discerning, judging, etc., connected with that; but as Christians in the wilderness there is, and the intercession of Christ is needed; as distinct, separate Christians going through the world, beset with snares on every hand, we are addressed.
It is remarkable how the word of God is made to be the revelation of God Himself. "The word of God is quick and powerful, manifest in his sight." Whose sight? The word of God, the revelation of Christ. He is called the word of God - "God manifest in the flesh." He was the divine life - the perfection of all divine motives in a man in this world. The word of God brings the application of God's nature. All that He is, is applied to us in going through this world. That begins by our being begotten by the word - born again, of incorruptible seed - the divine nature imparted, which cannot sin because born of God. Then all the motives and intentions of the heart have to be displayed by this word. The written word is the expression of God's mind down here. Divine perfectness, as expressed in the life of Christ in the written word, is applied to us. What selfishness was there in Christ? I do not now refer to His going about doing good, but as to the feelings and motives of His heart. How much has self been our motive? Not like Christ. It is not gross sins that are spoken of here, but "thoughts and intents of the heart." How much self through the day!
352 In John 17 our Lord says, "I sanctify myself." Christ set apart as the perfection of man - Christ, a model man, if I may so speak - all that God approves in a man was seen in Christ. The same should be seen in us. "Sanctify them through thy truth." The word applied to us in all this path, in motives, thoughts, and feelings, is for this purpose. Christ was not only doing good; He walked in love, and He says to us, "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and given himself," "forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." What comes down from God goes up to Him. Self may enter in our doing good; but only what is of a sweet savour goes up to God - "an offering to God." What is not done exclusively in the power of divine love, in the sense of an offering, is spoiled - self has come in.
"Dividing asunder of soul and spirit." God has created natural affections, but how much self and idolatry come in! Self-will, too, and self-gratification, how awfully it comes in! That is soul, and not spirit. The word of God comes in, and knows how to divide between soul and spirit, what looks like the same thing, the very same affections, as far as man sees. What a mass of corruption! Can we have communion with God when self comes in? How powerless Christians are now - you, and I, and everyone. There is grace, blessed be God! but, in a certain sense, how low we are! "I will give myself unto prayer," said one. All blessing comes from the immediateness of a man's life with God. There are rivers of living water. How are you to get them? "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink," and "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water." A man must drink for himself first, before there can be rivers, etc. In the time of the prophets they had a message, "Thus saith the Lord," and then had to inquire the meaning of the prophecy, but with us, we drink first ourselves. We are so connected with Christ, that we have it ourselves from Him before communicating it to others.
353 What would make us fall in the wilderness? The flesh. It has no communion with God; flesh in saints, as well as in others, is bad. What would make us fall is flesh - the unjudged "thoughts and intents of the heart." The word of God comes and judges all that is of nature in us, after He has brought us out of Egypt. According to the new nature, everything is judged. Everything in Christ is applied to the motives and intents of our hearts - everything is judged according to God Himself. The word is a sword - not healing, but most unrelenting in its character. It detects poor flesh, shews it up, and marks its thoughts, intents, will, or lust. All is sifted. But are there no infirmities? Yes. But whenever the will and intent is at work, the word of God comes as a lancet to cut it all away. For infirmities, weaknesses, not will, we have a high priest, who was in all points tempted like as we are, without sin.
This is beautifully expressed in a figure in the Old Testament. There was water wanted: the rock was smitten, and the water flowed. (There are resources in Christ Himself, the smitten rock, for us; but besides, for us there is the water, a well in us.) They were also tried all through the wilderness. The two-edged sword was wanted. There were murmurings. They must be turned back. God turns back with them. How did they get through? What was on Moses' part (for he was like the apostle here), set forth? How was he to get rid of their murmurings? The rock has not to be smitten again. The rods must be put in. There are leaves, buds, blossoms on Aaron's - life out of death - living priesthood. Then go and speak to the rock. Suppose God had only executed judgment! How would they have got through the wilderness? There was the living priesthood come in; grace in the shape of priesthood. That carries us through; and all the infirmities, and even failures, when they are committed, are met by Him who has passed through the heavens, etc.
There is not the least mercy on the flesh. This is judged by the word. Moses, the meekest man, failed in that. Abraham, who had been taught God's almightiness, goes down to Egypt, and fails through fear. God glorified Himself. He glorified Himself at the rock in the wilderness, but Moses did not glorify Him, and he was shut out of the land.
354 Verse 14. There are things mentioned, very important, about the priesthood. 1st, The priesthood is exercised in heaven, where we need it; it is the place where God is. When it was an earthly calling, the priesthood was on earth. Ours is a heavenly calling, and Christ, our high priest, has passed through the heavens. Another important part is, Christ in no sense has any of these infirmities while He is exercising the priesthood for us. He has passed through all the course in holiness, obedience, and sanctity. When He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them. He walks the sheep's path, and they follow Him. Christ went through all these exercises of a godly man (for example, wanting bread, and being tempted to make it, but not yielding to it). Everything that a saint can want as a saint, Christ went through before in perfection. There is the example of perfectness in Him, in the sheep's path; but that was not the time of His priestly work. He has passed through the road, and now can be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities."
In Hebrews we have, as another brother has remarked, more of contrast than comparison. The veil in the tabernacle, and the priesthood of Israel all in a contrasted state to that in which we have them. Our high priest is not compassed with infirmity. Mark the consequence of that: His being in heaven, He brings all the perfectness of the thought and feeling of the place He is in to bear on us. I have these infirmities and difficulties, and He helps me up into all the perfectness of the heavenly places where He is. This is just what we want. He can shew a path, and feel what a path is of passing through this world, and bear the hearts down here clean up into heaven.
People often think of priesthood as a means of getting justified; but then God has the character of a judge in their eyes. They are afraid to go straight to God, and not knowing grace and redemption, they think of enlisting Christ on their behalf. This is all wrong. Many a soul has done it in ignorance and infirmity, and God meets it there, but it is to mistake our place as Christians. Does our getting the intercession of Christ depend upon our going to get it? It is when I have got away from God - when not going to Him - I have an advocate with the Father. Again, Christ prayed for Peter before He committed the sin. It is the living grace of Christ in all our need - His thought for us, or we should never be brought back. It was when Peter had committed the sin that He looked on him. Even when we have committed faults His grace thus comes in. It is in heaven He is doing it: then how can we have to say to Him if we have not righteousness? The reason I can go is because my justification is settled. He has given me the title of going into heaven in virtue of what He is, "Jesus Christ the righteous," and what He has done. Our place is in the light as God is in the light - sitting in heavenly places in Christ. Our walk on earth is not always up to this. Our title is always the same, but our walk not. Then what is to be done? I am within the veil, and not in a condition to go there at all. The priesthood of Christ is there to reconcile this discrepancy between our position in heaven, and our walk down here. Jesus Christ is the righteous one: and the righteousness I have in Him is the title I have to the place. The priestly work restores me to the communion of the place where I am in righteousness. It is immediately connected with the perfectness of His own walk down here and the place where He now is.
355 Satan came to Him, when here, and found nothing. He ought to find nothing in us, but he does. I do not want to spare the flesh; then there is the word of God for that. But in all the feelings down here, as He said, "reproach hath broken my heart." In Gethsemane He was in an agony and prayed the more earnestly. He had the heart of a man; and all that the heart of man can go through, He went through but in communion with His Father, no failure possible. "Apart from sin," is better than "yet without sin," because there was no sin in Him inwardly any more than outwardly. In all these feelings He is now touched for us.
Verse 16. "Come boldly to the throne of grace." This is going straight to God, not to the priest. It is to the "throne of grace." We want mercy; we are poor weak things, and need mercy; in failure we need mercy; as pilgrims we are always needing mercy. What mercy was shewn to the Israelites in the wilderness! their garments not getting old; God even caring for the clothes on their backs! Think of the mercy that would not let their feet swell! Then, when they wanted a way, Oh! says God, I will go before with the ark to find out a way. That was not the place for the ark at all. It was appointed to be in the midst of the camp, but God would meet them in their need. They want spies to go and see the land for them; fools that we are to want to know what is before us. They had to encounter the Amorites, high walls, giants. A land that devours the inhabitant, is their account of it, even with the grapes on their shoulders. Just like us on the way to heaven. They cannot stand these difficulties. We are as grass-hoppers, say they; but the real question is what God is.
356 As saints we are weaker than the world, and ought to be: but when waiting on God, what is that? When they have not confidence in God, they find fault with the land itself. What a wonderful God He is! He says, If you will not go into Canaan you must stay in the wilderness; and He turns them, and turns back with them. It is grace, but the throne of grace. God governs: it is a throne. He will not let a single thing pass. See the people at Kibroth-hataavah! In case of accusation from the enemy, as Balaam, there is not chastening, but He says, "I have not seen iniquity in Jacob." The moment it is a question between God's people and the enemy's accusation, He will not allow a word against them; but when there is an Achan in the camp, He judges. Why? Because He is there. It is a throne. If you are not victorious, there is sin.
We may come boldly to the throne, etc. Still it is a throne (not a mediator), but all grace. If I go to the throne, instead of the throne coming to me, so to speak, it is all grace: I get help. I never can go to the throne of grace without finding mercy. He may send chastening, but it is a throne of grace and all mercy - "grace to help in every time of need." If you have a will, He will break it; if a need, He will help you. Do you feel that you can always go boldly, even when you have failed? humbled, of course, and at all times humble, but humbled when you have failed.
Hebrews 5.
Perfection here means the state of a full-grown man. There is much, and, in a certain sense, more, contrast than similarity in the allusion in Hebrews to the Old Testament types. We are now in a different position; those things which went before were only a shadow, instead of their giving us a distinct perception of our position. While they were figures, they did not disclose what we have at the present time. We have boldness to enter into the holiest; with them, the veil was there to separate them from it. In this passage it is important to see the contrast. Christ is the High Priest. "Every high priest taken from among men [though He was not taken from men, I need not say] … can have compassion on the ignorant … for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity." Here is contrast, though the general image is taken up. They had infirmity, and had to offer for themselves as well as for the people. If we do not see this, we may make great blunders in drawing these analogies. Absolute analogy in them would draw us away from the truth. There are certain landmarks of truth that guard the soul, for example, the atonement. The priesthood of Christ is in heaven. It has to be exercised as a continual thing in the place where we worship. We worship in spirit in heaven, and there we want our priest. Those sacrifices were the memorial of sin; we have no more conscience of sins. The priest is there, once for all, in virtue of the sacrifice made once and for ever. While in point of fact we fail, our place is always Christ in heaven. When communion is interrupted, priesthood removes the hindrance.
357 Observe the dignity of the person called to this office: "Thou art my Son." The glory of His Person is owned in order to His priesthood. "This day have I begotten thee," v. 5. He was as really a man as any of us, without the sinful part of it. He was like neither Adam nor us exactly. Adam had no "knowledge of good and evil"; Christ had - God has. But now men have the knowledge of good and evil, and, with it, sin. Christ was born of a woman, but in a miraculous way. The spring was sinless, and yet He had the knowledge of good and evil.
We cannot fathom who He was. Our hearts should not go and scrutinise the Person of Christ, as though we could know it all. No human being can understand the union of God and Man in His Person - "No man knoweth the Son but the Father." All that is revealed we may know; we may learn a great deal about Him. The Father we know: "No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him." We know Him to be holy; we know Him to be love, etc. But when I attempt to fathom the union of God and man - no man can. We know Christ is God, and we know He is man - perfect man, apart from sin; and if He is not God, what is He to me? What difference between Him and another man? Christ came in flesh. Every feeling that I have (save sin) He had. The quotation here from Psalm 2, "This day have I begotten thee," does not refer to His eternal Sonship, but to His being born into the world in humiliation. He is called to be high priest. He has this calling as a man, not as being taken from men. The glory of His Person comes first. Looked at in the flesh He was begotten of God; with us, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." But He in His very nature is associated with God, and associated with man. He is the "daysman that can lay his hand upon us both," Job 9. I may fancy myself clean when away from God; but when I come before God, I know He will "plunge me in the ditch," etc. "Let not his fear terrify me." God takes away the fear through Christ. Christ was perfect holiness, and He was ready for everything. His lowliness was perfect; fear is taken away by Him; He is even as a man, the holy One - on that side He lays hold on God, and on the other He lays His hand on us; thus on both He is the daysman to lay His hand upon us both.
358 The priest in Israel had to take offerings to cleanse himself. Christ is fitted in Himself without that. Aaron alone was anointed without blood; his sons after the sacrifice.
As to office, there is in Christ perfect competency. He is the Son, and therefore fit for God. He is Man, and so fitted for me. I am not speaking of His sacrifice, but of His Person. "This day have I begotten thee"; there is His Person. Then comes the office, "called of God an high priest, after the order of Melchisedec," without beginning of days, etc., not like man with descent from one to another, "but after the power of an endless life," without genealogies. These great principles are thus laid down concerning His Person and office - the Son and a priest after the order of Melchisedec. Before He takes the office, there is another qualification necessary. Here would be a difficulty (not in the earthly priesthood, for it was connected with the earthly tabernacle, and earthly worship, but) now it is in a heavenly place, and the worship is in heaven. Then the priesthood must be in heaven. He could not have experience of infirmity there. What must He do? He goes through all first.
359 Priesthood supposes a people reconciled to God. There was the day of atonement, and daily priestly offices went on with the reconciliation for the year. The day of atonement laid the foundation for the priesthood for the year. Then on that day the high priest represented the whole people - laid his hand on the scapegoat in order to their reconciliation (this was not the continued office); which Christ did on the cross, as the victim and the representative. He gave His own blood. He suffered as well as represented the people, and then He went within the veil, in virtue of the reconciliation He has made. One of these goats was Jehovah's lot (the other was the people's), and the blood was put on the mercy-seat. There was no confession of sins in that. Christ's blood being on the mercy-seat is the ground on which mercy is proclaimed to all the world, even to the vilest sinner in the world. But suppose a person comes and says, "I find sin is working in me: how can I come to God?" I say, Christ has borne your sins; He has represented you there, confessing your sins on His own head; and God has condemned sin in the flesh, in Christ. A person is often more troubled at the present working of sin in him than at all the sins past; but I say to that person, God has condemned the sin in Christ. God's character has been glorified, majesty, righteousness, love - all vindicated on the cross. God's truth is vindicated. He said, "In the day thou eatest thou shalt surely die," and Christ dies instead. Then when I get my conscience exercised, it is not enough to see God has been glorified in the death of Christ; I feel my own sins before God. Then I see that He has confessed my sins; and now, as Priest on high, He maintains me in the power of the reconciliation made.
Before He made the sacrifice, He had gone the path the sheep trod. It was before He began to represent His people - "who in the days of his flesh" - a past thing, before He exercised His priesthood. "When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them" in the paths of temptation, sorrow, difficulty. Therefore it is said of Him, "the author and finisher of faith," not our faith there. We go through our small portion of exercise of faith; He went through everything. Moses refused the treasures in Egypt; Christ refused the whole world. Abraham "sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country"; Christ was a stranger in the whole world. In all His path we see Him not screening Himself by His divine power, but bearing everything that a human heart could bear. There is not a trial but He felt it. If I speak of a convicted conscience, this is another thing. He did bear what caused that; but it was in our stead on the cross. In a still deeper way He took it all upon Himself. What entire dependence! "Prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death," etc. Especially in Gethsemane did He realise the full power of what He came to meet. In His walk we are to follow Him, to "walk as he walked." But in Gethsemane it is another thing - He was alone there.
360 There are three parts in Christ's life. In the beginning He was tempted, first, to satisfy His own hunger, and then with all the vanities of this world, but He would not have them, He did not come for that. The next thing was more subtle; the answer He gave, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" - thou shalt not try the Lord. Tempting is not trusting. When the people tempted the Lord, they went up to the mountain to see if God would help them. Christ would not take these things from Satan's hands. He bound the strong man, and he departs for a season; then Christ goes on spoiling his goods - healing the sick, raising the dead, etc. A power had come in grace, perfectly able to deliver this world from the power of Satan, to deliver us as to the consequences of sin - all the misery and wretchedness here.
But there was something deeper; man had hatred to God - they would not have Him. "The carnal mind is enmity against God." They entreated Him to depart out of their coasts in one place. For His love He received enmity. This world would have been a delivered place, if they would have had Him, but they would not; and man profits by the occasion of God's humbling Himself so as to be within man's reach, by seeking to get rid of Him! That brings out another point. Having taken up the people, He must take consequences. Satan says, if you do not give me my rights over them, you must suffer. Satan comes and uses all the power he has over man to deter Christ from going through. In the garden of Gethsemane, He calls it "the power of darkness," and says, "my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death; tarry ye and watch," etc., but they could not watch with Him, they went fast asleep. As Satan has power in death, He brings it over Christ. Does Christ go back? No; but being in an agony, He prayed the more earnestly; He does not defend Himself. He might have driven away Satan, but He would not have delivered us if He had. No other cup did He ever ask to be taken away; but He could not be under the wrath of God, and not feel it. He was heard because of His fear. He went down into the depth where Satan had full power over His soul. He was in an agony, in conflict, but there was perfect obedience and dependence, "Not my will, but thine be done"; only He was crying the more earnestly to God, and then let His soul go into the depth under Satan's power. If He had not given Himself up, they would have gone away who came to take Him; they went backward and fell to the ground. Again He presents Himself to them, "I am Jesus of Nazareth. If ye seek me, let these go their way." He puts Himself forward into the gap. He goes to the cross; and there, before He gives up His soul to His Father, He has drunk that cup; then His soul re-enters the presence of His Father. Having gone through Satan's power in death ("this is your hour and the power of darkness"), He goes forward; God raises Him from the dead, and gives Him a place in glory. He is the glorified Man, as the second Man - perfect. Stephen saw Him as "the Son of man" on the right hand of God.
361 Now we might suppose that He had come to the end of His service, after humbling Himself and becoming obedient unto death as the servant. What more? See John 13. He is going to be just as much the servant as ever!
Three things we have seen connected with His priesthood, besides His Person. He has walked the same path we have to tread, only unfailingly, through it all, and even unto death. That is one thing. He understands the path. When there is sin, He dies. In His living, holiness is seen. The second thing is in making propitiation for the sins of the people - blood is presented. Thirdly, He is a perfect Man in the presence of God. I have thus the path trodden, sin atoned for, and a living Man in the presence of God - an Advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous. The foundation is not altered, righteousness remains. He has made propitiation for our sins. He has gone through all the trials of the way, and is proclaimed or saluted ("declared") of God an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. The trial is gone through, and the work is wrought out before He enters in, and He is in perfect righteousness in the presence of God. Aaron's order was not Christ's order at all. Christ's is Melchisedec's order; but the analogy is according to Aaron.
362 Verse 10. What was Melchisedec's order? Blessing. He blessed Abraham from God, and God from Abraham. When the full time of blessing is come for heaven and earth, He will have it as Melchisedec had it. It will be praise and power. We have the taste of it now; 1 Peter 2:9. When we are with Christ in glory, we shall shew forth His praises. While He is within the veil, not yet come out, He does not publicly take this title; outward blessing is not come. Why? Is He indifferent? slack concerning His promise? No; but if He put all this evil down by judgment, men must perish: but He is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. While Christ is within the veil, the operation of the Spirit is going on, gathering in poor sinners. He has the title now, but not display. It is, therefore, after the analogy of Aaron. We enter with Him in spirit, there to offer up spiritual sacrifices. The display of power is not come, but we are within the veil: therefore the apostle presses them to go on unto perfection, full stature growth. What is my measure of a perfect man? In one sense, Adam was a very imperfect man, and what he had in innocence, he soon lost at any rate (imperfect, therefore, in the sense of being able to lose it); and certainly man is not perfect now in the Adam state. Where, then, is perfection? In the Man in heaven. I have it in the knowledge of my position now in Christ, not in fact there myself yet, but in Him; and we are to "bear the image of the heavenly"; in that sense perfect. The Father has set Him at His right hand. Then, suppose I have the knowledge of that, I am called to walk as such. Then why perfect? Because I have fellowship with Him, association with Him where He is.
Does any Christian say, "I am at the foot of the cross?" Christ is not at the foot of the cross. The cross puts a man in heaven. Christ is in heaven. You have not come to Him yet. You are labouring about in the thoughts of your own heart, and have not followed Him in faith to where He is, if you are at the foot of the cross. How do I see the effect of the cross now? By being in heaven. I have come in through this rent veil. (The person is not to be despised who is there; but you have not come in by the cross through the veil, if you are at the foot of the cross.) If you were inside the veil, you would know yourself worse - not one good thing in flesh. It is precious to see a soul exercised even in that way, as the prodigal son in the far country; but he had not come to his father then, he had not found out where he was. There was a mixture of self, not knowing his father, and talking about being a hired servant. It is not humility, as people think, to be away from God, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, as Peter. Is insensibility to God's goodness humility? The prodigal could not dictate and prescribe when his father was on his neck; he had no business to be in the house at all as a hired servant. It is not humility. It is a mixture of self with the knowledge of having got away from God. Where will you put yourself? You must take Christ's place or none. That is what is meant by perfect here. There is but one way of coming in; it is by Christ who is in the glory. We have no title to any other place. How is Christ there? Not in virtue of His high priesthood, but He is there in virtue of the offering for sin for us. "I have glorified thee on the earth." "Father, glorify thy Son." That is the reason the apostle speaks of the gospel of the glory. Christ is in heaven, the witness of the perfectness of the work that He has done; v. 13, 14. Milk is fit for a babe, and strong meat for a full-grown man; that is all that is meant. Do not let us look for a place the godly Jew had, but the place Christ has. Then he goes on warning them, if they are only on this Jewish ground.
363 On the cross Christ was drinking the cup; in Gethsemane He was anticipating it. Death and judgment are gone now; Christ cannot die again. The victory is complete. Sins are put away, and He is gone into heaven in consequence; and that victory is ours.
Nothing seemed to be a greater burden on the heart of Paul than to keep the saints up to their privileges. They saw Christ had died for them (and this had not the power over them it ought to have had), but they were risen with Him also; they were in Christ in heavenly places, within the veil; and how were they realising that? - "Are become such as have need of milk." There is a great deal of love in the heart when first converted. And there is another thing. When first converted, all these things are easier to understand than when more used to hearing them, and the world comes in. When there is freshness in the heart, the understanding goes with it. Great force is in that word "become" (chap. 5:12) here. See the state they were in (Heb. 10) when they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that they had "a better and an enduring substance." Because they knew they had substance in heaven, they were willing to sacrifice what was here. When Christ had not that place in the heart, they were not willing to give up those things, and the understanding of the heavenly things would be dulled too. Freshness of affection and intelligence go together. When it is bright sunshine, things at a distance are easily seen. If it is dark, there is more difficulty. In the day one may walk through the streets without thinking about the way - one knows it; but at night one has to look and think which way. Just so with spiritual things; there is less spring, less apprehension, less clearness when our hearts are not happy. My judgment is clear when my affections are warm. Motives that acted before cease to be motives when my heart is right. I can count all dross and dung, when force is given to my affections. "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
364 "Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age"; not to persons who have made a great progress, but persons of full age. There were things hard to be uttered, because they were dull of hearing. The freshness of affection being lost was the secret of all this. It is serious to think that freshness of affection and intelligence we may lose; but "to him that hath shall more be given." There are good and evil to be discerned; therefore I spoke of finding the way.
Hebrews 6.
Take this in connection with the beginning of the next chapter, "Therefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ," etc., instead of wasting your time with what has passed away, go on to the full revelation of Christ; be at home there, and understanding what the will of the Lord is. We cannot separate the knowledge of good and evil from the knowledge of Christ. When I come to separate between them of myself, how can I? How can I walk as He walked, without Him? I cannot do it. "In him." What is that? "Ye in me." Where is Christ? In heaven; then I am there too. My affections should be there too; my hope is to be thoroughly identified with Him. The portion I have is what He has - life, righteousness, glory: all my associations are with Himself. There is the difference between the word of the beginning of Christ and the full perfection - "being made perfect" (chap. 5:9) or glorified. He went through the experience down here, and then went into heaven to be Priest, because our blessings, associations, etc., are all above, perfect up there, not down here. He had not reached that point of the counsels of God in glory when down here. Now He is there, and He has associated me with Himself in that place. I can see Christ has been through this world so as to sympathise with us in all our sorrows and difficulties. He has borne my sins; and where is He now? In heaven; and I am there too in spirit, and He will bring me there in fact. Where He is is His "being made perfect." The work is done, and now He is shewing me the effect of that - shewing me the walk belonging to the righteousness He has wrought out. He has taken my heart, and associated me with Himself; and He says that is the "perfection" for me to go on to. Where did Paul see Christ? In glory. If he had known Christ after the flesh before, he did not know Him so now (that was the beginning when on earth); but now he knew Him in heaven: and this great truth was revealed to him, that all the saints on earth were as Christ.
365 Paul had been a hater of Christ, having sought to root out His name from the earth; he had gone on in sin - if not a breaker of the law, a rejecter of Christ when on earth, and, more than that, he had resisted the Holy Ghost, refused the testimony by the Holy Ghost given in mercy to those people for whom Christ interceded on the cross. They stoned Stephen who bore witness, and Saul was helping in it. He was "chief of sinners," because wasting the church of God. He discovered the carnal mind to be enmity against God, not subject to God; he proved it in his own experience, and now he found there were saints not in that state - those quickened with Christ, and associated with Christ in glory. "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." They were not associated with the first Adam, but with the second Man, in Christ; this was their position. These people whom he had been persecuting were Christ. What broke him down was seeing Christ in glory, and all these associated with Him. Now he learns that he is dead to law, dead to flesh. The Christ I want to win is a glorified Christ. To win Christ may cost me my life. Never mind. That is my object. As to the first Adam, he was "weighed in the balance, and found wanting": I am out of it; not in the flesh, but in Christ. The old thing is entirely past; the Christian is crucified to the world, etc.; dead and risen again, having another object. He is alive from the dead, because Christ is; he is "accepted in the beloved"; he has the consciousness that this work of Christ put him into a new place (not glorified yet in the body): this was the "perfection." What was the state of his affections then? "That I may win Christ" was his desire. "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." This was his object. His mind was full of it.
366 The Holy Ghost has come down to bring all these things to our remembrance. Believers are united to Christ (it is never said Christ was united to man) in glory. Then the apostle was living by the power of the Holy Ghost. What a trial for him to see these people going back to their "first principles," "repentance from dead works, faith toward God … eternal judgments" - all true! but if you stop there, you stop short of a glorified Christ. "Who hath bewitched you?" he says to the Galatians. He says of himself, "I know a man in Christ," and his spirit is broken to find the saints resting with things on earth about Christ. The Holy Ghost was come out to make them partakers of a heavenly calling; to associate them in heart and mind with Christ, and to shew them things to separate them from the world; not only to keep them from evil, though that is true too. They had a temple standing then, where Christ Himself had been. Why should they have left it if Christ had not judged the flesh? The middle wall had been put up; how should they dare break it down, if God had not done it? If God had not said, "I will not have to say to flesh any more," how could they dare leave the camp, and go outside? Christ glorified is the end of all the "first principles," and we have to go through the world strangers and pilgrims.
The only thing God ever owned in religion was Jewish. It had to do with the flesh. That is gone by the cross; all is crucified: your life, your home, your associations, are all in Christ. The doctrine of the beginning of Christ was not that. What do I find when Christ is on earth? He is speaking then of judgment to come, which they believe. The Pharisees believed in a resurrection of the dead; baptisms, which mean washings, etc. All these they had then, they formed a worldly religion, and were sanctioned by God until the cross. The Messiah coming on earth was the beginning; but now I leave that; I do not deny these things - they are all true - but I have other things. Saul might have been the brightest saint going under the old things, but not knowing Christ. But suppose persons got into the heavenly thing, being made partakers of the Holy Ghost, having "tasted the good word of God," and then gave it up, what could they do then? Suppose they had received it all in their minds, and then gave it up: what else was there for them? There might have been a going on from faith in a humbled Christ to a glorified Christ, but there is nothing beyond.
367 There is nothing of life signified here in their being partakers of the Holy Ghost. It brings very strongly before us the actual presence of the Holy Ghost, and power through Him; a very different thing from life; and what, notwithstanding, we are in want of knowing. We must have that besides life. Being born of the Spirit, there is power for us through the presence of a person, who may act in another without his having life. There may be light in the soul, without the smallest trace of life. In the case of Balaam, we read the Spirit of God came upon him: he had to see the blessedness of God's people, and speak of it. He had light, but there was sleep on his soul, and he has to say, "I shall see him, but not now." That was the opposite to having life. You see a man close to life, seeing all the blessing of it, but not having it. Now, if all the heavenly blessing is seen and rejected, what else could there be?
"Tasted the good word of God" - Simon Magus is an example of this.
"Powers of the world to come," or miracles, putting down Satan's power. In the future day this power will gain the victory over all Satan's power. Simon Magus wanted this power when he saw it.
"Impossible, if they shall fall away … seeing they have crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh," etc. The nation of Israel had crucified Him - they did not know what they were doing. Now these knew what they were doing. The Holy Ghost had poured forth the light, and now they did it for themselves. It was not ignorance, it was will. There are some who anon with joy receive the word - the very thing that proves there is nothing in it. They would have it in joy, and give it away in tribulation. The word of God does not always give joy. When it comes in and reaches the conscience, and breaks up the fallow ground, and judges the thoughts and intents of the heart, that is not joy. It racks the heart when it is to profit, but it is for life and health. Here is not merely the joy of hearing about it, but having tasted of the good word about a glorified heavenly Christ. It is not quickening that is spoken of here. Moses was quickened, but he was not baptised with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost did not come till Pentecost. He made the house shake where they were assembled, but that was not for giving life. Power is a different thing from giving life. Those already quickened were to be the habitation of God through the Spirit. There were manifestations of God through these things, tongues, etc., anticipative of setting up of the kingdom.
368 It is after salvation is given, after the soul is born of God, the Holy Ghost comes to the believer as a seal, an earnest, an unction. I might get a taste of the power without being sealed; but as a believer I have the seal, am broken down in myself, not only "with joy" receiving it. I am a sinner - no good in me. It is a direct question between my soul and God; not like Simon Magus, believing the miracles that he did. Before I was converted, I believed there was Christ as much as I do now. When Christ was on earth, there were those who saw the miracles, and went home again. But when the Spirit of God works in the heart, He shews what we are, and makes us submit to God's righteousness. It ploughs up the whole soul and being of a man - makes him submit to the righteousness of God - shews him his place in the risen Christ - shews him that all is his. That is a different thing from merely seeing it. If you have rejected these glorious things, there is nothing else for you. If you will not have Christ, there is nothing else. Here this warning is in connection with the Holy Spirit in chapter 10. It is connected with the sacrifice. Then what follows shews no change supposed in the man. "The earth which drinketh in the rain … receiveth blessing from God; but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected," etc. The ground is just the same - the rain comes upon it, but it brings forth briers. So in men, there may be nothing in them to produce fruit. The result of life is seen in fruit, not power. The dumb ass might speak; but this was power, not spiritual life.
369 "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation," v. 9. There is the work of love here; then there is life. Perhaps there is only a little bit of fruit; but the tree is not dead if there is any fruit - "things that accompany salvation," not power merely - not joy merely; that might be without a divine nature. But "though I give all my goods to feed the poor, and though I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." Judas could cast out demons as well as the rest, but Christ says to His disciples, Rejoice not because the demons are subject to you, but rather rejoice that "your names are written in heaven."
The connection of your heart with Christ, the consciousness of God having written your name in heaven, is the blessed thing. Here was fruit; love of the brethren was there - the divine nature was there, and the "full assurance of hope to the end" is the thing desired. We may look for that.
When the seed fell into stony places, it sprang up rapidly; there was no root. When the word does not reach the conscience, there is no root, no life, and therefore no fruit. You might weep over Christ, and have no life, like the women going out of Jerusalem. Flesh could go all that length without divine life. There might be working of miracles, without knowing or being known of Him. One atom of brokenness of spirit is better than filling all London with miracles.
Verse 6. The nominal church of God is just in this state. There is to be falling away, and they are to be broken off; prophesied of in Romans 11, to be cut off, if they do not continue in His goodness. The apostasy will come, and no renewing them again unto repentance.
Now a little word for ourselves - what we have got in Christ. We have heavenly things, we are associated with Christ in heaven; "because I live, ye shall live also." I have all in Christ. He is my life, my righteousness, before God. Then God rests with delight in me, because in Christ. What place have I in Christ? In heaven, and He has given me the Holy Spirit to know it and enjoy it, so that my soul rests on it as the testimony of God. God cannot lie. Abraham got a promise, and he believed in it; an oath, and he believed it. I have more than that. I believe He has performed it. I have a righteousness now in the presence of God; and we have more in hope, namely, the glory that belongs to His righteousness. I have life, righteousness, the Holy Ghost as the seal, and more, the Forerunner is gone in, and the Holy Ghost gives me the consciousness of my union with Him; not merely the fact that sin is put away. We have the Spirit in virtue of the righteousness. The Holy Ghost has come to tell me I am in that Christ. What is the practical consequence? If the glory He has is mine, I am going after Him. Then all in the world is dross and dung.
370 "They might have had opportunity to have returned": that is, where faith is exercised and put to the test. You who have known the Lord some time have had opportunity to have returned, how has it been with you? A stone left on the ground gradually sinks in. There is constantly a tendency in present things to press down the affections - not open sin, but duties, and nothing is a greater snare than duties. We have one duty, that is to serve Christ. On the side of God, it is all bright.