The Epistle to the Hebrews was written to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ who had been reared in Judaism, and who had the temple at Jerusalem as the centre of their worship. Jerusalem had been established as the divine centre in the days of David and Solomon, and when the Lord was upon earth He had owned the temple as His house, but when He was rejected God's centre was no longer on earth, it was in Jesus in heaven. Every divine blessing, whether for Jew or Gentile, is in Christ in heaven; and though the teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews presents the truth as contrasting what God had established in Christ with the shadows of the tabernacle system, all that is presented in Christ is for the believing Gentile as for the believing Jew.
In Hebrews 12 the writer refers to the great cloud of witnesses of chapter 11 who had shown what faith could accomplish. Like them, we are to be marked by faith, and are to run with patience the race set before us, laying aside everything that would hinder, and especially the besetting sin of Israel, unbelief, that had all along been the cause of their not entering into the blessing of God.
These outstanding men and women of faith showed some of the manifold features of faith, but every feature in its perfection is to be found in Jesus. He is the author and finisher of faith, the One who in His pathway has manifested every detail of it. So that if we desire to learn what the path of faith is we have to see it in Jesus. Throughout His perfect pathway He had the end in view, and this sustained Him through all His manifold trials. His path was beset with deepest sorrows, but He looked forward to the joy that He would have at God's right hand when all the sorrow and sufferings were over.
Jesus was called upon to pass through sufferings that were peculiarly His own, for none but Himself could know what the cross meant. No one could enter into what the Lord sustained when He endured the cross, when the full load of our sins lay upon Him, when He was made sin for us, and when He bore the penalty that our sins had merited, and the stroke of divine judgment fell upon His guiltless head. No human heart and mind can touch the awful feelings of the heart of Jesus when He was the holy sin bearer, and when He cried, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
We know it was the love of Jesus for His God and Father, and for us, that sustained Him amidst the sufferings and judgment of the cross, but here we learn that the joy that lay ahead in the Father's presence also sustained Him, even as it is written prophetically, "Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore" (Psalm 16:11).
It is indeed blessed for the Christian to look stedfastly on Jesus at the right hand of God, an object on which the eye can rest with perfect delight, and on which the heart can feed with deep satisfaction and joy. The place that Jesus occupies at God's right hand is His alone, none can share it, but the saint of God can find constant pleasure in gazing upon Him there. This is where Stephen saw Jesus, and he bore witness to Him there, saying, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:55). Stephen saw the Lord in a special way, as did also Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus, but the Christian today can say with the writer of this epistle, "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour" (Heb. 2:9).
We see Jesus in His glory as Son of Man, we see Him as our Great High Priest, as our Advocate, as our Head, and in the many glories described in the first chapter of this epistle, and as viewed in the first chapter of Colossians, and in many other rays of glory portrayed for us by the Holy Spirit in the writings of the Old and New Testaments. Viewing Jesus in His glory will have a very marked influence upon our lives down here, we shall "grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ" (Eph. 4:15).
Jesus is also the great Exemplar for His people, and we are to "consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself" lest we get wearied and faint in our minds. How wonderful it is that we can consider Jesus in His pathway through this world, and how amazing that He should suffer the reproaches of sinful men. Pharisees, Sadducees. Herodians, chief priests and the elders of Israel were among those who stood against Jesus, but He suffered it all patiently, manifesting divine goodness where all around was evil, and telling out the love of God when the hatred of men was shown in all its bitterness against Him.
In the conflict of good against evil Jesus resisted unto blood, dying a martyr's death. None could be with Him in the death of the cross, when He made atonement, but others have followed Him in the conflict of good and evil, and have resisted unto blood. The Hebrews, to whom the epistle was written, had suffered much, having taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods, but they had not yet been called upon to die for their faith in Jesus. Stephen had died, and James the brother of John had died, as martyrs, but those who received this epistle were still in the body, and they are encouraged to look unto Jesus as the example for them in their path of faith.
Israel's high priest had "holy garments … for glory and beauty," and a holy, golden crown upon his mitre; but our High Priest has been "crowned with glory and honour" at God's right hand in heaven. In heaven Jesus is a merciful and faithful High Priest for His saints, having passed through this world, and knowing all that His own have to endure in the way of testing. Manhood in its perfection was His, with all the feelings, desires and circumstances that belong to man; and because of this He can fully enter into all that we are called upon to pass through (Heb. 2:17-18).
Jesus has taken away all dread from us in regard to our sins, for, on the cross, He made propitiation for them. Nor need we have a fear in relation to the circumstances of the desert way, for Jesus is able to succour us in every trial. The names of the children of Israel were on the shoulder stones of the high priest, and our names are indelibly engraved on the shoulders of our High Priest in heaven. The One who was strong enough to enter into death and come out in triumph, is able to carry us safely through every trial. To lay hold of the resources that are available for us, we must ever be looking unto Jesus in heaven. When Peter kept his eye on Jesus he walked on the waves, but with his eye on the storm he began to sink. We, too, shall be superior to every storm if the eye is on Jesus.
Of old, Israel's high priest, on the way into the holiest on the day of atonement, passed through the court and through the holy place. Our High Priest is a Great High Priest, who has passed through the heavens on His way to the right hand of God. Yet, though so great, He has a heart that feels with His people in all their sorrows, and difficulties (Heb. 4:14-15). The greatness of Jesus is seen in chapter 1, for He is Son of God, the creator of the worlds, the One who made the earth and the heavens (Heb. 1:2 and 10); and His greatness is also seen in His work of propitiation, and in the place He fills at God's right hand.
Jesus feels with us as having known all that tries His people. He knew what it was to hunger and thirst, and to be weary with His journey. He knew what it was to shed tears, being rejected by Israel, and sorrowing with His own in the presence of death. Yea, He knew strong crying and tears as none ever knew or could know, both because of the perfection of His humanity, His holy sinless nature, and because of what lay before Him in the cross. All this enables Jesus to feel with His own, for our names are on His breast.
The throne of God, which by reason of man's sin became for him a throne of judgment, has by the work of Jesus in redemption become a throne of grace. As we look upon Jesus on the throne above, we can come boldly into His presence, and there "obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (verse 16). The grace and mercy are not to help us in failure, but to keep us from failure.
At the close of Hebrews 6 Jesus is seen within the veil of heaven, and His presence there has given hope to His people. Because of the intercession of Jesus on the cross the nation of Israel was treated by God as a manslayer (Luke 23:34; Acts 3:17); God viewing the slaying of Christ as a sin of ignorance; but when the testimony of the Spirit of God was rejected, the nation was no longer in ignorance, but wilful in its guilt, so that Stephen says, "ye have been now the betrayers and murderers" of the "Just One." There was no further hope for the nation, which went on head-long to divine judgment.
But there was still hope for the repentant individual. Israel had lost their earthly Messiah, and the only hope for any in Israel was to flee to Christ in heaven. The city of refuge was no longer on earth, it was in heaven; and those who were guilty regarding the death of Christ may find refuge and salvation in Christ in heaven.
Those who find refuge from divine judgment in Christ have also a hope that is sure and stedfast in Jesus within the heavenly veil, for Jesus has entered into heaven as the forerunner of all who trust in Him. The Jew had always looked for blessing on earth, but the Christian, whether Jew or Gentile by nature, must look to heaven. All our blessings are heavenly and spiritual, and all are in Jesus in the presence of God, and soon we shall have all that God has given us with Jesus in heaven. Our hope is in heaven, whither Jesus soon will bring us to be with Himself there.
Once in the end of the age Jesus appeared in this world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself; and now He appears in the presence of God for us, our Great High Priest (Heb. 9:24-26). The questions raised by our sins have been for ever answered by Him who "was once offered to bear the sins of many" (verse 28), and very soon He will again appear, not to deal with sin, for every question as to sin was settled on the cross, but to bring salvation to His people.
It is to those who look for Him that He will appear. The remnant of Israel will look for Him, and He will save them from their enemies; but the saints of the present day are also looking for the coming of Jesus. First, Jesus will come and take the church to heaven, and no doubt also all the Old Testament saints as well — all the saints who have been redeemed by His precious blood — the dead being raised, the living changed (1 Thess. 4:16-17; 1 Cor. 15:52); and then He will appear in glory, His saints being with Him (2 Thess. 1:10; 1 John 3:2).
How blessed then is our present portion in "Looking unto Jesus." We look stedfastly on Him to see the path of faith, to see Him as our heavenly Object, our Example, our Great High Priest who succours and sympathises with us on the way to heaven, where we see Him as our Forerunner within the veil, and where we look for Him as the coming One to take us to be for ever with Himself in the Father's House, and to share the glory of the kingdom at His appearing.
Wm. C. Reid.