THE BETTER HOPE
[p. 264] THE BETTER HOPE
Hebrews 6: 10 - 20; Hebrews 1: 1 - 14
I indicated, beloved friends, last week the line on which I desired to speak. I wanted to show, as the Lord might enable me, the unfolding of divine purpose in Scripture. It is a subject of very great interest, and the more so on account of the great importance that the souls of saints should be really set on the ground of divine purpose. It is what God was doing in regard to Peter in Matthew 16. Peter had believed in Christ, he had accepted Him — he was an apostle, but what was revealed to him by the Father was a truth which he had not yet known in regard to Christ, that is, the Father revealed to Peter the true glory of the Person of the Lord. But there was another thing in connection with it. The Lord says to Peter, “Thou art Peter”. The name ‘Peter’ indicated what Peter was; it confirmed Peter’s soul in what he was according to the counsel of God; outside of his position in the flesh, even as a Jew who had received Christ. We read in John 1 that the Lord had already changed his name, He had told him he was to be called Peter; but in Matthew 16, the Lord appears to confirm it to him in connection with the revelation which Peter received from the Father. So that I apprehend that what was going on in regard to Peter was that his soul was being led into the truth of what he was, not after the flesh, but according to the counsel of God. I do not understand that there is any force in the expression “a stone” (which ‘Peter’ means) except in connection with a structure. A rock is a foundation on which a structure is built, but a stone is for the structure, and that is what Peter was. “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock” — the confession of Christ Himself as the Son of the living God — “I will build my assembly”.
[p. 265] Beyond doubt that is a structure; the assembly is a structure. There is a great difference between a congregation and a structure. Israel was accustomed to the idea of a congregation, but not of a structure, except in a material sense; they had a material temple, but not a structure composed of living stones. They were Jehovah’s congregation; but I do not think they understood the idea of a structure. That is what the Lord reveals to Peter, that He was going to build a structure composed of living stones, of whom Peter was a sample.
Last time I sought to bring before you the completely new departure in God’s ways which took place in the calling out of Abraham. It is marked by what Stephen says in the beginning of his defence to the Jews in Acts 7: “The God of glory”. We do not, I think, find that name applied to God in the Old Testament, except in Psalm 29: 3, but Stephen, by the Spirit of God says, “The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham”. I have no doubt that is an expression which has reference to divine purpose. Then I sought to bring before you the incontestable truth that promise is the expression of purpose; it must be so, and hence it says in Hebrews 6, “God, willing to shew to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel”. Promise is the outcome of counsel where promise is unconditional. Do you think that God is ever baffled or taken aback? Do you think the condition of the world when God called Abraham, had, so to say, confounded God? Not a bit of it. It is true that God felt it, but He had divine resources above any emergency, and therefore He comes out to Abraham as the God of glory, and makes unconditional promises, having reference, I do not doubt, to the world to come. They had a sort of fulfilment in this world, but they really had reference to the world to come, and will be fulfilled in it. Therefore Abraham died in faith; he had not received [p. 266] the promises; though he received Isaac; but he was “persuaded of them, and embraced them”, he got an indication of divine purpose; and had the world to come in view. The Lord says of Abraham, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad”. The heart of Abraham was gladdened by a view of Messiah’s day; but, “these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth”. The revelation to them of the promises had a great effect upon them. It was not only that they took up truth and held it, but the truth which they held had the greatest influence upon their conduct here; it made them strangers and pilgrims upon earth. It has been said of Abraham, that he comes before us in the Scripture as a heavenly man; for there were two things which marked him, the tent and the altar. He had no possession except a burying place upon earth. He was a dweller in a tent; he had not a city, but looked for one; he was a pilgrim and a wanderer. He had a tent, and he had an altar, a place of communion.
But I want to turn your attention to another point, and I look to the Lord for present grace to make it plain to you. What I desire to bring before you tonight is the “better hope”. I do not think the idea of the “better hope” is found in the Old Testament; it is a new thing come out. It could hardly come out in the ways of God until Christ, having been rejected from earth, was glorified in heaven. I want to give you an idea of what this better hope is, and to show how it is based on divine purpose. It is no afterthought; there cannot possibly be such a thing as an afterthought with God. God may work out His ways through the wickedness of man, and He waits for man. You find in Scripture continually, God waiting in order that responsibility may be filled up. For instance, Abraham’s seed after the flesh could not inherit the land, because the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. God waited, and they had to wait more than four hundred years. So God works out His ways through the wickedness of man; but still everything that God works out is the outcome and expression of counsel. In the working out of divine counsel the wisdom of God is displayed, and the results will be to God’s eternal glory. If you would know divine wisdom, Christ is the wisdom of God, because Christ is the One in whom God works out His counsels.
I would say a word about the interval between Abraham and Christ. It appears a long interval, during which God was not working out counsel, but in infinite wisdom, dealing with the seed of Abraham after the flesh on the footing of responsibility; and, therefore, law came in when they were delivered out of Egypt. I think, up to that point, it was counsel, but in receiving the law, the conditions were changed, and the enjoyment of the land depended upon the obedience of the people. All that went on until the seed came, they were under law. It was, as we should say, a period of probation, to see whether they could really stand with God on the footing of the law. I need not go into it, but it ended in the rejection of Christ. It has often been said that they not only broke the law, became idolaters, and persecuted the prophets, but when Christ came to them with the promises (for He was the vessel of promise), they rejected Christ, and in rejecting Christ they rejected the promises, and there was an end of all hope for man on the footing of his responsibility. On the footing of law, all was completely over; and they had forfeited all, so far as man’s responsibility was concerned, in rejecting Christ. The leaders recognised in a kind of way that Christ was the heir; they had an idea of who Christ was on account of the testimony which He gave, though [p. 268] there was blindness and ignorance mixed up with it; but still the thought of the husbandmen was, “This is the heir, come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance”. And in casting out God’s Son and crucifying Him, there was a clean end of every hope for the people and for man after the flesh; all was over on that ground.
But then it was that God reverted to purpose; He went back to what I may call the ground of Abraham. It is a very interesting point in Hebrews 6, that you find God has gone back to the promises and the oath. The whole period of law which had intervened was, in a sense, a blank or worse than a blank; and what I want to show you is, that the better hope of which the apostle speaks in this chapter is really founded, like promises, on the purpose of God. The Jews, in crucifying Christ, little knew what they were doing. There was one fact in connection with the Lord of which they were totally ignorant, and that is, that He had positively come down here to die. They crucified Him “with wicked hands”, but He was “delivered”, we are told, “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God”. He had come here to do the will of God, and the will of God involved the offering up of Himself. As we find in chapter 10 of this epistle, He takes away all the offerings which were offered under the law, and He comes to establish the will of God; “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God”; that is, in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the will of God, the pleasure of God, was accomplished, and God was completely glorified.
Then comes another thing, that the One who came to do God’s will, enters as man into a position suited to what He was, in the dignity of His Person. Beloved friends, it appears to me impossible that Christ could abide here after the flesh. There was nothing morally incongruous, but it was a condition of humiliation in which it was not at all according to the purpose of [p. 269] God that He should remain. He entered upon that condition, He partook of blood and flesh, was made in all things like to His brethren for a certain definite purpose, that He “might taste death for everything”. But the result of it is that God has been glorified, and that Christ has, as man, entered into a position suited to the glory of His Person. That is brought out in Hebrews 1. That chapter presents to us the greatness of His Person; He is God’s Son, and is called to sit at God’s right hand until “I make thine enemies thy footstool”. Who but a divine person could have taken a place at the right hand of God? What angel could? The apostle speaks of angels because they are the highest of creatures; but to what angel said God, “Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool?” It is a man that sits at the right hand of God; but the very fact of His sitting there is as strong a proof as you could possibly have that He is a divine Person. And further in Hebrews 1 we read: “When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat himself down at the right hand” of God. In chapter 2, where He is looked at as Son of man, and as the head and vessel of God’s purposes, then He is spoken of as “crowned with glory and honour”. When He was down here, and Peter confessed Him as the Son of the living God, the Lord said, “Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven”. Peter did not know it even by association with Christ after the flesh, he did not really know the glory of His Person apart from the Father’s revelation. But anyone now, who apprehends the position in which Christ sits as Man, has divine proof of the glory of His Person.
There were great things in the mind and purpose of God to be effected in Christ. Redemption was to be accomplished here; sin to be put away by the sacrifice of Christ. He has appeared once in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself;
[p. 270] but being raised again from the dead, He enters as Man on a place which was according to eternal counsel, “being made so much better than the angels, as he hath, by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they”. When one thinks of the Lord Jesus on earth, He was revealed as Son of Abraham, Son of David, the true Messiah, the hope of Israel. But when we think about Him at the right hand of God, we see One who is declared to be the Son of God; One highly exalted above all principality and power, that He might fill all things, but exalted according to eternal counsel; because it was of eternal counsel that everything should be put under the Son of man. I think Psalm 8 is sufficient proof of it, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him; or the Son of man, that thou visitest him?” Two persons are referred to in that Psalm, “man” and “the Son of man”. Adam was man, but Adam was not the Son of man; the Son of man has reference to the Lord Himself, He is the Son of man.
Now I go on to the next point, and that is, Christ was not to be alone in heavenly glory. He is at the right hand of God alone, because that is a position which is personal to Himself; but He was not to be a Man in heaven alone. And we, perhaps, get the idea of it even in Hebrews 1, God has anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His companions. Exalted as He is as Son of man, the great truth comes out that He is to have companions. In the Old Testament you can find a great deal which relates to the sufferings of Christ, and to the resurrection, and even to His glory, but the New Testament teaches us that Christ in glory is to be the first-born among many brethren.
Look at Romans 8: 28 - 30: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he [p. 271] might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified”. I think what I have said is, in the presence of this scripture, incontestable. In the wisdom and grace of God, Christ was not to be in glory alone. He should have companions in glory, with the object that God “might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”. My conviction is that we shall be very much astonished in many ways when we arrive at glory; we shall be surprised at the extent and character of the kindness which will be lavished upon the saints there.
There is a far greater development of counsel in the New Testament than in the Old. The apostle Paul said to the Ephesians that he had not shunned to declare to them all the counsel of God. The first principle is this, that man in the Person of Christ is in glory on the ground of accomplished redemption; sin having been put away from before God, and God glorified, and that He is not to be alone there, but the firstborn among many brethren.
There is a similar expression, “many”, in Hebrews 2: “It became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings”. That is the line on which God is operating at the present time. It is not introducing blessing into the world; the day will come for that. It is not the time for the manifestation of the glory of Christ; but God is “bringing many sons unto glory”. It is a point of all moment to apprehend: I would I could bring it home to every soul tonight; and that it is entirely outside and beyond what we are by nature and after the flesh. Scripture speaks of the glory of the children of God, but very few Christians really get a right idea of their glory. I say I have my glory.
[p. 272] And what is it? My glory is not what I am outwardly in the world, but what I am with God. Withdrawn from what I am outwardly in the world, I enter into what I am with God according to His counsel, that is, that I am a son of God, a son whom God is bringing to glory. It is a great thing to enter into your glory, but you must in faith be withdrawn from your outward circumstances here in the world. That is what the Spirit of God will do for you.
I have no doubt that God, in infinite wisdom, has placed us in certain positions here; but our place in the world had nothing in itself to do with the counsel and purpose of God, because God purposed us for entirely another position and another order of being, predestinated us “to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren”.
Now, beloved friends, I want to go on to the “better hope”, because that is the point I desire to make plain to you tonight. The Hebrews had accepted the “better hope”. I do not think they understood very much what it meant, but they had “fled for refuge”, that is what we read, “to lay hold upon the hope set before us”. Let me bring your attention back for a moment to the position of the Hebrews before they were converted. In rejecting Christ, the Jews evidently had lost all after the flesh; there was an entire break between God and the Jews. But God virtually says to them, ‘Well, you have crucified Christ with wicked hands, but He was delivered by My determinate counsel and foreknowledge. I have accomplished My purpose. You have lost everything on your footing as men upon earth, but I open to you an entirely new door upon the ground of My counsel. I present to you the result of accomplished redemption. Christ is in glory, and I invite you to enter in at that door, and to flee thus for refuge, because there is no hope for you in connection with the earth, to flee for refuge and [p. 273] to enter in at the door of purpose. I invite you to accept in faith this ground, that I am bringing many sons unto glory, and to lay hold of the better hope’. That is virtually, as it appears to me, what God said to the Jews. It is a wonderful triumph of the grace of God. And I will tell you the reason of it, because God was working, not, so to speak, from the guilt of the Jews, but from the death of Christ. He had been completely glorified, redemption was accomplished, and God was working on that basis. And when God comes out in the riches of His grace, He begins with the Jew.
I have no doubt at all that the “better hope” refers to conformity to Christ in glory; and those converted had to travel that road. Many of the Hebrews had accepted it; and if they were not up to it in their souls, still they had accepted the “better hope” in accepting the testimony of Christ in glory. And I think that is the position of many souls now; they have accepted the testimony of Christ in glory, but I very much doubt whether they are really in the apprehension of the bearing of it. When I see Christians eager to make the best of this world, it does not appear to me much as if they had really apprehended the “better hope”, and were established on the ground of divine purpose, that God is bringing many sons unto glory. If I had a true sense of that in my soul, you may depend upon it I should sit light to everything here. Not but what I would by the grace of God be faithful in every circle here; but things would sit upon me lightly if I really laid hold of what God is doing at the present moment, bringing many sons unto glory, and Christ the pattern of what we are to be, that “as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly”. If that took possession of anyone’s thoughts, I do not think present things would have much influence over them. They would enjoy soul salvation.
[p. 274] With regard to the Hebrews, the practical result of it was this, that by the very fact of becoming companions of Christ they became “heirs of promise”, that is, they were really of Christ; as the apostle says, “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified, are all of one”. As Christ’s they became heirs of the promises, and therefore the promises made to Abraham belonged to them. And that is how the apostle takes them up in chapter 6. Who are heirs of promise? Not Jews; they are put aside for the time being. Christians are the heirs of promise. Therefore the apostle says, “God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath”. What for? “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us”. The hope was never set before Abraham; what I read about Abraham is that he sought a better, that is a heavenly country, but the hope was never definitely set before him of being the companion of Christ in glory. That is the hope set before us; and it is we that have that hope who are to get the “strong consolation” that flows from the “two immutable things”. Beloved friends, have you got that “strong consolation”? Is your soul settled on the ground of divine purpose? When God makes the promise that is founded on purpose He confirms it with an oath.
An oath is a most interesting thing in Scripture, for when you find a real indication of divine purpose you will generally find it confirmed with an oath. For instance, “The Lord hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec”. Aaron was never made a priest with an oath, but Christ is made a priest with an oath after the order of Melchisedec, because He is priest according to purpose.
[p. 275] If you want to get your soul thoroughly established, you have only to get into the region of purpose. I ask anyone here tonight, how do you read Scripture? Do you read it simply to get gospel statements out of it? I do not think you will get much confirmation of soul if you do. Read Scripture with the thought of your soul entering into divine counsel, and then I think you will get “strong consolation”. You will see what it is God can confirm with an oath. Anything which depends partly upon God and partly upon man, God will not confirm with an oath. That which depends upon Himself God confirms with an oath, and it is that we might have a “strong consolation”. Mark the grace of God, that we might have not only consolation, but “a strong consolation”. I have often thought of a beautiful expression in the Romans, “that we by patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope”. So, too, here, “strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us”.
Now I want to show you the way in which we get the good of the hope. It is a very important thing to see the place of faith in regard to hope. The place of faith is this, it substantiates hope. What that means is that you get the present good of hope. “Faith is the substantiation of things hoped for”, and in that sense hope has to precede faith. There is this difference between Romans and Hebrews; the point in Romans is the principle on which a man is justified; but in Hebrews the point is the principle on which the just man is to “live”, that is “by faith”. Now the principle is that faith substantiates hope. If you have got the “better hope”, if it has got a real hold upon your soul, if you apprehend the line on which God is leading you, that you are to be “conformed to the image of his Son”, then by faith you will get the present good of it.
I will show you two things in which you will get it:
[p. 276] the first is, you will apprehend that you are of the kindred of Christ, the kindred of the Priest after the order of Melchisedec. As Aaron’s sons were of the kindred of Aaron, so Christians are the kindred of Christ; “He who sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one”; and that is not only what you will be in heaven, but what you are upon earth. The other thing is, that as the kindred of the Priest you have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus”; all the grace of God’s presence is laid open to those who are sanctified, “by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. The blessed grace of God’s presence is open to those who are of the kindred of the High Priest. That is your privilege. I ask every soul here tonight, How much do you and I really know the grace of God’s presence? We go in “by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh”. There is no veil between God and us, the Son has given to us the liberty of that holy and blessed presence of God where Christ Himself is; you have “boldness to enter into the holiest”.
But there is one word more. As the consequence of that, of necessity you must accept death to the world. It is an old saying in regard to the Hebrews, ‘inside the veil involves outside the camp’. You cannot take up the position of a Jew upon earth, because the way through the veil is not, and never will be, open to them; but if you go through the veil, that is, if you have real priestly privilege as sanctified by Jesus Christ, you must accept the place of death to the world; you cannot separate the two. If you have heavenly portion and privilege, “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus”, the other must follow, that you accept the position of death to the world and the whole course of religious man here upon the earth. That is what the Spirit [p. 277] of God had to teach these Hebrews, because they were attempting to combine the two things, Christian privilege with the Jewish system, and the Spirit of God is pressing upon them that they really did not know the true character of one or the other.
It is a terrible lesson to have to learn, that “in me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing”; but if I have apprehended that, I do not care to take up any position here as a man on earth. If I am morally and radically bad, it is not much good to claim any position here. But I have a wonderful position in divine grace, a companion of Christ, sanctified by His offering; and not only that, but He has given me the power to support me in the wonderful position which grace has given me. It is no use having life if you have not the substance to support life. The Christian has both. The substance is faith; faith which brings in the power of God to support me in the possession and enjoyment of “the better hope”.
My object is, if I can, to help to confirm the souls of the saints of God on the footing of divine purpose. I do not make light of the pathway here, or of the responsibilities connected with it. I have my own responsibilities; but I see that my true privilege and calling before God is outside of them all. It is according to His eternal purpose that I am called to be a companion of Christ in glory, to be conformed to His image; and that is what I want to take possession of my soul, so that my soul treads firmly upon that ground. And then I want to be instructed in the word of divine counsel; that is what I go to Scripture for; I want to get hold of divine wisdom, and to see what the great end is to be in divine glory. The three things — divine counsel, divine wisdom, and divine glory — are all on one line; and if you get a glimpse of it, the effect will be immensely to establish and comfort your soul; you will get a “strong consolation”
by these “two immutable things”, God’s promise and God’s oath.
May God give to us to see that it is our present privilege to enter into the holy presence of the blessed God through the blood of Jesus.