HEBREWS 10 (FIRST READING)
HEBREWS 10 (FIRST READING)
CAC Our attention was called last week to the fact that Christ is in heaven representatively. He has entered into heaven itself now to appear before the face of God for us. The will of God in regard of His saints is seen in all its blessed reality in Christ as in heaven.
Ques What is the difference between God speaking in Son in Hebrews 1, and what we have here, Christ entering “into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us”?
CAC The one is the converse of the other. God speaking in Son is God coming out to men. Christ entering “into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us” is the answer to that. God speaking in Son is God speaking out the declaration of Himself; the answer to that is the Priest going in representatively. The will of God is to be learnt in Christ.
We were speaking last week about the tendency there is with many to get the will of God before them in regard of practical details — how they walk and what they do. That has its place, but we get the right thought of the will of God [p. 56] as set forth in Christ in heaven. The great point in this epistle is to make us familiar with heavenly things, and heavenly things centre in Christ gone into heaven. He is there representatively, so all whom He represents are heavenly as He is. We may depend upon it that divine love will serve us in our necessities, circumstantial and moral, but if He appears before the face of God for us, He appears in glory and beauty. No one could question the suitability of Christ to be in heaven itself, but the wonderful thing is that He represents a vast company. His priestly glory is before us in Hebrews.
Ques How is that meant to affect us on earth, that He represents us in heaven?
CAC In order to give us the greatest liberty in approach to God.
Ques Is it like Luke 15 — the shoes on our feet?
CAC That is the line. The great object of this part of the epistle is to set us free to go to God, which I am afraid we do not know much about. We know a little about God coming to us but the majority of believers know very little about going to God.
Ques Is this the climax of approach?
CAC The climax is that Christ has entered into heaven itself and we are all represented there; that is the will of God. Everyone goes in with Him; if He is there for us representatively we all go in with Him. The hymn of J.N.D. says:
‘He’s gone within the veil,
For us that place has won;
In Him we stand, a heav’nly band,
Where He Himself is gone’. (12:2)
Do we believe it? That is the will of God. We are heavenly as He is; that is christianity. If you understand that that is your place according to the will of God you will like to go to God.
[p. 57] Ephesians is full of the will of God. We get there the mystery of His will, the counsel of His will and so on; all is connected with heaven. We bring the will of God too much to earth. If we know what it is to have a place in heaven it would liberate us from the corrupting influences that have a damaging effect on our practical walk.
In Hebrews we are seen in heaven representatively. It is the will of God; everything that stood in the way of our knowing it and enjoying it has been perfectly and eternally removed. Christ came to do the will of God; that involves His dealing with all that stood in the way of His called people approaching God. Christ took up the question of sin and sins, but that was not His object. He came to do the blessed will of God, but to do that He had to take up the sin question or we should have been hindered from entering into the will of God. We needed to be perfected in our consciences from the sin question in order to enter into the will of God. Nothing is more blessed than the will of God, the will of supreme love.
“He takes away the first” (verse 9); that refers to the whole divine system embodied in the tabernacle and its services. They were the best in this world but they were not the will of God. They were a shadow; therefore they had to give place, for the will of God must prevail in the universe. It is wonderful to get hold of that. We serve God by coming to Him in intelligent appreciation of His own thoughts. That delights God; God’s great pleasure is that we should come near to Him in intelligence and appreciation of His own will. If every moral question were not settled we could not be in appreciation of His will. The dealing with sin and sins by Christ was essential but it was incidental; the great thing was the will of God being established. We need a great increase of liberty; one feels that amongst the people of God there is a great lack of liberty. God loves to be served in liberty. All this is the witness to His love. You [p. 58] are not going to have anything better in heaven than the love of God. I do not expect to have anything greater to fill my soul with rapture than the love of God. The Holy Spirit is pouring the love of God into hearts now; that is heaven; there will not be anything better in heaven than that. It shows how great this is that we could never have known it apart from the death of God’s Son and the gift of the Spirit.
Those are the two great realities; it needed them both in order that we might know the love of God.
Ques Does not chapter 10 shew the wonderful way in which divine Persons have moved in order to secure this?
CAC The good things to come which are referred to repeatedly in this epistle have arrived. They arrived in the outshining of God. Christ has entered into heaven itself and the good things have arrived. No one could say that there were better things to come. The millennium is a lower order of things; it is the earth blessed but it is not heaven itself.
In Hebrews “God” is mentioned more than “the Father”, although “the Father” is mentioned in chapter 12 in connection with chastening.
The consummation of all blessedness is that God is to be all in all; that is the highest point reached in eternity.
God’s countenance beams on Christ; God can say, ‘My will is secured and established in that blessed One before My face’. He represents the whole company at the present time.
There is no such thing as collective approach apart from individual approach. If I do not approach individually my coming into the assembly will not cause me to approach.
Ques The knowledge of that love must produce response?
CAC Surely. It is important to see that the sacrifices they offered yearly did not perfect those who approached.
[p. 59] The best Jew that ever lived would have been terrified to go into the holiest.
Ques Is the holiest the answer on our side to approach?
CAC We approach as being in liberty. We should encourage each other to approach. Every christian in this room knows what it is to pray and to get answers to prayers — even the youngest here knows that — but that is not approach.
Ques Is approach more under the priestly service of Christ personally?
CAC In Hebrews we have the priestly support of Christ. Unless we had the Priest we could not approach. Where He is we are, and are entitled to be. Coming to God means that you are delighted to go to God. The psalm says, “Unto the God of the gladness of my joy”, Psalm 43: 4.
Ques How does this ‘going in’ work out practically every day?
CAC It is an experimental reality. Most believers on the earth have never known what it is to approach. They confide in God in their circumstances; they have learned how God has approached them, but to know that God is delighted that we should approach Him is a different exercise altogether — you do not want anything. Mr. Mackintosh said that approach was like a boy who knocks on his father’s study door. The father replies, ‘What do you want?’ The answer is, ‘Father, I want a pencil’. Ten minutes later he comes to his father’s door for something else he wants. The third time he comes and knocks and the father asks what he wants this time and the reply is, ‘Father I do not want anything but to be with you’. That is the idea! The fact is there is a great lack of liberty. Believers are relieved from pressure but they are not in liberty, they are not conscious of being objects of delight to the heart of God. If I go to Him He is delighted to see me; that gives me liberty.
[p. 60] Ques We get the thought of the throne of grace earlier in this epistle. Would that be prayer?
CAC The throne of grace is favourable. Your Priest is there and you can come boldly to the throne of grace for what you need and it is granted to you.
Rem David went in and sat before Jehovah.
CAC He had been listening to God’s wonderful thoughts about him and he goes in and sits down and has a sense of how wonderfully God has acted. We read, “The worshippers once purged having no longer any conscience of sins”, Hebrews 10: 2. That is a fine thing!
Ques What about verse 22?
CAC That is true of every believer; if it were true to him he would have liberty. To approach is that you are completely abstracted from everything, even the circumstances that are connected with this present world. If a man went into the holiest he would be abstracted from the whole scene of nature.
Ques This is not specially for the morning meeting?
CAC Why should I limit my privilege to one hour in the week? We shall not approach when we come together if we do not approach through the week. It necessitates spiritual movement, “Let us approach” movement. Do we habitually accustom ourselves to go apart to be with God? It is no thought of prayer but abstracting ourselves from creature conditions and going to God where only God is. That is what the Spirit is moving us for in this epistle.
Ques What is the meaning of “His flesh”?
CAC His incarnation. His flesh covers everything that was secured by His becoming flesh and going into death. The veil is His incarnation — a divine Person become Man — so a new way is opened up. A new way that is paved with love, His flesh makes it possible. All this magnifies the incarnation, which God has been calling attention to of late. “Thou hast prepared me a body” is in contrast with all the sacrifices and offerings. “Wherefore coming into the world”; that is His flesh; that is the hinge on which all stands. It was the will of God that that prepared body should be offered. There is the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. The fact that He is the Testator means that He is God Himself and yet the Testator dies.
Rem It is striking that the Spirit uses the word “body” here, it being “ears” in the Old Testament.
CAC Yes, it is. Those who translated the Old Testament into Greek translated the word “a body hast thou prepared me”, and the Spirit has adopted that translation here in Hebrews. The ear is the characteristic member of man’s body. In the reckoning of God the ear is the most important member of the body. So it is very important to give a right place to the ear. He shews here that the body which was prepared has been offered, and having been offered He is in a new condition. It is no longer the days of His flesh; that body which He came in in flesh has been offered and the efficacy of that offering has established the will of God. The will of God is established through the death of Christ. The incarnation is a human term; it is not in Scripture. The strict meaning of the word is that a divine Person has come here in flesh and blood; “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”, John 1: 14. But He remains Man for ever. His body has been offered; He is raised in a new condition; He has gone into heaven representatively. He is in a glorified condition now. The will of God is that many sons be brought to glory. It is a new condition, a spiritual body in contrast with a natural body. We are all going to have spiritual bodies. We have never known Christ after the flesh, but we have the inspired record of what He was. We know that all He was morally He is still, in another condition but still Man. “Coming into the world”, He says certain things that [p. 62] are in the roll of the book; that refers to eternity, but Christ takes up the language in time — we must not attach the thought of obedience to Him as in the form of God. The thought of obedience is not connected with God. The roll of the book is connected with purpose and counsel. What was written in that book in eternity was to be taken up and voiced by a divine Person having become Man, but you could not think of a divine Person knowing obedience. “Coming into the world, he says, ...Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me)”, but His utterance “Lo, I come”, was as coming into the world. To carry the thought of obedience into the past eternity is derogatory to His divine Person and glory. We cannot be too clear on this point.
It is all worked out by a divine Person coming to a condition in which obedience was possible. Obedience is not possible for God. Who is He to obey? If we think of God becoming Man, He comes of His own will: “I am come down from heaven”, John 6: 38. It is His own act as a divine Person. He says, “not that I should do my will, but the will of him that has sent me”. There He speaks as coming into the world as Man. It says in Ephesians that He descended — that was His own act. In John He says “I ascend”, that was His own act; He goes in the dignity of His glorious Person; He ascends to the Father.
Question as to the Spirit.
CAC The place the Spirit has taken in the economy of grace is patterned after the place Christ took. The Spirit has been pleased to take a subordinate place. One divine Person has taken a subordinate place to another divine Person who has also taken a subordinate place. The Spirit in that subordinate place speaks of what He hears; He does not speak from Himself. The Spirit descending on Christ is the act of the Holy Spirit as a divine Person. The whole [p. 63] of the epistle of Hebrews has a golden thread running through — the deity of the Son.