HEBREWS 10 (SECOND READING)
HEBREWS 10 (SECOND READING)
CAC I suppose we might regard the entering into the holiest as the climax of the epistle.
Ques What is in view in entering into the holiest?
CAC It has in mind the service of God viewed in relation to His own will and His own purposes.
Ques Is worship one thought of it?
CAC I think that enters into the service of the house of God. If we are to serve God or worship Him acceptably it must be as those who enter into His thoughts. I suppose the holiest is looked at as the place where we become spiritually intelligent in all that is in the mind and heart of God.
Rem The psalmist said, “I went into the sanctuaries, then understood I”, Psalm 73: 17.
CAC Yes; there it is in regard of his perplexity in seeing the wicked prospering and that they got on much better than he did in spite of his piety. In the sanctuary he got intelligence and saw God’s way was in the sanctuary. It is wonderful to see what God is about. He can only be rightly served or worshipped by those who know what He is about. God likes to be understood — we all do. I believe the greatest pleasure of God is to be understood.
Ques Is all service towards God in the holiest?
CAC The service of God takes place in the assembly. Approaching in the holiest is to make us intelligent persons for the assembly; no one acts intelligently in the assembly who has not been in the holiest.
[p. 64] This epistle contemplates a tabernacle, a greater and more perfect tabernacle than the one Moses made. It is not of this creation; it is a tabernacle which the Lord has pitched and not man. We have to think of a spiritual tabernacle and the holiest is the innermost part of that tabernacle. The thought of a tabernacle is a dwelling-place for God amongst men.
Ques Would Mary of Bethany illustrate one who understood the Lord?
CAC Yes, I think she might be an illustration of a person in the holiest. If we all knew what it was to approach in the holiest, all our utterances in the assembly would be intelligent. That is the thought of His service, ministering what is a delight to God. What He delights in is that He is understood. There are a people on earth who understand Him; they are priests and sons and have access to the innermost shrine of His thoughts and purposes.
They enter into all that and that is service to God. He is pleased with them; that is the idea of service.
Ques How does that come about practically?
CAC All the distraction around makes the privilege more wonderful. We can leave the distractions around and come in spirit to a place of divine rest. The holiest is where the ark rests.
Ques. Is this individual?
CAC Yes, it is the privilege of the priestly family. We need to understand that we have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. The thought of the holiest is vague and misty to many of us but it ought not to be. It is really very simple.
Ques Is it connected with the blood carried in?
CAC Yes, the blood of the sin offering. In connection with that the ground on which Aaron went in was the ground on which his sons could go. That is the meaning of the scripture, “He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”, Hebrews 2: 11. Christ has entered in with His own blood by a way that we can go in too. When Aaron offered the blood of the bullock it was for himself and his house. The first one to get the benefit was Aaron.
Ques Is there light in regard of the way and state of the believer? We need light as to the way in and then state to enter.
CAC The state comes afterwards. You see the way in and what is there objectively first.
Ques In connection with apprehension as to the way into the holiest, do you think that the sovereignty of the Lord gives light to some more than others? Many souls are distressed at their smallness, but the Lord would have us exercised but not discouraged.
CAC We are all equal in the value of the death of Christ; that is divine teaching. These Hebrews were babes. Are we amongst the called ones? This epistle is addressed to people who are partakers of the heavenly calling — that is all on the divine side. Every one who has remission of sins is entitled to go into the holiest. You have to learn the way in; you learn it in Christ. Christ has gone in; He has not only come out but He has gone in and that is the way we can go in.
Aaron and his sons all put their hands on the head of the bullock. That is the point of view in Hebrews; we are not sanctified by any process in ourselves, but in the death of Christ. He has gone in with His own blood; all the saints go in on the same ground. All are put on the ground on which Christ is; He has taken up ground which He was never on until He went through death. He has taken up with God sacrificial ground; that is the ground on which the whole priestly family can go in. It is what is effected by the will of God and the death of Christ.
Ques Is “all of one” His order?
CAC The fact that we are of His order is connected [p. 66] with the work of God in us, but there is something greater than that, namely, what has been effected on God’s part by Christ and through His death. Christ could go in to God on the ground of His own blood. Christ went in first and because He went in others could go in. It is illustrated by the thief. The Lord said, “Today shalt thou be with me in paradise”, Luke 23: 43. Jesus was going in and the thief could go in on the same ground, the value of His blood.
Rem No other ground could give holy liberty.
CAC Quite so. We do not let the light of this enter into our souls. This chapter speaks of being illuminated. The way in is dedicated. The way in is the point here; it is dedicated by His going in Himself. He took up flesh in order that through death He might go in to God. There is no expression of God’s purpose in Christ after the flesh. It is through death that He goes in; He goes through the veil by His own death. He took up flesh to make an exodus from the present state of things. He dedicated a way for us to go in. He came to this new condition. We must see the thing in Christ. In the Gospels the thought of the rent veil is God coming out; in Hebrews the veil is clearly connected with going in.
Rem It has been said that there is no rent veil in Hebrews.
CAC Yes, but you have to see the idea that Christ has dedicated a new and living way in. That way in is opened up for every one of us, old and young; whatever we are, there is only that one way.
Ques What is the thought of the living way?
CAC It is the contrast with the old dead system of things. If He goes through death He leaves behind all that is old and dead and He goes in as Priest representing a great company.
Ques Is the first part objective and the second [p. 67] part subjective?
CAC We get the opening up of the way first and then, “Let us approach”. If you see the love of God in the opening up of the way you want to go in, and that raises the question of state. You begin to move before you realise how necessary these things are.
Ques Is it the same as “I am the way”, John 14: 6?
CAC It is the same kind of thought. He is thinking of our coming to the Father. He is the great Priest over the house of God; this is a great objective and attractive reality. Everything that is objective in a divine Person is attractive to those who love God. A “true heart” means that we love God.
Ques What about a wicked conscience?
CAC You need to be liberated from that: your conscience is wicked when it keeps you away from God. Anything that keeps you from God is wicked; a good conscience would lead you to God. A wicked conscience is that character of conscience which makes a man run away from God. We all know that the conscience works that way in the natural man; it makes him shun God and keep out of His way. A man’s conscience makes him afraid of God: that is a wicked conscience. The conscience is a very important thing. I have said sometimes it is the most valuable thing you have now and yet it will be of no use to you in heaven.
Ques What is the meaning of “washed as to our body with pure water”?
CAC It is the death of Christ applied morally. Whatever came under judgment judicially in the blood has to go morally by the water. This epistle speaks of the blood of sprinkling.
Ques Is there any thought of the laver?
CAC This whole scripture is an allusion to the consecration of the priests.
[p. 68] Ques Would a sprinkled conscience be additional to a purged conscience?
CAC Here the affections are brought under the blessedness of the sprinkling, so you are liberated in your affections from a wicked conscience that would hold you away from God. Sprinkling in Scripture is a greater thought than washing. The heart is sprinkled; the affections are liberated from that action of conscience that keeps you away from God.
If we could take in these great objective thoughts it would help us much, because the objective is always the greatest. What is true in Christ must be greater than what is true in me.
Think of His coming here in flesh to go to God on the ground that we might be there with Him as His brethren! He has dedicated the way by going Himself; that is a great and blessed reality. He is a great Priest. He is there in the full intelligence of the purpose and love of God in regard of the sanctified. He is Priest to attract us. All that is in the thought of God in regard to us is perfectly set forth in Christ. Am I attracted by seeing the blessedness in which Christ is as Man? He can have the sanctified ones with Himself. He is Priest over the house of God; He brings God’s thoughts to bear in regard to the whole house. If we realised this, how intelligently we should take part when we come together!
Who understands the ark, the mercy-seat, Aaron’s rod that budded and the tables of the covenant as Christ does?
He is calling us to come where these things are perfectly understood. That is the holiest; you come where the thoughts of God are understood perfectly by Christ. See what a gain it is to have such a Priest to maintain everything in its fulness. He understands sonship, His brethren and so on. He understands them all, and if I get near to Him I shall understand too. It says, “Let us approach”.
[p. 69] Things are vague to us because the greatest realities are in the holiest and we know so little of it. The Lord calls us to follow Him through death; none of these things can be learned from Christ after the flesh; there was no new and living way in the days of His flesh. He says, “I have a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened until it shall have been accomplished!” Luke 12: 50. All the purposes of God for men were hidden while Christ was here after the flesh.
This epistle emphasises the thought of greatness. God Himself is called “the greatness”, Hebrews 1: 3. Christ is a great Priest; He causes the thoughts of God to dominate over the house of God, so God is served acceptably and according to His pleasure.
Ques What is the meaning of “Which the Lord has pitched”, Hebrews 8: 2?
CAC He pitched it as having come through death and having set up the divine system with every detail perfect to God. Things are set right. The tabernacle is the thought of a dwelling where God dwells among men and where He can be approached and His most intimate thoughts can be known. If we think for a moment of the prodigal; when he got to his father’s house and sat at table my impression is that he had very little to say. In the holiest you do not say a word; you do not speak; you are there to learn. The prodigal would have drunk in the divine pleasure and divine thoughts. In the holiest we come to take it all in. You are silent in the holiest in order that you might have something to say in the assembly. If what we said in the assembly was the result of what we had learnt in the holiest it would be worth listening to.
It is a great thing to apprehend christianity as a system of perfection without a flaw. There is no flaw in the covenant nor in the Mediator; there is not a flaw in the [p. 70] system. It is a great thing to understand the system we belong to.
Ques Is this the normal result of what is priestly?
CAC Yes. The disposition of God as known in the covenant means the way He has disposed of things. God’s disposition of things reveals His heart. A man’s will is how he appoints things to be done. How has God disposed of things? He is going to bring many sons to glory, that is how He disposes of things. He begs us all to approach, “Let us approach”. Well, if we want to approach that raises moral questions, the state of our conscience, heart and body even. If I do approach God everything must be suitable. A worldly man could not approach God. If people are converted to God they love God and would like to have as much to do with God as possible. The nearer we get to God the better off we are.
JBS used to tell of one who had a dream. He dreamt he was visiting the king’s palace. At the gateway he was received with courtesy; at the door he was received with greater pomp, and as he visited various rooms his reception was always greater than the last, until finally he came to the throne-room where he was received with acclamation! I think that just illustrates what we are speaking of — how wonderfully benefited we are the nearer we get to God.
Ques Would the body being washed be our associations?
CAC It would be outward purity. We are to be marked outwardly with the purity that belongs to priests. Do people recognise that we are priests? There should be a purity about us as having to do with God. Are we walking about as priests?