HEBREWS 10 (THIRD READING)
[p. 71] HEBREWS 10 (THIRD READING)
CAC It is a great thing ever to keep before us that the will of God takes effect in all the value of the death of Christ. The will of God in its full sense and import is not something that remains to be done but something which is absolutely and eternally secured in the value of the death of Christ. To see that is very establishing and liberating. If we are thinking of the will of God we are not thinking of ourselves.
Ques Would the perfecting of this will indicate that the full light of this dispensation has come in?
CAC It comes in for persons who need establishing in the truth of it. The Hebrews are addressed as persons who had become dull of hearing and persons slow to enter into divine realities, so we can all come in. The youngest, feeblest and dullest of us can come in to the great and precious truth concerning Christ and His death and the will of God secured by Him through death. It makes no demand on us. It is all depicted by one act; nothing can be added to sanctification by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. People think of sanctification as a process carried on in themselves, but sanctification is effected by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Ques It is effected once and for all, and yet there is the practical side of it, is there not?
CAC Yes, very practical. If I take in that by God’s will I am part of a company sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ; what I am sanctified from and what I am sanctified to I need to understand.
Ques We get in John 17, “Sanctify them by the truth”. Would that apply to [p. 72] believers generally?
CAC Yes. The truth is what has been effected by God’s will and by Christ’s death; that truth has to be brought home to us so that we stand in the good of it. The Lord says, “I sanctify myself for them”. The Son of the Father sanctified Himself — He took a place apart from this world and from sin and death; that is the measure of our sanctification. It is the truth that sanctifies us, nothing is so sanctifying as the truth.
Ques Are we set apart in Hebrews for the service of God?
CAC That is the idea; we are sanctified — set apart — for the holy service. It is done once for all. It was an accomplished thing and was never repeated. It was effected nineteen hundred years ago.
Rem The present system that is set up of men is very damaging to souls and to the effect of this.
CAC Yes. The whole company of saints are viewed as sanctified by God’s will, and the offering of the body of Jesus Christ has effected the whole extent of God’s will. So the sanctified are perfected, “By one offering he has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified” (verse 14). In verse 10 we read, “by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. This is a divine reality, and then we read that by one offering He has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified. All this is designed to give us a profound sense of the greatness of the death of Christ. God would have us to think much more of it than we do.
Ques Does this verse that we are thinking of bring in the divine thought that is brought in in Christ?
CAC Yes. These people were in the babe state. Hebrews is a child’s book, it is for spiritual infancy. Christ and His death and its amazing results are for you to look at and bow to and worship. The youngest babe in Christ can contemplate it.
[p. 73] Rem The Spirit of God calls attention to “this Man”, Hebrews 10: 12, (Authorised Version).
CAC Yes, in contrast to the multitude of sacrifices that never took away sin. Now an effectual sacrifice has been offered and sins are all put away. The saints are perfected in perpetuity — the thing stands. We may realise it one day and not realise it another day, but the thing stands whether we realise it or not. No question of sin can be raised any more.
Rem Where He has gone He has set Himself down for ever.
CAC Which shews He is a divine Person. Having accomplished this wonderful sacrifice He has set Himself down, so the sins of the sanctified are eternally settled. The question of sins cannot be raised again either by God who never remembers them any more, or by the devil. This is the character of the speaking; it speaks of the sacrifice which removed the sins of the sanctified eternally. They are sanctified in perpetuity.
Rem Even the high priest on the day of atonement could not do this.
CAC No; there is no type of this, although Psalm 110 is prophetic of it.
In the case of the Hebrews they were under the influence of the system they had been in. The system was judaism; they had been under that influence and they were thus kept in a state of babyhood. We are surrounded by the influence of the corrupted profession of christianity and the thoughts in men’s minds which are not divine thoughts at all. That will keep those who are under that system in babyhood.
Rem Paul is an extraordinary model of one who, although connected with an earthly religion, yet came into liberty in what came in in Christ.
CAC Yes. It is liberating and there is need that we [p. 74] should take it in. Everything that could have hindered us from taking up the service of the holiest has been removed in the sacrifice of Christ. That stands for God and it stands for faith. The thing is not to take up anything that is contrary to what stands for God.
Ques You have spoken of God’s will and the offering of Jesus Christ; is that why the Spirit is brought in in verse 15?
CAC Yes; he brings in the witness of the Spirit; that is the subject here. In Jeremiah the Spirit had given a certain witness and that abides as a living witness. What God said as to the new covenant — putting it in their hearts and minds and not remembering their sins any more — is the present witness to us.
Ques What is the right hand of God spoken of in verse 12?
CAC The settlement of every moral question. He has so settled it that He can take up the most favourable position towards God. Our sins are gone and are never to be remembered any more.
Ques Is it mostly sins in Hebrews?
CAC Yes, He takes up the question of sins because He is dealing with the thing practically. If the sins are gone the man is gone too. If the sins are gone by means of death, death is the end of the man that sinned; so dealing with sins involves the setting aside of the man. The epistle to the Hebrews looks at it thus; as a man in the flesh there is nothing attached to me but sin. If that is so, and the sins are disposed of, I am disposed of too because I have never done anything but sin as a man in the flesh. We have to come to it that as children of Adam we have never done anything else but sin, so nothing but sin is connected with us. If the sins are removed the man is gone that is connected with the sins.
The sense of the value of the sacrifice is most important [p. 75] and gives liberty for this extraordinary proposal. It is proposed that we should go into the holiest; that is a most amazing thing; there is no type of that in the Old Testament, and no promise of it either.
Ques Has He not dealt with the sins of the present time?
CAC The range of this scripture is the sanctified — persons marked off, God’s called ones — called of God and sanctified in the death of Jesus Christ by God’s will. This scripture applies to them.
Ques Have we to work out the practical result in our localities?
CAC We must keep before us that the theme is the service of God. How many souls in this locality are liberated in soul for the service of God? There are two parts in service, the service of the altar and the service of the holiest. Those are the two great parts of priestly service.
Ques Would you go into it a little for us?
CAC I am thinking of Numbers 18: 7. Jehovah says to Aaron, “Thou and thy sons with thee shall attend to your priesthood for all that concerneth the altar, and for that which is inside the veil; and ye shall perform the service: I give you your priesthood as a service of gift”. That defines these two branches of priestly service — that which concerns the altar and that within the veil. What was in the mind of God was the present time; it is only now that there has been any service rendered within the veil.
Our brother was asking as to the two kinds of service. We have the altar first. The gifts and offerings concern the altar. That is the external part; the altar is outside in the court of the tabernacle; the altar has to do with what takes place publicly. The thought of offering is not prominent in Hebrews because the object of the Spirit is to furnish us with something to offer. “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of the lips confessing his name” Hebrews 13: 15. That is altar-wards;
it is public. “We have an altar”: there it is the priestly part going along with Numbers 18 where the priestly eating is the great subject. If we had more offerings we should have more to eat.
Ques Does the altar bring in service?
CAC Yes, priestly service. The Levites helped but the offering is priestly.
Ques Is the holiest worship?
CAC Scripture intimates that there is a service inside the veil which is part of the priestly service and must not be neglected. There is a tendency with us to think more of the altar service than of the service within the veil, but that is not right.
Ques What is the character of the service within the veil?
CAC It seems to me that it is the concern of the writer of this epistle to get us to go there. “Having... boldness for entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus... through the veil... let us approach”, Hebrews 10: 19 - 22. It is as if to say, try it, try this unheard-of thing. If we get inside we shall know what to do when we get there. We get the service of the altar in detail in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, but we have no detail of the service that is within the veil. You are at liberty to go in, but you must go in in a certain condition. If you go in in that condition, you will know what to do when you get there. We know more of the altar service than of that within the veil. There is not a hint in either the Old or New Testament as to what the service within the veil is.
Ques Would you regard the service within the veil in Numbers 18 the same as on the day of atonement?
CAC I had an impression that it did not refer to the service of the day of atonement because that is no part of normal priestly service. Aaron had to disrobe to do the service of the day of atonement; it was the basis of all the [p. 77] service, no doubt. The service of priesthood, of the altar and within the veil, in Numbers 18 has no reference to the day of atonement; it refers to an everlasting statute. What is perpetuated is the service of the altar and the service within the veil. It must have been astounding to pious Jews to whom this epistle is written to think of going within the veil. Yet the veil which was formerly a barrier is now the very thing that attracts.
We ought to get more words from the Lord; it is a sorrow that we get so little from Him. In Numbers 7 Moses speaks to God and God to him, and then Moses speaks again to God. So in the morning meeting if we speak to God He responds, He gives a word through a prepared vessel. The effect of this is that there is more speaking from God to us and from us to God. Christ takes His place in the midst of the assembly; He comes in as Head to sing the praises. It is wonderful, He takes a place on our side.
The service within the veil would make us more wealthy than the service of the altar because you go to the immediate presence of God! What an effect that would have on our whole spirits, souls and minds! We would be saturated with thoughts of divine love; we would come out to the service of the altar — to what is public — and what a power there would be for the service of the altar. The same things might be said but what a freshness and unction there would be in the offering! The point here is to see the amazing efficacy of the death of Christ. If we pondered the way of liberty, the nature of it secured by the death of Christ, it would set us free for the wonderful intimate approach to God. The public side depends largely on whether in private we know what it is to approach in the holiest.