CHRIST AS LEADER. PRIEST AND FORERUNNER
P. L. Johnson
Hebrews 1: 1–8; 2: 11–13; 4: 14–16; 6: 17–20
We have had before us God’s thought concerning man and it is centred in Christ. I was thinking of the greatness of this One who is the subject and object of all of God’s purposes and counsels, the One who is not only chief in the Father’s heart, but as we have in the hymn (No. 152), chief in our hearts too. He is the One who has become everything to us. I read these verses in the first chapter of Hebrews, not to go into all the detail, but to bring before us the greatness of the Person of Christ. In chapter 7 the writer says in regard to Melchisedec, “consider how great this personage was” (Hebrews 7: 4). He is a type of Christ, this great Person. I am thinking of the greatness of this One as our Leader. We have considered Him as the Leader, “bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2: 10); and He is the Leader now in the sanctuary. Then we have the greatness of this Person as our Priest, the Priest for us in the wilderness; and then as our Forerunner, the One who has entered into the glory as our Forerunner. It all hinges on the greatness of His Person and the greatness of Himself as Speaker. God had spoken in various ways in days past but has now spoken in Son. The greatness of the Speaker here is God Himself speaking in this way, in Son.
Then we have the greatness of His work, “having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down”. What a statement that is regarding this One who could “set himself down”.
Certainly that would speak of One who had a right and title to do so. Here He is not invited to sit down. Elsewhere it says, “Sit at my right hand” (Hebrews 1: 13), but here the emphasis is on the greatness of His Person. He is great enough to “set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”. The expressions ‘great’, ‘greatness’, or ‘great things’, are frequently found in Hebrews. I thought that we need to have our thoughts and our spirits elevated. We are so conscious of weakness, and we should be. We would ever carry with us the sense of weakness, as we had recently, that Jacob carried with him the sense of his weakness. But at the same time we should be impressed with the greatness of divine things and divine Persons, and the greatness of what is available to us. The writer, in the beginning of this epistle, seeks to impress upon these Hebrew believers the greatness of what they have been brought into. It all is in connection with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that the greatness of His Person is established first. We have the greatness of Christ Himself, the work that He has accomplished, the place He has taken in sonship, the place He has in deity, “Thy throne, O God”. Think of a statement like that being made to this One who took up the position of sonship, “Thou art my Son—this day have I begotten thee”. This would give Him His link with us in manhood as coming into flesh and blood condition where we were, but apart from sin. This One was none other than God Himself, the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe. It could be said to none other than He, “Thy throne, O God”.
We have had much before us in regard to the manhood of the Lord Jesus, but we ever want to keep before us the glory of His Person, that He is God, the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe. He is the One by whom the worlds were made. Think of His coming into this scene to accomplish the great work of atonement! Who else but One such as He could do that? No mortal man could ever have accomplished what the Lord Jesus did. The epistle to the Hebrews shows that all things which went before Him were shadows. Only this One could make purification for sins; so complete is the work and so final that He sits down. Of old, in the service of God there was no seat available for the priest to sit down in the holy place, but here is One who takes His seat as having finished everything, bringing all to finality. Thus He takes this place at the right hand of the greatness on high.
But I was thinking of three ways in which this great Personage is on our behalf; that is as Leader, High Priest and Forerunner. We touched on this in our reading this morning in Hebrews 2, that He is “the leader of their salvation” in bringing many sons to glory (Hebrews 2: 10). A leader needs to be qualified. I think it implies that as Leader He is One who has been in the path Himself, and so He is well qualified to lead us all along the way. I think that is the thought of “the leader of their salvation”. Salvation, in this verse, is looking onward to our final place in the glory. It is what we are being brought to; the many sons being brought to glory. This One, who is our Leader, is well qualified; He has been here. We see later on in Hebrews, that He is well qualified to be our Priest, to succour us here in the path, but He is also qualified as our Leader in the path. He has been all the way and He is now in the glory; but He was in the path that led to that glory so He knows how to lead us all along the way. You might say, He is familiar with the pathway. What a great Leader He is! He will bring us, the many sons, to glory.
Meanwhile He takes the place in the midst of His own as Leader, “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. I was thinking that this is the way in which we can know His leadership at the present time. We are privileged, I would say, every Lord’s day to experience the Lord coming in as the Leader of our praises. He is not ashamed to call us brethren. So even while we are here in these bodies of weakness and humiliation, and as pilgrims and strangers as far as our place in this world is concerned, we have this great privilege of being with Him as His brethren, and He Himself as the Leader of our praises, the Leader in the sanctuary. It is a great privilege at the present time which we should ever appreciate more and more. I am sure that many can testify to the fact that they appreciate more and more the great privilege we have in the service of God. Not only giving the Lord Jesus His rightful place in worship, but joining with Him as being the Leader in the sanctuary as it is said, “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. He is with His brethren, those who are associated with Him now, those who are with Him in the place of sonship, those who are being led on to the glory by their Leader. What a wonderful Leader we have in this beloved One!
I was thinking of the way in which we have in Hebrews 4 Jesus as our great High Priest. You notice how often in Hebrews He is spoken of as Jesus. That name would bring before us the One who was here in lowliness and meekness, One who was here in love and sympathy for man, and here in devotedness, obedience and subjection to God. It brings before us that perfect Man, Jesus, “Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens”. Think of a Man passing through the heavens! Elsewhere it says He is become higher than the heavens (Hebrews 7: 26), but He has passed through the heavens. This One who was here, having come into this scene, passed through it, and now He has passed through the heavens. It seems to me that all of this would indicate, or would impress upon us, how perfectly qualified He is to be our great High Priest and to help us as we pass through this wilderness. Although we have the privilege in the sanctuary, in the service of God, to know His leading and to join with Him in the midst of the assembly, we are still here in wilderness conditions. We are here in this world which is the place of Satan’s power and domain. He is the god of this world. We are still in bodies of weakness and humiliation. This world is the place of testings, trials and sorrow, and all of these features are experienced by those of the assembly. How great that it says, “Having therefore a great high priest”, again emphasising the greatness of this One. He is so great that He could pass right through the heavens into the glory of God. Thus we are encouraged to “hold fast the confession. For we have not a high priest not able to sympathise with our infirmities”.
I trust we all know that the term ‘infirmities’ does not refer to sinful things. If it is a matter of sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, not a priest. It is a wonderful thing that we have the Lord Jesus as our Advocate because we must own that while we have been redeemed, cleansed, justified, all wonderful results of the work of Christ, we may still fail and sin. But we have an Advocate with the Father, “Jesus Christ the righteous”, 1 John 2: 1. We need to avail ourselves of this service, knowing that He is there, so as to maintain us in our relationship with the Father, even though we might sin. I do not wish to appear to be making light of sin. In a sense we hesitate to say, ‘if we sin’, because it is God’s mind that we should not sin, but the relationship that we have with God as our Father remains. He is our Advocate with the Father, so that the relationship is not broken. I say this for the help of some younger ones to whom Satan comes and puts doubts into their minds and hearts. They are true believers on the Lord Jesus; they love Christ; they know the Lord Jesus as Saviour, but they find that there is still sinful flesh within. Even though we are not in the flesh, the flesh is still in us, so that if the flesh acts it is sin. But the relationship remains as our Advocate is with the Father, so that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”, 1 John 1: 9. This is not cleansing by blood, which is once for all, but cleansing as to our conscience, so that everything is removed that would hinder communion with the Father.
But priesthood is in view of wilderness conditions in the world that has departed from God and is under Satan’s power, and would extend to the infirmities of our mortal bodies. We know how that the Lord entered in sympathetically to those who suffered in a bodily way. He wept at the tomb of Lazarus. So that these things would touch our hearts, seeing He is able to, and does, sympathise with our infirmities. We read that He was “tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart”. The Lord knows what it is to be here in this world. He knows the power of Satan as it was arrayed against Him. He knows all that goes on in this world. He has been through it and He is able to sympathise. So we are to “approach therefore with boldness to the throne of grace”. Here it is” the throne of grace”, and we read that “he gives more grace”, James 4: 6. We have the expression “grace upon grace” (John 1: 16), and here it is “that we may receive mercy, and find grace for seasonable help”. Whatever our circumstances as we pass through this scene, we can count upon the sympathy of our great High Priest.
It is marvellous to look at the world about us and to realise that the Lord. Jesus was in this very world. Someone might say that it was not the modern world that we have today; but it was the world of man, a world of sin and sorrow, a world of opposition and animosity to God. The same moral features of today were there. You do not have to have all the modern inventions to have a world of evil. The Lord has been here; He knows what it is to be here in this world and to move through this scene in the circumstances of life. Thus He is sympathetic and we can come to Him for mercy. I think here, when the scripture speaks about receiving mercy, it has to do with our circumstances. The Lord wants us to come to Him, to bring our circumstances to Him, and speak to Him about them, whatever they are. That is the way I take this, approaching “with boldness to the throne of grace, that we might receive mercy”. He is sympathetic as He has entered into it all Himself, having passed through this scene. He is a great High Priest. Think of that word ‘great’. How qualified He is! Someone may speak about certain things, and you may think. Well now, has he ever been in those circumstances? You think he is not really qualified to say too much about the matter because he has never been in such circumstances. But here is One who has been in this world. He has met and defeated the enemy, He has gone through this scene in perfection. He is qualified, He is a great High Priest. Think of the greatness of this One. He does indeed sympathise with our infirmities. We are still here in this world and we have infirmities, but He is able to sympathise as we bring all our circumstances to Him.
I have thought too in regard to the Lord as our Forerunner. He is One who sustains us in the wilderness as our great High Priest, but as Forerunner He is in connection with God’s purpose. It says, “God, willing to shew more abundantly ... the unchangeableness of his purpose, intervened by an oath, that by two unchangeable things”. God’s word, how sure it is! We know that all of God’s thoughts and purposes are going to be carried out. Job said,
“Thou canst be hindered in no thought of thine” (Job 42: 2). What a wonderful expression! He cannot be hindered in all that He is going to accomplish. As God He is able, and He has given His word. Then it says, “in which it was impossible that God should lie”. He has given us His word in regard to the great thought He has for us to be in the glory. It is only a little while that we are here. We are just passing through this scene, it is the glory that is before us; that is God’s great thought for us. And so it reads, “where Jesus is entered as forerunner”. We read elsewhere that He ever lives to make intercession (Hebrews 7: 25). He has entered heaven in various ways; He has entered heaven as having accomplished the work that God gave Him to do; He has gone up on high to be our Priest, to sustain us; but here He has entered into the glory as our Forerunner.
In our Forerunner we have the assurance that the path we are on is the path that leads to the glory. It is the path that leads to that place where He has entered. The Forerunner, I take it, would be the One who marks out the path; He is the One who has run the path before us. We see in our Forerunner where the path ends. I would say to the younger ones, as to the path which you have taken up in faith in the Lord Jesus, and with those that love the Lord Jesus, that you go on in it. That pathway is the pathway that goes on to the glory above. Our Forerunner has entered there. He is there as our Forerunner, so that we know the end of the pathway. It is not something that we follow in a blind sort of way, but we have One who has gone all the way and He is in the glory as our Forerunner, even Jesus. Again we have that name, “where Jesus is entered”. It is not His official glories as Lord, and as the Christ, but Jesus. How touching this is! How this makes us feel the nearness of this One who is there in the glory as our Forerunner!
This would lift up our hearts. There is so much to bring our spirits down in these days. We feel our weakness, we feel our fewness, we feel the scattering. We have our part in the things that are common to all saints, and even what is common to man in this world. We need to have our thoughts and our minds and our hearts elevated to look up into the glory where our Forerunner has entered, and know that the glory belongs to us, and that He is coming again, as He says, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”, John 14: 3.
Now this One is great enough to do all of this. We can depend on Him, this One who is God Himself, who has come into manhood. He is capable and qualified to do everything that He undertakes. He undertakes to be our Leader; He undertakes to be our great High Priest; He is our Forerunner. He will not fail us in any way. He will carry everything through, and we can count upon this and we can be encouraged. May our hearts be drawn out afresh to Him, and be comforted too, as well as cheered in these days. May we be helped in entering into the great thoughts of God for man, and the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. May God bless His word.
Address at Barnet
15 October 1994