THE WILL OF GOD
[p. 14] THE WILL OF GOD
We cannot understand christianity until we see the kind of Man Christ was as taking human form here under God’s eye. We have to see this before we can understand aright what christianity is: and this passage, it seems to me, would suggest what He was. His thought in becoming Man was to do God’s will: “Lo, I come ... to do thy will, O God”, He says, “a body hast thou prepared me”. He answered in every way to God. He, in carrying out God’s will, established a title to live down here, and not only so, but having established that, He becomes the sacrifice. Having established a title to live, and that publicly, He is eligible, or qualified to take man’s place as sacrifice. All the perfection of Christ comes out under the eye of God. In the burnt — offering the more the light shone in, the more His perfection shone out. It is not so with us. “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. Hebrews 4:12 The word of God, turned in on us, discloses something very different from what was in Christ. The inner springs of Christ were all active Godward.
We see the order of man which is to remain in the presence of God, and we are to be formed after the will of God. When we think of man, we must go back to the garden of Eden. The moment the Lord appeared as Man here, every thought connected with man came into evidence. The problem to be solved was, Can this Man justify God in regard to every thought of God for man? The problem was infinitely solved in Christ’s walk here, so that we see Him as Man in perfection before God, in the midst of lawlessness and corruption, answering to the mind of God. That is man according to God. Christ is to do God’s pleasure and bring in a new race — a race with the law of God written in their minds and hearts, knowing forgiveness by the Spirit. In the Lord’s birth we have the announcement, “good pleasure in men”, Luke 2:14 indicating that it was a race God had in mind. The Lord sets it all forth in His own Person, and then removes the man who offended, and, in doing so, brings in a race or order of man according to God’s pleasure. That indicates our position, so that on the one hand we have, “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all”. That is, sanctification is in the death of Christ, involving the removal of the lawless man; then it goes on in verse 15, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us”. Man is retained before God, so that God’s thought might be effectuated. We have the ministry of the Spirit; a ministry which forms man after Christ. In the old economy the sacrifice was inferior to the priest; in christianity they are equal. Necessarily the priest was superior to the offering, as the latter was a mere creature; now the Offerer and the Offering are equal. The Lord has brought in a new order of man. He has retained man before God; then the Spirit comes in, so that there is the ministry to secure God’s end.
The Spirit is a witness to us that our sins and iniquities God will remember no more. In christianity there is even more than the writing of the law on the heart; we are the epistle of Christ. The saints are to be a transcript of Christ — His letter. We delight in God’s will; instead of its being a burden to us, it is a delight. An order of man is brought out like Christ. We are in accord with the death of Christ, as regards the removal of the man. Fellowship [p. 16] involves that. We put forth our hand. No one can partake of the Supper for another. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ”. We commit ourselves to it, and if so, we are transcripts of Christ, so that we fill out the rest of our time to God’s will. There is great testimony in that to God. If we accept that, we are here in order that God would secure His thoughts in us, pending the establishment of things publicly, and there is a testimony to the order of man that God intends to retain before Him, and that here where sin reigns. The apostle describes it in Romans 8, “that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us…” Romans 8:4 That is a testimony for God, because it was what God intended in the world. He intended that Israel should walk in His will, so christianity takes the place of Israel, and the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us. God intended to secure something in Adam and that failed; and something in Israel, and that failed. “They like Adam have transgressed the covenant”, Hosea 6:7. Christ takes it up and maintains it, and that is to be continued; nothing else will do for God.
This epistle is intended to establish in the assembly what is set forth in Christ in the gospels. The covenant is “I will”. In general, Hebrews is not type and antitype, it is a book of contrasts; so when the types are alluded to, it is what they were literally. The will of God is the principle on which the new order of man will be brought in. The disciples felt in the Lord’s presence that they did not know how to pray. What constitutes a man great is the way he acts in the presence of light. If there is an accession of light, how are we to act, how are we to be affected? The disciples were properly affected. “Teach us to pray”, they say Luke 11:1. That is a right desire so the Lord says, “When ye pray, say, Father, thy name be hallowed; thy kingdom come”. All His instruction [p. 17] was on that principle, that His disciples might be established here in the will of God.
The will of God is a large subject. It is good to recognise it as a principle. The teaching of Romans 12 is that we might prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We are to prove it. It takes the whole christian course to prove it. The first thing involved in its application to us is that our wills are set aside. Instead of bringing pleasure they cause grief every day to God. The Lord is always unique; in every way that we correspond, there is some distinctive mark as to the Lord. The law is put into our minds, but He came with it. It is a great victory to have a generation like that in a scene of confusion. That is the testimony. In the millennial state of things the law will be written in the heart of Israel. The assembly on high will be the vessel of glory; there is the shining of glory in the face of Jesus in the assembly. The heavens declare the glory of God, as the psalmist says; nothing on earth declares it in the same way. The Lord comes down, and brings that principle to earth — God’s will. Everything in heaven is moved in accord with God’s will; there is no deviation there — that is the idea of glory. Now the Lord brought that to earth; He brought to earth what governed heaven, makes a complete circuit, and goes back to heaven. Now that is reflected in the assembly. And then Israel will be formed after the law, so that God’s will is done on earth as in heaven. Now the testimony is all that, set forth in a contrary scene, witnessing to what will be seen publicly in the coming age. God’s will must be vindicated on earth; only thus can the idea of approach be introduced.
God’s will was in the Lord’s heart. The fact that He says, “Lo, I come”, shows that the disposition is there. It is the order of man. There are two things in Romans 8: the Spirit of Christ, referring to the [p. 18] order of man like Christ who is to continue on earth; and the Spirit of adoption, referring to what is in God’s heart. The Lord as Man was the glory of God here. The ministry of the Spirit is to make us equal to that. All that man is is out of accord with what God is. Christ is God’s glory, and the ministry of the Spirit is to bring us into accord with God’s standard, so “we all, looking on the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face, are transformed”. 2 Corinthians 3:18 In Romans 8 we see the Spirit of Christ, that is the Spirit of the Man; then the spirit of adoption is the Spirit of God’s Son.
The secret of approach is that we know God. One may love God, and not have the title to approach. They loved God in the Old Testament, but had not the title to approach that we have. The measure of our approach is the measure of the revelation; it is the measure of liberty accorded to us. With christians it is the place Christ has, nothing short of it. There is our measure, but what God grants is another matter. On our side it follows on the ministry of the Spirit. On His side it is a question of sovereign pleasure — what He wills. He is pleased to accord us the privilege, but it does not follow that, because we love God, we have title to approach; for the Old Testament saints had not the same privilege, though loving God. God determined privilege. He accords to us the privilege of entering the holiest, but we could not have it if He did not accord it to us. He is sovereign, and He discriminates. He accords to us the greatest privilege. God indicates His pleasure for us in that He has given Christ a place in heaven, as Man, as Forerunner. He went in, in Acts 1, but there was a cloud, there was no indication that the disciples were to go in. “Whom the heaven must receive”, Peter said, “until the times of restitution of all things”. Acts 3:21 “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out,
[p. 19] when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ”. But in Acts 7 the heavens are opened, and Stephen says, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” Acts 7:56 — there is indicated the mind of God for christians. “The heavens opened” — I read there the title, the mind of God for us at the present moment. God must determine the place of every family, for He is the Father of whom every family in heaven and earth is named. Christ’s place is our place now.
In the early part of Acts there is no idea of Christ being a Forerunner; He has gone into heaven, and to be concealed there, it would appear, until the time of restitution of all things; but in chapter 7 the heavens are opened, and that is the basis of christianity. The ground of the present dispensation is now laid in principle. Israel had the covenant, but we go further, we go within. Salvation will be when He comes out. In the early part of Acts we see the cities of refuge: “the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved”. Acts 2:47 In Hebrews the external assembly is not in itself salvation for us; we require to lay hold of the heavenly position for salvation. It is insisted on in Hebrews. So it is the book of the opened heavens. We have no timidity in approach. It is in contrast to the tabernacle, for “the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest”. Hebrews 9:8 It is “new” in contrast to the old; and “living” refers to the resurrection of Christ and the power of the Spirit in our hearts; so that, in approaching God, our affections are active. In the holiest we see the means by which God brings to pass universal blessing. We are in the secret of God; we see what Christ is as Man before God. The tables within the ark suggest Christ as doing God’s will. It is all a question of Christ, so that there we learn the secret of God. What a thing to be in the secret of God — to see the [p. 20] Man by whom He effects this glorious system, a Man who had the law in His heart! Our priesthood is determined by our relation to Christ. What a thing to have a company of people with a pure heart — like David’s mighty men! As we enter the holiest, we are in accord with it — we can lay our hand on the ark if we are formed according to it. Our exercises are in accord with the will of God.
In Hebrews we have not the assembly convened at all, except where it says, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is”. Hebrews shows the privileges that belong to christianity; we get light as to those, but we have no directions as to the assembly convened, so I take it that entering the holiest is a matter of our soul’s apprehension. The holiest was prominent in the wilderness. The sanctuary is a sanctified place set up; but with the holiest the idea is that there is nothing holier; hence it is the immediate presence of God. When God’s thought is brought to pass, everything is in accord with the ark.
We have to learn to recognise God’s will. The ark is the means by which God brings to pass every thought of His, and when this is accomplished, all is in accord with the ark, so that His will is done on earth as in heaven. David danced before the ark, it was his way of expressing his delight in the will of God. It is a grand thing to see the means by which God has brought to pass His thoughts — then all is in accord with the ark, so that Christ is the centre of everything. The ark is the expression of God’s will. Take a man in this city — obscure, unseen, and desiring to do God’s will — what a thing that is for God, what a delight to Him!