WHAT IS BETTER AND ETERNAL
J. D. Newberry
I was encouraged, beloved brethren, to read these scriptures as our brother spoke of going forth; it is a great thing to have come to. Here it speaks of good things and better things; as has been said, taking account of Moses, it must have cost something for the people to go forth to him without the camp, and it is after that that it speaks of the “tabernacle of the testimony”; it became a testimony. It becomes a test for us, but then it is a testimony, it is a public matter.
Here it says, “But Christ being come high priest of the good things to come, by the better and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand”. That is that the greatness of Christianity is this, that He has taken away the first in order that He may establish the second. It surely should affect us as to how He has done it; it says it is not by the blood of goats and calves, “but by his own blood”. Think of it—“but by his own blood, has entered in once for all into the holy of holies”. With regard to the priest of old, as our brother has said, he could only go in once a year and that not without blood; but here, because of what has been secured by one blessed Man, we can go in at any time. Paul says, “Having, therefore, brethren, boldness for
entering into the holy of holies” (Hebrews 10: 19); there are no limitations, you can go in at any time, no matter what circumstances may arise, or where we are, you can just draw into your own closet, as it were, and get down before the Lord and get a sense of what it is just to be in the holy of holies.
What I had in mind is what we have been brought into. It speaks of “the good things to come”, then of what is “better”, and then of what is “eternal”. It speaks of “an eternal redemption”, then it speaks of “the eternal Spirit”; then it speaks further on of the “eternal inheritance”. What system in this world could present such things to us? I think the Spirit of God would help us tonight just to get a sense of His “having found an eternal redemption”.
Nobody can raise a question, nobody can point an accusing finger at us; everything has been secured in Christ and by Christ. Then think of Him “who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”. It reminds you of the perfection of Christ here in manhood, a blessed Man in holy perfection and holy dependence. It is said of Him, just as He was going into His public service, that He was “carried up into the wilderness by the Spirit” (Matthew 4: 1), and here, at the end of His service, “who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”.
Well, what has He secured? He has secured the new covenant. We know that Israel will come into it in a day to come, but I think the Spirit would give us a sense and an experience of it at the present time. So we become worshippers.
In earlier times no one has had worship in the sense that we have it at the present time; because of where Christ is the blessed Spirit has come, so we have the sense of being brought in as having been purified, our conscience purified from dead works to worship. A worshipper is not occupied with himself and his circumstances but has his eyes fixed on
Christ and on God. So the great thing is that we get a sense of what we have been brought into. What we have been brought into is connected with what is eternal. It is not connected with time and what is marked by sight. What is marked by time are the sorrows of the testimony—and who does not feel them? But I think the blessed Spirit would serve us at the present time that we might get a sense in our souls of what is eternal.
This “eternal inheritance” is not in natural things. We normally only come into an inheritance after a person dies; this inheritance is a fact because Christ has died and is where He is, and the blessed Spirit has come. The saints are to have a conscious sense of having the love of God in their hearts, and thus come into all this. The great end, as our brother said, would be that He may have a greater place in our hearts and affections, that we might be more devoted and that there may be a fuller response to Christ, because it is through Christ and by one Spirit that we have access to the Father. But the great end is this, that God might have His portion as it says, “to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages, Amen”, Ephesians 3: 21. Well, may the Lord help us and encourage us, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Christchurch, N.Z., 4 October 1983
(The two other words given on this occasion were printed in the April issue).