READING ON HEBREWS
READING ON HEBREWS
FER The thought in my mind is that there is one and the same way in which we enter into every blessing. There are many things presented to us in Scripture as blessings, for instance, forgiveness, salvation, reconciliation, eternal life, sonship, but we enter into them all in the same way. There are three steps marked out in this chapter; if you want to enter into any blessing the first thing is to find that it is in the mind of God; and the second is to see where it is established; the third is the witness of it. This must be invariably true. No blessing could reach us except it be in God’s mind; there must be a point where it is established, else it would be unreal, unsubstantial; and in the existing state of things we must have the witness of it, for you enter into the blessing and possess it practically by the witness. These three are quite intelligible principles. They appear in the early part of this chapter where we get the will of God, the work of Christ, and not only His work, but Himself sitting at the right hand of God; and the witness of the Spirit. I mention that to give you an idea of what was in my mind. If we claim to have a blessing, say sonship or eternal life, or anything else, we should be able to give an account of it. Where does it lie? How does it come to us? Where is it established? and how do we get the good of it? These are pertinent questions to raise in regard to anything.
JP It is not only then that we need to be intelligent about these things, but in the way you put it really you could not have them without intelligence.
FER No. The first thing in regard to anything and everything is to know that it lies in God’s will because it would be fruitless to talk about any blessing if we did not know that it lay in the mind of God.
[p. 35] JP And you think that is the thought of the expression, “The will of God”. It means all that lies in the mind of God for man.
FER That is it. We could have no title if we did not know that it lay in God’s mind for man.
WM And did Christ come to establish what was in God’s mind for man?
FER Exactly, that is the second great point. That there might be a point in which it is established; and being established we now get the witness of it, so that we can come into every blessing by the witness of the Spirit.
JSA It is quite certain that “every good gift ... is from above”, as James says.
FER Yes, “from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”.
WM Do you look upon it that no blessing can be possessed apart from the Spirit?
FER I think I would go as far as that. Test anything of which we are accustomed to speak and you will find what we have said will apply. Take the simplest possible truth, righteousness. The first principle in regard to forgiveness is that it lies in God’s mind. There it is that faith comes in, because faith apprehends what lies in the mind of God. You may take up any blessing, say reconciliation or eternal life, the first thing is the apprehension that that blessing lies in the mind of God.
JP So that it was a wonderful prayer on the part of the apostle, that the saints might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will.
FER Quite so, in all wisdom. In christianity we do not get material blessings, all are spiritual; and if they are such the point is that they lie in the mind of God, and we cannot say that we have them until we have the witness of them. The object of the gospel is to make known to man what is in the mind of God toward man; to open men’s eyes, that is, to undeceive people, “that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of [p. 36] Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”. That was the commission which the Lord gave to Saul. It was making known that forgiveness of sins and inheritance were in the mind of God towards man, that is what the preacher does. He himself has an entrance into the mind of God and he can proclaim to anybody and everybody what is there.
WM What a man believes is true for everybody.
FER Quite so.
JP When you speak of what lies in the mind of God for man, you are not speaking of any particular class of people, it is man as such.
FER For man in the widest sense.
JP Supposing I mention reconciliation to you, what would you produce in the Scriptures?
FER Very well, reconciliation is in God’s mind for man. The apostle went about beseeching men to be reconciled to God, preaching the word of reconciliation; because reconciliation lay in the mind of God the apostle could preach it. I take a stronger case, viz., sonship; it was the point of the apostle’s preaching to the gentiles. God revealed His Son in him that he might preach Him as glad tidings among the gentiles. What the apostle made known to the gentiles was that sonship was in the mind of God with regard to men.
JP If he preached the Son of God, that involves sonship, does it not?
FER Yes. “When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (sonship)”. That is what the apostle had proclaimed in Galatia, that is, to gentiles. Take salvation, “God ... will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth”. Salvation is in the mind of God toward man everywhere.
WM Suppose you take eternal life.
FER Yes. “For God so loved the world, that he [p. 37] gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.
JP That is big enough.
FER Exactly. You could not produce anything, but the first principle of it is that it lies in God’s mind for all men.
GWH And is the second point, that it is all established in Christ?
FER That is of vital moment, all would be indefinite if there were not some point at which all these blessings were established. In Old Testament times now and again God gave glimpses of what lay in His mind, not very clear, for there was no point at which anything was established; that was what marked Old Testament times.
JP It makes a very wonderful thing of incarnation.
FER Very. Now we come to the will of God, and there is a point at which every blessing in God’s mind is established.
JSA And that point is necessarily a man if it is to be available for man.
FER Quite so.
WM Do you mean that every blessing in the mind of God is for all men?
FER Quite so. “God will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth”.
JP And the point of disclosure is the point of establishment. It is all come out in Christ and it is all established in Christ. It is really very wonderful to me because it is brought within the range of our apprehension.
FER All is definite and substantial. That is the force of the expression, “I come to do thy will, O God”. It is virtually saying, I am coming to be the point where everything in the will of God is to be established, and the close of the passage is, that He is at the right hand of God, “From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool”.
GWH This was all secured in [p. 38] His death, I suppose.
FER Everything had to be secured through His death, but the point is that it is secured in Himself; that is, He is the point where everything is established and secured.
JSA It was really all there in Him before His death, but His death was necessary to make it available for us.
FER Exactly.
WM Therefore you speak of all blessings as being in Christ.
FER Every blessing must be in God’s mind, else you have no title, but then it is in God’s mind for any man; the christian has no more title in that sense than anybody else. I do not think people quite understand that. Christians think they have a kind of exclusive title. There is a good deal of Calvinism abroad. I do not accept it. I do not think the christian has any more title than any other man.
LTD Would you say it was accessible for all men?
FER For all men, because God has only one mind in regard of men.
LTD And would you say it was consequent on Christ having done the will of God?
FER Yes, but also on Christ having become man; He is the head of every man, and whatever is secured and established in Christ is available and accessible to every man.
GWH The difference being that the christian has availed himself of it and the man of the world has not.
JSA He was not a christian until he had availed himself of it, until then he was on the same ground as everybody else.
WM He only apprehended what was in the mind of God for every man.
JP If that were not so you would be mightily cramped in trying to preach the gospel.
FER To my mind it is a wonderful thing that the mind of God in regard to man is disclosed, and as Mr. P. was saying it is made known at the very point where it is [p. 39] established, and established at the very point where it is made known.
JP The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared.
WM What do you mean by saying it is established at the very point where it was made known?
FER That is, in Christ.
WM It is all established by redemption.
FER Through that, it is a very great point to remember that all these things are established in Christ, “through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”.
JSA I think it is important to see that it is established before it is available.
FER Yes; for instance, you could not get such a thing as sonship simply through redemption. You might get forgiveness, but not sonship. You could not understand it.
JP Because redemption has to say to the liabilities under which men were, but sonship lies outside of that.
FER Exactly, so too salvation. Salvation must be in a Man. I cannot understand it otherwise. I could not understand sonship apart from Christ. How do you know anything at all about sonship to God except in Christ? So too eternal life, how can you understand it except in Christ? Everything would be vague and indefinite if it were not established in Christ. “I come to do thy will, O God”. “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second”. The point is the will of God.
JP No wonder we have been in a fog. We have tried to see it in ourselves or in feelings or experiences.
FER Or resting on the letter; I do not believe that has helped people.
JP Trying to see it in passages of Scripture instead of seeing it in Christ, as you said, in a Man, that one Man.
FER Whether we had Scripture or not the mind of God would be there. The gospel was preached before they had the [p. 40] Scriptures.
JP I can certainly see a great deal of difference between what is in Scripture and the person of Christ.
FER Exactly. God did not make anything known inconsistent with the Old Testament Scriptures, but what we stand upon is the New Testament Scriptures, and Christ was preached before the New Testament Scriptures were written.
JP The word of God grew and multiplied before there was a line of the New Testament written.
FER Exactly. The importance is that people should connect the blessing which they have received with God’s mind; there is a living God, and certain things in His mind in regard to man, and these things are made known, and not only made known, but one and all established in a Man.
WM The taking of that in is called faith.
FER Yes, so the Lord Jesus said, “ye believe in God, believe also in me”. That is the point now. Old Testament saints believed in God, but now it is, “believe also in me”.
JP I suppose it was the point in the apostles’ preaching in Antioch of Pisidia, “Through this man”.
FER “Is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins”, because it is in Him. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins”. It belongs to Him and to the universe of which He is head. It does not belong to this world.
W.M. What does not?
FER Forgiveness of sins, righteousness. The Spirit of God convicts this world concerning righteousness. You do not expect to find it in the world; the point is you will find it in Christ, but for the moment He is with the Father, but it belongs to the world of which Christ is the beginning and the head. Man is no better off in this world for having forgiveness; he often comes into trouble in this world. It does not make a man prosperous in this world, but he has that blessing “in Christ”, in connection with another world of which Christ is the beginning and [p. 41] centre. Israel will be brought into that world, and it is in that way they will have forgiveness of sins; they will never have it in this world.
JP So that “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable”.
LDT You made a remark yesterday morning about there only being one Man under the eye of God, and the great thing was to be in relation to that one Man. Now would you please say how we come into relation with that one Man.
FER I think the first thing is to apprehend what is in the mind of God, for whatever is in the mind of God is established in that one Man. We get into the blessings by being brought into attachment to that one Man. Then you get what is spoken of here, the witness of the Spirit. What marks the believer off from the rest of the world is that he has two things, faith and the Spirit.
WM So the Spirit is the bond that puts him in relation to Christ.
FER “He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit”.
WM You do not mean attachment in the sense of affection.
FER No, a woman married is brought into attachment to a man.
JP That is, you use the word in its proper sense.
FER Not in a conventional sense.
JSA You get the idea distinctly conveyed in 2 Corinthians 1, “Now he which stablisheth (firmly attaches) us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God”.
WM So it is necessary before we do one bit of practical righteousness ourselves to be set in relation to Christ by the Spirit.
FER John says that distinctly, “he that doeth righteousness is righteous”, but how are you righteous? by being brought into attachment to Christ. That man alone is righteous who is in relation to Christ. Every other man [p. 42] is lawless.
JP He might be religious but lawless all the same.
WM So the earth is righteous in regard to the sun.
FER Exactly. It does not move of its own will; it moves in its appointed orbit in relation to the sun; that is the effect of attachment; and the same thing is true in regard to Christ. We are attached to Christ by the Spirit, and instead of being lawless we move in the orbit of God’s will.
JSA As the apostle expresses it, “legitimately subject to Christ”.
WM But there is nothing really possessed outside of that bond.
FER Nothing. It is wonderful that every blessing first lies in the mind of God and is of His pleasure. It is not that God is against man and Christ for man, which used to be a common thought; but every blessing which man can possess is really of God’s pleasure, “I come to do thy will, O God”. Then comes another point, that is, that the point of faith for us is Christ, and there it is that every blessing is established, so that you know what the character of the blessing is.
GWH And when were those blessings available; when Christ ascended on high?
FER Yes, “When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men”. He sent the promise of the Father that we might have a witness of every blessing. The Spirit bears witness to us of every blessing.
GWH And in Acts 2, the Spirit brought report of divine favour toward man, not simply toward the little company there.
FER No; one result of it all is that you have to look outside yourself to learn anything. You learn everything in Christ. How do you know what a son of God is? No one knows except as it is apprehended in Christ. He is the Son of God. So too in regard to eternal life; Christ is eternal life. You must apprehend Christ if you would apprehend eternal life. So too reconciliation is in Christ.
[p. 43] You cannot understand divine complacency in man except in Christ. So with salvation, you cannot understand it except in Christ. Every one of us is naturally in bondage to things here. Who is out of it all? Christ. In Him there is salvation and nowhere else.
GWH So the fact that Christ as man is in the presence of God is proof that God is toward man.
FER Exactly, but then the proof that God is toward man is in Christ saying, “I come to do thy will, O God”.
WM That proves what you were saying this morning, that God is in mind the same as Christ; there is no divergence.
FER Yes, He came to do God’s will. Christ came out to make known the mind of God and to be the point where everything should be established. Therefore when Christ is displayed in glory everything will be displayed; in the meantime all is established in Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the witness of it. We thus get witness of every blessing, and by the Spirit are conformed to Christ. It is in that way that we come into the enjoyment of blessings.
JP It gives a good deal of meaning to the gospel of the glory of Christ.
FER Exactly, “we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”.
JSA So that there is One in us to give effect to the mind of God for us.
FER To give effect to the mind of God which is set forth and established in Christ, so that Christ is the object of faith. “Ye believe in God, believe also in me”.
JP So that we might say that Christ in glory is the proof that all that ever will be in the mind of God for man is established for man in a Man.
FER It is a tremendous advance on all that went before. The point is Christ is the testimony. The apostle preached Christ as glad tidings.
WM So that God’s world-wide testimony is Christ.
FER Yes, the apostle Paul was taken up to that end. The twelve limited their ministry to the Jews, but Paul was taken up with a world-wide mission corresponding very much to the sun in heaven. It is a universal witness. “There is nothing hid from the heat thereof”. And the apostle was called to present Christ in that way, “in the whole creation which is under heaven”. “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”. He preached Christ; so Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ unto them.
WM When you come to the Spirit you come to something more limited.
FER Yes, because the Spirit is evidently only given to those that believe. God could not give the Spirit to a man who is perfectly indifferent to His mind. When a man accepts what is in the mind of God, that is, in faith, then it is the Spirit is given; but the point in the giving of the Spirit is to attach us to Christ.
WM Like the law of attraction, which keeps the earth in its place, that it may get the benefit of the sun.
FER Yes, the Spirit is given to bring a man into attachment to the centre of the whole divine system.
JP Only in that way could you understand that passage, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God”. Because they are given to us in Christ.
FER If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. That is a point of vital moment. The Spirit is not given to us simply that we may understand things, but that we may be brought into attachment, and by being brought to attachment it is that we understand everything. I do not think a wife understands a man’s interests until she is married to him. When she is married then his interests are her interests, not until then.
[p. 45] JP The secret of understanding is really attachment. I am sure of that.
FER It is in the fact of being attached to Christ that we enter into all that is of Christ. I think it is wonderful to see not only that there are great blessings in the mind of God for man, but that there is a perfect setting forth of them in Christ, be they what they may.
JP There is not another thing to be disclosed.
FER Who is the one man free from death? I am not free from death literally. You can only understand this in Christ. How can you understand reconciliation? Only in Christ, because only in Christ there is complacency.
JP Who could be caught up into the third heaven but a man in Christ?
FER Exactly. You may depend upon it, preaching the gospel may be limited to a word of six letters and that word, “Christ”. Christ is the gospel. There is another point to my mind, and that is that Christ is the preacher. It is not you or I that is the preacher; Christ is the preacher and the gospel.
JSA And as you said in reference to ministry, if He is to minister there is nothing He can minister but Himself.
FER I think so.
LPT And having Him you have everything.
FER Exactly. You can understand nothing except in Christ. You could not understand any term in Scripture except as in Christ. The dictionary will not help you. Human words can never explain divine things. If you take the dictionary meaning of any expression like reconciliation, you will not get any idea of the thing. There is not a blessing spoken of as being in the mind of God for man that you can appreciate except in Christ, and therefore the importance for us to learn by the witness all that is set forth in Christ and thus become more and more like Christ.
WM So that Christ is the result of the preaching, too.
FER [p. 46] Yes.
JP So the ultimatum of the whole thing will be we shall all be like Christ.
FER That is the truth of it.
JSA That He may be all in all.
PAES And would you say the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple?
FER You will get many a proof of that. Mary of Bethany is an instance. She was made wise by the testimony of the Lord.
PAES That was Christ, was it not?
FER That was Christ. But the fact is, Christ is everything. Take any of the expressions in Psalm 19. They are realised in Christ. To begin with, Christ is the true sun in the heavens. It says, “In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun”. Then in the latter part of the Psalm it says, “the law of the Lord”. What is the law of the Lord to us? Christ. The apostle said to the Galatians, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ”. Christ is law to us. “The testimony of the Lord is sure”. What is the testimony of the Lord? Christ. “The commandment of the Lord is pure”. What is the commandment of the Lord? Christ. “The statutes of the Lord are right”. What are the statutes of the Lord to us? Christ. And so on.
WM Christ is everything and in all.
FER And no one can understand anything which is in the mind of God except as it is apprehended in Christ.
JP It seems to me very interesting to notice in the chapter we have read that the first thing which Christ has come out to do is the will of God, and if you go on, it is evident He has accomplished it. It goes on to say by the which will we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once.
FER Exactly. Christ is sanctification to us. You cannot understand it except in Christ. If it were not so you would get the flesh sanctified. God does not sanctify that. Christ is sanctification to us, as He is redemption to us. God will not allow us to [p. 47] glory in ourselves.
WM So that our sanctification is spiritual.
FER Yes.
JSA And if it is a question of entering into sonship it says, “God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts”. There is no other way in which you can enter into it.
FER You get everything by the witness of the Spirit; the Spirit shows how everything is bound up in Christ, and as we apprehend that, we become more like Christ, because you cannot have Christ before you without becoming more like Him. The reason people do not become like Christ is because they have something else before them. The Spirit would fix our affection on Christ and show how the will of God is set on Christ.
WM Do you think the Spirit sometimes has to depart from that and do what is not His normal work?
FER Yes, He has to rebuke us and set Himself against the flesh very often.
LTD In Ephesians 1: 14, it speaks of the Spirit as the “earnest of our inheritance”. What is the inheritance?
FER I think it is all that Christ inherits as Man. It only proves what I have been dwelling upon. You cannot understand inheritance except in Christ. We have obtained an inheritance in Him, and it is in Him we understand what the inheritance is, and then it goes on to say in whom He has sealed us “until the redemption of the purchased possession”.
JP So we are spoken of as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
FER Abraham was in a way the heir of the world, but Christ is the true heir of all things. All things are put under His feet.
WM I think you were remarking that is the foundation of the Lord’s prayer, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven”, because “all things are delivered unto me of my Father”.
FER Exactly.
GWH And all things are headed up in Christ.
FER Yes. “All things that the Father hath are mine:” the Lord said, “therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you”. He is referring to the Spirit.
GWH When it says in Ephesians 1, “Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ”, does it mean that they are in Christ and apart from the present course of things, not of this world?
FER Yes, and they belong to heaven. I suppose there are certain blessings which belong to heaven.
GWH You were saying at the beginning that these blessings were not a part of this world.
FER They come into view when this world has failed, when man has become sinful and lawless. You get glimpses of good things in the Old Testament, but they do not come out clearly because there was no point at which they were established; but when there was such a point then they come clearly into view.
WM So once in the end of the world Christ appeared.
FER Yes. You get all almost in a moment, the revelation of the blessings, their establishment and the witness. It did not take long to bring to pass. So God will set forth a world in a day. He prepares everything beforehand and all will be displayed in a day.
JP The figures show that. Take the Sun of righteousness rising with healing in His wings. It does not take the sun long to rise. You wake up in the morning when it is dark and in a few moments it is quite light.
FER People may glory in this world, but it is Babylon in the eye of God, and God will smash up Babylon, so that there will not be a shred remaining. “The haughtiness of men shall be brought low; and Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day”. The silver and gold will not deliver in the day of Jehovah’s wrath. He will utterly abolish the idols.
PAES Do you say He is preparing for that now? In what sense?
FER In a sense all is prepared. You have the spirits [p. 49] of just men made perfect, and the church is there. Israel will be born in a day, and the nations brought into subjugation. Everything will be effected in a day.
PAES Then I understand that verse, “whatsoever God doeth it, shall be for ever”, is in view of the world to come?
FER I think so.
JSA And He has taken our souls in charge and that is for ever. So that we might begin now to enter more into what He has for us in Christ, for our blessings will all come out in that world.