GOD PRESENTED TO MAN, AND MAN PRESENTED BEFORE GOD
[p. 24] GOD PRESENTED TO MAN, AND MAN PRESENTED BEFORE GOD
Hebrews 2: 9-13; Hebrews 9:11,12; Hebrews 9:24; Hebrews 10: 19-25
I have read the above scriptures, counting on the Lord to supply anything in the way of exposition that may tend to the better understanding of them.
I would begin with pointing out that in studying Scripture you have to distinguish between the way in which God presents Himself to man and the way in which man is presented before God. I am sure that throughout the word of God the distinction is maintained, and that a good deal of confusion arises from overlooking it. It is in the first instance the work of the evangelist to present, as light to souls, the truth of what God is toward man, for the greatest evangelist that ever lived could do no more than enlighten, and all we have, or can have now in grace, comes to us as light from God to our souls.
When once we are established in grace then there is the blessed truth of what we are for God, but unless we are clear as to the first we cannot apprehend rightly the second, and it is natural for man to suppose that God is toward him according to what he feels towards God, and that is the way he judges.
And in connection with what I have said there is another point, and that is as to what Christ is personally. We find that He is presented to us in Scripture in two aspects, and this holds good not only in what He is now but in what He was here as Man on earth. It is hardly necessary to say that all that He was or is as Man, takes its character and has its lustre from what He is as divine. The two aspects to which I have referred are as presenting God to man, and as presenting man to God. The distinction may, I think, be put in a very short and simple way, i.e., in the two terms, the “last Adam” and the “second man”. The “last Adam”, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the One through whom the grace of God is presented to man, the mediator between God and men. In the second Man we get the first and the pattern of the heavenly family — we see what man is before God.
We find in 1 Corinthians 8: 6, the way in which Christ is presented to us in what I may call the economy of grace. To us there is “one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him”. This has its true force and application to Christians, because the fruits of the grace of God have been administered to them mediatorially through our Lord Jesus Christ. I may say that it is not a question here of the truth of His Person, but of the place He has taken in the administration of grace. Hence I can very well understand Paul and Silas saying to the jailor, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved”. He is thus an object of faith; and if Christ were not divine He could not be presented as an object for faith, but nonetheless He is presented in what He has become.
You will find the same principle coming out in Romans 5, which is occupied in presenting what God is to the believer, and so we have constantly in the chapter the expression, “through our Lord Jesus Christ”, peace with God, favour, joy in God, reconciliation, and eternal life. Every good thing made ours from God must necessarily come to us through our Lord Jesus Christ. The point in this chapter is not what the believer is before God, but what God is to the believer.
In Romans 6 we have, on the other hand, what Christ is before God as Man, and such as we can be, and hence we have “in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God”, and we can be on this ground. He is the first of the heavenly family to enter in, and that in His personal excellence.
[p. 26] I think you can see the two aspects I have mentioned illustrated in the head of a family; if I am what I ought to be in my house in a sense I represent God to my family. I stand there for the Lord, and I ought to present a true testimony on the part of God to my household, but on the other hand my house is identified with me in the presence of God.
To refer now to Hebrews 2 you will find in verse 10 the divine proposition brought out, that which God has proposed to Himself to accomplish, the counsel of His will, to bring many sons unto glory; but so far as believers are concerned, I do not think you get it effected in their souls till we come to chapter 10, that is, the purpose is not made good in us until then, it is here that the believer is brought to what God started from in chapter 2. In connection with this, I think that I see Christ presented in chapter 2 on God’s part as in the communion of His counsel, and in chapter 9 in what He is to God on our part, as having entered into heaven to appear in the presence of God for us, and then in chapter 10 we come to our privilege, that is, we have boldness to enter into “the holiest”, by the blood of Jesus, through the veil.
If Scripture makes clear the thought of God toward you, are you never going to respond to it? Is He to have no part? When I take up my privilege to enter the “holiest”, God then gets His part; I apprehend my privilege and answer to the great love which God has made known to me; I enter into the scene of divine rest and glory in the blessed apprehension of what God is toward me.
It was ever the pleasure of God to be known by man, and it is to this end He is bringing many sons to glory, and they are those who are close to God, who can enter into His wisdom and respond to His love. It is a poor son who does not respond to the father’s love.
But to go back for a moment to verses 11 and 12 of chapter 2, we see, as we have said, the communion of Christ in the divine proposition. “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. Being thus in the communion of the divine counsel, in verse 12 He says, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee”. The place He takes there is not on our behalf but on the behalf of God.
The Son makes known the Father’s love, and the Holy Spirit makes it effective in us, and thus the perfect unity of the Godhead in action is maintained, apart from which there is no work of God. That is the blessed way in which God presents Himself to us in connection with the divine proposition, and it all had its rise in the counsel of God. All is for God.
I want now to refer a little to the other side of the truth, namely, how in Christ man is presented before God, and that leads me to chapter 9, particularly verses 11, 12. “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption”. Now you can well understand the difference between Christ’s coming out and His entering in. He came forth from God, but now I get the wonderful truth that He has entered in, “having obtained eternal redemption”. He has entered in as Man, to the eternal satisfaction of God, on ground on which we can enter in, too. Suppose it were simply a question of saints entering in, I would ask, Who would be bold enough to enter in first? Christ has entered in first, as Man, to occupy this ground, to the glory of God, and to His eternal satisfaction; and now we can be bold to enter in.
Even when on earth Christ presented in perfection man before God in the place of man’s responsibility.
[p. 28] He now presents man according to the counsel of God. And that, blessed be His name, is the ground on which we can go in. He has entered in, having obtained eternal redemption, having established that ground according to the will of God — He is the Forerunner.
I would here notice, in regard to chapter 9: 24, “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us”: that the idea is not quite the same as in verse 12, where “neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption”. In this passage it is the moral idea, the ground He has taken; while in verse 24 He has entered into the place, “heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us”. I think it is the idea of the high priest, as the representative of the priestly family in the place where they are not yet; it is the place we belong to, and He is there for us.
Now in chapter 10 we are brought back to the thought of chapter 2 in our apprehension of the will of God. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once”. You come now to the effectuation in us of the ‘divine proposition’, we are sanctified and thus “of one” with the Sanctifier. Now we have the believer, as perfected for ever, brought into the place of the divine will through the offering of Jesus Christ. He is “a son”, that is the will of God; and that is the place we are brought into; our place of sanctification is the place that God has willed for us; and being by one offering perfected for ever there can be no imputation of sins, nor any question of our responsibility raised, because all has been completely and eternally settled.
Now we have boldness by the blood of Jesus to enter the holiest, the blessed scene of the divine glory, where it is not a question of the actings of men, but [p. 29] where the very glory of God reposes; surely there no such subject as sin, defilement or aught of that character can find place.
It is the home, too, where divine love finds its satisfaction in man, and you enter into “the holiest” to respond to that love that has displayed itself in Christ, and that now rests on Him as Man. He says, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren”. That scene is filled with the glory of God. What I understand by the glory of God is the effulgence of God in the accomplishment of the purposes of His love. His wisdom and love have shone out in their accomplishment, and God has thus reached the purpose of His will, not only in Christ, but also in us.
Further, it is by the new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say His flesh, that we enter. That is, you enter in on entirely new ground. If we are in the company of Christ we must be correspondent to Him on the ground of the glory of God. He has been raised from the dead by the glory of the Father; and our place is not after the flesh at all: it is “a new and living way ... through the veil, that is to say, his flesh”, which refers to His death, and in that death the responsible man has been ended as before God. As the risen and glorified Man He has taken up new ground in the presence of God according to God’s counsel, for God’s eternal glory; and that is the ground on which we go in.
It is utterly impossible to bring man in the flesh “into the holiest”, where everything is of God; and it is nothing but divine power that can sustain us there.
Thus it is not only that we are brought into the place of sons, but we are called to the enjoyment of the heavenly scene to which that relationship belongs.
And it is thus that not only is the grace of God ministered to us through Christ, but that He now represents believers before God in heaven. You go in [p. 30] by that new and living way, and it is apart from every question and thought of what we are as in the flesh.
I trust we may all see more and more clearly the importance of apprehending the distinction between Christ as presenting God to us, and the presentation of man in Him before God; that is what I have been trying to set before you.