FOUR READINGS ON HEBREWS (2)
[p. 549] FOUR READINGS ON HEBREWS (2)
Hebrews 3: 1 - 19; Hebrews 4: 1 - 16
Ques What is the thought of the heavenly calling?
FER That God is speaking from heaven; the calling is from heaven. In Christ in heaven is the perfect setting forth of God’s mind in regard to man. No one enters into the thought of God in regard of man save in the apprehension of Christ in glory. When this is apprehended, then heaven really becomes the hope. God is bringing many sons to glory, but the calling on the part of God is really the testimony of Christ in heaven; that, in the very nature of it, involves companionship with Christ. It is equivalent to what you get in Romans 8, that we should be “conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren”. That is the thought of God in regard of Christ. Israel will come into their original calling by and by.
Ques Do you not distinguish between the calling here when profession is included, and what you get in Romans 8, which is purpose?
FER No, I do not; the calling is the same.
Ques How is the Priest connected with the calling?
FER The Priest is essential, and He must be at the height of the calling. The point is, that in Christ in heaven you get the perfect setting forth of the calling. The Priest has gone in, but we have not gone in yet. The mind of God is set forth in the Apostle (Christ), but the Priest is the pattern of what answers to the mind of God. The Apostle sets forth the covenant; by Him all the truth came out. Chapter 1 has nothing to do with the calling; it is the setting forth of what is true on the part of God; it sets forth largely the throne. The throne of God is established in a Man, so that it can be displayed; and this is what will constitute the world to come.
[p. 550] God will no longer be hid behind providences. Christ is hid at the right hand of God provisionally, and the throne awaits the moment of display.
All that we get in chapter 1 is the power and supremacy of God, and all that is set forth on the part of God. In chapter 2 you get the other side: it is Christ Head over all things, so that all should take its character from Him. Chapter 1 is that the throne is established in a Man, who has accomplished redemption, and is about to be displayed. Then we get in chapter 2 Christ as Head over all things, and that involves a universe. He is Son of man, and the Leader of our salvation. But that brings in the thought of priesthood, because He is compelled to be Priest until we are in. Then in chapter 3 He is Son over God’s house, and He is faithful; He will help us in weakness, but He will not tolerate will. In chapter 5 it is confirmed; He is called of God, and He learned obedience by the things He suffered, and so He has become the Author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. You must be in accord with Christ.
Ques What is our “confession”? Is it the consequence of apprehending our calling?
FER Yes, it is.
Ques What is the connection between the house and the calling?
FER Well, God’s house is composed of His sons, and Christ has the place of Son over God’s house. The object of the house is that we may come under the teaching and influence of God. As in regard to my house; if I were a perfect father, I should not tolerate will in my children, although I should help them in their weakness. The point is that in God’s house there should be God’s will only, and yet that there should be help in regard of infirmity.
Ques What is the “day of temptation”?
FER The present is the time of testing. We are all tested as to fidelity; so you get “If ye continue in the faith”, Colossians 1: 23. We are God’s house “if” (Hebrews 3: 6) we are Christ’s companions “if” (Hebrews 3: 14) — it is clearly a time of testing. People fail to apprehend how very near “the world to come” is. It is not much in view. The apostle says the “world to come, whereof we speak”, Hebrews 2: 5. Having it so little before us is a weakness with all of us. The first two chapters lay down the position. The effect of not apprehending the world to come is to go on with the present world, and to connect Christ and saints with the existing order of things. If the order of things here has failed, and God’s Son became Man, He does not become a patch on the old, but He becomes the beginning of an entirely new order of things. In chapter 2 Christ is on our side; He is Son of Man set over the work of God’s hands. All will take character from the Son of man. Then you get God bringing many sons to glory, and the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one.
The great gain of God’s house is, that we may come under the influence of it, as an orphan might come into a well-ordered house.
We have in chapter 1 all the preparation for the world to come; the throne of God established in a Man, and then the One in whom all is to be gathered up. We can enter into the light of it now. The “world to come” is a necessity; if you get an intelligent thought of Christ, you find that He will be displayed then. People understand the throne and the lordship of Christ, but they do not understand Christ as Head. He is the beginning of a new order, in which everything takes its character from Him. The present world has become so artificial that it is difficult to say what it takes character from, for it [p. 552] has no head; but in the world to come there will be a Head capable of subduing all to Himself, and of giving character to all. Lordship and authority will come in to subdue what is lawless, but that is secondary. He subdues evil in order to come in and to give character to all. Power and authority is needful if evil be there. The world to come could not be set forth until lawlessness headed up in antichrist is put down. The kingdom eventually will be given up; it is a means to an end. The kingdom is established so that all that is of God may thrive; the power and authority in that way holds evil in check. It is a great thing to be “strong in the Lord”, then you are prepared to combat evil.
Ques Will there be headship in the eternal state?
FER I cannot see how it can be otherwise: there will be no need of the kingdom, but all that of which Christ is Head must be maintained by the Head. Christ will give character to all, in all that He is. Imagine a universe that is characterised by meekness and lowliness of heart! Christ was meek and lowly, and the world to come will take character from Him.
The confession of Christ as Lord is to keep you from the power of evil. The day of temptation is still continued. We tempt God by the exercise of our will. Israel tempted God by their lust; they would not go forward to the land, and they would go back in heart to Egypt. We are liable to the same; it is a question even in regard of those in fellowship, will they go forward or not? We are recognised as being God’s house, on the ground of holding fast — it is put here in that way.
Ques “We which have believed do enter into rest”?
FER Well, God has His rest, and we can enter into His rest. God has abounded in all grace to us, having made known to us the mystery of His will, to [p. 553] head up all things in Christ, and in that sense we can enter into rest. The strict application is to the future, but there is the sense in which we do enter into rest; it all goes on the principle expressed in the familiar verse:
“O love supreme and bright,
Good to the feeblest heart.
That gives us now as heav’nly light
What soon shall be our part!”
The bulk of people have no idea of what God’s rest is. God is entitled to rest; He rested from all His works. We have only thought that the rest of God was marred by the fall of man, but God will yet be complacent with the work of His hands. In becoming Man, the Son of God has entered the bounds of God’s creation. He takes up all that creation, and it is in His taking up all, and all gathered up in Him, that God can be complacent with the work of His hands. We can be in the light now of all that God has secured for Himself in Christ. We can enter into what is behind the veil. I think if you enter the holiest you will touch the rest of God, at least you will touch the secret of His rest. The rest of God I admit is still future as to the display. Christ will come in again as “the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God”. God will rest when all is in accord with His love.
In the epistle to the Hebrews everything is living, and therefore departure is departure from the living God. The force of the expression the “living God”, could not have been understood until Christ came in. The beginning of it is the Son of the living God; then you get the Spirit of the living God, and the church of the living God. If God is the living God, then all that is to come in contact with Him must be living. So we are to purge ourselves from dead works.
[p. 554] There is the danger, contemplated here, of becoming apostates. The company is looked at as in the profession; but if they turn away, they prove they are neither the house of God nor companions of Christ. Reconciliation is what brings in the rest of God; it is in the fact of all being reconciled in Christ — all brought into divine complacency — that God can rest. We have to take into account what comes out in chapter 3, Christ is faithful. Moses was faithful in God’s house; he did not deviate, he did not supplement divine directions. Now Christ is Son over God’s house, and He is faithful; His faithfulness is that He came here altogether for the will of God, and therefore He will not tolerate our wills. He is faithful. He cannot deny Himself, even if we are not faithful; Christ will not compromise; He will not accommodate Himself to our wills. The ways of believers often indicate an idea that Christ will accommodate Himself to them; their ways express it practically. Saints are often found pursuing some object in the world, and they think that Christ will accommodate Himself to them. No; He will “abide faithful”; He will not tolerate what is not according to God.
Righteousness and faithfulness are intimately connected. “Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins”. If you pursue a purpose here which is not according to Christ, He will not accommodate Himself to you, and then there is danger of your turning away.
The fidelity of Christ is to keep our hearts in the light of His own things; and therefore He sets Himself against all that tends to obscure our vision. His intercession is for us, but against what diverts us from Him.
Ques Does it suppose that those who fall are [p. 555] real believers?
FER Oh, no. Real believers do not fall in the wilderness; they may fail to enter into the good of the land now, but the fidelity of Christ will eventually bring them in. Christ searches us now by the word of God. We have to learn to find out our motives; they have to be discovered to us; and the word of God comes in to discover them to us. Even when motives are not all bad, they are often mixed. We want the eye “single”, and not to be moved by mixed motives: then the whole body will be full of light.
It is a very great thing for our souls to get into the light of what God has established in Christ, and to remember that being in God’s house we have to do with One who is faithful; it seems to me a poor thing to be unfaithful to One who is faithful. “When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee”, Proverbs 2: 10, 11.
The apostle prayed that saints might know the expanse of divine glory, the breadth and length and depth and height of all that centres in Christ. Christ is faithful, but at the same time He is a merciful High Priest — it is very beautiful; “we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities”. Both His mercifulness and His faithfulness make Him attractive to us. He is “a merciful and faithful high priest”. Every right-minded person would value the faithfulness of Christ.
Ques Does “consider” (chapter 3: 1) mean meditate?
FER Yes, I think so; the word of God is what searches.
Rem It is like Psalm 139, “Search me, O God”.
FER We get diverted, even when we desire to pursue what is right, and therefore if right-minded we would value His faithfulness. The searching supposes the possibility of will being at work; and if so you want that made manifest. We do not want the [p. 556] Priest for that. Will at work needs detecting; wilful people do not come to the “throne of grace”.
Ques What is the difference between mercy and grace?
FER Mercy is that everything is taken into consideration, circumstances and everything; and at the same time you get grace to support you. People make a mistake, and think that if they supplicate God in a difficulty He will come in immediately. That may not be His way, but “the end of the Lord ... is very pitiful, and of tender mercy”. We have to wait for the end, and meanwhile He will give grace.