THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST AND THE REALITY OF THE INCARNATION
[p. 188] THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST AND THE REALITY OF THE INCARNATION
What Christianity is is but very little understood. The mass of Christians are in experience very little beyond pious Jews, the difference being that the Jew had not a perfect sacrifice, whereas the Christian has; Hebrews 10: 11 - 14. The secret of this is that the incarnation is but poorly apprehended. The Son become Man, is in Scripture viewed on two sides. First, in what He is as under God’s eye, as presented to us in chapter 1 — the antitype of the ark and the mercy-seat; and then what He is to us — on our side, the side on which He is identified with us and on which we can appropriate Him. He is an adequate object for God on the one hand, and He is one with us on the other. All hangs on the truth of the incarnation, “a body hast thou prepared me”. Unless the Son of God had become Man and had died and risen we never could have appropriated Him. He had not been within our reach. He is both Apostle and High Priest, and as the Priest I am entitled not only to His help, but that He should conduct me in His life into the holiest of all. This is true for every Christian, and it is in His heart to do it for them. The names of the children of Israel were not only on the shoulders of the high priest, but on his breast also. We are entitled to His help in regard to temptation, and also that He should lead us into the consciousness of being His companions in the holiest of all — in the presence of God within the veil. He helps us in view of our infirmities in order that He may lead us into the scene where He is.
In chapter 1 we have first of all what a man now is under the eye of God, in the glory of God. He takes [p. 189] a place by so much better than the angels as He has inherited a name more excellent than they. It is His renown, that which is set forth in Him. He has obtained a renown more excellent than that of angels. Of old God spake from off the mercy-seat, and God has spoken to us in Him. He has made known to us all that is in His heart, the counsel of His will. It was impossible for God to declare all this save in the Son; a prophet was not adequate for it. It is very blessed to think of what Christ is as under the eye of God — as Man; what is true of Him as Man is that He is kindred nature with God, He is His Son. “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee”. There was nothing morally kindred between Christ and Mary, though He was her first-born Son. As born into this world He was called God’s Son. What He was is of more importance than what He took. He did not take a nature morally from Mary, but He gave to manhood a nature morally akin to God. “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son”. He was of kindred nature with God in a sense in which we never can be, for He was God’s Son even as born into this world.
Secondly. He is greater than angels. He is as Man the object of homage to angels.
Thirdly. He has a throne founded on the perfect discrimination of good and evil. “Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness”. The temptation brought out what Christ was morally; it showed His perfectness, His dependence, for He would not exercise His power on His own behalf. What other man is there who, if he had all divine power at his disposal, would not use it on his own behalf? Then, His confidence in God is shown: He will not tempt Him, in the path of His will, all that He had promised to be, “He shall give his angels charge concerning thee”, etc. And again, He will not take anything from any hand but God’s.
[p. 190] Fourthly, His years do not fail. He is the Lord who created all things, and though, as Man, His strength was weakened in the way and His days shortened, yet He is the One who endures for ever — whose years do not fail. (See Psalm 102.)
That is the glory of the Lord, and it is our privilege, in love and reverence, to behold it: what He is under the eye of God — an adequate object for God. It will help us to get clear of the glory and glitter of this world if we contemplate the glory of the Lord.
It is all to come out very soon, though during the time of His rejection all is hid in Him at the right hand of God.
Chapter 2 is quite a contrast to chapter 1; the same Person, but viewed on our side. First we have His complete identification with His brethren, and then His preparation for the priesthood. If we fail to apprehend this, we shall never understand the true nature of Christianity. What is God doing at this present lime? He is bringing many sons to glory. He will come out by-and-by for the salvation of His earthly people; but now He is bringing many sons to glory, to the full result and satisfaction of His purpose. As the leader of our salvation, Christ is the One who conducts us in. What are believers in the eye of Christ? The objects of God’s purpose, and it is as being such that He loves them. The disciples were of the greatest possible account to Christ when He was here, because they were the Father’s gift to Him; therefore it is that He loves us, and is not ashamed to call us brethren — for the saints are the objects of God’s purpose. “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one”. It is the complete identification of Christ with those who are the objects of God’s purpose. “I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the assembly will I praise thee with singing”; and again, “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith [p. 191] thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”. We are defective in regard to the assembly if these things be not understood. We are there as His companions — His brethren.
Next we have His preparation for the priesthood (verse 14 to end). He has left no evil power behind, but has destroyed all that could possibly harass His brethren. A good general would take care to secure his base before further advancing. He would be careful not to leave an enemy in his rear. And so Christ has left nothing behind. He has cleared the field of every foe. He took flesh and blood that He might die, and thus remove the judgment that was lying on us, and He could not do this otherwise than by bearing that judgment in our stead. If I am free from the judgment of God, so am I free also from the power of the enemy. Israel in Egypt under the shelter of the blood were free from the judgment of God, but as having passed through the Red Sea they were free from the power of the enemy. Then again, He makes atonement for the sins of the people, that there might be no imputation to them. You cannot enjoy Christ as Priest, you cannot touch Him as Priest until these things are known. We have nothing to fear from death, nor from the devil, nor from imputation of sins, and it is on this that priesthood is based. This is the work effected by Christ in order that He might enter upon the priesthood.
Chapters 7 and 8 give us the Priest and the priesthood in their true greatness. Chapter 2 is His preparation, His qualification for it. As Priest, He first of all helps us in regard to our infirmities and difficulties. He Himself suffered being tempted, and hence He is able to succour the tempted. This was His qualification for the office of Priest. He was not tempted from within, but from without; but temptation always produced suffering in Him — He suffered being tempted. We do not always suffer when we are [p. 192] tempted, because we have sin in us, and alas! often under temptation yield to it. It is the faithful heart that suffers. The fact that He suffered, and always and only suffered, is proof of His perfection morally. He knew no sin. This is a great point. He was divinely sensitive to evil.
Thus it is He is for us, for our appropriation. But it is affection that appropriates Him — and that not simply that He may bring us through the wilderness, but that He may conduct us now into the purpose of God concerning us, for we have boldness to enter into the holiest. These scriptures set before us the greatness of Christ, and the reality of the incarnation. A divine Person has been pleased to become Man, assuming the form of a servant, in order that we may appropriate Him, and that He may bring us into the enjoyment of His own place as Man before God, that we may be conducted into the purpose of God concerning us.