CHAPTER 2
[p. 407] CHAPTER 2
Down to verse 4 we still have the thought of the apostle, then verse 5 introduces the world to come, in connection with the purpose of God, which has been put under the Son of man. In chapter 1 the point is the greatness of the apostle. Then we get the greatness of what has been spoken, which introduces the thought of the Son of man. The Son is the Apostle. God had spoken in times past by prophets, now by the Son. The idea is that the communication is characterised by the greatness of the speaker.
The “world to come” is the special subject of testimony, that of which the epistle speaks — not the world that is. All the truth unfolded in Hebrews with regard to saints has reference, I judge, to the world to come. The holiest belongs properly to the world to come, to the time of Christ. We get heavenly blessing in anticipation, on the principle of ‘which gives us now as heavenly light what soon will be our part’. From the fact of the world to come not being yet established publicly, if we enter now into what will be the heavenly part of it we must go outside the camp. We are partakers of the heavenly calling. There is a heavenly and there is an earthly calling in connection with the world to come. We, as believers, have the privilege in anticipation; in heaven we shall be in the actuality of the blessing. Privilege is that which belongs to me, but I may not always be in a state to enjoy it. We do not speak of privilege in heaven — there all will be actuality.
It is interesting to see that the great salvation began to be spoken by the Lord. “Great salvation” refers, I suppose, to all that has been effected for saints in the way of deliverance, and which is made good by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord began to speak of it. He spoke of the coming of the Comforter, the promise of the Father. Then the Holy Spirit came;
[p. 408] but the testimony began to be spoken by the Lord. No one enters into the salvation till he has received the Spirit. In 1 John 5 the witnesses are the Spirit, the water, and the blood. This is the order of application in believers. Historically Christ came by water and blood, and it is the Spirit that bears witness, but in application the Spirit is the first witness. The water and the blood refer, I suppose, to the great salvation, the water to cleansing from the pollutions of the world, and the blood to expiation. To “neglect” is not to turn the salvation to account — not working it out into result, it thus loses force with you, it is ineffective in you. God has put everything within our reach, but it has to be turned to account, to be made good in our souls, otherwise it is inoperative.
There is a real object in deliverance, and that is that you may enter into God’s purpose concerning you. The divine end is that the soul of the believer may be so at liberty as that he may enter into the enjoyment of his true place with God: we are often greatly hampered by sin, the law, and the world. The Jews had not got salvation from the Roman power, it was salvation for their souls — that Christ was the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth; He had come to give salvation to His people by forgiveness of their sins. The great idea of salvation is that you are saved from something. “The knowledge of salvation ... by the remission of their sins” refers to what you are saved from. Faith would embrace more and take in all you are brought to. Salvation is the emancipation of the soul from all that could be between it and God. We get salvation as to the moral part before it is applied to the material part; we get the soul salvation first. The first thing is to get the soul freed from the judgment of God. Afterwards it may learn that it is freed from sin, law, the world. It is of great interest to see that the great salvation began to be spoken by the Lord, and had its climax in [p. 409] the testimony of the apostles. All the gospels lead up to what came afterwards. Matthew leads up to the truth of the church; in Mark it is the testimony of the twelve to Christ risen; in John you get the Comforter spoken of. The woman in Luke 7 gets the word of forgiveness. The woman in John 4 is told of the communication of a heavenly power to be within the believer, by which he should get complete emancipation from that power of evil by which he was held. It springs up to eternal life; not to heaven, but to eternal life, to that order of things, and the soul is freed from the power of all that held it. The question of deliverance is not raised till the believer has the Spirit, then it is raised. The flesh is not to be tolerated, and the believer is to be freed by the power of the Spirit from all that held him in bondage.
In Psalm 2 we get Christ rejected, but man’s rejection of Christ serves the purpose of God; so in Psalm 8 we get the counsel of God in the Son of man. This Psalm is quoted here (verses 6, 7). Man rejects Christ’s claims as the Anointed, then we get the Son of man — a lower place in one way than the Anointed, for it was as Son of man that Christ suffered, but then it involves universal dominion. The Son of man had not where to lay His head. He accepts His rejection, but the world to come is put under the Son of man, and as the anointed King (i.e., Christ) He will bring in the sure mercies of David. The Psalmist was astonished that God should take notice of the Son of man, but when you find who the Son of man is the mystery is solved. God had been dishonoured in man; now what has come to pass is that God is glorified in the Son of man; the one answers the other, and the result is that all is put under the Son of man. The world to come is to be characterised by grace. The claims of God having been fully met there will be blessing for all; the effect of righteousness will be peace. Righteousness might come in as judgment in the [p. 410] repression of evil, but grace reigns now through righteousness, and will be made public in the world to come. The dispensation has not yet been publicly changed. What has come in as a present thing is in the nature of a parenthesis, and the dispensation does not change publicly till Messiah comes. The world to come will be characterised by grace. The terms of the new covenant are the law written on the heart and forgiveness. Saints have now only two things, forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit, and all else hangs on that. Law is done away in Christ, but publicly law is not set aside — it is gone for faith.
Verses 8, 9 — We see not yet all things put under Him, but we see what involves it — Jesus crowned with glory and honour. If He is above all, all is virtually put under Him.
The human mind cannot take in all as to Christ at one and the same moment, as for instance the truth of chapters 1 and 2 of Hebrews; we have to learn it in detail. It is a great thing for our souls to be in the light of Jesus crowned with glory and honour, in the highest place as man. If this is so it bodes good for man. It is bound to have a great effect upon us if we are in the light of it. If He takes that place in heaven as Man He must have companions. “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one”. The purposes of God existed before sin came in, but before they could be effectuated the Son of man must be in this place in heaven. Angels are the highest of created beings, Jesus “made lower” is simply that He became Man. We have never yet heard of an angel being placed in a position corresponding to that in which God placed man — and in the world to come all things, including angels, are put under the Son of man.
In the coming day of evil Satan will give his throne and authority to the beast; he bolsters man up in arrogance and evil; he cannot come to the front, so he puts man forward. God knew at the outset what [p. 411] was to come about, and so we get Adam, the figure of Christ, set in dominion over things on earth. It was God’s purpose to put all under man, and in the Son of man you get things in heaven and on earth, put under Him, which means the destruction of Satan’s power.
Then we get another very important truth coming out — that there were to be many sons in glory. God is love, and His love impelled Him to make Himself known, and so we get many sons brought to glory. The privilege of sons is that they know God as revealed in love. To Adam He was known as a beneficent Creator, but we have now the revelation of God in love. The glory of God is in the accomplishment of His purpose. Nothing thwarts Him. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God; glory is the complete satisfaction of God in the accomplishment of His purposes in Christ. We are in the light of all that God has accomplished in Christ. The key-note of this epistle is “bringing many sons to glory”. The counsels of God came to light consequent upon the rejection of Christ, but the counsels were there before. The Hebrews had lost all by the rejection of Christ — promises and all that belonged to them; but then God’s counsels come to light and these Hebrews came in on this ground. Peter preached to the Jews that though they had crucified Christ, God had thus accomplished His purposes and Christ was in glory, and if they believed they would get more than they lost, if they came in on that ground.
“Leader of their salvation”. He is victorious over all; and what He has actually overcome we overcome in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the first to reach the goal, and He has become the High Priest to carry us in. He is the Forerunner. He is God’s High Priest as to appointment, for He does not take the honour to Himself; but He became us, He is the representative of His house. He is perfect as leader; He has reached His present office through sufferings;
[p. 412] He has had experience of all the conflict. The One who helps and carries us through is the One who has encountered all, whether it be the forsaking of God, the temptation of the devil, or the power of man in persecution, etc. He has gone through it and met it. This is a great thing for our hearts.
He tasted death for every circle of blessing: the whole world to come is set up on the basis of reconciliation. Tasted death, i.e., in all that death meant, His soul entered into it — not merely that He died, but He tasted what it was to be in the lowest point.
Chapters 1 and 2 give us the basis of the epistle — chapter 2 especially; it gives us the light and thought of the divine purposes; then, after that, the epistle shows how it is effectuated in us. The revelation does not go beyond what we get in chapter 2. In chapter 10 we come to what we get here. “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one” is what we have in chapter 2, and in chapter 10 we have “By the which will we are sanctified”. Verse 10 is the revelation of divine purpose, then in verse 11 we get the place that Christ takes in regard to it, as in Psalm 22. He who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one. The counsel of God with regard to Christ is that He is to be Firstborn among many brethren. The great point is that the saints are to be brought into oneness with God’s Son, become man, for that end: oneness, not on the ground of the flesh, but through redemption. We are to be conformed to the image of God’s Son; this is God’s purpose; we are to be brought to know the love of God. In Romans 8 the apostle says: “I am persuaded that neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. We are in that circle.
As Apostle, Christ inaugurates the system of our profession; as High Priest He maintains it when it is established. But we have to know what is established [p. 413] to begin with. God has spoken by His Son that is the Apostle. The great salvation is what was revealed. There were many things in the teaching of the Lord that indicated the grace into which saints were to be brought. We see this in the parable of the prodigal son; grace brings us into the Father’s house, and Christ has declared to us the Father’s name. “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”. The purpose is to set the saints in company with God’s Son, that they may be loved as He is loved, so we get: “bringing many sons to glory”. Predestinated to sonship, chosen in Him.
The accomplishment of God’s counsel is glory. We have the light of God’s counsel, but it is not yet displayed in us, yet so we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. It is an old saying: ‘that gives us now as heavenly light what soon will be our part’. Christ is well pleased to have a company who are loved as He is loved; in fact He declares the Father’s name to us that we may know it. Nothing is more wonderful than that He is to have a company who are to know what He knows, to know the love wherewith He is loved. Sovereign grace brings us to the Father’s house and Christ declares the Father’s name, and then in the midst of the church sings praises to God.
It is important to see the sovereignty of God’s grace (Romans 5), how He commends His love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us — but the great point is, that we should know the love wherewith He is loved: so we get in Romans 8 where we are brought into the light of purpose, the truth that nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is important to see that there is nothing in this epistle that goes beyond what we get in chapter 2: how we come into it we see later on. Verse 12 is present. It is quoted from Psalm 22 and that Psalm [p. 414] refers not to heaven but to earth: all the statements refer to earth (1) the assembly, (2) the great congregation, (3) all the ends of the earth. “I will declare thy name unto my brethren”: they are His brethren because they are the objects of divine counsel. It is in the assembly this is made good. There is no reason to doubt that where two or three are gathered unto His name, there He is in the midst, and if there is faith for it He will act in the assembly. Christ does not act in the assembly apart from the state of the assembly. If people come together, they are not going to have bright meetings if as individuals they are not bright.
The proper ground in the assembly is that we are Christ’s brethren. He is not ashamed to call us so. We are sanctified by the will of God. He is the Sanctifier, we are set apart to God. Then (verses 12, 13) scriptures are quoted to show the place Christ has taken: “Behold I and the children which God hath given me”. These scriptures indicate that God had something even when the mass of the nation was blinded: the children were to be for signs and wonders; Isaiah 8. Before we get the praising we get the Father’s name declared; that declaration is to make known to the assembly that they are loved as He is loved. Worship is not realised apart from the assembly. We are sons individually, but the full realisation of it is in the assembly. The idea is that of many sons, the declaration is to bring home to the saints what the Father is to Christ. We do not properly begin on this ground till the breaking of bread is over. We get very little of the good of the assembly, for we are so weak and we have not faith for it.
We get in Scripture the coming together in assembly — then the Lord is there. When we do come together in assembly the first thing is to break bread, then it is as the Lord may lead. There is no restriction save as to what would lead to confusion, “Let the prophets speak two or three”, “Let your women keep silence”. Coming together in assembly is that the assembly is in function. The discipline meeting in 1 Corinthians 5 is abnormal. An assembly meeting called for the special purpose of discipline is far better than tacking it on to the public meeting.
We are greatly helped in coming together as the people of God, for we enter there into our proper privilege, we are refreshed, encouraged. The breaking of bread is introductory — the Supper is remembrance, In Christendom they falsify it (1) by making it individual, whereas it is collective, and (2) they make it administration when it is communion. The bread which we break, the cup which we bless. The effect of the Lord’s supper is to put us in the touch of affection with Him and with one another: we recall the proof of His love to us, and are thus put afresh in touch with Him. When the Corinthians came together it was to eat their own supper — it was not the Lord’s supper.
First of all “when ye come together in assembly” — the subject of these chapters in Corinthians from 11 down to the end of chapter 14 is the assembly. The practical effect of the Lord’s supper is that it extinguishes us — we realise that we are all there on one common ground as His guests. We may have the assembly extended through the week, but every first day of the week we begin afresh — then we start with the Lord’s supper. The Lord’s death is to have a great place with us. We are in the fellowship of His death. Baptism is that I am committed to His death, but the fellowship of His death goes much deeper.
Verse 14. — We get here the ‘cause’ which Christ has taken up — not angels. “The children” refer to the true remnant of Israel; “the children are partakers of flesh and blood”. Christ takes up the seed of Abraham; I believe that is the true seed of Abraham — not after the flesh. It is not the cause of angels He takes up. “The children”, “seed of Abraham”, “brethren” are all the same line, the line of God’s purpose. Christ became man that He might die and make a way out of the ruin for us, Christ in all things was made like unto His brethren, exposed to and able to suffer pressure and temptation.
God could not touch man except by death — man was with God’s judgment upon him; I see, therefore, no way in which God could touch man for good apart from death. God sets to work to remove death so that His testimony in grace could go out to man. If we are to approach God, we have to go the same road — i.e., through death.
On the divine side, Christ tasted death for everything, so that the testimony of God’s grace might come out. “Whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood, for the shewing forth of his righteousness” — He takes pains to vindicate Himself in the eyes of the universe. “That he should be just” — He is not indifferent to sin.