CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 8
The previous chapter showed us the order of the Priest, and a great deal hangs on that. It is evident that the order of the Priest must greatly affect those who approach to God by Him, “such a high priest became us”. In the first verse or two we get the Priest installed, and then we get on to new ground which leads eventually to the worshippers. The whole system depends upon the order of the Priest; the word of the oath makes the Son Priest who is consecrated for evermore; all hangs upon that, it declares our place and establishes it. He must be Son to be suitable to our calling. You get much more on to the ground of the worshippers in chapters 9 and 10, what the priestly family is — the High Priest first, and then the priestly family. But first we must have the new covenant. The last chapter was the new [p. 446] Priest; a new Priest necessitates a new covenant. The new covenant must have a new sanctuary, and the new sanctuary must have new worshippers; it all leads up to that.
But first, the footing on which we are with God as men down here must be determined; we must know this, or we could not avail ourselves of the privilege of our calling. There could not be entrance into privilege so long as men were under law; it is only as under grace you could enter, or you would be constantly shut out by your own failure. All takes its character from the knowledge of what the One has done and is, who has entered in. You must know the terms on which God is with us down here, or you cannot go a step further. Chapter 8 is not proper Christian privilege, for strictly the new covenant has application to Israel, but we have not to read it in the letter but in the spirit — you must be on the terms of the new covenant though not strictly under it. The apostle speaks of able ministers of the new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; you must take it up and understand it in the spirit. The covenant itself is made with Israel and Judah, but, if in relation to God, we must be either under law or under grace. If under grace you are on the principle of the new covenant. The covenant is the expression of the will of God: all through it is “I will”. It is only in view of Christ being David’s seed that the eternal covenant with David was made, for David had to say, “My house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure”; he has to look on to the morning without clouds. J.N.D. has pointed out that in that very passage, 2 Samuel 22, when it was a question of victory over his enemies, it is all exultation, but when he got into the result of his own faith, he has to end with “my house be not so with God”, though there is still the outlook through grace.
[p. 447] In the first verses of chapter 8 you have the Priest installed for us, “we have such an high priest” — you come to the point of appropriation. Some are not quite clear about appropriation. It lies in the expression “we have”. It does not say ‘God has’. God has installed Him, He is a Priest with God, but now it comes in “for us”; we have to use Him. He leads you into all that into which He Himself has entered, so faith says, “we have such an high priest”.
The tabernacle represents a moral order of things; it is not a material thought, which makes it difficult sometimes to understand. The tabernacle is a figure in one sense of the universe, but I imagine in the moral not the material sense, the whole order of things that will prevail when God has brought to pass the result of His ways. A remarkable thing is that the tabernacle was anointed with oil; a point of great significance, for the whole order of things will be established in the pervading power of the Holy Spirit, but you must divest your mind of the material idea. What you get in new creation is God all in all, the whole thing characterised by the power of the Spirit. Nothing is set up again on the ground of human responsibility. We are a kind of first fruits of His creatures, because we are brought into the Spirit’s power whilst all around is in ruin. All through revelation the Spirit was promised. He is called “the Holy Spirit of promise”. In the eternal state there will be no trace of sin, for God trusts nothing again to the creature, everything will be established in the power of the Spirit; every moral question has been raised and settled, and God will be all in all — God morally.
A new thought is introduced here in connection with the High Priest; it is no longer succouring the tempted, and sympathising, but Minister of the sanctuary, the proper part of Aaron’s priestly work. That is what we have: “such an high priest”.
[p. 448] We have had the wilderness in the previous part, and now we get to the holy places where the Priest is charged with everything connected with approach to God. There is no approach to God simply by the individual, according to the divine idea, “we both have access by one Spirit”, that is two at all events — Jew and Gentile. The holy places are the inner and the outer, the holy and the holiest of all. Moses had the setting up of the first system, but he had not the administration of it when set up. Aaron had charge of the holy places. The Apostle is on God’s side in approaching us, but the High Priest is on our side in all connected with approaching God, that all may be according to God and have His authority.
What is so essential to Christianity is the realisation of the place which Christ occupies as man in the presence of God, not only as from God but God-ward. The thought of incarnation is by many confined to what Christ was here, but the object was that man might be in the presence of God according to His glory. The Priest is charged with all connected with approach to God. Moses went in to get the mind of God, but not as representing others. The mercy-seat was the place of divine communications. In Romans, Christ is that mercy-seat whom God hath set forth. It is where God has put Himself in communication with man. You do not get into the holiest till you have learned the truth of the mercy-seat. The mercy-seat was to declare God’s righteousness, it was the vindication of His character, the ground on which He comes out to man. The altar of burnt-offering is where man meets God; the mercy-seat was wholly God’s side; the burnt-offering indicated the existence of a ground of acceptance for man through Christ’s sacrifice.
There is a difference between the apostle and prophet. The prophet was more continuous; the work of the apostle was inauguration. There is only one apostle in Hebrews, and he is also God’s mouthpiece,
[p. 449] the Prophet — Christ was essentially that. In the gospel of Mark, which views Christ as Prophet, He is “Son of God” because essentially God’s mouthpiece.
The tendency with man, if he has any sense of the failure of the church, is to begin again, to try and set up a sort of pattern of what the church originally was. It has been said that if we are a testimony to anything it is to the ruin of the church, but people do not quite like that, they want to be ‘a local expression’ of something. It is humiliating to be a testimony to a ruin! Irvingism was a futile effort to set up the church again in its original order. No greater mistake can be made if the church is in ruins than to attempt to set up anything, but if you have apprehended the ruin you can stand apart from what is contrary to the Lord, and be guided by the light which was from the beginning, without making any pretension to ecclesiastical order.
I think it is important to see what are the terms of the new covenant; they represent the terms on which God is with us, which is much more important than the thought of the terms on which we are with God. Not law, but grace. The principles of what comes out in the new covenant with regard to us, are forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit; the literal terms were with Israel; the law will be written in their minds — the effectual teaching of the Spirit of God — and then: “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”. So with the Christian, the only two things you actually have are forgiveness and the Spirit. God is known to us in grace; each one knows Him for himself, his own offences forgiven; and so all know Him from the least to the greatest. It is of all importance to apprehend the two things we actually have by the grace of God — forgiveness and the Spirit — the spirit of the blessing of the new covenant. Having the Spirit involves indeed a great deal more, I quite admit that, but as to [p. 450] what a Christian actually has, no one can say more than the Spirit and forgiveness. As to Israel, it is the law written in their heart, and forgiveness. The law will be in that day in the mind and the heart, the mind is the intelligence; the heart the affections. It is the work of the Spirit to write the law in their heart, but they will really take that from Christ; He said, “thy law is within my heart”. We get what is infinitely greater, the indwelling of the Spirit, we learn everything by the Spirit. Christ is formed in us; that is now the Spirit’s work. The law will be written in the heart of flesh for the Jew, the stony heart must be taken away and a heart of flesh given; the law could not be written on the heart of stone, there is nothing in man naturally on which God could write. The passage in Ezekiel speaks, I suppose, of new birth. The Spirit’s work now in the believer is to form the new man, which is an altogether different thing. If Israel were to be in a world full of evil, they could not get on: you must have the whole outward condition of things changed if the law is written on the heart. Christianity has come into the world and has changed nothing outwardly; it delivers out of what is. It is wonderful that Christianity could be brought in, the house of God set up, without changing anything around us. The world has come in to break down the walls of the house of God, but it has never got rid of it, though it has marred its character. The Spirit of God is as really there as in the early days of Christianity, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
The Spirit remains in spite of all man has done, and so all that is essential abides, for all that is essential is in the Spirit, though no doubt we are all hindered and affected by the state of things.
It is a great thing to learn the terms on which it is the pleasure of God to be with us; many are not established in grace. It is His pleasure to be with us [p. 451] on the ground of divine teaching and forgiveness; if people knew that better they would be more free of legalism. He could not be with us on any other terms. If it were better understood saints would have more confidence in God. Devotedness on our part does not improve a bit the terms on which God is with us: and no one is taught a single thing by devotedness — none of us are taught a single line except by the Spirit.
It is well to notice what we have at the close of the chapter, “in that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old”. The instant God began to speak of a new covenant, it made the first old. It is remarkable that Israel should not have seen that. And then, “that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away”. By speaking of the new, He made the first old and proved it was near disappearing. It had been near it since Jeremiah’s day, and now it was very near, and they were called to come out of the things connected with it, for not merely the promise of the new covenant had come, but the Mediator of it, and we have come to it.
Hebrews has a most remarkable place in the word. The people had special difficulties, and God took special pains to meet these difficulties. The writer argues the matter from their own scriptures, which is very important. It was not that they found fault with the old covenant, but God found fault with it; as though God had said — It is no use my being with them on those terms, I will be with them on other terms; and that is, forgiveness and divine teaching.
A man must have forgiveness because he is responsible. Forgiveness comes first, but it is not entered into until the teaching of the Spirit comes, so the teaching is put first. In chapter 9 He is Mediator of a new covenant; but I suspect it is new in the sense of a different kind of covenant, wholly different, not only new. The point of it is, that God is not [p. 452] satisfied to be with you on any other terms. Men naturally prefer the old covenant. The mind of man does not care to go beyond what it can take in. It can understand law, but cannot understand the Spirit, and so man complains he cannot understand the things of God. Man can take in the idea of forgiveness, though I doubt if it is possible for man to take in the divine and scriptural thought of it: forgiveness in Scripture is non-imputation, not only forgiveness of what I have done, but sins will never be imputed to me. The new covenant comes on the ground that man has already been tested — not to test you. The only terms can be that God must do all for man: the new comes in when man has broken down under the old. “I will remember no more”. “He frankly forgave”; there is no reserve, all is gone.
The great object of the gospel is that God may be known. People do not see that enough in connection with the gospel; the object is, not simply that man may be saved from hell, but that God may be known in the heart of the believer. The object is not attained till the Holy Spirit is received and has brought God to us. God could not have been fully known if evil had not entered, but I am inclined to ask those who raise questions about evil being allowed — Are you prepared to take in hand the government of the world? If I could undertake to govern better than God, I might be entitled to raise some of these questions.