CHRIST AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD
[p. 69] CHRIST AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD
It is not a little striking to see how simply you can read in the Old Testament the history of Christ. I quite admit that if we had not the light of the New Testament we should not have seen this; but having it, we can enter very simply into the way in which the Spirit of God has developed in the Old Testament the truth in regard to Christ.
I do not know anything more interesting in the study of the Psalms than the apprehension of Christ in them, and indeed, as has been said, this is the great interest in the whole of Scripture. We read in 2 Corinthians 3, “the Lord is that Spirit”, that is, of Scripture, and the consequence is that we have now in that way the key to all Scripture. I think the writers of the Old Testament Scriptures had not that key; though holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit, they scarcely had the key to the understanding of them. But when you have the key, then Scripture becomes a completely new book. That is true of Scripture from beginning to end. When you apprehend that the Lord is the spirit of Scripture, you learn to draw in your mind a distinction between the spirit and the letter, though the letter is perfect and cannot be infringed in any way; but the one great point in reading any part of Scripture, the Old Testament as well as the New, is to apprehend that the Lord is the Spirit of the word. It would not be at all difficult to make plain, and in whatever part of Scripture you like to read, from beginning to end, you will find it is so; the Psalms, the Prophets, all are full of Christ, all prove that He is the Spirit of the word. The book of Leviticus would be a dull book in itself without interest, but when you really apprehend the Spirit of Scripture, then Leviticus becomes a book of the deepest interest. And in this connection I will allude to one [p. 70] point; when God set to work to lay down injunctions in regard to the system of sacrifices, He began with the burnt-offering, not with the sin-offering. It is a great point to see that God speaks of things from His height. He speaks from the height of the burnt-offering, and then comes down to the other offerings, until eventually He reaches the sin and trespass-offerings. In the presentation of the offerings all spoke of Christ, and all showed that God would be completely glorified in the place of death by His offering.
There are other things to which I might refer if necessary to prove the point that the Lord is the Spirit of all Scripture.
Now, my object in speaking to you is, that you should be able to get a true judgment of things; and I am perfectly confident of this, that we can only get a true judgment as the eye is attracted to the right hand of God; and, further, to the One who is at the right hand of God. It has often been said, that the right hand of God is the point of interest for the saints, because everything for God, and that is according to God, will surely come forth from the right hand of God; Christ is sitting there; and will sit there only till His enemies are made His footstool. And therefore the right hand of God must of necessity be the point of interest for the minds of the saints.
I cannot tell what is going to happen from looking at events in the world. It is impossible to forecast in that way, for when everything is to take place according to God, the first movement will be from the right hand of God. It will be a great moment for this world when Christ rises from the right hand of God. He does not sit there for ever. He sits now on the Father’s throne, but the day will come when He will rise and sit on His own throne. We learn that from the book of Revelation, and there we may see the tremendous changes that will take place when He rises from the right hand of God.
[p. 71] Now, I take up these three psalms. First, Psalm 102, as presenting to us remarkably the sufferings of the One now at the right hand of God. There you will find that He particularly refers everything to Jehovah. He says, “He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days”. The Lord does not take up what He passes through as the act of men, He receives all as from God. It came to pass in the government of God, in connection with His ways as to Messiah and Israel. The fact is very simple to understand; it was impossible for God to bring in blessing for Israel in connection with Christ after the flesh. When brought in for Israel it must be in life with Christ; and though cut off as Messiah, God gave Him in resurrection length of days even for evermore. So that now He is a priest for ever after the power of an endless life. That is the great thought in Psalm 102, and it stands good for Israel.
Another point is that He gets compensation. The answer of Jehovah is the full recognition of Him as Creator. “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands”. We should never have known that it was Christ who was referred to but for the light of Hebrews 1. It was really Jehovah’s answer, the full recognition that the One cut off down here was the Creator of all things; and while everything created will pass away, He remains. “Thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail”.
Now, it is an immense point if we apprehend that the One who suffered here on earth is really the Creator of all things. It would alter our sense of everything here if we were conscious that all things were created by Christ, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Thus, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not”.
[p. 72] The Creator came here, came into man’s condition, and His strength was weakened, and His days shortened. I believe we have to bear in mind, and the fact still stands good, that the Creator has been here in the midst of the world, that Christ has suffered here, His strength was weakened and His days shortened; and when all that has come to pass in this world, what can be the moral value of the world in the eye of God? And if we understand this, if it comes home to us at all by the grace of God, it must have a profound effect upon us.
Now we pass on to Psalm 110, and here we have another side, the Jehovah side: here Christ’s enemies are to be made His footstool; a very different thought. It is no longer Christ suffering here, and His days shortened, but it is the One who has been received with acclamation at the right hand of God. That is the thought that comes out there, a thought of the greatest import to us.
We pass on now to Psalm 118 before dwelling in detail on Psalm 102. Here we find Christ received in the very city where He was once rejected. There the stone which the builders rejected is become the head stone of the corner. The time has come when they say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”. The Lord took up that expression when He came to Jerusalem for the last time, and said, “Ye shall not see my face until ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”. That completes the history of Christ as Messiah. He will come again to Jerusalem as Man, as Priest after the order of Melchisedec, and then will they say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”. He will be a Priest upon His throne.
I may mention one more point in that connection; the Psalms really close with Psalm 119. All those that follow are supplementary, songs of degrees and praise psalms; but the five books of Psalms close with Psalm [p. 73] 119. And you will find this a point of interest, for while Psalm 118 gives you the answer to Psalm 2, Psalm 119 gives the answer to Psalm 1. Psalm 1 looks for the godly man, and in Psalm 119 you find him, the law being written on his heart. Psalm 2 views Christ as rejected in Zion, and Psalm 118 shows that He is received gladly in the very place where He was rejected. It is no longer the kings standing up, and the rulers rejecting Him, but they say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord”. A mighty change has come to pass, and that brings home to us the completeness of the Psalms. The picture is dark enough in the beginning, but the close is very bright indeed. In Psalm 119 you have a godly company in whose heart the law is written, a people in that sense completely prepared for the Lord. Then you have also the question raised in Psalm 2 answered in Christ being welcomed in the place where He was once rejected, and thus you see how you may read the history of Christ in the Psalms.
Now, the point on our part is to share in the rejection of Christ. We often use Scripture expressions lightly, and without much understanding of their import. Take, for instance, such an expression as ‘crucified and dead with Christ’, do you understand the import of that expression? We are said to be crucified with Christ, but they will not have to be crucified in millennial times. There will be no reproach to bear then; Christ will have come again in glory; no going forth to meet Him then without the camp, bearing His reproach. Many expressions which are suitable to us will have no application to them; there will be no such thing as the fellowship of His death, dead with Him, and crucified with Him. These expressions are all right as to us now, but will have no place when Christ is here in glory. But the question I raise, and it is one proper to be raised, is how far are they real with us? We take up these expressions, but do they state what is really true in your souls? If you say, “I am crucified with Christ”, does that express in your mind a sense of identification with Christ in His crucifixion? This is a point of great moment. If we go back to our baptism, we see there God setting forth His mind as to us, we are buried with Christ. A very long time commonly elapses between the baptism of people and their minds coming to the import of baptism. The import of baptism is that we are buried with Christ, but you have to come in mind to the reality that you are dead with Christ. If you have come to this, you discern the character of the scene in which Christ has been rejected. Christ came here in the perfect grace of God, and the world rejected Him, and the world thus manifested that they preferred Satan as its god and prince because he ministered to the lusts of men, and they had no room for the goodness and grace of God. Hence the true place of the Christian is crucified, dead, and buried with Christ.
But then there is another side. If we have died with Him we shall also live with Him; we must look at the other side as well. There is the suffering side, but that means that you will have part with Him in glory when He comes again. In the place where He was rejected, the Church will come with Him, and participate in His glory when He comes to be glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe.
Remember that Christ will never come again in humiliation, never again be known as He was once known when here on earth; He will come again in glory to be glorified in His saints. The Church will be the vessel in which He will be admired; but at the present time He sits at the right hand of God, waiting until His enemies are made His footstool.
Now, as thus exalted, He is saluted as High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, and my object is to show the import of that in connection with His presence at the right hand of God, and that His being made a priest thus is of the deepest import to us as Christians.
[p. 75] I will refer to two or three passages in the epistle to the Hebrews. (See chapter 4: 14 - 16.) “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”. I quite admit you do not get the actual expression here, ‘the right hand of God’, but the High Priest has passed through the heavens, like the high priest in Israel went through the holy place into the holiest of all. Thus we have a great High Priest passed through the heavens, gone to the right hand of God, I do not doubt at all, to establish there the throne of grace. That was the effect of His going to the right hand of God. Then He is also Priest; you get the thought of the throne of grace in the fact of Jesus being crowned with glory and honour, and this is the basis of the world to come. The principle of the world to come will be the rule of grace, and Christ is gone to the right hand of God to establish the rule of grace. He is a Priest there, and what hangs on that is, He is our representative. The instant you have the idea of a priest, He is representative, and if He is not representative, He is not a priest. Christ is thus very much like Aaron was on the behalf of the children of Israel. God took a distinguished man, the next to Moses, and made him the representative of the people. Moses was hardly the representative of the people He was much more the representative of God, as Aaron was the representative of the people with God.
Another thought connected with the priesthood is that Christ, as representative of the people, is sympathetic; “we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities”. As representative of us at the right hand of God, He is [p. 76] sympathetic with us down here. Now, saints enter into that thought but poorly. In the various pressures under which people suffer from various causes, such as sickness, bereavement, and other trying circumstances, there is a sense of need of sympathy, and therefore it is a great thing to see that the High Priest is sympathetic; and if you understand the force and meaning of that, if you have a sense of what the High Priest is, as representative at the right hand of God, but also sympathetic here, you will find that it bridges entirely the distance between you and God; and in consequence of it you are admonished to “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need”. Mercy and grace are very great realities to faith. We not only obtain mercy, but find grace. Mercy is a less important thing than grace, but we obtain both. It is mercy as to the without, and grace as to the within. You avail yourself of the dominion of grace, to obtain mercy, and grace for the time of need. The kingdom is established in the Person of Christ, at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honour, and the Priest who is ordained to be our representative is sympathetic, and the reign of grace stands good to you and me. It is blessed to think that not simply the throne of grace subsists, but that you are encouraged by the Spirit of God to come boldly to that throne.
In the sense of this we should never faint under difficulties here. They may be very real, and appear overwhelming, but the throne of grace subsists, and you are encouraged to come boldly in every time of need.
We will turn now for a moment to the next chapter. (Hebrews 5: 9, 10.) “And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec”. Christ has become the Author of eternal salvation, and that is in virtue of His work. It [p. 77] is not a question here of temporal deliverance, but of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him. Salvation is brought to pass, I do not doubt accomplished in the death of Christ. I believe that every enemy was vanquished in the death of Christ, and He has become thus the Author of eternal salvation to all that obey Him.
Thus we may stand here in this world in the blessed reality of salvation, with the helmet of salvation on our head because salvation is accomplished. There is no reason that I know of why a saint should not stand here at liberty from the power of the world, and sin, and Satan, because Christ has become to him the Author of eternal salvation. He has vanquished every foe, there is not a power left, for He has vanquished all in His death. The first point is, you are brought into the kingdom, under the sway of His grace; but the deliverance is, that you are set free from the authority of all against God. Christians who are worldly really do not understand grace. If they understood the sway of grace, they would not be overcome by the world, Satan, or sin. If they are overcome there is not a real enjoyment of the good of grace, they are not in the benefit and blessing of the grace of God. The very teaching of grace is that, having denied “ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ”. That is the attitude of the Christian under the influence and power of grace; he is delivered from the present course of things, and learns how to live soberly in this age.
I turn now to Hebrews 6: 19, “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec”.
Also Hebrews 7: 17 - 19, “For he testifieth, Thou art [p. 78] a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof; for the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God”.
Also Hebrews 8: 1, 2, “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man”.
Now, just group these three passages together. I do not say that the presence of Christ at the right hand of God brings in the idea of a forerunner, but the presence of Christ in heaven does. You and I are not to sit at the right hand of God, but we are going to be in heaven. Christ has entered as Forerunner and we follow. If He is Forerunner, He is the first of a company going to have a place in heaven, and the practical result is that we have a hope in heaven, for Christ is our hope. I can contemplate Christ at the right hand of God with the consciousness that I have a hope in heaven. My hope is not of blessing on earth, but that He is going to receive us to Himself, that where He is we may be also; and the practical working of that you get in the next chapter. By the which “we draw nigh unto God”. The whole legal system is set aside, a better hope has been introduced, and the working of that hope is in our drawing nigh to God. If conscious of having a place in heaven, and you have, if Christ is gone there as Forerunner, by that hope you draw nigh to God; and the more conscious you are of that place in heaven the more readily you draw nigh to God. You have every confidence in God, and are going to spend eternity there with Him, in this love, and it must be by that hope that we draw nigh to God. With the levitical system people could never draw nigh to [p. 79] God. They were, on the contrary, made to feel the distance between God and themselves because God was not then revealed. When God has come out in the fulness of His love and made known to us what that love will do for us, in drawing nigh you come near the One who has been made known to you. You could not draw nigh to God if He had not first made Himself perfectly known to you in the greatness of His love.
One point more, Christ is the “minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man”. He takes up the position typified by Aaron in his charge of the holy places. And He has something to offer, He offers the two wave-loaves, the consecrated company as presented by Him to God on the day of Pentecost. The wave-sheaf was offered on one day, and fifty days after was the presentation of the two wave-loaves, that is the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit. He has something to offer as being Minister of the sanctuary. If you asked me to define it I should have some difficulty, but Christ is Minister of it. There is a real and true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. The fact is this, all difficulties in regard to the work and service of God disappear as you enter into the blessed fact of God revealed in the death of Christ; and our approach to God is the necessary result of the sense in our souls of what God has revealed of Himself in that death. I turn to Hebrews 10: 11, “And every priest standeth daily ministering and. offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool”. That brings out a very important thought of the grace of Christ. He would not go up on high until every jot and tittle of the work was done; and now He sits at the right hand of God, the proof that all is done. “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified”. The presence of Christ sitting at the right hand of God is the proof that there is no more offering work to be done. There is a sanctified company, not merely of believers as such, but a priestly company called to serve the living God. They are perfected for ever; having no more conscience of sins. And hence all that follows. We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which He hath consecrated for us through the veil; that is to say, His flesh. It hangs on the blessed revelation of God in righteousness and love. And if you approach it is to a God who has made Himself known in the perfect conciliation of righteousness and love. We can see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, because we see in the cross the perfect conciliation of righteousness and love. God was so glorified there in the death of Christ, and His love so expressed that we might be without fear in the presence of the glory of God. And the more familiar you are with the death of Christ the more familiar you are with the glory of God. In the death of Christ God has made Himself known, and in the resurrection of Christ all His pleasure in regard to man is displayed. And as you learn what it is to be risen together with Christ, you find that you have a priestly place in the presence of God, that you are sanctified, and that the presence of Christ there is the witness that you are perfected for ever.
What is the effect? You approach God not simply as believers but according to the truth of the calling, so really affected by the love of God, that you love God, and approach Him in the consciousness that He has delight in your being before Him in the sense of His love. You approach with full confidence because you are in the light of that love which has been expressed in the death of Christ, and in the sense that it is His pleasure that you should be there before Him in association with Christ, a company of priests in the midst of whom He can sing praise to God.
[p. 81] Now, one word more. You must remember the present is the time of our education. We are formed now by the revelation of the love of God. We are educated in the truth of the calling; therefore the present moment is of the greatest importance, for there are lessons to be learned now never to be learned again. There will be a perfect answer in us to all we are learning down here. All will come out in the holy Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven. Everything must come forth from God. Christ comes from the right hand of God, and the holy Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven. So at present if we are to be a testimony for the kingdom and grace of God here upon earth, we can only be it in proportion as we have gone in to His presence, so as effectually to represent God, and His glory, and His grace here in this world.
In the first part of the epistle to the Ephesians you go into God, and in the latter part you come forth from God, and in the power of the Lord’s might do battle down here upon earth against the influences of the evil in the heavenlies. You stand in the reality of the kingdom, seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and are prepared to do battle with the power of the enemy.
One more word. Christ has been received in heaven with acclamation for the establishment of the kingdom. It is established in heaven; but remember that when Christ comes, and is welcomed here on earth, He will be set forth in the saints, for “He will come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe”. He will come with ten thousands of His saints and be set forth in the holy Jerusalem which comes down from God out of heaven.
May God in His great grace be pleased to divert our attention from the earth and the man here. We shall never get a right thought of God while we look at things here. May He give us to apprehend the greatness and the glory of the Man up there, and the place [p. 82] there, and how important all is in regard to us. He is the Forerunner, the Priest after the order of Melchisedec. He is the Minister of the sanctuary; and at the same time His very presence at the right hand of God is the witness that the offering work is done, the sanctified company is perfected for ever, and have no more conscience of sins. So that they can properly enter into the service of the living God.