In
the preceding chapter, the apostle has touched on a very important
point, which, as regarded the Hebrews, (and, indeed, any of us,) was a
most absorbing one: I allude to the two covenants. The first covenant
made at Sinai had a very distinct character, viz., requiring man’s
righteousness, and therefore it gendered “to bondage.” What
distinguished the law as a covenant was, that, instead of promise, it
was blessing held out on the ground of obedience. The distinctive
character of the ten commandments was, that they required obedience.
All the prophets, indeed, spoke of failure in it; but all was connected
with the old thing, and went on the ground of their obedience. That
must be or not be; there is no question of a new nature. Now, we are
told, “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” It is not a
question of how he gets holiness: the holy nature will desire to obey,
but it is a different thing to the righteousness of obedience. God’s
nature is holy. I do not speak of God’s obedience—it is His nature, and
we must have the new nature to be holy. The law showed God holy, but
the condition of the law was, “If ye shall obey my voice.” The promises
of God are connected under the law with the obedience of man. That
covenant is now altogether put away.
We
are called to obedience, and we are sanctified unto obedience, but that
is different to being put under conditions. The new covenant has made
the former old. God brings in a new one, not according to the covenant
He made with them when He brought them out of Egypt. In chap.
9
the apostle is pressing what the conditions of the new covenant are. If
the old had been perfect, God would not have brought in a new one. God
will not let man have blessing on that ground, and why? The reason is
that He has tried man and found him unable to bring forth any thing
good. If it is to be on the ground of my righteousness, I cannot have
the blessing at all. Man must be convinced there is no good in himself.
Man could never place himself on that ground but as maintaining the
pride of the human heart that pretends to be able to gain it. The
principle of requiring something from man is entirely set aside, and
those who know God’s principle, know that it is only in the pride of
the natural heart that man could take blessing in that way.
Unless
grace, and simply grace, lays new ground, there is no hope whatever.
God has brought in a new thing. He had marked out in the provision of
bulls and goats, etc., another way of getting blessing. There must be
coming to God by cleansing from sin, instead of on the ground of being
clean. It was impossible for those things to take away sin. There was
no relieving the conscience by these ceremonial observances, which were
but shadows, and not the very
image
of the things to come. Besides the day of atonement, there were
continual sacrifices needed to keep them clean; but there was no coming
to God (saving in the sense in which He says, “I bare you on eagle’s
wings and brought you unto myself.”) Christ died, the just for the
unjust, to “bring us to God.” In the tabernacle service there was no
coming near by the people or even by the priests. Nadab and Abihu took
strange fire and offered that not taken from the burnt offering; and
God says, Ye shall not come at all times, etc; but there was the great
day of atonement, and the high priest even could only go in on that day
with clouds of incense. There was no revelation of God whatever at that
time: there was revelation from God, but not
of
God.
He said, “I dwell in the thick darkness.” Moses could go into God’s
presence without a veil. When he came out, he put a veil on his face,
but when he went in, he took the veil off. Moses, as mediator,—type of
Christ—represented the nation before God, but then the figure dropped;
and we find Aaron could only go in once a year. His work was done
behind the veil. God could give revelations of Himself to them, but
never were their consciences in the presence of God. There was an
unrent veil between God and the people and the priests also. This is
very important to notice, because of the principle brought out in the
contrast of our portion and the Jews’. We are in the presence of God,
and we are always there; that is the Christian ground: they never were.
Daily cleansing is needed with us, too; but still, we are always in the
presence of God. This is
very little realized by the people of God now. “If we walk in the light
as he is in the light,” etc. The work is done once for all, and we are
brought nigh by virtue of that work; and if we are not there through
that work, we never can get there. I am speaking of God looking for
atonement, and our standing in the presence of God, not the children
with the Father. Our feelings may be varying from day to day, but our
standing before God never changes in Christ. And if we reject this one
sacrifice for sin, there is no other.
Verse
3
,
etc. Within the second veil none could enter. God’s reason for it is,
“The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet made manifest.” The object of the veil was to show that the
people could not come to God. He could give them laws, punish them if
they broke them, enable them to look to Him; but they could not come
near. If it is a question of being in His presence, I must come where
He is. In His presence sin is not measured by transgression, but by
what God is—“in the light as He is in the light.” “Ye were darkness,
but now are ye light in the Lord.” God’s people are now brought into
His presence in the light, and always there; it is where God has placed
them by faith—not a question of their feeling. As long as the first
tabernacle was yet standing, this was not made manifest at all: God was
hiding Himself. Directly the veil was gone, He must have let in the
Gentiles as well as the Jews; but the very nature of the sacrifices
shut out
the thought of one
eternal redemption. The repetition of them showed that sin was there,
or they would not have been repeated. The one sacrifice for sin having
been made, shows the sin to be entirely put away. The nature of those
sacrifices was never to reveal God, and never to have the conscience
perfect.
There
is another practical thing to be noticed here. He does not merely say
sin is put away, but the conscience is perfect; no more conscience of
sins
(not sinning); that is the same as a perfect conscience. We all have a conscience of
sinning,
but if I have a conscience of
sin
I
cannot come to God, but am like Adam hiding from Him. What we have here
is not only sin put away in the presence of God, but put away from the
conscience, too. Many own the former, but think they need repeated
forgiveness, repeated cleansing with blood. How could sin be put away?
It could not be but by the suffering of Christ. Must Christ, then,
suffer again?
There
was piety in the Old Testament, and piety is a blessed thing, but there
was never a purged conscience. We never find in the most pious persons
under the law the sense of being in the presence of God. The high
priest must go once a year within the veil with clouds of incense; but
now the holiest
is
made manifest, the veil being rent from top to bottom, and the conscience as perfect as the light in which we stand.
Verse
10
Certain things were imposed on them until the time of reformation. Christ came “an High
Priest
of good things to come.” What does that refer to? Some may find a
difficulty as to whether “to come” refers to what was future for the
Jews, while that tabernacle was standing, or to what is now future. I
believe
both.
All was
new
in Christ. It was to come on a new foundation. The basis is laid for the entire and perfect reconciliation of man with God.
Verse
7
Under the old covenant, it was only “the errors of the people” that were forgiven.
Now
God
takes up the spring of a man altogether. The old covenant dealt with
man on the ground of obedience; now God is bringing the sinner himself
into a new condition before Him. The old covenant was a partial remedy
with the declaration that they could not come into God’s presence.
While this kept up a testimony for God, now a new thing is brought out,
not to patch up the old thing—that was the old even in its remedial
character; but now it is the bringing in a new thing entirely—giving a
new nature in Christ. The Jewish system provided no remedy for great
sins (“keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins”); it was a
provision for the old man without seeing God, instead of bringing man
perfect, in a new nature, into the presence of God.
Rom. 3
God declares His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,
etc. Righteousness was never revealed under the law—God bore with
things, but there was no declaration of righteousness. Now it is “to
declare his righteousness.” Righteousness was revealed when the
atonement was made. Directly
it
is other ground than promise given to those walking by faith, as
Abraham, there is no coming into the presence of God. The old covenant
goes on the old ground; the new covenant goes on new ground. The work
of Christ and the blood of Christ are not provision for the sins of the
old man, but for the perfecting of the conscience of the new man, to
set him in the presence of God. We could not be in the presence of God
with one spot upon us; we are brought into heaven itself. He is gone in
once into the holy place, not gone in to come out again and go in; but
by virtue of His own blood He is gone in once. God looking upon the
blood cannot see sin. It is not a question of my value of that blood,
but the conscience rests on the value God finds in it. “When I see the
blood I will pass over.” My heart wants to value it more, but the
question is, how could I be in the presence of God with a spot upon me?
God looks on that blood, and if He looks on the blood, He cannot look
on the sin; if He did, it would not value the blood. Where is the
blood? It has been presented to God, not to man, and God has accepted
it. Impossible that God can impute sin to a believer, it would be
slighting the blood of Christ.
Another
thing is, it is for ever and ever done. What is faith? It is thinking
as God thinks. If I say Christ is gone in once with His own blood, does
that ever cease to be there? Then I cannot cease to be perfect; Christ
has either done the work for ever or not at all. Another word gives it
such power, too, “having obtained
eternal redemption,” and it is “once for all.” How long is it to last
?
For
ever. There is not only cleansing, but redemption. He has taken me up
out of where I was, into the presence of God—appropriated me in the
presence of God for ever. Has He taken me up in an unclean state? While
the veil was there, I could not be taken into God’s presence; but now
it is a question of the work of Christ bringing me there. Has He
brought me there in an unfit state? Impossible! He has “obtained
eternal redemption for us,” “who, through the eternal Spirit, offered
himself without spot to God.” We get here, first, His own perfect will
in it. He offered Himself; not only, “Lo I come;” but, here filled with
the Spirit, He offers Himself up. Christ having become a man, He was
obedient in all things; but another thing was, He came to offer
sacrifice. As a victim, He was man, spotless man, and the giving
Himself up as a sacrifice was His own act; through the eternal Spirit
He did it. It is not here the point of sins being laid upon Him, but
the giving Himself up, for the whole question of good and evil to be
settled on Him in God’s presence. He gave Himself up for God to do what
He would with Him, to make Him a curse if He would; and He was made a
curse; yet it was His own will to come into that place.
It
was redemption man needed, not only a little cleansing. Redemption was
being taken out of the condition in which we were. God’s glory needed
to be vindicated where God had been dishonoured. Here was
man
in rebellion, and in ruin as well as rebellion, under Satan, and He
(Christ) must suffer, for God to be glorified—He offered Himself up.
Here it was by the power of the Eternal Spirit. There was divine energy
in the man, not mere feeling, etc, and it was “without spot,” when He
was tried even unto death. He became a burnt offering, and that was a
sweet savour to God. Every movement of His will was pure, purity in all
His thoughts and acts, and there was the unhesitating giving up of
Himself to be made even that hateful thing, sin. He would be made sin,
made a curse, even unto death; He offered Himself up without reserve;
“He was made sin for us;” but He gave Himself up for it: therefore it
was a sweet savour. None of the sin offerings were a sweet savour to
God: the word used for consuming them is not the same as the burnt
offering. For the sin offering, it was merely a word signifying
burning, used; in the other it means a sweet savour. It not being
imposed upon Him, but His offering Himself up, made it this. All
through His life He knew no sin, but on the cross the sin was laid upon
Him, and He went through death for it. It led to death—its wages.
Therefore we read of the blood, “How much more shall the blood of
Christ,” etc. Two things there are, the person offering Himself, and
the proof of His death for sin; blood being the proof of death. There
is a cleansing, purging, daily; but that is with water, and not for
forgiveness; and the Father forgiving is another thing. “Without
shedding of blood is no remission.” How clearly this shows that
if
it is not done by this, it never can be; the blood never can be shed
again. “Purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
Here, again, we come back to the conscience. “How much more shall the
blood of Christ … so eternal inheritance;” (
14
,
15
, ) there is perpetuity spoken of again, too.
Ver.
13
Two things are here alluded to, and not indiscriminately: the great day
of atonement, when bulls and goats were offered, and the red heifer,
which was for daily cleansing for communion. This was one thing; the
other was done once a year, for then it was repeated year by year
continually. The blood of the victim was taken into the holy place, and
the body burnt outside. This was significant of Judaism done with.
Israel was the camp. They had a fleshly religion—flesh in connexion
with God; and it could never answer. It was appointed to prove man.
Here the blood was carried in. The scapegoat took away the sins
confessed over it into the wilderness. Thus the sins were gone. Now our
position is having a place inside the veil by the blood, and sin gone.
That is our place, shown thus in the type. The “heifer” was for
sprinkling the unclean—not with
blood,
but
with water and something connected with it, viz., the ashes of the
heifer. A heifer was to be taken that had never borne the yoke; and a
clean man was to slay the heifer, and sprinkle the blood seven times,
always in the presence of God. Its value always is in the presence of
God. But a defiled person, even through touching death, could not go
there. The ashes were to be taken
with
the running water, showing the sin all consumed in the sacrifice
offered long ago. The things we have failed about are the very things
Christ died for; and the Spirit brings to the conscience the sense of
that defilement for which Christ died, and which He put away. This
makes me feel the sin much more, while it makes me see it has all been
put away. It is not so much the question of
guilt,
but
of the terrible nature of sin that occupies me. It is the re-sprinkling
with water, not blood; because the re-sprinkling with the blood would
call in question its permanent value. The Spirit brings to my
conscience and heart the value of Christ’s death, and so communion is
restored, which is hindered by a sinful thought, etc.
Two
instances we have of sprinkling with blood once for all—in the priest
and the leper; the whole walk and thoughts consecrated to God according
to the value of Christ’s blood. But that
never
loses
its value. If I do not walk according to the value of it, the Spirit of
God brings to my remembrance that my sin brought Christ to ashes. This
gives a much deeper sense of the sin. We find out that we have allowed
ourselves to be carried away by that which brought God’s wrath out, and
for which Christ agonized.
“To
serve the living God.” Under the old covenant, obedience was required
from man in his Adam-nature; a veil was before God, and man outside—and
he must stay outside. The sacrifices made a temporary provision for
intercourse with God, but there was no coming
to God.
Christ, as High Priest of good things to come, brings
the
new man into the presence of God for ever. The veil is rent, and there
is a risen person with cleansing power in the presence of God. Such is
the perfectness of the place in which we are set, and every
inconsistency is judged according to it.
Verses
16
,
17
The word “testament” is rightly used in these two verses. It
facilitates the understanding of the passage to see this. Excepting
these two verses, read always “covenant.”
Thus we find a common event brought in as an illustration of Christ’s death. He left us all the blessing in
dying
—it
came into complete force directly. We are freed once for all through
His death. There is no alteration of it. The blessings of the new
covenant became available, valid after His death.
The
first must become old if there is to be a new one: the bringing in of
the new one involves dying. In this Epistle we get very little of the
humiliation part of Christ’s work. In the first chapter it is brought
in in connexion with His divine person, “when He had by Himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.” The
purging of our sins is spoken of by the way, and then we hear of His
glory on high. The blessedness of Christ’s sacrifice, Christ exalted,
and having honour put upon Him, are more the subjects in Hebrews. There
are three aspects in which the value of Christ’s blood is here seen.
First, it was the seal of the covenant, connected with its dedication
to God. That was also done in connexion with the covenant with Abraham.
(
Gen. 15
) A
person,
binding himself to death in the most solemn way, passes through the
pieces of the sacrifice. It was the seal of the covenant. Second, it is
purifying. Third, the blood is for remission.
First,
the enjoining or sanction to it given by the blood. Another thing
closely connected with that was consecration by blood. Blood was
sprinkled on the leper for cleansing, and on the priest for
consecration. The covenant sealed, and the people bound to it by blood;
and the leper and the priest are the three cases in which persons are
sprinkled. There must be blood, the power of death brought in, or there
was entire separation from God. The wonderful efficacy of the blood of
Christ is that it brought in death; those separated from God are
brought back by His death. “You who were far off are brought nigh by
the blood of Christ.” The blood was the figure of the life taken. When
blood was taken the whole being of man was given up, and the agony of
His soul on the cross was the separation from God. “My God, my God! why
hast thou forsaken me
?”
The
consequences of it are most important to us. Man with all his perverse
will, all his sin, where is it all, if he is dead? It is all gone, if
he is dead. “He that is dead, is freed from sin.” There is an absolute
cessation of the whole will and being in which he was, as a sinner.
Christ has taken that place for me. Cain and Abel, as far as appearance
went, were equally likely to get the blessing, but in the one was no
faith. He did not own that death had come in
between
man and God. As long as man is seeking good from himself, he does not
see himself dead. Are you seeking a dead man or a living man? You are
seeking fruit from a living man, and not owning you are dead, if you
are seeking fruit from yourself. I cannot search to see whether dead or
not, if dead. Abel came by slain beasts to God. He had faith. We do not
know how he learnt it, but death came in, and man was clothed in skins
of animals. That is, in figure, what makes our peace. “He that is dead
is freed from sin.” There was nothing done for man while Christ was
alive, as to the putting away of sin. “Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone.” All that was proved by it was,
that man in his natural state could not be reconciled to God.
The
first covenant was not made without the sprinkling of blood, but it
threw back the man behind death. If you do not obey, all is lost. (
Jer. 34:16
,
20
)
If they did not obey, they must die; because they promised obedience
and sealed the promise by being sprinkled with the blood. In the case
of Abraham, God made a promise to him, and sealed it by passing between
the pieces, by death. The question was raised by the law of righteousness
among living men. There were various figures which intimated the
necessity of death coming in, but obedience was the rule, and
consequently all was failure. Yet the principle was brought out all
through - there must be blood. Now, under grace we see the whole
putting away of sin. If we had died, judgment must have come on us.
Christ coming into it, and bearing the judgment for us, we are free
from the whole thing.
When
God gave the covenant, He gave it this sanction - the sprinkling of
blood. Aaron himself alone, was not sprinkled with blood, typical of
Christ, who needed not to be consecrated with blood Himself, but
brought blood in for others.
Then
you get the sprinkling of vessels - not for forgiveness, but for
cleansing. "Almost all things under the law are purged with blood" (not
all things are purified with blood), because there is a purifying with
water not connected with blood-shedding. Out of His side came blood and
water, representing the effectual grace of expiation and purifying. You
could not have man morally purified without death; you must have death.
Out of a dead Christ the water flows. Water signifies cleansing by the
Spirit with the word. But there must be death - not the cleansing of
the living old man; the old man is put to death - I do not own him
alive, but there is something belonging to you (your members on the
earth) to be mortified and kept in death. The ground is laid for
purifying by the blood of the heifer, which was sprinkled seven times
before the door of the tabernacle; but water is the figure used for
cleansing, namely, "washing of water by the word." "Ye are clean
through the word which I have spoken unto you." Reckon yourselves to be
dead and to have the power of life in Christ. I have neither life nor
righteousness outside of Christ. I have nothing without Him. If I look
for water to purify, or anything, it must be by death I get it; then
there must be faith. If I look at myself as a living man in the world,
I find my will working; then I am not really dead. If I set myself to
inquire, I am not walking in faith. I am told to reckon myself dead -
that is faith. You cannot mortify your members till you can say, I am
dead. If the old man is not dead, it is sin. There was no putting away
of sin but by death itself - taking life. "Without shedding of blood is
no remission" - not sprinkling here: you must have the applying the
punishment to the One who takes the sin. In the remission of sins is
involved the whole of God's character, majesty, glory. If God does not
deal with sin as sin, there is no righteousness - it is indifference.
There must be suffering for the sin; then as to death, I am clear of it.
Remission is not connected with sprinkling. This is important in a
twofold way. First, there was actual suffering under the consequences
of sin; and, second, this could be but once. It was done once for all,
and if the forgiveness of my sins is not perfect thereby, it never can
be accomplished. It will never be done again. We learn more and more
the value of the blood; but the work of Christ on the cross has a
perfect value, into which the angels desire to look. The thing by which
I have remission never can be done again. When I speak of water, it has
its importance only so far as it washes (there is washing and
sprinkling spoken of); but not so with the blood; this had to be
presented to God, the offended Judge. The efficacy of the blood is
outside ourselves. As regards the man, he is cleansed once for all, but
still that is connected with the man. That is not all; the blood has an
efficacy in itself, as being the judgment for sin, and tells the tale
to God that the judgment is passed over, the sin gone. God says, "When
I see the blood, I will pass over." That makes the entire full
distinction from personal application in cleansing. There is a special
value in it for man, because a man when cleansed does not like to get
dirty, while one not cleansed does not mind it. True, that as to the
water when once regenerated by the word, it is done for ever - once for
all; but there is besides the constant cleansing of the feet needed.
There is no presenting of blood afresh to God - no fresh "shedding of
blood." There is increase of spiritual search needed by us to know more
of the value of the blood, but there is no fresh searching needed by
God for Him to know its value.
Verse 21, etc. Three things were done on the day of atonement. Blood
was put on the mercy-seat, representing Christ gone into heaven, the
ground on which we can preach to all the world. That was connected with
Jehovah's lot. His death glorified God, whether one or a thousand are
saved.
All
was in utter confusion by sin. What kind of world is this? Where is
righteousness? Where is love? What folly there is in infidelity! How
can men solve the riddle of all the misery we see around without God?
Where is the goodness of God to be seen? How can it be attempted to be
explained without Christ? Indifference to sin is not love. Men try to
persuade themselves God will be indifferent to sin. When I see God's
judgment for sin on Christ, I get at the centre of God's heart -
righteousness is satisfied, and, what is more, God can rest in His
love. And if you come as a sinner to God, and rest in Christ, it is a
matter of the glory of God to see you there because of the blood
"The
heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices." Satan and his
angels are there and cleansing is needed. This purging is not
remission. God must have His house cleansed as well as His people made
righteous. Compare Colossians 1.
On
the people's lot, the scapegoat, the particular sins of the people were
confessed. This was substitution, v. 26. And there is perpetual value
in the sacrifice. He once suffered. This suffering was not the mere
fact of death. The agony of His soul when He cried, "My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me," was far deeper than the suffering of the
separation of soul and body. Death was looked at as the wages of sin;
God's wrath was poured out on Him against the sin. (Death to Christ was
not merely going out of the body into paradise.) This never can be done
again. He has gone in once into the holy place. If He went in often, He
must have suffered often. "But this man, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down." This does not mean for ever and
ever, but unremittingly He is sitting at the right hand of God. I never
can stand in the presence of God, but through the sacrifice of Christ,
and that is never remitted. He has put sin away; why should He suffer
again? He has put it away according to the glory of God. "Once in the
end of the world hath he appeared." This may appear strange, seeing
that so much of the world's history has gone on since Christ's coming:
but it does not mean chronologically, but the closing in of the ages.
Up to that time God had been trying men as living men in the world.
That is ended - man is not alive now (I speak of man morally, as judged
by God); therefore it is said to the Colossians, "Why as though alive
in the world?" Man has been tried as to life, and now the fig-tree is
cut down. Did it bear fruit? No! and it was cut down. The fig-tree
represented the Jewish nation, in whom God made trial of men under the
best circumstances. "What have I not done to my vineyard?" Christ came
looking for fruit from the fig-tree, and finding none, He said, Cut it
down; let no fruit grow on thee for ever. The "time for figs was not
yet"; the fruit-bearing time not come. God, as it were, said, "they
will reverence my Son." No! then there is no fruit from man for ever.
Man, looked at as in flesh, is under the sentence of death. "When we
were yet without strength . . . Christ died for the ungodly." Man is
not only ungodly, but without power to get out of that state. Christ
must close the history of the old man, by bearing the sin, and must
bring in a new thing. Then God makes a feast and invites to the Supper;
when they not only refuse the Son, but they refuse the Supper.
Man
has been fully tried; and now, if there is to be blessing, it must not
be on the ground of responsibility, but wholly of grace, by the second
Adam, Rom. 5. If I believe this, I find out the truth about the old man
by little and little. At first we only see gross sins perhaps. "But
what is to be done when I find I can do nothing," you say. Own you are
undone. "In me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing."
"And
as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment."
Death is like the policeman to bring us up to the judgment. Then (v.
28) we have the counterpart of this in grace. "So Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many," "and to them that look for him," all
believers, "will he appear . . . without sin." What does that mean? As
to His own Person, He was without sin the first time; but now the same
One comes back - what for? To deal about the sins? No! That He has done
the first time: and now, apart from that entirely, He comes to receive
them to Himself. For those who trust in His first coming, and look for
His second, there is nothing but blessing. There is a work done in us
to make us sharers in that which has been done outside us; but this is
the question of the work done for us, outside of ourselves altogether.
What had I to do with the cross of Christ? The hatred that killed Him,
and the sins that He bore, are all that sinners had to do in it.
Therefore there can never come a shade upon the love of God in the
cross of Christ. It is perfect.