The
practical conclusion is drawn in this chapter of what is brought out in
chapter 9 - the unity of the sacrifice; one offering by which the
foundation is laid for the new covenant.
Instead
of finding a man turned out of paradise on earth because of sin, it is
now the second Man gone into the paradise of God in divine
righteousness - gone in by virtue of a new title. which man never had
before. The consequence is, when He comes again in glory, He has
nothing to do with sin. He came once for sin; but when He comes the
second time, it will be without any question of sin, to complete the
salvation wrought out already. When He returns, it is to bring man into
the full blessedness He is in Himself. "To them that look for him,
shall he appear," etc.; not only for the church, but it is open for the
remnant when He appears to the earth.*
{*The
words do not express the fulness of the church's hope, which is, the
being with Him. This alludes more to the appearing; but it expresses
the hope of both, as pilgrims down here.}
The
effect on the conscience of His offering for sin is shewn in chapter
10. It is not only a statement of facts there. My sin might be put away
and I not know it; but Christianity shews us how the conscience is
purged, not only the sins put away. If the conscience is purged, there
is nothing between me and God. I have the full deliverance from all
consequences of sin, and a title to glory, by virtue of the new thing.
But what is my present state? My conscience perfectly purged. That the
law could not tell us. It could never make the comers thereunto
perfect. That was reserved as a witness for the gospel when the work
was done. When a man is in the presence of God, the full effect on the
conscience is known. There must be a repetition of sacrifice while the
sin was outstanding. There was always a question of sin between God and
His people under the law.
Israel in the last day will get salvation by virtue of the sacrifice;
they will be blessed by Him from heaven; their thoughts will rest on
Christ coming on earth to them. He will bring them blessing where they
are, but not take them to heaven. That is not our case at all. We are
with Him while He is in heaven. The Holy Ghost has come out in
consequence of His being gone in. There was no blood taken within the
veil, and the sacrifice not taken without the camp, until after the sin
of Nadab and Abihu. After that Aaron was not to go at all times into
the holiest, but once a year, to sprinkle the blood on the mercy-seat.
The veil was not rent then; but sin being brought out, the blood must
be taken in. The witness of acceptance for Israel is when He comes out.
They cannot have it while He is within. We are associated with Him in
heaven by the Holy Ghost coming out and making us know the value of His
sacrifice. He will come and receive us unto Himself, that where He is
we may be. We are to be associated with Him there.
Up
to His death it could not be: God would have put aside the law if the
fulness of blessing had been brought in; and the law was given to His
own people, not to the Gentiles. The result of Christ's work is, that
my constant state in the presence of God is the conscience purged.
There is not a revelation, a prophet needed for that. The worshippers,
once purged, have "no more conscience of sins." How many Christians
there are who do not know they have no more conscience of sins! If you
do not, you do not know the virtue of Christ's sacrifice. Are you going
to be in heaven with sin upon you? You cannot be there in sins. The old
state was that of men living on earth - falling, getting cleansed, and
falling again. That is your condition, unless you are in heaven by
virtue of that one sacrifice, without sin. The believer is introduced
there in Christ - into these heavenly places, cleansed from sin (I am
not speaking of what he is as a man on earth, but in Christ). Are you
there? That is the question. Are you in the holiest as to your
conscience, heart, and spirit, with "no more conscience of sins"; "in
the light as he is in the light"; with no remembrance of sin before
God? There is remembrance of sins under the law; but here "no more
conscience of sins." Christ has not only entered within the veil,
because there is no veil now, but I am in heaven by the veil being
rent. What is the rending of the veil? The death of Christ. I must get
there by His death because of my sins. I go in through that which takes
them away. I am there without them. Remark how God takes up all this as
His matter. The whole is done, without us, by God. The thing is done by
Him, and the revelation of what is done is by Him too. It is God's
work, and it is according to the truth
There were three things needed. If I was full of sin, some one was
needed to think about me; some one was needed to do the thing required;
and then one to tell me the effect. "By the which will we are
sanctified." The work of the Spirit in applying the work of Christ, is
not spoken of here. But there is, 1st, The will of God - "By which
will," etc. 2nd, The work whereby it is done - "By the offering of the
blood of Jesus Christ, once for all." Before I was born, it was once
for all done. Did I do it? No! "By the obedience of one, many were made
righteous." It was by the offering of the body of Christ once for all.
3rd, There is the knowledge of it given to me. Without this my
conscience is not purged. I must be justified by faith: this is my
knowing it, not God's knowing it. Here he says, "The Holy Ghost is a
witness to us." This is the ground of the conscience being purged; it
is not the quickening here: we have pardon after we are quickened.
Peter speaks of being "sanctified unto obedience," etc.; we are renewed
to obedience. It is His (God's) work to quicken my conscience, but,
besides that, there is the testimony by the Holy Ghost. The thing is
settled, and it is not a light thing. We adore Him for it. He says,
"Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." But you say, I sin
to-day, to-morrow, etc. God says, "I remember" no more. If there is
sin, what can put it away? There is no more offering for sin. If it is
not put away, how can it ever be done? If He does remember them, there
is no hope for me, because Christ will not die again, and "without
shedding of blood is no remission." It is very important for the
conscience to get into the presence of God, and know our whole
condition as to sin there. Looked at as a Christian, there is no sin,
for this one reason, that Christ has been in the condition in which I
was. By virtue of His being in it and dying, the condition has ceased
to exist, and He is gone a Man into heaven by virtue of the condition
having ceased. God has said to Him, "Sit on my right hand until I make
thy foes thy footstool." For the sacrifices provided for men in the
flesh, there is substituted this one sacrifice of Christ.
Verse 5. "A body hast thou prepared me." Christ came once for all into
the place of obedience to put aside all the other appointments. He took
ears as a servant. Whatever man did in offering sacrifices, he could
not get out of the condition in which he was. Another comes in. He
takes away the first that He may establish the second. They brought of
their voluntary will under the first; that was man. But in the second
all is of God's will, and it is obedience to that. As soon as Christ
has the body prepared, it is not His will at all. It was in the
counsels of God long before. "In the volume of the book it is written
of me," etc. There was the freewilling of Christ in heaven to give
Himself. He undertakes the whole thing. Then when in it, He goes
through all in obedience. "As the Father gave me commandment, even so I
do. Arise, let us go hence." There is perfect love to His Father, and
perfect obedience at the same time. There is God's will in all its
perfectness - Christ offering Himself to be the obedient One; and I
have not only the fact in purpose but all the value of a divine Being
giving Himself up. "Lo, I come to do thy will." He is in the place of
obedience.
"Above,
when he said, Sacrifice and offering, and burnt-offerings, and offering
for sin, thou wouldest not. . . . Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God." Here I find the will of man altogether set aside. The
will of man is wickedness, the principle of sin. A will independent of
God is the very principle of sin. At the first, the will of man was
disobedience to God. Christ had a free will, because He was God; but
when in the servant's place, He had no will. The horrid pride of man
forgets that his independence of God, his will not being moved by the
will of God, is rebellion against Him, and that is our natural state.
All but obedience to the will of another is sin. We forget we are
creatures. Christ came to do God's will, never His own. This would-be
independence of man (for, after all, men are the slaves of Satan) is
entirely set aside by another Man coming in. He has to learn obedience
by the things that He suffered. Every will of His was crossed. There
was not a single thing to which He could turn in which obedience was
not suffering. He suffered from God, too, for the sins of man. He
offered Himself by the eternal Spirit. When tested by Satan's shewing
Him good and evil, He gave Himself up (becoming specially the
burnt-offering from the time of the conflict in Gethsemane). The first
order of things is gone entirely. If I could have righteousness by the
law, I would not have it, Paul says, because I have a better - the
righteousness of God. If there could have been any righteousness by the
law, there was an end to it now. A new thing is brought in.
Verse 11. "Every priest standeth daily," etc. They were always
standing, because sin was always there to be put away. What they did to
put it away never accomplished anything. They were dealing with
offerings for men in the flesh, and they never did anything. But He has
sat down. There was a righteousness fit to sit down on the throne of
God, and there is where we are. It is on the throne Christ sits for
ever. He is not rising up, like the other priests. The sacrifice was
completed and He sits for ever. It does not mean eternally but
continuously. The other sacrifices could not have this effect; but now
His being there is the proof there is no interruption. The punctuation
in some Bibles, makes no sense of it. It cannot be one sacrifice for
sins for ever. He is sitting, never having to get up again, because the
value of the sacrifice is uninterrupted in the presence of God, and the
Holy Ghost comes out to shew me the result of it. The person who had
the sins must be shut out of heaven; then Christ is shut out, if they
are not gone, for He took them. But the Holy Ghost is the witness that
He is there. If you are reasoning about it, saying, My sins are
forgiven to-day, but to-morrow what I may do may be remembered against
me, you are away from God. In the presence of God this is my whole
condition, without my sins. In the presence of God, I am either a
condemned sinner, or I have a purged conscience. Away from God we may
reason. In His presence there may be awful distress for a moment, but
faith brings into the condition of a purged conscience.
Verse
13. "From henceforth expecting." This is the patience of Christ. The
conscience has nothing to do with the waiting. Righteousness has
nothing to wait for; conscience has nothing to wait for. All is done.
He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Not merely are
those sanctified, sanctified by God, but He has perfected them; they
are perfectly set apart, perfected by God by the very thing He has set
them apart by. Then such can say, I am perfect for God, and my heart is
happy with Him, because I am perfect before Him. It is so settled with
Him that we are thoroughly perfected, that He can sit there quietly.
Heb. 10: 12.
Now the Holy Ghost declares it all to me shewing me the practical
consequences: "where remission of these is, there is no more offering
for sin." The blood is presented to God, and it abides in unalterable
efficacy. This makes nothing, not only of the gross superstitions
connected with professing Christianity, but of all forms and ordinances
by which men think to attain anything before God. If we are not
abidingly as in the presence of God with a purged conscience, we have
not got hold of the truth of God about it. When we realise this is our
place, we have a different estimate of sin; evil is detected, and we
know it can have no place, and the good is more understood in the
presence of God; sin is judged in a much deeper way, than when there is
merely terror and uncertainty.
Verse
19. "Boldness to enter into the holiest." This going through the veil
is altogether ours. We know it is rent by the perfect love of God, and
we go into the presence of God through the veil. The way is made
manifest. We go where Christ is gone; the holiness that rent the veil
has put away the sin. Verse 21: "having an high priest," etc. We do not
go creeping in all alone; the High Priest who has done the work is
there before us. I cannot go within the veil without finding Him there.
The apostle is following Jewish figures, becoming a Jew to Jews. There
were other priests besides the great High Priest. Instead of, like the
Jewish priests, offering incense outside, we go within. There was the
washing of the priests, as for us. The anointing is not in question
here, but the sprinkling of blood and the washing of water. So, in
substance, it will be for Israel by-and-by.
Verse
22. "Let us draw near," etc. The next thing, verse 23, is, "let us hold
fast the profession of our faith," etc. The exhortation is to be in
communion within, and not to be attracted by the world without,
ordinances, etc., to which they were in danger of going back. Then (v.
24) I am to think of others, walk in the power of the fruits of the
Spirit; and (v. 25) not only to have love to individuals, but to
remember the assembly. Christ would praise in the midst of the
congregation. A person may say, I am very happy in staying at home; but
this will not do. To go to the assembly often brings persecution.
The "day" spoken of here is not the catching up of the church, but the
appearing. The more the day approaches, the greater the difficulty of
assembling ourselves; but the exhortation is to be found assembling as
plain evident Christians. It is not said to hear a sermon, but
assembling ourselves. The way of God's working is not only to make
Christians, but to gather together in one the children of God scattered
abroad. This is not to be fulfilled in the millennium. There will be
different nations then, though they will come up to worship; and in the
Old Testament times there was one particular nation, but no gathering
together in one - it applies now. Church authority is not what is
meant. It is not faith, but assembling ourselves together-is faith. Not
of man's will, but Christ's, who, through His death, has a church or
assembly that is not of the world, and that is manifested by our
assembling together.
Verse
26. If you say, "I give up this assembling to Christ" - there is none
other sacrifice for sin but that He has made. If you trample under foot
the blood of that sacrifice, knowing what it is (I do not say being
regenerated), but giving it up wilfully, your portion is the same as
adversaries. A person who sees truth and gives it up, is always more
bitter than any - he is an adversary. If they chose sin instead of
Christ, there was no more sacrifice. It is a case of openly abandoning
the Lord for your own will in sin; not failure nor disobedience, but
apostasy.
We
see throughout this epistle the importance of the place in which we are
set, and the responsibility of walk according to it. Christ is ever in
the presence of God for us. Consequently, our title is to enter there
boldly; our place never changes, though sin, of course, hinders
fellowship till it is confessed.