Peace was made only by the blood of His cross, still the perfection of the work in Heb. 10 is connected with the Lord’s having entered in by His blood, and so having perfected the work; could we say it was perfected until He had sat down?
“Ah! I could not say that.” By His ‘one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.’ You get not merely the clearing of what I am, as walking down here, but perfected forever so as to go up there, as well as having no more conscience of sins; and all by His one offering. Heb. 10 puts the believer absolutely perfect before God, so that he has no more conscience of sins, but is brought into the holiest into the presence of God.”
But is the work perfected before His ascension?
The work was perfected before, that was perfected on the cross; the resurrection puts God’s seal upon it, and then for us to enter into the holiest, He has gone up to heaven.
But until the Lord had sat down, the work had not come to an end?
Had it not? The point the apostle insists on is, that the Lord is not standing, because the work had been finished. The work was finished on the cross, and God puts His seal upon it by resurrection, and then the full results follow.
In the Hebrews Christ is said to be the forerunner, and so there was no such thing as worship until He had entered?
No; but the veil was rent from top to bottom the moment He died, and now we are talking of the application of that. The whole thing, in short, was done upon the cross, even the resurrection was the effect of that (though of course Christ could not be holden by death), God in it putting His seal upon the work.
And on that ground peace could be proclaimed fully?
“Yes, and the Lord could tell it beforehand. Peace was made by the blood of the cross, but I hardly see anybody that gives full value to the death of Christ. I do not mean as to the forgiveness of sins, but as to the whole question of good and evil brought to a point and culminating in the cross..... There I see man in absolute enmity against God, and that when God is displayed in goodness; and I see a Man, perfect in His love to God, and perfect in His obedience to God, in that same cross. I get all the power of Satan, with all the malice of man, and all the righteousness of God against sin, and all the love of God to the sinner, all united in the cross and therefore I find there the foundation of the new heavens and of the new earth—of God’s glory in short; and all the consequences of blessing flow out. But then the application is varied, so that everything in heaven and earth will be reconciled by it ultimately. I get the forgiveness of all my sins as a sinner, I am reconciled to God, and get glory like Christ. The Jews will be restored in the millennium by virtue of it; but these are all effects.”
Who can question the wisdom, foreknowledge and love of God? He knew the grievous errors that would be promulgated, and the fancies of men, denying that the propitiation or the atonement was finished on the cross. The answers to these queries long ago are the simplest and clearest answers to the unsound theories on the atonement put forth now. The man that really knows what sin is, and the holy claims of God, cannot afford to give up the atoning work of Christ finished on the cross.—ED.
(G. Morrish, London.)