Hebrews 10:10-2310By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. 18Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. 19Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; 21And having an high priest over the house of God; 22Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. 23Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) (Hebrews 10:10‑23); Ephesians 2:4-74But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4‑7); Hebrews 12:1-4, 13:10-16
I have read these scriptures, as the best I think of, to present a subject which is of the deepest importance—the double character of a Christian, his place in heaven, and his path on earth. It would not be correct to speak of his place on earth, but I do speak of his distinct and definite place in heaven, and if he has a place there, he can have none here, for when it is a settled thing that we have a place in heaven, we must be strangers here; so that I speak of place as to heaven, path as to earth. I feel how deeply important it is that our souls should be exercised as to how far we know our place in heaven.
But I would first say a word on Heb. 10, as to the question of the state of our conscience, and liberty of approach (with reference to it), into the holiest, in the light of His presence. There is a distinct difference between this and Eph. 2, where we are taken up as dead in sins, and by the quickening power of God raised out of the state of death and distance we were in, and set in a positive place, in heaven in Christ; it is a new creation we get here, “quickened together with him, raised up together, and seated in him,” not yet with Him, that we shall be by-and-by. To faith we are placed there now, we shall be as to our body in a “little while.” If this be so, then we are out of man and out of earth. What does this mean? That we are out of man as to our standing, no longer in the lost ruined condition of the first man, and out of earth as to our habitation, home, or rest.
Heb. 10 sets forth how we have liberty of approach to God. We find three things in it: first, the will of God planned the work; second, it was accomplished by the work of Christ; and third, borne witness to by the Holy Ghost. If it has been divinely planned (v. 10) and divinely accomplished, there must be a divine Person to bear witness to it (v. 15); thus the conscience is put uncondemningly quiet in the presence of God, and if it be a question of worship, we have liberty to come with holy boldness into the holiest. I know no other place of worship—of course I do not mean we are not here as to our bodies, but our worship really belongs to heaven; it is too late for earthly worship, this is suspended for the time being: there will be an earthly temple and an earthly worship in the coming day, but not now; any attempt at it is contrary to the present mind of God. His own Son in heaven is the Center of God’s thoughts now. He is gathering a people round Himself (though they be still treading the sands of the desert) whose home and thoughts and affections are all in heaven, and who find this earth a place of trial and suffering. Thus we see that the blessedness of the truth of ch. 10 consists in this, it sets the believer in the presence of God, in the holiest, with an uncondemning conscience, where only one man, of one tribe, of one nation, on one day, could come. Now it is the place where every Christian is entitled as to his conscience to come at all times, and more, not as a matter of mere favor, but of righteousness with God to have us there. How could it be otherwise if the Lord Jesus Christ glorified God down to the depth of that death to which I, as a sinner, was exposed; and if God has glorified Him up to the heights of the glory He is now in? God could not do less; in giving us a place of liberty in His presence He is putting honor on, as well as expressing His infinite appreciation of, the blood of His own Son. I would ask each one, have you that kind of conscience? have you an uncondemning quiet in the light of the holiness of God? It may be a strange question to ask, but believe me, half of the difficulties people have are really difficulties as to their conscience; the conscience is not at rest. With many a one when there is not this knowledge of grace, when deliverance is not known, an outbreak of their wretched nature leads them to find the workings of the old man within, and then they begin to wonder if they are Christians at all, whether they have, as is said, the root of the matter in them; the secret of it being the fact that the conscience has never known full liberty; the soul is in bondage because it has never known grace, never been brought into the light where God is in all His grace. Blessed be God, nothing can ever undo that perfect work which has set us there. There is a great difference between these two things, knowing the clearance of all our sins, and seeing by faith the end of ourselves. There is one thing God never does, He never imputes sin to the believer, He never remembers our sins, and He never forgets us; “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” Therefore we can say,” Having boldness to enter.” Man would never have written such a word, he would rather have said, Come with fear and trembling. God says “boldness,” because He puts honor on the blood and work of Christ, which give us boldness as to our conscience to enter into the very holiest. What does God put His seal on? not on our intelligence, but on the work of His own Son. He seals the believer by His Spirit, and says as it were, that is my property! There is not an instance where testimony is borne to the blood of Christ, and forgiveness of sins is received by faith in Christ, but the Holy Ghost comes down and seals that person. In Rom. 8:1616The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Romans 8:16), we get the Holy Ghost spoken of as “witnessing with our spirit,” that is His indwelling in our bodies. I grant that in too many cases, souls have been too often turned to His work in us, rather than the work of Christ for us; here it is the effect of His presence in us, His personal indwelling; the sinner having been washed from all his sins in Christ’s blood, the Holy Ghost is given and witnesses with our spirits that we are the children of God.
I now turn to Eph. 2. In the end of Eph. 1 we have the blessed fact that Christ Himself is taken out of death by the power of God; the glorious Man is here displayed who went down into death, and glorified God in the lowest place of death and judgment where the grace of His heart led Him, and is by the power of God taken out of death, and in contrast to everything here, He is set “far above principalities and powers,” &c. They are the terminus as it were of all we can reach, but they are the point of departure for Him. I find all these selected simply as points of departure. He is constituted Head over everything to the church.
In Eph. 2 we find the same power working in the heirs; the “power” in ch. 1 is the same “power” as in ch. 2 and ch. 6. As a Christian I belong to heaven, I have lost my place on earth, am I a loser or a gainer? If I have lost my status as connected with Adam, and my place as connected with the spot where all the ruin was effected, I have a new status connected with the last Adam, and the place where He is is the home of my heart. What a cheer for the soul to know the place where my Savior is, as my home! Here death is on every side, failure, sorrow, dissatisfaction, it all belongs to this world; even the brightest day here comes to a close; the sun is setting on all here. But oh! to know a brighter scene where our Savior is, where the sun never goes down, where all is unfailing brightness and blessedness; thank God, this is the scene we belong to.
I should like to trace out the steps which lead to this a little. John 12:2323And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. (John 12:23) is an important and blessed scripture. Here we have the blessed solitary Man, alone in all His perfection and in all His glory. Never was there a man like unto Him, never was there one who walked this earth like Christ, He was singular and unique in His perfection. There was no necessity on His side to die, as it was said of the Hebrew servant (Ex. 21), he came in by himself, and might have gone out by himself, but “if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.” Have you and I a sense in our souls of the wonderful fact that we are the fruit of His death? Have we a sense of the dignity of the place we occupy before God in relation to His death? I am sprung out of the death of this blessed One. I am part of the fruit of that death, “if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.” Herein is the parent stock of His people. No one could “declare his generation, his life was taken from the earth.” He dies, and bears the same relation to His people as a grain of wheat sown in spring time does to the crop of harvest. We are sprung from Him! Would to God we had more the sense of this in our souls. Here is our new generation! Here is our new history! This is what we belong to! Oh how wonderful, offspring of the Savior’s death. In John 20 we get the first utterance of the Lord as the risen One after He had gone into the solitude of death; it was to a lonely woman, whose heart was ready to break because she thought she had lost Him. “Touch me not, but go to my brethren.” He never had brethren before, how could He? “I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” He takes them now into identity of relationship with Himself. “He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.” He is no longer alone, He takes them to stand with Him in His own new risen place.
Let us now turn to Acts 2 for a moment, when we have seen how He could identify us with Himself, but as the One risen out of death. There must be a Man in glory, and that man the One who was on the cross. This was the wonderful new thing brought out—a Man in glory, who had been under the judgment of God for sin on the cross, who was in Joseph’s tomb, “received up into glory.” Now the Holy Ghost comes down from this glorified Man, and baptizes believers into one body, who are now united to the Head in heaven, and equally to each other on earth. We have a place in union with that blessed One where He is. We could not talk of being united to Him as God, but there is a Man (He was God too) in the glory of God, who glorified God even to death, and by the Holy Ghost we are united to that man glorified—we are one with Him. Wonderful reality! I am the fruit of His death, but I am united to Him in glory. He is the root from which I have my origin! blessed reality for the soul! The last Adam has superseded every other man. What can be more wonderful than that I am one with Him. Have you the blessed sense in your soul that you are united to Him? the same Spirit dwells in Him as in you. It would be a poor thing to be in heaven—alone! what would the place be without Christ? Well might we say—
“Were I in heaven without my Lord,
It were no heaven to me.”
No. I am united to Him where He is, which never could be known because this wondrous reality never existed before. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard . . . but God hath revealed it to us by his Spirit.” Sometimes affection for Christ is mistaken for union with Him. In Canticles there was the longing of the heart after the Bridegroom, but no union; unsatisfied affection, because not possessing the Object of its affection, like “hope deferred which maketh the heart sick.” I thank God we are one with Him now, all we wait for is the day when we shall be with Him for ever, and then will come out what we often sing –
“Thou shalt to wondering worlds display,
That we with Thee are one.”
Then His redeemed ones will come out in all His beauty and glory. Thus I trust we can see how, as the risen One He gathers around Himself (after being refused by Jew and Gentile) a few good-for-nothing things like us, and unites us to Himself in glory. This gives us a very definite place as well as character. In Acts 7 we see how this comes out into practice. Here is a man full of faith and the Holy Ghost; the consequence is, he looks up into heaven, his affections, his desires, his Object, his heart, all are in heaven, his power, too, his sustainment, all are from heaven; the sorrows, the rejection, the stones, are all connected with this scene. What do our hearts most turn to? Take one day; what have we thought most of to-day? What have our affections been engaged with to-day? The spot that engages the heart of a man is the spot that to him is home; there is the spot his affections encircle round; he may have other interests and occupations, but the place where his heart is, is his home. Is it so with us as to heaven? Is it the one bright, blessed spot whither the eye delights to turn? Stephen looked up steadfastly, and saw the glory of God, and a Man in it; here was the true amber spot (see Ezek. 1:4, 54And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. 5Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. (Ezekiel 1:4‑5)), the Man who suffered on the cross in the glory; seeing Him is the secret of power to enable a man to meet everything here. If it be objected that this goes too high, I reply it practically goes down very low, it empowered Stephen to bear the stones and martyrdom, and to pray for his enemies; his own cup was full, he had nothing to ask for himself, he prays for those who were murdering him. I should rather say, give me the doctrine that produces that! It is not so much the fact of union, as the Person we are united to, that should be before us, not something we have obtained, but our delight is in the One who has won our hearts for Himself. We are united to One who is the Man in glory, the Object and delight of the heart of God. If we had the most beautiful spot on earth which the most skillful art of man could prepare, and no heart to share it with us, what would it be? It is the One we are united to that makes it what it is. Well was it said by one who had not the intelligence many now have, but who had personal knowledge of Christ:
“I will not gaze on glory,
But on my King of grace.”
Personal affection for Christ, true-hearted loyalty to Him as Lord, and personal enjoyment of heart in His love, is a sweetness no tongue can fully tell.
Now in Heb. 12 we get one character of testimony connected with our path. If we, as runners, are running through this world, then we have no thought of settling down here, “run with endurance” (that is, go on to the end), not manifesting a little bit of patience to-day, and fainting to-morrow, but persistently going on to the end. A racer, or a wrestler, expects opposition; we are disposed to be taken off our guard by it, for we are so little accustomed to live outside this world. Do you believe everything in this scene opposes you? There is not an element in this world which will not minister to that which is against you as walking with God, unless we disallow it. If we do not feel the opposition, it is clear we are going with the tide; if we live in a bad atmosphere, we do not know how to appreciate good air. Do we feel, beloved friends, the incongruity of the scene we are in? The security of a swimmer is opposing the element around him; as we all know, a living fish goes against the stream, a dead fish goes with it.
Take Ex. 16, 17, we find two things go to make up their journey in the wilderness—gathering the manna, and doing battle with Amalek. We must live in the sphere of life which is heaven, feeding there, doing battle here, running through it, seeking to finish our course with joy; not wanting to get out of it because of the way; this is selfishness, like Elijah, who said to the Lord, Take away my life, or Jonah, who thought he did well to be angry; for if we know the reality and power of the blessed, wonderful things we have been speaking of, we should go through it unmoved by any one thing, all we meet with would only be an occasion of victory over it. I believe the Lord often places many things within our reach, to test how far our hearts have found treasure in heaven, they are tests by the way, which manifest how far we can count all things loss for Christ. The passage in Phil. is often quoted as applying to bad things, but it is not so, it is advantage after the flesh, and these were “loss and dung” to Paul. Oh, what a blessed testimony to see a man going on through the world enduringly, persistently to the end! What keeps him? “Looking unto Jesus,” the Man on the throne, who has gone the road before us. He has trodden the perfect path of faith, and He is now the crowned One; we are to take the eye off Moses and Abraham and self, and fix it on Jesus, Jesus only. In Heb. 13:1010We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. (Hebrews 13:10) we find the blood of the sin- offering was brought into the sanctuary, and the bodies burnt outside the gate. We are brought in, as to our conscience and our worship, where the blood was brought, but what about Jesus as to this world? He was crucified outside the gate. If we have a place in heaven, and are united to that blessed Man who is in the glory of God, what about this world?
Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.
What does this mean? I fear it is limited in the thoughts of many of us; they make their religious associations their boundary, but is it not going outside this world, as such? Are you outside with Christ in your ways, your family, your business? We are to expect reproach—but whose reproach?—“bearing his reproach.” With many, their church position is outside, but not their hearts; their words are outside, but they themselves really are within. Oh, that we might be people of one object as we move through this scene!—that we might be priests to God, and kings, in true royal bounty, to this poor world, not looking to get anything from it, but to dispense, to communicate to it, and, praising God on our way to glory, plainly declaring that we seek a country. What a blessed cheer for the heart that we have no continuing city in this scene of blight, vexation, and sorrow!
May we be as those who have a home in heaven, and who are running a race here, our hearts and joys and expectations outside the ordered system here, and in the place where our Savior is; this the scene of our trial, pressure, testing, the place where we are at school, being trained and educated, but going on enduringly till we reach that blessed One in heaven. If you are trying to be a testimony, you never will be one; occupied with Christ, there is the formative power of Christ in us by the Holy Ghost, then we shall be a testimony of what His grace has made us, and to His praise and glory for ever.