Alas! even those who love His name put off the feast which the Father would have us enjoy here till we get to heaven. They think that such joy and gladness cannot be known in the midst of earthly sorrow, and that the gathering together for rejoicing must await the heavenly scene at the close, “forever with the Lord.” Unwittingly they do God's grace great injustice, and defraud themselves now of exceeding joy in the Spirit.
They practically lose the sweetness and the power of His joy which is their strength even here. It is not only that the once guilty son meets his father, and that the father meets the son in nothing but love, without a reproach so much the more to produce self-reproach (oh, the immense loss for the soul that slightly judges self before God!); but along with this there is the conscious fitting him for the presence of his father in enjoyed communion. The best robe is put upon him. Never had he worn such a robe before levity and self-will induced him to abandon his father's house. Grace goes far beyond restoration.
Adam had not the beauteous robe of Christ when he walked upright in the garden of Eden. Redemption is no mere re-instating of fallen man, as it is sometimes perversely called. The believer puts Christ on and is made whiter than snow by His blood. Nothing less does the Savior undertake than to fit for the Father's presence. It is no question at all of bringing back to the condition of innocence. The Last Adam decides everything; Jesus provides and gives the tone to all. God the Father is the source; Jesus the means and channel of love; and the Holy Spirit takes His blessed part in making the written word living and effectual in the soul. The robe therefore must be the best robe; the calf must be the fatted calf; the shoes, the ring, the feast, each and all are in accordance with Christ's person and with His work. Lastly, and above all, there is the communion of joy; for God Himself must have His own deep enjoyment of the feast, as indeed nothing could be good without Him.
Do Christians in general know what all this means? It is exactly what God intends to be made good now in Christianity. Let us hope that you have now at least a little of that divine spring of communion in joy and liberty. No one doubts the fullness of joy by-and-by; then and on high it will be forever in all perfection. But it is a flagrant mistake that the scene the Lord describes should be put off to heaven. Is it needed to demonstrate why not? In heaven there will be no elder son, nor will the Father go out then to entreat. Ungracious murmurers in heaven! nay; there are many now on earth. It is therefore to be realized now and here, though all the springs of the joy are heavenly and divine.
The reason why people relegate it to the heavens may be because they are not in the secret of its joy themselves. There is a feeling in the nature even of righteous men that they do not relish others having what they have not themselves. Ah! let the lack rather awaken an earnest searching of heart to inquire, “How is it that my soul is not in the love, joy, and liberty here described? How is it that I have not yet realized the best robe? or the fatted calf? How is it that one has overlooked the communion of God's own joy in love with His own?” “The Son of man is come to save that which was lost;” but by that work God was glorified in Him, as God at once glorified Him in Himself, and would have us now to taste its fruit.
Forgiving is not all the gospel told out, nor should it be all for us to know or make known sins' remission. Salvation is immensely misunderstood when it is only held to mean that we are forgiven. God's object is not, nor could be, less than to bring us to the knowledge of the Father and the Son, into the joy and liberty of grace now, while we wait for the glory of God in the hope of which we exult. In this knowledge of our God and Father lies the most effectual power against the worldly snares that encumber us on every side. It is never the gospel order to make us holy in order to be happy before God; an effort that is often made, but always made in vain. In order to be holy in practice, grace makes you happy first. He who alone was the Holy One died for you in your unholiness and evil, in order to give you peace and joy in believing. By His death Christ deserved it for you, and the grace of God righteously blesses you in the faith of Him. This is exactly in unison with God's heart, mind, and word; for His word was written for us that we, believing, might share His joy in love.
Have we wandered from the text and the commentary? From neither. Lev. 16 held up the picture of atonement. Heb. 9 declares that, as Christ is come and His blood shed atoningly, blessing is now for faith, and everlasting. What was forbidden to Aaron, save a little on one day in the year, is now vouchsafed always to every Christian. “The way into the holies has been and is made manifest (71-60.).” Hence in Heb. 10:1919Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, (Hebrews 10:19) it is written, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holies by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way which He dedicated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” &c. We are ever welcome there and thus.
But there is another fruit of Christ's work. His blood is equally efficacious in purging our conscience from dead works to serve religiously (or, worship) the living God (Heb. 9:1414How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:14)). The two privileges go together; if the way is made manifest into the sanctuary, where Christ is, His own are welcomed to draw near now, but only as purged in conscience, not merely from bad but from dead works, to worship the living God. How great the superiority of our privilege over Israel, and Aaron's sons, yea even Aaron himself! It is not only that the way is open, and the sins are borne; but the conscience is purified by the same blood of Christ which did all else. Thus the light of God makes only the clearer what that blood has effected.
Nothing there disturbs the conscience of the believer, who is set in love and liberty to serve the living God. Christ's work, which displaces the dead works of man, ever abides in unchanging value as our ground before God. The same efficacious sacrifice of Christ has achieved these inestimable blessings as a whole. As long as the Jewish tabernacle had its standing, there was not the remission of sins forever but their remembrance, the conscience unpurged before God, and the barrier maintained between God and man. The blood of Christ has changed all for us who believe. And no wonder. The law had for its aim to shut up those under it till faith came; but the accomplishment of God's will by Christ set aside all the lifeless substitutes and vain endeavors of man. Then the believer, purified from sins and in his conscience, comes freely to God in His sanctuary.
This nearness to God appeared distinctly at Christ's death, as the death of the sons of Aaron was the time to restrict even Aaron from God's presence. Why so? Because his sons had been guilty of presumptuous sin. God had caused His fire from heaven to consume the burnt sacrifice, and they had despised it and Him. They thought that any fire would do just as well: common fire could burn incense no less than His fire. Oh, what readiness in man to set at naught the favor of God, however rich! God had affixed that seal of divine approbation; but it only gave Nadab and Abihu the opportunity of proving their hearts to be wholly careless of His glory as well as of His grace. Jehovah had deigned in grace to send the fire from before Him to consume the burnt offering and the fat. Therefore it was for them to keep up the holy fire. But these two sons of Aaron profanely took common fire; and if God had passed this over, He would have been signing and sealing His own dishonor. Could God do so? Impossible. God judged them. They sinned unto death. It is not every sinner that thus sins unto death. There was then, there is now, sin unto death. This supposes sin in special circumstances to His dishonor. God had just brought in a peculiar work of grace, and in it was distinguishing Israel as His people; and immediately the two sons of Aaron put shame on His favor, and died for it at once, solemnly, and before all.
How plain it was to Israel even on the day of atonement, that God's chosen people could not draw near to God in the sanctuary! Even the priest could not go within the veil. Nay, the very high priest Aaron could enter the most holy place on this day alone in the year for brief moments, but only with incense and with blood! What did it all indicate? That the way into the holies had not yet been made manifest. Now it is. Such is the striking contrast since the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. The way into the holies has been made manifest. So, when Christ died, the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom. Could one conceive a mark more significant? It was plain for those that had eyes to see that the Levitical institution was gone, and that a new thing was come on God's part through Christ's death. This enters into the very core of Christianity. The way into the holiest has been and is made manifest.
Now are you, my brother, in its peaceful enjoyment? Are you in the present conscious possession of this nearness to God? What is the good of knowing that the way into the holies is manifested, if it is not for you to enter in by faith day by day, thereby appropriating the exceeding riches of God's grace toward you? It is for every partaker of the heavenly calling. The veil that God rent was the death-warrant of Judaism. Of course man might repair; but it was only man without God. The veil was by no word from God erected again. For the Christian it is gone forever, as are earthly sacrifice, altar, and priest. This therefore serves to show, in the most open manner, the essential difference between Jewish atonement and that which the Christian has in Christ's death.
In the Jewish institution who can deny that the barrier abode impassable with the slightest exception even for Aaron? It did not matter whether it were a Samuel or a David, an Isaiah or a Daniel, there was no free entrance into the holies. The faith, or holy character, of the high priest made no difference as to this. Jehovah appeared in the cloud upon the mercy-seat, and even Aaron must not come at all times within the veil, that he die not. On that one day there was a special Sin-offering to atone; then only with the most jealous observance of God's injunctions could he come to atone for himself and his house, as well as for the people. The way thither was otherwise and always closed.
What do we find in the birth and life of our blessed Lord Jesus? God came to man in the person of Christ. And what appeared in the Lord's death? That man, believing man, can now come boldly to God. The unbeliever is blind to both these matchless blessings. God in Christ came to man, believing or not; but unbelieving man rose up against Him, cast Him out, and crucified Him. But in the very cross of our Lord Jesus was a new and living way dedicated by God. He who now believes in His name is free to draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith through the rent veil, and has Christ as the great priest over the house of God. In fulfillment of the Levitical types our hearts are sprinkled from a wicked conscience, the body washed with pure water. The Christian has as an abiding settled reality—what the Jew had only in form. The word of God has purified his heart by faith. There is but One Whose death has laid the basis for this title of access to God; and there it remains uncanceled and living, till the last believer in our Lord goes up to be with Him forever. We shall all in person meet Him there where our faith penetrates now. This is Christianity, and our sure hope.
Are you, Christian, resting intelligently on Christ's work of atonement? It is admitted that more is in Him than what we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Thus one cannot believe in Christ without receiving life in His name. The believer requires divine life, in order to have affections according to God—affections to hate evil, and to love what is good. Christ is life eternal to every one who believes in Him. He is their life, just as Adam was the head of natural life to mankind at large; and it is well to remark that Adam only became that head and source of life practically when he was a sinner. So Christ becomes the giver of life everlasting after His unbroken work of obedience unto death was complete. Righteousness was an accomplished fact God being glorified in Him to the uttermost.
Christ therefore stands in blessed contrast with Adam. When He rose from the dead, the Lord breathed on His disciples the breath of new life in resurrection power, the distinctive life of the Christian. But this is no more the topic of the Epistle to the Hebrews, than the baptism of the Spirit which forms Christ's body; yet, any one can see the two things were necessary, not His death only but the life which He is, and gives to us. What congruity would there be, if we could conceive the blessed life of Christ given to a man left struggling against his unremoved sins? How suitable that the risen life should be, where the sins were blotted out by His blood! These two privileges of grace are absolutely necessary, and both are given, if one is, to the Christian. Therefore it is that Christ received by faith secures the believer in them both. What a mercy that the gifts of grace should be thus united! For they are given to the simplest through faith in Christ; even to one that could not read and write, to a poor old man or woman, to a little child, if there be the Spirit of God producing subjection of heart to Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Do you ask, Will it last? the answer is, To all eternity; for “Jesus Christ yesterday and to day is the same, and forever.”
For a Jew there was a round of daily, monthly, yearly, and occasional sacrifices. But one of the characteristic features of Christianity is that there is one offering and one only, the antitype that answers to all but infinitely more than all.
Creature sacrifices could be nothing but shadows; Christ's work is the divine reality. In the sacrifice of Christ God introduced what He could rest on, a perfection wholly impossible in the probationary plan of Old Testament times. Christ not only made the need of this perfection felt, but alone supplied it to God's glory and man's blessedness; and the Holy Ghost is sent personally from heaven to bring in the power and joy of it all into the Christian's heart, ways, worship, and service.
He that receives the gospel is entitled to receive the blessing at once. At least, whatever hindrance may be, it is from human activity of mind, and often from morbid feeling; it is not God who delays the soul. As to these difficulties the Lord is patient and tender; but no difficulty is on His part; it is purely and solely on his side that ill hears the word. Old habits or thoughts, or it may be will, working one way and another—these things may cause an obstacle; but He is faithful and unfailing.
See the beautiful instance of the Syro-Phoenician woman. The Lord was ready for her call as soon as she came, but was she yet ready for the Lord? She had not considered how far off she was; but the Lord brought her down to this point. He was not sent but for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. When her cry became simpler as one deeply needing His help, He threw out the hint that it was not meet to cast the children's bread to the dogs. The light shone into her soul now brought truly low; she sees the need of grace in a moment. Correcting her mistake through His word, she no longer takes the position of being one of the sheep, but virtually calls herself only a little dog. She had no claim, falls back on sovereign grace, and finds far more than she had sought. If not indeed a lost sheep of the house of Israel, she becomes a saved sheep of the Lord Jesus forever. Here was a case, not for a miracle like her daughter's, but for the coming work of sovereign grace. God would justify all the forbearance He had shown in the past; but He was now bringing to view deeper counsels and ways than man had learned or could learn before.
Hence it is that the gospel does not merely set forth God vindicated in the cross of Christ, or, according to the language of the theologians, His “satisfaction.” Surely that God is glorified says a great deal more. “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” Is not this far beyond the satisfaction aforesaid? Even a man is satisfied when he gets what he wants; but God was glorified in Christ's death; and why? Because God took in all the reality, depth, height, and compass of Christ's work in redemption. All that is in God and man thereby was met and displayed perfectly: majesty and humiliation, grace and righteousness, holiness and suffering for sins, obedience and moral glory. “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall straightway glorify Him.” God as such was glorified in the rejected Christ, the humbled crucified Son of man. Every attribute of the divine nature, every declaration of His word, shines in the cross to God's glory; and therefore did God at once set the risen Son of man on God's throne, not David's, but at His right hand on His own throne.
Throughout Christ's life and service previously the Father had been glorified by the unswerving obedience of the Son at all cost and in all circumstances. Why is it that we now hear of “God” being glorified, rather than “the Father?” Because sin brings forward “God” as the judge of sin; just as sin affects man's conscience and compels him to think of God. For, spite of man's bad habits and hardness, God makes Himself felt in the conscience of a sinner who ordinarily quails at the thought of death or judgment. But if conscience will be heard about sin, what did God feel about the self-sacrificing work of the Lord Jesus under His own judgment of sin, and on behalf of sinners? God is glorified even about sin, by the perfection of Christ's enduring all its consequences at God's hand; and what is the effect of it all? If God was thus, and only thus, glorified as He' could have been by none other person and in no other way, how does He testify His sense of the worth of His Son's atoning death?
It would have been wholly beneath that worth to have accomplished the Old Testament prophecies for the earth and the earthly people, even if willing. The cross proclaimed mankind evil and lost, most of all Israel; and God takes the Son of man “straightway” into His own glory on high as the only adequate answer to the cross (Psa. 8, 110.). The holy hill of Zion is not holy or high enough for the Son of man. The “decree” (Psa. 2) which was declared for it will be assuredly fulfilled another day. But what has God done now? He has set the risen Lord at His own right hand. Man in His person is exalted, and shares the throne of God; the Old and New Testaments declare it.
There had been many kings sitting on David's throne, and God will yet bestow more abundant dignity and honor on that throne when Christ deigns to sit on it, asking for and receiving the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession. But this will be the future Kingdom, and not Christianity. Christianity is founded on Christ dead, risen, and glorified by God's will, as it sheds on the believer the light of heavenly grace and glory in Christ, and puts the soul into living relationship with God the Father on the ground of redemption, according to the efficacy of Christ's blood which shall abide forever. Oh! beloved brethren, that you would only learn your own Christianity. How much more would you then know of Christ, and better estimate His work!
The death of Aaron's profane sons was the occasion of declaring man's unfitness to draw near before Jehovah; even Aaron must not approach at all times within the veil on pain of death (vers. 1, 2). Aaron must come with a young bullock or calf for a sin offering. He had to bring a ram also for a burnt offering (ver. 3). Aaron had to put on the holy linen coat, to have the linen breeches upon his flesh, to be girded with the linen girdle, and to be attired with the linen miter or turban; and he must bathe his flesh in water before putting them on (ver. 4). All this spoke of intrinsic imperfection and uncleanness. He was as he stood in no degree meet for access to God; and when he did get there, it was through incense and blood. (continued).