We should not forget that the whole of Hebrews 11 depends on and is an illustration of Hebrews 10:3535Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. (Hebrews 10:35). The stronger our faith is, the more our soul is in the possession of might moral energy. This chapter shows how this principle of faith gained the day. Do not read it as if it were the praises of Noah, Abraham, Moses and others. It is the praises of faith as illustrated in them. What a simple, blessed thing Christianity is! I stand in admiration of it when I see how the devil has wrought a twofold mischief in putting us outside the veil and inside the camp, and how Christ has wrought a corresponding twofold remedy. I have gained God at the loss of the world that is Christianity.
“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child.” What is the meaning of that? It means that when he was born there was an expression in his countenance that faith read. “Beautiful to God” is the word. There was a certain beauty in him that awakened the faith of Amram and Jochebed, and they were obedient to it. Under the finger of God they saw the purpose of God and hid the child.
Now in Moses we see a beautiful power of faith. It got a threefold victory three splendid victories, and the very victories you are called to.
First, his faith got the victory over the world. He was a foundling, picked up from the Nile and adopted as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. This was personal degradation translated in adopted magnificence. What did he do with it? He “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.” What a victory over the world that was! We like those things that put worldly honor on us. Moses would not have it.
Next we see Moses getting victory amid the trials and alarms of life. “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.” What a terrible thing the life of faith is to nature! You have got a victory today you must stand again tomorrow. “That we may be able to withstand... and having done all, to stand.” Here the pressure of life was coming on Moses after the attractions of life had got their answer.
Then, in the third instance, Moses had an answer for the claims of God. It is magnificent to see a soul braced in the power of a faith like this. “Through faith he kept the passover.” The destroyer was going through the land, but the blood was on the lintel. From the very beginning grace has provided the sinner with an answer to the claims of God, and it is the simple office of faith to plead the answer. God provided the blood and faith used it. Christ is God’s provision. He is God’s great ordinance for salvation, and faith travels along with Him from the cross to the realms of glory.
Then, “by faith they passed through the Red sea” “by faith the walls of Jericho fell down”—“by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not.” And what more shall we say? It is the story that animates the whole of Scripture. The story of grace and faith grace on God’s part and faith on ours gives animation to the whole book of God. We are never called outside the camp till we are inside the veil.
The early chapters of Hebrews show the sinner his title to a home in God’s presence. Then you are to come forth from that home and let the world know that you are a stranger to it. Hebrews tells us our title to be in God’s presence before it opens the calling that attaches to us. Does He ever send a man to warfare at his own charges? Does He ever send you to fight with the world before you are at peace with Himself? Everything is for me from the moment I turn to God. I am called in God to everything that is for me. I am come “unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.”
We must linger a little on the two closing verses. They are very weighty, precious verses. These elders obtained a good report, but with the good report they did not obtain the promise. It reminds me of the prophet Malachi. “A book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels.” They are not His made-up jewels yet, but He has their names in His book, and He will make them up and display them as His jewels by and by. Why have they not obtained the promise? Because we must first come in, in the rich furniture of this evangelic dispensation, or all they had in their beggarly dispensation would never have done for them.
We find the word “better” constantly occurring in Hebrews. “A better testament” “a better thing” “some better thing for us” “that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” We find the word “perfect” in constant use also. Everything is perfected that gives God rest. God is not looking for any satisfaction beyond what Christ gives Him. He has His demand answered His glory vindicated His character displayed and all in Christ.
Now what is this “better thing” in the last verse? If we had not brought in our Christ, so to speak, nothing would have been done. God having introduced Christ in this dispensation, all the old saints that hung on it are perfected.
In one light, we look at this epistle as a treatise on perfection. In chapter 2 we read that it became the glory of God to give us a perfect Saviour. It was not merely my necessity, but God’s glory required it. He gave the sinner an author to begin salvation and a captain to close it. That is just the difference between Moses and Joshua. Moses was the author of salvation when he picked up the poor captives in Egypt; Joshua was the captain of salvation when he carried them across the Jordan right into the promised land. Christ is the One who does both for us.
In chapter 5 we read, “Being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation” not moral perfection, for He was morally stainless, but perfection as the author of salvation. He would never have been perfect thus if He had not gone on to death, but as it behooved God to give us a perfect Saviour, so it behooved Christ to make Himself a perfect Saviour. Then in chapter 6: “Let us go on unto perfection,” the Apostle says, that is, let us “read our lesson on this subject.” Some read this as if they were to go on till they have no more sin in themselves. That has nothing to say to it. It is as if the Apostle said, “I am going to read you a treatise on perfection, and you must come and learn it with me.”
Then he goes on with the subject in chapter 7. He says you cannot find this perfection in the law. “The law made nothing perfect.” You must look elsewhere. By the law, here, is not meant the ten commandments, but the Levitical ordinances. In the midst of these beggarly elements you must look elsewhere for perfection. Chapter 9 thus shows you that it is in Christ and tells you that the moment faith has touched the blood the conscience is purged, and chapter 10 tells you that the moment Christ touches you, you are perfected forever: not in moral stainlessness in the flesh—there is no such thing here.
The moment Christ touches the apostleship, He perfects it. The moment He touches the priesthood, He perfects it. The moment He touches the altar, He perfects it. The moment He touches the throne, He perfects it. And if He perfects these things, He will, as to your conscience, perfect you, a poor sinner. So this epistle is in one great light a treatise on perfection. God gave you a perfect Saviour Christ made Himself a perfect Saviour. Let me go on to perfection. If I seek it in the law, I am in a world of shadows. When I come to Christ, I am in the midst of perfection.
Therefore, these saints could not get the inheritance till we came in laden with all the glories of this dispensation. But now they can share the inheritance with us, when the full time comes.
What glories shine in this epistle! What glories fill the heavens, because Christ is there! What glories attach to us because Christ has touched us! Is it no glory to have a purged conscience to enter into the holiest with boldness to say to Satan, “Who are you, that you should finger God’s treasure?” We creep and crawl when we should be getting into the midst of these glories and encouraging our hearts.
J. G. Bellett (from The Opened Heavens)