Biblical Essays
THE CHRISTIAN’S POSITION AND WORK
Part I
What is the true position of a Christian; and what does he have to do? These are questions of the deepest practical importance. Of course, it is assumed that he has eternal life: without this one cannot be a Christian. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life.” This is the common portion of all believers. It is not a matter of attainment, of progress, a thing some Christians have and others have not. It belongs to the feeblest babe in the family of God, as well as to the most matured and experienced servant of Christ. All are possessed of eternal life, and, as long as we believe in the faith of Christ, can never lose it.
However, our present theme is not life but position and work; and in briefly handling it, we turn to the Word – there is nothing like the plain and solid Word of Holy Scripture. “Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines; for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Heb. 13:9-14).
Here we have one grand aspect of the Christian's position. It is defined by the position of our Lord. This makes it divinely simple; and, we may add, divinely settled. The Christian is identified with Christ. Amazing fact “As he is so are we in this world.” It is not said, “As he is, so shall we be in the world to come.” No; this would not rise to the divine level. It is, “so are we in this world.” The position of Christ defines the position of the Christian.
But this glorious fact speaks in a double way – on the Christian’s place before God; and on his place regarding this present world. It is on the latter that Hebrews 13 so blessedly instructs us; that which is now before us.
Jesus suffered without the gate. This fact is the basis on which the inspired writer bases exhortation to the Hebrew believers to go forth without the camp. The cross of Christ closed his connection with the camp of Judaism; and all who desire to follow Him must go outside to where He is. In the death of Christ, the final breach with Israel is morally presented; doctrinally, in the Epistle to the Hebrews; historically, in the destruction of Jerusalem. In the judgment of faith, Jerusalem was as thoroughly rejected when the Messiah was nailed to the cross, as it was when the army of Titus left it a smoldering ruin. The instincts of divine nature, and the inspired teachings of Scripture, go before the actual facts of history.
“Jesus suffered without the gate.” So “That he might sanctify [or set apart] the people with his own blood” (emphasis added). What follows? What is the necessary practical result? “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.”
But what is “the camp?” Primarily, Judaism; but it also has a moral application to every organized system of religion under the sun. If that system of ordinances and ceremonies which God Himself had set up; if Judaism, with its imposing ritual, its splendid temple, its priesthood and its sacrifices, has been found with fault, condemned, and set aside, what shall be said of any or all organizations framed by a human hand? If our Lord Christ is outside of that, how much more is He outside of these?
Yes, we may rest assured that if we would know anything of true fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, the outside place, the place of rejection and reproach is that to which we are called. Mark the words “Let us go forth.” Will any Christian say, “No; I cannot go forth. My place is inside the camp. I must work there?” If so, then our place is clearly not with Jesus, because He is as surely outside the camp as He is on the throne of God. If our sphere of work lies inside the camp, when our Master tells us to go forth, what can we say of our work? Can it be worth much? Can it have our Lord’s approving smile? It may exhibit His overruling hand, and illustrate His sovereign goodness; but can it possibly have His unqualified approval while carried on in a sphere from which He peremptorily commands us to go forth?
The all-important thing for every true servant is to be found exactly where his Master would have him. The question is not, “Are we doing a great deal of work?” But are we pleasing our Master? We may seem to be doing wonders in the way of work; our name may be heralded to the ends of the earth as a laborious, devoted, and successful workman; while all the while we may be in an utterly false position, indulging our own unbroken will, pleasing self, and seeking some personal end or object.
All this is indeed solemn, and demands the consideration of all who really desire to be found in the current of God’s thoughts. We live in an age of willfulness. The commandments of Christ do not govern. We think for ourselves in place of absolute submission to the authority of the Word. Instead of yielding in obedience when our Lord says go forth without the camp, we begin to reason pertaining to the results we can reach by remaining within. Holy Scripture seems to have little or no power over our souls. We do not aim at simply pleasing Christ. Provided we can make great show of work, we think all is right. We are more occupied with results that tend to magnify self, rather than with the earnest purpose to do what is agreeable to the mind of Christ.
Does this mean that are we to be idle? Is there nothing for us to do in the outside place to which we are called? Is Christian life made up of a series of negations? Is there nothing positive? Let Hebrews 13 furnish the clear and forcible answer to all these inquiries. We find it as distinct in reference to our work as it is in reference to our position.
What, then, do we have to do? Two things; and these two in their comprehensive range take in the whole of a Christian’s life in its two grand aspects. They give us the inner and outer life. In the first place, we read, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise of God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”
Here we have the most elevated character of work that can possibly engage the energies of our renewed being. It is our privilege to be occupied, morning, noon, eventide, and midnight, in presenting the sacrifice of praise to God – a sacrifice always acceptable to Him. “Whoso offereth praise,” He says, “glorifieth me.”
Let us carefully consider this. Praise is our primary and continual occupation. In our fancied wisdom, most of us put work in the first place. We are disposed to attach chief importance to bustling activity. We have such an overweening sense of the value of doing that we lose sight of the place worship occupies in the thoughts of God.
Again, there are some who imagine that they can please God by punishing their bodies; thinking that He delights in vigils, fasting, floggings, and flagellations. We pray those who harbor such thoughts will bend their ears and hearts to the gracious words: “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me?” True, those words are immediately followed by that grand practical statement, “And to him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God.” But still, here, as everywhere, the highest place is assigned to praise, not to work. And no man who abuses his body, rendering it unfit to be the vessel (instrument) by which he can serve God, can be said to be ordering his conversation aright.
No, if we truly desire to please God, to gratify His heart and glorify His name, we will give attention to Hebrews 13:15, and seek to continually offer the sacrifice of praise. Yes, “continually.” Not merely now and then, when all goes smoothly and pleasantly. Come what may, it is our high and holy privilege to offer sacrifice of praise to God.
It is delightful to cultivate a spirit of praise and thankfulness – always ready to cry, “Hallelujah.” It glorifies God when His people live in an atmosphere of praise. It imparts a heavenly tone to their character, and speaks more powerfully to the hearts of those around them than if they were preaching to them from morning till night. A Christian should always be happy, always bright with the spirit of praise, always reflecting back the blessed beams of His Father’s countenance on this dark world.
Thus it should always be. Nothing is as unworthy of a Christian as a fretful spirit, a gloomy temper, a sour morose-looking face. And not only is it unworthy of a Christian but it is dishonoring to God, and it causes the enemies of truth to speak reproachfully. No doubt, tempers and dispositions vary; and allowance must be made in cases of weak and poor health. It is not easy to look pleasant when the body is racked with gout, neuralgia, rheumatism, or cancer; and we should not commend levity or the everlasting smile of mere unsubdued nature.
But Scripture is clear and explicit. It tells us to “offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” – how simple. Yes; this is what our God delights in. It is His joy to be surrounded with the praises of hearts filled to overflowing with His abounding goodness. Thus it will be throughout eternity, in that bright home of love and glory to which we are so rapidly hastening.
Let us specially note the words, “By Him.” We are to offer our sacrifice of praise by the hand of our Great High Priest, who is always in the presence of God for us. This is most consolatory and assuring. Jesus presents our sacrifice of praise to God. Therefore, it must always be acceptable. We can safely believe that none of us would not know our sacrifice if we could see it laid on the altar by the priestly hand of the Great Minister of the sanctuary. It goes up to God, not as it proceeds from us, but as it is presented by Him. Divested of all the imperfection and failure attaching to us, it ascends to God in all the fragrance and acceptance belonging to Him. The feeblest note of praise, the simple “Thank God” is perfumed with the incense of Christ’s infinite preciousness. This is unspeakably precious: and it should greatly encourage us to cultivate a spirit of praise. We should be “continually” praising and blessing God. A murmuring or fretful word should never cross our lips, because Christ is our portion, and who stands identified with the position and destiny of that blessed One.
But we must draw this part of our essay to a close by a brief glance at the other side of the Christian’s work. If it is our privilege to be continually praising and blessing God, it is also our privilege to be doing good to man. “But to do good and to communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” We are passing through a world of misery, sin, death and sorrow, surrounded by broken hearts and crushed spirits.
It is easy to close our eyes to such things, to turn away from – to “forget” that such things are always within our reach. We can sit in our easy chair, speculate about truth, doctrines, and the letter of Scripture; we can discuss the theories of Christianity, split hairs about prophecy and dispensational truth, and, all the while, be shamefully failing in the discharge of our grand responsibility as Christians. We are in imminent danger of forgetting that Christianity is a living reality. It is not a set of dogmas, a number of principles strung together on a thread of systematized divinity that unconverted people can have at their fingers’ ends. Neither is it a set of ordinances to be gone through in dreary formality by lifeless, heartless “religious” people. No; it is life eternal – implanted by the Holy Spirit, and expressing itself in those two lovely forms on which we have been dwelling, namely, praise to God and doing good to man. Such was the life of Jesus when He trod this earth. He lived in the atmosphere of praise; and He went about doing good.
Jesus is our life; He is our model on which life is to be formed. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Christian should be the living expression of Christ. It is not a mere question of leading what is called a religious life, that often resolves into a tiresome round of duties yielding neither “praise” to God nor “good” to man. Without life it is all worthless. “The kingdom of God is not meat or drink; but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men” (Rom. 14:17, 18).
Let us earnestly apply our hearts to the consideration of these great practical truths. Let us seek to be Christians not merely in name but in reality, and not as vendors of peculiar “views.” How worthless are views and how profitless is discussion – and theological hair-splittings can be so wearisome. Let us have life, light, and love. These are heavenly, eternal, and divine. Everything else is vanity. How we do long for reality in this world of sham; for deep thinkers and earnest workers in this day of shallow talkers.
It might be profitable to compare Hebrews 13:13-16 with 1 Peter 2:4-9. “Let us go forth therefore unto him,” says the inspired writer of Hebrews. “To whom coming,” says the apostle Peter. Then we have “The holy priesthood” offering up spiritual sacrifices of praise. And “The royal priesthood” doing good and communicating – “showing forth the virtues of Him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” The two Scriptures give us a magnificent view of fundamental, devotional, and practical Christianity.
Part II
Let us now open our Bible and read Hebrews 10:7-24. In it we will find a deep and marvelous view of the Christian position and work. The inspired writer gives us, as it were, three solid pillars on which the grand edifice of Christianity rests. These are, first, the Will of God; secondly, the Work of Christ; and, thirdly, the Witness of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. If these grand realities are accepted and acted on in simple faith, the soul will certainly have settled peace. With all confidence, we assert that no power of earth or hell, men or devils, can ever disturb the peace that is founded on Hebrews 10:7-17.
The Will of God – In the opening of the chapter, we are instructed regarding the inadequacy of sacrifices under the law. They could never make the conscience perfect; they could never accomplish the will of God – never fulfill the gracious desire and purpose of His heart. “The law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.”
Let us carefully consider this. “The worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.” He does not say, “No more consciousness of sin.” There is an immense difference between these two things; and yet, they are often confounded. The Christian has the consciousness of sin in him, but he should have no conscience of sins on him, because he is purged by the precious blood of Christ once and forever.
Some of the Lord’s people have a habit of speaking of their continual need of applying to the blood of Christ, which is by no means intelligent, nor is it in accordance with the accurate teaching of Holy Scripture. To many, it seems like humility; but, we may rest assured, true humility can only be found in connection with the full, clear, settled apprehension of the truth of God, regarding His gracious will concerning us. If it be His will that we should have “no more conscience of sins,” then it cannot be true humility on our part to go on, from day to day and year to year, with the burden of sins. Further, if it is true that Christ has borne our sins and put them away forever – if He has offered one perfect sacrifice for sins, should we not know assuredly that we have been perfectly pardoned and perfectly purged?
Can it ever be true humility to reduce the blood of Christ to the level of the blood of bulls and of goats? But, no doubt unwittingly, this is what is virtually done by all who speak of applying continually to the blood of Christ. One reason why God found fault with the sacrifices under the law was, as Scripture tells us, “In those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.” This was not according to His mind. He desired that every trace of guilt and remembrance of it should be blotted out once and forever; and hence it cannot be His will that His people should be continually bowed down under the terrible burden of unforgiven sin. It is contrary to His will; it is subversive of their peace, and derogatory to the glory of Christ and the efficacy of His one sacrifice.
One grand point of the inspired argument in Hebrews 10 is to show that continual remembrance of sins and continual repetition of sacrifice go together. Therefore, if Christians are now to have the burden of sins constantly on the heart and conscience, it follows that Christ would be offered again and again, and that is blasphemy. His work is done, and hence our burden is gone forever. “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt-offerings and offerings for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified [or set apart] by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once” (emphasis added).
In a distinct and forcible manner, we are here conducted to the eternal source of the whole matter, namely, the will of God – the purpose and counsel formed in the divine mind before the foundation of the world; before any creature was formed, before sin or Satan existed. From all eternity, it was the will of God that the Son should, in due time, come forth and do a work that was to be the foundation of divine glory and of all the counsels and purposes of the Trinity.
It would be a grave error to suppose that redemption was an afterthought with God. He did not sit down and plan what He would do when sin entered. It was all settled beforehand. No doubt, the enemy imagined that he was gaining a wonderful victory when he meddled with man in the Garden of Eden. In point of fact, he was only giving occasion for the display of God’s eternal counsels in connection with the work of the Son. There was no basis for those counsels, no sphere for their display in the fields of creation. It was the meddling of Satan; the entrance of sin; the ruin of man that opened a platform on which a Savior-God might display to all created intelligences the riches of His grace, the glories of His salvation, and the attributes of His nature.
There is great depth and power in those words of the eternal Son, “In the volume of the book it is written of me.” To what “volume” does He here refer? Is it to Old Testament Scripture? No; the writer is quoting from the Old Testament. What then is the volume? It is nothing less than the roll of God’s eternal counsels in which the “vast plan” was laid, according to which, in the appointed time, the eternal Son was to come forth and appear on the scene, in order to accomplish the divine will, vindicate the divine glory, confound the enemy utterly, put away sin, and save ruined man in a manner that yields a richer harvest of glory to God than ever He could have reaped in the fields of an unfallen creation.
All this gives immense stability to a Christian’s soul. It is impossible for human language to set forth the preciousness and blessedness of this line of truth. It is rich consolation to every pious soul to know that One has appeared in this world to do the will of God – whatever that will might be. “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.” Such was the one undivided purpose and object of that perfect human heart. He never did His own will in anything. He says, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” It mattered not to Him what that will might involve personally to Himself. In the eternal volume, the decree was written down that He should come and do God’s will – all homage to His peerless name, He came and did it perfectly. He could say, “A body hast thou prepared me.” “Mine ears hast thou opened.” “I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting” (Is. 1:3-6).
The Work of Christ – It was always the delight of the heart of Jesus to do His Father’s will and finish His work. From the manger at Bethlehem to the cross of Calvary, the one grand object that swayed His devoted heart was accomplishing the will of God. He perfectly glorified God in all things. This perfectly secures our full and everlasting salvation, as this passage so distinctly states. “By the which will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once.”
Here our souls may rest in peace and unclouded certainty. It was the will of God that we should be set apart to Him, according to all the love of His heart and all the claims of His throne. In due time, in pursuance of the everlasting purpose as set forth “in the volume of the book,” our Lord Christ came forth from the glory that He had with the Father before all worlds, to do the work that forms the imperishable basis of all the divine counsels and of our eternal salvation.
And – forever be His name adored – He has finished His work. He has perfectly glorified God in the midst of the scene in which He had been so dishonored. At all cost He vindicated Him and made good His every claim. He magnified the law and made it honorable. He vanquished every foe, removed every obstacle, swept away every barrier, bore the judgment and wrath of a sin-hating God, destroyed death and him that had the power of it, extracted its sting, and spoiled the grave of its victory. In other words, He gloriously accomplished all that was written in the volume of the book concerning Him; and now we see Him crowned with glory and honor, at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens.
In order to accomplish the will of God, He traveled from the throne to the dust of death, and having done so He has gone back to the throne in a new character and on a new footing. His pathway from the throne to the cross was marked by the footprints of divine and everlasting love. His pathway from the cross back to the throne is sprinkled by His atoning blood. He came from heaven to earth to do the will of God, and, having done it, He returned to heaven again, thus opening up for us “a new and living way” by which we draw nigh to God, in holy boldness and liberty, as purged worshippers.
All is done. Every question is settled. Every barrier is removed. The veil is rent. That mysterious curtain that for ages and generations had shut God in from man, and shut man out from God, was rent in twain from top to bottom by the precious death of Christ. Now we can look right up into the opened heavens and see on the throne the man who bore our sins in His own body on the tree. In the ear of faith, a seated Christ speaks out the sweet emancipating tale that all that had to be done is done forever; done for God; done for us. Yes; all is now settled, and in perfect righteousness God can indulge the love of His heart, by blotting out all our sins and bringing us nigh unto Himself in all the acceptance of the One who sits beside Him on the throne.
Let us carefully note the striking and beautiful way in which Holy Scripture contrasts a seated Christ in heaven with the standing priest on earth. “Every priest standeth daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever [eis to dienekes – in perpetuity] sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever [in perpetuity] them that are sanctified” (emphasis added).
This is uncommonly fine. Under the Levitical economy the priest could never sit down, for the obvious reason that his work was never done. There was no seat provided in the temple or in the tabernacle. There is remarkable force and significance in the manner in which the inspired writer puts this. “Every priest”; “standeth daily”; “offering oftentimes”; “the same sacrifices”; “which can never take away sins.” No human language could possibly set forth more graphically the dreary monotony and utter inefficacy of the Levitical ceremonial. How strange that in the face of such a passage of Holy Scripture, Christendom should have set up a human priesthood, with its daily sacrifice – a priesthood not belonging to the tribe of Levi, not springing from the house of Aaron, and therefore having no sort of divine title or sanction; a sacrifice without blood, and, therefore, a sacrifice without remission, for, “Without shedding of blood, there is no remission” (Heb. 9:22).
Hence, Christendom’s priesthood is a daring usurpation, and her sacrifice a worthless vanity; a positive lie; a mischievous delusion. The priests of whom the inspired writer speaks in Hebrews 10 were priests of the tribe of Levi and of the house of Aaron – the only house, the only tribe ever recognized of God as having any title to assume the office and work of a priest on earth. Further, the sacrifices offered by the Aaronic were appointed by God for the time being; but they never gave Him any pleasure, because they could never take away sins; and they have been forever abolished.
In view of all this, what shall we say of Christendom’s priests and sacrifices? What will a righteous Judge say to them? We cannot attempt to dwell on such an awful theme. We can merely say, for souls deluded and ruined by such antichristian absurdities we say, “May God in His mercy deliver them and lead them to rest in the one offering of Jesus Christ – hat precious blood that cleanses from all sin.” May many be led to see that a repeated sacrifice and a seated Christ are in positive antagonism.
If the sacrifice must be repeated, Christ has no right to His seat and to His crown – we pray God pardon the very penning of the words. If Christ has a divine right to His seat and to His crown, then to repeat a sacrifice is simply a blasphemy against His cross, His name, His glory. To repeat in any way, or under any form whatsoever, the sacrifice is to deny the efficacy of Christ’s one offering, robbing the soul of anything even approaching remission of sins. A repeated sacrifice and perfect remission are an absolute contradiction in terms.
The Witness of the Holy Spirit in Scripture – This is very important for us to understand. It provides great completeness to the subject. How are we to know that by His work on the cross Christ has absolutely and divinely accomplished the will of God? We know it simply by the witness of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. This is the third pillar on which the Christian’s position rests, and it is as thoroughly divine; as thoroughly independent of man as the other two. It is evident that man had nothing to do with the eternal counsels of the Trinity – nothing to do with the glorious work accomplished on the cross. All this is clear because it is nothing less than the witness of the Holy Spirit. Thus, it is obviously clear that man has nothing to do with the authority on which the soul receives joyful news regarding the will of God and the work of Christ.
We cannot be too simple regarding this. It is not by any means a question of our feelings, our frames, our evidences, or our experiences – things interesting enough in their right place. We must receive the truth solely and simply on the authority of that august Witness who speaks to us in Holy Scripture. Thus we read, “Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This 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, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
Here, then, we have before us the solid and full foundation of the Christian's position and peace. It is all of God, from first to last. The will, the work, and the witness are all divine. What should we do, what would become of us, were it otherwise? In this day of confusion, when souls are tossed about by every wind of doctrine; when the beloved sheep of Christ are driven here and there in bewilderment and perplexity; when ritualism with its ignorant absurdities, rationalism with its impudent blasphemies, and spiritualism with its horrible traffic with demons are threatening the foundations of our faith, how important it is for Christians to know what those foundations really are and that they should be consciously resting thereon.
Part III
After additional thought and prayer, we consider that we dismissed it above with too much of a cursory glance. We now deem it important to spend more time considering the third point in our subject: “The witness of the Holy Spirit in Scripture.”
It is essential to the enjoyment of settled peace that we rest solely on the authority of Holy Scripture. Nothing else will stand. Inward evidences, spiritual experiences, comfortable frames, happy feelings, are all good, valuable, and desirable – they cannot be prized too highly in their right place. But, their right place is not at the foundation of the Christian position. If we look to such things as the ground of our peace, we shall soon become clouded, uncertain, and miserable.
We cannot be too simple in our apprehension of this point. We must rest like a little child on the testimony of the Holy Spirit in the Word. It is true that “He that believeth hath the witness in himself.” And again, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” All this is essential to Christianity; but it must not be confounded with the witness of the Holy Spirit, as given in Holy Scripture. The Spirit of God never leads anyone to build upon His work as the ground of peace, but only upon the finished work of Christ, and the unchangeable Word of God. We may rest assured that the more simply we rest on these the more settled our peace will be, and the clearer our evidences the brighter our frames, the happier our feelings, the richer our experiences.
In short, the more we look away from self and all its belongings, and rest in Christ on the clear authority of Scripture, the more spiritually minded we shall be; and the inspired apostle tells us that “to be spiritually minded [or, the minding of the Spirit] is life and peace” (emphasis added). The best evidence of a spiritual mind is child-like repose in Christ and His Word. The clearest proof of an unspiritual mind is self-occupation. It is a poor affair to be trafficking in our evidences, or in our anything. It looks like piety, but it leads away from Christ – away from Scripture; away from God; and this is not piety or faith, or Christianity.
With great distinctness, we need to seize the importance of committing our whole moral being to the divine authority of the Word of God. It will never fail us. All else may go, but “the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Heart and flesh may fail. Internal evidences may become clouded; frames, feelings, and experiences may all prove unsatisfactory; but the Word of the Lord, the testimony of the Holy Spirit, the clear voice of Holy Scripture, must ever remain unshaken. “And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto us.”
We have been considering the divine and everlasting basis of the Christian’s position, as set forth in the tenth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. Let us now see what this same Holy Scripture tells as of the Christian’s work, and of the sphere in which that work is to be carried on.
As Christians, we are brought into the immediate presence of God, inside the veil, into the holiest of all. This is our proper place, if we are actually listening to the voice of Scripture. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let 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.”
Our God would have us near to Himself. In “the blood of Jesus,” He has made for us a clear and indisputable title. Nothing more is needed. That precious blood stands out before the eye of faith in all its infinite value. In it alone we read our title. It is not the blood and something else, no matter what that something might may. The blood constitutes our exclusive title. We come before God in all the perfect efficacy of that blood which rent the veil, glorified God regarding the question of sin, cancelled our guilt according to all the demands of infinite holiness, forever silenced every accuser, every foe. We enter by a new and living way – a way that can never become old or dead. We enter by direct invitation, by distinct command of God. It is disobedience not to come. We enter to receive the loving welcome of our Father’s heart; it is an insult to that love not to come. He tells us to “come boldly;” to “draw near” with full unclouded confidence – a boldness and confidence commensurate with the love that invites as, the Word that commands as, and the blood that fits and entitles us. It offers dishonor to the eternal Trinity not to draw near.
Is all this understood and taught in the religious world? Do man’s creeds, confessions, and liturgical services harmonize with apostolic teaching in Hebrews 10? No, they do not; they are in direct antagonism; and the state of souls, accordingly, is the reverse of what it ought to be. In place of “draw near” it is keep off. In place of liberty and boldness, it is legality and bondage. In place of a heart sprinkled from an evil conscience, it is a heart bowed down beneath the intolerable burden of unforgiven sin. In place of a great High Priest seated on the throne of God, in virtue of accomplished redemption, we have poor sinful and mortal priests standing from week to week, all the year round in wearisome routine, actually contradicting in their barren formalities, the foundation truths of Christianity.
We long to see the souls of those who love God fully delivered from false teaching, from Judaism, legalism, and every other “ism” that robs them of a full salvation and a precious Savior. We long to reach them with the clear and soul-satisfying teachings of Holy Scripture, so that they may know and enjoy the things that are freely given to them of God.
We can truly say there is nothing that gives us such painful concern as the state of the Lord’s dear people, scattered on the dark mountains and desolate moors. We seek to be an instrument of leading them into green pastures and beside still waters where the true Shepherd and Bishop of their souls longs to feed them, according to all the deep and tender love of His heart. He would have them near, reposing in the light of His blessed countenance.
It is not according to His mind or His loving heart that His people should be kept at a dim cold distance from His presence, in doubt and darkness. No, His Word tells us to draw near; come boldly; appropriate freely; make all the precious privileges of a Father’s love our own – that to which a Savior’s blood entitles us.
“Let us draw near.” This is the voice of God to us. Christ has opened up the way. The veil is rent, our place is in the holiest of all, the conscience sprinkled, the body washed, the soul entering intelligently into the atoning value of the blood, and the cleansing, sanctifying power of the Word – its action on our habits, our ways, our associations, our entire course and character.
All this is of the utmost practical value to every true lover of holiness. “The body washed with pure water” is a most delightful thought, setting forth the purifying action of the Word of God on the Christian’s entire course and character. We must not be content with having the heart sprinkled by the blood; we must also have the body washed with pure water.
And what then? “Let us hold fast the profession of our hope [elpidos] without wavering (for he is faithful that promised)” (emphasis added). Blessed parenthesis – we may well hold fast, seeing He is faithful. Our hope can never be made ashamed. In holy calmness, it rests on the infallible faithfulness of Him who cannot lie, whose Word is forever settled in heaven, far above all the changes and chances of this mortal life, above the din of controversy, the strife of tongues, the impudent assaults of infidelity, the ignorant ravings of superstition – far above all these things, eternally settled in heaven is that Word which forms the ground of our “hope.”
Therefore, it becomes us to hold fast. We should never have a single wavering thought; a single question; a single misgiving. For a Christian to doubt is to cast dishonor on the Word of a faithful God. Yet skeptics, and rationalists, and infidels doubt, because they have nothing to believe, nothing to rest on, no certainty. But for a child of God to doubt is to call in question the faithfulness of the divine Promiser. We owe it to His glory, to say nothing of our own peace, to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.” Thus may it be with every beloved member of the household of faith, until that longed-for moment “when faith and hope shall cease, and love abide alone.”
But there is one more interesting branch of Christian work at which we must glance before closing this essay. “Let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works.”
This is in lovely moral keeping with all that has gone before. The grace of God has so richly met all our personal need; setting before us such an array of precious privileges; an opened heaven; a rent veil; a crowned and seated Savior; a great High Priest; a perfectly purged conscience; boldness to enter; a hearty welcome; a faithful Promiser; a sure and certain hope – having all these marvelous blessings in full possession, what is there left for us to do? To consider ourselves? No; this would be superfluous and sinfully selfish. We could not possibly do as well for ourselves as God has done for us. He has left nothing unsaid, nothing undone, nothing to be desired. Our cup is full and running over. What remains? Simply to “consider one another;” to go out in the activities of holy love, and serve our brethren in every possible way; to be on the lookout for opportunities of doing good; to be ready for every good work; to seek in a thousand little ways to make hearts glad; to seek to shed a ray of light on the moral gloom around us; to be a stream of refreshing in this sterile and thirsty wilderness.
These are some of the things that make up a Christian’s work. May we attend to them, and be found provoking one another, not to envy and jealousy, but to love and good works; exhorting one another daily; diligently availing ourselves of the public assembly, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.
May the Holy Spirit engrave upon the heart of us all these most precious exhortations so thoroughly characteristic of our glorious Christianity – “Let us draw near,” “Let us hold fast,” “Let us consider one another.” Dr. William Harrison wrote,
The veil is rent: – our souls draw near
Unto a throne of grace;
The merits of the Lord appear,
They fill the holy place.
His precious blood has spoken there
Before and on the throne:
And His own wounds in heaven declare,
The atoning work is done.
'Tis finish’d! – here our souls have rest
His work can never fail:
By Him, our Sacrifice and Priest,
We pass within the veil.
Within the holiest of all,
Cleansed by His precious blood,
Before the throne we prostrate fall
And worship Thee, O God!
