We come
now to a more general look at the Letter in which our
particular occupation is found, which particular matter
we believe to be the concern of the Letter: the
Letter to the Hebrews.
In the
oldest manuscripts the title is just simply 'To the
Hebrews', but we understand that to mean Hebrew
Christians, or Christians who naturally were Hebrews.
We must
understand the setting of the Letter in New Testament
times. We know of the great battle which raged then
between Jews and Christians. The Apostle Paul, who was
himself a great Hebrew, had a very large heart for his
own people. Do you remember what he said? "I
could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for
my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh"
(Romans 9:3). He was prepared to let everything go if
only his people would accept the Lord Jesus, so great was
his desire and his hope for them. But he fought a losing
battle for Israel, and in the last chapter of the Book of
the Acts you see Paul's surrender of that hope: "Be
it known therefore unto you, that this salvation of God
is sent unto the Gentiles: they will also hear"
(Acts 28:28). In effect he said: 'Seeing that Israel
will not hear, we will give them up. I give up my great
hope for them and I turn to those who will hear - I turn
to the Gentiles.'
Then you
come to this Letter to the Hebrews, and at the end of it
you have the result of Israel's refusal. The writer makes
this appeal to these Hebrew Christians: "See that
ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not,
when they refused him that warned them on the earth, much
more shall not we escape, who turn away from him that
warneth from heaven:... And this word, Yet once more,
signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken,
as of things that have been made, that those things which
are not shaken may remain. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom
that cannot be shaken" (Hebrews
12:25,27,28).
These
words contain the final judgment upon the Hebrews who
rejected Christ. That 'shaking' referred, in the first
instance, to the destruction which was coming upon Israel
in the year A.D. 70, and when that happened Israel was
left without a country, without a city, without a temple
and without a government. Everything was shaken until it
fell completely - the result of refusing to hear "him
that warneth from heaven".
It is in
that setting that we have this Letter to the Hebrews. On
the one side it is a final appeal to the Hebrew
Christians not to go back from Jesus Christ. On the other
side the Letter is a great warning as to what will happen
if they do. So you have to put this Letter right into
that setting: it is set in a great crisis of spiritual
life, and, of course, it contains an abiding message for
all time.
Let us
look for a minute at the three features which made up
that great conflict and which led to that final division.
The
first feature was Christ Himself, as the Messiah, and
Jesus as the Christ. Of course, the Jews believed in a
Christ, for 'Christ' is only the Greek word for the
Hebrew 'Messiah'. But the trouble was that they would not
have Jesus as the Messiah, and so, as was prophesied,
Jesus became the stone upon which they fell and were
broken to pieces. It was a matter of the place they gave
to Jesus.
You can
see into what a high place this letter puts Jesus, and we
are going to see that again presently. Jesus was God's
anointed Son, the Christ, the Rock upon which they were
broken. That was the first great factor in the conflict
and in the ultimate division.
We must
always remember that the test of everyone and everything
is the place which is given to Jesus Christ. If anyone
ever comes to you wanting you to accept some system of
teaching, having wonderful arguments and using a lot of
the Bible, what are you going to do about it? You may not
be able to meet their arguments, and you may not even be
able to answer Scripture with Scripture, but there is one
thing that will always go to the heart of the matter:
'What place do you give to the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you
give Him the place of God's eternal Son?' Everything
stands or falls on that. You can try it, and you will find that most of the
false teachers will begin to wriggle on that: 'Oh, we
believe in Jesus as a great man, as the greatest teacher
that ever lived', and so on. 'but if you want us to
believe that Jesus is God, well, we just cannot go that
far.' It is the place given to the Lord Jesus that is the
test of everyone and everything.
That is
the first factor in this great conflict in the Letter to
the Hebrews, and you will see why the writer uses the
whole of the first part to magnify the Lord Jesus.
The
second feature is what the writer here speaks of as 'the
heavenly calling', and you have to put all the emphasis
upon that word 'heavenly'. You see, the Hebrews wanted an
earthly calling: and all who are like them, even if they
are called Christians, just want an earthly calling; a
Christianity that belongs to this earth and to this
world. We are going to enlarge upon this later, but there
is a tremendous significance in this little phrase 'the
heavenly calling'.
Then
there was this third feature. These Hebrews were prepared
to be Christians, but it must be a Christianity after
their own mind. It must be a Christianity that allows the
Old Testament system to continue. It must allow Moses to
continue. It must allow all the law of Moses to continue.
It must allow the temple to continue. It must allow all
the Old Testament priests to continue. It must allow all
the sacrifices to continue - 'We are prepared to be
Christians if you will let us bring over our Old
Testament into Christianity, but if you say all that is
finished and a heavenly system has taken its
place, then we cannot have that.' They wanted the Jewish
system brought into Christianity, that is, a Christianity
of ritual and form. Do you see the force of this word
'Companions of a heavenly calling'? 'Companions of
Christ'?
These
companions of Christ are those who are constituted anew
on a heavenly and spiritual basis. They are the ones who
are responding to a heavenly calling.
Now we
have come to the point of the transition from the natural
and earthly Israel to the new spiritual and heavenly
Israel. This transition ought to have been in a divine
sequence, the one quietly giving way to the other. The
old ought to have made full place for the new. The old
Israel ought to have died, been buried and raised again
in Christ and become the heavenly Israel - the companions
of Jesus Christ - but they refused to have it like that.
And because they refused to have it like that they were
set aside. God is just moving on with His purpose
concerning His Son, and, although many were called, few
were chosen. There were a few of Israel who were chosen
as companions, but the many who were called refused, and
so they were set aside, and God moved in this transition
toward His new heavenly Israel.
Note:
they positively refused to move on to heavenly
ground. They refused to move on to the ground of the
heavenly Man. Hence, as a result, they went the way of
Adam - and here is a very interesting and instructive
thing.
Adam was
made by God, chosen by God and called by God into
relation to His purpose concerning His Son, but when Adam
was made he was not perfect. He was innocent, but he was
not perfect. You know the difference between being
innocent and being perfect! A little baby child is
innocent, but will you say that it is perfect? No, it is
not perfect. It has to grow up, and it will only grow up
and become perfect as it goes through all sorts of
difficulties and troubles. We call them 'growing pains'
and that is the way of becoming perfect from an innocent
child to a full-grown man. Adam was innocent, like a
little child. He was very beautiful, with no sin in him,
but he was not perfect. He had to come to spiritual
perfection. He had still to be made like God's Son. That
is what he was created for. God allowed him to be tested,
and, oh, what a wonderful thing would have happened if
Adam had gone through his testing triumphantly! From the
innocence of a little child he would have become a
spiritually full-grown man like the Lord Jesus humanly,
and we, the children of Adam, would have been very
different people. But he failed in his test and did not
go the way to which God had called him. What did God do?
He put Adam aside. He put a curse upon him and said, in
effect: 'That kind of being can never satisfy Me. He has
refused to go the way of My Son.'
That is
exactly what happened to Israel after the flesh. God made
Israel, chose Israel and called Israel - all with His Son
in view. And Israel refused to go God's way. Israel was
tested as to Jesus Christ - the four Gospels are just
full of Israel being tested concerning Jesus Christ, and
they all close with Israel saying 'No!' to God's way. So
God did with Israel as He did with Adam - He put them
aside. He put a curse upon them and for these many
centuries that curse has rested upon Israel.
In this
Letter, you see, you have that possibility presented. God
is saying to the Hebrew Christians 'Do not refuse Him
that speaketh from heaven.' But here is the other side of
the story. Israel positively refused God's heavenly
calling... and just at that point God's eternal plan
is revealed, that is, a heavenly people with a spiritual
nature occupying a place in God's creation. That is what
God eternally intended. He intended that before He called
Israel, and He called Israel to be a people like that - a
heavenly people with a spiritual nature.
The
point is that just here, when Israel refuses, God
presents His eternal plan, which is a heavenly
people of a spiritual nature.
The
whole of the New Testament is the body of truth which
relates to this eternal will of God.
Let us just look at that very hurriedly. We will take the
four Gospels. (No! We are not going to study the four
Gospels! We are just going to look at them.)
If you
take up Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and get some idea of
what they contain, and then stand back from them, you are
able to see two lines of movement right through
them. These two movements run alongside of each other.
On the
one side there is the Jewish idea of the Messiah and the
Jewish idea of the kingdom of God. The whole Jewish
system is there.
Alongside
of that, and over against it, there is something that is
different. There is God's idea, and heaven's idea, of the
Messiah. That is very different from the Jewish idea, and
it is always in conflict with the Jewish idea. Then there
is God's idea, and heaven's idea, of the kingdom of God,
and it is very different from the Jewish idea.
There is
the Jewish idea of the king running along one side
through the four Gospels - what kind of a king they want
and are determined to have. Alongside of it, and over
against it, is God's idea, and heaven's idea, of a king: "Behold,
thy king cometh unto thee... lowly, and riding upon an
ass" (Zechariah 9:9). That is not the Jewish
idea of a king! 'How can a meek man riding on an ass
overthrow the mighty Roman Empire? That is not our idea
of a king... "We will not that this man
reign over us" (Luke 14:14)'.
So, you
see, the two lines run through the four Gospels: the
Hebrew idea and the heavenly idea. That is the very
meaning of the four Gospels. When you get to the end of
them you have the Jewish idea rejected fully and finally
by God, and, on the other side, God's idea introduced and
established forever.
Two
thousand years have proved that. The one side of an
earthly system has gone and there has been nothing of it
for two thousand years. On the other side there is God's
idea of His kingdom. That was introduced when Israel was
rejected, and God has been going on with that for two
thousand years. We have God's King; we are in God's
Kingdom; we are under God's government.
That is
what the four Gospels say to us. Of course, that is not
all, but that is the general conclusion of the four
Gospels. Later on we are going to see the details in the
Gospels, or, at least, in one of them, which will show
how true that was. These four Gospels show the rejection
by God of those who rejected His Son, and on the other
side they show God bringing in that which was according
to His Son and establishing it forever so that the very
gates of hell have not been able to prevail against it.
You move
from the Gospels to the Book of the Acts, and here you
have two features. First of all, you have the feature of
transition from the old to the new. With God the
transition is complete, but with His people it is made
slowly because they are not ready to accept it. It was
slower than it ought to have been because James, the head
of the church in Jerusalem, still wanted to have
something of old Israel, and even Peter was very
reluctant to abandon Israel and go right out to the
Gentiles. And dear Barnabas was caught in that snare.
Paul says, with grief in his heart, "even
Barnabas" (Galatians 2:13). These who were of
the old tradition were very slow to give up their
tradition, but you see that God is going on - 'James,
Peter, or whoever it may be, if you are not coming on I
am going on, and if you are not going on I shall leave
you behind and find others.' And while they were so slow
He brought in Paul - and Paul got things going. The
transition was complete with Paul, and he was God's
instrument for completing the transition. The Letter to
the Galatians is the instrument by which that transition
was completed. Judaism in the Christian church received a
fatal blow with that Letter.
You pass
from the Book of the Acts to the Letters - what are
called the 'Epistles' - and what have you here? Just the
full body of teaching concerning the heavenly and
spiritual nature of the people of God. It is applied to a
whole variety of connections. There is one state of
things in Corinth and another state of things in Galatia,
and yet another in Ephesus, and so on. But applied to all
these different conditions is this one thing: it is God's
intention to have a heavenly and spiritual people. All
the Letters were applied to different situations with
that one object in view. Every Letter in the New
Testament has something to say about this heavenly nature
of the people of God.
We
arrive at the Letter to the Hebrews, and this Letter
takes a very, very important place in this whole
question, as it is a summary of the whole New Testament.
In it is gathered up the whole meaning of the New
Testament, and into it there flow tributaries, making it
the meeting place of all the revelation of God concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ.
What is
God's purpose concerning His Son? "Wherefore, holy
brethren, companions of a heavenly calling... we
are become companions of Christ." Who are the
companions of Christ? Those who have fully left
the whole earthly realm of things and are joined to the
heavenly Lord: those who have become God's spiritual
Israel: those who have answered to the heavenly calling.
Paul cried, when he was on trial: "Wherefore, O
king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly
vision" (Acts 26:19). If Paul was a great
companion of Jesus Christ, it was because he had
completely finished with everything but Jesus Christ. He
says: "I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my
Lord" (Philippians 3:8 - A.V.). He was a man who
was wholly on the ground of Jesus Christ, and wholly on
the ground of God's heavenly purpose. Such are the
companions of Jesus Christ.
There
are many young Christians here and perhaps you do not
know your Bible as well as some older Christians do, and
you do not know all the Bible background of what I have
been saying. I hope this will make you want to know your
Bible better! But perhaps there is a lot that I have said
that you do not understand. Now this is one thing that I
do want you to understand - you will come to understand
all the other as you go on, if you hold fast your
beginning firm unto the end. If you really do commit
yourself to the Lord Jesus you will come to understand.
But that is not what I was going to say: what I was going
to say is this:
What I
want you to realize is that you have a very much greater
Christ than you have ever imagined. The Christ to whom
you have given yourselves is a very great Christ. The
call of the Lord which you have answered in accepting the
Lord Jesus is a much bigger calling than you have any
knowledge of. I just want you to go away with this
impression: 'My, I have come into something! This is big
enough to fill my whole life.'
So don't
worry about what you do not understand, but do realize
how great a Lord is your Lord, and what a great thing is
the heavenly calling.