5. — CHRIST ENTHRONED — THE OBJECT AND PATTERN OF FAITH.
(Chaps. 11.-13.)
THE heavenly throne is especially prominent as the place in which Christ has seated Himself when seen as our high priest and also as our pattern. In the latter case, too, as well as in that of the sacrifice (10:12), His high and glorious position takes its particular character from God Himself. But when the divine dignity of the Son is in question, the place in which He sits is spoken of as “the greatness” or “majesty” on high (1:3). This is also said of Him in priestly power, though “the heavens” are particularized and “the throne” introduced.
The reason for specifying the throne when Christ is in question, as priest and as pattern, is clearly as to the former, that we, for whom He acts as priest, approach to the throne, and therefore need Him there (4:16, 8:1). If seen as Jesus, the leader and completer of faith, our object and pattern, the throne of God is the due reward and proper result of the path of faith and patience, the whole of which He has traversed in absolute perfection (so that no circumstances in which any saint may be found can call for any other spiritual grace than that which has already been exhibited in Jesus for our example). Not merely, therefore, has He left us a model, as in 1 Peter 2:2121For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: (1 Peter 2:21), that we should follow in His steps: in the Hebrews we see Him enthroned at the right hand; and fixing the eye steadfastly upon Him, we are enabled thus to lay aside every weight and sin which so easily entangles us.
The pathway of faith in the case of the blessed Saviour has this special to itself, that an infinitely lower depth and greater height than ours are its moral termini. On the one hand, He endured the cross, despising the shame; and on the other, He set Himself down at the right hand of the throne of God (12:2). All that lies between these extremes we may in our measure more or less experience. We may resist “unto blood, wrestling against sin” (ver. 4), which would be death by martyrdom, the lowest point to which any saint could go on the one hand. On the other hand, we are come, not to Sinai and the legal covenant, as the moral starting-point of our path, like Israel in the wilderness, but to Mount Zion, the principle of sovereign grace, and to the heavenly center of God’s millennial government, and to the universal gathering of angels, and to the assembly of the first-born enregistered in heaven, and to God the judge, and to the spirits of the just perfected, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling. These form the highest point of the pathway of faith, and we are already come to them for faith (12:18-21).
The believer’s walk lies morally between these two points, and consists largely of God’s discipline as of His son’s (12:4-10. This was not the character of Christ’s pathway. On the contrary, it was from sinners He endured so great contradiction against Himself. However, considering Him, we are kept from being weary or fainting in our minds; and neither despise nor faint when reproved by Him. His dealings with us are not in judgment but in grace, to make us partakers of His holiness — that quality as found in God Himself. Meanwhile in our own practical path we are to pursue peace and holiness — the active character of this in actual effect. Moreover, the path is exclusive of any who lack grace within, or who bring in defilement from without, as well as of those who would link the name of Christ with the corruption of the flesh, or barter the heavenly privileges to satisfy its lusts (12:14-17). This path too leads, as we have seen, to that which cannot be shaken, but which will remain when all created things shall be removed, and already we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. In connection with it Christ speaks from heaven, as once He did on earth at Sinai. How fatal then to refuse Him! and inevitable the judgment of those who turn away from Him!
Jesus is here presented as the mediator of a new covenant in connection with the blood of sprinkling. It is one of sovereign grace on God’s part, blessing being dependent not upon human responsibility as under law, but solely upon God’s mercy. We are therefore to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, not to turn away from Him, for our God is a consuming fire (vers. 28, 29).
Passing from the mediatorship of Jesus, the Spirit in chapter 13. rests His exhortations upon the continuity and abidingness of the Person and character of Jesus Christ, “the same yesterday, and to-day, and to the ages to come.” The saints therefore might certainly appropriate all His gracious communications in the past for present encouragement with the assured certainty of eternal blessing. But in this the legal system, with its ordinances imposed upon the flesh, have no place at all.
It is true the camp may still remain on the principle of earthly links of relationship with God and blessing dependent upon fleshly responsibility. But Jesus had left it all in order to sanctify the people, suffering without the gate. We are therefore to go to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach where He is not, and offering to God our praises by Him in the holiest where He is.
The continuity in power of all the Word of God is to be distinctly kept in mind. Those who have spoken it in the past are to be remembered (ver. 7). Those who lead by it in the present are to be obeyed (ver. 17). They have their especial responsibilities and place among the saints (ver. 24).
Finally, God is brought before us as the God of peace. For if the rest is still future, peace is already fully established in His bringing again from the dead our Lord Jesus. He is the Great Shepherd of the sheep, but is so in resurrection, and the power of the blood — that which is the guarantee and security of the eternal covenant. Smitten in His death, the Jewish flock was scattered and the one flock gathered in its place by Him risen from the dead. But this accomplished, Israel shall become “the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand” (Ps. 95.) once more. Well may He be called “the Great Shepherd,” leading as He does each in its turn, the earthly and the heavenly saints.
In conclusion, let us turn back to chapter xi., not so much to note the varied features and qualities of faith, though largely found there in the particular incidents recorded of the Old Testament worthies. From this point of view it has often been remarked that the first seven verses place before us the life of faith in connection with the great acts in which God has revealed Himself — creation, justification, translation, and salvation. From verse 8 to verse 22 The patience of faith is in question, and verses 23-38 give the energy of faith.
We may, however, also consider this chapter according to the varied characters in which God presents Himself to faith, and is therefore known and enjoyed in communion by the saint. Of this, the first elementary principle of faith is the believing that “He is, and that He is a rewarder of them who seek Him out” (ver. 6), so that it is not a vain or unprofitable thing to seek Him. In fact, He is a good and gracious God. Of this, creation (ver. 3) is a witness, adapted as it is in every way for the good and benefit of His creatures, particularly for man set at the head of it.
It is true that ruin and confusion now characterize the scene through man’s failure, but this has only afforded a further opportunity for the display of God’s goodness and grace. He accepts the offering of faith, and testifies that the offerer is righteous, bearing testimony to his gifts. Thus righteousness for the sinner is established irrevocably on the ground of a divinely accepted sacrifice (ver. 4). But more, the transcendent proof that God is good and pleased with faith and rewards it, finds display in the translation of Enoch that he should not see death; and indeed, before this climax of heavenly grace, He deferred not to declare the pleasure He had in him (ver. 5). Yet another instance, that of Noah, final in character, shows that He is good to him who believes. Oracularly warned of the coming flood, Noah prepares an ark for the saving of his house. The unbelieving world is condemned, and he becomes sole representative and heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
That God is good to those who seek Him is the first great lesson learned by faith, whether in creation or justification, translation or salvation.
But faith’s intercourse with God takes now a wider basis, and at the same time a special and more definite form. It is faithfulness to His Word and promise of which verses 8-16 speak. Abraham was called to go out into the place he was to receive for an inheritance. He obeyed, trusting the faithfulness of God. Arrived in the land of promise, he sojourned as a stranger in a foreign country. Still he trusted God and waited, assured that He would not disappoint, but pride a better inheritance, a city of divine and enduring construction. Sarah also “counted Him faithful who had promised,” and not in vain, for according to that promise were born of one become as dead, even as the stars of heaven in multitude, and as the countless sand by the seashore.
God is not ashamed to be called the God of those who count Him faithful. In His governmental ways He gives them in the coming age an established place (ver. 16) of heavenly authority.
It is indeed blessed to know that God is good and faithful to His word, amid the exigencies of the path of faith; but to pass on unmoved by difficulty and trial, we also need to know and confide in His almighty power. Of this verses 17-22 now speak.
Again Abraham affords a chief example. When tried, he offers up Isaac, accounting that God was able to raise him from the dead, whence also he received him in a figure. So also Isaac in his turn blessed Jacob before Esau, preferring the “plain man dwelling in tents” to the cunning hunter, a man of the field; for God had said, “The elder shall serve the younger” (Gen. 25:23, 2723And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. (Genesis 25:23)
27And the boys grew: and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. (Genesis 25:27)), and He was able to bring it to pass. Jacob again, at the end of human strength and his earthly journey, blesses the younger of Joseph’s sons before the elder, perpetuating confidence in that power of God of which he was himself so string a proof, and testifying besides to the double portion of the rejected man. Joseph completes the array of witnesses to this truth so necessary for faith. God is almighty to fulfill His promises, and would surely visit His people and bring them out, even were they in the grave itself. In the confidence of this power Joseph gives commandment concerning his bones.
The remaining verses (23-40) enlarge to the full the thoughts of faith in regard to its knowledge of God. It is not merely that He is good and faithful and all-powerful. He is now seen to have His own purposes in reserve, purposes of blessing, far beyond any promises made to man on earth, that which eye hath not seen nor ear heard — a better thing for us. Of this, the history of Moses affords an instance. Engaged by the beauty of the child, his parents became the humble instruments of saving him who should lead God’s people into God’s inheritance. Moses, when come to years, viewing by faith the purposes of God, chose to suffer affliction with the people of God, who, though poor and oppressed, were clothed to his heart with the glory of the God who called them. Identifying himself with Christ, rejected and reproached in His people, he had respect to the recompense of a future day, and meanwhile his path was governed by God’s purpose for His people and His Christ. Seeing Him who is invisible, he persevered, braving the anger of an apostate world; and bowing meanwhile to the claims of God in judgment, he obeyed the divine provision of the sprinkled blood which met it, and sheltered His people.
When the purposes of God are before the eye of faith, the wilderness disappears. So here, the Red Sea is passed through as dry land (ver. 29), and then Jericho’s walls fall down; for the better thing alone, God’s inheritance and rest, is in question. We may notice too that when faith rises up to communion with God, in respect of His purposes, persecution largely marks the path.
Of such the world is not worthy (ver. 38). But God has foreseen some better thing for us. Let us therefore run with endurance the race that lies before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of faith. W. T. W.