Hebrews 1-2
Hebrews opens the heavens to you as they now are.
How blessed is the introduction of such a thing to the heart! This epistle introduces the inner heavens to you, and not in a physical but in a moral character. It introduces us to the glories surrounding and attaching to the Lord Jesus, now accepted in the heavens. We are thus enabled to see the heavens in which He has sat down, what He is about there, and what will succeed those heavens. When the Lord Jesus was here, as we learn in Matthew 3, the heavens opened to get a sight of Him. There was an object here then worthy of the attention of the heavens. He returned—and the heavens had an object they had never known before a glorified Man. In Matthew 3 we get the heavens opened to look down at Christ here, so in the Hebrews you get the heavens opened that you may look at Christ up there.
“When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” The Lord has gone up to occupy the heavens as the Purger of our sins. The Holy Spirit comes and shows you the distant heavens He shows you that your interests are consulted there. Our Representative is seated in the highest place and seated there in that very character. Is it possible to have a more intimate link with the place? To think that because He came to die a wretched death for us, He is seated there! I defy you to have a richer interest in the heavens than God has given you.
Now in verse 4 we see that not only as the Purger of our sins, but in the verity of His manhood He is there, seated above the angelic hosts. The whole of Hebrews 1 is thus occupied in giving you two sights of Christ in heaven: the Purger of our sins, and very man, like ourselves, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
I read the first four verses of chapter 2 as a parenthesis. He is seated there as an Apostle my Apostle. What does that mean? He is a preacher to me. God spake in times past by the prophets. He is speaking to us now in Son, and Christ in the heavens is the Apostle of Christianity. And what is His subject? Salvation.
Then Hebrews 2:55For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. (Hebrews 2:5) goes on with the distinctive glories of Christ, as super-eminent, above angels. We have three conditions of the Son of Man here: “A little lower than the angels,” crowned “with glory and honor,” and “set... over the works” of God’s hands, so that the world to come is not put in subjection to angels but to the Son of Man. Now you find that you have an interest in this glorified Man. This epistle shows you that you have a personal interest in these glories.
In chapter 2:10 a new thought comes in: “To make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” It became the glory of God to give you a perfect Saviour. We have an unquestionable, infallible salvation, one that will stand the shock of every coming day.
From verse 11 we further see our interest in the glorified Man. “Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Not ashamed! Tell it out that earth and heaven may hear! This glorified Man is not “ashamed” because of their dignity not merely because of His grace, but because of their personal dignity. “In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee.” Christ raises and leads the song of the redeemed ones, and He is not ashamed to be found in their company!
Then we return to see what He was in humiliation. “He took not on... angels; but he took on... the seed of Abraham.” He left the angels where He found them. They excelled in strength. Man excelled in wickedness, and He came and linked Himself with man. Then chapter 2:17 introduces us to another glory that attaches to Christ in the heavens. We see Him there as our High Priest, ever waiting with reconciliation for sins and succor for sorrows. The epistle teems with divine glories. It is massive in glory and ponderous in the divine thoughts that press into its short space.
Hebrews 3-4
The heaven of Genesis 1 had no glorified Man in it, no Apostle, no High Priest, while every page of Hebrews is fruitful in casting up the glories of the Lord Jesus now in heaven. Hebrews 3-4 look a little sharply at us and tell us to take care now that we are traveling along the road in company with Him. The first thought is that we are to consider Him in His faithfulness. The point of the passage is that I am to consider Him as faithful, for my sake, to God faithful so that I might be saved eternally. If I do not consider Him so, I have more than blunted the point of the passage and lost the sense of grace. The word should be “is faithful” or “being faithful,” not in walking down here but now in heaven. I look up and see Him discharging these offices, faithful to Him that appointed Him. I am to consider Him for my comfort.
We get the Son in the highest heavens, there seated as the Purger of our sins, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. Could any exhortation be more divine than that which tells me to sit still and look at Him in His faithfulness up there?
In verses 3-4 and onward we get further glories unfolded as contrasted with Moses. The first dispensation is here called a house. It was a servant to serve a coming Christ Moses and the house are identical. All the activities of that dispensation were worth nothing if they did not bear testimony to a coming Christ; therefore it was a servant. When the Lord comes, on the other hand, He comes as Son, to claim that which is His own. Will the house, over which He is set, be faithful to Him?
What is your faithfulness? To continue in confidence and hold the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end, I will take nothing but this all-sufficient Christ. Cling to Him day by day till the wilderness journey be over. Then you are part and parcel of that house over which He presides as Son. He not only presides over it, He claims it as His own a dearer thought. It is quite right to be subject to Him, but He tells you to lie near His heart. If I am lying on His bosom, then I am faithful.
He turns aside to Psalm 95. Psalms 92-99 are a beautiful little millennial volume. It is exhortings and awakenings of the Spirit of faith in Israel, summoning them to look forward to the rest of God.
The wilderness journey of Israel is a beautiful, lively picture of the journey the believer is now taking from the blood to the glory. It assures us that we are out of Egypt and looking towards Canaan. The danger is, not lest the blood should not be on the lintel, but lest we should break down by the way, as thousands did in the wilderness. When he speaks of rest, it is the rest of the kingdom He talks of, not the rest of conscience.
Then he calls the whole age through which we are passing one day “today.” It was a short day to the dying thief and the martyred Stephen. It was a longer day to Paul and still longer to John, but let the wilderness journey be short or long, it is one day, and you are to hold by Christ to the very end.
The Christ of verse 14 is a glorified Christ. You are made partakers of Christ in the kingdom if you hold fast to Christ crucified. Holding to a crucified Christ is my title to the rest of a glorified Christ. Two things contest this sin and unbelief. Shall I give in to sin or unbelief? I may be overtaken, but am I to treat them other than as enemies? Then unbelief is an action of the soul towards God. These two things stand out to withstand our passage from Egypt to Canaan every day.
Chapter 4 still pursues the subject. The Christ of chapter 3:14 is the rest of chapter 4; Christ glorified rest glorious. The exhortation attaches to a people out of Egypt. We have left the blood-sprinkled lintel behind. The glorious Canaan is before us. Take heed lest you come short of it. “Unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them.” It is the gospel, not of the blood of Christ, but of the glory of Christ. It took one form in the ear of the Israelites and it takes another form to us, but to them, as to us, rest was preached.
Then He beautifully falls back on the Sabbath rest of the Creator. Adam disturbed His creation-rest and Israel disturbed His Canaan-rest. Is He, therefore, disappointed in His rest? No; He has found it in Christ. The secret of the whole book of God is God retreating into Christ when man in every way had disappointed Him. It is no longer a fallible thing depending on Adam or on Israel; therefore let us take care that we do not come short of it.
We had two enemies in the end of chapter 3; now we have two uses of Christ in the end of chapter 4. We are to use Him as the Word of God and as the High Priest of our profession. These two uses stand opposed to sin and unbelief. Let the Word of God discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. Invite the entrance of the two-edged sword that makes no allowance for a single bit of sin. And when you have dragged out the enemy—some favorite lust or unsuspected vanity—what are you to do with them? Take them to Christ and let His high-priesthood dispose of them in the mercy and grace that are in it.
J. G. Bellett (from The Opened Heavens)