Christianity Oasis Forum

[Netchaplain]

Christianity is characterized for us largely by two things, which are implied in the rent veil. God dwells no more in the thick darkness (Exo 20:21; 1Ki 8:12; 2Ch 6:1). He is in the light. He is able to come out to man; man is able to go in to Him. In fact, both things are accomplished: God has come out to man in Christ; in Christ man is gone in to God.

The Gospel of John is that which shows us eminently the first of these (e.g. Jn 3:16—NC), but Hebrews is the link between John and Paul. Christ is thus, as Man, seen as the Apostle, the One who comes out with that message from God, in which the Father Himself is declared; but the epistle to the Hebrews develops with more fullness the second thing, man going in to God. This is the consequence of that work done upon the earth before His going in, which has enabled Him to enter, not simply in the title which He always personally had, but as the “High Priest of our confession.”

God coming out is the glory of the Gospel. The Son of God in manhood, and manhood never to be laid down again, is “the outshining of His glory” (2Co 4:6). He has spoken, but He has done more than this. He has lived and loved and suffered and died among us, and gone back again in the power of such a sacrifice, by which those in whose behalf it has been offered find “a new and living way” (Heb 10:20) into the very presence of the Father.

Both things, the coming out and the going in, are found in Hebrews, as they are found also in the beginning of John’s first epistle. In these, John and Paul clasp hands together, each emphasizing the truth differently and yet each looking along the track of divine glory, so as to see and recognize the other’s Object. John looks down from heaven to the earth. Paul looks up from the earth to heaven. The central Object for each is He who is the “Apostle and High Priest of our confession” (Heb 3:1).

This full revelation of Christianity is in contrast with all fragmentary communications by the prophets, which preceded it; but He has effected also by Himself a purification of sins, and taken His seat in consequence at the right hand of the Father. Thus also, He has now “companions” or “fellows” (Heb 1:9; 2:11)—these are the “many sons” whom, as the Firstborn, the Kinsman, Redeemer, He as the Originator of their salvation, is “bringing to glory” (Heb 2:10).

But thus, the law, which pointed to such things as things to come, but was never “the very image” of them (Heb 10:1), is necessarily set aside. The successional priesthood of sinful and therefore mortal men, “worshipping afar off” (Exo 24:1), with sacrifice whose constant repetitions proclaim their inefficacy (Heb 10:11), is set aside by the coming of the true Priest; who by one perfect offering brings to an end all others, purging the conscience, to serve in His presence the living God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the glorious reality, the abiding Priest of a heavenly sanctuary, into which faith freely enters, to find “the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ” (2Co 4:6).

Hebrews necessarily presses, therefore, that there must be no confusion, no mix up (e.g. Judeo-Christian—NC) of the “shadows” (Col 2:17; Heb 8:5; 10:1) with the reality. God has gone on long, even after Christianity was come, permitting to the Jewish believers a weaning time, of which the Acts gives the history (Act 17:30—NC), but which is now at an end (opportunity for the Jews coming to Christ in the capacity of Messiah is ceased, and now it’s the same as the Gentiles—coming to Him in the capacity of “the Savior of the world” - 1Ti 4:10; 1Jo 4:14—NC). As to man, all is over, but in that which proved this, God has revealed a way in which He can manifest Himself to the wonder and joy and worship in eternity, and open heaven to those who have hopelessly lost earth. The true sin-offering, bringing all the other offerings to an end, has rent the veil and made the way permanent (no more earthly tabernacle, only heavenly tabernacle - Rev 13:6; 15:5—NC). The judgement of man naturally in the highest place of privilege, which in the camp, is the way by which there is secured entrance into the glory of the Father unveiled.


— Frederick William Grant (1834-1902)





MJS daily devotional excerpt for March 2


“A great many people have the faith that seeks, but they have not a faith that rests. The Lord Jesus is here, rest in Him, let the burden go. ‘Lord, I trust Thee now; I abide in Thee now. Lord, as I think about my home problems, my business pressures, my personal difficulties in every sphere of life, I bring them all, and give them all to Thee.’ And believe that He keeps you. I am sure this rest of faith is the center of all activity.

“You cannot work without friction until you have this rest of faith—complete dependence not only on what the Lord has done, but on what He is to you this very moment. Rest in Him. ‘God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always [not sometimes] having all sufficiency in all things, may abound unto every good work’ (2 Cor. 9:8).” -E.H.
http://www.abideabove.com/hungry-heart/