Cnoc-a-Phobuill

When I first I undertook the preparation of this exposition in Dutch
for the Christian people among whom I labour, it was under a deep
conviction that the epistle of Hebrews contained just the instruction
they needed. In reproducing it in English, this impression has been
confirmed, and it is as if nothing could be written more exactly suited
to the state of the whole church of Christ in the present day.
The great complaint of all who have the care of souls is the lack of
wholeheartedness, of steadfastness, of perseverance, and of
progress in the Christian life. Many—of whom one cannot but
hope that they are true Christians—come to a standstill and do
not advance beyond the rudiments of Christian life and practice.
And many more do not even remain stationary but rather turn
back to a life of worldliness, formality, and indifference. And
the question is continually being asked, “What is the need in
our religion that, in so many cases, it gives no power to stand,
to advance, and to press on unto perfection?” And what is the
teaching that is needed to give that health and vigour to the
Christian life that, through all adverse circumstances, it may
be able to hold fast from the beginning, firm until the end?

The teaching of the epistle of Hebrews is the divine answer
to these questions. In every possible way, it sets before us
the truth that it is only the full and perfect knowledge of
what Christ is and does for us that can bring us to a full and
perfect Christian life. The knowledge of Christ Jesus that
we need for conversion does not suffice for growth, for progress,
for sanctification, and for maturity. Just as there are two
dispensations—the Old Testament and the New—and just as the
saints of the Old, with all their faith and fear of God, could not
obtain the more perfect life of the New, so with the two stages
in the Christian life of which this epistle speaks. Those who,
through sloth, remain babes in Christ and do not press on to
maturity are ever in danger of hardening their hearts, of coming
short, and of falling away. Only those who hold fast from the
beginning, firm until the end; who give diligence to enter the
rest of Christ; and who press on unto perfection do, in very deed,
inherit and enjoy the wonderful new covenant blessings secured to
us in Christ. And the great object of the epistle is to show us that
if we will but follow the Lord fully and yield ourselves wholly to
what God, in Christ, is ready to do, we will find, in the Gospel and
in Christ, everything we need for a life of joy, strength, and final victory.

The cure the epistle has for all our failures and feebleness—the one
preservative from all danger and disease—is the knowledge of the
higher truth concerning Jesus, the knowledge of Him in His
heavenly priesthood. In connection with this truth, the writer
has three great mysteries he seeks to unfold. The one is that
the heavenly sanctuary has been opened to us so that we may
now come and take our place there, with Jesus, in the very presence
of God. The second mystery is that the new and living way by which
Jesus has entered—the way of self sacrifice and perfect obedience to
God—is now the way in which we may and must draw near. The third
mystery is that Jesus, as our heavenly High Priest, is the Minister of the
heavenly sanctuary and dispenses to us its blessings—the spirit and the
power of the heavenly life—in such a way that we can live in the world
as those who are come to the heavenly Jerusalem and as those in whom
the spirit of heaven is the spirit of all life and conduct. In this heavenly
priesthood of Jesus, heaven is opened to us day by day, we enter it by
the new and living way, and heaven enters by the Holy Spirit. Such is
the Gospel to the Hebrews that this epistle brings. Such is the life to
which it reveals the way and the strength. The knowledge of the
heavenly character of Christ’s person and work is what alone can make
heavenly Christians, who, amid all the difficulties and temptations of
life on earth, can live as those whom the superior power of the upper
world has possessed, and in whom it can always give the victory.

In offering these meditations now to a wider circle of readers, I
do so with the prayer that it may please God to use them to
inspire some of His children with new confidence in their blessed
Lord, as they learn to know Him better and give themselves up to
expect and experience all that He is able to do for them. I have not
been afraid of continually repeating this one thought: Our one need
is to know Jesus better and the one cure for all our feebleness is to
look to Him on the throne of heaven and really claim the heavenly
life He waits to impart.

Just as I was about to write the preface to the Dutch issue during the
first week of last year, I received from my beloved colleague as a New
Year’s text—with the wish that it might be my experience—these words:
“Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and bringeth them
up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured
before them” (Mark 9:2). I at once passed the word on to my readers,
and I do so again. May the blessed Master take us “with Himself” into
the “mountain,” even the Mount Zion, where He sits as Priest King upon
the throne in power, each of us “apart by himself.” And may He prepare
us for the blessed vision of seeing Him “transfigured before us,” seeing
Him in His heavenly glory. He will then still be to us the same Jesus we
know now—and yet, not the same, but rather His whole Being, bright
with the glory and the power of the heavenly life that He holds for us
and waits to impart day by day to them who forsake all to follow Him.

In humble trust and prayer that it may be so, I commend all my readers
to His blessed teaching and guidance.

# posted by Dave Lynch @ 12:34 PM