Thoughts on Reading Hebrews
I’ve read this book several times. But I still haven’t understood it. I need more experience. We understand the Bible only through experience. It is a living word, and as we go through various experiences we begin to understand it more clearly. What have I understood in my recent reading of this book? The thrice-repeated phrase: ‘He sat down’. ‘He sat down’ means ‘It is finished’ – it speaks of the Final Word, the Finished Work and the ‘Resting of Faith’ in our Lord Jesus Christ.
This book starts by saying that God has finally spoken to us ‘in His Son’. God is not speaking through the prophets; He has spoken through His Son, or rather, ‘in His Son’.
‘Thou art My Son,
Today I have begotten Thee’
This quotation from Psalm 2 is not talking about the Incarnation. It is talking about the Resurrection. The Son has come through death and burial into resurrection. The travail of the cross has resulted in triumph and enthronement. Jesus Christ has accomplished the work given to Him. He has ‘sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high’. He has come through as Son of Man, so that man can fulfil his great destiny as seen in Psalm 8.
Jesus went through the agony of the cross and came into resurrection-ascension. He is now on the throne. There He intercedes for us as our heavenly High Priest. He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them, Heb 7.25. He is the Son made perfect forever. He has offered the perfect sacrifice, which is Himself. His is the perfect, finished work, the Finished Work of the Cross. He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, ‘sat down at the right hand of God’, Heb 10.12.
The third time we come across this phrase is in Heb 12.2. There it says, Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, for the joy set before Him [what is that joy? Is it not the ‘bringing of many sons to glory’? Heb 2.10] endured the cross, despising the shame, and ‘has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’.
It is a Finished Work of the Cross, a perfect once-for-all-time work, that has brought us into the very presence of God, into the most holy place [Heb 10.19], where the sevenfold spiritual mysteries of the ‘golden altar of incense’, ‘the ark of the covenant covered with gold’, the ‘golden jar of manna’, ‘Aaron’s rod which budded’, ‘the tables of the covenant’, ‘the cherubim of glory’ and the ‘mercy seat’ have to be appreciated and enjoyed by us. We now enjoy the blessings of the New Covenant by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is ‘faith-rest’. The ‘living Word’, Jesus, is the ‘final statement’. The Cross in all its aspects of death-burial-resurrection-ascension is a Finished Work.
We have to go outside the camp of Judaism, legalism, denominationalism and religion [modern Christianity] – seeking the city which is to come, a city with foundations [an unshaken kingdom] whose architect and builder is God, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem – Mount Zion, to which the writer says, ‘we have already come’, Heb 12.22. Therefore, by faith resting in the Final Word, the Finished Work, the Fullness of God seen in our Lord Jesus Christ, let us continually offer up the ‘sacrifice of praise’ and glory in Him and what He has done.
This book starts by saying that God has finally spoken to us ‘in His Son’. God is not speaking through the prophets; He has spoken through His Son, or rather, ‘in His Son’.
‘Thou art My Son,
Today I have begotten Thee’
This quotation from Psalm 2 is not talking about the Incarnation. It is talking about the Resurrection. The Son has come through death and burial into resurrection. The travail of the cross has resulted in triumph and enthronement. Jesus Christ has accomplished the work given to Him. He has ‘sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high’. He has come through as Son of Man, so that man can fulfil his great destiny as seen in Psalm 8.
Jesus went through the agony of the cross and came into resurrection-ascension. He is now on the throne. There He intercedes for us as our heavenly High Priest. He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them, Heb 7.25. He is the Son made perfect forever. He has offered the perfect sacrifice, which is Himself. His is the perfect, finished work, the Finished Work of the Cross. He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, ‘sat down at the right hand of God’, Heb 10.12.
The third time we come across this phrase is in Heb 12.2. There it says, Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, for the joy set before Him [what is that joy? Is it not the ‘bringing of many sons to glory’? Heb 2.10] endured the cross, despising the shame, and ‘has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’.
It is a Finished Work of the Cross, a perfect once-for-all-time work, that has brought us into the very presence of God, into the most holy place [Heb 10.19], where the sevenfold spiritual mysteries of the ‘golden altar of incense’, ‘the ark of the covenant covered with gold’, the ‘golden jar of manna’, ‘Aaron’s rod which budded’, ‘the tables of the covenant’, ‘the cherubim of glory’ and the ‘mercy seat’ have to be appreciated and enjoyed by us. We now enjoy the blessings of the New Covenant by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is ‘faith-rest’. The ‘living Word’, Jesus, is the ‘final statement’. The Cross in all its aspects of death-burial-resurrection-ascension is a Finished Work.
We have to go outside the camp of Judaism, legalism, denominationalism and religion [modern Christianity] – seeking the city which is to come, a city with foundations [an unshaken kingdom] whose architect and builder is God, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem – Mount Zion, to which the writer says, ‘we have already come’, Heb 12.22. Therefore, by faith resting in the Final Word, the Finished Work, the Fullness of God seen in our Lord Jesus Christ, let us continually offer up the ‘sacrifice of praise’ and glory in Him and what He has done.
posted by prolix at 1:30 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home