Jottings

by J. Miller | Category: Jottings | Feb 1967

Each epistle in the New Testament has its own character and content. At the same time, one may find the same things referred to in different epistles. Let us take the epistle to the Ephesians and that to the Hebrews and note the differences in the character of each. In the one we have the Heavenlies mentioned several times, and in the other the Holies are mentioned a number of times after chapter 8.

The blessings of the believer are associated with the heavenlies in Christ, and the believer's warfare is against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies (Ephesians 1.3; 6.12). These facts have been seen by many who have compared them to the children of Israel in their entering upon the possession of the promised land; the land in which their earthly blessings were, was the land where their enemies were, against whom they had to fight to obtain their land. The parallel was close, but the one line of thought is much higher than the other. Israel's blessings in their land were material, whereas ours are spiritual; theirs was earthly, ours is heavenly.

In contrast to the Ephesian epistle, the Hebrews has no word "sat" or "seated" as applied to the believer. The only reference to "sat" is applied twice to the Lord as being seated at God's right hand. It has no word for "walk", as applied to the believer's behaviour, and no word for "wrestle" or "wrestling", as applied to the believer's warfare. These three words are used in the Ephesian epistle. In chapter 2 we are confronted with the walk of the unbeliever prior to his conversion: "Ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience" (verse 2). Though they so walked, they were dead through their trespasses and sins. This shows what is clearly taught throughout Scripture, that to be dead or in death does not mean extinction of being, but signifies a change of being from being alive or living. Life and death do not mean existence and non existence. Both describe a state of existence.

Those who were dead in sins, and walked according to the course of the world and according to Satan's power, were, through God's great love and rich mercy, quickened together with Christ, raised up with him, and made to sit with Him in the heavenly places (or, literally, the heavenlies) in Christ Jesus (2.4-6). This is the seat of all who are saved by grace. All who have believed in Christ have no work to do for salvation, that work has all been done for them, and though once dead in sins they are now made alive, raised and seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

In contrast to being saved by grace and seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, we come to the matter of walk in chapter 4, that is, of the behaviour of such as are saved by grace. The Ephesian epistle is divided in two at the end of chapter 3. The first three chapters deal with, in the main, what has come to the believer by divine grace. The following three chapters deal with the important matter of walk or correct Christian living. Thus Paul begins: "I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love" (verses 1 and 2).

The believer who can behave himself thus has already adopted the character and conduct of saints in heaven. He is ready as to his conduct to lift his foot and plant his step on the soil of the land that is fairer than day. He is not as one who is going heavenward yet looking back with a covetous eye on earth.

Then towards the end of chapter 6 we come to the Christian's warfare. His wrestling is not against flesh and blood but against the hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies; thus we have our being seated, our walk and our warfare.

Whilst in Ephesians we see the believer blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ (1.3), and seated with Christ in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, his walk, that is, his conduct, from 4.1, and his warfare in 6.l0-l8; such thoughts are not found in the Hebrew epistle. I do not mean that no Christian conduct is mentioned at all in this epistle; this would be untrue in the light of chapter 13. But it is not dealt with under the subject of "walk".

The first part of the Hebrews, until the end of chapter 7, deals with the High Priesthood of the Lord; chapter 1 dealing with the Lord as to His Godhead, and chapter 2 with His Manhood. Our High Priest is a divine-human Person. He is eternally Divine, and He became Man by His birth through the virgin Mary in Bethlehem. He is a Priest with all the infinite competence of Deity, and having learned obedience (not to be obedient) by the things that He suffered, and being made perfect by His sufferings, He is able to deal mercifully with tempted and tried saints, and faithfully discharge His office as Priest to God who appointed Him.

Paul begins chapter 8 with a reference to the summary that he had given in the previous chapters. He says:

"Now in the things which we are saying the chief point is this: We have such a High Priest who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary (Holies), and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man" (8.1,2).

Whilst the Lord is a Priest after the order of Melchizedek, He performs His priestly service after what is set forth typically in the work of Aaron. The use of the wor4 true in "true tabernacle" is not in contrast to what is false, but in contrast to what was a shadow, the law had a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things (Hebrews 10.1). The Lord as Priest sits at the right hand of God; of old there was no seat for the high priest nor for any priest in the tabernacle which was built by Moses.

The Lord's infinite care for the things pertaining to the service rendered to God by God's people, and His infinite compassion for the people that render it need no words of ours to emphasize. He is faithful to God and merciful to us. But how short we come in the matter of divine service in the Holies! Some there are today who grasp after sc-called divine gifts, such as the curing of bodily disease and speaking with tongues. We believe none has such gifts today. Some seem willing to grasp after them and would throw to the one side the truth pertaining to the house of God and divine service in the Holies, as though such matters were of little consequence. I ask which was the greater work of Moses, turning the water in the Nile and the wells in Egypt into blood, and bringing multitudes of frogs out of the Nile into the homes, beds, and kneading-troughs of the Egyptian people, or the building of the tabernacle when they came to Sinai?

The Lord, speaking to His disciples, said:

"He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also;

and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the

Father" (John 14.12).

What greater works did men do than the Lord did? He and also His servants raised the dead. What can be greater than to be connected with the work of the true tabernacle in the service of the Holies? The house of God and the service of God in drawing near to Him into the Holies (Hebrews l0.l9-22), and the work connected therewith in the churches of God, is the permanent work of this dispensation. Miracles and miracle-working were temporary in character. There is nothing higher than to render to God what is His due, and we are told, in connexion with this, that "it is necessary that this High Priest (our Lord) also have somewhat to offer" (Hebrews 8.3).

J. Miller | Feb 1967
Jottings