"THE HOLIEST OF ALL" part XLIV

LET US PRESS ON TO PERFECTION.
Hebrews 6: 1-3  Wherefore let us cease to speak of the first principles ( Leave the word of the beginning) of Christ, and press on to perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and cf faith toward God. Of the teaching of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit.

Continuing with the The Warning
Against Sloth, Standing Still and Apostasy
Hebrews 5:11 - 6:20

BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY

We have seen how among the Hebrews there were two classes of Christians. They are to be found in every Christian Church --- some who, instead of growing up to be teachers and helpers of others, always remain babes, and have need that some one again teach them the rudiments of the beginning of the oracles ( Divine statements) of God. Others who are perfect or fully-grown men, who have had their spiritual senses exercised in discerning good and evil, and are able to receive the solid food of the Knowledge of the perfection of Christ and His Work. Let us listen as the word calls us to come out of all sloth and feebleness, and a standing still and to press on to the perfection Christ has come to reveal and impart to us by our receptivity.

First we hear what it is we are to give up. Let US leave the word of the beginning of Christ. In chapter 3:14 we were urged to hold fast the beginning firm to the end. These two expressions are not at variance. The beginning is the seed or first principle out of which the farther Divine Life must grow and expand into perfection. This beginning, as the root of all that is to come, must be held fast to the very end. But the beginning, as being only a commencement of something Better, must be left. It is a terrible misunderstanding of the words, " Hold fast to what you have," to imagine that we simply need to preserve with what we already have. By no means. We must realize that the Knowledge of Christ and the measure of Grace we receive at conversion ( our redemption ) cannot suffice for our farther development in the Divine Life. We need each day to learn more of Christ, to make new advances in Obedience, to gain larger experience of the power of the Heavenly Life. There can be no healthy life without growth and progress. We must leave the word of the beginning of Christ.


Not laying again the foundation. A builder, when he has laid his foundation, leaves working at it any more, and builds upon it. There are Christians who never get beyond the foundation, who never know what the house is for the sake of which alone the foundation is; that it is to be an habitation of God through the Spirit, and to dwell in the Love and the power of God. The writer mentions, in three pairs, six points which belong to the foundation Truths, in which the young beginner has to be instructed. Repentance from dead works and faith towards God: these are in very deed only the rudiments of the word of Christ. Then follow two points that have reference to the public confession of faith and the connection with the Church: the teaching of baptism and of the laying on of hands. And then two more, that relate to the future life: the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Without these elementary Truths one could hardly be a Christian: but the man who rests content with them, and cares not to know more, cannot be a Christian as God would have him, has reason to doubt whether he be a Christian at all.

Wherefore, let us leave the word of the beginning of Christ, and press on to perfection. It is not difficult to know what perfection here means. Perfect is that which corresponds to its ideal, which is as it should be, which answers to what its maker intended. No parent is content that his child should remain a babe; he educates it to be a full-grown man. God has set before us in His word the Life He actually means us to live, and He calls every true child of His to leave the beginnings, and press on to perfection, to press on to be all that He has promised to make us. More God would not have us seek; with less, we dare not be content, lest we deceive ourselves.

In Christ Jesus, and His life work on earth, we have the embodiment of that perfection, as it consists in a Life given up to Obedience to God's Will; the proof that it is possible for a true man to live a life that is well-pleasing to the Father; the promise that from His Throne in Heaven He will now impart and work in us. In suffering He yielded Himself to God to perfect Him. In suffering He learned obedience, and was made perfect, thereby to be the cause of Eternal Salvation to us. He is now, as the Son perfected forevermore, our High Priest, in Heaven working in us, in the power of the Heavenly Life, that perfection, through which as our Leader He Opened the path, the Way to Glory. Our perfection can be none other than Christ's: His perfection our model, His perfection our Life and strength (our pattern while on earth). God desires and can be satisfied with nothing in us but what He sees of His beloved Son, and His perfection (of  His sons) through Suffering and Obedience.

Wherefore, let us leave the word of the beginning of Christ, and press on to perfection. And this will we do if God permit. As if he says, The following chapters are to be the teaching of Christian perfection. We will with you press on, and help you on, by giving the solid food which is the nourishment and strength of the perfect: the Heavenly Priesthood of Christ, in the power of an Endless Life. His Glory and power as Mediator of the New Covenant, writing God's Law into our very heart, the infinite efficacy of the Blood as Opening the Holiest of All to us, and cleansing us to enter in and serve the Living God,--- these and such like Truths, revealing the perfection that Christ attained in His human life, and into which He lifts us in His Divine power, these constitute the solid food for the perfect. The perfection of Christ, as Truth revealed, becomes the perfection of the believer (who becomes a receptive one by His faith), as a life experienced, in those who count all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Him our Lord.

1. Let us hold fast the distinction between foundation doctrine and perfection doctrine. There are Truths of the beginning of Christ, which we have had in the first half of the Epistle His divinity and humanity, His substitution, tasting death for all, and His entering into Heaven, as far as that was typified by Aaron. In the second half we have what is needed for the completion of the Christian life; the power of the Heavenly Life as it is secured in the Heavenly Priesthood and the Heavenly Sanctuary. Wherefore, let us press on to perfection.
2. Let us press on to perfection. Do take this as a distinct injunction of the God who speaks to us in His Son. Hear His voice, rest not content with the beginnings press on unto perfection, unto the perfect man, unto the measure of the Stature of the fulness of Christ.
3. Compare Paul (Phil. 3: 12-15): I press on, if so be I may apprehend that for which I also was apprehended of Christ Jesus. Forgetting the things which are behind, I press on toward the goal. Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. Let us press on to perfection.