THE CROWNING BLESSING OF THE NEW COVENANT FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.
Hebrews 8: 10-11 And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For all shall Know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.
Continuing with the SIXTH SECTION
Hebrews 8:1-13.
The New Sanctuary and the New Covenant.
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY
GOD created man to find his Blessedness in Himself (Genesis 1: 26-27; 28-29). This is the nobility and the greatness of man, that he has a heart capable of intimacy and fellowship (partnership) with God, a heart so great that nothing less than God can really satisfy it. This is held out to him as his highest Blessedness through Eternity (1 Chronicles 28: 9; Jeremiah 24: 7; 1 John 5: 20).
There is but one thing can hinder the fellowship of intimacy, and that is sin. Where there is no sin, the creature lives in the Creator as naturally as a bird in the air, or a fish in the water. For this reason the two promises of the New Covenant go together as cause and effect: I will write My Law in their hearts, and, I will be to them God, and they shall Know Me. The deliverance from the evil, wandering heart, will be followed by close personal access to God. They shall not teach every man his brother, Know the Lord: for all shall Know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.
Personal, direct fellowship with God: this is the crowning Blessing of the New Covenant, to which the Epistle to the Hebrews very specially points the way. In Israel only the priests might enter the Holy Place: thence they went out again to teach the people. Into the Most Holy only the high priest might come. In Christ every believer who becomes a receptive one has access to the Holiest of All. Christ has Redeemed us, not to bring us to Himself, but to bring us to God. He is the door, in which we are not to remain standing, but through which we are invited to enter into God Himself, into His heart and His Love. God, having spoken in past times in the prophets, has now spoken in His Son; in Him there is an immediate Living Intimacy of fellowship with the Living God. All that the Epistle has to teach of the rending of the veil, and our Boldness in the Blood, and the entrance into the Holiest of All--- it has all to do with this one thing, direct personal Living Intimacy and fellowship with the Living God. As the Minister of the True Sanctuary Jesus sends the Spirit from thence to do the work He has in our heart as Mediator of the Covenant, and prepares us to enter the Sanctuary. As Mediator of the Covenant He then reveals Himself more fully as the Minister of the Sanctuary, who does indeed bring us near to God.
And how does He do this? In the Way in which He Himself entered there, the Way of Obedience. I will write My Law in their hearts, and they shall Know Me. The Law written on the heart is the condition of our Intimacy and fellowship (partnership) with God. "Without Holiness no man shall see the Lord." "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." " Your Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." To be brought by the Heavenly High Priest within the veil, and dwell before God's face, we must learn to do His Will on earth as it is done in Heaven. This is the True Heavenly- mindedness that renders us capable of Intimacy and True fellowship with the God of Heaven. Union with God's Will was the Way by which Jesus entered. Union with God's Will is the Way by which Jesus brings us into the Love and the joy of the Father.
And how, again, do we obtain this double Blessedness--- of the Law written in the heart, and the entrance into God's presence is in Christ Jesus? This It is God must do it. It is He who swore to Abraham--- Blessing I will Bless. It is He who swore to our High Priest--- You are a Priest forever. It is God Himself who will fulfill His Oath. Jesus is not now on the Throne to take the place of God, to be to us instead of God. Truly no; He brings us to God. Through Him we draw near to God, that God may perfect His Work in us. Our first access to God in the pardon of sin, ere yet we know what the access of abiding fellowship is, has this one sole object that God may Reveal His Son in us, so that we look up to and Love and serve the Father (the word "Father" means: one who imparts or infuses his nature into us), even as the Son did. And so the one thing required of us is, that we bow in total subjecting of ourselves and abide and live in deep dependency and humility before God. However clearly we see the blessed Truth of the promises of the New Covenant, how ever earnestly we desire them, however firmly we think we grasp them as faith, all will not avail--- God Himself must do it. God Himself must admit us to His presence, and make His face to shine upon us. And as the path to this, God Himself must write His Law in our hearts, give us the New nature through His Authority and with the power of the Holy Spirit, that He works both to Will and to do of His good pleasure. God Himself must by the Holy Ghost so shed abroad His Love in our hearts, that to Love becomes as natural to us as it is for the dove to be gentle. God has promised on His Oath to do this for us, in Christ Jesus is the Surety of the New Covenant. It is God who strengthens us mightily by His Spirit, then gives Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith; it is in God that we are rooted in Love; and then--- this is the full entrance into His presence in the Holiest of All--- then filled with all the fulness of God.
Once again, how do we obtain this double Blessedness of the Law of God written in the heart, and the presence of God filling our life? There is no way but utterly ceasing from ourselves, dying to self, and waiting in absolute dependency and deep humility upon God. Christ's Priesthood is not of earth but of Heaven. All means and ordinances, all thoughts and purposes in man are but the shadows of the heavenly things. It is from God in Heaven that the Heavenly Life must come, through Christ who brings us near to Him. And Christ cannot bring us near to God, cannot make our drawing near acceptable in any other way than by working in our heart a Faith (His Faith and faithfulness), and Love, and Obedience which are pleasing to Him; that is, by His fulfilling, as Mediator of the New Covenant, its promises within us. This brings us to the True Knowledge of God.
1. If you would realize the need of absolute dependency upon God, and His direct operation, I know not of anything that will be more helpful than to read what William Law says on humility, meekness, patience, and resignation to God's will, as the one only and infallible Way to God. See "The Spirit of Love", Part II., Third Dialogue (WHOLLY FOR GOD, pars. 29-38).
2. When He had effected the cleansing of sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High. The removal of sins consciousness is the path to God's presence with Christ and with us.
A Note by us here: Adam by rebellion or disobedience to God's command moved mankind from God's Light, Glory and Love into darkness of sin (Genesis 2:16-17) Jesus came to reverse that action through the required path of death of mans fallen nature to sin contained in our flesh and cancel out that nature by redeeming us from its curse which is now law that holds man under its penalty. Its the removal from the conscience of man the knowledge of good and evil which kept Israel and man, the gentiles, under bondage of works or self efforts or self-sufficiency and religion based on a sin consciousness that Jesus was crucified for "for cursed is everyone nailed to a tree."
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