GLORY BE TO GOD.
Hebrews 13:21 Working in you that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Now in the last Section of the SECOND HALF- PRACTICAL.
Hebrews Chapters 10:19 - 13:25
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation.
Now in the last part of the TWELFTH SECTION
Hebrews 13:1-25
Love and Good Works.
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY
To whom be the glory forever and ever. No wonder that the heart of the author bursts out in adoration. In the closing prayer he had summed up all the Glory of what God had done in Christ, and was now waiting and wanting to work in us. He has pronounced over his readers the Blessing of the God who has revealed Himself in His Son, and longs to reveal Himself in us for our complete deliverance, and his whole soul bows in wonder, joy, and worship. The sight of the God who has raised Jesus from the dead, drawing near to do His mighty work in us too, brings the song to His lips: To Him be Glory forever and ever! Oh! that we may ever learn so to study and admire and appropriate the mysteries of Redeeming Grace that every mention of it leads to the spontaneous out burst: Glory be to God my Father!
It is doubtful whether the whom refers to God or to Christ, It appears more probable that the writer meant God, to whom and whose glorious work the whole prayer refers. But the question will cause us no difficulty. In Scripture the same adoration is given to the Son as to the Father (see 2 Timothy 4:13; 2 Peter 3:18; Revelation 1:6). The Throne is that of God and the Lamb. All the honor that goes up to the Father goes through the Son; He shares in it. And all the honor given to the Son, goes through Him to the Father. It is ever of God in Christ we say, To whom be Glory.
Without this note of praise it is as if there would have been something wanting in this Epistle. In God's Temple the Chief thing is the Praise and Honor of Him who dwells there. This Epistle has opened up to us the Way into the Holiest. It has spoken to us of the Glory of the Priest- King whom God has set at His own right hand, for our sakes, and of His all- prevailing Blood, and of the entrance we have into God's presence for Him to reign and work in us, and fit us to enjoy and to serve Him. It has spoken of the continual Sacrifice of Praise we ought to render. And yet the writer has never sounded a note of Praise. But here, at last, when he calls us to look back to all that God has done for us, and forward to all that He will do in us, the voice of adoration sounds forth: To Him be Glory forever and ever. The joy of Heaven consists in this that they rest not day nor night in the Worship and Praise of God and the Lamb; if we are indeed come to Mount Zion, and into the very presence of God Himself, let our life and walk ever be in the spirit of adoration: To Him be Glory forever! The man who has not learned to Praise, with whom it never breaks out spontaneously, has not learned to Know his God aright, has not yet tasted the joy of a full salvation.
If we would learn the secret of a life giving Glory to God, on earth as in Heaven, it must be found in the faith and the experience spoken of in the prayer to which this doxology belongs. This Praise was born out of it, in the heart of the writer; it must be so with our hearts too. The more we gaze upon Christ as our Priest- King, and upon His precious, cleansing, saving Blood, and upon the New Covenant, Sealed in that Blood, and the New heart with God's Spirit in it as our Law, and upon God Himself who has done it all, the more we shall feel urged to fall down and Worship, To Him be Glory forever and ever. But especially as we claim and realize and yield ourselves to the promise which is the outcome of this great Redemption, God Perfects you in every good thing to do His Will, working in you that which is pleasing in His sight, our hearts will swell with joy unspeakable and Praise unutterable, that can only find relief in the cry, To Him be Glory, to Him be Glory!
I know that it is just here a difficulty will come to many. The promise appears so high, and its fulfillment in their experience, God perfecting them in every good thing, so impossible, that even the praise which comes, when they have thought upon what God had done, passes away. Let me speak one word to such. Just look at this great universe. The God who made it all, the sun and moon and stars, the mighty mountains and the great oceans; this God cares for every blade of grass and gives it its life and beauty. The greatest and the least are alike to Him; He cares for the whole and for each minute detail. And, even so, He who wrought out the mighty Redemption in Christ is now still working out, in the same Authority and power and Love, its application in every soul, in every moment and in every circumstance. God has not done part, and left part dependent on us. God is all, and must in very deed do all. As the God of Peace, who raised Christ from the dead, He must work in you every good thing that can be pleasing in His sight. And He Will do it. What He began in Christ, He Will finish in you. A great artist attends to the minutest details. God is so engaged, as He perfected Christ the Head, in perfecting every member of His Body. He does this by Himself working in us. The Spirit of God's Son sent into our heart as an inward Life, the very essence of Christ dwelling in our heart, God working in us--- oh, it is when this is believed, and waited for, and then received and in some measure experienced, that our whole life becomes a song of Praise: To Him be Glory forever and ever!
Brother and sister! Having boldness through the Blood, let us draw near, and dwell in God's presence. Let us worship Him for what He has done and where allowed is doing within you. Let us in tenderness of spirit adore Him as the God who is working in us through Christ Jesus. Let us in deep humility yield ourselves to Him, to be made so fully one with Christ that Christ may be seen to dwell in us. And the flame of God's Love will break out and burn and rise Heavenward without ceasing: To Him be Glory! to Him be Glory forever and ever!
1. As in Heaven so on earth. What God has wrought in Heaven, through Christ, is the pledge of what He Will work in my heart. As I receive this into my heart, His Will will be done in me, on earth as in Heaven, because He does it Himself. And as in Heaven, so in my heart, the Praise will never end.
2. My heart, the Temple, is where God dwells and reveals His work and His Glory; all in the hidden power of the Holy Spirit.
3. To Him be Glory for ever and ever! Lord Jesus! The great High Priest beside the altar, the Minister of the Sanctuary, it is Your care that the fire ever burns, from within me and the song never ends, to the Glory of the Father it Never fails or falls unheard from my lips.
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