UNTO PERFECTION
HEB. iv.-vi.
Our study of the great Epistle takes here another step, covering three
short but pregnant chapters. So pregnant are they that it would be
altogether vain to attempt to deal with them thus briefly were we not
mindful of our special point of view. We are pondering the Epistle not
for all that it has to say, but for what it has to say of special moment
and application for certain needs of our own time.
The outline of the portion before us must accordingly be traced. In
detail it presents many questions of connexion and argument, for,
particularly in chapter iv., the apostolic thought takes occasionally a
parenthetical flight of large circuit. But in outline the progression
may be traced without serious difficulty.
We have first the appeal to exercise the promptitude and decision of
faith, in view of the magnificent promise of a Canaan of sacred rest
made to the true Israel in Christ. Even to "seem" (iv. 1) to fail of
this, even to seem to sink into a desert grave of unbelief while "the
rest of faith" is waiting to be entered, is a thought to "fear." Great
indeed are the promises; "living" and "energetic" is "the Word" which
conveys them.[A]
[A] Ch. iv. 12, if I am right, follows in thought upon iv. 2, leaving a
long and deep parenthesis between.
That "Word" is piercing as a sword in its convictions, for it is the
vehicle of His mind and His holiness "with whom is concerned our
discourse" (iv. 13); while yet it is, on its other side, a "Gospel"
indeed (iv. 2), the message of supreme good, if only it is met with
faith by the convicted soul. Yes, it is a message which tells of a land
of "rest," near and open, fairer far than the Canaan on which Caleb
reported and from which he and his fellows brought the great clusters of
its golden vines. Passage after passage of the old Scriptures (iv. 3-9)
shows that _that_ Canaan was no finality, no true _terminus_ of the
purpose of God; another "rest," another "day" of entrance and blessing,
was intimated all along. Unbelief forfeited the true fruition of even
the old Canaan for the old Israel. And now out of that evil has sprung
the glorious good of a more articulate promise of the new Canaan, the
inheritance of rest in Christ, destined for the new Israel. But as
then, so now, the promise, if it is to come to its effect, must be met
and realized by obedient faith. Despite all the difficulties, in face of
whatever may seem the Anakim of to-day, looking to Him who is
immeasurably more than Moses, and who is the true and second Joshua,[B]
we must make haste to enter in by the way of faith. We must "mingle the
word with faith" (iv. 2), into one glorious issue of attained and
abiding rest. We must lay our hearts soft and open (iv. 7) before the
will of the Promiser. We must "be in earnest" to enter in (iv. 11).
[B] The "Jesus" (iv. 8) of the Authorized Version.
Then, at iv. 14, the appeal takes us in beautiful order more directly to
Him who is at once the Leader and the Promised Land. And again He stands
before us as a "great High Priest." Our Moses, our Joshua, is also our
more than Aaron, combining in Himself every possible qualification to be
our guide and preserver as we enter in. He stands before us in all the
alluring and endearing character of mingled majesty and mercy; a High
Priest, a great High Priest, immeasurably great; He has "passed through
the heavens" (iv. 14) to the Holiest, to the throne, the celestial
mercy-seat (iv. 16) "within the veil" (vi. 19); He is the Son (v. 5); He
is the Priest-King, the true Melchizedek; He is all this for ever (vi.
20). But on the other hand He is the sinner's Friend, who has so
identified Himself in His blessed Manhood with the sinner, veritably
taking our veritable nature, that He is "able to feel with our
weaknesses" (iv. 15); "able to feel a sympathetic tolerance [Greek:
metriopathein] towards the ignorant and the wandering" (v. 2);
understanding well "what sore temptations mean, for He has felt the
same"; yea, He has known what it is to "cry out mightily and shed tears"
(v. 7) in face of a horror of death; to cast Himself as a genuine
suppliant, in uttermost suffering, upon paternal kindness; to get to
know by personal experience what submission means ([Greek: emathe ten
hypakoen], v. 8); "not my will but Thine be done."
Such is the "Leader of our faith," so great, so glorious, so perfect, so
tender, so deep in fellowship with us. Shall we not follow Him into "the
rest," though a "Jordan rolls between" and though cities of giants seem
to frown upon us even on the other side? Shall we not dare thither to
follow HIM out of the desert of our "own works"?
Much, says the Epistle (v. 11, etc.), is to be said about Him; the theme
is deep, it is inexhaustible, for He is God and Man, one Christ. And the
Hebrew believers (and is it not the same with us?) are not quick to
learn the great lesson of His glory, and so to grow into the adult
manhood of grace. But let us try; let us address ourselves to "bear
onwards ([Greek: pherometha]) to perfection" (vi. 1), in our thought,
our faith, and so in our experience. The great foundation factors must
be for ever there, the initial acts or attitudes of repentance, and of
"faith towards God"; the abandonment of the service of sin, including
the bondage of a would-be salvation of self by self, and the simple
turning God-ward of a soul which has come to despair of its own
resources--truths symbolized and sealed by the primal rites of baptism
and blessing (vi. 2); and then the great revealed facts in prospect,
resurrection and judgment, must be always remembered and reckoned with.
These however must be "left" (vi. 1), not in oblivion but in progress,
just as a building "leaves" the level of its always necessary
foundation. We must "bear onwards" and upwards, into the upper air of
the fulness of the truth of the glory of our Christ. We must seek
"perfection," the profound maturity of the Christian, by a maturer and
yet maturer insight into Him. Awful is the spiritual risk of any other
course. The soul content to stand still is in peril of a tremendous
fall. To know about salvation at all, and not to seek to develope the
knowledge towards "perfection," is to expose one's self to the terrible
possibility of the fate reserved for those who have much light but no
love (vi. 4-9).[C] But this, by the grace of God, shall not be for the
readers of the Epistle. They have shewn living proofs of love already,
practical and precious, for the blessed Name's sake (vi. 10). Only, let
them remember the spiritual law--the necessity of growth, of progress,
of "bearing onwards to perfection"; the tremendous risks of a subtle
stagnation; the looking back; the pillar of salt.
[C] I make no attempt here to expound in detail the formidable words of
vi. 4-8. But I believe that their purport is fairly described in the
sentence above in the text. Their true scriptural illustrations are to
be sought in a Balaam and a Judas.
In order that full blessing may thus be theirs, let them look for it in
the only possible direction. Let them take again to their souls the
mighty promise of eternal benediction (vi. 14), sealed and crowned with
the Promiser's gracious oath in His own Name, binding Himself to
fidelity under the bond of His own majesty (vi. 13). Aye, and then let
them again "consider" Him in whom promise and oath are embodied and
vivified for ever; in whom rests--nay, in whom consists--our anchor of
an eternal hope (vi. 19); Jesus, our Man of men, our High Priest of the
everlasting order, now entered "within the veil," into the place of the
covenant and the glory, and "as Forerunner on our behalf" (vi. 20). To
follow Him in there, in the "consideration" of faith and of worshipping
love--this is the secret, to the end, for "bearing onwards to
perfection."
Our review of the passage is thus in some sort over. Confessedly it is
an outline; but I do not think that any vital element in the matter has
been overlooked. Much of the message we are seeking has been inevitably
given us by the way; we may be content now to gather up and summarize
the main result.
The "Hebrews," then, and their special circumstances of difficulty, are
here in view, as everywhere else in the Epistle. Tempted to "fall away,"
to give up the "hope set before them," to relapse to legalism, to
bondage, to the desert, to a famine of the soul, to barrenness and
death--here they are dealt with, in order to the more than prevention of
the evil. And here, as ever, the remedy propounded is our Lord Jesus
Christ, in His personal glory, in His majestic offices, in His
unfathomable human sympathy, seen in perfect harmony of light with His
eternal greatness.
The remedy is Christ; a deeper, fuller, always maturing sight of Christ.
The urgent necessity is first promptitude and then progress in respect
of knowing Him.
At the risk of a charge of iteration and monotony, I reaffirm that here
is the great antidote for the many kindred difficulties of our troubled
time. From how many sides comes the strain! Sometimes from that of an
open naturalism; sometimes from that of a partial yet far-reaching
"naturalism under a veil" which some recent teachings on "The Being of
Christianity" may exemplify, with principles and presuppositions which
largely underlie the extremer forms, certainly, of the modern critique
of Scripture; sometimes from the opposite quarter of an ecclesiasticism
which more or less exaggerates or distorts the great ideas of corporate
life and sacramental operation. It would be idle to ignore the subtle
_nuances_ of difference between mind and mind, and the resultant varying
incidence in detail of great and many-sided truths. But is it not fair
and true to say that, on the whole, the supreme personal glory of
Christ, as presented direct to the human soul in its august and
ineffable loveliness, in its infinite lovableness, is what alike the
naturalistic and the ultra-ecclesiastic theories of religion tend to
becloud? On the other side, accordingly, it is in the "consideration" of
that glory, in acquaintance with that wonderful Christ, that we shall
find the glow which can melt and overcome the cloud. We must put
ourselves continually in face of the revelation of this in the Word of
God. We must let that revelation so sink into the heart as to do its
self-verifying work there thoroughly, yet with a growth never to be
exhausted. We must "bear onwards" evermore "unto perfection"--in
"knowing Him." So we shall stand, and live, and love, and labour on.