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In this message we shall cover several other aspects of Christ’s work in His heavenly ministry.
In His heavenly ministry Christ is building the church (Matt. 16:18). As the ascended One in the heavens, Christ is directing, managing, the building up of His church on earth. Christ does not build the church by Himself directly, but through His gifted members, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the shepherd-teachers, as revealed in Ephesians 4:11-12. To have these gifted members, He firstly produced the first group of believers and apostles through His earthly ministry, and through this first group of believers and apostles the gospel was preached and the truths were taught to multiply the number of His believers and gifted members. It is through these multiplied believers and gifted members that the church has been built up under His heavenly ministry. Such a building work is still going on under His heavenly ministry until the completion of this divine work.
In His heavenly ministry Christ is also doing the work of sanctifying, cleansing, nourishing, and cherishing the church (Eph. 5:26, 29). To be sanctified is not only to be separated from what is common but also to be saturated with the element of Christ. Hence, one aspect of sanctification is to be separated positionally, to undergo a change of position. Another aspect of sanctification is to become holy dispositionally by having Christ dispensed into us. Christ’s purpose in giving Himself to the church is to sanctify her, separating her to Himself and saturating her with Himself that she may be His counterpart.
Christ’s work of sanctifying the church is accomplished by cleansing her with the washing of the water in the Word. According to the divine concept, the water in Ephesians 5:26 refers to the flowing life of God typified by flowing water (Exo. 17:6; 1 Cor. 10:4; John 7:38-39; Rev. 21:6; 22:1, 17). The washing of such water is different from the washing of the redeeming blood of Christ. The redeeming blood washes away our sins (1 John 1:7; Rev. 7:14), whereas the water of life washes away the blemishes of the natural life of our old man, such as “spot or wrinkle or any such things” (Eph. 5:27). In sanctifying the church, the Lord first washes away our sins with His blood and then washes away our natural blemishes with His life. Spots are something out of the natural life, and wrinkles are signs of oldness. Only the water of life can metabolically wash away such defects. All the spots and wrinkles in the church will be washed away through the inner cleansing of the water in the Word. We all need such an organic, metabolic washing to take away our defects and the marks of our oldness. As the church is washed organically and metabolically in this way, the church is renewed and without blemish. We are now in such a washing process in order that the church may be holy and without blemish.
As the Lord Jesus sanctifies and cleanses the church, He also nourishes and cherishes her. To nourish is to feed. For Christ to nourish us means that He supplies us with His riches.
This nourishment causes transformation. Since we are what we eat, the more we eat Christ, the more we are constituted of Christ. Then we shall be transformed by the element of Christ that has been dispensed into us. Therefore, through Christ’s work of nourishing the church we are transformed; we become new persons with a new element and substance.
Along with Christ’s nourishing we have His cherishing. To cherish is to nurture with tender love and foster with tender care. To cherish is also to soften by warming. As a mother cherishes a child by holding the child close to her breast, the Lord Jesus cherishes us by holding us close to Him. In this way we are warmed and softened. The Lord warms us and softens us as we enjoy His tenderness, sweetness, and lovingness. How tender, sweet, and warm the Lord Jesus is! In His work in His heavenly ministry He is the cherishing One.
In His heavenly ministry Christ, as Mediator of the new covenant, is executing that covenant, which is the new testament, enacted and bequeathed to us by His death (Heb. 9:15). In Greek the same word is used for both covenant and testament. A covenant is an agreement with some promises to accomplish certain things for the covenanted people, while a testament is a will with certain accomplished things bequeathed to the inheritors. The new covenant consummated with the blood of Christ is not merely a covenant but a testament with all the things which have been accomplished by the death of Christ bequeathed to us. First God gave the promise that He would make a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34). Then Christ shed His blood to enact the covenant (Luke 22:20). Because these are accomplished facts promised in this covenant, it is also a testament. This testament, this will, has been confirmed and validated by Christ’s death, and it is being executed and enforced by Christ in His heavenly ministry. The promise of God’s covenant is ensured by God’s faithfulness; God’s covenant is guaranteed by God’s righteousness; and the new testament is enforced by the resurrected and ascended Christ in His heavenly ministry.
Christ is now in the heavens, living, divine, and capable of executing the new testament. Nothing can frustrate Him. He, the living One, is able to execute the new testament in every detail. As He executes the new testament, He makes every bequest contained in it available and real to us.
What Christ is executing today is not merely the new covenant but the new testament, a will that was enacted by His death and bequeathed to us through His resurrection. Now in His heavenly ministry He is executing this will with all its bequests. In ourselves we would never imagine that Christ today, the Mediator of the new covenant, is working to execute this covenant, which has become the new testament. We need to see this crucial aspect of Christ’s work in His heavenly ministry.
As the surety of a better covenant, Christ in His heavenly ministry guarantees and ensures the effectiveness of the new testament. Hebrews 7:22 says, “Jesus has become the surety of a better covenant.” The root of the Greek word for “surety” means a limb, a member of the body. The meaning is that a member of the body pledges itself to the body. For example, the hand may pledge itself to the arm to do everything for the arm. This pledge is a guarantee. The word surety in Hebrews 7:22 indicates that Christ has pledged Himself to the new covenant and to all of us. He is the bondsman, the guarantee, that He will do everything necessary for the fulfillment of the new covenant. Christ has pledged Himself to the new covenant and to all of us who are under the new covenant. Therefore, He guarantees and ensures the effectiveness of the new testament.
The Christ who has pledged Himself to the new covenant and to us and who guarantees and ensures the effectiveness of the new testament is unlimited. He will do everything and He can do everything for us. He is the qualified, capable, and able surety. He is always available and prevailing to fulfill whatever He has guaranteed. Furthermore, His pledging of Himself is all-inclusive. Therefore, the new testament cannot fail, because Christ is the surety. Everything included in the new testament will be fulfilled not by us but by Christ in His work as the surety of a better covenant. Christ is not only the consummator of the new covenant; He is also the surety, the pledge, that everything in it will be fulfilled.
Sometimes as we read the Bible we may have doubts concerning certain items that are bequests in the new testament. We may wonder if it is actually possible for us to experience these things. For instance, we may question if the Holy Spirit has actually been poured out economically upon all believers. Because of Christ’s work in His heavenly ministry as our surety we should not have doubts regarding anything in the new testament. On the one hand, the Bible reveals all the accomplished facts. On the other hand, as our surety Christ is guaranteeing and ensuring everything that is included in the new testament. Therefore, whenever we say “yes” to the items in the new testament, Christ will honor our affirmation of faith. This is part of His work in His heavenly ministry.
As our Paraclete (1 John 2:1), Christ takes care of our affairs on the ground of His propitiation for our sins (v. 2). Often in our daily living we have failures and commit sins. At such times we need Christ as our Paraclete, as our heavenly attorney, to take care of our case on the basis that on the cross He made propitiation for our sins and thus can propitiate our present situation with the righteous God.
First John 2:1 says, “If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous.” “Advocate” is a translation of the Greek word parakletos. This word is formed of the preposition para (used here as a prefix) and the word kletos. Put together, these words denote one who is called to another’s side to aid him, hence, a helper; one who offers legal aid or one who intercedes on behalf of someone else, hence, an advocate, counsel, or intercessor. The word denotes consoling and consolation, hence, a consoler, a comforter. Paraclete is its anglicized form. In His heavenly ministry Christ, as our Advocate, our Paraclete, with the Father, as the One who cares for our case, intercedes on our behalf (Rom. 8:34) and pleads for us if we sin. This interceding and pleading is based on His propitiation.
First John 2:1 tells us specifically that Christ is our Advocate with the Father. The Greek word translated “with” is pros, with the accusative, a preposition of motion, implying living, acting, in union and communion with. The Lord Jesus as our Paraclete is living in communion with the Father.
John’s use of Father as the divine title here indicates that our case is a family affair, a case between children and the Father. Through regeneration we have been born children of God. After regeneration, in case we sin, it is a matter of children sinning against their Father. Our Advocate undertakes for our sinning to restore our interrupted fellowship with the Father so that we may abide in the enjoyment of the divine fellowship.
First John 2:2 goes on to say, “And He is a propitiation concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also concerning the whole world.” The Greek word for propitiation here is hilasmos. Our Paraclete, who shed His blood for the cleansing of our sins (1 John 1:7), is our propitiation, a word that indicates appeasing or peacemaking. The Lord Jesus offered Himself to God as a sacrifice for our sins (Heb. 9:28), not only for our redemption but also for God’s satisfaction. In Him as our Substitute, through His vicarious death, God is satisfied and appeased. Hence, Christ is a propitiation between God and us. With this propitiation as the basis, He does His work as our Paraclete.
In His work in His heavenly ministry, Christ is also our High Priest, according to the order of Melchisedec, interceding for us (Heb. 5:10; 7:24-26). The order of Melchisedec is higher than the order of Aaron. The order of Aaron was for the priesthood only in humanity, whereas the order of Melchisedec is for the priesthood both in humanity and divinity. As such a High Priest He ministers to us whatever we need, dispensing the processed Triune God into us as our supply to fulfill God’s eternal purpose.
Christ has been constituted our High Priest according to the power of an indestructible life (Heb. 7:16), which nothing can dissolve. It is an endless life, being the eternal, divine, uncreated life and the resurrection life that has passed through the test of death and Hades (Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18). It is by such a life that Christ ministers today as our High Priest with an unalterable priesthood, a priesthood that, like Him, is forever (Heb. 7:24; 13:8).
Hebrews 7:25 says, “He is able to save to the uttermost those who come forward to God through Him, seeing He is always living to intercede for them.” The word translated “uttermost” also means completely, entirely, perfectly, for all time and eternity and to the end. Because Christ lives forever without change, He is able to save us to the uttermost in extent, time, and space.
Christ is able to save us completely because He is interceding for us. He is our perpetual, constant, and eternal Intercessor. As our High Priest Christ undertakes our case by interceding for us. He appears before God on our behalf, praying that we may be wholly saved and brought fully into God’s eternal purpose. Christ intercedes for us constantly, and eventually His intercession will overcome, subdue, and save us. We all shall be completely saved by His intercession. God has appointed Him to take care of us, and He is now caring for us by interceding for us. He is interceding for us now, and He will save us to the uttermost.
Hebrews 7:26 goes on to say, “Such a High Priest befits us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners.” As such a perfect One, He surely befits us. We, having a fallen and corrupted nature, need the work of such a High Priest to save us all the time.
Hebrews 7:26 also says that Christ has “become higher than the heavens.” In His ascension Christ “has passed through the heavens” (Heb. 4:14), and now He is not only in heaven (Heb. 9:24) but is also higher than the heavens. Because our High Priest is higher than the heavens, He is able, in His heavenly ministry, to rescue us and save us to the uttermost.
Finally, in His heavenly ministry Christ is a Minister of the true, the heavenly tabernacle (Heb. 8:2), serving God’s people with the bequests, the blessings, of the new testament. As our heavenly Minister with a more excellent ministry, Christ is carrying out the better covenant. He does this by making the facts of the new covenant effective. Every fact in the new covenant is made effective by the heavenly Minister with His more excellent ministry.
Christ, the heavenly Minister, is also executing the bequests in the new testament. Whatever is a fact in the covenant is a bequest in the testament. Facts refer to certain things that have been accomplished but which are not yet designated until they are bequeathed. After the accomplished facts have been bequeathed, they immediately become bequests designated for us. Whatever is in a covenant is a fact, but whatever is in a testament is a bequest. What were facts in the covenant have now become legally designated for us as bequests in the testament. There are four facts of the new covenant which have become bequests in the new testament: the propitiation for unrighteousness and forgiveness of sins; the imparting of the law of life; the blessing of having God and of being His people; and the inward ability of knowing the Lord. In His work in His heavenly ministry Christ is now serving us with these bequests.
