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In this message we will continue to consider our experience and enjoyment of Christ as the surety and Mediator of a better covenant, the new covenant.
Hebrews 8:6 tells us that a more excellent ministry that Christ has obtained in His ascension is of a better covenant, the new covenant, enacted upon better promises. The Old Testament, as the old covenant, was made with the outward law of the dead letters, whereas the New Testament, as the new covenant, was enacted upon better promises related to the things of eternal life.
Christ is the Mediator of a better covenant. The new covenant, which the Lord Jesus enacted, is better than the old covenant made through Moses. The new covenant is better than the old covenant, just as the reality of a person is better than his photograph. The old covenant, like a photograph, had only the outward form, but the new covenant, like the real person, has the inward life with all its reality. The old covenant was lifeless, but the new covenant is constituted with the indestructible life (7:16). In the old covenant all things were shadows, whereas in the new covenant everything is reality. Everything in the old covenant has been fulfilled and realized in the new covenant. Hence, it is a better covenant.
A covenant is an agreement containing some promises to accomplish certain things for the covenanted people, whereas a testament is a will containing certain accomplished things bequeathed to the inheritor. 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. The term testament is the equivalent of the modern term will. A will becomes effective only after the death of the maker of the will. The Bible is composed of two wills — the Old Testament, which is the old will, and the New Testament, which is the new will. The Bible is not mainly a book of teachings; it is a will.
The new covenant has replaced the old covenant (8:7, 13). When a real person comes, he replaces his photograph, for the reality replaces the picture, the shadow. The old covenant had fault and became old, decrepit, and near to disappearing, and the new covenant was consummated to replace it. Now it is meaningless for anyone to still remain in the old covenant.
The new covenant, a better covenant, was enacted upon better promises (v. 6). The better promises, which are given in Jeremiah 31:31-34 and quoted in Hebrews 8:8-13 and 10:16-17, cover four major things: (1) propitiation for our unrighteousnesses and the forgetting (forgiveness) of our sins (8:12); (2) the imparting of the law of life by the imparting of the divine life into us (v. 10a); (3) the privilege of having God as our God and of being His people — the divine life’s enabling us to participate in the enjoyment of God in fellowship with Him (v. 10b); and (4) the function of life that enables us to know Him in the inward way of life (v. 11).
Under the old covenant there was no forgiveness of sins, only the covering of sins. In the new covenant we do not have merely the covering of sins but the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins, being the putting away of sins, is better than the covering of sins, which never removed the sins. In the new covenant there is the law of life, the blessing of having God and of being His people, and the inward ability of knowing God. These three things are of the divine life imparted into us in God’s regeneration. Because of the imparting of life and the forgiveness of sins, these are the better promises.
Among these four major blessings of the new covenant, the inward law of life is the focus. The old covenant was made with the outward law of letters, whereas the new covenant is enacted with this inward law of life. The old covenant was of letters; the new covenant is of life.
Every life has a law. The higher the life, the higher is its law. The divine life that we receive of God is the highest life; therefore, it has the highest law. By imparting His divine life into us, God puts this highest law into our spirit, whence it spreads into our inward parts, such as our mind, emotion, and will.
The law of life differs from the law of letters. The law of life regulates us from within by and according to its life element, whereas the law of letters regulates us from without by and according to its dead letters. The law of dead letters depends on outward teachings, but the law of life depends on the inward consciousness. Since we all, great or small, have the law of life, we do not need outward teachings that are according to the law of letters.
It is according to the law of life that we are a people to God and that He is God to us. God’s relationship with us today is based fully on the law of life so that today we do not need to walk according to the knowledge of the law of letters but should walk according to the consciousness of the law of life.
Hebrews 9:14 says, “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” The blood by which the new covenant was enacted purifies our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. This indicates that in a sense the Old Testament priests served God in dead works. But today, instead of serving God in dead works, we may serve the living God in a living way. This is because our conscience has been purified by the blood of Christ from the dead works of the old creation.
The blood of Christ purifies our conscience to serve the living God. To serve the living God requires a blood-purified conscience. To worship in dead religion or to serve any dead thing other than God does not require that our conscience be purified. The conscience is the leading part of our spirit. The living God whom we desire to serve always comes to our spirit (John 4:24) by touching our conscience. He is righteous, holy, and living. Our defiled conscience needs to be purified so that we may serve Him in a living way. To worship God religiously in our mind does not require this.
Hebrews 9:14 speaks of “dead works” and “the living God.” Since we were dead (Eph. 2:1; Col. 2:13), whatever we did, bad or good, was dead works before the living God. Hebrews is a book which reveals the living God (3:12; 9:14; 10:31; 12:22). To touch this living God we need to exercise our spirit (4:12) and have a blood-purified conscience.
Whenever we have a feeling that we are sinful or wrong, our conscience is dirty and needs the blood to purify it. Christ shed His blood on the cross to meet all the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory. Then this blood was brought into heaven itself to be sprinkled before the face of God for our forgiveness and redemption. Our conscience within us corresponds to God in heaven. When God in heaven condemns, the conscience within us also condemns, and when God in heaven releases, our conscience also releases. Therefore, when the blood of Christ was sprinkled in the presence of God, our conscience was also sprinkled and released. For this reason we have a good conscience, and we have peace in our conscience.
Since the Lord’s blood cleanses us from our sins before God and His law, it purifies our conscience, thus enabling us to serve our living God with boldness. The blood of Christ is powerful enough to purge, or cleanse, our conscience from every guilty stain.
In keeping with this, 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Whenever we sin and sense guilt within, we may simply open to God and pray in this way: “Forgive me for what I did. Thank You that on the cross Christ died for me and paid for this sin that I have committed. I believe that this sin has been forgiven by You. Now I claim His precious blood to cleanse my conscience from any stain of guilt.”
Christ died nearly two thousand years ago. His blood was already shed and is always available to purify our conscience. His blood is all-powerful. Whenever we sense guilt in our conscience, we should immediately claim His precious blood. Through the precious blood of Christ, the problem of guilt is solved, and we have rest in our conscience.
We must have a purged and pure conscience, a conscience without offense, accusation, or condemnation, so that we may have the peace and assurance to serve God. Paul also tells us that in order to come near to God to contact Him, we must have a heart sprinkled from an evil, wicked, or defiled conscience (Heb. 10:22). If we have a pure conscience without offense or accusation, we will be at peace, and we will have the assurance of faith, the boldness, to contact God and serve Him.
If we do not know how to apply the blood of Christ, we will not know how to exercise our spirit. Whenever we come to exercise our spirit to contact God, we should apply the blood to cleanse our conscience. God is righteous, holy, and in glory, but we are sinful, evil, dirty, worldly, common, and short of His glory (Rom. 3:23). Therefore, we need the blood to bridge the gap between us and God so that we may come into His presence by exercising our spirit to contact Him. We must learn how to apply the blood. When we apply the blood, it gives us the victory over the accusations of the evil one, and we immediately have the peace within and the boldness to contact and serve God (Rev. 12:11).
We should make a thorough confession of our sins so that our conscience would be purified by the blood of Christ. Once our conscience is purged by the Lord’s blood, we can be poor in spirit. We will no longer feel that we know so much. We will be humble and hungry for the real experience of the Lord. If we are proud, our spirit will not be open to the Lord, and He will have no way to abide in us. But the purging of our conscience will issue in an open spirit.
If our conscience is not purified by the Lord’s blood and our spirit is not open to the Lord, if we are not poor in our spirit and pure in our heart, our mind will be loose and dull. For instance, when we come to the meetings and listen to the messages, we will have no discernment. But once our conscience is purged by the blood of Christ, our mind will be keen and our discernment clear. This is what the Scripture calls a sound, or sober, mind (2 Tim. 1:7). Whenever we hear a message, our mind will be sharp to grasp and confirm what is shared in the message.
A blood-purified conscience will also affect our emotion. Before we make a thorough confession of our sins, failures, and weaknesses, our emotion may be lukewarm. But once we have confessed, our lukewarm emotion will be set on fire with love for the Lord. We will declare, “Lord Jesus, I love You! I am on fire for You!” Our will also will be changed from being stubborn to being submissive. We will enjoy obeying the Lord (cf. Phil. 2:12), and we will be willing to obey Him in all things great or small.
With such a blood-purified conscience, open spirit, sober mind, loving emotion, and submissive will, there will be a flow of the Lord within our whole being. We will be abiding in Him and He in us. In this way the Lord will dispense Himself into us continually. There is no way for lifeless people to serve the living God. Through the redeeming blood of Christ, we have life and have been brought into the presence of God to serve Him. The blood of Christ makes it possible for us to serve the living God.
Hebrews 9:15-16 says of Christ, “He is the Mediator of a new covenant, so that, death having taken place for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, those who have been called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, the death of him who made the testament must of necessity be established.” This indicates that Christ’s death took place for redemption in order that we, the called ones, might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. This is according to the New Testament, which is based upon the new covenant in which God promised to us the eternal inheritance, that is, God Himself for our eternal enjoyment.
The eternal inheritance is God Himself with all that He is, has, has done, and will do. All this is our eternal inheritance for our enjoyment. The way through which we inherit this is the new covenant. The promise of the eternal inheritance is based on Christ’s eternal redemption, not on our work. Through His redemptive work, Christ has secured for us this promised eternal inheritance. Now with His resurrection life He is bringing us, the called and redeemed ones, into participation in all the riches of this eternal inheritance, according to the new testament in the new covenant way, that is, in the way of the Holy of Holies.
We have seen that after the Lord left the covenant with us, it became the new testament containing all the accomplished facts as our bequests. The Lord’s new testament is executed by the resurrected Christ as the Mediator in the heavens (12:24). While the Lord is resting on His throne in the heavens, He is concerned for all the heirs of this new testament. He is concerned about whether the heirs are wise and diligent enough to take the bequests, or whether they are trusting in their own cleverness and trying to do something else. Because He is so concerned, He is interceding that we will have the full realization of all the bequests contained in His bequeathed will. If our eyes are opened to see this matter of the Lord’s testament, we will be beside ourselves with joy. Most Christians understand God’s salvation in a low way according to the natural human concept, not in the way of bequests. We need to see that the forgiveness of sins, the imparting of the divine life, the new birth, our crucifixion with Christ, justification, sanctification, perfection, glorification, and even the New Jerusalem are all bequests (Matt. 5:48; John 3:6; Rom. 3:24; 6:19; 8:11, 17; Gal. 2:20; 1 John 1:9; Rev. 21:2). We were crucified before we were born (Rom. 6:6). It was accomplished by Christ on the cross, and it is one of the many bequests itemized in the will. In the new testament, the new will, everything is a bequest which has been accomplished already. In the last portion of this new will, the book of Revelation, the apostle John uses the past tense very often. For example, in Revelation 20:10 John says that “the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone,” and in 21:2 he says, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Both of these statements are in the past tense because every item in the will is a bequest, not a promise. We must enjoy and partake of all the bequests itemized in the Lord’s new will. If we have this view, we will be radically revolutionized. If we have seen this matter of the new testament, we will no longer pray in a begging way.
The Father promised everything, and the Lord Jesus accomplished everything. All the accomplished facts have been itemized in the new will as our bequests. We do not need to beg; we need to thank and praise the Lord for our bequests and enjoy them. If we know God’s economy, we will praise the Lord and thank Him for all that He accomplished and bequeathed to us. We simply need to take with thanks to the Lord what has already been given to us in such an extraordinary way — in the way of the new will.
Nothing is as binding and as strongly established as a will. No one can change it. Whatever is bequeathed in a will is final; it must go to whom it is bequeathed. We should not be poor beggars — we should be glorious inheritors. An heir has no need to beg; he simply receives all the bequests with thanksgiving. When our eyes are opened to see this matter of the bequests in the new testament, our whole concept will be changed. Whenever we pray, we should pray with the realization that everything was already given to us nearly two thousand years ago as a bequest in the divine will and that we can take all that we need. We can boldly say, “Praise the Lord! This is ours, and we take it.”
The Lord’s new testament is executed by the resurrected Christ as the Mediator, the Executor, in the heavens. Today the resurrected Christ is executing this will by restfully interceding for us. The testament, the will, has been confirmed and validated by Christ’s death and is being executed and enforced by Christ in His resurrection. The promise of God’s covenant is insured by God’s faithfulness, God’s covenant is guaranteed by God’s righteousness, and the new testament is enforced by Christ’s resurrection power. Christ is now on the throne interceding for us to realize this testament, this will. The heavenly Intercessor is motivating and energizing us day by day that we may partake of all the riches of His will.
Hebrews 12:24, which speaks of Jesus as “the Mediator of a new covenant,” mentions “the blood of sprinkling, which speaks something better than that of Abel.” Abel is a type of Christ. The Lord Jesus is the real Feeder, the true Shepherd of God’s people (John 10:11, 14; Heb. 13:20). Although not many people in the Bible are called righteous, both the Lord Jesus and Abel are called righteous. In Matthew 23:35 Abel is called “righteous Abel”; in Acts 7:52 and 22:14 the Lord Jesus is called the righteous One. Abel was killed by his brother in the flesh. Jesus also was killed by His Jewish brothers. Furthermore, both the blood of Abel and the blood of Jesus are a speaking blood. Genesis 4:10 says that the voice of Abel’s blood cries unto God from the ground. The speaking of Abel’s blood, however, is only a type of the speaking of the blood of Christ. In Hebrews 12:24, the fulfillment of the type in Genesis 4:10, we are told that the blood of Jesus is the “blood of sprinkling, which speaks something better than that of Abel.” Thank the Lord! We have not only the redeeming blood, the cleansing blood, and the covering blood, but also the speaking blood. Abel’s blood spoke from the earth; Jesus’ blood speaks from heaven.
Christ’s sprinkled blood speaks better than that of Abel. Abel’s blood speaks to God negatively for condemnation, accusation, and vengeance (vv. 10, 15), but the blood of Jesus speaks to God positively for better things, such as forgiveness, justification, reconciliation, and redemption.
The blood of Christ not only redeems, sanctifies, and purifies; it also speaks. This precious blood speaks to God for us, saying that by it the new covenant, which is eternal, has been enacted, and that in this new covenant God must give Himself and all His blessings to the believers in Christ, who receive this covenant by faith. Hence, it is called the blood of the eternal covenant (Heb. 10:29; 13:20).
