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Scripture Reading: Heb. 1:2; 2:3-4; 3:7-8a; 6:4; 9:8, 14; 10:15, 29; John 1:14, 17; 3:16; 1 Cor. 1:2, 9; 15:45; 2 Cor. 13:14; Col. 1:12; Philem. 25; James 4:5
In this chapter we want to see in the book of Hebrews the New Testament economy to dispense a wonderful person into our being. The New Testament is not composed of a number of books concerning doctrine, but it is a complete revelation of a wonderful person. At the apostles’ time, however, most of the believers were Jews who came out of Judaism, a strong, high, and profound religion. The Jewish religion had the highest doctrines, and all their basic doctrines were real. This religion was structured mainly of five crucial items: God, the angels, Moses (who gave the law), Aaron (the high priest), and the old covenant. No other religion has such crucial items, but all these items are merely doctrines in Judaism.
Even at the time of the Lord Jesus, the Jewish leaders had all these five items as doctrines, yet they did not have the living God. In Hebrews Paul compares this wonderful person, the Triune God Himself, with all the five crucial items of Judaism. The Jews had God in doctrine but not in person (1:2, 8). In Hebrews Paul presents not the study of God or the doctrine of God but God Himself, the person of God. He presents “theos,” not theology.
This wonderful person, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is God Himself, the Triune God, embodied in a man is much superior to the angels. How can angels, who are merely servants to God (v. 7) and even servants to God’s people (v. 14), compare with such a wonderful person?
This One is also much superior to Moses (3:3). Moses was a faithful servant in the house of God, but this wonderful person is the Master of the house of God. Moses brought in the law, but this wonderful One, whose riches are unsearchable (Eph. 3:8), brings in grace and reality (John 1:17).
This wonderful One is also much superior to Aaron (Heb. 4:14-15). Aaron lived and died, but this One, as the great High Priest surpassing the heavens, lived, died, and lives again forever; He is living always to intercede for us (7:25). Aaron was a high priest serving according to the ordinances of the law, but this One is the High Priest who passed through the heavens, ministering by the indestructible life (vv. 3, 16).
Finally, this wonderful One has enacted the new covenant, which is much better than the old covenant. The old covenant was of dead letters, but the new covenant is of life. This One is also the Mediator, the Executor, of the better covenant of life (8:6).
Hebrews 2:3-4 tells us that God bore witness to so great a salvation by distributions of the Holy Spirit. The distributions of the Holy Spirit, which include the Spirit Himself, are the things that the Holy Spirit distributes to those who receive salvation by believing in Christ. This also includes the imparting of the divine life into the believers. All of us who have believed in the Lord Jesus must realize that the divine life has been distributed into our being with the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. This is the first basic distribution of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit Himself is a distribution into us. A person has been distributed into us. After we were saved, it seemed that One was always moving within us. We did not have this kind of experience before being saved, but after we were saved, we had this sensation. The greatest distribution into our being is a person. A wonderful person has been distributed into our being.
In our experience there are also other distributions of the Holy Spirit. Many times while I am speaking, there is a distribution going on to give me the instant feeling, the instant enlightenment, the instant utterance, and the instant illustrations. These are the distributions of the Spirit to confirm the great salvation that we have received. The book of Hebrews opens with the speaking of the Son but continues with the distributions of the Holy Spirit. The Son in chapter 1 is the Spirit in chapter 2.
Hebrews emphasizes that today this wonderful One is the Spirit. In the Old Testament God spoke to the fathers in the prophets, but in the New Testament God speaks to us in the Son (1:1-2). The opening words of chapter 1 introduce us to the Son, but from this time onward, Hebrews refers to the Spirit. Hebrews 3:7-8a says, “Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.’” This shows again that the Son in chapter 1 is also the Spirit in chapter 3. God speaks in the Son in chapter 1, but in chapter 3 the Holy Spirit is speaking.
Chapter 1 indicates that in the New Testament age God speaks to us in the Son. In the original Greek there is no article before Son; therefore, we can say that in the New Testament God speaks to us in Son. Darby’s New Translation of Hebrews 1:2 says that at the end of these days God “has spoken to us in [the person of the] Son.” To say that God speaks in the Son means that God speaks in the person of the Son.
In the Old Testament God spoke through certain men, but in the New Testament God Himself came to speak in the way of incarnation. John 1:14 tells us that the Word, who was God Himself, became flesh. The incarnation of God means God becoming flesh. This is the way that God came. He came to speak in a man. This man is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. God’s coming to speak in this man meant that God came to speak in the Son, in the person of the Son. The person of the Son is God Himself. The main item in a man is the person, or the personality. In a man there is a person, but you cannot say that in a person is a man. This means that, in person, God is one with the Son. In the Son there is a person. The person of the Son is the Father. This is what it means when we say that God speaks in the person of the Son.
Hebrews 1:2 indicates that in the New Testament God speaks in the person of the Son, but in the rest of the book of Hebrews, there is not one verse that tells us that the Son speaks. The introduction of the book of Hebrews is on God’s speaking in the Son, but Hebrews 3:7 shows that the Holy Spirit is speaking. Actually, in the rest of the book of Hebrews the Spirit is the One who is speaking. This indicates that God in the Son and the Son as the Spirit is the speaking One. Thus, the Divine Trinity is the speaking One as the Spirit, who is the consummation of the Divine Trinity in the book of Hebrews. The Divine Trinity is God in the Son and the Son as the Spirit. In the book of Hebrews the Father is speaking in the Son as the Spirit. We can also say that the Spirit is speaking as the Son with the Father. Hebrews tells us that God speaks in the Son, but this book also indicates that the Spirit speaks. Therefore, God speaks in the Son as the Spirit, and eventually the Spirit as the Son with the Father is speaking.
The Holy Spirit shows, by the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, that the way of the Holy of Holies has not been manifested while the first tabernacle still has its standing (9:8). The Holy Spirit tells us that when the old tabernacle still remained, the way to enter the Holy of Holies was not yet opened. Also, the Spirit, by this illustration, tells us that the way to enter into the Holy of Holies has been opened and that the old tabernacle has been removed. Today we do not have the old tabernacle, but we have the new tabernacle — Christ. In the book of Hebrews the tabernacle is Christ, and the offerings today are all Christ. Christ is realized as the Spirit, so when you have the Spirit, as a partaker of the Spirit, you have the tabernacle and all the offerings. The New Testament is a book of such a wonderful, unlimited person replacing everything of the Old Testament. This person does not replace God, because He is God Himself, but He replaces Moses, Aaron, the tabernacle, and all the offerings, and His covenant replaces the old covenant. As the eternal Spirit, He is everything and everywhere, and He is not objective. This Spirit is always subjective within us. This eternal Spirit, as the consummation of the processed Triune God, has become our eternal enjoyment.
Hebrews 6:4 tells us that the believers have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. This shows that we are the partakers of a wonderful person. The Holy Spirit is the One as the Son with the Father, being the consummation of the Triune God. We are the partakers of such a One. We have not only received the Holy Spirit, but we are now partakers of the Holy Spirit. As long as we have the Holy Spirit, we are His partakers. He is a priceless treasure.
Hebrews was written to show the Jewish believers that the believers in Christ have this wonderful One as a treasure who is much more precious than the angels, than Moses, than Aaron, and than the old covenant. This treasure is the all-inclusive Christ. In our practical experience, however, this all-inclusive Christ is the all-inclusive Spirit. Hebrews does not tell us that we are the partakers of the all-inclusive Christ, but that we are the partakers of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God, and the Spirit is the Triune God reaching us. Without being the Spirit, the Father cannot reach us. Without being the Spirit, the Son, Christ, cannot reach us. The Triune God reaching us is the Spirit, the consummation of the Triune God. This Spirit is much superior to the angels and to Aaron, and He is the reality of the new covenant, which is much superior to the old covenant; we are the partakers of this Spirit. As long as we are the partakers of this Spirit, we partake of and enjoy the processed Triune God with all His riches.
The book of Hebrews tells us that this Spirit is the eternal Spirit. Christ as the unique sacrifice offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit (9:14). This fact ensures, or secures, the offering of Christ for eternity. This offering accomplished an eternal redemption because it is an eternal offering. The eternal Spirit has made the death of Christ eternally efficacious. The accomplishment of His death covers all the believing Old Testament saints and New Testament believers, including you and me. Although He died on Calvary nearly two thousand years ago and many miles away from us, that death is applicable and available to us because that death was accomplished through the eternal Spirit. His death is an eternal death, which is available and applicable to all persons in any place and at any time.
In Hebrews 9:14 we again see the Trinity — Christ, God, and the eternal Spirit. Christ’s offering Himself to God through the eternal Spirit is a great mystery. Christ, the Spirit, and God are one. Based upon this, we could say that the Triune God offered Himself as an offering through Himself to Himself.
Hebrews 9:14 does not say that the eternal Christ offered Himself to the eternal God through the Spirit, but it says that Christ offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit. This offering is eternal and real because it was offered through the Spirit. Today when we touch the Spirit, we touch this offering. Since we are the partakers of the Spirit, we are also partakers of the unique offering, partakers of an eternal redemption. Once we become a partaker of the Spirit, we partake of everything that is related to the Spirit.
We must realize that the Lord labored, worked, and lived on this earth through the eternal Spirit. Whatever the Lord accomplished and experienced in His living, labor, and work has been made eternal by the eternal Spirit. This eternal Spirit is all-inclusive, and we are the partakers of such a Spirit. He is the Spirit as the Son with the Father, being the consummation of the processed Triune God in the church.
We believers do have this eternal Spirit, and we are the partakers of this Spirit. He comprises Christ, God, the eternal life, and the eternal redemption. He comprises everything because He is the eternal Spirit through whom the Triune God offered Himself to Himself as the eternal offering.
This book also tells us that the Spirit is the Spirit of grace (10:29). The Spirit of grace simply means that the Triune God in the Son as the Spirit becomes our enjoyment. The Spirit is the reaching of the Triune God to us. The Son could not get into us until He became the Spirit. He was among the disciples, but He needed to go through death and resurrection to become the life-giving Spirit (John 14:16-20; 1 Cor. 15:45). Then He was able to breathe Himself as the Holy Breath into the disciples for their enjoyment (John 20:22).
When the Bible uses expressions such as the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of life, and the Spirit of reality, this means that the Spirit is grace, life, and reality. Therefore, when we are the partakers of the Holy Spirit, this means that we are the partakers of the Holy Spirit as grace. The Holy Spirit is our possession, and grace is our possession. It is always better to pray, “Thank You, Lord, for another day, a new day, and thank You that I have the grace to live You today.” The Spirit of grace is the eternal Spirit; hence, the grace is eternal. The grace that we have received is the eternal grace, which is the eternal, unlimited Spirit. It is inexhaustible.
The Gospel of John reveals that God came in the way of incarnation. The Word, who was God, became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace (1:14). Hymns, #497 tells us that grace in its highest definition is God in the Son to be enjoyed by us. Grace is God in the Son for our enjoyment. Many of us enjoy eating steak. Steak is beef, and beef is a small part of a big cow. The only way that such a big cow could be our enjoyment is by processing it. The cow must first be killed and then cut into pieces. Cutting alone, however, is not adequate. These pieces of steak must be cooked. After such a long process, the beef is now available to us. In like manner, for God to be our enjoyment in the Son, He must be processed.
We have seen that the Word was God, and this Word became flesh, full of grace. John 1:17 tells us that the law was given through Moses, but grace came through Jesus Christ. John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” God has given us a unique gift, and this gift is nothing less than His only begotten Son. John 3:16 is directly related to John 1:14. God gave His Son to us by incarnation. If God had never become a man, how could He have given His Son to us? God gave His Son to us by becoming a man. Actually John 1:14 explains John 3:16, and John 3:16 defines John 1:14. By putting these two verses together, we have the right understanding of the divine fact that God has given Himself in the person of the Son by the way of incarnation. Although the Son is such a gift, before our receiving of Him, He is not grace to us. When we receive Him, He immediately becomes the grace.
Someone may give you a gift of cheesecake. Cheesecake is a gift of cheese. You may say that the “person” of the cake is cheese. This cheese is given to us in the form of a cake. Jesus Christ was the form, the “cake.” The person of this cake is God. God gave Himself in the person of the Son as a gift to us by becoming a man. The cheesecake is a wonderful gift, but it cannot become our enjoyment unless we eat it. If we eat it, our eating of the cake becomes our enjoyment. God in the Son is only a gift, not grace yet. When this gift is enjoyed by you, it is no longer merely a gift but grace. Before your enjoyment the cheesecake was a gift, but after your enjoyment the cheesecake becomes grace. After our eating, the gift becomes grace, enjoyment. The gift has been transfigured into grace.
In John 1:1 we see God, and in John 1:14 the Word who is God became flesh. The Son in His humanity is the flesh. In John 1:17 we see that grace came through Jesus Christ. Grace is the enjoyment of the gift. The Giver is God, the gift is the Son, and the enjoyment is the grace. John 1:1, 14, and 17 unveil the Divine Trinity. The Father is the Giver, the Son is the gift, and the Spirit is the gift applied and enjoyed — the grace (Acts 2:38; 10:45; Heb. 10:29). John 3:16 tells us that God gave His Son. This shows that God is the Giver, and the Son is the gift. John 3:34 also tells us that the Son, who is the gift, gives the Spirit without measure. The Giver gives the gift, and the gift gives the Spirit. This is the enjoyment. Also, in John 15:26 the Lord said that He would send the Comforter “from with” (lit.) the Father. The Son sends the Spirit as the Comforter from with the Father, and the Comforter proceeds from with the Father to us. In this verse we see that the Father is the source as the Giver, and the Son as the gift is the second Giver. The Comforter, the Spirit, is the One who is our enjoyment, and this enjoyment is grace.
First Corinthians 1:2 refers to “all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours.” This simply means that this very Christ is yours and mine. This is wonderful! If you bought a house, you would like to tell your friends that it is yours. Perhaps you would feel glorious that such a big house is actually yours. Have you ever realized, however, that in the universe you have One who is yours? We need to call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is yours and who is mine. A little baby cares only for his mother. Babies do not care for mansions, cars, diamonds, or gold. As long as a baby has his mother, everything is all right with him. It does not even matter that much to the baby where he is just as long as his mother is there with him. As Christians, we need to be like the little babes and care only for Christ.
We all need to say happily, triumphantly, and rejoicingly, “Jesus is mine!” We all know the familiar hymn that says, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; / Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!” The chorus of this hymn says, “This is my story, this is my song, / Praising my Savior all the day long” (Hymns, #308). We are not praising the Lord all the day long for a good house, for an expensive car, or for a heavenly mansion with golden streets and pearly gates. We are praising the Lord all the day long for the fact that Jesus is ours. We are those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours. To fully understand 1 Corinthians 1:2, we need John 1:1, 14, and 17; John 3:16 and 34; and John 15:26. Also, 1 Corinthians 1:9 tells us that we have been called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The Greek word for fellowship means “joint participation, common participation.” God has called us into the participation in His Son. We could even say that God has called us into the enjoyment of His Son.
In 1 Corinthians 15:45 we see that “the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” John 1:14 tells us who the last Adam is. The Word who was God became flesh, and this flesh is the last Adam. The last Adam is the last man in the flesh. This One who was the last Adam in the flesh became the enjoyment because He became a life-giving Spirit. This Spirit is not the Giver but the gift enjoyed — the enjoyment. God is the Giver, the Son is the gift, and the Spirit is the enjoyment.
The basic problem among many of today’s Christians is that they have only the Giver and the gift. They do not experience the Spirit as their enjoyment. We Christians may come together to worship God and to praise the Lord without the Spirit. If this is the case, we worship in deadness, and we pray not in life but in death. As Christians, we believe in Jesus Christ, and we worship God, but we must ask ourselves whether or not we have tasted the Triune God. For example, cheesecake is wonderful, but have you eaten it? Have you tasted it, and has it become your enjoyment? If you have never eaten it, you have the cheesecake in vain. All of us must see that we must come to the Spirit. The Son of God is not a separate person from the Spirit; rather, the Spirit is the transfiguration of the Son. The Son is the embodiment of the Triune God, and the Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. This means that the Triune God has been consummated in this Spirit for our enjoyment.
When we call on the name of the Lord Jesus, we do not get the Son or the Father directly. When we call on the name of the Lord, we get the Spirit. We all can testify that whenever we call “O Lord Jesus!” we get the Spirit. Whether we repent or we praise, the principle is the same. We may say, “O Lord Jesus, I repent from my sins,” or “Lord Jesus, I praise You.” The point is that whenever we call on Him, we get the Spirit, and the Spirit is the person of the Lord Jesus. If I call out a certain person’s name, that person will come to me if he is real. When we call on the Lord Jesus, the Spirit comes because the Spirit is the person of Jesus. Even in 1 Corinthians we can see that God gave us Christ as our portion, and we have been called by God into the enjoyment of this person. The very enjoyment of this person is the Spirit. This person was the last Adam, and this last Adam eventually became the life-giving Spirit.
Oranges cannot be swallowed whole by a person. The orange must first be sliced, and then the slices are placed into the mouth. When the mouth chews the slices, they become orange juice to get into the person who is eating them. God may be considered as a big orange, and Christ may be considered as the orange slices. The juice is the Spirit. The orange juice is the extract of the orange, and the extract of the orange is the “spirit” of the orange. In like manner, the Spirit of God is the extract of God. When we have the Father, it is like having a big orange. When we believe in the Son, this is like having many orange slices that are still outside of us. When we receive these slices into us as juice, we get the enjoyment. This is the experience of the Spirit, which all of us must have. The all-inclusive Christ as the portion of the saints (Col. 1:12) becomes our enjoyment as the Spirit.
We have already seen that in the book of Hebrews God speaks in the Son, and eventually, the actual speaker in the book of Hebrews is the Spirit. Furthermore, there is another verse in Hebrews that is more excellent and wonderful than John 3:16 according to our experience — this verse is Hebrews 6:4. John 3:16 tells us that God loved us and gave us His only begotten Son that we may have eternal life. This is wonderful, but Hebrews 6:4 tells us that we have become partakers of the Holy Spirit. This verse does not tell us that we are partakers of material blessings, such as good homes, high degrees, or high positions. We, the believers, are the partakers of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the totality, the sum total, the aggregate, the consummation, of the Triune God. We all need to see that we have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, who is the totality of the Triune God.
Hebrews 10:29 warns us not to insult the Spirit of grace. Ephesians 4:30 tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, which means to make Him unhappy by disobeying Him. However, to insult, despise, put aside, ignore, or neglect the Spirit is more serious. None of us should do this. We all need to experience the Spirit as the totality of the Triune God for our enjoyment.
In 1 Corinthians we saw that Christ is ours and that we have been called into the participation of this portion, who as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit. The conclusion to Paul’s second Epistle to the Corinthians says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (13:14). Love, grace, and fellowship are altogether wrapped up with the Divine Trinity. Love is the very source, the very substance or essence of grace. This is just like cheese being the essence of cheesecake. Love is the essence of the grace of Christ, and the fellowship of the Spirit is the enjoyment. The love is the essence of the grace, the grace becomes our enjoyment, and this enjoyment is the fellowship. Love is with the Father as the source, grace is with the Son as the course, and enjoyment is with the Spirit as the very consummation.
Finally, Philemon 25 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.” This verse does not say that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our strong mind, our strong will, or our fluctuating emotions. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit. This verse proves that the grace of the Lord must be the Spirit because it is with our spirit. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit (John 4:24). Only our spirit can participate in the Spirit. For example, I am not able to enjoy cheesecake by looking or even by smelling. Neither can I enjoy cheesecake by doing scientific research to find out the vitamins, the ingredients, and the elements of the cheesecake. The only way to enjoy the cheesecake is to use my mouth to eat it. In like manner, we need to use our spirit to enjoy the consummation of the Triune God. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. God is the Giver, the Son is the gift, and the Spirit is the enjoyment in our spirit.
James 4:5 says that “the Spirit, whom He has caused to dwell in us, longs unto envy.” James mentions God’s indwelling Spirit negatively concerning the abolishing of the friendship of the world. This indwelling Spirit always envies when He sees us loving something other than God. When you love the world or any material thing other than God, the indwelling Spirit envies. He longs to see you loving God absolutely just like a husband. When a husband sees his wife loving someone else other than him, this husband longs unto envy. God as the indwelling Spirit is our Husband, and He longs unto envy when He sees that we love something, someone, or some matter other than Him. This requires us to deal with whatever we love other than God. The word dwell in James 4:5 can also be translated “make His home.” The indwelling Spirit makes His home in us so that He may occupy our entire being (cf. Eph. 3:17) for God, causing us to be wholly for our Husband.
