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Scripture Reading: Heb. 7:16, 25; 9:11-12, 15-17
In Hebrews 7 through 10 Christ is presented in a threefold way: as High Priest, as Minister, and as Executor of the new testament. When Christ is mentioned as the High Priest, we are also told that He is the Minister of the holy places and the Executor of the new testament. These three titles are mentioned together because their functions overlap. While Christ is carrying on His priestly work, He is also executing the new testament and simultaneously ministering its contents to us.
In this chapter we shall consider how He executes the new testament. This is the most complicated point in the New Testament for us to understand, yet it is all-inclusive.
Throughout the Bible God’s speaking was in three ways: His word, His promise, and His covenant (or testament). In God’s speaking there was His promise. When His promise was enacted by an oath, it became a covenant, which is also a testament.
From the very beginning God spoke to man. Before Adam disobeyed, God spoke to him. After the fall God came again to speak to him, this time promising that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). With God’s speaking came God’s promise.
The same was true with Abraham. In God’s speaking to him, He promised him a seed and the good land (13:15). God spoke and God promised.
How did the promise become a covenant? It was by the addition of an oath with a sacrifice where blood was shed (15:7-18). A covenant is an agreement in which one party promises certain things to the other party.
A testament, in turn, is a bequest of what has already been accomplished. In modern terms it is a will, a written legal statement for the distribution of the enactor’s property upon his death. The entire Bible is actually God’s testament; its two parts are even called the Old Testament and the New Testament.
God is a speaking God. The more He speaks, the more He is bound by His words. However, He cannot help but speak. He has much to say to man. The Bible is full of God’s speaking. This book is God’s word to man.
When we speak, we may unconsciously make promises. If we get others to talk to us, we may be able to induce them to promise us something that they had no intention of promising. As long as they are quiet, we cannot ensnare them, but when they speak, we may be able to get a commitment from them.
God has spoken. In both the Old and New Testaments He has spoken. In His speaking He has made promises. The Bible is full of promises — promises to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to David, and to us, the New Testament believers.
If the Lord Jesus had not died, these promises would have remained only promises. But to fulfill these promises He did die. By the shedding of His blood these promises became a covenant. Now there is a firm commitment for them to be realized. In this covenant some things are yet to be done, and some have been accomplished already and have been bequeathed to us. The covenant then has become a testament, telling us what our inheritance is.
“Because of this 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. For a testament is confirmed in the case of the dead, since it never has force when he who made the testament is living” (Heb. 9:15-17).
In Greek the same word is used for both covenant and testament. The new covenant, consummated with the blood of Christ (vv. 11-15), is not merely a covenant but a testament with all the things that have been accomplished by the death of Christ and bequeathed to us. First, God gave the promise that He would make a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Heb. 8:8-13). Then Christ shed His blood to enact it (Luke 22:20). Since there are accomplished facts promised in this covenant, it is also a testament. This testament, or will, has been confirmed and validated by Christ’s death, and it is being executed and enforced by Christ in His resurrection. The promise of God’s covenant is ensured by God’s faithfulness, God’s covenant is guaranteed by God’s righteousness, and the testament is enforced by Christ’s resurrection power.
The Bible first tells us that Christ will come. Then it promises us that He will come. There is not only the speaking but the promise as well. Many blessings are included in this promise. He will die for us that our sins might be forgiven and that we might be redeemed. Life will be given to us. This life is the Spirit, who is God Himself as everything to us for our enjoyment. Finally, we shall inherit whatever God is, whatever He has, and whatever He does.
After God’s speaking and His promising (including the content of His promise), Christ went to the cross and died, shedding His blood. Because of His death, the promise has been consummated, the covenant has been established, and the testament has been enacted.
We have, then, four stages in God’s speaking to man: His speaking, His promising, His covenant-making, and His testament-executing. Adam in Genesis 2 was in the first stage. Abraham in Genesis 12 was in the second, or promising, stage. The disciples, when they saw Christ dying on the cross, were in the third, the covenant-making, stage. We today are in the fourth stage, when the testament is executed. God has spoken, He has promised, Christ has made the covenant, and the covenant has become a testament to us.
We have already covered three aspects of Christ’s heavenly ministry: how He exercises His rulership over the whole world so that His gospel may be preached and God’s called people be brought in, how He exercises His headship to cause us to grow and function so that His Body may be built up, and how He intercedes for us and cares for us as our High Priest. In this chapter we shall consider the fourth aspect: how He executes the testament that He has bequeathed to us. By the execution of the new testament by the heavenly Christ, He is making all the items listed therein real to us.
We all like to be remembered in someone’s will. I am sure that all my children, and even my grandchildren, are expecting to be included in my will. Suppose we were willed a large piece of property with a mansion containing twenty-four rooms and seven bathrooms and, in addition, ten million German marks. We would surely be pleased. However, we would need to make sure that the inheritance was more than just two items written on paper. The will would have to be executed in order for us to come into possession of what we had been bequeathed.
Have you ever tried to find out what is included in the new testament? It is a long list. In fact, after trying many times to enumerate all the items, I have concluded that it cannot be done. The list is endless. Here are some of the items: redemption, forgiveness of sins, justification, reconciliation, regeneration, sanctification, sonship, life, power, peace, and holiness.
Have you received all these bequests? Sometimes the heir is young and does not realize what he has inherited. Or perhaps the heir is simple and cannot understand the meaning of the terms in the will. Or in a third case, the heir may be too weak to lay claim to his inheritance, even though he is mature and wise. In all these cases, someone is needed to help the intended heir gain possession of what has been bequeathed to him.
When Christ died on the cross, He made God’s promise a covenant. His blood was the enacting symbol. The Lord’s table, which we have week by week, is a symbol of the will. The Lord took the cup and gave thanks. Then He gave it to the disciples, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for forgiveness of sins” (Matt. 26:27-28). The words in Luke 22:20 are: “This cup is the new covenant established in My blood, which is being poured out for you.” The cup that we take is the new covenant. This is a profound fact. When we take the cup, we need to realize that it is the new covenant.
The two main items in the new covenant are the forgiveness of sins and the impartation of life. By these we enjoy God. He is the blessing of the cup. He is the eternal portion of its blessing.
The blood of Jesus enacted the covenant. His death confirmed it. Then in resurrection He comes to execute its contents.
He is now in the heavens, living, divine, capable, constituted of the indestructible life. Nothing can thwart Him. Nothing can destroy Him. He is the living One, living forever. Thus, He is able to execute this testament in every detail.
Do you need life, power, forgiveness, peace, or holiness? Of course, your needs are many. How can you be supplied? In the testament are all these items. They are bequeathed to you. Christ today is executing the testament, making every item available and real to you.
Suppose your wife gives you a hard time. You need patience. Where can you find the patience to endure being under her thumb? Patience is one of the items listed in the will. It is applied and made real to you by Christ’s execution. When patience is your need, He will make it available to you. You will have the sense that patience comes into you like a flood. Is this not your experience?
The same is true of joy. You may be suffering, but there is joy in this will. How can that joy be real to you? Christ Himself will execute joy into you, flooding you with it.
You may wonder how I can have so much to speak. You may think that I will run out of things to say. Included in this will, though, is the rich Word. When I am to give a message, I do not turn to reference books to find a subject, to put together some points, to study some commentaries, and to thus organize what I shall say. No! Christ as the Executor floods the riches of God’s Word into me. Out of this flood comes the rich thought, the rich utterances. Thus the speaking is endless.
What a will we have and what an Executor — living, powerful, capable!
Christ’s intercession is part of the execution of the will. You may be short of life and light. You may not be enjoying God as your life and light. Your High Priest will then pray for you so that you may have the rich enjoyment of God. This is His intercession. Then He will exercise His position to execute the life and light from God into you. This is the answer to His intercession and also the enforcement of His will.
Just as we need the proper correspondence to His intercession by coming to the throne of grace, so we also need the proper corresponding to His executing of the will. We have been lacking in this corresponding because of not being helped to see these matters. Probably we have never before heard such messages. From now on, there is no reason to be off; we can correspond to Him.
Hebrews 7:25 gives us the way to correspond to His executing of the new covenant: “Hence also He is able to save to the uttermost those who come forward to God through Him, since He lives always to intercede for them.” We cooperate with Him by coming forward to God.
Keep coming forward to God. Morning and evening, day and night, while you are praying and when you are not, come forward to Him. “O God, I am open to You. You are rich. I need You. I need all there is for me in Your will. I want to stay open to You all the time.” As you do this, Christ the able One will execute into your being whatever you need. It is part of His heavenly ministry to thus execute item after item from the will into you for your enjoyment.
To realize this will be a strengthening to you. Suppose your working day is over, and you are ready to go home. You have put in eight hours of hard work, and you are tired. But the thought of going home is not very appealing, because you never know what situation will confront you. Whether you will be greeted by a long face or a smiling face you cannot predict. Some days when you go home, you encounter a storm. Other days it is calm and sunny. You cannot bear to walk into a storm tonight. What should you do? Do not forget the will. Open yourself. Come forward to God. You may only say, “O God my Father, I am opening myself to You,” and you will have the deep conviction that you are strengthened. He has interceded for you. He has also executed something into you. You are strengthened into the inner man. Now you are ready to go home. You can declare, “Lord, whether the weather is wild or mild doesn’t matter to me. I want to go back home and enjoy You. It may be under a clear sky or a cloudy sky. Rain or shine, I will still be opening to You. You will be my supply, according to Your will. I am included in Your will. Father, that will binds You. Moreover, I have an Executor, who is seeing to it that I get all the items listed in that will. My circumstances don’t bother me. Your will makes every provision for me.”
Christ’s heavenly ministry is not over. His earthly ministry has indeed been accomplished. But as the Executor of the new covenant, He is still ministering to strengthen, comfort, supply, sustain, and even bear you. His purpose in so doing is that you may grow and function so that His Body may be built up. His heavenly ministry, the goal of which is the building up of His Body, has many different aspects. We have already considered four of them. There is the exercise of His rulership, the exercise of His headship, the priesthood, and the execution of God’s will and testament. In the next chapter we shall go on to another aspect.
