The book of Hebrews is a book of comparisons. In the foregoing messages we have seen three comparisons: the comparisons between our God and the God of the Jewish people, between Christ and the angels, and between Christ and Moses. Now we come to another subsection in this book (4:14-7:28) where we find still another comparison — the comparison between Christ and Aaron. Our God is more excellent than the God whom the Jews worship, and our Christ is much superior to the angels, Moses, and Aaron. As we have seen, in each section of Hebrews there is a warning. The first warning is in Heb. 2:1-4 and the second is in Heb. 3:7-19; 4:1-13. In this subsection we have the third warning, found in Heb. 5:11-14; 6:1-20..
In the previous chapters we have seen that Christ is the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Captain of our salvation, and the Apostle. All this qualifies Him to be our High Priest. In the Bible, no one is more wonderful or excellent than Christ as our High Priest. He comes from God and ministers God to us. Before His coming, we had nothing of God. God was God and we were simply men, having nothing to do with Him. He came not only as our Savior and Redeemer but also as our High Priest. The titles of Savior and Redeemer are understood by most people in a superficial way. If we only know Christ as our Savior and Redeemer, we may know Him just in a superficial way. We must go on to know Him as the Captain of our salvation, the Apostle, and the High Priest. Although many Christians realize that Christ is our High Priest, not many know what this truly means. If we would know what it means for Christ to be our High Priest, we must thoroughly cover the whole book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 4:14 says, “Having therefore a great High Priest Who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession.” The Lord Jesus firstly was sent from God to us through incarnation (Heb. 2:14) to be our Apostle (Heb. 3:1), our Captain, our Leader (Heb. 2:10), the One superior to Moses (Heb. 3:3), and our real Joshua (Heb. 4:8) to bring us, His partners (Heb. 1:9; 3:14), into glory and rest (Heb. 2:10; 4:11). He then went back from us to God through resurrection and ascension (Heb. 5:5-6) to be our High Priest to bear us in the presence of God and to care for all our needs (Heb. 2:17-18; 4:15).
The very Christ whom we need and have today in the Sabbath rest of the church life is our High Priest. A high priest, properly speaking, is not on the street nor in the wilderness but in the Holy of Holies. Where is our Christ today? He is continually in the Holy of Holies. Our High Priest is not at the altar offering the sacrifices, nor in the Holy Place preparing the showbread, lighting the lamps, and burning the incense. He is in the Holy of Holies. Most Christians only have a Christ who is at the altar, that is, a Christ on the cross. Many hymns speak of the crucified Christ. Some Christians have a Christ only in the Holy Place. The highest attainment in their spiritual seeking is that of a Christ preparing the showbread, lighting the lamp, and burning the incense in the Holy Place. They have missed the High Priest in the Holy of Holies. The main function of our High Priest today is neither at the altar nor in the Holy Place but in the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence and shekinah glory are. Yes, He was once on the cross, but, as 1:3 reveals, His work on the cross has been finished. Never ask Him to go back to do it again. Now, having finished His work, He is sitting at the right hand of God in the heavens. No place is closer to God than this. The book of Hebrews was written to help us come forward to this Christ who is now in the presence of God.
The Christ who is in the Holy of Holies is not merely our Savior, Redeemer, Apostle, or Captain of salvation; He is our High Priest. What is He doing there in the Holy of Holies? He is ministering God into us. As we have seen in a previous message, the major function of the High Priest is to minister God into God’s chosen people. Oh, how we need our High Priest in the Holy of Holies to minister God into us! We should forget our environment, weaknesses, troubles, and even ourselves and only remember that today Jesus Christ is our High Priest in the Holy of Holies. As long as we have such a High Priest, we have everything we need.
According to the Old Testament, whenever the high priest went into the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, he bore upon his shoulders two onyx stones on which were engraved the names of the children of Israel (E.o. 28:9-12). He also wore the breastplate in which were set twelve precious stones engraved with the names of the children of Israel (E.o. 28:15-30). This signified that the people of Israel were on the shoulder and breast of the high priest. Since the shoulder signifies strength and the breast signifies love, the people of God were on the strength and in the love of the high priest. When the high priest was in the Holy of Holies, he brought all the people of God along with him. In the eyes of God, when he was there, all the people of God were there with him. Likewise, when God looks at Christ, our High Priest in the Holy of Holies, He sees us upon His shoulder and breast. How we need to see this vision! Our High Priest in the Holy of Holies in the heavens bears us and wears us before God. Right now we are upon His shoulder and upon His breast in the Holy of Holies. We are there with Him in the shekinah glory of God.
As Christ bears us before God in the Holy of Holies, He ministers God into our being. When the Apostle Paul prayed to the Lord, asking Him to remove the thorn (2 Cor. 12:7-8), the Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). The Lord seemed to be saying, “Paul, I will not remove that thorn, but I will impart Myself into you as grace. When I do this, you will know how precious and sufficient I am, and more of Me will be added into you.” This experience of Christ as our High Priest who bears us on His shoulder and breast and ministers God into us is an experience in the Holy of Holies, where we enjoy God Himself and all His riches. When we get into this experience, it is difficult to say where we are or what is happening. We can only say that we are upon the shoulders and breast of our High Priest and that He is ministering something comforting and strengthening into us. Perhaps all we can say is, “I have received something from the Lord, but I simply cannot describe it or give it a name.” This experience of Christ as our High Priest is the highest experience and enjoyment. We all must learn to stay here on His shoulders and on His breast in the Holy of Holies. This is an experience in the third stage of our salvation which corresponds to the experiences in the Holy of Holies. We should not be content to remain outer court Christians; neither should we be Christians staggering in the Holy Place. We must press on into the Holy of Holies where God’s presence and shekinah glory are.
This experience of Christ as our High Priest undoubtedly is in the heavens. However, it is also in our spirit and in the church because the church today is God’s habitation in our spirit. Christ, the heavenly ladder which joins earth to heaven and brings heaven down to earth, is in our spirit. By the habitation of God and the heavenly ladder, the Holy of Holies in the heavens is joined to our spirit. Consider the illustration of electricity. By the flow of the current of electricity, our homes are joined to the power plant. Electricity is both in the generator in the power plant and in our homes. Without this flow of electricity, the power plant is far off from our homes. But by the flow of electricity, these two are made one. Likewise, heaven is certainly far away from our spirit. But the wonderful Christ is both in the heavens and also in our spirit. Romans 8:34 says that Christ is at the right hand of God interceding for us, and Romans 8:10 says that Christ is also within us. There are not two Christs, one in the heavens and one within us; neither is it a matter of one Christ at two different times. Just as the electricity in the power plant is joined to our homes, so the Christ in the third heaven is joined to our spirit. He is much more wonderful than the flow of electricity. If by the flow of electricity two places can be made one, how much more can our wonderful Christ be both in the heavens as well as in our spirit.
Verse fourteen also says that Jesus, the Son of God, is a great High Priest. According to our experience, the word great here means excellent, wonderful, glorious, and most honorable. The Chinese version of the Bible says that we have an honorable and glorious High Priest. Christ today is such an excellent, marvelous, wonderful, glorious, and most honorable High Priest that no human word can fully describe Him. Although we cannot find the adequate word in any lexicon, the experience of being on His shoulders and on His breast in the Holy of Holies tells us that He is a great and wonderful High Priest.
Our High Priest, Christ, is great firstly in His Person. He is the Son of God, God Himself (1:5, 8). He is also the Son of Man, man himself (2:6). He, being both God and man, has the divine nature and the human nature. He not only knows the things of God and the things of man; He is also in the things of God and the things of man. No other high priest has ever been like Him.
Secondly, our High Priest, Christ, is great in His work. He has made purification of and propitiation for our sins (1:3; 2:17). He has taken away sin and has solved the problem of sin. He has tasted death, not only for every man but also for everything (2:9). By tasting death, He conquered and subdued it. Death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24, 27). He has also destroyed the Devil who has the might of death (2:14). By His death on the cross, Christ has annulled Satan, the power of death. By conquering death and destroying the Devil, He has released us from the slavery of death (2:15). We have been freed by Him not only from the slavery of sin but also from the slavery of death. Through His suffering, He has been perfected to be the Captain of our salvation (2:10). He has fought the battle and has entered into glory. As the Pioneer, He is leading us on in the same way to glory. He is now taking care of God’s house as Moses did (3:5-6). As the Builder of the house, He surely knows how to take care of it. He is now also bringing us into rest, as Joshua did (4:8-9). He has given us the Sabbath rest in the church age, and He will bring us into the Sabbath rest of the kingdom age. As our High Priest, He is great in all these wonderful and excellent works of His, which no high priest in the Old Testament had ever accomplished.
Our High Priest, Christ, is also great in His attainment. His attainment is so high that He has entered into the Holy of Holies in the heavens and has been crowned with glory and honor (6:19; 9:24; 2:9). He is no longer on earth bearing the crown of thorns; He is now in the highest heavens wearing the crown of glory. No high priest can exceed Him in His attainment; no one can even compare with Him in this manner.
Our High Priest, Christ, who is great in His Person, qualification, work, accomplishment, and attainment, has passed through the heavens (4:14). After He was crucified and before He was resurrected, Christ walked through Hades, having a good sightseeing tour. Although Satan and all the powers of death tried to hold Him, at the time of His resurrection, He arose from the grave (Acts 2:24, 27). Later, as He was ascending to the heavens, He overcame the gravitation of earth. The demons desperately tried to prevent Him from leaving the earth, but He made a wonderful takeoff. Then He ascended to the heavens. As He was passing through the air, the evil spirits, the principalities and powers, tried to grasp Him and hold Him back, but He stripped them off, making a display to the whole universe. This is the meaning of Colossians 2:15 which says that Christ “stripped off principalities and powers” and “made a show of them openly, triumphing over them” (Gk.). In this verse we see three main points: that Christ stripped off the principalities and powers; that He made a show of them; and that He triumphed over them. Now, having risen from Hades, having stripped off the principalities and powers and having passed through the heavens, He is now sitting on the throne at the right hand of God where He is restfully enjoying a Sabbath. But He is desirous to see that all His members come into His Sabbath rest. The way to enter into His Sabbath is by experiencing Him as our High Priest. As we shall see, we simply need to come forward to the throne of grace on which He is sitting and receive mercy and find grace. When we do this, we are immediately in the Sabbath rest of the church life, waiting with Him for the better Sabbath to come. Praise Him!
As our High Priest, Christ has been tried in all respects like us, but without sin (4:15). Since He has been tried, He is qualified and able to help us who are being tried (2:18). In all His trials, He was never stained with sin. He suffered the trials without being touched by sin. He is truly equipped to help us to pass through trials and to keep us from any entanglement of sin.
As the One who has been tried in all respects like us, our High Priest, Christ, is able to sympathize with our weaknesses (4:15). He is easily touched with the feeling of our weaknesses and quickly enters into a fellow-suffering with us in our weaknesses. Whatever happens to us and whatever suffering we may have, He feels it with us and sympathizes with us.
After the unveiling of our High Priest, the writer encourages us to “come forward with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for timely help” (4:16). The throne of grace is undoubtedly the throne of God which is in heaven (Rev. 4:2). The throne of God is the throne of authority to all the universe (Dan. 7:9; Rev. 5:1) on which God sits to control and rule over the universe. It is the throne of God’s administration. But to us, the believers, it is the throne of grace, signified by the propitiation cover (the mercy seat) over the ark of testimony (Exo. 25:17-21; Rom. 3:25) in the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:3, 5) sprinkled with the blood of Christ (Lev. 16:15; Heb. 9:12). It is here that God meets and communes with His people (Exo. 25:21-22). When we come to the throne of grace through the blood of Christ, we meet with God and commune with Him.
The throne of grace in Hebrews 4 is the throne of authority in Revelation 4 which becomes in Revelation 22:1 and 2 the throne of God and of the Lamb, out of which proceeds the crystal clear river of water of life. This river flows through the whole city of New Jerusalem. Within this river grows the tree of life, revealing that the rich Christ with the living Spirit flows out of the throne of grace. What is grace? It is the flowing river in which the tree of life grows. To the unbelievers and to the demons, the throne of God and of the Lamb is a throne of authority; to us, it is the throne of grace Whenever we come to this throne, we have the sense that something is flowing to water and supply us. This is grace. We can surely drink and eat of this supply.
Hebrews 4:16 tells us to “come forward with boldness to the throne of grace.” Since the throne of grace is in the heavens, how can we come forward to it? According to fundamental teaching, we must wait until we die and go to heaven. But how can we come forward to it while we are still on earth? The secret is in verse 12 of the same chapter which speaks of the dividing of the soul and spirit by the living and operative word of God. As we have seen, the very Christ who is sitting on the throne of grace in heaven (Rom. 8:34) is also now in us (Rom. 8:10), that is, in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), where the habitation of God is (Eph. 2:22 — “through the Spirit” should be rendered “in spirit”). As Christ is in our spirit, both the Father and the Spirit are also in our spirit (John 14:20, 23; Rom. 8:16). The Triune God is here in our spirit. At Bethel, the house of God, the habitation of God, which is the gate of heaven, Christ is the ladder who joins earth to heaven and brings heaven to earth (Gen. 28:12-17; John 1:51). Although the throne of grace is in the heavens, our wonderful Christ has brought the third heaven into our spirit, the very place where God’s habitation on earth is today. Our spirit may be called today’s Bethel. According to Genesis 28, Bethel is firstly a place and secondly God’s habitation. Both the place and the stone were called Bethel. According to principle, where God’s habitation is, there is the heavenly ladder and the gate of heaven. Christ, the wonderful One who came to us from God, who has accomplished and attained so much, and who is our Captain, Apostle, and High Priest, has come into our spirit, making it the gate of heaven. Now it is easy for us to come forward to the throne of grace, for it is right within the gate. While the throne of grace is in the heavens, by and through Christ it has been joined to our spirit.
Coming forward to the throne of grace is absolutely a matter in our spirit. If we are in the mind, it will be difficult for us to enter into the Holy of Holies. If we are a soulish person staggering in the wilderness of our soul, we shall be far away from the Holy of Holies. Since our spirit is the place of God’s habitation today, it is the gate of heaven where Christ is the ladder that joins us, the people on earth, to heaven, and brings heaven to us. Whenever we turn to our spirit, we enter into the gate of heaven and touch the throne of grace in heaven through Christ as the heavenly ladder. For this, we need the living word of God to pierce into the depths of our being and separate our spirit from our wandering mind. As long as we are in our spirit, we have the gate of heaven. Within the gate is the throne of grace. It takes no time whatever to enter into the Holy of Holies, because there is no distance between it and our spirit. Whenever we say from the depths of our being, “O Lord Jesus,” we are immediately in the Holy of Holies, touching the throne of grace. How we need to touch the throne of grace!
When we come forward to the throne of grace, we “receive mercy and find grace for timely help.” Both God’s mercy and His grace are the expression of His love. When we are in a pitiful condition, firstly His mercy reaches us and brings us into a state where God is able to favor us with His grace. Luke 15:20-24 says that when the father saw the prodigal son returning, he had compassion on him. This is mercy, expressing the father’s love. Then the father clothed him with the best robe and fed him with the fatted calf. This is grace, which also manifests the father’s love. God’s mercy reaches farther than His grace, bridging the gap between us and God’s grace. Often, because of our pitiful condition, we must receive mercy before we can find grace. We come to the throne of grace like beggars, in somewhat the same way as the prodigal son came to his father. A beggar, like the prodigal, needs mercy. When we are in a poor condition and someone gives us something, that is mercy. But when we are in a qualified condition and someone gives us something, that is grace. Many times when we have come to the throne of grace we have had the sense that we were pitiful and said, “Father, I am not worthy of anything.” But the Father said, “That doesn’t matter. You are unworthy, but I am merciful. My mercy reaches you, qualifies you, and adorns you. It clothes you with the best robe.” After receiving the Father’s mercy, we soon feel like a very important person. Then we are qualified to sit down and enjoy the fatted calf. This is grace. This is not merely a doctrine but something which has been confirmed by our experience.
Who is on the throne of grace? Not only God but also the Lamb, the Redeemer. On the wonderful throne of grace, God is sitting, and at His right hand is the Redeemer, our High Priest. That the throne is not only the throne of God but the throne of God and of the Lamb means that God in the Lamb is flowing Himself out as grace for our enjoyment. We need not do anything. We simply need to come forward, open up, and receive mercy and find grace for timely help. Every day the help which comes from this grace is very timely; it is always new and exactly fits our situation and need. The real Christian life according to Hebrews is a life which not only comes forward to the throne of grace but which also abides in the Holy of Holies in front of the throne, continually receiving mercy and finding grace. This is the life we need today. If, by the Lord’s mercy, these crucial points are wrought into us, we will never be the same.
God’s mercy and grace are always available to us. However, we need to receive and find them by exercising our spirit to come forward to the throne of grace and touch our High Priest who sympathizes with us in all our weaknesses. By this word, the writer of Hebrews encouraged the wearied Hebrew believers to receive mercy and find grace for timely help that they might be set upright (12:12).
