We Christians today need to get into the book of Hebrews. I thank God that, under His sovereignty, there was such a group of staggering Hebrew Christians in the first century. Without them, the book of Hebrews probably never would have come into existence. Do not think that the book of Hebrews was only for them. We need this book today much more than they needed it in their time. In the past eleven messages we have been on chapters seven, eight, and nine. If I were to ask you to write a conclusion to these chapters, you may find it quite difficult. But at the end of chapter nine the book of Hebrews itself gives us a summary, a conclusion, of these three chapters. This conclusion is the very matter which we shall cover in this message — Christ’s two manifestations and the interval between them. These three things, Christ’s two manifestations and the interval, compose God’s economy.
It has been difficult for many Christians to understand the true significance of Christ’s two manifestations. The two manifestations of Christ refer to His two comings. Christ has come once and He will come again. During the long period between the two manifestations of Christ to the world, He remains in the presence of God. Nearly two thousand years have passed since Christ’s first manifestation. Although this is a long time as far as we are concerned, to Him it is less than two days (2 Pet. 3:8). We need to see the significance of the two manifestations of Christ and the interval between them.
Before Christ’s first manifestation, there were God’s plan, God’s promise, and a type, a picture, of God’s economy, but besides God’s creation nothing had been accomplished. When we build a meeting hall, we also may have a plan and a model of the building. However, simply having these things does not mean that there is an actual building. Before Christ’s incarnation, men like Abraham, Moses, and David had come and gone, but nothing had been accomplished for God’s economy. Although there was the model of the tabernacle with Moses and of the temple with Solomon, nothing real was accomplished until the first manifestation of Christ.
Christ took thirty-three and a half years to complete His first manifestation. During those thirty-three and a half years, everything necessary for the fulfillment of God’s purpose was accomplished. He accomplished what God needed and what we needed.
Christ’s first manifestation was for the putting away of sin. Verse 26 says that “once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested for the putting away of sin by His sacrifice.” The Greek words translated “consummation of the ages” may also be rendered the “completion of the ages” or “end of the ages.” Here it means the end of the old testament age, whereas the consummation of the age in Matthew 28:20 (Gk.) indicates the close of the church age. Christ “was foreordained” for us “before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:20), and He was “slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Actually, His being slain transpired once for all at the consummation of the ages, when He offered Himself to God in His first manifestation for the putting away of sin.
Christ put away sin about nineteen and a half centuries ago. Before He accomplished this, the priests offered the sin offering day after day. But that was not the actual putting away of sin; it was only a type, a picture. The real putting away of sin was accomplished once for all by Christ on the cross. Perhaps you were born just twenty or thirty years ago, and during your lifetime you have committed many sins, such as stealing and lying. But the putting away of sin was accomplished nineteen and a half centuries ago, long before you committed any sins. Hence, the putting away of sin is a bequest. Firstly, it was a promise; secondly, it was foreshadowed by the covering of sins; eventually, the promise and the shadow were completely fulfilled by Christ on the cross when He offered Himself as the sacrifice for sins once for all. He was “once offered to bear the sins of many” (9:28, 14; 10:12). Therefore, in the eyes of God, sin has gone and has become a history. Do not believe Satan, your feelings, or your failures. They are lies. You must tell them, “Sin was put away by Christ in His first manifestation.”
Christ’s first manifestation was also for the accomplishment of an eternal redemption. Hebrews 9:12 says that “through His own blood” He “entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having found an eternal redemption.” Christ accomplished this at the time He put away sins. Thus, eternal redemption also is a bequest.
The first manifestation of Christ was also for the consummation of the new covenant (Matt. 26:28). By putting away sin and accomplishing eternal redemption, Christ consummated the new covenant. Hence, the new covenant is also a bequest.
Eventually, the first manifestation of Christ was for the bequest of the new testament (Heb. 9:16-17). We have seen that when the new covenant was bequeathed, it became the new testament. In His first manifestation, Christ accomplished everything, put all that He had accomplished into a will, and left His will with us. In this will we have, as our bequests, everything Christ has accomplished. Since everything has been accomplished, neither He nor we need to do anything more. If we have this vision, we shall see that within the thirty-three and a half years of His first manifestation, Christ accomplished everything and put it into a will, into the new testament. Do not think that the New Testament is a book of promise or prophecy. No, the entire New Testament is a will. If your grandfather’s will were full of promises and prophecies, it might take eighty years for it to be fulfilled. You might not live long enough for them all to be fulfilled. This is exactly the way many Christians take the New Testament. Today many Christians do not have a will; they have a book of promise and prophecy. They are waiting for the promises and prophecies to be fulfilled by and by. But remember, even Revelation, a book of prophecy, is included in the New Testament which is a will. As I pointed out in the previous message, even in a book of prophecy such as Revelation, many of the verbs are in the past tense, indicating that they have already been fulfilled and accomplished.
We need to have a clear vision and see that Christ has accomplished everything. If we see this, we will not strive for anything, but rest in all that Christ has done. I am happy because Christ has accomplished everything for me. Blessed is he who sees the vision that Christ has accomplished everything for us. Christ is sitting in the heavens because all the work has been done. He is not laboring or striving but restfully sitting there. In the Bible, to sit means that the work is finished. Everything needed for the completion of God’s eternal plan has already been fulfilled by Christ in His first manifestation. All that He has accomplished has been bequeathed to us in the new testament as our bequests.
After He had accomplished the necessary things through His death and resurrection, Christ ascended to heaven and entered into the Holy of Holies in the heavens. Verse 24 says, “Christ did not enter into the holy places made by hand, but into heaven itself.” The tabernacle in the Old Testament was a figure of the true one in the heavens. The earth is the outer court of this true tabernacle. After He had finished His work in the outer court, Christ, as the High Priest, entered into the Holy of Holies of the true tabernacle.
Christ has entered into the Holy of Holies in the heavens so that He might appear before the face of God for us (9:24). Since He has accomplished everything on earth, He is now restfully sitting in heaven before God. The only time we are told that He stood up was when Stephen was being stoned (Acts 7:55-56).
In the true tabernacle, Christ is ministering as the High Priest (8:1-2). What is Christ doing as the High Priest? He is interceding for us that everything which He has accomplished might be wrought into our being. In some of the previous messages we have seen this matter of Christ’s heavenly intercession. We may recall how Melchisedec came to minister the bread and wine to Abraham after he had interceded for him behind the scene. Likewise, Christ, our Melchisedec, is secretly interceding for all who love Him and seek Him. As He is interceding for us in the heavens, He is also the all-inclusive and all-pervading Spirit. The all-inclusive Spirit works in us according to Christ’s heavenly intercession, motivating the law of life within us to function and causing the standard model, the Firstborn Son of God, to be wrought into our being. This is transpiring on earth today. To say this is not guesswork; it is the revelation of God’s Holy Word which is shining over us as a heavenly vision. In these days, many of us have been under the shining of this vision. This vision will become a governing vision. Praise the Lord that Christ is ministering in the true tabernacle today!
During the interval between His first and second manifestations, Christ is executing the new testament (8:6; 9:15; 12:24). To execute the new testament simply means to motivate the law of life within us and to make every bequest of the new will real in our being. Once we see what Christ is doing in us today, we shall never be the same. What Christ is doing in us is worthy of eternal remembrance. When we get into eternity, we may recall the day we saw the glorious vision of Christ’s heavenly ministry. When this ministry has been completed, Christ will be manifested the second time.
Verse 28 says that Christ “shall appear to those who wait for Him a second time, apart from sin, unto salvation.” The second manifestation of Christ has nothing to do with sin, because sin has already become a history. As man must die once and be judged after having died (v. 27), so Christ died once to bear man’s sins (v. 28; 1 Pet. 2:24) and suffered the judgment for man on the cross (Isa. 53:5, 11). This book very much stresses the fact that sin has been put away by Christ’s sacrifice in His first manifestation. Since Christ has put away sin in His first appearing (9:26; 1 John 3:5), His second appearing will be apart from sin, having nothing whatever to do with it.
Verse 28 says that Christ will appear a second time “unto salvation.” “Salvation” here does not refer to the salvation from hell to heaven. It has a wider and higher meaning, covering the following aspects:
First of all, the very salvation which Christ will bring to us in His second manifestation is for the redemption, the transfiguration, of our body. When we were saved, we were regenerated in our spirit (John 3:5-6). Now we are in the process of being transformed in our soul (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). Then at Christ’s second coming for the completion of the salvation of our entire being, He will transfigure our vile body into a glorious one (Phil. 3:21). That will be the redemption of our body (Rom. 8:23), the first aspect of Christ’s appearing “unto salvation” in His second manifestation.
The second aspect of the salvation by Christ’s second coming is the deliverance from the vanity and slavery of corruption of the old creation into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Rom. 8:18-23). The entire old creation has been subjected to vanity and is under the slavery of corruption. Even we who have been saved and who have the enjoyment of the Spirit are also under the vanity and the slavery of corruption of the old creation. At His second coming, Christ will free us from this vanity and slavery and deliver us into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
At His second coming, Christ will glorify us (Rom. 8:17), that is, He will bring us into His glory to fulfill the word in Hebrews 2:10. Our glorification is the final goal of God’s salvation in Christ (Rom. 8:29-30). We have been chosen, predestinated, called, and justified. Now we are being sanctified through the process of transformation in life. Then in His second manifestation, we shall be glorified and reach the final goal of God’s salvation in Christ. This is the third aspect of Christ’s coming salvation.
In regeneration we were born of God and became the sons of God (John 1:12-13). In this new birth we received the divine sonship in our spirit (Rom. 8:15). After this, we began to enjoy this sonship through the transformation of our soul. The more we are transformed in our soul, the more we enjoy the sonship which has been given to us in our spirit. This sonship will become full when our body of the old creation is transfigured into a body of the new creation. This means that the redemption of our body is the full sonship of our new birth. This will be the fourth aspect of Christ’s salvation in His second manifestation.
God’s salvation in Christ is to work Himself into us as our enjoyment. He has given to us His Spirit in our spirit as the firstfruit for our enjoyment (Rom. 8:23). This firstfruit of the Spirit is the foretaste for our enjoyment of God. The full taste will be brought in for our enjoyment by Christ’s second manifestation. When our body is transfigured and our entire being, spirit, soul, and body, is fully saturated with the divine element of the Triune God, we shall enjoy God in full. That will be our full taste of God, the last aspect of Christ’s coming salvation.
The very salvation which Christ will bring us in His second coming will be such a wider and higher one and will fulfill the final and ultimate goal of God’s all-inclusive salvation in Christ. Before His second manifestation, Christ is ministering to us with this goal in view. His more excellent ministry in the heavens today, the ministry of His kingly and divine priesthood with His heavenly intercession, is building up such a salvation. When He sees that the building up of this wonderful salvation has been accomplished, He will appear the second time. That will be His second manifestation in God’s economy.
