Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (1)

 

I’ve been rereading The Holiest of All, Andrew Murray’s exposition of the NT book of Hebrews, written in 1894. Murray, whose congregation and field of ministry spoke Dutch and English, first wrote the book in Dutch, and then in English. Murray was born to Scottish parents in South Africa in 1928, his parents having moved from Scotland to Africa to pastor and do missionary work. Andrew was sent to Scotland for his education, and then to Holland for theological studies, after which he returned to Africa for Gospel ministry.

 

Murray was a missionary, a pastor, an educator, and a prolific author. He was a man of the Kingdom of God who deeply loved Jesus Christ and who embraced all who loved Christ, both within and without his Dutch Reformed tradition. During the Boer wars, Murray ministered to both English and Boers, refusing to confine the Gospel to one side or the other, and for that he bore the brunt of much criticism (is there something Americans can learn from Murray?)

 

Some of Murray’s classics include, Abide in Christ, The Spirit of Christ, With Christ in the School of Prayer, and The Ministry of Intercession. Murray has been called The Apostle of Abiding Love, and indeed much of his focus was on our deep union with God in Jesus Christ. I was introduced to Andrew Murray by my friend George Will in the autumn of 1966; it is good to have friends and mentors like Andrew Murray.

 

Shall we begin at the beginning? In the preface Murray begins with, “When I first undertook the preparation of this exposition in Dutch for the Christian people among whom I labour, it was under a deep conviction that the Epistle just contained the instruction they needed. In reproducing it in English, this impression has been confirmed, and it is as if nothing could be written more exactly suited to the state of the whole Church of Christ in the present day.”

Murray the pastor is burdened for his people, but not just for his own people, for all the people of God, “the whole Church of Christ in the present day.” There have been times I’ve asked pastors, “What is your vision for your people? When you present them to Jesus Christ, what do you want them to look like?” Usually I’m told that they’ve never been asked that question. Sometimes the eventual answer is in the form of what we call “church growth”; seldom is the answer along the lines of Romans 8:29, Colossians 1:28, or Ephesians 4:13 – 16. What has happened to us? This should frighten us. Does it?

 

Now consider how Murray continues, “The great complaint of all who have the care of souls is the lack of whole-heartedness, of steadfastness, of perseverance and progress in the Christian life. Many, of whom one cannot but hope that they are true Christians, come to a standstill, and do not advance beyond the rudiments of Christian life and practice. And many more do not even remain stationary, but turn back to a life of worldliness, of formality, or indifference. And the question is continually being asked, What is the want in our religion that, in so many cases, it gives no power to stand, to advance, to press on unto perfection [maturity]?”

 

Do we ask these questions anymore? Or do we ignore and gloss over the realities? Have we so embraced the world, has our enculturation become so ingrained, that we no longer have a sense of the danger of worldliness? Are we ashamed to even discuss the topic less we appear “different” from the world and the pragmatism surrounding us? Are we worshipping success, and fame, and bigger is better, and more is better?

 

Murray’s response to what he sees is to point his people to Christ in the Scriptures. “In every possible way it [the Epistle to Hebrews] sets before us the truth that it is only the full and perfect [mature] knowledge of what Christ is and does for us that can bring us to a full and perfect [mature]  Christian life.”

 

What a contrast to what we often see in the Church in 2020! Let me suggest three areas of stark contrast.

Murray, and many of his pastoral colleagues, are concerned with how their people are growing in Jesus Christ. Christ is their focal point, He is the framework of their thinking. Christ is the measure of life, of all of life. Their benchmark is not money, it is not success as the world defines success, it is not getting people to feel good about themselves, it is not the pursuit of happiness, it is not religious entertainment – Murray wants his people growing in Jesus Christ – nothing else should compete for center stage – including Andrew Murray. This is not the way most of us think today, it is not the orientation of many churches today. This way of thinking is not going to sell many books or DVDs today.

The second area of contrast is that Murray is pointing his people to the Christ of the Bible and the Bible of Jesus Christ – the Word of God. Murray is saying, “Live in the book of Hebrews”! The Holiest of All has 130 meditations. Andrew Murray expects his congregation, and others, to journey through the entire book of Hebrews in prayer and reflection, covering all 130 reflections! Why? Because Murray is convinced that only an ongoing encounter with Jesus Christ, only abiding in Jesus Christ, will transform people into the image of Jesus Christ and bring them into the fulness of life in Christ.

Today we dumb down our study guides, Sunday school curriculum, and much of our preaching to the attention spans of two-year-olds. Instead of challenging people to grow, we make baby food in our religious blenders and offer our people running slop without taste and without needing to be chewed. In the most recent church I pastored, we used adult Sunday school curriculum from two different denominations, and in both cases the quality would not have received a passing grade (I trust) in my old seminary. What was much worse, is that my people could not discern the poor nature of the food they were consuming.

The third area of contrast is that while Murray points his people to Christ and His Word, we live in the Triumph of the Therapeutic. The therapeutic is our answer to pretty much everything. We force the Bible into a therapeutic mold – instead of pointing people to Christ, instead of insisting that we surrender to Christ, we center our messages on ourselves in order to make us feel better and think better thoughts about ourselves. We want people to live their “best lives now” and to feel really good about it all; rather than deny themselves, take up the Cross, and follow Jesus Christ. We are more interested in teaching people how to save their lives rather than lose them for Christ and the Gospel and the salvation of others.

God has become our Great Therapist. Are we attempting to anesthetize people before they encounter the Cross?

Yes, maybe Andrew Murray has something to say to us. Better yet, maybe Hebrews has something to say.