Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (7)

 

“God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” Hebrews 1:1 – 2.

 

Murray begins his actual exposition with a focus on “God has spoken to us in His Son”; here are some excerpts:

 

“God has spoken! The magnificent portal by which we enter into the temple in which God is to reveal His glory to us!

 

“God has spoken!  Speaking is the vehicle of fellowship…Man was created for fellowship with God.

 

“God has spoken! When God, who dwells in light that is inaccessible, speaks out of the heights of His glory, it is that He may reveal Himself.

 

“God has spoken in His Son! The ministry of angels and prophets was only to prepare the way; it never could satisfy the heart either of God or man…The Son Himself had to come to bring us into living contact with the divine Being, to dwell in our heart, as He dwells in God’s heart, to be in us God’s word as He is in God, and so to give us the living experience of what it means that God speaks to us.”

 

“God has spoken!  When God speaks in His Son, He gives Him to us, not only for us and with us, but in us. He speaks the Son out of the depth of His heart into the depths of our heart.”  Andrew Murray (Bold is Murray’s; italics are mine).

 

I recall a conversation I had with a dear friend sometime around 1995 regarding discipleship and small group material I was writing. My emphasis was life “in Christ.” My friend, for whose ministry I was contributing this material, in essence said to me, “You can’t emphasize “in Christ” because people won’t know what you mean. I said, “But this the way the Bible is written.”

 

Andrew Murray uses the language and images of the Bible as He communicates the Christ of the Bible, and that includes our calling into organic union with Christ. Murray writes that Christ Jesus has come “to dwell in our heart, as He dwells in God’s heart.” As Christ is in the bosom of the Father, Christ is in the bosom of our soul. We have communion with the Father as we abide in Christ and as Christ abide in us. As we will see in Hebrews, Christ has come to remove all barriers to us having an intimate relationship with God, and with God having an intimate relationship with us. The veil in the Temple has been split from top to bottom – not simply the veil of the earthly Temple, but more importantly, the veil of the Heavenly Temple.

 

Murray writes that Christ has come “to be in us God’s word as He is in God.”  In Hebrews 4:12 we see that God’s Word is “living and active,” in 1 Peter 1:23 we see that the Word is “living and enduring”; and yet how many professing Christians know the Bible as simply ink on paper and treat knowledge of the Bible as they treat any other subject, as a quest for information rather than a quest for relationship? How tragic to have Bibles and not to read them. How tragic to read them and not to experience Jesus Christ in them! The scribes and Pharisees searched the Scriptures because they thought that knowing the ink and paper would lead them to eternal life, and yet they missed the Living Word in the Scriptures, they missed the Messiah – and when the Messiah came they  rejected Him (John 5:39 – 40). The Scriptures were read every Sabbath in the ancient world, and yet those who heard them read did not “hear the voices of the prophets” – the Word was not living to them and in them (Acts 13:27).

 

The Word of God comes to us from eternity (John 1:1 – 18), and this Word is God. When this Word enters our souls we are touched by the Divine and this implanted Word works the mystery of salvation within us (James 1:21). What a tragedy to be in Sunday school all of our lives and not to experience the Living Word. What a tragedy to attend church for decades and not the see and hear the Living Word of God. O what a joy to have Christ living in us and through us as the very Word of God, always and forever communicating Himself to us, enveloping us in His love and light and glory and tenderness and care!

 

Murray writes that Christ has come so that we might know “the living experience of what it means that God speaks to us.” Jesus says, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life” (John 6:63). We ought not to be afraid of the Voice of God, the speaking of God to us through His Son Jesus Christ. We ought not to fear listening to Him, trusting Him, responding to Him in obedient love – empowered by His Spirit. The Father has said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

 

Dear friends – how is the Father speaking to you through His Son today? How is the Word of God living in you today? What living bread is God giving to you for you to share with others? What does this “living experience” look like in you life today?

 

O heavenly Father, teach us to hear You in Your Son, to know You in Your Son, to live in holy and sweet communion with You, in and through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.