Resting in God's Rest, Jesus

 

Andrew Murray has been in my life since I was a teenager. His was a remarkable life for Jesus, lived in the midst of political and social turmoil – loving all, caring for all, seeking the welfare of all.

The other day I read this chapter from The Holiest of All, An Exposition of the Book of Hebrews. Murray refreshes my soul in Jesus.

Bob

 

The Holiest of All – by Andrew Murray

Public Domain

 

Chapter XXXI.

 

REST FROM WORKS.

 

Hebrews IV.—9. There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God. 10. For he that Is entered Into his rest hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.

 

There remaineth therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God: taken in connection with what precedes about the seventh day or Sabbath, the rest is here called a sabbatism or sabbath rest. lt is spoken of as remaining, with reference to the rest in Canaan. That was but a shadow and symbol: the real sabbath rest remained, waiting its time, till Christ the true Joshua should come, and open it to us by Himself entering it.

 

In ver. 10 we have here another proof that the rest does not refer to heaven. How needless it would be in that case to say of those who have died, For he that hath entered into his rest, hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

 

The remark would have no point. But what force it has in connection with the rest of faith in this life, pointing us to what is the great secret of this entrance into rest—the ceasing from works, as God did from His.

 

ln God we see, as it were, two distinct stages in His relation to His work. The first was that of creation—until He had finished all His work which He created and made. The second, His rest when creation was finished, and He rejoiced in what He had made, now to begin the higher work of watching the development of the life He had intrusted the creature with, and securing its sanctification and perfection. lt is a rest from work which is now finished, for higher work now to be carried on. Even so there are the two stages in the Christian life. The one in which, after conversion, a believer seeks to work what God would have him do. The second, in which, after many a painful failure, he ceases from his works, and enters the rest of God, there to find the power for work in allowing God to work in him.

 

lt is this resting from their own work which many Christians cannot understand. They think of it as a state of passive and selfish enjoyment, of still contemplation which leads to the neglect of the duties of life, and unfits for that watchfulness and warfare to which Scripture calls. What an entire misunderstanding of God's call to rest. As the Almighty, God is the only source of power. ln nature He works all. ln grace He waits to work all too, if man will but consent and allow. Truly to rest in God is to yield oneself up to the highest activity. We work, because He worketh in us to will and to do. As Paul says of himself, " l labour, striving according to His working who worketh in me with might" (lit. "agonising according to His energy who energises in me with might"). Entering the rest of God is the ceasing from self-effort, and the yielding up oneself in the full surrender of faith to God's working.

 

How many Christians are there who need nothing so much as rightly to apprehend this word. Their life is one of earnest effort and ceaseless struggling. They do long to do God's will, and to live to His glory. Continued failure and bitter disappointment is their too frequent experience. Very often as the result they give themselves up to a feeling of hopelessness: it never will be otherwise. Theirs is truly the wilderness life— they have not entered into God's rest. Would that God might open their eyes, and show them Jesus as our Joshua, who has entered into God's presence, who sits upon the throne as High Priest, bringing us in living union with Himself into that place of rest and of love, and, by His Spirit within us, making that life of heaven a reality and an experience.

 

He that is entered into rest, hath himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. And how does one rest and cease from his works? lt is by ceasing from self. lt is the old self life that always insists upon proving its goodness and its strength, and presses forward to do the works of God. lt is only in death that we rest from our works. Jesus entered His rest through death; each one whom He leads into it must pass through death. "Reckon yourself to be indeed dead unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Believe that the death of Christ, as an accomplished fact, with all that it means and has effected, is working in you in all its power. You are dead with Him and in Him. Consent to this, and cease from dead works. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. Yea, saith the Spirit, for they do rest from their labours." That is as true of spiritual dying with Christ as of the death in the body. To sinful nature there is no rest from work but through death.

 

He that is entered into rest hath rested from his works.

 

The ceasing from our works and the entering the rest of God go together. Read the first chapter of Joshua, and hear God's words of strength and encouragement to everyone who would enter. Exchange the wilderness life with your own works for the rest-life in which God works. Fear not to believe that Jesus came to give it, and that it is for you.

 

1. Not l, but Christ. This is the rest of faith in which a man rests from his works. With the unconverted man it is, Not Christ, but I. With the feeble and slothful Christian, l and Christ: I first, and Christ to fill up what is wanting. With increasing earnestness it becomes, Christ and l: Christ first, but still l second. With the man who dies with Christ it is, Not l, but Christ: Christ alone and Christ all. He has ceased from his work: Christ llveth in him. This is the rest of faith.

 

2. God saith of His dwelling among His people, "This is My rest; here will l dwell." Fear not to say this too. lt is the rest of God in His delight and pleasure in the work of His Son, in His love to Jesus and all who belong to Him. lt is the rest of Jesus in His finished work, sitting on the throne, resting in the Father's love. lt is the rest of our faith and love in Jesus, in God, in His love.

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (12)

 “Who, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Hebrews 1:3.

 

Continuing with the following passage by Murray in our last post:

 

“Christ seated on the throne in heaven means our being actually brought, in the supernatural power which the coming down of the Holy Spirit supplies, into God’s holy presence, and living there our daily life…It is so much easier to take in the doctrine of a Substitute and an atonement, of repentance and pardon, than of a High Priest bringing us into God’s presence, and keeping us in loving communion with Him.”

 

“Let no one think that I speak of what is too high. I speak of what is your heritage and destiny. The same share you have in Jesus on the cross, you have in Jesus on the throne. Be ready to sacrifice the earthly life for the heavenly; to follow Christ fully in His separation from the world and His surrender to God’s will; and Christ in heaven will prove in you the reality and the power of His heavenly priesthood.”

 

Why is it that so many of us have a watered-down view of our life in Christ and His life in us? Why is it that many of us expect little from Christ in terms of an overcoming life? A life that gives to others? A life steeped in His Word? Joy in prayer and communion with Him? I suppose every New Testament letter speaks to this; and let’s not forget that Revelation is also a letter.

 

So many times we think, “Well, people like Murray, or like Paul, or Peter, or St. Francis, or Augustine, they are a “special” type of Christian, and the mountains they scale are simply too high for most of us.” This is simply not Biblical, it is simply not true. We make our excuses for living the way we do and perhaps take comfort in our collective denial of the completeness of the work of Jesus Christ and of the depths of His love for us. 

There is a sense in which the overcoming life is not about us, not one ounce about us; it is about Jesus Christ and His glory, it is about all things being wrapped up in Him (Eph. 1:10); it is about our confession and testimony being to His eternal glory. His (and our) Father is glorified when we bear much fruit (John 15:8), and yet we learn that in and of ourselves we cannot bear fruit, we can do nothing (John 15:4 – 5).

 

On one end of the spectrum we have the arrogance of the “health and wealth” and “name it and claim it” Gospel which is no Biblical Gospel. On the other end we have the “I’m just a poor rotten sinner and I’ll never know the reality of a life that is complete in Him, resting in Him, overcoming in Him.” There is a sense in which both of these ways of thinking are man-centered and not Christocentric – they both look at us and our experience rather than Christ and the completeness of His glorious Atonement.

 

In Christ, we have a “heritage and destiny” that calls us to be “heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.” We are no longer in Adam, we are now in Christ. Our source of life is no longer of this earth, it is now, in Christ, in the heavens. We no longer identify with the first man Adam, we now find ourselves in the Second Man, Jesus Christ. Sadly, it is probably fair to say that most professing – Christians live with a case of mistaken identity, they do not see themselves as the daughters and sons of the Living God; this is akin to the people of Israel with Moses thinking they were still slaves to the Egyptians – worshipping a beast of burden who feeds off the grass, the flesh. Why are we exchanging the glory of the Living God for images of ourselves and creation? Images of our own making?

 

“Be ready to sacrifice the earthly life for the heavenly; to follow Christ fully in His separation from the world and His surrender to God’s will; and Christ in heaven will prove in you the reality and the power of His heavenly priesthood.”

 

So much of our preaching and teaching is focused on the earthly life, not our “life on earth” but rather our “live of the earth and the world system.” This emphasis on ourselves, rather than on Christ, it about as far away from the Bible and the Gospel as we can get – it is really a continuous replaying of eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, a replaying of the serpent’s question, “Did God really say this?” Sadly, this thinking characterizes much of the American church.

 

Consider Jesus’ call to self-denial in Mark 34 – 38. Instead of asking the question on behalf of Jesus, “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”, we focus on making our souls independent and strong – thereby avoiding the cross that Jesus calls us to take up as we follow Him.

 

Think about John’s straightforward teaching that we are not to love the world (system) or the things in the world system, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,” (1 John 2:15 – 17). Also, note that the context of this passage includes the antichrist, to embrace the love of the world-system is akin to embracing the antichrist. “But it looks so good. What can be the harm?” Of course it can look good, “…for even Satan disguises himself as a angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14).

 

Are we “sacrificing the earthly life for the heavenly; to follow Christ fully in His separation from the world and His surrender to God’s will…”?

 

Consider God’s call to us to present ourselves as holy and living sacrifices, not being conformed to the world, but being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29; 12:1 – 2).

 

Dear friends, Jesus Christ sanctified Himself for our sakes, “For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth” (John 17:19). Paul wrote that, “I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10).

 

Are we setting our lives apart from the world, from the present age, and dedicating them to God for His glory and the salvation of others? Let us be clear, we are called in Christ, and by Christ, to a life of holiness; holiness with its dual meaning of dedication to God and a life of purity unto God. If we would know the glory of the ascended Christ and the treasures of His throne room, we cannot live as double-mined people, we cannot live with part of our heart in this age and the other in the coming age; we cannot live as dual citizens of this age and of the Kingdom of the heavens. The Gospel is unequivocal on this, Christ is unequivocal – to surrender to Jesus Christ means that our lives are no longer our own – we now belong to Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus Christ gave all of Himself to us and for us; are we giving all of ourselves to Him and for Him?

 

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (11)

 

“Who, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Hebrews 1:3.

 

As Murray continues to ponder Hebrews 1:3 he writes:

 

“Christ seated on the throne in heaven means our being actually brought, in the supernatural power which the coming down of the Holy Spirit supplies, into God’s holy presence, and living there our daily life…It is so much easier to take in the doctrine of a Substitute and an atonement, of repentance and pardon, than of a High Priest bringing us into God’s presence, and keeping us in loving communion with Him.”

 

“Let no one think that I speak of what is too high. I speak of what is your heritage and destiny. The same share you have in Jesus on the cross, you have in Jesus on the throne. Be ready to sacrifice the earthly life for the heavenly; to follow Christ fully in His separation from the world and His surrender to God’s will; and Christ in heaven will prove in you the reality and the power of His heavenly priesthood.”

 

There is a dynamic mystery in which we are brought into the Holy of Holies through Christ (Hebrews 4:14 – 16; 10:19 – 22), while at the same time our hearts are made the dwelling place of God (John 14:17, 23). That is, Christ lives in us and we live in Christ. We live before the Throne and our hearts and souls are made God’s Throne. We do not understand this but we can experience it…in fact it becomes our Way of Life in Christ.

 

We live “before” God as we live before His Throne and He as lives within us. We abide in His Tabernacle as we are before the Throne; also our hearts are made His tabernacle and also His Tabernacle. What I mean by our hearts being made His tabernacle and His Tabernacle is that as an individual I am a temple of the Living God (1 Cor. 6:19), and also that as individuals joined together we are His Body, His Church, His Bride…His Living Tabernacle (Ephesians 2:19 – 22; 1 Peter 2:4 – 10).

 

God’s Presence is in the Holy of Holies, God’s Presence is within me in Christ, God’s Presence is in us, His People. God’s Presence is in us as we are gathered, and His Presence is in us as we are scattered. Whether we are gathered or we are scattered we are called to live in the Holy of Holies; whether we are gathered or we are scattered His Presence is with us on our collective pilgrimage. As His People, we are called to be the particular place where God dwells on earth – not just a few hours a week, but throughout each moment, each day, we are Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven with the glory of God for the blessing and healing of the peoples of the earth.

 

Murray writes, “It is so much easier to take in the doctrine of a Substitute and an atonement, of repentance and pardon, than of a High Priest bringing us into God’s presence, and keeping us in loving communion with Him.” Well, for sure we seldom speak of the latter, and without the former we cannot have the latter, either objectively or subjectively. In my own experience I seldom see believers who actually live in either one of these realities in Christ, so many Christians remain at “first base”, not realizing the completeness of the Atonement, never living securely in a relationship with Jesus Christ. As the book of Hebrews will illustrate, many of us have been religiously raised to live in the mindset of the Old Covenant rather than the New Covenant.

 

The depths of having a “Substitute and an atonement, of repentance and pardon” can no more be fully plumbed than can the heights of having “a High Priest bringing us into God’s presence, and keeping us in loving communion with Him,” be scaled. The wonder and grandeur of the Trinity and of the Atonement, in all of its facets, is beyond us – and yet God’s grace continually draws us deeper into God’s life, His friendship, His fellowship (koinonia).

 

To live “in loving communion with Him” is the reason we exist, it is our purpose for living, it is why we were created in the image of God, and why we were redeemed by Jesus Christ.

 

As you read this, are you living both “at the Cross” and “before the Throne of God”? Is this our Way of Life?

 

We’ll continue with the above quote in our next post in this series.

 

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (10)

 

“Who, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” Hebrews 1:3.

 

In considering this verse, Murray wants us to see that the work of Christ “…consists in two parts: the one on earth, the other in heaven.” The purification of sins speaks to us of Christ’s work on earth, the Crucifixion and all that it entails; the sitting down at the right hand of the Majesty directs our attention to Christ’s work in heaven. Murray writes that, “In a healthy Christian life we must know and hold fast both parts of Christ’s work.”

 

My own sense is that it is better to view the work of Christ as seamless in heaven and earth, and in earth and heaven; but the merit in Murray’s pastoral approach is to try to get us to ponder not only what Christ has done on earth, but also what Christ is doing in heaven. Murray continues:

 

“The work He did upon earth was but a beginning of the work He was to do in heaven; in the latter the work on earth finds its perfection and its glory. As Priest He completed the cleansing of sins here below; as Priest-King He sits on the right hand of the throne to apply His work, in heavenly power to dispense its blessings, and maintain within us the heavenly life.” Note Murray’s continued emphasis on the heavenly life within us. We will see how Christ applies His work as we progress through Hebrews.

 

Murray writes, “The full acceptance of the cleansing of sins…will be to us…the entrance into the heavenly life.” Murray tells us that God’s desire to cleanse us from our sins is “so intense that He gave His Son to die…”

 

While the glory of Christ’s perfect work unfolds in our progression through Hebrews, I’d like us to note the words ”full acceptance”, for it seems to me that many of us struggle with fully accepting the fact that Jesus Christ has indeed fully cleansed us of our sins.

 

I still recall a Sunday morning message that I preached many years ago on 1 John 1:1 – 2:2. Included in this passage is:

 

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness…And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins…”

 

After the service various people in the congregation came up to me to tell me that they had never realized there were these precious promises of God in Christ. This struck me because many of these people had been in the church for years, some were leaders; and I knew that the pastor before me, and at least one pastor before him, were committed to Christ and His Gospel. Since then I have encountered this reaction many times, in various settings, including in settings which purport to emphasize the fundamentals of the Gospel.

 

In some settings people know the right things to say about forgiveness of sins, but their lives do not manifest the assurance of what they say, for they continue to functionally frame life in terms of their forgiveness and salvation being contingent upon themselves. In other settings preachers and teachers may preach the above passage from First John, or passages such as Romans 5:1 – 11, but then they undermine Christ’s perfect work of salvation by creating salvific insecurities in people by making them think that there is still something that a man or woman can add to “seal the salvific deal.” Perhaps there is a “higher” revelation, a greater teaching, a consummating experience, that a person must have to be fully accepted by God in Christ.

 

I can’t pretend to understand why this failure to accept the work of Christ is so, but I do know that I constantly encounter it among people who should know better. I agree with Murray that we must fully accept the glory, in Christ, of the forgiveness of our sins if we are to know the glorious heavenly life of Jesus Christ. Murray tells us that God’s love for us, and His desire to cleanse us of our sins, was “so intense that He gave His Son to die.”

 

Can we glimpse this intensity in Romans 5:8 – 10?

 

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

 

Why cannot we live securely in the love of our Great and Wonderful God? What can we possibly add to such a glorious and wondrous and passionate and intense love?

 

It is our Father’s deep desire that in Christ the life of heaven would live in us. O the treasures that are ours in Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:2 – 3).

 

May I gently ask, have you fully accepted the cleansing of your sins in Jesus Christ? Is the heavenly life of Jesus Christ now living within you? Please ponder Romans 5:1 – 11 and 1 John 1:1 – 2:2. Where are you in these passages?

 

Never ever forget the intense love that God has for you in and through Jesus Christ.

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (9)

 

“God… has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the ages. Who being the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power…” (Hebrews 1:1 – 3).

 

Murray writes, “We know that whatever a man sets his heart on exercises a mighty influence on the life, and leaves its stamp upon his character…He that sets his heart upon the living God will find the living God take possession and fill the heart.”

 

Murray then says concerning Christ that we “should know Him aright and have our heart filled with all that God has revealed of Him. Our knowledge of Him will be the food of our faith…”

 

Again and again and again Murray points us to Jesus Christ; to seeing Christ, knowing Christ, being filled with Christ, feeding on Christ. As Jesus says (John 6:35), “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”

 

Reflecting on the above passage in Hebrews, Murray wants us to see that God appointed Jesus to be the Heir of all things. “The great object and aim of God in creation was to have an inheritance for His Son.” Let us make no mistake about this, for while we indeed have an inheritance, our inheritance is in Jesus Christ; more than that, our inheritance is Jesus Christ. As the Psalmist prays (Psa. 73:25), “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth.”

 

As Paul writes (1Cor. 1:30 – 31) to those who are seeking philosophical enlightenment, as well as to those seeking supernatural experience, “But by His [God’s] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the LORD.’”

 

Murray wants us to see that the Son is “the Final Cause, the End of all things.” In Ephesians 1:10 we see that “in the fullness of the times” that all things will be summed up, brought together, rolled up, and find their completion, in Christ, “things in the heavens and things on the earth.”

 

The Son is also the beginning, for we see that the worlds and ages were made through Him. As Murray puts it, “He is the origin and Efficient Cause of all that exists.” As the Apostle John writes (John 1:3), “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

 

Murray then points out that Jesus Christ is not only the reason and purpose for all things, not only is He the End of all things, not only is He be Beginning of all things, but that He is also the Middle of all things; for the Son, “upholds all things by the word of His power.” In Colossians 1:16 – 17 we read concerning Christ, “…all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

 

Do we see Jesus Christ as the, “Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Rev. 22:13)? Do we see Him as holding together all things, as sustaining all things, as giving us every breath we take, every sunrise, every drop of water; every sense of beauty, of truth, of goodness? Do we see Jesus Christ as the reason and purpose of our lives?

 

The person who would place Jesus Christ alongside any other person who has ever lived is a person who, no matter how well intentioned, has not seen Jesus Christ. Just as Moses was never the same after his encounter with God at the Burning Bush, so we can never the be same after we see Jesus.

 

But also, just as the Burning Bush inspired a desire within Moses to know God ever more intimately, so when we see Jesus Christ we are compelled to desire Him more and more. Moses desperately desired to see the Face of God, and as we know Christ Jesus, and are changed from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18), we continually cry out, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship (communion, koinonia) of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…” (Phil. 3:10). We cry out that we might, “Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:14).

 

We cry that our Father and Lord Jesus might purify us, sanctity us, setting us apart unto God as living sacrifices, that we may see the Face of God (Matthew 5:8; Romans 12:1 – 2; Hebrews 12:14).

 

If I say that “Christ is all in all” what do I mean? If I mean that He is “my” all in all, that I love Him, and that I am praying to learn to love Him with all of my heart and soul and mind and strength; that is well and good…but it is not enough…for if that is all that I mean then I relegate and confine the “all in all-ness” of Christ to the personal – and what is solely personal eventually becomes so subjective that it loses its definition and articulation, for we make it subject to our “personal” whims and fancies.

 

Yes, I desire that Christ ever become my “all in all” in a personal and relational sense, but I must, I absolutely must, also behold Jesus Christ as the great I AM THAT I AM, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last – and my (hopefully) ever-increasing intimacy with Jesus Christ finds its nexus in my ever-increasing vision of Him as God of very God. As I bow before Him in the cosmic and transcendent grandeur and glory of His “all in all-ness” my personal life in Him is grounded before, and in, the Lamb of God and the Throne of God. Christ encompasses all of me as I behold Him encompassing all that there is.

 

Why does God in Christ reveal Himself through Revelation as the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last? Certainly it is, at least in part, to assure our first century brethren that nothing the Roman Empire can do to them can damage their souls. Certainly it is to assure them that fidelity to Christ and the Gospel is worth all that they are enduring. Certainly it is to encourage them to confess their sins, to purify their lives and their congregational teaching and practices. Certainly it is to call them out of Babylon. In other words, a vision of God in Christ as all encompassing is meant to transcend all the other visions and images of Revelation. If God is for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31)?

 

We do not need more books about the End Times (as popularly understood), O that we might be spared from such endless speculation and merchandising. What we do need are books and sermons about Him who is the Beginning and the End, that Christ is all in all.

 

Christ either is everything, or He is nothing.

 

Which is it?

 

 

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (8)

 

 

“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…” Hebrews 1:1 -2a.

 

In Murray’s second expositional meditation he wants us to see that it is, “The Son, who is God, [who] brings us into the very presence of God.”

 

“The one object of the Epistle is to set before us the heavenly priesthood of Christ and the heavenly life to which He in His divine power gives us access. It is this [which] gives the Epistle its inestimable value for all time, that it teaches us the way out of the elementary stage of the Christian life to that of full and perfect access to God.”

 

Christ is all, we are nothing outside of Christ. As the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches; Christ is greater than angels, greater than Moses, greater than Joshua, greater than the Levitical Priesthood, greater than our sins.

 

Later in Hebrews the author says, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food” (5:12).

 

The author of Hebrews will warn his readers about a number of things, he will point out areas in which his readers are falling short in their Christian lives, and he will present the same solution to each problem – “Look at Jesus! See Jesus! See Jesus as the Son. See Jesus as the Heir of all things. See Jesus as the Creator. See Jesus as our Apostle and High Priest. See Jesus as the One to Whom the house belongs. See Jesus as our Sabbath. See Jesus as the Author and Perfecter of our faith.”

 

As the sons and daughters of the Living God we are called to live a heavenly life here and now, but we can only live this life as we “see Jesus” in His unfolding beauty and glory. For you see, we cannot actually live this life, only One can live this life – and He desires to live this life, His Life, within us, his sons and daughters, His People (Galatians 2:20; John 15:1ff).

 

Our language and teaching are often, “One day I’ll live in His presence. One day I’ll have eternal life. One day I’ll know His fulness. One day I’ll build on the elementary principles of the oracles of God. One day I’ll know what it is to live in the heavens, to be heavenly – minded.” And yet the Bible teaches us that, in Christ, that Day has come…and is coming….even as Christ Jesus has come…and is coming…and will yet come again.

 

The writer of Hebrews does not intend to leave us with an excuse for not leaving behind the elementary principles of the Word of God and moving forward into growth and maturity in Jesus Christ. The author does not intend to leave us with an excuse for compromising with the world – system, nor with a legitimate reason for us to return to our old way of religious thinking with its perpetual consciousness of sin and guilt.

 

Indeed, the epistle’s author has us on a trajectory that will take us to Hebrews chapters 11, 12, and 13 – a life in the communion of the saints, with our eyes fixed on Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever; a life joyfully lived outside the camp, bearing His reproach. In Christ we are called to forget those things which are behind, and reach forward to that which lies ahead, the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:12ff).

 

The “one object” of the Epistle, the one object of all Christian preaching and teaching, the one object of our fellowship with one another – is to see Jesus, to behold Jesus, to know Jesus, to worship Jesus, to love Jesus, to belong to Jesus – for God has spoken to us in Jesus Christ, the Word has been made flesh and has lived among us…and is living within us.

 

A few years ago I was a guest speaker at a church in Richmond, VA. As I approached the pulpit to begin my message I looked down at a brass plate on top of the pulpit. The congregation could not see the plate, it was there to be seen by the speaker. Engraved on the plate were these words from John 12:21, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” That was a sobering reminder of what I was there for – that is a reminder of what we are all here for – to see Jesus and to make Jesus known to others.

 

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.

 

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (6)

 

            As Murray moves toward the conclusion of his Introduction, he asks the reader to consider the relationship of the book of Hebrews to the church of his day. As we read what Murray writes, we can decide if our own day is similar to Murray’s day.

 

            “In the Christian Church of our day the number of members is very large, whose experience corresponds exactly with that which the Epistle pictures…How many Christians are there yet who, after the profession of faith in Christ, come to a standstill…So many rest contented with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to Christ as the Leader, or of a faith that lives in the invisible and walks with God…

 

            “But [the Epistle] is a glass too, thank God, in which we can also see the glory of Jesus on the throne of heaven, in the power that can make our heart and life heavenly too…It is Jesus Christ we must know better. It is He who lives today in heaven, who can lead us into the heavenly sanctuary, and keep us there, who can give heaven into our heart and life. The knowledge of Jesus in His heavenly glory and His saving power; it is this our Churches and our Christians need.”  Andrew Murray

 

            It has been said that it is hard to argue with success. Yet, what is success? Is not success reaching our goal? But then what is our goal? What are our goals?

 

            Paul writes that he and his associates want to “present every man complete in Christ” (Col. 2:28). In Romans 8:29 we see that it is our Father’s purpose that we might be “conformed to the image of His Son.” In Ephesians 4:11 – 16 we see that we, as a people, as the Body of Christ, are to grow to become “a mature [corporate] man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

 

            Yet perhaps our own notions of success cloud the Biblical vision of our calling and destiny. Don’t we tend to look at numbers, whether numbers of people or amounts of money? Don’t we measure success in terms of how large something is, of how much we’ve accumulated, of how we measure up according to the values of society?  It is hard to argue with success because success looks so good, it feels so good.

 

            Consider Christ’s words to the Christians in Laodicea (Rev. 3:17 - 18), “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may cloth yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.”

            Or again consider these words of Christ to the Christians in Sardis, “I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (Rev. 3:1).

            The church in Sardis had a good reputation, a good name; but it was dead. The church in Laodicea considered itself rich and wealthy and in need of nothing, yet in the eyes of Christ it was wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Christ argues with success, Christ argues with how things appear to the natural eye, Christ argues with numbers, He argues with natural estimates of wealth.

            This is a hard truth for those of us in the West to assimilate for it is contrary to the ethos of our consumeristic self - centered culture, including our church culture.

            In Murray’s day there were many professing Christians who “after the profession of faith in Christ, come to a standstill…So many rest contented with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to Christ as the Leader, or of a faith that lives in the invisible and walks with God…”

            Is this true in our day?

            Could it be that our emphasis on a “profession of faith” is misplaced? Could it be that what passes today for a “profession of faith” is no more than seed falling on rocky ground where it does not have much soil, and that it immediately springs up but does not last? (Mark 4:5 -6).

            If we hear the call of Jesus Christ to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him; if we hear His call to lose our lives for His sake and the Gospel’s (Mark 8:34 – 80) – does this really sound like a call to utter a simple “profession of faith” and go our merry way?

            Yes, of course those who “call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21), but the context of Acts 2, Romans 10, and Joel 2 is certainly of a weightier gravity than what we typically consider a “profession of faith.” Peter, Paul, and Joel are calling for an “all – in” repentance and commitment to the True and Living God, with Peter pleading (Acts 2:24), “Be saved (escape!) from this perverse generation!”

            Dietrich Bonhoeffer spoke of “cheap grace,” a grace that doesn’t cost anyone anything. Jesus Christ paid a terrible and glorious price so that we might receive grace and mercy, and when we are touched by His grace and mercy, when we come into a relationship with Him – it will cost us our lives…let us make no mistake about it.

            How do I know that I have received the costly grace of Jesus Christ? How do I know that I have, in some small measure, appreciated and apprehended the glorious and costly grace that Christ paid an unfathomable price to give me? One way I know is that it begins to cost me something to submit to the working of His grace in me and through me – for the working of that grace will lead me to lose my life for His sake and the Gospel’s. It cost Jesus Christ His life to give me grace and mercy, it will cost me my life, my soul, in surrender to Him and death to myself, to allow that grace to work within me and through me.

            Is this what we see today when we speak of professions of faith? Is this what we truly see?

            Jesus says, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13 – 14).

May I gently ask myself, and may I ask you, “Which does our contemporary practice of “profession of faith” most resemble, the preaching of a wide gate or a small gate, a broad way or a narrow way?” If the discipleship of the Bible is our standard of measurement, what shall be our answer?

            O how we need so desperately to know Jesus, to live in vital and vibrant relationship with Him, that our faith may be anchored in the invisible ascended Christ and that we might live in God and in Divine community with one another.

           

           

 

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (5)

 

After the Preface, Murray writes an Introduction in which he considers authorship, audience, the object of the epistle, the structure of the epistle, and the relationship between the epistle and the church of his day. Between the Preface and Introduction, he provides a complete text of Hebrews, with structural headings and cross references.

 

“I have had the Epistle printed at the beginning of the book, with headings showing the contents of the different parts, with the view of inviting and helping the reader to make himself master of the writing as a whole. It is of great consequence that the student of God’s word should not only seek his edification from individual texts or passages, but that each book should be to him a living and connected organism, all alive with the Spirit that dwells in it. The more we thus take time and trouble to accept the great thoughts of God, the more will our life be brought to that unity and breath, in which the purpose of God will be perfectly fulfilled.” Andrew Murray

 

Murray’s goal was not to produce 130 unrelated meditations on the Epistle to the Hebrews, it was to have his people “see” Jesus and “see” the book of Hebrews as an interconnected organic whole. He wanted Hebrews to belong to his people, and he desired that his people belong to the Epistle. He wanted his flock to become “master of the writing as a whole.”

 

My wife Vickie and I have toured many historic homes during our travels over the years, bur touring a home and living in a home are two different things. We have friends with whom we’ve spent many an hour in their homes, but spending many hours in others’ homes, even over the course of decades, is not the same as living in those homes.

 

Christ has not called His people to tour the Bible again and again and again, He has called us to live in the Bible. He has not called us to peak into the Bible, viewing a verse here and a verse there, a passage here and a passage there, but to open the front door, walk down the passageways – to live in the House and allow the House to live in us. We are not called to consume information about the Bible, we are called to be consumed with the Word of God and to be consumed by the Word of God.

 

Dear friends, the Bible is not a self – help manual, it is not Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth (as witty as that may sound,) it is the unfathomable and dynamic revelation of the Triune God, living and dwelling in His People. Perhaps you know from experience, as I do, what it is to touch a live electrical wire. You have either had the experience or you haven’t. May I gently ask, “Do you know the experience of the Word of God living within you?” If not, or if you are not sure, let me encourage you by saying that Jesus Christ desires to reveal Himself to you through His Word with all His heart, with all that He is – He desires to live in you and you to live in Him as a way of life. He deeply desires to be your Way of Life, He passionately desires His Word to energize every fiber of your being. How can I write these things? Because Jesus Christ gave His all for you, for me, for us – of course He wants you living in the fulness of an intimate relationship with Himself! It is nonsense to think otherwise!

 

Yet, what do we have today? Throughout much of the professing – church is disconnected preaching and teaching with no discernable ultimate purpose, no continued focus on bringing the sons and daughters of the Father into the image of Jesus Christ. We have capitulated to the immediate, the functional, the pragmatic. We seem to have no understanding of Biblical epistemology or pedagogy. We give people information to consume, Bible studies to consume, Sunday school material to consume – but do people grow into the image of Jesus Christ? Are they living in the Word of God and is the Word of God living in them?

 

During the current pandemic, many people are learning to grow their own food and preserve it. Also, during the past few years there has been an expanding Farm to Table movement in the United States – locally raised produce and meats delivered to local tables, both restaurant tables and household tables. Isn’t it about time that local congregations learned what it is to grow their own food in Jesus Christ? Who will grow Philippians? Colossians? 1 Samuel? Genesis? Matthew? John? Who will cultivate the soil and grow food for his brothers and sisters? Who will bake bread? Who will grow and harvest grapes? Who will teach others how to farm?

 

Why can’t we bring ourselves to say, “The Emperor is stark naked?”

Who in our congregations has mastered (and been mastered by!) the Gospel of John? James? Micah? Job? Who can romp and run throughout the entire palace of the Word of God?

 

And what of our pastors and teachers? What of our seminary professors? What about me? What about you?

 

The Word of God is a treasure house that will overwhelm us if we will allow it, for within it is the Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ – and His ineffable glory will transform us into His image…individually, as husbands and wives, as families, as local churches and beyond.

 

Which room in the Palace (book of the Bible) will you decide, by God’s grace, to make your own…beginning today?

 

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (4)

 

As Murray moves toward the conclusion to his preface to The Holiest of All:

 

“In offering these meditations…I do so with the prayer that it may please God to use them to inspire some of His children with a new confidence in the blessed Lord, as they learn to know Him better and give themselves up to and expect and experience all that He is able to do for them. I have not been afraid of continually repeating the one thought: Our one need is, to know Jesus better; the one cure for all our feebleness, to look to Him on the throne of heaven, and really claim the heavenly life He waits to impart.” Andrew Murray.

 

Read in the 21^st century, this seems a bit simplistic and naive. Murray certainly couldn’t write those unsophisticated words today and be taken seriously. Could he?

 

Consider the idea of giving ourselves up to Christ – how often do we hear that today? The idea of denying ourselves and following Jesus, of offering ourselves as “living sacrifices” (Mark 8; Romans 12), is probably not something most of us often hear.

 

What about the idea that we should, as we offer ourselves, do so in expectation that we will experience all that our heavenly Priest is able to do for us? Do we act as if our Lord Jesus grudgingly dispenses His promises to us? In spite of the fact that we are assured by our Lord Jesus that it our Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom, and that all  of the promises of God, in Christ, are a resounding “Amen!” to us?

 

What does Murray mean by “feebleness”? While he may explain this in the pages to come, there are likely many dimensions to the answer. The baseline could be the chasm between us and the image of Jesus Christ, individually (Romans 8:29) and collectively (Ephesians 4:11 – 16) – a chasm for which, in light of the Person and work of Jesus Christ, there is no excuse.

 

Friends, we can either look to our excuses for anemic lives, including congregational lives, or we can look to Jesus and His all – sufficiency for transformation into His glorious image. Excuses do not justify us. Confessions that we are still, at heart, Egyptians do not justify us. Only Jesus Christ both justifies and transforms us – for in Christ we share in the life of the Trinity, a Life which has destroyed sin and death through the Incarnation (in Christ we participate in the working out, the manifestation, of this dual destruction as the Incarnation continues in us, His Body).

 

This idea of “feebleness” encompasses all areas of life which have yet to be brought into submission to Jesus Christ, and which have yet to experience the power and life of Jesus Christ. This includes marriage and family, community relationships, local congregations, education, social policy, national policy, economic policy, relations among tribes and races and ethnic groups, sin in all of its myriad forms. I write the foregoing with confidence because Murray’s life touched all of these elements of life – Murray loved Christ and he loved people and he saw life as holistically in Jesus Christ. His love and practical concern for others did not stop at the church doors, it encompassed southern Africa and beyond.

 

Today, most Christians, at least in the West, simply do not believe that the “one cure” for our feebleness is Jesus Christ. We either think that there is no cure, and that the best we can do is to rationalize away the chasm between the life that Christ promises in the Bible and our own lives; or we believe that the cure lies in some form of therapy – which is not really a cure but more of a maintenance regimen.

 

For sure therapy can take many forms and is not limited to professional therapy (and this is not to say that we don’t need those trained in social sciences!). Usually therapy simply takes popular forms of self–help, self–focus, and entertaining ourselves – whether within or without the church. Preaching and teaching that is all about “us” and “me” is therapy. Singing with a center of gravity on “us” is therapy. Many small groups are forms of therapy – their focus is not Christ but on ourselves. It is in the light of our current thinking and practices that Murray’s words seem out-of-place and unrealistic.

 

But consider, if God in Person is not the transformative help and healing that we need – then what does this say about God? What does this say about Divinity? What does this say about our relationship with Divinity? Do we honestly believe that if Christ is actually in our lives, if He is living within us, that He is insufficient and unable to transform our marriages, our families, our churches, and to affect our communities? I am not writing about some kind of mental or creedal assent; I am writing about the reality of life in the Resurrected Jesus Christ – I am writing about supernatural and transformative life in Jesus Christ. Is this life a myth or a reality?

 

Then we have, “I have not been afraid of continually repeating the one thought: Our one need is, to know Jesus better…”  Why would Murray write, “I have not been afraid…”?

 

In Murray’s day, (and I think even more so in our day), this idea that our “one need, is to know Jesus better,” could be viewed as simplistic – it certainly doesn’t appeal to our pride and intellect and our self-righteousness. It is frankly foolishness; but it is the foolishness of God (1 Corinthians 1:18 – 31).

 

If you are a pastor, would people come to hear you if they heard this every week? If you are a member of a congregation, would you participate in a church in which your pastor and teachers emphasized this every week? If you read “Christian” books, or watch or listen to Christian programming, would you purchase books (if you could find them) with this emphasis, or watch or listen to programming with this continual emphasis? And what about popular Christian music – how much of it carries this message?

If you are in Christian academia, is this the thrust of your college or seminary? Is this what you and your colleagues, or fellow students, desire and speak of? Is this the proper subject of a thesis or dissertation?

 

If you are a Christian counsellor, or teaching others in Christian counselling, is this the center of gravity of your practice? If you are involved in pastoral counseling, I ask the same question.

 

Perhaps it takes more courage to speak of Jesus as our “one need” within the professing – church, than it does outside the church.

 

Are we “looking unto Jesus”? Is Jesus Christ our all in all?” Do we really believe that our “one need” is to know Jesus Christ?

Reflections on Hebrews with Andrew Murray (3)

 

            “The cure the Epistle has for all our failures and feebleness, the one preservative from all danger and disease, is – the knowledge of the higher truth concerning Jesus, the knowledge of Him in His heavenly priesthood. In connection with this truth, the writer has three great mysteries he seeks to unfold. The one is that the heavenly sanctuary has been opened to us, so that we may now come and take our place there, with Jesus in the very presence of God.

           

            “The second, that the new and living way by which Jesus has entered, the way of self-sacrifice and perfect obedience to God, is the way in which we now may and must draw near [to God].

 

“The third, that Jesus, as our heavenly High Priest, is the minister of the heavenly sanctuary, and dispenses to us its blessings, the spirit and the power of the heavenly life, in such a way that we can live in the world as those who are come to the heavenly Jerusalem, and in whom the spirit of heaven is the spirit of all their life and conduct; the heavenly priesthood of Jesus, heaven opened to us day by day, our entering it by the new and living way, and heaven entering us by the Holy Spirit…

 

“The knowledge of the heavenly character of Christ’s person and work is what alone can make heavenly Christians.”  Andrew Murray.

 

Murray continues to point us to Jesus Christ, again and again and again. Murray writes of “our failures and feebleness”; he does not excuse it, he does not say, “That’s just the way we are,” nor does he fall back on, “Well, of course we’re sinners, what do we expect?” Instead, he points us to Christ in His heavenly priesthood.

Now, lest anyone take offense at Murray’s use of “the higher truth concerning Jesus,” let’s be clear that Murray means that we need to know more and more of Jesus Christ, who He is, what He has done, and what He is doing. Let’s not forget that it is in this very letter to the Hebrews that we read (5:11 – 14):

 

“Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

 

Let’s also recall Paul’s words to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 3:1 – 2):

 

“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able.”

 

Friends, let’s face it, if we had Christian grocery stores they’d be filled with baby food, a diary department specializing in milk, and you’d have to special-order meat because any meat placed on display would spoil before anyone purchased it. This is pretty much what we had when we still had Christian bookstores, and it is pretty much what we have when we peruse popular Christian books. We would rather cope via self-help and religious therapy with our feebleness and failures, and be given something to make us feel better about ourselves, than grow in Christ.

 

Because we overlay our Bible reading with a therapeutic mentality, we do not see our deep need for Jesus Christ. Because we have conflated the Gospel to the forgiveness of sins, we do not see the fullness of the glorious love and work of Jesus Christ.

 

God in Christ has opened the heavenly sanctuary to us; He has called us to live in this sanctuary as a way of life. This way of life should be the rule, not the exception. Yet, we have been taught to think of it, when we do think of it, as the exception. We think of ourselves as citizens of earth and its ways, rather than as citizens of heaven and its Way. In Christ, and in Christ alone, is transformation; for the individual, for a husband and wife, for a family, and for a congregation.

 

Murray writes that the way of Christ is the way of self–sacrifice and perfect obedience to God. We don’t like the term “self-sacrifice” and we don’t like the word “perfect.” Self-denial is what Christ calls us to, and this self-denial has a dimension of death to it – we die with Christ so that we might be raised into the heavens with Christ. This is death to sin, death to the world, and death to ourselves – and this is most certainly a dimension of the Gospel.

 

May I ask regarding the idea of perfect obedience, “If we are not called to perfect obedience, then exactly what measure of obedience are we called to?” Friends, we are called to love as Christ, to forgive as Christ, to sacrifice (as a way of life) as Christ, to go to others with the great love of our Father as Christ, and to obey as Christ. Any measure, any goal, any ideal, any pattern, that is other than “as Christ” is something other than the Gospel of Christ.

 

It is not our insufficiency in these things that matters, it is God’s all – sufficiency. We do not look to ourselves but look to Jesus Christ. We can trust God to “will and to work in us, His good pleasure.”

 

Are we living in the world “as those who are come to the heavenly Jerusalem”?

 

Are we living as those “in whom the spirit of heaven is the spirit of all their life and conduct”?

 

Is the heavenly priesthood of Jesus, with “heaven opened to us day by day,” a present reality in our lives, in our marriages, in our congregations?

 

Dear, dear friends; our Lord Jesus desires us to live in intimate relationship with Him, our Father, the Holy Spirit and with one another. He deeply desires us to live in assurance of His love for us, of the fact that our sins have been forgiven, that His Divine Life now lives in us – indeed that the Trinity now lives in us and we live in the Trinity. He wants us to know that we are His brothers and sisters, the children of the Living God. He truly wants us to know who we are now, in Him, and leave the past behind, buried in the waters of baptism – to see Him in us and us in Him, not to look back at who we once were and live in the horrid past.

 

Can we not accept the glorious and wonderous love and grace of Jesus Christ? Can we not learn to adore and worship our Great High Priest, and to live in the Holiest of All as our Way of Life?