The great truth and essence of Christianity is that it takes the heart out of this world, and fixes it on Christ. It makes us live by Christ, on Christ, and to Christ.
But then the life of Jesus is to be manifested in me, and there I get my proper responsibility as a Christian. Since Christ appears in the presence of God for us, we are to appear in the presence of the world for Christ. If He dwells in you, then let us see Him in you.
(J.N.D Notes and Jottings p4)
When guilty, you are justified; when you have offended, you are forgiven; and when you are defiled, you are washed. If I look at guilt, I want justification; at offence, forgiveness; at defilement, cleansing.
(J.N.D Notes and Jottings p7)
God never told people they were lost, until Christ had died to save them.
(J.N.D Notes and Jottings p11)
Are you part of My bride – My body – and you won’t take the cross here with Me? What is crown up there is cross down here.
(J.N.D Notes and Jottings p20)
Whoever has the Spirit of Christ is a member of the body, and that we own; though if one be walking inconsistently, and in some actual thing that calls for it, he must be put out. For fellowship, therefore, he must be not only a member of the body, but also a member of the body walking uprightly.
(J.N.D Notes and Jottings p38)
“If a man serve me, let him follow me”; that recalls a line I read many years ago, “It is harder to live a Christian than to die a martyr.”
(J.N.D Notes and Jottings p45)
The great truth and essence of Christianity is that it takes the heart out of this world, and fixes it on Christ. It makes us live by Christ, on Christ, and to Christ.
(J.N.D Notes and Jottings p67)
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Our conclusion, then, is simple undivided devotedness to Christ. Christ is to be the only object, as we do those things that faithfulness and nonconformity to the world entail. We have a bright, heavenly hope connected with Christ crucified, and Christ in glory. He is coming and will receive us to Himself and make us like Him. Hence we should be as those who wait for their Lord.
Christian devotedness is something different from human kindness and philanthropy, born out of a sense of obligation. It is motivated by love for our self-sacrificing Redeemer and a desire to be pleasurable to Him.
A simplified précis of John Nelson Darby’s paper ‘Christian Devotedness’ by Sosthenes
To be truly in the testimony of God, Christians must be devoted. Devotion must be founded on the truth and sound doctrine and exercised in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christians need to be clear as to redemption, and have the peace that a Christian has through divine righteousness. He must know the living power of the heavenly Comforter, and be sure of the blessed hope of the glorified Christ’s coming again. Held in the power of the Holy Ghost he is should be separate from the world.
Christianity has had a great influence in the world. Humanitarian activities such as caring for the sick and poor, have become recognised duties of society, even where infidelity prevails. But there are higher motives than these – true devotedness.
Christ’s Devotion to His Father
Normally, Christians should abide in the calling wherein they are called. (1 Cor 7:20). Christ is to be our life and the object or motive of our lives. There are two aspects to that life. One is devotedness; the other is submission to the will of God. We see this in Christ. His communion with His Father was perfect, as was His desire to glorify Him. His walk was that of undivided obedience to His Father’s will.
Christ loved His Father and was obedient to Him gave form and character to His love to us. As He becomes our immediate object, we become followers and imitators of God. We walk in love as Christ loved us. “Be ye imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love even as Christ hath loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.” (Eph 5:2). Love descending from God, and working in man, rises up towards God as its object – it can be nothing lower. “Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16).
Devotion – out of Love, not Merit or Reward
Devotedness is devotedness to Christ. The spring and source of true devotedness is divine love filling and operating in our hearts. We learn divine love in redemption. This sets us in divine righteousness before God. God’s perfect love towards us has given us eternal life in Christ when we were dead in sins, and forgiveness and divine righteousness when we were guilty. Now we enjoy divine love, to enjoy God by His Spirit dwelling in us: even at the judgment seat, Christ, the judge, will be our Saviour. So are we to be in this world.
Of course there were those things Christ did, which we can. He stood alone in self-sacrificial love. But we are able to display Self-sacrificial love too, as having His life, Himself, in us.
Any question of merit or self-righteousness is shut out, and our self-seeking labour is set aside. “Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:21). The thought of reward or merit, destroys the whole truth of devotedness, because love is no longer the motive. It is self, like James and John, looking for a good place in the kingdom. There is reward in Scripture, but it is used to encourage us in the difficulties and dangers which higher and truer motives bring us into. Christ Himself, “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Heb 2:2).
Christ’s motive was love. Moses’ motive was caring for his brethren. Such reward is as great mercy: every man receives his reward according to his own labour.
The first effect of devotedness is to adore God, delighting in Jesus, consciously united to Christ by the Holy Spirit. Divine love flows, as it did in Christ, into and through our hearts – we become animated through our enjoyment of it. The love of God is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord; not the less God, but God in Christ.
A creature must have an object, and for us that object must be God, – God revealed in Christ as the Father; for in that way God possesses our souls. Christ becomes our first and governing object, then our fellow Christians and then our fellow men. Hence, all true devotedness is the action of divine love in the redeemed, through the Holy Spirit.
So we have a new life which enjoys His love, delighting in Him, and displaying love towards others. Its genuineness is tested, because Christ has to have the first place. Paul says, “Not as we hoped,” (it was more than he hoped), speaking of active love; “but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and to us by the will of God” (2 Cor. 8:5). It is more than a new nature. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and God’s love is shed abroad in the heart.
False Devotion
We may have a prejudicial zeal, compassing sea and land, but that is the work of Satan. If so, we act out of a sense of natural benevolence or obligation, and get irritated if our work is not accepted. This is not love. The activity of love does not destroy the sense of obligation saints have a sense of obligation too, but of a different character. Because of grace, they are motivated freely by love. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Cor 3:17). it has the divine character – love. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of adoption, and he fixes our hearts on God’s love.
Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20) This is a divine life, a life of faith, a life living wholly by an object, Christ – the Son of God loving and giving Himself. Here we get the practical character and motive of Christian devotedness – living to Christ. Because of that, “We are not our own, but bought with a price,” and have to “glorify God in our bodies” (1 Cor 6:20). The perfection of the offering and the absoluteness and perfectness with which it was offered, has power over our souls. All the incense of the meat-offering was burnt on the altar.
The Hindrance of the Flesh
So we are to yield ourselves to the love of the blessed Son of God. The flesh may seek to hinder us, for its objects are not those of the new man and the Holy Spirit. We love the brethren and all the saints, bearing and forbearing, for Christ does, seeing the saints grow up to Him who is the Head in all things, and walk worthily of the Lord. Like Paul, we seek to see the church presented as a chaste virgin unto Christ. We continue love, though the more abundantly we loves, the less we are loved. And we are ready to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.
Self likes to be served; love delights to serve. A man of pleasure flings away money; so does an ambitious man. They judge the value of things by pleasure and power. The covetous man judges everything by its potential to enrich. The Christian judges of everything by Christ. If anything gets in the way of His glory he casts it away. He does not regard it as a sacrifice, but a hindrance – to him it is dross. Christ gave Himself: now we have the privilege of forgetting self and living to Christ. On earth Christ girded Himself and served His own. Now we have the privilege of serving Him. Living to God inwardly is the only possible means of living to Him outwardly.
All outward activity, not governed by devotedness to Christ, is fleshly and even a danger to the soul. It tends to make us do without Christ and brings in self. I dread great activity without great communion.
Devotedness is a humble, holy thing, doing our Master’s will – it is the true part for every Christian. We want wisdom – God gives it liberally; Christ is our true wisdom. We want power – we learn it in dependence through Him who strengthens us. Devotedness is dependent, it leans on divine strength in Christ for He can do all things, and all that He does is good. So we have the Lord’s help despite the trials and difficulties – we are “more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Rom 8:37). Nothing separates us from that love.
There is something else that we have to look at. Dedicated service in love is a joy and blessing. But we are in a world where such service will be opposed and rejected, and our flesh has a tendency to self-preservation. Peter presented this thought to the Lord, and He said “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men” (Matt 16:23). In point of fact, the flesh is a continual hindrance: it instinctively shrinks from devotedness to Christ, because it means giving up self, bringing reproach, neglect, and opposition on us. We have to take up our cross to follow Christ. If not, we shall at best be “John Marks” in the work. And we will be those who say, “suffer me first“. There should be no self-seeking, no self-sparing, and no self-indulgence! If we are to live to Christ, we must hold ourselves dead, and alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He is our life.
Our own Hearts
Now we come to the management of our own hearts. “Always bearing about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus” is the great difficulty and tests our state of soul. But we have power in our sense of grace. Christ died and gave Himself for us, so by grace we hold ourselves as dead to all but Him. That would be comparatively easy, were self and Satan’s power not opposing us. But to have Christ’s dying always above self, necessitates Christ, by God’s Spirit, dominating all our affections. This is the only way of devotedness in God’s sight. All else belongs to the first Adam and to the scene he moves, and perishes with our last breath. It is only the life which we live by Christ which remains.
As devoted, we have to please Christ in everything. Worldly dress and manners, indeed worldliness in every guise, disappear. These things are not be agreeable to Him whom the world rejected, because He testified to it that its works were evil. The place of the Christian is to be the epistle of Christ. The world’s motives, thoughts, relationships do not enter into his heart.
There is another point which we may do well to notice. This makes plain the difference between devotedness and natural kindness. “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Our profession of Christ is to be so distinct that people will know to Whom our good works should be attributed, and glorify our Father which is in heaven.
Conclusion
Our conclusion, then, is simple undivided devotedness to Christ. Christ is to be the only object, as we do those things that faithfulness and nonconformity to the world entail. We have a bright, heavenly hope connected with Christ crucified, and Christ in glory. He is coming and will receive us to Himself and make us like Him. Hence we should be as those who wait for their Lord.
More devoted Christians are needed, – devoted in all their ways, in heart and soul, to Him who loved them and gave Himself for them.
SOON we taste the endless sweetness
Of the Tree of life above;
Taste its own eternal meetness
For the heavenly land we love.
In eternal counsels founded,
Perfect now in fruit divine;
When the last blest trump has sounded,
Fruit of God for ever mine!
Fresh and ever new are hanging
Fruits of life on that blest Tree;
There is stilled each earnest longing,
Satisfied my soul shall be.
Safety, where no foe approaches;
Rest, where toil shall be no more;
Joy, whereon no grief encroaches;
Peace, where strife shall all be o’er –
“Holiness and love and joy characterize the land. They are the fruits which grow there spontaneously, as are the thanksgivings that arise in the hearts of those who are there through redeeming power.”
J.N.D.
Various fruits of richest flavour
Offers still the Tree divine;
One itself, the same for ever,
All its various fruits are mine.
Where deceiver ne’er can enter,
Sin-soiled feet have never trod,
Free, our peaceful feet may venture
In the paradise of God;
Drink of life’s perennial river,
Feed on life’s perennial food,
Christ, the fruit of life, and Giver –
Safe through His redeeming blood.
Object of eternal pleasure,
Perfect in Thy work divine!
Lord of glory! Without measure,
Worship, joy, and praise are Thine!
But, my soul, hast thou not tasted
Of that Tree of life on high?
As through desert lands thou’st hasted,
Eshcol’s grapes been never nigh?
Ah! that Tree of life was planted,
Rooted deep in love divine,
Ere the sons of God had chanted
Worlds where creature glories shine.
Love divine without a measure
Godhead glory must reveal;
In the Object of its pleasure
All its ways of grace must seal.
As a tender sucker, rising
From a dry and stony land,
Object of man’s proud despising,
Grew the Plant of God’s right hand.
Grace and truth, in love unceasing,
Rivers on the thirsty ground –
Every step to God well pleasing –
Spread their heavenly savour round.
He the Father’s Self revealing –
Heavenly words none else could tell,
Words of grace, each sorrow healing,
On the ear of sorrow fell.
Yes! that Tree of life is planted;
Sweetest fruit e’en here has borne;
To its own rich soil transplanted,
Waits alone the eternal morn-
Fruits that our own souls have tasted
By the Spirit from above,
While through desert lands we’ve hasted,
Fruits of perfect, endless love!
John Nelson Darby,
Written 1870
Parts of the above are in Hymns for the Little Flock 1962 and 1973 – Nos 50 and 206 and in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs 1978 – No 387
(Lord, in Thee we taste the sweetness Of the Tree of Life above)
(This letter, addressed by the brethren of the Church of Bourg-du-Four to the above-named pastors, has been discovered in JND’s papers and is entirely in his hand[1].)
Dear brothers and beloved pastors
We desire to assure you, in replying to the setting out of the principles which have had the kindness to give us, that we receive with thanksgiving to our God and Father, and as coming from His goodness, all the gifts that have been given to you. We pray to Him earnestly that, according to His wisdom and this goodness towards His children on which we rest, He will make these gifts grow day by day. The only thing that we have to say to you on this subject is that you also pray that you attend more to the exercise of these gifts, as it is said in Acts 6: 4: “to persevere in prayer and in the ministry of the Word”.
We believe that the burden of all the church’s business that weighs entirely on you hinders you in this regard. And more, dear pastors, while having the full assurance that your intentions and desires have been good and that perhaps a guilty negligence on our part has contributed to it, we believe that the free action of the Holy Spirit has been restricted in the church. We do not seek at all – it would be to hinder our own happiness, and God keep us from it – to put hindrances in the way of free action of the Holy Ghost in our pastors and by our pastors in the midst of the church. But we desire also that His free action in the church should not be hindered, or suppressed, or restricted, but that however if it may be manifested, it should reign freely, acting whether in the pastors or in other brothers, according to His holy power and the sure word of our God.
May the church, including the pastors with all their light and their experiences, act in all the business which is necessary for its wellbeing according to their respective gifts. We think that this has been prevented, and that is what we claim, and it is on this principle that we desire to act from now on, and that we want that you act, so that love and confidence, in a word the Spirit of our God may reign and act freely in the midst of us, His poor children. We do not wish at all to trust ourselves or man, whoever he is. We trust only in the free action of the Holy Spirit and having consulted the holy Word, we think that what we say is according to this Word. Let us give therefore full freedom to the action of the Holy Ghost in the church, and everything will go well; and if the flesh acts, in whoever it is, let him be judged as having acted in the flesh.
This is what we feel and answer to your setting out of principles. There are several questions on which we want more coherent and broader scriptural education, and on this we desire in consequence to deepen in this Word even more. It is to this end that we have continued our meetings, so that, if these questions should be discussed in the church, we will be more able to judge and pronounce on them according to the word of God. For now, we only want to tell you of our desires on things which seem to us to be the basis of the peace and happiness of the church.
[1] This letter is part of the story of a division in an independent church in Bourg-du-Four, otherwise known as the l’Eglise de La Pélisserie, with which Mr Darby had associated. Place Bourg du Four is in the old part of Geneva. It is recorded that, on 3 March 1842, about sixty brothers and sisters, sharing the views of Mr Darby, broke off fellowship with this church, and left it. The church, and the three pastors addressed – with others, became part of the Swiss Evangelical Free Church: Emil Guers (1794-1882) was one of two initial pastors (who had been consecrated at ‘Poultry Chapel’ near Mansion House in London in 1823); Henri Empeytaz (1790-1853) was the third.
Your letter followed me to Montpéllier, where I was just about to leave; which has delayed my reply. I have been led somewhat as you have in regard to the Lord’s prayer. That it is perfect is quite certain, because it is the Lord that gave it. But where the Spirit is, there is liberty, and I do not see the smallest allusion made to this prayer in the rest of the New Testament, although we find there a good many prayers, and passages which indicate the subjects of prayers. It would be impossible that a man led by the Holy Spirit in the knowledge of his needs, and of the love of God, should limit himself to a prescribed form. But if one uses this prayer, and prays other prayers at the same time, that is either to say that it is imperfect, or else to say that it does not answer to the needs of the soul.
The fact is that giving directions (however perfect they may be) to persons who had not received the Holy Spirit, and the operation of the Holy Spirit in him in whom He dwells, are two things necessarily distinct; and one who does not understand that, does not know what the influence of the Holy Spirit is. The divine Spirit necessarily acts in the soul in a way that is proper to Him, and while revealing the glory of Jesus, puts the soul in an entirely new relationship with the Father and with our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord while living on earth could not put the soul into this relationship. Now prayer is the intimate expression of it; and this new relationship gives it an entirely new character. Hence the “groanings which cannot be uttered”[1], where He who searches the hearts finds no forms learnt and enforced in the memory, even though these forms might have been given by the Lord Himself. He finds the mind of the Spirit who intercedes for us according to God. If we want to use the Lord’s prayer as a supplement to the imperfections of our own sighings (while I quite admit that that may be done in good faith), this recital of His words without any heart, to fill up the gaps which are found in our hearts, seems to me a bad use of this precious instruction of the Lord. It is also ignoring the groanings of the Spirit.
But the difficulty lies in this and in this only, that we have to do with souls who, not being delivered by the Holy Spirit, do not understand the mind of Jesus, nor the fact that in His tenderness He could make provision for the disciples who had not yet received the Holy Spirit. This provision could not be applicable to them in the same way when the Holy Spirit had come down. That is the real difficulty. If they are worldly people, one may very well show them that they cannot use the Lord’s prayer, that they would not really dare to say that they are children of God, nor sincerely desire and call for the kingdom of Jesus to come, since they do not know whether that would be their eternal ruin. I was attacked once on this subject. At that time I gave some sermons on the Lord’s prayer to explain the contents of it. Since then I have heard no more of it. If they are children of God, we must act gently. Is there perhaps a true respect for the words of Jesus, though superstition may be mixed with it? We must attempt to enlighten them about deliverance by the Holy Spirit, and about His presence in those who have yielded themselves to Jesus. Their difficulties will fall away without any reasoning when they are delivered. It would be useless to talk to them about the remnant, they do not know what it is; but they will well understand what the thoughts of Jesus are, His tenderness towards His disciples while they were still fleshly and needing to be led like children – He Himself being on the earth to guide them on the earth. They will understand the difference between that, and the Spirit who gives us to know that we are in Him and He in us. On the earth, I say “who art in heaven”. Now I worship Him as being near to Him, or else I approach the cross as a sinner. But I say “Come, Lord Jesus”, rather than saying ”Thy kingdom come”, although both things are true. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” is indeed our desire; but this word does not express the needs of a soul which is in conflict with the spiritual powers of wickedness in heavenly places, and which is passing through this earth at a time when it is estranged from God. Such a soul takes its stand as a stranger to this world which has rejected Jesus. It finds its rest in the heavenly delights themselves, and its joy in being in conformity to Jesus up there. The Holy Spirit also greatly develops the desires and wishes of the Lord’s prayer, in a multitude of things of which He gives us the knowledge, and which could not be limited, for the confidence of sonship, to the Lord’s prayer. If we want the Lord’s prayer we ought to use nothing else, otherwise the use of it is only pure superstition. If it is our prayer, it is perfect, it is our whole prayer and our only prayer.
This much is evident. If someone says to me: ‘You shall say this, for you shall not be heard through much speaking’, and then I add ten times more words before or after, this seems to me hardly a real obedience. For the rest, to examine the contents of the Lord’s prayer, and fathom the thoughts of Jesus in it, is a very precious thing.
… It is a little a question of the force of the word conversion. I know that in Swiss it has quite another force than in this country. This is a useless point to discuss, as long as one knows what one wants to say, while the idea given by the word “to convert” is not that which one gives it among French-speaking Christians. It is the same as the word Bekehrung[1] in German. But what is important to notice is that this idea of conversion is not the sense of [….Ω….][2], which signifies a change of view, of opinion, of mind – a reflection made – or after having reflected. In German: Seinen Sinn aendern, daher bekennen[3], – this is why one can repent [….Ω….]. One can repent of a particular fault, one cannot be converted of a fault. Conversion takes place when the will of the moral being is turned towards God, this is the sense of the word. Repentance is the judgment it forms on all its conduct and on its life at the same time. Its new nature is turned towards God; the new nature judges all that is contrary to Him. The state of man, seen from the point of view of the first fact, this is his conversion; from the point of the view of the second, his repentance.
Regeneration[4], in the ordinary sense of the word, is the beginning or the communication of this life which is characterised, as far as it exists, by these two things, conversion and repentance. I do not accept that conversion is “a reversal of the way of seeing, of feeling and of mind as to God”. It is more, as long as it is a state of man, an effect of these things. Conversion is the change of the voluntary direction of life. Man is converted. He turns towards God. Now the judgment which he has on his past life, before he turned, is according to the principles of the new nature (which morally speaking is that of God); but this judgment signifies an element of immense importance. The prodigal son, in forming this judgment, before his father threw himself on his shoulder, repented indeed; that is to say, bore a judgment, divine in its nature, on all his passed life. But before the knowledge of repentance and the love of the Father, the judgment which he bore could not have the character that it had afterwards, because God is not known objectively by the new nature, not at least fully known in the way the judgment is formed after this knowledge. When I say judgment, it is a vital and living judgment and one brings it on oneself in bringing it on the evil.
In the moral order, that is to say in the conscience of man, repentance precedes conversion. Paul (Acts 26: 20) had taught them that they should repent and turn to God. The prodigal son came to himself and judged that he should rise up and go to his father. But it must not be concluded either that the man who repents does it without God acting to communicate life. Regrets are not repentance, μεταμέλομαι signifies regret or remorse. μετάυοι repentance, says the apostle, never to be regretted. One cannot deny that έπιστροφή (conversion) signifies turning oneself towards which is not μεταμέλομαι, μετάυοι; έπιστροφή is to turn oneself (sich umwenden[5]).
… μετάυοι (repentance) alone is a change of mind, or moral judgment. I do not believe that, in fact, one precedes the other. When God communicates life, all really goes together. If you speak of the consciousness that one has of a thing, I have no objection to it being said that repentance precedes, but that in fact conversion of the will towards God being the essence of the first movement of heart, seems to me to be a truth of all importance. These words “my father’s house” expressed this in the prodigal son. But the judgment that takes knowledge of all, by the entrance of the light and of the life of God is too importance, – the Sinnesaenderung[6] on everything, so that I accept that the word [….Ω….] is turned round in its true force which does not signify conversion.
November 1858
To Mr B R
Dear Brother
… Conversion is not the same thing as repentance. Without a discussion over words, I would remark that one could by the grace of God and the quickening work of this grace in us, turn to God and seek Him, drawn towards Him by His grace, not wanting to perish where we are, and yet repentance could remain very superficial, to the great damage of the soul. True repentance is the review that, in the consciousness of grace, the soul makes of itself, of its motives and its ways, the way of judging them in the light of God whom it knows in grace. It is the opposite of the will, for in repentance, one judges all in relation to the nature and the will of God, because one partakes in fact in His nature and one is submissive to His will. It is opposed to passions which are the tendencies of nature, united to the will and, as to these tendencies also, all is judged according to our new relationships with God. Repentance is above all a judgment of oneself, which makes the thing real and true and substitutes, by grace, God for me in us – what makes the essential difference in life.
In the details, there were always be a work to be wrought, but there is an entire difference in the state of the soul who is fundamentally repentant. I believe that many brethren, whether among us or among other Christians, have not really submitted to this powerful work. There is always repentance in a converted man, without telling himself: “I have sinned against heaven and before thee” . But it is quite another thing to judge ways and springs of the way; the spring, in selfish principles and selbständig of heart in the way of relying really on the Lord as dependent upon Him.
This is why, morally, I hold to the word repentance. Naturally, the translation depends on the sense of the word, but I answer now to your moral motives to change the word repentance and replace it by the word conversion – motives which I believe are excellent.
______________
Your letter of 8th March has reached me at last. On the subject of Hebrews 3: 1, I understand you perfectly, at least I think I do. There is some truth in what you say[1], but I doubt whether you have taken into consideration all the points of view which the word furnishes to us on this subject.
Firstly, it seems to me that there are some expressions even in the chapter itself which show that the apostle was thinking of persons who, at least as far as their profession went, had accepted Jesus as Lord, acknowledging Him as Messiah and putting their trust in Him. I say this because the apostle speaks of the beginning of their faith, and of what they were to hold firm to the end; also of the fact that we are His house, if at least we hold fast the beginning of our faith and the boast of hope firm to the end[2].
When he makes the comparison with Israel, it is with Israel redeemed, who had entered into the wilderness. See also: chapter 6: 9-10; 4: 14; 6: 18; 10: 22 and the verses following, then verse 34; 13: 8-9, and many other passages, which imply that the position of those whom he was addressing was that of Christians.
Now here, as it seems to me, are the important points of the epistle, which are peculiar to it, and must be taken into account. Christ died for the nation, to sanctify the people by His own blood. Thus all those who recognised Jesus as Messiah were supposed to be sanctified, and supposed at the same time to form part of the people still. On the other hand, being written shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem and the cessation of all relationship between God and the people, the epistle invites the Jews to go forth outside the camp (not forth from the world, but forth from the camp of Israel), and to acknowledge the Christ as rejected by Israel and ascended into heaven, outside of the people. But the fact that he thus invites them to go forth outside the camp, is a proof, is it not, that he is concerned with the remnant, as distinct from the mass, although this remnant had up till then been in relationship with the unbelieving mass and forming part of it?
It seems to me that the epistle to the Hebrews is fundamentally a development of the heavenly character of Christianity (not of the church, which properly speaking we find only in chapter 12), intended, on one hand, to prevent the believing Jews from slipping back again into the old order, and, on the other hand, to prepare the way for this exhortation, so terrible for a Jew, and only found right at the end: that is, to leave the Jewish system and camp. This exhortation is founded on the fact that Christ (according to the type of the perfect sacrifice for sin) had suffered outside the camp as far as the world is concerned, and that His blood had been carried into the sanctuary; that it was necessary to be in heaven, as regards His true position before God, and outside the earthly system down here.
But the fact that the church does not come into the reckoning, except where the whole scene of millennial glory is presented, gives rise to another peculiarity of this epistle: namely, that in the hopes it presents to us and in the prospect of rest and glory which it opens up to us, even while using expressions applicable to heavenly blessedness, it does not go beyond what can be applied to earthly rest. It leaves room for this application of its expressions: ”There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God”. Where?[3] This partly comes back to your way of viewing it. But then suppose in time to come an Israelite should use this epistle in view of that rest of the people of God – an Israelite still attached to his nation after the rapture of the church – he will have to understand that it was only a remnant; that there had been a heavenly hope in which he had no part; that in order to enjoy it definitively, they had had to go outside the camp of Israel, which he himself had not done. That is to say, he will have to be aware that although God has reserved a rest on earth for the remnant of His people (and thus for His people, Romans 9: 7, 27; 11: 26), there had been another rest into which those who had gone outside the camp had entered, which he himself had not done. Now even though it allows a glimpse of an earthly rest for the people, the objective of the epistle is to lay it on the believing Jews, as partakers of the heavenly calling, not to attach themselves to this earthly rest, but to look higher, that is, look to Jesus who has entered in as Forerunner within the veil. The remnant was still in relation with the people, it formed part of them – always a dangerous position, and more than dangerous at the moment when the epistle was written. It acknowledges the fact of what belongs to the people, but it is addressed to the believing part of it, so that this part should no longer form part of the people but should cling to what is its own – the hope that enters within the veil where Jesus has gone in. The sitting of Jesus at the right hand of God was the condemnation of the Jews (compare Acts 7, where He has not yet sat down), and the right to enter the heavenly sanctuary was assured to the sinner as his present and eternal portion.
It is nonetheless true that this position of Jesus is the foundation of all hope for the Jew in the last day, and the apostle leaves this hope subsisting. But it is the hope of the remnant, and he invites this remnant – [which was] at that time in the bosom of the nation – to come out from the midst of it, in virtue of its heavenly calling founded on the fact that Jesus is sitting within, in heaven.
The reasonings on the sacrifices confirm these views, it seems to me. Christ died for the nation, and thus each one of those who acknowledged Him was deemed to have part in Christian privileges without leaving the nation. But in this epistle, though taking this ground, the apostle, it seems to me, addresses those who had acknowledged Him, to invite them to separate themselves from the nation; showing that, whether as regards the sacrifices or as regards the priesthood, another system superior to the old was destined to replace it. I do not say that the replacement of the system is the setting aside of the nation, for Christ died for that nation; but that in fact (the great subject being the replacement of the system) the principle of the new system was a Christ crowned with glory and honour in heaven, and that only those who had attached themselves to Him by faith are found included in the category to which the apostle is speaking. Compare particularly chapter 6 already quoted. This requires patient attention to the contents of the epistle, not in order to profit by the rich resources that it includes, but to do justice to the work for the nation [of Israel], at the same time distinguishing it from the relation formed by faith with Him who, having accomplished this work, had ascended again into heaven. In a word, we must distinguish between what was valid for that nation and the relationship formed by faith. The work and the position are valid for the remnant in the last days, in order that it should enjoy earthly blessings; but the apostle is addressing those who were partakers of the gifts by faith. I do not know if I am making myself understood. I have written this letter in several instalments.
Except for a part of the Revelation, left incomplete last year, our translation[4] will be finished tomorrow, by God’s help, but we shall re-read it.
[1] According to a footnote in the original, Mr B R had stated that Heb 3: 1, and indeed all the epistle, was not addressed only to those of the Hebrews who had faith in Christ, but to the whole body of the people that was then in Judæa.
In response to your question about 2 Cor 5: 19, I believe that the beloved Saviour was “reconciling”, acting to this end during His life. He had been rejected. God knew that redemption by His blood was necessary for reconciliation; so that, as a result, He has been made sin so that He could commit the ministry of reconciliation to the apostles. And when it is said “God was in Christ, reconciling”, it is not a question of the necessary basis on which the thing could be effectuated (this is what is said straightaway afterwards) but the ways of God as to men, through Christ, during His life. If Christ has been received without death and a new creation, the result would have shown that the evil was reparable. Now we know that it is quite otherwise. But God presented the thing to man’s responsibility, before manifesting this impossibility. Those whom He called, He called according to the knowledge He had Himself of what they would do. I have yet my Son: “They will have respect for my son”[1] – that is who has been presented to man. The object of faith is the Person of Christ. In believing on Him, the efficacy of His death is enjoyed, in ignorance during His life, later with intelligence.
There is a governmental pardon which could only take place in virtue of expiation, it is true, but which is something else however. Besides, pardon was accorded in detail in view of the offering of Christ. Christ gave it fully during His life down here in view of the ways of God in grace. The effect was shown, if need be, by a healing as proof. But grace, at all times, has its application in view of the work of Christ (see Rom 3: 25, 26).
