The
power of our path — of our walk in this world, is the understanding,
through the Holy Ghost, of our identification with Christ in all our
ways, and our being set in the world to manifest Him, not merely to
know that we have salvation, and the purging of our consciences through
His most precious blood. The testimony of a Christian bears this
character, he is treading in the footsteps of Christ. "To me, to live
is Christ:" again, "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." That puts each of us in the place of responsibility as
to our ways, our habits, our feelings, and objects. Are we realizing
the responsibility of living Christ? That is really what the Church of
God is set in the world for — to be the expression of Christ in His
absence. A Christian's conscience often satisfies itself with handing
to the unconverted man the Bible, so that he may read what Christ was;
but this is not the object for which Christ has left us here. — "Ye are
the epistles of Christ, known and read of all men." Are we such an
epistle as persons can read? It is not a person's coming to me, and
saying, What is your creed? What views do you hold? and the like. If I
am not an expression of the ways and feelings of Christ, I am a
stumbling-block, rather than otherwise. The Christian should be the
living, breathing expression of Christ — of the principles, features,
graces, of the character of Christ. Alas! the whole of Christianity is
often made to consist in a set of opinions: one gets his place and is
characterized by what opinions he holds. We are called upon necessarily
to live the Christ in whom we believe; we are one with Him, and are
called to show forth what He is. But the whole power, by which I am to
act and to show that, is the understanding that I am one with Him.
There
are two great stages of Christ's path, and of the believer's, as
identified with Him, presented to us in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The
first ends (Heb. 10) where the soul is set in "the holiest." Up to that
the Holy Ghost is conducting us along, step by step; there He sets us
down in this blessed place, "having boldness to enter into the holiest,
by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath
consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh."
The
power of intelligent devotedness is the understanding of the perfect
purging of our consciences Many do not understand this; they are aiming
at getting it, and that is a complete reversing of God's order. I have
a purged conscience; I go on, not to obtain it, but because I have it.
How do I get it? Not by anything that I have done, by my frames or
feelings, as a matter of attainment or experience; the Holy Ghost
teaches us that it is by the blood of Jesus
He
shows the glory of the person of Christ, as contrasted with angels and
with Moses; that of His priesthood as contrasted with Aaron's; that of
His sacrifice, as contrasted with the sacrifices under the law. And
what is the result? We have a purged conscience. He has set us down within the veil. It is not what one Christian has, and what another is struggling after, but the common platform of all — we all have
a purged conscience. Some suppose that the blood of Christ has put away
our sins before conversion; and then, as to what becomes of those
after, they are met by the priesthood of Christ; but this is not what
He says: it is by the blood of Christ; we are within the holiest with a
perfectly-purged conscience, with "no more conscience of sins." It is
just worthy of the sacrifice of Christ to put me in possession of this,
and nothing short of it; all my
sins, not some of them, blotted out. There, where the High Priest could
go in once every year, and only then, the simplest believer is set down.
When
one comes to deal closely with souls, one discovers what doubts,
clouds, fears, and anxieties, have possession of and distress them. If
the blood of Christ does anything for us, it sets us there without
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. "Having, therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus . . . . let us
draw near," etc. There is no difference here between apostle and
others; the apostle Paul and the thief on the cross: in other words,
all alike have a common place within the veil.
The
priesthood of Christ comes in to maintain me practically where the
blood of Christ has set me. As in the expression in the Epistle of
John, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous [Jesus Christ is at God's right hand on all
principles of righteousness], and He is the propitiation [the
mercy-seat] for our sins." "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." It is a much easier thing for a child to ask for
pardon for some fault than to confess it. We may be asking for pardon
for any special sin, and we have no Scripture warrant to know that it
is put away; but when we confess it, it is a matter of faith to
know that it is put away. I am speaking now of a believer: were it the
question of an unconverted person, the blood of Christ meets that. God
is "faithful and just (not gracious and merciful merely), to forgive us
our sins," etc. The moment I have judged myself about it, I am entitled
to know that it is gone.
What
a very wondrous place to set the believer in at the very outset of his
course of discipleship! — washed from his sins, his conscience purged,
set down in the unclouded sense of the light of God's own countenance!
But what to do? to rest there? No; that is the foundation on which the
superstructure of practical devotedness is based. Legalism and
antinomianism are alike met. What does the system of legalism say? You
must work yourself up into this place of acceptance. The gospel says,
Christ has put me there. I never could get there; the law has proved
that. When God gave the law, what was He doing? "You shall do this,"
"You shall not do that," brought out what man's heart was; it was
impossible he could do what God was telling him he ought to do, and
impossible he should not be what God was telling him not to be: — "As
many as are of the works of the law are under the curse." I can never,
by works of law, get into the holiest of all. I am put there as the
result of what Christ has accomplished for me on the cross; and this is
stated at the very outset of the epistle: "When He had by Himself
purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high "
(Heb. 1: 3). Why does it say "sat down"? To evidence the completion of
the work. Aaron never sat down; there was no seat prepared for the
priest, either in the tabernacle or the temple.
What
does antinomianism lead men to say? "I have it, I possess it all in
Christ," and there it ends. But no! the gospel puts me there, to run
the blessed race that is set before me, in ardent, earnest breathing of
the soul to become like Christ.
If the first division sets me down within the holiest, the second places me without the camp. I find Christ, as it regards my conscience, "inside the veil." I find Christ, as it regards my heart, "outside the camp."
It
does not become us to take only the comfort which flows from our
knowing Christ to be within the veil — the comfort His sacrifice gives
us, I must seek practical identification with Him outside the camp.
Christ within the veil tranquillizes my conscience. Christ outside the
camp quickens, energizes my soul to run more devotedly the race set
before me. "The bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by
the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus
also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered
without the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach" (ver. 11-13). No two points are morally more remote than inside the veil and outside the camp, and
yet they are brought together here. Inside the veil was the place where
the shekinah of God's glory dwelt; outside the camp the place where the
sin-offering was burned — no place gives such an idea of distance from
God as that. It is blessed to know that the Holy Ghost presents to me
Jesus filling up all that is between these two points. I have nothing
to do whatever with the camp. The camp was the place of ostensible
profession (in type, the camp of Israel; in antitype, the city of
Jerusalem). Why did Christ suffer without the gate? In order to show
the setting aside of the mere machinery of Israel's outward profession.
We
may be clear as to the work of Christ being done for us (and God forbid
there should be a cloud cast across the blessedness of that), knowing
the conscience to be made perfect; but is tranquility of conscience all
I want? is there no responsibility? is Christ's voice from within the
veil all? has He no voice outside the camp? It will be found that,
after all, the joy, peace, liberty, flowing from our hearing Christ's
voice inside the veil, is very much dependent on our listening to His
voice outside the camp. Those who know most of suffering with Him, and
bearing His reproach, will know most of the blessedness of His place
within the veil. Our conduct, our ways, our path through the earth,
must be tested by Christ. — "Would Christ be there? would Christ do
this?" The Holy Ghost must be grieved if the saint pursues a course
contrary to that which Christ would have pursued; and then the soul
must be lean. How can a grieved Spirit testify of Christ — how can He
give the soul the comfort and joy and peace of His testimony to Him?
How can I be enjoying Christ if I am not walking in company with Him?
We know that we cannot enjoy the company of a person unless we are
where that person is — where then is Christ? "Outside the camp." — "Let
us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach."
This is not to go forth to men, or to opinions, to a church, or to a
creed, but to Christ Himself. We are not of the world — why? Because
Christ is not of the world; the measure of our separation from the
world is the measure of Christ's separation. "For here have we no
continuing city;" do our hearts seek one? — some set of circumstances
or the like, a something on which to lean? Are we saying, as it were,
"Oh do leave me something"? like Lot pleading for Zoar, "Is it not a
little one?" do not take it all away, "is it not a little one; and my
soul shall live!" Lot's was a heart going out after a little of the
world still. When the heart is filled with Christ it can give up the
world, there is no difficulty in doing it then. The mere saying, "Give
up this," or "give up that," to one loving the world, will be of no
avail; what I have to do is to seek to minister to that soul more of
Christ.
I
am outside the camp, I am seeking a city that is to come, I am waiting
for Him who is to come. In this condition, of dislodgement from the
world and from its system, I find myself in two positions — one towards
God, and the other towards man. The first, "By Him, therefore, let us
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of
our lips, giving thanks to His name" (ver. 15). The second, the lovely
development of the spirit of active benevolence of the next verse, "But
to do good and to communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God
is well pleased" (ver. 16).
I
am within the veil with Christ, — outside the camp in the world,
"bearing His reproach;" and, whilst thus delivered from the profession
around me, that is not of Him, I am engaged in worship and doing good
to all.
In
regard to my hope, it is not, as people say, the "holding the doctrine
of the second advent," but "waiting for God's Son from heaven." This is
not a dead, dry doctrine. If we are really waiting for God's Son from
heaven, we shall be sitting loose to the world.
I have Christ
for my soul's need, and I am only "waiting for God's Son from heaven,"
for Christ to come from heaven to take His Church unto Himself, that
where He is we may be also, and that may be this night. I am not
looking for antichrist, for signs, for movements amongst the nations,
but for this one holy, happy thing, I am waiting for God's Son from
heaven. Oh do not let us be inconsistent, do not let us contradict that
— seeking to grasp Christ with one hand, and hold fast the world with
the other. If we know our position "within the veil," we must know our
position "outside the camp," reproached, it may be, scorned, hated,
suspected, of all who are not outside, but in the joy of fellowship
with Him. "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we also then
shall appear with Him in glory."