Messages from the Epistle to the Hebrews | Page 6

and shed
tears" (v. 7) in face of a horror of death; to cast Himself as a genuine
suppliant, in uttermost suffering, upon paternal kindness; to get to
know by personal experience what submission means ([Greek: emathe
tên hypakoên], v. 8); "not my will but Thine be done."
Such is the "Leader of our faith," so great, so glorious, so perfect, so
tender, so deep in fellowship with us. Shall we not follow Him into "the
rest," though a "Jordan rolls between" and though cities of giants seem
to frown upon us even on the other side? Shall we not dare thither to
follow HIM out of the desert of our "own works"?
Much, says the Epistle (v. 11, etc.), is to be said about Him; the theme
is deep, it is inexhaustible, for He is God and Man, one Christ. And the
Hebrew believers (and is it not the same with us?) are not quick to learn
the great lesson of His glory, and so to grow into the adult manhood of

grace. But let us try; let us address ourselves to "bear onwards ([Greek:
pherômetha]) to perfection" (vi. 1), in our thought, our faith, and so in
our experience. The great foundation factors must be for ever there, the
initial acts or attitudes of repentance, and of "faith towards God"; the
abandonment of the service of sin, including the bondage of a would-be
salvation of self by self, and the simple turning God-ward of a soul
which has come to despair of its own resources--truths symbolized and
sealed by the primal rites of baptism and blessing (vi. 2); and then the
great revealed facts in prospect, resurrection and judgment, must be
always remembered and reckoned with. These however must be "left"
(vi. 1), not in oblivion but in progress, just as a building "leaves" the
level of its always necessary foundation. We must "bear onwards" and
upwards, into the upper air of the fulness of the truth of the glory of our
Christ. We must seek "perfection," the profound maturity of the
Christian, by a maturer and yet maturer insight into Him. Awful is the
spiritual risk of any other course. The soul content to stand still is in
peril of a tremendous fall. To know about salvation at all, and not to
seek to develope the knowledge towards "perfection," is to expose one's
self to the terrible possibility of the fate reserved for those who have
much light but no love (vi. 4-9).[C] But this, by the grace of God, shall
not be for the readers of the Epistle. They have shewn living proofs of
love already, practical and precious, for the blessed Name's sake (vi.
10). Only, let them remember the spiritual law--the necessity of growth,
of progress, of "bearing onwards to perfection"; the tremendous risks of
a subtle stagnation; the looking back; the pillar of salt.
[C] I make no attempt here to expound in detail the formidable words
of vi. 4-8. But I believe that their purport is fairly described in the
sentence above in the text. Their true scriptural illustrations are to be
sought in a Balaam and a Judas.
In order that full blessing may thus be theirs, let them look for it in the
only possible direction. Let them take again to their souls the mighty
promise of eternal benediction (vi. 14), sealed and crowned with the
Promiser's gracious oath in His own Name, binding Himself to fidelity
under the bond of His own majesty (vi. 13). Aye, and then let them
again "consider" Him in whom promise and oath are embodied and

vivified for ever; in whom rests--nay, in whom consists--our anchor of
an eternal hope (vi. 19); Jesus, our Man of men, our High Priest of the
everlasting order, now entered "within the veil," into the place of the
covenant and the glory, and "as Forerunner on our behalf" (vi. 20). To
follow Him in there, in the "consideration" of faith and of worshipping
love--this is the secret, to the end, for "bearing onwards to perfection."
Our review of the passage is thus in some sort over. Confessedly it is
an outline; but I do not think that any vital element in the matter has
been overlooked. Much of the message we are seeking has been
inevitably given us by the way; we may be content now to gather up
and summarize the main result.
The "Hebrews," then, and their special circumstances of difficulty, are
here in view, as everywhere else in the Epistle. Tempted to "fall away,"
to give up the "hope set before them," to relapse to legalism, to
bondage, to the desert, to a famine of the soul, to barrenness and
death--here they are dealt with, in order to the more than prevention of
the evil. And here,