Jesus,
Our Man in Glory
A. W. Tozer
CHAPTER 1 – Jesus, Our Man in Glory
HAVE YOU HEARD any sermons lately on the Bible truth that our risen Savior and
Lord is now our glorified Man and Mediator? That He is
seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavenlies?
Few Christians are fully aware of Christ’s high-priestly office at the throne.
I suspect this is a neglected subject in evangelical preaching and teaching. It
is a major theme in the letter to the Hebrews. The teaching is plain: Jesus is
there, risen and glorified, at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
representing the believing children of God, His church on earth.
Here is one of the great Biblical encouragement’s to acknowledge
Jesus and to trust Him in His priestly ministry for us:
Since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the
Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a
high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one
who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us
then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14–16)
The Scriptures assure us that there is a true tabernacle—a true sanctuary in
heaven. Jesus our great High Priest is busy there. In that heavenly sanctuary
is a continuing and effective altar. There is a mercy seat. Best of all, our
Mediator and Advocate is there on our behalf. What an amazing truth!
Amazing—and yet how difficult it seems for us to comprehend it and to count on
it. In the light of God’s gracious revelation, I can only ask in humility and
chagrin, ”Why are we so ineffective in representing
Him? Why are we so apathetic in living for Him and glorifying Him?”
Everything about Jesus is glorious!
It is well for us to confess often that everything the Father has revealed
concerning Jesus Christ is glorious. His past—as we would humanly look on the
past—is glorious, for He made all things that were made. His work on earth as
the Son of Man was glorious, for He effected the plan
of salvation through His death and resurrection. Then He ascended into the
heavens for His mediatorial ministries throughout this present age. In view of
what the Scriptures tell us of Jesus, it should be our
primary concern to show forth the eternal glories of this One who is our divine
Savior and Lord.
In our world are dozens of different kinds of Christianities. Certainly many of
them do not seem to be busy and joyful in proclaiming the unique glories of
Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God. Some brands of Christianity will tell
you very quickly that they are just trying to do a little bit of good on behalf
of neglected people and neglected causes. Others will affirm that we can do
more good by joining in the ”contemporary dialogue”
than by continuing to proclaim the ”old, old story of the cross.”
But we stand with the early Christian apostles. We believe that every Christian
proclamation should be to the glory and the praise of the One whom God raised
up after He had loosed the pains of death. I am happy to be identified with
Peter and his message at Pentecost:
”Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and
signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man
was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with
the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God
raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was
impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” (Acts 2:22–24).
Peter considered it important to affirm that the risen Christ is now exalted at
the right hand of God. He said that fact was the reason for the coming of the
Holy Spirit. Frankly, I am too busy serving Jesus to spend my time and energy
engaging in contemporary dialogue.
We have a commission from heaven.
I think I know what ”contemporary dialogue” means. It
means that all of those intellectual preachers are busy reading the news
magazines so they will be able to comment on the world situation from their
pulpits on Sunday mornings. But that is not what God called me to do. He called
me to preach the glories of Christ. He commissioned me to tell my people there
is a
That is what the early church was excited about. And I think our Lord may have
reason to ask why we are no longer very excited about it. The Christian church
in the first century was ablaze with this concept of the risen and victorious
Christ exalted at the right hand of the Father. Although it worshipped no other
man, it urged the worship of this glorified and exalted Man as God, because He
had always been the eternal Son, the second Person of the Godhead. Paul wrote
to Timothy: “There is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a
ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.” (1
Timothy 2:5–6).
Consider with me some of the things we know about the priesthood for which God
anointed our Lord Jesus. Not only was He the eternal Son, but He was also the
glorified
Priesthood in the Old Testament
The true idea of the priesthood, as it was developed in the Old Testament and
fulfilled by our Lord Jesus Christ, was ordained by God. It came from His mind
and heart. It was dimly foreshadowed in the lives of praying fathers, heads of
their households, who assumed responsibility and concern for their families.
Job was a good example of this kind of Old Testament family priest. Afraid his
children might have sinned, he prayed to God, asking Him to forgive and cleanse
them. But the concept is much more clearly embodied in the Levitical
priesthood, ordained by God for
We must acknowledge that God’s concept of the priesthood arose from man’s
alienation from God. It is based on the fact that man has strayed from God and
is lost. This is a fundamental part of truth, just as surely as hydrogen is a
part of water. You can not have water without hydrogen. Just as surely, you
cannot have Bible truth without the teaching that mankind has broken with God
and fallen from his first created estate, where he was made in God’s image.
God’s concept and instructions are very plain. There has been a moral breach.
Sinning man has violated the laws of God. In other words, man is a moral
criminal before the bar of God. It is clear from the Bible that a sinful man or
woman cannot return to God’s favor and fellowship until justice is satisfied,
until the breach is healed.
In an effort to heal the breach, man has used many subtleties and
rationalizations. But if he rejects the cross of Christ, if he rejects God’s
plan of salvation, if he rejects Christ’s death and resurrection as the basis
for atonement, there is no remaining ground for redemption.
Reconciliation is an impossibility.
It is a part of my calling and responsibility in the ministry to warn men and
women that rejection of the atoning work of Jesus Christ is fatal to the soul.
With such rejection, the efforts of the Savior and His intercession as great
High Priest have no meaning.
Man is at fault
Alienation was not
God’s fault. It was man who alienated himself. Man is away from God, like a
little island that has pulled away from the mainland. Drifting out to sea, it
has lost the attraction of its original position. So man has morally pulled
away from God and from the attraction of God’s fellowship. Man is alienated,
without hope and without God in this world. The important element in God’s
concept of the priesthood is mediatorship. The Old Testament priest provided a
means of reconciliation between God and man. But he had to be ordained of God.
Otherwise, he was a false priest. In order to help man, he had to be appointed
by God.
God, for His part, needs no help. There never was an Old Testament priest who
could help God. The work of the priest was to offer a sacrifice, an atonement, so that alienated man could be forgiven and
cleansed. In the Levitical order, an offering had to
be made to God by the priest on behalf of the sinner. The priest was appointed
to plead the case of man before a righteous God.
That ancient priestly system was not perfect. It was only the shadow of a
perfect, eternal priesthood to be brought about by the Savior-Priest, Jesus
Christ, the eternal Son. Every priest in the order of Levi knew only too well
his own sin. This was the point of the breakdown. When that priest stood before
God in the holiest place to present an atonement for
the sins of the people, he was face-to-face as well with the reality of his own
failures and shortcomings.
In our own day, we recognize what this means to us as liberated and forgiven
believers. Singing the hymnody of Isaac Watts, we revel in Christ’s atonement
and God’s forgiveness:
Not all the blood of
beasts
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.
The Old Testament priest knew that the ritual of sacrifice could
not completely atone for sins or change man’s sinful nature. In that priestly
system, God ”covered” the sin until the time when
Christ would come. Christ, the Lamb of God, would completely bear away the sin
of the world. Jesus our Lord qualified completely to be our great High Priest.
He was ordained and appointed by God. He was the eternal Son of whom the Father
said, ”You are a priest forever” (Psalm 110:4). He
made reconciliation for the people. He showed the only genuine compassion for
lost mankind. The Scriptures affirm that in these qualifications as priest,
Jesus our Lord became the Author, the Source, the
Giver of eternal salvation.
What Jesus’ manhood means to us
Let me review again what it means to us that Jesus was born into this world and
lived among us. I once heard a preacher say that Jesus was man but not a man. I
am convinced that Jesus was both man and a man. He had, in the most real sense,
that substance and quality that is the essence of mankind. He was a man born of
a woman.
Unless we understand this, I do not think we can be fully aware of what it
means for Jesus to be representing us—a Man representing us at the right hand
of the Majesty in the heavens. Suppose you and I were able right now to go to
the presence of the Father. If we could see the Spirit, who is God, and the
archangels and seraphim and strange creations out of the fire, we would see
them surrounding the throne. But to our delight and amazement, we would see a
Man there, human like we are—the Man Christ Jesus Himself!
Jesus, the Man who is also God, was raised as a victor from the dead and
exalted to the right hand of the Father. I think it is safe to say that during
this age of the work and witness of the Christian church on earth, Jesus would
be the one visible Man in that heavenly company at the throne. Of course, there
are questions that students of the Bible have discussed for many years. All of
us do well to confess that much about the glorious
We might state our question like this: If the risen and glorified Jesus is
ministering there, what about the great number of Christian men and women who,
having died in the faith, have gone on to meet the Lord? Where are they?
First of all, and beyond any other consideration, we know that they are safely
sheltered in God’s heavenly realm. The apostle Paul declares that it is ”better by far” for the Christian to” depart and be with
Christ” (Philippians 1:23) than to continue in this world of sin and tears. At
death, only the physical body succumbs. For the believers in Christ, their
undying and immortal spirits have passed into a blessed spiritual abode
prepared by our God. Let us be assured that God is ever faithful in His
gracious plan for His creation and for His redeemed children.
We surely know that all things are not going to continue forever as we now know
them. Paul in the first century wrote advice and encouragement to the Thessalonian believers. He told them plainly that he did
not want them to be unaware of the state of those believers whom he described
as ”asleep”—having passed into the presence of the Lord through physical death.
His message was one of distinct consolation. It continues to shine as a word of
hope for every believer:
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring
with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own
word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of
the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord
himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the
archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise
first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord
forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. (1 Thessalonians
4:14–18)
Plainly our Creator-God and Redeemer still has many
kingdom secrets not yet revealed to us. But we do know that in that glad day of
Christ’s coming, there will be great transformations, all taking place with
split-second speed.
Concerning those great changes, Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians:
The trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be
changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable,
and the mortal with immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:52–53)
Paul used the familiar analogy of plant life to describe to the Corinthians the
reality of the promised resurrection: What you sow does not come to life unless
it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed,
perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has
determined.…
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is
perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in
glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural
body, it is raised a spiritual body. . .Just as we have borne the likeness of
the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.…When the
perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with
immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ”Death has been
swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:36–38, 42–44, 49, 54) Surely it was
this same revelation by the Spirit of God that caused the writer Jude to
exclaim:
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his
glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ
our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 24–25) We rest upon
God’s revelation that in the heavenly world today, Jesus in His glorified body
represents us at the throne of God. Each of us who loves and serves Him has a
right to the great scriptural promises. In that great climactic event of the
ages, our Lord will come and we shall all be changed. He will present us before
the eternal throne with exceeding joy, glorified even as He is glorified!
CHAPTER 2 --Jesus, God’s
Final Revelation
It does not speak too well for our Christian testimony when God
tells us that He has sent His Son to be His final revelation in this world—and
we act bored about it! What a gracious gesture it was on God’s part. And the
living God and Creator continues to speak to the men
and women of a lost race:
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and
in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.
(Hebrews 1:1–2)
But it leaves us with some questions to answer. Why is Christianity so boring
to so many in our day? Is Jesus Christ still dead?
“Oh, no,” we are quick to reply. He is a risen Savior.” Perhaps, then He has
lost His power and His authority?
“Of course not,” we respond. “He ascended to the right hand of the Majesty
on high.” Then that means He has left us
to our own devices? Are we now on our own?
“Not exactly,” we answer with caution. “We really have not been in very close touch
with Him lately, but He is supposed to be our great High Priest at the heavenly
throne.”
The
key to our boredom
That must be the key to our boredom with Christianity: we have not been keeping
in very close touch with our Man in glory. We have been doing in our churches
all those churchly things that we do. We have done them with our own
understanding and in our own energy. But without a bright and conscious
confirmation of God’s presence, a church service can be very deadly and dull. We go to church and we look bored—even when
we are supposed to be singing God’s praises. We look bored because we are
bored. If the truth were known, we are bored with God, but we are too pious to
admit it. I think God would love it if some honest soul would begin his or her
prayer by admitting, ”God, I am praying because I know
I should, but the truth is I do not want to pray. I am bored with the whole
thing!” I doubt if the Lord would be
angry at such candor. Rather, I believe He would think, ”Well,
there is hope for that person. That person is being truthful with Me. Most people are bored with Me
and will not admit it.”
Some people believe we are living in a kind of vacuum. They see this as an age
in which God is not revealing Himself. They think this is an interval between
the time when God spoke to mankind and the time future when He will again be a
speaking God. Do you suppose they think God has become tired and is resting for
a while? No, the God who spoke in the
past is speaking yet. He is speaking through the revelation of the risen and
ascended Christ, the eternal Son. In all the history of God’s dealings with
man, there has never been an utter blackout of God’s voice.
We should be thankful for this inspired letter to the Hebrews. It indicates
that what God is now saying to mankind through His Son far surpasses anything
in the world’s great varieties of human philosophies. God’s Word is not an
appeal to the reasoning mind of man. It is a matter to be taken into the heart
and soul.
Hebrews is a book and a message and a revelation. It stands high and lofty in
its own strength because it is a fitting, forceful portrait of the eternal Son,
the great High Priest of God forever and forever. I am sad because a large
number of professing Christians who have tried to study the letter have finally
given up. They have turned away with the very human comment, “This is too deep,
too hard to understand.”
We
must approach the Word expectantly
I have always felt that when we read and study the Word of God we should have
great expectations. We should ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the Person, the
glory and the eternal ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps our problem is
in our approach. Perhaps we have simply read our Bibles as we might read a piece
of literature or a textbook.
In today’s society, great numbers of people seem unable to deal with God’s
revelation in Christ. They run and hide, just as Adam and Eve did. Today,
however, they do not hide behind trees but behind such things as philosophy and
reason and even theology—believe it or not! This attitude is hard to
understand.
In Jesus’ death for our sins, God is offering far more than escape from a
much-deserved hell. God is promising us an amazing future, an eternal future.
We do not see it and understand it as we should because so much is wrong with
our world. The effects of sin are all around us. The eternal purposes of God
lie out yonder. I often wonder if we are making it plain enough to our
generation that there will be no other revelation from God except as He speaks
it through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If we have ever confessed that we need a Savior, this letter to the Hebrews
should be an arresting, compelling book for us. It is a great book of
redemption with an emphasis that all things in our lives must begin and end in
God. As we study God’s character and attributes, we will discover an important
fact. Time and space, matter and motion, life and law, form and order, all
purpose and all plan, all succession and all
procession begin and end with God. All things move out from God and return to
Him again.
I pray that God may open our eyes to see and understand that whatever does not
begin in God and end in God is not worthy of any attention from man made in the
image of God. We were made for God, to worship and admire and enjoy and serve
Him forever.
God
has always spoken to us
When the author of Hebrews wrote to declare that “in these last days” God was speaking
through His Son, he reminded us that for thousands of years God had been speaking
in many ways. Actually, there had been
some 4,000 years of human history during which God had been speaking to the
human race. It was a race that had separated itself from God, hiding in the
Garden of Eden and holding itself incognito ever since.
For most people in the first century of the Christian era, God was only a
tradition. Some fondled their man-made gods. Some had ideas of worship and even
built altars. Some mumbled incantations and said prayers. But they were
alienated from the true God. Although they were made in the image of God, they
had rejected their Creator, casting in their lot with mortality.
That situation might have continued until man or nature or both failed and were
no more. But God in love and wisdom came once more. He came to speak, revealing
Himself this time through His eternal Son. It is because of the coming of Jesus
into the world that we now look back on the revelation in the Old Testament as
fragmentary and incomplete. We could say that the Old Testament is like a house
without doors and windows. Not until the carpenters cut in doors and windows
can that house become a worthy, satisfying residence.
Years ago my family and I enjoyed Christian fellowship with a Jewish medical
doctor who had come to personal faith in Jesus, the Savior and Messiah. He
gladly discussed with me his previous participation in Sabbath services in the
synagogue. Often he had been asked to read from the Old Testament Scriptures.
“I often think back on those years of
reading from the Old Testament,” he told me. ”I had the haunting sense that it
was good and true. I knew it explained the history of my people. But I had the
feeling that something was missing.” Then, with a beautiful, radiant smile he
added, ”When I found Jesus as my personal Savior and
Messiah, I found Him to be the One to whom the Old Testament was in fact
pointing. I found Him to be the answer to my completion as a Jew, as a person
and as a believer.”
Whether Jew or Gentile, we were made originally in God’s image,
and the revelation of God by His Spirit is a necessity. An understanding of the
Word of God must come from the same Spirit who provided its inspiration.
The
purpose of Hebrews
The letter to the Hebrews was written to confirm the early Jewish Christians in
their faith in Jesus, the Messiah-Savior. The writer takes a recurring theme
that Jesus Christ is better because He is superior. Jesus Christ is the
ultimate Word from God!
This is a reassuring, strengthening message to us in our day. Hebrews lets us
know that while our Christian faith surely was foreshadowed in and grew out of
Judaism, it was not and is not dependent on Judaism. The words of our Lord
Jesus Christ, spoken while He was here on earth, still speak to us with
spiritual authority. At one time He reminded His disciples that new wine must
never be put in old, unelastic wineskins. The parable
was patent: the old religious forms and traditions could never contain the new
wine He was introducing.
He was saying that a fixed gulf exists between vital Christianity and the old
forms of Judaism. The Judaism of the Old Testament, with its appointed Mosaic
order, had indeed mothered Christianity. But just as the child progresses to
maturity and independence, so the Christian faith and the Christian evangel
were independent of Judaism. Even if Judaism should cease to exist,
Christianity as a revelation from God would—and does—stand firmly upon its own
solid foundation. It rests upon the same living, speaking God that Judaism
rested on.
It is important for us to understand that God, being one in His nature, is
always able to say the same thing to everyone who hears Him. He does not have
two different messages about grace or love or justice or holiness. Whether it be from the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit, the
revelation will always be the same. It points in the same direction, though
using different ways and different means and different persons.
Begin in Genesis and continue through the Old and New Testaments and you will
perceive the uniformity. Yet there are ever-widening elements in God’s
revelation to mankind. In early Genesis the Lord spoke in terms of a coming
Messiah, foretelling a warfare between the serpent and
the Seed of the woman. He noted the victorious Champion-Redeemer who was to
come.
The Lord told Eve in very plain words of future human pain in childbearing and
of woman’s status in the family. He told Adam of the curse upon the ground and
of inevitable death as the result of transgression. To Abel and to Cain He
revealed a system of sacrifice and through it a plan of forgiveness and
acceptance.
God’s message to Noah was of grace and of the order of nature and government.
To Abraham He gave the promise of the coming Seed, the Redeemer who would make an atonement for the race. To Moses, He gave the Law and
told of the coming Prophet who was to be like Moses and yet superior to him.
Those were God’s spoken messages “in the past.”
God’s
message to us
Now, what is God saying to His human creation in our day and time? In brief, He
is saying, ”Jesus Christ is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”
The reason many do not want to hear what God is saying through Jesus to our
generation is not hard to guess. God’s message in Jesus is a moral
pronouncement. It brings to light such elements as faith and conscience and
conduct, obedience and loyalty. Men and women reject this message for the same
reason they have rejected all of the Bible. They do
not wish to be under the authority of the moral Word of God.
For centuries God spoke in many ways. He inspired holy men to write portions of
the message in a Book. People do not like it and try their best to avoid it
because God has made it the final test of all morality, the final test of all
Christian ethics.
Some are taking issue with the New Testament record. ”How can you prove that
Jesus actually said that?” they challenge. Perhaps they are taking issue
because they have come across the unforgettable words of Jesus in John’s
Gospel:
As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge
him. For I did not
come to judge the world, but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me
and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at
the last day. (John 12:47–48)
God is a living God and Jesus Christ, with all power and all authority, is at the
control panel, guiding and sustaining all things in the universe. That concept
is fundamental to the Christian faith. It is necessary that we really and fully
comprehend that our God is indeed the Majesty in the heavens.
Hebrews
reassures us
We can get this assurance from Hebrews, read in the context of the total
inspired record. And as we are assured of this, we will have discovered a
fundamental means of retaining our sanity in a troubled world and in a selfish
society.
If we are going to keep our minds restful at all, we will actually think God
into His world—not dismiss Him from His world, as many are trying to do. We
will allow Him by faith to be in our beings what He actually is in His world.
The idea that God exists and that He is sovereign in the heavens is absolutely
fundamental to human morality. Our view of human decency is also involved in
this. Decency is that quality which is proper or becoming. Human decency
depends upon an adequate and wholesome concept of God.
Those who take the position that there is no God cannot possibly hold a right
and proper view of human nature. That is evident in God’s revelation. There is
not a man or woman anywhere who can hold an adequate view of our human nature
until he or she accepts the fact that we came from God and that we shall return
to God again.
We who have admitted Jesus Christ into our lives as Savior and Lord are happy
indeed that we did so. In matters of health care, we are familiar with the
custom of a ”second opinion.” If I go to a doctor and
he or she advises me to have surgery, I can leave that office and consult with
another specialist about my condition. Concerning our decision to receive Jesus
Christ, we surely would have been ill-advised to go out and try to get a second
opinion! Jesus Christ is God’s last word to us. There is no other. God has
headed up all of our help and forgiveness and blessing in the person of Jesus
Christ, the Son.
In our dark day, God has given us Jesus as the Light of the world. Those who
refuse Him give themselves over to the outer darkness that will prevail
throughout the eternal ages.
We may not like what the Great Physician tells us about ourselves and our sin.
But where else can we go? Peter supplied the answer to that question. ”’Lord,’
he said, ‘to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe
and know that you are the Holy One of God’.”
This is the Savior whom God is offering. He is the eternal Son, equal to the
Father in His Godhead, co-eternal and of one substance with the Father.
He is speaking. We should listen!
CHAPTER 3 – Jesus, Heir of All
Things
Rebellion and sin have left a monstrous blight upon the earth that God created.
But we who have come to trust this Creator God and the written revelation He
has left for us are convinced of two truths. One, heaven and earth are a unity,
designed and created by the one God. Two, this sovereign God did not make the
universe to be an everlasting contradiction; a day of restoration lies ahead.
When we approach the letter to the Hebrews, we discover a revealed truth within
the writer’s insistence that God has appointed Jesus, the eternal Son, “through whom he
made the universe,” as “heir of all
things” (1:2).
With that expression, the writer is asking us to stretch our minds and expand
our understanding. See it again: God has appointed His Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, the One who made the worlds in space, to be the eternal heir of “all things.”
Perhaps in our day and age it does not sound very important that Christ is the
heir of all things. That is because we may be applying our own restricted
meaning to the words “all things.” We use the expression to denote
the circumstances of life as they come along, easy or hard, simple or complex.
But in these opening lines of the Hebrews letter the Holy Spirit is trying to
give us a particular and significant meaning for the ”all things” that are
committed to Jesus Christ.
“All things” equals the universe
When the words all things are used in the Bible as they are found here, they
are the theological equivalent of the word ”universe”
as used by the philosophers. Admittedly, this is not an easy concept for us to
grasp. We are not used to stretching our minds! The preachers of our generation
are failing us. They are not forcing us to crank up our minds and to exercise
our souls in the contemplation of God’s eternal themes.
Too many preachers are satisfied to dwell primarily on the escape element in
Christianity. I acknowledge that the escape element is real. No one is more sure of it than I. I am going to escape a much-deserved
hell because of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection from the
grave. But if we continue to emphasize that truth to the exclusion of all else,
Christian believers will never fully grasp what the Scriptures are teaching us
about all of the eternal purposes of God.
This same observation is true also of those who are intrigued with just
the social and ethical aspects of Christianity. These may be very fulfilling
and engaging, but if that is where we stop, we will never comprehend the
greater promises and the loftier plans of the God who loves us and who has
called us.
We
must get serious
As I have said before, for a great number of unthinking people Christianity has
come down to this: a nice, simple, relaxing way of having good clean fun, with
the assurance that when this earthly life is over we will still go to heaven.
We need to take ourselves by the scruff of the neck and vow,
”I am going to think this thing through! I am going to pray through and
lay hold of God’s meaning for my life, for my witness and for my future!” Our
Lord is trying to show us His amazing and significant plans for our eternal
future.
In our relationships down here on earth, we learn of a father who has decided
he will prepare an inheritance for his son. He is going to arrange for his son
to come into possession of all that is in his estate: properties, bank
accounts, stocks and bonds, possessions. The son will receive title to the
entire estate when the inheritance becomes effective. Think of it! The son is coming
into an inheritance none of which he ever owned or possessed.
But that is not the case with the title and possessions and authority and power
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Already He is Lord. As the risen, eternal Son, He is
seated in the heavenlies awaiting
the day of universal consummation. In his Gospel, the apostle John has
introduced us to the eternal Son, who from the beginning was the Word of God:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been
made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:1–4)
Before there was an atom or a molecule, before there was a star or a galaxy,
before there was light or motion, before there was matter or mass, the eternal
Son was God. He was. He existed. He would have been there even if there had not
been accretion, for He was the self-existent God. Therefore, all thing sin all
places have always belonged to Him.
God
has a master plan
God is planning to do some wonderful and spectacular things with His vast
creation. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, gave us a little glimpse into
the future of the redeemed:
He has made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure,
which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have
reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together
under one head, even Christ. (Ephesians 1:9–10)
The apostle is assuring us that even as an architect builder gathers the
necessary materials needed to fashion the structure he has designed, so God
will gather all things together. And how will He do that? By
”bringing all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even
Christ.” If we will give the Scriptures attention, we will learn from them that
a great future day is coming in which God will prove the essential unity of His
creation. That spectacular display will be correlated and fulfilled in the
person of our Lord Jesus Christ. God will make it plain that all things have
derived their form from Christ; they have received their meaning by the power
of His word; and they have maintained their place and order through Him.
Jesus Christ is God creating.
Jesus
Christ is God redeeming.
Jesus
Christ is God completing and harmonizing.
Jesus
Christ is God bringing together all things after the counsel of His own will.
Not
yet do we see it
After that flight of anticipation for a future still coming, I must admit that
we earthbound creatures do not yet see it or sense it like that. Let me speak
again of our acknowledged human shortcomings, even those that have to do with
our faith. It is very hard for us to envision the risen Christ Jesus as He is
now glorified at the right hand of the Majesty on high. At best
”we see but a poor reflection” (1 Corinthians 13:12). At worst we are
stone blind!
Not always can we see the hand of God in the things around us. We experience in
this life only unfinished segments of God’s great eternal plan. We do not see
the hosts of heaven in the ”cloud of witnesses” around
us. We do not see the ”spirits of righteous men made
perfect” (Hebrews 12:23) or the beckoning row on row of principalities or the
shining ranks of powers throughout the universe. In this time of our
incompleteness, we do not comprehend the glory that will be ours in that future
day when leaning on the arm of our heavenly Bridegroom we are led into the
presence of the Father in heaven with exceeding joy.
We do our best to exercise faith. Yet we see the future consummation only dimly
and imperfectly. The writer to the Hebrews has tried to help us in the proper
exercise of our faith. He has done so with his amazing statement that our Lord
Jesus Christ is the heir of all things in God’s far-flung creation.
It is a concept having to do with everything that God has made in His vast
universe. Everything has been ordered, created and laid out so that it becomes
the garment of Deity or the universal living expression of Himself to the
world.
When we read that God has appointed Jesus, the Son, to be the heir of all
things, the reference is to the whole creation of God as it will be seen in its
future, ultimate perfection. We cannot believe that God has left anything to
chance in His creative scheme. That includes everything from the tiniest blade
of grass on earth to the mightiest galaxy in the distant heavens above.
All
things—what is included?
”Heir of all things.” What does that phrase really
include? It includes angels, seraphim, cherubim, ransomed men and women of all
ages, matter, mind, law, spirit, value, meaning. It
includes life and events on the varied levels of being. It includes all of
these and more—and God’s great interest embraces them all!
Are you beginning to gain a new appreciation of God’s great universal purpose?
I am not simply assuming the role of philosopher. The purpose of God is to
bring together—to acquaint all rational beings with all other segments within
His complex creation. I repeat that I believe in the essential unity of all
God’s creation. Thus, I believe a day is coming when each part of God’s
creation will recognize its own essential oneness with very other part. Toward
that day the whole creation is moving.
When I wrote about this concept in an editorial in Alliance Life, a reader
hastened to accuse me of being pantheistic. I am not pantheistic. And the
essential unity of God’s creation is not pantheism. Pantheism teaches that God
is all things and that all things are God. According to pantheism, if you want to
know what God is you must come to know all things.
Then, if you could put all things in your arms, you would have God. Pantheism
is ridiculous—claiming and teaching that all things are God.
God is imminent in His universe. That I believe. But beyond that, He is
transcendent above His universe and infinitely separated from it, for He is the
Creator God.
Not
a new concept
These basic concepts—the mysteries of creation and God’s unity forever
displayed in His works—are not new. They were believed by the great Christian
souls and minds of the earlier centuries. One of the notable Scottish Moravian
authors was James Montgomery. Out of his writing comes this beautiful poem
expressing the unity he sensed in God’s creation:
The glorious universe around,
The
heavens with all their train,
Sun,
moon and stars are firmly bound
In one mysterious chain.
The
earth, the ocean and the sky
To
form one world agree;
Where
all that walk or swim or fly
Compose
one family.
God
in creation must display
His
wisdom and His might;
Where
all His works with all His ways
Harmoniously
unite.
We are only too aware that the universe as we know it is in discord. On every
side sounds the raucous rattle of sin. But in that coming day sin will be
purged away and all things that walk, creep, crawl, swim or fly will be found
to comprise one family indeed.
And
the church, too
Allow me one more point. I want to say something about the body of Christian
believers and this universal unity that one day will be established in the
person of Jesus Christ. If I could ask, ”Do you
believe in the communion of saints?” what would be your reply? Would the
question make you uncomfortable?
I suspect many Protestants would chide me right here, feeling I was getting too
close to doctrinal beliefs held by ecumenists or perhaps by Catholics. I am not
referring to ecumenicity and dreams of organizational church union. I am gazing
ahead in faith to God’s great day of victory, harmony and unity, when sin is no
longer present in the creation. In that great coming day of consummation, the
children of God—the believing family of God—will experience a blessed harmony
and communion of the Spirit. I surely agree with the foresight of the English
poet, John Brighton, who caught a glimpse of a coming day of fellowship among
the people of God. He wrote:
In one eternal bond of love,
One
fellowship of mind,
The
saints below and saints above
Their
bliss and glory find.
I believe that is scriptural. I do not think anyone should throw out the great
doctrine of the communion of saints just because the ecumenists embrace it.
Some
day we will comprehend
The unity of all things in Christ is a concept every believer should lay hold
of. When we witness the future day of Christ’s triumph, when He returns and we
reach the consummation of all things, then we will fully comprehend the
necessity for the “all things” in God’s eternal plan.
Many people are having their greatest battles over their deepening sense of
futility and uselessness. It is important that we grasp God’s revelation that
every one of us is essential to His great plan for the ages. You will seek
answers in vain from fellow men and women. Seek your answers rather from God
and His Word. He is sovereign; He is still running His world.
God wants us to know that He must have all the parts in order to compose His
great eternal symphony. He would have us assured that each one of us is
indispensable to His grand theme!
Jesus, God’s Express Image
I wish I could comprehend everything that the inspired Word is trying to reveal
in the statement that Jesus, the eternal Son, is the ”radiance
of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3). This
much I do know and understand: Jesus Christ is Himself God. As a believer and a
disciple, I rejoice that the risen, ascended Christ is now my High Priest and
intercessor at the heavenly throne.
The writer to the Hebrews commands our attention with this descriptive,
striking language:
In these last days has spoke to us by his Son,… [who is] the radiance of God’s glory and the exact
representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
(Hebrews 1:2-3)
We trust the Scriptures because we believe they are inspired—God-breathed.
Because we believe them, we believe and confess that Jesus was very God of very
God.
Nothing anywhere in this vast, complex world is as beautiful and as compelling
as the record of the Incarnation, the act by which God was made flesh to dwell
among us in our own human history. This Jesus, the Christ of God, who made the
universe and who sustains all things by his powerful word, was a tiny babe
among us. He was comforted to sleep when He whimpered in His mother’s arms.
Great, indeed, is the mystery of godliness.
Yet, in this context, some things strange and tragic have been happening in
recent years within Christianity. For one, some ministers have advised their
congregations not to be greatly concerned if theologians dispute the virgin
birth of Jesus. The issue, they say, is not important. For another thing, some
professing Christians are saying they do not want to be pinned down as to what
they really believe about the uniqueness and reality of the deity of Jesus, the
Christ.
We
are convinced
We live in a society where we cannot always be sure that traditional
definitions still hold. But I stand where I always have stood. And the genuine
believer, no matter where he may be found in the world, humbly but surely is
convinced about the person and position of Jesus Christ. Such a believer lives
with calm and confident assurance that Jesus Christ is truly God and that He is
everything the inspired writer said He is. He is “the radiance of God’s glory and the
exact representation of his being.”
This view of Christ in Hebrews harmonizes with and supports what Paul said of
Jesus when he described Him as ”the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn over all creation”(Colossians 1:15), in whom “all
the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (2:9).
Bible-believing Christians stand together on this. They may have differing
opinions about the mode of baptism, church polity or the return of the Lord.
But they agree on the deity of the eternal Son. Jesus Christ is of one
Substance with the Father—begotten, not created (Nicene Creed). In our defense
of this truth we must be very careful and very bold—belligerent, if need be.
The more we study the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when He lived on earth
among us, the more certain we are about who He is. Some critics have protested, ”Jesus did not claim to be God, you know. He only said He
was the Son of Man.”
It is true that Jesus used the term Son of Man frequently. If I can say it
reverently, He seemed proud or at least delighted that He was a man, the Son of
man. But He testified boldly, even among those who were His sworn enemies, that
He was God. He said with great forcefulness that He had come from the Father in
heaven and that He was equal with the Father.
We know what we believe. Let no one with soft words and charming
persuasion argue us into admission that Jesus Christ
is any less than very God of very God.
God became flesh in Jesus Christ
The writer of Hebrews was informing the persecuted, discouraged Jewish
Christians concerning God’s final and complete revelation in Jesus Christ. He
spoke of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Then he declared that Another had come. Although made flesh, He was none other
than this same God. Not the Father, for God the Father was never incarnated and
never will be. Rather, He is God the eternal Son, the radiance of the Father’s
glory and the exact representation of His being.
Something has happened to the word glory, especially as it relates to the
description of deity. Glory is one of those beautiful, awesome words that have
been dragged down until they have lost much of their meaning. The old artists
may have had something to do with it, depicting the glory of Jesus Christ as a
luminous halo—a shining neon hoop around His head. But the glory of Jesus
Christ was never a luminous ring around the head. It was never a misty yellow
light.
We
are inclined to irreverence
I have a difficult time excusing our careless and irreverent attitudes
concerning our Lord and Savior. I feel strongly that worshipping Christians
should never be guilty of using a theological word or expression in a popular
or careless sense unless we explain what we are doing. It is only proper when
we speak of the glory of God the Son to actually refer to that uniqueness of
His person and character that excites our admiration and wonder.
To those who love this One and serve Him, His glory does not mean yellow light
or neon hoops. His true glory is that which causes the heavenly beings to cover
their faces in His presence. It brings forth their worshipful praise: ”Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts!” The glory of
the Lord is that forth-shining that gives Him universal praise. It demands love
and worship from His created beings. It makes Him known throughout His
creation.
It
is the character of God that is the glory of God.
God is not glorified until men and women think gloriously of Him. Yet it is not
what people think of God that matters. God once dwelt in light which no one
could approach. But He desired to speak, to express Himself. So He created the
heavens and the earth, filling earth with His creatures, including mankind. He
expected man to respond to that in Him which is glorious, admirable and
excellent.
That response from His creation in love and worship is His glory. When we say
that Christ is the radiance of God’s glory, we are saying that Christ is the
shining forth of all that God is. Yes, He is the shining forth, the effulgence.
When God expressed Himself, it was in Christ Jesus. Christ was all and in all.
He is the exact representation of God’s person.
“Exact
representation,” “person”
The word person in this context is difficult of comprehension. Church history testifies
to the difficulties theologians have had with it. Sometimes the person of God
has been called substance. Sometimes it has been called essence. The Godhead
cannot be comprehended by the human mind. But the eternal God sustains,
upholds, stands beneath all that composes the vast
created universe. And Jesus Christ has been presented to us as the exact
representation of God’s person—all that God is.
The words exact representation, of course, have their
origin in the pressed-upon-wax seal that authenticated a dignitary’s document
or letter. The incarnate Jesus Christ gives visible shape and authenticity to
deity. When the invisible God became visible, He was Jesus Christ. When the God
who could not be see nor touched came to dwell among
us, He was Jesus Christ.
I have not suggested this picture of our Lord Jesus Christ as a kind of
theological argument. I am simply trying to state, in the best way I can, what
the Holy Spirit has spoken through the consecrated writer of the letter to the
Hebrews.
What
is God like?
What is God like? Throughout the ages, that question has been asked by more
people than any other. Our little children are only a few years old when they
come in their innocent simplicity and inquire of us, ”What
is God like?” Philip the apostle asked it for himself and for all mankind: ”`Show us the Father and that will be enough for us’”
(John 14:8). Philosophers repeatedly have asked the question. Religionists and
thinkers have wrestled with it for millenniums.
Paul preached at
Sin has made man like a bird without a tongue. It has within itself the
instinct and the desire to sing, but not the ability. The poet Keats expressed
beautifully, even brilliantly, the fantasy of the nightingale that had lost its
tongue. Not being able to express the deep instinct to sing, the bird died of
an over-powering suffocation within.
Eternity
in our hearts
God made mankind in His own image. He ”set eternity in
the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). What a graphic picture! How much it
explains ourselves to us! We are creatures of time—time in our hands, our feet,
our bodies—that causes us to grow old and to die. Yet all the while we have
eternity in our hearts!
One of our great woes as fallen people living in a fallen world is the constant
warfare between the eternity in our hearts and the time in our bodies. This is
why we can never be satisfied without God. This is why the question
”What is God like?” continues to spring from every one of us. God has
set the values of eternity in the hearts of every person made in His image.
As human beings, we have ever tried to satisfy ourselves by maintaining a
quest, a search. We have not forgotten that God was. We have only forgotten
what God is like.
Philosophy has tried to give us answers. But the philosophical concepts
concerning God have always been contradictory. The philosopher is like a blind
person trying to paint someone’s portrait. The blind person can feel the face
of his subject and try to put some brush strokes on canvas. But the project is
doomed before it is begun. The best that philosophy can do is to feel the face
of the universe in some ways, then try to paint God as
philosophy sees Him. Most philosophers
confess belief in a “presence” somewhere in the universe. Some call it a “law”—or
“energy” or “mind” or “essential virtue.” Thomas Edison said if he lived long
enough, he thought he could invent an instrument so sensitive that it could
find God.
Religions
have no answers
The religions of the world have always endeavored to give answers concerning
God. The Pharisees, for example, declare that God is light. So they worship the
sun and fire and forms of light. Other religions have suggested that God is
conscience, or that He may be found in virtue. For some religions, there is
solace in the belief that God is a principle upholding the universe.
There are religions that teach that God is all justice. They live in terror.
Others say that God is all love. They become arrogant. Like the philosophers,
religionists have concepts and views, ideas and theories. In none of them has
mankind found satisfaction.
Greek paganism had a pantheon of gods. They saw the sun rising in the east and
moving westward in a blaze of fire and called it Apollo. They heard the wind
roaring along the sea coast and named her Eos, mother of the winds and the
stars. They saw the waters of the ocean churning themselves
into foam and named him Neptune. They imagined a goddess hovering over the
fruitful fields of grain each year and gave her the name Ceres.
Given such a pagan outlook, there is no end to the fantasies of gods and
goddesses. In Romans 1 God has described the human condition that incubates
such aberrations. Men and women, intrigued by their sin, did not want the
revelation of a living, speaking God. They deliberately ignored the only true
God, crowded Him out of their lives. In His place they invented gods of their
own: birds and animals and reptiles.
Often enough we have been warned that the morality of any nation or
civilization will follow its concepts of God. A parallel truth is less often
heard: When a church begins to think impurely and inadequately about God,
decline sets in.
We must think nobly and speak worthily of God. Our God is sovereign. We would
do well to follow our old-fashioned forebears who knew what it was to kneel in
breathless, wondering adoration in the presence of the God who is willing to
claim us as His own through grace.
Jesus
is what God is like
Some are still asking, “What is God like?” God Himself has given us a final, complete
answer. Jesus said, “Anyone who has seen
me has seen the Father,” (John 14:9).
For those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, the quest of the ages
is over. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son, came to dwell among us, being ”the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation
of his being.” For us, I say, the quest is over because God has now revealed
Himself to us. What Jesus is, the Father is. Whoever looks on the Lord Jesus
Christ looks upon all of God. Jesus is God thinking God’s thoughts. Jesus is
God feeling the way God feels. Jesus is God now doing what God does.
In John’s Gospel, we have the record of Jesus telling the people of His day
that He could do nothing of Himself. He said, ”`The Son can do nothing by
himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the
Father does the Son also does’” (John 5:19). It was on the strength of such
testimony that the Jewish leaders wanted to stone Him for blasphemy.
How strange it is that some of the modern cults try to tell us that Jesus
Christ never claimed to be God. Yet those who heard Him 2,000 years ago wanted
to kill Him on the spot because He claimed to be one with the Father.
In
Jesus the revelation is complete
God’s revelation of Himself is complete in Jesus Christ, the Son. No longer
need we ask, “What
is God like?” Jesus is God. He has translated God into terms we can understand.
We know how He feels toward a fallen woman: ”`Neither
do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. `Go now and leave your life of sin’” (John
8:11).
We know how He feels toward fishermen and workmen and common people: ”`Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, `and I will make you
fishers of men’” (Mark 1:17).
We know what God thinks of babies and little children: ”Jesus
said, `Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the
kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these’”(Matthew 19:14).
Jesus has been in our world. He spoke and taught about all these things and
about everything that concerns us. The record shows that His listeners were
amazed and astonished, almost to the point of being frightened. ”The crowds
were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority”
(Matthew 7:28–29). ”`No one ever spoke the way this man does’” (John 7:46).
When you read your New Testament and realize afresh the attitudes and the
utterances of our Lord Jesus Christ, you will know exactly how God feels. Where
can we look in all the vast creation around us to find anything as beautiful—as
utterly, awesomely, deeply beautiful—as the Incarnation? God became flesh to
dwell among us, to redeem us, to restore us, to save us completely. Young or
old or in between, we join in Lowell Mason’s hymn of praise:
O could I speak the matchless worth,
O could I sound the
glories forth
Which in my Savior shine,
I’d soar and touch the
heavenly strings,
And vie with Gabriel
while he sings
In notes almost divine.
I’d sing the characters
He bears,
And all the forms of love
He wears,
Exalted on His throne:
In loftiest songs of
sweetest praise,
I would to everlasting
days
Make all His glories
known.
There is a closing stanza which anticipates the welcome we shall receive in
heaven and the everlasting career awaiting us there:
Soon the delightful day will come
When
my dear Lord will bring me home,
And
I shall see His face:
Then
with my Savior, Brother, Friend,
A
blest eternity I’ll spend,
Triumphant in His grace.
The convinced man who breathed those words was saying that Jesus is God! And
the world above and the poorer world beneath join in response: “Amen, amen! Jesus is God!”
Jesus, Lord of the Angels
Our Protestant churches have never been very enthusiastic about
the Bible references to the many kind s of angels and angelic beings which make
up the Lord’s heavenly host. Because we do not see them, we generally do not
discuss them. There seem to be many Christians who are not sure what they
should believe about God’s heavenly messengers.
In short, where the matter of Bible teaching about angels is concerned, we have
come into a sad state of neglect and ignorance.
Personally, I despise the cynical references to angels and the comic jokes
about them. The preacher who reported his guardian angel had had a hard time
keeping up with him as he sped over the highway spoke in bad taste and probably
in ignorance. If that is the best a preacher can say about the guardian angels
or God’s angelic host, he needs to go back to his Bible.
The writer of the letter to the Hebrews gives his readers a vivid, vital
portrait of Jesus, the eternal Son. He knows their familiarity, through the Old
Testament, with the concept and ministry of angels. He trades on that knowledge
to point out the overwhelming superiority of the victorious Jesus as He minister sin the heavenly world above:
Again, when God brings his first-born into the world, he says,
“Let
all God’s angels worship him.”
In speaking of the angels he says,
“He
makes his angels winds,
his servants flames of fire.”
But about the Son he says,
“Your
throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
and righteousness will be the scepter of
your kingdom.” (Hebrews 1:6–8)
In this revealing comparison between angels and the Messiah-Savior, Jesus
Christ, we need to bear in mind that the ministries of angels were very well
known and highly respected among the Jews. It should be of great significance
to us, then, that the writer would assure them that Jesus our Lord is
infinitely above and superior to the brightest angels who inhabit the
The
readers needed encouragement
This full- orbed vision of the glories and credentials of Jesus Christ was
needed just then by the persecuted Hebrew Christians. And to us in this 20th
century of the Christian church, the same revelation comes with God’s authority
and meaning. The word that assured the Hebrews reveals to us that the eternal
Son was preeminent above Abraham, above Moses, above Aaron and the priests of
the Old Testament era.
Much of our Bible study tends to be one-sided. We choose to read what we like.
We neglect those portions that seem to have less interest for us. Do you agree?
Among Protestant Christians for several years there has been a rather
mystifying psychology. Our Roman Catholic neighbors in their hymnody and
teaching have given considerable recognition to the holy angels. Protestants
seem to have reacted in a reverse way. It is as though we have decided to say
nothing at all about the angels.
In Old Testament times and in the early Christian church, there were churchmen
and scholars who gave much attention to matters relating to angelic hosts and
their appearance. When Paul spoke of the creation to the Colossians, he
mentioned both the visible and the invisible world, naming thrones, powers,
rulers, authorities (Colossians 1:16). Often these have been perceived of as
ranks or degrees of angelic beings and their authority and power.
Paul mentioned the existence of archangels in the heavens when he wrote to the
Thessalonians. ”The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud
command, with the voice of the archangel” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). No, we are
not prepared to argue against the reality of either the visible or the
invisible world. Because the religion of the Hebrews was divinely given, it
reflected the two worlds accurately.
Science
demands measurable evidence
Consider why we think like we do in today’s society. We are participants in a
new age—a scientific age, an atomic age, a space age. We have been conditioned
by our sciences. No longer have we any great sense of wonder or appreciation
for what God continues to do in His creation. Amid our complex engineering and
technological accomplishments, it is difficult for us to lookout on God’s world
as we should.
As believers in God and in His plan for mankind, we must not yield to the
philosophies that surround us. We have a God-given message to proclaim to our
generation: The world was made by Almighty God. It bears the stamp of deity
upon it and within it.
An architect leaves his stamp upon the great buildings he has designed. A
notable artist leaves his mark and personality on his paintings. The same
principle applies to the visible and invisible worlds. We call them two worlds,
although probably they are but one. God’s stamp as designer and creator is
there, just as His own mark and personality can be found throughout the sacred
Scriptures.
God has told us much about His invisible world and kingdom. In that telling He
has revealed many things about the heavenly beings that do His will.
Angels are an order of transcendent beings. They are shown to be holy and they
are shown to be sexless. Jesus in His earthly ministry, speaking of the
resurrection and the coming kingdom, said that we will be without sexual
identification in that heavenly abode—“like the angels’” (Mark 12:25). But we
will not become angels in the life to come, contrary to what some have believed
since childhood. God makes it clear that we do not change from one species to
another. We are redeemed human beings, and we look forward in faith to the day
of our resurrection and glorification as redeemed human beings. Angels are one
order of created being; humans are another (Hebrews 2:16).
Angels
and Christians
We are probably most familiar with angels as a result of the
Christmas story. They heralded Jesus’ birth. “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host
appeared with the angel, praising God …” (Luke 2:13). Jesus Himself spoke of “legions” of angels. ” “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and
he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). The writer to the Hebrews
refers to their number as “thousands upon thousands” (Hebrews 12:22). And David
the psalmist refers to “the chariots of God” as numbering ”tens
of thousands / and thousands of thousands” (Psalm 68:17). No one is able to
answer conclusively why God made the heavenly host so numerous.
Going back into the Old Testament, we note that angels apparently had some
function at the creation. In His conversation with Job, God spoke of laying
earth’s “cornerstone” and remarked that ”all the
angels shouted for joy” (Job 38:7). Angels figured in the giving of the Law at
Sinai. “The law,” wrote the apostle Paul, “was put into effect through angels
by a mediator”(Galatians 3:19).
An angel—Gabriel by name—appeared to the virgin Mary with the announcement that
she would give birth to a Son whom she was to name Jesus (Luke 1:26–31). In
telling the story of Lazarus, the destitute beggar, Jesus declared that “angels
carried him to Abraham’s side” (Luke 16:22). It is a picture almost reminiscent
of the ”ticker tape” parades welcoming our nation’s
heroes. That righteous beggar was escorted into the precincts of heaven with
the angels leading the procession. I am convinced that the angels of God have a
large role in preserving the righteous. Although most of us do not talk about
it, Jesus said of the children, “Their angels in heaven always see the
face of my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:10).
In all that Jesus said about angels, no words are more significant for us
members of a fallen race than His statement that ”there
is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents”
(Luke 15:10).
We read with tender feeling of Jesus’ agony and stress as He prayed in the
At Jesus’ resurrection, angels were much in evidence. An angel rolled the stone
from the tomb’s entrance. Angels announced to Jesus’ distraught followers the
joyful tidings of His resurrection.
Anyone who wants to can put a film of unbelief over his or her eyes and thus
deny the existence and activity of angels. But in doing so, he or she is
denying clear biblical teaching.
Some protest the discussion of angels, saying, ”Let’s
be practical!” By which they mean, ”Let’s limit our
considerations to three-dimensional, sense-perceived objects.” There is a day
coming when the answers to our questions will be plain. On that day we will
discover that the ministries of the angelic beings are indeed practical and
very real.
I
have never seen an angel
Now, you probably are wondering how much personal experience I have had with angelic
beings. ”Have I ever seen an angel?”
I have never seen an angel. Nor have I ever claimed to be a visionary person.
My calling has been to pray and study and to try to find from the Scriptures
what God is doing and what He has promised to do. I proclaim the teaching of
the Scriptures that the angels of God are busy in their special ministries. I
base that observation on the Word of God, not upon any facet of my own human
experience.
The Bible does not tell any of us to spend our time trying to get in touch with
angels. It does tell us that angels exist and that they are busy. Their
activity is frequently mentioned in the Scriptures. I am not going to skip over
those references, ignoring them, as some do.
At times we talk about the providential care of God without really knowing what
we say and what we mean. Some Christians testify to ”coincidences”
in their lives—perhaps two very important things occurring at just the right
time and place. Hundreds of years ago Thomas Aquinas wrote to the Christian church,
saying, ”The function of God’s angels is to execute
the plan of divine providence, even in earthly things.” Then John Calvin
followed with his teaching that ”angels are the
dispensers and administrators of the divine beneficence toward us.”
God has His own ways and means of working out His plans on behalf of His
believing children. We ought not to ask the Lord for a printed list of rules
about His providences and guidance. As we trust in the Spirit, live in the
Spirit and walk in the Spirit, we will realize that God is always on our side.
Angels
in disguise
This was true in my own experience. After I had found the Lord as a youth, I
was attending a church that seemed to be of very little spiritual help to me.
Actually, it was the kind of church in which it would be easy to backslide. One
Sunday morning I awoke in a bad mood. ”I am not going to church today!” I
decided. So I went for a walk in the country. I did not have any golf clubs to
use as an excuse. Neither did I tell the Lord I was going to worship amid the
beauties of nature. I knew within myself that I really was backsliding—going in
the wrong direction that Sunday morning.
I turned aside to walk through a grassy field. In the middle of the field my
foot suddenly kicked something hidden in the grass—something red. I stooped and
picked up an old red-bound book. It looked as if it had been in the rain, had
dried out, had been rained on again and dried out again. The book was not some
old literary classic. It was not a discarded book of cheap fiction. It was a
Christian handbook: a thousand questions and answers for anyone interested in
Bible study.
I opened it. And after I had scanned a few pages of biblical teaching, I became
impressed by the fact that I should have been in church with other believers
that morning. I threw the book back on the ground and started for home,
wondering who had put such a message directly in the way of a discouraged
Christian boy who was too gloomy to go to church.
I am not saying that the book was placed there by an angel or some other
heavenly visitor in just the right spot. In all likelihood it was dropped in
that place by someone who had chanced to pass through the field. But in the
providence of God it was that day the reminder I needed of the goodness and
faithfulness of God in my life.
I recall still another personal experience during my early Christian life as an
unsettled young man. Actually, I was doing some “bumming around,” as we used to
say. I was away from home, away from the church and away from everything that
was right. I would spend weekends “riding the rods.” I had little money, and I
would hitch free rides on the freight trains, riding the rods under the
boxcars.
The Lord chose a particular Sunday to teach me the lesson I had to learn. I do
not remember now which town was involved, but I was involved and so was the
Lord. The freight train slowed down, then braked to a stop. The car that I was
riding halted directly alongside a church yard. The train had hardly stopped
when the church bells began to ring. They rang more loudly and more insistently
than any bells I have heard before or since!
I have sat under strong preaching, but never has a preacher laid conviction on
my soul like those church bells did that Sunday morning. I do not know if they
were Methodist or Presbyterian or Anglican church
bells. But they reminded me that I should not be riding freight trains. Rather,
I should be back where I belonged. And, believe me, very soon I was back where
I belonged—and straightened out spiritually, too!
How was all of that arranged? The right day, the right hour, the right place.
If I had walked up to the engineer to inquire if he was an angel, he probably
would have smiled, spit some tobacco juice over the cab window sill and replied, ”Not that I know of!” But this I am sure of: when that
engineer put on those brakes, it was by the providence of God that I would be
halted practically in a church yard, with the bells pleading,
”Go back, young man! Go back, young man.”
God
knows us well
My point is that God knows us so well that He does a number of little
providential things at the very moment of our need. We think we have planned
and executed everything all by ourselves. We are not aware that it has been
God’s plan and that He has been out there ahead of us the whole time.
It was some years later, as I read Psalm 71 in the familiar King James Version,
that I noticed for the first time the words, ”Thou hast given commandment to
save me” (71:2). My heart has been warm ever since with that thought. God has
sent His Word throughout all of the earth to save me. You may be critical if
you wish. Do with that text as you will. You may even have some theological
problem with it. But God has “given commandment,” and these words are for me!
God saw me, a lonely, lost boy in rural western
Nothing can compare with this knowledge. God and His Word are on my side. The
living Word of God has charged Himself with the responsibility to forgive me,
to cleanse me, to perfect that which concerns me and to keep me in the way
everlasting.
We are living in a world full of God’s created beings—many of them not seen by
us or those around us. We ought to thank God for the angels and for God’s
providential circumstances everyday. As one of the old saints long ago
remarked, “If you will thank God for your providences, you will never lack a
providence to thank God for!”
Jesus, Standard of Righteousness
The message of the first century Hebrew Christians was precise and direct: Let
Jesus Christ be your motivation to love righteousness and to hate iniquity. In
our present century our spiritual obligations and responsibilities are no
different. The character and attributes of Jesus, the eternal Son, have not
changed and will not change.
But about the Son he says,
“Your
throne, O God, will last for ever and ever,
and righteousness will be the scepter of
your kingdom.
You
have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set
you above your companions
by anointing you with the oil of joy.” (Hebrews 1:8–9)
Without
excuse
There is a tendency for people to relegate everything in the realm of righteousness
or iniquity to deity, whatever their concept of deity may be. For the true
Christian, however, our risen Lord made a promise to us before His death and
resurrection. That promise effectively removes our excuses and makes us
responsible:
When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will
not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you
what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and
making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I
said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. (John
16:13–15)
I will readily admit that we are not God. We cannot do in ourselves what God
can do. But God created us as human beings, and if we have the anointing of the
Holy Spirit and His presence in our lives, we should be able to do what Jesus,
the Son of Man, was able to do in His earthly ministry.
Please do not close this book and turn away when I tell you of my persuasion. I
am persuaded that our Lord Jesus, while He was on earth, did not accomplish His
powerful deeds in the strength of His deity. I believe He did them in the
strength and authority of His Spirit-anointed humanity.
My reasoning is this: If Jesus had come to earth and performed His ministry in
the power of His deity, what He did would have been accepted as a matter of
course. Cannot God do anything He wants to do? No one would have questioned His
works as the works of deity. But Jesus veiled His deity and ministered as a
man. It is noteworthy, however, that He did not begin His ministry—His deeds of
authority and power—until He had been anointed with the Holy Spirit.