386 CLEANSING OF THE CONSCIENCE
the sacrifice, is tortured and discouraged. When God determined to have mercy upon man, He did not command or permit holy angels to endure the sufferings which men had deserved ; nor did He command or permit an innocent man to sink under the awful burden of the iniquities of the race; but, since it belonged to Himself to maintain the eternal distinction between right and wrong, and He had resolved not to maintain it in this case by inflicting just penalties on those who had sinned, He came into the world Himself, in the person of the Son, assuming our nature that He might become capable of suffering, and the suffering of Christ was the act of the Eternal Spirit.
^ " Offered himself through the Spirit ; " surely a strange mode of sacrifice. I would have expected it to have been said that Christ offered Himself through the pains of the flesh. Nay, but in God's sight this was not His offering. The deepest part of His sacrifice was invisible; it was the surrender of His will. The gift which He presented to the Father was not His pain but Himself — His willingness to suffer. What the Father loved was rather the painlessness than the pain. He delighted not so much in His sacrifice as in the joy of His sacrifice. It was offered "through the Spirit." It was not wrung out from a reluctant soul through obedience to an outward law ; it came from the inner heart — from the impulse of undying love. It was a completed offering before Calvary began ; it was seen by the Father before it was seen by the world. It was finished in the spirit ere it began in the flesh — finished iu that hour in which the Son of man exclaimed, " Not as I will, but as thou wilt." Man had to see the pain of His body ; God was satisfied when " he poured out his soul." Even so, my brother, is it with thee. There are times in which thou art impotent for all outward work, times in which thou canst offer no bodily sacrifice. Thine may be the path of obscurity ; thine may be the season of penury ; thine may be the road apart from the world's highway. Thine may be the delicate frame that cannot run for God because it must rest for susten- ance ; there may be nothing for thee to do but to look on and wish that thou couldst serve. Yes, but canst thou do that ? Is this wish indeed thine ? Then thy Father sees thy sacrifice completed. It is not yet offered in the body, but it is offered " through the eternal Spirit." Like the sacrifice of Abraham it is accepted in its inwardness. Thou hast brought up thy gift to Mount Moriah and hast laid it there before the Lord — laid it open in thy heart, uncovered on the front of thy bosom. Thy
HEBREWS IX. 13. 14 387
Father sees it there and holds it already given. He accepts the ofiering of thy will as an offering of thy gift. He asks not the blood of Isaac when He has seen the blood of Abraham. He counts thy faith unto thee for righteousness, thy devotion unto thee for deed, for He knows that the sacrifice which lags behind in the flesh has been offered already in the Eternal Spirit.^
^ G. Matheson, Foices of the Spirit, 215.
The Way of Access.
Literature.
Bardsley (J. W.), Illustrated Texts, 83.
Bruce (A. B.), TJie Epistle to the Hebrews, 393.
Davies (J. LI.), The Work of Christ, 53.
Duncan (J.), The Pulpit and Comrmmion Table, 377, 394.
Faithful! (R. C), My Place in the World, 10.
Goudge (H. L.), The Holy Eucharist, 45.
Hoare (E.), Great Principles of Divine Truth, 173. ,
Pulsford (W.), Trinity Church Sermons, 68.
Eamage (W.), Sermons, 346.
Eobertson (P. W.), Tlu Sacrament Sabbath, 47.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxxiv. (1888),
No. 2015. Thomas (W. H. G.), in Sermons for the People, New Ser., iii. 241. Walker (A. H.), Thinking About It, 158. Wordsworth (E.), Onward Steps, 199. Christian World Pulpit, xi. 266 (H. W. Beecher) ; xlix. 148 (B.
Wilberforce) ; liv. 337 (J. G. Greenhough). Clergyman's Magazine, New Ser., vii. 224 (H. C. G. Moule).
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The Way of Access.
Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh ; and having a great priest over the house of God ; let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our body washed with pure water. — Heb. x. 19-22.
Christianity is the religion of unrestricted fellowship with God. Such is the leading idea of the doctrinal part of this Epistle. In this connexion the exhortation contained in the text claims special attention. It rests on and is expressed in terms of the central truth, " Christ has made it possible to have perfect fellow- ship with God ; that is the objective significance of the Christian era. Therefore draw near, realize your privilege subjectively." Draw near ! that is the appropriate application of the whole fore- going argument, the goal to which the long train of thought has been leading up. Eeaders who have felt the force of the theoretical statement can do nothing else than come into the presence of God with filial trust and holy joy. They do not merely hope for free access as a future good. They consciously enjoy it now as a present possession. For that is implied in the exhortation, " Let us draw near." The thing is to be done now, the privilege can be enjoyed at once ; if it be not, it is our own fault. There is thus a noteworthy advance at this point on the teaching in the 6th chapter of the same Epistle, where the summum honum, nearness to God, appears as a boon in store for us in the future — Christ has gone within the veil as our Fore- runner, and we shall follow Him by and by ; but meantime we only cast into that sacred region the anchor of our hope. Now not hope, but full assurance of faith, making the future present, is the watchword. The increased boldness of tone befits the close of the argument intended to show that Christianity is the perfect religion.