By J.G. Bellet

      'The Opened Heavens'

      Hebrews 1, 2.

      The Epistle to the Hebrews strikingly illustrates one quality of the Book of God. It may be read in various lights; yet no one ray interferes with another. In six or seven ways this epistle could be read with the greatest ease. I will specially look now at the first two chapters. It opens the heavens to you as they now are.

      How blessed is the introduction of such a thing to the heart! You look up and see the physical heavens above you; but it is only the superficial heavens you see. This epistle introduces the inner heavens to you, and not in a physical, but in a moral character. It introduces us to the glories surrounding and attaching to the Lord Jesus, now accepted in the heavens. We are thus enabled to see the heavens in which He has sat down, what He is about there, and what will succeed those heavens. When the Lord Jesus was here, as we learn in Matthew 3, the heavens opened to get a sight of Him. There was an object here then worthy the attention of the heavens. He returned--and the heavens had an object they had never known before--a glorified Man. And now it is the office of our epistle to show us the heavens as the place of this glorified Man. And as in Matthew 3 we get the heavens opened to look down at Christ here, so in the Hebrews you get the heavens opened that you may look up at Christ there.

      But supposing you ask, Is that all the history of the heavens? Have you gone to the end? Indeed I have not. In Revelation 4 and 5 we get the heavens preparing for the judgment of the earth. Then at the close of the volume I find the heavens not only the residence of the glorified Man, but of the glorified church. What a book it is that can present to us such secrets as these! It is a divine library. You take down one volume from your shelf, and read about the heavens; in another volume you read of man in ruins; take down a third and you read of God in grace; and so on, in precious, wondrous variety.

      Now we will set ourselves down before chapters 1 and 2. "When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." That is just taking up the pledge I gave--that the epistle is going to open to us the heavens. The Lord has been here purging our sins, and He has gone up to occupy the heavens as the Purger of our sins. Supposing I had been to a distant country, I might describe it to you so as to fill you with delight and with desire to visit it. But when the Holy Ghost comes and shows you the distant heavens, He does more than this--He shows you that your interests are consulted there. Our Representative is seated in the highest place and seated there in that very character. Is it possible to have a more intimate link with the place? It is a wonder we are not all on the wing to get there as soon as we can! To think that because He came to die a wretched death for us He is seated there! I defy you to have a richer interest in the heavens than God has given you.

      Now in verse 4 we see that not only as the Purger of our sins, but in the verity of His Manhood He is there, seated above the angelic hosts. We have seen already what an interest we have in Him as the Purger of our sins. Now the chapter introduces Him to us as the Son of man above angels. Man has been preferred to angels. Human nature in the person of Christ has been seated above angelic nature, though it be in Michael or in Gabriel. The whole of chapter 1 is thus occupied in giving you two sights of Christ in heaven. What two secrets they are! The Purger of our sins, and very man, like ourselves, seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

      I read the first four verses of Hebrews 2 as a parenthesis. Do not you like these parentheses? The Holy Ghost speaks the language of nature. We see friends when conversing together turning a little aside to converse about one another; so the apostle speaks here--"I am teaching you wonderful things. Do take heed that you let not such things fall on a careless ear." We must not be mere scholars. If we be disciples of a living master in the school of God, we shall have our consciences exercised while we are pursuing our lesson. That is what the apostle is doing here. That parenthesis falls on the ear most sweetly and acceptably.

      But though a parenthesis, it opens a new glory to us. How the field of scripture teems with fruit! It is not a thing you have to till diligently and get but little fruit. That parenthesis contains another glory of Christ. (Surely we ought not to need exhortation!) He is seated there as an Apostle--my Apostle. What does that mean? He is a preacher to me. God spake in times past by the prophets, He is speaking to us now by the Son; and Christ in the heavens is the Apostle of Christianity. And what is His subject? Salvation. That salvation which, as the Purger of our sins, He wrought out for us; and which, as the Apostle of our profession, He makes known to us. There is more furnishing of the heavens for you.

      Then verse 5 returns to the theme of Hebrews 1. It goes on with the distinctive glories of Christ, as super-eminent, above angels. "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come." What is "the world to come"? It is the millennial age, which we read of in Psalm 8. We have three conditions of the Son of man here. "A little lower than the angels"; "crowned with glory and honour"; and "set over the works of God's hands." So that the world to come is not put in subjection to angels but to the Son of man. Now you find that you have an interest in this glorified Man. I was saying that if I went to a distant land and described to you its scenic wonders, you would desire a sight of them. But this epistle shows you that you have a personal interest in these glories. Is there a single point that the Son of man has travelled in which you have not an interest? The apostle traces it here for you. So that again I say this epistle is opening the distant heavens to your view, and showing you the glories that attach to Christ, and that you have an immediate, personal interest in those glories.

      In verse 10 a new thought comes in, "to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." Only pause here for a moment. It became the glory of God to give you a perfect Saviour. Do you believe it? What thoughts rise on the soul when we come to that! Are you in possession of Him, so that you never in a single thought are tempted to look beyond Him? We have got an unquestionable, infallible salvation, one that will stand the shock of every coming day.

      From verse 11 we further see our interest in the glorified Man. "Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Not ashamed! Tell it out that earth and heaven may hear! This glorified Man is a brother of the elect of God. He is not "ashamed" because of their dignity. Not merely because of His grace, but because of their personal dignity. He has appointed me a share of His own throne. Is He ashamed of His own doings--of His own adoptings? Do not get creeping, cold thoughts as you read scripture. Our thoughts of Christ should be such as to take captive our old man--to bear us on eagles' wings. "In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee." Christ raising and leading the song of the ransomed ones, and not ashamed to be found in their company! "And again, I will put my trust in him." He did that when He was here, and we do it now. "And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me." There is our interest in the glorified Man.

      Then we return to see what He was in humiliation. "He took not on angels; but he took on the seed of Abraham." He left the angels where He found them. The angels excelled in strength. They kept their first estate, and He left them there. Man excelled in wickedness, and He came and linked Himself with man. Then verse 17 introduces us to another glory that attaches to Christ in the heavens. We see Him there as our High Priest, ever waiting with reconciliation for sins, and succour for sorrows. The epistle teems with divine glories. It is massive in glory and ponderous in the divine thoughts that press into its short space.