Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing His name.” This verse presents a profound thought. When we bear the reproach of Jesus and suffer on His behalf, we often groan and do not offer any praise to God. Yet the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that when we pass through reproach and suffering, we should continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.
Verse 15 is a continuation of verses 8 through 14. Since in the church life we enjoy the unchanging Christ as grace and follow Him outside religion, we should offer through Him spiritual sacrifices to God. First, in the church we should offer up through Him a sacrifice of praise to God continually. In the church He sings in us hymns of praise unto God the Father (2:12). In the church we too should praise God the Father through Him. Eventually, in the church He and we, we and He, praise the Father together in the mingled spirit. Christ as the life-giving Spirit, praises the Father in our spirit, and we, by our spirit, praise the Father in His Spirit. This is the best and highest sacrifice that we can offer to God through Him. This is greatly needed in the church meetings.
Through the Christ whom we have experienced and enjoyed, we need to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually. The real praise in the meetings must be constituted of our experiences of Christ. The sweetest praises we can offer to the Father are those we offer to Christ and which concern Christ. There is nothing more pleasant to the Father’s heart than this. Real worship to the Father is the offering of His Son. In the preaching of the gospel, we tell the sinners that Christ is the Son of God, who redeemed us and who can save us and bring us to the Father. If we minister these things regarding Christ to the unbelievers, this is real worship to the Father. To worship God the Father is simply to present the Son of God. The real praise to the Father comes out of our experience of Christ in our daily life. This is a very pleasing praise to the Father, gladdening and rejoicing His heart. The Father desires that we glorify Him with the Son. If we glorify the Son, we glorify the Father. When we glorify the Son, the Father is glorified in His Son’s being glorified by us (John 17:1). The praises out of our experience and enjoyment of Christ—the spiritual praises about Christ—are the best praise to the Father.
Hebrews 13:16 goes on to tell us about “doing good and sharing with others.” Doing good refers to giving, and fellowshipping refers to sharing, that is, having fellowship in the needs of the saints. This kind of doing good and fellowshipping with others also are sacrifices that we should offer to God. These too are necessary for a proper church life. It is truly improper if in the church some needy saints are not well cared for and ministered to. This means that the fellowship with others is absent or inadequate.
Hebrews 13:20 says, “Now the God of peace, He who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in the blood of an eternal covenant.” The sheep here are the flock, which is the church. This confirms the view that the things covered in Hebrews 13, with the experience of the unchanging Christ as our sin offering, through whom we were redeemed, and as our great Shepherd, by whom we are now being fed, are all for the church life. Today Christ as the High Priest is the Shepherd who takes care of us for the church as we pass through the sufferings of Christ (1 Pet. 4:13).
Hebrews 13:20 speaks of the eternal covenant. The book of Hebrews does not concern temporal things, such as the things of the old covenant, but eternal things, things that are beyond the limit of time and space, such as eternal salvation (5:9), eternal judgment (6:2), eternal redemption (9:12), the eternal Spirit (v. 14), the eternal inheritance (v. 15), and the eternal covenant (13:20). The new covenant is not only a better covenant (7:22; 8:6) but also an eternal covenant. It is eternally effective because of the eternal efficacy of Christ’s blood, with which it was enacted (Matt. 26:28; Luke 22:20).
The eternal covenant is the covenant of the new testament to gain a flock, which is the church issuing in the Body and consummating the New Jerusalem. The eternal covenant of God is to consummate the New Jerusalem by the shepherding. God raised up our Lord from the dead to be the great Shepherd to consummate the New Jerusalem according to God’s eternal covenant.
Hebrews 13:20 indicates that it was by the blood of the eternal covenant that God raised Christ from the dead. All that God has ordained has been covenanted to be our portion. This portion is actually God Himself with His nature, life, attributes, and virtues. It is through the blood of the covenant that God becomes our portion. The blood of the covenant brings us into God, into the divine life and nature, into the inward law of life and the ability of life to know God, and into the infusion, transfusion, and enjoyment of God both now and in eternity. This is the function of the blood of the covenant.
The blood of the covenant is not mainly for forgiveness; it is primarily for God to be our portion. God has ordained and predestinated us to enjoy Him. This enjoyment has also been covenanted to us. This covenant was enacted by the blood of Jesus Christ, the blood which brings us into all the divine blessings. According to Matthew 26:28, the Lord Jesus took the cup and said, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” According to Luke 22:20, the Lord Jesus said, “This cup is the new covenant established in My blood.” In 1 Corinthians 10:16 Paul refers to the cup as the “cup of blessing.” This cup of blessing is the covenant enacted by the blood. The blood of the new covenant is the blood which enacted the covenant of blessing. The covenant is the cup and also the blessing as our portion. This portion is God Himself for our enjoyment.
The blood is spoken of in Exodus 12 and 24 and Leviticus 16. In Exodus 12 we see the blood of the passover lamb for redemption; in Exodus 24 we see the blood of the sacrifices for the enactment of the law; and in Leviticus 16 we see the blood of the expitiation by which man could enter into the Holy of Holies, contact God, and be one with Him. In the New Testament we see that the Lord Jesus shed His blood on the cross. This is typified by the blood of the passover lamb in Exodus 12. With the blood shed on the cross, the Lord enacted the new testament. This is typified by the blood in Exodus 24. Ultimately, the blood of Christ brings us into the fullness of God as our eternal enjoyment. This aspect of the blood, the blood of the eternal covenant, is typified by the blood in Leviticus 16.
The blood brings us into the Holy of Holies; that is, it brings us into God. When the high priest entered into the Holy of Holies, it was not his purpose to observe the law. On the contrary, because of the blood sprinkled in the Holy of Holies, he could enjoy God, behold His beauty, and receive His infusion. Enjoying God in this way is what produces a man of God.
In Revelation 7 those who have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” are before the throne of God, in the temple of God, and are brought to springs of waters of life (vv. 14-17). Furthermore, 22:14 says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city.” Here we see that through the washing of the blood, we have the right to come to the tree of life and enter into the city, New Jerusalem. The tree of life and the city are the ultimate aspects of God as our portion. If we view the Bible as a whole, we will see that the blood of the covenant brings us into the full enjoyment of God as our portion both now and forever.
Hebrews 13:21 tells us that through Christ the God of peace is “doing in us that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” God is doing in us that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ that we may be able to do His will. God works in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). From beginning to end, the book of Hebrews presents to us a heavenly Christ. Only in 13:20-21, with the expression God...doing in us...through Jesus Christ, does this book imply the indwelling of Christ. It is through the indwelling Christ that God works in us so that we can do His will.
Through Jesus Christ God does in us that which is well pleasing in His sight. This means that God is working in us. Not only is God leading us to go outside the camp to bear the reproach of Christ; He is also working within us that which is well pleasing in His sight in order that we would live a life according to His pleasure.
In verse 21 Jesus Christ is the subjective Christ. This indicates that God must work within us subjectively through Jesus Christ. This conclusion impresses us that all the teachings within the book of Hebrews are for the subjective work of God within us.
Hebrews 13:21 indicates that the great, wonderful, and inexhaustible Christ is now in us. This Christ in us is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As the Spirit within us, He is always available and easy to experience. If we would simply pray a little, we would pray ourselves into our spirit to touch this One and enjoy Him. He is inexhaustible yet available. As we enjoy the aspects of Christ as revealed in the book of Hebrews, we will be led into the experience of His humanity, His divinity, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension, and we will grow in Him in all these aspects. The book of Hebrews reveals many wonderful aspects of Christ for our experience and enjoyment. It will take our entire lifetime and even eternity for us to enjoy all these aspects of what Christ is to us.