61. The Grace of Which the Spirit Is
and with Which the Spirit Worked within
the Staggering Hebrew Believers, Who Were
Insulting the Spirit by Shrinking Back to Their
Judaism from God’s New Testament Salvation

Hebrews 10:29 says, “By how much do you think he will be thought worthy of worse punishment who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has considered the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” The Spirit of grace was insulted by the Hebrew believers, who shrank back to their Judaism from God’s New Testament salvation. By doing this they trampled underfoot the Son of God and considered the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified a common thing. This means that the Hebrew believers, after receiving Christ, still went back to Judaism to offer the sacrifices. By doing that they considered the blood of Christ common, not particular. This was an insult to Christ as the Spirit of grace. This was an insult not only to the Spirit but also to the grace. They had turned away from grace back to Judaism.

62. The Grace of God from Which the Believers
Fall Away because of Their Not Looking Carefully

Day and night we have to look carefully that we may not fall away from the grace of God (Heb. 12:15).

63. The Grace Which Was Received by Those
Who Had Received an Unshakable Kingdom
and through Which They Might Serve God
Well-pleasingly with Piety and Fear

We received grace with an unshakable kingdom. Now through this grace we serve God well-pleasingly, with piety and fear (Heb. 12:28).

64. The Grace by Which the Heart
of Those Who Would Not Be Carried Away
by Various Strange Teachings Was Confirmed

If we want to have our heart confirmed, we must trust in the grace (Heb. 13:9). To be confirmed by grace is to remain in the new covenant to enjoy Christ as grace.

65. The Grace Which Was with
the Hebrew Believers to Keep Them
from Shrinking Back to Their Old Religion
from God’s New Testament Economy

To be kept from shrinking back to Judaism from God’s New Testament economy, the Hebrew believers needed grace (Heb. 13:25).

Grace is God Himself as everything to us. All the heavenly, spiritual, divine, and deep things are God Himself. Grace is the personified God. The New Testament is the history of such a personified Person. This Person is the Triune God in His Trinity processed and consummated. Today He is not the “raw” God, but the “cooked” God. Processed and consummated means cooked. If God had remained in His original situation as the “raw” God, how could He be anything to us? But in the New Testament, God is hundreds of items to us because He was processed. If God had not been incarnated and had not passed through human living, an all-inclusive death, and an all-surpassing resurrection, He could never do anything for us, give anything to us, or be anything to us. But today He can do everything for us, give everything to us, and be everything to us because He has been processed and consummated.

Second Corinthians 13:14 says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” This is the processed and consummated Triune God becoming constituted into the believers to make a divine and human constitution. The consummation of this constitution will be the New Jerusalem.

Hymns, #497 says:

1. Grace in its highest definition is
   God in the Son to be enjoyed by us;
   It is not only something done or giv’n,
   But God Himself, our portion glorious.
   
   
2. God is incarnate in the flesh that we
   Him may receive, experience ourself;
   This is the grace which we receive of God,
   Which comes thru Christ and which is Christ
       Himself.
   
   
3. Paul the Apostle counted all as dung,
   ’Twas only God in Christ he counted grace;
   ’Tis by this grace—the Lord experienced—
   That he surpassed the others in the race.
   
   
4. It is this grace—Christ as our inward strength—
   Which with His all-sufficiency doth fill;
   It is this grace which in our spirit is,
   There energizing, working out God’s will.
   
   
5. This grace, which is the living Christ Himself,
   Is what we need and must experience;
   Lord, may we know this grace and by it live,
   Thyself increasingly as grace to sense.