The entire book of Hebrews teaches that Christ is better than so many things: Christ is better than Judaism and any kind of religion; Christ is better than this and better than that; Christ is all the best things—this is the book of Hebrews. But this book, while it tells how Christ is better than so many things, also tells and encourages us to enjoy such a Christ, not just to know Him, but to experience Him.
Sometimes the small words in the Bible are intensely meaningful. I really like these three words, “We see Jesus” (Heb. 2:9). Do you realize what it means to see Jesus? This is not just knowledge, not just understanding; this is seeing—we see Jesus. We see! What kind of Jesus do we see? We see Jesus who is God incarnated, who is made a little man, lower than the angels. He was not such a great man, but a small man, a despised man. We see Him! We see His human living on the earth, His sufferings, His death. We see Jesus! But we also see Him crowned with glory and honor! This should not simply be a kind of doctrine, but a seeing. Have you seen Jesus incarnated, Jesus suffering, Jesus crucified, Jesus resurrected from the dead, Jesus ascended to the heavens, glorified, crowned, and enthroned? If you have really seen these things today, how could you keep yourself silent when you come to the meeting?
Those who go to the football games are intensely excited. Why? Because they see something. The wife tells the husband, and the husband tells the wife; the son tells the father, and the father tells the son. When you see, you cannot be silent. Why do you come to the meetings so silently? Why must the leading brothers spend so much time and energy encouraging you to open your mouth? Because you have not seen. You have not seen Jesus. If you have seen Jesus today, it is absolutely impossible to remain silent in the meeting. This is the way for us to meet—we have to see Jesus. We cannot just quote a verse such as Hebrews 10:25, saying that we must not neglect coming together. Even if we come together, what shall we do? If we are so empty, if we are void of seeing Jesus, we will simply burden one another when we come to the meetings. If we are encouraged to function in the meetings, we will have nothing to say; we will have nothing to stir up the spirits of others. The meeting will simply fall flat. Suppose you have never seen a game of football; yet when you come together you try to talk and others encourage you to talk about football. What a miserable performance! Suppose, however, we have all just seen an exciting game—when we come together, everyone will have a lot to say. Several will be speaking at once, and you will have a hard time trying to stop us. O brothers, this is the way we should meet. But the subject is Jesus; we have seen Jesus! Oh, what a Jesus!
Many years ago, I was quite foolish; I used to force people to function. I was helped by the teaching regarding the universal priesthood to realize that every believer must function in the meeting. I told the brothers they all must function, and I even went so far as to ask them to sign a paper, promising how many times in the meetings they would pray or give a testimony. That frightened the people. Some were so frightened that they quit coming. Now I do not ask people to sign a paper, but I do say that if we would have a proper meeting, we must see Jesus, we must have the real experience of the Jesus revealed in this book. If we see this Jesus, we will be beside ourselves. If we neglect the seeing of Jesus, even though we come to the meeting, we will not function.
In chapter two we are told that this Jesus is the sanctifying One, and we are those to be sanctified. He and we are of one Father with one life; so He is not ashamed to call us brethren. Christ is our Brother, and we are His brethren. Just to see this one item is tremendous. In chapter three we are told that we are partakers of the heavenly calling and partakers of Christ. He is the Apostle, the One sent from God to us, and He is the High Priest, the One going to God from us. Consider Him and partake of Him, partake of the Apostle, partake of the High Priest, partake of Christ. O how good is this term, “the partakers of Christ.” If we do enjoy Christ in this way, what a meeting we will have!
In chapter four we are told there is a rest remaining for us, and we must labor to enter into that rest. We know that is the good land, which is the full type of Christ. Christ is the good land as our rest. So many Christians are like the wandering Israelites in the wilderness: they do not have rest because they do not have the practical experience of Christ as everything to them. They have not entered into the good land; so there is no rest for them. Yet this rest is remaining for us. How can we enter in? The way is in verse 12: our soul must be divided from our spirit. When we are in the soul, we are just in the wilderness. It is not till we turn ourselves to the spirit, till we get into the spirit, that we are immediately in the good land, the holiest of all. We all must learn to discern our spirit from our soul that we may enter into Christ and enjoy all that He is to us. This is the base, the foundation for our meeting. If in our daily walk we do not know how to divide the spirit from the soul, how to discern our spirit and how to be in the spirit, we can never enjoy Christ as our rest and as our good land. Then when we come to the meeting, we are void of Christ, and it is impossible for us to have a proper meeting. I hope that all these words will not be just a teaching to you. The way to enter into the real enjoyment of Christ is to discern our spirit from our soul. Then when we come together, we will come with a rich surplus of Christ. Spontaneously, we will sing His praises, and while we are singing, He will be singing within our singing. This is the proper way for us to meet.
When we are in the spirit enjoying Christ as the good land, it is rather difficult to tell others whether we are on earth or in the heavens. We have a deep ecstasy that we are mostly in the heavens, touching the throne of grace, obtaining mercy and finding grace for the timely need (Heb. 4:16). When we are in such an enjoyment, we can hardly wait to get into the meeting hall to shout and sing; we will be singing and praising all the way. Do not try simply to do this in an outward way—that is a kind of performance, that is not real. We must see Jesus. Have you seen Jesus? Oh, our High Priest is able to sympathize with all our infirmities! I will never be bothered by my weakness with such a One. Hallelujah, I am in the heavens! When I get into my spirit, I am just in the heavens, touching the throne of grace.
Most writings on the book of Hebrews are simply doctrinal, saying that Jesus is better than the angels, better than Moses, better than Joshua, and better than this and that— mere terminology. The one written by Andrew Murray on this book, entitled “The Holiest of All,” is an exception; it speaks much concerning our experience. In the book of Hebrews the author frequently tells us that we must experience what he is saying. We all must experience what is revealed in this book about Christ.
In chapter ten we are told that we have boldness to enter into the holiest of all by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way which He has made for us through the veil (Heb. 10:19-20). “Hallelujah, Hallelujah! We have passed the riven veil—here the glories never fail.” This is not just a song; this is something bubbling up and overflowing from within. Psalm 45:1 says, “My heart overfloweth with a goodly matter...” (ASV). This means that within me something is bubbling up. It is not a performance, but a bubbling, so that my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. He who bubbled up in Psalm 45 was one who saw the wonderful things of the King: he could not help himself. We all need the experience of Psalm 45 and Psalm 68. If we do not have this experience, regardless of how loud we shout, we do not have the ecstasy and we do not have the response in the spirit. We need to come to the throne of grace, to enter into the holiest of all with boldness by the blood, by the new and living way through the veil. Hallelujah!