The writer has a further concept. Jesus has not only so many items in His person—the God-Man, the One who is higher than the angels, the One more glorious than Moses, the real Joshua, the land, our companion, the Priest higher than Aaron and superior to Aaron; He also is far superior and better in what He has accomplished, in what He has given. He has accomplished eternal redemption by His blood, and by His blood He has made the eternal covenant, the better covenant, which has been made an eternal will and testament to us. Before His death it was a covenant, but after His death the covenant became a testament. Before He died He was the Maker, the Testator of the covenant, but after His death, in His resurrection, He became the Executor of this testament. In this covenant, which is now a testament, there are three items:
As long as you receive this testament, all your sins are forgiven. It does not mean that your sins will be forgiven, but that your sins have already been forgiven. What shall we do? What can we do but jump up and praise the Lord! But, I tell you, out of one hundred Christians hardly one who receives the testament will respond in such a way. Nearly all who receive it will say, “O God, be merciful to me; forgive me, O forgive me all my sins!” We all have been doing this, and we consider this a good prayer. But do you know what God says? “Poor man, poor man, you already have a million dollars— why do you ask me to give you one dollar?” Have you ever heard someone praising the Father with boldness: “O Father, how I thank Thee, all my sins have been forgiven, even before I was born!” Hallelujah! Praise the Lord, we have the testament; it is in our hands. Jesus is the Mediator, and it has been sealed by His blood. God will no more remember our sins (Heb. 8:12). The first item of this testament is the forgiveness of sins.
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts...and they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest” (Heb. 8:10, 11). There is no need for any neighbor to teach you, because you have the law written within you. What is this? This is life imparted into you: you have something living as the law of life, not the law of letters. Sins are gone and life is here. You have to jump up again and say Hallelujah! This life is the endless life, full of life power, and we have it! This is the second item of the testament.
“And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Heb. 8:10). God Himself is the main inheritance. We not only inherit forgiveness of sins and the impartation of life, but also all that God is, all that He can do, and all that He has planned. In this testament we have God! Hallelujah, Hallelujah! This is the better covenant, the New Testament; it is much better than the old. The Old Testament is really old; it must pass away, and it has already passed away. Now we have the New Testament, something so surpassingly superior. Jesus excels everything, not only in what He is in so many aspects, but also in what He has accomplished. The center of His accomplishments is this marvelous new and better covenant, the New Testament. He made it with His own blood. He was the Maker, the Testator, the Mediator, the Giver, and now in His resurrection as the living One, He is the Guarantor, guarantying this New Testament, and the Executor, day by day executing in us all that is included in it. It is too marvelous, too wonderful!
O what a Jesus! O what qualifications! God is in Him— in Jesus you have the very God. Man is in Him—in Jesus you have the real man. He is a God-man, and He is also a man-God. This is much better than a PhD degree. Such a qualification as these two natures, the divine and the human, is much better than a hundred PhD degrees. He is the real Doctor of divinity, and He is the real Doctor in humanity. He is God and He is man: He is the very God and He is the real man. Now He has been sent to us as the Apostle more glorious than Moses; and He is the real Joshua, a real companion, to bring us into the real land which is Himself. We have all been called into the participation of such a One; we have all been made partakers of Him and partners with Him. What could be better than this? We were poor sinners: the only degree we had was that of Sin. But praise the Lord, we are joined to Him; we have been made partakers, companions and partners of Him. Whatever He is, whatever He has, we share! Hallelujah!
He is not only the Apostle to us here, but He is also the High Priest to God there. He is the Apostle here representing God, and He is the High Priest there representing us. He is the Apostle here caring for all our needs, and He is the High Priest there handling all our cases in the heavenly court. What a Christ! He is so divine with divinity, and He is so human with humanity. Here on the earth we have in Him divinity; there in the heavens we have in Him humanity. Here on the earth as the Apostle He is divine; there in the heavens as the High Priest He is human. As the High Priest He has the humanity to sympathize with us, and as the Apostle with divinity He can minister to us the heavenly bread and heavenly wine, as Melchisedec to Abraham, to meet our need. He sympathizes with us by His humanity, and He ministers all the riches of God to us by His divinity. He is so qualified: He is fully qualified both to sympathize and to minister.