Firstly, it is great in what Christ is. The writer of Hebrews used the term “so great.” This term is difficult to define. How great is “so great”? Although we cannot adequately describe “so great,” this “so great a salvation” is great in what Christ is. Do you know what Christ is? Although you may know Christ according to the four gospels, do you know Christ according to Hebrews?
Do you know Christ as the Son of God? Probably you know Him as the Son of God in a fragmentary way. You may have the subconscious concept that the Father is one God and that the Son is another. You may not have this kind of terminology, but deep within you may hold this concept. This is the reason that I say that the “so great a salvation” is great in what Christ is as the Son of God, as God. When we say that Christ is the Son of God, we mean that He is God. He is none other than God.
This brings us, once again, to the matter of the Trinity. According to the Bible, we may deal with this matter of the Trinity in two ways—in the way of doctrine or in the way of experience. One day Philip, one of the Lord’s disciples, said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father and it suffices us” (John 14:8). This is a doctrinal question. Doctrinally speaking, the Son is the Son and the Father is the Father. Perhaps Philip thought to himself, “The Son is now speaking to us, yet we have not seen the Father. So I will beg the Son to show us the Father.” The Lord Jesus did not answer Philip in the way of doctrine but in the way of experience. “Jesus said to him, Am I so long a time with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How is it that you say, Show us the Father?” (John 14:9). As long as Philip had seen the Son, he had seen the Father. As far as doctrine is concerned, the Father and the Son are two, but as far as experience goes, when you see the Son, you see the Father. Many Christians talk about the Trinity in a mental and doctrinal way, neglecting their experience. As I pointed out in a previous message, the Bible reveals that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all in us. Doctrinally speaking, we have the Father in us, the Son in us, and the Spirit in us. Experientially speaking, however, we realize that we have only one in us. Thus, to be doctrinal is one thing and to be experiential is another.
From my youth, because my family was so closely related to the American missionaries, I heard a great deal about the United States. I had a doctrinal understanding of America. I mentally figured out what San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Washington, D.C., and New York City were like. When I came to this country in 1958, I saw these cities experientially. What a difference! They were vastly different from my doctrine. My experience was altogether different from my doctrine. Do not trust in your doctrine. You need experience.
In John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress there is a place called Vanity Fair. Doctrine apart from experience is such a Vanity Fair; it is a vanity bazaar that sells nothing of value. The mental understanding of doctrine without experience is merely a vanity. I was in that kind of vanity bazaar for seven and a half years and obtained hardly anything but doctrines and terms. I gained very little that could be practiced. That vanity bazaar was my Chaldea. One day I crossed the river and entered the good land of the experience of Christ and of the church life.
What is true of the doctrines is also true of the gifts. At a certain time, a number of our co-workers and myself felt that we had to taste and see the so-called Pentecostal things. So I began to speak in tongues. Eventually I learned that that was not a bazaar of vanity but a bazaar of confusion, a market of confusion. If you want to know how confusing that situation is today, you should visit that bazaar. Everything there is confused. Real things and false things, good things and bad things, are all mixed together. No corner of Christendom is as confused as the so-called Pentecostal movement. Thus, the others and I crossed the river once again.
Even those in the church life need to cross the river out of their oldness. What you had fifteen or twenty years ago was good then, but it has become old. At that time you crossed the Red Sea, but now you must cross the Jordan River. Recently I saw a brother who was under my training twenty years ago. When I saw him, I was concerned for him. It seemed that he was still in that old region. Do you not know the principle? Originally, everything established according to the divine oracles in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy was true. However, after a certain length of time it became an old system, Judaism. Those who were in that system had to cross the river. Likewise, what you received twenty years ago was good, but now you must cross the river out of that region. I urge you to cross the river out of your oldness.
Christ is the Son of God. He is also God Himself. If you try to figure out the Trinity according to your mentality, how will you explain verses 1:8 and 9? “But as to the Son, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, and the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of exultant joy above Your partners.” Verse 8 says, “But as to the Son, Your throne, O God,” and verse 9 says, “God, Your God, has anointed You.” The words O God and Your God both refer to the Son. What does this mean? It seems to mean God’s God. “O God,...Your God.” Since the Son is God Himself, He is God; therefore, verse 8 says, “O God.” Since the Son is also man, God is His God; therefore, verse 9 says, “Your God.” Christ is not simple; He has many aspects. He is the Son of God, even God Himself. He is also the Son of Man, a real man. For the unveiling of “so great a salvation,” Hebrews firstly refers us to Christ as the Son of God, even as God Himself. The Son of God, even God Himself, is one of the elements of “so great a salvation.” What God is makes the salvation “so great.” This salvation is great in all the fullness of the Godhead.