The Lord Jesus’ offering Himself to God on the cross was through the eternal Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit in Hebrews is also the eternal Spirit. These are the three aspects of the Spirit in Hebrews: the speaking Spirit, the Spirit of grace (the Spirit of enjoyment), and the eternal Spirit. It is easy to understand the speaking Spirit, and it is also easy to understand the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of enjoyment, but it is not so easy to understand the eternal Spirit. Many of us consider eternity as something in the future. However, in the Bible, eternity includes the entire span of time. May I ask you, brothers and sisters, when did the Lord Jesus offer Himself to God? In other words, when was the Lord Jesus put on the cross as a sin offering? According to history, the Lord Jesus was crucified on Calvary’s mountain almost two thousand years ago, and standing in front of Him were His disciples including Peter and John. Thus, it is true that the Lord Jesus died for those who were His contemporaries. But how could He die for people such as Abel, Job, and Abraham, who were there many years before Him? Furthermore, how could He die for people like us, who are here many years after Him and who were not yet born at His time? I do not know if you can solve this. Here we need to read Hebrews 9:14, which says that Christ offered Himself without blemish to God through the eternal Spirit. According to His flesh, He was crucified at a certain time. However, according to the eternal Spirit, His crucifixion encompasses the entire span of time. Thus, according to the sense of time, Job and Abraham were before the crucifixion and we are after the crucifixion, but according to the sense of eternity, there is no differentiation between before and after. Christ in the eternal Spirit offered Himself to become our sin offering. There is no time element with His death. In our perception and in the historical sense, there is the time element. In God’s view, however, there is no time element because God is eternal. Therefore, Revelation 13:8 speaks of “the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.” He was slain not just two thousand years ago but from the foundation of the world. His being slain meets the need of all sinners. Although His being slain was accomplished in time, in God’s view He was slain in eternity. Thus, He became an eternal sin offering. If your view is according to the flesh, He is Jesus the Nazarene who died two thousand years ago. However, in the eternal Spirit He died in the realm of eternity. His one offering accomplished redemption eternally because He died not only in the flesh but also in the eternal Spirit.
Hence, if we want to understand spiritual things, we must not remain in our mind. Instead, we must be in spirit. Once we are living in our mind, we are in time, but when we turn to our spirit, we enter into eternity. It is then that we are able to comprehend the things that transcend time.
Chapters five, six, nine, and ten of Hebrews all speak of eternity. Hence, this is truly a book concerning eternity. However, this is not the eternity in the future but the eternity that includes all needs and encompasses all time. In this book which deals with eternity, the Spirit is not only the speaking Spirit and the Spirit for our enjoyment but also the eternal Spirit. You can understand the things of eternity only in the eternal Spirit. In other words, you can understand the things of God which are in the realm of eternity only in the eternal Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, I believe that you can sense what I am saying. If you learn to always get out of your mind and turn to your spirit, your spirit will be freed from the restriction of your little mind. Our mind cannot comprehend the eternal things. Once you fall into the mind, your understanding becomes bound, confined in every way, and is unable to comprehend. However, once you reject your mind and get into your spirit, you become like one who has soared into space; you are released. Your created mind is limited, but you have been saved, and you have the eternal Spirit in you. This Spirit has neither beginning nor ending. You cannot find the start or the finish. In this Spirit you are able to understand the eternal things.
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