The Glory of Christ in His Church is linked to the Nature and Intent of His Atoning Work
From Hebrews Chapters 7-10
Jay Wegter
Heb 7:22-24 – Christ has become the guarantee (surety) of a better covenant. He abides forever—He holds His priesthood permanently (non-transferable). The wonder of this covenant is that Christ as our ‘Surety’ fully assumes the liabilities of His covenant people—thus, we will not miscarry in our journey toward glory for He is our security and safety and full access to our holy God.
7:25 – Therefore, He is able to save forever (completely, to the uttermost) those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Christ’s high priestly work of intercession is the application of His atoning work to His people. Christ dies for the same individuals for whom He intercedes. (See Romans 8:27, 34; Isaiah 53:10-12.)
Owen—the safest conception we can form of His intercession by virtue of His office as a “High Priest over the house of God” is that He ever represents the church so as to ensure her welfare, supply, deliverance, and salvation. He presents His Person before the throne of God on our behalf—this renders it sacerdotal (the appearance of His Person as He who has died for His bride the church). Thus, in His Person is the representation of His death, oblation, and sacrifice for us which gives life, power, and efficacy unto His intercession. “If any man sin, we have an Advocate.”
7:26 – It was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. The dignity and perfection of His Person is expressed in the efficaciousness of His work on behalf of His people. “Fitting’ in the mind of the Father—in other words, Christ’s saviorhood is perfectly suited in every way to answer every aspect of our sinnership.
Heb 8:6; 9:15 – But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant (a new covenant), which was enacted on better promises. Christ’s purchase of redemption by His cross is not a reservoir of divine merit managed by sinful men. Christ as Mediator reserves the right to dispense the benefits of what He has purchased by His atoning work. No sinful mortal man can ‘manage or dispense’ the benefits of the atonement. The sinner must go directly to Christ Himself to receive from His hands the very benefits Christ has purchased and now disseminates as Mediator of the New Covenant. Anything less than definite atonement tempts men to think that they can have a part in ‘managing’ the benefits of Christ’s death. (Discussion: how does this affect the way we do church? How is this reality tied to Christ’s glory in His church?)
Owen notes that Christ is Mediator, Surety, Priest, and Sacrifice all in one Person—and that the Christian religion declines because of its ignorance of this truth.
Heb 9:11-12 – Christ entered the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation . . . He entered the holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption. There is no element of potentiality here—nothing hypothetical. Christ obtained (secured) redemption by His atoning work. He obtained the design that His death was intended to accomplish—His ransom secured its object— it reached the goal for which it was planned and for whom it was intended.
Heb 9:14 – How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Only the blood of Christ applied to the elect sinner can bring peace of conscience through cleansing. The redemption ‘obtained’ by Christ involves removing from His people every barrier to the love of God’s holiness. Only by clear views of His atoning work can we love God’s holiness. Only by clear views of His finished work of redemption will we serve God from gospel motives as opposed to contaminating our service with dead religious works (dead works which belie that we have a genuine understanding of the atonement). (Discussion: what do our secret alliances with sin say about what we really think about God’s holiness?)
Owen—out of Christ’s infinite love and compassion, He appears in our nature before the throne of God, and takes it on Himself to answer for the sins of all the elect, to make atonement for them, by doing and suffering whatever the holiness, righteousness, and wisdom of God required thereunto.
Heb 9:15-17 – That those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a covenant (testament—as in last will and testament) is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. This is wonderful beyond words that in the covenant of redemption formed in eternity past, God wrote the elect into His ‘will’—so that the cost of making us eternal heirs with Christ is the death of Christ. Therefore, the atoning work of Christ guarantees that these heirs will in time be “called” by the Spirit. Thus, the Holy Spirit applies the work of Christ to them in the effectual call so that they are made sons of God and heirs of God. Again, it NOT us, by means of our faith, making the atoning work of Christ effectual—NO, it is the atonement itself purchasing our calling in order to grant to us the inheritance determined in eternity past by God the Father.
Owen—all the goods of grace and glory were the property, the inheritance of the Lord Christ, “for He was appointed Heir of all things.” BUT, in His death as testator He bequeathed them unto His elect, appointing them to be heirs of God, co-heirs with Himself. Unlike earthly testaments (or wills), this testament is a covenant also. Heb 9:24-26 – Christ entered heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us. His ongoing work of intercession as our High Priest IS our constant assurance that we have God’s full favor and acceptance. The efficaciousness of the atonement is in view: for Christ has appeared, that is God’s mystery “was manifested” at the consummation of the ages—Christ’s atoning work being the consummation of the purpose of history— to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. This is anything but universal and general— for only the elect are eagerly awaiting His return—for they alone encompass the ‘many’ for whom Christ was offered as their effectual sin-bearer (v. 28).
Heb 10:5, 7-9 – In the roll of the book it is written of Me to do Thy will ‘O God’. Christ comes to earth—He is incarnated in the ‘body’ God had prepared for Him. This ‘will’ of God spoken of here is the covenant of redemption between the members of the Triune Godhead formed in eternity past. Christ would fulfill this will by purchasing the elect through His atoning death.
Owen—this text represents both the love, grace, and wisdom of the Father, AND, the love, obedience, and suffering of the Son. So what is pictured here is the federal agreement (covenant of redemption) between the Father and the Son as unto the work of the salvation of the church. Christ’s coming in the flesh by the assumption of our nature was the effect of the mutual counsel of the Father and the Son: the Father proposed to His Son what was His will and design—what He would have done by the Son. Christ responds, “Lo, I come” (to fulfill this will).
Heb 10:10, 14 – By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. This is the eternal covenant behind Bethlehem; behind Calvary—that by Christ’s offering of Himself, He should forever consecrate the church to Himself—‘sanctifying her’ so as to perfect her for all time. Our Lord’s sacrifice ‘grace gifts’ to the church a perfect holy status—given to her in the form of a relationship imparted which saves—a relationship of right-standing with God’s own righteousness (justification through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus).
Owen—the whole fountain and principle cause of the state of grace is the “will of God”—this grace was prepared in the will of God for the good of the church—it is all communicated unto us through the offering of the body of Christ in such a way as tendeth unto the glory of God and the assured salvation of the church. This demonstrates the dignity and the efficacy of His one sacrifice. It is the foundation of all consolation to the church that the Lord Christ, even now in heaven, takes all our enemies to be His, in whose destruction He is infinitely more concerned than we are. It is our duty to conform ourselves to the Lord Christ in quiet expectancy of the ruin of our spiritual adversaries (such as the world, the flesh, and the devil, etc.). Christ completely pardons the sins of His people by casting those sins into everlasting oblivion.
Heb 10:19-25 – We have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh . . . let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith [since we have been washed from] an evil conscience. . . let us hold fast to the promise without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds . . . Here we see how to make use of Christ’s perfect atonement. We are to value His atonement so fully that we come to God in confidence by the new and living way (by the blood of Jesus—knowing that Christ has entered within the veil for us). We are to draw near to God by means of the atonement with the full assurance of the sufficiency of Christ’s work for His people—knowing that His death purges us of an evil conscience. Peace of conscience by His atoning work makes for boldness before God. This is inseparable from holding fast to our confession concerning Christ’s work for us—namely that the gospel promises of God are infinitely greater than our sins.
Our valuing of the atonement has a corporate dimension as well—it is expressed in stimulating one another to love and good deeds in a way that is also eschatologically-driven (“as you see the day drawing near”). This corporate dimension is also the evidence of our valuing of Christ and His atonement and desiring His glory in the church. God is glorified by our confidence in the atonement—for endurance and confidence have great reward (10:35-39).
Owen—by His shed blood Christ procured reconciliation—now He invites us to accept and make use of that reconciliation by (continually) receiving the atonement— for Christ’s blood is the cause of our boldness—which blood having removed our guilt, slavish fear, and dread of God bestows on us the Holy Spirit who for us is the Spirit of liberty. Full assurance of faith (by means of the atonement) is manifested in our worship of God both public and private—in all of our access to God by Christ. The true believer pleases God by his faith because he has a firm immovable persuasion concerning the priesthood of Christ whereby he has access to God. Faith in Christ gives us boldness. The only place of full satisfaction of our souls and consciences is in the reality and efficacy of the priesthood of Christ, to give us acceptance unto God—this stands in opposition unto all other ways and means thereof.
Heb 13:20-21 – Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through (in) the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever, Amen.
In this passage Christ’s glory is tied to the intent of the atonement. For, the design of His work is determined by the covenant of redemption. This covenant, made in eternity past, is what ties the Shepherd to the sheep (specifically)—the blood of Christ shed ratifies the eternal covenant which was inaugurated before time. We ask not, “What would Jesus do?” But, “What did Jesus do?” (References to Owen are from “Hebrews: The Epistle of Warning,” Kregel Pub., Grand Rapids, by John Owen)