Scripture Reading: Heb. 2:10-11; 6:19-20; 13:13
Ⅰ
God’s eternal goal is to bring many sons into glory:
A
God created, formed, and even made us for His glory, which is the expression of God, God expressed; the highest service that we can render to God is to express Him in glory—Isa. 43:7; 1 Cor. 6:20; 10:31; 2 Cor. 3:8-9, 18; 4:1, 5; Exo. 40:34.
B
God’s eternal purpose is to express Himself in a corporate way through His redeemed people—Gen. 1:26; Eph. 3:16-17a, 21.
C
The New Jerusalem, having the glory of God, is the corporate expression of God:
１
God as the light shines in and through the Lamb as the lamp, eventually shining through the entire city, causing the city to bear the appearance of God Himself—Rev. 21:10-11, 18, 23; 4:3.
２
When we look at the New Jerusalem, we see the expression of God—the light in the lamp shining through the jasper.
D
Christ is the Author (the Captain) of our full salvation into glory—Heb. 2:3, 10:
１
Jesus was the seed of the divine glory, falling into the earth to die and growing up to blossom in glory in resurrection—John 12:23-24; Luke 24:26; 1 Cor. 15:36, 43a.
２
By His growing up, His whole being, including His humanity and His human nature, was brought into the glorious expression of God.
３
He is the “Man in the glory,” the Man in God’s expression, even the Man who is God’s expression, God’s glory—Hymns, #505.
E
As the Author, the Captain, the Pioneer, the Forerunner (Heb. 6:20), Christ took the lead to enter into glory, and we, His followers, are taking the same way to be brought into the same glory, which was ordained by God for us (1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Thes. 2:12).
F
The Author (the Captain) of salvation, the Man in the glory, the Man who is God’s glory, is the seed of glory within us—Col. 1:27; 1 John 3:9:
１
Our Savior took the lead to fight through into glory; His whole life was a fighting process for glory—Luke 12:49-50.
２
The growing of the seed of glory within us is a fighting process.
３
Glory is the blossoming of the divine element from within us.
４
The glory into which we will enter is the glory of the divine element that has been sown into us as a seed—2 Thes. 1:10.
G
We are saved into glory, the expression of God, through the process of suffering; all our sufferings help us along the highways to Zion to transform us from glory to glory so that we may become Christ’s glorious bride—Heb. 10:32-35; 2 Cor. 4:16-18; Psa. 84:5-7; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:17-18, 21.
H
Christ as the Author (the Captain) of our salvation fulfills His duty to lead us into glory by being our High Priest to pray for us and to minister God into us—Heb. 2:16-18; 7:25; 8:2.
I
Christ as the Author (the Captain) of salvation leads many sons into glory, the corporate expression of God, by saving them organically through sanctification; this divine sanctification is carried out by the sanctifying Spirit in our spirit—2:10-11; Eph. 1:4-5; 1 Thes. 5:23; Rom. 5:10; 15:16; Eph. 5:26:
１
The divine sanctification for the divine sonship is the center of the divine economy and the central thought of the revelation in the New Testament.
２
The divine sanctification is the holding line in the carrying out of the divine economy to “sonize” us divinely, making us sons of God that we may become the same as God in His life and in His nature (but not in His Godhead) so that we may be God’s expression:
ａ
The seeking sanctification, the initial sanctification, is unto repentance to bring us back to God—1 Pet. 1:2; Luke 15:8-10, 17-21.
ｂ
The redeeming sanctification, the positional sanctification, is through the blood of Christ, to transfer us out of Adam into Christ—Heb. 13:12.
ｃ
The regenerating sanctification, the beginning of the dispositional sanctification, renews us from our spirit to make us, the sinners, sons of God—2 Cor. 5:17; John 1:12-13.
ｄ
The renewing sanctification, the continuation of the dispositional sanctification, renews our soul from our mind through all the parts of our soul to make our soul a part of God’s new creation—Rom. 12:2b; Eph. 4:23; Gal. 6:15.
ｅ
The transforming sanctification, the daily sanctification, reconstitutes us with the element of Christ metabolically to make us a new constitution as a part of the organic Body of Christ—2 Cor. 4:16; 1 Cor. 3:12.
ｆ
The conforming sanctification, the shaping sanctification, shapes us in the image of the glorious Christ to make us the expression of Christ—Rom. 8:28-29; 2 Cor. 3:18.
ｇ
The glorifying sanctification, the consummating sanctification, redeems our body by transfiguring it to make us Christ’s expression in full in glory—Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:23.
Ⅱ
The goal, the ultimate conclusion, of the book of Hebrews is that we would enter within the veil and go outside the camp—6:19-20; 13:13; Hymns, #549:
A
To enter within the veil means to enter into the Holy of Holies, where the Lord is enthroned in glory, and to go outside the camp means to come out of religion, from which the Lord was cast in rejection:
１
The camp signifies the organization of religion, which is earthly and human.
２
Every religion is a human organization and an earthly realm that keeps people away from God’s economy.
B
We must be in our spirit, where, experientially speaking, the practical Holy of Holies is today, and outside religion, where the practical camp is today:
１
The more we are in our spirit, enjoying the heavenly Christ, the more we will come outside the camp of religion, following the suffering Jesus.
２
The more we remain in our spirit to contact the heavenly Christ, who is in glory, the more we will go forth outside the camp of religion unto the lowly Jesus to suffer with Him.
３
The genuine New Testament ministry brings us into the enjoyment of Christ in our spirit, within the veil, and strengthens us to follow Jesus outside the camp in the fellowship of His sufferings for the sake of His Body—2 Cor. 11:2-3, 23-33.
４
Within the veil we participate in the ministry of the heavenly Christ so that we may be equipped to minister Him to the thirsty spirits outside the camp.
C
To enter within the veil is to get into our spirit; when we turn to our spirit and exercise our spirit, we enter within the veil—1Tim. 4:7-8:
１
We have to exercise, to use, to employ, our spirit by fanning our spirit into flame, setting our mind on the spirit, and discerning our spirit from our soul—2 Tim. 1:6-7; Rom. 8:5-6; Heb. 4:12.
２
We must exercise our spirit so that we may enter within the veil to have direct contact with the heavenly Christ, the Man in the glory, beholding Him to be transfused and infused with Him so that we may become His corporate reproduction—2 Cor. 3:18.
３
To be within the veil is to be in the Holy of Holies, in a realm where we partake of Christ and enjoy Him as the hidden manna, the budding rod, and the law of life, issuing in God’s corporate expression for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose—Heb. 9:3-4.
D
After the children of Israel worshipped the golden calf, Moses moved to a place outside the camp, where everyone who sought the Lord went to meet with him, for both the Lord’s presence and speaking were there—Exo. 33:7-11; cf. Num. 12:6-8:
１
We need to be warned by the principle of the golden-calf idol, an idol made by God’s redeemed people and that made them an idolatrous camp—1 Cor. 10:5-7; Ezek. 14:3; 1 John 5:21 and paragraph 1 of footnote 3:
ａ
Self-beautification leads to idolatry—Exo. 32:1-3; 33:5-6; Gen. 35:2-4; cf. Exo. 28:2; Isa. 60:21.
ｂ
Idolatry is Satan’s usurping of what God has given us in order to make it a waste; it is our abusing what God has given us and not using God’s gifts, both material and spiritual, for God’s purpose.
ｃ
Idolatry is the worship of the things that we enjoy, the worship of enjoyment, amusement, and entertainment—Exo. 32:6, 18-19; cf. Psa. 36:8-9.
ｄ
With idolatry there is the pretense of worshipping the true God—Exo. 32:4-6; 1 Kings 12:26-30.
ｅ
With idolatry there is mixture in worship—Exo. 32:4-6, 21-24.
２
Because Moses realized that the Lord’s presence would no longer be in the midst of the people, he removed his tent and pitched it some distance from the camp; his tent then became the tent of God—33:7.
３
The camp signifies a religious people, who belong to the Lord in name but who, in actuality, worship idols, worshipping something and seeking something other than the Lord Himself.
４
After Moses removed his tent and separated from the idolatrous camp, the Lord spoke to him face to face, just as a man speaks to his companion—v. 11:
ａ
God and Moses were companions, associates, partners, involved in the same career and having a common interest in a great enterprise.
ｂ
Because Moses was intimate with God, he was a person who knew God’s heart, who was according to God’s heart, and who could touch God’s heart—v. 14.
ｃ
We need to enter within the veil and go outside the idolatrous camp to have the closest and most intimate relationship with the Lord so that we can be persons who share a common interest with God and who can be used by Him to carry out His enterprise on earth.