Jesus the Son Versus prophets

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

April 10, 2012


 *2012-04-09 - “THE SON - MORE THAN THE PROPHETS”*

*(From “The Holiest of All” - An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews -*

*by Andrew Murray*


 *HEBREWS SUMMARY: THE ABSOLUTE PRE-EMINENCE OF CHRIST*


 A. 1:1-2:4 THE SOBER IMPORTANCE OF THE WORDS OF GOD'S SON

1. 1:1-4 GOD FULLY BACKS UP HIS SON'S WORD TO US

*:God, having spoken of old to the fathers in the prophets*

Po-lu-meR*O*S [4181] kai po-luTROp*o*s [4187] PAlai [3819] ho TheOS,

*by different portions and in different manners,*

laL*E*sas tois paTRAsin en tois proPH*E*tais [4396],

2 *has at the end of these :days spoken to us in a Son,*

ep' eSCHAtou [2078] t*o*n h*e*-meR*O*N TOUt*o*n eLAl*e*-sen h*e*MIN en hui*O
*,

*whom he appointed heir of all, through whom also he made the ages;*

hon Eth*e*-ken [5087] kl*e*-roNOmon [2818] PANt*o*n, di' hou kai ePOI*e*-sen
[4160] tous ai*O*nas [165];


 We all know that there are two Testaments - the Old and the New. These
represent two dispensations, two modes of worship, two sorts of religions,
two ways in which God has intercourse with man, and man draws nigh to God.
The one was provisional, preparatory, and intended to pass away. What it
gave and wrought was not meant to satisfy, but only to awaken the
expectation of something better that was to come. The other was the
fulfillment of what had been promised, and destined to last for ever,
because it was itself a complete revelation of an everlasting redemption,
of a salvation in the power of an endless life.


 In both Old and New Testament it was God who spoke. The prophets in the
Old, and the Son in the New, were equally God's messengers. God spoke in
the prophets no less truly than in the Son. But in the Old everything was
external and through the mediation of men. God Himself could not yet enter
and take possession of man and dwell in him. In the New all is more
directly and immediately divine - in an inward power and reality and life,
of which the Old had only the shadow and hope. The Son, who is God, brings
us into the very presence of God.


 And wherefore was it that God did not, could not, from the very beginning,
reveal Himself in the Son? What need was there of these two ways of
worshiping and serving Him? The answer is twofold - If man were indeed
intelligently and voluntarily to appropriate God's love and redemption, he
needed to be prepared for it. He needed first of all to know his own utter
impotence and hopeless wretchedness. And so his heart had to be wakened up
in true desire and expectancy to welcome the value what God had to give.


 When God speaks to us in Christ, it is as the Father *dwelling in the Son.*
*“The words that I say unto you, I speak not from Myself, but **the Father
abiding in Me does the works.”* Just as God's speaking in Christ was an
inward thing - So God can still speak to us in no other way. The external
words of Christ, just like the words of the prophets, are to prepare us
for, and point us to, that inner speaking in the heart by the Holy Spirit,
which alone is life and power. This is God's true speaking in His Son.


 It is of the utmost consequence for our spiritual life that we should
rightly understand these two stages in God's dealing with man. In two ways,
not in one; not in more than two; in two ways has God spoken.


 They indicate what, in substance, is God's way with every Christian. There
is, after his conversion, a time of preparation and testing, to see whether
he willingly and heartily sacrifices all for the full blessing. If in this
stage he perseveres in earnest effort and striving, he will be brought to
learn the two lessons the Old Testament was meant to teach. He will become
more deeply conscious of his own impotence, and the strong desire will be
awakened after a better life, to be found in the full revelation of Christ
as able to save completely. When these two lessons are learned - the lesson
of despair of self and hope in God alone - the soul is prepared, if it will
yield itself in faith to the leading of the Holy Spirit, to enter truly
into the New Testament life within the veil, in the very Holiest of All, as
it is set forth in this Epistle.


 Where Christians, through defective instruction, or through neglect and
sloth, do not understand God's way for leading them on unto perfection, the
Christian life will always remain full of feebleness and failure. It was
thus with the Hebrew Christians. They belonged to the New Testament, but
their life was anything but the exhibition of the power and joy Christ came
to reveal. They were far behind what many of the Old Testament saints had
been; and the reason was this - they knew not the heavenly character of the
redemption Christ had brought. They knew not the heavenly place in which He
ministers, nor the heavenly blessing He dispenses, nor the heavenly power
in which He secures our enjoyment of these blessings. They knew not the
difference between the prophets and the Son; what it means that God has now
spoken to us in His Son. The one object of the Epistle is to set before us
the heavenly priesthood of Christ and the heavenly life to which He in His
divine power gives us access. It is this gives the Epistle its inestimable
value for all time, that it teaches us the way out of the elementary stage
of the Christian life to that of full and perfect access to God.


 Let us grasp and hold firmly the difference between the two stages. In the
one, the action of man is more prominent: God speaks in the prophets. In
the other, the divine presence and power are more fully revealed: God
speaks in the Son, who bears and brings the very life of God, and brings us
into living contact with God Himself. In the one, it is the human words
that occupy and influence and help us to seek God; in the other, the divine
indwelling Word reveals its power within. In the one, it is multiplicity of
thoughts and truths, of ordinances and efforts; in the other, the
simplicity and the unity of the one Son of God, and faith in Him alone.


 How many have sought by study and *meditation* and acceptance of the words
of the Bible to find God, and yet have failed. They knew not that these
were but the finger-posts pointing to the living Son, - words coming indeed
from God, most needful and profitable, and yet not sufficient; only
yielding us their true blessing when they have brought us to hear God
Himself speaking in His Son.


 *1. Let none of us rest content with the lower stage. Let us see that
personal fellowship with God, through the Holy Spirit, is what Christ
gives. God calls us to it: Christ lives in heaven to work it, through the
Spirit He gives from heaven.*


 *2. One may know much of the Bible and the words of God, and yet remain
feeble. What one needs is to know the living Word, in whom God speaks
within, in life and power.*


 *3. All the prophets point to the Son, as the true Prophet. Let us take
them very definitely as our teachers, to reveal God to us.*


 *4. When I speak a word, I desire all its meaning and force to enter into
him whom I address. God has in these last days but one Word. He desires to
have all that Word is and means enter in and live in us. Let us open our
hearts, and God will speak into it that one Word, “This is My Son,” in such
a way that He will indeed be all our own.*


 *NOTE**: *The above chapter by Andrew Murray lays out clearly the contrast
between OT prophets and our Lord Jesus; OT and NT; Old Covenant and New
Covenant. Murray wrote some 300 books and booklets during his lifetime,
some in Dutch that have not been translated.


 His book ministry has had an extraordinary effect throughout the whole
world; many in this area were not even aware of his specific ministry in
South Africa to the Dutch church.


 George Muller and Charles H. Spurgeon held similar views with Andrew
Murray concerning this relationship between Old and New Testaments. Because
the Jews addressed in the Book of Hebrews were unable to see this clear
distinction, they were unable to enter into the clear exposition of the
apostle Paul. It is for this reason that Andrew Murray and George Muller so
clearly set forth this contrast and distinction. May we *too* walk in this
insight they failed to perceive. J.A.Watt



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