Biblical Essays
"HOLY BRETHREN"
“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus” (Heb. 3:1).
“And let us consider1 one another, to provoke unto love and good works” (Heb. 10:24).
The above two passages are intimately connected. They are bound together by the simple fact that the inspired writer makes use of the same word in each; and further, throughout the whole of this marvelous treatise, this word occurs only in these two places.
We are to consider Jesus; and we are to consider all those who belong to Him, wherever they are. These are the two grand departments of our work. We are to apply our minds diligently to Him and to His interests on earth, and thus be delivered from the miserable business of thinking about ourselves or our own interests: a morally deliverance for which we may well praise our glorious Deliverer.
However, before proceeding to the subjects of this essay, we must briefly dwell on the wonderful title bestowed by the Holy Spirit on all true believers – all true Christians. He calls them, “holy brethren.” Truly, this is a title of great moral dignity. He does not say that we ought to be holy. No; he says we are. It is a question of the title or standing of every child of God on earth. No doubt, having this holy standing through sovereign grace, we should be holy in our walk; our moral condition should always answer to our title. We should never allow a thought, word, or act, in the smallest degree inconsistent with our high position as “holy brethren.” Holy thoughts, holy words, and holy actions are suited to those on whom infinite grace has bestowed the title of “holy brethren.”
May we never forget this. Let us never say or think that we cannot maintain such a dignity, or live up to such a standard. The same grace that has bestowed on us the dignity will always enable us to support it. In the progress of this essay, we shall attempt to see how this grace acts – the mighty moral means used to produce a practical walk in accordance with our holy calling.
First, on what does the apostle base the title of “holy brethren”? It is important to be clear regarding this. If we do not see that it is independent of our state, our walk, or our attainments, we can neither understand the position nor its practical results. We may, with confidence, assert that the holiest walk ever exhibited in this world, the highest spiritual state ever attained could never form the basis of such a position set forth in the title of which we speak. No, more; we are bold to affirm that not even the work of the Spirit in us, blessedly essential as it is in every stage of divine life, could entitle us to enter on such a dignity. Nothing in us, nothing of us, nothing about us, could ever form the foundation of such a standing as is set forth in the title “holy brethren.”
On what then is it based? Hebrews 2:11 furnishes the reply. “For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Here we have one of the most profound and comprehensive statements of truth contained within the covers of the Divine Volume. Here we see how we become “holy brethren” – by association with that blessed One who went down into death for us, and who, in resurrection, has become the foundation of that new order of things in which we have our place; the Head of that new creation to which we belong; the Firstborn among the many brethren of whom He is not ashamed, because He has placed them on the same platform with Himself, and brought them to God not only in the perfect efficacy of His work, but in His own perfect acceptability and infinite preciousness. “The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one.”2
Wonderful words; let us ponder them, noting especially the vast, immeasurable difference between the two words “Sanctifier and sanctified.” Such was our blessed Lord – He was personally, intrinsically, and in His humanity capable of being the Sanctifier. Such were we personally – we needed to be sanctified in our moral condition and in our nature. But such is the perfection of His work, such the “riches” and the “glory of His grace” that it can be said, “As He is so are we in this world” – “the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one” – all forever on one common ground.
Nothing exceeds this in title and standing. We stand in the glorious results of His accomplished work, and in the acceptance of His Person. In resurrection-life He has linked us with Himself, making us sharers of all He has and all He is as man – His deity is, of course, incommunicable.
But let us particularly note what is involved in the fact that we needed to be “sanctified.” In the clearest and most forcible manner, it sets forth the total, hopeless, and absolute ruin of every one of us. As far as this aspect of truth is concerned, it matters not who we were or what we were in our personal history or practical life. We may have been refined, cultivated, amiable, moral, and, after a human fashion, religious; or we may have been degraded, demoralized, depraved, the very scum of society. In other words, we may have been morally and socially as far apart as the poles; but because all needed to be sanctified, the highest as well as the lowest, before we could be addressed as “holy brethren,” there is evidently “no difference.” The worst needed nothing more, and the best could do with nothing less. Each and all were involved in one common ruin, and needed to be sanctified or set apart before taking our place among the “holy brethren.”
And now, being set apart, we are all on one common ground; so that the feeblest child of God on earth belongs as truly to the “holy brethren” as the blessed apostle Paul himself. It is not a question of progress or attainment, precious and important as it most surely is to make progress, but simply of our common standing before God, of which the “Firstborn” is the blessed and eternal definition.
Here we must be reminded of the importance of being clear and well-grounded regarding the relationship of the “First-born” with the “many brethren.” This is a foundation-truth to which there must be no vagueness or indecision. Scripture is clear and emphatic on this cardinal point. But many will not listen to Scripture. They are so full of their own thoughts that they will not take the trouble to search and see what Scripture says on the subject. Hence we find many maintaining the fatal error that incarnation is the ground or basis of our relationship with the First-born. They look on the Incarnate One as our “Elder Brother,” who, in taking human nature on Him, took us into union with Himself, or linked Himself to us.
Such an error involves frightful consequences. In the first place, it involves a positive blasphemy against the Person of the Son of God – a denial of His absolutely spotless, sinless, perfect manhood. He was such in His humanity that the angel could say to the virgin of Him, “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” His human nature was absolutely holy. As a man He knew no sin. He was the only man that ever lived of whom this could be said. He was unique. He stood absolutely alone. There was, there could be, no union with Him in incarnation. How could the Holy and the unholy, the Pure and the impure, the Spotless and the spotted ever be united? Such is utterly impossible. Those who think or say they could, do greatly err, not knowing the Scriptures or the Son of God.
Further: those who speak of union in incarnation are manifestly the enemies of the cross of Christ; for what need was there of the cross, the death or blood of Christ, if sinners could be united to Him in incarnation? Surely none whatsoever – there was no need of atonement, no need of propitiation, no need of the substitutionary sufferings and death of Christ, if sinners could be united to Him without them.
Hence we see how entirely this system of doctrine is of Satan. It dishonors the Person of Christ, and sets aside His precious atonement. And in addition to all this, it overthrows the teaching of the entire Bible on the subject of man's guilt and ruin. In short, it completely sweeps away the foundation truths of Christianity, and gives us instead a Christless, infidel system. This is what the devil has always aimed at; it is what he is aiming at still; and thousands of so-called “Christian teachers” are acting as his agents in the terrible business of seeking to abolish Christianity – tremendous fact for all whom it may concern.
Let us reverently harken to the teaching of Holy Scripture on this subject. What is the meaning of those words that fell from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are repeated for us by God the Holy Spirit, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone”? Who was this corn of wheat? Jesus Christ Himself, blessed be His holy name. He had to die in order to “bring forth much fruit.” If He was to surround Himself with His “many brethren,” He had to go down into death in order to eliminate every hindrance to their eternal association on the new ground of resurrection. He, the true David, had to go forth single-handed to meet the terrible foe, in order that He might have the deep joy of sharing with His brethren the spoils of His glorious victory. Eternal hallelujahs to His peerless name!
There is a beautiful passage bearing on our subject in Mark 8. “And He began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He spake that saying openly. And Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him.”
In another Gospel we are told what Peter said: “Pity Thyself, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee.” Mark the Lord’s reply; and His attitude: “But when He had turned about and looked on His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind Me, Satan, for thou savers not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.”
This is beautiful. It not only presents a truth to the understanding, but lets a bright ray of the moral glory of our adorable Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in on the heart, eminently calculated to bow the soul in worship before Him. “He turned and looked upon His disciples.” It is as though He would say to His erring servant, “If I adopt your suggestion, if I pity myself, what will become of these?” Blessed Savior – He did not think of Himself.
“He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,” knowing full-well what awaited Him there. He went to the cross, and there endured the wrath of God, the judgment of sin, all the terrible consequences of our condition, in order to glorify God with respect to our sins – that He might have the ineffable and eternal joy of surrounding Himself with the “many brethren” to whom He could, on the basis of resurrection, declare the Father’s name. “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren.” He looked forward to this from amid the awful shadows of Calvary, where He was enduring for us what no created intelligence can ever fathom. If He was ever to call us “brethren,” He must meet death and judgment on our behalf – and He must do so all alone.
Now why all this if incarnation was the basis of our union or association?3 Is it not perfectly plain that there could be no link between Christ and us save on the ground or basis of accomplished atonement? How could there be a link with sin unatoned for, guilt uncancelled, the claims of God unanswered? Such is utterly impossible. To maintain such a thought is to fly in the face of divine revelation and sweep away the foundations of Christianity; and this is precisely what the devil is always aiming at.
However, we shall not pursue the subject further here. It may be that the most of us are clear and settled on the point, holding it as a cardinal and essential truth. Still, it is important that we bear a distinct testimony to the whole church of our Lord on this most blessed subject. We are persuaded that the error we have been combating, i.e., the notion of union with Christ in incarnation, forms an integral part of a vast infidel and antichristian system that holds sway over thousands of professing Christians, and is making fearful progress throughout the length and breadth of the religious world. It is the deep and solemn conviction of this that leads us to call the attention of the beloved flock of Christ to one of the most precious and glorious subjects that could possibly occupy their hearts – the title of “holy brethren.”
We now briefly turn to the exhortation addressed to the “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” As already observed, we are not exhorted to be holy brethren: we are made such. The place and portion are ours through infinite grace, and it is on this fact that the inspired apostle bases or grounds his exhortation, “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Jesus.”
The titles bestowed on our blessed Lord in this passage present Him to our hearts in a wonderful manner. They take in the wide range of His history from the bosom of the Father down to the dust of death; and from the dust of death back to the throne of God. As the Apostle, He came from God to us; and as the High Priest, He has gone back to God for us. He came from Heaven to reveal God to us, to unfold the very heart of God, to make us know the precious secrets of His bosom. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
What a marvelous privilege to have God revealed to us in the Person of Christ. God has spoken to us in the Son. Our blessed Apostle has given us the full and perfect revelation of God. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (John 1; 2 Cor. 4).
All this is unspeakably precious. Jesus has revealed God to our souls. We could know absolutely nothing of God if the Son had not come and spoken to us. But we can say with all possible certainty, “We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true: and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.”
We now turn to the four Gospels; and as we gaze on that blessed One who is presented to us there by the Holy Spirit, in that lovely grace beaming in all His words, works, and ways, we can say, “That is God.” We see Him going about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; we see Him healing the sick, cleansing the leper, opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, feeding the hungry, drying the widow’s tears, weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, and say “That is God.” Every ray of moral glory that shone in the life and ministry of the Apostle of our confession was the expression of God. He was the brightness of divine glory, and the exact impression of divine essence.
Thou art the everlasting Word,
The Father’s only Son
God manifest, God seen and heard
The Heavens’ beloved One.
In Thee most perfectly expressed
The Father’s self doth shine
Fullness of Godhead too; the Blest
Eternally Divine.
How precious to our souls: having God revealed in the Person of Christ, so that we can know Him, delight in Him, find all our springs in Him, call Him Abba Father, walk in the light of His blessed countenance, have fellowship with Him and with His Son Jesus Christ, know the love of His heart, the very love wherewith He loves the Son – what deep blessedness and what fullness of joy. How can we sufficiently praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ? How can we adequately praise our Heavenly Father for His marvelous grace in introducing us into such a sphere of blessing and privilege? How can we praise our loving Father enough for setting us in such a wondrous relationship with Himself in the Son of His love? May our hearts praise Him; may our lives praise Him – may it be the one grand aim and object of our whole moral being to magnify His name.
We now briefly turn to another branch of our subject – “consider the High Priest of our confession.” This, too, is fraught with rich blessing for every one of the “holy brethren.” The same blessed One who, as the Apostle, came to make Him known to our souls, has gone back to God for us. He came to speak to us about God; and He is gone to speak to God about us. He appears in the presence of God for us; He continually bears us on His heart; He represents us before God maintaining us in the integrity of the position into which His precious atoning work has introduced us. His blessed priesthood is the divine provision for our wilderness path. Were it merely a question of our standing or title, there would be no need of priesthood; but because it is a question of our actual state and practical walk, we could not make it if we did not have our great High Priest always living for us in the presence of God.
There are three precious departments of our Lord’s priestly service presented in the Epistle to the Hebrews. First, in chapter 4: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our confession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, except sin.”
Think of the deep blessedness of having One at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, who enters into all our sorrows, who feels for us and with us in all our exercises, trials, and difficulties. Think of having a Man on the throne of God – a perfect human heart, One on whom we can count on in our weakness, heaviness, and conflict; in everything, except sin – for which He can have no sympathy.
What pen or human tongue can adequately set forth the deep blessedness of having a Man in glory whose heart is with us in all the trials and sorrows of our wilderness path. What a precious provision; what a divine reality. The One who has all power in Heaven and on earth now lives for us in Heaven. We can count on Him at all times. He enters into all our feelings in a way that no earthly friend could possibly do. We can go to Him and tell him things we could never say to our dearest friend on earth, because only He fully understands us.
Our great High Priest understands all about us. He has passed through every trial and sorrow that a perfect human heart could know. Hence He can perfectly sympathize with us, and He delights to minister to us in all our seasons of sorrow and affliction, when the heart is crushed and bowed beneath a weight of anguish that only He can fully enter into. Precious Savior; most merciful High Priest – may our hearts delight in Him. May we draw more largely on the exhaustless springs of comfort and consolation that are found in His large and loving heart for all His tried, tempted, sorrowing, and suffering brethren here below.
In Hebrews 7:25 we have another precious branch of our Lord’s priestly work, and that is His intercession – His active intervention in the presence of God on our behalf. “Wherefore He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
What comfort this is for all the “holy brethren.” What strong consolation; what blessed assurance. Our great High Priest continually bears us on His heart before the throne. All our affairs are in His blessed hands, and can never fall through. He lives for us, and we live in Him. He will carry us right through to the end. Men speak about “the final perseverance of the saints.” Scripture speaks of the final perseverance of our divine and adorable High Priest. Here we rest. He says to us, “Because I live, ye shall live also.”
“If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,” [the only possible way in which we could be reconciled] “much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (emphasis added) – i.e., His life up in Heaven. He has made Himself responsible for every one of the “holy brethren,” to bring them through all the difficulties, trials, snares, and temptations of the wilderness, all the way home to glory – universal and everlasting homage to His blessed name.
Of course, we cannot attempt to elaborately go into the great subject of priesthood in an essay like this; we can do little more than touch on the three salient points indicated above, and quote the passages of Scripture in which those points are presented.
In Hebrews 13:15 we have the third branch of our Lord’s service for us in the heavenly sanctuary. “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”
What a comfort to know that we have One in the presence of God to present our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving. How sweetly it encourages us to always bring such sacrifices. True, they may seem poor, meager, imperfect; but our great High Priest knows how to separate the precious from the vile; He takes our sacrifices, and presents them to God in all the perfect fragrance of His own Person and ministry. Every little breathing of the heart, every utterance, every little act of service, goes up to God, not only divested of all our infirmity and imperfection, but adorned with the excellency of One who always lives in the presence of God, not only to sympathize and intercede, but also to present our sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise.
All this is full of comfort and encouragement. How often we mourn over our coldness, barrenness, and deadness, both in private and public. We seem unable to do more than utter a groan or sigh. Well, it is the fruit of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to take that groan or sigh, and present it to God in all His own preciousness. This is part of His present ministry for us in the presence of our God, a ministry He delights to discharge. It is His joy to bear us on His heart before the Throne. He thinks of each one in particular, as if He had only one to think of.
It is wonderful; but so it is. He enters into all our little trials and sorrows, conflicts and exercises, as though He had nothing else to think of. Each one has the undivided attention and sympathy of that large, loving heart, in all that may rise in our passage through this scene of trial and sorrow. He has gone through it all. He knows every step of the road. We can discern His blessed footprints across the desert; and look up through the opened heavens and see Him on the throne, a glorified Man, but still the same Jesus who was down here on earth – His circumstances changed, but not His tender, loving, sympathizing heart: “The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”
Such is the great High Priest, whom we are exhorted to “consider.” Truly we have all we need in Him – His sympathy, perfect; His intercession, all-prevailing; His presentation of our sacrifices, always acceptable. Well may we say, “We have all, and abound.”
In conclusion, let us briefly glance at the precious exhortation in Hebrews 10:24: “Let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works.”
How morally lovely is the connection. The more attentively we consider Him, the more we shall be fitted and disposed to consider all who belong to Him, whoever and wherever they may be. A man full of Christ is a man full of love, care, and interest for every member of the body of Christ. It must be so. It is simply impossible to be near Christ, and not have a heart filled with the sweetest affections for all who belong to Him. We cannot consider Him without being reminded of them, and led in service, prayer, and sympathy, according to our little measure.
If we hear a person talking loudly of his love for Christ, his attachment to Him and delight in Him, and, all the while, having no love for His people – no readiness to spend and be spent for them, no self-sacrifice on their behalf – we may be sure it is all hollow, worthless profession. “Hereby perceive we the love, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed, and in truth.”
And again, “This commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God, love his brother also” (1 John 3:16-18; 1 John 4:21).
These are wholesome words for all of us. May we diligently apply our hearts to them. By the powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit, may we be enabled to respond with all our hearts to these two weighty and needed exhortations, to “Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession,” and to “Consider one another.” And let us bear in mind, that the proper consideration of one another will never take the form of prying curiosity, or unwarrantable espionage – things which can only be regarded as the curse and bane of Christian society. No; it is the reverse of all this. It is a loving, tender care, expressing itself in every form of refined, delicate, and seasonable service – the lovely fruit of true communion with the heart of Christ.
