Now Consider How Great This Man Is

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.” CH 1:1-2. God could not have sent a greater, more valuable person. That is to say, God had no greater gospel to give people than the one Jesus brought. Everything the angels had spoken through the prophets in the Old Testament was of great value; nevertheless, it cannot be compared with what God sent His Son to declare. All those things that happened and were recorded are for our example and admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come. (See 1 Cor. 10:11.) The “ends of the ages” is from the time of Jesus to the “end of all things.”

In CH 11 we see how the saints of old were able to achieve the impossible by faith. They are examples for us in faithfulness, although they did not attain to perfection, which the prophets had declared would come with the Son. Nevertheless, they embraced it and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They had to suffer because of their faith without receiving the promise, because God had “provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.” The prophets had spoken about this perfection—the salvation Jesus brought—even though they knew that they were not ministering to themselves but to us (see 1 Pet. 1:10-12), yet they suffered without accepting deliverance; therefore they have also obtained a better resurrection and become friends of the Bridegroom. (See John 3:29.) The salvation Jesus brought makes it possible for us to become His bride, and the bride is, of course, much more valuable to the bridegroom than his friends. (See Phil. 3:7-10.)

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” CH 12:1.

Since we are surrounded by such faithful witnesses who suffered for a lesser calling, how much more faithful ought we to be in our sufferings in order to attain a far greater calling than they had! We are surrounded by them, it is written. It is also written that we have come to them, and to much more: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” CH 12:22-24.

This heavenly realm is not inactive. No, here is a world of the Spirit that is alive and intensely interested in the completion of God’s work of salvation which we are to partake of. Yes, they are intensely interested in us, who have a heavenly calling. Jesus Himself appears “in the presence of God for us” (CH 9:24), “since He always lives to make intercession” for us. CH 7:25. Jesus is also called a “surety” of a better covenant (CH 7:22), that is why it succeeds for all those who believe and are willing to suffer for this heavenly calling. There is no excuse for not attaining to it.