Ephesians 4:4-6, One hope of your calling: Our calling points to heaven, the Book of Hebrews.

Class Outline:

Thursday December 10, 2020

 

Stages On the Road to Freedom by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

 

Discipline
If you set out to seek freedom, then learn above all things to govern your soul and your senses, 
for fear that your passions and longings may lead you away from the path you should follow.
Chaste be your mind and your body, and both in subjection, obediently, steadfastly seeking the aim set before them; 
only through discipline may a man learn to be free.

 

Action
Daring to do what is right, not what fancy may tell you,
valiantly grasping occasions, not cravenly doubting -
freedom comes only through deeds, not through thoughts taking wing.
Faint not nor fear, but go out to the storm and the action, 
trusting in God whose commandment you faithfully follow; 
freedom, exultant, will welcome your spirit with joy.

 

Suffering
A change has come indeed. 
Your hands, so strong and active, are bound; in helplessness now you see your action is ended; 
you sigh in relief, your cause committing to stronger hands; so now you may rest contented.
Only for one blissful moment could you draw near to touch freedom; 
then, that it might be perfected in glory, you gave it to God.

 

Death
Come now, thou greatest of feasts on the journey to freedom eternal; 
death, cast aside all the burdensome chains, and demolish the walls of our temporal body, the walls of our souls that are blinded, 
so that at last we may see that which here remains hidden.
Freedom, how long we have sought thee in discipline, action, and suffering; 
dying, we now may behold thee revealed in the Lord.

 

 

Our eternal destiny is heaven, God’s habitation, house, temple, sanctuary. The church is called God’s spiritual house. It is to be like heaven.

 

Resurrected humanity of the Son of God entered heaven, promoted to the Father’s right hand. The kingdom of God would now be composed of men who would be in union with the promoted King. And before we get there, our King intercedes for us.

 

The resurrected humanity of Christ sits at the right hand of God as a throned Priest-King, asking what He will from a Father who always hears and grants His requests. Our Lord lives to intercede for us.

 

Our High Priest:

Represents us before God (HEB 7:25)

Brings our prayers to God (13:15)

Secures our access to God (4:16; 10:19)

 

These astounding truths concerning our regeneration through faith in Him and our blessings from Him contribute greatly to our hope. The one hope of our calling is the promises of God and the truths of what He has done for us. Hope in such a calling, a calling as high as the heavens themselves, breeds confidence and courage in us, and that, in the face of anything. It needs to be forefront on our minds, so ingrained, that we see ourselves as God’s inheritance and possession practically unconsciously.

 

Our resurrected King, the Son of God, has inherited and entered His royal house and sits on its throne from which He intercedes for His brethren/priests until they arrive.

 

HEB 4:14-16

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.

 

He has passed through the heavens, and even enthroned on place of highest authority, He still sympathizes with our weaknesses. And, by being there in our place, we are given confidence to draw near to this throne to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

Our calling is eternally linked with Him. It is in Him. So, where He is, we are.

 

HEB 9:11-12

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; 12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

 

“good things to come” - the spiritual redemption and salvation which were promised from the beginning through the Messiah which all believers looked for. The glorious effects of the hidden wisdom of God brought forth by the Christ.

 

Now, the earthly Tabernacle is shown as a type of the real one in heaven.

 

HEB 9:13-24

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 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? [knowing that He has made us clean we should do God’s works] 15 And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. 17 For a covenant [inheritance aspect] is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. 18 Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. 19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you." 21 And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. 22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

 

23 Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens [earthly tabernacle/house and items in it] to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;

 

Tabernacle, holy place, house, sanctuary, heaven - all point to the realm of the kingdom of God, also called the kingdom of heaven. The heavenly tabernacle was purified for mankind or that mankind was purified for it by the “better sacrifices than these,” which was the blood of Christ. “I go to prepare a place for you.”

 

As you can see, it is the home of all believers.

 

JOH 8:35-36

“And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

 

He alone has freed us from sin and made us sons, and by this doing, by grace through faith, we remain in His house forever.

 

This house or kingdom or tabernacle and the fulfillment of redemption and all promises and blessings from God to men was the “good things to come,” that were looked for from the beginning by believers.

 

HEB 11:10

for he [Abraham] was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

 

HEB 9:25-28

nor was it that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

 

This is our calling. There is only one type of life in the house of God and it is holy. Every believer has been made to this type of humanity, the new humanity, resurrected and in union with