(Heb. 12:3)

The Holy Spirit is here in the world to glorify Christ; as it is written, "He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you" (John 16:14).

By His power it is that we are being established in and firmly attached to Christ, so that He becomes more and more to our hearts.

This is particularly the case in Hebrews. All else, and every one else, is set aside that Christ Himself may be prominently before our hearts and minds. He is the Center of all God's plans and purposes, as He is the Object of the Father's delight, and the Holy Spirit works with us that He may be our delight and our all.

Hebrews perpetuates for us "the holy Mount" of Transfiguration. There "Jesus only" remained to fill the vision of the disciples (Mark 9:8). In the previous chapter we find the healing of the blind man (Mark 8:23-26). He was led by the Lord out of the town. Taking the afflicted one by the hand the Lord, the Son of God (oh, the tender grace He showed thus!) conducted him away from the business and the bustle of the haunts of men into a place of retirement with Himself. There He identifies Himself with him, spitting upon his eyes, and putting His hands upon him. Asked then if he beheld anything the man said, "I see men as trees walking." He saw; but only indistinctly. Men seemed as trees in their greatness and movement. The Lord then places His hands again upon his eyes. And now the blind man sees all distinctly. Is it not thus in our Christian course? At the beginning, when first the light dawns for us, men in their activities appear before our eyes in an exaggerated form. Though man in his best estate is altogether vanity-empty, transitory, unsatisfactory-yet he fills the vision. It may be that even the Lord's servants who have been instrumental in our conversion may have an unwarranted importance in our view. But in the power of the Holy Spirit the entrance of God's Word gives light and understanding. Then one is led on to view man as he is in his sinful state, both in others and in ourselves, and more and more we turn from him.

"Who knows thee well will loathe thee with disgust,
Degraded mass of animated dust,"

it has been said of man in his fallen, corrupt condition. And little by little we learn that the severe language is just and right, and learn too that degraded man who has cast out and crucified Christ has been set aside in the death of Christ." "Our aid man has been crucified," (brought to an end in judgment) with Christ, so that we have died with Him. More than that, we discover that He is not only our Saviour but that He is our Life (Col. 3:4). Then we take up the language of the apostle Paul and say, "I am crucified with Christ:nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). "For to me to live is Christ," exclaims the same apostle. Christ Himself in His glory filled his gaze, and became the power of his life and service here.

So it is in Mark 9. The three disciples, Peter, John and James, are taken up into a mountain, away from the world at large and from their fellow-disciples. There in that solitude the Lord is transfigured before them. His glory, usually screened from mortal eyes, was radiated forth in its excellency. Elias and Moses appear talking with Jesus. Peter delighting in the vision cried, "Master, it is good for us to be here:and let us make three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."He places the Son of God upon a level with the servants of God. The glory was affronted. A cloud overshadows them all, and a voice came out of the cloud-it was the Father's voice (2 Pet. 1:17), "This is My beloved Son; hear Him." Suddenly the scene is changed."Having looked round about," as though they searched for the others, they saw no man any more, save JESUS only with themselves." The Son of God filled their gaze in something of the majesty and glory in which He will be manifested at His appearing.

It is this to which we are conducted in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Heaven is opened for us. The Son of God is there. Not now, as from the Transfiguration Mount, soon to descend to death and judgment for God's glory and for our good. No, that work has been done! The one all-availing sacrifice has been offered. The cross is vacant, the sepulcher is empty, the throne is filled. At the right hand of God Jesus sits "crowned with glory and honor." It is there we are introduced to Him by the Spirit of God. He is there as the Purger of sins. He is there as the Pioneer of His people. He is there as the Priest for their succor on the road to the rest of God. He is there as the One who has trodden all the path of faith and has become the Pattern for them in their journey. Thus we hear the exclamation,

"Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus" (Heb. 3:1).

"No man any more." Jesus, once crucified, now glorified, is to be our subject of contemplation. We are to observe Him intently in the various glories in which He is presented before us by the Holy Spirit. He eclipses all. Men and things as types and shadows come before us, but only to be superseded by Him. Angels, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, are brought into evidence, to be dismissed. "A glory that excelleth" shines, and by reason of it they have no glory now, whatever their office or faithfulness may have been.

And what grace is this! We are called aside to commune with our God and Father as to His beloved Son. It is in Him, as we have observed, that all the Father's delight is found. And He lets us into this secret of His bosom. As another has said, He does not say, "This is My beloved Son in whom you should be well-pleased," but He tells us of His own full appreciation of Him so that our hearts may be led to see in Him the beauties, the graces, the glories in which the Father Himself finds His delight. The peace (or, rather, the communion) offering of Leviticus 3 is here. We are brought to have part with God-to have fellowship with Him, to feed upon the food of the offerings of Jehovah. We find common joy in the Lord Jesus.

And this is a foretaste of heaven's joys. There amid all that tells of the things which God has prepared for them that love Him,

"In the midst of all Thou only,
O Lord, wilt fix the eye."

If the veil could be removed from our eyes as it was in the case of Stephen, and if we, like him, were full of the Holy Ghost looking up steadfastly into heaven, we should see the glory of God and Jesus on the right hand of God.

"The glory of God." All that God is in fullest expression. "Jesus" in the center of that glory. Seeing Him there resulted in Stephen becoming like what He had been here as he prayed for his enemies. And so it will be with us; beholding the glory of the Lord we shall be changed into the same image from glory to glory. It is to produce this moral effect that the truth is brought before us.

"Consider Him" again is the cry, in chapter 12. Now the eye is directed to Him as the One who has run the whole course in the race of faith. The believer is seen as a runner in that race. He has to overcome difficulties in a world which is opposed to his progress. He is exhorted to lay aside every weight and sin which so easily besets us, and to look off, to look away from all else, and to fix his eyes upon Jesus, considering well how He has endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself. Otherwise there is danger of becoming weary, and of fainting and falling out of the running, instead of resisting the forces of evil unto blood. This had been done by many of the worthies spoken of in chapter 11. And our Lord Himself has been raised from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God. Our goal is to be with Himself. As Forerunner He has entered heaven and it is but a little while and He the Coming One will come and will not delay.

Blessed are we in having Himself before us thus in His varied and unchanging glories. We are in a world where everything shakes and totters to its fall. We receive a kingdom which cannot shake.

Let us have (hold fast) grace, and serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear as we await the return of our Lord. Inglis Fleming