What the Bible Says About the Work of Christ by F.F. Bruce

Author:F.F. Bruce [Bruce, F.F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2018-09-15T17:00:00+00:00

The Christian’s experience

THIS IS THE DOCTRINE; WHAT ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE? Our author knew that his readers would recognize the truth of the doctrine he set forth because it corresponded to their actual experience. When they had put their faith in Christ they had actually experienced inward cleansing through his death and risen life. They had been purified in heart and conscience and now had no sense of inhibition when they approached God in worship and prayer.

The psalmist’s words quoted above, which our author interprets of Christ’s self-dedication to do the will of God, continue with the confession, “thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8). This is not included in his formal quotation, but its sense is woven into his argument. For Christ the law of God was not simply a code written in a book or on stone tablets. Rather it was written in his heart in the sense that he spontaneously desired to do the things which the law of God commanded, whether or not those things were formally written down. But since they were in fact written down, their written record was, so to speak, a transcript of his character and conduct: “as it is written of me in the roll of the book.” (Psalm 40:7.)

Now what was true of him has become true of those who have received inward purification through him—the law of God is now within their hearts too. And this clearly marks the fulfillment of God’s promise to make a new covenant with his people in place of the old one under which the ancient ritual was instituted. The new covenant has been inaugurated by Christ, as the old one was introduced in the time of Moses. Our author recalls the occasion at the foot of Mount Sinai, recorded in Exodus 24:3-8, when Moses read the law to the people of Israel and they accepted its obligations. Moses (as we have seen in chapter 2) then sprinkled on them the blood of sacrificed animals and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you” (Hebrews 9:19-20).

Halfway between Moses and Christ, the divine promise of a new covenant to replace the old was given through the prophet Jeremiah, in an oracle (Jeremiah 31:31-34) which our author quotes in full (Hebrews 8:8-12). He particularly underlines two terms in this new covenant which bring out its superiority to the old one: first, God undertakes to write his law on his people’s hearts, and secondly, he says in the last clause of the oracle, “I will remember their sins no more.”

If God’s law is written on his people’s hearts, they will do his will voluntarily, and as for their previous sins, they are blotted out from his record. Under the old order, sins were remembered continually, and especially on the Day of Atonement; under the new order, past sins are forgotten.

What about sins committed subsequently? In so far as these are inadvertent, they are presumably dealt with by a heavenly high priest who can sympathize with his people’s weaknesses.

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