T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 5

The Eternal Pattern of the Kingdom

"For not unto angels did He subject the world to come, whereof we speak" (Heb. 2:5).

"But we behold Him who has been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour" (Heb. 2:9).

"...And tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come" (Heb. 6:5).

"Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken..." (Heb. 12:28).

Just by way of a preliminary word, let me say that it is not our thought to embark upon an exposition of the letter to the Hebrews. Our object is not to note what any particular part of the Scripture teaches or contains, but rather to know what God has revealed for the time in which we are living. That will be found in all the Scriptures, but this letter does contain a peculiarly comprehensive presentation of that revelation of God. As you well know, it covers the Scriptures almost entirely, from before creation, to and through creation, and on through the Old Testament it moves and takes up the gospels, embraces the writings of the apostle Paul, and moves to the great consummation of the kingdom which is coming. It is, therefore, very comprehensive, and we can say that it brings to us, in a concise way, God's mind from eternity as centred in the people whom He is gathering out of the nations in our own dispensation.

These three fragments which we have read, and making them even more fragmentary than in the text, do gather up into themselves not only all that this letter is about in itself, but all that God's revelation is about.

"Not unto angels did He subject the inhabited earth to come".

"But we behold Him...".

"The powers of the coming age".

"Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken".

I want to say just here for the moment - it will occupy us more fully perhaps later - that "receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken" is a present, active thing. It is not that we are going to receive a kingdom; we are now in the process of receiving the kingdom which cannot be shaken. That is actually the sense and meaning of the word.

The inhabited earth to come - the powers of a coming age - receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken - that is the thing in view, that is what it is all about. You have to move into all the details of this letter with that always as the object. Why this and this and this? Because of that. It is all pointing to that, it all has to do with that. What is the meaning of all this other? Well, that is the meaning of it. It has to do with an age to come, a kingdom which cannot be shaken, the inhabited earth to come. So you go back to the beginning of the letter, and you can understand that great first part - the introduction of the Son.

The Prospect

But look at these three fragments again just to get their connection.

Firstly, a coming kingdom.

Then, the earnest of that coming kingdom - "have tasted of the powers of the age to come".

Then, a present receiving of that kingdom. It is coming in now, and we are supposed to be coming into it now with all that it means as to its nature.

Christ God's Eternal Pattern

So the first section of the letter presents us with the eternal pattern of that kingdom, of that age to come. The eternal pattern is declared right at the outset, and we find the pattern to be a person. It is very important for us to get a right approach and right standpoint in this matter of Christ as the Pattern-Person of the kingdom, of the age to come: as the "Person-Pattern" of the coming age. Christ did not come because other people failed; a lot of people are mentioned here, Adam failed; Moses failed; Aaron failed; Joshua failed; Israel failed, and so Christ came - not at all! It is the wrong standpoint, the wrong approach. If they had never failed, He would have come. He was eternally appointed and destined to be this pattern of God's kingdom, of what things would be when God had them according to His mind. He is not just an emergency provision, a difference, of course, obtains.

If Adam had not failed, then some might say Christ would have been unnecessary; not at all. If Adam had not failed, if he had triumphed right through in all Divine intention, Christ would have been necessary to be the crown of that work. Adam's failure simply brought God's original thought in, and in Christ God says, "Yes, man may fail, but My first thought does not fail, My Man does not fail". The point is that whether man failed or did not fail, Christ was there already as God's pattern for things, and everything was determined and destined to take its character from the Son. Man, even without failure, would have simply come to the pattern of Christ, and Christ would have been the head, the crown, the measure, the stature, the fullness, even for unfallen man. Do not let us be mistaken about this, that Adam failed, therefore Christ; all these others failed, men and things; therefore Christ. No! God is building upon a Rock which could not fail from eternity.

God's foundation stands outside of time, God's pattern stands altogether apart from the exigencies of creation. It is the eternity of God's thought and intention which is our absolute assurance. If for one moment we allow what has come into time, that which we know of man, of ourselves, to be a governing thing, we are on sand. If our feet are upon something that goes far back beyond what happened in time, we are on rock, and I would like very much to stay and just leave the whole thing and talk about [this] Rock, for I am quite sure that what the Lord's people need to do perhaps more than anything else is to understand their Rock. There is an awful shaking going on, and the individual Christian is knowing that shaking. We get a terrible knocking about and buffeting over our faith, yes, even over our standing. This terrible Accuser never, never ceases to try and bring us back into questions, uncertainties and weakness as to our position with God and as to God's attitude toward us. Perhaps you know something of that; it is true. We need to know our Rock, the nature, the comprehensiveness of our Rock, Christ Jesus.

It is not only the Person, as we are going to see. We have used this phrase - the Pattern is a Person and the Person is the Pattern - that is a whole range of things gathered into Christ, as this letter unfolds a whole range of things, the whole question of righteousness, everything is gathered into Him. He becomes our Rock in the sense that everything that we need for an eternal realisation of God's purpose is in such a one as He is, and He has not just come in because things have gone wrong; He was there before ever anything went wrong at all, and God is not just repairing. God has His perfect and complete and final work in His Son.

There is no question, there is no doubt, there is no room for any question at all as to whether God is going to succeed, because He has, He has got it. Here this little fragment about tasting of the powers of the age to come, is that when the Holy Spirit is with us, we have the earnest of that coming age, it will all be like that. So let us get our approach right.

Christ No Mere Emergency Measure

I wonder if you have grasped what I have been trying to say? I think most people do make that wrong approach and have that wrong standpoint: everything has gone wrong, Adam has gone wrong and all these things and all these men have failed, and things are failing now, and therefore God must bring in some emergency measure to put that right. Not at all; Christ is no mere emergency measure. Christ is there before the emergency arose, He is God's pattern from eternity.

Christ's coming in deals with the conditions which have come about, it is quite true, but that is only God's way of securing what He originally established as His Intention. That is just the line that comes down and goes up again to pick things up; God's thought goes on without a bend downward at all, God's mind is established from eternity to eternity. Christ transcended men and Christ transcended all the things. Adam - did everything become involved in Adam? Was Adam final? No, Adam himself was only a pattern of Him that was to come (Rom. 5:14). He was to come, Adam was only a pattern of Him that was to come.

You are all prepared to say that the tabernacle in the wilderness is not it, it is only a pattern of heavenly things. So was Adam - he was not it any more than the tabernacle was it, Christ is the reality before and over Adam. Adam fails, Christ never fails. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8). That is the message here. Yes, the things failed, but, fail or not fail, they are only a pattern. Christ is essential, He transcends them. They have failed; it does not make any difference, this letter says. You do not throw up your hands in despair because Adam failed, because Moses failed, Aaron failed, Israel failed, the tabernacle failed - all failure. No, they are only patterns, and whether they fail or they do not fail, Christ is there over and above all. But, as I said earlier, He would have come in any case. He has come to redeem, but had redemption not been necessary, He would have come to crown, to be the crown of all. Well, the men and the things were only signs, after all.

Christ an Eternal Necessity

There is a very deep question - it may seem like a theological question - involved in what I have said. It is not just some abstruse thing. If Adam had not failed, where would he have arrived? Would he have arrived at deity? Would there have been a deifying of humanity? Never! It raises the whole question of the person of Christ as very God, and God is to be all and in all ultimately. He is to be the crown of His creation. Man, even unfailing man, can never of himself come to God's thoughts. Oh, how much is involved in this, especially in these days when there is such tremendous stress being laid upon the inherent qualities and potentialities of humanity.

There has been correspondence in one of our newspapers recently on this very matter, where an outstanding ecclesiastical dignity has said once and for all, talking about man's depravity, that it is all nonsense; he has never found the man whom he could consign to hell, and he has never yet found the man whom he could not send to heaven. What is that but making man capable of rising to sublime heights of acceptance with God by reason of his own inherent qualities? But even unfallen man would never have arrived at that, only by the crowning of him with Christ, that is, putting it round another way and saying by his coming to the fullness of Christ.