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Connected with this ascended position is the blessed assurance of an "uttermost salvation":
"Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to
make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25).
The key-word of Hebrews is "perfect", and the great exhortation (Heb. 13:20,21) is found in the words of
Hebrews 6:1, "Let us go on unto perfection". The word "perfect" is allied to the word "end", and the scriptural
conception of perfection is not that which goes by the name of "sinless perfection", but of reaching the end for
which one has been saved, as Paul puts it in Philippians 3:12, "Not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus".
We have said all this because the "uttermost salvation" is that which goes to the full "end" or "all the way", and
without the ascended Christ this full salvation would be in jeopardy. While it suffices for Acts 1:9 to say, "He was
taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight", this is not sufficient for the epistle to the Hebrews. That
epistle says:
"Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is PASSED INTO (THROUGH) the heavens" (Heb. 4:14).
"For such an high priest became us, Who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made HIGHER
THAN the heavens" (Heb. 7:26).
"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into
HEAVEN ITSELF, now to appear in the presence of God for us" (Heb. 9:24).
While it may not be possible to fix the date of the epistle to the Hebrews, its very title, "to the Hebrews", as well
as its references to the people of Israel, tell us that dispensationally it does not belong to a period that is peculiarly
Gentile in character. Right through the Acts of the Apostles we see a controversy that necessitates the clear cut
teaching of Hebrews to prevent a Judaized form of Christianity swamping the truth. In Romans and Galatians the
opposition comes from the Jew, with his works of law. In the last chapter of the Acts we reach a crisis. Israel in the
dispersion act precisely as Israel at home had acted, and there in Acts 28 we witness the removal of that people,
"until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in". It does not require a profound knowledge of Scripture to realize that
the removal from the scene of such a people as Israel must precipitate a crisis, and involve very drastic changes in
God"s dealings with men. It is here where the ascension of Christ becomes of such fundamental importance.
Rejected by Israel, He now rejects Israel, and His claims upon the earthly sphere of God"s purposes are temporarily
suspended, being put into force when the "mystery of God" shall be finished (Rev. 10:7) in a yet future day.
We now know, through the revelation given in such epistles as Ephesians and Colossians, that God in His
wisdom had fully provided for Israel"s defection, and in direct connection with the ascended Christ He revealed,
after Acts 28, in those epistles which are called for convenience "The Prison Epistles" (Ephesians, Philippians,
Colossians, and 2 Timothy) a mystery or secret which was planned and purposed "before the foundation of the
world" (Eph. 1:4), and "before age times" (2 Tim. 1:9), which mystery concerns a company of believers taken
mainly from among the Gentiles, who were "chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world", and made a "joint
body" (Eph. 3:6), blessed with all spiritual blessings "in heavenly places" (Eph. 1:3), created as "one new man"
(Eph. 2:15), and with no middle wall of partition to perpetuate the distinctions between Jew and Gentile (Eph. 2:14).
All these blessings are intimately and inseparably connected with the ascended Christ. "Heavenly places", the
sphere of these new blessings, is defined as the place where Christ ascended after His resurrection, "Far above all
principality and power", etc. (Eph. 1:20,21), and this unique company of believers are told that not only are they
"raised up together", but made to "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6). A new ministry, with
a definite work in connection with this new company, was given by the ascended Christ:
"When He ascended up on high, He ... gave gifts unto men ... and He gave some, apostles ... for the edifying
(building up) of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:8-12).