Hebrews 8

Verses 1, 2. We get the word " heaven " now. It was " the majesty on high " in the first chapter; now it is " in heaven." The tabernacle on earth was the image; we arc introduced into the reality, into the original.
Verses 3-5. This is a very important point; " If he were on earth he could not be a priest;" therefore He is not on earth. We have to deal with heaven itself; and those who think it is too high to go to heaven may do without a priest. If we do not know Him there, we do without the good of it; it is not that He forgets us; He is always pleading for us; He does not cease because you do not enter into the value of it, but how can you be in concert with Him if you do not know where He is? You do not get the special blessing connected with it. Formerly the association was earth; they never got into the holiest; the high priest himself only went in once in the year. The first thing God told Moses to make was the thing they never reached till Christ came: the mercy-seat was the first thing in the mind of God, and the mercy-seat was never reached till Christ's death. None of the Jews ever got to it. Whilst the book of Hebrews does not say that we are in heaven, yet we can look in, and Christ is gone in for us. Then, however holy a man might be, however sincere, a time came when he lost his priest: he went in; now the nearer I get the plainer I see. He who has accomplished everything for me is there, and I have a right to go in after Him; my right is established. As to title every Christian is there, but there is a moment when I first get the sense of the enjoyment of my right. Hebrews is individual; each individual has a right to the holiest as the fellow of Christ. We follow Him, not upon earth but into heaven. It is very necessary to learn that I have a right to go into my Father's house. It is the point that is settled all through the Hebrews.
Verses 6-13. It is important here to make one remark about the covenant, which may clear false ideas from peoples' minds. Among men a covenant is an agreement between two. I propose terms to you, and you correct them. until we come to an agreement. A covenant with God is quite another thing; God only has a voice in it: He defines the terms. The children of Israel said they would accept God's terms, but they did not make a single term themselves. Now God says, I am going to bring in a new covenant. We are not under this covenant, though we have to do with the Covenanter. He told them He would propose a thing to them: He would create a nature in them which should be entirely according to His own mind. He says, I will make a people who shall know me from the least to the greatest, and in whose hearts shall be written my laws. This is the millennial saint; therefore this epistle meets the millennial state, for we must remember it is written to Jews. Verses 11, 12 will be the condition of the millennial saints. Is it true of us? I hope so. I hold him to be a very bad Christian who does not go beyond the law. I will beat any Sabbatarian that ever was; for I keep the day not to myself, but to God. Whilst he is a legalist, I am trying to please my Lord the whole day through. He says, I keep Sunday as the Sabbath. I keep it too, but it is as the Lord's day. But the Lord's day being the Sabbath duration of time, I fall into creational order; only, instead of keeping it as an enactment binding on my conscience, I keep it to please the Lord of the Sabbath.
And so on with all the commandments. As to a thief, he is not only no more to steal, but he is to be a giver. No one could ever get into Canaan by keeping the law. I must die in Christ and live in Him, and so get in. Certainly a Christian will not be in practice below a heathen; but the moment I hear a man say, I am going to judge myself by the law, I say, There is a man who has no proper sense of what Christianity is. Christianity goes far beyond the law. The law says, you are not to call your brother a bad name; but I am to die for my brother. Do you mean to say that I am not higher than a millennial saint even now? I am not in millennial circumstances; but I am in more than millennial favor. Does Christ reign in your heart now? If He be reigning in your heart he will certainly reign in your house. I believe He holds every one of us accountable for behaving as if He were on the throne at the present moment; otherwise, we do not believe in His kingship. It says," Seek the kingdom of God."