And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. (Hebrews 11:39-40, NKJV).
In the New Testament there are 43 references to the promise referred to here (Ro 4:13,14,16,20; 9:8,9; Ga 3:14,17-19,22,29; 4:23,28; Eph 1:13; 2:12; 3:6; 6:2; 1Ti 4:8; 2Ti 1:1; Heb 4:1; 6:13,15,17; 9:15; 10:36; 11:9,39; 2Pe 2:19; 3:4,9,13; 1Jo 2:25). I encourage you to look them ALL up, for each sheds its own unique light on what is in view in these last two verses of the Hebrews Hall of Faith.
This Promise is comprised of three principle parts: the Holy Spirit indwelling believers after Christ's Ascension; an eternal inheritance; and eternal life.
It is the first part which is the something better for us, for until the birth of the church in Jerusalem after that first post-resurrection Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was with believers, and would sometimes come upon believers in power, but He was not permanently resident in believers. That changed profoundly after Christ's Ascension to the right hand of the Throne of Heaven. As He told His disciples just before His crucifixion:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. “And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: “of sin, because they do not believe in Me; “of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; “of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. ...when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. (John 16:7-11,13 NKJV).
This meant that until the church age the intimate relationship that we Christians enjoy through Christ - that better relationship, better promise, better covenant, perfect access, and bold confidence outlined in Hebrews - was unavailable. We are the beneficiaries of something that was only hinted at previously.
But what might this mean in a practical daily sense? Does it really make any real difference?
In answer to the first question, it means that true Christians, those who have come to the end of themselves with a broken and contrite heart and have thrown themselves at the foot of the Cross of Christ in abject recognition of their helplessly sinful state, have God the Holy Spirit co-resident in them. Even more, Jesus says in John 14, that, “[if] anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (John 14:23, NKJV).
It follows then that believers are, in a very real and mystical way, possessed by all three Persons of the Trinity. Paul writes of this same intimate relationship to the church at Corinth:
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? (1 Corinthians 6:19, NKJV).
Further, because we are in Christ and He in us (John 17:23), we have power to be free from sin - not perfectly of course, and not always, but in Him we have an ability not seen in a human being, save Christ Himself, since our forbear Adam. We have been made free from the compulsion to sin. We can be righteous when surrendered to His strength within us.
Despite any protestation to the contrary, unbelievers remain slaves of sin. Many even glory in their sin, and proselytize others to join them in their self-destructive practice of sin.
Also, since receiving this promise through faith, we have, incredibly, the mind of Christ, as Paul writes, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, (Philippians 2:5, NKJV).
Do you get the significance of that statement? Christ's mind, the seat of His human will, emotion and intellect, is ours. His thoughts can be made comprehensible to us in the same manner as our own. We can literally think like our Savior, see the world and those around us as He does, and literally share in His world view.
I know this for fact in my own life. Before becoming a Christian, I was a committed and vocal evolutionist, an enthusiastic proponent of abortion, a hedonist seeking self-gratification above all else, an occultist dabbling in the realm of spiritism and medians. I looked with utter contempt at the "religion" of my mother, and held Bible-believing Christians as Neanderthals, damaged, perhaps even psychotically delusional.
From that perspective I understand completely the hatred of the world toward Christ, for I hated Him, as well.
But then in His grace and mercy, He caught hold of my life and heart, and gently, immediately, irrevocably, He changed me from the inside out. I look back now in horror at what and who I was before Him, and thank Him with speechless gratitude for loving me enough to put to death my old self, and having created in me a new heart fashioned after His.
For [I] died, and [my] life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3, NKJV).
Does it make a difference?
Yes, all the difference in the Universe.
