The items of the covenant are things Christ has already accomplished, and there are no conditions or terms for their completion. By shedding His blood, Christ enacted this deed, the covenant, and through His death He left this title deed to us as a will, a testament. Hebrews 9:16-17 says, “For where there is a testament, the death of him who made the testament must of necessity be established. For a testament is confirmed in the case of the dead, since it never has force when he who made the testament is living.” A covenant is an agreement made by the giver, which is in effect while he is alive, while a testament is a will. When the maker of the covenant dies, the covenant comes into effect as a will. By shedding His blood and dying, Christ signed the title deed and left it to us as a will. Because the maker of the will died, we have the legal and judicial right to claim what is in the will.
With a will there is the need of an executor or arbiter. A will comes into effect when the one who makes it dies, but because some of the parties named in the will may not be proper, there is the need of an executor to execute the will faithfully. After resurrecting and ascending to the heavens, Christ became the Executor of the will in the heavenly court. Christ is not only the Maker of the covenant and the Giver of the will, He is also the Executor of the will. By shedding His blood He enacted the covenant, by dying He gave the will, and in resurrection and ascension He is today the Executor of this will in the heavenly law court.
Hebrews 8:6 says, “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as He is also the Mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted upon better promises,” and 9:15 says, “And because of this He is the Mediator of a new covenant.” Christ as the Mediator of a better covenant is the Arbiter, the Executor, of the will. After signing the title deed by His death and leaving it to us as a will, He resurrected and ascended to the heavens as the Executor to execute what is mentioned in the will.
Hebrews 8:2 says, “A Minister of the holy places, even of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.” Christ is also the Minister, ministering to us all the divine, heavenly, spiritual, and eternal things mentioned in the will. How can Christ minister the heavenly, spiritual, and eternal things from the heavens to us on the earth? It is by the heavenly “television” within us. Christ is “televising” the “scenery” in the heavens into our spirit. Christ is now far away in the heavens acting as our Executor to minister all the heavenly, eternal, and spiritual things to us by the transmission of the eternal Spirit. Whatever is now in the heavens is immediately transmitted into our spirit.
At the end of the fourth section of Hebrews there is an exhortation and warning to urge us to learn how to enter the Holy of Holies with boldness (10:19-39). Verses 19-22 say, “Having therefore, brothers, boldness for entering the Holy of Holies in the blood of Jesus, which entrance He initiated for us as a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a great Priest over the house of God, let us come forward to the Holy of Holies with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Today our spirit is the Holy of Holies. Now we may come to the Holy of Holies to contact this heavenly Christ and touch the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace for timely help. This is the secret of receiving Christ’s ministry in the heavens.
There is no need to go back to Judaism with its shadows, pictures, and types. We have the reality of all of these things in the heavenly Christ. This heavenly Christ is in the heavens, and the heavens are “televised” into our spirit. By simply entering into our spirit, we can be in the Holy of Holies to touch the throne of grace. It is here that we contact Christ who is ministering everything heavenly, spiritual, and eternal into us. How wonderful this is!
All the things we have seen from the first ten chapters of Hebrews are transmitted into our heavenly “television,” which is our spirit. Therefore, the secret is to discern the soul from the spirit and learn how to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord who is in the heavens in our spirit. Christ is here as the heavenly High Priest to minister all the heavenly, eternal, and spiritual things into us, just as Melchisedec ministered the riches to the fighting Abraham. He is this kind of High Priest to us while we are walking on this earth and fighting the battle for God.
(General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, A - Part 3: Hebrews through Jude, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee)