J. N. Darby · Hebrews 9.

393 Up to that time God had been trying men as living men in the world. That is ended - man is not alive now (I speak of man morally, as judged by God); therefore it is said to the Colossians, "Why as though alive in the world?" Man has been tried as to life, and now the fig-tree is cut down. Did it bear fruit? No! and it was cut down. The fig-tree represented the Jewish nation, in whom God made trial of men under the best circumstances. "What have I not done to my vineyard?" Christ came looking for fruit from the fig-tree, and finding none, He said, Cut it down; let no fruit grow on thee for ever. The "time for figs was not yet"; the fruit-bearing time not come. God, as it were, said, "they will reverence my Son." No! then there is no fruit from man for ever. Man, looked at as in flesh, is under the sentence of death. "When we were yet without strength … Christ died for the ungodly." Man is not only ungodly, but without power to get out of that state. Christ must close the history of the old man, by bearing the sin, and must bring in a new thing. Then God makes a feast and invites to the Supper; when they not only refuse the Son, but they refuse the Supper.