Last time we completed the first section of Hebrews that pictured for us the greatness and uniqueness of Jesus Christ. The writer has taken us deeper and deeper in theological reflections.
Just how great is Jesus according to the writer of Hebrews?
- He is greater than any angel of God.
- He is greater than any prophet of God, including Moses and Abraham.
- He is greater than any priest of God, even the Levitical High Priests.
- The priestly line from which He is descended is the great line of Melchizedek.
- He has a superior ministry to any who came before or who will come after.
- He is the minister of a ‘new’ covenant, written not on tablets of stone, but hearts of flesh.
- He has made a greater sacrifice … the sacrifice of His own body and blood.
- He is in the highest place, the holy of holies, having passed through the veil.
- He is the Son of God, eternal and victorious over all enemies, at the right hand of the throne of God.
- He is the One who having walked amongst us understands completely what we face.
- He is the savior and redeemer through whom all things came into being and in whom all things find their ultimate purpose.
Through placing our faith in who He is and what He has done we have forgiveness for our sins, access to God and can find strength to live through His Holy Spirit. There will come a glorious day when He takes his rightful place and all recognize His Lordship.
With all this rich teaching it is hardly surprisingly that along the way the writer has warned us to pay attention!
- If Jesus were the greatest messenger of God (greater than any angel) we should listen more to what He has to say than to any others words.
- If Jesus promised us a Kingdom (described as the ‘Rest of God’) we should be sure that we don’t fail to enter the things of that kingdom through unbelief.
- If we want our faith to be a living, growing thing then we have to move from babyhood to maturity and feed on solid spiritual meat.
The first section, some 10 chapters, picture for us the greatness of Christ. The second section that begins at verse 19 of chapter 10 asks us to consider what all this rich theology might mean for our lives. How should we respond?
Hebrews 10:19 -25 invites us to three specific things.
• Draw Near to God,
• Hold Fast to what you have learned
• Consider how to help each other along the road.
Hebrews 10:19 - 25 1Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. 4 And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
We are firstly bid to draw near to God with the full confidence of faith. The imagery is that of the tabernacle and the temple. Verse 20 recalls the moment in the temple when Jesus died and the curtain that separated the holy of holies from the outer courts was torn in two. ‘the … way that He opened for us through the curtain (that is, through His flesh)’.
We are also reminded in that verse that this way is the way of the new covenant, the covenant that we celebrate around the communion table, a way made possible through His sacrificial death on the cross and given power through His resurrection from the dead, that this is a living way that offers a new way of living.
We are reminded that He is the ‘great priest over the house of God’. Just as under the old covenant the believer had to come before the priest and the priest ministered on their behalf, so we come to Jesus and He intercedes on our behalf, His own life becoming the sacrifice that makes His intercessions acceptable.
We are bid to approach with ‘our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water ’ thought to be a reference to both the inner working of the Holy Spirit that cleanses and renews our inner selves and the sacrament of baptism, an outward sign of the inner reality of our cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Above all things we are called to approach God ‘with a true heart in full assurance of faith’. No pretending. No game playing or role playing. But to come before God just as we are, aware both of our need and the ability of Christ to meet that need.
A praise song by David Fellingham captures these verses;
“Let us draw near to God, In full assurance of faith,
Knowing that as we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us.
In the holy place, we stand in confidence,
Knowing our lives are cleansed in the blood of the Lamb,
We will worship and adore”
The second thing we are bid to do is hold fast to what we have learnt. “23 Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.” Get a grip. Don’t let go. Cling on for dear life to that hope that Jesus has given us. When life knocks the stuffing out of us, as it will, look beyond the circumstances to the eternal hope that Christ died to give us. Remember that the promises of God are just that, “Promises”. Though right now we can not see, though right now we don’t understand, just hold on to what we believe. As we are reminded later this was a congregation who had been through some tough times and was facing difficult days ahead. ‘Hold on’.
Thirdly, we are to consider how we can help each other along the road. ‘Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds’. The greatest way to get others to do something good, is to do that good yourself. The most proven way of provoking others to higher things is for them to see you going there and they then gain the desire to want to follow.
In a similar fashion we are told that we should avoid ‘neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but need to be ‘encouraging one another’. Again, the best way to get people to be regular in church attendance is leading by example. If people see that we don’t think it’s important, why should they think it matters?
Finally we are asked to remember that we don’t have all the time in the world ‘you see the Day approaching.’ This may be a way the writer is getting us ready for another warning. We haven’t had a ‘wake up and pay attention’ passage for a while, but here it comes....
Warning number 4 … Now hold on…“The Danger of Apostasy”
26 For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy "on the testimony of two or three witnesses." 29 How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know the one who said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
One of the many mysteries of salvation is the question “What happens to people who fall away from the faith?” This passage raises such a question and then never fully gives us the satisfaction of answering it, but rather suggests that we shouldn’t take any chances by playing with fire. 26 For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”
Under the old covenant of the Mosaic law there were certain actions that could not be atoned for, but rather the punishment was death. Aside from acts that were simply wrong, there were also those that fell into the category of “You knew this was wrong but you went ahead and did it anyway”. Such acts were attested to by ‘two or three witnesses.’
In the gospels (aside from John) we are given the question of the ‘unforgivable sin’ described as ‘blasphemy of the Holy Spirit’ and thought to be related to the fact that amongst those that testified against Christ were those to whom God had revealed the truth, but they chose to call it a lie and went against what they knowingly knew was right, attributing to evil what was genuinely the work of God’s Spirit.
So we find the writer warning us “29 How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace?” Descriptions such as, “spurning the Son of God,” “profaning the blood of the covenant,” and “outraging the Spirit of grace” are different ways of expressing not having faith in Jesus Christ,or not trusting in Jesus Christ. Paul uses similar terminology.
This passage does not refer to sins in general, but specifically the sin of apostasy, which means the willful rejection of the Son of God. This is a warning to those who may have been headed in that direction because being a Christian was hard! They are cautioned in a manner that says, “Hey… if you think that holding onto faith is tough, consider what the outcome of the alternative might be! 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Having if you like, sought to scare the unfaithfulness out of us, our writer returns to a more pastoral mode offering further exhortations to endure.
Exhortations to Endure
32 But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting. 35 Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward. 36 For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. 37 For yet "in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back." 39 But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.
Verses 32 -34 invite them to consider how far they had come. It is as though the writer is saying, “You know, remember how it was when you first got on aboard this Christianity thing? Life wasn’t exactly easy. Indeed it cost you a lot! People didn’t like it. They spoke bad about you. You were persecuted, some of you even had things that were rightly yours taken from you. But you didn’t give up. You cared for each other. When one of you was in trouble you visited them. When folk were hurt for what they believed you stood by them. Why did do you do that? Because you knew that something greater had captured your souls! That ‘you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting’”
Then in verse 35 he counsels them quite simply…. "Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward". In other words, having tasted something you know that made you strong, don’t give up on it, because the rewards down the road outdo anything you could imagine.
Then comes 38, a key verse that will transition us into the next section. ‘my righteous one will live by faith’ or as the King James version has it ‘the just shall live by faith’. Hebrews 11, to which we will turn next time, is one of the greatest chapters in all scripture about faith.
Indeed we see how the author is setting a slightly different tone. He has moved from explaining why Jesus is the greatest to drawing out some of the implications of Him being the greatest. They are encouraging us, having discerned the truth, to know set about living into that truth, by not giving up, by encouraging one another and being bold to approach God in prayer, trusting in the sufficiency of who Jesus is, to get us through.
And next comes.... a chapter that reads to me more like a sermon than a bible study... and focuses on the stories of some great characters of faith from Hebrew history.