A Call to Persevere
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while,
“He who is coming will come and will not delay.
But my righteous one will live by faith.
And if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.”
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
My Understanding: The beginning of Hebrews 10 states that the law is only a shadow (a prefiguring) of the good things that are coming – not the realities themselves. In other words, Jesus Christ was/is the fulfillment of the law. He is the reality. The law was merely a prefiguring of Christ, set in place to lead us to Christ. We cannot be saved by observing the law alone. We are saved by grace, through faith, and not of ourselves (of our own efforts). That leads me to something I believe the Lord was showing me through this thought, and that is this picture of a human priest offering the same sacrifices over and over again, and yet those sacrifices never being able to make perfect those who draw near to worship. The priests are also described as standing and performing religious duties again and again, and again and again offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
Many people go through the motions of worship, i.e. through forms of worship, and they offer up to God the same sacrifices over and over again, and yet those human sacrifices of the flesh are not able to perfect them, and only serve as continual reminders of their sins. And, that is why they still feel guilty, because they have not truly been cleansed of their sins. The only way to be cleansed of sin is through acceptance of what Christ Jesus did for us on the cross in reality in how we live our lives, i.e. for us to truly be crucified with Christ so that we (our flesh) no longer lives, but Christ is the one living in and through us as the one on the throne. That is our only hope of salvation. Going through the motions, through a sense of religious duty, will never cleanse us of our sins, and will leave us feeling guilty.
And, that leads us into the next section of this first part of Hebrews 10 where Jesus is quoted as saying that God did not require sacrifice and offering, but a body he prepared for Christ. With burnt offerings and sin offerings God the Father was not pleased. Then Jesus said, “Here I am… I have come to do your will, O God.” The point of this, I believe, is that God does not want our sacrifices (things we do for him or give up for him) that we choose to give to him out of our own wills, thinking he will be pleased with us, but the kind of sacrifice he is looking for is for us to lay our lives down on his altar as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him, no longer conformed to the pattern of this world, but being transformed daily by the renewing of our minds (see Rom. 12:1-2). This, I believe, is what is meant by “a body you prepared for me” and “I have come to do your will, O God.” What pleases God is when we listen to what he says and then we do what he commands. His laws then are written in our hearts and in our minds through the Word dwelling within us.
Therefore
As a result of what Jesus did for us in dying on the cross for our sins, and in providing the way for us to come confidently into God’s Holy presence, and for that reason, and the other reasons listed in this passage, we should draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts and lives purified, cleansed and made holy by the working of the Holy Spirit of grace within us. And, we must hold unswervingly (not swaying back and forth by various teachings or doctrines, or not riding a spiritual roller coaster ride) to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And, in addition to this, we should be encouraging each other in the faith to hold fast to the faith we profess and to show our faith to be genuine by fruit in keeping with true righteousness and repentance. And, we need to do this with the understanding that the Day of Judgment is coming and many will not make the cut because either they had no faith at all or their faith was not genuine.
In relation to this next section of this passage, the Lord gave me some mental illustrations of what this looks like, including an illustration of what it looks like when someone does not hold unswervingly to the hope he or she professes. A profession can be just that, i.e. a public statement, which can be a false statement if it is not backed up by the lifestyle of the individual. The illustration the Lord put in my mind here was of one who was traveling a road in which he or she was the one driving, and too fast for the road conditions, where he/she was having to swerve continually due to sharp turns in the road, where the road had no lines (no rules) and where the road ended in damnation for the one who continued on and did not stop. This illustration was borrowed from something another person shared with me, and yet I believe the Lord was bringing it to my recall as I read this passage. This is a person who is in control of his own life, has chosen his own path – a lawless and a crooked path – that ends in judgment. As well, someone was riding beside him, and that person did not stop, as he did, and ended up plunging to his death at the end of the road (at a dam).
Under Foot
In this next section, it warns us that, if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment. This fits with Hebrews 5:11-6:12, which is a warning against falling away. The two passages parallel each other in thought. I also saw this in relation to the previous illustration about the two people traveling a road side by side, in control of their own lives, choosing their own path – lawless and crooked – that ends in damnation. The one person finally put on the brakes at the end and was saved, but the other continued and plunged to his death and eternal damnation. The one who did stop, though, waited until the very last minute. We can’t count on that ability to have that last minute, though, before we decide to stop going our own way, and we decide to go God’s way, instead. And, by the one waiting until the very last minute to stop, he led the other person straight to hell.
Then, the passage went on to describe 3 ways in which we injure God when we treat his grace with disregard by continuing in willful sin: 1) We trample the Son of God under foot; 2) We treat as unholy the covenant of blood that sanctified us; and 3) We insult the Spirit of Grace. The Lord gave me 3 mental pictures or illustrations of this, which parallel these 3 ways in which we injure God and our relationship with him:
In one picture, 1) he showed me a man in his bare feet trampling on top of the bedding that was taken off of the bed shared by him and his wife (a covenant relationship). This was an illustration to show a husband who was showing disdain for his marriage bed with his wife. He is not only rejecting her, but he despises her. 2) In another mental picture, I saw the same man step up on a chair (authority) with just one foot, as though he was going to step up all the way on that authority (which symbolized the authority of Christ, based upon the location of the chair), and as though he was going to remove something from the wall (an obstacle; a barrier to his relationship with Christ). Yet, he only used the authority of Christ (the chair) as a footstool for him to prop his foot up on, and he never did fully stand on the authority of Christ, nor did he ever remove that barrier. Thus, he took lightly what Christ did for him, and he took lightly Christ’s authority upon which he should have taken his stand. In this way, as well, he was treating as unholy the blood of the covenant that sanctified him. And, 3) I had a picture of this same man cheating on his wife with another woman and his wife finally publicly declaring his adultery. I saw this in relation to “insulting the Spirit of Grace,” for his wife forgave him 100 times over for his marital infidelity and he promised her on oath that he would never be unfaithful again. When we continue in willful sin, it is an insult to the grace which God has graciously provided us via Jesus’ shed blood for our sins.
These illustrations, as well, fit with the next section, only in a negative context. Instead of this man standing his ground in a great contest (our spiritual race) in the face of suffering (persecution for our testimony for Christ), he used that authority of Christ merely as a place to rest his foot and he never did step up and do the right thing by removing the obstacle that stood between him and his wife and between him and God. Instead of him standing side by side with those who were so treated, in particular his wife, in this case, he trampled their marriage bed under foot in disdain, in rejection of her and in showing that he despised her. And, instead, he rode side-by-side with a man of the world on a path leading to judgment which was a lawless and a crooked path of open rebellion against Almighty God. Instead of sympathizing with his wife, and joyfully removing the obstacle, he refused.
The encouragement here for us all is for us to remain faithful to God in all that we do and say, to not walk in willful sin, to listen to God’s voice speaking to us, and to obey. Our obedience and perseverance in faith will be richly rewarded when Christ returns.
Fear Not! / An Original Work / October 20, 2011
Based off of Philippians 4
Rejoice in the Lord!
Gentle be always.
The Lord is near you.
Fear not in all things.
But in ev’rything
By prayer, with thanksgiving,
Share your requests.
God will guard your hearts
With His peace always.
Think about these things:
Whate’er is honest;
Pure and is lovely;
And is praiseworthy.
Whate’er you have learned,
Or you have received, or
You heard from Christ,
Make it your practice.
God will be with you.
I can do all things
Through Him who gives strength.
Whate’er I go through,
Satisfied I’ll be.
My God will meet all
My needs according to
His riches in
Jesus Christ, my Lord.
Praise Him forever!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oZOuR7S8eY
As I was writing this, the Lord brought another song to mind, “I Will Uphold You.”
http://youtu.be/i0LFPI-isSU
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