Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews

In this chapter Paul unleashes some of his sternest language yet against the unconscionable behavior of the Jerusalem believers in "putting Christ to open shame" (Heb.6:6), that is, the folly, the wrongness, and the blasphemy of continuing to perform the now defunct animal sacrifices of the Law now that "Christ our Passover has [already] been sacrificed for us" (1Cor.5:7).  Herein he will demonstrate that by returning to these ritual animal sacrifices, these believers are actually abandoning the only sacrifice which can save them, namely, the spiritual death of Jesus Christ on the cross.  In chapter ten, Paul confronts the Jerusalem believers with their shortcomings and the deadly consequences of them for that unauthorized continuation, while also upbraiding them for their failure to be doing what Christians ought to be doing:  growing spiritually and helping others do likewise.  All this is a necessary preface before Paul begins his great homily of encouragement in the next chapter, striving to put his readers first into the proper, repentant frame of mind, before laying out in detail the better way these believers should be behaving, returning wholeheartedly to the Lord in order to heal what was damaged and to be restored to fellowship with Jesus Christ and the spiritual progress that was once theirs. 

 

II. Translation

            (1) For the Law, presenting a [mere] shadow of the good things to come, not an exact representation of the [actual] events [of Christ's work represented therein], in company with the sacrifices themselves which they offer continually year by year, cannot bring perfection to those who approach [God] thereby.  (2) For [if they could], would they not have stopped offering [them], since the worshipers would no longer have a conscience [plagued by] sins, having once been purified [by such shadow sacrifices]?  (3) But [the sacrifice of these offerings only] occasions a reminder of sins [instead of any confidence of forgiveness], (4) because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to [actually] take away [the culpability for] sins.

            (5) Therefore as [Jesus Christ] was coming into the world (i.e., at His birth) He said, "You [Father] did not desire sacrifice or offering, but you have prepared a body for Me.  (6) In burnt offerings for sin you have taken no pleasure.'  (7) At that time (i.e., His birth) He [Jesus Christ in His deity] said, 'Behold, I have arrived (i.e., been born) – in the scroll of a book it is written of Me –  to do your will, O God' ".  (8) Above when He speaks of "sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings for sins [as things which] You did not desire nor take pleasure therein", [these are the very things] which are being offered according to the Law.  (9) [But] "Then", He has added, "Behold, I have arrived to do your will, O God".  [God the Father] is [thereby] taking away the first [covenant] in order to establish the second one, (10) [and it is] by [His] will [in this matter] that we have been sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

            (11) And while every [other] priest has received a temporary appointment for service and for repeatedly offering the same sacrifices which are never able to take away sins, (12) this [One] offered one sacrifice for sins for all time to come, then took His seat at the right hand of God, (13) waiting from thenceforth until [the time when] His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet.  (14) For with a single sacrifice (i.e., the cross) [Jesus Christ] has brought full completion to those who are being sanctified (i.e., saved us believers from our sins).

            (15) And the Holy Spirit bears witness to us of this.  For after He has said, (16) "this is the covenant which I shall make" with them "after these days, 'says the Lord': I shall put my precepts in their minds and write them upon their hearts", (17) [the Spirit also then says], "For I shall remember their sins and their unrighteous deeds no more". (18) And where there is forgiveness of these things, there remains no further sacrifice for sin (i.e., any sacrifice which is either necessary or legitimate).

            (19) Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence in this entrance of ours into the [heavenly] holy of holies by the blood of Jesus, (20) an entryway through the [heavenly] veil [of separation] which is new (lit., "newly slain") and alive and which [Jesus] has consecrated for us, that is, [through the sacrifice] of His flesh (cf. Heb.10:10; 10:18), (21) and since we have [this] Great High Priest over the household of God, let us approach [the throne of grace (cf. Heb.4:16) to pray] with a truthful heart in complete faith, (22) our hearts sprinkled [clean] of [any] bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water [of the Word (cf. Eph.5:26)].  (23) Let us hold on without turning [to the right or to the left] to the hope we have professed – for the One who has promised us [eternal life] is faithful. (24) And let us pay careful attention to [ourselves and to] one another with the purpose of stirring up our love [for Christ and each other] and [resultant] good works [of growth, progress and production], (25) not abandoning the assembling of yourselves as some have made it their practice to do [and which makes this impossible], but rather encouraging each other [to persevere in this work of the Lord], and doing so to an ever greater degree to the extent that you see the day [of the Lord] drawing [ever] closer. 

            (26) For if we continue to sin willfully (i.e., arrogantly) after having received full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice applicable to [such] sins, (27) but [only] the terrifying expectation of judgment and fiery retribution waiting to devour those who oppose [the Lord]. (28) For anyone who set aside the law of Moses perished without mercy on the [testimony] of two or three witnesses.  (29) How much greater punishment do you suppose will not justly come to someone who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, and who has considered His blood of the covenant to be unclean, the very blood by which you were sanctified, and who has violently insulted the Spirit of grace?  (30) For we know the One who said, "Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, 'says the Lord' ", and again, "The Lord will judge His people." (31) It is a frightening thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

            (32) Remember the days gone by, when you first saw the light, when you persevered through that terrible trial of abuse.  (33) For you were publicly exposed to humiliation and persecution, and shared the lot of others who experienced the same.  (34) You suffered from my chains and accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you possessed a more valuable estate and a more lasting one.  (35) So do not throw away this conviction of yours – it leads to a great reward.  (36) You need to keep persevering so that you may carry off in victory what has been promised – after you have accomplished God's will.  (37) For yet a little while, "how short, how short [the wait]", and "He who is coming shall come, nor will He delay".  (38) "Then my one [made] righteous by his faith will live because of his faith, but if he shrinks back, My heart takes no pleasure in him (Hab.2:3-4)." (39) Now we are not possessed of cowardly apostasy which leads to destruction, but we have faith which leads to [eternal] life.

Hebrews 10:1-39

 

III. Summary and Paraphrase

The spiritual death of Christ is what the Father required.  The Law merely foreshadowed that death on our behalf which is now a completed reality.  That is the hope in which you were saved, so hold fast to it.  Trading this confidence of yours for the pottage of a temporary respite from persecution through returning to the Law (or a contemporary Gnostic counterfeit of it) and thus offending Christ will result in God's judgment unless you repent.

The Law of Moses foreshadowed Christ and the salvation we would receive through His death on our behalf, but it effected nothing itself regarding that salvation.  If it had, then the very sacrifices it commands would have ceased to be offered since those offering them would then have had confidence of possessing eternal life.  As it is, these sacrifices remind those who make them of their sinfulness, the very purpose of the Law (Rom.3:20; 7:13; cf. Rom.4:15).  Animal blood does not save.  This is why scripture predicted the need for a Savior, One who would come into this world as a man to do the Father's will in providing salvation through the sacrifice of His own body (Psalm 40:7-8), for the Father's justice could not be satisfied by mere animal sacrifices (Psalm 40:6).  By declaring this, we see that scripture itself removes the Old Covenant of shadows and literal blood and replaces it with the New Covenant of actual salvation through the body and blood of Jesus Christ.  That is how we are sanctified, made holy, rescued from this world and saved: through Christ's offering of Himself on the cross on our behalf – when we believe it, if we hold fast to it. 

Under the Old Covenant, the priests continually offered animal sacrifices which cannot save.  But our High Priest offered Himself – by which sacrifice we are saved – and the effectiveness of His sacrifice is confirmed by the approval inherent in His session at the Father's right hand.  Now we are merely waiting for His return – and should be doing so in confidence and faithfulness, not in compromise and spiritual regression.  In contrast to the many ineffective animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant, our High Priest saved us through one sacrifice – once and for all, just as scripture says when it affirms that under the New Covenant our sins will be forgiven (Jeremiah 31:33-34).  And where there is an efficacious forgiveness of sins, obviously there remains no more need for any sacrificing for them – and you should know this.

We have now been completely cleansed of our sins by the blood of Christ – His work in dying for our sins – and not by ineffective animal blood.  We ought, therefore, to have confidence to draw closer to the Lord, encouraged by the fact that the way has been opened up into the true holy of holies in heaven for us who belong to Him, His "house", by means of the sacrifice of our true High Priest for us on the cross.  We can and we should have absolute confidence in our salvation now since we have been sprinkled not by animal blood and not by physical water but by the blood of Christ (His paying of the penalty of our sins) and by the Water of the Word (the gospel which we have believed) – that is what has cleansed our consciences, NOT the sacrifices of the Law.  We need to hold fast to what we have confessed and believed in the absolute confidence of eternal life through Jesus Christ – God has never proved untrue to His promises . . . for those who persevere in faith.  And we should also be reminding others who are falling by the wayside of the need to maintain their Christian love and the ministry it inspires – the lack of which is an indication of drifting away (as I mentioned before: Heb.2:1).  To accomplish the above, we need to avoid the habit of some who are avoiding having anything to do with other believers out of fear and lassitude; rather we should be encouraging each other to stand fast in the truth, ministering to each other through the truth (something which is impossible if we avoid having contact with each other for all the wrong reasons).  After all, Christ will return soon and we should be living in anticipation of that blessed hope (Tit.2:13; cf. Matt.24:43-51).

We have already proven that the sacrifices of the Law are now defunct and were never of any true effect.  What, then, can anyone who willfully ignores these truths and turns back to the now replaced Law for all the wrong reasons reasonably expect except a terrible judgment for such cowardly lack of faith?  After all, it is not as if you can offer an animal sacrifice for this sin since continuing to sacrifice animals now that the cross has happened is in fact the sin itself!  Remember, you who wish to remain under the Old Covenant, that violating the inferior and now replaced Law resulted in summary judgment of the most severe sort.  So how much more drastic do you not think the punishment will be for anyone who – in effect – is trampling Christ and His sacrifice underfoot by going back to those weak things which merely foreshadowed what He was going to do for us, especially since by doing that you are suggesting that what Jesus did for us must have been ineffective!  This is the same as considering the cross a profanity even though this is what saved you!  This is insulting the Holy Spirit and the grace of God after the fact – when we know that those who reject His message in the first place are headed to the lake of fire (Matt.12:31)! 

Doesn't the Father claim vengeance as His own prerogative?  Doesn't He say that He will judge those who belong to Him – meaning you?  Don't you understand what a terrifying prospect it is for those who are tempting Him in this way to fall under His judgment?  This is not the way you behaved in the past.  Previously, after you had first seen the light of Him who is the Light of the world, you endured all manner of suffering rather than compromise the truth.  And I know that full well because I myself was the one who subjected many of you to persecution.  You endured all manner of injury in a contest, so to speak, of suffering wherein you were put on display in trials, tribulation and slanderous reproaches, but you did not turn away from Christ – because you were looking forward to your resurrection and a reward which is better by far than anything on this temporary earth.  And rightly did you do so.  After all that, please don't throw away your confidence of salvation, forgetting what you have already endured and throwing everything away at this late date.  Instead, you ought to persevere in your faith no matter what, so that you may receive the promised rewards and promised resurrection that once meant everything to you by doing what God wants you to do – which is NOT returning to the Law (or dabbling in mystic interpretations of it).  It is just as the scripture says (Habakkuk 2:3-4):  the wait for what we hope for is very short compared to eternity; the Lord will return, sooner than you think; we who have been made righteous through faith by that same faith will inherit eternal life – unless we draw back from our faith and force the Lord to disown us.  But I am confident, brethren, that we are NOT of the number of those who retreat unto apostasy, but of those who persevere in faith to the preservation of our eternal lives.

 

IV. Verse by Verse Commentary

 

Verses One through Four

(1) For the Law, presenting a [mere] shadow of the good things to come, not an exact representation of the [actual] events [of Christ's work represented therein], in company with the sacrifices themselves which they offer continually year by year, cannot bring perfection to those who approach [God] thereby.  (2) For [if they could], would they not have stopped offering [them], since the worshipers would no longer have a conscience [plagued by] sins, having once been purified [by such shadow sacrifices]?  (3) But [the sacrifice of these offerings only] occasions a reminder of sins [instead of any confidence of forgiveness], (4) because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to [actually] take away [the culpability for] sins.
Hebrews 10:1-4

 

Presenting a Mere Shadow:

For at the present time our perception [of heavenly things] is like [viewing] a dim reflection in a mirror. 
1st Corinthians 13:12a

The Law too presented what we may call "a dim reflection" of "the good things to come", rather than the much more precise picture we have been given to learn, enjoy and apply following the incarnation, sacrifice and glorification of our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  For while there is a tremendous amount of glorious truth revealed in the Law (Rom.15:4), it fades in comparison to the glory revealed in the face of Jesus Christ and imparted to us in the New Covenant through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

(7) Now if the [Law's] ministry of death – engraved with letters written on stone – imparted glory of a type such that the Israelites were not allowed to keep continually beholding Moses' face because this glory of his face was fading, (8) then how could the Spirit's ministry of life not impart greater glory? (9) For if the [Law's] ministry of condemnation possessed glory, then so much the more should the ministry of justification surpass it in glory. (10) In fact, the glory of the former seems altogether lacking in glory in comparison to the surpassing glory of the latter. (11) For if what fades away has glory, then so much more then will what abides be [surpassingly] glorious.
2nd Corinthians 3:7-11

Through its sacrifices and through all of the paraphernalia of the tabernacle/temple, the Law, as we have seen, reflected the realities of the Messiah to come, His sacrifice and His glorification – the cross and the crown; it represented through its regulations the sanctified and elect nature of the community of believers – secular Israel reflecting the true "Israel of God" (i.e., believers of every lineage in the Church: Gal.6:16); and in so doing, the Law presented a reflection of the eventual fellowship of saved humanity with God in the ultimate holy of holies, New Jerusalem.  But the Law presented these spiritual realities dimly, and it is not too much to say that to even understand in full what its various shadows represented would first require the coming of the Son of Man and the completion of the written Word which the victory of the Living Word empowered.  Through the gift of the Holy Spirit which our Lord's glorification won for us (Jn.7:39), and through the completion of the canon of scripture so that we now possess the written Word in full, we believers today are blessed to see "the good things" which were destined "to come" in very precise detail – clear enough indeed to understand that the glory of the new is far superior to that of the old, and to such a degree that "the glory of the former [Law] seems altogether lacking in glory in comparison to the surpassing glory of the latter [dispensation of the Spirit]" (2Cor.3:10).  Believers since the cross, therefore, should be serving our Lord through the ineffably greater and more glorious ministry of the Spirit and not returning to the far less glorious and now replaced Law which merely foreshadowed it.

But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
Romans 7:6 NKJV

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:2 NKJV

 

Cannot Bring Perfection: 

For the Law, presenting a [mere] shadow of the good things to come, not an exact representation of the [actual] events [of Christ's work represented therein], in company with the sacrifices themselves which they offer continually year by year, cannot bring perfection to those who approach [God] thereby.
Hebrews 10:1

The word translated "perfection" here is the Greek verb teleioo, meaning "to make perfect, to fulfill, to make complete, to bring to an end".  We have studied this verb and its essential morpheme, tel-, before, in the context of Christ's fulfillment and completion of the Law[1], in the context of God the Father's completion of salvation through Jesus Christ,[2] in the context of the believer's attainment of spiritual maturity,[3] and, most recently, in the previous chapter of Hebrews in this same sense of the completion of salvation through Christ's actual and efficacious expiation of all sin:

This has a direct application to our present time, wherein, although [such] gifts and sacrifices are [still] being offered, they are [nevertheless] unable to cleanse (literally, "complete" <teleioo) the conscience of the one offering them completely (i.e., no sense of forgiveness because they are mere rituals).
Hebrews 9:9

Here, in our context of Hebrews 10:1, however, the "completion" refers to "those who approach God", that is, believers – or at least those who are attempting to be reconciled to God.  The problem, of course, is that reconciliation can only happen on God's terms.  No amount of human good could ever remove the barrier of sin between God and sinful mankind.  Only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ could ever have done so – and, most blessedly, has done so.  Even the sacrifices which are prescribed by the Law could not remove the enmity of God's righteousness towards sin.  They were only able to symbolize the actual means that God the Father would one day use to do so: the precious death of His one and only dear Son our Savior Jesus Christ, His spiritual death on the cross in paying the entire penalty for all of mankind's sins.  That was the only way to "bring perfection (teleiosai) to those who approach [Him]" (Heb.10:1). 

The plan of God is all about perfection, completion, fulfillment (tel-).  These few years of creature history are not so much as a drop in the bucket of the eternity we who belong to Jesus Christ will spend with Him and the Father and with each other in the Church along with the millennial believers and the elect angels – the perfect and complete family of God (cf. Eph.3:14-15).  Everything down here on this temporary earth is imperfect, flawed, tainted by sin, ephemeral, and of short duration.  But we who belong to Jesus Christ have been made perfect in principle, are being perfected as we walk with the Lord through this world (if, that is, we are responding to Him as we should be), and will, in the end, be perfect in every way, in ultimate sanctification, in bodily, eternal resurrection in glory and with eternal reward forever and ever.  We presently despise this world precisely because it does not last.  There is no enduring happiness here and certainly no solid security.  Whatever happiness and security we do enjoy in this maculate world is entirely due to the grace and mercy of our dear Savior, "who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Phil.3:21 NIV).  From that glorious moment on, everything will be fulfilled, complete and perfect for us forever – but not until.  Until then, this world is a battlefield where our mettle is being tested, a threshing floor whereon the wheat is being separated from the chaff, a place where every choice matters and affects what the glorious future reality will look like for us.  Therefore we are not turning back to the shadows of the now obsolete and fulfilled rituals of the past (in the manner of many of the Jerusalem believers of Paul's day).  Rather, we are looking forward.

But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
2nd Peter 3:13 NIV

(1) And [then] (i.e., at the conclusion of the last judgment) I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth [appear]. For the previous heaven and the previous earth had passed away (Rev.20:11), and the sea [now] no longer existed [on this New Earth].
Revelation 21:1

 

Conscience:

For [if they could (i.e., bring perfection to the worshipers)], would they not have stopped offering [them], since the worshipers would no longer have a conscience [plagued by] sins, having once been purified [by such shadow sacrifices]?
Hebrews 10:2

Paul again feels compelled to hammer this point home with inescapable logic:  animal sacrifices do not save; if they did save, then why would anyone make such a sacrifice after being saved?  We who believe in Jesus Christ have been purified, cleansed of our sins once and for all through His once-and-for-all sacrifice on our behalf when we put our faith in Him for salvation, so that we believers do have "clean consciences".  We do understand that all of our sins have been forgiven when we were washed clean with the blood of Christ, so to speak.  The same is most definitely not true of those worshiping under the Law in their presentation of animal sacrifices, because, if it were, they would stop offering them once purified.  Their consciences would be clean, which is to say, they would have assurance of salvation.  But they do not since such assurance is only given in fact to believers in Jesus Christ.  Now the audience for this letter was indeed composed of believers, men and women who most definitely had been saved and who should have prized the assurance of salvation received in the Spirit through Christ's death on our behalf and our faith in Him above all else – and especially over the animal sacrifices which never gave such assurance and which at the time of hearing the letter were still incapable of doing so.

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
1st Corinthians 6:11b NIV

But whoever does not have (the virtues of vv.5-8) is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
2nd Peter 1:9 NIV

 

Reminder of Sin:  This is an important point to grasp.  First of all, it should be clear to all – as by now in this letter it should have been clear to those who received it – that the sacrifices of the Law were incapable of actually removing the penalty for sins.  Only the Blood of Christ, our Savior's sacrifice on the cross, could do that for us.  Secondly, then, what was their purpose?  We know that these sacrifices symbolized our Lord's death, but here we are told that they also had the purpose of "reminding" those who offered them of their own sinfulness.  We are all sinners, "saved by grace" (Eph.2:5-8), and that was true before as well as after the cross.  While we believers today have the New Testament and the Holy Spirit to keep us humble and to remind us to stay "up to date" in our confession of sin to our Lord (1Jn.1:9; cf. Matt.6:12; Lk.11:4), the animal sacrifices of the Law served that purpose for the Old Testament saints.  For that reason, to assume that sacrificing produced forgiveness when only God can forgive was to put things entirely backwards and to enter into the serious legalistic trap of forgetting grace and standing on one's own works instead.  Indeed, as with these sacrifices, the entire purpose of the Law as a whole was to convict us of our sinfulness – so as to turn our hearts to the Lord as the only Way of salvation (Rom.3:20; 7:13; cf. Rom.4:15).

 

Impossible:

(4) [Being meant only to remind us of our sinfulness, animal sacrifices cannot cleanse the consciences of those who offer them] . . . because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to [actually] take away [the culpability for] sins.
Hebrews 10:4

This is the conclusion of what Paul has been arguing for throughout this epistle and in the last several chapters in particular – from the negative side of things.  While seemingly repetitive, even pleonastic, it was very important for him to reiterate this all too obvious conclusion here, obvious, that is, to any and all who have not yet completely hardened their hearts against the truth, because this side of the coin has to be accepted in order to appreciate and likewise accept the other side of the coin:  animal sacrifices are only teaching aids; the great Gift of God, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins is the only thing that ever could take away our sins and relieve us of the penalty for them.  But without fully appreciating the true purpose of the Mosaic rituals, namely, to foreshadow the Messiah and the cross, and without completely accepting that such rituals were in and of themselves incapable of providing any spiritual benefit whatsoever (as they merely looked forward to and represented that great spiritual reality yet to come), any further detailed exposition of the wonders of the first advent and of Christ's sacrifice for us ran the risk of falling upon deaf ears.  After all, many of the recipients of this letter had convinced themselves that there was "nothing wrong" with continuing to offer animal sacrifices which by the very act of so doing wrongly proclaimed the insufficiency of Christ's work for us on the cross.  For just as Paul says that had the worshipers' consciences been cleansed, they would have stopped offering these sacrifices (Heb.10:2), by the same token, how could the Jerusalem believers' continued participation in these rituals not be taken to mean that neither had the blood of Christ taken away that guilt?  And how could such participation not mean that this was what they themselves had come to believe.  In order to appreciate what our Lord has done for us, explained in some detail in the paragraphs that follow, complete rejection of that false approach on the part of these erstwhile believers had first to be achieved, however much repetition was necessary to achieve it.

(4) For, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and who have experienced the heavenly gift and become partakers of the Holy Spirit, (5) and who have experienced that the Word of God is good, and [who have experienced] miracles foreshadowing the age to come, (6) it is impossible to restore them to [true] repentance after having fallen away [into sin] as long as they keep crucifying the Son of God afresh and exposing Him to open shame.  (7) For land that drinks the rain coming frequently upon it and as a result produces plants beneficial to those by whom it is farmed receives its share of God's blessing. (8) But if it brings forth thistles and thorns, it is found wanting and is close to receiving a curse, the end of which is burning.
Hebrews 6:4-8

 

Verses Five through Ten

(5) Therefore as [Jesus Christ] was coming into the world (i.e., at His birth) He said, "You [Father] did not desire sacrifice or offering, but you have prepared a body for Me.  (6) In burnt offerings for sin you have taken no pleasure.'  (7) At that time (i.e., His birth) He [Jesus Christ in His deity] said, 'Behold, I have arrived (i.e., been born) – in the scroll of a book it is written of Me –  to do your will, O God' ".  (8) Above when He speaks of "sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings for sins [as things which] You did not desire nor take pleasure therein", [these are the very things] which are being offered according to the Law.  (9) [But] "Then", He has added, "Behold, I have arrived to do your will, O God".  [God the Father] is [thereby] taking away the first [covenant] in order to establish the second one, (10) [and it is] by [His] will [in this matter] that we have been sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.
Hebrews 10:5-10

 

Coming into the World:  Whence can anyone "come into the world" if not from God?   Therefore anyone "coming into the world" must be sent by the Father (Matt.10:40; 15:24; Mk.9:37; Lk.4:43; 9:48; 10:16; Jn.3:34; 4:34; 5:23-24; 5:30; 5:36-38; 6:29; 6:38-40; 6:44; 6:57; 7:16; 7:18; 7:28-29; 7:33; 8:16; 8:18; 8:26; 8:29; 8:42; 9:4; 10:36; 11:42; 12:44-45; 12:49; 13:20; 14:24; 15:21; 16:5; 17:3; 17:8; 17:18; 17:21; 17:23; 17:25; 20:21; cf. Jn.9:7).  Just as the Father sent the Son to earth for the first advent, so He will send our glorified Savior back to us again at the second advent:

(6) But when He brings back the Firstborn into the world, He says, "And let all the angels of God worship Him! (Ps.97:7b)"
Hebrews 1:6

The quotation here, coming from Psalm 40:6-8, are words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ in His deity but on behalf of His humanity.  That is to say, from the moment of His virgin birth, our Savior was both God as He has always been but also a true human being from that point on and forever more.  His words at that time, predicted through David under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (Ps.1:20-21; cf. Acts 2:25-31), demonstrate the Son's willingness to carry out the plan of God, the logos of God (Col.1:25), the mission of missions upon which He, the Logos or Word incarnate, was sent.

(1) The Word (logos) [Jesus Christ] existed at the very beginning, and there was reciprocity between the Word (logos) and God [the Father].  And the Word (logos) was God. (2) This One both existed and enjoyed reciprocity with God from the very beginning.  (3) Everything came into being through Him, and without Him, nothing has come into being which has in fact come into being.  (4) In Him was life, and this life was the light of men.
John 1:1-4

 

You Did Not Desire Sacrifices:  One cannot imagine a more emphatic statement about the Father's opinion of animal sacrifices.  He did not "desire" them, not, that is, as any sort of means to actually forgive sins, because as Paul has proven now seemingly countless times, animal blood does not wash away sin; animal blood merely represents the precious Blood of Christ, His death for us on the cross which would one day make (from the Old Covenant perspective) and which now has made (from the New Covenant perspective) atonement for the sins of all mankind.  The word "desire" here is the Greek verb ethelo which means "to wish", "to be willing", and also, importantly, "to will".  In other words, Paul is speaking here of the Will of God.  It was not God's will for animal sacrifices to be represented as anything more than symbols for the greater and truly effective Sacrifice to come, as the Father had already made very clear in scripture (cf. Is.1:11-15).

But Samuel replied: "Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord?  To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams."
1st Samuel 15:22 NIV

(9) "I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, 10 for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. 12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?"
Psalm 50:9-13 NIV

(16) You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. (17) My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
Psalm 51:16-17 NIV

(6) With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  (7) Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? (8) He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Micah 6:6-8 NIV

Rather, it was the Father's Will, it was always the Plan of God from the inception of creation at the hand of the Son (Jn.1:3; 1:10; 1Cor.8:6; Col.1:15-17), for the Son to come into the world and expiate sin for all, so that those willing to accept His sacrifice might be saved and live with Father and Son in eternity forever (Jn.14:2-3).

And He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will."
Mark 14:36 NKJV

. . . saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done."
Luke 22:42 NKJV

This is precisely what the quotation from Psalm 40 states:  our Lord Jesus was sent into this world and came of His own accord not to accomplish some independent plan but to fulfill and to be the very Plan/logos of God, that is, "to do your will, O God" (Heb.10:7; 10:9; cf. Heb.10:8; 10:10).

"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work."
John 4:34 NIV

"For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me."
John 6:38 NIV

 

A Body:  Up to this point, Paul has been concentrating on refuting the false positions of the Gnostics and legalists, demonstrating energetically and irrefutably the replacement of the Old Covenant with the New, and therefore the scurrilous nature of believers in Christ continuing to participate in rituals that suggest that somehow His great sacrifice for us was ineffective (otherwise, why would these rites which merely foreshadowed it need to be repeated?).  Now, however, Paul puts a human face on this argument, the face of our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, true God having come into this world as a genuine human being in order to take away our sins.

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.
2nd Corinthians 4:6 NIV

Without becoming human (in addition to being divine), without taking on a genuine human body, our Lord could not become our Savior, because God cannot bear sin.  When penitents placed their hands on a sacrificial animal and confessed their sins, they symbolized what Christ would do for us in bearing our sins "in His body" on the cross so as to be judged for them that we might be forgiven (1Pet.2:24; cf. 2.Cor.5:21).

(6) "You have taken no pleasure in sacrifices and offerings, [but instead] You have pierced My ears (i.e., "given Me a body and marked Me as a voluntary Servant"; cf. Ex.21:5-6; Deut.15:16-17).  You have not asked for burnt offerings or sin offerings.  (7) [But] then I said, behold, I have come [into the world (i.e., as the true sacrifice)].  In the scroll of the Book it has been written about Me.  (8) It is My good pleasure to do what pleases You, My God.  For your Law is in My inmost parts."
Psalm 40:6-8  (cf. Heb.10:5-10)

Paul's quotation from Psalm 40 in our context is mostly word for word identical to what we find in the Septuagint with two important exceptions.[4]  First, the LXX, following the Hebrew MT, has "ears" instead of "body".  The meaning is as suggested in the explanatory note in the quotation above.  According to the Law, when a Hebrew man serving as a slave was set to go free in the year of Jubilee, if he were willing to stay on with his master instead, he would voluntarily allow his master to pin his ear lobe to the doorpost of the house as a symbol of that voluntary service going forward (cf. Ex.21:5-6; Deut.15:16-17).  In the Psalm, the Messiah offers both of His ears to be pierced in this way, indicating His complete obedience to the Father's will and His enthusiastic embracing of it. 

The second exception is that in the LXX the Father is said to "not ask" for "burnt offerings for sin" (following the Hebrew MT, sha'al, to "ask for"), but Paul changes this in the Spirit to "In burnt offerings for sin you have taken no pleasure".  The effect of the second change is to make it abundantly clear that not only were the ritual animal sacrifices then being conducted in Jerusalem not required any longer but that they were now actually offensive to the Father – because of the denigration of the true sacrifice of His Son they represented.  The effect of the first change is to make it abundantly clear that Jesus' bodily sacrifice is the true sacrifice for sin.  His willingness to die for us is manifest in the Psalm (and everywhere else in scripture); the shift from "ears" (which represents that willingness, offering His ears to be pierced in ritual submission to the Father's will), to "body" indicates very graphically that in place of the ineffectual sacrifice of animals and the mere ritual cleansing imparted by their blood, the actual, physical body of Jesus Christ was to be the only sacrifice with which the Father would ever be "well pleased", because only through His bearing of the sins of the world in His body and being judged for them all could the plan of God be accomplished and could we be saved.

While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"
Matthew 3:17 NKJV (Matt.12:18; 17:5; Mk.9:7; Lk.3:22; 9:35)

The Father is "well pleased" with the Son because the Son did everything exactly according to the Father's will with joy and without exception, going to the cross to die for our sins being His crowning achievement, the Cross that yields the Crown.

(28) So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.   (29) The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him."
John 8:28-29 NIV

 

Taking Away the First [Covenant]:  As explained above, it was never the Father's will for animal blood to take away our sins since that is impossible (1Sam.15:22; Ps.50:9-13; 51:16-17; Is.1:11-15; Mic.6:6-8).  Animal blood merely represented the one and only sacrifice which could satisfy the justice of God and expiate our sins consistent with His perfect character, namely, "the blood of Christ", our Lord's suffering and dying for all sins under the Father's judgment in the darkness on the cross.  This is why our Lord Jesus' statement in Psalm 40:8 and repeated in the Spirit by Paul in Hebrews 10:9 is of such critical importance:  the actual will of God the Father is what Jesus Christ came to accomplish. 

(9) [But] "Then", He has added, "Behold, I have arrived to do your will, O God".  [God the Father] is [thereby] taking away the first [covenant] in order to establish the second one.
Hebrews 10:9

This actual will of God is the New Covenant, the accomplished salvation "in my blood" (Lk.22:20; 1Cor.11:25), which fulfilled the prophesies and the symbols of the Old Covenant.  As in the case of the prophesy of the New Covenant in Jeremiah adduced by Paul at Hebrews 8:8-12 to show that anyone conversant with scripture ought to have known even before the fact that a replacement for the Old Covenant was necessary and imminent – and how much more so should that not be obvious after the cross and our Lord's resurrection – so in a comparable way here Paul provides another clear proof from the prophets of the coming of the new to replace the old.  The main and important point of difference here in the quotation of Psalm 40 is that the fulfillment of this prophesy by the incarnation and subsequent death on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is unmistakable, "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all".  Overlooking the obvious need for and the clear prophesy of the New Covenant in the abstract is one thing.  Overlooking this clear prophecy of the Suffering Servant who would pay for it by bearing all of our sins in this "body" the Father provided is even less forgivable. 

[Jesus Christ], who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed.
1st Peter 2:21 NKJV

Beyond all argument the will of God is to be preferred to the will of human beings, even if they be Levites and priests and teachers of the Law.  Since it was the Father's will for our Lord to come into this world and die for our sins (e.g., Is.53:10), and since our Lord Jesus Christ, as the quotation from Psalm 40 proves, willingly came into this world to carry out the Father's plan and effectively did so, how could the prior regime of sacrificing animals which merely represented this greater reality not be replaced and rendered obsolete?  How would the first not now be replaced by the second?  This change was understood as certainly future by the prophecy of Psalm 40, and by the time of the reading of Hebrews for the first time in Jerusalem had been an accomplished reality for many years.  How, then, would failing to accept this fact of the New Covenant having replace the Old not be a major spiritual problem for all who had decided for whatever reason to turn back to the Old?  Because it was impossible to turn back to the Old without at the same time turning away from the New – that is, without turning away from Jesus Christ.

(25) He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! (26) Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" (27) And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
Luke 24:25-27 NKJV

"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."
John 5:39 KJV

The will of God the Father for our Lord Jesus Christ was to come into this world as a human being and to bear the sins of us all in that body on the cross; and without the cross, there could be no crown of kingship.  The will of God the Father for the world is to accept the great Gift of Jesus Christ, and, for us who have received Him by grace through faith, to continue to follow Him in faithful service throughout our time in this world; and without such response in growth, progress and production, there are no eternal rewards, no share in our Lord's great victory (Ps.68:12; 82:8; 110:1-7; Is.33:23; Mic.4:13; Eph.4:7-10).[5]

Therefore I will allot to Him [the plunder] among [His] many [brothers], and He will apportion plunder to the mighty [among them].
Isaiah 53:12

(26) And to the one who wins the victory and gives heed to My works until the end, I will give to him authority over the nations. (27) And he will shepherd them with an iron rod and crush them like vessels of clay, just as I have received [the authority] from My Father.
Revelation 2:26-27

And without perseverance in faith, strong until the end, if faith be entirely lost, then not only are there no exceptional rewards to be had, but also the loss of all things we anticipate – because only believers are saved (Jn.3:18).  It was with just this disaster that the Jerusalem church was flirting.

(11) Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; (12) If we persevere, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us; (13) If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.
2nd Timothy 2:11-13

(8) Watch out for yourselves, lest you lose what you have worked so hard for, but may instead receive a full reward.  (9) No one who goes wandering off, that is, anyone who does not keep to the teachings about Jesus Christ, has [even] a share in God.
2nd John 1:8-9

 

Sanctified by His Will:

[And it is] by [His] will [in this matter] that we have been sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.
Hebrews 10:9

Sanctification or "holiness" is the main point behind the Law of Moses.  Israel was to be a people "set apart" in order to demonstrate to the world the difference between the sacred and the profane as a witness to the holiness of God so as to be an incentive to seek Him (Is.42:6-7).

"For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth."
Deuteronomy 7:6 NKJV (cf. Deut.14:2)

All believers now endowed with the Holy Spirit are heirs of this blessed heritage, meant to bring glory to God the Father and to our dear Savior through the good witness to the truth it is our responsibility to provide in this dark world.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
1st Peter 2:9 NKJV

The holiness or sanctification we believers have received is, as we have seen many times in the past, a threefold process just as our salvation is.  Just as we "have been saved" when we believe (e.g., Rom.8:24; Eph.2:8; 2Tim.1:9), and "will be saved" when we are resurrected (e.g., Matt.10:22; 24:13; Rom.5:9-10; 1Cor.3:15; 1Pet.1:5; 1:8-9; 2:2; Heb.9:28), so also as we walk through this world, growing and serving our Lord Jesus Christ, we "are being saved" (e.g., Lk.13:22; 1Cor.1:18; 15:2; 2Cor.2:15).  Similarly, we are all "sanctified", made holy, set apart as specially belonging to God in Jesus Christ when we believe (i.e., "positional sanctification": 1Cor.6:11; Heb.3:1); we will be completely and unalterably set apart when we are resurrected (i.e., "ultimate sanctification": Col.1:12; Rev.21:27); and in the meantime we are responsible to draw closer to the Lord and farther away from the world day by day in (i.e., "experiential sanctification": 1Thes.4:3-7; 1Pet.1:14-16).

The sanctification in our context is the positional holiness we all receive when we believe in Jesus Christ.  Paul tells us that we received this benefit not through any determination of our own but by the will of God the Father, granted to us "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all" (Heb.10:9).  So it is the Father's will for us to be saved, sanctified, made holy and special to Him not through the animal sacrifices of the Law but through our faith in the body of Jesus Christ, that is to say, through believing in Him, who He is, the God-man sent from heaven to save us, and in what He has done for us, namely, bearing our sins in His own human body on the cross and being judged in our place.  Anything else is unacceptable to the Father – anything else is not "His will".  Substituting our own desires, as in returning to obsolete rituals that denigrate the Gift of Jesus Christ, is contrary to the will of God.

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14:6 NIV

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved."
Acts 4:12 NIV

 

Verses Eleven through Fourteen

(11) And while every [other] priest has received a temporary appointment for service and for repeatedly offering the same sacrifices which are never able to take away sins, (12) this [One] offered one sacrifice for sins for all time to come, then took His seat at the right hand of God, (13) waiting from thenceforth until [the time when] His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet.  (14) For with a single sacrifice (i.e., the cross) [Jesus Christ] has brought full completion to those who are being sanctified (i.e., saved us believers from our sins).
Hebrews 10:11-14
 

$        The priests appointed under the Law were many; but there is only one true High Priest.

$        The priests appointed under the Law received only a temporary appointment; but our High Priest's appointment is eternal.

$        The priests appointed under the Law sacrificed animals; but our High Priest sacrificed Himself. 

$        The priests appointed under the Law repeatedly offered animal sacrifices; but our High Priest offered only one sacrifice, efficacious once and for all. 

$        The priests appointed under the Law offered sacrifices that were incapable of atoning for sin; but our High Priest's offering of Himself propitiated the justice of God toward every human sin ever committed, past, present and future. 

$        The priests appointed under the Law returned to their normal routines after each sacrifice; but, after His supreme sacrifice for us all, our High Priest was exalted to "the right hand of God, waiting from thenceforth until [the time when] His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet" when He returns in glory at the second advent . . .

 

For with a single sacrifice (i.e., the cross) [Jesus Christ] has brought full completion to those who are being sanctified (i.e., saved us believers from our sins).
Hebrews 10:14

So while the priests appointed under the Law merely represented through their symbolic carrying out of the Law's rituals the wonderful things that God the Father would do for us by giving us His Son to die in our place, Jesus Christ has actually accomplished by fulfilling this mission of salvation.  And it is only as a result of our Lord's actual removal of our sins by dying in our place for them that we have been "completed", "sanctified", not merely in a ritual way through outward, symbolic purification, but through the cleansing of our hearts and through being set apart from the world in God's eyes, not merely in the eyes of men.  This is the way we enter the ultimate holy or sanctified place, the true holy of holies in heaven, through the sacrifice of our dear Savior Jesus Christ.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence in this entrance of ours into the [heavenly] holy of holies by the blood of Jesus, (20) an entryway through the [heavenly] veil [of separation] which is new (lit., "newly slain") and alive and which [Jesus] has consecrated for us, that is, [through the sacrifice] of His flesh (cf. Heb.10:10; 10:18), (21) and since we have [this] Great High Priest over the household of God, let us approach [the throne of grace (cf. Heb.4:16) to pray] with a truthful heart in complete faith, (22) our hearts sprinkled [clean] of [any] bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water [of the Word (cf. Eph.5:26)].
Hebrews 10:19-22

But by pursuing sanctification through the Law instead, these rebellious Jerusalem believers were only rendering themselves profane in the eyes of our most Holy God, forgetting that the only way they had been truly "set apart" from the rest of the world was not through their Jewish ancestry nor through reverting to the ritual purifications of the Law but "through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all" (Heb.10:10).  In so doing, they were risking, through their flirtation with apostasy, their right to enter the presence of holy God in exchange for the mere ritual purifications of the now obsolete Law.

 

Verses Fifteen through Eighteen

(15) And the Holy Spirit bears witness to us of this.  For after He has said, (16) "this is the covenant which I shall make" with them "after these days, 'says the Lord': I shall put my precepts in their minds and write them upon their hearts", (17) [the Spirit also then says], "For I shall remember their sins and their unrighteous deeds no more". (18) And where there is forgiveness of these things, there remains no further sacrifice for sin (i.e., any sacrifice which is either necessary or legitimate).
Hebrews 10:15-18

 

And the Holy Spirit bears witness to us of this:  "This" is the sanctifying power of the cross related in Hebrews 10:10 and Hebrews 10:14 above.  And who better to testify to the process of sanctification, the process of "making holy", that the Holy Spirit, the "Spirit of Holiness" (Rom.1:4), the One charged with setting apart the sacred from the profane.[6]

(16) Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  (17) If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
1st Corinthians 3:16-17 NKJV

The world, as we have noted many times, is God's great threshing floor.  The entire purpose of the world we now see and of history as it is now unfolding, is precisely this: to separate the sacred from the profane, to allow all free-willed individuals to determine for themselves their eternal future, whether they desire one of holiness with Holy God forever, or worldliness separated from Him forever.  The Holy Spirit is instrumental in separating believers from the world, protecting us in it, and empowering us to remain holy if we are willing to be refined, tested, purified – and in due time rewarded for our efforts in the service of Jesus Christ.  And it is precisely the cross of Jesus Christ, His sacrifice on our behalf, the "blood of Christ" (Heb.10:4-14), that has opened up the way for us to be sanctified, to be made holy in spite of our sinful natures and many sins, and to enter the true holy of holies above following our Leader Jesus Christ whose blood (i.e., death for our sins) has cleansed us so that we might be holy, sanctified, sacred to God the Father and capable of entering into His holy presence. 

(15) And the Holy Spirit bears witness to us of this.  For after He has said, (16) "this is the covenant which I shall make" with them "after these days, 'says the Lord': I shall put my precepts in their minds and write them upon their hearts", (17) [the Spirit also then says], "For I shall remember their sins and their unrighteous deeds no more".
Hebrews 10:15-17

The Spirit is the One who has inspired every word of scripture (1Pet.1:20-21).  Therefore the prophecy of the New Covenant referred to by Paul above is direct testimony from the Spirit.  The Old Covenant could only provide ritual holiness.  But the New Covenant provides actual sanctification whereby believers are set apart by the Spirit as God's own possession, separated from the world.

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ – their Lord and ours.
1st Corinthians 1:2 NIV

And we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning for salvation by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth.
2nd Thessalonians 2:13

This sanctification in which all believers partake is positional, is a result of salvation, and will be ultimately fulfilled in eternity.  In the meantime, we believers are called to be holy, sacred, sanctified, saintly (in the biblical meaning of that word), in all we think and say and do.

(15) But just as He who has called you is holy, you too should be entirely holy in your behavior. (16) For the scripture says: Be holy, for I am holy.
1st Peter 1:15-16

The rituals of the Law gave a person legal holiness, with, for example, those who had been defiled through contact with a dead body needing to be purified with the "water of purification" (Num.19:13; cf. Num.8:7).  We believers under the New Covenant have the Spirit of holiness residing within us and are cleansed through "the washing of the Word of God" (Eph.5:26; cf. 1Jn.1:9), "sanctified" through the truth of God's Word.

"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."
John 17:17 NKJV

This dramatic shift of approach from mere bodily cleansing for ritual purposes to genuine internal transformation was prophesied by the Sprit whose job it is to perform that transformation for all who are willing to respond to Him.

". . . I shall put my precepts in their minds and write them upon their hearts."
Hebrews 10:15b

Nothing could be more amazing, more wonderful, than to be born anew, born from above, and be transformed in our hearts from our former sinful manner of life and thinking into true children of God whose utmost desire is to live for Jesus Christ (Phil.1:21).  This astounding shift from mere ritual representation of holiness to actual and experiential sanctification on the part of believers who respond to the truth makes the reflected glory of the Old seem absolutely insignificant in comparison to the New and the brilliant shining forth of the truth (2Cor.3:10), on the part of believers who are letting their lights shine as Christ intends (Matt.5:16; cf. 2Cor.4:6).

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.
Ephesians 5:8 NIV

Turning back to the dim reflections of the Old Covenant of necessity was also dimming the witness of the Jerusalem believers who were guilty of doing so.  Instead of appreciating the Spirit and striving to respond to Him, many of them were willfully resisting Him – to the dishonor of Jesus Christ. 

(4) For, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and who have experienced the heavenly gift and become partakers of the Holy Spirit, (5) and who have experienced that the Word of God is good, and [who have experienced] miracles foreshadowing the age to come, (6) it is impossible to restore them to [true] repentance after having fallen away [into sin] as long as they keep crucifying the Son of God afresh and exposing Him to open shame. 
Hebrews 6:4-6

How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Hebrews 10:29 NIV

 

Verses Nineteen through Twenty Five

(19) Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence in this entrance of ours into the [heavenly] holy of holies by the blood of Jesus, (20) an entryway through the [heavenly] veil [of separation] which is new (lit., "newly slain") and alive and which [Jesus] has consecrated for us, that is, [through the sacrifice] of His flesh (cf. Heb.10:10; 10:18), (21) and since we have [this] Great High Priest over the household of God, let us approach [the throne of grace (cf. Heb.4:16) to pray] with a truthful heart in complete faith, (22) our hearts sprinkled [clean] of [any] bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water [of the Word (cf. Eph.5:26)].  (23) Let us hold on without turning [to the right or to the left] to the hope we have professed – for the One who has promised us [eternal life] is faithful. (24) And let us pay careful attention to [ourselves and to] one another with the purpose of stirring up our love [for Christ and each other] and [resultant] good works [of growth, progress and production], (25) not abandoning the assembling of yourselves as some have made it their practice to do [and which makes this impossible], but rather encouraging each other [to persevere in this work of the Lord], and doing so to an ever greater degree to the extent that you see the day [of the Lord] drawing [ever] closer. 
Hebrews 10:10-25

 

This Entrance of Ours:  True, we are not experientially "there yet"; we believers who are presently alive are still "militant", that is, still in this world and fighting the good fight of faith on behalf of our Savior and His Body, the Church.  But we are presently in the heavenly holy of holies above positionally, sure and certain – "confident" – of our eternal status in Jesus Christ our Lord who has saved us, and waiting on Him to take us to Himself (Rom.8:19; 8:23; 1Cor.1:7; Gal.5:5; Phil.3:20; 1Thes.1:10; Jas.5:7-11).

(5) Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.  (6) Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.  (7) For we live by faith, not by sight.  (8) We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (9) So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
2nd Corinthians 5:5-9 NIV

(3) For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (4) When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:3-4 NIV

. . . while we wait for the blessed hope – the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Titus 2:13 NIV

 

The Entryway:  As we have seen and as Paul has reiterated throughout this epistle, only Levitical priests were allowed to enter into the tabernacle/temple proper, and only the high priest into the holy of holies – and only on the Day of Atonement . . . and only with the blood of the sacrifice specified for that special day (Num.29:7-11; cf. Lev.16:1-34).  But we have been given the right to enter the actual holy of holies following the footsteps of our "prince leader" and "forerunner" who has opened up the way for us there by means of the one effective sacrifice capable of actually propitiating the justice of God through His death for all sin, "the blood of Christ".  No contrast could be starker between the blessed reality we now enjoy as those "in Christ" and the mere ritual representation of these far superior heavenly realities in the now and then obsolete Law to which many of Paul's readers had foolishly returned.

(1) "Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. (2) My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (4) You know the way to the place where I am going."  (5) Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" (6) Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 14:1-6 NIV

The "way" into the heavenly holy of holies in Hebrews 10:20 (which we are translating "entryway"), the one which Jesus has opened up for us who believe in Him, is the same word as in the verse above (Gk. hodos).  Our Lord had told us that He is the only "way" to the Father and Paul in the Spirit reaffirms the same.  Jesus is "the Way".  That being the case, the description of the word  "entryway" in Hebrews 10:20 is highly significant. 

 

$        The Way is, literally, "newly slaughtered", being a perfect description of the sacrifice of our Lord on our behalf, calling to mind the animal sacrifices which represented His spiritual death for us.

$        The Way is "alive", calling attention to our Lord's resurrection following that spiritual death on our behalf – He rose for us!

$        The Way is "consecrated", or "renewed", the verb being from the same root used for the festival of renewal (Hanukkah) in the New Testament (Jn.10:22), with the newness idea representing the opening back up of our access to God in His holiness, lost at the fall.

$        The Way is opened up "through", that is, by means of Jesus' own body, provided for Him precisely so that He could be the Father's sacrifice to bear our sins (Ps.40:6-8; Heb.10:5-10).

$        The Way penetrates "through the veil", that is, through the otherwise impassible heavens, entering into the very presence of God the Father, representing the barrier of sin erected by the fall having been broken down for us by the cross (Eph.2:13-18; cf. Matt.27:51; 2Cor.3:16-17).

 

The "Way" we embrace as believers, the only "Way" into heaven, is Jesus Christ.  He is the One who split the heavenly veil (cf. the supernatural splitting of the earthly veil following His victory on the cross: Matt.27:51; cf. 2Cor.3:16-17) and entered the throne room of God the Father to present Himself in victory, with His sacrifice on our behalf having opened up "the way" for us to follow Him into the holy presence of God the Father Himself. 

(13) But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. (14) For He Himself is our peace, for He has made both [Jews and gentiles] one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, that is, the enmity between us, (15) by discharging the Law of the commandments and its requirements with His [own] body, so that He might re-create the two into one new Man by making [this] peace, (16) and might reconcile both in one Body to God through His cross, having by means of it abolished the enmity [between God and mankind]. (17) For when He had come [1st advent], He proclaimed the gospel of peace to you who were far away [from God], and peace to those who were near (Is.57:19). (18) For it is through Him that we both have our access to the Father by means of one Spirit.
Ephesians 2:13-18

Under the Law, it was impossible for non-priests even to enter through the first curtain into the holy place, let alone to pass through the veil into the holy of holies.  But we who belong to Jesus Christ are now welcome into the real holy of holies in heaven itself on account of the prior entrance on our behalf of our "prince leader" and "forerunner" Jesus Christ who opened up this Way for us, (Heb.2:10; 12:2; cf. Acts 3:15; 5:31). 

(19) And this hope is what [truly] "anchors" our lives, so to speak: it is certain; it is solid; it penetrates beyond the [heavenly] veil into the [holy of holies], (20) where our vanguard, Jesus, has entered on our behalf, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 6:19-20

This passage (our context of Hebrews 10:19ff.) also affirms in great specificity that it was through Jesus' actual, physical body, given over to spiritual death in sacrifice to sin, raised in genuine physicality in eternal resurrection, that is the means "through which" our access to heaven and therefore our salvation depends.  This truth completely undermines the Gnostic lies which were also at this time plaguing the Jerusalem church by affirming in no uncertain terms the absolute reality of the genuine humanity of our "Lord and our God" Jesus Christ (Jn.20:28).

Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
John 20:27 NIV

It is on account of our Lord's actual first advent, His actual sacrifice of Himself for our sins, and His actual resurrection and ascension into the presence of the Father that we too now have "confidence" in our ability likewise to enter, in God's prefect timing, the true holy of holies above, "by the blood [sacrifice] of Jesus Christ" (Heb.10:19), His spiritual death on our behalf.

 

Great High Priest:  Paul deliberately couples "Great High Priest" (in v.22) with the analogously great "confidence" we have of entering into the Father's presence (in v.19), in order to set the table for his exhortation to us all to energetically and enthusiastically engage in that wonderful ministry all believers have been given to execute on our own behalf and on behalf of all of our brothers and sisters in the Church of Jesus Christ: prayer. We have no need of any human priest as an intermediary (cf. Num.6:26-27; 2Chron.30:27): we belong to the High Priest of all high priests, the Great High Priest Himself, Jesus Christ, being priests with Him as those who belong to Him (1Pet.2:5; 2:9; Rev.1:6; 5:9-10; 20:6); and we have no need of any special venue such as the temple to validate or empower our prayers (cf. 1Ki.8:28-48): we believers are, individually and collectively, the temple of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (1Cor.6:19; 1Pet.2:5), the Holy Spirit who advocates on our behalf and empowers our prayers (Rom.8:26; Eph.2:18; 6:18; Jude 1:20).

Prayer is an immense privilege.  Having the right to directly petition the God of the universe at any time and for any reason is wonderful beyond our understanding.  Prayer is also a weapon, one of the most important and powerful weapons we believers have in our fight down here on earth against the forces of the evil one.  After telling us to "buckle on the belt of truth", and "don the breastplate of righteousness", and "put on the boots of readiness", and "take up the shield of faith", and "put on the helmet of salvation" and "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph.6:14-17), Paul tells us just how to fight this fight in the spiritual warfare in which we are presently engaged:

(18) And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.  (19) Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, (20) for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Ephesians 6:18-20 NIV

But prayer is only useful and needful now, here on earth in this life.  There is no praying in heaven and there will be no need for prayer in New Jerusalem.  Only down here on the battlefield is there the opportunity and the need for prayer – and there is great need of it as every mature Christian knows full well.  Leaving prayers un-prayed is like leaving ammunition unexpended when the battle is raging hot and heavy.  We believers do have an unlimited supply of this most effective "ammunition", and that fact alone should motivate us to make liberal use of it rather than to husband it.  A prayer unspoken is an opportunity lost. 

And the man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it! But now you will strike Syria only three times."
2nd Kings 13:19 NKJV

"Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me."
Psalm 50:15 NKJV

Rejoicing in the hope (of resurrection and reward), showing endurance in tribulation, persevering in prayer.
Romans 12:12

Pray without ceasing!
1st Thessalonians 5:17 NKJV

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.
1st Timothy 2:1 KJV

 

Let Us Approach:

(21) . . . and since we have [this] Great High Priest over the household of God, let us approach [the throne of grace to pray] with a truthful heart in complete faith . . .
Hebrews 10:21

This is very reminiscent of and should be read in mindfulness of what Paul has said earlier:

So let us approach the throne of grace [of the Father] with the confidence to speak freely, that we might receive [His] mercy and gain [His] favor to help us in our time of need.
Hebrews 4:16

This encouragement to "approach" in our context is the first of Paul's three exhortations to the Jerusalem church directing them back to the correct New Covenant way of honoring and serving Jesus Christ and away from their backsliding return to the old way of the Law.  The verb "approach" is the same and in the same form in the verse above as in our context, and the confidence (parrhesia) is the same confidence as the confidence we have to enter the throne room of the Father as in verse nineteen of our context (and synonymous with the "complete faith", plerophoria, of v.21).  The purpose of the approach here then is the same as that of the verse above, namely, to lay our petitions directly before the Father.  For inasmuch as Jesus Christ is now our Great High Priest, we have the right to approach the Father directly in His Name without any need for other priests (Levitical or otherwise), or any other sacrifice save for that of our Lord on the cross, or for any special place of worship – for there is nothing superior to being able to pray directly to the Father in the true holy of holies above in the Name of Jesus Christ.

(13) "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (14) If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."
John 14:13-14 NKJV

(23) "In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. (24) Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."
John 16:23-24 NIV

Believers in Old Testament times prayed as well, of course, but we Church Age believers have advantages in this prayer warfare that not even great prayer warriors of the past of the status of Elijah possessed.  We have the Holy Spirit indwelling us (Jn.14:16-17; 1Cor.6:19; 12:13; 2Cor.1:21-22; 1Jn.2:20; 2:27); we have the Great High Priest Himself standing before the Father's throne of grace advocating on our behalf (Rom.8:34; 1Jn.2:1; Heb.7:25); and we have the right to address the Father and the Son directly without any intermediaries (Jn.14:13-14; Eph.2:18; 3:12; 16:26-27; Heb.4:16), whether persons (other priests), or places (such as the temple), or necessary things (such as animal sacrifices). 

For through Him [Jesus Christ] we both [Jews and gentiles] have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Ephesians 2:18

Being in Him [Jesus Christ] and having confidence through our faith in Him we possess this access [to the Father] and freedom to speak (parhessia) [to Him].
Ephesians 3:12

So let us approach with confident free speech (parhessia) to the throne of grace [of the Father] that we might receive [His] mercy and gain [His] favor for timely help.  
Hebrews 4:16

How then should we pray?  The first thing to note is that we either do or we don't, and it is always better to pray than not to pray, all other things being equal.  Prayer is in many ways the quintessential Christian ministry since any believer at any level of growth can and should do it.

(7) "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (8) For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (9) Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  (10) Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? (11) If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"
Matthew 7:7-11 NKJV

We should pray in faith and confidence that our prayers will be answered.

(21) So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done.  (22) And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."
Matthew 21:21-22 NKJV

"Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them."
Mark 11:24 NKJV

(5) And if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask from God who gives freely and without reproach to all and it shall be granted to him. (6) But let him ask in faith without doubting. (7) For the one who doubts is like a wave on the sea, being blown and cast about. (8) Let not that man think that he will receive anything from the Lord, [for he is a] double-minded man, unreliable in all his ways (cf. Ps.12:2; 119:113; Jas.4:8).
James 1:5-8

We should pray to be heard by God not seen by men.

(5) "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.  (6) But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
Matthew 6:5-6 NIV

We should pray with persistence, not allowing ourselves to flag or doubt, just because God's timing might be different than what we would prefer.

(1) Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. (2) He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. (3) And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' (4) "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care what people think, (5) yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually come and attack me!' "  (6) And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. (7) And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?"  (8) I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
Luke 18:1-8 NIV

We cannot expect to ask with the wrong motives and be heard.

(1) Where do these conflicts, where do these fights [that are being waged] among you come from? Isn't it from your [desire for] pleasures which do battle in your [bodily] members? (2) You lust [for things], and yet you do not have [them]; you commit murder [in your hearts]; you are filled with envy, and yet you are not able to obtain [what you are envious for]; you fight and wage war – yet you do not get [what you want] because you're not asking [for it]. (3) And when you do ask [for it], you don't receive [it] because you are asking with evil intent with the purpose of squandering [what you ask for] in your pleasures (i.e., under the control and in the service of lust).
James 4:1-3

We cannot harbor sin in our hearts and expect the Lord to listen to us.

If I had been aware of iniquity [still] in my heart, the Lord would not have listened [to my prayer of confession].
Psalm 66:18

We should always be thankful as we pray, remembering that whatever happens, the Lord is working everything out for the good of us who love Him (Rom.8:28).

Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:20 NKJV

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
Philippians 4:6 NKJV

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1st Thessalonians 5:18 NKJV

Paul, in our context, includes other guidance, pertinent in particular to the situation of his listeners who were spiritually compromised.  As we approach the throne of grace, we should do so 1) "with a truthful heart", that is, with hearts thinking aright in the truth, not turning back to the shadows; 2) "in complete faith", not doubting the Lord's ability to protect so as to be tempted to compromise as if there were safety in that false course; 3) with "our hearts sprinkled [clean] of [any] bad conscience", meaning not only confessing recent sins but recognizing that if we are in a posture of bad behavior, continuing in the rituals of the Law as many in Jerusalem were doing, we cannot expect God to hear us while doing so; and 4) with "our bodies washed with pure water" of the Word of God, meaning continuing on the right road of spiritual growth consonant with the way we were saved in the first place, namely, by responding positively to rather than rejecting the Word of God.  Paul deliberately couches these last two principles in terms of the rituals of Law to draw the contrast in the strongest possible terms between right behavior and what he saw happening in Jerusalem: being sprinkled with animal blood means nothing in fact – we are saved by being "sprinkled" with the blood of Christ; being ritually cleansed with the water of purification means nothing in fact – we are sanctified initially and experientially through "the washing of the water of the Word of God" (Eph.5:26).

(5) I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden.  I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah (6) For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found.
Psalm 32:5-6a NKJV (cf. Ps.51:1-17)

We should also remember that prayer assumes we are "in fellowship" with the Lord (1Jn.1:3-9), that is to say, walking with Him as opposed to having unconfessed sin our lives.  Confession is part of the Lord's prayer for a reason (Matt.6:12; Lk.11:4), and believers should never fail to take advantage of the blessed forgiveness we are promised whenever we "fall out of fellowship" through sin large or small (1Jn.1:9).  Being "in fellowship" when we pray, that is, being "current" in our confession of our many failures to the Lord, is what "praying in the Spirit" essentially means, relying on Him to quicken our petitions.

In all your prayers and petitions [be] praying in the Spirit on each occasion, keeping at this with all persistence and petition on behalf of the saints.
Ephesians 6:18

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Jude 1:20-21 NKJV

And just as our momentary spiritual status affects our prayers (i.e., "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me": Ps.66:18 KJV; meaning that without prior confession we shouldn't expect an answer; cf. 1Pet.3:7), so also our overall spiritual status of where we are in the spiritual growth matters as well. 

"We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him."
John 9:31 NASB

(16b) The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (17) Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.  (18) And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
James 5:16b-18 NKJV

The nearer we draw to the Lord, the more effective our prayers become, and they will also be more likely to be answered in just the way we are praying them, because of the fact that they will be proportionally more likely to be what God's will really is (1Jn.5:14).

(14) Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (15) And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
1st John 5:14-15 NKJV

"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you."
John 15:7 NKJV

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
Jas 4:8a NKJV

The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
Psalm 145:18 NKJV

What should we pray for?  Certainly, it is obvious that we are motivated to pray for ourselves and others whenever a particular need arises, and that is good and right to do.

(19) "Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.  (20) For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."
Matthew 18:19-20 NKJV

The model prayer the Lord gave His disciples when they asked Him to teach them how to pray is most instructive in regard to what we should pray for regularly, even if there is no pressing need that is urging us to "approach the throne of grace" (Heb.4:16).

(9) "Our Father, the One in heaven,
May your Name be regarded as holy [by us].
(10) May your Kingdom come [soon].
May your will be done as it is in heaven so also on earth [when you return].
(11) Give us today the bread [we need] for the coming day.
(12) And forgive us what we owe you just as we also forgive those who owe us.
(13) And don't bring us into testing [that we can't handle] but deliver us from the evil one."
Matthew 6:9-13

Our Lord Jesus begins by having us remind ourselves who it is to whom we are praying.  We have a Father in heaven who is perfect and who loves us and looks out for us as only a perfect, all-knowing and all-wise Father could do.

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"
Galatians 4:6 NKJV (cf. Rom.8:15)

Since God is our Father, we have every right to think of Him as someone who loves us more than anyone else ever has or could possibly do – and so we should because so He does.  Loving us so much that He sacrificed His one and only beloved Son on our behalf, how would He not give us everything we need when we ask Him, having already done more than anyone could ever imagine in judging Jesus Christ in our place?

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Romans 8:32 NKJV

Therefore, since He loves us so much, we have every right to believe that the Father will give us what we ask of Him just as He has promised to do.

(7) "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (8) For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (9) Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  (10) Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? (11) If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"
Matthew 7:7-11 NKJV

Having reminded ourselves about our relationship to the One whom we are petitioning, namely, that He is our loving Father and that we are His beloved children, our Lord Jesus tells us also to remember His perfect character.  We are to pray for "His Name" to be "hallowed", "sanctified", "regarded as holy".  In scripture, "the Name" is equivalent to the Person as representing the Person's reputation.  That is to say, His "Name" represents and calls to mind all that He is; it represents "Him".

(18) And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. (19) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
Matthew 28:18-19 NKJV

We have exegeted this verse elsewhere, and have seen how that "in" in the Greek here is actually into (i.e., here we have the preposition eis and not the preposition en, even though this version and most others translate as if it were the latter instead of the former).  We have also explained how "name" here is referring to the Persons of the Trinity.  What our Lord is commanding here is for His disciples to bring those destined for it into His Church, His Body, something that can only happen supernaturally through the baptism of the Holy Spirit (so that this verse has nothing to do with water which, it should be superfluous to say, is not mentioned at all).

You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
Exodus 20:7 NKJV 

And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one.
Zechariah 14:9 NASB

Yes, the day will come when the Father's Name, His Person, will be regarded as "holy", "sanctified", "hallowed" by all – on that day when the Father has put all enemies who have disdained Him, all who have failed to honor "His Name", under our Lord Jesus' feet like a footstool (Ps.110:1).  When we pray for the Father's Name, His Person, His reputation to be appropriately treated, we are at once remembering the magnificence of Him and the glory that is due Him, while at the same time looking forward to the day of His complete victory over all of the forces of evil: that is what we are hoping for (in confident expectation), that is what we are praying for.

Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10 KJV

May your Kingdom come [soon].
May your will be done as it is in heaven so also on earth [when you return].
Matthew 6:10

This statement likewise is a prayer, not a wish, an expression of our confident expectation that these things we hope for, things which are promised in scripture, will indeed come true – and our heartfelt desire is that they do so soon.  And while until this moment the Lord has not yet taken up His crown of rulership over this world, He has already won the victory which entitles Him to do so, and is merely waiting until the proper time which the Father has ordained.

Of David. A psalm. The Lord said to My Lord, "Sit down at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."
Psalm 110:1

As with our prayers for the Father's Name, His reputation and His Person, to be duly honored, these prayers as well, for the coming of the kingdom (both Christ's millennial rule and the Father's eternal rule on the new earth), and therefore for God's will to prevail in all things and forever more with no further opposition whatsoever from the forces of evil, have already been answered in the perfect plan of God, and we are merely waiting now to see their implementation and complete fulfillment.  The "hallowing" of God the Father's great Name, the coming of His eternal kingdom, and the absolute annihilation of any will contrary to the Will of God are inevitable, inexorable, and closer with every passing day.  When we pray for these things, we affirm our faith in all the wondrous things to come which we have been promised . . . and remind ourselves of the much greater spiritual realities which place all of our mundane, day to day problems far in the shade.

(11) "Give us today the bread [we need] for the coming day.
(12) And forgive us what we owe you just as we also forgive those who owe us.
(13) And don't bring us into testing [that we can't handle] but deliver us from the evil one."
Matthew 6:9-13

Having properly oriented ourselves to the nature of the Person to whom we are praying, and having reminded ourselves of our faith in the great promises of future deliverance on which we have set our hopes – the resurrection, our reunion with Jesus Christ and with all of our brothers and sisters in the Church, and our eternal reward in New Jerusalem forever – we are now prepared to offer for ourselves the daily petitions which our Savior gave us. 

"Give us today the bread [we need] for the coming day."
Matthew 6:9-13

We cannot survive in the world without food – along with other necessities as well.  Our Father knows that, obviously.  But in the noise and churn of life, it is very easy to get our fleshly eyes overly focused upon our various material needs to the point of worrying, to the point of not trusting the Lord sufficiently in confidence that He will provide for us as He has promised to do.

(6) "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.  (8) Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him."
Matthew 6:7-8 NKJV

(31) Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' (32) For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  (33) But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
Matthew 6:31-33 NKJV

Our Father has never allowed the righteous to be forsaken or our offspring to become destitute (Ps.37:5).  We are witnesses throughout our own lives as to how God has always taken care of us, through hard times and good times, through fat and spare, through thick and thin.  When the dust cleared from whatever catastrophe we may have had to endure, we were still standing, thanks to the great and inimitable grace of God.

When the whirlwind passes by, the wicked is no more,
But the righteous has an everlasting foundation.
Proverbs 10:25 NKJV

The righteous is delivered from trouble,
And it comes to the wicked instead.
Proverbs 11:8 NKJV

So when we pray for our daily bread, we do so in full confidence that God will take care of us today, not fretting about what mistakes we may have made yesterday, not worrying about tomorrow, a day over which we have no control and no expectation that we may even be granted another, remembering as we ask for this necessary material support that "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt.4:4 NKJV; cf. Duet.8:3).

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Matthew 6:34 NIV

Having fortified ourselves with the confidence that comes from praying for what we know the Lord will provide, namely, whatever we need to through this present day, we ask for forgiveness for whatever sins we have committed in the past.

"And forgive us what we owe you just as we also forgive those who owe us."
Matthew 6:12

"And forgive us our sins just as we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us."
Luke 11:4

As those who have placed our faith in Jesus Christ for life eternal, we are confident of our sins having been forgiven at salvation (Jn.13:10; 1Cor.6:11; Col.2:14; Rev.1:5), and we are likewise assured of the forgiveness of all our wrongdoing after salvation whenever we confess our sins to the Lord (Ps.32:5; 1Jn.1:9).  This second petition on our own behalf emphasizes the critical importance of staying in fellowship with the Lord, since we are told to confess hereby whenever we pray this prayer.  Because even if we not aware of having done anything sinful since last we confessed or since last we prayed this prayer, sin being the duplicitous and omnipresent hazard that it is, confessing in this general way is most salutary in reminding us of our imperfection and of our continual need of God's forgiveness – of having our "feet washed" (Jn.13:1-17) – as long as we are in this troublesome world.  

(1) What we have seen from the beginning, what we have heard and seen with our eyes, what we have observed and touched with our hands – this is about the Word of life, [Jesus Christ].  (2) And this life appeared, and we have seen [it], and we bear witness [to it], and we proclaim to you the eternal life which was in the presence of the Father and [then] appeared to us.  (3) What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you that you too may have fellowship with us – and indeed our [true] fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. (4) And we write these things to you that our joy may be complete.  (5) And this is the message which we have heard from Him and report to you: that God is light and there is no darkness in Him. (6) If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we are lying and are not acting truthfully. (7) But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we do have fellowship one with one another (i.e., we with the Father and the Son as well as with other believers; cf. v.3), and the blood of Jesus His Son is cleansing us from all sin.  (8) If we say that we do not possess sin (i.e., a sin nature which is producing personal sins), we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (9) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just so as to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (10) If we say, that we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His Word is not in us.
1st John 1:1-10

Secondly, the way in which our Lord puts this in His model prayer, namely, that we are to understand that our forgiveness by God is contingent upon our forgiveness of others, serves to remind us of the purpose for which we are in this world, namely, to glorify Jesus Christ by showing forth His love to others, "especially to the household of faith" (Gal.6:10: i.e, our fellow believers).  If we are not willing to forgive others, then why should we expect God to forgive us?

(14) "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  (15) But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
Matthew 6:14-15 NKJV

(21) Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?" (22) Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.  (23) Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. (24) As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. (25) Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. (26) At this the servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' (27) The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. (28) But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins  He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. (29) His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.'  (30) But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. (31) When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. (32) Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.  (33) Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?'  (34) In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. (35) "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart."
Matthew 18:21-35 NIV

And finally, we ask for "deliverance from evil". 

And don't bring us into testing [that we can't handle] but deliver us from the evil one."
Matthew 6:13

As reflected in the translation above, "evil" is actually "the evil [one]" in the Greek, referring to our adversary, the devil.  The word "testing" (Gk. peirasmos) can indeed mean "temptation" in Greek, but the distinction we make in English does not exist in that language: temptation is a specific type of testing/pressure, so context must dictate whether or not we translate in general ("testing") or specific ("temptation") terms.

You have not suffered any testing (peirasmos) beyond normal human [experience]. And God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tested (peirazo) beyond your capacity, but, along with the test (peirasmos), He will grant you the way out, so that you can bear up under it.
1st Corinthians 10:13

Let no one say when he is being tempted (peirazo), "I'm being tempted (peirazo) by God!" For God has nothing to do with evil temptations (apeirastos), nor does He tempt (peirazo) anyone.
James 1:13 LSB

In our context, temptation is surely one thing we are asking to be delivered from, but certainly also we desire to be saved from any and all testing that comes from the evil one, especially if it would otherwise be beyond our ability to handle it.  Sometimes the Lord delivers us "from" testing and temptation; sometimes He delivers us "through" it.  Sometimes when we see the storm clouds gathering, the Lord sweeps them away before we even feel a breeze; sometimes we are brought safely through the whirlwind, kept safe "in the eye of the storm" until it dissipates and the Lord leads us through to the other side.

We went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance.
Psalm 66:12b NIV

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze."
Isaiah 43:2 NIV

In the spiritual warfare in which we are involved, we understand that the major opposition we are facing is not that which is visible but that which is invisible, that which is being directed by "the evil one".

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12 NIV

Prayer is one of our most essential weapons in fighting this fight which constitutes the Christian life, starting with "the Lord's prayer" but also employing it constantly, praying "without ceasing" (1Thes.5:17), and making "petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone" (1Tim.2:1).  And when we pray, we pray "in the Spirit", that is, being in fellowship with the Lord through confession and relying on the Spirit's empowerment of us (Rom.8:26-27), in full confidence that our prayers will be answered (Jas.1:5-8; cf. Heb.11:6), if not immediately, then at God's perfect time (Lk.18:1-8). 

For in the perfect plan of God, all of our prayers have already been heard and have already been answered.  And we know of a certainty, therefore, that when we pray for the Father's Name to be properly revered, the time will come, and no one can stop it, when His Name will be the only name (Zech.14:9), and no one who opposes His Will will remain.  No one can stop the last judgment or the descent of New Jerusalem.  His kingdom is coming!  So we are only praying for what we believe with complete confidence will take place in its proper time, and it is coming soon enough.  Likewise, when we pray for provision, for forgiveness, and for deliverance, we understand that these things too have already been granted to us, so that we are praying with absolute confidence for the basic blessings that God the Father has granted everyone who belongs to His Son; we are merely affirming this and reminding ourselves of it.

"Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear."
Isaiah 65:24 NIV

Here in the devil's world, we believers are "fighting on many fronts" at the same time.  We have to maintain our health and care for and nourish our bodies; we have families and loved ones to take care of; we have jobs we have to attend to; we have finances to balance; we have homesteads to maintain – and it is good and right that we should offer up prayers in petitions for all these needs and concerns (Phil.4:6).  When it comes to the "bigger picture", namely, what is going on outside of our small purview, there is really little we can do . . . except to pray.  And that, of course, is the one thing we should do when it comes to what is going on in our countries at large; and it is in fact no small thing.

(1) Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, (2) for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
1st Timothy 2:1-2 NKJV

Finally and most importantly, while praying for ourselves and our personal situations is necessary and legitimate (Matt.6:8), the real reason we are down here, the most important front on which we are fighting, is the spiritual one.  So just as we do have to exert ourselves on all of these other fronts mentioned but still understand that the spiritual front is the key one, with all the others merely playing a supporting role, so also in terms of prayer we all ought to be consistent "prayer warriors", offering up timely requests for all of our brothers and sisters in Christ – just as we also strive to help them through the ministries we've been given to pursue.

. . . rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.
Romans 12:2 NKJV

Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me,
Romans 15:30 NKJV

Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.
Colossians 4:2 NKJV

Epaphras, who is one of you, a bondservant of Christ, greets you, always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
Colossians 4:12 NKJV

Pray without ceasing!
1st Thessalonians 5:17 NKJV

Brothers and sisters, pray for us also.
1st Thessalonians 5:25 CSB

Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith with power.
2nd Thessalonians 1:11 NKJV

To return to where we began this digression on prayer, "let us approach the throne of grace [of the Father] with the confidence to speak freely, that we might receive [His] mercy and gain [His] favor to help us in our time of need" (Heb.4:16) is the first of three spiritual exhortations given by Paul in our context, and this one corresponds to the virtue of faith.  We have confidence of being given what we ask for on the basis of having Jesus Christ as our High Priest, and through prayer we receive what we need to do what it is we first and foremost should be doing in this life as Christians, namely, grow spiritually. 

(9) And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in full-knowledge (epignosis: truth believed) and in all discernment, (10) so that you may be able to evaluate the things that are good and appropriate [for you to do] to be sincere and without offense in regard to the day of Christ (i.e., to gain a maximum reward at Christ's judgment seat), (11) full of the righteous production Jesus Christ [commends] to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:9-11

Prayer is thus the answer for the angst the Jerusalem believers are feeling, not returning to the old ways under the pressure of ostracism and persecution.

(6) Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; (7) and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV

For the Lord answers the prayers of those who belong to Him, regardless of length (Matt.6:7), or posture or time or place – and especially if anyone then (or now) was under the impression that the temple whose rites had now been rescinded added anything special to their prayers.  For the true temple is spiritual: the Church of Jesus Christ.

(19) So then, you are no longer strangers and hangers-on, but you are fellow citizens and fellow members of the household of God, (20) established upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Himself the cornerstone, (21) in whom the entire structure is in the process of being joined together and is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, (22) in whom you too are being built up into a dwelling place of God by the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19-22

 

Hold onto Hope: 

Let us hold on without turning [to the right or to the left] to the hope we have professed – for the One who has promised us [eternal life] is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23

This is the second of Paul's three exhortations to the Jerusalem church.  Having encouraged them to make full use of the prayer opportunities we have through our High Priest, Jesus Christ, in faith that we will receive everything we need to prosecute this campaign in which we are involved, Paul now commends hanging on tight to the objective we are striving to reach, a full, bountiful reward at the judgment seat of Christ, in resurrection and reunion with the entire Body, the Church, and a blessed eternity in New Jerusalem with each other and our dear Savior forever.  This perspective, the eternity perspective, looking at things from God's point of view rather than from the worldly one to which many in Jerusalem had retreated, is absolutely essential for passing the tests that come our way as advancing believers in Jesus Christ.  Faith and prayer are necessary to grow; hope is necessary to pass the tests that come to the mature believer.

So as you go forward, brothers, [keep meditating on] all the many [wonderful things you have learned], things that are true, godly, righteous, holy, pleasing [to God], reverent – if you have [developed] any virtues [in your Christian walk] and if you have [any hope of] praise [from God at the judgment] – these are the things you should be thinking about.
Philippians 4:8

(1) Therefore since you have been resurrected [positionally] with Christ, keep seeking after the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  (2) Keep thinking on the things above, and not the things on the earth.
Colossians 3:1-2

(2) . . . turning our gaze unto Jesus, the originator and completer of our faith (cf. "Alpha and Omega"), who, for the joy set before Him, endured the shame of the cross, treating it with despite, and took His seat at the right hand of the throne of God.  (3) Keep in mind all the terrible opposition He endured against Himself at the hands of sinful men, so as not to grow sick at heart and give up.
Hebrews 12:2-3

If we have our eyes exclusively fixed on this world, we are going to stumble.  But if we have our hearts focused on the Lord, on the cross and on the coming crown, on the resurrection and the reward in store for us, on the day when we and all our brothers and sisters in Christ will be united in perfect unity, worshiping the Son and the Father in glory in New Jerusalem forever, we will be much better able to navigate, negotiate and endure whatever it is we have been called to down here in this dark world wherein we are very temporarily in residence.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.
Colossians 1:13 NIV

The fulfillment of all of these promises by God to us is what we hope for, and this is the hope unto which we must cleave with all our might, not a vain or whimsical "maybe", but the sure and certain realization of realities which will be realized at the appointed time.

(23) And not only the created world, but we too who have received the Holy Spirit as a foretaste [of the good things to come] agonize within ourselves as we eagerly await our adoption, that is, the redemption of our body (i.e. resurrection). (24) This is the hope with which we were saved.
Romans 8:23-24a

[W]e who are awaiting the blessed hope, namely the epiphany of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (i.e., when we too will be resurrected in glory when He appears).
Titus 2:13

If we are engaging with the truth in spiritual growth through believing the truth, helped by prayer and deploying prayer in the service our fellow believers, if we are focusing on eternity, helped by the encouragement of all of God's promises to us, holding fast in hope to the resurrection, reward and inheritance in the life to come, passing the "maturity tests" that come our way, "holding on without turning" – rather than turning back to the world under that pressure (as the Jerusalem church was largely doing) – victory will not only be possible but just as sure and certain as the hope we profess.  God has promised.  We believe Him.  And that is the basis of all we are doing down here in the world after salvation.

(1) "Do not let your heart be troubled. You believe in God [the Father] – believe also in Me.  (2) There are many rooms in my Father's house.  If there were not, I would have told you.  For I am going in order to prepare a place for you.  (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I shall come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am, you may be also."
John 14:1-3

So, as Paul says, let us resolve to hold fast to our confidence in God's fulfillment of the promises He has made to us – resurrection and life eternal in New Jerusalem forever, rewarded for what we have done for the Lord Jesus and His Church in this life and enjoying His company and one another's for all eternity – preferring what He has told us to anything we see or hear or think or feel in this temporary world.

(16) Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. (17) For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  (18) So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2nd Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV

 (19) And this hope [of resurrection, reward and eternal inheritance] is what [truly] "anchors" our lives, so to speak: it is certain; it is solid; it penetrates beyond the [heavenly] veil into the [holy of holies], (20) where our vanguard, Jesus, has entered on our behalf, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Hebrews 6:19-20

 

Careful Attention: 

(24) And let us pay careful attention to [ourselves and to] one another with the purpose of stirring up our love [for Christ and each other] and [resultant] good works [of growth, progress and production], (25) not abandoning the assembling of yourselves as some have made it their practice to do [and which makes this impossible], but rather encouraging each other [to persevere in this work of the Lord], and doing so to an ever greater degree to the extent that you see the day [of the Lord] drawing [ever] closer.
Hebrews 10:24-25

Having sufficient faith to pray, with our prayers gaining effectiveness as we grow and trust the Lord more and more to fulfill them, and having solid hope in all the wondrous things to come, with that confidence growing as it is tempered in the trials of the Christian life, to earn the third crown of glory we also have need of engaging in the ministries the Lord has for us as the Spirit empowers us.  That is the gist of Paul's third exhortation to "pay careful attention to [ourselves and to] one another with the purpose of stirring up our love [for Christ and each other] and [resultant] good works [of growth, progress and production]". 

In this passage, Paul deliberately reverses the pronouns in verses twenty four and twenty five in order to emphasize and explain what is really important.  In verse twenty four he says "pay careful attention to one another", whereas in fact we can only really have any idea what we ourselves are doing spiritually, and it is our responsibility to look to our own spiritual status first and only then, when we are right with the Lord, to consider that of others.

(3) "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? (4) Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? (5) Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
Matthew 7:3-5 NKJV

And in verse twenty five he says "not abandoning the assembling of yourselves", when no one can properly assemble anyone other than him or herself for the assembly to be voluntary and therefore valid.

"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."
Matthew 18:20 NKJV

Not that in the first instance we are not being encouraged to spur other believers on as well; only that we clearly need to look to our own spiritual status first (as anyone taking Paul's exhortation to heart would immediately realize).  And not that in the second instance we are not being encouraged to be part of that proper and godly assembly; only that this action is dependent upon others joining in as well (as would be obvious to anyone attempting to respond to Paul's command).  In other words, we are all part of the Body of Christ, and proper assembly requires first and foremost the correct attitude of heart, namely, desiring to learn the truth (which is the fundamental purpose of all genuine Christian meetings); and, secondly, meeting together in the right way with the right people, other Christians who are also dedicated to learning the truth and are assembling for that purpose, is the only sort of legitimate assembly and the thing which Paul is commending, encouraging and commanding.

After all, many of these believers in Jerusalem were assembling, but not with the right attitude of heart and not in the right way, namely, with other believers intent on learning the truth.  They were assembling at the temple in order to carry out rituals which at this point were anathema to spiritual growth since they put our Lord "to an open shame" by denying, in effect, the validity of the cross, and they were being carried out in the company of mostly unbelievers, who, far from seeking to grow from the truth, were not even saved.

This is a perspective critical to understand for those of us in the Church today "upon whom the ends of the ages has come" (1Cor.10:11).  Many if not most of our fellow believers today would find great fault with us for being dedicated to any ministry which is not meeting within four walls in a "proper church"; and many if not most of them would gladly quote this passage against us, as if we were violating scripture by failing to "come and worship" with them on Sunday morning.  But how is what most of these lukewarm types are doing really much different from what the reverting believers of Paul's day in Jerusalem were doing?  Were they not going "to church"?  Indeed, they were assembling in a building that God Himself had ordained to be built, carrying out an "order of service" that was prescribed in scripture itself.  And the rituals, the music, the vestments of the clergy, all of the amazing paraphernalia of the temple rites were marvelous beyond anything we see today – and all had their origin at least in the Word of God.  And yet, they were in the wrong.  Terribly so.  The entire epistle to the Hebrews is dedicated to demonstrating that sad truth and to turning them around. 

Just because the building is beautiful, just because the worship service and the music and the sermonizing are superb, just because the number of believers attending is impressively large, does not make it good in God's eyes.  The Jerusalem believers were in the wrong because Christ had fulfilled the Law so that continuing in the rituals which only looked forward to the cross in the company of unbelievers could not have been more wrong.  Similarly today, binding ourselves to the lukewarm who are not interested in the truth and, worse to tell, are involving themselves in all manner of compromised and compromising practices and false teaching[7], is not what the Lord Jesus wants from us – any more than He wanted the Jerusalem believers to revert to their old ways.  Recognizing this truth and repenting of their error would have been hard for many of those believers in the past.  So it is not surprising that the same is true of those who have sunk so much effort, and wealth and emotion into similar false paths today.  They find fault with us and reproach us in great part because on some level they understand that they are in the wrong and that those who are genuinely pursing the truth as Jesus wants us to do are in the right. 

(9) Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings; for it is well that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited their adherents. (10) We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. (11) For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. (12) So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. (13) Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. (14) For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.
Hebrews 13:9-14 RSV

It is easy for believers today who are trying to grow spiritually and who have not found this opportunity available in a local church (and so are not attending one), to be made to feel guilty by those who are "church-going".  After all, this is the way it has always been, and that was, in the past, the right way, or so they think.  But, after all, they attended temple in Paul's day too, and that was the wrong way, this entire epistle assures us.  Rather than "going to church" ("going to the temple"), in the passage above Paul commends, to all who would follow Christ truly, rejecting that false association with those who have rejected the truth in favor instead of embracing pariah-status, venturing "outside the gate" – because that is where Jesus suffered, and that is where Jesus is, so that is the only place to stay spiritually safe and to grow.

So it is fair to ask when such individuals reproach us for the way we are doing things, do they water-baptize?  If so, then they are placing tradition over truth in the fashion of the Roman Catholic church (which does so as well), and behaving in a manner analogous to the water-rituals of the Law which has now become obsolete on account of the cross.  Do they expend much effort and treasure on the building in which they gather? If so, they are prioritizing structures over truth in the fashion of the Roman Catholic church (which does so as well), and behaving in a manner analogous to the adorning of the second temple which had now become obsolete on account of the cross.  Do they prioritize ritual, music, inspirational sermons over teaching the genuine truth of scripture?  If so, they are embracing superficialities rather than truth in the fashion of the Roman Catholic church (which does so as well), and behaving in a manner analogous to the continuation of sacrifices on the part of the Jerusalem church even though they had then become not only obsolete on account of the cross, but an actual affront to Jesus Christ.

(12) "When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? (13) Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. (14) Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them."
Isaiah 1:12-14 NIV

"I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me."
Amos 5:21 NIV

"Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the Lord Almighty, "and I will accept no offering from your hands."
Malachi 1:10 NIV

In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good.
1st Corinthians 11:17 NIV

(4) For, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and who have experienced the heavenly gift and become partakers of the Holy Spirit, (5) and who have experienced that the Word of God is good, and [who have experienced] miracles foreshadowing the age to come, (6) it is impossible to restore them to [true] repentance after having fallen away [into sin] as long as they keep crucifying the Son of God afresh and exposing Him to open shame. 
Hebrews 6:4-6

(26) For if we continue to sin willfully (i.e., arrogantly) after having received full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice applicable to [such] sins, (27) but [only] the terrifying expectation of judgment and fiery retribution waiting to devour those who oppose [the Lord]. (28) For anyone who set aside the law of Moses perished without mercy on the [testimony] of two or three witnesses.  (29) How much greater punishment do you suppose will not justly come to someone who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, and who has considered His blood of the covenant to be unclean, the very blood by which you were sanctified, and who has violently insulted the Spirit of grace?  (30) For we know the One who said, "Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, 'says the Lord' ", and again, "The Lord will judge His people." (31) It is a frightening thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:26-31

Instead of dedicating themselves to reading the Bible and studying the scriptures under a good teaching ministry, the majority of church-going believers today either ignore spiritual growth altogether or teach things which are not true (to the extent that they teach anything whatsoever at all).  This is true across the board but prominent in three critical areas of greatest importance as we draw closer and closer to the end, as we see "the day approaching".  Most churches today either ignore eschatology entirely (amillennialism) or hold to a "pre-tribulation rapture", a false teaching which may "feel good" but which in fact is lulling those who accept it into a false sense of security about what is soon to come with the result that all so deceived are likely to enter the Tribulation spiritually unprepared for it.

Most churches today, either intimate that being part of their community and joining their church is necessary to "be a good Christian" and to be spiritually safe, suggesting (and occasionally proclaiming outright) that salvation is in some way or another dependent upon such physical association, attendance and membership.  But the Church consists of believers in Jesus Christ, so that to the extent that anyone thinks that he or she is "safe" from the perils of the devil's world – or from the dangers of the coming Tribulation – on account of membership and association with a worldly church, to that extent they are even more vulnerable to the evil one's ploys, and that will especially be the case during the Tribulation when antichrist's world religion co-opts all such man-made associations in a grand ecumenicalism which will deceive all but the truly elect.

Most churches today either teach that salvation is very insecure, dependent upon the strict and legalistic following of a set of rules that defines sin very narrowly (i.e., as restricted to gross misconduct and certain pet dislikes) rather than accepting the biblical definition, or that salvation is absolutely secure and unbreakable, even if someone were to reject Jesus Christ.  The former error makes all who accept it vulnerable to manipulation on the part of those doing the defining – because of course in that case it is not the Bible that is the standard but the opinion of the leadership, even when said leadership falls in line with the hierarchy of the beast.  The latter error produces a terrible blind spot about the need to persevere in our faith in Christ no matter what, taking pains to grow it and strengthen it daily, suggesting instead that a believer can be not only lukewarm but also stray as far as he or she wishes from the truth and not risk falling into apostasy, but we know that one third of the church-visible will fall during the Tribulation, taking the mark of the beast.[8]

So rather than allowing ourselves to be made to feel guilty about rejecting what is problematic and outright wrong, we should feel good about doing what it is the Lord wants us to do – and continue on this good course no matter how much grief we may receive from those who are only trying to justify their own faulty conduct by condemning us. 

Stay away from every kind of evil.
1st Thessalonians 5:22 CSB

Speaking about things problematic, as we have seen throughout this epistle, in Paul's day various congregations, such as the Jerusalem church, were allowing in false teachings, mainly connected to Gnostic antinomianism and/or Jewish legalism.  Paul reproaches the Corinthians regarding the former . . .

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
1st Corinthians 5:6 NKJV

. . . and the Galatians regarding the latter:

A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Galatians 5:9 NKJV

So it is fair to ask our detractors why their churches have, with few exceptions, begun to allow not just a little but a massive amount of leaven to enter their doors.  Time would fail us in attempting to delineate and describe all of the heresies and false paths growing in popularity today.  This list will have to suffice for the purpose of identifying some of the more dangerous and egregious trends whose presence in any church or group testifies against it:

 

$        Contemplative prayer:  using mystic and far eastern techniques, so called "spiritual formation", to produce trance-like states purposely devoid of thought (contrast:  "I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also.": 1Cor.14:15 ESV).

$        Spiritual advisors and intrusive "discipleship":  handing over one's free will to the direction of another person of dubious spirituality by running one's decisions by them and confessing sins to them rather than accepting personal responsibility for spiritual growth (contrast: "You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?": Gal.5:7 NIV).

$        Non-biblical and anti-biblical practices:  engaging in activities such as yoga, "quantum spirituality", mysticism and various mystical practices without regard for their pagan and demonic associations (contrast: "You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons.": 1Cor.10:21 NIV).

$        Ecumenicalism:  joining hands with groups and individuals whose tenets and behavior mark them out as non-Christian and inherently hostile to the true gospel of Jesus Christ (contrast: "Anyone who welcomes them shares in their wicked work.": 2Jn.1:11 NIV).

$        Social gospel:  attempting to "bring in the kingdom" through charitable activities which lose sight of the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ alone (contrast: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.": Eph.2:8-9 NKJV).

$        Dominionism:  attempting to "bring in the kingdom" through political action by creating it on earth so that the Lord will return (contrast: "The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed.": Lk.17:20 ESV).

$        Prophecy:  falsely claiming new revelations from God even though this gift has ceased (contrast: "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.": Rev.22:18-19 NKJV).

$        Tongues:  falsely claiming the ability to speak in some other "heavenly" language which is demonstrably not a language at all (contrast: "So it is with you. Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.": 1Cor.14:9 NIV).

$        Healing:  falsely claiming the ability to heal by touch in order to gain a following and donations (contrast: "But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.": 2Tim.3:13 NKJV).

$        Contemporary worship: utilizing loud and highly rhythmic music containing biblically dubious lyrics, accompanied by light displays, heavy use of drums and repetition, in order to arouse the emotions so as to produce a false and transitory spirituality (contrast: "Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.": Amos 5:23 NIV).

$        Spiritual warfare: misusing scriptures which deal with this topic to falsely engage in Gnostic-like combat with demonic forces, contacting so-called "spiritual guides", conducting false exorcisms, claiming to be able to impart gifts and powers to others through the laying on of hands (contrast: "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' ": Matt.7:22-23 NKJV).

$        Word of Power:  misusing scripture to falsely claim the ability to manipulate physical reality, heal and bring in prosperity, a.k.a., "the prosperity gospel", through "naming it" and "claiming it", etc. (contrast: "But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.": 1Tim.6:8 NIV).

$        Motivational speaking: substituting sermonizing for Bible teaching, seeking to entertain rather than to teach, using pop psychology, self-help, self-esteem, and so-called "positive thinking" techniques, or concentrating on topics of small import in scripture but of great interest to the itching ears of congregations, such as issues of relationships, careers and political causes (contrast: "I entreat you, brothers, to mark those who are creating conflicts and pitfalls contrary to the doctrine you have learned, and stay away from them. For such men do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own stomachs, deceiving innocent hearts with their fancy sermons.": Rom.16:17-18).

$        Appropriation from the Law:  wrongly adopting the practices of worship in the temple and perverting them for their own use, such as the priesthood, special vestments, altars, temple-like churches and cathedrals, baptisms and holy water, sacraments and candles and other rituals and rites, whether in the Roman Catholic fashion or usurped as a putative "revival" (contrast: "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.": Rom.10:4 NKJV).

$        Appropriation from the pre-canon period:  wrongly adopting the practices of the early Church before the transition from Law to grace had been completed and while "sign gifts" were still being legitimately given by the Spirit, claiming apostleship, the ability to endue with the Spirit by the laying on of hands, the revival of all manner of spiritual gifts and practices which were never meant to continue once "the perfect" canon of scripture had been completed (contrast: "Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.": 1Cor.13:8-10 NKJV).

$        False doctrine: paying lip-service to the Bible but through preference to tradition actually holding to teachings which are demonstrably wrong through even cursory reading of scripture, such as the pre-Tribulation "rapture", "once saved, always saved", a necessity for church membership or water-baptism, etc. (contrast: "And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.": Matt.15:9 NKJV).

$        False priorities: paying lip-service to spiritual growth, but in reality focusing all efforts on their building, on the growth of their congregation in terms of mere numerical size, and on bringing in ever more money to support these operations (contrast: "Until I come, devote yourself to [public] reading [of the scriptures], to encouragement [through the Word], to the teaching [of the Word].": 1Tim.4:13).

 

Given the clear abuses so prevalent in the church-visible today, no one living in a "glass house" of this sort should venture to throw stones at those who are genuinely dedicated to the pursuit of spiritual growth through the teaching, hearing and believing of the Word of God, even if it is being done in a non-conventional way of which they disapprove.  For these naysayers have no true basis for criticism.

(21) You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? (22) You who say, "Do not commit adultery," do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? (23) You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? (24) For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," as it is written.
Romans 2:21-24 NKJV

In the church-visible today, the precise manner of the hypocrisy may be different from that described in the passage above (and differ somewhat from group to group), but the principle is the same.  Rather than finding fault with those who are actually pursuing spiritual growth, perhaps those who do so should look to their own house first (Matt.7:3-5).

(13) "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. (14) But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
Matthew 7:13-14 NKJV

It is in this context that Paul tells the Jerusalem believers not to forsake the gathering of themselves together, not from the perspective of recommending assembly for its own sake alone. For in our context and in the book of Hebrews, the believers with whom Paul finds fault were "assembling", but with the wrong people and for the wrong reasons.  Merely "showing up" was not only insufficient to provide for their spiritual growth – it was actually counterproductive since it involved them in spiritual compromise of a very dangerous sort.  So it is with all believers today who are deceiving themselves as to the value of their church-going.  If they are not progressing spiritually in the places to which they have attached themselves, that is bad enough.  But if said places are involved in spiritual compromise or, worse yet, any of the dangerous activities outlined in the list above, abuses which are all the rage in the church-visible today, then these believers are certainly not accomplishing our Master's will for their lives.  And, worst of all, they may in fact be undermining their own faith and creating a serious spiritual vulnerability for themselves:  we can expect the vast majority of present-day Christian and putatively Christian groups and churches to enroll in antichrist's universal religion during the soon-to-come Tribulation.[9]  If disassociation from questionable and harmful churches and groups to which one has become associated today is difficult (for reasons of emotional and traditional attachment), during the Tribulation it may be outright impossible. 

As we have seen, the Jewish believers who were involving themselves anew with the obsolete temple worship were offending the Lord by proclaiming with their actions that His sacrifice had been in vain – otherwise why would these symbols of future redemption be necessary?  In addition, however, they were also turning their backs on the believers in Jerusalem who were not willing to compromise: they were not "assembling" with the right people in the right place, only with the wrong people in the wrong place.  As a result, they were not growing spiritually but were instead reverting and losing ground.

But [I am giving you these instructions] so that in case I am delayed you may know how a person must comport himself in a house of God (i.e., a church)  – which is an assembly of the living God, a pillar and a support of the truth.
1st Timothy 3:15

Local churches are to be "pillars and supports" for the truth.  That is why they exist, according to God's Word.  Not for socializing.  Not for growing membership.  Not for accepting money.  Not for acquiring a building.  Not for music programs.  Not for all manner of activities and behaviors many of which we see in the church-visible today that are either superfluous to the main purpose of "church" (i.e., spiritual growth through the truth) or even inimical to it.  And most assuredly not for the purpose of assembly for its own sake – as if merely "showing up" meant anything to the Lord.  Many of the believers in Jerusalem were "showing up", assembling at the temple, but we can say with certainty that in their case and in doing so " your meetings do more harm than good" (1Cor.11:17 NIV: cf. Heb.6:4-6; Heb.10:26-31).  This "compromised assembling" is not what Paul is commending in our context verse of Hebrews 10:25 where he commands his readers not to "forsake the assembling of yourselves together" – quite the opposite.  Assembly for its own sake is pointless ritual at best.  The type of assembly which Paul commands and commends both for these believers of his day and by application for us in our own time is assembly with a purpose: the purpose of each and every local church since the beginning of the Church Age, the purpose of "equipping the saints" through the teaching of the Word of God and our mutual encouragement through that same Word of God.

. . . not abandoning the assembling of yourselves as some have made it their practice to do [and which makes this impossible], but rather encouraging each other [to persevere in this work of the Lord].
Hebrews 10:25a

How else do we encourage our fellow Christians if not with the truth of the Word?  Paul takes it for granted that there will be teaching of the truth – that is the purpose of assembling; encouragement sums up as well all of the other ministries which believers carry out for the mutual benefit of the Body of Christ, helping each other individually and the local church as a whole, praying, guiding, strengthening, and fostering each other's growth, progress and progression in the Lord through His truth according to the gifts and ministries we have each received.

(11) Christ Himself appointed some of us apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers (12) in order to prepare all of His holy people for their own ministry work, that the entire body of Christ might thus be built up, (13) until we all reach that unifying [goal] of belief in and full-knowledge of the Son of God, that each of us might be a perfect person, that is, that we might attain to that standard of maturity of the fullness of Christ; (14) that we may no longer be immature, swept off-course and carried headlong by every breeze of so-called teaching that emanates from the trickery of men in their readiness to do anything to cunningly work their deceit, (15) but rather that we may, by embracing the truth in love, grow up in all respects with Christ, who is the head of the Church, as our model. (16) In this way, the entire body of the Church, fit and joined together by Him through the sinews He powerfully supplies to each and every part, works out its own growth for the building up of itself in love.
Ephesians 4:11-16 (cf. Col.2:19b)

(13) Until I come, devote yourself to [public] reading [of the scriptures], to encouragement [through the Word], to the teaching [of the Word].  (14) Do not neglect the [spiritual] gift [of pastor-teacher] which belongs to you and which was given to you [by the Spirit], [and which was proclaimed] through prophecy [and recognized] by the laying on of the hands of the elders.  (15) Be diligent in these things (i.e., studying and teaching the Word).  Make them your primary concern so that your spiritual progress may be evident to all. (16) Apply them (i.e., the truths you learn) to yourself and to your teaching.  Stick [faithfully] to them.  For in so doing you will bring yourself and those who heed you safely home.
1st Timothy 4:13-16

Proclaim the Word! Keep at it, whether circumstances are favorable or not! Reprove, rebuke, [and] encourage with all patience [in your] teaching!
2nd Timothy 4:2 (cf. Tit.2:7-8)

(10) As each one has received a [particular spiritual] gift, [so let us be] ministering it to each other as good stewards of the multi-faceted grace of God. (11) If anyone communicates, let him do so as if he were speaking words directly from God.
1st Peter 4:10-11a

To recap, Paul's famous command not to neglect assembly is not meant to commend Christians getting together just for the sake of getting together; and it is certainly not meant to justify getting together with the wrong people or for the wrong reasons (i.e., with those not interested in the truth to engage in non-biblical practices and to hear false teaching).  We are to assemble for a godly purpose, namely, to be edified through the teaching of the Word of God and to be mutually encouraged through our collective spiritual growth.  If any Christian assembly, if any Christian church, is neglecting this fundamental and primary purpose of meeting together, then it is failing in its duty to Jesus Christ and to those who attend.  One hour a week of announcements, hymns, and motivational sermons may be enjoyable for some, but this practice is never going to produce the sort of spiritual growth through hearing and believing the depths of truth the Word of God contains necessary to navigate the pressures of this life in a way honoring to Jesus Christ.  And if said churches are bound to flawed doctrinal traditions, or have been suborned into embracing any one of the many dangerous practices of "emergent church", then they risk being justly categorized as congregations whose "meetings do more harm than good".  That any group on this spectrum or any individual so involved should criticize another believer who is genuinely seeking to grow through giving their disciplined attention to a good Bible teaching ministry on the grounds that there is no building or in-person fellowship is to put "darkness for light, and light for darkness"; and "bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter" (Is.5:20 NKJV).  But it is not surprising, inasmuch as any and all who have compromised the truth of Jesus Christ from whatever false motivation will naturally be defensive and hostile to anyone who is seeking Him the right way, because such correct conduct itself is a witness against them, as our Lord observed:

"It is enough for the disciple that he become like his teacher, and the slave like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign the members of his household!"
Matthew 10:25 NKJV

(18) "Though the world hates you, know that it came to hate Me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own. (19) Now because you are not [a part] of the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you. (20) Remember this principle I taught you: A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you."
John 15:18-20 (cf. 1Jn.3:13)

Part of the issue for the Jerusalem believers who were falling back into the old ways had to do with the ostracism they were receiving from their fellow, unbelieving Jews.  That shunning had more than the mere emotional effects which believers today experience at the hands of self-righteous "church goers"; in Paul's day, being put out of the synagogue could mean the end of one's livelihood and being subject to persecution as had happened earlier (and as Paul reminds that at the end of this chapter: Heb.10:32-39).  But we believers today stand on the threshold of the end times, and to the extent that we "see the day [of the Lord] drawing [ever] closer" (Heb.10:25), we need to consider that the time when we too will be called upon to suffer for our faith is not far off.

(9) "Then (i.e., the beginning of the Great Tribulation) men will betray you [bringing you] into tribulation (i.e., the Great Persecution), and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all of the nations on account of My Name. (10) And at that time many will fall away and will betray each other and will hate each other."
Matthew 24:9-10

(1) "All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. (2) They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. (3) They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. (4) I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them."
John 16:1-4a NIV

This will happen in the future as those who are weak in faith are co-opted into antichrist's tribulational, one-world religion, into which all of the world's present day religions and denominations will be amalgamated, concluding the satanic process of ecumenicalism which is gaining momentum in our own day.  And it is not the form of assembly that provides believers with the spiritual backbone necessary to resist when all the world is at our throats.  That kind of spiritual maturity only comes through the growth that the truth engenders.  And if it be objected that the method is somehow flawed because the teaching is not being personally delivered face to face, what, after all, was this very book of Hebrews if not Bible teaching provided remotely?  And no better Bible teaching exists that what we have in the Word of God.

After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.
Colossians 4:16 NIV

I charge you before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers and sisters.
1st Thessalonians 5:27 NIV

Just as Paul's first exhortation has to do mainly with faith and the spiritual growth it engenders ("let us approach [the throne of grace to pray] with a truthful heart in complete faith": Heb.10:21), consistency in prayer being an important complement and result of growth; and just as his second exhortation has to do mainly with hope and the spiritual progress it engenders ("Let us hold on without turning to the hope we have professed – for the One who has promised us [eternal life] is faithful": Heb.10:23), consistency of focus on the Lord and His promises being an important complement and result of successful passing of maturity testing; so also this third exhortation has to do mainly with love and the spiritual production it engenders ("let us pay careful attention to [ourselves and to] one another with the purpose of stirring up our love [for Christ and each other] and [resultant] good works [of growth, progress and production], not abandoning the assembling of yourselves as some have made it their practice to do [and which makes this impossible], but rather encouraging each other [to persevere in this work of the Lord]": Heb.10:24-25), consistency of effort in ministry to other believers, both feeding them with the Word or aiding the process according to whatever ministries and gifts we have been given, and also encouraging them to persevere, being an important complement and result of successful Christian production on behalf of our Lord and His Church.

He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep".
John 21:17 NKJV

(2) Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; (3) nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; (4) and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.
1st Peter 5:2-4 NKJV

By "assembling" at the wrong place and for the wrong reasons, the Jerusalem church was flirting with personal apostasy and the removal of their lamp entirely (which did in fact happen only a few short years after the receipt of this epistle; cf. Rev.2:5).  It is therefore the height of irony for those involved in the contemporary church-visible to find fault with believers who are pursuing spiritual growth, progress and production in the only way currently available to them, merely on account of the fact that it is not taking place between four walls with others physically present.  In doing so, these hypocrites are following the example of the Jerusalem church which preferred tradition and safety to what the Lord actually required.  By preferring the comfort of traditional methods and the excitement of new entertainments to the teaching of the Word of God, the contemporary church-visible is going down the same broad road traveled by the Jerusalem church.  That prior road ended in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D.  The latter road will end in most if not all present day organized-religion being incorporated into antichrist's one-world religion not many years hence, a road whose end will mean not merely temporal destruction – if traveled to its final terminus – but eternal damnation.

(9) Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, (10) he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. (11) And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name." (12) Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
Revelation 14:9-12 NKJV

 

The Day Approaching:

. . . and doing so [i.e., "approaching" in faith (= growing); "holding on" in hope (= test passing); "assembling" in love (= ministry)] to an ever greater degree to the extent that you see the day [of the Lord] drawing [ever] closer.
Hebrews 10:25b

Our time down here in this world as believers is limited.  So are our resources and energy.  How we use these things is all important in determining our reception at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and with this statement which closes out Paul's three exhortations he brings his readers back to thinking about the Lord's return as He is the One we should be seeking to please since He is the One who will be evaluating us soon enough.

Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:16 KJV

Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.
Colossians 4:5 KJV

No one uses his/her time, resources, and opportunities perfectly.  But sleeping in one morning when the extra time could have been used for Bible study, e.g., is a far cry from abandoning spiritual growth entirely, and a large portion of the Jerusalem believers had not only done that but had also reverted to a life of absolute compromise capable of shipwrecking their faith absolutely.  Paul here encourages those who are not in the latter posture and puts things in a positive way in order to encourage his readers to remember what really ought to be most important to them, namely, a good report before Jesus Christ on that fast approaching "Day" of evaluation.

(10) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (11a) Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others.
2nd Corinthians 5:10-11a NIV

Which of us would not be apprehensive about standing before the Lord this very instance?  No doubt if faced with that prospect, we would all wish a little more time to do some of the things we may have left undone.  Few of us can say with Paul's level of confidence . . .

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. (7) I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (8) Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
2nd Timothy 4:6-8 NIV

But we all ought to be able to have similar confidence.  And if we are not there yet, then we need to keep running this race the best we can, putting one good day for the Lord after another until the blessed one whereon He does call us home arrives.  We never know just how much time we have left.  Those in the spring or summer of their lives may assume that they have plenty of time left, but that is a dangerous assumption, especially if it leads to putting off the growth, progress and production the Lord desires of us.  For Paul's readers, even though they were not aware of it, only a few more years were left to them in fact, regardless of their age or physical health.  For them, "the day" was indeed imminent, a scant ten years or so from this letter's arrival in Jerusalem.  For us considering these things today, the Tribulation may be even closer at hand.  In any case, since no one knows what tomorrow will bring, our return to the Lord is, on an individual basis, just as potentially imminent as His return for us all is.

The one who recites this prophecy will be glad he did so, as will those who listen to the words of this prophecy and retain [in their hearts] the matters written in it. [This is true] because the time is near [for these events to take place].
Revelation 1:3

 

Verses Twenty Six through Thirty One

(26) For if we continue to sin willfully (i.e., arrogantly) after having received full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice applicable to [such] sins, (27) but [only] the terrifying expectation of judgment and fiery retribution waiting to devour those who oppose [the Lord]. (28) For anyone who set aside the law of Moses perished without mercy on the [testimony] of two or three witnesses.  (29) How much greater punishment do you suppose will not justly come to someone who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, and who has considered His blood of the covenant to be unclean, the very blood by which you were sanctified, and who has violently insulted the Spirit of grace?  (30) For we know the One who said, "Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, 'says the Lord' ", and again, "The Lord will judge His people." (31) It is a frightening thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:26-31

 

Sin Willfully:  Those who "have received full knowledge of the truth" are believers.  The word translated "full knowledge" here is the single Greek word epignosis which, unlike mere gnosis, "knowledge", is knowledge which has been rendered complete through the Holy Spirit when it is received by faith on the part of those hearing the truth.

And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
1st John.5:6b

The Spirit is the One who "testifies to the truth", that is, the One who makes truth understandable to us in a full, spiritual way.[10]  This only happens when the person receiving this ministry of the Spirit believes what the Spirit is testifying to.  For unbelievers, the Spirit only makes gospel truth clear and understandable so as to present a fair choice to the unsaved to accept or reject Jesus Christ.  But for believers, the Spirit makes all truth to which we expose ourselves perceptible, and when we believe the truth we are taught by the Spirit, it becomes epignosis in our hearts, part of the fund of truth in our hearts that constitutes our spiritual growth and whereby we discern what the Lord's will is (Rom.12:2; Phil.1:9-11; Heb.5:14).

(12) And we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, in order that we might know the things graciously given to us by God. (13) And these are the very things we are speaking about, not in words taught by human wisdom, but with words of the Spirit, communicating spiritual information to spiritual people. (14) Now the unspiritual man does not receive the [deeper] things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him and he is not able to understand them because they are appreciated [only] through spiritual means. (15) But the spiritual man does appreciate them all, though he himself is not appreciated [in this regard] by anyone (i.e., unbelievers cannot perceive how we learn the truth).
1st Corinthians 2:9-15

But what if we act contrary to what we know to be the truth?  This is the essence of sin, namely, substituting our will for the known Will of God.  True, sin is sin, whether we are deceived as Eve was or sin in full knowledge as Adam did.  But knowing and sinning is clearly worse than sinning from ignorance. 

(47) "The servant who knows the master's will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. (48) But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."
Luke 12:47-48 NIV

That is the essence of "willful sinning" as Paul invokes it here.  If his Jerusalem readers had been ignorant of the cross, if they had never been taught the deeper truths about Christ's sacrifice in the roughly two decades since He died for us and rose again, that would be one thing.  Turning back to the Law in such a case would then perhaps be on a par with the folly of the Galatian believers who had succumbed to the legalism of the false teachers who followed Paul – a sin to be sure and the adoption of a perilous course, but not quite the same thing as turning away from the truth in complete cognizance, in "full knowledge" of the truth as the Jerusalem believers were doing. 

(28) "Truly I tell you, people can be forgiven all their sins and every slander they utter, (29) but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; they are guilty of an eternal sin."
Mark 3:28-29 NIV

How was rejecting the truth they had been taught about Christ's efficacious sacrifice for their sins not blaspheming the Holy Spirit?  By returning to the sacrifices of the Law which by their very continuation proclaimed a Messiah not yet come and sin not yet forgiven, these believers were resisting what the Spirit was doubtless testifying to their consciences.

As in the case of the passage just quoted, many believers today have difficulty getting past the fear and the guilt of what Paul says in speaking of "willful sin" and what our Lord calls "an eternal sin", as if some single thing we might do in this life were so bad that the blood of Christ was insufficient to cover it so that we might be forgiven.  In both cases, what we have is the rejection of truth which, when taken to an extreme, destroys faith – and only believers are saved (Jn.3:18).  In the case of Mark 3:28-29, the individuals in question rejected the gospel, saying that the Spirit who was testifying to them about the truth of the gospel in their Messiah was actually a demon.  Clearly, to do so was in and of itself to reject the gospel so as to turn away from life eternal – an eternal sin. 

In our passage, "willfully sinning after receiving full knowledge of the truth" was a case of believers acting in a way so contrary to the important and basic truths they had previously accepted and believed so as to negate their faith in those truths.  No one can act directly contrary to what they believe for long and not suffer spiritual consequences for it.  Either they will reject what they previously accepted – or they will pay a grave penalty from the Lord for willfully behaving contrary to what they know is right.  In the first case, they are relieved of temporal discipline when they fall away from the faith because they no longer belong to Christ (2Pet.2:20-22); in the second case, they receive maximum punishment in this life "so that their spirits may be saved on the day of the Lord" (1Cor.5:5).  In either case, rebuking the Spirit by willfully or arrogantly sinning in the way the Jerusalem believers were doing, was resisting the Spirit and violating their consciences in a dangerous way, a way that was, absent repentance, bound to lead to one of the two results suggested above:  either apostasy (the death of faith) or the sin unto death (physical death through divine discipline).[11]

(17) So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do with their minds emptied [of the truth].  (18) They are darkened in their thinking, separated from the life of God because of this [willful] ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts [against the truth], (19) who, when once they have lost all sensitivity [for what is right], have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.  (20) This is not how you learned to follow Christ.
Ephesians 4:17-20

For those who follow the god of this world and continually tune out the Holy Spirit, they will find His voice becoming more distant and indistinct over time, until at last they are not hearing Him at all.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for a [future] day of redemption (i.e., the day of resurrection).
Ephesians 4:30 (cf. Ps.78:17; 78:40; Is.63:10; Rom.8:26)

Do not put out the Spirit's fire.
1st Thessalonians 5:19

 

No Sacrifice for Sins Remains:

(29) There will be [but] one [and the same] law [of forgiveness through sacrifice (vv.22-28)] for both the native born of the sons of Israel and for the resident alien who resides among you, for [every] one who sins out of ignorance.  (30) But as for the person who acts with a high hand (i.e., in arrogance), be he native born or resident alien, it is the Lord whom he has blasphemed, and that person must be cut off from the midst of his people (i.e., executed). (31) For he has despised the Word of the Lord, and has broken His commandment. That person must definitely be cut off. His guilt [remains] in him.
Numbers 15:29-31

Under the Law, everyone was supposed to be a believer; everyone was supposed to respect God and honor His commandments.  For that reason, the sacrifices for sin prescribed by the Law were mainly for sins of ignorance (e.g., Lev.4:2ff.).  So that while there were designated sacrifices for specific deliberate sins (e.g., Lev.6:2ff.), as the passage quoted above makes clear, some violations were so outrageous that they constituted contempt for the Lord.  Such "willful sin" was deserving of the death penalty.

(32) While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. (33) Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, (34) and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. (35) Then the Lord said to Moses, "The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp." (36) So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Numbers 15:32-36 NIV

Deliberately defying the express will of God is "willful sin", preferring one's own will in any matter to His Will – and especially when done publically and arrogantly as in the example above.  By using this terminology, Paul is inviting the Jerusalem congregation to compare their behavior to similar examples under the Law (e.g., Lev.24:11-16).  For sins of ignorance, and for certain "trespasses", the Law did enjoin sacrifices for the forgiveness of sin and restoration to fellowship – but not for "willful sin".  For willfully sinning, especially on the part of those who had previously received "full knowledge of the truth" as the Jerusalem believers had so as to be without any hope of a plea of ignorance, "there no longer remains any sacrifice applicable to [such] sins, but [only] the terrifying expectation of judgment and fiery retribution waiting to devour those who oppose [the Lord]" (Heb.10:26-27).  By the very fact of their participation in sacrifices which had been annulled whereby they were "putting Jesus to open shame" (Heb.6:6), suggesting by their actions that He had died in vain, these believers were putting themselves beyond the pale of any potential help from these sacrifices which were the problem in and of themselves. Having gone back to the Law, they would find that instead of offering forgiveness through sacrifice, the Law could only offer condemnation for their willful sinning – since no sacrifice existed for that offense.  After all, it is only because Jesus died for all sins that no further sacrifice for sins is necessary (Heb.10:15-18); but they were trampling Him and His sacrifice underfoot through their actions.

It is, unfortunately, necessary to add here that the "willful sin" Paul mentions here is indeed specifically and particularly the sin of reverting to the sacrifices and rituals of the Law which the cross rendered null and void – because their purpose was to foreshadow Him and His efficacious sacrifice.  The "willful sin" described here is most definitely not some past transgression for which a believer may feel exceptionally guilty, and often so much so that they may wrongly conclude that they are damned on account of it.  That much is very clear from the context and from the entire book of Hebrews, but it is a fact that an inordinately large number of Christians have taken this verse out of context and used it to condemn themselves and to wrongly conclude that they have somehow "lost salvation".  All believers are saved; only unbelievers are not saved (Jn.3:18).  Violation of one's conscience and the prodding of the Holy Spirit taken to extremes can indeed damage one's faith and lead to the loss of that faith (apostasy); alternatively as in the case of many of the recipients of this letter, absent repentance this can result in the Lord "losing patience", so to speak, and taking the offending brother or sister out of this world via "the sin unto death".

(16) If anyone sees his brother engaged in a pattern of sinfulness which does not lead to death (i.e., is a deviation rather than a complete turning away), let him ask [forgiveness on his brother's behalf], and life will be given to him (i.e., forgiveness and deliverance will result), that is, in those cases where those sinning are not [sinning] unto death. There is sin which leads to death – I am not telling you to pray in that case. (17) All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin which does not lead to death (i.e., temporary deviation, confessed and repented does not result in death).
1st John 5:16-17

Both outcomes – apostasy and the sin unto death – are horrific even to contemplate.  For those who once were believers and then turn back to the world, apostatizing by abandoning their faith in Christ so as to no longer be believers at all, "the latter end is worse for them than the beginning" (2Pet.2:20 NKJV).  For though they had originally received the seed of the Word with joy, the trials and persecution which follow caused them to stumble (Matt.13:19-21) – as indeed at least some of the Jerusalem believers seem to have done.  Those who are following the same wrong path but instead of abandoning their faith persevere in their disreputable behavior, will find that the Lord's patience is not unlimited in such cases.  Though they do not lose their salvation (since they have not apostatized), yet their end is a terrifying one – as indeed at least some of the Jerusalem believers will have discovered not many years hence with the destruction of their city.

(4) In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, (5) deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1st Corinthians 5:4-5 NKJV

Such is the "terrifying expectation of judgment and fiery retribution waiting to devour those who oppose [the Lord]" (Heb.10:27).

(1) Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. (2) So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.
Leviticus 10:1-2 NIV

(28) Then Moses said, "This is how you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these things and that it was not my idea: (29) If these men die a natural death and suffer the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. (30) But if the Lord brings about something totally new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them, with everything that belongs to them, and they go down alive into the realm of the dead, then you will know that these men have treated the Lord with contempt." (31) As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart (32) and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them and their households, and all those associated with Korah, together with their possessions. (33) They went down alive into the realm of the dead, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. (34) At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, "The earth is going to swallow us too!" (35) And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense.
Numbers 16:28-35 NIV

The judgment of fire invoked by Paul is meant to be purposefully reminiscent of the two episodes above.  His readers are thus invited to compare their rebellious conduct to that of some of the more egregious examples of disrespect for the Lord and His appointed authorities and the consequences thereof, so that they might see that by going back to the temple rites and abandoning association with other believers and in dismissing the counsel of Paul and the other apostles, they were in fact no different and faced an equally horrific end.  Absent repentance, they had every right to expect the same terrifying judgment that the Lord had meted out to Aaron's sons in the first instance and to Korah, Dathan and Abiram in the second.

Ironically then, Paul accuses those reverting to the temple worship as essentially "setting aside the Law of Moses", and reminds his readers of the dire consequences that befell any and all who did so under the Law with judgment valid with only two or three witnesses.  But these individuals were "parading their sin like Sodom" (Is.3:9) to the entire city, so that no such legal procedure was needed to establish their guilt – and if there were any doubt, the Spirit whom they were insulting was the ultimate Witness.  Not only that, but as great as the punishment meted out to those who arrogantly violated the Law in the past, Paul assures the Jerusalem offenders that they are worthy of far greater punishment for having by their own actions: by continuing to offer blood sacrifices now that these were no longer considered valid by the Father they were, in effect, "trampling the Son of God underfoot", having "considered His blood of the covenant to be unclean, the very blood by which you were sanctified" (Heb.10:26).

That graphic description constitutes quite a statement on Paul's part, one that needs to be mulled over a bit to be fully appreciated.  We are told by Paul, in effect, His words inspired by the Holy Spirit, that what the Jerusalem believers were doing by abandoning their fellow Christians and returning to the practice of ritual sacrifice was worse than all the rebelliousness of the exodus generation put together.  It was worse, for example, than making and worshiping the golden calf, worse than the rebels of the next generation binding themselves to Baal of Peor, worse than Meribah, worse than the temerity of Aaron's two sons who offered strange fire contrary to the commands of the Lord, worse than Korah, Dathan and Abiram, and worse than the idolatry of Jezebel or of Manasseh that which resulted in Israel's and Judah's exile and the destruction of the first temple, worse . . . and angling for a correspondingly worse result, absent repentance.

As demonstrated above, believers today who apply these verses to themselves on the basis of some sin of the past which continues to trouble them are misunderstanding the context and misapplying these verses.  It is impossible at present for anyone to sin in the same fashion as these Jerusalem believers were sinning, and we must reiterate that Paul writes these words to them in order to elicit a positive response of repentance, and not to suggest that they have committed some "unpardonable sin" for which there is no forgiveness.  They could indeed have been forgiven, but first they needed to stop it and to return to the Lord through seeking and embracing the truth apart from the Law in concert with their believing brothers and sisters "outside the gate" (Heb.13:12-14). 

In time shortly to come, we believers who live on the threshold of the Tribulation will find ourselves confronted with a similar temptation and a very similar situation.  When antichrist establishes his new world religion in Jerusalem and sets up his cult statue in the temple court, the bulk of the world's population to include all religions and putatively Christian denominations will assemble there to worship the beast.  At that time, ostracism and persecution, even leading to martyrdom, will be the only alternative to bowing the knee to the devil and his offspring.  At that time, the situation faced by the loyal believers in Jerusalem who were not defaming Christ by their actions – and who were suffering in consequence of their faithfulness – will be virtually repeated by all who are determined not to take the mark of the beast or worship him.

(4) And they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast.  And they [also] worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast?  And who is able to make war with him?"  (5) And a mouth was given to [the beast] to speak presumptuous things and blasphemies [against God].  And it was [also] given to him to do what he wished for forty-two months.  (6) And he opened his mouth for [the purpose of] blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His Name and His dwelling and those who dwell in heaven (i.e., the family of God).  (7) And it was given to [the beast] to make war on the holy ones (e.g., believers) and to conquer them (i.e., the Great Persecution).  And authority was given to him over every tribe and people and language and race.  (8) And all the inhabitants of the earth will worship [the beast], [that is, all] whose names are not [still] written in the book of life [where they were written] from the beginning of the world, [even the book] which belongs to the Lamb who was slain.  (9) "If anyone has an ear, let him hear.  (10) If anyone is [destined] for captivity [to captivity he will go].  If it is necessary for anyone to be put to death by the sword, by the sword he must be put to death.  Herein lies the perseverance and the faithfulness of the holy ones."  (11) And I saw another beast (i.e., the false prophet: cf. Rev.16:13; 19:20; 20:10) rising up from the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon.  (12) And he [will] act with all the authority of the first beast [while] in his presence, and he [will] make the world and all its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.  (13) And [the beast's false prophet] [will] perform great miracles (lit., "signs"), even making fire come down from heaven to the earth in front of everyone.  (14) And he [will] deceive those who dwell upon the earth on account of the miracles (lit., "signs") which have been given to him to perform in the presence of the beast, even commanding the inhabitants of the earth to make an image of the beast, [that is] of him who received the [deadly] stroke of the sword and [yet] came [back] to life.  (15) And it was given to him to provide a spirit for the image of the beast so that the image might speak, and [it was also given to him] to bring it about that as many as refused to worship the image of the beast might be put to death.
Revelation 13:4-15

 

Insulting the Spirit:

How much greater punishment do you suppose will not justly come to someone who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, and who has considered His blood of the covenant to be unclean, the very blood by which you were sanctified, and who has violently insulted the Spirit of grace? 
Hebrews 10:29

"Trampling the Son of God underfoot", "considering His blood of the covenant to be unclean", and "violently insulting the Spirit of grace" are, while somewhat different, really three aspects of the same sin:  returning to the Law and offering now obsolete animal sacrifices.  They are "trampling Jesus" because by offering animal sacrifice these believers are saying by their actions that what He did for them in dying for their sins was nothing when in fact it was everything.  In returning to the Law they were in effect negating it and the true, original purpose of it.  They were despising the one and only efficacious sacrifice of the One who despised the shame of the cross to liberate them from the curse of that very Law that they might have life eternal (Heb.12:2).  By continuing to spill the blood of animals they were demonstrating that they considered unclean the blood of Christ, the true coin of the realm which paid for their sins, something which animal blood only symbolized, the very "blood", that is, Christ's spiritual death in atoning for all sin, by which alone they had been separated from sin and death, sanctified as those who belong to God through the New Covenant empowered by the blood of Christ (Matt.26:28; Mk.14:24; Lk.22:20; 1Cor.11:25; Heb.8:13; 9:15; 12:24). 

Through overturning these basic truths by their rebellious actions, these believers were resisting the Holy Spirit who was testifying to their hearts and consciences daily as to the dreadful wrongness of their behavior.  For believers to persevere in any gross sin in violation of what the Spirit is telling their consciences not to do is terribly dangerous and leads to hardening one's heart against the truth (cf. 1Cor.11:27-34).  But persevering in behavior which shames Jesus Christ in such a public and conspicuous way was playing with fire – the fire of divine discipline of the most intense sort, leading, in the case of those determined not to repent to a fiery end of this life (the sin unto death), and in the case of those who, under the pressure of discipline, would abandon their faith altogether, to the lake of fire.

(30) For we know the One who said, "Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, 'says the Lord' ", and again, "The Lord will judge His people." (31) It is a frightening thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:30-31

Tempting the Father, despising the Son, insulting the Holy Spirit – such willful behavior in rejecting the truth was well-deserving of these frightful verses given to Paul to write to the Jerusalem church.  They do not apply directly to any believer today for the same offense those believers were guilty of, since the temple no longer stands and such sacrifices are no longer being offered.  But in our time we do see many examples of behavior by putative believers which is equally guilty and which is likewise running the risk of falling under the same terrifying judgment. 

(19) Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, (20) idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, (21) envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:19-21 NKJV

"The works of the flesh" are, as Paul says above, obvious enough.  But what is perhaps less obvious to believers today – as it was also apparently less obvious to believers in Paul's day – was the fact that engaging in supposedly "Christian" activities can also be very dangerous . . . when those activities are actually anything but.

(1) So be aware of this, that in the last days there will be difficult times.  (2) For [in those times] there will be men [like this] (i.e., the false teachers of chap.2) concerned only for themselves, devoted to money, egotistic, arrogant, blasphemous, not concerned for their parents, ungrateful, irreverent, (3) implacable, slanderers, uninhibited, savage, despising the good, (4) betrayers, impetuous, megalomaniacal, devotees of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (5) possessing an [outward] appearance of godliness, but [in reality] having rejected its [true] power. From such men turn away. (6) Of this sort are those who [even in our own day] worm their way into households and take captive the [spiritually] weak (lit., "little women") who are loaded down with sins, leading them astray with various lusts, [victims who consequently], (7) though always learning, are never able to accept the truth.
2nd Timothy 3:1-7

Throughout the church-visible today, there are many who profess to receive prophecy from God, to be able to heal by touch, to have the power to do battle with demons, to speak in tongues, who engage in "holy laughter", being "slain in the Spirit", offering their bodies to involuntary gyrations, communicating with "spirit guides" – all of which things are most definitely not from God or of God, but of and from the evil one.

(3) For the time will come when they will not put up with sound teaching, but will [instead], desiring to have their ears scratched, heap up by their own [devices, false] teachers to match their specific lusts. (4) And they will turn their ears from the truth and resort instead to fictions.
2nd Timothy 4:3-4

Just as the fact that worshiping at the temple and following the Law appeared godly, even though at this time it was anything but since Christ had fulfilled the Law on the cross, so also today a veneer of Christianity does not excuse diabolical behavior.  That is true in the so-called "emergent church" and/or NAR movement just as it is true in Roman Catholicism – just as it was true in Jerusalem, ten years or so before the Romans destroyed the city. 

 

A Frightening Thing:

It is a frightening thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:31

In terms of the dire force of these words and those of the entire context, it really is only necessary to read them and let them sink in.  No one reading the above and the broader context then or now can be in any doubt about what it means to disobey the Lord and to dishonor the Lord in the high-handed way in which the Jerusalem believers were doing – were at that very time continuing to do.   Paul's emphatic words have the effect of bringing home to his readers the consequences of their actions, stripping away any and all willful disregard for the repercussions of opposing God and thus sets them up for repentance, that is, for anyone who is still reading the epistle at the point and thus being receptive to its plea to turn back to the Lord.

"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent."
Revelation 3:19 NKJV

As mentioned above, many believers misapply these verses to themselves in regard to past sins which they are no longer committing.  For those who do repent and change their sinful ways, our God is a God of great mercy and forgiveness (Ps.103:2-14).  So great is His love for us that He sent His one and only Son to die for our sins not that we might be condemned but that we might live through His sacrifice on our behalf.

"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
John 3:17 NKJV

When we believe in Jesus Christ, all of our past sins are forgiven (1Cor.6:9-11; Eph.1:7; Col.1:14; cf. Acts 26:15-18; 2Pet.1:9); as believers, when we confess our sins to the Lord, they are forgiven at that time as well (Ps.32:5; 1Jn.1:9).  There is no such thing for a believer as an "unforgivable" sin.  What is not forgivable is for a believer to continue in gross sin without repentance, holding fast to that foolish and arrogant course.  The Lord will not accept such behavior forever.  As in the case of the Jerusalem believers who were "trampling the Son of God under foot" (Heb.10:29) and "crucifying Him afresh" (Heb.6:6), failure to repent was inevitably going to lead to the ultimate discipline of the sin unto death – unless said individuals abandoned their faith entirely and lapsed into apostasy.[12]  But that was not God's will for them.  Indeed, the Lord very graciously had Paul pen this brilliant letter under the inspiration of the Spirit precisely so that they would repent and thus not bear the terrifying consequences this passage threatens.  For believers today to assume that no repentance is possible for themselves on account of some terrible past sin is to turn the mercy of God and the message of Hebrews precisely on their heads in a supremely arrogant way. 

For the rest of us, that is, believers who are not wrongly obsessing about our past failures (and we all have them), being reminded of and reminding ourselves of the need to treat the Lord with the utmost reverence and respect is salutary for our spiritual growth and security in every way.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
Psalm 19:9a

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Psalm 111:10a NIV

But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be feared.
Psalm 130:4 BBE

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord –  (3) and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
Isaiah 11:2-3a

 

Verses Thirty Two through Thirty Nine

(32) Remember the days gone by, when you first saw the light, when you persevered through that terrible trial of abuse.  (33) For you were publicly exposed to humiliation and persecution, and shared the lot of others who experienced the same.  (34) You suffered from my chains and accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you possessed a more valuable estate and a more lasting one.  (35) So do not throw away this conviction of yours – it leads to a great reward.  (36) You need to keep persevering so that you may carry off in victory what has been promised – after you have accomplished God's will.  (37) For yet a little while, "how short, how short [the wait]", and "He who is coming shall come, nor will He delay."  (38) "Then my one [made] righteous by his faith will live because of his faith, but if he shrinks back, My heart takes no pleasure in him (Hab.2:3-4)."  (39) Now we are not possessed of cowardly apostasy which leads to destruction, but we have faith which leads to [eternal] life.
Hebrews 10:32-39

 

The Days Gone By:  As we have seen, Paul wrote this epistle in ca. 59/60 A.D., nearly three decades after the first Pentecost of the Church Age.  He himself, of course, was not saved until sometime later, but a fair reading of the first eight chapters of Acts would place his famous conversion on the road to Damascus possibly even that same year of 33 A.D. (the most likely date of the crucifixion and resurrection)[13], and certainly not much later.  So Paul had personal experience of the suffering of that very first generation of believers of the Church Age, having been responsible for much of it himself.  However, we need not restrict these "days gone by" to merely that first wave of persecution, intensive as it was.  No doubt many and probably the majority of those receiving his letter were saved in the years that followed (cf. the characterization of Mnason of Cyprus as "one of the early disciples" at Acts 21:16).  Still, Paul is in good company in addressing a group that is only partially composed of those who had personal knowledge of the events in question.

(2) "The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. (3) It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today. (4) The Lord spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain."
Deuteronomy 5:2-4 NIV

The above was nearly forty years after the event and after the entire generation of men who had been counted in the first census had perished (with the exception of Caleb and Joshua: Deut.2:14).  Since that first census counted every man twenty years of age and older (Num.1:13), only those who had been nineteen or younger at the time can have been present at the giving of the Covenant.  Everyone who was listening to Moses at this point in the passage cited above would have had to have grown up in the roughly four decades thereafter.  But since most of the elders had personally experienced it – and had no doubt shared the details with their progeny – what Moses tells the Israelites above is true (and validated by the Spirit).  The same sort of situation applies to Paul's readers.  No doubt the majority of them were too young to have experienced or to have remembered the trials Paul relates here, but they were "heirs" to them, so to speak, and "owned them" on account of the great impression they would have had on their parents.

(3) And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. (4) God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:3-4 NKJV

For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.
Psalm 36:9 NKJV

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
John 1:5 NKJV

When in Hebrews 10:32 Paul says of  "the days gone by" that this was "when you first saw the light", he is, of course, speaking of their conversion.  For some of them, this would be the time directly after the first Pentecost, for prior to this "the believers" were a very small group (Acts 1:15).  Paul's reference to light is thus a metaphorical reference to the truth, and to the truth of the gospel specifically whereby these early believers were saved in the same manner as we are today, by turning from the darkness of this world to the light of Jesus Christ.

(9) The true Light which illuminates every human being was coming into the world. (10) He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and [yet] the world did not recognize Him. (11) He came to what was rightfully His, but those who were His did not receive Him.  (12) But as many as accepted Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God, [that is,] to those who put their faith in His Person, (13) [even those] who were not [born] of blood, or fleshly desire, or human will, but [who] were born of God (i.e., "born again").
John 1:9-13

For Paul to use this reference to salvation is particularly appropriate because, after all, Paul did literally see Jesus Christ manifest to him in brilliant and blinding light.

(3) As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. (4) He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" (5) "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
Acts 9:3-6 NIV

(6) "About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.  (7) I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, 'Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?' (8) 'Who are you, Lord?' I asked. 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,' he replied. (9) My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. (10) 'What shall I do, Lord?' I asked. 'Get up,' the Lord said, 'and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.' "
Acts 22:6-10 NIV

(13) "About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. (14) We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic [lit., Hebrew] 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' (15)  Then I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?'  'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied. (16) 'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. (17) I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them (18) to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.' "
Acts 26:13-18 NIV

Many people seem to feel that if they had had the same dramatic epiphany that Paul did, they would be more certain in their faith and more solid in their execution.  But that was not true of the exodus generation who had witnessed more impressive miracles than any group of people before or since and yet still proved entirely unfaithful to the Lord.  Nor was it true of these believers to whom Paul was writing.  Along with the catalog of persecutions Paul relates above, we should remember that they had also experienced all manner of miracles and miraculous deliverances (as the book of Acts relates), more than any other group of people with the exception of the exodus generation and those who had seen and experienced our Lord's first advent ministry personally (which would include at least some believers in Jerusalem still living).  Experience does not guarantee faith.  "It is faith that substantiates what we hope for" and "provides proof of things unseen" (Heb.11:1).

(24) Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. (25) So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." (26) A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" (27) Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." (28) Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" (29) Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
John 20:26-29 NIV

One thing about the experience of the Jerusalem believers is fairly unique.  Scripture gives us memorable examples of those who are weak in faith and who fail to appreciate the Lord's mercy or to remember His deliverances from the beginning to the end (e.g., the exodus generation and, for the most part, the generation to whom our Lord came and ministered: Jn.1:11-12).  We also have numerous examples of believers who are to be greatly admired for the faith and faithful service to the Lord throughout their lives after believing, even if some, as Paul's case, started opposing the truth (cf. Matt.21:28-32).  While perhaps numerous enough in actual occurrence, examples of apostasy and the sin unto death related in the Bible are less common, namely, of actual believers who either turn away from the Lord entirely or who force His hand, so to speak, and require being taken out of this life on account of their disreputable conduct and unwillingness to repent.  But the example of the Jerusalem believers is the most perplexing of all.  For there are very few biblical examples of believers who started out strong, enduring the sorts of pressure and tribulation which Paul reminds these individuals that they have suffered through in the past, and then, after all that, turned away from the Lord in the end or turned in a witness so unconscionable as to demand their removal from this earth.  But that was exactly the "fire" or, perhaps better, the double-edged sword with which the recipients of this letter were playing. 

(20) "And he who was sown on the rocky places, this is the one who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy.  (21) He has no roots [to his faith], however, but lasts only a short time.  So when tribulation or persecution occurs on account of the Word, he is immediately tripped up (i.e., he apostatizes)."
Matthew 13:20-21

(16) "And these [second types] who are sown on the rocky places are similar. Whenever they hear the Word they immediately receive it with joy, (17) although they have no root [of faith] in themselves, but are only temporary [believers]. When tribulation or persecution because of the Word comes [their way], they are immediately tripped up (i.e., they apostatize)."
Mark 4:16-17

"And those [whose seed of faith fell] on the rock do receive the Word with joy when they hear it. However these [types] have no root [to their faith]. They believe for a while, but in time of testing they apostatize."
Luke 8:13

In our Lord's explanation here of the second category of seed in the parable of the Sower, we see that tribulation, persecution and testing are the stimuli which expose the fair-weather believers' shallowness of faith.  But these Jerusalem believers had weathered all these pressures in the past and had passed their tests with flying colors.  Paul feels it necessary to recall the most significant of these troubles to remind them of just how much they had suffered for the Lord already in order to cast into the light the immense folly of throwing it all away now.

 

$        Public humiliations:  The verb governing both this and the next category of abuse is theatrizo, meaning, as can be easily seen, is derived from "theater" and means "to put on public display" in the sense of providing an entertainment for others.  This is more than just ostracism and public shaming.  This is a level of humiliation few have ever had to suffer.  The treatment of Jews by the Nazis in, e.g., making them wear yellow stars of David and forcing them to shovel snow, etc., provides a close parallel, and is also to be seen in the way the Romans treated those whom they were about to execute.

          For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle (theatron) to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings.
1st Corinthians 4:9 NIV

$       Persecutions:  The Greek word here is thipsis which readers will recall can also be translated "tribulation" and is the very word used in scripture for the Tribulation.  All who would live godly in Christ Jesus are called to "share the sufferings of Christ" (Rom.8:17; 2Cor.1:5; Phil.1:29-30; 3:10; Col.1:24; 2Tim.2:12; 1Pet.4:12-13; cf. Matt.10:38; 16:24; Mk.8:34; 10:21; 10:38-39; Lk.9:23; 14:27; Acts 5:41; 2Cor.4:10-11; Gal.6:17; 1Thes.1:6; 2Thes.1:4-5; 2Tim.3:12), but from the book of Acts and from this passage we understand that the experience of the Jerusalem believers in "earlier days" was uniquely difficult, matching if not exceeding the "trouble" that other early believers had to suffer through.

          (1) Therefore, when we could no longer endure it, we thought it good to be left in Athens alone, (2) and sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and encourage you concerning your faith, (3) that no one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. (4) For, in fact, we told you before when we were with you that we would suffer tribulation, just as it happened, and you know.
1st Thessalonians 3:1-4 NKJV

          [They were] strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God", they said.
Acts 14:22 NIV

$       Suffering by Association:  In the past, the Jerusalem believers had been notably upstanding in their willingness to aid those who were being persecuted, suffering themselves in consequences for their righteous behavior.  One of the most difficult tests believers face, perhaps even more difficult than suffering which comes to us directly, is how we handle the suffering and/or persecution of other believers whom we know.  While we might personally be able to endure ostracism directly aimed at us individually, being willing to associate with other believers who are shunned and thus taking on some of their opprobrium is often not an easy thing to do.  Such situations often demonstrate the mettle of some such individuals and the deficiency of others – as Paul himself had experienced recently in both respects:

(15) You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. (16) May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.  (17) On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. (18) May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.
2nd Timothy 1:15-18 NIV

Paul would have occasion to come back to this point later in the epistle, encouraging the recipients of his letter to be doing what they and their predecessors had done so well in the past:

Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.
Hebrews 13:3 NIV

$        Imprisonment: Scripture offers numerous examples of believers who were imprisoned for their faith: Joseph (Gen.39:20-23) and Jeremiah (Jer.38:4-13), John the baptist (Matt.14:3, e.g.), the apostles Peter and John (Acts 5:17-42; 12:1-19), and Paul and Silas (Acts 15:19-37), to mention just a few. And in the not too distant future, this issue, namely, of our willingness to associate with and to give aid and comfort to those who are suffering and being persecuted, will come to the forefront for all believers during the Tribulation, while we ourselves may be called upon to endure this same trial:

"Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor's crown."
Revelation 2:10 NIV

We have these words of encouragement from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and they are very important to keep in mind.  In all of the examples provided in the previous paragraph, God worked things out for the good.  Joseph became ruler of Egypt, as "God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Gen.50:20).  Jeremiah was delivered from the muddy cistern and his life was saved.  John the baptist was indeed executed, but his two year imprisonment had the essential purpose of allowing our Lord's ministry to proceed (as John was still the main focus of opposition), until the final "year of opposition".  Peter and John were miraculously delivered, Peter on both cited occasions, and Paul and Silas' imprisonment resulted in the salvation of the jailer and his family.  Whatever happens to us individually is written into the perfectly orchestrated plan of God for the purpose of our ultimate blessing and reward, of the edification of the Church, and of the glorification of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ.

$        Confiscation of Property:  This particular trial is no doubt one of the main reasons for the early believers to temporarily "have all things in common", since the pressure of confiscation left many with nothing (Acts 4:32-34). No doubt this continued type of persecution is also one of the reasons why Paul's great efforts to provide relief for the believers in Judea were necessary (e.g., 1st Corinthians chapter 16; 2nd Corinthians chapters 8-9).  Without belongings and a place to live, life is nearly impossible to live.  No doubt many believers will also experience conditions similar to this during the Tribulation:

(16) [The beast's false prophet] also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, (17) so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.
Revelation 13:16-17 NIV

Paul had a particular pair of reasons for recalling this list of suffering endured by the believers in Jerusalem.  First, he was instrumental in inflicting them, leading the charge, so to speak, against the believers before he was saved:

But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
Acts 8:3 NIV

As he says in our context, "you suffered from my chains".[14]  Following his salvation, Paul learned first hand what it was like to suffer for the Lord, and exceptionally so.

But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. (16)  For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."
Acts 9:15-16 NKJV

As we mentioned in the introduction, on this score Paul possibly holds the record in "sharing the sufferings of Christ" (1Cor.4:8-13; 2Cor.4:7-12; 6:3-10; 11:16-33; Phil.3:7-11; 2Tim.3:11; cf. Rom.8:17; 2Cor.1:5; Phil.1:29-30; 3:10; Col.1:24; 2Tim.2:12; 1Pet.4:12-13; cf. Matt.10:38; 16:24; Mk.8:34; 10:21; 10:38-39; Lk.9:23; 14:27; Acts 5:41; 2Cor.4:10-11; Gal.6:17; 1Thes.1:6; 2Thes.1:4-5; 2Tim.3:12).  This fulfillment of our Lord's prophecy to him in Acts 9:16 is what Paul means when he says at Colossians 1:24, "I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the Church" (NKJV), namely, accomplishing the difficult course which our Lord had set for him. 

So with his exhortations and encouragement to these believers, Paul is not engaging in arm-chair generalship.  He himself had served on the front lines and had seen more "action" than any other believer, ever since he came to Christ.  And, lest we forget, as he penned these words in the Spirit, he was in prison himself, awaiting execution.  Not all believers are called upon by the Lord to suffer and endure the way Paul was (and the way the Jerusalem believers had been in the past and would be in the near future), but our Lord told us to "count the cost" of being His disciples before we committed to Him, not afterwards (Lk.14:26-33).  We who do belong to Him and who consider our salvation of more worth than anything else in this temporary world have to keep in mind that persecution is normal for believers, not exceptional (2Tim.3:12), just as our Lord told us.

(10) "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  (11) Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.  (12) Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
Matthew 5:10-12 NKJV

 

A More Valuable and More Lasting Estate: 

You suffered from my chains and accepted the confiscation of your belongings with joy, because you knew that you possessed a more valuable estate and a more lasting one.
Hebrews 10:34

This comment summarizes and is set in opposition to the theft and seizure of the Jerusalem believers' property in those earlier days.  At the time, Paul reminds them, they were well able to handle this terrible persecution precisely because they were not focused on the here and now but upon the blessedly inevitable eternity ahead.  In a very short time all we see will be reduced to dust and destroyed completely and entirely.  The Jerusalem of Paul's day would be reduced to absolute ruins by the Romans in a matter of a few short years.  But the New Jerusalem which we are and which they should have been anticipating and longing for will endure forever. 

New Jerusalem is eternal, a "more lasting estate" without question.  New Jerusalem is where we will behold the King in His glory forever and ever in company with all of our dear brothers and sisters in His Church, a more valuable possession than anything in this life beyond question.  This is not our true country; that is New Jerusalem which will exceed in glory the most glorious city man ever conceived.  This body we inhabit is not our eternal one; we will be receiving one in resurrection that will live forever in joy and youth and peace.  Everything we see and possess down here in this short life is ephemeral; everything to come is eternal and better in every way that better can be defined, and infinitely so in ways our present situation does not allow us to fully understand – but we have to accept that blessed truth through faith.

(1) "Do not let your heart be troubled. You believe in God [the Father] – believe also in Me.  (2) There are many rooms in my Father's house.  If there were not, I would have told you.  For I am going in order to prepare a place for you.  (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I shall come again and take you to Myself, so that where I am, you may be also."
John 14:1-3

 

Great Reward: 

So do not throw away this conviction of yours – it leads to a great reward.
Hebrews 10:35

Our "conviction", our confidence, our faith and trust in the Lord and His promises to us portends "great reward", but only if we stick with that conviction and follow through on it with consistent response to our Lord, doing what He wants us to do.  First we do need to have that confidence in His promise to reward us, for without such faith there is no way to follow through, no way to please Him with our lives down here in the world.

Now without faith, it is impossible to please [God].  For whoever wishes to draw nearer to God must believe that He exists, and that He will reward those who earnestly seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6

And as the verse above assures us, that faith in His rewarding of us for a job well done comes to those who continue to "earnestly seek Him".  This, of course, means the continuation of our spiritual growth, of our perseverance in faith under the pressures of whatever testing may come, and of our giving of aid and assistance to our brothers and sisters engaged in this same fight through whatever ministries the Lord assigns us.  Furthermore, we cannot expect this campaign we are conducting for the sake of the Church of Jesus Christ to meet no opposition.  But regardless of the resistance and regardless of the pressure, it is our job to persevere in doing what is right all the way to the end, that is, to whatever end the Lord sets for us.

(6) God "will repay each person according to what they have done." (7) To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
Romans 2:6-7 NIV

Maintaining our focus on eternity is, therefore, critical to fighting this fight and to running this race well all the way to the end.  Everything to come will be wonderful and blessed beyond present understanding.  We may understand that intellectually.  We need to incorporate it into our daily thinking and our moment by moment walk with the Lord so as not to "grow weary and lose heart" as the Jerusalem believers were in danger of doing (Heb.12:3). 

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9 NIV

"Doing good", of course, is not giving money to charity (as noble as that may be);  "doing good" is doing whatever it is that the Lord wants us to do.  Individually, this covers a lot of ground and will be different in the specifics for each and everyone of us as we are all unique.  Collectively, we all need to be committed to growing through the truth in the Spirit, to trusting the Lord in enduring whatever challenges and tests may come our way, and to being consistent in the prayers and various supports we give to our fellow believers in the Church – and we all have such ministries to perform.  While none of the above is easy, and much of it is often sacrificial, the ratio of  "benefit to cost" is infinite and everlasting so as not to be worthy of comparison.  What is the worth of eternal life?  And for believers, what is the value of the entire world compared to even the smallest eternal reward?

(44) "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. (45) Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. (46) When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."
Matthew 13:44-46 NIV

In New Jerusalem, all believers will have an eternal body (1Cor.15:35-58; 2Cor.5:1-4; Phil.3:21; 1Jn.3:2), an eternal home in that amazing city (Jn.14:1-2; Rev.21:9-27), and the right to the tree of life and the river of crystal water (Rev.22:14; 22:17).  In New Jerusalem, there will be no more tears, no death, or sorrow, or crying, or pain (Rev.21:4), no more hunger or thirst or oppressive heat or scorching from the sun (Rev.7:16-17).  In New Jerusalem, there will be blessing upon blessing forevermore.  And while scripture does not provide as many details as we would like about the texture of these wonders at present, that is no doubt because before the resurrection we are not yet able to properly understand them.  That things will be beyond wonderful we take on faith,  We believers know and trust and have vast experience of the goodness of "Him with whom we have to do" (Heb.4:13).  So we believe all that the Bible tells us about the rewards the Lord offers to those who serve Him as we all should do, even though at present their full significance may be veiled from us.  How is it not so much better to receive a "well done!" from our Lord than not?  How is not so much better to win the crowns of reward He offers for faithful service than not?[15]

(7) I have fought the good fight. I have completed my course. I have kept the faith. (8) In the future there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that [great] day [of judgment] – and not only to me, but to all who have loved His appearance (i.e., who have exercised consistent love for Jesus Christ in anticipation of His return).
2nd Timothy 4:7-8

Blessed is the man who stands firm in testing, because when he has been [tested and] approved he will receive the crown of life which [God] has promised to all who love Him.
James 1:12 (cf. Rev.2:10)

(1) So I urge the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, even one who shares [with you] in the glory which is about to be revealed, (2) pastor the flock of God under your charge, overseeing them not out of compulsion but willingly in response to God, not eager for shameful material gain, but out of genuine enthusiasm, (3) not lording it over the charges [entrusted to you], but as genuine examples to your flock. (4) And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will carry off in victory the crown of glory which will never fade.
1st Peter 5:1-4 (cf. Heb.13:17)

Holding fast to this "eternity perspective" was how the Jerusalem believers had produced their spiritual achievements in the past.  Neither they then nor we now are likely to be able to continue forward through the pressures they faced then or the ones soon to fall upon us in the present day without gaining it and maintaining it come what may.  It is to that future joy that all of our present joy must be pegged.  When we are suffering, we can and should still be joyful, because we know that our coming reward is better than anything this present world can offer – and that is true even if our suffering of tribulation should include the Great Tribulation.

(5) He who, in spite of weeping, goes forth in resolution, carrying seed to sow, (6) will doubtless return rejoicing, bringing in his sheaves.
Psalm 126:5-6

 

Keep Persevering:

You need to keep persevering so that you may carry off in victory what has been promised – after you have accomplished God's will. 
Hebrews 10:36

Believers will be rewarded for every legitimately good work we have done in this life for Jesus Christ, especially our service to our brothers and sisters in His Church.  As our Lord told us, even a cup of cold water offered "to one of these little ones because he is my disciple" will not fail to be rewarded (Matt.10:40-42; Mk.9:41).  This certainly stands to reason, because genuine Christian service aiming at the growth of the Church and stemming from spiritual maturity (as opposed to legalistic works spawned by false motivation) are generally a result of a life lived for Jesus Christ.  In this regard, the Jerusalem believers did have an excellent track record of past performance, bespeaking their love for the Lord and their prior spiritual growth.  Their previous "good works" were genuine "gold, silver and precious stones" which honored Him and which were and are worthy of a full reward (1Cor.3:12-14; cf. Gal.6:10; Eph.2:10; Tit.2:14; 3:8; Heb.10:24; 1Pet.2:12).  Our Lord does not forget such things.

For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
Hebrews 6:10 NKJV

But there is no resting on our laurels for us Christians, not as long as we are still here in this world.  Past spiritual successes, be they in growth, or test-passing, or providing for the Church in whatever way we have been gifted to do are wonderful and worthy of reward.  But they do not guarantee continuing success in the future – as the behavior of the Jerusalem believers in reverting to their previous ways of unbelief demonstrates so shockingly.  We have to persevere in order to be sure of a good outcome in the end. 

(11) "This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. (12) Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. (13) Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. (14) The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. (15) But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop."
Luke 8:11-15 NIV

The noun translated "persevering" here and in our context verse (Gk. hypomone; cf. its corresponding verb: hypomeno), is the standard one used in the New Testament where this important concept appears (often translated also as "patience").  Etymologically, it means to "abide under", that is, to stand one's ground under pressure, to endure without retreating or giving up.  No believer can do this without trusting in the Lord's help.  Therefore "perseverance" is in many ways the litmus test that validates faith: we show that we are men and women of faith, faithful believers, by enduring the tests that the Lord gives us to handle (Jas.1:2-8; 2:17-26; 5:7-11). 

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.
Isaiah 26:3 NKJV

For we walk by faith, not by sight.
2nd Corinthians 5:7 NKJV

(1) Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. (2) This is what the ancients were commended for.
Hebrews 11:1-2 NIV

It is not for no reason that scripture makes quite a point of the need for the perseverance of our faith (Lk.8:15; 21:19; Rom.2:7; 5:3-4; 8:25; 15:4-5; Jas.1:3-4; Heb.12:1; Rev.3:10).  In the parable of the Sower, we see that of the four varieties of ground, only the good ground produces the crop our Lord intended it to produce, "some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown" (Mk.4:20 NIV; cf. Matt.13:23).  In the case of the other three types of soil, one never lets the seed sprout in the first place (unbelievers), while of the remaining two, the former's plant dies off under the pressure of persecution (loss of faith; apostasy), while the latter fails to achieve its potential, choked out by the weeds of this world.  In spite of their previous good achievements, the Jerusalem believers were in grave danger of ending up like one of these middle two cautionary examples.  In the former, apostasy would, of course, result in no reward whatsoever, since faith itself would be lost.  In the latter, at the very least we can say that the Lord would not be well pleased since the crop He had expected had not materialized, regardless of a good start (and here the sin unto death cannot be ruled out).  It is good to start well, but in the end that is pointless if the person turns back to the world; then "it would have been better" never to have embarked on the road to salvation in the first place (2Pet.2:21). 

Watch out for yourselves, lest you lose what you have worked so hard for, but may instead receive a full reward. No one who goes wandering off, that is, anyone who does not keep to the teachings about Jesus Christ, has [even] a share in God.
2nd John 1:8-9

"I am coming quickly. Hold on to what you have so that no one takes your crown [away]."
Revelation 3:11

It is good to make progress along the road, but if the person later slacks off from doing what he/she knows very well Christ wants of them, faith itself may be put in danger, and the risk of a terrible end is placed in the balance along with the disgrace of failing to live up to the expectations of our Lord.

(2) Brothers, when you are being beset with all manner of trials, take pains to be joyful.  (3) For you should keep in mind that this testing of your faith develops perseverance.  (4) So let your perseverance develop fully that you may become fully mature and entitled to a full reward, having been found lacking in no respect.
James 1:2-4

Rewards are for winners, not for failures.  It is the winners who keep persevering so as to "carry off in victory" the full reward our Lord wants us to win (Heb.10:36). That is "accomplishing God's will".  Turning back to the world, putting Christ to shame by their conduct, was not the stuff of winning the victory for our Lord.  That behavior, and any and all such reversion to the evil one and his way of doing things, is exactly the opposite of "accomplishing God's will" – which is the predicate in our context for winning the victory and for gaining the reward.

(11) Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; (12) If we persevere, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us; (13) If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.
2nd Timothy 2:11-13

(26) "And to the one who wins the victory and gives heed to My works until the end, I will give to him authority over the nations. (27) And he will shepherd them with an iron rod and crush them like vessels of clay, just as I have received [the authority] from My Father."
Revelation 2:26-27

"The one who wins the victory, I will grant him to sit with Me on my throne just as I also have won the victory and have taken my seat with My Father on His throne."
Revelation 3:21

Scripture offers scant few example of believers who started out well but then reverted to worldliness as the Jerusalem believers were doing (kings Solomon and Uzziah come to mind), but the fact that they were doing so surely means that it is possible, especially under intense pressure.  We believers who stand on the threshold of the end times need to take the above to heart, because the pressures to accommodate to the world will be greater than ever before once the Tribulation begins.  We have seen in the past how that fully a third of the church-visible will turn aside to worship antichrist.  Not only must we be determined and willing to suffer anything rather than fall from our precious faith as those apostates will do; we likewise need to be resolved now never to let our love "grow cold" (Matt.24:12) and thus risk compromising our present day efforts toward spiritual growth, progress and production.  We started this race intent on finishing it.  Let us resolve to do so to the glory of Jesus Christ whatever may come.

(3) Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. (4) No one serving as a soldier gets entangled in civilian affairs, but rather tries to please his commanding officer. (5) Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor's crown except by competing according to the rules. (6) The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops. (7) Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.
2nd Timothy 2:3-7 NIV

 

How Short:

(37) For yet a little while, "how short, how short [the wait]" (Is.26:20), and "He who is coming shall come, nor will He delay."  (38) "Then my one [made] righteous by his faith will live because of his faith, but if he shrinks back, My heart takes no pleasure in him (Hab.2:3-4)."  (39) Now we are not possessed of cowardly apostasy which leads to destruction, but we have faith which leads to [eternal] life.
Hebrews 10:37-39

Paul uses this short and apparently famous quotation from the LXX version of Isaiah 26:20 (where the trenchant Hebrew phrase כִמְעַט־רֶגַע is translated in the Greek by what we find in Hebrews: μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον) in order to invoke "the eternity perspective".  My dear departed father was fond of saying, "everything is always over", an equally simple but profound way of reminding us that this life is very short, so that whatever we are suffering under at present will certainly not last forever.  Just as we can look back in our lives at difficult tests we had to undergo, some of which may have lasted for years, and recognize that God did indeed "work it all out together for our good" (Rom.8:28; cf. Gen.50:20), so Paul reminds his readers and us as well that our present problems and difficulties will "be over", sooner rather than later – "how short, how short the wait!", until we see the Lord face to face. 

That was an important perspective for the Jerusalem believers to recover in order to endure with fortitude the present ostracism and persecution which they were allowing to undermine their faith; that is an important perspective for us believers today to take hold of and maintain in the face of whatever tribulations – including the Tribulation – it may be God's will for us to bear up under.  Nothing is worse when suffering than to imagine that it will never end and/or will only get worse without deliverance or respite.  We believers in Jesus Christ know better than that, and we need to take special care not to lose heart when suffering befalls us.  After all, our time in this world is short – how short! – and we are looking forward to better things on the other side of it, much better things.  Even if we were to gain the entire world, that would be nothing in comparison with the least reward received from our Lord at His Judgment Seat.  For He is our life, we are here for Him, so that our hearts are in heaven, since that is where our true treasures are stored up.

(19) "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; (20) but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. (21) For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Matthew 6:19-21 NKJV

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:21

Divine discipline, as Paul says in the next chapter, is never a matter of joy when it is being experienced, but it does produce blessed results (Heb.12:11; cf. Ps.119:67; 119:71; 119:75).  Suffering under testing, "undeserved suffering" (as my mentor Col. Thieme used to call it), likewise is not a joyful experience per se.  But mature believers learn to understand and place the tests we receive in the context of God's overall plan for our lives.  We know – or should – that the Lord loves us (1Jn.4:7-21; cf. Is.43:4), that He is working absolutely everything out in our lives for the good (Rom.8:28), that He will never abandon or forsake us (Heb.13:5), and that whatever does happen in this life is part of the perfect plan wherein we have been perfectly provided for – no matter what our eyes and ears and anxious thoughts may be telling us: we walk by faith and not by sight (2Cor.5:7).  It is in this vein that mature believers can be "joyful" under the stress and pressure (and pain) of testing.  Not because we enjoy it, but because we can look past it to blessed eternity ahead, knowing that our proper response now will bring a "well done!" then, along with a bountiful reward from the Lord we love.

(3) "Happy the poor in spirit – because theirs is the reign of the heavens. (4) Happy the mourning – because they shall be comforted. (5) Happy the meek – because they shall inherit the land. (6) Happy those hungering and thirsting for righteousness – because they shall be filled. (7) Happy the kind – because they shall find kindness. (8) Happy the clean in heart – because they shall see God. (9) Happy the peacemakers – because they shall be called Sons of God. (10) Happy those persecuted for righteousness' sake – because theirs is the reign of the heavens. (11) Happy are ye whenever they may reproach you, and may persecute, and may say any evil thing against you falsely for my sake – (12) rejoice ye and be glad, because your reward is great in the heavens, for thus did they persecute the prophets who were before you."
Matthew 5:1-12 YLT

(3) May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be praised, who has in His great mercy caused us to be reborn to a hope which lives through Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead, (4) and to an inheritance which will never be destroyed, defiled, or dimmed, but which is being guarded in heaven for us, (5) who are ourselves also being kept safe by God's power and our faith in Him to an ultimate deliverance ready to be unveiled at the end of time.  (6) In anticipation of this ultimate deliverance, your joy overflows, though at present it may be your lot to suffer for a time through various trials (7) to the end that your faith may be shown to be genuine.  This validation of your faith is far more valuable than gold, for gold, though it too is assayed by fire, ultimately perishes.  But your faith, when proven genuine in the crucible of life, will result in praise, glory and honor for you at the glorious return of Jesus Christ.  (8) Though you have never laid eyes on Him, yet you love Him.  And though you cannot see Him at this present time, yet you have faith in Him.  For this reason you rejoice with an inexpressible joy that bespeaks the glorious future to come, (9) when you shall carry off in victory the ultimate prize – the [eternal] deliverance of your lives – which is the very purpose and objective of this faith of yours.
1st Peter 1:3-9

(2) Brothers, when you are being beset with all manner of trials, take pains to be joyful.  (3) For you should keep in mind that this testing of your faith develops perseverance.  (4) So let your perseverance develop fully that you may become fully mature and entitled to a full reward, having been found lacking in no respect.
James 1:2-4

 

So when unexpected troubles fall upon us, instead of assuming we are under some terrible divine discipline when we have done nothing particularly egregiously wrong, instead of getting angry (just whom are we getting angry at, after all?), and instead of asking "Why me?" or "Why, God?", our "default setting" ought to be to remember that all this down here is only important as it relates to what is going on in heaven, and what will be going on at the judgment seat of Christ: a good report from Him and a wonderful reward, assuming we persevere.  Everything down here is temporary in any case – "how short, how short the wait!" (Heb.10:37).  If we truly fear the Lord, if we truly delight ourselves in the fear of the Lord (Is.11:3), then we have absolutely nothing at all to fear in this world as long as we are in it.

(6) Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. (7) They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord. (8) Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
Psalm 112:6-8 NIV

The Lord is on my side;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
Psalm 118:6

So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?"
Hebrews 13:6 NIV

Yes, the wait is short, especially when we look at things from God's point of view and set our earthly lives in the balance with our coming eternal ones. 

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12 NIV

It was important for Paul to remind his readers and us as well that whatever happens in this life is part of the perfect plan of God.  Everything that happens, therefore, is God's will.  It is we who need to adjust our attitudes, expectations, perspectives and priorities so as not to get discouraged or angry – the two most common extremes of spiritual dysfunction believers experience when we fail to respond properly when testing comes.

So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
1st Peter 4:19 NIV

 

The Righteous by Faith Will Live by Faith:

"Then my one [made] righteous by his faith will live because of his faith, but if he shrinks back, My heart takes no pleasure in him (Hab.2:3-4 LXX)."
Hebrews 10:38

The first part of this quotation (from Habakkuk 2:3-4), is also cited by Paul in the book of Romans (as well as at Gal.3:11), an epistle very similar to Hebrews in its scope and approach (as we have seen previously in this series). 

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, "The just shall live by faith".
Romans 1:17 KJV

So this passage is a favorite of Paul's, but the reason for that is not so obvious from the KJV's translation above (or from any other standard translation, for that matter). 

Because in it (i.e., the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, "[it is he who is] righteous on account of his faith [who] shall live [on account of his faith]".
Romans 1:17

The expansion of the translation in both cases above is necessary to reproduce in English what is more obvious in the Hebrew and the Greek, namely, that the phrase "by faith" is meant to apply equally to both the subject and the verb: believers are "righteous" on account of their faith (Rom.1:17; 3:23-26; 4:1-5; 4:25; 5:1; 8:1-4; 8:28-31; 9:30; 10:4-6; 1Cor.1:30; 6:11; 2Cor.5:21; Gal.2:16; 3:24; Tit.3:7), and therefore it is "by faith" that we must live after being saved.  In other words, this scripture is not just about justification by faith, as important and as wonderful as that is.  It is also about the believer's perseverance in faith and by means of faith.  That is why in the quotation in Romans Paul makes a point of saying, "from faith to faith"; that is, from saving faith to a life of applying that faith in perseverance all the way to the end.  For the Christian life is not just about entering into eternal life through faith.  It is also very importantly about persevering in our faith throughout the time the Lord gives us on earth, demonstrating to men and angels both that our faith is genuine (as opposed to the faith plant that withers under pressure: Matt.13:20-21; Mk.4:18-19; Lk.8:13).  In other words, as James tells us, "faith without works is dead" (Jas.2:18; 2:20; 2:26), meaning that genuine faith will persevere under the pressure of testing, just as was the case with Abraham (Jas.2:21-23), just as was the case with Rahab (Jas.2:25).  The "just shall live by faith" (KJV), namely, those who are considered just by God on account of their faith.

 

Shrinking Back:

"Then my one [made] righteous by his faith will live because of his faith, but if he shrinks back, My heart takes no pleasure in him (Hab.2:3-4 LXX)."
Hebrews 10:38

The second half of the quotation comes from the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint.  The Hebrew original has a completely different reading involving a prophecy about antichrist which the translators obviously did not understand and thus misread:

Behold, he (i.e., antichrist) is swollen up [in arrogance]. What he desires in his heart is not right – but the righteous [person] will be preserved by his faith.
Habakkuk 2:4

However, what is true of the beast is sadly also true of believers who turn away from the Lord to follow him.  "Shrinking back", turning away from the Lord, turning back from the truth, abandoning faith, is anathema to the Lord – because it is a rejection of Himself and of His sacrificial work on the cross for us all.  Nothing can be worse for a believer than rebelling from the Lord and from His truth, allowing his/her faith plant to shrivel and die, giving up everything for one meal of pottage (Heb.12:16), turning back to one's vomit and the filthy sty of this world (2Pet.2:22).  But that is what many of the Jerusalem believes were risking in their return to the Law.

(4) For, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, and who have experienced the heavenly gift and become partakers of the Holy Spirit, (5) and who have experienced that the Word of God is good, and [who have experienced] miracles foreshadowing the age to come, (6) it is impossible to restore them to [true] repentance after having fallen away [into sin] as long as they keep crucifying the Son of God afresh and exposing Him to open shame.  (7) For land that drinks the rain coming frequently upon it and as a result produces plants beneficial to those by whom it is farmed receives its share of God's blessing. (8) But if it brings forth thistles and thorns, it is found wanting and is close to receiving a curse, the end of which is burning.
Hebrews 6:4-8

(26) For if we continue to sin willfully (i.e., arrogantly) after having received full knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice applicable to [such] sins, (27) but [only] the terrifying expectation of judgment and fiery retribution waiting to devour those who oppose [the Lord]. (28) For anyone who set aside the law of Moses perished without mercy on the [testimony] of two or three witnesses.  (29) How much greater punishment do you suppose will not justly come to someone who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, and who has considered His blood of the covenant to be unclean, the very blood by which you were sanctified, and who has violently insulted the Spirit of grace?  (30) For we know the One who said, "Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, 'says the Lord' ", and again, "The Lord will judge His people." (31) It is a frightening thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:26-30

And that is the challenge which all believers who enter the Tribulation will face as well, namely, to stay true to the Lord in spite of the dreadful persecutions prophesied to take place when antichrist rules the world.

"Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life."
Revelation 2:10 NIV

 

But We:

(39) Now we are not possessed of cowardly apostasy which leads to destruction, but we have faith which leads to [eternal] life.
Hebrews 10:39

Apostasy is the frightful alternative to persevering in faith, and apostasy, the death of faith, leads to damnation – because only believers are saved (Jn.3:18).  Apostates by definition are those who once believed but who allowed their faith to lapse into complete unbelief, reverting to the same situation they found themselves in before turning to Christ in the first place.  This is a terrifying prospect which all believers should take to heart, because it is possible, it does happen, and it is prophesied to occur in staggeringly great numbers during the Tribulation (e.g., Dan.8:10; Matt.24:4-14; 2Thes.2:3).[16]

And [the dragon's] (i.e., the devil's) tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven (i.e., both fallen angels and fallen believers) and threw them to the earth (i.e., their rebellion or apostasy and consequent association with them in their fall respectively).
Revelation 12:4a

Rather than continue on in this vein, however, Paul makes a point of attempting to encourage his readers by now deliberately identifying with them:  "we are not possessed of cowardly apostasy which leads to destruction, but we have faith which leads to [eternal] life" (Heb.10:39).  By putting things this way, Paul assures his readers that he himself will never yield to lies and will never put Christ to an open shame.  By doing so, Paul also invites the recipients of his letter to take his hand and pull back from the dangerous course they are plying.  The two alternatives mentioned are no alternatives at all, for choosing to be destroyed is no choice at all – it is madness, especially for a believer.  Only through gradual and insidious hardening of the heart "through sin's deceit" (Heb.3:13; cf. Jas.1:14-15), could any believer come to such a pass as to abandon the Lord of life for any temporary consideration whatsoever.  The end thereof is death (Prov.14:12), but all who persevere, all who "have [and hold onto] faith" are on the path to "eternal life".

(13) "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. (14) But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."
Matthew 7:13-14 NIV

This is the great choice which confronts all mankind: to accept or reject salvation.  This is the great challenge that confronts all believers: to follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev.14:4) in courageous faith so as to inherit New Jerusalem, or to shrink back and allow one's faith to die, the result of which is the lake of fire.

(11) Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with Him, we will also live with Him;
(12) If we persevere, we will also reign with Him.
If we disown Him, He will also disown us;
(13) If we are faithless, He will remain faithful,
for He cannot disown Himself.
2nd Timothy 2:11-13

We will have to wait until we get to heaven to find out what choice the recipients of this letter made.  But we can resolve now to stay true to the commitment we have made to Jesus Christ.  That is the only way to hold fast to the eternal life to which we have believers in Him have been called.

Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
1st Timothy 6:12 NKJV