PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 6:4-12

4 For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,

5 and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,

6 and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

7 For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;

8 but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

9 But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.

10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

11 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end,

12 so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

“For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance”. This is one of the most challenging text in the Bible to interpret because of difficult and uncommon language that seems to contradict what all else of Scripture teaches. But when we take a closer look at the text and chose not to take it out of the whole of the book of Hebrews we see that it fits beautifully into the main theme and focus of the author. The author of Hebrews is continuing to stress the importance of the spoken Word of God and our need to remain faithful to Him who has spoken that this warning really wrenches tight the severity of his message.

First, we must discuss the one the author is speaking of here. Notice that throughout the book the author speaks in first and second person. “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God”, ‘let us press on to maturity”. But here the author uses third person language. Why the difference? When he speaks to the readers of this book he is speaking to those who are of the faith and within the community. He is speaking to those he assumes to be believers. But here he is making reference those who are not true believers and this is seen by the fact that these leave the faith even though experiencing what appears to be great experiences.

Secondly, we cannot divorce chapter six from chapter three. This is all one book written by one author for one purpose. In chapter three he gives two conditional statements to who believers are. “Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope until the end” (3:6). Even more convincingly is 3:14 where “we have become partakes of Christ [presence tense] if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end”. What the author of Hebrews stresses is we are “Christians” if we persevere to the end. If we don’t persevere to the end it shows that we were never really Christians in the beginning. Thus Hebrews echoes that language of 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.”

We do not want to use John to interpret Hebrews, but it is reassuring to see that the two authors agree on this stance. Now that we have a clear understanding of what the author understands in regard of holding fast to the faith we can look closer at the text at hand. What does it mean to be enlightened, having tasted of the heavenly gift, having been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come? Since these individuals are not believers these must be understood as being experienced in the context of the community of God and not personally in their own lives or in the spiritual sense. They have been enlightened in that they have seen and understood the truth. They have tasted and been partakes with the Holy Spirit in that they have experienced the work of the Holy Spirit within the community. As the Holy Spirit worked within the community they were there experiencing many of the outward signs of it. They have tasted the good word of God, having heard it and believed it, but not trusting in it. This should be understood as someone who believes something is truth, but not to the extent that it affects their lives. The belief the Bible speaks of is one that calls people to live life differently; any belief less than that is a non-saving belief. Lastly they have tasted the powers of the age to come. They have seen the power of God working by the Spirit through the people of God. Yet, even through all of this, the people did not place a saving, life changing faith, in the Son of God.

Then the preachers of Hebrews gives the punch, if professing believers experiences these things “and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.” The person who is brought so near to the work of the Spirit and the grace of God and professes to believe and be apart of the community, and then falls away can never be brought back into the fellowship of the people of God. For if they were to come back it would be like hanging the Son of God on the cross again and making Him be the laughing stock all over again. Christ is no longer the humbled man, but is the exulted king and will never again be the object of shame again. This verse does not teach that there will be people who backslide and then try to come back to Christ but He will not let them, but rather, the Father will never draw them to Christ again so as to protect the validity of the Son’s name. This is seen most clearly in the land that receives the rain so that it might bring forth good vegetation, but when it brings up thorns and thistles it is burned up because it is worthless.

The author of Hebrews has just given the harshest warning in the whole book, and then immediately transitions into a warm encouragement to those he loves, “But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.” He says, “Beloved, we don’t consider you to be like these people mentioned above. We have confidence in all of you. We are just concerned for you. We don’t want you to fall away. We don’t want you to lose your hope. We want you to stay faithful. We want you to listen and pay attention to what the Lord has said. We do this for your good, not to make you worry and feel unsure. We do this so that you will have confidence in Him, that as you stay with Him you are encouraged along the way.”

“For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.” Notice the last things the author stresses, “still ministering to the saints.” He is confident in them because they are continuing. He isn’t saying that should have confidence because they once did some good things, but because they still are. Therefore continued faithfulness is where we gain our assurance that we are His. Thus he says, “we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” Here he gives them the reason why he wants them to be students of the Word, so they can realize the full assurance of hope. Without understanding who Christ is and what He has done our faith in weak and he is concerned that if we don’t strengthen it we will fall way. So don’t be sluggish, but follow the example of those who went before you and through faith and patience, remaining faithful to the end, inherit the promises of God given to His people.

PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 5:11-6:3

11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.

12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.

14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.

1 Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

2 of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

3 And this we will do, if God permits.

“Concerning Him we have much to say”, for there is much to be said about Him. He is the great high priest and the Son of the living God. Neither this book nor all the books written can fully capture all that can be said about Jesus. For He is infinite in all ways, especially in His person and His work. “And it is hard to explain these things” for they are rich with meaning. I knowledge of Him is greater than our minds can fathom. The joys of the heart are rich with the person who begins to sense who He is, yet understands how weak his knowledge of Him is. “But these things are even more difficult to explain “since you have become dull of hearing.” You have lost the sense of joy in knowing Him more fully and thus you have become ill equipped in your pursuit knowing Him more. Your mind has become slow and not ready for the great things of God.

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God”. You should be full of the wisdom of God by now. When it comes to the Word of God revealed in the Old Testament you should be so well equipped with logic and reason to how they reveal the Son of God people should be coming to you seeking this great learning. You have had so much time to study the Law and the Prophets that there should not be an unstudied word within it. Yet, you still need someone to teach them to you. The things that are so elementary you still don’t understand. Oh, why are you so slow to learn? Why do you not heed to the Word of God spoken by the angels? Give heed to the Word of God delivered by the Spirit of God. For “you have come to need milk and not solid food.” Your teeth are not prepared for the great riches of the Word. Your stomachs will become ill by the solidness of the meat of God’s Word.

“For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.” You are like a baby not yet weaned from his mother’s breast. All you know is milk and you think it is all you need. Like an infant, not only is your stomach not yet prepared, your mind is ignorant to the riches of solid foods. You have yet to come to the knowledge of strength found in the meat of the Word. You know nothing of the energy for service you can obtain in the Word. You think little of the Word and this is seen by the way you show so little attention to it, but in it is the great satisfying taste your soul longs for. Oh, ignorant man, you are truly like an infant.

“But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.” It is only when the infant becomes a toddler that he is given cereal to eat, but this is still only mushy. But when the child grows older and becomes mature, then he is given solid meat to eat. Only then are his teeth and stomach able to handle the toughness of the solid foods. But you ask, “What is the advantage of this being able to eat solid foods? I have Jesus and that is all I need.” Oh, silly man, do you not know that it is the Word of God that makes you wise? Is it not the Word of God that gives direction to the man’s hearts and desires? Is not the Word of God a light unto our feet? If you want to live a life to the glory of God you must have the Word of God as your guide. It is only through the study of God’s Word that we are able to train our minds to discern good and evil. We like an athlete must practice over and over to become strong and have the endurance we need to finish the race set before us. For us to live for God we must practice over and over by studying the Word of God over and over so that we will know what the will of the Lord is and how we are to serve Him more fully.

“Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity”. You are not ready to move on, but we must move on. And not because I will push you, but because God will bring us through together. No infant wants to leave the milk of his mother, but the mother must take away her milk for the good of the child. When the child comes of age she must remove him for her breast and make him eat solid food. Otherwise she would be neglecting her child and so God would be neglecting us if He were to leave us as infants in the Word. So let us press on to becoming mature in the faith.

To do this we must press on, “not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.” These things constitute the foundation of our faith and we don’t need to deal with them again. We know that we must repent from the works of evil and the works of the Old Covenant because Christ has come. We know that we do not try to merit our salvation, but we find peace with God through faith toward Him. We are quite aware of the baptism we received when we confessed Christ as a symbol of the baptism of our soul with the Holy Spirit and we know of the laying on of hands as the fellowship of the saints was passed on toward us. And we have no confusion about the resurrection of the dead that will come in the end and then the eternal judgment of Christ, both of the living and the dead. This we all know and we now know we must go on past it, “and this we will do, if God permits.”

The Word of God is our only source of knowledge in this wicked and fallen world. Of those things tangible, it is the only thing in this world that is truly pure. The author of Hebrews challenges us to press on with our Bibles toward maturity. He challenges us to be a people of the Book. Our great God has chosen to be a God of communication (Hebrews 1:1-2) and He has chosen to give us His revelation in Word. We are foolish if we choose to neglect the value of this resource and waste our efforts on less profitable things. If a man offered you a book and within it was the ability to make millions, how many of us would not set it aside. But God gives us a book with eternal life and a life of joy and peace before Him…should we not pay as close attention to it?

PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 5:1-10

1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;

2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness;

3 and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.

4 And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.

5 So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him,

“You are My Son,

Today I have begotten You”;

6 just as He says also in another passage,

“ You are a priest forever

According to the order of Melchizedek.”

7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.

8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.

9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,

10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

“For every high priest from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins”. The high priest was a man, who represented man before God to offer gifts and sacrifices for the sins of man. And “he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness.” Since the high priest is not different from the rest of the people, he himself is a sinner. The only difference is that he is appointed as a representative for all the men. Since he himself is like them in sinfulness and weakness, he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided. As a representative he is not superior to them, but is actually like them. “And because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.” As man’s representative before God he has to make his sacrifices for sins. He offers them for the people of God because of their sin, but he must also offer sacrifices for his own sin. “And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.” Thus, the high priest who represents man before God does not take on honor on his own, but it is given to him when he is appointed by God, like Aaron was, as the high priest of the people.

“So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest”. Christ did not make himself glorious in order to obtain the position of high priest. But He was glorified as high priest with God appointed Him to that work, “but He who said to Him, ’You are My Son, today I have begotten You’; just as He says also in another passage, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’ So Christ did not make Himself glorious as to become high priest, but rather, He was made glorious by the Father who called Him “My Son” and pronounced Him as the high priest of the people “according to the order of Melchizedek”. And not only is He a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, He is the high priest forever. There will never be another high priest because Christ has sit down at the right had of the Father and represents man in the things pertaining to God.

“In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.” Even during Jesus’ earthly life He was acting toward God as our high priest. He did not simply become our high priest when He was hung to the cross. He had been declared and anointed high priest before His birth. So even while He was alive on earth He was offering up prayers and supplications for the people with loud crying and tears to the Father. Notice here that the Father was able to save Him from death. The Father was more than capable to have spared the life of His Son, but chose not to. And the Father heard the prayers of His Son because of His piety.

“Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” We must be careful in how we think about this, lest we think that Jesus was lacking in knowledge prior to His suffering. Rather, Jesus was coming to a new level of experience in His sufferings. Like in chapter four verse fifteen where Jesus is able sympathize with us because He was tempted like us, so here He is coming to a new level of experience by suffering. And this suffering is not just the normal sufferings of man, but this is referring to His passion where He was beaten, scourged, hung on the cross and suffered the full wrath of God for sins until He gave up His spirit and died. “And having been made perfect”, that is having accomplished the work set before Him and by doing so “He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.” The perfect Son of God who had no flaws is now by the act of suffering the perfect sin offering, the perfect Lamb of God so that all who obey Him will have eternal life with His offering of Himself as the source. And He was able to make this sacrifice of Himself “being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.” Because God has designated Him as a high priest He was able to offer up Himself for our sins. Though He was not of the tribe of Levi, He was called a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek forever so that there is no longer need of a new high priest, because He now sits at the right hand of God, and there is no longer need of another sacrifice because the Son of God offered up Himself.

The church as God’s chosen people should constantly remember their High Priest who suffered and died for their sins. No longer are bulls and goats offered up to cover the sins of the people, only to have to come back the next year to do the same thing. But we have a greater sin offering, the Son of God Himself who as our High Priest forever offered up Himself and bore our sins so that we no longer have to make sacrifices year after year. By His own blood He has covered us and now sits at the right hand of God making intersession for us. How great a high priest we have.

PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 4:14-16

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

“Therefore”, says the preacher, look to what all he has just told us. Here is Jesus who is above the angels, though made lower for a time, and better than Moses as a Son over the house who Moses was a servant in. We need to pay very close attention to the Son because He is the full revelation of God and if we neglect to hear His voice we have no chance of entering God’s rest. “Therefore since we have so great a high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.”

Oh, holy brethren, we have a high priest who intercedes for us before God. He is the great high priest, who has finally made the offering once and for all. He is the great high priest who offered the perfect sacrifice for sins in the Holy of Holies in the heavens, the tabernacle not made with hands, but by God Himself. And He is the great high priest who is our priest forever, who sits at the right hand of God.

This high priest is Jesus the Son of God and we must hold fast our confession. We must not neglect the word we have heard through Him. We must not neglect the message spoken through Him, lest we fail to enter His rest. We must pay much closer attention to the message, lest we fall away. Oh, may we not let go of our confession and become disobedient and received the wrath and anger of God upon us because of unbelief. Jesus, the Son of God, has passed through the heavens so let us hold fast to our confession.

“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Do not miss the gloriousness of this. Rejoice soul, rejoice. The men of old had a high priest who offered up sacrifices year after year, first for his own sin and then for the sins of the people. He understood their weaknesses because he to was weak. But how much greater the Son of God who has passed through the heavens, because He was tempted and yet with sin? Do not think that He is less valuable than the priest of old, because He didn’t sin and therefore can’t understand what we have to go through. Oh, please do not be confused. But He has greater knowledge of our sorrow and weaknesses because He and He alone has suffered the full weight of temptation. No man has lived who suffered greater agony over sin than Jesus. When we are tempted by sin we feel the effects of it on our lives, on our very souls, but we give in so often and the pressure is removed, and we never feel its full blow. But Jesus suffered the full weight of that temptation, having never sinned.

Therefore He is able to sympathize with our weakness because He was tempted in all things just like us, having endured the same temptations that all men share. He can even sympathize with us better than those high pries of old who so often gave into sin like us and never knowing the full pressure of its might. And by this perfect knowledge He calls us to “draw near.”

“Therefore let us draw near” says the Spirit. You have a high priest who waits for you and knows what you are suffering and says to you, “Draw near”. And “let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace” because it is our high priest who waits for us. Our high priest who is not ashamed to call us brethren waits for us to draw near. The God who speaks and communicates with us is calling us to draw near. He is calling us to His rest, so do not harden your hearts, but go forth in confidence to the throne of grace.

How beautiful is the sound of “throne of grace”? Not throne of righteousness, though it is. Not throne of holiness, though it is. But throne of grace—“that we may receive mercy and find grace”. He welcomes us to the throne for our good. Though we are wretched sinners, by the perfect, spotless Lamb that was offered in the heavenly tabernacle as a sacrifice for us, we are now shown mercy and given grace. Oh, it is only when we come to the throne of grace that we are given the divine mercy of the God who forgives our sins by Christ work. So come to the throne and find the unmerited gift us love and mercy.

And we are told to draw near to “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” When we are tempted dear brother, when we have the weight of the world coming at us, when the flesh is twisting in your very body to combat against us and drive us to sin, and when we have the devil waging war against our members, tempting us and trying to draw us away to destroy us, oh, we have full access to the throne of grace in that time of need. When we don’t know if we can suffer the attack and when our spirit is becoming weak, flee to the throne where He who sits was tempted just like you, yet without sin. There we will find our high priest who understands what you are going through, who can sympathize with our weakness to sin, but who never sinned. If there is anyone who can tell us the secrets to victory and give us the grace, the power, we need to endure the battle, it is He who claims victory. No one goes to the king who looses in battle to beg for help, but they go to the king who is victorious. So we must do the same thing, go to the King who reigns and find grace in time of need. For His grace is sufficient to get us through any temptation if we only appeal to the throne.

PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 4:1-13

1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said,

“As I swore in My wrath,

They shall not enter My rest,”

although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.

4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”;

5 and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.”

6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience,

7 He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before,

“Today if you hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.

9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.

11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.

12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

The preacher makes a beautiful transition from one exhortation to another by simply following the word “rest”. “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, anyone of you may seem to have come short of it.” So we have the promise of rest to all who will “hear His voice” and believe. The promise we have is to abide in His rest. But let us fear if while the promise is there, for “today if you hear His voice”, we fail and come short of it. Because both us and the people who wandered in the wilderness “had good news preached” to us. But the word did not profit them “because it was not united by faith in those who heard.” Therefore, though the Word of God does not return void, it is only when it is united with faith that it becomes a benefit for the hearer. But for us “who have believed”, we “enter that rest”.

But those who did not believe received the wrath of God and could not enter into His rest even though “His works were finished from the foundation of the world.” This is making reference to Genesis 2:2 where God had finished His creation and “rested on the seventh day from all His works”. What the preacher wants us to note is the rest from “His works” and this was the rest that those who do not believe “shall not enter”. Thus the preacher is calling the people to believe and trust in Him lest anyone falls short of this rest.

“Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it”, that is the rest is still open to be entered into, “and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience”. God has not closed the door of rest with those who neglected it. Rather, “He again fixes a certain day, ‘Today’”. Now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2). David said, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” Therefore we know that it wasn’t Joshua who gave them rest by taking them into the promise land, because other wise David couldn’t have spoken of another day. “So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”

The one who enters into this Sabbath rest is the one who has “also rested from his works, as God did from His.” No longer does the person who enters God’s rest have to do the works, but rather can rely wholly upon the work of Christ. “Therefore let us be diligent to enter this rest, so that no one will fall”. Having this great opportunity to enter into the rest of God from all of our works, let us go in and not follow their “example of disobedience” because they died in the wilderness. “For the word of God is living” and must be dealt with. The Word of God is “active” in carrying out the intentions of God. The Word of God is “sharper than any two-edge sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and morrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Nothing escapes the Word of God. It is the scalpel in the hand of a mighty surgeon, who inspects deep into the heart to judge the thoughts and intentions of the soul. But really, the Word of God is both scalpel and surgeon and if we are to be diligent about entering the rest we must take the living and active Sword and let it cut us apart so that we can have assurance to whether we have entered the rest.

“Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it”, because “there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” There is nothing hiding us from the eyes of God. Though we can take fig leaves to cover us and use deception to hide ourselves from the world, God sees everything and we are completely vulnerable and naked before His eyes. Therefore, for our own good, we should take the Sword of God and discern whether or not we have entered the promise of His rest.

This passage brings a few things to the table that are very important: first, the necessity of ensuring that we have entered His rest. As we see in the warning and exhortations, we can never consider ourselves above falling away. We can live in assurance and hopes through faith that we are His and abiding in His rest as long as we are obedient, but if that were to change no longer should we remain confident. Second, entering into His rest is an end of our works. No longer do we try to merit a right standing, but instead we trust in Him for our righteousness. This does not mean that we become lazy, but that we do things for different reasons. Instead of working for the purpose of merit, we work for the purpose of pleasing, not appeasing, the Lord whom we have divine fellowship with. So, entering His rest has to do with a personal relationship with Jesus where we serve out of love. Thirdly, even in our assurance, we should still be taking heavy doses of the Sword as a means of evaluating our lives. It is by the Word of God that we are able to know if we are just or unjust, if we are abiding in rest or still trying to work our way though this on our own. Lastly, we should be ever mindful of the all-seeing eye of Jesus. We cannot hide ourselves from Him and He sees into the depths of our hearts. Any unconfessed sins He sees. The deepest darkest secrets you wish to never be known, He sees perfectly. We should be terrified when we think about what all He sees and knows. And how much more diligent we should then be to make sure of our calling and election by cutting our souls apart searching to see if we are abiding in His rest.

PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 3:1-19

1 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession;

2 He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house.

3 For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.

4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.

5 Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later;

6 but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house—whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.

7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today if you hear His voice,

8 Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,

As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

9 Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,

And saw My works for forty years.

10 “Therefore I was angry with this generation,

And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,

and they did not know My ways’;

11 As I swore in My wrath,

‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.

13 But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

14 For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end,

15 while it is said,

“Today if you hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Me.”

16 For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses?

17 And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?

19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.

The preacher now enters into the second warning passage of this book to encourage them not to fall away; that is to encourage them to follow Christ’s faithfulness and warn them against unbelief. First he makes it clear that this passage is going out to the Christian community, “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” This isn’t for the world to hear, but for those who profess Christ. And he calls them to “consider Jesus”. He wants them to fix their thoughts on Him. He wants them to study Jesus with all of their minds. For Jesus is the “Apostle and High Priest of our confession”. He was the Apostle who proclaimed God’s name, truth, and the coming kingdom. He is our High Priest in the work on the cross. Jesus is these things of our confession, which is our public testimony of the faith. Thus, the preacher wants to remind them of the confession they first made, that is of Jesus as Christ and now wants them to think on Him for a while.

“He [Jesus] was faithful to Him [God the Father] who appointed Him, as Moses also was in His house.” Here the preacher does an unexpected thing in bringing up Moses. I thought we were supposed to be thinking on Jesus? To do this the preacher brings up Moses, who was the most beloved and honored of all Old Testament men. Moses was the man who left the pleasures of Egypt to serve God, he led the people out of Egypt, he suffered through Israel’s unbelief, and through all of this he was faithful to God. Moses was faithful to God in God’s house.

But Jesus “has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, but just so much as the builder of the house has more than the house.” The preacher beautifully takes Moses and praises him as a faithful man of God and then says, “Oh, look how great Moses is, he is great, but Jesus stands above him, look at Jesus.” Moses was a faithful man, but Moses served in the house of God as a part of the house, but Jesus is faithful as the One who made the house. “For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.” We should honor Moses as a great and faithful servant of God, but he is of the house. How much more should we praise Jesus who built the house? “Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later”. Thus Moses’ faithfulness was something demanded of him because he was a servant and his faithfulness was a foreshadow of something better to come.

“Christ was faithful as a Son over His house”. Where as Moses was faithful as a servant who had to be faithful, Christ is faithful over the house with invested interest. The servant does what he has does because he has to. But a son does what he does because of the invested interest and authority that he has. This catapults Jesus above Moses in the one who should be admired because of why each were faithful and Jesus was faithful over His house—“whose house we are”. As the New Covenant people, we are His house and He has been faithful over us as seen in His Apostleship and High Priestly service.

The preacher then gives a conditional statement to all of this, “if”. “If we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.” How are we to know if we are of the brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, the house of God—if we preserver until the end. That is what can make us bold and have assurance in our relationship with God—are we persevering? “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts”. Be receptive to the Word of God spoken in the Son. Don’t be like those in the wilderness who tried God by testing Him. Do not be like the generation that had to wander for forty years, and who God was angry with because they always went astray and did not know the Lord’s ways. Because of their drifting He swore in His anger, “They shall not enter My rest.” Don’t be like them, because only if you preserver to the end will you be saved.

“Take care, brethren,” listen to my words, “that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.” Search out the hearts of your people and make sure that none are falling away because of unbelief. “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Brother, you are charged with the responsibility of making sure that none fall away, let none of them be deceived and hardened by sin. It is your job to encourage them every day. “For we have become partakers of Christ, if”, listen up and pay attention, “if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end”, all the way man, you can’t give up. “Today, if you hear His voice”, if you hear God speaking in the Son, “do not harden your hearts,” as when they provoked Him. “For who provoked Him when they heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt lead by Moses?” Was it not the assembly of God that heard Him. Was it not the people who followed Him as He took them from Egypt? Was it not the people who professed to believe in Him? “With whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And who did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?” Don’t be confident in some profession you made. Do not trust in some prayer. If you are disobedient you will be like those who feel in the wilderness, because “we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” It was because they did not truly believe what they had professed that they fell away and the fact that they fell away into disobedience is proof of that. Because of unbelief they never entered into His rest.

Thus we must be ever mindful of our salvation and take heed to Paul’s words that we must “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). We must never grow cold in our salvation and look to past experiences as proof for what is real today. Rather, we must evaluate our lives daily and see if we are still obedient. We must preach the gospel to our selves daily in order that we do not fall. When we have done this we must preach it to others, lest they fall. We do this by looking to Christ, who was faithful to the point of death on a cross. He was faithful over His house, thus taking on the sins of His house so that He might be our High Priest before God for us. If we neglect the message of the great Apostle of our confession and fall into disobedience we shall never enter His rest, because we will not be able to because of unbelief.

PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 2:10-18

10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.

11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

12 saying,

“I WILL PROCLAIM YOUR NAME TO MY BRETHREN,

IN THE MIDST OF THE CONGREGATION I WILL SING YOUR PRAISE.”

13 And again,

“I WILL PUT MY TRUST IN HIM.”

And again,

“BEHOLD, I AND THE CHILDREN WHOM GOD HAS GIVEN ME.”

14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.

17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

Flowing beautifully from the transition of Hebrews 2:9, the preacher now speaks in better detail of what it means that Jesus “was made a little while lower that the angels”. Thus the preacher is taking us from the exulted Son who sits at the right had of God with all things in subjection to Him to the incarnate Christ. The preacher is continuing to build up to the high priestly work of Christ and so we will deal with the sacrificial work of the cross in better detail later, but focus now on the importance of His incarnation.

“For it was fitting for Him”, that is the Father, “to perfect the author”, the Son, “of their salvation through suffering”. Now when read straight forward in our current understanding of language this presents a huge problem in our Christology—our doctrine of Christ. Was Christ not perfect? Was there sin in Jesus? And if not sin, was there some kind of weakness in Jesus—was He lacking in some way before the incarnation? The answer is of course, “NO!” Rather, the word rendered perfect here can also mean completion. Thus the preacher is saying that by the sufferings of Jesus, which makes reference to the cross, the plan of God for redemption was accomplished, finished, completed, and perfected. So the perfect Son of God became through suffering the perfect Savior. This had to be done because God, “for whom are all things, and through whom are all things”, decreed it necessary to “bring many sons to glory”.

“For both He who sanctifies”, which is the Son by the work He accomplished, “and those who are being sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren”. Here we see the preacher building toward the high priestly work of the Son, but mainly wanting to stress the humanity of the Son and His identification with the brethren. It is by the work of Christ that we are made into one family with the Father. Thus the preacher quotes from Psalm 22 and Isaiah 8 showing the way the Son is not ashamed to be called our brethren. By the incarnation the Son has been made like us and now is apart of us in a whole new way.

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same”. Thus, when we envision the incarnate Son, we must see Him as completely human. Though the mind cannot fathom its complexities, we must see Him as fully God and fully man—the God-man. He had to be completely like us so “that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil”. If the Son had not shared completely in our humanity, He would not have been able to “free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Because the Son, as man, being born into this world and by implication it is necessary for Him to depart through death, passed into death and conquered him who had power over it. We now no longer have to be enslaved to it through fear, but now can have hope in what lies on the other side.

“For assuredly He does not give help to angels” because the Son did not share in their nature. The very fact that the Son came in the flesh is the evidence that He came to give “help to the descendent of Abraham”, who are those who are of the household of faith. So now that Christ has been “made like His brethren in all things”, taking on our very nature of flesh and weakness, He has “become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God”. He now fills the role of the high priest of the Old Covenant as He makes “propitiation for the sins of the people.” And since He is like us in our nature and “was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” We do not have a high priest who can not sympathize with us, but one who understands everything perfectly because He suffered, yet remained perfect.

We must therefore listen to the preachers words to “pay much closer attention to what we have heard” because it is by this understanding of who the Son is and what He has accomplished and for what end it happened, that we will be kept. Through the incarnation the Son, who is the Word of God, became flesh and dwelt among us enduring the same struggles we endure: hunger, tiredness, frustration, and most importantly temptation. Because the Son was not a partial man, but a whole man, we can come to Him in full confidence that He will be able to sympathize with us, and we can come even more confidently because He calls us His brethren and children identifying with us. And by His coming to us in our form He is able to represent us before God and aid us in our weakness.

Thus we should give greater time to meditating on who Christ is and what He has accomplished as a man. To often we focus on our limitations because we are mere men, but the Son as man resisted temptation and was therefore able to offer up the perfect sacrifice. Also we should be able to live more boldly because we do not have to fear anything any more, because if death is the worst thing that can happen to us, and there is no fear in death because the Son has conquered the devil who had power over it, we have nothing to fear. Instead, death is the gateway into eternal bliss because the Son has propitiated our sins and has gone on before us as our pioneer.

How Does God Fulfill Our Ultimate Longing?

This is the question I most struggle with in life. Not that I lack the answer, but how to I apply the answer to my life. I though I would put this quote out there for all who might like to read. I think it sums it up very well for two sentence.

How does God fulfill our ultimate longing? He does so in many ways: by being the perfect fit for our very nature, by satisfying our longing for interpersonal relationship, by being in his omniscience the end to our search for knowledge, by being in his infinite being the refuge from all fear, by being in his holiness the righteous ground of our quest for justice, by being in his infinite love the cause of our hope for salvation, by being in his infinite creativity both the source of our creative imagination and ultimate beauty we seek to reflect as we ourselves create. (James Sire – The Universe Next Door: 32-33)

PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 2:5-9

5 For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.

6 But one has testified somewhere, saying, “

What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him?

7 “You have made him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor,

And have appointed him over the works of Your hands;

8 You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”

For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.

9 But we do see Him who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.

The preacher begins this section of his sermon by returning the minds of his hears back to 1:14, “Are they not all ministering spirits”, after taking a break from his main theme to exhort believers to “pay much closer attention” to the message they have heard lest they “drift away from it.” He uses these verses to transition our attention from the exulted Son to the incarnated Jesus. God “did not subject to angels the world to come”, but He did to the Son who sits at His right hand. But before the exultation, “What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels”. Hebrews 2:9 tells us that this one made lower than the angels for a “little while” refers to Jesus in His incarnation. It is in the incarnation that Jesus suffered “death crowned with glory and honor”. This therefore provides for the perfect transition from the glorified Son who is the heir of all things, creator of the world, worshipped by the angels, the eternal God who has been exulted above the cosmos for an eternal reign at the right had of God to the lowly Jesus who came to us as man proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom only to suffer death that “He might taste death for everyone.”

The difficulty of this passage comes from the seeming contradiction of Hebrews 1:13 and its use of Psalm of 110:1, “Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet” and its future accomplishment and Hebrews 2:8 and its use of Psalm 8:6, “You have put all things in subjection under His feet” as an accomplished event in history. The preacher however takes these two texts and deals with the tension between the “now” and the “not yet”. Hebrews 2:8 is completely correct when it says that Christ now reigns over the cosmos as the one crowned with glory and honor. All things have been put under His subjection, but “we do not yet see all things subjected to Him” so that God is still at work making His “enemies a footstool” for His feet.

This is referred to as “the inaugurated rule of Christ”, where Christ is reigning, but the full experience of the kingdom will not be known till the final consummation when He restores all things. Until then the reality of His reign must be received by faith knowing that in the end we will see Him as He is. Calvin puts this beautifully in his commentary on Hebrews,

“As Christ carries on war continually with various enemies, it is doubtless evident that he has no quiet possession of his kingdom. He is not, however, under the necessity of waging war; but it happens through his will that his enemies are not to be subdued till the last day, in order that we may be tried and proved by fresh exercises.”

Thus, Christ has all under His subjection, but allows His enemies to battle against Him for His purposes.

This passage of Scripture gives further encouragement to the believers who might be struggling with their hope. God did not subject the world to angels. In the beginning He subjected it to man, as Psalm 8 shows, but because of the sin of Adam it was removed from man. It is only by the second Adam, the Son, who came incarnate and tasted death for all men, baring the sins of men, that subjection might be restored, but not to all men, only the One who was obedient. Thus Christ is our example of overcoming trials and afflictions and the evidence of our hope for us who follow. Though the Son’s realm was heaven from the beginning, He chose to be made lower than the angels for a little while for the salvation of men and now reigns over all creation.

He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6-11)

PERSONAL JOURNAL/MEDITATION AND REFLECTION: Hebrews 2:1-4

1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.

2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty,

3 how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,

4 God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

“For this reason”, the reason of which the author spent the whole first chapter making—God is a God of communication, He has communicated to us in His Son, and the Son now sits at the right hand of Majesty superior to the heavenly beings. With this reason “we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.” If everything that the preacher has said thus far is true, we as his hears need to really take heed to what he is saying. If we don’t listen to the word spoken, meditating on it and keeping it in our minds and hearts, we will be prone to drift away from it. Romans 1:16 says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”. What Paul stressed in this verse is the same that the preacher stresses in Hebrews—it is the gospel that keeps believers saved. It is the gospel that brought us to faith and it is the gospel that keeps us in faith. Therefore we must make the gospel the centerpiece of our lives, lest we drift away.

The preacher finally then makes his first exhortation to the hears after giving his beautiful picture of who Christ is and where He now sits. Now he declares to them the negative consequences for not “paying much closer attention” and therefore “drifting away”. If the “word spoken through angels”, paralleling it to the message spoken by the prophets who received it from the angels, “proved unalterable”, it was worthy of listening to as spoken by God for His people to hear so that they might know Him and His will. Thus the Torah, the prophets, and the writings were to be highly esteemed and honored as the words of God, because to fail in keeping any of them was considered a “transgression and disobedience”. The words which back from angels through the prophets were to be understood as the Word of God and if one failed to keep them he “received a just penalty”.

If we now, who have not received the Word of God by angels, but by the Son who sits at the right hand of God, “neglect so great a salvation”, “how will we escape”? The preacher has compared the two forms of God’s communication, that from angels by prophets and the Son. If those of old who neglected the message were judged and given a just penalty, such as those who left Egypt, but died in the wilderness, never entering the Lord’s rest because they did not believe (Hebrews 3:16-19), how much more guilty will we be if we reject the words of the Son. The preacher’s hope is to instill a godly since of fear in us so that we will cling even closer to the gospel so that we will not drift away.

For the gospel was “first spoken through the Lord” during His earthly ministry, then it was “confirmed to us by those who heard”, which are the Apostles, and then it was also confirmed by God who was “testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit”. Here the preacher reveals that he was not one of the twelve Apostles, since he was not an eye witness, but he and his hears are second generation Christians. This does not negate the fact that God has “spoken to us in His Son” though. For by the words of the Apostles’ we have the Son who has spoken. But if our hearts fail us and we question the words of the Apostles’, we have the testimony of God through the out pouring of His “signs, wonders, and miracles” to their message. With them came gifts of the Holy Spirit: word of wisdom, word of knowledge, healing, miracles, prophecy, distinguishing of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). And these gifts were distributed to God’s people “according to His own will.”

How then are we to grow in our personal lives and ministry through what the preacher has said? First, we must understand and preach the certainty of punishment for those to fail to believe. In our culture there is exist a suppression of responsibility for those who commit sin. In modern psychology the blame is transferred to society, parents, friends, and more examples than I have time to speak of. But the preacher is clear that their will be a judgment where all will be held accountable to whether they receive the word spoken by God. Though time does not permit, Romans 1:18-23 makes it clear that all men, those who have heard the Word of God preached and those who have not, will be judged without partiality on whether or not they believe. All will be held accountable to what God has spoken.

This therefore should press us toward the preaching of the gospel, to our selves first and lastly to the nations. It is the power of the gospel that keeps believers believing. When we neglect the gospel we enter into a world of danger of falling away. We must be a people whose lives revolve around the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is not simply the idea of Jesus’ death for sinners though, but the greater vision of the triune God, the coming of the kingdom with the exultation of the Son, and the resurrection for those who believe. These thoughts should consume our hearts and minds and then in response to who God is and what He has accomplished it should naturally overflow into our conversations and preaching.