God's Warning To Us
Yesterday we discussed how the Lord has certain expectations of us once we are saved and how He has left warnings for us in His Word that we are not to be lazy or apathetic but are instead to always seek to know Him better, to be closer to Him and to know His Word and His Will. Hebrews to me is one of the harder books to understand because we so often misinterpret it out of fear. We are so afraid that we might lose our salvation that we often think that's what this book in particular is saying. We know at least to a degree how sinful and even lazy we are, so we often think that because of this the Lord must be saying we will lose our salvation. Thankfully though, that's not the case. When studying His Word we must remember that the Bible never contradicts itself and that it will always interpret itself. We therefore don't need to interpret it, we simply need to keep praying for understanding and keep studying His Word while He shows us what He is saying in it. So today, we're going to look at another warning we are given in Hebrews and see what it is saying to us.
Hebrews 10:26-38 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.”
The first thing I want to draw your attention to is the very first two words in this passage. Those word are, "if we". Now, keeping in mind that the word "if" means that this is a hypothetical situation being discussed and the word "we" means that the author is including himself in what he is saying, go back and read through the passage one more time.
The author is warning them that IF someone who is saved should willfully and knowingly insult the Holy Spirit and reject Christ, literally despise Him and consciously and willfully prevent the Holy Spirit from working in them after they have been saved, then that person would be counted an enemy of God and be under His judgment. The important word in this is the word "If". The author is not saying this has happened, or that it ever will. He is simply saying what would happen "if it did happen". A truly saved person would never reject the Lord or the Holy Spirit. That's why we feel badly when we sin. We know from God's Word that we cannot lose our salvation, so why is the author bringing up this hypothetical situation when he must know that he would be scaring some people out of their wits? The answer to that question is given at the beginning of this letter and all through it, he is trying to warn us to "pay attention" to get up off our behinds and start doing the things that the Lord has called us to do, instead of just sitting on our hands. He tells us over and over again in this letter that if we are not actively growing in Christ, then we are drifting away. He doesn't want us to continue to drift away and possibly lose even what we have already attained. (not our salvation-our rewards). This is the beginning of the passage we started with yesterday where he tells us why he is saying these things:
Hebrews 2:1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.
Then, toward the end of the passage we're looking at today he says:
Hebrews 10:35-36 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
In fact, just before he goes into the passage we're looking at today, he says:
Hebrews 10:22-25 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Are you seeing the theme here yet? He is trying to prod us ever onward toward maturity in Christ. He is also letting us know in no uncertain terms that if we are disobedient there will be repercussions. Again, we will not lose our salvation, he was talking about apostasy in order to put the fear of God in us. Being a mother I often think of things in terms of how I raised my children. To me this is similar to when I would tell them that if they ever did such and such that I would "beat them within an inch of their lives"! They knew very well that I never had and never would "beat" them at all, much less within an inch of their lives. They understood that when I said that, I was stressing just how very wrong something was and that they had better never even consider doing it. This is what the author is saying in the first part of our passage today. He is also trying to get them to understand that they will be disciplined however when they are disobedient. He says that the Lord will judge His people. The words in our Bibles are not "suggestions", nor is the bible a "self help" book. God's Word contains His commands to us about how we are to live once we have been saved. There are consequences when we don't obey, and that is really what the author was trying to get across, hoping that by letting them know about the consequences, it would spur them on to obedience. This is also discussed by Peter:
1 Peter 4:17-19 For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
From all of this we can see that the author is doing his best to let us know that if we do not obey the Lord there will be consequences. He even says that our knowledge of God after being saved should cause us to be more aware of God's judgment of us and not less. I am not talking about God's "final" judgment, but instead I'm talking about His discipline. Too often people think that because they are saved, nothing "bad" can happen to them and that is an outright lie. God has and will judge/discipline us for our disobedience and we will reap the consequences of His judgment/discipline in our lives.
Right after he warns them this way, he reminds them of their recent past and how they have given up much already for the Lord's sake. After reminding them of how and why they had endured what they had already, he encourages them by saying:
Hebrews 10:35-36 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
He wants them to remember that they are storing up treasure in heaven with every single thing that they go through. He wants us to know that too; remember, God's Word was written for you and me just as much as it was written for those who were actually alive in those days. We are storing up treasure in heaven with every trial we go through, with every sacrifice we make.
Hebrews 10:37-39 For in just a very little while, “He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
Notice that in the closing statements He calls us His righteous ones. If you look back at the passage from 1 Peter, it too talks about the righteous. Do you recall what we studied yesterday about the righteous?
Hebrews 5:13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
He told us that the teaching about righteousness is something that only comes to those who are becoming mature in Christ. It is not known to those who have been lazy and are still baby Christians and either don't have even the fundamentals down or are still learning them. So here again is a subtle rebuke that they need to be studying God's word harder, and living by faith not by sight. Living by faith is so crucial to our walk that this is repeated several times:
Romans 1:17 For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
Galatians 3:11 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”
2 Corinthians 5:7 We live by faith, not by sight.
Our Lord wants us to come to know Him intimately. He wants us to increase our faith so that we can walk confidently and securely in that faith throughout our lives here until He comes for us. The only way we can do that is by staying in His Word daily. Not just "reading it" as though it was some kind of obligation or duty to get through as quickly as possible. Not by trying to determine just how little we can get away with reading each day and still be obedient; but rather by constantly being in prayer as we read, asking for understanding and wisdom and discernment. We need to look at our Bibles as letters to us from our God who loves us so dearly He died for us, and who took the time to make sure ALL that we would ever need to know would be available for us in His Word. So let us read our bibles daily, carefully, reflecting on what we read and studying His Word, so that we can become mature in Christ and learn the teaching about righteousness that is from faith.
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