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Third Warning from Hebrews: Do Not Fall Away
Of the five warnings in the book of Hebrews, warning #3, found in chapters 5:11-6:8, is one of the most controversial and severe passages in the entire Bible.
It is important to remember that eternal security for the possessor *of salvation is a given and therefore loss of salvation is not the issue in this warning. The corollary is also essential for correct understanding: certainty of salvation is not compatible with faith and therefore not in play this side of the grave.
However, chapter 6 teaches that legitimate assurance is important, encouraged by God, and hinges on a heart for obedience.
The Hebrews referenced in this letter are professors of salvation but are criticized for their immaturity. They have continued holding onto the old and comfortable Judaistic ways as well as not maturing in their new faith in Christ.
read moreWeapons of Warfare Part 2
“Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3).
In Part 1 we traced the importance of warfare in the economy of God, looking at being a warrior through the lens of the Old Testament saints, angels, and Jesus Christ.
This leads to an obvious question for Christians in the New Testament age: Does this apply to us? And if so, what does being a warrior look like?
There are two fundamental passages in the New Testament on being a soldier: 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 and Ephesians 6:10-17. Both passages teach that the New Testament Christian is to be a soldier and fight wars; however the realm of our warfare is not physical but spiritual.
read moreWeapons of Warfare Part 1
“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13).
The Apostle Paul commands us to act like men. What does it look like to obey this command? Do men need to be commanded to act like men? Apparently we do. Because I think on some level all of us understand that there are men, and then there are men.
A study of all the things that it means to be a godly man is worthy of your time. In this article I would like to consider one important aspect of being a godly man: that men fight wars. And if you are going to fight wars successfully, you have to be strong and courageous. Which is to say, being a godly man means being a valiant warrior.
I am not suggesting that this is the totality of what it means to be a man. Being a man involves more than that. But I want to make the argument that fighting wars is one fundamental way that men are to act like men.
read moreSecond Warning from Hebrews: The Believer’s Active Rest
Warning #2 in Hebrews encompasses 3:7-4:13 and is multi-faceted. The passage examines three perspectives of “rest”:
The rest of God on the seventh day after the six days of Creation
The rest promised to the nation of Israel after their Exodus from Egyptian captivity
The Sabbath rest for the believer.
The first “rest” was not because God was tired or needed a break but merely denoted a cessation from His creative activity (4:3).
The second rest was found in the land of Canaan, a secure, fertile, and productive land. Except for two, Joshua and Caleb, this promise was not enjoyed by the Israelites who left captivity in Egypt and were older than age 20. This exclusion was due to unbelief, leading to disobedience: the nation’s refusal to engage the inhabitants of Canaan despite the urging and confidence of Joshua and Caleb and, more significantly, the promise of God that the land was theirs to take.
read more“’Tis But a Scratch”
“For I consider the sufferings of this present time as unworthy of comparison to the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).
There is a scene in the classic comedy “Monte Python and the Holy Grail” where the Black Knight must prevent anyone from crossing a certain bridge by engaging them in battle. Unfortunately, this is the very bridge that King Arthur must cross to continue in his quest for the Holy Grail. The sword fight begins, and it’s soon clear that the Knight is outmatched as he loses an arm to a mighty blow from the king. The Knight, however, is unfazed, and continues the fight. The king expresses amazement to the Knight, telling him he’s lost, he’s missing an arm. The Knight responds to the king with the now timeless words, “’Tis but a scratch.”
read moreFirst Warning from Hebrews: Pay Much Closer Attention
“For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Hebrews 2:1-3a)
The warning is to “pay attention…lest we drift away from it”. In the first chapter of Hebrews the author details the superiority of Jesus over angels and prophets. In fact, he says Jesus is God’s word spoken to us in these final days. Pay attention to Jesus and salvation because He is the “radiance of His [God’s] glory, the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all thing by the word of His power”. In other words, Jesus Christ is God with skin on.
If we do not pay attention to Jesus, then we will drift away from Him. “Drift” means to “slip away” or “pass by almost unnoticed”. Drifting away from Jesus can be almost imperceptible, at least in the beginning. This might entail a subtle shift in our thinking, perhaps illustrated by denial of conscience because we think we can afford the consequences of the action we are considering, or that circumstances justify our action.
read moreWarnings from Hebrews
The book of Hebrews has a series of warnings to those professing Christ, but drawn to the safety of the past. The epistle is an enigma at times, but also a key to a treasure trove of understanding the Old Testament .
It is also a book of worship as it emphasizes the superiority of Jesus and is the only place in Scripture where Jesus is called our High Priest. I would suggest that besides the Epistle to the Romans, the Epistle to the Hebrews has some of the most theologically concentrated, complex, and challenging concepts in the Bible. Hebrews also contains several passages that engender some of the most intense debate among Christians.
It is generally well accepted that the book was written, perhaps as a sermon, to some number of professing Christians in a church in or near the city of Rome, a portion of whom were suffering persecution for their Christian faith. These recipients were likely Jews very familiar with the Old Testament , and were either tempted to turn or had turned back to the relative safety of Judaism in order to escape persecution meted out to those claiming to be followers of Christ, or were drifting from their faith. Perhaps the key theme of the book is the exhortation to hold fast to their faith, to persevere, to endure.
read moreSin Against One’s Own Body
“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 6:18–20 (ESV)
God gave mankind sex for procreation, intimacy, and commitment. Procreation is part of God’s special means to create a bride for His Son who is worthy of His Son. The Father determined that in order to create a bride for His Son, children must be born. Mankind must increase in number. Because many are called but few are chosen, there must be many births in order to create the perfect number of saints to constitute the bride for Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that when God created man “God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it….”
read moreSPIRITUAL WARFARE
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every though captive to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:3-5).
Paul’s admonition to the follower of Christ in the conclusion of these verses is to take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” It doesn’t take a man much effort to conclude that he can only entertain one individual thought at any given time. He may quickly rotate between a few different thoughts at a rapid pace, but only one thought can be on the “screen” of a man’s mind at any given time.
read moreDon’t Look Back
Jesus tells us “…..No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).
This passage is commonly understood as referring to one who begins a work only to regret the decision, wishing to retreat from the work at hand. He who does not count the cost and desires to take his hand off the plough (i.e. the work of God), forfeits his assurance that he belongs to the King.
While this is a reasonable exegesis of the passage and holds true in its application, there is another understanding, rooted in the agricultural environment in which the writers of the gospel lived that also contains an additional weighty application.
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