Thursday, October 1 –
Welcome to October!
We have finished three quarters of this year reading through the New
Testament. It’s been a good journey
through the Scriptures, and I’m glad you’ve come along with me. Today’s reading is from Hebrews 10:19 –
39. Please return to this page after
you’ve finished your reading.
“Therefore, brethren” transitions from the doctrinal to the practical. Having made a case for the superiority of
Jesus, he speaks to them as Christian brothers and sisters. His appeal has to do with having confidence
in Christ, and he wants to encourage them to see that Christ is for them. First, he reminds them that they can have
faith to boldly draw near to Christ, and do so with confidence -
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by
the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us
through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a
great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the
confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging
one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (10:19-25).
“Since…let us” frames the encouragement.
“Since” Jesus’ work for us is finished, and “Since” Jesus is enthroned
as our mediator (High Priest), we have many benefits that await us. So, in a series of “let us” exhortations, he
appeals to a faith that enters fully into all that Christ has done for us: “let us” come to Christ with a sincere heart
of faith (10:22); and, “let us” hold fast to the confession of faith in Christ
that brought them to Christ, to begin with (10:23); and, “let us” encourage
each other to live out Christ in our lives every day (10:24-25).
I find a different picture of a church within those words
than what we normally see in America today.
The church is a vibrant, caring, spiritual, worshipping gathering of
Christians. Much of the church's
commitment in America is that it is an optional institution – something on par
with the PTO, or Rotary. Yet the picture
of Church here is a picture of a community who believe Jesus is among them, and
they gather to worship God, pray to Jesus, sing to the Glory of God, and
experience love and fellowship with each other in doing it all. Would that we would all pray that this is the
church we want to be part of.
Yet, what
happens when the church is merely a religious event to attend, and fellowship
with Christ and his people are not the goal for participating? What happens when Christ is a figurehead, not
God, our High Priest, Savior, and Lord?
He writes words that are sober and serve as a warning to us.
“ For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of
the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful
expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the
evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you
think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God,
and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has
outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is
mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (10:26-31).
He writes to them as a friend, a pastor, and as
one of them – “If we”…do not take Christ seriously, there is no other
remedy…no other way. Are these Christians who he is writing to? I believe so.
The entire letter has been an appeal to doubting Christians, struggling
to find their faith in their troubled world.
He does not let them wallow in self-pity. Instead, he makes it clear that God has made
it is only in His Son’s redemption that our salvation is possible. It is words that are not
comfortable to read and leave some to think they can lose their salvation. That is not the issue here. Instead, they are people who confessed faith
in Christ – at one time – but have not lived it. They have backed away from walking out faith,
withdrawing from fellowship, and isolated from accountability. The warnings are severe. Using the Old Covenant template, he argues once
again from the lesser to the greater about judgment and reminds them that they forget
who God is. Does this happen? Most
certainly. Either they are Christians
who are “saved so as by fire” (1 Cor. 3:13-15), or they never were Christians,
to begin with – either is facing a future, eternal, that leads to a sobering reality.
I remember the words of the old preacher, “the task of a pastor is to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.” The fundamental need for an ongoing fellowship is within these words. First, we need repentance that is personal and keeps us going back to Jesus. Martin Luther’s “Ninety-five Theses” nailed to the castle door in Wittenberg, on October 31, 1517, opened with: “our Lord and Master Jesus Christ . . . willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”[1] The Church is a place of Confession and repentance. Repentance is not a dour, poor-me religious act, but a loving act that sees in Christ, one who is our redeemer and friend. Coming to Christ is an act of humility and confidence that Christ alone can forgive and restore.
He also reminds them that they need to
endure.
“But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a
hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to
reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.
For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the
plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better
possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your
confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so
that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised” (10:32-36).
“Recall…remember” – it is why we come back to God in prayer and worship in a community
of fellowship. They had gone through
some difficult struggles, property taken away from them, some were thrown into prison,
and yet they had not thrown away their faith in Christ – their confidence in
Christ as Lord. The need for
encouragement is to endure – don’t give up, never give up, no matter what.
Will the trials end?
Historically we know they didn’t.
The early church was severely persecuted, and thousands of
the early church saints died. Still, the church grew and survived, and Rome fell
and was destroyed!
“For, ‘Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;
but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul
has no pleasure in him’.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are
destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” ( 10:37-39).
I read these words and recognize the painful fact that many have come and left
because they expected faith in Christ to take away all of their struggles and
pain. We live with expectations that are
not always consistent with the faith-life God has laid out for us.
I think back of Corrie Ten Boom, whose family in the late
1930’s made the decision – based on their faith in Christ – that they would
hide Jews from the Nazis who hunted them down and sent off to death camps. Eventually, the family was found out (through
a traitor), and the German Nazis sent them all off to Concentration camps. Corrie and her sister Betsie were sent to the
notorious camp Ravensbrück,
near Berlin. They entered the camps as
Christians, and sometimes she wondered if the two of them were the only
Christians in the death camp.
Nevertheless, the two of them prayed and worshiped the best they could,
and they encouraged one another to be strong and endure in their faith. Betsie died a few months before liberation in
Corrie’s arms. Before she died, she told
Corrie, "There is no pit so deep that He [God] is not deeper
still." Fifteen days later, Corrie was released. Afterward, she was
told that her release was because of a clerical error and that a week later,
all the women in her age group were sent to the gas chambers.[2] None of the rest of her family survived.
Corrie Ten Boom was liberated from the camp and discovered
God had a new ministry for her – to communicate God’s love, mercy, and grace –
not comfortability, but through life that is often unjust and painful. In a letter written to a friend after the
war, she wrote these words:
"The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already
signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to
do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are
still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are
overcomers. We may have been the Lord's only representatives in that place of
hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, 'In
the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the
world.' We, too, are to be overcomers – bringing the light of
Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.
Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and
see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true.
Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, I have just read the last pages. I can now
come to shouting 'Hallelujah! Hallelujah!' for I have found where it
is written that Jesus said,
'He that overcometh shall inherit all things
and I will be His God,
and he shall be My son.'
This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive –
but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world".[3]
We will never give up, never…and Jesus will never give up on
us!
Peace
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