Mark Bradford's Bible Blog

⁹Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. ¹⁰We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

The writer continues his closing exhortations by telling them to avoid strange teachings, like the worship of angels, with which he started this letter. He also points out again that there is no need to go back to Mosaic laws and sacrifices, because though they may be experiencing persecution from the tabernacle, the nourishment they get from the Lord’s table is far superior to the ceremonial food that the tabernacle offers.

¹¹The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. ¹²And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. ¹³Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. ¹⁴For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

These Jewish believers had been branded as illegitimate by the Jewish leaders, as Christianity in general had been. In Jewish culture, everything “outside the camp” was considered unclean and evil. Since Jesus was crucified outside the city gates, the writer relates that to the burning of the bodies of sacrificial animals, which was done outside the camp. Since Jesus was rejected, we also will be rejected by the established powers of this world. We must be willing to follow Jesus to the point of sharing in his shame and reproach. Many are unwilling to do that.

¹⁵Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. ¹⁶And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. ¹⁷Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Animal sacrifices were no longer necessary, but sacrifices of praise, doing good and sharing with others are sacrifices that we can and must offer to God. The sacrifice of praise is the fruit of lips that confess his name. Faith in Christ is not just a personal belief that you keep to yourself. It’s about confessing with our mouths that Jesus is Lord.

⁹That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

In verse 17 the writer reminds them again to honor the leadership of their pastors and Christian leaders. Those whom God has called to teach and mentor us in the faith are, in many ways, responsible for us spiritually. Wherever possible, we need to make their difficult jobs easier, not harder, by supporting them and loving them. Church members who are “difficult” make the weight on their shoulders that much heavier. As verse 17 says, if their jobs are a burden rather than a joy, that does not benefit us. So let’s do everything we can to make the jobs of those who minister to us a joy.

¹⁸Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. ¹⁹I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.

The writer of Hebrews was, in many ways, a pastor to these people. So he includes himself in his exhortation to support their leaders by asking them to pray for him. When I started an assignment last year as an interim worship leader, I asked the congregation to pray for me. I heard some after that talk about my humility in asking for prayer. My response was that if you don’t think you need prayer, you’re not only proud, you’re stupid.

²⁰May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, ²¹equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

²²Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written you only a short letter.

²³I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you.

²⁴Greet all your leaders and all God’s people. Those from Italy send you their greetings.

²⁵Grace be with you all.

May verse 21 be our prayer today. May God equip us to do his will, so that he works in us what is pleasing to him. His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Mark Bible Bible, Hebrews

Concluding Exhortations

¹Keep on loving each other as brothers. ²Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. ³Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

Read more…

Mark Bible Bible, Hebrews

¹⁴Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. ¹⁵See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. ¹⁶See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. ¹⁷Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.

Verse 14 deals with our relationships with God and people. It tells us to make every effort to live in peace with all men and be holy. Sometimes peace with all men is not possible because they will not live in peace with us. Peace is a two way street. But we are to make every effort possible on our part to live in peace with others. That’s our relationship with people. In our relationship with God, we are to be holy, for he is holy. Holiness is a subject we don’t talk about much anymore, even in “holiness” denominations like mine, the Nazarene church. But this verse tells us that without holiness, no one will see the Lord.

Verse 15 is a continuation of the same thought. If we are busy seeing to it that no one misses the grace of God, we will be pursuing holiness in our own lives. It also warns against allowing bitterness to take root. Bitterness comes from a lack of forgiveness. One day I will talk more extensively about the issue of forgiveness. I believe that many in the church who believe they are saved will miss Heaven over this issue.

¹⁴For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15)

That’s pretty serious. A lack of forgiveness in the church is the bitter root which grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Verses 16 and 17 also pairs two seemingly unrelated issues, sexual immorality and godlessness. But they’re not unrelated at all. Both, like Esau, treat our inheritance in Christ as something cheap that can be discarded when it’s inconvenient. Our redemption was bought at a great price. To paraphrase Oswald Chambers, the only reason salvation is so easy for us to attain is because it cost God so much. It’s not something that we can take off and put back on like an old pair of shoes.

¹⁸You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; ¹⁹to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, ²⁰because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.”^{[c] 21}The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”^[d]

²²But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, ²³to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, ²⁴to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Again the writer reminds the Hebrews that they are under the new covenant, not the old. They don’t have to fear the voice of God like their ancestors did. They can approach the throne of God boldly. For first century Jewish believers who were struggling with the transition from Judaism to Christianity, these were powerful words, as they are for us today.

²⁵See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? ²⁶At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”^{[e] 27}The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

²⁸Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, ²⁹for our “God is a consuming fire.”^[f]

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. Turning a deaf ear to the voice of God is serious business. If we refuse to listen to God, sooner or later we won’t be able to hear him speak anymore.

God had shaken the old order with the coming of Christ and the resurrection. The veil that hid the Most Holy Place had been torn from top to bottom. God had replaced the old order with a new order that could not be shaken. The writer was reinforcing his warning against returning to the old ways of laws and sacrifices. If there were consequences for Israel’s disobedience at the foot of Mount Sinai, how much greater would the consequences be for turning back from the new covenant, which was bought with the blood of Christ?

I am struck by the phrase “reverence and awe” in verse 29. In the evangelical church in America today, we have lost much of our sense of reverence and awe. We want Jesus to wear blue jeans and be our pal. But to worship God acceptably is to worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Mark Bible Bible, Hebrews

God Disciplines His Sons

¹Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. ²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

The writer pictures the heroes of the Old Testament that he just listed in chapter 11 as a crowd of spectators in Heaven, cheering us on like a crowd at a sporting event. I don’t necessarily believe that this verse teaches that those who have gone before us are watching us from Heaven. Those who are in Heaven are focused on one thing: worshiping God around his throne. That’s not the point of verse 1 anyway. The point is in the next part of the sentence; let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Let us throw off everything that hinders. Not everything that hinders us in the Christian life is sin. There are legitimate things that take up our time and hinder us from following Christ like we should. There are lots of people who are so busy at church that they have no time for a private devotional life. Even work that we think is for God can hinder us if we let it. Look at the example of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42. Martha was doing work that was necessary to feed Jesus and his disciples, but she was not taking the time to simply be with Jesus, as Mary was. What Martha was doing was not sin, but it did hinder her.

…and the sin that so easily entangles. Sin can entangle us so easily. We fool ourselves into thinking that we can play around with sin and repent later, and everything will be fine. But that’s a dangerous game, and if we play that game long enough, we will eventually lose the ability to truly repent.

…and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. The important thing about running the race is not whether we finish first. In this race, the winners are those who persevere to the end and cross the finish line. And this race has been marked out for us by God himself. He knows what we can overcome, even if we don’t. Of course, the key to finishing the race is in the next verse.

²Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

The key to finishing the race is keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. Whenever we think we’ve got it tough, if we keep our eyes on Jesus, and remember what he went through, our troubles will seem small by comparison. Jesus persevered to the end, even knowing what he would have to go through. If he was willing to suffer so much for us, we should then trust him to help us endure to the end for him.

⁴In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. ⁵And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons:
“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
⁶because the Lord disciplines those he loves,
and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”^[a]

⁷Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! ¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

¹²Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. ¹³“Make level paths for your feet,”^[b] so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

The writer is trying to encourage believers who are undergoing persecution. In Jewish culture at that time, it was commonly thought that if you were going through trouble, it was because you had sinned. But the writer points out that Jesus himself went through much worse trouble than they, and he was without sin. They had not resisted to the point of shedding of blood. They were being shunned in Jewish society, and faced economic persecution. Some had been jailed, but none had had to endure anything like what Christ endured. Lots of Christians in America today seem to think they are being persecuted, but we still can meet and worship freely. We can witness to our neighbors and not fear being put in jail for it. But there are many parts of the world where, even today,  Christians are martyred for their faith.

The point the writer is trying to make is that when we go through hard times, we shouldn’t let our trials discourage us, but let God use those times to refine us and perfect our faith.

Mark Bible Bible, Hebrews, perseverance

²³By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

My first reaction to this verse it that this seems more like an example of a parents’ love for their child than of faith. But Moses was such a central figure in God’s redemptive plan, it seems likely that God would have spoken to Moses’ parents about his importance, and the need to hide him. The Bible does not tell us that God spoke to them in this way, but if he did, or just convicted their hearts about it, then hiding Moses from Pharoah was an act of faith and great bravery.

²⁴By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. ²⁶He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. ²⁷By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. ²⁸By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

Moses was raised in Pharoah’s house, by Pharoah’s daughter. Like Joseph, he became accustomed to a life of privilege, but always remembered who he was, and to what people he belonged. When he saw Egyptian slave masters mistreating Jews, he defended them, and in so doing endangered his own life. The way I read Exodus 2, Moses fled Egypt to escape from Phaoroah’s wrath. It was when God told him to return to Egypt that he showed great faith. He did what God told him to do, in spite of the danger. When he instructed the people to sprinkle the blood over the doorframes of their houses for the first Passover, that was an act of faith, because he obeyed God. During all the other plagues leading up to the plague of the firstborn, the Israelites had been affected the same as the Egyptians. When Moses told them that if they sprinkled the blood, they would not be affected this time, don’t you think it took faith for the people to believe that?

²⁹By faith the people passed through the Red Sea^[d] as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

Now this would take faith. There are walls of water on either side of you that you can put your hand through, and you have to walk through that for miles with Pharoah’s army gaining on you.

³⁰By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.

Here’s another case of “when God asks you to do something stupid”. March around the city once every seven days, then on the seventh day, march around seven times, then everybody yell. We’re talking stupid, folks. By the fifth or sixth day of this, don’t you think some of the Israelites felt like idiots? But faith is doing what God tells you to do, no matter how it looks. And as with Joshua and the walls of Jericho, faith and obedience equal victory.

³¹By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.^[e]

Aha! The footnote for this verse says that the word for disobedient can also be translated “unbelieving”. There you have it. Faith and obedience are the same. Disobedience and unbelief are the same. That’s why it’s impossible to please God without faith, because we cannot obey him without faith.

³²And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, ³³who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, ³⁴quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. ³⁵Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. ³⁶Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. ³⁷They were stoned^[f]; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— ³⁸the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.

³⁹These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. ⁴⁰God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Here again it says that none of them received what was promised. Does that mean that God did not keep his promises to them? I don’t think so. I think it means that they did not live to see the promise of the Messiah. The people that this was written to were undergoing persecution, and I think the writer was saying to them, “Don’t be discouraged. Those who came before us went through the same things and worse, but they persevered even though none of them lived to see what you have seen. If those who did not live to see the coming of the Messiah, the Resurrection, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit can live by faith, then so should we who did live to see those things.”

Mark Bible Bible, faith, Hebrews

²⁰By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

But Isaac was deceived into giving his blessing to Jacob. He thought he was giving it to his firstborn, Esau. How different would the future have been had Esau gotten his father’s intended blessing? But once the blessing was given, it could not be revoked. Isaac’s faith was so great, his blessing, once bestowed, was binding for many generations. It’s still binding today.

²¹By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

I did not remember this story, so I searched on “Jacob blessed”, and came across several passages in Genesis. What I found was that Jacob received many blessings when he was younger, and blessed others when he was older. Our ability to bless others flows from the blessings we have received from God. The older we get, the longer we walk with God, the more blessings we receive and are then able to give.

²²By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.

Joseph had risen to the highest ranks of authority in Egypt. he was a political insider, and could have decided that he and his family would become Egyptian. But he remembered his heritage, and knew about the promise God had made to his grandfather Abraham. He wanted his bones to make the journey to the promised land with his people.

Mark Bible Bible, faith, Hebrews

⁸By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

The next three examples of faith are from Abraham. According to what I have learned about Biblical history, there have been three ages of dispensation, the age of conscience, the age of law, and the age of grace. We live under grace since the atonement of Christ. The age of law existed from the time Moses was given the ten commandments until Christ. Before Moses was given the law, there was only people’s consciences to guide them. It was during this time that Abraham lived. That makes his acts of faith all the more impressive. He had a relationship with God and his faith was credited to him as righteousness centuries before the law was given. He had no church, no temple, no Bible. Yet his faith was so great that when God told him to move to a place he did not know, he went without question.

¹¹By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹²And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

Abraham’s faith was tested on this issue, and he did not pass with flying colors. He and Sarah began to doubt over the years after God promised that Abraham would be the father of nations when she remained barren. Because of this, they conspired to have him sleep with her servant Hagar to try to make God’s promise happen themselves. It’s never good to try to force God’s hand. He will accomplish his will in his timing. If you think you need to do something to hurry God along, you will only end up complicating things. By doing this, Abraham and Sarah ended up with Ishmael, who is regarded as the father of the Arab people. After Isaac was born, there was nothing but conflict between he and Ishmael. The Arab – Israeli conflict to this day can be traced back to Abraham and Sarah not waiting on God’s timing. Faith is not just believing that God will keep his promises, but also being willing to wait for him to do so. But God made good on his promise, and Abraham did, in fact, become the father of not just Israel, but many nations.

¹³All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. ¹⁴People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

This passage contains one of the most haunting and troubling phrases in the Bible for me; they did not receive the things promised. I think what the writer is saying is that Abraham, Issac, and Jacob knew that they themselves would not live to see the day when their descendants would inherit the Promised Land, but they lived by faith anyway. By the same token, there are promises in the Bible that we believe, but may not live to see fulfilled, like Christ returning. But if we also live by faith, and understand that we too are aliens and strangers on earth, then God will count our faith as righteousness as he did for them.

¹⁷By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring^[b] will be reckoned.”^{[c] 19}Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

Has God ever asked you to give up your dreams? Abraham had put all his hopes in God’s promises, and those promises were embodied in Isaac. Though not on anywhere near this scale, I too felt that I was promised something by God, and over a decade later, had to give up on that dream. But in the end, God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, and God fulfilled his promise. And God has fulfilled his promise to me in other ways than what I envisioned. And the original dream could still happen! If it wasn’t to late for Abraham and Sarah, it’s not too late for me.

Mark Bible Abraham, Bible, faith, Hebrews

By Faith

¹Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. ²This is what the ancients were commended for.

Now we come to the great “faith chapter”. After having chastised his readers for going back to the old ways, he shows them the new way, living by faith. And he does so in a brilliant way. Recognizing their need to connect their new faith with the Judaism they were taught, he points out that even under the old covenant, the heroes of the Old Testament also lived by faith. Because of this chapter, I have become convinced that faith equals obedience. Nearly every example of faith given in this chapter is a case where God told someone to do something, and they did it. Faith isn’t just believing something mentally. It’s acting on that belief.

³By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

The word “create” means “to make from nothing”. Before God made the universe, nothing existed other than God. God created the matter and energy that make up the universe, and established the laws by which they operate. When we make something, we have to make it out of something else, but God made everything there is out of nothing.

⁴By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

I’ve often wondered why God favored Abel’s sacrifice over Cain’s. Both men offered God what they had, the fruit of their labors. Did Abel somehow understand that blood was required, even centuries before the old covenant? If so, the Bible never mentions it. Or did Cain somehow displease God before the offering, so that God knew his offering was not sincere? The Bible never tells us. This verse says that Abel offered a better sacrifice by faith. Was that the difference? Abel gave his offering as a matter of faith, and Cain gave his out of obligation?

⁵By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

The writer does some deductive reasoning here. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Enoch was commended as one who pleased God, therefore he must have had faith. We don’t know a lot about Enoch, but we know that he was the father of Methuselah, and along with Elijah, he never experienced death. The Book of Enoch was considered scripture by the apostles, but it is not included in our Bible. But the point of these two verses, in fact of these first two examples, is that we come to God through faith, not by making sacrifices or following rules. We can do those things all we want, but if we don’t believe deep down that God exists, and that he will reward those who seek him, all our sacrifices and rule following will be for nothing.

⁷By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

A Sunday School teacher I had a long time ago once taught a lesson titled, “When God asks you to do something stupid”. Building an ark must’ve seemed pretty stupid. Noah was ridiculed for doing it. It took a long time, too. How much faith does it take to take on a huge project that will take years to complete, and that you know will be ridiculed the whole time you’re working on it? That kind of faith is hard for me to imagine.

Mark Bible Bible, faith, Hebrews

¹⁵The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
¹⁶“This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”^{[b] 17}Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”^{[c] 18}And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin. ¹⁹Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²²let 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. ²³Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵Let 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.

There is so much in this short passage that I want to take it a little at a time. First, the quotes from Jeremiah.

¹⁵The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:
¹⁶“This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”^[b]

Under the old covenant, the first laws were written on tablets of stone. Later they were written on scrolls. But under the new covenant, God’s law is put in our hearts and written on our minds. One day I will write about my beliefs concerning what the Bible and popular vernacular call the “heart”, but I don’t want to take time for that today. I do wonder exactly what we mean by that term, because we’re not talking about the physical organ that pumps our blood when we say we got our heart broken or “home is where the heart is”. For the sake of this post, let’s say by “heart” this passage means our conscience and emotions. And by the mind, it means our thoughts and intentions. That means that under the new covenant, God’s law is embedded directly into our conscience. We don’t need to memorize hundreds of laws like the Pharisees did. When we walk with Christ, his Spirit communicates directly with our conscience to guide us. It’s also written on our minds. I think this is more of a discipline on our part. We need to train our minds to think about Jesus and our relationship with him. Think about what he’s putting in our “hearts”. The heart is about feeling, and the mind is about thinking. We can’t just live on feelings, we also need to think. And our minds get stuck in bad habits that God can transform, but we need to allow him to write his law on our minds to help us get out of bad thinking patterns like negativity, criticism, lust, or whatever.

¹⁷Then he adds:
“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”^{[c] 18}And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin.

Under the old covenant, because of the inferior nature of animal sacrifices, sins were forgiven, but not forgotten. But because of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, now God remembers our sins no more! The blood of bulls and goats could only cover sins, and only temporarily. But the blood of Jesus washes away our sins permanently. We are justified before God, meaning that it’s just as if we’d never sinned.

¹⁹Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, ²⁰by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, ²¹and since we have a great priest over the house of God, ²²let 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.

The high priest could not enter the Most Holy Place without blood to cover his own sins and the sins of the people. And even then the high priest entered with fear and trembling, not with confidence. But because the sacrifice for our sins was made by the blood of Jesus, we can enter the Most Holy Place boldly, and experience real fellowship with God there. Articles used in the Most Holy Place had to be sprinkled with blood to sanctify them for holy use. But our hearts have been sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, so we ourselves can be sanctified for holy use.

²³Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

The greatest contrast in the Christian life, for me, is the huge difference between our faithfulness and God’s. Because God is always faithful, we should hold unswervingly to our faith. Let God teach us by example how to emulate his faithfulness. He is faithful to us, let us be faithful to him.

²⁴And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. ²⁵Let 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.

The model of the church is encouragement, not criticism. Not only for those we like and relate to, but also for those we don’t. Especially for them. How did Jesus say that others would know we are his disciples? By our love for each other. These two verses also address a specific issue: church attendance. We’ve all heard people say, “I believe in God, but I don’t like organized religion”. Meaning I want to think of myself as spiritual, but I don’t want to go to church. But there is no substitute for fellowship with other Christians. It’s hard enough to live the Christian life with the prayers and support of others who believe like we do. It’s downright impossible without it. But this passage is not just aimed at those who have slacked off in their attendance, but also for those who attend regularly. It tells us to encourage others to join us, not pester them or be judgemental about it. Its not that if you don’t attend church God will give you demerits and if you get enough demerits you’ll go to hell. It’s that by meeting together with other Christians, we get the help, prayers, and support we need to live the Christian life. We are an army that needs to march together, not a bunch of individual soldiers each going their own way.

As a short postscript, I want to note that yesterday was the one year anniversary of this blog. I started doing my Bible blog on my MySpace page on August 21, 2008. I am grateful to God for what he’s taught me in this process, and I’ve really enjoyed doing it. So on with year two!

Mark Bible Bible, Hebrews, old and new covenant

Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All

¹The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. ²If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. ³But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, ⁴because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

⁵Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
⁶with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
⁷Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, O God.’ “^{[a] 8}First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). ⁹Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. ¹⁰And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Once for all. Again and again the writer stresses this point. The fact that under the old covenant, sacrifices had to be made over and over showed the inherent inferiority of those sacrifices. If animal sacrifices were sufficient to take away sin, why did they need to be made repeatedly? But Jesus’ sacrifice was once for all. His sacrifice was perfect, therefore it has the power to perfect us.

I can’t help but wonder if the writer stressed this point so much because there were some in the early Jewish church who were continuing to make sacrifices for their sins out of habit or family peer pressure. After all, they were still Jews. For a first century, first generation Jewish Christian, this would have been a difficult transition. And until this doctrine was established and made clear to the early church, probably many did not understand that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross meant that they didn’t have to do that anymore. Sometimes I have to remind myself that Christian doctrines that seem obvious to me because I was taught them my whole life were brand new to these people. The doctrine of the new covenant is only obvious to me because it was written down in this letter to the Hebrews a long time ago. But they weren’t raised to believe this stuff. They were hearing something for the first time that went against everything they had been raised to believe.

¹¹Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. ¹²But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. ¹³Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, ¹⁴because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

The contrast of posture is important here. The priests stand to perform their duties, which never end. By contrast, Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, indicating that his work is finished. Also, note the difference in tense in verse 14. By one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. He has made (completed in the past), but we are being made (still going on). His work on the cross was once for all, and for all time. It is finished. But our journey toward perfection, toward being made holy, continues throughout our life. Even those in the “holiness” movement who believe in a second work of grace which cleanses the heart from the sinful nature understand that that work continues as we continue to surrender our lives to him. Sanctification may be a “crisis experience”, but it is also a work in progress.

Mark Bible Bible, Hebrews