Hebrews 10:19-39--A Call to Persevere in Faith

​Hebrews 10:19-39 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Heb.10.19-Heb.10.39
The Full Assurance of Faith
19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 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. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 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.
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 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? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 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. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,
“Yet a little while,
    and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith,
    and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

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We have just gone through one of the parts of the book of Hebrews that is heavy on what we call Christology--our beliefs and creeds about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  ​There has now been a shift to Soteriology, what we believe about our salvation, and we will even talk a little bit about what we believe about the perseverance of the faith and the communion of the saints.  If these words seem pretty big, don't worry about that, but I do encourage you once again to study and learn the creeds and catechisms that I linked you to in on of my blogs on November 14, 2019 entitled "The Importance of Creeds, Catechism and Liturgy in the Church."

The author is going to shift gears and while still talking about our salvation and our faith and ask the question about what it means personally to us.  First, we have confidence that we can enter the holy places (the new heavens and the new earth and what some people generically call "heaven" or "Paradise") by the blood of Jesus Christ, but no one gets to God any other way--the only way to God is through the body and blood of Christ.  In this we can have full assurance of our salvation because we did nothing to earn our salvation or be declared clean and righteous, and we can do nothing to change that verdict.  We do not stand in double-jeopardy.  Once our crimes have been paid for by Christ, no one else (not even us) will be charged with them in the coming judgement.  They are paid in full.  How can we be sure of this?  Because we believe in a God who is a promise keeper and the Son of God who is the victorious rider on the white horse that is called Faithful and True in the book of Revelation.  God cannot lie and God's character and His identity are one in the same.  Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."  He also said, "I and the Father are one." and "If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father."  In John 16:13, we are told that the Holy Spirit is "The Spirit of Truth" that will guide us in all truth and speak the words of Christ to us and tell us of the things that are to come.  We are even told that one of His duties is to testify with our spirit and let us know that we are truly saved (for those that have been born again, of course).

So then, since we are sure of our eternal destiny and destination, how then should we live in the here and now?  We are to encourage each other to good works, not because we think these works will save us, but because we know that the world would love to see us have no change in our lives and have no evidence of a real salvation and make God out to be a liar.  That would make God's way no better than any other way in their eyes and we would not be serving as salt and light or as ambassadors of the one true king and our living, resurrected Lord.  We cannot keep on sinning and living according to our sin nature if we have been transformed.  We've had that discussion many times.  Something that has undergone metamorphosis cannot go back to what it was we not only have a new identity, but we will see in the book of Revelation that we have been given new name that only God knows.  Satan no longer even knows your name to accuse you of your sin because God has completely changed your identity.  Let us then act like this and walk in accordance with our new nature according to the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us and empowers us to learn and live by the words of Christ and to be transformed daily more and more into the image of Christ so that the world sees less and less of us and more and more of Him.

Okay, back to something with the Old Covenant that we've brought up several times but it's worth repeating.  There was only one solution under the Mosaic Law for those that intentionally and willfully broke the Law and found their identity in their lawlessness--death.  By the testimony of two or three witnesses such a person was to be put to death and we see that God says that no such person will inherit the kingdom of God (those that find their identity in their sin nature).  If man who willfully broke the Old Covenant faced a physical death how much worse will the punishment be for those who willfully ignore and break the New Covenant by trying to make some other way other than the one that Christ has made or try to make Christ's sacrifice into anything else such as a license to sin and never be changed?  We will see what the utter destruction of the lawless looks like in Revelation when we get there.  There is a message of hope for the people of God, but for those who who have rebelled against God, there is a warning that they cannot escape His coming judgement and the full measure of His wrath--that wrath was either poured out on Jesus for you or it will be poured out on you if your name is not found in the Lamb's Book of Life.  The choice is yours.

Back now to how we should act as the Church.  We should take care of those in need--the homeless, the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned (especially those imprisoned for the cause of Christ) and while not in this passage specifically we know we are also to take care of the widows and orphans.  We are to remind theme of the message of hope when everything looks hopeless and they will encourage us and strengthen our faith because they have no one else to lean on but God and depend on Him to meet their every need.  Those who have nothing to cling to await with open hands and open arms for God to provide for them each and every day, and those that live with the hope of eternal security in Christ do not even fear death, because "To live is Christ, to die is gain."  We know we will eventually be in a much better place and situation when we cross the proverbial Jordan River into the Promised Land that God has prepared for us, but we should not seek death, but continue in faithful service according to the Great Commission that we have all been given.  God and His people will be marked by faithfulness until the end.