Hebrews Lesson 147 February 12,
2009
NKJ Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
We’re in Hebrews 9 and I just want
to pick up the context a little bit starting in verse 12. In verse 12 we read:
NKJ Hebrews 9:12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He
entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
NKJ Hebrews 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer,
sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,
NKJ Hebrews 9:14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?
Now there are a lot of different
ideas here. I want to focus on the main stream of thought here to make sure we
understand what the writer is saying. In verse 11 he said:
NKJ Hebrews 9:11 But Christ came as High Priest…
Then skip the rest of it. Skip down
to verse 12.
NKJ Hebrews 9:12 Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He
entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
That’s his main idea –
entering the most holy place once for all. He is emphasizing the finality and
the completion of the work of salvation by Christ’s sacrifice, by His atonement
on the cross. Everything else simply feeds into that idea.
The other things that feed into that
idea give us additional information have to do with the fact that there is a
heavenly tabernacle, not just the earthly tabernacle. The heavenly tabernacle
has to do with the dwelling place of God, the throne room of God. That is where
Christ appears after His ascension.
I pointed out that when He came or
when He entered into human history (It should be understood as a temporal
participle there) as a High Priest of the good things to come, “the good things
to come” has to be understood as a phrase, as a stock phrase that relates to
what Christ was going to do on the cross. So He comes into history with the
virgin conception and the virgin birth. But, the focal point here is when He
goes to the cross. That’s when He performs His high priestly work, offering
Himself as a sacrifice. Then it is after that that He enters the most holy
place in heaven. That would be at the ascension.
So there’s this comparison and
contrast between the temporary limited ritual sacrifice performed by the
Aaronic high priest. It happened once a year on the Day of Atonement. It was
annual. It was on the basis of the blood of animals, the death of animals, and
it didn’t secure anything more than a ritual cleansing that got the nation
through until the next year on the Day of Atonement.
In contrast to that, Jesus’ death is
once, for all. His death has value that has infinite value because of who He is
in hypostatic union with God the Son. The sacrifices only had limited value,
but they did have a value. There was a physical cleansing or ritual
sanctification setting apart for the purifying of the flesh. But Christ’s
sacrifice goes deeper (verse 14) that it cleanses our conscience: not the
external body; not just physical ritual cleansing, but cleansing the
conscience. That is the conscience from dead works to serve the living
God.
This is an a fortiori argument that is set up here
that you go from the lesser to the greater. If the lesser is true, how much
more true is the greater? The greater of course is the sacrifice, the death of
the Second Person of the Trinity in hypostatic union with true humanity on the
cross. Because Christ is greater and empowered by the Holy Spirit, indicated by
the phrase eternal Spirit, then His death has greater value.
Now as we look at this there are
some things we need to look at in a little more depth in terms of what verse 14
states. First of all we have the word “offer” which is the Greek word prosphero,
which means to bring something to, to lead something to; that you lead an
animal to the altar for sacrifice or to offer. You could offer yourself. Here it simply indicates that God
the Son through the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit is empowering and
energizing His spiritual life.
That is the same pattern that we’ve
seen before that the spiritual life of Jesus Christ in His humanity is the
pattern, the model for our spiritual life. The pattern or model for the
spiritual life of the Church Age believer is not the Mosaic Law. It is the spiritual life of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We studied this extensively when we looked at passages back in
the second chapter and the third chapter that Christ was made perfect through
the things that He suffered. If He
encountered and handled the testing, the temptation, the suffering that He went
through in His humanity by relying on His deity, then that wouldn’t be very
difficult at all. What kind of a test is it for God to be God and not to sin?
So Jesus could not have relied upon His divine attributes, His deity at all in
order to handle the suffering the testing, and the adversity that He went
through in life. He had to handle it through the same limited finite human
resources that we all have. That boils down to the same two - the Spirit of God
and the Word of God. We see that example especially when He is in the
wilderness (Luke 4). The Spirit leads Him into the wilderness where He is
tested by Satan three times, and in each of those tests He responds by quoting
the Word of God correctly.
By the second test Satan is using
the Word to try to trip Him up and Satan is misquoting and misinterpreting the
Word and Jesus is straightening him out.
But He uses the Word of God in conjunction with the Spirit of God in
order to handle that testing. Now He is in the same state that Adam was in in
the garden. That’s where the comparison should be. Adam, the first Adam, is created
perfect – no sin nature. He’s put in a testing situation where He can in
his humanity disobey God. Jesus is created as true humanity in order to go
through the same kinds of tests. But He is going to pass the test. He is going
to remain obedient because He’s relying upon the Spirit of God and the Word of
God and therefore He is able to live a life of impeccability.
Now that life of impeccability is
brought out in the next word that we have here which is the Greek word amomos. The a or the alpha at the beginning is like
our English prefix un. It’s a negative and it means without blemish. This is
language that is usually used with sacrifices. It came mean unblemished or
spotless. So we have the same word used for example in I Peter 1:18-19. It
talks about the fact that we were not redeemed with corruptible things such as
silver and gold from our empty manner of life, but with the precious blood as
of a lamb without spot or blemish. So this is using the language as applied to
sacrifices.
Then this is taken to another level
in Colossians 1:22 that He has now reconciled you (That is every believer) in
His fleshly body through death in order to present you before Him holy and
blameless. Here we see the word blameless used in conjunction with “holy” which
here picks up the additional nuance of “without sin.” We are presented as it
were as if that sin is not held against us. We have the imputed righteousness
of Christ and so we’re declared righteous and holy and above reproach. That is
how we are presented in terms of our position in Christ.
We go back to Hebrews 9:14. There’s
another word that’s added here. That is the word cleanse. So we read:
NKJ Hebrews 9:14 how much more shall the blood of Christ,
That is the death of Christ. That phrase “blood of Christ” always
referring to His spiritual, substitutionary work on the cross.
who through the
eternal Spirit
That indicates the means that enable
Him to stay on the cross and handle the adversity, the suffering that He faced
there in terms of handling our sin when He who knew no sin was made sin for us.
offered Himself
without spot to God,
Because He is impeccable, without
sin.
cleanse
That’s your idea of a relative
clause in the middle adds more information.
your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?
Now the word there is the verb katharizo,
and katharizo
is the word that we find in I John 1:9.
NKJ 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It’s a word that’s used, a Greek
word that’s used in the Septuagint of the Old Testament to translate the words
that we read about clean animals and unclean animals and being cleansed when
you wash your hands in the laver and the need to be cleansed through the sin
offerings and the trespass offerings. It’s a word that refers to ceremonial
purification in the ritual of the Old Testament, and it is a word that is used
to describe what happens when the believer’s sin has been dealt with when he
has been cleansed and purified by virtue of his faith in Christ when he has
received the imputation of Christ’s righteousness.
So it is the death of Christ that
cleanses our conscience from the guilt of sin. Every person is guilty of sin.
When I use the term “guilt of sin, I’m not talking about your personal guilt
feelings over whatever it is that you’ve done that you think offend God and
shock God and shock everybody else. That’s not what the text is talking about
when it talks about guilt. We are talking about the legal declaration of human
guilt because of Adam’s sin. When Adam disobeyed God, Adam and all of his
descendents are declared guilty before God’s Supreme Court. They are legally
guilty.
That legal guilt has to be dealt
with objectively and subjectively. What I mean by objectively is in relation to
God. That’s the Godward aspect of atonement. In atonement you have a payment
price, a penalty that’s paid. When Adam sinned a penalty was assessed
judicially by God. That means that Adam instantly died spiritually and because
that spiritual death that occurred to Adam everyone that’s born from him is
also born spiritually dead. But Adam’s sin is that which condemns the human
race. That’s made clear in passages like Romans 5 as well. Adam’s sin is the
cause of our guilt. We are declared guilty and we’re under condemnation. God’s
justice has to be satisfied. It demands that the penalty be paid. So redemption
focuses on the payment of that penalty by a substitute. That’s one aspect of
atonement.
Another aspect of atonement deals
with reconciliation that because that is paid for then there can be
reconciliation between two parties who are at enmity with one another.
Then the third aspect is
propitiation that God’s justice and righteousness have been satisfied by the
payment of that penalty. Those three ideas redemption, propitiation and reconciliation
are all linked together. That word that’s used for atonement in the Old
Testament incorporates all of those things. Now those are all directed toward
God so God is pleased with the sacrifice in Christ. So the text says that all
are redeemed God, all are reconciled and God is propitiated toward all men. But
that doesn’t change the individual qualities of the spiritually dead person.
They can only be saved by having their nature changed. They have to have
righteous, the kind of righteousness that God can accept. They have to have a
new life because they’re spiritually dead, experientially. And they have to
have eternal life. So those are only applied to them once an individual puts
their faith alone in Christ alone. When each of us believed in Jesus at that
instant God the Father assigns to us (The term is imputation.) the perfect
righteous of Christ. It never has anything to do with who we are, what we’ve
done, or what we haven’t done. It has to do with the fact that Christ’s perfect
righteous is put on us like a covering so that the sin that we have and will
have is not an issue because what God looks at now is the righteous that has
been credited to us by Jesus Christ.
He has an unlimited bank account and
those assets are all assigned to us and we’re all in greater debt than the
United States. We’re worse off
than any nation in history. We are worse than bankrupt. I don’t know what that
would be; but we’re worse than bankrupt. That certificate of indebtedness (you
know I think… I read an article the other day. It’s more like $8 trillion because the FDIC has ponied up a lot of money and two or three other government
organizations have put up a lot of money. We had a trillion back in September
and then another trillion. We can’t count that high) of $100 gazillion has been
laid against us was nailed to the cross; so that’s not an issue anymore. That’s
the objective side. But when we
trust in Christ, then it is subjectively applied to us and our conscience is
cleansed. So when you understand what happens at the cross, there’s no place
for guilt. There’s no place for running around saying, “I’ve got to do
something to please God.” You have to really understand this in connection to
the ritual of the Old Testament because the whole phrase reads that the blood
of Christ will cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living
God.
Now what are the dead works in
context? The dead works here aren’t just going out and doing human good. The
dead works here aren’t just going out and being involved in religion as opposed
to Christianity. The dead works here in context are the ritual observances
under the Mosaic Law – the sacrifices and offerings that were all
prescribed by the Mosaic Law.
What happened on the Day of
Atonement? On the Day of Atonement the High Priest goes in and he sacrifices a
sin offering. He sacrifices the burnt offering. He’s going to take the blood in
and he’s going to light the incense. He’s going to put the blood Ark of the
Covenant and splatter it in front of the Ark of the Covenant. Then he’s going
to go out; and he’s going to select the two goats. He will identify the sins of
the nation with each goat - kill one goat and send the other goat into the
wilderness (the scapegoat). That only lasted for a year. Then he’s got to do it
again next year. Then he’s go to do it again the next year. He’s got to do it
the next year and the next year. Their conscience is never really cleansed.
Nothing is really resolved. It’s all ritual. The point that he’s making is the
death of Christ cleanses not the flesh, but cleanses the conscience from dead
works so these rituals are no longer necessary because of the completed work of
Christ.
Now there’s a purpose for this. When
you were saved (when you trusted in Christ as your Savior), you didn’t have to
understand this to be saved. You may have come to understand it later and maybe
you didn’t like it, but the reason that we were saved wasn’t just so we could
go to heaven and God could be happy that we are there. A lot of people think
that.
“God just wants me in heaven. Isn’t
it great? I am such a nice person.”
No that’s not why He saved us. We’re
cleansed to serve. That’s an infinitive of purpose there. We are cleansed to
serve the living God. That’s our purpose – to serve Him. Now the word
that’s used here is the word latreuo, which is one of two words usually used for worship. Proskuneo,
which has to do with bending the knee is more the idea of worship in terms of
honoring God. It’s a different word. Latreuo indicates service of God, serving Him
as the Lord.
So there are several points that we
can cover to summarize the Doctrine of Serving the Lord. This is one way in
which we worship - six points on serving the Lord.
NKJ Luke 2:37 and this
woman was a
widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple,
Notice: she is at the proper place for worship, corporate worship took
place in Israel.
but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
So the fasting was part of the ritual in Israel. But this is related to
her personal spiritual life and prayer. We serve God through prayer and
worship.
NKJ Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service.
That’s that word for service there is the cognate of the verb latreuo. It
has to do with serving God. How do we serve God? We serve God through the
entirety of our lives. So what Paul does at the end of all his doctrinal
exposition in the first 11 chapters of Romans, he comes to this
conclusion. That’s the point of
the “therefore” in 12:1. “Therefore I beseech you or I beg of you or I
challenge you.” He’s pleading with them by the mercies of God: because you now
understand God’s grace in action, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice.” The
reason he used “bodies” is because it’s the totality of life. It’s not just a
platonic spiritual dimension. It is everything that we do that comes under this
umbrella. We present our bodies a living sacrifice so that our lives are to
serve God. That’s the idea of sacrifice there, not that it’s always like it’s
going to feel like we’re giving something up or that idea. But that it has been
dedicated to God. We’re going to do what God would have us to do as opposed to
what we would want to do.
So we present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God,
which is our reasonable form of worship.
Some could translate it that way. So that is individual worship. So we
serve God in terms of our own personal spiritual growth - reading the Word,
memorizing the Word, personal prayer, all of that, listening to Bible class,
coming to church, studying the Word – all of that – applying it -
relates to our spiritual growth making sure that we are in fellowship walking
by the Spirit, and the Spirit of God uses what we learn and produces spiritual
growth. Paul said in Acts 27:23:
NKJ Acts 27:23 "For there stood by me this night an angel of
the God to whom I belong and whom I serve,
Several times Paul says it that way that God is the one to whom he
belongs. He told the Corinthians:
NKJ 1 Corinthians 6:20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and
in your spirit, which are God's.
We are to serve Him because He redeemed us. That’s the idea that he has
here – the angel of the God to whom I belong. We go from being
bondservants or slaves to the sin nature to being bond servants to God, Romans
6. So we are to serve Him.
NKJ Romans 1:25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and
worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed
forever. Amen.
So these are the options. We’re going to serve the Creator or we’re
going to serve the creature.
NKJ Philippians 3:3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in
Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,
This is a spiritual circumcision not a physical
circumcision. The picture of circumcision there is the removal, the cutting
away of the bondage of the sin nature. Most translations will translate it “in
the Spirit” but it’s an instrumental dative and it should be translated “we
worship God by means of the Spirit.” This is the same thing we saw in John 4
when Jesus is talking to the woman at the well. He said that:
NKJ John 4:24 "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and
truth."
Most translations will translate it with just a simple English
preposition “in” as I pointed out on Sunday morning; but it’s a Greek
preposition en
plus the dative form of the noun. There’s only one other place in John where
John uses the preposition “en” with the dative of pneuma – only one other place in
John where he used en plus the dative of aletheia for truth. In both places the
instrumental idea reigns. The reason I emphasize that is because there are a
certain number of people who want to leave this as what I think is a fuzzy concept
– we’re in the Spirit. What does that mean? That’s kind of quasi-mystical
that I just get in a state where I’m enveloped by the Spirit and I’m in the
Spirit. Well, what does that mean? And I don’t think that’s very clear. I think
the idea of instrumentality of worshipping by means of the Spirit or by means
of the truth of God’s Word gives us a much better handle on what this means
that in order to worship God there is an intermediary means that enables us to
do that and that is the standard of truth and God the Holy Spirit who indwells
and fills us. So just as Jesus said in John 4, Paul says, “We worship God by
means of the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the
flesh.”
NKJ Revelation 22:3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of
God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.
That’s
what we’ll be doing. His servants will serve Him.
Back to Hebrews 9:15
NKJ Hebrews 9:15 And for this reason
For what reason? Well, contextually
that’s what is covered in verse 14.
NKJ Hebrews 9:14 how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God?
NKJ Hebrews 9:15 And for this reason
For that reason – because
Christ’s death has such infinite value that He has done everything for us. He has
provided everything for us. For that reason, because of the value of His death
on the cross, He is the mediator of the New Covenant. Now that word mediator is
the idea that He is the one who stands between God and man. He is the one who
provides the link so that man can have a relationship with God. And this is
based on the New Covenant and the sacrifice for the New Covenant is what He
performed on the cross when He initiated the Lord’s Table and said, "This
is the New Covenant of My blood.”
So for this reason (because of the
value of His death)…
He is the
Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the
transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive
the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Now this is a nasty little piece of
Greek grammar in this verse and very difficult to pull apart and I’m not sure
how technical I want to get with this. But the main idea that we have here is
that this first word that we have in the Greek is translated “so that”. It
indicates purpose. ut the clause where we have actually a plural noun and a
verb, a subject and a verb, doesn’t come up until we get to the last part of
the verse. I think it reads better and communicates better if we translate it
“He is the mediator of the new covenant so that (and then skip down to the end)
those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance since a
death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were under
the first covenant.”
So by restructuring the sentence it
becomes clear that the meaning of the New Covenant is related to receiving the
promise of the eternal inheritance. So as Church Age believers receive the
promise of the eternal inheritance. The participle there has a sort of causal
or explanatory force since the redemption of the transgression under first
covenant.
So it emphasizes that because of
that, on the basis of the fact that these transgressions are dealt with, then
those who are called can receive the eternal inheritance.
Now when we look at this passage on
the New Covenant it brings to mind two passages we have look at already in
Hebrews. Hebrews 7:22 stated:
NKJ Hebrews 7:22 by so much more Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.
That is the New Covenant there.
Jesus becomes the guarantee of a new covenant.
NKJ Hebrews 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is
also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
That it ties mediator and new
covenant together. This is just prior to the introduction to the quote from
Jeremiah 31.
Now just ignore the rest of it.
Notice the connection between the covenant and promises. Now when we look back
at our verse (verse 15) I want you to notice in the last section there:
NKJ Hebrews 9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of
death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that
those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
I want to connect three things here:
the covenant, the promise and inheritance. Those three things go together. We
see them linked together in numerous passages that the promises are guaranteed
by a covenant and they have a future orientation in terms of inheritance. Now
we’re going to have to look at inheritance again to be reminded of a few
things. But go back to Hebrews 1.
Corrected translation:
So that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal
inheritance, a death having come about for the redemption of the transgressions
of the first covenant.
That would be the Mosaic
Covenant.
Now, who are the called? Who are the
called? People get all wrapped around the axel on this on a number of different
things especially when the issue is 5-point Calvinism and election and
predestination. The term “called” is just the simple word kaleo that is used for example in
Matthew 20. It’s the parable of the wedding feast and the invitations go out to
the highways and byways to invite all those who will to come to the wedding
feast. One guy shows up and he doesn’t have on the right clothes, which
indicates that he doesn’t have the right kind of righteousness. He is removed. And
he is removed because of his failure to have the right kind of clothes and
that’s in – my memory is failing tonight. I thought that was in Matthew
20, but it’s not. I’m not going to look at it. Anyway, in the process of
explaining that parable, Jesus says, “Many are called but few are chosen.” The
parable is Matthew 22:14. After removing the guy who shows up Jesus says:
NKJ Matthew 22:14 "For many are called, but few are chosen."
The word “called” there is a broader
term than the word for elect. They’re not identical. The called are all of
those who receive the invitation. That’s related to what theologians would call
the external call of salvation, the offer of salvation to come and drink freely
of the water of eternal life. So there are many that are called, many who hear
the gospel, many who are told about Jesus and understand the gospel; but they
don’t respond. The only ones that respond, the chosen ones, are the ones who
have the right kind of clothes. They get the right kind of clothes because the
instant they put their faith alone in Christ alone, God imputes to them the
perfect righteous of Jesus Christ. That’s the right kind of clothes. Because
they’re clothed in His righteous, then they can come to the wedding feast. But
there are other passages that emphasize other aspects of this. Another passage
that emphasizes the invitation, the presentation of the gospel, 2 Thessalonians
2:14:
NKJ 2 Thessalonians 2:14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the
obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So calling doesn’t just sort of
happen by God zapping someone. It’s that they hear the gospel. It’s that gospel
invitation. In some passages it has that broad sense of that invitation to trust
in Jesus Christ as Savior, but in other passages it has a narrower meaning. For
example, Romans 8:28.
NKJ Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love
God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
Then he goes on in verse 29 to
define the calling as the whole process there that those who got called these
are justified, those who got justified eventually these are the ones He
glorifies
NKJ Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed
to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
So “the called” there is used as a
synonym for the group that has responded to the external call. So you have the
word used on the one hand to refer those who are called are those who are
invited to believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Then you have the word used
in a narrower sense to refer to those who have believed in Jesus as their
Savior. That’s how this word is used here in Hebrews 9:15.
So that those who are called –
that is, those who are saved. You can substitute and paraphrase it that way.
Those who are called – not everybody that’s invited according to 2
Thessalonians 2:14 and Matthew 22:13 – that would be a broader audience.
“Those who are called” here simply stands for those who have responded to that
invitation that they may receive the promise of that eternal inheritance.
That inheritance is really two-fold,
as we have studied in the past that, there is an inheritance that is common to
all believers. There is an inheritance that is unique to some. In the Old
Testament if you had numerous sons, each would receive an inheritance but the
eldest son, the first born, would receive a double portion. So it’s not that
everybody gets the same thing and everybody is going to look the same in
heaven. God is not a Marxist-Leninist. God is going to reward some believers
for obedience and there are some believers who are going to lose reward which
comparable to inheritance.
So I want to just review this. Turn
to Hebrews 1, and we’ve touched on this several times in Hebrews—one of
the major underlying doctrines in the whole letter to the Hebrews because
they’re being challenged not to give up, not to fade in the stretch, not to
fail in their spiritual lives and go back to Judaism because what they will put
at risk is their future inheritance.
So I want to look at 2 passages in
relation to this in Hebrews and then we’ll look at the doctrine, which will
take us into next time. In the first two verses of chapter 1
NKJ Hebrews 1:1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the
fathers by the prophets,
NKJ Hebrews 1:2 has in these last days spoken to us
Completed, fulfilled action of
revelation there.
by His Son, whom
He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
So if Jesus Christ is the heir who
inherits all things by virtue of who He is and what He did in His humanity.
That is an earned inheritance. Now we become joint heirs with Him by virtue of
our obedience.
Now turn over to Hebrews 6. In
Hebrews 6:12 - this is following the passage that everybody wants to go to to
show you can lose your salvation. In Hebrews 6 we have the warning that leads
into, that’s central to the warning passage and leads into this or is central
to it rather.
NKJ Hebrews 6:11 And we desire that each one of you show the same
diligence to the full assurance of hope
Now that is as strongly a worded a
works type of terminology as you could get. Paul isn’t saying, “Well, you got
saved so that’s it.” We have it all objectively. Christ has provided everything
for us. But what he is saying here is that we have to grow spiritually. We are
not saved to sit. We are saved to serve. So we have to grow.
I think I said Paul. It’s not Paul.
The writer of Hebrews says,
until the end,
In other words, until the end of
your life, phase 2.
NKJ Hebrews 6:12 that you do not become sluggish,
And fade in the stretch like these other
believers who will be losers at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
but imitate
those who through faith and patience inherit
What?
the promises
There we have that connection
between promises and inheritance again. They’re saved but unless they do something,
unless they’re consistent (and this is the true biblical doctrine of
Perseverance), unless they hang in there and continue to grow; then they will
jeopardize their inheritance in the future. So this is one of those doctrines
that’s crucial to understand because it relates to our motivation in the Church
Age.
The word for inheritance, the noun,
is kleronomos.
It has the idea of one who inherits or an heir. In our society an heir receives
the property when somebody dies. But in the Old Testament background to this
somebody could be an heir of something and have a current possession. So the
core meaning of inheritance is not the idea of somebody dying and having
property transferred. But the core meaning is possession or property, having
something as your possession. That’s the verb. Kleronomos is the noun. This is the
related verb, kleronomeo
meaning to possess or receive something as one’s possession. Now these two words are used in several
different ways.
So when we see this in Hebrews, it’s
primarily used in terms of that future reward for continued service to God. As
we see in our passage, that service to God can’t begin until first of all we
are cleansed and trust Christ as our Savior and are saved. Then it’s all based
on the fact that Christ is the heir of all things and we are in Him. So we have
a certain measure of inheritance. Every believer has certain areas because of
our position in Christ, so that when the resurrection occurs, the rapture
comes, when you have all believers resurrected and are in heaven, we’re all
going to have resurrection bodies that have basically the same properties.
We’re not going to have any sorrow, tears, pain; all those things are going to
pass away. We’re all going to be happy.
Nobody’s going to have a sin nature. There are going to be many other
aspects that every believer has in common. But there are going to be other
aspects, privileges that we have that are based on our capacity and based on
our spiritual growth. These are the two dimensions.
We’ll come back next time and go
through the Doctrine of Inheritance because this is going to be foundational to
what happens, to things that are said coming up into chapter 10. Chapter 10 is
going to be a whole lot of fun because there are some tough passages there.
Then we’ll get to chapter 11, which is really a lot of fun. But since I have
taught through Genesis we will not take 2 years to go through Hebrews 11 which
you could do in order to get the background on everybody that’s mentioned
there.
Hebrews 10 is a tough chapter, but
we have to once again be reminded of certain key doctrines that form the
background so that when we read it, it’s clear and it makes sense.
Let’s bow our heads in closing
prayer.