Monthly Archives: March 2015

An Impossible Impossibility

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AN IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBILITY

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace (Heb. 6:4-6).

A much misunderstood and a much feared passage of Scripture! With God there are very few impossibilities. Only that which is contrary to His nature is impossible with Him.

But what the writer is talking about here is not something God cannot do. It is something we cannot do. When a human being renounces the truths God has laid down as the foundation of his walk with Him, he cannot return to the path of God’s grace and mercy. Jesus is, categorically, the only way to the Father and, to repudiate Him is to remain lost, forever, in the wilderness of sin and death.

The writer clearly enumerates the blessings and benefits of believing in Jesus and in His atoning sacrifice as the foundation of our response to God. There is no other way to return to the Father but by the way of the cross. It is the Holy Spirit who opens the eyes of our understanding that Jesus is the only way back to God. Though faith in Jesus we are fused to Him, we are in Him and He is in us. We are given our status as God’s sons and daughters, spiritual brothers and sisters of God’s Son (Heb. 2: 10, 11).

The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple (Psa. 119: 130).

God’s word becomes our daily bread – the manna from heaven which feeds and nourishes our souls as we journey from this life to the next.

How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (Psa. 119:103).

We have tasted of the powers of the coming age, the victory that Jesus won over the devil and the hope of the resurrection. The benevolent rule of God is here. We are no longer subject to the devil; his deception has been exposed. He is not God and he no longer has the power to hold us in slavery to his will.

For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col. 1: 13-14).

To fall away means to apostatize – to renounce and turn ones back on the truths one once believed. This is not about wandering off the path through sin and getting lost in the wilderness. This is about a deliberate choice to repudiate the work of Jesus and all the benefits and blessings of His salvation. Once someone has done that, there is no way back because that person has effectively put Jesus back on the cross.

For those who have wandered away, there is always a way back but for those who have deliberately chosen to take a wrong turn, knowing that the deviation will lead to another destination, there is no way back to God; as I heard an evangelist say, ‘There are many gods, but only one Jesus.’ Jesus is the only way to the Father. He said:

I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life’ (John 8:12).

Can you see how impossible it is to return? Faith is what pleases God. It matters in whom you place your faith. Like the Bedouins in the desert who need to anchor their tents lest the wind blows them away, you need to fasten your “tent” to the “peg” that will not be moved when the winds of false teaching and the howling gales of life threaten to blow you away. God and His word are the only reliable and immovable anchor.

The writer of this letter urges us to make sure that we are anchored to the only “tent peg” that will never shift or come loose in the winds of life. To change metaphor, God has given us a solid foundation upon which to build the superstructure of our lives. Without that foundation, like Jesus’s foolish builder in Matt 7: 26-27, our house will crash when the storms of life blow against it.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

 

Foundation Truths

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FOUNDATION TRUTHS

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so (Heb, 6: 1-3).

Is it possible that there are teachings about our faith from which we must move on? Apparently there are!

What are these teachings? This writers calls them “foundations” – the fundamentals of our faith. What are they and why must we move on beyond these things?

When someone lays a foundation for a new building, he doesn’t remove the foundation – he builds on it because it is there to secure the building. When this writer says, ‘Move on’, he is not saying, ‘Abandon the foundation,’ he is saying, ‘Build on it.’ It forms the basis of what you believe.

The foundation of what he writes here is made up of three pairs of complementary truths.

1. The first is repentance from acts that lead to death and faith in God.

Of course this is a part of our foundation. To “repent” means to return to the path. God has shown us the path that leads us to our desired destination in life. Our destination is to be like God Himself – mirrored for us in His Son, Jesus. He created us in Him image, but that image was shattered at the fall. He did everything to remove the barrier between us and Him so that we can return to the way that leads us into oneness with Him again, becoming like Jesus who is our older brother (Heb. 10, 11).

Faith in God, very simply means, according to Hebrew thought, anchoring ourselves to God so that we do not blow away in the wind. On their migration from Egypt to the Promised Land, God’s people had to face the howling winds in the wilderness. The only way to secure their tents was to drive pegs into the ground to which they tied their tents.

This vivid picture enables us to understand what it meant for them, and for us spiritually, to make it through the desert and arrive where they were supposed to go. This is foundational, as you can see. Our lives are a journey. We must keep on the path if we are to arrive at our destination, and we must ensure that we are anchored to God so that we are not blown away by ‘every wind of teaching’ (Eph. 4:13, 14).

This is a once-off experience and does not have to be repeated – a part of our foundation.

2. The second pair is ‘instruction about cleansing rites’ and ‘the laying on of hands’. This has to do with initiation into, and identification with Jesus, the leader of “The Way”, (which is what His movement was originally called Acts 9: 2).

This is the second step after returning to God’s way from the path of sin. Cleansing rituals or “baptisms” were a regular feature of Jewish life. Ritual purification by being immersed in running or “living” water was practised many times as a person came back to, or entered a new phase of life.

Baptism into Jesus is a sign of death to the old way, initiation into “the Way” and identification with Jesus as the rabbi we have chosen to follow. This also a once-off part of our foundation.

3. ‘Resurrection of the dead’ and ‘eternal judgment’ are the third part of our foundation. This is not talking about our physical resurrection but our spiritual resurrection – out of our death to sin and into our new life in Christ.

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions . . . (Eph. 2: 4-5a).

God has forever judged sin at the cross. Our sins, past, present and future, and the sins of the whole world have been judged and punished once and for all. ‘It is finished.’ God has made us alive, raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms, fully accepted once and for all.

These are foundation truths, always there and never to be repeated. It is now up to us to build upon what has been laid down, relying on the truth that Jesus completed everything on the cross. ‘It is finished,’ were some of His last words. Now we can rest on His finished work and live in the reality of what He has done for us.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

 

 

En Route To Zion

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EN ROUTE TO ZION

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Heb. 5: 11-14).

Hmm! I wonder to whom this writer is speaking. Are you looking over your shoulder?

The very fact that these readers were tempted to turn around and go back to “Egypt” was an indication that they were just as immature as those who literally came out of Egypt. Why were the Israelites so eager to return to the place where they had endured so much? They had no understanding and short memories. Like babies, all they were concerned about was themselves. They had forgotten that God had a purpose for them. They were His people, created for His pleasure, not their own.

Their journey from Egypt to Canaan was part of a much bigger picture God was painting on a canvas too big for them to see. All God wanted of them was to trust Him. It was His plan to get them to their own land where they would live under His covering, protection and provision as a witness to the surrounding nations that He alone is God and that He is a good God. If they followed His instructions, they would live in peace, safety and plenty.

Their faith in God had to be tested to be proved genuine and able to stand up to adversity. Just like us, they lived in the real world. Tough times would come but they were to keep their eyes on God and do the right thing always. This was the purpose of the testing. What would they do when adversity hit? Doing the right thing meant following God’s “path”, living the way He taught them to live, no matter what.

God’s word is His torah, His directions for staying on the path that would lead them to “Zion”, the holy mountain in the city of Jerusalem, in which He had placed His name – the place where He had chosen to make His dwelling. Those who were righteous stayed on the path where they were safe from the dangers of the journey.

However, like the ancient people of God, these readers were still infants, drinking the milk of babyhood instead of eating the solid food of maturity. What did he mean? Like so many of God’s people today, they were still “rededicating their lives to the Lord” every time there was an “altar call” because they were constantly “backsliding” and having to “come back to the Lord”. They never got past the elementary things of the faith, to the place where they could get on with doing “good” and bypassing “evil”.

There are some concepts in the writer’s words that need explaining. From the Hebrew perspective, the migration of God’s people from Egypt to Canaan is a picture of life. We are on a migration from this life to the next. In order to navigate the wilderness, they needed landmarks, recognisable points along the way that helped them to stay on course. There are also “landmarks” on our journey through life; people, situations, experiences that prompt us to follow God’s prescribed way, giving us opportunity to do the right thing – to obey God’s teaching which will ensure that we stay on the path instead of wandering off the path and dying in the wilderness.

The words “good” and “evil” are better translated “functional” and “dysfunctional”. When we obey God’s teaching, our lives are functional, creating harmony and order where we are. When we disobey God’s instruction, we become dysfunctional, causing chaos in our homes and in society.

God’s verdict on His newly formed earth with its vegetation and creatures was:

God saw all that He had made, and it was very good (functional). And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day (Gen. 1: 31).

Sin entered through Adam’s disobedience, causing the earth and everything in it to become dysfunctional. Jesus came to this earth and paid the debt of sin for all mankind so that we can return (repent) to God’s way and become functional again. When we return to God’s way, following His instructions for living, we stay on course for our destination which is to become like Jesus who is the high point towards which we are journeying.

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire . . . but you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem   . . . to Jesus the mediator of a better covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Heb. 12: 18, 22, 24).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

A Perfect Son

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A PERFECT SON

During the days of Jesus’s life of earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered and, once made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him, and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. (Heb. 5: 7-10)

What a holy moment! The writer allows us a glimpse into the anguish of the son of God. Isaiah called Him ‘a man of sorrows and familiar with grief’ and yet He was also described as a man of joy, anointed with the oil of joy above His companions. Jesus experienced the intensity of sorrow more than any other person because, firstly, He felt the pain of His people who were cut off from the Father and, secondly, He felt the power of temptation that threatened to cut His off from the Father.

What is this writer implying? That Jesus was threatened with death but He escaped it because God heard His prayers? But that did not happen. We know that He was crucified, so that cannot be what the writer meant. In what way was Jesus saved from death? The threat of death hung over Him from the moment of His birth. He was ‘the last Adam’, born of a human mother, but born with the nature of Adam before the fall. Unlike us who are born with nature of fallen man, He was able to sin but also able not to sin.

His entire human life was a test of His submission and obedience to the Father. Where Adam failed, He dared not fail. To qualify as a perfect high priest and sacrifice, He had to be the perfect Son. If He were to be an acceptable sacrifice, He has to be without sin so that, like the Levitical high priest on the Day of Atonement, He had to emerge from the Holy of Holies alive as a sign that His sacrifice was accepted.

Jesus knew the intensity of sin’s power to lure Him away from perfect trust in the Father and perfect obedience to the Father’s will. His entire life was a test of obedience, the battle in Gethsemane being the zenith of that struggle against sin. In spite of the spectre of the horrible experience that lay before Him, and the bloody sweat that poured from His pores like the precious oil pressed from the olives, He submitted to the Father’s will.

Jesus was God’s Son. He was God. He was the exact replica of God in human form. He has all the power, all the knowledge, and all the attributes of God but He chose to live as a man, never once employing His divine power as God during His earthly life. His power came from the Holy Spirit, God’s equipment who came upon Him at His baptism. He lived in perfect union with the Father, entrusting Himself to Him for every need and every situation.

This was the only way in which He could qualify to be the Saviour of humankind. He knew what it was to be weak and to have to trust His Father instead of acting as God. He had many great battles with the enemy. We know nothing of His childhood when, as a young, vulnerable and impressionable boy He had to call the devil’s bluff and trust His Abba. We have just one example of this warfare when He was tempted to act as God and to act independently of His Father in the wilderness. He passed with flying colours.

How did He overcome? Through His constant fellowship with the Father in prayer. He stayed in touch with the Father so that He would know and do His will. He listened to the voice of the Spirit. He drew strength from the Holy Spirit. He learned obedience from what He suffered. He learned the meaning of obedience by being obedient through every test. He felt the strength of Satan’s pressure on Him but He resisted and overcame every time. He could challenge His accusers with the words, ‘Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?’  What a challenge! What a testimony!

Yes, Jesus was amply qualified to be both our king and our high priest. His perfect submission and obedience to the Father set Him apart as the perfect Son and gave Him the right to be the source of eternal salvation for everyone who believes. He is now and forever the eternal high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

From And For The People

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FROM AND FOR THE PEOPLE

Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sin, as well as for the sins of the people. And no one takes this honour on himself, but he receives it when called by God just as Aaron was. (Heb. 5:1-4)

What makes the difference between a high priest and the rest of the people and what gives him the right to carry the office of high priest?

He is ‘called by God’. He is set apart by divine appointment to stand between God and the people and to offer sacrifices on their behalf – sacrifices acceptable to God because He prescribed what was to be done and how it was to be done in order to forgive their sin and to bring His people near to Him.

What qualified him to be a high priest? He was chosen from among the people. That meant that he had to be one of them. He had to be human, subject to the same sins and weaknesses as they were so that he would not consider himself better or a cut above the rest. Why was this? He needed to be gentle with his fellow sinners because he walked in their shoes. He needed to approach God with his people on his heart, not as a judge but as one of them.

He was also chosen to represent the people to God. He was the go-between, standing between his sinful compatriots and a holy God to bring blood to atone for their sin. Before he could atone for the sin of anyone else, however, he had to remember that he was also guilty before God. He also need blood to cleanse him from the guilt and pollution of his own imperfections before he could represent the nation to God.

The high priestly office was ongoing because death brought an end to the ministry of one man, and the office had to be handed on to the next and to the next as each succeeding generation passed on. It was, therefore, an interrupted function. No one was able to carry on standing before God for his people indefinitely.

How frustrating for God’s people when a kindly and sympathetic high priest died and was replaced by a man who did not carry the weaknesses of his people on his heart! The people were at the mercy of those who represented then, good or bad. This office was both a blessing and a curse for them, depending on the qualities of each man who stood before God for them.

In the same way, Christ did not take on Himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to Him, ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ And He says in another place, ‘You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.’ (Heb. 5: 5-6)

What was the writer trying to prove? Jesus was fully qualified to take on the office and function of high priest for His people. He was one of them – born and raised as a Jew. He was appointed by God to be high priest, not of the tribe of Levi who had to pass the office on because of death. He was of the order of Melchizedek – a mysterious figure who appeared on the scene briefly during the time of Abraham. We shall learn more of him as the letter proceeds.

Why Melchizedek? He was both king of Jerusalem and priest of the Most High God, and Jesus was to be both king and high priest, both offices to be fulfilled in one man which was forbidden of the Levitical priests. Jesus was both the Son of God, making Him eligible to be a priest and a descendant of David, putting Him in line for the throne of David.

Why was this so important to these Jewish readers? As true Jews, they had to be sure that Jesus was no usurper. He had to have the qualifications laid down in God’s word to fulfil the offices of king and priest, of which Melchizedek was the forerunner. Did He qualify? Yes. Was He eligible? Yes. In every way Jesus was superior to the Leviticus priesthood, and fully qualified and competent to represent His people to God.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.