Earnest Admonitions
“Consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession” (Hebrews 3:1, NASE).
The letter to the Hebrews contains the longest sustained argument of any book in the Bible. Employing a careful and closely-knit discussion, the author moves with confidence step by step through an elaborate proof of Christianity’s preeminence over Judaism. The recipients of the letter were wavering in their Christian faith and returning to their former Jewish beliefs and practices because of the pressure of outward trial and opposition (Hebrews 2:1, 3:12, 4:11, 5:12, 6:6, 10:23, 25, 29).
At frequent and appropriate places within the theological discussion the author inserts earnest admonitions based on the argument in the preceding section (Hebrews 2:1-4, 3:7- 4:13, 5:11-6:20, 10:19-39, 12:23-29). The purpose of the letter emerges in Chapter 2:1, which tells us that the Hebrew Christians were wavering.
“For this reason we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it” (Hebrews 2:1). The theme throughout the letter is that Christ, in every way, is superior and sufficient.
- Hebrews chapts. 1-4 – Christ is superior in his person
- Hebrews 1:1 – He is better than the prophets
- Chapters 1-2 – Better than angels
- Chapter 3 – Better than Moses
- Chapter 4 – Better than Joshua, better than the Sabbath, and better than all other priests.
The epitome of the argument is reached in Hebrews 4:14-16. The thought is that since Jesus is better than all these, we need not drift. We can turn to our high priest who understands the pressures, trials, opposition, perplexities, and suffering.
One of the key words in the epistle is “therefore,” which occurs fifteen times. As we focus our attention on Hebrews chapter four, we come face to face with certain earnest admonitions and solemn resolves to which the apostle would strenuously bind us. All of these earnest admonitions begin with “Let us.”
LET US FEAR
“Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it” (Hebrews 4:1).
The word “therefore” in Hebrews 3:17-19 refers to an evil example of the failure of the people to reject the report of the evil spies who had surveyed the land of Canaan. Although this had occurred centuries before, the apostle will not allow history to be wasted upon us (Numbers 13:30- 14:10, 14:23, 24, 29-31). In effect the apostle says, “See what befell our fathers in the wilderness? Observe what unbelief did for them” (Hebrews 3:17-19).
Unbelief blinds the eyes, dulls the imagination, and stupefies the conscience. Unbelief is not necessarily defiance or open hostility to divine revelation or requirement. There is a condition of mind which is neither hostile nor loyal. That condition may be described as largely neutral, mainly indifferent, lukewarm, complacent. It may be a simple negation of attitude as to conviction and duty.
This concept is specially suitable and timely for the Laodicean Church at this part of the age where there are scriptural warnings to the nominal Christian who is neither wholeheartedly nor really committed to the Lord, where the spirit of the world was not kept out of the church. These are buying peace by compromise. They are self-absorbed, self-satisfied, prosperous, often wealthy, and physically at ease. All this leads to these results: indifference, complacency, lukewarmness. These, in turn,
- Nullify our perspective
- Nullify our motivation
- Nullify our witness
- Nullify our availability
Indifference is antagonistic to the spirit of consecration, of self-sacrifice, and enthusiasm. And that is what we may see today!
Unbelief has no rest. Unbelief shuts out all its victims from the joy and peace of heaven. We must hold to a positive, definite, all-conquering faith. At the same time, we are to be alert, always remembering that it is just possible that for want of a keener vigilance we may miss great opportunities of entering into the wealth and joy and heaven of rest beyond the veil (Hebrews 6:19).
“LET US THEREFORE FEAR, LEST …”
There is always something about which to be reverently anxious. We are not to be anxious to such an extent that anxiety turns itself into unbelief. Rather, we are to be anxious in an intelligent, devout, expectant sense. We are to guard well our inheritance in Christ Jesus. The reason given for this exhortation is historical. If other men have failed through unbelief, why may not we also fail? Failure of belief is failure of the New Creature.
LET US LABOR
“Let us therefore labor to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (Hebrews 4:11).
Labor implies every exertion of body and mind that can be made. Let us earnestly strive – since there is a rest – for the actual rest of the perfected condition. This attainment is worth all our efforts (R2534:5). Many have failed to reach this rest because of their unbelief.
We do well to recognize that there is a danger that we may fail of it also. Let us give all diligence, striving earnestly that we may enter into it. The apostle will not allow us to escape the privilege and the joy, nor the drudgery and pain of discipline. Only the laborer really knows the meaning of rest. Labor is an aspect of belief as certainly as it is an object of prayer.
“Strive to enter in at the strait gate … narrow is the way [of laying down our lives in sacrifice] that leadeth unto life” (Luke 13:24, Matthew 7:13,14, A212, R5871, 5245:2, 2773:2).
The righteousness of the kingdom involves self-sacrifice at every step. Multitudes would never face this. But it must be faced, else the consequences would be fatal.
This divides men into two classes: many, who will follow the path of self-indulgence, end where it might; and the few, who above everything else, take the way that leads to glory, honor, immortality at whatever the cost (Romans 2:7).
Hopeless labor is the worst kind of slavery. Permit a man to feel that at the end of his labor he will reap a worthy harvest, and then the storm and the darkness of seed time will be part of his blessing. However, tell a man that, labor how he may, he will never reap the harvest of his own industry, and what do we find? At once we quell the courage which would have enabled him to expend his best powers upon his immediate work. How important it is that we encourage, and not discourage, by our words and activities.
The only way in which we can affect tomorrow is by living wisely today. Today is the seed time; tomorrow will be the harvest we reap. There is a sense in which tomorrow is quite in our own hands. That is in the sense of sowing the field of today with wisdom and prudence so that we shall have no fear of tomorrow bringing forth a poor harvest. Thus we are to take our moments one by one to be used for the glory of the Giver.
Christians may be taunted that they are always watching, or praying, always carrying a melancholy and overpowering cross. In a sense that is quite true, but Christ always accompanies the discipline with an infinitely gracious promise. “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me … and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:29). “Where I am, there ye shall be also” (John 14:3).
The Apostle Paul writes and speaks with the same high tone. “Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Timothy 2:3). We should expect to suffer the evils of affliction and patiently endure them. The life of a soldier is a life of hardship, exposed to numberless hazards and dangers. Let us not become weary. Consider what the Lord faithfully endured of opposition (R4804:1, Hebrews 12:3,4).
“If we suffer, we shall also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:12). If we know the fellowship of his sufferings, we shall also realize the power of his resurrection (Philippians 3:10). The sufferings mentioned here are those that we bring on ourselves through faithfulness to our covenant (Romans 8:17, R5117:4). The willingness to suffer is the covenant of sacrifice that we make with our Lord (Psalm 50:5, R5108:4). We need to keep our spiritual armor bright (Ephesians 6:10-18). We suffer not only for Christ, but with Christ, and suffering with him, we forget our suffering in our already dawning day of rest.
LET US HOLD FAST
The Apostle Paul, having given us the exhortations “Let us fear” and “Let us labor,” gives us another, “Let us hold fast:” “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession” (Hebrews 4:14). This is also a logical term. The word “therefore” is commonly translated “then,” but it does in fact literally mean “We have [therefore] a great high priest” (as per the Wilson, Marshall, and Kingdom Interlinear Diaglotts, NEB, NIV, CJB (David Stern), NWT, Douay).
“Therefore” is here in all the effect of its logical pressure, for this is a formal argument. Because we have certain possessions, we are to strive after still further advantages. Having the living Savior, we are not to be content until we have realized all the blessings of his salvation. We are to secure, and trade in, our Lord’s talents and pounds (Matthew 25:14-30, Luke 19:11-27). “Seeing then” resumes the argument of Hebrews 2:17,18, 3:1,6.
Come boldly before the throne of grace
He is “great,” as being the Son of God, higher than the heavens (Hebrews 7:26), the antitype of the Levitical high priest. But more than this, he is also a high priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:21, R1101:1, T26). In Hebrews 4:14 (RV), let us note that he has passed through (not into) the heavens. Those “heavens” were the veil which our high priest passed through into the immediate presence of God; just as the Levitical high priest passed through the veil into the holy of holies (Leviticus 16:14-17). Neither Moses nor Joshua could bring us into thisrest. But Jesus, our forerunner, does bring his people into the heavenly rest.
“Hold fast” is the opposite of “let … slip” (Hebrews 2:1), and “fall away” (Hebrews 6:6).
Hebrews 3:1 describes Jesus Christ as the apostle and high priest of our confession. Again, in Hebrews 10:23, he says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our faith, without wavering.” The action to which the apostle calls us is strenuous. We are to lay hold of the Kingdom of God tightly, with both hands. If we do not hold fast our confession, the enemy will take it away from us. This will not necessarily be by violence, but little by little, almost imperceptibly, until in some hour of special trial we discover, to our horror, that our strength has been sapped and overthrown.
“For we have not an high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Here we have the motive for “holding fast our confession,” and that is the sympathy and help we may expect from our high priest. Though great (verse 14), he is not above caring for us. He sympathizes with us in every temptation, experiencing the hardships of this life: hunger, thirst, weariness, and grief (Isaiah 53:1-10).
The apostle argues that, among other causes, it was necessary for Jesus Christ to partake of the human nature and be exposed to trials, persecutions, and various sufferings, so that he might the better enter into the feelings of those that he would succor – those who are afflicted and sorely tried for loyalty to God, loyalty to the principles of righteousness, loyalty to the truth, and loyalty to divine methods (R4970:3, 5030:2). We must not expect to escape temptations, trials, difficulties, perplexities, or sufferings, because only through these can we be developed and perfected in character (R3715:6, R450:1).
A state of suffering disposes persons to be com- passionate, and those who endure most afflictions are they who feel most for others. But in sympathy, Christ adapts himself to each with the peculiar nature of that single individual. Though he is at the Father’s right hand, and now possesses the divine nature, he has not wavered in his affection for us. Jesus said in Gethsemane, “my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here and watch with me” (Matthew 26:38).
This shows his desire in his day of suffering for the sympathy of those whom he loved, so he now gives his suffering people his sympathy. We see a beautiful picture of this in the type (Exodus 28:29). Aaron always carried the names of the twelve tribes in the breastplate of judgment on his heart, when he entered into the most holy for a memorial before God. So, in the antitype, our great high priest does likewise (Hebrews 9:24).
LET US THEREFORE COME BOLDLY
But let us ask, “Aren’t these disciplinary and military injunctions; to fear, to labor, to hold fast? Is this not a severe strain upon the nervous system?” It might be so if the exhortations ended here, but last of all the apostle comes in with the very source of our strength and capability, in Hebrews 4:16. We are not left to ourselves. We are not spending a strength at once limited and begrudged.
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
We are to approach boldly and confidently. The allusion to the high priest and his office on the day of atonement is here kept up, for the approach refers to the kapporeth (Strongs 3722, 3727), the propitiatory or mercy seat.
Here the apostle shows the superiority of the privileges of Christianity above Judaism, for there only the high priest, and he with fear and trembling, was permitted to approach, and that not without the blood of the victim. And if in anything he transgressed, he might be expected to be struck with death.
The throne of grace in heaven answers to the propitiatory or mercy seat, but to this throne all may approach with confidence in time of need through our great high priest
Jesus Christ who fully satisfied the claims of divine justice (R5966:4, QB 709:1). Mercy refers not to original sin but mercy to our daily trespasses of ignorance and weakness, without which there is no holding fast our confession, no possibility of entering into God’s rest (R4354:2, 5103:4, 5089:3, 4898:5, 4615:5)
We are to boldly enter in time of need, that is seasonably, before we are overwhelmed by temptations. The throne of grace is a throne of favor, privilege, strength, help, counsel, direction, support for the various experiences and trials of life, always with abundant and everlasting mercy.
If we have been fearing, laboring, holding fast, we shall be prepared to come in prayer with confidence to the source of divine energy. The object of prayer is to “find grace,” in other words, to find forgiveness, comfort, assurance that the divine power is at our disposal.
Every time is a time of need. Life is one cry of necessity or of pain. While every time is a time of need, there are undoubtedly times of special necessity, times of agony, supreme hours in which we need all the fullness of God. That throne is not an occasional resting place to be seen only now and then. It is established forever and is accessible at all times, day and night. The throne of grace was set up to meet the “time of need,” and in all the history of the consecrated Christian heart it has never been known to fail.
Let us therefore come boldly, let us hold fast, let us labor, and let us fear.
– Br. David Skein