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Hebrews 6-Our Inheritance through Faith & Perseverance
I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you.
Hebrews 6:14; Genesis 22:17

What an inheritance we expect from God! A blessing passed on from generation to generation, then unto us and eventually to our heirs. No chosen people can claim any inheritance like the Jews.

From a detailed Commandment and covenants of scripture the LORD makes wondrous promises of inheritance to the generations. Trouble is, none of us are faithful – no not one. For we all sin against God and must often repent. This is reason enough for our sacrifice as part of our worship. It goes back to Genesis, the faith of Abraham in the beginning.

Faith beyond traditions

“THEREFORE,” begins the writer of Hebrews in this important transition of his letter, leave elementary school. And learn the important things of our faith beyond the obvious traditions and practices.

Two dangers confront believers.
- We stand where we are. We are chosen by God, we are ‘in,’ we were born into the right religion and family line. Heaven is assured for us (but not others) and God blesses me because of who I am.
- Or we turn back from where we ought to be. Call it ‘intentional sin,’ for we want nothing to do with God. No repentance, ever. And who cares about God’s inheritance?
The writer of Hebrews begins by asking us not to stand still in our elementary look at religion. We must repent of our ‘dead works,’ which we think ought to earn us a fair judgment.

Hebrews 6:

Therefore, let us leave the elementary teaching about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, faith in God…
Hebrews 6:1 CSB

Why do we need perseverance in our faith? Because just following the rules does not assure us eternal life.

2 teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Basics. These are the foundation of our elementary school. We know these practices, but these ritual works are not the steps of faith which lead to our inheritance.

4 For it is impossible to renew to repentance those who were once enlightened, who tasted the heavenly gift, who shared in the Holy Spirit… and who have fallen away.

Listen, here; for you know these who claim to be ‘christians.’

… they are recrucifying the Son of God and holding him up to contempt.
Hebrews 6:6B CSB

Beloved believers, he speaks of Jews who have come to know the Messiah and received the Holy Spirit. Yet they turn away from an inheritance of their eternal promise to stand on their own right works.

And dear Christian brothers and sisters, who does not know one recrucifying Christ with easy teachings denying Christ’s commandment?

Many despaired that Jesus did not come to the Jews taking the Throne of the Temple victoriously. Even now many Christians lament the same.

Christ came not to conquer a throne of Jerusalem, but to conquer sin and death upon the altar of sacrifice. For זָבַח the sacrifice is that which is given, slaughtered in divine judgment.

God’s love for the world

Who receives the blessings of God? John’s gospel also points toward this.

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be[e] children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent…
John 1:11-13a CSB

God blessed the Jews, but also blesses the gentiles. The writer of Hebrews uses the blessing of God’s rain as illustration. God’s blessing falls upon the good and the evil. (What will you do with this same blessing?)

7 For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; 8 but if it bears thorns and briers, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

He says, “We are confident of better things in you. God is not unjust and will not forget your work. He remembers your labors of love toward Him and toward the saints. (NOT Saints, revered examples of the faiths with a capital “S,” but saints, our beloved fellow followers of Christ.)

Ministering to the saints

For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
Hebrews 6:10 NKJV

We show our love of God through ministering to others who grow in His love. These saints in our midst receive the same rain by which the Lord blesses us.

Let us not become the thorns to be sifted into the fire of judgment.

He asks us to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of your hope until the end. Do others receiving rain turn against us? Or do they rail against the Lord, even persecuting some proclaiming Christ even to death? Yes, but death only of this flesh of dust, which has received the water and the Spirit.

We minister to our fellow saints,serving the Lord’s Holy messengers of the Spirit, fellow failing flesh given eternal life. And the writer gives us the reason.

12 … so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.

These saints some churches capitalize, “Saints,” as examples for us. Yet the call of Christ and scripture is to minister to the many ‘saints’ among us. For we are the church, saints in the flesh, are brothers and sisters of the Lord by the Spirit.

God’s Promise through Abraham

The writer of Hebrews makes clear that not even all followers of Moses received the promise. He now mentions how God guarantees His promise, referring back to Genesis 22.

God swore it; Abraham waited; his heir waited. And for what reason did the LORD swear this oath to Abraham of the promise?

That we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. [v.18]

We still expect God to act for us NOW. (Nothing has changed since Abraham and Moses.) Yet the LORD has purpose in blessing different generations with His more perfect will of eternal promise.

How does the writer of Hebrews link Abraham and the Messiah Jesus? Once again, he returns to the most symbolic Holy of Holies, which Moses later built.

This Hope as an anchor of the soul

19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. 20 Jesus has entered there on our behalf…

As our hopes and fears leave us tossed about in the depth and vastness of eternity; yet like a ship held secure, Christ holds us in place. He makes the most certain intercession for our soul in the Holiest place before God the Father.

20 Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Once again, the writer of Hebrews compares Jesus Christ to Melchizedek. He will follow this mature teaching through scripture in his next chapter.
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To be continued...
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January 31, 2019
That you may have Certainty – 7 – An outsider’s view from a Gentile
That you may have Certainty in these Uncertain Times

Our post-resurrection series is witness from the introduction of Luke-Acts and Jesus’ assurances to followers. In our previous post we pointed out: “The ultimate outsiders were Gentiles, and Luke emphasizes that God’s salvation extends even to them.” We began with a Hebrew view of a Gentile, noting that Prophets compared Jews who turned from the Lord to the Gentiles.

Today we will view the meaning of Gentile in the first century context of Luke. Judea, Samaria and other Roman-ruled provinces had all spoken Greek since Alexander’s rule in third century before Christ. Therefore we’ll take a cultural view of the Gentile from a Hellenist or Greek usage. (After all, most Greeks were considered Gentiles by Jews living in any land.)

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners – Paul’s letter to the Galatians 2:15

A Gentile in the time of Christ

Luke, of course, was born a Gentile. Yet Luke does not refer to any person as “a gentile” and Christ’s only naming a person as a gentile makes connection to a groups of people.

Matthew 18:17 ἐὰν δὲ παρακούσῃ αὐτῶν εἰπὲ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐὰν δὲ καὶ τῆς ἐκκλησίας παρακούσῃ ἔστω σοι ὥσπερ ὁ ἐθνικὸς καὶ ὁ τελώνης

If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

Matthew (a Jew and a tax collector) quotes Jesus’ instructions to the church (plural) about differences with individuals. Gentiles is a plural reference to nations not of Jewish heritage.

ἔθνος – ethnos
- a multitude (whether of men or of beasts) associated or living together
- a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus: the human family
- a tribe, nation, people group
- in the OT, foreign nations not worshiping the true God, pagans, Gentiles
- Paul uses the term for Gentile Christians
Strong’s Definitions
ἔθνος éthnos, eth’-nos; a race (as of the same habit), i.e. a tribe; specially, a foreign (non-Jewish) one (usually, by implication, pagan):—Gentile, heathen, nation, people.

Refer to someone as a gentile and we may not get it, but ethnos or ethnic we understand as culture. Luke’s gospel is clear witness of the importance of Jesus to both Jew and Gentile.

Luke 2:

30 for my eyes have seen your salvation
31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”

Luke expounds further on Jesus’ importance to the Nations (other ethnicities) in the Acts of the Apostles. Mathew’s gospel also addresses the ethnos of the Messiah and like Luke, also quoting a Prophet.

Matthew 4:

… he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14 so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
16 the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.”

17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

A Gentile not like us

Therefore, gentiles (ethnos) are those not like us. Different skin color, different language, different food, a different culture and yes, different gods.
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The following excepts are take from International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia
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Gentiles – jen’-tilz (goy, plural goyim; ethnos, “people,” “nation”): Goy (or Goi) is rendered “Gentiles” in the King James Version in some 30 passages, but much more frequently “heathen,” and oftener still, “nation,” … commonly used for a non-Israelitish people…

Under Old Testament regulations they were simply non-Israelites, not from the stock of Abraham, but they were not hated or despised for that reason, and were to be treated almost on a plane of equality, except certain tribes in Canaan…

But as we approach the Christian era the attitude of the Jews toward the Gentiles changes, until we find, in New Testament times, the most extreme aversion, scorn and hatred. They were regarded as unclean… All children born of mixed marriages were bastards.

If we inquire what the reason of this change was we shall find it in the conditions of the exiled Jews, who suffered the bitterest treatment at the hands of their Gentile captors and who, after their return and establishment in Judea, were in constant conflict with neighboring tribes and especially with the Greek rulers of Syria. The fierce persecution of Antiochus IV, who attempted to blot out their religion and Hellenize the Jews, and the desperate struggle for independence, created in them a burning patriotism and zeal for their faith which culminated in the rigid exclusiveness we see in later times.

A Centurion’s Faith

Perhaps the best illustration of Jesus’ love for the Gentiles comes from Luke’s story of an encounter initiated by genuine love of a Roman official for his Jewish servant. In it Jesus highlights an exemplary example of faith in this Gentile Roman.

Jesus returns home to Capernaum after teaching the people in other places. A Roman Centurion had messengers waiting to see Jesus. The local Jews in Capernaum understand both the message and the reason for this Gentile Roman soldier wanting to see Jesus. They had been asked to have Jesus come to heal this man’s servant.

Luke 7:

6 And Jesus went with them.

When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.

Jesus heals a Jewish servant of a Gentile (without even enter the servant’s room). Faith of the Roman Centurion illustrates the love of Jesus also, His great compassion. For the Jews of Capernaum had told Jesus of this man, ” “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.”

The local Jews praise a Roman Gentile for building a place to worship to the Lord. Think about it. A Gentile man of faith has already stood before Capernaum as an example of a man who loved others. This Gentile meets the Lord Jesus, who heals one he loves. Consequently Jesus says, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.”

Our Gentile faith

Jesus doesn’t look much like a Roman. For that matter our Lord does not look European or African or American. In so many ways Jesus does not look like other Jews or even Galileans. Yet He comes to you and encounters you personally.

Will the Lord find such faith in me or in you, even though we differ in so many ways?

In personal encounters with His followers for forty days Jesus has so much to tell Disciples now sent to all the nations. After His victorious Resurrection from the Cross of Sacrifice the Gospel is sent out not only to a faithful remnant of the Jews, but to the world. Gentiles of the generations have this same faith until His certain return that we are chosen by the Lord, Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 42:

The Lord‘s Chosen Servant

42 Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
    my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
    he will bring forth justice to the nations.
²He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice,
    or make it heard in the street;
³a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.
⁴He will not grow faint or be discouraged
    till he has established justice in the earth;
    and the coastlands wait for his law.

⁵Thus says God, the Lord,
    who created the heavens and stretched them out,
    who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
    and spirit to those who walk in it:
⁶“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
    I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
    a light for the nations,
⁷    to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
    from the prison those who sit in darkness.
⁸I am the Lord; that is my name;
    my glory I give to no other,
    nor my praise to carved idols.
⁹Behold, the former things have come to pass,
    and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
    I tell you of them.”

Faith’s Certainty in Christ

Jesus will send the Holy Spirit of the Lord to dwell with men and women of faith. He sends out disciples, Jews and Gentiles, in faith. The Lord IS the Good News, the Gospel of Light to those with eyes to see.

A Day of His return, the judgment of all flesh and restoration of all righteousness draws near. Shall His wrath not justify making the end of all sin and death?

Beloved believer, your sin and mine did cause His suffering and Sacrifice. Does your love for Jesus and faith anticipate the grace of His return?

Jesus IS LORD!

May He draw us together into the glory of His eternal love.

Amen.
May 10, 2018
Abraham, Prince of a Promise

Genesis 12:

6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

Moreh – excellent research, additional photos & insight linked to this photo

7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.”

Abram is no longer a Sheik of Ur. He is no longer a Sheik of the land between the rivers or of Haran. Abram is now a Prince only of promise. Yet the promise is from the Lord. Repeatedly, Abram worships the Lord. Consistently, Abram follows the command of the Lord by faith.

7b So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.

And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

—–

I ask you now, who are you following? Abram is no longer following his father. He is no longer following his family ways. Who are you following by faith? The Lord? Or perhaps some idol or false god in your life?

Though Abraham lived thousands of years ago, One Is before him, after him, and among us.

John 8:

56 “.. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”

57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”

58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

God IS! The Lord after Abraham identified Himself to Moses and the Hebrew descendants of Abraham as “I AM.” Jesus, the Lord makes this same true claim!

Hebrews 6:

The Certainty of God’s Promise

¹³For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, ¹⁴saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” ¹⁵And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

¹⁶For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. ¹⁷So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

¹⁹We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, ²⁰where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

A letter to the church reminds us of the promise of Abraham. Hebrews mentions Melchizedek, to whose story we will return in our next journey in Genesis. Jesus also points the focus of the Jews back to the faith of Abraham, in witness to His own identity. For Jesus clearly states, ‘Before Abraham was, I am.”

We cannot read of a life like Abraham or Jesus and imagine that it does not impact us personally, even today. The Jews looked to Abraham as example of God’s chosen forefather. Yet in Christ we look to God Incarnate, who was before Abraham, who is even now and who will be forever. We are not finished with our look back at Abraham or our look forward at Jesus.

To be continued…

NEXT: A tribute to Melchizedek

June 29, 2016