Bible Commentaries
Hebrews 3

Verses 1-16

XX

CHRIST GREATER THAN MOSES AND JOSHUA, AND THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH GREATER THAN THE JEWISH SABBATH

Hebrews 3-4.

This discussion commences at Hebrews 3. The "wherefore" refers to statements made in the preceding chapter, and particularly to the latter part of Hebrews 2, which opens the discussion of Christ’s priesthood, a matter that will again be taken up at length. It was introduced there simply in connection with the argument showing the superiority over angels.

"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling," that is, who have been called from heaven to the world to come. It may be called heavenly because the call issues from heaven, and because the call is to heaven. In view of what has been said, "consider the apostle and high priest." An apostle is one sent to bear witness to the truth and to teach the truth, as expressed in chapter I – "hath in these last days spoken unto us through his Son." Jesus was the one sent to be the prophet. "Consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, even Jesus." That is to say, when one makes a profession of religion, he makes an open confession before witnesses that Christ is his prophet, his sacrifice, his priest, his judge, and his king. Paul is making an appeal to that first ceremonial qualification of church entrance – confession first, then baptism. Before you were received into the church you made a public profession or confession of Christ as your Saviour. So see what you are to consider – even Jesus.

What are we to consider about him? "He was faithful to him that appointed him, as also was Moses in all his house." He is preparing to institute another comparison. These Jews were about to abandon Christianity and go back to Judaism and this whole letter is to show the folly of such a course. One reason for their going back was their undue magnifying of Moses. In one particular Christ and Moses are alike – they were both faithful to the One who appointed them.

But we come to a point of difference: "For he hath been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by so much as he that built the house hath more honor than the house." That is the first point of distinction between Christ and Moses. Moses is a part of the house, but Christ built the whale house. The house he is talking about is the antitype of the tabernacle – the true church, the church of which every converted man in the world from the beginning of time to the end of time will be a member. That is the house that Jesus is building. "He is counted worthy of more glory than Moses by so much as he that built the house hath more honor than the house, for every house is builded by some one, but he that built all things is God." Again, "Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were afterward to be spoken, but Christ is a Son over his house." That is the second point of distinction – Moses was only a servant in the house, while Christ was a Son over the house.

Already in Colossians and Ephesians we have pointed out how Christ was head over all things to the church, whether as an institution, a particular church, or the church in glory. Christ is over even the typical shadows of the Old Testament. But to show you what house he has in mind he says: "Whose house are we." This accords with a previous statement to the Corinthians: "Ye are God’s building;" "ye are the temple of God" – the spiritual house which Christ built. So here: "Whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorifying of our hope firm unto the end." That is to gay, whosoever does not persevere unto the end is not God’s.

"He that overcometh is heir to all things." All through this epistle he discusses religion in two distinct views: First, of profession; second, of reality. Only those who possess the internal reality really belong to Christ, and are a part of ibis house. "Whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end." This letter uniformly presents the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, not from the starting point in profession, but in the outcome. He only is a true Christian who is faithful unto death.

The earthly church consists of professors. Whether profession was true or false is determined by the issue. He illustrates by quoting that remarkable psalm of David – Psalms 95:7-11: "Today, if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me by proving me, and saw my works forty years; wherefore, I was displeased with this generation, and said, They do always err in their hearts: But they did not know my ways; as I sware in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest." (Hebrews 3:15).

It is very important to notice the significance of this passage. These two thoughts in it are: First, God had an ostensible people whom he led out of Egypt toward a country ahead of them – a place promised to the believing and faithful as a land of rest. The majority of them never got there – they were always erring in their hearts, and did not know God’s way. They did not have the true faith, and because they did not they were destroyed on the way.

The second thought is: That as were the fathers so were the descendants in David’s day, therefore the psalmist said to them: "Today, if ye hear his voice, harden not your hearts with unbelief, as your fathers did when they provoked God in the wilderness." This whole book shows that whoever failed in getting the good rest, failed from lack of faith. They did not have a faith that would stick. It was a temporary faith, which did not take hold of the power of the world to come.

We may readily foresee Paul’s application: "You professing Hebrews, I call your attention to the reason your fathers failed in the wilderness and also their descendants in David’s time; they professed outwardly, but apostatized because they were without true, persistent faith in God. Like them, you have professed, but it seems that some of you will fall short through unbelief." The church on earth cannot see and judge the heart. They receive members on credible profession.

Hence the exhortation: "Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief in falling away from the living God: but exhort one another day by day so long as it is called today." That is to say, there comes a time in every man’s life when his opportunities cease. With most people that time is at death, but with those who happen to sin against the Holy Ghost, it ceases before death. Jesus had that thought in his mind when, weeping over Jerusalem, he said: "Oh, if thou hadst known the day of thy visitation I"

When a man is in doubt as to his status – and sometimes good people do doubt their status in the sight of God – you may rest assured that the status is not determined by their doubt or confidence. You may be so confident that never a shadow of doubt rolls across your mind, or you may be so far gone that, like the Laodiceans, there is never a sense of need. That is false confidence. Or you may be apprehensive when there is no need to be so. He calls attention to this: "Lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." Sin is exceedingly deceitful, and whenever a man imagines that he is exempt from being imposed upon by sin he is apt to get into trouble. For instance, sin will tell a man: "You are a little out of the way, but not much – you can get back easily. I only ask you to step over here and walk in the shade instead of upon the hard, hot highway." He is beguiled and deceived – beguiled until finally his heart is hardened, and he is insensible to warning impression. Let us get that thought clearly before us.

A lady once determined to get up early in the morning, and go bought an alarm clock. She set the alarm for exactly 6 o’clock, and when it rang she got up. The next time when she heard it ring she waited a little while before getting up. The next time she waited a little longer, and while waiting she fell asleep. After that it never disturbed her.

Whoever disregards an alarm soon quits hearing it. If we go toward a light it gets brighter; if we go from it, it gets feebler. If we go toward a fire, we get more and more of its heat, while if we go away from it, we lose the power of its heat. Sin blunts the conscience. Take Nero, for instance. When a young man he would weep if he stepped on a worm and crushed it unthoughtedly, but after continual indulgence in sin and crime he could dance and make music over his mother whom he had murdered, and could actually enjoy driving between parallel lines of burning Christians. That is what is meant by hardening the heart. "Take heed, lest through the deceitfulness of sin, you shall be hardened in unbelief." Their unbelief was arising largely from the fact that Christ did not come when they thought he ought to come. It had been preached to them that he was coming, and they had fixed dates for his coming, but as date after date failed, they began to disbelieve the whole thing.

"We become partakers of Christ if we hold fast our boldness and the glory of our hope firm unto the end." There is your solution. You want to know whether you are a partaker of Christ. You are if you hold fast to the end. If before you get to the end you turn loose and quit, you are not a partaker of Christ. I repeat the old proverb: "When you see a star fall you may know it is not a star." That expresses the thought exactly. Stars do not fall. Meteors fall, and they look like stars, but if one falls it is not a atar. We are partakers of Christ if we hold fast to the end.

He repeats David’s exhortation, and he uses it a great deal more before he gets through. "While it is said, Today if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. That fits this case just as well as the people of David’s time, or the people in the wilderness. Some through lack of true faith – through unbelief – did not get there, and it will be so in your case." "For who, when they heard, did provoke? Did not all they that came out of Egypt by Moses? And with whom was he displeased forty years? Was it not with them that sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware he that they should not enter the rest, but to them that were disobedient? And we see that they were not able to enter in because of their unbelief." Moses had charge of that crowd. "Let us fear, therefore, lest haply a promise being left of entering into the rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they: but the word of hearing did not profit them, because it was not united by faith with them that heard. For we who have believed do enter into that rest: even as he hath said, As I sware in my wrath they shall not enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." There we see the point of his exhortation. Never from the beginning of this letter until the end does he vary from this thought – that final apostasy is decisive proof that they were never Christians. This brings us to a new item in the analysis:

CHRIST SUPERIOR TO JOSHUA
As Christ is superior to angels and Moses, so he is superior to Joshua. Joshua indeed led the people into the earthly Promised Land, but the conquest was not complete. Through unbelief they left much territory in the hands of their enemies, which plagued them for generations, and ultimately brought about their loss of the whole land, as Moses had foreshown. Joshua indeed secured for the people a rest at the end of his wars (Joshua 11:23), but the rest was not the true rest, it was only temporary, as the dark period of the Judges shows. So that in summing up the work of Joshua, great as it was, we find these defects:

1. It led to an earthly Canaan.

2. This Canaan was not all conquered.

3. The rest attained was only temporary. But our Lord, the Captain of our Salvation, leads to a heavenly Canaan. His conquest is complete. His rest is glorious and eternal. In this connection, the author passes to a new thought – a comparison of memorials, which brings us to consider another item of the analysis:

THE SABBATH-KEEPING OF THE NEW COVENANT
The whole matter is found in Hebrews 4:4-11. The interpretation is confessedly difficult, and the best of scholars differ widely as to the import. The reader will understand that the views now presented are not urged dogmatically, but are offered for fair consideration along with variant views. Take them at their intrinsic value and form your own judgment. First of all, read the whole passage carefully and particularly, and note the following words in the original:

1. The word "rest" – Greek, katapausis, (Hebrews 3:11; Hebrews 3:18; Hebrews 4:1; Hebrews 4:3; Hebrews 4:8; Hebrews 4:10-11).

2. "The seventh day" – Greek, hebdome, (Hebrews 4:4).

3. "Another day" – Greek, alla hemera, (Hebrews 4:8).

4. "Sabbath-keeping" – Greek, sabbatismos, (Hebrews 4:9).

The difficulty of interpretation has resulted from three causes:

1. A failure to note the contrast between the "seventh day" in Hebrews 4:4, and "another day" in Hebrews 4:8.

2. In translating sabbatismos in Hebrews 4:9 as if it were kaiapausis. Uniformly in all the context when the apostle means "the rest" in any sense he uses the katapausis. The change to sabbatismos is inexplicable if he means the same thing. But sabbatismos is a verbal noun, and means "the keeping of a sabbath," and so explains the contrast between "the seventh day," as appointed of old, and "another day" foretold in the prophetic psalm.

3. In arbitrarily referring to the pronouns, "O," autou and autos in Hebrews 4:10 to the Christian, instead of to Christ as the true antecedent.

In the deliberate judgment of the author there is no Justification for any one of those three things. The idea of the context is:

1. God rested after creating the world, and appointed the seventh day to be kept in commemoration.

2. The prophets foretold "another day" instead of the seventh, to commemorate a greater rest, following a greater work than creation.

3. Into this greater rest Joshua never led the Jewish people.

4. But our Lord, having finished the work of redemption on the cross, he himself rested from the work on the first day of the week, as God had done from his own on the seventh.

5. To this cross he nailed the whole typical sabbatic cycle, taking it away (Hosea 2:11; Colossians 2:14-17).

6. Therefore, in commemoration of the glorious rest following the greater work of redemption there remaineth a sabbath-keeping to the people of God. The reader is urged to reread the last sermon in my first book of sermons for full discussion of this point.

7. It was necessary for the argument, to show the Jew who was glorying in his sabbath day, that the Christian had a great sabbath day.

He closes the chapter with this statement: "Having then a great high priest, who hath passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession." We confessed faith in Christ; they confessed faith in Joshua, were led into the Promised Land, and in the book of Joshua we are told that they had rest. But it was a very temporary rest, and was not the real Promised Land that the man of faith saw all of the time. Abraham saw far beyond Canaan. He never got as much of that land as he could cover with his foot. He sought a city which hath foundations, and whose builder and maker is God. Another reason is that our High Priest is touched with the feeling of our infirmities because be has been in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Now comes the exhortation: "Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help us in time of need." The whole letter has this end in view – to stir up, to put to full test what is worked in you. If you are God’s child you will hear the exhortation and hold on. If you are not God’s child, your heart will become hardened in unbelief, and you will turn loose and go back.

QUESTIONS

1. In what particulars is Christ superior to Moses?

2. What the two distinct views of religion in this book?

3. What Paul’s application of these views to the ones addressed in this letter?

4. What is his exhortation based thereon?

5. What of the Christian’s doubts relative to his status?

6. What is the warning relative to the deceitfulness of sin? Illustrate

7. What is the evidence that any one is a partaker of Christ as taught in this book?

8. Of what exhortation of David does Paul make frequent use in this letter, and what the point of his exhortation?

9. In what particulars is Christ superior to Joshua?

10. What the crucial Greek words in Hebrews 4 bearing on the change of the sabbath day?

11. What the three causes constituting the difficulty of interpretation?

12. Can there be a sabbath day, not the seventh?

13. Who is the antecedent of the pronouns, "he," the first "his" and himself" of Hebrews 4:10, and what is the argument therefore?

14. What is the several historical backgrounds of the seventh-day sabbath?

15. What is the historical background of the Christian sabbath?

16. Paraphrase Hebrews 4:9-10 so as to bring out the meaning.

17. What scriptural proof that the seventh-day sabbath and all its cycle of sabbaths was abrogated?

18. What name was given the Christian sabbath, and what the proof of its observance?

19. What are Paul’s exhortations in the closing part of this chapter, and what the application of each?

20. What is the purpose of the letter as seen from the closing part of this chapter?

Verse 8

XXIX

EXHORTATIONS AND SPECIAL PASSAGES

All New Testament exhortation is based on antecedent statement of doctrine. In Hebrews the whole letter is a succession of doctrines and exhortations – first a doctrine, then its application. In some respects, then, is it a model in homiletics.

1. It shows the relation between dogma and morals. There can be no morals apart from dogma. To leave out dogma undermines morality.

2. Dogma, as a mere theory, is valueless. Its power lies in its application to practical life, governing thought, emotion, imagination, words, and deeds in all of life’s relations to God home, country, and the universe.

The present-day ministry has deteriorated in the power of exhortation based on vivid conceptions of great and definitive doctrines concerning God, law, sin, salvation, heaven, and hell.

The first exhortation in this letter is an exhortation to earnest attention: "Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them. For if the word spoken through angels proved stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard?" (Hebrews 2:1-3). The doctrinal basis of this exhortation is all chapter I, setting forth our Lord’s threefold sonship, by eternal subsistence, by his incarnation, by his resurrection, and his threefold superiority over the universe, over the angels, and over the prophets. The precise tendency against which this exhortation warns is to "drift away" from great truths. Any steady lateral pressure which insidiously swerves a floating object from a given direction, and causes drifting, as a prevalent wind, an ocean current or undertow, rapids in a river leading to a fall, or the suction of a whirlpool. Inherited depravity, the course of this world, the temptations of Satan, the increasing power of evil habits until they become second nature – in a word, the world, the flesh, and the devil constitute the drifting power, or trend away from salvation. The danger of neglecting this exhortation is that we are carried away unwittingly until there is no escape forever. The great majority of life’s irreparable disasters are brought about by "drifting away" through "heedlessness" and "neglect."

The element of the greatness in this salvation is deliverance of the entire man, soul and body, forever, from the guilt, defilement, love, and dominion of sin, into an eternal and most blessed state of reconciliation and companionship with God. The historical argument against any hope of escape if this salvation be neglected is that from Sinai to Christ’s advent every word of the law disposed by angels proved steadfast, and every transgression was justly punished. The historical instances of this penalty of the law and of the prophets are numerous. The applied logic of this history is as follows:

By so much as Christ is greater than angels or prophets; by so much as his revelation is more complete and the light of his gospel brighter; by so much as it is better accredited; by so much as it is final where theirs was transitional and educational – by that much is its penalty surer and severer. The second exhortation (Hebrews 3:8) is against "hardening the heart." There is a relation between "drifting" and "hardening:" "Drifting" precedes and tends toward "hardening," which is a more dangerous state. By "hardening" is meant a blunting of the moral perceptions, a growing callousness to spiritual sensations, tending to the condition of “past feel- ing." According to the context "an evil heart of unbelief" operating through the "deceitfulness of sin" causes hardening. This deceitfulness consists in misconstruing the grace of delay in punishment as immunity altogether, as saith the prophet: "Because sentence against an evil deed is not speedily executed, the heart of the sinner is fully set in him to do evil."

The third exhortation is found in Hebrews 4:11 thus: "Let us labor therefore to enter into the rest." The doctrinal basis of this exhortation is that as God rested from creation, commemorating it by a sabbath day, so Jesus rested after the greater work of redemption, commemorating it by appointing a new day for sabbath-keeping.

The fourth exhortation (Hebrews 4:14) is this: "To hold fast to our confession." The doctrinal basis is the fact that Jesus, our High Priest, has entered into the heavenly holy of holies to make atonement and intercession for us.

The fifth exhortation (Hebrews 4:16) is to come boldly to the throne of grace for mercy and help in every time of need. The doctrinal basis of this exhortation is the fact that our High Priest is touched with a feeling of our infirmities, having been in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.

The occasion for the sixth exhortation is that they were in a state of arrested development, remaining "babes in Christ" when they ought to have been teachers, and so not only unprepared to receive the higher grades of Christian knowledge, but they were unable to discern between good and evil because their spiritual senses had not been exercised; hence they were continually tempted to try to rub out and make a new start from the very beginning (see Hebrews 5:11-14). This reminds us of the three classes into which our Lord divided his flock: (1) Lambs, Greek: arnia, i.e., new converts; (2) Sheep, Greek probata i.e., mature Christians; (3) Little sheep, Greek (best manuscript): "probatia," i.e., Christians stunted in growth (see John 21:15-19). These Hebrews were "little sheep."

The phrase "by reason of use" is illustrated by the senses or faculties, or muscles which increase in power by use, or go into bankruptcy by disuse. Certain Chinese families, training the sense of touch for generations, can tell colors of cloth fabrics in the dark by feeling. It is said also that certain Japanese dentists, by long training of the muscles of thumb and forefinger, extract teeth, using the hand alone as forceps. Again, the prophet, referring to the second nature of long continued evil habits, says "As the Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor a leopard his spots so one accustomed to do evil cannot learn to do well."

This sixth exhortation is to leave the first principles, not attempting the relaying of foundations, but go on to maturity, (Hebrews 6:1). The first principles of Christian oracles are the foundation of repentance and faith, the teaching of baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment (Hebrews 6:2).

Repentance and faith are called a foundation because without them one can neither be a Christian nor be saved. Therefore the folly of attempting to relay this foundation, since it is never laid but once, which Paul hypothetically states thus: "For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance" (Hebrews 6:4-6).

This passage has several interpretations as follows:

1. John Bunyan held that the "enlightening," "tasting," and "partaking" of this passage refer to illumination and conviction by the Holy Spirit which did not eventuate in regeneration. This view the author rejects because the passage also supposes genuine repentance as well as "illumination" and "conviction," else why say it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance? Moreover, he disconnects the force of "being made partakers of the Holy Spirit" and "tasting of the powers of the world to come."

2. Dr. Wilkes, a Methodist preacher, as the author heard him say, held that the passage certainly taught two things: (1) A genuine Christian may lose regeneration; and (2) if he does he can never be converted again.

3. The author holds that "the enlightening," "tasting," and "partaking" are equivalent to regeneration, and that the passage does teach that if regeneration were once lost it could never be regained, because, having exhausted the benefits of Christ’s crucifixion in the direction of regeneration, another regeneration would call for another crucifixion, but Christ, as a sin offering, dies but once; he is offered once for all. So the passage teaches "’Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame." It would be an open shame to Christ if a beneficiary of his salvation should lose it and thus vitiate the certainty of the Father’s promise to him and covenant with him. But that the statement is hypothetic appears from the apostle’s added words: "But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak"; "But we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition; but of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul." The object of the exhortation is so to influence the Christian to move on and not spend a lifetime as the foundation, for in any event this is folly.

To illustrate: Being present, as a visitor, at a Methodist meeting, I was invited to talk to some of the mourners. I approached a man who seemed to be weeping in great distress, and asked what was his trouble. His reply was, substantially: "I have been converted several times, but I always lose it." I assured him he was mistaken on one or the other of two points – either he was never genuinely converted, or he had never lost it – both could not be true. He replied: "I know I was converted, and I know I lost it." Then said I: "Why are you wasting time here; why shedding fruitless tears? If you are right on both points, then you are forever lost. You have exhausted the plan of salvation. Your only chance is for Christ to come and die again and send the Holy Spirit again, of which there is no promise, and even in that case there is no certainty for you unless he and the Holy Spirit should do more efficient work next time. I don’t desire to shake your positive, infallible knowledge that you have been regenerated and that you have lost it, but merely point out that in such case you are forever lost, just as certainly as if you were in hell now. Here, look at Hebrews 6:4-6, and see that I can do you no good, and so will pass on to cases not hopeless." "Don’t leave me," he said, "maybe I am mistaken on one of those points."

"Baptism" here is in the plural and there is a reference here, (1) To baptism in water (Matthew 28:19); (2) to baptism in fire, or eternal punishment (Matthew 3:10-12); (3) to baptism in the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5); (4) to baptism in suffering (Mark 10:39).

"The teaching of laying on of hands" refers: (1) To conferring of miraculous power by the laying on of hands of the apostles (Acts 8:17; Acts 19:6), which, accrediting of the apostles passed away with the apostles; (2) to the abiding requirement of laying on of hands in the ordination (1) for deacons (Acts 6:6), (2) for evangelists (Acts 13:3; 1 Timothy 4:14); and (3) for other preachers (1 Timothy 5:22).

From a peculiar interpretation of Hebrews 6:1-2 there arose a sect known as the "Six-Principle Baptists" who practiced laying hands on those who were baptized as an essential part of the form of the ordinance.

QUESTIONS

1. What the New Testament method of exhortation?

2. In what respects, then, is it a model in homiletics?

3. Wherein has the present-day ministry deteriorated?

4. What is the first exhortation in this letter, and what is its doctrinal basis?

5. What is the precise tendency against which this exhortation warns?

6. What are the causes of drifting?

7. What, in plain terms, constitute the drifting power, or trend away from salvation?

8. What is the danger of neglecting this exhortation?

9. What is your estimate of the relative proportion of life’s irreparable disasters brought about by "drifting away" through "heedlessness" and "neglect"?

10. What the element of greatness in this salvation?

11. What is the historical argument against any hope of escape if we neglect this salvation?

12. Cite historical instances of this penalty (1) of the law and (2) of the prophets.

13. What is the applied logic of this history?

14. Against what is the exhortation in Hebrews 3:8?

15. What is the relation between "drifting" and "hardening?"

16. What do you understand by "hardening?"

17. What do we find in the context as a cause of "hardening?"

18. In what does deceitfulness consist?

19. What is the exhortation relative to rest, and what its doctrinal basis?

20. What is the exhortation relative to confession, and what its doctrinal basis?

21. What is the exhortation relative to our need, and what the doctrinal basis?

22. What is the occasion of the exhortation relative to perfection?

23. Into what three classes did our Lord divide his flock, and of which class were these Hebrews?

24. Ex-pound the phrase "by reason of use."

25. What, then, is the exhortation relative to perfection?

26. What are the first principles of Christian oracles?

27. Why are repentance and faith called a foundation?

28. What is the folly of trying to relay this foundation, and what the doctrine involved?

29. How does Paul hypothetically state this?

30. What are the several interpretations of this passage?

31. Give an incident of the use of this passage by the author.

32. What is the meaning of "baptisms" used in this passage?

33. What is the meaning of "laying on of hands?"

34. What sect of Baptists arose from a peculiar interpretation of Hebrews 6:1-2, and what their construction of "laying on of hands?"

XXX

EXHORTATIONS AND SPECIAL PASSAGES (CONTINUED)

The seventh exhortation in this book is as follows: "Let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith – let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not – let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together, exhorting one another" (Hebrews 10:22-25). The doctrines that underlie this manifold exhortation are, (1) Christ has rent the veil hiding the holy of holies by his death, and dedicated for us a new and living way. (2) We have a great High Priest over the house of God. (3) The day of his final coming is rapidly approaching (Hebrews 10:19-21).

Here a question arises, Does "having our bodies washed with pure water" (Hebrews 10:22) refer to water baptism, and if so, what the bearing of the teaching? It is not clear that it has such reference. But if it does, it strongly supports the Baptist teaching, to wit: Our souls are cleansed by the application of Christ’s blood by the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Baptism in water only washes the body, and hence can only externally symbolize the internal cleansing. In this way Paul, internally cleansed, could arise and wash away his sins symbolically in baptism (Acts 22:16), or as Peter puts it: "Water, even baptism, after a true likeness doth now save us, not putting away the filth of the flesh [i.e., the carnal nature] but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:21). In other words, it is a figurative salvation, and the figure or likeness is that of a resurrection (see Romans 6:4-5). Paul’s reason for the seventh exhortation is expressed in the famous passage (Hebrews 10:26-29), the whole of which is an explanation of the eternal, unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit, very different from the gradual, unconscious sins of "drifting" and "hardening." Its conditions and characteristics are:

1. There has been great spiritual light and knowledge, thoroughly convincing the judgment of the truth of the gospel, and strongly impressing the mind to accept it.

2. It is a distinct and wilful rejection of the well-known light and monition of the Holy Spirit.

3. It is a culmination of sin against every person of the Trinity. (1) It is a sin against the Father in deliberately trampling under foot the Son of his love. (2) It is a sin against the Son in counting the blood of his expiation an unholy thing. (3) It is the sin against the Holy Spirit in doing despite to his grace who has furnished complete proof to the rejector’s conscience that it is God’s Son who is trampled under foot, and that the blood of his vicarious sacrifice alone can save.

4. Once committed, the soul is there and then forever lost, having never forgiveness in time or eternity, and knows that for him there is no more sacrifice for sin, and expects nothing but judgment and fiery wrath which shall devour the adversaries.

5. Let the reader particularly note that this sin cannot be committed except in an atmosphere, not merely of light and knowledge, but of spiritual light, knowledge and power, and that it is one wilful, malicious act arising from hate – hating the more because of the abundance and power of the light. The eighth exhortation is, "Cast not away your boldness" (Hebrews 10:35). The exhortation is based on appeal to their remembrance of the triumphs of their past experience. They had patiently endured a great conflict of suffering just after their conversion; they had been made a gazing stock both by reproaches and afflictions cast on them and by their sharing in the afflictions of their leaders. This is evident from the history of Paul’s labors among men. There was nothing in their present afflictions severer than those they triumphantly endured in their earlier experience.

The ninth exhortation is, "Therefore, let us also, seeing that we are compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself, that ye wax not weary, fainting in your souls" (Hebrews 12:1-3). The imagery here is that of a foot race, such as these people had often witnessed in the Isthmian Games at Corinth, or in the great amphitheater at Ephesus. "The race set before us" – the great example upon whom the runner must fix his eye – is Jesus, the author (or captain) and perfecter of our faith.

The force of the example of Jesus in Hebrews 12:2 is this:

He is set before us as the one perfect model or standard. A joy was set before him as a recompense of reward that when attained would make him the gladdest man in the universe. For this he voluntarily became the saddest man in the universe. Thus "the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" was "anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows;" "He saw of the travail of his soul and was satisfied." Here we are confronted with this double question: Does the phrase, "author and perfecter of our faith," mean that Jesus first inspires and then completes our individual faith – i.e., what he begins he consummates – or that he is the captain and completer of the faith in the sense that his completed victory is both cause and earnest of our own victory, as in Hebrews 2:10? The latter best accords with the import of the Greek word, archegos, used both here and in Hebrews 2:10, and with the whole context.

The word "witnesses" in Hebrews 12:1 means martyrs whose examples should excite our emulation, and accords with the meaning and usage of the Greek word marturos, which makes them witnesses to the truth and not spectators of what other people may do. Moreover, the biblical evidence is scant, if there be any at all, that departed souls are allowed to sympathetically intervene in the struggle of those left behind. Yet, by rhetorical license, in the exercise of the imagination, a poet, orator or writer may summon the dead to appear before the living for dramatic effect. But we go far when we seek to construct doctrine on rhetorical license. What is the "besetting sin" in Hebrews 12:1? It may not be the same in all cases. It is the sin to which one most easily yields whether pride, lust, covetousness, anger, vanity, or any other.

The tenth exhortation (Hebrews 12:4-13,) is, "Regard not lightly the chastening of the Lord, because (1) chastening is an evidence of sonship. (2) If we have borne arbitrary chastening from earthly parents, much more we will bear disciplinary chastening from our Heavenly Father. (3) While grievous at first, it yieldeth afterward peaceable fruit or righteousness, if rightly received.

Here come up the Creationist theory of the origin of human spirits and the Traducian theory. The Creationist theory is that the spirit of every human being born into the world is a direct creation of God, and only the body is derived from the earthly parent. The Traducian theory is that every child, in his entirety, spirit and body, is derived from his earthly parents, begotten in the likeness not only of bodily features but in spiritual state, otherwise man could not propogate his species, and every child would, in his inner nature, be born holy, not subject to inherited depravity and not needing regeneration until he became an actual transgressor hence needing only proper environment and training to grow up in holiness.

The passage in question is not decisive for either theory. God is the Father of spirits in that originally the spirit of man was not a formation from inert matter, but a special creation (see Genesis 2:7). Thus the whole race, body and spirit, was potentially in the first man, died body and spirit in him when he fell, and after his fall he "begat children in his likeness" body and spirit.

In Hebrews 12:12-13, "hands hanging down," "palsied knees," and "crooked paths" refer to the physical effects of spiritual depression or terror, the inner man acting on the outer. See case of Belshazzar (Daniel 5:6), and recall cases coming under your own observation in which discouragements or despondency of the spirit enfeeble the body. Some men, morally brave, are physically timid. A famous French marshal always trembled at the beginning of battle. On one occasion his officers rallied him on his shaking legs. He answered, "If my legs only knew into what dangers I will take them today, they would shake more than they do."

The eleventh exhortation (Hebrews 12:14 ff) is, "Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord." There are two hazards attending obedience to this exhortation, against which there are special cautions, as follows: (1) The springing up of a root of bitterness to defile many. (2) The spirit of profanity, or the despising of sacred things.

In our own experience or observation, cases arise of a single root of bitterness disturbing the peace of communities and retarding the sanctification of hundreds.

Profanity here means, not so much swearing as it does a spirit of irreverence in speaking of sacred things, and, sometimes interested lost souls are completely sidetracked by the levity and foolish jestings, and the questionable anecdotes of preachers in their hours of relaxation.

The author having often, in his early ministry, witnessed the wounding and shocking of sober-minded Christians and the loss of interest in awakened sinners caused by the foolish jestings in the preacher’s tent concerning sacred things, and sometimes by obscene anecdotes, entered into a solemn covenant with Dr. Riddle, the moderator of the Waco Association, never to tell nor willingly hear a doubtful anecdote. This covenant was made while camping out one night on the prairie in the light of the stars.

The twelfth exhortation and its doctrinal basis are found in Hebrews 12:28-29: "Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire.

I will group in classes the exhortation of Hebrews 13 as follows:

1. Love to brethren, strangers, and those in bonds.

2. Honor the sanctity of marriage.

3. Eschew the covetous spirit.

4. Hold in kind remembrance your leaders that have passed away.

5. Bear the reproach of Christ, even if it ostracises from worldly society.

6. Offer spiritual sacrifices of praise, confession, contribution, and prayer.

In closing this exposition there are two things worthy of note: First, The bearing of Hebrews 13:8 on the preceding verse, which means that preachers may come and go, but Jesus is ever the same. Second, The controversy arose over Hebrews 13:10, a controversy as to what is the Christian altar. Was it the cross on which Jesus was crucified? Then how can the altar be greater than the gift on the altar, as Christ taught? Was it Christ’s divinity on which his humanity was sacrificed? This controversy was a refinement of foolishness, because the altar under consideration is not supporting the expiating sin offering of which the priests were never allowed to have a part, but the altar to which non-expiatory offerings were brought, such as meat offerings, thank offerings, tithes etc. Of these the priests and Levites might partake. The meaning is simply this – that Christianity provides in its way for the support of its laborers through the voluntary offerings to Christ’s cause (see 1 Corinthians 9:13-14).

QUESTIONS

1. What is the exhortation in this book relative to faith, hope, and love?

2. What doctrines underlie this manifold exhortation?

3. Does "having our bodies washed with pure water" (Hebrews 10:22) refer to water baptism, and if so, what the bearing of the teaching?

4. How do you interpret Paul’s reason for this exhortation as expressed in Hebrews 10:26-29, which refers to the eternal sin?

5. What is the exhortation relative to boldness, and on what is it predicated?

6. What is the exhortation relative to weights, sins, etc., what its imagery, and what its elements?

7. What is the force of the example of Jesus in Hebrews 12:2?

8. What does the phrase "author and perfector of our faith" mean?

9. What is the meaning and import of "witnesses" in Hebrews 12:1?

10. What is the "besetting sin" in Hebrews 12:1?

11. What is the exhortation relative to chastening, and what its reasons?

12. What are the theories relative to the origin of human spirits, and what the bearing of this passage on the subject?

13. What is the meaning and force of "hand hanging down," "palsied knees," and "crooked paths?"

14. What is the exhortation relative to peace and sanctification?

15. What two hazards attending obedience to this exhortation?

16. Do you know of a case of a single "root of bitterness" disturbing communities and hindering sanctification?

17. What is the meaning of profanity here, and what illustration of the effect of such profanity given?

18. In what did Esau’s profanity consist?

19. What is the meaning of Hebrews 12:17? So, What the exhortation relative to grace, and what its doctrinal basis?

21. Group in classes the exhortations of Hebrews 13.

22. What is the bearing of Hebrews 13:8 on the preceding verse?

23. What controversy arose over Hebrews 13:10?

24. Why was this controversy a refinement of foolishness?