Come and Go Sunday School Lesson with Dr. Frank Carver & Dr. Herb Prince “God Has Spoken--Part Two: Now What?--What We Are Not To Do!” from First Church of the Nazarene in San Diego, California, United States
GOD HAS SPOKEN
Part Two: Now What?
What we are not to do!
(Hebrews Thirty-One)[The following outline is that of Kevin L. Anderson, Hebrews: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition, New Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2013), 5-6.
I. Hearing the Apostle and High Priest of Our Confession: Hebrews 1:1—4:13
II. Jesus’ Superior High Priesthood: Hebrews 4:14—10:18
III. Call to Persevering Faith and Acceptable Worship: Hebrews 10:19--13:25
- Exhortations to Persevere in Faith, 10:19—12:13
- Confidence and Perseverance in Faith, 10:19-39
- Worthy Examples of Faith, 11:1-40
- Training for Enduring Faith, 12:1-13
- Exhortations to Offer Acceptable Worship, 12:14—13:25.]
Hebrews 10:26 For if we deliberately continue to sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but only the terrifying prospect of Judgment, of raging fire that will consume the enemies.[Hebrews 10:27 Isaiah 26:11]
28 Someone who disregards the Torah of Moshe is put to death without mercyon the word of two or three witnesses.[Hebrews 10:28 Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15] 29 Think how much worse will be the punishment deserved by someone who has trampled underfoot the Son of God; who has treated as something common the blood of the covenant[Hebrews 10:29 Exodus 24:8]which made him holy; and who has insulted the Spirit, giver of God’s grace!
30 For the One we know is the One who said,
“Vengeance is my responsibility;
I will repay,”
and then said,
“Adonai will judge his people.”[Hebrews 10:30 Deuteronomy 32:35–36]
31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!
Hebrews 10:31: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of
the living God.”
We have to constantly acquire what we inherit.[P. T. Forsyth, Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1980 [reprint from1907 edition by A. C. Armstrong and Son]), 17.]
“For those who are a little behind the theological curve, God is still a God of judgment.”[ Steve Rodeheaver, reflecting for his friends on his Sunday sermon ( March 21, 2015).]
Introduction
Many moons ago when we began our study of Hebrews, we noted that it was like a sermon in nature and structure—“my word of exhortation” (13:22) wrote the preacher. At the heart of Hebrews is a theology, an exposition of the foundational truth of the Gospel, “a Son . . .” Authentic Christian preaching never strays far from Christology, from the truth that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” (2 Cor. 2:19). Here, at the Incarnation, brought to its climax in the Cross and Resurrection, “the holy” intimately touches us.
Paragraphs of exhortation--words of encouragement and words of warning--break in from time to time into the Hebrews writer’s Christology, and therefore into his theological proclamation,[ “If we have not a sound Christology, we cannot have a sound theology either,” insists D. M. Baillie, God Was in Christ: An Essay on Incarnation and Atonement (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1948), 65.] The author sows these almost seamlessly throughout his theological expositions; from 10:19 on they break out in full force. Put all this together and we have a sermonic proclamation that can be described as
one of the most beautifully written, powerfully argued, and theologically profound writings in the New Testament. Its anonymous author summons readers to a vision of reality and a commitment of faith that is at once distinctive, attractive, and disturbing.[Luke Timothy Johnson, Hebrews: A Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003), 1. These words open his commentary on Hebrews.]
The theme of “judgment,” appearing only once before in Hebrews (9:27), dominates today’s text. Its presence here in a warning passage is a first. Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of verses 26-27 thrusts the reality of divine judgment vividly before us:
If we give up and turn our backs on all we have learned, all we’ve been given, all the truth we now know, we repudiate Christ’s sacrifice and are left on our own to face the Judgment—and a mighty fierce judgment it will be![Eugene H. Peterson, The Message Remix: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: Alive Communications, Inc., 2003), 2196,]
The NRSV translates the reference to God’s judgment as “a fearful prospect of judgement.” The ominous presence of divine judgment winds its way throughout the biblical record as an inescapable thread. Two preliminary aspects are at the core of judgment in Scripture. First, if God is holy, if he is a God of moral integrity, he takes sin seriously. He does not simply overlook sin as an easy-going, mild, and loving God for whom our sins do not matter—he is solely a God who loves us always and anyway! But if we inhabit a moral universe, sin has consequences that must be faced by both parties—human and divine.
Wesleyan theologians, when at their best, define God not just as “Love,” but as “Holy Love.” I find it most significant that when Jesus gave us the petition “forgive us our sins” at the heart of the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:4), he is gathering up our lives into one comprehensive bundle in relation to God.[ Is not this the essential truth in the Psalmist’s prayer, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts” (139:23)?] God in Christ has come to us that we may be a forgiven and a forgiving people!
Second, if God is truly present in human affairs as “the gospel of God” declares (Rom. 1:1), there is not only a “realized eschatology” of salvation—the future kingdom of God breaking effectively into our present lives, there is also a “realized eschatology of judgment”: in the Gospel “the wrath of God is [being revealed] from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness.” The future judgment of God is already operative in human affairs in the measure that we mortals “suppress the truth” of God (Rom. 1:18) in act and thought. So Paul teaches as he writes to the Church at Rome.
Now to the warning passage before us--not unrelated to the exhortation that precedes it:
And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, ad all the more as you see the Day approaching (10:24-25).
I.
The Warnings
A prime interpretive rule as we look quickly at the warning passages thus far in Hebrews is that the warnings are not those of the condemnation of past behaviors; rather, they are warnings related to what is “not yet.” They are not accusations but forcible reminders of “danger ahead.” Viewing them all together as they appear in Hebrews 1:1—10:31 will help us understand any one of them:
Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. For if the message declared through angels was valid, and every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty, how can we escape if we neglect so great a salvation (2:1-3).
Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.
Therefore as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
as on the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your ancestors put me to the test,
though they had seen my works for forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.
As in my anger I swore,
They will not enter my rest.’”
Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. . . . And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief (3:6-12, 18-19).
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
“As in my anger I swore,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’”
Though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. . . . So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; . . . Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.
Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account (4:1-3; 9, 11-13).
Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God, instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And we will do this, if God permits. For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt. Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over (6:1-8).
For if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.” How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified, and outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know the one who said, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (10:26-31).[The only strictly warning passage in the remainder of Hebrews is 12:25-29. The exhortations in the whole of chapter 12, however, can be interpreted as implied warnings in the light of vv. 25-29 that function as their conclusion.]
As one bundle, the basic meaning of the warnings in Hebrews is clear: “Now that God has fully revealed himself in an incarnate Son, who, having in his death and resurrection provided full forgiveness for and cleansing from human sins and sinfulness, and as such is now and forever in the heavenly presence of God for our sakes, we are to hold fast our present faith in Christ. There is no future in in going back to what we have left behind, from the final to the preliminary, for then there remains no other ‘sacrifice for sins’ other than ‘the blood of Jesus’ (10:19), only ‘a fearful prospect of judgment’”!
II.
The Warning
1.
A few details unique to vv. 26-31 are worthy of attention. Obvious and up front is that when our author opens our warning passage with “if we willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,” he does not deal with the question of “what if we cease our willful sinning”? The preacher does not want to dilute the impact of his warning that begins and closes with the fearfulness of God’s judgment.
2,
The Hebrews preacher sets the seriousness of this warning against a progressive three-fold background. In all three instances, he employs a legal form of argument, moving from the lessor to the greater. Beginning in chapter 2, he appeals to the validity of “the message declared through angels” to stress the spiritual danger of the neglect of “so great a salvation.”
In chapter 3:7-19, the preacher’s appeal is set in the context of the reader’s Israelite ancestors who had crossed the wilderness; just before them was the rest of the Promised Land. There in plain sight of Canaan they failed to enter because they were “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin,” possessing “an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.” The generation that had been miraculously delivered out of Egypt and led to Mount Sinai was “ unable to enter because of unbelief.” These were the folk to whom the LORD said at the foot of the mountain, “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself” (Exod. 19:4),
In our warning passage, the writer’s appeal turns to the role of Moses at Sinai to whom the Law was given for God’s people. He reminds his readers that under Old Covenant “anyone who has violated the law of Moses dies without mercy ‘on the testimony of two or three witnesses’”--so inherently was the law connected with the person and the presence of God on the Mount.[Immediately following the giving of the Ten Commandment on Mount Sinai (Exod. 20:1-17), comes an explanation of their meaning: “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.’ The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was” (NIV). Bold type is my emphasis.]
The writer is recalling to his readers his argument from 7:1 on where the entire revelation through Moses, its laws, its sacrifices, and its priesthood were shown to be inadequate and transcended by the high priesthood of a Son who “always lives to make intercession . . . in the presence of God on our behalf” (7:25; 9:24).
3.
With the above in mind, the author employs the most forcible terms he can find to define the actions of those who “willfully persist in sin after having received the knowledge of the truth.” By such “deliberate, persistent, and with full knowledge”[Anderson, Hebrews 280.] unbelieving behavior such folk would spurn “the Son of God,” profane “the blood of the covenant by which they were sanctified,” and outrage “the Spirit of grace.”
The grievous sin warned against is thus not merely missing the mark of the best that one knows, that is, an occasional ethical or moral lapse, but the freely chosen sin of apostasy. It is “willfully” turning away from the “truth” enshrined in “the community that is defined by the true God.” [Johnson, Hebrews, 261.] There is great danger in the “abandonment of the Christian community.”[NIV: “How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace.”]
Such inconceivable behavior, the three verbs (“spurned . . . profaned . . . outraged”) describe as trampling underfoot “the Son of God” (4:14; 6:6; 7:3), treating as an unholy thing “the blood of Jesus” (10:19; 9:14) and insulting “the Spirit of grace,” spoken of earlier as “the eternal Spirit” through which Christ offered himself to God for us (9:14).[Hebrews uses here the exact words of the LXX (Septuagint) but applies them differently. In its Old Testament context, the Song of Moses (Deut. 32:36; also Ps. 135:14) as Anderson, Hebrews, 283-284, comments: “celebrates God’s defense of his honor and his faithfulness in protecting and vindicating Israel. In a curious twist, Hebrews uses the oracle to remind readers that God will turn his judgment on his people.” Similar language is used in 1 Peter 4:17.]
4.
No wonder that the preacher proclaims “a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” As a metaphor for divine judgment throughout the Old Testament, “divine fire” finds its proper and full meaning in the ministry of Jesus as declared by John the Baptist:
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire (Luke 3:16-17).
Quoting a severe Old Testament judgment, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay” (Deut. 32:35) and reinterpreting another, “The Lord will judge his people” (Deut. 32:36),[Hebrews uses here the exact words of the LXX (Septuagint) but applies them differently. In its Old Testament context, the Song of Moses (Deut. 32:36; also Ps. 135:14) as Anderson, Hebrews, 283-284, comments: “celebrates God’s defense of his honor and his faithfulness in protecting and vindicating Israel. In a curious twist, Hebrews uses the oracle to remind readers that God will turn his judgment on his people.” Similar language is used in 1 Peter 4:17.] the Hebrews author concludes with what is “possibly the most ominous statement in Scripture”[Anderson, Hebrews, 284.]: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” The living God (3:12) is fearsome precisely because, like his own word (4:12-13), “he sees deeply and truly into the heart of his own creatures, and demands of them a truth commensurate with his own.”[Johnson, Hebrews, 266-267,]
This declaration is so “chilling in its simplicity,”[Johnson, Hebrews, 266] that, mixing metaphors, the image which crosses my mind is a time on the Island of Hawaii at the Kilauea Volcano. We walked gingerly across black cinders and looked down into the volcano’s bowels at the red hot lava, churning, boiling, consuming. How can something so unimaginably hot be so chilling? To top off all his warnings, our author concludes in chapter 12:29 with
indeed our God is a consuming fire!
Conclusion
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Appendix
The Apostle Paul, announcing the revelation in the Gospel of “the wrath of God . . . against those who by their wickedness suppress the truth,” declares three times that “God gave them up” (Rom. 1:18-32):
Therefore God gave them up to the lust of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies’ among themselves (v.24). . . .
For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions (v. 26). . . .
God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not done (v. 28).[Bold type is mine.]
The late brilliant British scholar C. H. Dodd, in his commentary on Romans 1:18-32, compares this threefold judgment that “God gave them up” with the Hebrews writer’s “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Dodd comments that
Paul, with a finer instinct sees that the really awful thing is to fall out of his hands, and to be left to oneself in a world where the choice of evil brings its own moral retribution.”[C. H. Dodd, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, The Moffat New Testament Commentary (London: Collins, 1959), 55.]
I believe that we should let Paul have the last word about the judgment of God. I see him interpreting the biblical theme of judgment with its terrifying imagery in an even more terrifying way—one supremely moral. The judgment of a God of holy love against us consists primarily of allowing us to have the quality of character and of life that we have chosen—“a fearful thing” in this life and the next!
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