Come and Go Sunday School Lessons with Dr. Frank Carver & Dr. Herb Prince “God Has Spoken-Part Three: Now What?-What we are to do?” from first Church of the Nazarene in San Diego, California, United States
GOD HAS SPOKEN
Part Three: Now What?
What we are to do!
(Hebrews Thirty-Two)[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 10:32 But remember the earlier days, when, after you had received the light, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings. 33 Sometimes you were publicly disgraced and persecuted, while at other times you stood loyally by those who were treated this way. 34 For you shared the sufferings of those who had been put in prison. Also when your possessions were seized, you accepted it gladly; since you knew that what you possessed was better and would last forever.
35 So don’t throw away that courage of yours, which carries with it such a great reward. 36 For you need to hold out; so that, by having done what God wills, you may receive what he has promised. 37 For
“There is so, so little time!
The One coming will indeed come,
he will not delay.
38 But the person who is righteous
will live his life by trusting,
and if he shrinks back,
I will not be pleased with him.”[Hebrews 10:38 Habakkuk 2:3-4]
39 However, we are not the kind who shrink back and are destroyed; on the contrary, we keep trusting and thus preserve our lives!
Hebrews 10:38: “my righteous one will live by faith.”
Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faith (Hab. 2:4).
We do not indeed attain once for all,
but we are apprehended once for all.[P. T. Forsyth, The Person and Place of Jesus Christ (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1909), 257]
Introduction
“A physician who, after making a deep incision, employs gentle, soothing remedies to ease the pain,”[Anderson, Hebrews, 284.] wrote John Chrysostom (4th century). The Hebrews author’s rhetorical technique is similar. To put it another way, the preacher’s proclamation moves from a stress on holy love to an emphasis on holy love.[Reflecting loosely P. T. Forsyth’s statement that “the greatest human need is not only holy love, but holy love” in P. T. Forsyth, The Cruciality of the Cross (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1909), 168. The pagination is that of the Forgotten Books reprint, 2012.]
Our writer picks us up from “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (v. 31) and carries us in his arms to “you ‘are not among those who shrink back and so are lost’” (v. 39). In our passage, he begins with “Praise for Past Endurance” (vv. 32-34) and ends with an “Exhortation to Endure in Faith” (vv. 35-29).[These headings are from Anderson, Hebrews, 284, 288.] Like a true pastor, our preacher moves from “An Appeal to Memory” to “A Word of Encouragement.” “We are to endure” is his message. As he has stressed before, we are to “hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope,” (3:6), we are to “hold our first confidence firm to the end” (3:14), and we are to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering” (10:23).
To accomplish this, the writer challenges his readers first with
I.
An Appeal to Memory
10:32-34
32But recall those earlier days when, after you had been enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34For you had compassion for those who were in prison, and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.
The ability to remember is a precious possession for those of us who have graduated from “I know for sure” to “the best that I can recall.” We have all experienced the embarrassment of the lack of remembering in a given instance (any stories?).
We are reminded from past “Come and Go” discussions that biblically “to remember" the past is to transform the present. To remember is not a “casual recommendation of a mental exercise but a participation in a past made present.”[ Roland E. Murphy, “The Faith of the Psalmist,” Interpretation, Vol. xxxiv, No. 3 (July, 1980), 234.] When we recall the past to memory it becomes present to us. An insight came that grows more meaningful with the limitations of the years while writing the commentary on 2 Corinthians and reflecting on 1:11, “you also join in helping us by your prayers.” I share some of what I wrote:
Concretely, it helps to pray. At the same time, significantly, intercessory prayer is a fellowship, those for whom we pray and those who pray for us are by this means with us and we with them. Prayer means we need never be alone, not only in relation to God, but also in relation to others, whatever our physical circumstances.
Regardless of distance and time, we are never separated from a loved one or friend. Space and time have no power over the things of the spirit: [it has been said] that “everyone is with the one they love.” We can visit them every day! Intercessory prayer means they still belong to us, and we to them. We can “attend” to them; we can “hold” them in our prayers. Our “care” for them springs from the presence of Christ within us.[Frank G. Carver, 2 Corinthians: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition, New Beacon Bible Commentary (Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2009), 87.]
Here the preacher’s appeal to his readers’ to “remember” the past is not quite like our reliving our time with the gone-from-our-midst Marge Fisher, or bringing near the far away presence of Beth and George Weston. Rather, it is more like recalling one of the worst periods of our lives (no stories!). The past experience of the folk to whom Hebrews was directed was tough, they had “endured a hard struggle with sufferings.”
Can these readers now endure? Their past experience says “Yes”! “Yes, you can” is the inspired message. “Recall your past into your present!” Remember—bring into your hearts and minds the experiences that shaped and continue to shape your identity, who you are as Christians; they were those who “had been enlightened.”[This sentence is informed in part that of Johnson, Hebrews, 268.] In your case, you are those followers of Jesus, the Son of God, who have “endured a hard struggle with sufferings.”
The “sufferings” of these folk “who have once been enlightened” (6:4), who had become “partners of Christ” (3:14), and had “received the knowledge of the truth” (10:26) were multiple. Some in the community were “publicly exposed to abuse and persecution,” others became “partners with those so treated.” Many of them “had compassion for those who were in prison.” Prisons were inhumane places—over-crowded, poorly ventilated, men bound in chains, hot sweaty days, cold nights, insufficient coverings, lack of personal hygiene, and food barely enough for subsistence.[Anderson, Hebrews, 287: “Most prisoners declined in health, became unrecognizable in physical appearance, and had clothing that had worn to tatters. . . . Incarceration was a devastating source of dishonor and shame. Prisoners were, by definition, social deviants; so even their closest friends and associates were pressured to abandon them.”]
“The plundering of [their] possessions,” whether by mob violence or carried out by legal means, was added to their difficulties. The preacher commended them as those who “cheerfully accepted” such confiscation of their personal property. This they could do because of their vision of reality, “knowing that you yourselves possessed something better and more lasting.” As the writer phrased it later, they were like those past heroes of faith who desired “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (11:16).
On this basis, their writing pastor offers
A Word of Encouragement
10:35-39
35Do not, therefore, abandon that confidence of yours; it brings a great reward. 36For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
37For yet “in a very little while,
the one who is coming will come and will not delay; 38but my righteous one will live by faith.
My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.”
But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.
The congregation’s “need” of “endurance” is up front in our text. Can they, can we endure? This is the author’s point in his appeal to “faith” with the quotation from the prophet Habakkuk: “my righteous one will live by faith” (2:4). The preacher has followed his praise for their past endurance under hardship and persecution (vv. 32-34) with “an exhortation for enduring faith in the present.”[Anderson, Hebrews, 288.] Directly put, they are not to throw away their “confidence,” their “free citizen” open boldness as believers. Using the same word when Jesus was Jesus was questioned by the high priest as to his teaching, Jesus answered, “I have spoken openly (parrēsią) in the world” (John 18:20).
Our writer employs this call for “confidence” (parrēsian)[Used earlier in 3:6 and 4:16 translated as “confidence” and “boldness” respectively.] in verses 19 and 35 in order to enclose [an inclusio] two transition paragraphs (vv. 19-39). These paragraphs move us from the author’s central exposition in 7:1—10:18 to his hortatory appeals in 11:1—13:25. Such “confidence” as he calls for “brings a great reward.”[The Greek word for “reward” can take a negative sense as well in 2:2: “every transgression or disobedience received a just penalty.” It occurs once more in Hebrews in the positive sense of Moses “looking ahead to the reward” (11:26).] For the readers, the reward will be that they “may receive what was promised.” This they will do through their “endurance” now characterized as doing “the will of God.”
“I have come to do your will, O God” (10:7, 9) said “Christ,” when he entered the world. And it was by that “will,” that Jesus as “a Son” and “great high priest,” in faithful obedience to God, provided the way for us to be “sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (10:10). Our preacher as theologian identifies the “endurance” that the now enabled Christian exhibits in the face of life’s difficulties as the faithfulness of Jesus himself.
Much more than an imitation the readers inherently along with us are privileged and graced to enter into Christ’s faithfulness: “it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace” (13:9). The promise is secure: “We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain”![6:19-20: “We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”]
Indeed, the future is at hand!
37For yet “in a very little while,
the one who is coming will come and will not delay; 38but my righteous one will live by faith.
My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.”
The prophetic Scriptures speak directly to his day for our author[He does not introduce these citations as formerly, but seamlessly makes the words of Scripture his own words because for him “the prophets speak directly to his own time.” Johnson, Hebrew, 273.] as he mixes quotations from Isaiah 26:20 and Habakkuk 2:4.[Using the Greek LXX rather than the Hebrew text, he adapts a Messianic judgment text to his purposes. See Anderson, Hebrews, 289, for the linguistic details. ] With these texts, the preacher announces the second coming of Christ as the literal phrase “the Coming One” suggests.[The Greek ho erchomenos, with ho added by our author to the LXX, “leaves no doubt that the prophecy in Habakkuk concerns Christ’s second coming.” Anderson, Hebrews, 289. ] We cannot help but remember 9:27-28:
And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
This is the waiting, the expecting, and the enduring setting of the preacher’s quotation of the intriguing declaration of the prophet Habbakkuk, “my righteous one will live by faith.” We are familiar with this prophetic word from the Apostle Paul’s use of it to back up his understanding of faith. Paul wrote that for him, in the Gospel of which he is in no way ashamed , “the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith” (Rom. 1:17).
But does Habakkuk’s good word mean the same thing in Hebrews as it does in Romans? What is going on with the preacher’s use of the term “faith” here? Is “faith” even the best translation of the Greek pisteōs? The NASB margin suggests “faithfulness” as perhaps the meaning. Several considerations back this up as the correct nuance.
Although the writer to the Hebrews is quoting the Greek LXX, which puts the accent on faith as “trust” or perhaps even “belief,” our mind cannot help but go back to the Hebrew term employed by the prophet. Habakkuk’s ʼěmûnāh carries the meanings of steadfastness, reliability, and honesty. With the preposition “by” (bě) as added in Habakkuk the lexical meaning becomes “in faithfulness” as in Psalm 119:75:
I know, O LORD, that your judgments are right,
and that in faithfulness you have humbled me.[The verb root is ʼmn meaning prove oneself reliable, have stability, stay faithful to (where we get our liturgical “Amen”), and a related noun is ʼěmět or reliability, fidelity, truth.]
Even more supportive of the meaning “faithfulness” in Hebrews, as contrasted to Romans’ use, is the primacy of the theme of endurance here at least from verse 32 on, if not from verse 19. Verse 39 closes the chapter with “faith” defined as not shrinking back, that is, as faithfulness: “we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.”
And not least in support of “faithfulness” is the stress on “faith as acting” that permeates the chapter that follows. Herb Prince, as he began his lessons on chapter 11, shared with us three appropriate ways that faith can be defined. The three reinforce each other and therefore a proper understanding of faith encompasses all three. The three are
- Faith as fiducia: faith as trust, a key Reformation theme. To have faith in God is to truly trust God (Martin Luther).
- Faith as fides: faith as knowledge, as content in terms of what is believed (Thomas Aquinas).
- Faith as confession: faith in the sense that faith always needs to express itself, to make itself public (Hauerwas).[Herbert L. Prince, “Long Ago God Spoke. Part 30: ‘Stop, Hey, What’s That Sound’” (March 1, 2015).]
Bouncing off of the above analysis, a helpful perspective for me is threefold:
- Jewish or Hebraic: Faith as faithfulness
- Roman Catholic: Faith as correct knowledge
- Protestant: Faith as personal trust
All of the above aspects of faith play significant roles in chapter 11. Apart from noting that “faithfulness” is never absent in Hebrews 11, I leave it to Herb Prince to probe the individual instances more deeply. A quick look, however, at Hebrews 11:1 will serve as our conclusion.
Conclusion
The preacher takes a qualitatively long deep breath before moving on from his closing word of encouragement in chapter 10 to his presentation of the heroes of faith out of Israel’s history in chapter 11. This breath is indeed profound, beyond our ability to fully grasp.[Johnson, Hebrews, 276, remarks that “the author’s word choices leave translators in a considerable quandary.” The main puzzle is in the term hypostasis that has the etymological sense of “that which stands under.” In history, the word has six different applications, three of which are possible here. Hebrews 11:1 could easily constitute one lesson. Full lexical details and arguments are adequately presented by Anderson, Hebrews, 293-293, Johnson, Hebrews, 276-279, and Prince “Part 30: ‘Stop, Hey, What’s That Sound.’”] What our writer breathes out of his inspired soul is the core reality in Christian courage as he declares what biblical faith in essence truly is:[Anderson, Hebrews, 293, points out that “as was the custom of ancient philosophers an rhetoricians, the author presents a concise definition before elaborating on his subject.”]
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
But a better translation in my judgment is that of Johnson:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.[Johnson, Hebrews, 276. Historically only modern translators have opted for the subjective.]
“Faith,” for the writer to the Hebrews, is something more theologically profound and experientially real than a subjective feeling of “assurance” or “conviction.” “Faith” has something more objective about it that is better expressed by the terms “substance” and “proof.” “Faith” in Hebrews is a work of “the Spirit of grace” (10:29) deep in the human psyche, something that changes behavior and transforms character: “Faith is as faith does”; “Faith is the work of the Holy Spirit”! Faith is present when there is no feeling.
What John Wesley on May 24, 1738, at a meeting in Aldersgsate Street, read from Martin Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans when his heart was “strangely warmed,” affirms faith as Spirit-inspired:
Hence it comes that faith alone makes righteous and fulfills the law; for out of Christ’s merit it brings the Spirit, and the Spirit makes the heart glad and free as the law requires that it shall be. Faith, however, is a divine work in us. It changes us and makes us to be born anew of God (John 1.); it kills the old Adam and makes altogether new and different men, in heart and spirit and mind and powers. . . . O, it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith, and so it is impossible for it not to do good works incessantly. It does not ask whether there are good works to do, but before the question rises it has already done them, and is always at the doing of them.[Works of Martin Luther: Translated with Introductions and Notes (Philadelphia, 1932), 6:449ff. ]
What a thrilling life-inspiring link between theological proclamation and human character and act: “Faith has substance”! “Faith is proof”!
“the Spirit of grace”
“it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace”
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