“Sinning Willfully” in Hebrews 10.
It Applies to Those who Abandon the Church, Being
Smarter than God and the Apostles
You should have your bibles open to
Hebrews 10 as you read this note.
This is written because of a
discussion on another thread, and I do not like to make long comments on other
sites.
All of the Scripture is profitable
for you and me. Heb 10:19-31 go together and is a summary of what has
gone before. Having been shown that the old Mosaic worship of Aaron's
priesthood, the temple, the animal sacrifices which could never take away sin
has been abolished, the author reverts to the
question of Hebrews 2:2,3. Although the old way is abolished it does not
mean that there is no way. The way is a new and living way fulfilling the
law in the deepest sense.
We do enter the Holy of Holies.
We do have a high priest. We do have a sacrifice that was once offered
once for all. We do have a "house' [temple--Heb 3:1-6, which house
the church is] we do have a worship prescribed for us. The church is the Temple
of God, the House of the Lord Jesus. 1Cor. 3
In Heb. 10:22-25 the question is
answered that would be sure to arise: "OK, Moses and Aaron and the
Temple are gone. Now that we know that, what do we do?"
Answer: you keep the Ten Commandments in a new a blessed sense, for it cannot
be that God would not call us to love Him with all our hearts, souls, mind, and
strength. Verses 22-25 spells it out, the law written on the heart.
The First Table of the Law is in verses 21-22: we come in faith--for the curse
is gone--to worship the true God, our hearts cleansed by the blood of Christ
[Heb 9:11-15] and our bodies baptized, for circumcision is gone, too.
[Col. 2:11ff] The Second Table of the Law is in verse 24, for love works no ill
to his neighbor.
What is the place where we do these thing? this is answered in
verse 25 for we do not forsake the house of God, the church, her order and her
sacraments, as Paul describes to Timothy and Titus. When Christ ascended
on high he did not abandon His people, but gave gifts to men [Eph. 4] and we
abandon them only at our peril.
Those who willfully despise the order
that Christ has provided will suffer a greater penalty than those who rebelled
against Moses and Aaron [vs. 26-31]. He has gathered his people into
flocks and given them elders, deacons, and ministers
to teach, govern, and guard them. This is especially directed to the Jew who
rested in Moses and Aaron and found comfort in the promises of the old order,
for there was genuine faith in the old order [Heb. 11]; but shall they return
to Moses and Aaron now that the truth of the Gospel has been preached to them and
they have received the knowledge of the truth? If they were so careful
about the words spoken by angels; should they not reverence the words spoken by
our Lord? If they expected the wrath of God if they despised the blood of
bulls and goats, how much more must they expect wrath who
despise the blood of Christ to which the old sacrifices pointed?
[Heb. 10:28-29] If those who despised the law
deserved the wrath of God; how much more those who despise the grace of God.
I recommend Calvin's commentary on
Hebrews and the one by John Brown. To be too pure for His church is to
despise His provisions for us.
Hence, the writer of Hebrews says in
conclusion in more detail in Heb. 13, but focuses on Heb. 13:15-17:
"By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually,
that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices
God is well pleased. Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit
yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that
they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for
you...." To paraphrase Calvin, God would humble us to place us
under the rule our fellows, frail and flawed like ourselves. The writer
of Hebrews commands us nothing more than what Christ and His apostles ordered.
"Submit yourselves one to
another in the fear of God." The responsibility for the present
desolation of the church is twofold--the shepherds fouled the fold and made it
desolate, and the people loved to have it so, for they abandoned biblical
churches in droves, broke the hearts of faithful pastors, and flocked to
religious shows and circuses, joining the mobs who sloshed from one circus to
another, followed one fad after another, and despised the order and
discipline that Christ as given to His church, and the shepherds then tried to
get in front of wherever the crowd was going, offering more apes and
peacocks. But He will not abandon His people; the Day of the Lord will
come, but it will not be as the circuses have described it.
Yes, and the apostles are talking
about those same imperfect churches at Corinth, Philippi, Jerusalem, Ephesus,
and the others of the epistles and Revelation 2,3.
I never met anyone who abandoned the church because of its impurities that
didn't have a lot of unclean birds flying around in his skull and heart, not
the least of which is slander of good people and nit-picking. There are
many churches where the savor of the Gospel remains in the salt with impurities
where the man of charity and love for the people of God can worship and do good for the glory of God. Or he can sit home, do facebook, and profess a purity that cannot be tested for he
never has to deal with people in the church.
