Hebrews 10:19-39.  Today’s reading ends is the beginning of a new section of this Letter to the Hebrews but it is not disconnected from the previous section.  In fact some scholars include it with the last section while others put it with the next.  I understand the value of trying to group ideas so we can better understand what is being said but then again this is a letter so in some sense doesn’t that make it one big whole?  The reason some scholars want to put today’s reading with the stuff we just read is because it acts as a conclusion, but it also encourages the readers to certain action and the following part of Hebrews gives a helpful perspective in following through on the action.  In fact the next chapter of Hebrews is one of my favorite parts of the New Testament.

This post was actually “due” yesterday.  I got up early and studied the passage but didn’t quite finish my study before I needed to go to work.  I know you are probably tired of my excuses but it was a long work day (16.5 hours) near the end (still have to work today) of a long week (over 80 hours so far).  So when I got home near 11 PM I couldn’t finish the reading left to do and write.  Maybe I could have skipped the rest of the study but I am glad I did not.

This part of Hebrews is difficult.  In the more recent history of Christianity (since the Reformation) Christians have often been polarized (like the two ends of a magnet) on certain issues.  Today’s reading is about one of those issues, in fact is the source of the issue.  The question is, “Can a believer in Jesus become unsaved?”  One group, often identified as Arminians (named after an early leader Jacobus Arminius, not Armenians who are an ethnic/political group) recognizes that the author of Hebrews is talking to believers in Christ and, in light of Hebrews 10:19-39, believe that a true believer can “lose” their salvation.  The other side includes a group of believers who identify with a theologian named John Calvin.  These Calvinists rightly realize that the rest of the New Testament indicates that it is impossible to “lose” your salvation and so they claim that Hebrews 10:19-39 is about “so called believers” who were never saved in the first place.  So who is right?  And who is wrong?  I’m so glad I finished studying because both groups are.

Both groups are partly right and partly wrong.  Let’s look at the reading and see why I think that.  The first part of this section is verses 19-25.  Notice what the author calls the readers in verse 19; brothers.  He also includes himself with them by using “we” and “us”.  The “we” and “us” have confidence to have a relationship with god because of the blood of Jesus who is their “great priest”.  Also he encourages them to hang on to their belief inn Jesus.  In verses 24-25 he includes all of them as one group.  So, in this case, it looks like the Arminians are right; the people are actual believers in Jesus, actually “saved”.

The next part of the reading is where it gets difficult, especially if you believe that the author is talking to actual Christians and if you believe the rest of the New Testament about eternal life being, eternal.  In verse 26 it says that if we continue to sin willfully that there is no sacrifice for sin.  If we take tht verse by itself we might think Jesus’ sacrifice doesn’t count anymore for us if we deliberately sin and keep doing it.  But there is more to this section than just verse 26.  In verses 26-27 the author brings up a part of the Law of Moses that required a person be put to death for deliberate “in God’s face” sin, even working on the Sabbath.  Earlier in Hebrews we saw Jesus compared to the high priest who had to make a sacrifice once a year for his sins and the sins of the people.  This sacrifice was only for unintentional sins, for intentional sins there was no sacrifice.  In the history of Israel there were times when the people were deliberately disobedient.  In some of those cases God would bring a judgment; open the ground and swallow some of them, fire from heaven, or some other sort of deadly plague.  There is no indication that this meant that the people who died were not a part of God’s people, that the destruction was eternal, it was just physical.  We need to remember that our existence involves an eternal soul in a physical body.  Physical death does not necessarily mean spiritual death.  In the book of 1 Corinthians we see another letter written to one of the early church’s that was having a problem with “cliques”.  One place they were playing favorites was during communion (a time of remembering what Jesus had done for them).  Part of their communion meeting was a meal.  During this meal people were not sharing but eating their own food.  The rich were eating better than the poor.  It was not a very good example of what Jesus was about.  In 1 Corinthians 11:28-30 Paul (who wrote 1 Corinthains) informs them that because of their un-Christ like actions that some of them had become sick and some were “asleep”, a polite way of saying they had died.  These people were real Christians who God had punished (some with physical death) for their bad actions.  Back when we read through Isaiah there was a lot of this rebellion and judgment thing going on but there were also parts of Isaiah about the hope to come, about God fulfilling his promises for David’s forever kingdom.  The punishment did not mean the people were no longer Israelites nor that they would not be a part of David’s eternal kingdom.  We need to be careful not to read into what the author has said.  He never says that fire or vengeances is an eternal thing.  Notice too, that in verse 30 (quoting Deuteronomy 32:35) that God calls the people he is punishing “my people”.  I think this section is about more temporary consequences for our sins and not about eternal consequences.  So in that respect both the “Calvinists” and the “Arminians” have been wrong.

In the last part of today’s reading the author either quotes or hints at Isaiah 26 and Habakkuk 2.  Those passages deal with staying faithful in the face of persecution.  In Isaiah 26:20 the people were encouraged to “hid out” in their houses during a time of judgment.  In our current situation it appears that some of the Hebrew believers were doing a similar thing, they were avoiding trouble by not associating with each other; they were “forsaking” the assembling together (ditching church).  In this case though that was the wrong decision.  In verses 32-38 the author is telling them not to “shrink back” but to “remember” the earlier days of their faith in Jesus when they were open about their faith and openly suffered for it.  In 1 Corinthians 3:11-15 we see that there are rewards in Heaven based on how we lived our lives for God.  It is clear from those verses that Heaven itself is not the reward for the actions, every one in those verses gets to be in Heaven for ever.  Verse 39 was a little troubling to me since it talks about destruction but the author says we are not part of the group who hid and are destroyed, and notice he is still saying “we”.  What group are “we” a part of?  The one who has faith and lives by it.  Although this understanding is not the simplest one for these verses that does not make it wrong.  And what is difficult for us may have been obvious for the original Hebrew readers.  The author is telling the believers to quit neglecting each other; to suck it up and stay with the team.  The consequences for hiding out are not eternity in Hell but the missed opportunities to be “light to the world”.

God help me not “shrink back”, help me be bold as a believer.  Help me be a giving participating part of your team.  Give me courage and endurance.  Let me consider how to stimulate others in their faith in you and then do it.  Let my life please you.