Hebrews 10:32-39. Remember those early days after you first saw the light? Those were the hard times! Kicked around in public, targets of every kind of abuse—some days it was you, other days your friends. If some friends went to prison, you stuck by them. If some enemies broke in and seized your goods, you let them go with a smile, knowing they couldn’t touch your real treasure. Nothing they did bothered you, nothing set you back. So don’t throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It’s still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion.
INSERT: I said earlier that you may lose some “friends”. Here it is in scripture. Don’t throw it all away. Continue to stay true and sure of yourselves. “It’s still a sure thing.” Stick it out. Stick with God’s great plan of love and grace. It’s what will get you to the promised completion. Not works, or religion, or performance, but God’s great gift of righteousness and the abundance of grace. (Romans 5:17). To finish out the verses.
It won’t be long now, he’s on the way; He’ll show up most any minute. But anyone who is right with me thrives on loyal trust; If he cuts and runs, I won’t be very happy. But we’re not quitters who lose out. Oh, no! We’ll stay with it and survive, trusting all the way.
Hebrews 10:26 discusses sinning deliberately. This is a deliberate action, pre-meditated, a willful act. I did not say that Christians will not make mistakes, or sin if you prefer. However, those types of mistakes are perfectly covered by the grace of God. We just saw that in the verses above, but here are more.
Hebrews 4:16 states, as I mentioned earlier in this teaching, that we can come boldly to the throne of grace. The verse goes on to say that it is there we will receive His mercy and will find grace to help us when we need it most.
1 John 2:1,2 states that we have an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous one, who pleads our case before the Father. He is the one who is the sacrifice for our sins and the sins of the world.
So, not only can we enter his rest because of his extravagant grace, but even if we make a mistake He takes up for us as our lawyer/advocate. Why? Because we have no excuse.
The willful sin discussed in Hebrews 10:26 is fully abandoning your confession altogether. Trampling underfoot the Son of God. Spitting on the sacrifice. Treating his sacrificial blood as worthless and unclean, and insulting God’s gracious Spirit (Hebrews 10:29).
Anyone who would do this has never received the revelation of his love and grace. They have not entered into His rest. They don’t backslide. That’s another one of those religious sounding statements to impress someone. I don’t believe they backslide, I believe they just never slid forward. They still think their eternal lives depend on something they do. The truth is it depends on nothing you do and everything Jesus has done.
Every act of sin results from your mistrust and unbelief in His love and grace for you. I just can’t find truth to support that the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin. How can the Holy Spirit convict you of sin that He chooses not to remember. Hebrews 8:12 reads “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins”. Then there’s Hebrews 10:17. “Then he says, ‘I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds’.” Now I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty clear to me.
That’s why he sat down Hebrews 10:12. He’s not worried about whether you’ll make it. He’s not concerned about your mistakes. What he did takes care of all that, so he sat down. He’s done His part. That’s why He’s not concerned about the conclusion. Now we do our part and simply receive what He’s done and enter into that rest with Him.
Why is it we have such a hard time simply enjoying what Christ has done for us. Why do we continually believe we have to strive to be accepted by God. Well, one reason is because we don’t know who we are in Christ and who He is in us. We have an identity crisis.
We need to quit viewing ourselves as we see ourselves and start seeing ourselves as God sees us. If we don’t see how God sees us, we’ll misinterpret every conversation He has with us. That includes all the truth in his word.
We have opportunity to enter into that same rest, His rest. So once in this state there remains no more sacrifice for sin. Remember, God set aside the Levitical law, and the system of animal sacrifices in favor of trusting in Christ and receiving what he did for us.
God is after relationship. He knew the sacrifices and priests could not complete the forgiveness of sin, so that we could rest and enter into all that Jesus has for us. God gave us a better covenant.
We no longer need a high priest to go to God with animal sacrifices in order for God to accept us. Jesus already did that once and for all. God takes away the first to establish the second. Hebrews 10:9 reads “Then he said, “Look, I have come to do your will.” He cancels the first covenant in order to put the second into effect”.
Just study how powerful that one verse is. It’s Jesus saying to the Father “Look, I have come to do your will”. Then Jesus goes on to tell us that God CANCELS the first covenant of law and judgement, to put the second of love and grace into effect. Come on. If something is cancelled, it no longer exists. Why would anyone try to live up to or try to keep a set of laws and rules that no longer exist?
Ask yourselves this question. If you had a mortgage, credit card bill, or automobile loan and paid it off, would you continue to send in payments? Once it is marked canceled, paid in full, why would you keep trying to place payments against it? It doesn’t make sense. It’s the same with sin. It has been paid in full. Also, as we’ve seen, the law has been abolished or canceled. Why are you trying to live by it.
It just gets worse. Scripture goes on to tell us that if we turn away from this great gift, we have nowhere to go. Remember that scripture says they could not enter in because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:19). They don’t believe the shed blood is enough. They don’t believe God still loves them even if they make a mistake. It’s because we are so programmed by the condemnation of the law that we can’t enter into the rest of his finished work. It’s not about keeping up with your confession of sins. It’s about resting in the finished work of the cross. It’s all about what He did, not what you’re trying to do.
Remember, under the old covenant of law, sin was an issue, but under the new covenant of grace, sonship is the issue. If I believe I have to work to attain something, all I’m doing is striving and performing to try and add with my flesh that which has already been freely given by grace.
The Apostle Paul wrote that we have a new nature in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). Scripture says over and over that we are righteous and holy. So, if in the past you have been taught that you are a sinner and not righteous, then when you think you’ve sinned you would have to be sinning by faith. Why am I saying this? Because that’s what you’re believing. You are believing you’re a sinner so that’s where your faith is.
I’m not saying this to condemn anyone, but instead to see them set free. If the righteous scarcely be saved, where do the ungodly and sinner appear? (1 Peter 4:18).
Stop listening to the lies of the enemy that challenge your righteousness in Christ. Quit believing the lie that you’re a sinner. That’s not truth. When you do that you are going back to the old man that is dead, you’re listening to him, trying to make him behave. You cannot teach a dead man anything so why are you trying to make him perform or act correctly.
When you try to make the old dead man act properly you are allowing a trespasser to spiritually invade your house where God dwells. It’s not that we don’t struggle, it’s that we don’t struggle with the old man.
Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12, we don’t struggle with flesh and blood, so why are we fighting the old dead man? You see, we have the wrong enemy. You can’t walk in victory if you fight the wrong enemy.
I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating right here. It’s a statement made by John Sheasby that is so profound with great truth. “God cannot give you as a reward, that which is already yours through inheritance.” The system of performance and reward is not a part of the Kingdom.
This gospel of grace sets you free from you. If you’re free from you, you’ll be free from others. It’s like I’ve said before. Once you get a full revelation of the gospel of the ridiculous, radical, inexhaustible grace of God, you will be set free of the tyranny of yourself and set free from the tyranny of other people. When that occurs, the truth that you do see by revelation will overwhelm the error that other people do not see. Also, your experiences, be they good or bad, will not rise above or trump the truth of God’s word. Grace and Peace.
Comments