When we look at the epistle to the Hebrews we observe that it was written to a specific company of believers whom the writer had worshiped with in the past and whom he soon expected to visit (13:19, 23). They needed encouragement in the faith. Many of their expectations remained unfulfilled. Such as: Why had Jesus not in power and judgment to usher in the Messianic Kingdom? Why did the promises of the prophets remain unfulfilled? When were the meek to inherit the earth? Where the followers of Jesus to suffer reproach forever? Why not return to the Jewish fold?
What need they had for encouragement of the faith once delivered! So we observe in the epistle to the Hebrews that half of the letter is given to exhortation and the writer says that “the word of exhortation” has been the burden of his letter and his principle purpose in writing (13:22).
The writer alternates between exalting Jesus and exhorting his readers. No other book in the New Testament does
exhortation play such a large part. In this respect, the epistle to the Hebrews has much in common with the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy.
It is obvious that the epistle to the Hebrews was written to men whose background was Judaism. What the author states of them is that they are men who have been saved by the grace of God.
Consider the following evidence of the fact that the author knows his readers to be true believers:
1. His warning (2:1-4) against the peril of slipping away from “the things that you have heard”; things involving “so great salvation”; the writer assumes that his readers have fully accepted, and still fully retain, the saving good news. In his use of the first person we he includes himself as being equally subject with his readers of the peril of drifting away.
2. He addresses his brethren as “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,” from whom Jesus is “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession” (3:1).
3. He includes his readers with himself (“we”) as those who are already God’s anointed one’s “own house” and need only to hold fast their confidence and hope firm to the end (3:6).
4. The peril confronting his readers is not the possibility of failing to arrive at a proper relationship with God - Yehovah, through His anointed one, but of departing from their present relationship through surrender to deceitful sin and unbelief; a condition which he assumes has not yet developed (3-6-19).
5. In the face of the peril of subsequently coming short the promised rest and of falling after Israel’s example of unbelief (3:16-4:13), the writer and his readers need only to “keep holding fast” their present confession of faith and “keep on coming” to the throne of grace in confident faith (4:14-16).
6. The writer is persuaded “better things” of his readers, “things holding on to salvation,” rather that things involving apostasy (6:9-12). His readers need not enter into faith, but only to “show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end” and to continue as “followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
7. The writer includes his readers as those who “have fled for refuge” and whose hope in Jesus, their forerunner now within the veil, is for them “an anchor of the soul” (6:18-20).
8. He exhorts his readers to “keep drawing near” and to “keep on holding fast the confession of our hope without wavering…. not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together” as they “see the day fast approaching” (10:19-25).
9. He reminds his readers (10:32-34) that they have been enlightened (with the full knowledge of the truth (v.26) and that they already have endured great persecution for their faith and testimony. It remains only for them to “caste not away their confidence “ and, in patience, to continue to live by faith, avoiding error of those who withdraw unto perdition, and continuing with “them that believe to the saving of the soul” (vv. 35-39).
10.He assumes that his readers have already entered upon “the race set before us” and need only to continue along the way, guarding against the peril of despising Yehovah’s corrective chastening and turning away from Him (12:1-29).
11.He writes (13:1-6) of practical aspects of conduct of concern to Messianic believers and admonishes his readers to keep on submitting to the under-shepherds who are responsible in guiding them in teaching, faith and practice (vv. 7, 17, 24).
12.He reminds them that “we have an alter” (God’s anointed one) and exhorts them to “keep on going forth unto him’ in anticipation of the enduring city yet to come (vv. 10-14).
13.He appeals for their help (v. 18) and exhorts them as “brethren” to give heed to “the word of exhortation” which constitutes the burden of his epistle to them (v. 22).
14.He anticipates seeing them shortly with “our brother Timothy” (v. 23).
15.His benediction (vv. 20,21) is applicable only to true believers, among whom the writer obviously includes his readers (vv. 24, 25).
Anyone who contends that the writer to the Hebrews views his readers as men who have halted short of saving faith in God’s anointed one, rather than as true believers, do so out of regard to their misguided theology. The evidence of the epistle is against them!
The writer’s first concern is that his readers “hold fast the confession of hope without wavering.” If they do that they will go on to perfection. The life of a Messianic believer is never static.
“[Jesus] said to them, take heed what you hear: for with what measure you give forth, it shall be measured unto you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that has, to him shall be given: and he that has not, from him will be taken away that which he has” (Mark 4:24,25). Robertson says: “The man who does not acquire soon loses what he thinks that he has.” Growth in grace or spiritual decline, may be hardly perceptible; nevertheless, it remains true that a Messianic believers either grows or degenerates.
The life of a Messianic believer is never static.
The congregation to whom the epistle to the Hebrews was written had not merely failed to grow, they had degenerated to the point of becoming spiritual infants again (5:11, 12). Their peril of finally apostatizing increased in proportion as they declined spiritually. The writer’s concern for them is reflected in his frequent and urgent exhortations.
In contrast with the exhortation “let us go on unto perfection,” which occurs once, the exhortation “let us hold fast our confession” occurs twice (4:14; 10:23) and the epistle abounds with similar exhortations: “if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope unto the end” (3:6); “if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” (3:14); “lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God (3:12); “lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin (3:13); “lest at any time we should slip away (2:1); “if we neglect so great salvation” (2:3); “harden not your hearts” (3:8, 15); “lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (4:11); “show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end” (6:11); “let us keep drawing near with a true heart of faith in full assurance of faith (10:22); “cast not away your confidence (10:35); “for you have need of patience… that you might receive the promise (10:36); “one who is righteous by faith shall live – the just shall live by faith: but if he draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him (10:38); “lest you be wearied and faint” (12:3); “despise not the chastening of the Lord not faint when you are rebuked by Him (12:5); “be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live” (12:9); “lest that which is lame be turned out of the way” (12:13); “lest any man fail of the grace of God” (12:15); lest there be an fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who sold his birthright (12:16); “if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven (12:25); “be not carried away with diverse and strange teachings” (13:9); “let us keep going forth unto him outside the camp, bearing his reproach (13:13).
Any emphasis in the Epistle to the Hebrews on going on toward spiritual maturity is secondary. The burden of the writer’s “word of exhortation” is that his readers "hold fast to the confession of their hope in Jesus God’s anointed one as their savior and “the source of salvation TO ALL WHO OBEY HIM.”
The familiar exhortation “to run with patience the race set before us (12:1,2) is an integral part of the most extended exhortation of the epistle (10:19-12:29), the burden of which is, “let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering” (10:23), for “the just shall live by faith: but if he draw back my soul will have not pleasure in him” (10:38); “we shall not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven” (12:35).
The “race” to be run is a lifelong trial of our faith through constant temptation to turn back and abandon our walk on the narrow path that leads to age upon age lasting life in the Kingdom of God. This is the reason for the writer’s citation of the galaxy of the faithful in the days of old (chapter 11). These “all obtained a good report through faith” (11:39,2) – faith which believed Yehovah for things as yet “not seen,” but “, hoped for” (11:1). Although in the days of their walk through this wilderness they “received not the promise” (11:39), with patience and enduring faith they finished their race, despite trials and testing along the way. In the light of the context, the exhortation to “run with steadfast endurance the race set before us” can only be an exhortation to continue in the faith, despite manifold temptations to turn aside and fall by the way.
Prominent among the men of enduring faith in chapter 11 was Abraham, who, at Yahovah’s call, “went out not knowing where he was going.” In chapter 6 he is presented as an example of patience – steadfast endurance and faith. The writer urges his readers to “show the same steadfast endurance to the full hope of assurance unto the end” and to be “followers of them who through faith and steadfast endurance inherit the promises (6:11, 12), and the writer declares that it was only “after he had patiently endured” long after the promise was first announced to him that Abraham “obtained the promise” (v.15). From the time of the first announcement of the promise until the time when he “died in the faith,” Abraham’s earthly walk was a test of “patient endurance” and of being “persuaded of the promises” though only “seeing them afar off” (11:13).
Patient enduring faith, like that of Abraham, is presented (6:11) as the sole alternative of the apostasy cited in vv. 4-8. Such apostasy, an ever present peril for the writer and his readers was a peril for Abraham also. If he and “Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise” (11:9), had grown weary of the of “looking for a city which as foundations, whose builder and maker is Yehovah” (v.10) and of counting themselves “strangers and pilgrims on earth (v.13) seeking “a better country, that is, a heavenly” (vv. 14, 16), they could have returned to “that country from whence they had come” (v.15). Growing weary of setting their affections on the things above, they could have returned to both the literal and the spiritual Ur of the Chaldees, dismissing the anticipation of “an heavenly country” and a “city which has foundations” as of no practical consequence for the present. Demas “loved this present world” and therefore withdrew. It was a tragic mistake; for “if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15), and “the friendship of the world is opposition to Yehovah” (James 4:4). Therefore, “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15). For “the world passes away, and the desires thereof” and all who live for the world. For only, “whosoever perseveres in doing God’s will lives on forever” (v.17, Williams).
The possibility of returning to “that country from whence [we] came our” is a peril which ever confronts us while “we are yet pilgrims and strangers on the earth.” We do well to remember that, as Abraham, “we have no enduring city, but seek one to come’ (13:13). There is but one way to the Father’s house and the “city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Jesus said, “I am the way – road….. no man comes to the Father but because of me. “Let us therefore keep on going forth unto him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.”
In Hebrews 10:38 is stated a diving maxim four times affirmed in scripture: “The just shall live by faith – the righteous by faith shall live” This is a cardinal maxim governing man’s relation to God and His saving grace throughout his earthly experience. It was so for Adam and Eve. Faith in the word of his Creator concerning a death he neither had experienced not observed was one condition whereby he avoided death and continued to share the age upon age lasting life of God. After the rebellion against God, faith remained the condition whereby Adam could experience restoration and continue to share in the saving grace and the age upon age lasting life of God. Faith in the word of God about a coming redeemer and the ordinance of an animal sacrifice as the approved approach to a merciful God for guilty sinners was the condition where fallen mankind could know forgiveness and saving grace.
It was “by faith” and not by chance, that Abel offered a “more excellent sacrifice.” For the ante-deluvian saints – holy ones, for the patriarchs, and for all the saints – holy ones in Israel, it is true that “the just shall live by faith.” In the present era, it is still the principle governing man’s participation in the age upon age lasting life of God in His anointed one. “The just shall live by faith: but if he draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” How essential, then,that we “run with patience the race set before us!” This is the burden of the writer to the Hebrews; a burden shared by all the New Testament writers, and by the lord Jesus himself.
James writes, “blessed is the person who endures trial, for when he stands the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12, Williams).
Similar are the word of our lord, “each of you must prove to be faithful, even if you have to die, and I will give you the crown of life. Whoever conquers will not be hurt at all by the second death” (Revelation 2:10 11, Williams). The patient endurance which James enjoins in 1:12 is the antithesis and the sole alternative of submission to sin which, “when it is finished, brings forth death,” as he declares in his warning to the brethren (1:13-16).
Peter urges us (2 Peter 1:5-11) to be diligent to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, and love, assuring us that “if these things be in you and abound, they will make you that you neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord Jesus God’s anointed one.” To be “barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of God’s anointed one” is an invitation to spiritual disaster. Jesus warned, that “every branch in me that bears not any fruit [my Father] takes away” (John 15:2). Such baroness is the inevitable corollary of failing to abide in him (vv. 4, 5), which ensues in death (v. 6).
Peter further urges us (v. 10) to “give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things you shall never fall.” He assures us in (v. 11) that “so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our lord and savior Jesus God’s anointed one.” He further admonishes us (3:17) to “beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.” The “steadfastness” of which he writes is more a matter of consecration and zeal in service. For the “error” against which he warns is the fatal error of those “who wrest the scriptures, to their own destruction” (v. 16).
The burden of Jude is that his readers continue to fight the good fight of faith. His extended consideration of actual instance of apostasy, both historical and contemporary, lends strong emphasis to his exhortation, “but you, dearly beloved, must continue to build yourselves up on the groundwork of your most holy faith and pray in the holy spirit; you must keep yourselves in the love of Yehovah and continue to wait for the mercy of the lord Jesus God’s anointed one, to bring you to age upon age lasting life” (vv. 20, 21).
John bids us to shun the course followed by the many “anti-christ’s” (1 John 2:18) who deny the son [and therefore the Father also (vv. 22, 23) and “went out from us” (v. 19), and who now seek to seduce others to do likewise, through their false teaching which denies that Jesus is truly God’s anointed one (vv. 26, 27). John’s consideration of the “many anit-christ’s” follows immediately his warning to his children in the faith to “stop loving the world, or the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, there is not love for the Father in his heart, because everything is of the world, the things that our desires of the flesh, of the eyes and of possessions, do not come from the Father, but from the world; and the world is passing away, and with it the evil longings it incites; but whoever perseveres in doing God’s will lives on forever (vv. 15-17).
Any emphasis in the Epistle to the Hebrews on going on toward spiritual maturity is secondary. The burden of the writer’s “word of exhortation” is that his readers "hold fast to the confession of their hope in Jesus God’s anointed one as their savior and “the source of salvation TO ALL WHO OBEY HIM.”
The familiar exhortation “to run with patience the race set before us (12:1,2) is an integral part of the most extended exhortation of the epistle (10:19-12:29), the burden of which is, “let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering” (10:23), for “the just shall live by faith: but if he draw back my soul will have not pleasure in him” (10:38); “we shall not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven” (12:35).
The “race” to be run is a lifelong trial of our faith through constant temptation to turn back and abandon our walk on the narrow path that leads to age upon age lasting life in the Kingdom of God. This is the reason for the writer’s citation of the galaxy of the faithful in the days of old (chapter 11). These “all obtained a good report through faith” (11:39,2) – faith which believed Yehovah for things as yet “not seen,” but “, hoped for” (11:1). Although in the days of their walk through this wilderness they “received not the promise” (11:39), with patience and enduring faith they finished their race, despite trials and testing along the way. In the light of the context, the exhortation to “run with steadfast endurance the race set before us” can only be an exhortation to continue in the faith, despite manifold temptations to turn aside and fall by the way.
Prominent among the men of enduring faith in chapter 11 was Abraham, who, at Yahovah’s call, “went out not knowing where he was going.” In chapter 6 he is presented as an example of patience – steadfast endurance and faith. The writer urges his readers to “show the same steadfast endurance to the full hope of assurance unto the end” and to be “followers of them who through faith and steadfast endurance inherit the promises (6:11, 12), and the writer declares that it was only “after he had patiently endured” long after the promise was first announced to him that Abraham “obtained the promise” (v.15). From the time of the first announcement of the promise until the time when he “died in the faith,” Abraham’s earthly walk was a test of “patient endurance” and of being “persuaded of the promises” though only “seeing them afar off” (11:13).
Patient enduring faith, like that of Abraham, is presented (6:11) as the sole alternative of the apostasy cited in vv. 4-8. Such apostasy, an ever present peril for the writer and his readers was a peril for Abraham also. If he and “Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise” (11:9), had grown weary of the of “looking for a city which as foundations, whose builder and maker is Yehovah” (v.10) and of counting themselves “strangers and pilgrims on earth (v.13) seeking “a better country, that is, a heavenly” (vv. 14, 16), they could have returned to “that country from whence they had come” (v.15). Growing weary of setting their affections on the things above, they could have returned to both the literal and the spiritual Ur of the Chaldees, dismissing the anticipation of “an heavenly country” and a “city which has foundations” as of no practical consequence for the present. Demas “loved this present world” and therefore withdrew. It was a tragic mistake; for “if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15), and “the friendship of the world is opposition to Yehovah” (James 4:4). Therefore, “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world” (1 John 2:15). For “the world passes away, and the desires thereof” and all who live for the world. For only, “whosoever perseveres in doing God’s will lives on forever” (v.17, Williams).
The possibility of returning to “that country from whence [we] came our” is a peril which ever confronts us while “we are yet pilgrims and strangers on the earth.” We do well to remember that, as Abraham, “we have no enduring city, but seek one to come’ (13:13). There is but one way to the Father’s house and the “city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Jesus said, “I am the way – road….. no man comes to the Father but because of me. “Let us therefore keep on going forth unto him outside the camp, bearing his reproach.”
In Hebrews 10:38 is stated a diving maxim four times affirmed in scripture: “The just shall live by faith – the righteous by faith shall live” This is a cardinal maxim governing man’s relation to God and His saving grace throughout his earthly experience. It was so for Adam and Eve. Faith in the word of his Creator concerning a death he neither had experienced not observed was one condition whereby he avoided death and continued to share the age upon age lasting life of God. After the rebellion against God, faith remained the condition whereby Adam could experience restoration and continue to share in the saving grace and the age upon age lasting life of God. Faith in the word of God about a coming redeemer and the ordinance of an animal sacrifice as the approved approach to a merciful God for guilty sinners was the condition where fallen mankind could know forgiveness and saving grace.
It was “by faith” and not by chance, that Abel offered a “more excellent sacrifice.” For the ante-deluvian saints – holy ones, for the patriarchs, and for all the saints – holy ones in Israel, it is true that “the just shall live by faith.” In the present era, it is still the principle governing man’s participation in the age upon age lasting life of God in His anointed one. “The just shall live by faith: but if he draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” How essential, then,that we “run with patience the race set before us!” This is the burden of the writer to the Hebrews; a burden shared by all the New Testament writers, and by the lord Jesus himself.
James writes, “blessed is the person who endures trial, for when he stands the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12, Williams).
Similar are the word of our lord, “each of you must prove to be faithful, even if you have to die, and I will give you the crown of life. Whoever conquers will not be hurt at all by the second death” (Revelation 2:10 11, Williams). The patient endurance which James enjoins in 1:12 is the antithesis and the sole alternative of submission to sin which, “when it is finished, brings forth death,” as he declares in his warning to the brethren (1:13-16).
Peter urges us (2 Peter 1:5-11) to be diligent to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, and love, assuring us that “if these things be in you and abound, they will make you that you neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord Jesus God’s anointed one.” To be “barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of God’s anointed one” is an invitation to spiritual disaster. Jesus warned, that “every branch in me that bears not any fruit [my Father] takes away” (John 15:2). Such baroness is the inevitable corollary of failing to abide in him (vv. 4, 5), which ensues in death (v. 6).
Peter further urges us (v. 10) to “give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if you do these things you shall never fall.” He assures us in (v. 11) that “so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our lord and savior Jesus God’s anointed one.” He further admonishes us (3:17) to “beware lest you also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.” The “steadfastness” of which he writes is more a matter of consecration and zeal in service. For the “error” against which he warns is the fatal error of those “who wrest the scriptures, to their own destruction” (v. 16).
The burden of Jude is that his readers continue to fight the good fight of faith. His extended consideration of actual instance of apostasy, both historical and contemporary, lends strong emphasis to his exhortation, “but you, dearly beloved, must continue to build yourselves up on the groundwork of your most holy faith and pray in the holy spirit; you must keep yourselves in the love of Yehovah and continue to wait for the mercy of the lord Jesus God’s anointed one, to bring you to age upon age lasting life” (vv. 20, 21).
John bids us to shun the course followed by the many “anti-christ’s” (1 John 2:18) who deny the son [and therefore the Father also (vv. 22, 23) and “went out from us” (v. 19), and who now seek to seduce others to do likewise, through their false teaching which denies that Jesus is truly God’s anointed one (vv. 26, 27). John’s consideration of the “many anit-christ’s” follows immediately his warning to his children in the faith to “stop loving the world, or the things that are in the world. If anyone persists in loving the world, there is not love for the Father in his heart, because everything is of the world, the things that our desires of the flesh, of the eyes and of possessions, do not come from the Father, but from the world; and the world is passing away, and with it the evil longings it incites; but whoever perseveres in doing God’s will lives on forever (vv. 15-17).
Context suggests that it is the love of the world that led the “many anti-christ’s” to deny the son and thus go out from among us.” John is anxious lest his readers fall into the same tragedy, and therefore warns: no one who disowns the son can have the Father. Whosoever owns the son has the Father too. Let what you have heard from the beginning continue to live in your hearts; if you do, you will always remain in union with the son and the Father. And the very thing that he has promised us is age upon age lasting life! I write you this with reference to those who are trying to lead you astray. The anointing of the spirit which you received still remains in your hearts, and so you have no need to have anyone teach you. So just as that anointing of his teaches you about everything, and as it is true and no falsehood, and as it has taught you to do so, you must continue to live in union with him! And now dear children, I repeat, you must continue to live in union with him, so that if he is unveiled, we may have unshaken confidence and not shrink away from him in shame when he comes” (vv. 23-28).
The concern of Paul that his converts run with patience the race set before them is seen in Acts 14:21, 22, “they returned again to Lystra, and Iconium and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to remain in the faith, and that we must with much tribulation enter into the Kingdom of God.” Such concern for his converts is reflected in his letters. To the Galatians he writes, “be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he reap. For he that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap destruction; but he that sows to the spirit, shall of the spirit age upon age lasting life. And let us not be weary of well doing: for in due season we shall reap; if we faint not” (6:7-9).
Writing to the Romans, whom he wished to visit in order to strengthen their faith (1:11), Paul warns that “we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (8:12-14). Again, he reminds the Gentiles in the church at Rome that they only “stand by faith” (11:20, cf. 2 Corinthians 1:24) and that they must “be not arrogant, but fear;” for since God did not spare the “natural branches” of Israel, but broke them off because of their unbelief, neither will He spare them if they abandon the faith by which they stand. “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them that fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, IF you continue in His goodness: otherwise you too will be cut off” (v. 22).
Writing to the Colossians; Paul declares that God, who has reconciled us to Himself in the body of His anointed one’s flesh through his death, will “present you holy and blameless and unreproveable om His sight; IF you continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard (1:22, 23). Similarly, he writes to the Corinthians of “the gospel which I preached unto you, which you also have received, and whereby you stand; by which also you are BEING SAVED if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you have believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:1, 2).
Paul admonishes Timothy that, though “some will turn away from the faith because they continuously give their attention to deceiving spirits and things which demons preach through the pretention of false teachers,” he must “make it your habit to pay close attention to yourself and you teaching. Persevere in those things, for if you do you will save both yourself and those who listen to you (1Timothy 4:1, 16). Again, he admonishes Timothy, “but bad men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, misleading others, and mislead themselves. But, you on your part, must continue to abide by what you have learned and been led to rely on…. the sacred scriptures which can give you wisdom that leads to salvation through the faith that leans on God’s anointed one Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:13-15).
Concerning himself, Paul writes to the Philippians (3:7-14) of his intense desire to “gain God’s anointed one, and be found in him.” Not, of course, that he had not as yet “gained God’s anointed one or is not yet to be “found in him.” But he purposes to continue in the way. “To have been brought to God’s anointed one is a beginning and not the end” (Hebrews 4:1). Therefore, Paul has not only ‘counted as loss for God’s anointed one” all other grounds for confidence and hope, he firmly declares that “I do count them but rubbish, that I might gain God’s anointed one and be found in him,” continuing in the righteousness which is “through faith in God’s anointed one.” His race is not yet won. It is his purpose, then, to run with patience the race set before him, continuing to “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in His anointed one Jesus.”
Paul reckoned with the possibility of failing in the race. Not everyone who runs wins. “Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So, run that you may obtain” (1 Corinthians 9:4). Paul therefore continually disciplined himself lest, have preached to others, he himself should become a castaway. As we have considered in chapter 4, Paul’s meaning in his use of the word adokimos is clearly indicated by his use of the word in 2 Corinthians 13:5; where he exhorts the Corinthians to determine whether they are actually in the faith, asserting that God’s anointed one does not dwell in those who are adokimos. The meaning of the word, as he uses it in 1 Corinthians 9:7 is further defined in the context. After frankly acknowledging his deep concern lest he should become adokimos, he immediately cites instances of apostasy among the Israelites:
Paul draws the analogy (10:1 ff.) between the experience of the children of Israel in the wilderness and our experience as the Israel of God in the present era. He points out that they, too, were baptised. Their miraculous passage through the Red sea was a symbol of their union; not merely with Moses, but with the one God Yehovah of whom Moses was the ordained representative. Their “baptism” was their confession of their faith in Yehovah who had called them from Egypt to journey to the Promised Land. Furthermore, on their journey “they did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink” as we. Paul does not contend that they were aware of the symbolic aspect of the manna and the water. However, they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was God’s anointed one. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness (vv. 4, 5). The tragedy in Israel’s case is that most of them did not continue in obedient faith. Paul’s warning is that such could happen in our day.
Jesus himself continually warned his disciples of the necessity of continuing in the faith if they were to continue in saving grace. To certain Jews who believer on him, he said, “If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:31, 32). Notice the significance of Jesus statement on the same occasion (v. 51), “truly, truly, I say unto you, if a man keep my word, he shall never see death.” This is obviously a condition required of all Messianic believers who wish to gain age upon age lasting life.
Our lord’s solemn words in John 15:14 clearly depict the urgent necessity of perseverance. The lesson of 6 of our lord’s parables is the necessity of the perseverance in the faith, and such necessity is plainly implied in numerous other parables. In Luke 12:35, 36, Jesus associates the grave importance of perseverance with the promise of his return; and association found many times in the scriptures. “By your endurance,” said Jesus to his disciples “you will win your souls” (Luke 21:19; cf. Matthew 24:13; Hebrews 10: 35, 37; James 5:7-11).
Writing to the Romans, whom he wished to visit in order to strengthen their faith (1:11), Paul warns that “we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (8:12-14). Again, he reminds the Gentiles in the church at Rome that they only “stand by faith” (11:20, cf. 2 Corinthians 1:24) and that they must “be not arrogant, but fear;” for since God did not spare the “natural branches” of Israel, but broke them off because of their unbelief, neither will He spare them if they abandon the faith by which they stand. “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them that fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, IF you continue in His goodness: otherwise you too will be cut off” (v. 22).
Writing to the Colossians; Paul declares that God, who has reconciled us to Himself in the body of His anointed one’s flesh through his death, will “present you holy and blameless and unreproveable om His sight; IF you continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard (1:22, 23). Similarly, he writes to the Corinthians of “the gospel which I preached unto you, which you also have received, and whereby you stand; by which also you are BEING SAVED if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you have believed in vain (1 Corinthians 15:1, 2).
Paul admonishes Timothy that, though “some will turn away from the faith because they continuously give their attention to deceiving spirits and things which demons preach through the pretention of false teachers,” he must “make it your habit to pay close attention to yourself and you teaching. Persevere in those things, for if you do you will save both yourself and those who listen to you (1Timothy 4:1, 16). Again, he admonishes Timothy, “but bad men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, misleading others, and mislead themselves. But, you on your part, must continue to abide by what you have learned and been led to rely on…. the sacred scriptures which can give you wisdom that leads to salvation through the faith that leans on God’s anointed one Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:13-15).
Concerning himself, Paul writes to the Philippians (3:7-14) of his intense desire to “gain God’s anointed one, and be found in him.” Not, of course, that he had not as yet “gained God’s anointed one or is not yet to be “found in him.” But he purposes to continue in the way. “To have been brought to God’s anointed one is a beginning and not the end” (Hebrews 4:1). Therefore, Paul has not only ‘counted as loss for God’s anointed one” all other grounds for confidence and hope, he firmly declares that “I do count them but rubbish, that I might gain God’s anointed one and be found in him,” continuing in the righteousness which is “through faith in God’s anointed one.” His race is not yet won. It is his purpose, then, to run with patience the race set before him, continuing to “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in His anointed one Jesus.”
Paul reckoned with the possibility of failing in the race. Not everyone who runs wins. “Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So, run that you may obtain” (1 Corinthians 9:4). Paul therefore continually disciplined himself lest, have preached to others, he himself should become a castaway. As we have considered in chapter 4, Paul’s meaning in his use of the word adokimos is clearly indicated by his use of the word in 2 Corinthians 13:5; where he exhorts the Corinthians to determine whether they are actually in the faith, asserting that God’s anointed one does not dwell in those who are adokimos. The meaning of the word, as he uses it in 1 Corinthians 9:7 is further defined in the context. After frankly acknowledging his deep concern lest he should become adokimos, he immediately cites instances of apostasy among the Israelites:
Paul draws the analogy (10:1 ff.) between the experience of the children of Israel in the wilderness and our experience as the Israel of God in the present era. He points out that they, too, were baptised. Their miraculous passage through the Red sea was a symbol of their union; not merely with Moses, but with the one God Yehovah of whom Moses was the ordained representative. Their “baptism” was their confession of their faith in Yehovah who had called them from Egypt to journey to the Promised Land. Furthermore, on their journey “they did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink” as we. Paul does not contend that they were aware of the symbolic aspect of the manna and the water. However, they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was God’s anointed one. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness (vv. 4, 5). The tragedy in Israel’s case is that most of them did not continue in obedient faith. Paul’s warning is that such could happen in our day.
Jesus himself continually warned his disciples of the necessity of continuing in the faith if they were to continue in saving grace. To certain Jews who believer on him, he said, “If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:31, 32). Notice the significance of Jesus statement on the same occasion (v. 51), “truly, truly, I say unto you, if a man keep my word, he shall never see death.” This is obviously a condition required of all Messianic believers who wish to gain age upon age lasting life.
Our lord’s solemn words in John 15:14 clearly depict the urgent necessity of perseverance. The lesson of 6 of our lord’s parables is the necessity of the perseverance in the faith, and such necessity is plainly implied in numerous other parables. In Luke 12:35, 36, Jesus associates the grave importance of perseverance with the promise of his return; and association found many times in the scriptures. “By your endurance,” said Jesus to his disciples “you will win your souls” (Luke 21:19; cf. Matthew 24:13; Hebrews 10: 35, 37; James 5:7-11).
Many urgent warnings of the New Testament writers and of the lord Jesus reflect their concern that we run with endurance the race set before us. We should be foolish indeed if we fail to share that concern. The issues are of everlasting consequence!
The supreme example of one who ran who ran with patient endurance the race set before him was Jesus who, “endured such contradiction of sinners against himself,” even resisting “unto blood” (Hebrews 12:3, 4). The writer to the Hebrews bids us to run our race “looking unto him who is the leader and the finisher of faith, even Jesus, who, for the joy set before him, endured the stake, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right had of the throne of God (v. 2)
The perfect humility of Jesus, the realm in which faith functions, was essential to the fulfillment of his redemptive mission. It was as the son of man, as a human being that Jesus was obedient unto death, thus fulfilling his Father and his God’s will. It was as the second man and the last Adam that the lord Jesus brought redemption to all mankind (1 Corinthians 15:21, 22, 45; Romans 5:12-19). He did so as the only perfect sinless man!
The supreme example of one who ran who ran with patient endurance the race set before him was Jesus who, “endured such contradiction of sinners against himself,” even resisting “unto blood” (Hebrews 12:3, 4). The writer to the Hebrews bids us to run our race “looking unto him who is the leader and the finisher of faith, even Jesus, who, for the joy set before him, endured the stake, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right had of the throne of God (v. 2)
The perfect humility of Jesus, the realm in which faith functions, was essential to the fulfillment of his redemptive mission. It was as the son of man, as a human being that Jesus was obedient unto death, thus fulfilling his Father and his God’s will. It was as the second man and the last Adam that the lord Jesus brought redemption to all mankind (1 Corinthians 15:21, 22, 45; Romans 5:12-19). He did so as the only perfect sinless man!
As the son of man, Jesus’ life did not automatically unfold in fulfillment of God’s will without the necessity of his own deliberate decision and earnest striving to obey the will of his God and his Father. All that was written in the law of Moses and in the prophet and the psalms was entirely voluntary on his part. He asserted that the fulfillment of the scripture regarding himself was determined by his personal decision alone! From Nazareth to his death on the stake Jesus was under no coercion or constraint other than his own desire to fulfill the will of his God and his Father, whose will was his meat and delight!
It was the will of the Father that Jesus should die for the sins of mankind. But the will of the Father did not in any way ignore or coerce the will of His son. It is the will of God that all men be saved and none perish (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). But the will of God does not ignore or coerce the will of men, and as a result many perish. Jesus’ victory in his redemptive career was won at the cost of blood, sweat and tears. He won it to share it with us: but only as we trust him in obedient faith and, after his example, run with steadfast endurance the race that is set before us. Our victory in our race is but a secondary victory; but it is essential: it is the prerequisite to share in God’s anointed one’s victory!
He who was determined to run his race, even unto death on a stake; said to his disciples: “if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his stake and follow me. For whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Tor what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with His angels, and the he shall reward every man according to his works…… To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, ever as I overcame and am set down with my Father on His throne….. be you faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He that has an ear, let him hear what I say to the churches: he that overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”
If we would be God’s anointed one’s “let us lay aside every encumbrance, and sin which does so easily beset us, looking unto Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith” in its supreme manifestation!
Victory is certain, as we continue to looking unto Jesus in obedient faith!
It was the will of the Father that Jesus should die for the sins of mankind. But the will of the Father did not in any way ignore or coerce the will of His son. It is the will of God that all men be saved and none perish (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). But the will of God does not ignore or coerce the will of men, and as a result many perish. Jesus’ victory in his redemptive career was won at the cost of blood, sweat and tears. He won it to share it with us: but only as we trust him in obedient faith and, after his example, run with steadfast endurance the race that is set before us. Our victory in our race is but a secondary victory; but it is essential: it is the prerequisite to share in God’s anointed one’s victory!
He who was determined to run his race, even unto death on a stake; said to his disciples: “if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his stake and follow me. For whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Tor what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with His angels, and the he shall reward every man according to his works…… To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, ever as I overcame and am set down with my Father on His throne….. be you faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He that has an ear, let him hear what I say to the churches: he that overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.”
If we would be God’s anointed one’s “let us lay aside every encumbrance, and sin which does so easily beset us, looking unto Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith” in its supreme manifestation!
Victory is certain, as we continue to looking unto Jesus in obedient faith!
Wherefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the High Priest and our confession, God’s anointed one Jesus…. whose house we are, IF we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.
Wherefore…. take heed, brethren, lest there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are companions of God’s anointed one, IF we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end (Hebrews 3:1; 6, 12-14).
Wherefore…. take heed, brethren, lest there be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are companions of God’s anointed one, IF we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end (Hebrews 3:1; 6, 12-14).
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