Hebrews #7: Nothing profitable apart from Christ

Hebrews #10 : Nothing profitable apart from Christ  

A Church with Jews

To readers from a community of disciples of Christ with Jewish people who are very familiar with what we call the Old Testament, all the laws, the religious particularities, the author of the epistle will once again remind and illuminate:

• the greatness of Christ’s work;
  • the consequences for believers;
  • encourage believers to remain firm in their life of faith in Christ, on the path of faith to direct their eyes towards the goal;
  • and solemnly warn those in the community who have not yet taken the step for Christ to take it so that there is no other alternative.

A hybrid Church

Indeed, the composition of this community is, from what we can understand, of the same content as the people of the Hebrews or the people of Israel or as our communities, our local churches.

The hybrid Hebrew people

The Hebrew people were made up of people who followed the Lord and others who did not. All, at the same time, were enlightened by the blessings of the Lord, all knew the challenges that the people faced. But we know that ultimately few of the people were really attached to the Lord (since the Lord will wait for their deaths for 40 years, except for Caleb and Joshua).

Interesting to see the influence that the 10 Hebrew princes who did not trust in the Lord had on other men.

A hybrid community

In this community, to whom this epistle is addressed, what about the influence of people who are not attached to Christ? And who thinks that Judaism is ultimately more “secure”, especially in the face of opposition and persecution? Questioning their influence on people who are on the path to truly accepting Christ and on believers.

Example in the Gospels

We have for example two situations which show us in the gospels this in-between with people who are in the group of people attached to Jesus who live with Him, but without really giving their lives to Christ or who adhere to the concept of logic of the teaching of Jesus, but without actually giving their lives to Christ.

Example 1: Judas

The most astonishing is Judas:

• For 3 years, he was part of the community of 12 disciples;
• he received the knowledge of the truth like the other disciples;
• he was publicly exposed to the insults of the religious people who were against Jesus;
• he cast out impure spirits like the other disciples;
• he participated in welfare (willy-nilly);
• he had the very first supper with Jesus;

but he trampled underfoot the Son of God by sinning willfully to betray him.

Example 2: the parable of the sower

Jesus Himself tells us how His words of life are received by those who listen to Him. In the emblematic parable of the sower where among the 4 lands, there are 2 which have a process of receiving the word, without it really taking shape in their lives.

Matthew 13

20 He who received the seed in the stony ground,

it is he who hears the word and immediately accepts it with joy; 21 but he has no roots in himself, he is a man of a moment, and whenever difficulties arise or persecution because of the word, he stumbles.

22 He who received the seed among the thorns,

it is he who hears the word, but the concerns of this world and the deceptive attraction of riches choke this word and make it unfruitful.

Situation that sticks the most

And it is certainly the seed in the stony ground which most closely matches the situation encountered in part in the community in which this epistle is addressed. Faced with the difficulties (the more normal life of the assembly: less spectacular, moments of inauguration of the progress of the gospel as at the beginning of the book of Acts) that the assembly encounters, they abandon it, thinking that returning to Judaism would be better. Their attitudes question other people

who are at the same stage of discovery of the gospel, while being in the community.

Our churches are hybrid

Just like the church to whom this epistle is written, our local churches are likewise made up of people  

• who are truly attached to Christ
  • and others who are on the way and who are wondering.

Only God truly knows who is attached to Him through Christ.

No discipleship by infusion

It is not because we are present that the link with God through Christ is automatically made by infusion with believers.

Disciples by personal choice

But it is only by a real, personal choice in a heart to heart with Christ. And this is made visible by baptism.

Sacrifices and the law overcome by Christ

• To edify, encourage the disciples of Christ,
  • to exhort those who are not yet,

the author, in this first part of chapter 10, shows again the greatness of the work of Christ in relation to what was preparatory, that is to say

• the system of sacrifices,
  • of the law

in the Old Testament.

Sacrifices and the law are only the shadow of Christ

Hebrews – Chapter 10

1 The law, in fact, has a shadow of the good things to come, and not the exact representation of reality;

it can never, by the annual and always repeated offering of the same sacrifices, lead to perfection those who participate in it.

2 Otherwise, would we not have stopped offering them?

Those who perform this cult, purified once and for all, would in fact no longer be aware of their sins at all.

3 But in reality, the remembrance of sins is remembered every year by these sacrifices, 4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Sacrifices and the law have limited effect

These verses remind us that the sacrifices offered temporary ritual purity but conscience showed that the problem of sin was not resolved. And so the sacrifices had to be repeated.

Perfect achievement to remember

However, verse 1 is super valuable.

It is one of the verses that must be

• underline in his paper Bible,
  • tag in digital,
  • memorizing would be even better…

# Hebrews 10. 1 #

####Key to understanding the Old Testament. It is still relevant today when it is taken up in the epistles and words of Jesus####

The outcome is Christ, the rest was transitory

Indeed, he tells us that everything that was in place before Christ’s victory by the cross and His resurrection was

• a prototype
  • preparatory,
  • transient,
  • a perfect sketch,
  • a shadow.

But that reality has been fulfilled in Christ, so now,

• our reference is Christ,
  • our standard is Christ,
  • our framework for understanding faith is in Christ.

Our foundation is in Jesus and in the epistles

Ephesians 2:20

Tells us that Christ is the foundation

20 You were built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone.

And it is on this foundation that the apostles continued the building of the Church. This is crucial, because it conditions our way of understanding the Word of God, the Bible, for our faith.

The standard is therefore in Jesus in what He said and which is recorded

• in the 4 gospels
  • and in the epistles of the apostles.

A look at the Old Testament examined through the words of Jesus and the epistles

For this, everything that is in the Old Testament and which is taken up

• in the words of Jesus and/or
  • in the epistles

is our standard.

This is the reality that Christ accomplished for us

• to the cross and
  • by His resurrection.

An edifying insight

And this reality, the author of the epistle to the Hebrews still gives us a magnificent overview which reinforces the idea, telling us of the perfect incarnation of Jesus, that is to say that He was a perfect human who There was no need for sacrifice. This incarnation had only one goal, to do the will of God, that is to say, to bear the sin of all men to the cross. A crucial moment in history because since then, there has been no need for religious gestures like sacrifices!

Hebrews 10

5 Therefore, when you enter into the world,

Christ says:

You did not want sacrifices or offerings, but you formed a body for me;

6 you accepted neither burnt offerings nor sacrifices for sin,

7 so I said:

‘Here I am, I come – in the scroll of the book it is written about me – to do your will, O God.’

8 He first said:

Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you neither wanted nor accepted.

– which are nevertheless offered in accordance with the law –

9 and then he declared:

Here I am, I come, [O God,] to do your will.

He thus abolishes the first cult to establish the second.

10 And it is because of this will that we have been made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

11 Every priest stands daily to minister, and frequently to offer the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins,

12 but Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down at the right hand of God forever.

13 He now waits until his enemies are reduced to serving as his footstool.

Hebrews 10

14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those whom he makes holy.

15 This is what the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for having said:

16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:

I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds,

17 he adds:

I will no longer remember their sins or their faults.

18 But where there is forgiveness of sins,

there is no longer any need to present a sin offering.

19 So, brothers and sisters, we have through the blood of Jesus

insurance

free access to the sanctuary.

20 This new and living road,

he inaugurated it for us through the veil,

that is to say, of his own body.

21 Moreover, we have a high priest over the house of God.

Perfect and definitive work of Christ

This text supports the perfect and definitive work of Christ:

verse 10 “once for all”;

verse 12 “having offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down forever”;

verses 19-21, Jesus guarantees

• access and connection to all, in the sanctuary, heaven,
  • that is to say to God.

No more need for priests in the temple, Jesus is for us directly in heaven.

What consequences for us?

Jesus solves the insoluble problem of sin:

verse 10 “we have been made holy”;

verse 14 “he has perfected forever those whom he makes holy”.

We are no longer seen as sinners by God, through Christ, therefore no longer need sacrifices:

verse 17 “I will remember their sins and their faults no more. »

“Remembrance” in the sense that God no longer uses them to ask for them

• justice,
• repair
• and in the end, judgment.

Verse 18 “there is no more offering for sin.”

Through Jesus, the will of God is no longer external as was the case with the tables of the law, but it is in our conscience.

Verse 16 “I will put my laws in their hearts and write them on their minds.”

A new alliance.

What God desires for men is no longer a score to be followed as best as possible, but it is written on our hard drive.

In this new covenant, believers have access to heaven:

verse 19 “through the blood of Jesus the assurance of free access to the sanctuary”, that is to say, heaven…

There is no longer anything conditional to produce in order to be admissible before God because it is Christ who acquired it for us. Everything depends on Him. He is the guarantor.

#Salvation 100% acquired by Jesus#

####We can’t bring or take anything away, so we can’t lose it####

What God wants is hearts that truly open to Him and that no longer hide behind rites without changing anything deep down, hence this magnificent invitation:

Hebrews 10

22 Let us therefore draw near with

a sincere heart,

an unshakeable faith,

the heart purified from a bad conscience

and the body washed with pure water.

The author seems to say:

–  » Be honest « .

–  » Have confidence « .

– “Christ has acquired for you what laws and sacrifices could not do.”

It is very interesting that the author emphasizes this aspect of the sincere heart as opposed to a shared heart.

Let us remember that the community to whom this letter is written has in its midst people torn between

• the gospel and
• the Jewish religious system.

Consequences

So, in support of what he emphasizes about the work of Christ:

For the disciples

• He will encourage the disciples to have a firm, enduring faith that looks toward the salvation that will be a reality at the restoration of all things after the return of Christ.

For the hesitant

• He will shake the hesitant by making them aware
  • that there is nothing,
  • that there will never be anything else perfect, unless they lay hold on Christ. And that therefore they are lost and under the judgment of God.

The hypothesis, if ever…

To do this,

he will do it very finely in a hypothetical language to

• that the believers, the disciples who could have been destabilized, can understand and grasp the sterile reasoning of returning to Judaism;
• so that those who are on the way, who could have been destabilized or tried to return to Judaism, can realize the folly of thinking that there could be something
  • best in the Jewish religious system of the time
    • or lost by cleaving to Christ.

So let’s continue reading:

Hebrews 10

23 Let us hold fast to the hope we proclaim, for he who promised is faithful.

24 Let us look after one another to encourage one another to love and to good works.

25 Let us not forsake ourselves together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.

Do this all the more as you see the day approaching.

(For them, in the short term, it was most certainly the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple).

God is stable, you should too

The author tells them: “let us not be shaken, let us all remain stable in the image of God who is faithful. »

Loving and practical stability

And what is strong is that this call for stability is not a call for martial rigor but for benevolence, for practical love.

Instability

The idea of ​​abandoning the assembly is not to choose another, of another denomination (that did not exist); but to leave the community of believers to rejoin Jewish life

• where the religious
  • and the societal

were completely intertwined.

Namely, that at the time, when a Jew turned to Christ, he was very often

• driven from his house,
• fired from his job,
• the family cut ties,
• the person was disinherited,
• etc.

The pressure of discourse to return to the Jewish religious system underlies this problem

• of passive persecution,
• material distress,
• of discrimination.

Let’s stick together

• Hence the speech of concrete love
• and fraternal cohesion, encouraging each other.

Difficulties are an indicator

The difficulties should also be seen more as an indicator that the end times are near for Jerusalem and the temple.

Madness of regrets

Besides, to think about it, to think that there was something better in the Jewish religious system is astonishing.

Hebrews 10

26 Indeed,

if we sin willfully after having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice for sins,

If we voluntarily refuse the Gospel, after

• having heard it clearly,
• seen in the lives of the disciples,
• experienced collective life,

there will never be

• another sacrifice better than Christ,
• another possibility to solve the problem of sin.

SO,

27 but a terrible expectation of judgment and the fierceness of the fire which will devour the adversaries of God.

• refuse Christ,
  • refuse salvation,
  • it is to oppose Him.

Unfortunately, we never win against Him and we must account for it!

(There are references in these terms to the Exodus and to the manifestations of the greatness and judgments of the Lord.)

But you are completely crazy

• to want to return to the Jewish religious system
  • or think about it.

Already in this now outdated system:

28 Whoever has violated the law of Moses is put to death without mercy, on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

So, imagine what it would mean to have refused

• lighting,
• the proposition of the Gospel

what the Holy Spirit has done to you.

29 What much more severe punishment will he then deserve,

in your opinion,

he who has trampled underfoot the Son of God,

who will have judged the blood of the covenant by which he was declared holy to be of no value and will have insulted the Spirit of grace?

And there, the author will make a quotation in the reference of the Jewish religious system, Deuteronomy (Dt 32.35, 36) which shows the terrifying consequences:

30 For we know him who said: Vengeance is mine; I will give to every man what he deserves. He added: The Lord will judge his people (in the quote, it is the Lord speaking to the Hebrew people) .

31 Yes, it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Imagining that there is something better in the Jewish religious system when we have

• heard the greatness of the Gospel,
• that we have seen the life of the Gospel,
• that, in turn, we benefited from it (joy and pain)
• and willfully refusing to place one’s trust in Christ is terrifying, because God’s judgment is certain.

Having had my hand on the handle of the Gospel door to open it to Jesus and say: “no”.

A memory and a resolute direction

And there, again, the author of the epistle invites his readers

• to a memory and
• to direct their views correctly means to direct their lives well.
• Memory where believers stood firm in the face of trial, with great assurance.

And most certainly, the idea is that those who followed, who indirectly experienced these things, also reflect on this moment.

• And to look towards
  • purpose,
  • the goal,
  • completion in Christ
• and not twist your brain into knots believing that there could be better elsewhere.

Most certainly, they are addressed to believers who might be troubled:

Hebrews 10

32 Remember the first days: after you were enlightened, you endured a great and painful struggle.

33 At one time you were publicly exposed to insults and persecutions,

sometimes you showed solidarity with those who found themselves in the same situation.

34 For you had compassion on me in my prison and gladly accepted the taking of your possessions,

knowing that you had better riches [in heaven] which last forever.

Looking forward:

35 Therefore do not give up your confidence, which brings great reward.

36 Yes, you need perseverance to do the will of God and thus obtain what is promised to you.

37 Still very little, very little time, and

Quote from the OT:

he who is to come will come, he will not delay. 38 And the righteous shall live by faith;

but if he turns back , I take no pleasure in him .

39 As for us,

we are not among those who look back for their loss,

but of those who have faith for the salvation of their souls.

Experience everything without deciding

Such a waste ! When you think about it… Judas’ life decisions were terrible:

• to have experienced everything,
  • experimented

without having really grasped Jesus…

Could it be the same for one of us?

It is also solemn for us. We can live in this assembly. We invest in it with

• constraints and
• the sacrifices

that they represent.

To agree

• with the logic of faith,
• the historical link, linked to our culture,
• the reasonable side of faith,
• the identity side of faith,
• human brotherhood,

and having missed the essential, giving oneself to Christ.

#Knowing everything about Jesus does not save#

####It is accepting him as Lord and Savior of one’s fallen life that saves####

History does not give good indicators

This shift from a church of professing to a church of tradition, we have observed it and we observe it in Switzerland, it is notable in terms of what comes from the Reformation.

Refusing God’s Light

Generations after generations,

• the requirement of faith,
• the determination of faith

had no meaning because Christ was no longer at the heart of lives. Don’t we have more unbelieving pastors in historic parishes than servants attached to Christ?

It’s terrible, years of theological studies, nose in the light of the Bible on a daily basis, and missing out on Christ…

And that left room for other proposals. And this was not a return to Judaism. But it is Swiss prosperity, materialism, the utopia of progress, moral overthrow, other beliefs. I don’t know if you have noticed, now there is a form of appetite for all other beliefs, as long as they do not come from the Bible…

It hits us twice as fast

If it took 4 or 5 centuries for the breath of the Reformation to become an empty shell of Christ, there is no need to be a great prophet for this to risk being the case of Evangelicalism in half the time…

What are we here for today?

But above all, who are we here for?

Particular relevance

Today’s text may be very relevant when we are children whose parents have a living faith in Christ. Which was my case.

We live

• the joys,
  • the blessings,
  • deprivations,
  • constraints

which flow from the parents’ life of faith.

We have been attending an assembly for years because our parents take us there.

We know all the right answers in the Gospel and we are even able to defend them.

However, have we really given ourselves to Christ?

#Being a child of believing parents does not save you#

####It is accepting him as Lord and Savior of one’s fallen life that saves####

If this is not the case, it is a safe bet that you will be seduced

• by ideas,
• by ways of life

who are more comfortable among those around you. Exactly the same questioning as in the text we read: it was more comfortable to return to Judaism than to be firm in Christ.

So there, it will be more comfortable, if Christ is not at the heart of your life, to do the same as those around us

• on a sentimental and sexual level,
• in terms of life goals,
• in battles of ideas that will resemble faith but without Christ, egalitarian things, for the planet, social, NGOs, etc.

It’s terrible,

• having been part of the assembly for years,
• having received the knowledge of the truth like other believers,
• have participated voluntarily in certain activities of the assembly,
• perhaps even having taken the supper,

but having trampled underfoot the Son of God by sinning willfully,

by not accepting Him as Lord and Savior of his life.

So let’s actually grab it

Today’s text invites us to truly grasp Christ who – at the price of His life – brought our infamy, to say stop all reflections which could try to make people believe that there is better elsewhere, to look towards the Salvation which will be realized in the restoration of all things, looking at it with persevering faith.

And we have many examples of persevering faith in the Bible.

This is the subject of the next chapter.