We come now to the transitional point in Hebrews. Everything up to this paragraph has been a theological argument — arguing that Jesus is the Messiah who has fulfilled the Old Testament system of priests, rituals, and sacrifices, and has inaugurated a new and better way to relate to God. Everything following this paragraph is practical application — explaining what this new way of relating to God looks like and urging us to live it out.
The first 3 verses summarize the theological argument (see Hebrews 10:19-21); notice the “therefore” and the “since’s”. If you are new, these verses probably sound strange to you, but if you have been going through this study on the book of Hebrews, then you probably recognize these references to the Old Testament religious system. In essence, the author is saying that Jesus’ death has paid for your complete and permanent forgiveness.
In the Old Testament, a thick curtain in the tabernacle separated God’s presence from everyone else. This curtain symbolized our separation from God because of our sins. No one could go into God’s holy presence except the Levitical high priest — and even then, only once a year on the Day of Atonement, as he brought the blood of a goat which had been slain for the people’s sins. This animal sacrifice symbolized God’s requirement that our sins must be paid for by the death of a substitute. The whole system was only a foreshadowing of Jesus.
Jesus is the ultimate Priest who fixed our problem with God. He was also the ultimate Sacrifice, who voluntarily gave His own perfect life as a total payment for our sins. This is why when Jesus died, the temple curtain was torn from top to bottom (see Matthew 27:51). Now all of us, no matter how bad we have been or how long we have been alienated from God, can go into God’s holy presence and be confident of His acceptance! The only condition is that you come to God through Jesus.
God’s love is real and gives us hope; just tell God that you want to know Him and ask Him to forgive you completely through Jesus’ death.
What if you have made this decision? What if you are now completely and permanently forgiven? What now? How should you respond to Jesus’ fantastic gift? That is what Hebrews 1:22-25 answers through three practical imperatives. Each of these imperatives is in the present tense, which means that they call us to an ongoing lifestyle rather than once in a while. And each of them focuses on relating personally to other persons rather than impersonal religious activity. Let’s take a closer look.
Read Hebrews 10:22. This should not be a surprise. If Jesus’ death has removed the separation between me and God, the most obvious implication is that I should draw near to God and cultivate relational closeness with Him. That is what “draw near to God” means — choosing regularly to relate to God in a personal and dependent way. This is the first response the author describes because it is the most obvious and foundational.
What will help us cultivate relational closeness with God? It is significant that the author does not answer this question by referring to what times of the day we should do this, or what our bodily posture should be, or what words we should use. These external regulations are important to religious systems, but they are unhelpful, and can even be harmful, to cultivating relational closeness with God. Instead, he urges us to draw near to God with two internal attitudes which will open our hearts to God’s love.
The first is a “sincere heart.” “Sincere” means honest — telling God what is really on your heart. It is the opposite of hypocritical — covering up your problems by posturing. Some people do this by chanting memorized sayings while their heart is far from God (see Isaiah 29:13). Others do this by telling God how good they have been, like the Pharisee in one of Jesus’ stories (see Luke 18:11-12). But relating to God with a sincere heart means being humbly honest about your unworthiness before God, like the tax-collector (see Luke 18:13).
But this does not mean that you go into God’s presence cringing and beating yourself and begging for forgiveness. God already knows about all of your sins, and Jesus’ death has already paid for all of your sins — so you are to draw near to God confident that He not only forgives and accepts you, but that He welcomes you with open arms and is delighted to relate to you. That is why he says to draw near to God “in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”
The Old Testament high priests underwent a ritual washing and were sprinkled with the blood of the animal sacrifice before he went into the Holy of Holies. This taught that we are qualified to come into God’s presence not because of our moral goodness, but only because of God’s payment for our sins. The high priest had to do this every time he went into God’s presence. But since Jesus has paid for our sins once-for-all, we are always qualified to go into God’s presence.
If you understand and believe this, it will affect your communication with God in two ways:
Here is a second important response to Jesus’ gift — read Hebrews 10:23. This one is a little more difficult to understand. “Hope” refers to God’s promise that He will take care of us in the future — both in this life and especially in His eternal kingdom. So at first glance, he seems to be telling them to hang on to God’s promise of God’s eternal life. His audience was under persecution for their faith in Jesus, so this would be a good reminder.
But do not miss the phrase “the hope that we profess.” Profess to whom? To those who did not believe in Jesus, and who were pressuring them to forsake their faith. In other words, this is not just a call to hang on to their own faith in Jesus, but also a call to keep sharing their faith with others. As Bible commentator and priest Raymond Brown says in The Message of Hebrews, “This is a call not only to perseverance, but also to witness.” Peter reminds his persecuted audience of this in 1 Peter 3:15.
When you think about it, it makes sense that this should be one of our primary responses to Jesus’ gift. If you have received God’s total forgiveness, if you are experiencing a personal love relationship with God, if you are looking forward to eternity in God’s kingdom — certainly you should share this gift with others so they can receive it too!
Why then do so few Christians regularly share their faith?
According to a study conducted in 2006 by the Barna Research Group, “Survey respondents who were born again Christians — meaning they had made a commitment to Christ that was important in their life, and believed they would go to Heaven after they died solely because they had confessed their sins and accepted Christ as their savior — were asked if they had shared their faith in Christ with non-believers during the past twelve months. The research showed that there has been no significant change in this behavior during the past decade, with six out of ten Christians claiming to have shared their beliefs about Jesus with someone whom they knew believed differently.”
The most common reason is the same reason these Christians were falling silent — we are intimidated by our society’s antipathy toward Christianity. There are many reasons for this antipathy, one of the biggest is the church’s insistence on relating to God through Old Testament forms like priests, rituals, and other traditions. But many people are receptive to Jesus and are looking for a relationship with God — so we must keep telling them about Jesus’ gift!
If you know Christ but struggle with cultivating relational closeness with God and sharing Christ with others, it may be because you are trying to do this alone. This was my experience for the first several months after I met Christ. I knew I was completely forgiven, but I had trouble building closeness with God and I quit telling people about Jesus after a couple of friends made fun of me. I felt like I was on a treadmill — attending one big meeting every week or so, but not getting anywhere, still stuck in the same selfish and destructive habits. It was not until I responded to a pastor’s challenge to get regularly involved with him and his Christian friends that my spiritual life finally started seeing growth. One year later, my whole life-orientation had been changed to enjoying God’s love and giving His love to other people, both Christians and non-Christians. The catalyst for this transformation was the spiritual stimulation and motivation that comes from regular interaction with others who are trying to follow Jesus.
This is exactly how the author challenges us to respond to Jesus’ gift in Hebrews 10:24. The word “spur one another on” is a very strong word. It is also translated as “provoke”, as in “provoking rage”, or “incite”, as in “inciting a riot”. If you want to see God change your life, you have to get involved with a group of Christians who keep inciting one another to live out God’s love. You cannot sustain this kind of motivation by yourself; you have to commit yourself to be around people who will incite you and you have to do what you can to incite them. If you are unwilling to get involved in this way, you will end up on the same spiritual treadmill I was on. The author says this kind of interaction involves two things (see Hebrews 10:25):
Spiritual life is meant to be done in community with others; it is not possible to grow and relate to God well if we isolate ourselves. Are you doing life with other followers of Jesus, spurring one another on as you share your faith with nonbelievers and cultivating relational closeness between yourself and God on a daily basis?
