Letter to the Hebrews
A centuries old controversy has been raging between two opposing views on the subject of the eternal security of a believer. These views have become known as the Calvinist and Armenian views and a quick search on the Internet will reveal how heated and at times acrimonious the debate has been. In this appendix, I want to walk with you through the main scriptures and issues along with a brief history of their interpretation and offer some thoughts on a way forward .
I want you to fall in love with Jesus. And I want you to fall in love with the letter to the Hebrews, which is all about Him.
Chapter 2 - Developing an approach to the study of the scripture
My wife and I spent six months doing voluntary work in Ghana, West Africa. On the back of nearly every taxi and lorry was a scripture reference or a scripture quote. Some of them only had fragments such as 'unless God' or 'with God'. As a bit of entertainment whilst driving along the pitted and dusty roads we played a game where one of us would quote a fragment of a well known verse whilst the others in the car would try to guess the rest of the intended verse.A friend of mine, who is on the church staff as a youth worker, went into the pastor's office, closed the door behind him and told him that he had got a young lady pregnant. Also, that this lady was married and a member of the church. The pastor looked horrified until my friend said that it was all right because the lady concerned was his own wife! I don't think I would have been taken in because I have played such tricks myself, but of course there was nothing untruthful or deceitful about what my friend said. The problem was entirely the pre-conceived notions of the pastor.
The main problem in our approach to understanding scripture is that we too have many pre-conceived notions. We have probably heard countless sermons of variable quality, read many books of varying scholarliness, and perhaps had quite a diet of pithy quippy bible reading notes to stimulate our quiet times. As a consequence, when we read a passage we all too often think we already know what it says and means rather than letting the passage speak to us afresh, untainted by our pre-conceived understanding.
We will have to work hard to avoid this and other pitfalls, but I hope that the following paragraphs will help to equip you to study with fresh eyes and an expectant heart.
The first questions we should ask when approaching any of the biblical books are 'who wrote this?', 'who was the author addressing?' and then 'why did the author write this?' These are the questions we will address in this chapter. Putting this another way, we will look at the book's historical context and then its literary context.[^1]
At last, we have arrived at the point where we can dig into the text in detail. I trust that by now you have read Hebrews through a few times and feel reasonably familiar with it. This will help you to keep the detail in context as we study it. The first chapter of the letter is not difficult, though it does raise some questions that have left the commentators disagreeing with each other!
Having launched into an exaltation of Christ as the one who both obtained and announced the inheritance which God first spoke to us about through the prophets, the author moves directly to his purpose in writing the letter: that we should give careful attention to what we have heard lest we drift away. This, as we shall see, was a repeated failing of the Jews. They received God's word, often with signs and wonders, and yet they so often failed to respond or they fell short in their faith and perseverance. The Jews who had so much history with God nevertheless failed to learn the lessons. The question is, will we?
Having set out the supremacy of Christ and His gospel the author brings a strong encouragement to faith and a warning against the unbelieving example of the Israelites in the wilderness. Because their hearts were hardened they could not inherit what God intended for them. We are exhorted to confidently rejoice in the hope we have in Christ through thick and thin – then we will come into all our inheritance in Christ.
Hebrews chapter 4 presents us with a series of paradoxes. Our inheritance, which is described here as rest, requires both confidence and fear, both striving and ceasing from striving, both personal diligence and God's unhesitating grace. God is uncompromising in His examination of our hearts and yet sympathetic to our weakness. In Christ we have entered our rest and yet must remain in that rest. In all this, Christ is our compassionate High Priest.
Chapter 9 Inheritance through the God-Man Christ - Hebrews 5
In Hebrews 5 the author begins to set out Jesus' qualification for High Priesthood, replacing and superseding the Mosaic Law. The huge significance of this is that Jesus did not merely come to tell us the way to live, nor even to show us the way to live, but to be the way to live. He is the source of our life. He makes our inheritance both possible in principal and attainable in practice.Chapter 10 Inheritance depends upon maturity - Hebrews 6 Part 1
From the outset the author has been urging his readers to heed the Gospel promises and move on in their faith to inherit all God has promised. But he knows that unbelief has been endemic amongst the Jews since the days of Moses. Later in chapter 6 the author urges his readers 'to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.' For this they need to go onto maturity, but those who remain infants in faith are vulnerable to discouragement and may replicate the unbelief of the Israelites in the desert, finding themselves barred from further progress.Chapter 11 Imitate those who have inherited the promises - Hebrews 6 Part 2
The author's longing is that his readers will respond in faith to all that God has promised and inherit the fullness of the great promises given to Abraham – to be blessed and to be a blessing. This is what Christ has made possible and is the purpose of his ongoing High Priestly ministry.Chapter 12 Inheritance required a new Priesthood - Hebrews 7
The author now resumes (from chapter 5) his lengthy proof of the inadequacy of the Mosaic law with its sacrificial system and the necessity and superiority of Christ. His accomplishments and ongoing ministry as our High Priest are essential for inheriting God's promises. Although of particular interest to Jewish believers in Christ there are matters here of significance for all of us.In the first century the principal controversy amongst Jews concerning the claims made by Christians was over the place of the Law of Moses. Christ's claims to be the Messiah and His death on the cross in atonement for men's sins were well within the scope of their Messianic expectations. The thing that got Christians thrown out of the synagogues was their insistence that the Law of Moses was now obsolete. The author of this letter deals with this controversy head on. If Christians had claimed Christ as the head of a new Priesthood with a renewed Mosaic covenant they would probably have been accepted by the Jews, but the apostles understood that our inheritance was more radical than that. In the next three chapters the author demonstrates both the need for, and the biblical expectation of, a completely new Covenant for God's people rendering the Mosaic one obsolete.
Chapter 14 Inheritance requires a new Priestly Service - Hebrews 9
To a present day gentile reader this chapter may seem to get rather lost in tedious detail, but to Jewish believers, to have the meaning and significance of their rites illuminated by the work of Christ must have been riveting. The author shows that the tabernacle structure and its rites communicate their own inadequacy and point to the need for replacement. In Moses' tabernacle the promises of God are presented but remain unfulfilled. The enjoyment of God's presence and blessing are the very essence of the promised inheritance and yet the way is barred and guarded. In Christ, the sacrifice is sufficient and effective, the barriers are discarded and the New Covenant established. Through Him, 'those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.'Chapter 15 Inheritance is through confident faith - Hebrews 10
Hebrews chapter 10 concludes the proof that Christ is necessary and sufficient for our inheritance. This chapter is all about confidence – confidence in Christ cleansing us from the guilt and shame of sin, confidence in drawing near to God through Christ and confidence in the present hope of inheriting the promises. The foundations for that confidence in the history if Israel and in the Law of Moses has been explored. Now we must live it out in our daily lives. The promises long hoped for have now been realised – to live as if they are still a distant future hope is, in fact, a rejection of Christ's accomplishment.Unbelief and rebellion is not the totality of Israel's history. It also has a history of individuals who had extraordinary faith and perseverance, enduring hope and uncompromising obedience. Having drawn warnings from their history of disobedience, the author now encourages his readers to emulate the faith of their nation's heroes. But that is not all. Again and again he points out that these people never inherited the promises in their lifetimes. It was not possible – until now.
Chapter 17 Inheritance comes with in-service training - Hebrews 12
Entering our full inheritance in Christ takes faith, but so does living in that inheritance. It is a 'race' of faith in which Satan constantly tries to disqualify us. But Jesus has both shown us, and prepared for us, the way. As the author showed us in Hebrews 10, it is not a static way, like obtaining a certificate for a degree qualification, but a living way. In this chapter the author shows us that our inheritance comes with in-service training. God deeply desires that we will enter and enjoy our full inheritance in the promises He first gave to Abraham, and so He continues to speak to us along the way and disciplines us where we need correction or training.In this concluding chapter of the letter, the author shows that living in our inheritance depends on a life of faith demonstrated in everyday relationships; towards strangers, brothers and spouses; towards those with plenty and those in need and towards true and false teachers. Our inheritance is both a matter of following good examples and also setting a good example.
We usually talk about reading the bible, but what we really need to do is to let the bible read us.[^1] In other words, we are the subject in which the word of God is living and active, penetrating even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; judging the thoughts and attitudes of our heart[^2]. If we are to truly allow this to happen we must develop an honest and fair approach to exegesis. This appendix touches on some of the more common errors that are made.
A view taken by many is that in this passage the author accidentally presents a theological contradiction in order to make a pastoral appeal. His concern is not to make a theologically watertight statement but a powerfully motivating pastoral warning.
This line of argument is persuasive for many as it circumvents the usual arguments over the passage. The Christian faith contains a number of seemingly conflicting truths that we have to live with, for instance the divinity and humanity of Christ, predestination and man's responsibility, God's sovereignty and man's free will. We can believe these truths, accepting that we are not wise enough to understand them fully. People who take this view say we should not worry about the theological contradiction in this passage.
Firstly, it is hard to believe that the inference concerning the impossibility of restoration for a believer who falls away is accidental. The author goes to considerable lengths to illustrate and argue the point. The conflict is not accidental, but is it acceptable? Can we live with it?
The apparent contradiction contained in this passage, and indeed in other scriptures relating to eternal security and perseverance, are of a different nature to the fore mentioned truths. With them, although we cannot explain how both truths can hold, it is possible to believe both sides at the same time. But how is it possible to believe in both eternal security and in the possibility of losing ones salvation at the same time? They are opposite sides of one issue. An interpretation must be found that gives theological weight to the arguments presented in this passage.
A centuries old controversy has been raging between two opposing views on the subject of the eternal security of a believer. These views have become known as the Calvinist and Armenian views and a quick search on the Internet will reveal how heated and at times acrimonious the debate has been. In this appendix, I want to walk with you through the main scriptures and issues along with a brief history of their interpretation and offer some thoughts on a way forward .