No Turning Back
What would it have been helpful for me to know about Hebrews before I read it for the first time?
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The writer and broadcaster Libby Purves, interviewed in the Christian magazine 'Woman Alive' recently, said, 'God comes in different hats.' And this is a very common view today. There is no such thing as absolute truth, true for all of us, whether or not anyone believes it. There is only whatever is "true for you" and "true for me".
A few years ago, the BBC ran a series called 'Soul of Britain', with Michael Buerk. For this series, they surveyed people's beliefs and attitudes. They found that:
- fewer than one in ten of us are confident that our tradition is the best path to God
- about a third of us think that all religions are equally valid
One of the contributors to Soul of Britain said:
There are many many paths to god, and it depends on the individual as to which is their path. I very much believe in Christ's teaching, the Buddha's teaching, many other teachings. It's the same path.
Christian Research carried out a survey of church-attending teenagers, and found that:
- About four out of five of them are not sure whether there is such a thing as absolute truth, and many believe that two people can have contradictory beliefs yet both be correct
- One in three of those who define themselves as committed followers of Jesus Christ doubts whether we can know for certain that God exists
- A substantial minority of teenagers from evangelical Churches do not believe that Christianity is the only true religion
So today people believe that God wears many different hats, and there are many different pathways to God.
There is nothing new about this: two thousand years ago, the first followers of Jesus Christ lived in a world where there were many different brands of spirituality on offer, and many different paths claiming to lead to God. But what does the Bible itself say about this?
This article is based on a talk that was originally used as one of a series of studies designed to help us to get a grasp of the Bible's 'big picture' message.
If you have never thought about the over-all message of the Bible, I would specially like to recommend 'God's Big Picture' by Vaughn Roberts, subtitled 'Tracing the story-line of the Bible.'
In this article, we are looking particularly at the New Testament book of Hebrews, and trying to answer the question 'What would it have been helpful for me to know about Hebrews before I read it for the first time?'
I hope that this article will encourage you to read through Hebrews, whether it is the first time, or whether you have read it many times before. If you read five chapters a week, it would take you two and a half weeks. Or if you read it at one go, it would take about as long as two episodes of 'Eastenders'. I will leave you to figure out whether Eastenders or Hebrews would help you more in your personal spiritual development.
So what would it have been helpful for me to know before I read Hebrews for the first time?
There are really only two things we need to know about Hebrews:
- It was written to Jewish followers of Christ (hence the name 'Hebrews')
- It was written to Jewish Christians who were tempted to give up on their new faith, and turn back to their Jewish roots
Once we understand these two points, some of the peculiar details fall into place and make more sense. So we are going to look at these two points, and then at one important problem that Hebrews raises for followers of Christ today.
1. Because it was written to Jewish followers of Christ...
What do you think about when you think about the Jews in the Old Testament? Here are a few possibilities:
- sacrifices
- priests
- the temple
- Moses
- angels
Because Hebrews was written to Jewish followers of Christ, it has a lot to say about all these things.
- Moses is mentioned eleven times
- angels are mentioned fourteen times
- sacrifices are mentioned more than twenty times
- priests are mentioned nearly thirty times
- the temple (or rather the tabernacle - the tent that came before the temple was built) is mentioned seven times
We find this alien to us, because we are not Jews and we do not live two thousand years ago.
Whenever we come to any part of the Bible, we need to ask ourselves two questions:
- What did this mean to the first people who read it or heard it?
- What does God want to say through it to us today?
One danger is to ignore the first question, and leap straight into 'what does God want to say through it to us today?' Then we can end up twisting the Bible to mean whatever we want it to mean. But the Bible does not mean something different today than when it was first written. A good test of whether we understand it right is: 'could it have meant this to the people who first heard it?'
Another danger is to ignore the second question, and only to ask 'what did this mean when it was first written?' Then we can end up with an interesting history lesson, that has nothing to do with our lives.
We need to ask both questions: what did it mean then? What does it mean now?
We need to understand what it meant to the people who first heard it, then we need to think about what the equivalent is for us today. For example:
- To the Jews, Moses was the leader and the law-giver. He was the father of the nation. Today, if you go to the Raj Ghat in Delhi, India, you can see the place where Gandhi was cremated. Gandhi is still hugely respected by millions of Indians as the father of the nation, and the individual who, more than anyone else gave the nation its freedom from the British. The ancient Jews looked back to Moses in the same kind of way: he was the great deliverer, the great lawgiver, the father of the nation.
- Angels were messengers, or mediators. They carried God's message to people. Today when workers have a dispute with their employers, they sometimes take it to the arbitration service ACAS, and ask them to act as a mediator. A mediator is a go-between, who carries messages between people who - for one reason or another - cannot or will not talk to each other directly.
- Sacrifices were essential so that people could come into God's presence. The sacrifice paid the price for wrongdoing and dealt with the problem of guilt.
- To the Jews, the High Priest was both the current leader of the nation, and the one who represented them to God. Only the High Priest was allowed to go into God's direct presence - and even he was only allowed to go once a year, and had to go with a sacrifice.
- The temple was the place where the Jews could go to meet with God. Before the temple was built, they had a special tent called the tabernacle
Once we have understood what these things meant to the people who first heard them, then we need to ask what God means to say to us through them today.
So Hebrews was written to Jewish followers of Christ, and because of that, it is loaded with Jewish ideas.
2. Because it was written to Jewish followers of Christ who were tempted to give up
We do not know the specifics of who it was written to, where or when they lived. But we do know, from the book itself, that they were coming under pressure to abandon their new faith, and turn back to Judaism.
Probably they were being persecuted for their faith, and the suggestion was: well, following Christ has turned out much tougher than we expected. Why not go back to being Jews?
After all, God wears many hats. There are many different paths to God. Sure, you can come to God through Jesus if you want to, but you can also come to God through the law of Moses, or through some other path you choose. That was the temptation.
But the key word in Hebrews is 'better'. The Greek words for 'better' or 'superior' come fifteen times altogether:
- Chapters 1 & 2: Jesus is God's unique Son. He is a better mediator than the angels.
- Chapter 3 verse 1 - chapter 4 verse 13: Jesus is a greater leader than Moses.
- Chapter 4 verse 14 - chapter 8 verse 13 Jesus is the great High Priest
- Chapter 9 verses 1-12: The real temple is not the building in Jerusalem, but is in heaven where Jesus lives. This is saying that the place where we can meet God is in the person of Jesus.
- Chapter 9 verse 13 - chapter 10 verse 18: Jesus is the perfect sacrifice. Jesus, through his death, paid the price and dealt with the problem of our sin and guilt once and for all. He made it possible for us to come into God's presence.
In Christ we have something better than the Jews had in the Old Testament. Jesus is a better mediator than the angels; He is a better leader than Moses; He is the Great High Priest; He is the one who gives us access to God; His death is the once and for all perfect sacrifice.
And, the writer says, because Jesus is all these things, because Jesus is better than anything in the Old Testament, don't give up. Don't turn back. Persevere in faith (chapter 10 verse 19 - chapter 12 verse 28) Stick at it.
So he is saying that there is no alternative. You cannot choose to come to God through Jesus or through the Jewish religious system, or through some other system of your choice. Jesus is God's appointed way. God's only appointed way.
So Hebrews chapter 2 verses 1-3, says:
That is why we must hold on all the more firmly to the truths we have heard, so that we will not be carried away. The message given to our ancestors by the angels was shown to be true, and anyone who did not follow it or obey it received the punishment he deserved. How, then, shall we escape if we pay no attention to such a great salvation?" - to something even greater than the message delivered by the angels.
And Hebrews chapter 3 verses 12-14, say:
My fellow believers, be careful that no one among you has a heart so evil and unbelieving that he will turn away from the living God, Instead, in order that none of you be deceived by sin and become stubborn, you must help one another every day, as long as the 'Today' in the scripture applies to us. For we are all partners with Christ if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the beginning.
Think back to some of those comments I mentioned at the beginning. 'God comes in different hats.' 'There are many, many paths to God.' And if we are inclined to agree with those comments, and to think that we can choose what kind of God we want to believe in, and we can come to God on our own terms, then let me ask - however politically incorrect this may be - does God have a right to an opinion about how we can come to him? And if God has an opinion on this subject, does his opinion count for anything?
If I wanted to meet with President Bush, or Prime Minister Tony Blair, what could I do? Could I just phone him up, and say "Hi George. I thought I'd drop in for an hour or so this afternoon, say around three o'clock."
Of course not. Because President Bush is a much more important person than I am, I would have to approach him through a series of gofers and intermediaries, and if I got to see him at all, it would be at a time and place of his choosing, not mine.
Now God is much more important than President Bush. And if I want to come to God, it has to be on his terms, not mine.
You see, if it was just a case of me telling you my opinion: that we can only come to God through Jesus Christ, you would be perfectly justified in saying 'so what? Why is your opinion any more important than mine?' But if God himself says that the only way we can come to him is through Jesus Christ, then surely we need to take some notice of this.
The followers of Christ in Hebrews were tempted to turn back to Judaism. But the Old Testament Jewish system was never meant to bring people to God in its own right. It was only ever meant to point forwards to Jesus Christ. The Old Testament sacrifices and priests and temple and so on were just pictures of a greater reality. Once that greater reality had come, the pictures lost their purpose.
Every so often, I have to go somewhere I have never been before. These days, I routinely get on the Internet, and use a site called Multimap to get some directions. It is great. All I have to do is key in a postcode, and it will show me how to get there. Then I print out the map, and take it with me when I go.
Now when I get home, what do I do? Do I frame the map and hang it on my wall, so I can admire it in the future? Of course not. I throw it away. Once I have found the place the map directed me to, I am no longer interested in the map. In the same way, once Christ had come, as fulfillment of all that the Old Testament was pointing to, the Old Testament rituals stopped being important.
Incidentally, this is one reason why people who think the Bible says that the temple will one day be re-built in Jerusalem, and that the sacrificial system will one day be re-instated, are quite wrong. I cannot see any way this could fit in with God's purposes at all. God has finished with all that, once Jesus came.
What a huge privilege we have in Jesus Christ. The pictures may seem strange and old-fashioned to us, but they point to a tremendous reality: Jesus is our great high priest - the one who represents us to God. He is our perfect sacrifice - the one who by his death paid the price for our guilt and sin and failure, once and for all. There are not many different paths to God. Jesus is God's only appointed way.
And because of this, we need to stick to our faith. There can be no turning back.
Now, we also need to think about one particular problem in Hebrews:
The serious warnings in Hebrews
Hebrews chapter 6 verses 4-6, says:
For how can those who abandon their faith be brought back to repent again? They were once in God's light; they tasted heaven's gift and received their share of the Holy Spirit; they knew from experience that God's word is good, and they had felt the powers of the coming age. And then they abandoned their faith! It is impossible to bring them back to repent again, because they are again crucifying the Son of God and exposing him to public shame.
Sensitive followers of Christ have often worried that they have committed the 'unforgivable sin' which Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 12 verses 31-32, and which seems to be what Hebrews is warning us about here.
But we have to understand these verses in the context of the whole book. And the context of the whole book is the warning against turning away from the Good News of Jesus Christ.
In these verses, the words 'because they are again' do not actually come in the original Greek. What it says is:
It is impossible to bring them back to repent again, crucifying the Son of God and exposing him to public shame.
One modern translation gives the alternative translation "while they are crucifying..." It is as if they are still doing it. And as long as they go on doing this, there is no hope for them.
If we are followers of Christ, we should not be mistakenly terrified that we may have committed the unforgivable sin.
The thing for which there is no remedy is to understand the Good News, to come to faith in Christ - and then to reject your faith and look for some other way to God. But there is no other way to God. That is, as I understand it, what the writer is saying here. If you reject Christ's sacrifice, there is no 'plan B'.
If you are worried about having committed the unforgivable sin, you almost certainly have not. The person who has committed the unforgivable sin is not the kind of person who will be worrying about it.
What if you were once a follower of Christ, perhaps many years ago, and have drifted away, or fallen into some pattern of life that you know is wrong? Do these verses teach that you are past hope? I do not think so. If this is your situation, I want to encourage you to turn back to God, and to put things right in your life, now, wholeheartedly, while you do have the opportunity. God will accept anyone who comes to him through faith in Christ.
Jesus said in John chapter 6 verse 37, 'whoever comes to me, I will never drive away.'
In 1 John chapter 1 verse 9, we read:
If we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right: he will forgive us our sins and purify us from all wrongdoing.
So there is good reason for us to have confidence that if we genuinely turn back to God, he will accept us, whatever has gone before. These warnings in Hebrews are not there to alarm us, nor to encourage speculation. They are there to remind us of the seriousness of turning back - the danger of giving up on our faith. If we have come to faith in Christ, and then we are tempted to give up, to turn away, to turn back, or to look for some other way, the Bible says there is no other way to God.
Conclusion
The original readers or hearers of Hebrews were tempted to turn away from their faith and turn back to Judaism. We are probably not too tempted by that, but we may be tempted to give up our faith altogether when the going gets tough, or to turn to some alternative spirituality that appears to hold out great promise, or we may be tempted simply by some kind of sin.
Hebrews is about the danger of falling away. Its key message is that we cannot choose what kind of God we would like to believe in. We cannot choose how we will come to God. God himself has chosen how we can come to him, and this is through Jesus Christ.
Perhaps you feel that this does not have anything to say to you. Perhaps you have been a follower of Christ for a long time, and you are not in any doubt about your faith. But there is another message implied in Hebrews. If the main message is that there is no turning back, there is also an implied message that there can be no standing still. If you are not moving forward, you are already beginning, however slowly, to drift back.
Where are you today? Have you become a follower of Christ? Are you tempted by doubt or disillusionment or desire to turn away? Are you beginning, ever so slowly, to drift backwards, or are you moving forward? Which way are you headed?
What would it have been helpful for me to know about Hebrews before I read it for the first time?
- That it was written to Jewish followers of Christ who were tempted to turn back from their new faith to Judaism
- That there is no other way to God except through Jesus
- That the freedom to come to God through Jesus Christ is a tremendous privilege
- That there is no standing still as a follower of Christ - that I must press forward if I do not want to slip back
This article is based on a talk that was first given by David Couchman, at Wellsprings Chapel, Taunton, on Sunday 12th October 2003.
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