Hebrews 4:14-16
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The Testimony of A Great Cloud Of Witnesses
In Hebrews chapter 11 we read of a great cloud of witnesses – men and women of faith who, like witnesses in a courtroom, can testify personally of the faithfulness of God in their generation. Just a small section of the chapter reads this way:
Heb. 11:29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned. 30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
In this passage and in the rest of the chapter, we read of those who through faith not only saw the amazing hand of God in miraculous power, but of those who went through great pain and hardship. In BOTH cases they proved their faith. In both good times and hard times – their faith sustained them, or rather, the Lord Himself sustained them through faith. This is true for us also. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8). Nothing!
For the men and women we read of in Hebrews 11, their race is over. They ran their race in their generation. They are now off the world’s stage but can still inspire us by their testimony as we run ours.
The next words in Hebrews speak of the need for endurance in the race set before each of us. Inspired by the testimony of these men and women, we are to look NOT to these men and women of faith, but to the Lord who sustained them – “looking to Jesus” the Scripture says. When we come to the end of earthly hope, there is Jesus, and He is hope personified…. He is the source of our strength, our faith and our hope.
Heb. 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (the witnesses being the men and women we have just read about in the previous chapter), let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
There are so many twists and turns in the road of life; some of them become delightful blessings, while others are so painful and difficult. And yet, God is Sovereign over all and He is worthy of our complete trust whatever He has decreed for us.
My prayer is that 2021 will be a year truly blessed of the Lord for you.
Apostasy Passages in Hebrews
John Owen: “But the design of the apostle in the context leads plainly to another application of these words. It is Christ himself that is spoken of, who was sanctified and dedicated unto God to be an eternal high priest, by the blood of the covenant which he offered unto God, as I have showed before. The priests of old were dedicated and sanctified unto their office by another, and the sacrifices which he offered for them; they could not sanctify themselves: so were Aaron and his sons sanctified by Moses, antecedently unto their offering any sacrifice themselves. But no outward act of men or angels could unto this purpose pass on the Son of God. He was to be the priest himself, the sacrificer himself, — to dedicate, consecrate, and sanctify himself, by his own sacrifice, in concurrence with the actings of God the Father in his suffering. See John 17:19; Hebrews 2:10, 5:7, 9, 9:11, 12. That precious blood of Christ, wherein or whereby he was sanctified, and dedicated unto God as the eternal high priest of the church, this they esteemed “an unholy thing;” that is, such as would have no such effect as to consecrate him unto God and his office. (John Owen, Commentary on Hebrews, vol. 22, p. 676)”
Dr. James White on the apostasy passages in Hebrews:
Do the Apostasy Passages Provide an Over-Riding Theological Matrix?
Though we can hardly enter into a full discussion of all the passages cited in support of a particular theory of apostasy, and though it seems clear that not all of the writers represented in The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism would agree with Pastor Niell on this topic, a brief response to the key passage that is related to our central text (Heb. 10:29) may make our response fuller and more useful.
For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Heb. 10:29)
Following John Owen’s understanding of context, we will assume the essential correctness of the position that sees the context of 10:29 as an act of apostasy on the part of a baptized, confessing member of the congregation of Jewish Christians to which the author is writing.[1] Recognizing this immediate context protects the passage from its most common misapplications and brings us to the key issue in our inquiry: in the case of those who knowingly reject their profession of faith and return to Judaism, were these individuals, in the thinking of the writer to the Hebrews, members of the New Covenant, perfected by the death of Christ, sanctified by his blood, who then became imperfect and were lost? Who is the object of the phrase evn w-| h`gia,sqh (“by which he was sanctified”): the apostate or the Son of God? Those who press this passage as a clear indication that the New Covenant can be entered into and yet violated assume that the phrase, which can grammatically be attached to either antecedent, must be applied to the apostate. Continue reading