Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Hebrews 6
For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.
(Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV)
I think that there are a lot of deep theological debates surrounding this passage and others like it that I am not qualified to fully address or desire to, but I still feel like there are some important points that stand out to me from this passage no matter how you look at the person that it refers to as falling away. I think it is important to realize that while we may often struggle with specific beliefs, points of our faith, etc. which often revolve around a central theme of struggling to understand God and his purposes, to reject God and our faith is a serious thing. The way they put it here is "crucifying once again the Son of God" and if that doesn't convey the severity of something, I don't know what does. We have been given a great blessing to grow up in the church and know the word of God from a young age. Many spend their entire lives in search of meaning and answers that they often fill with idols of money, sex, fame, etc because they do not know the one, true God. Let us not deny him, but rather put our trust in him and allow him to work through us. Let us not ridicule and crucify the Son of God again, but glorify him. He has commanded us to this task, and it's about time we answer his call and not just when its convenient or when I find free time after all of my other priorities are taken care of.
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Like yesterday's chapter, today's continues a discussion of the transition to spiritual maturity. This is always challenging to me because it is not so obvious what spiritual maturity looks like (ideally, it should like Jesus's life and example, but in today's world there are still many questions as to what that would look like). I feel like very few people make the full holistic transition to spiritual maturity, but you know it when you meet someone who has. They emanate the peace of Christ and His love to all around them while richly seeking Him in their souls. They are magnetic, like Mother Teresa and company.
ReplyDeleteV. 10 is encouraging though, a reminder that God is just and sees our love and works and takes those into account as we make our beautiful struggle through life with yearning in our hearts. We are called to patience and diligence, two virtues I struggle with at times, especially now. May we continue to tune our hearts to God's and progress forward toward greater spiritual maturity.
"For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name by having served and continuing to serve the holy ones.
ReplyDeleteWe earnestly desire each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of hope until the end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, are inheriting the promises." Hebrews 6:10-12
God does not overlook or disregard our works toward his kingdom or the ways in which we lovingly glorify His name. Jesus Christ longs for us to earnestly be eager in learning about Him and his father and He longs for us to strive toward the hope that can only be found in Christ.
Instead of becoming sluggish in the faith, we should be continually growing closer to Christ, continually becoming more and more hopeful. We should be imitating those who have holily gone before us: Jesus, Mary, and the communion of saints. They are already inheriting the promises and we can learn so much from their experiences and life choices.
I agree with Tomas that when someone has reached spiritual maturity, it is evident. In my mind, there are numerous attributes and characteristics that come with spiritual maturity. Yet when I watch these people, it seems so very simple. Not necessarily easy, but simple.
ReplyDelete"And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Hebrews 6:11-12
This section calls out what I believe to be the most important aspect of maturity, an eagerness to reach and receive the promises we have set before us. In looking back at the first few chapters of Hebrews, this is exactly what drove the heroes of the Old Testament. They had hope that Jesus would someday come with redemption, and that drove them to do incredible things. This serves as quite a challenge to me, because I can look back and know that Christ has already come and died for my sins. This should always be incredible motivation to have "faith and patience [to] inherit the promises."
Today I present to you a famous verse, one from my favorite gospel, John 14:6-7 (ESV)
ReplyDelete[Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."]
I feel that this verse speaks to a great realization necessary to spiritual growth. Here Christ says it plane and simple that only through him can we hope to be with God. No other religion, no other spiritual practice, no other philosophy, no life-coach, no self-help program, and no other human being can help unite us with the one God. This is because all of those things are of this world, a world that has been tainted with sin since the Fall. Therefore the only way back to God is through a direct extension of God, that being Jesus Christ.
As verse 7 describes, knowing Christ means knowing the Father. It's amazing that with prayer, diligence, and complete surrender anyone can start this journey of knowing Christ, just as we know our best friends, families, or significant other.
"Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance and dead works and of faith toward God."
ReplyDeleteHebrews 6:1
This continues what I wrote about yesterday, essentially the next step. This chapter talks a lot about spiritual maturity, which is something we should always strive for. We already know the "elementary doctrine of Christ" from a young age, and it's up to us to grow that into spiritual maturity. We all have an idea of what it looks like. If we can try to imitate Christ and those who follow him steadfastly in faith, we can become spiritually mature.
So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
ReplyDelete(Hebrews 6:17-18 ESV)
God is good. He gave an oath to keep his promise. It is redundant, but that only emphasizes the importance of the promise that he made. If God made a promise, we could just fall back on his word. With his oath, that has not changed, but it helps us to be more aware of the promise that he has made. Not only does God give us a promise, but also helps us to be aware of it.
God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, so that what you hope for may be fully realized. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.
ReplyDeleteThrough our diligence, we can bring about the hope that Paul refers to. Clearly this is not in reference to personal salvation. There is more to this hope, because he says that through diligence it may be FULLY realized. What is this diligent work that Paul spoke of? Helping his people and continuing to help them. That is (I would assert) evangelism and charity. They hoped for a future when everyone would know and love God. Never again to have to bare the scorn of the unbeliever, who speaks ill of the great God in whom we put our faith. To that end, the believers tried to help others come to understand the truth. Second is charity. God desires and loves justice. That means that God does not desire slavery, or extreme poverty, or political oppression to live on. By fighting for freedom, feeding the hungry, and empowering the weak, we show God that we love him, and are working for the hope that he has assured us: a world where his love is supreme, and justice reigns for all.