Beware!

BEWARE, says the apostle, of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. That is, beware of religious teachers who make something of the flesh, who trust in it, or to the works of the law. It may seem humility to seek in self something good, but such a doctrine is the result of pride of heart. Beware of it, shun it, Christ and Christ only is the ground of confidence. Christ was crucified for us, and in His death is the judicial end of man. Christ is risen from the dead and is in heaven, the head of the new creation. Now, faith lays hold of the fact that in Christ’s death is the end of the man judicially, and abhors everything which in any way brings in self—either good self or bad—and more, faith sees in Christ, where He is, true righteousness, and esteems before God, only the righteousness which is of God by faith.
The Sixth of Hebrews.
(Concluded from, p. 72)
AND having thus referred to Christianity, the apostle turns aside for the moment to look at its profession. To profess Christianity is one thing, to be a Christian is another. Millions in England profess the Christian faith, few are really believers. And a man may have each and all of the five characteristics which are now set out, and after all be only a professor. It may be said of him—
(1) Once enlightened,
(2) Tasted of the heavenly gift,
(3) Made partaker of the Holy Ghost,
(4) Tasted the good word of God,
(5) And the powers of the world to come;
but still, it may be added, not a Christian, not one who has life in Christ.
The picture is drawn of a Jew in the midst of his temple worship, priests and sacrifices, being enlightened. His mind opened to the fact that Christ had been crucified, and had gone up to heaven. No longer in the dark about it. No longer, like his brother Jews, an avowed rejecter of the Messiah. No longer calling the risen Jesus, as they did, “that deceiver” (see Matt. 27:63). We may say that in this sense most men in Christendom are enlightened. They are neither heathen, Mahommedans, nor Jews, but men whose souls have been enlightened by the word of God with the truth that His Son has come from heaven to earth, died, and risen, and gone to heaven again. It is a very grave responsibility to be so enlightened. Millions upon this earth are utterly in the dark about Christ. Millions worship demons, millions regard Mahomet as the prophet of God, and the Jews, as a body, reject the Messiah. We do not sufficiently weigh the solemnity of being enlightened. But this is not salvation, this does not make us true believers.
Now suppose a Jew so enlightened joining himself outwardly with the early Christians, by so doing he would treat Judaism as a thing of the past, and its sacrifices and priests as shadows; but perhaps by reason of persecution, or because of worldly influences, he would return to Judaism, and turn his back upon Christianity. It would be impossible to renew such an one unto repentance. Or, applying the case to our times, suppose a professing Christian to become a Jew, Mahommedan, or idolater! He would become an apostate, give up Christianity. It would be impossible to renew him to repentance. His case would be hopeless.
The next characteristic is that the man has tasted of the heavenly gift.
Christ is not called the heavenly gift; this is what we are given to know of God by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. The professor, having outwardly associated himself with the Christian assembly of early times, by so doing would be in a position for tasting and partaking of the four things next spoken of. It would be an entirely new thing to his soul to taste the heavenly ministrations of the Spirit, accustomed as he had been to the earthly ministry of the temple service.
We can in some measure suppose what it would be like, by picturing to ourselves a man, whose very soul has been educated in the idea that the way to God is by sacraments, penances, priests, saints and angels, finding himself listening to the simplicity of God’s love told in the power of the Holy Ghost. What a taste such an one would have of Divine things! How different from all that to which he had been accustomed!
Now the Jew, who apostatized from this, had no way back to blessing. It was impossible to renew him again to repentance. He had retreated from Christ, and had burnt the bridge behind him; there was no recovery possible.