Hebrews 10
McGeeCHAPTER 10THEME: EncouragementWithout a chapter break, the writer of this epistle continues with the subject of the superior sacrifice.
Hebrews 10:1
As he concluded chapter 9 the writer said that if Christ had failed to save in His death at His first coming, there would be nothing afterward but judgment. My friend, if you reject Jesus Christ as Savior, you will have the saddest funeral possible. I have conducted many funerals, and some of them were for unsaved people. There is no sorrow like that of a funeral in a family of unsaved peopleand that’s the way it should be. I recall one instance in which a wife, who was almost an alcoholic, had lost her husband. She had leaned on him a great deal.
I tried to give a message, not of comfort, but of good news, presenting the gospel. Afterward she came to me, looked into my face and asked, “Is there any hope at all?” I said, “Well, there is a hope for you.” There was no hope for him whatsoever. He was a blasphemer, and he had told me that he had no use for the church; he had no use for Jesus Christ; he had no use for anything Christian. There was nothing ahead for him but judgment. Beginning with this word for the writer continues the theme of Christ’s sacrifice for sin. “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things.” The Mosaic Law served a good purpose in that it was a picture which taught Israel. Because God had taught Israel so thoroughly, He judged the nation severely. When the Lord Jesus was there in the flesh He said, “…how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!” (Luk_13:34). My friend, if you don’t believe that God’s judgment was really a severe one, go to Jerusalem and walk around the streets of old Jerusalem. Walk in the area where we know Jesus moved. All of it is covered over with debris today.
Why? Because the city has been judged. Oh, how often the Lord had attempted to gather His chosen people to Himself! He had given them the Old Testament with the clear teaching of the tabernacle ritual. Contrast the light that they had to the darkness in which my ancestors lived way up there in Germany. Boy, were they pagan and heathen in those days! And my ancestors over in Scotland were dirty and filthy. Then the gospel came to them, and, thank God, some of them trusted Christ. I had a grandfather on my father’s side who apparently was a godly man. I am thankful for the men who carried the gospel to Europe. That gave the Gentiles a break, you see. But the nation of Israel had the Old Testament, which was (and still is) a picture book, a book of ABCs. That is the reason so many folk miss its meaning. When theologians come to it, they have to find something profound in it. But it is a simple picture book in which God is trying to tell all of us little children down here that He died for us. It is just as simple as that, my friend. Now let me call your attention to another thing that is very important. Notice that the Law had to do with the tabernacle and the sacrifices. This idea that you can separate God’s commandments from His ceremonial law is entirely wrong. If you want to return to the legal system and put yourself under the Ten Commandments, you had better build a little tabernacle for yourself and start raising goats and sheep, because you are going to need them. But, my friend, Christ finished all of that. We now are on a different basis, a higher plane altogether. For instance, God wants to bring joy into your life. The Law never promised joy. There was thunder and lightning, and people were smitten dead at the giving of the Law. But when Jesus came, it was He who died that we might have life.
Hebrews 10:2
“For then would they not have ceased to be offered?” If the sacrifice they offered could have taken away their guilt, one sacrifice would have been enough. It is very interesting to note that after the Lord Jesus died, it was only a few years until the temple was destroyed. And Israel has not been able to put up another temple. Oh, they have a little miniature temple for display over on the new side of Jerusalem at the Holy City Hotel, but they don’t have a temple today. It doesn’t look as if they will get one soon either. You see, when Christ became the sacrifice, that ended the need for the tabernacle and temple. Today Israel is not offering sacrifices. I spoke to a very delightful Jewish guide in Jerusalem. His hair was as gray as it could be. He said that it had turned gray when he was only nineteen years of age after he had heard that his father and mother, sisters and brothers had been killed in Russia. He was a delightful fellow, and he took me around to show me the model of the temple at the hotel I mentioned. As we were looking at it, I asked him (although perhaps I should not have), “Where is the brazen altar?” He looked at me with surprise and said, “Oh, we have come past that. Today we have an ethical religion.” Well, a lot of folk have an ethical religion, but, my friend, that bloody sacrifice was necessary that the human family might have forgiveness of sins. “For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.” They would no longer have any feelings of guilt or consciousness of sin.
Hebrews 10:3
So, actually, what those sacrifices did was to remind the Israelite that the sacrificial system was not completeor they wouldn’t have to come back and repeat it every day. The sacrifices were only a shadow, skian in the Greek, meaning “a hazy outline.” The old sacrifices were shadow, never substance. And, my friend, shadows are not enough. You can’t live in the shadow of a house; you need a house. Again, the sacrifices would not have had to be repeated if they had been complete. For instance, when a man says that he is cured of disease and yet he is still taking medicine every hour, that man is not cured. And when a man keeps bringing sacrifices every year, that man is not cured of sin. It is Christ who made the one sacrifice once and for all. In those sacrifices there was a reminder of sins year by year. Here they go through the great Day of Atonement every year. What did it mean? The answer had not arrived until yonder on Golgotha when Jesus cried out, “Tetelestai!” Finished! My friend, then it was finished. And the next year there was no need for a Day of Atonement. In fact, he will tell us that to go through a sacrifice today is to tread underfoot the blood of Jesus.
Hebrews 10:4
The blood of the animal sacrifices only covered over the sins until the Lamb of God would come to take away the sin of the world (see Joh_1:29). Now here is a tremendous passage
Hebrews 10:5
I want to insert a cross reference here to make this section of the Word of God very meaningful to you. Going back to the Book of Exodus, we find in chapter 19 the preparation for the giving of the Mosaic Law, and in chapter 20 the giving of the Ten Commandments. After that, God makes a gracious provision by the sacrificial system. You see, the altar goes right along with the Law. Then in chapter 21 we come upon something that seems very much out of place. It is one of the most beautiful references in the Bible.
The Law has been given, and now God says to Moses: “Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. [They couldn’t have a slave of their own people more than six years.] If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free: Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl [the lobe of the ear would be pierced]; and he shall serve him for ever” (Exo_21:1-6]. In that day if you saw a man walking along with a hole in his ear, you would know that he had been given a wife, and that he had paid the price of permanent servitude for her. It was a tremendous law and certainly a lovely thing, but what is the meaning of it? Well, let’s follow the meaning of it. In Psa_40:6-7 we read, “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened [that is, pierced with an awl]: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me.” This is quoted in the Book of Hebrews and applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is one of the most beautiful pictures in Scripture. The Lord Jesus came to this earth, grew to manhood, and at thirty years of age He began His earthly ministry. When He came to the end of that ministry, He could say, “Which of you convicteth me of sin?” (see Joh_8:46).
He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. He could have stepped off this earth any day that He wanted to, gone back to heaven and left this earth in sinleft you and me in the slavery of sin. But He loved us, and God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. So instead of His ear being pierced with an awl, He was given a body. A body for what? For deathto die on the Cross. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Heb_10:10).
Referring to that law in Exodus, if a master gave his slave a woman to marry, and he loved her, he could choose to stay in slavery with her. In like manner the Lord Jesus Christ has been given the body of believers which we call the church as His bride. In His prayer in Joh_17:9 the Lord said to His Father concerning them, “They are mine. You gave them to Me.” The Lord loves us; He paid the price for us. But the interesting thing is that He didn’t stay in slavery; He went back to the right hand of the Majesty on high, and some day He is going to take us out of the slavery of sin to be with Him. He alone could do that.
How wonderful this is! There is a green hill, far away, Without a city wall. Where the dear Lord was crucified, Who died to save us all. There was no other good enough, To pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate Of heaven to let us in. “There is a Green Hill Far Away” Mrs. Cecil F. Alexander What a beautiful picture of Christ this section of Scripture gives us
Hebrews 10:11
The offerings could only cover the sin; they were an atonement, but they could never take away sins. The offerings were just a reminder that men were sinners and that the sin question had not yet been settled.
Hebrews 10:12
Why did He sit down? Was he tired? No. Did He sit down because He did not want to do anything? No. Jesus sat down because His work was finished"one sacrifice for sins for ever."
Hebrews 10:13
Our Lord is just waiting. There are a few more people to be saved. We pray, “O come now, Lord Jesus,” but He says, “No, not yet. We are going to wait, because I want to save some more.” He is giving you an opportunity, friend, if you are not saved. Psa_110:1 says, “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool,” referring to the second coming of Christ to the earth. But in the meantime He is waiting for more of the human family to come to Him.
Hebrews 10:14
One offering does what many offerings could not do. If Christ cannot save you and keep you, then God has no other way to save you and keep you.
Hebrews 10:15
This is the essential part of the quotation from Jeremiah 31. God says, “I’m going to make a new covenant with Israel.” God is not through with them. If you will read your Bible you will see that. Now let me remind you that in this section of Hebrews we are seeing the greatest division in the Word of God. It is like a Grand Canyon which is placed between the old covenant and the new covenant, the Old Testament and the New Testament. And let’s remember that God gave both of them. Referring back to verse Heb_10:9, notice that it says, “He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.” He taketh away the first (that is, the first covenant), that He may establish the second covenant. When the Lord Jesus died upon the cross, something very important happened: the veil was rent in twain. No longer are men to come to God through the sacrifice of the blood of bulls and goats; now the Lord Jesus has made a way for us through His own bodya way for you and me.
Notice again verse Heb_10:10: “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once.” In the Authorized Version the two words for all that conclude this verse are in italics, meaning they were supplied by the translators. The verse is more accurate without them, because the emphasis is on the fact that Christ did it one time so that sacrifices are to end. It is interesting that ever since the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 by Titus the Roman, there has been no bloody sacrifice offered in Jerusalem. There are no blood sacrifices being offered there today, and the prospects for them being offered in the near future are very dim. Christ took away the first that He might establish the second. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized. You see, in the first covenant were many rules and regulations. The old covenant was a law, a law that had a great many details. There was the ceremonial law with many details in regard to the sacrifices; there were the Ten Commandments and other commandments or rules. Actually rules and regulations appeal to human nature. Men feel that it is easy to obey rules, which is the reason so many folk today will tell you that the Sermon on the Mount is their religion.
They may not know exactly what it says or what it means, but they like it because it has rules, which they kid themselves into believing they can follow. The whole history of mankind and the multitude of cults and “isms” springing up in our day demonstrate that this is true. Man likes to live by certain rules and follow certain rituals. Now in the new covenant we are under an altogether different system. Paul had mentioned to the Corinthian believers: “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament [the new covenant]; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2Co_3:6). Some strange individuals have come up with the novel interpretation that this verse means they should not study the Bible! They say that “the letter” means the Bible and it is the Spirit that gives life. Well, of course that is not what Paul is saying, as the following verse makes clear. “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious….” Obviously, this refers to the Ten Commandments, so now we know that the “letter” is the commandments. The Ten Commandments were the ministration of death.
My friend, the Law kills. The Law never saved anyone. It will kill you because it brings you under the judgment of God. It is the Spirit who gives life, and you and I are living in this day when the Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates us, who leads us, and who shows us the will of God.
Hebrews 10:18
“Now"the sacrificial system began with Abel and ended with the death of Christ. This verse concludes the doctrinal section.
Hebrews 10:19
ENCOURAGEMENTHebrews Heb_10:19-25 is the practical section of this chapter, and it speaks of privilege and responsibility. “Boldness” is boldness of speech; it has no thought of arrogance. Now notice this carefullyhow do we get into the holiest, that is, into God’s presence? By the blood of Jesus.
Hebrews 10:20
That veil was torn in two when Christ was crucified on the cross, which indicated that the way to God was open. “Through the veil, that is to say, his flesh"flesh is the same word we find in the prologue of John’s Gospel where he said that “the Word became flesh.” John didn’t say that it was a new and living way open to God, because the Incarnation, the life of Christ saves no one. We enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Our right of entrance is not through His incarnation but through the rending of the veil; that is, through His death. You and I have the privilege of worshiping God, not because of the life of Jesus, but because of His death for us upon the Cross. Oh, my friend, this distinction is so important! “By a new and living way.” The word new is from the Greek word prosphatos, meaning “newly slain.” It speaks of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has opened up for you and me a new and living way to God through His crucifixion, through His death upon the Cross. The old sacrifices won’t help you anymore, friend.
Hebrews 10:21
What a wonderful privilege to have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who always lives to make intercession for us. “Through the veil"when Christ dismissed His spirit as He hung there upon the cross, the veil of the temple was torn in two, which opened the way into the very presence of the Father. Now we have an invitation. Some expositors believe it is directed to the unsaved. I believe it is both to the unsaved and to the saved. Since we have an High Priest at the right hand of God
Hebrews 10:22
This has to do with the dedication of priests in the Aaronic priesthood. Moses sprinkled them with the water of dedication. And they had to be washed, denoting that they were set aside for the service of God. In like manner our dedication to God enables us to draw near with a true heart. “In full assurance of faith,” or in fullness of faith, has nothing to do with the amount of our faith; it has everything to do with the object of our faith. Real faith always depends on the object of faith. You see, faith can be misplacedyou can put your faith in some individual on earth and be disappointed. Faith is not just believing that there is a Godall that means is that you are not an atheist. Not only should you have a knowledge of God and know the way of righteousness, but you should act upon your faith. Real faith means that you have really received the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
That has been made very clear to us. In Joh_1:11-12 we read, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power [the authority] to become the sons of God, even to them that [do no more or less than] believe on his name.” Faith in Christ means to receive Christ as Savior. Faith is action based on knowledge. God never asks us to take a leap in the dark. I disagree with the theologian who said, “Faith is to leap in the dark.” If this is true, don’t leap, because you may find yourself going off a ten-story building!
You don’t need to leap in the dark, because God has given us knowledge. “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom_10:17). God has put down a foundation for our faith. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Co_3:11). You get on the foundation, friend. That’s knowledge, but it is faith that puts you there. Faith is action that is based on knowledge, which means to trust Christ personally as your Savior. “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” This means that you and I as believers are members of a priesthood. One of the great truths that John Calvin recovered was the priesthood of all believers. Every believer is a priest, and, as such, you can come to God with boldness of speech. So many people ask the preacher to pray for them, which is all right, but we need to remember that all believers have access to God. You have as much right in God’s presence as I have, or as anyone else has, because we come by this “newly sacrificed” way that Christ has made for us. It is on that basis that we come to God.
Hebrews 10:23
“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith.” Actually, “faith” has in it the thought of hope. Let us draw near to God, but let us hold fast our confession of faith. Why? Because we have a hope, and hope is for the future, you see. How wonderful it is that we can come near to God in the full assurance of faith, and also that we can hold fast the confession of our faith because we have a hope. As the hymn writer has put it, So near, so very near to God, We cannot nearer be; For in the Person of His Son, We are as near as He. So dear, so very dear to God, We cannot dearer be, For in the Person of His Son, We are as dear as He. Author unknown We are to draw near (v. Heb_10:22). We are to hold fast (v. Heb_10:23). And now a third thing:
Hebrews 10:24
“Let us consider one another to provoke"“provoke” is from the Greek word paroxusmos, from which we get our English word paroxysm, which literally means “with a view to excitement.” Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. Do I annoy you? Some Christians tell me that I have troubled their consciences. Well, I hope I have troubled your conscience so that you will love one another and so that you will do some good works for God.
Hebrews 10:25
If there ever was a time when believers needed to come together, it is today. Instead of chopping down each other, we need to draw together in love around the person of Christ. “Exhorting one another.” We need to study the Word of God together. God has something for a group that He will not give to any one individual. One of the reasons I like to teach the Word of God is selfish. It is because God won’t let me grow in the knowledge of His Word unless I share it. We are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. If you have a Bible study at your church, be sure to go because there is a blessing for you there that you can’t get when you study the Bible by yourself. So these are the three “let us” verses: Draw near in faith (toward God) Draw near in hope (for ourselves) Draw near in love (for others) This presents again the three graces: faith, hope, and love. How practical this epistle is! “As ye see the day approaching.” To the Jewish people who are being addressed in this epistle, “the day approaching” probably meant the day when their temple would be destroyed, which it was in A.D. 70. Remember that the believers were meeting together in the temple. That is where they were on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came. Peter and John were going into the temple when they met the lame man at the beautiful gate. But where will they gather together after the temple is destroyed? The writer is urging them, “As you see the day approaching when you won’t have a meeting place, just keep meeting together.” And the church started by meeting in private homes, by the way.
Hebrews 10:26
DANGER SIGNAL: THE PERIL OF DESPISINGThis is the most solemn warning of all. In fact, it makes your hair stand on end! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! Simon Peter said, “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them” (2Pe_2:21). The warning is to the Hebrew believers because many of them were continuing to go to the temple and some were actually offering sacrifices there. They were keeping up a front, pretending that they were still under the Mosaic Law. In so doing they also were making it clear that the sacrifice of Christ was meaningless to them. Since the animal sacrifices prefigured Christ’s sacrifice, now that Christ had died on the Cross, all of that was fulfilled.
Therefore, what before had been done in obedience to God’s command, now has become willful sin. To continue to offer blood sacrifices which had been fulfilled by Christ was a frightful, terrible thing. They were acting as if the temple sacrifices were going on forever. The writer to the Hebrews is telling them that they cannot look to the temple any more, because there is no longer a sacrifice for sin. If a person rejects the truth of Christ’s death for sin, there is no other sacrifice for sin available, and there is no other way to come to God. They are to look to Christ now rather than to the temple.
If they refuse to do this, there is nothing left for them but judgment. The Word of God is very expressive in this connection. “If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth.” This means to go on sinning willfully by offering the sacrifices. It is an attitude toward the Word of God which God calls willful rebellion. There is no more sacrifice in the Old Testament or the New Testament for presumptuous sins.
Hebrews 10:27
If the death of Christ over nineteen hundred years ago was not adequate, then nothing is adequate. God is not going to do something else to redeem us. Christ is not going to die againand, of course, it is not necessary for Him to do so. It becomes willful disobedience on the part of those who “have received the knowledge of the truth” to continue with the temple ritual and offering of sacrifices. Now he will make a comparison.
Hebrews 10:28
Now note the comparison
Hebrews 10:29
This is probably the most solemn statement in the Word of God. “Wherewith he was sanctified” refers to Christ, the Son of God. They crucified “to themselves the Son of God afresh” (Heb_6:6). To act as if the death of Christ is inadequate to settle the sin question, and to go on as if He had not died, is to treat the blood of Christ as something you despise. Knowledge creates responsibility. If, after you have heard the gospel, you turn your back on Jesus Christmy friend, someone ought to tell you that you are going to hell! This is not what I say; it is what God says.
Hebrews 10:30
Friend, God is going to judge. He is the sovereign ruler of this universe. We are all going to have to appear before Him. God has a sovereign right to judge, which He has not surrendered. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1Pe_4:17-18).
Hebrews 10:31
This is a very interesting verse, and it will be profitable to spend a little time with it. This verse is for Christians and unbelievers also. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! In Ezr_7:9 we read, “For upon the first day of the first month began he [Ezra] to go up from Babylon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.” In this verse the hand of God is upon this man for good. And God wants to put His hand upon you for good, but sometimes He puts a very heavy hand upon His children. He chastens themor, as we say, He takes them to the woodshed.
I have been to the woodshed. Maybe you have been there, too. David had been there, and in Psa_32:4 he says, “For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.” What was God doing? He was chastening David. He had taken him to the woodshed.
David tried to cover up his sin, but God forced him to confess it and deal with it. For a similar reason sometimes God’s heavy hand is upon us who are His children. However, God’s hand of chastening is altogether different from His hand of judgment. He says, “Vengeance belongeth unto me. I will recompense.” God does not take vengeance in a spiteful or vindictive manner. But God is going to judge sin, and that is something that needs to be emphasized in our day. Listen again to the psalmist: “For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them” (Psa_75:8). You see, the psalmist as well as the prophet spoke of judgment as a time coming when the cup of wrath will be filled up.
And it is filling up today. God is in no hurry to move; He is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that cup of judgment is filling up. And, my friend, it is a bitter cup. This cup of God’s judgment is ahead of everyone “who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace.” My friend, if you despise what Christ has done for you on the Cross, there is nothing ahead of you but judgment. You have no hope whatsoever. This is the same point the writer is making to these Hebrew believers. Under the Mosaic Law they could bring a sacrifice every yearor any day if they wanted to. But they cannot do that any longer; that is over. Now they have to turn (even as we do) to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the writer gives a personal word to these Jewish folk to whom he is writing:
Hebrews 10:32
I assume that the Hebrews to whom this epistle was written were saved. There seems to be no question in the writer’s mind about their being believers.
Hebrews 10:33
“Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock.” The Christians were made a public spectacle. “And took joyfully the spoiling of your goods.” Apparently some of the believers had been imprisoned for their faith while others had experienced the seizure of their possessions. The writer is reminding them of their faith and patience during this trying time.
Hebrews 10:35
“Cast not away therefore your confidence” is another way of saying “let us hold fast the confession of our faith without wavering.”
Hebrews 10:36
Patience and faith are wedded in Scripture. After exercising faith in the midst of trials, then they are to display patience with the future hope of the fulfillment of faith.
Hebrews 10:37
I hear the expression many times, “I’ll see you next time, Dr. McGee, if the Lord tarry.” I’ve got news for people who say that. The Lord is not going to tarry. Some folks acts as though He keeps putting off His coming, that He is tarrying. He is not going to tarry. It is on His calendar to come. Somebody asks, “When is He coming?” Well, the Lord won’t let me see His calendar; so I don’t know. I hear some folk talk as if they have seen His calendar, but I think they have been looking at man’s calendar, because nobody has seen God’s calendar. However, we can be sure that Christ will come on the day appointed; it is as certain as His first coming to this earth.
Hebrews 10:38
This verse is a quotation from Hab_2:3-4, quoted also in Romans and in Galatians. It is an important verse. Each epistle that quotes this verse puts a different emphasis on it. In the Epistle to the Romans the emphasis is upon “the just shall live by faith"how God justifies the sinner. Here in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the emphasis is upon “the just shall live by faith.” There have been several references to the living God, and this epistle tells of a living intercessor. He is the same one who died on the Cross for us and came back from the dead.
The emphasis is upon His resurrection and His being the living Christ at God’s right hand. Therefore since we who are His own have a living God and a living Savior at God’s right hand, we shall live by faith. As I have said before, our faith is not a leap in the dark. It rests upon the Word of God. The just shall live by faith. Now in the Epistle to the Galatians Paul emphasizes faith; the just shall live by faith. “If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” Draw back means “to take in sail.”
Hebrews 10:39
The writer to the Hebrews did not consider that they had drawn back, but he is speaking of the danger of doing so, and he is giving them this warning. Since draw back means “to take in sail,” the believer is like a sailor who should let out all the sail. That is what the writer has been telling these folk"Let us go on!” His thought is that a believer could reef his sailsbecome stranded because of discouragement, because of persecution, because of hardship, because of depression. But since we have a living Savior, let’s go on. Let’s open up all the sails. Let’s move out for God. You remember the story of the French Huguenots. They were persecuted, and they were betrayed. When France destroyed them, it destroyed the best of French manhood and womanhood. The French Huguenots went into battle, knowing they were facing certain death, and their motto was: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” The nation of France has never since been the nation it was before it destroyed these people. We believers today need a motto like the Huguenots. There is a lot of boo-hooing today among Christians. There is a lot of complaining and criticizing. There are a bunch of crybabies and babies that need to be burped. Oh, my Christian friend, the whole tenor of this marvelous epistle is “Let us go on.” So let us go on for God!