We would naturally be apprehensive if we were called to meet our Head of State. But to meet God is more than awesome. His holiness and our sinfulness, His perfection and our imperfection, His wisdom and our foolishness – the contrast between Him and us is huge and awed fear is appropriate. Moses felt like that (Hebrews 12:18-21), and so did everybody living under the old covenant who honoured God.
The broken body and shed blood of Jesus was not a mystical idea: it was real and physical, it was witnessed and recorded (John 19:33-37). It is not religious sentiment, but well testified evidence that God the Son died for the sins of the world – amongst them, our sins (1 Peter 2:24).
This verse seems shocking. But it comes immediately after, "[Let us] … not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:24-25). Its context is the wilful sinner who rejects the Lord and His people. In the Old Testament, the sacrifices were only for unintentional sin – there was no remedy for deliberate wrongdoing (Numbers 15:27-31).
The old covenant law, the 'law of Moses', was literally unforgiving. Even though the Old Testament speaks about God forgiving sinful people, the system of sacrifices could not purge the stain of sin (Hebrews 10:4). The concept of atonement uses an original word meaning 'covering'.
It is important for believers to look forward but also to look back. The adventure of faith we have travelled with Jesus is more remarkable than many of us realise. Looking back, the contrast between being in spiritual darkness and receiving the Light of the World is massive (Acts 26:18). The sheer joy and confidence of those early days enabled the new believers to endure suffering. We do not know what the 'great conflict' was but it affected many of the Hebrew-background believers.
Persevere confidently. Those thoughts run through this section (Hebrews 10:19-39) as an appeal to discouraged and pressurised believers. Their implied question was, 'Is it all worth it?' The writer replies, 'Yes!' God sees your faith and will reward you, but it is not immediate (James 1:4). We wait until Jesus comes again. In the waiting time, trust Him. In the hard and dark times, keep trusting Him.
What is faith? It is an important question because many people use the same word but mean different things. So more precisely, what does the Bible mean by 'faith'? This chapter gives many examples of Bible characters who exercised faith: they all believed what God revealed to them and acted in obedience, even though their situation was unique and they had no previous experience to rely on. However, they had a relationship with God and they trusted what He said to them.
The repeated use of 'by faith' introduces a series of people who trusted God. The first is Abel, taking us back to Genesis 4:1-12. The second son of Adam and Eve, Abel grew up with his older brother Cain. The two men were farmers: Cain grew crops and Abel looked after flocks of animals.
Enoch's story in Genesis 5:18-24 is brief, but highly significant. He is mentioned with spiritual honour in the genealogy from Adam to Noah and his sons (Genesis 5:1-32). Historically, Enoch lived for 365 years; he was the father of Methuselah who lived for 969 years, and the great grandfather of Noah. And yet the way Enoch is described is different to the others in that chapter.
Many people think that God wants us to do what is right, and if we do He is pleased. In a way that is true but it is only a part of the story. God wants us to be much more than obedient servants; He is looking for friends (John 15:15). Faith, in its widest sense, is essential for every relationship. We need to be able to trust what we know of a person to want to know them better.
