Ian Thomson

We saw how the author of the Letter to the Hebrews wanted his readers to grow up on solid food, and there is plenty in this letter. First he serves up another severe warning, one of unspeakable solemnity (Hebrews 6:4-8):

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. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

What is all this? Don’t these people described here seem very mature?

We have said with our writer, it is surely God’s design that we must not remain static—we must move onwards in Jesus. If we stop progressing we will fall over. Even after having experienced such charismatic and transcendent blessings such as those listed in vss. 4-6, one cannot be guaranteed not to fall away from Christ. Believers must keep moving on in Christ or they—we—will become like unproductive pasture, good for nothing, stale, dull, unprofitable, leaving our God-given talents buried and unused. This neglect, this indifference, leads to destruction. In such circumstances, with no goals to move towards completion, people will fall away—salvation is an ongoing process and is to all who obey him. The Word of God is living and active! We must hear him and keeping hearing and obeying him, to the end. So let’s get moving! Our growth depends on eating solid food, habitually. Regularly.

Such dizzy heights in the power of the Spirit (Heb 6:4-6) can be reached and are normal for the believer who drinks of the Holy Spirit. But if we fail to keep our eyes on Jesus, no matter how gifted we may become—and it is certain the writer has in mind former members of their community—there will be a terrible depth of falling with no way back, he warns. Some have turned their back on Jesus even after such blessing—so it’s important, critical, to get moving and not stand still. We have entered our rest in Christ but this is the rest of faith. We are to press on with perseverance from one degree of faith to another. These are shocking words but our author is not alone in his warnings:

See Jesus’ words in Mathew 7:21-23: ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

Paul, in 2 Cor 6:1:  As God’s fellow-workers we also urge you not to receive his grace and then do nothing with it.

Galatians 5:4. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

He’s not speaking about agriculture! Our hearts are like soil—good, fertile ground or poorly nourished, neglected? So how is your soil? Does it promote healthy growth towards perfection? Or is it in need of fertilising? Don’t drag your feet …. stay the course.

So, you may well ask, doesn’t this warning run counter to Jesus’ words such in John 10:27-28 …

My sheep listen to my voice, I recognize them, they follow me, and I give them eternal life. They will absolutely never be destroyed, and no one will snatch them from my hands.

We see that tension all through the scriptures! It never seemed to have bothered the Hebrews. Some wise words here from Andrew Murray (1894) are useful …

Truth has two sides. We look at each side as if it were the whole and yield ourselves to its full force.

This is strong stuff, solid food, indeed. However the writer does not push this severe tone with them any further and assures them that he sees them differently:

Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. 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.

There are more clues here to show us how these believers were seen corporately, in community, in “one-another-ness”. We please and love God not by going to liturgies and singing praise songs but by diligence in the love and care for one another—serving the saints.

This service to one another must continue in earnest until the end if there are to be appropriate grounds for our full assurance of hope. They are urged to imitate brothers and sisters who have appropriated God’s eternal promises andnot be sluggish. (NIV: lazy).  Later, our author will give us a long list of names and acts from the Old Testament as encouragement.

‘Earnestness’ is called for. But, regrettably, for us, there are not that many examples where serving the needs of other believers is seen as the earnest responsibility of one another and not that of an overworked, dedicated full-time church official. How can God’s one-another-ness happen when there are salaried professionals (clergy) who are expected to do it. Clergy all too frequently stand in the way of God’s design because all believers are to grow into maturity by participating in the work of the Lord.  That is disobedience of God’s design for Christ’s body with many members. It is by making our own human alternative arrangements to his superior design, by both the leaders and the led, that continues to support this charade. The path to perfection, to maturity is enlivened by each of us together abounding in the work of the Lord.

Paul saw the importance of building on the foundation of Jesus and that it must be done using God’s ‘materials’, or what is built, so sincerely even, will be destroyed in the End (see 1 Cor 3:12-15). We stay in babyhood, we are wasting our opportunities, we are not redeeming the time if we do not do God’s work in God’s way.

This is solid food! So solid, that many readers may be not take it in and inwardly digest it, or may just leave it on the back burner, or may even spit it out. God’s will be done.

The Letter to the Hebrews gives us wonderful insights into the faith and practices of Jewish people who had come to believe in their Messiah, Jesus and before Gentile (non-Jewish) influences began to shape the Body of Christ. We can see through Jewish eyes what it’s all about, how this community of Messianic believers saw themselves and their Messiah.

 Last posting, we saw that all believers were expected to be able to teach. But biblically, the only office of teacher is held by the Lord himself when he, Jesus, says call no man Rabbi, (teacher) for you have one teacher (Mat 23:8). So we should avoid titling anyone as “Teacher”. Rather all should be able to teach one another.

Our author has warned his readers against reluctance to make progress, desiring safety and being content with a little assurance. Instead, they, we, must grow up, keep on, forsaking all other, being a real help and bringing true life to others—conforming to Christ.

In chapter 6 the author wants them to go on to maturity’ on to solid food, his in-depth teaching on the high-priestly work of Christ—the heavenly Christ—which he has already introduced earlier in chapter 2.

So, instead of going over the ‘elementary teachings’ –the foundational matters– repentance and faith, teachings about washings, laying on of hands, resurrection and eternal judgment, our author wants his readers to press onwards, deeper—solid food, that will move, stimulate, challenge them onwards to maturity. They have to give up the repetitive elementary stuff and take up things more difficult to digest, but of immense worth.

Now these six foundational matters were not new to Jewish people. They are, in the most part, the foundations of Israel. And Israel’s foundation is the root of the Way of Jesus. So why dwell on these basics?

From personal experience I know how upset an architect would be if on arrival on site to find the builder had re-laid the foundation for his or her designed building. God must be grieved when we keep re-laying a foundation, trotting out basic stuff again and again, ignoring his brilliant design to actually complete the project.

Many preachers today keep teaching foundational things over and over again and their pet subjects. The deeper things of God are ignored as not being seeker friendly or not relevant for 21st Century sophisticates. Has the Holy Spirit been forgotten? Many people hear regular gospel sermons, kept silent observers under pastor or priest instead of being active, alive members of a many-membered body with Christ as Head and the Holy Spirit inspiring each one. Kept in babyhood.

The author does not explain or touch on these foundational matters again—he will go on to solid food. He wants them, and us, to move on from beginners’ matters and move ahead to mature things. Once a foundation is laid, it remains as a firm support for the visible and functional things of a building but if construction work stops there, it is a derelict blight on the streetscape. And subject to deterioration and decay.

It is surely God’s design that we cannot remain static—we must move onwards in Jesus who is both the author and the finisher of our faith (Heb 12:1-2).  To remain a beginner on milk, and not go on to maturity spells failure: we have quit the race!

Like riding a bike, if we stop we fall over!  Let’s not fall over—it looks, and is, really awful. Decay smells bad too. Many Christians truly stink. 

We continue our journey in the Letter to the Hebrews week by week here in Brisbane with a small group. Recently we looked at Hebrews 5:11—14.

In verses 11 and 12, our author says his readers have a lot to learn. He has solid food to give and some of it is hard to explain. But, like his readers, we too can become dull of hearing [NIV: slow to learn].  We can become apathetic, reluctant to progress further. This is a condition that is often fostered by institutional, industrialised religious practices, with a leader who does everything—acting as teacher, guide, pastor, priest, preacher, worship leader, administrator and CEO. The people are mere recipients, consumers. Leaders can be barriers to growth.

But under the New Covenant, God has designed us all to be participating in delivering the word of righteousness and helping one another in an open participatory setting. Scholars refer to this often as ‘body-ministry’. This amazing design by the great Architect, our Lord and Father God, is intended for our growth and maturity. God’s intention is that each of us receives a spiritual deposit or gifting of the Spirit to one another, share with our fellow brothers and sisters, and function as the Body of Christ, rather like the human body with many members as we read in Paul’s first letter to the believers in Corinth.

But instead, many believers in gatherings are merely an audience and inactive, spectators in what takes place ‘up front’ and as a consequence they remain in a sorry and feeble state, infants in understanding.

It is a fatal mistake to take the road of safety and contentment and apathy. Such a choice robs us, God’s people, of the blessings of conforming to Jesus and partnering with him, which bring God’s life to others. We are meant to be fully functioning members, literally, of a body, the body of Christ.

So, in fact he continues by now, you ought to be teachers, instead of staying like babies needing nursing, breast-feeding. Yes, teachers!  Compare this to the Apostle Paul’s words (1 Cor 14:26, 31) ….

When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. …… For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged.

 So, this Hebrew community reflected common ideas with those of Paul as shown in his letters. Paul says each person in the Body of Christ can teach: exhort and share God’s word, with everyone present, and even prophesy (1 Cor 14). There is the freedom of the Holy Spirit. It is not the ministry of one or two, but of all.

In God’s New Covenant design, we are each born into the Body of Christ, one functioning alive member among many. Individualism (mere ‘going to church’) is contrary to our organic community life in the Body of Christ. The phrase ‘one another’ is used over 50 times in the New Testament.

Shall we continue to ignore the plain words of God, his superb design? Do we know better than our Lord?

In our journey together through the book Hebrews, we saw our author introduce the major theme of the whole letter (2:14 to 3:1) that is the high-priestly work of Jesus. Then (3:1 to 4:13) we were informed of more reasons for the readers, and us, to consider Jesus as our great high priest. Now from 4:14 we discover more.

Jesus, coming to us in our humanity, knowing limitations just like us, experiencing temptations like us, now has passed through the heavens.  A human like us is now in the heavens!  Therefore, let us …. he urges the reader, urges us. He avoids using forceful commands in the letter like “you must”. The many warnings are forceful enough. So we find so many let-us’s in this letter! His bold compelling urge is to hold fast our confession,  hold firmly to the faith we possess. It is God’s urgent urging. (4:14-15)

Hold fast.Don’t let go of what you have experienced, what you know, confess, profess, possess, what you live by, what you live for. This can happen either by subtraction (losing it) or by addition—adding foreign ideas, new fads that are alien to the word of God. How awful to lose what has been entrusted to us. How appalling it is to see how little of God’s wonderful design is seen in today’s Christianity which has been so corrupted and subverted by pagan and worldly ideas, the ideas of men.

Think about it! Jesus is able to sympathize with our weaknesses!  In fact he in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. He was not 50% human—he was 100% human, like us, when he came here.

So (4:16), let us boldlyapproach his throne. Jesus sympathises with us and yet he rules, rules with absolute authority! And let’s draw near with confidence (bold faith) because it’s the throne of grace where mercy and grace are freely available. Grace is not merely “unmerited favour”— a common misconception. Grace is what God supplies to help us in our neediness. So what are we waiting for?

The enemy’s accusations can obstruct our approach, causing us to withdraw from the presence of God instead.  But the Holy Spirit’s conviction is specific and actually points us to Jesus and his death for us—the remedy! Satan’s accusations are vague, throwing whatever he can at us. Jesus shows us how to resist, gives us sufficient grace to overcome, showers mercy on us. Let’s not be put off.

In Hebrews 5:1-3 we learn from our Jewish teacher-writer that a Jewish high priest is human and weak—such a person can be gentle and understanding. And that a high-priest does not appoint himself. Like the Jewish high priest, Jesus is human, he knows human weakness, he deals gently with us and Jesus is God’s chosen one.  But in Jesus, there is a massive difference: Jesus needs no atonement for himself, but he atones for us all. He suffers for our benefit. A human priest can never do this. It is essential to know Jesus, not merely to know about him. He is alive.

Jesus was chosen as our high priest after a completely different order to that of the Jewish order—after the style, the pattern, of that mysterious figure we meet in the book Genesis, Melchizedek.  We learn (5:5-6) that this different order of priest is eternal, and comes out of God Himself (a “Son”) to us, into our humanness.

One of the most fascinating of the Dead Sea Scrolls is “Pesher Melchizedek”, written in ancient times by members of the Jewish Qumran sect and hidden for 20 centuries until its discovery with the other scrolls in 1948. In this amazing scroll, Melchizedek is a historical figure who is portrayed there in the roles of kingly messiah, priestly messiah, messiah of the spirit, end-time judge, and even God! What a combination.

Jesus experienced human limitations (5:7-9) and came in our human weakness to the extent that he needed to pray constantly and passionately, loudly, tearfully to God who alone could save him from death (If it be your will, let this cup pass from me! And My God, why have you forsaken me … into your hands I commend my spirit).

We learn that even he, a Son, learned obedience through what he suffered and like us, was involved in a process of being made perfect. The (Greek) word translated perfect in v.9 means ‘complete’, ‘finished’.  This most significant process was finished and necessarily here on our earth, in human form, so that he at last becomes the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

And there is no other one named who can guarantee this eternal salvation—not in all history, not in any religion.

Note carefully : this salvation is to all who obey him. We must hear him and keeping hearing and obeying him.

I am sure you are familiar with the Lord’s word in Matthew 6 : “seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and his righteousness …”. These words are addressed to his disciples and the verb and pronouns in the original Greek are all plural not singular. For the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be experienced alone (as individuals only) but in community and fellowship with one another. God is building a body all over the world and in every place, with members through which he may express his splendour and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the action of the Holy Spirit, here, there and everywhere.

The Kingdom of God cannot be experienced solo.

Many people still think that church-going pleases God. What we see in most churches is a mob of individuals turning up for their weekly dose of religion, saying their private prayers, making their private communion, taking in their private thoughts from the professional religionist.

But the Lord’s plan has always been to form groups of people as a body that reflects both the human body with many members who act together in harmony and who reflect the love and fellowship that exists within the Godhead.

To think and act otherwise is to ignore or even to disobey the will of God. Or is it because we can be so indoctrinated by traditions?

We are journeying along a road less travelled–so few today have undertaken a serious study of the Hebrew Bible which Jesus himself read and used. So we continue to meet weekly and have serious and often hilarious conversation emerging from the texts of the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh. Here are some of our discoveries from Genesis, chapter 1.

We recognised these texts are controversial. So in fear and trepidation and above all humility, we venture into some interesting conversations.

Genesis explains the meaning of the universe : why are there all these wonderful things around us and why is there anything here at all? Why are we here? Scientists set out to explain how it all came about and so we should be very thankful for scientists. They are describing the created order and the laws of nature. Let’s celebrate their work.

Genesis does not describe the laws of nature or maths or science. Genesis tells the story to truthfully explain why. Today, the amazing discovery of the DNA and the results of the human genome project show us some wonderful  things about the information technology there in the very beginning! Our Creator made our digital world! But, why?

Genesis 1 tells a story to show the most significant truth of all is about the relationship between the Creator and his special creation, all of us, made ‘in his own image’. All people are meant to reflect his glory on earth. God can communicate to all people, even those who are opposed to his ways. Anyone can talk to, and listen to their Creator, if they have the ears to hear. So how valuable we all are–you are. How very significant we all are. How each life is sacred and important to our maker, along with the whole created order.

Genesis 1 declares that our universe had a beginning, using the Hebrew word bara, created. Many scientists call this beginning, ‘the Big Bang’. But this was not the beginning of everything–God and his memra were there from before the beginning. So God said let us make make man in our own image.

Surprisingly, the first two verses tell us this created universe in the beginning had no form, and describe it as “void”. Then in verse 3 follows the “six days”, six periods or stages, when God is seen to systematically bring about the immense astronomical complexity of the intricately ordered universe. Thus God did not bring it all about at once, in an instant. The length of these six ”days” are unspecified unless we adopt a strictly artificially literal approach to the word day. But there are many meanings of the Hebrew word for day.

As countless people have pointed out, the 24 hour period between sundown to sundown does not fit the events of verses 3 and 4 (before the advent of the sun) and in v.5 it is clear that day is contrasted with night as in Jesus’ retort aren’t there 12 hrs in a day? (Gospel of John, 11:9).  The word week (Hebrew yom) in v.3 and following, is quite unrepeatable because God never becomes fatigued like us! And when we reach Genesis 2:2, God “rests” meaning the work of creation is finished and God declares it so good that it cannot be any better. And 2:2–3, the seventh day is special and the phrase evening & morning is omitted.

So we can see that the text does not commit us to six days as we measure days today.  And we can see there was a period of time between the ‘beginning’ and the ‘first day’. Renowned mathematician, John Lennox in his intriguing book, (Seven Days that Divide the World, 2011) has so ably pointed out these matters and much else and is a delightful read. Highly recommended.

My fellow traveller and friend Carol, pointed out the other evening, that it is important not to be dogmatic and arrogant in our thinking when we come to the biblical texts. We must ask not only what the text says but also what it leaves unsaid. How much do we unconsciously add to the text or read into it, to make it easier to understand or to fit in with our world view or our preconceived ideas?

Genesis 1:3–28 says all this creative work was accomplished by God (elohim Hebrew, a word used only in the Hebrew language) “speaking” creation—information—into existence. God created by his word, his memra (Heb), who is the agent of creation. The memra is sometimes distinct from God and sometimes it is the same as God. The rabbis never could explain this paradox—they taught the truth of both. The Gospel of John chapter 1, reflecting this, identifies Jesus as the Word, the logos, the memra, the agent of creation!  Pre-existing.

Another possible reading of Genesis 1 is seeing that between the events of each of six stages there may have been enormous lengths of time, thus creation taking place over extremely long periods with the possibility of the emergence of new species –some scientists call this macro evolution—which might excite us with wonder and awe that God should go to so much trouble over us and our environment, our universe. Certainly scientists tell us that exceptionally long periods were necessary for certain elements to be produced e.g., helium and hydrogen. If this is so, what an outrage that we should not care for it as a precious gift from God.

The period after sunset is the start of the Hebrew/Jewish day. The writers of Genesis were Hebrews and this is how they described every day.

The ancient Hebrew storyteller is not concerned with certain details of history as we might be today. Genesis 1—11 is generally seen by many scholars as “pre-history” as the events took place long before writing was invented (around 3000 BCE). The storytellers are selective, as we sometimes are in telling a story. The telling had to be simple so as to be able to be transmitted faithfully.  I think we have to give the ancient writers the benefit of the doubt. I mean we have to accept that they were intelligent and instructive, even though they don’t tell the story as we in the 21^st Century feel it should be told. They knew that their hearers (not readers, mind you) would not raise the questions that we tend to raise. Yet the genre used, means the truth would be understood universally by all peoples and cultures and in all ages. Just imagine the limitations of understanding should the texts have been written in a purely literal manner as if describing how it was all put together! Of course, all the books in the whole world would be grossly insufficient in volume to do so.

Thus for us moderns, questions arise like who did Cain marry?  The storyteller doesn’t tell us and didn’t have to. We assume that Adam and Eve were extremely fertile. They certainly lived a long time and had a lot of time to have many children. And some of them were several hundred years old when they had kids.

Remember, the Genesis account is not necessarily chronological in the details. Certainly Gen 2:4b and verses following do not seem chronological. Getting stuff chronologically down was not seen as important to the storytellers. Such a literary device was not essential in those ancient days of writing. Often people today may tell a story which is not strictly chronological. I might write about the construction of a research facility and because I am an architect, I am likely to tell it chronologically; but a scientist will tell it differently, from her point of view, her interests being focussed on the floor where the laboratories are located—she will certainly skip any information about excavation and foundation works.

When we get to look at the gospel accounts of the New Testament, we find that the chronology of each of the four writers is different in some of the details and this may rattle the faith of some who expect that people of a different time and culture must conform to modern principles of historical literature. Of course, the main events about Jesus (birth, boyhood, public ministry, arrest, trial, death and resurrection are in the order we might expect today.

We need to try to understand the literary form we are dealing with. Not easy. But when we raise questions in our minds about what we may call “the account” or “story”, we may have to admit that this literary form is not what we today have come to expect of a story that is told like our history.

For any storyteller to have written about creation he or she would either have had to be there—an utter impossibility—or it was revealed, and this is the plain claim of scripture: creation is revealed. Creation in the Bible is based not on conjecture or ‘blind faith’ but on God revealing it to people. When God reveals something it is evidence. Not proof, but certainly evidence.

This prophetic revelation of Creation is confirmed by us every day– it fits reality we experience daily, hourly. This revelation is also confirmed by anyone who sees the creation’s beauty and the indescribably mathematical complexity of the human body or the night sky –you don’t need to be a scientist.

To be continued …….