Chuck Larsen

Hebrews 10:34 closes by explaining why believers can endure hardships. The reason you endured past trials he says, was because “…you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” In his commentary on this phrase, Homer Kent argues that the possession you have is “yourselves.” He says, “The reading preferred by most textual experts has ‘yourselves’ as the direct object of the verb ‘have’ (echein heautous). The sense is that by becoming Christians, though they may lose the whole world, they have gained their souls.”^[1]  In Luke 9:25 Jesus asks a most profound question. He asks, “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world and yet lose himself?”  In Matthew 8:36-37 he asks a similar question but refers to the “self” as the soul. It says, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” Hebrews 10:39 supports this idea when it says, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”

This verse begins with the clear statements that those who trust in Jesus’ full sufficiency are not among those who “shrink back.” Looking back to Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 we’re reminded of the writer’s referring to the Israelites who “shrunk back” at Kadesh Barnea and were not allowed to enter into the promised land, “God’s Rest.” They did not trust God’s promises to give them the land. Instead they looked at themselves, the giants that inhabited the land and compared the two. “We are like grasshoppers to them” they said. Their current circumstances led them to doubt the goodness of God and His promises. Their destiny therefore was to wander in a wasteland till death.  When trials and struggles and hardships come my way, I find myself drifting into the wasteland of doubt also.  I don’t need to be encouraged that I’m big enough to whip the giants in the land or than I’m much bigger than a grasshopper. I need to be reminded that my champion has already defeated my enemies for me. Jesus’ grace has always been sufficient in the past and is sufficient now and will be sufficient in the future. There’s rest!

“Shrinking back” is not in the experience for those who hold to the full sufficiency of Jesus. That’s why the author finishes chapter ten with verse 39 saying, “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” This last verse of Chapter 10, according to Guzik “…is a confident conclusion. We will be those who endure on and gain the promise of God. We will not draw back into old traditions or into an Old Covenant relationship with God—or any other replacement for Jesus.”^[2]

^[1] Homer A. Kent Jr., The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary (Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 1983), 211.

^[2] David Guzik, Hebrews, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Heb 10:35–39.

I’ve often said the most difficult thing to give up for Jesus is one’s religion. Yet that is the only thing he wants us to give up. He wants us to stop trusting in rituals, rules and the sacrifices called for by religion and put our confidence completely and solely in him. But when you’ve lived your whole life in a religious community like the recipients of the letter to the Hebrews there is incredible pressure from those around to return to the religious practices of the group. But to do that, as the writer mentioned in chapter 10, is to trample underfoot the grace of God offered through Jesus Christ. If his work and his sacrifice isn’t enough, there is nothing left except personal failure after failure under any religious system. But deliverance from the condemnation of the law and repetitive religious practices sets the believer in Jesus free. Those left behind in the religious systems will do all they can to get you back. But the glory of freedom is worth the conflict. The author of Hebrews reminds his readers of that in Hebrews 10:32-34. He says, “But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.”

All the way through the first 10 chapters of the letter to the Hebrews the author has insisted on the superiority of Jesus over every and all of the religious rituals, sacrifices, and persons of the systems they lived under. Jesus is better than the prophets because he speaks for God in our day. Jesus is better than Moses because only he can fulfill the law. Jesus is better than the sacrifices offered by the priesthood of Aaron because his is a once and for all sacrifice. Jesus makes better intercession with God on our behalf because he wipes away all our sin once and for all and then deposits in our account his own perfect righteousness.  There is nothing under any religious system that can do that. Having Jesus is far better than all the possessions, positions, and pleasures in the world. Having Jesus is far better than any empty promises of personally earned righteousness by observing ordinances and sacrificial rituals and routines!

Homer Kent argues that the possession you have is “yourselves.” He says, “The reading preferred by most textual experts has ‘yourselves’ as the direct object of the verb ‘have’ (echein heautous). The sense is that by becoming Christians, though they may lose the whole world, they have gained their souls.”^[1]  In Luke 9:25 Jesus asks a most profound question. He asks, “what does it profit a person to gain the whole world and yet lose himself?”  In Matthew 8:36-37 he asks a similar question but refers to the “self” as the soul. It says, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” Hebrews 10:39 supports this idea when it says, “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”

^[1] Homer A. Kent Jr., The Epistle to the Hebrews: A Commentary (Winona Lake, IN: BMH Books, 1983), 211.