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Hebrews 6:1-2, 9:13,14, Leviticus 16:21, John 6:55-56

Jesus cleanses us from all sin

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 8, 2019

Hebrews 6:2 continues from verse 1 naming the foundational teachings of Christ upon which the superstructure of the faith must be built. Hebrews 6:1-2 says, “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” The first foundational issue is that we repent of our confidence in our works and rest confidently in Christ’s work for us on the cross. It’s easy to see why the writer would include this as the first foundational issue. The second issue deals with 2 other items that could be connected to the idea of dead works. One commentary said, “Dead works may represent the efforts connected with the earthly sanctuary system to secure cleansing and acceptance before God.”[1] The instructions about washings and laying on of hands deal with offering sacrifices under the Old Testament economy. It has to do with the purification of sinners through blood sacrifices.

It’s faith in God and the sacrifice offered by Jesus on the cross of Calvary that replaces all that. It’s foundational to our faith to see that there need not be any more blood sacrifices for the forgiveness of sins. That’s been taken care of! It’s foundational. The author of Hebrews will make this all perfectly clear in Chapter 9 verses 13-14 when he writes, “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

“Laying on of hands” is another ritual of the Jewish religious system. Another commentary explains, “The rite symbolized transfer. On the Day of Atonement hands were placed on the head of a goat as the priest confessed the sins of Israel (Lev. 16:21). Then the goat was sent away into the wilderness where he typically carried the sins which he bore, never to return with them again.”[2] The foundational issues associated with washings and laying on of hands as practiced in the Old Testament have been fulfilled in Christ. Like salvation by grace through faith alone, the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross for our sins is foundational. Your sins have been atoned for and taken away as far as the east is from the west to never return. If you don’t grasp this truth, you’ll not understand Jesus meat! He says (John 6:55-56), “My body is real food. My blood is real drink. Anyone who eats my body and drinks my blood remains in me. And I remain in him.”

[1] J. Paul Tanner, “The Epistle to the Hebrews,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, ed. Robert N. Wilkin (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010), 1052.

[2] Charles F. Pfeiffer, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Everyman’s Bible Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1962), 50.

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Hebrews 6:1, 1 Corinthians 3:11, Isaiah 28:16

Jesus is Milk and Meat!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 4, 2019

Hebrews 6:1 begins with a “therefore.” That always requires that we understand what the “therefore” is there for. What is the connection between what he is about to say and what he has already said? He’s argued that Jesus is the absolute best thing from God. He’s better than the prophets, the angels, the law, Moses and the priesthood of Aaron’s line. When he speaks of the priesthood of Jesus, he identifies Jesus as a priest in the order of Melchizedek, not Aaron. Then stops and says this is really difficult to understand and is intended for the mature believer. He is concerned because his readers are only accustomed to the Jesus milk and needed to grow up in order to be able to digest the Jesus meat. Jesus milk is nourishing for infants but adults need more than that. Melchizedek is going to be meaty and the writer is going to go back to that discussion in Chapter 7 but not until he deals with the difference between Jesus milk and Jesus meat. Hebrews 6:1 says, “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.”

Don’t think that “the elementary doctrine of Christ” is something to be discarded! It’s actually the foundation of everything. It’s something that’s built upon and which holds the superstructure together. Jesus speaks of the difference between those who build on a solid foundation and those who build on sand.  Houses built on sand collapse, but not those built on a solid foundation. Paul makes sure we know what our foundation is and the writer of Hebrews knows this also. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:11, “For no one is able to lay another foundation than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” This foundation was spoken of by Isaiah years before. He speaks for God and says in Isaiah 28:16 “Look! I am placing a foundation stone in Jerusalem, a firm and tested stone. It is a precious cornerstone that is safe to build on. Whoever believes need never be shaken.”

“Dead works” refers to a foundation of sand. It’s never going to be secure! A relationship with God based on my performance and my works of righteousness is always going to fall short. I’ll never quite be good enough. But faith in Jesus who is perfect, is a solid foundation upon which we can build confidently and securely. This is Jesus milk. Every understanding of the Old Testament must be founded on this truth. The writer of Hebrews directs our attention to the Old Testament prophets, priests, laws, and everything else as further nourishment for Christians. Drawing out the nutrients of Christ as seen in every verse is our solid food and our solid foundation. He will cut up the meat of Melchizedek for us in Chapter 7 and even go on later in his letter to dish up more meat of salvation by grace through faith alone by pointing out the foundational truth of Christ in all the key figures in the Old Testament. In Chapter 11 the writer will begin his long review of the key characters in the Bible explaining that it was faith, not works, that declared them righteous. In Hebrews 11:4 he talks about Able and says, “By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That’s what God noticed and approved as righteous” (The Message).

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John 6:54-58, Hebrews 5:14

Jesus is our “Solid Food”

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
October 4, 2019

Jesus held up a loaf of bread in the upper room before His death and challenged His followers to do this in remembrance of Him. The bread represents His body. The wine represents His blood.  Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins and to purchase for us a place in heaven which He offers as a free gift which can only be received by grace through faith. It’s not by works and especially not by works of the Jewish laws lest anyone should have reason to boast. This is true solid food! This is what Jesus called Peter to feed His sheep. This is what Jesus wants modern preachers and teachers to feed His sheep. This is perfectly clear from Jesus owns words recorded in John 6:54-58. Jesus says, “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

In Hebrews 5:14 the writer begins a discussion about solid food. He says, “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” Hagner rightly recognizes what the writer of Hebrews means by solid food. He writes, “Solid food is what the author is presenting in this epistle, and in this particular context it is the argument about Melchizedek.”[1] But Hagner doesn’t note that according to Hebrews, Jesus is the fulfillment of Melchizedek. Melchizedek is just a picture of the true “King of righteousness” (that’s what the name Melchizedek literally means). The writer will get back to the solid food of Melchizedek as the picture of Jesus in Chapter 7.

But then what does it mean to have our “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil?” I’m convinced that “good and evil” has nothing to do with moral issues at all but rather with being able by training and through practice to discern between good teaching and poor bible teaching. Guzik gets this. In his commentary he says, “Not moral good and evil, but wholesome and corrupt doctrine. The implication is that the readers’ condition is such as to prevent them from making this distinction.”[2] When you grasp that solid food is always about Jesus and the Gospel, you have a basis of evaluating teaching and preaching as well as writing. If it’s about Jesus, it is solid food. If it’s about you it is not solid food. It’s just another pep-talk, or self-help instruction, or even a religious requirement to shame you to change your ways. Solid food, the real meat of Christianity, is always about Jesus!

[1] Donald A. Hagner, Hebrews, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011), 86.

[2] David Guzik, Hebrews, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Heb 5:12b–14.

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Hebrews 5:12b-13, Isaiah 64:6, Romans 3:10, Philippians 3:9, Jeremiah 33:15-16

Jesus is our Righteousness!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 25, 2019

Jesus interpreted the whole Old Testament as a commentary on Himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. The writer of Hebrews begins his letter and keeps it going with the same effort; Jesus is the revelation of the Bible from Genesis to the end. He quotes the Old Testament over and over again and interprets it Christologically. He points out how it’s really about Christ. Some passages he uses are relatively obvious. But when he gets to Genesis 14 and the story of Abraham’s encounter with Melchizedek, he realizes that this is not so easy to understand. Understanding Jesus from Melchizedek is difficult to digest. So in Hebrews 5:12b-13 he says, “You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.”

They should be teachers but they haven’t matured. What should they be teaching? They should be teaching as Jesus did to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and what the writer of Hebrews demonstrates for them. They should be interpreting the Old Testament Christologically, that is, as it pertains to Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. This is what the author of Hebrews has been doing all along and this is what Christian expositors of the Bible should do as well. If it’s “Christian,” it must be about Christ or even better, Jesus as the Christ. The writer moves on from the milk of the Psalms and other obvious passages about the Messiah and reaches back to Genesis 14 and the story of Melchizedek. But that’s solid food. They are not ready for that yet because of their immaturity. He argues that just drinking the milk, although nourishing when you’re a child, will not foster true maturity. Milk keeps one “unskilled in the word of righteousness.”

Commentators are divided over what “the word of righteousness” means. Some suggest it is referring to our own personal righteousness. But the Bible makes it clear (Isaiah 64:6) that all of “our righteous deeds are as filthy rags” to God. The New Testament (Romans 3:10) says “there is none righteous no not one!” Paul tells the Philippians that he’s not trusting in his own personal righteousness but in Jesus. He writes in Philippians 3:9, “…not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” Jesus is the “word” of righteousness. Jeremiah actually told the sinful nation that righteousness would be theirs but not through good works.  Jeremiah 33:15-16 says, “In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely. And this is the name by which it will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’”

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Hebrews 5:12a, Luke 24-25-27, Matthew 13:15

Jesus is the Oracle of God

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 25, 2019

The writer of Hebrews wanted to teach his readers some mature doctrines relating to the Old Testament character Melchizedek. He had a lot to say about it but hesitated because he said in Hebrews 5:11 that his readers were dull or slow of hearing. Jesus used a similar phrase in his rebuke of a couple of disciples. They too were dull or slow of hearing and believing. In Luke 24:25-27, Jesus speaks to the two men on the road to Emmaus, “And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

The point of the author’s rebuke of the Hebrews as well as Jesus’ rebuke of the two travelers is that they didn’t understand how the Old Testament was a progressive revelation of God’s salvation of mankind through the promised seed of the woman mentioned in Genesis 3:15. Actually “dull” hearts and minds is how Jesus used to refer to those who did not get or believe in who He was and what He, as the promised Messiah, was to accomplish on behalf of those who would believe in Him. The dull hearts, deaf ears, and blind eyes all refer to the comprehension of Christ and His complete fulfillment of the Old Testament and His complete sufficiency to save us from our sins. Jesus mentions this in Matthew 13:15. He says, “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.”

The writer of Hebrews wants his readers to mature in their grasp of the truths of Jesus as seen in the Scriptures from beginning to end. He wants them to see, hear, and understand how Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He frequently challenges them to “consider” or to “think about” or to “reflect on” Jesus. This is what will mature them and enable them to become teachers of Jesus as well. But their dull hearts and minds have lulled them into a lethargic stupor regarding the things of Christ and allowed them to drift back into a religion of works. Hebrews 5:12a says, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God.” What does the writer mean by “the basic principles of the oracles of God?” Hagner correctly understands this writing, “This probably refers to the basics of the Christian gospel, but as contained in the OT. If the readers still need elementary Christian exegesis of the OT, how will they move to such exegesis at the more advanced level?”[1] Jesus is the oracle of God.

[1] Donald A. Hagner, Hebrews, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011), 86.

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Luke 5:11, Isaiah 9:6, Luke 8:18

Jesus is God’s Message

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 23, 2019

The superiority of Christ to the prophets, angels, Moses, the Law itself, the priests of Aaron’s line, and everything else as well, has been the subject of the epistle to the Hebrews since the opening verse. Don’t attach Hebrews 5:11 with the short dependent clause of verse 10 “to those who obey him.” Many people will argue that “eternal salvation” is at stake and the writer wants to speak more about the call on us for righteous living rather than the call on us to trust Christ for everything. Hebrews 5:11 says, “About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” The coming exhortations which have caused so much confusion are not about living a more moral lifestyle but about living a more faith filled lifestyle. Jesus is better than anything you can imagine. Put your faith in Him and only in Him. The Handbook for Translators talks about the title heading for the next few verses and it rightly captures this theme. It says, “The section heading Warning against Abandoning the Faith may be expressed as an imperative; for example, “Do not give up trusting in Christ” or “Do not cease believing in Christ.”[1]

What’s at stake is not our eternal salvation in the upcoming warning passage, but the loss of “rest” that comes from trusting in the full sufficiency of Christ. What he has a lot more to say about is not exhortation to keep the law but true spiritual growth through understanding all the wonderful mysteries of Jesus as revealed to us in the whole Bible. He is found in it from Genesis through Revelation. He explained how the Old Testament was about Himself to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Then he opened their eyes to see Him for who He was.  When He spoke with the religious leaders, He reminded them that they search the scriptures because they think they have eternal life in them but then adds that the whole Old Testament is about Himself. But the religious leaders were blind to that truth. They could not see it. Very often Jesus spoke of those who “had ears but couldn’t hear or eyes but couldn’t see.” Their religion has blinded them to the truth of Jesus as the subject of God’s entire revelation to man. Even today religious rituals, rules and regulations blind people to Jesus. It’s easier to focus on our own righteousness than to trust in Jesus’ righteousness. We make the Old Testament stories into examples for us to follow rather than revelations of Jesus. We reduce Christianity to another self-help book while we focus our attention on ourselves rather than Jesus.

What the author of Hebrews has a lot more to talk about is Jesus. He’s already proven that in the first five chapters. He’s quoted numerous times from the Old Testament to show that it’s pointing to Jesus. He adds that this is hard to explain and takes real maturity to understand. Jesus is the subject of the Bible! So he brings up an obscure reference to a priest in the book of Genesis that Abraham gave a tithe to, and explains how that story is really about Jesus. Jesus is the one who fulfills the priestly as well as the kingly line of Melchizedek. Melchizedek makes intercession to God for Abraham and the people. Jesus makes intercession on behalf of all mankind. Melchizedek is the king of Salem (Peace!). But Jesus fulfills that role totally! He is the “prince of peace” (Isaiah 9:6). After explaining the parable of the soils in which the seed is the “word” of God, He says in Luke 8:18, “take care then how you hear.”

[1] Paul Ellingworth and Eugene Albert Nida, A Handbook on the Letter to the Hebrews, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1994), 102.

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Hebrews 5:9-10

Obey the Law or believe in Jesus?

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 23, 2019

Hebrews 12:2 says we should be “…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” This verse speaks of the “founder” of our faith as well as the “perfecter” of our faith. Hebrews 5:9-10 looks at the “foundation” of our faith; our eternal salvation. It says, “And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.” Jesus was perfected, not morally, but essentially at His resurrection where He took on a resurrected body and now sits next to God the Father where He can be our effectual High Priest and intercede for us with the Father.

Hebrews chapter seven is all about how much greater the priesthood of Melchizedek is than those of Aaron’s line who offered sacrifices for the people. The focus will be on the fact that Melchizedek has no beginning and no ending and that’s why Jesus was appointed as priest of that order rather than of Aaron’s order. The resurrection clarifies the eternal nature of Jesus’ role in heaven seated with the Father. The habitual practice of the “Hebrews” of offering blood sacrifices was deeply seated in their lives and it was extremely hard for them to let go of those religious practices as the basis of having their sins forgiven by God. Many of us today have been raised under strict religious regimes and have a hard time feeling at peace with God when we don’t live up to those standards. Like the Hebrews we continue with our religious rituals “just in case” Jesus is not enough. We feel guilty if we don’t perform. We feel less “saved” if we don’t observe the traditional routines. By focusing on the superiority of Jesus and the fact that He is “the source of our eternal salvation,” the writer of Hebrews is pointing out verse after verse, chapter after chapter, the full sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice and intercession on our behalf.

According to Ray Brown, Jesus is the source of “eternal salvation” only to those who “obey him.” He understands “obey” to mean keeping the Law because He says that eternal salvation is achieved “…only by a lifetime of constantly renewed dedication and obedient responsiveness to all that God requires of his people.”[1] Nothing is more destructive to our peace with God than teaching like this. God calls us to perfection under the law! Paul tells us that the standard required is impossible for anyone to attain! The Gospel itself is the call that Jesus accomplished for us, what we could not do for ourselves. He was perfect and “perfected” for us all. Don’t put your faith and confidence in your strength to live up to the standards of the law! You’ll constantly fail. Instead, believe the Gospel. Jesus’ perfection is ours by faith. Pfeiffer says that the obedience referenced in this passage is “an obedience of faith.” He writes, “Jesus was obedient to the Father. Now He seeks the obedience of faith of all who would share His blessings. Faith may be regarded as the response of obedience to the preaching of the message of redemption in Christ.”[2]

[1] Raymond Brown, The Message of Hebrews: Christ above All, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 102.

[2] Charles F. Pfeiffer, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Everyman’s Bible Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1962), 46.

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Hebrews 5:7-8, Philippians 2:6-11, Hebrews 12:2-3

Focus on Jesus!

Filed Under: Devotions by Chuck
September 20, 2019

When the author of Hebrews mentions the prayer of Jesus that was answered by God, he is referring to the passionate prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. It appears that Jesus prayed that God would deliver Him from the death that faced Him. But if the prayer was answered by God as the writer asserts, it must have been a prayer to be delivered, not from this death, but through this death. Piper suggests that it’s a prayer to “hang in there” through the excruciating ordeal He was about to undergo. Which is exactly what happened. He was successful through His trials and as Pfeiffer observes, “Jesus overcame the power of death. Jesus tasted death, but in so doing He opened the vistas of endless life for His people. The temptation of Jesus ‘in all points’ included the issues of death, but He accepted the Father’s will and ‘for the joy … set before him’ endured its agonies.”[1] But then comes Hebrews 5:8 which says, “Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”

I’m alarmed at how many commentators want to make this comment about us. You see, we learn obedience through suffering for sure. It would be clearer to say that we learn obedience through disobedience. But not Jesus! He was obedient from beginning to end! When I commented on Hebrews 5:7, I referred to Philippians 2:6-11. I’m still convinced that these verses are parallel to those in Hebrews 5:7-8. You see, Jesus wasn’t an ordinary priest or even an ordinary son. He was “the” Son of God and could have bypassed the pains and sufferings of the cross if He had so chose. That was even the temptation used by Satan in the wilderness. It was what Satan tried again, using Peter to dissuade Jesus from completing His mission. No way! Jesus would have none of it and I think Hebrews 5:8 is saying something to the effect of Philippians 2:8, “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” He was obedient up to and including death!

Jesus is so much more important than the priests of the Old Testament because He was not only intercessor, bringing sacrifices for the sins of the people, He was also the sacrifice itself. He was the perfectly obedient Son of God who had no need to offer sacrifices for Himself like the priests did. The sacrifices for sin offered by priests had to pass through sinful, human hands! The sacrifice Jesus brought was perfect in every respect and was presented to God as payment for our sins through the only perfectly obedient intercessor. Not even the death on the cross deterred Jesus from becoming the perfect High Priest for us all. Jesus did not experience disobedience but he suffered the consequences of our disobedience to the fullest extent possible, even death on the cross. No knees are going to bow to the Angels. They bow to Jesus. No souls will be saved through the Laws of Moses, and no sacrifice offered by sinful human priests will make peace with God on our behalf. He is the one and only! Several times already he has instructed his readers to keep their eyes on Jesus. In Hebrews 12:2 he says again, “Look to Jesus” and then again in Hebrews 12:3, “consider him…” Like Peter on the water, we must keep our eyes on Jesus! As soon as we take them off of Him and focus on ourselves, we will sink.

[1] Charles F. Pfeiffer, The Epistle to the Hebrews, Everyman’s Bible Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1962), 45.

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