The Sharp, Two-Edged Sword

Hebrews 4:12-13

January 28, 2001

 

We are facing a truth crisis. Relativism, postmodernism, and plain unbelief have eviscerated the word truth from our vocabulary. Carl Henry was right in declaring, "No fact of contemporary Western life is more evident than its growing distrust of final truth and its implacable questioning of any sure word" [God, Revelation and Authority, vol. 1, 17]. This distrust and questioning has left us with a crisis! For apart from the foundation of divine truth we have no purpose, no aim, and certainly no hope.

 

I'm afraid that because of a low view of truth some have gone to the point of absurdity in trying to explain what they consider truth to be. A few years ago a group came out with "The Andy Griffith Show Bible Study Series," which includes episodes of the antics of Andy and Barney Fife followed by a topical bible study. Now the same producers have come up with "The Beverly Hillbillies Bible Study"! It follows the same pattern, complete with tales of Granny, Jed, and Jethro displaying hillbilly theology.

 

Such frivolity with the Word of God would never have crossed the minds of our Christian forefathers. Their regard for divine truth meant that they did not look at it for entertainment or amusement, but to have their souls laid bare and healed by the word implanted. A seventeenth century believer prayed concerning the Word:

O thou elect blade and sharpest sword...who art able powerfully to penetrate the hard shell of the human heart, transfix my heart with the shaft of they love.... Pierce, O Lord, pierce, I beseech thee, this most obdurate mind of mine with the holy and powerful rapier of thy grace [Philip E. Hughes, The Epistle to the Hebrews, 166].

This sort of praying never finds its roots in an entertainment view of God but in seeing that the Word of God is the revelation of God himself.

 

Often our text is viewed in isolation from the balance of its context. Rich truth is found even with this approach but far greater understanding comes through seeing how the writer's exposition on God's Word is related to the warnings of apostasy. His theme of "the rest of God" permeates the context in an effort to stem the threats of apostasy and fears of persecution. The preposition, "for," demonstrates that this text is directly responding to the exhortation of verse 11, "Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience." The "disobedience" he warns of is a disobedience to the Word of God that leads to destruction. So the question is 'how do we keep from falling through the same example of disobedience to God's Word that the Israelites left?' The answer is clear: the Word of God cuts through our professions, pretensions, excuses, and motives, revealing the condition of our hearts. As the heart is laid bare before the eyes of our Judge we have no place to hide from his wrath but in the refuge he has provided in Jesus Christ.

 

How does the Word of God factor in our continuance and stability in the faith? Consider how our writer sets for God's Word and the God of the Word.

 

I. The Word of God

 

The connection with the previous verses is to explain precisely how these struggling professing believers can continue on in the face of threats, persecution, and even lingering doubts. They had been confronted with the Word of God. They could not passively stand by while the Word came as lightning striking its target with all its stunning effects. Indeed, the only ones among them and among us who are not affected in some way by the Word are those who labor at not listening to the Word. They are characterized, like the Israelites in the wilderness, as those who have hardened their hearts by disobedience to the Word.

 

We each hold in our hands a copy of the Bible, the Word of God. What kind of book is it? There has been a welcomed movement among some schools to study this Book as literature, for no book has had as great an impact upon the world of literature as the Bible. But even those who have no intention to follow the message of this Book, while studying it as a great literary masterpiece, have been smitten by its truth. When the Bible was "banned literature" in post-reformation England our forefathers risked their lives to be able to read its precious content. In our own day, the Scriptures must still be smuggled into some countries and shared copies passed around at the peril of being beaten, jailed, or even killed. And yet thousands risk everything for the truth and hope found in the Word of God. Why is this Book so necessary? Why does it have such a radical effect upon our lives?

 

1. A Living Word

 

"For the word of God is living and active," or "full of life and power" [Weymouth] or "alive and active" [Phillips] or "living and energetic" [Greek]. It is a living word! It is unlike any other book you have in your home or in the library. There are 13 million volumes housed in the 97 libraries of Harvard University but the only volume among them that is "living and active" is the Bible. This places the Bible in a unique category. We read books to increase our knowledge, learn how things work, entertain and relax us, and dozens of other reasons, but the Bible has its own category. It is an eternal book with a solitary message for the whole man for the whole of eternity. You will miss the breadth of the English language if you fail to read Chaucer or Shakespeare; you will miss the probing of human emotions if you fail to read Tennyson or Browning; you will miss the rich insights of history if you fail to read Gibbons or Johnson. But if you fail to read the Bible, if you fail to listen to its words, then you miss the only truth that can carry you through life and into eternity.

 

"Living" is placed in the emphatic position in the Greek construction of this sentence. Our writer reminds his audience that the words they had received through Holy Scripture were not outdated or uninformed on the perils they faced. As a "living" word it continues through every age with complete relevance. I remember when the Living Bible paraphrase was very popular in the early seventies. One lady, so excited over her copy, came up to an old preacher and exclaimed, "Look! I've got a Living Bible!" He quietly replied, "Madam, I've had one for 50 years." There has never been a time when this word is not "living."

 

As a pastor I am continually receiving mail about various materials offered for the pulpit. Occasionally, some of them will have comments that their materials "make the Bible come alive," or "make the Bible relevant." The covers may be black or burgundy or have pictures on them; the translations may be Old English to modern slang, but between the covers is the Book that is always alive and always relevant. Others are concerned to make applications from the Bible; but it fascinates me that the Bible, living book that it is, applies itself in countless ways.

 

We get our terms "energy" and "energetic" from the Greek word "active" [energeo]. God's Word goes to work. That is why we must never hesitate to use Scripture in conversations for as we do the word goes to work. When the Metropolitan Tabernacle was being built in London, Charles Haddon Spurgeon rented the Crystal Palace for the worship services to accommodate the thousands that came to hear the young preacher proclaim the Word. Anxious to make sure that the acoustics were adequate, Spurgeon slipped into the auditorium and thinking that no one was present, intoned, "Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world!" Little did he know that a workman far away in the gallery heard that "living and active" word and was brought under conviction and soon to conversion by faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Philip Hughes explains it well. "As the word of the living God it cannot fail itself to be living. And as God is the God who acts with power, his word cannot fail to be active and powerful. Its effectiveness derives from its source, which is God himself, and from its purpose, which is the will of God; and neither God nor his will is ever subject to frustration and defeat" [164]. It is that Word that lives and energizes at work among us. It is that Word, applied by the Holy Spirit that brings dead men to life.

 

2. A Penetrating Word

 

The Word is not held captive by the professions of the heart on one hand or the cold exterior on the other. The Word penetrates the depths of our being. "For the word of God is...sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow." The writer is not attempting to expound on either the dichotomist or trichotomist view of man by "soul and spirit." He simply wants to communicate that the word of God penetrates to the inner recesses of the human heart. Vincent comments, "The word of God has an incisive and penetrating quality. It lays bare self-delusions and moral sophisms" [Word Studies in the NT, IV, 427].

 

The comparative description, "sharper than any two-edged sword," helps us to see that no instrument in the hands of men or devised by human ingenuity can penetrate the heart more keenly than the Word of God. The machaira or short straight sword of the Roman soldier was known to be an efficient weapon. Its two-edges meant that it never failed to cut; there was no bluntness to it [P. Hughes 164]. To some the message of this divine sword has the sharp edge of life: "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life" (John 6:63). To others the divine sword is the sharp edge of death: "the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day" (John 12:48).

 

How far can the word of God penetrate? He answers, "piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow." At the depth of one's being, the word of God goes with all of its cutting, living, energizing power. It performs divine surgery where no eye can see. We are skilled at pretending to be what we are not. Chief among pretensions is that of being a Christian. Millions pretend to know Christ and be part of his kingdom. They go through the motions of church membership and maybe even activity in church. They might even be fooling themselves! But the word of God penetrates through the pretensions, through the motives, through all the reasoning to expose hearts that have been hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and minds ruled by unbelief.

 

I remember thinking for many years that I was a Christian. But the penetrating power of God's Word began to work on me as a 15-year old, exposing my deceived heart and pretentious Christianity, and pointing me to the only refuge in Jesus Christ.

 

Thankfully we do not have to be open for the Word to penetrate! Just like the doubly sharp sword, God's Word penetrates every barrier we put in the way. We have no shield that can deflect its living, penetrating power, as a certain Mr. Thorpe in 18th century Bristol, England found out. Thorpe was part of a band of men who called themselves, the "Hell-fire Club." Their reason for existence was to mock and deride the work of the famed evangelist, George Whitefield. On one occasion, as the "Hell-fire Club" gathered at a pub for such mockery, Mr. Thorpe offered his brilliant imitation of Whitefield, whom he and his friends would call, "Dr. Squintum," because of Whitefield's eyes. He delivered his sermon with Whitefield's every gesture, quoting Scripture and Whitefield's exposition, when suddenly amidst the laughter he had to sit down. Thorpe was pierced through with conviction and was converted on the spot! He became an exemplary Christian leader in Bristol.

 

Has this living, energetic Word pierced through to the inner sanctum of your soul, bringing conviction and conversion?

 

3. A Discerning Word

 

Many of those in the preacher's audience thought that they were believers; most were. But some among them had nurtured a heart of unbelief amid the outward trappings of worship and church life. They did not even know of the eternal danger that awaited them, having deceived their own hearts. But the Word of God could discern whether their faith was fantasy or foundational. "For the word of God is...able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." We get our English word critic from the term "judge." We might say that the Word alone can rightly critique what is going on in our hearts. Hear what I am saying. For some even among us have deceived their own hearts into believing that they are Christians. They hear the proclamation of God's Word that calls for heart-searching, but they keep themselves at arms-length, not wanting to open their lives to the probing, questioning, discerning energy of the Word. But the Word critiques you!

 

The problem quite often is not that a person is noticeably rebellious against the gospel. It is just that he cannot judge his own motives and will. He passes off his unbelief as spiritual immaturity and his passion for the world as just a lack of discipline. He excuses his disinterest in the Scripture as being a simple lack of reading skills or a doer rather than a thinker. But the Word of God alone is capable of probing deeply into the heart and discerning the condition of the soul.

 

What is "the heart" as our writer expresses it? It is "the central seat of human personality, the deep fount of man's life in all its aspects, spiritual, intellectual, moral, and emotional" [P. Hughes 166]. Here the Word goes to work! Here the Word cuts away the pretense, strips the excuses, checks the motives, uncovers the deceit, and exposes the reality of the heart. What does the word of God discern about your heart?

 

This living, penetrating, discerning word wields its way to the deep fount of your life that you might be certain that you belong to Jesus Christ. Read and think upon and obediently respond to this Word. James tells us, "receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls" (James 1:21).

 

II. The God of the Word

 

Because the Word of God cannot be removed from the God who breathed it (II Tim. 3:16), the writer moves from the living, penetrating, discerning power of the Word to the God who sees. John Newton captured this in a hymn he wrote to express this text.

 

The word of Christ, our Lord,

       With whom we have to do,

Is sharper than a two-edg'd sword,

       To pierce the sinner through!

 

Swift as the lightnings blaze

       When awful thunders roll,

It fills the conscience with amaze,

       And penetrates the soul.

 

No heart can be conceal'd

       From his all-piercing eyes;

Each thought and purpose stands reveal'd,

       Naked without disguise.

                          [The Works of John Newton, vol. 3, 453]

 

1. God sees-no escaping

 

Just when we think that we can hide our sin and unbelief from everyone, the writer declares, "And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Long before Jonah people have tried to run away from God. Even Adam and Eve in the Garden attempted to hide themselves from God after the Fall. It is the natural tendency in our humanity to hide one's self from God. But there is no escaping his piercing gaze. The language is stark: 'and there is no creature not manifested before his face'. "His sight" translates a term meaning "before the face of." It pictures God's ever-present face upon all of our open and secret acts, upon all of our thoughts. The omniscience of God, as it is called, implies the ability of God to see and know everything. We like this attribute when it comes to our hurts and trials. We want God to see what we are enduring and to know the depth of our pain. But when it comes to our sin and unbelief we would just as soon have God look the other way! But that is impossible with God. On one hand, his care for his creation demands his oversight; on the other, his responsibility as Judge requires his piercing gaze.

 

Do you think that you are escaping God's piercing gaze? Do you think that he is thrown off the trail by your religious acts and pious talk? Even the psalmist struggled with this as he contemplated the gaze of God.

O LORD, You have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

You understand my thought from afar.

You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways.

Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O LORD, You know it all....

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, You are there;

If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.

If I take the wings of the dawn,

If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,

Even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,"

Even the darkness is not dark to You, and the night is as bright as the day.

Darkness and light are alike to You (Psa. 139:1-4; 7-12).


2. God sees-no covering

 

Not only is there no escape, there is also no covering from the eyes of God. We have amazing medical technology that is capable to gaze into the human body to see what the eye has been prevented from seeing. The images on x-rays, MRIs, and C-T Scans are astounding! Yet they cannot see what God sees! "But all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do."

 

The "all things" is quite intentional. For the original audience who had those among them contemplating abandoning the faith, God saw it. For those intimidated by their Jewish neighbors so that they considered returning to Judaism, God saw it. For those who were fearful of the persecution looming before them, who wanted to run away from Christianity, God saw it. For those who were weak, doubting, struggling and needed God's help, God saw it. There was no covering-in any respects. A.W. Tozer, in The Knowledge of the Holy, has shown the terror and blessing of God's omniscient gaze:

In the divine omniscience we see set forth against each other the terror and fascination of the Godhead. That God knows each person through and through can be a cause of shaking fear to the man that has something to hide-some unforsaken sin, some secret crime committed against man or God. The unblessed soul may well tremble that God knows the flimsiness of every pretext and never accepts the poor excuses given for sinful conduct, since He knows perfectly the real reason for it....

 

And to us who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us in the gospel, how unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us, no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose our past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us [63].

The word "open" is literally, "naked," while "laid bare" likely refers to the custom of stretching out the neck of a sacrifice for the fatal stroke of the blade to be administered. "In the grip of God," is how Kent Hughes expresses it [Hebrews: An Anchor for the Soul, 123]. In all of our attempts to cover sin on one hand, and in all of our anxieties in trying to live for Christ on the other, we are "open and laid bare" before God, totally in his grip for judgment or blessing.

 

3. God sees-no excusing

 

The accountability that we have before the Lord is the last phrase expressed in this verse: "but all things are open and laid bare before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." The closing phrase is rather curious and could be translated, "with whom our matter is, with whom our account is." It implies that we have a day of reckoning with the God who sees everything about us. He knows our genuineness and he knows our pretense. He knows our faith and he knows our unbelief. He knows our struggles to live faithfully and he knows our excuses for obedience. Nothing is hidden. No excuse is acceptable before him who knows the reality of every detail of our thoughts and existence.

 

Have we entered into the "rest of God," this eternal relationship with God through Jesus Christ? We can pretend to be a believer, but God sees-and he will not excuse our pretenses. Even as a believer, we might struggle with secret sins or struggle with undiscipline, but God sees. He has given us the provisions necessary to live in faithfulness before him. So he will not excuse our laziness, our defiance, or our neglect of our spiritual lives.

 

Conclusion

 

God has spoken through his Word. Are you hearing and obeying? That is precisely where our first century audience found themselves. They had received the Word; it was clear to them. Now they must believe and obey. And so must we.

 

With our hearts naked and laid bare before the searching gaze of our God, let us run to the solitary place of refuge from the certainty of divine judgment: the crucified and risen Redeemer, Jesus Christ the Lord. For struggling believers, wrestling with sin and perseverance, go to the Refuge. For those who have pretended to be Christians, your cover is blown. Go to the Refuge, Jesus Christ. Embrace him by faith. Trust in his death as God's satisfaction on your behalf. Receive his resurrection life. Set your feet on the narrow way that leads to life.

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