No Shrinking Back

Hebrews 10:32-39

August 26, 2001

 

The summer of 2001 has been quite difficult for many believers across the globe. Afghanistan's ruling Taliban has arrested Christian humanitarian aid workers for "trying to convert Afghan Muslims to Christianity." Hundreds of unregistered churches in China are still trying to recover from being destroyed by government teams last year. A Christian lawyer understood the fate of numerous Christian leaders in Colombia as he barely escaped an assassination attempt. Professing Christians in India were forced to return to Hinduism in order to survive. Jihad warriors in Indonesia continue to kill Christians in masse on various islands. Christians in Mali are refused properties to rent just because they are believers. Believers in Oaxaca state in Mexico have been threatened to have their water and utilities cut off if they do not change from their evangelical religion. Thirty Christians were killed in Nigeria and dozens of homes owned by believers were burned down, as the government looked the other way. A Christian army colonel, set-up by antagonists on false charges, was denied parole so that he has to spend sixteen years in a Peruvian prison [Compass Direct news summaries, August 24, 2001]. Some, as the case of those mentioned in India, shrink back; others refuse and face the consequences of being Christians in a world that is radically opposed to the gospel. These have discovered that the riches of knowing Jesus Christ exceed the loss of the moment.

 

This is easier for us to say than to do. Sometimes we are asked how we might respond to situations like those of our brethren across the world. We cannot give a clear answer since we have not faced what they face. But we can certainly train our hearts and minds to press on as Christians by responding to the worldly pull that confronts us at different levels every day. We are challenged by the threat of the world to shrink back from following Jesus Christ. Young people face it in the hallways of school, college students face it in the context of academia, and adults face it by the lure of the world about them. So how are we to respond? In the face of such threats we must go forward with faith in Christ. How can we do this? Our text was a great help to a church that struggled with perseverance. They had not succumbed to the world's pull and the persecutions before them; they stood on the brink of shrinking back. So our writer warns of the dangers of knowing the truths of Christ's sufficiency and then intentionally turning away. After applying the surgical scapula to the decaying area of their thoughts, he applies the healing ointments of encouraging them in their faith. Let us find the same encouragement as we consider the path to perseverance.

 

I. Remembering the testimony of the past

 

Our writer begins with a command to keep remembering those early days of faith in Christ: "But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened, you endured a great conflict of sufferings." The command reminds us of our natural tendency to forget the gracious working of God in our lives and thus lapsing into sin. So we must flip through the pages of our memories to consider where we have been, the rock from which we have been hewn, what we have learned, and what we have experienced through the grace of God. 

 

The Psalmist regularly calls our attention to the need for remembering and offering thanks as a way of living in dependence upon the Lord. While seeking comfort the Psalmist cries, "I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; surely I will remember Your wonders of old. I will meditate on all Your work and muse on Your deeds" (77:11). And again, "Remember His wonders which He has done, His marvels and the judgments uttered by His mouth" (105:5). Paul did the same thing to Timothy, "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned" (II Tim. 2:8-9). You will recall as well the "stones of remembrance" that the Lord commanded Joshua to bring up from the Jordan as Israel crossed into the Promised Land, and to place them by the river bank at Gilgal (Josh. 4:8-9). Every time these struggling pilgrims saw the pile of stones they remembered the working of the Lord in their past so that they took fresh courage for the present.

 

Now you and I are commanded to keep remembering (as the present tense implies), keep thinking upon what the Lord has done in the past because it is good evidence of how he will work in the present. Many have been helped by keeping journals of their spiritual lives to aid the failing of our memories, so that we might remember with clarity what the Lord has done since he began a good work in our lives. Consider how our pastoral author puts these believers into remembrance.

 

1. Suffering as Christians

 

He takes them back to the first days of their faith in Christ: "But remember the former days [more literally, the first days], when, after being enlightened [a reference to being regenerated by the Holy Spirit to see the death of Christ for them personally and therefore their trusting in Christ], you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated." If we could drift back in our thoughts to the scene before us I think we would find it encouraging us. Here were new believers, some right out of idolatry and others freshly delivered from the legalism of Judaism, now awakened to new life in Christ. Oh what joy they had in Jesus Christ! There is nothing quite like that flush of new life and new light after having been buried in spiritual darkness to bring a person into courageous joy. Nothing else matters besides knowing Christ. And even when these believers were publicly reproached for their faith they did not falter but continued to follow Christ with undiminished joy.

 

I still remember with delight those early days as a new believer. I was only a teenager but I was endued with great boldness to talk with others about Christ. I was ridiculed for convictions I embraced as a believer but the ridicule seemed to roll off like water off a duck's back. The joy of Jesus Christ was my strength! Do you remember those days when love for Christ was so strong that you thought nothing of what the world offered and feared nothing of the world's threats?

 

The "great conflict of sufferings" demonstrates that these believers were not just occasionally reproached but lived in an ongoing struggle of faith tested by trials. The plural tells us that the suffering came in different shapes and sizes, along with varying intensities. "Conflict" is the root of the term from which we derive "athlete," implying a virtual contest that was taking place but not one of fun and recreation but one of the most agonizing sorts. In some cases these believers were made "a public spectacle," being put on the spot in front of the Vanity Fair of this world, and scorned for being a Christian. Some were falsely accused of crimes against the state. Others were denounced as being part of a strange cult. Physical, emotional, and psychological abuse was hurled their way. The remarkable thing is that the whole church stood together. When one member was scorned, the others took their stand with them, "by becoming sharers with those who were so treated." They knew a fellowship (the term sharers) of suffering together in the gospel.

 

2. Satisfaction with the future

 

The public derision often led to imprisonment, "For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one." Just as Paul was often in prison, so other believers joined in that same fellowship of chains. All because of their faith in Christ and living as Christians they found themselves suffering the hardship of prison. Being a prisoner meant constant suffering since ancient prisons offered deprivation of food, clothing, and warmth in large measures.

 

Prisoners were shunned in that era because to associate with them by providing for their needs was to essentially join in their crime. We know something of that shame of association in our own day. I remember as a young boy the night my cousin, twenty years my senior, came to our home and talked at length with my parents. Later I discovered that in a drunken brawl he had killed a man, and now he was running from the law. My parents encouraged him to turn himself in and face justice. He did just that and was sent to prison for seven years. During that time his name was rarely breathed for fear that others might discover that our relative was a murderer and in prison. There was a shame in being associated with that kind of person.

 

While these believers were not imprisoned for murder or theft they were prisoners nonetheless. Prisoners were prisoners regardless of their crime, and to associate with them made you suspicious in the eyes of those about you. Yet these early believers gladly suffered in order to stand with their fellow believers who had been imprisoned for the gospel.

 

For a Westerner, the remarkable thing is that either due to involvement with prisoners or simply due to the government's hostility toward Christians, these Christians had their earthly goods seized, which is a term that implies either confiscation or destruction. What belonged to them was gone! And it happened because they were Christians. How did they respond? Our writer says, "you...accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one." Think about that for a moment. "So firmly had their interest been fixed on heavenly possessions," writes Leon Morris, "that they could take the loss of earthly goods with exhilarations" [Expositor's Bible Commentary, 110]. Like Martin Luther centuries later, they could sing,

Let goods and kindred go,

This mortal life also;

The body they may kill;

God's truth abideth still;

His kingdom is forever [A Mighty Fortress is Our God].

How did they do this? They had confidence in the rule of Christ over their lives. They were living in the kingdom of Christ while in this world-and they were transfixed by that reality. And they also saw that earthly possessions, as important as they might be to us, are temporal. Consequently, they lived with an eye on eternity. They understood that "a better possession and a lasting one" awaited them in the presence of Christ. I suppose that it is this very truth that continues to sustain our brethren in India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Pakistan who suffer the loss of all things for the sake of Christ.

 

All of us need to do some remembering of those good works of God's grace in our lives in the past. Ponder them. Rejoice in the Lord's goodness to you. Find fresh strength by those reflections. Turn your eyes away from being entrenched by the world's goods. See that houses, cars, vacations, bank accounts, recreation, and all of our "stuff" are temporal. We cannot take it beyond the grave. What Christ has prepared for us is "an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (I Pet. 1:4-5).

 

II. Enduring the strain of the present

 

But a few years had passed since those early days of great boldness as young believers. Now these Christians had gotten a little older, maybe a little more concerned with their possessions and reputations and status. They were "battle weary," having grown through the trials in "the former days," but now having become too comfortable and fearful and careless. They faced the present trials that strained on their faith. Would they take the low road of turning away from the Christ they had professed so boldly and appeared to know so clearly? Or would they take the high road in the rarified air of enduring faith in Christ? The writer sets the stage for his classic exposition on faith in chapter 11, and so for now he shows us how faith is to actively work in our daily lives as Christians. We see this developed in three ways.

 

1. Hold to your confidence in Christ

 

The exhortation follows the writer's clear ruminations on the past faithfulness of Christ in their lives (32-34), "Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward." "Throw away" is a terse word that Morris says, "conveys the thought of a reckless rejection of what is valuable" [110]. The construction in the Greek implies that they were not at that point, it had not happened but there was obvious concern on the part of the pastoral writer that it just might happen with some in that congregation.

 

If you have been following the language of Hebrews you know that "confidence" is a key word used in 3:6, 4:16, 10:19, and in our text. It expresses one's faith in Christ; resting in the sufficiency of Christ that results in freely approaching the presence of God. It is a boldness grounded in the sacrifice of Christ to enter into God's presence. It is not a state of mind or simply an attitude, but an active dependence upon Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death on one's behalf as a sinner, overflowing in a relationship to God before his throne of grace. It is with this "confidence" in Christ and his merits that the believer draws near to God, finding that relationship to him to be the most satisfying and invigorating life afforded us this side of eternity. 

 

How do you maintain this "confidence, which has great reward"? It calls for the believer to have a clear perception of Christ as he is revealed in the gospel. It is a confidence that Christ is your Prophet who has revealed God to you, who has spoken the saving word to you, and whose very words is life itself. It is confidence that Christ is your Priest who has mediated the way to God for you through his own sacrificial death on the cross, and continues as the living high priest to mediate for you. It is confidence that Christ is your King who is seated at the Father's right hand, reigning over your life, providentially directing the details of your life for your good and his glory, and who will return for you in triumph. We must regularly think upon Christ and find the food to sustain us in life's demands.

 

"Confidence," as this writer uses it, inevitably leads to prayer. In 4:16 we are told to "draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Due to the confidence we have in the sacrificial death of Christ, we are told in 10:22 to "draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith." Here we have our confidence to approach the Creator of the universe. We are specks of dust in the vastness of the world yet we have the privilege and right to approach this great, holy God without fear of rejection, all because we approach him with our confidence in his Son. 

 

2. Develop endurance

 

In light of the threat of throwing away their confidence, the writer exhorts, "For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised." These believers needed to see endurance as a necessity for persevering in the Christian life. To endure does not imply a grim resignation of your circumstances so that you keep a "stiff upper lip," as the expression goes. It is "a blazing hope; it is not the spirit which sits statically enduring in one place, but the spirit which bears things because it knows that these things are leading to a goal of glory" [Fritz Rienecker and Cleon Rogers, The Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament, 705]. Endurance must accompany the believer daily, bearing up under the threats of the world with joyous confidence in Jesus Christ. 

 

Endurance sustains you in devotion to obeying God's will: "so that when you have done the will of God." To practice endurance will always lead you to walking in the revelation of God through the Word. We need not be confused about the will of God for our lives; it is found in the Word of God. We need only follow in obedience. Endurance ends in a heavenly reward: "you may receive what was promised." Here is not reward based on our merit but it is the eternal reward that is ours through the merits of Christ. It is the proof of Christ's righteousness in our lives made plain through endurance that ends with the heavenly reward. 

 

Endurance takes place through faith being exercised. "But My righteous one shall live by faith." Faith is not punctiliar but linear, not a one time experience but an ongoing trust and confidence in Christ. David Clarkson, the Puritan pastor that followed John Owen wrote, "This living by faith is not a single and transient act, but something habitual and permanent" [The Works of David Clarkson, vol. 1, 175]. Clarkson's exposition on this text offers some great help for us in understanding how "the object of faith is God in Christ, as made known in his attributes, offices, relations, promises, and providences" [176]:

1. Divine attributes. Those are the pillows and grounds of faith, rocks of eternity, upon which faith may securely repose.... [e.g., power, wisdom, justice, faithfulness, truth, mercy]

 


2. The offices of Christ. These are strong supports to faith as any, though less made use of: in special his Priestly office... Regal Office... Prophetical Office....


3. Mutual relations betwixt God and his people. These are the sweet food of faith, which, digested, nourish it into strength, and enable it to vigorous actings.... [e.g., "Thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave [us] not" Jer. 14:9].

 

4. Promises. These and faith are so usually joined, as though they were relatives.... These are the wells of salvation, out of which faith draws joy....


5. Providences of God are objects and encouragements to faith. The consideration of what he has done for others, and for themselves, has supported the saints. These are the hands of God stretched out, on which faith takes hold.... Now herein God offers himself to be seen and felt, and leaves men without excuse if they continue in unbelief [pp. 176-177].


3. Never shrink back

 

As the biblical writers so often do, this ancient pastor reminds these believers of the return of Christ. Fresh motivation to faithful endurance is found in realizing the brevity of this life and the certainty of eternity ahead: "For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay." We've been seeing in our Wednesday night study on "Last Things" that the knowledge of Christ's return motivates us to hope, holiness, and humility in daily life. 

 

In light of this he reminds us of the danger of shrinking back. Shrinking back involves not a momentary struggle or weakness but a calculated moving away from confidence in Christ. It is the opposite of living by faith in Christ. It throws away confidence in Christ (v. 35) to pursue one's own path. So our writer quotes from Habakkuk 2:4, "But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him." Shrinking back meets with divine displeasure and ends in "destruction," a clear warning of eternal damnation. As we have seen on several occasions in this epistle, the writer warns of apostasy, a deliberate turning away from Christ after being under the influence of the gospel and having made a profession of knowing Christ. It is the clear revelation that such a person's faith is spurious; and God's displeasure meets him with "destruction." 

 

But with great confidence this writer tells his audience, "But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul." Faith preserves the soul. I do not mean by this having faith for the sake of faith or a random faith. Instead it is a focused, fixed, logical faith.

 

Conclusion

 

Let me conclude by pointing to three ways that we are to develop the kind of faith that preserves the soul:

1. Study, contemplate, live in, and pray on the attributes of God. Clarkson wrote, "Though faith be not knowledge, yet it is not without it." These contemplations "leave deep impressions of God upon the heart" so that the believer is persuaded that our God is able [177, 179].

 

2. Meditate upon Christ's offices as your Prophet, Priest, and King. "Find out what faith may lay hold on in every office" of Christ and aim your confidence and prayers upon this sure support [Clarkson, 182]. In desiring to know God's will, look to Christ as the lawgiver. In struggling with sin, look to Christ's satisfaction as your high priest before God. In making sense of the difficulties under which you toil, look to Christ's rule as king over your life.

 

3. Lay hold of God's promises that are particular to your needs. God's promises are treasures to store away in your heart and mind. "Faith will starve or be unactive (sic) at such times if you have no treasure.... To live by faith is to make every act of your life an act of faith; and how can that be except you have a promise suitable to every act, condition, and accordingly apply it?" [Clarkson, 189]

No shrinking back! You have the provisions through Christ's sufficiency to press on.

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