James 1

James 1:1

Aaron and Christ as High Priest

Hebrews 5:1. The writer is now going to explain more about the person of the high priest. His readers were familiar with this person. They knew him well from the Old Testament and also from practice before they believed in the Lord Jesus. First he points at the high priesthood as how that functioned among God’s earthly people and had in Aaron its first representative. Then he compares the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus with that of Aaron to show the eminence above that of Aaron.

He already touched on the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus in the chapters 2, 3 and 4 (Hebrews 2:17; Hebrews 3:1; Hebrews 4:14-15), only now he explains it in detail. This teaching goes on till chapter 10. For the Jewish Christians, who continually had a tendency to return to the old traditions, this teaching was of great importance. It is also important for professing Christianity, where many things are present that remind us of Judaism.

The high priest in Israel was characterized by some things. In particular he was someone from among the people, “from among men”, a man taken from among men. Therefore it was necessary that Christ became Man, although you ought not to forget that He is much more than that, for He is the unique, eternal Son of God.

Furthermore, the service of the high priest relates to people. He is “appointed on behalf of men”. Men are the object of his service and he makes efforts on their behalf. However, they are not a goal in themselves. In the service of the high priest it is about “things pertaining to God”. It is about His interests and His honor and about a cleansed nation that is consecrated to Him and worships and serves Him.

In the Old Testament that service is presented explicitly by the offering of “both gifts and sacrifices for sins” (cf. Hebrews 8:3; Hebrews 9:9). Regarding ‘gifts’ you may think of all possible offerings and regarding ‘sacrifices’ you may think especially of bloody offerings. Sins cause separation between God and His people. When offerings were brought for the sins, God could be with His people again. It was the task of the high priest to restore the connection between God and the people.

Hebrews 5:2. Because Aaron, as human high priest, was a sinner himself, he could “deal gently” with others. Christ could never deal gently with sins, for that’s what He died for. The gently dealing of the human high priest is something in the sense of ‘expressing moderate feelings’. It indicates an infirm and incomplete sympathy. He dealt gently “with the ignorant and misguided”. These are sinners, but not sinners who live in conscious rebellion against God. For the latter there is no offering possible (Hebrews 10:26-29).

Hebrews 5:3. Because Aaron was a human high priest, he also had to bring offerings for himself. That applied both to Aaron and to his successors in the next centuries up to Christ. He indeed performed for the people with God, but at the same time he was one of them, also in their sinfulness. The weakness that is meant here, indicates the tendency to sin. That was not the case with Christ. He did not sacrifice for Himself, He sacrificed Himself.

Hebrews 5:4. The high priesthood is not an office that anyone could claim for himself. That this nevertheless happened in the unfaithful Israel – there is a situation where there is even talk of two high priests (Luke 3:1) –, doesn’t change anything to God’s statutes. God has determined His choice who finally will be high priest, as it is to be seen with Zadok and his sons (Ezekiel 44:15-16; Ezekiel 48:11). A person is high priest on the ground of calling, not by pretention. Just as Aaron was called by God, so too Christ was called by God, albeit in a way that at the same time shows a great difference from Aaron.

So you see that there are some similarities in the Hebrews 5:1-4 between Aaron and Christ. I go through them again and discover the following. Both Christ and Aaron 1. are appointed on behalf of men in the things pertaining to God, 2. sacrifice for the sins of the people and 3. take no honor for themselves.

There are also differences and even more than similarities: 1. Aaron was taken from among men, while Christ became Man and is also the unique Son of God. 2. Aaron was surrounded by infirmities and had the tendency to sin, while Christ is without sin, neither was the tendency to sin in Him. 3. Aaron had to sacrifice for himself, while Christ sacrificed Himself for others.

In what follows also the difference becomes apparent: 1. The difference between the way Aaron is called and the way Christ is called (Hebrews 5:5) and 2. the difference between the priesthood according to the order of Aaron and that according to the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:6). 3. In Hebrews 5:5 the glory of Christ’s calling as High Priest above the calling of Aaron is confirmed by Psalms 2 (Psalms 2:7). 4. In Hebrews 5:6 the glory of Christ’s priestly order above that of Aaron is placed in the light by Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4).

Hebrews 5:5. We first look at the quotation from Psalms 2 (Psalms 2:7), where the glory of His Person becomes apparent. The beginning of the verse still shows a similarity with Aaron. Christ never sought His own honor, not even in the high priesthood. Then the contrast follows: He is personally the Son. That gives a much higher dignity to His high priesthood than that of Aaron. He was begotten by God in Mary (Luke 1:35) and therefore He is as Man also God’s Son. This Man is the High Priest with God, what He was not and could not be as God the Son. Only when He became Man, could He become High Priest.

Hebrews 5:6. The other quotation, from Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4), adds even more glory, which becomes apparent from the introductory words: “Just as He says also in another [passage].” The writer draws – of course under the guidance of the Holy Spirit – from the riches of God’s Word to let fall continually another ray of light on Christ. Thereby he doesn’t act randomly, but he continually quotes verses that magnify the radiance and glory of Christ and which causes his argumentation to be strengthened and clarified.

In the quotation of Psalm 110 the glory of the office of Christ becomes clear. Psalms 110 is a psalm that, as many psalms, refers to the millennial kingdom of peace. The enemies of the Messiah are made His footstool (Psalms 110:1). He receives out of Zion the strong scepter (Psalms 110:2) in the midst of God’s people who will volunteer freely and celebrating (Psalms 110:3), while He shatters hostile kings and judges among the nations (Psalms 110:5-6). Besides all this glory and magnificence there is also a review of His life on earth when He was dependent on the refreshment by God (Psalms 110:7).

From both quotations (Psalms 2 and Psalms 110) it becomes clear that God declares that the Messiah is both Son and Priest. Sonship and priesthood are therefore closely related to each other. That goes for Christ and also for us.

I will not comment yet on “the order of Melchizedek”, for that will be further explained in chapter 7. What becomes clear though, is that He is not high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, but priest according to the order of Melchizedek. There is a nice explanation for this. A high priest assumes other priests, but the Lord Jesus alone is priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

The order of Melchizedek is an order of blessing. Melchizedek blessed Abraham from God’s side and he praised God for what He did for Abraham (Genesis 14:18-20). According to that order the Lord Jesus is King-Priest Who brings blessing from God to God’s people, what will be fully fulfilled in the millennial kingdom of peace. The priesthood of Melchizedek, which in the Old Testament is only mentioned in Genesis 14 (Genesis 14:18) and in Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4), existed earlier than that of Aaron and will also remain to exist when that of Aaron will not be necessary anymore.

Hebrews 5:7. Here the writer refers impressively to something that didn’t take place in the life of Aaron or Melchizedek, but it did take place in the life of Christ. Between His being conceived as Son of God on earth and His glorification as Priest in heaven are “the days of His flesh”, by which His life on earth is meant. His glory doesn’t bring Him nearer to the misery of man, while His life on earth does.

In what is described of Him here you learn how true it is for Him to partake of your hardships and sorrows. On earth, ‘the days of His flesh’, He endured, in dependence on God, all the fear of death. He offered up supplications to be saved, for He did not want to save Himself because He came to obey. His life on earth made Him suitable to be High Priest in connection with us. His life on earth also led to the offering of Himself, in which He is unique.

He did not offer up prayers and supplications when He was tempted by satan in the wilderness. That He did in Gethsemane, when the moment came before Him that He would be forsaken by God. All sufferings from man’s side He bore with joy, something that many martyrs have done in His footsteps. But to be made sin He could not encounter with joy. In this also no one could follow Him.

Seeing that before Him, He offered up both His prayers and supplications to God, He sent them up to Him. He did so, trusting that God “was able to save Him from death”. It was not that He wanted to be saved of death, for that was necessary. He knew that and therefore He prayed: “Nevertheless not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). And He was answered, for God raised Him up. “He was heard because of His piety” means that He was heard because of His perfect trust in His God, because of His piety and because of His perfect commitment and His dependence of God. What a Lord!

Now read Hebrews 5:1-7 again.

Reflection: Name some glories of the Lord Jesus from this section and thank God for them.

James 1:2

Milk and Solid Food

We ended the last section with a glance at an exceptional period from the life of the Lord on earth. Therein the writer took us to Gethsemane where the Lord Jesus was confronted with the deepest suffering that could ever happen to a man. He endured intensively the suffering on the cross ahead. By fully surrendering Himself He offered up prayers and supplications to His Father to be saved from that suffering. In full acceptance of the will of His Father He complied with His will. We see here a special event in a life of obedience.

Hebrews 5:8. His whole life was suffering, suffering as a result of the temptations that He was heading for because He obeyed God perfectly. Before He became Man, obedience was unfamiliar to Him. In heaven He did not have to be obedient to anyone. In heaven He could not be familiarized with obedience. Up there angels were obeying Him. Only when He came on earth He took a place of submission, primarily toward God, but also toward His parents (Luke 2:51). In that way He had to practice obedience as a deed and in that sense He had to learn what it is to obey.

Hebrews 5:9. Unlike us He had no will of His own. He did not need to unlearn something, nothing had to be restrained or bend or changed with Him. With Him there was nothing that wasn’t subjected. In this way “having been made perfect” through His life on earth, means that in that way He was made perfectly suited to be able to exert His service as High Priest in heaven for us who are also in a position of obedience. He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

Obedience was the secret of His way. It is also the secret of your way, preventing you from falling into an enemy’s trap. If you obey Him Who by His own obedience reached the end perfectly, He will also bring you there where He already is now. Through His service as High Priest He keeps you from the dangers and temptations of the wilderness until you have reached the final salvation, the Sabbath rest. He is the Author of an “eternal salvation”, which means that the range and its blessings extend to eternity.

Hebrews 5:10. Because Christ has completed His way on earth He has become perfectly suited to be our High Priest. Due to His perfectly obedient life God could designate Him “as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek”. God designated Him after His work on earth and thereby He confirmed His service in heaven now for us. After God called Him in Hebrews 5:6 for that service, He is now designated as such by God (to carry out this service.

The necessary condition was fulfilled by Him: He has been made perfect. A Priest Who is the Son of God would not have been able to do much for us if He had not learnt to know the reason of His service by experience. Precisely because He knows from His own experience what you may be struggling with, He is perfectly able to help you. He is the absolute assurance for your final and eternal salvation.

Hebrews 5:11. This verse is the beginning of a third parenthesis that runs till chapter 6:11. A parenthesis is an interruption in the argument of the writer in which he seriously warns his readers to take his teachings to heart; he warns them about the consequences if they don’t do that. In earlier parentheses he warned not to drift away from the Word (Hebrews 2:1-4) and not to doubt the Word (Hebrews 3:7-4:13). The warning in this third parenthesis is not to get bored with the Word for that will cause you to become dull of hearing.

The writer points out that there is still much more to be said about Him, that is Christ as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He was willing to speak about that with them, but that would only be possible if the readers had an appropriately spiritual mind. In this parenthesis he tries to achieve that they would come far enough that he could speak with them about it.

At this moment it was, however, difficult to explain that. That was not caused by his ability or qualification as a teacher, but it was caused by his pupils. They were not able to understand his teaching because of their spiritual laziness. They were not always lazy, but they became lazy. They became lukewarm; they lost their first freshness because religious traditions started to influence their mind again. There is nothing that makes a person that dull in spiritual matters as religious traditions.

If heavenly matters lose their radiation, earthly and visible matters become powerful and meaningful again. This acts as an additional delay in following the Christian, heavenly calling. It was not that the readers were lacking in intelligence and neither did the writer note a hostile or worldly mind. The dull making and lazing making factor was that in their heart they longed again for the old religious forms of Judaism. This hindered them to grow practically in the truth of God as it is revealed in Christendom.

They were prepared to listen to the teaching of Christ on earth, for that was connected to their religion. Then at least the visible and tangible remained to exist and in that way they had a hold on their religion for their own sense. The glorified Christ as the fulfillment of all that is visible and tangible was not everything for them yet. When they were told about the latter, they delayed their speed to hear, which caused that they did not understand their true Christian position.

Hebrews 5:12. They were, however, for such a long time Christians that they should have been able to teach others. Instead of that they themselves needed to be taught again about “the elementary principles of the oracles of God”. They ought to be teachers in that sense that they spiritually had grown in such a way that they were able to share the spiritual things together. But the old forms of their religion, which they abandoned when they converted, became attractive again.

There is hardly any greater hindrance for making progress in your spiritual life and for growing in spiritual insight. The maintaining of an old form of religion is often seen as the highest proof of devotion, while in reality formalism forms a barrier between your soul and what God wants to show you.

Another hindrance for your spiritual growth is the wisdom and the philosophy of the world (1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:1-2). In Colossians 2 both hindrances are called together “principles of the world” and are put against Christ (Colossians 2:8). Both religious traditions and worldly wisdom are enemies of faith that is only fed by the Word of God of which Christ is the center.

It was not only that the Hebrews remained stuck in their spiritual growth, due to their dullness or slowness in hearing, but they went back to the beginning. That’s why they had to be taught again what they had already known for a long time, but what had lost the essence for their heart. It no longer had authority in their life. Once God’s Word no longer fills your heart and governs your life, you sink and are in danger of returning to the world. Then you need to be taught again about the first principles of the oracles of God, which indicates the speaking of Christ on earth (Hebrews 6:1; Hebrews 1:1).

Hebrews 5:13-14. The writer calls that “milk”. ‘Milk’ is the word of and about Christ on earth. They were not ready for solid food. Solid food is the word about Christ in heaven. As a Christian you live by milk if you for instance take the beatitudes (Matthew 5-7) as standard for your Christian life, while you don’t think about your heavenly position in Christ. It is not wrong to be an infant, but it is if you remain one or if you act like one again.

If you think about your heavenly position in Christ you are partaking of solid food or as it is called in Hebrews 5:13 “the word of righteousness”. Then you are partaking of the righteousness of God in which everyone who believes shares through the perfect work of Christ. On the basis of that righteousness Christ received the place He now has in heaven and that you have in Him there. Are you unskilled in that while you ought to know better then you are an infant. To say it with the words of Galatians 4 (Galatians 4:1-7), where the same things are the issue: you are a child.

Opposed to this is the spiritual mature believer who has gone through a healthy spiritual growth and who knows his position in Christ and lives accordingly. To become spiritually mature is not an automatic procedure, but a result of a habit to exercise your senses. By “senses” is meant your perceptivity or discernment. Your spiritual growth is extremely dependent on the discernment of good and bad. If you focus your eye on the heavenly Christ you are not an unworldly eccentric, but you gain insight into doing the good and refraining from evil..

Now read Hebrews 5:8-14 again.

Reflection: Are there things in your life that are delaying your spiritual growth?

James 1:3

Milk and Solid Food

We ended the last section with a glance at an exceptional period from the life of the Lord on earth. Therein the writer took us to Gethsemane where the Lord Jesus was confronted with the deepest suffering that could ever happen to a man. He endured intensively the suffering on the cross ahead. By fully surrendering Himself He offered up prayers and supplications to His Father to be saved from that suffering. In full acceptance of the will of His Father He complied with His will. We see here a special event in a life of obedience.

Hebrews 5:8. His whole life was suffering, suffering as a result of the temptations that He was heading for because He obeyed God perfectly. Before He became Man, obedience was unfamiliar to Him. In heaven He did not have to be obedient to anyone. In heaven He could not be familiarized with obedience. Up there angels were obeying Him. Only when He came on earth He took a place of submission, primarily toward God, but also toward His parents (Luke 2:51). In that way He had to practice obedience as a deed and in that sense He had to learn what it is to obey.

Hebrews 5:9. Unlike us He had no will of His own. He did not need to unlearn something, nothing had to be restrained or bend or changed with Him. With Him there was nothing that wasn’t subjected. In this way “having been made perfect” through His life on earth, means that in that way He was made perfectly suited to be able to exert His service as High Priest in heaven for us who are also in a position of obedience. He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

Obedience was the secret of His way. It is also the secret of your way, preventing you from falling into an enemy’s trap. If you obey Him Who by His own obedience reached the end perfectly, He will also bring you there where He already is now. Through His service as High Priest He keeps you from the dangers and temptations of the wilderness until you have reached the final salvation, the Sabbath rest. He is the Author of an “eternal salvation”, which means that the range and its blessings extend to eternity.

Hebrews 5:10. Because Christ has completed His way on earth He has become perfectly suited to be our High Priest. Due to His perfectly obedient life God could designate Him “as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek”. God designated Him after His work on earth and thereby He confirmed His service in heaven now for us. After God called Him in Hebrews 5:6 for that service, He is now designated as such by God (to carry out this service.

The necessary condition was fulfilled by Him: He has been made perfect. A Priest Who is the Son of God would not have been able to do much for us if He had not learnt to know the reason of His service by experience. Precisely because He knows from His own experience what you may be struggling with, He is perfectly able to help you. He is the absolute assurance for your final and eternal salvation.

Hebrews 5:11. This verse is the beginning of a third parenthesis that runs till chapter 6:11. A parenthesis is an interruption in the argument of the writer in which he seriously warns his readers to take his teachings to heart; he warns them about the consequences if they don’t do that. In earlier parentheses he warned not to drift away from the Word (Hebrews 2:1-4) and not to doubt the Word (Hebrews 3:7-4:13). The warning in this third parenthesis is not to get bored with the Word for that will cause you to become dull of hearing.

The writer points out that there is still much more to be said about Him, that is Christ as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He was willing to speak about that with them, but that would only be possible if the readers had an appropriately spiritual mind. In this parenthesis he tries to achieve that they would come far enough that he could speak with them about it.

At this moment it was, however, difficult to explain that. That was not caused by his ability or qualification as a teacher, but it was caused by his pupils. They were not able to understand his teaching because of their spiritual laziness. They were not always lazy, but they became lazy. They became lukewarm; they lost their first freshness because religious traditions started to influence their mind again. There is nothing that makes a person that dull in spiritual matters as religious traditions.

If heavenly matters lose their radiation, earthly and visible matters become powerful and meaningful again. This acts as an additional delay in following the Christian, heavenly calling. It was not that the readers were lacking in intelligence and neither did the writer note a hostile or worldly mind. The dull making and lazing making factor was that in their heart they longed again for the old religious forms of Judaism. This hindered them to grow practically in the truth of God as it is revealed in Christendom.

They were prepared to listen to the teaching of Christ on earth, for that was connected to their religion. Then at least the visible and tangible remained to exist and in that way they had a hold on their religion for their own sense. The glorified Christ as the fulfillment of all that is visible and tangible was not everything for them yet. When they were told about the latter, they delayed their speed to hear, which caused that they did not understand their true Christian position.

Hebrews 5:12. They were, however, for such a long time Christians that they should have been able to teach others. Instead of that they themselves needed to be taught again about “the elementary principles of the oracles of God”. They ought to be teachers in that sense that they spiritually had grown in such a way that they were able to share the spiritual things together. But the old forms of their religion, which they abandoned when they converted, became attractive again.

There is hardly any greater hindrance for making progress in your spiritual life and for growing in spiritual insight. The maintaining of an old form of religion is often seen as the highest proof of devotion, while in reality formalism forms a barrier between your soul and what God wants to show you.

Another hindrance for your spiritual growth is the wisdom and the philosophy of the world (1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:1-2). In Colossians 2 both hindrances are called together “principles of the world” and are put against Christ (Colossians 2:8). Both religious traditions and worldly wisdom are enemies of faith that is only fed by the Word of God of which Christ is the center.

It was not only that the Hebrews remained stuck in their spiritual growth, due to their dullness or slowness in hearing, but they went back to the beginning. That’s why they had to be taught again what they had already known for a long time, but what had lost the essence for their heart. It no longer had authority in their life. Once God’s Word no longer fills your heart and governs your life, you sink and are in danger of returning to the world. Then you need to be taught again about the first principles of the oracles of God, which indicates the speaking of Christ on earth (Hebrews 6:1; Hebrews 1:1).

Hebrews 5:13-14. The writer calls that “milk”. ‘Milk’ is the word of and about Christ on earth. They were not ready for solid food. Solid food is the word about Christ in heaven. As a Christian you live by milk if you for instance take the beatitudes (Matthew 5-7) as standard for your Christian life, while you don’t think about your heavenly position in Christ. It is not wrong to be an infant, but it is if you remain one or if you act like one again.

If you think about your heavenly position in Christ you are partaking of solid food or as it is called in Hebrews 5:13 “the word of righteousness”. Then you are partaking of the righteousness of God in which everyone who believes shares through the perfect work of Christ. On the basis of that righteousness Christ received the place He now has in heaven and that you have in Him there. Are you unskilled in that while you ought to know better then you are an infant. To say it with the words of Galatians 4 (Galatians 4:1-7), where the same things are the issue: you are a child.

Opposed to this is the spiritual mature believer who has gone through a healthy spiritual growth and who knows his position in Christ and lives accordingly. To become spiritually mature is not an automatic procedure, but a result of a habit to exercise your senses. By “senses” is meant your perceptivity or discernment. Your spiritual growth is extremely dependent on the discernment of good and bad. If you focus your eye on the heavenly Christ you are not an unworldly eccentric, but you gain insight into doing the good and refraining from evil..

Now read Hebrews 5:8-14 again.

Reflection: Are there things in your life that are delaying your spiritual growth?

James 1:4

Milk and Solid Food

We ended the last section with a glance at an exceptional period from the life of the Lord on earth. Therein the writer took us to Gethsemane where the Lord Jesus was confronted with the deepest suffering that could ever happen to a man. He endured intensively the suffering on the cross ahead. By fully surrendering Himself He offered up prayers and supplications to His Father to be saved from that suffering. In full acceptance of the will of His Father He complied with His will. We see here a special event in a life of obedience.

Hebrews 5:8. His whole life was suffering, suffering as a result of the temptations that He was heading for because He obeyed God perfectly. Before He became Man, obedience was unfamiliar to Him. In heaven He did not have to be obedient to anyone. In heaven He could not be familiarized with obedience. Up there angels were obeying Him. Only when He came on earth He took a place of submission, primarily toward God, but also toward His parents (Luke 2:51). In that way He had to practice obedience as a deed and in that sense He had to learn what it is to obey.

Hebrews 5:9. Unlike us He had no will of His own. He did not need to unlearn something, nothing had to be restrained or bend or changed with Him. With Him there was nothing that wasn’t subjected. In this way “having been made perfect” through His life on earth, means that in that way He was made perfectly suited to be able to exert His service as High Priest in heaven for us who are also in a position of obedience. He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

Obedience was the secret of His way. It is also the secret of your way, preventing you from falling into an enemy’s trap. If you obey Him Who by His own obedience reached the end perfectly, He will also bring you there where He already is now. Through His service as High Priest He keeps you from the dangers and temptations of the wilderness until you have reached the final salvation, the Sabbath rest. He is the Author of an “eternal salvation”, which means that the range and its blessings extend to eternity.

Hebrews 5:10. Because Christ has completed His way on earth He has become perfectly suited to be our High Priest. Due to His perfectly obedient life God could designate Him “as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek”. God designated Him after His work on earth and thereby He confirmed His service in heaven now for us. After God called Him in Hebrews 5:6 for that service, He is now designated as such by God (to carry out this service.

The necessary condition was fulfilled by Him: He has been made perfect. A Priest Who is the Son of God would not have been able to do much for us if He had not learnt to know the reason of His service by experience. Precisely because He knows from His own experience what you may be struggling with, He is perfectly able to help you. He is the absolute assurance for your final and eternal salvation.

Hebrews 5:11. This verse is the beginning of a third parenthesis that runs till chapter 6:11. A parenthesis is an interruption in the argument of the writer in which he seriously warns his readers to take his teachings to heart; he warns them about the consequences if they don’t do that. In earlier parentheses he warned not to drift away from the Word (Hebrews 2:1-4) and not to doubt the Word (Hebrews 3:7-4:13). The warning in this third parenthesis is not to get bored with the Word for that will cause you to become dull of hearing.

The writer points out that there is still much more to be said about Him, that is Christ as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He was willing to speak about that with them, but that would only be possible if the readers had an appropriately spiritual mind. In this parenthesis he tries to achieve that they would come far enough that he could speak with them about it.

At this moment it was, however, difficult to explain that. That was not caused by his ability or qualification as a teacher, but it was caused by his pupils. They were not able to understand his teaching because of their spiritual laziness. They were not always lazy, but they became lazy. They became lukewarm; they lost their first freshness because religious traditions started to influence their mind again. There is nothing that makes a person that dull in spiritual matters as religious traditions.

If heavenly matters lose their radiation, earthly and visible matters become powerful and meaningful again. This acts as an additional delay in following the Christian, heavenly calling. It was not that the readers were lacking in intelligence and neither did the writer note a hostile or worldly mind. The dull making and lazing making factor was that in their heart they longed again for the old religious forms of Judaism. This hindered them to grow practically in the truth of God as it is revealed in Christendom.

They were prepared to listen to the teaching of Christ on earth, for that was connected to their religion. Then at least the visible and tangible remained to exist and in that way they had a hold on their religion for their own sense. The glorified Christ as the fulfillment of all that is visible and tangible was not everything for them yet. When they were told about the latter, they delayed their speed to hear, which caused that they did not understand their true Christian position.

Hebrews 5:12. They were, however, for such a long time Christians that they should have been able to teach others. Instead of that they themselves needed to be taught again about “the elementary principles of the oracles of God”. They ought to be teachers in that sense that they spiritually had grown in such a way that they were able to share the spiritual things together. But the old forms of their religion, which they abandoned when they converted, became attractive again.

There is hardly any greater hindrance for making progress in your spiritual life and for growing in spiritual insight. The maintaining of an old form of religion is often seen as the highest proof of devotion, while in reality formalism forms a barrier between your soul and what God wants to show you.

Another hindrance for your spiritual growth is the wisdom and the philosophy of the world (1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:1-2). In Colossians 2 both hindrances are called together “principles of the world” and are put against Christ (Colossians 2:8). Both religious traditions and worldly wisdom are enemies of faith that is only fed by the Word of God of which Christ is the center.

It was not only that the Hebrews remained stuck in their spiritual growth, due to their dullness or slowness in hearing, but they went back to the beginning. That’s why they had to be taught again what they had already known for a long time, but what had lost the essence for their heart. It no longer had authority in their life. Once God’s Word no longer fills your heart and governs your life, you sink and are in danger of returning to the world. Then you need to be taught again about the first principles of the oracles of God, which indicates the speaking of Christ on earth (Hebrews 6:1; Hebrews 1:1).

Hebrews 5:13-14. The writer calls that “milk”. ‘Milk’ is the word of and about Christ on earth. They were not ready for solid food. Solid food is the word about Christ in heaven. As a Christian you live by milk if you for instance take the beatitudes (Matthew 5-7) as standard for your Christian life, while you don’t think about your heavenly position in Christ. It is not wrong to be an infant, but it is if you remain one or if you act like one again.

If you think about your heavenly position in Christ you are partaking of solid food or as it is called in Hebrews 5:13 “the word of righteousness”. Then you are partaking of the righteousness of God in which everyone who believes shares through the perfect work of Christ. On the basis of that righteousness Christ received the place He now has in heaven and that you have in Him there. Are you unskilled in that while you ought to know better then you are an infant. To say it with the words of Galatians 4 (Galatians 4:1-7), where the same things are the issue: you are a child.

Opposed to this is the spiritual mature believer who has gone through a healthy spiritual growth and who knows his position in Christ and lives accordingly. To become spiritually mature is not an automatic procedure, but a result of a habit to exercise your senses. By “senses” is meant your perceptivity or discernment. Your spiritual growth is extremely dependent on the discernment of good and bad. If you focus your eye on the heavenly Christ you are not an unworldly eccentric, but you gain insight into doing the good and refraining from evil..

Now read Hebrews 5:8-14 again.

Reflection: Are there things in your life that are delaying your spiritual growth?

James 1:5

Milk and Solid Food

We ended the last section with a glance at an exceptional period from the life of the Lord on earth. Therein the writer took us to Gethsemane where the Lord Jesus was confronted with the deepest suffering that could ever happen to a man. He endured intensively the suffering on the cross ahead. By fully surrendering Himself He offered up prayers and supplications to His Father to be saved from that suffering. In full acceptance of the will of His Father He complied with His will. We see here a special event in a life of obedience.

Hebrews 5:8. His whole life was suffering, suffering as a result of the temptations that He was heading for because He obeyed God perfectly. Before He became Man, obedience was unfamiliar to Him. In heaven He did not have to be obedient to anyone. In heaven He could not be familiarized with obedience. Up there angels were obeying Him. Only when He came on earth He took a place of submission, primarily toward God, but also toward His parents (Luke 2:51). In that way He had to practice obedience as a deed and in that sense He had to learn what it is to obey.

Hebrews 5:9. Unlike us He had no will of His own. He did not need to unlearn something, nothing had to be restrained or bend or changed with Him. With Him there was nothing that wasn’t subjected. In this way “having been made perfect” through His life on earth, means that in that way He was made perfectly suited to be able to exert His service as High Priest in heaven for us who are also in a position of obedience. He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

Obedience was the secret of His way. It is also the secret of your way, preventing you from falling into an enemy’s trap. If you obey Him Who by His own obedience reached the end perfectly, He will also bring you there where He already is now. Through His service as High Priest He keeps you from the dangers and temptations of the wilderness until you have reached the final salvation, the Sabbath rest. He is the Author of an “eternal salvation”, which means that the range and its blessings extend to eternity.

Hebrews 5:10. Because Christ has completed His way on earth He has become perfectly suited to be our High Priest. Due to His perfectly obedient life God could designate Him “as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek”. God designated Him after His work on earth and thereby He confirmed His service in heaven now for us. After God called Him in Hebrews 5:6 for that service, He is now designated as such by God (to carry out this service.

The necessary condition was fulfilled by Him: He has been made perfect. A Priest Who is the Son of God would not have been able to do much for us if He had not learnt to know the reason of His service by experience. Precisely because He knows from His own experience what you may be struggling with, He is perfectly able to help you. He is the absolute assurance for your final and eternal salvation.

Hebrews 5:11. This verse is the beginning of a third parenthesis that runs till chapter 6:11. A parenthesis is an interruption in the argument of the writer in which he seriously warns his readers to take his teachings to heart; he warns them about the consequences if they don’t do that. In earlier parentheses he warned not to drift away from the Word (Hebrews 2:1-4) and not to doubt the Word (Hebrews 3:7-4:13). The warning in this third parenthesis is not to get bored with the Word for that will cause you to become dull of hearing.

The writer points out that there is still much more to be said about Him, that is Christ as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He was willing to speak about that with them, but that would only be possible if the readers had an appropriately spiritual mind. In this parenthesis he tries to achieve that they would come far enough that he could speak with them about it.

At this moment it was, however, difficult to explain that. That was not caused by his ability or qualification as a teacher, but it was caused by his pupils. They were not able to understand his teaching because of their spiritual laziness. They were not always lazy, but they became lazy. They became lukewarm; they lost their first freshness because religious traditions started to influence their mind again. There is nothing that makes a person that dull in spiritual matters as religious traditions.

If heavenly matters lose their radiation, earthly and visible matters become powerful and meaningful again. This acts as an additional delay in following the Christian, heavenly calling. It was not that the readers were lacking in intelligence and neither did the writer note a hostile or worldly mind. The dull making and lazing making factor was that in their heart they longed again for the old religious forms of Judaism. This hindered them to grow practically in the truth of God as it is revealed in Christendom.

They were prepared to listen to the teaching of Christ on earth, for that was connected to their religion. Then at least the visible and tangible remained to exist and in that way they had a hold on their religion for their own sense. The glorified Christ as the fulfillment of all that is visible and tangible was not everything for them yet. When they were told about the latter, they delayed their speed to hear, which caused that they did not understand their true Christian position.

Hebrews 5:12. They were, however, for such a long time Christians that they should have been able to teach others. Instead of that they themselves needed to be taught again about “the elementary principles of the oracles of God”. They ought to be teachers in that sense that they spiritually had grown in such a way that they were able to share the spiritual things together. But the old forms of their religion, which they abandoned when they converted, became attractive again.

There is hardly any greater hindrance for making progress in your spiritual life and for growing in spiritual insight. The maintaining of an old form of religion is often seen as the highest proof of devotion, while in reality formalism forms a barrier between your soul and what God wants to show you.

Another hindrance for your spiritual growth is the wisdom and the philosophy of the world (1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:1-2). In Colossians 2 both hindrances are called together “principles of the world” and are put against Christ (Colossians 2:8). Both religious traditions and worldly wisdom are enemies of faith that is only fed by the Word of God of which Christ is the center.

It was not only that the Hebrews remained stuck in their spiritual growth, due to their dullness or slowness in hearing, but they went back to the beginning. That’s why they had to be taught again what they had already known for a long time, but what had lost the essence for their heart. It no longer had authority in their life. Once God’s Word no longer fills your heart and governs your life, you sink and are in danger of returning to the world. Then you need to be taught again about the first principles of the oracles of God, which indicates the speaking of Christ on earth (Hebrews 6:1; Hebrews 1:1).

Hebrews 5:13-14. The writer calls that “milk”. ‘Milk’ is the word of and about Christ on earth. They were not ready for solid food. Solid food is the word about Christ in heaven. As a Christian you live by milk if you for instance take the beatitudes (Matthew 5-7) as standard for your Christian life, while you don’t think about your heavenly position in Christ. It is not wrong to be an infant, but it is if you remain one or if you act like one again.

If you think about your heavenly position in Christ you are partaking of solid food or as it is called in Hebrews 5:13 “the word of righteousness”. Then you are partaking of the righteousness of God in which everyone who believes shares through the perfect work of Christ. On the basis of that righteousness Christ received the place He now has in heaven and that you have in Him there. Are you unskilled in that while you ought to know better then you are an infant. To say it with the words of Galatians 4 (Galatians 4:1-7), where the same things are the issue: you are a child.

Opposed to this is the spiritual mature believer who has gone through a healthy spiritual growth and who knows his position in Christ and lives accordingly. To become spiritually mature is not an automatic procedure, but a result of a habit to exercise your senses. By “senses” is meant your perceptivity or discernment. Your spiritual growth is extremely dependent on the discernment of good and bad. If you focus your eye on the heavenly Christ you are not an unworldly eccentric, but you gain insight into doing the good and refraining from evil..

Now read Hebrews 5:8-14 again.

Reflection: Are there things in your life that are delaying your spiritual growth?

James 1:6

Milk and Solid Food

We ended the last section with a glance at an exceptional period from the life of the Lord on earth. Therein the writer took us to Gethsemane where the Lord Jesus was confronted with the deepest suffering that could ever happen to a man. He endured intensively the suffering on the cross ahead. By fully surrendering Himself He offered up prayers and supplications to His Father to be saved from that suffering. In full acceptance of the will of His Father He complied with His will. We see here a special event in a life of obedience.

Hebrews 5:8. His whole life was suffering, suffering as a result of the temptations that He was heading for because He obeyed God perfectly. Before He became Man, obedience was unfamiliar to Him. In heaven He did not have to be obedient to anyone. In heaven He could not be familiarized with obedience. Up there angels were obeying Him. Only when He came on earth He took a place of submission, primarily toward God, but also toward His parents (Luke 2:51). In that way He had to practice obedience as a deed and in that sense He had to learn what it is to obey.

Hebrews 5:9. Unlike us He had no will of His own. He did not need to unlearn something, nothing had to be restrained or bend or changed with Him. With Him there was nothing that wasn’t subjected. In this way “having been made perfect” through His life on earth, means that in that way He was made perfectly suited to be able to exert His service as High Priest in heaven for us who are also in a position of obedience. He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

Obedience was the secret of His way. It is also the secret of your way, preventing you from falling into an enemy’s trap. If you obey Him Who by His own obedience reached the end perfectly, He will also bring you there where He already is now. Through His service as High Priest He keeps you from the dangers and temptations of the wilderness until you have reached the final salvation, the Sabbath rest. He is the Author of an “eternal salvation”, which means that the range and its blessings extend to eternity.

Hebrews 5:10. Because Christ has completed His way on earth He has become perfectly suited to be our High Priest. Due to His perfectly obedient life God could designate Him “as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek”. God designated Him after His work on earth and thereby He confirmed His service in heaven now for us. After God called Him in Hebrews 5:6 for that service, He is now designated as such by God (to carry out this service.

The necessary condition was fulfilled by Him: He has been made perfect. A Priest Who is the Son of God would not have been able to do much for us if He had not learnt to know the reason of His service by experience. Precisely because He knows from His own experience what you may be struggling with, He is perfectly able to help you. He is the absolute assurance for your final and eternal salvation.

Hebrews 5:11. This verse is the beginning of a third parenthesis that runs till chapter 6:11. A parenthesis is an interruption in the argument of the writer in which he seriously warns his readers to take his teachings to heart; he warns them about the consequences if they don’t do that. In earlier parentheses he warned not to drift away from the Word (Hebrews 2:1-4) and not to doubt the Word (Hebrews 3:7-4:13). The warning in this third parenthesis is not to get bored with the Word for that will cause you to become dull of hearing.

The writer points out that there is still much more to be said about Him, that is Christ as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He was willing to speak about that with them, but that would only be possible if the readers had an appropriately spiritual mind. In this parenthesis he tries to achieve that they would come far enough that he could speak with them about it.

At this moment it was, however, difficult to explain that. That was not caused by his ability or qualification as a teacher, but it was caused by his pupils. They were not able to understand his teaching because of their spiritual laziness. They were not always lazy, but they became lazy. They became lukewarm; they lost their first freshness because religious traditions started to influence their mind again. There is nothing that makes a person that dull in spiritual matters as religious traditions.

If heavenly matters lose their radiation, earthly and visible matters become powerful and meaningful again. This acts as an additional delay in following the Christian, heavenly calling. It was not that the readers were lacking in intelligence and neither did the writer note a hostile or worldly mind. The dull making and lazing making factor was that in their heart they longed again for the old religious forms of Judaism. This hindered them to grow practically in the truth of God as it is revealed in Christendom.

They were prepared to listen to the teaching of Christ on earth, for that was connected to their religion. Then at least the visible and tangible remained to exist and in that way they had a hold on their religion for their own sense. The glorified Christ as the fulfillment of all that is visible and tangible was not everything for them yet. When they were told about the latter, they delayed their speed to hear, which caused that they did not understand their true Christian position.

Hebrews 5:12. They were, however, for such a long time Christians that they should have been able to teach others. Instead of that they themselves needed to be taught again about “the elementary principles of the oracles of God”. They ought to be teachers in that sense that they spiritually had grown in such a way that they were able to share the spiritual things together. But the old forms of their religion, which they abandoned when they converted, became attractive again.

There is hardly any greater hindrance for making progress in your spiritual life and for growing in spiritual insight. The maintaining of an old form of religion is often seen as the highest proof of devotion, while in reality formalism forms a barrier between your soul and what God wants to show you.

Another hindrance for your spiritual growth is the wisdom and the philosophy of the world (1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:1-2). In Colossians 2 both hindrances are called together “principles of the world” and are put against Christ (Colossians 2:8). Both religious traditions and worldly wisdom are enemies of faith that is only fed by the Word of God of which Christ is the center.

It was not only that the Hebrews remained stuck in their spiritual growth, due to their dullness or slowness in hearing, but they went back to the beginning. That’s why they had to be taught again what they had already known for a long time, but what had lost the essence for their heart. It no longer had authority in their life. Once God’s Word no longer fills your heart and governs your life, you sink and are in danger of returning to the world. Then you need to be taught again about the first principles of the oracles of God, which indicates the speaking of Christ on earth (Hebrews 6:1; Hebrews 1:1).

Hebrews 5:13-14. The writer calls that “milk”. ‘Milk’ is the word of and about Christ on earth. They were not ready for solid food. Solid food is the word about Christ in heaven. As a Christian you live by milk if you for instance take the beatitudes (Matthew 5-7) as standard for your Christian life, while you don’t think about your heavenly position in Christ. It is not wrong to be an infant, but it is if you remain one or if you act like one again.

If you think about your heavenly position in Christ you are partaking of solid food or as it is called in Hebrews 5:13 “the word of righteousness”. Then you are partaking of the righteousness of God in which everyone who believes shares through the perfect work of Christ. On the basis of that righteousness Christ received the place He now has in heaven and that you have in Him there. Are you unskilled in that while you ought to know better then you are an infant. To say it with the words of Galatians 4 (Galatians 4:1-7), where the same things are the issue: you are a child.

Opposed to this is the spiritual mature believer who has gone through a healthy spiritual growth and who knows his position in Christ and lives accordingly. To become spiritually mature is not an automatic procedure, but a result of a habit to exercise your senses. By “senses” is meant your perceptivity or discernment. Your spiritual growth is extremely dependent on the discernment of good and bad. If you focus your eye on the heavenly Christ you are not an unworldly eccentric, but you gain insight into doing the good and refraining from evil..

Now read Hebrews 5:8-14 again.

Reflection: Are there things in your life that are delaying your spiritual growth?

James 1:7

Milk and Solid Food

We ended the last section with a glance at an exceptional period from the life of the Lord on earth. Therein the writer took us to Gethsemane where the Lord Jesus was confronted with the deepest suffering that could ever happen to a man. He endured intensively the suffering on the cross ahead. By fully surrendering Himself He offered up prayers and supplications to His Father to be saved from that suffering. In full acceptance of the will of His Father He complied with His will. We see here a special event in a life of obedience.

Hebrews 5:8. His whole life was suffering, suffering as a result of the temptations that He was heading for because He obeyed God perfectly. Before He became Man, obedience was unfamiliar to Him. In heaven He did not have to be obedient to anyone. In heaven He could not be familiarized with obedience. Up there angels were obeying Him. Only when He came on earth He took a place of submission, primarily toward God, but also toward His parents (Luke 2:51). In that way He had to practice obedience as a deed and in that sense He had to learn what it is to obey.

Hebrews 5:9. Unlike us He had no will of His own. He did not need to unlearn something, nothing had to be restrained or bend or changed with Him. With Him there was nothing that wasn’t subjected. In this way “having been made perfect” through His life on earth, means that in that way He was made perfectly suited to be able to exert His service as High Priest in heaven for us who are also in a position of obedience. He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

Obedience was the secret of His way. It is also the secret of your way, preventing you from falling into an enemy’s trap. If you obey Him Who by His own obedience reached the end perfectly, He will also bring you there where He already is now. Through His service as High Priest He keeps you from the dangers and temptations of the wilderness until you have reached the final salvation, the Sabbath rest. He is the Author of an “eternal salvation”, which means that the range and its blessings extend to eternity.

Hebrews 5:10. Because Christ has completed His way on earth He has become perfectly suited to be our High Priest. Due to His perfectly obedient life God could designate Him “as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek”. God designated Him after His work on earth and thereby He confirmed His service in heaven now for us. After God called Him in Hebrews 5:6 for that service, He is now designated as such by God (to carry out this service.

The necessary condition was fulfilled by Him: He has been made perfect. A Priest Who is the Son of God would not have been able to do much for us if He had not learnt to know the reason of His service by experience. Precisely because He knows from His own experience what you may be struggling with, He is perfectly able to help you. He is the absolute assurance for your final and eternal salvation.

Hebrews 5:11. This verse is the beginning of a third parenthesis that runs till chapter 6:11. A parenthesis is an interruption in the argument of the writer in which he seriously warns his readers to take his teachings to heart; he warns them about the consequences if they don’t do that. In earlier parentheses he warned not to drift away from the Word (Hebrews 2:1-4) and not to doubt the Word (Hebrews 3:7-4:13). The warning in this third parenthesis is not to get bored with the Word for that will cause you to become dull of hearing.

The writer points out that there is still much more to be said about Him, that is Christ as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He was willing to speak about that with them, but that would only be possible if the readers had an appropriately spiritual mind. In this parenthesis he tries to achieve that they would come far enough that he could speak with them about it.

At this moment it was, however, difficult to explain that. That was not caused by his ability or qualification as a teacher, but it was caused by his pupils. They were not able to understand his teaching because of their spiritual laziness. They were not always lazy, but they became lazy. They became lukewarm; they lost their first freshness because religious traditions started to influence their mind again. There is nothing that makes a person that dull in spiritual matters as religious traditions.

If heavenly matters lose their radiation, earthly and visible matters become powerful and meaningful again. This acts as an additional delay in following the Christian, heavenly calling. It was not that the readers were lacking in intelligence and neither did the writer note a hostile or worldly mind. The dull making and lazing making factor was that in their heart they longed again for the old religious forms of Judaism. This hindered them to grow practically in the truth of God as it is revealed in Christendom.

They were prepared to listen to the teaching of Christ on earth, for that was connected to their religion. Then at least the visible and tangible remained to exist and in that way they had a hold on their religion for their own sense. The glorified Christ as the fulfillment of all that is visible and tangible was not everything for them yet. When they were told about the latter, they delayed their speed to hear, which caused that they did not understand their true Christian position.

Hebrews 5:12. They were, however, for such a long time Christians that they should have been able to teach others. Instead of that they themselves needed to be taught again about “the elementary principles of the oracles of God”. They ought to be teachers in that sense that they spiritually had grown in such a way that they were able to share the spiritual things together. But the old forms of their religion, which they abandoned when they converted, became attractive again.

There is hardly any greater hindrance for making progress in your spiritual life and for growing in spiritual insight. The maintaining of an old form of religion is often seen as the highest proof of devotion, while in reality formalism forms a barrier between your soul and what God wants to show you.

Another hindrance for your spiritual growth is the wisdom and the philosophy of the world (1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:1-2). In Colossians 2 both hindrances are called together “principles of the world” and are put against Christ (Colossians 2:8). Both religious traditions and worldly wisdom are enemies of faith that is only fed by the Word of God of which Christ is the center.

It was not only that the Hebrews remained stuck in their spiritual growth, due to their dullness or slowness in hearing, but they went back to the beginning. That’s why they had to be taught again what they had already known for a long time, but what had lost the essence for their heart. It no longer had authority in their life. Once God’s Word no longer fills your heart and governs your life, you sink and are in danger of returning to the world. Then you need to be taught again about the first principles of the oracles of God, which indicates the speaking of Christ on earth (Hebrews 6:1; Hebrews 1:1).

Hebrews 5:13-14. The writer calls that “milk”. ‘Milk’ is the word of and about Christ on earth. They were not ready for solid food. Solid food is the word about Christ in heaven. As a Christian you live by milk if you for instance take the beatitudes (Matthew 5-7) as standard for your Christian life, while you don’t think about your heavenly position in Christ. It is not wrong to be an infant, but it is if you remain one or if you act like one again.

If you think about your heavenly position in Christ you are partaking of solid food or as it is called in Hebrews 5:13 “the word of righteousness”. Then you are partaking of the righteousness of God in which everyone who believes shares through the perfect work of Christ. On the basis of that righteousness Christ received the place He now has in heaven and that you have in Him there. Are you unskilled in that while you ought to know better then you are an infant. To say it with the words of Galatians 4 (Galatians 4:1-7), where the same things are the issue: you are a child.

Opposed to this is the spiritual mature believer who has gone through a healthy spiritual growth and who knows his position in Christ and lives accordingly. To become spiritually mature is not an automatic procedure, but a result of a habit to exercise your senses. By “senses” is meant your perceptivity or discernment. Your spiritual growth is extremely dependent on the discernment of good and bad. If you focus your eye on the heavenly Christ you are not an unworldly eccentric, but you gain insight into doing the good and refraining from evil..

Now read Hebrews 5:8-14 again.

Reflection: Are there things in your life that are delaying your spiritual growth?

James 1:8

Milk and Solid Food

We ended the last section with a glance at an exceptional period from the life of the Lord on earth. Therein the writer took us to Gethsemane where the Lord Jesus was confronted with the deepest suffering that could ever happen to a man. He endured intensively the suffering on the cross ahead. By fully surrendering Himself He offered up prayers and supplications to His Father to be saved from that suffering. In full acceptance of the will of His Father He complied with His will. We see here a special event in a life of obedience.

Hebrews 5:8. His whole life was suffering, suffering as a result of the temptations that He was heading for because He obeyed God perfectly. Before He became Man, obedience was unfamiliar to Him. In heaven He did not have to be obedient to anyone. In heaven He could not be familiarized with obedience. Up there angels were obeying Him. Only when He came on earth He took a place of submission, primarily toward God, but also toward His parents (Luke 2:51). In that way He had to practice obedience as a deed and in that sense He had to learn what it is to obey.

Hebrews 5:9. Unlike us He had no will of His own. He did not need to unlearn something, nothing had to be restrained or bend or changed with Him. With Him there was nothing that wasn’t subjected. In this way “having been made perfect” through His life on earth, means that in that way He was made perfectly suited to be able to exert His service as High Priest in heaven for us who are also in a position of obedience. He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:8).

Obedience was the secret of His way. It is also the secret of your way, preventing you from falling into an enemy’s trap. If you obey Him Who by His own obedience reached the end perfectly, He will also bring you there where He already is now. Through His service as High Priest He keeps you from the dangers and temptations of the wilderness until you have reached the final salvation, the Sabbath rest. He is the Author of an “eternal salvation”, which means that the range and its blessings extend to eternity.

Hebrews 5:10. Because Christ has completed His way on earth He has become perfectly suited to be our High Priest. Due to His perfectly obedient life God could designate Him “as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek”. God designated Him after His work on earth and thereby He confirmed His service in heaven now for us. After God called Him in Hebrews 5:6 for that service, He is now designated as such by God (to carry out this service.

The necessary condition was fulfilled by Him: He has been made perfect. A Priest Who is the Son of God would not have been able to do much for us if He had not learnt to know the reason of His service by experience. Precisely because He knows from His own experience what you may be struggling with, He is perfectly able to help you. He is the absolute assurance for your final and eternal salvation.

Hebrews 5:11. This verse is the beginning of a third parenthesis that runs till chapter 6:11. A parenthesis is an interruption in the argument of the writer in which he seriously warns his readers to take his teachings to heart; he warns them about the consequences if they don’t do that. In earlier parentheses he warned not to drift away from the Word (Hebrews 2:1-4) and not to doubt the Word (Hebrews 3:7-4:13). The warning in this third parenthesis is not to get bored with the Word for that will cause you to become dull of hearing.

The writer points out that there is still much more to be said about Him, that is Christ as High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He was willing to speak about that with them, but that would only be possible if the readers had an appropriately spiritual mind. In this parenthesis he tries to achieve that they would come far enough that he could speak with them about it.

At this moment it was, however, difficult to explain that. That was not caused by his ability or qualification as a teacher, but it was caused by his pupils. They were not able to understand his teaching because of their spiritual laziness. They were not always lazy, but they became lazy. They became lukewarm; they lost their first freshness because religious traditions started to influence their mind again. There is nothing that makes a person that dull in spiritual matters as religious traditions.

If heavenly matters lose their radiation, earthly and visible matters become powerful and meaningful again. This acts as an additional delay in following the Christian, heavenly calling. It was not that the readers were lacking in intelligence and neither did the writer note a hostile or worldly mind. The dull making and lazing making factor was that in their heart they longed again for the old religious forms of Judaism. This hindered them to grow practically in the truth of God as it is revealed in Christendom.

They were prepared to listen to the teaching of Christ on earth, for that was connected to their religion. Then at least the visible and tangible remained to exist and in that way they had a hold on their religion for their own sense. The glorified Christ as the fulfillment of all that is visible and tangible was not everything for them yet. When they were told about the latter, they delayed their speed to hear, which caused that they did not understand their true Christian position.

Hebrews 5:12. They were, however, for such a long time Christians that they should have been able to teach others. Instead of that they themselves needed to be taught again about “the elementary principles of the oracles of God”. They ought to be teachers in that sense that they spiritually had grown in such a way that they were able to share the spiritual things together. But the old forms of their religion, which they abandoned when they converted, became attractive again.

There is hardly any greater hindrance for making progress in your spiritual life and for growing in spiritual insight. The maintaining of an old form of religion is often seen as the highest proof of devotion, while in reality formalism forms a barrier between your soul and what God wants to show you.

Another hindrance for your spiritual growth is the wisdom and the philosophy of the world (1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:1-2). In Colossians 2 both hindrances are called together “principles of the world” and are put against Christ (Colossians 2:8). Both religious traditions and worldly wisdom are enemies of faith that is only fed by the Word of God of which Christ is the center.

It was not only that the Hebrews remained stuck in their spiritual growth, due to their dullness or slowness in hearing, but they went back to the beginning. That’s why they had to be taught again what they had already known for a long time, but what had lost the essence for their heart. It no longer had authority in their life. Once God’s Word no longer fills your heart and governs your life, you sink and are in danger of returning to the world. Then you need to be taught again about the first principles of the oracles of God, which indicates the speaking of Christ on earth (Hebrews 6:1; Hebrews 1:1).

Hebrews 5:13-14. The writer calls that “milk”. ‘Milk’ is the word of and about Christ on earth. They were not ready for solid food. Solid food is the word about Christ in heaven. As a Christian you live by milk if you for instance take the beatitudes (Matthew 5-7) as standard for your Christian life, while you don’t think about your heavenly position in Christ. It is not wrong to be an infant, but it is if you remain one or if you act like one again.

If you think about your heavenly position in Christ you are partaking of solid food or as it is called in Hebrews 5:13 “the word of righteousness”. Then you are partaking of the righteousness of God in which everyone who believes shares through the perfect work of Christ. On the basis of that righteousness Christ received the place He now has in heaven and that you have in Him there. Are you unskilled in that while you ought to know better then you are an infant. To say it with the words of Galatians 4 (Galatians 4:1-7), where the same things are the issue: you are a child.

Opposed to this is the spiritual mature believer who has gone through a healthy spiritual growth and who knows his position in Christ and lives accordingly. To become spiritually mature is not an automatic procedure, but a result of a habit to exercise your senses. By “senses” is meant your perceptivity or discernment. Your spiritual growth is extremely dependent on the discernment of good and bad. If you focus your eye on the heavenly Christ you are not an unworldly eccentric, but you gain insight into doing the good and refraining from evil..

Now read Hebrews 5:8-14 again.

Reflection: Are there things in your life that are delaying your spiritual growth?

James 1:10

True or False

Hebrews 6:1. The writer continues in the first part of this chapter his exhortations of the concluding verses of the previous chapter. He would like his readers to realize that they should not get “stuck” in “the elementary teaching about Christ”. By that he means everything that was said about and by Christ in relation to His coming to the earth. You may think of the announcement by John the baptist and also of the preaching of Christ Himself. Of course, everything about this in the Bible is God’s Word and therefore important, but it is all connected to the Old Testament and to Christ’s reign over His earthly people.

However, because of the rejection of Christ, a completely different situation emerged and to this the writer wants to focus the hearts of the believers. He wants them to “press on to maturity” or, as it also can be translated ‘to press on to perfection’. ‘Perfection’ is the knowledge of Christ in relation with the place He now takes, glorified in heaven.

The words “press on to” refer to the spiritual growth of the believer to that ‘perfection’. That means that you make Him in glory the object of your faith and the goal of your life. Then you will certainly not be willing to go back to the tangible religion, but you will surely want to go on, with the desire to learn to know more of Him and the wonderful results of His work.

Therefore, what you read in the second part of Heb 6:1 and in Hebrews 6:2 does not refer to Christendom but to Judaism. The writer doesn’t want to go into detail again about this issue, for they knew that from their past as Jews.

They indeed knew about “repentance from dead works”. That implies the repentance from works that were done by their own will, independent of God. Also about “faith toward God” they did not have to be taught again anymore. They are familiar with that from an early age. Repentance and faith are not specifically Christian truths. They were and are needed in all ages in case a sinful man wants to come into connection with a holy God.

Hebrews 6:2. The “instruction about washings” – and definitely not, as it is translated in the NKJV: the doctrine of baptisms – indicates the statutes that God gave to Israel concerning washing with water. That concerned matters or people who were defiled through contact with sin, that they may be used again in the service of God (e.g. Numbers 19:18).

The instruction about “laying on of hands” refers to what they had to do, for example, in offering. The laying on of hands means identification, in this case with the sacrifice (e.g. Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 4:15).

The Jews are also familiar with “the resurrection of the dead” (John 11:24) as well as with “eternal judgment” (Isaiah 14:9-11; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 66:24).

All the characteristics mentioned are thus not specifically Christian, but on the contrary typical Jewish. Therefore the writer wants to leave all that.

Hebrews 6:3. When he says “and this we will do”, he doesn’t mean by that that he will come back on this later. No, ‘this’ refers to ‘to press on to maturity’ of Hebrews 6:1. “If God permits” he wants to take the readers with him in spirit to heaven, to the Lord Jesus in glory.

Hebrews 6:4. He consciously expresses himself like that to be dependent on God’s strength because the spiritual condition of some Hebrews did not allow him to carry out his plan at this moment. That’s because there were people among his readers – and there are also today – who accepted Christendom only outwardly, while inwardly they have not changed at all.

They exerted a wrong influence on the true believers, who, due to that, also became dull in following the rejected, though glorified Messiah. Therefore the writer addresses all of them in general terms. Thereby I underline that the impossibility to be renewed again to repentance, only refers to those who only outwardly partook of the privileges of the Hebrews 6:4-5, but inwardly had no new life.

All characteristics that are mentioned in the Hebrews 6:4-5 are outward characteristics. They apply to all professing Christians, thus both to the true Christians and to the Christians who are Christians only in name. With Christians who are Christians only in name there is knowledge, joy, enlightenment, privileges and power, but no spiritual life. Those are people 1. who have tears like Esau (Hebrews 12:17), 2. who are willing to die the death of the upright like Balaam (Numbers 23:10b), 3. who want God fearing people praying for them like Pharaoh (Exodus 8:8) and Simon the magician (Acts 8:24), 4. who prophesy like Caiaphas (John 11:49-52), 5. who love to hear the Word of God like Herod (Mark 6:20) and who are still no more than sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

“Have once been enlightened” means that they received light about the Person of Christ, His work, His glorification, but that it only refers to an intellectual enlightenment, while the light had not enlightened their conscience.

“Have tasted of the heavenly gift” means that they have received a certain taste of what God gave in Christ, possibly also from the heavenly position that Christ, the Messiah now takes. However, they have not eaten of it and they did not identify themselves with it.

“Have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit” are those who find themselves on the territory where the Holy Spirit works. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit also dwells in the person.

Hebrews 6:5. ”Have tasted the good word of God” means that they understood how precious the Word is, though it doesn’t have to mean that through that they were made alive.

“The powers of the age to come” are the works of power that will take place in the coming age, when the triumphing Messiah, the Son of God, will completely destroy all powers of the enemy. The Hebrews did see such works of power when the Lord Jesus was on earth and also during the early days of Christendom.

Hebrews 6:6. Each Christian shared in all these characteristics because he lived in a circle where these things were found. Even if there was no spiritual life, still each person experienced these influences. But it only applies to a person who has no spiritual life that he will fall away from that circle with those characteristics. He could turn his back on that circle and return to his former circle of confession.

The people concerned here first belonged to God’s people who crucified the Son of God. Then they confessed this as a sin and became confessors of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. But now they were willfully and knowingly committing the same crime again by returning to those people, while they turned their back on Christendom with its glorified Lord. It is not about people that were acting in ignorance. For these people the Lord Jesus indeed prayed: “They do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Fallen away people or apostates are those who were once enlightened and who acknowledged Christ as the Son of God, who also confessed His crucifixion as sin, but returned to it and still held Him for a traitor Who was rightly crucified. Those are not ignorant.

Some people in professing Christianity find themselves in the same position. They were made familiar with the truths about Christ, but come to deny, against their better judgment, His virgin birth, His perfect life, His Godhead, His atoning death and His bodily resurrection. For such people it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance, which means to repent again from their current error. They knew the truth, they confessed it, but then rejected it again and now they were dull of it. This rebellion reveals a hardened heart that can never possibly repent.

Hebrews 6:7. The writer clarifies with an example from nature what it means to have life of God or when this is missing. The life of the confessor is compared with “the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it”. In the rain you see the ministry of the Word, which is compared with water (Ephesians 5:26). The condition of the earth becomes visible through the rain that often falls on it.

The ‘rain’, that means the blessing from heaven, falls on the soul of the confessor in the form of Divine light, the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come. In the case of a true Christian the result of this ‘rain’ will be producing fruit for God in bringing praise offerings and the following of the Lord Jesus. In the case of the Christian only in name, the apostate, it appears that the rain doesn’t produce fruit in his life. That’s because the earth contains nothing what could bring fruit: there is no new life, no indwelling Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 6:8. The nominal Christian never brings forth useful vegetation because the soil is no good. Out of him only thorns and thistles come forth, the results of the fall of man (Genesis 3:17-18). That which is in connection with sin is under the curse and will eventually end up in an eternal curse and burning.

Now read Hebrews 6:1-8 again.

Reflection: What similarities and differences are there between the true and the false Christian?

James 1:11

True or False

Hebrews 6:1. The writer continues in the first part of this chapter his exhortations of the concluding verses of the previous chapter. He would like his readers to realize that they should not get “stuck” in “the elementary teaching about Christ”. By that he means everything that was said about and by Christ in relation to His coming to the earth. You may think of the announcement by John the baptist and also of the preaching of Christ Himself. Of course, everything about this in the Bible is God’s Word and therefore important, but it is all connected to the Old Testament and to Christ’s reign over His earthly people.

However, because of the rejection of Christ, a completely different situation emerged and to this the writer wants to focus the hearts of the believers. He wants them to “press on to maturity” or, as it also can be translated ‘to press on to perfection’. ‘Perfection’ is the knowledge of Christ in relation with the place He now takes, glorified in heaven.

The words “press on to” refer to the spiritual growth of the believer to that ‘perfection’. That means that you make Him in glory the object of your faith and the goal of your life. Then you will certainly not be willing to go back to the tangible religion, but you will surely want to go on, with the desire to learn to know more of Him and the wonderful results of His work.

Therefore, what you read in the second part of Heb 6:1 and in Hebrews 6:2 does not refer to Christendom but to Judaism. The writer doesn’t want to go into detail again about this issue, for they knew that from their past as Jews.

They indeed knew about “repentance from dead works”. That implies the repentance from works that were done by their own will, independent of God. Also about “faith toward God” they did not have to be taught again anymore. They are familiar with that from an early age. Repentance and faith are not specifically Christian truths. They were and are needed in all ages in case a sinful man wants to come into connection with a holy God.

Hebrews 6:2. The “instruction about washings” – and definitely not, as it is translated in the NKJV: the doctrine of baptisms – indicates the statutes that God gave to Israel concerning washing with water. That concerned matters or people who were defiled through contact with sin, that they may be used again in the service of God (e.g. Numbers 19:18).

The instruction about “laying on of hands” refers to what they had to do, for example, in offering. The laying on of hands means identification, in this case with the sacrifice (e.g. Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 4:15).

The Jews are also familiar with “the resurrection of the dead” (John 11:24) as well as with “eternal judgment” (Isaiah 14:9-11; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 66:24).

All the characteristics mentioned are thus not specifically Christian, but on the contrary typical Jewish. Therefore the writer wants to leave all that.

Hebrews 6:3. When he says “and this we will do”, he doesn’t mean by that that he will come back on this later. No, ‘this’ refers to ‘to press on to maturity’ of Hebrews 6:1. “If God permits” he wants to take the readers with him in spirit to heaven, to the Lord Jesus in glory.

Hebrews 6:4. He consciously expresses himself like that to be dependent on God’s strength because the spiritual condition of some Hebrews did not allow him to carry out his plan at this moment. That’s because there were people among his readers – and there are also today – who accepted Christendom only outwardly, while inwardly they have not changed at all.

They exerted a wrong influence on the true believers, who, due to that, also became dull in following the rejected, though glorified Messiah. Therefore the writer addresses all of them in general terms. Thereby I underline that the impossibility to be renewed again to repentance, only refers to those who only outwardly partook of the privileges of the Hebrews 6:4-5, but inwardly had no new life.

All characteristics that are mentioned in the Hebrews 6:4-5 are outward characteristics. They apply to all professing Christians, thus both to the true Christians and to the Christians who are Christians only in name. With Christians who are Christians only in name there is knowledge, joy, enlightenment, privileges and power, but no spiritual life. Those are people 1. who have tears like Esau (Hebrews 12:17), 2. who are willing to die the death of the upright like Balaam (Numbers 23:10b), 3. who want God fearing people praying for them like Pharaoh (Exodus 8:8) and Simon the magician (Acts 8:24), 4. who prophesy like Caiaphas (John 11:49-52), 5. who love to hear the Word of God like Herod (Mark 6:20) and who are still no more than sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

“Have once been enlightened” means that they received light about the Person of Christ, His work, His glorification, but that it only refers to an intellectual enlightenment, while the light had not enlightened their conscience.

“Have tasted of the heavenly gift” means that they have received a certain taste of what God gave in Christ, possibly also from the heavenly position that Christ, the Messiah now takes. However, they have not eaten of it and they did not identify themselves with it.

“Have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit” are those who find themselves on the territory where the Holy Spirit works. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit also dwells in the person.

Hebrews 6:5. ”Have tasted the good word of God” means that they understood how precious the Word is, though it doesn’t have to mean that through that they were made alive.

“The powers of the age to come” are the works of power that will take place in the coming age, when the triumphing Messiah, the Son of God, will completely destroy all powers of the enemy. The Hebrews did see such works of power when the Lord Jesus was on earth and also during the early days of Christendom.

Hebrews 6:6. Each Christian shared in all these characteristics because he lived in a circle where these things were found. Even if there was no spiritual life, still each person experienced these influences. But it only applies to a person who has no spiritual life that he will fall away from that circle with those characteristics. He could turn his back on that circle and return to his former circle of confession.

The people concerned here first belonged to God’s people who crucified the Son of God. Then they confessed this as a sin and became confessors of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. But now they were willfully and knowingly committing the same crime again by returning to those people, while they turned their back on Christendom with its glorified Lord. It is not about people that were acting in ignorance. For these people the Lord Jesus indeed prayed: “They do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Fallen away people or apostates are those who were once enlightened and who acknowledged Christ as the Son of God, who also confessed His crucifixion as sin, but returned to it and still held Him for a traitor Who was rightly crucified. Those are not ignorant.

Some people in professing Christianity find themselves in the same position. They were made familiar with the truths about Christ, but come to deny, against their better judgment, His virgin birth, His perfect life, His Godhead, His atoning death and His bodily resurrection. For such people it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance, which means to repent again from their current error. They knew the truth, they confessed it, but then rejected it again and now they were dull of it. This rebellion reveals a hardened heart that can never possibly repent.

Hebrews 6:7. The writer clarifies with an example from nature what it means to have life of God or when this is missing. The life of the confessor is compared with “the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it”. In the rain you see the ministry of the Word, which is compared with water (Ephesians 5:26). The condition of the earth becomes visible through the rain that often falls on it.

The ‘rain’, that means the blessing from heaven, falls on the soul of the confessor in the form of Divine light, the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come. In the case of a true Christian the result of this ‘rain’ will be producing fruit for God in bringing praise offerings and the following of the Lord Jesus. In the case of the Christian only in name, the apostate, it appears that the rain doesn’t produce fruit in his life. That’s because the earth contains nothing what could bring fruit: there is no new life, no indwelling Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 6:8. The nominal Christian never brings forth useful vegetation because the soil is no good. Out of him only thorns and thistles come forth, the results of the fall of man (Genesis 3:17-18). That which is in connection with sin is under the curse and will eventually end up in an eternal curse and burning.

Now read Hebrews 6:1-8 again.

Reflection: What similarities and differences are there between the true and the false Christian?

James 1:12

True or False

Hebrews 6:1. The writer continues in the first part of this chapter his exhortations of the concluding verses of the previous chapter. He would like his readers to realize that they should not get “stuck” in “the elementary teaching about Christ”. By that he means everything that was said about and by Christ in relation to His coming to the earth. You may think of the announcement by John the baptist and also of the preaching of Christ Himself. Of course, everything about this in the Bible is God’s Word and therefore important, but it is all connected to the Old Testament and to Christ’s reign over His earthly people.

However, because of the rejection of Christ, a completely different situation emerged and to this the writer wants to focus the hearts of the believers. He wants them to “press on to maturity” or, as it also can be translated ‘to press on to perfection’. ‘Perfection’ is the knowledge of Christ in relation with the place He now takes, glorified in heaven.

The words “press on to” refer to the spiritual growth of the believer to that ‘perfection’. That means that you make Him in glory the object of your faith and the goal of your life. Then you will certainly not be willing to go back to the tangible religion, but you will surely want to go on, with the desire to learn to know more of Him and the wonderful results of His work.

Therefore, what you read in the second part of Heb 6:1 and in Hebrews 6:2 does not refer to Christendom but to Judaism. The writer doesn’t want to go into detail again about this issue, for they knew that from their past as Jews.

They indeed knew about “repentance from dead works”. That implies the repentance from works that were done by their own will, independent of God. Also about “faith toward God” they did not have to be taught again anymore. They are familiar with that from an early age. Repentance and faith are not specifically Christian truths. They were and are needed in all ages in case a sinful man wants to come into connection with a holy God.

Hebrews 6:2. The “instruction about washings” – and definitely not, as it is translated in the NKJV: the doctrine of baptisms – indicates the statutes that God gave to Israel concerning washing with water. That concerned matters or people who were defiled through contact with sin, that they may be used again in the service of God (e.g. Numbers 19:18).

The instruction about “laying on of hands” refers to what they had to do, for example, in offering. The laying on of hands means identification, in this case with the sacrifice (e.g. Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 4:15).

The Jews are also familiar with “the resurrection of the dead” (John 11:24) as well as with “eternal judgment” (Isaiah 14:9-11; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 66:24).

All the characteristics mentioned are thus not specifically Christian, but on the contrary typical Jewish. Therefore the writer wants to leave all that.

Hebrews 6:3. When he says “and this we will do”, he doesn’t mean by that that he will come back on this later. No, ‘this’ refers to ‘to press on to maturity’ of Hebrews 6:1. “If God permits” he wants to take the readers with him in spirit to heaven, to the Lord Jesus in glory.

Hebrews 6:4. He consciously expresses himself like that to be dependent on God’s strength because the spiritual condition of some Hebrews did not allow him to carry out his plan at this moment. That’s because there were people among his readers – and there are also today – who accepted Christendom only outwardly, while inwardly they have not changed at all.

They exerted a wrong influence on the true believers, who, due to that, also became dull in following the rejected, though glorified Messiah. Therefore the writer addresses all of them in general terms. Thereby I underline that the impossibility to be renewed again to repentance, only refers to those who only outwardly partook of the privileges of the Hebrews 6:4-5, but inwardly had no new life.

All characteristics that are mentioned in the Hebrews 6:4-5 are outward characteristics. They apply to all professing Christians, thus both to the true Christians and to the Christians who are Christians only in name. With Christians who are Christians only in name there is knowledge, joy, enlightenment, privileges and power, but no spiritual life. Those are people 1. who have tears like Esau (Hebrews 12:17), 2. who are willing to die the death of the upright like Balaam (Numbers 23:10b), 3. who want God fearing people praying for them like Pharaoh (Exodus 8:8) and Simon the magician (Acts 8:24), 4. who prophesy like Caiaphas (John 11:49-52), 5. who love to hear the Word of God like Herod (Mark 6:20) and who are still no more than sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

“Have once been enlightened” means that they received light about the Person of Christ, His work, His glorification, but that it only refers to an intellectual enlightenment, while the light had not enlightened their conscience.

“Have tasted of the heavenly gift” means that they have received a certain taste of what God gave in Christ, possibly also from the heavenly position that Christ, the Messiah now takes. However, they have not eaten of it and they did not identify themselves with it.

“Have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit” are those who find themselves on the territory where the Holy Spirit works. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit also dwells in the person.

Hebrews 6:5. ”Have tasted the good word of God” means that they understood how precious the Word is, though it doesn’t have to mean that through that they were made alive.

“The powers of the age to come” are the works of power that will take place in the coming age, when the triumphing Messiah, the Son of God, will completely destroy all powers of the enemy. The Hebrews did see such works of power when the Lord Jesus was on earth and also during the early days of Christendom.

Hebrews 6:6. Each Christian shared in all these characteristics because he lived in a circle where these things were found. Even if there was no spiritual life, still each person experienced these influences. But it only applies to a person who has no spiritual life that he will fall away from that circle with those characteristics. He could turn his back on that circle and return to his former circle of confession.

The people concerned here first belonged to God’s people who crucified the Son of God. Then they confessed this as a sin and became confessors of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. But now they were willfully and knowingly committing the same crime again by returning to those people, while they turned their back on Christendom with its glorified Lord. It is not about people that were acting in ignorance. For these people the Lord Jesus indeed prayed: “They do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Fallen away people or apostates are those who were once enlightened and who acknowledged Christ as the Son of God, who also confessed His crucifixion as sin, but returned to it and still held Him for a traitor Who was rightly crucified. Those are not ignorant.

Some people in professing Christianity find themselves in the same position. They were made familiar with the truths about Christ, but come to deny, against their better judgment, His virgin birth, His perfect life, His Godhead, His atoning death and His bodily resurrection. For such people it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance, which means to repent again from their current error. They knew the truth, they confessed it, but then rejected it again and now they were dull of it. This rebellion reveals a hardened heart that can never possibly repent.

Hebrews 6:7. The writer clarifies with an example from nature what it means to have life of God or when this is missing. The life of the confessor is compared with “the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it”. In the rain you see the ministry of the Word, which is compared with water (Ephesians 5:26). The condition of the earth becomes visible through the rain that often falls on it.

The ‘rain’, that means the blessing from heaven, falls on the soul of the confessor in the form of Divine light, the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come. In the case of a true Christian the result of this ‘rain’ will be producing fruit for God in bringing praise offerings and the following of the Lord Jesus. In the case of the Christian only in name, the apostate, it appears that the rain doesn’t produce fruit in his life. That’s because the earth contains nothing what could bring fruit: there is no new life, no indwelling Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 6:8. The nominal Christian never brings forth useful vegetation because the soil is no good. Out of him only thorns and thistles come forth, the results of the fall of man (Genesis 3:17-18). That which is in connection with sin is under the curse and will eventually end up in an eternal curse and burning.

Now read Hebrews 6:1-8 again.

Reflection: What similarities and differences are there between the true and the false Christian?

James 1:13

True or False

Hebrews 6:1. The writer continues in the first part of this chapter his exhortations of the concluding verses of the previous chapter. He would like his readers to realize that they should not get “stuck” in “the elementary teaching about Christ”. By that he means everything that was said about and by Christ in relation to His coming to the earth. You may think of the announcement by John the baptist and also of the preaching of Christ Himself. Of course, everything about this in the Bible is God’s Word and therefore important, but it is all connected to the Old Testament and to Christ’s reign over His earthly people.

However, because of the rejection of Christ, a completely different situation emerged and to this the writer wants to focus the hearts of the believers. He wants them to “press on to maturity” or, as it also can be translated ‘to press on to perfection’. ‘Perfection’ is the knowledge of Christ in relation with the place He now takes, glorified in heaven.

The words “press on to” refer to the spiritual growth of the believer to that ‘perfection’. That means that you make Him in glory the object of your faith and the goal of your life. Then you will certainly not be willing to go back to the tangible religion, but you will surely want to go on, with the desire to learn to know more of Him and the wonderful results of His work.

Therefore, what you read in the second part of Heb 6:1 and in Hebrews 6:2 does not refer to Christendom but to Judaism. The writer doesn’t want to go into detail again about this issue, for they knew that from their past as Jews.

They indeed knew about “repentance from dead works”. That implies the repentance from works that were done by their own will, independent of God. Also about “faith toward God” they did not have to be taught again anymore. They are familiar with that from an early age. Repentance and faith are not specifically Christian truths. They were and are needed in all ages in case a sinful man wants to come into connection with a holy God.

Hebrews 6:2. The “instruction about washings” – and definitely not, as it is translated in the NKJV: the doctrine of baptisms – indicates the statutes that God gave to Israel concerning washing with water. That concerned matters or people who were defiled through contact with sin, that they may be used again in the service of God (e.g. Numbers 19:18).

The instruction about “laying on of hands” refers to what they had to do, for example, in offering. The laying on of hands means identification, in this case with the sacrifice (e.g. Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 4:15).

The Jews are also familiar with “the resurrection of the dead” (John 11:24) as well as with “eternal judgment” (Isaiah 14:9-11; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 66:24).

All the characteristics mentioned are thus not specifically Christian, but on the contrary typical Jewish. Therefore the writer wants to leave all that.

Hebrews 6:3. When he says “and this we will do”, he doesn’t mean by that that he will come back on this later. No, ‘this’ refers to ‘to press on to maturity’ of Hebrews 6:1. “If God permits” he wants to take the readers with him in spirit to heaven, to the Lord Jesus in glory.

Hebrews 6:4. He consciously expresses himself like that to be dependent on God’s strength because the spiritual condition of some Hebrews did not allow him to carry out his plan at this moment. That’s because there were people among his readers – and there are also today – who accepted Christendom only outwardly, while inwardly they have not changed at all.

They exerted a wrong influence on the true believers, who, due to that, also became dull in following the rejected, though glorified Messiah. Therefore the writer addresses all of them in general terms. Thereby I underline that the impossibility to be renewed again to repentance, only refers to those who only outwardly partook of the privileges of the Hebrews 6:4-5, but inwardly had no new life.

All characteristics that are mentioned in the Hebrews 6:4-5 are outward characteristics. They apply to all professing Christians, thus both to the true Christians and to the Christians who are Christians only in name. With Christians who are Christians only in name there is knowledge, joy, enlightenment, privileges and power, but no spiritual life. Those are people 1. who have tears like Esau (Hebrews 12:17), 2. who are willing to die the death of the upright like Balaam (Numbers 23:10b), 3. who want God fearing people praying for them like Pharaoh (Exodus 8:8) and Simon the magician (Acts 8:24), 4. who prophesy like Caiaphas (John 11:49-52), 5. who love to hear the Word of God like Herod (Mark 6:20) and who are still no more than sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

“Have once been enlightened” means that they received light about the Person of Christ, His work, His glorification, but that it only refers to an intellectual enlightenment, while the light had not enlightened their conscience.

“Have tasted of the heavenly gift” means that they have received a certain taste of what God gave in Christ, possibly also from the heavenly position that Christ, the Messiah now takes. However, they have not eaten of it and they did not identify themselves with it.

“Have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit” are those who find themselves on the territory where the Holy Spirit works. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit also dwells in the person.

Hebrews 6:5. ”Have tasted the good word of God” means that they understood how precious the Word is, though it doesn’t have to mean that through that they were made alive.

“The powers of the age to come” are the works of power that will take place in the coming age, when the triumphing Messiah, the Son of God, will completely destroy all powers of the enemy. The Hebrews did see such works of power when the Lord Jesus was on earth and also during the early days of Christendom.

Hebrews 6:6. Each Christian shared in all these characteristics because he lived in a circle where these things were found. Even if there was no spiritual life, still each person experienced these influences. But it only applies to a person who has no spiritual life that he will fall away from that circle with those characteristics. He could turn his back on that circle and return to his former circle of confession.

The people concerned here first belonged to God’s people who crucified the Son of God. Then they confessed this as a sin and became confessors of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. But now they were willfully and knowingly committing the same crime again by returning to those people, while they turned their back on Christendom with its glorified Lord. It is not about people that were acting in ignorance. For these people the Lord Jesus indeed prayed: “They do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Fallen away people or apostates are those who were once enlightened and who acknowledged Christ as the Son of God, who also confessed His crucifixion as sin, but returned to it and still held Him for a traitor Who was rightly crucified. Those are not ignorant.

Some people in professing Christianity find themselves in the same position. They were made familiar with the truths about Christ, but come to deny, against their better judgment, His virgin birth, His perfect life, His Godhead, His atoning death and His bodily resurrection. For such people it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance, which means to repent again from their current error. They knew the truth, they confessed it, but then rejected it again and now they were dull of it. This rebellion reveals a hardened heart that can never possibly repent.

Hebrews 6:7. The writer clarifies with an example from nature what it means to have life of God or when this is missing. The life of the confessor is compared with “the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it”. In the rain you see the ministry of the Word, which is compared with water (Ephesians 5:26). The condition of the earth becomes visible through the rain that often falls on it.

The ‘rain’, that means the blessing from heaven, falls on the soul of the confessor in the form of Divine light, the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come. In the case of a true Christian the result of this ‘rain’ will be producing fruit for God in bringing praise offerings and the following of the Lord Jesus. In the case of the Christian only in name, the apostate, it appears that the rain doesn’t produce fruit in his life. That’s because the earth contains nothing what could bring fruit: there is no new life, no indwelling Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 6:8. The nominal Christian never brings forth useful vegetation because the soil is no good. Out of him only thorns and thistles come forth, the results of the fall of man (Genesis 3:17-18). That which is in connection with sin is under the curse and will eventually end up in an eternal curse and burning.

Now read Hebrews 6:1-8 again.

Reflection: What similarities and differences are there between the true and the false Christian?

James 1:14

True or False

Hebrews 6:1. The writer continues in the first part of this chapter his exhortations of the concluding verses of the previous chapter. He would like his readers to realize that they should not get “stuck” in “the elementary teaching about Christ”. By that he means everything that was said about and by Christ in relation to His coming to the earth. You may think of the announcement by John the baptist and also of the preaching of Christ Himself. Of course, everything about this in the Bible is God’s Word and therefore important, but it is all connected to the Old Testament and to Christ’s reign over His earthly people.

However, because of the rejection of Christ, a completely different situation emerged and to this the writer wants to focus the hearts of the believers. He wants them to “press on to maturity” or, as it also can be translated ‘to press on to perfection’. ‘Perfection’ is the knowledge of Christ in relation with the place He now takes, glorified in heaven.

The words “press on to” refer to the spiritual growth of the believer to that ‘perfection’. That means that you make Him in glory the object of your faith and the goal of your life. Then you will certainly not be willing to go back to the tangible religion, but you will surely want to go on, with the desire to learn to know more of Him and the wonderful results of His work.

Therefore, what you read in the second part of Heb 6:1 and in Hebrews 6:2 does not refer to Christendom but to Judaism. The writer doesn’t want to go into detail again about this issue, for they knew that from their past as Jews.

They indeed knew about “repentance from dead works”. That implies the repentance from works that were done by their own will, independent of God. Also about “faith toward God” they did not have to be taught again anymore. They are familiar with that from an early age. Repentance and faith are not specifically Christian truths. They were and are needed in all ages in case a sinful man wants to come into connection with a holy God.

Hebrews 6:2. The “instruction about washings” – and definitely not, as it is translated in the NKJV: the doctrine of baptisms – indicates the statutes that God gave to Israel concerning washing with water. That concerned matters or people who were defiled through contact with sin, that they may be used again in the service of God (e.g. Numbers 19:18).

The instruction about “laying on of hands” refers to what they had to do, for example, in offering. The laying on of hands means identification, in this case with the sacrifice (e.g. Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 4:15).

The Jews are also familiar with “the resurrection of the dead” (John 11:24) as well as with “eternal judgment” (Isaiah 14:9-11; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 66:24).

All the characteristics mentioned are thus not specifically Christian, but on the contrary typical Jewish. Therefore the writer wants to leave all that.

Hebrews 6:3. When he says “and this we will do”, he doesn’t mean by that that he will come back on this later. No, ‘this’ refers to ‘to press on to maturity’ of Hebrews 6:1. “If God permits” he wants to take the readers with him in spirit to heaven, to the Lord Jesus in glory.

Hebrews 6:4. He consciously expresses himself like that to be dependent on God’s strength because the spiritual condition of some Hebrews did not allow him to carry out his plan at this moment. That’s because there were people among his readers – and there are also today – who accepted Christendom only outwardly, while inwardly they have not changed at all.

They exerted a wrong influence on the true believers, who, due to that, also became dull in following the rejected, though glorified Messiah. Therefore the writer addresses all of them in general terms. Thereby I underline that the impossibility to be renewed again to repentance, only refers to those who only outwardly partook of the privileges of the Hebrews 6:4-5, but inwardly had no new life.

All characteristics that are mentioned in the Hebrews 6:4-5 are outward characteristics. They apply to all professing Christians, thus both to the true Christians and to the Christians who are Christians only in name. With Christians who are Christians only in name there is knowledge, joy, enlightenment, privileges and power, but no spiritual life. Those are people 1. who have tears like Esau (Hebrews 12:17), 2. who are willing to die the death of the upright like Balaam (Numbers 23:10b), 3. who want God fearing people praying for them like Pharaoh (Exodus 8:8) and Simon the magician (Acts 8:24), 4. who prophesy like Caiaphas (John 11:49-52), 5. who love to hear the Word of God like Herod (Mark 6:20) and who are still no more than sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

“Have once been enlightened” means that they received light about the Person of Christ, His work, His glorification, but that it only refers to an intellectual enlightenment, while the light had not enlightened their conscience.

“Have tasted of the heavenly gift” means that they have received a certain taste of what God gave in Christ, possibly also from the heavenly position that Christ, the Messiah now takes. However, they have not eaten of it and they did not identify themselves with it.

“Have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit” are those who find themselves on the territory where the Holy Spirit works. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit also dwells in the person.

Hebrews 6:5. ”Have tasted the good word of God” means that they understood how precious the Word is, though it doesn’t have to mean that through that they were made alive.

“The powers of the age to come” are the works of power that will take place in the coming age, when the triumphing Messiah, the Son of God, will completely destroy all powers of the enemy. The Hebrews did see such works of power when the Lord Jesus was on earth and also during the early days of Christendom.

Hebrews 6:6. Each Christian shared in all these characteristics because he lived in a circle where these things were found. Even if there was no spiritual life, still each person experienced these influences. But it only applies to a person who has no spiritual life that he will fall away from that circle with those characteristics. He could turn his back on that circle and return to his former circle of confession.

The people concerned here first belonged to God’s people who crucified the Son of God. Then they confessed this as a sin and became confessors of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. But now they were willfully and knowingly committing the same crime again by returning to those people, while they turned their back on Christendom with its glorified Lord. It is not about people that were acting in ignorance. For these people the Lord Jesus indeed prayed: “They do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Fallen away people or apostates are those who were once enlightened and who acknowledged Christ as the Son of God, who also confessed His crucifixion as sin, but returned to it and still held Him for a traitor Who was rightly crucified. Those are not ignorant.

Some people in professing Christianity find themselves in the same position. They were made familiar with the truths about Christ, but come to deny, against their better judgment, His virgin birth, His perfect life, His Godhead, His atoning death and His bodily resurrection. For such people it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance, which means to repent again from their current error. They knew the truth, they confessed it, but then rejected it again and now they were dull of it. This rebellion reveals a hardened heart that can never possibly repent.

Hebrews 6:7. The writer clarifies with an example from nature what it means to have life of God or when this is missing. The life of the confessor is compared with “the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it”. In the rain you see the ministry of the Word, which is compared with water (Ephesians 5:26). The condition of the earth becomes visible through the rain that often falls on it.

The ‘rain’, that means the blessing from heaven, falls on the soul of the confessor in the form of Divine light, the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come. In the case of a true Christian the result of this ‘rain’ will be producing fruit for God in bringing praise offerings and the following of the Lord Jesus. In the case of the Christian only in name, the apostate, it appears that the rain doesn’t produce fruit in his life. That’s because the earth contains nothing what could bring fruit: there is no new life, no indwelling Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 6:8. The nominal Christian never brings forth useful vegetation because the soil is no good. Out of him only thorns and thistles come forth, the results of the fall of man (Genesis 3:17-18). That which is in connection with sin is under the curse and will eventually end up in an eternal curse and burning.

Now read Hebrews 6:1-8 again.

Reflection: What similarities and differences are there between the true and the false Christian?

James 1:15

True or False

Hebrews 6:1. The writer continues in the first part of this chapter his exhortations of the concluding verses of the previous chapter. He would like his readers to realize that they should not get “stuck” in “the elementary teaching about Christ”. By that he means everything that was said about and by Christ in relation to His coming to the earth. You may think of the announcement by John the baptist and also of the preaching of Christ Himself. Of course, everything about this in the Bible is God’s Word and therefore important, but it is all connected to the Old Testament and to Christ’s reign over His earthly people.

However, because of the rejection of Christ, a completely different situation emerged and to this the writer wants to focus the hearts of the believers. He wants them to “press on to maturity” or, as it also can be translated ‘to press on to perfection’. ‘Perfection’ is the knowledge of Christ in relation with the place He now takes, glorified in heaven.

The words “press on to” refer to the spiritual growth of the believer to that ‘perfection’. That means that you make Him in glory the object of your faith and the goal of your life. Then you will certainly not be willing to go back to the tangible religion, but you will surely want to go on, with the desire to learn to know more of Him and the wonderful results of His work.

Therefore, what you read in the second part of Heb 6:1 and in Hebrews 6:2 does not refer to Christendom but to Judaism. The writer doesn’t want to go into detail again about this issue, for they knew that from their past as Jews.

They indeed knew about “repentance from dead works”. That implies the repentance from works that were done by their own will, independent of God. Also about “faith toward God” they did not have to be taught again anymore. They are familiar with that from an early age. Repentance and faith are not specifically Christian truths. They were and are needed in all ages in case a sinful man wants to come into connection with a holy God.

Hebrews 6:2. The “instruction about washings” – and definitely not, as it is translated in the NKJV: the doctrine of baptisms – indicates the statutes that God gave to Israel concerning washing with water. That concerned matters or people who were defiled through contact with sin, that they may be used again in the service of God (e.g. Numbers 19:18).

The instruction about “laying on of hands” refers to what they had to do, for example, in offering. The laying on of hands means identification, in this case with the sacrifice (e.g. Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 4:15).

The Jews are also familiar with “the resurrection of the dead” (John 11:24) as well as with “eternal judgment” (Isaiah 14:9-11; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 66:24).

All the characteristics mentioned are thus not specifically Christian, but on the contrary typical Jewish. Therefore the writer wants to leave all that.

Hebrews 6:3. When he says “and this we will do”, he doesn’t mean by that that he will come back on this later. No, ‘this’ refers to ‘to press on to maturity’ of Hebrews 6:1. “If God permits” he wants to take the readers with him in spirit to heaven, to the Lord Jesus in glory.

Hebrews 6:4. He consciously expresses himself like that to be dependent on God’s strength because the spiritual condition of some Hebrews did not allow him to carry out his plan at this moment. That’s because there were people among his readers – and there are also today – who accepted Christendom only outwardly, while inwardly they have not changed at all.

They exerted a wrong influence on the true believers, who, due to that, also became dull in following the rejected, though glorified Messiah. Therefore the writer addresses all of them in general terms. Thereby I underline that the impossibility to be renewed again to repentance, only refers to those who only outwardly partook of the privileges of the Hebrews 6:4-5, but inwardly had no new life.

All characteristics that are mentioned in the Hebrews 6:4-5 are outward characteristics. They apply to all professing Christians, thus both to the true Christians and to the Christians who are Christians only in name. With Christians who are Christians only in name there is knowledge, joy, enlightenment, privileges and power, but no spiritual life. Those are people 1. who have tears like Esau (Hebrews 12:17), 2. who are willing to die the death of the upright like Balaam (Numbers 23:10b), 3. who want God fearing people praying for them like Pharaoh (Exodus 8:8) and Simon the magician (Acts 8:24), 4. who prophesy like Caiaphas (John 11:49-52), 5. who love to hear the Word of God like Herod (Mark 6:20) and who are still no more than sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

“Have once been enlightened” means that they received light about the Person of Christ, His work, His glorification, but that it only refers to an intellectual enlightenment, while the light had not enlightened their conscience.

“Have tasted of the heavenly gift” means that they have received a certain taste of what God gave in Christ, possibly also from the heavenly position that Christ, the Messiah now takes. However, they have not eaten of it and they did not identify themselves with it.

“Have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit” are those who find themselves on the territory where the Holy Spirit works. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit also dwells in the person.

Hebrews 6:5. ”Have tasted the good word of God” means that they understood how precious the Word is, though it doesn’t have to mean that through that they were made alive.

“The powers of the age to come” are the works of power that will take place in the coming age, when the triumphing Messiah, the Son of God, will completely destroy all powers of the enemy. The Hebrews did see such works of power when the Lord Jesus was on earth and also during the early days of Christendom.

Hebrews 6:6. Each Christian shared in all these characteristics because he lived in a circle where these things were found. Even if there was no spiritual life, still each person experienced these influences. But it only applies to a person who has no spiritual life that he will fall away from that circle with those characteristics. He could turn his back on that circle and return to his former circle of confession.

The people concerned here first belonged to God’s people who crucified the Son of God. Then they confessed this as a sin and became confessors of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. But now they were willfully and knowingly committing the same crime again by returning to those people, while they turned their back on Christendom with its glorified Lord. It is not about people that were acting in ignorance. For these people the Lord Jesus indeed prayed: “They do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Fallen away people or apostates are those who were once enlightened and who acknowledged Christ as the Son of God, who also confessed His crucifixion as sin, but returned to it and still held Him for a traitor Who was rightly crucified. Those are not ignorant.

Some people in professing Christianity find themselves in the same position. They were made familiar with the truths about Christ, but come to deny, against their better judgment, His virgin birth, His perfect life, His Godhead, His atoning death and His bodily resurrection. For such people it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance, which means to repent again from their current error. They knew the truth, they confessed it, but then rejected it again and now they were dull of it. This rebellion reveals a hardened heart that can never possibly repent.

Hebrews 6:7. The writer clarifies with an example from nature what it means to have life of God or when this is missing. The life of the confessor is compared with “the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it”. In the rain you see the ministry of the Word, which is compared with water (Ephesians 5:26). The condition of the earth becomes visible through the rain that often falls on it.

The ‘rain’, that means the blessing from heaven, falls on the soul of the confessor in the form of Divine light, the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come. In the case of a true Christian the result of this ‘rain’ will be producing fruit for God in bringing praise offerings and the following of the Lord Jesus. In the case of the Christian only in name, the apostate, it appears that the rain doesn’t produce fruit in his life. That’s because the earth contains nothing what could bring fruit: there is no new life, no indwelling Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 6:8. The nominal Christian never brings forth useful vegetation because the soil is no good. Out of him only thorns and thistles come forth, the results of the fall of man (Genesis 3:17-18). That which is in connection with sin is under the curse and will eventually end up in an eternal curse and burning.

Now read Hebrews 6:1-8 again.

Reflection: What similarities and differences are there between the true and the false Christian?

James 1:16

True or False

Hebrews 6:1. The writer continues in the first part of this chapter his exhortations of the concluding verses of the previous chapter. He would like his readers to realize that they should not get “stuck” in “the elementary teaching about Christ”. By that he means everything that was said about and by Christ in relation to His coming to the earth. You may think of the announcement by John the baptist and also of the preaching of Christ Himself. Of course, everything about this in the Bible is God’s Word and therefore important, but it is all connected to the Old Testament and to Christ’s reign over His earthly people.

However, because of the rejection of Christ, a completely different situation emerged and to this the writer wants to focus the hearts of the believers. He wants them to “press on to maturity” or, as it also can be translated ‘to press on to perfection’. ‘Perfection’ is the knowledge of Christ in relation with the place He now takes, glorified in heaven.

The words “press on to” refer to the spiritual growth of the believer to that ‘perfection’. That means that you make Him in glory the object of your faith and the goal of your life. Then you will certainly not be willing to go back to the tangible religion, but you will surely want to go on, with the desire to learn to know more of Him and the wonderful results of His work.

Therefore, what you read in the second part of Heb 6:1 and in Hebrews 6:2 does not refer to Christendom but to Judaism. The writer doesn’t want to go into detail again about this issue, for they knew that from their past as Jews.

They indeed knew about “repentance from dead works”. That implies the repentance from works that were done by their own will, independent of God. Also about “faith toward God” they did not have to be taught again anymore. They are familiar with that from an early age. Repentance and faith are not specifically Christian truths. They were and are needed in all ages in case a sinful man wants to come into connection with a holy God.

Hebrews 6:2. The “instruction about washings” – and definitely not, as it is translated in the NKJV: the doctrine of baptisms – indicates the statutes that God gave to Israel concerning washing with water. That concerned matters or people who were defiled through contact with sin, that they may be used again in the service of God (e.g. Numbers 19:18).

The instruction about “laying on of hands” refers to what they had to do, for example, in offering. The laying on of hands means identification, in this case with the sacrifice (e.g. Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 4:15).

The Jews are also familiar with “the resurrection of the dead” (John 11:24) as well as with “eternal judgment” (Isaiah 14:9-11; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 66:24).

All the characteristics mentioned are thus not specifically Christian, but on the contrary typical Jewish. Therefore the writer wants to leave all that.

Hebrews 6:3. When he says “and this we will do”, he doesn’t mean by that that he will come back on this later. No, ‘this’ refers to ‘to press on to maturity’ of Hebrews 6:1. “If God permits” he wants to take the readers with him in spirit to heaven, to the Lord Jesus in glory.

Hebrews 6:4. He consciously expresses himself like that to be dependent on God’s strength because the spiritual condition of some Hebrews did not allow him to carry out his plan at this moment. That’s because there were people among his readers – and there are also today – who accepted Christendom only outwardly, while inwardly they have not changed at all.

They exerted a wrong influence on the true believers, who, due to that, also became dull in following the rejected, though glorified Messiah. Therefore the writer addresses all of them in general terms. Thereby I underline that the impossibility to be renewed again to repentance, only refers to those who only outwardly partook of the privileges of the Hebrews 6:4-5, but inwardly had no new life.

All characteristics that are mentioned in the Hebrews 6:4-5 are outward characteristics. They apply to all professing Christians, thus both to the true Christians and to the Christians who are Christians only in name. With Christians who are Christians only in name there is knowledge, joy, enlightenment, privileges and power, but no spiritual life. Those are people 1. who have tears like Esau (Hebrews 12:17), 2. who are willing to die the death of the upright like Balaam (Numbers 23:10b), 3. who want God fearing people praying for them like Pharaoh (Exodus 8:8) and Simon the magician (Acts 8:24), 4. who prophesy like Caiaphas (John 11:49-52), 5. who love to hear the Word of God like Herod (Mark 6:20) and who are still no more than sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

“Have once been enlightened” means that they received light about the Person of Christ, His work, His glorification, but that it only refers to an intellectual enlightenment, while the light had not enlightened their conscience.

“Have tasted of the heavenly gift” means that they have received a certain taste of what God gave in Christ, possibly also from the heavenly position that Christ, the Messiah now takes. However, they have not eaten of it and they did not identify themselves with it.

“Have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit” are those who find themselves on the territory where the Holy Spirit works. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit also dwells in the person.

Hebrews 6:5. ”Have tasted the good word of God” means that they understood how precious the Word is, though it doesn’t have to mean that through that they were made alive.

“The powers of the age to come” are the works of power that will take place in the coming age, when the triumphing Messiah, the Son of God, will completely destroy all powers of the enemy. The Hebrews did see such works of power when the Lord Jesus was on earth and also during the early days of Christendom.

Hebrews 6:6. Each Christian shared in all these characteristics because he lived in a circle where these things were found. Even if there was no spiritual life, still each person experienced these influences. But it only applies to a person who has no spiritual life that he will fall away from that circle with those characteristics. He could turn his back on that circle and return to his former circle of confession.

The people concerned here first belonged to God’s people who crucified the Son of God. Then they confessed this as a sin and became confessors of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. But now they were willfully and knowingly committing the same crime again by returning to those people, while they turned their back on Christendom with its glorified Lord. It is not about people that were acting in ignorance. For these people the Lord Jesus indeed prayed: “They do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Fallen away people or apostates are those who were once enlightened and who acknowledged Christ as the Son of God, who also confessed His crucifixion as sin, but returned to it and still held Him for a traitor Who was rightly crucified. Those are not ignorant.

Some people in professing Christianity find themselves in the same position. They were made familiar with the truths about Christ, but come to deny, against their better judgment, His virgin birth, His perfect life, His Godhead, His atoning death and His bodily resurrection. For such people it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance, which means to repent again from their current error. They knew the truth, they confessed it, but then rejected it again and now they were dull of it. This rebellion reveals a hardened heart that can never possibly repent.

Hebrews 6:7. The writer clarifies with an example from nature what it means to have life of God or when this is missing. The life of the confessor is compared with “the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it”. In the rain you see the ministry of the Word, which is compared with water (Ephesians 5:26). The condition of the earth becomes visible through the rain that often falls on it.

The ‘rain’, that means the blessing from heaven, falls on the soul of the confessor in the form of Divine light, the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come. In the case of a true Christian the result of this ‘rain’ will be producing fruit for God in bringing praise offerings and the following of the Lord Jesus. In the case of the Christian only in name, the apostate, it appears that the rain doesn’t produce fruit in his life. That’s because the earth contains nothing what could bring fruit: there is no new life, no indwelling Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 6:8. The nominal Christian never brings forth useful vegetation because the soil is no good. Out of him only thorns and thistles come forth, the results of the fall of man (Genesis 3:17-18). That which is in connection with sin is under the curse and will eventually end up in an eternal curse and burning.

Now read Hebrews 6:1-8 again.

Reflection: What similarities and differences are there between the true and the false Christian?

James 1:17

True or False

Hebrews 6:1. The writer continues in the first part of this chapter his exhortations of the concluding verses of the previous chapter. He would like his readers to realize that they should not get “stuck” in “the elementary teaching about Christ”. By that he means everything that was said about and by Christ in relation to His coming to the earth. You may think of the announcement by John the baptist and also of the preaching of Christ Himself. Of course, everything about this in the Bible is God’s Word and therefore important, but it is all connected to the Old Testament and to Christ’s reign over His earthly people.

However, because of the rejection of Christ, a completely different situation emerged and to this the writer wants to focus the hearts of the believers. He wants them to “press on to maturity” or, as it also can be translated ‘to press on to perfection’. ‘Perfection’ is the knowledge of Christ in relation with the place He now takes, glorified in heaven.

The words “press on to” refer to the spiritual growth of the believer to that ‘perfection’. That means that you make Him in glory the object of your faith and the goal of your life. Then you will certainly not be willing to go back to the tangible religion, but you will surely want to go on, with the desire to learn to know more of Him and the wonderful results of His work.

Therefore, what you read in the second part of Heb 6:1 and in Hebrews 6:2 does not refer to Christendom but to Judaism. The writer doesn’t want to go into detail again about this issue, for they knew that from their past as Jews.

They indeed knew about “repentance from dead works”. That implies the repentance from works that were done by their own will, independent of God. Also about “faith toward God” they did not have to be taught again anymore. They are familiar with that from an early age. Repentance and faith are not specifically Christian truths. They were and are needed in all ages in case a sinful man wants to come into connection with a holy God.

Hebrews 6:2. The “instruction about washings” – and definitely not, as it is translated in the NKJV: the doctrine of baptisms – indicates the statutes that God gave to Israel concerning washing with water. That concerned matters or people who were defiled through contact with sin, that they may be used again in the service of God (e.g. Numbers 19:18).

The instruction about “laying on of hands” refers to what they had to do, for example, in offering. The laying on of hands means identification, in this case with the sacrifice (e.g. Leviticus 1:4; Leviticus 4:15).

The Jews are also familiar with “the resurrection of the dead” (John 11:24) as well as with “eternal judgment” (Isaiah 14:9-11; Isaiah 38:18; Isaiah 66:24).

All the characteristics mentioned are thus not specifically Christian, but on the contrary typical Jewish. Therefore the writer wants to leave all that.

Hebrews 6:3. When he says “and this we will do”, he doesn’t mean by that that he will come back on this later. No, ‘this’ refers to ‘to press on to maturity’ of Hebrews 6:1. “If God permits” he wants to take the readers with him in spirit to heaven, to the Lord Jesus in glory.

Hebrews 6:4. He consciously expresses himself like that to be dependent on God’s strength because the spiritual condition of some Hebrews did not allow him to carry out his plan at this moment. That’s because there were people among his readers – and there are also today – who accepted Christendom only outwardly, while inwardly they have not changed at all.

They exerted a wrong influence on the true believers, who, due to that, also became dull in following the rejected, though glorified Messiah. Therefore the writer addresses all of them in general terms. Thereby I underline that the impossibility to be renewed again to repentance, only refers to those who only outwardly partook of the privileges of the Hebrews 6:4-5, but inwardly had no new life.

All characteristics that are mentioned in the Hebrews 6:4-5 are outward characteristics. They apply to all professing Christians, thus both to the true Christians and to the Christians who are Christians only in name. With Christians who are Christians only in name there is knowledge, joy, enlightenment, privileges and power, but no spiritual life. Those are people 1. who have tears like Esau (Hebrews 12:17), 2. who are willing to die the death of the upright like Balaam (Numbers 23:10b), 3. who want God fearing people praying for them like Pharaoh (Exodus 8:8) and Simon the magician (Acts 8:24), 4. who prophesy like Caiaphas (John 11:49-52), 5. who love to hear the Word of God like Herod (Mark 6:20) and who are still no more than sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

“Have once been enlightened” means that they received light about the Person of Christ, His work, His glorification, but that it only refers to an intellectual enlightenment, while the light had not enlightened their conscience.

“Have tasted of the heavenly gift” means that they have received a certain taste of what God gave in Christ, possibly also from the heavenly position that Christ, the Messiah now takes. However, they have not eaten of it and they did not identify themselves with it.

“Have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit” are those who find themselves on the territory where the Holy Spirit works. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the Holy Spirit also dwells in the person.

Hebrews 6:5. ”Have tasted the good word of God” means that they understood how precious the Word is, though it doesn’t have to mean that through that they were made alive.

“The powers of the age to come” are the works of power that will take place in the coming age, when the triumphing Messiah, the Son of God, will completely destroy all powers of the enemy. The Hebrews did see such works of power when the Lord Jesus was on earth and also during the early days of Christendom.

Hebrews 6:6. Each Christian shared in all these characteristics because he lived in a circle where these things were found. Even if there was no spiritual life, still each person experienced these influences. But it only applies to a person who has no spiritual life that he will fall away from that circle with those characteristics. He could turn his back on that circle and return to his former circle of confession.

The people concerned here first belonged to God’s people who crucified the Son of God. Then they confessed this as a sin and became confessors of the Lord Jesus as the Messiah. But now they were willfully and knowingly committing the same crime again by returning to those people, while they turned their back on Christendom with its glorified Lord. It is not about people that were acting in ignorance. For these people the Lord Jesus indeed prayed: “They do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

Fallen away people or apostates are those who were once enlightened and who acknowledged Christ as the Son of God, who also confessed His crucifixion as sin, but returned to it and still held Him for a traitor Who was rightly crucified. Those are not ignorant.

Some people in professing Christianity find themselves in the same position. They were made familiar with the truths about Christ, but come to deny, against their better judgment, His virgin birth, His perfect life, His Godhead, His atoning death and His bodily resurrection. For such people it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance, which means to repent again from their current error. They knew the truth, they confessed it, but then rejected it again and now they were dull of it. This rebellion reveals a hardened heart that can never possibly repent.

Hebrews 6:7. The writer clarifies with an example from nature what it means to have life of God or when this is missing. The life of the confessor is compared with “the ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it”. In the rain you see the ministry of the Word, which is compared with water (Ephesians 5:26). The condition of the earth becomes visible through the rain that often falls on it.

The ‘rain’, that means the blessing from heaven, falls on the soul of the confessor in the form of Divine light, the heavenly gift, the Holy Spirit, the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come. In the case of a true Christian the result of this ‘rain’ will be producing fruit for God in bringing praise offerings and the following of the Lord Jesus. In the case of the Christian only in name, the apostate, it appears that the rain doesn’t produce fruit in his life. That’s because the earth contains nothing what could bring fruit: there is no new life, no indwelling Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 6:8. The nominal Christian never brings forth useful vegetation because the soil is no good. Out of him only thorns and thistles come forth, the results of the fall of man (Genesis 3:17-18). That which is in connection with sin is under the curse and will eventually end up in an eternal curse and burning.

Now read Hebrews 6:1-8 again.

Reflection: What similarities and differences are there between the true and the false Christian?

James 1:18

God’s Promise Is Sure and Steadfast

Hebrews 6:9. In the previous section the writer demonstrated insistently and seriously how terrible it is to belong to the Christian company outwardly, without being born again inwardly. Having read it, you would begin to doubt about yourself if it is all true.. You might be going through the same as those to whom this letter was addressed originally. After all, they were facing so many difficulties, there was a lot of resistance and the promised blessing seemed so far away. But now you suddenly hear that the writer, as far as the readers of his letter are concerned, was convinced that he was dealing with true Christians.

The reason why he had written that way, was because of the dangers of apostasy under the pressure from outside. With his warning he was considering the few who were in danger of falling away. Still he gave his warning in general terms because everyone should know that he is addressed. It should also make you deeply conscious that you will never make it by your own strength.

After the warning he now speaks about the fruits of the new life that were visible in the lives of these Jewish Christians. His conviction toward the genuineness of their faith was not because of great deeds they had done by faith, but because they had ministered to their fellow believers in simplicity. Others will notice that with you too. He calls them “beloved” to make them feel his love for them. Even though he had to address them seriously about the fate of the apostates, as far as they were concerned he is convinced that they were connected to “better” things. The ‘better things’ are all things that are related to the heavenly position that the Messiah now takes.

Likewise he is, concerning them, convinced that they would surely reach “salvation”, that is the final goal of the journey that a Christian makes on earth. In that way he focuses their eyes on the liberation from earthly circumstances to partake of the kingdom at the side of the Messiah in heaven.

Hebrews 6:10. It may be that the Hebrews were afraid that God had forgotten what they had shown toward His Name, i.e. what they had done to His honor. After all, they saw so little of His approval. It was appropriate, according to their Jewish way of thinking, that being faithful to God and defending the honor of His Name are rewarded by Him. But instead of the rest and welfare what they possibly were expecting, their life became even more difficult. The writer assures them that God is not unjust. He rewards what is shown toward His Name, although the reward can be postponed for a while. They had ministered to His saints and in that they had ministered to Him and they were still ministering to Him. God is not unjust to forget that (Matthew 25:40).

Hebrews 6:11. What matters now is to persevere in this with the same zeal they had shown at the beginning. They became dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11). Therefore there could perhaps be also a danger of becoming dull of their works.

The exhortation for perseverance comes to each of them personally, “each one of you”. It is wonderful to begin well, but there has to be shown the same diligence “until the end”. Again the attention is focused on the time that “the full assurance of hope” will be fulfilled. The end is the appearance of Christ for the establishment of His kingdom of peace, when He will reign as the true Melchizedek, the King-Priest, and will bless His people.

Hebrews 6:12. Therefore they ought not to become sluggish, what happens if earthly things will replace the heavenly ones that once filled their heart. Particularly by returning to a tangible religion the spiritual growth will be enormously delayed.

In order to exhort them to go on with zeal on the path they had chosen, the writer points them to become imitators of those who had been in the same position like them. They knew the Old Testament, didn’t they? Well, there are enough examples there of believers who inherited “through faith and patience … the promise”. God had promised them something and they had trusted God that He would give what He had promised. And despite the time was expiring they remained to trust patiently on the promise. They received that promise as an inheritance, while they held on to the promise that God was surely going to fulfill it, even beyond death.

Hebrews 6:13. The great example of a person to whom God promised something and who was strengthened by God in his faith, is Abraham. The Jewish Christians were in the same position as he was. He also had to rest in the promises without possessing what was promised. God even confirmed His promise by swearing an oath to give Abraham full assurance.

It indicates that God surely knows how hard it is for His own to continue to trust patiently on the fulfillment of the promises. In order to empower further the assurance of the oath, the writer points out that God swore “by Himself”. There is no higher authoritative source. The highest authority Himself acts as guarantor for the execution of the promise.

Hebrews 6:14-15. You see that every possible doubt is excluded. God already had promised a son to Abraham when he was still childless. Then Abraham had believed God (Genesis 15:1-6). That faith in God sustained him when God asked him to offer his only son (Hebrews 11:18). For this reason God gave Abraham a new promise, that of a rich blessing and countless descendants (Genesis 22:16-17). God supported that promise by the most powerful oath. Abraham has not seen that fulfillment, but the promise and the oath were sufficient for him to go on living and dying in faith, with the assurance that the fulfillment comes.

Hebrews 6:16. God makes every effort to convince His people that He will really do what He says. He adapts to what is common among people by swearing an oath. Among people an oath is an end of all dispute (cf. Exodus 22:11). In everything you see the extent to which He meets His people.

Hebrews 6:17. You see that again: He calls them expressly “heirs of the promise”. As if it is not enough that He as the almighty God has promised something, He confirms His promise with an oath. A promise is a declaration of purpose. An oath draws the attention to the person who puts himself openly and seriously behind the declaration. Because He knows how hard it is for His people to wait patiently for the fulfillment for a long time, He makes every effort to show “even more … the unchangeableness of His purpose”.

Hebrews 6:18. And as if all that is not enough yet, the writer points out that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2). God does not commit perjury. Therefore promise and oath are the “two unchangeable things” that guarantee the fulfillment of God’s counsel.

From this knowledge and assurance “a strong encouragement” comes forth. They were in danger to lose courage and to give up. In that situation encouragement is needed (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Then it is necessary to get your mind focused on the heavenly Lord and on the assurance that everything that is related to Him, will be fulfilled (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:18).

The Jewish Christians had fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus; they had themselves been baptized and had condemned the sin of the people in the rejection of their Messiah. By doing that they took hold of the hope set before them and were looking forward to the coming of the King-Priest to establish His kingdom of peace. He is the hope of the glory to come (Colossians 1:27).

Hebrews 6:19-20. This hope is like an anchor, keeping the ship amidst the turbulence firmly in its position. The anchor is behind the veil in heaven. Here the most vulnerable believer finds the strongest assurance of his faith without seeing anything of the fulfillment of the promise on earth. In heaven you see the Lord Jesus Who already entered there as the Forerunner of a long line of believers who will follow Him there. Where He has already entered as the High Priest, we may already follow Him in spirit now, and will soon follow Him literally.

To the Jewish Christians the ‘forerunner’ is a totally new thought. In the Old Testament the high priest never entered into the sanctuary as the forerunner, but as the representative. He entered into a place where no one could follow him. But Christ entered into the sanctuary and those who are His, follow Him into the sanctuary.

It is also encouraging while thinking of the anchor behind the veil, to think of the connection that you, who are on earth, do have with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our hope is like a reliable and sure anchor for our souls, reaching beyond the veil, where Jesus, as forerunner, has already entered, for our benefit: He is High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The assurance that we will enter heaven is the fact that the Forerunner is already there. That is confirmed in the last line by again quoting from Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6). In that way the attention of the Jewish Christians remains focused without diminishing on the Lord Jesus in heaven and on the future, for He is forever connected to the heavenly sanctuary. By seeing Him continually in that way the Jewish Christian will be delivered from Judaism and be strengthened in the heavenly character of Christendom that he accepted.

Now read Hebrews 6:9-20 again.

Reflection: Write down all assurances that are written in this section, regarding the promises that God will fulfill and thank Him for that.

James 1:19

God’s Promise Is Sure and Steadfast

Hebrews 6:9. In the previous section the writer demonstrated insistently and seriously how terrible it is to belong to the Christian company outwardly, without being born again inwardly. Having read it, you would begin to doubt about yourself if it is all true.. You might be going through the same as those to whom this letter was addressed originally. After all, they were facing so many difficulties, there was a lot of resistance and the promised blessing seemed so far away. But now you suddenly hear that the writer, as far as the readers of his letter are concerned, was convinced that he was dealing with true Christians.

The reason why he had written that way, was because of the dangers of apostasy under the pressure from outside. With his warning he was considering the few who were in danger of falling away. Still he gave his warning in general terms because everyone should know that he is addressed. It should also make you deeply conscious that you will never make it by your own strength.

After the warning he now speaks about the fruits of the new life that were visible in the lives of these Jewish Christians. His conviction toward the genuineness of their faith was not because of great deeds they had done by faith, but because they had ministered to their fellow believers in simplicity. Others will notice that with you too. He calls them “beloved” to make them feel his love for them. Even though he had to address them seriously about the fate of the apostates, as far as they were concerned he is convinced that they were connected to “better” things. The ‘better things’ are all things that are related to the heavenly position that the Messiah now takes.

Likewise he is, concerning them, convinced that they would surely reach “salvation”, that is the final goal of the journey that a Christian makes on earth. In that way he focuses their eyes on the liberation from earthly circumstances to partake of the kingdom at the side of the Messiah in heaven.

Hebrews 6:10. It may be that the Hebrews were afraid that God had forgotten what they had shown toward His Name, i.e. what they had done to His honor. After all, they saw so little of His approval. It was appropriate, according to their Jewish way of thinking, that being faithful to God and defending the honor of His Name are rewarded by Him. But instead of the rest and welfare what they possibly were expecting, their life became even more difficult. The writer assures them that God is not unjust. He rewards what is shown toward His Name, although the reward can be postponed for a while. They had ministered to His saints and in that they had ministered to Him and they were still ministering to Him. God is not unjust to forget that (Matthew 25:40).

Hebrews 6:11. What matters now is to persevere in this with the same zeal they had shown at the beginning. They became dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11). Therefore there could perhaps be also a danger of becoming dull of their works.

The exhortation for perseverance comes to each of them personally, “each one of you”. It is wonderful to begin well, but there has to be shown the same diligence “until the end”. Again the attention is focused on the time that “the full assurance of hope” will be fulfilled. The end is the appearance of Christ for the establishment of His kingdom of peace, when He will reign as the true Melchizedek, the King-Priest, and will bless His people.

Hebrews 6:12. Therefore they ought not to become sluggish, what happens if earthly things will replace the heavenly ones that once filled their heart. Particularly by returning to a tangible religion the spiritual growth will be enormously delayed.

In order to exhort them to go on with zeal on the path they had chosen, the writer points them to become imitators of those who had been in the same position like them. They knew the Old Testament, didn’t they? Well, there are enough examples there of believers who inherited “through faith and patience … the promise”. God had promised them something and they had trusted God that He would give what He had promised. And despite the time was expiring they remained to trust patiently on the promise. They received that promise as an inheritance, while they held on to the promise that God was surely going to fulfill it, even beyond death.

Hebrews 6:13. The great example of a person to whom God promised something and who was strengthened by God in his faith, is Abraham. The Jewish Christians were in the same position as he was. He also had to rest in the promises without possessing what was promised. God even confirmed His promise by swearing an oath to give Abraham full assurance.

It indicates that God surely knows how hard it is for His own to continue to trust patiently on the fulfillment of the promises. In order to empower further the assurance of the oath, the writer points out that God swore “by Himself”. There is no higher authoritative source. The highest authority Himself acts as guarantor for the execution of the promise.

Hebrews 6:14-15. You see that every possible doubt is excluded. God already had promised a son to Abraham when he was still childless. Then Abraham had believed God (Genesis 15:1-6). That faith in God sustained him when God asked him to offer his only son (Hebrews 11:18). For this reason God gave Abraham a new promise, that of a rich blessing and countless descendants (Genesis 22:16-17). God supported that promise by the most powerful oath. Abraham has not seen that fulfillment, but the promise and the oath were sufficient for him to go on living and dying in faith, with the assurance that the fulfillment comes.

Hebrews 6:16. God makes every effort to convince His people that He will really do what He says. He adapts to what is common among people by swearing an oath. Among people an oath is an end of all dispute (cf. Exodus 22:11). In everything you see the extent to which He meets His people.

Hebrews 6:17. You see that again: He calls them expressly “heirs of the promise”. As if it is not enough that He as the almighty God has promised something, He confirms His promise with an oath. A promise is a declaration of purpose. An oath draws the attention to the person who puts himself openly and seriously behind the declaration. Because He knows how hard it is for His people to wait patiently for the fulfillment for a long time, He makes every effort to show “even more … the unchangeableness of His purpose”.

Hebrews 6:18. And as if all that is not enough yet, the writer points out that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2). God does not commit perjury. Therefore promise and oath are the “two unchangeable things” that guarantee the fulfillment of God’s counsel.

From this knowledge and assurance “a strong encouragement” comes forth. They were in danger to lose courage and to give up. In that situation encouragement is needed (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Then it is necessary to get your mind focused on the heavenly Lord and on the assurance that everything that is related to Him, will be fulfilled (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:18).

The Jewish Christians had fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus; they had themselves been baptized and had condemned the sin of the people in the rejection of their Messiah. By doing that they took hold of the hope set before them and were looking forward to the coming of the King-Priest to establish His kingdom of peace. He is the hope of the glory to come (Colossians 1:27).

Hebrews 6:19-20. This hope is like an anchor, keeping the ship amidst the turbulence firmly in its position. The anchor is behind the veil in heaven. Here the most vulnerable believer finds the strongest assurance of his faith without seeing anything of the fulfillment of the promise on earth. In heaven you see the Lord Jesus Who already entered there as the Forerunner of a long line of believers who will follow Him there. Where He has already entered as the High Priest, we may already follow Him in spirit now, and will soon follow Him literally.

To the Jewish Christians the ‘forerunner’ is a totally new thought. In the Old Testament the high priest never entered into the sanctuary as the forerunner, but as the representative. He entered into a place where no one could follow him. But Christ entered into the sanctuary and those who are His, follow Him into the sanctuary.

It is also encouraging while thinking of the anchor behind the veil, to think of the connection that you, who are on earth, do have with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our hope is like a reliable and sure anchor for our souls, reaching beyond the veil, where Jesus, as forerunner, has already entered, for our benefit: He is High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The assurance that we will enter heaven is the fact that the Forerunner is already there. That is confirmed in the last line by again quoting from Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6). In that way the attention of the Jewish Christians remains focused without diminishing on the Lord Jesus in heaven and on the future, for He is forever connected to the heavenly sanctuary. By seeing Him continually in that way the Jewish Christian will be delivered from Judaism and be strengthened in the heavenly character of Christendom that he accepted.

Now read Hebrews 6:9-20 again.

Reflection: Write down all assurances that are written in this section, regarding the promises that God will fulfill and thank Him for that.

James 1:20

God’s Promise Is Sure and Steadfast

Hebrews 6:9. In the previous section the writer demonstrated insistently and seriously how terrible it is to belong to the Christian company outwardly, without being born again inwardly. Having read it, you would begin to doubt about yourself if it is all true.. You might be going through the same as those to whom this letter was addressed originally. After all, they were facing so many difficulties, there was a lot of resistance and the promised blessing seemed so far away. But now you suddenly hear that the writer, as far as the readers of his letter are concerned, was convinced that he was dealing with true Christians.

The reason why he had written that way, was because of the dangers of apostasy under the pressure from outside. With his warning he was considering the few who were in danger of falling away. Still he gave his warning in general terms because everyone should know that he is addressed. It should also make you deeply conscious that you will never make it by your own strength.

After the warning he now speaks about the fruits of the new life that were visible in the lives of these Jewish Christians. His conviction toward the genuineness of their faith was not because of great deeds they had done by faith, but because they had ministered to their fellow believers in simplicity. Others will notice that with you too. He calls them “beloved” to make them feel his love for them. Even though he had to address them seriously about the fate of the apostates, as far as they were concerned he is convinced that they were connected to “better” things. The ‘better things’ are all things that are related to the heavenly position that the Messiah now takes.

Likewise he is, concerning them, convinced that they would surely reach “salvation”, that is the final goal of the journey that a Christian makes on earth. In that way he focuses their eyes on the liberation from earthly circumstances to partake of the kingdom at the side of the Messiah in heaven.

Hebrews 6:10. It may be that the Hebrews were afraid that God had forgotten what they had shown toward His Name, i.e. what they had done to His honor. After all, they saw so little of His approval. It was appropriate, according to their Jewish way of thinking, that being faithful to God and defending the honor of His Name are rewarded by Him. But instead of the rest and welfare what they possibly were expecting, their life became even more difficult. The writer assures them that God is not unjust. He rewards what is shown toward His Name, although the reward can be postponed for a while. They had ministered to His saints and in that they had ministered to Him and they were still ministering to Him. God is not unjust to forget that (Matthew 25:40).

Hebrews 6:11. What matters now is to persevere in this with the same zeal they had shown at the beginning. They became dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11). Therefore there could perhaps be also a danger of becoming dull of their works.

The exhortation for perseverance comes to each of them personally, “each one of you”. It is wonderful to begin well, but there has to be shown the same diligence “until the end”. Again the attention is focused on the time that “the full assurance of hope” will be fulfilled. The end is the appearance of Christ for the establishment of His kingdom of peace, when He will reign as the true Melchizedek, the King-Priest, and will bless His people.

Hebrews 6:12. Therefore they ought not to become sluggish, what happens if earthly things will replace the heavenly ones that once filled their heart. Particularly by returning to a tangible religion the spiritual growth will be enormously delayed.

In order to exhort them to go on with zeal on the path they had chosen, the writer points them to become imitators of those who had been in the same position like them. They knew the Old Testament, didn’t they? Well, there are enough examples there of believers who inherited “through faith and patience … the promise”. God had promised them something and they had trusted God that He would give what He had promised. And despite the time was expiring they remained to trust patiently on the promise. They received that promise as an inheritance, while they held on to the promise that God was surely going to fulfill it, even beyond death.

Hebrews 6:13. The great example of a person to whom God promised something and who was strengthened by God in his faith, is Abraham. The Jewish Christians were in the same position as he was. He also had to rest in the promises without possessing what was promised. God even confirmed His promise by swearing an oath to give Abraham full assurance.

It indicates that God surely knows how hard it is for His own to continue to trust patiently on the fulfillment of the promises. In order to empower further the assurance of the oath, the writer points out that God swore “by Himself”. There is no higher authoritative source. The highest authority Himself acts as guarantor for the execution of the promise.

Hebrews 6:14-15. You see that every possible doubt is excluded. God already had promised a son to Abraham when he was still childless. Then Abraham had believed God (Genesis 15:1-6). That faith in God sustained him when God asked him to offer his only son (Hebrews 11:18). For this reason God gave Abraham a new promise, that of a rich blessing and countless descendants (Genesis 22:16-17). God supported that promise by the most powerful oath. Abraham has not seen that fulfillment, but the promise and the oath were sufficient for him to go on living and dying in faith, with the assurance that the fulfillment comes.

Hebrews 6:16. God makes every effort to convince His people that He will really do what He says. He adapts to what is common among people by swearing an oath. Among people an oath is an end of all dispute (cf. Exodus 22:11). In everything you see the extent to which He meets His people.

Hebrews 6:17. You see that again: He calls them expressly “heirs of the promise”. As if it is not enough that He as the almighty God has promised something, He confirms His promise with an oath. A promise is a declaration of purpose. An oath draws the attention to the person who puts himself openly and seriously behind the declaration. Because He knows how hard it is for His people to wait patiently for the fulfillment for a long time, He makes every effort to show “even more … the unchangeableness of His purpose”.

Hebrews 6:18. And as if all that is not enough yet, the writer points out that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2). God does not commit perjury. Therefore promise and oath are the “two unchangeable things” that guarantee the fulfillment of God’s counsel.

From this knowledge and assurance “a strong encouragement” comes forth. They were in danger to lose courage and to give up. In that situation encouragement is needed (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Then it is necessary to get your mind focused on the heavenly Lord and on the assurance that everything that is related to Him, will be fulfilled (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:18).

The Jewish Christians had fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus; they had themselves been baptized and had condemned the sin of the people in the rejection of their Messiah. By doing that they took hold of the hope set before them and were looking forward to the coming of the King-Priest to establish His kingdom of peace. He is the hope of the glory to come (Colossians 1:27).

Hebrews 6:19-20. This hope is like an anchor, keeping the ship amidst the turbulence firmly in its position. The anchor is behind the veil in heaven. Here the most vulnerable believer finds the strongest assurance of his faith without seeing anything of the fulfillment of the promise on earth. In heaven you see the Lord Jesus Who already entered there as the Forerunner of a long line of believers who will follow Him there. Where He has already entered as the High Priest, we may already follow Him in spirit now, and will soon follow Him literally.

To the Jewish Christians the ‘forerunner’ is a totally new thought. In the Old Testament the high priest never entered into the sanctuary as the forerunner, but as the representative. He entered into a place where no one could follow him. But Christ entered into the sanctuary and those who are His, follow Him into the sanctuary.

It is also encouraging while thinking of the anchor behind the veil, to think of the connection that you, who are on earth, do have with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our hope is like a reliable and sure anchor for our souls, reaching beyond the veil, where Jesus, as forerunner, has already entered, for our benefit: He is High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The assurance that we will enter heaven is the fact that the Forerunner is already there. That is confirmed in the last line by again quoting from Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6). In that way the attention of the Jewish Christians remains focused without diminishing on the Lord Jesus in heaven and on the future, for He is forever connected to the heavenly sanctuary. By seeing Him continually in that way the Jewish Christian will be delivered from Judaism and be strengthened in the heavenly character of Christendom that he accepted.

Now read Hebrews 6:9-20 again.

Reflection: Write down all assurances that are written in this section, regarding the promises that God will fulfill and thank Him for that.

James 1:21

God’s Promise Is Sure and Steadfast

Hebrews 6:9. In the previous section the writer demonstrated insistently and seriously how terrible it is to belong to the Christian company outwardly, without being born again inwardly. Having read it, you would begin to doubt about yourself if it is all true.. You might be going through the same as those to whom this letter was addressed originally. After all, they were facing so many difficulties, there was a lot of resistance and the promised blessing seemed so far away. But now you suddenly hear that the writer, as far as the readers of his letter are concerned, was convinced that he was dealing with true Christians.

The reason why he had written that way, was because of the dangers of apostasy under the pressure from outside. With his warning he was considering the few who were in danger of falling away. Still he gave his warning in general terms because everyone should know that he is addressed. It should also make you deeply conscious that you will never make it by your own strength.

After the warning he now speaks about the fruits of the new life that were visible in the lives of these Jewish Christians. His conviction toward the genuineness of their faith was not because of great deeds they had done by faith, but because they had ministered to their fellow believers in simplicity. Others will notice that with you too. He calls them “beloved” to make them feel his love for them. Even though he had to address them seriously about the fate of the apostates, as far as they were concerned he is convinced that they were connected to “better” things. The ‘better things’ are all things that are related to the heavenly position that the Messiah now takes.

Likewise he is, concerning them, convinced that they would surely reach “salvation”, that is the final goal of the journey that a Christian makes on earth. In that way he focuses their eyes on the liberation from earthly circumstances to partake of the kingdom at the side of the Messiah in heaven.

Hebrews 6:10. It may be that the Hebrews were afraid that God had forgotten what they had shown toward His Name, i.e. what they had done to His honor. After all, they saw so little of His approval. It was appropriate, according to their Jewish way of thinking, that being faithful to God and defending the honor of His Name are rewarded by Him. But instead of the rest and welfare what they possibly were expecting, their life became even more difficult. The writer assures them that God is not unjust. He rewards what is shown toward His Name, although the reward can be postponed for a while. They had ministered to His saints and in that they had ministered to Him and they were still ministering to Him. God is not unjust to forget that (Matthew 25:40).

Hebrews 6:11. What matters now is to persevere in this with the same zeal they had shown at the beginning. They became dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11). Therefore there could perhaps be also a danger of becoming dull of their works.

The exhortation for perseverance comes to each of them personally, “each one of you”. It is wonderful to begin well, but there has to be shown the same diligence “until the end”. Again the attention is focused on the time that “the full assurance of hope” will be fulfilled. The end is the appearance of Christ for the establishment of His kingdom of peace, when He will reign as the true Melchizedek, the King-Priest, and will bless His people.

Hebrews 6:12. Therefore they ought not to become sluggish, what happens if earthly things will replace the heavenly ones that once filled their heart. Particularly by returning to a tangible religion the spiritual growth will be enormously delayed.

In order to exhort them to go on with zeal on the path they had chosen, the writer points them to become imitators of those who had been in the same position like them. They knew the Old Testament, didn’t they? Well, there are enough examples there of believers who inherited “through faith and patience … the promise”. God had promised them something and they had trusted God that He would give what He had promised. And despite the time was expiring they remained to trust patiently on the promise. They received that promise as an inheritance, while they held on to the promise that God was surely going to fulfill it, even beyond death.

Hebrews 6:13. The great example of a person to whom God promised something and who was strengthened by God in his faith, is Abraham. The Jewish Christians were in the same position as he was. He also had to rest in the promises without possessing what was promised. God even confirmed His promise by swearing an oath to give Abraham full assurance.

It indicates that God surely knows how hard it is for His own to continue to trust patiently on the fulfillment of the promises. In order to empower further the assurance of the oath, the writer points out that God swore “by Himself”. There is no higher authoritative source. The highest authority Himself acts as guarantor for the execution of the promise.

Hebrews 6:14-15. You see that every possible doubt is excluded. God already had promised a son to Abraham when he was still childless. Then Abraham had believed God (Genesis 15:1-6). That faith in God sustained him when God asked him to offer his only son (Hebrews 11:18). For this reason God gave Abraham a new promise, that of a rich blessing and countless descendants (Genesis 22:16-17). God supported that promise by the most powerful oath. Abraham has not seen that fulfillment, but the promise and the oath were sufficient for him to go on living and dying in faith, with the assurance that the fulfillment comes.

Hebrews 6:16. God makes every effort to convince His people that He will really do what He says. He adapts to what is common among people by swearing an oath. Among people an oath is an end of all dispute (cf. Exodus 22:11). In everything you see the extent to which He meets His people.

Hebrews 6:17. You see that again: He calls them expressly “heirs of the promise”. As if it is not enough that He as the almighty God has promised something, He confirms His promise with an oath. A promise is a declaration of purpose. An oath draws the attention to the person who puts himself openly and seriously behind the declaration. Because He knows how hard it is for His people to wait patiently for the fulfillment for a long time, He makes every effort to show “even more … the unchangeableness of His purpose”.

Hebrews 6:18. And as if all that is not enough yet, the writer points out that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2). God does not commit perjury. Therefore promise and oath are the “two unchangeable things” that guarantee the fulfillment of God’s counsel.

From this knowledge and assurance “a strong encouragement” comes forth. They were in danger to lose courage and to give up. In that situation encouragement is needed (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Then it is necessary to get your mind focused on the heavenly Lord and on the assurance that everything that is related to Him, will be fulfilled (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:18).

The Jewish Christians had fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus; they had themselves been baptized and had condemned the sin of the people in the rejection of their Messiah. By doing that they took hold of the hope set before them and were looking forward to the coming of the King-Priest to establish His kingdom of peace. He is the hope of the glory to come (Colossians 1:27).

Hebrews 6:19-20. This hope is like an anchor, keeping the ship amidst the turbulence firmly in its position. The anchor is behind the veil in heaven. Here the most vulnerable believer finds the strongest assurance of his faith without seeing anything of the fulfillment of the promise on earth. In heaven you see the Lord Jesus Who already entered there as the Forerunner of a long line of believers who will follow Him there. Where He has already entered as the High Priest, we may already follow Him in spirit now, and will soon follow Him literally.

To the Jewish Christians the ‘forerunner’ is a totally new thought. In the Old Testament the high priest never entered into the sanctuary as the forerunner, but as the representative. He entered into a place where no one could follow him. But Christ entered into the sanctuary and those who are His, follow Him into the sanctuary.

It is also encouraging while thinking of the anchor behind the veil, to think of the connection that you, who are on earth, do have with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our hope is like a reliable and sure anchor for our souls, reaching beyond the veil, where Jesus, as forerunner, has already entered, for our benefit: He is High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The assurance that we will enter heaven is the fact that the Forerunner is already there. That is confirmed in the last line by again quoting from Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6). In that way the attention of the Jewish Christians remains focused without diminishing on the Lord Jesus in heaven and on the future, for He is forever connected to the heavenly sanctuary. By seeing Him continually in that way the Jewish Christian will be delivered from Judaism and be strengthened in the heavenly character of Christendom that he accepted.

Now read Hebrews 6:9-20 again.

Reflection: Write down all assurances that are written in this section, regarding the promises that God will fulfill and thank Him for that.

James 1:22

God’s Promise Is Sure and Steadfast

Hebrews 6:9. In the previous section the writer demonstrated insistently and seriously how terrible it is to belong to the Christian company outwardly, without being born again inwardly. Having read it, you would begin to doubt about yourself if it is all true.. You might be going through the same as those to whom this letter was addressed originally. After all, they were facing so many difficulties, there was a lot of resistance and the promised blessing seemed so far away. But now you suddenly hear that the writer, as far as the readers of his letter are concerned, was convinced that he was dealing with true Christians.

The reason why he had written that way, was because of the dangers of apostasy under the pressure from outside. With his warning he was considering the few who were in danger of falling away. Still he gave his warning in general terms because everyone should know that he is addressed. It should also make you deeply conscious that you will never make it by your own strength.

After the warning he now speaks about the fruits of the new life that were visible in the lives of these Jewish Christians. His conviction toward the genuineness of their faith was not because of great deeds they had done by faith, but because they had ministered to their fellow believers in simplicity. Others will notice that with you too. He calls them “beloved” to make them feel his love for them. Even though he had to address them seriously about the fate of the apostates, as far as they were concerned he is convinced that they were connected to “better” things. The ‘better things’ are all things that are related to the heavenly position that the Messiah now takes.

Likewise he is, concerning them, convinced that they would surely reach “salvation”, that is the final goal of the journey that a Christian makes on earth. In that way he focuses their eyes on the liberation from earthly circumstances to partake of the kingdom at the side of the Messiah in heaven.

Hebrews 6:10. It may be that the Hebrews were afraid that God had forgotten what they had shown toward His Name, i.e. what they had done to His honor. After all, they saw so little of His approval. It was appropriate, according to their Jewish way of thinking, that being faithful to God and defending the honor of His Name are rewarded by Him. But instead of the rest and welfare what they possibly were expecting, their life became even more difficult. The writer assures them that God is not unjust. He rewards what is shown toward His Name, although the reward can be postponed for a while. They had ministered to His saints and in that they had ministered to Him and they were still ministering to Him. God is not unjust to forget that (Matthew 25:40).

Hebrews 6:11. What matters now is to persevere in this with the same zeal they had shown at the beginning. They became dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11). Therefore there could perhaps be also a danger of becoming dull of their works.

The exhortation for perseverance comes to each of them personally, “each one of you”. It is wonderful to begin well, but there has to be shown the same diligence “until the end”. Again the attention is focused on the time that “the full assurance of hope” will be fulfilled. The end is the appearance of Christ for the establishment of His kingdom of peace, when He will reign as the true Melchizedek, the King-Priest, and will bless His people.

Hebrews 6:12. Therefore they ought not to become sluggish, what happens if earthly things will replace the heavenly ones that once filled their heart. Particularly by returning to a tangible religion the spiritual growth will be enormously delayed.

In order to exhort them to go on with zeal on the path they had chosen, the writer points them to become imitators of those who had been in the same position like them. They knew the Old Testament, didn’t they? Well, there are enough examples there of believers who inherited “through faith and patience … the promise”. God had promised them something and they had trusted God that He would give what He had promised. And despite the time was expiring they remained to trust patiently on the promise. They received that promise as an inheritance, while they held on to the promise that God was surely going to fulfill it, even beyond death.

Hebrews 6:13. The great example of a person to whom God promised something and who was strengthened by God in his faith, is Abraham. The Jewish Christians were in the same position as he was. He also had to rest in the promises without possessing what was promised. God even confirmed His promise by swearing an oath to give Abraham full assurance.

It indicates that God surely knows how hard it is for His own to continue to trust patiently on the fulfillment of the promises. In order to empower further the assurance of the oath, the writer points out that God swore “by Himself”. There is no higher authoritative source. The highest authority Himself acts as guarantor for the execution of the promise.

Hebrews 6:14-15. You see that every possible doubt is excluded. God already had promised a son to Abraham when he was still childless. Then Abraham had believed God (Genesis 15:1-6). That faith in God sustained him when God asked him to offer his only son (Hebrews 11:18). For this reason God gave Abraham a new promise, that of a rich blessing and countless descendants (Genesis 22:16-17). God supported that promise by the most powerful oath. Abraham has not seen that fulfillment, but the promise and the oath were sufficient for him to go on living and dying in faith, with the assurance that the fulfillment comes.

Hebrews 6:16. God makes every effort to convince His people that He will really do what He says. He adapts to what is common among people by swearing an oath. Among people an oath is an end of all dispute (cf. Exodus 22:11). In everything you see the extent to which He meets His people.

Hebrews 6:17. You see that again: He calls them expressly “heirs of the promise”. As if it is not enough that He as the almighty God has promised something, He confirms His promise with an oath. A promise is a declaration of purpose. An oath draws the attention to the person who puts himself openly and seriously behind the declaration. Because He knows how hard it is for His people to wait patiently for the fulfillment for a long time, He makes every effort to show “even more … the unchangeableness of His purpose”.

Hebrews 6:18. And as if all that is not enough yet, the writer points out that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2). God does not commit perjury. Therefore promise and oath are the “two unchangeable things” that guarantee the fulfillment of God’s counsel.

From this knowledge and assurance “a strong encouragement” comes forth. They were in danger to lose courage and to give up. In that situation encouragement is needed (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Then it is necessary to get your mind focused on the heavenly Lord and on the assurance that everything that is related to Him, will be fulfilled (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:18).

The Jewish Christians had fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus; they had themselves been baptized and had condemned the sin of the people in the rejection of their Messiah. By doing that they took hold of the hope set before them and were looking forward to the coming of the King-Priest to establish His kingdom of peace. He is the hope of the glory to come (Colossians 1:27).

Hebrews 6:19-20. This hope is like an anchor, keeping the ship amidst the turbulence firmly in its position. The anchor is behind the veil in heaven. Here the most vulnerable believer finds the strongest assurance of his faith without seeing anything of the fulfillment of the promise on earth. In heaven you see the Lord Jesus Who already entered there as the Forerunner of a long line of believers who will follow Him there. Where He has already entered as the High Priest, we may already follow Him in spirit now, and will soon follow Him literally.

To the Jewish Christians the ‘forerunner’ is a totally new thought. In the Old Testament the high priest never entered into the sanctuary as the forerunner, but as the representative. He entered into a place where no one could follow him. But Christ entered into the sanctuary and those who are His, follow Him into the sanctuary.

It is also encouraging while thinking of the anchor behind the veil, to think of the connection that you, who are on earth, do have with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our hope is like a reliable and sure anchor for our souls, reaching beyond the veil, where Jesus, as forerunner, has already entered, for our benefit: He is High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The assurance that we will enter heaven is the fact that the Forerunner is already there. That is confirmed in the last line by again quoting from Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6). In that way the attention of the Jewish Christians remains focused without diminishing on the Lord Jesus in heaven and on the future, for He is forever connected to the heavenly sanctuary. By seeing Him continually in that way the Jewish Christian will be delivered from Judaism and be strengthened in the heavenly character of Christendom that he accepted.

Now read Hebrews 6:9-20 again.

Reflection: Write down all assurances that are written in this section, regarding the promises that God will fulfill and thank Him for that.

James 1:23

God’s Promise Is Sure and Steadfast

Hebrews 6:9. In the previous section the writer demonstrated insistently and seriously how terrible it is to belong to the Christian company outwardly, without being born again inwardly. Having read it, you would begin to doubt about yourself if it is all true.. You might be going through the same as those to whom this letter was addressed originally. After all, they were facing so many difficulties, there was a lot of resistance and the promised blessing seemed so far away. But now you suddenly hear that the writer, as far as the readers of his letter are concerned, was convinced that he was dealing with true Christians.

The reason why he had written that way, was because of the dangers of apostasy under the pressure from outside. With his warning he was considering the few who were in danger of falling away. Still he gave his warning in general terms because everyone should know that he is addressed. It should also make you deeply conscious that you will never make it by your own strength.

After the warning he now speaks about the fruits of the new life that were visible in the lives of these Jewish Christians. His conviction toward the genuineness of their faith was not because of great deeds they had done by faith, but because they had ministered to their fellow believers in simplicity. Others will notice that with you too. He calls them “beloved” to make them feel his love for them. Even though he had to address them seriously about the fate of the apostates, as far as they were concerned he is convinced that they were connected to “better” things. The ‘better things’ are all things that are related to the heavenly position that the Messiah now takes.

Likewise he is, concerning them, convinced that they would surely reach “salvation”, that is the final goal of the journey that a Christian makes on earth. In that way he focuses their eyes on the liberation from earthly circumstances to partake of the kingdom at the side of the Messiah in heaven.

Hebrews 6:10. It may be that the Hebrews were afraid that God had forgotten what they had shown toward His Name, i.e. what they had done to His honor. After all, they saw so little of His approval. It was appropriate, according to their Jewish way of thinking, that being faithful to God and defending the honor of His Name are rewarded by Him. But instead of the rest and welfare what they possibly were expecting, their life became even more difficult. The writer assures them that God is not unjust. He rewards what is shown toward His Name, although the reward can be postponed for a while. They had ministered to His saints and in that they had ministered to Him and they were still ministering to Him. God is not unjust to forget that (Matthew 25:40).

Hebrews 6:11. What matters now is to persevere in this with the same zeal they had shown at the beginning. They became dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11). Therefore there could perhaps be also a danger of becoming dull of their works.

The exhortation for perseverance comes to each of them personally, “each one of you”. It is wonderful to begin well, but there has to be shown the same diligence “until the end”. Again the attention is focused on the time that “the full assurance of hope” will be fulfilled. The end is the appearance of Christ for the establishment of His kingdom of peace, when He will reign as the true Melchizedek, the King-Priest, and will bless His people.

Hebrews 6:12. Therefore they ought not to become sluggish, what happens if earthly things will replace the heavenly ones that once filled their heart. Particularly by returning to a tangible religion the spiritual growth will be enormously delayed.

In order to exhort them to go on with zeal on the path they had chosen, the writer points them to become imitators of those who had been in the same position like them. They knew the Old Testament, didn’t they? Well, there are enough examples there of believers who inherited “through faith and patience … the promise”. God had promised them something and they had trusted God that He would give what He had promised. And despite the time was expiring they remained to trust patiently on the promise. They received that promise as an inheritance, while they held on to the promise that God was surely going to fulfill it, even beyond death.

Hebrews 6:13. The great example of a person to whom God promised something and who was strengthened by God in his faith, is Abraham. The Jewish Christians were in the same position as he was. He also had to rest in the promises without possessing what was promised. God even confirmed His promise by swearing an oath to give Abraham full assurance.

It indicates that God surely knows how hard it is for His own to continue to trust patiently on the fulfillment of the promises. In order to empower further the assurance of the oath, the writer points out that God swore “by Himself”. There is no higher authoritative source. The highest authority Himself acts as guarantor for the execution of the promise.

Hebrews 6:14-15. You see that every possible doubt is excluded. God already had promised a son to Abraham when he was still childless. Then Abraham had believed God (Genesis 15:1-6). That faith in God sustained him when God asked him to offer his only son (Hebrews 11:18). For this reason God gave Abraham a new promise, that of a rich blessing and countless descendants (Genesis 22:16-17). God supported that promise by the most powerful oath. Abraham has not seen that fulfillment, but the promise and the oath were sufficient for him to go on living and dying in faith, with the assurance that the fulfillment comes.

Hebrews 6:16. God makes every effort to convince His people that He will really do what He says. He adapts to what is common among people by swearing an oath. Among people an oath is an end of all dispute (cf. Exodus 22:11). In everything you see the extent to which He meets His people.

Hebrews 6:17. You see that again: He calls them expressly “heirs of the promise”. As if it is not enough that He as the almighty God has promised something, He confirms His promise with an oath. A promise is a declaration of purpose. An oath draws the attention to the person who puts himself openly and seriously behind the declaration. Because He knows how hard it is for His people to wait patiently for the fulfillment for a long time, He makes every effort to show “even more … the unchangeableness of His purpose”.

Hebrews 6:18. And as if all that is not enough yet, the writer points out that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2). God does not commit perjury. Therefore promise and oath are the “two unchangeable things” that guarantee the fulfillment of God’s counsel.

From this knowledge and assurance “a strong encouragement” comes forth. They were in danger to lose courage and to give up. In that situation encouragement is needed (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Then it is necessary to get your mind focused on the heavenly Lord and on the assurance that everything that is related to Him, will be fulfilled (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:18).

The Jewish Christians had fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus; they had themselves been baptized and had condemned the sin of the people in the rejection of their Messiah. By doing that they took hold of the hope set before them and were looking forward to the coming of the King-Priest to establish His kingdom of peace. He is the hope of the glory to come (Colossians 1:27).

Hebrews 6:19-20. This hope is like an anchor, keeping the ship amidst the turbulence firmly in its position. The anchor is behind the veil in heaven. Here the most vulnerable believer finds the strongest assurance of his faith without seeing anything of the fulfillment of the promise on earth. In heaven you see the Lord Jesus Who already entered there as the Forerunner of a long line of believers who will follow Him there. Where He has already entered as the High Priest, we may already follow Him in spirit now, and will soon follow Him literally.

To the Jewish Christians the ‘forerunner’ is a totally new thought. In the Old Testament the high priest never entered into the sanctuary as the forerunner, but as the representative. He entered into a place where no one could follow him. But Christ entered into the sanctuary and those who are His, follow Him into the sanctuary.

It is also encouraging while thinking of the anchor behind the veil, to think of the connection that you, who are on earth, do have with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our hope is like a reliable and sure anchor for our souls, reaching beyond the veil, where Jesus, as forerunner, has already entered, for our benefit: He is High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The assurance that we will enter heaven is the fact that the Forerunner is already there. That is confirmed in the last line by again quoting from Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6). In that way the attention of the Jewish Christians remains focused without diminishing on the Lord Jesus in heaven and on the future, for He is forever connected to the heavenly sanctuary. By seeing Him continually in that way the Jewish Christian will be delivered from Judaism and be strengthened in the heavenly character of Christendom that he accepted.

Now read Hebrews 6:9-20 again.

Reflection: Write down all assurances that are written in this section, regarding the promises that God will fulfill and thank Him for that.

James 1:24

God’s Promise Is Sure and Steadfast

Hebrews 6:9. In the previous section the writer demonstrated insistently and seriously how terrible it is to belong to the Christian company outwardly, without being born again inwardly. Having read it, you would begin to doubt about yourself if it is all true.. You might be going through the same as those to whom this letter was addressed originally. After all, they were facing so many difficulties, there was a lot of resistance and the promised blessing seemed so far away. But now you suddenly hear that the writer, as far as the readers of his letter are concerned, was convinced that he was dealing with true Christians.

The reason why he had written that way, was because of the dangers of apostasy under the pressure from outside. With his warning he was considering the few who were in danger of falling away. Still he gave his warning in general terms because everyone should know that he is addressed. It should also make you deeply conscious that you will never make it by your own strength.

After the warning he now speaks about the fruits of the new life that were visible in the lives of these Jewish Christians. His conviction toward the genuineness of their faith was not because of great deeds they had done by faith, but because they had ministered to their fellow believers in simplicity. Others will notice that with you too. He calls them “beloved” to make them feel his love for them. Even though he had to address them seriously about the fate of the apostates, as far as they were concerned he is convinced that they were connected to “better” things. The ‘better things’ are all things that are related to the heavenly position that the Messiah now takes.

Likewise he is, concerning them, convinced that they would surely reach “salvation”, that is the final goal of the journey that a Christian makes on earth. In that way he focuses their eyes on the liberation from earthly circumstances to partake of the kingdom at the side of the Messiah in heaven.

Hebrews 6:10. It may be that the Hebrews were afraid that God had forgotten what they had shown toward His Name, i.e. what they had done to His honor. After all, they saw so little of His approval. It was appropriate, according to their Jewish way of thinking, that being faithful to God and defending the honor of His Name are rewarded by Him. But instead of the rest and welfare what they possibly were expecting, their life became even more difficult. The writer assures them that God is not unjust. He rewards what is shown toward His Name, although the reward can be postponed for a while. They had ministered to His saints and in that they had ministered to Him and they were still ministering to Him. God is not unjust to forget that (Matthew 25:40).

Hebrews 6:11. What matters now is to persevere in this with the same zeal they had shown at the beginning. They became dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11). Therefore there could perhaps be also a danger of becoming dull of their works.

The exhortation for perseverance comes to each of them personally, “each one of you”. It is wonderful to begin well, but there has to be shown the same diligence “until the end”. Again the attention is focused on the time that “the full assurance of hope” will be fulfilled. The end is the appearance of Christ for the establishment of His kingdom of peace, when He will reign as the true Melchizedek, the King-Priest, and will bless His people.

Hebrews 6:12. Therefore they ought not to become sluggish, what happens if earthly things will replace the heavenly ones that once filled their heart. Particularly by returning to a tangible religion the spiritual growth will be enormously delayed.

In order to exhort them to go on with zeal on the path they had chosen, the writer points them to become imitators of those who had been in the same position like them. They knew the Old Testament, didn’t they? Well, there are enough examples there of believers who inherited “through faith and patience … the promise”. God had promised them something and they had trusted God that He would give what He had promised. And despite the time was expiring they remained to trust patiently on the promise. They received that promise as an inheritance, while they held on to the promise that God was surely going to fulfill it, even beyond death.

Hebrews 6:13. The great example of a person to whom God promised something and who was strengthened by God in his faith, is Abraham. The Jewish Christians were in the same position as he was. He also had to rest in the promises without possessing what was promised. God even confirmed His promise by swearing an oath to give Abraham full assurance.

It indicates that God surely knows how hard it is for His own to continue to trust patiently on the fulfillment of the promises. In order to empower further the assurance of the oath, the writer points out that God swore “by Himself”. There is no higher authoritative source. The highest authority Himself acts as guarantor for the execution of the promise.

Hebrews 6:14-15. You see that every possible doubt is excluded. God already had promised a son to Abraham when he was still childless. Then Abraham had believed God (Genesis 15:1-6). That faith in God sustained him when God asked him to offer his only son (Hebrews 11:18). For this reason God gave Abraham a new promise, that of a rich blessing and countless descendants (Genesis 22:16-17). God supported that promise by the most powerful oath. Abraham has not seen that fulfillment, but the promise and the oath were sufficient for him to go on living and dying in faith, with the assurance that the fulfillment comes.

Hebrews 6:16. God makes every effort to convince His people that He will really do what He says. He adapts to what is common among people by swearing an oath. Among people an oath is an end of all dispute (cf. Exodus 22:11). In everything you see the extent to which He meets His people.

Hebrews 6:17. You see that again: He calls them expressly “heirs of the promise”. As if it is not enough that He as the almighty God has promised something, He confirms His promise with an oath. A promise is a declaration of purpose. An oath draws the attention to the person who puts himself openly and seriously behind the declaration. Because He knows how hard it is for His people to wait patiently for the fulfillment for a long time, He makes every effort to show “even more … the unchangeableness of His purpose”.

Hebrews 6:18. And as if all that is not enough yet, the writer points out that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2). God does not commit perjury. Therefore promise and oath are the “two unchangeable things” that guarantee the fulfillment of God’s counsel.

From this knowledge and assurance “a strong encouragement” comes forth. They were in danger to lose courage and to give up. In that situation encouragement is needed (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Then it is necessary to get your mind focused on the heavenly Lord and on the assurance that everything that is related to Him, will be fulfilled (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:18).

The Jewish Christians had fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus; they had themselves been baptized and had condemned the sin of the people in the rejection of their Messiah. By doing that they took hold of the hope set before them and were looking forward to the coming of the King-Priest to establish His kingdom of peace. He is the hope of the glory to come (Colossians 1:27).

Hebrews 6:19-20. This hope is like an anchor, keeping the ship amidst the turbulence firmly in its position. The anchor is behind the veil in heaven. Here the most vulnerable believer finds the strongest assurance of his faith without seeing anything of the fulfillment of the promise on earth. In heaven you see the Lord Jesus Who already entered there as the Forerunner of a long line of believers who will follow Him there. Where He has already entered as the High Priest, we may already follow Him in spirit now, and will soon follow Him literally.

To the Jewish Christians the ‘forerunner’ is a totally new thought. In the Old Testament the high priest never entered into the sanctuary as the forerunner, but as the representative. He entered into a place where no one could follow him. But Christ entered into the sanctuary and those who are His, follow Him into the sanctuary.

It is also encouraging while thinking of the anchor behind the veil, to think of the connection that you, who are on earth, do have with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our hope is like a reliable and sure anchor for our souls, reaching beyond the veil, where Jesus, as forerunner, has already entered, for our benefit: He is High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The assurance that we will enter heaven is the fact that the Forerunner is already there. That is confirmed in the last line by again quoting from Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6). In that way the attention of the Jewish Christians remains focused without diminishing on the Lord Jesus in heaven and on the future, for He is forever connected to the heavenly sanctuary. By seeing Him continually in that way the Jewish Christian will be delivered from Judaism and be strengthened in the heavenly character of Christendom that he accepted.

Now read Hebrews 6:9-20 again.

Reflection: Write down all assurances that are written in this section, regarding the promises that God will fulfill and thank Him for that.

James 1:25

God’s Promise Is Sure and Steadfast

Hebrews 6:9. In the previous section the writer demonstrated insistently and seriously how terrible it is to belong to the Christian company outwardly, without being born again inwardly. Having read it, you would begin to doubt about yourself if it is all true.. You might be going through the same as those to whom this letter was addressed originally. After all, they were facing so many difficulties, there was a lot of resistance and the promised blessing seemed so far away. But now you suddenly hear that the writer, as far as the readers of his letter are concerned, was convinced that he was dealing with true Christians.

The reason why he had written that way, was because of the dangers of apostasy under the pressure from outside. With his warning he was considering the few who were in danger of falling away. Still he gave his warning in general terms because everyone should know that he is addressed. It should also make you deeply conscious that you will never make it by your own strength.

After the warning he now speaks about the fruits of the new life that were visible in the lives of these Jewish Christians. His conviction toward the genuineness of their faith was not because of great deeds they had done by faith, but because they had ministered to their fellow believers in simplicity. Others will notice that with you too. He calls them “beloved” to make them feel his love for them. Even though he had to address them seriously about the fate of the apostates, as far as they were concerned he is convinced that they were connected to “better” things. The ‘better things’ are all things that are related to the heavenly position that the Messiah now takes.

Likewise he is, concerning them, convinced that they would surely reach “salvation”, that is the final goal of the journey that a Christian makes on earth. In that way he focuses their eyes on the liberation from earthly circumstances to partake of the kingdom at the side of the Messiah in heaven.

Hebrews 6:10. It may be that the Hebrews were afraid that God had forgotten what they had shown toward His Name, i.e. what they had done to His honor. After all, they saw so little of His approval. It was appropriate, according to their Jewish way of thinking, that being faithful to God and defending the honor of His Name are rewarded by Him. But instead of the rest and welfare what they possibly were expecting, their life became even more difficult. The writer assures them that God is not unjust. He rewards what is shown toward His Name, although the reward can be postponed for a while. They had ministered to His saints and in that they had ministered to Him and they were still ministering to Him. God is not unjust to forget that (Matthew 25:40).

Hebrews 6:11. What matters now is to persevere in this with the same zeal they had shown at the beginning. They became dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11). Therefore there could perhaps be also a danger of becoming dull of their works.

The exhortation for perseverance comes to each of them personally, “each one of you”. It is wonderful to begin well, but there has to be shown the same diligence “until the end”. Again the attention is focused on the time that “the full assurance of hope” will be fulfilled. The end is the appearance of Christ for the establishment of His kingdom of peace, when He will reign as the true Melchizedek, the King-Priest, and will bless His people.

Hebrews 6:12. Therefore they ought not to become sluggish, what happens if earthly things will replace the heavenly ones that once filled their heart. Particularly by returning to a tangible religion the spiritual growth will be enormously delayed.

In order to exhort them to go on with zeal on the path they had chosen, the writer points them to become imitators of those who had been in the same position like them. They knew the Old Testament, didn’t they? Well, there are enough examples there of believers who inherited “through faith and patience … the promise”. God had promised them something and they had trusted God that He would give what He had promised. And despite the time was expiring they remained to trust patiently on the promise. They received that promise as an inheritance, while they held on to the promise that God was surely going to fulfill it, even beyond death.

Hebrews 6:13. The great example of a person to whom God promised something and who was strengthened by God in his faith, is Abraham. The Jewish Christians were in the same position as he was. He also had to rest in the promises without possessing what was promised. God even confirmed His promise by swearing an oath to give Abraham full assurance.

It indicates that God surely knows how hard it is for His own to continue to trust patiently on the fulfillment of the promises. In order to empower further the assurance of the oath, the writer points out that God swore “by Himself”. There is no higher authoritative source. The highest authority Himself acts as guarantor for the execution of the promise.

Hebrews 6:14-15. You see that every possible doubt is excluded. God already had promised a son to Abraham when he was still childless. Then Abraham had believed God (Genesis 15:1-6). That faith in God sustained him when God asked him to offer his only son (Hebrews 11:18). For this reason God gave Abraham a new promise, that of a rich blessing and countless descendants (Genesis 22:16-17). God supported that promise by the most powerful oath. Abraham has not seen that fulfillment, but the promise and the oath were sufficient for him to go on living and dying in faith, with the assurance that the fulfillment comes.

Hebrews 6:16. God makes every effort to convince His people that He will really do what He says. He adapts to what is common among people by swearing an oath. Among people an oath is an end of all dispute (cf. Exodus 22:11). In everything you see the extent to which He meets His people.

Hebrews 6:17. You see that again: He calls them expressly “heirs of the promise”. As if it is not enough that He as the almighty God has promised something, He confirms His promise with an oath. A promise is a declaration of purpose. An oath draws the attention to the person who puts himself openly and seriously behind the declaration. Because He knows how hard it is for His people to wait patiently for the fulfillment for a long time, He makes every effort to show “even more … the unchangeableness of His purpose”.

Hebrews 6:18. And as if all that is not enough yet, the writer points out that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2). God does not commit perjury. Therefore promise and oath are the “two unchangeable things” that guarantee the fulfillment of God’s counsel.

From this knowledge and assurance “a strong encouragement” comes forth. They were in danger to lose courage and to give up. In that situation encouragement is needed (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Then it is necessary to get your mind focused on the heavenly Lord and on the assurance that everything that is related to Him, will be fulfilled (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:18).

The Jewish Christians had fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus; they had themselves been baptized and had condemned the sin of the people in the rejection of their Messiah. By doing that they took hold of the hope set before them and were looking forward to the coming of the King-Priest to establish His kingdom of peace. He is the hope of the glory to come (Colossians 1:27).

Hebrews 6:19-20. This hope is like an anchor, keeping the ship amidst the turbulence firmly in its position. The anchor is behind the veil in heaven. Here the most vulnerable believer finds the strongest assurance of his faith without seeing anything of the fulfillment of the promise on earth. In heaven you see the Lord Jesus Who already entered there as the Forerunner of a long line of believers who will follow Him there. Where He has already entered as the High Priest, we may already follow Him in spirit now, and will soon follow Him literally.

To the Jewish Christians the ‘forerunner’ is a totally new thought. In the Old Testament the high priest never entered into the sanctuary as the forerunner, but as the representative. He entered into a place where no one could follow him. But Christ entered into the sanctuary and those who are His, follow Him into the sanctuary.

It is also encouraging while thinking of the anchor behind the veil, to think of the connection that you, who are on earth, do have with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our hope is like a reliable and sure anchor for our souls, reaching beyond the veil, where Jesus, as forerunner, has already entered, for our benefit: He is High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The assurance that we will enter heaven is the fact that the Forerunner is already there. That is confirmed in the last line by again quoting from Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6). In that way the attention of the Jewish Christians remains focused without diminishing on the Lord Jesus in heaven and on the future, for He is forever connected to the heavenly sanctuary. By seeing Him continually in that way the Jewish Christian will be delivered from Judaism and be strengthened in the heavenly character of Christendom that he accepted.

Now read Hebrews 6:9-20 again.

Reflection: Write down all assurances that are written in this section, regarding the promises that God will fulfill and thank Him for that.

James 1:26

God’s Promise Is Sure and Steadfast

Hebrews 6:9. In the previous section the writer demonstrated insistently and seriously how terrible it is to belong to the Christian company outwardly, without being born again inwardly. Having read it, you would begin to doubt about yourself if it is all true.. You might be going through the same as those to whom this letter was addressed originally. After all, they were facing so many difficulties, there was a lot of resistance and the promised blessing seemed so far away. But now you suddenly hear that the writer, as far as the readers of his letter are concerned, was convinced that he was dealing with true Christians.

The reason why he had written that way, was because of the dangers of apostasy under the pressure from outside. With his warning he was considering the few who were in danger of falling away. Still he gave his warning in general terms because everyone should know that he is addressed. It should also make you deeply conscious that you will never make it by your own strength.

After the warning he now speaks about the fruits of the new life that were visible in the lives of these Jewish Christians. His conviction toward the genuineness of their faith was not because of great deeds they had done by faith, but because they had ministered to their fellow believers in simplicity. Others will notice that with you too. He calls them “beloved” to make them feel his love for them. Even though he had to address them seriously about the fate of the apostates, as far as they were concerned he is convinced that they were connected to “better” things. The ‘better things’ are all things that are related to the heavenly position that the Messiah now takes.

Likewise he is, concerning them, convinced that they would surely reach “salvation”, that is the final goal of the journey that a Christian makes on earth. In that way he focuses their eyes on the liberation from earthly circumstances to partake of the kingdom at the side of the Messiah in heaven.

Hebrews 6:10. It may be that the Hebrews were afraid that God had forgotten what they had shown toward His Name, i.e. what they had done to His honor. After all, they saw so little of His approval. It was appropriate, according to their Jewish way of thinking, that being faithful to God and defending the honor of His Name are rewarded by Him. But instead of the rest and welfare what they possibly were expecting, their life became even more difficult. The writer assures them that God is not unjust. He rewards what is shown toward His Name, although the reward can be postponed for a while. They had ministered to His saints and in that they had ministered to Him and they were still ministering to Him. God is not unjust to forget that (Matthew 25:40).

Hebrews 6:11. What matters now is to persevere in this with the same zeal they had shown at the beginning. They became dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11). Therefore there could perhaps be also a danger of becoming dull of their works.

The exhortation for perseverance comes to each of them personally, “each one of you”. It is wonderful to begin well, but there has to be shown the same diligence “until the end”. Again the attention is focused on the time that “the full assurance of hope” will be fulfilled. The end is the appearance of Christ for the establishment of His kingdom of peace, when He will reign as the true Melchizedek, the King-Priest, and will bless His people.

Hebrews 6:12. Therefore they ought not to become sluggish, what happens if earthly things will replace the heavenly ones that once filled their heart. Particularly by returning to a tangible religion the spiritual growth will be enormously delayed.

In order to exhort them to go on with zeal on the path they had chosen, the writer points them to become imitators of those who had been in the same position like them. They knew the Old Testament, didn’t they? Well, there are enough examples there of believers who inherited “through faith and patience … the promise”. God had promised them something and they had trusted God that He would give what He had promised. And despite the time was expiring they remained to trust patiently on the promise. They received that promise as an inheritance, while they held on to the promise that God was surely going to fulfill it, even beyond death.

Hebrews 6:13. The great example of a person to whom God promised something and who was strengthened by God in his faith, is Abraham. The Jewish Christians were in the same position as he was. He also had to rest in the promises without possessing what was promised. God even confirmed His promise by swearing an oath to give Abraham full assurance.

It indicates that God surely knows how hard it is for His own to continue to trust patiently on the fulfillment of the promises. In order to empower further the assurance of the oath, the writer points out that God swore “by Himself”. There is no higher authoritative source. The highest authority Himself acts as guarantor for the execution of the promise.

Hebrews 6:14-15. You see that every possible doubt is excluded. God already had promised a son to Abraham when he was still childless. Then Abraham had believed God (Genesis 15:1-6). That faith in God sustained him when God asked him to offer his only son (Hebrews 11:18). For this reason God gave Abraham a new promise, that of a rich blessing and countless descendants (Genesis 22:16-17). God supported that promise by the most powerful oath. Abraham has not seen that fulfillment, but the promise and the oath were sufficient for him to go on living and dying in faith, with the assurance that the fulfillment comes.

Hebrews 6:16. God makes every effort to convince His people that He will really do what He says. He adapts to what is common among people by swearing an oath. Among people an oath is an end of all dispute (cf. Exodus 22:11). In everything you see the extent to which He meets His people.

Hebrews 6:17. You see that again: He calls them expressly “heirs of the promise”. As if it is not enough that He as the almighty God has promised something, He confirms His promise with an oath. A promise is a declaration of purpose. An oath draws the attention to the person who puts himself openly and seriously behind the declaration. Because He knows how hard it is for His people to wait patiently for the fulfillment for a long time, He makes every effort to show “even more … the unchangeableness of His purpose”.

Hebrews 6:18. And as if all that is not enough yet, the writer points out that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2). God does not commit perjury. Therefore promise and oath are the “two unchangeable things” that guarantee the fulfillment of God’s counsel.

From this knowledge and assurance “a strong encouragement” comes forth. They were in danger to lose courage and to give up. In that situation encouragement is needed (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Then it is necessary to get your mind focused on the heavenly Lord and on the assurance that everything that is related to Him, will be fulfilled (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:18).

The Jewish Christians had fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus; they had themselves been baptized and had condemned the sin of the people in the rejection of their Messiah. By doing that they took hold of the hope set before them and were looking forward to the coming of the King-Priest to establish His kingdom of peace. He is the hope of the glory to come (Colossians 1:27).

Hebrews 6:19-20. This hope is like an anchor, keeping the ship amidst the turbulence firmly in its position. The anchor is behind the veil in heaven. Here the most vulnerable believer finds the strongest assurance of his faith without seeing anything of the fulfillment of the promise on earth. In heaven you see the Lord Jesus Who already entered there as the Forerunner of a long line of believers who will follow Him there. Where He has already entered as the High Priest, we may already follow Him in spirit now, and will soon follow Him literally.

To the Jewish Christians the ‘forerunner’ is a totally new thought. In the Old Testament the high priest never entered into the sanctuary as the forerunner, but as the representative. He entered into a place where no one could follow him. But Christ entered into the sanctuary and those who are His, follow Him into the sanctuary.

It is also encouraging while thinking of the anchor behind the veil, to think of the connection that you, who are on earth, do have with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our hope is like a reliable and sure anchor for our souls, reaching beyond the veil, where Jesus, as forerunner, has already entered, for our benefit: He is High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The assurance that we will enter heaven is the fact that the Forerunner is already there. That is confirmed in the last line by again quoting from Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6). In that way the attention of the Jewish Christians remains focused without diminishing on the Lord Jesus in heaven and on the future, for He is forever connected to the heavenly sanctuary. By seeing Him continually in that way the Jewish Christian will be delivered from Judaism and be strengthened in the heavenly character of Christendom that he accepted.

Now read Hebrews 6:9-20 again.

Reflection: Write down all assurances that are written in this section, regarding the promises that God will fulfill and thank Him for that.

James 1:27

God’s Promise Is Sure and Steadfast

Hebrews 6:9. In the previous section the writer demonstrated insistently and seriously how terrible it is to belong to the Christian company outwardly, without being born again inwardly. Having read it, you would begin to doubt about yourself if it is all true.. You might be going through the same as those to whom this letter was addressed originally. After all, they were facing so many difficulties, there was a lot of resistance and the promised blessing seemed so far away. But now you suddenly hear that the writer, as far as the readers of his letter are concerned, was convinced that he was dealing with true Christians.

The reason why he had written that way, was because of the dangers of apostasy under the pressure from outside. With his warning he was considering the few who were in danger of falling away. Still he gave his warning in general terms because everyone should know that he is addressed. It should also make you deeply conscious that you will never make it by your own strength.

After the warning he now speaks about the fruits of the new life that were visible in the lives of these Jewish Christians. His conviction toward the genuineness of their faith was not because of great deeds they had done by faith, but because they had ministered to their fellow believers in simplicity. Others will notice that with you too. He calls them “beloved” to make them feel his love for them. Even though he had to address them seriously about the fate of the apostates, as far as they were concerned he is convinced that they were connected to “better” things. The ‘better things’ are all things that are related to the heavenly position that the Messiah now takes.

Likewise he is, concerning them, convinced that they would surely reach “salvation”, that is the final goal of the journey that a Christian makes on earth. In that way he focuses their eyes on the liberation from earthly circumstances to partake of the kingdom at the side of the Messiah in heaven.

Hebrews 6:10. It may be that the Hebrews were afraid that God had forgotten what they had shown toward His Name, i.e. what they had done to His honor. After all, they saw so little of His approval. It was appropriate, according to their Jewish way of thinking, that being faithful to God and defending the honor of His Name are rewarded by Him. But instead of the rest and welfare what they possibly were expecting, their life became even more difficult. The writer assures them that God is not unjust. He rewards what is shown toward His Name, although the reward can be postponed for a while. They had ministered to His saints and in that they had ministered to Him and they were still ministering to Him. God is not unjust to forget that (Matthew 25:40).

Hebrews 6:11. What matters now is to persevere in this with the same zeal they had shown at the beginning. They became dull of hearing (Hebrews 5:11). Therefore there could perhaps be also a danger of becoming dull of their works.

The exhortation for perseverance comes to each of them personally, “each one of you”. It is wonderful to begin well, but there has to be shown the same diligence “until the end”. Again the attention is focused on the time that “the full assurance of hope” will be fulfilled. The end is the appearance of Christ for the establishment of His kingdom of peace, when He will reign as the true Melchizedek, the King-Priest, and will bless His people.

Hebrews 6:12. Therefore they ought not to become sluggish, what happens if earthly things will replace the heavenly ones that once filled their heart. Particularly by returning to a tangible religion the spiritual growth will be enormously delayed.

In order to exhort them to go on with zeal on the path they had chosen, the writer points them to become imitators of those who had been in the same position like them. They knew the Old Testament, didn’t they? Well, there are enough examples there of believers who inherited “through faith and patience … the promise”. God had promised them something and they had trusted God that He would give what He had promised. And despite the time was expiring they remained to trust patiently on the promise. They received that promise as an inheritance, while they held on to the promise that God was surely going to fulfill it, even beyond death.

Hebrews 6:13. The great example of a person to whom God promised something and who was strengthened by God in his faith, is Abraham. The Jewish Christians were in the same position as he was. He also had to rest in the promises without possessing what was promised. God even confirmed His promise by swearing an oath to give Abraham full assurance.

It indicates that God surely knows how hard it is for His own to continue to trust patiently on the fulfillment of the promises. In order to empower further the assurance of the oath, the writer points out that God swore “by Himself”. There is no higher authoritative source. The highest authority Himself acts as guarantor for the execution of the promise.

Hebrews 6:14-15. You see that every possible doubt is excluded. God already had promised a son to Abraham when he was still childless. Then Abraham had believed God (Genesis 15:1-6). That faith in God sustained him when God asked him to offer his only son (Hebrews 11:18). For this reason God gave Abraham a new promise, that of a rich blessing and countless descendants (Genesis 22:16-17). God supported that promise by the most powerful oath. Abraham has not seen that fulfillment, but the promise and the oath were sufficient for him to go on living and dying in faith, with the assurance that the fulfillment comes.

Hebrews 6:16. God makes every effort to convince His people that He will really do what He says. He adapts to what is common among people by swearing an oath. Among people an oath is an end of all dispute (cf. Exodus 22:11). In everything you see the extent to which He meets His people.

Hebrews 6:17. You see that again: He calls them expressly “heirs of the promise”. As if it is not enough that He as the almighty God has promised something, He confirms His promise with an oath. A promise is a declaration of purpose. An oath draws the attention to the person who puts himself openly and seriously behind the declaration. Because He knows how hard it is for His people to wait patiently for the fulfillment for a long time, He makes every effort to show “even more … the unchangeableness of His purpose”.

Hebrews 6:18. And as if all that is not enough yet, the writer points out that God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Titus 1:2). God does not commit perjury. Therefore promise and oath are the “two unchangeable things” that guarantee the fulfillment of God’s counsel.

From this knowledge and assurance “a strong encouragement” comes forth. They were in danger to lose courage and to give up. In that situation encouragement is needed (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Then it is necessary to get your mind focused on the heavenly Lord and on the assurance that everything that is related to Him, will be fulfilled (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:18).

The Jewish Christians had fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus; they had themselves been baptized and had condemned the sin of the people in the rejection of their Messiah. By doing that they took hold of the hope set before them and were looking forward to the coming of the King-Priest to establish His kingdom of peace. He is the hope of the glory to come (Colossians 1:27).

Hebrews 6:19-20. This hope is like an anchor, keeping the ship amidst the turbulence firmly in its position. The anchor is behind the veil in heaven. Here the most vulnerable believer finds the strongest assurance of his faith without seeing anything of the fulfillment of the promise on earth. In heaven you see the Lord Jesus Who already entered there as the Forerunner of a long line of believers who will follow Him there. Where He has already entered as the High Priest, we may already follow Him in spirit now, and will soon follow Him literally.

To the Jewish Christians the ‘forerunner’ is a totally new thought. In the Old Testament the high priest never entered into the sanctuary as the forerunner, but as the representative. He entered into a place where no one could follow him. But Christ entered into the sanctuary and those who are His, follow Him into the sanctuary.

It is also encouraging while thinking of the anchor behind the veil, to think of the connection that you, who are on earth, do have with the Lord Jesus in heaven. Our hope is like a reliable and sure anchor for our souls, reaching beyond the veil, where Jesus, as forerunner, has already entered, for our benefit: He is High Priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

The assurance that we will enter heaven is the fact that the Forerunner is already there. That is confirmed in the last line by again quoting from Psalms 110 (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 5:6). In that way the attention of the Jewish Christians remains focused without diminishing on the Lord Jesus in heaven and on the future, for He is forever connected to the heavenly sanctuary. By seeing Him continually in that way the Jewish Christian will be delivered from Judaism and be strengthened in the heavenly character of Christendom that he accepted.

Now read Hebrews 6:9-20 again.

Reflection: Write down all assurances that are written in this section, regarding the promises that God will fulfill and thank Him for that.