Below is an excerpt from Oliver Greene in his commentary on the book of Hebrews. Enjoy!
Grace=Peace,
"The Hebrews were under the New Covenant, the 'better covenant' brought about through the sacrifice of the only begotten Son of God; but they were slow to lay aside the Mosaic Law and the provisions of the Old Covenant.
"However, those who were truly born again by faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ could not find peace and happiness in the old forms of worship. They were holding fast to their profession in the faith once delivered to the saints, but they were becoming discouraged. They were constantly criticized by the Judaizers, they were always under suspicion, and often were persecuted even by their own families. Their trials and tribulations were great, and under such a burden some of them were becoming extremely despondent and discouraged. But Paul exhorted them, 'Let us go on!' and the only way for believers to advance and grow is to keep their eyes upon the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that in Him we are complete and in Him we find our sufficiency. It is Paul's purpose in this epistle to lead immature Christians to a deeper, fuller Christian life. 'Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection...' (Heb 6:1).
"Paul admonished the Hebrew Christians to put away the 'good things' of Judaism for the 'better things' of Christianity; to put away the earthly sanctuary for the heavenly building not made with hands. The heavenly is better than the earthly, and the believers who had come to know that they were justified by faith were also to live by faith. They were to learn that the Lord Jesus Christ is not only the author of our faith, but also the finisher of our faith. He is the beginning and the ending of our faith, but He is also all that we need between the beginning and the ending.
"The Hebrew believers had not learned this, and Paul was attempting to drive home this truth. (The Hebrew believers were not the last to need such admonition. There are many today who trust Jesus to save them--but they are not willing to live by faith. They believe that sinners are saved by grace through faith--but they are not willing to accept 'the just shall LIVE by faith...faith is the victory that overcomes the world...and whatsoever is not of faith is sin.')"
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Hi Everyone,
I believe that when we either don't know about God's goodness or have forgotten it, we lose flat-out. If I were to ask someone why they refuse to believe that God is good, I imagine the most basic response would include lists of unhappy and unfortunate situations in their life. Because of trials and hardships we question not only God's goodness, placing the blame on Him, but some even go so far as to doubt His existence. And even for those who believe He exists, sometimes the question is not "can He help?", but rather "will He help?".
So we go to His Word:
Psalm 145:15-17 says: “The eyes of all wait for You and You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy every living thing with favor. The Lord is rigidly righteous in all His ways and gracious and merciful in all His works.”
We have difficulty believing that God is good and gracious to us. We have difficulty believing that He will give us what we need. Even more importantly, we sometimes fail to recognize that what we needcomes from Him because we have favor with Him. We don't look to Him; we rely on our own abilities. We do not know that God is rigidly righteous, gracious and merciful. This ferocious faithfulness toward us is unrelenting. It covers not only our salvation, our need for righteousness at all times, but also our need for provision in life. I describe it to one friend as "fierce loyalty". I refuse to accept anything less that than from God.
A.W. Tozer puts it this way: "The goodness of God is that which disposes Him to be kind, cordial, benevolent, and full of good will toward men. He is tenderhearted and quick of sympathy, and His unfailing attitude toward all moral beings is open, frank, and friendly. By Hi nature He is inclined to bestow blessedness and He takes total pleasure in the happiness of His people".
So by now you may be asking the following question: "If God is so good, then what can I do to merit His goodness in my life?"
Well, I can tell you three things that will NOT work: repentance, prayer, and faith.
Before you close this email in fear of heresy, consider the following: None of these obligate God to move on your behalf. He is not impressed with how well you are able to repent, pray, and believe in faith. He doesn't hear you because you have done good deeds or prayed for three weeks straight. He doesn't answer you because you've filled out the proper forms, crossed your Ts and dotted your Is. Even your faith can be worthless if it is placed in the wrong thing. God is good to us for one reason only: it is fully within His nature to do so. True faith, then, is a confidence in His goodness, not a formula we have in our faith.
So how do we respond to the truth of His goodness and graciousness? It's easy: 1. Realize that your pre-conception of God was a misconception--that you did not believe He was good and change your opinion. 2. Rest and place your confidence in His goodness and care. 3. Risk: what would be possible in life if it really was true that God was 100% for you and your welfare. Would you see Him as the source of all your needs? How would you represent Him to a world in need?
Consider the following passages:
“But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people....And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.” Jeremiah 31:33-34
“Just as I swore in the time of Noah that I would never again let a flood cover the earth, so now I swear that I will never again be angry and punish you. For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken,” says the Lord, who has mercy on you.” Isaiah 54:9-10
Grace=Peace
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Hi everyone!
Please take the time to read this. You will find it very helpful.
Just as I discussed in my last email, that certain messages and teachings are being mixed and given to both believers and non-believers, so we also have the problem of misunderstandings of certain words in the Bible.
Take, for example, the confusion people experience when they don't understand the biblical uses and definitions of the words "holy" or "sanctified".
If we hear in our minds "I need to sin less" or "strive to sin less" when we hear these words, we do not understand the word in its biblical use. The words "holy" and "sanctify" stem from the same Greek/Hebrew word and simply means "to be set apart or consecrated"; apartness, sacredness; to be (causatively make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally): - appoint, bid, consecrate, dedicate, declare as holy, treat as holy; to be selected, to be pure, be holy, be sacred, be regarded as holy.
It signifies an act or state in which people or things are set aside for use in the worship of God, i.e., they are consecrated or made sacred for that purpose. They must be withheld from ordinary (secular) use and treated with special care as something which belongs to God. This word is used with various objects: the altar in the temple, the priest, the mountain, the Sabbath, buildings, fasts, wars and battles. It was anything which was reserved exclusively for God, and its opposite is secular or profane. The above definitions and clarification overwhelmingly describe holiness/sanctification as a condition. (The above two paragraphs are taken from the AMG Complete Word Study Dictionary.)
My point on this is as follows: when we hear the words holiness or sanctification and tack on our own interpretation of "to sin less", we are adding a definition that the Bible does not support.
The ultimate result of this is that Christians refuse to recognize the full meaning of having been proclaimed holy and sanctified by God.
Again, since even things could be proclaimed holy, that alone destroys our definition of "to sin less". Would we say that Jesus needed to "sin less"? Of course not. But in John 17:19, He says that He has "sanctified" Himself. Clearly, the word does not mean to sin less.
Furthermore, and most significantly, the condition of holiness or sanctification is something we can't even do (or manage or maintain) ourselves. Once again, God gets all the glory and credit for this (2 Thess 2:13).
We are not sinners and should never refer to ourselves as such, especially since Paul did not either. We are Saints, even though we occasionally sin. And guess what, even when we sin, we remain holy, sanctified, and clean (ceremonially and morally) for one reason and one reason only: our holiness, sanctification, and cleanliness is not something for us to procure and keep: it is found in the person of Jesus Christ. This is the state in which we abide and for which He remains faithful.
And I must declare the following most emphatically: any idea that supports the notion that we become holy or sanctified by our behavior is idolatry, for it refuses to recognize the completed work of the cross:
"Jesus' last cry from the cross, Tetelestai! ("It is finished!") is a good example of the perfect tense used in this sense, namely, "It [the atonement] has been accomplished, completely, once and for all time."
I am against sin and sinning, but we must recognize the biblical use of words such as I have addressed here and how they apply to us and affect our lives.
I hope these two emails have introduced you in a greater way to the peace that exists between God and you. Knowing that, you should now be able to stop striving and rest in your permanent condition in Christ. May you enter His rest by faith.
Grace=Peace
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Hi Everyone,
May I suggest that not everyone who goes to church is a Christian?
If this is true, then we must realize that while the writings of Paul, John, and the other authors of the books in the New Testament were addressed to both believers and unbelievers, those writers at times wanted to convey different messages to the separate groups. For example, if a preacher says to a congregation “You need to be saved”, he is addressing unbelievers who are not currently saved, whereas if the same preacher were to say “You needed to be saved”, he is addressing believers who have been saved.
I know this is ridiculously simple, but that’s the problem. We have not heard a clear separation of messages in the writings contained within the Bible. Therefore, believers are receiving messages meant for unbelievers, and thus losing confidence in their reality in Christ. Likewise, unbelievers can be receiving misinformation about their condition.
We simply want recognize that there are those who visit church communities who have not yet placed their faith in Christ, and the proper message should be given to the proper group for which it is intended. This is a true situation today, as it was for the churches to which Paul and others were writing. Among the receivers of all these letters were also unbelievers who were investigating Christianity.
Paul, for example, urges unbelievers to not neglect salvation (Hebrews 2:3), or in the case of 1 John 2:9, John targets the unbeliever, that he should not claim to be in the light and thus be lying. We need to differentiate in this epistle those who "claim" and "say" from those who "abide" and "are".
Consider the following fact that the Bible states about Christians: We are ALWAYS in the light.
Ephesians 5:8 “…you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord…”
Thessalonians 5:5 “…you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness”
1 Peter 2:9 “…so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”
Additionally, in the first chapter of 1 John, John speaks to people who say (claim) they neither have sin nor have sinned. These particular people are not Christians, but rather Gnostics who are associating with the believers to whom John is writing. In other words, he is telling the unbelievers to recognize their sin condition and sinning, just as much as he tells his little children—the believers in chapter 2—that they are secure and have an advocate when they sin.
The fact that multiple audiences can be addressed by the same letter is seen in other places, for example, Hebrews 6:4-8. Here the writer speaks to people who have not been saved, only enlightened. This means that they have heard the truth of Gospel: that they should place their faith in the once-for-all perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ instead of the sacrifices of lambs, bulls, and goats, but they have not done so.
In the next verse, Hebrews 6:9, the writer makes it clear that he changes his audience and is now addressing a different group of readers--those who have salvation.
My point is this: don't confuse and apply to yourself what was addressed in these letters to unbelievers who were among the Christians, for there were certainly differing messages to those who were in differing conditions.
If we confuse Paul's admonition to unbelievers (or the admonition of any other writer in the Bible) with instructions to believers, then we will certainly experience confusion in our secure position in Christ, including that we would begin thinking that we are a sinners, and not saints. This is, in part, what is meant when we are to "rightly divide the word of truth".
In my next email I will cite a few more applications of this issue. Just remember: if you are a Christian, then there are certainly messages in the Biblical writings that no longer pertain to you. (If you've been saved, do you really need to be saved again? Or, if God has completely forgiven you of all your sins, past, present and future, do you really need to be forgiven again?)
Grace=Peace
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Grace Mercy and Peace
God's heart
God
Love
Jesus
Lord Savior Jesus Christ our Lord
father
son
holy spirit
holy ghost
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