PART TWO
PART TWO
The Antidote to Apostasy
Not long ago I was watching a fascinating documentary on the selection process for Navy SEALs. These are the members of the most elite military organization in the US—the specialists of the specialists of the specialists. Part of the initial training is known as “hell week.” The job of the trainers in that week is to weed people out.
They put the recruits through day after day of every rigorous exercise you can possibly imagine: lifting huge poles on their shoulder, running crazy distances, paddling boats out on the ocean. The soldiers are wet, they are cold, and they are not allowed to sleep for more than a few hours. Sometimes they are not even allowed to eat. By day two they are wiped; by day three they cannot see straight; by day four they are falling asleep where they stand.
If you want to quit, all you have to do is to ring a bell in the center of the camp. All the time, the trainers are screaming at you that you should go and ring the bell. Then you can go home and have a hot shower, and it will all be over. “Just ring the bell.” That is the voice continually in the recruits’ ears.
But what fascinated me in this documentary was that there was another voice. As soon as the other soldiers saw someone get up and go toward the bell, they would say to him, “No, don’t quit! Don’t do it!”
There were two reasons these soldiers would give for not quitting. The first was “Look how far you’ve come.” If you quit now, everything you’ve endured so far was a waste. Look how much you have accomplished, and don’t throw it all away. The second reason was “Think about your goal.” If you can get through this, you get to put on that uniform and become a Navy SEAL.
Hebrews 10:32-39 has the same strategy. It provides two motivations for not quitting the Christian life. First, look how far you’ve come. Second, think about how much you will gain if you make it to the end.
In short, to persevere we need to learn look back and also to look forward. Together, these constitute the antidote to apostasy.
The reality is that the Christian life is hard. Yes, there are things about it that are fantastic, wonderful, and exhilarating. And there is no other life you want to live. But, at the same time, it is hard. Sometimes we just want to ring the bell. Our author acknowledges that to his readers, who have had a rough time of it: “You endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction” (v 32-33).
It is sometimes like that for us too—which is why we need this simple lesson: “Do not quit.”
Look Back
Just like the SEAL recruits, our author first tells his readers to look back to their lives right after they first professed Christ: “Recall the former days when, after you were enlightened…” (v 32).
The term “enlightened” means “having come to awareness.” It is referring to the time when they first embraced the truth and became followers of Christ.
Why look back to that time? Because the early days of your Christian life are likely to have been a time when you had a lot of passion and excitement about your faith.
Looking back to that time can function as a warning. This is how Jesus warns the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-5: “You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.”
Perhaps you can look back to a time when you heard God’s word taught and were thrilled by it, when you were desperate to share the gospel with your non-Christian friends, and when you walked with zeal. When you compare that to your current life, you might think, “What happened to that person?” You may feel that once you were running well but that now you’re stumbling and falling.
But in Philippians 1:6 Paul says, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” God finishes what he starts. So, looking back is not only a way of warning yourself about how far you have fallen but also a reason for encouragement. If you were running well to begin with, you can run well again—because God has promised to bring his good work in you to completion.
It’s not all that different than what a married couple might do when their relationship hits a rough patch. They might look back at their wedding pictures to remind themselves of why they love one another and to remember how much zeal and passion there once was in their relationship. Looking back reminds them that what they had was real, and so it is worth their perseverance.
The author knows a lot about the people he is writing to, and so he takes them down memory lane to point out a few things about the way they used to be—laying out proofs that God really was at work in their lives. He appeals to three categories of evidence that we can all use when we look back to see how Christ has changed and used us.
The first kind of evidence is willingness to endure suffering.
The writer’s original readers have “endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction” (Hebrews 10:32-33). They even “joyfully accepted the plundering of [their] property” (v 34). Holding fast to their faith was worth all that.
Our author has watched how his readers endured suffering in the past and now calls them to remember it. Don’t ring that bell, he is saying. Look how far you have come.
Loving others is the second piece of evidence that demonstrates God is at work in a person’s life. The original readers not only suffered reproach and affliction on their own account but were also “partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison” (v 33).
Early Christians spent a lot of time visiting people who had been imprisoned for their faith. These prisoners depended on their brothers and sisters in Christ to bring them food and look after them while they were locked up.
John 4:12 says, “If we love one another, God abides in us.” Love is the hallmark of the work of God in someone’s life: looking outside themselves, giving to others, and loving others. This is what the first readers of Hebrews had done.
Perhaps you have read this passage and wonder whether you are really saved. You may realize that you have not loved people as well as you should.
But understand that falling short is not evidence that you are not a Christian. We all fall short. If you look at your life and see no fruit at all, you need to be concerned. But if you are a Christian, there will be ways in which God is at work in you. Striving toward loving people is one of those areas.
A third piece of evidence is the state of your heart—the joy within you.
Think back to when you were first a believer. I would imagine that if you were looking for one word to sum up what was in your heart, you might choose the word “joy.” Joy is evidence of a heart filled with God’s Spirit. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5.
Life does not feel that way all of the time, of course. If you are not full of joy now, that does not mean that you are not saved. The author’s whole point is to urge us to go back and remember what used to be true, even if it is not so now. He is reminding the Hebrews of their former joy.
His readers “joyfully accepted the plundering of [their] property,” because they knew that they had “a better possession and an abiding one” (Hebrews 10:34).
How many of us would joyfully accept the plundering of our property? If I came home one day and found my house had been flattened, I would probably crumble to the ground too. I think most of us would. Yet the Hebrews endured that joyfully, because they had a better possession.
I wish, I hope, I would be able to look at my house completely destroyed and say, “My home in heaven is untouched.” God has a place for us which cannot be destroyed and which cannot rust away (Matthew 6:20).
If we are honest, it is not easy to have that perspective. Losing things is bad, and it is justifiable to be upset at the loss of possessions; but loss can also be an opportunity to see the true state of your heart—and an opportunity to see who God really is. You do not get that chance if you have everything. Sometimes something has to be taken away.
And that is what the readers of Hebrews experienced. They had it all taken away, and they realized that Christ was above all. That’s certainly evidence that God was at work in them and among them.
Some families make marks on a wall or door frame to track their children’s growth. Looking back as Hebrews 10:32-34 describes here is a way of tracking growth spiritually—a way of saying, “Here’s where God did that in my life. Here’s where God looked after me.” That is a huge encouragement as we keep growing.
This section concludes with a simple exhortation: “Therefore”—given all that you endured—“do not throw away your confidence” (v 35). Don’t give up on your faith, if you have come this far. Looking back motivates you to keep going.
But then our author transitions immediately to his next point: we should also keep going because of “a great reward.” There is a paradox here. We look back in order to look forward. So, now we transition to the great blessings that await us.
Look Forward
The Christian life is about endurance—making it to the end.
“You have need of endurance,” our author tells us, “so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised” (v 36).
There are two kinds of runners: sprinters and long-distance runners. Sprinting is over in a matter of seconds. You go as fast as you possibly can for a short amount of time. But with endurance running, you have to keep running for the long haul.
I have watched Ironman competitions, where you have to swim, bike, and run. Nine hours after the start it’s dark, and there are people still coming across the finish line. But these people aren’t thinking, “I didn’t finish with a world-record time, so I’ll quit.” No, they’re thinking, “No matter what I do, I’m finishing this race.”
The Christian life is like that. This is not to suggest that God is unconcerned about how we live, as if the quality of our Christian lives doesn’t matter. Rather it is a simple reminder that the Christian life is forward-looking. We need to keep our eye on the ultimate goal, the finish line. And like those Ironman athletes, we will never quit until we cross it.
For this reason, our author points us again to the finish line. You are to run “so that … you may receive what has been promised” (v 36). This is a reference to that “great reward” that awaits us.
What would it do to our lives if we thought more about the reward we are promised in Christ? We so easily become jaded and stop thinking about it. Or perhaps we become complacent—life here is nice, so there is no reason to think about looking forward. We don’t think about rewards because we don’t have to; we are not compelled to. That is why suffering in one sense can be a great blessing spiritually.
This reminds me of a Puritan writer by the name of Richard Baxter. Late in his life he grew very ill. Yet, he did something remarkable to keep himself motivated: he spent 30 minutes each day meditating on the glories of heaven. When he thought through what heaven would be like and the reward and glory that await, it completely revolutionized his life—transforming his joy, his passion, his love, and his perspective on everything. Eventually his thoughts on heaven formed one of his most famous books, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest.
Pondering our reward in heaven is transformative for the present. Too often, we do not think about it. We don’t reflect on it. We don’t meditate on it. We don’t memorize Scripture on it. But this passage is reminding us to look forward to a great reward.
Do not mistake what this passage is saying: this reward is not something we earn, and it is not money or other material wealth. The great reward is the gift of eternal life in heaven—where there will be no more pain and no more tears. There will be a new order of things. There will be fellowship with other believers—those who came ahead of us and those who come beside us.
But the greatest reward of all is Christ himself. What we are looking forward to is a person. We will spend eternity with our Savior, face to face.
That is why verse 37 speaks about the second coming. “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.” This is a quotation from Habakkuk 2:3-4. When Jesus comes back again, those who “live by faith” will be rewarded.
The quotation continues with a warning: “If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him” (Hebrews 10:38). In other words, if you give up and reject Christ—if you ring the bell—then you will not gain the reward of being with him in heaven.
But in the final verse of the chapter, we return to optimism. After looking back at his readers’ lives and the way God has worked in them so far, and after encouraging them to look forward to the present, our author has the confidence to say, “We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (v 39).
Here is what I know about you, the author is saying to his readers. I know you are going to make it. I know you are not going to give up. He has great hope for his audience—that they will listen to his encouragements, heed his warnings, understand his theology, and wholeheartedly obey his instructions to draw near to God.
In short, he’s saying to his audience: You are the kind of people who live by faith. And that will be the topic of his next chapter.