PART TWO
PART TWO
In the national parks of the United States, there are over 4,000 search-and-rescue missions every year. That means that thousands of times each year, hikers find themselves in real trouble. In certain parks there are dangerous animals: bears or mountain lions or snakes. Sometimes people get injured, maybe falling and breaking an ankle. Other times they get lost and end up having to spend the night outside, where they are in danger of hypothermia.
Most people who go out hiking are totally unprepared for these dangers. They don’t realize how dangerous the wilderness and desert can really be.
The Christian life is not so different. We are on the way to our destination, but it is not an easy path. You can get distracted. You can get lost. You can get dragged off the path by false teachers. There are many dangers. How are you going to make it through that journey? You need to be prepared.
Follow Your Guides
In the wilderness, a guide—someone who really knows the terrain and is equipped for the dangers—is the best help you can get. It is the same in the Christian life. The author brackets Hebrews 13:7-17 by telling us to listen to the guides God has provided us with: our leaders. Even though the word “church” is not used here, it is clearly church leaders who are in view: “those who spoke to you the word of God” (v 7).
Of course, we can (and should) study the Scriptures on our own; but this verse points to the central way that God wants us to learn about him: by hearing the word from our leaders. Preaching in the local church is the means God has especially appointed to deliver his word to his flock (2 Timothy 4:1-4). This is one reason why it is so important to be part of a regular congregation.
Leaders are also there as examples. We should “imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13:7).
Elders and pastors do not just point out the path; they actually walk it in front of you. Of course, church leaders don’t get everything right. But not being perfect is in fact one way that they can show us a good example. By repenting when they sin, they model what it looks like to be a sinner saved by grace, following Christ faithfully even when they fail.
In short, if leaders are striving to be like Christ, they can be worthy examples to follow. Paul explains it this way in 1 Corinthians 11:1: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” In other words, Insofar as I imitate Christ, imitate me.
At the end of this passage, in Hebrews 13:17, our author returns to the theme of church leaders once again. We are asked not only to pay attention to our leaders and imitate their faith but also to obey them as our shepherds.
In general in Western society, we don’t like authority. We do not want to be told what to do. This is partly down to the rise of the internet and modern technology. You don’t need a doctor; just go to WebMD. You don’t need a stockbroker; just look at CNBC. As a society we do not believe we need experts.
But in the wilderness, and in the Christian life, you do need a guide.
If you have trouble submitting to church leaders, you are going to have a lot of trouble submitting to the Leader. You cannot say, I’ll submit to God, but I’m not going to submit to those he has appointed over me. Submitting to one is like submitting to the other.
That said, we are not called to follow our leaders blindly. If they are taking you down a sinful or heretical path, then you should avoid them (more on this below). Moreover, some leaders are authoritarian and abusive, wielding their authority in a way that is for their own glory and power (1 Peter 5:3). Such leaders need to be exposed for the false shepherds that they are.
But most church leaders are faithful shepherds who are doing the best they can. And God puts those people in your life for a reason. They are keeping watch over you “as those who will have to give an account” (Hebrews 13:17). They bear a heavy burden in looking after you and leading you well. You should submit to them so that they can lead you “with joy and not with groaning.”
Watch Out for Danger
If you are going on the wilderness journey, you need more than a guide. You also need a realization that you are entering into a dangerous world. If you are going to make it, you need to be aware of the pitfalls. In the Christian life, false teachers are one such danger.
In New Testament times, there were all kinds of heresies attacking the church. Paul warns the Ephesian elders about this in Acts 20:29: “After my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.”
God’s people are like sheep. There are a lot of different implications of that image, but one is that we are vulnerable. False teachers are like wolves that come in and drag a sheep off into the woods, never to be seen again. So our author says, “Do not be led away” (Hebrews 13:9).
Some think that they can deal with false teaching by shutting themselves off from any non-Christian influences. But Paul also warns the elders of the Ephesian church, “From among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things” (Acts 20:30). False teachers are not just out there. They are also in here, within the flock. That is what makes them so dangerous.
We once did a Sunday-school series at my church called “Bad Christian Books.” Thousands of Christians are regularly reading popular books which say they are “Christian” but lead their readers down unbiblical paths. We offered the class because all Christians need to know about false teaching and to be able to spot it.
One way we recognize false teaching is simply by understanding that it is “strange” (Hebrews 13:9) or new; it is not what the church has historically taught or what the Bible says. A teaching that is old is perhaps not as appealing as one that is new and shiny. But at the seminary where I teach, I often say, “We’re happy to be unoriginal!” We should teach what Christians have always seen and found to be wonderful—and help people to see it again in fresh ways.
The fundamental reason why we should be wary of “new” teachings is because Jesus never changes. He is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (v 8).
To talk that way about Jesus is to affirm his divinity. Only God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. This eternality and unchanging nature sets Jesus apart from false teachers. He is a sure anchor that does not slip. He is consistent through the ages.
This is why we need to ask, first and foremost, what the Bible says about each teaching we encounter; and also what the church through the ages has said about it. If Jesus does not change, I should not embrace radical new teachings about him.
Go to Jesus
There is one particular false teaching that our author wants his readers to see. This is the idea that what you eat is what makes you acceptable to God: “For it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods” (v 9).
What the author likely has in view here is what the whole book has had in view from the beginning, which is that certain teachers wanted the Jewish Christians to go back to the old ways of Judaism—including its laws about food. Our author is saying again what he has said all along: those days are over. The false teachers are likely telling people to eat certain kinds of food so that God will be pleased. But it is through Christ alone that we can become clean and acceptable to God.
All this is linked to the fact that the priests used to eat from the altar—they would eat certain parts of the animal sacrifices. But our author points to a better altar—one “from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat” (v 10).
The priests who served in the temple had the right to eat from the old altar. But they could not eat from the better altar that we have, because our sacrifice is the true one: we partake not in an animal but in Christ himself.
Next, the author shows us again how Christ is the fulfillment of those Old Testament sacrifices. When a sin offering was made, the priests would take the bodies of the sacrificial victims and burn them outside the camp (v 11). This was an important symbolic gesture. To be in the camp was to be near God; to be outside the camp was to be rejected by God. When animal sacrifices were put outside the camp, it was a symbolic picture of the fact that the judgment the people deserved had been diverted. The animals had been rejected outside the camp, so the people could stay inside the camp and draw near to God.
So it is significant that “Jesus also suffered outside the gate” (v 12).
When the Romans crucified Jesus, they did it outside the walls of Jerusalem. The location of the cross reveals the fact that Jesus was accomplishing what the animal sacrifices had pointed toward. He took on God’s displeasure and was cast out of the city, taking the place of those who should have been rejected.
Therefore we are called to “go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured” (v 13). Jesus took all this reproach and rejection for you. Are you willing to be associated with him? Are you willing to be associated with that sort of shame and humiliation?
Truthfully, we are all sometimes embarrassed by Jesus. We are embarrassed to be Christians and afraid of being looked at with ridicule or scorn. In the early church, as we have seen, Christians were enduring far more than mockery for their faith, as many believers around the world still are today. But our author is saying that this is worth enduring. Look at what Jesus has done for you! Because of him, we will never suffer rejection by God. Even if it means enduring scorn in this life, we need to join him.
After all, the communities we are part of here on earth are “no lasting city” (v 14). Instead “we seek the city that is to come.” In other words, we want to go to the heavenly city: Zion, the new creation where we have been promised a safe place “inside the walls” and eternal fellowship with God. Jesus gets us in there. He was cast out of God’s presence so that we could be with God forever.
And what should our response be to these great truths? The first is no surprise: “Let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (v 15). As we noted above (12:28), worship is always the most natural response to redemption. Curiously, our author refers to this worship as a “sacrifice,” an analogy also made elsewhere in the New Testament (Romans 12:1; 1 Peter 2:5). Under the new covenant our sacrifices are no longer physical, but spiritual—the praise of our lips to the God who saved us.
The second response we should have to our redemption in Christ is to love one another, a theme already discussed above in Hebrews 13:1-3. We are told, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (v 16). Good works are the natural outflowing of the gospel of grace. Again, our author refers to these good works as a form of sacrifice, highlighting again the differences between the covenants. We don’t sacrifice animals, but we sacrifice our lives.
Closing Greetings
Hebrews does not begin like a typical Greco-Roman letter, as it lacks the traditional identification of the author. However, it does end like a standard letter, with closing appeals and greetings. Our author begins by making a personal request: “Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things” (v 18). This request reveals the personal relationship between the author and his audience. The author wants them to know that his conscience is clean in regard to the letter he has written—it was done with honourable intentions and for their good. In addition, he needs the prayers of the congregation, primarily so that “I may be restored to you the sooner” (v 19). Obviously, the author is not merely delivering a cold, doctrinal treatise to this congregation; he genuinely loves them and wants to be with them.
We are not surprised, then, when in verses 20-21 our author delivers a benediction, also a regular feature in the closing of letters (Romans 15:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 3:16). He clearly loves this congregation and desires to pronounce God’s blessing upon them.
A number of themes from the letter are echoed in this benediction. He begins and ends it with Jesus, emphasizing his resurrection (“brought again from the dead”) as well as his divine glory (“to whom be glory forever and ever”). The letter began with a similar focus on Jesus, particularly the truth that he was the “radiance of the glory of God” (Hebrews 1:3). Also, the benediction mentions “the blood of the eternal covenant”: a clear nod to the nature of the new covenant as eternal and never-ending because it is built on the blood of a better sacrifice (see 9:13-15; 10:10; 12:24). And the focus on “pleasing” God by obedience to “his will” was already seen above in 13:16 as well as 11:5.
Then there are a few final statements and greetings. Our author asks that the congregation “bear with my word of exhortation” (13: 22); that is, he wants them to listen to it and not cast it aside. The Timothy released from prison (v 23) may be the same Timothy to whom Paul wrote, suggesting that the author is part of the broader apostolic circle, though not necessarily an apostle himself. (See the Introduction for more on this.) Then he closes the letter with greetings to “all your leaders and all the saints” (v 24)—an indication that he is writing to a real, local church with both leaders and a congregation, something he already hinted at in verse 17.
The last statement is a short blessing: “Grace be with all of you” (v 25). Similar endings are found in many other New Testament letters (1 Timothy 6:21; 2 Timothy 4:22; Titus 3:15; Philemon 25). But the theme of “grace” is a particularly fitting end to the book of Hebrews. The message of the book is that salvation is not earned by our efforts or merits, and certainly not through adherence to old-covenant ceremonies and rituals. Only the shed blood of the ultimate sacrifice, Jesus Christ, cleanses us. Only his blood enables us to “draw near to the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16).