 We're listening to the Naked Bible Podcast. To support this podcast, click at NakedBiblePodcast.com and click on the support link in the upper right-hand corner. If you're new to the podcast and Dr. Heiser's approach to the Bible, click on newstarthere at NakedBiblePodcast.com. Welcome to the Naked Bible Podcast, episode 183 Hebrews, chapters 4, verse 14, through chapter 5, verse 10. I'm the layman, Trey Strickland, and he's a scholar, Dr. Michael Heiser. Hey, Mike. You know what this week is? It's our matchup, head-to-head fantasy football time. Yeah. Yeah. You have my condolences ahead of time. Yeah. Well, we shall see. So whoever comes out on top of this is going to be a top dog. Yeah. Well, funny, funny. You should say it that way because the pugnacious pugs plan to be at the top of the heap. The top dog. That's right. Yeah. I shouldn't have said that. I'm going to go ahead and edit that out. So I'm just going to go back and delete that. You do that. You do that. Yeah. I'm going to. It's done. Deleted. But actually it's a little sneak peek to maybe the Super Bowl this year of us, me and you. Yeah. Well, that could be, that could be. Hopefully you'll make it that far. Yeah. Well, no worries. I plan to be there. I'm going to be there. I'm not Tim who's struggling this year, Tim. Shout out. Yeah, that boy. Yeah. That's a shout out. All right. Yeah. It's dog days. He's not top dog. He's the opposite of. Yeah, there you go. Top. I guess that would be the underdog. I guess he could run the table and make the playoffs, but who knows. Highly unlikely. And also, this week is Halloween. I'm just curious what you're going to dress up as. I'm going to go as what I go as every year. I'm going to go as an adult. So I'm an adult male and adult male. Yeah. Y'all going to do trick or treating y'all do anything up there. Canada. I mean, I don't know what they do in Canada, but my kids are too old, even though they'll still want me to go out and buy candy or something. They're too old in Canada. You could probably go as a Canadian. Oh boy. And yes, there would be ways to do that. I don't know how we transition from fantasy football, Halloween and Canadians into Hebrews chapters four and five, but I'm going to leave that up to you. Yeah. Well, I don't really have any good suggestions, so we might as well just jump into it. All right. So yeah, we're picking up with Hebrews chapter four. Last time we went through verse 13. This time it's going to be verses 14, 15 and 16, then on into chapter five through the first 10 verses. And this section marks the beginning of the theme of Christ's high priesthood. And as I said last time, this is a theme that actually continues on into chapter 10. So this is sort of like Christ's high priest part one. I don't know how many parts it's going to be, but it's going to go back and forth all the way through chapter 10. So we're just going to jump in here and say what we can say based upon this little section. And that's going to, again, take us into, you know, when we get into chapter six, it's going to be, again, more of the whole question about, you know, status of faith and, you know, Hebrews six is sort of fodder for a lot of people that want to, you know, wonder about, you know, did I lose my salvation or something like that. So we're going to go back into that theme. But for today, for right now, again, this is where we're at because this is what the author does. So let's just start with verse 14. And I'll read, again, the last three verses of chapter four, just to, again, pick those up. And then we'll focus in on verse 14. So we read, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. Who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So that's the last three verses of chapter four. If we look at verse 14, again, the first of those verses, we have since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, since all that's true, let us hold fast our confession. Now that line, hold fast our confession, should take our minds back to Hebrews 3 verse 6, a couple episodes ago. Hold fast our confidence. And again, we're reiterating, the writer is reiterating the concern that believers, his readers, some of them at least might be falling away or losing faith. Again, why, again, is this consistent? Why does this take our mind back? Well, in the one verse, you know, Hebrews 3-6, the word was confidence, hold fast our confidence. Here it's hold fast our confession. It's really two ways of saying the same thing. You know, our confidence, our confession is that we have been promised eternal life in God's family. Again, his household, back in Hebrews 3-6, that's mentioned again. We get two reasons, again, here in this verse as to why we shouldn't doubt, why we shouldn't, you know, fall into unbelief, better way to say that. And because doubt, having questions isn't the same as falling into unbelief. So the real concern here is forsaking faith. Again, just turning around and not believing, really releasing, surrendering this confession or this confidence. So we get two reasons why we shouldn't do that here in verse 14. There's a lot packed in this verse. The first one is Jesus, God's own Son is the basis of the promise and therefore our confidence. Again, go back to verse 14. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Who is that? Jesus, the Son of God. So since all that's true, since we have, you know, Jesus is the Son of God as our great high priest. Let us hold fast our confession. God's own Son is the basis of the thing we're being asked to believe. He's the basis of the promise, therefore he should be the basis of our confidence. In other words, our confidence shouldn't be based, rooted in ourselves, our abilities, our behavior, our success, our failure, all that kind of stuff. That isn't the basis for it. That's not what, again, you know, runs interference for us before God. And the point is that God's own Son is the point person, you know, for who qualifies for membership in God's family. We are his siblings, Hebrews 2, by virtue of the incarnation and our faith in his work, our belief that he fulfilled God's plan and was an acceptable offering for our sins. How could he not be? And we think to Hebrews 2, which is where Jesus says, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children God has given me. And this is all a meeting in quote, the congregation. If we continue on in Hebrews 2, he follows that again, I and the children God has given me. Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. That through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Now, you think about that. That's Hebrews 2, 12 through 17. And how it ties into Hebrews 4, 14, where we start our episode today. Since we have a great high priest who's passed to the heavens, that would be Jesus, the Son of God. Let's not fall into unbelief. Hold fast our confession. You think about Hebrews 2, what that says is that the very reason Christ became a man, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. That through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. The very reason that Christ would even have the incarnation is so that he could take care of this problem. And the fact that he became a man, verse 17, therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest. It even uses the same language, the incarnation. It happened so that Jesus could serve in this role to be the faithful high priest. In other words, the go-between between us and God, the one who runs interference between us and God. The incarnation happens so that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God. And also, verse 17, Hebrews 2, 17 ends to make propitiation for the sins of the people. Now, since he did that, you go back to Hebrews 4, since all that is factual, why would we have any trouble holding fast our confession? In other words, why would we have any doubt that our belief in the person who did this is going to result in eternal life? Because it's this person who is our brother. That person, Jesus, became a man just so that we could have confidence in him to make us part of God's family. That's really the point here. And again, this is going to open. He's already dealt in Hebrews 2 with this whole thing about making propitiation and becoming incarnate. But even there, he drops this high priest line and he's going to pick it up right here in Hebrews 4, 14, and then going on into chapter 5 and then other chapters. Jesus, if this is the role he plays, think about it, he's not going to condemn us for weakness. Why? Verse Hebrews 4, 15, we don't have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but rather we have one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. By the way, the throne of grace is where Jesus sits. How do we know that? Because he ascended. We've already seen that in Hebrews 1. He ascended to the throne. He is seated at the right hand of God next to the Father. So when we go to the throne and ask for grace, who's there? It's him. And we're the reason he did what he did. So again, the writer is saying, look, you've got to think about all those people. We're not going to be condemned for our weakness. We have a high priest, an intercessor that understands our weakness because he became a man and he understands the trials, the temptations. He understands all that. He is himself the solution to that weakness. He's the solution to our imperfection, our sin, our inability to please God. Again, what he did in our place, he both understands our problem, our inability, and he also becomes the solution for it. And this ascension to the throne is actually sort of the reference point to this line in Hebrews 4.14 that we have a high priest who has, quote, passed through the heavens. Again, this is a reference to the ascension, something that would not have been allowed. I mean, God wouldn't have allowed Christ to ascend to the throne had he not accomplished the task that God gave him. But he did. And so God did. And the fact that God finds the work of Jesus fulfilled, completed, and acceptable should give us confidence so that we, quote, hold fast our confession. In other words, so that we hold fast to our belief. We have every reason again to believe. So again, you look at this line, which I want to Luke Timothy Johnson, I think has a nice little section here on this passing through the heavens. I want to make sure to include this in the podcast. I'm going to read from his commentary in Hebrews. Luke Timothy Johnson writes, the description of Jesus as high priest is here meshed with the imagery of enthronement, which we saw earlier in Hebrews 13, Hebrews 113, Hebrews 2, verses 9 and 10. Jesus is a priest who has passed through the heavens. This is the only time Hebrews uses the verb, the air come by, and it gives the reader the sense of a spatial journey that penetrates through heavenly realms into God's presence. Later, Hebrews will use a similar spatial image when it pictures Jesus as priest, quote, entering into the heavenly sanctuary, unquote. There's a reference that Hebrews 6, Hebrews 8, Hebrews 9, you know, in Hebrews 10 and a few verses. Johnson continues, it is rather the full and ontological entry of the human Jesus through his resurrection from the dead and his exaltation to the right hand into the power and glory that are proper to God. Again, it was of the Son that this composition declared, and he, that is the book of Hebrews declares, he took a seat at the right hand of the majesty on high, Hebrews 13. And to this Son that the scripture was addressed, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. It's a quotation of Psalm 44-7 that occurs in Hebrews 1-8. Likewise, in Hebrews 8-1, Hebrews will report that, quote, he has taken a seat at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens. And in Hebrews 12-2, quote, he has taken a seat at the right hand of the throne of God, unquote. Jesus therefore, and Johnson's quote finishes, Jesus therefore is enthroned as Lord. And because of this, the readers also can approach the presence of God's throne with boldness. I mean, how else would you approach the person seated who did all this on your behalf? It was the very purpose for why he did this. And God was pleased with his performance, Jesus' performance. Again, he accomplished everything he was supposed to accomplish on our behalf. And he is our brother. He is not ashamed to call us brethren, Hebrews chapter 1. Again, the writer is saying, look, why would you not maintain your belief? Why would you not maintain your confidence? There's nothing that needs to be done that hasn't been done already and done perfectly. Because salvation, again, your confession, your membership in the household of God, use Hebrews 3-6 terminology. That all depends on the performance of one that would be Christ. It does not depend on your performance. So again, here we are back to this theme, tying it into this high priest idea. Now, verses 15 and 16, read those again. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Johnson, again, I'm going to quote him a little bit here. He writes about the word sympathize. We have a high priest who is able to sympathize. He says that word in English has been watered down to a sort of vague emotional distress, whereas its use in passages like 4th Maccabees, 1323, and that's his cross-reference here, suggests a stronger common feeling among those who are suffering. At the very least, the term is used by Hebrews, should not bear the slight air of condescension carried by English sympathize. For it is precisely this composition's point that Christ entered fully into the human experience of suffering. The term weaknesses encompasses every form of physical debility, such as those caused by illness. Again, it's used in passages to describe illness as Luke Timothy Johnson's point back to him. So it shouldn't. It encompasses every form of physical debility, such as those caused by illness, as well as any lack of capacity, including moral judgment or behavior. Basically, that's the end of his quote here. Johnson's saying the weaknesses here are all encompassing. It's a term that's used to describe weaknesses of all kinds that are characteristic of humanity. Back to Johnson. He has one other section here. He says Christ's identification with human weakness and even failure does not, however, extend to our participation in human sin. The phrase Chorus Hamartias is emphatic, again, without sin. The human Jesus was free from sin, or that the human Jesus was free from sin, is the consistent teaching of the New Testament. 2 Corinthians 521, for example. I'm going to look up a few of his cross references here so we can get the context. 2 Corinthians 521 says, For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. John 718. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood. 1 Peter 119. We are bought with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Again, these are familiar passages. 1 Peter 222, he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. Again, back to Johnson's sentence here, that the human Jesus was free from sin is the consistent teaching of the New Testament. So this affirmation by the author of Hebrews is not in itself surprising, but since the work of Christ in this composition is so much connected to his making purification for sins on behalf of others, and since his capacity to do this for others rests, as the following section will insist, on his being made perfect through the things that he suffered, it is worth asking what Hebrews understands by sin. It cannot mean simply human weaknesses and temptations, for the author has already identified Christ completely with those human experiences. And that's the end of Johnson's quotation here. In other words, Jesus was not without human weakness and temptation. He experienced all those things and the broad range of those things, but he was without sin. Again, neither human weakness or temptation is therefore in and of themselves sin. Those things are not sin. Human weakness is not by definition sin. And being tempted is not by definition committing sin. Our weakness and temptation sort of work together to entice us to commit sin, but they are not themselves sin. These are different things. Jesus, what this means, again, is they're all encompassing usage in the New Testament of the term for weakness, it's ostenaeoi. What that means is that Jesus experienced, again, the broad range of what humans experience in terms of, again, weakness and in terms of some sort of solicitation or enticement to do wrong, to sin. Jesus experienced all that stuff, but he never did wrong. Now what are we talking about specifically here? Well, Jesus would have experienced the urges of the flesh, because he was human. He would have experienced those urges and the weaknesses of the flesh that make humans vulnerable to sin, but he never himself actually crossed that line. He never actually sinned. In other words, he always reacted and responded to such things, such urges, according to God's will. This is why Hebrews 5.8, again, a little bit later, getting a little bit ahead of ourselves here in the passage. This is why Hebrews 5.8 can say that Jesus learned obedience through what he experienced. Again, if we look at Hebrews 5.8, let me just read that to you. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered and then Hebrews 5.9, the next verse. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. If we look, think about those verses and then we go to Hebrews 10, 9 and 10, let me read those for you. Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will. Again, this is the conversation between Christ and God. Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second by that will. We have been sanctified to the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. You take a look at these sets of comments in Hebrews 5.8 and 5.9 about how Jesus learned obedience through suffering. It was that obedience, that experience that validated him. Being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. He intended Hebrews 10, 9 and 10 to do this all along. Jesus knew that when he agreed again to become incarnate, that's what we're going to see in Hebrews 10 when we get to that point. You have this conversation between Jesus and the Father. Jesus knew that when this plan was put in place or at least devised and then decided upon, he knew what it would mean. He would go through weakness. He would go through temptation. He would have to learn what it was to be under duress from weakness and from external temptation. He would have to go through that and then learn what it meant to obey God. Prior to that point, you don't have these things as a member of the Trinity, as God, as Yahweh, the whole Trinitarian idea. You don't have these things. You don't have weaknesses. You don't have these temptations. Through this, and he was willing to do it, through all that, he would learn. He would learn obedience. Again, that's the point of that language, which is surprising and interesting as well. Jesus shared all the weaknesses and temptations of being human, but he never sinned. Consequently, he was made perfect. By the way, we should say something about that verb, was made perfect. The verb that gets translated made perfect, tele-a-o in Greek, according to B-Dag. It has a semantic range. It means several things, but included in that is the idea of bringing to completion something, to complete something, to bring something to an end, to finish something. By virtue of it being done, it's made perfect. It's complete. By virtue of Jesus experiencing this, he was declared at the end of all that, having endured weakness and endured temptations successfully. He was declared to be completely free from sin, and that state of being is final. Jesus' sinless status is perfect. It can't be improved upon. You say, well, Mike, we get it. Why do you bring this up? Well, I think there's some relationship to this language and a question that I probably have gotten in two or three Q&As. When we're glorified in the New Earth, is there still a chance that sin might happen or rebellion might happen? I think this sort of bears on that question. I have answered that question before by saying, okay, we are made as closely like Jesus as we can possibly be made. We are like him. We are united to him. We share in his nature. We're glorified. We're in the perfect environment now. But nevertheless, we aren't him. We aren't Yahwehs now. We aren't little Yahwehs. We are like him. But I've given that explanation to say, look, while we can't say we are flawless in nature, we're about as close to that as we can possibly get because we're united to Christ and here, in Hebrews 5 and in chapter 4 and going into chapter 5, we learn that Christ's status of sinlessness is complete and perfect. And we are joined to him. And in the eschaton, again, in our final glorification, we are fully as much as we can possibly be united to him. We are as much like him as we can possibly be in 1 John 3. And in the language of Hebrews, we will be made holy by the offering of the perfect one who was bent on doing the will of God even before the incarnation. So the likelihood of anything going wrong in the new earth is extraordinarily, extraordinarily slim almost to the point of it not being even a coherent thing to ask. And it's because, again, Christ's perfection and our union with him, there'd have to be some defection in that. And I would dare say that I don't know what that would be. But there have to be some defect in that for anything to go wrong in the new heaven and the new earth. Again, you have to allow for some little iota, a little quantum particle here of disconnect because we are not fully God himself, obviously. But we are united to one who is perfect. And that is not only how God looks at us, but that if I can use this kind of language, that influences our behavior on the other side when we have this glorified state. So basically, don't look for anything bad to happen on the other side there. Luke Timothy Johnson, again, he has a little statement here that I think is worth pointing out at this point. He says the triumph of Christ over sin and death is a triumph for each one of us as well. And his sharing in the power of God means that humans have a genuine hope of mercy and favor when they approach God's throne. For we have as our advocate one who is like us in every respect and who knows us from the inside. That's the end of Johnson's quote, and I would add, not only do we have an advocate for us who is like us in every respect, but we are as like him in every way possible that we can be because we are united to him when we're glorified. So again, this is the kind of situation the writer of Hebrews wants us to think about so that we can be confident, we can hold fast to our confession. Hebrews 4 14. Now, rather than, think about it this way, rather than be burdened by our own sins and our own flaws, our own defects, our own failures, because that's where, you know, we've all been there, and a lot of Christians are really kind of stuck there, and they evaluate their relationship to God based upon their own performance. You know, I understand that. I know the experience, we've all been there. But rather than be burdened by that, by our own sins and flaws, what the writer of Hebrews wants us to be thinking is you should be confident in God's promise of access and eternal life in his family because of certain things. Don't be looking at yourself. Don't be evaluating your membership in God's family based upon yourself as though it hinged upon your moral perfection. It doesn't rest on that. Your confidence should be in God's promise of eternal life based on a number of other things, like what? Well, one, based on the fact that Jesus knows what it's like to be us. He knows what our weaknesses do to us. He knows what temptations are. He just knows that. Second, despite knowing ahead of time, this is Hebrews 10, 9, and 10 now, despite knowing ahead of time that he would have to experience all that, he said yes. He determined to do that. He determined to do the will of God. He knew what it meant to become like us. Again, for the first time in his existence, he would have to go through these things. So that's why he's sympathetic. Third, ultimately, our salvation depends on Jesus' performance of the task that God gave him. We're not on our own merit, not on ourselves in any respect. And so that's why we should hold fast our confidence. If we're turned away from the family of God, then God would have to turn away his own son. That just isn't going to happen, so we won't be turned away. Now, the author goes through all of that talk into chapter 5. And look at what he says. Let's read chapter 5. We'll start right at the very beginning here. He says, you know, in Hebrews 4, 14, it was since we have a great high priest, who's done all this stuff. We should be confident. Then in chapter 5, verse 1, he says, For every high priest chosen from among men, in other words, high priests that weren't God's son, every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can deal gently with the ignorant and the wavered since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins, just as he does for those of the people. Again, the writer of Hebrews is describing the normal human high priest, you know, what that's like. And again, basically he's doing this to draw the contrast with the high priest of Jesus. So, you know, high priests chosen from among men, they act on behalf of men, they offer gifts and sacrifices. You know, they do that. They even have to offer sacrifice for their own sins. Verse 4, No one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, You are my son. Today I have begotten you. Verse 6, as he says also in another place, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And again, we've been, you know, through both these themes before, this begotten thing. Again, if you look it up in the Old Testament, it is linked to kingship. Here it's also linked to being a high priest, and kingship and high priestly ship, if that's a word and it isn't, but kingship and priesthood are fused together in Melchizedek. And Melchizedek is the high priest, the king high priest, that is cast in the Old Testament as not having beginning or end. In other words, his high priestly status, his kingly status, you know, Jesus' status, isn't based on lineage. It has no beginning and it has no end. Again, if you're new to the podcast and you're wondering about what that means with Melchizedek, we did four or five episodes on Melchizedek, you can go back and listen to those. But here, for our sake, the writer of Hebrews is saying, the high priest, our high priest, is unlike human high priests, because he doesn't have to sacrifice for himself. But, you know, in other respects, he isn't like the other high priest, because he didn't exalt himself to that position, you know, just like Aaron had to be appointed. Christ was appointed, too. And he's appointed directly by God. Verse 7, let's go to verse 7, Hebrews 5. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears and was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Being designated by God, a high priest, after the order of Melchizedek. Now, again, this is language we've covered a lot. Our earlier episode, episode 175, when we began our study of the book of Hebrews in the first chapter, we looked at this begotten language. It refers to, you know, Psalm 27, 2 Samuel 7.14, refers to kingship. It doesn't refer to when someone begins to exist. If you look at Psalm 27, 2 Samuel 7.14, the statement about today I've begotten you are spoken about the Israelite king, namely King David. David existed already. He was the king. It has nothing to do with chronological beginning, point of origin. It refers to something else. It's used here, connects kingship. Again, that's its reference in the Old Testament, but it connects kingship to priesthood through Melchizedek, just like I mentioned earlier. And again, we've done a number of episodes. 166, 67, 68, and 170 on Melchizedek. We're not going to spend our time here to read that material, but our point here is that we don't have a mere human intercession. Again, we have something different. We have one who doesn't need to sacrifice for himself, one who is completely perfected in purity. Who could possibly tell Jesus, the great high priest, who could possibly tell him, hey, your sacrificial intercession isn't adequate, or hey, you're not allowed to have a human being into the family of God. You're not allowed to give him eternal life, him or her. Who's going to say that to Jesus? Again, this is the point. At the end of chapter 4, when we draw near to the throne of grace, who's sitting there? It's Christ, again, who was incarnate for us on our behalf, who is functioning as our intercessor. His work is accomplished. He's on the throne. Who in the world is going to, when we approach the throne of grace, is going to turn to Jesus and say, look, this person isn't covered. Again, this whole state of affairs is eternal, and it's never ending because Christ's priesthood has no beginning or end. Again, there's the Melchizedek analogy again. So the benefit to us is eternal. Again, think about it. If the priesthood of Christ is eternal, the benefit of it, for us, is also eternal. I mean, nobody is going to tell Jesus who is fit or not for membership in the family of God because he gets to determine that. There's no one that's going to stop him, interrupt him, and correct him. It's just not going to happen. And so, why should we lose faith? Again, all of this is leading to these kinds of questions. This is the book of Hebrews. It's about, yes, you're under persecution, but do not lose heart, do not lose faith. Hold fast your confession. Hold fast your confidence. In other words, believe. Believe. It all just goes back to this notion. Why would we ever lose faith? Why would we not be confident? Why would we not hold fast our confession? Why would we not believe because all of this is not for yourself, but on Christ? Again, this is where the rubber meets the road, where the whole thing just culminates in this fundamental issue. Why would you be worried in someone who provided the perfect solution who didn't fail at providing the perfect solution because they themselves are perfect and now are seated in the position of authority to decide whether you're in or out because this perfect person did this stuff perfectly for you. It's the whole reason. You are the reason. Salvation is the whole reason he became incarnate and he decided, again, when the whole plan of salvation was proposed, he said, I have come and I will do your will, Lord, do your will to the Father. He's going to do the Father's will and the Father looks at what he did, sees that he accomplished it perfectly. He accepted him so that he can rise back through the heavens, take his seat at the right hand of God again, why in view of all of these thoughts, why would we ever lose faith? There's nothing else that's going to beat that. As we're going to see chapter 6, we're at Hebrews 5.10, we're at the end of our section here for this episode. In the very next verse, Hebrews 5.11, we get into this little section about falling away, apostasy, and then on into chapter 6, which is the big chapter in the book of Hebrews about falling away into unbelief. That's the one everybody sort of fixates on about, do we lose our salvation or not. Look at everything that's preceded this. Why would we ever wonder about this? Why would we ever again not be confident that we have eternal life? Well, there's really only one answer. The only thing that's going to separate us from God is if we reject the gospel. If we lose faith and the only reason that we're going to really lose faith is that our eyes are thinking get oriented to ourselves, to our performance, to our behavior, to our imperfection. And everything up to this point, the writer of Hebrews has tried to tell us, tried to tell you, is that your performance doesn't have anything to do with this question. It's not your performance that results in eternal life. It's the performance of one. It's the performance of Christ. And he performed perfectly, unfailingly, and he is the arbiter now of the salvation question. And if you believe him, this is the only thing he asks, the only thing God asks, if you believe him, if you embrace the notion that he is the only way, what he did is the only means of salvation and you throw yourself upon his mercy. You throw yourself on the very reason that he did what he did and suffered what he suffered. Why would he turn you away? To turn you away is to say he failed and he didn't fail. So, again, the writer of Hebrews wants us to get our minds and our eyes off of our own failures and our perfections. We need to cease, again, from our own works. Like we heard about last time. Again, we have the wrong thing in focus. And if we have the wrong thing in focus, again, our own performance, our own failures, then yeah, that's going to lead us into maybe depression, second thoughts, whatever. Again, this is damaging. Having our minds fixed on things that don't have anything to do with eternal life can be used as a tool. It becomes a hazard into, with respect to this whole matter of believing, keeping believing. This is our introduction into, again, the great high priestly idea. We only spent 10, 13 verses on it and the writer is back to the whole question about this falling away. This is going to be a back and forth kind of thing. And as esoteric as some of this stuff gets with Christ's high priesthood, the whole reason that he's entertaining this is, again, to try to reinforce the point that the question of your salvation is ultimately based on the ability of Christ to provide it and whether you believe that or not. Again, those are the issues. Did Christ do what he said he was going to do? Would God wanted him to do? Yes. Okay, so that one's taken care of. Now, the other one is left over. Do you believe or not? There is no other better sacrifice for sin. God's plan cannot be improved upon. There's nothing more that he can do and that thought is important for understanding Hebrews 6, really the rest of Hebrews 5 on into Hebrews 6 when it starts talking about falling away. So, we'll get into that next time and so for next time fix that in your mind. Give this idea that there is no better sacrifice for sin. There's no other plan and so this is the plan that matters. And do you believe that or not? And what would you say with those who are struggling with this works versus belief? Is it that if you do believe you naturally want to do good works. It's not just works alone. I mean a lot of people are struggling with this concept. Yeah, I've actually wondered about I don't know if it would be during Hebrews or maybe afterwards but doing a whole episode topically on a number of passages that talk about this whole theme but I think you're right. I think this is a normal human impulse when we believe if we're grateful and so we feel bad when we disappoint God because we feel grateful to him for what he's done and so when we don't do what we know he would want us to do we feel bad we have to remember look before you would have ever had even a thought before the before in the past you can think about before you became a believer. You didn't have any thought about disappointing God you could have cared less. I mean it never even popped into your head well it was while you were in that state while that was you, Christ died for you. In other words the fact that Christ would have gone to the cross on your behalf doesn't matter in any way on your disappointing of him because everybody disappoints him. Everybody regularly habitually, unfailingly disappoints him but he still did what he did so the fact that after the fact you know after your salvation you might stumble you might fall you might fail and you're going to point God hey God has been there before Jesus has been disappointed before and it didn't stop him from doing what was necessary to save you so why would it affect him in any way now you can't get in worse condition you can't get more detached you know from caring about this at all and he still you know did it he still went through it so yeah I understand what it means to disappoint God and to just feel awful you know about yourself you know for doing something or not doing something you should have but it's not news to Jesus it's nothing new and he he did what he did for you even during the time when that was all he got from you when he got a steady diet of that thing that's troubling you he did anyway it's not going to change the way he looks at you now and that guilt has been abused for control throughout history and you know I think it would be a good idea for us to do a show listing all of the works passages and kind of go through them yeah I mean I again I've been thinking about that it's familiar to me you know it on the one hand you know I agree with you it has been used in a negative illegitimate way to keep people in line or control people or what not I think though sometimes pastors and other spiritual leaders do it for less sinister ways because they want you know it's not that they just want conformity for conformity's sake but they want people to live the kind of lives they should live because ultimately that's a good thing for them and for the people around them but it can descend very quickly into you know guilting people into certain actions and certain you know behaviors that are tied to what happens in church I've certainly seen that and the opposite is people will say well that just means I can do anything I want then because it's all Paul addressed that too shall we continue in sin that grace you know God forbid someone who really understands the gospel and believes it and appreciates it loves God because of it you're not just going to go stick the sin that you like in the face of Jesus just because you can that whole approach living out life now to consume it upon your flesh and yourself being a totally selfish self directed person I think the New Testament rightly looks at such people and questions the validity of their belief of their faith it's still not a performance oriented salvation the question isn't hey you need to stop doing that bad stuff so you can do enough good stuff to get to heaven no the issue is do you really believe because if somebody really believes they would be grateful they would want to be a blessing to the person who gave them this great gift we call salvation we're not going to spend their time throwing sin in their face it's just a completely different sort of perspective but I'm thinking about it I think this is really important because I think the guilt factor turns off a lot of new Christians today they can't get past that they get stuck in the works in the feeling guilty and the feeling bad that they turn away they don't want to deal with it they're a burden they can't grow in their faith so I think maybe we should dedicate some episodes about it because I really think this is one of the main points that people can't get past or see but I think it's important well it's pretty high on the list so I'm betting it's going to happen sweet that's what I like to hear alright Mike next week we're going to finish chapter 5 chapter 11 on through chapter 6 chapter 6 is the big quote unquote apostasy passage so I think we'll do from it'll be heavers chapter 5 verse 11 all the way through chapter 6 so we'll finish up chapter 6 sounds good alright Mike if you haven't done so please leave us a review let us know how we're doing and I just want to thank everybody for listening to the naked bible podcast God bless