GOD HAS SPOKEN BY HIS SON
Meditations in Hebrews
Hebrews 6:9-12
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IN the previous verses Paul had spoken strongly. He had spoken in this way because he had a deep concern for the souls of those to whom he ministered, and a deep concern for their eternal welfare. He saw that those to whom he was writing were not progressing in their Christian lives, and he was afraid for them because they did not seem to show the growth in spiritual life which new birth inevitably brings. He did not want any of them to be among those whose faith was spurious, but having spoken strongly he turns to encouragement, which came from a hope and belief that they had genuine new birth, but had not allowed that life to grow.
This encouragement is seen in the way he speaks in verse 9. He speaks to these Christian Jews as 'dear friends', and indicates that he believes their faith to be genuine, and tells them he was confident that they would produce in their lives, now they had had it brought to their notice, the sort of character and living which salvation produces when it is genuine. It is a fact that it is impossible to be a true believer without our new found faith changing our lives. This change is characterised by our interests changing from the things which please the flesh, to interests which centre on the things which the Spirit of God desires (see Romans 8:5). This is a desire to submit to Christ and what he desires, and to love spiritual things, for instance love for the Bible, and worship, and prayer, and fellowship, and caring for others, and so on. Together with this, the change will be characterised by the fruits of the Spirit becoming more and more evident in the way we think and act. Real saving faith produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
By this Paul was bringing strong encouragement and inducement to those to whom he wrote to live up to the blessings they had received through faith in Christ. Encouragement should always be present, specially when their is rebuke and challenge. But if the warning of the danger of falling away from Christ, and the consequence of such falling away, brings discouragement and the fear that God would cast people off and forsake them, Paul reminds us of the goodness and justness of all God's ways and acts. God does not judge or cast off in any arbitrary fashion. Indeed, as Paul indicates in verse 10, God knows the deep things of our hearts, and whereas we may feel we have no goodness in us and are in danger of God's judgement, God looks into our hearts, and he is able to see the genuineness of our repentance and faith in Christ, even though by rebuke we have been brought to feel that we have fallen too badly to be able to imagine God still loving and owning us. God is able to look into the depth of our heart and soul, and is able to see whether we have genuine faith in and love for Christ. Even though our lives may be far below what they ought to be, God will recognise and affirm those signs of new birth in our living. This is the truth about God. We may back slide from our first love in a very serious way, but God's knows our hearts, and will not forget the actions which reveal the real change of heart that has occurred. Paul reminds us of this to spur us on to change the decline into new growth and life. He seeks to spur us on so that we seek the Lord afresh, and seek to glorify his holy name in all we do.
Having brought this encouragement Paul then goes on in verse 11 to urge us to diligence in our Christian lives to follow on to know the Lord better, and so prove the new life that is in us. Every rebuke and challenge should not cause us to be angry, nor to casts us into despair, but should spur us on to love Christ more, and seek the Holy Spirit to renew in our hearts the joy of the Lord, and of his forgiving love.
In fact the Christian life is not a life of ease. When we know the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ, we must not suppose that now everything will be easy and we can cease to strive after love and holiness. The fact is that the Christian life, though it has many and eternal blessings, it is also a life of trial and suffering, and to persevere means we must work at our Christian living with faith and patience. It is the truth that we persevere in our faith by patiently working at loving Christ, and loving the things he loves, and being obedient to his call to service. We have to accept the fact that people who are not Christians will not always like us, and some will hate us because of our faith, and there will be much to suffer from the world because we belong to Christ and serve him.
So Paul ends this chapter with the truth that it is only those who through faith and patience persevere who will be those who inherit eternal life. This is not to say that we earn eternal life by our actions and living, but that to believe in Christ brings with it the attack of Satan which is seen in the hate of the world towards us, and so we are called to persevere in faith.
To sum up all that we have considered, we can learn that we can't stand still in the Christian life. New life must be allowed to grow and produce fruits of goodness and love. New life also will not be attractive to many in the world, and so we have to expect that the way forward will be a struggle a great deal of the time.