The Sin Against the Triune G-Od
X. — 28. A man that hath set at nought Moses’ law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses:
29. Of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
30. For we know him that said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
THE Epistle has set before us the more excellent glory of the New Testament. We can draw near to God as Israel never could; God hath indeed made His grace to abound more exceedingly. But let no one think that greater grace means less stringency with sin, or less fierceness of the fire of judgment. Nay, the very opposite. Greater privilege brings greater responsibility, and, in case of failure, greater judgment. As elsewhere (ii. 2; xii. 25) we are reminded that the New Testament exceeds the Old not only in its blessing but also in its curse. As he had asked “How much more will the blood of Christ cleanse?” so here he asks, “How much more sore will the punishment be?” Oh that men would believe it; the New Testament, with its revelation of God as love, brings on its rejectors a far more fearful judgment than the Old. May God in mercy show us what it means, for our own sakes and that of others.
A man that hath set at nought Moses’ law dieth without
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compassion — note this terrible word, without compassion: of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who sins against New Testament grace? The measure of the superior greatness of the New Testament will be the only measure of the greater fearfulness of the punishment sent; as in the first warning the greatness of salvation was connected with the part each person in the Holy Trinity had taken in it, so here too. The Father gave His Son: of how much sorer punishment shall he be counted worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God. The Son gave His blood: here is one who hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing. The Father and the Son gave the Spirit: he hath done despite to the Spirit of grace. Under Moses’ law a man died without compassion: how much sorer punishment, without compassion, shall be the fate of them that reject Christ. Hear what all this means.
Who hath trodden under foot the Son of God! There was once an aged father, who had often pleaded in vain with a dissipated son to forsake his evil ways. One night, as the son was preparing again to go out, the father, after renewing his entreaties, went and stood in the door, saying, “My son, I cannot let you go — if you do, it will be over my body.” The son tried to push the father aside. The old man fell, and in rushing out he trod on the father! Jesus Christ, God’s Son, comes and stands in the sinner’s way, pleading with him to turn from his evil way. He casts Himself in the way, with His wounded, bleeding body. And the sinner, not heeding what he does, passes over it: he hath trodden under foot the Son of God! What a sin against the Father and the love that gave the Son!
And hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing. The Father gave the Son.
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And the Son gave His blood — the blood of the covenant, securing and conveying to us all its wondrous privileges — the blood with which he was sanctified, admitted to the Holiest of All and the Holy One, he hath counted an unholy thing. When I come to water in which I wish to wash, and find it impure, I reject it; I throw it out. Christ calls the sinner to wash in His blood and be clean. He rejects it as an unclean thing. Yes, the blood that speaks of the love of Jesus, and remission of sins, and the opened heaven, is rejected and cast aside! Oh, what sin! If the rejectors of the blood of bulls and goats died without compassion, how much more — the despisers of the blood of the Son of God!
And hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace! I can put no greater affront on my king, or my father, than by shutting my door in his face. If they come to me with a message or a gift of love in my wretchedness, to turn them away is to do them despite. The Spirit comes as the Spirit of grace, to convince of sin and stir to prayer and lead to Jesus. To close the door, to refuse surrender, to open the heart to the spirit of the world instead of Him, is to do despite to the Spirit of grace! The Son trodden under foot, the blood counted unclean, the Spirit of grace despised and rejected, — alas, what terrible sin!
For such there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins! And such are they among us and around us who reject the Christ of God! And such their fate! For we know Him that said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense. And again, the Lord shall judge His people. — For we know Him! How many there are who profess to believe in Scripture, and to worship God, but who do not know this God. They have framed to themselves a God, after their own instincts and imagination; they believe not in the Holy One in whom
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righteousness and love meet in perfect harmony. They refuse to say, We know Him that said, Vengeance belongeth unto Me, I will recompense. Oh, let us seek so to know Him, that our hearts may be filled with compassion for all who are still exposed to this fearful vengeance. For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Let us think in love on all who are still exposed to this judgment, until it stir us to thanksgiving for our own redemption, to an infinite compassion for all who are in danger, to new fervency of prayer for their salvation, and to a consecration of ourselves to the one work of warning them of their danger and leading them to Christ.
1. In accepting God’s word let us remember theft as little as we could have devised or understood the glorious redemption In Christ, such as God’s love has provided, without a divine revelation, can we arrange for or understand a judgment day such as God’s righteousness requires. The one Is a mystery of love and the other a mystery of wrath, beyond all we can thinh or know.
2. It was to meet the judgment and the wrath of God Christ’s blood was needed. The blood stands midway between the judgment threatened and the judgment yet to be poured out. As we believe in the judgment we shall honour the blood; as we believe In the blood we shall fear the judgment.
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xcv.
THE FORMER DAYS.
X. — 32. But call to remembrance the former days, In which, after ye were enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of sufferings;
33. Partly, being made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so used.
34. For ye both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye yourselves have a better possession and an abiding one.
THE solemn warning now, just as was the case in chap. vi. (ver. 9), turns to encouragement and exhortation. As there, the Hebrews are reminded of the former days, when they were first enlightened — the time of their first love. But, in the previous instance, they were told that God was not unrighteous to forget their work and love; here they are urged themselves not to forget what had taken place. Call to remembrance the former days. The retrospect would call up the joy with which they once had sacrificed all for the name of Jesus, would humble them in view of past backsliding and present coldness, would stir within the desire and the hope of regaining the place they once had occupied. Call to remembrance, he says, the former days, in which ye endured a great conflict of sufferings, in not only bearing reproaches and taking joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, but also in compassion towards and being partakers with others who were in bonds.
It is a sad thought that a community that had so remarkably proved its faithfulness to the Lord, in the midst of persecution and suffering, should in a few years have gone so far back as to need the warnings that have just been given. And yet it has often been so. In some cases it happened that the persecution ceased, and the spirit of ease and of sloth, or of worldly prosperity, obtained the mastery. In others, the persecution lasted too long, and those who had appeared to forsake all, succumbed to the severity and length of the trial. The Hebrews were not only an instance of such defection, but of so many other cases, in which Christians, after having begun well, wax weary, fainting in their souls. They stand out as beacons to warn us of the danger the Epistle so strongly urges — that the best beginning will not avail unless we endure to the end (iii. 14; vi. n; xii. 3). They call us to remember that we need a faith and a religion that stands fast and lasts; because it has its steadfastness, as the Epistle teaches, in the promise and the oath of God; in the hope within the veil; in Him the surety of the covenant, who is seated on the right hand of God, the Priest after the power of an end less life, the surety of an everlasting covenant.
In reminding them of the past a very remarkable expression is used to indicate what the power was that enabled them at first to endure so bravely. Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye yourselves have a better and abiding possession. The Christian stands between two worlds; each offers him its goods as possessions. In unceasing conflict the two compete for mastery. The one has the advantage of being infinitely more worthy than the other — giving infinite satisfaction, and lasting for ever. The other is in no wise to be compared with it — it cannot satisfy, and it does not last. But, in the conflict, it has two immense, two terrible advantages. The one is, it is nearer; it is visible; it has access to us by every sense; its
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influence on us is natural and easy and unceasing. The other, that our heart is prepossessed; the spirit of the world is in it. And so it comes that the possessions of this world with the most actually win the day, even against the better and abiding possession.
Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye have a better and abiding possession. What is this better and abiding possession? It is the love and grace of God. It is the eternal life within. It is Christ as our heart’s treasure. It is a life and a character in the likeness of Christ. The old heathen moralists teach us most striking lessons as to the nobility of a man who knows that all earthly possessions are as nothing compared with the being master of himself. How much more reason the Christian has to rejoice in the good things, in the eternal realities which Christ bestows, both in the heaven above and the heart within. The world may rob you of personal liberty or earthly goods; it cannot compel you to commit sin or separate you from the living God in Christ Jesus. Heaven and its blessing in your heart can fill you with a joy that counts every sacrifice a privilege, that makes every loss a gain, and that turns all suffering into an exceeding weight of glory.
Alas that the Hebrews, after knowing this better and abiding possession, and having, for its sake, joyfully taken the spoiling of their possessions, should yet, many of them, have waxed weary, and fainted and turned back! Alas for the terrible possibility of making sacrifices, and enduring reproach for Christ, and then falling away! No wonder that our author at once follows up his appeal to the former days with the exhortation: Cast not away your boldness — ye have need of patience.
Let us learn the solemn lesson: the lawful possessions and
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pleasures and occupations of this world, its literature and its culture, are unceasingly and most insidiously seeking to undermine the influence of the better and abiding possession. This influence is greater than we know, because they are seen and near and ever active. Nothing can secure us against their power but a life of faith, a life in the Holiest, a life in the power of Christ, the Priest for ever, who works all in the power of the endless life. Alone through Him who abideth continually can we abide continually too, can we endure unto the end.
1. If there be any reader who has to look bach with shame and regret on his first hue, and his leaving it, let him listen to the call: Remember the former days. Think of them. Face the fact of your having gone bach. Confess it to God. And take courage in the assurance, there is restoration and deliverance. Trust Jesus.
2. A better and abiding possession. A rich man counts his money. He spends time and thought on preserving it safe, and making it more. Our power to resist the world, so that its possessions shall not tempt us, nor Its threats terrify us, lies in the full consciousness and enjoyment of our heavenly treasures. Take time to know your possessions, draw out an inventory of what you have and what you expect, and all the world offers will have no power.
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