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Articles 2018-2020
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
Notice that the above Scripture does not say that it was impossible for those who had turned away from the Lord to be renewed to repentance, but that it was impossible for the readers to renew them. Some who had believed had since fallen away and were forsaking the practice of assembling together with other believers (Hebrews 10:25).
But salvation is always of the Lord.
As much as we might believe that we can turn someone around in their life direction, it is only God who can change the human heart. When we fail to appreciate this truth, we can bring to someone we love an external pressure to change which serves only to drive them further away from both us and the Lord. Yes, we can go expressing our love and concern. The Lord at that time might inspire us to call them to repentance. But in the end, we must trust in His love for them – that it is even greater than ours. Just consider the father’s heart for his prodigal son. When he saw him a long way off, seeking to come home, the dad ran to him full of compassion, embraced him, and kissed him (Luke 15:20). Jesus told that story not simply to emphasize the sin of the son but to make known the heart of His heavenly Father. Or consider Jonah. And see the degree of pursuit to which God went in the life of this man. And He did so not only because He wanted the prophet to go on an evangelistic mission for Him. He could have simply sent someone else. That is why the book ends with the Lord continuing to address issues in the prophet’s heart that were contrary to Him and His ways. He loved the man.
And here is why we pray for the coming salvation of Israel – because it is in the Father’s heart for her to return. If it was impossible for those who have known the Lord and then turned away to come home, then Israel would have no future. But, “...the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). Grace and the eternal purpose of God are greater than the sins and failure of man. Indeed, the Lord is our hope, our strength, our song, and He has become our salvation (Isaiah 12:2). And there are many who have turned away from Him who will one day say/sing those very words. And scripture expressly states that Israel will one day say/sing those very words (Isaiah 12:1).
But the backsliders who had walked away from the brethren in the book of Hebrews were not just stumbling in their walk with the Lord. They were rebelling against Him and thus aligning themselves with those who had crucified Him. Their lifestyle choices were declaring that Jesus should have been executed and that He deserved the specific method of crucifixion with all the shame that went with it. For those who had such hardness of heart, mere human persuasion would simply not suffice.
For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.
We are God’s tilled land; we have experienced His plow. And we have also experienced the blessing of His work of bringing forth eternal fruit in our lives. But those believers who had fallen away in the Book of Hebrews, whose lives were now like a thorn and thistle filled field were useless/worthless in revealing the heavenly Farmer’s intentions for mankind. Their very life choices undermined the truth of His love and stated purpose of bringing forth among men the revelation of His nature, character, and glory. While they were not cursed, they looked like they were. And the way they were living was bringing them ever closer to it.
What can a farmer do with a thorn filled field? How committed would he be to removing the clear lie concerning what he had planted there? The simple answer is – fire. When the fire of God’s disciplines and judgments come to any person, they have the choice to either hold on to what is being destroyed and as a result be consumed along with it, or to choose the Farmer and His purpose.
I fell away from the Lord in my teenage years. I had asked Him into my heart when I was quite young, and as far back as I can remember, His presence was always with me. I knew His dealings as a child when I lied or refused to share my toys. But I always knew He was real and that He loved me. Then in my high school years, I began to be drawn to a life of rock music and drugs together with the immoral lifestyle choices that went along with them. Then not too many years later, I began to experience the fires of destruction in my life. I was going days without proper sleep. My body was breaking out in large boils. I was being plagued by numerous fears. And at the age of 21, I came to the conclusion that if I did not return to the Lord, I would soon die. At that time, even though I knew exactly what needed to happen, that I needed to repent, I could not return. As the above verse states, when one falls away it is impossible to renew them to repentance. In other words, we cannot even renew ourselves to repentance. To be clear, the idea that one can live for the devil and then simply return to the Lord whenever they want, is a false hope. The power to repent and the grace for salvation lies not in the human heart, but in the Lord. Repentance and salvation are a miracle. The power to participate in them is released to us by His word, His gospel which is the power of God unto salvation.
What I was experiencing was a massive war going on in my soul. Here is why intercession for backsliders is such an important part of our spiritual warfare. Many were praying for me. As I sat in my car that day, I kept looking toward the Lord without the capacity to come home. And then suddenly, the car filled with His presence and I collapsed into His arms.
And I will sing of His amazing grace for ages unending.
But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.
Though the writer was referring to thorn filled fields afire with the judgments of God, he had a vision of a much better future for his readers. Why were their prospects bright?
For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.
They had and were continuing to show love toward God and His name by serving others who loved Him. Similarly, for us, how we treat God’s people informs Him concerning how He should treat us (Matthew 6:12).
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
As we are diligent in showing love toward the Lord, the assurance that comes from Him will feed our hope as we face our future. And we will engage the days to come not with lethargy/sluggishness but with an endurance like those around us who are coming into His promises for them. Notice that they do not inherit the promises through faith, but through faith and patience. In other words, God’s timing is as important as His promises.
For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU.” And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.
Abraham waited patiently? Really? When we read the Scriptures, we see his failures as well as his successes. He lied about his wife in order to keep himself from harm. He was easily persuaded by his wife into a relationship with their servant girl Hagar so that Ishmael was born. And then for thirteen years as his love for Ishmael grew stronger, he became increasingly convinced that God’s purpose would be fulfilled through this maturing young man. But God’s plan was to bring forth His covenantal people through Abraham and Sarah. So, when the Lord made this clear to his servant, Abraham fell on his face and laughed at the thought (Genesis 17:17). And later, Sarah laughed as well (Genesis 18:12).
But God’s evaluation of His servant was that he patiently waited and obtained the promise. In His mind, success was not about his servant having lived a perfect life but about his continual responses in faith to the Lord’s initiatives. Faith is not about perfection; it is about constant changes being worked in us on the way to perfection through relational intimacy with the One in whom we believe. And in the end, every person must face this question: can God be trusted, can He be believed? And we will realize the fulfillment of His words not by striving after them, but by living lives that affirm that He can be.
For men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.
God strongly encourages us to lay hold of the hope that He birthed in us when we first turned to Him. Apart from Him we were adrift, without direction, and without a sense of purpose and destiny. Like the world which has no hope, all we had was wishful thinking. We “hoped” things would work out ok. But now, because of God’s present abiding presence in us, we know that He has destined us according to an eternal purpose conceived in His heart before the world began. And it is unchangeable. And along with this, the fact that He cannot lie is also unchangeable. Because of these two constants, we who have taken refuge in Him now have the sense of Heaven’s commitment to bring us to the fulfillment of what He started with us when we first repented. Let hope arise in us when everything around us seems hopeless!
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
The sense of destiny in our hearts draws us into the inner courts of God’s eternal habitation. No longer standing at a distance, we have One who has gone before us into the inner place of intimacy with God and who now stands beckoning us to follow Him there. And since He dwells there as the high priest of a whole new order of priestly ministry, as we follow Him, we will discover what it means for us to be priests in this new Melchizedekian order.
Donald Rumble – November 2020
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