Journal the Journey

I found myself in Hebrews 10 last night, and the covenant promise seen in verses 15-17 led me to want to start my morning off in the same place in my Bible. In context, the promise comes after the writer explains so well that Jesus’ sacrifice makes us holy once for all time, so there is no longer a need to bring sin offerings, as the recipients of this letter were accustomed to doing. After he explains that Jesus is our great High Priest that offered Himself as our sin offering and through our faith in Him He has forever made us perfect, he lets us in on how we know this is so: The Holy Spirit confirms this new promise to us. He does this by putting His laws in our hearts and writing them on our minds, and He promises to never again remember our sins and lawless deeds.

Isn’t this exhilarating to think about? No more striving, no more failed attempts to be good enough to earn God’s approval. Jesus paid our debt fully- past, present, and future sins are completely swallowed up by His grace! What love He has for us!

I encourage you to keep reading. Verses 19-25 are powerful and full of wisdom about Jesus’ role right now and practical advice as to how this should affect us that believe. But for (an attempt at) brevity of this post, I am skipping to verses 26-39. I’ve got sleeping 4 month old twins, and it’s my hope to finish this before they wake up.

I’ve been thinking about how there are so many scriptures that stop me in my tracks. Sometimes they shock me because of their scandalous nature, other times they just seem too good to be true. And then sometimes, like in this case, they cause me to fear. How can anyone believe the Bible is boring or antiquated? That’s got to be one of the biggest lies of the Father of Lies, the enemy of our souls, Satan. For the truth is, this book is not a book. It is a weapon; it is alive and active, cutting through the enemy’s lies and showing us the way to True Life- the type of life that satisfies us, both now and in the ages to come.

It’s no secret that the truths found in the Bible are offensive. What cannot be denied is that if you are a follower of Christ, then you believe that this book is not just any ordinary book where you can read it and remain unchanged. If something I read doesn’t line up with something I think or feel, then it is my thoughts or feelings that must bow to the truth I am reading and not the other way around. You cannot pick and choose what you believe in the Bible, unless you are creating for yourself a “God” that isn’t the God revealed in the Bible but rather a watered down version of God that you are comfortable with. I have no doubt that what I am about to share is going to offend some, because it is an uncomfortable truth… a truth nonetheless, so I must share it.

After assuring us that Jesus’ sacrifice has made us holy and our sins are covered by His sacrifice, the writer extends a warning: If we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins (see verse 26).

He goes on to say that instead of anticipating that glorious day when we stand before the Father with confident hope that our faith in Jesus was sincere and our sins are forgiven, all we’ll have to look forward to is “the terrible expectation of God’s judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies” (v.27). He explains that this is the only right and fair judgment, for those that continue to sin after knowing the truth “have trampled on the Son of God and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us” (v.29).

He ends this warning with a statement that makes it very clear that God is still very much Righteous Judge and worthy of our utmost reverent fear: “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (v.31)

It’s like this: We are sinners. God understands that. He knows we cannot live a completely perfect life like Jesus did. We will sin and fall short of His glory day, after day, after day. What a bummer. How depressing! But, God made a way for us to live, truly live, despite our sinful nature. In His great mercy out of a desire to have a reconciled relationship with us, He sent His only perfect Son to be the perfect sacrifice for us. Jesus came, and He was tempted in every single way we get tempted, yet He did not sin. (See Hebrews 4:15) Despite the fact He did nothing wrong ever in His whole life, He was punished as if He was guilty of every single sin the world has ever seen. He was murdered brutally. He was consumed totally by death in its fullness… but the grave could not hold Him down. He rose from the dead on the third day, and He is now seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. Life, in His fullness, totally consumed death. Now, through faith in Jesus we can have right relationship with God the Father. We can know Him intimately through the Bible and His Holy Spirit that He gives as a gift to each of us when we believe.

If we believe this with all our hearts, and then we turn our backs on this beautiful, incredible Truth… we are trampling over Jesus. And that, understandably, cannot go unpunished after God did literally everything He had to in order to make a way for you to be holy.

We trample over the mighty work Jesus did on our behalf on the cross when we deliberately choose to sin. When we do the things He literally died to save us from, we are screaming with our actions that we do not love Him and we do not think we need His blood covering us. Through unrepentant, intentional sin, we are letting Him know that we will go our own way and we will pay for our own sins at the end of this life.

I cannot truly believe and accept what Jesus has done and then walk away unchanged, just as I would never be able to forget a man who would rescue me from a burning building and die in the process. I would want to live in such a way that honors that man. I would want his family to know his death was not in vain, and that I do not take it for granted a single day of my life. Gratitude for his selfless, sacrificial actions would be on the forefront of my mind always. And it did not occur to me until after I had chosen the burning building analogy, but that’s literally what Jesus did: He’s saved us from the fire. He took our place in it, because there were wages to be paid and He didn’t want us to have to pay them (see Romans 6:23). As my Pastor explains it, hell isn’t a place God sends people to. Hell is a place people choose to go to in order to pay for their own sin. But Jesus has paid the bill of those who choose to accept such a merciful, undeserved gift. However, it’s received through repentance (confessing and turning away from sin) and faith. There is no other way to salvation. God takes this very seriously.

I hate to leave on such a serious note, but one of my sweet daughters is crying for me so I must. God willing, I will post again within the next few days, and I will be sharing the powerful ways we can make sure that we never unintentionally trample on our King Jesus through sin. I’ll be pulling them straight from Hebrews 10:19-39 if you want to explore them for yourself.

If the Holy Spirit has spoken to your heart about something as you’ve read this, don’t waste another day. God is waiting for you, His arms wide open ready to receive you. He will forgive, heal, and empower you with His furious, faithful love.