7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to
you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange
teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating
ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. 10 We have an
altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.
11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the
Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp.
12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy
through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the
disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are
looking for the city that is to come.
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to
God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices
God is pleased.
17 Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their
authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account.
Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no
benefit to you.
Dig Deeper
We live in a world that is in a constant state of
flux. It seems that everything changes
and quite quickly as a matter of fact.
Clothing styles, hair styles, popular products, political views, you
name it, it is ever-changing. One need
look no further than your high school yearbook to see how quickly styles
change. I can recall being in high
school just a little over twenty years ago and enjoying going to the new video
stores. At first, my town of about
60,000 people had just one video store that I can remember. Pretty soon, however, there were stores everywhere
and they were always crowded. They were
extremely popular and started to get bigger and fancier. Then, just as quickly as VHS tapes came on
the scene and became the center of the entertainment lives of society in some
ways, technology changed. Suddenly DVD’s
were all the rage and the video stores became even more popular. But then one day I saw a little red vending
machine box that was distributing movies, doing the same job that these video
stores were doing. Combined with the
availability of movies via the internet, video stores were suddenly
dinosaurs. In the matter of one
generation they went from not existing to the kings of the world, and now it is
difficult to find a video store that is still open these days. Things change quickly.
The world didn’t change at quite that dramatic of a pace
for the original audience of Hebrews but it did still change. At least their attitudes towards Christ
seemed to be shifting. And that is
something of the point that the writer of Hebrews wants to bring home as he
starts to draw his letter to a close.
They were once a thriving and sacrificial community despite the huge
odds against them and the stiff persecution.
But many had faltered and now their knees were starting to feel
week. The whole letter has been centered
around getting them fixated back on Jesus, who he is, and the superior nature
of a relationship with him. He is still
the same Jesus that were once so willing to sacrifice for and so willing to do
anything for. The world around them had
changed and perhaps the persecution had grown stiffer, but they had apparently changed
some too. Yet, Jesus is God and he never
changes. He is unwaveringly as deserving
of the loyalty now that they once gave him.
And the gospel to which they were called? Well, that’s the same too because Jesus is
the embodiment of that gospel. They once
had undivided loyalty to Jesus and his gospel and they need to maintain that
loyalty to the unchanging Messiah if they were going to finish the race strong.
As the author brings his incredible lesson to a close,
he calls them to remember their leaders who initially preached the gospel to
them. They should recall what was
preached and why they responded to it which would in turn motivate them to do
the things that they did at first; to reinvigorate the convictions that they
once held. They should also consider the
outcome of their way of life. The word
rendered “outcome” here was a figure of speech that referred to “closing out”
or “finishing” and it appears that his point is that those who first shared the
gospel with them had died. But they should
ponder the sincerity of their faith and perseverance and see that it was not in
vain. The word that was preached to them
then was the same gospel that some were abandoning now. The gospel hadn’t changed, they had. The gospel hadn’t lost its power, they had
lost their nerve.
But all they need to do is to consider Jesus
Christ. He is unchanging and the power
of his life and his gospel have never changed.
Since God is the only being that never changes, this was surely a high
description of their Lord and Savior. He
was none other than God and so to abandon him meant to abandon God. But the logic here shouldn’t be missed. The author is saying that when they accepted
the gospel they did so because they knew it to be true. To abandon it now would not mean that the
gospel had changed or was no longer effective; something that perhaps they were
starting to think. Jesus Christ never
changes and neither does his word. So if
they walked away from the faith now it would be a devastating commentary on their
own faith. They would not be leaving one
thing for something better. They would
be leaving the only thing worth having because they refused to hold on to it.
It is the unchanging nature of Christ and the gospel
that can cause Hebrews to exhort the readers not to be carried away by all
kinds of strange teachings, evidently including ancient Judaism in that
category as well. We cannot overstate
the challenge of that statement at the time this was written, even after three
or four decades of Christianity. Judaism
was still a major influence on the lives of Jewish Christians and formerly
God-fearing Gentiles (Gentiles that observed parts of Judaism without becoming
circumcised among other things) that had become Christians. But Judaism had now been moved into the
category of religion with the coming of Christ.
It was now a choice between the grace of God found in the life of Christ
and everything else, including the Jewish Temple system.
Our author is about to give one more go at demonstrating
the superiority of Christ to all other options and he does so here by outlining
four advantages that Christians have that would be lost if they lost their grip
and returned to Judaism or turned to any other savior other than Christ. The first is that we have an altar. The author does not directly state what that
altar is, but he is most likely referring to the Cross (or the Lord’s Supper
which represents the Cross). Those who
remain in the life of Christ can enter into and serve in the true tabernacle,
the heavenly one, through the blood of Christ.
Those that don’t remain faithful to Christ, however, have no altar and
no way to enter into that tabernacle.
The second, that he is our disgrace to bear, is a little more complicated point. The point is that even during the Old
Covenant the blood of animals purified the Holy of Holies but they were first
sacrificed outside of the community. In
the same way, Jesus made his people holy through his own blood but he was also taken
outside of the “camp,” which was the city gate of Jerusalem. In that picture the writer sees a helpful
comparison for the Christian life. Jesus
was exiled outside of the gate and crucified like a man scorned. That was the intention of those that wanted
him dead. But they didn’t realize that
they were doing to him what was rightly done with a cleansing sacrifice. Thus, we need not be ashamed of how Christ
died. In the same way, when the readers
of this letter were being shamed, persecuted, and rejected they could take
comfort in knowing that this was the price to pay for being part of Christ’s
people. It shouldn’t bring them shame,
though, but the comfort of knowing that they were simply bearing the same
disgrace for the benefit of others that Jesus bore. They were truly living his life.
The third advantage is that Christians have a city that
is to come. We can get caught up
building our own castles that won’t last very long or focus on the Kingdom of
God which will last for eternity. The
only city that will last is God’s Kingdom and that is the only one that makes
sense to seek. Taking a return to the
physical Jerusalem and its impressive Temple would not be a smart move. This point would have become even more
powerful just a few years later when the Temple was destroyed by the Roman
army.
The final element is that through Jesus Christ we have a
sacrifice to offer. Only Christians can
now offer a sacrifice that God truly wants because we have entered into the
only sacrifice that will ever be needed, the death, burial, and resurrection of
Christ. Lips that confess that Jesus is
Lord and call on his name (Rom. 10:9, 13) by being baptized into his life (Rom.
10:13; Acts 22:16) and a life that responds to that mercy (Titus 3:4-8) by
doing good and sharing all that God has given us with others is the sacrifice
that God is looking for. Only in Christ
do we have that and only in Christ can we please God.
Verse 17 seems to hint that some of the problem was that
they were no longer listening to their current leaders. In verse 7 he called them to recall and hold
to the teaching of their first leaders, the ones that had called them to the
gospel. Now he he encourages them to
listen to their current leaders who were no doubt teaching and exhorting them
to stay faithful to Christ. They should,
he says, “have confidence” or “obey” their leaders. The 1984 NIV used the term “obey” while the
newer NIV version’s “have confidence” probably better captures the essence of
the passage. Another good way of
understanding the term is to “allow yourself to be influenced by.” In their struggle, they had forgotten to
listen to those leading them in Christ, and in so doing were rejecting the
message that they had converted to when they first heard the gospel. What benefit is it, after all, to constantly
disregard, fight against, and refuse to have confidence in or be influenced by
one’s leaders? One should never follow
blindly, but as long as the leaders are teaching the same core gospel that was
preached to them at first, they should trust them and have confidence in what
their leaders were saying over and above their circumstances or emotions.
It is easy to let the wind and waves of life come and
throw us about and change our convictions.
But we must always remember that we have a mediator who has never
changed and never will change. He made
the final sacrifice for us and that is all that we will ever need if we just trust
it to the end.
Devotional Thought
Does your commitment to the Kingdom of God and the
Gospel of Jesus look that same as it always has? Is your zeal for God and his church every bit
as much as it used to be? Certainly our
situations in life can change and that may impact certain things in our life,
but it should never change our loyalty, commitment and zeal to God’s
Kingdom. If things have changed over the
years perhaps it’s time to ask yourself if the Gospel has changed or have you.
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