Grace Remix (5 page)

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no

sacrifice for sins is left (Hebrews 10:26)

Let’s take a quick survey. Put your hand up if you have lived a sinless life. Hmm. I don’t see

any hands. I have been saved for decades and, to be completely honest with you, I cannot say

my performance has been flawless throughout that period. I’m pretty sure I sinned this one

time back in 1987…

Ha! It’s easy for me to make jokes. I’ve been set free. I no longer mine at the pits of religion

with condemnation. I’m drawing from the wells of salvation with joy.

All jokes aside, Hebrews 10:26 is an oft-abused scripture. If you wanted to use this verse to

scare people, there are a couple of angles you could take:

1. You could use this verse to present a “balanced” view of God, like this: “He is a God of

grace
and
he is a God of judgment. You need to love him
and
fear him for he’s a God of

vengeance and a consuming fire. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living

God.”

2. You could also use this verse to preach works: “You will be judged according to the light of

your revelation and those who have received the knowledge of the truth will be held to the

highest standard. It’s time for judgment to begin in the house of God. If you fall away it is

impossible to be brought back to repentance!”

What’s the problem with these messages? If you listen to the first one you’re going to come

away thinking that God is schizophrenic, at war with his own good nature. He loves you, but he

doesn’t. It’s unconditional love, with conditions. And if you listen to the second you’ll either

end up a religious fraud or a nervous wreck. You may even wish that you had never heard the

gospel because ignorance is bliss.

The tricky part with these false messages is that they are composed of true statements. Our

God
is
a consuming fire. But any message that tells you that God is double-minded or that the

good news is bad news ought to be rejected. You know that, right? Good. So how do we read

Hebrews 10:26?

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GRACE REMIX

Trampling the Son of God under foot

A key to unpacking this scripture is to recall the audience. Hebrews was written for Hebrews. It

was written for those who had grown up with the “elementary teachings” of the old covenant.

In other words, it’s an
informed
audience. They know about the law, sacrifices, and high priests.

But what they may not appreciate is that the law was only “a shadow of the good things to

come.” The law points to the true high priest Jesus and his eternally perfect sacrifice.

Hebrews was written to reveal Christ and his work so that we may “enter through the new

and living way,” “go on to maturity,” and “draw near to God” (Hebrews 6:1, 10:20,22). That last

one is key. How do I know the two sermonettes above are nonsense? Because neither will

inspire you to draw near to God. Indeed, they will have the opposite effect.

Hebrews 10:26 describes those who have received the knowledge of the truth (i.e., they have

heard the gospel) but they have rejected it. The author compares those who reject grace with

those who reject law:

Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three

witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who

has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the

covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? (Hebrews 10:28–29)

This passage isn’t describing someone who has embraced Jesus but someone who has spurned

him. Think of Judas who spent time in the company of the Lord. He saw grace and truth in the

flesh. Yet Judas never saw Jesus as anything other than a teacher. Calling Jesus “Rabbi,” as

Judas does in Matthew 26:25, is a bit like calling the President “Mister,” only more so. It’s not

just insulting, it’s unbelief.

Jesus gave his life for Judas but Judas wasn’t interested. He preferred his own sinful life of

greed and betrayal. I am sure Judas had many opportunities to repent and put his faith in Jesus,

but he never did. He rejected the grace of God that could empower him to say no to sin.

Jesus died for Judas, what more could he do? There is nothing. There is no more sacrifice for

sins other than the one Jesus provided. To reject Jesus as Lord is to trample the Son of God

underfoot and treat the blood of the covenant as unholy.

How do you insult the Spirit of grace?

If you gave me a brand-new car out of the generosity of your heart, but I insisted on paying for

it, you would be insulted. Similarly, we insult the Spirit of grace by trying to pay for what God

has freely given us. We may call it “proving our salvation” or “appropriating what God has

given” but it’s all unbelief. It is like saying, “I need to finish what Christ began.”

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ESCAPE TO REALITY – GREATEST HITS VOL. 4

The wrong way to read Hebrews is to think that God is judging us on our performance.

Over and over again Hebrews tells us that it is Jesus and
his
performance that matters. It is
his
sacrifice that made us holy and perfect forever (Hebrews 10:10,14).

How can we interpret Hebrews 10:26 as a warning against sin when Hebrews 9:26 says

Christ appeared once for all “to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself”? Is it a finished

work or isn’t it?

If God chooses to remember our sins no more (see Hebrews 8:12, 10:17), what business is it

of ours to remind him? Doing so insults the Son of Grace who bore our sins and the Spirit of

Grace who remembers them no more.

The main warning of Hebrews is not in regard to sin but unbelief:

So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. (Hebrews 3:19)

The Hebrews of Moses’ day never entered God’s rest because they hardened their hearts to his

voice. In the New Testament era, many Jews were doing the same thing. They had received the

knowledge of truth, they had heard the gospel of grace, but they rejected it.

The author of Hebrews writes to stir up faith. Without it we cannot please God. With it we

can come boldly to the throne of grace.

But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have

faith and are saved. (Hebrews 10:39)

Some people hear the good news of God’s grace and shrink back. They cannot believe it. “It’s

too good to be true,” they say. “I’d better save myself by doing works.”

Do you see the danger? You cannot save yourself. You cannot elevate yourself to co-savior

with Christ. This is why sermons that put the emphasis on you and your performance are so

dangerous.

Don’t buy into any message that purports to give you a list of keys or steps that will help

you achieve/accomplish/appropriate what you already have. It is impossible for the blood of

bulls and the sweat of men to take away sins and it is faithless to strive for what you already

have (which is every good thing in Christ Jesus).

According to Hebrews there are only two kinds of people; those who don’t enter because of

unbelief and those who believe and are saved. Sin is not the variable; faith is. Where does faith

come from? Jesus! He is the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). Fix your eyes on

him.

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GRACE REMIX

Apparently I didn’t do a very good job with this one because a reader said, “I don’t get it. Can

you explain this passage once more?” Here’s the short version: If we will not be satisfied and

rest in the finished work of the cross, then nothing can save us, for there is no other sacrifice for

sins. And here’s the shorter version: There’s no Plan B. It’s Jesus or nothing.

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6. Don’t Listen to Job’s Friends

A few days ago a house on the Sunshine Coast in Australia was destroyed in a fire started by

faulty Christmas lights. A family of five were sleeping inside but only the father managed to

escape the flames. The neighbors found him in the driveway “burnt from head to toe” and

screaming in pain. There is some speculation that his wife might have been able to save herself

but she stayed with her children, two of whom were disabled.

As a father, my heart breaks for this man. When he wakes up in hospital he will learn the

awful news that he has lost his entire family.

I wish I could go to that man in the burn unit and say something to ease his pain, but I don’t

know what I would say. However, I know what I
wouldn’t
say:

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not

disciplined by their father? (Hebrews 12:7)

If that seems out of left field, it’s because I have just read something that has my blood boiling.

There is steam coming out of my ears. Here’s a paraphrase: “You should view every hardship in

life as God’s loving discipline. God is sovereign and everything that happens to you, good or

bad, is for your good. Indeed, it is proof of his love for the Lord disciplines those he loves.”

Apparently this is meant to be comforting. Maybe you just lost your wife and kids in a

house-fire but be comforted for God did it. Why? Because he loves you.

And we wonder why the lost aren’t embracing us as bearers of the good news!

Some time ago I wrote that God was not responsible for Job’s loss no matter what Job 1:21 says.

I still get emails on a regular basis that say, “How dare you contradict the Bible? How dare you

say that God is not the author of evil?” How can I say it? Because Jesus said it:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and

have it to the full. (John 10:10)

Isn’t it strange that most Christians would hesitate to tell the burned man that his family and

home were destroyed by the devil—“you can’t blame Satan for everything”—yet there are some

who are quick to point the finger at our loving Father? “God did it.” But why would God kill

little children in their sleep? “Who can say? God is mysterious.”

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GRACE REMIX

Forgive me for ranting, but this is insane! It is exactly this sort of madness that makes the

church look like a home for whackos. This kind of thinking dishonors the Lord, and it keeps us

passive when we should be taking a stand and fighting back. Instead of resisting the devil so

that he flees, we submit to the devil and say, “The Lord is disciplining us. Oh we’re so loved!”

And this is why I am writing. There is a time for enduring hardship and there is a time for

resisting the devil and you need to know the difference.

As usual, Jesus shows the way. He did not consider sickness a hardship to be endured—he

resisted it. Neither did he consider demonic oppression a hardship to be endured—he resisted

it. At times he even resisted death by raising a little girl and a dead man. He spoke to storms

and said we would speak to mountains. Jesus did all these things to show us how the Father

responds to the devil’s work. And yes, I have no problem attributing sickness to the devil,

because the Bible does:

You know… how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how

he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because

God was with him. (Act 10:37–38)

I said I didn’t know what I would say to the man in the burn unit, but Jesus would know. He

would reveal the “God of all comfort who comforts us in all of our troubles” (2 Corinthians 1:3–

4).

If I was in a position to visit that man I would trust the Holy Spirit to show me what to say

and do. Sadly, accidents are a fact of life and sometimes children die. I cannot imagine the pain

of that loss, but I believe there’s healing for everything. You want to talk about the mystery of

God? Then marvel at how he is able to bring good even out of the most awful of circumstances.

Arise shine!

The bad news of dead religion has reduced Christians to commentators on the sidelines of life.

If something good happens, we congratulate each other for sowing into kingdom principles. But

if something bad happens, we say the Lord did it because he loves us. This is a nauseating and

useless theology. Live this way and you will never display the manifold wisdom of God to

rulers and authorities in heavenly realms (Ephesians 3:10).

I don’t normally write in reaction to things like this but I had to vent. I’m heartbroken for

the man in the burn unit and I’m heartbroken over a church that gets its theology from Job’s

friends.

I began by paraphrasing some bad writing (“Hardship is proof that God loves you”). I’m

going to finish by paraphrasing something that’s pure gold. You can decide which you prefer.

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ESCAPE TO REALITY – GREATEST HITS VOL. 4

See Jesus! See the finished work of the cross! Your light has come and the glory of the Lord

rises upon you. You may have problems and hardships and yes thick darkness is over the

peoples. But the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Those mountains are

coming down! You may be a worm, little Jacob, but God himself will help you. He will

make you into a threshing sledge with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush