The Church in Hebrews 3

The Church in Hebrews 3 is warned about hardening their hearts, as the Hebrews did in the wilderness. The passage referred to is Numbers 14, where the people listened to the 10 unbelieving spies and did not want to go into Canaan, but decided to return to Egypt.  The clear implication here is that, like Israel in the wilderness, Christians are liable to harden their hearts and turn back to the life of sin from which Christ has redeemed them.  I believe in Perseverance of the Saints, but a great many professing Christians have fallen away over the centuries, beginning with Judas. So, one does not know until the end if any Christian is the real deal. Professing Christians may, at some point, fail to hold on to their hope.  And we don't know that those who fall away for a time won't come back, as Peter did after betraying Christ.

As a Dispensationalist, I believed that the Church was a new thing God came up with in lieu of setting up His Kingdom.  As a Post-Mil, I believe the Church IS the kingdom and that Gentile believers are grafted into the true Israel [Rom 11], and are members of the assembly of the faithful, the "new man" and household of God mentioned in Ephesians 2, the Kingdom of Priests and Holy Nation of Exodus 19:6, and that we are one body with the great heroes of faith in Hebrews 11.

Furthermore, I believe that, just as the Jews saw the miracles of Exodus, yet hardened their hearts and turned back to Egypt, and all but Caleb and Joshua were denied entry into the promised rest, many Christians are likewise hardened and drift away from the faith and become rebellious and useless.  The author of Hebrews obviously thinks this is possible, since he exhorts them throughout Hebrews to hold onto their faith and not drift away or fall away or turn away.  We read in vv.5,6:

5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

We are NOT his house if we do not hold firm to the end.  The "if" in v.6 makes the first clause conditional. Likewise, v.14 also has this "if",

For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.

We are partakers of Christ, not without condition, but perseverance is expected of the elect.  Now, I'm not going to try and argue that it is or is not possible for true believers to fall away.  That is not the purpose if the writer of Hebrews.  What he does want is the believers he had addressed to not give up their hope, particularly in the face of relentless persecution from the Jewish diaspora to keep all the Laws and traditions, despite the fact that so many of them were Gentiles.  

There is, then, a real danger that professing Christians, both Jewish and Gentile, can be hardened against Christ and fall away.  This is why v.13 says,

Exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Sin is stealthy, persistent, deceitful. When it gets into the life of a Christian, it can lead him to become bitter toward other Christians and often even bitter toward God. This was the struggle of Job.  We dare not allow bitterness in.  If God permits us to suffer, like Job, we should say, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." 

We are, like the Israelites in the wilderness, not yet in heaven. We are on the way. But this side of "the Jordan", we are in a hostile wilderness, designed by God to toughen us up for battle, for conquest.  The "land of rest" has enemies we must overcome.  We are not in "peacetime", but need to "Put on the armor of God" and "take up the sword of the Spirit" so we may stand against the devil's wiles, and conquer the gates of Hell, which "cannot prevail against" the Church Jesus is building.  (How I thank God these things are not to be taken literally, but spiritually, as in spiritual warfare and wrestling not against flesh and blood.)  

Lord, help me to overcome the lull of a false peacetime, and fight by your side as long as you are "ruling among your enemies".  Please show me the way to fight, and conquer the unbelief in the hearts of others.  Make your church valiant and victorious, for the honor and glory and kingdom of your Son Jesus, in Whose name I pray.  Amen

Useless to the World or just useless?

How does a Christian know if he is spiritual and, and as such, of no count to the world, or just useless in general?

If so great a prophet as Elijah was outcast, hiding out in the wilderness by a creek for three and a half years, if so great a leader as Moses just shepherded sheep for forty years, if even Jesus just did carpentry for thirty years, before doing anything great, it doesn't seem strange that a really ordinary, perhaps mediocre, man as I should be just doing a job and helping a handful of people for sixty years.  Long ago I stopped seeking great things for myself [Jeremiah 45:5].  But I often can't help but wonder if the Lord doesn't use me for anything great simply because I am useless to Him, or too cowardly to attempt anything great, or not really half as gifted as I imagine myself. 

This must be what depression feels like.   No wonder Elijah suffered from it.  Those who do really want to please God will certainly not be accepted by the world.  It's lonely.  But I may also need to repent.  Time to really take stock of my soul. 

Am I really committed to Jesus?  Absolutely.  

Have I un-repented sin in my heart?  None that I can think of.  I have repented all my sins.  I don't mean to say I am sinless; sin tempts me from time to time, and I occasionally slip into greed or lust or pride or covetousness. But I'm clinging to the grace of Jesus and His imputed righteousness through every trial and test.  So my soul cries out with Job: "Cause me to understand wherein I have erred." [Job 6:24]

Tests and trials, actually, are what make a Christian spiritual and of great worth, according to James in his Epistle.  Here's what he writes in 1:2-8:

2My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Tests of faith make one patient.  Patience works perfection in us.  So what is mediocre and banal in any man is either growing because he is impatient and unfaithful, or being worked out of him by his faith and patience.  I hope I'm not overstating James' meaning.  Prayer is also part of the equation, for what I lack---that which makes me of no account---can be supplied by God to those who ask in faith, nothing doubting.  Doubt is probably the most abundant ingredient in the truly useless person. 

So in what respects am I doubting?  I suppose I have a measure of self-doubt---else why would I write such a post as this?  I want to go beyond just doing what I'm told or what I've already been doing, and become a risk-taker.  I have done a little of that in becoming a post-millenialist, and defending that position. But I think more is at stake than the end times. The here and now is a higher prize.  For that I need to take risks.

What risks should a mature Christian take?  Planting a new church, now there's a risky business!  That may not be what I'm meant to do, but it is what I would like to do.  Let me pray, nothing doubting, and see what God will open up!  

Lord, you may not have need of yet another church in Charlottesville.  But I would do my part to reach the people of this city.  Lord, if you have no church for me to serve, save CBC and Woods Edge, then help me give my heart there. Otherwise, open the door and show me the way to go.  And if not that, give me the courage to plant a church on the UVA grounds, in the open air if it be thy will, this school year.  IJNA