Hebrews Chapter Ten, Saving Faith

 

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

 

What is the confession of the Hebrew Christians’ hope? The same as ours is today. As we read in Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” This is the essence of the gospel, 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4. The eunuch confessed Christ, Acts 8:37. The jailor, too, placed his faith in Him, Acts 16:31, 33. 

It is the only name furnished by God by which a man may be saved, Acts 4:12. So where does a Christian’s hope lie? Not in works, self, or religion, but only and entirely in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. Our hope is in the person of Jesus and what He accomplished on the cross to pay for the sins of mankind.

 

Listen to the confession of Paul’s hope, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith,” Philippians 3:7-9. Paul prefaced this profound thought when addressing the saints at Philippi by saying, “For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,” Philippians 3:3. It is clear that the apostle does not put his trust or hope in his achievements or pedigree. In fact, he makes it bluntly clear that he happily jettisons such things into the proverbial trash heap to gain Christ. In fact, the Greek term for rubbish in the NKJV or “dung” in the KJV can be translated as human excrement. The Old Testament equivalent is found in Isaiah 64:6, where the prophet is inspired to call works done to merit righteousness “filthy rags.” The HCSB carries an interesting translation and footnote for Isaiah. It reads, “all our righteous acts are like a polluted [lit. menstrual] garment.”

 

Our hope is in Christ; not that we hope to eventually be saved by Him if we are good enough Christians for long enough, attending church enough, and performing enough sacraments. No, our hope is in the living Christ who gives us spiritual life the instant we believe and goes about the process of sanctification throughout our life on this earth, that we may be conformed to His will as He lives His life in us. We read, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory,” Colossians 3:4, KJV. “Your life is hid with Christ in God,” Colossians 3:3, KJV. “To [the saints] God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,” Colossians 1:27. Christ living His life in us, Christ dying on the cross for us, Jesus sending His Spirit to seal and lead us: this is our hope. It is all of God, all of grace, done for us by God, to the end that our love, which manifests as worship, compels us to serve not ourselves, but Him who died for us. How? By obeying Him. Loving the brethren, preaching the gospel, reckoning ourselves dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ. The Christian life is a supernatural life; it is given through the second birth by God the Holy Spirit, and only He, the Spirit of grace and of God, can live it in us. We simply submit, we obey, and we reckon ourselves dead to the influence of worldly wisdom and its fatal outcome. The gospel is power: it has power to bring the spiritually dead to life and it never disappoints, Romans 1:16.

 

The apostle, when writing to Timothy, expressed an amazing truth and most comforting promise to us, God’s children, when we go astray. He writes, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself,” 2 Timothy 2:13. Salvation is not retained by human effort, just as it is not gained by it. We are, “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,” 1 Peter 1:5. “In this you greatly rejoice,” Peter assures us, 1 Peter 1:6. Peter writes to the saints suffering various trials, to the end that the genuineness of their faith may be manifest, verse 7. Verse 8 continues, relating that despite the fact the saints of this time hadn’t seen Christ in the flesh, they love Him, believe in Him, and rejoice with inexpressible joy, full of glory. Trials demonstrate the genuineness of one’s faith. Scripture makes it clear that it is not how abundant one’s faith is, but whether the faith we possess is placed where it ought to be, or to word it differently, legitimate faith. Yes, great faith is commended, even by our Lord, but Peter is encouraging the saints that the trials suffered by them reveal a genuine faith, manifested by a love of Christ in spite of said trials. And what is the end of our faith? Salvation, of course. The NASB renders 1 Peter 1:9, “obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” It is not how much faith one has, but in what or whom our faith lies. The Christians Peter writes to have abundant joy because they believe in Jesus, and as a result, or outcome, they have been saved. This is good news indeed.

 

Jesus assures us of eternal life when He says, “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day,” John 6:40. If we partake of the life God grants us, it is, by virtue of the character that gives it, everlasting. We are partakers of the life of Christ, who dies no more, because death does not have dominion over Him. The nature of spiritual life is eternal, because the giver, who shares it, is likewise eternal. Furthermore, He promised, Hebrews 6:17, 18. God is immutable, thus His oath will always endure. He cannot lie; it is impossible for God to do so, so every word that proceeds from His mouth is truth, a promise unto itself, because God has spoken it. Let us, who are called His children, take comfort and receive joy in the integrity of a God who is enduringly, unfailingly faithful.