Hebrews Chapter Ten, Counterfeit Saints

 

This passage in Luke explains the nature of knowing “of” someone or something, verses intimately knowing. Jesus refers to the people addressed in this parable as stewards, Luke 12:42. A steward is defined in Oxford as, “a person employed to manage a large house or estate.” Paul says, “it is required in stewards that one be found faithful,” 1 Corinthians 4:2. 

In Titus 1:7, Paul likens bishops (overseers, shepherds or elders) to stewards of God. The context, then, suggests someone serving in God’s house, or the church, for this parable. First we are told that blessed is the faithful steward who is doing what he was commanded when the master returns. But then our Lord describes the steward that says in his heart, “my master is delaying his coming,” Luke 12:45. He then proceeds to abuse the servants and indulge in debauched behavior. His behavior marks him out as a steward that knew his master’s will (had knowledge of the truth) but never invested in it experientially. Head knowledge never transformed into the rebirth as awareness awakened faith. The result is simple and sudden. The master cuts that servant in two and appoints that man a portion with the unbelievers (outside the church). The conclusion that can be reached is that such a steward was never a genuine member of the church, though he might linger long within the building and amongst the saints. Remember how we have all been warned that perverse men would arise WITHIN the church to lead disciples astray, Acts 20:30. Jude warns that certain men, marked for this condemnation, have crept in to the church unnoticed, Jude 4.

 

Finally, our Lord differentiates between genuine saints and pretenders. He prefaces His condemnation for such men by stating, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven,” Matthew 7:21. What follows is a defense by those convicted of lawlessness, not pleading their relationship with Him, but the manifold works supposedly done in His name. But Jesus responds, declaring, “I never knew you,” Matthew 7:23. Note the seeming shock of those to whom Jesus rebuffs, saying, “Lord, Lord, have we not…?” Matthew 7:22. Their focus is on the wonders done in Jesus’ name. There is an inordinate focus on works as validity for entry into Heaven. Yet Paul warns that the Antichrist’s ministry is going to focus on “lying signs and wonders,” 2 Thessalonians 2:9. Jesus chided the people for their need to experience wonders, John 4:48. But works do not save; not even miraculous works, like those listed in Matthew 7:22. Not when such wonders or works replace Christ as our personal Savior. We must know Him, and the power of His resurrection, Philippians 3:10. We must have died with Him and been born again, trusting nothing, save His redemptive and keeping power to complete in us that which He has begun.

 

Those who fall into the hands of the living God, described as adversaries, are not true Christians. They have not been born again, and do not have God the Holy Spirit living in them and sealing them for the day of redemption. These adversaries are religious apostates, who, “went out from us,” 1 John 2:19. Yet John lends his testimony to this matter as well, proclaiming that had they genuinely been saved, they would not have done this, departing from God and His people. Such men were never truly believers; mental assent was the farthest they would go, making their works disqualified for anything good, Titus 1:16, again Matthew 7:22, 23.

 

The language of verse 29 gives away the inner nature of such men. They trample the Son of God underfoot, profane the sanctifying blood of Christ, and insult God’s Holy Spirit. How? They turned away to a different gospel, Galatians 1:6. The Hebrew Christians were perilously close to treading over that threshold with their wanton backsliding into Judaism. But Paul warned that ANY other gospel was accursed of God, or anathema, Galatians 1:8. The gospel in Christianity is #1 about a Man that died for our sins. #2 about how He was buried, and our sin went with Him. #3 how this Man arose, and through faith in His name we might be born again into newness of life, to possess the eternal life this Man (who is God incarnate) alone offers. Notice how our actions or involvement are entirely absent from the gospel. Our sins are present, but they only convey guilt and judgment. The Holy Spirit wishes to bring this gospel to all of humanity, and we—the sons and daughters begotten through faith in Christ—are the living vehicles, the vessels God chose to conduct this good news through. To apostatize from the orthodox faith is to incur God’s wrath, as Marcion did when Justin Martyr passed away, or Charles Taze Russel did when he could not accept what the Bible said about God and eternal judgment. While we cannot know if such apostates were never saved to begin with, we are to refuse any fellowship with them, 2 John 10, 11.