Hebrews Chapter Ten, Drawing & Drawing Back

 

Hebrews 10:39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

 

At once it is arresting to note how the author contrasts those who draw back with those who believe. Both actions also have their attendant consequences listed. The ones that draw back do so to their destruction, or perdition. Those who believe, do so to the saving of their souls. It must also be noted that this verse specifically addresses professing believers and the ultimate outcome of their spiritual walk: either the broad road or the narrow one that leads to life.

Only faith in Christ saves, so when we have believed on Him, we receive as a free gift of God’s grace, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For those that draw back, it becomes painfully apparent, albeit too late, that they did not believe to begin with, or they would enjoy the safety of the verse’s latter portion. We find in John’s first epistle, that one of his purposes for writing was to provide assurance. “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God,” 1 John 5:13. The apostle offered comfort. If you have believed already, John wanted to ensure that you are aware that you currently (and will always) possess eternal life. Further, this revelation of divine truth ought to inspire us to abide in Christ, and continue believing in Him, that what He promised, He will in His time, fulfill.

 

We already learned in John 12:32 that Jesus, when He is lifted up, (crucified, see John 12:33) will draw all peoples to Himself. Read John 6:44: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” The Holy Spirit, who is here in place of Christ since Pentecost, draws people to Jesus, so they might have life. In John 6:40 Jesus says that all who #1) see the Son, and #2) believe in Him receive everlasting life. Those of Hebrews 10:26 and 10:39a see the Son, or received the knowledge of the truth, but they draw back, as it were. Like Judas Iscariot, who was called by Christ but never surrendered to Him, or Barabbas, who was freed when Jesus took his place to be executed; neither man understood the magnitude of what was being accomplished. Judas saw profit and prestige; Barabbas saw freedom from physical death, and the potential to return to his old ways. Those that are drawn can also resist. The Greek term for “draw back,” is “hupostole” and by implication means to apostatize. The Greek term in John’s gospel for, “draw,” is “helko,” and tends to mean, “drawing by inward power or divine impulse, metaphorically.” That is why, though the Holy Spirit may draw, men may draw back, as was the case with the rulers of the Sanhedrin, Acts 7:51. The impulse, as it were, is not irresistible as the Calvinist claims, but universally present in the human soul as we crave reconciliation with our Creator. But redemption comes with a cost; one cannot have the finest of the world and Jesus Christ. for the two are antithetical, John 7:7, 15:18.

 

One such example in the OT may be extracted from Zephaniah. The Lord warns, “I will stretch out My hand against Judah, and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem…the names of the idolatrous priests with the pagan priests…those who have turned back from following the Lord, and have not sought the Lord, nor inquired of Him,” Zephaniah 1:4, 6. While the pagan priests are those that instituted Baal worship, the worship of the host of heaven and Milcom or Molech, these men were not those that “turned back” from following God. They had never begun to earnestly follow Him. The “idolatrous priests,” (Hebrew, “chemarim”) were those that turned from Yahweh to the worship of other gods, becoming idolaters. Paul warned that men would invade the church after his decease and “draw away disciples after them,” Acts 20:30, KJV. Christ warned that all that came before Him were, thieves and robbers, John 10:8. Zephaniah 1:5 describes what the followers of Yahweh were led into by the pagan priests, causing them to cease inquiring of Him.

 

A NT equivalent may be found in John 6:66. Many professing disciples, drawn by Jesus, walked with Him no more; even Judas, who did not go away just then, had drawn back and remained unconverted, John 6:70. Jesus’ hard sermon that lauded divine superintendence over human ability rankled the Jews and wounded their pride, prompting many of them to depart from Him. What Jesus said to the woman at the well could easily be applied to these fair weather followers: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water,” John 4:10, KJV.

 

The argument that Jesus preached irresistible grace in John chapter 6 must be tempered with Jesus’ own statement from John 12:32, where He said unequivocally that His death will draw ALL to Him. If He is indeed drawing all, and not all come to Him but some draw back to perdition, one must reach the assumption that the Holy Spirit does not override the individual’s free will, and that one must first hear the gospel, and then go beyond hearing to believe its message and be saved. Divine impulse does not equate into spiritual coercion, or the gospel itself is rendered meaningless since men have no choice but to believe or disbelieve. We read in Matthew, “For many are called, but few are chosen,” Matthew 22:14. This verse is in response to Jesus’ parable about the wedding guests, and how an unbeliever slipped into the invited guests before being removed and cast into outer darkness. Again, this parable’s conclusion applies to the church, where those properly invited mingle with the uninvited until the Lord comes and separates one from the other.

 

In the OT it is written, “The Lord has appeared of old (lit. from afar) to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you,” Jeremiah 31:3. God’s love for Israel extended even to the unthankful and unholy who did not submit in obedience to His will. In Jeremiah’s time Judah bordered on utter collapse as the final puppet kings of Israel served under Babylon, defying Nebuchadnezzar’s rule until at last they were taken into exile. All that while Jeremiah preached to the people, attempting to draw them back to Yahweh, even in the teeth of complete loss and ruination. To whom is God speaking in Jeremiah? “All the families of Israel…the people who survived the sword,” Jeremiah 31:1, 2. Like Israel, like the church. Jesus taught the parable of the dragnet when describing the kingdom of Heaven, and how the fisherman gathered good and bad alike in his net, putting the good in vessels and casting out the bad, Matthew 13:47-50. The tares grow with the wheat, identical in form, contrary in purpose, until the end. The writer of Hebrews allocates the former to, “those who draw back to perdition,” and ascribes the latter as, “those who believe to the saving of the soul,” adding himself into that number with the plural pronoun, “we.”

 

The ultimate takeaway from this passage for the Jewish believers (and us) is that a barren faith is a dangerous faith. Untested faith is flimsy, never having experienced the need to take root in the True Vine for its sustenance. James warns most emphatically that such a barren faith (faith without works demonstrating its reality) is useless, James 2:17. Demons possess such faith; they know that God is, but they fear Him with the utmost terror, as they should, James 2:19. Do we share the odious faith demons possess? Or is our faith lively, making Christ its sole subject, and mankind’s good our object? My prayer is that we, one and all, believe to the saving of the soul. Nothing short of this will do, for Christ gives life; and if we do not have the Son, we do not have God at all, 1 John 2:23, 2 John 9.