Hebrews Chapter Two, Making Light Of Sin

 

Twice in this chapter, the Holy Spirit through Ezekiel issues a stern warning about the consequences sin brings into our lives. “Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” “For I have no pleasure in the death of the one who dies,” says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!” Ezekiel 18:23, 32. 

The Old Testament Law was a visible, physical display of cause and effect. God was teaching elementary principles regarding sin’s nature, and what sin’s presence in our lives does to us. Sin is, among other things, separation from God. The Law under Moses had 613 commandments; they were designed to compel the Jews to focus on God in every aspect of their daily lives. The Law guided Israel on matters of marriage, divorce, slavery, foreigners, sacrifice, seed planting, clothing, cleanliness, eating habits, et al.

 

From a practical standpoint the law was intended to teach discernment in matters of separation and holiness. Ceremonial holiness with its outward rituals in Judaism physically separated the Jews from anything God deemed unclean. Dead bodies, blood, sickness or mildew, etc., were to be recognized and avoided. Just as sin separated the worshiper from God, requiring atonement through shed blood to outwardly cleanse, so too was ceremonial cleanliness intended to separate the worshiper from all appearance of wickedness. God desired Israel to view Him through the lens of the Law and understand that holiness was a state of being. It wasn’t something that one earned or worked toward; it was an imparted state given by God to those whom He had cleansed from outward filth. They were deemed holy not because they did the works of the Law, but because through faith they obeyed the Lord.

 

There was no mercy for the one that did not obey the Lord under the dispensation of the Mosaic Law. The Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write, “But the person who does anything presumptuously, whether he is native-born or stranger, that one brings reproach on the Lord, and he shall be cut off from among his people,” Numbers 15:30. Shortly after this command, while Israel still wandered the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks, presumably collecting firewood on the Sabbath day, Numbers 15:32. For seemingly so small an offense as to gather wood during the Sabbath he was put to death, verse 36. The Sabbath, given exclusively to the Jewish people, was meant to be a day of rest, to fellowship and worship God. This man, clearly not ignorant of the injunction, died because of his presumption, challenging God that what He said He did not mean.

 

Sin is sin. It is an action against God’s revealed will, intended to violate God’s purpose and desire for us. It is human pride, challenging the will of God, asserting our own will as Adam and Eve did when they ate the forbidden fruit rather than listen to the one, single, simple injunction given them. Gathering wood, eating fruit, what have you, sins (plural) are the manifestation of sin (singular). As coughing, sneezing, etc., are symptoms of sickness, so sins are a symptom of what is really wrong with us. We offend the will of the Uncreated God, the Sovereign of Creation, the Originator of our salvation. Every time we presumptuously (deliberately) sin, we challenge His right to rule and His claim of Lordship over us. No matter how “small” the sin we practice, it is still a manifestation of the sin nature and our effort to wrest autonomy from Him. The Law was designed for Israel to look to God in every facet of their life on earth. They would not seek sufficiency in themselves, or in idols of wood and stone, but in God’s providential care as He led them through the Law to faith in Israel’s coming Messiah.

 

The passages relating to Ezekiel and Numbers teach that choices have consequences. Our good works, or righteousness, do not make us right with God. Holiness is a state of being conferred by God to us; it is imparted by Him, who alone naturally possesses this attribute. Ceremonially from the Law holiness may be lost through disobedience. It can be forfeit by touching or doing something unclean. For Christians, we may grieve the Holy Spirit who dwells in us and silence Him by our carnal and sinful choices. Some have done so to the point of being chastened by God to death in Scripture. But death in this instance does not necessarily imply spiritual death. The rudimentary lesson we learn from this is that the consequence for making a “way” out of sin (i.e. a lifestyle) may result in physical death, which the New Testament wholly agrees with, James 5:19, 20, 1 John 5:16, Jude 22, 23, Revelation 3:19.

 

The author of Hebrews wonders then, how shall the saints escape if we (now addressing Christians, perhaps more specifically Jewish believers) neglect so great a salvation? To neglect our salvation implies abandonment of its foundation and attendant principles. The Galatian church was in dire jeopardy of this very thing when, beginning with grace they went on to try to attain perfection through the Law of Moses, Galatians 5:4. Paul reminds the Galatian church that the object of their salvation is Jesus Christ. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. Through Christ we have forgiveness, sanctification, justification, glorification and adoption into the household of God. Paul wondered, clearly frustrated, “You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?” Galatians 5:7. Elsewhere he says, “But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years,” Galatians 4:9, 10.

 

Paul associates Law observance, including Sabbath keeping, with the worship of pagan gods, Galatians 4:8. Why? Because Christ is the fulfillment of the Law. He fulfilled the requirements of the Law. He took on the curse from the Law and satisfied the Law’s judgment on sin. Turning back to these in an effort to improve oneself and establish a righteousness apart from that imputed by our Savior was folly. Walking in this delusion compels us to think of works as something that makes us strong; we’re working with God toward a mutual goal. But Paul states that such things (be it other gods, the infusion of other religious precepts, or the reversion to Jewish observance) are weak and beggarly. They can help or save no one. We have reverted to being like a ragamuffin wandering the streets in tatters, begging for handouts.