Hebrews Chapter Six, Consolation

 

Hebrews 6:9 But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. [10] For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

 

Hearkening back to my previous argument regarding salvation’s durability, these verses confirm that fact. Verse 9 concludes the author’s thought processes on infant faith, sterility, lack of progression and finally falling away from the object of our faith. Yet even at this lowly state, Paul encourages the downhearted by reminding us all, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny himself,” 2 Timothy 2:13.

The KJV renders this verse, “believe not,” and is more directly translated “are unfaithful.” Jesus our Lord will never cast away those whom He foreknew and justified, John 6:37. I press this point because, I believe every Biblical commenter can agree that the writers, inspired by God the Holy Spirit, had a singular and unified vision of God’s plan of salvation when they wrote to the church. If that unified vision of Biblical salvation involved falling away, modernly defined, then eternal security has been read into the New Testament (via eisegesis) and Scripture has been twisted to accommodate it. Conversely, the same can be said with reading forfeiture of salvation through sin, if eternal security was the sole emphasis of the Biblical writers. The Law of Non Contradiction in a logical argument states that an outcome is either A or B; it cannot be both by its very definition. One of these antithetical doctrines does not belong in, nor did it originate, in Scripture, but was invented by men who misunderstood Biblical truth and began to build upon that error, as Paul explained in 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

 

What does the author of Hebrews use to console the Christians he had, until verse 9, been upbraiding? Their works. Softening his tone and referring to them as “beloved,” the author shares his confidence that they will be partakers of better things regarding their spiritual fortunes. Better things than what, would be the first question. Hebrews 6:4-6 describes a destitute condition believers can fall into, wherein no man can renew them, no matter their effort, to repentance. Verses 7 and 8 define the outcome of, either fruitful ministry or barren faith bereft of works. Verses 7 and 8 showcase what James was attempting to convey in his own epistle, chapter 2, verses 14 through 26. Addressing the other side of the coin Paul had already written on in Romans chapter 4, James took great pains to motivate believers into action. Faith is practical, and other saints as well as unbelievers ought to see the outcome of our faith manifest in our daily life. Yet James’ motivation has become such a sore point of controversy within Christendom that it has marred his efforts to provide elucidation. Rather obfuscation resulted to the point that even Martin Luther, the famous Reformer, claimed contempt for James’ epistle and insulted it, referring to it as the epistle of straw.

 

In James, and here in Hebrews, both writers use works as evidence of salvation. It is not the works themselves that save; Paul addressed that succinctly in Romans 4:2. The writer clarifies the purpose of works in verse 9. They are the things that accompany salvation. Though he speaks in a rough manner, he is already aware of the fact that the Jewish Christians have acquired a multitude of evidences that their works were done in love, revealing to the church and the world that their faith is in Christ. Works are tangible evidence that by believing Jesus we obey Him. James, in his infamous chapter 2, took great pains to make this point. From human perspective the saint’s works testify of the salvation already in their possession through faith in Christ, or their faith is, “dead.” A lively faith is an active faith, filled with a genuine desire to serve God from love: the ONLY motivation God accepts for service rendered, not for salvation’s reception or retention, but because God commands that good works benefit men and glorify His name.

 

Verse 10 reveals God’s impartiality. Though these saints have lapsed, He will not forget their former works, which the author refers to as a “labor of love.” If we look up the definition for labor of love, it is rather intriguing. A labor of love, simply put, is a task done solely for pleasure, not for reward. Jesus sternly warned that anyone seeking reward for the sake of a “good work” has already received it on earth and will get nothing from God, Matthew 6:1-4. Paul writes, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing,” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3. Love is not motivated by hope of reward; love is its own motivation. All of these great deeds Paul describes, bereft of love, are utterly worthless, and the man performing them produces nothing spiritually fruitful because they are not done in love.

 

Jesus warns the Ephesian church much the same way when we read, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent,” Revelation 2:4, 5. The Ephesians were suffering from the same sin the Hebrew Christians were; positionally they had fallen from their position in Christ and supplanted Him with another. Note how Jesus remarks, “from where you have fallen,” not that they have fallen, but their position with Jesus had gone from congruent to adversarial, solely because love of Christ was not their sole motivator for the works they performed.