_AN ADVANCE IN THE EXHORTATION._
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place
by the blood of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us, a new
and living way, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and
having a great Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a
true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience, and our body washed with pure water: let us hold
fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for He is
faithful that promised: and let us consider one another to provoke
unto love and good works; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and
so much the more, as ye see the day drawing nigh. For if we sin
wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth,
there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful
expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which shall devour
the adversaries. A man that hath set at nought Moses' law dieth
without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses: of how
much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the
covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath
done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know Him that said,
Vengeance belongeth unto Me. I will recompense. And again, The Lord
shall judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God. But call to remembrance the former days, in
which, after ye were enlightened, ye endured a great conflict of
sufferings; partly, being made a gazing-stock both by reproaches and
afflictions; and partly, becoming partakers with them that were so
used. For ye both had compassion on them that were in bonds, and
took joyfully the spoiling of your possessions, knowing that ye
yourselves have a better possession and an abiding one. Cast not
away therefore your boldness, which hath great recompense of reward.
For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye
may receive the promise.
For yet a very little while,
He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.
But My righteous one shall live by faith:
And if he shrink back, My soul hath no pleasure in him.
But we are not of them that shrink back unto perdition; but of them
that have faith unto the saving of the soul."--HEB. x. 19-39 (R.V.).
The argument is closed. Christ is the eternal Priest and King, and every
rival priesthood or kingship must come to an end. This is the truth won
by the Apostle's original and profound course of reasoning. But he has
in view practical results. He desires to confirm the Hebrew Christians
in their allegiance to Christ. We shall be better able to understand the
precise bearing of his exhortation if we compare it with the appeal
previously made to his readers in the earlier chapters of the
Epistle.[211] At the very outset he plunged into the midst of his
subject and proved that Jesus Christ is Son of God and representative
Man. The union in Christ of these two qualifications constituted Him a
great High-priest. He is able to succour the tempted; He is faithful as
a Son, Who is set over the house of God; He has experienced the bitter
humiliation of life, He is perfected as our Saviour, and has passed
through the heavens. The exhortation, based on these truths, is that we
must lay fast hold of our confidence.
Then come the big wave, the hesitation to face it, the allegory of
Melchizedek, the appeal to the prophet Jeremiah, the comparison between
the old covenant and the new. But the argument triumphs and advances.
Jesus not only is a great High-priest, but this is interpreted as
meaning that He is Priest and King, and that His priesthood and power
will never pass away. Their eternal duration involves the setting aside
of every other priesthood, the destruction of every opposing force.
Christ has entered into the true holiest place and enthroned Himself on
the mercy-seat.
This being so, the Apostle no longer urges his readers to be confident.
He now appeals to them as having confidence,[212] in virtue of the blood
of Jesus, so that they tarry not in the precincts, but enter themselves
into the holiest. The high-priest alone dared enter under the former
covenant, and he approached with fear and trembling, lest he also, like
others before him, should fall down dead in the presence of God. The
exhortation now is, not to confidence, but to sincerity.[213] Let their
confidence become more objective. They had the boasting of hope. Let
them seek the silent, unboasting assurance that is grounded on faith, on
the realisation of the invisible. Instead of believing because they
hoped, let them hope because they believed. In the earlier chapters the
exhortation rested mainly on what Jesus was as Son over God's house.
Now, however, the Apostle speaks of Him as a _great_[214] Priest over
God's house. His authority over the Church springs, not only from His
relation to God, but also from His relation to men. He is King of His
Church because He prays for it and blesses it. Through His priesthood
our hearts are cleansed by the sprinkling of His blood from the
consciousness of sin.[215] But this blessing of the individual believer
is now closely connected by the Apostle with the idea of the Church,
over which Christ is King in virtue of His priesthood on its behalf. In
addition to the cleansing of our hearts from an evil conscience, our
bodies have been washed with pure water. The Apostle alludes primarily
in both clauses to the rite of priestly consecration. "Moses brought
Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water." He also "took of the
blood which was upon the altar and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and upon his
garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons' garments with him, and
sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons'
garments with him."[216] The meaning of our author seems certainly to be
that the worshippers have the privilege of the high-priest himself. They
lose their priestly character only in the more excellent glory and
greatness of that High-priest through Whom they have received their
priesthood. In comparison with Him, they are but humble worshippers, and
He alone is Priest. In contrast to the world around them, they also are
priests of God. But the words of the Apostle contain another allusion.
Both clauses refer to baptism. The mention of washing the "body" renders
it, we think, unquestionable that baptism is meant. But baptism is not
here said to be the antitype of the priestly consecration of the old
covenant. One rite cannot be the type of another rite, which is itself
an external action. The solution of this apparent difficulty is simply
that _both_ clauses together mean baptism, which is invariably
represented in the New Testament as much more than an outward rite. The
external act may be performed without its being a true baptism. For the
meaning of baptism is the forgiveness of sin, the cleansing of the heart
or innermost consciousness from guilt, and the reception of the absolved
sinner into the Church of God. "Christ loved the Church, and gave
Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the
washing of water with the word."[217]
In an earlier chapter our author told his readers that they were the
house of God if they held fast their confidence. He does not repeat it.
The Church consciousness _has_ sprung up within them. They were
previously taught to look steadfastly at Jesus as the Apostle and
High-priest of their confession.[218] They are now urged to look as
steadfastly at one another as fellow-confessors of the same Apostle and
High-priest, and to sharpen one another's love and activity even to the
point of jealousy.[219] In the earlier exhortation no mention was made
of the Church assemblies. Here prominence is given them. Importance is
attached to the words of encouragement addressed at these gatherings of
believers. Christian habits were at this time forming and consolidating
into customs of the Church. Occasional and eccentric manifestations of
the religious life and temperament were yielding to the slow, normal
growth of true vitality. As faithfulness in frequenting the Church
assemblies began to rank among the foremost virtues, unfaithfulness
would, by force of contrast, harden into habitual neglect of the house
of prayer: "As the custom of some is."[220]
The chief of all reasons for exhorting the readers to habitual
attendance on the Church assemblies the writer of the Epistle finds in
the expectation of the Lord's speedy return. They could see for
themselves that the day was at hand. The signs of the Son of man's
coming were multiplying and thrusting themselves on the notice of the
Church. Perhaps the voice of Joshua, the son of Hanan, had already been
heard in the streets, exclaiming, "Woe to Jerusalem!" The holy city was
plainly doomed. But Christ will come to His Church, not to individuals.
He will not be found in the wilderness, nor in the inner chambers. "As
the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the
west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man."[221]
The day of Christ is a day of judgment. The two meanings of the word
"day,"--day in contrast to night, and day as a fixed time for the
transaction of public business,--coalesce in the New Testament usage.
The second idea seems to have gradually superseded the former.
The author proceeds to unfold the dreadful character of this day of
judgment. Here, again, the precise force of his declarations will best
appear by comparison with the warnings of the first part of the Epistle
in reference to the sin and to the punishment.
_First_, the sin referred to here has a wider range than the
transgression spoken of in the second chapter. For there he mentions the
special sin of neglecting so great salvation. But in the present passage
his words seem to imply that rejection of Christ has given birth to a
progeny of evil through the self-abandonment of those who wilfully
persist in sinning, as if from reckless bravado.[222] The special guilt,
too, of rejecting Christ is here painted in darker hues. For in the
earlier passage it is indifference; here it is contempt. In the former
case it is ingratitude to a merciful Saviour; in the latter it is
treason against the majesty of God's own Son. "To trample under foot"
means to desecrate. Christ is the holy High-priest of God, and is now
ministering in the true holiest place. Therefore to choose Judaism, with
its dead rites, and to reject the living Christ, is no longer the action
of a holy zeal for God's house. Quite the reverse. The sanctuary of
Judaism has been shorn of its glory, and its sacredness transferred to
the despised Nazarene. To tread under foot the Son of God is to trample
with revel rout on the hallowed floor of the holiest place. Further, the
Apostle's former warnings contained no allusion to the covenant. Now he
reminds his readers that they have been sanctified--that is, cleansed
from guilt--through the blood of the covenant. Is the cleansing blood
itself unclean? Shall we deem the reeking gore of a slain beast or the
grey ashes of a burnt heifer holy, and consider the blood of the Christ,
Who with an eternal spirit offered Himself without spot to God, unholy
and defiling?[223] Moreover, that eternal spirit in the Son of God is a
spirit of grace[224] towards men. But His infinite compassion is
spurned. And thus the Apostle brings us once more[225] in sight of the
hopeless character of cynicism.
_Second_, the punishment is partly negative. A sacrifice for sins is no
more left to men who have spurned the sacrifice of the Son.[226] Here
again we notice an advance in the thought. The Apostle told his readers
before that it is impossible to renew to repentance those who crucify
afresh the Son of God and put Him to an open shame. But the
impossibility consists in hardness of heart and spiritual blindness. The
result also is subjective,--they cannot repent. He now adds the
impossibility of finding another propitiation than the offering of
Christ or of finding in His offering a different kind of propitiation,
seeing that He is the final revelation of God's forgiving grace. Then,
further, the punishment has a positive side. After hardness of heart
comes stinging remorse, arising from a vague, but on that account all
the more fearful, expectation of the judgment. The abject terror is
amply justified. For the fury[227] of a fire, already kindling around
the doomed city, warns the Hebrew backsliders that the Christ so
wilfully scoffed at is at the door. Observe the contrast. The law of
Moses is on occasion set aside. The matter is almost private. Only two
or three persons witnessed it.[228] Its evil influence did not spread,
and when the criminal was led out to be stoned to death, they who passed
by went their way unheeding. The Christ of God is put to an open
shame;[229] the covenant, for ever established on the sure foundation of
God's oath and Christ's death, and the spirit of all grace that filled
the heart of Christ are mocked. Of how much sorer punishment shall
Christ at His speedy coming deem the scorner worthy? The answer is left
by the Apostle to his readers. They knew with Whom they had to do.[230]
It was not with angels, the swift messengers and flaming ministers of
His power. It was not with Moses, who himself exceedingly feared and
quaked.[231] It was not with the blind pressure of fate. They had to do
with the living God Himself directly. He will lay upon them His living
hand,--the hand that might and, if they had not spurned it, would have
protected and saved. Retribution descends swift and resistless. It can
only be likened to a sudden falling into the very hands of a waiting
avenger.[232] He will not entrust the work of vengeance to another. No
extraneous agent shall come between the smiting hand and the heart that
burns with the anger of the sincere against the false, of the
compassionate against the pitiless. Does not Scripture teach that the
Lord will execute judgment on behalf of His people?[233] If on behalf of
His people, will He not enter into judgment for His Son?
From the terrible expectation of future judgment the Apostle turns away,
to recall to his readers the grounds of hope supplied by their
steadfastness in the past. He has already spoken of their work and the
love which they had shown in ministering to the saints.[234] God's
justice would not forget their brotherly kindness. Now, however, His
purpose in bidding them remember the former days is something different.
He writes to convince them that they needed no other and greater
confidence to face the future than had carried them triumphantly through
conflicts in days of yore. They had endured sufferings; let them conquer
their own indifference and put away their cynicism with the lofty
disdain of earnest faith. The courage that could do the former can also
do the latter.
From the first break of day in their souls[235] they had felt the
confidence of men who walk, not in darkness, not knowing whither they go
and fearing to take another step, but in the light, so that they trod
firmly and stepped boldly onward. Their confidence was based on
conviction and understanding of truth. For that reason it inspired them
with the courage of athletes,[236] when they had to endure also the
shame of the arena. Made a gazing-stock to a scoffing theatre, they had
not turned pale at the roar of the wild beasts. Instead of tamely
submitting, they had turned their sufferings into a veritable contest
against the world, and maintained the conflict long.[237] Taunted by the
spectators, torn by the lions, reproaches and afflictions alike had been
ineffectual to break their spirit. When they witnessed the prolonged
tortures of their brethren whose Christian life was one martyrdom,[238]
they had not shrunk from the like usage. They had pitied the brethren in
prisons and visited them. They had taken joyfully the spoiling of their
substance, knowing that now they had themselves,[239] as a better and an
abiding possession. If they had lost the world, they had gained for
themselves their souls.[240] As true athletes, therefore, let them not
throw away[241] their sword, which is no other than their old, undaunted
confidence. There was none like that sword. Their victory was assured.
Their reward would be, not the plaudits of the fickle onlookers, but the
fulfilment of God's promise to Abraham. They had need of endurance,
because in enduring they were doing the will of God. But the Deliverer
would be with them in a twinkling.[242] He had delayed His chariot
wheels, but He would delay no more. Hear ye not His voice? It is He that
speaks in the words of the prophet, "Those whom I deny will perish out
of the way. But I have My righteous ones[243] here and there, unseen by
the world, and out of their faith will be wrought for them eternal life.
But let even Mine own beware of lowering sail. My soul will have no
delight even in him if he draws back."
The Apostle reflects on the words of Christ in the prophecy of Habakkuk.
But he has an assured hope that he and his readers would repudiate the
thought of drawing back. They were men of faith, bent on winning[244]
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus; and the prize
would be their own souls. May we not conjecture that the Apostle's
fervid appeal prevailed with the Christians within the doomed city "to
break the last bands of patriotism and superstition which attached them
to the Temple and the altar, and proclaim themselves missionaries of the
new faith, without a backward glance of lingering reminiscence"?[245]
FOOTNOTES:
[211] Chaps. ii. 1-5; iii. 1, 6; iv. 11, 16; vi.
[212] Chap. x. 19.
[213] =meta alêthinês kardias= (x. 22).
[214] =megan= (x. 21).
[215] =apo syneidêseôs ponêras= (x. 22).
[216] Lev. viii. 6, 30.
[217] Eph. v. 26.
[218] Chap. iii. 1.
[219] =eis paroxysmon= (x. 24).
[220] =ethos= (x. 25).
[221] Matt. xxiv. 27.
[222] =hekousiôs= (x. 26).
[223] Chap. x. 29.
[224] =pneuma tês charitos=.
[225] See chap. vi. 6.
[226] Chap. x. 26.
[227] =zêlos= (x. 27).
[228] Chap. x. 28.
[229] =paradeigmatizontas= (vi. 6).
[230] Chap. iii. 12.
[231] Chap. xii. 21.
[232] =empesein=.
[233] Deut. xxxii. 36.
[234] Chap. vi. 10.
[235] =phôtisthentes= (x. 32).
[236] =athlêsin=.
[237] =pollên=.
[238] =houtôs anastrephomenôn= (x. 33).
[239] Reading =heautous= (x. 34).
[240] =eis peripoiêsin= (x. 39).
[241] =mê apobalête=.
[242] =mikron hoson hoson= (x. 37).
[243] Reading =mou= (x. 38).
[244] =peripoiêsin= (x. 39).
[245] Dean Merivale, _Romans under the Empire_, chap. lix.