Establishment
Hebrews 10:19-23, 35-36, 39 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
How does Hebrews 10 establishes our faith in God? The chapter first begins with the announcement of Christ bring the all sufficient sacrifice for all sins. We begin by showing the totality of the work of Christ on the cross. We are given the picture of a temple alter covered in blood that did no good as the curtain remind closed. We see that our ultimate concern was in a relationship with our Heavenly Father above everything else. In comparing the work of the earthly priests and our great high priest whom God has placed over his house we see Jesus do the impossible. But to see it as the great miraculous blessing of love and grace that it is, a person needs eyes and a heart to see the greater need in life. A person much be heavenly minded and a heart of flesh, not of stone. To receive this blessing which lays the foundation for which their entire life will rest on, we have to see ourselves as the enemies of God and Jesus Christ as the Savior of the lost and weak. But as Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:17 ” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” To receive Christ we need a faith to believe that we cannot create because we are dead in our trespasses. So, but through the work of the Holy Spirit we are made alive in Christ and receive the gift of faith to believe all by the grace of God as we don’t deserve to believe and be saved. So, those who had bringing sacrifices to the temple, a temple that had to present sin offerings every time you sinned could imagine the sight of a constant stream of blood running down from the alter. The person is quite aware of their standing before God. The grace of God and having faith in God is not wasted on them. But what if you have no concept of your sinfulness and the unchangeable direction to hell, no matter how good you thought you were?
In our current modern society the difference is seen in our communities. Looking at our communities there is a distinct difference from the “little country church” and the “modern church”. Today’s Christians would say its the intelligence(bigger vocabulary) of the pastor and even though that may be true that is not the top two. Some would agrue our lost of core values but that core hasn’t left it has only changed it’s foundation or it’s context. The first one actually affects the second difference. The first is the fact that God was of first importance. How can someone say that about a church? Just look at the messages that are being preached. You, you, and what you need to do to be a success in this world; the emphasis on “in this world”. God is a footnote not the main story. In the country church it is all God, all the time and it reflected in the second difference, the community. When a group of people looked to God as supreme and believed he was and is in control of all and that we both need the same salvation; people tend to treat others differently. What would it be like to attend church on Sundays to hear about Jesus Christ and the good news of him? What would it be like to hear God’s word about himself and not about men? What would it be like to be in a community that made much of Christ and not preferences? But what if your Sunday mornings are spent on worshiping your accomplishments since you added Jesus to “team you”. What happens when your good gifts serves as the anchor for your faith but God takes it away? We lose our assurance of faith because we lost focus of our all encompassing sacrifice for all in Jesus, as a relationship with our Heavenly Father is devalued and placed below a comfortable life filled with earthly blessings and recognition. A prisoner who has just been released after spending 12 years locked up will return if comfort by any cost out weighs freedom. This is the sinner who sees no sin and holds no desire for a better country with the return of Christ. We are prisoners obsessed with comfort at any cost, even our souls. A heart that treasures earthly things cannot hear the calling of God because God speaks of holiness above all. The angels sing holy, holy, holy, and Jesus says be holy as your father in heaven is holy. Our flesh knows that holiness calls for the sacrifice of self, that living one and our treasure always testify of where our heart is; chasing happiness and not the eternal joy in Christ.
Here is the irony: the less you’re concerned about your happiness and the more you’re concerned about him, the happier you get. This is not a trick. You can’t say, ‘Oh, great. I have it. I come to God, and I say this and this and this.’ You cannot bandy with the omnipotent and omniscient Lord of the universe. ‘Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.’ Happiness is a byproduct.
Tim Keller
Thank God that the foolishness of the fool does not make God’s grace null and void. Thank God that his purpose and name sake is greater than our pursuit of happiness. Thank God that the promised seed pursued holiness and not comfort at the cost of his life. Thank God that our assurance of faith need not be thrown away as Jesus is never far. Every man is given a measure of faith by God and faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God which is placed in earthen vessels to go out into the world to make disciples that will come when they hear Jesus voice in the words spoken about the all sufficient sacrifice for sins by Christ so that we may enter the holy of holies because we have been born again into holiness because we now believe and walk by the faith in the Spirit that rised us from the dead when we once walked in trespasses and now we live as a living sacrifices dying to self as we carry our crosses because we heard the Gospel that was preached by the weak to the lost sheep about the good Shepherd. Our faith is living and breathing because our rock, our anchor is living and breathing, our faith makes us steadfast because we know God went all out to be faithful to the undeserving even as far as to kill his own Son to make dead men live. Our assurance is eternal. So what if on Sundays we heard this and not about how awesome we are because we chose God? What if we heard the truth about that statement which says: John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” What if we heard the truth and saw the failure of the bloody alters in our lives of trying to save ourselves? We would worship in spirit and in truth, finding comfort with our faith in Christ and not the blessings.
Anointed Place Ministries 
Great post! Thank you for the mention! Luciano Corbo > Spiritual Warfare – The Full Armor of God
LikeLike
Thanks for reading. I will definitely continue reading your posts as well.
LikeLike