A real-time blog on the Letter to the Hebrews - 2

In present-day Israel, as in the whole of Israel’s history, there are opposing spiritual forces. On the one hand, Orthodox Jews call for the restoration of the Temple, the Priesthood, and the sacrificial system à la Law of Moses. On the other hand, in Israel, there are more churches full of Jewish believers in the Messiah Jesus than at any time. Many include Gentile as well as Jewish believers but there are some that are like the Jerusalem church in Acts – Jews only.

It was such a church that the Letter to the Hebrews was written.

The tug of war is understandable. To drift back to the Old Testament, to Moses, to Aaron, to the Levitical priesthood, to the temple, to the sacrifices and feasts is supremely relevant today, especially for Jews who believe in Jesus, wanting to retain connections with the past whilst pushing on to…on to what exactly?

And this is true for all believers. For all of us. On to what exactly? What is the purpose of God in Christianity?

‘It was fitting for Him…in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings’ Heb 2v10

This is the vision of true Christianity. First to make many sons from sinners and then for God to bring His sons to glory. I don’t know what that means. Not really. I know that John wrote ‘the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld His glory’ looking back to the Transfiguration. I know that the other witness to the Transfiguration, Peter, wrote ‘Jesus, Messiah, who having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory’.

The New Testament teaches that God, through faith in His only begotten Son, Jesus, has made ‘many sons’ and we are ‘heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ’ Rom 8v17 and that ‘the whole of creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God’.

Poets, songwriters, and prophets have looked for words adequate enough to describe the indescribable…the best we can do is…glory.

Christianity is not about ‘going to church’ or ‘reading the Bible’ or ‘worship’ or ‘good works’ or ‘baptism’, or ‘communion’; all these things you may well do as a Christian but, firstly, it’s about God making you one of His sons inheriting everything with Christ. This is big. Poets, songwriters, and prophets have looked for words adequate enough to describe the indescribable…the best we can do is…glory.

Why abandon this to retreat back to Law, to regulations, to human effort, to self-improvement? Why drift?

And yet, many are drifting, neglecting their salvation. And not just individuals but whole churches and denominations and streams are departing from Christ, replacing Him with their human efforts to produce the kingdom on earth, or simply a good life, or a Christ-like life, and, in doing so, losing sight of the glory.

Blog 3 No more drift…let’s push on…oddly, to ‘rest’, to the true Sabbath