October 1931
453
T h e K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
way of the new creation in Christ Jesus (cf. Rom. 8:3, 4; Gal. 6:15). There are millions of souls in Christendom to whom the Lord Jesus is only a second Moses, and to whom the gospel is nothing more than a modified form of the law, by the keeping of which they hope somehow to become righteous-enough for God to save them and take them to heaven when they die. The Epistle to the Hebrews is a warning against this and a call to come out of religious formalism to Him who alone can cleanse the conscience and save the soul (9:14; 7:25). A formal faith will not hold in time of storm or in the crises of life. It failed at Kadesh-Barnea, it failed during the apostolic period, and it fails today. To lead people from a formal faith in re ligious things to a vital and vitalizing faith in a persoilal Saviour is a great task and a splendid achievement. The writer of the epistle aimed at this, and he admonished his hearers to exhort one another daily “lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” The outer crust of mere religious formality tends to harden the inner life, while saving faith keeps the con science tender and the life responsive to truth. It does not depart from the living God, it “holds the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end.” It not only goes over Jordan into the good land of union with Christ in the power of His resurrection, but it also increasingly participates in Christ as it goes on with Him. T he R est of G od From 3:11 to 4 :11, the word “rest” occurs eleven times. All through this passage the idea prevails that God would have His people enter into His rest. Creation rest, Sab bath rest, and Canaan rest are all used to illustrate the rest that remains to the people of God consequent upon the finished work of Christ. The gospel, or the good news of rest in Canaan, was preached to Israel, but “the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard.” The gospel, or the good news of rest through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, is now preached to us, and “we which have believed do enter into rest” ( 4 :2, 3). According to the words of 4:10, “he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works.” He has learned the truth of Hebrews 13:5 and Philippians 2 :13 and now relies upon God to work in him. This is the rest of voluntary surrender and proper adjust ment of the life to God, a rest that is heavenly in its nature, yet realized in earthly experience. To come short of this is an unseemly thing (4 :1 ); so “let us labour therefore to enter into that rest.” This is not the rest of inactivity, but rather that of heart satisfaction and co operation in the doing of the known will of God. T he W ord of G od Having considered the household of God (3:1-6) and the rest of God ( 3 :7 to 4:11), the apostle goes on to speak of the Word of God, in 4:12 and 13. He has quoted from that Word, giving encouragement to faith and warn ing to unbelief and disobedience. That Word is penetrat ing. It lays bare our inward thought and motive, reveal ing us to ourselves as well as revealing God to our souls. By the citation of Old Testament incidents and events, and by their application to present-day life, we are cor rected, condemned, converted, or comforted, as the need may require. This is in startling contrast to the pious fiction and popular religious panaceas which pass lightly over the hurt of sin.
F ailure and its C ause In order to understand the nature of this crisis in Is rael’s history, it would be well at this point to read care fully Numbers 13 :25 to 14:12, and then turn to Hebrews 3:19 for the apostle’s comment and explanation: “They could not enter in because of unbelief.” The failure lay in the fact that they were wrong “in their heart”; there fore, they did not come to know God’s ways, either in government or in grace. There is nothing in Scripture more pathetic, and certainly nothing more spiritually sug gestive, than the three plain statements made, in Hebrews 3 :10 and 11: Following the quotation in chapter 3, verses 7 to 11, in which the failure of Israel is depicted, there appears a clear call or warning: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” The “evil heart of unbelief” sig nifies not the weakness of the backslider, but the willful departure of the apostate. It is the deliberate choice of another “captain,” such as found expression in the words of Numbers 14:4: “Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.” This was a departure from the living God and His appointed leader. The Hebrews addressed in this letter were facing a similar crisis. During the four decades from 30 to 70 A.D., there were thousands of Jewish people who believed in Jesus of Nazareth as their promised Messiah, and who confessed Him as such (cf. Acts 21:20). They were zealous for the law. They knew the Old Testament program, but not the New Testament plan. The truths of Romans 3 to 8 were either unknown or unaccepted. These Hebrew Christians lived under the shadow of the old dispensation, and their spiritual expe rience was far from satisfactory. The “liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” was not theirs. Jerusalem and the temple, with its priesthood and ritual, were still' the center of their religious thought and worship. All of this made their condition perilous, for in the plan of God it had all passed away, having fulfilled the divine intention. The chapter which we are now considering marks the be ginning of the effort to turn the Jews away from the pass ing to the permanent, from the shadow to the substance, from religious forms and ceremonies to the eternal veri ties. This effort continues all through the epistle, and it reaches its culmination in the call of 13:13: “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp.” This constituted the crisis’. Would they heed the call and go forth unto Him, thereby entering into God’s rest in Christ, or would they depart from the living God and go back to “the weak and beggarly elements,” with the priesthood and ritual? It was a critical time indeed, for they must choose between God’s appointed Leader and a captain of their own making. All of this has spiritual significance for these days when evangelical leaders are tempted to forget the vital distinction between Judaism and Christianity. In the former, there is no salvation. The law of Moses forbids the sins of the flesh, but it can not deal with sin in the flesh. But what the law could not do, God undertook to do in another way, and that other way is the gospel way, the “They do always err in their heart.” “They have not known my ways.” “They shall not enter into my rest.” T he A pplication
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