What really pleases God, Hebrews 10:38, is his “righteous ones living by faith” (or “thriving on faith” as one translation phrases it), his reason being, verse 39, that “those who believe are saved.” In other words, those with faith get to experience what faith does in its saving power – with clues coming up in chapter 11 as to what that saving power of faith did in the lives of “the ancients who were commended for it” (11:2).

They were commended, as we are, for believing – or living by faith – in two things: the first one in Hebrews 10:36, “that when we’ve done the will of God we will receive what he promised.” And the second in verse 23, that we “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” So, in defining faith as “being sure of what we hope for and being certain of what do not see” in Hebrews 11:1, it’s being “sure” and “certain” in both what God promises, and in his absolute faithfulness in making his promises happen.

And the first hint we’re given in Hebrews 11 as to what that faith does for us, is in verse 3, that “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command.” For us it’s no problem accepting that God spoke our world into existence, or that “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. For he spoke and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:6, 9). So here’s what faith in its saving power does: it saves us from trying to figure out how the universe began. It’s simple: God spoke its beginning.   

And continuing in Hebrews 11:3, “what we now see (in our universe) did not come from anything that can be seen.” Which makes sense, because if the universe came from stuff we can see, then where did that stuff come from? It had to come from something that had always existed. So again, here’s what faith in its saving power does: it handily saves us from trying to figure out how the universe came into existence from nothing – when we see It didn’t come from nothing; it came from an eternally existing God “appointing his Son as heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” – who now “sustains all things by his word” too (1:2-3). So God not only spoke our world into existence, he speaks it into continuing existence too.

We’re very fortunate, then, in not being stuck with just the visible. Faith, instead, has opened up the invisible to us as well. Or as Hebrews puts it, “We see through the curtain”….(next blog)

Twice in Hebrews 3 God is angry at the Israelites – for their “sinful, unbelieving heart” (12) and their “disobedience” (18) – resulting in God angrily stating they would “not enter his rest” (11). 

But why would God be angry? Was it because after “forty years of seeing him in action” (9), the Israelites still didn’t “know his ways” (10)? Well, yes, because they’d been on an amazing journey with “the living God” himself (12), who’d proved to them beyond all doubt that he was real, that he cared, and that in all his dealings with them he only had their good in mind, but instead of the Israelites happily and fully trusting God, they rebelled against him (7-8).

Which gives the impression that this was deliberate on their part. They weren’t acting out of ignorance or weakness, because the Greek word parapikrasmos for “rebellion” in verse 8 means provocation, and even exasperation. Their immediate assumption, for instance, that God didn’t care every time a new problem arose – when they knew he’d resolved every problem up to that point – sorely tested God’s patience (9).

Jesus expressed the same exasperation in Matthew 17 when a Dad with a demon-infected child said he’d gone to Jesus’ disciples to heal his son but they couldn’t do it (16). To which Jesus replied, in obvious exasperation, “You really are an unbelieving, obtuse lot, aren’t you? How much longer can I put up with you?” (17).

His exasperation was based on the same premise as God’s exasperation with Israel. The Israelites had seen and experienced God’s obvious power, just as Jesus’ disciples had seen and experienced their power to heal people with demons – and so far without fail too (Luke 10:17). So why not this time as well – when, just like the Israelites, they knew that God had resolved every problem they’d faced up to that point?

Jesus’ reply was simple in Matthew 17: “It’s because you have so little faith” (20). So instead of them believing in “the living God” who can resolve every difficulty without fail (the moving mountains bit in verse 20), this time the awful impact of the demon on the child was so great it froze their faith in God’s power to deal with it. And that exasperated Jesus, because they’d seen in his life, over and over again, what faith and confidence in the certainty of God’s power in all situations made possible. And not just in his life; their own Israelite history was full of people showing “What faith does” too….(next blog) 

According to Hebrews 10:20-21, this “new and living way” – opened up for us by Jesus’ sacrifice and his intimate care for us as our high priest – creates some real differences in how we think. Like, for instance, finding ourselves “thinking about how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” in verse 24. 

Which, in the case of those in Hebrews, was remarkable, because life had been tough for them, so wouldn’t their minds be more on their own worries? But here we see the power of the Holy Spirit at work – in “the love you‘ve shown God by the help you’ve given to his people, and are still giving” (6:10). They were, for instance, “standing side by side with those who were being publicly shamed and ridiculed” and taking the hits with them (10:33-34). And in “sympathy for those in prison” – whose very survival in the first century depended totally on friends providing food, water and clothing – they were doing whatever it took to keep their imprisoned friends alive, no matter what danger to themselves.

Hebrews gives a couple of reasons why this looking out for each other was so important too – the first being “to keep each other encouraged – especially as you see ‘the Day’ approaching” (10:25), which for those in Hebrews must’ve felt real, just as it does for us, as evil, deceit and twisting the truth infiltrate every aspect of our culture, filling it with ideologies that very cleverly counterfeit God’s Word. And how wearying it all becomes, especially when refusing to go along with it and being socially isolated and scoffed at for doing so. How pleasant it is, then, to get together with kindred spirits (25) and feel the Spirit’s power, love and wisdom soak into our minds instead. 

The second reason for looking out for each other is in Hebrews 3:13, that we “encourage one another every day – while it’s still ‘Today’ (not wait ’til tomorrow) – to make sure that none of us are deceived into straying from God.” The Greek word for “encourage” here has some ‘bite’ to it, because parakaleo (p-racka-LAY-oh) means exhort, suggesting it’s time for a serious one on one chat, and no delaying it either. Again, it’s the Holy Spirit inspiring such thoughts – in this case to help protect each other from drifting away and being “hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”  

It gets really serious on this point back in Hebrews 10 too, because it dips into the touchy subject of “What makes God angry”….(next blog)

According to Hebrews 9:14 it was “through the eternal Spirit” that “Jesus offered himself unblemished to God.” The means, therefore, by which Jesus became “holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens” (7:26) was the faithful guidance and power of the Holy Spirit on his behalf. Which explains why Jesus asked his Father to give the Holy Spirit to us as well (John 14:16-17) – so that, just like Jesus, we can “share in the Holy Spirit” too, Hebrews 6:4. 

For what purpose, though? There’s a clue in Hebrews 5:13, that “Anyone who lives on milk (the elementary truths of God’s word, verse 12) is still an infant and not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.” Whereas by comparison, “solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil” (14).

To the author of Hebrews, then, it was hugely important that we “leave (or move on from) the elementary teachings about Christ” and “go on to maturity” (6:1), just as Jesus went through a learning process to mature and “perfect” him (5:8-9). For us that process began with “Jesus’ sacrifice making us perfect forever” (10:14) by “providing purification for our sins” (1:3) – but there’s a second part to both those verses. In chapter 1:3, Jesus then “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven,” because in the second part of chapter 10:14, we are also “being made holy” – by Jesus (2:11). 

So we move on from the elementary teaching of Jesus’ sacrifice wiping out all our past mess, to the maturing process of becoming holy instead. And it’s holiness made from two ingredients: first of all, “being acquainted with the teaching about righteousness” (5:13), and secondly, using that knowledge to become skilled at knowing the right way to go and doing it, and knowing the wrong way to go and avoiding it (14). 

And the Spirit helps us with both. He “acquaints us with Jesus’ teaching about righteousness” (John 14:26), and he provides us with “the power, love and sound judgment” to distinguish between good and evil in 2 Timothy 1:6-7 – which “comes from the Lord who is the Spirit transforming (or maturing) us into Christ’s likeness (and holiness, Hebrews 2:11) with ever increasing glory,” 2 Corinthians 3:18. 

And one sure sign of that is our growing love for God expressed in “helping his people,” Hebrews 6:10, in “Love and good deeds”….(next blog)  

In Hebrews 3:14, “We come to share in Christ when our confidence and trust in him hold firm.” So what does “sharing in Christ” mean – and why is our confidence so important in experiencing it?

According to Hebrews 5, both points are answered in “the obedience Jesus learnt from what he suffered” (8), because in his obedience to God he “became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (9) and he was “designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek” (10). To share in Christ, then, is to experience both his eternal salvation and priesthood in our lives, and the confidence that gives us. And so long as our confidence remains firm we’ll continue to share in Christ’s eternal salvation and priesthood.

The key to sharing in Christ, then, is our confidence and trust in him holding firm – a lesson well illustrated in the lives of the Israelites who also experienced God’s salvation and priesthood in their lives, but even after forty years of seeing him in action on their behalf, “their hearts were always going astray” (3:9-10).

So all those amazing miracles God did to rescue them from Egypt, protect and feed them on route to Canaan, enable them to defeat fortress cities all over Canaan, and prove himself real to them again and again, didn’t have the desired effect of trusting him no matter what.

Something was missing in their lives – but what? The Holy Spirit drops a clue in Hebrews 3:7, when he says, “Today, if you hear his voice.” The point being, that no matter what temptations they faced, nasty surprises they came up against, or their own minds doing a real number on them – each day hear God’s voice above them all.

That’s what Jesus did. “Every day of Jesus’ life on earth….reverent submission” to his Father’s voice was first on the list (5:7). It was tough but “obedience became a habit no matter what he suffered” (8). 

And now it’s our turn – in our case to “fix our thoughts on Jesus,” because as an “apostle” (3:1) he’s the one God is speaking to us through (1:2). Jesus, therefore, is the one we obey, because to “all who obey him” (5:9) he shares the same confidence and trust in God that he had. 

But where did his confidence and trust come from? According to Hebrews it was “Through the eternal Spirit”….(next blog)

In Hebrews 2:10, God is “bringing many sons to glory” by “making the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.” 

It was the kind of suffering that at one point Jesus was “so crushed by distress and misery that it felt like life itself was coming to an end” (Matthew 26:38). It hit him out of the blue in the Garden of Gethsemane just before his crucifixion. It was sudden and totally unexpected too. No Old Testament prophecy had said this would happen to him, and no record of God saying anything to him personally about it either. He’d had no warning or time to prepare. 

So God put Jesus through the worst thing that happens to us humans, which is being hit by something we’re totally unprepared for that makes no sense to us – making us wonder, just like Job and Old Testament Israel, what on earth God’s up to. The Israelites’ response, however, was to “turn away from the living God,” Hebrew 3:12. Their “hearts hardened against him” (8). 

But what did Jesus do when he felt his mind was exploding and he was reduced to uncontrollable tears of anguish, and even sweating blood? His response, Hebrews 5:7, was “reverent submission.” Unlike the Israelites, Jesus prayed desperately to his Father to “save him from death” – the death, that is, of his own heart hardening. I imagine in his “loud cries” that Jesus included John 5:20, that his Father loved him and would show him what he was up to; and John 12:50, that in everything his Father commanded him to do or put him through, it was all “leading to eternal life.” How crucial it was, then, that his Father “save him from the death” of losing sight of his Father’s love and eternal purpose. 

And his Father heard him all right, because Jesus’ reverent submission in the toughest of situations was exactly what was needed to make him “the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,” Hebrews 5:9. That’s because Jesus had done the very thing himself that leads to eternal life: that in the worst possible circumstances to hit a human, he’d turned to his Father as the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. In other words, Jesus had shown us in his own life the way to go. 

But how on earth is it possible for us to follow in his footsteps? Hebrews answers that: it’s by “Sharing in Christ”….(next blog) 

According to Hebrews 5, the office of high priest – and what he does – is the key to our salvation, not us or anything that we do. That point is made clear throughout the chapter, starting in verse 1, which states that “Every high priest is selected from among men,” for the specific purpose of “representing us in all matters related to God,” the biggest “matter” to God being the high priest “offering gifts and sacrifices for sins.”

Two points here: first of all, that God does not accept us representing ourselves in our dealings with him. We can’t act in our own defence, or argue our case. Which is understandable because God does not allow sin of any kind into his presence, and we are sinners. Only the high priest God selects is allowed to represent us; and secondly, only if the high priest offers the sacrifices for sins that God requires too.

On just those two points, then, we’re already totally dependent on our high priest. We don’t get a look in at all.

God also required the high priest of his choosing to be “subject to weakness” (2). Which sounds risky, especially when we’re so dependent on him being perfectly acceptable to God on our behalf. But to represent us properly God wanted his high priest to be made of the same stuff we are so he’d “deal gently with us when we sin from lack of knowledge or stupidity” (2). It meant, then, that the high priest would be up against the same weaknesses we have, and therefore God required of him personally “to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as the sins of the people” (3). 

The high priest, therefore, had to provide a perfect sacrifice that God not only accepted on our behalf, but on the high priest’s own behalf too. And fortunately, we have “such a high priest – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners” (7:26) who “offered himself” (27). So in himself he provided the perfect sacrifice God required. 

So again, every step of the way, and in everything that God required for our salvation, it’s all been the high priest’s doing, not ours. And there’s only one person given that “honour” and “glory” by God (5:4-5), and that is his very own Son (5) – but with no special favours given to him too, because he not only had to suffer a human death (2:9), God also required that he be made “perfect through suffering” (10). But “Why did Jesus need to suffer?”….(next blog)

When thinking of “What we do,” there’s that intriguing verse in Hebrews 4:11 which says, “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest,” and it’s compared to the Israelites too, who didn’t enter his rest because they “disobeyed” (3:18).

So what “effort” or “obedience” on our part is required of us to enter God’s rest? Or put simply: what are WE supposed to do? 

In reply, the author of Hebrews hits us out of the blue, and seemingly totally out of context too, with verses 12 and 13. Which start with a point well documented in history, that “God’s word has an enormous effect on people. That’s because it slices right down to our innermost desires, motives, intentions and attitudes, revealing all to God who sees every bit of us in vivid detail, and we cannot hide from him either. And one day we get to meet this God who knows everything about us, out in the open, face to face.”  

Scary stuff. So we’d better put the effort in, right? But think how much effort it would take to be perfect in such a God’s eyes. Not a desire, motive, intention or attitude must be left unchecked. Every bit of his word must be followed in exact detail. Not even one thought, wish, or daydream allowed to stray into territory God wouldn’t approve of.  

Impossible? Yes, but absolutely necessary, verse 11, so that “we don’t fall into the same disobedience trap the Israelites fell into.” Is there an answer to all this, then? According to verse 14, yes there is, because it starts off with “Therefore,” the answer then being, “since we have a great high priest….let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.” 

Verse 15 then explains what that faith we profess is: it’s faith that we have a high priest in God’s presence right now, who knows every weakness we’ve got, and from his own experience as a human knows exactly what we’re up against, and he’s there on our behalf, ready to help us in any way we need. 

Our response to that is in verse 16: “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with fullest confidence, that we may receive mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need.” The “obedience” and “making every effort” on our part, then, is totally trusting Jesus to do that for us now and always, because “HE is our salvation, not us”….(next blog) 

Hebrews 10:19 tells us that “we have confidence to enter into the Most Holy Place (and into God’s very presence).” And what gives us that total confidence? The last sentence in verse 19: “the blood of Jesus.” 

Verse 20 then goes on to say, that we have “a new and living way opened up for us through the curtain (into God’s very presence).” And how was this new and living way opened up for us? The last two words in verse 20: “his body.”

So, verse 22, because of Jesus’ blood (verse 19), and because of his body (verse 20), “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.”

Any mention of “works” needed on our part? A hint in verse 22, perhaps? – that we “draw near to God.…having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.” Does that mean we can only confidently enter God’s presence if our hearts are sprinkled and our bodies washed”? Well, yes, but is it up to us to get those two things done? 

Not according to verse 21, which hints instead that all this confidence we have, and hope we have, and full assurance of faith we have, are the result of “having a great priest over the house of God.” 

In other words, it’s all his doing. He’s the one who, through his blood and his body, got us into God’s presence in the first place. Because that’s what high priests do. In Israel of old it was the high priest who did “the sprinkling (of animal blood, Leviticus 16:15-16), and the washing (of his own body, 16:4)” that God required of him to enter his presence. No sprinkling or washing by the people at all. All they did was watch the high priest in action, in hopeful trust that God would honour the high priest’s actions on their behalf. It was a total act of faith in their high priest, therefore, no works on their part required. 

Well, “we have such a high priest in the presence of God” doing the same for us (8:1-2). He “went before us, entering God’s presence on our behalf” (6:19-20). We “come to God through him and his intercession for us” (7:25), just like the Israelites of old went through their high priest and his intercession for them. But “If it’s all faith, what do we do?”….next blog)

In Jesus “offering himself unblemished to God,” Hebrews 9:14, his sacrifice also “cleanses our conscience from dead works.” 

Surprisingly, verse 9, what the author of Hebrews meant by “dead works” were “the gifts and sacrifices being offered (by the Old Testament Israelites).” Perhaps even more surprising is that, despite all those sacrifices and rituals being perfectly designed by God and strictly obeyed by the Israelites, they “were not able to clear the Israelites’ conscience.”

The sacrifices were able to make the Israelites “outwardly clean,” verse 13, so their bodies didn’t die the death they deserved, but that entire religious system was useless when it came to clearing up the consciences of the Israelites enough for them to enter freely into God’s presence (8). 

In short, therefore, that old religious system amounted to nothing but “dead works.” If it crossed the minds of the Israelites, therefore, that by putting even more effort into their religious duties it would then turn those dead works into good works that would please God enough to let them into his presence, they’d soon find out that it would not, because they were still stuck with “God finding fault with them” for their “hearts always going astray” (3:10). 

So the problem was their weak heart, which could not be cured by all those “dead works” sacrifices that only kept the Israelites alive physically. But God had made provision for that by “making a new covenant” (8:8), in which he promised to “put my laws in their minds and write them in their hearts” (10) – as well as clean the slate totally of all their past wrongdoings (12).

Not only in this new covenant, then, were the Israelites’ consciences scoured clean from the memory of all their past sins, they were also scoured clean from the pressure of doing all those “dead works” sacrifices to be good enough to enter God’s presence. And now, thanks to God giving them the heart they’d always lacked, they could, from now on, willingly and happily “serve the living God” (9:14). 

This too, then, is included in the “new and living way opened up for us into God’s presence by the blood of Jesus” (10:19-20). And it was Israel of old that played an essential part in that – in teaching us that this new living way is entirely “By faith, not works”….(next blog)