This is a continuation of yesterday's post about Hebrews 10:25. I made mention in my post yesterday that we see similar thoughts being conveyed to the church of Galatia as we read here in Hebrews, the more I read and re-read this book the more I see this to be so. To me it is incredible. In Galatians Paul spells out in no uncertain terms the difference of wrongly embracing the law for salvation and sanctification and properly embracing the grace of God through faith also for both salvation and sanctification. It is the difference really between genuine faith and hypocritical faith, if you want to call the latter faith at all. Really it is not faith, hypocrisy is a show of faith where the one who puts on the show is deceived. By deceived I mean they don't even really know they are doing it. There is faith involved in this to a point but then it is blurred and obscured by critical and judgmental attitudes towards some 'not-so-spiritual' others. Again I only say this because I walked several miles in those same shoes. Keep in mind that only God knows a persons heart and motives. It is not for us to identify hypocrisy in others, we must learn to identify it in ourselves. The Pharisees of scripture and what God had to say about this group of men is a great place to look to identify and evaluate the issue of hypocrisy. It is the only safe place, if we try to identify it anywhere else we will find ourselves slipping on those shoes and I don't want to go there again.
Now concerning the weakness of the law and the power of resting our faith in the Person of Christ, chapter ten, and again all of Hebrews lays this out quite nicely for us. And perhaps if we were Jewish, and even possibly if we were Pharisees or doctors of the law and scribes we would see this even more clearly.
Hebrews 10:1 says "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."
The Law is simply a shadow, or a foreshadowing of good things to come. What wonderful and awesome and powerful good things they are too! For by one offering Jesus Christ has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Once, for all, forever! Wherefore the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us (verses 14-20) that the way into the holiest of all is now made manifest. He says we may now have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Praise God the vail has been rent and we can now enter into a most holy and precious union with our Lord. In this union we can lay aside the letter of the law and embrace the Spirit of things. We can in holy sacred sacrificial christian love fulfill all that is spelled out to us in verses 22-25. We can draw near with a true heart. We can provoke one another to love and to good works. We can exhort one another to look unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Praise God the vail has been rent! With this in mind, I think you will find it most edifying to go back and read in your Bible chapter ten of Hebrews, and I will continue this my own personal study notes and commentary another day.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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