Remember to Endure

Introduction

Hebrews 10:19–39 ESV

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 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. 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

“Glory be to God for dappled things,” wrote Gerard Manley Hopkins in his poem, “Pied Beauty.” To be dappled is to be variegated, exhibiting different colors. Hopkins glorifies God in his poem for the skies, fish, finches, landscapes, and the like. All the created variety in this world points to the glory and grandeur of God. Our God loves difference. He is the author of dappled things, who spoke the delightful benediction, “very good,” over the beautiful diverse creation at the end of the sixth day. It is no minor point that humanity crowns the creation account in Genesis 1. Because all beauty in creation has God as its source humanity was destined for what I call beautiful community. As Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he is the Beautiful One who has brought copies of himself into being. And yet, because of sin, we cannot pursue beautiful community, unity in diversity, without engaging the issues of injustice and oppression.

This engagement has become fraught with new and intensified difficulty for the church in the United States since the murders of George Floyd, Ahmad Arbery, and Breonna Taylor in 2020. The work that I do puts me in constant conversation with pastors and ministry leaders who are trying to faithfully navigate the intense debate around race and justice. They have a particular intent to lead their churches into a more robust pursuit of unity in diversity. And without fail, they will describe what I call the vise effect. Some congregants, with a high degree of excitement and impatience, are saying, “It’s about time that we’re addressing the problem of race and justice in the church and society! How can we expect to truly love and welcome our diverse neighbors if we do not engage the issues that are affecting their lives?” Another contingent of congregants are pushing from the other end. “Wait a minute! This feels like we’re buying into the culture’s narrative on these issues. Slow down. Let’s make sure that our church is not forsaking the gospel for social relevance.” Church leaders are caught in this vise and many wonder whether they ought to go back to the “good old days” of not focusing on the topic of racial injustice, racial reconciliation, and the pursuit of unity in diversity under the lordship of Jesus Christ. Of course, to refer to the days of proclaiming a gospel that does not deal forthrightly with the sin of racial injustice as “good” is a myth. A non-truncated gospel proclamation engages the most difficult issues of the day while calling us to the embodied hope of unity in diversity.

Given the difficulty in our current Christian culture in the US, is it worth it or even possible to press through the polarization? Well, here is another truth, and this one is glorious. Beautiful community is already a reality. The redemption of the world has been accomplished by the victory of God when Christ rose from the dead. The church is called to be a sign of the unity of human race that will one day be perfectly achieved. We participate in the visible communion of the church through our membership in a local congregation. This means that beautiful community is primarily pursued and demonstrated in the context of the local church. It is demonstrated in the local church by the gathering of people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, political persuasions, and social statuses into a loving persevering community. God is going to knit back humanity in his Son. It is going to happen as sure as night follows day. The question becomes what will enable us to endure in hope committing to the pursuit of beautiful community—unity in diversity—seeking the unity of the Spirit across lines of difference?

By definition, a Christian is a part of a family, a spiritual family. Living out Christian faith is done with one another. And the Pastor begins to press the Hebrews on this reality as he transitions from a primary focus on doctrinal statements to exhortations for living. What does this living out the faith look like?

Well, the truth about Jesus Christ is so powerful and amazing that before getting practical he summarizes everything he’s just said in two verses.

Hebrews 10:19–21 ESV

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

He’s about to urge them to draw near to the heavenly holy places, the heavenly sanctuary, to have an upward confidence and boldness. This Sanctuary is entered by the blood of Jesus. As a result of everything I’ve just said, we have boldness of access to the throne of grace by the means of Jesus’ blood shed for us. Jesus has opened for us a new and living way through his body. The old way into the earthly sanctuary, which was just a copy of the heavenly sanctuary, had limited access. The veil in the tabernacle excluded the people from the most holy place where the glory of the Lord rested above the mercy seat. But in Jesus there is a new veil, his body, and it is a door through which everyone who follows him has free and unlimited access to God. The way is new because Jesus inaugurated the new covenant, doing away with the old. It will remain new because, unlike the old, it will never become obsolete. It’s a living way because, unlike the priests of old, he didn’t offer the blood of dead animals. He offered up himself on the cross, and he got up alive, bodily from the grave. He ascended into heaven and entered into the heavenly Sanctuary once for all by means of his own blood. Jesus has provided a new and living way for the people of God. We have a great priest over the house of God therefore, we have confidence. Out of that confidence he calls his congregation to some “let us” exhortations.

Upward Confidence

Because of the upward confidence to enter the heavenly Sanctuary that those who belong to Jesus possess he charges them,

Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our body has been washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:22, author’s translation)

“Let us draw near…” Let us draw near to what, or to who? It’s to the same place he mentioned the first time he said let us draw near in 4:16. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This is a call to an upward confidence that is reflected in our prayer life. He’s saying, take advantage of what you have Christian. Jesus has provided what no one else could. So, his people have what no one else does. That is free access to God. In Jesus, by his blood, we enter into heaven itself. We come by the blood into the very presence of God.

A true heart is a heart that has been changed by the Spirit of God through faith in Jesus. And when we come with that kind of heart, we don’t come timidly or sheepishly as if we’re afraid that God isn’t going to hear us or is angry with us. We don’t come in an unbelieving way. Drawing near to God with a true heart means understanding that you’re not talking to a wall. Our Father in heaven doesn’t have an anger management problem, nor does he make empty promises. There’s nothing wrong with his hearing, and he loves to answer the prayers of his children. That’s why the drawing near is with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Be fully assured and certain that God hears and answers his children.

Inward Confession

This upward confidence that Christians are called to have is followed in 10:23 by what an inward confession. By “inward confession” I don’t mean “confessing to yourself.”

Hebrews 10:23 ESV

23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

The upward exhortation, the confidence to draw close to God in prayer and worship, is followed by an inward exhortation. “Let us hold fast, let us hold tightly, let us fasten ourselves to what?” Let us hold on to the confession. We might expect him to say, if we had just jumped into the letter at this point, “let us hold fast to the confession of our faith.” But he says let us hold fast the confession of our hope. That’s an inward thing. And we’re not surprised to hear him say that because we’ve already heard him say

Hebrews 3:6 ESV

6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Hebrews 6:11 ESV

11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,

Hebrews 6:17–18 ESV

17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

The confession of our hope is that Jesus Christ is Lord and is faithful to fulfill every promise. The apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 1:3 that we have been “born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” By his resurrection he is confirmed as Lord over all. As we have already said in several ways, Christian hope is substantive, not superstitious. It’s not wishful thinking. The Christian hope is a hope for living. Here he is again declaring, hold on to it. Don’t let it go. Then he adds, hold fast to it without wavering. The Christian hope is a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul. And this is the connection. The ongoing drawing near, the continual living out the faith by drawing near to God in prayer and worship strengthens us to hold on inwardly to the confession of our hope. This is because we become more and more assured that God, who made the promise, is faithful.

We cannot afford to forget that the Hebrews are going through adversity. They’re facing persecution and hardship because they believe in Jesus. Nothing tests our faith in Jesus like adversity. Nothing makes us waver and doubt like challenge and adversity in our lives and society. The temptation is, “if I compromise what I believe about Jesus just a little bit, things might get better.” The Pastor says, “this thing has got to be way down deep on the inside. It’s got to be so deep in you that you hold tightly without wavering through the storm.”

Outward Commitment

The evidence of this inward holding fast without wavering is an outward commitment to one another that is seen within the church. This is not a private deal. Let me have my private meditative prayer life, and feel assured about my faith, then go on and live my life until I get to heaven. No, living out the faith is messy business because it involves my ongoing commitment to others within the body of Christ especially when there is great difficulty.

Hebrews 10:24–25 ESV

24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

The last time he used that verb, “consider,” was in 3:1 when he said,

Hebrews 3:1 ESV

1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,

To consider Jesus is not, “let me consider whether or not I should follow Jesus or believe in him.” To consider Jesus means to fix our thoughts and attention on him.

“Let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works.”

Let us be concerned about one another. Let us consider one another. Let us fix our thoughts on one another. The living out of the faith is messy business because, by necessity, it involves an outward commitment to be intimately involved with one another. There is no other conclusion to draw from the if Christians are to stir up one another to love and good works.

He’s saying that within the body of Christ, within the church we should have our thoughts so fixed on one another that we are moved to provoke, to incite even, one another towards love and good works.

As a part of the church we get to know one another and are known by one another, in part, so that we can incite one another to love and good works. People attend a church and join for a variety of reasons. I like the music. I like preaching. I like the programs they have. The people are friendly, etc. How often does what the Pastor says here make the list? I want to be at a place where people are going to keep me accountable. I want to be at a place where people are not going to be satisfied to let me sit on the sidelines and not live out the implications of my faith. I want to be at a place where people are not going to be content to let me dip in and dip out when I feel like it. I want to be at a place where people are not going to let me just play church. I want to be connected to sisters and brothers in Christ who will not shy away from loving engagement of the issues that may threaten to divide. I submit to you that these do not make the list very often. But the biblical truth is that the Christian life is a “one another” life.

Apparently, dipping in and dipping out, because things got a little rough was a problem for the Hebrew congregation. The Pastor tells them in 10:25 that part of this getting in one another’s business by stirring one another up to love and good works is not neglecting to meet together like some of y’all are doing. Some of them decided, “it’s a little too rough for me right now. I’m just going to stay away for a while.” We’re no different than them. When things get rough, we’re tempted to say, let me check out for a minute. And the Pastor is saying, “are you serious?” Given all that you know about Jesus, who he is, what he’s done, what he’s doing now, who you are in him, you’re letting adversity keep you away from the place where hope and encouragement is found? Are you out of your mind? This is not just about gathering for worship on the Lord’s Day. It includes that for sure, but it is more than that. It is the living out of the faith by gathering together as a life commitment.

The evidence of your upward confidence in fellowship with God and your inward fastening to the confession of our hope without wavering is the outward commitment to the local body (meaning the people) as a vital aspect of your life. If that is not in existence, the other two are suspect. Our faith in God takes us up to heaven for ongoing fellowship and worship in his presence. Our hope in him and his promise anchors us and enables us not to waver. Then our love for God and one another moves us to stir one another up to encourage one another. Faith, hope and love. As messy as it is, that is what the church is called to.

The Day of Christ’s return is drawing near, as the Pastor says. Let us all the more continue then, as we wait for him, to live out the faith by drawing near to God, holding on to the confession of our hope, and showing the love and concern for one another that we might provoke love and good works as the people of God. Remember to endure in this is his message to them. They are to continue on in hope with an upward confidence, inward confession and outward commitment, remembering that they’ve been through adversity in the past. They’re facing adversity now, but it’s not new. Just like they were able to press through the adversity before, they needed to press through it now. What does this remembering look like? Three practical facets are laid out at the end of chapter 10.

Endure with Joy

To help them deal with their current situation, the Pastor takes them back in time. He’s warns them with hard words in 10: 26-31, about the terrible fate of those who reject the Son of God. Now he wants to let them know, you all aren’t going to go in that direction. The evidence of that, he says, is the way you were able to endure through extreme suffering and even have joy in the middle of it.

What he calls them to remember in 10:32-34 is is something that people would prefer to forget.

But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured an extensive struggle with sufferings. This included insults and also persecutions as you were sometimes made a public spectacle. At other times you became partners with those who were so treated. For you sympathized with the prisoners and you willingly received the seizure of your possessions with joy because you knew you yourselves had a better and lasting possession. (Hebrews 10:32-34, author’s translation)

After you were enlightened, that is, after God the Father qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light by transferring you out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son (Col. 1:12-13), remember what happened? After the light came on and you repented of your sins, trusting in Jesus Christ as your God and Savior, all hell broke loose in your life. Remember how you had to endure a hard struggle with sufferings!

That doesn’t sound right. That sounds backwards. Here’s what we’d prefer to hear him say.

“Remember how rough it was before you knew Jesus? Remember how things got so much better for you after you became a Christian? People started to like you more. Life got easier and less complicated.”

That’s not what he says. He doesn’t try to motivate them by sugarcoating the truth. Remember how hard it was when you became a Christian? Remember how you did precisely what Jesus told his disciples to do? Jesus told his disciples,

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23)

The Pastor reminds them, that’s what you were doing. Here’s how you did it. You endured. You stood your ground without wavering even after you were made a public spectacle as people insulted you and persecuted you. You weren’t ashamed to let people know that other Christians who were being thrown in prison were your brothers and sisters. Those were your people, and you didn’t care if anybody knew it. To have compassion on prisoners was dangerous. It wasn’t like it is today. To have compassion on prisoners was to supply them with food and water and clothing so that they wouldn’t die.

They paid a heavy price for their compassion. Here’s where we say, this can’t be right. Hebrews 10:34 has got to be a typo. The Pastor says, not only did you endure, but you weren’t moaning and groaning about your suffering. In fact, remember how you accepted the plundering of your property with joy!

It’s likely that most people do not want to be possessed by their possessions. People who take life seriously typically do not want to be controlled material things. In some ways, having a loose grip on our possessions is a virtue in our society. I might be willing to risk my possessions to help fund a new business venture. People take out a second mortgage on their home or liquidate their retirement savings for these kinds of things. While I do not want to be controlled by material things, there’s a difference between me willingly risking my stuff and having my stuff taken from me.

Have you ever been robbed? When our things are taken away from us, we feel violated. We experience a lot of emotions, but joy isn't one of them. It would be odd to have our homes ransacked and instead of the primary response being depression, anger, despondency, sadness, tears, we led with joy. The Pastor reminds them that they received the plundering of their possessions with joy because they knew that they had a better possession and a more lasting one. What was that better possession?

The better more lasting possession was their eternal inheritance in Jesus Christ. The gospel message is radical. By convincing us that possessing life in Jesus is better than possessing anything else we joyfully embrace loss for the sake of the gospel. We should not assume that the Hebrews were happy about having their possessions taken by force. It’s likely that there was an experience of anger, sadness, and maybe even a desire for revenge! But those things were not primary for them. In her book on Advent, Fleming Rutlege wrote,

God’s final triumph over evil does not depend on our success in overcoming sin and death; if it did, we would truly have no hope…The way of Christian community is not, however, to retreat from horror into the solace of personal religion, but to proclaim Christ’s hope to the world (the not-yet in the now) by involving ourselves in…“strategies of hope…”

Frustrations arise for us, and we are tempted to fall into hopelessness regarding Christianity and Christians because we often have a different understanding of what successful Christian ministry looks like. Rutlege is correct. The triumph over evil that was accomplished by God in the cross of Jesus Christ will one day be fully realized in time and space, and be evident to all creation. We have to remember that this triumph includes God’s victory over our sin and evil to make us citizens of his kingdom. The only thing we contributed to that victory was the sin and evil. The victory didn’t depend on our successfully overcoming sin in our lives and his victory over the depravity of our world doesn’t depend on us either. That means success may look like failure and loss. The Hebrews were struggling, and the call was for them to remember the joy they experienced in loss! The implication is that they aren’t responding to the current struggle with that same joy. Previously, they had not retreated into the solace of personal religion, they were public with their faith and affiliation to Jesus, and it resulted in suffering. The exhortation is here because there’s no guarantee that the sufferings of this world that threaten our faith will be met with joy over the better possession we have in Christ.

Endure by Faith

The problem is that it's hard, particularly in our culture, to have a tangible sense of the value of what it means to possess life in Christ. That difficulty is why the Pastor doesn’t just remind them of their joyful endurance in the past, but he uses that to bring to the here and now and point them to the need they have to continue enduring. He says to them in vv. 35-36,

Hebrews 10:35–36 ESV

35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

In the middle of difficulty and struggles spiritual realities can seem so distant. That eternal inheritance that Jesus secured when he rose from the dead seems like something that’s far away. And because we still have to wait for what we know to be true by faith to become true by sight, we're pulled toward what we can see with our eyes.

The need to endure is a spiritual responsibility. But just like everything else in the Christian life, God doesn’t leave us on our own. Jesus says of his disciples in John 15:5, “apart from me you can do nothing.” Paul puts it this way in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.” So, the Pastor lets us know in 10:37-39 that endurance is by faith in Jesus Christ. He gives a short citation from Isaiah 26:20, then quotes from Habakuk 2:3-4 when he says…

For yet a very little while he who is coming will come and he will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he turns back, my soul does not delight in him. But we do not belong to those who turn back into destruction, but we belong to those of faith who preserve their soul (Hebrews 10:37-39, author’s translation).

If you’re going to endure, there’s only one way to live. It’s by faith in Jesus Christ. What does that faith look like? It believes that Jesus, the coming one, will not delay in fulfilling God’s saving plan. It has such a trust in God’s promise and in his word that it refuses to turn back, and is determined to persevere. To turn back is to renounce the life of faith because you think that something else is better or easier.

The Pastor says, “we’re not like that!” He says, “I’ve seen the evidence of your faith. I know what type of people you are. We’re not like people who shrink back because we think there’s something out there better than Jesus. We’re not like those folks who shrink back and are destroyed. We belong to the group of people who have faith and preserve their souls.” He is about to go into great detail in chapter 11 on the “soul preserving faith” he's talking about. He’s starting to let them know that they are in a long line of faithful ones who don't turn back from their faith, from their confidence to approach the throne of grace, from the assurance of their hope, but who endure through trouble to the end.

Remember to endure. Remember that the Christian life isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon. Remember that he gives grace and power to endure hardships and disappointments with joy. Remember that to be a Christian means to have need of endurance. Remember that enduring through life with joy is by faith in the risen Savior. And most of all, remember Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:1-3).