Three Applications for Blood-Bought Christians (Part 2)

Introduction

Today, Christians live between two realities: the reality of the world as we see it in our flesh and the world as it is percieved by faith. The world we see with our flesh is passing away, and the unseen world is soon to be revealed in coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, it is far easier to live with a focus on the reality of what is seen than on the reality we currently experience only by faith. The Christian life is one of endurance in our conviction to live for what is unseen, to strive for endurance in our faith until we behold it with out eyes.

Last week, we saw that there are three applications given here for how a Christian should apply the theological truths that the author of Hebrews has gone over. We looked at the first application, which is to draw near to God. Since we have a great high priest in heaven who perfectly mediates for us as fully God and fully man with a perfect sacrifice of his own blood, we have free access to the Throne of God. This is where we recieve the mercy and help we need for our Christian walk.

Today we will look at the second application, which is found in verse 23: Additional to approaching God’s holy Throne we must also hold fast the confession of our hope.

The Application: Hold Fast

Just like in verse 22, the author doesn’t command the readers to go do something, but rather takes a more pastoral approach of invitation. “Come, join me”, he says, “as we live out the Christian life together.” We know that the author is not afraid to say things as they are, and even put a little fear of God into his readers, but at the end of the day he treates them as a good shepherd does his sheep, leading them to the greener pastures of a closer walk with God.

His second of three applications is simple: “Let us hold fast our confession.” The word translated hold fast literally means to hold something back or restrain something, like how one might hold back an energetic dog from running out the front door. Here, it is used in terms of our confession and means to not let your confession go and get away from you. But what does the author mean by confession?

What is the Confession of Hope?

A "confession” literally means “saying that same thing”. Think of something like the Apostle’s Creed, a short series of statements that every Christian should be able to say. In saying the same thing, we are confessing our common faith in the Gospel.

However, the author probably does have some specific creed in mind. A “confession” here refers to a person’s conscious commitment to the faith. When someones claims to have faith in Christ, agrees with the core teachings of the Gospel, openly repents of and renounces sin, and displays their faith through participating in the Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Table, they have a valid Christian confession.

Now, the author of Hebrews has given us similar warnings before, and in looking at them we can see other words that he has used in the past to describe a “confession”.

In chapter 2:1 we are told to put closer attention to what we have heard so that we do not drift away from it. Here, instead of the confession drifting away from us it is us who are pictured drifting away from the message we heart. What message is that? I think I hardly need to answer, but if you just look at the next few verses it is clear that it was the message of the Gospel delivered at first by Christ himself and then by the Apostles he sent out to proclaim it. This is the content of our confession, what was brought by Jesus.

It is important that the confession is what was preached by Christ because this helps us understand what is and is not falling away. You may, through earnest study of the Scriptures in submission to the Holy Spirit who authored them, come to change your mind on some secondary theological issue. You may change your mind on how to interpret certain passages of Scripture, not as a compromise to the world but through genuine struggle with the text and a desire to know the truth. This is not “drifting away”. Drifting away means to compromise on the message of the Gospel that Jesus and the preached until it leads to heresy, unrepented sin, or rejection of Christ entirely.

In chapter 3:12 we are warned against an evil, unbelieving heart that may lead us to fall away from the living God. Here, it is recognized that falling away is not simply a change in religion, but a rejection of God himself. This rejection is the result of a heart that is caught up in evil and unbelief. This is when the heart, the inward person, begins to doubt God little by little. Their assurance and confidence in the Gospel they recieved is chipped away The process of apostacy here is not immediate, but slow and easy to miss until it is too late.

In verse 14, we read that we have come to share in Christ if we hold our original confidence firm to the end. Here, “confidence” is used in the same way that “confession” is in our text today. What is clear is that having confidence in the Gospel is different than coming to share in Christ. Notice that it does not say “we will come to share in Christ” but that “we have come to share in Christ.” This confirms the consistant teaching of the NT, apostates never truly shared in Christ. He never knew them, they were never part of the elect, and Christ knows how to distinguish between them and his true sheep.

However, it is also clear that those who turn away from the faith do have original confidence. They are more than simply “fake” Christians. Internally, they experience everything we do in our Christian lives. Chapter 6:4-7 describe a type of confessing Christian who was enlightened, meaning they could see the truth of the Gospel in their hearts. They tasted of the heavenly gift, the joy and hope of salvation. They even shared in the Holy Spirit and tasted of the goodness of God’s word and the power of the Kingdom of Heaven. They may have had gifts such as prophecy and tongues or even healing. They may have been powerful preachers who preached with a conviction they felt in their heart and soul. But eventually they lost hold of that conviction and confidence, and soon show themselves to never have truly belonged to Christ.

Back in today’s text, we see that this is called the “confession of our hope”. Hope is an experience of faith. It is the experience of expectation and longing with the confidence that we will recieve what we are waiting for. You experience hope when you order food at the restaurant or when you find out you are going to have a child; you begin to set your heart of what you expect is coming. Again, this shows our confession to be more than a passive identification with a certain religious tradition. At the end of the day, the Christian life is all about growing in our conviction that the hope we have in God’s promises we be satisfied when Christ returns.

Without Wavering

So by now, we should have a good idea as to what it is we are holding fast to. The “confession of hope” is the shared Christian experience of confidence in the good news of Jesus Christ with the eager expectation that, through him, we will recieve all of God’s eternal blessings. This is something every Christian has and all the elect keep hold of that confession to the end. However, it is possible for someone who does not share in Christ to have that same confidence and hope, but only for a while as they will eventually fall away from it.

How do you know if you share in Christ? Every day you continue in faith, every battle with temptation you overcome, every trial you pass through entrusting yourself to God’s love is another piece of evidence that you do share in him. However, every step into sin, every compromise with the flesh and the world, and every intance of grumbling against and pulling away from God will eat away at your assurance as well as your confession.

This is what makes our application today so necessary for us to take seriously. Since both the elect and non-elect can have a confession, but only the elect will hold that confession to the end, the most important thing I can do in this life is make sure I die with that confession held tightly in my grasp.

We are also told to hold onto our confession “without wavering”. We all do waver from time to time, we all fall into sin, and we all go through trials with doubt and fleshly fear. However, these waverings are dangerous. To waver literally means to lean. Imagine being on a canoe and leaning over the edge to put your hand in the water while you risk capsizing the boat.

One instance of wavering will not destroy your faith, but if it is treated lightly it will likely make leaning out of our faith even further much easier. No one looses their faith in a day, they lean out. They lean out to accomidate worldly values. They lean out to watch the superbowl on Sunday morning. They lean out by saying “I’ll go to church once my career is more established.” They lean out by softening biblical language around sin and judgement, or about sins that our culture celebrates but Scripture condemns. They lean out by ignoring prayer and reading the Word because they are too tired or busy. You can only lean out so far, eventually the canoe is going to flip.

Ultimately, wavering comes from an evil and unbelieving heart leading us to fall away from the living God. Remember that our heart is not just our emotions, but our entire inward being. It includes your spirit, your emotions, your reasoning, your beliefs, your personality, and so on. Though we have the Law of God written on our hearts, they can become full of unbelief and evil desires if left unchecked. We can loose sight of God’s law and be led into a hardness that we may not be able to come back from. This is why we must be careful not to waver. A little wavering in this life is unavoidable, just as a little wobbling in a canoe is bound to happen. But just like in a canoe, that wobbling and wavering must be kept to an absolute minimum to avoid spiritual disastor.

The Conviction: He Who Promised is Faithful

Last week, we talked about conviction and how it is different from opinion. An opinion is a thought you have about something and, while you may hold that opinion very strongly or emotionally, it doesn’t really change your life all that much. A conviction is a core belief that changes the way you live. Convictions are at the heart of our lifestyles and the Bible actually warns us against causing or tempting another Christian to violate their convictions, even if their convictions are not based in reality. If you go against your conviction, you are rebelling against God even if your conviction is wrong. This is partly why Christianity must never be spread by forced conversion. It is literally training the new “convert” to go against what they believe God says. Instead, we preach the Gospel so that convictions may be changed.

Now, what conviction is at the heart of this application to hold onto our confession? The sensible thing might be to say the content of the confession is the conviction. This is true, but specifically out text ends by pointing to the God who gave us the promises which we are holding unto. Remember that this confession is one of hope, of eager expectation that we will recieve all of God’s promises in Christ.

Hope is only as valuable as the object of that hope. Hoping for a delicious dinner at your favourite restaurant is reasonable, hoping that the pyramid scheme you just bought into will make you a millionaire is not. Christians have a really big hope, because we are hoping for something we have never experienced or seen before. However, it is still a reasonable hope because “he who promised is faithful”. We know that God was faithful to Abraham, to his people, to David, and most clearly to Christ when he rose from the dead. God makes covenants and puts his own life on the line for them. He sends his own Son to establish his promises through his own blood. Yes, the promise is big, unimaginably so, but our faithful God is bigger.

He is the most faithful, and so the most worthy of our trust. Truth is his nature, for he is the source of all that is true and real. He is the I AM and cannot lie. His promises are sure and certain whatever they are. While normally, the promise of living forever and inheriting the universe would be beyond any belief, the faithfulness of our God makes it believable.

He is able to do it, and so it is assured. Someone might promise you something, and you know they mean it, but they are unable to fulfill that promise. Not so with God. He is all-powerful. The universe is completely under his authority and since the Father has given the Son, in his risen human form, all authority than there is really no reason to doubt that he will bring his promises to completion.

Sin and unbelief spring out of a heart that doubts something about this reasoning. Either they doubt God’s truthfulness, his love, his power, his authority, his goodness, his Word, or even his very existance, the only way to lose your confession of hope is if you first lose your conviction concerning who God is and what he has said.

So, as I mention last week, this is why theology is so important. Learn more of God, not merely for intellectual reasons, but so that you have build up your confidence more and more. Ignorance builds weak or unfounded confidence in things that God may never have actually promised; God’s Word builds real confidence in his real promises for you.

However, knowledge alone isn’t enough. You confidence in God will grow as your relationship with him does. This means devoting yourself to prayer, church attendance, serving others, loving, and giving as ways to walk with God and grow more and more in the confidence you have. It means putting sin to death because you are convinced that he has better things for you than what sin offers. An active Christian life solidifies a conviction of who God is, and such a conviction will never let go of the confession of hope.

Conclusion

The subject of endurance and falling away is one that the author of Hebrews has come back to again and again. Even in this chapter, he isn’t done warning us against the spiritual dangers of sin and the irreversible effects of apostacy. The reason for all of these warnings is simple: there is a real danger that we all must take seriously.

But there is also a very real hope. In our own strength, there would be no hope for us to make it to the end. Many begin the journey of faith, many start with that initial confidence and confession, many leave Egypt, but few make it to the promised land. None would make it at all were it not for God’s powerful and unending grace.

This means that this second application of the theology of Hebrews, to hold fast the confession of our hope, points us back to the first application: come to God with the assurance of faith, come before the Throne of Grace for the help you need to hold fast. There is a reason that this application comes second and not first. Your access to God is not predicated on your ability to hold fast. It’s the opposite; your ability to hold fast comes from your access to God and the help he offers to those who approach him in the Name of Jesus Christ, the great High Priest.

So, rather than moving on from last week’s message, we should see this application as building on it. You need to hold on to the confession of your hope if you are going to make it to the end and inherit all of God’s promises in Christ. Many begin but do not finish. You certainly will not finish without God’s grace. God’s grace is enough to bring his elect to the end.

So again, come before the Throne of Grace. See your need for the presence of God to fight against every force that would drag you down. With the help he gives, nothing can take away the most precious thing you have.