Numbers 12-13; Psalm 49; Isaiah 2; Hebrews 10
Daily Catechism
QUESTION 90: ARE ALL TRANSGRESSIONS OF THE LAW EQUALLY HEINOUS?
Answer: Some sins in themselves and by reason of several aggravations are more heinous in the sight of God than others.
Scripture: Ezekiel 8:13; John 19:11; 1 John 5:16.
Numbers 12-13
Chapter 12 gives an account of envy that overtook Aaron and Miriam and their interest seemed to be themselves and not the glory of God or the good of the people. They were challenging Moses’ authority as the mouthpiece of God. The people were living in a theocracy where God himself was their king and he spoke to his people though his servant Moses, unlike he has done through any of the Patriarchs before him (Num 12:6-8). It seems that the LORD speaks to Moses in a more plain and direct manner than he ever did with others. God has broken through in greater revelation in this age and he has clearly chosen to use Moses. For some reason his family did not seem to like his wife and this was what tipped them in their frustration. Perhaps I will not like a decision or a judgement of my shepherd, but this does not give me the right to let my sinful envy break out or bitterness to take root. The LORD backed up Moses quite readily. In chapter 13 there is quite a test for Israel. Only Caleb (and Joshua in the next chapter) returns a positive report of encouragement that the land can be taken, while the others all report the hopelessness of attempting to take the land. The spies do see the value of the land but they fear the people in it. They fear that they cannot overcome them and that they would be devoured. This sets up a judgment of God in the next chapter but the important thing here is that the spies, other than Caleb, were not trusting in God to deliver to them his own promise. God clearly told them that he would give them this land and that he would drive out the inhabitants (Ex 23:20, 27-28, 31). These spies did not walk in the footsteps of the faith of their father Abraham (Rom 4:12), who believed God able to do the impossible (Rom 4:20-22), and thus were not true Jews (Rom 2:28-29; Gal 3:7; Rom 9:8).
Psalm 49
God will ransom my soul from the power of death…how about you (Ps 49:15)? Do you trust in your riches or in your ability to ransom yourself or another (Ps 49:6-7)? Do you think that you can pay the cost of redemption? The price is infinite and the payment can never be made in an eternity of lifetimes (Ps 49:8). So do not be concerned about wicked men gaining riches…they amount to nothing and you are not missing out (Ps 16ff). So when the times of trouble come and I am poor and I have no resources and I am left with nothing but my God…then I am rich! For my soul will be ransomed at great price and he will receive me into his courts! So let us not be envious of fleeting riches and success that will not last, but let this hope and this joy be a sustaining force in our lives when we face hardship.
Isaiah 2
He seems maybe to describe the millennial kingdom or the new heaven and earth here in verses 1-5 (there are various views about the “Millennium” and the future reign of Christ). There is definitely peace between the nations here. From verse 6 onward seems to be speaking of events preceding this reign since there is conflict and a putting down of idols and a judgement that maybe ushers in the previously described period. In large part, I take this from the transition from verse 5 to 6. Note the conjunction “for” that places the second portion as a support or a cause of the first. Furthermore, the conjunction is placed in the past tense “for you have rejected…”.
Hebrews 10
This chapter works to explain how we shall be sanctified into the perfection that Christ accomplished for us through his life, death, and resurrection. It argues for necessary sanctification and a perseverance that is not only in title but in substance. No cheap grace here but a transforming grace that makes us like Jesus.
v1. The law was perfect for its intended use, which was to reveal what was to come. The law had a foreshadow of the coming Christ and it heralded our need for a savior in God precisely because he is a righteous God. Is 45:21. The true form I take to be a willing and submissive and obedient heart and a life wholly surrendered unto God. The law does not have this and cannot produce this because it is external and it is a letter rather than an empowerment. We may draw near to the law, as Israel did in "seeking a law that would lead to righteousness”- Rom 9:30, but it is indeed chasing our own shadow! Interesting that it has a shadow of “the good things to come”. Perhaps the good things to come is best understood to be the true tabernacle and the true offering and the true place of holiness and petition to our great God. This means the good things to come are Jesus himself and his close fellowship with the Father in his very presence having made purification for sin and being glorified. Perhaps also there is the fullness of time that needed to come such that the Father would roll out his eternal purpose in the person of his Son. Good things could be his obedient life (broken body) and his holy and perfect sacrifice (blood). Add to this the understanding that the blood is the sacrifice and Jesus is the priest as well so the eternal priesthood and the presence of this high priest with God at his throne and in glory is also part of the “good things”. Thinking now later of these three: a fulfillment, a renewal, and a keeping. A fulfilled covenant in perfect bodily obedience, a new covenant by blood sacrifice of one for another exchanging the fulfillment for the condemnation of death, and the priesthood that empowers us to keep this effective covenant forever. Recall that in Heb 9:11 that the good things have come now…no longer future. This is a reference therefore back to the function of the law that is here fulfilled in Christ who is himself the good things that were for long ages the mystery “to come”. He is the priest offering these (his obedience “behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.”). Sacrifice is a shadow of true obedience. His broken body fulfilled the first covenant according to the law and revealed the true substance of the covenant and then his blood ushered in (by the flow of grace as it were) the new covenant in a perfect sacrifice that was not made due to a broken covenant on the part of the priest but was wholly offered for the sake of his friend (his bride) in the lying down of his life, the spilling of his blood. Heb 8:8 says that the new covenant is the placing of the law in the mind leading to the writing of the law on the heart, by the Spirit, and this will by resurrection power usher in the substance of true obedience in the person as he bears the divine Spirit of Christ within and this is holiness that emanates outward. “Holiness is Christ in me"
v2. Would not the first sacrifice have been enough since it should have cleansed the nation and they would then no longer sin or have any thought or conscience of sin…would they not be perfected? A mere foreshadow does not perfect, but it teaches. Instructed through the law (Rom 2:18)! It refers to the worshiper being made perfect as in Heb. 9:9 and reminds me of Rom 12:1 where the living sacrifice of my body is my spiritual worship.
v3-4. But the act of coming yet again every year to make this sacrifice reminds us that we are not perfected and that the reality is that these sacrifices do not take away sins…they clearly remain. Which brings up the common use of the idea “take away my sins” and the begging question of the meaning. Does it refer to the removal of guilt alone or the removal of guilt and power of dominion or does it mean the removal of the guilt, dominion, and presence of sin? Here in this verse it seems plain to reference the latter or fuller sense.
v5-7. The quote of Psalm 40 here is interesting. Christ is not recorded to have spoken these words that I know of. He did quote Psalm 61 when he began his ministry in Galilee and coming to Nazareth he spoke this quote and identified himself as fulfilling the prophecy in his flesh and in their presence! Jesus heralded the arrival of the kingdom of God! But with the Psalm 40 passage it seems the writer here means to say that his life spoke this psalm…he lived it. Yet I see some reference that he must have spoken these words that were simply not recorded in the gospels. The reference of Christ coming into the world confirms his eternal existence as the second person of the trinity and yet there is a begetting that puts him in a body prepared by the Spirit in the womb of Mary. There is even a comparison or parallel in verses 5-7. 1. He does not desire sacrifice of apology and covering of sin as the law brought due to the weakness of the flesh. 2. He prepared a body in the begetting of the Son (Christmas day incarnation). 1. Repeated again in verse 6 is the lack of pleasure in the sacrifices. 2. Jesus announces that he has come (in the prepared flesh) to do the will of God…the true worship and the substance of the law. This doing of the will of God seems two-fold in that he perfectly obeys the law of God but not as a neutral agent simply cruising through this life without purpose. He lives amazing purpose of coming to die for the people and to free them as announced in Luke 4:16-21. So his obedience is purposeful and specific and pointed and complete. He even adds “written of me”. Of note in verse 6 is the added detail from the general statement in verse 5 regarding the type of sacrifices that he does not take pleasure in.
v8-9. Here Christ announces that the old way of rule following and of offerings to cover for our failure to follow it is now gone- fulfilled by him and now obsolete. He had to do away with this in order to establish the second and better way. Note that it is done away with! Never to return to such a belief that God saves by our works of compliance and ceremonial offerings of dead animals. This is replaced with Christ actually doing his will. Not a whole system about fixing the fact that we don’t do his will, but now actually doing it. Obedience in the place of sacrifice. He also in this announces the doing away with the first covenant to make way for the second. The first had to be fulfilled in the perfectly obedient and broken body of Christ (Phil 2:8). Then he introduced the new covenant promise in his blood to be the effective working of our salvation and the writing of the law of God on our hearts. The law of the Spirit of life.
v10. By that will…which will? My will…no. Rom 9:16. It is by the will of God that I have been sanctified (made holy and separate from the dying world that remains in bondage to sin). This by the offering of Christ once for all. God’s will to sanctify me is accomplished through the offering of Christ on the cross and my sanctification is past tense here owing to the already and not yet concept that is later solidified in verse 14.
v11-14. The human priests are continually working and never done with the task before them but Christ enters a rest and a presence of the Father whereby the work of sacrifice is complete. He maintains a permanent status of communion in the most holy place (where he now lives to make intercession for us and we much more are saved by his life- Rom 8:34, Heb 7:25, Rom 5:9-10) which is starkly different that how Moses would come from the presence of God and his shining face would fade over time until he again went into God’s presence. Here he patiently waits for the enemy to be brought under his feet through somehow the outworking of his accomplishment in the church. His body now needs to complete the mission we were given and we are to be used to crush Satan under our feet by the grace of Jesus Rom 16:20. We are already perfect in God’s eyes and so we have a guarantee, those who have the Spirit of Christ and therefore belong to him body and soul. Those who are “being sanctified” are this who are perfected already. So if I am not “being sanctified”, me who has been once for all sanctified by the sacrifice of Christ, if I am not becoming what God has made me in Christ then God did not make me thus in Christ. Sanctification is necessary…I cannot remain a “carnal Christian” and have any hope of heaven. Progress is evidence of the perfection already accomplished.
v15. Therefore we have need of considering this subjective assurance and knowing the witness of the Holy Spirit in us as to remind us our identity in Christ as a child of God Rom 8:16.
v16. He promises to put obedience in us…in our wanting and in our doing. In our hearts and minds. He will not leave us struggling in our deadness alone (1 Thess 5:23-24). He gives us the helper! Here in verse 16 he quotes Jer 31:31-34!
v17. He will take away our guilt and give us a freedom to be accepted and we may look forward rather than backward in our identity and our communion with him.
v18. For where he has forgiven sin, there is no longer any offering to be given. We need not beat ourselves or offer something to him but our trust. There is no offering to be made since it is complete and we are forgiven. Payment is made by another and we need not bring a thing except to present ourselves as one brought from death to life Rom 6:13. There remains no process or covenant for offerings. There is only a covenant of vicarious obedience and a working of this sanctification within us in God’s timing and way. There is no additional offering by Christ but one. Mass here is excluded per the writing of Calvin in his commentary of this verse. The Catholic concept of mass suggests another offering.
v19-20. Here he establishes a confidence in our access to God. This entry is by the blood of Jesus by where we were justified and where we went from being enemies to being thus reconciled. Rom 5:9-11. We enter the most holy place because the priesthood is destroyed and the tabernacle replaced and the better things have come in Christ. This is by the new and living way, by the Spirit and not by the written code Rom 7:6.
v21-22. Since we now have a great and eternal priest and all things are new, let us rejoice and let us draw near. Thanks to the cleansing of our hearts and minds and bodies by the blood we can come by faith with true hearts in full assurance in the blood and in the promise of God Rom 4:20-24. The heart cleansing (by the Spirit) seems to be from a conscience that chooses evil and so is our thoughts and desires. The body washed with pure water must be the actions which are purified by the indwelling Spirit. This is the taking away of sins, not just the guilt removal from the sins.
v23. The previous verse feeds directly into this one. Holding fast the confession of our hope…a confession is outward as is the view of our purification in verse 21-22. Perhaps he means that it is the faithfulness of God that will make us to hold fast this confession that was spoken of above. It is the faithfulness of God unto his glory that will bring us and keep us walking in newness of life Rom 6:4. Our hope is secure because the promise was not based on our actions but on his Word and his will. Shall he write the law on my heart? Shall he cause me to fear him and not turn away? Jer 31:31-34 and 32:40 and Exek 36:26-27.
Observation:
Note the list of things that flows from the assurance of our standing and our representation by Jesus…1. Draw near to God 2. Hold fast the confession of hope 3. Stir one another up to good works (Do not neglect to meet and encourage one another).
v24-25. As the days go on and our redemption nears (Rom 13:11) we are to meet together all the more and encourage one another in order to stir up good works in accord with this assurance. These works are contrasted in the next verse with sin…
v26-27. Here it is presented again that there be no further sacrifice for sin available. There is only one that cleanses sin. So if we go on sinning and thus show that we are not sprinkled clean and washed with the Spirit then we remain now in fearful expectation of judgment as that that comes to the adversaries of God, of which we are among. See Rom 6. This is the case for the one who has received the “knowledge of the truth” which I presume would be the gospel message faithfully delivered unto them and even acknowledged and possibly embraced to some level since it was “received”. Note the significance of the word “deliberately”. Here is a qualifier that rescues the reader from the obvious problem that all os us continue to sin.
v28. The clarification here is the the sacrifice of atonement was for “accidental” sins and those who willfully and knowingly broke the law of God were taken out and killed if there were witnesses to testify as to their guilt.
v29. So now if we have someone who has confessed and represented themselves in the family of God and has espoused that they have been washed by the blood of the lamb and yet they willfully walk in the darkness (liar according to 1 John) then this person is worse than that one who was taken out and killed in the OT. Our willful sin is an outrage to the Holy Spirit if we claim to be set apart (sanctified by Him) in the family of God. Since God is faithful to complete the work he began and to be sanctified is to be in the golden chain of salvation and since it is dependent upon God and not us (phil 1:6, Rom 8:29-31, Rom 9:16, 1 Thess 5:23-24) then I conclude that this reference to “by which he was sanctified” to be as the translator previously translated the same greek word hagiazo as “consecrate” where Jesus in John 17:19 says that he consecrates himself and is made perfect through suffering (his flesh made perfect in obedience) Heb 5:9. So I take hagiazo as speaking of Christ in this verse. The BKC commentary suggests otherwise and they suggest that damnation is not the penalty referenced here but this seems to me inconsistent with the conclusion that those who shrink back (from obedience and living faith) are destroyed and the others (who have real faith) preserve their souls. See below that trampled and profaned are past tense, not active. This is a clue, I believe that this is the end state of the person who shrinks back ultimately.
v32-38. Here he gives a case of how we are not of the fiber that shrinks back. We endure! So do not throw away our faith by continuing to sin deliberately and therefore give up our confidence in subjective assurance. This confidence has great reward and here may reference salvation rather than just earthy reward. We need this endurance s that we will keep the faith and that we will receive the prize of eternal life. We must endure or be left in the desert. The righteous after all, will live by faith! God has no pleasure in the one who shrinks back from this faith but this clearly must be in a final and ultimate shrinking back lest Peter be in this category. Similarly the one who currently sins deliberately can surely turn to God and reform by his grace and mercy until the day of the Lord or his own death. I Notice that trampled is past tense and profaned is past tense. It could be here that this is not condemning the person who is trampling or profaning but the one who finishes the race this way.
v39. Praise the Lord for the writer’s conclusion in this verse that we, however, are not of those that shrink back but of those that have faith and persevere to the preservation of our souls! The righteous shall live by faith and he will surely not condemn those counted righteous! Heb 3:12-14 says that we share in Christ if we hold our original confidence to the end…and we do! All this also, recall, was about deliberate sinning so how I walk is critical to the evidence of my faith and my standing with God!
Soli Deo Gloria!
