The book of Hebrews is perhaps one of
the deepest books of the Bible, including Ephesians and Romans and 1
John.
- It opens up an understanding
of how the actual journey of a Christian is far more than getting saved
from sin, staying saved so we can one day make to Heaven when we die.
- It tells us that right here
after we are saved, before we die and before Jesus comes, there is a
place of spirituality that the cross prepared for us to enter before we
die.
- Hebrews compares it to the
MOST HOLY PLACE that was in Moses' Tabernacle.
Genesis
1:22 Complete Apostles' Bible (22) And God blessed them
saying, Increase and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let
the creatures that fly be multiplied on the earth.
Hebrews 6:13-20 Complete Apostles'
Bible (13) For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He
could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, (14)
saying, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will
multiply you." (15) And so, after he had been patient, he
obtained the promise. (16) For men indeed swear by the
greater, and the oath for confirmation is an end of every dispute to
them. (17) Thus God, wanting to show even more clearly to
the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His counsel,
guaranteed it by an oath, (18) in order that through two
unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might
have strong encouragement, who have fled to take hold of the hope being
set before us; (19) which hope we have as an anchor of the
soul, both sure and secure, and which enters into the inner side of the
veil, (20) where the Forerunner has entered in behalf of
us, even Jesus, having become a High Priest forever according to the
order of Melchizedek.
Jesus is said to have entered a truly spiritual domain on the inner
side of the veil.
- The innermost and holiest
room of the Tabernacle or portable temple that Moses built when Israel
was on their way to the Promised land.
- And he is said to be
FORERUNNER when He entered there.
- In other words, we are meant
to follow Him in.
Chapter 9 notes that Jesus went into heaven itself when he entered this
holiest room.
Hebrews
9:11-12 Complete Apostles' Bible (11) But Christ came as a
High Priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more
perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this
creation. (12) Not through the blood of goats and calves,
but through His own blood, He entered once for all into the Holies,
having obtained eternal redemption.
Hebrews
9:24 Complete Apostles' Bible (24) For Christ did not enter
into the holies made by hands, which are copies of the true, but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf;
And we read about this place being Heaven, and without really studying
what the Bible says about this any more, we think that His position as
forerunner for us into Heaven means we follow after Him only when we
die and go to glory.
- But that is not what Hebrews
is teaching us when it mentions Jesus is a forerunner before us into
this heavenly place.
- It actually teaches that this
is a place we are intended to come into spiritually RIGHT NOW long
before we ever die and go to heaven.
Hebrews
10:19-22 Complete Apostles' Bible (19) Therefore, brothers,
having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
(20) by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us, through
the veil, that is, His flesh, (21) and having a High Priest
over the house of God, (22) let us approach with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience, and our bodies having been washed with clean water.
Hebrews
4:1-3 Complete Apostles' Bible (1) Therefore let us fear,
lest while the promise remains to enter into His rest, anyone of you
seems to have fallen short. (2) For indeed we have had the
gospel preached to us just as those also; but the word which they heard
did not profit those, not having been mixed with faith in those having
heard it. (3) For we who have believed enter that rest, as
He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,"
although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
These two passages show us that this Holiest, or Rest, is something we
can enter any time now as soon as we come to a place of faith.
Hebrews
4:16 Complete Apostles' Bible (16) Therefore let us come
boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help in time of need.
He told us to boldly go to the throne and find mercy, just as the
holiest had the ark inside with a mercyseat, just as Heb 10 said we
enter with boldness through the veil.
Because it says we enter this place with boldness, it is speaking of a
level we come into as Christians where our faith is strong and powerful
and is described as full assurance of faith.
- It's the rest Hebrews 4 spoke
of.
- The inner side of the veil in
Heb 6.
- The true holiest of Heaven
itself in Heb 9.
And all of it is associated with what is emphasized in Heb 8.
Hebrews
8:6-13 Complete Apostles' Bible (6) But now He has obtained
a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better
covenant, which has been enacted upon better promises. (7)
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have
been sought for a second. (8) For finding fault with them,
He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will
establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of
Judah, (9) not according to the covenant which I made with
their fathers, in the day when I took their hand to lead them out of
the land of Egypt. Because they did not persevere in My covenant, and I
disregarded them, says the LORD. (10) For this is the
covenant which I shall covenant with the house of Israel after those
days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind, and I shall
inscribe them upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they
shall be My people. (11) And by no means will they teach
each one his fellow citizen, and each one his brother, saying, 'Know
the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the
greatest of them. (12) For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I shall by no
means remember anymore." (13) By the saying "new ," He has
made the first obsolete. And the one becoming obsolete and growing old
is ready to vanish.
The old testament system, or old covenant, had a fault.
- The people involved at that
time were unable to PERSEVERE in that covenant.
- The KJV says CONTINUE.
- They could not keep the
covenant.
- They failed.
- And failed and failed.
And God said A NEW COVENANT was going to come, which is the one in
which we live today.
- He compared the New covenant
with the one they had back then as a covenant that was different.
- It was different because it
would have God put HIS LAWS INTO THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE PEOPLE.
- Also, each person involved
would not be held back from personally knowing God for themselves,
whereas under law continual teaching of the people.
- Synagogues only had bare
reading of Law, with no explanation.
- Only a select few were taught
by prophets, etc.
But this covenant has every person with a bible and every family the
ease of opportunity to hear detailed teachings of God.
So if the old covenant's problem was that they could not persevere
under it, and the new would put God's law into the heart and mind, then
putting it in the heart and mind would cause us to be able to persevere.
- To be able to continue.
- To make us OVERCOMERS so we
can continue without messing up.