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This is a verse by verse study of the letter to the Hebrews.
In this book, the author urges his readers to keep the faith in spite of adversity.
When you get saved it is like enrolling into God’s university. God expects you to understand the theory, and engage in the practice, and finally graduate from the university with the degree. Instead, people who enroll are not doing the homework and failing the exams. All they are doing is telling everyone else to join the university. That is a tragedy.
The book of Hebrews encourages you to fulfill God’s plan for you in your generation, no matter what the cost. This is the outcome when you understand the theory and apply it in practice and get transformed into a son of God, becoming more and more like Jesus as the years pass by.
Here is what the chapters are about…
(C 1) God wants you to be an exact representation of Jesus, just like how His plan for Jesus on earth was that He be an exact representation of God.
(C 2) Jesus fulfilled God’s plan for Him by becoming man (a little lower than the angels) and living a sinless life. We must work towards living a sinless life too.
(C 3) Once God the Father did what He planned to do He entered into His Sabbath rest. The Son also accomplished God’s plan for Him and entered in His Sabbath rest. Similarly, once we fulfill God’s plan for us we too can enter into His Sabbath rest.
The Israelites didn’t fulfill God’s plan for them and therefore they didn’t enter into God’s Sabbath rest for them. They missed it because, when facing the trials and difficulties they encountered in the wilderness they just couldn’t believe that God would deliver them out of it.
As a result, God didn’t let them enter the Promised Land. Instead, they died in the wilderness.
God will do the same for us too – if we don’t believe God then God will not fulfill His plan for us in our generation, and we will not enter into His Sabbath rest.
(C 4) God’s plan for us is to make us like Jesus in character and to give us a ministry to help build His kingdom.
God’s word is there to help us stay on track. It is able to tell us whether we are on track. It has very high resolution and can let us know if we are even slightly off track.
Further, we don’t have to fulfill God’s plan in our own strength. We can ask God for help in our time of need.
(C5) Jesus is our example here. He was made man just like us and was successful in fulfilling God’s plan for Him. By this we know that we can do the same – we have to follow His example and do what He did (which is to have a great desire to fulfill God’s plan for us and to pray for help in our time of need and to avail of the great power (the Holy Spirit) that God has made available to us).
(C 6, 7) Jesus had to live a sinless life as a man. He did that successfully. Jesus’ ministry was to open a new covenant. He did that successfully.
(C 8) Jesus’ ministry was to become a high priest for us. He did that successfully too.
(C 9) The New Covenant is way better than the Old Covenant, isn’t it? That’s why Jesus considered it worth fighting for. In the same way, fulfilling God’s plan and entering into His Sabbath rest is also way cool and worth fighting for.
(C 10) Just like how the people to whom this letter was written to were struggling to stick to the New Covenant in the face of persecution we too must persevere to stay on the right track no matter what the persecution is.
(C 10) If we give up fighting against sin (i.e. against what God wants us to do) and pursuing God’s plan for us then we have lost.
(C 11) Learn from the faith of others. They didn’t have a clear understanding of things, and they didn’t receive the promise before they died, but they fought on and didn’t give up. But they will receive the promise one day. We too must fight on even if we don’t see the promise being fulfilled. Giving up is not an option.
(C 12) If you are a son, then if you get off track, God will discipline you. Take His discipline seriously, and get back on track.
(C 13) Here are the things to focus on: love the brethren, keep the marriage bed holy, etc.
The book of Hebrews is a message that is very relevant to the church today. Most Christians are not walking with God, and not even trying to. They don’t even know how to do so because their church has not taught them to do so or how to do so. They don’t have a desire to fulfill God’s plan for them in their generation. They don’t even realize when God is disciplining them. Some have even come to the stage where God has stopped disciplining them and left them alone because He no longer considers them as His sons / daughters.
One aspect of fulfilling God’s plan for you in your generation is aligning yourself to the truth of God’s word.
The truth of God’s word is a great treasure. We must acquire and retain it, and teach it to others so that they can acquire and retain it too, and in turn, teach it to others as well.
There is a sacrifice that we have to make to acquire and retain truth. We must be willing to make that sacrifice, no matter what the cost.
The Hebrew Christians acquired the truth of salvation through Jesus Christ. But they were persecuted by their Jewish neighbors because of it. As a result, they had difficulty retaining that truth. The writer to these Hebrew Christians wrote to convince these Hebrew Christians that the sacrifices they had to make to retain that truth was very worth it.
Christians who live in places where Christians are persecuted are faced with the same situation, and the book of Hebrews is very relevant to them.
The book of Hebrews is also very relevant to Christians who sit in dead denominations where the truth has been compromised. If you are one of them, will you align yourself to the false teaching of your denomination, or will you suffer the inconvenience of following the truth? Will you refrain from searching for the truth in the fear that if you find it, and find that it doesn’t match with the teaching of your denomination, then you’ll have to do something about it?
The message of the book of Hebrews is loud and clear – will you reject the truth of God’s word for the sake of a pleasant and convenient and pleasurable life, or will you acquire and retain truth no matter what it takes to do so?
Please select a chapter from the menu on the left to view content on that chapter.
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