Righteousness and Grace

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:14-29).

I may have done a post on this passage of scripture at some point in the past on this page. I really can't remember, but if I did then it's time to do it again. What we have here is simply one of the most terrifying passages in the Bible. Terrifying that is, if one fears God as one should. Passages like this are the kind that need to be injected squarely into the soft under-belly of the modern 'Christian' affiliations, and I mean the ones that believe in and operate in spiritual gifts; not just the dead, mostly nominal affiliations and denominations. This is the most missing element of today's modernized 'Gospel,' and I've seen this glaringly the entire time I've been in Christ, which is a good while. The whole thing about not wanting people to get this idea of a vengeful God with smoke coming from his nostrils, is so far over the line that you just basically don't hear about the fear of God. What this passage is saying, and very graphically at that, is that born again believers who continue in sin, or finish their course in this life in sin, are going to be in a WHOLE LOT more trouble than those who were under the old covenant who chose to be sinners. In fact that is what the entire book of Hebrews is all about, and I suppose that's why we don't hear a lot of preaching that focuses on the book. But hey, the whole remainder of the new testament writings are full of the same kind of admonitions, but if you're on the squeamish side it's really easy to tip-toe around those admonitions and stick with only ultra-positive stuff.

Myself, I absolutely LOVE the whole idea of God's wrath against those who remain in sin and despise the suffering that his Son willingly did for all the world. You see, both God and his Son decided we were worthy of the suffering and death of Jesus, in order to reconcile us back to God. And they also decided that whoever refused that suffering and death, and refused to believe in his resurrection from the dead, are worthy of wrath and fiery vengeance. That decision also included the more severe punishment against those who DO believe, but turn away from that faith permanently at some point. If I can just make that point here today, then I've accomplished something very good for the Gospel, and I've made God happy. Therefore I'll conclude with another fearsome quote from Hebrews that confirms these things: "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people" (Heb. 10:28-30). The plain and simple translation of that passage is that you will end up deep in the pit of hell if you have been washed in the blood of Christ, born again of God's Spirit, and then later turn and go in the opposite direction without returning to the way of holiness; which takes us back to the first verse of our text passage above. What can I say? It's the Bible, and it's the truth; that's what I can say. Amen.