Author: Christine Wyrtzen

For we know the One who has said, Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, and again, The Lord will judge His people.  It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God! Hebrews 10:30-31 

There are few passages more dangerous than this one if taken out of context.  Can I really sin, risk God’s anger and judgement, and end up losing my salvation?  Not on your life.  If you are a child of God, your eternal home in heaven with God is secure.  Nothing and no one can take it from you.  Whether an obedient or disobedient child, you are still adopted.

What kind of judgement is being discussed here?  If I take the entire book of Hebrews into account, I remember that it’s a book written to Jewish believers, and if I go back a dozen or so verses, I see that the subject was Jesus’ blood being the only sacrifice that forgives sins.  To willfully reject that brings a type of judgement to a believer. That involves God assessing whether or not His child should receive rewards.  These are:  1.) The privilege of reigning with Christ.  And, 2.) ‘Entering into rest’ (from Hebrews 4) which has to do with receiving a full inheritance.  While going to heaven will never be in question, the loss of rewards and the loss of the inheritance God desires to give, can be jeopardized.

It is one thing to sin out of weakness and naivete, but quite another to sin with an obvious, obstinate heart.  Can a child of God shake their fist in His face and set out to wound God by his actions?  Can a child of God seek to take revenge on his heavenly Father if he believes God has done him wrong?  Let me ask you.  Can an earthly child take revenge on a parent?   Can an earthly child set out to do the very thing they know will inflict the greatest wound to a parent’s heart?  We know the answer is yes.  But at no time is he no longer their child even though the relationship is strained to the max.

The worst willful and most injurious sin against God is to repudiate the sacrifice of His Son.  The most expensive gift for Him to give was the life of His Son.  Spurning Jesus brings about awful consequences; the fallout to even be suffered by a child of God whose home is in heaven.  To have to face the Father, to see the truth of your sin and then weep over your offenses against Him, and then to lose the joy of receiving rewards that you can lay at Jesus’ feet, these will cause a grief that impacts the beginning of eternity.

Staying tenderhearted toward my Father in heaven is a high priority.  Staying humble to believe every doctrine He teaches is also a high priority.  The risk of being high and mighty to commit willful sin is not beyond my sinful heart and I remember that today as I contemplate eternal rewards.

If there are rewards to come, laying them at your feet is a privilege I live and die for.  Amen

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?  Hebrews 10:28-30 

It is hard to believe, isn’t it, that someone would intentionally, and without reservation, call Jesus an evil person?  The epitome of evil is to call what is holy ~ evil, and what is evil ~ holy.

Yes, I know that some are in the middle.  They don’t know what they think quite yet about Jesus. They believe that they have time to make their decision.  Others are a bit turned off at the thought of Him because of their experience with the church and church people.  But, there are some who hear it all, spend time with some saints, experience the best of a worship service, and go away hating the Son of God.  He is simply repulsive to them.  With eyes wide open and with their heart engaged, they profane Him.  The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of grace, is outraged.  God’s combustible reaction regarding those who vehemently spurn His Son is a justified and righteous reaction.

I’ve heard it said that when we get to heaven and we behold God’s glory, and we understand fully the offense of defaming the person of Jesus, we will agree with the punishment of eternal condemnation suffered by those who reject Him.  (Even if it was the closest of family members and friends.)  It’s hard to fathom that as some of us mourn the death of a loved one who didn’t know Jesus but the statement is worth pondering.  It does suggest that I have no idea how to comprehend and value the holiness of God and the love He offered through the life of His Son.  Hating the Righteous One is simply the worst evil.

If we travel to places hostile to Christianity, we would understand fully what it is to be hated for Jesus’ sake.  The demonic energy surrounding those who are incited to violence at the thought of a Christian is high pitched.  And yet, I have personally experienced vehement hatred against me because of my faith.  When in this person’s presence, I felt despised.  The face I looked into reflected a murderous countenance.  Perhaps you know this personally.  I recall the story a woman who told me what happened the night she got saved.  She was married to an atheist and when she walked in the door to her home after giving her life to Christ, her husband took one look at her and screamed, “What in the world have you done?!”  He knew from the change in her countenance and the presence of the Holy Spirit who walked in with her that something had shifted.  His hatred was immediate. 

It is possible for God to save a persecutor. Look at Saul of Tarsus.  But for each who perseveres in their hate campaign over the course of a lifetime, condemnation is sure.  If you are persecuted for Jesus’ sake today, your reward will be great if you suffer well and pray for your enemy.

The demonic high pitch of hatred is growing around the world. How I grieve for you, Jesus.  Deal with Your enemies, for righteousness sake, and save those who would be saved and make them zealots for the kingdom.  Amen

 

For if we deliberately sin after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire about to consume the adversaries.  Hebrews 10:26-27

This scripture has undermined the confidence of more believers than about any other scripture.  It has tormented mothers and fathers of children who once made a genuine decision to follow Christ but no longer walk in His ways.  How then can any of us be at peace if these words have bred fear?  I need to understand who it was written to and what it means.

There are many warnings throughout the book of Hebrews.  This book was written to the Jewish people – many of whom were being persecuted for their faith because they had embraced Jesus, and to many who were still deciding if they should go back to Old Covenant ways and reject Jesus.

These words were for Jews who had heard the Gospel, understood the Gospel message completely, but then turned away from embracing Jesus by going back to Judaism.  All the warnings, previously in Hebrews, were written to this same group of Jewish people, a people who were trying to decide whether or not to put their hope and trust in Jesus.

The message was clear ~ If they kept on sinning by rejecting Jesus, there would be no other sacrifice for their sins.  If they remained in Judaism and contined in the sacrificial system, their sins would not be forgiven as they had been before the advent of Christ.  To reject Jesus is to be eternally condemned, even if Jewish.  To reject Jesus is to become His adversary, even though Jewish.

If I remove this scripture from its context, I wander in the mire regarding someone I know who once believed but lives like an apostate.  Did they really believe and are they really still God’s child?  Those are questions for another day because this scripture is not written to, and about, them.  Hebrews was written by a Jew ~ to the Jewish people.

How hard it must have been, and still is, for a Jewish person (so loved and chosen by God to be His) to understand that if they reject Jesus, they reject Yahweh.  Shunning Jesus as the Messiah sets them up for eternal condemnation.  This idea for a Jewish person is unthinkable which is why Jesus warns His people not to stumble over Him.  The consequences are dire.

Perhaps this ended up in a place you never expected.  I’ve seen this passage send parents, spouses, and friends of wayward believers into fear.  At this moment however, as we understand that this was written to God’s chosen people – in eternal peril – let’s pray for them.  Pray for Israel that their spiritual blindness would be cured by the power of the Holy Spirit blowing over their darkened minds.

Remove the veil, Father, from their eyes.  2 Corinthians 3:16  AMEN

Prayer Guide for Jewish People

Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.  And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works.  Hebrews 10:23-24

My confession is what I say outloud.  My testimony is comprised of far more than the planned three-minute speech I give to a group.  It’s what I say while I live the rest of my life.  Whether I’m reacting to minor frustrations or major upheaval, I’m to neither give in, nor give up, on my faith.  Not for any reason.  Not for even the worst of things.

Just last weekend, I got away for 24 hours to assess an area of my life where faith had become difficult.  I had begun to mutter words of unbelief and complaint.  I spent those hours, late into the night, repenting about what I had been confessing.  God, through the Holy Spirit, asked me this question.  “How has this hard thing benefitted you spiritually?”  Though it was not immediate, God gave me the grace to write a new confession.  With a pen in my hand, I admitted that pain had driven me to God’s arms. Suffering had been my shaping agent, making me more like Jesus.  I had memorized more scripture and cherished more promises because of the darkness of the night.  Since coming home, nothing has changed but I’m back in the fight and have God’s perspective.

When I embrace the promises of God, I don’t expect them to come to pass immediately.  Historically, this rarely happened.  Every follower of God was called to a life of faith, standing on the God’s words even when all evidence begged to disprove it.  Every one of them faltered along the way and while some gave up, others had a fresh encounter with God and got back on their feet.

Where are you today?  Let one who is in the middle of the battle speak to you.  At the center of this struggle is an enemy who weaves together seemingly ironclad arguments against God.  He knows that hanging on is exhausting for us.  He knows that the temptation to give in sounds appealing and even prudent.  He’ll remind us that fighting doesn’t appear to have gotten us anywhere and that if we give up, we can finally have rest from the battle. And part of that is true.  When we give in and cry uncle, the noise of the battle stops.  Initially, there’s quiet and a sense of relief.  But then comes the dark cloud of oppression that accompanies hopelessness. Darkness overtakes us.

Can you imagine how much clearer things would be if you and I could see Jesus, and Satan, standing in front of us right now.  We would be enveloped in the love of Jesus.  And we would be horrified by the sight of Satan.  I need to remember who is speaking what.  It is Jesus that calls me to trust Him.  Looking into His face, that wouldn’t be hard at all.  And if I could look into the face of pure evil, it is the god of this world that perpetrates, and then celebrates, the heinous crimes that make me cringe.  He is the one who calls me to defect.

I remember the face, and the nature and character, of the One who gives life-giving promises and the face, and nature and character, of the one who speaks words that will encourage me to self-destruct.  The Lover of my soul says, “hold fast and confess your faith in me.”

It’s not hard, Jesus.  Amen

Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus,  by a new and living way He has opened for us through the curtain (that is, His flesh ), and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.  Hebrews 10:19-22

For me to understand the impact of what it was like to enter the holy of holies where the presence of God rested, I must go back many thousands of years.  I would have to interview a high priest.  This privilege was his only once a year and he prepared himself down to the smallest detail because if he got it wrong, he could lose his life.  This privilege came with great risk.

Imagine with me for a moment that one of the high priests announced that the common man could now enter behind the veil.  God had made the requirements less stringent and the people no longer needed to be afraid.  Who would have dared volunteer first?  Even if the first few came out unharmed, I contend that every person thereafter would still be on edge because the holiness of God and the sinfulness of mankind was so ingrained in their psyche.  No one could conceive that God would sanction such a thing.

Let’s fast forward now to the time the book of Hebrews was written.  The audience were the Jewish people, the very same descendants of those who had experienced the rituals surrounding the temple and the holy of holies.  The words they are reading from this author, though good news, are still hard to really believe and trust.  Do they dare risk eternity and the forgiveness of their sins on the teaching that a human high priest and sacrifices are no longer necessary?

The writer assures them that they can go behind the curtain because Jesus paid for the privilege.  They can enter God’s presence boldly and with confidence.  They no longer need someone to represent them on earth in order to approach God.  Jesus had plead their case to His Father.  He washed away their sins permanently and declared them holy.  As if this wasn’t shocking enough, they were told that entering the throne room is no longer an annual event. There is unlimited access.

There is one thing that I need to keep hearing.  For me personally, it’s not that my sins are forgiven.  It’s not that Jesus tore the veil in two.  It’s not that God has made me holy.  What needs to fully register in this fearful heart of mine is that I can come boldly – all the time, no matter what.  No need to be shy. No need to fear rejection. No reason to dread anger. My experience on earth begs me to argue.  Those in high places move away from the common man, not towards him.  They become less approachable, not more.  Not so with God.  His desire all along was for intimacy.  There was a major bump in the road called the Fall of Man but God removed the curse of alienation through the sacrifice of His Son.  Intimacy has been restored.  It is ‘paradise~now’.

Skittish of Your love, how often have I stayed in the outer courts and missed the joy of Your presence?  Don’t let that ever again be me.  Amen

He [God] adds: I will never again remember their sins and their lawless acts. Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Hebrews 10:17-18

One of my most unbecoming moments is when I attempt to put others in their place.  I’m aware as I write this that ‘their place’ is never an elevated position.  The very term denotes a lowering of their esteem.  I am reminding them that they did something wrong and need to remember how awful it was!  How long will I make them pay?

How long did God make me pay before He forgave me?  Even now, does he keep bringing up my past sins to make me remember how sinful I’ve been?  While people do this, God does not.  (However, Satan whispers lies to my guilty conscience and wants me to believe that I am being holy when I grovel.)

When God says that He never again remembers our sins, it doesn’t mean that he literally forgets.  It’s better than that.  He takes the sins that separated me from Him and puts them behind His back, out of sight.  He will never bring them out again, hold them up to my face and say, “Remember what you did!?”  He does not encourage me to remember them to discourage me and to destroy my joy.

When Jesus said, “It is finished”, it carried so many beautiful implications.  The obvious one is that no more sacrifices were needed to forgive sin.  His death, and final sacrifice, did that.  That also means that once I repent of something, His sacrifice removed it.  No more sacrifices and no more repenting are needed.  While I may not forget what I’ve done, remembering it should usher in the relief and joy of sins forgiven.  It should not re-introduce guilt and cause me to pick up a heavy burden.

What’s astounding to me is that many Jews, after Jesus’ death, decided they’d rather return to the offering of sacrifices.  They had a hard time resting in the fact that Jesus death ended the need for them.  Their history and culture was so ingrained in them that it was hard to trust in the security of the cross.

Jesus would want me to know several key things today.  1. While people may equate me with my sin, He does not. 2.  He took my sin off of me and put it on Himself instead.  3. He not only put it on Himself, He forgave it and sent it away ~ out of sight.  4. It is not admirable to rehearse my past sins and self-condemn.  5. It is advisable to rehearse the totality of His forgiveness and throw a party!

If you are straining to hear the sound of joyful singing, I’ll start now.  Amen

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, and upon their mind I will write them.”  Hebrews 10:15-16

Perhaps you know the phrase, “I know that I know that God ____________.”  These words are used mostly when speaking of an encounter with God when He reveals Himself in an unforgettable way.  We sought Him, He provided an answer, and ‘we know that we know’ that we heard Him correctly.  No one and no thing is able to shake it. That deep knowing is the essence of these words in Hebrews.

The huge experiential difference between the faith of those in the Old Testament and the faith of us who have come after the advent of Jesus is that our faith is personalized by the Holy Spirit.  It was prophesied by Jeremiah: “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.  I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”  Jeremiah 31:31-133

How did someone in the Old Testament come to know God?  He was born into a nation, one conceived by God through Abraham. He then inherited God-stories that were spoken through their forefathers. He began to tell his children about what he’d heard and faith was passed on through written words, through honored traditions, and through the storytelling of the elders.  Faith, though heartfelt and inspirational to the nation of Israel, was still largely impersonal in that most people never heard God’s voice.

That’s not how it was supposed to be.  God’s plan had always been to be intimate with His creation. He walked in the garden with Adam but sin broke that fellowship and Jesus came to restore it by forgiving the sins that caused the breach.  God, from a respectful distance, drew close to us again through Christ.  He granted us intimate access, finally, because God decided to no longer write His law on stones and tablets.  Instead, He wrote His Words on the fabric of our hearts.

You’ve heard the phrase, “If you want something to become a part of you, write it down.”  We are no longer distant worshipers.  We have been written upon by the finger of God.

You wove Your Words into me and where I end and where You begin is a beautiful blur!  Amen

You did not want sacrifice and offering, but You prepared a body for Me. You did not delight in whole burnt offerings and sin offerings.  Hebrews 10:5-6

I fear it’s too easy to see Jesus as a means to an end. Here’s how it looks ~ I need forgiveness from my sins in order to gain salvation and Jesus is the One who paid for it.  I can look to Him as utilitarian, someone able to give me what I need.  I am not taken with the personal cost and the price He paid.  I am taken with getting from Him what I need.

I wonder how many sacrifices were made under the Old Covenant without any regard whatsoever to the animal who gave its life.  While God never encouraged the worship of animals, He wanted His people to be aware that the shedding of blood was costly.  The fact that a sacrifice had to be made at all pointed to the fact that sin was a serious offense.  He had much to say about people bringing their burnt sacrifices as a ritual ~ casually checking off their religious boxes.  Worship of God, the one who outrageously forgave their sin, was often forgotten in the equation.

Is this not any different than ‘fire insurance salvation’ that is resident in so many Gospel presentations?  The fear of hell is what compels us to rush to the altar.  Our tears are about us, our plight and then our relief.   Fear of death and God’s judgement is a strong motivator to make sure we are not headed for condemnation.  We are told that the death of Jesus takes care of our sin problem and by ‘accepting Him into our heart’, our eternal destiny is secured.  But isn’t this kind of presentation making Him a means to an end?  Jesus becomes a benefactor who got me out of hot water.

Taking this further ~ Does this really encourage worship or am I simply preoccupied that by walking the aisle, I’ve taken care of myself?  This may seem like splitting hairs but it’s monumental.  While writing this ~ my heart is aching at how easy it is to be selfish in my response to the Gospel.  Jesus made His sacrifice all about me but am I making His sacrifice all about Him? God forbid that Jesus made it about me and I make it about me. I consider this scripture from Mark:  To love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Mark 12:33 

Yes, someone gave their life to forgive my sins.  Yes, I have been justified.  Yes, I wear robes of righteousness.  Yes, condemnation has been erased from my future.  Yes, I live at peace with God and I’m no longer afraid of His judgement.  However, the point is not these realities.  The point is that I’m to consider, and then worship, the One who sacrificed Himself to provide all this.  What should be front and center of every proclamation of the Gospel is the person of Jesus who came to express, with his life, the love of God for us.  It is this Love, bleeding out on a cross, that compels me to love him with all my heart, soul, and mind.  What pleases God is the worship of His Son and a discipleship based on the joy of my relationship with the sacrificial Lamb.  This distinction is what makes the difference between religious ritual and a passionate believer willing to give his life for the sake of a Savior.

Forgive me when I come with open hands and selfish expectations.  Amen

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.  Hebrews 10:1

The definition of a shadow is an image cast by an object.  The word doesn’t usually bring warm feelings.  Someone hiding in the shadows is a person with a questionable agenda.  Someone afraid of their own shadow is a poor soul gripped by shyness.  Someone who sees shadows in the night is one who sleeps lightly.  And we know the familiar phrase in the 23^rd Psalm, ‘in the valley of the shadow of death.’ 

While the topic of shadows makes us think of something foreboding, shadows can also be beautiful.  In Acts, the sick were brought near to Peter in hopes that his very shadow would bring healing.  Acts 5:15   But this is nothing compared to the poetic descriptions elsewhere in scripture.  How about these ~ I dwell in the shadow of the Almighty.  Psalm 91:1 I am concealed in the shadow of God’s hand.  Isaiah 49:2 And, I take refuge in the shadow of my Father’s wings.  Psalm 36:7 

God is also described as One who casts a shadow, and His shadow provides shade from the heat.  Isaiah 25:4  His presence shadows His children ~ going with them wherever they go. Psalm 121:5

What can get better than God’s shadow accompanying me and providing a place of refuge?  It would be Him ‘overshadowing’ ~ as He did when Mary was overshadowed by the Spirit and Jesus was conceived.  Or, as He did when He overshadowed a dead planet and Earth came to life.  Or, as He did when He overshadowed a crowd when Jesus was speaking and they heard God declare that Jesus was His beloved Son.  Matthew 17:5

The law and the sacrificial system were shadows of more perfect things to come.  The law would be fulfilled by Jesus.  The sacrifices of animals would be replaced by the Perfect Lamb who would only have to die once.  These shadows in the O.T. were shadows of Jesus.

If you and I are in Christ, we are overshadowed when the Spirit moves in us to conceive something holy, or to heal something broken, or to prepare something yet unformed, or to sanctify something fleshly. More than just interesting concepts, they are powerful realities in the life of every believer.  While all these shadowing movements aren’t visible to the naked eye, we feel the impact and tremble, do we not?  The most powerful things are unseen but earthshattering.

Of all You have done, I know I’ve seen nothing yet.  My eyes are fixed on You.  Amen

For the Messiah did not enter a sanctuary made with hands (only a model of the true one) but into heaven itself, so that He might now appear in the presence of God for us.  Hebrews 9:24

Have you ever needed someone to intervene on your behalf?  Perhaps a situation was critical, so critical that you begged this person to put in a good word for you.  He agreed, things went well, and you got what you needed.  Imagine for a moment, however, that you are in a position to need this same thing again, only on a weekly basis.  You have to ask your friend for his help ~ over and over again.  You’d probably find that though he was quite willing to help you out the first time, maybe even the second, your repeated requests fell on increasingly unreceptive ears.  At some point, he felt taken advantage of.

Not so with our Savior.  Without time limits, Jesus sits at the right hand of His Father and His primary responsibility is to pray for us and mediate for us.  He brings our critical needs to God’s attention.  He defends our holiness to our enemy who thrives on making accusations against us.  Jesus doesn’t care how many times we may need the same thing over and over.  He never tires of our request.  In fact, if it’s for our ultimate good, He’ll ask for more than we’ve requested.  Generosity is in His nature.  Compassion is only a part of His many beautiful attributes.  Every unfathomable character quality of Jesus is working on my behalf as He speaks my name over and over in the presence of God.

“I can’t ask Him that again!” ~ need never be on the lips of God’s child.  Neediness does not turn Him off; it delights Him.  It is an acknowledgement that I am aware to what extent I live and breathe in Him.  I don’t pretend to be strong, in and of myself.  I am only strong ~ in Christ.  I don’t pretend to be insightful, in and of myself.  I am only wise ~ in Christ.  This is true for every good and perfect gift that comes from above.  If I’m lacking, perhaps it’s because I forgot to ask for it.  Or worse yet, I didn’t believe that it was mine to ask for.

Right now, at this very moment, Jesus’ eyes are watching you read this devotional.  He sees you taking in the truth that what you need does not disgust Him, disappoint Him, overwhelm Him, nor is it an imposition to bring up what you need to His Father.  You might say, “If He knows I need it, why doesn’t He just ask without me jumping through all these hoops?”  I believe it’s because of this ~ when we ask, we are internalizing the truth that we can ask, and should ask.  Love is more deeply understood when our petitions are vocalized, then received by the other person with pleasure.

Show me what it is I’m afraid to need.  Amen