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You Better Believe in Certain Vengeance

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‌You better believe it’s worth it to keep going as a Christian. The second reason for this is the Lord’s certain vengeance.

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. 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? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Hebrews 10:26-31

‌A Serious Warning

Here is one place in the book of Hebrews where it’s tempting to disregard what the passage says. What I want to write is that Jesus paid it all, and that nothing can ever change that. So if you trust him, you are secure now and forever.

‌And that is all true — but only if you hold fast to your confession.

‌Heb 10:26 says that there is no sacrifice for deliberate sin. That’s right from the Old Testament. One of the most common misconceptions of the OT sacrificial system is that people could commit any sins they wanted, and then just go and offer a sacrifice to fix it and keep themselves good with God.

‌But the Prophets are abundantly clear that God hates sacrifices offered under such presumption. In the book of Leviticus, where the sacrificial law is laid out in great detail, there is no sacrifice prescribed for those who go on sinning deliberately, in total disregard of God, his commands, or his fatherly affection.

‌A Clear Warning

But don’t misunderstand me. When the author mentions “sinning deliberately,” he’s talking about something specific. He’s not talking about my struggle with overeating, nor with anyone’s honest struggle with lust, anger, or greed. Those are all problems that must be addressed, but those are not what he has in mind here.

In Heb 10:28, he talks about the law of Moses prescribing execution for those who set aside the law. He’s referring to Deut 17:2-6 which says the following:

‌“If there is found among you … a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, in transgressing his covenant, and has gone and served other gods and worshiped them … then you shall bring out to your gates that man or woman who has done this evil thing, and you shall stone that man or woman to death with stones. On the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses the one who is to die shall be put to death…

‌You see, the sort of “deliberate sin” that was punishable by death was the sin of transgressing the covenant — abandoning Yahweh, the God of Israel, as their God. Such folks might have still participated in temple worship as a cultural experience, but they did not hold fast to the true God as their God.

‌That’s what he’s talking about in Heb 10:26-31.

He’s talking about the same thing he talked about in Hebrews 6. He’s talking about those who give up on Jesus. Those who decide it’s not worth it to keep going with him. Those who believe they can find something better than Jesus in this world and in the acceptance of those who are in this world.

‌He’s talking about what we call apostasy: the act of denying the Christian faith, renouncing Jesus Christ as your king and priest, and relying on yourself to figure out what is true and what is right.

‌A Dramatic Contrast

So if you fear whether this might be about you, just keep in mind the contrast between this paragraph and the previous one.

‌In Heb 10:19-25, he talks about those who hold confidently to their confession of Jesus and maintain loyalty to him. They are not perfect. They are not sinless. They have not yet completed their growth curves in Christ. But they won’t let go of him.

‌And in Heb 10:26-31, he describes those who deny Christ. They are finished with him. They’re done with following him. They have set him aside in favor of another god or an alternate lifestyle. Holding on to him is the last thing they want to do.

‌And what can such a person expect?

‌Well, the good news is that the death penalty for apostasy is no longer in force among the covenant people of God. But the bad news is that there is a fearful expectation of judgment; a fury of fire awaits (Heb 10:27). Something worse than death awaits, because God does not take it lightly when people trample on his Son and outrage his Spirit (Heb 10:29). There is a future of certain vengeance (Heb 10:30). Apostates are now in God’s hands, which ought not be a comforting reality (Heb 10:31).

Photo by Chris Karidis on Unsplash

Application

‌Please take this warning seriously.‌ No matter what you have ever experienced or done, there is only one sin that will warrant the certain vengeance of God: unbelief (or disloyalty).

‌I am often tempted to fear that my behavioral sin is “deliberate” and thereby deserving of judgment. But it is tremendously assuring to recognize that “sinning deliberately” in this context refers to the sin of unbelief or apostasy. This motivates me more than ever to hold fast to Christ through whatever trials I face.

‌But holding fast to Christ means confessing sin and turning away from it.

‌One of the most common reasons people turn away from the faith, is because their sin becomes more pleasing to them than the Lord Jesus. So they need to keep their sin a secret in order to continue pretending to be Christian.

‌Therefore, some of you may need to stop being so afraid of being found out. Being found out now might be the best thing that ever happens to you, as you do not want to fall into the just and outraged hands of the living God.

‌Hold fast to Jesus, and you have confident entrance into heaven. Whatever you have done can be forgiven! No sin can ever disqualify you from being with Jesus forever, except for the sin of not trusting Jesus to forgive your sins.

‌Let go of Jesus, and there is little but certain vengeance.

‌There will not be any unbelievers in heaven. No-one there, except those who want to worship God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

‌You better believe it’s worth it to keep going. But how do we do that. What does it look like?

‌That takes us to third reason it’s worth it to keep going, which, after the holidays, we’ll discover in the final paragraph of Hebrews 10.

Sample Studies in Colossians

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Kyle Kennicott is teaching Colossians to his youth group, and he’s done us the favor of providing summaries of his messages. He shows how he broke down the text for the series, and for each passage he gives his main point, a brief summary, and chief applications.

I don’t share these sample studies with you so you can take them and teach the exact same message to your youth group or small group. Rather, I know many people need to see good examples of skillful Bible study to help them acquire the skills. And these examples are quite good.

Check it out!

You Better Believe in Confident Entrance

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You better believe it’s worth it to keep going as a Christian. The first reason for this is your confident entrance.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Hebrews 10:19-25

‌‌Draw near (Heb 10:22) and hold fast (Heb 10:23). Those are the chief instructions of this paragraph.

Photo by Charlota Blunarova on Unsplash

Draw Near

‌You ought to draw near to the holy places of heaven. The place where Jesus now lives and reigns and ministers as a high priest forever. You and I, even now, even today, can draw near to that place with him.

‌Why can we do that? Two reasons:

  1. Jesus has opened a new and living way to get there (Heb 10:20).
  2. We have Jesus as a great high priest (Heb 10:21).

‌In other words: He went ahead to blaze a trail before us, and he’s now waiting with open arms to receive us. Because of both those things, v.19: We have confidence to enter the holy places (Heb 10:19).

‌I remember the first time I went camping with my sons. I had never gone camping before, mostly because of my sleep disorder. But as a result, I had grown solidified over time in my inability to do anything outdoors, such as camping.

‌But the first time my sleep was healthy enough to allow me to try it, I really needed some friends to show me the way and to welcome me. One friend blazed the trail: making all the arrangements and setting up all the equipment. Other friends got there ahead of me, welcoming me at my arrival, and showing me what I needed to do, so that I didn’t have to figure it all out on my own. I’m sure you can imagine that this gave me great confidence!

‌That’s what Jesus does, in order to lead us to be with his Father in heaven. He blazed the trail ahead of us. And he serves us and waits for us there with open arms and ready hands. All of this enables us to draw near to him in heaven.

‌“But,” you might say, “I’m not in heaven with Jesus! So what does this mean for me now?”

‌That’s a great question, because until the Day comes when we are actually present with Jesus in heaven, what that means for us now is that we follow the second chief instruction in Heb 10:23: hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

Hold Fast

‌All through the book of Hebrews, the author has been urging us to hold fast to Jesus by holding fast to our confession of him. This means we publicly acknowledge him as our King, Priest, and Inheritance. We confess this before the church — not only when we are baptized, but every time we gather to sing, pray, and teach one another. Because in Jesus, heaven and earth are coming together.

‌So we confess these things before the world — at any cost.

‌Holding fast to our confession of Jesus as king, priest, inheritance, and superior to all creation under heaven — that’s how we draw near to Jesus in heaven for now. Until we reach that day when he returns, and we get to be with him forever, physically.

‌But even that drawing near, that holding fast — that confident entrance into heaven with Jesus — that is really difficult to do. And it’s even more difficult to persevere in once you’ve tried it.

‌For example, let’s say a young person is in a class at school, or playing on a sports team, and they give credit to the Lord Jesus for their success. Or they testify to how good it is that God created us male and female. They might be laughed at to the point of embarrassment. Once that happens, it’s not so easy to do it again, is it? The memory of that public ridicule makes them think twice about confessing Jesus as king and Lord of all.

How much more difficult is it for adults, whose respect, reputation, or livelihood might be on the line? Many of us try to make it seem more “grown up” to keep our mouths shut about Jesus in public places.

‌This is hard. This is really hard. Is it worth it to keep going, especially when we’re punished for it? How do we do this?

Consider How to Stir One Another Up

‌Because of that difficulty to endure, the author concludes that we need each other (Heb 10:24).

It is not enough to consider how I ought to hold fast the confession. It is crucial that both you and I consider how to stir one another up to love and good deeds. That means we must not neglect our meeting together (Heb 10:25). The closer we get to the day of Jesus’ return, the more important it is to continue meeting together, so we might stir one another up.

‌Application

‌Let the truth of place and priest fuel your confidence. Because Jesus your priest is in heaven, you get to be with him. You are with him now, in spirit, when you confess him as your king, priest, and inheritance. You will be with him then, in the body, when he returns and reunites heaven and earth once and for all.

‌Your priest is in that place, so you can approach with confidence.

‌But that’s not all. There’s another crucial application: Do not isolate yourself! If you think you can get through the challenges you’re facing on your own, you are terribly deceived. Drawing near to Christ, to our confession, and to each other is how we nurture our confidence and endurance.

‌Perhaps you need a reminder of what is true, lest you throw away your confidence. Perhaps you need to be more honest and vulnerable about what you’re going through. Perhaps you need to be more receptive to the help that is available to you.

‌Whatever it is for you: draw near and hold fast.

‌This is not just about you, but about your entire church. You might hold the key to someone else’s confidence. You might have the experience, or the Scriptural insight, to stimulate another brother or sister to believe it’s worth it to keep going.

‌So you better believe it’s worth it to keep going as a Christian.

‌Jesus has given you confident entrance into heaven, which is not yours to keep for yourself, but something to help you encourage others with.

‌In the next paragraph, we’ll discover the second reason it’s worth it to keep going as a Christian.

The Impact of the Old Testament on Colossians

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The writers of the New Testament were saturated in the text and worldview of the Old Testament. So instead of trying to figure things out for ourselves, we’re usually better served by picking up on not only the quotations but also the allusions to the Old Testament.

For example, in this article, G.K. Beale explains three OT allusions in the book of Colossians that are easy to miss.

  1. Col 1:6, 10 – alluding to Gen 1:28
  2. Col 1:9 – alluding to Ex 31:3, 35:31-32
  3. Col 3:16 – alluding to the superscripts of Psalms 67 and 76

Beale doesn’t merely observe these allusions. He also explains how they illuminate Paul’s argument in Colossians.

Check it out!

You Better Believe It

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Do you ever wonder if it’s worth it to keep going?

Let’s say you’re driving at twilight, to a place you’ve never been. You’ve gotten most of the way there without a GPS, but you’re not so sure about the road you now travel. Is it worth it to keep going, or should you stop to get better directions?

Photo by why kei on Unsplash

Your college experience hasn’t resulted in the grades or the friendships you expected. And the exorbitant costs only increase. Is it worth it to keep going?

Your career—or perhaps your marriage—has plateaued, and you find yourself doing more of the same, day in and day out. Is it worth it to keep going?

When it comes to the Christian life: This question is a crucial one.

Following Jesus comes with not only great blessing but also quite a high cost. Life is hard, and you have to give up a lot of time and stuff. Is it worth it to keep going?

Over the next few weeks, I plan to do a deep dive into Hebrews 10:19-39. And the main idea of this passage is that ‌you better believe it’s worth it to keep going.

In order to keep going as a Christian, there are three things in particular that you’d better believe, because without these beliefs, you just might end up throwing everything away. You better believe you have a confident entrance (Heb 10:19-25). You better believe there will be certain vengeance (Heb 10:26-31). And you better believe you’ll need constant reliance (Heb 10:32-39).

Why don’t you take a look at the text for yourself in the coming week? See how much you can observe about the commands, the conclusions, and the train of thought. Write down any questions you have, and we’ll see what answers we can get from the text over the next few weeks.

‌

Situating Amos

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The minor prophets can often seem distant and difficult. Yet God gave them to us for our growth in faith. So here is a wonderful overview of Amos by John Hartley to help you on your way.

What entrenched and multiplied transgressions brings the Lord to come against his own people? In a word, oppression. In more words, oppression of the poor by an unchecked appetite for luxury and leisure.

Check it out!

Foundational Beliefs about the Bible

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What must you believe about the Bible in order to properly study the Bible? Joel Beeke and Michael Barrett suggest that we cannot avoid this question:

When we view the Scriptures through faith, we do so with a set of beliefs that we take for granted to be true. These presuppositions are essential and inevitable. It is absolutely impossible to come to the Bible with an open mind. Liberal scholars often claim they approach Scripture with an open mind in order to evaluate the Word of God and judge its accuracy. In reality they come with the presupposition that human reason is superior to divine revelation. That is not an open mind; it is a closed heart that evidences a mindset predisposed against God and truth. Man cannot stand as the judge of Scripture; Scripture stands as the judge of man. As believers, we must come with an open and receptive heart to receive and believe what God says.

And if we believe that God’s word is true, then we must also believe the things the Bible says about itself.

…every time we open the Scripture, we must do so with awe and reverence generated by the certain knowledge that the Bible is not an ordinary book but the very Word of the eternal God, whose veracity is beyond question or doubt. The Bible is not what men define it to be; it is what God declares it to be. Men can believe that or deny that, but they cannot alter that. The premise that the Bible is the inspired, authoritative, infallible, sufficient, and effective Word of God should be the foundation for the study of Scripture. All truth has its source in God and, consequently, His truth is universal and timeless. Although times change, truth is changeless. Although applications of truth can vary, truth is constant. This is good reason to make the Bible a subject for study.

In their brief article, Beeke and Barrett explain what it means for the Bible to be inspired, authoritative, infallible, sufficient, and effective. I commend their reflections to you.

Check it out!

ESV Chronological Bible: A Fresh Way to Read

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To study the Bible well, we must learn to read the Bible well. To read the Bible well, we need to develop good habits. And one such habit is to find ways to keep the text fresh. Beware the danger of growing so familiar with the Bible that you can no longer observe it accurately.

One way to foster a fresh approach to the text is to read the entire Bible in a different order. And one of the most useful ways to order the Biblical is by chronology. Crossway has done just that for us with their recent release of the ESV Chronological Bible.

Why a New Bible Instead of Just a Reading Plan?

Chronological reading plans have been circulating for many years now. For years, I’ve been recommending one for our annual Bible reading challenge.

The thing with a plan, though, is that you’ve got to constantly flip around in your Bible. That might go quicker if you read a digital Bible, but it still adds a significant amount of time to hop from passage to passage.

Now that I’ve gotten the ESV Chronological Bible in my grubby hands, I can sigh with delight at the ease of simply reading from one page to the next, with the chronological reading order served up like a 365-course meal.

How is the Plan?

This is not the first “chronological Bible” to appear under the sun. I’ve seen others (in other English translations) but have generally declined to purchase them for one major reason: They’re typically enslaved to chapter divisions. When I flip through a chronological Bible that refuses to break texts down any smaller than complete chapters, I quickly lose interest.

Where’s the fun in that? A single chapter of, say, a gospel could have 5 to 8 scenes in it, each of which is paralleled in different ways in other gospels. It’s difficult to get the truly chronological feel of the larger story when the parallel accounts are not actually parallel. For example, Matthew 8 portrays Jesus:

  • healing a leper
  • healing a paralytic
  • healing Peter’s mother-in-law
  • turning down would-be disciples
  • calming a storm
  • casting demons from men into a herd of pigs

In Mark’s ordering of these events, those events occur in the following chapters:

  • chapter 1
  • chapter 2
  • chapter 1 (even before the leper)
  • not present
  • chapter 4
  • chapter 5

So if you’re only reading full chapters at a time, it is not possible to sync up these events in a useful way.

In contrast, the ESV Chronological Bible is no respecter of chapter divisions. At times, you get chunks as small as two verses. And at other times, you’re reading entire books with no interruption. For example, after beginning with Genesis 1-5, you get the first 4 verses of 1 Chronicles. But a little farther into the plan, you get the entire books of Job, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy without interruptions.

In short, I’m thrilled with the plan followed by the ESV Chronological Bible. It is not identical to the plan I’ve recommended on this site, but it follows a very similar philosophy.

With this chronological plan, you’ll read the prophets right after reading the historical events that led to their writing. Books like Jeremiah, that jump back and forth in time, are rearranged so you can grasp the order of events better. The gospels primarily follow the sequence of events as presented in Mark and John, with Matthew and Luke rearranged to fit. However, when an episode has parallel accounts, they’re always presented in canonical order (Matthew’s version first, then Mark’s, then Luke’s, then John’s). The latter half of Acts is interrupted by the epistles, according to the time they were written.

Two Things This Bible is Not Good For

There are a few things that people normally use a Bible for, that you should not expect to find here:

  1. Extensive Bible study. This will not be your go-to Bible for digging in, deepening study, or marking up. Because the reading order is so jumbled up, this Bible is simply not designed for you to take to church or small group to follow along or participate in a discussion. The chronological format makes it quite difficult to even locate any given text. You have to go to the Scripture Index in the back, find the text you’d want to read, and then find the page it’s on.
  2. Grasping the flow or arguments of books. Again, the text is all jumbled up. So you will not come away from this Bible with a better grasp of the main point or argument of Jeremiah or Luke. Likewise, you will get a great idea of the differences in gospel accounts of the feeding of the 5,000. But you’ll need another Bible to put those differences to use with respect to the larger arguments of each gospel.

Two Things This Bible is Exceptional For

  1. Reference. If you are studying a passage in another Bible, you might call upon the Chronological Bible to figure out which other Bible passages speak to or at the same time as your text. For example, let’s say you’re studying a psalm. The Chronlogical Bible places that psalm near the historical narrative describing the same set of events. You could get good historical context for the prophets and epistles in a similar manner.
  2. Reading. The main thing the Chronological Bible is designed for is for reading. That is the genius of this format. It gives you permission to read the Bible voraciously, and to simply keep reading. For that reason, I believe this Bible would be even better if it were presented like a reader’s Bible, without verse or chapter numbers (except perhaps in the margin). The single-column format, without section headings, encourages readers to drown themselves in the living and abiding word of God.

Additional Features

The entire Bible is organized (chronologically, of course) into 365 selections, each of which can be read in about 10 minutes. Before each selection there is a simple timeline to help you get your bearings in the chronology. There is also a brief paragraph summarizing the texts for that reading.

At the back of the Bible, there is a table of weights and measures, along with a chart explaining the Hebrew calendar. One index lists all 365 readings with text references, so you can get an overview of the plan and how it works. A Scripture Index helps you to locate a particular Bible passage by page number.

Then, in addition to 15 maps (the sort you’ll find in any study Bible) there is a beautiful fold-out timeline of the entire history found in the Bible. This timeline is color-coded by period, providing lists, names, and dates for the patriarchs, judges, Israelite oppressors, kings of Israel, and kings of Judah. With this gorgeous graphic, you can locate your text or any major figure in the chronology at but a glance.

Conclusion

I eagerly commend to you the ESV Chronological Bible. I plan to make much use of it for my annual speed read in the new year. Crossway graciously sent me a review copy of the TruTone (imitation leather) version, which lays quite flat on any page, making the reading experience all the more pleasant. I expect the hardback version to have just as strong of a physical presence.

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Why Memorize a Whole Book

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Beth Myers memorized the entire book of Romans and lived to tell us about it. She found the following benefits of such lengthy memorization:

  • Discovery of passages hidden in plain sight
  • Understanding of the Scripture
  • Weapon against anxiety
  • Love of Scripture
  • Duty becomes delight
  • Renewal of the mind
  • Keen sense of the love of Christ for me
  • A soaring of my spirit

Perhaps this is worth trying for yourself. Let Myers encourage you to consider it. Check it out!

How the Reformation Gave us the Bible

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Barry Waugh takes advantage of the anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 theses to reflect on how the Reformation put the Bible into the hands of God’s people.

Owning Scripture was not only pricey but possession could lead to imprisonment or execution. Fourteenth-century forerunners of the Reformation such as John Wycliffe of England and one of his followers in Bohemia, Jan Hus, were persecuted for providing Bibles in the common language of their people. In the case of Hus, translation work contributed to the heresy case against him resulting in his execution at the stake. In the next century, William Tyndale was hunted down wherever he set up his printing press as he moved from place to place to clandestinely provide Scripture in English. He was eventually caught, strangled, and burned at the stake for publishing the Word in the vernacular. Lives were sacrificed for the translation and distribution of Scripture. If Wycliffe, Hus, and Tyndale could return to visit their homelands today they would likely be encouraged by the availability of the Word, especially with digital Bibles accessible on a variety of devices, but they would also be discouraged by the common indifference to and ignorance of Scripture.

Along with the history lesson comes some helpful advice regarding Bible reading.

Check it out!