Despite the voracity of a rapidly increasing reading public, this is a day of superficiality. Few readers think and form independent conclusions. Most men have opinions; comparatively rare are those with convictions. Men argue about the former; if necessary they die for the latter. Opinions tend to vary, while convictions, based on irresolvable fact, deepen as time passes and as others veer and change. Christians are, or, in the nature of the case, should be people with convictions founded upon the revelation that God has given.
A man with assurances
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews was a man with assurances. He was convinced about the authenticity, accuracy, and authority of the Old Testament Scriptures. His book is a series of quotations, skilfully used, but for which no apology is made. To him every word was from God. Christians need that conviction in a generation of hostile criticism, which, under the pretence of honest scholarly investigation, undermines faith because it destroys authority.
He was positive that the ritual of the Hebrew revelation of God, glorious and unique as it was, must yield place to that of which it was a precursor, a shadow of good things to come. The substance was Christ. Ritual appeals to outward senses, and consequently, unless the mind is centred on that of which it is but a symbol, easily degenerates into a meaningless form. That danger confronts men whenever the material supplants the spiritual. Because in the Christian revelation man’s relationship to God is primarily a moral one, symbolism can be dispensed with as an aid to faith. The Lord’s Supper and baptism are to be preserved in a stern simplicity; and the meaning of both taught with persistent vigour. May the Lord preserve the assemblies of God’s people from the inroads of rules and regulations, and from the additions of erroneous doctrines!
All that God has to say
Moreover the writer was convinced that the later revelation obtained its superiority because it had its summation in the person of Christ. God has nothing further to announce to man. That fact is a feature of the epistle. With unblushing reiteration we are reminded that "God hath spoken". He whose voice was recognised in the fragmentary and non-final words of the prophets spoke in the last days in His Son. He, the Son, is God’s last word. All He has to say centres in Him. Present truth and future announcements gather round His person. Man’s attitude to that voice determines God’s attitude to him. Further, the salvation which is presented to mankind was first "spoken by the Lord" (2.3). Messengers of the gospel simply carry the evangel that Christ Himself announced. Modern philosophies play no part in the purpose of God in the reclamation of sinners to Himself. The Cross is the central theme of that Good News, for "From that Cross our hopes we draw".
A substitute for Scripture
The condemning sin of Christendom is that it has substituted the policies of men for the Word of God, which, according to our writer is living, active, and "sharper than any twoedged sword" (4.12). Ameliorative schemes, legislative improvements, educational facilities, pacification plans, must ultimately fail, because they are the devices of men who hear not "the oracles of God" (5.12). A most terrifying announcement is made regarding those who, among other things, have tasted the Word of God that it is good (6.5), and have turned away from the Son of God.
Warnings
Two warnings close the epistle: "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh" (12.25); "Remember them…who have spoken unto you the word of God" (13.7). May God grant us grace to cultivate the spirit of obedience to His Word. We need it badly in an age that is in moral revolt against the law of God, and when many Christians traffic lightly in eternal truths.
Light half-believers of our casual creeds,
Who never deeply felt, nor clearly will’d,
Whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds,
Whose vague resolves never have been fulfill’d;
For whom each year we see
Breeds new beginnings, disappointments new;
Who hesitate and falter life away,
And lose to-morrow the ground won to-day.
Concluded.
