Positive and Negative

Heb. 10: 30-31

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.

Since believers have confidence to enter the holy places by Jesus' blood, and since we have a great high priest [Jesus] who intercedes for us, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. We can freely and confidently come to the throne of grace because Jesus paid the penalty for my sin once for all . His blood covered it so that when God looks at me, He sees me through the lens of the shed blood of Christ. We are to (1) hold fast the confession of our fast without any wavering.  (2) We are to consider how we might stir up others to love and good works. (3) And finally we are to encourage one another as we meet together. Pretty straight forward words. Ones that the child of God should want to do on a continual basis. What would prevent these things from happening? Perhaps it would be desiring and getting what the world offers, or maybe an individual isolation of the members of the body of Christ. If we are too busy, we miss church where we most often connect with others in the body. 

But on the negative side come very strong warnings. We must not fool ourselves into thinking that because of grace our judgment will be correspondingly without justice. In fact it is the opposite. God brings down His holy vengeance on those who (1) spurn the Son of God, (2) profane the blood of the covenant, and (3) who outrage the spirit of grace. How strong! Paul asks the people to remember their former days, days where they had compassion on those imprisoned, had joyfully accepted the plundering of their property, and had lived in the light of a better and abiding possession. His final words were do not throw away your confidence or shrink back. What a warning! I wonder how this would look? Would it be a dramatic recanting of  Jesus, or a gradual slipping away? It would be logical that the slipping away could eventually lead to a recanting of Jesus when persecution would come.

Father,

Help me to be strong in holding on to Your words. Make my words be encouraging to others and teach me how to encourage others to love. What a glorious body of Christ You have given me. How blessed I am!

In Jesus name,

Amen