Chapter 6 Appendix Message - Understanding the Context of Discipline in Hebrews 12
Msg 6 Appendix Message - Understanding the Context of Discipline in Hebrews 12
I want to talk about the concept of discipline in Hebrews, because it is misused all the time to suggest that God comes in and beats his children out of anger for sin. Or, even if it is not out of anger, it is for your good, "for sin." Whether or not that is true is a side topic, because everyone is using Hebrews 12 out of context to make the point. That is not what Hebrews 12 is talking about it.
It is important to see that God's intention for us is that we may always come boldly to the throne of grace. He wants us to do this knowing that we have an offering for sin, which is Christ, and that we have access to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find help in a time of need. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins.
God is not surprised at your sin! Nor is He upset! I have heard pastors say that God is so upset when we sin, and we have grieved and hurt His heart. After all, He has done for us, how could we? God made a provision for our sin before we even knew we were sinners! He paid the redemption price for our sin and put them all on His Son. Christ became sin for us! The question is not "how could you sin?" The real question should be, "How could you not come forward, considering that you have been embraced? How could you not come forward, considering He has paid such a high price for you?" This is the real question. The question is not, "how can you sin?" You sin because you are a sinner! You sin because of what you are! Your sin is not what grieves God's heart.
What Really Grieves God's Heart - Unbelief
There are only two mentions of grieving God in the New Testament. One is in Ephesians 4, which talks about grieving the Spirit.
Eph 4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
The context of this passage is talking about not walking in the way of the Gentiles in the futility of the mind.
Ephesians 4:17-24 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, (18) Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: (19) Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. (20) But ye have not so learned Christ; (21) If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: (22) That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; (23) And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; (24) And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
In verse 19, Paul says that they are "beyond feeling". As a result, they go after their lusts, because they have no sensitivity to the life of God. Paul attributes this to blindness and ignorance (regarding spiritual things Ephesians 4:18). In contrast, Paul says we have "learned Christ" (Ephesians 4:20) and admonishes us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind (Ephesians 4:23) and to put on the new man (Ephesians 4:24).
Paul says it is possible for a believer to go the way of the Gentiles because of unbelief. In Ephesians 4, he is talking about putting on the New Man and walking sensitively to the realities of what Christ has provided for you. He said, "you did not learn this way of insensitivity from Christ. You have been taught in Christ as the truth is in Jesus. You have been taught to put off the old man and to put on the new man."
These admonitions are in the context of Paul's speaking in Chapter 4 which is all about walking in the light of the vision he has shared in the previous chapters, with a view unto the building up of the Body of Christ, the habitation of God, the New Creation.
We can grieve God by being insensitive to new creation realities. These consist of what God has made available to us in Christ. The Gentiles know nothing about spiritual things, and only think about their life here. But Paul has just spent 3 chapters opening the vision of God's heart in Ephesians, showing the eternal purpose of God, God's economy, the Riches of the mystery of Christ, the Body of Christ as His fullness, the New Man, the New Creation, the Masterpiece of God, and our place in His program as sons and heirs and those who are indwelt by Christ Himself. We are not ignorant like the Gentiles. After releasing such a high vision, Paul tells us not to grieve the spirit by walking like the Gentiles in the "futility of their mind" after we have been learning Christ.
The Gentiles have been walking in the futility of their mind, ignorant of spiritual truth, and going after whatever their bodies felt like doing since the fall. In fact, we see the first mention of "Grieving God" in this context, in Genesis 6:
Gen 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
Gen 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
I believe the root of God's grief with man in Genesis 6 is that man is "flesh". Some translations say "just flesh" or "only flesh." Man was walking entirely in the flesh and God's spirit is at odds with the flesh. Romans 8 says that "those who are in the flesh cannot please God" and that the "mind of the flesh is hostile towards God and cannot be subjected to Him." When man walks entirely after the flesh, God has no ability to deal with Him, and in Ephesians 4 we see that it is because man's heart is so blinded through ignorance and lack of feeling. There is no sensitivity to the things of God, therefore no way for God to deal with it. This is what grieves God in this context.
Walking entirely after the flesh is not a matter of just "sinning sometimes". It means to walk entirely as a man, apart from any sensitivity to the realities that are in Christ. And it is a tragic thing when a Christian walks this way. It is due to ignorance and blindness and lack of knowledge and lack of appreciation of what God has provided in Christ and what God has called us to. For an "awake" Christian who is sensitive to these realities, there is almost nothing more frustrating than interacting with Christians who cannot be appealed to based on spiritual truth because of ignorance, total insensitivity and blindness. I believe this frustration is also how God feels. He is "Grieved."
There is one other place in the New Testament that mentions grieving God.
In Hebrews the writer says that God was grieved with the children of Israel in the wilderness who would not enter His rest because of unbelief.
"Hebrews 3:10-12 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. (11) So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. (12) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God."
In context, Paul is talking about coming boldly to the throne of grace. The alternative to coming forward boldly in the book of Hebrews is shrinking back to law, or shrinking back in fear, and not believing God's promises.
What God has provided in Christ is put in contrast to everything they knew before. They were being tempted to be drawn back into the old things, especially the Mosaic system. Their friends, their countrymen and their families were all still going to the Temple. They were making offerings through the priesthood. In effect they were rejecting the blood of Christ. Now the believers were being tempted to do the same. They were being persecuted for not doing that. They were outside the camp, suffering with Christ.
The Discipline in Hebrews - Perfecting of the Conscience
This is the context for discipline in Hebrews 12. He says "you're being persecuted from every side. You need to consider Jesus who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest you become weary". It is about not becoming weary in taking refuge in Christ when everything in the sense realm and all the people who are persecuting you are telling you that you are sinning. They're all telling you that you are sinning against Moses and you're sinning against God's ordained way". However, they were not sinning. They were the only obedient ones! Paul was telling them they needed faith to look to Jesus despite everything they see.
This is the context of God's discipline. It is about making sure that you keep coming forward to Jesus knowing that you are accepted in Him, even when everything around you tells you otherwise. If we understand what grieves God, we also can understand what His discipline is about. His discipline is always to bring us forward to consider and be sensitive to and respond in faith to spiritual truth concerning what He has provided in Christ!
So, we want to look more at the discipline in Hebrews 12, because it is so often used wrongly to suggest that God is punishing believers because of their faults and sins. The conversation in Chapter 12 is a continuation of this conversation in Chapter 10. Chapter 10 is talking about the sin of counting the blood of Jesus as an unclean thing and rejecting His sacrifice. Then there is a parenthesis chapter (11), which is talking about the witness of those who walked before, to show that everyone who has ever been justified by faith has had this vision of Christ and have endured sufferings that you are now being acquainted with. Yet they were happy to be identified with Christ and endure affliction with Him rather than enjoy the pleasures or prestige of the world or acceptance among the religious.
Chapter 11 is just an encouragement that what he is talking about is the same thing that all the fathers and the prophets went through. They were sawn in two, they were persecuted, they were rejected, but they looked to a city whose builder and maker is God. They would rather be identified with God's people and with Christ than to have the acceptance of the world. He calls that the "cloud of witnesses."
But the writer of Hebrews was really talking about discipline at the end of Chapter 10. He was talking about "sinning willfully" in verse 26:
Hebrews 10:26-29 For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, (27) But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
The willful sin is to reject the sacrifice of Christ by going back to the temple and offering through the priesthood again to be accepted by the religious world. It is to sin against God's present word by saying, "no, Christ's offering is not the way. I am sinning by taking Christ. I need to go back to what Moses ordained." This is what they were being tempted to do. It would have been an extraordinarily strong temptation for an Israelite. This would be a stronger temptation than to go do whatever sin you think the Gentiles are attracted to. Stronger than the temptation to go to a massage parlor or going to a bar to get drunk. No, this is stronger. Everything they were brought up in is telling you that coming to Christ is sin because you were rejecting Moses. The pressure was intense.
"Hebrews 10:28 He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: (29) Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot 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?"
He is saying that the sin that is bigger than rejecting Moses would be to disregard the blood of Christ and go back to the blood of bulls and goats! Now he starts talking about the discipline, which he is going to pick up with in Chapter 12.
"Hebrews 10:32-36 But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; (33) Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. (34) For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance."
He is saying they have been identified with the suffering people of God because they have been separated unto Christ and unto the Apostle's ministry. They had compassion on him and his bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing that they had a better and enduring substance in heaven. This is the admonition that is the root of the discipline and the root of all encouragements in Hebrews:
(35) Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. (36) For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Hebrews 10:37-39 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. (38) Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. (39) But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
Remember that Eternal salvation is secured the moment you believe in Jesus no matter what happens to you afterwards. You can totally "backslide" and end up in heaven, because you are justified, you have been made a member of Christ and you are regenerated. However, there is also something called the "Salvation of your soul". Peter talks about this as well: "Who having not seen, you love, and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls". The salvation of the soul is when your soul is rejoicing in confidence before God based on the unseen things that He has provided for you in Christ. Even though you do not see it, it is so real. You enter into rejoicing and confidence because of unseen realities that are the exact opposite of the seen things in the temple.
Consider again the Temple which would have been such a temptation to Jewish people struggling to pursue Christ. If you were living Jerusalem, you could probably smell the burnt offerings. It was so overwhelming and ingrained into their culture, and seemed so holy and God ordained, and yet they had abandoned it all for Christ. They were being persecuted for doing so. How tempting would it have been if you were not rooted and grounded in the word to think, "you know what, the priest is still offering the sacrifices and I haven't been to temple in two years. My family has rejected me, and I am not going to the feasts. I'm not participating. Maybe I'm wrong? I hope I'm not being cut off from the inheritance." You would be tempted to think along these lines. Think about how rooted and grounded you would have had to be in the word to understand the distinction between the earthly inheritance that you had grown up believing in versus being a partaker of the "heavenly calling!" This is what Paul calls them in Hebrews 3:1. You would have had to have been a person who gets into the word to understand the truth. The more the environment is against you, the more you need to be in the word and saturated with it to understand what you have been brought into.
The conscience of the believers was being attacked, and the weapon was the very things that God had previously ordained (the temple and the offerings which Hebrews tells us are a shadow, not the reality). Hebrews deals with the "perfecting of the conscience". Hebrews Chapter 10 starts by speaking of this:
Hebrews 10:1-2 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. (2) For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
This section is about the perfecting of the conscience and dealing with the sin consciousness which results in dead works. Dead works in religion show that the way into the holiest has not yet been manifested to us, and we are not coming near to Christ and allow His blood to purge our conscience (Hebrews 9:14) from dead works to serve the living God. We do not know how to live in the holy of holies. We still think we need the old tactile system with all its sacrifices that could never perfect us. That is what was happening. Their unperfected conscience was being used against them to drag them back to the earthly religion with its works.
In contrast, they needed to come forward boldly to the throne of grace, which is the reality in the heavens and in our spirit. To go back to the temple with its sacrifices in unbelief was to "shrink back to perdition." This does not mean losing salvation. But it results in losing the enjoyment of Christ and not entering His rest, which grieves the Holy Spirit. It is the same as walking in the futility of the mind and being alienated from the life of God and being "beyond feeling" and not learning Christ, and not putting on the new man, but walking in a religious way instead (As we saw in Ephesians 4)
Walking Confidently before God in Faith
The admonition right here is "now the just shall live by faith." Faith is the substance of the things I do not see. He says, "if any man draw back My soul shall not have pleasure in him." What is the opposite of walking by faith in the unseen? It is drawing back. The faith means I actually come near to God.
Since faith is the assurance of things unseen, someone needs to describe these things to me. I cannot see them. But this is what the New Testament ministry is. The New Testament describes all these unseen things that Christ has accomplished in the heavens for us. He is our High Priest. He is our offering. He has made His flesh a new and living way to enter the presence within the veil. We can come boldly now to the throne of Grace. We have access to the Holy of Holies. The blood is there to sprinkle our heart and our conscience and to wash us with the living water of Christ. It is all there in the unseen. We are called partakers of Christ in Hebrews if we continue in the faith with confidence (Hebrews 3:14). We want to become partakers of these unseen realities. That is unto the "Salvation of our soul", as he says, "we are not of those who shrink back to perdition but of them that believe unto the saving of the soul" (Hebrews 10:39).
Your soul is your mind, will and emotions. That is the part that needs to be transformed and renewed. We are transformed by the renewing of the mind, and this is putting on the New Man and all the realities that are in the Heavens for you. God has already prepared these things. He said in Hebrews 9 that because the death of the testator has occurred, there is a testament which has become an inheritance for the heirs (Hebrews 9:16). It is a finished work, described in the New Testament ministry and made available to you. Now you need to come forward by faith and put these things on. This is our confidence.
This principle is the root of the discipline. Then Chapter 11 describes what faith is. He has just said the just shall live by faith versus shrinking back into perdition, and that we are not those that shrink back to perdition, but by faith we come forward to the saving of our soul. Then He talks about the "good report" that everyone received who walked before us. They all believed the same thing. They believed in the promise of the seed and the promise of the city whose builder and maker is God. Because having seen this vision, they were set apart from their generation.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in tents rather than living in Ur of the Chaldeans or in Babel. Moses endured affliction with the people of Christ and suffered reproaches rather than enjoying the pleasures of Egypt as a prince. Later the prophets were killed and sawn asunder and lived in caves, but the world was not worthy of them.
He is saying, "you are identified with all these people who went before you, who were branded as evil doers for following Christ, and yet they were the obedient ones, just like you!" That is what Chapter 11 is about. The reason Chapter 11 is there is because it is the encouragement for the discipline that is described in Chapter 12.
Discipline in the Context of Persecution
Hebrews 12:1-2 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (2) Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Now remember, he talked about the need for patience in Chapter 10. He is coming. And He is also presented as a pattern who looked past the shame of the cross where He was vilified and where He was identified as the ultimate villain. This is talking about persecution. He had the vision of the joy set before Him, which is what all the people had in Chapter 11. They all endured the affliction because of what had been set before them. Their gaze was fixed on the heavenly realities that they were going to inherit. Then he says:
Heb 12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
Again, the admonition is about persecution. Christ endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself. Now, he is saying "you need to consider that this is what He did because you are enduring the same thing. You are becoming weary, and you're being tempted to faint in your own mind." To faint is to "Give up" and to say, "it can't just be of faith. This must be a hoax. I have joined weird cult. I need to go back to the temple!" Then he says:
Heb 12:4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Yes, you have been spoiled of your possessions and you have been ostracized by your countrymen, but you have not resisted unto blood striving against sin. What is the sin here? I used to read this, "you haven't tried to stop sinning so hard you actually shed blood about it!" That is not what he is saying! The sin would go back. It is the sin mentioned in Hebrews 10 of counting the blood of Christ an unclean thing. There is no other offering for sin. To go back to the temple would be apostasy against Christ. IF you know there was punishment for not receiving the law of Moses, how much more if you reject the voice of Him who speaks from heaven in Christ? It is such a serious thing to go back to the law, the shadow, once the reality has been introduced, which is Christ. You need to come forward and partake of Christ with boldness.
That is our striving against sin in context here. He is not talking about ceasing to sin. He is talking about ceasing to regard the offering for sin, counting it unclean, and then going back and committing a sin which would be a rejection of Christ in favor of earthly shadows. At that point, to be established in the present truth, you had to be nuanced enough to know that everything before was a pattern. Now Christ is the reality. This is what we need to stand in.
"Hebrews 12:5-7 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: (6) For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."
Now this is somewhat of an unexpected word. The Hebrew readers would not have been thinking about discipline. He has been talking to them about the persecution which is surely at the forefront of their minds. Now talking to them about discipline. If they were reading this in context, and they were in this dilemma as Jewish believers knowing the temple is still standing and their family is all there, that is what they would be thinking about.
Pretend you are a Jew on the Passover reading this letter you received from the apostle. Are you thinking about your individual sins? No! You are thinking about the persecution that you are under and the rejection from family and countrymen and the temptation to go back to your traditions. Now you are seeing it all in a new light: It is a discipline from the Father!
(7) If ye endure chastening, God dealt with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? Hebrews 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
What chastisement are they experiencing? They are surrounded by things that are tempting them to give up and go back to the temple. It would perhaps have seemed easier than having to endure persecution outside the camp with Christ bearing His reproach. They are wondering if they were right in doing so. They are starting to slacken up. Somehow the Hebrews writer is sensing that they need to be encouraged because they are starting to slacken up, grow weary and faint in their minds. So, the discipline is to encourage them. The discipline is an encouragement. "Come on! Get up! Move! Don't shrink back!"
Those who would have been sensitive to this discipline are the sons of God. The bastards who are not actually sons of God and not regenerated would have no conflict in their conscience. They would have just gone back to the old things. It would have been easy. So, I bet the believers saw a lot of their friends' apostasize from Christ, showing that they did not really believe. They went back to the temple. Well, it showed they were not partakers of the discipline. They did not have this inward conflict, and this inward strengthening from God to go on despite it all.
The discipline is the Father's training and inward strengthening of His sons. You know that you cannot go back! Christ is the reality! You cannot deny Him! You have been born of Him. How are you going to deny and go back to all this stuff? It is quite a dilemma, because everything, including your own double-minded conscience is saying, "I just need to go back." But at the same time, it is saying, "I have to come forward! What am I going to do?" You want to give up. You are tempted to get mad! He is even going to talk about that.
You must come forward, because you are not of those that shrink back to perdition but of those who come forward to the saving of the soul. You are those who live by faith. This is the chastisement. The chastisement is the suffering of the persecution. But the persecution solidifies everything because it shows the character of those who want you to come back to Moses.
What I love about those who persecute us and call us "greasy grace" and say we just want a "license to sin" is that their accusations reveal the character. So, we end up saying, "you know what? I do not want to go back to those guys! They are all in darkness! I don't want to be like them!" They are literally the most terrible people we've ever met. This is true that religious people who stay in darkness and apostatize against the present truth must harden themselves to do so. In doing so, they manifest that they are of the devil.
Discipline and God's Training of the Senses
All of this is part of God's discipline to train our senses to know the difference between good and evil (Hebrews 5:14). Those who oppose the truth are associating themselves with things from God, and the things of religion, and they seem "really holy and spiritual good", but they are revealing in their character through their accusations and their slander and their lies and the things they're willing to do to people who don't toe the line with them that they are of the devil! For the believers who are undergoing persecution, that is a discipline, a training! They are learning to distinguish what is truly evil. When we were originally becoming sensitive to the truth and the falsehood in religion, we often felt guilty for accusing the "godly good people". Why? Because they looked so good and Godly and yet we knew they were walking contrary to the truth! God has to train this sense in us so that we will learn not to just judge by appearances but by what is really in harmony with the truth.
God working within. You must remember that the Hebrew believers were God's children, so they had in them the high priest interceding for them in their weakness. They would feel a contrary "tug" even though the persecution was so strong. Even though everything looked so right about Judaism, they had been bound to a high priest who was faithful to intercede for them in their weakness. They would feel in them the shepherding work of Christ to say, "come on, let us go! You've got to come forward!" That is why they cannot deny Him, because He is in them. That is what Hebrews is about.
Hebrews is about telling you what has been rooted in you so that you cannot depart from Him. OF all the books, Hebrews more surely establishes the security of the believer in Christ because it is all based on the high priesthood of Christ. That is beyond what I can get into here, but I strongly recommend my Hebrews book, "shepherded into rest."
Living in Subjection to the Father of Spirits
Heb 12:9-11 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
This reminds me of two things. In John 4, Jesus said "there is coming a day when you are not going to go to Jerusalem or to this mountain to worship the Father, but those who worship Him will worship in Spirit and in truth. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth." The children of God are not tethered to an earthly temple in their worship. He has been installed at the center of their being as a fountain of living water.
It also reminds me that in Hebrews 9, he says "how much more shall the blood of Christ who offered Himself up through the Eternal Spirit cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" The Father of Spirits is the God of the living and the Living God, and He is in our spirit! We are dealing with spiritual realities, now carnal ordinances. That is what the discipline is about. It is to get us out of the realm of the flesh and to train us to come forward to Christ and to be willing even to endure the afflictions from the so-called people of God. They will call you disobedient and unholy, and yet they are the ones counting the blood of Christ an unclean thing and sinning against God's present speaking.
You are the one that is actually enduring the discipline of God and showing that you are a son of God.
(10) For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
This is the verses that tells me that God does not discipline the way I do. I discipline sometimes out of a sense of justice with my kids. I am angry and I want my feelings to be satisfied. But He trains us for our Good out of love, never out of anger. So, this is the context for the discipline. God is not trying to show you how angry He is or how grieved He is at you. This is not about your little sins and your little habits. Those are to be dealt with by the blood of Christ in His presence as you come forward to be washed by Him. No, this is about our tendency to shrink back into legalism and grieve God, and not enter the rest, and stay wandering around in the wilderness because of unbelief, rather than coming forward even if it means you are persecuted for it.
When you are persecuted the enemy loves to come in and make it look like you are the one who sinned. So, he damages your conscience, and you say, "you're right. Christ is sin but the law is good!" The law is good, but it is a shadow, and Christ is the reality. You cannot go back to the shadows. You must come forward to Christ. That is the Father's discipline. It is temporary. IT is not fun. But it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto those that are exercised by it.
(11) Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
Once you get over this hump and you realize, "everything is in Christ and Christ is everything. I don't care what they think about me anymore." You will be stronger than you have ever been. You will have the peaceable fruit of righteousness. This is the main hurdle to fruit bearing. Lack of fruit bearing is because we do not abide in Christ. It is usually because men are dragging us off, binding us up and putting us in the fires of their persecution. But when we start to realize that we are of God, and we are clean in Him, and we do not care what they think, there is a peaceful fruit that starts to come out! Once you get past this hurdle you identify with Christ and reject the world. It is a good thing to be with Him! The fruit starts to come out.
"Hebrews 12:12-13 Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; (13) And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed."
Remember, he said at the beginning of this chapter that you are tempted to be weary and faint in your minds. He said, consider Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself lest you be weird and faint in your minds. You have not resisted unto blood in striving against sin. He is picking up that same encouragement here. "Lift up the hands!" This is talking about how we are not of those who are shrink back unto perdition, but those who come forward by faith unto the saving of the soul. It takes God's discipline sometimes for us when we are being buffeted from every side. This is just like Peter who says in his epistles, "you're buffeted for your faults and you're spoken of as evil doers, but your obedience is to come forward to Christ by faith in the blood." This is the same thing.
The Profane in Context and bitterness
"Hebrews 12:14-17 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: (15) 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; (16) Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright"
Now this passage sounds like he is talking about "fornication" but he is not. Esau did not fornicate. He ate a bowl of porridge. The point though, is that he exchanged his birthright for that bowl of porridge. He exchanged eternal blessing for something that was set in front of his face. In that moment, this is a kind of fornication in God's eyes. Remember Jesus talked about how Jezebel seduces His servants to eat things sacrificed to idols and commit fornication. It is not talking about literal sex with another person. He is talking about not giving up the birthright for something because of ease. It would be easier to "Faint in your mind" it would be easier just to fall back and go move back with the family and the next time we see you are at the temple at Passover bringing your lamb. This would have been easier in some ways! But if they did this, because they were sons of God, He would never let them rest! They have a high priest, and they cannot shake Him! He is a shepherd so He'll leave the 99 to get the one. But this would be sinning, and a kind of spiritual fornication. The fornicators in this context are those who would go back to something less than their birthright (who is their bridegroom) to satisfy their need for acceptance and to have an easier time. Fornication is to satisfy the appetite rather than deny it all to suffer with Christ outside the camp.
Again, he is talking about persecution and not giving into it. The "root of bitterness" is the temptation to become angry that God seems to be dealing with you unfairly. You left everything! You enjoyed the spoiling of your goods and everything and associated with God's people to come out because you were rejoicing. It says you "took joyfully the spoiling of your goods at the beginning." You were so excited because of Christ but now you are becoming weary and tempted to faint in your mind. God says, "I take no pleasure in those who shrink back!" You need to get a revisit of what you have in Christ and how precious it is. That is what God's discipline is for. Otherwise, you are going to become bitter.
That coincides with Romans 8, where we are told that the carnal mind is hostile toward God because the law works wrath. When you think, you are having to serve two masters - the grace of God is here but it seems like the right thing to do is to serve the law. You will become conflicted, bitter and angry. This is not fair! No, it is not! You were supposed to die to the law and it is not placing a demand on you. People are lying to you, telling you to go back to the temple No, you have everything you need in Christ!
It will be simpler when you let go of the other things and your anger will subside. You are falling short of the grace. Now that is what he said in Galatians. By going back to the law, they were falling short of the grace. He says, "you've fallen from grace who seek to be justified by law. Christ has become of no effect to you." This is losing out on the enjoyment of Christ and the salvation of the soul and shrinking back to perdition and falling short of the grace of God. It is the same language.
We are talking about legalism.
"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."
He is warning them that they can get their heart so hardened. The whole point of Hebrews is "today if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart as the children of Israel did in the wilderness. I was grieved with that generation. They won't enter my rest!" We never want to get so hardened that God just says, "I'm so done arguing with you about grace that I'm not going to do it anymore!" You know Isaiah said, "come and reason with Me. Let us sit down and reason together that you may be justified." God wants to reason with you concerning what He has provided for your justification, so that you will cling to Him by faith and be justified and stop all this wandering around. But there is a possibility of someone just becoming so hardened that they cannot hear it anymore. "I just won't even listen to that crap anymore!" I have seen this. You know, I do believe that there are some people who are justified by faith but as far as their Christian life is concerned, they are determined that they are not going to enter. They are just hardened in their anger towards God and His people. They feel like they are in an unfair situation. They cannot be reasoned with anymore. They will not hear reasoning from the word. They double down and harden themselves.
That is what it would have taken for a believer who has the High Priest in him wrestling with him to ignore it and go back to the temple. It would have been such a huge sin against their own conscience. I do not think that necessarily happens to a grace believer where God will no longer strive with you, but I do believe there are people who rejected grace altogether who are not coming back. There does seem to be a hardness of heart among those who are persecuting and saying, "no it's law for sanctification". They are showing such an ugly character and such a hardness of heart, and you cannot reason with them.
The Joyful Atmosphere in Zion
In the next section of the Chapter, he reminds them that they have not come to a fearful atmosphere, but a joyous one. Again, he is commending God's discipline to them as a good thing.
"Hebrews 12:18-24 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, (19) 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: (20) (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: (21) And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) (22) 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, (23) 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, (24) And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Hebrews 12:25-26 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: (26) Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
He is speaking about Christ, as the one who speaks from Heaven. In the beginning of Hebrews, he says God has spoken to the fathers in many ways and in many portions through the prophets, but now in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son. That is His speaking that we need to hear now. Everything before is a shadow. Now we have the reality. In Hebrews, the temptation is to go back to the shadow.
Those who were showing that they were not actually believers were going back to the temple, and this was really confusing to the saints. There are people who do not actually believe in justification by faith but give lip service to it. They come along for quite a while but then they start to reveal themselves because they are awfully "worksy" about rewards and sanctification. Then at some point, they get offended and start doubling down. Instead of contending for the Gospel they start persecuting those who say it is "all of grace." Now, after a while, you will find that some of them say they do not understand justification by faith anymore. I know of a couple who are back at the very beginning, not understanding the foundation of the Christian life. It seems they have lost it, but they never had it.
So, there are some strong warnings in Hebrews because there are some who would have read this letter who have not yet made a full turn to Christ. We are not talking about the saved believers who are struggling in their conscience and are being disciplined, but the bastards who do not receive any discipline from the Father and remain confused. They thought this new thing sounded good. Jesus is the messiah! But then, it turns out they never really understood what Christ accomplished and what His blood represents. For them, if they reject Christ there is no other offering for sin. Even if they go back to the temple, there is nothing for them.
This is the context of the discipline in Hebrews 12. I wanted to revisit it because it is brought up so many times, and always it's brought up out of context to say the exact opposite of what God is saying. Usually, it happens while you are trying to help people to see that they can stand boldly before God, and they are in a good position as sons and heirs. Then someone will come along and say "yeah, but what about God's discipline"? Then they will quote from this chapter. This chapter says the exact opposite of what they say. They are trying to make this chapter an obstacle between people and God and attempt to portray God as angry because of sins. If God is grieved, it is because of unbelief. If you are hanging on to this concept that your sins keep you from God, then you are not laying hold of Christ. You are grieving God in your unbelief. If you do not get dealt with about it, you can harden yourself against the truth, it might reveal that you are one of the "bastards" that's not receiving the discipline. If you are not conflicted in coming to trouble other people's conscience with the "discipline" section right in the middle of someone trying to help them with the Gospel, you are probably without discipline. I see this often, and I think, "don't you have any fear of God? Don't you see what God is doing? He is setting these people free. They are testifying that they are getting free from condemnation and learning that they can come near to God, and the blood of Jesus has taken care of their sins. Then you come along and bring up God's discipline as a stumbling block? That shows that you don't know God's discipline!"
People who say, "if you're sinning, God is going to beat you, like when I get angry at my kids!" That is not what this is saying. You are taking it out of context to make God into the hard taskmaster and to rig the court against us when it was "rigged" in our favor! No, the admonition is always to come nearby faith, and the discipline is so that we will! The discipline is because you are vacillating between two opinions. Once you come to Christ, He is the one who can sanctify and purify you. You cannot sanctify yourself. Nor can you stop sinning or deal with sins. You cannot deal with sin. That is why you need to have an offering. However, He dealt with sin once and for all, and when you come to Him with a heart full of assurance in faith, He sprinkles your heart and washes your body with water and cleanses you! Then you get a real holiness that works. Holiness is in Christ, and we are to seek holiness, which is Christ Himself. He is our sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:31). This is not by law keeping but by coming forward to Him by the blood. The people who want to try to use this chapter against you, whether they know it or not, are putting a stumbling block in your way while you are trying to run your race. They are putting a weight on you to encumber you and weary you and then tell you that it is God's discipline!
I have talked to some of these people. And I will ask them, "tell me an instance where God disciplined you and tell me what it was like." They will talk about all the condemnation they felt when they sinned. That is not the Father's discipline that is their evil conscience! It is from a heat of unbelief. Sorry, the condemnation is not what the Father wants you to have. There is no condemnation in Christ. AS far as sin is concerned, He bore our chastisement! He was wounded for our transgressions. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. He was bruised for our iniquities. He is not going to bruise us for our iniquities when He already bruised His son. Everything is finished. Now the discipline is a training to come forward to Him and to receive the benefit of His great salvation.
Discipline is not because you have done something bad. It is a training. All sons are partakers of discipline whether good or bad. Every branch that bears fruit in Christ gets pruned so that it may bear more fruit. God is going to bring you through it whether you are doing good or bad! You are His. The people who misuse this Chapter are speaking badly of God's discipline and trying to get you to avoid it. They will tell you, "We want to keep the law so that we can avoid God's discipline". If you do not have His discipline, you are a bastard! You do not want to avoid His discipline; you want to embrace it because it's for your good. It is not pleasant, but you cannot avoid it. You are going to go through it. You are going through it! A lot of times you do not realize it until you are on the other side. They just thought they were being persecuted and getting confused, and yet being told by the apostles to come forward to receive grace. But then the writer of Hebrews told them that they were being disciplined.
People think God's discipline is because they sinned, and God is going to come and beat them, so they will not "Want" to do that thing anymore. But even if you do not want to do that thing anymore, it will not help. The law of sin in your members will cause you to do it again if you are focused on your performance and yourself and your sufficiency and not Christ! Sin is something more than you have the power to deal with. You need to come forward to your high priest with the blood, by faith. You need to receive power from Him. That is the only way to deal with sin. It does not matter what your motive is or how badly you want to be free. That is not what frees you. What frees you is Christ and coming forward to Him. Eventually He will purge you so that you do not even have a conscience of sin. Eventually you come to Him because of the joy of being associated with Him, not because of sin. But that is a journey. That is His desire, to eventually deal with you in a situation that does not always reference sin. But he must perfect your conscience to do that, and it takes discipline, and your labor to enter His rest.