Hebrews 3:12-19
“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’
“For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
So far our text.
Past, present, and future. A person’s relationship with God is viewed and understood in all those ways, from all those perspectives.
Today’s text from the Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us that the children of Israel, during the time of their wandering in the wilderness, thought of their relationship with God in these ways. These were the ones who in the past “came out of Egypt, led by Moses.”
They had seen with their own eyes the miracles that the Lord had performed for them in the past – the ten plagues, the parting of the sea, and many other things – by which God had supernaturally liberated them from their slavery in Egypt.
And Moses reminded them of the promise that the Lord had made to their forefathers, that in the future, the people of Israel – the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – would have their own homeland. That was the whole point of their Exodus from Egypt: so that they could travel to that new land, and live there to the glory of God, serving him and enjoying his favor.
But what about the present? As they were wandering in the desert of Sinai, they were aware of what God had done for them in the past, by which God had earned their trust. And they were aware of the future that God had promised for those who do trust in him.
But did they – in the in-between time; in the present time – actually trust in God? Did they, in faith, have a heartfelt remembrance of the Lord’s grace in their past?
Did they, in faith, look forward to the blessings that God had promised for their future: that what was coming was a time of rest from their sojourning, in their own country?
Sadly, in regard to most of them, they did not. The author of the Epistle tells us that it was precisely those who had been led out of Egypt, and who had heard God’s Word, who then rebelled anyway.
They provoked the God who had rescued and liberated them, so that under God’s judgment their bodies fell and were buried in the wilderness. And ultimately, because of their unbelief – in spite of everything they had seen, heard, and experienced – they were not allowed to enter the land of promise.
As a matter of rational, historical recollection, the children of Israel – during their wandering in the desert – did still know in their minds that God had engineered their deliverance from Egypt. But in their hearts, they had, in effect, lost their memory of this deliverance.
They had lost their faith and confidence in the God who had delivered them. This faith and confidence had been replaced by a poisonous cocktail of indifference, presumption, arrogance, and rebellion.
And so the generation that left Egypt was not permitted by God to enter the Holy Land. That generation had forgotten their past with God. And so that generation had no future with God, either.
Past, present, and future. Your relationship with God is also to be viewed and understood in all those ways, from all those perspectives.
What has God done for you in the past? In your baptism, he, as it were, “parted the sea” for you, and by the power of the gospel of his Son, he set you free from your inborn slavery to the power of sin and death.
Jesus’ victory over the devil, in his crucifixion and resurrection, was given to you in baptism, to be your victory in Christ. A new life of faith, in the Spirit of Christ, was also given to you.
And God pledges wonderful things for the future of his people, too. Through the Prophet Jeremiah, he says:
“I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
That’s what God has done in the past. That’s what God promises for his church in the future.
But what about the present? What about your present, right now, today?
As you are wandering through the “wilderness” of life in this world – where God’s people walk by faith, and not by sight – are you walking by faith?
Do you daily recall your baptism in repentance and faith? Or do you think about it only as a quaint ritual of your personal religious history that has no deep and abiding impact on you now?
Do you live in a godly hope of the things that are to come? Or do you live only for the earthly pleasures of the moment, with little regard for what God has done, or will do?
In view of the temptations to doubt and indifference that surround you and all church members in our fallen world – and that come at you from all angles – today’s text gives you this charge:
“Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God… For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end…”
In the Calvinist tradition of Protestant Christianity, “once saved, always saved” is a popular slogan that is often used to summarize the belief that everyone who at some point in his life did have a saving faith, will inevitably make it to heaven, and cannot be lost.
There is a sincere desire here to give honor to God, and to emphasize that our salvation is by God’s grace alone. But it is difficult to harmonize this slogan with the warnings of today’s text.
It is also a baseless superstition to think that because you were baptized in the past, you will have a place in heaven in the future, even if you have no genuine, living faith in the present. If you do not know Christ now, it is of no saving benefit to you that you once did know him, but know him no longer.
According to the Scriptures, it is indeed possible for a Christian to hurl himself out of the hands of God, to embrace the lies of the devil instead of the truth of God, and thereby to cease being a Christian. The warnings of today’s text are not for nothing.
If you set your heart on the things of this world once again, and harden your heart against the things of God, then you will perish, just as this world will perish under the judgment of God.
As you consider your wavering commitment to Christ, and as you may even be wondering right now if you still do truly believe in him, your conscience can find no true comfort today in the abstract slogan, “once saved, always saved.”
But your conscience can find comfort today in the living word of God: as that word comes to you today, and renews the promises of Christ to you today. We read in the Epistle to the Hebrews:
“Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
Today, if you will hear his voice, believe that voice. Cling to Christ now, in the present, when Christ tells you now that he has taken away your sins, and that he has purchased and won you to be his very own, with the price of his blood.
Trust in Christ now, in the present, when Christ tells you now that your sins are forgiven, and that in him you are an heir of eternal life. Believe Christ now, in the present, and receive his gifts, when he bestows his Spirit upon you, and comes to live within you.
Receive Christ himself now, in the present, when he seals to you – in the sacrament of his body and blood – the reality of your baptism into his death, and the pledge of your own rising from the dead on the last day, in the power of his resurrection.
From this perspective, then, you can and will see your relationship with God in the past, as evidence of God’s unvarying grace toward you. God is faithful, even when we are not.
And from this perspective, you can and will look forward to your future heavenly rest, and to an enjoyment of the fulfillment of all God’s promises. You can and will look forward to the eternal homeland that will be the dwelling place of his saints, with a true, God-given confidence that God keeps all his promises.
As your faith is in these ways renewed and built up by the Word of God, consider as well your weak brothers and sisters in Christ, whose faith may still be tottering on the edge.
Think about the people you know – among your relatives, or among your friends – who seem to be forgetting what God has been to them in the past; who seem to be ignoring God’s promises to them for the future; and who seem to be shutting their hearts off to God in the present: closing their ears to his Word and forsaking his house.
Think about them, pray for them, and remember what today’s text tells you about the role that you and other Christians are to play in their lives:
“Exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Jesus Christ lived for us all, he died for us all, and he rose from the grave for us all. As St. Paul writes to the Ephesians, God the Father
“raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
Indeed, Jesus does fill all in all, in the past, in the present, and in the future. He is the alpha and the omega – the beginning and the end – of the universe. He is the alpha and the omega – the beginning and the end – of your life.
And so you pray:
Let me be Thine forever, Thou faithful God and Lord;
Let me forsake Thee never, Nor wander from Thy Word.
Lord, do not let me waver, But give me steadfastness,
And for such grace forever Thy holy name I’ll bless. Amen.