confidence to approach: May 2006 Archives
As I mentioned in part one, the writer of Hebrews is not so much thinking of believers approaching God privately in Hebrews 10:19-25 as he is about believers approaching God corporately. Evidently, there were some believers who were neglecting to meet together (Hebrews 10:25). So, he exhorts them to make it their habit to gather together given that they all have confidence or boldness to enter the sanctuary—the place where God is encountered (Hebrews 10:19). That in itself is a remarkable statement. The writer states that every believer has objective confidence or authorization to enter the sanctuary.
A question came to mind as I was studying these verses: What was hindering these believers from gathering? Why were some neglecting to meet together? I think Hebrews indicates what was hindering these believers from gathering with the Christian assembly, namely, reproach from outsiders. A few verses after this paragraph he asks that these believers recall former days when they were “publicly exposed to reproach” (Hebrews 10:32-33). In Hebrews 11:26, he tells them that Moses “considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. In Hebrews 13:13, he exhorts them “go to [Jesus] outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.”
The question above was followed by another question: What hinders Western Christians from gathering with the saints? Why are some Western Christians neglecting to meet together? I don’t think, at least in my cultural context, that believers are hindered because of reproach from outsiders. So, I thought, if it is not external reproach that hinders, what does? Three quick answer came to mind (I’m sure I could think of several more if I took the time). First, I’m convinced that laziness hinders many. It takes hard work to gather in the way that Hebrews is calling on believers to gather. We are to make it our habit to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24). Hebrews does not allow for spectator Christianity. Christianity, as Hebrews understands it, demands participation, and participation demands hard work. Second, I believe that some neglect to meet together because they dislike some of their fellow-gathers. Some people don’t regularly gather with the Christian assembly because there are certain people at the gathering that they just do not like. They might think something like, “I’m just tired of having to deal with this person week after week. His personality really rubs me the wrong way!” Third, others don’t gather out of fear. They are afraid that others will learn what’s really in their hearts or what they are actually like at home. “If they find out what I’m really struggling with, they’ll think this or that about me and my family.”
What I love about Hebrews 10:19-25 is that it reveals the reason under all these reasons for why some neglect meeting together. Sure, people might admit that they don’t gather because it requires hard work or that they dislike others who gather or that they are afraid, but they probably will not identify the real reason underneath these symptomatic reasons. So, what’s the reason underneath the reasons? Notice how Hebrews 10:19-25 begins. “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places…” “Therefore” indicates a logical connection with what precedes. Hebrews 10:19-22 is giving a distillation of Hebrews 8:1-10:18. What do we find in this earlier section of Hebrews? An unpacking of the gospel, that is, an unpacking of what it is Christ as accomplished. We have confidence to enter because “we have…a high priest…who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 8:1). He’s seated, unlike the priests of the Old Testament who were always standing, because he finished his work making purification for sins (Hebrews 1:3). We possess this authorization to draw near because our Christ “entered once for all time into the holy places…by means of his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). The redemption that Christ secured for his people is an eternal one. Hebrews 10:15-17 then states that the Spirit himself bears witness on the basis of what Christ has done that he “will remember [our] sins and [our] lawless deeds no more.” So, what’s the reason underneath all other reasons? When we neglect meeting together with the saints it’s ultimately because we have forgotten the gospel. It is because the gospel of Christ’s accomplishment is no longer vivid to us; it’s no longer central to our consciousness.
When we neglect gathering with the saints, it’s ultimately because we have forgotten the gospel. Consider again the three superficial reasons I gave earlier. Laziness: When someone says that gathering takes too much work, they are essentially saying, “I’m really don’t see myself in need of that kind of work. I really don’t think I need to be stirred up to love and good works on a weekly basis.” What does the cross have to say about that? “Your need is far greater than you are even beginning to imagine. Your need for salvation and growth in holiness is so great that the Son of God has to die for you. He lived and died not only that the Father might accept you but that He might also grow you into the image of His Son.” Dislike for others: When we neglect to gather because there are those we dislike, we are essentially saying, “I’m likeable!” How does the gospel answer that? “When the Son of God died for you, were you likeable? No, you were his enemy! He wasn’t made like you in every respect (Hebrews 2:17) in order to call you his brother (Hebrews 2:12) because you were likeable! You are far less likeable than you think.” Fear: When we stay away from the Christian assembly because we fear others learning about what is really in our hearts, the gospel says, “The cross has already let your secret out! The cross has made visible for all to see the filth that exists in your heart. It says that the filth in your heart is so putrid that the God-Man had to die for you. Your secret has already been revealed!”
The gospel exposes the shallowness of our reasons for not gathering but it does not stop there. It goes on to say that “we have confidence to enter the holy places!” (Hebrews 10:19). We who are more sinful than we even begin to know have authorization to draw near to God himself! How can that be? Because we, sinful though we are, have a high priest who “after making purification for sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). He has dealt finally with our sin and guilt through the shedding of his own blood on our behalf. So, while the gospel says that are sin goes deeper than we know, it also says that our sin has been dealt with more profoundly than we can even begin to imagine. How profoundly? So profoundly that the writer says that “we are having confidence, boldness, authorization to enter the holy places!”
When the truth of the gospel is central to our consciousness, all superficial reasons for not gathering will fall away. Not only is the gospel the power of God unto salvation, it is also the power of God unto the gathering of the saints. Where else are the saints going to regularly hear this glorious gospel than at the Christian assembly? Don’t neglect meeting together. Let us go that we might consider how to stir one another up unto love and good works through preaching the great gospel of grace to each other.
Side Note: I think this post has application to the current blog controversy surrounding Mark Driscoll (see here and here). When we forget the gospel, we will fail to be restorative in our criticism. We will fail to see the log in our own eye. Only the gospel enables us to properly deal with the sin we observe in the lives of others. The gospel makes us humble and careful...
One reason I need to gather with the saints around the gospel is because I am too quick to forget it allowing my own pride and arrogance to go unchallenged and corrected...
I'm preaching from Hebrews 10:19-25 tomorrow on the necessity and privilege of the gathering of the church. My default mode is to read “enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus” and “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” from an individualistic perspective. I can read those words and think primarily about the great privilege I have to approach the Majesty on High (Hebrews 1:3) privately. But the writer of Hebrews is not so much thinking of believers approaching God privately as he is about believers approaching God corporately, that is, together. Just consider the repetition of “let us” in these verses (vv. 22, 23, & 24). The writer’s point is that believers are to enter the holy places together . He’s thinking primarily about believers drawing near corporately. Approaching the Majesty on High as a corporate body is the incomparable opportunity and privilege of the blood bought church.
What I find striking about these verses that call for believers to approach together is that the writer says that we together have confidence to do this. He writes, “We have confidence to enter the holy places” (Hebrews 10:19). He doesn’t say that some believers do and some don’t have confidence to enter based upon how they may or may not have lived the previous week. No, he just declares that believers have confidence period.
I find this striking for two reasons. First, if I’m not vigilant, I tend to base my confidence in drawing near to God on how I have “measured up” the previous several days. If I think I’ve lived up to a particular list of standards, I have confidence. If I consider myself to have failed in living as I believe I ought, I don’t have confidence. But the writer doesn’t appear to be thinking in these categories at all. He just says, “Brothers, we have confidence.” Second, if you read the accounts of Israel approaching God through the sacrificial system in the Old Testament, the word confidence is not what immediately comes to mind. Rather, “fear and trembling” comes to mind (cf. Hebrews 12:18-24; Numbers 4:20; 17:13).
So what accounts for this confidence? How is it that people who sin in word and deed can be said to have objective confidence to enter the holy places, a confidence that doesn’t dissipate in the wake of personal sin and in the contemplation of the God who is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29)? The writer answers this question for us? “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 (Hebrews 10:19-20). Our confidence to enter is not based upon what we have or have not done but upon what Christ has done through the shedding of his own blood. It's based upon the work of Christ. It is Christ who "entered once for all time into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption" (Hebrews 9:12).
The implications here are many. Let me highlight just one. The work of Christ frees us to gather together not as those who have our lives together but as those who don't. The fact that our confidence is based upon the work of someone else, namely, Christ, means that we all gather with the freedom to acknowledge our sin and not hide it from other believers. I have gathered with the saints with a plastic, "I'm-doing-well-spiritually-this-week" smile upon my face too many times. This smile is a sad attempt to feign confidence, to fake it, and it's evidence that I've forgotten the gospel. Only when I gather with the saints knowing that I have objective confidence to enter by the blood of Jesus will I be free to acknowledge my sin of the previous week before others. Only when I approach in the truth of the gospel will I not have to conceal my sin from myself or from the fellowship of believers. The gospel frees us to gather as we really are, namely, as people who are in need of drawing near to God by the blood of Jesus. Ultimately, the only alternative is to gather with the saints in loneliness though we are surrounded by people who are just like we are. Dietrich Bonhoeffer understood this very well.
“He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their…service, may still be left to their loneliness. The final break through to fellowship does not occur, because though they have fellowship with one another as believers and as devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among them. So we remain alone with our sin, living lies and hypocrisy. The fact is we are sinners. But it is the grace of the Gospel, which is so hard for the pious to understand, that it confronts us with the truth and says: You are a sinner, a great desperate sinner; now come as the sinner that you are, to God who loves you…He does not want anything from you, a sacrifice, a work; He wants you alone. God has come to save the sinner.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together
Bonhoeffer describes what happens to us when our confidence is based not upon the work of Christ but upon our own attempts to measure up. So, the writer of Hebrews says, "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" (Hebrews 10:19-21). The confidence that Hebrews 10:19 says we have comes to us through the work of the Messiah. It is ours by the blood of Jesus. When the work of Christ is our confidence, it changes our mindset when we draw near to God and in how we relate to our fellow-gathers.
