Hebrews 10:29

Hebrews 10:29

When is faith genuine?

I guess we need to hit this subject head on and ponder the probability that it applies to us all! Most commentators soften the blows by suggesting that the author of Hebrews is addressing those who have tasted the salvation and the goodness of God and then turned their backs on Him. In the context of verse 26 we called them apostates, the men and women who have savoured the Gospel and then walked away, never to return. We often wonder if they were ever really believers in the first place and of course there are wolves sent amongst the flock at times, those who claim to have faith but who show little evidence of it.  However, these verses can make all of us feel uncomfortable, Romans 8:1 states, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” And yet the words we are studying seem to suggest that we need to take a hard look at ourselves to see that we are not guilty of three things: -

1.     Trampling the Son of God underfoot

2.     Treating the blood of the covenant as unholy

3.     Insulting the Spirit of grace

This faith of ours is not an add-on, a pastime, a hobby or a one-hour-on-a Sunday-morning preoccupation, it is life changing and all-consuming and deserves our complete commitment. The way that we show this is to turn away from deliberate sinning and make a full-on decision to honour our God in all that we do, think or say. We are called to be holy and to live that way, not to impress others or to make ourselves feel good, but to show reverence to the Lord. In truth, very few of us will feel that we are meeting the standards that are set or that our battle with sin is finished, we are all aware of our personal weaknesses and the silky-smooth voice of the adversary who tempts us to doubt the Lord our God. But there has to be a desire to win these battles and to long for a closer relationship with our High Priest and the God who created us to live His way. If this is so, then let’s keep pressing on – together. This Epistle still has much to show us about the rewards and the blessings of persistence in the walk of faith. Hallelujah!

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