Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 11 Nov. 2018
We hear reports of tropical storms and flooding from time to time - especially around Florida, and my wife's parents tell the story of a girl they knew whose parents strapped her to a wooden door to keep her from drowning in one of those terrible floods. After the flood, the girl was found still strapped to the door and floating – alive! She was so young she couldn't tell the authorities anything about who she was, and her parents were never found. Their last act apparently before they drowned was to secure their daughter to something they knew would float as the floodwaters tore their house apart and buried them in a watery grave.
The passage before us today paints a similar picture of stark danger with only one thread of hope to survive it.
To get a little context, let's start back at Hebrews 4:11, which I already exposited in my last sermon, and continue forward into v.12: “Let us hurry therefore to enter into that rest in order that no one might fall due to the same example of non-compliance,
As a child, I memorized this Bible verse, and we had “sword drills” to see who could look up Bible verses the fastest, and I assumed that this passage was speaking figuratively of how powerful the message of the Bible is, but if we look at it in context, it is part of an explanation as to why we should “hurry/be diligent to enter into God's rest” through faith and obedience to the Son of God. Verse 12 gives the reason why we should hurry: “For/because” disobedient and unbelieving persons will be held accountable to someone called “the Word of God” who will execute justice with something sharper than a sword!
Some Bible scholars say that this “Word of God” is just the words of the Bible, but I think this Word is a person1. Look at the personal words:
He is “living/alive/quick,” (John 6:63)
He does things “effectively,”
He “makes judgments” in interpersonal issues,
and, moving into v.13 He has “eyes,”
and we are going to have to “give account” to him.
These are not statements you would make about a book (although there is certainly a close connection between the person of Jesus and the book about Him); I believe that Hebrews 4:12 is describing Jesus in His role as judge on Judgment Day.
This “double-edged sword” shows up three times in the Greek Old Testament, all of them relating to punishment:
It was the kind of sword Ehud made to assassinate the Moabite king who had subjugated his people (Judges 3:16),
It is the kind of sword used by the saints in Psalm 149:6 “to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments among the peoples” (Brenton),
And it is the description chosen for the fatal consequences of illicit association with the “strange woman” in Prov. 5:4.2
Compare this to the description in Revelation 20:11-16 “Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword [Revelation 1:16 & 2:12 affirm that this sword is “double-edged”], that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”
This is that “word of God... to whom we must give account”
His ability to judge is amazingly keen. Three examples of this are given in v.12:
First is the ability to “pierce to the extent of the apportionment of soul and spirit.” This is remarkable because philosophers and psychologists and theologians have spilled oceans of ink over the millenia, trying to distinguish the spirit and the soul.
For instance, Aristotle assigned a division of the soul into the nutritive, the animal, and the rational.
The early church father Apollonarius attempted to explain the union of the divine and human natures of Christ in terms of this, substituting the divine logos for the rational soul of the otherwise-animal soul of Christ... and was condemned as a heretic for it.
The classic Christian Hebrew Bible scholar Franz Delitzsch wrote that the soul and the spirit are two substances but one nature.
Scoffield, in his first reference Bible, expounded on 1 Thessalonians 5:23 by saying that “Man is a trinity... body... spirit... that part of the body... which 'knows'... [and] soul... the seat of … emotions... Because man is 'spirit' he is capable of God-consciousness... because he is 'soul' he has self-consciousness... because he is 'body' he has... world-consciousness.”
Hodge's Systematic Theology, however, refuted that ideology by pointing out that the Bible says that animals have “spirits” (Genesis 6:17, 7:15-22, and Ecclesiastes 3:21) and that the words for “soul” and “spirit” are used interchangeably in the Bible (Job 12:10, Isa. 26:9, Dan. 3:39, cf. Baruch 3:1, Phil. 1:27).
J.B. Heard, in his book, Tripartate Nature, suggested (not entirely originally) that the body and spirit were opposed to each other and that the soul was the neutral entity which decided one way or the other, thus he supported Pelagius and free will and condemned Augustine and the Reformers for their belief in total depravity.
Gordon Clark, in his book The Biblical Doctrine of Man pointed out, in contradistinction to Scoffield, that the Bible attributes emotions to the spirit of a man (I Kings 21:5) and that the OT word for soul (nephesh) is not equivalent to the meaning of the NT word for soul (pseuxe). Even though Clark was an expert in Greek, even he admitted that it is quite a complex thing to sort out what exactly is meant each time these words are used in the New Testament. I am convinced by his arguments for human nature only having two parts, but His conclusion on Hebrews 4:12 was that “the excellence of Christ... is that he can divide what is seemingly indivisible... soul and spirit...” - and that, I believe, is the point.
Even the choice of the Greek word merismou to describe the division is an example of the keenness of Jesus' ability to judge, because all three other times3 it is used in the Bible refer to dividing up an inheritance – portioning out what belongs to each. What should a soul get, and what should a spirit get? How much and why? Jesus knows how to figure all that out, and that should be impressive to us, and that amazement should throw us upon Him to make us right with God!
The second illustration of Jesus' keen ability to judge is similar to the first, except, instead of requiring the expertise of an astutely philosophical psychologist, it requires the expertise of a orthopedic doctor.
What's the difference between “joints” and “marrow”? As far as I can tell, it's the difference “between spaces inbetween bones”... and “spaces inbetween bones.” I can't make out a difference,
but Jesus will be able to ferret out and observe every physical piece of evidence that will condemn you as guilty, so you'd better not try to dispute with Him on judgment day. Run to Him to save you instead.
You want Jesus to be the crack lawyer defending you, not the relentless lawyer condemning you.
The third illustration of Jesus' keen ability to judge has to do with the terrifying ability He has of knowing what you are thinking and therefore His ability to punish you systematically, not only for what you did, but for every wrong thought that you thought.
He (not “it” as the NIV reads) – he is a discerner/able to judge thoughts and intentions/resolutions of the heart. (Like the previous two pairs of words, these two words are also practically synonymous, and if they are divided it means the death of the individual, certainly a judicial punishment.)
No human court has the ability to judge thought crimes; that's why there are safeguards in place in our American court regulations to keep people from being punished for thoughts. Actions are the only thing we can somewhat-accurately determine evidentially and punish for, but Jesus is capable of taking justice to a whole new level.
It's in the Gospels too. Repeatedly, Matthew asserted that Jesus knew the ἐνθυμήσεων (thoughts) of the people around Him and He nailed them for wrong thoughts! (Matt. 9:4, 12:25)
Revelation 2:23 “...I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.” (NKJV)
A God who can hear every thought you think can be justly offended merely by you questioning Him internally, merely by you entertaining the thought of complaining, merely by you considering an opportunity to sin, even if you never actually come out and say or do what you thought. Brothers and sisters, we are far more stained with sin than we realize! Without Jesus and His salvation, we are hopeless cases.
The next verse relentlessly hammers the point home. When Jesus judges, He will miss nothing and noone:
Our sins will be clear-as-day to Him.
Job 26:6 says that even “Sheol is naked [gymnos] before Him...” (NKJ)
The other word τραχηλίζω paints an intense picture: Thayer's Greek lexicon defines it as 1) to seize and twist the neck or throat... 2) to bend back the neck of a victim to be slain...
That is the state we are naturally in, like a naked creature unable to hide a single shameful reality about ourselves, held around the throat so that our most vulnerable vitals are exposed, helpless to do anything to preserve our own life under the scrutiny of the judge of all the earth, doomed to perish without pity.
That sounds very much like the Judgment Day described in Revelation 6:15-17 “And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'"
The fact that every “creature” will be judged is the reason why Jesus said that the good news must be preached to every creature (Mark 16:15 "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” NKJV) But for those of us who have heard this good news and believed it, we must continue to hold fast to it.
The focus is upon Jesus, and this is the conclusion of the logical argument which started in v. 11, exhorting us to “make haste to enter” into God's rest.
The reason to pursue this with all diligence is that there will come a judgment which will be so meticulous in accountability that no sin will missed or overlooked; every one will be punished to the full extent of the law.
The other part of the reason for urgency in entering into the rest of God's salvation is that this nit-picky judge is, at the same time, available to fulfill the function of a priest and wipe out the guilt of every single one of our sins.
In light of such a great threat of judgment and in light of such a great offer of propitiation, it should be a no-brainer to get right with that judge and avail yourself of His services as high priest!
The logical argument reaches a conclusion (of at least this sub-point) now in v.14 with the word, “Therefore,” followed by a hortatory command, “let us hold fast our confession.”
The Greek verb kratwmen is present tense, so it implies continuing to hold on to something tightly. What is it that we are to “hold on to”?
The Greek object could be translated literally “the same-word” τῆς ὁμολογίας.
It is often translated into English as “con-fession” but the English word “confess” carries a connotation of “admitting to doing something wrong” which the Greek word does not carry.
In Greek, Homologias just means “speaking words that are consistent with some objective standard,” such as a “confession” of faith.
No further wording is given at this point, so our English translations have to add a word or two to give appropriate context, but the context is clear back in Hebrews 3:1 “...nail down in your minds that the One so commissioned and the High Priest whom we confess is Jesus the Anointed One.” (NAW)
The “confession” which we must “continue to carry through on” is that Jesus is the “anointed one” “commissioned” by God to be a high priest for us to deal with our sins and make us right with God. This is the essence of Christian faith.
This same verb “hold fast” is used throughout the New Testament to speak of maintaining faith in Jesus and His good news:
Colossians 2:17-19 “...the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you [out] of your reward ... not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. (NKJ)
2 Thess. 2:13-15 “...God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold [fast] the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.” (NKJV)
Revelation 2:13 "I know your works... And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith...” (NKJ)
Revelation 3:11 "Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.” (NKJ)
Revelation 2:25 "... hold fast what you have till I come.” (NKJ) says Jesus.
There are a couple of unique phrases in this verse which underscore the uniqueness and special-ness of Jesus.
The first is the adjective “great” - which is really superfluous to the word “high” in the title “high priest.”
It is used nowhere else in the Bible, but, I noticed that in the Apocryphal books of the Maccabees, a few of the high priests chronicled were referred to as “great high priest” although normally the same priests were referred to as “high priest.”
I infer from this that “high priest” was the official title, but an individual might refer to a particular high priest who was dear to them or who had done something particularly heroic as a “great high priest,” as a personal expression of honor upon an already-highly-honored priest.
How special is Jesus to you? Do you consider Him holy enough to use special terms of honor or endearment when you refer to Him?
The other unique phrase in this verse referring to Jesus is that He “has passed through the heavens” - it occurs nowhere else in the Bible.
Some Bible commentators think it is an allusion to the Old Testament High priest entering in to the holy of holies, and comparing that to Jesus' far-more-impressive entrance into heaven up to the very throne of God.
The perfect tense of the Greek word di-erxomai indicates that He “came through” at some point in the past and that the results of that “coming through” continue on into the present.
I think that the King James Version did the best job of all the standard English versions of bringing the meaning of this into English. Other modern versions render the verb as though Jesus made some kind of epic treck across heaven, but that doesn't make any sense in the context of Hebrews.
The Greek prefix translated “through” doesn't refer to Jesus going through heaven, but rather it refers to the utterly unique breakthrough event of Jesus crossing through from heaven into earth and back again into heaven, doing what no other high priest had ever done before, and doing it so effectively that it would never need to be done again (as the Perfect tense implies), filling the office as the most awesome high priest ever!
If our sins were laid on him while He was on earth, and if He had not adequately paid for them, He would never have crossed back into heaven, but the fact that He did proves that He has the remedy we need for sin! He is the door that can float us out of the flood of God's wrath.
So what does it look like to “hold fast to/carry through on” our confession of faith in Jesus?
Remember that “we have a great high priest.” You are not on your own to navigate spiritual things; you are not alone; you are not without help; you have Jesus. Don't forget that He is with you; hold fast to Him.
When you encounter evil within yourself or outside of yourself, don't panic; don't spiral into depression; keep trusting Jesus to cleanse you from sin and make things right. The Word of God is living, powerful, and efficacious and will not fail to make things right, although we will usually have to wait a bit to see the results.
And keep confessing faith in Jesus by opening your mouth and talking about Him with other people around you in life.
Certainly your household needs to hear about Him – your roommates, your spouse, your children, your grandchildren – they need to be encouraged and built up in the true faith,
and then there's the non-Christians around you who are part of all of that creation that Jesus said we need to preach the gospel to. Carry through on your confession!
There is no reason to be embarrassed about confessing faith in Jesus. He is greater than the angels, greater than Moses, He sees all things, He can judge and punish better than anyone, and he is the greatest of all priests, being Himself the Son of God, and having made the passage from heaven to earth and back to accomplish the greatest mission of redeeming mankind from the wrath of God. No matter how much the skeptics ridicule Him, our great high priest is someone to be quite proud of and to be confessed openly!
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Majority |
NAW |
KJV |
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11 ΣπουδάσωμενA οὖν εἰσελθεῖν εἰς ἐκείνην τὴν κατάπαυσιν, ἵνα μὴ ἐνB τῷ αὐτῷ τις ὑποδείγματι πέσῃ τῆς ἀπειθείας.C |
11 Let us hurry therefore to enter into that rest in order that no one might fall due to the same example of non-compliance, |
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. |
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12 Ζῶν γὰρ ὁ λόγος τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ ἐνεργὴςD καὶ τομώτερος ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν μάχαιραν δίστομον καὶ διϊκνούμενος ἄχρι μερισμοῦ ψυχῆς τε καὶ πνεύματος, ἁρμῶνE τε καὶ μυελῶν, καὶ κριτικὸς ἐνθυμήσεων καὶ ἐννοιῶνF καρδίας· |
12 for the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, even penetrating up to the apportionment of both soul and spirit – both of joints and of cavities-between-bones, and He is discerning of thoughts and resolutions of the heart, |
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing [asunder] of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrowX, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. |
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13 καὶ οὐκ ἔστι κτίσις ἀφανὴςG ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ, πάντα δὲ γυμνὰ καὶ τετραχηλισμέναH τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς αὐτοῦ, πρὸς ὃν ἡμῖν ὁ λόγοςI. |
13 and there is no [such thing as] a non-apparent creature in His presence, for all things are naked and have been laid bare to His eyes, before whom the reckoning will be for us. |
13
Neither is there a[ny] creature that is not manifest in his
sight: but all things are naked and opened
unto the eyes of him with whom X |
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14 ῎Εχοντες οὖν ἀρχιερέα μέγανJ διεληλυθότα τοὺς οὐρανούςK, ᾿Ιησοῦν τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, κρατῶμεν τῆς ὁμολογίας. |
14 Therefore, since we have Jesus, the Son of God, the Great High Priest who has crossed into the heavens, let us keep carrying through on our confession [of faith in Him]. |
14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. |
1Wesley, Adam Clark, JFB, Vincent, A.T. Robertson, Hughes and Barker argued that the logos is the Bible, and Chrysostom and Barnes seemed to lean that direction. Brown argued that it couldn't mean Jesus, but then applied it mostly to Jesus. Athanasius, Owen and Gill argued that it is Jesus. Henry went both ways, although he seemed to lean toward Jesus.
2Compare with the apocryphal Sirach 21:3 “All iniquity is as a two edged sword, the wounds whereof cannot be healed.” (Brenton)
3Josh 11:23, Ezr. 6:18, Heb. 2:4
AI chose L&N#25.74 (be eager) over 68.63 (work hard) again to avoid the implication that hard work is what gives us peace with God - I have seen too many people harmed by this idea. However, I prefer the root meaning of haste/hurry.
BI tagged this word with L&N#37.7a (“under the influence of their example of disobedience”), but the tag that won the most support was 89.26 (“because of”).
CThe contrast word is pisteusantes in 4:3 (believe), and in 4:2 it is the union of “faith.” The parallel phrase is “harden your hearts” (again a mental event), and there are no outward acts of disobedience mentioned in the context. Furthermore, the reason given for the danger in the next two verses is not that God is watching your actions, but that your judge is able to perceive the “thoughts and intentions of your heart.” So, even though all the modern English translations render this word “disobedience” I side with the Vulgate and KJV in using the literal meaning of the Greek component words (“not persuaded”) - “disbelieve.” I don’t see that it makes a huge theological difference except that thoughts of unbelief are more basic than actions of disobedience, for instance, defining the difference between accidental infractions and full-blown rebellion, the latter of which is the case here.
DThis word only occurs two other times in the Greek Bible: 1 Cor. 16:9 & Philemon 1:6. The following word “tomoteros” is a hapex legomenon. The later word διϊκνούμενος only occurs once again in the Greek Bible in Exodus 26:28, and is a present participle. All of these words, together with “living” and “able to judge” are Nominative, Masculine, and Singular, matching “logos.”
EHapex legomenon, but in apocryphal books of 4 Mac. 10:5 (dislocation of human joints on a torture rack) & Sirach 27:2 (mortar joints between stones). The following word for “marrow” is nowhere else, not even in the Apocrypha.
FOnly here and 1 Pet. 4:1 in the NT, but frequently translated “understanding” in the Proverbs.
GOnly here in N.T., but in LXX in 2 Mac. 3:34, Job 24:20, Sir. 20:30 & 41:14 as “invisible/unseen.”
HHapex legomenon. Perfect passive participle
ILogos, translated word/thing/account, is nominative, so should be the subject, and hemin is dative, so it should be the indirect object, so not “We must give an account” or “we have to do the thing,” but “The word [is] to/for/directed at us.” The only other place that this phrase “ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος” occurs in the Greek Bible is Heb. 5:11, which is translated “we have to say” by all the standard versions.
JThis is the only place in the Greek Bible that we read of a “great high priest,” although it seems to have been in use among the Jews as a title for the high priest in Jerusalem when the apocryphal books of the Maccabees were written, as three high priests appear with that title in 1 Ma. 13:42,14:27,2 Ma. 14:13 (the latter being “the high priest of the great temple”), but these same priests are more frequently referred to in the books of the Maccabees as simply “high priest” so the title seems more honorific than standardardized into an actual title.
KNowhere else in the Greek Bible does this verb “passed through” occur with this object (“heaven[s]”).