Hebrews 10:37-39 – Faith that Preserves

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 7 July 2019

Intro:

• Last time, we looked at how we can preserve our faith by remembering God’s past providences and by bearing in mind God’s promises for the future. Now, I want to look, not at how we preserve faith, but at how faith preserves us! My thesis is that “Bold Faith In Jesus’ Righteousness Will Preserve Your Soul.”

• v.37 begins with the word “For,” so it is linked with the previous verses logically. Remember verses 35-36 that we ended with last week: “Therefore, don’t y’all throw away your open-access which has [such] a great payoff, for ya’ll have need of endurance in order that, after y’all have done the will of God, y’all may obtain what was promised.” (NAW) Don’t throw away approaching the throne of Grace by means of Jesus, confessing your sin and trusting Jesus to make you right with God, keep persevering in that lifestyle in order to get the reward that was promised, because Jesus is coming back, and it won’t be much longer:

v.37 For, it will be “such a little yet... [the One who] is coming will arrive, [and] He isn’t taking His time

• or “will not delay/tarry” - The quote in Habbakuk is future tense, but here in Hebrews it’s actually present tense. Not only WILL God not be late, He IS not lazy either. God isn’t twiddling His thumbs, or lost in a game, or goofing-off; He is being very purposeful about His work of saving His people, carefully timing everything, so that all is right on-time.

• We need patient endurance in faith even when it’s difficult – even when our earthly experience tells us it’s a lost cause.

  • John Calvin commented, “There is indeed nothing that avails more to sustain our minds, should they at any time become faint, than the hope of a speedy and near termination.”

  • My wife and I teach childbirth education classes on the side, and there is typically a point in a woman’s labour when it becomes so overwhelming to her that she says, “I can’t do this anymore! Shoot me! Give me drugs! I just want to quit!” That is usually when the labour process transitions from opening the uterus to pushing the baby out, and it is a fairly brief stretch of time. We teach husbands to say at that point, “Can you give me just one more contraction? It won’t be much longer. Our baby is almost here!” That’s kind-of like what Hebrews 10:37 is saying.

• The author of Hebrews uses quotes from two Old Testament prophets who predicted the earlier overthrow of Jerusalem for its apostasy:

1. First is Isaiah 26:20b "hide for a little while [μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον] until the fury [of the Lord] shall pass over." (NAW)

2. and second is Habakkuk chapter 2, vs. 3-4, which originally read, “...the vision [that is the vision of the coming destruction of Judea by the Chaldean army] is yet for an appointed time... Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith.” (NKJV)

• The “coming one” is, of course, Jesus, who is characterized among the persons of the Trinity as the One who comes¹ into this world and goes and comes again.

  • He is the one referred to back in verses 7-9, "Then He said, ‘Look, I have arrived… to accomplish your desire.’ He is annhilating the first in order that He may officiate the second!" (Hebrews 10:9, NAW)

  • In the Apostle’s mind, every scripture is about Jesus, and so, in this case, he equates the coming of Habbakkuk’s vision of the Babylonian army to the coming of Christ in the future.

    • The destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD was a coming of Christ – it fits many of the proph­ecies of Jesus, and is the immediate crisis predicted in the book of Hebrews.

    • We also anticipate another coming which will fulfill the rest of the prophecies of Jesus and the prophets and apostles,

• but the application is the same as it was in Isaiah’s time and Habbakuk’s time and the time of Hebrews: under the impending doom of God’s wrath against sinners, the only path of life is faith in the one true God.

  • Jesus also applied this in His parables: Matt. 24:44-51 “...y'all also must continue being prepared, because the Son of Man is coming in which hour you are not suspecting. Who then is the faithful and smart servant whom his master will stand in His stead over His household staff to give the food to them in a timely way? That servant will be blessed who, when his master comes, He will find him doing thus. Really, I'm telling y'all that He will stand him in His stead over all of His possessions! But if that bad servant happens to say in his heart, 'My master is taking His time in coming,' and he begins to beat up his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunks, the master of that servant will arrive during a day in which he is not anticipating [it] - and during an hour which he does not know, and He will cut him in two, and he will set his district to be with the hypocrites – wailing and gnashing of teeth will be there.” (NAW)

  • “When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith [when He reviews you]?” (Luke 18:8)

v.38 but [my] righteous one will live on the basis of faith... {and} if he happens to hold back, my soul will not delight in him.”

• ὑποστείληται...  means to “cower” or “shrink”… It literally translates to "draw in under," or even to “back off” in compromise. The connotation is almost always cowardice or regression in a negative sense.

  • It brings to mind synonymous passages like Gen. 3:8, where Adam & Eve hid from God,

  • or Jesus' warning "whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."² (Matt. 10:33)

• Of the eight other times this word appears in the Greek Bible, most are in situations where strong faith in God would lead a person to make a strong public statement, but weak faith in God would lead a person to “hold/shrink/draw back” in some way. Here are 3 examples:

1. Deuteronomy 1:17 “Thou shalt not have respect to persons in judgment, thou shalt judge small and great equally; thou shalt not shrink from before the person of a man, for the judgment is God's" (Brenton)

• A judge who is not confident that God will bless the administration of Biblical justice will be tempted to please the defendant or accuser who could offer him the most benefit in the future, but a judge who fully trusts in God’s justice will “tell it like it is” and won’t be afraid to “step on the toes” of powerful people.

• Several years ago, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roberts “shrank back” from declaring the obvious truth that it is a violation of the Constitution for the federal government to take over health insurance. He hedged by saying it was a legitimate tax. He has been the butt of ridicule ever since, because everybody knows it wasn’t intended to be a tax; he just didn’t have the courage to stand up to the political powers.

• Now, whether you are a Supreme Court Judge or whether you are just arbitrating a conflict between your friends or siblings, believing God’s word will make you fair and just and will leave you with no regrets.

2. The same is true with personal convictions: The Apostle Paul describes in Galatians 2 how he stood toe-to-toe against the Apostle Peter himself, called him a hypocrite, and straight­ened out Peter’s fudging on the Gospel: “for before certain men came from James, he [Peter] would eat with the Gentiles; but [after] they came, he withdrew and separated him­self, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him... But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, ‘...do not set aside the grace of God; for if right­eousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.’" (Gal. 2:12-14&21, NKJV)

• Considering Peter’s personality, that confrontation took some guts, but faith can give you the courage to stand up for God’s word and not “wimp out” when a nationally-known speaker comes out with something compromising.

3. The Gospel can give you the courage to share the good news with others: Acts 20:17-27 “From Miletus [Paul] sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them: "...I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testi­fying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ... [but] in every city... chains and tribulations await me. But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God... I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God." (NKJV)

• Jewish leaders tried to intimidate Paul everywhere he went, threatening him with scourgings and imprisonments. Paul could have held back and stopped talking so much about Jesus. Paul could have held back and shared the Gospel only with Jews so that Jewish folk would not discriminate against him for associating with Gentiles, but Paul set an example of uncompromising preaching of “repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,” and, as a result, he had no regrets. Nobody could accuse him of not sharing the gospel with them.

• Is there anybody who could accuse you of holding back on sharing this good news with them? What is it that you are not believing about the Gospel that prevents you from sharing it?

• The Greek Aorist Subjunctive grammar in Hebrews 10:38 indicates that this “holding back” may or may not happen, but if it even happens once, it will cause God’s displeasure.

• This isn’t the first time in this chapter that God’s pleasure/delight/eudokia has been men­tioned, is it? Verse 5, “...when he entered into the world, He said, ‘You did not desire a sacrifice or an offering, but you fixed up a body for me.’ ⁶ You did not delight in whole-burnt-offerings and [offerings] for sin. ⁷ Then I said, 'Look, I have arrived! In the volume of the book it has been written concerning me… to do Your will, my God.' ⁸ He said above that ‘you neither desired nor delighted in sacrifices and offerings and whole-burnt-offerings and those concerning sins,’ which are being offered according to the Law.” (NAW)

  • Remaining in Judaism with its obsolete sacrificial system is a form of “holding back” on faith in Jesus and is displeasing to God.

  • Likewise, “following the crowd” in any age instead of following Christ in faith is a form of “drawing back” which displeases God.

  • “The question is not, whether the elect shall persevere; that is a clearly revealed truth; but the question is, Am I among the number? This I cannot know but by believing and persevering in believing and in the necessary results of believing.” ~John Owen³

• I believe that the “righteous one” is used in the sense of the imputed righteousness which David talked about in the Psalms – we are those who are “made righteous” by Jesus’ atonement. Our righteousness is therefore derivative and not something that comes from us, although it is real-ly attributed to us. Jesus is the only intrinsically righteous man.⁴

• What does it mean to “live by faith”?

  • Jesus is coming. He will punish all who have disobeyed Him, but He will also save all who put their trust in Him to be their great high priest to atone for their sin with his blood and reconcile us to God.

  • The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (NKJV)

  • We’re going to be introduced to many more examples of what it means to live “by faith” in the rest of this chapter – and what the faith of the Old Testament saints led them to do.

  • If you're not actively striving forward in faith ("My righteous one shall live by faith"), you are shrinking back and displeasing God ("if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him").

  • If you have been justified, then your lifestyle is going to be one of faith.

v.39 But as for us, we are not about holding back, resulting in destruc­tion, rather, we are about faith, resulting in preservation of the soul!

• Destruction is the result of being under god’s wrath for your sin without having a savior to appease God’s wrath.

  • This “destruction,” by the way, is not annihilation, for the scriptures teach the eternal existence of the soul and the eternal punishment of the wicked; it is more the experience of “perishing” without spiritual life, apart from God and anything good.

• “Dialing back” on faith to keep from being too radical for your social circles – or “checking-out” altogether to avoid criticism and ostracism for being a Christian – is not going to help you in the long run.

• Only genuine, whole-hearted, no-holds-barred faith will do you any good, and that gift of faith (which we must work to preserve) will, in turn, result in the preservation of our souls.

• The Greek word translated “preserving/saving” is περιποίησιν is translated “possess” or “obtain” in other Bible verses.

  • It is a compound of the Greek word for “around” and the word for “make.” It implies a careful maintenance, or "a making to remain around" as your possession.

  • The dual meaning of “possessing” and “preserving” takes as implicit that whatever you possess that you are not preserving, you are possessing less and less, or you are not truly, fully possessing it. To possess something requires a preservation, a continual possession so to speak.

  • The point is that saving faith is active and intentional. The waiting which we are exhorted to in v.37, is not passive, but is a lifestyle (v.38).⁵

  • The Apostle Peter spoke of it this way: 1 Peter 2:7-9 “This Precious One therefore is yours – for you who believe, (but as for those who remain non-compliant, ‘this stone which the builders rejected became the corner stone.’ And [this] ‘stone of stumbling’ or ‘rock of scandal’ which they stumble upon while being non-compliant with the Word, is that into which also they were appointed.) Y'all, however, are a select kind, a priestly royalty, a holy ethnicity, a people made to be around [Him περιποίησιν] in such a way that y'all might extol the virtues of Him who called y'all out of darkness into His marvelous light...” (NAW)

• “We shall not reach the goal of salvation except we have patience, for the Prophet declares that the just lives by faith; but faith directs us to things afar off which we do not as yet enjoy; it then necessarily includes patience… the Apostle does not speak here of the whole of what faith is, but selects that part of it which was suitable to his purpose, even that it has patience ever connected with it.”” ~J. Calvin

11:1 Now, faith is the understanding [substance/assurance] of things being hoped for; it is the making of a case [evidence/conviction] concerning matters which are not being seen,

• “For since the objects of hope seem to be unsubstantial, Faith gives them substantiality, or rather, does not give it, but is itself their substance [οὑσία]. For instance, the Resurrection has not come, nor does it exist substantially, but hope makes it substantial in our soul... If there­fore it is an ‘evidence of things not seen,’ why forsooth do you wish to see them, so as to fall away from faith, and from being just/righteous, since ‘the just shall live by faith,’ whereas ye, if ye wish to see these things, are no longer faithful… So wait; for this is Faith: do not seek the whole here.” ~J. Chrysostom, c.400AD

• The Greek word pistis is translated into English with the words “belief,” “faith,” and “trust,” all of which basically mean the same thing. And our “believing/faith/trust” has also been mentioned many times in Hebrews: 4:3 "...we who have become believers are entering into His rest... 6:1 ... the foundation of repentance from dead works and of trust upon God... 6:12 ...be imitators of those who, through faith and longsuffering, are inheriting the promises ... 10:22 let's keep approaching with sincerity of heart in full assurance of faith... v.38 ... [my] righteous one will live by faith... v.39 ... faith, resulting in preservation of the soul!" (NAW)

• Two statements are made of our Christian faith in Hebrews 11:1

1. Faith is the hupotasis/substance/assurance of what is being hoped for.

• What is being hoped for? “Hope” has already been mentioned many times before in Hebrews: 3:6 “...hold on to the confirmed open practice and confident expression of THE hope until the end... 6:11 we desire for each one of y'all to display the same diligence toward the full assurance of the hope until the end… 6:18 ...we who have escaped to grab the hope which is being set forth, might have strong comfort... 7:19 ...a better hope through which we get close to God… 10:23 Let's hold onto the unrelenting confession of our hope, because the One who promised is faithful." (NAW)

• How is faith the hupostasis of what is hoped for?

  • The Greek word hupostasis is a compound of two words meaning “stand” and “under,” so, literally, it is a “substructure” that you can “stand on top of,”

  • and figuratively, it is a proven truth, or “understanding” that you are so “confident/sure” of that you can build other ideas upon it solidly.

  • “Faith is the foundation of hope; it is the fulcrum upon which hope rests” wrote John Owen

  • “For the man of faith… hope is something sure and substantial precisely because it is founded on the objective reality of the immutable promises of God, who cannot lie.” ~P.E. Hughes

  • Greek lexicographers Moulton and Milligan referenced ancient papyri from Greek-speaking Egyptians who used this term to mean a “title-deed” which you can use to prove your ownership of something, and indeed, if you have the gift of faith to believe and wait for the fulfillment of God’s gospel promises, your faith is a proof that eternal life is yours, even though that faith is not what earned those promises. You didn’t pay for your vehicle with your car title; the title is just a proof that you are the owner of that car.

  • Heb. 3:14 already linked these two concepts of hupostasis and faith: “...we have become companions of the Anointed One if indeed we hold on to the beginning of our confirmed understanding/confidence/assurance/conviction until the end.” (NAW)

2. The second statement about faith in Hebrews 1:11 is that it is “the making of a case [evidence/conviction] concerning matters which are not being seen”

• The “matters which are not visible” are the “things hoped for,” the “eternal inheritance” and the “salvation of [our] souls.”

• So, what faith does is, it lays out the evidence to our heart and mind, arguing for the existence of these things, since our eyes and ears are not equipped to sense these spiritual realities; faith “convinces” and “convicts” us that God’s promises are true and worthy of banking our lives on, even though they are currently invisible to us.

• This noun ἔλεγχος, which describes this second action of faith, can be found through­out the Greek translation of the Proverbs⁶, where it is usually translated “reproof” – in parallel with “correction.” (It also occurs in Job⁷, where Job “argues his case” before his friends and before God.)

• The verb form of this Greek word also occurs in Titus 1:13, where Paul is writing to a new pastor on the island of Crete: “This testimony is true [that Cretans are all liars and gluttons]. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth.” (NKJV) That’s the same thing the book of Hebrews is doing: “giving rebuttals” to Jewish legalism and ceremonies in order to bolster “faith” in Jesus and His salvation.

• Have you ever had one of those moments when you questioned Christianity, and then, like a pile-driver, proof after proof came to your mind of how the Gospel is for-real, and so the doubts were driven back? That is fairly normal to happen occasionally to a Christian, and that’s what the Bible says faith does.

• “A promise is made respecting future good. I am satisfied that He who promises is both able and willing to perform His promise. I believe it; and in believing it, I have a confidence respecting the things which I hope for. A revelation is made respecting what is not evident either to my sense or my reason. I am satisfied that this revelation comes from One who cannot be deceived, and who cannot deceive. I believe it; and in believing it, I have conviction in reference to things which are not seen.” ~John Brown of Edinborough, 1862

• “Faith… is not just a state of immovable dogmatism but a vital certainty which impels the believer to stretch out his hand, as it were, and lay hold of those realities on which his hope is fixed and which, though unseen, are already his in Christ. In striking contrast to the man whose values are entirely those of this present world, the Christian is animated by the conviction that it is the very things which are not (yet) seen, those things which he appropriates by faith, that are real and permanent; he walks by faith, not sight (2 Cor. 4:18, 5:7).” ~P.E. Hughes, 1977

11:2 and it was for this that the ancients got a good reference⁸.

• The Greek word presbuteros, which I translated “ancients,” is the same one used for church “elders,” but here in this context it clearly refers to the Old Testament “heroes of the faith” listed in the rest of this chapter.

• It was by means of faith – and also as a result of their exercise of faith – that they made the “heroes of the faith hall of fame,” or, as v.2 says more literally, they “got a good reference/obtained a good report/gained approval/obtained a good testimony/were commended/received commendation.”

• For their example of faith, Enoch and Abraham and Moses and Joshua and Rahab and David and Samuel and the prophets are profiled in Hebrews 11 and commended for trusting God.

Conclusion

• “These things were indeed said to the Hebrews, but they are a general exhortation also to many of those who are here assembled. How and in what way? To the faint-hearted; to the mean-spirited. For when they see the wicked prospering, and themselves faring ill, they are troubled, they bear it impatiently: while they long for the chastisement, and the inflicting vengeance on others; while they wait for the rewards of their own sufferings. ‘For yet a little time, and He that shall come will come.’ Let us then say this to the slothful: Doubtless there will be punishment; doubtless He will come, henceforth the events of the Resurrection are even at the doors.”~J. Chrysostom⁹

Side-by-side Greek Text & English Versions of Heb. 10:37-11:2^A