The Things that Belong to Salvation

At Hebrews 6:9 the author uses the phrase "things that belong to salvation."

I love that phrase, and am intrigued by that phrase, and am just a little troubled by that phrase. What are the things that belong to salvation?

As the author of Hebrews makes clear in the early stages of the letter, the little matter of who Christ is--what he has done, and what he is doing--spells salvation for troubled men and women in this troubled world. Death's dominion is from now on illusory. Christ has shattered its grip, and in so doing he has provided for all the opportunity to draw near to the throne of mercy and grace.

This is the key phrase of Hebrews: "draw near to the throne of grace." Why? Because, it is assumed, you're gonna need mercy and grace. You're gonna need it bad.

And the right things have happened, the right person has won the key battle and the right high priest now serves forever on our behalf, so that the multi-faceted  gift of mercy and grace is now available to God's needy children.

That's the gist of Hebrews so far. Draw near. To draw near is to enter into the spiritual rest and freedom from fear that is God's provision for his troubled people.

Then, in chapter 6, the author uses this phrase that has been haunting me for the last few days:

"things that belong to salvation."

I would suggest that "the things that belong to salvation" refers to the things that characterize, to one degree or another, the lives of those who have been saved. That is, those who have trusted Jesus' good news and so drawn near to the throne of grace.

I'm going to cherry-pick a couple things from this part of Hebrews (chapters 5 to 7) that might qualify for the list:

1. the power of discernment to distinguish good from evil (5:14)
2. love and service in God's name (6:10)
3. a taste of the power of the age to come (6:5)

If you think about it, that little list sums up a lot of the promises that God has made to his people. Even in the midst of our troubles--especially in the midst of trouble--God will equip us with these things. But it's worth noting that this is a corporate promise, or a promise to a body of believers, and thus is experienced most fully among believers who are sharing their lives with one another.

In other words, the things that belong to salvation belong to life together.

So Great a Jesus: A Summary of the First Four Chapters of Hebrews

[I always feel I have to explain these posts on the Letter to the Hebrews. My way of reading Scripture is to read and reread a passage, and then re-state it in various ways. I am a firm believer in this re-stating of Scripture. I do this for myself, primarily, as a way of imbibing these truths of God more deeply. It involves much repetition, and much going over of familiar ground, so I can understand why it may not necessarily be all that enlightening for others. Still, I put the process on display here at WF, just in case someone might be helped by it. What follows is simply a summary in my own words of the first four chapters.]

God has spoken to us through his Son. He has done this through what his Son taught, and through how his Son lived; in other words, through everything his Son said and did. The "message" of the Gospel, the good news for a fear-burdened people facing death on all sides, is just this: all that God's Son, Jesus, said and did. We must pay closer attention.

Remember the Israelites. They followed Moses, who spoke for God, in search of the promised land. But often their trust ran out. Their trust ran out by the side of the Red Sea, with Pharoah's army bearing down. their trust ran out in the desert, where they feared starvation. Their trust ran out even at the brink of the promised land, when they heard the stories about "giants in the land." In all these cases their fear of death conquered their trust in God, despite his many miraculous interventions on their behalf.

The author of Hebrews put is this way: he says their fear of death caused them to harden their hearts. Hardening their hearts equates to not trusting God and therefore not listening to God and therefore disobeying God (even despite all that He's done and all that He's promised). This fear of death causes them to harden their hearts, not hear the message of God, and "fall away" from the calling to which they have been called. Which is to say, their destiny of rest.

The people of God always face this same problem. The fear of death causing unrest, leading them away from their promised land destiny, and leading instead to all kinds of restlessness. What comes of this are things like bitterness, loneliness, anxiety, harshness, frenzy, and an ever deepening and devastating hardness of heart.

Therefore, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.

A lot depends, therefore, on paying attention to the message spoken to us by one greater than Moses, through signs greater even than those witnessed by the Israelites in the desert. Pay attention to this message. Lean on it. Live in it. The message is a promise of rest, through Jesus.

We share in a heavenly calling, but we walk through a desert. There will always be the temptation not to trust God, but to lean instead on some frail reed. Fortunately, Jesus, whose very name is salvation, and who was tempted in every way, and having won every battle and defeated death, is able to help us when we, through fear of death, are tempted. He is our hope. He is our rest.

All of God's promises are summed up in Jesus, our rest. Rest is associated with fulfillment, but even though we do not see the fulfillment of all God's promises just yet, we can have a foretaste of all that the Kingdom of God shall be, and "rest" is as good a word for that as any. Therefore,

Today, of you hear his voice [that is, the message of Jesus: all that he taught and all that he did], do not harden your hearts.

In other words, listen. Pay attention. See. Hear. Taste. Stand in awe.

Finally, a warning. "The word of God is living and active." Think of this phrase, "word of God," as a kind of stand-in for God all that God is and all that he does. The ESV Study Bible note puts it this way:

Usually this phrase in Hebrews refers to the message of salvation (13:7; cf. 4:2), but here the “word” is pictured as God's personal utterance, living, active, sharp, piercing, and discerning (v. 12), with eyes that expose (v. 13). The Word of God then acts as God himself, so that one's innermost thoughts and intentions are exposed. This happens constantly in Christians' lives.

Do not harden your hearts, as if to fend off the piercing and discerning action of God. This surgery won't kill you. Better yet, pay closer attention to all that He has been for you, all that He is for you, all that He shall be for you. His name is Yeshua, which means "salvation." Do not neglect so great a salvation.

Ruminating on Scripture: Hebrews 2

So I've been reading The Letter to the Hebrews lately. Well, the first few chapters, over and over. Sometimes, when you read through something, you just know you're not getting everything you could out of the passage. You're not seeing the stitches on the ball, as it were.

Me, I'm a little rusty when it comes to Bible reading. I know I'm not supposed to admit this, but I haven't been "in the Word" lately. Since it's the richest reading material I know, that just shouldn't be. My bad.

So I've begun reading Hebrews. I figure I'll just keep reading the first few chapters until I get it. Of course the first chapter of Hebrews amounts to an over-the-top hymn of praise for Jesus. I'm not going to repeat all that, because you can read it yourself, and it's pretty straightforward. Where the question comes in for me is at the start of chapter two:

Therefore [i.e., given everything he's just said about Jesus] we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (Hebrews 2:1-4 ESV)

When I read this, I get that tingly feeling like when I read a wonderful poem, or hear a beautiful song. The author seems to be opening the door on something spacious and beautiful. He calls it, "so great a salvation."

That phrase, those four words, kind of stir my blood. What is he talking about there? Now, I'm a Christian, and I can tell you what "salvation" means, but just now I want to know what it means in the context of the letter in hand, the letter to the Hebrews. What does the author of this letter mean by "salvation"?

One thing I see in the passage above is that neglecting this great salvation is set against paying close attention to what we've heard. We've heard something, but it's something we need to pay close attention to, for to neglect it, to pay no attention, or to live as if we'd never heard it, would be to neglect "so great a salvation." Do you see? Whatever salvation means, it is very closely associated with "what we have heard."

You might think that's a pretty routine insight, but it does something for me. There is something I've heard, and having heard it, it won my heart. It affected me. But there's also a possibility, perhaps a strong tendency, to forget what I've heard, or to pay less attention to it, or to neglect it. That would be to neglect my salvation.

There's something to chew on here. A message can save you. But a message can also go unheeded. In this context, the message is clearly about Jesus, or perhaps from Jesus. I wonder how it is we who have once paid great heed to that message, can soon enough come to a place where a friend might have to say, you'd better stop neglecting that message, the one you once heeded so well. Stop neglecting your salvation.

I'm still not sure I fully understand this, but I think the passage to follow will surely help. However, that's for another ruminative post.