Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Hebrews 10 says:
  You need to persevere
      so that when you have done the will of God,
      you will receive what he has promised. For . . .
          The righteous will live by faith.
                And I take no pleasure
                in the one who shrinks back.
    But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed,
        but to those who have faith and are saved (Heb. 10:36-39).

This passage comments on the relationship between faith and righteousness by saying, “The righteous will live by faith.” That’s a memorable phrase: the Bible uses it four times. 

The first time is in the Old Testament, when the Babylonian army moved across the Middle East with its evil eye on Israel. The prophet Habakkuk complained to God that Israel was in great danger, so what was God going to do about it? 

God’s response?
  Surely the Babylonians will come and not delay.
  The proud of heart will be destroyed,
      but the righteous will live by faith” (Hab 2:3-4) 

Hardly a comforting thought for Habakkuk. As the doom approaches, don’t be proud. Just wait for the inevitable, trusting that God will take care of you. 

Paul takes up the same verse in Romans 1, changing the context from a military invasion to God’s gift of salvation. He says, “In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed–a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, as it is written, ‘The righteous will live by faith’” (Rom 1:17). Like Habakkuk, the world Paul knew had descended into a mess of sin that encompassed Jews and Gentiles. Paul asserted that faith was the key that made people right with God, lighting their way through an evil world.  

In Galatians 3:11, Paul used the verse again, putting it this time into the picture of a courtroom, “Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God,” he wrote, “because the righteous will live by faith.” In this courtroom, our failure to keep the law makes us guilty as charged. We escape this condemnation, not by putting a better spin on our behavior, but by relying on Christ for forgiveness and righteousness. 

The fourth use of the statement, “The righteous will live by faith”, is in today’s passage  from the Book of Hebrews. The Hebrew Christians faced persecution, so the author encourages them not to shrink fearfully back from their commitment to the Jesus way. Losing faith like that would trash the meaning of their lives. Instead of despair, they can choose faith, pressing on through the difficulties of life in the strength God gives to those who are faithful, or full of faith. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we see these pictures of faith. Habakkuk waiting quietly for the Babylons to destroy Jerusalem, trusting his life to you. Paul seeing himself and others failing to keep your law, but believing you give righteousness to failed law keepers who put their trust in Christ. The Hebrew Christians, experiencing the difficulty of living under persecution, turning to faith to sustain their lives and their relationship with you.  

Help us, we pray, to become righteous ones, living fully by faith. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Hebrews 10 says:
  Since we have confidence to enter the most holy place
    by the blood of Jesus,
    by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain,
            that is his body,
  and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
  let us draw near to God
    with a sincere heart
    in full assurance of faith,
        having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience
        and having our bodies washed with pure water (vv. 19-22). 

The ancient Israelites approached God a bit like we might approach a nuclear reactor. If you get too close without proper precautions, you get burned or vaporized. 

The tabernacle, a tent of meeting, which Moses built, had a staged approach for those who wanted to come near to God. First, was an outside courtyard where priests conducted animal sacrifices. 

Next, the holy place inside the tent, where only priests were permitted. No animal sacrifices here. It was a quiet room with candles, incense, and bread on a table. At the back of this holy place, curtained from view, was the VERY holy place, also known as the Holy of Holies: God’s special place. It contained the mercy seat, sometimes called God’s throne. 

Only the high priest could go into the VERY holy place, and only once a year. On the day of atonement, he took a bit of blood into the VERY holy place, stood for a moment in the presence of God, and sprinkled blood on the mercy seat. If God didn’t annihilate the priest for coming too close, another year of forgiveness was granted. 

We don’t know when the tabernacle disappeared, but we know the Babylonian army destroyed Solomon’s temple in 587 or 586 B.C., carting off the valuables and burning the temple. Surprisingly, God didn’t annihilate the invading army when they entered his VERY holy place. In one of Ezekiel’s visions, it appears that God had abandoned his special place in the temple before the invaders arrived (Ezekiel 8-10). Ezekiel explains that the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the exile to Babylon, was God’s nuclear option for Israel, punishing them for abandoning true temple worship to participate in competing religions. 

But back to the Book of Hebrews. Using the image of the VERY holy place where the priest went once a year, the author says Jesus opened the way for us to enter the VERY holy place whenever we want. We do not fear annihilation as the Israelites did. Instead, we expect a welcome from God, based on a new relationship Jesus negotiated for us.

Let’s pray. 

Our father, Jesus changed our view of how to approach you. We no longer fear that your presence will consume us, or your holiness burn us, or your light blind us, or your anger destroy us. We go confidently through the curtain into the VERY holy place of your presence because our hearts are sprinkled with the blood of Jesus’ sacrifice, and our bodies washed with the pure water of his word. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.  

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray With Me”.

Hebrews 10 says:
  When [Christ] had offered for all time
      one sacrifice for sins
      he sat down at the right hand of God,
  and since that time
      he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.
  For by one sacrifice
      he has made perfect forever
      those who are being made holy (vv. 12-14). 

It might surprise evangelicals to hear that the “substitutionary atonement” theory we learned in Sunday school and church is a relatively recent development in Christian history and theology. 

In the first thousand years of Christianity, the most common view was likely the “Christ as Victor” view, which teaches that Christ died to defeat the powers of evil–sin, death, and the devil. This theory doesn’t provide a detailed explanation of how Christ shares his victory with us. 

Another early view was the ransom theory: through Adam and Eve’s sin, the human race became hostages to Satan. Christ’s death was a ransom God paid to the devil to release us. 

In the 12th century, theologian Anselm was offended by the thought of God paying a ransom to Satan, so he moved the atonement from a kidnapping and ransom metaphor to a debt and repayment transaction. His take was that we owe God a debt of obedience and honor, but our sin dishonored God and incurred a debt. Jesus paid the debt on our behalf and satisfied the injury done to the divine honor.  

Late medieval and Reformation theologians changed the metaphor again, moving it into the courtroom. Our sin requires punishment, not just repayment of a debt. We deserve to die, but Christ stood in God’s courtroom and accepted the sentence of death, so the judge could declare us not guilty.  

In other atonement theories, Christ is a suffering servant, not a sacrifice. For example, in the scapegoat theory, Christ was a victim, not of God’s wrath, but of human malice and anger. By receiving our sin, he exposed and rendered ineffective human violence. 

In Mere Christianity, CS Lewis wrote, “Theories about Christ’s death are not Christianity; they are explanations about how it works.” He pointed out that we trust in Christ for salvation, not in our favorite theory about how his death works for us. 

Let’s pray. 

Our father, we receive the many pictures scripture provides to describe what Jesus’ death and resurrection mean for us. 

In Isaiah’s story, we are sheep gone astray, and the suffering servant bears our iniquities and heals our wounds.  

The author of Hebrews says that sin requires sacrifice for cleansing and forgiveness.  We accept Jesus’ death as the sacrifice that washes away the dirt of sin.

Like the mob under Jesus’ cross, we have vented on Jesus our anger at you, God. But now we surrender to Jesus, receiving his prayer, “Forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.”

In the Lord’s Prayer we say, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” We owe you an unpayable debt, and we accept Christ’s payment on our behalf.

We have been hostages to sin. We accept Christ’s ransom that sets us free.

Like the prodigal, we are lost and we need to find our way home to you, our father. We accept Jesus as our only way.

In the courtroom of your justice, we see the evidence of our sin and we plead, “Guilty as charged”. We accept Christ’s offer to take our guilt and punishment, declaring us righteous.

Like a country defeated in war, we need a commander to lead us to victory. We accept Jesus as our king, who conquers sin and death, and leads us into everlasting life. 

Amen. 

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.