The best way to insult your host

Your host has made a very nice meal for you and company, and you boldly proclaim, "I think you forgot to put the ketchup out!" And you stand up and go get it from the fridge. 

This was a scene I watched unfold back in my late teens when staying with some lovely people who'd hosted us in their home in Switzerland.

My friend wasn't a fan of their food a lot of times and hadn't yet learned about etiquette. Our hosts were very gracious and, over time, helped my friend come to appreciate their hospitality and generosity.  By the time we left, he was horrified that he'd not realized what he was doing and was very apologetic.

What did he do?  He took food our hosts had lovingly prepared just for us from their ethic/cultural background and, without having tasted it, wanted to put ketchup on it like he did in his own home growing up.  He did what he was used to and comfortable with without any awareness of what he was doing.

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In Hebrews 10:26-31, the writer says something very disconcerting IF you're someone who believes God holds your sin against you after you're born again.  If you know sin is covered, past, present, and future, it's not a worry because we can trust in God's grace and mercy and can navigate a hard passage that can sound harsh to believers.

So why did the writer of Hebrews say this (and other things in the sermon/letter) that sound so hard?

If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 

It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Wow, that sounds terrible. And it is.  Here's what's going on here...

First, notice who the letter/sermon is written to: the Hebrews.  The writer is addressing early first century Christians, most who were practicing Jews before coming to know Jesus.  For the people new to the topic, Hebrews is one of the things Jewish people were called back in the Old Testament.

A lot of the early, Jewish believers struggled with leaving behind the old, sacrificial system where a person would offer a blood sacrifice of an animal on an altar to God.  They'd kill the animal, prepare it correctly, and have it burned as an "aroma" for God.  

Some of them continued on with the Jewish religious practices after they'd come to hear and know about Jesus' death on the cross for their sins, his resurrection for new life, and the Holy Spirit's presence and work in our life.  They were grateful for Jesus, but kept on doing their religious thing anyway.

The writer of Hebrews is writing to help them come to grips with leaving Jewish sacrifices and practices.  

In the section above from Hebrews 10, the writer isn't talking about someone who became a Christian and then gossiped or committed lust or thought a bad thought.  They aren't even talking about someone who robbed a bank, raped someone, or committed murder.

The writer is addressing people who were STILL living in fear of God as someone who was keeping record of their sins and still requiring them to offer sacrifices for their sins on penalty of hell.  If you read all the way through Hebrews, it flows more like a sermon than a "book" and you see much more so that the writer is encouraging people to embrace what God has done through Jesus and leave the rest behind.

For a person to keep making literal blood sacrifices for sin (like they were), they are trampling the blood of Jesus under their feet and telling God, "I don't trust that your sacrifice in Jesus was/is enough. I'm gonna be safe and keep on offering the blood of my animals for my own sin.  I don't trust you God."

The writer is telling the people in the middle of this conundrum that there is no other forgiveness left or available.  It's finished already.  

Their bringing another animal to kill and offer up for forgiveness is useless.  It's like putting money in a soda machine that you know is empty, but you keep on doing it anyway, hoping that you'll get something.  

The writer of Hebrews shows them their foolishness, warns them to quit insulting God, and encourages them to keep looking to Jesus, the one who can and will and already has shown them the way to live.  

He wants them to know that if they thought it was bad to reject the Old Law, they have NO idea of what it's like to reject what God had done in Jesus.  Just don't do it.  

Quit pretending what you're doing is changing your status with God.

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Those of us who grew up being taught that God keeps on holding your sin against you and that you have to keep on getting "prayed up" by asking him to forgive you for sins that you just committed - this passage ought to terrify you.  There's no getting around it.  From my tribal perspective, there's not any amount of getting prayed up that would save you - if you sinned after being saved, you're done - toast.

But the writer of Hebrews is trying to get them to fully hear the gospel - the good news - that all the work was *done completely* in Jesus and that we can now fully and completely come to God and get grace and mercy through Jesus.  But if we want God to interact with us on the basis of the Old Law and our works, good or bad, he'll be glad to oblige us.

Now, I don't think that a person who believes in Jesus is going to get turned away from God because they keep trying to do things to make God happier or less mad at them.  I believe the writer of Hebrews is trying to make an over-the-top point of the futility and hopelessness that is in that way of seeing God.  

A person who choose to continue to try to do things to make God happy/keep him from being mad at them through their own merit is setting themselves up for misery over time.  

There is truly nothing left but an expectation of condemnation if it has to do with you making yourself right with God.  The writer of Hebrews is helping his audience see they can let that whole way of life go and trust in what he's done in Jesus.

[SIDE NOTE: "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord."  Want to please the Lord as Paul suggests in Ephesians 5:8-10?  Pursue knowing him and what it means to walk with him, not just whatever you think it is or have been told it is that pleases the Lord, like people often do.]

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When you trust that you are/were a sinner who needed the forgiveness of Jesus, you confessed your sin.  And now he is faithful and just and no longer holds that sin against you - past, present, or future. 

There's no other sacrifice for you to make.  No animals to offer, no "I apologize and hope you'll forgive me", no doing extra good things to "make up for it".  You can stop.  Just live in trust and dependence.

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So quit telling God that he forgot to put ketchup out on the table where he has set an elaborate feast for us to share with him.  Try the food he's prepared for you and don't assume it needs to be the old comfortable stuff you used to have growing up.  Lean over the table and see what he's offering.  

Put that ketchup back up and try something that is so much better that it never needs ketchup.  If you've always put ketchup on a steak, it's likely because you've been eating poorly cooked steak.  

Same idea with forgiveness, Jesus, and the works that we do. 

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Next time, we'll unpack some things from Romans 6 and other similar passages where Paul talks about putting sin to death in your life.  Why quit sinning if Jesus is gonna forgive it all?  Shouldn't we sin more so that there's even more grace to enjoy?

That is an excellent question!  More soon...

Grace and peace.