GOD’S PILGRIMS

Their Dangers,
Their Resources, Their Rewards

PREFACE

This volume does not contain an exposition of Hebrews. Its purpose is rather to carry out, so far as the Lord may enable, the injunction to exhort one another daily, so long as it is called “Today.” Another “Day” is soon coming; indeed, we can clearly see it approaching. In that day it will be too late to give heed to the exhortations found in this portion of God’s Word, and to gain the recompense of the reward that depends upon the heed given thereto.

The Epistle is addressed to “Hebrews,” and the individual most frequently and most prominently mentioned in it is Abraham, who is specifically designated “the Hebrew” (Genesis 14:13). Those acquainted with the Hebrew tongue tell us that the word signifies one who passes over or through. We may, therefore, regard a Hebrew as a “passenger”; and certainly the message of the Epistle is for those who are passengers in this age, who have here no continuing city, but seek one in the age to come. The message is not for Israelites, who have a place in the world and a mission to the nations thereof, but for Hebrews, who are simply passing through the world, having no place or standing therein.

The true Hebrew is one who has come out of the country of his birth, leaving all its advantages and associations, because he has heard and believed the report of a better country which he has never seen; and he is now passing through the intervening territory, not settling therein, and not mindful of the country whence he came out, though having opportunity to return thither. Of such it is written that God is not ashamed to be called their God, and He has prepared for them a city. Abraham was not an Israelite. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Sarah, Isaac, Rahab were not Israelites. Moses was, rather a Hebrew than an Israelite, for he never had a place in the Land of Promise. These were all true Hebrews, who had seen by faith the far-off promises, and were persuaded of them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

The Scriptures speak of many things that God has prepared for them that love Him — things which are in the nature of rewards, not gifts, and are quite distinct from remission of sins and eternal life. These latter are gifts bestowed upon all who believe; but not all believers will obtain the rewards. Great is the reward promised to those who maintain the character of Hebrews “to the end”; and correspondingly great is the loss that will be incurred by those who, through neglect or unbelief, turn aside from the pilgrim’s path. In view of this, we would point out, as plainly as possible, the dangers to which God’s pilgrims are exposed, and the provision that He, in wondrous grace, has made to safeguard them from those dangers.

May it be the purpose of both writer and readers to be “not slothful, but followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises” It may be of interest to the reader to learn that the writing of this book was begun and finished on the memorable voyage of the Steamship Carpathia which was interrupted by the rescue of the survivors of the Titanic, and by the return with them to the port of New York. This is not the place to speak of the harrowing scenes and distressing incidents of the four days of that return trip. But that event — the sudden and dramatic overthrow of the latest and greatest human achievement of its kind, the most conspicuous object in the world — which stirred all Christendom to an unprecedented degree, served to impress powerfully upon the writer’s mind the truth that the day is at hand for the shaking of all things, when the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low; and they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth for fear of the LORD and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. The destruction of the Titanic is a foreshadowing, of what is about to happen to the great “civilization” upon which man has expended his energies, and in which he puts his confidence. For the unconverted, the obvious lesson of this tragic event is to inquire concerning the lifeboat. But there are also solemn and important lessons in it for the saints of God. Some of those lessons the writer has endeavored to set forth in the following pages.

Philip Mauro
SS Carpathia
May 2, 1912

CHAPTER 1

Introductory Remarks and Explanations. The Message, its Substance, And to Whom Addressed.

IT is manifest that the Epistle to the Hebrews has a special message for God’s people, the strangers and pil grims on earth, who are living in the last days of this age. It speaks with special emphasis to those who are awaiting the Son of God for salvation (Hebrews 9:28), and who are come to a point from which they can “see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25). It voices the desire of the Spirit that these should go on to full growth (that is, to the state of adult sons), and that each one of them who has received the first principles of the doctrine of Christ should show the same diligence unto the full assurance of hope unto the end (Hebrews 6:1, 11).

The people of God who are upon earth at the end of this age must of necessity meet peculiar trials, must experience peculiar needs, and be exposed to peculiar dangers. Many Scriptures testify to this. But God has made special provision for those who have to encounter the special conditions of the last days. The Epistle of the Hebrews is of particular value for them. It points to the age to come as something imminent. It declares that it is but a “very little while” until He Who is coming will actually come; and in view of that fact its chief exhortation is to the exercise of patience or endurance to the end (Hebrews 10:36-37 ff). Up to the very last moment there remains the possibility of failure and loss.

The conspicuous feature of this “age to come” will be the manifestation of the Son of God in the character of High Priest after (corresponding to) the order of Melchizedek, who was both a King and a Priest. That manifestation of the Son of God will be in fulfillment of all that is shadowed forth in the type of Melchizedek; and particularly will it be the fulfillment of what is prophesied by Zechariah, “He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His Throne; and He shall be a Priest upon His Throne” (Zecheriah 6:13).

Hence the prominent subject of the Epistle to the Hebrews is the Melchizedek Priesthood of the Son of God, Who is now seated on the Right Hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the heavens, awaiting the joy that was set before Him when He endured the Cross. That joy will be His when He receives the promise made to Him in Psalm 45, repeated in Hebrews 1:8: “Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy Kingdom.” “This,” says the writer of Hebrews “is the sum of the things which we have spoken” (Hebrews 8:1). Apart from what is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we should know practically nothing of the present ministry of the Son of God in the Presence of God, as a Minister of the true sanctuary, or of His perpetual office as High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.

Therefore it will be seen that the Epistle to the Hebrews occupies a place of peculiar importance in the Word of God. Its scope and contents are unique, and this must be borne in mind in seeking the special message it contains for the saints of God. The difficulties that have been encountered in reading it, and the misapplication of some of the statements it contains, are due chiefly to a lack of apprehension of the scope of the Epistle, and a failure to distinguishing features of this great Epistle, the reader, if a confessed stranger and pilgrim on earth, will be greatly aided in comprehending and profiting by the Divine communication it contains.

Let it be noted, in the first place, that Hebrews does not set forth, except incidentally, the message of the Gospel of God’s grace to sinners; nor does it contain the doctrine and effect of the Gospel. It is in this respect to be sharply distinguished from Romans, and also from those parts of other Church Epistles which speak of the crucified and risen Son of God as the Righteousness of God, and the Giver of eternal life, to all who believe on Him. The Epistle of the Hebrews is concerned solely with a people who have been already redeemed from the bondage of sin and the dominion of death, and whom God is bringing “into Glory”.

The “salvation” spoken of in Hebrews is not the justification of the sinner from his sins. It is not the reconciliation to God, through the Death of His Son, of those who were by nature enemies and aliens in mind through wicked works. It is of the utmost importance that the reader take notice of this; for otherwise the special significance of the letter to the Hebrews cannot be understood. The Son of God is not a Priest on behalf of the unconverted. He does not intercede for them, but solely for His own redeemed people. To the unconverted the Gospel is preached with the Holy Spirit sent down from Heaven. The work of the Son of God on their behalf is “finished” and awaits their acceptance. But the offices of the priest are not for them until they have become believers. The priesthood was not instituted in Egypt, but in the wilderness, after the people of God had been redeemed by the blood of the paschal lamb (Exodus 12), and had been “saved” out of the land of Egypt (cf. Exodus 13:15; 15:13, 16), the house of bondage, by the mighty power of God displayed at the Red Sea, typifying the Death and Resurrection of Christ (Exodus 14; Romans 6; 1 Corinthians 10). The priesthood was instituted after God’s people had become “strangers and pilgrims,” and were journeying on to the Land of “the Promise.” The types which have their fulfilment in Hebrews belong entirely to the wilderness. They relate wholly and solely to God’s dealings with His own redeemed people, and not at all to His dealings with unpardoned and unreconciled sinners. The sacrifices mentioned in Hebrews do not include that of the paschal lamb slain for redemption in Egypt, and under whose blood, sprinkled in faith on the door posts, there was protection from the Destroyer. The sacrifices mentioned in Hebrews are those of the tabernacle offered on behalf of the redeemed people.

We repeat, and beg the reader to notice carefully and to keep clearly in mind, that the “so great a salvation, which began to be spoken by the Lord” (Hebrews 2:3) is not the justification of sinners, but the bringing of many sons into glory (Hebrews 2:10). It is not what is represented by the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt, but what is represented by bringing the survivors into the Promised Land, which Land is a type of “the inhabitable earth to come, wherefore we speak” (Hebrews 2:5). The remission of sins spoken of in Hebrews is not the forgiveness of sins of unconverted men upon believing the Gospel of the Crucified and Risen Savior. It is the forgiveness of the “sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17); that is to say, the people of God, who constantly need propitiation for their sins.

The message of Hebrews is not addressed to men in their sins, urging them to accept the pardon and life which have been provided by the grace of God through the Cross of Jesus Christ. The message is addressed to “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling,” urging them to lay hold of the hope set before them, and to hold the confidence and rejoicing of that hope, firm to the end. Undoubtedly much confusion has resulted from a failure to observe the distinctions indicated above, and which are clearly marked in the text. We often hear the passage “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” used in preaching to the unsaved, and presented as a warning to them of the danger of neglecting the forgiveness and justification which God has made available to all who believe His Gospel. It needs but the slightest attention to the passage to make it perfectly clear that the “we” who are in danger of suffering loss through neglect of the “so great salvation” mentioned there, are the redeemed people of God, the children of God, and heirs of salvation.

The “faith” spoken of in Hebrews is not believing unto righteousness (Romans 10:9), but believing unto the saving of the soul (Hebrews 10:39), which is a very different thing, as will appear later on. The faith spoken of in Romans is justifying faith, that is, believing on God Who quickens the dead. But the faith spoken of in Hebrews is faith exercised by those who have been already justified. Abraham is the divinely given illustration of both kinds of faith. In Romans we are referred to the faith of Abraham when he believed God’s promise of a multitude of children to him whose body was practically dead. That is the faith in the God of resurrection, which faith God credits or imputes to a man for righteousness (Romans 4:17, 24-25). But in Hebrews we are referred to the faith Abraham manifested by obedience of faith, and the endurance of faith. By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out, obeyed; and by faith he sojourned in the Land of Promise as ina strange country. For he waited for the city which has the foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God (Hebrews 11:8-10). The effect of this kind of faith is not the being accounted righteous before God, but the obtaining of the promised reward (Hebrews 6:15; 10:36). Abraham not only believed God, being fully persuaded that what God had promised He was able to perform (Romans 4:21), but he also held the beginning of his confidence in God firm to the end; for he died in faith, not having received as yet the promised inheritance (Hebrews 11:13).

It is also needful to distinguish between the truth revealed in Hebrews and that revealed in Ephesians. There are several points of contrast that should be carefully noted.

1. In Ephesians, the elect saints who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, and predestined to the place of sons by God unto Himself, are viewed collectively, as forming “one Body,” even the Body of Christ. The blessings and responsibilities are collective, to be shared by all saints.

In Hebrews, the redeemed people are viewed individually as having individual responsibility. We find there such expressions as “lest there be in any of you,” “lest any of you should seem to come short,” “lest any man fall,” “lest any man fail of the grace of God,” “lest there be any fornicator or profane person.” Hebrews speaks of blessings and privileges in the nature of rewards, to be gained by individual faith, obedience, and endurance, and which may be lost by neglect, unbelief, or disobedience.

2. The blessings mentioned in Ephesians, which are for the present enjoyment of the saints, are located in heavenly places. God “has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in (or with) Christ.” He has quickened us together with Christ, and has raised us up and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.

In Hebrews, however, the blessings have their location in “the habitable earth to come.” The Kingdom of the Son is brought into view — that glorious Kingdom wherein all things shall be placed in subjection unto Him Who, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. It is the dominion of the Son of Man which was the subject of the first revealed counsels of God (Genesis 1:26), and which is specifically foretold in the Eighth Psalm: “Thou madest Him to have dominion over the works of Thy Hands; Thou hast put all things under His Feet. All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea. O Jehovah, our Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth” (Psalm 8:6-9). We learn by the second Chapter of Hebrews that this prophecy will be fulfilled when the Son of Man, Who is now at God’s Right Hand, shall come again into the habitable part of His creation, and shall take up His great power, and reign. That will be the reign of the Son of God on earth as the Priest-King, to which attention is specially directed in Hebrews.

3. The blessings of the saints mentioned in Ephesians are available in the time now present. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. He has accepted us in the Beloved, in Whom we have obtained an inheritance. God has sealed us with that Holy Spirit of promise, and has quickened us, raised us up, and seated us together in heavenly places. The future is referred to only in an incidental way, mention being made of the dispensation or economy of the fullness of times, and the ages to come (Ephesians 1:10, 14; 2:7); but the emphasis is entirely upon the present relations of the saints as connected with the Risen Christ, now at God’s Right Hand, forming His Body, supplied by Him with everything needful, loved by Him, in process of being built upon Him, and growing into a holy temple in the Lord.

In Hebrews, on the other hand, the blessings are future, pertaining to the age to come, when the enemies of the Son of God shall have been placed as a footstool for His Feet; when the many sons shall have been brought unto glory, and shall have entered into the enjoyment and satisfaction of the rest that remaineth unto the people of God. God’s people are not viewed in Hebrews as being at the present time in the place of blessing, but as being in the place of trial, of danger, and of suffering; in one word, as in the wilderness. The things spoken of in Hebrews are things “we see not yet”; and we are referred for our encouragement and example to those whose earthly course was determined by things which they had heard, but had “not seen as yet.”

The “grace” revealed in Hebrews is not the grace wherein the saints have been made accepted in the Beloved, and wherein God has abounded toward them in all wisdom and prudence (Ephesians 1:7- 8). It is not the grace whereby we have been saved through faith, and raised up and seated in heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 2:5-6). It is the grace that is sent down to us for meeting our daily need on earth, while journeying through this great and terrible wilderness, and which must be constantly sought at the throne of grace.

4. Lastly, and of chief importance, are the relations of Christ to the redeemed people of God as presented respectively in these two Epistles. In Ephesians, His relation to them is that of Head to the members of His Body, associated with Him as sharers of a common life. The offices He performs on behalf of His people are such as the head of a body performs for the members, nourishing and cherishing them as a man cherisheth his own flesh; “for we are members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones” (Ephesians 5:29-30).

In Hebrews, Christ sustains towards His people an official relation. He is gone into heaven as their Representative, to make propitiation for them, to maintain them in a fit state for approach to the holy Presence of God as worshippers. He is also the Great Shepherd of the sheep, tending and guiding them through the wilderness; and He is set before them as the Royal Priest of the coming age, the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, who was first King of Righteousness, and after that King of Peace. The great character in which He is here presented is that of SON. As such He is the Builder and the Ruler of the Father’s House in the widest sense, and is the responsible priestly Representative of the members of the household, those whom He is not ashamed to call His “brethren,” those who are the “children” committed to His care. Being charged by God with responsibility for the welfare of those “many sons” He is faithful to God Who appointed Him, ever living to make intercession for them.

By noting these important distinctions, which might be greatly amplified if time permitted, the reader, who has been begotten again unto a living hope by the Resurrection of the Jesus Christ from among the dead, and who is no longer a babe, unskillful in the word of righteousness, will be greatly assisted in laying hold of the instruction contained in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Many of the difficulties which are ordinarily encountered will disappear when once it is perceived that the experiences therein described are those of a redeemed people. The dangers against which we are warned are those to which God’s own people are exposed. Nothing is said of the doom awaiting those who have rejected the Gospel of God’s grace, and who are lost eternally; but much is said of the loss which the people of God themselves may incur by failing to take heed to the things they have heard, or to exercise diligence in respect thereto, and by neglecting the salvation so great, whereof the Lord Himself began to speak, which was confirmed to us by them that heard, God Himself bearing witness with signs, and wonders, and divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own Will.

The writer’s purpose in the present volume is not to explain the difficult passages found in the Epistle to the Hebrews for the intellectual satisfaction of his readers; but to aid his fellow travelers (“Hebrews”) in securing the benefit of the warnings, exhortations, comforts, and encouragements in which this portion of God’s Word so richly abounds.

Since the Epistle to the Hebrews has to do solely with the experiences of a redeemed people, it follows that certain passages (Hebrews 6:4-6; 10:26-31) which are sometimes taken as indicating the eternal condemnation of the persons to whom they refer, cannot have that significance. That the people of God can bring upon themselves great suffering and loss is clearly set forth in many Scriptures. But it is equally clear that they cannot themselves be lost. In Hebrews we learn what may befall the sheep in the wilderness; and it must not be forgotten that the Good Shepherd has Himself declared concerning them, “I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish” (John 10:28). How could those perish for whom He laid down His Life, and for whom He now intercedes in resurrection life and power? That could not be; but there is, on the other hand, the gravest danger that they may, through perversity, disobedience, unbelief, sloth, or neglect, incur serious loss. It is on this account that the Holy Spirit so earnestly urges them “today,” and so long as it is called “today,” to hear His Voice, Who now speaks from Heaven, in order that, when the crucial hour arrives, that may not befall them, which befell God’s people of old, who, when the opportunity came for entering into the possesssion of the promised inheritance, hardened their heart to His Word, provoked His indignation, and so could not enter in because of unbelief. Those whom God has redeemed from the bondage of sin and the fear of death can never be lost. Their security rests upon the finished work accomplished by Christ upon the Cross; and what He has accomplished stands for ever. But beyond any question there is the possibility that they may fall after the same example of disobedience, and so may fail to inherit “the blessing.” And in view of that possibility we are here most solemnly warned that such as draw back from entering into the reward promised to patience and obedience, cannot be renewed again unto repentance, that is to say, they cannot be permitted, upon change of mind (which is the meaning of “repentance”), to enter into that blessing from which they willfully turned away.

We are prone to slight the warnings of Scripture, and are all too ready to assign them to others than ourselves — to “the Jewish remnant” for example. Let us be on our guard against the deceitfulness of our own hearts, as well as against the deceivableness of sin. We cannot afford to neglect the warnings of Scripture; and there is no room for doubt as to those for whom the warnings of Hebrews are intended. They are, beyond question, for those who have been redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ. They are for those on whose behalf He is gone into Heaven, and for whom now He intercedes. If we apply to ourselves such passages as “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest that has passed into the Heavens” (Hebrews 4:14), we must also of necessity accept the application of the words that occur in the immediate context, “Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief” (literally, disobedience). It is impossible to read the warnings contained in this Epistle without perceiving that tremendous consequences hinge upon the attention given to them.

It being clear then, that the redeemed people of God may fail to obtain “the promise,” and to secure to themselves “the recompense of the reward,” it becomes a matter of highest importance for them to give their most earnest and intelligent heed to the warnings which God, in His faithfulness and kindness, has vouchsafed them; and also to avail themselves of the provision which His grace extends to meet their need and to help their infirmities.

Continued in Chapter 2 “The Things which we Have Heard.”