“Established With Grace”

Hebrews 13:7-14

 

The Holy Spirit focuses our attention on our immutable Savior in verse 8. ― “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for everIn verse 7 Paul exhorted us to remember, respect, acknowledge, and follow those faithful pastors the Lord has been pleased to give to us. Here he says, “Consider the subject and object of their ministry -- Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and for ever.” All God’s servants say with Paul (and tell the truth when they say it), “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.”

 

Our Savior

 

A faithful pastor preaches Christ. The goal of his life and ministry is to know Christ. The glory of Christ is the object of his conversation and conduct. Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What does that mean?

 

Christ is the same in his glory, his offices, his purposes, and his work “yesterday,” in all times past. In the beginning of the world he was the everlasting “I AM,” the Lamb slain, the Surety of his people. In Old Testament times he was the substance of the sacrifices, the types and the promises.

 

“Today,” in this gospel age, he is still the same. In his person he is the God-Man; in his offices he is Prophet, Priest and King.

 

And he is “forever” the same, because he is our unchanging, unchangeable, immutable God and Savior. See him, yonder, on his throne. He is the same Lamb of God who died for us at Calvary! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his priesthood an unchanging priesthood. His love and care for his people can never change (Mal. 3:6; Rom. 11:29; Phil. 1:6).

 

Our Hearts

 

Next, the Holy Spirit calls for us to remember and consider our own hearts. ― “Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein” (v. 9).

 

Let your hearts “be established with grace.” ― “Hearts” ― Conviction, repentance, faith, and the knowledge of Christ are heart works, not just mental acceptance of facts and doctrines (Rom. 10:9,10). ― “Established” — Let your hearts be convinced, persuaded, and settled regarding the righteousness of God and the way to God. ― “Grace” — We understand that salvation, justification, and eternal life are the result of God’s grace to us in Christ Jesus, not by deeds of the law nor works of the flesh (Titus 3:5-7; 2 Tim. 1:8-11).

 

Let us not be unsettled, tossed about and carried way from the gospel of the grace  of  God  by  the many winds of strange doctrine which come our way from

 

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the lips of men. They are called “strange doctrines” because they are not taught in the Word of God, because they are doctrines inconsistent with the person and work of Christ, and because they are contrary to the doctrine of grace. Those who are occupied with the ceremonial law, eating certain meats, keeping sabbath days or engaging in religious ceremonialism have not profited in their souls by such conduct. These things cannot sanctify, justify, establish the heart, or give peace to the soul (Rom. 14:17; Col. 2:16-23).

 

Our Altar

 

Next, we are urged to set our hearts upon Christ our Altar, so that our hearts may be established with grace. ― “We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle” (v. 10). The reference here is to the eating of the sacrifices of the Old Testament by God’s priests (Lev. 6:14-16). The sacrifice was offered, burned upon the altar, and eaten by the priests. We, too, have an Altar ― not the cross, or the Lord’s Table, or a bench at the front of the church, but Christ himself. He is our Altar, our Sacrifice, and our Priest. We have the right to come to Christ and, therefore, to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood (John 6:53-57). That is what it is to live by faith. Those who seek salvation and acceptance with God by the works and duties of the law have no right to this Altar. They have fallen from grace. They have forsaken the Altar, Christ Jesus (Gal. 5:1-4).

 

Our Sacrifice

 

The Altar at which we feed, upon which we must set our hearts, is Christ, our Sacrifice. ― “For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate” (vv. 11-12).

 

On the Day of Atonement the bullock and goat were slain and the blood was brought into the holy of holies and sprinkled on the mercy-seat to make an atonement. The bullock and goat were then taken outside the camp and burned (Lev. 16:15-17,27,28). In order to sanctify us with his blood and to fulfil this typical picture, the Lord Jesus was crucified outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem, represented by the camp of Israel in the wilderness. The flesh, skin, and dung of the sin-offering were unclean before God and had to be carried and disposed of outside the camp. Even the men who handled it were unclean. We see in this not only the suffering of our Lord for sin but the shame and reproach he endured as our sin-offering. Bearing our sins in his own body, he was unclean and must die outside the camp.

 

Our Place

 

“Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.  For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come” (vv. 13-14). ― Christ is our sin-offering, our hope of redemption, and our Redeemer. Where he is, there we must be (John 14:3). In his shame and reproach he suffered without the camp. So, being one with him, we must quit the camp of ceremony, legalism, human works, worldliness, and all that is opposed to him, to be identified with our Lord. Whatever reproach we incur from the natural or religious world is welcome, because we find in him all we need (1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 2:9,10). The world and everything in it are unstable and temporary. The riches, honors, and pleasures of the world, the people in it, and the fashion of it pass away. Though we are in the world, we are not of it, and when the will of God is done, we will be taken out of it to heaven, where all is peace, perfect love, and eternal (1 John 2:15-17). In the light of these things, it is indeed a good thing “that the heart be established with grace