The American Revolution was all but lost. Powerful British force had crushed the American colonial force at New York City and put them to flight that summer. The British and their Hessian allies had then occupied free colonies, effectively cutting the rebels in two, they had advanced within sight of Philadelphia, the rebel capital, from their perspective. George Washington had lost 90% of his army, and had been driven-what was left of his army–driven across the Delaware River. Many soldiers had been lost to death, to disease, to injury, and to capture. Many more had deserted. And as the year 1776 came to a close, Washington stood to lose even more soldiers legally at the end of that year, December 31st, when their enlistment would end, and they could just walk away. The morale of his army was at an all-time low. But on Christmas night of 1776, as the howling Nor’easter struck the region, George Washington crossed the Delaware River and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison in Trenton, killing or capturing over 1000 men. The Second Battle of Trenton followed within a few days, as the rejuvenated Americans held off a counter-attack by some of Lord Cornwallis’ best troops.
Almost trapped at that point, Washington slipped away under cover of darkness, stole behind the enemy and hit them a third time at Princeton and won another victory over British Brigade at Princeton. The course of the entire war was changed with those events. More than anything, General Washington had given his army what it could not fight without, and that is confidence in final victory. Without that confidence, an army will quickly surrender in the face of the foe. But having confidence, an army will overcome even appalling odds and when shocking victories come, it genuinely believes it can win, no matter what the odds.
Well, if confidence was important for General Washington’s Army, how much more for the army of Jesus Christ in this world? We are faced with a foe so powerful that if we could see all of his power unleashed against us, we would quickly surrender. As Martin Luther put it, “Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing,” we would quickly give up. We must have absolute confidence, unshakable confidence in Christ’s final victory in order to fight well. And without that confidence, we will easily, we will quickly crumble in the face of the battle that faces us.
Going through hardship isn’t easy. We endure it for a while and then sometimes give in. It is hard to endure when suffering goes on and on and on. Suffering causes us to question our faith and we may turn away from God. If something we believe is causing hurt and pain in our lives, we re-examine that belief and possibly reject it.
This is what was happening in the lives of these Hebrews, some of whom were genuine believers and others who had experienced some spiritual experiences and associated themselves with the faith for awhile. However, persecution was causing them to question whether it was worth following Christ.
32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, 33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. 34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. 35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
They had endured public ridicule, ministered to fellow believers in prison, and endured economic hardships. The reason that they were able to do so, and joyfully do so, was because “you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.” They had run their race well so far. The Holy Spirit now moves from the readers’ past persecutions and trials to their present duress. Since they had been faithful in enduring trials, they had “need of endurance” still.
Now was not the time to throw away confidence in a better reward (cf. 3:6; 4:16; 10:19). They needed endurance to persevere, to “keep on keeping on,” as the saying goes.
The “therefore” here gives the inference or implication of how the readers endured past trials and how they should relate to their present sufferings. The Holy Spirit here draws a conclusion from verses 32–34. Given how they had successfully handled all their past sufferings, they should not throw away their confidence.
We have all heard of the famous high-wire aerialists the Flying Wallendas, and about the tragic death of their leader, the great Karl Wallenda, in 1978. Shortly after the great Wallenda fell to his death (traversing a seventy-five-foot high-wire in downtown San Juan, Puerto Rico), his wife, also an aerialist, discussed that fateful San Juan walk. She recalled: “All Karl thought about for three straight months prior to it was falling. It was the first time he’d ever thought about that, and it seemed to me that he put all his energies into not falling rather than walking the tightrope.” Mrs. Wallenda added that her husband even went so far as to personally supervise the installation of the tightrope, making certain the guy wires were secure, “something he had never even thought of doing before” (Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, Leaders, the Strategies for Taking Charge (New York: Harper & Row, 1986), pp. 69, 70). Wallenda’s loss of confidence portended and even contributed to his death, though his past performances gave him every reason to be confident.
Spiritually, no true Christian has to surrender to the “Wallenda factor” because our confidence rests not on our own powers but on God’s sure promises.
The writer’s charge to “not throw away your confidence” means not to cast away confident confession of Christ in the midst of opposition. It’s a negative command. Do not throw it away this confidence.
“Cast away” or throw away is the very opposite of holding fast (Heb. 3:6). The argument here is that this is no time to abandon the readers’ confidence since they previously carried a high level of confidence under persecution (Heb. 3:6; 4:16; 10:19). The implication is that, since they already had “confidence,” they should not abandon it (Heb. 3:14).
We saw it earlier in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with confidence,” because we have a great high priest who died on the cross, who shed His blood for sinners like you and me, since He was raised from the dead, since He has ascended and is now seated at the right hand of Almighty God, “let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Let’s have that confidence.
Adam Clarke protests: “Do not throw it away…neither men nor devils can take it from you, and God will never deprive you of it if you continue faithful. There is a reference here to cowardly soldiers, who throw away their shields, and run away from the battle. This is your shield, your faith in Christ, which gives you the knowledge of salvation; keep it, and it will keep you.”
Discouraged by the perils and hardships of the wilderness, the forefathers of those to whom our letter was sent were moved with a spirit of apostasy when they asked, “Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” (Num. 14:3). These Hebrew Christians of the first century were in danger of following this evil example (cf. 3:12) by “forsaking the God who made them” and “scoffing at the Rock of their salvation” (Dt 32:15). To do this would be evidence that they had indeed “thrown away their confidence” and returned to the deceptive and impermanent material things of the present world which previously they had professed to “throw away.” (Philip Edgcumbe Hughes, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, 432)
These believers were not to go back to where they had been as unbelievers—that is, to not fully understanding and depending upon the finished work of Christ. These Hebrews were not to throw off the confidence they had in Christ. Rather, they were to boldly proclaim their faith in the finished work of Christ. They were to build upon their past faith and faithfulness.
The positive corollary (to “throwing away” one’s confidence) is to proclaim confidence even in the midst of opposition—like Peter and John before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:13) and Latimer before King Henry.
This exhortation to maintain their confidence in Christ will result in “great reward” (cf. v. 34 “a better possession and abiding one”). As we said last week, that “great reward” ultimately is God himself. There is no better reward than to know Him and have a deep and abiding relationship with Him. That is our greatest joy (Psalm 16:11).
There is a great and rich reward in eternity for persevering in one’s faith during trials. This reward is not because we maintain our confidence; rather, it is the retaining of the confidence that allows us to receive God’s promises. They must persevere in their faith to receive this reward.
Next, one’s confident response is to be followed by perseverance: “For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised” (v. 36). The exhortation of v. 35 is so that they “may receive what is promised.”
Endurance is sticking to something even when it gets hard and painful. I can remember running cross country at what was then called Ozark Boys Camp. On two Sunday track meets I had won the race, on the third week I lost. On the fourth and final week I was running neck and neck with the guy who had beat me the week before. My side was hurting and it was too painful, so I tripped on purpose, allowing him too great a distance to catch up. I didn’t endure. I gave up close to the finish line, but I didn’t win because it was too hard to continue running fast.
The prophet Jeremiah complained to the Lord about how dark the times were that he lived in. The wicked get away with everything. What’s the deal?
God replied, Jeremiah 12:5 “If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?” If you think it’s tough now, just wait. It’s going to get worse. You and I need endurance.
William Barclay writes: “Perseverance is one of the great unromantic virtues. Most people can start well; almost everyone can be fine in spasms. Most people have their good days. Most men have their great moments. To everyone it is sometimes given to mount up with wings as eagles; in the moment of the great effort everyone can run and not be weary; but the greatest gift of all is to walk and not to faint” (William Barclay, pp. 143-144).
The toughest and most discouraging trials are when we are called to obey God’s will when the fulfillment of His promise seems so far away. This is why we need endurance.
These Hebrews must endure in keeping their full confidence in the finished work of Jesus Christ, rather than retreating back to the Jewish system of sacrifices and priests. This is God’s will for them—to remain believing in Jesus Christ. This is God’s great desire for you and me as well. Just as you put your faith in Christ at some point in your life—keep believing! No matter how hard that path gets, stick with it. Don’t abandon your confidence in Jesus Christ!
The result of continued confidence in the finished work of Jesus Christ is that we will “receive what is promised” (v. 36c). Receiving God’s promises is based on our faith, but it is also based upon our endurance in believing.
This exhortation is a good summary of the whole message of Hebrews. It is what all the warning passages are about.
We understand that the grand key for perseverance is faith. Knowing this, we are set up for the greatest exposition of the subject of faith found anywhere in Scripture–in chapter 11. (R. Kent Hughes, Preaching the Word: Hebrews, vol. 2, 56)
The key to successful perseverance is faith. It is significant that in verses 37–39, as the preacher emphasizes the need of faith in order to persevere, he quotes from Habakkuk 2:3, 4—“For, ‘Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”
Every word in Habakkuk 2:4 is important, and the Lord quotes it three times in the New Testament just to bring out the fullness of the meaning.
- In Romans 1:17 Paul quotes this same passage from Habakkuk 2:4 with the emphasis on faith: “The just shall live by faith.”
- In Galatians 3:11 Paul quotes this passage from Habakkuk 2:4 with the emphasis on just: “The just shall live by faith.”
- Here in Hebrews 10:38 the emphasis is on live: “The just shall live by faith.”
Originally God gave this exhortation to the prophet Habakkuk as the prophet repeatedly complained about the advances of injustice and the suffering of the righteous, God’s bottom-line advice being that “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). “Live by faith, Habakkuk!” Later on in Habakkuk’s writing, when the prophet had allowed this truth to sink in, he rose above his depression and complaint and sang this great song of faith: “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17, 18).
Here in Hebrews, though the quotation from Habakkuk is taken from the Septuagint’s rearranged messianic rendering of the Hebrew text, the application is still the same— the righteous will live by faith. The meaning here in Hebrews is this: (1) Jesus is returning soon—“The coming one will come and will not delay” (v. 37); (2) the saved will persevere by faith—“But my righteous one shall live by faith” (v. 38a); (3) the lost will shrink back—“And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him” (v. 38b).
We can persevere because Jesus is returning soon “in a very little while” (cf. Rev. 22:20). So we need to keep walking by faith. If we abandon that purpose and shrink back, we will not please God. When Jesus returns all of God’s promises will be fulfilled. He will fulfill the covenants with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. Jesus’ coming will fulfill everything that He promised for you.
Twice in verse 37 our author emphasizes the nearness of Christ’s return to fulfill His promises. He says “yet a little while” and he “will not delay.” That phrase is very expressive and emphatic. The author used a word which signifies “a little while”, and then for further emphasis added a particle meaning “very”, and this he still further intensified by repeating it; thus literally rendered, this clause reads: “For yet a very, very little while, and He that shall come will come.”
The righteous “shall live by faith.” Faith is not only the instrumental cause of our salvation, but it is also the instrumental cause of our Christian life here and now. Paul says in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
If we don’t live by faith and access the power of God for our daily life, when trials and persecution come we will likely “shrink back” from full confidence in Jesus Christ. “Shrinking back” is just another name for “throwing away [our] confidence.” Again, it refers to the apostasy explained in verse 29.
Leon Morris says, “Paul is concerned with the way a man comes to be accepted by God; the author [of this epistle] is concerned with the importance of holding fast to one’s faith in the face of temptations to abandon it.”
There are two dangers in turning away from Jesus back to the Mosaic system. First, God “has no pleasure in him.” God is not pleased by sin, and especially this most heinous of sins—turning one’s back upon His precious Son whom God has offered to die in our place. When someone does that, to say that God “has no pleasure in him” is a vast understatement. In fact, the opposite is true—one remains an enemy of God.
The other consequence of turning away from Jesus Christ as the one sacrifice for sins is found in verse 39, those who shrink back “are destroyed.” The word could also be translated “ruin” or “waste.”
Some believe this refers to eternal destruction in the Lake of Fire. Others believe it refers to temporal punishment. And some believe that it refers to the waste of turning back to the old ways of life. Obviously, some of these possibilities are more serious than others, but none of them work in our favor.
As in our other warning passages, our author once again distinguishes between those who apostatize and those who remain faithful. Verse 39.
But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls (Heb. 10:39)
He is saying, let God’s promises of future reward keep you from shrinking back, and thus you will preserve your soul. This is not a reference to conversion. It refers to the preservation of the faithful believer until he receives his full reward (cf. 1 Pet. 2:9). The “preserving of the soul” is equivalent to saving the life in James 5:20.
Grace Still Amazes 