Grace Still Amazes

As we approach this last portion of Hebrews 12 we come to the final warning statement in the book of Hebrews.  We have seen that Hebrews 12 is about running and finishing the race strong.  Hebrews 11 showed us that others have done it and how they did it.  Hebrews 12: 12-17 exhorts us to be strong (v. 12), run a straight race (v. 13), pursue peace and holiness (v. 14) and above all not be like Esau who looked at his birthright and gave it up for a single meal (vv. 16-17).  God is at work in us to produce this strength, so do not miss out on the grace of God.

As a runner in high school I knew about and experienced the phenomena of “hitting the wall,” although we called it “a bear on your back.”  You could be running along at full speed and all of the sudden your side starts to hurt and you can’t get your wind, energy is sapped out of you.  Marathon runners face “heartbreak hill,” that long uphill incline that tends to drain all their energy and make their bodies weak.  The temptation in such circumstances is to give up.

That is the predicament that our author has been warning against throughout the book: turning away from Jesus because the journey has become too difficult.  A combination of persecution and increasing difficulties of discipleship had caused some of them to turn back to what was familiar and convenient and easy, back to Judaism.  But like Esau, they would be giving up what is most precious (Jesus Christ) for a mess of potage.

18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest 19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.  20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” 21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”  22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 36 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”  27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken–that is, things that have been made–in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.  28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

Verses 18-24 are another basis for the practical warning not to be like Esau. It starts in verse 18 with “For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched . . .” Verses 16-17: “Don’t be like Esau who sold his inheritance for a single meal . . . (verse 18) For you have not come to a mountain that may be touched . . .”  Everything that follows then equips us to not be like Esau.

At the end of this section (verses 18-24), the writer repeats the warning using different words: “See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking” (verse 25).  That’s exactly what Esau did: he considered what God promised and what the life of faith would be like, and he said, “No deal.  Give me my food.  You can have the inheritance of God.”  So verse 16 and verse 25 say, “Don’t be like that.  Don’t devalue God’s gifts and refuse God’s voice of promise and grace.

“As vv. 14-17 recall the first warning of 6:4-8, so he [the writer] now proceeds to reiterate the second warning of 10:26-31, reminding his readers that they stand in a critical position, in which any indifferences or disobedience to God will prove fatal” (Moffatt, pp. 213-14)

Back in the first warning, our author had warned us to “pay careful attention” and not “drift away” from such a “great salvation” (Heb. 2:1-3).

In vv. 18-24 our author contrasts the old and new covenants referring to two mountains—Mount Sinai and Mount Zion, representing Jewish life under the law and new life under grace.  The former evoked terror while the latter evokes joy; the first reinforced distance, the second encourages closeness.  The contrast is between the imperfect and the perfect, the temporary and the permanent, the law and the gospel.

The writer made Sinai and Zion metaphors (symbols of the two covenants) in order to show the difference in quality between people’s relationship to God under the Old and New Covenants (cf. Gal. 4:24-26).

If you want to know the true riches that you possess in Christ, you won’t want to go back to the empty, fleeting pleasures of the world or to that old, empty religious system, Judaism.  John Newton put it this way in “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken,” verse 4:

Savior, if of Zion’s city, I through grace a member am,
Let the world deride or pity, I will glory in Thy name;
Fading is the world’s best pleasure, All its boasted pomp and show;
Solid joys and lasting treasure None but Zion’s children know.

Solid joys and lasting treasure come through Mount Zion, through the grace of Jesus Christ. 

Don’t make Esau’s fatal mistake of trading away what is of utmost value just to gain a few moments of physical, sensual pleasure.  This approach still involves reverence (v. 28), but no longer terror and dread.

Verses 18-24 face us with a choice: we can either live in the terror of the old covenant or in the joy of the new covenant.  Although verse 18 mentions a mountain that can be touched, they actually put barriers around the mountain so that the people could not touch it (Exodus 19:21-23).

Ancient Israel is in focus in vv. 18-21.  Israel, in Exodus 19, came to the mountain with “a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them” (Heb. 12:18-19) but “you have not come” to this mountain.

At Sinai God revealed himself in a terrible manner, with fire and darkness.  “Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.” (Exodus 19:18).  And Deuteronomy 4:11 says, “You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.”

“On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled” (Exodus 19:16).

Whether the trumpet sound was natural or unnatural cannot be determined.  I believe it was supernatural because it was heard by all the million plus people in the camp and because the giving of the Law was attended by “ten thousands of holy ones” (Deuteronomy 33:2).  Some of these could have been blowing celestial trumpets.

You can imagine that this was a very fearful scene, with knees knocking and hearts trembling.  After hearing the “voice” from the mountain they “beg that no further messages be spoken to them.”

The reaction of Israel was understandable: they were terrified (Exodus 20:18-21). They wanted the experience to stop, not to continue.  Even Moses was afraid, saying “I tremble with fear” (v. 21).

So Israel did not want to hear directly from God.  They wanted Moses to mediate.  After repeating the ten commandments with the new generation in Deuteronomy 5, we read this scenario recounting their experience:

23 When you heard the voice out of the darkness, while the mountain was ablaze with fire, all the leaders of your tribes and your elders came to me.  24 And you said, “The LORD our God has shown us his glory and his majesty, and we have heard his voice from the fire.  Today we have seen that a person can live even if God speaks with them.  25 But now, why should we die?  This great fire will consume us, and we will die if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any longer.  26 For what mortal has ever heard the voice of the living God speaking out of fire, as we have, and survived?  27 Go near and listen to all that the LORD our God says.  Then tell us whatever the LORD our God tells you.  We will listen and obey.”

Sinai was a visible, physical “assault” of the holiness and majesty of God upon the senses of the people of Israel and it was a terrifying experience.  The people were visibly, physically assaulted with the holiness and majesty of God. This palpable divine display on Sinai communicated far more than any speech or written word ever could—and all Israel, young and old, could understand.  These verses emphasize the awesome majesty of God, the absolute unapproachability of God, and the sheer fearsomeness of God.

The effect of these physical signs was to display in no uncertain terms the absolute unapproachableness of God.  The mountain was so charged with the holiness of God that for a man to touch it meant certain death.

Somewhat ironically, with all these visual and audio experiences of the presence of God these Israelites felt, God remained hidden from Israel.  Notwithstanding all the noise and the fearsome sights they encountered at Sinai, God is still distant and obscured and remote.

All this fear, unfortunately, produced no lasting change in the Exodus generation.  It didn’t change their hearts.  Although they pledged their allegiance, within forty days they were dancing around the golden calf.

So the author of Hebrews is telling those who have trusted in the blood of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, that they have NOT come to the terrors of the law.  Well, then, why did God give us the law?  Paul partially answers that question in Galatians 3:19-24.

19 Why, then, was the law given at all?  It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.  20 A mediator, however, implies more than one party; but God is one.  21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God?  Absolutely not!  For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.  22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.  23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.  24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.

The law was given not to enslave us but to lead us to Christ.  God’s law instills in us a certain knowledge of His holiness and our sinfulness.  By nature we are blind to our own sinfulness.  We just don’t see it.  We successfully compare ourselves to terrorists or child molesters and think, “I’m not so bad.”  We generally fail to grasp the holiness of God.  I don’t think the Israelites failed to grasp God’s holiness and majesty at Sinai!

When faced with the holiness of God (instead of comparing ourselves to others), we will cry out, “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5).  Isaiah wasn’t aware that his mouth was so filthy until he saw God in his holiness.

The salutary effect upon those at the foot of Sinai was substantial—it instilled a proper fear of God.  As Moses explained, “God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin” (Exodus 20:20).  It was patently remedial.  To understand that God is holy and that one is a sinner is to stand at the threshold of grace.  Moreover, the giving of the Ten Commandments in this awesome context—and Israel’s failure to keep them—served to emphasize the people’s impotence and doom, which is a further grace, however negative the experience may be.

You see, the route to Zion goes through Sinai.  We must first face the bad news about ourselves, that we really are filthy sinners in need of grace, forgiveness and cleansing.

John Calvin notes:

Each of us must, then, be so stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness as to attain at least some knowledge of God.  Thus, from the feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and—what is more—depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light of wisdom, sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness rest in the Lord alone.  To this extent we are prompted by our own ills to contemplate the good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves (The Institutes of the Christian Religion (ed. by John McNeill, [Westminster Press], 1:1:1).

The only way we get a clear knowledge of ourselves is to look upon God’s face.  His holiness reveals our pride, self-righteousness, hypocrisy, and sin. Until we have some understanding of God as revealed in Scripture, we flatter ourselves and think that we’re not all that bad.  Calvin gives many biblical examples (1:1:3) of men who normally were “firm and constant,” but when they got a glimpse of God’s majesty and glory, they were “overwhelmed by it and almost annihilated.”

John Newton expressed the same idea in his well-known hymn, “Amazing Grace”: “’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.”  Charles Spurgeon went through the same experience.  In his autobiography, he spends a chapter describing how the terrors of God’s law tormented him before he came to saving faith in Christ.  Martin Luther knew the same thing.  He hated God’s righteousness until he came to understand that God imputes His righteousness to us by faith alone.

But this said, the great problem with the trip to Sinai was that while men and women could come to see God’s holiness and their sinfulness, the Law provided no power to overcome sin.

To run and work the law commands,

Yet gives me neither feet nor hands.

Along with a sense of our own sinfulness, God’s law causes us to recognize our need for a better mediator.

At Mount Sinai, Moses and Aaron were the only ones allowed to go up the mountain into God’s presence.  But the people could not draw near to God through Moses or Aaron.  They were men with sin of their own.  But Jesus Christ is our sinless high priest, who offered Himself as our sacrifice (Hebrews 7:26-27).  As Paul wrote (1 Timothy 2:5), “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

So, the route to Zion goes through Sinai, where we encounter the terrors of God’s law.  But once you’ve arrived in Zion, why would you want to go back to Sinai?  So after describing the place we have left, the author goes on to show the place where we’ve come.

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve looked at behaviors which cause us to “miss the grace” of God.  First, there is the “root of bitterness,” which in the Old Testament context, is a person who apostatizes from the faith.  But also there is sexual immorality and godlessness.  Both of these our author attributes to Esau and his “despising” of the birthright (Genesis 25:27-34).  He treated it lightly, of no importance or significance.  It held little to no value for Esau.

Here in Hebrews 12 we read…

16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Our question this morning is: What happened to Esau?  Did he lose his salvation?  Why was he unable to repent, even though it deeply grieved him?  If this is true, what about us when we sin, can we “sin away” our salvation?

Obviously Esau had done something very bad, despising something he should have valued greatly, but according to verse 17 repentance was unavailable to him.  Does this mean we can sin away our salvation?

Let’s take this verse apart and see what we can discover.  First, this verse tells us that this conclusion about Esau comes “afterward,” after the selling of his birthright.

The birthright normally goes to the firstborn, which was Esau.  Passages like Deuteronomy 21:17 and 1 Chronicles 5:1-2 tell us the birthright involved both a material and a spiritual dynamic.  The son of the birthright received a double portion of the inheritance, and he also became the head of the family and the spiritual leader upon the passing of the father.

The “birthright” was the privilege of being chief of the tribe and head of the family (27:29). In Isaac’s family, it entitled the bearer to the blessing of Yahweh’s promises (27:4, 27-29), which included the possession of Canaan and covenant fellowship with God (28:4).

This is what Esau traded away for a pot of stew, despising God’s gifts to him.  Keil and Delitzsch say, “The frivolity with which he [Esau] sold his birthright rendered him unfit to be the heir and possessor of the promised grace” (1:269)

Later, of course, Esau desired to inherit the blessing that was part of this birthright.  We find in Genesis 27 the story about how Jacob deceives his nearly-blind father Isaac into giving him the blessing.  Although Isaac nearly caught Jacob in this lie, he ultimately thought he was dealing with Esau and said,

28 May God give you heaven’s dew and earth’s richness— an abundance of grain and new wine. 29 May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.”

When Esau arrived, after Jacob had left, and Isaac understood that he had been deceived Esau “burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to his father, “Bless me—me too, my father!” (Gen. 27:34).  As our text in Hebrews 12:17 says, “he desired to inherit the blessing.”  Moses goes on to record Esau’s grief…

35 But he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.” 36 Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob?  This is the second time he has taken advantage of me: He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!” Then he asked, “Haven’t you reserved any blessing for me?”  37 Isaac answered Esau, “I have made him lord over you and have made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?”  38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father?  Bless me too, my father!”  Then Esau wept aloud.  39 His father Isaac answered him, “Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above.  40 You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother.  But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck.”

What Esau desired, and was grieving over, was missing out on the blessing that naturally belongs to the firstborn.  Because he had “despised” his birthright, he also lost out on that blessing.  Yes, he received a blessing, of some sorts, and went on to enjoy an enriched life, but he lost out on the spiritual side of God’s blessing.

As far as the central blessings of the Abrahamic covenant, Esau was “rejected.”  This is a translation of the Greek word apodokimadzo, which means “to reject after testing or scrutinizing and finding the tested subject useless or worthless.”  That he was “rejected” is speaking as an action which is final and complete with no second chance for Esau.

Our text says, “he found no chance to repent.”  This doesn’t mean that he didn’t have the opportunity and did not try to repent.  He likely did, at least in some sense.  But it didn’t overturn the consequences of despising his birthright.

So Alexander Maclaren said:

His repentance did not alter the fixed destination of the blessing. His repentance, his change of mind as to the worth of the thing thrown away, and as to his own conduct in despising it, did not bring the thing back again to him. His tears did not obliterate what was done. He wished that it had been otherwise, but his wishes were vain.

The words he found no chance to repent could more literally be rendered “he did not find a place (topos) of repentance,” which could bear the meaning that there was no opportunity for him to change his circumstances.  In this sense no chance to repent remained, but it is a NT principle that an opportunity for spiritual repentance is possible wherever there is a spiritual desire.  It is in this sense that the gospel can be said to be based on a call to repentance.  It may be wondered what possessed the writer to bring in the tragic history of Esau at this point of his discussion and the answer must be that Esau was regarded as one of the most striking examples of those who failed to appropriate “the grace of God.”  (Donald Guthrie, Tyndale NT Commentaries: Hebrews, 258-9)

Had Esau sought forgiveness, he would have found it.  But the consequences of his decision were irreversible.  The blessing could not be restored to him.  Like David, he could be forgiven for his sins, but he still had to face the consequences of his sins.  As Leon Morris said:  “It is not a question of forgiveness.  God’s forgiveness is always open to the penitent.  Esau could have come back to God.  But he could not undo his act.”

This forfeiture of participating in the Abrahamic blessings was despite the fact that “he sought it with tears.”  Esau was upset, as we saw in Genesis 27, about losing out on his father’s primary blessing.  Verse 34 said he “burst out with a loud and bitter cry,” desiring a blessing from his father Isaac.  And verse 38 reports that “Esau wept aloud.”

When Esau finally woke up to some extent and realized what he had forsaken, he made a half-hearted attempt to retrieve it.  Just because he sought for it with tears does not indicate sincerity or true remorse.  He found no place for repentance.  He bitterly regretted, but he did not repent.  He selfishly wanted God’s blessings, but he did not want God. He had fully apostatized, and was forever outside the pale of God’s grace.  He went on “sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth,” and there no longer remained any sacrifice to cover his sins (Heb. 10:26).

So there definitely were tears.  And if we examine our own repentance, doubtless we will be able to identify at least a few times when we repented with tears.  However, we would also have to admit that most of the time it does not bother us that much.  We just confess and then move on as a matter of business.  Esau wept at his loss.  Now he wanted that blessing.

Of course, Paul distinguishes, in 2 Corinthians 7, between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.  Possibly Esau’s sorrow was nothing more than grief over the consequences of his sinful choices rather than over his actual sinful appetites that caused him to despise his birthright.

10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11 See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. (2 Corinthians 7:10-11)

So this passage has nothing to do with Esau’s “salvation,” or his relationship with God.  What he lost was the privilege of possessing the blessings of the birthright.  He didn’t lose his salvation; he lost the present enjoyment of what God had designed for him.

Of course, we realize that in the bigger picture, God had promised the blessing to Jacob.  That was made clear when they were struggling in Rebekah’s womb.  When such commotion was happening within her, Rebekah inquired of the Lord what was happening.  Genesis 25:23 tells us, “the LORD said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.’”  That means that Esau, the one born first (Genesis 25:25), would serve the younger, Jacob.

In Romans 9:10-13, the Apostle Paul used this choice of Jacob over Esau before their birth as an illustration of God’s sovereign choice.

10 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.  11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”  13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

God chose, before either of them were born or “had done anything good or bad” to love Jacob and hate (in comparison) Esau.  It had nothing to do with their character, actions, thoughts, affections, desires or choices.  It was so “God’s purpose in election might stand.”

Some object, questioning the fairness of God making such a choice before Jacob or Esau were born. Yet we should regard the love and the hate God spoke of in Malachi 1:2-3 and Romans 9:10-13 as having to do with His purpose in choosing one of these two to become the heir of the covenant of Abraham.  In that regard, God’s preference could rightly be regarded as a display of love towards Jacob and hate towards Esau.  The real thought in Malachi 1 and Romans 9 is much more like “accepted” and “rejected” more than it is like our understanding of the terms “loved” and “hated.”

“A woman once said to Mr. Spurgeon, ‘I cannot understand why God should say that He hated Esau.’  ‘That,’ Spurgeon replied, ‘is not my difficulty, madam.  My trouble is to understand how God could love Jacob.’” (Newell in Romans, Verse by Verse)

God’s message to us who are in the race is clear:  to give free rein to our sexual and physical appetites will ruin our race and if that is the habitual practice of one’s life, it indicates that that person was never truly regenerate and did not possess the indwelling Spirit who sanctifies us.  As Paul warned the saints in Ephesians 5:5-6.

5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.  6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.

Don’t be deceived.  If you live your life for lesser, material things, or sexual appetites, you will “lose your soul.”  You will lose what is most precious for a few moments of pleasure.

“Esau’s willingness to give up all that was his as the firstborn son reflected a contempt for the covenant by which his rights were warranted.  By descriptive analogy, he is representative of apostate persons who are ready to turn their backs on God and the divine promises, in reckless disregard of the covenant blessings secured by the sacrificial death of Jesus.  The immediate reference is to the objective blessings of ‘peace’ and ‘holiness,’ specified in v 14.  With the example of Esau, apostasy is further defined as a decisive rejection of God’s gifts” (William Lane, Hebrews 9—13, pp. 445-46

“To take a very simple example—if a young man loses his purity or a girl her virginity, nothing can ever bring it back.  The choice was made and the choice stands.  God can and will forgive, but God Himself cannot turn back the clock and unmake the choice or undo the consequences” (William Barclay, Hebrews, p. 210).

Our author is warning us against the foolishness of so many who for the sake of some momentary, fleeting pleasure, turn their backs on what is of eternal value.  In the case of Esau it was the immediate gratification of eating to overcome his hunger.  But in the case of others, it may be a one-night adulterous fling which results in the destruction of a marriage and the loss of a job and the soiling of one’s reputation.  It may be a drinking binge that happens only once but results in a DUI or the death of someone in an accident caused by your intoxication.

Esau never repented of his sin, but only of the consequences of it.  He never sought pardon of God, but only sought to inherit the blessing.  (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, 416)

God has given Christians special promises as well (e.g., His presence, promises, strength, provisions, fruitfulness, glorification, rewards). How might we “despise” these? By living primarily for the present rather than for the future.

Donald Gray Barnhouse, for many years the pastor at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, has written, “History shows that men prefer illusions to realities, choose time rather than eternity, and the pleasures of sin for a season rather than the joys of God forever. Men will read trash rather than the Word of God, and adhere to a system of priorities that leaves God out of their lives. Multitudes of men spend more time shaving than on their souls; and multitudes of women give more minutes to their makeup than to the life of the eternal spirit. Men still sell their birthright for a mess of pottage.” (Barnhouse)

Esau represents perhaps the worst kind of person to imitate in the book of Hebrews.  He doesn’t surrender his birthright because of persecution or harassment from others.  He surrenders his birthright because he was hungry.  He gave up what he should have treasured most simply because he had a physical, sensual desire that was more important.  Esau had no regard for spiritual values, no need for God in his life. 

While he thought better of it later, and even wept deeply over the loss, his forfeiture of the birthright and the blessing were final and complete.  That devastating exchange takes place far too often in our Christian lives.  That is why we need to be on the alert for each other, making sure that we don’t miss the grace of God by being sexually immoral and godless.

As vv. 12-13 said,

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Last week we were looking at Hebrews 12:15-17 in this passage which enjoins all of us to be looking not only after our own lives but also those of our brothers and sisters, lest they

15 … fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

We were talking about this “root of bitterness” that springs up and causes trouble and defiles many.  Many believe that this is talking about the wrong attitude we can take towards those who hurt and wound us.

Certainly, Esau struggled with bitterness towards his younger brother.  While Hebrews 11 showed us many role models to imitate, here he introduces us to a familiar Old Testament character who show us what lack of faith in the Lord looks like and what it produces in those who do not believe in the promises of God.

Esau should have possessed the birthright and the blessing, but Jacob had “stolen” them from him.  He burned with resentment and a desire for vengeance for many years.

However, a study of the original passage from which this image arises shows that the “bitter root” is not an attitude, but rather it a person or a type of person.  I say this because Deuteronomy 29:18, from which this metaphor comes, is clearly talking about a person who apostatizes and is trying to influence others away from God.

Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,

I say this also because vv. 16-17 illustrate this idea of a bitter root by referring to the person of Esau as an example.  So the “root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit” is “a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of the nations.”

The biggest danger is that it is first a hidden root which no one notices, but when it springs up it is “poisonous” and “bitter.”  So it is important for us to be carefully watching one another’s lives so that this initially hidden root never has a chance to spring up and bear the fruit of discord and further apostasy.

In Deuteronomy 29, Moses is reminding the people of the gross idolatry that they had witnessed while enslaved in Egypt and while they had wandered in the wilderness (Deut. 29:16-17).  If they witnessed it with hearts committed to Yahweh alone, they couldn’t help but be repulsed by what they had seen, and they surely would never want to participate in it.

But God knows our unfaithful hearts and He warns His people through Moses that nobody in Israel—neither individuals, nor families, nor tribes—was to get involved in idolatry; for any idolator would become that “bitter root” and could then defile the whole nation.

The writer of Hebrews is applying this warning to the local assembly because he knew that “one sinner destroys much good” (Eccl. 9:18), like our saying, “One bad apple can spoil the bunch.”  Even if the offenders kept their sins hidden and private and were therefore confident that they could escape judgment, the Lord would know and He would judge and sooner or later it would come to light.

In the case of the ancient Israelites, they would be plagued and killed and their names would be blotted out from under heaven (Deut. 9:14; Exod. 32:32-33).  They would suffer from all the plagues named in Deuteronomy 28.  The penalty for these first century apostates is spelled out later in this chapter.

John MacArthur says about the situation our author of Hebrews is addressing:

The root of bitterness refers to a person who is superficially identified with God’s people, and who falls back into paganism.  But he is no ordinary apostate.  He is arrogant and defiant concerning the things of God.  He thumbs His nose at the Lord.  God’s response to such boastful unbelief is harsh and final.

Kent Hughes reminds us:

The call here is for vigilance.  Certainly this does not enjoin a witch hunt.  The Lord specifically warned against such a response because such actions would tear out real wheat with the weeds (Matthew 13:24–30).  Nevertheless, we must be alert.  Every fellowship of any size has a few “bitter roots” who follow false gods and subtly poison those around them.  If we are to run well, the price is vigilance—especially in the good times.

The second way that one might fall short of God’s grace was to imitate the “sexually immoral” practice of Esau.  It is likely that these last two dangers are to be taken together, both expressing the minefield of our appetites, our sexual appetite and our physical appetite.  Sexual immorality is a defilement of the body; “godlessness” is a defilement of the soul.  Listen to the words of our author:

that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

The word “sexually immoral” is pornos, from which we get the word pornography.  It refers to any act which excites and fulfills physical lust in a sexual way which is “out of bounds” according to God’s Word.

Let’s look at the Old Testament text, from Genesis 25.  Remember that there was struggling in the womb in their birth, and God had revealed to Rebekah, their mother:

“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23).

Esau was the firstborn of twin sons. His name meant “red.” His younger brother came out grabbing his heel, so he was named “Jacob” which means grabber. And that’s pretty much what Jacob did all his life.

Then later we read…

27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. 28 Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

29 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.) 31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?” 33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

Some question whether the adjective “sexually immoral” should be attached to Esau or if it is simply indefinite, (that is, “anyone who is sexually immoral”) and only the adjective “godless” is to be attached to Esau’s record.

Interestingly, the Old Testament does not say he was a fornicator unless it is implied in his marrying the two Canaanite daughters of Heth, who subsequently made life miserable for his parents (cf. Genesis 26:34, 35).  Rabbinical tradition, however, both Palestinian and Hellenistic, paints Esau as a man completely subject to his libido.

Philo of Alexandria in his Questions and Answers on Genesis made this observation regarding Esau: “The hairy one is the unrestrained, lecherous, impure and unholy man” (Philo, Question and Answers on Genesis , trans. Ralph Marcus, The Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard, 1979), p. 494). 

The Palestinian Targum on Genesis 25:29 describes him as coming home exhausted on the same day he sold Jacob his birthright and saying that on “that day he had committed five transgressions,” one of which was adultery with a betrothed maiden ( Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews , p. 367).  This is Jewish tradition and not inspired Scripture, but clearly these commentators took the whole life story of Esau and attributed these behaviors to him.)

So R. Kent Hughes concludes, “The indictment from extra-Biblical literature parallels the revelation of Holy Scripture—that Esau was a pornos subject to the whims of his tomcat nature—the archetype of the modern-day testosterone man. His essential sensuality made God quite unreal to him—as lust always does” (Hebrews: Volume 2, p. 183).

God’s Word regards sexual sins as particularly heinous, and persistent engagement in sexual sin evidences a heart that is hardened against the Lord (Lev. 18; Rom. 1:26-27). Of course, the Lord will forgive all those who truly repent of sexual sin (1 John 1:8-9; 1 Cor. 6:9-11), but we dare not trifle with it. Sexual immorality has caused many professing believers to fall away from the Christian faith over the centuries.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Temptation (London: SCM Press, 1961), p. 33, writes:

It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money, or, finally, that strange desire for the beauty of the world, of nature.  Joy in God is in the course of being extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature.  At this moment God is quite unreal to us, he loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real; the only reality is the devil.  Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God. And now his falsehood is added to this proof of strength.  The lust thus aroused envelops the mind and will of man in deepest darkness.  The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us.  The questions present themselves: “Is what the flesh desires really sin in this case?”  “Is it really not permitted to me, yes—expected of me, now, here, in my particular situation, to appease desire?”  The tempter puts me in a privileged position as he tried to put the hungry Son of God in a privileged position.  I boast of my privilege against God.  It is here that everything within me rises up against the Word of God.

And this leads us directly into the third danger that causes us to miss God’s grace, and that is being “unholy” (Greek bebelos).  Bebelos speaks of someone who was debarred from going across the threshold of the temple to worship, or possibly someone who trampled underfoot the threshold of the temple, thus treating it in a disrespectful way.

This describes a person who has no regard or respect for God, or basically goes through life not even giving God a thought.  Why?  Because their focus is so much on the pleasures and possessions of this life.

Calvin says of such that they are:

“. . . those in whom the love of the world so holds sway and prevails, that they forget heaven as men who are carried away by ambition, addicted to money and riches, given over to gluttony, and entangled with other kinds of pleasures, and give the spiritual kingdom of Christ either no place or the last place in their concerns” (William B. Johnston, trans., Calvin’s Commentaries: The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews and the First and Second Epistles of St. Peter (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1963), p. 197

Esau, remember “despised his birthright.”  He sold it for a pot of stew because he was famished!  He totally devalued the things of God in order to meet a physical desire.  Esau “sold his birthright for a single meal” (Heb. 12:16).

Esau, as firstborn, had the birthright and was entitled to the blessing, a double portion of the father’s estate (cf. Deut. 21:17), as well as religious leadership of the family.

This last aspect didn’t ever seem to interest Esau, however, so when the need came up, Esau traded was should have been most precious to him, his birthright, for a pot of stew to ease his hunger pangs for a few moments.

Again, Esau came in from the fields, having worked hard all day and said “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!”  But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.”

What was Esau’s response, but “”I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?”

Clearly exaggerating his near-death hunger, it reveals his attitude toward his birthright.  Esau chose a cheap meal over the divine promise.  And Jacob said, “”Swear to me now.”  So Esau swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

Now, Jacob may have been a jerk, but Esau was a fool.  He is the consummate illustration of a person who, for the sake of immediate gratification, forfeits something of immeasurably greater value, in this case, his inheritance.

While it may not have seemed like a big deal, we get God’s perspective on this issue at the end of this chapter, “Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

Esau’s thinking, and thus his value system, was totally earthbound.  He gave no thought to God, to eternal issues or to spiritual things.  His thoughts were all about what he could touch and taste, in particular what would fill his stomach.

Thus, he was “godless,” showing ultimate disrespect to God and what God valued.

R. Kent Hughes concludes:

Esau was like a living beer commercial—bearded, steroid-macho, with two things on his mind: sexual pleasure and physical pleasure—food, drink, sports, and sleep. “Hey, you only go around once. You have to get it while you can.” He was the prototype of modern godlessness—like the forty-five-year old man who had spent all his post-college years devoted to money and when asked, “How is it with your soul?” answered candidly, “My soul?  I don’t even know whether I have one.”  Tragic! (Hebrews, Volume 2, p.

On the other hand Jacob, Esau’s brother, although he was not in these cases a model of ethics or integrity, did genuinely value the things of God.  The birthright and the blessing were precious to him, although he tried to procure them by less than honorable means.  There were times in his life when he trusted God and relied on God; but his brother disregarded God and trusted only in himself.

“Esau’s willingness to give up all that was his as the firstborn son reflected a contempt for the covenant by which his rights were warranted.  By descriptive analogy, he is representative of apostate persons who are ready to turn their backs on God and the divine promises, in reckless disregard of the covenant blessings secured by the sacrificial death of Jesus.  The immediate reference is to the objective blessings of ‘peace’ and ‘holiness,’ specified in v 14.  With the example of Esau, apostasy is further defined as a decisive rejection of God’s gifts ” (William Lane, Hebrews 9—13, pp. 445-46)

Esau’s negative example is put here to warn this first-century audience and us in the 21^st century not to be like Esau.  We must be careful that we do not sell away what God considers precious for a few minutes of flesh-satisfying pleasure.

The next verse tells us that Esau could not reverse this decision.  In spite of the fact that he “desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected…”  He even repented with tears.  But the situation was irreversible.  We will deal with this issue next week.

Again, our author is supplying this negative example of Esau to warn his readers not to give up what was most valuable—the sufficiency and supremacy of Jesus Christ—and opt for something that was comfortable and convenient—to go back to the law.  They would escape persecution this way.  It would be more familiar and convenient, but they would be sacrificing Jesus Christ, the better sacrifice.

One of the greatest dangers, but one we rarely give consideration to, is the danger of missing out on God’s grace.  The Contemporary English version of Hebrews 12:15 begins, “Make sure no one misses out on God’s wonderful kindness.”  Other versions say things like “falls short” or “fails to obtain or receive” God’s grace.  All of these predicaments sound rather sad, as does the life of Esau, which our author brings up as an example of someone who fell short of experiencing God’s grace.

15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Verse 15 begins with the words, “see to it.”  This is the translation of a participle which tells us the means by which we may pursue peace and holiness (v. 14) and that is by “keeping a vigilant watch over one another’s lives.”  The Greek word episkopeo means to “give intense, focused attention to.”  In means not getting distracted from this task.  It reflects the idea of being a watchman, on high alert to potential dangers.

As a present tense participle it means that this action must be continuous, not letting our guard down for a moment, but being constantly on guard.

Of course, this word episkopeo is the word we get “Episcopal” from, a type of church government.  Also, church leaders, which are variably called “pastors” and “elders” are also known as “overseers,” those who watch over the lives of the congregation, guarding them from dangers.  Shepherds of God’s flock constantly examining them for “spiritual parasites” and are ever on the lookout for the ravenous wolves in sheep’s clothing.

This is not only a responsibility of elders, however.  This verse enjoins the whole congregation (plural participle) in this vital task of watching out for one another.  In other words, “Ya’ll keep diligent watch” lest this danger happens in someone’s life.

In other words, we should all be meddling in one another’s lives!  The idea that my life is mine and mine alone and thou shalt not ask me hard questions is not found in the Bible.  That is the American idea of privacy.  We should be accountable to brothers and sisters in Christ and for our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We should let them ask us the hard questions.  We should not try to hide away our private sins.

Thomas Manton wrote: “There must be a constant watch kept not only over our own hearts but also over the congregation to which we belong.  Members must take care of one another; this is the communion between saints” (Thomas Manton, An Exposition of the Epistle of James).

The great danger to be avoided here, for any one of us, is to “fall short of the grace of God” (Heb. 12:15).  This is a danger that all of us face and any one of us might experience.  Notice that our author says, “see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God.”

God’s grace is extended to us freely through Jesus Christ, starting at salvation and continuing on through our sanctification until the end of life.  In the epistles Paul wrote of the “grace in which we stand” (Rom. 5:2).  We can experience that grace as we trust the Gospel promises.  But we can “fall short” of it and not experience the blessings of grace.

Grace is the divine attitude of benevolence God has toward his children.  The image that helps me to picture this is that of a brimming pitcher in God’s hand tilted to pour blessing on us.  Jesus came “full of grace and truth” and “from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:16).  I picture this as standing at the seashore and watching wave after wave after wave coming in–a never-ending succession of waves.  That is God’s grace.

The Apostle James says essentially this when he declares, “But he gives more grace” (James 4:6)—literally, “great grace.”  Thus we confidently know there is always more grace for the humble believer.  Earlier in Hebrews 4:16 the preacher/writer urged us, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

The unchanging truth is, we can have no need that outstrips his grace, and we never will! Even if we fall into deep sin, greater grace is available, as Paul said: “But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20b).  “For daily need there is daily grace; for sudden need, there is sudden grace; for overwhelming need, there is overwhelming grace,” wrote John Blanchard (John Blanchard, Truth for Life (West Sussex, UK: H. E. Walter, Ltd., 1982), p. 254).

By watching over our own lives and the lives of others, we can help one another fully experience God’s grace so that we can live in peace with all men and pursue personal holiness.

The real problem is not just falling short of God’s grace once or twice, but the present tense of the verb “fall short” shows that what is concerning is someone (like Esau), who continually comes short of the grace of God.  One who continually falls short of God’s grace is not a Christian.  They may have heard and learned about Jesus, but have never received him and believed in Him.  They may seem so near yet be so far from Christ.

The verb “fall short” is hustereo and has the basic meaning of showing up late (in time), and thus miss out.  Hustereo has the basic meaning of being last or inferior.  It fails to reach the goal.  It appears in that familiar verse in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

When you fall short of something, you can miss it by an inch or by a mile, but you still miss it!  So those in Romans 3:23 have missed it by a “mile.”  But there are others who miss it by an “inch.”  For example, consider the man that Jesus talked about in Mark 10, the rich, young influencer.  This man had asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 20:17).  After indicating that the only truly good person is God, which should have clued this man in to the reality that he was talking to God, the Son, Jesus directed him to the second table of the law, dealing with “loving your neighbor.”

This man, mistakenly, said to Jesus, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”  Jesus was willing to grant this possibility, but then confronted him with the real issue that kept his heart from being fully devoted to Jesus, and that was his money, which was his idol.

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Mark 10:21).

When Jesus said, “you lack one thing,” that word “lack” is hustereo.  This was going to be the area in which this young man would “fall short.”  Jesus was telling this young man “you are coming short of God’s grace, of the eternal life you seek, in just one thing, one seemingly little thing.

Well, this young man couldn’t do it.  Money was his god and had a strong hold on him.  Our text says “he had great possessions” as the reason for his reticence to give it up, but in reality, his great possession had him…by the throat.

It was just one area, yet he missed God’s grace by an inch.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23)

Isn’t it amazing how some can come so close!  They are in a good, Bible-believing church, they know stories and verses in the Bible, they know the message of good news, they are “good people,” etc. etc.–but they lack one thing–they’ve never confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior of their lives, the importance of which Paul explains in Romans 10:8-11.

8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

To drink from the pitcher of grace we must know the grace-giver, Jesus Christ.

This text describes three ways in which one might fall short of God’s grace.  Remember, God’s grace is there for our sins, but in some way these sins keep us from experiencing that grace.

The first is a “root of bitterness.”  Our text says, “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.”

Now, what is “root of bitterness”?  I’ve always thought that this bitter root refers to the attitude of holding onto grudges and remaining unreconciled, and worse, unreconcilable to others.

There are a lot of mean, bitter people in the world.  Aesop tells the fable of a man wronged by his neighbor. He was angry and bitter at his neighbor.  The angry man was visited by Zeus, who said, “I will grant you any wish that you want.  The only stipulation is that I will grant to your neighbor, whom you hate, twice as much of whatever you ask. If you ask for 500 diamonds, your neighbor will receive 1,000.”  The bitter man agonized over the wish he should request of Zeus.  So intense was his hatred for his neighbor that finally he said, “I know what wish I want and you can double it for my neighbor.  I wish you to make me blind in one eye.”

Bitterness creates a cycle of animosity.  The root of bitterness produces the fruit of anger, and the fruit of anger often is expressed as harmful, hurtful words that we speak.  In the book of James, we learn that a mark of spiritual maturity is the ability to control the unruly tongue.  By the same measurement, a mark of immaturity is hateful, harmful speech. Words really can wound more than sticks and stones.

That is certainly a serious problem in some people’s lives that does not allow them to experience God’s grace and it is certainly something that “causes trouble” and “defiles many.”

Jesus told us that, “if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15).  I really don’t believe that means that if we fail to forgive others that God will cancel the forgiveness that He has promised to us through the Gospel.  Our unfaithfulness does not negate His promise to us.

However, I do believe that what this passage means is that if we cannot forgive others, then we will have a hard time believing that God has forgiven us.  We will quite naturally doubt it and question it.  Satan’s accusations and our own doubts will nag at us until the “joy of our salvation” is gone and we begin to wonder whether we are God’s children.

Anne Peterson warns: “Bitterness starts out small.  An offense burrows its way into our hearts.  We replay it in our minds, creating deep ruts that will be hard to build back up.  We retell our hurts to any available listener, including each sordid detail.  We enlist support, pushing us further into our resentment.  We hear the offending person’s name and cringe.  We decipher the offense as intentional and our offender as full of spite.  We look for other reasons, both real or imagined, to dislike our villain.  With each new piece of information, we form another layer of bitterness.  We fool ourselves into thinking no one will know, but anger and resentment have a way of seeping into everything.  Resentment is like a beach ball we try to submerge in the water.  No matter how valiant our efforts, it pops up with all its vitality, splashing everyone around (Anne Peterson, How to Deal with Bitterness).

A bitter, grudge-holding spirit does cause trouble.  It will end up poisoning other relationships.  It will likely cause physical trouble— including high blood pressure, increased heart rate, and a weakened immune system.  Over time, chronic stress can contribute to serious conditions such as cardiovascular disease and autoimmune disorders.  There’s an old saying that goes like this, “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

And it does “defile many.”  J. Vernon McGree compares bitterness to quinine in water.  It only takes a small drop to make the water bitter.  Bitterness affects the whole family or the whole congregation.  It spreads because bitter people need to release their own stress by sharing it with others. 

Warren Wiersbe says, “An unforgiving spirit is the devil’s playground (cp. Eph. 4:29, 2 Cor. 2:11) and before long it becomes the Christian’s battleground.”

Anger and bitterness are formidable detriments to biblical love, harmonious relationships, and maturity in Christ. Failing to put off anger and bitterness grieves the Holy Spirit, gives Satan an opportunity in your life, obscures your witness to others, and disrupts the unity in the Body of Christ. Dealing biblically with anger and bitterness requires wholehearted obedience to God’s Word in every circumstance and with every person, even if your feelings dictate otherwise (John Broger, Self-Confrontation Manual, Lesson 11, Page 2).

On the other hand, forgiving another person who has hurt you can be the most life-changing path you can take, releasing you from the stranglehold of bitterness and the poison of an angry heart.  When we do forgive, we have more confidence that our own sins have been forgiven.

Forgiveness breaks the bitter chains of pride, self-pity and vengeance that lead to despair, alienation, broken relationships and loss of joy.

Most of us have heard of Corrie ten Boom.  Corrie’s family started praying for the re-establishment of Israel and for the peace of Jerusalem in 1844 and their family prayed every week for a hundred years, from 1844 until 1944, when the family was arrested by the Nazis for harboring Jews.  Corrie ten Boom never saw her parents alive again, and she and her sister Betsie were taken to the infamous Ravensbrück prison camp.  Betsie died before Christmas that same year.  Corrie was made to endure hard labor and she witnesses terrible atrocities carried out by the Nazi guards.

A few years after the war, Corrie was speaking at a church in Germany when one of the former prison guards came up to her.  He put out his hand and asked her to forgive him.  At that moment, Corrie realized her heart was still full of bitterness and hatred toward him and the other Nazis.  Let me describe what happened in her own words: “I stood there with coldness clutching my heart.  But I know that the will can function without the temperature of the heart.  I prayed, ‘Jesus, help me.’  Woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me and I experienced an incredible thing.  The current started at my shoulder, raced down my arms, and sprang into our clutched hands.  Then this warm recognition seemed to flood my whole being bringing tears to my eyes. ‘I forgive you, brother.’  I cried with my whole heart.  For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands—the former guard and the former prisoner.  I have never known the love of God so intensely as I did at that moment.”

Let me read that last statement again, because it speaks to the life-changing power of offering forgiveness: “I have never known the love of God so intensely as I did at that moment.”

The problem with a “root of bitterness” is that it starts underground.  Far too often a bitter person will not admit their bitterness.  It is always someone else’s fault.

Let me end today with this little poem by Anna Russell in which she expresses this idea—that my problems are everyone else’s fault:

“I went to my psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzed.
to find out why I killed my cat and blackened my wife’s eye.
He put me on a downy couch to see what he could find
and this is what he dredged up from my subconscious mind.
When I was one my mommy hid my dolly in the trunk.
And, so it follows naturally that I’m always drunk.
When I was two I saw my father kiss the maid one day
and that’s why I suffer now from kleptomania.
When I was three I suffered ambivalence from my brothers
and so it follows naturally that I poisoned all my lovers.
I’m so glad I have learned the lesson it has taught
that everything I do that’s wrong is someone else’s fault.”

We started a series of messages on Hebrews 12:14-17 last week, noting that this is based upon God’s fatherly hand of discipline to produce peace and holiness in us.  That is His purpose.  In this section he gets back to our part in producing peace and holiness, and that is we must pursue it by embracing God’s grace.

14Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

We talked last week about pursuing peace with “everyone,” both unbelievers who are sometimes hostile, and even those within the church, who can also become our enemies, unfortunately and this is certainly not God’s desire.  Pursuing peace can be difficult, but even more difficult is pursuing holiness.

Peace is our horizontal pursuit; holiness is our vertical pursuit.  He is telling us to be at peace with everyone else, but to wage war against our own sins.  We need to live peaceably with all people as much as we can (cf. Matt. 5:9; Mark 9:50; Rom. 12:18; 14:19; 2 Tim. 2:22) because peaceful interpersonal relationships foster godliness (James 3:18).

Significantly, Jesus made the same association between peace and purity by joining them in successive beatitudes. “Blessed are the pure in heart” is followed by “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:8, 9).  Character and peace are woven together as a single garment of the soul.  Ultimately it is holy people who finish the race, for it is they who “shall see God” (Matthew 5:8) at his glorious return or in the glory that comes with death.

Our author had combined the two back in 12:11 where we see that it is part of God’s disciplinary goal, to produce peace and righteousness in our lives: “it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”  Adolf Saphir reminds us, “The two exhortations, to follow peace with all men, and that holiness without which none can see the Lord, comprise the whole Christian life. They refer to our relation to God and to our neighbor. They embrace both tables of the law” (The Epistle to the Hebrews, 2:674).

What is holiness?  The word “holy” means to be “set apart,” “to be dedicated.”  It speaks of a person, a thing, even an event, which is dedicated wholly to God.  It belongs to Him.  We are “not our own” but are “bought with a price.”  It is set apart for a unique purpose—to bring glory to God.

We are to be holy because God is holy (Lev. 11:14; 1 Peter 1:16).  God’s holiness means that He is “set apart” as a totally unique, majestic being.  But holiness also has a moral/ethical side—meaning that God is completely free of sin.  In Him is light and there is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).  Holiness is to be separate from sin and impurities.

In Isaiah 6:3 and Revelation 14:8 the angels cry out before God: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts,” night and day.  In every way God is unique.  There is no one like Him.

This doesn’t mean that God is cold and distant.  Rather, He lives in the “beauty of holiness” (Psalm 29:2; 96:9). True holiness isn’t cold and deadening – it’s warm and inviting.  It’s irresistible.  Those who think otherwise have never seen it, but only its caricatures. 

God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe.  Sin’s temporary presence in the world only accents this.  Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death.  The formation of the language itself suggests this, the English word holy deriving from the Anglo-Saxon halig, hal, meaning, “well, whole” (A. W. Tozer; The Knowledge of the Holy, 106).

For us to “be holy” or “pursue holiness” means to be totally set apart to God, totally dedicated to him.  In a practical sense it means to be “without sin,” to be totally conformed to the character of God.

“To live a holy life, then, is to live a life in conformity to the moral precepts of the Bible and in contrast to the sinful ways of the world. It is to live a life characterized by the “(putting) off of your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires… and (putting) on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22, 24)” (Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, p. 16).

I like what Nancy Leigh Demoss Wolgemuth says in her book Holiness: The Heart God Purifies:

“As Christians, we are called to maintain lives that can be “toured” by outsiders at any time, without embarrassment.  A commitment to holiness means having a life that is always “ready for company” and open for inspection – a life that can stand up to scrutiny – not just in the obvious things, but in the hidden places where most might not think to look” (Nancy Leigh Demoss Wolgemuth, Holiness: The Heart God Purifies, p. 152).

How do we pursue holiness?

First, we pursue holiness out of our position in Christ.  Because we are united to Christ by faith, He has become for us “righteousness and sanctification” (1 Cor. 1:30) and thus we are “saints” because of our position in Christ.  Have you ever wondered how Paul could call all the believers at Corinth saints (1 Cor. 1:2), even though they had so many problems?  In their behavior they were not saintly, but positionally they were.  Theologians also call this “definitive sanctification,” because it defines us.  We merely work out what God has already worked into us.

The first is perfect and complete and is ours the moment we trust Christ; the second is progressive and incomplete as long as we are in this life.  The first is the work of Christ for us; the second is the result of the Holy Spirit working in us.

So, second, we pursue holiness in our behavior by killing sin and living unto God.  Paul speaks to this in Romans 6.  He is arguing that we don’t, as believers, continue in sin, why?  Because we have died to it (Romans 6:2-3) and now we live unto God (Romans 6:4).  He says in verse 6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”  So we must reckon ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11).  Dead people don’t sin.

But we must go beyond that to offering the members of our body now to God as “instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13).  Although we are dead to sin, we still can offer our members to sin.  So we must do both: reckon ourselves dead to sin AND offer our members now to God as instruments of righteousness.

But we do this on the basis of the fact that that have a new nature and Christ now lives in us.  So by faith we believe that the righteous life of Christ can manifest itself in our behaviors.

It is God’s purpose for us to become holy (Eph. 1:4).  We “work out” the salvation that God is “working in” us (Phil. 2:12-13).  Please don’t mistake this pursuit for legalism and asceticism and all that.  Don’t mistake this pursuit for the idea that we have to work our way to salvation.

This strived-for righteousness does not add to the ground of our acceptance — the righteousness of Christ is the ground.  Rather, it confirms the ground of our acceptance as Jesus Christ and our participation in him by faith.  This is what 2 Peter 1:10 means when it says, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.”

Here he says, “pursue… the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”  Pursuing holiness means that we aggressively pursue becoming more and more like Jesus Christ.  Since all believers will one day “see the Lord,” and since no sin can abide in His presence (1 John 3:2), we must also pursue “holiness” in our lives now.  Sanctification is “the process by which believers are set apart to God as a special people to grow spiritually in personal holiness and to develop Christ-like character.”

1 John 3:2 says “when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”  When we die or when Jesus returns, we will immediately be transformed to be in actuality the perfect righteousness and holiness which we have been positionally since our justification but which also we have striven for daily in this life, as the Apostle John goes on to say, “everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

Again, this does not mean that we must pursue holiness in order to be saved.  As Ligon Duncan says, “The whole purpose of God’s salvation is to prepare us for the enjoyment of His presence.  And God is holy and He does not fellowship with sin.  So in preparation for the enjoyment of the presence of God, God in His kindness, by the Holy Spirit, works in us holiness and we ourselves are to strive – that the language of the author here – we’re to strive to grow in grace.  We’re to strive for sanctification.  We’re to strive after more godliness.  We want to grow more like Jesus” (https://ligonduncan.com/preparation-for-gods-presence-779/).

This is not salvation by works, however, for Christians are sanctified once for all by the death of Christ (Heb. 10:14); holy living is a part of the perseverance encouraged throughout Hebrews.

It does almost sound like if we don’t pursue holiness we won’t end up in heaven.  And in a way that is right.  Jesus said something very similar in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8).  Jesus states it from the positive.  Either way, it is a very real, very serious issue.  In the Greek there are no less than three negatives in this passage, as though it said, “No, never, no man shall see the Lord.” (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, 413).  That’s pretty strong!  If we don’t pursue holiness it proves that we are not saints.  Holiness is not the condition or basis of our salvation, but it is the evidence of our salvation.  It shows that we are saved.

John MacArthur explains it this way:

“This verse is not easy to interpret, and has been a problem for many sincere Christians. At first glance, it seems to be teaching salvation by works—if we successfully pursue peace and sanctification, we will be saved and will see the Lord.  The truth is, however, that a person who is not saved cannot pursue either peace or sanctification, at least not successfully.  Only the Christian has the ability, through the Holy Spirit, to live in peace and in holiness. “‘There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked’” (Isa. 57:21) and any righteousness men try to produce apart from God is as “a filthy garment” (Isa. 64:6).

I believe the writer is speaking of practical peace and righteousness.  Positionally, in Christ, Christians already are at peace (Rom. 5:1) and already are righteous (2 Cor. 5:21), but practically we have a great deal to do (Phil. 2:12).  Because we are at peace with God, we should be peacemakers.  Because we are counted righteous, we should live righteously. Our practice should match our position.  Otherwise the unbeliever will stand back and ask, “Why don’t you practice what you preach?  If you don’t live like Christ says to live, why should I accept Him as my Lord and Savior?” (cf. 1 John 2:6).  Pursuing peace primarily relates to loving men, and pursuing righteousness primarily to loving God.  If we love men, we will be at peace with them, and if we love God we will live righteously” (John MacArthur, Hebrews).

Jerry Bridges explains that…

“the writer of Hebrews is telling us to take seriously the necessity of personal, practical holiness.  When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives at our salvation, He comes to make us holy in practice.  If there is not, then, at least a yearning in our hearts to live a holy life pleasing to God, we need to seriously question whether our faith in Christ is genuine (cp 2 Cor. 13:5).  It is true that this desire for holiness may be only a spark at the beginning.  But that spark should grow till it becomes a flame—a desire to live a life wholly pleasing to God.  True salvation brings with it a desire to be made holy.  When God saves us through Christ, He not only saves us from the penalty of sin, but also from its dominion.  Bishop Ryle said, ‘I doubt, indeed, whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God.  More consecrated he doubtless can be, and will be as his grace increases; but if he was not consecrated to God in the very day that he was converted and born again, I do not know what conversion means’” (The Pursuit of Holiness)

We should be people intent on being holy as God is holy. That should be our aim, our joy, and our privilege – to reflect the character of our thrice holy God.  But let’s be absolutely clear about two things:

First, it does not mean that we earn heaven by our righteous actions.  I just want to re-emphasize that.  The Bible is abundantly clear that heaven is God’s free gift to all that trust in Christ as Savior and Lord (Rom. 6:23).  It is not by our works (Eph. 2:8-9; 2 Tim. 1:9) or efforts (Rom. 9:15).

Second, it does not mean that anyone can be perfectly holy or sanctified in this life.  There are some Christians who teach that believers can achieve a state of sinless perfection or total sanctification in this life.  Of course, they have to redefine sin and call some sin’s “mistakes.”  But the Bible is clear that we will have to strive against indwelling sin as long as we live (Romans 8:12-13)  In reality, Christians are not people who are sinless. They are people who, by God’s grace, sin less. 

What, then, does our text mean?  It means that those whose hearts have been regenerated by God’s grace will pursue a course of purity or holiness (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Ephesians 5:3-11; Colossians 3:5- and 1 John 3:7-10).  They may still sin often, but they do not remain in sin.  They hate it, they confess it and turn away from it, and they fight it over and over again with the spiritual weapons that God provides (Eph. 6:10-20).  They build into their lives barriers to avoid sin, renew their minds with Scripture by hiding it in their hearts (Psalm 119:11), but most of all that feast their hearts and minds on the passionate love of Christ for them so that they will fall deeply in love with Jesus and temptations will therefore lose their seductive draw.

This is a lifelong pursuit, but without it, no one will see the Lord.  Without this fight against sin they won’t go to heaven!  Heaven will be a place of absolute holiness.  God is holy, surrounded by His holy angels, who cover their faces and proclaim, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:3).  The saints in heaven are all perfectly holy, never to sin again (Heb. 12:23).  So, if we’re not pursuing a course of holiness now, we will be awfully uncomfortable in such a holy place, not to mention the fact that we’d ruin it!   Thus, everyone who has been rescued from sin and judgment by the cross wants and desires to please the Lord who died for him by pursuing purity.

There are many who do not pursue holiness, either out of ignorance or apathy or love for this world.  Charles Spurgeon says, “Unholy Christians are the plague of the church. They are spots in our feasts of charity. Like hidden rocks, they are the terror of navigators. It is hard to steer clear of them: and there is no telling what wrecks they may cause.”

It is unholy Christians who generally wreck the peace of the church.  It is because we are not pursuing holiness that we pursue our own ways and desires, thus causing conflict with others (who are also wanting their own ways and desires).

To pursue holiness means we put the utmost, concentrated effort into it.  We don’t just play around with sins in our lives, but we ruthlessly put them to death.  Spurgeon pointedly said, “Some men pray to be made holy, but they wish to keep some little pet sin in the backyard.”  Think on that.

There are those who lean towards being peaceable and are willing to sacrifice God’s holy standards for the sake of keeping the peace.  Then there are those whose standard of holiness is so high that they will mistreat others to protect God’s law.  Unlike Jesus, who could perfectly balance “grace and truth” (John 1:14), we tend to slide from one side or the other by virtue of our personalities.  Sometimes we become too lenient on the peaceable end and then too brutal on the holiness end.

Spurgeon reminds us, “We are only so far to yield for peace’s sake as never to yield a principle.  We are to be peaceful so far as never to be at peace with sin: peaceful with men, but contending earnestly against evil principles” (Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon Commentary: Hebrews, 411)