And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:2–4, ESV)

In the previous article (here), we discussed the “sound”. The “sound” is not alone; it is accompanied by the “wind”. In the power of the “wind”, the “sound” of the Gospel has gone forth into all the world, and it has gone out to conquer the hearts of men. The “wind” or the “Spirit of the Lord” is the means by which the “breath” of the Word of God enters our being, breaking our hearts of stone and creating hearts of flesh and giving us life. In the same way that the Spirit of the Lord hovered over the waters and the Word of the Lord spoke creation into existence, and in the same way the breath of God gave life to Adam, so it is also by these means that a new creation is created through the Gospel message. So, you ask for a miracle. Well, this is the miracle, the most powerful miracle: the restoration of humanity and our transformation into sons of God. For as we hear and heed the message of the Gospel, we are transformed. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Ezekiel gives us this hope, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). The prophet Ezekiel gives us insight into this and how the “sound” and “wind” work together to bring life. 

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”  

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.  

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:1–14, ESV) 

It is the power of the Spirit that brings life into us, though we were dead in our trespasses. And it is the Holy Spirit that brings life whenever the Gospel is preached.

But, as it is written, 

      “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, 
      nor the heart of man imagined, 
      what God has prepared for those who love him”— 

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
      (1 Corinthians 2:9–10, ESV)

We cannot come to God without the Holy Spirit. Though the “sound” works through the preaching of the Gospel, it is not elegant words that convince those who hear to come. Paul describes is proclamation of the Gospel: “and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4–5, ESV).

As Peter spoke the first sermon of the Church, the proclamation of the Gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit brought life to those hearing his words. In his sermon, Peter declared that Jesus is on his throne and has declared war on the kingdom of this world through the preaching of the Gospel (for more on this, go here). The Gospel, with the power of the Holy Spirit, has the power to devastate the kingdom of this world. Those who hold on to this world will be swept away with it. The Gospel is “to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life” (2 Corinthians 2:16, NASB). God is calling humanity to abandon the kingdom of this world, which is given over to total destruction, “blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke”, and come and heed God’s call by calling upon the name of Jesus. From the day Peter preached this first sermon to this day, the Gospel has gone out into the world in the power of the Holy Spirit. Will we resist the Holy Spirit?

Does God do wonders, miracles, and perform signs? The answer is yes. But these things point to the Gospel and are a call to us to listen. But we must be careful to assume we would believe in God if we saw a miracle. Splitting seas, a voice from the sky, healings, God coming down, or whatever your imagination may conjure will not be the means by which your heart is broken. In fact, in the scripture, these things often lead to the heart getting harder. Jesus, in his parable, noted, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead” (Luke 16:31). And despite the miracles Jesus performed, most continued to walk in unbelief. “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him” (John 12:37). Grand things will not move us. Dry bones and the dead are not moved by these things. Something far more intimate is needed. We need to hear the voice of someone who loves us, just as Lazarus, who was dead, heard Jesus’s voice. It is the power that created the world out of nothing that saves us. It is the voice of the one who loves us that calls us out of death. Our hearts can only be moved by hearing the voice of our Lover, the one who pursues his Bride.  

And we know that this salvation does not come through great signs or knowledge or the efforts of men that puff up. Paul writes,

But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 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); (Romans 10:6–8) 

Paul declares, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (10:17). After Peter’s sermon on Pentecost, the rest of Acts chronicles the story of the Gospel going forth to the world through the power of the Holy Spirit.

To those who demand signs of God’s existence, Jesus replies,

“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Matthew 12:39–41, ESV)

Even the preaching of a reluctant messenger had more effect than the mighty works that were being done amongst them. God has revealed himself, but in our stubbornness, we choose to harden our hearts to the truth.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:19–21, ESV)

When we stand before the throne of God, no one will accuse God of not revealing himself to them. It will be clear that they have suppressed the light given to them because they loved the darkness more than the light. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. . . . So they are without excuse” (Romans 1:18, 20b, ESV). Those who walk in continued willful unbelief and resist the Gospel’s and the Holy Spirit’s call do so to their own peril and shame. Those weary and heavy-laden by the darkness of this world and hear the call of love come into the light without price and shame.

“Come, everyone who thirsts, 
   come to the waters; 
 and he who has no money, 
   come, buy and eat! 
 Come, buy wine and milk 
    without money and without price. 
 Why do you spend your money
   for that which is not bread, 
    and your labor for that
      which does not satisfy? 
 Listen diligently to me, 
     and eat what is good, 
    and delight yourselves in rich food. 
 Incline your ear, and come to me; 
    hear, that your soul may live; 
 and I will make with you 
  an everlasting covenant, 
    my steadfast, sure love for David. 
 Behold, I made him a witness
      to the peoples, 
    a leader and commander
      for the peoples. 
 Behold, you shall call
   a nation that you do not know, 
   and a nation that did not know
    you shall run to you, 
 because of the LORD your God,
   and of the Holy One of Israel, 
    for he has glorified you. 

 “Seek the LORD while he may be found; 
    call upon him while he is near; 
 let the wicked forsake his way, 
    and the unrighteous man his thoughts; 
 let him return to the LORD,
   that he may have compassion on him, 
    and to our God, for he
      will abundantly pardon. 
 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, 
    neither are your ways my ways,
     declares the LORD. 
 For as the heavens are higher
      than the earth, 
    so are my ways higher than your ways 
    and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

 “For as the rain and the snow
   come down from heaven 
    and do not return there
       but water the earth, 
 making it bring forth and sprout, 
    giving seed to the sower 
     and bread to the eater, 
 so shall my word be that goes
   out from my mouth; 
    it shall not return to me empty, 
 but it shall accomplish 
  that which I purpose, 
    and shall succeed in the thing
      for which I sent it. 

 “For you shall go out in joy 
    and be led forth in peace; 
 the mountains and the hills before you 
    shall break forth into singing, 
 and all the trees of the field
      shall clap their hands. 
 Instead of the thorn shall
      come up the cypress; 
   instead of the brier shall
      come up the myrtle; 
 and it shall make a name for the LORD, 
    an everlasting sign that
      shall not be cut off.”
               (Isaiah 55, ESV)

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. (Hebrews 6:4-6, ESV)

The passages of Hebrews 6:4-6 and Hebrews 10:26-30 have filled many with trepidation and angst over the fear of having lost any hope of salvation. This is a fear that has no comparative horror. Yet, sadly, many who go through this have nowhere to turn and are given unsatisfying explanations. It is uncomfortable, and the verses are difficult, therefore, very few are willing to sit with a person in this struggle. Many have struggled alone for years without any real answers. I hope to give some comfort to those who have experienced this. These verses are not meant to be comfortable. They are meant to make you tremble, but they are there to give you hope in the one that holds you as you tremble.

When we are reading the Bible, it is important to understand the context. The New Testament is saturated in Old Testament imagery and references that are often missed with a casual reading. As you read these passages, it is important to understand that there is a story and a rich context from which these statements are being made, which cannot be seen if you are just trying to define each word. Though important, we are not going to understand it by trying to have the definition of “enlightenment” or “taste” pat down in a lexicon. These things become more evident as we are entrenched in the same story as the author.

Jewish Background

This letter was written to Jewish Christians. Though we don’t know the full context of the situation, it is clear that the audience of this letter were struggling with whether or not to leave the covenant of Jesus and go back to being under the covenant of Moses and perhaps whether they still needed the sacrificial system along with Jesus, just as in Galatians, Paul addresses the teaching that gentiles needed circumcision in addition to Jesus. Some of the context of Hebrews gives us a picture of persecution under the Jews and pressure to go back to the Mosaic sacrificial system. Historically, we do know this persecution happened. The writer of Hebrews is dealing with whether a return to the covenant under Moses is possible.

Put yourself in their shoes. For centuries, you have had a valid means of coming to God and being reconciled through repentance by presenting a sacrifice, washings, and rituals. You and your father and your father’s fathers have in obedience and in reverence for God have been faithful in this. The practices of the Mosaic covenant were deeply ingrained in the very core of who they were. To give this up is to ask them to give up all that they have known. But also, the Mosaic covenant had been proven true and trustworthy for centuries. It would make sense for them to fall back onto the well-known and well-established Mosaic covenant, something they felt confident in as a means of repentance and acceptance with God, if they were unsure of their Gospel confession or buckled under persecution or faltered in the sufficiency of the work of Jesus. And maybe they were trying to hold on to both, perform the sacrifices to appease the Jewish leaders, while still holding to their faith in Jesus. In all these, there was a temptation to go back to the law. The writer of Hebrews is just as clear as Paul in his letter to the Galatians, when they were tempted to go back to the law, “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse” (3:10a, ESV). And just as Paul pleads with the Galatians, “Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness?” (3:4-6, ESV), so too, the author of Hebrews exhorts his readers to not grow weary, even in suffering, and to hold fast to their confession (Hebrews 4:14).

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23, ESV).

The Mosaic Covenant is obsolete

Hebrews follows the argument Paul made to the Gentiles, that they could not be placed under the law, and can be summarized in this statement, “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13a). In other words, now that the Gospel has come there was no Mosaic covenant to return to. We must keep in mind that this was a radical and uncomfortable statement for the Jews. They are being told that what they were called to be faithful to for generations upon generations is now obsolete. Not only obsolete, but what was once beautiful and holy, and a blessing is now destructive and a curse. The Gospel shook the very foundations of all that they had known. And with this in mind, the writer of Hebrews argues that the Mosaic sacrificial system is no longer a viable means of repentance, and those who go back to it have fallen away from the only hope and means of repentance, which is through Jesus.

Moving on from the basics

Keeping this background in mind, let’s look at these verses,

And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. (Hebrews 5:9-6:3, ESV)

The writer of Hebrews wants to say more about Jesus “being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek”, but he is not sure if they fully understand the basics of how Jesus fulfills the Mosaic law and how Jesus fulfills all that the Old Testament taught about “repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment”. Later in this letter, he writes of how Jesus fulfilled the law, using similar language,

These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. (Hebrews 9:6-14, ESV)

They ought to know that “[t]hese [Mosaic covenant practices] are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:17, ESV), for this is the very milk by which they enter the Gospel. The author of this letter wants to move on from this and wants them to understand that Christ has done more than just fulfill the Mosaic covenant and law with its ritual washings, laying on of hands, and sacrifices. He wants to take them ever deeper into the wonders of the Gospel. Christ has fulfilled something much more profound and encompasses something that predates Moses, and of whom their ancestor Abraham, himself, was subservient to. Jesus has come as our high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

The Sword

Wanting to move on, the author of Hebrews demonstrates that if one does not understand that Jesus has fulfilled the Mosaic law with its rituals, and if they are not relying on the blood of Christ to “purify our conscience from dead works [the law] to serve the living God”, the very milk of the Gospel, but instead after hearing the Gospel, because of a hard heart, fall back to the Mosaic covenant as a means of repentance, then they fallen away from the only hope they have. In other words, if you do not have faith that Jesus has not fully satisfied the Mosaic covenant, you will not find salvation anywhere else, not even in the place that was once secure for your father and their fathers for generations, for the Mosaic covenant could not stand up under the majesty of Jesus. “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” (Hebrews 12:27). Those who rely on these things will be destroyed alongside them. This is why the author of Hebrews makes this statement,

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

Remember, this passage is written to the Jews who once had a valid and God given means of repentance through the Mosaic covenant. Before the Gospel came, their sacrifices, washings, and laying on of hands were acceptable to God. But now that the Gospel has come, it brings a “sword” that pieces our heart, thoughts, and soul. It not only calls the Gentiles to leave their idolatry and immorality, but it also calls the Jews to leave their dead works under the law. When Simeon held Jesus, he told Mary, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:34b-35). Or as the Hebrews author puts it, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12–13, ESV). When presented with Jesus, will you come to him?

The Power of the Gospel

When the Gospel is preached, it is not just mere speech. When the Gospel is preached the Holy spirit is present and at work and there is a tangible presence of the Word of Christ, as the hearers are hearing the very words of Jesus himself (Romans 10:17). When the Gospel is preached there is a real encounter with the Kingdom of God for both those who believe and those who remain in unbelief that can be described as “having once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come”. In a very authentic way, when the Gospel is preached, we are experiencing the Kingdom of God breaking through, just as the Israelites experienced this at Mount Sinai, despite their unbelief. Be assured, the preaching of the Gospel is more powerful than God delivering Israel from Egypt. Paul echoes this Hebrews passage in his first letter to the Corinthians,

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness (10:1-5, ESV).

In this passage, Paul is warning the Gentiles, you have experienced the power of God and His Kingdom through proclamation of the Gospel. And just as the Hebrews passage warns the Jews, Paul warns them not to have a hard heart that turns way and holds on to things that are dead and bring no life. In John 6, you have group of people who are described as believing in Jesus and disciples who were recently ready to make him king, but when Jesus’ message of the Gospel gets hard and brings the “sword”, “his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” (John 6:66, ESV). We also see this kind of “belief” not accompanied by faith in the parable of the seeds. This theme is stitched throughout the scripture into a tapestry warning us to place our faith in Jesus alone.

And why did God reject the Israelites in the desert? It was despite having experienced the power of God and believing God exists, they continued to walk in unbelief. Just as the disciples in John 6 followed Jesus and were even ready to make him king, so to were the Israelites ready to follow Moses out of Egypt and ready to make a covenant on Mount Sinai, but when tested, they rebelled and walked in unbelief, revealing the true nature of their belief.

For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. (Hebrews 3:16–19, ESV)

Jude comes to the same conclusion,

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe (Jude 5, ESV).

Like rain, the Gospel rains on both the righteous and the wicked. Both encounter the power of God through the Gospel, but they do not have the same response to this encounter.

For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. (Hebrews 6:7–8, ESV)

Now that the Gospel has been preached and the Kingdom of God has broken through, the message to us all is, “a sword will pierce through your own soul, also”. We are warned, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12, ESV). “For the good news came to us just as to them [the Israelites in the wilderness], but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened (Hebrews 4:2, ESV).

It is impossible for the law to restore one to repentance

Hebrews 6 is a continuation of this message. The author of Hebrews goes on to tell them that if they fall away from Christ, thinking that Mosaic covenant sacrifices will be a legitimate means of repentance, it will have no such power. Though the Mosaic law previously generation after generation, could restore them to repentance through the sacrifices and once a year as the high priest made atonement, this is no longer the case. The Mosaic covenant has no power to restore them again to repentance as it once did. They are asking the impossible. On the contrary, if they rely on sacrifices, whether in an attempt at repentance or in order to appease the Jews and avoid persecution, they are saying Jesus’ death on the cross is not sufficient and that a continual sacrifice is needed. When they continue in these sacrifices, they are symbolically saying Christ needs to die once again and putting the work of Christ to open shame. Just as Paul writes to the Galatians, warning them if they try to hold onto anything other than Jesus,

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6–9, ESV)

Hebrews 10 gives the same warning,

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:26–30, ESV)

Psalms 95, quoted in Hebrews, also gives us the same warning,

   do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
   as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your fathers put me to the test
   and put me to the proof, 
   though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation
   and said, “They are a people 
     who go astray in their heart,
   and they have not known my ways.”
Therefore I swore in my wrath,
   “They shall not enter my rest.”

(Psalm 95:8–11, ESV)

And so, the thrust of the passage is that if we keep on willfully sinning against the covenant under Jesus and reject the Gospel, there is no other sacrifice. work, or effort that will be able to restore us to repentance, not even if we sought it with tears. There is nothing left to rescue us from the wrath of God. Yes, “The Lord will judge his people”; being a Jew and a descendent of Abraham will not save them. Nor will being amongst the body of Jesus in the Church.

The root of bitterness

In Hebrews, we are given the example of Esau,

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; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 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 (Hebrews 12:15–17, ESV).

When Moses was giving his final words to the Israelites, he, too, warned them against a bitter heart,

“You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. 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, one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. And the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law (Deuteronomy 29:16–21, ESV).

In Sinai, those who walked in unbelief longed to go back to Egypt. Despite being in the desert where God’s presence was, they did not press into the Promised Land. Those with a bitter heart are those like Esau that long for the things of this world, who like the Israelites despite hearing the message of the Gospel want to go back, whether it is to the law or to the world.

Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit

I want to touch on the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit as described in Matthew 12:31-32 and Mark 3:28-30.

Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. (Matthew 12:31–32, ESV)

“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.” (Mark 3:28–30, ESV)

As with Adam, we have rejected God the Father to go our own way. And as with Israel and the gentile Romans, we in our rebellion have crucified Jesus, for it is our sins that held him there. Our blasphemies against the Father and the Son have been outrageous, but even then, Jesus says that this blasphemy can be forgiven. The Holy Spirit moves to reveal the Gospel and calls us to come and experience the forgiveness that was accomplished in Jesus. If we reject that call, if we reject the Holy Spirit, there is nowhere else to go in this age or the one to come for forgiveness. We will be left without hope.

For the Jewish leaders, this was both a message of warning and hope. The Holy Spirit was at work revealing who Jesus was with magnificent signs. Would they persist in unbelief as Israel in the wilderness? What more proof could they be given? What they spoke at this moment revealed their hearts, claiming about Jesus, “‘He is possessed by Beelzebul,’ and ‘by the prince of demons he casts out the demons’” (Mark 3:22, ESV). God himself was standing before them, performing miracles, and providing evidence for them to believe, and yet in the bitterness and hardness of their heart, they chose what Jesus showed to be a feeble argument in order to lead people away from Jesus. They were resisting the Holy Spirit, but not only that, they were attributing the work of the Holy Spirit, which was there to bring conviction as an unholy thing and even Satan. More evidence could not have been provided. And more evidence would not have convinced them, for their hearts were hard? To give an example with another subject, for some, because of the gymnastics they have allowed their brain to go through, no amount of evidence would convince them that the world is not flat. In John 9:41, Jesus tells the Pharisees, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains” (NIV). None of the passages that address this issue speak of a casual occurrence. It is described as high-handed, willful, deliberate, ongoing.

The Warning

So, there is a warning in these scriptures, both in Hebrews and elsewhere. And this is a warning to those who have heard the Gospel, yet neglect to come to Jesus. In Deuteronomy 29, Moses says the root of bitterness is rejecting God and his covenant in Jesus. If you reject the Gospel, the root of bitterness, if allowed to grow, will choke out the hope of the Gospel and create a heart that is willfully and deliberately resistant to the Holy Spirit. It is a warning just as urgent as the angels who warned Lot to get out of Sodom. It is a warning for “Today”, not tomorrow. If we continue to reject the Gospel, our hearts will eventually get so hard and our hearts so bitter toward God that we may come to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, the only one who can change our hearts. The “sword of the word of God” will test our hearts.

Interestingly in the Matthew account you get parables and events surrounding this passage like the discourse about persecution, John’s messengers, unrepentant cities, yoke, the soils (Sower), weeds, treasure, net, the tree and its fruit, and Jesus being rejected at Nazareth that fall within theme of these things. All these give you the picture of the “sword” that divides belief from unbelief. As said earlier, there is a tapestry of scripture that warns us to not neglect the Gospel while it is called “Today”.

Our sure and solid hope

One note here: the scripture is clear that this hardness of heart is not a casual thing. It is a willful and high-handed continual and ongoing rejection of the Gospel. The scripture says, “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth.” If at some point, we cease to “go on sinning”, and turn to Christ, we will be met with the open arms of the Gospel. The promises of God do not change. They do not grow weary. They are not weaker than our most severe sins. Though the warning of a hardened heart is real, the offer of the Gospel is never ever ever ever taken away from those who repent and come to God. In Hebrews 6, the same passage that says it is impossible to restore them to repentance it also encourages us to hold on to our confession because God is faithful,

And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:11–20, ESV)

When Jesus spoke of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, though his exchange with the Pharisees and scribes was a warning to those around him to be careful that their hearts did not become hard and reject the Holy Spirit. Perhaps for some who had not fully hardened their heart, this might have been a message of hope in the darkest place. Soon, the Jews, with the help of the Gentiles, and likely some present at this exchange, would blaspheme and crucify Jesus. If they came to understand the Gospel, they could look back at Jesus’ words spoken on this occasion and understand and know they could be forgiven, even of this, if they did not also speak against and reject the call of the Holy Spirit in the gospel. What a message of grand hope for us all who have committed such atrocities against God!

David, knowing all of this, in the midst of his sin, says in Psalm 32:9-11,

Be not like a horse or a mule, 
     without understanding,
   which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
   or it will not stay near you.
Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
   but steadfast love surrounds 
     the one who trusts in the Lord.
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, 
     O righteous,
   and shout for joy, 
     all you upright in heart! 
       (Psalm 32:9–11, ESV)

In Hebrews 11, we find that many have found that God’s promises are sure and faithful. The writer goes on and says,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1–2, ESV)

In light of this and the surety of the work of Jesus and the promises of God,

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 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. (Hebrews 4:14–16, ESV)

Be careful what you wish for . . .

Some will ask if God exists, why doesn’t he make himself completely obvious so that there is no doubt that he exists. They say that this is what they want in order for them to believe. If they had it they would believe in God. But is believing in God’s existence what they need? They foolishly make this claim because they do not understand the dangers of what they are asking. The saying is true, we must be careful what we wish for. . ..  

The demons believe and are condemned for it

You want God to reveal himself definitively and clearly in order for you to believe. But is this kind of belief enough? The scriptures tell us that the demons believe in God, and yet they are left shuddering and without hope (James 2:19). Why is this so? The answer is that they have no hope because of the fact that they believe and know that God exists. And it is their knowing God that condemns them and has left them without hope, for their rejection of God came after God made himself known to them. Therefore, there is no more that God can do for the demons, no more evidence that God can provide to convince them to change their hearts. What in you would make your response any different than the demons?  

Signs and wonders do not produce faith

We see this warning in other places throughout the Bible of people hardening their hearts despite being given signs and wonders and direct proofs of God’s existence. We see this specifically during the Exodus. Pharaoh continually hardened his heart against the signs and wonders God gave. But not only Pharaoh, but more significantly, the Israelites who had been delivered also hardened their heart and went astray, and were left without hope. After the Israelites had been given many manifold and direct proofs of God and had experienced God’s love and faithfulness and his tender care for them in the wilderness, they still lacked faith in God and failed to trust in his word. Because of this, God says of that generation that they shall never enter his rest. There was no more hope for them. Israel once again rejected God, despite all the signs and wonders Jesus performed. Despite all they had seen, they, too, hardened their hearts. This is a common pattern when God reveals himself with signs and wonders. 

An interesting note: when Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, comes to Jesus, he states, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Don’t miss that this man who was “a ruler of the Jews” doesn’t say “I believe” but he says “we believe”. Could he be speaking of the other leaders as well? It is not clear who the “we” are, but it is clear that the leadership understood that Jesus had come to destroy their world and that instead of embracing Jesus and acknowledging that his works were from God, they publicly attributed his works to Beelzebub. Jesus had come to destroy what they had known and their privilege. In the parable of the vineyard Jesus describes the leaders as ones who were willing to kill the son to protect what they had in the hopes that the vineyard would remain in their possession. There was a stubborn rejection of the signs and wonders given to them in order to protect what they had. 

Revelation only brings judgement

It is clear that the more revelation God gives us of himself, the more judgment we will incur if we continue to reject him, and if we continue to harden our hearts, there will come a day when it will be declared that we shall never enter God’s rest. 

“Jesus said, ‘For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.’ Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, ‘Are we also blind?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.’” (John 9:39–41) 

So, we must be careful how much we want to see because the more we see, the more we are hastening the day of our final judgment if we continue to harden our hearts. Those who claim they want a sign in order to believe are like these Pharisees: if you will not hear the gospel, you will also not be convinced by a powerful sign. We will later see that it is only the gospel that can make one believe.

God will reveal himself 

There will be a day when God makes himself fully known to humanity in a definitive and decisive way as atheists have asked, where no one can deny who he is. They won’t doubt his existence or attribute it to the failings of their mind. All eyes will see him. They will know that he is God. Atheists will confess that he is God with no doubt in their minds. But on that day, our fate will be sealed. On that day, every knee will bow down and confess that he is Yahweh. But for many, like the demons, this bowing and confession will be to their judgment. For having knowledge and acknowledging who God is and his sovereignty is not enough.  

If like the Jewish leaders, we believe that God owes you an extraordinary sign to prove his existence, even if your request was granted, like the Jewish leaders who contributed the miracles to the work of Beelzebub, we too, would find some other explanation other than being willing to hear the call of God. We are not much different than the Israelites in the wilderness or the Jewish leaders who saw the works of God.  

Those who ask God to reveal himself in this way do not understand what they are asking. If God made himself known, as many atheists have asked, then that day would be their judgment day. They would perish without hope. We cannot presume that we would repent, even if we saw the most ardent proof of God. And so again, we need to be careful what we ask for, for just as the demons determined their own fate despite such evidence, if God gave us what we asked for, God could do nothing more after that to rescue us. 

But I would repent 

Some may say, “But my heart would change, I would repent if I saw that kind of evidence!” I know many believe this, but would it be enough? Just as belief is not enough, so repentance is not enough to rescue us from ourselves. It is unlikely we would change, but even if we did and let’s say lived a perfect life, the Christian faith requires something more profound than living a moral life. It requires dying to ourselves and losing our lives, not a frantic attempt to save it by changing our outward behavior in order to be rescued from judgment. Blaise Pascal wrote, “God has given evidence sufficient for those with an open and an open heart, but it is sufficiently vague as not to compel those whose hearts are closed”. God is not interested in “compelled hearts”. 

No, God has given enough evidence for us to believe; we are just really good at suppressing his call. We are like children playing on the playground who don’t want to listen to their parent calling to them from afar off to come home. Because they want to continue to play, they suppress that call. And like these children, we want to continue in our own way, and so we suppress the call of God to come home. And just because the parent leaves their home and no longer yells from afar, but shows up on the playground and makes it clear that their child is to return home, and the child yields to their parents demand and walks with them home, this does not mean that the child’s heart values their parent’s voice in that moment more than the playground. Given the chance, if not compelled, they would rush back to the playground without hesitation.  

Of course, the analogy would be more fitting if instead of playing in the playground, the kids were playing on a busy highway. For though the pleasures of this world are intoxicating, they are fleeting and in the end, cause us harm. Peter describes our love for the things of this world as vomit and mire, 

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” (2 Peter 2:20–22) 

Yes, if God showed up, we might submit, but our hearts would still be attached to this world. Know one who is attached to this world can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Pride is destructive both to the person and those around them, and it has no place in the Kingdom of God.  

Was Esau able to find hope in this kind of repentance? His weeping and tears were those of bitterness, loss, and sorrow but not of a broken heart or of a man who had died to himself. We do not realize how much sin and pride have infected our hearts. Just as one gets used to a horrid rotting smell after a while, we have gotten used to the depths of our sin and see them as light. We are used to the smell of death that sin brings. But Jesus made it clear that if we say a harsh word to another that we are far more infected by sin and pride than we realize. If we look at another with lust, we are subject to eternal judgment. Jesus made it clear that none of us are as good as we think we are and justly deserve judgment. Our passions and desires are at war with one another and with God.  

We would not embrace God 

Do not think that if God gave us direct revelation that you would embrace him or want to be near him. Apart from Christ, just as Adam fled and hid from God, so we, too, will shrink back and flee from God’s presence. Those who love darkness do not want to be in the light. Gehenna is described as a place of darkness; and it is described with qualities that are in opposition to God. This is one of the ironies of the fate of those who reject God, 

     Woe to those who draw iniquity 
       with cords of falsehood,  
          who draw sin as with cart ropes,  
     who say: “Let him be quick,  
          let him speed his work  
          that we may see it;  
     let the counsel of the Holy One
      of Israel draw near,  
          and let it come, 
           that we may know it!”  
     Woe to those who call evil good  
          and good evil,  
     who put darkness for light  
          and light for darkness,  
     who put bitter for sweet  
          and sweet for bitter!  
     Woe to those who are wise 
       in their own eyes,  
          and shrewd in their own sight! 
                (Isaiah 5:18–21) 

We reject God because we think our way of doing things is good and God’s way of doing things is evil. The irony is that because we love the darkness, we will abandon God, and in doing so, we will abandon the source of life, light, love, joy, goodness, etc., and flee to dwell in a place that has none of these things to be free of God’s presence. It would not matter if God showed up because we would not want to come to him if he did. 

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3:19–20) 

Let’s suppose I dwelt in a dark cave for a long time, and all of a sudden, I found myself in a bright open field. What would my response to the light be? For those who only have knowledge of God, this light is unbearable. They cover their eyes and shrink back. They do not want to be near God. They will not be able to bear standing before God. 

     Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
         And who shall stand in his holy place? 
            (Psalm 24:3)    

Only those found in Jesus and who are a completely new creation can stand in the light and embrace it. Without Jesus, no one can approach God. But for those apart from Christ, they are unable to stand and do not want to be in his presence. This response to rejecting God and fleeing his presence is deeper and more ingrained in us than someone in a cave being exposed to light. If God showed up, we would not embrace him; instead, like roaches fleeing when the light is turned on, we would frantically flee to a place of darkness. The same light that opens a world of beauty for those who love the light is torment for those who love darkness. Our hearts must change if we are to be able to be near God. No amount of evidence would change this. We are no better than the demons, Pharoh, the Israelites, or the Pharisees. Thankfully, God has presented himself through Jesus in human flesh, breaking the veil that kept God separated and hidden so that we might be able to stand before God on the day he is fully revealed, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. Those who have come to the Lion of Judah and embrace him in love will not flee like the wicked,  

The wicked flee when no one pursues,  but the righteous are bold as a lion. (Proverbs 28:1) 

the lion, which is mightiest among beasts, and does not turn back before any (Proverbs 30:30)

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. (Hebrews 10:39)