39. Full Assurance of Faith
Covering Hebrews 10:
Hitting the Wrong Target.
When rockets were first introduced onto the battlefield by the British in Spain in the war against Napoleon, they were not reliable. Only a few would hit the enemy; most went wild and some even came back to hit the soldiers who fired them. There was very little control of where they went. This is a very helpful understanding, because I now see how the second part of Hebrews 10 serves as the “fins” one might say, that portion added to a missile to ensure accuracy.
It is truly an extraordinary thing that the Calvinist translations caused Hebrews to miss “no consciousness of sins” completely, and to HIT “the great struggle against sin.” Hitting “the great struggle against sin” then effectively squashed the real target, our being offered as sons for the sake of the Church, making that target entirely invisible.
Tares. The alteration of Genesis 3:22 in translation is certainly the most destructive and deceitful tare sown into God’s field. But it was the discovery of the wicked alterations made to Hebrews 10-13 that made me the most angry. I always instinctively knew, from the gospel, that God did not know evil, but the agony of my life created by the lying taking place, the tares sown into this part of the field, was personal. This is very important, for this most precious of passages to us, the Way of Life, was turned instead into the way of death. And thus it behooves us to pay close attention to what God actually says, and to allow God to show us what He means.
The command given already to us by the writer of Hebrews is the only thing that will take us through. – Keep your eyes upon Jesus, not just in ourselves, but even in the text.
The Problem Stated Clearly. (Chapter 10) • 1 For the law, having an outline but not the image of the good things coming [inside of Christ], with the same sacrifices offered each year continually, is never able to perfect and make complete those who draw near. 2 For would they not have ceased being offered? For the worshippers, having been cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins. • 3 But these sacrifices are bringing sins into mind every year [as a fruitless struggle against sin]. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins.
The law is an outline, but it is NOT an image. The outline is good, for it shows us what cannot be Christ as us. But to use the law as an image is to spin around in circles, never finding the Father’s purpose, never coming to completion. Verse 3 is so clear, but utterly disregarded in the “Christian” practice of “bringing sins to mind” all the time.
Finding the Solution. Hebrews 10:19-22 goes beyond the solution. But to arrive at God’s solution, you must have the real problem made clear. More than that, you cannot have a solution if you don’t know the goal beyond it. This is exactly what 10:1-18 is doing for us.
10:1-2 Definition: Jesus must perfect us and make us complete before He can take us into God’s purpose for our lives. To be cleansed means specifically – no consciousness of sins. The goal is to share life with God in all things. One who places sin between self and God does so only to refuse God.
1-4 Covenant: We will live joined together with God by Covenant ONLY IF every thought of sin, sins, sinfulness, and death is taken away from us. Only Jesus hitting the target with us inside of Him accomplishes such a thing.
3-4 Ruling Verse 6: All sin belongs only to Jesus, we give all to Him. The old covenant does nothing real for anyone.
The Problem with Band-Aids. • 5 Therefore, coming into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering you have not desired, but a body you have fitted together for me. 6 You have not thought well of burnt offerings and offerings for sin.” 7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come, in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do that which You desire, O God” (Psalm 40).
The law used a Band-Aid to stitch together two things severed apart by violence. It could keep things together momentarily, but it could NOT heal the deadly wound. Four words point towards the complete healing required, and two names: desire and heart, sin and devotion, and the writer of Psalm 40 – David – speaking as Jesus. Consider the difference between pharmaceutical medicine and naturopathy. The first treats symptoms without solution; the second enables the body to heal the underlying problem.
A Difficult Task. I have just discovered something. Hebrews 10:1-18 is the most complex passage in Scripture. You cannot understand any part of it without fully understanding the whole first, and you cannot understand the whole without comprehending each part fully. I could never have known both before now. I have a difficult task right now. My immediate job is to write the Gospel Comments, but they must come out from God’s meaning. This will be an initial and limited attempt to impart the whole. To do that, I must step aside and create a scenario that gives God’s meaning, but first, verses 5-7.
5-7 Covenant: The sacrifices of the old covenant do NOTHING for God; He does not want them. But “to do what God desires” must be defined. What does God want? God wants the New Covenant; He wants a House in which to dwell, that He might be KNOWN, a body prepared for Him.
What Do You Want? A great king prepared his kingdom, that he might pass the responsibility of all to his heir. In the course of time, the heir went out to battle and was struck with a mighty blow across his heart, splitting him open, yet he still lived. The king was desperate, for his heir, yes, but also for his entire kingdom now facing chaos. He called those who could solve the problem. A group of many said, “We will solve the problem. We will patch this deadly wound with band-aids, use chemicals to make him think he’s okay, and cut away the flesh as it rots.”
Then another man came and said, “What do you really want, my king?” The king said, “I desire my heir to be whole, stepping into the care over the entire kingdom with no remembrance of this awful problem.” The man replied, “I will do what you want, I will go into the heart, and I will heal and restore from the inside out. All he will remember is thanksgiving.”
What God Wants. 8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offerings for sin You have not wanted, nor have You been pleased with those things offered according to the law,” • 9 then He said, “Behold I have come to do what you desire.” Thus, He takes away the first, that He might establish the second. • 10 By God’s desire, we are already made devoted [belonging only to God] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Suddenly, this becomes simple for us. God WANTED us to be devoted to Himself inside of Him. Paul’s conversion is the greatest testimony there could be that obedience to the law makes NO ONE devoted to God. Jesus provided God with the Solution. He took us into Himself in Gethsemane first. Then, He devoted Himself to God, His very body, “I and the children whom You have given Me.”
That They Might Be Devoted. Here is the core of John’s gospel. – Just as You sent Me into the world-cosmos, in the same way I also send them into the world. For their sakes, I make Myself pure and devoted to You, that they also might be made pure and devoted inside of the truth (John 17:18-19).
Redemption is assumed. Devotion is not for connecting with God; devotion is for the sending forth from God and our return, that is, our care for the entire inheritance.
Consider the misinterpretation of verse 9. – “The old must vanish before the new can come.” That is utter hopelessness, a “someday” gospel that never comes. Here is what verse 9 actually says, “The old is already gone, the new is already established.” Or – “Live in what is (out from God), not in what ain’t.”
Desire and Devotion. In order to divert the arrow that is us away from God’s target, that we might hit Satan’s target, the enemy sowed two tares into the field, the definitions over centuries of two concepts, “the will of God,” and “holiness/sanctification.” Giving the Greek words unencumbered English words, desire and devotion, closer to their everyday use, allows what Hebrews actually says to come into sharp clarity for us.
9 Definition: God’s “will” is a barrier separating us from God. God’s desire is an invitation to enter into His Heart. God WANTS His heirs, you and me, to be devoted to His purposes, the care of His House and Kingdom, joined utterly with Him.
10 Ruling Verse 6: Devotion is that which is out from God, already utterly redeemed with no thought of separation, now returning to Him carrying all the fruit God desires.
Placing Devotion. 11 And indeed, every priest stands every day ministering, and repeatedly offering the same sacrifices which are never able to take away sins. • 12 In complete contrast, this One, having offered one unlimited sacrifice for sins, sat down inside of the right hand of God, • 13 from now on waiting expectantly for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet. • 14 For by one offering, He has perfected those who are continuously being made devoted by God. • 15 Moreover the Devoted Spirit bears witness to us when having said before: 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days, says the Lord; I will put My laws upon their hearts…
Verse 13, waiting expectantly, is from Psalm 110, the order of Melchizedek, both the power of an endless life AND – Thy people willing in the Day of Thy power. Jesus is waiting for us to bring the return to God of His Victory already complete.
From Devotion to Covenant. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Look at the direct connection between Jesus having already accomplished our own DEVOTION to God, and the Covenant, that Jesus fulfills God’s Desire by being written upon our hearts as every Word God speaks already fulfilled. And this is why 10:23-25 comes right after Ruling Verse 6 – speak Christ into the gathering of the Church, speak Christ together into loving one another. Jesus is waiting for us to carry all our brethren in our hearts back into God, together with Him.
12-13 Ruling Verse 6: One unlimited sacrifice for sins. One unlimited sacrifice for sins. One unlimited sacrifice for sins. It is finished. Jesus now awaits us to bring to Him the Victory already complete, carrying God’s desire, His anxious care over all our brethren, now inside of us.
As Sons and Heirs. 13 Ruling Verses 4 & 9: The full cleansing away of all consciousness of sins is entirely in our past. As sons and heirs, we now carry God’s concerns as our own. And God is concerned about His Church, that she would be set free.
OKAY!!! We now see that “being made devoted” in verse 14 is NOT part of our way into God, our redemption. Rather, it is an essential part of Hebrews 10:22a, what we do inside of God, out from Him and returning to Him, our ministry as sons and heirs of God, bringing all enemies into submission.
14 Ruling Verse 6: “Being made devoted” is NOT “being cleansed from sin and sinfulness.” “Being made devoted” is being about our Father’s business, caring for His Desire.
15-16 Covenant: We are able to be devoted to the Father’s Desire because Jesus is written in us as every Word fulfilled.
Moving towards 10:19-22. We now see that, although our brief parable seems to have addressed the meaning of Hebrews 10:1-18, it is still incomplete to take us into and beyond 10:19-22. You see, the heir was not, in fact, struck in battle. Instead, he left his father and went out to fall upon ruin in a pig pen. The deadly wound was self-inflicted stupidity for no reason. More than that, the pig pen was NOT the problem. The king’s domain contained many pig pens, all part of the inheritance. The problem was that the heir had left the father and had cut himself off from all overflowing and abundant provision, all of which was required to step into the inheritance over all.
Sin is NOT living inside of God. Sin is NOT drawing from God all He gives of Himself that we might accomplish His Desire. We combine both versions of our story to place 10:19-22.
Placing Hebrews 10:19-22. Three verses contain the solution to the problem stated succinctly. Those three are 10:10, 12, and 14. Already done, already all, inside of a full explanation of “done” and “all.”
The issue is NOT the deadly wound or the evil heart. The issue is NOT how we can be healed. The ISSUE is – draw from the Father all that you need to care for the entire inheritance without any remembrance of any deadly wound. Be about the Father’s business, drawing all that you need from a life shared entirely with God, that is, be just like Jesus.
In essence, then, Hebrews 10:19-21, as well as 22b, three-and-one-half verses, are a rapid and crammed-FULL rendition of our WAY into God, fully developed in Hebrews thus far, already accomplished. And 22a is what we do here inside of God continuously as we go out with God to care for all creation.
Ruling Verse 6: Full Assurance of Faith. • 19 Therefore brothers and sisters, having already a free and bold proclamation of entrance into the Most Devoted • inside the blood of Jesus 20 consecrating for us a newly sacrificed as well as a living way through the veil, that is, through His flesh; • 21 and having a great and vast High Priest upon the house of God, • 22 let us approach [everything inside the Most Devoted] with a true heart, in full assurance of faith; • having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil consciousness; and having our bodies washed with pure water.
“Enter boldly” was so firmly fixed in my mind that I could not see, even after pouring over the Greek words over and over, that “entrance” is a NOUN – NOT a VERB!!! The first verb is “having,” that is possession, and it is in the already all tense. So, let’s delineate carefully the parts, that is, five bullet points.
The Parts of This One Sentence. 1. We possess a BOLD proclamation of entrance already behind us. This takes us into verse 23 – to speak Christ. 2. The Way that is Jesus, the path and the Day of Atonement, with all its elements, the Blood, both sacrifices, especially the living scapegoat, the way through the Veil, defined as the flesh, the physical part of Jesus’ offered body.
3. The High Priest AND the House of God. We have not yet truly developed the meaning and place of verse 21. 4. The primary action of the sentence (all four verses are one sentence). “Let us approach” – everything that is God given to us, that we might possess all that we need to be about our Father’s business. 5. The conditions surrounding our apprehension of God, no consciousness of sins, calling nothing of ourselves unclean.
Defining the Rule. The verb of this long sentence RULES. “Let us approach” everything inside of God given to us for the Father’s purposes. That action includes “make it our own.” We can do this ONLY if no separation from God exists in our consciousness, never calling our humanity in this world “unclean.” Like David, we give all that we are utterly to God, including our sin and our shame, and think no more of it. Like David, we claim everything God is as our own. We boldly proclaim a full entrance into God already complete, for Jesus our sacrifice and our living scapegoat, living now as us, has already carried us into God, the Way having been consecrated by His own Blood. With all the abundance of God, we now share with Jesus His care for God’s House.
Okay, the “order of Melchizedek” means the care for God’s House, for the ongoing operation of Ephesians 4:16, the sharing from every part, freely and with all.
Expanded and Personal. Out from everything I have written thus far, my brothers and sisters, having already a free and bold proclamation of entrance into the Most Devoted, into all that is God, inside the blood of Jesus consecrating for us a newly sacrificed, the Lamb slain once for all, as well as a living way, Jesus now living as us, carrying our sinfulness inside His empty grave, through the veil, that is, through His flesh, now one flesh with Him; and having a great and vast High Priest upon the house of God, which He builds inside Himself, let us approach everything inside the Most Devoted, everything of God now ours, with a true heart, in full assurance of faith; having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil consciousness; and having our bodies washed with pure water, never again calling our humanity in this world as “unclean.”
Christ Made Personal: With bold proclamation inside of God, I apprehend everything of God given to me, for His Desire.
Life and Covenant. Life: Life is knowing the Father. To know means active engagement with God, apprehending all that He is for ourselves, that we might accomplish all that He Desires.
Covenant: The Covenant is a means to an end. The Covenant is for the Kingdom. Our action in Ruling Verse 6, apprehending all provision out from God-with-us, assumes that we are already turned around upon the Mercy Seat. It assumes that we share utterly with Jesus the fulfillment of God’s Desire, which is a House in which to dwell, a House which Jesus as High Priest is building inside Himself. For that reason, the same zeal for God’s House consumes us.
Speak Christ: The Greek parrhesia, that we would publicly and boldly proclaim that we are already turned around inside of God, is the Source of parrhesia as confidence out from God.
Symmorphosed and Filled! Ruling Verse 1: By the time Paul arrives at Romans 8:28-30, he has already established fully that our redemption is already complete, that we are justly innocent inside of God, now joint-heirs with Jesus. For that reason, Paul assumes that, when he says “symmorphosed with the image of His Son,” we know that he means sharing form with Jesus in accomplishing all that God desires, which means sharing His relationship with God AND His care for many brethren brought into glory.
Ruling Verse 2: Ephesians 3:17-19 gives us a clear picture of what we do together inside of God, comprehending together, not just the full extent of God, but more specifically, the full extent of God as our All-Abundant Source. In fact Ruling Verse 2 also assumes that we are turned around upon the Mercy Seat, rooted and grounded in love, such that our being filled with all of God just naturally flows out to others.
From Rivers to Intimacy. Ruling Verse 3: John 7:37-39 is then the expression of that Flow of God out from us as Rivers of Spirit. It is evident that “drinking of Jesus” and “apprehending all of God given to us” are the same thing. These ruling verses are Source and Flow.
Ruling Verse 4: When we did not know that we dwell already inside of God, fully turned around upon Mercy, we thought that overcoming was needed for our own redemption. In contrast, now that we draw all from God, our Victory over all that prevents our brethren from knowing God is assured.
Ruling Verse 5: Galatians 2:20 defines for us the meaning of “through the Veil, His flesh,” for we are flesh of His flesh, and our entrance into God becomes ours only as we receive the extension of Jesus over all that we are, now in full and intimate union with us.
From Boldness to Love. Ruling Verse 6: Hidden all through Hebrews 10:19-22 is the assumption that we now share with Jesus in all that He is as described in these verses. The key meaning, then, is the BOLDNESS by which we apprehend God as our Source, the same boldness of David, a man after God’s own Heart.
Ruling Verse 7: Hebrews 3:6 & 14, with 2 Corinthians 2:14 define, for us the meaning of “full assurance of faith.” Our boldness inside of God then becomes our confidence out from Him through every next step of Life shared together forever.
Ruling Verse 8: Jesus as our Way already accomplished is what John means in “By this we KNOW Love.” Being already turned around, sharing with Jesus fully in relationship with God-Love as our Source, is what John means by “And we also.” Because we know that we ourselves do not Love, we are free to know the certainty in which we apprehend God-Love now through us.
The Rock and the Fire. Ruling Verse 9: Boldness inside of God is the Rock in which we dwell, the place of Refuge from which we look upon all our brothers and sisters, and through them, all creation. The action of Ruling Verse 6, “Let us approach” – to make all God-Abundance our own, is the incredible Source that enables us to travail for the sake of others, with all our hearts. Just as the Blood consecrated our Way into God, so that same Blood consecrates our Way into the Church. Just as Jesus carried us inside Himself into God, so also we carry our brethren.
Ruling Verse 10: To know God through knowing Jesus Sent into us means an active and synergeoing, intimate and continuous engagement with God, in all that is God given to us. We also know that the Ark of the Covenant inside the Most Devoted is just another way to picture John 14:20, and that enclothing the Church with Jesus is the Fire through us upon the Mercy Seat.
The Kingdom as Father Made Known. Kingdom: Living turned around inside of God, now seated upon Mercy, now sharing the same zeal with Jesus for the House of God, includes the picture of the Pillar of Consuming Fire touching down upon the Blood. To our overwhelming astonishment, “let us approach” has become you and me as the entrance of that immense knowledge of God into all creation. Our care for the Kingdom is God’s consuming Desire.
The Form for God through Jesus: Here is where we tie in the whole explanation of High Priest and House through Hebrews. To return to God carrying the fulfillment of all His Desire is to bring to Him a House, a Body, a Living Church, in which He can freely dwell, and through which He can make Himself KNOWN to every aspect of creation forever. By turning around, in full assurance of faith, we give to God that ENTRANCE for which He has longed these six thousand years.
Full Assurance of Faith. We must add another Gospel Comment under the JSV for Hebrews 10:22. We must have God’s definition of “full assurance of faith,” before we can enter the “faith chapter.”
22 Definition: Full assurance of faith has nothing to do with forgiveness or cleansing or redemption or connecting back with God. Full assurance of faith places only thanksgiving and all sufficiency in God into a mind that remembers no separation from God, but only speaks Christ. Full assurance of faith receives that which is God, synergeoing with God, making God one’s own, and then sends forth Rivers of Life. Full assurance of faith is God through us into our world.
Immediately, then, the Spirit of God places this synergeoing with God making all things good into the gathering together of a many-membered heir, loving one another.
Two Targets; Two Meanings. • 23 Let us hold fast and take possession of the same speaking [speaking together] of our hope unwavering; for faithful indeed is the One who promised. • 24 And let us think about one another to stimulate love and good works; 25 not abandoning the assembling of ourselves together, as is the practice with some; but encouraging one another and by so much more as you perceive the day coming near.
These words mean something completely different, depending on which target the arrow hits. The target of “Bring sins to mind all the time, that you are surely fallen short of God” turns these three verses into one small thought. – “If you want to be saved someday, you better go to church.” The other target places these thoughts into our own return of Devotion, being Sent continuously out from God.
About Our Father’s Business. I now have a new definition for “devotion,” formerly called “holiness.” To be devoted, to be “holy,” means a person who gives self to the Father in all, for the sake of the Church, that God might fill His people with His glory.
23 Speak Christ: We speak Christ together, that we are just like Jesus, never wavering. Our assurance is that the Jesus who lives inside our gathering together is faithful and True.
24-25 The Form for God through Jesus: To be devoted to God, to be “holy,” is to be about our Father’s business. And our Father’s business is a House, the Church, a body prepared for God, that He might fill her with His Glory. Verse 24 is the same as Ephesians 4:16; our care is over the free sharing from every part inside of Christ Community, that we might fill one another’s hearts with COURAGE.
Take Heed How You Hear (or Read). • 26 Indeed, if we willingly continue in [the consciousness of] sins [that is, refusing to know our entrance into the Most Devoted], after we have received the acknowledgement of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice [inside our consciousness].
Verse 26 in the JSV is FILLED with Hebrews 10:19-22 inside the assumption that the writer of Hebrews did not immediately FORGET the main point of everything. Here is what most read, from the KJV. For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. – Now that you are a Christian – if you still sin, then whatever Jesus might have done doesn’t do you any good whatsoever. So stop sinning, loser, or you’re going to hell.
Our Choice. Verse 26, then, has served to deflect the arrow of Hebrews so that it not only misses God’s target entirely, but so that it hits Satan’s target dead-on. Consider the horror of the false doctors. “We will use Band-Aids and aspirin and then teach your heir how to cut away his own rotting flesh. That should give you what you want.” God’s response is the same as Elijah’s towards the prophets of Baal, for they are the ones who teach God’s people to draw back into unbelief, into hostility against God, into preferring struggling with sin for self and not sharing life with God.
26 Ruling Verse 6: You have a choice, dear reader, you can read verse 26 out from Hebrews 10:19-22, or you can draw back into unbelief with those who revel in consciousness of sins, who place no value on the BLOOD of the Covenant.
Write the Vision. • 35 Therefore, do not throw away your boldness of freedom, which has a great reward. 36 Indeed, you have need of endurance, so that, having done what God desires you might receive the promise. 37 Yet indeed, by very little the vision coming will arrive without delay. • 38 Moreover, “My justly innocent ones live out from faith; but if anyone might draw back, My soul delights not in him.” • 39 We, however, are not of those drawing back into loss, but we are of faith into taking ownership and full possession of our soul.
Again, verse 36 has two very opposing definitions, depending on which target our arrow hits. Let’s put only God’s meaning into the comment. Verse 37 comes from Habakkuk, “Write the vision,” the singing of the deep longing of my heart for fifty years.
True Desire and True Promise. 35-36 Ruling Verse 6 & Covenant: God’s True Desire is a House in which to dwell, that gathering together of the Church as Christ Community. Our true desire is Father at Home in our hearts and always in our midst. God’s True Promise to us is a dwelling place inside of Him. Our true promise to God is our devotion to His dwelling inside of us.
38 Ruling Verse 7: Faith is an absolute connection with every specific Gospel Word that God speaks, that His Word is already all, and that His Word returns to Him faithful and True, carrying all inside Himself back into the Father. We live every moment only out from such faith, the faith of Jesus.
39 Ruling Verse 7: We never draw back from an absolute joining with God in a shared life together through Jesus. Instead, we make God-with-us the entire Story of our souls.
God’s Target. My heart is full. Here is what God has done for us. Hebrews 10 is the largest thickness of the arrow, an arrow driving towards God’s target, an arrow that was wickedly diverted to Satan’s target through all the history of the Church. But now that it is fully aligned with God’s target in our knowing, that God offers us as His sons, joint-heirs with Christ, the meaning of everything going forward is now transformed.
10:1-39 Definition: We know that God’s ultimate desire and purpose is a House in which to dwell, His Church, that He might be known to all creation as Christian Love. The question is – How does God win such a Church? The answer is – By this we know Love; and we also (1 John 3:16). And thus the target for God’s arrow through Hebrews is 12:7, that God offers us as His sons for the sake of the Church.
Let’s Pray Together. “God, our Father, You have brought us into Yourself through Jesus that we might be joined together with You in every moment of life. And we know, Oh God, that You have turned us around upon Mercy, that we might be Your anxious care for all our Christian brethren.”
“Father God, we draw everything that You are, now given to us, into ourselves, making You our own, the very Story of our souls, so that You might enter through us into Your Church and into our world.
“Father we know and acknowledge that this is the purpose for which Jesus has carried us already into You, that You might win all Your Desire through us. Father, we give ourselves utterly in devotion to Your Desire; be LIFE inside all our Christian brethren right now, inside of Jesus’ name upon us.”