Hebrews 10:23

Verse of the Day Devotion: Hebrews 10:23

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” – Hebrews 10:23
Many times, I have been disappointed by people who have promised things that were not fulfilled.  I can be confident I am not the only one who has experienced this.  Once when I was growing up, I wanted to play baseball for the High School team.  I attended the first meeting and was given a list of things they expected of us.  One was that we had to have short hair, and since I had long hair, I agreed to get it cut.  My parents had agreed that I could play that year, so I went out and got my hair cut short.  After I did, my parents said that they would not let me play.  I asked why because they had promised.  Their answer shocked me, for they only promised it till I got my hair cut.  They would not put out the money needed to participate.  This hurt me terribly because I was not popular and had few friends, and I was hoping that playing baseball would change that. In our focus verse, the writer of Hebrews is saying that with God, a promise made is a promise kept.  (By the way, I cannot take credit for the line “A promised made is a promise kept”, it is the title of a song by Randy Stonehill.)   If God promises us something, he will bring it to pass.  And we can be assured that there is nothing that God cannot do.  “‘Ah Lord GOD! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You,” Jeremiah 32:17.  Therefore, if God promises us something, we know it will happen because He is a faithful God who can do all things. Let’s look at a few of these promises.  “Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely, I will help you, Surely, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10 We have nothing to fear, for God has promised to strengthen us and uphold us.  Then there is “The LORD will fight for you while you keep silent.” Exodus 14:14. In our struggles, we can relax for God has promised to fight for us.  Then there is, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. We can be sure that if we do sin, if we confess this sin to Him, acknowledging it as sin, and we repent of it, He promise is His forgiveness and the washing away of the unrighteousness in us.  And finally, “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:19.  He has promised if we have a need, He will meet it.  We can relax and just wait for Him to supply. These are but a few of the many promises He has made to us.  Each one of these, and all the ones not mentioned, we can be assured they will be a kept promise.  Therefore, we are called not to waver but be steadfast, not wishing, not hoping, but knowing He is faithful.  This is the faith He calls us to. And as an extra, here is the chorus from the song by Randy Stonehill, “A Promise Made is A Promise Kept”.   “A promise made is a promise kept, there is a love so true. Just hold on, God is holding on to you. Day by day, Prayer by prayer, oh, don’t you ever forget that a promise made Is a promise kept.” William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries, Inc.

Hebrews 10:23

Verse of the Day Devotion.  Hebrews 10:23 

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

This is such an important verse. We should never doubt what God has done for us through Christ. Looking back we read the following. “Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,” Hebrews 10:19-20. Under the Jewish Law in the Old Testament, there was an ordinance stating that no man should ever go into the holiest of all places in the temple, with the one exception of the high priest, and he but once a year on the Day of Atonement. and not without the blood of the sacrifice. If any man had attempted to enter there he must have died, as guilty of great presumption and of profane intrusion into the secret place of the Most High.

However, with the death of Christ on the cross we can now enter by a new and living way, that being through the veil, Christ’s flesh, signified by the tearing of the veil at the moment He died. “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.” Matthew 27:50-54. At no time prior to this did anyone but the High Priest, and then only once a year, was anyone allowed into the Holy of Holies; the inner sanctum of the Temple. But with His death, the veil is torn giving access to God the Father through Him. In a sense, the veil was symbolic of Christ Himself as the only way to the Father. “Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.” John 14:6. 

Now we see in the next couple of verses, “and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful”. Hebrews 10:21-23. The Israelite could not pass through the veil that hid from public gaze the glory of the Shekinah, and Jesus Christ’s humanity was a veil that somewhat concealed the glory of His Deity. But the flesh of Christ having been crucified, the veil has been rent being His body, and now we may come right up to the throne of God without trembling. We may come even with holy boldness and familiarity and speak to God without alarm. Having such a privilege as this, let us not neglect it. It was denied to prophets and kings in the olden time; but now that it is given to us, let us avail ourselves of it.

We come before God with humility due to Christ’s sacrifice, not in our character. Therefore, we may come as perfect at all times, knowing that God sees no sin in us. In this sense, Christ has perfected forever every consecrated vessel of His mercy. Is this not a delightful thought: that when I come before the throne of God, I feel myself a sinner, but God does not look upon me as one? When I approach Him to offer my thanksgiving, I feel that I am unworthy in myself, but I am not unworthy in that official standing in which He has placed me. As a sanctified and perfected thing in Christ, I have the blood upon me; God regards me in my sacrifice, in my worship, and in myself as being perfect.

Take time to go before Him as often as possible. Because of what Christ did for us on the cross, we have access to God the Father, to fellowship with Him and to present our sins before Him in repentance. This was something no man had access to until the sacrifice from God of His son Jesus. And we can partake of this at any time. So, as the author of Hebrews said, draw near to God with a sincere heart in faith knowing that, as Christians, we are clean and thus have full access to Him. This is His promise and gift to us. Take advantage of it, for there is nothing better than coming before God and fellowshipping with Him.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.

Hebrews 4:14

Verse of the Day Devotion.  Hebrews 4:14 

“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.” – Hebrews 4:14   

This verse speaks of the main focus of Christ’s coming. First, let’s go back to chapter 2. “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.  For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” Hebrews 2:17-18. It says here that we see that Jesus “became a merciful and faithful high priest.” And because of this He paid the penalty, thereby accomplishing what we could not do, being a propitiation for the sins of all mankind. In the Mosaic Law, the high priest would intercede on behalf of the people and was at least a symbolic head of the current priestly administration. The priest would bring sacrifices to God on behalf of the people of Israel and would do so repeatedly, as the law prescribed. While ordinarily the high priest would bring the sacrifice, Jesus Himself was the sacrifice. His personal sacrifice was an incredible act of mercy, and He could be the sacrifice because He had become like those for whom He was giving Himself up for.

Now to our focus verse. “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.” Hebrews 4:14. The Jewish high priest went once a year into the most holy place in the temple, to offer the blood of the atonement. The author says that the Christian High Priest has gone into heaven. “For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” Hebrew 9:24. Instead of having to go once a year, Jesus once and for all went into the presence of God on our behalf. And because of this we can have complete confidence in our eternal future. “In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 6:17-20.

And because He was made like us, “We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15. He was made like us so He knows our temptations by a practical experience of them. And though He was without sin, yet the same sins that are put before us by Satan were also set before Him. Jesus is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He is not only touched with the feeling of the heroic endurance of the martyrs, but he sympathizes with everyone. “Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Matthew 26:41.

And because of all this, “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16. We have a Friend at court; our Bridegroom is on the throne. He who reigns in heaven loves us better than we love ourselves. Come, then, why should we hesitate, why should we delay our approach to His throne of mercy? What is it that we want at this moment? Let us ask for it. If it is a time of need, then we see clearly from this verse that it is a time when we are encouraged to pray. “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.

Hebrews 3:1

Verse of the Day Devotion.  Hebrews 3:1

“Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,” – Hebrews 3:1   

As Moses especially was the prophet by whom, as seen in Hebrews 1:1, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,” being the mediator of the law, the writer of Hebrews deems it necessary now to show that, great as Moses was, the Son of God is greater. He first notes the feature of resemblance between Moses and Christ, in order to conciliate the Hebrew Christians whom He is addressing, and who still entertained a very high opinion of Moses. “who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house.” Hebrews 3:2. Jesus was faithful as was Moses was, so in this way they are alike. We see here what God spoke about Moses. “And he said, Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” Numbers 12:5-8. We see here difference of degree God saw between Moses and His other prophets.  As we can see here, God held Moses more highly than any of the others. And lastly here, the phrase “He is faithful in all my house” refers to Israel, and with Jesus, the Church.

Now, in verse two we see a comparison of equality in their faithfulness, in verse 3 we see Jesus seen as greater than Moses. “For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)” Hebrews 3:3-4. The thought may well be, that Moses, as servant, is only a member or a part of the house of which Christ is the founder. Remember, Moses did not create Israel, God did. Moses was put over them to guide them where they were to go.

Then in the next two verses, the writer sums up his thoughts. “Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.” Hebrews 3:5-6. This, I believe, helped the Hebrew Christians understand why Christ is worthy of more glory then Moses, and of everyone for that matter. They always held Moses up as someone who deserved great acknowledgement. But what the writer was helping them understand was that ultimately, it is God who built the house, not Moses. And just as Moses was a servant, we are as well.

And Paul lays out our role as Christians, where he wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. The Church belongs to God, and we are a part of that house, and servants, meant to go out and fill the house with as many believers as possible. For we are His ambassadors, to go out and spread the word and living the lives God desires all to live.

William Funkhouser MDiv, ThD, Founder and President of True Devotion Ministries.