Gospel of John [Joh 16:8]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 4. Joh 14:15-17; Heb 10:26-31.

Title: Gospel of John [JOH 16:8]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 4. JOH 14:15-17; HEB 10:26-31.

 

We are looking at the titles for God the Holy Spirit given in the word of God.  

 

Spirit of Truth(JOH 14:17).

 

JOH 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

 

JOH 14:16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;

 

JOH 14:17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you.

 

The attribute of grace is found in two titles, Spirit of Grace (HEB 10:29), and Spirit of Grace and Supplication (ZEC 12:10).

 

HEB 10:26 For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

 

We have to do some work to truly understand this text. This wilful sin must be defined in its context. It will not do to ignore the historical background of this book and its analysis, and then put an arbitrary meaning upon the words. That is not exegesis, namely, taking out of the text what is there, but eisegesis, putting into the text what is not there. The sin which the book warns against is that of a Jew of the first century who left the temple sacrifices, identified himself with the visible Church and made a profession of Messiah as High Priest [likely not believing], renouncing that profession and returning to the temple sacrifices. If they were believers who returned to the temple worship, their motivation was to avoid the persecution that was coming from the other Jewish unbelievers.

 

This sin is spoken of in 2:1 as letting New Testament truth slip away.

 

HEB 2:1 For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

 

HEB 2:2 For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense,

 

ACT 7:53

you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.

 

HEB 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

 

These Hebrews had been convinced of the trustworthiness of the First Testament. They were beginning to doubt the validity of the New Testament. The law had proved its validity by punishing transgressors. But the certainty of the new revelation was becoming doubtful to them. Therefore, the writer speaks of the New Testament as "so great salvation," and shows its trustworthiness by adducing the following three features: first, it was originally proclaimed by the Lord; second, it was confirmed by those that heard Him; third, it was certified as from God by reason of the miracles that accompanied its announcement.

 

HEB 2:3 After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard,

 

HEB 2:4 God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.

 

In 3:7,8 as hardening the heart against the Holy Spirit.

 

HEB 3:7 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says [PSA 95:7-11, written by David under the inspiration of the HS],

"Today if you hear His voice,

 

The Hebrew reads, "O that you would hear his voice." The Greek has the conditional particle ean introducing a conditional sentence. The condition which must be met if these Hebrews are to hear the voice of God is, that they must not harden their hearts. In the psalm, the pronoun "he" refers back to God. In the context into which the writer of this epistle has put it, it refers back to Christ. This makes the Jehovah of the O.T., the Messiah of the N.T. It is He who is said to have spoken the words of the New Testament (2:3). These Jews were leaning back towards the First Testament. This was a heart-hardening process. They are warned against it.

 

HEB 3:8 Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me,

As in the day of trial in the wilderness [no water at Rephidim],

 

HEB 3:9 Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me,

And saw My works for forty years.

 

"put Me to the test to see what evil or good there is in Me when they put Me to the test for the purpose of approving Me should I meet the test." [literal Greek]

 

Due to the persecution of the Jews in Jerusalem who rejected Christ, these Jews who professed that Christ was the Messiah are leaning back towards temple worship and are on their way to becoming this hard hearted.

 

HEB 3:10 "Therefore I was angry with this generation,

And said, 'They always go astray in their heart;

And they did not know My ways';

 

HEB 3:11 As I swore in My wrath,

'They shall not enter My rest.'"

 

HEB 3:12 Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil [poneros = active evil, pernicious], unbelieving heart [appeal to the unbelievers in the crowd], in falling away from the living God.

 

The word "therefore" reaches back into the epistle to the three preceding arguments. In view of the fact that Messiah is better than the prophets, the angels, and Moses, the warning is, not to harden their hearts in renouncing their professed faith in Messiah and returning to the sacrifices. The construction is; Therefore (v. 7), take heed (v. 12), the contents of verses 7-11 being the parenthetical background and scriptural enforcement of the warning of verse 12.

 

In 6:4 as falling away and crucifying the Son of God.

 

HEB 6:1 Therefore leaving [having abandoned once and for all] the elementary [arche - beginning] teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

 

The context and Greek of this passage makes the interpretation quite easy. So many have taken this passage at face value, in English only, and without carefully reading the entire book in context.

 

"elementary teaching about the Christ" = OT sacrifices, tabernacle, priesthood, which all speak of His Person and work.

 

The phrase, "the elementary teaching about the Christ," or, " beginning word of the Christ," refers to that teaching concerning Him which is first presented in the Bible. And what is that but the truth concerning His Person and work found in the symbolism of the Levitical sacrifices. The tabernacle, priesthood, and offerings all speak of Him in His Person and work. And this interpretation is in exact accord with the argument of the book. All dependence upon the Levitical sacrifices is to be set aside in order that the Hebrews can go on to "perfection," as we have it here.

 

It must be stated that many commentators and theologians believe that this refers to the early teachings or beginning teachings that were learned by new believers, which they often refer to as foundational doctrines. The analogy, often used, is that one cannot linger around the foundation only and finish the house. The problem with this is that we return to study foundational doctrines all the time. None of us can say that we know everything there is to know about soteriology (redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, sanctification, and justification), the Person of Christ, the work of God the HS at salvation, etc. Therefore, in the context of the book, speaking to Jews who have left the church and gone back to the temple to fulfill the requirements of the Mosaic Law, whether they be believers [severely apostate] or unbelievers, if they remain there, a million sacrifices will do them no good since Christ, the one true sacrifice, has come and gone. This is why it is impossible to renew them to repentance, for they continue in animal sacrifices for sin and insult the work of Christ.  

 

Yet the historical context of the book and the context of the book as a whole leads us to believe that these heard the gospel and the person of Christ as the one true sacrifice was clearly explained to them and the HS convicted them of it, as is His ministry to the world, and that they said no to the person of Christ after all that and returned to the Levitical offerings in the temple.