The Legal Mind Chapter Six

Verse one turns an interesting phrase. What exactly is meant by “leaving” the principles of the doctrine of Christ? Is it to set aside? Is it to forget or turn away from? I think not. All spiritual progress is built upon them. Let us determine, first of all, what is a principle and what is a doctrine. Synonyms for the word principles are concepts, ideas, theories, postulations, assumptions, philosophies, and even truths. One may argue assumptions all day and get nowhere. As an example, one assumption of the creation narrative has Adam and Eve as a single body, rather like Siamese twins who must be separated. Whether they were separated or Eve was created from a rib, what we know about the original man and woman is purely speculative. What, then, is a doctrine? It is a creed, a dogma, a conviction, an article of faith. It is a statement of faith purported by authorities to be incontrovertible. We may easily see that all the synonyms of the word 'principles' fit neatly within the fullness of the word 'doctrine.'

I think what is meant by the word 'leaving,' is simply that we should move on. We should not sit around and argue matters that impede our spiritual growth. Does it really matter whether one is sprinkled or immersed? Put some water on your head and move on. Is there a right and a wrong way to lay on hands? Maybe, but they are just hands; they are not spirit, move on. Is there some special order to the resurrection, some defining attribute about eternal judgment we've missed? We'll know when we get there. Stop pumping so much time and energy into topics of conversation that take you away from the matters at hand. You can circle these issues forever and only go in circles. Move on. Grow.

Some people obsess. Some people forge ahead. “And this will we do, if God permit,” tells me that not everyone is allowed to move on. If you keep circling the details, God will let you stew in them. If you seek to make strides, God will help you move forward. The author explains why in verses four through eight.

First, the example in verses seven and eight. Those things that grow well on the earth are doubly blessed. God blesses them, in the first place, by often sending the rain. The earth is hydrated and healthy. The herbs flourish. More so, because man tends to them, ensuring a proper environment in which to grow. On the other hand, there are useless thorns and brambles in dry and arid places. Some may receive the same rain as the herbs, but they are not tended by man as he has no purpose for them. If anything, they can be used for kindling.

Mankind, itself, may be seen in light of these extremes. Which spirit is cursed, which is doubly blessed? One spirit, having tasted the heavenly gift, drinks fully and is enlightened. That spirit, under the merciful hand of God and in the maintenance of equally enlightened peers, is doubly blessed. Another spirit, also partaking of the Holy Ghost, and tasting the good word of God, and having equal access to the powers of the world to come, turns away. That spirit is cursed. If that spirit should later seek to return, should hope to be renewed through repentance a second time, it is doubly cursed in that it puts Jesus back up on the cross. The cross is a public shame. The sacrifice that God made by sending his only son to the cross was meant to be effective as a single casting of the net, drawing in the 'whosoever will' lot. You can play your losing ticket a second time with no more chance of winning the one-time prize.

Dire words from the author ( the use of “we” suggesting a joint effort in the writing.) However, the audience to whom Hebrews was intended had convinced the author and company of actions and spiritual inclinations toward salvation. The audience had loved the saints and ministered to their needs. They had labored and worked in the name of Jesus. God would not overlook their labor of love any more than he would overlook their love for Jesus. To do so would be unrighteous – and that is not God.

The author and company (“we”) desired that the audience show the same diligence, not only in physical labors of love but also in their hopes for salvation. Be steadfast to the end in full assurance of the hope that is in you. In that regard, there are some spiritual pitfalls that should be avoided. A major pitfall is sloth. Synonyms for the word include laziness, idleness, lassitude, indolence, and apathy. In other words, defying weariness, do not avoid the hard work. Be like those who work patiently toward the promise. The promise is there, it's yours, you just have to reach it. As an example, the author cites Abraham. In the example, God promised, Abraham endured, Abraham obtained the promise that God confirmed by an oath.

In that culture, an oath was a serious matter. Confirmation by oath assured men of an end to all strife. What is strife? It is disagreement, controversy, and conflict. It is hostility, ill-feeling, and disharmony. All the negatives are laid aside and settled with an oath. In verse eighteen, the author mentions two “immutable things.” They are the counsel of God and the impossibility for God to lie. What does immutable mean? Synonyms for the word include enduring, unchangeable, abiding, permanent, established. God was willing to confirm his enduring truth to us in an oath. We are assuaged, our consolation is strong. We have fled the raging world and turned to Jesus as a refuge, as an anchor in a storm, and this steadfast anchor for the soul upon which we take hold, Jesus, who like Moses, has entered the presence of God. As the high priest for those who believe and endure and patiently labor in love and hope, Jesus is compared to Melchisedec in verse twenty. As a priest-king, Jesus is not only our advocate but a merciful judge. 

The Legal Mind Chapter Five

Continuing the argument with added layers of explanation, verses one through six tells us this, “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee. As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.”

From the author's wholly Jewish perspective, the high priest, under their law, was a man who stood in the breach for the people. He was their representative to God. He was, in a sense, their defense attorney. He was a man just like them and a sinner just like them; he made sacrifices and offerings and prayers on their behalf as well as on his own behalf. Being a man, he could have compassion on those who tried and failed, on those who made mistakes, on those who used poor judgment. The high priest stood for the Jewish law but he was a man and also subject to the same human nature as those he served. No high priest ever took it upon himself to become a high priest, rather, it was required that he be authorized by one greater than himself in the chain of command. Likewise, Jesus, a man, was authorized by a higher power when God said to him, you are my son, on this day I beget you.

In verses seven through ten, the author continues to show the connection between Jesus and the high priest. While he was a flesh and blood man, he offered up prayers and supplications. His tears were real as he pleaded to the only one able to save him from death. Two things stand out: Jesus feared and Jesus was heard. Even though he was the son of a King and would become King himself, he took on him all that he suffered as a man to learn the obedience due to God by all men. His total submission to suffering and obedience made him perfect. He was able, then, to write the terms for salvation. How nice it is when your defense attorney is also the judge. Jesus became an all-time high priest with a one-time sacrifice. The thing about Melchisedec was that he was not only a high priest, he was also a King.

Next, comes the rebuke. We start at verse eleven. The author gives an honest assessment of the people he was trying to get through to. They were “dull of hearing.” They were dense. They were opinionated and settled in their ways. They had all but buried themselves in predeterminations. Who were these bone-headed louts? Verse twelve shows us that they were the religious elite. The audience of our author was none other than the church. They were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the high priests, and doctors of the law. They were the very people ordained to lead the common man. Despite their high station, the author had no words of praise for them. There was much to be said, and the arguments he was presenting were difficult enough for the wholly enlightened.

These men, however, these “teachers” of the people, were far removed, in their own conceits, from the basic tenets of God's truth. The author blatantly informs them that they need to go back and attend the class, 'Truth 101.' They are described as self-deluded babes that imagine they have teeth for the meat of God's word, when, indeed, they must be breastfed the truth if they are to get anything at all out of the word. Those were not nice words, there was no honor in them, in fact, they were reverse-accolades.

Then, in verses thirteen and fourteen, the author explains what he means, and he lays it out plainly. He does not pull his punch. As Pharisees and other leaders go, they were “unskillful in the word of righteousness.” They were children pretending to be grown. The strong meat of God's word did not belong to them, it belonged to people of full spiritual age, who have put their senses through their paces, and who have exercised them to the point where they are able to discern good from evil. Babes cannot tell good from evil, they are only playing dress-up, walking around in the clunky shoes that belong to adults.

The Legal Mind Chapter Four

Continuing in chapter four, the author pleads with his readers to consider the matter with all seriousness and to realize what is at stake. The word 'fear' should be interpreted as a healthy respect for how the matter always works out. It is somewhat like clockwork in that the works must be wound daily, the hands properly aligned to the true time, and the alarm set for the right hour. What good will it achieve otherwise? The alternative is failure. I get all of that from verse one. In verse two, we are reminded that the former generation received the same message that we have received. Those who heard that message and fell in the wilderness were like the 'poster child' of all people who have no faith. The message, for it to bear fruit, must be mixed with individual faith.

In verse three, we are shown that even though everything was set from the beginning, even though God was grieved with that former generation, he still promised, despite his anger, that whoever believed would enter into the rest of God. What that rest is may be found in verse four. It is the seventh day upon which God rested from all his labors. The work of mankind will likewise find its seventh day. The joy of completion will be shared between the creator and the created. Mankind will realize a union that can not be easily described. We have the expression, “you had to be there.” Now, in this regard, a more apt expression is, “you will just have to be there.”

The connection is made, in verse five, between the rest of God that occurred way back in the creation and the rest of mankind far ahead in the resolution of our spiritual progress. The word 'if' is used in that regard, clearly indicating that the issue of choice rests upon the shoulder of each individual. In other words, the alarm has been set to the right hour but what matters now is whether or not we daily wind the gears and maintain the proper alignment. There are many people who will say, give me the benefit, just don't tell me what to do.

I write this in the year 2020, the year of the pandemic. As I write this study, there are many people of the same spirit. Their sense of individuality and independence separates them from the path of proper choices. They will not keep the works wound up because their simple bravado interprets wearing a mask as being controlled by others. Having worked for both the Salvation Army and a Gospel Mission, I can tell you that some people would rather sleep on the streets than be told what to do. They often railed on me when they were told the benefit comes at a price – personal responsibility. To them, compliance of any sort seemed foreign. They wanted the food offered but not the message. They wanted the bed offered but not the shower.

The message of God comes to the pandemic generation through David the psalmist. Seeing that the former generation failed to choose faith and enter God's rest, and seeing that it still remains that some must enter, that offer to make the choice of faith is extended to you and me. A path is opened to whosoever will choose faith over swaggering independence, to whosoever will choose compliance over hardheartedness. A path is open to you only 'if' you are open to that path. Two outcomes await each of us and both are the direct result of the choice we make. Will we continue to separate ourselves and fall in the wilderness or will we have a little faith in how things always work out?

Psalm 95:7 – 11 is central to this argument as, indeed, it stretches back from Hebrews 4:7 to Hebrews 3:7. The point is made in verses seven and eight that a day has been set apart or 'limited.' That day is a future day and has yet to be reached. For Jesus has given no one rest, if he had, says the author, he would not have spoken of a day yet to come. Clearly stated in verse nine is the claim that there remains a day of rest to be reached by the people of God. It is also clear, by the wording, that not all people are eligible for that award as not all people are even interested in such a thing. There is a 'people of God,' a people that strive for that higher mark, and there is a 'people of the world,' a people that disdains anything higher than the sty they wallow in. The latter is a people unable and unwilling to release their own works. It is as if they worship their achievements. Verse ten puts forth that the people who enter the rest of God must be able and willing to bring their works to an end, to set themselves apart from them and release them as did God his own works.

In verse eleven, we find the exhortation to move in the direction of that promised rest, to strive for it, to make our works the labors of faith. Pointing back to the example of those who fell in the wilderness because of their unbelief, the author suggests that there can only be a winner and a loser in this equation. This equation is spelled out in verse twelve. The word of God is the common denominator for it will both prove who is the winner and who is the loser. It will perform both actions by the same word for God is so much a part of every creature that all of us are perfectly known by him. We are, as the author states in verse thirteen, naked and clearly accessible to his discerning vision. Verse twelve shows just how keen and powerful the word of God is. It says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful,, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

I think it behooves those of us who labor for the promised rest to stop and take a hard look at just what this verse implies. The take-away from this verse is clearly seen in the words that were used. They are as follows.

Quick: meaning alive, functional, adaptive. The word of God is not a subordinate function set apart from God but an actual part of God. God is the God of life, the God of the living. There is a functional, adaptive connection between the God of the living, his word, and the living. Every thought and deed, on your part, instantly and completely register with God.

Powerful: meaning authoritative, capable, competent, efficacious. The living word connects the living God to the living in a powerful way. Anything that reaches a level of power does so by rising above all lesser levels. Authority is not a given, rather, it must be earned through labor, and competency must be earned through practice. When we talk about power, we certainly do not mean some paltry attribute off in the wings. We speak, rather, of the leading man in the drama, the hero around which so many fans and lovers gather, the one who judges and rules and supports and carries forward. When we speak of power, we speak not of the planets but of the sun around which the planets find their orbit.

Sharp: meaning acute, precise, absolute. The word of God, being as much a part of our personal realities as of God, himself, is no hit-and-miss quality. It is constant, unswerving, the core reality. It is the fundamental nature. There is no sliding scale in the word of God but, rather, it has a constant accuracy rating. All determinations by the word of God are acute, precise, and absolute.

Piercing: meaning probing, perceptive, observant. The word of God is so much a part of our reality that it is never just on the outside of us. It runs between every atom of our being. It can gauge our common expression as well as see us from the inside out. Like our own dual nature, the word of God is right or wrong, light or dark, up or down. The word of God reveals our true nature because it resonates with everything we are, everything we do, say, and think. Everything we are has a dual nature, and these parts may be separated and compared. Everything we say has a dual nature, and that may be separated and compared. Everything we think has a dual nature, and that may be separated and compared.

Dividing Asunder: meaning to separate and compare. Even our common understanding tells us that reality comes at us in sets and pairs. We know up as opposed to down and right as compared to wrong. We know left and right, in and out, day and night. Life is a Yin and Yang. Our personal selves, our souls, are a Yin and Yang. Our bodies are a Yin and Yang. Everything may be separated, laid out, and studied. From the outermost to our very cores, we find the dual nature that is prevalent in the reality we know. The right and left hemispheres of our brains may be divided asunder. Similarly, there are the left and right eye, the left and right ear, the left and right arm, hand, leg, foot, lung, kidney, etc. Our total being is not one of singularity but duality. The word of God is part and parcel of that duality, knowing each and every aspect from all conceivable points of view.

Soul and Spirit / Joints and Marrow: meaning examples of things that can be divided and compared. These simple examples are telling. The joints in our bodies, themselves being hidden from our external presence, also have a hidden truth inside them. The joints and bones in our skeletons surround, encase, and house a function that supports and justifies their very existence. Normally, however, most of us, if we think of bones at all, think of the more common external aspect. Yet, it is noteworthy that, when broken open, there is more to them than meets the eye. Likewise, and interestingly so, most view the human soul as a singularity. When they stop to think about it, they divided the soul from the body. That is in error as the soul is a combination of flesh and spirit. According to our creation story, the body of flesh was augmented with spirit, at once not only bringing the old body up to the status of “living soul” but also separating man from the animals. These simple examples which are offered by the author of the book of Hebrews, bring us smoothly to the augmentation that made us who we are.

Thoughts and Intents: meaning the point to which the examples are meant to draw our attention. The expression used by the author, and the quality that is intimately and powerfully known by God, who is a spirit, is “the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Obviously, the organ that pumps our blood has no thoughts and intents as those are functions of the brain. The brain, itself, is but an organ that processes mental aspects and qualities. The mind, then, is the augmentation that makes mortal flesh a living soul. The mind, like God, is spirit – the secret, hidden, unseen part of our constitution through which we are readily known by God.

Yes, we are all “naked and opened” to the eyes of God. This is a given state due to man's spiritual quality. It is by no means limited to one people or type of people. Even the most ardent non-believers are spiritually naked before God. Christians, Jews, Muslims, chanting monks, atheists, capitalists, and communists – we are all in the same sack. The very fact that we have a mind opens us to the scrutiny of God. As the author says in verse thirteen, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight.”

The author's recommendation, in verses fourteen through sixteen, needs no help to explain its content. The words are clear and precise for any and all of us to understand. “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” He gets it. Everything you feel, he feels. Everything you know, he knows. He is aware of everything you are going through. Your inner strength stands waiting for you to simply take his hand.