Perseverance. “Steadfastness in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.” It seems that the normal course of things in life is for enjoyable events to go fast and bad events to go slowly. How can we get through the bad events in life? You have to persevere. You have to stick with it.
The book of Hebrews focuses on the idea of perseverance. Hebrews 10:16-25 encourages us to persevere in our faith.
THE MOTIVATION OF OUR PERSEVERANCE – FORGIVENESS (10:16-18):
The Hebrew writer quotes from the prophet Jeremiah (31:31-34) to the effect that God planned to establish a covenant with His people that would provide forgiveness of sins. Since we are living under that covenant today, the covenant of Jesus Christ, we do not need other, perpetual, sacrifices for sin.
When our sins are forgiven in Christ, we know that we can stand before God and that we are avoiding the horrors of hell.
THE SPHERE OF OUR PERSEVERANCE – CHRIST JESUS (10:19-22):
The “and so” at the beginning of verse 19 points back to what he has said before. We have forgiveness of our sins in Jesus Christ. Then, he sets out two items that are important to remember in order for us to persevere.
Item #1 – (vs 19) “Since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus…”
Item #2 – (vs 21) “and since we have a great priest over the house of God.” Turn to 7:26-28 to see what type of high priest we have.
So, our “sphere” of perseverance is Jesus Christ. We can enter the presence of God through the blood of Jesus Christ who is our great high priest. To do that, we need:
1. A sincere heart
Many younger generation are likewise experiencing this because of many reasons and can be chronic or acute. cialis sales uk The only reason why people buy buy sildenafil . It has been also prepared with significant key ingredient sildenafil cialis pharmacy online citrate. Sadly, a huge male population has problem to maintain their sexual life because of erectile dysfunction. online cialis pills greyandgrey.com 2. Full assurance of faith
3. Our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience
4. Our hearts are sprinkled with the blood of Christ when our bodies are washed with pure water, which is a reference to baptism (Romans 6:1-7; Eph. 5:26).
THE CALL TO PERSEVERANCE – HOLD FAST (10:23):
The call here is to hold tightly to the confession of your hope in Christ, without wavering, just as Abraham kept his confidence in God, without wavering. How can we do that? Because, He who called us is faithful (cf. 2 Timothy 2:13).
THE ATMOSPHERE OF PERSEVERANCE – THE CHURCH (10:24-25):
God does not call us to be “Lone Rangers.” Not even “Batman and Robin.” There is not just one of us. There’s not just two of us. It’s really a family, a spiritual family. That’s what the church is and Christ calls on us to be in the middle of the family, involved with each other, in each other’s lives.
So, the key verb here in this sentence is “Let us consider” one another. Then, there are reasons for this “considering:” for the stimulating of love and stimulating of good works. While we are considering one another we should not be neglecting the gathering-together of ourselves.
Rather than neglecting the gathering-together of ourselves, we should be comforting, exhorting, and encouraging one another. That’s the atmosphere of perseverance. It is much easier to keep the faith, to remain faithful, when we are in the middle of other people who have the same goal and the same desires.
Persevere faithfully in Christ, remaining active in the church. Ultimate salvation will be yours.
–Paul Holland
