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"He shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, YET SO AS BY FIRE" (I Cor 3: 15).
In Heb. 12: 16, 17, Esau is brought before us as one who forfeited his birthright.
There is an evident parallel with Heb. 6:, the words "he found no place of repentance"
echoing "it is impossible to renew unto repentance". So also the word adokimos
(disapproved or rejected) is echoed by Heb. 12: 17, apodokimazo ("rejected"). The
"blessing" also is one received by "inheritance". The chapter ends with the words "For
our God is a consuming fire" which are parallel with the words "whose end is burning".
The whole situation is summed up in Heb. 6: 9 where the apostle says:--
"But beloved, we are persuaded THE BETTER things."
Readers will remember that the word "better" is a key word of Hebrews, closely
associated with "perfect" throughout the epistle. "The better resurrection" is expressed
by the words, "The spirits of perfect righteous ones". Here in chapter 6: those who go
on unto perfection produce the better things, "even those things which accompany
salvation although we thus speak" (verse 9). The word "accompany" is a rendering of the
middle voice of echo, "to have, to hold". So in Mark 1: 38, "next towns", and
Luke 13: 33, "the day following". The epistle to the Hebrews does not deal with
salvation, but the things that accompany it. Not the "resurrection of the dead" (6: 2), but
the "better resurrection", not the exodus from Egypt, but the entrance of the land of
promise. Not justification by faith, but the emphasis upon the fact that the just shall live
by faith. We find the distinction observed in 6: 10 and throughout the chapter. May
we, called though we be with a different calling, produce the better things, even those
things that "follow salvation".
#36.
The work that perfects faith (6: 10).
pp. 177 - 181
The apostle, though uttering the terrible warnings against apostacy, hastens to tell his
readers that though he thus speaks he is persuaded that they possess those things that
accompany salvation. He now proceeds to unfold these "better things that accompany
salvation" and to consider them from various points of view. It is evident from the very
next verse (10) what these "better things" include.
"For God is not unrighteous to forget your work, and the love which ye have shown
unto His name, in that ye ministered unto the saints, and are ministering" (Heb. 6: 10).
The word translated labour is not found in the best texts. In 10: 22-24 we have a
somewhat similar passage. There we have "full assurance of faith"; in 5: 9-11 we have
"full assurance of hope". In the former the exhortation is based upon the fact that "He is
faithful that promised", whilst in the latter we are told that "God is not unrighteous to
forget your work, etc." and moreover that "He swear by himself" (verse 13) to make the
assurance of hope doubly sure. In the former the believers are exhorted to "provoke unto