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So special a word we would expect to be stamped with the hallmark "seven", for that is
the number of its occurrences in Hebrews.
The true heart means the heart of the New Covenant realities in contrast with the old
Covenant shadows (8: 10). So we read of the "true" Tabernacle (8: 2), and of the
antitypes of the "true" (9: 24).
In full assurance of faith. Heb. 6: 11 speaks of a full assurance of hope, and both
hope and faith find anchor "within the veil" (Heb. 6: 19; x.20).
To draw near (proserchomai).
A | 4: 14-16. Having a great High Priest,
let us hold fast our profession and draw near boldly.
B | 7: 25. Saved unto all perfection those who draw near.
10: 1. Could not perfect unto perpetuity those who draw near.
A | 10: 19-23. Having an High Priest,
let us draw near with boldness, and let us hold fast our profession.
B | 11: 6. Those who draw near to God must believe that He is.
12: 18. Sinai. Blackness, Darkness.
12: 22. Zion. Spirit of perfected righteous ones.
Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with
pure water. The sprinkling here refers to the "ashes of the heifer sprinkling the unclean",
which set forth in type that cleansing of the conscience from dead works, which was only
possible through the blood of Christ (9: 13,14). The washing of the bodies with pure
water refers to the spiritual reality set forth in the typical "divers washings" of the law
(9: 10).
Let us . . . . . let us . . . . . let us. Three times over comes the beseeching command,
let us draw near, let us hold fast, let us consider one another. The first is God-ward,
the second is personal, the third is for others.
Let us hold fast the profession of our hope without wavering. The word here (elpis) is
hope, not faith, and refers to "that better hope whereby we draw near to God" (7: 19).
This must be held at all costs "without wavering". This firm hold of the hope and its
profession is in view in Heb. 3: 6 & 14, and to this all the exhortations to endure are
directed. Without wavering (aklines) may be translated "without bending". It is the
exact opposite of klino "turned to flight" (Heb. 11: 34).
For He is faithful that promised. Much is made of the promises in this epistle, indeed
epaggelia occurs therein fourteen times. Much is made too of the faithfulness of the
Promiser, especially in Heb. 6: 13-19.
Let us consider one another. There is a false piety that believes that God is well
pleased with a monastic isolation, that God only wrote four commandments and not ten,
and that has no room for the love of neighbour, as a corollary to the love of God. This is
a travesty of truth. "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love