ON NOT MAKING PROGRESS SPIRITUALLY

 

ON NOT MAKING PROGRESS SPIRITUALLY

A NOTE ON HEBREWS 12

John H. Paterson

THE work of God in the lives of His people is designed to make them “partakers of His holiness”. He undertakes their training in His school with the intention that, however difficult in practice the course may be, it will yield “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” in the lives of those who undergo it. This evidently represents His norm — no short-cuts and no exceptions. At least, He did not make an exception of Abraham, or Joseph, or Moses, or any of the other great men whose names are listed in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Their training lasted for decades and led them into painful situations and difficult places. But their lives, as a result, were incomparably fruitful.

So God makes it clear to His people that His methods of training, although often painful, are ultimately productive. But just because the way is difficult, and He does not conceal this fact, there are times when we wonder whether, frankly, it is all worthwhile. In particular, there are two mistakes we may make, and it is to warn against these that the twelfth chapter of Hebrews is written. Confronted by the purpose of God to make us holy like Himself we may either despise or refuse. Both are disastrous. The example of Esau illustrates the peril of taking the first way out. The example of Israel in the wilderness illustrates the second.

THE MISTAKE OF DESPISING

“My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him” (verse 5). But we must understand what in fact this danger is, if we are to avoid it. And the mention of Esau (vv.16-17) will help us. He made the mistake of despising (Genesis 25:34), and it was a mistake for which there was, ultimately, no amendment, even though Esau sought a solution tearfully and desperately.