Last week, in our Ash Wednesday service, we looked at Hebrews 5:7–6:3, which is also where this year’s Lenten Devotional begins its set of readings for the 46 days of Lent. We read this in the introduction of our devotional:

• "The second half of Hebrews explores the work of Jesus. The letter describes what Jesus hasaccomplished along with what he continues to be doing now that he has ascended into heaven. The writer invites us to find deep assurance in the finality of Christ’s work on earth… [and] in the on-going work of Christ." (Tim Chester, Forgiven, 2)

For a book aimed at helping us find “deep assurance” in Christ’s work to save us, you may be surprised at the number of passages in Hebrews that warn of the danger of falling away. While some people find such “warning passages” troubling, they are not intended to cause us to doubt our salvation, but to call us to hold fast to the only “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul”: Jesus Christ Himself.

In 5:11, the letter takes an unexpected turn. Having introduced a topic that he intends to flesh out more fully (i.e., the Melchizedekian priesthood of Jesus), he suddenly confronts them with one of the main reasons they are so susceptible to falling away from Christ: they don’t know their Bibles as well as they ought. They are “milk babies”, to use a term that someone mentioned in our Sunday Evening Gathering on Sunday (see 5:12-13). This is how serious continual growth in your knowledge of the Bible is: it’s one of the main things that enables you to hold fast to Christ.

So “let us press on to know the Lord” (Hosea 6:3), that we may not remain “milk babies”, susceptible to falling away, but rather “mature” believers who possess “full assurance of hope until the end” (5:14; 6:11).

Blessings in Christ,

Pastor Evan