Partakers Christian Podcasts

Psalm On Demand - Psalm 86

Psalm 86

A Prayer by David.

1 Hear, Yahweh, and answer me, for I am poor and needy.
2 Preserve my soul, for I am godly.
You, my God, save your servant who trusts in you.
3 Be merciful to me, Lord, for I call to you all day long.
4 Bring joy to the soul of your servant,
for to you, Lord, do I lift up my soul.

5 For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive;
abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
6 Hear, Yahweh, my prayer. Listen to the voice of my petitions.
7 In the day of my trouble I will call on you, for you will answer me.

8 There is no one like you among the gods, Lord,
nor any deeds like your deeds.
9 All nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord.
They shall glorify your name.
10 For you are great, and do wondrous things.
You are God alone.

11 Teach me your way, Yahweh. I will walk in your truth.
Make my heart undivided to fear your name.
12 I will praise you, Lord my God, with my whole heart.
I will glorify your name forevermore.
13 For your loving kindness is great toward me.
You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.

14 God, the proud have risen up against me.
A company of violent men have sought after my soul,
and they don’t hold regard for you before them.
15 But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
16 Turn to me, and have mercy on me!
Give your strength to your servant.
Save the son of your handmaid.

17 Show me a sign of your goodness,
that those who hate me may see it,
and be shamed, because you,
Yahweh, have helped me, and comforted me.

Right mouse click or tap here to save this Podcast as a MP3.

Highlights in Hebrews 22

Highlights in Hebrews

(with Roger Kirby)

Part 22 - Hebrews 9:11-14

The blood of Jesus

When Jesus Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, cso that we may serve the living God!

Perhaps a summary of the OT (Old Testament) practices that the writer is relying on for so much of his argument is necessary first. This has two aspects found in the books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Negatively - full of ‘no’ and ‘not’ - are all sorts of instructions about how they were to live and what they were to eat. Our writer is not very interested in these. They comprised the Law. Positively there were detailed instructions about the tabernacle ( a sort of big tent construction) used during their wilderness journey and the practical details of how sacrifices were to be made there and what they accomplished. They thought of the tabernacle as the place where God was much more than anywhere else. Later the same basic idea was transferred to the temple that was to be built in Jerusalem. These sacrifices constituted a recognition that no one is perfect and there would be many involuntary infringements of the Law. These could be remedied through the complex sacrificial system. Not that it was the sacrifices that effected the remedy. They were symbolic of the attitude of the one sacrificing and of the grace of God that accepted his or her contrition.

Even with the help of the Holy Spirit we too are not perfect - we sin - and we need Jesus to remove defilement from us. His death is effective and does remove the consequences of our sin from us. This is the great concern of our writer who explains the effects of the death of Jesus in terms of the OT examples.

Of course this is not really about the ‘blood’ of Jesus. It is what is called a metonymym where a small part of something is used as a name for a whole. (Another example is the way some people will refer to their car as their ‘wheels’.) The ‘blood’ refers to the whole death of Jesus given as a sacrifice for us. In a quite remarkable way the writer uses the practices associated with the temple to explain what Jesus death means for us. He says that the earthly temple was, by Moses instructions (8:5), a copy of the true temple in heaven. So he is able to use the known facts about the earthly temple to indicate the deeper heavenly truths. The central purpose of the temple was as the place of sacrifice for sins and for worship.

There were at least three implications of a sacrifice:
1. It rendered clean those who were not because of their past sinfulness. The OT system, particularly with the annual sacrifice in the innermost part of the temple made by the High Priest once a year, allowed for recovery from sin, that is redemption, Verse 12 uses that picture to explain what Jesus did “he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. .
2. The Old Testament sacrifice was a symbol that the person making the sacrifice wanted to live in and for the Lord. This becomes what verse 14 says about “serving the living God”;
3. In the giving of the blood of the OT sacrifice it died in place of the one sacrificing. Now Jesus obtains for us an eternal redemption, “ He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (9:12). Of course, we must expect that we shall die one day in a physical sense. How then can our redemption be eternal? By the fact that although we shall die in an earthly sense we shall live forever as members of the eternal kingdom.

So we have past, present and future aspects to the meaning of a sacrifice. The Old Testament sacrifices had to be made again and again, daily, monthly and annually. Because Jesus was both human and divine his sacrifice was effective forever and did not have to be repeated.

This then is the great central teaching of the book of Hebrews. Christ was sacrificed to take away our sins (9:28); he sets us the greatest example of how we should live, ‘serving the living God’ (9:14); and he gives us a great hope for the future ‘he will bring salvation to those who are eagerly waiting for him’ (9:28).

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

~

You can now purchase our Partakers books! Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site!

Psalm On Demand - Psalm 2

Psalm 2

This Psalm speaks of the glories of the Messiah to come! It speaks of Jesus, who we know to be the Messiah that the Psalmist is speaking about!

1 Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
2 The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying, “Let’s break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us.
4 He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.

5 Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his wrath:
6 “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”
7 I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.
8 Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.

9 You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
10 Now therefore be wise, you kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
11 Serve Yahweh with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
12 Give sincere homage to the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.

Right mouse click or tap here to save/download this Psalm as a MP3 file

Highlights in Hebrews 21

Highlights in Hebrews

(with Roger Kirby)
Part 21 - Hebrews 8:1; 7:25

What is Jesus doing now?

“Jesus sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” Hebrews 8:1
“ he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them”. Hebrews 7:25

Jesus was with his Father in heaven, he came to earth (incarnation), he ministered, he died (crucifixion), he rose again (resurrection), he disappeared back to his Father (ascension). Where is he now and what is he doing? These are the two questions these verses answer. His ascension to heaven also enabled the Holy Spirit to start his great work in the hearts and lives of the Lord’s people.

To sit at the king’s right hand was to occupy the position of highest honour, second only to the king. Psalm 110 says ‘The LORD says to my lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
The LORD will extend your mighty sceptre from Zion, saying, “Rule in the midst of your enemies!”
The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

 

Peter used those verses in his speech at Pentecost (Acts 2:34). It is referred to in Philippians 2:9 where Paul says ‘God exalted him to the highest place’. He also said “ he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” (Ephesians 1:20, 21) emphasising the great power and authority he now had. Jesus himself, in a prayer that amounts to a clear prophecy said ‘Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began’ (John 17:5).

So it is quite clear where Jesus is now. But our text adds something to those statements, which is of great importance for us. What Jesus is doing is to intercede for us. Paul says this clearly in Romans 8:34 “Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” John calls Jesus our advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1). An advocate is a law court term for someone who speaks on behalf of someone else). The work of the Holy Spirit is to enable us to pray effectively. Jesus then relates our prayers, perhaps filtering them, to the Father. How he can possibly do that when there must be thousands, or millions, of prayers made every second we will never know. But he is capable of doing that because although he is the man in heaven he can also exercise his divine prerogative at his Father’s right hand.

This is a great encouragement for us. Our prayers are poor, inadequate, things but they are received and polished by our Lord himself before they are presented to God the Father. Hopefully he also fills in for us some of the prayers we should make but fail to do so from laziness or inadequacy. Thank you, Lord.

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

You can now purchase our Partakers books. Please do click or tap here to visit our Amazon site!

Psalm On Demand - Psalm 20

Psalm 20

20:1 May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble.
May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high,
20:2 send you help from the sanctuary,
grant you support from Zion,
20:3 remember all your offerings,
and accept your burnt sacrifice.

Selah.

20:4 May He grant you your heart's desire,
and fulfill all your counsel.
20:5 We will triumph in your salvation.
In the name of our God, we will set up our banners.
May Yahweh grant all your requests.
20:6 Now I know that Yahweh saves his anointed.
He will answer him from his holy heaven,
with the saving strength of his right hand.
20:7 Some trust in chariots, and some in horses,
but we trust the name of Yahweh our God.
20:8 They are bowed down and fallen,
but we rise up, and stand upright.
20:9 Save, Yahweh!
Let the King answer us when we call!

 

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

Highlights in Hebrews 20

Highlights in Hebrews

(with Roger Kirby)
Part 20 - Hebrews 7:24-27
Meeting our needs

“because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”

What do we really need? All sorts of things spring to mind but it is unlikely that they are the same things the writer is thinking about. He is concerned almost entirely with our status before God and therefore with our eventual destiny. As that affects us he wants us to have a sense of purpose in life and a sure destination to be going to. These two things are hugely important but many modern cultures ignore them almost completely. Our sense of purpose should come from setting out to follow Jesus and staying faithful to that calling for the rest of our lives. Our destination is to be with him after death - in a way that is not clear but is fully expected throughout scripture. We have a journey to make. It is not the case that setting out to follow Jesus will protect us from all the possible troubles and difficulties of this life. We may still suffer ill health, bereavement, loss of a job, and all the other ills that can affect us but we have a clear and certain path through these things taking us through to our destination.

The basic problem of every human life is sin. From our very first howl as babies when we want fed we have a strong streak of self-interest in all we do. We should be living to glorify the Lord God and his son Jesus but we don’t - we are really more concerned with ourselves most of the time. Jesus has rescued us from the consequences of that level of self absorption. Jesus - holy, blameless and pure - as the writer says. Because he was human he could stand alongside us, represent us and substitute for us. Because he was himself God he could do that for not just one person but for a huge multitude of people - including you and me! Before Jesus died the High Priest had to makes sacrifices every day and particularly on the one day of the year when he went into the innermost part of the temple where, they thought, God dwelt. All that was now unnecessary.

We each have a path to walk through life. Our paths are all different but they are all converging on one spot and one person who accompanies us every step of the way maps them all out for us. Our paths may not be easy. They may not be as easy as we would like. But he is with us and lead us through the difficulties, through the marshy bits, up the steep hills, all the time even as our legs get tired and we want to stop and rest for a while. He knows every way we should walk. He will show up some of our ‘needs’ to be just ‘wants’. All the true needs he will fulfil from his richly abundant grace. We should and must rejoice in our saviour and God.

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

Highlights in Hebrews 19

Highlights in Hebrews

(with Roger Kirby)
Part 19 - Hebrews 7:17-22
A better covenant

For it is declared: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever.’

Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant.

Promises are important, particularly when they are God’s promises, but covenants are even more important. God made a great promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:2, 3). Then 24 years later he turned that promise into a covenant (Genesis 15:8 - 19) in what seems to us a very curious ceremony but was the way they did it in those days.

The idea of a covenant was that there was a high king and lesser kings (in more modern terminology we should perhaps say a king and war-lords). The high king would make a covenant with a lesser king. He would promise to come to the aid of the lesser king if he was attacked. The lesser king would agree to send armed men to the high king, if required. to defend one of his other lesser kings. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

A promise is a promise, particularly when it is God who is promising. But a covenant is even stronger. If we promise someone they will have our house when we die that is one thing but if we go to see a lawyer and get it all written down in what we call a will that is quite different. So God is doing something to increase our confidence in what he is doing, not to ensure that he actually does it. Once a will is made the only person who can change it is the person who made it in the first place. In this chapter and the next 3 God is explaining how it is that he has changed his will (covenant) for us into a new and better one. All the covenant with Abraham still stands. It is the bits that were later added to it at Sinai to Moses which are being changed.

The great prophet, Jeremiah, was given a prophecy in which he said “The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. …
This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbour, or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

Our writer quotes these words at length in Hebrews 8:8-12. The critically important statement is in 8:10, ‘I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts.’ Jeremiah did not know how that would be done. He probably thought it would be by an intensification of the laws of Sinai and a tighter control of the people. He did not know. He could not know, how it would happen. When the Messiah, God on earth, came to establish his new covenant he would have a sort of secret weapon which would enable all those things to happen. That great secret was the gift of the Holy Spirit of God and Jesus who would enter the lives of his people. Ezekiel gets closer to what would happen when he says in his 36:26, 27 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

That is the great difference in the new covenant by which the Lord God would establish his people, his new people of every tribe and nation. What is the difference because this is a covenant and not just a promise? The answer is that this is a two-way event where promises are only one way. But we will leave that thought for another day.

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

Highlights in Hebrews 18

Highlights in Hebrews

(with Roger Kirby)
Part 18 - Hebrews 6:20–7:10
The great high priest – Melchizedek

The argument our writer is pursuing is going to be that Jesus is the greatest High Priest, superior to all others and therefore the one who should set us all the greatest spiritual example. So he says “… Jesus … has become a high priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek. This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace. Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.”

Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! So the argument continues “Now the law required the descendants of Levi who were the priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, from their fellow Israelites—even though they also were descended from Abraham. This man, Melchizedek, however, did not trace his descent from Levi - who was not yet born - yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. And without doubt the lesser is blessed by the greater. In the one case, the tenth is collected by people who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living. One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.”

There have already been several references to this rather strange episode involving Melchizedek. The argument of our writer is that Jesus was and is the greatest high priest ever, surpassing all others. This is not obvious because he was descended from Judah and not from Levi and Aaron as all high priest had to be.
The connection he uses is in Psalm 110. Here there is a prophecy of a man with three roles. He is to be the Messiah. That is not obvious from the psalm but is the way it was interpreted by both Jesus and the Pharisees (Matthew 22: 41 - 46). Then the Psalm refers to ‘your sceptre’ (Psalm 110: 2) and a sceptre is the symbol of kingship. Finally it says ‘you are a priest for ever’ (Psalm 110: 4).

How can this be? King Saul got into major trouble with Samuel because he acted as a priest when Samuel was late for a ceremony (1 Samuel 13: 8 - 14). Only Solomon seems to have been allowed to offer sacrifices as a king (1 Kings 8: 64 - 66). The Messiah was to be both a king and a priest because he was to be ‘a priest in the order of Melchizedek’. This refers to the unusual story of Genesis 14. It is about how Abraham had to rescue his nephew Lot when he got caught in the skirmish between 4 kings and 5 kings. (Since Abraham could sort them out with only 318 men, ‘king’ is a bit of an exaggeration. ‘Warlord’ or ‘Clan chieftain’ would probably be more realistic titles.) On his way back Abraham meets Melchizedek. Every other significant man in the book of Genesis gets a detailed genealogy. Melchizedek doesn’t. Hence our writer says “Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.” He just comes into the account from nowhere and disappears again. Yet Abraham treats him as the senior personage, giving him the tithe of a tenth of all his plunder and accepting a blessing from him. All that is very difficult to understand; it seems that Melchizedek was a priest of some senior line, which also worshipped the God of Abraham.

All this is exactly what our writer wants to explain the role and status of Jesus. From his very first verses he speaks of Jesus as the Son, the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his [God’s] being. Beyond dispute Jesus was and is King. Now we see he was also a priest, a High Priest, senior to the Levitical high priests, more able than any one else has ever been to “ save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.” (7: 25 - 28).
This is the glorious reality the writer presents to our wondering gaze. Worship Jesus.

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

Highlights in Hebrews 17

Highlights in Hebrews

(with Roger Kirby)
Part 17 - Hebrews 6:18-19
Hope is an anchor

God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

Hope is the desire for something longed for. At school it was perhaps to be in the top team; then it became the hope that our new computer would be as good as we hoped; then we hope for a good and loving life mate; for a happy and enriching family; for a satisfying and rewarding job. In all probability it is only when we reach old age that we begin to think of hope in terms of what might happen when we die. Hope stands out in the New Testament as something to be sought and it is about the last of those things. We, in the more developed parts of the world anyway, are little concerned with such thoughts. They, in the writer’s days, had a life expectancy probably only in the 40s or 50s and a good chance of dying at any age. We, with all the modern medicine available to us, can expect to go on in a reasonable state of health much longer than that. It is therefore no wonder that we are less concerned with hope than they were. They will have been much more used to seeing people die young or not very old. We hide the thoughts away for many years until we come to the point where we begin to hope we shall not get dementia, or will not only die until after a long and painful illness. And what happens next is not a major consideration until we are so set in our ways and beliefs that we have no real hope.

New Testament hope is quite different. Paul talks of “the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1: 27). It is that part of hope that, I am guessing, does not come much into your thinking until you are fairly old. In a way that is not surprising because our natural hopes exist with vast gaps between them. When we are younger that final hope is something that flits in and out of our thoughts at quite rare intervals. But this - hope in our future beyond this life, and in our Lord Jesus - is another matter. If we are members of the Kingdom here on earth we have a great and wonderful hope that we shall still be members after we die.

What guarantee do we have that this will indeed be the case? Our writer says it is as secure as an anchor that is firmly embedded amongst rocks on the sea bottom.

Going back a couple of verses he has said that there are two unchangeable things. It is not obvious what these were but he must be referring to what God said to Abraham after Abraham had passed the terrible test of being prepared to sacrifice his son and thus appearing to destroy the previous promise of God that he would have many descendants. “I swear by myself, declares the Lord …” (Genesis 22: 16). Nothing we experience will ever be as bad as what happened to Abraham. The Lord gave his great promise to Abraham and confirmed it ‘by himself’. In other words our God is totally trustworthy, whatever may be happening to us that seems to prove otherwise. This is our hope. Then, mixing his references up in quite a confusing way our writer says that our anchor is in ‘the inner sanctuary behind the curtain’, which is where the Lord God was thought to reside more than anywhere else.

The rocks between which our anchor is so firmly wedged that it can never be pulled out are our Lord, his person, his Word, our Lord and Master.

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file

Highlights in Hebrews 16

Highlights in Hebrews

(with Roger Kirby)
Part 16 - Hebrews 6:4-8
The perils of falling away.

 

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned.

This is a tricky passage. It seems not to agree with what is said elsewhere in scripture. But here it is in front of us and we must heed what it says. To highlight the problem here is one famous type of theology, followed by Reformed churches, which indicates the alternative very forcefully. T.U.L.I.P. is the mnemonic used by some of the more extreme advocates of a Calvinistic theology. These stand for:

• T - Total depravity. This does not mean everyone is just as bad as they could possibly be but that everyone is naturally so sinful the initiative for their salvation must come from God, even when they think it is their own choice to follow him
• U - Unconditional election. God chooses us; we do not choose him.
• L - Limited atonement. Jesus did not die for all men and women, being only made effective for those who he chooses. Rather he only died for those who God knew he would call.
• I - Irresistible grace. If God decides to call us we are called. There is nothing we can do about it; we cannot refuse his offer.
• P - Perseverance of the saints. Once chosen, called and saved we cannot turn away from that. We are believers for ever.
  
  

There is much to commend in this view of faith. All these points can, and are, easily supported by scripture quotations. Reading through all these things is a useful reminder that becoming a follower of Jesus is not like joining the Boy Scouts or the local golf club. There we, or our parents, pay the joining fee and we are in. It is all our doing. But when we become followers of Jesus we are not the sole partakers in what happens. God has a part to play. In fact he has the major part to play. In particular we receive from him the gift of the Holy Spirit. Once we have received that gift can we back out of the arrangement? No, of course not says TULIP. But the verses in front of us in Hebrews say something different.
There is no easy way to reconcile the two. The easy, but rather unsatisfactory, way out is to say the one who is falling away was never really a Christian believer in the first place, but was just imitating the activities of those who are. But that doesn’t really fit. Our writer talks about a person being enlightened, tasting the heavenly gift (presumably meaning experiencing the power and joy of heavenly love), sharing in the Holy Spirit, becoming excited by reading the Bible and looking forward to the eventual life in the kingdom. These two things simply do not fit.
How you resolve this tension will depend almost entirely on your background and the sort of church you are in. I will say just this:the TULIP type approach gives us great confidence in the Lord and encouragement on our way; what our writer says is a strong warning against the perils of turning away from faith once embarked on the great journey it offers. Both points of view are found in scripture and we must heed both.

Click or Tap here to listen to or save this as an audio mp3 file