What is Hebrews 12:14 All About?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. Michael Lee Apendroth here. You can reach me,

Mike, at nocompromiseradio .com or Mike at bbcchurch .org or Spencer, info at nocompromiseradio .org.

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Just a quick update on health wise. Thanks for praying for me. I just got back from the hospital a couple days ago for my monthly blood draw, checkup,

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And that's about what we can do. All that to say, today I have a little tract by J .C.

Ryle that I'd like to interact with. This is about show 4000, so it's about time for J .C.

Ryle interaction. Anglican, bishop, 39 articles, great writer.

When I read the Banner of Truth compilation, Warnings to the

Churches, I believe it was called, I thought, this is for modern day. And that's a sign, by the way, of a really good minister slash preacher.

If you listen to them, you say to yourself, I could listen to that in 50 years or 40 years ago, or in a different country, different culture, because the

Word of God is transcultural, transchronological. God is eternal. God's Word is always relevant, always applicable.

And therefore, I mean, if you have an illustration once in a while about a cricket team or a football game or a current event or something, that's fine.

It's not that you can never do that. But overall, if your nose is in the text and you're talking about the

Lord Jesus, then those messages seem timeless. So, you ought to read J .C. Ryle.

His classic book on holiness is really good. Differences between justification and sanctification, similarities between justification and sanctification.

I thought he did a really good job on that. So, today I'm going to read this little tract, Suppose an Unholy Man Went to Heaven.

And I'm going to kind of just talk about it and interact with it. It's small. You can get tracts from chapellibrary .org.

Great place to get tracts. Once in a while, you know, Richard Baxter thing or Matthew Mead, something like that, that I might not like, but overall, 95 times more what

I like than don't like. Suppose for a moment that you were allowed to enter heaven without holiness.

What would you do? What possible enjoyment could you feel there? To which of all the saints would you join yourself?

And by whose side would you sit? Their pleasures are not your pleasures. Their tastes are not your tastes.

Their character, not your character. How could you possibly be happy if you had not been holy on earth?

So far, so good. I think it's a challenging question. And you can think about this in retrospect and think about before the

Lord saved you, or if you're listening today and you're not a Christian, how are you going to go to God's holy heaven?

That's another question. But the question at hand is, what if you were unholy and you went to heaven?

Would there be any fun, delight, fellowship? What would happen? Ryle goes on.

Now, perhaps you love the company of the light and careless, the worldly minded and covetous, the reveler and the pleasure seeker, the ungodly and the profane.

There will be none such in heaven. I think of 1

Corinthians 6, 9 through 11, such were some of you. You've got those three great divine passives in 1

Corinthians 6. You were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified.

You were all washed up. And that's what happened because of God's sovereign good pleasure.

God saves and He declares righteous. He sets apart and He cleanses.

Washed, sanctified, justified, Wall Street Journal, WSJ. Let's redeem WSJ. So certainly there will be ex -idolaters, ex -scovitches, ex -fornicators in heaven.

But here you get Ryle's point. He says, now perhaps you think the saints of God too strict and particular and serious.

You rather avoid them. You have no delight in their society. There will be no other company in heaven.

So you're going to be out of place. Now, perhaps you're thinking, praying, scripture reading, and hymn singing.

You think these all to be dull and melancholy and stupid work, a thing to be tolerated now and then, but not enjoyed.

You reckon the Sabbath a burden and a weariness. You could not possibly spend more than a small part of it in worshiping

God. But remember, heaven is a never -ending Sabbath. The inhabitants thereof rest not day and night, saying, holy, holy, holy,

Lord God Almighty, and singing the praise of the Lamb, Revelation 4 .8.

How could an unholy man find pleasure in occupation such as this?

And of course, you know, dear No Compromise radio listeners, that to be in the presence of God without a mediator or an advocate is going to be very, very difficult.

It's going to be hell, right? Because we have Revelation 14. It's in the presence of God, not his benevolence or his goodness or anything like that, but just in the holy nature of God, you're going to exist before him.

He would be undone. He would have no strength. You need a mediator. So, the definition of, part of the definition of heaven is being in God's presence with a mediator, the

Lord Jesus. And part of the definition of what hell's going to be like is being in the presence of God without a mediator, the

Lord Jesus. Back to Ryle. Think you that such a one would delight to meet

David, Paul, and John after a life spent in doing the very things they spoke against?

Would he take sweet counsel with them and find that he and they had much in common? Think you, above all, that he would rejoice to meet

Jesus, the crucified one, face to face, after cleaving to the sins for which he died, after loving his enemies and despising his friends?

I mean, you don't love them on earth. You don't worship the same God that David and Paul and John did on earth.

Would he stand before him with confidence and joy in the cry, this is our

God, we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation? Think you not rather that the tongue of an unholy man would cleave to the roof of his mouth with shame, and his only desire would be to be cast out?

He would feel a stranger in a land he knew not, a black sheep amid Christ's holy flock.

The voice of cherubim and seraphim, the songs of angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven would be a language he could not understand.

The very air would seem an air he could not breathe. I know not what others may think, said

Ryle, but to me it does seem clear that heaven would be a miserable place to an unholy man.

It cannot be otherwise. People may say in a vague way they hope to go to heaven, but they do not consider what they say.

We must be heavenly minded and have heavenly taste in life that now is, in the life that now is, or else we shall never find ourselves in heaven in the life to come.

Super interesting by Ryle, fascinating, insightful, and correct.

And now before I go any further, let me say a few words by way of application. For one thing, let me ask anyone who may read these pages or listening to this podcast, are you holy?

Listen, I pray you to the question I put to you this day. Do you know anything of the holiness of which

I have been speaking? I do not ask whether you attend your church regularly, whether you have been baptized and received the

Lord's supper, whether you have come, whether you have the name of Christian. I ask something more than all this.

Are you holy or are you not? I do not ask whether you approve of holiness in others, whether you like to read the lives of holy people, to talk of holy things, and to have on your table holy books, whether you mean to be holy and hope you will be holy someday.

I ask something further. Are you yourself holy this very day or are you not?

Why do I ask so straightly and press the question so strongly? I do it because the scripture says, without holiness, no man shall see the

Lord, Hebrews 12, 14. It is written. It is not my fancy. It is the

Bible, not my private opinion. It is the word of God, not of man. Without holiness, no one shall see the Lord. Alas, what searching, sifting words are these?

What thoughts come across my mind as I write them down? I look at the world and see the greater part of it lying in weakness.

I look at professing Christians and see the vast majority having nothing of Christianity but the name.

I turn to the Bible and hear the Spirit saying, without holiness, no man shall see the

Lord. Mike Amendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. By the way, if you go to,

I think, Office Hours, Westminster Escondido Seminary's podcast, Scott Clark interviewed

Stephen Baugh on this very topic, Hebrews 12, 14.

And what is it and what is it not? And do you have enough holiness to get into heaven?

Is that a good question in light of Hebrews 12, 14? Or is it better to ask questions of what's happened in Hebrews 1 to 11 before I get to 12, 14?

More on that in a moment, but certainly I believe Hebrews 12, 14, and I believe God is holy, holy, holy.

And I believe we have to have all of our sin taken care of to stand before God. Okay, let's go back to Ryle, then

I'll talk a little bit more. Surely it is a text that ought to make us consider our ways and search our hearts.

Surely it should raise within us solemn thoughts and send us to prayer. You may try to put me off by saying you feel much and think much about these things, far more than many suppose.

I answer, that's not the point. The poor lost souls in heaven do as much as this. The great question is not what do you think and what you feel, but what you do.

Now, you have to read people in context, and Ryle, in context of his writings, understands absolutely that you don't get to heaven by any of your own works and what you do.

If you want to do the works of God, you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the command in light of the gospel truths and promises in person of the

Lord Jesus. You don't do anything. Obviously, we believe in grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

That's what we believe, and that's what Ryle teaches. This is not sane in his overall context.

It's just a little tract, and he didn't design it to be a tract as far as I know. You have to work through these things and just make sure you understand what the scoop is.

This is not a good Twitter sentence. X. When I think of X, I think of the band.

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John Doe and Xen Sirvenka got divorced, and she married the king in Lord of the

Rings, long -haired guy, handsome guy, Hildago. He was in Hildago as well.

You may say it was never meant that all Christians should be holy and that holiness, such

I have described, is only for great saints and people of uncommon gifts. Are you a saint or not in the

Roman Catholic hierarchy? Something similar to that. I answer,

I cannot see that in Scripture. I read that every man who has this hope in Christ purify himself.

Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. You may say it is impossible to be so holy and to do our duty in this life.

At the same time, the thing cannot be done. I answer, you are mistaken. It can be done.

With Christ on your side, nothing is impossible. It has been done by many. David, Obadiah, Daniel, and the servants of Nero's household are all examples that go to prove it.

You may say if you were so holy, you would be unlike other people. I answer,

I know it well. It is just that you ought to be. Christ's true servants were always unlike the world around them, a separate nation, a peculiar people, and you must be too if you would be saved.

You may say at this rate, very few will be saved. I answer, I know it. It is precisely what we were told in the

Sermon on the Mount. Straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

You may say these are hard sayings. The way is narrower. I answer, I know it. So says the Sermon on the

Mount. It is in religion as it is in other things.

There are no gains without pains. That which costs nothing is worth nothing. So what do you think?

Do you like that? You're saying, yeah, but Mike, at the beginning, you said it was really good.

The rial was really good. And then now what? What do I do? Am I actually going to heaven? Do I have any hope? Well, as I mentioned earlier,

Steve Baugh, he's got a good podcast on that, but also he's got an article in Modern Reformation, what is required to see the

Lord, Reflections on Hebrews 12, 14, Stephen M. Baugh. Here's what he says.

Read in isolation, this verse seems to say that a believer needs to attain to a certain level, or more terrifyingly, to complete personal holiness.

Otherwise, he or she will not be saved and see the Lord. Undoubtedly, countless exhortations have placed the great weight of this few on the backs of poor

Christians who are struggling the best they can to grow to be more like Jesus in purity and holiness, but always with the nagging dread that it might not be quite enough to see the

Lord at the end of their lives. And that could be you who are listening today. Common English translations,

Baugh says, thus raise the question, how much holiness do I need in order to see the

Lord? Need I be just 10 % holy? Or does holiness have to just outweigh my sinful self so that I can scratch my way into heaven?

But there's a huge problem here. The phrase holiness without which, in our verse, is not a statement of degree, but an absolute.

One has this holiness or not. This is confirmed by the same word for without elsewhere in the

New Testament and in Hebrews, for example, in Hebrews 4 .15, where Jesus was without sin, meaning that he had no sin at all.

He was devoid of sin. Hence, the idea of Hebrews 12 .14 is that one either has this holiness or not.

There's no degree here. You either have this thing entirely or not at all.

If we must have complete and entire personal holiness to see the Lord, then we can only attain to it if we redefine sin and holiness away from the

Bible's own definition. Very, very interesting.

All of these problems arising from Hebrews 12 .14 are caused by translation of one Greek word, hagizimus, hagiasmus, or holiness or sanctification.

The problems go away, though, by rendering hagiasmus properly, as I argue, with consecration.

The opposite of holy can be sinful, but the opposite of consecrated is profane or defiled.

The background, here it comes, no compromise radio. This is why I said Hebrews 1 .11 earlier. The background of Hebrews 12 .14

is a priestly system with its focus on purification and consecration through sacrifice. The forgiveness of sins is involved in that they are remembered no more,

Hebrews 8 and 10. But the infallible basis of our forgiveness is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ with nothing of our own works or sanctity.

Our good works invariably flow from the source, but they are not part of the spring from which the river flows from the rock, 1

Corinthians 10. Now, let me state my thesis. This is

Baal. In Hebrews 12 .14, the author exhorts the professing church to pursue peace and persevere in faith in order to hold fast to the consecration that comes from Christ's atoning sacrifice required to enter

God's presence. The exhortation here is to persevere in faith in Christ. It is not focused on striving for personal sanctification.

The author talks about personal holiness in different places in different ways, as I will mention below. But let me defend my thesis now by considering just three of the many factors that led to a proper interpretation of Hebrews 12 .14.

So, do you see what he's doing? You see where Baal is going with this? If it is a degree, you better make sure it's a perfect degree because God requires perfection.

God doesn't accept anything less than perfection. And so, Baal goes on to say in terms of his thesis to be fleshed out.

First, he talks about the unity of Hebrews. And so, on No Compromise Radio today, that's important when we want to study any verse of the

Bible. What does that verse say in a local context, paragraph, sentence, immediate context, context of the chapter, context of the book, context of the entire

Bible? Those are very, very important concerns. He talks about the unity of Hebrews, and it's a unified sermon.

Actually, Hebrews 12 .14 must fit in with other things the author says throughout his work because he has been building a case, right?

This means, for example, that the immediate context of Hebrews 12 .14 is not only the surrounding few verses, but also passages several chapters away that may seem quite distant to us, yet they actually are not when we remember that this is a work meant to be read and heard in one setting.

As for Hebrews, hagiasmus comes not through our own personal actions or effort, but through the blood of Christ in sacrifice.

Very, very important. Here, I could say that I have consecration from Christ, which is tantamount to saying that Christ has consecrated me.

Greek hagiasmus relates to the verb sometimes rendered to sanctify, but I'd rather render this verb in Hebrews as consecrate.

Hebrews 2 .11, for he who consecrates Christ as high priest. All that Hebrews 10, that the will of the

Father for the Son to become incarnate as high priest, we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus once for all.

Not only that, besides unity, what about the textual flow? What's the flow of the text?

The important point of this is that Hebrews 12 .14 is grammatically and compositionally an integral part of a larger unit.

So, it's almost kind of like the unity of the entire book, then what's kind of the context locally.

And then lastly, he says the three Old Testament references. And he talks about the references in Hebrews 12, verses 16 and 17, which follow this.

The issue then in seeking consecration is to hold fast to Christ and not to apostatize. This is the general theme of Hebrews that the author addresses from different angles throughout his sermon.

The other two, lest any parallels in verse 15, confirm this view when we see the fact that failing to obtain the grace of God describes an apostate who has made a profession of faith, but falls along the wayside.

Baugh's conclusion here on No Compromise Radio. Seeking the consecration through which one will see the

Lord means to hold fast to the high priest Christ for our confession of faith and to his sacrifice, through which alone our sins are forgiven.

We are brought out of defilement of sin and death and washed clean. This exhortation is made throughout the epistle, but is summarized quite clearly in Hebrews 10, verses 19 through 23, which

I encourage you to read in this connection. Do we reject any thought of exhorting people to personal sanctification?

Never. Our author has just done this by pointing to God's own involvement in our lives as a loving father who disciplines us so that we can bear peaceful fruit of righteousness,

Hebrews 12, 7 to 11. Personal sanctification is such an important topic, though that we will have to address in a future column.

What is Baugh saying? Baugh is saying this. If you look at the theme, unity, context, flow of Hebrews, the epistle of Hebrews, you will quickly find out that God is not saying you better have enough personal righteousness that you're going to survive judgment day, that you have a certain degree of holiness in your life or else.

Would we like to be more holy in our lives? Of course. But I don't want you to read that verse and be afraid. I want you to read that verse and have it spur you on to do good works out of gratitude.

Of course. But let me read again what Baugh says. When you seek consecration, what does it mean to hold fast to Christ, the high priest of our confession, and his sacrifice alone?

That's really what's going on in the book of Hebrews. So, my name is Mike Abendroth.

This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. If I read you a little bit of the context, I think you're going to be helped.

Hebrews 12. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.

Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

That really helps because then you have verse 18 that says, for you have not come to what may be touched.

And then he talks about Mount Zion and Mount Sinai and the contrast. Well, my name's

Mike Ebendroth. Do I still like J .C. Ryle? Yes, but I don't think that track really helped us much because it didn't even really give us the answer.

We're unholy as unbelievers. How do we get to heaven? Certainly, he's right to say if you are unholy on earth, you're certainly not going to like heaven.

Just a hypothetical discussion, of course. But he never really told us how to be holy.

Last thing to say, Heidelberg Catechism, question 60. How are you righteous before God?

I wish Ryle would have talked about this. And you know what? Maybe this is just lifted up by Chapel Library and we don't have what he says after, and so let's give

Ryle the benefit of that out. How are you righteous before God? Heidelberg Catechism 60.

Only by true faith in Jesus Christ, although my conscience accuses me that I have grievously sinned against all

God's commandments, have never kept any of them, and am still inclined to all evil.

Yet God, without any merit of my own, out of mere grace, imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ.

He grants these to me as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which

Christ has rendered for me. If only I accept this with a believing heart.

That is how an unholy person goes to a holy heaven, because of the holy righteousness of the

Lord Jesus. Sound good to me? Yes, it does sound good to me.