Trembling at the Threatenings of Scripture

Dear Church Family,

In summarizing the teaching of Scripture regarding how the Christian responds, by faith, to the Word of God, the Westminster Confession of Faith reminds us that the believer responds differently depending on the type of passage of Scripture in question: by faith, the Christian yields obedience to the commands, trembles at the threatenings, and embraces the promises of God for this life and that which is to come (WCF 14.2).

Trembling at God’s Threatenings?

I think most Christians would readily agree with the first and the third activity as appropriate to the life of the Christian: how we are to submit to God’s Word by obeying His commands and embracing His promises. But what about this idea that by faith, the believer trembles at the threatenings of Scripture? Isn’t fear the opposite of faith?

Well, actually, if you think about it logically, if a person does not have faith in Christ and believe in God, then they would not care what God says and would therefore not tremble at His threatenings. It is only the Christian who, in exercising his or her faith, believes God’s Word to true and therefore takes His threatenings seriously. As we’ve seen already in our sermon series in the book of Hebrews, there is a difference between perseverance (clinging to Christ) and presumption (self-reliance and self-deception).

Thus, the threatenings of God’s Word are intended for those who have faith: to shake us of our presumption of our own self-reliance and to drive us to persevere in our clinging to Christ. For example, through the prophet Isaiah, God says to His people, “‘For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,’ declares the LORD. ‘But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word’” (Isaiah 66:2).

The Impossibility of Renewing Again to Repentance?

The reason for my thinking about this idea of trembling at the threatenings of God’s Word this week is because the text for our sermon this coming Sunday is Hebrews 5:11-6:8. In these verses contain a difficult warning or threatening:

(Hebrews 6:4-6)   ⁴ For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,  ⁵ and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,  ⁶ and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.

There have been various interpretations and applications of these verses. Some see these verses as teaching that true believers may lose their salvation. Some have argued that the writer of Hebrews is speaking here hypothetically about a situation that could never occur. I do not believe that either of these interpretations are true or do justice to the text and its context.

Rather, I understand these verses to be a warning for those who may have professed faith in Christ and are therefore members of the visible church; however, they are not truly regenerate and thus are in the very real danger of apostatizing. They are like the antichrists whom John speaks about in his first epistle: “They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19). Whether or not there is hope for these who have “fallen way” is another question which I hope to answer in the sermon (hint: I believe there is still hope for them), but we’ll talk more about that on Sunday.

Conclusion

My purpose in addressing this threatening of Hebrews 6, however, is to highlight the fact that passages like this ought to cause true believers to tremble at the threatenings. It is actually a mark of true faith to read God’s Word and take seriously the threats of Scripture and tremble in fear. And when you tremble in fear, those who have true faith will flee to the promises of God and take refuge in Jesus Christ, our redeemer and great high priest.

In preparation for the sermon this Sunday, I encourage you to read Hebrews 5:11-6:20. The entirety of this passage is what I’m calling “A Spiritual Checkup.” This Sunday, we will consider the first part of this spiritual checkup (Hebrews 5:11-6:8) and in two weeks we will consider the second part of this spiritual checkup (Hebrews 6:9-20).

The Lord be with you!
Pastor Peter M. Dietsch