Okay, let’s keep right on going where we were in Hebrew chapter 6, and we’re going to constantly remind you that this is dealing first and foremost with the Hebrews who were still hanging on to Judaism, though they had embraced Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah. But as the early Jewish believers there in Jerusalem were prone to do, they still hadn’t understood Paul’s whole doctrine of not being under Law but under Grace. They like the Galatians had fallen into the trap of combining Judaism with Grace which is a fatal combination as Judaism cancels out Grace's effects and nullifies it.
So I feel the Apostle Paul now is not divulging who he is because, you want to remember, the Jews hated him. They thought he was a turncoat. They thought he was somebody who became a renegade of Judaism because he was now proposing that "we’re not under the Levitical Law; we’re under Grace." But the whole idea as he approaches these Jewish believers only in, I guess we could say, the Gospel of the Kingdom, that which was preached in Christ’s earthly ministry, and as Peter and the others had continued in the early chapters of Acts. Because all they understood was that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ. Here Paul is trying to get them to move on and recognize that now Christ not only was the Messiah but He had died for the sins of the world. He became the great High Priest-King, not just for the Hebrews, but for the whole human race. A concept which the Hebrew just couldn't comprehend nor understand as it was contrary to all he know and was taught. And we’ll be going into that especially when we get into chapter 7 when, once again, we pick up the priesthood of Melchizedek who was not a priest of Israel but he was a priest of the non-Jewish world because it is said of him that he was a priest of the Most High God.
Alright, before we get there we’re going to continue to deal with these Jewish people who had embraced that much of the program, that Jesus was the Messiah. And the Holy Spirit had enlightened them to some of these things, but they refused to let go of their legalism. Of course, that shows up so clearly then when we get into Paul’s Epistles, especially the Epistle to the Galatians. Because these very kind of Jews, not these particularly because like I’ve said, I don’t think this was addressed to the Jerusalem church. I think it was to another congregation. But, when we get to Paul’s Epistles we always note that the Judaizers from the Jerusalem church were constantly beseeching Paul’s new converts to come under the Law, the Levitical Law of which they for the most part had nothing to do with as they were Gentiles.
And that was something that just drove the Apostle up the wall and that’s the reason for the strong language in Galatians that "how in the world can you who’ve begun now trusting in His Faith and Grace go under the Levitical Law?" Well, this is just the other way around. He’s trying to get these Hebrews to let go of the things concerning Judaism and come on into this whole Economy of Grace. And wholeheartedly under the High Priesthood of Christ Jesus.
Before we go any further, I’m going to put a couple of words before you. Because I don’t want people to get these two concepts mixed. There is a big difference between "apostasy" and "backsliding." Now I take that word out of the Old Testament, so before I put it out there, I’m going to have you turn back with me to Jeremiah. Because I don’t want people to confuse the issues. I don’t want people to think that just because you haven’t lived an exemplary Christ-like life the last few days, that you’ve lost your salvation.
It’s very possible to be a backslider as a believer, and never lose your redemption. But on the other hand, for people who were never really redeemed, it’s not hard for them to turn their back on revealed truth and become an apostate. Jeremiah chapter 3, and verse 11. Now granted this is Israel under the Levitical Law.
Jeremiah 3:11
"And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah."
Remember this is when the nation was divided and the Northern Kingdom had already gone far down the tube into idolatry and so forth, and Judah is still enjoying the Temple worship and all the ramifications of the feasts days. But it’s just a comparison that even Israel, with all of their idolatry and their sin, in God’s eyes were still better than those religious Jews down in Judah. So he says:
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