With our passage this week the author switches from exposition to exhortation – an exhortation that continues right through till the end of the book. The great purpose of the book of Hebrews – the warning not to fall away from Jesus but to hold fast to him and persevere with enduring faith until the end – is here given full voice. The author urges all who read that since we have confidence to enter the very presence of God by the blood of Jesus we are to do just that! We are encouraged to draw near to God, hold fast to Him and encourage others to persevere also. Perseverance is vital for, if any should deliberately choose to turn away from our Great High Priest and his perfect sacrifice then, no other means of forgiveness exists. Rather, all that remains is “the fearful expectation of judgement” at “the hands of the living God”. The author clearly knows those to whom he is writing and encourages them to remember their former endurance and the joy they had through the tough times they experienced when they first believed. 'You didn’t throw away your faith then so don’t do so now!’ is his great plea. Now, most of us haven’t yet (and indeed may never) experience the kind of overt and public persecution to which the author refers, yet the temptation to ‘shrink back’ from Christ is as real today as it was in the first century, it just comes dressed in different clothes. We too have need of endurance for then we too shall be united with those original readers of whom the author could so boldly declare: “We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls."
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