“And my righteous ones will live by faith. But I will take no pleasure in anyone who turns away.” Hebrews 10:38 

Footsteps #431. The author of Hebrews bids us beware of the sin of unbelief, the entangling robe which most impedes our course; the tares sown in our harvest. Chapter 10 to 12 is a series of warnings with two common elements. Firstly, they compare the desert generation of Israel to our own, as we also (whether living or waiting for the resurrection) stand at the borders of the promised land. Secondly, they exhort us to have faith as we stand at those borders. Faith is not just directed towards the future, but also to confidence in God despite our circumstances. The word faith occurs 25 times in Chapters 11 and 12. Faith is not something we create in ourselves it is God’s creation in us as we look to Jesus; its author. 

At the heart of our religion is a mystery that will forever elude the human mind. The mystery is this. The limitless came into the limited. The eternal entered within the bounds of time. The infinite God upon whose shoulders the universe hangs became so helpless as to hang at the breast of a woman. That He who created all the mountains, trees, animals and all creation could say, “The foxes have holes, the birds nests, but the Son of God has nowhere.” Calvary was a mountain that felt the footsteps of its creator and there saw Him lifted on a roughhewn cross between heaven and earth as if He were not fit for either. That he who created all the riches of the universe experienced the utter poverty of the cross. Poverty you ask? He who owned all the rivers and seas and lakes cried, “I thirst.” That is real poverty! But He Who Himself is the fountain of life, as Hebrews chapter one declares, substituted Himself for transgressors of His own law, and let the deadly curse fall upon himself because there was no other way to release us from its penalty. 

A mystery? Yes! God does not ask you to understand it, only believe it! 

Hebrews tells us the Son now sits at the right hand of the majesty on high and because of this all the universe must one day come and bow at His feet and acknowledge His lordship. Whether saint or sinner, accursed or saved, even the devil himself will bow and acknowledge. Because of this, I say unto you, “If then, why not now!”