To Encourage You

Hebrews 10:20 “. . .the new and living way. . .”

Have you ever heard someone say, “there’s a right way and a wrong way to do everything”?  While I don’t’ think that that statement is necessarily true for some things (like which shoe you put on first in the morning) can be done in multiple ways and it’s neither here nor there how you do them. For some other things, however, the statement is definitely true.  For example, my youngest son has a way that he ties his shoes.  When he’s done it’s true that his shoes are tied, but they hardly ever stay tied. It drives me crazy sometimes, and no matter how many times I might try to show him the right way, he always seems to revert back to the old way.  You see, to my son, his way is the right way (probably because of some wrong teaching when he first learned – which is another story), but it isn’t the right way, or his shoes would stay tied! Years ago, I remember watching a friend drive and I noticed that he used one of his feet to work the accelerator and the other one to work the brake. It bothered me to no end because every time he pushed the brake and accelerator at the same time, he was making it harder to either slow down or speed up!  It’s the wrong way, don’t you think?!  Of course, there are lots of other examples of such things.

Which brings me to the words in the verse above. It talks about “a new and living way.”  So, what’s it talking about?  Apparently, it’s in contrast to some other way, a way that was older and not living.  Like so much in the book of Hebrews, it is talking about a better thing than some things that came previously.  Specifically, it’s talking about the Old Testament sacrifices. It was the way the Jews practiced their religion for hundreds of years. God had prescribed various rituals involving animal sacrifices that the priests were to offer to “cover” their sins.  These sacrifices were all “shadows” or “types” of a better sacrifice that was to come in the future, one that would not just cover their sins but completely take them away.  This new sacrifice and this living way was the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross. It was by this one sacrifice that God made a way for those who believed in Christ to “be perfected for all time” (Hebrews 10:14). In contrast to the old sacrifices which were never meant as anything other than “types,” this new sacrifice was the real thing.  As such, it is “the new and living way” to eternal salvation. 

The problem, however, that the writer is addressing, was the tendency for the first century Jews who had made a profession of faith in Christ to revert to the old way. They were so used to the old way that they were having difficulty departing from it. Tragically, if they did that, if they didn’t go all the way and completely trust in Christ alone for salvation, if they trusted in the old rituals and old ways, they, in the end, would not be saved.  By trusting in the way of “doing religion” that they were used to, a way that seemed right to them because they had done it for so long, they were doomed to failure in the end.  It’s as Proverbs 14:12 tells us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

So, what about you?  What is your way of life, your way of doing things? Are you so set in your ways that to turn from them to following Christ is something you just don’t want to do? Are you so comfortable in your lifestyle, religion, or whatever else, that the “new and living way” that Christ has brought about is a way you’ve never considered or perhaps outright resisted? Well, if so, you need to be aware that God has called this way, His way, this new and living way, a “living” way for a reason.  It’s because it is the right way, and the only way to eternal life. It’s a way that is so fundamentally life-changing that the first-century believers became known by others that observed their lives as the followers of “the Way” (Acts 9:2). It was these followers that the apostle Paul, before he became a Christian, was doing everything in his power to exterminate. It just wasn’t the “right way” to do things, at least to his unconverted eyes.  But then he met Jesus, i.e., the One Who alone is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:6), and this new and living way became his.

So what about you? Do you think you’re doing life the right way?  Well, if you’ve never met the Lord Jesus, you might want to think again.