On October 21, 1805, some of the well-known sea battles in fashionable warfare occurred: On the Battle of Trafalgar, the British troops soundly defeated the French and Spanish fleets.
Although lots of the battle’s particulars are misplaced to historical past, two info are largely uncontested. First, the flagship carrying the British admiral was named the Victory. Second, the message despatched from Admiral Nelson aboard the Victory to the remaining twenty-six ships learn, “England expects that each man will do his obligation.” Whereas serving their king and their nation was a privilege, the Victory’s message that day reminded the fleet that it was additionally an obligation.
In the same manner, the Bible teaches us that the privilege of figuring out Jesus brings with it the calls for of obligation. These calls for, listed in Hebrews 13:15–17, discover their foundation within the verses that precede them. Verses 13–14 describe how Christ achieved victory via struggling, granting us the privilege of entry into the heavenly metropolis. However with this present come obligations, which the creator of Hebrews identifies and expounds within the following verses.
There are three features of Christian obligation that the author clarifies for us on this passage: our non secular obligation, with respect to God; our ethical obligation, with respect to males; and our ecclesiastical obligation, with respect to Christian management.
The privilege of figuring out Jesus brings with it the calls for of obligation.
Our Religious Obligation
The primary dimension of Christian obligation is non secular: We’re to “supply up a sacrifice of reward to God” (Heb. 13:15). The Jews studying the letter have been conscious of the character of sacrifice. Certainly, the creator of Hebrews revisits the theme many times, exhibiting how the Outdated Testomony order was fulfilled in Jesus’ personal sacrifice. By His once-for-all dying, Christ atoned for His individuals’s sins (Heb. 10:12).
Whereas the sacrifice for sins featured prominently within the Outdated Testomony, we all know there have been additionally varied dedicatory sacrifices, meant to specific thanksgiving to God. The worshipper would deliver an animal for sacrifice, saying, “God, I’m grateful to You, and I acknowledge the marvel of what You have got performed in forgiving my sin.”
It’s this sacrifice of gratitude that’s in view in verse 15. Christians are certain by obligations—robust ones, tender ones—to current a thank providing to God. Importantly, although, our providing is neither an ox nor a sheep; it’s ourselves. Our reward to God, each via phrases and deeds, is “the fruit of lips that acknowledge his title.” The Christian’s obligation to God, then, is to deliver his life as a every day providing to God, expressing a grateful coronary heart for the marvel of what He has performed.
The purpose of emphasis on this verse is within the opening phrases, “By him…” The place Outdated Testomony sacrifice was carried out via a priest in service to God, New Testomony worship is obtainable via (and to) the Nice Excessive Priest, the Lord Jesus. In keeping with the fabric main as much as chapter 13, the creator stresses that our non secular obligation is carried out solely via Jesus. To hunt entry to God the Father by every other route is to disclaim the distinctive, ample sacrifice of Christ.
Christians are certain by obligations—robust ones, tender ones—to current a thank providing to God.
And this sacrifice, provided via religion in Jesus, is a continuous providing. We don’t relegate worship to 1 hour per week, as if we have been solely imagined to strategy God particularly locations and at appointed occasions. The image right here is of the Christian’s life interwoven with God.
Our Ethical Obligation
Christianity carries obligations each to God, as verse 15 clarifies, after which to others. The subsequent verse defines our obligation to man. As Matthew Henry quaintly places it, “Thanksgiving is sweet, however thanks-living is healthier.” In different phrases, our sacrifice of reward is expressed not solely in how we confess Christ but additionally in how we deal with others.
The Jewish individuals understood this precept, figuring out that the blessings they skilled have been to be handed on to the strangers of their midst. Deuteronomy 14 explains the requirement:
On the finish of each three years you shall deliver out all of the tithe of your produce in the identical 12 months and lay it up inside your cities. And the Levite, as a result of he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who’re inside your cities, shall come and eat and be crammed, that the LORD your God might bless you in all of the work of your arms that you just do. (Deut. 14:28–29)
The theme runs all all through Scripture: God offers that we would give to others. In his letter to Titus, for instance, Paul reminds Christians that they have been redeemed in order that they may do good (2:14; 3:8).
The appliance for us is evident. The ceremonial choices that have been half and parcel of Judaism are now not pleasing to God. The previous order has come to an finish; the sacrifices of oxen and sacrificial lambs have handed away. However the sacrifice of real care, sensible assist, and selfless love—these expressions of God’s grace in our lives—proceed at the moment. These are the issues that please the Lord.
To have the approval of women and men is pleasant. However to have the “Nicely performed!” of God is the best recompense we will ever know (Matt. 25:21, 23; Luke 19:17). Make no mistake: God is happy when He seems on His individuals, gathered in His title, and finds them exercising their non secular and ethical duties.
Our Ecclesiastical Obligation
The third facet of our obligation comes within the seventeenth verse, involving our submission to and respect for Christian leaders:
Obey your leaders and undergo them, for they’re maintaining watch over your souls, as those that should give an account. Allow them to do that with pleasure and never with groaning, for that may be of no benefit to you. (Heb. 13:17)
To have the “Nicely performed!” of God is the best recompense we will ever know .
This verse describes the pastor, who fulfills the position of shepherd in his look after the flock of God. The phrase for “maintaining watch” can discuss with a watchman on town partitions, his activity involving searching for enemies on the surface and potential hazards on the within.
Crucially, a pastor’s accountability for his flock comes beneath God’s authority. He’s accountable not lastly to the individuals however to God Himself for how he cares for the individuals. It’s solely inside this framework that the command for Christians to “obey” their leaders emerges. Christians obey their leaders insofar as their leaders are like these in Hebrews 13:7, talking the Phrase of God to their individuals.
A Command from Heaven’s Captain
On the Battle of Trafalgar, the flag raised on the Victory learn, “England expects that each man will do his obligation.” That’s to say, obligation entails a component of volition—of willingness. In a single fell swoop, Admiral Nelson reminded his fleet of each the privilege and the obligation that was earlier than them that day.
Equally, the captain of our salvation seems down from the ramparts of heaven and into the corporate of the redeemed, instructing us, “Heaven expects that each Christian will do his obligation”—spiritually, to God; morally, to 1 one other; and ecclesiastically, to church leaders. Believers in all ages would do effectively to ask, on the premise of Scripture, “Are we doing our obligation?”
This text was tailored from the sermon “A Abstract of Christian Obligation” by Alistair Begg.
