Christianity and Judaism Contrasted
Henry Edward Hayhoe
Table of Contents
Christianity and Judaism Contrasted: An Exposition of Hebrews 6
Foreword
The writer feels the great importance today of the truth given of God in the epistle to the Hebrews. for it is the voice of a glorified Christ speaking from heaven. Christianity did not begin with the BIRTH of Christ. When He came as the promised Messiah to Israel they rejected and crucified Him, but NOW since He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high, He speaks from thence, telling of the precious fruit of the work of the cross wherein God has been so fully glorified. This is Christianity. The types and shadows of Judaism have now been fulfilled, and the believer is brought into those heavenly blessings spoken of in this epistle as the things that are "better" (Hebrews 10:34; 11:16).
Although Christendom does not go on with the sacrifices of Judaism, it does follow much of the ritual connected with it. It is important to see that God has set aside THE WHOLE SYSTEM, and that Christianity is an entirely new thing. Just as it was hard for Hebrew believers to leave Judaism behind, so it is hard for Christians who have been brought up under the mixture of Judaism and Christianity to see that they are going on with something that God has called them to "leave." He has replaced it with something better.
May the Lord be pleased to use this little booklet to bring many of His own into the light and liberty of Christianity with all its blessedness, for His own glory and praise.
Christianity and Judaism Contrasted
"Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of the Christ, let us go on to what belongs to full growth, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith in God, of the doctrine of washings, and of imposition of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment; and this will we do if God permit" (Heb. 6:1-4).
We have quoted these verses as in the J.N.D. New Translation so that the force of them may be more clearly seen. They are very important, though much misunderstood, and yet the understanding of this passage gives one to see what Christianity really is, in contrast with Judaism. To know this, is to go on to perfection, or full growth. This is not perfection in the flesh, as some might think, but it is to lay hold of the perfect work accomplished by the perfect Son of God which gives the believer a perfect standing before God. Apart from the understanding of this, even true children of God remain "babes" (Heb. 5:13). May the Lord make it good in power to His own, for Christendom around us today is very largely a mixture of Judaism and Christianity.
The epistle to the Hebrews is therefore very instructive to the Christian today. There are two words which characterize the ministry of the Spirit in this epistle, and it is helpful to note their importance. The first is "contrast." Judaism is contrasted with Christianity. Now Christianity is not an extension of Judaism, nor is it an improvement upon it. It is an entirely new thing. This brings us to the other word which is, "better." Christianity is that "better thing" which is the precious fruit of the cross.
The first chapter of the epistle presents the glory of the Son of God, preeminent above all things created, so that the angels worship Him. The second chapter presents the glory of His person as our great High Priest to sympathize, succor, and strengthen us for wilderness life here. In chapter three we are exhorted to "hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end" (Heb. 3:6). This is because of the perfection of the work Christ did upon the cross, and the faithfulness of His service as our great High Priest to carry us through all wilderness difficulties, and to bring us into our heavenly Canaan. His priesthood is after the "order of Melchisedec" for it does not pass on to another. It will not cease until the whole company of the redeemed have entered into their rest.
The first principles of the oracles of God were types and shadows of what was to come. To cling to them now was to deny the precious glorious fact of accomplished redemption. These Hebrews, who had professed to receive Christ, had in doing so, owned that He had wrought the work of redemption, but they had not entered, by faith, into the full blessedness of that work with its precious fruit. They were still "babes." Chapter six was written to give them positive instruction to "leave" what had now been set aside. The accomplished work of atonement upon the cross had fulfilled the types and shadows of Judaism. Apart from the understanding of this, one cannot rightly divide the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15).
Chapter six begins, "Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of the Christ." This refers to the beginning of Christ's ministry on earth. Let us turn to Matt. 10:1-15. When Christ sent out His apostles, He told them not to go into the way of the Gentiles, nor enter into any city of the Samaritans, and as they went they were to preach the gospel of the kingdom. Moreover they were to shake off the dust of their feet against those who refused their testimony. This was the final call to Israel, and the consequence of rejecting it was to be judgment. This commission we do not follow NOW—we are to "leave" it. It will, however, be resumed after the Church has been raptured to glory, but meanwhile we preach the gospel of the grace of God, not the coming of the kingdom. The kingdom will be established in power when all evil is removed (Matt. 13:41-42). The Christian's hope is the coming of the Lord to receive us unto Himself in heaven, before all this takes place. Now turn also to Matthew 23:1-3. Here we find Christ telling His disciples, "The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works; for they say, and do not." These words of the beginning of Christ we are to "leave" now. The temple with its ritual—circumcision, and the observing of days according to the law of Moses, are no longer the mind of the Sprit for us. He now tells of a GLORIFIED Christ, showing us that these things were but types and shadows of the "better thing."
We can, however, learn from these shadows, for "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable" (2 Tim. 3:16), but that which is distinctive of this present day of wondrous grace is the blessed fact of the presence of the Holy Spirit here upon earth as a Divine person. He witnesses to us of the precious fruit of the sufferings and death of Christ, that we might walk the path of faith, rejoicing in hope of the day when we shall enter the eternal courts of glory. (See Heb. 3:6; 6:18-20; 10:23 J.N.D.)
The epistle to the Hebrews does not bring before us the truth of the "one body" as we have in Paul's epistle to the Ephesians (Eph. 3:1-8). Nor does it give us the truth of our possessing eternal life as children of God, as the Apostle John gives us. What is especially the subject of this epistle is the glory of the person of Christ, the excellence of His work upon the cross, and the perfection of the believer's standing as the result of it. This is the perfection or full growth of which the Apostle speaks in Hebrews 6:1. Dear Christian reader, we feel the blessedness of this truth, and desire that the Spirit of God would minister it to your soul. You are now perfected forever—uninterrupted continuance—set apart as having been cleansed (Heb. 10:14). The Apostle desired that these Hebrew believers would lay aside all the ritual of Judaism and rejoice in the perfection of the believer's standing as the fruit of the work of Christ.
We are told here not to lay again "the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith in God." On the great day of atonement, given to the children of Israel (Lev. 16:29-34), the whole congregation were to afflict their souls in repentance toward God, while an offering was to be made for their sins. This was repeated yearly, thus calling to remembrance their sins. Such works were NOW “dead works”–they were that for those who continued in them after Christ's one sacrifice for sins which is now finished "once for all" (Heb. 10:18). Confession of sins is now necessary for communion (1 John 1:9), but the believer's perfect standing is ever the same. The Old Testament was the voice of God to man, but now we must listen to the voice of the Son speaking from heaven, in order to enjoy by the Spirit the precious fruit of His work upon the cross. (See Heb. 1:1-4; 10:15, then read carefully Hebrews 12:25.) The voice of a glorified Christ speaking from heaven is so very precious and important. In the Old Testament they had faith in God, but now they must go on to what belonged to full growth and hear the Son speaking from heaven.
Next we have the laying aside of the doctrine of washings. This ceremony was well known to the Hebrews. We find it mentioned in Leviticus 16:23-26 in connection with the day of atonement for Israel. All these types and shadows of good things to come are now set aside (Heb. 10:1-3). The believer is now, and at all times, "clean every whit." His conscience does not charge him with guilt in the presence of God, for his standing before Him never changes. To ENJOY it we must judge every failure, but this is not the subject of the epistle to the Hebrews. We learn that when the Apostle is speaking of communion in 1 John 1:9.
Now we also have the "leaving" of the doctrine of "the imposition of hands." This we also find in Leviticus 16:20-22. You will note here that it was Aaron who laid both his hands on the head of the live goat, confessing over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins. How good to know that "our Aaron"—Christ our High Priest—who knew all our sins, has confessed and made them His own upon the cross. There is therefore no need of this ceremony any more, for the question of sin and guilt was forever settled at the cross. You hear people say, "Confess your sins and come to God." How can I? I have forgotten many of them, and there are times when we sin, and because of our dullness we do not realize that we have done so. God has now SETTLED it "once for all" according to His own perfect knowledge of our guilt at the cross. How precious!
Next we have the exhortation to "leave" the doctrine of "the resurrection OF the dead." "What," you say, "give that up!" Yes, we learn in Christianity the precious truth of the resurrection FROM AMONG the dead. In Philippians 3:11 a special Greek word is used meaning "the out resurrection." The first time you get this blessed truth from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ is in Mark 9:9, and the disciples questioned what it could mean. They did believe in the resurrection OF the dead (John 11:24; Acts 23:6-8), but the resurrection FROM the dead was something new. The Lord intimated this in His word to Martha (John 11:26). Then in John 14:1-3 the Lord refers to His coming for His own. The first revelation of the manner of this coming is in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. Paul received this, as he tells us there, from the Lord. The resurrection FROM AMONG the dead is clearly taught in Luke 14:14 where it is called "the resurrection of the just," also in Luke 20:35 where some are spoken of as "worthy to obtain that world." In John 5:29 the Lord again separates the two resurrections, as Paul does in Acts 24:15. John tells us that they are at least a thousand years apart (Rev. 20:5). The voice of a glorified Savior assures us of his coming to deliver us from the coming wrath upon this world (1 Thess. 1:9-10). These Hebrew believers are thus exhorted to "leave" the doctrine of the resurrection OF the dead because they would, if they passed through death, have part in the resurrection FROM AMONG the dead. Oh that the blessed hope of His coming might be our daily hope. That moment is near! It is because of this, that intelligent Christians do not use the so-called "commital service" at funerals. Since we expect the Lord to come at any moment, we cannot deny our hope by saying that the body will return to dust and ashes. If the Lord should come today, the bodies of believers who had just died would never return to dust, but would rise FROM AMONG the dead and be changed immediately into the likeness of Christ (1 Cor. 15:52-57).
Next we are exhorted to "leave" the doctrine of eternal judgment. In the ritual of Judaism there was no abiding sense of the forgiveness of sins, nor the assurance of eternal salvation. They feared death, but for us the fear of death is gone (Heb. 2:14-15). "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1). Hebrews 9:27-28 tells us "after death the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Oh may the reader be of that company who know that for them judgment is past. The question of our sins is forever settled (Heb. 10:17). His coming is for our salvation, to deliver us from the whole scene of our pilgrimage, and bring us to that better inheritance—the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 10:34; 12:22). Although there is eternal judgment for those who reject Christ, we who are saved can sing,
"Death and judgment are BEHIND us
Grace and glory are before
All the billows rolled o'er Jesus
There they spent their utmost power."
"This will we do if God permit." What an important word for our souls. The Hebrew Christian must not hesitate, for when God by His Spirit wrought in his soul he was called to act, and not to remain in the system that God was about to judge. Let us, too, ever act in the obedience of faith, lest the exercise of soul through which His grace passes us should weaken in power, and then we settle down into that which His Word has shown us we ought to give up.
This brings us to verse 4 of our chapter where we are told that it is impossible to renew again to repentance, those who were once enlightened, but had turned their backs upon Christ. This brings before us an ever-enlarging group who have been enlightened by the Word of God—professing Christians who have never been tested as to their faith in Christ. They may have received the Word with joy, without the conscience being reached, but they have no root in themselves (Matt. 13:20-21). They have tasted the heavenly gift—the sweetness of the gospel has attracted them but the Lord tells us that "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? and in Thy Name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them. I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity" (Matt. 7:21-23). Such might be "partakers of the Holy Ghost," as Balaam and Saul in the Old Testament, and Caiaphas in the New Testament, and yet be unsaved men. They "tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come (the millennial age.)" Many had been healed—all will be healed in the millennium (Psa. 103:3)—yet unless there was true repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, they might have all the OUTWARD blessings of Christianity and perish. The epistle to the Hebrews calls upon all who had accepted Christ to leave the old Jewish forms and come outside the whole system unto Christ (Heb. 13:13). Those who willfully remained in the system after having all these outward blessings, coupled with the profession of having once received Christ, were apostates, and by their refusal to leave Judaism they were exposed to the coming wrath upon that nation. Willful sin in Hebrews chapters 6 and 10 is this outward profession without the faith that accepted the reproach of Christ. There was no fruit for God, only thorns and briers.
Next we have, from verse 9 on, the Apostle comforted concerning those who bore fruit through faith and patience. God would not be unrighteous to forget such. The remaining verses of the chapter are strong in the assurance of obtaining the heavenly home into which Christ the forerunner is already entered. We have the word and oath of God, who swear by Himself, that by these "two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us." As surely as the Forerunner has entered, so shall we, and therefore we are exhorted to "hold fast the confession of the hope unwavering (for He is faithful who has promised)" (Heb. 10:23 J.N.D.).
To this sure and blessed hope is added the priesthood of Christ, after the order of Melchisedec (Heb. 6:20). How exceedingly precious is this gospel of the grace of God! It puts the sinner who believes in the person and work of Christ, into such a perfect standing before God that he can draw near into the very "holiest of all" with holy boldness (Heb. 10:19). Then too, we know that the One who did this glorious work by which God has been perfectly glorified and sin forever gone, is now at the right hand of God, ever living to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25). May we rejoice, and always give the fruit of our lips in thankful praise, while seeking at the throne of grace the needed mercy and grace to help us to walk in the present good of this "so great salvation." May every temptation and trial find our hearts turning to our great High Priest for the needed help to walk in joyfulness of spirit, while we wait His coming to complete our salvation (Heb. 10:37)—H. E. Hayhoe.