Articles
Three Indispensables
Vehicles come with lots of options. Many of them are luxuries: they add to the comfort or fun of driving, but they do nothing to make the vehicle more capable of getting you where you need to go. These days even the base models of most vehicles include numbers of things we could do without: carpeted floors, radios, etc. Some components, however, are absolutely essential. There is no way the vehicle can succeed without them. Engines and brakes are prime examples.
The author of Hebrews pointed out three things that are indispensable in religion. We cannot get to heaven without them.
Jesus’ Blood
“And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed by the shedding of blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (10:22). Not just any blood will do. The Law’s blood of bulls and goats sanctified for the cleansing of the flesh (10:13), but “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin” (10:4). Jesus, “not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (10:12). “How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (10:14). Jesus’ blood is indispensable.
Faith
“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (11:6). God conditions our salvation on faith. We must trust Him, His provisions, and His instructions. In Hebrews, as in the rest of the Bible, saving faith is obedient faith. “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going” (11:8). We do not have to fully understand, but we do have to fully trust. Faith is indispensable.
Sanctification
“Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord” (12:14). To sanctify is to set apart. The Bible uses the word sanctification both of the state of being set apart to God and of conduct appropriate to that state. “For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4). Like Jesus’ blood and faith, sanctification or right conduct is indispensable. All three are essential in our daily walk with God now and in being with Him in eternity.
