95. Hebrews 8-13 (Thru the Bible #52)

Hebrews 8-13 (Thru the Bible #52) J. Vernon McGee. 1978. 168 pages. [Source: Bought]

First sentence: The Epistle to the Hebrews is of such importance that I rank it beside the Epistle to the Romans (which is excelled by no other book).

I am reading the Bible in 2020 using the daily M'Cheyne (Robert Murray M'Cheyne) plan. I thought it would add a layer of substance to in addition to the four chapters a day, to also read commentaries for those chapters. For that I am using Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible. But the plan goes through the New Testament (and Psalms, I believe) twice. So now that I've finished Henry's commentary for the New Testament, I am tackling the New Testament commentary section of J. Vernon McGee's series.

This is not my first time reading J. Vernon McGee. I've read probably twenty or so of his commentaries. Most recently Psalm 42-89. 

When I started reading Hebrews, I didn't realize that it would be split into two commentaries instead of one! So I didn't make a note of individual chapters. So there's a small chance that the quotes will go beyond chapter 7 of Hebrews--though I *think* I might be familiar enough with chapter 7 to recognize the transition.

ETA: I was NOT able to after all! I imagine that it's a blurry mess between separating what is in the two separate commentaries of Hebrews. But long story short, read BOTH commentaries yourself. 

I really am LOVING McGee. This has been the best idea--to correspond my Bible reading with commentary reading.

Quotes: 

• Our dogmatism comes from this Book. That is the reason the writer to the Hebrews said in Hebrews 10:39, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” There are only two ways to go. Either you are going backwards, or you are going to go forwards.
• You can believe a whole lot of foolish things, but God doesn’t want you to do that. He wants your faith to rest upon the Word of God.
• If you learn to trust God when the sun is shining, it is easier to trust Him on the day when there are dark and lowering clouds in the sky and you are in one of life’s storms.
• My friend, I say this very candidly, the most important thing you can do is to witness to your own family—not by everlastingly giving them the gospel, but by living it before them and letting them see that you have a reality in your life.
• Walking by faith will cause all of us to recognize that as children of God we are just pilgrims and strangers down here on this earth.
• Faith looks out yonder to the future. And the child of God today is looking to the future.
• I would say that one of the greatest dangers in the Christian life is the peril of just remaining stationary, of doing nothing.
• When someone becomes lost in the extreme cold of the far north there is grave danger of freezing to death. The first step in that process is to fall asleep. You have to fight sleep, and you must keep moving or you will freeze to death. In a spiritual sense, the danger is the same for us as believers. We have to force ourselves to stay awake and keep moving forward in our relationship with Christ. Otherwise we will just fall asleep.
• Christ is the way to God, and along the way the Christian as a soldier is to stand firm, as a believer is to walk, but as an athlete, he is to run the race.
• We also hear people say, “Give your heart to Jesus.” Well, my friend, what do you think He wants with that dirty, old heart? Read the list of things He said come out of the heart (see Matt. 15:19). They are the dirtiest things that I know. He didn’t ask you to give your heart to Him. He says, “I want to give you a new heart and a new life.”
• We need today the conviction of sin, to know that we are sinners. We have made salvation a very jolly affair. An evangelistic crusade today is just too ducky; it’s so sweet, and it’s so lovely. I don’t see people come weeping under conviction of sin.
• Don’t think you can play fast and loose with God and get by with it.
• “Brotherly love” should be translated as brother love. The writer of this epistle is writing primarily to Hebrews, but what he has to say has application to us. Both Jew and Gentile have been brought into one body, the body of believers. The cement, the Elmer’s glue, that holds us together is brother love—not brotherly love, but brother love. We are not to love like brothers, but we are to love because we are brothers.
• When He has given us new hearts and washed us white as snow, we are brothers, we are in the family of God, and we are to love one another.
• “Jesus Christ.” There is no accident in the Word of God; that is, no word is ever used carelessly. Jesus is the name which links Him with mankind. It identifies Him as the most wonderful person in this world. Christ is a title which speaks of His messianic mission to this earth—He is God manifest in the flesh. “Jesus Christ”—how marvelously these two are meshed together here. He is Jesus Christ, and He is the same.
• Jesus Christ is the same, but we need to understand how He is the same. He is the same in His character, in His person, and in His attributes, but He is not the same in place or in performance.
• Right now He is up yonder, but some day He will come as the King to the earth to establish His kingdom. He has not yet called His church out of the world, but some day He will do that. You see, Jesus is not the same in place and performance, but He is the same in His attributes.
• Today, your sorrow is His sorrow, and your joy is His joy.
• In everything but our sins, and our evil natures, He is one with us. He grew in stature and in grace. He labored, and wept, and prayed, and loved. He was tempted in all points as we are—sin apart.
• Today my one ambition is to know Him and to get out His Word—I cannot think of anything better to do.
• Nothing in the world is going to build you up but the Word of God. The Word of God will build you up if it brings you to the person of Christ, and only the Holy Spirit can take the things of Christ and make them real unto you.
• For years while I was in the ministry I heard it said: “Come to the banquet. We are going to have some marvelous Christian fellowship.” No, you’re not, my friend. You are just going there for a good time and to fill your little tummy. The only place you can have real Christian fellowship (koinōnia) is around the Word of God. It is the Word of God which brings you to the person of Christ and enables you to see Him in all His glory.
• When Christ died it was for the fact that you and I are sinners. Not only do we commit sin, we are sinners by nature, and He took our sins on Himself that He might give us a new nature.
• Many people today are wrapped up in “churchianity,” thinking that because they are members of a church they are saved. They need to get away from ritual and religion and come to Christ.

© Becky Laney of Operation Actually Read Bible