Eoghan
Puritan Board Senior
I have always read this as an exhortation to shun all sins yet reading it I am struck by the singular in verse 1. Surely this should be in the plural if sins in general were intended?
The striving against sin that has not yet shed blood of verse 4 suggests that there is this potential. Yet can you name any personal sin that leads to bloodshed?
I am inclined to see this particular sin embodied in the civil and religious authorities that were persecuting the church.
The danger to be shunned in verse 1 then becomes turning back to Judaism that trusts in the levitical rituals rather than the Messiah.
Chapter 10 verse 26 speaks of those who go on sinning willfully - John McArthur puts this in the context of persisting in Judaism when the Messiah has come. In this sense THE question facing the Hebrew Christians was the choice between Christianity or Judaism without the Messiah Jesus.
So my question is how do we read verse 1?
---------- Post added at 03:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:19 AM ----------
'This may mean either the damning sin of unbelief or rather the darling sin of the Jews, an over-fondness for their own dispensation.'
Is Mathew Henry inclined to view a specific sin personified in the unbelieving Jews?
---------- Post added at 03:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:23 AM ----------
striving against sin; which is the principal antagonist the believer has, and is here particular pointed out: sin is here, by some, thought to be put for sinful men; or it may design the sin of those men, who solicited the saints to a defection from the truth; or the sin of apostasy itself; or that of unbelief; or rather indwelling sin, and the lusts of the flesh, which war against the soul. Now this is said, to sharpen and increase the saints resentment and indignation against it, as being their antagonist, with whom they strive and combat, and which is the cause of all the evils in the world, exposes to wrath to come, and separates from communion with God; and to encourage them to bear their sufferings patiently, since they are not without sin, as Christ was; and since their afflictions and sufferings are for the subduing of sin, and the increase of holiness.
John Gill seems to have some inkling likewise of what I speak.
The striving against sin that has not yet shed blood of verse 4 suggests that there is this potential. Yet can you name any personal sin that leads to bloodshed?
I am inclined to see this particular sin embodied in the civil and religious authorities that were persecuting the church.
The danger to be shunned in verse 1 then becomes turning back to Judaism that trusts in the levitical rituals rather than the Messiah.
Chapter 10 verse 26 speaks of those who go on sinning willfully - John McArthur puts this in the context of persisting in Judaism when the Messiah has come. In this sense THE question facing the Hebrew Christians was the choice between Christianity or Judaism without the Messiah Jesus.
So my question is how do we read verse 1?
---------- Post added at 03:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:19 AM ----------
'This may mean either the damning sin of unbelief or rather the darling sin of the Jews, an over-fondness for their own dispensation.'
Is Mathew Henry inclined to view a specific sin personified in the unbelieving Jews?
---------- Post added at 03:28 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:23 AM ----------
striving against sin; which is the principal antagonist the believer has, and is here particular pointed out: sin is here, by some, thought to be put for sinful men; or it may design the sin of those men, who solicited the saints to a defection from the truth; or the sin of apostasy itself; or that of unbelief; or rather indwelling sin, and the lusts of the flesh, which war against the soul. Now this is said, to sharpen and increase the saints resentment and indignation against it, as being their antagonist, with whom they strive and combat, and which is the cause of all the evils in the world, exposes to wrath to come, and separates from communion with God; and to encourage them to bear their sufferings patiently, since they are not without sin, as Christ was; and since their afflictions and sufferings are for the subduing of sin, and the increase of holiness.
John Gill seems to have some inkling likewise of what I speak.
