“Faith,” says Hebrews’ author, “is a confidence of things hoped for, a conviction regarding matters not seen” (He­brews 11:1). Every believer in Yeshua, since the moment He ascended out of sight, has relied heavily on this invisible future of hope. We’ve taken God at His word on promises we’re still waiting for. We’ve counted as proof things we can’t see; trusted in guarantees with no tangible evidence at all. It is a faith so fundamental to following and walking after the Messiah that, without it, we have nothing. Could you, then, keep holding on to this kind of faith, knowing you might never receive the promise?
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For all its divine design, the Torah’s sacrificial system nevertheless has an inherent flaw: the people. Men “encompassed with weakness” (Heb. 5:2) could make no one permanently perfect through such a limited priestly service. Even with daily and endless sacrifices, it ultimately proved “impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Heb. 10:4). Each sacrifice merely served as a constant reminder to both God and His people of a stain that could never be fully cleansed. It is against this reality that the author of Hebrews reveals the decisive means through which God could finally forget the one thing we need Him to never remember.
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Pick up any Christian translation of the Bible, and you will find Hebrews 8:7 making a very strange claim: “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second” (nas). Since we know that the term “first covenant” is, in fact, referring to the Torah of Moses (Hebrews 9:16), it is then concluded that Hebrews 8:7 must be teaching us that God’s Torah—what Scripture itself calls “perfect” (James 1:25, Psalm 19:7)—is actually defective. And if the passage says that the Torah is not “faultless,” then this would naturally lead to it becoming old, obsolete, and near disappearing (Hebrews 8:13). It is a very strange claim to make—that a covenant of God is faulty—because not only is it absurd, but it is not what the Scriptures say.
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Can a true believer in Yeshua lose their salvation? Or, put another way, once we are saved, are we always saved? It is a contentious, controversial, and loaded question, the answer to which affects not only our sense of eternal security, but also the daily decisions we make as followers of Messiah. Fortunately, one of the most important underlying themes running throughout the book of Hebrews provides us an explanation. Unfortunately, many find the author’s answer difficult to swallow.
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Nearly every translation of Hebrews 4:12 tells us that, “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (esv). The phrase “the word of God” is widely understood to be referring here to the written word of God—the Scriptures. Therefore, the author is providing commentary on the living, powerful nature of that word. This is what is universally taught… and yet, it is totally wrong. Though the Bible is indeed God’s awesome, powerful, written word, the author of Hebrews is actually teaching us about something completely different.
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