Chapter 6

In chapter six we deal with the subject of reversion recovery, and the principle of reversion recovery is given in the first six verses. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first six verses deal with the principle of reversion recovery and verses seven through twenty deal with the illustrations of reversion recovery. As we begin in verse one we notice the principle of GAP in reversion recovery — verses 1,2.

We begin with an inferential conjunction dio which means either “therefore”, “for this reason”, or “because of.” Because the recipients of this epistle are in reversionism, because the time is short, because of the angelic conflict and its strategic victory and therefore tactical implications, and because the recipients of this epistle must recover from reversionism as quickly as possible, a command is given which sets up the principle for reversion recovery. “Therefore leaving” is the beginning of a command. The aorist active participle from a)fihmi means several things. It means to leave behind, to depart, to depart from in the sense of graduation here. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasises the results. The action of the verb in its entirety is GAPing it through Bible doctrine so that one graduates from basic doctrine. Being an aorist participle it should be translated “having graduated.” The active voice: a recovery from reversionism produces the action of the verb and the recoveror is relearning basic doctrine pertaining to Christ. The participle has antecedent action relative to the main verb. The main verb is “let us go on” or “let us advance.”

“the principles” — the word “principles” is a descriptive genitive singular from the noun a)rkh, which generally means “in the beginning.” A)rxh has other related meanings, one of them being “elementary”, and that is the use here in the sense of elementary doctrine, basic doctrine. Note, however, that this is not the object of the participle. The true object of the participle is given in this fashion in the accusative form of ton logon. This is “the doctrine” or “the word” and it is in the accusative case. Every major translator has failed to translate this phrase correctly and yet it is simple. Dio a)fentej is how it begins — “Therefore having graduated.” That is the form of the aorist active participle of a)fihmi. Then the very next thing that we have is a definite article in the accusative, ton. But with that definite article the noun is not next to it. After ton we have thj a)rxhj tou Xristou, which is genitive, but ton is accusative. So obviously the object of the participle must be in the accusative. So you have thj a)rhj tou Xristou, descriptive genitive, which means “the elementary of the Christ” .Now, “having graduated from” and the object of this particular preposition is not “the elementary of the Christ,” the object comes next in the sentence — logon, which goes with ton. “Therefore having graduated”, aorist active participle, “from the.” You know “the” comes next because it is in the accusative, but thj a)rxhj tou Xristou is genitive, and then comes the accusative, “the logon” or “the doctrine” .So we have, “Therefore having graduated from the doctrine.” What doctrine? The elementary doctrine necessary for reversion recovery. The object of the preposition is “the doctrine” — ton logon. Then we have what kind of doctrine: genitives of description, four of them; thj, the genitive article, it goes with a)rxhj — “the elementary”; tou Xristou — “of the Christ.” Those are all descriptive genitives to tell us that not all basic doctrine is involved but only basic doctrine in the field of Christology. Corrected translation so far: “Therefore having graduated from the elementary [doctrine] of the Christ.” The descriptive genitive is put in the genitive for a reason: to show you that when you have six items coming up this is the title of the item. Thj a)xhj tou Xristou is the formal title of the list, or it is the descriptive title of the list. Those six items all relate to the elementary doctrines pertaining to the Lord Jesus Christ. It isn’t the list but it describes the list. The elementary doctrines of Christ include other things — the incarnation, the hypostatic union, the King-priest, the sacrifice of Himself on the cross, the perpetuation of His priesthood through resurrection, ascension and session, the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, our relationship to the strategic victory through the baptism of the Spirit and the subsequent positional truth. All of these things will be developed along the way but you have to have some basic things on which to start.

First of all we have a command. It is in the present middle subjunctive form and it is translated “let us go on,” and that is not correct: ferw means to bear or to carry. It means to bear down, and eventually because it means that, it means to advance. It doesn’t mean to go on, it means to advance. The present tense is a tendential present, it is used of an action which is purposed or intended where it is not actually taking place. That means that they are not bearing down, they are not advancing, they are retreating. So the present tense is used in the Greek to represent the idea of what is intended by the command in the subjunctive mood. Advance is what they are not doing but should be doing. The middle voice describes the subject as participating in the action of the verb. But the subject isn’t participating because it is in the tendential present, and therefore the tendential present plus the subjunctive means that this is a command, this is what you should be doing. The subject acts with a view toward participating in the outcome of the verbs action. In this case the believers should learn basic doctrine and therefore participate in the advance toward supergrace. So this is what is called a direct middle, it refers the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexing force and therefore it should be translated, “let us advance ourselves” .If this was an indirect middle it would be “let us ourselves advance.”

Question: How do you advance yourself? You advance yourself by relearning basic doctrine specified in context, or any basic doctrine you need to relearn in recovering from your own brand of reversionism. Remember here we are dealing with legalistic reversionism. There are many categories of reversionism, all of them require learning some phase of basic doctrine. The subjunctive mood is a hortatory subjunctive in which the writer commands to reader to join him in a course if action — advancing toward supergrace where the normal function of the priesthood exists.

Next we have a prepositional phrase: “unto perfection.” We have a preposition e)pi plus the accusative of teleoiothj, which means maturity. E)pi can mean three different things as a preposition. Here we have e)pi plus the accusative of teleotihj, and this means one thing. It emphasises motion or direction. But e)pi plus the genitive means “on” or “before”, because e)pi plus the genitive emphasises contact. The Holy Spirit does not use the genitive here because there is no contact with supergrace — not yet. Then we have e)pi plus the locative which means “over”, “before, or “at”, and emphasises position. The position of these people is not in supergrace, therefore no e)pi plus the locative. We have e)pi plus the accusative which means toward, up to, over to. It emphasises direction and is the concept here. So we can translate this, “let us advance our selves on to maturity.” Maturity here refers to the supergrace life, the normal place for the function of the royal priesthood. The royal priesthood is associated with royal living, royal wealth, royal promotion, royal success, and royal blessing.

That brings us to the great contrast. We have at this point before these people reversionism versus supergrace, the ultimate issue in the Christian life.

The doctrine of the supergrace life

1. Supergrace is a term that represents maturity, the final stage of growth beyond the ECS, as the objective of the Christian life.

2. Since this objective is strictly a grace action, and since it is the human volition involved in the grace action, it is distinguished from the grace by which you live, the grace that keeps you alive. It is so distinguished in James 4:6 where we have grace preceded by the word meizwn which means “greater” grace, and greater grace is simply, in modern English, supergrace. There are, therefore, four categories of grace involved in the plan for the believer: a) Salvation or phase one grace. This is everything that God planned, everything that Christ did on the cross, everything that the Holy Spirit revealed. This is the sum total of the work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit by which each one of us is saved. This type of grace does involved volition and positive volition is non-meritorious, therefore “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” b) Living grace or phase two grace. No volition is involved. Whether we like it or not we are kept alive on this earth and the means by which we are kept alive in the angelic conflict is strictly divine provision. It may include everything from food, shelter and clothing to keeping a battalion of demons of your back at some given time, protecting you in many ways and assigning to you a personal angel valet to protect you and keep you on this earth as a part of God’s will for your life. c) Super or greater grace. Supergrace involves volition and positive volition is now expressed in a non-meritorious way toward doctrine, the written Word. d) Surpassing grace. This is phase three grace and no volition is involved, the angelic conflict is over. Supergrace, then, is one of the categories of grace involved in the life of every believer. It is the one category of grace that most believers have chosen to omit. This category of grace is the one that the fewest believers in heaven can say that they possessed on earth. It is the one category of grace where the believer is involved in tactical victory. The first category of grace, salvation grace, is strategic victory. The second, and as a result of that, is where God keeps us alive in phase two. Tactical victory is supergrace. Ultimate victory is surpassing grace — Ephesians 2:5.

The principle of supergrace is very important because in this generation at least probably one per cent of all Christians will know anything about supergrace, they will never reach it; yet it is the only way in which you and I as believers can glorify God. The reason that believers will not reach it is because they have a lousy, no-good attitude toward Bible doctrine, or they do not have the guts to take it in every day, they always have something else to do. These gutless wonders never know what it is all about and they are suckers for everything that comes along.

3. The supergrace life is characterised by the cup that runs over — Psalm 23:5. The cup is supergrace capacity. The cup refers to an invisible cup in the soul, a cup which can only exist through doctrine. This cup is made up of doctrine in the human spirit, doctrine in the right lobe, doctrine in the ECS. The ECS is the thing that holds everything up — like the stem on a wine glass — and that puts it all together, provides storage space for capacity. So that stem is important. Bible doctrine in your soul is supergrace capacity. Before you finally reach supergrace, and the stem is completed which is occupation with the person of Christ, occupation with Christ is the key to enjoying what God the Father pours into your cup. The objective of supergrace is to reach this capacity so that the supergrace blessings which were stored for you in eternity past can be poured. And these supergrace blessings run in all varieties of things related even to human happiness. Money, for example, success, promotion, prosperity, are the way that God pours. Why does God have to do it that way? Because, firstly, occupation with Christ gives you the blessing of realising the source. Secondly, supergrace capacity or doctrine gives you the soul ability to enjoy every materialistic thing in life, and to do it under the devil’s nose in the devil’s world when the whole system of the cosmos is designed to lure people into its trap in order to provide cosmic blessing. And when God can pour for you He is glorified. He is the host. The ECS holds up the cup, and when the stem snaps the cup tilts and the contents depart. So the characteristics of the supergrace life are: a) Occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, maximum category #1 love and happiness. This is related to the living Word. b) Supergrace capacity based upon doctrine. This is related to the written Word. c) The royal priesthood demands royal living, and that is what is poured.

4. The distinction of grace. Supergrace is distinguished from other forms of grace. Supergrace is that type of grace which is classified verbally by James 4:6 — Greater grace. Grace is God’s eternal provision apart from human volition.

5. The analogy of grace. Supergrace is analogous to God resting on the seventh day of restoration — Hebrews 4:3, 10.

6. The love problem. God loves every believer with maximum love. God loves you. He found a way to love you without compromising His character. The doctrine is called propitiation. The believer’s love response is something else, and that is where the problem is. The supergrace believer loves God as per Romans 8:28 and 1 John 4:19. He has the capacity to love God, that is a part of the stem or the ECS. God’s love for the supergrace believer, therefore, is expressed in blessing. But God has to express His love for the reversionist in another way — Hebrews 12:6, “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” The supergrace believer loves God because he has the capacity; the reversionistic believer does not love God and does not have the capacity to respond to God’s love.

7. The key to the supergrace life begins with a happiness spectrum. The supergrace life is the place of maximum God-given happiness — Philippians 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:16. This happiness is acquired through the intake of doctrine — 1 John 1:4. The same doctrine which provides +H produces supergrace happiness.

8. The celebrityship of Christ. The supergrace believer has maximum love and appreciation of Jesus Christ. He is a royal priest with a maximum love of the King high priest — Lamentations 3:22-25; Hebrews 12:2; Colossians 3:1,2. The celebrityship of Christ is tested in your life by the communion table. The communion is a ritual and the test of your love for Jesus Christ, or your love response, is always brought in focus by the communion.

9. The capacity factor is very important. The supergrace believer has capacity in the following categories: Freedom — Galatians 5:1; James 1:25-2:12; Romans 8:21; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Capacity for life — 1 Samuel 17:47; 18:5, 14, 30; Capacity for love: Category #1 — Deut. 6:6; 30:20; Joshua 23:10,11; Category #2 love — Song of Solomon 8:6,7; Category #3 love — 2 Samuel 1:26; Happiness — Psalm 9:1,2; 21:1; 31:7; 43:4; 97:12; John 17:13; 1 John 1:4; Suffering — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.

10. The availability of supergrace is glamorised even in Isaiah 30:18 where Jesus Christ under the anthropomorphism of tapping His foot is waiting to give you these blessings. He has stored them up for you in eternity past and He is waiting to give them to you now.

11. The promotion of supergrace is the subject of Psalm 84. The illustration is found in 1 Samuel 17.

Verse 1 — “Therefore having graduated from the elementary doctrine of the Christ” — the incarnation, the hypostatic union, the King-priest, the sacrifice of Himself on the cross, the perpetuation of His priesthood in resurrection, ascension and session, the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, our relation to the strategic victory through the baptism of the Spirit and subsequent positional truth, and many other classified areas of Christology and soteriology — “let us bear down [press on, advance] to maturity.”

This advance is toward the tactical victory of the angelic conflict and is being held up by the reversionism of the people to whom this passage is being addressed — “not laying again the foundation.”

“not laying again” — present middle participle of kataballw. Kata here means “down”; ballw means to “lay.” It means to lay down a foundation. However, it has a negative with it and therefore it changes its meaning. The tense is present tense, it is called an iterative present which describes what occurs at successive intervals. The laying of the foundation of basic doctrine has occurred before and must now occur again. They must repeat, they must relearn what they have once learned before but have lost through reversionism. This time it must be the last time. That is what the negative mh means, it is a subjective negative and it means “this is your last crack at it and you’d better learn it this time and stay with it or you’re through”, the reason being the condition of history at the time of writing. Then we have an adverb, palin again. The word means the idea of returning or turning back to repeat a course of action, and the reversion recovery demands that they turn around and repeat a previous course of action; that is, they must relearn the basic doctrines, especially certain ones to help them to understand what is coming up in this book.

“the foundation” — the accusative singular from qemelioj which refers to the basic doctrines of Christology which are necessary to understand this epistle. It does not mean all of the doctrines, but certain doctrines must be understood of they are going to understand the royal priesthood and how it differentiates from the previous Levitical priesthood. They must be very clear on which they find themselves. They are in the royal priesthood, not the Levitical priesthood. So they must learn a foundation. No one can understand the royal priesthood apart from mastering certain basic doctrines first. Now follows a list of six items which are absolutely necessary to understand chapters seven, eight, nine, and ten.

“repentance” is the genitive singular of metanoia, and this particular word is a descriptive genitive. It means a change of mind, a change of mind with regard to “dead works”, the preposition a)po plus the ablative of nekroj, the ablative of e)rgon, which means “away from dead works.” E)rgon means production, nekroj means dead, and it should be translated “of a change of mind away from dead works.”

The doctrine of repentance

1. The word for repent used in the Old Testament is nacham. It is generally used in the Old Testament for God, God is the subject. So obviously it doesn’t mean to feel sorry for sin. When God is the subject it is an anthropopathism and it means that God changes His policy from time to time and this anthropopathism is used to indicate a change of policy. In Genesis 6:6 God changed His policy about man; Exodus 32:14; Judges 2:18; 1 Samuel 15:35; Psalm 90:13; Jeremiah 15:6; 42:10; Amos 7:3, 6.

2. Since God is immutable, therefore unchangeable, these expressions — such as God repents — are anthropopathisms. They are designed to explain changes in policy, divine acts of discipline, in terms of human attitudes or expressions. This is what we call, therefore, language of accommodation: ascribing to God a characteristic He doesn’t have to accommodate us so we can understand.

3. We have a Greek verb, metanoew which is translated “repent.” Meta means “change; noew means thinking. It means to change your mind about something. Metanoew, when the subject is man, means a change of mental attitude with limited ability to follow through. When God is the subject in the New Testament metanoew means a change of policy with total ability to follow through. We also have an emotional verb which is translated “repent” — metamelomai, which means to feel sorry for something you’ve done. In other words, this verb has emotional connotations. It should be translated correctly, “regret.” It is often translated “repent” but repent does not mean to regret and regret does not mean to repent.

4. Metanoew and nacham are both transitive verbs, they must have a subject and must have an object. The subject changes its mind about the object.

5. Metanoew and its cognate is used in salvation. In each case we have a subject and an object of the verb metanoew. In salvation the subject is always the unbeliever, the object is always God. In each case the unbeliever is the subject and the object is Jesus Christ as a member of the Godhead. In a few cases God the Father is the object as the author of the divine plan of grace. Because He is the author of the divine plan some of the passages talk about repentance toward God. Others talk about repentance toward Christ. Actually they are synonymous terms. A change of mental attitude does not save but it is immediately followed by believing in Christ. You change your mental attitude before you believe, you are persuaded before you believe and then you believe in Christ. So repentance and faith are not the same. Faith is necessary for salvation; repentance sets you up for it. Repentance causes you to change your mind so that from your own free will you are willing to make a decision. Cf. Mark 1:15; Matthew 12:41; Luke 13:3, 5; 15:7, 10. The unbeliever does not repent toward sin, he repents toward God — God’s message, the Gospel. We also have Luke 16:30,31; Acts 17:30; 20:21; 26:20; Hebrews 12:17; 2 Peter 3:9.

6. Salvation repentance is defined as a change of attitude toward God, toward Jesus Christ, prior to faith in Jesus Christ. This change of mental attitude is wrought by God the Holy Spirit. This is the illuminating work of the Spirit, based upon 1 Corinthians 2:14 — the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God, etc. The Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit in the perception of the Gospel — Psalm 16:8-11; 2 Timothy 2:25.

7. The verb metanoew and the noun metanoia are also used in the Christian life. For example, in our passage a change of mental attitude toward human good — Hebrews 6:1. It is used as a change of attitude toward doctrine in reversionism — Revelation 2:5, 16, 22; 3:19; 2 Corinthians 12:21.

8. Metamelomai is translated “repent” but it should be translated “regret”, it connotes feeling sorry for something you have done, regretting some act or some thought or some function. There are four uses of metamelomai: regret of a previous action — Matthew 21:29; the regret of Judas Iscariot — Matthew 27:3, his regret was strictly emotional with no spiritual connotation; then we have God as the subject. God has no regrets regarding saving individuals and giving them spiritual gifts — Romans 11:29; the Father has no regrets regarding appointing Jesus Christ as a high priest — Hebrews 7:21.

9. Metanoia is used in Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:9,10; 2 Peter 3:9; Acts 20:21.

What are “dead works” ?

The doctrine of human good

1. Human good is dead to God’s plan. That is why in Hebrews 6:1 nekroj is used. God is not impressed with anything you do in the energy of the flesh.

2. Human good is not acceptable to human good at any time — Isaiah 64:6.

3. Therefore human good has no place in the plan of God — 2 Timothy 1:9.

4. However, when you classify human good you have to be very careful not to step on morality’s toes. We must distinguish between human good and morality because morality is legitimate in God’s plan and human good is not legitimate in God’s plan — Romans 13:4,5. Morality is a part of the function of the laws of establishment and is necessary for the perpetuation and proper function of the human race under the angelic conflict.

5. Human good will not save mankind — Titus 3:5.

6. The believer’s human good is revealed and destroyed at the judgment seat of Christ. There will be no dirty clothes in heaven — 1 Corinthians 3:11-15. The bride is going to be dressed up in clean clothes and in a resurrection body minus the old sin nature we are not permitted to take along with us human good.

7. Human good is the basis for the unbeliever’s indictment at the last judgment — Revelation 20:12-15.

8. Human good can only produce human boasting — Ephesians 2:9; Romans 4:2.

“and of faith toward God”: “faith” is a descriptive genitive singular, pistij. It is used three ways when it is directed toward God. In phase one pistij Christ is the object of faith in salvation. Phase two pistij: the written Word is the object of faith in faith-rest. Along with that, pistij is used for what is believed, or doctrine, and this gives the believer capacity for faith toward God.

This is said to be “toward God” and it is a correct translation because it is e)pi plus the accusative, and with the accusative it is motion or direction — “toward God.” The absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun. The quality of the noun is the sum total of perfect. In essence God is perfect as well as eternal.

Hebrews 5:8 — the word “Though” is a compound conjunction, kaiper. Kaiper, when used with a participle means although and therefore kaiper is what is called a concessive conjunction admitting a point claimed in an argument or acquiescent to a point in an argument. It is recognised that Jesus Christ is eternal God even though in the previous verse we saw Him suffering as a man on the cross. Therefore “though” should be “although” as a concessive conjunction. Actually, a concessive conjunction came from the Attic Greeks where they used this as a part of debater’s technique. It is not so used in the Koine Greek, it is used to recognise a point and to bring it in and to introduce it relating here, of course to the celebrity ship of Jesus Christ. We are finding Jesus Christ is His humanity as a royal high priest. As a royal high priest he has to be a man, is a man, functions like a man, and has to learn certain things in the human race. And although it is admitted that Jesus Christ is eternal God, the sovereign and creator of the universe, in His humanity these things were true.

“he were” — present active participle from e)imi which means “being.” The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition which is assumed as perpetually existing, and the condition which is perpetually existing is the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is the God-Man, undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. The active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb as our royal high priest. Christ has to be resurrected to continue His priestly ministry and to perpetuated it forever as demanded by the divine decrees. The participle goes with kaiper, it is a concessive participle, it recognises the deity of Christ as a part of the hypostatic union but in this passage is going to deal with something His humanity had to learn — deity learns nothing, deity is omniscient.

“a Son” is a correct translation. We have the noun u(ioj without the definite article, which is the antithesis of the use of the definite article in the English language. The definite article in the English language adds emphasis to the quality of the noun; the definite article in the Greek merely defines the noun, but the absence of the definite article emphasises its quality. Therefore when you translate this literally you get “a Son” but it means a son in the sense of absolute deity. Jesus Christ is eternal God, always was, there never was a time when He wasn’t .He is coequal and coeternal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, having identical essence with them. it is conceded, then, from the Greek that Christ is eternal God.

“yet” — this is used to translate the concessive participle, and there is no “yet” in the Greek — “learned he”, aorist active indicative from the verb monqanw. Monqanw means to learn from someone as a teacher, to learn through instruction. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist. This signifies the action at its beginning though it regards the verbal idea, sees the action in its entirety. The ingressive aorist signifies the action at its beginning, a state or condition of obedience to authority is signified. It denotes entrance into a state or condition in order to learn obedience to authority. The key to everything in life, the key to victory in the angelic conflict, strategic and tactical involves self-discipline, recognition of authority, obedience to authority, and more self-discipline. You are free to use every form of self-discipline, every system of obedience to authority authorised by the Word of God. Monqanw means to learn the hard way under a system of absolute discipline, it means to learn by recognition of authority. The ingressive aorist means this recognition of Jesus Christ began at some point. He recognised the authority of His parents, He recognised the authority of Israel, He went into the temple when He was twelve to hear the Word of God by the Levitical priesthood, He recognised every system of authority in life. He was obedient to those authorities. The active voice: the humanity of Christ produces the action of the verb — learning obedience, learning discipline. The indicative mood is the reality of Christ’s orientation to the authority of the Father and the Father’s plan during the incarnation. “Although being a Son [deity], he [Christ] began to learn.”

“obedience” is the accusative singular from the noun u(pakoh. It connotes obedience to the authority of God the Father who is the author of the plan. He was obedient to the Father, His person, He was obedient to His plan [the Word of God]. This same principle applies in growing up. The pastor teacher is a person with a message, and in getting to supergrace there must be obedience to the person, there must be obedience to the message — recognition of the authority of both. U(pakoh is the quintessence of obedience.

Then it says, “by the things which he suffered.” “By the things” is the preposition a)po plus the ablative plural of the relative pronoun w(j — this means source, and it means “from the source of the things which he suffered.” In other words, there are certain principles in life, certain disciplines in life, certain concepts in life that you can only learn through suffering.

“suffered” is the aorist active indicative of pasxw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers up into one entirety the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ during the incarnation. Remember that the aorist tense can be very short of very long. In the case of the Lord Jesus Christ we know that this was approximately thirty-three years. This constative aorist gathers up into one ball of wax the sufferings of the incarnation that caused Jesus Christ to recognise the authority of the Father and acquiesce to His plan. The active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb, suffering during the incarnation, but suffering for a purpose: to learn from obedience, to learn discipline. The indicative mood is the reality of Christ’s suffering during the incarnation. This suffering became discipline to prepare Christ for the cross where He performed His priestly function of offering Himself. No suffering, no self-discipline; no obedience to authority. No obedience to authority; no salvation. The discipline from suffering caused Christ to say in Gethsemane, “Nevertheless not my will but thine be done” — Matthew 26:39. Suffering becomes a discipline, a system of training for absolute obedience in the time of crisis. The time of crisis for the Lord Jesus Christ was Gethsemane when He faced from His free will to go to the cross or not to go to the cross. In His deity He could easily have turned His back and said I will not go to the cross, but in His humanity He had learned obedience through suffering, and therefore was willing to go to the cross for you and for me.

Translation: “Although being a Son, he entered into learning obedience to authority from the things which he suffered.”

Chapter 6:2 — the third item which has to be laid in the foundation is now before us: “of the doctrine of baptisms.” The word for doctrine is the accusative singular of didaxh but it has no definite article. The noun is translated like a genitive, which is wrong because it is not a genitive. There is no definite article, so it is not “the doctrine,” and there is no genitive case, so it is not “of.” We have the accusative case. The absence of the definite article emphasises the qualitative aspect of the noun rather than its identity. Doctrine is the highest quality of anything in this life. Doctrine is more important than life itself. Doctrine in the soul is the basis of all nobility in our universal royal priesthood. So actually the verse begins “doctrine.” We have “doctrine of baptisms”, and now we have a genitive case. This is the descriptive genitive plural from the Greek word baptismoj. It means dipping, immersion, ablution, washing all over.

Item four is “laying on of hands.” The word “and” is really not “and”, it is the particle te (“and” would be kai or de) which means “as well as.” Te is used instead of kai for a reason here. Kai simply means next in the classification; te means this is related to baptisms. We have baptisms, and then comes laying on of hands, and te says these two are parallel classifications. Baptism represents identification; laying on of hands represents identification wherever it is used. So we have another classification, the fourth item in the foundation, and this one also refers to identification.

“laying on” is a descriptive genitive, e)piqesij. E)piqesij means the imposition of hands, the act of actually placing the hand on something, generally on the head. The word for “hands” is also genitive plural, xeir. This is also a subjective genitive in which the noun in the genitive actually produces the action. It signifies identification with the laying on of the hand, which is the action, therefore it is related as a subject to the verbal idea of the noun modified. This is translated, “as well as the laying on of hands.”

There are three types of identification expressed by the laying on of hands. a) Sacrifices as illustrated by Leviticus 1:4. Throughout the book of Leviticus you find the priest putting one hand on the head of the animal and the other on the offerer, and when the sins are mentioned they are transferred to the animal in principle. So it is identifying the sins of the guilty. b) The principle of blessing. In Acts 19:13 the laying on of hands results in blessing. Paul put his hand on people and they were healed — touching for blessing. That only lasted during the time of the apostles and no one can do it any more. c) The ordination for the ministry. When the representation of a church puts its hands on the head of a person they are saying that they recognise that the person has the gift of pastor-teacher — the principle of identification in the ordination ceremony.

These doctrines were ritualistic designed to portray the various ministries of Jesus Christ. They were designed to portray certain ministries on the cross — He was identified with our sins — the strategic victory of the angelic conflict and the relationship of every believer in the royal priesthood to this victory. These doctrines were designed to portray that and therefore it became imperative to learn or relearn these doctrines in that connection so the command “on to supergrace” could be fulfilled.

Verse 2 — “of resurrection”, a genitive singular from the noun a)nastasij. The singular of this noun is a specific reference to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His resurrection perpetuates His royal priesthood. As royalty Jesus Christ has to rule forever, therefore the necessity for His resurrection. God had already stated that Jesus Christ was going to be David’s son who would reign forever and ever. You cannot reign while you are physically dead, neither can you function as a priest. As a priest Jesus Christ must perpetuate His ministry. He has a ministry of intercession for every believer, therefore once again the necessity of His resurrection.

The doctrine of resurrection

1. Resurrection must be distinguished from resuscitation. In resuscitation a person is brought back from the dead into a body of corruption and will subsequently die again, e.g. Lazarus, but in resurrection a person is brought back from the dead never to die again, the believer is in a body of incorruption.

2. The resurrection is part of the Gospel — 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 12-17. The Gospel has certain limitations to it. Christ died for our sins is a part of the Gospel. Christ was buried and Christ rose again — resurrection. This is the Gospel. For example, note that the universality of sin, the condemnation of man under spiritual death, is not a part of the Gospel. These are all true facts but they are not under the classification of Gospel. Gospel means good news, and Gospel only deals with the solution to the sin problem, it does not deal with the doctrine of hamartiology as such. When it says Christ died four our sins that is spiritual death. man is a sinner by birth, a sinner by function of the old sin nature, and man is also spiritually dead. So there are doctrines in the field of hamartiology which relate to the Gospel. The Gospel deals with the field of soteriology and there is a vast different between hamartiology and soteriology. The first item of the Gospel is the Christ solved the sin problem. He did it as a priest. He offered Himself. The burial of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of those doctrines which is a part of the good news. The burial has to do only with His body, not His soul or spirit. The soul and spirit of Jesus Christ were not buried, but the body was buried because the body is the residence of the soul and Spirit of Jesus Christ in resurrection and because Jesus Christ must have a physical body to rule forever, to be a high priest forever, and to resolve the angelic conflict. The angelic conflict is resolved in the field of humanity, not in the field of angels and not in any other field. So His body was buried, and the burial of His body for three days was definite proof of His physical death. His physical death cuts of His priesthood, cuts of His dynasty, but “rose again” is also part of the Gospel and this perpetuates both His priesthood and His reign in the future. So the resurrection of Christ is a definite part of the Gospel.

3. Theophany and Christophany have the same suffix which is simply a Greek word for manifestation. A theophany is the appearance of Jesus Christ prior to the incarnation. He appeared as the angel of Jehovah, He appeared as a wrestler who wrestled with Jacob. Any time that there is a manifestation of Christ prior to the virgin birth is a theophany; a Christophany is a resurrection appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ — Mark 16:9-14; Luke 24:13-43; Acts 2:32.

4. The resurrection of Christ is a part of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — 1 Corinthians 15:20-25.

5. The resurrection is necessary for the perpetuation of the Davidic line — Romans 1:3,4; 2 Timothy 2:8.

6. The resurrection of Christ is the basis for the believer’s confidence in the future — 1 Peter 1:3-5, 21.

7. The resurrection of Christ indicates the completion of the ministry of justification — Romans 4:25.

8. Identification with Christ in His resurrection through the baptism of the Spirit is the motivator for tactical victory of the supergrace life — Romans 6:4. Therefore, tactical victory is the objective of the royal priesthood — 1 Corinthians 15:57,58. The heritage of the royal priesthood in life is supergrace status with supergrace blessings.

9. There are two general categories of resurrection found in scripture — “everyone in his own battalion” .The first resurrection is made up of Jesus Christ and believers only — Daniel 12:2; John 5:24-29; 1 Corinthians 15:20-24; Revelation 20:6, 13. The second resurrection is the unbeliever only — Matthew 25:41; 1 Corinthians 15:24; Revelation 20:5-15.

10. The first battalion of resurrection is Jesus Christ — Matthew 28; Mark 16:9-14; Luke 24:1-48; John chapter 20 & 21; Acts 2:31-34. There is quite an interval between the first and second battalions. The second battalion is the Church at the Rapture — John 14:1-3; 1 Corinthians 15:51-57; Philippians 3:20,21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 John 3:1,2. Then there will be a seven-year interval between the second battalion and the third which is made up of all the Old Testament saints plus the Tribulational martyrs — Daniel 12:13; Isaiah 26:19,20; Matthew 24:31; Revelation 20:4. Finally, the fourth battalion is made up of the Millennial saints.

“of the dead” is an ablative of source, an ablative plural from nekroj which should be translated “from the source of deaths” (plural). In other words, Christ rose from His own death but not from ours. Each one of us will rise from our own grave — “resurrection out from the source of deaths” because each person dies for himself.

Next we have the continuative use of the conjunction kai which is correctly translated “and” — “of eternal judgment.” The word “judgment” is a genitive singular from krima. Krima is a descriptive genitive, it describes the last judgment; “eternal” is also a descriptive genitive from a)iwnioj.

The doctrine of the last judgment

1. The human race is divided in time by his attitude toward Jesus Christ dying on the cross for his sins into two categories: unbeliever and believer. The unbeliever is the unsaved category; the believer in Jesus Christ is the saved category. John 3:36 is the verse which documents this division.

2. The unbeliever is under condemnation — John 3:18. The basis of his condemnation is his refusal to believe in Jesus Christ.

3. The unbeliever has two appointments — Hebrews 9:27, 28. It is appointed unto man once to die. Death is an appointment with God. After that there is another appointment, the unbeliever meets God again and it is called the last judgment. There is a second resurrection for a second judgment.

4. Therefore the unbeliever has resurrection — Revelation 20:11,12.

5. Once the unbeliever is resurrected he has an indictment — Revelation 20:12,13. His indictment is not sin. The sins of the unbeliever were judged on the cross. He has an area of strength that produces human good. Human good was rejected at the cross, therefore the unbeliever’s human good is recorded and brought up, and human good is the basis of indictment at the final judgment. Good deeds only will be mentioned at the final judgment. The unbeliever’s sins can’t be mentioned because they have already been judged on the cross. The basis of his indictment is works.

6. The unbeliever has a terrible future, Revelation 20:14, which is eternal separation from God.

7. The unbeliever’s condemnation, Revelation 20:15, is in the lake of fire which burns forever.

Translation of verse 2, “The doctrine of baptisms, as well as of laying on of hands, resurrection out from the source of deaths, and of eternal judgment.”

Verse 3 — “And”, the continuative use of the conjunction kai. Kai connects two major thoughts here and continues the concept. What has to be continued? Many of the believers in Jerusalem are reversionistic and being in reversionism they have just been challenged. Now they must recover from reversionism. But it takes GAP to recover, it takes a constant consistent faithfulness to the Word of God, listening to the teaching of the Word time and time again. Being in reversionism they have rejected the authority of their right pastor as well as his message and this makes it all the more difficult. Getting back into the saddle and studying and learning and growing and recovering is going to take some time. So “and” continues the thought relating it now to time.

“this” — the accusative neuter singular from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. This refers to graduating from the six basic doctrines and other basic doctrines of Christology related to soteriology, and therefore continuing again the advance toward supergrace maturity — “this” relearning of doctrine.

“we will do” — aorist active indicative of the verb poiew. Poiew in the aorist tense is an ingressive aorist in which the action of the verb is contemplated from its beginning. This use is commonly employed with verbs which signify a state or a condition and denote entrance into that state or condition. They have now decided to go back, so the entirety is recovery. So at this point we have the ingressive aorist of poiew and it is usually translated “and this we will begin to do” .It means to enter into the process of recovery. The active voice: the reversionist produces the action of the verb by entering into his recovery sphere. The recovery sphere is GAPing it to supergrace. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative, denoting a simple assertion. The indicative is the mood of certainty, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and therefore this person has made a real decision. But the aorist tense says he is just beginning.

“if” is a compound conditional conjunction, e)anper. E)an is the conditional conjunction which is actually used for a third class condition but the per added on makes it even stronger. The condition is based on the sovereignty of God in permitting the believer priest to live long enough to recover. So you have to recognise a principle: every time you go into reversionism the time gets shorter every time you revert. The shorter the time in this life the greater the degree of difficulty in recovery. In other words, you may not ever recover because you may not live that long. That is the point here — “if only”: the sovereignty of God is a factor in phase two. Whenever God wants to take us out we are going.

“God”, is literally “the God” — o( qeoj, referring to the sovereignty of God. God the Father is the author of the divine plan. He is the one who determines the length of time each one of us is going to live on this earth.

“permit” — the present active subjunctive from the verb e)pitrepw which means to allow, to permit, to order, or to give permission. To give permission is the meaning here — “if only the God gives permission.” The present tense of this verb is a static present used for a condition which perpetually exists. That is, God always determines how long each believer will remain in this life. Every day the believer is on earth is by divine permission. The active voice: the Father produces the action of the verb by permitting the believer to remain X amount of days on this earth as a gracious gift. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive, it goes with the third class condition. Divine permission to remain on this earth is potential. We don’t know whether we have another day or not, only God knows that, it is a matter of divine sovereignty. It takes a lot of time to learn doctrine. The believer will accomplish the tactical objective of supergrace status if God permits him to live long enough to do it. And that is what this verse is all about.

Translation: “And this we will begin to do if only the God gives permission.”

In verse one we have already seen the issue which is having graduated from basic doctrines, “not laying down again the foundation.” Then we have six representative items for the foundation: a) a change of mind away from dead works; b) faith toward God; c) doctrine of baptisms; d) laying on of hands; e) resurrection from the source of deaths; f) eternal judgment.

In verses 4-6 we have everything we need to know about hindrances to reversion recovery. By way of beginning verse four, notice several things. This paragraph cannot be understood apart from the grammatical principle of antecedent action related to the main verb. This paragraph, made up of verses 4-6, is really one sentence and it lays it on the line for all believers. The basic principle we must understand in grammar is antecedent action. Antecedent action is always relative to the main verb. We have to identify the main verb and then we have to identify everything that is antecedent to the main verb, everything that occurs before. The main verb is going to come first in the sentence — verse 4 — and everything that is stated in verses 4,5, and 6 is all antecedent to the main verb. The main verb becomes the issue in the Christian way of life as far as the royal priesthood is concerned and the function of the angelic conflict.

There are basically five aorist participles which precede the action of the main verb under the antecedent concept. These aorist participles all follow a very simple principle. First of all we have an aorist passive participle, then we have an aorist middle participle, and then an aorist passive participle, an aorist middle participle, and finally the aorist active participle where the believer does something on his own which is one hundred per cent wrong — a superficial pattern of life which requires neither thought no anything else, it is just an easy way to go. So the lifestyle of the reversionist is brought in by the fifth aorist participle.

The first participle is fwtizw which means to illuminate. This is the first contact that God the Holy Spirit has with you as an unbeliever, and these four participles are the sequence of grace. The second participle is geuomai which means to taste. The aorist passive participle is ginomai. Finally, we go back again to geuomai for representation of the supergrace life. These are the four participles of the sequence of grace: the illuminating ministry of God the Holy Spirit, salvation and the ministry of the Holy Spirit there. Then the ministry of the Holy Spirit after salvation and the partnership we have with Him in phase two. And then supergrace is the fourth one. These four participles actually form a logical sequence. Then the fifth one is an aorist active participle, the active voice making it stand out like a sore thumb — parapiptw. These five words are vitally important for us to understand.

The concept starts with the word “For” in verse 4. This is a conjunctive particle gar and it is used to introduce an explanation. This is a warning to wake up. You can be positive to doctrine and still not make it to supergrace.

The word “impossible” is the accusative singular from the adjective a)dunatoj. A)dunatoj in the accusative case becomes something interesting. Immediately, when you see the accusative case and you don’t see a verb on even the same line with it, then you have to say “Wait a minute.” The accusative is generally the direct object of the verb, but here it is not the direct object at all, it is the subject of an infinitive. This is called an accusative of general reference. An accusative of general reference simply looks like this. The accusative case, a noun or an adjective, is used as the subject of an infinitive. The infinitive here comes in verse 6. The accusative is used with the infinitive. It really is not the subject, we call it the subject to make it simple to understand but it isn’t the subject. Actually, the accusative of general reference is an accusative case used to describe the person connected with the infinitive or connected with the action of the infinitive.

“to renew them again” is a present infinitive, and the adjective “impossible” is the subject of that infinitive, or it describes the character of the person who is doing the action of the infinitive. To “renew again” means to restore again, and it merely means to restore from reversionism. So now we know what our sentence is all about: the impossibility of not recovering from reversionism. It is impossible to recover from reversionism under certain qualifying circumstances. Now immediately, when you hear that, you know something. To make an absolute dogmatic statement in the declarative mood — it is impossible to recover from reversionism — is wrong. This is what this sentence is saying, it is impossible to recover from reversionism. However, in this sentence which is very long, it gives certain qualifying aspects. It is impossible to recover from reversionism under certain conditions, i.e., lifestyle activity. You can have a lifestyle that makes it impossible to ever recover from reversionism. You can rebound to take the heat off occasionally, but rebound isn’t going to get you anywhere when you keep up a certain lifestyle. We now have the subject of one long sentence, verses 4-6. Subject: that qualifying lifestyle that makes it impossible to recover from reversionism, therefore impossible to go to supergrace, therefore impossible to ever be a normal believer. There are those believers who will never be anything but abnormal in the angelic conflict as long as they live because there is something in their lifestyle that keeps them from doctrine.

The main verb here: “impossible to renew.” Once again, the adjective a)dunatoj has two meanings. As an adjective it has an active meaning which is “powerless” or “impotent.” The passive meaning is “impossible.” It is the passive meaning which is important here. God the Holy Spirit says in effect “Look, if you would just stay with the passive voice you wouldn’t have any trouble.” It is when one gets active. We get an active voice in parapiptw. What do you have in the first four participles? Passive voice, middle voice, passive voice, middle voice. And that was when you were doing well and everything was fine. Then it was the active voice that blew it, the active voice is “falling away.” A)dunatoj has an active meaning. The active says you did something, you’re impotent spiritually, but in the passive voice it means you can recover from that spiritually. But the passive voice says impossible to recover so long as you follow a certain lifestyle. “Impossible to restore them again” with reference to the basic list, called repentance, is the accusative of general reference as well as the main verb.

To amplify the sentence, “for” is the first word in our translation — explanation. The next word is the subject of the infinitive, “impossible” rather than “impotent”, the passive meaning to go with the fact that if you don’t get back on a passive voice, the voice of grace, you are never going to make it.

Then the infinitive “to renew them” — these believers involved — “again”, a part of the verb — “to repentance.” Repentance is not repentance here. Repentance is the first item on the list of basic doctrines. We actually have in the accusative of general reference “impossible to restore them again”, not renew, to the basic list — impossible to relearn the six items while following a superficial modus operandi, a lifestyle that really laughs at grace or uses grace. Grace uses you, you don’t use grace.

Again, the accusative of general reference acts as the main verb, and the action of the five aorist participles precede the accusative of general reference which is the main verb so that the basic structure of this sentence: “for impossible to restore them again to repentance.” “Them” refers to the reversionists. “Repentance” is number one on the basic list. It is impossible to restore the basic list under certain conditions.

Summary

1. The action of the five aorist participles precedes the action of the main verb.

2. The main verb is the accusative of general reference made up of an adjective in the accusative case, “impossible”, plus the infinitive “to restore again”.

The adjective which is the subject of the accusative under the concept of accusative of general reference is in the emphatic position. This emphasises the total impossibility of advancing through learning doctrine and recovery from reversionism under the function of the now-obsolete Levitical priesthood.

3. The subject of the long sentence is bound up in the accusative plural of the definite article.

4. Verses 4-6 is one sentence.

The subject of the a sentence is preceded by the explanatory use of the particle gar to amplify a third class condition in the previous sentence — “if God gives permission.”

“for those” —

1. “For those” is the accusative plural of the definite article o(, also going with the accusative of general reference. It refers to legalistic reversionism practised in Jerusalem under the lifestyle of offering sacrifices in the temple.

2. This is the use of the article to denote individuals under a specific classification. A lot of them existed in Jerusalem in 67 AD — legalistic reversionists.

3. The accusative of general reference of which the article is a part is the usage of the case in the definite article. The accusative is used as the subject of the infinitive. Or better, the accusative of general reference is used to describe the person or persons connected with the action of the infinitive. That is very important. The accusative of general reference describes the people involved in the action of the infinitive. So not all reversionists are included in this, only those reversionists who make it a lifestyle to enter the temple and offer sacrifices and observing all of the other Jewish activities in the temple are involved. The definite article does not say that all reversionists can’t recover because of their life, it says all reversionists involved in a specific type of lifestyle. All reversionists are not in an impossible situation. The only reversionists who are in an impossible situation are those who have a religious lifestyle, a frantic search lifestyle in some area where they say they love doctrine, give lip service to doctrine, but they don’t care for doctrine and they don’t listen to doctrine, and they react to doctrine whenever they hear it because of their lifestyle.

4. The objective of the action of the infinitive is to renew again maturity or supergrace. This involves recovery from reversionism and then pressing on.

5. The adjective a)dunatoj indicates that such renewal or reversion recovery is impossible under certain specified conditions. The certain specified conditions are going to be delineated in this sentence by two present active participles that follow the infinitive: “impossible” in verse four; infinitive “to renew” or “to restore again” in the first part of verse six. Then, later on, “to restore again” … “so long as” or “while”, and then you have two present active participles. One gives the lifestyle, one gives the result of the lifestyle.

6. Translation: “Impossible for those.” Reversion recovery depends on the daily function of GAP but there can be no consistent intake of doctrine as long as certain types of lifestyle exist. A lifestyle which is in conflict with the daily intake of doctrine is involved here. The royal priesthood of the Church Age can never function in the temple. There is no reality in shadows and as long as anyone dabbles in shadows that keeps them from the reality of doctrine.

“who were once enlightened” — the aorist passive participle of fwtizw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the participle in its entirety. The length of the entirety depends upon the context. It can be a few minutes, it can be a few months, but this entirety is made up of the hearing of the Gospel and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in illuminating that Gospel message in your soul. The Gospel is spiritual phenomena, the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are discerned by the Spirit. So the constative aorist contemplates the action of the participle in its entirety. It takes an occurrence and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it into a single whole. These believers were formerly unbelievers and the first aorist participle applies to them as unbelievers. Grace found them unable to understand the Gospel, so God the Holy Spirit made it clear. This should be translated “having been illuminated” — the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in clarifying the Gospel. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb. The subject here is the believer before he was saved, therefore the believer as an unbeliever. These believers once received illumination as unbelievers. They heard the Gospel, the didn’t understand it, they didn’t understand it.

The participle has antecedent action to the main verb. With this participle is an adverb to indicate that this happened before and can never happen again. The adverb says you can’t lose your salvation. The adverb is a(pac — “once.” A(pac was the time in the past, however long it took.

The second of the participles: “and have tasted of the heavenly gift.” This is an aorist middle participle of geuomai, meaning to taste. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event of enlightenment or illumination in its entirety but emphasises the result. This person believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, otherwise he wouldn’t be a believer in reversionism in this jamb.

The middle voice: 1) This voice is one of the most distinctive types of phenomena in the Greek language. 2) The middle voice is that use of the verb which describes the subject as participating in the results of the action of the verb. 3) The subject acts with a view toward participating in the outcome. 4) Therefore, tasting is faith in Jesus Christ. 5) The outcome or participating in the results of the verb is salvation. 6) This the direct middle voice. The direct middle voice refers the results of the action directly to the subject, and it refers to the subject with reflexive force. Therefore, “having tasted for themselves” is the correct translation of the direct middle. 7) This middle voice emphasises human volition in the angelic conflict.

“the heavenly gift” is not quite correctly translated. We have a descriptive genitive singular from dwrea, which means a gift given without strings, a free gift. So we have to translate dwrea, “gracious gift.” This descriptive genitive is also the objective genitive, plus e)pouranioj which is the ablative of source and means “from heaven”, literally.

Translation: “and having tasted for themselves the gracious gift from heaven”.

Now we have a progression which is delineated for us by the constative aorist followed by a culminative aorist. Here is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit gathered up into one ball of wax. It took place over a long period of time, it took place over a short period of time. The period of time, the duration of this ball of wax, is unknown because it varies with the individual. But the point is it is a gracious function for God the Holy Spirit to take the message of the Gospel which you have heard and make it real to you. The culminative aorist is the believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The middle voice indicates that the one who believes participates in the results of the action which is eternal salvation.

“and were made” — the aorist passive participle from ginomai which means to become, and is translated “and having become.” Now we have another culminative aorist. This culminative aorist views an event from its entirety again and regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. This means the 36 things that we receive at salvation, plus something else. But it only takes out some of those 36 things because of qualifying phrases. We now have a second culminative aorist to show that out of those 36 things 5 were performed by God the Holy Spirit and which caused us to become something we were not before. We have become partners with the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit regenerated us, He is the agent of regeneration and we are born into the family of God or born again, canceling out all handicaps which came through the first birth and the life in between. Next we have indwelling. God the Holy Spirit came to indwell us. Thirdly, we have sealing: God the Holy Spirit provides eternal security by sealing us forever. Fourth, we have the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby God the Holy Spirit relates us to the strategical victory of the angelic conflict. We are identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and His session at the right hand of the Father. Then He gave each believer priest in the royal priesthood a spiritual gift. These are five things which are bound up in this culminative aorist. These are five results of salvation. “Having become” — the passive voice means the believer has received partnership with the Holy Spirit, and again the participle is an aorist participle whose action is antecedent to the main verb.

“partakers” is an accusative plural from metoxoj, and it means partnership or partners — “having become partners with the Holy Spirit.” And “the Holy Spirit” is in the genitive case, the genitive of relationship.

Translation of verse 4 — “For you see, impossible for those having once been illuminated, and having tasted for themselves the gracious gift from heaven, and having become partners with the Holy Spirit.”

Verse 5 — “And have tasted” is the aorist middle participle of the verb geuomai. Geuomai means to taste but it means this time to taste in the sense of appropriation, a different object. The first time we had tasting it was the living Word, Jesus Christ; now it is the written Word which is Bible doctrine. It is the tasting of Bible doctrine at this point that indicates the principle.

What is the logical result of being a royal priest as indicated in the first part of Hebrews chapter five? What is the logical result of being related to a partnership with the Holy Spirit? What is the logical result of being related to the strategic victory through the baptism of the Spirit? The answer is to move to the tactical objective which is the supergrace life. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, no matter what the duration may be. Tasting is GAPing it every day. So the constative aorist gathers into one entirety every act of GAPing it, every moment in which you take in Bible doctrine. This is GAPing it to supergrace. The middle voice describes the subject as participating in the results of the action. The subject acts in this case by GAPing it. The subject is any member of the royal priesthood, any believer GAPing it to supergrace with a view toward participating in the outcome. In other words, your objective is not only supergrace but your objective on reaching supergrace it to participate through the results. For example, the first result of supergrace is that God is glorified. God is glorified when God can pour. That is the divine side. But the human side says this: the results of supergrace to you are spiritual blessings as well as material blessings, as well as the principle of prosperity, every type of prosperity. All of these things are involved in reaching the tactical objective. God is not glorified in your life by witnessing to twenty-five people a day, by giving your glowing testimony to some group, by the hours you spend in prayer, etc. God can only be glorified in one way in your life and that is by reaching the point of the supergrace life. The supergrace life is the normal status of the royal priesthood and no believer is normal until he gets there. Your production is the result of being in supergrace, the result of doctrine in the soul, not the means of gaining something with God. You don’t have to worry about witnessing or prayer or these other things, they are the normal result of certain stages of growth, they are the normal result of the function of the supergrace life.

We have a constative aorist here plus the middle voice showing this objective. The middle voice also indicates the importance of volition in the function of GAP. This is what is called a direct middle which refers the results of the action directly to the subject with reflexive force, and therefore should be translated “having tasted for themselves.” Each one must do it for himself. Furthermore, the constative aorist plus the middle says you must decide today that you want doctrine, you must decide tomorrow that you want doctrine, you must decide the next day that you want doctrine. The participle, again, has antecedent action and the main verb is coming up in verse 6.

“the good” — the accusative singular from the adjective kaloj which means “noble.” It has no definite article in the Greek, and when we have an adjective minus the definite article it emphasises the quality of the adjective, and the quality of the adjective goes with the life we have been given, the commission we were given at the point of salvation. “The noble” is stronger to us in the English; “noble” without the definite article is stronger in the Greek.

“the noble word” — this isn’t logoj usually used for doctrine, we have instead r(hma which is even stronger than logoj because it means doctrine removed from its covers. When you want to see doctrine where it is located in the canon it is logoj; when you want to take it out of the cover of the scripture and present it to the soul of the individual it is r(hma. It means doctrine communicated by the one authorised to communicate it. God has ordained that certain royal priests because of the gift of pastor-teacher have the privilege of communicating this. It still means doctrine but it means doctrine communicated.

“of God” — the ablative of source from qeoj, “from God.” All doctrine is from God. “And having tasted for themselves noble doctrine from God.”

“and the powers” — a second accusative as the object of the participle. This one is dunamij which means power or ability, inherent power or ability. It refers to God pouring supergrace blessings to the supergrace believer.

“inherent abilities of the coming age” refers to the Millennium. The word “world” is not world, it is the genitive singular of a)iwn. The word for “coming” is from mellw, the verb which means about to be and in the participial form is used as an adjective and means coming. The present active participle is used in this case. So we have “and inherent abilities of the coming age” which is a reference to supergrace blessings. God has the ability, totally apart from Satan or his cosmic system, to provide great wealth, great prosperity, promotion, great success, anything else that is associated with happiness. This means that in the Millennium God will provide perfect environment on the earth after having despatched Satan and all the fallen angels to the abyss. Therefore the Millennium is the time of unrestrained doctrine and unrestrained blessing accompanying doctrine. Remember that the Millennium is characterised by the fact that the earth will be covered with doctrine as the waters cover the seas. And with that you have accompanying prosperity and blessing in every field of life.

We as believers are members of the royal priesthood and we have these supergrace blessings now. We are not involved in living in human bodies in the Millennium, now is our time for these things. Every time a believer reaches supergrace it means it is a little patch of Millennial blessing in that area of life for that person.

Verse 6 — “If they shall fall away,” the aorist active participle of parapiptw plus the connective kai — “and having fallen away.” This is a constative aorist which contemplates the entire process of reversionism. This starts with the reactor factors, a frantic search for happiness as a reaction, the emotional revolt of the soul. It includes negative volition toward doctrine, demon influence through the opening of mataiwthj, it includes the blackout of the soul and/or the hardness of heart. It includes the practice of reverse process reversionism, the various systems of self-induced misery and the dying discipline that all accompany reversionism. And that is all bound up in the entirety, this is the constative aorist. This word does not mean “fallen away”, it means to defect, to commit apostasy, to go astray, and here it is technical for entering reversionism — “having entered reversionism”, “having gone astray”, “having defected.” The active voice: the believer in reversionism produces the action of the verb by entering into reversionism and its various stages. Once more this is the aorist participle whose action is antecedent to the main verb.

Now we come to our main verb. It is an accusative of general reference plus two participles. An accusative of general reference has either a noun or an adjective. In this case a)dunatoj is an adjective, it is in the accusative case and is the subject of the infinitive. Remember that a)dunatoj is put at the beginning of the sentence. This sentence is one sentence from verse four to verse six and a)dunatoj is put at the beginning of the sentence to give it emphasis. Therefore it should probably be translated in the English, “Definitely impossible.” That is the first part of the main verb, the rest of the main verb is an infinitive — “to renew them again”, the present active infinitive of a)nakainizw which means to restore again — “Definitely impossible to restore again.” This infinitive refers to reversion recovery. The way to reversion recovery is to GAP it back to supergrace but there is something that holds that up.

With this we have the adverb palin — “again.” This goes with the adverb we had at the beginning of the sentence, “having once been illuminated.” That adverb means you can’t turn back. But even though you can’t turn back and become an unbeliever you can fail as a believer, and that is the contrast between the adverb a(pac and the adverb palin. A(pac says “having once been enlightened”, once you have been enlightened and believe you can never lose your salvation, so this is assurance with regard to salvation — eternal security; palin says but you can sure foul it up as a saved person. So now we have palin to show where the foul-up is. The present tense is a tendential present, and it is used of an action which is purposed or desired but is actually not taking place as yet. The action which is desired is to move toward supergrace, it has not occurred as yet. It represents the idea of what is intended or what tends toward realisation. The active voice: the subject of the infinitive is the accusative plural of the definite article referring to the people — “impossible for those.” “Impossible” is the adjective, the adjective goes with the definite article in the accusative. So the true subject of the infinitive is the reversionist following a certain course of action to specified by the two participles. The infinitive itself is a part of the accusative of general reference, it also expresses purpose.

We have a next a reference to the list of basics. “Unto repentance” is the preposition e)ij plus the accusative of metanoia, the first item on the list of basics, a change of mind away from dead works. Only the first word is used to refer to the entire list of six basics mentioned, so metanoia is number one on a list of one through six. This time you don’t repeat the entire list, just the first word in the list is necessary. This does not refer to repentance as such but to list of basics.

Next we have the hindering modus vivendi, and it is introduced by the word “seeing.” There is no word “seeing” found in the original MSS, this is merely used to designate temporal participles which portray action which hinders recovery. These temporal participles are also circumstantial participles because they indicate what keeps people from getting with doctrine so that they can recover. This only indicates in principle because one specific thing is involved in Jerusalem. There are many specifics today, as many as we have reversionists who cannot get back with Bible doctrine. “Seeing” is not a good way to translate a circumstantial and temporal participle, it is better to translate it either “so long as” or “while.” The first of these participles: “they crucify afresh”, the present active participle of a)nastaurow [a)na means again; staurow means to crucify]. Christ was crucified once, He never has to die again for our sins. His work the first time and the only time was totally and completely efficacious.

Now how can anyone crucify Christ again? By a reversionistic lifestyle. In this case the reversionistic lifestyle is legalism, religionism. Here are members of the royal priesthood submitting themselves to a priesthood that no longer exists. The present tense is the retroactive progressive present which denotes a practice begun in the past and is continuing up to the moment the writer writes. This practice represents a frantic search for happiness in the field of legalistic reversionism. These believers are offering animal sacrifices in the temple which would be crucifying Christ afresh. Each animal sacrifice represents some aspect of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, historically the death of Christ was completed some years before. The death of Christ on the Christ is the reality which eliminates the shadows of animal sacrifices. Having the reality they return now to the temple to dabble in shadows and to accept an authority that no longer exists, the authority of the Levitical priesthood. The active voice indicates that believers, royal priests, are actually doing this in Jerusalem. The participle, again, is both temporal and circumstantial.

“to themselves” is the dative plural of disadvantage of the reflexive pronoun e(autou. They are themselves involved in doing this and the result is that they are crucifying to themselves “the Son of God”, which emphasises the strategical victory of the angelic conflict and their failure to relate it properly to the royal priesthood. “The Son of God” refers to the fact that Christ is the God-Man, that He is now at the right hand of the Father waiting for the fulfillment of operation footstool, that He has won the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, that He has broken Satan’s back on the cross, as per Colossians 2:14.

“and put him to an open shame” is the second present active participle, paradeigmatizw which means to hold in contempt. to expose to ignominy, to expose to contempt, to publicly embarrass someone and therefore to make a public example of contempt. This is the iterative present, it describes what occurs when the believer enters the temple to offer sacrifices. The present tense of repeated action or the iterative present means that every time they do this they again and again expose Jesus Christ to public shame and contempt. The active voice: as a result of offering animal sacrifices they are engaging as royal priests in blasphemy instead of honour to the Lord Jesus Christ. The participle is, again, temporal and circumstantial as per the first participle. So this activity will hinder every effort to recover from reversionism since this function sponsors and encourages negative volition toward doctrine. There is a conflict between learning doctrine and in going to the temple. As long as that conflict exists they will never recover from reversionism and they will die the sin unto death under the most horrible circumstances of history, that great second siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. These Jews who are born again cannot publicly shame Jesus Christ and at the same time recover from their reversionism. Their action is incompatible with the function of GAP. Any activity which is incompatible with the function of GAP hinders reversion recovery.

Translation of verse 6: “And having gone astray in to reversionism, for you see impossible to restore them again with reference to the basic list [repentance]; so long as they again and again crucify to themselves the Son of God, even exposing him to public shame and contempt.”

Summary

1. In other words, you cannot move toward your objective while retreating from it. You can’t advance and retreat at the same time. Offering sacrifices in the temple was retreating. You cannot hang on to anything that compromises with learning doctrine and learn doctrine.

2. You cannot move toward occupation with Christ while holding Him in public contempt.

3. You cannot move toward the celebrityship of Jesus Christ and expose Him to public shame. 4. Your attitude toward Christ determines your attitude toward His Word. If you love Christ you take in doctrine.

5. You cannot divorce the living Word, Christ, from the written Word, Bible doctrine.

6. The written Word is the very thinking of Christ as well as capacity to love Jesus Christ.

7. There are certain functions, certain types of lifestyle, in life related to the frantic search for happiness which must be eliminated before the believer can recover from reversionism. In this passage it was going to the temple and offering animal sacrifices. Today it is whatever you do that keeps you from taking in Bible doctrine.

8. No believer can persist in learning doctrine under GAP and at the same time enter into either evil or human viewpoint functions which contribute toward apathy or any other form of negative volition.

9. A believer can recover fellowship by rebound but he can never recover from reversionism so long as he has a lifestyle compromise which in effect dishonours our royal high priest, Jesus Christ. We cannot shame Christ and at the same time GAP it to supergrace.

10. Supergrace is incompatible with the believer’s frantic search for happiness, and God has provided a totally superior happiness in the ECS and the entrance into the supergrace life.

11. Happiness must either come from God through doctrine or be attempted by the believer through his own ability, schemes, sinfulness and self-induced misery.

Verse 7 — at this point we begin a study of the illustration and application to reversion recovery. In verses 7 and 8 we have the alternatives of the Christian way of life. The back ground for this is an illustration from an agricultural economy. In verse 7 we have supergrace; in verse 8 we have the alternative to supergrace which is reversionism. Using the illustration of the ground and agriculture we see these alternatives which become a reality after salvation.

The moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we are commissioned immediately into the royal priesthood. However, there is no normal function under that priesthood until we reach the supergrace status. That means from the beginning of phase two we GAP it and be consistent in this until we reach the supergrace status. Once we reach the supergrace status the first great factor is occupation with the person of Christ or maximum category #1 love response. In the supergrace status we have the doctrinal capacity to truly love God. Secondly, we have supergrace capacity, and thirdly, we have the supergrace blessings. Since we are in a royal priesthood as of the moment of the new birth we should live like royalty. That demands supergrace blessings. We should also function in the nobility of royalty and that means the normal function of the priesthood of the believer. With that in mind we see in this passage these alternatives: the supergrace life on the one hand or reversionism on the other — in verse 7, supergrace; verse 8, reversionism.

“For” is a conjunctive particle gar used as an explanation. The next word is “the earth.” The noun is gh which means ground or earth, even planet earth from time to time. Here it refers to the surface of the earth, the ground. All believers are pictured in this particular illustration or analogy as part of the ground. The objective of the ground is to grow something, to produce something. The ground producing is a picture of the supergrace life, and the ground failing to produce the normal edible things of life, the pleasant things of life, and instead producing cactus, briars, thorns, and so on. This is the picture of reversionism. The issue is that you are the ground as of the moment that you accepted Christ as saviour. The question is: What does your piece of ground produce?

“which drinketh in” — the aorist active participle pinw. The word means to drink. This should be translated “having drunk.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes an occurrence and regardless of the duration or extent of that occurrence gathers it up into one entirety. The constative aorist means every time that you GAP it as a believer. That is drinking in the rain, the ground taking in the rain necessary for growth. The rain is Bible doctrine. The active voice: the ground produces the action of the verb by absorbing the rain. The rain is absorbed through the function of GAP. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb, the main verb: “receives blessings from God”. The blessings from God are supergrace blessings.

“rain” is the accusative singular of u(etoj. We also have with it the definite article, and the noun and its definite article are separated by a phrase — “coming many times upon it”, literally. So between the definite article and the noun we have an entire phrase: “the coming many times upon it”, literally in the Greek. “The coming many times” is Bible doctrine taught and taught and taught.… The key to the phrase “coming many times upon it” is the present active participle of e)rxomai. The present tense is an iterative present which describes what occurs at successive intervals. In other words, the present tense of repeated action. It isn’t linear aktionsart, it isn’t every moment. You don’t get rain every second or the ground would never grow, it comes just often enough as it should. That is in keeping with the iterative present, it means it recurs at certain times. The active voice: the ground produces the action. The ground is analogous to the believer. The participle is known as a circumstantial participle to describe attendant circumstances by which the action of the main verb is fulfilled. In other words, the rain keeps on coming and the ground can accept it or reject it. If the ground accepts it there will be production, if it rejects it there will not. If the ground accepts the rain there will be prosperity, the supergrace concept.; if the ground rejects it there will be no prosperity but there will be a great deal of misery, illustrated by thistles, briars and cactus.

The word “oft” is the English is an adverb, pollakij, and it means “many times.” In Palestine the production of the agricultural economy depended upon what is known in the Bible as the early and the latter rains. The early rains were rains that occurred with great frequency between October and December; the latter rains came in March and April. They are often called by the Jews the winter and the spring rains. They came just at the right frequency so that the ground would bring forth under the proper cultivation.

“upon it” is the preposition e)pi plus the genitive of an intensive pronoun a)utoj.

“For the ground having drunk the rain coming many times upon it” — “and bringeth forth”, the present active participle of tiktw which means to give birth, or if it is used as in the case of “ground”, to produce something that is edible, something pleasant from the ground. So we will use the word “production”, iterative present again describing the harvest as recurring at successive intervals. The earth represents the believer producing the action of the verb, and the production of the action is supergrace. The active voice: the earth representing the believer producing the action of the verb. The participle is the complementary participle which completes the idea of the action.

“herbs” — and old English word. This is the accusative singular of the noun botanh, from where we get “botany”, and it means useful vegetation, edible vegetation. It is even used for what the animals eat — fodder, herbs, plants, any harvest from the earth. Probably the best translation would be: “and yielding a harvest of vegetative production”.

“meet” is not correct. This is the accusative singular of e)uqhtoj and it means “useful” or useably”; “by them” is the instrumental plural from the demonstrative pronoun e)keinoj, and the man who harvests, the farmer who did the planting. The farmer is not the believer, he is that portion of the human race in the periphery of any supergrace believer. Once you reach supergrace you will know it. Others around you are going to be benefited by the very fact that you are alive and breathing. The farmer is benefited when he harvests, and people around you are going to be benefited by your reaching supergrace. Their benefit will come in many forms. They will not be the beneficiary of your maligning, gossip, antagonism, jealousy, etc. Whoever is your right man or right woman will discover that all of a sudden they are related to a new person with soul capacity for love. They will discover that they have someone who is thoughtful and protective and fulfilling and a sheer total pleasure to be around all the time.

“by whom” is literally “because of whom” — dia plus the accusative of the relative pronoun o(j. In other words, “for the glory of the one for whom it is cultivated.” We have in the English “it is dressed” — the present passive indicative of gewgorew which means to cultivate land, to farm. The customary present tense indicates that which habitually occurs. In the illustration the farmer habitually cultivates the land and that is the concept here. The passive voice: the land or the ground receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is what we call a declarative indicative which denotes the verbal idea from the standpoint of reality. The land is cultivated, it really is the cultivation of the land and the growth on the land is a reality. There are various stages. This growth would be impossible apart from Bible doctrine. It is the intake of doctrine illustrated by the rain that contributes to this. So literally, “and yielding production [harvest] useable by them because of whom it is also cultivated.”

“receiveth” — now we go from the farming to its analogy. What does God do for the supergrace believer? The supergrace believer receives blessing from God. “Receiveth” is the present active indicative from metalambanw, which means to receive a share in, to obtain, to partake of, to share in something. The present tense is a progressive present of existing results. It refers to a fact which has come to be in the past — supergrace blessings designed for you in eternity past — and is emphasised as a present reality. Here is where the present tense takes the place of the perfect tense in the Greek, a progressive present of existing results. In the past it is a fact, God designed for you supergrace blessing. Whatever God designs is designed to be for you in perfect happiness, perfect capacity to enjoy. Supergrace is the reality for all who will be consistent in the daily function of GAP, and as a result of the daily function of GAP one day you arrive. The active voice: the believer who is faithful in the intake of the Word of God will attain supergrace blessings. The indicative mood is the mood of certainty of reality of unqualified assertion, and this is the declarative indicative which means this is a fact. This is a fact you can count on. You are just like the ground. You keep on taking in and taking in and the time is coming when you are going to be greatly blessed. But always in supergrace blessing your happiness overflows to others.

The word for “blessing” is the genitive of possession, a genitive singular, e)ulogia. You personally possess this blessing just for you. It is in the singular because God has a special supergrace package for you.

“from God” — this is from the ultimate source of God, the preposition a)po plus the ablative of source from qeoj — “from the source of the God.”

The verse says the ground obtains blessing from the source of God. The ground is every believer, the royal priest. he obtains through the daily function of GAP — the rain coming often. Blessing is supergrace blessing and the source of that supergrace blessing is God.

Translation: “For the ground [the believer positive toward doctrine] having drunk the rain [the believer GAPing it] coming many times upon it, and producing a harvest of crops by them [the Trinity], because of whom [the Trinity] it [the ground] is also cultivated, obtains blessing [supergrace] from the source of the God.”

The first of two alternatives: supergrace, verse 7.

Verse 8 — reversionism. “But”, the conjunctive particle de is used to emphasise a contrast. This brings together two sentences which in opposition to each other. two antithetical type sentences.

“that which beareth” — the present active participle of the compound verb e)kferw. E)k means out from; ferw means to bear, to carry. It comes to mean to bear out or to carry out from the soil. In other words, a seed goes into the ground and it bears out from the soil some kind of a stalk, leaf, fruit or vegetable, etc. It means to grow or produce out of the ground. The present tense is a progressive present of description, it indicates what is now going on. The active voice: the ground does the producing. The participle is a temporal participle, and temporal participles are translated “when” or “so long as”. So literally, “But when it is growing”.

“thorns” — the accusative plural of a)kanqa. It should be translated “thorn plants.” Here is a piece of ground that is negative, and when you step on this piece of ground you get stuck. This is reversionism. It refers to those around you who get hurt. Notice that a cactus is never bothered by the cactus sticking in him! This emphasises the fact that reversionists always hurt other people and it doesn’t seem to bother them that they do. In other words, the first thing that we notice about the reversionist is the antithesis to the supergrace believer, the reversionist is always hurting someone else.

“and briers” — the accusative plural of triboloj. Tri means “three”, and the noun beloj which means “dart”. So this is a three-pronged dart. Actually, triboloj was a very thorny weed that grew in Palestine. So literally the verse says, “But when it is growing thorns and thistles”. Thorns and thistles refer to the areas of reversionism where you hurt others.

The doctrine of thorns

1. Thorns are associated with the curse of mankind and nature at the time of the fall — Genesis 3:18.

2. Thorns are used to designate divine punishment — Numbers 33:55; Judges 2:3; 2 Corinthians 12:7.

3. Thorns are used to designate national discipline, the fifth cycle of discipline — Isaiah 34:12.

4. Thorns are related to economic depression and recession under an agricultural society — Jeremiah 12:13.

5. Unconquered people in the land of Canaan were thorns in the side of the nation — Numbers 33:55; Joshua 23:13; Judges 2:3.

6. Thorns are used for negative volition toward Bible doctrine — Proverbs 22:5; 26:9.

7. Thorns describe the various stages of reversionism — Hebrews 6:8.

8. Thorns are used for the details of life which cause negative volition toward doctrine — Matthew 13:7,22.

9. Jesus Christ wore a crown of thorns on the cross. This signified that He was being made a curse for us when He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree — Matthew 27:29; Mark 15:17; John 19:2 cf. Galatians 3:13.

10. The Millennial deliverance of nature from the curse of the fall is expressed by the removal of the thorns — Isaiah 55:13; Ezekiel 28:24.

“is rejected” — a)dokimoj, which means here, “worthless.” The reversionist is worthless. Reversionism is the status of tactical defeat. God loves a reversionistic believer but He disapproves totally of his reversionism. The believer becomes a casualty in the angelic conflict and he is worthless in the intensive stage of that conflict. God disciplines a worthless believer, first with warning, then with intensive discipline, and then the final stage which is the sin unto death.

“and is nigh” — the adverb e)gguj which means near, and it indicates the approaching disaster of the sin unto death for the reversionistic believer.

“cursing” — the descriptive genitive of katara which is a genitive of reference as well and is used with adjectives like worthlessness. So it means “worthless and near a curse”, the curse being the sin unto death.

“whose” — the genitive feminine singular from the relative pronoun o(j. The relative pronoun has as its antecedent a)kanqa or the thorns — “whose thorns”, in other words. The sin unto death is not administered by burning, the burning of the thorns is analogous to the sin unto death. The burning of the thorns represents the believer being removed from this life by the sin unto death.

“whose end” — the noun teloj means termination of this life — “to be burned” — preposition e)ij plus the accusative of kausij, the noun for the act of burning. “For burning” is the correct translation. Burning is analogous to the administration of the sin unto death to the reversionistic believer.

“But when it is growing [producing] thorns and thistles it becomes worthless, and near a curse; whose end is for burning”.

Summary

1. The two verses express the alternatives of the Christian life on this earth. Verse 7 expresses the principle of blessing under supergrace; verse 8 expresses the principle of cursing under reversionism.

2. The difference between cursing and blessing is the attitude of the believer toward doctrine.

3. In salvation the issue is the living Word, Jesus Christ.

4. However, in phase two of the Christian way of life the issue is attitude toward the written Word, Bible doctrine, from Bible teaching.

5. The obedience of the Cross, faith in Christ, must inevitably lead to obedience to the Word — Hebrews 13:7, 17 — which is that priestly self-discipline whereby the believer concentrates on the teaching of his right pastor.

Verse 9 begins with the conjunctive particle de which is the conjunction of contrast. This conjunction of contrast says, Having chewed you out I now have confidence that you will respond to my authority (the writer’s). Every writer who wrote to every local church in the Word of God was the right pastor at the time that he wrote. He was an apostle or closely associated with an apostle, and being such his authority was paramount. This is there this writer has made his point and now moves on. This is called objectivity in teaching. “But beloved we are persuaded better things of you.” That is objectivity.

The word “beloved” is a vocative plural from the adjective a)gaphtoj. When you have a word like this you have to ask yourself a question. Does the writer love them or does God love them? The answer is simple: God loves them. Always remember that God loves you, you are in this vocative plural. The reason it is a vocative plural is because it was not only addressed to those people in the time at which it was written. And these people had just received a very severe disciplinary thrashing, but now he calls them “beloved” to remind them of the fact that they are the objects of God’s love, that God loves them with a perfect love, and even though they have been chewed out they are to profit by it. They have to remember that the love of God is constant and consistent.

“we are persuaded” — the perfect passive indicative of the verb peiqw, which has a number of meanings. Peiqw means to receive confidence, to obey, to trust, to recognise authority, to be convinced. Here in the passive voice of the perfect tense it means to be convinced, to be convinced that doctrine will do what nothing else can do. For remember that it is doctrine that has been presented along with the exhortation that is the basis for the exhortation. Doctrine must always be the basis for any kind of exhortation. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect indicating the results. We have received convincing or we have received persuasion or confidence that you will move on — “But beloved we have been convinced.” The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb and the subject is the writer. The writer is convinced. The indicative mood is the mood of reality and the writer is convinced that the doctrine already presented is enough to make the individuals involved in the southern kingdom of Judah and in the capital of Jerusalem respond by coming back to doctrine and coming back to reversion recovery through the intake of doctrine.

“better things” — the accusative neuter plural of a comparative kreittwn or kreisswn. It is spelled two ways in the Greek. It should be translated either “higher things” (in rank), “preferable things” (the things moving you toward supergrace), “more advantageous things” or “better things.” But better things means higher things, more advantageous things, and all are true. Moving toward the tactical victory of supergrace is moving toward higher things, moving to higher ground, moving toward preferable things. It is preferable to glorify God in phase two, preferable to all of the horrible things of reversionism. It is also “more advantageous things” because it is to your advantage to reach the supergrace life — always to your advantage.

“of you” — the preposition peri means “concerning”; the object is su, the personal pronoun. The genitive plural means “concerning you”.

“and things that accompany” — we have the continuative use of kai, and there is nothing else following it. We do not have another noun here, we have simply a participle. “Things that accompany” is a present passive participle of e)xw and e)xw means to have and to hold, even sometimes to hold down, to belong to or to attach. So the question is, how to translate this. It should be translated “and things belonging to [attached to] salvation.” The present tense is a static present, it is used to represent something which perpetually exists. The supergrace life perpetually exists for any believer after salvation, and the static present says no matter how you have failed in the past, no matter how you have gone into reversionism, God still has your name attached to X number of supergrace blessings. And all that is necessary is for you to reach capacity. These are the higher things in rank, more advantageous things, and the preferable things concerning you and the things belonging to salvation. One thing that belongs to your salvation are the supergrace blessings. This is the problem. Between your salvation and the pouring of the supergrace blessings into your life is the consistent daily function of GAP so that you reach the point of occupation with Christ and you reach the point of supergrace blessing. This gap can only be closed by taking in doctrine, and the great hindrance to this gap is reversionism and some of the activities that accompany reversionism, like going into the temple and offering animal sacrifices. In other words, a royal priest putting himself under the Levitical priesthood when the Levitical priesthood is out in the Church Age. So we have the choice and the choice is based upon doctrine and any deviation from doctrine and any decision you make against doctrine.

The passive voice of e)xw is very interesting here. With salvation the believer receives the potentiality of supergrace. No one has ever been saved without having his supergrace blessings lined up for him in eternity past. This is why the human writer is optimistic here. The participle e)xw is an ascriptive participle, it ascribes to salvation the potential of the supergrace life blessing and function. Remember that not only is there a life of occupation with Christ, the blessings of materialistic things, the blessings of promotion, wealth, success, prosperity, and so on, but it is also a life of function. It is the true function of the royal priesthood that begins at the supergrace life, therefore the ascriptive participle.

The word “salvation” is the objective genitive singular of swthria which refers to the time when we accept Christ as saviour.

So far in this verse we have the following translation: “But, beloved ones [every believer, whatever classification], we have been convinced of better things [the supergrace things which are higher in rank, preferable and more advantageous] concerning you, and the things belonging to salvation [supergrace]”.

“though thus we speak” — the word “though” is a conditional particle used to introduce a first class condition — e)i. This is the condition for advancing to supergrace and it means faithful teaching of the Word by a faithful pastor. So we have “if thus.” This is an adjunctive kai, which is translated “also”, plus the adverb o(utoj. It should be translated “if also in this manner we speak.”

“we speak” is the present active indicative of the verb lalew and it means to communicate verbally. It is used here for the communication of doctrine and the accompanying exhortation. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes that which habitually occurs or may be expected to occur if believers are going to reach supergrace. Pastors must faithfully teach doctrine. The active voice: the pastor of the local church produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative. That is, it is used for a statement of unqualified assertion. It is absolutely necessary for the pastor to be faithful in teaching the Word. it is the pastor who teaches the other members of the royal priesthood concerning the tactical objective of the supergrace life. It is the pastor who, warns the royal priesthood of becoming casualties in the angelic conflict through reversionism. It is the pastor who can distinguish between reversionism and carnality. Whereas reversionism has perpetual carnality, growth has occasional rebound type carnality and there must be a distinction.

“But, beloved ones, we have been convinced of better things concerning you, and things attached to salvation, if also in this manner we habitually communicate [doctrine], and we do.”

Verse 10 is parenthetical. it is an explanation of the function as well as the reward of the pastor-teacher. The blessing of the pastor precedes the blessing of the congregation. Obviously the pastor is going to reach supergrace before any member of his congregation, and his supergrace blessing becomes the supergrace blessing of the congregation when they, as he, faithfully stay under the teaching of the Word of God until arrival at that point. The blessing of the pastor is learning and teaching doctrine. Learning doctrine is the only road to supergrace where there is great blessing in time and reward in all eternity, and this is the reason why we are royal priests. We are royal priests because Christ our high priest is going to reign forever. And since Christ is going to reign forever, and since a demonstration of His reign is the perfect blessings of the Millennium, the blessings of the Millennium become ours right now, as we have previously seen in this passage. The blessings of the age to come are our blessing right now under supergrace status!

“For” is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar. We are about to get an explanation from the writer, an explanation that goes with Hebrews 13:7, 17. Those two verses summarise the authority of the pastor-teacher.

“God” — literally, “the God” — o( qeoj. God knows everything that the pastor-teacher does. The pastor-teacher is directly responsible to God who is responsible for every blessing he will ever have in this life and who is also responsible for every item of discipline he will ever have.

“not unrighteous” — a strong negative o)uk plus the adjective a)dikoj. This says “not unjust.” This says, “the God is not unjust”; He is not unfair to pastors. If a pastor does his job of teaching the Word of God, then God is going to keep him there.

“to forget” — the aorist middle infinitive of e)pilanqanomai. This is not the usual word for forgetting, it means to disregard and forget, to be thinking about something else and overlook something you should have remembered. Something was more important! The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist, because God is the subject. It is an absolute fact or a doctrine which must regarded as being axiomatic. “The God is not unjust to disregard”. God never has more important business than a pastor teaching. That is what this verb means. There is nothing more important in the Church Age than a pastor doing his job and God never disregards a pastor teaching the Word of God. The middle voice is a permissive middle, it represents the agent — God the Father in this case — as sovereignly yielding Himself to the results of the action of the verb to secure results in His own interest. The action of the verb is e never disregards the pastor teaching. So what we actually have here is an anthropopathism — ascribing to God a human characteristic which God really doesn’t have to show God’s special faithfulness to the pastor who teaches the Word of God.

“your work” — this is not the work of the believer priest, this is the work of the pastor-teacher. It is the objective genitive of e)rgon. The word means occupation here, or accomplishment, and it refers to the bona fide occupation of the pastor-teacher which is studying and teaching the Word. The occupation or accomplishment of every pastor should be faithfully teaching the Word so that the believer priest arrives at supergrace and remains there, fulfilling practical function and victory under the royal priesthood.

“and” — this is an adjunctive use of kai, it indicates the pastor’s occupation with Christ is necessary to fulfill his teaching — “and labour”, but there is no word for “labour.” It should read “also the love”, not “and labour of love.” We have the objective genitive of a)gaph. A)gaph means a relaxed mental attitude. Here it has to do with the relaxed mental attitude necessary for the pastor to keep going in spite of everything.

“which” — the genitive singular feminine of the relative pronoun o(j, and the feminine gender of o(j tells us that the antecedent is a)gaph — “which love”, in other words.

“you have showed” — the aorist middle indicative of e)ndeiknumi. This is the love that the pastor demonstrates — “you yourselves have demonstrated”, according to the aorist middle indicative. We have to demonstrate as pastors our true love for the congregation and our true love is based upon teaching the Word to everyone. The aorist tense is the constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety — the supergrace life. It takes an occurrence — the supergrace life — and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it into a single whole. Whatever it is that God has for you in the way of supergrace blessings from eternity past the constative aorist gathers it up into one ball of wax. The middle voice is the indirect middle which lays stress on the agent, the pastor-teacher, as producing the action rather than participating in the result. So it is translated “you yourselves [pastors] have demonstrated”. It means to demonstrate. The indicative mood is the declarative used for a statement of fact. It represents the verbal idea from the standpoint of reality, it is the mood of certainty and therefore here it indicates unqualified assertion. It is absolutely a fact that the only way the pastor can show his love for the congregation is by teaching the Word.

“toward his name” — the pastor demonstrates love “toward his person” — e)ij plus the accusative of o)noma, which means personality, person, as well as name. Here it means “with reference to his person”.

“in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.”

The explanatory use of the conjunctive gar which began verse 10 changes the subject. Often gar changes the subject. When you start with gar and end with de, gar de often changes the subject or the classification of the subject. And we have a gar de situation where in verse 10 we are talking to pastors only. “For the God is not unjust to disregard the ministry [disregard your accomplishment, your occupation] and also the love which you yourselves have demonstrated toward his name [his person].”

The doctrine of occupation with Christ

1. Occupation with the person of Jesus Christ begins at the supergrace life — maximum category #1 love toward Christ. The basis for this occupation, therefore, is the intake of Bible doctrine through the function of GAP or the consistent and daily function of GAP — Jeremiah 9:24; Ephesians 3:18,19; 4:20.

2. With doctrine as the working object of faith the believer has maximum category #1 love response to God. This classes him to be designated “friend of God”, as in James 2:22,23. “Friend of God” is simply a title for a supergrace believer. And we know that it is different from the saved person. For example, the word “friend” is not a)gaph but it is the genitive of filoj, and filoj is the maximum love type of word. The principle, then, in James 2:22,23: “Abraham became a supergrace believer.” But he didn’t become one over night. Abraham was probably saved at about 20 or 21, it was 80 years later before he reached supergrace. However, there were times when he was almost there and then reverted; he was up and down. Abraham was a very unstable person. He was one of those people who had to live a long time before he finally reached the supergrace life.

3. Occupation with Christ is based upon the glorification of Jesus Christ — Colossians 3:1,2. In other words, when a believer reaches supergrace and is occupied with Christ this also glorifies Christ. Christ is glorified by the maximum love, the supergrace love, of the believer. When a believer reaches supergrace he has a special relationship with the Lord which other people can neither understand nor acquire, nor duplicate. It comes through the intake of Bible doctrine, and comes through the consistency, the self-discipline, the concentration of the royal priesthood related to the Word.

4. Occupation with Christ is the standard operating procedure for the Christian life — Hebrews 12:1,2, the bridge between the Old and the New Testaments. Hebrews 11 is Old Testament spirituality leading to Old Testament supergrace; Hebrews 12:3ff, the other side, deals with the Church Age spirituality, the Church Age reaching supergrace. So there is a bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament, between the Age of Israel and the Church Age. This bridge is built by Hebrews 12:1,2 because it shows us occupation with the person of Christ as it exists in any dispensation.

5. Occupation with Christ is illustrated by the doctrine of right man-right woman — Ephesians 5:25-32; 1 Corinthians 11:7.

6. The function of GAP is the believer responding to Christ’s love in phase two — James 1:21,2.

7. The sealing of the Holy Spirit guarantees an eternal love relationship between Jesus Christ and the believer — Ephesians 1:11-14.

8. Occupation with Christ includes total dependence upon supergrace provision — Psalm 37:4,5.

9. Occupation with Christ is related to both stability and inner happiness — Psalm 16:8,9.

10. Occupation with Christ is the basis for blessing in time of suffering. While reversionism intensifies suffering, occupation minimises suffering — Psalm 77.

11. Occupation with Christ is based on the believer’s entrance into the supergrace life — Hebrews 3:1,6; Colossians 3:16,17.

Occupation in this passage is related to the pastor-teacher. He must be occupied with Christ long before the congregation; he must reach supergrace long before the congregation. He cannot lead to supergrace without getting there himself, and understanding the issue of how to get there and therefore pouring it on as never before when it comes to the teaching of Bible doctrine.

The verb which comes up also indicates that we are not talking to the royal priesthood in general but the royal priesthood’s pastor-teacher specifically — “ye have ministered”, the aorist active participle of the verb diakonew. There are six different verbs which are used “to minister” in the Greek language. I call these the synonyms of service. Diakonew will be listed in last place, it is used for the pastor-teacher teaching the Word and it is also used in the noun form, diakonia, for the deacon handling the administration of a local church. Both of them are specialised, there is no general usage on this one.

1. Dulouw, which connotes a slave. It means to work as a slave, to be a slave and to work as a slave. It is often used for the royal priesthood in general; we are the slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in that sense it is our privilege to serve Him at various times and in different ways.

2. Qerapeuw, to serve in a professional sense in medical practice. So it means to serve but to serve professionally, a service that not anyone can do.

3. Latreuw, which means to work for wages, also a bona fide service.

4. Leitourgew, to perform an official service for the state.

5. U(peretew, which means to serve in the sense of steering a ship. This was used for the quartermaster on the bridge, steering a ship, receiving his instructions and following them out. This again requires skill of some kind and is service in that sense.

6. Diakonew is translated “to minister.” It meant originally to wait on tables. Then it meant to go into the kitchen and bring some food to the table. Then it meant to prepare the food in the kitchen and then bring it in — one person doing both things, a combination of cook and maid for service. It finally came to be used for pastors and deacons. It is used for pastors because it is analogous to the pastor studying, like working in the kitchen. Then after he has prepared it he brings it out to the congregation and serves it, and that is like teaching the Word of God. How is it used for the deacons? It is more or less the same idea. The deacon then comes and picks up the plates and takes them back to the kitchen and cleans them. In other words, the pastor has a teaching function and the deacons have an administrative function. There is only one pastor in the local church, there are also deacons, and woe to the pastor who doesn’t get men qualified by spiritual gift to be deacons.

So much for the verb. It’s morphology is an aorist active participle. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of preparing and teaching the Word in its entirety. In other words, every act of study and teach, study and teach, study and teach, is in the constative aorist. That is the life of a pastor-teacher. it should be translated “having ministered” — aorist participle. The active voice: the supergrace pastor produces the action of the verb. We have the action of them participle antecedent to the main verb, “you have demonstrated love toward God.” So before you demonstrate love toward God you do so by this constative aorist active participle.

“to the saints” should be “with reference to the saints”, this is a dative plural of reference, not a prepositional phrase. The noun in the dative plural is a(gioj and refers to all believers. Notice that the royal priesthood are called here a(gioj or saints. The word really means “set apart ones”.

“and do minister” is not correct. It is the present active participle, again, of diakonew. We have just had an aorist participle, now we suddenly have a change to the present tense of diakonew. What does it mean? The present tense is an iterative present which describes that which recurs at successive intervals. It is called the present tense of repeated action to indicate that repeatedly the pastor studies and teaches. The active voice: the pastor produces the action of the verb by teaching the Word of God. But it is the participle that is different, this is a circumstantial participle and should be translated “and under the circumstances continues to minister.” It is easy to reach once or twice, it is difficult to keep it up, to keep it up, to keep it up, and keep going. And the point that he is making is that the pastor has to stay in there, keep teaching, keep teaching, and so we have a circumstantial participle translated “and under the circumstances continue to minister.” “Continue to minister” comes from the present tense and “under the circumstances” is the translation from the circumstantial participle.

Translation of verse 10: “For the Lord is not unjust to disregard your occupation [pastors], also the love which you yourselves [pastors] have demonstrated with reference to his person, having ministered the word with reference to the saints, and continuing to minister [the Word].”

Verse 11 — the exhortation to reversion recovery. The desire of every pastor is that all the members of his congregation will be utterly and completely and totally devoted to doctrine. It begins the conjunctive particle de which now brings us back to the royal priesthood again and them pastor’s desire for the royal priesthood.

“we” refers to the pastor — not just the writer who is a pastor-teacher but the pastors who are residing in Jerusalem, this is their desire too, or it is the desire they should possess.

“we desire”, the present active indicative from e)piqumew. This means a very deep, earnest desire. It has a cognate in the noun, e)piqumia which refers to the lust pattern of the old sin nature. This tells us something. These are entirely different words but it tells us that this is the grand passion of any pastor, that his congregation have an earnest and deep desire, that they deeply long for Bible doctrine. It is his most earnest desire for his congregation. The present tense of e)piqumew is a customary present which denotes what habitually occurs. it expresses the attitude of a good pastor toward his flock. The active voice: the pastor produces the action of the verb. We have a declarative indicative mood denoting an unqualified assertion. Any pastor who is occupied with Christ will have this desire for his congregation.

Now we go back to the priesthood in general: “every one”, the masculine accusative singular of e(kastoj. The word is much more personal than “every one”, it is “each one individually” in the singular, not the plural. It is the accusative case and the object of the verb. The present active indicative of e)piqumew takes an accusative as the direct object. But this is more than just a direct object, this is a part of the accusative of general reference. The accusative is used with the infinitive, not really as the subject but used to describe the person involved in the action of the infinitive. So it comes to be the subject of the infinitive and at the same time the object of the verb. “And [de to show that the parenthesis is over and we are back to the general priesthood] we pastors earnestly, deeply, with great passion, desire each one individually.” The desire has an object but the object is not just the accusative of direct object, it is also the accusative of general reference. And here is one of those beautiful structures that only the Alexandrian school could come up with where you have a transitive verb and the accusative is the direct object and, at the same time, it is as it were the subject of the infinitive. It doubles for both. “Each one individually” refers to you personally as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“do show” — the aorist middle infinitive of e)ndeiknumi. We have just had it for the pastor demonstrating his love to the Lord. Now here is another demonstration, it means again to demonstrate. This time it is in the aorist infinitive. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist, used with verbs which signify a state or a condition and denote an entrance into a state or condition. In other words, the pastor longing for you to GAP it to supergrace. He wants you to have a mad passion for doctrine and for you to come right on through to supergrace. That is exactly what the ingressive means. The middle voice is an indirect middle, it lays stress on the agent who is the recovering believer as producing the action rather than in participating in the results of the action. A direct middle always has the subject with the agent participating in the action of the verb, but this is different, it stresses the agent, a recovering believer, as producing the action — or beginning to. The infinitive, therefore, denotes purpose. So here is the point where the writer finds the congregation to whom he addressed the epistle to the Hebrews. The congregation in Jerusalem are sitting under the ingressive aorist and his mad desire, his passionate desire for them, is that they will begin to get with doctrine and come right on through, GAPing it daily to the supergrace life where he is. This is translated, then: “to each one individually to demonstrate.”

“the same diligence” — an accusative singular from spoudh, a difficult word to translate because there is no true English equivalent. Actually, it means more than anything else devotion to duty, also a total and complete devotion to someone or something. It is used for absolute devotion to a cause; it is used for devotion to a person in love. It means concentration on one thing to the exclusion of the superficialities of life. That is exactly what is means and somehow we do not have an exact English equivalent, apart from the word “devotion.” And it should be translated, “the same devotion.” This is devotion to doctrine. In other words, it is the writer’s desire that the readers show the same devotion to doctrine that he has shown and does show in his teaching. He has personally studied and taught and he has moved all the way to supergrace. Now he is dealing with reversionists and he wants them to begin and to keep on coming. He wants them to have devotion to doctrine, that’s all they need. it is your devotion to the written Word that causes God to provide you with a right pastor-teacher to communicate it to you so you can get to supergrace. That is where the right pastor-teacher is and that is his desire for you, that you too will get to that same spot. The communicator must be devoted to doctrine before the recipient can be devoted to doctrine. That is why in verse 10 e)ndeiknumi was used of the pastor. He demonstrates his love for Jesus Christ by taking in doctrine and by ministering doctrine. It is the written Word that becomes the issue after the cross.

“to the full assurance” — we have proj plus the accusative of plhroforia. Proj plus the accusative means several things. It often means “face to face with”, it also means “toward” or “to” or “beside”. Here it means “toward”, it is directional — “toward the full assurance.” Plhroforia means not just assurance but it means complete confidence.

“We continually desire each one of you individually to demonstrate the same devotion to doctrine toward full confidence.” Your direction is to come face to face with complete confidence. If you keep going you will come face to face with supergrace. Supergrace is described by “full confidence” or plhroforia. In other words, the normal Christian life begins with supergrace. Full confidence begins with supergrace.

Next is “of hope.” This is a descriptive genitive singular of e)lpij, and e)lpij means confidence or prospect. The prospect or confidence of taking in doctrine consistently is supergrace status, the tactical objective of every believer priest in phase two and the tactical victory of the angelic conflict.

“until the end” — the adverb a)xri is used as an improper preposition. When an adverb is used as a preposition it is called an “improper preposition.” It should be translated “until the end” — a)xri plus teloj means the end of your life on earth, the end of phase two.

Translation: “And we [pastors] continually desire each one of you believers individually to demonstrate the same devotion [to doctrine], moving face to face toward the full assurance of the confidence [supergrace status] until the end [of your life]”.

We do not have a definite article before teloj. The reason is because the quality of the noun is emphasised. In other words, if you are moving toward doctrine in time take away the definite article because you are going to die the most beautiful way in all the world. You are going to die under dying grace. If you had the definite article with teloj it wouldn’t mean much, but the absence of the definite article calls attention to the high quality of the noun. The high quality of the noun is the glorious privilege of dying grace. The concept goes back to verse 3 where the departure of the believer is always a matter of the sovereignty of God. We will receive as long as God gives us permission. So verse 3 is now explained. This says in verse 11, “until the termination of life on earth”, God’s permission. The last phrase, teloj minus the definite article actually describes God’s permission. God’s permission is for you to move into, live in, enjoy, and have all the blessings of supergrace as long as you live, and then to depart from this earth under dying grace under the most beautiful and comfortable and delightful of circumstances, where even the dying has as much happiness as the living. In this way we derive maximum benefit from life while glorifying God as a royal priest. A royal priest should go out in a royal way!

Verse 12 — “That”, the conjunction i(na plus the negative mh used to introduce a negative purpose clause with the subjunctive of the verb — “That you be not”, the aorist middle subjunctive of the verb ginomai which means to become. The word “lest” is the best way to translate a negative purpose clause: “lest you become.” The aorist tense of the verb become is a constative aorist, contemplating the action in its entirety. It takes an occurrence and regardless of the extent or duration of that occurrence gathers it into a single whole. With the predicate nominative coming up, nwqroj, it gathers up into one ball of wax what we should never, never do — neglect doctrine for even a day. Nwqroj is a predicate nominative with ginomai, Ginomai is a verb to be or become and therefore takes not an accusative but a nominative. It means negative volition toward doctrine. With the negative it demands that the royal priest spends time every day taking in the Word of God. The middle voice is the permissive middle. The permissive middle plus the negative represents the agent, the believer priest, as not voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action of the verb, and not doing so to his own interests. So his failure to take in doctrine shows a lack of interest in his own purpose in being here. The negative mh with the subjunctive is prohibitive, so we have the subjunctive of prohibition. The word “slothful” is the word nwqroj, and again it is in the predicate nominative and is in the plural. We saw this noun in Hebrews 5:11 where it indicated apathy or indifference toward Bible doctrine. As in Hebrews 5:11 so in Hebrews 6:12 it means apathy, indifference, negative volition toward doctrine. So far then we have, “Lest you become apathetic [indifferent, negative, toward doctrine].” This is the one thing that no believer can afford to do.

The basic way in which this apathy develops is through reactors in the life. Reactors are not necessarily sinful but they form the basis of getting into something that is sinful. Disillusion, boredom, discouragement, etc. are not sin but they make you vulnerable for a frantic search for happiness. Self-pity is a sin, a mental attitude sin very definitely. Loneliness is not a sin but it can produce a whole batch of sins when one reacts to it. There are the mental attitude sins like jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, antagonism, also double as reactor factors. Frustration is not a sin but as a reactor factor it can lead to sin. So some of these reactors are actually sins and some are not, but when one reacts to any of these situations he comes to the frantic search for happiness, and the frantic search for happiness perpetuates carnality into the life on a very extensive basis. The frantic search for happiness also leads to emotional revolt. Once the emotion revolts it intensifies whatever reactor factors are involved. This combination always results in neglecting, becoming indifferent or apathetic toward Bible doctrine. It is the negative volition toward doctrine that starts all the trouble as far as Satan getting into the picture. A vacuum is opened up by negative volition that goes directly to the right lobe. The right lobe has already been attacked by the emotion under emotional revolt. Emotional revolt freezes the valves in the frame of reference, in the memory centre, the vocabulary, the categories, the norms and standards and the launching pad. When these valves freeze that forces all of the doctrine back into the left lobe where it is not useable. It can still be understood objectively but it is not useable until it is again transferred. Through the vacuum, which is called mataiothj in the Greek, comes the doctrine of demons which puts the believer under demon influence. The believer cannot be demon possessed but demon influence brings the doctrines of Satan into the right lobe and they replace the places where Bible doctrine existed previously, so that the norms and standards are changed. The vocabulary changes, you get a lot of silly things like loving everyone, and so on, and you get all kinds of applications that are erroneous. As a result of these things there is a total blackout of the soul which is called two different things in the scripture — blackout (darkness) and hardness of heart. This leads to the practice of reverse process reversionism.

Once you get to negative volition toward doctrine then you lose the indwelling of Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ is on the outside knocking. The indwelling of Christ can be lost at frantic search for happiness or the point of emotional revolt, or very shortly after getting into the negative volition factor. You cannot neglect doctrine and get away with it, that is the principle.

Then we have a conjunctive particle de used to emphasise a contrast. — “but.” And here is what we should be doing in contrast to what we shouldn’t be doing as royal priests — “followers”, the nominative plural of mimhthj means “imitators”. And we are now going to have an illustration of what we should imitate: Abraham reaching supergrace.

“of them” — the genitive masculine plural of the definite article is a reference to supergrace believers, Old Testament types primarily. At the time of the writing of Hebrews the Old Testament canon was completed and had been circulated for quite a few hundred years. So this category, because of devotion to doctrine, has achieved the tactical victory and believers are commanded to imitate them or to follow them.

In the selection here God the Holy Spirit could have selected a number of different keys. He selected Abraham for a lot of reasons. Abraham is the pattern of Old Testament salvation as well as Old Testament spirituality. Abraham is also extremely well documented in the New Testament. Abraham is discussed in the whole fourth chapter of Romans, both his salvation and his spirituality. He is also discussed in the second chapter of James. He is the subject of Hebrews chapter six and has quite a few sentences in chapter eleven, as well as having everything to do with Genesis chapters twelve and all the way through chapter twenty-five. So Abraham is obviously the perfect illustration to use at this point. In selecting him God the Holy Spirit opens up the whole perspective of supergrace blessing. From the point of salvation on if a believer remains positive it is possible in a relatively short period of time to reach the supergrace status. The supergrace status is first of all characterised by occupation with the person of Christ, then supergrace capacity — the cup in the soul based on doctrine, and then the; pouring of supergrace blessings. Every Old Testament hero who reached supergrace had a specific and a particular type of key to his whole supergrace blessing life. Supergrace blessings always include wealth. Wealth differs. For example, Abraham was a millionaire but his wealth was counted in sheep and goats and cattle, and so on. Then we have the principle of prosperity, and prosperity has many aspects — materialistic prosperity, possession of things at different types, social prosperity, and sexual prosperity which is the key to Abraham. Then in some cases it is a matter of promotion, like in David’s case. But these are basically the characteristics of supergrace blessings. There is also another one that is brought into the picture for all of them at some time: pressure. These men are all great in supergrace under pressure. The key to Abraham is sexual prosperity. Abraham also is the farther of a new race. Sexual prosperity is brought out in the Abrahamic covenant as it appears first in Genesis 12:1-3, and especially in Genesis 12:2 where it says “In multiplying I will multiply.” This demands sexual prosperity which has two parts: the procreation and the perpetuation of the family, the race, into a nation. Abraham is the father of a new race, he is also the father of many Gentile nations — e)qnoj means Gentiles, it is never used of the Jews. Abraham is the father of the new race whereas Moses is the father of the new nation. Before Moses there was no nation. With Abraham the key is sexual prosperity; with Moses the key is leadership. Then the nation finally had a good king in David, and the key to David’s supergrace is his leadership again, or his kingship. Then when we get to Jeremiah the nation is going out under the fifth cycle of discipline, and does, and old age blessing is the key to Jeremiah. All the way through the big thing has always been that Israel were the custodians of the Word of God. Therefore Paul supergrace blessing is doctrine. There never was a man of doctrine like Paul and there never will be again. These men are all Jews, all related to Israel, and all had different keys to the supergrace blessings.

“through faith” — the preposition dia plus the genitive of pistij. And we are going to have a problem with the noun pistij. The problem is that pistij does mean faith, but pistij also means what is believed or doctrine. So pistij can be faith in action or it can mean doctrine. Or really what is comes to mean is you keep believing what you hear and you transfer it to your human spirit and to your right lobe, and so faith is the key to doctrine. Without faith the concentration on the teaching of the Word becomes useless because it is faith and faith-rest that transfers it. So faith connotes both faith-rest as a technique, the function of GAP and what is believed, and/or doctrine.

“and patience” — makroqumia. “Patience” is not too good a translation, it means more endurance or consistency, or stability in consistency. You have to be consistent in the intake of the Word of God, you can’t get around that. This is where most people miss. They are consistent for awhile and they phase out.

“inherit” — the present active participle of klhronomew which means to acquire possession of something, to possess something you don’t possess before. The present tense is an aoristic present, it is used for punctiliar action in the present time. Remember that the aorist tense always connotes punctiliar action in past time. So there is an aoristic present which expresses the idea of a present fact, supergrace blessings, acquired without reference to progress. All of a sudden we are there. The active voice: the supergrace believer acquires possession of supergrace blessings, and this is accomplished by consistency, faithfulness, steadfastness, persistence in the function of GAP. That is what counts. The participle is a telic participle, used to express God’s purpose in preserving doctrine. God is preserving doctrine so that you and I can move to supergrace, so that every generation of believers will have something on which to move to supergrace. Reaching the objective of the supergrace life with its occupation with Christ, with its supergrace capacities and with its supergrace blessings, is the purpose and is the objective. Therefore God preserves doctrine for that reason.

“the promises” — the accusative plural of e)paggelia, used here for divine promises, pledges, anything related to supergrace — all the doctrines that lead to it, all the principles, all the promises. Not only did Abraham have doctrine and promises and messages from God by which he could move toward supergrace but God even told him ahead of time what type of emphasis, what type of prosperity, he would have in supergrace. The word here is “promises” in the plural and it indicates variation of promises to supergrace believers. There is always a key emphasis but there are many supergrace blessings. Supergrace promised blessings to Abraham related, for example, to having a son from his own loins. You and I have many wonderful supergrace blessings for us with our name on it but God hasn’t given us an engraved promise as He did Abraham, yet ours are just as definite as his. But with Abraham it was so clear: “You Abraham are going to be the father of a new race. From your own loins will come a son who will be a new race.” Supergrace promised blessings to David related to his kingdom, therefore he became a king. Supergrace promises to believers of this dispensation are compatible with the blessing categories of the time in which we live.

Translation of verse 12: “Lest you become apathetic [toward doctrine], but instead become imitators of them [supergrace heroes], the ones who through faith and persistence [in GAPing it] acquired possession of the promises [supergrace blessings].”

Summary

1. The illustration of this principle is taken from Abraham who was in a different dispensation and in a different priestly battalion.

2. Abraham was a family priest not of the royal priesthood of the Church Age. Yet God had great blessings for him. But because we are of the royal priesthood our supergrace blessings are even greater. So while we do not know the key to our supergrace blessings we know that being in the royal priesthood in the Church Age makes them greater blessings.

3. Nevertheless the promises of supergrace blessings applied as much to Abraham as to us. The principle of supergrace belongs to all of us.

4. Note that Abraham is used as the pattern of Old Testament salvation — Romans 4:1-16, 22-25.

5. Abraham is also used as the pattern of Old Testament supergrace heroes as well as Old Testament spirituality. In Romans 4:17-21 we have supergrace. In Hebrews 6:13-15 we have supergrace, as in Hebrews 11:8-19; James 2:21-23. So a character study of Abraham reveals all of the advances and all of the retreats of phase two.

Now we have come to our illustration of persisting to supergrace, the illustration of staying with it until you get there. Abraham is the pattern of persistence ending in supergrace blessing — verses 13-15. Out of this illustration will come the doctrine of the two immutable things. Verse 13 is the first of two immutable things: the oath of God which is based upon who and what He is, His person; verse 14, the second of the two immutable things, is the promise to Abraham, the supergrace blessing promise. And verse 15 is how Abraham finally arrived at the point of supergrace. In other words, verse 15 is the actual illustration. We will first of all study the two immutable things as they relate to Abraham. Then the rest of Hebrews six will go on and deal with the two immutable things as they relate to the royal priesthood. We are believers in the Church Age; our high priest is a King priest, He is in the same battalion as Melchizedek.

Verse 13 — we start with gar, the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle. We are starting a new subject with gar. Every time you have gar it means a new subject. So we have the principle of the first immutable thing. Persistence in learning doctrine is the key to reaching our tactical objective of supergrace status in the royal priesthood. The objective is the supergrace life. “For” begins the illustration of Abraham. The word “when” is not found in the original, it is used by the translator to interpret the participle coming up as a temporal participle.

“God” — o( qeoj, “the God.” The first person of the Trinity is the one who handles supergrace blessings. God the Father is the author of the divine decrees and all supergrace blessings are related to the divine decrees. Your supergrace blessings were provided for you in eternity past. God has your name of specific supergrace blessings, things that are so wonderful, so fantastic that you wouldn’t want to miss them. Your birthright as a royal priest is supergrace. So don’t be like Esau and sell your birthright for a mess of pottage or a mess of frantic search for happiness. It isn’t worth it. You have before you an inheritance, a birthright, an inheritance in time which when you receive it God is glorified in giving it to you and you are blessed in receiving it.

“made promise” — aorist middle participle of e)paggelw. It should be translated “having promised.” The active voice was used in Homer with this particular verb but in the New Testament the active voice is not used in the participial form, it is always the middle voice in the Koine Greek. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist, used as a generally accepted fact or doctrine which is regarded as so fixed in its certainty as to be axiomatic. Therefore we are describing something that is an absolute, as though it was an actual occurrence at this moment. The middle voice is used for the subject participating in the results of the action of the verb. God participates in having promised us something. He actually participates in the results. However, this is an indirect middle in which the agent [God the Father] is emphasised as producing the action rather than participating in its results. Therefore you have to translate it in a reflexive way — “the God himself having promised.” The participle being an aorist participle has antecedent action to the main verb, the main verb doesn’t come up until verse 15 where he obtains the supergrace blessings. This is also, by the way, a temporal participle which is why the translator put the “when” in.

“to Abraham” — the dative singular of the indirect object. It indicates the one in whose interest the promise is made by God. It is for Abraham’s blessing that God gave him all of these promises relating to his supergrace experience and blessing. The same thing is true with us. By application, being in the royal priesthood we are much higher than Abraham. Our priesthood is a higher priesthood than Abraham’s priesthood. Abraham’s priesthood was a family priesthood, the lowest of all. Remember that when Melchizedek, a bona fide person, a royal priest, came into contact with Abraham it was Melchizedek who ministered to Abraham, not vice versa. This indicates once again that the priesthood of which we are a part, the royal priesthood, is a superior priesthood in every way to Abraham’s. Yet God blessed Abraham to the maximum. Therefore we have the right to ask ourselves a question” How does this participle apply to us? The answer: In a much greater way. The blessings that are stored up and reserved for us are infinitely superior to the blessings to Abraham. This does not means that they exclude Abraham’s blessing, they include it. But we have something that is greater in supergrace than any priesthood that has ever existed. When Abraham reached supergrace God poured but the road to supergrace was filled with a lot of setbacks and failures. Nevertheless, Abraham did do one thing well. He persisted. He is, therefore, the illustration of persistence. In spite of many setbacks, in spite of side-trips into reversionism, he stuck with the principle and stayed with it until he made it.

“because” — the conjunction e)pei is used in a causal sense here; “he had” — imperfect active indicative of e)xw. This is what is called the customary imperfect, it denotes that which occurs at regular intervals in past time. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood: this is a declarative indicative used for unqualified assertion. It represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

“no one” — kata plus the genitive of o)udeij. It should be translated “by no one”; “greater” is a genitive masculine singular, a comparative from megaj. This is a genitive of description. There is no one in the universe greater than God, therefore He could not promise in the name of another, there is no one higher. This is our first introduction to the doctrine of two immutable things and the first of these is God swearing by Himself because there is no higher person in the universe — “because he had no one greater by whom to swear”, the aorist active infinitive of o)mnuw. It means to take a solemn oath, to confirm a promise by an oath. The constative aorist contemplates the action of taking an oath in its entirety. The occurrence of confirming the promise with an oath is gathered up into a single ball of wax. That is the constative aorist. God could find no one greater than He is because there is no one greater, so He takes an oath “by himself”, on the basis of His own person He is emphasising that He in His essence is well qualified to make the promise and to keep the promise, no matter how great the problem. It was this thing that Abraham remembered above everything else. God took an oath in His own name that He would fulfill this, and for that reason Abraham at age 99 and sexually dead was not shook.

“he sware by himself” — aorist active indicative of o)mnuw again which means to take an oath. He took an oath in the name of His own person. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the occurrence of taking an oath in its entirety but regards it from the standpoint of its results. The result, of course, was Abraham’s blessing in supergrace. The active voice: God produced the action of the verb, He took the oath. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative which represents the verbal idea from the standpoint of its reality. It is the mood of unqualified assertion, the mood of certainty, and it is an unqualified fact that God took an oath on the basis of His own essence in making the promise to Abraham. “By himself” is the preposition kata plus the genitive of the reflexive pronoun e(autou, and it means “by himself”, “on the basis of his own person.”

Translation: “For the God when he himself had promised to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to take an oath, he took an oath on the basis of his own person.”

Summary

1. Here are two immutable things — the oath of God and the promise. The oath is related to His person and the promise is the content, the message or decrees.

2. The solemn oath emphasises who and what God is. He is the greatest of all, there is no one greater, He took an oath by Himself.

3. There was no one greater by whom God could take the oath, so He had to take the oath in the name of His own person.

4. With that oath He gave a specific promise to Abraham. The promise has to do with Abraham’s supergrace sexual prosperity.

5. This whole thing has an analogy to the function of the pastor-teacher in our dispensation. The pastor-teacher is divided into two parts, the person and the message. God in effect has put two things into the pastor-teacher: a spiritual gift which becomes the basis for the pastor’s authority (Hebrews 13:7,17); a message, and that is like the promise, the second of the two immutable things. The message is the basis of supergrace blessing to those who respond, who are positive, to the authority of the pastor and therefore concentrate on the message that he gives.

Verse 14 — gives us the promise itself. We begin with the word “Saying” which is a present active participle of legw. The present tense is a static present used for that which may be taken for granted as a fact. The active voice: God the Father made the promise, as quoted in Genesis 22:16,17. The participle is a temporal participle and should be translated “When he was saying”, to put it together with the previous verse. In other words, “when He made the promise”.

Now comes the quotation from Genesis 22:16,17 — “Surely.” We have two particles e)i mhn, and it is an idiom in the Greek used as a formula. It means “assuredly” or “definitely.” In other words, this is an oath formula: definitely in my own name I am doing this. “Definitely” is “I am God” — here is the actual oath. E)i mhn, then, is used as the formula to show the oath of the previous verse was actually taken, and before God gave a promise he said, “Just as assuredly as I am God I promise that blessing, you will be blessed” , and so on. In other words, e)i mhn is the place where you insert the oath. We have in the English translation “Surely”, but it should be translated “definitely” or “assuredly.”

In verse 14 we have the present active participle of legw. This is the static present tense, used for that which may be taken for granted as a fact. When God takes an oath and then makes a promise the promise is equivalent to the decree. While God promised Abraham in time He decreed it in eternity past. The active voice: God the Father made the promise, or decreed. And we have the quotation of the promise of Genesis 22:16,17. The participle here is a temporal participle and should be translated “when he was saying [to Abraham]”. Then comes the quotation from Genesis 22:16,17. God first of all took an oath in the name of Himself when he was making this promise to Abraham. A promise is merely a repetition of the decree in eternity past. So the two immutable things can be described this way: The first of the immutable things is the oath God took an oath in the name of Himself and that emphasises the person of God. Secondly we have the decree — what God said in eternity past — and in time a decree is a promise. The promise began in Genesis 12:2, that Abraham would have sexual prosperity. It was reiterated in Genesis 15:5, then in 17:5, 22:17. It is also quoted in numerous passages like Romans 4 and Hebrews 6. The promise is secure to Abraham because it is based on two immutable things: the person of God [the oath]; the decree of God [the promise].

The word “surely” is one that is so pitifully translated in the KJV because it is a highly specialised idiom made up of two particles — e)i mhn. These particles are not really translatable, they merely indicate this is where you put in God’s oath. God took an oath in the name of Himself and e)i mhn is an idiom to indicate the insertion of an oath. “Just as definitely or just as surely as I am God” — that is the oath which is brought in by the two particles. The two particles are called, therefore, the idiom of oath formula, for an actual promise is being quoted.

“blessing” is a present active participle from e)ulogew which means to bless or provide benefit. The present tense is tendential which is used of an action which is purposed. The action which is purposed here is supergrace blessing though it has not yet taken place. Abraham was given this promise repeatedly before it actually occurred. The action is purposed but hasn’t been fulfilled. Though it hasn’t taken place it represents what God intends for Abraham under supergrace status — sexual prosperity and a new race, sexual prosperity and the father of many nations. The active voice: God intended to produce the action of the verb for Abraham when he reached supergrace, which he did at age 99. The participle is a telic participle used to denote a future purpose. So it should be translated, “Just as definitely [or assuredly] as I am God, intended blessing I will bless” — the future active indicative of e)ulogew. The future tense with the solemn oath formula, e)i mhn, becomes a gnomic future. A gnomic future presents a statement of fact as a promise which must be considered as axiomatic. In other words, God would keep Abraham alive until he did reach supergrace even if Abraham had to be a thousand years old. But, of course, in the whole structure of the decree the omniscience of God knew billions and billions of years ago that it would take Abraham 99 years to get into supergrace so He could pour. The telic participle plus the gnomic future is a translation and refinement upon the quotation of Genesis 22. So the oath formula in the gnomic presents a statement of absolute fact, and it is used for stating something so dogmatic as to be anticipated in the future without equivocation. So we know something now about the imperfect tense in the Hebrew which is being translated here, that when God said this it was a dogmatic promise. Therefore, while it was only going to be fulfilled in supergrace God knew that Abraham would reach supergrace.

“blessing I will bless” — the active voice of the future active indicative: God produces the action of the promised supergrace blessings — sexual prosperity the key. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative which presents an unqualified assertion. The verbal idea is represented from the viewpoint of reality and certainty. God promised Abraham supergrace sexual prosperity, plus from that prosperity the formation of a new race and becoming the father of many nations. Many Arab nations go right back to Abraham, and he is their original ancestor. The Jewish race goes back to Abraham. Abraham was a Gentile and he did not become a Jew until 99 years of age. Now he was a Hebrew because he crossed over a river (“Hebrew” means to cross over a river) but he did become a Jew at the time he was circumcised. So he lived 99 years without being a Jew. Literally now we have, “when he was saying.” That goes with the previous verse. When he was saying what? Well, after He had taken the oath, that is when He started doing the saying. “When he was saying, Just as certainly as I am God, intended blessing I will bless you.” This is a reference to the supergrace status, the supergrace blessings, which came to Abraham.

Categorical grace

1. Salvation grace (Phase one grace), which is all the Trinity has accomplished to save man. It involves the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. On the involvement side: non-meritorious volition expressed by faith in Jesus Christ or the living Word.

2. Living grace (Phase two grace), everything the Trinity must do to keep us alive in the devil’s world. We are in enemy territory, therefore we have to be kept alive. This includes dying grace as well. The involvement side: no volition is involved since keeping us alive in enemy territory is a matter of the sovereignty of God. The only exception to that is when some idiot in reversionism commits suicide. They superimposed their own volition over the sovereignty of God which is a type of reversionism that leads to sudden sin unto death — they administer it themselves.

3. Supergrace — James 4:6. “More grace” is a mistranslation. The comparative of megaj should be translated “greater grace.” “Greater grace” is supergrace. This is maximum growth resulting in occupation with Christ, resulting in occupation with Christ through doctrine and supergrace blessings. This is the tactical victory of the angelic conflict in contrast to category #1 grace which is the strategical victory of the angelic conflict. On the involvement side: non-meritorious volition of the believer expressed by the daily function of GAP. It involves a positive attitude toward the written Word.

4. Surpassing grace. “Surpassing grace” is the corrected translation of Ephesians 2:7 where we have the phrase “exceeding riches of grace”. This is all that God will do for us in phase three. On the involvement side there is no volition involved since the angelic conflict has terminated for the one involved.

Summary

1. This part of the promise refers to a specific supergrace blessing for Abraham, a supergrace blessing which Abraham could not have until he reached supergrace status.

2. The supergrace blessing is sexual prosperity, it results in the birth of Isaac and in many other things. Abraham’s supergrace status included wealth and prosperity, success, promotion, but the key again is his sexual prosperity.

3. The sexual prosperity came to him at approximately 100 years of age.

4. The age which is given in Genesis 17:1 obviously indicates that Abraham persisted. He had many setbacks but he did persist. He kept on GAPing it until he got there.

5. Abraham’s sexual prosperity is described in Romans 4:17-21.

6. Abraham’s supergrace production is epitomised in James 2:21-23, some 20 or 21 years after the birth of Isaac and 22 years after he reached supergrace.

7. There are other aspects to Abraham’s supergrace promise. Abraham has a land and a city. They are really not a part of supergrace, they are a part of category #4, surpassing grace. Abraham will enjoy a land forever and he will have a city belonging to him forever. Jerusalem will be his city in eternity. These come under surpassing grace and they’re covered in Hebrews 11:8-19.

Now we have a second participle plus the verb. We have the word “multiplying”, the present active participle of plhqunw. E)ulogew means God pouring for Abraham great sexual prosperity; plhqunw is the result of this sexual prosperity. The sexual prosperity is the supergrace blessing, there are many results from it. So we now start another study here in the promise, the second half of the promise, “multiplying”. This is the present active participle of the verb plhqunw. Plhqunw means the progeny. First of all the new race progeny, Isaac and Jacob. This is where a new race began. The new nations, of course, are Arab nations. Again the present tense is tendential. A tendential present is used of an action which is purpose. The evolvement of the new race and the many Arab nations is still future from the time God gave the promise but God gives it as though it was taking place at that moment, and a tendential present is how you do that mechanically. In the Greek the tendential present is something future but because it is going to be fulfilled it is put in the present tense, indicating its reality. It represents what God intended to do for Abraham’s progeny, hence God promoted Abraham by making him the father of a new race and Abraham is the father of many [Arab] nations. Moses is the father of the nation; Abraham is the father of the new race. The participle is a telic participle. God is the subject producing the action of the participle. The telic participle is used to denote God’s future purpose for the progeny of Abraham to Isaac and Jacob. This promise comes second because it is based upon Abraham’s supergrace blessing — sexual prosperity. Sexual prosperity will lead to the new race and to the father of many nations concept. To fulfill this promise Abraham required the revival of both his and Sarah’s genitals, but God kept the promise and, again, we have e)i mhn to indicate that He will. So the telic participle indicates this will occur, and all Abraham has to do is believe this.

“I will multiply” is the future active indicative of plhqunw. This time we have the verb form instead of the participle. The future tense is gnomic future. Used with a solemn oath formula it presents an absolute fact which is regarded as axiomatic and very dogmatic. The active voice: God produces the action as a result of Abraham’s supergrace blessing in the area of sexual prosperity. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative used for an unqualified assertion.

Verse 14: “When he was saying, Assuredly just as I am God, blessing I intend to bless you, and multiplying I intend to multiply you.”

The promise represents the decree of God in eternity past. Abraham had some specific blessings with his name on it, just as you and I as believers have some specific supergrace blessings with our name on it. But, of course, the reality only comes with supergrace status and supergrace status only comes by persistence in the function of GAP.

Verse 15 — the principle of fulfillment. “And so”, the continuative use of the conjunction kai plus the adverb o(utoj. It should be translated “And thus.” It is used to refer to that which has immediately preceded, namely the promise of God. The adverb in the Greek simply says we are not referring to something further up the context, we are referring to that which was just promised. The promise involves two immutable things: the person or essence of God who made the promise, and the word, the decree of God in eternity past. The principle: Our life and our future is based upon the same two immutable things. God promises; God on the basis of His own person takes a solemn oath that He has for you supergrace blessings.

“after he [Abraham] had patiently endured” — the aorist active participle of makroqumew. Makroqumew refers back to verse 12 where we had the noun, makroqumia. In verse 12 it does not mean “patience”, the way it was translated in the KJV, it means persistence. Here it means “having persisted” — the daily function of GAP, being consistent, stabilising with your attitude toward doctrine, not letting anything get between you and Bible doctrine — “and so having persisted” is the corrected translation. This is a constative aorist, it contemplates persistence in its entirety — today, tomorrow, the next, the next, and so on. The constative aorist gathers up into one ball of wax all of your persistence in learning doctrine. Abraham persisted in spite of many reversionistic setbacks until he finally arrived at age 99. The active voice: Abraham produces the action of the verb by persisting in his intake of doctrine and the use of the faith-rest technique. Faith-rest was the spirituality of the Old Testament. The participle is antecedent action to the main verb which comes up next.

“he obtained” — the aorist active indicative of e)pitugxanw which means to obtain. E)pi means “on” or “upon”; tugxanw itself means to “attain”, to “gain.” It means to reach a goal, to attain a goal. it means to cross the goal line. In this case we cross the goal line being supergrace. The aorist tense is the culminative aorist. The participle is a constative aorist — GAP, GAP, GAP, and so on, gathering up into one ball of wax how you get there. Now, we have a culminative aorist as a result. The culminative aorist emphasises the entirety but emphasises the existing results. The existing result is supergrace. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb by persisting in the intake of doctrine. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative denoting an unqualified assertion. It indicates the fact of reality and certainty — he finally made it. “And so having persisted [in the function of GAP] he obtained it [the promise].”

“the promise” — the objective genitive of e)paggelia which refers to the supergrace promise of sexual prosperity and the resultant plhqunw activity, the multiplication concept.

Summary

1. Persistence in the function of GAP leads to the tactical victory of the angelic conflict — arrival at the supergrace life.

2. The tactical victory includes maximum love for Jesus Christ or occupation with the person of Christ.

3. It also includes the supergrace capacity with supergrace blessings as illustrated by Abraham’s sexual prosperity — the resultant birth of Isaac, all of the father of many nations concept.

4. Note that Abraham persisted in spite of many failures, many trips into reversionism.

5. On previous occasions Abraham came very close to the supergrace life only to fall back, only to retreat into reversionism.

6. But Abraham had one thing: he never gave up and he finally made it.

The encouragement of Abraham is the principle of our encouragement. It is the two immutable things which guarantee the supergrace blessings. Now wee have in verses 16-18 a dissertation on the two immutable things.

Verse 16 — “For men” — “For” is the use of gar to indicate once again a change of subject. This time we are talking about a custom in life. “For men” — the nominative plural of a)nqrwpoj refers to mankind. The word “verily” is not found in the original text.

“swear” — present active indicative of o)mnuw which means to take an oath. The present tense is a customary present, it is used to denote an event which occurs habitually in the human race. It is a custom, a precedent kind of thing. The active voice: mankind produces the action in the settling of a dispute. He takes an oath by something higher than himself. The declarative indicative represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Many, many times some kind of hassle has been settled by someone taking an oath in the name of God, someone greater.

“by the greater” is a prepositional phrase, kata plus the genitive of the comparative of megaj. It is correctly translated “by the greater.”

“and an oath” — the word for “oath” is o(rkoj which means a solemn oath verifying something or promising something.

“for confirmation” — e)ij plus the accusative of bebaiwsij. It should be translated “with reference to”. This is the reference use of e)ij plus the accusative — “with reference to guaranteeing”, “with reference to furnishing security”.

“to them” is the dative plural of advantage the intensive pronoun a)utoj. The words “the end” is the nominative singular of peraj is “termination”.

“of all strife” — a)ntilogia, which is “hostility, dispute, opposition.” Because a principle is involved here it means “opposition”.

Translation: “For mankind customarily takes an oath by the greater [by God]: and to them [the opposition] such an oath with reference to guaranteeing security is the termination of all opposition.”

The human custom of settling a dispute by taking an oath in the name of God is well known to the readers of Hebrews because it was a Jewish custom of long standing to do this. This gives rise to the question: By what does God take an oath in His promise of supergrace blessing to Abraham as well as to us in the Church Age, the royal priesthood. The answer is in verse 17.

Verse 17 — “Wherein” is literally, “By means of which” — the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of the relative pronoun o(j — “By means of which decree or promise.”

“God” — o( qeoj — “the God”. God the Father with emphasis on His person, His essence. Here again we have the two immutable things. First of all we have the word “willing” which is a present active participle of boulomai, and it means to decree just as the noun boulh means a decree. The present tense is a static present representing a condition assumed as perpetually existent. The active voice: God produced the action of the verb in eternity past. The participle is a telic participle denoting divine purpose. And it should be translated “By means of which oath the God sovereignly decreeing.”

“more abundantly” is incorrect — the accusative singular of the comparative perissoj which means “beyond this” or “even more.” In other words, beyond the sovereignty and the essence of God He adds a second immutable thing. He decrees it in eternity past and He declares that portion of the decree to the one involved in time. He did this for the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee”. He said, “Sit down at my right hand”. And all of these quotations from the Psalms are simply quotations of promises from the divine decrees to Jesus Christ. He did the same thing with Abraham. He extracted from the Abraham paragraph in the divine decrees that which belongs to Abraham, and He constantly threw it at him so that Abraham would get on the ball, get off his butt, and get going. Abraham was slow on the uptake.

Here is the interesting thing. God stopped quoting the divine decrees, the paragraph that applied to certain people, when He completed the canon of scripture. So there is a big paragraph in there with your name on it but you’re not going to get the quotation. The reason? You have all of the encouragement you need in the completed canon of scripture, you don’t need an itemised list. You don’t need to ask God what your supergrace package is because you don’t know if you want to go that far or not! Just remember that God is perfect, the package is perfect for you. You couldn’t be happier.

So the static present represents that which perpetually exists. The telic participle indicates God’s purpose, and the accusative singular of the comparative perissoj means “beyond this” or “even more.” In other words, “even more” is like more grace. God on the basis of His person, on the basis of His Word, is going to fulfill for Abraham — and He did; and will fulfill for you — and He will.

“to shew” — e)pideiknumi, the aorist active infinitive meaning to demonstrate in addition. In addition to the decree from His essence — “to demonstrate in addition to the heirs of the promise.” A couple of things we should notice about “to show in addition” [e)pideiknumi]. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist which states the present reality of the promise of supergrace. The fact that the writer of Hebrews put this in the dramatic aorist means it is a reality now for those people living then just as it is a reality now for us. There is a paragraph with your name on it in the supergrace file. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb by an additional oath. The infinitive expresses His purpose to give to you as He gave to Abraham, as He wants to give to every believer supergrace blessings.

“the heirs” — dative plural of klhronomoj. This is a dative of direct object, it indicates the ones for whom or in whose interest the action of the decree is performed. Here we have a reference to each one of us as members of the royal priesthood read into the picture by the plural.

“of promise” — which means Abraham had a paragraph with his name on it, so do we. “Promise” is genitive singular from the noun e)paggelia. This is a descriptive genitive as well as a genitive of relationship. We have a relationship with God and God has a descriptive paragraph on exactly what He is going to do for us when we reach supergrace.

“the immutability” — accusative singular from a)metaqetoj, which means immutability or unchangeability. In other words, the paragraph with your supergrace blessings is unchangeable. It is unchangeable because of His person, because of His Word in eternity past.

Then we have a beautiful verb to back it all up: “confirmed it” — the aorist active indicative of mesiteuw which means to guarantee it, not confirm it. It is guaranteed. This is the dramatic aorist which states the present reality of the oath and the word of the decree in eternity past. The active voice: God gave the oath, He swore on His own name and He made a promise to you before you lived. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative and, again, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, certainty and assurance. And it is an unqualified assertion that you as a believer have your name on supergrace blessings as a part of the eternal decrees.

We also have the instrumental once more of o(rtoj, the oath.

Translation of verse 17 — “By means of which oath the God, sovereignly decreeing even more to demonstrate in addition to the decree to the heirs of the [royal priesthood] promise [of supergrace blessing] the unchangeableness of his decree [regarding supergrace blessing], he guarantees it [supergrace blessing] by means of an oath.”

Summary

1. Note again that in this passage we are dealing with that portion of the divine decrees pertaining to the royal priesthood. Abraham is merely the illustration, he was in an inferior priesthood.

2. A royal priest should live like royalty. Therefore the promise of supergrace blessing.

3. These promises of supergrace blessings to each believer priest are guaranteed by two immutable things: the oath, which refers to the person of God; the decree, which refers to the promise of God.

4. The double and unchangeable guarantee is backed by who and what God is. (To say that you do not have supergrace blessings waiting for you is to deny the existence of God) The supergrace blessings are just as sure as God’s existence.

In order to understand our passage in Hebrews chapter six dealing with two immutable things and the parallel passage in Romans chapter four we now take up the introduction to both of them in Genesis chapter seventeen. They all meet in one spot called Abraham. The seventeenth chapter of Genesis anticipates the supergrace life. In the first eight verses we have the anticipation of the promised blessings of supergrace to Abraham. The key is sexual prosperity.

Verse 1 — “And when Abraham was.” The qal imperfect of hajah means when he became or had passed a certain point. He had become 99 which means he was somewhere between 99 and 100. In the previous chapter Abraham was eighty-six, so there were thirteen years in the elapse between the two passages. That means that at the time this chapter opens Ishmael is thirteen years old. However, at 99 the situation is hopeless because Abraham was now sexually dead.

“the Lord appeared” — this is a grace act on the part of the Lord. The niphal imperfect of raah. The niphal here is reflexive, “the Lord himself appeared.”

“and said” — qal imperfect of amar, “I am the Almighty God”, but that is not what He said at all. “I” is correctly translated, it is the personal pronoun, first person singular ami. There is no verb. “I am El” which is a title for God’s omnipotence. It is translated “Almighty” but what is left out is the next word, Shadaw. Shadaw is a plural, it has a plural ending, and it is taken from the noun Shadh which means “breasts.” This should be translated “I am a God of many breasts.” The breast is used to denote supergrace blessing, the breast being the source of the first food the child had in the ancient world. The concept coming from this: The land flowing with milk and honey — the milk from the breast is involved. And actually, God says, “I have as many breasts as there are believers in history. Part of the divine decree we have studied is a paragraph with your name on it and your supergrace blessing. The same was true of Abraham a few thousand years ago. He said, “I am the omnipotent God of many breasts.” The breast indicates God’s supergrace blessings for Abraham. They centre around his prosperity in supergrace which is sexual prosperity. The phrase El is the description of God having the ability to do anything. At the time that God announces Himself Abraham is sexually dead. Actually, what this first phrase says is “It came to pass that Abraham was ninety-nine years old, and Jehovah himself appeared to him, and said, I am an omnipotent God of many breasts” — many supergrace blessings — “I have the ability to provide them and I do have the blessings”. This is a command, then, for Abraham to get with the supergrace life. The command is given in the hithpael imperative of halak — translated “walk.” The imperative mood: it is a command. The hithpael stem is reflexive and here it connotes advancing toward an objective. The hithpael stem of halak means to advance. In the KJV is says “walk before me”, but it means “advance under my supervision”.

“be thou perfect” is the qal imperative of the verb hajah which means to become. And with it the predicate adjective tamim which means to be complete or sound or entire, and it is used to describe the supergrace life. “Advance under my supervision and become mature.”

Literally the verse says: “And it came to pass that Abram was ninety-nine years old, and Jehovah himself appeared to Abram and said, I am an omnipotent God [I have the ability to do anything] of many breasts [many supergrace blessings]; advance under my supervision, and become mature [supergrace in status].”

Verse 2 — the confirmation of supergrace blessings. The first word “and” is the waw — “That.” Then “I will give”, the qal imperfect of nathan means “That I may give.” God has all these supergrace blessings for Abram and he wants to give them to him, and so He is telling him “Advance and get with it”.

“my covenant” — it actually means promises — “between me and you, with the result that.” Then we have “multiply”, the hiphil imperfect of rabah which means “I will cause to multiply.” The hiphil stem is the causative active voice.

“thee exceedingly” — literally, “to the maximum.” We have the repetition of an adverb which means “to the maximum”.

“That I may give my covenanted promises between me and you, with the result that I will cause to multiply you to the maximum.”

The multiplication can only occur one way. Abram does not have a son by Sarah and yet he has a long series of promises. This is the doctrine he has been learning for about forty years. He still does not have the literal fulfillment of that and the last time he got involved in something like that with Hagar it was the end of all sex altogether, and since then he has been totally impotent, incapable of sex. He is sexually dead. God has quoted to Abraham on many occasions that paragraph in the eternal decrees which applied to supergrace blessings and it involves a phenomenal sex life, great sexual prosperity in supergrace that he might be many things: a) That he might become the father of a new race, the Jews; b) That he might become the father of many Gentile nations; c) That he might become the father of us all. There are two ways in which he becomes the father of us all. First, he becomes that in the pattern of salvation — he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and it was credited to his account for righteousness — Genesis 15:6. Secondly, circumcision is going to become the sign of faith-rest by which he enters into the supergrace life.

Abram at this point goes into GAP subordination. He recognises authority. The manner in which he does so is perfectly normal for the time in which he lived. Verse 3 says he fell on his face, the qal imperfect of naphal. This is recognition of the authority of his teacher, the one who is announcing these things to him. And he recognises two types of authority: the authority of the person, and in circumcision he recognises the authority of His Word. At this moment he recognises the authority of the Word by listening. Later on he will recognise the authority of the Word by his faith-rest activity. From the launching pad of his heart he will faith-rest it by an act of circumcision. Here he falls down and God does the talking, the piel imperfect of dabar which is the rest of the passage until it says that God leaves. This means that God is going to provide the information for his faith-rest.

“God talked with him, saying”, the qal infinitive construct to indicate content follows. The posture of Abraham recognises the authority of God’s person or essence. The listening at the moment recognises the authority of what God says. He listens and he concentrates.

In verses 4-8 we have an extrapolation from the divine decrees. This is that paragraph which God decreed billions of years before Abram lived. This was a part of the divine decrees and it had his name on it as Abraham, and it was entitled “supergrace blessings.” Now God communicates it to Abram.

So verse 3 says, “Abram fell on his face while Elohim taught him, saying.”

Verse 4 — “As for me” is where the two immutable things of Hebrews chapter six comes into the picture. Later on in Genesis 22 God will say, “I take an oath in the name of myself.” But here the oath comes in the form of a Hebrew idiom. He uses that first person singular personal pronoun, ani. By so doing this is equivalent to the oath. This is the person. It is translated “As for me” but it actually says “I,” and it could be “Because I am God” instead of “As for me” .And we could take this in its proper idiomatic sense, “Because I am what I am [Because I am God], Behold, my covenant is with you.”

Now the extrapolation begins, “thou shalt be” — qal perfect of hajah — “a father of many nations” — ab [father], hamon [many] goi im [Gentiles].

The doctrine of the fatherhood of Abraham

1. The title “Abraham” is said to be the father of us all — Romans 4:11, 16. It is a reference to the fact that Abraham is the spiritual father, the pattern of salvation and supergrace blessings — Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:1-3, the pattern for salvation. The pattern for supergrace blessings — Genesis 17:1-14.

2. Abraham is also called the father of circumcision — Romans 4:12. That means that Abraham is the originator or the father of a new race.

3. He is also called “father of many Gentile nations” — Genesis 17:4,5; Romans 4:17. It is a reference to Abraham’s progeny from his supergrace sexual prosperity through Keturah — Genesis 25:1-4. He is not the father of the nation Israel, that is where Moses comes in.

“therefore you shall become a father of many Gentile nations as well.” The many Gentile nations is merely icing on the cake. In other words, as long as the man is alive and in supergrace he is going to be a great sex athlete so obviously he is going to keep having children, but it is the first one that counts. It was the first wife and the first child by the first wife, it is Sarah as the wife and it is Isaac that is the son. This is the brand new race.

Then there is another distinction, there is a constant weeding out. The new race goes through Isaac. Isaac received all that Abraham had and then Isaac is going to have twins. And here is a real problem. Here are twins of two different races — Esau and Jacob. The eldest twin Esau lost out on a mess of pottage. Why? Because he represents reversionism, and the line goes down not only through regeneration but it goes down through supergrace. Jacob finally became Israel toward the end of his life — Prince of God. “Prince of El”, by the way. “I can do it,” God says. Not Prince of Elohim, Prince of El. That “El” is very important. Esau lost out. He was the eldest of the twins and yet he was a Gentile, and from him come other races. Jacob has twelve sons and those twelve were the twelve princes, and from there you have the new race in its formation. This is through the patriarchal period.

Verse 5 — gives us some additional information. “Neither shall thy name be any more Abram.” “Neither shall be called” is the niphal imperfect of qara. Qara means to call and it is in the niphal which is used here in the passive sense plus the negative. And we have an adverb here, “never again.” His name shall never again be called Abram. Ab is the word for father; ram means altitude, high and windy places. His name had been “father of high and windy places.”

“but your name shall become” — hajah, qal perfect. Now we have “Abraham,” which means “father of a multitude.” It means, again, a father of many nations.

“because I have given you” — the piel imperfect of nathan, meaning it took God a long time in human time to do this because Abraham had such a hard time getting to supergrace where he would have the capacity. Doctrine gives the capacity and he didn’t have the capacity up until now — “a fatherhood of many Gentile nations as well” — as well as a new race.

“Consequently your name shall never again be called Abram, but your name shall become Abraham; because I have given you a fatherhood of many Gentile nations as well.”

Verse 6 — “Also I will make thee exceedingly fruitful” — literally, “I will cause you to be prolific,” the hiphil perfect of parah — “to the maximum,” we have the double adverb.

“furthermore, I will give you” — qal perfect of nathan — “nations from your copulation, and kings shall spring forth from you.” This means from all the areas of Abraham’s progeny there will be many kings. Even his reversionistic progeny which is Ishmael will be the source of Arab kings. Then through Isaac and Jacob there will be many kings, the whole Davidic line and the Lord Jesus Christ as well as Saul before David. From Esau there were a famous group of Edomite kings. From Keturah he had all of those men who became kings and had kingdoms.

Verse 7 now gives us the specifics on the new race. “I will establish,” the hiphil perfect of qum. Qum means to stand. In the hiphil it means to cause to stand and therefore correctly translated “establish.”

“thy seed” — now it is no longer goi im, Gentile nations, it is now a singular, the masculine singular noun from zera. We also have a suffix, the second masculine singular suffix which applies to Abraham. Abraham is the father of the new race. It now refers to why he gave everything that he had to one son only, Isaac.

“for an everlasting covenant in their specific generations” — “I will perpetuate them.” There are Jews today, there never will be a time in all of history when the Jews will cease to exist and, furthermore, you can see why anti-Semitism is anti-God and anti-Christian. Abraham is not only the father of a new race but that race also has father Abraham as their spiritual heritage, as the pattern for their salvation — Romans 4:1-3; as the pattern for their supergrace blessing — Romans 4:17-21.

The seed of Abraham is a line of supergrace blessings, and we can trace the line from time to time. Starting with Abraham. When he reached supergrace at 99 God provided everything, that is the El part, He had the ability to do so and Abraham became sexually prosperous, the father of a new race and the father of many nations. Next in line was Joseph. Joseph is a perfect illustration in the line of Abraham in the supergrace promotion and prosperity with emphasis on ruling Gentiles. Joseph was a Jew who was prospered by God and ruled Gentiles. The third in the line is Moses and his supergrace leadership in ruling the Jews at a most difficult time. Number four is David. Supergrace leadership made David the greatest king in the Jewish nation and the greatest king in history until Christ returns. Number five is Isaiah because, first of all, he too was from the tribe of Judah, the royal family. He was actually an uncle of one of the rulers and the brother of another. Isaiah had supergrace blessing in the realm of doctrine when Israel was a nation. He was the greatest prophet and Bible teacher when the nation was assembled as a nation. Number six is Jeremiah because his supergrace blessing came in time of national disaster, the fifth cycle of discipline. His greatness in supergrace was under pressure and he then held the greatest record for prosperity in old age. So the first six are all related. Now today we are in the Church Age and Israel is out as a nation under God. So we have a Jew, the greatest of all, Paul, whose supergrace blessing in time of Israel’s dispersion is in the field of doctrine. The Jewish Age was interrupted by the Church Age and Abraham’s progeny, the apostle Paul, holds the record for all time for doctrinal blessing and dissemination. So here are seven men who are the fulfillment of this phrase.

The covenant is first of all said to be an everlasting covenant “in their specific generation” .Notice how every one of these seven were all believers and therefore followed the pattern of Abraham, the father of us all, they all reach supergrace and therefore followed the spiritual pattern of Abraham — they all made it to supergrace, they were all given specific blessings in the devil’s world. Remember once more that everlasting clause demands that Abraham have a spiritual seed. This is to indicate that then spiritual heritage as well as the racial heritage is involved. The spiritual seed of Abraham refers to all born again by faith in Jesus Christ — Romans 4:13, 16, 21-25.

The final verb here, “to be,” is a qal infinitive construct of hajah — “to be to you an Elohim, and to your seed [progeny] after you.”

So that the whole verse seven dealing with the new race, its spiritual heritage and its physical heritage: “Furthermore I will establish my covenant between me and you and your see after you for an everlasting covenant in their specific generations, to be your Elohim and your progeny’s Elohim after you.”

Now here is Abraham with no way to copulate, no way to become the father of anything, and now he is getting the whole historical steps in that condition. Why? This is the Bible class that put him over the line into supergrace. This is the Bible class where the doctrine became his, where he believed it, he took it in one lobe and cranked it out the other lobe in faith-rest. His faith-rest manifestation is going to be circumcision.

Verse 8 — the new nation. “Furthermore I have given,” the qal perfect of nathan, “the land,” eretz. He is saying that Abraham is not only going to be a new race but God is going to make a nation out off him too. But they will never be a nation until they get to the land. Eretz relates the new race to a specific geographical location, therefore this race was to become a nation. In the previous verse the new race was related to a specific generation of history. Generations of history followed the spiritual heritage, followed the blessings. This promise from the eternal decree of God indicates that the new race will also be a new nation with a specific geographical location on planet earth.

“wherein thou art a stranger” is not quite correct. The plural from the noun magur is the one which is translated like a verb. It means “residence” really — “the land of your residence” .Abraham is dwelling in a certain land, he has a residence there. He is not a citizen there, he is a pilgrim or a stranger.

“all the land of Canaan, for an eternal possession” — that means that there is going to be a day when there is not going to be any Arabs in the land — “also I will become their Elohim.”

In verses 9-22 we have the ritual anticipation of supergrace blessings.

Verses 9 — “And God said,” qal imperfect of amar plus the waw, an inferential waw. It should be translated, “Furthermore [or therefore] Elohim said to Abraham.”

“Thou shalt keep” — qal imperfect of shamar, which is “You shall guard,” literally. There is why we have a new race. God is going to put in written form on this earth His own Word, and the guardianship of His Word is Israel. “You shall guard my covenant … you, and your seed after you shall guard my covenant.” The guardianship has a ritual, it has a uniform. The guard wears a uniform and the uniform that he wears is circumcision. That is the way the race is perpetuated. This is a circumcised race from generation to generation until the Age of Israel is interrupted and then, of course, circumcision is not a spiritual issue.

Summary

1. A covenant to Abraham in verses 4-8 can only be guarded by positive faith response to Bible doctrine.

2. Abraham’s positive faith response to Bible doctrine will become evident from the circumcision of his totally useless phallus at age 99, and at a future time by the offering of his son Isaac. At 99 Abraham was incapable of sex but God says I am going to do this, so doctrine was more real to him than the condition of his phallus and he said go ahead and circumcise. Why circumcise if you are never going to use it Abraham? Because I believe the Word. There is Abraham staggering not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God. He was demonstrating supergrace faith.

3. Circumcision represents the principle of faithfulness to the Word of God as well as the perpetuation of a physical heritage through supergrace sexual prosperity.

4. Circumcision becomes a ritual with both a spiritual and physical connotation to Israel. Abraham was 99 years old and sexually dead when he reached the point of supergrace.

5. In Genesis 17:5,6 the promise of supergrace sexual prosperity is repeated to Abraham at the time of his sexual death — when he was in a totally hopeless condition.

6. However, Abraham was circumcised in his dead phallus, as per Genesis 17:24, 26.

7. At the moment of circumcision Abraham demonstrated maximum faith-rest application from Bible doctrine.

8. Romans 4:18,19 describe in greater detail his totally hopeless situation. However Bible doctrine in the form of a specific promise called the Abrahamic covenant was much more real to Abraham than the totally hopeless, discouraging physical condition of his genitals. In other words, the issue that Abraham faced was the issue that Peter faced in 2 Peter 1:12-21, only with Peter the doctrine was the second advent, and while he had seen the second advent at the mount of transfiguration he said that what the Word of God says about the second advent is much more real than what he had seen with his eyes.

Supergrace is the place where Bible doctrine is more real to you than anything else in life. There is only one thing more real than doctrine and that is the living Word who is the source of doctrine. Jesus Christ is more real.

9. Consequently there emerges a spiritual concept from circumcision. Circumcision connotes recognition of and positive volition toward the spiritual heritage of Israel. The new race is great but that is a physical thing. The heritage of that new race is doctrine, and that is the all-important thing. Israel has a spiritual heritage: Bible doctrine, the canon of scripture.

10. Every time a male Jew urinated he was reminded of the importance of Bible doctrine.

11. Therefore, the spiritual connotation of circumcision is a reminder that both eternal and temporal blessings from God cannot be acquired apart from Christ, the living Word, and the Bible, the written Word.

12. Abraham’s faith in Christ came when he was uncircumcised. Therefore he is the pattern of salvation for both Jew and Gentile. He was saved as an uncircumcised person and this makes him the father of us all. Romans 4:10-12, 23-25.

13. After salvation comes the issue of supergrace. Circumcision has nothing to do with Abraham’s salvation, it was the memorial to his faith-rest in a hopeless situation. He arrived at supergrace hopeless, but he believed Bible doctrine. When he arrived doctrine was more real, therefore he submitted to circumcision because he believed doctrine.

There are two immutable things: the oath representing God’s person and the actual decree which is represented in the promise. In eternity past God always existed, there never was a time when God did not exist. His essence has always existed, therefore when He makes an oath or a solemn promise in the name of Himself it is because there is no one greater. It emphasises His person and His ability as we saw in El Shadaw, the omnipotent or almighty God [El]; Shadaw [the many-breasted one] which means that He has for each one of us supergrace blessings. God also in eternity past had a plan — the doctrine of divine decrees — and He has extrapolated one paragraph of the divine decrees for the promises to Abraham: the two immutable things. The oath points to the person, the promise points to the decrees. These are unchangeable and immutable and they involve you and me.

Verse 17 — a parenthesis begins. It is introduced by an adverb, kaqoj, used in a causal sentence. It is used as a conjunction at the beginning of a sentence, and the adverb actually has four meanings. Indicating a comparison it means “just as”; connoting the degree of something it means “to the degree that”; it has a temporal connotation translated “when”; but the fourth is the one used here, it has a causal connotation and it is used therefore as a conjunction, and here in this context it should be translated “since” or “insofar as.” The adverb actually relates to the previous phrase, o(j e)stin pathr pantwn — “who is the father of us all.” It refers to the spiritual heritage which is divided into two parts. First of all Abraham is the pattern of salvation. Secondly, he is the pattern for receiving supergrace blessings.

“who is the father of us all, (insofar as it is written...” — the perfect passive indicative of grafw which takes us back to the quotation in Genesis 17:5. The perfect tense is an intensive perfect, it means something that was written in the past with the result that it stands written forever and is used in connection with the verbal plenary doctrine of inspiration. The passive voice indicates the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the function of inspiration, as per 1 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:20,21. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative, it is the mood of unqualified assertion, the mood of the reality of the canon of scripture in this case, and it indicates once again that God the Holy Spirit directed the writers of scripture so that in the original languages God’s complete and connected thought toward man was recorded. In the recording of this particular passage we get once more the same concept. God specifically promised to Abraham. In promise form He told him what he was actually going to have by way of supergrace blessing.

This passage says, then” “Who is the father of us all, (insofar as it has been written in the past with the result that it keeps on being written [or stands written] forever...”

1. The quotation is from Genesis 17:5, an additional encouragement to Abraham to move toward supergrace.

2. God had previous defined Abraham’s supergrace blessings in the original supergrace promise of Genesis 12:2, and later on in Genesis 22:16-18 as well as 17:5.

3. The key to Abraham’s prosperity or promise is supergrace blessing in the field of sexual prosperity. It was to result in great blessing in connection with his right woman, then it was to result in a new race, and it was to result in many Gentile nations being fathered by Abraham.

4. The true meaning of circumcision, however, is related directly to the new race which would be started at the point of Abraham’s circumcision. Abraham was never a Jew until he was circumcised. 5. Circumcision is a sign of Abraham’s supergrace prosperity resulting in the new race.

6. The law was a sign of Moses’ supergrace prosperity in relationship to a new nation.

7. Abraham, then, is the father of the new race; Moses is the father of the new nation which came out of the new race.

8. The Mosaic law contains the laws of divine establishment which became the basis of national prosperity. Moses reached supergrace at the time that he went to get the law, and the law was the sign of his supergrace prosperity which would overflow to the nation in coming generations. Abraham’s sign of reaching supergrace was circumcision. Circumcision is the memorial to God’s grace in the new race; the law is the memorial to God’s grace in the new nation.

9. Both circumcision and the Mosaic law therefore are defined in terms of supergrace and the origin of Israel.

Next in the verse we have o(ti which merely introduces the quotation. It is a conjunction acting as quotation marks, and it introduces the quotation of Genesis 17:5.

The doctrine of circumcision

1. Circumcision consists of cutting away part of the foreskin of the male phallus. The ritual was the sign that Abraham had arrived at the supergrace life, and he had arrived in a totally hopeless condition. But because he believed the promise and the reiteration of the promise of supergrace sexual prosperity he went ahead and submitted to circumcision. By so doing he dedicated his phallus to the supergrace prosperity, and at the same time the removal of the dead skin was a sign of no more reversionism.

2. The significance of circumcision. a) The true meaning of circumcision cannot be understood apart from Genesis 17. b) Abraham was 99 years old and sexually dead when he arrived at the supergrace life — Genesis 17:1. c) In Genesis 17:5 the promise of sexual prosperity in supergrace had been repeated to him. It had been promised first in Genesis 12:2. Then in Genesis 15:5, 17:5. d) In Genesis 17:10-14 Abraham was circumcised as a memorial sign. It is a memorial to category #2 love, and a memorial to the principle of supergrace. It reminds us that Bible doctrine is of the utmost importance. e) Abraham through circumcision in supergrace became the father of a new race, even though at the point his phallus was circumcised he was incapable of sex. f) Abraham is the father of the new Jewish race while, again, Moses is the father of the Jewish nation.

3. Circumcision and the Mosaic law. Circumcision is related to the law in two ways. a) Circumcision relates to the establishment content of the law, including the fact that national stability comes from the right man-right woman relationship and all of the factors it takes. There must be the spiritual factor, there must be the factor of soul, and out of the spiritual factor and the soul factor comes supergrace prosperity. And when right-man or right-woman gets to supergrace, either one of them, it means sexual prosperity. b) Circumcision relates to the Mosaic law in the sense of Codex #2 — the spiritual part of the law and the doctrinal part. Circumcision relates to that because circumcision is the sign, the memorial, to the importance of Bible doctrine.

4. In the doctrine of circumcision the near death of Moses — Exodus 4:24-26. Moses was the be the father of the Jewish nation and that meant that he would be the one used of the Lord to liberate them from slavery. He was about to enter upon this task with one son uncircumcised. What does that mean? The neglect of the parent to circumcise the male child was a sign of rejection of Bible doctrine. Moses’ failure to have his younger son circumcised was indicative of carelessness with regard to doctrine. His carelessness almost cost him his life.

5. From the race to the nation. a) No Jew could partake of the Passover without circumcision. Circumcision relates the new race to the nation. What was Abraham when he was saved? Uncircumcised. It relates salvation to supergrace. New race, Abraham; new nation, Moses. Circumcision is the link between the new race evolving into a nation and spiritually circumcision is the relationship between salvation and supergrace. That is why no one could ever take part in the Passover unless he was circumcised. The Passover speaks of the death of Christ and the significance: All you have to do is to be saved and you are qualified to go to supergrace. If you don’t accept Christ there is no supergrace. Circumcision therefore becomes a great spiritual factor. b) The Jews were placed under the fifth cycle of discipline because they lacked circumcision of soul. Circumcision of soul is found in Jeremiah 6:10; 9:25,26. In other words, the Jews observed the ritual without seeing its meaning. They were circumcised but they did not relate it to salvation or supergrace — no circumcision of soul. In other words, when a nation comes to the point of the fifth cycle of discipline it means that nation is almost totally devoid of supergrace believers and the nation has rejected Bible doctrine. That is called no circumcision of soul. c) Circumcision of soul further connotes that the unbeliever would live under the establishment of the Mosaic law but would reject the spiritual impact of the law which is Christ the only saviour and, after salvation, GAPing it to supergrace. d) Circumcision therefore is just as much the spiritual heritage of the Jew in the Age of Israel as the communion table is the spiritual heritage of the believer in the Church Age. And it had just as much significance to them as communion has to us, but with this difference: Circumcision connotes arriving at supergrace whereas the communion is a test to show you when you have arrived at supergrace. e) Therefore circumcision connotes the spiritual heritage of supergrace to Abraham’s physical and spiritual progeny. The physical and spiritual progeny would be: physical — Jew; spiritual — born again Jew. Circumcision is used to designate the Jew by race and by spiritual heritage — supergrace — Galatians 2:8; Colossians 4:11; Ephesians 2:11; Titus 1:10.

6. Circumcision in the Church Age has no spiritual significance to the believer. In other words, it is not a ritual we use to indicate moving toward supergrace or arriving at supergrace. The fact that circumcision has no spiritual connotation for this dispensation is taught in 1 Corinthians 7:18,19; Galatians 5:2,3. Circumcision relates the Jew to his racial origins and his national origin. But more than that it related the Jew to his spiritual heritage — faith in Jesus Christ and moving from there to the supergrace life. The origin of the Church on the other hand is entirely different. We do have in a certain sense a new race when people accept Christ in this dispensation. The origin of the Jewish race: circumcision; the origin of the Church race: the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby we are entered into union with Christ at the point of salvation. The baptism of the Holy Spirit eliminates the spiritual connotation of circumcision for the Church Age.

7. Circumcision, however, is used in the New Testament to illustrate. For example, circumcision illustrates the function of GAP leading to supergrace — Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4. One which is found in both Old and New Testaments: circumcision is used to portray arriving at the supergrace life — Deuteronomy 30:6; Romans 2:28,29; Philippians 3:3. Also, circumcision is used to illustrate scar tissue, emotional revolt of the soul, and resultant reversionism; this is lack of circumcision — Jeremiah 6:10; 9:25,26; Ezekiel 44:7; Acts 7:51.

8. The distortion. Circumcision was distorted into a system of legalism — salvation by works, spirituality by works — by the Judaisers of the apostolic age of the Church. In the early period of the Church before the canon was completed circumcision became the rallying point for legalism, as per Acts 15:1, 24; Galatians 6:12,13.

Romans 4:17-21 is actually a parenthesis. It interrupts verse 16 and the sentence of verse 16 is resumed in verse 22. In this parenthesis is found Old Testament spirituality, the faith-rest technique as it is expressed at the point of supergrace. We have introduced the principle of dynamics in faith-rest. Dynamics in faith-rest is one of the ways you can always tell when you have finally reached the supergrace life. How can you tell when you have arrived? Bible doctrine in more important, more real to you, than anything else in your life — than your problems, your trials, your tribulations, your adversities, your successes, etc. Bible doctrine is more real than any person, any situation, in life. When that happens you have reached supergrace. And once Bible doctrine is more real God dumps all these wonderful things in your lap. God gives you the capacity to enjoy them. Circumcision was Abraham’s demonstration. From that moment on you have the first of two great dynamics. The second one came in Abraham’s life when he offered his son Isaac. Isaac, being circumcised, had never had a chance to use his phallus to perpetuate the race and Abraham said, “I am going to cut your throat boy, but God will raise you up because you are going to be the perpetuation of the promise.” (“In Isaac shall they seed be called”) So, twenty or twenty-one years after he was circumcised he had the chance to apply circumcision and resurrection. Doctrine was more real when he put his son on the altar and got ready to cut his throat. Abraham demonstrated a principle: Circumcision must inevitably be as great an illustration of the dynamics of faith-rest as the statement of Peter in 2 Peter 1:12-21. To Peter Bible doctrine, what the Bible said about the second advent, was more real than being at the mount of transfiguration and seeing Jesus Christ changed. And in effect Peter was in the circumcision pattern. Doctrine, the book, the written page, was more real than what he had seen with his eyes. Abraham with his eyes saw a hopeless situation, he couldn’t have sex. But Abraham in his soul had doctrine, and doctrine in the soul was more real than his actual status quo. Another Jew, Peter, perpetuated the same dynamics of the faith-rest technique as we saw in Genesis chapter seventeen.

Now we are ready for it: “Quote” — o(ti simply means “quote.” “I have made” — perfect active indicative of tiqhmi which in the perfect tense means to design. The word means to decree, to destine, to appoint, to establish, but here in keeping with the supergrace concept it means to design — “I have designed [or decreed]” .Remember that Genesis 17:5 is being quoted. It was an extrapolation from the eternal decree. So when God says “I have decreed [or designed] something” He is merely quoting to Abraham what He had said in the first place. God has the privilege of quoting Himself! There is no one greater to quote. The point is a very simple one. In eternity past God decreed that Abraham would reach supergrace and have sexual prosperity. We have to watch the perfect tense here because the intensive perfect simply takes an occurrence or a process and sees it at the end with its existing results. That is the ordinary perfect tense. But this is a little different, this is the consummative perfect which emphasises not the existing state but the process. It goes back to the process, not the result but the process by which the result was achieved. So it is a slightly different type. In other words, the process by which the existing state came into completion. So what is emphasised? GAP is emphasised, taking in doctrine today, tomorrow, the next, and the next. So we don’t have the existing results here, we have the process by which Abraham came to the point where Bible doctrine was more real than sexual death.

When you arrive at the point of supergrace doctrine is going to be more real than anything in your life. The only thing that is more real than doctrine is the person that doctrine introduced you to, your Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ. Category #! love will then be maximum in your soul. “We love him because he first loved us.” So it is the process of GAPing it to supergrace that this perfect tense emphasises. it was supergrace that was necessary for the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Not all promises have to wait for supergrace but this is one that did.

The active voice here brings us back to the sovereignty of God plus His omnipotence and His omniscience. These are all involved. Billions of years ago omniscience knew every move that Abraham would make, and He knew just when Abraham would finally arrive. So in the decree He said sexual prosperity resulting in new race, resulting in many Gentile nations, and a pattern for every believer who ever comes along. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ it is time you learned all about circumcision. Circumcision is a reminder of the importance of Bible doctrine, and Abraham has left us a spiritual heritage which far exceeds the ritual. We are in the Church Age, we are royal priests, and just as it was important for Abraham to get to supergrace it is ultimately much more important for us to get to supergrace. Therefore, we learn from circumcision the importance of getting there so that we can fulfill the royalty in our priesthood and start to get the royalties of our priesthood. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. It is the mood of fact, the mood of unqualified assertion, and the pattern in the same with Abraham as with us, he had to GAP it too.

“I have decreed you (Abraham)” — accusative singular of su used as the direct object of tiqhmi. Next we have “father” — pathr in the accusative singular. How can Abraham become the father of a great race if he can’t even be the father one child, a special race?

“many nations” — descriptive genitive plural of the adjective poluj and the descriptive genitive plural of the noun e)qnoj. And e)qnoj means Gentiles. In Genesis 25:1-5 when Abraham married Keturah he had six sons, and yet he never lost track of doctrine because with all of these sons from which great Arab kingdoms would come he gave all that he had to Isaac — verse 5. This was the third great supergrace crisis in his life. Circumcision was the first, offering Isaac was the second, but the third was the greatest of all. Here is a man surrounded by children, and he loves children, but he gave all that he had to Isaac.

The doctrine of the fatherhood of Abraham

1. Abraham is the father of us all — Romans 4:11, 16. This refers to the fact that Abraham is the pattern of salvation before he was circumcised and the pattern of reaching supergrace at the point of his circumcision. So “father of us all” is the title of our spiritual heritage through Abraham. The heritage of faith — faith in Jesus Christ; the heritage of faith-rest — Bible doctrine is more real than any situation in life at the point of supergrace.

2. The “father of circumcision” — Romans 4:12. Abraham is the originator of the new race — the Jews.

3. The “father of many [Gentile] nations” — Romans 4:17. It refers to Abraham’s progeny through Keturah in Genesis 25:1-4.

Verse 17 — (Insofar as it has been written, I have decreed you a father of many Gentile nations”) Why does God always hit Abraham with that promise first — the last thing that came into Abraham’s life? Because that is the one thing he could understand. Abraham was a Gentile until he was circumcised. “Hebrew” means to cross over a river but Abraham, until he was circumcised, was never a Jew. And Abraham did not become a Jew until he was 99 years old.

“before him” — an adverb now, katenanti is a triple compound adverb made up of three prepositions. Since it is an adverb it is used as an improper preposition. This should be translated with the genitive “in the presence of” or “in the sight of”

“whom” — the genitive masculine singular of the relative pronoun o(j, and this refers to God. God is the antecedent of the relative pronoun — “in the sight of whom God.” No one else knew the great issue with Abraham, but Abraham did, so in the sight of God “he believed” — the aorist active indicative of pisteuw is the dynamics of the faith-rest technique at the point of supergrace. Later on Abraham died in a tent. Why? Because Bible doctrine was more real to him than the fact that there was no city as God promised. But he knew that that wasn’t a supergrace promise. By that time he knew category #4, that was a surpassing grace promise. So he died knowing that in phase three he will get it, and he is still going to get his city. That is the city that is going to be lowered from heaven. This is a culminative aorist, it views the event in its entirety but emphasises the results. Abraham’s faith is gathered up into one ball of wax. But the culminative aorist looks at the results. The result was that he found himself copulating that night. Abraham’s faith in doctrine, in the extrapolation from the divine decrees, is viewed here in its entirety and it resulted in becoming the father of a new race and many Gentile nations. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb by believing the promise. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is an unqualified assertion, this is reality in the maximum. Abraham believed the promise at a time when all hope of fulfillment of the promise was gone.

“even God” — God is the objective genitive here, he had believed God. There is no definite article here. The absence of the definite article with qeoj emphasises the essence of God, especially His sovereignty, the source of the divine decree, and the paragraph extrapolated with Abraham’s name in it; the omniscience of God, He knew every turn of the road Abraham’s life would take; and the omnipotence of God whereby after circumcision he had the full and the best use of his phallus of all time. He was now a totally new person.

“who qickeneth” — present active participle of zowpoiew which means to revive here. Zow means life, poiew means to give. It only has two meanings: either to give life or to revive. He now revives the phallus of Abraham. The present tense is a pictorial present, it is one in which the distinctive force of this tense is used to present to the mind a picture of an event, in this case the revival of Abraham’s use of his sex organ. The process includes Abraham’s power of procreation and the removal of every type of condition in his body which was related to the climacteric, plus the new better-than-ever sex life between Sarah and himself — “the one reviving the dead” .The word “reviving”, the active voice: God performed the miracle giving him procreative power; and the participle is a telic participle. It was God’s purpose after he reached supergrace to do this for him. The telic participle expresses the divine purpose. The word “dead” is in the accusative from nekroj. Here the noun indicates sexual death. It is in the plural to indicate that both Abraham and Sarah were sexually dead.

“and calleth” — the present active participle of kalew. This is a dramatic present. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb, and what is coming up next is the fact that God actually calls into existence what does not exist. When God becomes more real than anything in life, and life is hopeless, God calls into existence what doesn’t exist. Hopelessness is always related to something that doesn’t exist. In this case, Abraham’s power of procreation did not exist. God simply called it into existence. The participle is a circumstantial participle.

“those things” — the accusative neuter plural of the definite article, a reference to the dormant genitia of both Abraham and Sarah.

“which be not” — the present active participle of e)imi plus mh. Mh is a subjective negative and therefore it means Abraham was blue about this — “and calls into being the not existent”, that which does not exist.

“as though” is the conjunction o(j used to denote an actual quality which has ceased to exist. Again, it refers to the power of procreation necessary for Abraham to have sexual prosperity — “as though they were”, the present active participle of e)imi means “existing.” The best translation should be, “and calls into existence that which does not exist.” Abraham believed doctrine. Doctrine was more real than his hopeless condition. So God calls into existence what did not exist.

Verse 18 — “Who against hope” — the relative pronoun o(j refers to Abraham at age 99. he has just demonstrated that final push, that faith-rest dynamics, which brings him into the supergrace life. His supergrace blessing, as per Genesis 17:5, is going to be sexual prosperity. At this moment, however, he is totally sexually dead — “against hope,” the preposition para plus the accusative of e)lpij. “Hope” is a bad translation. It has many good translations, “expectation” and “confidence” are two of them. Para plus the ablative means “from”; para plus the locative means “before”; par plus the accusative means “beyond.” So here we have the word “beyond.”E)lpij here means “expectation” and has nothing whatever to do with phase three. It has to do with phase two, age 99 plus, and the problem he now faces. “Who beyond expectation” — he was beyond the hope of ever having sex again. The prepositional phrase indicates once again his sexual death. There was no expectation of sexual prosperity from the standpoint of his physiological being, yet all of the supergrace blessings with his name on it all point to sex. You can’t be the father of many nations in supergrace, and you can’t be the father of a new race, unless you can perform quite a number of sex acts. And that is not even the point, it isn’t even his capability, it is the total enjoyment of them which was a part of his supergrace prosperity — “Who beyond the expectation [of sex] believed.” Here is the point at which he entered into the supergrace life — the aorist active indicative of the verb pisteuw. Recall that in verse 17, quotation from Genesis 17:5, “(I have decreed you [Abraham in supergrace] a father of many Gentile nations), in the sight of whom [God] he [Abraham] believed God, the one reviving his dead genitals, and the one calling into existence his sexual power and ability that did not exist at that time.” That is the background for the relative pronoun “who beyond expectation believed.” The aorist tense of pisteuw is culminative. The culminative aorist regards the entirety from the standpoint of its existing results. Here is Abraham GAPing it, GAPing it, GAPing it, and finally he reached the point of supergrace, and when he reached supergrace his supergrace blessing package was all tied up in sex, and that is one thing he couldn’t even get close to. He was totally incapable of it, totally impotent, totally without any sexual ability at all. Therefore he believed the Word of God. That is the thing that was important to him. Bible doctrine was more real than anything around him — his total helplessness and hopelessness. The result, then, of the culminative aorist is sexual prosperity even though Abraham is beyond the expectation of sexual prosperity. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb — faith-rest dynamics. This is probably one of the greatest faith-rest acts of all time. He had been taking in doctrine, it was transferred over to his right lobe, doctrine was on his launching pad. Faith-rest says that the doctrine in his right lobe is more real than anything else in life. He all of that supergrace information, that extrapolation from the divine decrees, in his frame of reference. He has the memory centre that puts it all together. He has the norms and standards, he has the vocabulary and the categories, and doctrine on the launching pad. And doctrine on the launching pad is more real than his condition. That is why he submitted to circumcision and that is why circumcision was the sign that when doctrinal is more real than anything in life you have arrived at supergrace. Having arrived at supergrace you are in the best possible situation you could ever be, that is where faith-rest dynamics begins. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is the declaration of unqualified assertion. He believed in spite of everything.

“in hope” — e)lpij again, and once again e)lpij should be translated “expectation”, only this time we have e)pi plus the locative. Once again, we have that same problem. Many of these prepositions have the different cases for the object of the preposition. For example, e)pi plus the genitive means “on” or “upon.” This emphasises contact. E)pi plus the accusative means “over” and emphasises motion or direction. E)pi plus the locative means “on, over, before” or “at.” This emphasises position. And here we have e)pi plus the locative, and it should be translated then “at the point of expectation” — at the point of reaching supergrace.

“[Abraham] Who beyond the expectation of sexual prosperity had believed at the point of expectation.” At the point he reached supergrace he couldn’t perform a sex act and that is when he believed doctrine. Doctrine was more real to him than his totally hopeless situation. So Abraham’s faith-rest confidence at the point of reaching supergrace is the point of his circumcision. Circumcision became for all generations of Israel a memorial token or a memorial sign.

Principle: Nothing is more important than Bible doctrine, and the reality of doctrine being better than anything in life only comes to the individual when that individual reaches supergrace.

All of the promises to Abraham add up to one thing: sexual prosperity at the point of supergrace. And, we say, when he got there how do we know he is going to believe? How do we know doctrine is going to be more real? Because of a word: pistij. Pistij has a double meaning. It means faith but it also means what is believed. Doctrine had been taken in and has been put on the launching pad under faith-rest, so supergrace doctrine gave Abraham the strength to believe, and the strength to believe turned right around and claimed the very doctrines which God had enunciated in his direction. So doctrine was more real to Abraham than his hopeless status quo. Supergrace is the place of true faith-rest dynamics. Faith-rest is Old Testament spirituality, but more than that, supergrace faith-rest is the dynamic of phase two as far as both the Old and New Testaments are concerned. This same principle is outlines in 2 Peter 1:12-21 — the reality of doctrine; doctrine is more real than anything in life. So faith-rest reaches its peak in the supergrace life. Supergrace faith-rest is called “hope” or e)lpij — confidence. This confidence is the ultimate in faith-rest dynamics.

Now we have a preposition translated with the word “that” — e)ij, and e)ij plus the infinitive is used to denote a purpose. E)ij is translated “that” to introduce a purpose concept. The infinitive: “he might become.” The aorist active infinitive of ginomai, but remember that this infinitive is the object of the preposition e)ij. The aorist tense of the infinitive is a culminative aorist, it regards the event in its entirety but emphasises the existing results. Supergrace is the entirety while sexual prosperity in starting the new race, the Jewish race, is the result. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb by entering into supergrace. At that point he had so much confidence in doctrine, and at that point doctrine was so meaningful to him and so real, that his hopeless situation was meaningless. He was not in any way disturbed by is hopeless situation. Therefore Abraham had something in his soul that was greater than what he had in his body. And as an application, remember it is the soul that counts and not the body. The soul can influence the body and does influence the body. It is the soul of Abraham that made all of the difference, and with doctrine more real than anything else in his soul Jesus Christ becomes more real than anything in his life. And at that moment Jesus Christ performed the miracle. Circumcision does not give the ability to copulate but it was at the point of circumcision: the removal of the dead flesh is like the removal of any of the reversionistic trends which had characterised Abraham’s life in the past. The removal of the dead flesh was when God performed two miracles. God, at the point of Abraham’s circumcision, made him a Jew. He wasn’t born a Jew, he became a Jew. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb by entering supergrace and having confidence in God’s ability to keep a promise regardless of how hopeless the situation. The infinitive goes with the preposition e)ij for purpose. Translation: “in order that he might become.”

Now we have the fatherhood of Abraham brought out again. The fatherhood of Abraham could be emphasised from one of three principles. a) The father of us all — his spiritual heritage to us; b) the father of circumcision — the new race; c) and the father of many Gentile nations.

“according to that which was spoken” — again we have another preposition, kata. It is interesting that in every one of these prepositions the meaning varies depending upon the case in the noun which is the object. For example, here we have kata plus the perfect passive participle in the accusative case of legw. But kata plus the ablative means “down”; kata plus the genitive means “against”; kata plus the accusative means “according to.” Here we have kata plus the accusative of the perfect passive participle. So it should be translated “according to” — the participle is legw — “that which had been spoken in the past with the result that it stands spoken forever”, the intensive perfect to indicate that this extrapolation from the divine decrees became a part of the canon of scripture. This is the promise of Genesis 15:5 given by God with the result that it stands forever, and the promise was fulfilled at the point when Abraham at the point of circumcision entered the supergrace life. Circumcision is a reminder to us today, as it was to Abraham at age 99, that supergrace is available to every person and that in eternity past God declared the decree. The essence of God the Father had the ability to perform it. His decrees were put down in declaration in the eternal life conference. So the decree has many, many paragraphs; your name in on one of those paragraphs dealing with supergrace blessing. Circumcision is the dynamic of Abraham’s faith and the memorial to the fact that every born again believer has a paragraph in the divine decrees on his supergrace prosperity. The passive voice of “according to that which was spoken [in the past with the result that it keeps on being spoken forever]” indicates that Abraham received this doctrine and that the promises given to him were in his soul.

“So shall be” — the future active indicative of e)imi. The future tense is a predictive future, it is used for an event expected to occur at a future time, the giving of the promise — first you enjoy the promise, then you enjoy the fulfillment of the promise. There may be some time between the enjoyment of the promise and the fulfillment of the promise which you also enjoy — enjoyment of anticipation and fulfillment. The indicative mood is the deliberative indicative representing the verbal idea from the standpoint of reality, certainty, and unqualified assertion. We are dealing with God’s Word.

“thy seed” — to sperma sou. This is a second masculine singular from the personal pronoun su, and the genitive says, “your sperm”, “your seed”, and it is singular — Abraham. This is something Abraham didn’t have until circumcision. This has a dual connotation: physical and spiritual. The physical seed does not refer to the fatherhood of many Gentile nations, it refers to a new race being born. Secondly, we have Abraham’s spiritual seed. Since Abraham is the pattern of salvation on the Old Testament to all who believe circumcision is not the issue. Abraham was saved uncircumcised, he was not circumcised until he had reached the point of supergrace and that was the elapse of forty or fifty or sixty years.

Translation: “Who beyond expectation [of sexual prosperity] had believed at the point of expectation [the point of entrance into the supergrace life] in order that he might become the father of many Gentile nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall your seed be.”

The hopeless situation becomes a challenge to believe doctrine but this cannot be possible until you get to supergrace.

Verse 19 — “And” is the continuative use of the conjunctive kai — “being not weak” — he is weak physically, he is not weak otherwise, the aorist active participle of a)sqenew plus the negative mh. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist. The ingressive aorist plus the negative indicates that Abraham did not even begin to becomes weak in faith. He didn’t flinch for a moment even though it was a totally hopeless situation. The active voice: Abraham produced a negative action. He didn’t miss a step for one moment. The participle is the ascriptive use of the participle in which the participle ascribes a characteristic Abraham. When he reached supergrace his faith did not even miss a step, it moved right on. Doctrine was so real to him that nothing else counted. Doctrine was real, therefore the Lord was real and therefor nothing else made any difference. So it should be translated, “And without becoming weak.”

“in faith” — the locative singular of pistij. Faith had to transfer doctrine to the human spirit and faith had to apply doctrine that he had in his soul to his own life. So we have pistij used in its dual sense here. it was Arndt and Gingrich who first emphasised to the English-speaking world — they were German — that pistij means faith but it also means what you have believed, it means the whole body of doctrine, it means doctrine you have believed. So it also comes to mean doctrine. So, “being not weak in the sphere of supergrace doctrine.” With supergrace doctrine you are never weak. Doctrine is so real that it is easy to believe. When doctrine is more real than anything else in your life it is easy to faith-rest something. The dynamics of it are tremendous from the outside.

Now we have the main verb, “he considered not” — the aorist active indicative of the compound verb katanoew. Noew always means to think; kata here means norm or standard. So it means to think according to a norm or standard, to think or to concentrate on a norm or standard. So he concentrated, he contemplated, he actually knew his own state. The constative aorist gathers up into one entirety Abraham’s concentration on his body. He knew that he was sexually dead and he had known it for thirteen years, so the constative aorist gathers up that entire period of time between Genesis chapter 16 and Genesis chapter 17. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb by perceiving and understanding the true hopeless situation. A supergrace believer never buries his head in the sand, he faces reality. Then he looks at the doctrine and the doctrine is always greater than the hopeless situation. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative which regards the verb from the standpoint of certainty, reality, and unqualified assertion.

“his own body” — this refers to Abraham’s physical body at age 99. Literally, “And without becoming weak in the sphere of supergrace doctrine, he had thoughtfully reflected and contemplated the condition of his own body now dead.” This adverb is stronger than “now”, this is h)dh which means “already dead.” The word “dead” is the perfect passive participle of nekrow — he was dead in the past with the result that he kept on being dead and there was nothing he could do about it. That is the status of sexual death. The passive voice: Abraham through the advance of age received the action of the verb — sexual death. The participle is ascriptive, it describes his hopeless sexual condition.

“when” — we have an enclitic adverb, pou. It indicates an approximation with numbers so therefore it means approximately — “living approximately one hundred years” is the way it is translated; “being” — u(parxw which means he was just existent. He wasn’t really living. We do not have biow or zow, both of which would say he is living; he is just existing right now. However, that is his physical condition: living or existing approximately one hundred years.

“neither yet the deadness” — the accusative singular of nekrwsij refers to the fact that Sarah, who is now ninety, is well past the menopause.

Translation of verse 19 — “And without becoming weak in the sphere of supergrace doctrine, he had thoughtfully and carefully reflected and understood his own body already having become sexually dead, with the result that it was permanently under sexual death, living approximately one hundred years, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.”

Verse 20 — what was Abraham’s reaction to all of this? He is now at the point where he must face the issue: doctrine versus reality of experience. Many times in our experience you have hopeless situations. Many times the experience is very real to you to the point of where you are upset, disturbed, where you completely fall apart, you are overcome with self-pity, you are disillusioned, you are discouraged, you are involved in some of the reactor factors. It is this very thing that caused Abraham to take so many side-trips that he failed to reach the point of supergrace.

Now he has arrived at the point at which doctrine had thoroughly described certain things. Doctrine is divided into two parts here: a) The decree of God in eternity past. And as with Abraham so also with you, God actually has provided for you a paragraph with your name on it — a supergrace paragraph in the doctrine of divine decrees. It includes wealth, success, promotion, sexual prosperity, social prosperity, and many other things. This was decreed in eternity past. The extrapolation of Abraham’s paragraph is recorded for us in time and becomes a part of the Word of God. For example, in Genesis 12:2 the original declaration of the Abrahamic covenant. This particular paragraph was extrapolated and reiterated to Abraham many times in time. The decree was given in eternity past, the extrapolation of that paragraph is called “promise.” God had promised Abraham three things under the fatherhood of God. Abraham was promised that he would be the father of many Gentile nations. This can only come through sexual prosperity, this must come through his supergrace status. He was also promised to be the father of a single seed, and that single seed is a new race, the Jewish nation. That promise is only fulfilled at age 99. Also he was promised to be the father of us all, and this means that Abraham is the pattern of supergrace and supergrace prosperity. So he had been given in time a promise which was a part of doctrine. This promise was an extrapolation of that portion of the divine decrees relating to the supergrace blessings of Abraham. b) Not only does Abraham have a promise but he also has from God a solemn declaration, an oath, that He will keep that promise. And since God could swear by no greater He made the oath in His own name. Since God is absolutely perfect He has the ability [omnipotence], the character [immutability], to fulfill that promise. So here we have two immutable things: the oath of God and the promise of God. The oath goes back to the person who lived in eternity past and originated the divine decrees. The promise is an extrapolation from the decree itself. One has to do with the person, one has to do with the Word of God. This is the doctrinal content that Abraham has before him as part of the issue.

However, his status quo, his experience at the point of reaching supergrace, is quite different from anything he ever anticipated. Abraham finds himself sexually dead, incapable of sexual prosperity. So he now faces the issue: Which is more real to him on the threshold of supergrace: Bible doctrine and its extrapolation of the eternal decrees — the oath and the promise (two immutable things) — or his status which is sexual death, sexual death of Sarah as well as himself? In other words, a totally hopeless, helpless situation with regard to this particular paragraph.

What is he going to do about it? Is doctrine more real to him than his experience? Is his experience more real than doctrine? This is an issue that you must face many times in your spiritual life. What is more real to you, a hopeless set of circumstances or Bible doctrine? The principle is settled for us in 2 Peter 1:12-21 and also now in Romans 4:20 —

“He staggered not” — the aorist passive indicative of diakrinw. This word has a number of meanings, usually connected with discernment, to discern is the general meaning. It is translated “stagger” here which is also a correct translation. It means to doubt, to waver in the mind, to be divided in the mind, to vacillate between two opinions. However, in this case there is no vacillation because we also have with diakrinw the strong negative o)uk. He did not vacillate between two opinions. The aorist tense is the ingressive aorist which contemplates the entirety of the verb’s action from the standpoint of its beginning. In other words, the constative aorist would simply say that he kept vacillating back and forth. We have o)uk, he did not do this, that is the entire ball of wax. But here is the ingressive aorist which means he didn’t even start to vacillate, not even for one moment did he miss a step in his faith-rest technique. He is claiming what he has learned by way of Bible doctrine at this particular point. The passive voice: Abraham did not receive the action of the verb, he didn’t even start to receive it. It was never a problem right from the first moment that he reached supergrace, he was not disturbed by his hopeless situation. You can always tell a supergrace believer, he doesn’t fall apart under the pressure of hopeless situations. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative which views the action of the verb from the standpoint of reality, this is a statement of unqualified assertion, he did not begin to waver.

However, in this sentence the verb does not occur first. This verb is tucked away after a phrase or two, “at the promise of God” is where the sentence begins. And “at the promise” is a prepositional phrase — e)ij plus the accusative of e)paggelia which means a promise. It also means an unconditional promise and it should be translated “with reference to the promise.” Then “of God” is a possessive genitive plus the definite article, o( qeoj — “with reference to the promise belonging to the God.” The promise belongs to God. God made the original decree in eternity past. God provided Abraham supergrace blessings billions of years before Abraham lived, just as God has provided your supergrace billions of years ago. Whether you reach that point or not depends upon your attitude toward Bible doctrine — “he did not even begin to waver through unbelief.” The word “unbelief” is the locative of sphere, a)pistia. So the verse reads literally, “With reference to the promise of the God he did not even begin to waver in unbelief.”

“but” — the adversative conjunction a)lla indicates a complete antithesis, a contrast between what Abraham did and what he did not do. First we have what he did not do, he did not even begin to waver in unbelief. But he did do something very positive, “but was strong” — the aorist passive indicative of e)ndunamow [e)n means “in; dunamij is “power”] which means to invigorate — “he had become invigorated.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist. In other words, there was something that kept him from wavering. We have Abraham taking in doctrine, GAPing it, GAPing it, GAPing it, and eventually he reached the point. The culminative aorist regards the entire intake of doctrine but emphasises the existing result. The result is that he had a strong faith-rest, and in his faith-rest he now sees doctrine as more real than anything in his life. Remember that he has just arrived at supergrace which is characterised by three things: a) Occupation with the person of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is more real to him than ever before. b) He has supergrace capacity. He now has the cup in his soul. c) God is getting ready to pour. And Abraham knows that God must pour. He understands the issue of supergrace capacity, and he always knows what God is going to pour because he has received promises — the extrapolation of the divine decree. Therefore, “he had become invigorated.” The culminative aorist views the event of GAPing it to supergrace in its entirety but emphasises the existing result. The existing result is invigoration of doctrine. Doctrine is more real to him than his hopeless situation. He has now arrived where he can be the father of many nations, where he can be the father of a new race, where he can have sexual prosperity. The passive voice indicates that he received invigoration or power from doctrine. The indicative mood is an unqualified assertion. He has arrived at the point of supergrace and at the point of supergrace Bible doctrine is always more real than any hopeless situation.

“in faith” is an incorrect translation. The instrumental of means of pistij is “by means of faith.” Pistij has two meanings. Pistij means what has been believed, it refers to doctrine in the left lobe transferred by faith through positive volition to the human spirit where it becomes e)pignwsij, is transferred to the right lobe into the frame of reference, memory centre and vocabulary. Doctrine is the structure, the edification complex, and therefore pistij means what is believed as well as faith — both are involved here. He had to believe these things through the function of GAP, now he is utilising all of the doctrine he has learned — “by means of the faith doctrine.” Pistij, again, refers to what is believed or doctrine, and it is doctrine that he believes.

Doctrine in the Word of God is no use to us. The faith-rest technique does not operate out of the Bible, the faith-rest technique operates within the framework of the soul and doctrine with all of its promises. Every promise in the Word is related to a category of doctrine, so doctrine must be blended. X things must be blended with Y things. Y things refer to the right lobe of the soul, and there must be doctrine going from the book into your soul before faith-rest becomes operative. Faith-rest has as its object doctrine, promises, found in your soul. So faith-rest does not operate apart from learning the Word of God.

“giving glory to God” — this is not “giving” here, it is an aorist active participle and, again, the aorist tense is a culminative aorist. We have the verb docazw which means to glorify God. This culminative aorist means that he has now reached supergrace, he has GAPed it, GAPed it, GAPed it, he is now culminative aorist at the end of the ball of wax — the existing result. He has now reached supergrace, and having reached supergrace he now possesses in his soul a cup. Now God can pour. This is supergrace capacity. He is occupied with the person of Christ and here are the supergrace blessings, the X things of eternity past from the doctrine of divine decrees. X things blend with Y things, all things work together for good to those who love God. The one who loves God is the supergrace believer, he is now occupied with the person of Christ. So the supergrace blessings are now poured. In this case Abraham is hopeless, all he has is supergrace capacity and in one moment of time at the point of circumcision God poured. God gets the glory because God does the giving. The giver gets the glory under grace. God is glorified by giving Abraham supergrace sexual prosperity. To do so he had to revive the genitals of Abraham and Sarah, He had to give them the capacity for being able to copulate and out of this he becomes the father of a new race — the Jew, he becomes the father of many nations. All of this is his sexual prosperity. Furthermore, because of his circumcision demonstrating his faith-rest, demonstrating that doctrine was more real to him than anything in life, he is the father of us all when he reached the point of supergrace. He is the father of us all in uncircumcision: he is the pattern of salvation because he believed in Jesus Christ; he is the father of us all in circumcision because he reached the supergrace life, and this is the only way you glorify God. Whatever your supergrace blessings happen to be, once you begin to receive them God is glorified. God is glorified in giving and you are benefited in receiving. So when you glorify God you are benefited. All reward in the Christian way of life is related to the cup. You must have a cup in your soul, God does not pour unless you have a cup.

“to God” is a dative of advantage of qeoj, it is also a dative of indirect object. It also has the definite article, so it should be translated “the God” — the God who made the promises, the God of the two immutable things. God is glorified by the supergrace status of the believer, the believer’s occupation with Christ glorifies God, the believer’s supergrace capacity and Bible doctrine glorifies God, so God receives the glory from providing the blessing for the supergrace believer.

Translation of verse 20 — “With reference to the promise of the God he did not even begin to waver in unbelief; but he had become strong by means of the supergrace faith doctrine, having given glory to the God.”

Verse 21 — the hopeless situation is recognised. “And” is the continuative use of the conjunction kai.

“being fully persuaded” is an aorist passive participle, plhroforew, which means to be fully convinced. This is a gnomic aorist. This brings together that ingressive aorist plus two culminative aorists, and we now have a gnomic aorist. One ingressive aorist plus two culminative aorists equals one gnomic aorist. The gnomic aorist indicates an absolute, it indicates that this is axiomatic, for once a person gets into supergrace Bible doctrine is definitely more real than anything else — “having been fully convinced.” The passive voice: Abraham receives the action of the verb from doctrine in his soul. In other words, doctrine in his soul is more real than sexual death in his body. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb. The main verb: “he did not waver in unbelief.”

“that” — is a conjunction after verbs of mental activity, and this is a verb of mental activity because he has the doctrine in his soul — “what he had promised.”

“what” is an accusative neuter relative pronoun, o(j. What things, what promises. “What” refers to the fact of sexual prosperity as under the fatherhood of Abraham doctrine.

“he had promised” — the perfect middle indicative of e)paggellw which means to promise. This is an iterative perfect in which the promise God has fulfilled to Abraham is repeated at recurrent intervals. In other words, the perfect tense generally means something that has happened in the past with results that go on. But this promise was given at different times — Genesis 12:1,2; 15:5; 17:5; and chapter 22. The point is, it was given again and again though once was enough to fulfill it. In this case He repeated the promise so we have an iterative perfect to indicate that God encouraged Abraham from time to time to move toward supergrace, to make doctrine his life. The middle voice is an indirect middle which lays stress on the agent as producing the action of the verb rather than participating in the results. It should be translated “he himself.” God Himself had promised. That emphasises one of the two immutable things, the oath in which He made the promise. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative, it is the mood of certainty, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, it is the mood of unqualified assertion.

“he was” is the present active indicative of e)imi. This is a simple case of linear aktionsart denoting a continuous status quo — “he kept on being able”, and now we have a predicate nominative from the adjective dunatoj. Here is where faith-rest broke down into mechanics. Dunatoj means He had the ability to revive anything in Abraham’s body so that the promise could be fulfilled. He has the ability to do it.

“to perform” — the aorist active indicative of poiew means to revive the organs of Abraham as well as Sarah. The aorist tense again is a gnomic aorist, it is for that which is an absolute. The active voice: God performs the action, providing both the means and the result. When the situation is hopeless God must provide the means and the results. In this case the means was He had to revive Abraham’s sexual organs and the organs of his wife Sarah. The result was he will be the father of a new race, he will be the father of many nations. The means and the result are both involved in a hopeless situation. No situation is totally hopeless unless God must provide both the means and the result, and that is what He does. Because He has made a promise He does provide the means, and Abraham says, “I believe that, circumcise me.” Abraham was 100 and the moment he was circumcised that was the moment when God revived the use of his sexual organs. The active voice: God performed the action. The infinitive is the result of entering into the supergrace life.

Translation: “Having been completely convinced that, what he himself had promised, he was able also to do it.”

What God promises God can do. That is what circumcision means, what circumcision is all about. it is a permanent grace monument to God’s ability. When God makes a promise, when the doctrine is there, God will always perform it.

Hebrews 6:18 — Circumcision was perpetuated in the Jewish race. There was not only the covenant of Abraham but there was also the covenant of circumcision, found in Genesis 17:10-14. Abraham was circumcised because doctrine was more real to him than his hopeless situation. This doctrine was so important to him that he went ahead and was circumcised, and all the males were circumcised in that generation, the next, the next, the next, and always it was a reminder that Bible doctrine is more important than anything in life.

This is a transitional verse, it shows the relationship between Abraham and us. This shows us that Abraham’s circumcision was indicative that doctrine was more real than any situation in life. Abraham had his reality in two immutable things. Those same two immutable things belong to us. The first word in verse 18, “That” is the conjunction i(na which introduces a purpose clause. It is better translated “In order that,” to bring out the purpose clause.

“by two immutable things” — we have dia plus the genitive plural of pragma. Dia plus the genitive means “through” as well as “by.”

Then we have with pragma an adjective a)metaqetoj. Metaqetoj means “mutable”; “a” mean “not” or “un” changeable. The two immutable things are the way in which God transferred the doctrine from Himself to Abraham’s soul, or God transferred the doctrine from His eternal decree. God must keep His promise. So immutable thing #1 is the person of God. Immutable thing #2 is the doctrine of God — which in this case is a promise — or the Word of God. So we have the person and the Word, two immutable things.

“in which” — literally, “in the sphere of which”, the locative plural; “impossible” — again we have a)dunatoj. We notice now that there are two impossible things, and these are in contrast. The first impossible thing came up in Hebrews 6:4 — it is impossible to recover from reversionism so long as the believer is in legalism or involved in anything that conflicts with doctrine. That is the first impossibility. No one ever recovers from reversionism as long as something in their life conflicts with coming to Bible class and getting doctrine. Anything that keeps the believer away from Bible doctrine means that it is impossible to recover from reversionism.

The second impossibility lies in this passage and therefore must be summarised. It is impossible for God to lie about supergrace blessings for the royal priesthood, even as it was impossible for God to lie to an inferior priest by the name of Abraham — he was only a family-type priest.

1. It is impossible for God to lie, to go against His own decree of eternity past.

2. The impossibility is based upon two immutable things: the oath of God and the decree of God.

3. The oath is presented in verse 13 of Hebrews chapter 6; the promise was presented in verse 14.

4. The oath represents the perfect person making the promise.

5. The decree represents the content of the promise — in this case, supergrace sexual prosperity.

6. Since both are immutable it is impossible for God to welch on His promise. He has an obligation to Abraham, He will keep it.

7. Under grace everything depends on who and what God is.

8. These two immutable things are the basis for our function in the royal priesthood. (Remember, no believer functions under his royal priesthood until he reaches supergrace) Supergrace is the normal function of the royal priesthood.

9. The oath and the promise are no stringer than the person performing them, and the person performing them is the eternal God. Therefore they are unlimited as declared in that paragraph of the divine decrees that has your name on it.

“for God” — this time without the definite article. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun. Therefore, once more, by the use of Greek syntax there is emphasis on who and what God is and on His ability.

“to lie” — the aorist middle infinitive of yeudw. This is the culminative aorist tense, it views the existence of God in its entirety and emphasises the existing results. God always exists, there never will be a time when He doesn’t, and there never will be a time in all of God’s existence when God will ever lie. The middle voice is a direct middle which refers the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexive force. It is impossible for God Himself to lie. The infinitive is a part of an accusative of general reference in which God is the subject of the infinitive, or He is portrayed as fulfilling the action of the infinitive, it is impossible for Him to lie.

Therefore, since it is impossible for God to lie, “we might have a strong consolation.” “We might have” is a present active subjunctive of e)xw — “we might have and hold.” The present tense is a static present, it is used here for something which is taken for granted as a fact and will always exist as a fact. We have, and we always will have, a strong consolation. The active voice: the subject is the royal priest. Since you are a royal priest you are the subject, you are included in this phrase. The subjunctive mood is potential, the potentiality depends upon your attitude toward doctrine. You as a royal priest can go one of two ways. Doctrine is the great issue after salvation; Christ is the issue in salvation. After salvation it is the written Word that becomes the issue. GAP is the road that takes you to supergrace. Supergrace has: occupation with the person of Christ, supergrace capacity (the cup), and supergrace blessings. This is the road of the daily intake of doctrine. The other road is the road to the sin unto death, the road of reversionism, and it is simply based upon rejection of doctrine: reaction, frantic search for happiness, emotional revolt, the infiltration of Satanic doctrine (called demon influence), and the blackout of the soul and the practice of reverse process reversionism. It eventuates in the sin unto death. So every believer has a choice and his choice determines whether he goes to tactical victory or becomes a casualty in the angelic conflict.

“a strong” — this is an adjective, i)sxuroj, which means an inherent strength. It refers to Bible doctrine’ “consolation” — the word paraklhsij means “encouragement” here. Bible doctrine is our strong encouragement. This is our strong encouragement to move toward supergrace.

“who have fled” — “who” refers to the believer, and it is not a relative pronoun, it is a definite article in the nominative plural; “have fled for refuge” — an aorist participle, so we do not actually have a relative pronoun here — the aorist active participle of katafugw, which means to take refuge in something, and here the constative aorist means to take refuge in the Word of God. In other words, we keep on having, and it is potential, depending on whether you use it or not — doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, available. One misconception: You cannot get doctrine by reading the Bible for yourself — as the evangelist told you after salvation! You have to have a pastor-teacher, that is why we have them. And you have to go to class, the classroom is the local church. The pastor-teacher is a person, he has a message; so you have the combination of a person and his message. He has the gift and the final authority. He has the message and God will provide for you a pastor-teacher to communicate the message and provide for you Bible doctrine to you so that it enters your soul. No one gets doctrine by reading it for himself, it is the pastor-teacher who communicates it to him. Therefore, between you and the fulfillment is also your right pastor-teacher and your attitude toward your pastor-teacher determines whether you are ever going to get there or not. The active voice: the royal priesthood produces the action of the verb by listening to the teaching of doctrine consistently, constantly. The participle is a temporal participle, and therefore a temporal participle should be translated “while we have fled” or “when we have fled [to doctrine] for refuge”.

“to lay hold upon” — the aorist active infinitive of kratew. Kratew means to see what belongs to us and it refers to supergrace blessing. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views GAPing it, GAPing it, GAPing it from the standpoint of its results. The result is supergrace and laying hold of God’s specific blessings for you. The infinitive is the infinitive of purpose — “for the purpose of attaining the hope,” or as e)lpij means here, the objective — the objective being the supergrace life. Elpij means the objective here, it also means “attainment,” “expectation.”

“set before us” — present active participle of prokeimai. The present tense is a static present. All of us have before us the same thing Abraham had. The only difference is that we do not have specifics in a promise. Why? Because you live in the royal priesthood in the completed canon of scripture. God has not given a specific promise to anyone since the canon of scripture was closed. But whatever Abraham had, and all other supergrace believers, are yours. They are set before us right now, this passage says they are set before us, the static present of prokeimai. The active voice: the believer positive toward doctrine produces the action of the verb, he attains these things. The participle is a circumstantial participle. Add it all up, it says simply this: God has for you, and has had since eternity past, since He enucleated the divine decrees, supergrace blessings. These supergrace blessings fall into several categories.

“In order that by two immutable things [the oath and promise of God], in the sphere of which it is impossible for God himself to lie, we [the royal priesthood] might have strong encouragement [doctrine by which we advance to the tactical objective], so long as we take refuge [in doctrine] for the purpose of attaining the objective [supergrace blessing] constantly placed before us.”

Verse 19 — here we have the conclusion of the matter in one more illustration. This illustration is the upside down anchor. We begin with the word “Which hope.” The word “which” is the accusative feminine singular from the relative pronoun O(j, and it refers to the hope or the objective which the supergrace life. Doctrine in the soul is the objective, and doctrine in the soul is the only basis by which we can obtain this objective. Remember, Abraham had to believe the doctrine in his own soul and until he had transferred it there he couldn’t do so. He transferred it by two immutable things: the oath of God and the promise of God. The oath is comparable to His person; the promise is comparable to the divine decrees. As far as Abraham was concerned these promises which he believed were in his soul and they were transferred to his soul by the two immutable things. We have that which is comparable to the two immutable things in the function of GAP. The principle, therefore, remains the same and it is a very simple one. Doctrine must be in the soul in order to claim it, in order the faith-rest it, whether the doctrine is a promise or it is a principle. Regardless of what it is it must be in the soul, not in the Bible. You don’t claim promises out of the Bible, you claim promises from your own soul. And this accusative feminine singular from the relative pronoun o(j refers to the word e)lpij or “hope” which we had in the previous verse, and while it is translated “hope” it should be translated “expectation.” Or, here we could translate it “Which hope objective.” The hope objective is

the combination of doctrine plus the advance of the supergrace life.

“we have” — this time e)xw is not in the present active subjunctive but in the present active indicative because it is available to every member of the royal priesthood. Here it refers to the paragraph in the divine decrees that has your name in it, a specific paragraph in the supergrace area — “we keep on having.” The present tense here is retroactive progressive present which in this case goes all of the way back to eternity past where the person of God the Father, author of the plan, actually enucleated the plan. The person was first, then came the plan. The person is God the Father, the plan enucleated is the Word of God as it existed in eternity past, not in a book as we have it but in the form we call decrees. The retroactive progressive present means we have always had these things — long before we existed; it denotes what every member of the royal priesthood had in the past with the result that he will always have it. Whether he attains what he has depends entirely on his attitude toward doctrine. The active voice: the believer has confidence in the strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ which becomes the basis of confidence in his own supergrace blessing. This is the declarative indicative mood representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and certainty. The verbal idea here is first of all confidence in the strategic victory of our Lord. It must be remembered that before there could ever be in any paragraph in the doctrine of divine decrees dealing with the royal priesthood of the Church Age, first of all there had to be a paragraph on the royal high priest. There is first of all a large paragraph on His prosperity. His prosperity is only in part right now. Jesus Christ first of all had to go to the cross and offer Himself as a sacrifice. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, this is where He broke Satan’s back. His resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of the Father are all a part of the strategic victory. At the point of ascension where the Father said “Sit down until I make your enemies your footstool” is the end of the first stage of strategic victory, and is where the supergrace prosperity of our high priest begins. But it doesn’t end there. He has a supergrace prosperity in heaven, but He will have a supergrace prosperity on earth when He returns to rule. He will take the kingdom of the earth away from Satan, He will destroy all of the armies of Armageddon, He will kill the enemy, He will also remove from this earth all demons, and His supergrace prosperity is really the Millennial reign. We share that with Him as His bride. Just as Sarah shared the blessings of Abraham in supergrace so the Church will share the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Millennium. In the meantime we as members of the royal priesthood in the Church Age declare this principle to Satan by receiving supergrace blessings in time, but only when we get that cup. And the cup is supergrace capacity. It comes from Bible doctrine and only from Bible doctrine. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is going to have His supergrace blessings on earth at a future time. The objective right now is for every member of the royal priesthood is to fulfil that supergrace paragraph that is for him and only for him. Supergrace is the normal function of the royal priesthood and God has your name on a paragraph in the divine decrees, associated with supergrace blessing. This all begins with the strategic victory.

“as an anchor” — the anchor is very important here because it is sea anchor. “As” indicates a comparative particle, w(j. This sets up the comparative particle of analogy. The analogy here is unique, it is between the use of a sea anchor to stabilise a ship in a storm and protect it from the shoal, and the entrance of the high priest into the holy of holies on the day of atonement. And both of these are illustrations. There are two illustrations set up as an analogy. The first is the sea anchor which was used in a storm so that a ship would not go on the rocks, they would anchor offshore and ride out the storm. Then we have the tabernacle, and we have the holy of holies — the second veil — and the high priest entering once a year — both are illustrations. This is the system of dual illustration and both of these are analogous to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest at the right hand of the Father at the present time.

The first part of the analogy is an anchor. This is a)gkura — a sea anchor, and it is called an “anchor of the soul”; “of the soul” is a genitive of possession, yuxh. Again we must be reminded: doctrine has to be in the soul before it can be used. The sea anchor was the stabiliser; doctrine is the sea anchor. Doctrine was more real to Abraham than his hopeless situation. The storm in Abraham’s life was the hopeless situation.

Doctrine must be in the soul. Doctrine in the Bible is like the two immutable things for Abraham. Abraham didn’t have a Bible, there was no canon of scripture. Instead, Abraham had the oath which represents the person, and he had the promise which represents the decree. Abraham had his name of one paragraph in that decree just as you have your name in one paragraph of that decree. Abraham had doctrine in his soul, it was transferred by the same two immutable things that are involved in the function of GAP. Doctrine is in the soul, that is the sea anchor, the sea anchor stabilises the ship. Bible doctrine is the anchor in the believer’s soul keeping the ship from drifting onto the reefs and the shoals of reversionism. Bible doctrine in the soul stabilises the ship during the storms of life. The first part of the analogy, therefore, refers to doctrine.

We then have two adjectives to amplify the first part of the analogy. The first of these is the word “sure” — a)sfalh, and it means stabilise. It is a nautical term for the stability of a ship. You must be consistent and you must be stabilised in order to reach the supergrace life. Bible doctrine in the soul becomes the sea anchor that stabilises the believer. Then there is a second word which is very similar to stability but really means “dependability.” It is the word “steadfast” — bebaioj, which means dependability. Stability and dependability are the two adjectives to describe that consistency necessary for any individual believer to reach the supergrace life. You have to stay with doctrine. Abraham patiently endured, he obtained the promise and he obtained it at the point of the supergrace life. That is exactly what we have in these two words. You have to be a stable person, you can’t be easily led away from the teaching of the Word of God. You have to be consistent in getting with it, you can’t be constantly involved in the reactor factors just as Abraham was and therefore didn’t get there until age 99. A stabilised and dependable believer is a believer who is consistent in his attitude toward the Word of God and consistent in using his volition in the proper way.

Then we have a connective kai to introduce the second part of the analogy. Kai is simply a conjunction used as a connective link.

The second part of the analogy is entering into the veil. There is no relative pronoun “which”. Instead, we have a present active participle from e)iserxomai. E)is means “into”; E)rxomai means to enter. It refers to the high priest on the day of atonement entering into the holy of holies. But remember that these are all parts of the same analogy. So it refers not to the sea anchor on the bottom of the ocean holding the ship in place, but here we have it upside down. Our sea anchor is in heaven. Here is where the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. When the Lord Jesus was seated at the right hand of the Father that was the first phase of the strategic victory. That calls for tactical victory down here. So now the anchor is upside down. Why? This is a picture of positional truth or union with Christ. Union with Christ is the way the Church Age began. At the moment of salvation your royal priesthood is related to strategic victory, and your objective is tactical victory. Tactical victory only comes to you through the supergrace life. And remember, the supergrace life is always the same. There is a cup for your soul and that cup is made up of supergrace capacity, and that is doctrine in your soul. And God pours, and Romans 8:28 is fulfilled. X-things are the things that God provided for you in the divine decrees under paragraph supergrace. There is a supergrace paragraph with your name on it. Y-things are the doctrines that it takes to get to supergrace. X-things blend with Y-things to those who love God. Those who love God = occupation with Christ, the first sign of supergrace. So we have “We know that X-things blend together with Y-things for those who love God, for those who are the called according to his purpose.” “Called according to his purpose” is a reference to the divine decrees, and there is a paragraph in the divine decrees with your name on it. And since you are a royal priesthood you ought to live like royalty.

The principle behind this: God does the pouring. God pours into your cup so that your cup runs over. And God gets the glory. You get the benefit of the supergrace blessing. So when God is blessing you with promotion and prosperity and wealth and success, God is glorified by that and you are benefited.

The high priest, once a year, on the day of atonement had to put on the complete dress uniform of the high priest. It was a very beautiful uniform. All the people gathered because if anything happened to the high priest they knew they were “dead ducks.” They were under the Levitical priesthood and they had to sweat out this day once a year. So he went through the procedure, the animal sacrifices, gathering the blood. He took the blood in first for himself and then for the people, and he always did the same thing, he sprinkled it over the top of the mercy seat to indicate the doctrine of propitiation — the Father’s righteousness is satisfied with the work of Christ on the cross, and because Jesus Christ is +R (absolute righteousness) the Father can love and save members of the human race without compromising His righteousness. And justice the same way: Jesus Christ was judged in our place, He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and therefore justice is satisfied. Because righteousness and justice is satisfied God the Father is free to love those who believe in Jesus Christ and to love them with maximum love. All of this was portrayed by the work of the high priest once a year on the day of atonement, and this in effect is what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, this is a picture of the strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 2:14,15; Hebrews 2:14 tells us that not only was our salvation provided but Satan’s back was broken as a part of the angelic conflict.

At the moment of our salvation God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Jesus Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father. There is the upside down anchor. At the moment of salvation there is our relationship with that strategic victory. Now the anchor also goes the other way, only this anchor is for tactical victory, this anchor is doctrine. And when this anchor is in the soul the believer has reached supergrace and the normal function of his royal priesthood. So we have the upside down anchor and the anchor from heaven. One of them is the strategic victory of Jesus Christ — the baptism of the Spirit and positional truth by which we are permanently related to the strategical victory. Whereas the anchor going the other way is for phase two tactical victory. So we have an anchor going each way. The one is doctrine going into the believer’s soul and the other is the anchor going into the holy of holies.

How are these portrayed? Why do we have a double analogy? It is very simple. First of all the anchor portrays the ship on life’s seas in a storm. The anchor goes down to secure the ship during the storm. That is doctrine in the believer’s soul, that is your sea anchor. Then you also have an anchor entering the veil, and the anchor going up is our strategic victory. This guarantees we will ride out the storm. So we are related at the point of salvation, the upside down anchor is positional truth, union with Jesus Christ. The other analogy of the sea anchor, is doctrine in the soul which is the point of supergrace blessing.

Translation: “Which hope [doctrine] we have as an anchor of the soul, both stabilised and dependable, and having entered into the room [the holy of holies] behind the curtain.”

Jesus Christ our royal high priest has entered into heaven. Remember that the holy of holies is a picture of heaven, and while the holy of holies was in the tabernacle on earth heaven is many billions of light years away. Jesus Christ our royal high priest has entered the reality of heaven. Whereas the Levitical high priest could not even enter the shadow except once a year on the day of atonement by blood, now Jesus Christ after His sacrifice and resurrection enters into the true holy of holies, the reality. The Levitical priest dealt with shadows; the royal high priest deals with reality, seated at the right hand of the Father.

Verse 20 — the word “whither” is an adverb of place, o(pou, which means “where”, and “where” refers to the right hand of the Father which is illustrated by the holy of holies in the tabernacle. The holy of holies is the shadow and the third heaven is the reality, the right hand of the Father.

“the forerunner” — prodromoj [pro means before; dromoj is the aorist of the verb trekw, “to run”] means to run in advance, but it is more important than that. It actually is a military term and refers to the point, that advance guard which we call today “the point.” The concept here is that we have one man on the point and that is the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has already advanced to the objective. The objective is the right hand of the Father and the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, which in this case is also a tactical victory. So He is the advance guard and He is there entered for us. “Where the advance guard [our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, the anchor within the veil] has entered ...”

“for us” — u(per plus the genitive plural of su. He has entered on behalf of us (plural), all members of the royal priesthood.

“entered” should be “has entered”, the aorist active indicative of e)iserxomai, the same verb for the second time in two verses, to show that Jesus Christ is the advance guard, Jesus Christ is the anchor inside of the veil. The aorist tense is the culminative aorist which regards the action in its entirety but emphasises the existing results. Jesus Christ lived on earth as a man. He lived as a royal high priest. He went to the cross, died, was resurrected, ascended, and is seated on the right hand of the Father. The culminative aorist emphasises the strategic victory of our advance guard, the Lord Jesus Christ. So on behalf of us He has already entered and is seated on the right hand of the Father. The active voice: the Lord Jesus Christ, the royal high priest, produces the action of the verb. And this is a declarative indicative which regards the verb from the viewpoint of reality, where Jesus the advance guard has entered on behalf of us.

Now, at that point and the mentioning of the Lord Jesus Christ we go back to the subject where we left it in Hebrews 5:10 — “Called an high priest of God after the order [or battalion] of Melchizedek.” This time, instead of “called” it is much more personal — “made.” And it is even stronger than that, it is the aorist active participle of the verb ginomai and it means to become. The aorist participle: “having become.” This is a gnomic aorist. The gnomic aorist is for a doctrine which is so absolute as to be axiomatic. The active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb. Before He entered He was already a high priest. Before Jesus Christ accomplished the strategical victory of the angelic conflict He was a priest first. In other words, He offered Himself on the cross as a priest. Just as the animal was offered on the altar in the Old Testament Levitical offerings, so Jesus Christ offered Himself as our high priest.

“after the order of” is incorrect. It is kata plus the accusative of tacij. Kata plus the accusative means according to the norm or standard of, but it is tacij that needs the development. Tacij means battalion — “according to the battalion of Melchizedek.”

Verses 13-20 (Review)

Billions of years ago in eternity past God the Father had plan for the life of every believer, and that plan includes a supergrace paragraph. In the divine decrees God the Father has taken cognisance of every believer who ever lived or ever will live. This is true of believers who lived before the canon of scripture. Before the Bible was written even there were believers like Abraham and God the Father had a plan for their life. So since Abraham did not have a Bible God the Father extrapolated from His supergrace blessing paragraph certain portions of the paragraph which come down in the Bible to us in the form of promises. He actually spoke personally to Abraham though He does not speak personally to us. And in His personal conversation with Abraham He emphasised these particular promises. So He spoke to him and that of course is the Word of God. It was not in writing, Abraham did not have a Bible. So in order to emphasise that this was what was going to happen to Abraham, and is guaranteed, God also took a solemn oath in the name of His own person. So we have two facets to the supergrace promise to Abraham. First of all the oath of God, and secondly, the Word of God. He made the solemn promise in His own name and then declared the content of the promise.

What has been omitted in our study of the last part of the sixth chapter of Hebrews is the fact that you and I today do not have the same exact immutable thing. We have the same principle but we do not actually have God speaking to us. We cannot say we know what our supergrace blessing will be because God isn’t speaking to us. Nevertheless, our paragraph in the supergrace life is just as real as Abraham’s was.

There is another problem. God is not talking to us personally, and since the first immutable thing is an oath, what do we have by way of saying that there is also a first immutable thing — the oath of God? Since God isn’t talking to us, none of us have ever heard God say “Just as I am God” or “My name is not God if this is not true”. We hear this same kind of thing as we read Abraham’s life but we don’t hear it personally. God has not made a personal oath, a solemn oath, to any of us to guarantee our supergrace blessings. So what takes the place of the oath? God spoke personally to Abraham. Abraham lived before the canon of scripture so first of all God said, “My name is not God unless I will do this.” He also spoke to Abraham and that is the Word, there was no canon of scripture. Abraham didn’t have anything in writing. We now have a Bible and therefore have what Abraham did not have. But we have the exact equivalent and that is the application that comes in the last part of the sixth chapter of Hebrews.

First of all, you and I as believers have the Word of God. What you read in the Bible is just as if God is speaking, in fact that is God speaking. And since the canon of scripture is completed God doesn’t speak verbally to people any more. The big issue is what takes the place of the oath. How do we have two immutable things that guarantees exactly the same thing to us? What are the two immutable things? The first is the preservation of the canon of scripture. God takes a new type of solemn oath where you and I are concerned, the fact that we have the scripture at all. The preservation of it is God’s solemn oath. Just as the Word of God continues to exist in spite of all opposition, just as the Word of God has not been destroyed over the last two thousand years, just as every portion of the canon has been preserved and even translated, just as the Bible is the best seller in the world and written in nearly 1000 languages of the world, this is the equivalent of God’s oath. He said to Abraham, “Just as I am God I will do this”. He says to us, “The fact that you have a Bible is equivalent to that oath I gave to Abraham.” The very existence of the Bible is the equivalent of that oath. So the first immutable thing: the existence of the Bible. The second immutable thing is the content of the Bible, and we have our two immutable things just as Abraham had his. Abraham had the two immutable things and he said, “Circumcise me.” We have two immutable things and we know that just as we are saved, just as we have the reality of our salvation, so supergrace prosperity is just as real for each one of us. There is only one difference. While all of us have salvation through faith in Jesus Christ not all of us are going to go to supergrace. For some, if there is a conflict of interest it always goes against the Bible and therefore some are never going to get there.

Verse 13 — we are talking about God’s promise of supergrace blessing to Abraham, the extrapolation from the divine decrees. In the middle of this verse is the first of two immutable things. The explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar introduces the subject of two immutable things. Persistence in learning doctrine is the key to reaching supergrace. The word “when” is not found in the original, and it should be translated here, “For God himself having promised.” Just as this was an absolute to Abraham it is an absolute to you.

God not only saved you — the Father planned it, the Son executed it, the Spirit revealed it — but there is something more than that. God promised Abraham specifically that he would have supergrace blessing, and as goes Abraham so you go. If Abraham doesn’t have it, you don’t have it. If God’s promise and God’s approach isn’t valid there it is not valid for you. Actually, you and Abraham are all tied up in this thing together. The only difference is that Abraham lived before there was any Bible, he was pre-canon completely. The Bible starts with Moses and Abraham lived 500 years before Moses. Furthermore, Abraham lived in a different dispensation, the patriarchal period at the beginning of the dispensation of Israel and you live in the Church Age. Consequently, there is a different mechanic in making the promise.

The mechanics to Abraham: An oath. God says, “I am God. I sware on my own person that I will do something for you”, and then He gives him the Word. So you have the person and the Word. Now, today in the Church Age, instead of the oath we have the existence of the Bible, the perpetuation of the Bible. The Word of God lives and abides forever. Even though it is under great attack and even though at times it is pressed down to a very small portion of this planet it goes on. The very existence of the Bible is equivalent to the oath of the Father, and the content of the Bible is equivalent to the extrapolation of the supergrace promise to you personally.

“because he had no one greater by whom to sware [make an oath]” — the first immutable thing. There was no one greater than God Himself — “he took an oath in the name of himself.” When God approached Abraham on this subject He first of all said, “I take a solemn oath in my own name.” There is no one greater than God and therefore God took an oath in His own name. That is to emphasise the person, the person who actually provides for you supergrace blessings. The person is sovereign and He made a sovereign decision to do this. He made a decision to give each believer supergrace blessings and you have supergrace for you. It may stay in the warehouse until you die and you may have to go to heaven and find out what you missed, but He made the decision and it is a good decision because He is absolute righteousness. It is a fair decision; He is just, He has never left anyone out of the supergrace paragraph. The fact that people do not get to supergrace is because they reject the very basis of supergrace which is His Word — the content of His Word or doctrine. He is also love. God has perfect love for each believer and in His perfect love has provided supergrace blessing. He is eternal life, which means He promised this billions of years before we existed. And God is omniscient. He knew that you would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and become a member of the family of God, and therefore took care of it because of His omniscience. He is omnipotent and has the power, the ability to fulfil the promise when you reach supergrace. And then omnipresence. God is always around. He has a great sense of humour and sees the whole operation unfold. Immutability: God can’t change any of His characteristics, He has no intention of doing so. So any time God makes you any kind of a promise He has to keep His word because He can’t do anything else. Veracity: He can only tell the truth, He can’t tell a lie. So the oath merely amplifies the person who has made the promise.

Verse 14 — “Saying”. Now we get the promise. “Saying” is a static present and it is also a participle or temporal participle, and therefore it should be translated, “When he was saying.” The quotation of the promise given in Hebrews is taken from Genesis 22:16,17 although it could have been taken from Genesis 17:5,6 or Genesis 12 or a number of passages. This one is selected because of its great comprehensiveness.

The word “surely” is very important here because it is a very bad translation of a wonderful Greek idiom which is made up of two particles which are a formula for an oath: e)i mhn. It means assuredly, definitely, certainly, dogmatically. And all we have is simply the two words. Why is that all w have? Because God is taking an oath in His own name, so the idiom is correctly brought into the English “assuredly or dogmatically, blessing I will bless you”. That means there is a supergrace paragraph for Abraham. “Blessing I will bless” and then “multiplying I will multiply” is a specific. One is a general concept: There is for you Abraham a supergrace blessing. And specifically it is related to sexual prosperity for Abraham because multiplying is something that comes through sex.

We stopped at this stage to look at the categories of grace in the overall picture. The first category was salvation grace [Phase one]. We have the category and we have the involvement. Phase one grace involved all of the Trinity. The involvement is volition — positive volition expressed in a non-meritorious way — or faith in the living Word, Jesus Christ. This, of course, is related to the angelic conflict. Category #2 grace is called living grace, but it also includes dying grace. Living grace is all that God provides to keep you alive on this earth. No volition is involved since this is a matter of the sovereignty of God. He doesn’t many, many thing of which we are not aware to keep us alive. There is also in this dying grace for supergrace believers or believers who are not involved in reversionism. The third category is supergrace or the “more grace” of James 4:6. Supergrace involves volition again — non-meritorious. This time GAPing it, the object of volition is the written Word. We never really get into the perfect relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in time unless we do it through doctrine. This is the tactical victory. Finally, there is surpassing grace or “the exceeding riches of his grace” in Ephesians 2:7 and no volition is involved because this is the sovereignty of God and His provision for phase three.

Verse 15 — Abraham finally achieving supergrace, the fulfilment of the two immutable things in the life of Abraham. “After he had patiently endured” is incorrect, it is “having persisted.” Abraham kept taking in the Word, he never stopped.

“he obtained the promise” — What promise? The supergrace promise. So the two immutable things are linked together with the supergrace promise. Verse 13: first immutable thing, the oath, emphasising God’s person; verse 14: the second immutable thing, the content, which places the emphasis on doctrine. In verse 15 we have Abraham, the illustration, achieving.

After going through this principle — the first immutable thing, the second immutable thing, and the fulfilment to Abraham — we now have a theological dissertation on two immutable things in verses 16-18.

Verse 16 — we start again with gar to show it is a new paragraph and to show it is the same subject but a different approach. First of all in verse 16 we go back to the illustration: “For mankind customarily takes an oath by the greater”— he takes an oath by God — “and to them [those in opposition] such an oath [making a promise in the name of God] with reference to confirmation [guaranteeing security] is the termination of all opposition.” So this is simply an historical illustration to the fact that when people take a solemn oath in the name of God this gives security to the opposition and peace is made between the two antagonistic parties or nations.

Verse 17 — then uses this illustration to amplify the principle. “Wherein” is “By means of which decree” — “the God decreeing [not “willing” as in the KJV]”. This is boulomai which means to make a decree. The present tense is a static present representing the condition assumed as perpetually existing. There never was a time when your supergrace blessing should not exist. Right now in heaven there is a warehouse and there is all of this tremendous supergrace blessing piled up there for you — the prosperity, the promotion, the success, the happiness, whatever it is. They are specific things where you are concerned. The principle applies to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are involved. This is the story of your life, it is failure or success.

By means which oath the God sovereignly decreeing even more” — God decrees even more — “to demonstrate in addition to the heirs.” Who are the heirs? Abraham is the father of Gentile nations [operation Keturah]. He is the father of a new race [the Jew]. He is also “the father of us all.” How? We are heirs of supergrace promises, and there is father Abraham. Just as Abraham was recipient of a supergrace paragraph, so are you. This is an heirship to be possessed now, not in heaven. There are two kinds of heirship: you inherit in phase three but you inherit in phase two. Abraham is the father of us all and we are Abraham’s heirs. That means God has for each one of us a supergrace paragraph.

“heirs of the promise” — the promise is in time. For Abraham is was sexual prosperity. The promise has nothing to do with heaven. This refers to materialistic things without emphasising what goes with this. What goes with this is a soul saturated with doctrine — persistence. Abraham persisted in taking in doctrine and he got there. You and I are the heirs of Abraham — in time.

Next comes the immutability of His decree. “By means of which oath the God sovereignly decreed even more to demonstrate in addition to the decree to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his decree [supergrace blessings], he guaranteed it by means of an oath.” God has the power to keep the Bible going forever. The second immutable thing is what is inside. That is why we have the gift of pastor-teacher.

Verse 18 — “That by two immutable things.” The two immutable things to Abraham and the two immutable things to you. In principle they are the same, mechanically they are different — we have the Bible, the completed canon of scripture. But the Bible must be taught to us. For Abraham it was an oath and a promise extrapolated from the decrees; for us the existence of the Bible and the teaching of the Bible.

“we [the priesthood] might have strong encouragement” — to advance and seize our paragraph, to make advance to tactical victory — “so long as we take refuge in doctrine for the purpose of attaining the objective constantly placed before us.” Every time the Word of God the objective is placed before us.

Verse 19 — the upside down anchor is also right side up. “Which we have and hold an anchor of the soul.” The anchor is said to be of the soul, a genitive of possession. The anchor is also described as a sea anchor of the ancient world and inasmuch as the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written it is quite obvious that the two adjectives which follow, sure and steadfast, are related to sea anchors of the ancient world.

Sea anchors do two things. They give direction and they give stability. They secure the ship from the shoals and they give stability in the storm. And “sure” means stability which comes from getting the bow into the storm. But “steadfast”, which means “dependable”, keeps the ship off of the shoals.

This anchor of the soul is said to be stabilised and dependable. An anchor of the soul means Bible doctrine in the soul. So here is the Bible, our oath from God, His solemn promise. The doctrine must go into your soul. Bible doctrine in the soul provides stability as well as security.

There is another anchor here though. This anchor has to go up. The Jews could not enter into the holy of holies. The high priest could go in once a year and if he went in and came out the nation had another year of survival. This was a part of the function of the day of atonement. The holy of holies is a picture of heaven. Jesus Christ our high priest enters into heaven by His resurrection and ascension. He is seated at the right hand of the Father, that is the end of the first phase of strategic victory. Jesus Christ is the anchor, this time it is upside down. This time He is the one who entered in as the anchor. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. At the moment of salvation God the Holy Spirit entered us into union with Christ and we not only have the anchor which is doctrine in the soul but we have anchor in heaven. The anchor in heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is the anchor in the soul of the believer? Doctrine! The written Word. What is the second anchor? It is the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So again we have the living Word and the written Word. With those two anchors we have perfect security in this life as well as perfect happiness. The fact that you and I at the point of salvation were picked up and placed into union with Christ guarantees that we have supergrace blessing. It doesn’t guarantee that we will get it. Our attitude toward Christ is the first anchor in heaven. Our attitude toward the written Word determines whether we ever get to supergrace or not. And it has to be a consistent attitude. We cannot be unstable, as so many are, and get there.

Verse 20 — we have one more illustration. “Forerunner” can be translated two ways. The nautical use of prodromoj is “pilot ship” — which brings the ship into harbour — or “advance guard”, the military use of it. Jesus Christ is the advance guard for a second great supergrace victory. This is the victory that will come with surpassing grace.