But the just shall live by faith; and, if he draw back, my soul does not take pleasure in him.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But *we* are not drawers back to perdition, but of faith to saving [the] soul.
Chapter 10 has just closed with a warning about shrinking back. The last verse draws a line between two kinds of people, and the writer puts himself and his readers on the safe side of it.
The verse sets one group against another. That contrast shapes how we read every warning in the letter.
Do not miss the contrast in the last verse of our chapter. It lies between drawing back to ruin and believing to the salvation of the soul. This is more proof, if any were needed, that the contrast in Hebrews is not between believers who do well and believers who do badly and so (as some suppose) may perish. It is between those who truly believe to salvation and those who only profess, and who draw back to their eternal ruin.
The wording carries the point. It names a kind of person, not one past act.
Men could not be saved while giving up this faith. Drawing back from Christ would be drawing back to ruin. Yet in the same letter this apostle puts those who had believed to salvation in a completely different class from those who could fall away. He writes, "we are not of those who shrink back" — not simply, "who have shrunk back," which there would be no need to say, but "who shrink back." We are not the kind of people who do that. We are "of those who have faith and preserve their souls." That is the class we belong to.
The letter warns and reassures at the same time. Each word goes to a different group.
Like all the strong warnings of that letter, this one goes first to a body of professing Christians. They had been trained in Judaism, and they were in danger of being pulled back under its influence... Yet while the letter warns a body of professors, it shows the fullest confidence about individual believers... It is always good to distrust ourselves; but we can never go too far in trusting God. The worst of it is that those who really need the warning do not heed it. They go on in a light and careless way. Meanwhile the warnings frighten those who seek to walk with a tender conscience and an honest heart, though they do not apply to them at all.
Notice the pronoun: he does not say "you", he says "we".
But the apostle, as he always does, cannot leave the subject with those solemn words. True faith must have a word of cheer, and so in the last verse he puts himself alongside them, alongside all true believers... We are of those who believe. Our faith is not the short-lived kind — like the seed on rocky ground, which lasts a season and then withers away under pressure.
Keeping the soul reaches further than rescue from judgment. Commentators differ on where its weight falls. Ridout points ahead to "that day of glory, when all the fruit of faith will appear to view." Another writer sees it as already begun:
Soul-salvation in these scriptures must include the salvation from judgment that is ours when we believe, when we receive the forgiveness of sins and God justifies us on the principle of faith. But on its positive side it takes in the present enjoyment in the soul of that salvation which, in its fullness, is ready to be revealed. It is ours in this world now, because it is "in Christ."
The verse is not an ending but a hinge. What follows shows what faith looks like.
After the appeals and encouragements that close chapter 10, we find in chapter 11 a review of the great lives of the Old Testament. The aim is to put before the Hebrews all the resources of faith... Now this is what faith is.
The danger did not end with the first readers. The professing Christian world can draw back by copying.
Christendom has drawn back by way of imitation. It has copied the Jewish system. Once again it puts up magnificent temples with visible altars, and appoints official priests to conduct elaborate ceremonies. These appeal to the eye and to the natural man, and they raise no question of conversion or new birth. So Christendom has not given up the profession of Christianity to go back to Judaism. Instead it has tried to attach Judaism to Christianity. The result is that Christendom is losing the vital truths of Christianity, which only a true believer can enter. At the same time it keeps the outward things of Judaism that the natural man can appreciate.
- Two classes. The line runs between real believers and people who only profess. It does not run between believers who do well and believers who do badly and perish.
- Two directions. One class draws back to ruin; the other believes onward — a settled character, not a single act.
- Two audiences. The warning goes to a professing body. The confidence goes to individual believers, and the writer counts himself among them.
- Two horizons. Saving the soul covers forgiveness now and present enjoyment of that salvation, with its full display still ahead.
- Two ages. The same drawing back happens today by copying: people keep the outward religion and lose the truths only faith can enter.