Hebrews (Vol. 1): An Anchor for the Soul: 001 (Preaching the Word) by Hughes R. Kent

Author:Hughes, R. Kent [Hughes, R. Kent]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 1993-05-15T04:00:00+00:00

THE CAUSE OF SPIRITUAL IMMATURITY (vv. 12b, 13)

Next we observe that the author resorts to some biting, caustic sarcasm in an effort to stir his readers to spiritual growth: “You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness” (vv. 12b, 13). He assaults his friends with a grotesque image — adult infants who are still nursing. Think of the tragic absurdity of full-grown men and women in diapers who are neither capable of, nor desire solid food and who sit around sucking their thumbs. Such full-grown infants amount to a huge disgrace and drain on the Church. Obviously the writer’s grotesque images are meant to shock and to motivate some of his hearers to pull out their thumbs and say, “I’m no baby.”

Again, the emphasis of the language warns against regression, for it literally reads, “You have become having need of milk, not solid food.”4 They had begun to eat solid food early on but were now back on the bottle. The truth is, there is simply no such thing as a static Christian. We either move forward or fall back. We are either climbing or falling. We are either winning or losing. Static, status quo Christianity is a delusion!

Helpfully, the writer has been very explicit as to who remains a spiritual infant: “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness” (v. 13). “The teaching about righteousness” has been understood in two ways — one doctrinal and the other practical.

Those who think the emphasis is doctrinal argue that being “acquainted with the teaching about righteousness” has reference to a solid grasp of the doctrine of imputed righteousness — that is, the divine bestowing of an alien righteousness from God in effecting one’s salvation as described, for example, in Romans 3:22 — “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe” (cf. Romans 1:17; Philippians 3:9).5 Those who take this view say one must clearly understand this doctrine before it is possible to eat further food. But others understand “the teaching about righteousness” to be practical, arguing that the following context (cf. v. 13) demands that we understand this as righteous conduct. Thus, those who live righteous lives will be enabled to eat the solid food of God’s Word.

I personally believe it is both/and. Those who would move beyond the milk stage and feed on the meat of God’s Word must first have a clear doctrinal understanding of the radical righteousness of God. They must understand they are so radically sinful that their own works of righteousness can never save them, and that their only hope is the gift of righteousness from God through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). However, if one is to increasingly feed on the solid Word, there must be more than this doctrinal understanding of righteousness — there must also be practical righteous living. These two together, orthodoxy and orthopraxy, enable one to feed more and more on the solid Word of God.

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