In a previous post we considered the very important practical Christian living word “ekklaysia”, commonly translated “church” (sometimes, poorly translated as “congregation”). As we saw it is a compound work with a prefix from a preposition, ek, from which we get our English “ex” as in “exit,” appended to a Koine word meaning “called.” Hence the root idea of ekklaysia is “called out.” (And that is one important reason why “congregation” badly misses the mark).
So, if we picture ourselves at some kind of portal, like a doorway or metaphorically the signing of certain exit documents, how can be use such experience to think of Biblical ekklaysia? The central emphasis of ekklaysia is hearing / knowing a calling out with the response of necessary steps of exiting something. A secondary element is that being called out is connected with being brought into something else; calling out is not to some state of nothingness.
Recognition of an Entity Here Known as The Religion Industry (TRI)
In the previous post we saw the ‘out of’ component in the NT (New Testament) being “religion,” or as used here The Religion Industry (TRI). We seek here to distinguish TRI from piety. “Religion” could have been a useful alternative to “piety” but it has become so convoluted in use as to be meaningless or worse, deceptive. TRI as used here and throughout my other writings and domains is about an active, living institution that serves a cohering purpose, hence the “I” of TRI designates “industry.” The “R” is for “religion,” which is in common use to mean the means of a person getting to God by some behaviors, tradition-observing, venue-adhering, calendar-observing, ritual-following dedications.
TRI of the NT was exemplified by the devolution of so-called orthodox Judaism. The Gospels give us many such specific examples. Consider the below passage from Mark Ch 7:
1 Now when the Pharisees gathered to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2 they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4 and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6 And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,
“‘This people honors me with their lips,
Mark Ch 7:1-8, ESV (bold and bold italic highlights, mine)
but their heart is far from me;
7 in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
Standing before the Pharisees and scribes was the very Messiah, Who gave evidence of His Being by teaching, miraculous good works, and a perfectly holy life. In the passage just prior to the one above, the fame of Jesus’s miraculous powers caused a crowd come to him seeking miraculous deliverance. Here in Mark Ch 7, the Pharisees and scribes perceive no such need. Rather they see Jesus’s disciples as being in serious need toward which is offered ‘the cure’ of the tradition of the elders. Note that the five references in the above brief passage to their traditions and commandments of men. Juxtaposed is the Lord’s most-significant reference to “it is written” (highlighted in bold italic). The simple phrase establishes the claim of governing authority. (I will be writing elsewhere much more on the subject of “Authority” and its claimants). The verb tense (aspect) of this “it is written” phrase is the Koine “perfect,” or “perfective,” meaning something that began in the past and continues (is perfected) to the very time of its being spoken.
TRI the institution that not only rejected Jesus as Messiah, they did so as to Jesus as a moral teacher, a rabbi, even a miracle-worker of good deeds. Further, TRI leadership conceived Jesus as an existential threat to its institution and, so, worthy of death! Such rejection drove them to dealmaking with even the hated Roman Government (TPI, The Political Industry) to obtain the requisite authority and means to kill, particularly the heinous, shameful killing of crucifixion (the hanging on a tree, evidencing by TRI’s claim of God’s curse on Jesus).
The calling out of ekklaysia was most-clearly and most-certainly out of TRI. (In that time and place there was no explicit need for calling out of TPI as the Romans were hated by the Jews, along with all Gentiles, and vice versa).
Let us now consider the other half of ekklaysia, namely: being called out of TRI…what are we called into?
Christians in Formed Communities
If we consider the NT after the Resurrection, those called by God, the ekklaysia, were formed into communities, but most-definitely not the congregations known as synagogues the then meeting point of TRI.
Immediately after the crucifixion, the called out communities were driven by fear of the wrath that the TRI and TPI had unleashed upon their Lord would soon come for them. Those declared to be insurrectionists, which is how both the TRI and TPI officially judged Jesus to be, would crucify first, but not stop there. They, under the lead of TRI, would come for all the followers and invoke the same judgement.
So, the apostles and closest disciples in Jerusalem were assembled in terror in hiding. Hearing word of Christ’s resurrection was not enough to comfort them, much like their having even seen Jesus walking on the stormy sea of Galilee did not comfort their souls in the storm-tossed boat. As Jesus entered that boat, and calmed the storm, so Jesus appears, just as claimed that physical storm by His supernatural authority, in that room in which the fearful were hiding from TRI and TPI, He also calmed that emotional storm, saying, again, “Peace.”
High-Level Lessons from The Book of Acts
The first 12 chapters of the Book of Acts we see the beginnings of the NT communities of Christian believers. These we not part of the religious systems and practices of both TRI and TPI. These called out ones lived and experienced a state of being, ekklaysia, not a particular building, or venue, or “religion.” Nor were they called out to some state of every-man-for-himself fleeing to the hills and wildernesses. Nor was it shrinking into patriarchal family units, as some kind of return to an Abrahamic period.
The apostles, first led by Peter, went out a proclaimed that Jesus had risen from the dead, and the great significance of such event. One dimension of such significance was that TRI had been set aside. No one was called to storm the gates of the Temple and take over, under the Authority of the Risen King, Son of David, and Redeemer (Lamb of God). No. Instead, the message was that of calling out of the incumbent TRI and TPI (the latter particularly for those Sadducee followers). The OT (Old Testament) was abrogated, but truly fulfilled. The “is is written” had fully come to pass, not be set aside.
When persecution arose, again by TPI, which was not finished seeking to exterminate Jesus’s influence and authority claim, among the called out ones were nourished there by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the word of God (both the OT and the emerging writings of the NT being first hear orally from witnesses), and by the faith of their fellows called-out-ones
Consider the following passage from Acts Ch 4:
19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you [the first two “you’s” and first two “they’s” in this passage refer to the TRI leadership sitting in judgment against the resurrection of Jesus and the Gospel itself] rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” 21 And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, for all were praising God for what had happened. 22 For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than forty years old.
23 When they were released, they [Peter and John] went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders [the instantiation of TRI Authority] had said to them. 24 And when they [the ekklaysia] heard it, they [the ekklaysia] lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit,
“‘Why did the Gentiles [likely reference here to TPI, Rome] rage,
and the peoples [likely reference to the TRI, Judaism] plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth [TRI] set themselves,
and the rulers [TPI] were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed’[e]—27 for truly in this city [Jerusalem at the Feast Passover, where both TPI Ruler and TRI Rulers were simultaneously gathered] there were gathered together [TRI and TPI] against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles [the leadership of TPI] and [with Herod] the peoples of Israel [the leadership of TRI], to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants [the ekklaysia] to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”31 And when they [the ekklaysia] had prayed, the place in which they [the ekklaysia] were gathered together [the ekklaysia] was shaken, and they [the ekklaysia]were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:19-31, ESV [Highlights mine]
The above passage is the crucial text that gives us the foundation for the NT church (ekklaysia). It is and will ever be an outcast community, powerfully opposed by TRI (and we see later in history, also TPI). The reader is encouraged to read and re-read the above Bible text, and ponder the significance of being called through a portal, out of something and at the same time into something else. (Hence, it is a mistake to translate ekklaysia by “congregation,” as such word only views the after effect of having been called out). (It is also, in my view, a mistake to translate ekklaysia by “church,” because such word has become irretrievably ruined by its usage).
The Book of Acts Beginning with Paul (Acts Chapters 13 – 28)
Acts Ch 13 opens with the elders, the leaders of the ekklaysia, located in a famous NT city, Antioch. Ironically, the city is named after an infamous TPI ruler. And it was one of the great cities of TPI in the NT period. It is worth learning its significance, as given below:
At one time Antioch on the Orontes was one of the three largest and most important cities of the Greco-Roman world, along with Rome and Alexandria (Egypt). …In ancient times Antioch on the Orontes was a part of Syria and thus is sometimes referred to, especially in biblical studies, as Antioch of Syria. (Fifteen other cities in the ancient world were named Antioch as well.) …
Seleucus I Nicator, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, founded the city. … Seleucus named the city, which soon became the capital of the Seleucid kingdom, after his father, Antiochus. …Tigranes of Armenia captured the city in 83 B.C.E., but in 66 B.C.E. he was defeated by the Roman general Pompey, who made Antioch the capital of the Roman province of Syria. Both Julius Caesar and Augustus visited the city, and both erected various buildings there. (The wedding of Mark Antony to Cleopatra likely took place in Antioch. Ancient sources indicate it occurred in Syria but do not specify the city. As the capital, Antioch was the likely location.) During the Roman period, Antioch was a large, cosmopolitan city, the third largest city in the Roman world after Rome and Alexandria.
“Antioch on the Orontes;” part of Oxford Academic publications, A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey, Clyde E Fant, Mitchell G Reddish, pp. 143ff, Nov 2003. [highlighting and excerpting are mine]
The narrative of Acts begins an important transition at Ch 13, at Antioch, this symbolic city of TPI (Roman Rule and all it entailed Roman roads and protected sea lanes: it’s 200 year Pax Romana). It begins with five elders, but no “pastor,” “priest,” human single-point authority figure. Two of the five elders–Barnabas and Saul / Paul–are then themselves called-out of that community of believers to go beyond Israel and proclaim the Risen Christ, His finished Work, the Gospel itself, to the Gentile world. The final 16 chapters of Acts tell that story in four missionary expeditions.
The first such expedition is confined to the Eastern Mediterranean region including the eastern half of the land we now know as Turkey but at the time of the NT was known as Asia. The latter expeditions extend across western Asia (Turkey) and across the famed Bosphorus into Europe, beginning at Macedonia (Greece in today’s terms), and ultimately to Rome itself in the closing chapter of Acts.
In each region that was reached with the Gospel there was formed communities of believers (ekklaysia). There was no linkage or embedding of such communities into the local instantiation of the Jewish TRI, namely its synagogues in the various cities of the Roman world. There were no building campaigns, no owned buildings. (This is confirmed by historical sources outside the Bible; the first “church” buildings do not appear prior to the 4th Century).
From Antioch in Ch 13 to Rome in Ch 28, the Gospel spreads between the great Roman (TPI) east-west ‘bookends’ of its Empire. What Rome (TPI) saw as its mighty Empire, approaching its historical zenith of power, God saw as His ekklaysia scattered about geographically, autonomously in human terms but each and all under the Sovereign leadership of The Holy Spirit. Such outposts were some blend of being objects contempt (by TRI) and unimportance (by TPI), as is the case to this day, but beloved by God.
The Pauline Epistles
In our NT Book order, Paul’s Epistles begin with Romans and ends with Philemon (or Hebrews, if Paul was its author).
What is obvious, though easily missed, is most of such letters were addressed to specific local communities:
- Rome
- Corinth (two letters that we have, but we know there were two additional letters)
- Galatia (a region in Asia with multiple locales: Iconium, Derbe, Lystra,…)
- Ephesus
- Philippi
- Colossi (and a sister sister of Laodicea)
- Thessalonica
From Paul’s “Pastoral Epistles”–addressed to Titus, Timothy, and Philemon–we see additional examples of local communities of believers, such as the island of Cyprus.
Peter’s Epistles
In 1st Peter we see other ekklaysia communities identified. Consider how they are called:
1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls…
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
1 Peter 1:1-21, ESV [highlighting and excerpting, mine]
Again we must be brief about this most-weighty passage of Scripture. But let us pause on the idea expressed by the terms “holy” and “be holy.” Such reference to “holy”is another keyword worthy of deep study. For now let us note a corrective understanding. When we hear “holy” we tend to think it means something like being “especially good.” Similarly, “being sanctified” is commonly thought to being made better, much much better, even perfected. (“Sanctified” comes from the Latin word “sanctus,” which in the Vulgate translation of the same Koine word we see in English as “holy,” or being made “holy.”)
But all such being-made-better thoughts miss the central point of “holy.” “Holy” means to be set apart, which can be applied in multiple contexts. It means to be separated. It is contrasted with “common,” meaning no-difference, or any-one-will-do-because-they’re-indistinguisable. It is a reference to distinctiveness as our being called out, and with respect to its reference to God as “Holy” it is to His distinctiveness as transcendent beyond imagination. (The book by RC Sproul titled The Holiness of God is particularly helpful in developing such understand, especially his Chapter 3).
Applying this important distinction to “holy” we see the expressions in 1 Peter Ch 1 are making the same repeated reference to ekklaysia, namely being separated. But separated from what? “The futile ways inherited from your fathers,” given above, exemplified by the TRI of Judaism in its devolved state at the time of the NT.
Such called out ones are characterized how? Exiles and the dispersion (1 Peter 1:1). Located where? Broad regions of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, all specific areas known to the NT writer and its readers. Note the absence of mention to any synagogues, which were the local repositories of Judaism (TRI), and even more notably the absence of mention of Jerusalem and the Temple. Likewise there is no reference to the great festivals–such as Passover and Pentecost–that required the attendance of every Jewish male at Jerusalem. Nor is there any mention of sabbath-keeping, which was foundational to the schedule of the weekly life of Judaism.
This above passage, as well as many others, express the clear break with the past, much as Jesus exhibited in His messages in the synagogues, and his healings on the Sabbath, and especially His cleansing of the Temple and condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees (Matt Ch 23).
“In Christ”
As discussed elsewhere, nouns in the Koine are expressed in five cases: vocative, nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. Of particular interest in this post is the dative case, and a more specifically a particular use of such case.
The dative case is nominally used of indirect objects. A simple example is “John hit the ball to Joe.” John is the subject, the nominative case, the ball is the direct object, the accusative case, and Joe is in the indirect object, the dative case. John hits the ball, not Joe.
Such use of the dative case in Koine also encompasses the simple indirect object. But the Koine dative has a richer range of uses, primarily (1) “locative” (in space or time or both) and (2) “instrumentality / agency.” An illustration of these three uses of the dative case can be seen as follows. Considering reacting with awe to some 20 year-old who exhibits being a magnificent trumpet player. You would be led to ask: “Where did you learn how to play the trumpet like that?” He might then reply: “in high school.” “In” is a usual preposition for the dative case in both English and Koine (where it is “en”). But exactly what does the trumpet player mean by “in” and what does the questioner understand by it?
The simple form of the dative would be akin to our John and Joe example: “I learned to play the trumpet in high school.” “I” would be the subject, “play” the verb (like “hit” in the above example), “the trumpet” would be the direct object, and “high school” the indirect object (dative). But in such context, the understanding of a dative as a simple “indirect object” makes little sense.
A second interpretation would be “in” points to “location in space / time,” meaning that while attending high school (a characteristic time period) in the setting of a specific place of attendance there (location) when and where he learned how to play the trumpet. That makes more sense, but is still wanting. All of us went to high school. Almost none of us became a great trumpet player by so attending. What is really the answer to this question of “where?”
The third interpretation of “in” points to “agency / instrumentality.” High schools typically have bands that include trumpet players. But some high schools, led by exemplar teachers and programs, stimulate and create unusually talented trumpet players. In this context, it most-likely that the questioner was asking this question: “By what agency / instrumentality did your great gift become developed?” The implicit answer would then have been, “I attended a special high school that had a program for gifted musicians that shaped my interest and developed my craft.” (Thus we get a Chris Botti, though perhaps it was not high school where he got his start).
The phrase “in Christ,” which is a Koine dative case, occurs many times in the NT, especially the Pauline Epistles. It occurs so frequently and so succinctly that we tend to miss its deep significance. In so doing, we miss one of the great truths of ekklaysia. Let us now try to fix that:
The two word phrase “in Christ” never occurs in any of the Gospels, and only once in Acts (Acts 24:24), but it occurs 91 times in the rest of the NT including every writing of Paul (except 2 Thes and Titus, but including Hebrews); it also occurs in Peter’s first Epistle.
Consider the first occurrence of “in Christ” in Romans:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus [expressed in the Koine dative case], 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Romans 3:23-25, ESV [highlights mine]
The first verse above, Rom 3:23, is widely known and memorized. But it is not a complete sentence, and citing it misses the key point, as given in the next verse, 3:24, and further explained by 3:25. Note the phrase “in Christ Jesus,” which means literally “in Messiah Jesus” as “Christ” is not Jesus’s surname but the Koine translation of the OT Hebrew word for Messiah, the Anointed / Promised One.
Such dative case form of “in Christ Jesus” is most-reasonably understood by reference to the above third example use of the dative case, that of “agency / instrumentality.”
Why is this significant? Two primary reasons. First, we are here addressing the question of to what have we been called out of, ekklaysis’d? From the discussion earlier in this post we see the derived presence of local communities of believers (called out ones). However there is a second important significance to “in Christ Jesus.” We are both called out by the Authority and Call of God, out of TRI (and TPI) but we are also called into something else, a state of being, namely “in Christ Jesus.” And it is such state of being that we share in any local community with other called out ones.
Are We Safe and Warm Being Called Out and Called Into?
Have we been called into an unassailable fortress, safe and secure from all alarm? Yes and no.
Yes, most-definitely, as called into the Everlasting Arms we are safe both now and forever. God has promised literally “I will never never leave you.” (Hebrews 13:5, and Romans Ch 8:31-39).
Yet, at the same time, we have cautioned about the experience of being persecuted, even by the metaphor of ravening wolves (Acts 20:29). 1 Peter Ch 1 is clear on the reality of such persecution. As is made clear in the Epistle to the Galatians (Gal 1:13; 4:29; 5:11; 6:12) and the attack of the Judaizers (emissaries of TRI against the called out ones). We see the same in the cautions Paul expresses in his “Pastoral Epistles” to Titus (e.g., Titus 3:9-10) and Timothy (e.g., 2 Tim 3:1-13).
The entire Galatian Epistle, likely the first Epistle written (in the decade of the 40s A.D.) is a most-stern admonition to extinguish the inroads the Judaizers have made into the fellowship of out called ones. These were men seeking to synthesize the Judaism of TRI with the ones whom God had called out in some kind of chimera, that could appear to devolved Judaism and still incorporate something of “Grace.” Paul makes clear that there can be no such blending together, no new wine in old wine skins.
Consider also, the often neglected Epistle by Jude. It is an extremely short, even abrupt, letter entirely focused on the danger being faced by wolves seeking to kill the sheep of God’s calling. See below:
10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These are hidden reefs[e] at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
Jude 10-13, ESV
(The above passage from Jude may be more of a warning about another category of invading persecutor, arising from TPI or Greek culture and and tradition).
Consider too the Book of Revelation. We see in the opening chapters something of the state of the “church,” the ekklaysia, in the decades of the 90’s A.D. when it was written. There we hear what The Spirit says concerning seven churches in Asia (Rev. 1:4): ““Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” (Rev. 1:11, ESV) Beginning in Rev 2, John under the guidance of the Holy Spirit gives stern warning to diversions that have befallen these seven ekklaysia bodies. The Enemy, sometimes in the power of TRI, sometimes TPI, sometimes the influence of “culture”–the Enemy uses all his arsenal of weapons–endlessly is at work seeking to vandalize and destroy every form of God’s Creation, including, especially, every ekklaysia.
These seven churches (ekklaysia) in Rev Ch 1-2, were the very ones founded both by Paul’s missionary journeys and was also the object of Peter’s earlier epistolary writing.
“Religion” in all its forms did not stop with the resurrection, ascension, inaugural messages of Grace in Acts. TRI has never died off. It is alive, and continues to seek to ingulf God’s church, ekklaysia.
What Then Is To Be Our Response to The Ekklaysia Call?
Let us close here with two passages from the epistle known as Hebrews (though it is not limited to, or specific toward Jewish / Hebrew people; the word “Hebrew(s)” never occurs in the Epistle itself).
First there is the famous favorite church verse, Hebrews 10:25 below:
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:23-25 (ESV, highlighting mine)
Such verse has been used and misused as an admonition that one has been called out of nothing into a manifestation of TRI known in our vernacular as “a church.” This is subtle and deceiving. We have not been standing as it were on a blank slate. We by nature “religious” as we seek to navigate our mortality and guilt. We are guilty and therefore mortal (mortal because we are guilty). Living within such awareness is a force that drives each of us to develop some interpretation and answer.
In such condition we do not stand in some existential vacuum. As someone has noted, and even written a book of the title: Everyone is a Theologian (RC Sproul). We all diffuse into some theology of God and then accordingly our human condition, all matters of sin’s causes and meaning, and of religion in particular as regards to piety. In our being’s deepest recesses we seem to form a universal theory of our own self-salvation by doctrine and practice, working, as it were, to erase our sin, its consequences, and impress God.
So, Hebrews 10:25 directs us to be joined into a community of fellow called out ones to help us by the working of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to come to a Biblically wise understanding of such issues. However, such verse as Hebrews 10:25 is calling us out of religion (TRI) in the community of Believers that is nothing like a religious industry or system. (More on this in the next post). This is made clear in an even more revealing verse in the same book of Hebrews:
9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
Hebrews 13:9-14 (ESV, highlights mine)
Notably important in the above text is the phrase “outside the camp.” This calls us back to the OT encampments of the Wilderness period after the Exodus from Egypt, and Jesus being crucified outside the City bearing His presence (Jerusalem). The encampment is a picture of the religion (TRI) of its NT embodiment. It had begun founded on what “it is written,” but have diffused away to its traditions and commandments of men so far as to become antithetical to the very heart of the OT, namely that Jesus had come as Messiah, and The Lamb of God.