Theology

Do Not Throw Away Your Confidence

Author Amy K. Hall Published on 10/28/2013

Hebrews 10:32–36 has a very relevant exhortation for our postmodern times:

But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened [“after receiving the knowledge of the truth” (v. 26)], you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and tribulations, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated. For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.

This confidence in the supremacy of the person of Christ and His reconciling sacrifice for our sins in objective history (the focus of the beginning of Chapter 10)—the kind of confidence and “knowing” that brings the reward of endurance through reproaches and tribulations...can this thrive in a person who thinks religious beliefs are merely subjective preferences?