Our help is in the Name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Psalm of praise: Scripture hymn 2:2, 3 (4-2:2, 3)
Prayer
Psalm 89:2, 3
Scripture reading:
Hebrews 6
Scripture text
Hebrews 6:16; Catechism
Sunday 37
For
people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their
disputes an oath is final for confirmation. (ESV)
The author of the Hebrews Epistle addresses the Christians of Jewish
origin. From the epistle it is clear that this part of the church of
God also had its share of problems.
- They were inclined to stick to the Old Testament only, and then
especially to what pertained to Moses.
- That is why they are seriously told not to stick to the
elementary teachings about Christ. They should move forward in their
faith – towards perfection, because they got stuck.
- To them it was all about becoming converted time and again from
their useless/meaningless works so that they would once again believe
in God.
- They also strongly emphasised instruction about baptisms, the
laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal
judgement, with the result that many things in their lives went wrong.
.What went wrong?
- Some of them became disbelievers but then converted again – and
thought everything was just fine.
- That is why the Holy Spirit tells them that it is impossible for
those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly
gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness
of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away,
to be brought back to repentance.
- The Lord says why: To their loss they crucified the Son of God
all over again and subjected Him to public disgrace.
It is shocking to think that a person who becomes a disbeliever
subjects the Lord Jesus to public disgrace, and that the Lord regards
it as such a serious offence that He refuses such a person to be
converted again.
Can you imagine the doubt and uncertainty in the minds of these people
when they are so seriously admonished! That is why they started
wondering who was going to make it. Who could be saved if practising
their faith had become so difficult?
That is why the Lord gives these people sure comfort. The truly
faithful can live with the knowledge that their hope is sure. God gave
two things to alleviate all difficulties in life: his promise and his
oath.
- His promise is that He will forgive us all our sins because He
loves us.
- God’s promise is that He is not unrighteous in forgetting about
our work and the labour of love for his Name.
- This demands from us not to become sluggish. We must show this
same diligence to the very end, in order to make our hope sure.
- The Bible teaches us very clearly what this hope entails: We
are heirs of what was promised (verses 9-12).
- Secondly, his oath: His oath is our assurance that we can rely on
his promises.
This is still easy. But now life goes on just like that of the Hebrews.
We are sometimes asked to take an oath.
- What do we do? May we take an oath and what is the connection
between our oath and that which the Lord took?
- When we think of God and his promises that he sealed with an
oath, we immediately realise that, regarding the oath, we should be
directed by God.
- Because the oath is as important to God as his own Being, we can
only use it correctly as God instituted it and in the way it serves his
glory.
Because sin is always stalking us we need to orientate ourselves with
regard to the oath and use thereof.
- It would have been ideal if nothing but the truth was spoken and
nothing wrong was ever done.
- If it had not been for the fall of man, it would have been
exactly like that.
Truth is that our lives are very far from complete truth. Our society
is drenched in falsehood and fraud. But, thanks to God’s kindness there
is still truth.
- That is why the oath is required. The oath will place people who
are devoured by untruth, before the throne of God so that the presence
of God will force them to speak the truth.
- When any person takes an oath he has to call upon the Lord for
help and worship Him. Thus he appeals to the holy presence of God so
that the Lord Himself will vouch for the truth spoken by this person.
This is why the government may use the oath to fight lies and foster
truth.
There will of course always be pretended believers who will abuse the
Name and presence of God to cover up lies. Such people should seriously
consider the words of Hebrews 10:
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The Lord always used the oath to confirm the truth. Whatever the Lord
had confirmed like that, always materialised. An excellent example is
the way in which the Israelites took possession of Canaan. Joshua
21:43:
Thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to
their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there.
It clearly illustrates the purpose of the oath:
- The oath is a buttress/mainstay for truth.
- As it is important that truth should be revealed in church and
social life the oath is used – but the only as used by the Lord.
- Any other way in which the oath is used, will be punished by
the Lord.
- The oath also places Gods power against that of the power of
evil.
- It’s not just a matter of telling a lie or speaking the truth –
it shows which of these powers is at work inside you and of which power
you take the side.
This explains why God regards the oath as holy. The Lord unequivocally
says that He will punish the person who breaks an oath or perjures
himself.
He despised the oath in breaking the covenant, and behold, he gave his
hand and did all these things; he shall not escape. Therefore thus says
the Lord God: As I live, surely it is my oath that he despised, and my
covenant that he broke. I will return it upon his head. (Ezekiel.
17:18, 19 ESV).
The principle is clear:
- The Lord won’t allow his presence and his holiness to be called
upon and use it to tell a lie, because it would mean that the Nature of
God is implicated in what is inherent in the devil.
- By virtue of the fact that God is a holy and righteous God, He
cannot put up with this. Consider the words of the prophet Zechariah:
. . .
do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no
false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord.
(Zechariah 8:17 ESV)
These words make us realise that it has always been a problem that
people battle to speak the truth and that they make use of lies to
defraud one another.
An oath is not a prayer.
- At first we feel that prayer is a conversation with God and that
taking an oath is also a conversation with God, because the presence of
the Lord is called upon.
- However, taking an oath is different from prayer.
- Prayer is a conversation with God in which God is praised and
glorified.
- The Lord is called upon for help in need and He is thanked for
blessings and deliverance.
- When an oath is taken, what God regards as the truth, is
confirmed.
- The Bible has a fixed rule for the truth: There must be
somebody who can vouch/testify for it. In other words, there must be
people who, if they are called upon, can testify that what is said
about a matter is true:
But if
he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every
charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
(Matthew 18:16 ESV)
This
is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established
by the evidence of two or three witnesses. (2 Corinthians 13:1
ESV)
What is the ultimate purpose of the oath? To confirm the glory of God.
The oath must confirm the glory of God to everyone using it
–government, church or any person.
The fact that we may not take an oath by anything or any person speaks
of the absoluteness of the glory of God. The reason is obvious:
- Angels and mankind – in fact, the entire creation – fell in sin.
- Only God is perfect and sinless and superior to all evil.
- Therefore all oaths should be taken by his Name.
The Lord also tells us to do so in Deuteronomy 6:13:
It is
the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name
you shall swear. (Deuteronomy 6:13 ESV)
The fact that God tells us to take an oath by his Name does not mean
that we may take an oath by his Name just for anything. A church leader
did just that and seriously sinned by doing it. It happened during the
hearing of the Lord Jesus:
But
Jesus remained silent. And the high priest said to him, “I adjure you
by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
(Matthew 26:63 ESV)
Another well-known example is that of Saul who took a false oath! And
the lies that followed confirmed the insincerity of this!
And
Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan. Saul swore, “As the Lord lives,
he shall not be put to death.” (1 Samuel 19:6 ESV)
Of course we are different because we are Christians! We are not
Christians of our own choice – God made us Christians in Christ. He
also took an oath on that!
. . .
but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him:
“The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest
forever.’” (Hebrews 7:21 AFR53)
This Priestship about which God took an oath was that Jesus would be
Priest to make propitiation for God’s elect. This is exactly how we
were reconciled through the Lord Jesus Christ. (The Belgic Confession,
section 21).
- We believe that Jesus Christ – by virtue of an oath by God – is
High Priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.
- The content of this oath was that Jesus Christ offered Himself on
the cross to fully pay for our sins. He spilt his precious blood to
wash away or sins as foretold by the prophets.
He, the righteous, also suffered in
body and soul for the unrighteous (1 Peter 3:18). He experienced the severe punishment that
our sins deserved so much so that his sweat became like great drops of
blood falling down to the ground (Luke 22:44) and that He cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
(Matthew 27:46). He suffered all
this for our sins. That is why we rightly say, with the apostle Paul,
that we only speak to you about Jesus Christ and him crucified (1
Corinthians 2:2), and that we regard
everything as worthless, because to know Christ Jesus, our Lord,
surpasses everything in value.
That, of course, does not mean that we can swear and take oaths and, if
we make a mistake, know that God the Father would forgive us through
his eternal Priest Jesus Christ! Because his Name is holy, we should –
in every possible way – act in such a way that we do not seem to bring
his Name in disrepute or create a situation to bring it in disrepute.
- This exactly means that by virtue of our salvation we should
understand and respect the issue of taking an oath – that we ill do it
correctly.
- This means that reconciliation through Christ forbids us to
abuse the Name of God, not only through perjury but also through
unnecessary swearing.
- In practice it means that we will use the Name of God
legitimately when we are required to take an oath.
- This is when we have to use the Name of God for a well-founded
reason.
- Firstly, to proclaim the glory of God. The purpose should be
that He appears gloriously.
- Secondly, confirmation of the truth.
- Also, when an issue is so important that it is
proper/befitting to take an oath in order to protect mutual love and
unanimity/harmony among people (in the words of Calvin – adapted).
Let’s have a look at what we confess about it: Catechism Sunday 37:
101. Q. But may we swear an
oath by the Name of God in a godly manner?
A. Yes, when the government
demands it of its subjects, or when necessity requires it, in order to
maintain and promote fidelity and truth, to God's glory and for our
neighbour's good. Such oath-taking is based on God's Word[1] and was
therefore rightly used by saints in the Old and the New Testament.[2]
[1] Deut. 6:13; 10:20; Jer. 4:1, 2; Heb. 6:16. [2] Gen. 21:24; 31:53;
Josh. 9:15;
I Sam. 24:22; I Kings 1:29, 30; Rom. 1:9; II Cor. 1:23.
102. Q. May we also swear by
saints or other creatures?
A. No. A lawful oath is a
calling upon God, who alone knows the heart, to bear witness to the
truth, and to punish me if I swear falsely.[1] No creature is worthy of
such honour.[2]
[1] Rom. 9:1; II Cor. 1:23. [2] Matt. 5:34-37; 23:16-22; James 5:12.
Amen.
Closing prayer
Closing hymn: Psalm 132:1, 5
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen.
Dr MJ du Plessis
Gereformeerde Kerk Bellville
Date: 15 February 2004 (evening)