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11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. 12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. ~ Hebrews 5:11-14
Today, we return to our study of Hebrews 5 wherein the writer of Hebrews has been making the point that the Lord Jesus is God's High Priest who sacrificed Himself for the eternal forgiveness of our sin. And, on the heels of doing this, the writer of Hebrews turns to his hearers and says in v.11 of today's passage, "We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand."
That which is behind all the exhortations the writer of Hebrews has given us: Pay close attention! Consider! Don't harden your heart! Fear! Be diligent! Hold fast! These are all doctor's prescriptions for the disease of dullness of hearing which contributes to our spiritual immaturity.
When we have closed our ears to understanding God's deeper truths, we close the door to deeper intimacy with Him and a greater degree of spiritual maturity. These people had professed faith in the Lord Jesus, and, by this time they ought to have been more mature in the faith, but they retarded their sanctification and their spiritual maturity.
In v.12 of today's passage we read, "In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!"
Those to whom the writer of Hebrews wrote were "dull of hearing" which led to him describing them as spiritual babies. Though they had been Christians for some time they lacked the ability to be grown ups spiritually speaking. As a result, they could not teach others the biblical truths they should have learned. In fact, they themselves could only understand the very simplest of doctrines.
Deaf people can be the sharpest hearers and blind people can be the sharpest see-ers. Their problem was not physical, it had to do with their hearts. Dullness of hearing is the inability to nurture one's faith through a deeper understanding of the Word of God. Dull hearing is passive and does not allow one to be defined by the righteousness of Christ. You see, when we constantly think we must do certain things to be acceptable before God, we stunt our understanding of the very reason Christ came to die on the cross: to make us right in the eyes of God. And, when we build our foundation on self-righteousness, our house will have a difficult time standing.
In v.13 of today's passage we read, "Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness."
Here, the writer of Hebrews uses an everyday human illustration to get his point across. It is an illustration of an infant only feeding on milk and never maturing to solid food. The result is a lack of understanding about righteousness. Christ paid our debt by declaring us righteous before God through His cross. Having believe solely in His finished work on the cross, we are free from our debt of sin. The spiritually immature lack the ability to be defined by this foundational truth enabling them to move on to other truths found in the Word of God.
Everything in the Christian life is built upon His righteousness imputed to each believer. We do not come to God with any earned or merited righteousness. We come with empty hands stained with sin and guilt. Christ alone is our righteousness. He alone has lived the perfect sinless righteous life. He exchanged His perfect righteousness for our sinfulness and imputes His perfect righteousness to us. He is our perfect righteousness, but it is alien righteousness to us. He provides us this standing before God and we can not earn it.
In v.14 of today's passage we read, "But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."
The theme of the book of Hebrews is the superiority of Christianity over Judaism. These young Jewish Christians were tempted to return to their rituals in the Temple worship. They were being lured to reject their identity in Christ for their dependence upon their religion. The shadows and types of the old covenant were only meant to be pictures of the real object of their faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. To return to the old rituals would be to be defined by the lesser, and this produced spiritual malnutrition in their walk with the Lord.
At the heart of the Jewish religious culture was the covenant, the temple and the priesthood. In Christianity it is the great High Priest under the new covenant who is the means to our relationship and fellowship with God on a daily basis. These immature believers did not understand that we reach spiritual maturity through the righteousness of Christ. They were tempted to go back to their self-righteousness or works-righteousness instead of trusting only in the imputed righteousness of Christ. No one is ever saved by self-righteousness. We are saved by grace and it is received as a free gift from God based upon the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for our sins.
Spiritual maturity is the product of being trained by the truth of the Word of God. Spiritual maturity is honed by reason of use, and when we begin believing that Christ's finished work on the cross needs our good behavior to make us right in the eyes of God, we lack the building block toward a greater degree of spiritual maturity.
