1:1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
The epistle to the Hebrews begins as dramatically as a rocket
shot to the moon. In one paragraph, the writer breathtakingly
transports his readers from the familiar ground of Old Testament
prophetic writings, through the incarnation of the Son (who is
at once creator, heir and sustainer of all things and the fullest
possible manifestation of deity), past the purifying sacrifice
of the cross to the exaltation of Jesus on the ultimate seat of
power in the universe. It is a paragraph daring in its claims
and clearly designed to arrest the reader's attention and compel
a further hearing.
These introductory verses present a sharp departure from the usual
first-century epistolary practice, as seen so regularly in Paul's
epistles. There are no opening greetings, no indication of the
writer's name and no expression of good wishes. For this reason
some have viewed Hebrews as a formal address, perhaps even a sermon.
This idea finds some support in 13:22, "my word of exhortation."
But the treatise clearly ends like a letter, with the writer asking
his readers to pray for him as he looks forward to seeing them.
He also gives them news of Timothy and brings greetings from others.
The Author's Purpose. The author intends to present
a series of arguments for the superiority of Jesus over all rival
claims to allegiance which his readers were feeling and hearing.
Their attention was easily diverted off in other directions, just
as our attention is easily distracted today. They, like us, were
being tempted, frightened or pressured into following other voices
and serving other masters. In chapters 1-7, he examines these
rival authorities and reveals their inadequacies. None was, in
itself, a false or fraudulent voice. Each was ordained by God
and proper in its intended place. Each had served the people of
God well in the past, and no teaching or expectation was wrong
at the time it was given. But now the final word, the ultimate
revelation from God toward which all the other voices had pointed,
had come. To this supreme voice the author directs his readers'
attention, and ours, by contrasting this final word with the past
utterances.
First, there were the prophets, God's ancient spokesmen (1:1-3);
then the angels, Israel's guardians (1:4-2:18); then Israel's
great leader, Moses (3:1-4:7); Israel's godly general, Joshua
(4:8-13); and finally the founder of Israel's priesthood, Aaron
(4:14-7:28). Each was a voice from Israel's past that needed to
be heard but that was woefully inadequate if followed alone. It
was clearly a case of the good being the enemy of the best. Eclipsing
all these, as the rising sun eclipses the light of the stars,
is the figure of Jesus, God's Son, creator and heir of all things.
The abrupt beginning here marks the intensity with which the author
writes. It parallels, in that respect, Paul's letter to the Galatians.
The writer sees clearly that any slippage in the view of Jesus
as supreme is fraught with the gravest danger and must be dealt
with forthrightly and thoroughly. Since the same danger is present
today, Christians must take special care that no obscuring mists
of doubt or unbelief should diminish the stature of Jesus in their
eyes. (1)
The Primacy of Jesus. Jesus' superiority to the
prophets is marked in six ways. First, he is the Son, and as such
speaks with greater authority and completeness than the prophets.
Through them God spoke at many times and in various ways,
but not always when men desired, nor as clearly as they might
have wished. The word spoken through the prophets and that spoken
by the Son is marked by three particulars: a contrast of method
(various ways), of time (various times), and of agency (in Son),
all marking the prophetic revelation as inferior to that which
comes through the Son. 'What is communicated in parts, sections,
fragments, must of necessity be imperfect; and so also a representation
which is made in many modes cannot be other than provisional"
(Westcott 1889:3-4). F. F. Bruce puts the matter well: "Priest
and prophet, sage and singer were in their several ways His spokesmen;
yet all the successive acts and varying modes of revelation in
the ages before Christ came did not add up to the fullness of
what God wanted to say" (1964:3).
God's word through the Son is final and complete. The apostles
are but additional spokesmen for Christ, for in their letters
they only expand his subject matter and do not add any new teachings
or insights. Jesus affirms this superior status himself when he
says to his disciples, "Blessed are your eyes because they
see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth,
many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but
did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it"
(Mt 13:16-17).
The phrase these last days means more than merely the present
time. It looks on to the second appearing of Jesus (9:28) which
brings the last days of the present age to an end, to be followed
by the new age of the kingdom referred to in 6:5. The appearance
of the Son on earth to reveal truth "kept secret from the
foundation of the world," also marks the beginning of the
last days which continue until he comes again.
Second, the Son's superior greatness to the prophets springs from
his position as both creator and heir of all things. Here Paul's
argument in Colossians 1:15-17 is perhaps reflected. Creation's
beginning and end form the boundaries of time. Jesus stands both
at the end of the future and at the beginning of the past. He
made this claim himself to the astonishment of the Jews, "Before
Abraham was born, I am!" (Jn 8:58). Jesus is also the heir
of all creation. The prophets were God's spokesmen, living out
their allotted span of time, circumscribed by the events of earth---but
Jesus is the eternal Son, who creates, and therefore owns, all
things. Westcott sees the absence of the article before Son
as significant (by his Son is simply "in Son"
in the Greek text). He expresses that significance by saying,
" [it] fixes attention upon the nature and not upon the personality
of the Mediator of the new revelation. God spake to us in one
who has this character that He is Son" (1889:7). Though Jesus
is clearly superior to the prophets, he does not replace their
revelation. The Old Testament remains as valid Scripture for the
followers of Jesus, as the author will bring out many times. The
prophets were used by God as spokesmen, but the Son, by contrast,
"stands" (appointed) as heir of all things. Those
all things refer to the material universe and all forces
within it, seated by the Son in partnership with the Father and
the Spirit. (2)
In the phrase translated through whom he made the universe
F. F. Bruce sees a trace of a primitive Christian hymn or creedal
confession of faith. One finds parallels in similar phrases in
John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16. The expressions the radiance
of God's glory and the exact representation of his being
also find a parallel in "the image of the invisible God"
in Colossians 1:15 and "being in very nature God" in
Philippians 2:6. There is no question but that important Christian
doctrines were formulated in hymnic style and used widely in early
church worship services. Indeed, when a modem congregation sings
"Fairest Lord Jesus," they are responding to the same
urge that moved the early Christians to praise their Lord.
Third, the Son shares fully in the divine nature. Though our author
will argue later that Jesus is also fully man, as other men are,
here he unmistakably asserts his deity. The Son is the radiance
of God's glory. Radiance is light that streams forth from
a source of light. As no one can separate the sun's light from
the sun itself, so also no one can separate the nature of Christ
from that of his Father. Whether the radiance is seen as reflected
brightness or inherent brightness, the thought is clear: in Jesus
we see the essence of God. He is, therefore, the exact representation
of his [God's] being. As a coin reflects the exact image of
the die, so the Son reproduces the precise character (Gk: charakter---used
only here) of the Father. Thus Jesus could say to Philip, "Anyone
who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9). No more powerful
expression of the deity of Jesus is possible. Any attempt to place
Jesus as simply the highest product of creation will fail because
the evidence is decisive for the contrary. Many sects have tried
to teach that Jesus is only human, but they have no scriptural
basis to do so.
This full statement leads naturally to the fourth aspect of the
Son's work as the master of the universe: sustaining all things
by his powerful word. This statement of Hebrews is a direct
challenge to modern scientific humanism as well as to the older
Deism. F. W. Grant states, "There is thus no thought in Scripture
of a creation which shall be sufficient for itself, a perfect
machine made to run eternally without the Hand that made it"
(1903:15). As scientists probe the nature of the universe they
increasingly confront the mystery of an unweighable, invisible
force which literally holds all things together. This force is
identified here as the powerful word of "One who carries
all things forward on their appointed course" (Bruce 1964:6).
The thought includes more than mere sustaining (as an Atlas holds
the world on his shoulders), but expresses movement and progress
toward an appointed end. It results in what scientists call "laws
of predictability," and so technology becomes a source of
evidence for a God-ordered world. New objects discovered in space,
such as black holes, quasars and novas, present new problems for
astronomers and physicists. These new questions ought not to threaten
a Christian's faith. Rather, they can enhance it as God's power
and majesty is revealed more and more as our knowledge is increased.
Fifth, in sharp contrast to this image of universal power is the
sentence: After he had provided purification for sins.
This evokes all the agony and blood of the cross. In doing so,
the Savior accomplishes something which no prophet or sage of
the past nor philosopher or scientist of the present could ever
do. Mere power, even vast, creative power, cannot help here. "The
glory of God is not the glory of shattering power, but the glory
of suffering love" (Barclay 1957:5).
Certain manuscripts emphasize the uniqueness of this act by adding
the words by himself. This stresses the preciousness of
redemption. It was not something done through an impersonal provision;
it involved the very heart and soul of the Redeemer and the shedding
of his life's blood! Even if the phrase is omitted the thought
is retained by the middle form of the verb. The terrible problem
which human sin presents can be solved by one, and only one, remedy---the
death of Jesus. This is the central theme of the epistle, to which
the writer returns many times. It forms the ultimate and final
word to man, uttered by the Son and far more significant than
anything which has gone before or could ever follow. Creation
rests upon power, but redemption upon the sacrifice of one who
was "crucified in weakness." He rose and now is seated
at the right hand of our majestic God in heaven.
Sixth, Jesus sat down to give expression to his cry from the cross,
"It is finished!" The phrase sat down at the right
hand is meant symbolically, not literally, for God has no
right hand. It denotes the supreme honor accorded to the triumphant
Lord, who is risen from the dead. Surely it is a reference (the
first of five in Hebrews) to Psalm 110, "The LORD says to
my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool
for your feet.'" Of this Bruce says, "Ps. 110 is the
key text of this epistle" (1964:8). That Jesus saw himself
in the psalm is evident by his words to the Sanhedrin, "From
now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the
mighty God" (Lk 22:69). In Hebrews 10:11, our author will
contrast the seated Messiah with the Aaronic priests who must
stand as they offer sacrifices, because Jesus ended the need for
further sacrifice forever. That act of redemption reaches out
to include the material creation as well as man (Rom 8:20), so
that finally nothing remains untouched by its transforming grace.
Paul argues this eloquently in Colossians 1:19-20 and Ephesians
1:9-10.
Clearly the world we live in today is one which desperately needs
redemption. In this introductory paragraph Jesus has been portrayed
as the supreme Prophet, the unique Owner of all things, the uncreated
Creator, the exact Image of God's being, the Sustainer of the
universe, the Sacrificing Priest who cleanses sin, and the Conqueror
who occupies the place of honor above all his creation. From this
lofty beginning the writer will assert the supremacy of Jesus
above all other names of honor in Hebrew thought or practice.
He turns now, in 1:4-2:18, to consider the sharp contrast between
Jesus and the angels.
The nation was startled when Nancy Reagan was reported to be
influencing her husband's decisions on the basis of advice obtained
from her astrologer. Perhaps what is even more startling is to
realize that pastors preaching to evangelical congregations today
may very well be addressing some, if not many, in their audience
who are worshipping angels. There may well be a woman in the fifth
row who consulted her horoscope before coming to church. Some
teenagers may be involved with experiments with Ouija boards or
"channeling" to obtain guidance in important decisions.
Perhaps someone has already accepted the teaching of reincarnation
as the explanation of what happens to humans after death. As many
know, the New Age movement of the late twentieth century encourages
such teachings, calling fallen angels avatars or spirit-guides.
Their human devotees practice channeling or mediumistic activities,
offering to awaken hidden powers within men and women which will
help them fulfill their greatest possibilities. Every pastor must
ask, What does the writer of Hebrews say that will help those
who, knowingly or not, are drawn to such teaching?
Obviously the teaching is not new. It has been present in every
century since the earliest times. The writer sees his readers
as under attack from such ideas and understands that he must deal
with this first because these attacks threatened their view of
Jesus and his pre-eminence. Even angels could challenge this truth.
But why would angels pose a threat? Surely the Jewish background
of these readers would suffice to prevent them from honoring angels
above the Savior. The words of the First Commandment are clear:
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me!" It is evident
from Paul's letter to the Colossians that those with a strong
Jewish background (Col 2:16-17) could also "delight in false
humility and the worship of angels" (2:18). The danger then
is apparent: "Those to whom this letter is sent were entertaining,
or being encouraged to entertain, teaching which elevated angels,
or particular angels, to a position which rivaled that of Christ
himself" (Hughes 1987:51-52). If we think this was only a
first-century phenomenon, we should remember the way humans have
always responded to manifestations of supernatural beings by treating
them as gods, or at least demigods, and giving obeisance to them.
Indeed, the apostle John twice falls at the feet of the angel
who was his guide and is rebuked for so doing (Rev 19:10; 22:8-9).
But their difficulty only serves to underscore the nature of their
error. They were being pressured by their former Jewish leaders
and also by pagan contacts to view Jesus not as God but as merely
a man, and therefore less than the angels. Angels had played a
powerful role in Israel's past. There is no record in the Old
Testament of an angelic messenger whose message was rejected or
whose person was attacked or stoned. When an angel spoke, people
listened (Henrichsen 1979:24). The writer acknowledges this impressive
impact in his warning of 2:2.
This exaltation of angels above Jesus is intolerable to the writer
of Hebrews. He devotes a major passage to its answer, supporting
the infinite superiority of Jesus over angels with several reasons.
They are his superior name of Son (1:4-5); the command to angels
to worship him (1:6);the nature of angels versus the nature of
the Son(1:7-14);the great danger of ignoring the Son (2:1-4);
his glory as risen and enthroned man (2:5-9); his work as the
author of human salivation (2:10-13); and his unique ability to
help the recipients of grace (2:14-18). With these seven points,
the writer reveals Jesus as the worthy object of praise and worship
which not even the most glorious angel could claim.
4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father" ? Or again, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son" ?
The passage from 1:5 to 1:14 constitutes a marvelous choreography
of Old Testament passages which, like a well-programmed ballet,
catches immediate interest with a pas-de-deux of two Messianic
phrases: one from Psalm 2:7 and the other from 2 Samuel 7:14.
Both center on the name of Son which must belong properly
to Jesus and to no one else. These verses distinguish him from
the Father, but also place the Father's imprimatur on his brow.
(3)
It is true that angels are called "sons of God" in the
book of Job (1:6; 2:1; 38:7, KJV) because, like Adam, they are
direct creations from God's hand. This fact may seem to mark angels
as equal with Jesus and therefore proper objects of worship. But
Jesus is God's Son from ail eternity---the uncreated Son. Furthermore,
the quotation from Psalm 2 highlights Jesus' status as the exalted
Son of Man, as Paul declared in his sermon at Pisidian Antioch
(Acts 13:33) referring to his resurrection from the dead. Thus
he was both the eternal Son and the glorified human Son (Son of
God and Son of Man).
The writer here especially claims the superiority of Jesus over
the angels as the Son of Man. No angel could claim either eternity
or resurrection as the basis of his sonship, but Jesus had both.
Though the angels collectively were called sons of God, no individual
angel ever is given that title, or singled out as having a unique
status before God. So the writer demands rhetorically, To which
of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son; today I
have become your Father."
Psalm 2 is specifically applied to Jesus in Revelation 12:5 and
19:15 and to those who share his kingdom reign in Revelation 2:27,
especially in conjunction with the words "you will rule them
with an iron scepter" (Ps 2:9). Several scholars have felt
that Psalm 2 represents a coronation liturgy which was included
in enthronement ceremonies of the Davidic dynasty. One of the
rabbis in Midrash Tehillim says of Psalm 2:7, "And
when the hour comes, the Holy One---blessed be He!---says to them,
I must create him a new creation, as it is said, 'This day have
I begotten thee.'" Of this F. F. Bruce says, "The implication
here seems to be that Psalm 2:7 refers to the time when Messiah,
after suffering and death, is brought back to the realm of the
living" (1964:13, fn. 63). This understanding would agree
with Paul's use of Psalm 2:7 in Acts 13:33 and clearly the word
today refers to the resurrection of Jesus rather than the
day of his birth in Bethlehem, or of his baptism in the Jordan.
The second source of support from the Old Testament draws on 2
Samuel 7:14. Historically the words "I will be his father,
and he will be my Son" were spoken to David concerning Solomon
when the prophet Nathan told David that Solomon will build a house
for God in Jerusalem. There is, however, a hint that David's power
would extend to his progeny, which would also include the Messiah.
The prophets in later times spoke often of a greater son of David
who would fulfill all the promises to David of an eternal reign.
Bruce quotes from the Dead Sea Scrolls where 2 Samuel 7:14 is
linked with an expectation of the imminent restoration of David's
house by the "shoot of David," the Messiah (1964:14).
Note again how the human nature of the Lord is underscored by
his title Son of David. As the risen Man, he claims the throne
of David, but as such the Father calls him "my Son."
By these two quotations, with their royal implications, the writer
of Hebrews claims that being related to God as a Son is a far
greater title than any angel could claim. This rests on the base
of a shared eternity and a resurrection, which is the "new
creation."
6 And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him."
The angels were created, but the Son is begotten. His superiority
is now upheld by a verse from the Septuagint version of Deuteronomy
32 which commands all angels to worship the Son (v. 43 LXX). (4) The passage is the Song of Moses uttered
before the crossing of the Jordan. At that time Moses said to
the people: "Take to heart all the words I have solemnly
declared to you this day. . . . They are not just idle words for
you---they are your life" (Deut 32:46-47). Allusions to this
hymn are found in eleven books of the New Testament (twice in
Hebrews---1:6 and 10:30), which indicates its importance to early
Christians. In the Song of Moses, the angels are called to worship
Yahweh (Jehovah). New Testament writers apply such passages without
hesitation to Jesus. Many places in Scripture witness the obedience
of the angels, notably Job 38:7, Luke 2:13, and Revelation 5:11-12.
Mark 3:11 indicates that even the demons (fallen angels) fell
down before Jesus when they saw him and addressed him as the Son
of God.
Since the earliest times, Christian commentators have differed
on what the again refers to in verse 6. If it is taken
with the verb he says ("he says again"), as in
the NIV, it simply means another quotation that supports the superiority
of Jesus. If, however, it is linked with the verb brings
("he brings again"), it is a reference either to the
coming of Jesus at the Incarnation, his reappearance after the
resurrection, or his Second Coming at the end of the age. In view
of the connected character of these quotations, it seems best
to take it as a second support citation, "he says again."
Twice in Hebrews, Jesus is called firstborn (here and in
12:23). In this verse it seems to refer to his creative work.
Bruce rightly says, "He is called 'the firstborn' because
He exists before all creation, and because all creation is His
heritage" (1964:15). Paul's great assertion is recorded in
Colossians 1:15, "the firstborn over all creation."
The point of it all is: He whom the Hebrews thought to be subordinate
to angels is the very one whom the angels are commanded to worship
as their creator!
7 In speaking of the angels he says, "He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire." 8 But about the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy." 10 He also says, "In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. 11 They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. 12 You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end." 13 To which of the angels did God ever say, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet" ? 14 Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
In 1:7-14 the author for the third time sweeps through the
Psalms to display a chorus of verses that praise the Son who has
a nature inherently superior to angels. In the Hebrew of Psalm
104:4 the natural elements of wind and fire are called the messengers
of God; in the Septuagint it is the angels who are made to be
these elements. Though they are as powerful as the wind and can
be as destructive as lightning, they are, nevertheless, only messengers
of the Son while Jesus is the Son of God himself.
This sharp contrast is sustained also by two verses coming from
Psalm 45:6-7. Their antiphonal character with verse 6 is clear
in the way they are introduced: In speaking of the angels he
says, . . . But about the Son he says . . . Psalm 45 is a
wedding song, originally describing a king of Israel, but later
understood by the rabbis as messianic. The contrast between a
royal personage and his servant-companions is the point of the
quotation. This king is addressed twice as God; possesses a throne,
a scepter and a kingdom; loves righteousness and hates wickedness;
has a special anointing of joy; and continues as king forever
and ever. No angel could claim these attributes. The cause of
the king's joy is traced to his love of righteousness and hatred
of wickedness. Here, by contrast, may be a hint of the moral defection
of the host of angels who fell with Satan. Angels could and did
sin, but the Son's love of righteousness kept him safe through
the most severe temptations. Even those unfallen angels who also,
presumably, love righteousness do so on the basis of choice, while
the Son's love of righteousness is inherent in his very nature.
For this reason (therefore) God has set him above his companions.
(5)
Once more our author displays the dazzling glory of the Creator,
who is infinitely superior to any angel, by summoning the words
of Psalm 102:25-27: In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the
foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your
hands.This is not simply a restatement of truth he has already
declared ("through whom he made the universe"---v. 2),
but the point he now twice asserts is the timeless endurance of
the Son: They will perish, but you remain; . . . they will
be changed. But you remain [Gk: "you are"] the same.
He will make the point again in 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday and today and forever." Psalm 102 is addressed
to Yahweh by a sorely afflicted suppliant who feels the brevity
of his own life in light of the heavens and the earth. But even
they shall pass away in due course, like garments that grow old
and are changed. This is a marvelous poetic description of what
scientists call the law of entropy, or the second law of thermodynamics,
which views the universe as running down. But the Creator is above
his own laws and remains unchanged forever. These words, applied
unhesitatingly to Jesus, place him as far beyond the angels.
As a finale for his presentation of Old Testament support for
the superiority of the nature of the Son over that of angels,
the author returns to his mildly scornful rhetorical question:
To which of the angels did God ever say, "Sit at my right
hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"?
This second reference to Psalm 110 restates the thought of
1:2, "whom he appointed heir of all things." Even his
enemies will find their place at the Son's feet when God's purposes
are fulfilled. It reflects Paul's declaration in Colossians 2:15,
"And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made
a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
The cross won the beginning of the ultimate triumph, but its fulfillment
awaits the return of Jesus as King.
Contrasted to this Supreme Conqueror, the writer asks, Are
not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will
inherit salvation? Even the mightiest angel is under orders
to the Son of God, and gladly helps in fulfilling his desire to
bring many sons to glory (2:10). Though the author does not enlarge
on the specifics of angelic ministry here, it only requires a
review of Bible stories to see that such ministry involves protection
(Ps 91:11), guidance(Gen 19:17), encouragement(Judg 6:12), deliverance
(Acts 12:7), supply (Ps 105:40), enlightenment (Mt 2:19-20) and
empowerment (Lk 22:43), as well as occasional rebuke (Num 22:32
) and discipline (Acts 12:23). Their service is rendered largely
unseen and often unrecognized, but a passage like this should
make us watchful for such help and grateful to the gracious Lord
who sends angels to our aid.
2:1 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
Having proved beyond all argument that angels cannot compare
in importance, power or glory to the Son of God, our author now
raises a warning voice against taking lightly what the Son has
said. This is the first of five major warning passages in Hebrews,
each designed to prevent a specific form of unbelief The five
warnings are found in 2:1-4, 3:12-19, 6:4-8,10:26-31 and 12:25-29.
Our author is deeply concerned lest his readers succumb to the
pressures they were feeling and either renounce the gospel outright
or gradually turn from public confession and lose its influence
entirely. The danger faced in this first warning is that of drifting
away from truth. A dramatic word is employed for "drift away,"
pararreo, which means "to flow by" or "slip
away from." It describes that carelessness of mind which,
perhaps occupied by other things, is not aware it is losing ground.
Plato used it of something slipping away from the memory, and
Plutarch of a ring slipping from a finger. Another figure often
suggested is that of a ship loose from its moorings. The danger
highlighted is that of a great loss occurring unnoticed.
The cause is not taking seriously the words spoken to them. Inattention
or apathy will rob them of their treasure. (6)
With these words, the writer reveals his shepherd's heart, since
he is not content with instructing the mind with intriguing doctrine.
He also longs to reach the heart and move the will to action.
The remedy urged is pay more careful attention to the things
heard (from the Son). This would suggest the frequent reading
or hearing of the four Gospels, which contain the actual words
of Jesus, and a repeated and careful reading of the further exposition
in the Epistles. To neglect or ignore these is to be in deadly
danger of drifting away from essential truth, and losing, by default,
the great salvation which the Son has brought. It is not
necessary to openly renounce the gospel. One can remain lost by
simply and quietly drifting away from hearing it, or hearing it
with no comprehension of the seriousness of its message.
The word salvation forms the link between chapters one
and two. The chapter division was not intended by the writer,
who moved immediately (dia touto, "therefore")
to draw a practical conclusion to the truth he has presented.
Soteria, "salvation," is found seven times in
Hebrews, more than in any other New Testament book. In Zechariah's
song concerning his son John the Baptist (Lk 1:67-79), he says
that the Baptist's ministry was "to give his people the knowledge
of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins" (Lk 1:77).
Salvation, then, begins with a moral cleansing and in later New
Testament development includes justification, sanctification and,
finally, glorification with Christ. As Brown astutely observes,
"The author is deeply persuaded that a personal relationship
with Christ expressed in repentance and faith determines the believer's
salvation. But in the teaching of the letter salvation is clearly
portrayed as an ongoing process" (1982:24). That Jesus, "the
author of their salvation" should have achieved it only by
being made "perfect through suffering" (2:10), makes
salvation an infinitely precious gift in the eyes of this author.
And that anyone should prefer the ministry of angels, who mediated
the giving of the law, to the salvation available in the Son was
almost incredible to him! "Come on," he seems to say,
"haven't you heard what I've been saying? You value highly
the law, though it was given only by angels, but you pass lightly
over the final word from God which came in the flesh and blood,
and through the death and resurrection, of the very Son of God
himself." Both Paul (Gal 3:19) and Stephen (Acts 7:53) acknowledge
the part angels played in the giving of the law, though the Old
Testament is almost silent about it. Deuteronomy 33:2 and Psalm
68:17 represent only vague references to angels present at Sinai.
But to ignore even the law's partial revelation carried with it
certain inevitable consequences (just punishment---2:2).
Even under the law the divine principle which Paul affirms ("God
cannot be mocked; a man reaps what he sows") was operating.
The Old Testament gives countless illustrations of this truth.
Yet, "if the breakers of the law did not go unpunished, certainly
despisers of the gospel cannot expect to do so" (Hughes 1977:73).
To ignore the great salvation found in Jesus is to find
oneself unable to escape the consequent wrath of God, and the
judgment of hell. There is no other offer of release!
How great this salvation was is seen in three measures. First,
its proclamation began with Jesus himself! This great fact astonished
the writer of Hebrews from the beginning of his letter. The incarnate
Son has himself announced the impact of his redemptive work upon
the cross, and even before that work was accomplished. Mark 1:15
records Jesus as saying, "The time has come. The kingdom
of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" "From
the moment of his public appearance to the day of his ascension,
Jesus unfolded the full redemptive revelation of God" (Kistemaker
1984:59). So much greater was this announcement than the help
which the law held forth that Jesus could say to his disciples:
"I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed
to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear
but did not hear it" (Mt 13:17).
Second, though verse 3 suggests that the writer of Hebrews did
not personally hear the good news from the lips of Jesus, he says,
it was confirmed to us by those who heard him. These were
surely the twelve apostles and perhaps others as well. This statement
rests the gospel securely on eyewitnesses who recorded accurately
what they both saw and heard (1 Jn 1:3; 2 Pet 1:16). But, as Hughes
observes, this apostolic witness "goes back not just to the
apostles, but through the apostles to the Lord" (1977:79).
It was he who sent them forth and promised them the Holy Spirit
to bring to their remembrance whatever he had said to them (Jn
14:26).
This implication of the writer that he had not personally heard
the Lord removes the twelve apostles as possible authors of this
letter---and also virtually rules out Paul (as Luther, Calvin
and others have pointed out) since Paul stoutly asserts in Galatians
1:1 and 1 Corinthians 15:3 that he had not obtained his gospel
from men but directly from the Lord. He must be included as one
of those who had heard the Lord, and the writer of Hebrews does
not claim this for himself.
But it is not simply on human memories that the authenticity of
the apostolic gospel rests, as the writer adduces a third confirmation
of great importance. God also testified to it by signs, wonders
and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed
according to his will. Just as the Father had borne witness
to the Son by signs and miracles (Jn 5:3637), so he worked with
(Gk: synepimartyrountos, "testifying with") the
apostles and others, confirming their word by similar signs and
wonders and gifts of the Holy Spirit. The authority from which
the gospel flows include all three persons of the Godhead: Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. The Son makes the full announcement of it
and completes the basis for it through pain and blood; the Father
works with him to confirm his word with signs and wonders; and
the Spirit continues the confirmation by distribution of spiritual
gifts.
John, in his Gospel, tells us that the miracles were "signs,"
symbols whose meaning revealed the nature of God. John, Matthew
and Mark also call them "wonders," that awaken awe and
fear; the Synoptists frequently refer to "miracles,"
or more properly "powers." All three terms appear often
in Acts, especially the first fifteen chapters, and mark the validation
by the Father to the ministry of the early preachers of the gospel.
The phrase gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to
his will is a bit ambiguous. Taken objectively, it means "gifts
which the Holy Spirit distributes." Subjectively, it refers
to the imparting of the Holy Spirit himself, as distributed by
God. Paul, in his list of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11,
says, "All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,
and he gives them to each one, just as he determines." The
last phrase would slant the decision on Hebrews 2:4 toward the
objective meaning, that spiritual gifts are given to each believer
by the Spirit as the continuing witness of the Spirit to the truth
of the gospel.
Do the signs, wonders and various miracles also continue
throughout the present age? It is impossible to set aside the
testimony of Christians through the centuries to the miracle-working
power of God in human lives. Many well-attested occurrences of
such miracles have been recorded throughout the church centuries,
including today. Missionaries and Christian workers of the most
sterling character have reported such miracles in widely separated
places and cultures so that it cannot be said that the age of
miracles ever ceased.
But it must also be remembered that both Jesus and Paul warn clearly
that as the age draws to its close there will be manifestations
of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, done through Satanic
agencies, which will deceive many (see Mt 24:24 and 2 Thess 2:9)!
It is the effect of these signs and wonders on the lives of those
involved which will reveal the genuine teachers from the false
("By their fruit you will recognize them"---Mt 7:15-16).
It must also be considered that the profound power of the mind
upon the body often produces dramatic improvements in health.
But these are not always, or even frequently, associated with
religious influence. They are scarcely to be equated with the
healings recorded in Scripture, which usually consist of the kind
Jesus described to John the Baptist's disciples: "The blind
receive sight, the lame walk those who have leprosy are cured,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised" (Mt 11:5).
But let us not lose our way at this point. The concern of Hebrews
is not to defend miracles but to warn against losing the so
great salvation by a careless inattention to its content or
its practice in daily life. An individual's response to these
great truths determines his destiny. Leon Morris well says, "This
Epistle leaves us in no doubt but that those who are saved are
saved from a sore and genuine peril. Christ's saving work is not
a piece of emotional pageantry rescuing men from nothing in particular"
(quoted in Brown 1982:52). Neglecting the word of angels brought
immediate earthly consequences; ignoring the salvation of the
Son, confirmed by decades of divine ministry through godly men
and women, results in eternal tragedy beyond description.
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified: "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 7 You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honor 8 and put everything under his feet." In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Still thinking of the supremacy of the Son over angels, our
author, in 2:5-9, approaches the theme from a different view.
In chapter 1 the deity of Jesus was primarily in the foreground;
in chapter 2 his perfect humanity means that he is the superior
of every angelic being. Verse 5 carries forward the subject of
verse 4, It is not to angels that he [God] has subjected the world
to come, about which we are speaking. (7)
Some fascinating themes are introduced by this observation. It
raises immediately the question, What is meant by the world
to come? It can mean (1) life after death, (2) the future
kingdom of Christ on earth (the millennium) or (3) the new heavens
and the new earth. Since almost nothing is said in Hebrews about
life after death (9:27), (1) can be dismissed without further
development for it is obviously not what he refers to in the phrase
about which we are speaking. That limiting phrase probably
looks back to 1:11-12 which emphasizes the changes which the material
creation will experience. Paul, in Ephesians 2:7, speaks of "coming
ages," indicating that at least two more ages lie ahead.
The two which Scripture continually name are the restored Davidic
kingdom (the millennium) and the new heavens and the new earth.
In several places Scripture describes the new heavens and earth
as lasting forever, intimating it would be the last age yet to
come. But the word world (Gk: oikoumene) in 2:5
refers not to the cosmos, but to the inhabited earth, and this
would strongly suggest the writer has in mind (2), the kingdom
of Christ on earth. Hughes calls the world to come, "the
age of the Messiah in which the messianic promises and prophecies
of old find their fulfillment" (1977:82). It is surely to
this that Jesus refers in Matthew 19:28, "Truly, I say to
you, in the new world [palingenesia, 'restoration'], when
the Son of man shall sit on his glorious throne, you who have
followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve
tribes of Israel" (RSV). Several passages in Hebrews (6:5
and 12:22-24) suggest that this kingdom is in some sense already
available to those who live by faith. Perhaps, we should see this
new age to come as spiritually arrived, yet physically still to
come.
A reference to the new heavens and new earth seems unlikely in
view of the mention of judgment in Matthew 19:28, for sin will
have no place in the new creation. Also Israel will not play a
distinctive role among the nations, for then "the kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his
Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev 11:15
KJV).
If, as the writer claims, the world to come has not been subjected
to angels, it raises the possibility that the present age is subject
to angelic governance. F. F. Bruce supports this view, citing
the LXX rendering of Deuteronomy 32:8:
When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance
When he separated the children of men,
He set the bounds of the peoples
According to the number of the angels of God.
He further quotes Daniel 10:20, which names angelic beings
as "the prince of Persia" and "the prince of Greece,"
and Daniel 10:21 and 12:1 speak of Michael as "the great
prince" who champions the people of Israel (1964:33). This
concept would explain why the fallen angel called Satan is referred
to as "the god of this world" and is permitted his control
until the Lord returns and the new age begins and the curse is
lifted from nature. Then, too, the devil will be bound and cast
into a bottomless pit for a thousand years (Rev 20:2-3).
This background serves to give special meaning to the quotation
from Psalm 8 which the writer of Hebrews now invokes. His vague
reference to his source (Gk: "Someone somewhere has testified")
is not due to uncertainty but to a desire to stress Scripture
as speaking, not a mere human author (Bruce, Kistemaker and Hughes).
David's psalm is a wondering reaction to the majesty of the night
sky as it reveals the power and wisdom of God and forces the question,
What part do puny human beings play in such a universe? The answer
is that we were made a little lower than the angels, but then
crowned with glory and honor, and everything has been put under
our feet. This is a direct reference to Genesis 1:26:
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Here is glory and honor (made in the image and likeness of
God) and authority and power (ruling over all the earth). Some
commentators take the made a little lower than the angels
in a temporal sense, "made for a little while," to imply
that human existence in this space-time continuum is only for
a brief lifetime, and then we are freed to live the life of eternity.
Whichever way the phrase is read, it is clear that our intended
destiny was one of power and authority over all the conditions
and life of earth. If this was our commission from the moment
of creation, what light it sheds on our responsibility to care
for this planet and its creatures! We were not given dominion
so the earth and the animals should serve us; rather, we are given
authority to develop them to the fullest extent intended by the
fruitful mind of the Creator. We are to serve them by thorough
knowledge and loving care, in the form of servant-leadership which
the Lord himself manifested when he came.
Yet, says this writer in what must be the understatement of the
ages, we do not see everything subject to him. No, there
are many things fallen humans cannot control: the weather, the
seasons, the instincts of animals, the tides, our own passions,
international events, natural disasters, and on and on. The increasing
pollution of the planet, the spread of famines and wars, the toll
taken by drugs, accidents and disease, all tell the story of a
lost destiny.
But almost with a shout the author cries, But we see Jesus!
He is the last hope of a dying race. And that hope lies both in
his deity and his humanity. He alone, as a human being, managed
to fulfill what was intended for us from the beginning. When we
read the Gospels, we are forced to ask, Who is this man who stills
the winds and the waves with a single word; who multiplies food
at will; who walks on the waves; who summons fish to bring up
coins at his command; who dismisses disease with a touch; and
calls the dead back to life? Who is he? He is the Last Adam, living
and acting as God intended us to act when he made us in the beginning.
It was the First Adam who plunged the race into bondage and limitation;
it is the Last who sets us free in soul and spirit, so that we
may now learn how to live in the ages to come when the resurrection
gives us back a body fit for the conditions of that life.
The writer traces in terse phrases the steps Jesus took to solve
forever the problem of human sin. (1) He was made a little
lower than the angels. There is the whole wonder of the Incarnation;
in John's phrasing, "the Word became flesh and lived for
a while among us." Then (2) because he suffered death,
he was (3) crowned with glory and honor and thus he achieved
as a human being the position intended for us in the beginning:
the being who was to be closest to God, higher than any angel,
and in authority over all things! Then, lest we should forget
the cost, the writer adds (4) so that by the grace of God he
might taste death for everyone. To taste death does
not simply mean to die, but to experience death in its full horror
and humiliation. He comes under the penalty of sin in order that
he might remove it. The emphasis here is that what Jesus did through
his death and exaltation was for everyone. Salvation is
now open to all; no one who comes to Jesus will ever be refused.
His death was for everyone in the sense that everyone was thereby
rendered savable.
Ever since the death of Jesus the way to glory has always Included
a death which leads to life. Some forms of media-evangelism have
presented the Christian life as the way to fulfillment of great
possibilities without also making clear that it includes a death
to self-indulgence and learning obedience. We dare not extol the
incredible benefits of the Christian life without reminding ourselves
that they will also lead us to a cross.
To whom, then, is the world to come subject? Not to angels,
that is clear. It is to be subject to the human race---to the
human race as God intended us to be, redeemed and restored through
sharing the life of the Man in glory, seated at the right hand
of God. This is the theme of verses 10-13.
2:10 In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. 12 He says, "I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises." 13 And again, "I will put my trust in him." And again he says, "Here am I, and the children God has given me."
Commentators on Hebrews have pointed out that there is no reference
to the love of God in this epistle. Though technically this is
true, a text such as 2:10 reveals that behind the suffering and
sacrifice of Jesus is the heart of a Father who longs to bring
many sons to glory. Though the Father was in full control
of all forces and events in the universe (for whom and through
whom everything exists), it was necessary that he subject his
beloved Son to a degree of agony and humiliation that could alone
fit him to carry out that purpose. This is clearly the meaning
of make . . . perfect through suffering. Jesus had always
had a perfect character since his birth; perfection of function
required the whole process of incarnation, ministry, death and
resurrection. But it was love for the lost human race that drove
both Father and Son to choose that process.
Thus did Jesus become the author of . . . salvation. Other
versions substitute "pioneer" (RSV), "captain"
(KJV) and "leader" (NEB), for "author." The
Greek word archegos implies someone who initiates or originates
a plan or program for others to follow. Every American knows that
in 1804-1806 two explorers, Captain George Clark and Captain Meriwether
Lewis, were sent by President Thomas Jefferson to find a way across
the old, trackless West from St. Louis to the Pacific Coast. Such
an exploration involved tremendous preparation, special provisions
and wise decisions. It was accomplished through great danger and
many hardships, as the Lewis and Clark journals make clear. When
the explorers returned the whole American West lay open to development.
This is the thought behind the word archegos Jesus, our
archegos, opened up a completely new spiritual country,
the realm of universal dominion for the human race, which was
originally intended for us but was lost by Adam. Those who follow
Jesus now are fitted and trained to live in that new world as
they walk in the footsteps of him who has gone before.
This concept fits well with the thought of verses 11-13. These
describe the Savior and his redeemed as belonging to one family
who share the same nature. The one who makes holy [sanctifies]
is Jesus who had, first, to solve the problem of sin before he
could apply it to those who are made holy, the redeemed.
The act of making holy implies the impartation of a new life,
the life of God himself since only God is holy. Those who by faith
become sons of God are made holy (sanctified) because they share
the life of the Son of God. John 1:12 declares, "To all who
received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right
to become children of God," and 1 John 5:11-12 adds, "God
has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son; he who
has the Son has life."
Because of this shared life the writer of Hebrews can say they
are, literally, "all of One" (ek henos pantes),
which refers to the Father. (The NIV's of the same family,
to my mind, somewhat weakens the force of this declaration.) Jesus,
who is of different rank and origin, still is not ashamed to
call them brothers. Since he has made them holy by imparting
his own life to them, he cannot deny the very holiness he has
given. Now the groundwork is laid for believers to learn to live
everyday on the basis of the new men and women they have become
rather than continuing to live on the old level of humanity they
had once been. It is Paul's constant exhortation: "Put off
the old man; put on the new." The writer of Hebrews urges
the same activity in 12:14. Holiness of nature is the possession
of all true Christians; holiness of behavior is to be their goal.
But even before that goal is attained to any appreciable degree,
it is still true that Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
The picture is that of an oldest son affirming to another his
pride in his younger siblings, even though they do not always
act in ways pleasing to him.
To support this wonderful fact, the writer summons three texts
from the Old Testament. (8) The first, verse
22, from the well-known Messianic hymn, Psalm 22, reflects the
praise of the resurrected Lord as he shares with his brothers
and sisters the glories of God's grace. He appears as their teacher,
opening their eyes continually to the wonders of the Father whose
family they have joined. They then join him in sharing those wonders
with the whole congregation. The quotation suggests that his reason
for not being ashamed of them is because they share with him the
endless adventure of discovering the full meaning of the name
of God.
The second text, from Isaiah 8:17, expresses the common sense
of dependence which children share toward God; and the third,
Isaiah 8:18, recognizes the relationship of children as all equally
under the care of one father. Isaiah 8, from which these verses
are taken, is the prophet's prediction of a great invasion of
Assyria into the land of Judea. Yet in the face of that terrible
threat the people are exhorted to continue to trust the Lord Almighty
and to wait for his deliverance, though it seem delayed. The Messiah
is seen as "a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock
that makes them fall," and it is of him that Isaiah cries,
"I will put my trust in him. Here am I, and the children
the LORD has given me."
It is easy to see how our author saw these verses as a description
of Jesus and his faith-siblings (Christians). That first-century
world was coming apart at the seams, just as Isaiah's world had
been. And just as Isaiah and his children looked to their invisible
Lord for help, so Jesus stands ready to support those who take
refuge in him from the threats of a crumbling world.
These two texts, in their original setting, were part of a prophecy
of an event yet 100 years in the future, and beyond this, reached
to the coming of the Messiah both in his first and second comings.
To apply fragments of such prophecies to the Hebrews' circumstances
may seem strange to us, but this is fully in line with the use
of the Old Testament by all the New Testament writers. The specific
verses quoted here are all found in a messianic context.
2:14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death --that is, the devil-- 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Drawing on his use of Isaiah's quotation, the writer picks
up the word children and declares, Since the children
have flesh and blood, he too [Jesus] shared in their humanity.
This description of the Incarnation answers fully all docetic
notions that his humanity was simply a phantom appearance. The
purpose of Christ becoming a flesh-and-blood man was to enable
him to die: that is the startling claim of verse 14! In Charles
Wesley's great hymn "And Can It Be?" he begins a verse:
'Tis mystery all, the Immortal dies!
Who can explore that strange design?
In vain the first-born seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine!
How can one who is immortal die? That is a puzzle which even
the angels could not solve. But the Son of God solved it by becoming
flesh and blood. He took upon himself our humanity which, even
in perfection, was doomed to die (as happened to Adam and Eve).
Yet this must be balanced by the gospel's statement that Jesus
did not have to die (as all of us must), but gave up his life
voluntarily. And die he must if he was to deal with the great
enemy of all flesh and blood---death! Behind death the writer
sees the power of Satan, who uses God's righteous judgment against
sin to bring to death all human beings who sin. But when God's
Son willingly entered the dread realm of death on behalf of the
race, he could not be held there because he himself was sinless.
By his resurrection he broke the power of death over all who accept
his invitation to share his risen life. He rendered impotent (katargeo---"to
annul," "to make inoperative") the devil's power
to carry out the full effects of death---that is, spiritual separation
from God forever. Physical death remains for all, believers and
nonbelievers alike, the transition point between this life and
the next. But for believers the "sting of death" is
gone, the grave no longer has its victory (1 Cor 15:54-57)!
But this is not a blessing to be obtained only in the future.
It has an immediate effect as well, delivering the redeemed from
all fear of death, and so liberating them from a lifelong bondage.
Since death is the absence of life, spiritual death is already
present in human affairs, appearing as depression, fear, boredom,
despair, waste, limitation and defeat (Rom 8:6---"The mind
set on the flesh is death"). The devil's lie is to convince
many that they can avoid such experiences by amassing wealth,
maintaining youth by strenuous exercise or expensive treatments,
searching for adventure, falling in and out of love, gaining the
marks of success, indulging in widespread travel, satisfying every
whim, and so forth.
It is the fear of that kind of death which creates the frantic
restlessness found in so many. That unsatisfied restlessness,
that yearning for what cannot seem to be found, is at least partly
what the writer here means by slavery. Like a slave bound
to a cruel master human beings find themselves forced to keep
searching for what they never attain. They try everything, but
nothing satisfies. There is pleasure and fun---but seldom peace
and contentment. Soon everything palls and the search must begin
again. It is a lifelong bondage, for the quest never ends
till life itself does. No better example of this futile search
can be found than Howard Hughes. Bill Hybels recounts his quest
for more money, more fame, more sensual pleasure, more thrills,
more power, and concludes, in the end "he died a billionaire
junkie, insane by all reasonable standard."
But even on our deathbed the bondage is not over, for there again
lurks the dread question, What lies beyond?
Against all this stands the words of Jesus, "Whoever finds
his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake
will find it" (Mt 10:39). He came to free those who all
their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. His
method was first to impart a new life to all who come to him,
and join them to a great family of similarly reborn brothers and
sisters. Then, through his word, he instructs them in how that
new life should be lived and promises the Spirit himself who accompanies
the believer throughout his entire journey, teaching him how to
turn from the world's ways and Satanic wiles to loving relationships
and fruitful service until at last he grows old and steps, through
death, into glory and power that beggars description. "The
man or woman who lives by this principle will find that for them
the devil is impotent" (Stedman 1974:30). James writes, "Resist
the devil, and he will flee from you" (4:7). Thus freedom
from the lifelong bondage of self-serving is clearly included
in the victory of Jesus over death!
If it seems that the writer has drifted far from his intent to
show the superiority of Jesus over angels, verse 16 brings us
back directly to the point: For surely it is not angels he
helps, but Abraham's descendants. (9)
Only by living himself as a human being could he fully sympathize
with, and therefore help, those who struggle with great temptation
on their way to glory. The term Abraham's descendants clearly
envisions Paul's declaration, "If you belong to Christ, then
you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise"
(Gal 3:29). This help for Abraham's struggling spiritual descendants
is not offered to angels (who are neither redeemed nor Abraham's
seed), but it is constantly available to those who come to Jesus
as their merciful and faithful high priest. It is mercy
which he shows toward sinners; faithfulness is exhibited before
the Father. This is the first designation in Hebrews of Jesus
as high priest, and introduces a theme which will become a major
emphasis in chapters 7 through 10.
The record of the four Gospels gives us the details of how Jesus
was made like his brothers in every way. Everyday he felt
the perturbations caused by living in a sinful world; he knew
disappointments and sorrows, physical pains and frustrations of
spirit; he grew weary and sore and must often have longed for
home and comforts; he was lied to, falsely reproved, argued with,
disliked and cheated. The earthly temptations which he endured
in the wilderness and at other times (Lk 4:13) from the devil,
and daily from the "opposition from sinful men" (12:3),
including even his own disciples, made him a sympathetic priest.
By virtue of his atonement (propitiation) he can make effective
intercession before the Father for any who bring their burdens
to him. The fact that he made atonement for the sins of the
people lifts him to an incomparable level of priestly help.
No priest under the law could do that, except in a symbolic and
token fashion. But Jesus not only holds forth the hope of finding
forgiveness of sins, he has actually taken them away already!
To be able to be both merciful toward sinners and faithful to
a holy God is possible only because the offense of sin before
God has been removed.
The genuine humanity of Jesus reminds him continually of the way
temptation feels to us when we are under assault, and his atonement
overcomes any limitation of help caused by our sins, so that he
may uphold us with both sympathy and integrity before the Father.
"If anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father
in our defense---Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" (1 Jn 2:1).
Bruce puts the case well: "A high priest who has actually,
and not merely in symbolism, removed His people's sins, and therewith
the barrier which their sins erected between themselves and God,
is a high priest worth having" (1964:53).
What a Friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear;
What a privilege to carry,
Everything to God in prayer.
So the section concludes, and the writer completes his arguments. How can anyone, given the facts, continue to follow angelic guidance (be it from demigod, avatar, spirit guide, ancient master) when the Son of God himself has come, before whom all the angels, fallen or unfallen, are commanded to worship; for whom angels are but messengers committed to do his wishes; who has himself revealed a far greater message than the Law; and who has recaptured for all who come to him the lost heritage of creation; who has lifted, through the ultimate personal sacrifice, the terrible burden of sin and guilt which lies on us all; and who offers to us each day an inner supply of strength and wisdom for the journey through life? What angel can do all or any of that?
3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 Moses was faithful as a servant in all God's house, testifying to what would be said in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. 7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, `Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, `They shall never enter my rest.'" 12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. 15 As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion." 16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
Houses come in many sizes and designs. The first house my wife
and I lived in was a tiny building in Hawaii which served as a
parsonage for a church where I was not the pastor (they had none
at the time). It had only one bedroom, one bath, a tiny kitchen
and a small living room. It's long gone now, and over the years
we have lived in several houses. Our last one in California had
five bedrooms and three baths and was a virtual mansion compared
to the first. But all the houses we have lived in have had two
things in common: a preconceived design and a builder.
In Hebrews 3, the writer turns from the angels to compare Jesus
to Israel's greatest and most revered leader, Moses, whose primary
honor was that he was faithful as a servant in all God's house.
But, he immediately adds, Christ is faithful as a son over
God 's house. (10)
As in many chapter divisions in the New Testament, the opening
words could as well have been the closing words of the previous
chapter. The therefore ties them together and introduces
a fifth title for Jesus thus far in Hebrews: Son, Firstborn, Lord,
High Priest and now Apostle. We are encouraged to fix [our]
thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.
The recipients of this encouragement are called holy brothers
and those who share in the heavenly calling. These phrases
represent a delicate shift from a well-known Jewish-Christian
description ("brothers") to that which is distinctively
Christian, and not Jewish ("heavenly calling"---Eph
1:3; 2:6). This explains his plea to look beyond Moses and Jewish
things to Jesus, who combines, in his divine-human person, both
functions which Moses exercised (apostle and high priest). However,
Jesus fulfilled these to a loftier and far greater level.
The reference to Moses' faithfulness in God's house looks back
to Numbers 12:7-8 where God describes to Aaron and Miriam how
he spoke to prophets in visions and dreams. He continues: "But
this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my
house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles."
Though several commentators take "God's house" to refer
to the nation of Israel, it is better to link it to the tabernacle.
Its precursor is the Tent of Meeting, where God spoke these words,
and the typology of which is developed more expansively in Hebrews
9. The tabernacle is called "the house of God" at least
six different times in the Old Testament, and its successor, the
temple, is so designated 43 times. Moses is especially connected
with the tabernacle as the one who received its design on Mount
Sinai and oversaw its building and ritual. If the tabernacle was
the symbol of the dwelling place of God in the midst of his people,
as will be seen more fully in 3:6, then we may view the phrase
God's house as referring both to Israel and the building
itself, each standing for the other.
At any rate, the meaning of verses 3-5 is clear: the builder of
a house is more worthy of honor than the house which he builds.
The house is only the product of the builder's skill and wisdom.
Overall conception and the design of infinite detail originates
in the mind of the architect-builder; the house simply makes it
visible. Thus, Jesus, as the agent of God in building all things,
is more worthy of honor than Moses, who was just a servant in
the house which the Son was building. This is support for the
argument of the existence of God. Cornell University astrophysicist
Carl Sagan and many others today insist that we are alone in the
cosmos; the cosmos is all there is. If every earthly house shows
the design and craft of a builder, how much more does the universe
reflect, in its complexity and interrelatedness, a Mind and Hand
that put it all together? This Mind and Hand belongs to Jesus
as John 1:3 and other Scriptures attest. As the builder of everything,
he outranks even a faithful servant like Moses, who served in
the house Jesus made.
The phrase testifying to what would be said in the future
supports the idea that the tabernacle, with its intensive typology,
would teach future generations much about human nature, God and
redemption. Stephen, in Acts 7:44, says, "Our forefathers
had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the desert.
It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern
he had seen." This is expanded in chapter 9 where we shall
learn much more about this idea of testifying about the future.
But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house, declares
verse 6. (11) And we are his house introduces
a theme which will become dominant throughout the rest of the
letter. The role of a servant and of a son in a house are worlds
apart. I recall in my high-school days in Montana a visit I made
to a large cattle ranch on the Missouri River as a friend of one
of the cowboy employees. We slept in the bunkhouse with the rest
of the help and had no access to the main quarters. We rode a
couple of rather scruffy horses, and I was involved in helping
him do certain assigned chores. Later I visited the same ranch
as a friend of the son of the ranch's owner. What a difference!
We had the run of the big house, ate in the main dining room,
rode the best horses on the ranch and could go anywhere at any
time. It made me forever aware of the difference between a son
and a servant. The author wants to make this difference clear
to his readers' minds also.
It will become readily apparent in chapter 9 that the reality
which the tabernacle pictures (and which harmonizes the two peoples
of God, Israel and the Church), are human beings themselves. The
writer declares: "We are his house!" It is redeemed
humanity who is to be the dwelling place of God (1 Cor 6:19; Eph
2:22; Rev 21:3). The writer has just presented Jesus (in chapter
2) as the Man who fulfills God's intent for the human race. That
ultimate intent is that we may be indwelt by God. This is surely
the meaning of Jesus in John 14:20, "On that day you will
realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in
you."
Again, in John 17:22-23, he prays to the Father, "I have
given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as
we are one: I in them and you in me."
These concepts are revolutionary to the Jewish mind, as Jesus
himself understood in trying to teach them to his disciples, and
as the writer of Hebrews realizes as he seeks to lift his readers
to views of themselves which they had only grasped dimly, if at
all. At this point he ventures to use for the first time the Greek
term for the Messiah (Christ---literally, "anointed")
and so help turn their minds from Jewish hopes to the "better
things" of which the Jewish shadows spoke.
We [believers] are his [Christ's] house, he asserts, if
we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.
This if has troubled many people for it seems to imply
that being a member of Christ's house can be lost after it is
gained by wavering in our courage or hope. But the statement is
more likely descriptive rather than conditional
It tells us that courage (parresian) or boldness, and the
demonstration of hope in word and deed is the continuing mark
of those who belong to Christ. It does not rule out periods of
weak faith and struggle. Bruce comments, "Nowhere in the
New Testament more than here do we find such repeated insistence
on the fact that continuance in the Christian life is the test
of reality." The true members of Christ's house are those
who show the reality of their faith by holding on to courage and
hope, even though they may waver at times. He further adds that
stumbling from faith "is precisely what our author fears
may happen with his readers; hence his constant emphasis on the
necessity of their maintaining fearless confession and joyful
hope" (1964:59).
To show his grave concern the author reminds them, in the second
major warning passage of the letter, chapters 7-15, of the possibility
of that apostasy which left thousands of Israelites dead in the
wilderness. And this had even been under the leadership of Moses.
Once again the writer draws from the treasury of the Psalms
to support his warning. The beginning of Psalm 95 describes worship
which is acceptable to God but closes with a flashback to the
false worship of Israel in the wilderness. They had outwardly
seen themselves as God's flock, but in their hearts they were
hard against him and complained to Moses about their lack of water.
The incident is recorded in Exodus 17:1-7. After God miraculously
met their thirst by ordering Moses to strike the rock and bring
forth water, Moses named the place Meribah (which means "quarreling,")
and Massah (which means "testing"). Unfortunately, their
attitude was not one of quiet trust in God, but one of fretful
complaint and querulous challenge. This outlook was repeated many
times (ten times, according to Num 14:22) throughout the wilderness
wanderings until at last God said, "They are a people whose
hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways. So I declared
on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest' " (Ps
95:10-11). (12)
God's anger is not lightly aroused. Their grumblings and murmurings
were patiently endured over a span of forty years. On occasion
God sought to make them aware of their ingratitude and rebellion
by visiting them with deserved punishment (fire, plagues, quails
and poisonous serpents). But he always offered repentance and
recovery. Still, their complaints continued and their hearts gradually
hardened until, at Kadesh-Barnea, when God commanded them to enter
the land of Canaan and take it for their own, they rebelled and
refused to go up. Finally, God spoke in anger and said, "Their
hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways
So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my
rest.'"
Note the reasons for his solemn oath: (1) They continually went
astray in their heart Their inward life was askew. Rather than
having a grateful spirit for astounding deliverances and limitless
blessings, there was a settled attitude of complaint because everything
did not go exactly as they desired each day. They saw themselves
as deserving more than they were getting, and they resented it,
not with an occasional outburst of displeasure, but with a constant
harping that wore down everyone's nerves. (2) They had not learned
God's ways. Over forty years, their real knowledge of God had
not increased because their grumbling hearts blinded their spiritual
eyes. A teachable spirit sustains a grateful heart. Centuries
later Jesus would pray: "Now this is eternal life: that they
may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have
sent" (In 17:23). This failure to grow in knowledge of God's
ways is the very danger our author sees as a possibility for his
own readers. He reminds them of this episode in Israel's history
so they might heed its warning. Full apostasy is present when
God says of anyone, They shall never enter my rest.
This is the first use of the word rest in Hebrews. This
word describes the end of wandering and restlessness, and promises
calmness and tranquillity. Here it clearly refers to the land
of Canaan and the promise of a settled state of peace and full
supply. But, as we shall see, this Canaan rest was a symbol, a
shadow, of a greater rest available to the people of God in the
future. The failure to correct a habit of grumbling and murmuring
against God led over a million Israelites to such a hardened state
of heart that they were unable to lay hold of the opportunity
to enter the land of promise when they came to its borders. They
perished at an average of almost ninety deaths a day, until the
generation that left Egypt (except for Joshua and Caleb) had died
out.
In verses 12-13, this example is now applied to all who read
Hebrews. The writer's argument is: If unbelief kept Israelites
out of the land of Canaan (a picture of God's rest), how much
more serious is it today to give way to unbelief and thus miss
the greater rest (the rest of justification and salvation). The
warning is addressed to the whole assembly (See to it, brothers,
. . . encourage one another daily). These phrases recognize
individual responsibility to act (that none of you has a sinful,
unbelieving heart, . . . none of you may be hardened by sin's
deceitfulness) and describe accurately the terrible result
of sin's hardening (turns away from the living God). Bruce puts
it powerfully, "a relapse from Christianity into Judaism
would be comparable to the action of the Israelites when they
'turned back in their hearts unto Egypt' (Acts 7:39); it would
not be a mere return to a position previously occupied, but a
gesture of outright apostasy, a complete break with God"
(1964:66).
We who read this may not be battling with pressures to return
to a previously held faith, but many church members today are
content to live lives that are essentially no different than the
lives of non-Christians around them. They easily forget Paul's
plea, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom 12:2).
Also, "So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord,
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility
of their thinking" (Eph 4:17). All who ignore these words
today are in great danger of repeating the ancient error of Israel.
For the first time in Hebrews the power of corporate faith is
recognized with the words encourage one another daily, as long
as it is called Today. (13) It will
be highlighted again in 10:24-25. Those who profess to share life
in Christ are urged both to caution and encourage one another.
This is done whenever it is needed (Today used eight times
in Hebrews) and consists, not of stem rebuke, but loving admonition
against a complaining spirit, and helpful illumination of sin's
deceptive approach. "Sin is an extremely dangerous power
confronting the believer. It always attacks the individual, much
as wolves stalk a single sheep" (Kistemaker 1984:95). Its
terrible danger lies in the deceptive ease by which it gradually
hardens the heart, as it lessens the will's power to resist evil.
As the first warning passage (2:1-4) dealt with the danger of
drifting past truth, this one warns of the danger of failing to
deal with a grumbling and complaining spirit.
Verses 14-19 recapitulate the warning from Psalm 95 and support
the declaration of verse 14, We have come to share in Christ
if we hold firm till the end the confidence we had at first. This
verse looks back to verse 6, "we are his [Christ's] house."
Believers share in Christ (metokoi, "become partakers
of") through a dual relationship: "You in me, and I
in you," that is, Christ dwelling in us as a Son in his own
house; and believers dwelling in Christ, as sharers of his divine-human
life. But this is made evident only by persevering as a Christian
until the end of life itself! (See John 10:28 where Jesus says,
"I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish").
Once again the if is descriptive, not conditional. If
we hold firmly . . . the confidence we had at first envisages
deliberate efforts made to renew faith and trust on a daily basis.
As we read the Scriptures thoughtfully and closely every day,
or when we pray regularly with and for one another, or when we
worship with other believers in a shared experience of God's wonder
and glory, when we serve people's needs out of love for Christ,
we are doing the things that cause us to bold firmly to the end
the confidence we had at first.
The rhetorical questions of verses 16-18 show how an outward facade
of belief can be maintained while the heart is still unrepentant,
and therefore unredeemed. (14) It is possible
to participate in and benefit from the great miracles of God,
as the Israelites did who came out of Egypt with Moses (v. 16).
Yet, despite such evidence, the heart can remain unchanged for
a lifetime. God sees that inner hardness and warns continually
against it until he is forced to judge it (v. 17). Now the growing
stages of unbelief: general rebellion (v. 16); sin, punished by
physical death (v. 17); and disobedience (Gk: "being unpersuadable"---v.
18). The cause of this recalcitrance lies deeper than a wrong
attitude or wrong behavior; it lies in a disobedient will. Therefore,
the loss of promised blessing is traceable only and solely to
long-continued unbelief (v. 19). This word apistian, "disbelief")
is the platform upon which the writer's more positive explanation
of rest is founded He gives us the other side of disbelief in
chapter 4.
4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, "So I declared on oath in my anger, `They shall never enter my rest.'" And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." 5 And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest." 6 It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7 Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Dreams of Utopia have haunted human minds for millennia. When
Sir Thomas More, in 1516, wrote the book Utopia, he chose
the name because in Greek it means "no place." Many
attempts have been made in history to find or create such a place
where life approaches perfection, but none has succeeded. Yet
the dream has not faded, probably because it represents a vestigial
human memory of something we once had and still yearn for, a greater
Sabbath. On the seventh day of creation (Sabbath means
"seven") God was said to have "rested from all
his work" (Gen 2:2). This was not total inactivity, for God
has been active throughout all history. It is probably best described
as a rest of a perfectly functioning creation, as a mechanic rests
from his work when his machine runs perfectly. That is what men
have dreamed Utopia would be: a properly functioning society.
In Hebrews 4:1 we are given the first hint that the promise
of rest given to Israel envisaged more than entering the Promised
land. It is, he says, a promise which still stands that
is, was not satisfied by entering Canaan, but still exists at
the time of his writing. Furthermore, his readers stand in danger
of missing it unless they are careful. The Greek construction
of the phrase that none of you be found to have fallen short
of it indicates that wrong behavior, such as disobedience
or long-continued grumbling, suggests the heart is unchanged and
unbelieving. Be found refers to God's knowledge of the heart and
his actions based on that knowledge.
In verse 2, we are given the reason for the Israelites' unbelief
in the wilderness. Even though the gospel of God's deliverance
from an evil heart was proclaimed clearly through the sacrifices,
the tabernacle ritual and the preaching of Moses, it met with
a lack of faith among those who perished. The writer will declare
in 11:6 that "without faith it is impossible to please God."
Without a personal response to the promise of salvation, no one
may be saved. Declared many times in Scripture, this fact invalidates
completely the teaching of universalism that everyone is already
saved by virtue of Christ's death and that God will reveal that
to them at the end, no matter how they lived. This teaching ignores
the need for repentance: turning from ungrateful rebellion to
a thankful acceptance of God's provision. Romans 10:17 indicates
that the gospel ("the word of Christ") has power to
awaken belief in is hearers; if that belief is acted upon by a
willing response (faith), it results in salvation (divine life
imparted). (15)
In verses 3-10, we learn the full meaning of the word rest.
First, it is a rest which believers of the first century (and
today) can actually experience (v. 3). The writer uses the present,
but not the future, tense, we. . . enter that rest. Jesus
had declared, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest" (Mt 11:28). That is the same promise
of rest which the writer, in verse 1, has declared still stands.
If believed, it requires a response, for though the promise is
still valid, so is the threat that follows: Just as God has
said, "So l declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never
enter my rest. '" Now is the time to enter it (today---
v. 7), and now is the time to lose it, if one test God's patience
too long. (16)
Second, this true rest has been available since creation (vv.
3-4), and some who may not have entered Canaan could have entered
God's rest still. God calls this rest my rest. This means
not only does he give it, but he himself also enjoys it! He experienced
rest when he ceased the work of creation, as recounted in Genesis
2:2-3. As we have seen, this does not imply subsequent idleness,
for God continues to maintain his creation, as 1:3 attests. He
is endlessly active in the work of redemption too, as Jesus declared
in John 5:17. It does mean he ceased creating; he has rested from
that work since time began. What that means for God's people will
be made clear in verse 10. The third factor the writer stresses
is that entering this rest must not be delayed. Again, he quotes
Psalm 95:7, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your
hearts.
Delay hardens the heart, especially when we are fully aware that
we have heard the voice of God in the inner soul. Every shrug
of the shoulder that pus off acting on God's urging for change,
every toss of the head that says, "I know I should, but I
don't care," every attempt at outward conformity without
inner commitment produces a hardening of the heart that makes
repentance harder and harder to do. The witness of the Spirit
must not be ignored, for the opportunity to believe does not last
forever. Playing games with the living God is not only impertinent,
but also dangerous.
There is a line, by us unseen,
That crosses every path.
The hidden boundary between
God's patience and His wrath.
Today is a word of hope. All is not lost while today
lasts. Though there has been some hardening, it can yet be reversed
if prompt repentance is made. The situation is serious, though,
for Today is never more than twenty-four hours long and
that's all anyone is given at a time!
Though Jesus is not compared here with Joshua in terms of relative
greatness, it is apparent from verses 8-10 that the work of Joshua
in leading Israel into the rest symbolized by the Promised Land
was far inferior to the work of Jesus. He provides eternal rest
to all who believe in him. The fact that God repeats his promise
of rest through David in Psalm 95, centuries after Israel had
entered Canaan, is used to indicate that Sabbath-rest is the substance
and Canaan-rest but a shadow. There was an experience of rest
for Israel in Canaan (from armed invasion, natural disasters,
failure of crops) when they were faithful to God. But even at
best that rest was outward and essentially physical, and could
not satisfy the promise of rest to the human race which was intended
from the beginning. The author specifically states, There remains,
then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God.
In verse 10, we learn at last the nature of that rest. It means
to cease from one's own work, and so, by implication, to trust
in the working of God instead. In Ephesians 2:8-9 Paul asserts,
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith---and
this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works,
[we are to rest from our own works!] so that no one can boast."
The use of the term sabbatismos ("Sabbath-rest")
suggests that the weekly sabbath given to Israel is only a shadow
of the true rest of God. Paul also declares in Colossians 2:16-17
where he lumps religious festivals, New Moon celebrations and
sabbath days together as "a shadow of the things that were
to come, the reality, however, is found in Christ." Thus
rest has three meanings: (1) the Promised Land; (2) the weekly
sabbath; and (3) that which these two prefigure, that cessation
from labor which God enjoys and which he invites believes to share.
This third rest not only describes the introduction of believers
into eternal life, but also depicts the process by which we will
continue to work and live, namely, dependence on God to be at
work through us. "It is God who works in you to will and
to act according to his good purpose" (Phil 2:13). (17)
This is in many ways the lost secret of Christianity. Along with
seeking to do things for God, we are also encouraged to expect
God to be at work through us. It is the key to the apostle's labors:
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"
(Phil 4:13). Also, "I have been crucified with Christ and
I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the
body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me" (Gal 2:20). Note, "I no longer live"---that
is, I do not look for any achievement by my own efforts. Rather
"Christ lives in me" and the life I live and the things
that I do are "by faith"---that is, done in dependence
on the Son of God working in and through me.
This makes clear that truly keeping the sabbath is not observing
a special day (that is but the shadow of the real sabbath), but
sabbath-keeping is achieved when the heart rests on the great
promise of God to be working through a believer in the normal
affairs of living. We cannot depend on our efforts to please God,
though we do make decisions and exert efforts. We cease from our
own works and look to his working within us to achieve the results
that please him. As Jesus put it to the apostles, "Apart
from me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:5). They must learn to
work but always with the thought that he is working with them,
adding his power to their effort. That is keeping the sabbath
as it was meant to be kept!
Learning to function from a position of rest is the way to avoid
burnout in ministry or any other labor. We are to become "co-laborers
with God," to use Paul's wonderful phrase. This does not
mean that we cannot learn many helpful lessons on rest by studying
the regulations for keeping the sabbath day found in the Old Testament.
Nor that we no longer need time for quiet meditation and cessation
from physical labor. Our bodies are yet unredeemed and need rest
and restoration at frequent intervals. But we are no longer bound
by heavy limitations to keep a precise day of the week.
Paradoxically, we read in verse 11 the exhortation to make
every effort to enter that [sabbath] rest. Of course, effort
is needed to resist self-dependence. If we think that we have
what it takes in ourselves to do all that needs to be done, we
shall find ourselves rest-less and ultimately ineffective. Yet
decision is still required of us and exertion is needed; but results
can only be expected from the realization that God is also working
and he will accomplish the needed ends. This is also the clear
teaching of Psalm 127:1, "Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain." Human effort is still
needed, but human effort is never enough.
Failure to expect God to act caused the disobedience of Israel
in the wilderness, and a similar failure destroys thousands today.
It is called overachieving now, but it is the cause for most of
the breakdown of Christians under the pressure of stress or responsibility.
Pastors and teachers particularly have often been taught that
they are personally responsible to meet the emotional needs and
to solve the relational problems of all in their congregations.
Many sincerely attempt this but soon find themselves overwhelmed
with unending demands and a growing sense of their own failure.
Relief can come only by learning to operate out of rest and by
sharing responsibility with others in the congregation whom God
has also equipped with gifts of ministry.
The subtlety of the temptation to self-dependence is highlighted
by verses 12-13. The opening For strongly ties them to
verse 11 since they explain what the Israelites who fell in the
wilderness failed to heed. David asks, in Psalm 19:12, "Who
can discern his errors?" The answer he gives in the psalm
and that of the writer of Hebrews is the same. Only the Word of
God, which is living and active and sharper than any double-edged
sword, is capable of exposing the thoughts and attitudes of a
single human heart! We do not know ourselves. We do not even know
how to distinguish, by feelings or rationale, between that which
comes from our souls (psyches) and from our spirits (pneumas).
Even our bodily functions (symbolized here by joints and marrow)
are beyond our full knowledge. Only the all-seeing eye of God
knows us thoroughly and totally (Ps 139:1-18), and before him
we will stand and ultimately give account.
The images the author employs in this marvelous passage are effective
ones. Like a sharp sword which can lay open the human body with
one slashing blow, so the sword of the Scripture can open our
inner life and expose it to ourselves and others. Once the ugly
thoughts and hidden rebellions are out in the open, we stand like
criminals before a judge, ineffectually trying to explain what
we have done. Yet such honest revelation is what we need to humble
our stubborn pride and render us willing to look to God for forgiveness
and his gracious supply.
Plainly, Scripture is the only reliable guide we have to function
properly as a human in a broken world. Philosophy and psychology
give partial insights, based on human experience, but they fall
far short of what the Word of God can do. It is not intended to
replace human knowledge or effort, but is designed to supplement
and correct them. Surely the most hurtful thing pastors and leaders
of churches can do to their people is to deprive them of firsthand
knowledge of the Bible. The exposition of both Old and New Testaments
from the pulpit, in classrooms and small group meetings is the
first responsibility of church leaders. They are "stewards
of the mysteries of God" and must be found faithful to the
task of distribution. This uniqueness of Scripture is the reason
that all true human discovery in any dimension must fit within
the limits of divine disclosure. Human knowledge can never outstrip
divine revelation.
The remaining verses of chapter 4 (vv. 14-16) properly belong
with the subject of chapter 5 and will be considered there. Thus
far we have seen that Jesus is far greater than any angel, eclipses
Moses as the spokesman of God, and leads believers into a far
superior rest than Joshua led Israel into. In chapter 5, we are
introduced to the major theme of Hebrews: the high priesthood
of Jesus. He is superior in every respect to the priesthood of
Aaron, and encompasses a ministry which the Old Testament only
faintly shadowed in the mysterious ministry of Melchizedek to
Abraham.
14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
As I was writing this chapter, I was concerned about a young
man whom I wanted to help grow in Christ. At the moment his Christian
life was on hold, and though he listened patiently to what I told
him, he seemed unwilling to make any changes or to take seriously
what I was saying. I found myself feeling frustrated and uncertain
how to proceed. There was much truth I was anxious to impart to
him and I longed particularly to open his eyes to the enormous
resources for help in times of temptation and pressure that were
available to him from the daily presence of Christ in his life.
But he seemed to be dull of hearing and unable to grasp the excitement
and vitality of what I was portraying. I began to realize how
the writer of Hebrews must have felt as he tried to help his readers
grasp the full import of the high priestly ministry of Jesus.
In 4:14 he begins an extended discussion of that ministry, which
will conclude at 7:28. The therefore which opens the discussion
looks back to the previous verse (4:13), where the whole human
race is viewed as totally vulnerable before the all-seeing eyes
of God. Our writer probably has in mind Adam and Eve, when they
suddenly became aware of their nakedness and sought to hide from
God in the Garden. But believers in Jesus, though naked before
God, do not need to hide, for they have an Advocate before the
Father, even the Son of God himself. Now they can, in the words
of 4:16, approach the throne of grace with confidence.
Jesus, as high priest, is both great and has gone through
the heavens. This last phrase denotes his completed work of
redemption and transcendent availability. The practical result
of that availability is that there is no necessity for anyone
to give up faith under the pressure of peril or persecution, for
the help needed to stand is both sympathetically offered and fully
effective. This offer of help from on high to any who struggle
with the pressures and problems of life on earth is undoubtedly
the most widely neglected resource for Christians. It proposes
simply and clearly to meet every situation, not with human wisdom
but divine---and not with merely human strength, but God's inexhaustive
strength! History provides many examples of those who have tried
this offer and found it eminently true. Yet despite this encouragement
from the past and present, many believers look only for human
help, and if it is not available, succumb quickly to discouragement,
defeat, despair and even suicide. These verses are often quoted
as part of a Christian's defense provision, but too often forgotten
when actual times of trouble arrive.
The basis for our great high priest's sympathy is that he has
fully shared our plight. The writer has already (2:17) reminded
his readers that Jesus was "made like his brothers in every
way" and that this was done "through suffering"
(2:10). Now we are told that he has been tempted in every way,
just as we are. As Adam and Eve before the Fall could be tempted
even in their innocent state, so Jesus could feel the force of
temptation to the full, though he remained without sin.
He exceeds us in his awareness of the power of temptation. "Such
endurance involves more, not less, than ordinary human suffering"
(Bruce 1964:86). Only the sinless can experience the full intensity
of temptation, for the sinful yield before the limit of temptation
is reached. We may count on his sympathy for our feelings of pressure
and constraint to evil, and be assured, as the psalmist says,
"he knows how we are formed; he remembers that we are dust"
(Ps 103:14).
For centuries, Christians have debated the question, Was Jesus
not able to sin because of his deity, or was he simply
able not to sin even though he fully shared our humanity?
This question is, in my judgment, one of those issues about which
no final answer can be given due to the limitations of human knowledge
and the reticence of Scripture to speak. If unduly pressed, it
falls under Paul's warning against quarreling about words, for
such quarreling "is of no value, and only ruins those who
listen" (2 Tim 2:14). What Scripture does reveal in several
places (7:14) is that Jesus was without sin. With that
statement we should be content. Luther once observed, "When
the angels want a good laugh, they read the commentaries!"
Let us not add to their laughter by quarrels over things beyond
our knowledge.
The throne of grace to which we come for help is pictured
by the mercy seat in the old tabernacle. That mercy seat, where
God could meet with sinful humans because of the blood of sacrifice
sprinkled upon it, is the throne of power in the universe from
which grace constantly flows to needy suppliants. Mercy is the
remission of deserved judgment, while grace is the supply of undeserved
blessing. Both are needed by sinful believers such as we all are,
and both are available to us when we come with confidence. We
are loved as children and cherished as recipients of the great
salvation won by the blood of our great high priest!
5:1 Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. 2 He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. 4 No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. 5 So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father. " 6 And he says in another place, "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." 7 During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him 10 and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. 11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 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.
Chapter 5 continues the priestly theme by looking first, in
verses 1-4, at the necessary qualifications to serve as a priest.
(18) They are fourfold:
1. He must be human, "selected from among men" since
he "is appointed to represent them" before God (v. 1).
2. His ministry consists of offering "gifts and sacrifices
for sins," as his major work solves the alienation created
by human sin (v. 1).
3. He must "deal gently with those who are ignorant and going
astray," and he can do so because of his own sense of weakness
and sin (vv. 2-3).
4. He must be appointed to his priestly office by God. No one
can make himself a priest (v. 4).
All these Aaron fulfilled, as did, with varying degrees of accomplishment,
many of his successors in the priestly office. We tend to think
of the Levitical priests as engaged, only in rituals and sacrifices
which were often virtually meaningless to the people. But if we
read Leviticus and Deuteronomy carefully, we will see that such
priests served in the place of modern psychologists and psychiatrists
today. In explaining to the people the purpose of each offering,
they would be dealing with problems of fear, insecurity, anxiety,
guilt and shame. Thus they fulfilled an extremely important role
in the nation's life.
The writer now shows that Jesus, as a high priest, fulfills
each of those qualifications, though he is of a different order
than that of Aaron. The fourth qualification is mentioned first---the
need to be appointed by God. That divine appointment was found
in the words of Psalm 2, quoted once before in 1:5, You are
my Son; today I have become your Father. This precisely identifies
the one who will be made a priest (my Son), and is immediately
linked with the words of Psalm 110:4, You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek. This first of eight mentions
of Melchizedek in Hebrews stresses the right of Jesus to serve
because his appointment came directly from God and is confirmed
by Psalms 2 and 110.
The second qualification (to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins)
is not mentioned of Jesus here, possibly because it has been described
already in 2:17. This will be dealt with extensively in chapters
8 and 9, particularly in 8:3. That Jesus met this credential in
full is the major theme of Hebrews and is, therefore, taken for
granted in this demonstration of his priestly qualifications.
But Jesus' fulfillment of the third qualification (to feel his
own weakness and sins) is described in the words of verses 7-8.
These strange verses explain how a sinless person could nevertheless
feel his own weakness and sins. The major commentators agree that
they describe the experience of Jesus in the dark shadows of Gethsemane.
There---with only Peter, James and John nearby---he experienced
a protracted period of excruciating torment of spirit which found
expression in groanings ("If it be possible, Father, let
this cup pass") and streaming tears, and ended in a terrible
sweat, almost like blood.
There is a great mystery here. Jesus seems to face the experience
with puzzlement and deep unrest of heart. For the first time in
his ministry, he appeals to his own disciples for help, asking
them to watch and pray for him. He confesses being deeply troubled
in his spirit. Each of his three prayers questions the necessity
for this experience and each is addressed to the one who could
save him from death. Luke tells us that before the third prayer
an angel was sent to strengthen him. Perhaps this is what the
words of 5:7 refer to, he was heard because of his reverent
submission. His cry to the Father was one of such desperate
need that the Father answered by strengthening him through an
angel. But when the angel had finished, the third and most terrible
experience began.
The author implies that Jesus faced the emotional misery which
sin produces: its shame, guilt and despair. He felt the iron bands
of sin's enslaving power. He was oppressed by a sense of hopelessness,
total discouragement and utter defeat. He is anticipating the
moment on the cross when he would be forsaken of the Father, since
he would then be bearing the sin of the world as though it
were his own. The very thought of it crushed his heart as
in a winepress. No sinner on earth has ever felt the stain and
shame of sin as he did. He understood exactly the same feeling
we have (in much lesser degree) when we are angry with ourselves
and so filled with shame and self-loathing that we cannot believe
that God can do anything but hate us for our evil. Jesus knows
what that is like. He went the whole way and took the full brunt.
We will never pass through a Gethsemane as torturous as he did.
He saw our sins as his own, and thus fulfilled beyond any other
priest's experience the ability to deal gently with other's sins
since he was so fully aware of the sense of personal defilement
sin leaves.
This also explains the unusual words of 5:8, Although he was
a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered. There in
Gethsemane he learned how it feels to obey when such obedience
only promises further pain. He could and did add to his prayers,
"yet not my will, but yours be done." Thus Jesus learned
obedience when every fiber of his being longed to escape. He had
gladly been obedient to the Father all his life. In Gethsemane
it was hard, excruciatingly hard, for him to accept God's will,
just as it often seems hard to us to obey it. But this is because
we are impure, not pure. Nevertheless, even though he was a son
who loved to obey his Father, yet he learned obedience
the hard way through his experience in Gethsemane.
Verses 9-10 take us to the cross. Having learned obedience in
Gethsemane, Jesus is now perfectly qualified to become at once
the sin offering and the high priest who offers it. This anticipates
the clause of 9:14, "through the eternal Spirit [he] offered
himself unblemished to God." This perfect sacrifice,
offered by the perfect priest, entirely supersedes the Aaronic
priesthood and is again designated by God as of the order of
Melchizedek. The phrase appears five times in Hebrews and
becomes the subject of the epistle from 5:6 to 7:28. It is the
Melchizedek priesthood that is described by 2:18: "Because
he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those
who are being tempted." In view of this help so easily available,
why do we insist so strenuously on obtaining only human help?
The mutual assistance of others like ourselves is scripturally
valid and often helpful, but it was never intended to replace
the help available from our great "Melchizedek." Let
us go boldly and much more frequently to our high priest who sits
on the throne of grace, ready and able to help.
Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish,
Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel.
Here bring your wounded heart, here tell your anguish,
Earth has no sorrows that heaven cannot heal!
The paragraph from 5:11 to 6:3 turns aside for the moment to
examine the spiritual condition of the readers of this epistle.
Verses 11-13 describe their immature state; verse 14 shows them
what they should be; and 6:1-3 tells them how to get there. There
will follow, in 6:4-8, the third major warning passage of Hebrews,
and in 6:9-20, the writer lifts his readers to a new level of
hope based upon the oath and promise of God given to Abraham.
He then will resume the discussion of the Melchizedek priesthood
in chapter 7.
It has been quite evident thus far in Hebrews that the pastor's
heart of the author has been deeply troubled over the spiritual
state of some of his readers. Twice he has warned them at some
length that they are in danger of repeating the unbelief of the
Israelites in the wilderness and failing, therefore, to enter
into the spiritual rest which they had been promised. Once again
he confronts them with their perilous state. (19)
They are slow to learn, he declares, and because of this
dullness, he has difficulty in explaining to them the extraordinary
advantages of the Melchizedek priesthood of Jesus. If they had
been growing as they should, they ought by now to be able to pass
the great truths of the faith along to others. They would no longer
be learning elementary truths of God's word for themselves
but could be teachers of those coming after them. The high
priestly ministry which Jesus wants them to learn represents an
advance on the introductory truths of the Christian faith. But
instead of responding to his exhortations they seem to require
those basic truths to be explained to them again. At best, they
are spiritual infants who need to be taught over and over the
elementary truths as a baby needs to be fed milk and is not ready
for solid food. At worst, they are not Christians at all, but
are like many of the Israelites in the wilderness. They also are
in danger of failing to act in faith on the teaching they have
received. Fear that this may be their condition is what leads
the author to issue the solemn warning of 6:4-8, though in 6:9,
he indicates that he does not yet believe they are all in such
a fearful state.
The cause of their immaturity is clearly described in 5:13. They
are not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
Commentators differ as to whether righteousness here refers to
conduct or imputed worth. Hughes opts for the latter view, describing
it as "the teaching about righteousness which is fundamental
to the Christian faith, namely, the insistence on Christ as our
righteousness (1 Cor. 1:30, 2 Cor. 5:21) as opposed to self-righteousness
or works-righteousness" (1977:191). Ignorance of having a
righteous position in God's eyes already through faith in Christ
has been the cause of much useless laboring to earn righteousness
through the centuries. It invariably produces a form of legalism
which tries to earn "brownie points" with God to gain
his acceptance. The dullness which does not understand the divine
program that leads to right conduct manifests its ignorance by
being unable to "distinguish good from evil." But those
who, by persistent obedience to the truth, are able to grasp such
solid food will give evidence of it in wise and wholesome
conduct. They will identify evil as evil, even when it looks good,
and follow good because it is good, even when it looks evil.
How do Christians train themselves to be able to understand the
teaching about righteousness? The steps are the same in any age.
(1) Begin with truth you already know but have not been obeying.
Does God want you to stop some activity you know to be wrong?
Does Scripture exhort you to change your attitude, forgive someone,
reach out with help to another? No further light will be given
until you begin to obey the light you already have. (2) Review
the promises of God for help from on high to obey his word, for
example, Hebrews 2:18; 4:14-16; 2 Timothy 2:7. (3) Claim those
promises for yourself, do whatever you need to do, and count on
God's grace to see you through the consequences. (4) Follow this
procedure whenever you become aware of areas of your life and
thinking that need to be changed. This is the constant use
which will enable one to grow and to handle the solid food
of the teaching about righteousness. Paul, in Ephesians 4:14,
says, "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and
forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of
teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful
scheming."
Since understanding and practicing the truth of the high priestly
ministry of Jesus leads believers to such maturity, it is obvious
that it is one of the most important truths of Scripture and also
one which every Christian should seek diligently to grasp and
practice.
6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so. 4 It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5 who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, 6 if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. 7 Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. 8 But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. 9 Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case --things that accompany salvation. 10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. 11 We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. 12 We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. 13 When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, 14 saying, "I will surely bless you and give you many descendants." 15 And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. 16 Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. 17 Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.
Life presents a thousand examples of the need to act on knowledge
before any benefit is received. It is not enough to know a telephone
number; if you want to talk to someone, you must dial the number.
It is not enough to know the price of an object; if you want it,
you must pay that price. It is not enough to know where India
is; if you want to see it, you must go there. So it should not
seem strange that the writer of Hebrews insists that to know Jesus
you must receive him by faith and obey his teaching.
The unfortunate chapter division at this point tends to minimize
the opening Therefore of chapter 6. Our author does not
propose to teach his readers again the elementary truths of
God's word though he has told them their dullness seems to
require it. They already know the teaching; what they need now
is personal commitment to it. This can only be achieved by going
on to those actions of faith that produce maturity. For this reason
he urges them to leave the elementary teachings about Christ
and go on from words to applications. Elementary teachings
is not a reference to regeneration, but means introductory information
that could lead to regeneration.
The rudiments he asks them to leave consist of six matters under two heads: (1) the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God; and (2) instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. These transitional truths lead from Jewish beliefs and practices to a full sharing in Christ. Though Bruce takes them as a Jewish list and others as Christian, the truth is they are both, as Bruce concedes that each "acquires a new significance in a Christian context" (1964:112).The point is that they do not represent anything but the barest beginnings of Christian faith. It is necessary to go from the knowledge of these initial truths to experiences which actually draw upon the