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The “Better” Is the Best

BY HYWE L R. JO NE S

Jesus Christ: Prophet, Priest, and King

BY MAT T HEW R. RI CHA RD

God’s Assuring Promise

BY CHRI S VO G E L

Worship, Ministry, and Discipline in the Epistle to the Hebrews

BY B O BBY JA MI E S O N

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Heroes of the Faith

BY T E D HA MI LTO N

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

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BIBLE STUDY ››

BY E RI C LA NDRY

Holding Fast to Our Confession of Hope

BY A I ME E BYRD

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THEOLOGY ›› “The Essence of Christianity”:

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BACK PAGE ›› Four Things You

Johann Gerhard on the Death of Christ

BY ST EVE N R. J. PA RK S

BAUGUS, HALES, AND TAYLOR AND CHOI

BY MI CHA E L S. HO RTO N

Need to Know about Hebrews

BY BRO O K E VE NT URA

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LETTER from the EDITOR

ERIC LANDRY executive editor

Have you ever wondered what it might have been like to sit in a home in ancient Ephesus (or Thessalonica or Corinth) and listen to an apostle open up the Old Testament and preach a Christcentered sermon? What would it have been like for a Jew who recently came to believe that Jesus was the Messiah to hear a passage, such as Psalm 110, explained by one of the men who walked with Jesus during his short ministry on earth?

What would it have been like for a Gentile, who recently left the pagan temples, to hear a Galilean fisherman or a former Pharisee speak of angels, priests, covenants, and faith—words that were just beginning to make sense to him as he learned the vocabulary of his new religion?

The writers in this issue believe we can capture a little bit of that experience by reading the Letter to the Hebrews. That enigmatic, anonymous, and soaring review of the Old Testament is presented here as an example of early, perhaps even apostolic, Christian preaching. It is one of the best examples we have of what it was like for the early church to hear the Scriptures (before there was a New Testament) expounded with Christ at the center.

We begin this issue with Welsh Presbyterian pastor Hywel Jones’s overview of

Hebrews where he reminds us that, like the original hearers, we are being pointed to the supremacy of Christ. Next is Lutheran pastor Matthew Richard’s treatment of one of the most important triads of Hebrews: Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament offices of prophet, priest, and king. Presbyterian pastor Chris Vogel unpacks one of the most beautiful sections of the sermon—the double promise of God in Hebrews 6:13–20—which follows the same storyline as the original preacher, weaving together Old Testament narrative, deep theological reflection, and practical hope-filled application that centers on Jesus.

And Bobby Jamieson, a New Testament doctoral student at the University of Cambridge, takes a closer look at how the sermon addresses ministry issues that still confront Christian churches nearly two thousand years later.

Along with these main articles, through a series of sidebar articles, Professor Dennis Johnson presents a fascinating seminar on how this sermon interacts with the Old Testament. We conclude our review of this important book with Presbyterian pastor Ted Hamilton's refreshing reminder that the heroes of Hebrews 11 are not so much examples to emulate as brothers and sisters pointing to the fulfillment of their hope and faith in Jesus.

If you’re in a Bible study group using our new study kit based on this issue and the corresponding White Horse Inn radio programs, try reading Hebrews out loud once or twice before diving into the study questions or reading the articles in this issue. Listen to the sermon that our fathers and mothers in the faith listened to so long ago, and pray that God would use this ancient word to establish and strengthen your faith in the finished work of Christ today.

“ [HEBREWS] IS ONE OF THE BEST EXAMPLES.. OF WHAT IT WAS LIKE FOR THE EARLY CHURCH TO HEAR THE SCRIPTURES.”

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B I B L E ST U DY

HOLDING FAST to O u r

CONFESSION of

by AIMEE BYRD

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Do you know as much about the Old Testament as you do about the New Testament? The women’s Bible study group in my church didn’t, and they decided to do something about it. When I joined in, they had been faithfully studying through books of the Old Testament for over a year. So when they asked me if I would teach them, I thought Hebrews would make a perfect connection for us to study how all that we have been learning in the Old Testament pointed to Christ.

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his sermon-letter was written to exhort the intended first audience of Jewish believers to persevere in the Christian faith and not turn back to their old covenant sacrificial system and ceremonies. Of course, in his providence, it is also God’s word to us. Indeed, Hebrews gives us all a better understanding of the true prophet, priest, and king to which all others were only a type and shadow. After studying the indicatives of who God is and what he has done in Christ, I was captivated with a particular imperative the preacher lays out to press the reader to perseverance: “Let us hold fast to our confession of hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:23).

What is the confession of our hope? This is an important question. In fact, I would like to propose that our answer to this question, and our ability to proactively cling to a proper profession of what we believe, is directly connected to our perseverance in the Christian life. All Christians need to know why they are persevering, whether it is through a fiery trial or the tedium of everyday living. Faith is a gift, but faith is a fighting grace.

And this entails a capacity to grasp what is true about the person and work of Jesus Christ.

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Think about it. The author to the Hebrews is exhorting us to hold fast to something, and that something is vital to our perseverance in the Christian faith.

T HE CONFE SSI ON OF OU R HOP E Christians, what do you believe? I love the motto of the White Horse Inn: “Know what you believe, and why you believe it.” Theology aims to answer both the what and the why by studying the Who. If we are to hold fast to the confession of our hope to persevere in the Christian life, we’d better know what that confession is.

This exhortation from Hebrews 10:23 is the center of three “let us” statements the author gives to the Hebrews after teaching how the person and work of Christ gives them (and us) direct access to God through a new and better covenant, which sums up the message of perseverance that is the theme of the whole sermon-letter.1 With this new affirmation that we have to come before the throne of God, the pastor implores: Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts

sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

(Heb. 10:22–25) Before this, the writer carefully gives us a detailed explanation of the Christian confession of hope.

Hope is not the same as wishful thinking; it is based on a person. In Hebrews, we find that all of the Old Testament heroes (Gideon, Barak, Samson, and others) pointed to the true hero, Jesus Christ. He is the true prophet, the true priest, and the true king.

And from the beginning verses we get the crux of our confession: “We see Jesus as Lord both in his person and in his work.”2 He is our true hope for salvation, as well as for our perseverance in the Christian life.

Our confession of hope, “Jesus is Lord,” shows that we are holding fast to a person, the Son of God. HOLDING FAST WITHOUT WAVERING The Westminster Confession of Faith states that our perseverance is not based on any strength or determination of our own, but on the promise of God orchestrated and carried out by all three persons of the Trinity: This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ, the abiding of the Spirit, and of the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace: from all which arises also the certainty and infallibility thereof. (WCF 17:2) Here we see that our ability to hold fast without wavering is grounded in the Father’s great love in electing us, the person and work of his Son Jesus Christ, and the application of this work to the believer by the Holy Spirit, all in concordance with

“IN HEBREWS, WE FIND THAT ALL OF THE OLD TESTAMENT HEROES...

POINTED TO THE TRUE HERO, JESUS CHRIST.” the oath made between the three persons of the Trinity. Hebrews opens with how God has pursued his people in Christ, and I believe it has the best opening hook out of all sixty-six books in the Bible: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Heb. 1:1–3) While some people want to hear a special revelation from God, we learn in these first few verses that Jesus the Son is the ultimate revelation, the true prophet by whom God has spoken to us. This Son is the heir of all things and therefore he must have the ultimate kingdom. As we know that the world was created by God’s speech, we see here that the Son has created the world. This prophet who has spoken to us in the last days is the same One who spoke the world into existence! He is described as “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (v. 3). God has spoken to his people! And he sustains this very universe by the word of his power. What kind of power is this? It is one that can penetrate our souls and hearts of stone and make a new creation.

Amazingly, Christ was made like us in every way, though without sin, so that in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, he could fulfill all MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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righteousness on our behalf and fully pay the penalty for our sin against God as “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). What assurance it is for us to know that Jesus has not only finished the work in his life and death on the cross for our justification, but that he is also even now sitting at the right hand of the Father interceding on our behalf. Because Jesus is Lord in his person and his work, we can have full assurance of our hope until the end (Heb. 6:11). And by faith we confess the last three lines of the Apostles’ Creed: “We believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

Maybe this appeal to “hold fast” sounds a bit vague to you. What does that really mean? And how do you do it—in real life? I propose that this is both simple and extremely difficult. Basically, “holding fast” means that you grab tightly and don’t let go. This involves stamina and conditioning in the Christian life. Therefore, the preacher finds this exhortation worth repeating: For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (Heb. 3:14)

“BECAUSE JESUS IS LORD IN HIS PERSON AND WORK, WE CAN HAVE FULL ASSURANCE OF OUR HOPE UNTIL THE END.” 8

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. (Heb. 4:14) So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. (Heb. 6:17, 18) And this isn’t an urging that we find only in the sermon-letter to the Hebrews. We read the same encouragement in passages such as 1 Corinthians 15:1–2; Philippians 2:14, 16; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; and Revelation 2:25–26.

John Owen explains that this command in Hebrews to hold fast supposes an opposing force, a “great danger” even: “To ‘hold fast’ implies the putting forth of our utmost strength and endeavors in the defense of our profession, and a constant perseverance in so doing.”3 Holding fast to our confession of hope requires conditioning.

It’s not merely something we recite when times are getting tough, but rather a persistent fight to exercise our faith by actively engaging in the gospel revealed in God’s word, no matter what our circumstances.

Thankfully, Christian perseverance isn’t a battle we fight alone. Our exhortation begins with two important words that can be easily skipped over. It could just read, “Hold fast to your confession of hope,” but it doesn’t. This is a sermon-letter addressing a congregation. And so it begins, “Let us hold fast to our confession of hope.” The first thing we must realize is that we hold fast to our confession in the covenant community of the church.

God didn’t send us out alone as strangers and pilgrims on this earth. He has the entire church as the body of Christ, sisters and brothers in the Lord, who accompany us. He even set aside the first day of every week for worship together, a glimpse of what is to come. And so the preacher

to the Hebrews labors to explain why they can now draw near to God in worship: Since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

(Heb. 10:19–22)

in terms of promises and contracts. And, unfortunately, we see a lot of those broken. Of course we know that the security of a promise depends on the one who is making the promise, which is the beauty of an oath made by God himself (see Heb. 6:13–20).

The confession of hope that we are to lay hold of isn’t the record of our own works. It isn’t the resources of our own strength to persevere. Our confession of hope also reveals that we are indeed holding fast to a

Because our great priest has opened a new and living way for us through the sacrifice of his own flesh, we can now “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,” and “consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the day approaching” (vv. 24–25).

God has promised to bless us through the ordinary means of the preached word and the proper administration of the sacraments. He faithfully delivers our confession of hope within this context of assembling for worship. We are blessed to be a part of the body of Christ, helping one another to hold on in encouragement and exhortation.

FOR HE WHO PROMISED IS FAITHFUL The million-dollar question is: How can I know this is true? How can believers be secure that we will indeed persevere and be made perfect in our glorification? Hebrews 10:23 tells us the answer: Because “he who promised is faithful.” The weight of our expectation is based on the promise of God. This theme of the promise of God runs through the whole sermon-letter to the Hebrews as the preacher expounds on the new covenant they are under.

The language of covenants and covenant treaties is not common today, as we usually talk more

person, the Son of God. He is our righteousness, he paid our debt, and we have new life in him as he is now at the right hand of the Father interceding on our behalf. We persevere because our faithful God is preserving us in Christ through his Holy Spirit.

To him be all the glory!

Aimee Byrd is the author of Housewife Theologian (P&R, 2013) and Theological Fitness (P&R, 2014). Visit her blog at www.housewifetheologian.com.

1 Richard D. Phillips, “Hebrews,” Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: 2006), 9.

2 Phillips, 18.

3 John Owen, Epistle to the Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1968), 200.

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THEOLOGY

ESSENCE of CHRISTIANITY ”

“ The

Johann Gerhard on the Death of Christ

by STEVEN R. J. PARKS

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n the Lutheran tradition, three names stand out above all others: Martin Luther (1483–1546), Martin Chemnitz (1522– 1586), and Johann Gerhard (1582–1637).

As the father of the Reformation, Luther needs no introduction, even among non-Lutherans.

Chemnitz is also well-known, primarily for his role in the production and propagation of the Formula of Concord (1577) and his masterful Examination of the Council of Trent (1566). But largely unknown to modern-day English-speaking Christians—including many Lutherans—is the work of Johann Gerhard.

Gerhard was both a churchman and a theologian. From 1606 to 1616 he served as superintendent (that is, bishop) in the Duchy of Coburg. During this time, Gerhard produced a number of devotional works directed at edifying

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clergy and laity alike. The majority of his ministry (1616–1637), however, was spent serving as professor of theology at the University of Jena, where his work earned him such titles as archtheologian and morning star of the Lutheran Church, the primary teacher of Lutheran theologians, and the master of Lutheran theology.1 His abilities were such that a common proverb among Lutherans said that Gerhard was “the third in that series of Lutheran theologians (Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard) in which there is no fourth.”2 While Gerhard wrote on numerous topics, few occupied his attention like the death of the Son of God. He penned prayers and meditations on Jesus’ passion,3 offered pastoral guidelines grounded in the Savior’s suffering,4 and dedicated

entire treatises to exploring Christ’s death.5 Indeed, for Gerhard, “the death of Christ and His suffering is the essence of Christianity.”6 Here, when elaborating upon the cross of Christ perhaps more than any other place, Gerhard the shepherd and Gerhard the scholar meet, as he reveals both his pastoral concern for Christ’s sheep and the penetrating depth of his theological insight.

SIN REV E A L E D BY THE D E ATH O F CH RIST Lutherans have long affirmed that both law and gospel are revealed in the death of Christ.7 While the latter is not surprising, given that the Apostle Paul affirms that the life, death, and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness of sins is the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1–4), some heirs of the Reformation balk at the idea that law is disclosed in the death of the Son of God, believing instead that Christ’s death is pure gospel. Gerhard, however, argues: From the greatness of the price paid, judge of the greatness of thy peril; and from the cost of the remedy, judge the dreadfulness of thy disease.

Great indeed were thy wounds of sin, which could be healed only by the wounds of the living and life-giving flesh of the Son of God; desperate indeed was the disease which could be cured only by the death of the Physician Himself.8 Having studied medicine, Gerhard frequently draws upon medical analogies to explain theological concepts. Above, he explains that the magnitude of treatment corresponds directly to the severity of the disease. Likewise, Gerhard maintains that the precious balm of Christ’s blood reveals the lethality of sin: “The infinite good was injured, and therefore, an infinite price is required.”9 No payment rendered by a mere human being could ever atone for the transgressions committed against a holy God (Ps. 49:7).

Instead, it took the suffering and death of an infinite person, the incarnate Great Physician, to render satisfaction for offenses committed against an infinite God. It took the shed blood of God himself (Acts 20:28), the crucifixion of the Lord of Glory (1 Cor. 2:8), to cure the terminal disease of sin. Hence, from Christ’s death we observe the severity of our sin.

ATONE ME NT ACCOMP LI SHE D IN T HE DE AT H OF CHRI ST Just as Jesus’ death exposes the magnitude of our sin, so too the cross reveals the grace and mercy of our Savior: But You, out of unspeakable love, descended to the prison of this world. You clothed Yourself with my servile dwelling and entirely willingly took upon Yourself what I justly deserved. I was to be assigned, on account of my sins, to the unceasing, scorching, flames of hell. But You boiled with the fire of love on the altar of the cross, setting me free from these flames. I was to be cast away from the face of the Heavenly Father because of my sins.

But for my sake You chose to be abandoned by Your Heavenly Father. I was to be tormented forever by the devil and his angels. But You, out of immeasurable love, gave Yourself for me, to be harassed and crucified by the servants of Satan.10 Here, Gerhard draws upon the biblical theme of the substitutionary work of Christ. Everything Jesus does, he does for lost and fallen sinners: his birth under the law (Gal. 4:4–5), his perfect life of willing obedience (John 17:9), and his innocent suffering and death (Matt. 20:28). Accordingly, moved by holy love and pure compassion (Eph. 5:2), Jesus enters the world as a human being in order to endure, in our place, the wages of sin: hell and divine retribution. All of this was done, not for his own sake, but for ours (2 Cor. 5:21), in order that we may become partakers of what does not rightly belong to us: the kingdom of heaven, blessed fellowship with God, and life everlasting.

He Himself made a complete and perfect satisfaction for our sins. From the moment of His crucifixion and for all eternity the force of divine justice and the severe judgment against our sins falls not on us because Christ covers our sins with His cloak of mercy, obtained and paid by the price of His redemption. Therefore, let this be firmly fixed in your mind: Christ has purged, abolished, and extinguished whatever MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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sins the principalities and powers might justly hold against us for punishment.11 By his death, Jesus has forever extinguished the pitiless flame of sin. Now, the pure spring of divine forgiveness flows from the death of Christ.

A SSU R A NCE G RO U N DE D IN THE D E AT H O F C H RIST In Christ’s death, Gerhard not only finds the revelation of sin and the source of forgiveness, but also the certainty of salvation: All the glory of the godly is in the shame of our Lord’s passion. All their rest is in the wounds of the crucified Saviour. His death is our life.…Behold, O holy God, the sacred mystery of Thy flesh, and remit the guilt of my flesh. Graciously regard what Thy blessed Son hath patiently suffered, and overlook what Thy sinful servant hath done. My flesh hath provoked Thee to anger; let the flesh of Thy Son, I pray Thee, incline Thee to mercy.12

voice of the scholar, then Gerhard’s is the voice of the evangelical pastor, the shepherd of souls and man of wisdom.”13 In all of Gerhard’s writings, devotional and academic, he constantly placards Jesus before the eyes of his readers: “As Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Rev. 1:8), so also He must be the beginning and end in our meditations and studies. Whatever you think, whatever you say, whatever you write, it has no taste unless Jesus be in it.”14 This constant proclamation of Christ is not done in some abstract sense. Nor does Gerhard present Jesus as a mere lawgiver or moral example. Rather, Gerhard urges Christ as the suffering, crucified, bleeding Savior who, by his death, rescued lost and fallen human beings from the just consequences of sin. For Gerhard, sin, salvation, and solace meet in the death of Christ.

This is the sum and substance of the Christian faith. Truly, therefore, the death of Christ is the essence of Christianity.

Steven R.J. Parks is assistant professor of theology at Concordia University (Irvine, California) and a PhD candidate at

Gerhard places Christ, as the true mediator of the new covenant (Heb. 9:15), between himself and God’s righteous judgment. Our sins merited God’s wrath (Rom. 1:18), but Jesus bore it in our place (1 Pet. 2:24). He turned away God’s wrath and won God’s favor, and consequently, our salvation is secure because it relies upon his perfect work and not upon our own uncertain disposition, sinful works, or halting obedience. When sin terrifies the conscience, a Christian ought to hide in the wounds of Christ, like Moses in the cleft in the rock (Exod. 33:22), and thereby remain safe and secure.

CHR I ST: THE AL P H A AN D O M E G A OF CHR I STI A N T H E O LO GY It has been rightly said, “If in Luther we hear the voice of the prophet and in Chemnitz the

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the University of Bristol (England).

1 Erdmann Rudolph Fischer, The Life of John Gerhard, trans. Richard Dinda and Elmer Hohle (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 1999), 295-300.

2 Heinrich Schmid, The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, trans. Charles Hay and Henry Jacobs (Philadelphia, PA: Lutheran Publication Society, 1889), 668.

3 Johann Gerhard, Sacred Meditations, trans. C. W. Heisler (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 1998).

4 Johann Gerhard, Handbook of Consolations for the Fears and Trials That Oppress Us in the Struggle with Death, trans. Carl L. Beckwith (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2009).

5 Johann Gerhard, An Explanation of the History of the Suffering and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, ed. David O. Berger, trans. Elmer M. Hohle (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 1999).

6 Gerhard, Handbook of Consolations, 3.

7 Formula of Concord, Epitome, V.7.

8 Gerhard, Sacred Meditations, 17.

9 Johann Gerhard, Loci Theologici (Tubingen: Cotta, 1764), III, XV, § CCCXXV, 579.

10 Johann Gerhard, The Daily Exercise of Piety, trans. Matthew C. Harrison (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 1992), 36–37.

11 Gerhard, Handbook of Consolations, 13.

12 Gerhard, Sacred Meditations, 35.

13 Herman Preus and Edmund Smits, eds., The Doctrine of Man in the Writings of Martin Chemnitz and Johann Gerhard, trans. Mario Colacci, Lowell Satre, J. A. O. Preus Jr., Otto Stahlke, and Bert Narveson (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2005), 222.

14 Johann Gerhard, Theological Commonplaces: On Christ, ed. Benjamin T. G. Mayes, trans. Richard J. Dinda (St. Louis, MO: Concordia, 2010), 5.

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THE “BETTER” IS THE BEST

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JESUS CHRIST: PROPHET, PRIEST, AND KING

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WORSHIP, MINISTRY, AND DISCIPLINE IN THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS

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GOD’S ASSURING PROMISE

HEROES OF THE FAITH MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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THE “BETTER” is the

BEST

by HYWEL R. JONES illustration by BRUNO MICHAUD

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A A jingle that I had drummed into me as a

schoolboy ran, “Good, better, best; never let it rest; until your good is better and your

better best.” For quite a while this helped me deal with a tendency to settle for mediocrity instead of pursuing excellence, a useful

lesson for someone who preferred a ball of

any shape to a book. But what it referred to as “the best” always seemed elusive.

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By contrast, the author of Hebrews assures Jews who have become Christians that what they have, now that the Messiah has come, is “the best,” even though he calls it “better.” This is because he is comparing the only two covenants God made with his people corporately. The first was with the nation of Israel at Sinai, which pointed toward the second covenant—one made with those who believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of God. The first was intentionally defective, but the second is perfect and therefore irreplaceable and unsurpassable.

The letter begins impressively and instructively.

The first two chapters focus on God’s revelation and redemption. They declare the “Son” to be “so much better” than Old Testament prophets and angels, because he inaugurates “the world to come” (2:5) by his prophetic word and priestly atonement and he reigns in it by divine appointment. This is the era of the “last days,” which is the fulfilment of the “times past” (KJV) and is “the end of the ages” (10:26). It is eternity begun.

This epistle is a written sermon, a “word of exhortation” (13:22). Psalm 110 could be regarded as its text because it is cited four times. The sermon’s aim is to encourage believers in Christ to persevere through the wilderness of the world to their heavenly homeland. The author reminds them of that “better thing” (11:39) that is theirs (see his uses of the verb have in 4:14; 6:19; 8:1; 10:19–22, 34; 13:10–14), and reinforces that reminder with warnings against “departing from the living God” (3:7–4:13; 6:4–6; 10:26–31). Believers have all they need in Jesus Christ and should hold on to the end, come what may.

The Hebrews are urged to “consider Jesus” whom they have confessed to be “Apostle and High Priest” (3:1). These ministries were foreshadowed

by Moses, Joshua, and Aaron and his descendants.

As an apostle, or God’s sent one, Jesus builds the house on the ground where Moses served, and he actually provides the Sabbath rest of which Moses and Joshua spoke. Although so many of their contemporaries were neither “stones” in that building nor could they enter the Promised Land because of unbelief, believers in Jesus are “holy brothers and partakers of a heavenly calling.” They “have entered into rest,” so they must (and can) press on to the

goal of the final Sabbath rest. Even if they falter, they should not fear God’s searching word, because they have a “great high priest” who intercedes for them with a sympathy that matches his supremacy, providing “grace to help in time of need” (4:14–16).

The addition of “great” to the designation “high priest” amounts to a superlative, and Jesus’ excellence is shown over against the dignity of Aaron and his descendants. Appointed by God, as was Aaron— Psalm 2:7 is quoted as proof —his high priesthood was patterned “after the order of Melchizedek,” and by his perfect obedience in living and dying he became “the cause” (procuring means) of the eternal (heavenly and endless) salvation that could be typified only by the provisions and performance of Old Testament ritual.

Further consideration of the correspondence between Jesus and Melchizedek is postponed by the writer, because he knows his “congregation” will not be able to benefit from it. He therefore deals pastorally with what hinders them from doing so.

He points out that they have become “dull of hearing,” which means not using their minds enough and being casual in their conduct. This is dangerous. Familiarity with primary truths has already been lost, and the specter of renouncing faith’s foundation itself cannot be totally excluded. But as brotherly love is still evident among them, there is the prospect that they will apply themselves more strenuously to understand and practice the truth, and by so doing, mature in faith as did Abraham.

There is hope of this, because God will be faithful to them and to his promise and oath.

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This series of sidebar articles from Dennis Johnson is adapted from the presidential address at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society Far West Region, “From All the Scriptures (Luke 24:27): Preaching Jesus from the Old Testament” (April 2012). Dennis Johnson is professor of practical theology at Westminster Seminary California in Escondido.

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The Sermon to the Hebrews

he Epistle to the Hebrews is an especially helpful example of the ways in which the New Testament writers drew on the Old Testament (OT) as a redemptive-historical text, while also being careful not to disregard the way God spoke his word into the original audience’s immediate horizons. This means that one purpose for which God’s Holy Spirit gave us Hebrews is to provide an authoritative model for reading the OT in the way that Jesus taught his disciples to do so.

The author describes it as a “word of exhortation” (Heb. 13:22).

The same expression appears in Acts 13:15, in which synagogue leaders invite Paul and Barnabas to bring a “word of exhortation” to the congregation. Paul responds with a survey of Israel’s history, leading to Jesus the Messiah. This parallel, along with extrabiblical evidence from Second Temple Jewish sources, favors the conclusion that first-century Jewish Christians would view a “word of exhortation” as referring to an address that follows the public reading of portions of Scripture to explain and apply their meaning.

Hearing Hebrews as a sermon helps to explain certain striking features of this discourse, especially when compared to the epistles of Paul. For example, it lacks the

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customary epistle preliminaries (e.g., identification of author, recipients, greetings, and blessings); the scriptural quotations are typically introduced with verbs of speaking (in contrast to writing); and the preacher shows sensitivity to his audience’s stamina as listeners (e.g., urging them to “bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly,” 13:22). Even more important than these stylistic details is the insight that Hebrews illustrates how preaching in the apostolic era opened up the OT’s witness to Christ.

Hebrews exposits a series of OT texts, each enlisted and explained to demonstrate one unified theme: Jesus is better. The preacher to the Hebrews is a master at Christcentered interpretation of the ancient Scriptures that God gave to Israel. He draws lines of connection between the words that “God spoke to the fathers by the prophets” and the new word that he has spoken “in these last days to us by his Son” (1:1–2). In the process, he does not flatten out the biblical landscape, ignoring the contextual contrasts between God’s ancient prophet-speech and his recent Son-speech. In fact, he capitalizes on the contrasts to show that the OT Scriptures themselves testify to the superiority of Christ and of his prophetic, priestly, and royal mission of mediation.

The preacher reads the OT as the voice of God, testifying both to its original audience in the era of promise and to new covenant believers in “these last days.” The sermon to the Hebrews preaches Christ as the supreme Word from God, excelling God’s servants the prophets and the angelic attendants who accompanied the delivery of the Law to Moses, God’s faithful servant. The sermon preaches Christ from the OT as the great high priest, excelling Aaron and sons in the permanence of his tenure in office; it extols the purity of his sinlessness, the once-for-all sacrifice he offered and its conscience-cleansing, perfection-producing efficacy, and the heavenly sanctuary in which he serves. The sermon preaches Christ from the OT as a priest who is also, like Melchizedek, a king, reigning at God’s right hand.

The preacher insists that OT Scriptures themselves show that God’s institutions for Israel—prophets, priests, kings, sanctuaries and sacrifices, inheritance and rest from enemies—were designed to direct faith’s eyesight forward, to fix our hearts’ gaze on “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2).

“WHAT OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS DID THROUGH FAITH IN LIFE AND DEATH WITH A VIEW TO THE COMING GLORY OF THE MESSIANIC ERA WILL BE EXEMPLIFIED IN AND BY THEM AS THEY ‘RUN WITH ENDURANCE THE RACE SET BEFORE THEM, LOOKING TO JESUS.’”

When the parallel between Jesus and Melchizedek comes under examination, it is Abraham, and not Aaron, who provides the standard of measurement.

Abraham is greater than Aaron, but Melchizedek is greater still. He blessed Abraham who paid him tithes of the spoil gained from the triumph over the kings of Canaan. Being omitted from every genealogy in Genesis, Melchizedek depicts the eternality of Jesus as God’s king-priest, which is underlined by a divine oath, whereas succession through death characterized Aaron and his descendants. This contrast is in keeping with the transitory nature of old covenant provisions, because they are but “the shadow of the good things to come” and not their “substance.” In and of themselves, they could not cleanse the sinner’s conscience, but the “better ministry” (8:1–6) of a “better covenant” (8:7–14) in “a greater sanctuary” (9:1–12) on the basis of “a better sacrifice” (9:13–28) could. All of these heavenly realities are the consequence of the self-offering of Jesus in death by the aid of the Holy Spirit and in his willing obedience to his Father’s will and law (9:14; 10:7–10).

Given this certainty and finality, the final phase of this sermon calls for unswerving and corporate appropriation of new covenant promises and precepts. Such believing and obedient responses will demonstrate that the Hebrews have a place in the gallery of the “cloud of witnesses” and in the heavenly city that God has planned and built for his people in both eras. What Old Testament saints did

through faith in life and death with a view to the coming glory of the Messianic era will be exemplified in and by them as they “run with endurance the race set before them, looking to Jesus” (12:1).

They too will be among those “of whom God is not ashamed to be called their God” (11:16) and “of whom the world was not worthy” (11:38).

The first recipients of this doctrinal and devotional address had been taught by those who had heard the Lord himself. But they had gone to their rest and reward, and a “second generation” had arisen with its well-known challenges and weaknesses. But “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (13:8). Departure from what is “better,” which is what they have been taught, can therefore only be for the worse—eternal loss in this case. A “better possession” belongs to them, and so they are to live by faith. They have been brought into a kingdom that is unshakeable, and so they are to serve God acceptably in the home (family) and in the church. Reproach for the name and truth of Christ, as they make their way to the heavenly Zion, is an honor. There will be nothing better than what they have. It is the best, and what will come when Jesus returns is only more of the same—but it will be much more!

Dr. Hywel R. Jones is the author of Let’s Study Hebrews (Banner of Truth, 2002). He lives in Wales with his wife Nansi.

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JESUS CHRIST: P R O P H E T, P R I E S T, and

KING

by MATTHEW R. RICHARD illustration by BRUNO MICHAUD

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In the Old Testament, three different kinds of people take center stage in the story of God’s salvation of his people Israel: prophet, priest, and king.

These were real offices filled by real people. Prophets rebuked sin, proclaimed mercy to the crushed, and interpreted events of the past, present, and future.

They functioned as mediators proclaiming only what was revealed to them. Moses spoke, acted, and occupied the office of prophet, bringing about genuine redemption for the Hebrew people. Old Testament priests, on the other hand, functioned as representatives of the people, offering gifts of sacrifice for sins on behalf of men in relation to God. Priests, like Aaron, offered up goats as a substitute, so that through these means the forgiveness of sins could be distributed.1 Finally, kings in the Old Testament functioned in the realm of exercising

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judicial power in the civil realm and were oftentimes military figures who led military campaigns. Kings like David established a dynasty that concretely lasted for over four hundred years.

The grand narratives of Israel’s prophets, priests, and kings are reconsidered in the New Testament book of Hebrews with a specific focus on the person of Jesus Christ. The Epistle to the Hebrews starts by emphasizing the conclusiveness of Jesus’ office as mediator. 2 Furthermore, the epistle declares that Jesus is not just the most complete prophet, but that he is also the supreme king and high priest.

Indeed, the author of Hebrews goes on to describe Jesus’ identity by applying God’s promises of David

to Jesus, by applying the Levitical priesthood and the sacrificial system to Jesus and his atonement, and by showing that Jesus is the end to all the prophetic mediations.3 For example, we read that Jesus is greater than Moses, Jesus is the great high priest, Jesus is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, Jesus is a high priest of a better covenant, and so forth.

Does seeing Jesus as the culmination of the Old Testament’s story of God and his people make the persons, places, and events of the Old Testament irrelevant? Is the Old Testament merely filled with dim, spiritualized shadows of the New Testament realities? No, by retelling their story in the light of Jesus, the writer of Hebrews describes the magnificence of God’s work through the Old Testament offices of prophet, priest, and king, but he also reminds the readers that Jesus surpasses their glory.

Yes, the Old Testament prophets, priests, and kings paint a glorious canvas of God’s redemptive plan, but the painting remains unfinished until the revelation of Jesus Christ completes the canvas, giving it definitive glory.4 But how does the greater reality of Jesus Christ supersede the already glorious characters and offices of the Old Testament? The most obvious answer is that the three offices of prophet, priest, and king are combined by and culminate in Christ.

The reason why this is significant is due to the fact that Old Testament individuals often fulfilled not just one particular office, but at times simultaneously crossed over into other offices. This blending of office, more often than not, led to a lack of office distinction and was not consistently accepted by the Lord as good.5 Furthermore, as we know from even a cursory reading of the Old Testament, those who walked in these offices were stained with sin that led to disobedience and negligence toward their office at times. Undeniably, any time prophetic words were conjured up by man’s own wisdom, any time sacrificial reconciliation was attempted by mankind’s own moral, spiritual, and mystical ascetics toward God, and any time kingly authority was enforced that bound consciences to the schemes of mankind or the evil one, then the true outpourings of the quintessential offices of prophet, priest, and king were not witnessed, but were an imperfect expression of that office. Indeed, ancient and modern prophetic words, sacrificial

“WHEREAS MOSES’ MESSAGE SPOKE OF THE PROPHET TO COME, JESUS AS A PROPHET SPOKE OF HIMSELF.” reconciliation, and kingly authority apart from their culmination “in” Christ and apart from them being derived “from” Christ are nothing more than fruits of pseudo offices and are vacuous at best.6 Whereas the offices of prophet, priest, and king were often blurred and at times abused, it is not so with Christ. All that Christ did and still does for the salvific redemption of humanity can be easily associated together under the three offices.7 Furthermore, Jesus Christ is neither divided into thirds to fulfill each office, nor does he stress one office at a time; for if one office is highlighted to deemphasize and/or bar others, due justice is not executed and the gospel is stripped of its efficacious power.8 Rather, Jesus is fully present as our prophet, he is fully present as our priest, and he is fully present as our king.

As a prophet, Jesus stands in the office as Moses once did; however, as we see in Hebrews 1:1, Jesus is greater than all the other prophets in the Old Testament because in him God came and tabernacled in human flesh, while teaching and proclaiming on earth.9 Whereas Moses’ message spoke of the prophet to come, Jesus as a prophet spoke of himself. Jesus’ message did not point ahead beyond him, for he is not only the Alpha but the Omega point of the Old Testament.10 Without a doubt, Moses was the greatest of the prophets, but in Christ we have the Lord of the prophets; in Christ we do not have a mere man, but God himself.

As a high priest, Jesus acts on behalf of humanity, just as the high priest Aaron did for the people of Israel. As we see in Hebrews 10, however, Jesus is greater than the priests of old, for he does not offer up perpetual sacrifices, but rather he offers up only one sacrifice for the sins of the world—himself. He MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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From Lesser to Greater

HOW THE PREACHER SHOWS US THE OLD TESTAMENT’S TESTIMONY TO CHRIST

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ur preacher challenges us to pay close attention not only to the words of various OT passages, but also to the contexts and the implications of those words. He wants us to see that when we really listen to what God said through the prophets to the fathers, we can discern clues embedded in the ancient Scriptures designed to whet Israel’s appetite for the coming priest-king, and the access into God’s presence that his sacrifice would open.

The prologue (Heb. 1:1–4) overtly grounds the preacher’s discussion of the saving work of the Son in Israel’s Scriptures in two ways. First, the God who spoke to previous Hebrew generations through prophets is the same God who has now spoken in the Son. This God secures his promise with his oath, so it is impossible for God to lie (as we will hear in 6:17–18). Therefore we can expect the prophetic word spoken long ago and the Son-word spoken recently to be consistent with each other.

Second, Hebrews 1:1–2 highlights the contrast between “long ago” and “these last days.” In the OT “the last days” referred to a future era in which God would intervene decisively in history to bring justice and salvation.1 Since “these last days” designates the era in which God has now spoken in his Son, they are the era of redemptive history in which he and his

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first-century hearers live, the age that we associate with the New Testament, which began at Christ’s first coming two thousand years ago and continues into our time.

This is only the first of several signals that our preacher uses to call our attention to the unfolding progress of God’s special revelation from promise to fulfillment. In 9:26, for example, we hear that Christ appeared “once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” Here, the preacher’s description of the era that dawned with the incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus as “the end of the ages” resembles the comment of the Apostle Paul that Israel’s ancient Scriptures were “written down for us, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11).

The “eschatological trajectory” of God’s special, redemptive revelation in Scripture and the Son reflects our preacher’s conviction that the unfolding of God’s redemptive works and the unveiling of his revelatory words are moving in a positive direction, from good but imperfect structures for God’s engagement with his people toward better access to unimpeded, uninterrupted, and ever deepening covenant communion with God. In keeping with God’s sovereign and saving purpose, the trajectory of history is to move from the provisional to the permanent, from the good to the better—in fact, to the best.

The preacher demonstrates this move from good to best in Hebrews 10:1, where we hear that the law was but a shadow of “the good things to come” and not the “image”—that is, the substantial reality—of those things themselves. The shadows are the animal sacrifices, which cannot cleanse the human conscience of guilt. The “good things” that were “to come”—that is, they were future from the standpoint of ancient Israel—include the conscience-cleansing sacrifice of Christ’s body (10:10) and our resultant reception of forgiveness and access into God’s presence (10:19). 2 Biblical revelation is not timeless, but grounded in history.

And that history is not cyclical, but linear. The line of this history, despite the disastrous effects of sin, is not a steady decline from pristine paradise lost in depravity and destruction; rather, the linear advance of history, in the hand of the God of power and mercy, is directed toward a better paradise to come, to which Christ has opened the gates through his death and resurrection.

1G EERHARDUS VOS, THE PAULINE ESCHATOLOGY (1930; REP. PHILLIPSBURG: P&R, 1994), 1, CITES FOR “LAST DAYS” GEN. 49:1; ISA. 2:2; JER. 37:24 (GREEK) [30:24 HEB.]; EZEK. 38:16; HOS. 3:5; MIC. 4:1; DAN. 10:14; AND FOR “LAST OF THE DAYS,” NUM. 24:14; DEUT. 4:30; 31:29; JER. 23:20; 25:18.

2O THER TEXTS ILLUSTRATING THIS POINT: 9:6– 10—REGULATIONS RESTRICTING ACCESS INTO THE HOLY PLACE AND MOST HOLY PLACE OF THE OT SANCTUARIES (TABERNACLE AND TEMPLE) WERE THE HOLY SPIRIT’S WAY OF SHOWING THAT THE NEW COVENANT PROMISE “THEY SHALL ALL KNOW ME” WOULD NOT BE FULFILLED UNDER THAT FIRST SANCTUARY, SINCE ITS SACRIFICES COULD NOT CLEANSE CONSCIENCES. THERE WERE REGULATIONS IMPOSED “UNTIL THE TIME OF REFORMATION” (9:11).

CHRIST IS HIGH PRIEST OF “THE GOOD THINGS THAT HAVE COME.”

“[JESUS’] AUTHORITY IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT HE IS THE HEIR OF ALL THINGS, FOR THROUGH HIM THE FATHER AND THE HOLY SPIRIT CREATED EVERYTHING THAT EXISTS.” offered and shed not the blood of bulls and goats, but that of himself—for us. The reason why the blood of Christ is sufficient and exceeds the foreshadowed blood of bulls and goats is that Christ’s blood has immeasurable redeeming value—not due to the amount, but due to its distinctive characteristic of being shed by the Son of God.11 The high priest was a sinner who had to offer sacrifices not only for the people but for himself as well. Consequently, he was not the savior, but rather he was one who needed a savior like those he served.12 That savior was Jesus Christ, the great high priest.

As a king, everything (yes, everything) is put in subjection under Jesus’ feet, according to Hebrews 2:8. As a man, he has dominion over earth and creatures due to the laws of creation (see Gen. 1:28).

However, he has greater authority than the average person and greater authority than that of earthly kings. His authority is due to the fact that he is the heir of all things, for through him the Father and the Holy Spirit created everything that exists.

Indeed, as we contemplate the Old Testament office of king, we move past individuals and dynasties like David’s to the climax of the one great king and his dynasty that has no end. As true king, Jesus received the mighty inheritance. It is in his hand because he came to earth and completed his great saving work.13

Like a funnel, the offices of prophet, priest, and king merge and climax in the person of Christ. The Epistle to the Hebrews makes this clear without disregarding these Old Testament offices, and without making the Old Testament types into meager spiritualized gloom, but rather shows how Christ surpasses them.

Moses was the great prophet; Christ is the Lord of the prophets. Priests like Aaron offered up sacrifices on behalf of Israel each year; Christ the great high priest offered up himself once and for all. Kings of old had limited dominion and limited dynasties; Christ’s dominion is over all things and extends forever.

What this means is that we have a sole prophet, Jesus Christ, who proclaims to us words of life unto our salvation, Christ’s word of forgiveness—for us.

We have a sole priest who reconciles us by his own body and blood, Christ’s shed blood—on our behalf.

We have a sole king who exercises complete and just authority over the universe and the church, Christ’s authority—over us.14 We have the quintessential prophet, priest, and king who is for us, acts on our behalf, and is over us.

Glory be to you, O Christ, king of eternal glory, crucified and resurrected mediator, and eternal Word.

Rev. Dr. Matthew R. Richard is pastor of Zion Lutheran Church (LCMS) in Gwinner, North Dakota. He is a graduate of Lutheran Brethren Seminary, Minnesota, and Concordia Seminary, Missouri.

1 As Martin Luther writes, “When we consider the application of the forgiveness, we are not dealing with particular time, but find that it has taken place from the beginning of the world. So St. John in the Book of Revelation [13:8] says that the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world.” Martin Luther, “Against the Heavenly Prophets in the Matter of Images and Sacraments,” Part II, Church and Ministry II, ed. Helmut T. Lehmann, trans. Conrad Bergenhoff, Luther’s Works, vol. 40 (Philadelphia: Muhlenberg Press, 1958), 213–15.

2 Jack Kilcrease, The Self-Donation of God: A Contemporary Lutheran Approach to Christ and His Benefits (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2013), 87.

3 Kilcrease, 87.

4 According to Sidney Greidanus, the illustration of the Old Testament being like an incomplete canvas, which only receives its definitive shape and hues with the New Testament teachings about the first and second coming of Christ, is an illustration used by the early church fathers Irenaeus and Chrysostom. Preaching Christ from the Old Testament: A Contemporary Hermeneutical Method (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 47.

5 Andrew Steinmann, ed., Called to Be God’s People: An Introduction to the Old Testament (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006), 259.

6 Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics: Volume II (St. Louis, MO: Concordia, 1951), 394.

7 Pieper, 333.

8 “Christian Cyclopedia” http://cyclopedia.lcms.org (30 June 2014).

9 Pieper, 335.

10 Kilcrease, 87.

11 Kilcrease, 381.

12 Kilcrease, 90.

13 Richard C. H. Lenski, Commentary on the New Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998), 34.

14 Pieper, 394.

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GOD’S ASSURING PROMISE

by CHRIS VOGEL illustration by BRUNO MICHAUD

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I admit that I was (and am) an athletic misfit, but I suspect I wasn’t the only one always picked last for kickball in school. Did you ever eat alone in the cafeteria? Were you ever rejected by the “cool kids” in high school?

We all need to know that we are accepted, valued, and loved, but deep down most of us struggle with a visceral sense of rejection and pervasive lack of assurance that can’t be explained away by painful childhood memories. To go through life and have no recognition of ever being slighted or rejected may be more demonstrative of a narcissist than a normal person. Being assured that we are accepted is something we all desire but struggle to obtain. The student with good grades fears doing poorly. The athlete knows there is someone better and that his or her days are numbered. The salesperson dreads the annual review.

We all struggle to belong, to know where we “fit in.”

It happens even in churches. When you walk through the doors of a church, you immediately wonder, “Do I belong here? Will I be accepted?” When you look

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around it seems that others have their acts together: their marriages are strong, they are successful in their careers, their kids do well in school. They look better, dress better, and behave better. It is clear God accepts them. Right? Wrong. The guarantee of our acceptance doesn’t come from fitting in or being accepted by others, but by God’s own promise to accept us when we flee to him for refuge and safety.

Hebrews 6:13–20 provides the basis of God’s promise and reminds us that our assurance is guaranteed by his own oath. Throughout the letter, the author of Hebrews encourages his readers to put their hope in Jesus, because he is superior to the other anchors they would have looked to in their previous lives as Jews. Jesus is superior to Moses, the Aaronic priesthood, and the sacrificial system.

In 4:11–6:20 the author pauses to emphasize the

“THROUGHOUT THE LETTER, THE AUTHOR OF HEBREWS ENCOURAGES HIS READERS TO PUT THEIR HOPE IN JESUS, BECAUSE HE IS SUPERIOR TO THE OTHER ANCHORS THEY WOULD HAVE LOOKED TO IN THEIR PREVIOUS LIVES AS JEWS.”

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importance of being diligent to enter God's rest (4:11), to hold fast to one’s confession (4:14), and to draw near (4:16). What follows is a strong warning in 6:4–8 not to fall away, but with it all hope for assurance seems to be stripped away. While he desires that we have full assurance of hope until the end (6:11), you and I may be left quaking in fear that we may not be accepted. It is then we are reminded of the basis of our assurance: not our performance, but God’s promise.

GOD’S PR O M I SE E NC O M PAS S E S GOD’S PE O PL E ( HE B . 1 3 –1 5 ) To encourage us with God’s acceptance, the author points us to Abraham. Who better if one wishes to talk about faith and patience and to see how God calls people to himself? While time does not permit a full review of the patriarch’s life, we see God’s initiation in Genesis 12: calling 75-year-old Abram, childless and pagan, to journey from Haran to an unknown land and to receive an unseen progeny.

In Genesis 15 God makes a unilateral covenant with Abram after promising the aged man that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars. Abram believes the Lord, and he counts it to him as righteousness (15:6). Abram takes the fulfillment of God’s promise on himself, and Ishmael is born to Hagar when Abram is 86. The sign of God’s promise, circumcision, is given in Genesis 17. Some years later, when Abraham is 100, Isaac is born.

Throughout these years, God remained faithful to Abraham who at times was faithless. The great test of trusting God came later, in Genesis 22, when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the heir of the promise. Abraham, waiting patiently on God’s promises, obeyed, for he believed God would raise Isaac from the dead (Heb. 11:17–19). It is tempting to praise the patient faith of Abraham, who waited more than twenty-five years for God’s promise to be fulfilled. We—who find waiting twenty-five days for our vacation to commence intolerable, twenty-five minutes for our TV show to begin to be exasperating, or even twenty-five seconds too long for the microwave to reheat our coffee—may be in awe of Abraham and think it wise to emulate the patriarch. To do so would imply that to be assured you belong, just endure twenty-five years of waiting for a promise.

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Yes, Abraham did wait patiently and that is important, but it is not the patience that the writer here wants us to see, but the promise he so patiently desired to obtain. God’s integrity and faithfulness is the theme of the passage and the source of our assurance. What Abraham obtained was God’s promise, and that promise is the source of our confidence and to that promise we should look. That promise is not just for Abraham, but also for you and me.

The call of Abraham is not merely ancient history. It is more than extolling an exemplary life. It is not just that Abraham received what was promised, but that the promise and subsequent oath extend to us today. While Abraham obtained the promise by receiving Isaac back on Mount Moriah, in Hebrews 11:39 we read that Abraham and others did not receive what was promised. Which is it? It is both, as they received a token of what was to come. Isaac was not Abraham’s final goal nor was he the promise of acceptance. Isaac was the token of the one who was to come, the offspring promised to Abraham in Genesis 15 and 22.

When Abram gazed at the starlit sky millennia ago (Gen. 15:3), the stars he counted were you and me, counted as his children as we are in Christ. In Galatians 3:16 Paul points out that the promise made to Abraham in Genesis was one made to Christ. He is the offspring God promised and the one Abraham sought. We are included in that promise, as we are numbered among those offspring who are in Christ (Gal. 3:26). As we are in Christ, we are all children of God through faith. This means we, in Christ, are heirs of the promise made to Abraham (Gal. 3:29).

The starting point for our assurance is built on a promise made four thousand years ago to Abraham, sealed two thousand years ago when Christ died and rose again, and applied to us today. When you struggle to wonder if God accepts you to be a part of his family, of his church, remember that it is based not on your performance, but on his promise—a promise made certain by his oath.

G O D’S P ROMI SE I S A SSU RE D

BY GOD’S OAT H (HE B. 6:16–1 8) Why would God swear an oath? We do so because we are by nature untrustworthy. We have to swear on a stack of Bibles, or our mother’s grave, or cross our heart and hope to die (odd contrivances, to say

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lthough scholarly opinion is divided over Hebrews’ structure, I see six movements in this magnificent expository sermon, each grounded in one main OT text.

Conveniently, the six movements fall into three couplets. Even more conveniently, the couplets can be assigned alliterative labels in English: revelation, reconciliation, and rest. The six movements show that these OT texts, read carefully and contextually, testify that Jesus is superior to the means of prophetic, priestly, and royal mediation by which God had related to Israel in the era of promise:

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Revelation—Christ is superior to the angels as an agent of revelation (1:4–2:18). Seven OT texts show that the Son is better than the angels, leading to the main passage for this section, Psalm 8:4–6, which affirms that the Son

became lower than the angels “for a little while” in order to rescue us from death and bring us to glory.

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Revelation—Christ is superior to Moses as an agent of revelation (3:1–4:13). Both Moses and Christ were faithful spokesmen of God, and Psalm 95:7–11 calls us to hear God’s voice with faith, and so to enter God’s rest (unlike the wilderness generation who disregarded God’s voice speaking to and through Moses).

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Reconciliation—Christ is superior to Aaron as the priest who perfects worshippers forever (4:14–7:28). Psalm 110:4 announces a priest to come in the order of Melchizedek, who will hold his priestly office permanently.

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Reconciliation—Christ is superior to the old covenant sacrifices as the one who cleanses consciences forever (8:1–10:31). Jeremiah 31:31–34 promises a better covenant than

the least) to affirm our veracity. An oath is a solemn declaration that carries with it a curse if one’s word is not fulfilled; it constrains us to follow through. Is God untrustworthy or capricious? Of course not.

The context of this oath flows from Abraham’s obedience in trusting the promise given him, leading to his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac. The promise God made to Abraham was solemnized by the oath on Mount Moriah. This is where Solomon would build the temple, where the Holy of Holies would rest, behind the veil that the high priest would

that established at Sinai. Christ mediates this new covenant and guarantees the blessings it promises: forgiveness of sins and access to God’s presence.

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Rest—Christ is superior to the patriarchs, Joshua, and David, bringing believers into the inheritance that the fathers greeted from afar (10:32–12:17).

Habakkuk 2:3–4 promises that God will come to lead those who persevere in faith into a heavenly homeland and an eternal city.

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Rest—Christ is superior to Moses as the mediator of worship, bringing believers into the heavenly assembly on Mount Zion (12:18–29). The descriptions of Israel’s experience at the earthly Mount Sinai in Exodus 19 and Deuteronomy 4 stress God’s dangerous, terrifying holiness; but through Jesus and the new covenant he mediates, we enter the joyful worshiping congregation in the heavenly Jerusalem.

cross once a year on the Day of Atonement. The oath was the confirmation that all God promised would come true, not just for Abraham but also for you and me. As Hebrews 6:16–17 tells us, the oath, based on God’s unchanging character, is the final confirmation for Abraham and all the heirs of the promise.

As we believe God’s promise, all doubt is removed.

The promise and oath, two unchangeable things (6:18), are our assurance. But we live in a world in which confidence comes by performance, and assurance comes when we have achieved a MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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“WE TRUST UPON THE SACRED WORD— THE OATH AND PROMISE OF OUR LORD; AND SAFELY THROUGH EACH TEMPEST SAIL ; THE CHRISTIAN’S HOPE SHALL NEVER FAIL.

standing or status. We constantly check to see if we are acceptable to others, living often in fear as standards change. Even the most astute fashion maven will attest to the time he or she was behind the curve. For my wife, her awakening came as the seventh grade came to a close. In the warm June sun, all the popular girls were sporting plaid shorts.

When September came, she knew exactly what to wear—the plaid shorts that only a few months before were all the rage—only to find out when she arrived for the first day of class that the standards had changed. Gone were the plaid shorts and in were the new fall maxi-skirts.

Nothing was wrong with the shorts, of course; it’s just the way of fashion. But we are all, every one of us, fearful adolescents wanting acceptance. Here

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the good news of the gospel comes to us: God has sworn an oath and he will not change. The basis of our acceptance is not our plaid shorts, but God’s oath and the certainty that God never changes. Francis Johnson’s hymn “Father, Long before Creation” points us to this truth: Though the world may change its fashion, Yet our God is e’er the same; His compassion and His covenant Through all ages will remain.

God’s own children, God’s own children Must forever praise His name.1 The oath, which God swore to Abraham, is where we must flee (6:18). The author of Hebrews

comes to the application of this truth, making it personal for us. When Christ is our refuge, when we seek acceptance in him, that’s when we are able to hold fast. As we look to him, we no longer need to worry. Rather than replaying our past performance, seeing only failures, we have God’s attestation made to Abraham applied to us, and that is real hope.

GOD’S PR O M I SE I S G RO U N DE D IN A F I R M HO PE ( H E B . 1 9 – 2 0 ) Our hope is not fleeting but is likened to an anchor.

In the ancient world, the anchor was a common picture of hope, flowing from the idea of commerce that came from the sea and the wealth it brings. The early church adopted the anchor as one of its first symbols of the faith, so it is often found in the catacombs with the inscription, “Hope in Christ.”2 We long to find security in ourselves or in our culture. We tether our hopes and dreams to our education, connections, wealth, and status. With those we will all drift, subject to the winds of time and the subjective attitudes of our own hearts. Like a ship at sea, we are inclined to drift. The secure promises of God are what we need.

In 1637, the Puritan preacher Samuel Rutherford wrote to William Gordon of Earlston a letter that speaks of this anchor of hope, written to an earnest young man:3 I rejoice in the hope of that glory to be revealed, for it is no uncertain glory that we look for.

Our hope is not hung upon such an untwisted thread as, “I imagine so,” or “It is likely,” but the cable, the strong tow of our fastened anchor, is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity. Our salvation is fastened with God’s own hand, and with Christ’s own strength, to the strong stake of God’s unchangeable nature.4 While an anchor sinks beneath the dark waves, attaching itself to what is immovable, the anchor of hope given to us by God’s promise extends into the heavens, to the inner place behind the veil. Our security is found where Jesus has gone, and with this we are brought back to the argument of where this letter left off in 5:10: Jesus is better. He is better than

the Aaronic priesthood, because he is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. For that reason God’s promise is a sure hope.

The final image in our passage, the forerunner, is that of a pioneer or a lightly armed soldier who would scout the enemy position. It was also a nautical term for a small vessel launched from a larger ship to carry the anchor and line to moor the ship more securely, perhaps even taking the lines into the harbor, beyond the breakwater, to guide the ship to safety. Our certainty of hope is that the oath God swore four thousand years ago was sealed and guaranteed on the cross and by the empty tomb. Christ has entered the Holy of Holies, not in the temple on the mountain where Isaac was given in obedience, but in reality—in heaven where he intercedes for us today. He is the high priest and the sacrifice for us, and for that reason we are secure, we have hope. Our tether is secure because the anchor is attached to the ark, God’s footstool, in the heavens.

When you question whether God can or will accept you, recognize that there is nothing you may offer to garner his pleasure, nothing but his promise, his oath. Your acceptance is assured and certain, for it is firmly rooted in the completed work of Christ. This truth is expressed in a wonderful hymn recently rediscovered from Gadsby Hymns, “The Christian’s Hope Can Never Fail.” The final stanza declares: We trust upon the sacred word— The oath and promise of our Lord; And safely through each tempest sail; The Christian’s hope shall never fail.

For this reason, you may be assured that you are accepted. God has called you and made an oath sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ. You are his and you belong.

Chris Vogel is senior pastor at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Delafield, Wisconsin, just outside of Milwaukee.

1 Words by Francis Johnson, music by Andrew Osenga, The Velvet Eagle Sings (ASCAP, 2005), The Loving Company.

2 See Charles A. Kennedy, “Early Christians and the Anchor,” Biblical Archaeologist 38 (September–December 1975), 115–24.

3 For more background on William Gordon, see http://www.puritansermons. com/ruth/rwhyte12.htm.

4 Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1973), 386–87.

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There’s so much we don’t know about the Epistle to the Hebrews. We don’t know who wrote it or when. We don’t know for sure where or to whom it was written.

We don’t know exactly what challenge its recipients faced, or exactly how they were tempted to compromise in response. But here’s one thing we do know: Hebrews presents the richest, most complete theology of worship in the New Testament.* And another: Hebrews’ warning passages are among the most intense, arresting exhortations in Scripture.

Hebrews speaks a strong word to churches in America today, especially as our circumstances begin to align more and more with the original recipients of this letter. In order to take a brief sounding of how Hebrews speaks to local churches today, we will explore the themes of worship, ministry, and discipline in this enigmatic first-century sermon (Heb. 13:22).

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To sum up Hebrews’ teaching on worship is virtually to sum up the whole book: Christ fulfilled and therefore ended the entire old covenant system of worship, with the result that we now have unhindered access to God. The central

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theological argument of the letter—roughly 5:1 to 10:18—expounds an extended contrast between old covenant worship and the new covenant work of Christ, describing the differences between the covenants themselves, along with their priesthoods, sanctuaries, and sacrifices.

The old covenant was not faultless (8:7) and therefore not permanent (8:13). It’s not that the covenant itself was flawed, but that it could not fix the people’s flaws (8:8–9). Yet Jesus mediates a better covenant, enacted on better promises (8:6, 10–12), a covenant that brings forgiveness of sins (10:18) and secures the people’s eternal inheritance (9:15). The Levitical priesthood could make nothing perfect (7:11), but Jesus introduced a better hope through which we draw near to God (7:19). The Levitical priests’ tenures were cut short by death; Jesus holds his priesthood forever, because he lives forever (7:24).

The sanctuary in which the Levitical priests served was a shadowy outline of the heavenly reality (8:5); Jesus serves in the heavenly sanctuary itself, the true tent that the Lord set up, not man (8:1–2). Once a year, the high priest would enter the earthly Holy of Holies (9:7); Jesus passed through the greater and more perfect tent to enter the true Holy of Holies, the

very presence of God in heaven (9:11–12). The old covenant sacrifices purified only the flesh; Christ’s offering purifies our conscience (9:13–14). Old covenant sacrifices had to be offered daily with the priests continually standing at their service (10:11); Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, then sat down at God’s right hand (10:12).

As a result of Christ’s perfect self-offering, we can approach God’s throne in confident expectation of help and mercy (4:16). We can draw near to him in full assurance of faith, since we’ve been cleansed inside and out (10:22). Now we no longer sacrifice animals but offer “a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (13:15).

Again, Hebrews transposes old covenant worship language into a new key when the author exhorts us, “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (13:16).

When we praise God in church, or confess the gospel in public or provide for others’ needs, we offer God an acceptable sacrifice, a pleasing aroma.

In these verses, Hebrews transfers worship terms from the old covenant sacrificial system into our everyday lives as Christians. Worship isn’t confined to certain places or times or ritual acts. This doesn’t mean that there’s nothing special about the church’s weekly assembly. On the contrary, that assembly anticipates the time when we will gather at last around God’s throne (12:18–24). But it does mean that new covenant worship is first and foremost a matter of offering up our lives to serve God and others, just as Christ offered up his life to serve us (10:5–10).

M IN I ST RY Ministry is one of those Christian words that seems to mean just about anything. In its broadest sense, ministry is simply service to God and others. From this angle, to speak of ministry in Hebrews is to refer to the all-of-life worship we’ve just been describing.

For instance, the author commends his readers, “For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work and the love that you showed for his sake in serving the saints, as you still do” (6:10). Every Christian should minister in this sense, serving others for God’s sake.

Sometimes when we use the word ministry, though, we speak of those who are appointed to a special role of teaching and oversight in the local church. Hebrews doesn’t use the word ministry for this role, but it does refer to leaders and preachers: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith” (13:7). This probably refers to those who initially evangelized this community and have now passed away. They persevered to the end, so these believers are called to walk in their steps.

The author offers more detailed exhortations regarding the church’s current leaders: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (13:17). So every Christian ministers to God

“NEW COVENANT WORSHIP IS FIRST AND FOREMOST A MATTER OF OFFERING UP OF OUR LIVES TO SERVE GOD AND OTHERS, JUST AS CHRIST OFFERED UP HIS LIFE TO SERVE US.”

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salm 110 runs like a golden thread throughout the tapestry of this sermon, and we can hear Hebrews as a sermon expounding this one central biblical text.* The preacher calls our attention especially to verses 1 and 4 of Psalm 110: The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”

The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

Citations of or allusions to these verses run from the prologue into the twelfth chapter. In the prologue, Psalm 110:1 is alluded to in the statement that the Son, “after making purification for sins…sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). Then a series of OT passages that show that the Son is superior to the angels concludes with the quotation of Psalm 110:1.

The point is that no angel, only the Son, has been invited to sit at God’s right hand (1:13).

In Hebrews 5:6–10, Psalm 110:4 comes into play to show that just as God summoned Aaron into his priestly privilege, so also Christ was appointed by God, who said to him: “You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”

This alternative order of priesthood—linked to Melchizedek, the king of ancient Salem, rather than to Israel’s high priest Aaron—is

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THE SACRIFICE OF MELCHIZEDEK

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the topic of an extended discussion that runs from Hebrews 6:19 through Hebrews 7.

At Hebrews 8:1–5, the preacher brings together the themes of Psalm 110:1 and 110:4. Jesus serves as priest forever and he does so “at God’s right hand”: not in an earthly sanctuary—the wilderness tabernacle or the Jerusalem temple—but in heaven itself. In Hebrews 10:12–13, we see that even Christ’s present posture—not standing but seated— is significant. Priests in the line of Levi and Aaron, who offer animal sacrifices, always stand: their work is never done because the blood of bulls and goats cannot cleanse the conscience. But God has invited our high priest, “Take your seat.”

Christ has “offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins.” His atoning task is complete, never needing to be repeated. Finally, in Hebrews 12, the preacher admonishes his congregation to fix their gaze on Jesus, faith’s pioneer and perfecter, who endured the cross and now sits at the right hand of God’s throne (12:2).

Would we have noticed all these implications in Psalm 110? I doubt that I would have, but now that the preacher has pointed them out, I can see where and how he found them in the OT text. *G EORGE WESLEY BUCHANAN, TO THE HEBREWS, ANCHOR BIBLE (GARDEN CITY: DOUBLEDAY, 1976), XIX, XXI. BUCHANAN CALLED HEBREWS “A HOMILETICAL MIDRASH BASED ON PSALM 110.”

and others, but not every Christian is a leader.

Every Christian offers God acceptable worship, but not every Christian will give an account for the souls of others.

Hebrews is clear that the ministry entrusted to these leaders is ordained by God to benefit the whole flock. In order to receive that benefit, Christians need to gladly submit to the leaders God has given them. Christians who buck against authority in the church buck against their own blessing.

DIS CIPL I N E Hebrews presents the Christian life as a pilgrimage from this transient, earthly city to the permanent city to come (13:14). We have been definitively cleansed by Christ’s sacrifice (10:14), but we have not yet been made perfectly holy (12:23). So God disciplines us for our good, as a loving father disciplines his children (12:5–11). He sends hard providences, not to punish, but to purge and prune. At present his discipline is painful, but in time it will bear a joyful harvest of holiness.

Our life together in the church should also be characterized by discipline—not a drill-sergeant, tougher-than-thou moralism, but tender, loving effort to help others be holy (12:12–13). We’re called to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (3:12–13). In fact, this mutual exhortation is one of the key reasons for gathering as a church: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (10:24–25).

Because God loves us, he disciplines us for our good. Because we church members love one another, we gather to exhort and encourage one another, to help one another persevere in faith and faithfulness.

Theologians often call this “formative discipline,” helping conform one another to the character of Christ. We don’t come to church to “worship” and leave “discipline” to our church’s elders. Instead, helping one another grow is basic to why we gather.

The stakes of this mutual ministry couldn’t be higher. Those who are hardened by sin and who fail to persevere in Christ face inescapable judgment (2:3),

“REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE RECEIVING A KINGDOM THAT CANNOT BE SHAKEN.” exclusion from God’s rest (4:11), a curse (6:8), and God’s vengeance (10:30). So our churches’ assemblies should be times of rejoicing and rebuking, comfort and confrontation. The world lulls us into seeking our inheritance here and now; in church we must remind one another that we are heirs of the world to come (11:13–16). Everything in our churches’ gatherings— prayer, Scripture reading, preaching, confessing our faith, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper—should prod us to persevere in our pilgrimage.

O U R SU FFI CI E NT A ND S OLE HOP E This brings us back to the tension between worship and warning. Why does Hebrews combine such rich exultation in the work of Christ with such dire warnings for those who turn away from Christ? Because Christ is our sufficient hope, fulfilling the old covenant cult and granting us access to God. He is our sole hope, and to reject him is to receive the wrath of God. He has opened a new and living way into God’s presence (10:20); no other way is possible.

As the cultural tide of opposition to Christianity continues to rise, remember that you are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. So “let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (12:28–29).

Bobby Jamieson is a PhD student in New Testament at the University of Cambridge. He previously served as an editor for 9Marks Ministry and is the author of Sound Doctrine: How a Church Grows in the Love and Holiness of God (Crossway, 2013).

He is a member of Eden Baptist Church. * I owe this point to David Peterson, Engaging with God: A Biblical Theology of Worship (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 228. His entire chapter “The Book of Hebrews and the Worship of Jesus” is an excellent study of worship in Hebrews.

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There are some specialized chapters in Scripture, such as the “love” chapter (1 Cor. 13), the “godly woman” chapter (Prov. 31), and the “resurrection” chapter (1 Cor. 15). But the best known is Hebrews 11, the “faith” chapter.

One of the challenges to a right understanding of Hebrews 11 is our temptation to extricate it from its context and interpret it as if it stood alone, as if it really were the “faith” chapter. But Hebrews 11 is not an independent treatise on faith. It is one piece of a sustained argument woven into the warp and woof of the whole letter to the Hebrews.

The author of Hebrews is writing to believers in Christ who are under the pressure of various persecutions (10:32–34) and are considering throwing in the towel on Christianity, leaving its invisible realities to return to the visible and safer realities of Judaism.

For Jewish believers accustomed to a visible temple, priests, and sacrifices, whose fathers were promised a visible inheritance and tangible blessings, it was difficult to follow an invisible Savior, a great high priest serving in a heavenly tabernacle.

It is still a challenge today to worship and serve an invisible God in a visually oriented world that largely rejects him. We twenty-first-century believers, no less than the original readers of Hebrews, have a desperate need for an enduring faith in Jesus Christ.

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The key to understanding the place of Hebrews 11 in the author’s overall argument is in its bookends. Immediately preceding Hebrews 11, the author tells his tempted and tried readers, “You have need of endurance” (10:36). And then on the heels of Hebrews 11, he implores them to “run with endurance the race that is set before us” (12:1). It is in Hebrews 11, right between the recognition of the need for enduring faith and the call for it to be exercised, where the author brilliantly and pastorally lays out the basis for that enduring faith in Christ.1 He starts in Hebrews 11:1 by describing how faith works, and it is a deep and daring description.

Sadly, the force of it is blunted for many of us by the perpetuation of an unfortunate translation of that verse. The ESV, for example, represents the gist of most modern translations in saying: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” A translation along these lines communicates that faith is our subjective experience of assurance and conviction of future divine realities. But if faith stands or falls on our feelings of

conviction and assurance, then faith—like Scrooge’s sight of Marley’s ghost—could be at the whim of “an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato”!2 Happily, the virtually universal academic consensus is that the Greek words translated in 11:1 as assurance and conviction do not carry that subjective meaning. It is more accurate to render them (as the KJV does) as substance and evidence: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” That is admittedly difficult language, but it communicates a breathtaking truth: faith actually involves a present witnessing of and participation in divinely promised future realities.

For us, that means the Holy Spirit, through God’s word, implants in us faith as a gift that is more than a subjective confidence in Christ for the future, and which allows us to witness and participate now in the not-yet kingdom realities. As believers in Christ, by faith we are assured of future peace, and in the midst of our present turmoil, we actually know and experience “the peace of God” that “surpasses all understanding” and “guard[s] [our] hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:7). By faith in Jesus we are given a present partial participation in a future perfect divine reality.

As wonderful as that is, the author in Hebrews 11 is not primarily focused on our faith. He is describing the faith of Old Testament saints and how it worked in their lives. His remarkable point is that those Old Testament saints, by faith, witnessed and participated in what was, from their historical vantage point, all a future reality—the future promised salvation of God bound up in the gift and mission of his Son Jesus Christ. And in doing so, they received testimony from God about Jesus Christ.

That is the force of 11:2. It is not so much that the Old Testament saints were commended for their faith, but that by faith in the Father’s promise they received testimony from God—testimony about his coming ultimate salvation in Christ, testimony that the author’s original readers needed to hear, and that we need to hear today as well.

This is why the author does not describe the Old Testament saints he catalogs in Hebrews 11 as “examples” but rather as “witnesses.” They are “the great cloud of witnesses” (12:1) who encourage us by their testimony concerning salvation in Christ to “run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

“BY FAITH IN JESUS WE ARE GIVEN A PRESENT PARTIAL PARTICIPATION IN A FUTURE PERFECT DIVINE REALITY.” That athletic imagery of the race has led some to incorrectly conceive the Hebrew 11 witnesses as passive spectators watching us from heaven. In fact, the New Testament understands “witnesses” not as people who watch but as people who testify.

The Hebrew 11 saints are men and women who function as both “receivers” and “transmitters.”

They received testimony from God (through words and the sovereign unfolding events of their lives), and they transmit testimony to us (also by their words and the way they lived, all as recorded for us in Scripture).

Contrary to the usual take, the members of this great “Hall of Faith” are not primarily heroes to be imitated. This is not to say that these Old Testament saints have no exemplary power. The author earlier expresses his hope that his readers would be “imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (6:12). But that is a secondary concern in Hebrews 11. The author primarily wants us to hear their faith-borne testimony about the real hero, “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (12:2).

The argument is brilliant. Writing to people who are considering going back to the safe haven of a visible Judaism, the author shows from Scripture that the patriarchs to whom his readers would return lived by faith in and testify to the reality of Jesus Christ, the very Savior from whom they want to walk away.

Space prevents hearing the testimony of all the witnesses in the “Hall of Faith,” so let us touch summarily on just two of the towering figures: Noah and Abraham. In 11:7, we are told that Noah received testimony from God in the form of a warning about an MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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ur preacher shows us how the OT Scriptures, when read carefully in the context of their own era, demonstrate the eschatological directionality of redemptive history. God, embedded in Israel’s ancient Scriptures, hints that he had planned all along for Israel’s institutions to become obsolete, to be transcended and replaced by better forms of revelation, reconciliation, and rest.

At several points the preacher employs a distinctive argument to demonstrate that OT passages themselves sent signals of the insufficiency of the OT order. The texts in question are Psalm 95 (explained in Heb. 3–4); Psalm 110 (interpreted in Heb. 7); and Jeremiah 31 (treated in Heb. 8).

Just from pondering the implications of those ancient texts, our preacher implies, ancient Israelites should have anticipated something better to come.

The preacher draws out the implications of these passages, reasoning that God would not have spoken as he so evidently did in these OT texts, if, when those texts were spoken, Israel were experiencing all the blessing that God had in store for his people. The comment on Psalm 95 in Hebrews 4:6–8 illustrates our preacher’s logic: Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed

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to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.

Psalm 95 looks back to the wilderness generation who exited Egypt under Moses. At Kadesh-Barnea they refused to believe that God could defeat the Canaanites and give them the Promised Land, so God took an oath that they would not enter his “rest”—that is, the land (Num. 14:20–35). The next generation entered the land of promise under Joshua’s leadership, and the book that bears Joshua’s name records that the result of the conquest was that “the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers” (Josh. 21:44).

But that was a very temporary rest. The era of the judges was anything but restful! Our preacher reasons that Psalm 95, spoken through David to Israelites in the land long after the conquest, implies that Joshua had not given Israel all that “God’s rest” entails. If Joshua had given them “God’s rest,” forever vanquishing Israel’s enemies, God would not have spoken as he did in Psalm 95, warning David’s

contemporaries that they must not harden their hearts when they hear God’s voice. A better “rest,” a better inheritance than Canaan, is in store for God’s people. Later, that “rest” will be identified with the city built by God for which Abraham longed (11:10), the heavenly country for which the patriarchs hoped (11:16), and the city to come that Christian believers seek (13:14).

We see further examples of this reasoning in the interpretation of Psalm 110:4 in Hebrews 7:11 (promising a better priesthood than Aaron’s), and again in the interpretation of Jeremiah 31 in Hebrews 8:7 (promising a better covenant than Sinai’s).

So the preacher to the Hebrews shows that the OT Scriptures—read in their original historical setting—testify to the insufficiency of the “rest” that Israel received when they occupied Canaan, of the Levitical priests and sacrifices that could not deeply purify, and of the covenant at Sinai that could not secure Israel’s fidelity and God’s forgiveness.

His argument is that the ancient Scriptures themselves called their original recipients, no less than his own contemporaries in the new covenant era, to look and long for the champion who would bring a better rest than Joshua could provide, the priest who would effect a deeper purification than Aaron could perform, and the Mediator who would bind God’s people more closely to their Lord than Sinai’s covenant could.

“A B R A H A M B E A R S W I T N E S S T O T H E RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, THE CENTRAL REALIT Y OF THE GOSPEL , AS HE FIGURATIVELY RECEIVED HIS SON BACK FROM THE DEAD.”

unseen future reality—divine judgment. His faithful response of building an ark and saving his household, while condemning the world, testifies to us that to survive God's future judgment, we need a savior.

Noah testifies to us of Christ by becoming a type of Christ. And by becoming an heir of the righteousness that is by faith, Noah testifies to our same need for an alien righteousness so that we might enter into God’s kingdom—a righteousness ultimately found by faith in Jesus the righteous.

Abraham, who gets the fullest treatment in Hebrews 11, received testimony from God in the form of a covenant-bound promise of land and descendants. In response, Abraham interestingly testifies to us by not receiving the Promised Land and also by refusing to go back to the land he left (11:9, 13, 15). This divine delayed gratification taught Abraham (and he testifies to the fact) that God’s unseen promised future is ultimately to be realized in a heavenly country (11:10, 14, 16). He affirmed that lived-out testimony with verbal testimony, acknowledging that God’s people are strangers and exiles on the earth (11:13).

In the birth and near-sacrifice of Isaac, Abraham received testimony from God in the form of the delay of the birth (until it was humanly impossible) and the baffling subsequent command to sacrifice that long-awaited son (11:17–18). Through his faithful response, Abraham testifies to us of the future substitutionary death of an even greater Son of promise; but more than that, Abraham bears witness to the

resurrection of the dead, the central reality of the gospel, as he figuratively received his son back from the dead (11:19).

The common denominator of the Hebrews 11 witnesses is that they did not receive what God promised, because that would only fully come to pass in the life and work of Jesus, the “something better” that God provided for us (11:40). We have something better because, in Christ, we have the privilege of witnessing (through the incarnation) the fulfillment of the promises made to the Old Testament saints. But there is a now and a not yet to the gospel: we have its promises and benefits, but not in their final consummated form. Much like the Hebrew 11 witnesses, we also hope for an unseen future reality. That reality will come upon the return of the king when, together with the Old Testament saints, we will be made perfect in Christ.

As Hebrews 11 brilliantly affirms: there is one faith, one people of God, one gospel, one Savior and Lord— and his name is Jesus.

Ted Hamilton is a minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and serves as senior pastor of New Life Presbyterian Church in Escondido, California.

1 The author gratefully acknowledges the contribution of Dr. Steven Baugh to his overall understanding of the book of Hebrews, and Hebrews 11 in particular. For a comprehensive scholarly treatment of these issues, see S. M. Baugh, “The Cloud of Witnesses in Hebrews 11,” Westminster Theological Journal 68.1 (Spring 2006): 113–32.

2 Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (London: Bradbury & Evans, 1858), 17.

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book reviews 48

49 52 “The biographies of the women are inspiring at times and infuriating at others, but never dull.”

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BOOK REVIEWS

China’s Reforming Churches EDITED BY BRUCE P. BAUGUS Reformation Heritage Books, 2014 320 pages (paperback), $20.00

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his book is the product of a recent theological conference that sought to understand the Chinese church. The conference featured church leaders from China who shared and participated in dialogue for a better understanding of Reformed theology and its traditions on a global scale. As a Chinese Reformed Christian from the West who has ministered to the church in China for over a decade, I have been waiting for a book like this for a very long time. This book seeks to help believers in the West understand the church in China: Are their theological preferences identifiable, and how can the Reformed church of the West be a partner in their journey to give glory to God and enjoy him forever?

This book has many strengths, although there are some areas I wish had been done differently. Regarding strengths, many Reformed believers will be shocked at how much common ground we have with Christians in China. The first two chapters provide an excellent historical survey, where the author writes, “That there was a substantial Presbyterian and Reformed mission to China in the pre-Mao era and that most nineteenth-century missionaries to China might be broadly described as Reformed may surprise some readers” (27).

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This is spot-on in understanding why many House Churches in China fall in love with Reformed theology at first sight (whether that love persists is another story). Many churches in China trace their roots back to Reformedminded missionaries and their disciples, and as a result, most modern churches in China hold to these basic beliefs without compromise: the Bible is the highest authority and is inerrant; grace is God-centered; man has no merits of his own; and a Christian’s main mission in life is to serve God and spread the gospel.

This is why I am puzzled

by Dr. Lu’s comments in chapter 3 when he c l a i m s, “ G e n e ra l l y speaking, Chinese Christians have been strongly influenced

by Arminian synergism.…Perhaps that is why there are more Reformed Baptists than Reformed Presbyterians in Chinese Churches” (120). If he is talking about the “Chinese Church” in North America, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, I would be in agreement. But as this book’s opening chapters argued, this is not the case: the church in China is Calvinistic in spirit because of the early influence of Reformed missionaries.

Another strength of the book is its attempt to help readers get to know the “real China” and the “real Chinese Church.” The editor’s interviews and conversations (chapters 4 and 6) with prominent Chinese pastors in their own words provide firsthand insights into the state of affairs in some churches in China, along with Dr. Doyle’s in-depth survey and analysis (chapter

“BUT HOW WILL WE COME ALONGSIDE THESE BROTHERS AND SISTERS TO PARTNER WITH THEM ON THEIR JOURNEY TO BE BIBLICAL?” 7) of the social conditions in China, and finally Dr. Fulton’s wonderful discussion of the history and development of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM, chapter 8), which is commonly known as China’s “Government Protestant Church.”

In terms of substantive critique, I wish a book like this would have more contributions from Chinese pastors who were born, grew up, converted, and struggled in China (in the two chapters by Chinese pastors, one has most, if not all, of his ministerial experiences serving the “Chinese Church” in America). I appreciate that the book makes every attempt to let the Chinese pastors (from China) shine through the interviews and dialogue chapters, and that it has other contributors who have experiences serving in China. But after reading the book, I am left with the impression that the majority of the book is written by Western outsiders looking in, and not Chinese Christian insiders informing us of who they are and sharing with us the rich history of their own sojourn with Christ through persecutions and trials, their struggles and accomplishments in evangelism, church-planting, kingdom-building, and theological formation.

My experience with churches in China is that they are always seeking to learn, that they recognize the West has much to offer, and that they want us to show them biblically how our Reformed doctrines are summaries of the teachings of the Bible. As long

as we are willing to go through the labors of biblical exegesis and interpretation, it may take weeks or months for the light of the Bible to shine into their hearts, but they will accept Reformed doctrine, including infant baptism.

There is no question that we want to help our brothers and sisters in China, and we are especially excited to hear how Reformed-minded they already are. But how will we come alongside these brothers and sisters to partner with them in their journey to be biblical, to be Reformed? Can we recognize a Reforming church that is different from our own Reformed journey and be willing to help them on their terms, no matter how different and sometimes even strange their style of worship and submission to the whole counsel of God may be?

As such, I strongly recommend this book as an introduction to the Reforming church in China.

The research is first rate, the discussions are informative, and it is a great initial step into the world of China’s Reforming churches.

Rev. David Chen is an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church of America.

Outside the Gates of Eden: The Dream of America from Hiroshima to Now

BY PETER BACON HALES University of Chicago Press, 2014 496 pages (hardback), $40.00

S

ince its inception, America has always seen itself as a player upon the grand stage of history. Poised as a “city on a hill” between promise and peril, we have pursued our Manifest Destiny ever since the arrival of our Puritan forebears upon these lush, Edenic shores. Even in the early centuries before becoming globally significant, American cultural consciousness has included a sense that in our politics, our conquest, our growth and prosperity we were creating a new way of living in the world—an experiment in righteousness allegedly shaped by an understanding of divine election and vocation.

If Americans have always had this flair for the dramatic, Peter Bacon Hales suggests in his monumental new study in American cultural MODERNREFORMATION.ORG

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BOOK REVIEWS

history, Outside the Gates of Eden: The Dream of America from Hiroshima to Now, then two images in particular provide the major setpieces for that drama from World War II to the present: first, Hiroshima’s mushroom cloud reaching to the heavens, grimly hinting at the hellish devastation below; and second, the new American heaven-on-earth promised in the tidy box-houses of Levittown.

Beginning with the end of the war, Hales maps the uncertain steps that our American consciousness has taken throughout the last seventy years, from newsreels to television programs to the simulated reality of today’s video game world. His thesis is that we produce cultural artifacts that either directly, or mostly indirectly, try to face up to the responsibility of atomic holocaust or work to avoid the realities of “atomic fear.” The book then is an exploration of the various cultural myths, the sacred stories, that Americans believed, rejected, redeployed, or retooled in order to cope with the shifting world provoked by the bomb itself. In a sense, it’s a genealogy of the transformations of the cultural landscape in the face of a possible apocalypse.

The book itself is an experience. It is sweeping and magisterial in its conception, and Hales is masterful and effortless in its execution. While some cultural historians have a hand for broad brushstroke impressionism and others for detail, Hales moves back and forth seamlessly between both. Chapters shift perspective from close

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readings of particular cultural texts, and then span quickly out to wide-angle-lens discussions of the way they exemplify or take their place in the big cultural picture. For instance, through close commentary on the film Miracle on 34th Street, Hales energetically paints a picture of the “birth of atomic America,” with its freshly reconceived approach toward the ideal domestic life of the suburban homeowner away from the crowded urban centers, the conflict of the sexes as returning G.I.s needed the jobs that women filled during their absence, a new emphasis on consumerism as community-building practice, and so much more. It would be foolish to attempt to give a full account of Hales’s work, but two threads in the vast tapestry are worth highlighting.

T HE ME DI U M A ND T HE ME SSAGE While it’s probably an exaggeration to say that Outside the Gates of Eden is extended proof for Marshall McLuhan’s dictum, “The medium is the message,” it’s not too far off. One of Hales’s major themes is the way the material media of mass communication, entertainment, and social media were shaped by, and thereby shaped, our convulsing American consciousness. Hales conducts his archeological research by paying attention to “broadly popular cultural artifacts, forms, and media” of the time, because it was then that America became a “fully popular” culture. It was in these forms that America told and

“THE BOOK THEN IS AN EXPLORATION OF THE VARIOUS CULTURAL MYTHS, THE SACRED STORIES, THAT AMERICANS BELIEVED, REJECTED, REDEPLOYED, OR RETOOLED IN ORDER TO COPE WITH THE SHIFTING WORLD PROVOKED

BY THE BOMB ITSELF.” retold its story, wrestling with the drama of our vocation unto righteousness.

One of the most fascinating portions is the way propaganda and newsreels from a wartime era were redeployed in a postwar context in order to acclimatize a nation to the responsibility and privilege of atomic power—for the greater good, of course. The generation raised with such propaganda films gave us the revolutionary and prophetic voice of Bob Dylan on the radio hinting at impending exile and the judgment our injustices might bring upon us.

Moving beyond radio, TV, and film into today, Hales’s final chapters on the sea change that the digital turn has brought about is alone worth the price of the book. He treats the way violent video games allow us to reenact our atomic fears, and he invites us to recognize ourselves acting out the narrative lines drawn some sixty years earlier. If nothing else, it serves as a powerful apologetic for pastoral social awareness and an inoculation against passive cultural consumption.

A M ER I CA A N D I TS DIS C O NT E N TS The other thread to note is Hales’s attention to the fact that “American culture” and the American experience are not monolithic. Indeed, one of the explicit themes of the work addresses the racial and sexual structural imbalances that hide beneath the veneer

of the American dream. Having grown up with the I Love Lucy show, Hales’s penetrating chapter on the way the show’s success was tied into Lucy’s ability to both challenge and reinforce prevailing gender roles of men and women was eye-opening.

Through Lucy the show gave voice to the frustration of a generation of women, Ricky called into question the dominant male stereotypes, and all the while tension was cathartically resolved and the stories played out in expected ways.

Outside the Gates of Eden is a stunning achievement. I have not done it justice, but as a final word to commend it, Hales’s book demonstrates the allencompassing importance of understanding, telling, and consciously living in light of the gospel. If the story of the last sixty years of American consciousness warns of anything, it’s that we are unavoidably dramatic beings, longing to be caught up in a larger story that conveys cosmic meaning and truth. Hales has done us the invaluable service of charting the way a major counter-story of our culture has continued to fail, reshape, transform, and fail again. Pastors and parishioners looking to present our neighbors with a more compelling story about Jesus would do well to take up this book to know better what they are up against.

Derek Rishmawy is director of College and Young Adult Ministries at Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Orange County, California. Visit him at derekzrishmawy.com.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters: A Historical and Biographical Guide EDITED BY MARION ANN TAYLOR AND AGNES CHOI Baker Academic, 2012 608 pages (hardcover), $44.99

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andbook of Women Biblical Interpreters is a product of modern scholarship’s quest to include the female perspective in every discipline, including theology. The editors and authors of this volume unhesitatingly assume that men and women have an equally authoritative perspective on Scripture. As Marion Ann Taylor remarks in her introduction, “Discovering what the Bible meant to women in the past helps us in our quest to discover its meaning for today. . . .

Women’s wisdom through the ages deserves careful consideration” (21–22).

The bulk of the text is filled with 180 biographical entries of female interpreters that were written by distinguished scholars.

The entries range in length from two to ten pages, and each entry is followed by a bibliography of the female interpreter’s work and important secondary literature. Interpreters covered in the volume include Jewish, Roman Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran, Anglican, Methodist, and Quaker women. Every major tradition and most minor ones are represented, with the notable exception of the Pentecostal/ Charismatic movement. Chronologically, the entries cover female interpreters from the Roman poet Proba in the fourth century to the biblical scholar Elizabeth Rice Achtemeier in the twentieth century.

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Taylor and her coauthors write from an egalitarian premise, but even more than that they believe strongly that the perspective of the women they feature is invaluable because they are women. In this study, gender trumps orthodoxy, theological education, and even biblical literacy. Though I disagree with that perspective, I still find this volume worthwhile reading.

It is a useful tool for the historical theologian, since it points out unusual biblical interpretations not commonly found elsewhere.

The bibliographies are current and relevant, making this book an excellent starting point for anyone researching a female theologian.

Moreover, Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters is enjoyable reading in its own right. I was pleasantly surprised by how engrossing this biographical dictionary is. The biographies of the women are inspiring at times and infuriating at others, but never dull.

For every Mary Sidney Herbert, who produced a metrical translation of the Psalms with her brother Sir Philip Sidney, there is an Eleanor Davies, whose books were burned by her first and second husbands and who was later imprisoned for insanity. Despite the inclusion of so many Quakers, Shakers, Diggers, and Levelers, it was encouraging to see how many women earnestly studied the Scriptures in every period of church history.

Amy Alexander holds an MA in historical theology from Westminster Seminary California and is currently a doctoral student at St. Louis University.

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T H E N E W C OV E N A N T: A H I S TO RY

C

“

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by MICHAEL S. HORTON

ovenant” is the Bible’s central way of describing the Lord’s relationship to his people. In the Ancient Near East, a great king (suzerain) would rescue a smaller kingdom or city. On the basis of this deliverance, the lesser ruler would become the vassal (servant), part of the wider empire of the great king. As you can imagine, the vassal was in no position to negotiate the terms of the relationship. The treaty was simply imposed. Typically, it began with a preamble identifying the great king, followed by a historical prologue justifying his lordship, and then stipulations (commands) and sanctions (threats) for violation of the treaty.

It has long been observed that this pattern of suzerainty treaties is evident in the Bible, particularly in the covenant that Israel swore before Yahweh at Mount Sinai. For example, a compact version is found in the giving of the Ten Commandments. Exodus 20 begins with a preamble: “I am Yahweh your God,” followed by a brief historical justification, “…who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”

Therefore the stipulations follow, chief among them being the first: “You shall have no other gods besides me” (Exod. 20:1–3).

More than four centuries before the covenant at Sinai, God made a covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12–17). It contained two promises: an earthly land and seed (as many as the stars in heaven), and a heavenly land and blessing for the nations through the single seed of Abraham and Sarah, Jesus Christ. In Genesis 15, the Suzerain (YHWH) swears an oath and assumes the responsibility for

its fulfillment. This is signified by the vision of the theophanic smoking fire-pot that walks between the pieces of animals cut in half. This would have been a familiar scene in Ancient Near Eastern politics, where the Great King would cause the lesser king to walk between the pieces, accepting the stipulations (and sanctions). Yet what is surprising here is that it is YHWH who makes all the promises and signifies it by walking alone through the pieces. Within the one covenant of grace, the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12–17), God makes two promises to Abraham: an earthly inheritance consisting of land and myriad descendants, and a heavenly inheritance of everlasting life for “the families of the world” through a single “seed” (see Paul’s emphasis of this point and contrast with the Sinai covenant in Gal. 3:16).

Like Hamlet’s play-within-a-play, the Sinai covenant plays out within the larger Abrahamic covenant of grace. However, it is thoroughly typological of the everlasting Sabbath. As for the earthly promise, the book of Joshua recounts in detail God’s fulfillment of this pledge. Repeatedly we read that Yahweh conquered and delivered the idolatrous trespassers into Israel’s hand. “Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass” (Josh. 21:45). Notice the absolute character of this report: everything that God swore to Abraham concerning the earthly land was fulfilled.

But this is just where some interpretations confuse the nature of the promise and its fulfillment.

Nowhere does God promise unconditionally to preserve Israel in the land of Canaan. Getting

in was all of grace, in fulfillment of the pledge to terms of the Sinai covenant, sworn by the people, Abraham. The terms for remaining in the land as with Moses as mediator) and “the promise” (God’s God’s holy nation, however, were based on Israel’s unilateral oath in Christ the Mediator). obedience to everything commanded at Sinai. This When the prophets prosecute God’s case against is why, after God fulfills his promise, the whole conIsrael as a national theocracy, the basis of exile is gregation of Israel renews its Sinai oath at the end of the Sinai covenant. Yet beyond this they look back the book of Joshua. It is God’s land, not Israel’s, and to the promise that God made to Abraham, and they if Israel proves disloyal to the covenant, he will drive look forward to a new covenant that will be “not like them out just as he did the wicked nations. This is the covenant” the people swore at Sinai (Jer. 31:32). clearly a different covenant from the oath that God God will unilaterally circumcise the hearts of his made to Abraham and Sarah. people and write the law on their hearts because he On the one hand, we must not set the old and new will forgive their sins. His people “will inherit the covenants over against each other; the same Triune earth” (Matt. 5:5), not a sliver of real estate; in fact, God is the author of both, and both serve the larger the distinction between heaven and earth will disapcovenant of grace. On the other hand, we must not see pear (Rev. 11:19; 21:22). the new covenant as a continuation of the old. The difIt is therefore because of God’s pledge to Abraham ferences are spelled out clearly in the historical books and Sarah that there was any hope of God’s saving and in the law and in the prophets, in the Gospels, and presence rather than judgment. Looking to Christ in the Epistles—which brings us to Hebrews.

In his remarkable book Sinai and Zion (HarperOne, 1987), the distinguished THE LAW THE PROMISE Harvard scholar of Jewish studies Jon COVENANT NAMED AT...

Levenson points out that in the Old Sinai Zion Testament itself this distinction is obviMEDIATED BY...

Moses Christ ous. The Sinai covenant is clearly of a “suzerainty” type, he argues. Its condiSCOPE IS...

Earthly Heavenly tionality makes Israel’s future precarious.

PROMISE IS...

Conditional Unconditional Yet beyond this, the constant proclamation of life beyond the exile—the “Zion” FUTURE BECAME...

Precarious Settled tradition—continues to be heard even in STATUS IS...

Obsolete Fulfilled the rubble of exile. Somehow, somewhere, above the vicissitudes of human disobeInheriting the New ENDS WITH...

Exile from the land dience, there is an unconditional promise Heavens and Earth of grace. Yet with the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, he argues, Judaism had no place for a continuation of Sinai. from afar, as it were, the old covenant saints could Instead, good works and repentance replaced the actually enjoy the heavenly blessings only together sacrifices. And this is precisely where Judaism and with us—that is, with the dawning of the new covChristianity parted ways, he argues. While for Jews, enant (Heb. 11:40). Justified through faith, they were Sinai has the last word, for Christians it is Zion, and preserved and kept by the Spirit. With the advent Jesus himself is the end-time temple. of the reality, the shadowy administration is gone.

Levenson understands the “fork in the road” The covenant of law (Sinai) is now designated the between old and new covenants better than many “old covenant.” “In speaking of a new covenant, he Christian—including Protestant—theologians today. makes the first one obsolete” (Heb. 8:13). We have In fact, he points to the Epistle to the Hebrews as not come to Mount Sinai, but to Mount Zion—the the most decisive interpretation of the Christian heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:28). divergence from Judaism. The contrasts Levenson identifies as “Sinai” and “Zion” serve as the basis for the apostolic contrast between “the law” (i.e., the Michael S. Horton is editor-in-chief of Modern Reformation.

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B A C K PA G E

FO U R T H I N G S YO U N E E D TO K N OW A B O U T H E B R E W S

by BROOKE VENTURA

W H AT YO U N E E D T O K N O W

1

IT’S A SERMON-LETTER, NOT A BLOGPOST

The author describes it as a “word of exhortation” to the Hebrew Christians.

HOW YOU KNOW IT It doesn’t have the customary opening addresses we see in other letters.

13:22

The scriptural quotations are introduced with verbs of speaking (rather than writing).

We see the same expression used in this sermonletter in Acts 13:15.

The preacher shows sensitivity to the audience’s stamina as listeners.

2

IT FEATURES PSALM 110

WHERE YOU SEE IT

——

1:13 5:6–10 8:1–5 12:2

Revelation: Christ is superior to both the angels and Moses as agents of revelation.

1:4–2:18 3:1–4:13

Reconciliation: Christ is superior to both Aaron and the priests as mediators between holy God and sinful man.

4:14–7:28 8:1–10:31

Rest: Christ is superior to the patriarchs, Joshua, and David in that he brings believers into the true inheritance, and he’s superior to Moses in that he brings believers into the heavenly assembly at Mt. Zion.

10:32–12:17 12:18–29

The God who spoke to previous Hebrew generations through prophets is the same God who has now spoken in the Son.

1:1–4 1:1–2

The author uses Psalm 110:1 and Psalm 110:4 to illustrate Jesus’ superiority over angels and priests.

3

THE THREE R’S (NOT READING, ’RITING, AND ’RITHMETIC)

The author structures his sermon-letter in three “movements”—revelation, reconciliation, and rest—in order to demonstrate (you guessed it!) the superiority of Christ to the former agents of revelation (prophets), the agents of mediation (priests), and royalty in his ability to lead them into the true inheritance promised to them by the Father, and the heavenly courts that would grant them access to his presence.

4

FROM GOOD TO BEST, NO NEED FOR “BETTER”

The author shows that the unfolding of God’s redemptive works and the unveiling of his revelatory words are moving from good structures for his engagement with his people toward better access to unimpeded, uninterrupted, and deepening communion with God.

He contrasts days of “long ago” and “these last days.”

He speaks of the law as a shadow of “the good things to come” and not “the image” of those things themselves.

Brooke Ventura is assistant editor of Modern Reformation.

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