Hebrews: The Majestic Son

Contents Foreword Preface Reading Hebrews Today I 1 Why read Hebrews?

2 The trouble with Hebrews 3 The shape of Hebrews

iii v 1 3 5 9

Reading Hebrews Today II Jesus, God’s Son (1:1–4:13) 4 God spoke through his Son (1:1–4) 5 God rules the universe through his Son (1:5–14) 6 Warning: Don’t drift away! (2:1–4) 7 God sets us free through his Son (2:5–18) 8 God rules his people through his Son (3:1–6) 9 Warning: Don’t harden your hearts! (3:7–19) 10 Encouragement: Enter God’s rest! (4:1–13)

11 12 13 21 27 30 35 38 41

Jesus, our priest (4:14–10:18) 11 God’s Son is appointed our priest (4:14–5:10) 12 Warning: Don’t fall away! (5:11–6:20) 13 Jesus, the eternal priest (7:1–28) 14 Jesus, priest of the new covenant (8:1–13) 15 Jesus, priest of the heavenly sanctuary (9:1–28) 16 Jesus, the once-for-all sacrifice (10:1–18)

45 46 55 62 69 74 84

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The Majestic Son Warnings and encouragements (10:19–13:17) 17. Don’t shrink back! (10:19–39) 18 Live by faith! (11:1–12:3) 19 Receive God’s discipline! (12:4–13) 20 Don’t refuse God! (12:14–29) 21 Life together (13:1–17) 22 Prayers and greetings (13:18–25)

89 90 98 109 112 118 122

Some final reflections

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God spoke through his Son (1:1–4) The writer believes that God spoke. He believes in a great and mighty God, yet a God who is so powerful that he can come down to our level and speak in human language. This God has spoken through the prophets of the Old Testament through his Son Jesus Christ, and through Scripture. Our task is to listen: to recognise the authentic words of God, to receive them, to believe them and to obey them. It is those who listen to God’s words who know how to obey him.

Here is a key to understanding and interpreting the whole Bible, a summary of both the Old and New Testaments: it is all the story of the God who spoke. It is not just the record of people speaking to God, of God, or about God (though it includes all of these); in the Bible God expressed his communication to men and women in human words: God spoke.

In verses 1–2, the writer explains two important stages in God’s speaking, or revelation: God spoke Stage 1: in the past: to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways

Stage 2: in these last days to us by his Son

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The Majestic Son So this is a summary of the Old Testament – In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways – and also of the New – God has spoken to us by his Son. As a matter of fact, the Bible opens in Genesis with God speaking: ‘Let there be light’ (Genesis 1:3). Genesis also records that God spoke to Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:16–17; 3:8–22); and God certainly spoke to Abraham when he called him and made promises to him (Genesis 12:1–3).

God spoke to our forefathers. By ‘forefathers’ the writer means that line of people he will describe later in chapter 11: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Rahab and others. Most of them were Jews, Abraham’s descendants, chosen by God as his special people, the ones through whom he would bring blessing to all the world. Some, like Rahab (see Matthew 1:5), did not come from the Jewish nation but were incorporated by God into his people because they believed in him, the God of the Jews. God spoke to his people when he warned them through Noah, when he called them in Abraham, when he delivered them through Moses. This was distinctively different from God’s dealings with other nations: God spoke to our forefathers.

And the Old Testament writers describe God speaking especially in terms of the prophets, all those who spoke God’s words from Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15–16) to Malachi. God spoke through the prophets by their spoken words (in public and in private), by their written words and by their actions. God warned, encouraged, rebuked, and guided his people through all the prophets, at many times and in various ways.

But this was God speaking in the past; in these last days God has spoken again by his Son. By ‘these last days’ the writer means that span of time in God’s ‘speaking plan’ that began with the coming of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and continued up to the writer’s day. That span of time has, of course, continued up to our day: we are still living in the days of the Son, and will do so until Christ returns, when the final Day comes (see 10:25).

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God spoke through his Son For reflection: ‘These last days’ Beware of the idea that the late twentieth century is a special period of ‘last days’ in which we can expect new revelations from God, either personally or corporately.

The writer of Hebrews knew that the ‘last days’ began with the first coming of Christ and that his readers were dependent on what God said through Christ during his first coming (see 2:3–4). As Christians today, we also take our place ‘in these last days’ because the Son is God’s greatest and final revelation to us. Like the first readers we have to depend solely on what God has said and done through his Son Jesus. That is why we go back again and again to that revelation in history. That is why we have to test anyone who claims to speak on God’s behalf today by the revelation of God in Christ 2,000 years ago. God has spoken definitively, finally, for all humankind in his Son Jesus – there is no more up-to-date message.

What practical steps can you take to make sure that you are hearing what God has spoken through his Son? And yet the writer contrasts ‘in the past’ with ‘in these last days’. Does he mean that we can forget what God has said in the Old Testament because we live in the new span of time? Is the Old Testament now redundant, obsolete, irrelevant? Definitely not! Again and again, the writer quotes the Old Testament as God’s word for today (for example, see 3:7–8); he describes God’s word as ‘living and active’ (4:12); he sees its regulations as setting out the basic shape of our obedience to God (see chapters 8–10); and he regards the people of faith of the Old Testament as continuing examples for us today (see chapter 11).

At the same time, there are important differences between the expression of the service of God in the Old Testament – the sacrifices of animals – and in the New Testament – the sacrifice of Christ. We confuse the two at our peril (see comments on 10:1–18).

So what, then, is the correct relationship between Old and New Testament? How do God’s words ‘in the past … to 15

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The Majestic Son our forefathers through the prophets’ relate to his words ‘in these last days … to us by his Son’?

The answer to this question is clearly expressed in the words of F.F. Bruce: These two stages of divine revelation correspond to the Old and New Testaments respectively. Divine revelation is thus seen to be progressive – but the progression is not from the less true to the more true, from the less worthy to the more worthy, or from the less mature to the more mature. How could it be so, when it is one and the same God who is revealed throughout? … The progression is one from promise to fulfilment … (The Epistle to the Hebrews, Eerdmans, 1964, p. 2.)

So we should not say that the Old Testament is less true, or less worthy, than the New Testament. The Old Testament presents the promise, which is fulfilled in Christ in the New Testament. The Old Testament animal sacrifices were true and worthy in themselves, but also pointed beyond themselves to their fulfilment in the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

Another way of saying the same thing is the image of shadow and reality given in Hebrews 10:1. The true shadow in the Old Testament is made substantial, given fleshedout reality, in the person and work of Christ in the New Testament (see also Colossians 2:16–17).

So, as Hebrews is about a God who has spoken, the main focus of God’s speaking is his Son Jesus Christ; he has spoken to us by his Son is literally ‘he has spoken to us son-wise’. Hebrews is a book about Jesus Christ, and the writer now gives seven facts about God’s Son. They show us the Son’s greatness, and why he is the clearest and final revelation of God. These few verses contain a great deal of theology, but in summary: God has spoken to us by his Son –

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God spoke through his Son a. Whom he appointed heir of all things Because Jesus Christ is God’s Son, he is also his heir – everything belongs to him, on earth, in heaven and in the age to come. His inheritance is the people for whom he died, as well as the entire universe which is under his rule (see 2:5–9). b. Through whom he made the universe The whole created universe of time and space was made

by God through the Son (see John 1:3; Colossians 1:16).

So Christ’s rule and his inheritance are not intrusive or unwarranted, but natural; they are his by right, given to him by God. c. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory All God’s greatness and majesty shines through his Son. We receive God’s character, gifts and presence through Jesus Christ; but what we receive is God himself. Christ is the light of God burning and shining among us (see John 1:14). d. The exact representation of his being The Son truly and fully shows us the character of God. When we see what the Son is like, we see exactly what God is like (see John 1:18). There is no ‘private side’ of God obscured behind a ‘public side’ revealed in Christ. The true and full character of God is made clear and open to us in Jesus. e. Sustaining all things by his powerful word The Son carries forward God’s purposes for all creation with his mighty, enabling word. Just as God created the universe at his command through the Son (see 1:2; 11:3), so by God’s will and word, the Son goes on sustaining, upholding, all things in heaven and earth. f. After he had provided purification for sins As well as the Son’s cosmic and eternal work, there is his personal work in history for humans: Jesus Christ died on 17

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The Majestic Son the cross and won forgiveness for us by making us clean from our sins. How the Son achieved this, as both our priest and sacrifice, is the main subject of this letter. g. He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven When he had finished his work of purification, the Son sat down at the place of highest honour and power in the universe, at the ‘right hand’ of God (see Psalm 110).

His work of achieving purification for sins was over, his offering had been accepted. He is now honoured by God the Father, and he now rules and cares and forgives with full divine authority and power.

Some of these items will be developed later in this letter, but here the writer wants us to know the great cosmic and universal significance of Jesus Christ as God’s Son, so that we will be constant in our contact with him and not fall away. The only real world is the one where Christ, the true representation of God, is the centre and purpose of creation, which he keeps together by his almighty power.

It is the world in which he died for our forgiveness, over which he rules, and in which he offers us the power of the new covenant.

So F.F. Bruce writes, Thus the greatness of the Son of God receives sevenfold confirmation … He is the Prophet through whom God has spoken His final word to men; He is the Priest who has accomplished a perfect work of cleansing for His people’s sins; He is the King who sits enthroned in the place of chief honor alongside the Majesty on high. (The Epistle to the Hebrews, p 8.)

But the writer wants to make the great and unique dignity, supremacy and honour of the Son even clearer.

And he does this by pointing out that the Son is superior to angels: So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

Many of us today may not be over-excited by the thought that the Son is superior to angels – and if we have a low opinion of angels we will regard it as faint praise indeed! So 18

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God spoke through his Son why was this comparison so important to the writer and his original readers? Here are some suggestions: First, angels were associated with the giving of the law on Mount Sinai through Moses, for ‘the message spoken by angels was binding’ (2:2, see Deuteronomy 33:1–2, Psalm 68:17, Acts 7:53, Galatians 3:19). The law of course included the ceremonial law about priests and sacrifices which was to be fulfilled in Christ. If the giving of the law was marked by the presence of angels, then its fulfillment was accomplished in the work of the Son. Second, in Jewish theology, angels had responsibility for ruling various nations, but the Son’s power and authority extends also to the world to come (see 2:5). He is more powerful than the angels both in this age and in the next.

Third, if the Christians to whom he was writing were tempted to worship angels (as some were in the city of Colossae; see Colossians 2:18), then the writer wants to show them that it is wrong. Christians were to recognise the Son’s supreme honour, given by God. Finally, there is also a possibility that the readers had been influenced by a form of Jewish thinking reflected in the Dead Sea Scroll community, in which both the kingly and priestly Messiahs were subject to the archangel Michael. The writer of Hebrews has the opposite viewpoint – the Son is superior to all the angels.

All these suggestions give us some idea why the writer wants to show the superiority of Christ over angels; however, the first two are the most reliable, as there is evidence for them in Hebrews, as we shall see in the rest of chapter 1 and in chapter 2.

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The Majestic Son

FOR STUDY, DISCUSSION AND PRAYER 1. Why do you think these opening verses from Hebrews are chosen to be read (together with John 1:1–18) in many churches on Christmas Day? 2. The Greek word translated ‘superior’ in 1:4 is kreitton.

It is one of the writer’s favourite words, and it is also translated as ‘greater’ or ‘better’. Work through these texts where kreitton is used, and summarise in one or two sentences what the writer is saying: 1:4; 6:9; 7:7,19,22; 8:6; 9:23; 10:34; 11:16,35,40; 12:24.

Perhaps each member of the group could look up two references, or you could work in pairs; then, all together, discuss what you have found.

3. In a time of prayer together, thank God for revealing himself to us in his Son Jesus Christ, and praise him for all Christ is and does.

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