Hebrews

The book of Hebrews gives us one of the most magnificent, if not the most magnificent portrait of Christ that we find anywhere in Scripture. The exaltation of Christ and the preeminence of His labor and of His position in the cosmic scope of things is breathed on every page of the book of Hebrews. Most of us have favorite verses in the Bible. Maybe you call it a life verse. We may also have favorite chapters in the Bible, perhaps a beloved psalm. But what is your favorite book in the Bible? I'm Nathan W. Bingham and welcome to the Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind.

What you just heard from R.C. Sproul is one of the reasons if he could only have access to one book in the Bible, he would choose the book of Hebrews. This week we are being introduced to the New Testament epistles and all of the messages are from Dr. Sproul's Dust to Glory series. Don't forget that you can request your own copy at renewingyourmind.org.

Well, here's R.C. Sproul on Hebrews. I've always said that if I were thrown into prison and kept in solitary confinement and was allowed to have only one book in my possession during my stay, obviously the book I would want to have with me would be the Bible. Then I've got on to say if I could only have one chapter of the Bible, I'd want the sixth chapter of Isaiah. If I could only have one verse of the Bible, it would be a verse from the fifteenth chapter of Genesis. But if I could have one book of the Bible with me to give me comfort and consolation and for my edification, to many people, surprise, the book that I would select would be the book of Hebrews.

People say, I thought you would certainly choose Romans. And I say, well, no, I already know what's in there, and I think I've got to remember most of that without having the actual book in front of me. But what I love about Hebrews is if there is any book that brings the whole counsel of God together in one place, it's this book. It is so rich in relating the redemptive activity of God from the Old Testament and integrating it with the revelation of God in the New Testament. So that's one reason that I have such affection for the book of Hebrews. The other is this, the other is this, that the book of Hebrews gives us one of the most magnificent, if not the most magnificent portrait of Christ that we find anywhere in Scripture. The exaltation of Christ and the preeminence of His labor and of His position in the cosmic scope of things is breathed on every page of the book of Hebrews.

Let's look at how the book begins. In chapter 1 of the epistle to the Hebrews, we read these words. Verse 1, God, who at various times and in various ways spoken time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world, who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person and the upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angel, says He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. I can hardly get through that sentence without having to gasp for breath, not simply for the length and convoluted nature of the declaration, but because of all of the riches that are compressed together in that opening statement of the letter to the Hebrews, and the language of that text is characteristic of the entire letter. In fact, I almost choke at the word letter because some have suggested that the basic literary form of Hebrews is not that of an epistle as is customarily the case with the Apostle Paul, but some argue that what we have here is an extremely ancient homily, a sermon whose central focus is the majesty of Christ. And again, the literary quality of this book is normally considered to be the highest that is to be found in the New Testament, and it raises the question immediately of its author. We know that in the early church when the church was sorting through the various books that had been written in the apostolic age and determining in the final analysis what ones were properly apostolic and what ones were pretenders to that title, there was some debate about the authenticity of the book of Hebrews. And from the records of history, we get the idea that the thing that settled the controversy once and for all in the church was the conviction that Hebrews was written by the Apostle Paul. And yet almost no scholar in the twentieth century would argue that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews because the literary style, the vocabulary and the like, and even some of the thematic organization is so different from his customary style. But in any case, that raises the question, well, if Paul didn't write it, who did? And nobody knows.

Various names have been suggested – Apollos, Barnabas, Luke. Some have even argued that Priscilla wrote this book. But the question remains unanswered. Now, in addition to that question, we don't know to whom it was written exactly and under what circumstances. Now, that poses some significant problems in interpreting the book.

One of the big controversies with the book of Hebrews is how we understand the sixth chapter of Hebrews when it talks about those who have tasted of the heavenly gift and so on and who falling away, it's impossible to renew them again under repentance. That was the passage, incidentally, that created not only controversy in our day but controversy in the early church as to its apostolic message because it seems to suggest so obviously that people could and did lose their salvation. And that seemed to be on a collision course with the teaching of the Apostle Paul.

But again, we don't know to whom it was addressed or under what circumstances. We know that the early church was attacked from many sides with many different heresies and faced many different problems. And some people look at Hebrews and say, oh, the author of Hebrews is trying to answer the false teaching of the Judaizers of the first century. Other people were saying, oh no, the problem that the author is addressing is the influence of the heretical Gnostics. And still another suggestion is no, that the author of Hebrews was writing to Jewish Christians who were undergoing severe persecution.

And the problem that was being faced was the problem of what was called the first century lapsi. The lapsi were those people who caved in under the duress of persecution. We've heard of the glorious testimonies of those who went and gave their lives as a sacrifice to Christ, became human torches in the gardens of Nero, who became star attractions in the Circus Maximus as they were fodder for the lions and playthings for the gladiators. And we say the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. And early church history is replete with references to the heroic courage displayed by those early Christians who became martyrs to the cause of the kingdom of God. But not everybody was martyred. Some people, under the pressure of persecution, actually repudiated their confession and denied Christ to save their lives.

And so they were called the lapsi, those who had fallen, those who had lapsed. And so one of the suggestions for the cause of this sermons being written was to encourage saints in the midst of persecution to keep the faith and to endure to the end and to follow after this Christ who is worth everything. And so, again, the central focus is on Him at the very beginning as we read that thematic statement that ties up all of redemptive history. In former days God has spoken to us through the prophets, but now it's not just the prophet whom He has sent, but it is His own Son, the one whom He has appointed the heir of all things, the one who is the brightness of His glory. Ooh, that little phrase, if you examine it in the original language, is something that could keep us busy for several days, I'm sure, because when we think of the glory of God, we think of all of those manifestations in the Old Testament where the majesty of the invisible God is made visible outwardly through the Shekinah cloud that radiates with such intensity and such refulgence that it has a blinding character to it. And we are told over and over again that the brightness of that divine glory, when it manifests itself, outshines the sun. And what the author of Hebrews is saying is that that which makes the brightness bright in the glory of God is the second person of the Trinity, that Christ is the very brightness of His glory. And there has been no greater, more vivid, more graphic manifestation of the invisible God in the midst of humanity in all of history than that which was seen in the incarnation of the sun, who was not only the brightness of His glory, but was the expressed image of His person, not just the image of God's nature, but the image of His person.

This is God among us. And so the high Christology of the book of Hebrews is introduced in this statement, and then it is developed throughout this book. We are told, first of all, that Christ is superior to the angels, lest the Gnostic heresy prevail, which saw Jesus on the level of one of the other demiurges or angelic beings that are part of the created order. Christ is not an angel. He is the creator of angels, and He is Lord over the angel. And then we are given the comparative analysis in the book between the leading figure of the Old Testament, Moses, and Jesus, as the two covenants are being set now in comparison and contrast.

And of course the contrast is not between the good and the bad, but between, it's really a comparison, between the good and the better. And Moses was a faithful servant in the house of God, the author tells us, but Christ was the owner of the house. He came to His Father's house.

He's a son in the house, not a hired servant in the house. And then the superiority of Christ's priesthood is worked out through several chapters, and it has two basic foci in it. In the first place, we remember that the high priest in the Old Testament was the one who made the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement for the people, and that that sacrifice had to be repeated annually.

And number two, the sacrifices that were accepted by God were accepted on the basis of their representation, of their sign character, because as the author of Hebrews tells us, in reality the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. And so what the author is telling us here is that all of the ceremonies, all of the rituals of the Old Testament that focused on atonement and upon sacrifice were all representing as shadows the reality that was to come that would be compressed in the perfect sacrificial offering that is made by the perfect high priest once and for all through the sacrifice of Christ Himself, who does have intrinsic merit to offer to the Father that cannot even be remotely approached by the blood of bulls and goats. And secondly, the author has to answer the question of the priesthood of Christ as it relates to the Old Testament tradition.

In the Old Testament, the priesthood was called the Aaronic priesthood or the Levitical priesthood in that Aaron was the first high priest, and he was from the tribe of Levi, and so in order to serve in the priesthood, one had to be from the tribe of Levi, and that's why it's called the Levitical priesthood. And yet here in the book of Hebrews, Christ is exalted as the long-promised King of the kingdom of God who would come from the tribe of Judah, and now here He is being celebrated as the great high priest. Well, if the kingly line comes from Judah and the priestly line comes from Levi, how can Christ fulfill both of these ideals?

Because He can't be from both tribes, and we know that He's from the tribe of Judah, as He is the Son of David. Well, that's why we have this lengthy discussion in Hebrews about the priesthood of Melchizedek, and the author tells us that Christ was a priest not of the Aaronic priesthood and not of the Levitical priesthood, but of the line of Melchizedek, of which we hear almost nothing in the Old Testament, and then develops the case that the priesthood of Melchizedek is not an inferior priesthood to that of Aaron or to the Levites, but is indeed a superior priesthood. And to prove that point, the author of Hebrews goes back to the Old Testament and speaks of the incident when Abraham meets this mysterious character, Melchizedek, whose name means king of righteousness and who is described as the king of Salem or the king of peace. And in that encounter, Abraham pays a tithe to Melchizedek, and Melchizedek blesses Abraham. And in Jewish tradition, it is the inferior who pays the tithe to the superior, and it is the superior who gives the blessing to the inferior.

And so, since in that transaction, Melchizedek is seen as superior to Abraham, and since Levi is a descendant of Abraham, it follows QED that Melchizedek is superior to Levi. And so, what we have here is the one who is superior to the prophets, the one who is superior to the angels, the one who is superior to Moses, the one who is superior in glory and in function to the high priesthood of Aaron, Christ Himself, who brings all these all these things together. And so, the book of Hebrews, after taking us through this excellence of the work of Christ, then gives the strong admonition that we not be content with elementary things, that we not be as children who are satisfied with milk, but that we begin to develop a mature understanding of the things of God, that we taste of the meat of the truth of God and from that, that we persevere to the end, being faithful to the ministry of Christ, no matter how many afflictions or how much persecution befalls us, because the theme here is so great a salvation. The author reminds his readers of the shortcomings of the people of Israel in the Old Testament, whom God visited with judgment because they took lightly the redemption and deliverance that God had provided for them in the Exodus.

They murmured against Him in the wilderness and so on. And so, all of those things are revisited by the author of Hebrews and said, now wait a minute, if God judges Israel because they didn't listen to Moses, how much more serious is it if we fail to take heed to this visitation of the one who is the Son Himself? And he summarizes it with this exhortation and this warning, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?

I want to say something to people that there's hardly a day goes by that I don't hear somebody say to me, what's the big deal about Jesus? I can get along fine without Jesus. I don't believe in a God who is so narrow that He requires only one way to salvation. What difference does it make what our religion is?

And there is this antipathy in our culture against anything that claims exclusivity, anything that claims one right way. It's just downright un-American and undemocratic to assume that there's only one mediator between God and man and only one Savior that can satisfy the demands of the justice of God. And so, what is done here, it just drives me crazy when I hear people talk about Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha, and I want to say, how can you mention Jesus of Nazareth in the same breath with Mohammed? Did Mohammed make an atonement for your sins? Was Buddha the very brightness of His glory?

Was Confucius the incarnation of God Himself? Have you no sense of the greatness of the salvation that God has given to you in Jesus Christ? And if we are not satisfied with that, if we protest that God has not done enough, that He's been too narrow-minded and not broad-minded enough to accommodate all of our own preferences, and so you neglect the riches of Christ. The author of Hebrews asks the rhetorical question, how can you escape? Escape what? How can you escape the judgment of God if you neglect so great a salvation? It's rhetorical because the answer is obvious.

The answer is you can't. And then the author canvases the history of those who were devoted to the true things of God and who paid in many cases with their lives, who were eaten by lions and cut in half and had their heads dashed against the stone and were martyred in this manner and in that manner, and then goes through the roll call of the heroes of faith who lived a life of faith in the midst of an unbelieving world, people like Abraham, people like Rahab, people like Joseph, people like David, people like Gideon, and so on. And we go through that roll call of the saints, and it is followed by the supreme exhortation, seeing then that we are encompassed by such a cloud of witnesses. Then the call to perseverance. We have not yet resisted to blood, but we are to live in faith.

That was R.C. Sproul, and you're listening to the Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind. What are you studying in the Bible this year? If you haven't yet decided on a Bible reading plan, I've compiled a list of options, including our table talk Bible reading plan on Ligonier's website. Simply visit ligonier.org and search for Bible reading plans, and you'll see my post with all the links to various options. Another help for you in your study is the series you just heard, Dust to Glory.

Over the course of 57 messages, R.C. Sproul walks you from Genesis to Revelation to help you get an overview of the entire Bible and a deeper understanding of each book. And as you'll gain digital access to the series, in addition to the DVD, you'll easily be able to jump back to Genesis if that's where you've begun the year, or skip forward if you're continuing a plan from last year. Request your copy today when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org, or by calling us at 800 435 4343.

Thank you for your support and your generosity. One final note, Table Talk magazine has a Bible reading plan. I just mentioned it before, and each month, in addition to the daily devotions and Bible studies, there are articles on different topics to help you live the Christian life well and think deeply and biblically about important subjects.

You can read articles online now at tabletalkmagazine.com, or you can get a free three month trial at tritabletalk.com. Join us next time as R.C. Sproul looks at the letters of James, Peter and John, here on Renewing Your Mind. you