Today we are beginning a new journey together in our worship services at Grace. Lord willing, we are going to travel through the book of Hebrews in the coming months. Some of you may have started your mental calculators. “Let’s see, it took about nine months for us to go through the five chapters of 1 John. Hebrews is about two and half times as long, so what’s that … Oh no, almost two years!” Well, I don’t intend for us to necessarily cover each verse or passage at the same speed. We’ll zip through some of the countryside of Hebrews, while stopping to sink a mine shaft here and there at other places.
But today, we get an overview from the pen of the author himself. These opening verses of the book are the introduction, the beginning of the entire book. But they also set before us, in seed form, the author’s great subject and focus, and that is nothing less than the Lord Jesus Christ: who he is and what he has accomplished. Here is the Savior of mankind, the Messiah, our great Prophet, Priest and King.
This letter is not addressed to a particular group of believers located in a particular church. And, due to all the language drawn from the Old Testament, it is very probably that most of those to whom this letter was first written were converts from Judaism. Although the title of this book, “To the Hebrews,” was probably added later, it demonstrates that from very early on this letter was recognized as being written to Hebrew converts, to Jewish converts to Christianity.
The occasion or reason for this letter, however, wasn’t simply to set forth an exposition that contrasted the earlier dispensation or economy of redemption with the work of Christ. The reason was the fact that these believers, by and large converts from Judaism, were being sorely tempted to leave Christianity and return to the types and shadows of Judaism. These believers were being tempted to let go of their confession, to let go of their faith in Jesus, because they were facing persecution. They had already suffered much for their faith. Beginning at verse 32 of chapter we read about what they had already suffered:
But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. (Heb 10:32-34)
It had been a hard struggle with sufferings, including, among other things, the plundering of (their) property. They had not drawn back from those who had been arrested, but rather stood side-by-side with them as partners together in the fellowship of the gospel.
And this author, this pastor to the Hebrew Christians, was himself writing as a prisoner for the sake of Christ. We read in verses 18 and 19 of chapter 13 that he urged his readers to pray for him and others in order that he might be restored to (them) the sooner. And at verse 23 he tells them that Timothy had recently been released. So this was a letter written from prison. The author knew these people, and he understood what they were facing, what he had in all likelihood had faced with them at an earlier time, and which he himself was undergoing even as he wrote to them. This was no academic exercise for either the pastor who wrote the letter or for the Christians who read the letter.
This group of believers was now wavering, considering returning to Judaism. Why? Because Judaism promised to bring relief and protection from persecution. And who was persecuting these believers?
This raises the question of the date of this epistle: when was it written? We know that this book was alluded to in the letter of Clement of Rome written to believers in Corinth in the year 95 A.D. So that’s the very latest it could have been written.
Another point of information that is often pointed to as helping establish a date is the fact that the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in 70 A.D. is not mentioned. Usually, this argument from silence is taken to mean that the Temple was still standing. But we must recognize that this is an argument from silence. In fact, the Temple is not mentioned at all, and it could be argued that the reason is the fact that it was already destroyed. In short, we simply don’t know if the Temple was still standing or not.
Yet another point bearing on the date of this letter is the identity of the author. There is a long tradition that Paul is the author, and if he was, then the letter was probably composed prior to 68 A.D., which is when Nero died, and tradition has it that Paul was executed by Nero. But verse 3 of chapter 2 speaks strongly against this tradition:
How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard.
Paul had heard the gospel directly from the Lord as he wrote in the words of Galatians 1:12. He did not receive it through another man. Obviously, the author of this book knows the Old Testament very well, just as Paul did. So this has led to other suggestions, such as Barnabas, who as Paul’s companion on the first missionary journey. But that is pure supposition.
The bottom line is that we don’t know who wrote this book. The one firm date is that it could not have been written beyond 95 A.D. But since the greatest part of persecution against Christianity in the early Church was by Judaism, and since the temptation was to flee to the relative safety of Judaism, it is likely, though we cannot be certain, that these believers were being persecuted by the Jews.
And the pastor calls upon them to follow Christ’s example:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to 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. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. (Heb 12:1-4)
So that was the occasion or reason why the pastor wrote to these fellow believers. There was persecution, and they had already suffered, and were weary. They were being tempted to let go, to abandon the true faith, and probably to return to the relative safety of Judaism. So he wrote to encourage them to hang on and to continue their race of faith, to not abandon Christianity. Rather than letting go, he exhorted them to hold fast our confession (Heb 4:14). Or again, at verse 23 of chapter 10,
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
But the pastor didn’t simply tell them, “Buck up, be men, don’t turn back.” He gave them reasons for their confidence, and this, of course, is the bulk of the entire letter. The occasion, again, was the fact that they were being tempted to let go of Christianity and flee to the relative safety of Judaism. Carried along by the Holy Spirit, this pastor sets forth reasons why that would be going backwards, abandoning the very thing which the types and shadows of the Old Testament had been pointing and for which God was preparing the world.
The pastor does this particularly by pointing to Jesus and his work as better than the Old Testament signs that were all pointing to him. Jesus is better and greater than angles through whom the old covenant was delivered. Jesus is better and greater Moses. Moses was a faithful servant in God’s house, but Jesus is the builder of the house. Jesus is better than Joshua, leading his people into the eternal rest that he himself has entered into. Jesus is a better priest, because he belongs to the order of Melchizedek, not the order of Aaron. And he is a better high priest because he offered a better sacrifice, one that truly and forever took away the sins of all his people of all ages. Jesus completed his work, while the priests of the tabernacle could never finish their work. In short, the Old Testament economy of God’s one covenant of grace was temporary and only pointed to what was to come. Now that the reality had come with Christ and the accomplishment of the work which he came to do, the temporary was passing away. There was and there is nothing more to be revealed after the unified testimony of Christ in the New Testament. Redemption has been accomplished and all that’s left is the final scene of Christ returning from heaven.
Road construction in Southern California is a fact of life. We’re glad to see progress being made and projects completed, such as the work on the car pool transition between the 55 and the 405. We look forward to the time when the work on the expansion and transition between the 57 and Highway 60 will be completed. But while road construction is ongoing, temporary lanes are constructed, temporary barriers to direct traffic and help shepherd us through the construction are set up. We understand that these are temporary necessities. They are not meant to be there forever, but will eventually be removed when the project is completed and ready for traffic. Which one of you would want to go back to the temporary roads and blockages?
Every illustration falls short, but so, too, with the unfolding of God’s great plan of redemption, his grand and gracious provision of salvation. The events in the history of God’s people, and in particular the priesthood and sacrifices of the Old Testament period were all temporary preparations that prefigured the permanent realities of salvation that Christ would accomplish. To return to Judaism would be returning to the incomplete and temporary, to those things that can not accomplish salvation, and were never meant to accomplish salvation. Rather, they were signs to the future, to the reality that was to come. Now that it has appeared in the coming of Christ, the temporary has given way to the permanent, the promises to fulfillment, the shadows to reality. To go backwards would be to let go of Jesus and to let go of salvation and the promises of God.
And in a nutshell, the opening verses of this book set forth our Savior and how much better he is and how secure believers are in him.
First note that the Christ has been from all time. The Son is the one through whom … God created the world and who is the heir of all things, verse 2, who upholds the universe by the word of his power, verse 3. This is a statement of Christ’s eternal deity as the second person of the Godhead, the eternal Son. As Paul writes at Colossians 1, beginning at verse 15,
He (God’s beloved Son) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Col 1:15-17)
Or as the Apostle John wrote in the opening words of his gospel account,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was god. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3)
God had earlier revealed himself to his people through the prophets, human prophets. He had sent many messengers to his people through the millennia. But now, as the pastor to the Hebrews relates, God sent his own Son to speak to us. The eternal Son is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. The Greek word translated in the ESV as exact imprint (or as exact representation or express image in other English Bibles) is χαρακτήρ, a word that has been transliterated into our language. It originally came from the idea of stamping an image into metal, such as striking a coin. The eternal Son is everything that God is in his deity. But as the incarnate God, the God-man, the invisible God is made visible and we see displayed for us the character or image of God himself. So during the Old Testament economy, God had sent messengers who revealed things about God. But now in Christ the very Son of God, God incarnate, had come and revealed God.
In a sense, in this opening sentence, all of sacred history is summed up. From the beginning of time God had been sending messengers to his people, from Moses to John the Baptist, all speaking God’s words that he gave them. We might say that God was sending sketches of himself as he revealed his will to men. But the messengers were forerunners, culminating in John the Baptist, the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets (cf. Mat 11:11). But now God was sending his very image in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, truly God and truly man. He is the exact representation or imprint of God, and in Jesus we see the radiance of the glory of God.
The glory of God is the inescapable “weight” of the sheer intrinsic Godness of God, inherent in the attributes essential to him as the Deity. (Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematice Theoglogy of the Christian Faith, p. 166)
In all of God’s revelation of himself, he was sketching out his glory, sketching for men who he is and how we ought to respond to him. With Christ, he sent his very Son who is exactly the imprint of the invisible God. As we read a bit ago at Colossians 1:15, he is the image of the invisible God, being deity himself.
So in this opening statement by the pastor, he sets forth the pattern he will follow throughout his letter. He will take things from the Old Testament and show how it was pointing forward to something better, something permanent, in the New Testament, particularly in the person and work of Jesus the Christ. All the prophets were pointing forward to him. When Moses was going to die, he told the Israelites that God would raise up another prophet like him, Deuteronomy 18:15. All the prophets from Moses through John the Baptist were all like Moses, revealing God’s Word and will. But the ultimate fulfillment was Jesus Christ. He is the great Prophet in whom we behold God’s glory because he is the exact representation of God himself. As we read at John 1:14,
And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
But note what Jesus the Christ did in verse 3:
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Here is Christ our great High Priest as well as our reigning King. It’s not spelled out here as it will be in detail by the pastor in chapter 2, but the entire humiliation of our Savior, from his incarnation through his death and resurrection, is summed up in this brief phrase, after making purification for sins. There’s the great work of Jesus the perfect and eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek, who offered the perfect sacrifice of himself. And he sat down. This is in contrast to the priests of Judaism in the line of Aaron and the Levitical priesthood. For them, they were continually standing as they furiously labored to offer sacrifices day after day after day, year after year, century upon century. They could never rest from their labors. But when Christ came, he offered himself, the Lamb without spot or blemish who as man could die for man and make satisfaction for sin and cleanse us from all impurity. Once the truly effectual sacrifice for sin was offered, there can be no more sacrifice. And
… when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Heb 10:12-14)
So we see all prophets and prophecy culminating in Christ, shining with all the glory of God because he is the exact image of God. He is our great Prophet. And all the high priests and all the sacrifices they offered over the millennia all pointed to Christ, the great of the tabernacle and Temple to follow all pointed to our great High Priest of an eternal priesthood, who having offered the perfect sacrifice of himself now lives forevermore to save us eternally. He is our reconciliation and in him we meet God unafraid.
But here we also see that Christ is our great King who has conquered sin and death and reigns in glory until all his enemies are placed under his feet. He is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The pastor explicitly mentions this three more times in the text (8:1; 10:12; 12:2), and the point is that Jesus reigns over all things. Whatever the trials and difficulties, Christ is seated on the throne at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Here is the summing up of all the kings of Israel who were forerunners, types of the true King who was to come. Both of the passages quoted in verse 5 are out of contexts that speak of the coming King. The first quote is from Psalm 2:7, the psalm that declares,
I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill. … I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. … Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. … Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. (Ps 2:6-8, 10, 12)
And the second Old Testament quotation found in verse 5 is from 2 Samuel 7:14. The context is God’s promise to David that God would build David’s house. That is, that he would establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Sam 7:13). The next verse is the one quoted at Hebrews 1:5,
I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
Again, we see the pastor pointing to the Old Testament preparations, the Old Testament types, even in the kings of Israel. Jesus the Christ is the true Son of David, indeed, David’s greater Son. He is the true King of all of God’s people who reigns over the nations, furthering his kingdom, protecting his people and conquering his and his people’s enemies. How could you go back to the ineffectual kings of Israel, even David and Solomon at the height of the glory days of Israel?
So here is the divine overview of the entire book in the introduction, an overview of all of sacred history and the wise, unfolding plan of the redemption of sinners through the Son of God who humbled himself, took up our nature, and accomplished all righteousness for us and through his sacrifice has cleansed us and made it possible for us to boldly enter God’s presence itself. Of course, there’s much more to speak about from this marvelous letter, but the message is, “Mission Accomplished.” Christ is the fulfillment of the types and shadows of the Old Testament.
What do we have to learn from this book? We sincerely thank the Lord that none of us at this point are suffering from persecution, not in any serious way that has meant the forfeiture of property, limb, or life. Certainly for others, this is a reality, and the exhortation and encouragements of the pastor’s words to God’s people then are as applicable as they were then: hang on, don’t let go! And surely we should not presume that the Lord will never call upon us to suffer for his name’s sake.
Obviously, we’re going to learn much as we see the way the better and permanent realities of the new covenant have superseded the old covenant, and how the new is new compared to the old.
But more than that, it brings us to Christ again and again. In is the exact representation of the invisible God. We come to Christ as our only hope, the only Mediator between God and man, the one who is the God-man. And what we see ought to cause us to fall on our knees and worship.
We spent a good amount of time asking and answering the question, “What is God?” And in Christ, we see God’s glory, full of grace and truth. As we come to him, we ought to be emboldened to enter into the very presence of God, cleansed and made clean by Christ who came and accomplished his mission as the Mediator in his offices as Prophet, Priest and King. And as we come to see him more, to know him more, to worship him more, we will be better equipped to hang on and not let go of the confession of our faith. May our journey through this book encourage us to draw near to God with full confidence of faith in the one who is God made visible, the Lord Jesus Christ.
