Hebrews

     "God, after He spoke to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways," Hebrews 1:1-2 explains, "in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world."
     The Jews of the first century need to understand several things.  They need to accept the divinity of Jesus.  They need to know that we are saved through faith and not by keeping the commandments of the Old Law.  They need to face the reality of judgment for all people, including themselves.  And they need to recognize that the Old Law has been replaced by a new covenant.
     So the Holy Spirit inspires a writer, perhaps Paul, to draft an epistle to the Jews.  We know this letter as the New Testament book of Hebrews.
     As we notice from the passage we just read, the Hebrew writer claims that God made the world through Jesus.
     "All things came into being through Him;" John 1:3 says of Jesus, "and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being."
     "For in Him all things were created," we read about Jesus in Colossians 1:16-17, "both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things have been created through Him and for Him.
     "And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together."
     In both of these Scriptures, the involvement of Jesus in the creation is mentioned in association with His deity.  It is no surprise, then, to find the same association in the first chapter of Hebrews.
     "And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature," Hebrews 1:3 explains about Jesus, "and upholds all things by the word of His power.  When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."
     "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever," verse eight quotes concerning Jesus.
     "For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses," Hebrews 3:3 explains, "by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house."
     Jesus has more honor than Moses because Jesus is the builder of the house.
     "For every house is built by someone," verse three notes, "but the builder of all things is God."
     So the Jews need to accept the divinity of Jesus, including His participation in the creation.  By the way, it is popular among those who want to compromise the Bible with scientific theories to make the statement that the Bible tells what happened and evolution explains how it was done.
     "For when they maintain this," 2 Peter 3:5 says of scoffers, "it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water."
     Does this verse support millions and even billions of years of slow development, or does it say that God spoke the world into existence?  What do we learn from the book of Hebrews?
     "By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God," Hebrews 11:3 stresses, "so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible."
     This last verse leads us to the second thing the Jews need to understand: that we are saved through faith and not by keeping the Old Law.
     Paul points out in Romans chapter four that Abraham was justified by his faith.
     "For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith," we read in verses 13-14.
     "For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified."
     "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for," Hebrews 11:1 states, "the conviction of things not seen."
     "And without faith it is impossible to please Him," verse six adds, "for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."
     The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is the classic discourse on faith.  In this chapter we learn about the faith of many characters of the Old Testament.  And one of the things we learn about the faith of these men and women is that it caused them to take action as a result of their belief.
     "By faith so-and-so DID such-and-such" we read over and over through out the chapter.  This is because there are two kinds of works, and two kinds of faith.  There are works of law and works of faith, just as there is working faith and non-working faith.  As we learn in James 2:14-26, working faith is required for salvation.  In fact, this passage claims that Abraham was not justified by his faith but rather by his works of faith.
     So the New Testament does not teach in any way that there is nothing we can do to have an effect on our salvation.  Works of faith are required for salvation.  Works of law will not save us.  In other words, it is impossible to earn our salvation by observing commandments.  The Jews must understand that the Old Law has been taken out of the way and replaced by a new covenant.  We'll discuss this after a song.

     Jesus promises in Matthew 5:18 that not even the smallest letter of the Old Law will pass away until all is accomplished or fulfilled.  But He has just stated in the previous verse that His purpose is to do just that - fulfill the Law.  In Luke 24:44 Jesus explains to His disciples that all that was written about Him in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms has been fulfilled.
     There are many passages throughout the New Testament that state that the Old Law has been eliminated.
     Romans 7:4 says that we have been made to die to the Law through the body of Christ.  Verse six states that we have been released from the law.
     The third chapter of 2 Corinthians contrasts the Old and New Covenants.  According to verse seven, Paul is writing about the Law given to Moses at Mt. Sinai, including the Ten Commandments.  In this passage the first law is described as something which kills, while the second covenant gives life.  Verse 11 calls the Old Covenant that which fades away.  The second is refereed to as that which remains in glory.  The Law of Moses is compared to the veil which the lawgiver placed over his face.
     "But whenever a man turns to the Lord," verse 16 notes, "the veil is taken away."
     Paul's letter to the Galatians contains many references to the Old Law.  He writes in Galatians 3:23 that we were kept in custody under the Law until the coming of the faith which was later to be revealed.  He states in the next verse that the Law was a tutor or child-conductor to lead us to Christ.
     "But now that faith has come," he adds in verse 25, "we are no longer under a tutor."
     Galatians 4:21-31 consists of an allegory, the point of which is that Christians are not under the Old Law.
     Galatians 3:10 says that those who attempt to be saved by works of the Law are under a curse, since they are obligated to abide by ALL things written in the Law.  But James 2:10 teaches that anyone who stumbles in one point is guilty of the whole Law.  And passages such as Romans 3:9-23 make it clear that it is impossible to keep the Law perfectly.
     Paul repeats in Galatians 5:3 that anyone who keeps one element of the Law is obligated to keep the whole Law.  He also writes that Christ is of no benefit to anyone who subjects himself to the Law.
     "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law;" verse four states, "you have fallen from grace."
     According to Ephesians 2:15, "(Christ has abolished) in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances."
     Paul says in Philippians 3:9 that righteousness is not derived from the Law, but from faith in Christ.
     Colossians 2:14 points out that Christ has canceled out the Old Law and has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
     But the book of Hebrews contains more teaching than any other about the Old Law being replaced by the New.  Take time to read just chapters 7-10 to see what the Bible teaches about the Old Law.  Here are some of the adjectives used in these chapters to describe the Old Law: "changed," "set aside," "weak," "useless," "faulty," "obsolete," "growing old" and "ready to disappear."
     The New Covenant is called, "better" and "more excellent."   It is said to bring in better hope and to have been enacted on better promises.
     "For the Law," Hebrews 10:1 instructs, "since it is only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near."
     "He takes away the first in order to establish the second," verse nine says clearly.
     So the Old Law has been eliminated.  This is good, since the New Law involves Jesus as the high priest.  Hebrews 2:18 says that Jesus is able to aid those who are tempted since He Himself was tempted in that which He suffered.  Hebrews 4:15 points out that He can sympathize with our weaknesses, since He has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
     There is something else that the Hebrew writer wants to impress on the Jews: the reality of the Judgment.  The Jews of the first century are operating under the illusion that, since they have been born as the people of God, they have a free ticket to heaven.
     But, according to Hebrews 9:27, all of us will face judgment.  And verses 26-31 make it clear that judgment will not be pleasant for anyone who refuses to follow the Christ, regardless of his or her background.
     Of course, all of these things which were written for the Jews are equally valid for us.  Jesus is divine.  We can reach salvation only through a working faith.  We are to observe only the New Testament, and any attempt to add elements from the Old Law severs us from Christ and causes us to fall from grace.  And we will all stand before the judgment seat.
     "For this reason we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it," Hebrews 2:1-4 says in a timely admonition.
     "For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?  After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will."
     How shall we escape if we reject the Gospel, the truth which will set us free?

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission." (www.lockman.org)