Hebrews 9:1-10

The writer now moves on to show how the earthly tabernacle has been superseded. This is the tabernacle which Moses set up. The consecrated bread provided the entrance to the Most Holy Place, this was called the Holy Place. Likewise, the sacrifice of Jesus provides the entrance to God's presence. Just as the Holy Place was the entrance, the sacrifice of Jesus is clearly important and vital, but we must never lose sight of the fact that it is the entrance to something even greater.

Under the Law only the High Priest could enter the Most Holy Place. This contained various holy items from the exodus.

The normal priests carried out their duties in the outer room, only the high priest could enter the inner room, and he could do that only once a year. Each time he entered, a sacrifice had to be made, both for the sins of the people and for his own sins. This severe restriction on entrance was used by the Holy Spirit that entrance to the presence of God was not made possible by the Law. You see, the goal of God is that we live in His presence. It is God's goal that we are in His presence. Whatever circumstance we are going through in life, we should remember and be encouraged by the fact that God wants us to know His presence.

Hebrews 8:7-13

Having dealt with the need for a new priesthood, the writer now turns to the need for a new covenant. Equally importantly it shows that God always intended there to be a new covenant. The recurring message of Hebrews is that the Old Covenant was always intended as an overture to the main event. It contained the themes of the real thing, but was never intended to be the finished article.

To demonstrate this the writer quotes from Jeremiah 31:31-34. In this God declares that He will make a new covenant, and why there was a need for a new covenant. The problem with the Old Covenant was the sin of the people. Sin had to be dealt with because the result of sin was that God turned away from the people. A common misconception is that the gospel says that sin does not matter, nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus had to go the cross because it was the only way to deal with the problem of sin.

The two key features of the new covenant would be (i) God would put His laws on our hearts and minds; and (ii) He would forgive our sins. This is what the gospel is about, and it is crucial that it is about both. It is not just about being forgiven, and it is not just about becoming a better person. It is about both of these, and we become better because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Hebrews 8:1-6

An ounce of common sense should have made them realise that the old covenant could not have been what it was all about, it could not have been the ultimate goal. Likewise in life we go through many experiences, which may contain many good things, but they also contain many imperfections. These things are staging posts on the way to the final destination.

Jesus Christ is the High Priest who serves in the very presence of the Father. He serves in the sanctuary created by God, not in one created by man. It was right and proper for the man-made sanctuary to be set up, for God had commanded it, but it was only for a time. In the church there are times when it is right to set up organisations or missions, but they are only staging posts, and become a hinderance if we make them into an idol. For instance, a new church or grouping may be set up for it allows some aspect of God's glory to be demonstrated, but then we make it the be all and end all, and instead of being a help it is a hinderance. We need to realise that God's plans are infinitely greater and better than ours.

So the earthly sancurary was a mere shadow. In the same way the new covenant is infinitely better than the old one, as we shall see in the next section.

Hebrews 7:20

The writer emphasises the superiority of the new priesthood by drawing attention to the fact that God swore an oath. The new priesthood would last forever.

Jesus is the guarantor of the better covenant. When we look at things and they seem grim, and we cannot see how things will work out, we must llok to Jesus. He is the guarantee.

All the Levitival priests died, so they had to be replaced. Jesus rose from the dead and is priest forever. Today He fulfils the function of bringing us into the presence of God. And Jesus is able to ave uc completely. There are all sorts of ways in which we need saving, and Jesus saves us in every one of them. Whatever our need we can be confident in Christ.

Moreover Jesus is perfect. Any other human being may, indeed will, let us down at some point. At some point they will fail. We need to remember this in our relationships with each other. By the grace of God we can do great things to help each other, but none of us is Christ. Christ, on the other hand, will never let us down.

Hebrews 7:11-19

We now come to the nub of the argument. The Law could not make people perfect, ie it could not deal with the problem of sin. Instead it pointed the way to the solution. In a similar way Paul argued that the Law could not make anyone righteous, instead it highlighted the need for salvation.

The writer argues that if the Levitical priesthood (ie the priesthood of the Law) could make people perfect, then there would have been no need for another priesthood. Moreover, this other priesthood (Melchizedek) was mentioned before the Law came. This is similar to Abraham being counted as righteous by faith before the Law came. Salvation by faith and Jesus as high priest were principles established before the Law came. Sometimes we lazily think of Jesus being God's response to the failure of the Law. This is not so, the Law was never intended to be the means of salvation.

Furthermore, Jesus, the great high priest, was not from the tribe of Levi. This is further confirmation that the priesthood of the Law is dead. Just as Paul argued that the faith did away with the Law as a way of life, so Christ has done away with the Law as a priesthood.

Jesus was declared a priest because He rose from the dead. So the old way of the Law is discarded for it did not and could not work. We now have a better way, and this enables us to draw near to God.

Hebrews 7:4-10

Abraham was vitally important for Israel, he was the father of the nation. So if he gave Melchizedek a tenth, then Melchizedek must have been very important.

Under the Law the people had to give a tenth to the Levites, even though the Levitical priests descended from Abraham. Melchizedek, on the other hand, did not descend from Abraham. Indeed, highly unusually in the Bible, has no genealogy. As well as receiving a tenth from Abraham, he also blessed Abraham. Now the Levites did not bless the people, but Melchizedek blessed Abraham in his own right. So Melchizedek must have been greater than Abraham.

In fact as Abraham was representative of the whole Jewish nation, he was representative of the Levites. So the Levites blessed Melchizedek. The point that the writer is making here is that the Levitical priesthood was not the be all and end all. There was a greater priesthood, represented by Melchizedek.

Christmas Message

A little break from the usual today with a few brief thoughts on Christmas.

Today is the day we celebrate the coming of Christ into the world. At the time the Jews were ruled by the Romans and wanted to be free. There was also an expectation or hope of a messiah. Yet when Christ came no one really expected this. No one expected God Himself to come to earth, far less as a human being. No one expected Him to come in the way He did.

We can all look at our own lives, and for most of us there will be situations in our lives where we need salvation, and we have a vague hope of God being able to do something to help us. The God we worship is the God who will come into our lives in unexpected ways. Sometimes we spend a lot of time wondering how He will come to our aid. We need to focus more on the who rather than the how. No man could have worked out how God would come 2000 years ago. In the same way He will intervene in our lives in ways we do not expect.

And when He came He had a much greater salvation in mind for the people than the one they had. In fact He seemed to ignore the salvation they were hoping for (release from the Roman oppression). Sometimes God may seem to be ignoring your problems. If He is, it is because He has something far greater in store for us.

As Jesus said once, do not be afraid just believe.

Hebrews 7:1-3

Melchizedek is mentioned twice in the Old Testament. First in Genesis 14 where he meets Abraham after Abraham has fought several kings and rescued Lot. Melchizedek brings bread and wine to Abraham and blesses him. Abraham gives Melchizedek one tenth of his takings. It also states that Melchizedek is priest of God Most High.

The other reference is in Psalm 110, the most messianic Psalm in the Bible. In verse 4 it says that "You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek".

Apart from these references, Hebrews is the only other place where Melchizedek is mentioned, and the writer clearly sees him to be of great importance.

Interestingly in Genesis 14:18 it says that Melchizedek was king of Salem. Salem was Jerusalem. Melchizedek means "king of righteousness".

So there are clearly numerous allusions to Christ. He is a king and priest, he is king of righteousness, and of Jerusalem. The messiah would be in the line of Melchizedek. He blessed Abraham, and receives gifts from Abraham. We will see how the writer delves more into this in the succeeding verses.

Hebrews 6:13-20

Just to demonstrate that what he was just said is not meant to induce anxiety and uncertainty in us, the writer now emphasises the certainty of God's promise.

Abraham make frequent appearances in the Bible, especially the New Testament, as the one through whom God started His plan. Abraham is a key figure for Paul, and is no less so for the writer of Hebrews. When God made His promise He said "I will". Now God is God, so we can take Him completely at His word.

We forget how dangerous and radical a step the early Christians, and the early Jewish believers in particular, had taken in turning to Christ. They were going against the established religion of the time, which is why the writer here refers to them having fled. But they had fled to a certain hope. There are times when we can feel uncertain or feel ourselves to be at risk, but we can be completely confident. God has made a promise and He will keep that promise.

For the world the future is uncertain, for us it is sure. Our hope is an anchor. The guarantee of the final outcome helps us to remain true and steadfast in the present. And this hope goes into the inner sanctuary of God. This has been achieved through the priesthood of Christ, to which the writer will now turn.

Hebrews 6:9-12

Even though we speak like this ... The purpose is not to scare the readers to death, but to spur them on. His goal is that the people enjoy the salvation that Christ has won for them. If we take a casual attitude towards salvation we will never enjoy the riches that Christ gained for us, but if we take things seriously then we will. In particular if we take the consequences of falling away seriously, then we will enjoy the security of our salvation all the more, and will not fear falling away.

Verse 10 is yet another example from the Bible that there is no conflict between working hard for God, and salvation by faith. What we do with our lives matters, and it makes a difference to the way He treats us. Yet this in no way means that we earn His love. If you have children consider this. You love them, full stop. Yet the way you treat them, the way you can show your love to them is very much influenced by their behaviour and attitude. If one child is more badly behaved than another, it does not mean you love them less, but the way you interact with them will inevitably be different. So it is with our relationship with God.

So we are to be continually diligent, this will make our hope sure. We are to ensure that we are not lazy. If we want to experience the promises of God, then we need to continue on faith and obedience. When we do this, we will not boast about out works, but rejoice all the more in God's grace.

Hebrews 6:1-8

 The writer lists a few of the things he considers to be "elementary teachings". TNIV has "instructions about cleansing rites", other versions translate this as "instructions about baptisms". The TNIV has used this translation in order to clear up confusion about "baptisms", and is probably accurate. When we hear the word baptism, we normally think of baptism as the initiation into the church. However, at the time various religions had ceremonial washings of various types, and the teaching referred to here is probably about the different between Christian baptism and

Verses 4-6, and similar passages, cause some people problems because they ask "can people fall away?". Well the clear answer from the Bible is yes. From beginning to end it is full of people falling away. Adam and Eve fell. King Saul fell away, Judas fell away. Paul's letters refer to people who fell away. Bible passages on the last days talk about people falling away.

Does this mean that we should live in a state of constant uncertainty, wondering if we will manage to make it to the end? Absolutely not. That demonstrates a lack of faith. I can be absolutely sure that God will complete the work He has started in me. I need to continue in faith, but I will not succeed because I try, but I try because I have faith. The success depends upon Christ.

So people can and do fall away. The next problem is where the writer says it is impossible for them to be brought back to repentance. Does this mean that once someone has fallen away that is it, they are lost forever? Well we have to say no. For just as the Bible is full of examples of people falling away, it is even more full of examples of people coming back. Jesus Himself spoke about lost sheep. However, verses 4-6 make it clear that the writer is talking about people who have had a full experience of God. Some people who fall away, never really knew God in the first place.

The purpose of the writer here, as in the whole book, is to stress the importance of taking God seriously, and to warn against a fast and loose attitude. It matters how we live, it matters how we respond to the gospel.

Hebrews 5:11-14

The writer will shortly return to Christ's priesthood and Melchizadek, but before he does that he has some strong words for them.

Verse 11 contains a great point on learning. It has hard to teach them because they do not try to understand. This principle can be applied to all learning. Today there is constant emphasis on the quality of teaching in schools and universities, but very little on the quality if learning, very little on the approach of the students and pupils. I lecture in a University and constantly seek (well pretty often, maybe not constantly) to improve the quality of my teaching. However, I could deliver the most wonderful module ever, it would not guarantee that the students would learn anything. Conversely, I could make a complete Horlicks of the job, yet a student could be their own efforts still learn way more than the student with the excellent me.

If we are to learn then we need to make an effort. The writer then goes on to say that they ought by now to know quite a lot. We should seek to grow in faith. Note that the goal is not academic knowledge, but so that we can "distinguish good from evil".

"Teaching about righteousness". This is understanding how we come to have right standing with God. Many of us also lack this understanding. The two most common fallacies are (i) that we achieve it by trying our best; and (ii) that we achieve it by "faith". Now the last bit may upset some of you, but note that, before you decide to stone me, I put "faith" in inverted commas. We do not achieve it by simply having said the right words at some point in our life. The next chapters will reveal a lot more about this.

Hebrews 5:1-10

The writer now takes his first look at the priesthood of Christ, proving that it is far superior to that of the Levitical priests. First he reminds the readers of what a priest is. A priest is chosen from among the people; he represents them in matters related to God; and he presents gifts and sacrifices on their behalf for their sins. He must also be able to deal gently with people, understanding their weaknesses. He is able to do this because He is subject to the same things. The Levitical priests understood this because they were sinners like the rest of us. This also meant that they had to offer sacrifices for their own sins. Finally, a priest could not appoint himself, but must be called by God. Aaron, the first priest, was appointed by God, and the Levites were priests by birth, no one else could become a priest.

The writer then shows how this applies to Christ. God declared him to be a priest. He quotes again from Psalm 2, and from Psalm 110, making the first reference to the enigmatic Melchizadek.

Jesus offered prayers and petitions for people. And He did this with fervour, they were not always quiet prayers. There is also reference here to Gehtsemane. Jesus went through enormous agonies both before and during the cross.

Jesus learned obedience through suffering. This does not mean that He was disobedient before this happened. Jesus experienced things that we experience, He was fully human, but he overcame them. He did not overcome them because He was a superior being, but because He was the man that God always intended us to be. And so He became the great high priest, able to save us.

Hebrews 4:14-16

Normally we would be terrified at the thought of someone knowing every thought and motive that we have ever had, for all of us have some pretty awful thoughts that go through our mind. Yet the writer sees this as good news. Why? It is because the God who knows everything is the same God who went to the cross for us, knowing exactly what we were like, yet was without sin.

Moreover, He did not come to earth as some super being, but as a man, so He knows what it is like to be human. If anyone else did know all things about us then we would be right to be terrified, but in Jesus we have a great high priest. We can approach the throne of grace with confidence. For we do not need to fear that He might find out something terrible about us, He already knows it all. In fact He knows us better than we know ourselves. Yet knowing this He was still prepared to die for us. In fact it is because we are so much in need of salvation that He went to the cross for us.

We do not need to hide anything. Christianity is the only true religion, for it faces up to the real truth. So we can run to the throne of grace, looking to receive help and mercy in our time of need.

As a footnote, no one else could be trusted with the knowledge that God has of us. If anyone else had the same degree of knowledge they would either misuse it, or would not know how to handle it. That is why privacy is so important, and why prying governments are to be avoided.

Hebrews 4:12,13

Mention of the word of God links back to "today if you hear His voice". Religion so often treats the word of God as if it was dead, just something from the past. Or religion becomes merely a habit. This can apply equally well to traditional or less traditional churches. Likewise, people from traditional churches can know the reality of the living word of God as someone from a charismatic church.

The word of God affects our lives. More than that it gives life. Also its affect is not just dictated by our response to it (though this is of course very important!), it has a life of its own. At creation God spoke, and there was. The word penetrates deep into our soul. In the words of the old beer advert, it reaches parts that nothing else can. We can be aware of deep problems in our lives, rooted deep within ourselves. We should not feel hopeless or helpless, for the word of God can reach into the deepest parts of ourselves.

The word then sorts out what is really what in our lives. And God knows everything about us, every thought, attitude, motive and fear.

Hebrews 4:6-11

The reasoning used seems rather strange to us, but we need to think about the problem the writer was trying to address. Before Jesus came the Jews (or at least the religious types) had a great tendency to be self-satisfied and smug about their belonging to God. They thought that because they were "children of Abraham", and God had brought them out of slavery in Egypt they were "in" with God, and that one day He would rescue them. Of course, when He did come to rescue them they nailed Him to a cross. The writer is keen to dispel any notions of complacency. For even those who had now become "Christians" could make the same mistake as their forbears. The writer is trying to get over the message that it is essential for them to actively believe.

This message, of course, applies to all peoples. All of us need to ensure that we take faith seriously. God's call is to actively believe.

In referring to Joshua he is saying that if the promised land had been "it", then God would not have spoken about "another day". The promised land was not the final destination, but a shadow of God's intention for mankind. So we need to "make every effort" to ensure we enter the true rest of God.

Hebrews 4:2-5

The writer now draws the explicit parallel with the Israelites who died in the desert. They heard the word, but did not obey the word. So hearing on its own is not enough, we need to believe the word. Belief is not just a mere intellectual or emotional response, true faith is demonstrated by the fact that it leads to obedience.

If we believe then we do enter into God's rest. We enter into right relationship with Him, and it starts to affect our whole life. But we cannot enter His rest without faith.

God's work was finished on the seventh day. Now we need to be careful how we read this, for it does not mean that God has been sitting around twiddling His thumbs for thousands or billions of years! Indeed in Christ He completed the work of salvation. But the rest we are to enter is not something we need to create, for it has been ready since God completed creation. We do not need to make something, rather we need to enter His rest.

In life we encounter all sorts of problems and go through various agonies. In the midst of them we think we have to create something, but the truth is that the solution is already there. We need only to enter into relationship with God.

Hebrews 4:1

This promise to "enter His rest" seems strange to us, producing images of passivity in our mind. In the same way we have very little concept of what Sabbath is all about, tending to (i) think of it just as a day when we go to church; (ii) think it irrelevant; or (iii) change it into a legalistic nightmare. It is interesting that so many of Jesus' conflict with the religious authorities happened on the Sabbath, and centred on the Sabbath. Jesus saw the Sabbath as a day on which to set people free, not to bind them up.

Entering His rest means entering into peace with God. Life for the most part is, to varying degrees, a battle. This is because we are not at peace with God. We need to rest from our own work and trust in Him. Now all went wrong because of our sin, hence the battle. We do not achieve perfect unity with God in an instant. When we are united with God we will still do stuff. Jesus had perfect peace with His Father, and He did a lot, and achieved more than any of us.

We need times of rest. Times when we deliberately set aside all our concerns. This is an act of faith, saying that even though we rest, we know that God still provides. Note that this is just for one day. Resting from our labours every day is not faith, it is laziness!

However, the main point here in Hebrews is that the promise of entering God's rest still stands, the way is still open, so we had better make sure that we do not miss it.

Hebrews 3:14

We have come to share in Christ. We are part of Him, and we share in what He achieved, but we have to hold firmly. People sometimes debate about "once saved always saved". This really is a lot of nonsense.  There are two things that the Bible is absolutely clear about:

• We are to live with a confidence and peace in Christ.
• We must persevere, and it matters how we live.

One side of the debate worries about us living in fear that we might not be saved, or might lapse into earning our salvation. The other side worries about people thinking they can live however they like. We get into a problem because we elevate intellect above faith. We think that if we have absolute peace about salvation we will live however we like, or if we persevere we will not have peace. We should do both.

The writer draws attention to the experience of the Israelites, and draws two clear warnings. They had been with Moses, yet still died; and they had heard the word of God, yet still died. Hearing and being in the right company is not enough. We need to believe for ourselves. Then we will enter the life that God has for us.

Hebrews 3:12,13

Having quoted from the Old Testament the writer now applies the message to today. We are to guard against having a "sinful, unbelieving heart". Unbelief is sin, and we need to guard the condition of our hear. As it says in Proverbs 4:23 we should guard our heart above all things for it is the wellspring of life.

The first way of doing this that he mentions is to encourage one another. When we are discouraged we are more prone to sin's deceitfulness. Now it is clearly best to never be discouraged, and we can reduce the number of times we feel discouraged by encouraging each other. Never draw back from discouraging someone else, it is always good to be encouraged, and to encourage someone else. However, there will still be times when we become discouraged. In those times we must be on our guard, knowing that our heart and mind will lie to us. We must have a healthy distrust of thoughts and feelings that we have in those times.

Hebrews 3:7-11

The writer now turns to some harsh warnings. Why does he do this at this point? In our society we are obsessed with everyone making up their own mind, saying that everyone must come to their own conclusions and beliefs. In fact this is seen as the most important thing, but this is nonsense. Now it is true that people do have the "right" to believe and think what they want, and you cannot and must not force someone to believe something, but it is vitally important what we believe. The choice is to believe and obey the truth, or to believe a lie. If we live by te truth we will live, if we follow a falsehood we will die.

The writer quotes from Psalm 95. The Psalm begins with acclamation of praise for God and His great creating acts, and then says let us bow down before Him for we are the sheep of his pasture. This is followed by the warning quoted here. The Israelites who came out of Egypt saw God do many mighty acts, yet they refused to believe in Him. So they failed to enter the Promised Land.

Note why they failed to enter. It was not because God said "you shall not enter". In fact God took them to the border and told them to go in, but they refused to enter, refusing to believe that God could give them victory over the enemies. Likewise, every man and woman is invited into God's kingdom, people only fail to enter if they make the wrong choice.

Hebrews 3:2-6

Moses was a forerunner, or type, of Jesus. He illustrated some of the features that Jesus would have, but, like the law, he was only a shadow of the real thing. This is a helpful way to view much of the Old Testament, it hints or foreshadows at what was to come.

Moses brought the people out of slavery in Egypt, and led them to the promised land. He took them to a Sabbath rest. This latter point will be focused on in the next chapter. Jesus brought us out of slavery to sin and death, and into a new life.

Both Jesus and Moses were faithful to God's calling, but Jesus was more faithful. Moses had failings, and ultimately was not allowed to actually take the people into the promised land. Jesus completed everything to perfection. Jesus is the builder of the house, Moses was part of the house.

We too are part of the house that Jesus is building. Moses was a servant, Jesus is a Son. He owns the house He is building. But we need to hold on to our hope and confidence.

Hebrews 3:1

Having demonstrated that Jesus is greater than the angels, the writer now turns to demonstrating that He is greater than Moses, then Joshua, and then all the high priests. Any thinking that sees Jesus just as a good man is utterly deluded and mistaken.

We share in the heavenly calling, This means we have been called to enjoy the presence of God. We are to focus above all else on Jesus. He is our apostle and high priest. Apostle means one who is sent. In the  gospels Jesus makes repeated reference to the fact that He was sent by the Father. The high priest was the only one who could enter into the holy of holies. Under the Jewish law the high priest did this once a year on behalf of the people. Later in Hebrews the writer will show that this was only a shadow of what was to come. Jesus is the true high priest. In life we may sometimes think "if only we had someone to speak on our behalf" in some situation. In Jesus we have One who speaks to the Father on our behalf, and does so continuously.   This should change our perspective on life.

Hebrews 2:12-18

Verse 12 quotes from Psalm 22:22. This is a Psalm that tells of great suffering, but of ultimate victory, and contains many allusions to the crucifixion. So the writer is combining both the suffering of Christ and the fact that He calls us brothers.

The next two quotes come from Isaiah 8:17 and 18. In this passage God tells Isaiah not to fear what most people fear, but to fear only Him. Then Isaiah declares his faith in the Lord. It is not clear whether the writer is using it here as indicative of the response we are meant to have, or of the response that Jesus had. Both are true. Jesus did trust only in the Father, and presents us to the Father. Likewise we are meant to trust the Father, and to bring other people with us.

Jesus became human just as we are human. It was necessary for Him to do this in order to achieve the victory of the cross. The cross was not a mere demonstration of love, nor was it merely symbolic, rather it achieved something concrete. It changed the "laws" under which life works. Now the power of death has been broken, and we are free from the fear of death.

Jesus did not come to save angels, but to save people, so He became fully human. Only then could He act as our great high priest and make payment for our sins. Moreover, He is able to sympathise with us as well when we are tempted. For though He did not sin, He knows the pain of temptation.

Hebrews 2:10,11

Jesus became like us, and we will become like Him. We will share in His glory and we will become holy like Him. When it talks of us being brought to glory it includes many things, but one of the most important is that God will brings us to the same degree of moral excellences that Jesus has. Jesus was perfect, He loved us perfectly, He loved the Father perfectly, He trusted perfectly. We will be brought to the same level of faith.

Why is it "fitting" that God should make Jesus "perfect through suffering"? First, this does not imply previous imperfection. Think of it like this. Consider a mathematics graduate, they will be able to do all sorts of maths that they could not do when they were ten years old. This does not mean they were less mathematically able at that age, just that they hadn't studied lots of things yet. The suffering brought Jesus' work to completeness. The prime problem with bringing us to glory was our sin, Christ's death on the cross was the solution to this sin.

Verse 11 is amazing. We are of the same family as Jesus. Jesus is pleased to call us His brothers. Through Christ we are brought into unity with God.

Hebrews 2:8,9

At the moment we do not see everything subject to man. In fact we see man subject to all sorts of things. However, we do see Jesus. When we see Jesus we see what we should have been like, and we also see what we will become like.

Jesus is representative of man. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians, He is the second Adam. Jesus was made lower than the angels. He was subject to all that we are subject to, even to death. But now He is crowned with glory and honour. He received this honour because He was prepared to go the cross. When He went to the cross He tasted death for all of us.

The whole message here is that Jesus is representative of us all. We are not to focus on angels. If we look at angles we beings that are different from us, and that we can never become like. When we see Jesus we see what we will become like. Moreover, Jesus is greater than angels.

Hebrews 2:5-8

Having exalted Christ, the writer now turns to the humanity of Christ. Most errors boil down to either saying that while Christ is God, He was not fully human, or that while Christ was fully human, he was not God. Either of these is a perversion of the truth. Christ is both fully human and fully God.

First we come to Psalm 8, which speaks of man and his position. Man was made lower than the angels, yet is crowned with glory and honour, and everything will be put under his feet. False views of Christ also arise from a false view of man. We are the pinnacle of God’s creation. Man forgot this when he sinned, and people often desert God out of despair. We need to remember the goal that God has for us.

It is also significant that Psalm 8 uses the term son of man, for this is the somewhat ambiguous term that Christ used to refer to Himself. He did this deliberately, because anything else would have led people to day He was just a man, or that He was not really human.

Hebrews 2:1

The letter now has a series of warnings. The first one is to pay careful attention to what we have heard, ie to the message of the gospel. Some people rebel openly against the gospel, but many people just drift away. They don't deliberately reject it, they just drift. Jesus told the parable of the seed, with the two groups that started off well and then died away. One died because of opposition, the other because other things in life crowded in. The gospel affects absolutely every aspect of our lives, it has implications for everything. So we need to listen carefully.

The Law was believed to have been given by angels, hence the mention here. This does not necessarily mean that the writer is confirming this view. What he is saying is that his readers knew the law was important, and that was only given by angels. How much more important is the good news given to us directly by the Son of God?

We say that people are free to accept or reject the gospel, and this is true. But it is also true that there are consequences to our decisions. Whether we accept or reject the gospel has eternal consequences. The message was initiated by the Lord Himself, and then confirmed by the apostles who had heard Him. It is further confirmed by God Himself with signs and wonders, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Bible actually knows very little about blind faith, God repeatedly provides "proof". Nor is there any conflict between miracles and the message. The Biblical pattern is that the word is preached and taught, and God confirms it by signs and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 1:10-14

Verse 10-12 quote from Psalm 102. The words are directed to Yahweh in the original, but the writer applies them to Jesus. The Psalm also speaks of suffering, so it is apt that it is then applied to Jesus. Jesus brings together both humanity and divinity.
The Lord is eternal, whereas creation is not. There will be a new heaven and a new earth.
Finally the writer quotes form Psalm 110, the most messianic Psalm of them all, and one quoted by Jesus Himself.
The point of all these quotes is not so much to “prove” that Jesus is the Messiah, he takes that as read, but to tell the readers to stop being so stupid and stop being fixated by angels. Angels are only ministering spirits, and, moreover, they have been sent to serve us, who are inheriting salvation. We need to have a right perspective.

Hebrews 1:7-9

The quote in verse 7 comes from Psalm 104. This Psalm is all about God and His plans, and angels are merely the agents of His purpose. The people needed to have a right perspective on angels. Yes they exist, and yes they are important, but they are servants of God. Christ is the one we should worship. In Revelation the angel tells John that he is only a servant and must not be worshipped.

In contrast, he then quotes from Psalm 45. In the quote these is an ambiguity between God and the king, but this is fitting, for Jesus is both fully human and fully God. Jesus is the centre of it all, and He is exalted by the Father. The purpose of God’s plans is to glorify the Son, not angels.

We may find some of these quotes a little frustrating, for we would like a nice neat logical proof that Jesus is the Son of God, but the quotes do not provide that to our Western ears. However, to Jewish ears the quotes would be conclusive.

Many of these quotes had an immediate partial fulfilment, eg either in David or Solomon, and then their complete fulfilment in Christ. We were made in the image of God, but sin corrupted that image. Jesus showed us the man we were always meant to be, and that, in Him, we will become. So the quotes follow a pattern. We can see a glimmer of fulfilment in men, but we see the total fulfilment in Christ.

Hebrews 1:5

The writer now quotes from a number of Old Testament passages, especially the Psalms to demonstrate the superiority of Jesus. The first is from Psalm 2:7. Now we need to remember that often when a writer quotes a single verse, they may have a larger passage in mind. So it is useful to look at the whole of Psalm 2. In this Psalm David speaks of God installing His King in Zion, and making the nations an inheritance for Him. The whole Psalm is full of the idea that the king is the source of salvation, he is the one to be worshipped. The Messiah is the Son of God. Sonship here involves relationship, but also unity of purpose.
The next bit of verse 5 quotes from 2 Samuel 7:14 and 1 Chronicles 17:13. In these verse God tells David that he is not the one to build the temple, but one of his descendants. The second part of 2 Samuel 7:14 says “when he does wrong I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men”. We find this difficult, for it seems to say that the son will sin. But that is to read too much into the quotation. It is also worth noting that Jesus was punished with the rod of iron, but for our transgressions, not His own.
In verse 6 the writer quotes from the Septuagint (Greek) version of the Old Testament, showing that God wants us to worship Jesus.