The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown (159 page)

First, the author affirmed the teaching of Jesus that, by definition, all true believers endure to the end (Matt 10:22 and parallel). The author stated: “For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start” (3:14). Hebrews 6:9 affirms that apostasy is not connected to salvation, that is, those who possess salvation are not those who fall away. The author asserted that Christ is able to save his own eternally because of his eternal intercession (7:25) and that believers are not among those who draw back to destruction but among those who believe resulting in the salvation of their soul (10:39). Clearly, the author of Hebrews affirmed the perseverance and eternal preservation of believers.
⁷⁷

Second, the author acknowledged that some are related to Christ only superficially. He likened these kinds of people to the wilderness generation who rebelled at Kadesh

Something to Think About: Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus

F
or Jewish people who related to God through the Mosaic law and satisfied its requirements by offering sacrifices through their priests, trusting in Christ for their salvation demanded a major paradigm shift. How could that which was so right at one point (trying to keep the law) all of a sudden be wrong, now that Christ has come? It is hard for us
—
most of whom are Gentiles
—
to understand the difficulty Jews faced in this regard.

Yet change they must
—
understanding, as Paul pointed out, that the function of the law was limited to the time before Christ. The law was a reflection of God's righteous demands, upholding a standard of holiness, but in itself it was unable to save a person; this is something only Christ could do, and that is what he did. For this reason, it is imperative that we not “neglect such a great salvation,” as the author of Hebrews exhorted his readers (2:3).

To make his case, the author built a powerful case, showing Jesus' superiority to the angels (who had mediated the law at Sinai), to Moses (through whom God had given the law), and to the OT priesthood (who had administered the sacrificial system prescribed in the law). The author showed how Jesus mediated a new covenant by serving as a priest of a different order than the Levites, a priest of the order of Melchizedek
—
a priest who would never die again.

As the author's point nears its climax, he launched a most daring proposal. In chap. 11 (the “Hall of Faith”) the author stated that it is Jesus in whom he exhorted his readers to place their trust
—
this same Jesus on whom some of the greatest OT believers already had fixed their eyes, including Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, and even Moses himself!

How can this be? It is so because all these people did not live by sight but by faith
—
faith in the God who could raise the dead (11:19), faith in the God who would lead his people to the land he would show them (11:10), faith in the God who would save those who believed in him apart from works through faith. This is how even an OT believer such as Noah “became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (11:7).

If even OT believers, then, rightly understood, were believers, not only in God but, in a sense
, already also in Jesus,
how much more must people
—
now that Jesus has come and died and sat down to rest from his work at the right hand of God
—
fix their eyes on Jesus, “the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame” (12:2)?

“Therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. …For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you won't grow weary and lose heart” (12:1-3).

Barnea (Numbers 13—14), noting that they heard the word but that this hearing did not meet with faith (4:2). In fact, the author described their actions in terms of rebellion (as does Psalm 95, which he quoted), and to be like these disobedient individuals is to have “an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God” (3:12). Thus the author contrasted
his hearers as falling either in the category of those who perished in the wilderness or under the rubric of those who believed and were allowed to enter God's rest, namely Joshua and Caleb. The all-important contrast, then, is between those who trusted in God and his promise and those who were connected to God only nominally, those who in truth resembled a fruitless field good only for being burnt (6:8).

The Benefits of the Sacrificial Death of Christ
Hebrews depicts the death of Christ as the superior ultimate sacrifice, offered once for all (7:27; 8:26), and sealed by Jesus' ascension to the right hand of the heavenly throne (1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2). His sacrifice is the blood of the new covenant (9:15—17; see Jer 31:31—34).
⁷⁸
Now that the promised new covenant has been enacted, the old covenant—which was intended to be temporary from the beginning, only a shadow of the good things to come—has been made obsolete (8:13).

The description of the new covenant is vitally connected to the purpose of the letter in at least two ways. First, because of the inauguration of the new covenant in Christ, reverting back to the old covenant is an invalid option. Since there is no sacrifice for sins other than the one made by Christ, it is vital to hold fast to one's Christian confession (4:14; 10:23). Second, because the stipulations of the new covenant are unconditional, believers have unprecedented access to God and should take advantage of this to move on to maturity (3:16; 10:19-22).

Hebrews pictures the death of Christ with its “soteriological, psychological, and social benefits.”
⁷⁹
The author referred to Christ's death in terms of its typological fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. The sacrifice includes not only his death on the cross, but also his ascension into heaven to present the blood of his sacrifice before the Father in the heavenly tabernacle (4:14; 7:26), and, ultimately, his intercession for believers is an ongoing reality (7:25). What is more, psychologically, the death of Christ also cleanses the conscience of those who come to him (9:14) on the basis of the actual cleansing of human sins accomplished at the cross (10:14).

Finally, there are social benefits to the death of Christ as well. Since the sacrifice is the blood of the new covenant, all the benefits of that covenant are available to participants, including knowing God: “For all will know me, from the least to the greatest of them” (8:11 NASB). What is more, on the basis of believers' access to God through the blood of Christ, they are encouraged to assemble together to spur each on to love and good works (10:23—25). Because of the believers' response of faith, they are in direct continuity with believers of all time (see chap. 11). In essence, their story is not complete until our story is finished (11:40).

The Nature of Discipleship
In Christian circles, discipleship is often treated as a series of disciplines practiced by the believer. The author did refer to several Christian disciplines (e.g., 13:15—19), yet not as the means but as the result of progressing toward maturity. At the conclusion of the letter, the author petitioned God to equip his readers “with all that is good to do His will, working in us what is pleasing in His sight” (13:21). The last phrase suggests that accomplishing the will of God is a matter of God effecting in believers the ability to accomplish his will.
⁸⁰
This is reminiscent of 6:1, which properly reads, “Let us be carried on to perfection” (author's translation), a divine passive indicating that God will move his children on to maturity on the premise that they have not become sluggish (5:11).

This seems to build on the nature of the new covenant, in which God does all the foundational work. He writes the law on believers' hearts and reveals himself to those who have entered into covenant with him. In this covenant those who participate are equipped to do God's will. Believers, above all, need endurance, which they are already promised (3:14). Thus, the exhortations in chaps. 10—12 construe the nature of discipleship as running a long-distance race with endurance. Believers are to be like Abraham, who was “looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (11:10). They must look to Jesus for their supreme encouragement (12:1), for the call to follow him is a call to follow him in suffering. Thus, in the midst of all the pressures faced by believers, they are admonished to “go to Him outside the camp, bearing His disgrace. For here we do not have an enduring city; instead, we seek the one to come” (13:13—14).

CONTRIBUTION TO THE CANON

• The definitive revelation and redemption brought by Christ (1:1—4; 7:27; 8:26)
  
• Christian perseverance and the warning passages (e.g., 2:1—4)
  
• The eternal high priesthood of Christ (4:14-5:10; 7:1-28)
  
• The superiority of the new covenant over the old (8:1—9:25)
  
• The example of faith by OT believers (chap. 11)
  

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. What is the evidence against the Pauline authorship of Hebrews?
   
2. What do we know about the author?
   
3. What seems to be the latest possible date for Hebrews, and why?
   
4. What are the likely destination and audience of Hebrews?
   
5. What is the purpose of Hebrews?
   
6. Why were the early church fathers in the West slow to receive Hebrews into the canon?
   
7. What are two major issues that have dominated the modern discussion of literary matters in Hebrews?
   
8. Are the hermeneutics of Hebrews Jewish or Greek?
   
9. What devices of Greek rhetoric does the author employ?
   
10. Why is it difficult to ascertain the structure of Hebrews?
    
11. What is the major source of theology for the author of Hebrews, and how was it interpreted?
    
12. What is the major role attributed to angels in Hebrews 1 and 2?
    

FOR FURTHER STUDY

Attridge, H. W.
The Epistle to the Hebrews.
Hermeneia. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989.

Bateman, Herbert W., IV, gen. ed.
Four Views on the Warning Passages in Hebrews.
Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2006.

Black, D. A. “The Problem of the Literary Structure of Hebrews: An Evaluation and Proposal.”
Grace Theological Journal 7
(1986): 163-77.

Bruce, F. F.
The Epistle to the Hebrews.
New International Commentary on the New Testament. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.

Ellingworth, P.
The Epistle to the Hebrews.
New International Greek New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.

France, R. T. “Hebrews.” Pages 17—195 in
The Expositor's Bible Commentary.
Rev. ed. Vol. 13:
Hebrews—Revelation.
Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005.

Guthrie, G.
Hebrews.
NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.

__________.
The Structure of Hebrews: A Text-Linguistic Analysis.
New York: Brill, 1994. Paperback edition,

Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998.

Hagner, D. A.
Encountering the Book of Hebrews: An Exposition.
Encountering Biblical Studies. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002.

__________.
Hebrews.
New International Biblical Commentary. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1990.

Hughes, G.
Hebrews and Hermeneutics: The Epistle to the Hebrews as a New Testament Example of Biblical Interpretation.
Society of New Testament Studies Monograph Series 36. Cambridge: University Press, 1979.

Hughes, P. E.
A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977.

Hurst, L. D.
The Epistle to the Hebrews: Its Background and Thought.
Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 65. Cambridge: University Press, 1990.

Isaacs, M. E.
Sacred Space: An Approach to the Theology of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement 73. Sheffield: JSOT, 1992.

Johnson, L. T.
Hebrews: A Commentary.
New Testament Library. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2006.

Käsemann, E.
The Wandering People of God: An Investigation of the Letter to the Hebrews.
Translated by R. A. Harrisville and I. L. Sandberg. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984 [1957].

Lane, W.
Hebrews.
Word Biblical Commentary 47A-B. 2 vols. Dallas: Word, 1991.

__________.
Hebrews: A Call to Commitment.
Peabody: Hendrickson, 1998.

Lehne, S.
The New Covenant in Hebrews.
Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement 44. Sheffield: JSOT, 1990.

Lindars, B.
The Theology of the Letter to the Hebrews.
New Testament Theology. Cambridge: University Press, 1991.

Peterson, D.
Hebrews and Perfection: An Examination of the Concept of Perfection in the “Epistle to the Hebrews.”
Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 47. Cambridge: University Press, 1982.

Trotter, A. H., Jr.
Lnterpreting the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Guides to New Testament Exegesis. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997.

Vanhoye, A.
Structure and Message of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Subsidia Biblica 12. Rome: Editrice Pontificio

Istituto Biblico, 1989. Westfall, C. L.
A Discourse Analysis of the Letter to the Hebrews: The Relationship Between Form and Meaning.

Library of New Testament Studies. Studies in New Testament Greek 11. New York: T&T Clark, 2005.

¹
L. D. Hurst (
The Epistle to the Hebrews: Its Background of Thought
, SNTSMS 65 [New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990], 1) even described the book as “something of a joke—a joke played upon a church obsessed with finding complete certainty about its origins.” D. A. Black (“The Problem of the Literary Structure of Hebrews,”
Grace Theological Journal
7 [1986]: 164) noted that the book today frequently has become a collection of prooftexts and memory verses.