A Study Of The Apostle Pauls Letter To The Hebrews

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AStudyOf TheApostlePauls LetterTo The
Hebrews
How can we neglect so greata salvation?
Hebrews 23
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Hebrews Christ Is Superior! Superior Person
(11413) Superior to Prophets
(11-3) Superior to Angels (14218)
but Well only study 212-18 today. Superior
to Moses (31-19) Superior to Joshua
(41-13) Superior Priest (414728) Superior to
Aaron (414612) Superior to Melchizedek
(613710) Superior to Levi (711-28)
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Hebrews Christ Is Superior! Superior Pact to
Moses (811018) Superior Promises
(81-13) Superior Sanctuary (91-15) Superior
Sacrifice (916-28) Superior Results
(101-18) Superior Principle (Faith) to Moses
(10191325) Superior Things (1019-39) Superio
r Actions (111-40) Superior Relationship
(121-29) Superior Way of Life (131-25)
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As we approach this paragraph, lets recall, in
brief, mankinds history In the beginning, God
created man in His own image and with dominion, a
dominion that included a relationship with his
Creator that none else on Earth possessed
however, God, in order to be loved by man without
an inborn com-pulsion (like animals) to do so,
provided him with a free will that man ended up
using to choose self over God. So ?
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Since man destroyed his relationship with his
Creator by choosing to commit sin, and since
through the thousands of years within the
starlight moonlight ages it was demonstrated
that no mere human could restore that
relationship, Jesus, Gods Son, then came on the
scene to mend it for him.
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In our study of 25-11, we learned that Jesus is
superior to angels because 1. He, as God and not
an angel, became human in order to mend
mans rela- tionship to his Creator, thereby
rees- tablishing mans dominion. And 2. He
was crowned as King over the kingdom which
consists of those who desire that mended
relationship with God through His Son (the
only way to have it). As we continue our
study in Hebrews 2
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Lets remember that most Jews had a really big
problem, not only with God becoming a man, but
also with Jesus being the fulfillment of the
prophecies for their Messiah and King, especially
since He died a criminals death by
cru-cifixion. Hebrews 212-18 continue the same
subject-matter as we studied in 25-11, but these
verses conclude Pauls argu-ments for the
superiority of Jesus over angels. So lets begin
with ? ? ?
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I will declare Your name to My brethren in the
midst of the con-gregation I will sing praise to
You.
Hebrews 212 ?
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I will declare Your name to My brethren in the
midst of the con-gregation I will sing praise to
You.
Since Paul just stat-ed in verse 11 that Jesus
isnt ashamed to call Christians His brethren, he
went on to support this af-firmation by using
three Old Testament quotations, the first of
which is from a familiar messianic prophecy (Psa.
2222).
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I will declare Your name to My brethren in the
midst of the con-gregation I will sing praise to
You.
To proclaim ones name simply means to speak to
people about the character of the person behind
the name.
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I will declare Your name to My brethren in the
midst of the con-gregation I will sing praise to
You.
This is obviously the phrase Paul meant to
emphasize just as David wrote hun-dreds of years
prior, the coming Messiah would unashamedly
worship a mutual Father (cf. of One inv. 11)
with a set of siblings in the New Covenant age.
Incidentally, theres no definite article before
congregation in the original, read-ing a
congregation.
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I will declare Your name to My brethren in the
midst of the con-gregation I will sing praise to
You.
And speaking of the Messiah as worship-ping with
us, Jesus Himself alluded to this idea a couple
of times. ? ? ?
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In Matthew 1820 He said, Where two or three are
gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of
them. And In Matthew 2629 He said, I will
not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on
until that day when I drink it new with you in My
Fathers kingdom.
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I will declare Your name to My brethren in the
midst of the con-gregation I will sing praise to
You.
The Greek term for this phrase is the term for
our word hymn (hymneso). It doesnt necessarily
have to mean to sing it could merely mean to
praise, as the same term is translated in Psalm
2222 and even here in some versions such as the
RSV.
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And again, I will put My trust in Him. And
again, Here am I and the children whom God has
given Me.
Hebrews 213 ?
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And again, I will put My trust in Him. And
again, Here am I and the children whom God has
given Me.
Now, lest we lose sight of it, the main point
here is that Jesus, because He became one of us,
had to depend on God just as other human beings,
not for salvation of course, but in order to be
made com-pletely qualified to lead all men to
sal-vation (v. 10).
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And again, I will put My trust in Him. And
again, Here am I and the children whom God has
given Me.
These two quotes are from Isa. 817-18 the first
one indi-cates that Jesus, as Gods Son, placed
His trust in God the Father, while the second
indicates His close link to Gods other children,
child-ren placed under His care as elder brother.
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Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of
flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in
the same, that thru death He might destroy him
who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
Hebrews 214 ?
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Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of
flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in
the same, that thru death He might destroy him
who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
This word simply means since.
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Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of
flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in
the same, that thru death He might destroy him
who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
This phrase was used by ancients to de-scribe
humanity in contrast to deity.
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Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of
flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in
the same, that thru death He might destroy him
who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
Interestingly, the original term for this word
refers to the voluntary accep-tance of humanity.
(Theres another term which refers to being born
human without the choice of being so.)
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Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of
flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in
the same, that thru death He might destroy him
who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
This original term literally means to render
inoperative or ineffective as if no longer
existing this word is render-ed as without
effect in Romans 33. In fact, the same term is
used in 1 Cor. 15 26 when Paul spoke of how the
last ene-my to be destroyed was death.
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Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of
flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in
the same, that thru death He might destroy him
who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
This original word is not the term which means
authorityits actually an antonym for destroy
while destroy means to render powerless, power is
the word for strength. Lets look at this way ?
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In Genesis 315 God prophesied that the Messiahs
heel would be wounded by Satan, while Satans
head would be crushed by the Messiah. I.e., as
God said, the Messiah would be born of woman,
meaning Hed become a man, and, as a human, Satan
would be able to wound Jesus heel through His
death on the cross however, by virtue of that
woundthat physical death, Jesus (by Gods power)
was able to crush Satans head via His
resurrection to spiritual and eternal life for
us. So ? ? ?
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Because Jesus, as a man, died, was se-parated
from God for a time for mans sins, and then rose
again to show Himself to His disciples, He
conquered the very thing that provided Satan with
an advantage over mankindspiritual and eternal
separation from God the point is that since
Satans strength or powerdeathhas been crushed,
then Satan himself has also been crushed. As
First John 38 says, the Son of God was
manifested that He might destroy the works of the
devil. Incidentally
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Jesus death, resurrection, and ascen-sion, as
well as His fulfillment of the Old Covenant, the
destruction of Jeru-salem with its temple all
conspired to bring about the crushing of Satan
to the Christians in Rome who were suf-fering
persecution, Paul encouraged them by saying that
the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet
shortly (Rom. 1620). Also notable is that ?
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Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of
flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in
the same, that thru death He might destroy him
who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
Since this word also means dominion, it brings to
mind the idea that mans do-minion at one time
included dominion over death in the sense that he
pos-sessed a wondrous relationship with his
Creator. But
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Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of
flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in
the same, that thru death He might destroy him
who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
Satan, through the introduction of sin,
essentially swindled it from man, only to have
Jesus return it to him. Theres just a condition
of hum-bly accepting it from Jesus since he (man)
couldnt regain it on his own.
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Jesus became a man that through death He might
release those who through fear of death were all
their lifetime sub-ject to bondage.
Hebrews 215 ?
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Jesus became a man that through death He might
release those who through fear of death were all
their lifetime sub-ject to bondage.
This word simply means to set free from something.
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Jesus became a man that through death He might
release those who through fear of death were all
their lifetime sub-ject to bondage.
This word is a trans-lation of the term from
which we get our word phobia a verse that
seemsfitting here is one that John wrote fear
involves tor-ment (1 John 418).
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Jesus became a man that through death He might
release those who through fear of death were all
their lifetime sub-ject to bondage.
This phrase means held in slavery i.e., humans
apart from Christ are slaves to fearthe fear of
se-paration from God for eternity which, of
course, would be sealed by physical death if
reconcilia-tion isnt achieved.
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While today it seems that most people have an
indifferent attitude towards death (along with a
rejection of God and a denial of future life) the
ancients were wise enough to fear death Job
called death the king of terrors (1814). In
Hebrews 927 Paul seems to make it clear that
theres judgment after death, so our need of
Christ to break the power of sin and Satan thru
death was necessary if were to be saved. Lets
put some thoughts together ?
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Man was created in a garden with a tree of life
but due to his free-will, God had to give him a
negative lawthe law to not eat of the tree of
know-ledge which would result in death. Eve, not
being a snake charmer, allowed the snake to charm
her instead, causing her to sin against her
Creator, thereby bringing spiritual
deathse-paration from Godupon mankind.
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Death being the result of sin was then made even
more clear and potent by means of the Law (Rom.
7), because it didnt offer salvation, only
condemna-tion (Gal. 319) this was the main flaw
of the Law (Heb. 86-7), not that the Law itself
was faulty, but (because man just couldnt
fulfill righteousness through the Law, Rom. 74)
it was inadequate to reconcile man to God. In
fact ? ?
36
Notice how Christs overcoming of death was
associated with the destruc-tion of the Law in
First Corinthians 15 56-57 The sting of death
is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law . But
thanks be to God who gives us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ. So ? ? ?
37
Jesus came on the scene as a human who lived the
Law perfectly, thereby fulfilling all
righteousness (cf. Mat. 315) as well as the
prophecies concerning the One who would bring in
a new law of grace and life, through which He
abolished the Law of sin death (Rom. 82) which
provided Satan his great advantage over mankind.
Now through Christ theres a blessing found in
the idea of death (Rev. 1413).
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For indeed He does not give aid to an-gels, but
He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
Hebrews 216 ?
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For indeed He does not give aid to an-gels, but
He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
This word is not the usual one which means truly
this one carries with it a sense of praise, as if
Paul were asking, Isnt it just totally amazing?
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For indeed He does not give aid to an-gels, but
He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
Since Paul was writ-ing to Jewish Chris-tians,
and since he had just stated in verse 9 that
Jesus died for all races, we know he used this
phrase rhetori-cally the truth is, as Paul said
in Romans and Galatians
anyoneJew or notwho choosesto place his faith
in Christ is a child of God (Gal. 39 29).
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For indeed He does not give aid to an-gels, but
He does give aid to the seed of Abraham.
As Wuest wrote, the idea here seems to be that
Jesus, in His cross did not pro-vide for the
salvation of fallen angels, but for fallen
human beings. In perfect righteousness, He passed
by fallen an-gels, and in infinite mercy
stooped to provide salvation for man. He passed
by the superior being to save the inferior.
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Therefore in all things He had to be made like
His brethren that He might be a merci-ful and
faithful high priest in all things pertaining to
God, to make propitiation for the sins of the
people.
Hebrews 217 ?
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This phrase must not be interpreted to mean that
Jesus was obliged to save man who willingly broke
bonds with God, for justice wouldve prevailed if
He hadnt done so. Rather ? ? ?
Therefore in all things He had to be made like
His brethren that He might be a merci-ful and
faithful high priest in all things pertaining to
God, to make propitiation for the sins of the
people.
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This verse explains it to mean that (due to
Jesus mercyHis desire to save us any-way) He
had to be-come human to ful-fill the requirements
of that salvation, viz. obeying or keeping the
Law perfectly.
Therefore in all things He had to be made like
His brethren that He might be a merci-ful and
faithful high priest in all things pertaining to
God, to make propitiation for the sins of the
people.
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This phrase refers, not to simulation, but to
assimilation i.e., Jesus, who is 100 deity, was
also at one time (whether we under-stand how or
not) 100 man, which, incidentally, is what in
all things means in every way like us.
Therefore in all things He had to be made like
His brethren that He might be a merci-ful and
faithful high priest in all things pertaining to
God, to make propitiation for the sins of the
people.
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This phrase means that He might be compassionate,
ren-dering Him a faith-ful high priest i.e., by
becoming and/or being human Him-self, he could
truly sympathize with us, perfectly
corres-ponding to Pauls thoughts in 415.
Therefore in all things He had to be made like
His brethren that He might be a merci-ful and
faithful high priest in all things pertaining to
God, to make propitiation for the sins of the
people.
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The high-priesthood of Christ is the key-note of
the book of Hebrews it was al-luded to in 13,
but this is the first time its mentioned
directly, setting the tone for the rest of the
book. Having shown that Christ delivered man from
the fear of death, Paul here showed that this was
accomplished in His role as high priest,
something thats very fitting since in the Old
Law the fear of death was especially associated
with the ap-proach to God of an impure worshipper
(Num. 183).
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This fear was relieved or removed by the
intervention of the Levitical priest, because it
was his duty to discharge the service of the
tabernacle that there might be no outbreak of
divine wrath on the children of Israel (Num.
185) i.e., the work of the priesthood was not
without its stress! Further ?
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Compassion as an attitude is not found in the Old
Testament. On the contrary, the fault of the
priests was their lack of sympathy for the people
(Hos. 44-9). In the latter part of Jewish
historythe New Testament times, priests
(especial-ly the Sadducees) were notoriously
un-feeling and cruel, so the idea of a
com-passionate and faithful high priest was
powerfully appealing to Jewish readers.
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This phrase (as defin-ed by the next phrase)
simply refers to Je-sus, our faithful high
priest, as fulfilling, once and for all time, the
require-ments of God con-cerning the
reconci-liation of man Jesus who is merciful to
man and faithful to God, is our sacrifice on
Earth our high priest in Heaven.
Therefore in all things He had to be made like
His brethren that He might be a merci-ful and
faithful high priest in all things pertaining to
God, to make propitiation for the sins of the
people.
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This simply means to make atonement.
Therefore in all things He had to be made like
His brethren that He might be a merci-ful and
faithful high priest in all things pertaining to
God, to make propitiation for the sins of the
people.
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The word atonement (at one ment) was created
specifically to translate a word which means to
mend a relation-ship, the relationship between
God and man (Heaven and Earth) that was mar-red
by sin as John wrote of Jesus, He is the
propitiation for our sins, and not ours only, but
also for the whole world (1 John 22). So Jesus
became like us (Heb. 217) that we might become
like Him (1 John 32). (The ideas in this verse
are expanded upon in chapter 5.)
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For in that He Himself hassuffered, being
tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
Hebrews 218 ?
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Recalling that Paul was writing to suf-fering
Christians, it only makes sense that he would
essentially ask them, And why would Jesus become
human, suffer and die for you only to forsake
you?, which, by the way, is exactly the idea he
ended the book with in 135-6.
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The point was that just because Jesus was gone
from them in the flesh, didnt mean that He was
unconcerned and uninvolved rather, as
demonstrated in the stoning of Stephen when he
saw Jesus standing at Gods right hand, Paul
wrote later (415) that Jesus is a high priest
who sympathizes with us.
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This phrase is remi-niscent of Luke 22 28 where
Jesus seemed to imply to His apostles that His
entire life, especially the 3.5 years of His
ministry, was conti-nually plagued with the
suffering of tri-als He said You are those who
have continued with Me in My trials.
For in that He Himself hassuffered, being
tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
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This phrase strikes at the heart of the whole
matter, mean-ing that Jesus does not sympathize
with Christians (or men in general) just be-cause
as deity He knows everything, but also because
having been human He experienced what these
brethren were experiencing. In fact ? ?
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For in that He Himself hassuffered, being
tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
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He warned His disciples, saying, Since they
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you (John
1520). And in the world you will have
tribu-lation but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world (John 1633 by the way, this
is some of that already-but-not-yet language.)
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This word comes from a term which means to run
toward a cry for help these brethren needed to
realize that, as 2nd Pet. 29 says, The Lord
knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations
(hardships) and that, as 1st Cor. 1013 says
For in that He Himself hassuffered, being
tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
God is faithful who will not allow you to be
tempted (tried) beyond what you are able to bear.
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This word carries with it more the idea of being
tried than merely tempted these two concepts
cant be completely separated, but the idea of
being tried by persecution cor-responds to the
whole point of this letter. So
For in that He Himself hassuffered, being
tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
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Verses 12-15 Speaking to the Father, Jesus said,
I will speak of You to My brothers and sisters
in the midst of a congregation I will praise You.
He also said, I will put My trust in the Father,
and Here I am with the siblings God gave Me! Then
Paul continued Since these children are human,
Jesus be-came human so that through His death He
would crush the devil who had the power of death
and free us who thru fear of death were all our
lives slaves to fear.
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Verses 16-18 Its amazing to know that Jesus
doesnt give aid to angels, but He does give it
to us! But in order to give aid to us, He had to
be made like us in every way so that He might
better sym-pathize with us and thereby be the
perfect high priest, fulfilling Gods
re-quirements concerning our reconcilia-tion to
Him. Because He suffered trials and temptations
like we do, Hes able to help us in our trials
and temptations.