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) 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) but Well only get to
verses 1-7 today. Superior Relationship
(121-29) Superior Way of Life (131-25)
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As mentioned previously, 1019 through the end of
Hebrews relates to The Superiority of Christs
Principle (Faith) to Moses Principle (Law) and
we just finished studying 1019-39 which teach
that Faith Is the Proper Response to All the
Superior Things of the previous chapters,
perfectly setting the stage for the subject of
chapter 11the chapter known as The Hall of Faith.
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In our last study (specifically in verses 22-24)
we noted how that Paul appear-ed to outline the
rest of Hebrews 1022 speaks of faith,
correlating to chapter 11 and the superior
actions discussed there 1023 speaks of hope,
correlating to chapter 12 and the superior
relationship discussed there and 1024 speaks of
love, correlating to chapter 13 and the resulting
superior way of life discussed there. So lets
begin with ? ? ?
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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 111 ?
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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
Paul concluded chapter 10 with two thoughts in
mind
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Firstly, he referred to the idea of Gods promise
that required faith (1036). He had already
written much about this promise of an eternal
inheritance (915) which was to include a time of
recon-ciliation (617-20) and a time of rest
(41). Now in chapter 11 He described faiths
relationship to Gods promise (vv. 1-3) i.e.,
the fact that God had fulfilled every earlier
promise should produce the faith that He would
fulfill this one (cf. 1023).
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Using Abe as an example in Romans 4 20-21, Paul
wrote that he didnt waver at the promise of God
through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith,
being fully convinced that what He had pro-mised
He was also able to perform or carry out.
Remember
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Paul discussed at length that that which was real
was that which was spiritual, not that which was
physical and he had discussed at length that
that which was real was that which was being
presently fulfilled, not that which was still
being practiced in Jerusalem.
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Secondly, Paul referred to the idea of living by
faith (1038) this idea he went on in chapter 11
to illustrate by means of many of their own
renowned ances-tors (vv. 4-40). The last verse of
chapter 10 was a strong encouragement to not draw
back, but to press forward in order to save their
souls. Now ? ? ?
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In chapter 11 well see how Paul abun-dantly
demonstrated the faith of their forefathers
whofor the fulfillment of a promise they never
experiencedre-mained faithful for their
successors in spite of all sorts of severe
difficulties. On the other hand These brethren
were about to (101) receive the fulfillment of
Gods promise, soin light of their
predecessorsthey shouldnt even remotely
consider for-saking Christ for what a slap in
their ancestors faces that wouldve been!
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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
This refers to that which stands under, a
foundation so their faith was the ground upon
which hope was built. (Its translated confidence
in 314.)
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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
This refers to proof so (especially in this
context) what they knew of the past concerning
their God, provided faith for any promise yet
unfulfilled. And ?
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Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
This means perceiv-ed (as in 2 Cor. 78) or
experienced (as in 115 below). So ?
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Unlike things hoped for which exclude things of
the past and present (see Rom. 824), the things
not seen include things of the past, present, and
future. This brings two points to mind ? ? ?
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1. Even if they ignored it, their confes- sed
faith in Jesus as the Christ (1023) was
evidence concerning whatever they didnt
understand about the past (types, shadows,
etc.) as well as evidence concerning
whatever they couldnt understand about
their pre- sent (persecutions, etc.) 2. Their
faith was evidence concerning what they
would experience in the future if they would
just hold on a very, very, little while
(1037).
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For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
Hebrews 112 ?
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For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
This is a reference to their ancestors as is
evidenced from the lengthy list of them in verses
4-40. Theres something important to re-member
here ? ?
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For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
Paul was writing to Christians who lived before
AD 70 when God worked super-naturally in the
af-fairs of men to bring about what we now
enjoythe promise just discussed. (Mir-acles
Infancy Ful-filled Promise Ma-turity.) I bring
this up because ? ?
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For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
Verse 2 sets the stage for the rest of the
chapter which deals with numerous supernatural
events that therefore defi-nitely corresponded to
these folks who were experiencing similar events
in their own lives (21-4 64-6). I.e.
They had no excuse but to be like their
forefathers in their faith, and stick it out!
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For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
This phrase is also translated as well spoken of
(Acts 162) and a good reputa-tion (Acts 1022).
And who spoke well of them and initiated this
good reputa-tion? God did ? ?
He placed His stamp of approval on their lives
lived by faith by blessing them and by testifying
of them in His Word in fact, every individual
al-luded to in this chap-ter can be found in the
Old Testament.
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It also seems to me that while verse 3
illustrates the second part of verse 1 about
unseen things, verse 2 illustrates the first part
of verse 1 about things hoped for i.e., as is
confirmed through-out this chapter, God blessed
those who acted on faith for what they hoped for.
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By faith we under-stand that the worlds were
framed by the Word of God, so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which are
visible.
Hebrews 113 ?
This is the big picture introduced.
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As discussed back in 12, generally speaking, the
word world in 105 is the Greek term for planet
(kosmos) the word for world in 16 is the Greek
term for people (oikoumene) and the word for
worlds here (as in 12) is the Greek term for
ages (aion) so, depending on its context, it
goes from planet, to an age or the ages of the
planet, to the people of an age/ages of the
planet.
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By faith we under-stand that the worlds were
framed by the Word of God, so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which are
visible.
Besides the fact that ages is undeniably the
correct transla-tion here, there are other
reasons why it should be rendered as ages. ?
? ?
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The word is plural not only does worlds make
this an unnatural statement, but unless Hebrews
is the only placethe Bible never speaks of God
creating the worlds plural but, as weve seen,
this book (i.e. the general context of this
verse) does concern two covenant ages or two
covenant worlds, if you prefer to say it that
way. Also ? ? ?
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Since Paul used the Greek term (kos-mos) for the
physical creation in 105 when he wrote about
Jesus coming into the world, then he obviously
knew the difference. In fact, theres a clear
distinction between these two terms in just one
verse926 Jesus then would have had to suffer
often since the foun-dation of the kosmos but
now, once at the end of the aion (rendered world
in the KJV), He has appeared to put away sin.
So ?
? ?
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By faith we under-stand that the worlds were
framed by the Word of God, so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which are
visible.
A synonym for ages here would be the word times
in Ephe-sians 110 where Paul wrote of God
gathering all things or all races together in
Christ at the full-ness of the times plural.
Besides ?
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By faith we under-stand that the worlds were
framed by the Word of God, so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which are
visible.
Framed is not from the usual term for created,
but from a term that refers to something arranged
in a precise manner, which is likely why its
often translated as perfected (cf. Mat. 2116,
et. al.).
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This would mean that Paul was refer-ring to how
God arranged the ages or the history of human
affairs in such a way so as to achieve His
spiritual pur-poses for us. In fact, its my
contention that God in His Word isnt concerned
with the natural history of humanity or even with
the history of the Jews, but with the redemptive
history of mankind in general, always pointing
toward and focusing on the spiritual, not the
physi-cal! Interestingly ? ?
?
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The Jews (who believed in 2 primary ages the era
of Moses and the era of Messiah) equated the
coming of the Christ (that Paul just referred to
in 1037) with the changing of ages, ages that
were ar-ranged by God Himself.
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By faith we under-stand that the worlds were
framed by the Word of God, so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which are
visible.
This literally reads a Word of or from God and
the Greek term for Word here is not logos, but
rhema, a command, meaning that everything in
redemptive history occurred by Gods authority,
at His bid-ding, and according to His plan and
ar-rangement.
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By faith we under-stand that the worlds were
framed by the Word of God, so that the things
which are seen were not made of things which are
visible.
Made is from the term rendered come or came to
pass at least 80 times in the KJV. And we all
know what this language indicates what the
passing of time ! By the way, not only did God
arrange these things by His rhema, but also Jesus
main-tains them by His rhema. So ? ? ?
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If this is the meaning here, then what does the
last part of this verse mean? I.e., how do the
things which are seen and the things which are
visible fit in? Well, trying to keep these in
context The word seen here is the same as found
in verse 1 where Paul was speaking not about
that which can be literally seen with the eye
like the cosmos, but about that which can be
perceived or understood with the mind.
Furthermore ? ? ?
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The phrase are seen literally reads or means
being seen, referring to that which was, in their
time, coming into focus mentally before this
time, things were types and shadowsout of focus
or not clear not visible (cf. Eph. 33 5, 1
Pet. 112, et. al.). I.e.
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Verse 3 could be understood this way By faith
(and only by faith) they could understand that
all of history was or-chestrated by Gods
authority power to come to pass the way it did
in order to effect mans redemption, meaning that
(since things were a mysterynot clear or
visibleto them) they could only sense what was
being fulfilled in their time by faith.
So ? ? ?
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Once Paul had this big picture before their
minds, he could begin his list of
ancestor-examples in verses 4-7 with three men
who lived between Eden and the Flood Abel,
Enoch, and Noah.
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By faith Abel offer- ed to God a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained a
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of
his gifts and through it, being dead, still
speaks.
Hebrews 114 ?
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By faith Abel offer- ed to God a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained a
witness that he was righteous, God testifying of
his gifts and through it, being dead, still
speaks.
Again, as we begin this section, lets fo-cus on
Pauls pri-mary focus, viz., en-couraging these
brethren to trust in God and His Word which
included His promises after all, trust is what
faith is!
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Here are some interesting similarities be-tween
Cain Abel and Non-Christian Jews Christian
Jews. 1. Both sets were brothers. 2. Just as by
faith Abel offered a more ex- cellent
sacrifice than Cain, so by faith Jewish
Christians offered a more excel- lent
sacrifice than their non-Christian
brethren. 3. Just as Abels righteousness was
at- tested to by God, so the righteousness
of these Jewish Christians was attested to
by God (21-4).
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4. Just as Cain killed Abel out of jealousy
(1 John 312), so I believe we can be
assured that many non-Christian Jews killed
their Christian brethren out of jealousy.
And 5. Just as Abel still speaks though hes
dead, so the first century Christian
martyrs were still speaking Blessed are the
dead who die in the Lord. For they
rest from their labors, and like Abel
their works follow them (Rev. 1413).
So ? ? ?
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Although what these brethren had en-dured had not
yet reached bloodshed (124), Pauls exhortation
to them was that even if their persecution did
reach that point, they could be assured that it
wouldnt be for nothing but they (like Abel)
would be approved by God as righteous, for the
righteous shall live by faith (1038).
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By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not
see death, and was not found because God had
trans-lated him for be-fore his transla-tion he
had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Hebrews 115 ?
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By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not
see death, and was not found because God had
trans-lated him for be-fore his transla-tion he
had this testimony, that he pleased God.
This means that he was taken from one place
(Earth) to an-other place (Para-dise?, cf. 2 Kgs.
21 John 3 13) Genesis 524 defines this
translation simply as God took him so that he
couldnt be found. And he was taken because ?
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By faith Enoch was translated so that he did not
see death, and was not found because God had
trans-lated him for be-fore his transla-tion he
had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Moses said that Enoch walked with God (Gen.
522), a clause that he him-self described in 69
as meaning that he (like Abel) was righteous. By
the way ? ? ?
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It has been said that to walk with God (Gen.
524) means to have fellowship with Him
to walk before God (Gen. 171) means to live
in the awareness that He ob- serves every
action and to walk after God (Deu. 134)
means to follow His directions. Now Lets
consider a few similarities be-tween Enoch and
First Century (Jew-ish) Christians. ? ? ?
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1. Both Enoch and these Christians lived in
very sinful times (Gen. 61 Acts 240). 2. Both
Enoch and these Christians were the ones who
pleased God. 3. Both were approved by God.
And 4. Both escaped death Enoch was taken
before the flood while Christians were taken
before Jerusalems destruction (Mat.
2437-41). (In Mat. 2440-41, however, I
believe those taken were the condemned just as
in v. 39 they didnt know until the flood
came took them all away this fits The
Living Oracles version one shall be taken,
one shall escape.)
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Something else thats interesting is that Jude
(in verses 14-15) wrote about Enoch prophesying
doom against un-godly people. (The word men is
not in the original of verse 14, indicating the
possibility that Enoch was prophesying about the
doom of his time that fore-shadowed the doom of
Judes time. And surely it isnt just coincidence
that Paul went on in 117 to talk about the flood
of Noah, Enochs great-grandson!) Anyway, back to
Hebrews ? ? ?
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Before Pauls additional statement about faith in
the next verse, it appears that he was telling
them that whether they suffered death at the
hands of their Jewish brethren (like Abel) or
were allowed to live through the events of AD 70
(like Enoch, cf. 1037), God would still bless
them if they (like Abel Enoch) remained
diligent.
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But without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for he who comes to God must believe that He is
and that He is a rewarder of those who
dili-gently seek Him.
Hebrews 116 ?
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But without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for he who comes to God must believe that He is
and that He is a rewarder of those who
dili-gently seek Him.
Perhaps just in case these brethren didnt catch
the point that Enochs pleasing walk with God was
(and only couldve been) by faith, he assured
them that its im-possible to please God without
faith.
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But without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for he who comes to God must believe that He is
and that He is a rewarder of those who
dili-gently seek Him.
This phrase is in the aorist tense, empha-sizing
the word im-possible to mean that without faith
it is impossible to please God IN ANY WAY
WHATSOEVER! Paul put it more succinctly when he
said that whatever is not of faith is sin (Rom.
1423)!
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But without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for he who comes to God must believe that He is
and that He is a rewarder of those who
dili-gently seek Him.
Anyone who desires a relationship with God must
believe (1) that He exists and (2) that Hes
trustworthy i.e., (just as He rewarded Enoch) He
will re-ward those who are faithful to Him, in
spite of how things seem to be going (cf. 2 Pet.
34 9).
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By faith Noah, be-ing divinely warn-ed of things
not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an
ark for the saving of his household, by which he
con-demned the world and became heir of the
righteous-ness which is ac-cording to faith.
Hebrews 117 ?
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By faith Noah, be-ing divinely warn-ed of things
not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an
ark for the saving of his household, by which he
con-demned the world and became heir of the
righteous-ness which is ac-cording to faith.
This phrase refers to things never ex-perienced
before his time. I.e. ? ? ?
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Although Noah may have never seen ex-perienced
a rainstorm before (Gen. 25-6), much less a
flood, and although this warning from God may
have been 120 years in advance (Gen. 63), his
faith in God motivated him to obey Gods
instruc-tions. Because of this Noah, out of
these three men, is perhaps the greatest example
of persevering faith.
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By faith Noah, be-ing divinely warn-ed of things
not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an
ark for the saving of his household, by which he
con-demned the world and became heir of the
righteous-ness which is ac-cording to faith.
How did he do this? Well, Peter said that Noah
was a preacher of righteousness (2 Pet. 25),
apparently meaning that he warned his
con-temporaries about the coming flood.
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By faith Noah, be-ing divinely warn-ed of things
not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an
ark for the saving of his household, by which he
con-demned the world and became heir of the
righteous-ness which is ac-cording to faith.
Notice that Noahs faith involved the entire
person his mind was warned his heart was moved
and his will acted. This is how he, in fear,
worked out his salvation (Php. 212).
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Lets conclude by considering some simi-larities
between Noah and first century (Jewish)
Christians. 1. Both Noah and these Christians
lived in very sinful times. 2. Both of them
were divinely warned of things not yet
seen. 3. Both were prepared for imminent de-
struction (no Christians were killed). 4. Both
warned their worlds of danger. 5. Both were heirs
of Gods rewards.