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Hebrews
1: The Supremacy, Sacrifice, and
Session of the Lord Jesus Christ
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Jesus Christ is the
God-Man who is the Supreme Creator and Redeemer of His People. By His once-and-for-all sacrifice for the
sins of His people, he has sat down at the right hand of God to take the
throne that rightly belonged to Him from eternity past. Yet in the historical interim, he took
upon himself human flesh, or was made “a little lower than the
angels”, in order to be crowned King over the New Creation, and
Redeemer of His New Creation People.
Yet, wow easily we
forget Who rules over us, Who loves us with an everlasting love, and Who
has shown his great love in redeeming us.
Persecution, pain and problems are difficult for us (as well as the
people to whom the author of Hebrews writes). Maturity
and change place great demands on
our lives! But we can grow, we can persevere by keeping our eyes focused by
faith on our Champion (Heb. 2:14-18), our Pioneer (Heb. 12:1-4), although it may be difficult, we
must listen to the Word and allow it to bring us to maturity.
I.
Introduction/Overview of
the Book of Hebrews
a. “Better”/ “Greater than…”/
“Last Days
The
Epistle to the Hebrews is addressed to a persecuted congregation of saints
who, although a covenant community who gladly believed in the promises of
God, are now finding it difficult to persevere in the midst of trials and
tribulations (cf. Matt. 13:20-22).
The
author encourages the people to be motivated by Who it is that has created
all things, Who has redeemed them, and Who still speaks to them. He uses
the language of “better than” and “greater than” in
the Book to explain to the covenant people that this New Covenant of the
resurrection is so much more better than the Old Covenant where the people
of God only saw shadows and types of the things that would one day come.
In
contrast, the New Covenant is one of fulfillment, particularly as our
suffering, persecution and problems are located in the historical context
of the Last Days. This should
encourage the people of God of any time period! Because the work of Christ has fully been
accomplished in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, we can know
that HE IS ABLE to keep his promises to his people (cf. 2 Cor. 1:20ff).
Therefore, the author of Hebrews motivates the people to keep their
eyes on this reality and hope that has come in Jesus Christ.
b.
Change/
New and Improved/ The Challenges of Change
Change
can be difficult for anyone in this world, but this change to a new and
better covenant holds greater promises!
In the resurrection of Christ we see all of the promise of God
fulfilled to his people, even though those in the Old Covenant died without
seeing the full fulfillment of their hopes and covenantal dreams (Heb. 11).
With
this change for the better in the New Covenant, there are greater
responsibilities to the covenant people to believe, bear fruit, persevere,
and to keep their eyes of the Pioneer-Founder and Finisher-Consummator of
their faith.
The
author of the Hebrews as well as those to whom he wrote had been nurtured
and instructed in the Old Covenant since they were young. In light of the completed work of Christ,
they were to reassess much of what they had learned and to learn these
things anew in the better and clearer light of the New Covenant so that
they might mature. They were to
listen to the final Word spoken
by God to them, and continue to meet to listen to that Word. Just as we are today as God’s
people.
c.
Difficulty
with Maturity- Maturity always implies more responsibility (progressive
movement forward of revelation since the coming of Jesus). Paul speaks of “putting away
childish things…” (1 Cor. 13:8-12). But with change and maturity as the
people of God come growing pains. You could call these Redemptive-Historical Growing Pains. The people of God are growing from being
Old Covenant teenagers to New Covenant adults.
o
As everyone
knows who is at least 13 years of age, or over 20 years, growing up is hard
to do. It’s hard leaving old
ways and habits behind. It’s
difficult to take upon new responsibilities.
o
Recently, it
snowed two feet in our area! My
neighbors and I had to shovel our cars out of the snow. One of them said aloud, as the children
of the neighborhood were running happily and excitably through the snow,
making snow men, rejoicing that “God had closed the schools”,
that snow was great when you were a teenager, because you didn’t have
to shovel it!
o
What the man
was getting at was that growing older required greater
responsibilities. As adults, we
could not drop our shovels and build snow men. We could not ask “God to cancel
school” because we knew our boss at work wouldn’t “buy that
one”. (We also know the types
who no matter how ugly and terrible the weather is, some people love to get
to work as early as possible to show up everyone else: “You just
getting here? Why, the roads weren’t that bad?”)
o
The covenant
community to which the author of the Hebrews wrote was addressing the same
problem: He was saying growing pains are difficult, but don’t give
up! Hang in there and know that
because you live in a much better time period in the New Covenant, you have
the very Spirit of God living within you!
o
As
God’s covenant community he is speaking
to us (present tense) in and by His Living and Active Word. You have
the resurrection and ascension of Christ that has been fulfilled and you
have been united to Jesus Christ by faith and therefore you are to
persevere through your trials and tribulations, knowing Christ is faithful
and will help you through all of your difficulties. He will sustain you! He will uphold you! He will never leave you nor forsake
you! Life is extremely tough sometimes,
but God will grant the grace so that His people may mature.
d.
Encouragement
to the Covenant community to persevere.
To understand that as God’s covenantal people, they had privileges (of which Paul
speaks in Romans 9), but these privileges implied covenantal responsibilities. What kind of responsibilities? To believe by faith the promises of Jesus
Christ and to rest in the salvation revealed to them, for them.
Hebrews 2:1-4: 1 Therefore we must pay much closer
attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message
declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or
disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how
shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared
at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4
while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles
and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
o
The
covenantal people of God must hear
and understand that the
Last Days have dawned in Jesus Christ, and what the Old Covenant pointed
forward to, has NOW COME! The end or purpose of the Old Covenant has come in Christ
Jesus! The types and shadows of the
Old Covenant were not the reality!
This is where we must understand our lives from the perspective of
the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. We are a Last-Days-Covenantal-Pilgrim-People.
o
We as the
people of God who are also living in the Last Days with this congregation in Hebrews,
must give ourselves to the reading and especially the hearing of the Word
of God. It is the Word of God that
is “living and active, sharper than a two-edged sword” (Heb.
4:12ff), that gets to our hearts, and transforms us into the image of the
Living Christ.
o
As a Last
Days community, we are a Word
Community, ever seeking to understand better our lives in light of
God’s Word; seeking to know God and learning to trust wholeheartedly
in his promises; seeking to obey what God reveals to us and to make his love
and law evident in our lives! In
other words, we want to mature (cf. Heb. 5:11-14)
o
Also, notice
that it is important for us to understand that there is a
finality in the speaking of God to us in
Jesus (1:2a). That means, that what
God has said to his people in Christ was all that
he would say in Christ. Even the
gospels, the epistles and the Revelation are but interpretations and
explanations of what God has said in a final way in Christ. In fact, the Apostle Paul has been called
the Theologian of the Resurrection
because his ministry is making Christ known to the world and the
implications of His resurrection from the dead for believer and unbeliever
alike (cf. Acts 17).
o
The author
of the Hebrews wants to speak of three important things concerning
Christ’s ministry to His people in these Last Days. This will help them in their maturity and
redemptive-historical growing pains:
(1) His
Supremacy over All Things in Heaven and Earth
(2) His
Sacrifice for His People
(3) His Session
at the Right Hand of God
II.
Christ’s Supremacy
(Superiority to the Angels):
o
The Author
to the Hebrews wants the Christians then, and us now to understand how much greater Christ is over all
things! He is greater than the
angels (with the implication that the angels are indeed great and were the ministering servants of the Old
Covenant Law at Sinai, cf. Acts 7:35-37)), and those who minister around the throne of God.
1.
Appointed Heir
of All Things (1:2b)
o We also should have understanding
of how Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Eternal One of God,
can be an heir of all things. Christ is an heir as man; as God he
already was the Great God and Owner of all things. This passage in this context is to point
us to Christ’s Person and Work as a man.
o From the foundation of
the earth, before anything was created, God made a covenant with his Son
that he might complete a work on behalf of the creation he would make in
the future. Upon man’s fall
into rebellion, disobedience, and separation form God, Christ, the Eternal
One took upon himself human flesh, a human nature, in order to do all that Adam failed to do; and to
undo what Adam had done.
o Jesus Christ the
God-Man did this work on behalf of those who believe and love him. Christ was made a little lower than the angels in order to redeem man and
destroy the work of the evil angel Satan, who had tempted man into the
fall. It is a brilliant and wise
scheme of God, or in human terms it was a great “counter-move against
the Devil and His angels”.
o Man was created in the
image of God, a little lower than the
angels (Ps. 8) and was to rule over the beasts of the earth. Satan, one of the angels man was made
lower than used a beast of the earth, over which was commanded to rule to
undermine man’s purpose of defeating the work of the evil angel Satan
and his devils. Man then subjected
himself to the work of the devil, following in his great rebellion against
their Loving Creator.
o God sent his Son to be a little lower than the angels, so
he might ultimately defeat the work of the evil angel, crush the head of
the Serpent, throw him into the Lake of Fire, and redeem man by being
crowned with glory and honor to God’s right hand as The Perfect
Representative of Man. In other words,
Christ was appointed heir of all
things as the God-Man.
Because Christ is heir of all things, we
also by his grace have been made heirs (cf. Genesis 17:5- Abraham’s
name is changed when he is promised many heirs, cf. Heb. 1:4).
Galatians 4:4-7 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. 6
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into
your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir
of God through Christ.
2.
Through Whom He Created the World (1:2c)
Creation
Colossians 1:15-20 15 Who
is the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16 For by him were all things
created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:
all things were created by him, and for him: 17 And he is before all
things, and by him all things consist.
Redemption
18 And
he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead; that in all things he might have the
preeminence. 19 For it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell; 20 And, having made peace
through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or
things in heaven.
3.
Reflects the Radiance of God’s Glory (1:3a)
o
The priests
in the Old Covenant had the elaborate and beautiful, glorious robes to
represent the people. Moses was told
of every ornamental detail as well as each piece of fabric and color.
Exodus 28:1-5 1 "Then bring near to you
Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the people of Israel,
to serve me as priests- Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab
and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 2
And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory
and for beauty. 3 You
shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have
filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron's garments
to consecrate him for my priesthood.
4 These are the garments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work,
a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron your
brother and his sons to serve me as priests. 5 They shall receive gold,
blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen…
o
How much more was Christ clothed not merely in a beautiful and glorious robe made
by skillful hands, but with the everlasting and holy glory of the Living
God, his own father.
o
In fact,
before he goes back to be with his Father, upon completing his work for us,
he prays in John 17 (in the High Priestly prayer of Jesus):
John 17:1-5 "Father, the hour has come; glorify
your Son that the Son may glorify you,
2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to
give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life,
that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have
sent. 4 I glorified you
on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me
in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world
existed.
4.
Exact Representation of His Being
(“The Image of God”) (1:3b)
o
Christ is
the true image of God. Man was made in God’s image, but he
rebelled against God and the glory, the image of God was marred in man
(though not fully taken away, cf. James 3:9ff).
o
Christ is
the true glory, the true image of God’s being; the exact
representation. Jesus says in the
Gospel of John, “if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”
(John 14:7).
Genesis 1:26 And God said,
Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness…
Genesis 5:3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image,
and named him Seth.
o
As some
people used to say in colloquial language of one’s son:
“He’s a spittin’ image of his
father.” In fact, he was the
Archetypal Image of Man (cf. ‘Images of the Spirit’, Meredith
G. Kline).
o
Our great
hope as Christians is that when we are united to the Son of God by faith,
he gives us of his glorious Spirit and he begins the transformation of us
into His Image.
Romans
8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his
Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
1
Corinthians 15:49 Just as we have borne the image
of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
2
Corinthians 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face,
beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image
from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is
the Spirit.
Colossians
3:10 and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
5.
Upholds All Things by the Word of His Power (1:3c)
The
One Who created the world, upholds and sustains that world by His Mighty
Word! That Word he speaks to us as New
Creations in Him (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17); the Word of God he speaks we are not to ignore as a Covenant Community of
people (Heb. 2:1-4).
III.
Christ’s Sacrifice:
1.
Christ Made Purification for Sins (1:3d)
Christ,
the Eternally Begotten Son of God took upon human flesh so that he might
lay his life down and shed his blood in order to make an
atonement for his people. His
blood purifies and cleanses his people so that they might be holy as He is
Holy (cf. Eph. 5:26-28). On the Day of
Atonement, the High Priest would offer the sacrifice to cleanse the people
of their sins and there would be an atonement made to God. Christ’s once-and-for-all sacrifice
is made for his people so that they might be cleansed and to provide
continually cleansing from further sins (Heb. 9:27; 1 John 1:7-10).
Leviticus 16:30 For on this day shall
atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the
LORD from all your sins.
Hebrews 9:23-28:
23 Thus
it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with
these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices
than these. 24 For
Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies
of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God on our behalf. 25
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy
places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would
have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it
is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. 27
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes
judgment, 28
so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a
second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting
for him.
1 John 1:7-9: …but if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
IV.
Christ’s Session at
God’s Right Hand:
o
Christ
“sat down”. Let that
penetrate your hearts and minds! All
of the millions animals sacrificed for the sins of the people in the Old
Covenant, all of the gallons of blood spilled to propitiate God’s
wrath and to make atonement, could never take away the great sin problem of
God’s people. The priests
offered sacrifices over and over, and over, and over, and over….they
never sat down because there was a continuous sin problem.
o
If God was to
dwell with his people, his people had to be made holy. In contrast to the priests who sacrificed
over and over, who never sat down because of continuous sin, Jesus was
sacrificed once-and-for-all, then sat down.
Hebrews 8:1: Now
the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one
who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven...
Hebrews 10:12: But
when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat
down at the right hand of God...
o
Focus on
Christ’s ascension as his covenant people. You are seated with him, Paul says:
Colossians 3:1-4: 1 If then you have been raised
with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the
right hand of God. 2 Set
your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and
your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also
will appear with him in glory.
o
As
God’s people, let us have an Ascension Comprehension to better
understand our Tension here in this world.
o
As
God’s Covenant people, we should remember that ‘Christ sat
down’ and therefore there are two great truths revealed here:
1.
Forgiveness- There is plenty of forgiveness of his people
when we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7-9).
Yet we are always trying to make a sacrifice ourselves. My neighbor offered me some hot
chocolate when I was cleaning her car the other day (it was cold). I told here “No, thank
you”. She became upset and
said “You are doing something for me; let me do something for
you”. I appreciated her
generosity, but was reminded of a modern mentality where we just cannot
accept someone else’s gift to us.
There is an American mentality that just says I can’t have
anything worthwhile unless I pay for it.
I am constantly thinking “you get what you pay for,”
etc.
As the people of God, we can think the same way about
forgiveness. We think: “Well,
God’s forgiven me so many times of this sin,
surely he will not hear me this time!” Do you know how many sins he’s
forgiven of which you are not even aware?
Think about it; thank him about it!
We should remind ourselves that all the gifts of sacrifice we offer
back to God such as consistent Bible reading, daily devotions, helping the
sick, showing hospitality, etc. All
these things are wonderful if done with a heart of gratitude for what
Christ has already done for you as
well as what he is presently doing in
you!
We have a great and forgiving Savior. You can go to him, as he has “sat
down” and know that all of his life, death, resurrection, and
ascension was for you. Go in your sins, your pain, your trouble,
your doubt, and misunderstanding to Jesus who is seated at God’s
right hand! We must rest in this
reality and not try to work to gain
his approval when he has already accepted us as his heirs.
2.
Prayer- We have a Savior Who
hears our prayers, but even more importantly, we have a Savior Who prays for us- - his
people!
We often feel out of place, alone and neglected in this world. Be encouraged! Christ prays for you. He can sympathize with you in all of your
temptations and weaknesses, because he truly has been there as it were.
One of my students told me with tears in her eyes, and it broke my
heart, that I could never understand her!
She told me that I saw things from the perspective of an adult who
seemed to have his act together because I knew Christ, wore a suit, taught
classes, and had a little education.
I said to her: “Why do you judge me?” She ask what I meant by this. I told her that I had been a teenager
too. I had been there as it were, where she is now, trying to understand
myself, understand the world in which I live and how I fit into the big
scheme of things; what made my life matter, how I felt out of place, alone,
and neglected, and in some ways I
still do.
She saw a different side of me that day. She hasn’t changed completely
toward me, but she looks at my life differently now. She knows I accept her and will be there
for her because I have been where she has been and had the same trouble and
conflict and questions that she now has.
So has our Lord Jesus!
Although he was Creator; although he was the very Son of God; he
loved us enough to know how we feel, to put himself
in our shoes so to speak so that
we could experience what it is like to be with him eternally in the New
Heavens and the New Earth. What a
Savior!
Let us persevere as His Covenant Community this day! May we listen and heed His Word as He speaks to us, never
forgetting that we have a Living Hope in Him and constant help in
reflecting on Jesus’ supremacy,
sacrifice, and session!
CRB
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