01 June 2023
The Letter to the Hebrew Christians is next. This was written by some unknown apostle, likely Apollos, but no one knows for sure. Best we can tell, it was published after the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. The problem is that too many Hebrew Christians were sliding back into Judaism because of the work of Judaizers. After the destruction of Jerusalem, being forced to flee across the Roman Empire, there were even more Judaizers running around trying to subvert Christian faith.
This letter has more Christian Law, yet far fewer laws. The author jumps off with what counts as a principle of Covenant Law, but also a general item of confession: Jesus is the final revelation of our Creator. He is God's Son and in every way the most complete and clear expression of His Father's nature and character. The author lays out more than enough evidence to secure that.
In Chapter 2, he points out some of the implications. If Jesus taught it, we must treat it as the voice of God. He is more authoritative than the Old Testament. Furthermore, Hebrew people have no excuse for rejecting Him, since He was one of them. In Chapter 3, the author warns that Jews must not continue the failures of past generations in the history of Israel. If anything, they have an ethnic tendency to drift away from the purity of what Jesus taught more quickly than the Gentile believers.
Chapter 4 lays out the image of claiming the full heritage of faith. The author pounds the drum: Don't pull up short. If God was faithful to the Old Covenant, He's even more faithful to the New. Israel never entered the full "rest" of the Promised Land because they kept turning away from full faith. The real Promised Land is not a place on earth, but a place in the heart.
In Chapters 5 and 6 the theme continues. God's Son didn't forget the human experience after rising from the grave. He can empathize fully with our fleshly weaknesses as our High Priest in Heaven. All that ritual stuff is elementary, just an external representation, not the the core of serving the Lord. The only thing that really matters is whether your fleshly nature is eclipsed by the birth of your spiritual nature. In Chapter 7 he returns to the theme of Jesus as our High Priest in the Order of Melchizedek.
The 8th Chapter is all about the superiority of the Covenant of Christ over that of Moses. Moses is obsolete, if still instructive in some ways. Chapter 9 shows how Moses was never intended to be the completion, just a sort of down payment toward the final pay-off of faith in the Messiah. The author here indicates that the Tabernacle and Temples were simply shadowy representations of God's divine courts in Heaven. Thus, in Chapter 10 the ritual law in particular is just a shadowy representation of Christ's final sacrifice. Now the ineffable divine truth is written in our hearts.
At 10:19 we should have started a new chapter. The way into God's Presence is open, folks. If it's possible to enter, then it is necessary by divine command to do so. If we do not fully embrace the Covenant of Christ, we are rejecting everything God has done since starting with Creation. There can be no hope of peace in this life if we do not obey. Thus, as with the Ten Commandments, the First Law is to kneel before God as your feudal Master.
Given that those who first came to Christ suffered significant persecution, there's no reason to now back down from the gospel that was worth such a sacrifice. This continues into Chapter 11 with his excellent declaration of the nature of faith, and the roll of honor of those who exhibited faith at great cost. The author reminds his readers that all of those heroes died hoping to see what the early church had in Christ. Think of all the miracles God performed by the hands of Old Testament saints! He's the same God today now working through Christ.
In Chapter 12, those saints are in Heaven watching us today. Shall we embarrass them? Again, we have it so much easier than they. The final chapter summarizes the marks of faith in our conduct: generous empathy with those who suffer, upholding the purity of marriage, and avoiding the idolatry of Mammon. Treat the gospel truth as food for your soul; it's a high privilege that was not offered before Christ. We are outcasts in this world, just as Jesus was run out of town. Cling to each other and to our godly leaders.
There are some personal notes, including mention that Timothy was apparently in prison at some point.
Notice that the Law of Christ specifically demands things that the Law of Moses simply took for granted. Because those unspoken prerequisites were seldom actually picked up by folks living under Moses, it becomes necessary to put them in as covenant boundaries. Faith -- a word that means feudal submission and commitment to God -- is the first requirement of the Law of Christ. On this foundation, Christian Law requires a wealth of internal changes in the heart first, so that the flesh can be compelled to obey.
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