NEW TESTAMENT BIBLE STORY
Epistle to Hebrews #8
CHAPTER TWO After all that was stated in the first chapter it was indeed that we should not let anything slip away. The word of angels was in times past, solid and steadfast, and those who did not heed even angels received a just recompense for their folly. If that being so, as it was, then how can we Christians escape a just punishment, IF we neglect so great a salvation, which was proclaimed by the Lord, and afterwards by those who heard Him proclaim it. It was all backed up by God performing miracles, wonders, signs, and by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as God willed (verses 1-4). Paul now once more affirms the GREAT and MIGHTY calling, and what it all means for those who ARE the children of God, and the very brothers and sisters of Christ. The "age to come" that Paul and other apostles spoke about, as part of the Gospel message, was not going to be ruled by angels, as they being in charge and being the main beings over that new age, that the prophets of old have spoken about in so much of their writings. It is MAN, human kind, that is going to be the chief ones in the new age of things. God the Father's plan in creating mankind, was it have them as part of His family, above the angels in authority and power, and it was human kind that was to be given the whole universe to rule and help govern under the Father and His first begotten and first born Son - Christ Jesus. Paul quotes from Psalm 8, that asks the question of "What is man that you are mindful of him? You did make mankind lower than the angels, but you in your plan have crowned him with glory and honor, and have determined to set him over the works of your hands." Paul was then inspired to tell us that when God had determined to put mankind over His works, it did mean ALL His works of creation, the entire universe. All things was eventually to be in subjection to man. And there was NOTHING that was not to be under the rulership of mankind. But as of yet, the present, this was not the reality, all things are not yet under the rulership of human kind (that was created as God tells us in Genesis, after the God kind, "after OUR image" - God said). But, there is one fact, we do see Jesus, who was also for a short while made into flesh and blood, a little lower than the angels, for the purpose of suffering death (and so making salvation possible for sinful mankind), NOW crowned with GLORY and HONOR!! The Father had pre-determined to have MANY sons born to Him, in the plan of salvation. Jesus, was the CAPTAIN, or LEADER, the one to guide the way to the Father, was now made FULLY PERFECT, in glory, and all that is perfection as God, and it was all done through Him, Christ, suffering the life of being a human, knowing all about what it is like to be flesh and blood. As Jesus had said in the real "Lord's prayer" of John 17, that the Father, and Him, and all those who would belong to Christ, were ONE. Jesus prayed to the Father that they would all be ONE. Paul re-affirms here that it is so, and is the will of the father that Christ, and humans through salvation in Christ, would be ALL ONE. Hence Jesus, is NOT ashamed to call His followers BROTHERS! Here the Greek word does indeed mean "brothers" - just as we think of brothers that come from the same parents - very kin, very family. So, as the NT teaches over and over again, God is a FAMILY, there is God the Father, and God the Son, and all who are Christ's ARE HIS BROTHERS - they are part of the VERY FAMILY CALLED GOD! It is like the Father and Christ working a work whereby they have between themselves PRODUCED "children" - of THEIR KIND, not angel kind, or any other kind, but the very KIND that is God KIND! So, as children of parents partake of flesh and blood, so Jesus partook of flesh and blood, in order to redeem and make a way of salvation possible for the Father to have more children born of Him. Jesus, through His death on the cross, was able to destroy the works of Satan, and the power of death that the Devil held over mankind. Jesus, was by living a perfect human life, not sinning even once, deliver us from the fear and bondage of eternal death because of sins we had done. All that wonderful truth Paul had fully examined the his epistle to the Romans. Jesus, did not step down to the angel level, like some "superman" that was not really quite human, but He came as from the seed of Abraham, very flesh and blood. He needed to be like His BROTHERS, Paul states, so He could then be a MERCIFUL and FAITHFUL High Priest in all things pertaining to God, and to be able to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. In that He went through the trials, tests, and faced all the same kinds of temptations, we humans face, He is able to kindly help and understand us who are tempted by sin and by the Devil. The work of Christ TODAY, sitting on the right hand of the Majesty on High, as our High Priest, is often overlooked by far too many ministers and people of the Christian religion and faith. Paul will, in other chapters, amplify in this epistle to the Hebrews, the OFFICE and function of Jesus as High Priest. Such a function by Christ in heaven, is absolutely essential for OUR salvation. Paul made it very clear in writing to the Romans, that we are SAVED not only by the DEATH of Christ, but also by His LIFE! Both the death and life, resurrected life, of Jesus are paramount and vital to our salvation, and entering into the eternal family of God (verses 5-18). The great truth of the DESTINY of Christians is given in a full study of the subject on this Website, called "A Christian's Destiny." CHAPTER THREE Introducing Jesus as our High Priest, Paul says, we indeed need to consider Him. It is He that is THE High Priest and THE Apostle, not some human man. He was faithful to God the Father who appointed Him to the work needed for our salvation, just as Moses was faithful to his house, family of Israelites, and his calling. Jesus, was counted with more glory than Moses, as the builder of the house has more glory than the house itself. Paul is showing that Jesus surpasses the man Moses. Showing to the Hebrews that Moses, while a fine man, was inferior to the one who became Jesus the Christ. Jesus has a house-hold, being us Christians, if we hold fast to the end, rejoicing in the hope of our salvation. We are to LISTEN to Him, to listen and obey God. We are not to be like the Israelites of old, who did not listen, and who most of the time, did NOT obey and follow the way of God. After a while the Lord said that those rebellious Israelites would not enter into the promised land of rest. We are to TAKE HEED, lest their be in us an evil heart of unbelief, which leads to departing from the living God. Is it possible then for Christians to "depart from God"? Are Christians "once saved always saved"? From this verse and many other verses in the NT, it IS possible to fall from grace and depart from God. The words of the NT teach no such doctrine as once saved always saved. Jesus plainly said in the Gospels, "He that endures to the end, shall be saved." We are to exhort each other, encourage each other, so there will NOT be a heart in us that becomes hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We are made partakers of Christ, IF we HOLD the beginning of our Christian confidence STEADFAST TO THE END!! (verses 1-14). The example of the Israelites coming out of Egypt is given to us. The generation of those 20 and older were all disobedient, except a few. All had a wrong heart, all would die in the wilderness over a forty year period, and they would not enter into God's rest. They could not enter because of their unbelief, which in plain language means, unfaithfulness, a departing from the Lord heart, a mind-set that would not believe in God, which translated into an attitude of mind that would NOT OBEY God (verses 15-19). CHAPTER FOUR Paul now ties into TYPOLOGY, with God's salvation rest, the rest of the promised land to Israelites of old, and the SEVENTH DAY rest of the fourth commandment of the great Ten Commandments. We are to take heed and fear lest the promise of eternal rest for us, many of us should fall short of entering into it. The goods news was preached to us as it was to the Israelites of old. They did not profit from it because of their disobedient heart. We today which have the good news are entering into God's rest. The Greek is in the present continuous tense. We are God's children now, hence we are now on the road to eternal rest, as Paul has said, IF we remain steadfast to the end. The works of God were finished as we see in the first chapter of Genesis, which included sanctifying the SEVENTH day of the week. Yet, in God's plan, not all was fully competed, the rest of eternal life, was to be entered into by His children, who would obey His will and who would remain faithful to the end. God did rest on that seventh day of creation week, but that rest was a type of the rest of the promised land to the Israelites under Moses, and it was a type of the eternal rest of salvation to those who are God's children in the spiritual salvation plan. God is still calling people to hear His voice, to listen to Him, to OBEY Him, to enter His rest. The Old and New Testaments prove that the rest of the promised land of Palestine, the seventh day rest, and the eternal rest of salvation are ALL tied together in perfect typology. The child of God will inherit not only the promised land of Palestine in the future, but the whole earth, and indeed the whole universe, together with the eternal rest of perfection and glory, as being a part of the very family of God. Joshua, in bringing the Israelites into the Holy Land of Palestine, did not fully fill up the complete rest of God. Neither did David exhaust the fullness of this rest in its completeness when he talked about "Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart." There is MORE to this REST than in Joshua's day or David's day, more than just the promised land or the seventh day of the week. There is an eternal aspect of God's rest. Yet, with all that said, Paul goes on to state that "There REMAINETH (present continuous tense in the Greek) a keeping of a sabbath (margin KJV) to the people of God. Paul uses here a once in all the NT word - Sabbatismos - which literally means, a keeping of the Sabbath. And he who has entered God's rest, now in the spiritual sense, will cease from his own works, AS God did from His. Sure there is the spiritual side to all this "works" talk - believing God, obeying, following His will. But there is the literal work of God resting on that literal seventh day of creation week. So also the child of God will do - stop his own work on the seventh day, keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. The typology all fits like hand and glove. Seventh day from creation, God rested, the promised land of Palestine, promised to the Israelites who would believe (trust) and obey, a rest of peace for them, and the rest of eternal glory in the family of God. Palestine still exists today, and will during the 1,000 year reign of Christ on earth. The Sabbath is still here, the seventh day of the week still exists, and will exist during the 1,000 year Kingdom of God on earth (Isaiah 66). So TODAY, we are to NOT follow the unbelieving hearts of the old Israelites. We are to OBEY God; do His will; His Ten Commandments still are for today, still need to be obeyed by God's children, hence the fourth commandment of keeping holy the seventh day, the Sabbath day, is STILL for the people of God to obey. As God's children, we will stop our own carnal works of sin, when we become a child of the Majesty on High, and we shall, as He did, stop OUR works on the Sabbath day, or seventh day of the week. We shall labour therefore to enter into the rest, of all that the typology claims is God's rest, LEST any person FALL after the same example (of the Israelites) of DIS-obedience (margin KJV). Dr.Samuele Bacchiocchi has in his books on the Sabbath, given full and indepth examination to Hebrews chapter four. The reader is pointed to his books as well as many other fine books on the Sabbath keeping topic (verses 1-11). We next have one of those often quoted and so somewhat famous verses of the Bible, especially when it was used by the old powerful speaking Evangelists of the 18th and 19th centuries. "For the word of God is QUICK, and POWERFUL, and SHARPER than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (verse 12). The next verses is to be expected after a verse like the above. There is no creature that is not open in all ways before His sight, so for us also, we are pretty naked to Him, if He desires to strip us down and wants to see us for what we really are. This is the God and our Father that we deal with, so we need to walk accordingly. Paul, then returns to the thought that in all of the truth of the previous two verses, we still have a High Priest in heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, so we can be encouraged to HOLD FAST our profession of Christianity. For this High Priest is not an aloof person, never knowing what it is like to be human, but was flesh and blood for a while, and knows very well what human temptations are all about. He was tempted Himself (remember in the Gospels those famous temptations by the Devil after Jesus had fasted for forty days), but never gave in to those temptations, He remained sinless all His days as a human being. We can, with such a High Priest on our side, come BOLDLY to the throne of grace, and obtain mercy, and find grace to help us in the time of need. What wonderful re-assuring words to end a passage that is a grave warning for us to not neglect the grace and salvation of God. Comforting words indeed, that serve to encourage us to keep walking in the ways of the Majesty on High, to remain faithful and so inherit the eternal rest of God. ................ Written November 2006 |
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