GOD HAS SPOKEN! “Holy Partners”
(Hebrews Eight)
Hebrews 3:1-6 Hebrews 3:6: “Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.”
Out of his eternal silence God spoke the Word.
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.
‘Till by the Spirit of faith reveal’d, The Book is still unread, unknown, And opened by the Lamb alone.
Introduction
We move today into the third chapter of Hebrews, a passage that combine both exposition and exhortation. We look at the first six verses:
1Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also “was faithful in all God’s house.” 3Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later. 6Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.
The premier topic in Hebrews has been that of “a Son,” declared to be the full and final revelation of God, one who after “having made purification for sins, . . . sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high” (1:1-4). What has been heard about the “so great a salvation” that “was declared at first through the Lord” and has been “attested to us by those who heard him” to which “God added his testimony,” can be neglected only at great peril: “how shall we escape?” (2:1-4).
In relation to this “Son” even the angels are secondary in position and function for they are only “spirits in the divine service . . . of those who are to inherit salvation” (1:4-14). The one now who becomes primarily in view is “Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels.” This fully human “man” and “son of man” as described in Psalm 8 is “now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone” (2:5-9).
This Jesus, whom as the “pioneer” of our “salvation” God made “perfect through sufferings,” is “not ashamed” to own us as family, to call us “brothers and sisters,” for we are all from one “Father” as Jesus says in the Scriptures (2:10-13). As the “man” and “son of man” with whom we as “children share flesh and blood” and like us “in every respect,” Jesus has become our “merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God” making “a sacrifice of atonement” for our sins. As the result in his incarnate life, Jesus, since he “himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested” (2:14-18).
At this pinnacle of high points in his presentation—the writer has expressed the essence of all that is to come, the Hebrews author now mentions a new figure, Moses, God’s spokesman to Israel at Sinai, the giver of the Torah. So in chapter three we read first of
I. An Invitation: “Consider . . Jesus” (3:1-2)
1Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also “was faithful in all God’s house.”
With a strong link, “for this reason” (hothen), to what has preceded, the writer addresses his hearers first literally as “holy brothers.” The family bond of “sanctified” (2:11) or “holy” folk remains basic; holiness characterizes believers who are in fact the family of God. This “holy” family is further described as “partners in a heavenly calling.” Jesus, now the “pioneer” of our “salvation,” has trail-blazed a pathway for us into heaven itself (4:14). We have “tasted the heavenly gift” (6:4) of salvation; we “possess a hope that is anchored in the very presence of God.” We live in our very human present time within and out of the reality of the eternal future of God in “a Son”! This “Son,” we remember, via the incarnation fully shares our human nature and lot.
The core sentence of our paragraph is the invitation, or is it a summons--to simply and comprehensively “consider . . . Jesus.” It is noteworthy that this second mention of the name “Jesus” (2:9) is placed emphatically after the summary descriptive phrase, “the apostle and high priest of our confession.” The word order in Greek is “consider the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus”! The imperative to “consider” is to observe carefully and to contemplate in order to learn: “fix your thoughts on Jesus.” Jesus, as incarnate, is the focus of our faith, where we can find a life-changing relationship to God.
The writer describes Jesus with two titles, “apostle and high priest.” In a succinct manner they grasp the significance of all that has been declared thus far about him. The order is noteworthy, Jesus is “apostle” from the very beginning and then as “son of man” he becomes “high priest” (1:1-3); it is first the Person as the Proclaimer! Here we hear the supremacy of the Apostolic witness, and if you please, the primacy of preaching in the proclamation of the word which is the gospel. My sense of calling to the ministry, which I believe came in my pre-teen years, was first of all a call “to preach”! When my son Mark was in college, I once asked him why he never took a class from me. His answer was, “I know what you do, you say a little prayer and preach to them”!
“Jesus” as our “apostle and high priest” is the faith we confess in both act and content. “Confess” rather than “profess” is the preferred terminology for the writer to the Hebrews. That is, we acknowledge as definitive for our lives a faith that we have received as a gift of God’s grace (2:9). It is not our doing! We are those who “continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name” (13:15). As such people of grace we are exhorted to “hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful” (10:23).
“Faithful” recalls our attention to the central assertion of the sentence before us. We are to “consider . . . Jesus” as the one who “was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also ‘was faithful in all God’s house.’” The point of comparison between Moses the giver of the Jewish Torah and Jesus “the apostle and high priest of our confession” is that both were “faithful” to God. When Moses’ siblings, Miriam and Aaron, spoke against Moses’ leadership “the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud” and said to them “my servant Moses . . . is faithful in all my house.” The writer is now set to develop the comparison between Jesus and Moses in the realm of
II. A House: “God’s house” (3:3-5)
3Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later.
Although the metaphor of “house,” introduced in verse 2, could mean many things, here it is a familial metaphor used to designate the community of God’s people, one used often in the Old Testament. In verses 3-5 the comparison between Moses and Jesus in terms of “God’s house” begins. But why bring Moses in at all?
In the faith of the Jewish people, Moses held a place that was absolutely unique. Moses was the leader who delivered Israel from Egypt and in their wilderness trek when they grievously sinned he interceded with God for them. But most importantly Moses was God’s spokesman to Israel at Sinai; he was the Torah-giver par excellence:
With You there is no dialogue unless You choose a mountain and circle it with a cloud and print Your words in fire upon the mind of Moses.
It was Moses’ mediatorial work that mattered most; Moses passed on the words of God to the people of Israel. Yet, it was Jesus who actually embodied God’s word: God “has spoken to us by a Son” (1:2).
God considered Jesus “worthy of more glory than Moses” first in the obvious sense that “the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.” While “every house” has to be “built by someone, . . . the builder of all things is God.” The writer’s appeal is to creation in which Jesus as Son was instrumental and “appointed heir of all things” (1:2) and ruler over “everything” (2:5-9). Second, set in the realm of the people of God as a “house” built by him, the superiority of Jesus to Moses is seen in their relative positions in “God’s house.” The point of comparison is the manner in which each of them was considered “faithful” (3:2).
The writer begins with the character of Moses; he “was faithful in all God’s house as a servant.” Moses’ service in God’s house was not that of a forced or inherited slave (doulos), but that of a service freely given (therapōn), often in a religious or cultic setting (service to a deity). This was a fitting designation of Moses who was “to testify to the things that would be spoken later.” This reference to the future reaches of course to that which “was declared first through the Lord” and was attested to “by those who heard him” (2:3). This leads us wondrously into
III. The Affirmation: “we are his house” (3:6)
6Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.
Almost every word in this verse is theologically weighty. “Christ,” the Anointed One, is placed up front, appearing in its first among twelve times in Hebrews. Johnson sees its appearance here without the definite article “virtually as part of a proper name, corresponding to the unadorned ‘Jesus’ in 3:1, and serves to connect the designation of Jesus as Messiah to that of Son.”
Even the preposition “over” (epi) when compared with the use of “in” (en) in the previous verse bears a theological load:
Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, . . . Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son . . .
The contrast is emphasized with a men . . . de that Anderson interprets as “on the one hand . . . on the other hand.” The respective roles of Moses and Jesus in relation to the people of God were quite distinctive—one was “faithful in . . . as a servant” and the other was “faithful over . . . as a son.” As “a son” Jesus was in charge of “God’s house,” as “a servant” Moses only worked in “God’s house.” This contrast between the rank of son and servant permeated the culture of the Roman household, one quite obvious to the readers of Hebrews.
The concluding point of the paragraph builds upon the fact that in their respective roles in relation to “God’s house” both Moses and Jesus were “faithful.” The arrow with which the writer pierces our faith-consciousness is that we are privileged to be that house--“we are” indeed God’s “house”—the place where God dwells! The word “faithful,” however is shot in our direction as well; we are only “his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.” Again, we are brought face to face with a warning (2:1-4).
But note the three big faith-words in the warning: “confidence,” “pride,” “hope”! These terms express what we possess; they declare what has been granted us as members in God’s household, as children in the family of God! These loaded words give content to our faith; they define our “so great a salvation” (2:3).
“Confidence” (parrēsia), often translated as “boldness” (4:16) conveys the right of a free citizen to speak his mind in the public assembly. Johnson documents its use to indicate “the frankness of the philosopher in speech . . . as well, as the freedom of action in public” (Mark 8:32; John 7:14; 18:20), and therefore “‘fearlessness’ in the presence of powerful personages” (Acts 4:33, 29). The Christian is a free citizen of the kingdom of God!
“Pride” (kauchēma), frequent in Paul’s writings but only here in Hebrews, speaks of the ground for boasting, the reality of which one is proud. It is the legitimate pride that Christians should have as members of the family of God. Here “pride” is linked to “hope”: “the pride that belongs to hope” or “the boast of our hope.” This is the “pride” that flows from our “hope,” from our “heavenly calling.” This is our privilege of living now in the presence of God with its sure promise for the future. “Hope” is the great key to life in Hebrews, in fact, in all of Scripture!
But there is a catch, there is a condition: “we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.” We ourselves have a part to play, our discipline is to “hold on firmly” to all that belongs to our “hope”—our confident freedom and our self-esteem in the faith. By definition we Christians are those who are faithful every day. This concern will be re-enforced in warning tones by the exhortation that follows in verses 7-19.
Conclusion
Now back to our basic calling: we “consider . . . Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.”
As our “apostle” we have in Jesus all that we need to know about God, for “in Christ God was his own apostle.”
As our “high priest” we have in Jesus all we need before God, for access to him and life with him!
Like Moses we are to be “faithful in God’s house as a servant.”
This we do by our faith in and by our faithfulness to Jesus Christ who “was faithful over God’s house as a son.”
The issue in our text is faithfulness---with Moses, with Jesus, and with us!
That is, Moses’ faithfulness! Jesus’ faithfulness! Our faithfulness! GOD HAS SPOKEN! “Holy Partners”
(Hebrews Eight)
Hebrews 3:1-6 Hebrews 3:6: “Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.”
Out of his eternal silence God spoke the Word
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.
‘Till by the Spirit of faith reveal’d, The Book is still unread, unknown, And opened by the Lamb alone.
Introduction
II. “Partners of Christ” (3:7-19)
Hebrews 3:7-19 Hebrews 3:14: “???.”
“an evil,unbelieving heart” “the deceitfulness of sin”
Old Notes
3:1 – 4:13 Consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our Confession.
3:1-6 Who is superior to Moses as the builder of the house.
3:7-4:13 Who is superior to Joshua in the rest he affords.
*1. What is the general nature of the section (expository or hortatory)? How does it relate to what has preceded?
It is exhortation (mixed expository and hortatory) combining the thoughts of Apostle (c. 1) and High Priest (c.2) which have been developed. Under the Old Covenant these two functions were first held by Moses and Aaron. Both of these titles are now vested in the Son who is the Moses and Aaron of the new covenant. Moses (with Joshua) is considered in this section while Aaron and the Levitical system is left for cc. 5-10.
*2. What is the irreducible core of the first sentence (vv. 1-2, so Greek) and how is it completed in the remaining phraseology?
“Consider . . . Jesus”
“the apostle and high priest of our confession” “was faithful to the one who appointed him”
What is meant by “heavenly calling” and “house”?
“house” a family (‘church’), picking up an idea dropped in 2:16
“heavenly calling” a vocation, a household with a mission
*4. In 3:1-6 how are Jesus and Moses compared? How contrasted?
Alike in quality – “faithful” Distinct in position – “Jesus . . . a Son” (appointed as HP) “Moses . . . a servant”
“Jesus . . . builder . . . faithful over” “Moses . . . in all God’s house as a servant”
Why is Moses brought in at all? What is the main point of 3:1-6 and why is it appropriate here?
In the mind of the Jew, Moses held a place that was absolutely unique, he held three great functions:
1). He was the leader who delivered Israel from Egypt; 2). He was God’s spokesman to Israel at Sinai (Exodus cc. 19-24); “Torah – giver” 3). He pleaded with God for Israel when they sinned (Exodus 32:11-14).
It is the second function that matters most, the heart of his mediatoral work, Moses passed on God’s words to Israel (v. 5), while Jesus actually embodied God’s word (1:2).
The greatest thing in all the world for the Jew was the law. Moses and the law were one and the same thing. Thus the next logical step in the author’s argument has to do with the law, chapter 7.
The point of the paragraph is Christ’s superiority to Moses.
The pint of departure for the exhortation is “keep faith with god’s house by keeping faith with the Son” (v. 6).
What point is made by the quotation from Psalms 95 in 3:7-11, and what use does the author make of it in 3:12-19?
An illustration from the history of Israel. They did not enter – a warning!
Two homilies developed from the quotation: 3:12-19 on “do not harden your hearts” 4:1-13 on “Today, if you hear his voice”
“Do not harden your hearts” 3:12-19
12-13 the danger of resisting the right course of action 14-15 the necessity of holding fast hupostaseos = “confidence” cf. 11:1 the consequences to those who refuse to enter when the moment comes
verse 19 sums up the argument of this section made from psalm 95.
On verse 14: Attridge: “hold firm to the initial reality,” as in 11:1: “Faith is the reality of things hoped for, the proof of things unseen.”
Hypostasis: “that which stands under” a legal term in the papyri, M & M title deed. Church fathers used it for person, cf. 1:3.
A & G: substantial nature, essence, actual being, reality, Heb. 1:3 confidence, conviction, assurance, steadfastness Heb. 11:1; 3:14. (But see Attridge on 3:14: “if we hold firm to the initial reality until the end”!)
“the subjective, psychological sense of ‘assurance’ or ‘confidence.’ . . .The major difficulty is that hypostasis never seems to have this meaning in contemporary sources” (Attridge, 308).
*7 Take note of the frequency of the words “hear,” “today,” “heart,” and “rest.” How do they figure in the development of thought?
Hear 3:7, 15; 4:7 responsibility Today 3:7, 13, 15; 4:7 urgency Heart 3:8, 10, 12, 15; 4:7 personality, character, decision Rest 3:11, 18; 4:1, 3, 4, 5, goal 8, 9, 10, 11
8. How does the author relate “sin” and “unbelief”? See verses 12-13, 17-19.
Unbelief is sin and sin basically is unbelief (12:1). What are the implication? Cf. Sin in the Gospel of John. 16:19: “about sin, because they do not believe in me”
See Raymond Brown on John c. 5: “sin is the preference of self (over Jesus?).”
OLD FROM HERE ON
Introduction
In an earlier lesson (9/8/13), we made mention of the significant role of key language from our Wesleyan heritage in Hebrews. Two biblical and theological languages, those of “perfection” and of “sanctification,” appear at strategic points in the author’s argument. Both terminologies make their first appearance in the passage for today. In verses 10-11 we read:
It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father.
In today’s study, we begin to see what “to make perfect” (teleioun) and “to sanctify” (hagiazein) are about in the book Hebrews. As we saw earlier, the conceptual setting of these two languages as used in Hebrews is the role of the Jewish temple in worship and redemptive function. The writer to the Hebrews employs these two verbs and their cognates to answer two fundamental religious questions:
How is one man able to represent all humankind before God? How is it possible for sinful human creatures to enter into the presence of a holy God?
So as we continue to make our way slowly through the book of Hebrews, we keep the question alive in the background of our minds as to how the meaning and function of these two languages in Hebrews inform our understanding and use of them as American Wesleyans who are heirs of the frontier camp-meeting ethos whose songs we often sing.
As we peer at Hebrews 2:4-18 we come back to the significant appearance of the name “Jesus” as the writer to the Hebrews talks about one “who for a little while was made lower than the angels”? This text declares that this human, historical “Jesus,” in a role pictured by the Psalmist of old, is now on the human scene. “Jesus” has arrived among us first in order “To Fulfill the Destiny of Humankind” (2:5-9) as we explored in our previous lesson.
For some “unknown” reason, as I prepared for the lesson on verses 5-9, I totally forgot to consult the new commentary that Carol and Rick bought for me especially for this study, Luke Timothy Johnson’s Hebrews: A Commentary! So we pick up some quotations and thoughts from him to bring us back into our stream of thought from verses 5-9.
Hebrews has “a distinctive emphasis on the humanity of Jesus and the importance of what the human Jesus did.”
In reference to the author’s quotation of Psalm 8, “the author here elaborates an interpretation of the passage” which begins “even before the citation, when he asserts that ‘the world to come’ of which he speaks was not subjected to angels,” since the verb ‘subject' “points forward to the psalm citation.”
For Psalm 8’s “man” and “son of man,” the “first meaning is obviously humanity: in accord with the practice of parallelism in Hebrew poetry, the second term is synonymous with the first. Salvation, then, is meant for humans rather than for angels. But there is another consideration: salvation is also accomplished by a ‘man” and ‘son of man,’ namely, Jesus. The author’s interpretation of the psalm will play on this ambiguity of reference.”
The writer to the Hebrews, in verse 9, “provides a transition to the next stage of [his] argument by elucidating the manner in which Jesus was for a short time ‘made lower than the angels.’ It is not . . . due to his incarnation, but rather due to his suffering of death. . . . Simply taking on human nature would not, for Hebrews, have ‘lowered’ the Son below the angels, for the Son never ceases being the one who sustains the universe. . . . Hebrews adds another note: the ‘suffering’ (. . .) of death. The theme of suffering is key to the author’s conception of Jesus’ priesthood and to his understanding of discipleship.”
Here Johnson has made a most important distinction in the Hebrew writer’s presentation of the “Son.” So we read that the incarnate Jesus is “now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone”—“because . . . so that”!
With the mention of Jesus’ suffering and death comes the question of “Why?” Why has the Son become human, even to the point of death? As we move on to verses 10-18, Jesus is on the human scene second in order
II. To Perfect the Son as High Priest (2:10-18)
As the focus of this present study we read,
10[For] It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children [sons] to glory, should make the pioneer [author] of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father [from one Father]. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.” 13And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Here am I and the children whom God has given me.”
14Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy [render powerless] the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. 16For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. 17Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters [brethren] in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God [in things pertaining to God], to make a sacrifice of atonement [propitiation] for the sins of the people. 18Because he himself was tested [tempted] by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested [tempted].
These two paragraphs confront us with the ultimate goal, of “The Function of the Humiliation of the Son” (2:5-18), that is, to fully qualify Jesus as “a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God.” We pay attention first to
1. “the pioneer” (2:10-13)
Right up front verse 10 declares that the suffering and death of Jesus “was fitting.” Shockingly, contrary to Greek and Greco-Jewish theology for which “it would not have been thought ‘proper’ to associate God with the world of suffering,” Hebrews asserts boldly that it is appropriate “that God . . . should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”
Such an action, aptly called by John Calvin (1509-1564) the “remedy of the cross,” is fully in tune with the eternal will of “God, for whom and through whom all things exist.” God did not drift from the unchanging nature of his purpose because of the human tragedy of sin and death; he has not departed from the divine purpose of leading “many children to glory . . . salvation.” Rather, the perfecting of his incarnate Son by means of or “through sufferings,” a motif central to Hebrews, is fully appropriate to the nature and character of God as a holy God of grace (vv. 9, 11), a God “merciful and faithful” (v. 17).
At this point, the writer to the Hebrews calls Jesus “a pioneer,” “the pioneer of . . . salvation,” a term he uses again for Jesus in 12:2: “Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” The Greek word archēgos is difficult to translate into English. Along with NRSV’s “pioneer,” suggestions are “leader,” “captain” (KJV), “author” (NASB). Anderson, examining the term’s usage outside the New Testament, chooses the term “champion”: “Jesus is the ‘champion [hero] who imitates and perfects our faith.’” The Greek term combines the noun “beginning” (archē) and the verb “to bring or lead” (agō). The Hebrews’ context would favor the sense of leading the way, one who goes before breaking new ground for others to follow. So “pioneer” is an excellent choice for the earthly career of Jesus, who “by the grace of God” tasted “death for everyone,” and in whose wake we follow.
The author, however, presents Jesus not only as the “pioneer” but also as the “perfecter,” as he puts it, of our “salvation”–both our way to salvation and what we experience in it! The Greek verb teleiosai means to make something complete, whole or adequate. In the LXX it has special reference to the ordination of priests (Exodus 29:9-35). The author’s use of the perfection language here speaks to the “qualifying,” the “finishing,” or the “perfecting” of the human Jesus for his priestly role. Jesus became qualified for the representation before God of all humanity with whom he is united by submitting himself to a perfecting process “through” the means of “sufferings”!
Two ground-level theological thoughts in verses 11-12 contribute to the confirmation and explanation of this perfection of salvation: “For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,” The first thought is found in the introduction of the sanctification terminology into the discourse. The holiness of God requires that only a holy people may enter his presence. Here Jesus is the one who “makes holy” or “sanctifies,” and qualifies his people—those who are being “sanctified” to enter the presence of such a holy God. So here the sanctification terminology describes the whole saving work of the incarnate Son. Whatever is needed, Jesus has been and is “perfected” to do for us!
The second ground-level theological thought is that both the “sanctifier” and the “sanctified” are from or “have one Father.” Literally, Jesus and his people are simply “from one” (ex henos). They are Jesus’ “brothers and sisters” of whom he “is not ashamed,” indeed, he is honored to own them, to claim us, as such! We both have our source, our origin in God; Jesus is “the firstborn within a large family” (Romans 8:29), literally “the firstborn of many brethren” (NASB): “Since Jesus is the first of ‘many sons,’ his perfection must be the perfection of his humanity.” The incarnate Son—Jesus--and the human “sons” of God share a common humanity and as such are on the same moral footing before God, they live on the earthly plain in the same relation to God—“tested” (2:18).
As our “pathfinder” Jesus’ path on earth was “through suffering.” As he identified with “the children . . . through sufferings,” these sons and daughters in similar manner will be identified with him as they are called upon to “hold firm” in their faith (3:6) when the going gets tough (10:32): not only in character but also in life, we are “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29).
The scriptures demonstrate this “sanctified” family relationship as Jesus is reported as speaking through three Old Testament citations—“saying . . .” The first scripture cited is from the prayer of a person in distress, Psalm 22:22:
“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”
Psalm 22 served as a rich source for the early church’s understanding of the death of Jesus. All four Gospels connect the Psalm with the passion of Christ and the very last words of Jesus on the cross in two of the Gospels are from Psalm 22:1: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34).
The second and third citations come from Isaiah 8:17-18 (LXX) spoken by the prophet in a time of national turmoil and unfaithfulness in Israel:
And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again, “Here am I and the children whom God has given me.”
The prophet Isaiah is “resolved to trust God (Isa 8:17) and hold on to the tokens of divine providence given to him in the names of his children (Isa 8:18).” As now spoken by Jesus this second citation speaks of “his faithful obedience to God, especially in the face of suffering (5:7-8).”
The third quotation completes the thought of Jesus’ oneness with the people of God; they are family: “I and the children whom God has given me.” As Johnson comments, “the point here is that the Son and his brothers re not merely linked ontologically but also morally: as he responds to God with faith, so shall they—or so they should!” This theme of reliance on God becomes increasingly important as the text of Hebrews proceeds to highlight
2. “a sacrifice of atonement” (2:14-18)
Verse 14 continues the participation of Jesus [“he, himself”] in humanity. Jesus experiences in full the human predicament. Together they share the same “flesh and blood;” literally they “share blood and flesh,” the opposite order used in the idiom elsewhere. “Blood” put first may be a subtle reference to Jesus’ sacrificial death. The idiom is used in the New Testament to express “the inferiority of humanity to God (Matthew 16:17; Galatians 1:16), as well as frailty and mortality (1 Corinthians 15:50 . . .).” In Anderson’s well-chosen words, the humanity of Jesus “was no shadow or phantom”: “the same things . . . in every respect” (2:14, 17).
The shift in the tense of the verbs from “the children share (kekoinōnēken)” to “he [Jesus] himself likewise shared (meteschen)” is significant. In the first verb, the Greek perfect tense indicates that humanity’s present sharing in blood and flesh has long been the case. But with the Greek aorist tense in the second verb, the stress, in contrast, is put on Jesus’ participation in human nature as a particular actual event in the past, an act performed in obedience to the will of God (10:5-10). The Incarnation took place in a known historical place and time, only a few decades before Hebrews was written.
At the same time, Jesus will transcend the human condition as the twofold purpose of the Incarnation unfolds; he is able to do what other humans cannot do. The first is “so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.” With the NSASB an alternate translation is “he might render powerless the one who has the power of death.”
This rendering would be in keeping with Jesus’ words in John 14:30 to his disciples as his death approaches: “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me.” In 1 John 3:8 “the Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” And all this, which the writer to the Hebrews states clearly yet ironically, will be accomplished “through death,” the death of Jesus by which he will “make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people,” as the writer is soon to explain.
The second purpose of the Incarnation is related; it is to “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.” This “death phobia,” described as a “chronic condition of human existence,” is a persistent and enslaving fear holding “sway over all of our attitudes, decisions, and relationships.” The fear of death was “forcefully expressed as a fundamental human problem in the Greco-Roman tradition.” Philosophers discussed ways of overcoming it. I wonder, can we think of the ways our contemporary Western and American culture reflects the human “fear of death”?
Jesus in his incarnate life neither diminished the reality of death nor battled with it as a noble example of how to endure suffering. Rather, he embraced its fear and reality head-on in his own death and triumphed over it in his resurrection. Jesus has been made “perfect through sufferings” (2:10) and has thus become “the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (5:9; see 7:25).
And all this, as relating to the formerly much-mentioned topic of angels, is not for the angels, “for it is clear” that Jesus came to “help . . . the descendants of Abraham.” One could translate as “of course” (dēpou) Jesus came “to lay hold of” the “seed of Abraham,” his seed whether by sperm or by faith! The verb, “to lay hold of,” conveys strongly “the action of grasping, seizing, or taking hold of . . . for the purpose of deliverance.”
In verse 16), the reference to angels signals the completion of what we have designated as “a statement of facts” (vv. 5-16) known as the narratio, which functions as the staging platform on which he builds the edifice of all he wants to say. This leads us to “the proposition” in 2:17-18 which states the central point of the document and introduces us to the arguments that follow.
Forgetting the angels, we move on in verses 17-18 to the theme for all that follows: Jesus, our “merciful and faithful high priest.” This role of “a Son” was implicit in “purification for sins” in 1:3 and at least hinted at with the introduction of Jesus on the scene as in “the pioneer of their salvation” to be made “perfect through sufferings” in 2:10 where we began today.
Jesus’ high priestly role made it appropriate for him “to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect” as verses 10-16 have just so powerfully presented. Jesus has become a “merciful” or compassionate high priest because “he himself was tested by what he suffered,” and thus “is able to help those who are being tested.” Jesus in his incarnate life has entered into our trials and temptations—he has experienced them all in their essence to the full.
All this, Jesus’ becoming both “a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God,” was in order “to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people.” We have reached here the thematic high point of the author’s witness to Jesus as “a Son.” The writer has expressed in essence everything he will explore fully as he continues his message to his expected readers. The translation “make a sacrifice of atonement” is a theologically neutral rending of significant New Testament terminology, here in verb form—hilaskesthai—often rendered, as some scholars feel, with the problematic “make propitiation” as in NASB.
The issue with the verb translated as “make a sacrifice of atonement” is, at least in my thinking, clear cut. Does Jesus in his death on the cross simply make “expiation” in the sense of taking away our sins, or does he “make propitiation” for them in some biblical sense? That is, is human sinfulness the obstacle to fellowship with God, or does the character of God as “holy” need to be considered in the atonement equation?
Employing this this same terminology, Paul defined its purpose in different language as “that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (NASB), that atonement involves both the character of God and the character of humans! This has been a highly debated issue in past scholarship and its implications are alive and well in the present and theologically significant—Who really was and is Jesus?
The use of the verb “make propitiation” and the noun “propitiation” has in its non-biblical background clearly the meaning of “appease the wrath of the gods,” that is, God would be mad at us until Jesus in his death appeased his anger! Scholars have found this picture offensive. But is not simply going with “expiation” without explanation throwing the baby out with the bath water? I think so. Both terms, without adequate biblical definitions in mind, have their problems.
My concern, I believe is fully biblical. Starting on the human level, forgiveness is costly to the forgiver. For the one who forgives for love’s sake absorbs, suffers within, the offense and opens the arms to full reconciliation of fellowship. There is cost involved.
One time in my very early teens we were branding calves in a corral at the ranch in South Dakota. Dad told me to go get the truck parked with the cars near the house. In the process I backed the truck into our car. On the way home at a gas station in our small town, Dad was asked, “What happened to your car?” He simply answered, “Someone hit me.” Dad never once reproached or embarrassed me over it, he simply got it fixed and paid the bill! The scene is still vivid. Such is the power of true forgiveness!
Such costly forgiveness as we all know is at the heart of all meaningful human relationships, most of all in our marriages and with our closest friends. Would such not be all the more true when the Apostle Paul wrote that we
are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement [a propitiation] by his blood, effective through faith (Romans 3:23-25);
and as John penned those marvelous lines
we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice [the propitiation] for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2)?
The holy God, in Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection, for love’s sake, has taken into his own full personhood that which contradicts his very holy nature and suffers it out of existence that we might live in full fellowship with him—a truly “atoning sacrifice”: As Paul put it, “for our sake [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Blood was at the heart of the Old Testament sacrificial system, which in the LXX informs our author, and will appear prominently in Hebrews: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you in making atonement for your lives on the altar; for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement” (Leviticus 17:11).
Forgiveness comes at the cost of life itself, integrity for human life—and holiness for divine life! Therefore, as a sheer gift of grace, we have “a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God,” one like us “in every respect,” who made “a sacrifice of atonement” for our sins. Now and forever, “because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested”!
Conclusion
Our chosen title for the last two studies on Hebrews 2:5-18 has been simply, “Jesus.” This central human figure of the four Gospels appears almost abruptly in the text of Hebrews following an exalted discussion of “a Son” as God’s final revelation and his superiority to “angels.” This man of flesh and blood, like you and me, a person belonging to real human history, has taken over the story in the rhetoric of the author. Why is “Jesus” as such so prominent in the mind of this second generation Christian?
Reading reflectively the Greek text of the Gospel of John, I was recently startled, almost shocked to read Jesus’ words to Thomas, eōrakate auton: “you have seen him [the Father]:
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you know him and have seen him” (John 14:5-7).
Thomas had seen God? Yes, because he had seen Jesus! We have seen God? Yes, in that we have seen the apostolic witness to the incarnate Jesus! “It was declared at first through the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard him” (2:3). With John, in his first letter, “we have heard, we have seen with our eyes, we have looked at, and we have touched with our hands ‘the word of life’” (1:1).
Jesus, that is where God can be seen! The following outline is that of Kevin L. Anderson, Hebrews: A Commentary In The Wesleyan Tradition, New Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2013), 5-6. I. Hearing the Apostle and High Priest of Our Confession: Hebrews 1:1—4:13 A. Hearing God’s Word in These Last Days: Jesus the Merciful and Faithful High Priest (1:1—2:18) B. Hearing God’s Word Today: Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of Our Confession (3:1—4:13). 1. Commitment as Christ’s Partners, God’s House (3:1-6) 2. Entering God’s Rest: Warning and Promise (3:7—4:13) a. The Peril of Defying God’s Voice (3:7-19) b. Warning Not to Fall Sort of the Promised Rest (4:1-13) II. Jesus’ Superior High Priesthood: Hebrews 4:14—10:18 III. Call to Persevering Faith and Acceptable Worship: Hebrews 10:19--13:25 Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Way of the Heart: , Desert: Spirituality and Contemporary Ministry (New York: Random House Inc., 1983), 49. Isaiah 4:8. Charles Wesley, Short Hymns o Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol: Farley, 1792), 1.324. http://www.divinity.duke.edu/Wesleyan/texts/cw_published_verse.html. a two volume work with an editorial introduction by Randy Maddox. Following the literal translation of the NASB rather than the NRSV’s “human beings” and “mortals” both here and in Psalm 8. NIV. This is the only occurrence of the expression “holy brothers” in the Bible. Anderson, Hebrews, 109. NIV, See Colossians 3:1 for a similar imperative expressed with different verbs. Under the Old Covenant the functions of apostle and high priest were first held by Moses and Aaron. The Son is the Moses and Aaron of the new covenant. Moses (with Joshua) is now considered while Aaron and the Levitical system is left for chapters 5-10. The designation “apostolic witness” describes not only New Testament writings such as Hebrews and Acts, and the epistles of Paul, James, Peter, and John, but also the four gospels which partake of the nature of the post-resurrection proclamation of the Apostles. The whole New Testament is “witness” material; it has been designated as kerygmatic or preaching in basic intention. The verb form appears in 11:13 and 13:15. The apostle Paul uses the noun in a similar manner: “you glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ” (2 Corinthians 9:13; see 1 Timothy 6:13). The New Testament makes frequent use of the verb form. Johnson, Hebrews, 107, wants to translate the phrase “the one who appointed him” (tō poiēsanti auton) as “’the one who made him,’ with ‘making’ understood as ‘creating.’” This he says fits 2:10-18). Anderson, Hebrews, 111, however, rejects the suggestion with which we concur. Numbers 12:5, 7, NIV. “God’s house” could mean the temple, the heavenly world, or the entire created universe. Anderson, Hebrews, 111-112. In the New Testament see 1 Corinthians 3:9-15; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Timothy 3:15; 1 Peter 2:5, 4:17. Exodus 32:11-14. Exodus 19-24. Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1953), 161. See Exodus 20:1-21, especially vv. 18-21. The verb “is worthy” is perfect passive, ēxiōtai, which probably signifies a divine passive reflecting the already “reflection of God’s glory” attributed to the Son (1:3). Johnson, Hebrews, 110. Here and in 9:11 and 9:24 are the only instances without article indicating that it is used primarily as a proper name rather than as “the Messiah.” Anderson, Hebrews, 113. NRSV relies on “however” and NASB renders them “Now, . . . but.” The apostle Paul made use of this distinction in Romans (4:5; 8:15,23) and Galatians (4:1-7, 21-31) and Ephesians 1:5. See also Mark 12 and John 8:35-36. Johnson, Hebrews, 111. See Philippians 3:20-21. See Romans 4:2; 1 Corinthians 9:16; Galatians 6:4; 2 Corinthians 1:14; Philippians 2:14). NASB. 3:1; see 6:11, 18-19; 7:19; 10:19-23. Quoted by A. M. Hunter, P. T. Forsyth, Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1974), 35, see 47-48.
The following outline is that of Kevin L. Anderson, Hebrews: A Commentary In The Wesleyan Tradition, New Beacon Bible Commentary (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2013), 5-6. I. Hearing the Apostle and High Priest of Our Confession: Hebrews 1:1—4:13 A. Hearing God’s Word in These Last Days: Jesus the Merciful and Faithful High Priest (1:1—2:18) B. Hearing God’s Word Today: Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of Our Confession (3:1—4:13). 1. Commitment as Christ’s Partners, God’s House (3:1-6) 2. Entering God’s Rest: Warning and Promise (3:7—4:13) a. The Peril of Defying God’s Voice (3:7-19) b. Warning Not to Fall Sort of the Promised Rest (4:1-13) II. Jesus’ Superior High Priesthood: Hebrews 4:14—10:18 III. Call to Persevering Faith and Acceptable Worship: Hebrews 10:19--13:25 Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Way of the Heart: , Desert: Spirituality and Contemporary Ministry (New York: Random House Inc., 1983), 49. Isaiah 4:8. Charles Wesley, Short Hymns o Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol: Farley, 1792), 1.324. http://www.divinity.duke.edu/Wesleyan/texts/cw_published_verse.html. a two volume work with an editorial introduction by Randy Maddox. The perfection terminology appears in 2:10; 5:8-9; 6:1; 7:11, 18-19, 28; 9:9; 10:1, 14; 11:40; 12:2, 23; and the sanctification language in 2:11;9:13; 10:10, 29; 12:14; 13:12. Last Sunday (11/10/13), for example, we sang “Jesus is Coming Again” and Keith Bell and Victor Labenske gave us “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder” on the organ and piano for the offertory. Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels. 6But someone has testified somewhere, “What are human beings [man] that you are mindful of them [him], or mortals [son of man], that you care for them [him]? 7You have made them [him] for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them [him] with glory and honor, 8subjecting all things under their [his] feet.” Now in subjecting all things to them [him], God [He] left nothing outside their control [not subject to him]. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them [him], 9but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Luke Timothy Johnson, Hebrews: A Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 88-91. Attridge, Hebrews, 82. William F. Keesecker, ed., A Calvin Treasury: Selections from The Institutes of Christian Religion, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, Introduced by T. F. Torrance (London: SCM Press, LTD, 1960), 23 (III, viii, 5). As a title for Jesus archēgos also appears in Acts 3:15 and 5:31. Anderson, Hebrews, 94. See also Leviticus 4:5; 7:27; 8:21-33; 16:32; 21:10; Numbers 3:3). The Greek participle here is present tense (continuous action) applying primarily not to the individual but is iterative, describing the people of God as they are brought to faith one-by-one. This is parallel to Paul’s making use of the justification terminology from the law court to describe the whole. One in the “wrong” becomes “right” with God by a “right-making” process parallels an “unholy” person having access to a “holy” God by a “holy-making” process! Attridge, Hebrews, 88, on the basis of 9:13-14;; 10:1-2, 10, 14, comments that “true sanctification involves primarily the cleansing of the conscience from sin,” making “possible life in the ‘new covenant.’” Johnson, Hebrews, 96. Johnson, Hebrews, 99, writes that “the point here is that the Son and his brothers re not merely linked ontologically but also morally: as he responds to God with faith, so shall they—or so they should!” Both the quotations are from Anderson, Hebrews, 96-97. Johnson, Hebrews, 99. So doubly emphatic: “he himself likewise shared the same things.” As in Ephesians 6:12 which, interestingly, NRSV translates literally, contrary to here as do most translations. See also the different but similar John 1:13. Anderson, Hebrews, 97. Anderson, Hebrews, 98. Sinply put the Greek tense reflects “kind” more than “time” of action. The perfect tense expresses the present results of a past action and the aorist tense simply indicates that the event happened. The grammatical; truth is not quite as simple as we have expressed it. But this captures the nuances here. Anderson, Hebrews, 99. Attridge, Hebrews, 93. See Johnson, Hebrews, 100, or Anderson, Hebrews, 99. Attridge, Hebrews, 94, sees no reason not to stay with a literal translation of epilambanetai as “lay hold of” rather than “help,” the more common interpretation of the text going back as far as patristic commentators. See Romans 4:16. Anderson, Hebrews, 100. Johnson, Hebrews, 204 that “compressed in expression and powerfully paradoxical, it invites the reader to examine further this ‘discourse that is difficult to express’ (5:11.” See also Romans 3:23; 1 John 4:4; 4:10. Attridge, Hebrews, 96, makes the case from the LXX for the translation “expiation” rather than “propitiation” following its etymology. For an authentic biblical narrative of forgivesness, see Herb L. Prince on the Joseph Story, his lessons beginning on February 17, 2013, particularly the study for August 8, 2013, “Part 35: ‘Tit for Tat?’” “Tested” or “tempted” is relevant to the readers’ situation, the trial of faith caused by suffering. “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
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