OVERVIEW:
Comparing Christ to the angels; comparing Christ to Moses; comparing Christ as our high priest to the priests of the Old Testament; comparing our rest in Christ to the rest of the “promised land”.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
The book of Hebrews begins a section of the New Testament that often causes people problems. A mistake that is very easy to make, and is very often made when believers read the word of God, is viewing everything they read through “Christian” glasses. Christian glasses aren’t a bad thing when you’re reading a book that is addressed to the local church (or a leader of a local church), but they can pose some pretty serious doctrinal problems if you leave them on when reading other books of the New or Old Testament.
Like the Gospels, because the book of Hebrews is found in the New Testament, most people leave their “local church/Christian” glasses on while reading this book. That is an invitation to doctrinal disaster. One of the things that will clear up about 90% of the difficulties found in the book of Hebrews is simply asking ourselves, “To whom was the book of HEBREWS written?” Was it a local church? No. Was it a pastor of a local church? No. How about Gentiles? Good guess, but, no. Could it have been Hebrews? Yes! The book of Hebrews was written to Hebrews.
Remember, in terms of “rightly dividing the word of truth,” the Jews/nation of Israel is the “ancient landmark” that must be kept in place lest you enter “the fields of the fatherless”. Not recognizing that Paul is specifically addressing “Hebrews” in the book of HEBREWS (!!!) will make study of this book a “fatherless field”.
The twofold theme of the book of Hebrews is:
- The SUPERIORITY of CHRIST
- The NEW COVENANT compared to the OLD COVENANT.
The key word in this book is the word “BETTER. We have…
- A BETTER testament (7:22)
- A BETTER covenant (8:6)
- BETTER promises (8:6)
- A BETTER sacrifice (9:23)
- BETTER blood (12:24)
- BETTER substance (10:34)
- A BETTER hope (7:19)
- A BETTER country (11:16)
- BETTER resurrection. (11:35)
The word BETTER also provides an easy breakdown of the book:
- Christ is BETTER than the Angels. (Chapters 1-2)
- Christ is BETTER than Moses. (Chapter 3)
- Christ is BETTER than Joshua. (Chapter 4)
- Christ is a BETTER High Priest. (Chapters 5-7)
- Christ established a BETTER Covenant. (Chapters 8-13)
HISTORICALLY, the book of Hebrews was written to reveal the establishment of the new covenant by Jesus Christ. This book is actually the written form of what the Apostle Paul did when entering cities for the first time to proclaim the gospel. Acts 17:2-3 reveals that Paul’s standard operating procedure, when entering into a city, was to first go to the Jewish synagogue and reason from the scriptures how that Christ was the Messiah. In those synagogues, obviously, Paul would have been speaking predominantly to “Hebrews”.
DOCTRINALLY (or PROPHETICALLY), the book of Hebrews is written for the benefit of Jews during the Tribulation Period. We know from Romans 11 that God is not finished dealing with the nation of Israel. As we’ve discussed previously, on God’s timetable we are presently living in a “parenthesis” called the Church Age. After the rapture of the church, God will once again deal directly with the nation of Israel. If you were a Jew in the Tribulation, and you realized that you and your people had missed the Messiah when Christ came the first time, as you look through the table of contents for the New Testament, as you see the names of the books listed there, what book do you think you would be most inclined to read? How about the one addressed specifically to YOU? The book of HEBREWS!
DEVOTIONALLY (or INSPIRATIONALLY), however, we can still learn a tremendous amount about the new covenant and Christ’s sacrifice for us, even though the book of Hebrews is not written directly “to” us (the Church). The book also clearly reveals how Christ is the reality of the pictures and types contained in the Old Testament, as well as some of the clearest teaching on the effectiveness of Christ’s sacrifice; how that from God’s perspective, it was the “one sacrifice for sins for ever!” Hallelujah! So, the book has a very “profitable” practical application for us! (2nd Timothy 3:16)
There are three clear warning passages contained in the first six chapters of Hebrews. They are as follows:
- Chapter 2, verses 1–4
- Chapter 3 and verse 7 through Chapter 4 and verse 13
- Chapter 5 and verse 11 through Chapter 6 and verse 20
These warning passages are usually a place where many well-meaning people lose their neck. HISTORICALLY, these passages apply in two ways:
First, to those Hebrews that had already placed their faith in Christ, these passages are an exhortation to hold fast to that faith. This would be similar to the teaching we see in Galatians, where Paul actually calls believers “foolish”, even though they had trusted Christ.
Second, to those Hebrews who had not placed their faith in Christ alone, these warnings serve as a call to salvation. These unbelieving Hebrews needed to realize that Christ is the fulfillment of what they believed was true (the Old Testament), and that they needed to embrace the new covenant Christ had established.
DOCTRINALLY (Prophetically), these warning passages will serve in the future as an exhortation to Hebrews during the Tribulation Period to remain true to Christ and endure until the end. This corresponds to Christ’s teaching in Matthew 24:13, that those who endure until the end shall be saved. As we saw in Matthew 24, the context of that passage is not the Church Age, but rather, the time immediately preceding the Second Coming of Christ, the Tribulation Period.