Salvation Declared by Christ

Opening Statement

The book of Hebrews is one that differs from most of the NT text in the sense that it takes a broad spectrum approach and labels the finer points of God’s redemptive plan. In chapter 1 we saw how Christ centers all things of faith in the matter of fulfillment. The teaching will reiterate all these characteristics of Christ but will not stop there.

The epistle will bring us full circle on how life in Christ looks as well as works out in transformation. This approach is due to the recipients in consideration the Jewish-Christian community. God always had in mind the greater intent of personal and cosmic redemption. The Jews struggled with understanding and tradition. The understanding Messiah would suffer and is truly God, to them were polar opposite concepts. Being God’s elect and embracing Gentiles in the worship community did not sit well. These challenges among others our writer takes seriously to dispel.

Questions ????

Of the other NT books that have this broad scope approach, Matthew (a gospel narrative) and Romans (a Pauline epistle) have similar perspectives.

The Gospel of Matthew a Narrative

Matthew since its directed to Jewish followers, not just the closer 12 but those who followed in the background within ear shot and view of Jesus. In Matthew’s gospel Jesus brings to mind, fulfillment is not a matter of keeping commands and ceremony but of the heart. Today with our difficulty of understanding slavery and freedom, Jesus’ kingdom expression and mandates are a struggle to wrap our minds around. God bids us to follow Him by subjecting our lives to Jesus’ kingdom expression. The primary effort is to believe in Christ with His fulfillment of God’s grace. It is a simple proposition and present by God’s invitation and along with our walking in faith.

Nonetheless still Christians can fall prey to a similar lack of vision as our Jewish counterparts. We must be careful not to presume we are immune to hardness of heart. Heaven and freedom in this light become ‘pie in the sky’ ideas. On this side of eternity we might not, taste and see the Lord is good.

Jesus particularly in the Sermon on the Mount lays groundwork revealing human strife and suffering produces godly character when we willfully subject ourselves to His reign even now. All this in mind brings up the matter of covenants.

Paul’s Epistle to the Romans:

The Gospel of God- the Redemption Plan

Romans gives explanation of how the just shall live by faith. God’s gospel is salvation for humanity at large. Paul makes further explanation with Israel His elect. This is one of the most explicit articulations of God’s sovereignty in light of Israel and the New Covenant.

In our SOTM study we discussed covenants, their substance and how God expressed them. We discovered from the Abrahamic study into the Davidic we have a succession of promises culminating into the New Covenant. Jesus so clearly articulates and brands His ministry the inception of this new fulfilling covenant.

Matthew 5:17–20 (ESV)

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The inception of the New Covenant

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (ESV)

Ezekiel 36:22–28 ESV

“Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

This suggest another perspective relative to the greater plan of redemption. There are three dominant categories which all the covenants or God’s grace throughout redemptive history fall under,

... the law of works, the law of faith and the law of Christ.

Adam Law of Works

First, Adam the first man, was endowed with the work of tending to Paradise’s garden. In his disobedience God expelled Adam and his wife Eve, no longer to able to relate to God by performance. In the moment, God in his provision extended grace despite the consequence of death. Death was rendered although incrementally it subsumed Adam, Eve and each of their descendants.

Abraham Law of Faith

Next, the covenant of faith comes to fruition through Abraham, who bears the burden of his ancestors including Adam and Noah. God makes it clear to obey Him, is not simply to perform but trust Him implicitly. God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son, his only son. Abraham does not withold this radical request of God. God makes provision for a sacrifice instead of Isaac a ram caught in the thicket. God blesses Abraham and his offspring with promises including a great family, which becomes a tribe.

Through a series of events and sojourning the Egyptians lose sight of how the descendants of Abraham dwelled among them. Pharoah enslaved them and eventually slaughters their male infants. God preserves and raises up Moses. Moses, the lawgiver delivers this chosen people. This tribe become wanderers for a time. Nonetheless in this interlude of growth and strife God shapes Israel with His law. God endows them with a land of their own and a royal force to reckon with among their neighbors.

In the writing, The Marrow of Modern Divinity Edward Fisher follows a dialogue between four interlocutors, Evangelista (the preacher), Nomista (the legalist), Antinomista ( the lawless ) and Neophytus ( a young Christian ). The bone of contention is our faith and life based on works versus solely grace. as Nomista and Antinomista engage in the deliberation of the relevance of the moral law regarding spirituality and faith.

Early in the dialogue Evangelista reveals how God’s law was written on Adam’s heart so to obey this was not sheer duty. Adam exercised wilfull rebellion by neglecting the command which was life to begin with. Nomista thinks that partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is a small trifle, how does it renders the consequence of death. This reference I handed out to you is quite compelling.

With this in mind obedience takes greater shape....

Nom. But, sir, methinks it is a strange thing that so small an offence, as eating of the forbidden fruit seems to be, should plunge the whole of mankind into such a gulf of misery.

Evan. Though at first glance it seems to be a small offence, yet, if we look more wistfully upon the matter it will appear to be an exceeding great offence; for thereby intolerable injury was done unto God; as, first, His dominion and authority in his holy command was violated. Secondly, His justice, truth, and power, in his most righteous threatenings, were despised. Thirdly, His most pure and perfect image, wherein man was created in righteousness and true holiness, was utterly defaced. Fourthly, His glory, which, by an active service, the creature should have brought to him, was lost and despoiled. Nay, how could there be a greater sin committed than that, when Adam, at that one clap, broke all the ten commandments?

Nom. Did he break all the ten commandments, say you? Sir, I beseech you show me wherein.

Evan. 1. He chose himself another God when he followed the devil.

2. He idolized and deified his own belly; as the apostle’s phrase is, “He made his belly his God.”

3. He took the name of God in vain, when he believed him not.

4. He kept not the rest and estate wherein God had set him.

5. He dishonoured his Father who was in heaven; and therefore his days were not prolonged in that land which the Lord his God had given him.

6. He massacred himself and all his posterity.

7. From Eve he was a virgin, but in eyes and mind he committed spiritual fornication.

8. He stole, like Achan, that which God had set aside not to be meddled with; and this his stealth is that which troubles all Israel,—the whole world.

9. He bare witness against God, when he believed the witness of the devil before him.

10. He coveted an evil covetousness, like Amnon, which cost him his life, and all his progeny. Now, whosoever considers what a nest of evils here were committed at one blow, must needs, with Musculus, see our case to be such, that we are compelled every way to commend the justice of God,‡ and to condemn the sin of our first parents, saying, concerning all mankind, as the prophet Hosea does concerning Israel, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself,” Hos. 13:9.[1]

[1]Fisher, E. (n.d.). The Marrow of Modern Divinity (pp. 35–36). Presbyterian Board of Publication.

How do we view the law today relative to faith in Christ?

Paul in Romans and Galatians specifically make the effort to explain how we should appropriate the law and faith. Romans clearly explains we live by the rule of faith. Galatians culminates by freedom we are no longer enslaved to sin, by the fruit of the Spirit we love our neighbors as ourselves, and restore our brothers caught in transgression. Bearing one another’s burdens we fulfill the law of Christ.

The Middle Way Christ

Evangelista in the Marrow provides explanation this middle way through Christ transcends the pretenses both of holiness and conversion. Christ holiness is our holiness and we the life, crucified in our flesh we is by the faith in Christ, who loved us and gave Himself a ransom. We see the law is just schoolmaster and freedom the means to follow Christ and love one another, neighbors and even our enemies. vv Galatians 2:20 ; 5; 6 also see Romans 3:27,31

Read again Hebrews 2:1-4

Verse 1

1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Heb 2:1). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

Therefore, makes reference to our prior passages. We have need to keep in mind who Christ is, altogether Jesus of royal lineage of David the King of Israel- the heir of all things. As the second person of the Trinity He is the glory of God His exact imprint upholding the universe by His power. Fulfilling God’s plan for redemption, crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection He ascended to the Father. Making purification for sins His enthronement was encumbent. This exaltation by the Father bears relevance to His superiority in all things, angelic beings in which they also worship Him, firstborn into the world, bearing the scepter, annointed with gladness, Creator of heaven and earth, unchanging, judge of all things, sending out ministering spirits to His heirs. This alone is a mouthful. However, with this knowledge we still are vulnerable.

Verse 2

2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Heb 2:2). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

Logos and Torah

The assertion here is the law was good and justified in the moment the present sin through God’s message by intermediary of the angels. Notice the word ‘message’, it is transalated from the Greek word ‘logos.’ I myself equate torah Hebraic word as a generic equivalent for logos. Although Torah is translated law in most cases, it designates the greater implication of God’s character expressed in His chosen not by command but heart and mind, and way of life. Christ as the Logos fulfills all righteousness that we bear the testimony and in our fidelitly express godly obedience. Christ delivers the message as He Himself is the message. In His communication of SOTM and with the Pharisees He clearly reveals, He is the Message and Kindgom altogether.

Verse 3

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,

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Heb 2:3). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

Disobedience and transgession demand faithfulness and not simply placating God out of sheer obligation.

We can imitate Christ, even obedient unto death. Paul in Philippians conveys only in humility and brokenness is this realized in our faith. God’s faithful follower the apostles spoke and bore witness of this profundity. The implications are life in Christ today, here and now but life complete and fulfilled in the day of the Lord.

Verse 4

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.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Heb 2:4). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

The Testimony of the Father by way of gifts

God the Father bore witness of Christ through the ministry of gifts. Now Jesus performed signs and wonders and delivered many and revealed Himself not only as King of Israel but truly God. My conviction here is Jesus exercised the divesture of His divine perogatives and subject His will to the that of the Father. Its manifestation was affirmed by the empowering Spirit. All this to say Jesus was not simply zapping out demons, healing others by His sheer human will. I believe this clearly says in every instance of Jesus’ ministry He cooperated with the Father by the power of the Spirit. Every supernatural expression flowed from the harmony of the Trinty.

Conclusively speaking we have a distinct warning that salvation is not simply deliverance but has its expression in obedience. Obedient like Christ our Lord in the reality that all we do that has significance is through these expressions Christ has established -Hebrews 1

Some posit by the language and its implications this a clear statment rendering the cessation of miraculous gifts at the close of the ministry of the Apostles. I see this as a warning that disobedience is not simply a matter of rebellion but misappropriation. In the ministration of gifts we must imitate Christ. There is distinction of supernatural as well as natural in the wording ‘by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts.’ The exercise of gifts is a display of the power of the Gospel and is subject to the empowering Spirit. This articulation gives no cause to state the gifts have ceased or are questionable. The implication here is gifts whether natural and ordinary or supernatural and miraculous come with the Gospel. We must be careful in the same sense that we handle God’s word in an approved manner.

Questions ????

Prayer and Meditation

Psalm 119:9–16“How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.”

Prayer of Supplication and Intercession