From Shadow to Substance: Better than Angels

Notes: Hebrews 1:4-2:5

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. 5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.” 7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.” 8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. 9  You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.” 10 And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; 11  they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, 12  like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.” 13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”? 14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? Warning Against Neglecting Salvation 2 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 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, 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.

Stephen Lankton: Breaking up passages

v. 4: Application of Advanced Christology begins with Jesus being greater than angels.

Why? This was an early church controversy!

“Better”=13x

Exposition: The Sons Superiority

Chapter 1 Review:

A Study of Angels

Purpose of the Argument: Properly understanding the Role and Authority of Angels:

Angels are Inferior to Jesus:

7 Old Testament Texts

Book ended by 2 Messianic Psalms

Inclusio: Everything in between is about how Jesus is the Messiah

REFERENCES:

5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,

Before we get into these OT verses, we see what the author is doin here: Jesus is far superior than angels!

v. 5a: Reference #1: Psalm 2:7

v. 5b: Reference #2: II Samual 7:14

First 2 references are questions. CLEARLY, angels were never called SONS!

Angels=messangers

These verses say: Jesus is superior because they have never been called SON.

Interestingly enough, we can read about angels being called sons…

5 references:

Job 1:6 “6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.”

NO INDIVIDUAL!

v. 6: Reference #3: Psalm 97:7 or Deut 32:43: “Let all God’s angels worship him.”

No one ought to worship angels! They aren’t worthy of worship.

v. 7-9: References #4: Psalm 104:4:

Angels are merely ministers. Flames of fire, but still not at the status of “Son”

v. 8-9: Reference #5: Psalm 45

Jesus as King. The Father never called Angels kings of anything.

v. 10-12: Reference #6: Psalm 102:25-27

Jesus the Creator.

The Son is eternal: “You are the same, and your years will have no end.”

Angels had a beginning. They were creations.

v. 13: Reference #7: Psalm 110:13

Climax of references: Messianic Psalm!

Son RULES!

v. 14: Rhetorical Question: 14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Don’t overconflate the status of angels!

“Sent out”= apostollow

“Serve”= “diaconia”

Sent out to serve Christian! “Those of us who have inherited salvation.”

Important connection of heirship.

Jesus= 1:2: “whom he appointed heir of all things…”

We are inheritors of salvation.

Salvation is cosmological!

Angels are servants, Jesus is the Son

Chapter 1 emphasizes the Divinity of Christ

Assumptions by the Author:

Assumes the Old Testament is a Christian book, not merely a Jewish one.

All but one Old Testament quote is a quote from God himself.

The Old Testament is alive, but obsolete.

Old Testament: God has spoken in piecemeal fashion. True but chopped.

Reading the Old Testament Christocentrically:

2 Samuel 7:14 “14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men.”

Reference to King David and his son Solomon. But the author of Hebrews reads understands this as pointing towards a future messiah!

William Lane: “The seven quotations are presented as a succession of words spoken by God to the Son, which the Church on earth is permitted to overhear.”

Argument says:

Jesus is the better mediator than Angels

Chapter 1: Jesus is higher than Angels.

Chapter 2: Jesus also was human, but human also have qualities that are just different than angels.

Angels have high status, but are entirely different ontologically than Jesus.

Exhortation: A Solemn Warning

14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

Pay Attention:

2:1: Therefore, pay closer attention to what has been heard, lest you drift away!

What does drift away mean in Greek?

Drift= a board floating downstream.

Rheology: “Study of flow.”

Movement Away= Like a cruise ship. Unaware we drifted away from the dock/moorings.

PAY EVEN CLOSER ATTENTION!

We can trust Jesus is better angels for the following reasons.

Why? Because Attention Drift leads to neglect of salvation.

The Angels LOGOS proved reliable/true/trustworthy, how much more should we pay attention to the Gospel!

Hughes: “Unlike the law which was, at it were, mediated by word of mouth, the gospel was mediated by Word-made-flesh.”

What’s more, is that the punishments were just, how much more should we be prepared for judgment if we neglect the Gospel.

Fee: “The older revelation, the law of Sinai, was communicated by angelic intermediaries, but God’s final revelation was given in His Son, and therefore demands corresponding serious attention. The truths and teachings of the gospel must not be held lightly; they are of supreme moment, they are matters of life and death, and must be cherished and obeyed at all costs.”

The Angels message was reliable, and the law was effective, how much more should we pay attention to Jesus’s message lest we neglect the Gospel— “Such a great salvation”?

a fortiori= Lesser to greater argument.

Calvin: “God wishes his gifts to be valued by us at their proper worth. The more precious they are, the baser is our ingratitude if they do not have their proper value for us. In accordance with the great news of Christ, so will be the severity of God’s vengeance on all despisers of the Gospel”

Anna’s Notes: “If we disobey this lesser revelation, how can we think that we can escape the same just punishment if we ignore a great salvation.”

Hughes: “If the breakers of the law did not go unpunished, certainly despisers of the gospel cannot expect to do so.”

Disobedience and ignorance.

Heb 2:2: Angels were involved in previous revelation.

He is emphasizing the purpose of Angels, but yet they are inferior. Not a less “true” revelation, but in Jesus, the revelation is more “direct.”

Angels= “Ministers of the WORD/LOGOS”

Jesus IS the LOGOS!

Angels who delivered a message:

Psalm 68:17 “The chariots of God are twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord is among them; Sinai is now in the sanctuary.”

Acts 7:53 “53 you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.””

Acts 7:38 “38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.”

Galatians 3:19 “19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.”

O’Brien: Here Hebrews argues that if the law with its angelic mediation had sanctions that were severe and inescapable, then how much more serious would be the neglect of the message proclaimed by the Son of God who is greater than angels.

Faith Drift was a constant problem in the Old Testament: And we all know what happened to Israel…

Don’t repeat history!

2:3b,4: It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 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.

GOD sent this message and power, not just evangelists

Hughes: Recipient’s assumptions: “Our forefathers received the law through angels; we received the Gospel only through me,” and were accordingly disposed to suggest that the gospel was inferior to the law—a judgment that could well have been influenced by teaching similar to that of the Dead Sea Sect, in which angels are assigned so elevated a position. This erroneous conclusion is corrected by our author’s assertion that, even though it was human evangelists who brought them the saving message, the true mediator of that message is the Son himself whom he has already shown to be incomparably superior to all angels.”

v. 3b: Argument against Pauline authorship.

v. 4: God “bore witness”=only time in the NT: “to bear witness together with”

Manifestation of power!