2 Διὰ τοῦτο δεῖ περισσοτέρως προσέχειν ἡμᾶς τοῖς ἀκουσϑεῖσιν, μήποτε παραρυῶμεν.
2 We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. (NIV)
One of the foremost teachers of doctrine living today is Dr. John F. Brug of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary. I sat at the feet of Professor Brug both at Dr. Martin Luther College in 1982 and again during my years at the seminary from 1995-1999. Something that Pastor Brug taught us over and over again was that whenever we encounter the word "Therefore" in the Bible, we need to ask what it's "there for." The word "therefore" connects the sentence and the chapter we are entering with the words that came before. In this case, "therefore" connects all of chapter 2 with all of chapter 1.
In chapter 1, we saw Jesus' superiority to the angels, and that Jesus is "the exact representation of God's glory." Now the angels--though inferior to Jesus--are presented as having been present at the giving of the Law. But here, remembering that the point of the letter is Christ's superiority, "we must pay careful attention to what we have heard." This special thing is the message of the gospel, for the angels took their humble part in the giving of the law, but Christ is superior, and his message is superior to the law. For the law of God condemns us, but the gospel of Jesus Christ saves.
It is from this gospel that we must take care not to "drift away," as the author so elegantly puts it with the word para-rheo, "to slip or float away." We do this by staying grounded in the gospel. Perhaps it is true that once you learn to ride a bicycle you never forget. But the gospel is not a bicycle, and something as precious and as unexpected as the gospel will keep surprising us, keep stunning us, keep throwing us for a loop each and every time we hear it, because we have something inside our sinful nature that fights against it.
That "something" is the human's "opinion of the law," or opinio legis (a Latin term), meaning that we tend to think that we can somehow keep the law of God to earn our salvation. The law of God in its narrow sense cannot get us to heaven. The law kills us and condemns us. The law promises salvation conditionally if we keep it perfectly--not partially or with a good try. And the law commands us to obey, but does nothing to help us obey. The law is powerless to help us to keep its most elementary and basic requirement. That is why the gospel of Jesus Christ is so necessary. And what is why only the gospel of Jesus Christ saves.
The gospel presents the message of what Jesus has done for us, by obeying every command from God (his active obedience) and by becoming the sacrifice to atone for our sins (his passive obedience). The gospel message of Jesus Christ promises us salvation--eternal life in heaven--unconditionally. There is no "if" about Jesus. There is only "yes." And finally, the gospel of Jesus Christ invites our faith and even provides that faith for us, creating it in our hearts through the Word of God and through the sacraments.
Baptism gives forgiveness of sins and saves. The Lord's Supper gives forgiveness of sins and saves. The gospel itself gives forgiveness of sins and saves. These are the Means of Grace, the gospel in word and sacrament, that holds out eternal life to each and every one of us. Without it, we begin to drift off like so many planks from a sunken ship.
What we have heard and read is the we are saved through Jesus Christ. Take time this week to get into your Bible and into your church to hear the saving message of Jesus once again. Let the Lord's Supper fill your soul with the forgiveness of Jesus himself. Let the message of Jesus' death and resurrection fill your heart with the forgiveness of sins and the promise of eternal life.
Pay careful attention to what you have heard. There is no other life buoy that saves. It is Jesus himself who keeps us from para-rheo, from slipping away.
HEBREWS 2:2-3
2 εἰ γὰρ ὁ δι' ἀγγέλων λαληϑεὶς λόγος ἐγένετο βέβαιος, καὶ πᾶσα παράβασις καὶ παρακοὴ ἔλαβεν ἔνδικον μισϑαποδοσίαν, 3 πῶς ἡμεῖς ἐκϕευξόμεϑα τηλικαύτης ἀμελήσαντες σωτηρίας; ἥτις, ἀρχὴν λαβοῦσα λαλεῖσϑαι διὰ τοῦ κυρίου, ὑπὸ τῶν ἀκουσάντων εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐβεβαιώϑη,
2 For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. (NIV)
The argument presented here is a simple logical proposition. If I can label the "message spoken by angels" as (a: the law = punishment), and the "great salvation" announced by the Lord as (b: salvation), then the proposition is this: If (a) is true (and it is), but we might reject (b), then how can we possibly escape (a)? We can't.
More than that, the general theme of the first chapter and a half continues here: Christ is superior to the angels. The message of punishment was delivered through angels, but the message of salvation--by far the greater message--was spoken by the Lord.
The message of salvation is the greater message because there are people in the world who were never bound by the Law of Moses because they never ever heard it. They were still sinful, but they were not under the Covenant. Yet the message of Christ covers over all sins, whether they were committed by those under the old covenant or not. Christ trumps everything. Christ is the rescue from all sins, from death, and from the devil himself.
In these verses and those that follow, we are given at least four reasons for not "ignoring" such a great salvation. The first two lie before us here:
(1) It was spoken directly by the Lord.
(2) It was confirmed by those who heard the Lord.
When the author says "(it) was confirmed to us by those who heard him," he is letting us know something about himself. He is not one of the Twelve Apostles. He is a man who came to faith later on, and is now in the second wave so to speak of Christian preachers and teachers. We also know because of the way he talks about Jews that he was a Jew himself. And from the way he uses the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it would appear that he was either very well versed from a Greek synagogue or was actually from Alexandria, where the Septuagint was translated and used exclusively. The Alexandrian connection might also be underscored by his eloquence, since Alexandria was such a great center of learning.
The possibilities for authorship would include Apollos and Paul, as I mentioned in an earlier devotion, but also several others: Barnabas, Silas, Aquila and Priscilla (perhaps writing as a team), and others. Paul's authorship of Hebrews is sometimes questioned because of the style and language, as well as the omission of his name. But there might be a very good explanation for all of those things. Hebrews isn't really an "epistle" at all. It's a sermon. When a sermon is composed, it usually follows a different path we would expect to find in a letter. In his epistles, Paul is passionate, logical, prone to wandering off on tangents, and yet he is always very conscious of who he is and who he is writing to. But Hebrews appears to be a sermon, which would have been preached rather than mailed. Here the writer has a theme which he develops through Scriptural examples (other very early Christian sermons also exist, such as 2 Clement and the final anonymous chapters of the Letter to Diognetus). For this reason, I would hesitate to rule out Paul as author, but I would also never insist on Paul as author, either. Other anonymously written books of the Bible do not bother us (Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, Esther, Job, Psalm 93, etc.).
Whoever the author was, the message is the inspired word of God, and the message is crystal clear: The great salvation won for us by Jesus is ours, and it shall be ours forever.
HEBREWS 2:4
4 συνεπιμαρτυροῦντος τοῦ ϑεοῦ σημείοις τε καὶ τέρασιν καὶ ποικίλαις δυνάμεσιν καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου μερισμοῖς κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ ϑέλησιν.
4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
In this verse, we given two more reasons why we should never ignore "such a great salvation."
(3) It was confirmed by God himself in signs, wonders and miracles.
(4) It was confirmed by the distribution of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The distinction of "signs, wonders and miracles" may not always be drawn clearly, and perhaps it doesn't need to be. But there is a little bit of a difference between the three.
"Signs" (semeiois, σημείοις) point something out. These would include the kind of miracles that Moses and Aaron performed before Pharaoh (Exodus 4:1-8). When Jesus was asked repeatedly for this kind of "sign" by the Pharisees and others, he refused to indulge them but let them know that they would have the "sign of Jonah" (Matthew 16:4), which was of course his own resurrection from the dead after three days in the tomb. The healing of the official's son in Cana (John 4:54) is also called a sign.
"Wonders" (terasin, τέρασιν) have a "Wow!" factor; they attract attention. The miracles performed by the apostles in early days after Jesus' ascension were called wonders (Acts 2:43).
"Miracles" (dynamesin, δυνάμεσιν). This is also the word in 2 Thess. 2:9, Acts 2:22 and 2 Cor. 12:12; often paired with "signs." This is an outward, physical expression of power. It shows that there is authority behind what happens: the authority comes from God himself. This is a word associated especially with the expulsion of demons (Luke 4:36; Acts 10:38) and to healing. These things were done to show God's approval on the message being proclaimed: the message of Jesus Christ.
The final reason for us never to ignore our salvation is the distribution of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts included the ability to preach, to interpret Scripture, to give offerings to God without grumbling, to be an administrator working behind the scenes in the church, and other signs like speaking in tongues or prophecy which became less and less frequent as the New Testament age began to unfold and as the New Testament itself came to be written down and shared with people.
Such a great salvation, testified to by God himself, proclaiming to us all the forgiveness of sins and the resurrection from the dead through Jesus our Savior.
HEBREWS 2:5-9
Someone who knows his Old Testament very well might nod in appreciation with what has been said so far about Jesus being superior to the angels. But then he might remember the words of Psalm 8, in which the "son of man" (a title Jesus often used for himself) is said to be "a little lower than the angels." The writer to the Hebrews anticipates this and answers it:
5 Οὐ γὰρ ἀγγέλοις ὑπέταξεν τὴν οἰκουμένην τὴν μέλλουσαν, περὶ ἧς λαλοῦμεν. 6 διεμαρτύρατο δέ πού τις λέγων, Τί ἐστιν ἄνϑρωπος ὅτι μιμνῄσκῃ αὐτοῦ, ἢ υἱὸς ἀνϑρώπου ὅτι ἐπισκέπτῃ αὐτόν; 7 ἠλάττωσας αὐτὸν βραχύ τι παρ' ἀγγέλους, δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ ἐστεϕάνωσας αὐτόν, 8 πάντα ὑπέταξας ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ.ἐν τῷ γὰρ ὑποτάξαι [αὐτῷ] τὰ πάντα οὐδὲν ἀϕῆκεν αὐτῷ ἀνυπότακτον. νῦν δὲ οὔπω ὁρῶμεν αὐτῷ τὰ πάντα ὑποτεταγμένα· 9 τὸν δὲ βραχύ τι παρ' ἀγγέλους ἠλαττωμένον βλέπομεν ᾽Ιησοῦν διὰ τὸ πάϑημα τοῦ ϑανάτου δόξῃ καὶ τιμῇ ἐστεϕανωμένον,ὅπως χάριτι ϑεοῦ ὑπὲρ παντὸς γεύσηται ϑανάτου.
5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels;
you crowned him with glory and honor
8 and put everything under his feet.”
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (NIV)
All of the things in Psalm 8 remind us of what God wanted mankind to be. Here in Hebrews 2, these words are applied to Jesus (Paul touches this Psalm as well in 1 Corinthians 15:27). The dominion and responsibility over the earth was given to all mankind (Genesis 1:26-27) but when Adam sinned, all mankind sinned. We have all sinned and we have all failed.
Our sins aren't just in the way we treat our world, or the creatures of this world, or even each other. Or even ourselves. Those sins are bad enough. But we also sin against and mistreat God himself. And for all these things, we are condemned. But God condescended to enter our world as an infant, a son of man through his mother Mary, and he became the sacrifice for our failings and for our sins.
So Jesus being made "lower than the angels" isn't because of a flaw in Jesus, it's because of a flaw in mankind. There are times when a parent must do things out of love for a baby that no other person would ever imagine having to do. Jesus had to get his hands right down into the goo of our lives in order to get us cleaned up and to rescue us from our sins. It was out of love for us that he did this.
Now, how majestic is his name? How can we help but ask the Son of Man, "Who am I, that you are mindful of me?" But he is mindful of every single one of us: His sacrifice paid for the sins of us all. He suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. That means that although we will briefly taste death ourselves, Jesus will raise us from death and into eternal life.
He has saved us. Our sins are washed away.
HEBREWS 2:10-13
10 ῎Επρεπεν γὰρ αὐτῷ, δι' ὃν τὰ πάντα καὶ δι' οὗ τὰ πάντα, πολλοὺς υἱοὺς εἰς δόξαν ἀγαγόντα τὸν ἀρχηγὸν τῆς σωτηρίας αὐτῶν διὰ παϑημάτων τελειῶσαι. 11 ὁ τε γὰρ ἁγιάζων καὶ οἱ ἁγιαζόμενοι ἐξ ἑνὸς πάντες· δι' ἣν αἰτίαν οὐκ ἐπαισχύνεται ἀδελϕοὺς αὐτοὺς καλεῖν, 12 λέγων, ᾽Απαγγελῶ τὸ ὄνομά σου τοῖς ἀδελϕοῖς μου, ἐν μέσῳ ἐκκλησίας ὑμνήσω σε· 13 καὶ πάλιν, ᾽Εγὼ ἔσομαι πεποιϑὼς ἐπ' αὐτῷ·καὶ πάλιν, ᾽Ιδοὺ ἐγὼ καὶ τὰ παιδία ἅ μοι ἔδωκεν ὁ ϑεός.
10 In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. 12 He says,
“I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.”
13 And again,
“I will put my trust in him.”
And again he says,
“Here am I, and the children God has given me.” (NIV)
The point of these quotations (Psalm 22:22 and Isaiah 8:17 and 18) is to show that the perfection of Jesus has been given to us. The suffering of Christ on the cross canceled the debt of sin for all time. We do not enter into God's house in terror of having our sins found out; we enter into God's house with God's Son.
Picture a home on a sunny afternoon. Suddenly strangers start coming in -- police are called; they cannot be there. The law would come into play. But what if children unknown to the parents arrive, but with the child, the son, of the house? "Mom, dad, these are my friends." Suddenly, the law no longer comes into play because the son has brought his friends home. The parents treat the new boys as honored guests and with the same privileges as their own child, not because they know these children or because these children have earned anything, but because they love their son.
Although this picture can describe our relationship with the Father and the Son of God, we have an even greater status than friends of the Son, because he also calls us "brothers," and we are now the children of God.
This is what Jesus has given to us: We are atoned for; we are at one with God. Our forgiveness is exactly our new status: Forgiven.
HEBREWS 2:14-16
14 ἐπεὶ οὖν τὰ παιδία κεκοινώνηκεν αἵματος καὶ σαρκός, καὶ αὐτὸς παραπλησίως μετέσχεν τῶν αὐτῶν, ἵνα διὰ τοῦ ϑανάτου καταργήσῃ τὸν τὸ κράτος ἔχοντα τοῦ ϑανάτου, τοῦτ' ἔστιν τὸν διάβολον, 15 καὶ ἀπαλλάξῃ τούτους, ὅσοι ϕόβῳ ϑανάτου διὰ παντὸς τοῦ ζῆν ἔνοχοι ἦσαν δουλείας. 16 οὐ γὰρ δήπου ἀγγέλων ἐπιλαμβάνεται, ἀλλὰ σπέρματος ᾽Αβραὰμ ἐπιλαμβάνεται.
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-- that is, the devil-- 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants.
All through chapter 2, we have seen that Jesus became a human being because we ourselves are human. He did this "so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone" (2:9). No angel did this, and the thought continues that this is yet another reason why Christ is superior to everything and everyone, including the angels themselves. Christ's sacrifice did two things: He destroyed the power of the devil (and the power of death) and he set us free from our slavery to sin, death and the devil.
Look carefully at the word "free" in verse 15. The Greek word has an extra prefix that augments the meaning slightly, so that it means "to set free or change by taking away or by physical removal." The doors of our slavery have not just been flung open. As with Lot and his daughters, we have been snatched from the village of sin by the hand and pulled out of the ruin as destruction rained down from heaven (Genesis 19:16).
Ninety years ago (1919), the pastor who had served as president of the Lutheran college in my city (New Ulm, Minnesota) talked about this word "free" in verse 15:
Through this taking away, Christ changed the relationship to death of those who had been slaves of death: He freed them from the fear of death. (Prof. John Schaller)We are free from death, and we are even free from the fear of death, because what lies beyond the stepping stone of the grave is greater and more wonderful than anything we can imagine. And its ours in Jesus.
HEBREWS 2:17-18
17 ὅϑεν ὤϕειλεν κατὰ πάντα τοῖς ἀδελϕοῖς ὁμοιωϑῆναι, ἵνα ἐλεήμων γένηται καὶ πιστὸς ἀρχιερεὺς τὰ πρὸς τὸν ϑεόν, εἰς τὸ ἱλάσκεσϑαι τὰς ἁμαρτίας τοῦ λαοῦ· 18 ἐν ᾧ γὰρ πέπονϑεν αὐτὸς πειρασϑείς, δύναται τοῖς πειραζομένοις βοηϑῆσαι.
17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (NIV)
For the first time, we have a reference to Christ as "a faithful high priest." This will be developed more in this letter. The picture if of a priest offering sacrifices to appease the wrath of God. But Jesus didn't do this with the blood of mere animals, so that sacrifice after sacrifice would have to be made, or so that a limited, unbloody sacrifice would do nothing except stave of God's wrath over sin for a mere moment or two. He became the perfect high priest, offering his own life on the cross to put an end to God's anger for all time and for all eternity. He could not die unless he were human, and so Jesus became human. He became "like his brothers in every way," permitting himself to be conceived, to grow in his mother's womb, to experience the ordeal of childbirth, to suffer the indignities of being a helpless infant, and then to grow and learn and develop physically and even spiritually. He did all of it with no sin, but he did not do it without pain and suffering.
He did it to rescue us from our sins. He was merciful to us, his brothers and sisters, and he was also faithful to his Father in heaven. Look closely at the verb "to help" in verse 18. In Greek, it's in the present tense. That means that Jesus helps us now, in this moment, and always. It's the same word that occurs in Mark 9:24, when a hurting father cried out to Jesus, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
Jesus helps us in all things, and he has already given us the most important help we need: the forgiveness of our sins. Ask for his help with what troubles you today, and trust him.
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