Key word: Christ’s superiority
Aside from Romans there is no more theologically heavy, and I would add, rich book than Hebrews. We do not know who wrote it, although there have been many theories. His immediate audience was Jewish Christians in the mid A.D. 60s, and thus were second generation believers. As a result, some had lost the passion for the church and New Testament living and were drifting away – some apparently into Judaism – from which their parents had emerged. Rather than drifting back into an inferior religion, the author encouraged them to press on to maturity – to grow up. But their foundational problem was they had lost the vision of the superiority of Christ. They had not, a least for the most part, abandoned Christ, or ceased to believe in Him. But they had removed Him as central to their lives, and replaced Him with inferior things. So, what they desperately needed was to once again understand the superiority of Christ and embrace it with all their hearts. Thus, the book outlines itself around five ways that Christ is superior to all things:
3. He is superior to Moses (3:1-4:13). Humans tend to become heroworshippers of other people. We make idols of people we respect. But the Lord will not share His glory with another. When we elevate sinful creatures to forbidden levels, we depreciate Christ and are, at best, distracted from Him. This is what the Jews did with Moses, and the Christian Jews addressed in Hebrews had carried this idolization into their Christian life. Our author’s task was to demonstrate that no matter how great a man Moses was, compared to Christ he was vastly inferior.
1) If Moses was the house, Christ was the builder (3:3).
2) If Moses was a faithful servant, Christ is the Son (3:5-6a).
3) If Moses, and Joshua, led the people to the rest of a promised land (4:8), only Christ can lead us to the full, complete eternal rest (4:9). We enter the door of this rest at salvation, but complete our journey when we enter glory.
4) If Moses was a great leader, Jesus is our great high priest (3:1; 4:14- 16). Moses could physically guide the people to the land of promise, and he could teach them the Lord’s commandments, and set an example of faithfulness. But he could not forgive their sins, and he was not sinless – Christ was. Therefore, we can draw near to God to receive mercy and grace because Christ is our great high priest.
Key verse: Hebrews 4:16 – Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
