September 8, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
HEBREWS CHAPTER ONE SUMMARIZED
In fourteen pithy verses of Hebrews chapter 1, Paul introduce us to Christ’s DEITY as the Son of God. In chapter 2 Christ’s incarnate HUMANITY is revealed to us as the Son of man.
“In the first chapter the apostle sets out to prove the deity of Christ, and successfully accomplishes his task. His purpose in writing the book requires him to establish beyond a doubt that Christ IS God. He intends to show that the CEREMONIES that had been instituted by Moses at the command of God [under the ceremonial law of the Mosaic dispensation of the Old Testament time] had been fulfilled and abolished by Christ [when type met antitype and the shadow met its substance].
“These ceremonies [including the requirement of literal circumcision the hardliners of Judaism were attempting to enforce upon the new Gentile converts to Christianity, prompting Paul to write the Epistle to the Galatians] the Jews considered the VERY HEART of their religion, and they were indissolubly connected with the Temple.
“For any man to touch these ordinances [such circumcision] was to ‘touch the apple of their eye.’ The Jews would strenuously contend that only the SAME God who had commanded them to build the TEMPLE [‘Let them make Me a Sanctuary that I may dwell among them’], and who had instituted the SERVICES [of the system of sacrifices, feasts, and the priesthood], could of right make any change.”
“This point Paul would concede. His first work, therefore, is to prove beyond a doubt, the DEITY of Christ. This he does first by presenting Him as CREATOR and REDEEMER, then by showing HIS SURPASSING SUPERIORITY over the angels, and lastly, by presenting the FATHER Himself as the Chief Witness to Christ’s Godhood!”
“As these proofs are all substantiated by quotations from the OLD TESTAMENT Scriptures, which the Jews acknowledged as AUTHORITY, the apostle has proved his point: CHRIST IS GOD. The Scriptures say so, and God confirms it.”
“But Paul had more in mind than merely to establish a theological dogma. He quietly introduces God’s command to the angels to worship Christ. The DISCERNING Jew would readily conclude that if angels were commanded to worship Christ, man could do NO LESS: and the Jew is therefore immediately CONFRONTED with the challenge of what HE is to do with Christ. It is to this POINT Paul leads his readers. He brings them FACE TO FACE with their DUTY as defined by God [not by any man or institution].”- Andreasen, The Book of Hebrews, pp. 70,71. Bless all, NMF.