RTS Papers / Hebrews to Revelation / Winter 2019
THE AUTHOR’S USE OF OLD TESTAMENT APPLICATION
Every good sermon has what Chapell calls a “big idea,” which, in his framework, consists of an indicative and an imperative element. Rooting the imperative in the indicative is what preserves the integrity of the gospel in the exhortation. Now the author of Hebrews has the ultimate indicative to work with, and if we read the hortatory refrain building upon our aforementioned paradigm imperatives (2:1; 3:1; 4:1), what we conclude is that we ought not to fall away from Christ by beholding the supremacy of Christ.
By the time we arrive at chapter 13, the message closes with rapid-fire-imperative. 7 of the first 9 verses begin in the imperative, differing only in first person or second. The upshot is: “Do not go back to the temple and priesthood of old! Do not harden your hearts and fall away in disbelief!”
The use of “Today” makes clear to the contemporary hearers that the “Holy Spirit” (3:7) is speaking to them with the words he had always spoken to Israel. And as the Spirit, so the human preacher.
We cannot read this epistle with the same tone as some of the others. Philippians may communicate joy and Galatians exasperation, but there is an ever-present pleading here. This is really the same dynamic at work in the great “hall of faith” in chapter 11. To be sure there is exposition. The principle of faith is given definition. The idea of our earthly pilgrimage comes to the fore. By the time one gets to the end of it, there is not merely exposition, but a kind of faith-crisis. The reader is the would-be pilgrim, and the choice is clear: Which city will it be?
THE ULTIMATE CHRIST-CENTERED PREACHING
Another obvious feature of a sermon, not yet mentioned, is a gripping introduction. People wonder why there is no typical letter greeting. What if the answer is that the final letter-writer did not want to ruin the literary place of the sermonic introduction? Now such an opening must be “gripping” not merely in the sense of gaining our hearer’s attention, but also in setting the theme: making it plain what the subject matter is.
In 1:1-3 there is no doubt. It is Christ, and it is a most exalted vision. Right away, all of reality and especially the Jewish reality, has been revolving around and aiming at Christ. The driving theme is that Christ is infinitely greater.
Bruce remarks that, “The comparative adjective ‘better’ is used thirteen times in Hebrews to contrast Christ and his new order with what went before him.” The whole of Christology is found here, at least in seed form. No one can doubt that this letter depicts Christ as both divine and human. His divinity is witnessed in this opening: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (1:3).
The humanity of Jesus is explained in this book more than any other in the New Testament. Christ’s humanity is treated in its relation as a necessary condition to salvation. This is not a radically different theme than the supremacy of Christ, for it is precisely as Prophet, Priest, and King that he is superior to the shadow versions of those Old Covenant offices. It is instructive that one does not get out of those first three verses before all three offices of Christ are shown to be the very fulfillment of history.
Prophetically he is greater than all of God’s former messengers and modes of revelation (1:1-2). As the priest, it says, “After making purification for sins, he sat down” (1:3). The priest did not sit, since his work was never done (9:25), but this sitting speaks of finality: a perfect work. Note where he sat down: “at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (v. 3). This speaks of the kingly office of the Son, “whom he appointed the heir of all things” (v. 2). The opening is so targeted to the Jews and so applicatory to the whole world, that one can see why the final composer did not wish to spoil its literary and theological function.
PROBLEM PASSAGES EXPLAINED IN LIGHT OF THE SERMON
By “problem passages” we will restrict ourselves to the two famous passages that seem to suggest that one can fall away from the faith (6:4-6; 10:26-31), and then the mysterious relationship drawn between Christ and Melchizedek. In viewing these three passages, we will also notice a genetic relationship between them. Something of the difficult task of preaching to a mixed body, a difficulty which existed for a Spirit-inspired sermon writer, will reveal itself.
First let us look at the two “falling away” texts in light of the fact that this is a mixed body to which the author is writing. In 6:4-6 we read that there are those in the church “who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come” (vv. 4-5). The Arminian perspective is clear: the text shows that one can lose salvation. The Calvinist replies that these were the same as in 1 John 2:19, who “were not of us,” so that their profession was false. Why then the language of having participated in what seem like true spiritual graces? The fully covenantal view points to the wider context of the imagery that directly follows.
Two soils are compared. Rain is the word, such as the word being preached to them here. One soil bears a useful crop, the other nothing but thorns (cf. Gen. 3:18). These latter were part of the visible church, and it is from that covenant community that they fell away, having tasted of the real means of grace, but failing to appropriate them in faith. Then comes the sermonic punchline: “Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation” (v. 9). The author (the original speaker) is fully aware of the awkwardness of giving such a dire warning in the direction of all in the mixed body.
The second warning passage in 10:26-31 is even more striking because of the “lesser-to-greater” argument it contains about the two covenants. After warning those who “go on sinning” that they should expect “judgment” (v. 27), the author recalls the standard of punishment under the law of Moses: in other words, under the Old Covenant. Note his very next line thought: “How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?” Verse 29 is a hortative punch to the gut for anyone who thinks of their status in the New Covenant community as secure simply because they have participated in the sacraments or even if they are presently a member in good standing.
But the warning only functions if certain realities have continued between Old and New: (1) the reality of a mixed body, (2) a kind of “receiving” of grace for all in that body, (3) a level of being considered “sanctified” for those who are nevertheless (4) apostatizing in, and out from, the church.
In short, the exhortation throughout, to believe lest you fall away, is very personal and a present conversation between speaker and listener.
The most complex reasoning that the author uses relates the historical Melchizedek (Gen. 14:18-20) with the promise to Christ to be, in some sense, in his priestly order (Ps. 110:4). It is important that the author did so. As both Vos and Kistemaker point out, this epistle is unique in how it unpacks the doctrine of Christ’s priesthood. Other books in the New Testament imply the office and describe the work, but in no other writing is it given such definition. Paradoxically, the authors still teaches the office as if it were “a well known idea.” Could it be that sermons with such a rich soteriological theme were common, Hebrews being only the inspired exemplar?
If this is a model sermon, then we are cautioned against dismissing complex doctrinal references out of hand. As a general rule, the preacher ought to speak to the people, not over them; and yet there are points when, as the author himself says, we must “leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity” (6:1). He chides them for their shallow understanding, and yet he utilizes the first of the “falling away” texts as his way of catching them up.
Interestingly, then, all of this talk about milk and solid food (5:12), and cultivated and thorny ground (6:7-8), is said almost parenthetically after he had wanted to introduce the material of Melchizedek in 5:6-10, but stops himself by adding, “About this we will have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing” (5:11). In other words, what was preventing rich doctrinal understanding was not the inappropriateness of the subject matter, but rather the psychological state that comes with apostasy: dullness of hearing. On the other hand, there are elements that we would be wise to modify. The audience here knew their Hebrew Bible, granted that they knew it in the LXX. Our use of the whole Scriptures must take care to move slower and with less raw material, given a less biblically literate, post-Christian audience.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brown, Raymond. The Message of Hebrews. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1982
Bruce, F. F. The Epistle to the Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990
Calvin, John. Calvin’s Commentaries, Volume XXII. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979
Carson, D. A. & Douglas J. Moo. An Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005
Chapell, Bryan. Christ-Centered Preaching. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005
Ellingworth, Paul. The Epistle to the Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993
Greidanus, Stanley. Preaching Christ from the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999
Guthrie, Donald. Hebrews. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1983
Hughes, R. Kent. Hebrews: Volumes 1 & 2. Wheaton: Crossway, 1993
Kistemaker, Simon J. Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984
Kruger, Michael J. ed. Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament. Wheaton: Crossway, 2016
Ladd, George Eldon. A Theology of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993
Owen, John. Hebrews. Wheaton: Crossway, 1998
Schreiner, Thomas R. Commentary on Hebrews. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2015
Vos, Geerhardus. The Teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1956
Williams, Michael. The Prophet and His Message. Philipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2003
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