Hebrews 4
This section in Hebrews 4 on the Sabbath is one of my favorite portions of Scripture. It is incredibly profound. But people miss it's profundity because they too quickly read things into the text that aren't there. They want the text to say "Sunday is the Christian Sabbath so go to church on Sunday." While you should go to church, this text just isn't saying that, it's saying much more.
People who never rest in Christ are certainly trusting in another god, or as you say, they are trusting in themselves/trying to become a god through their works.
The word temptation has some nuances. Sometimes it can mean coveting or concupiscence. Since this kind of temptation is itself sinful, Christ was not tempted in this sense since He is sinless. Yet, the devil tempted him externally if that makes sense.
The Word of God is the ultimate standard. It discerns everything. This is why you should not focus on putting on a show of religiosity on the outside. Worry about your own hearts instead. God knows your hearts. The Jews think that just because they pay someone to open doors for them on Saturday that they are somehow keeping the Sabbath and that they are holy and religious people. They love when people wonder about them and ask about their fake religiosity. Unfortunately, there are also many Christians who broadcast their religiosity and get giddy when people marvel about them. Do not be like these hypocrites. They've already received their reward.
When you struggle with sin, you do not need to be afraid to approach God for help. You may approach Him confidently with a holy boldness, because you know and believe that you are forgiven for the sake of Christ. So sin boldly as Luther said. Now this does not mean sin wantonly, as he was slandered. But it means that we ought not try to cover our sins as if God can't see them and to be open about the fact that we sin and struggle with sin, so that God may help us in our trials and grant us mercy through Christ our only mediator.
That was me preaching more than exegeting. Exegetically, the author says what he says about the Word of God immediately following what he said about the Sabbath, as if to say that the Word of God will discern who truly keeps the Sabbath.
Christianity has always had grifters. People looking to make an easy buck or a following. It's become very visible these days online. It's even more superficial now though. People started waking up to the fact that our societies are morally vacuous, then you saw a bunch of names come out of the woodwork to scratch these people's ears. Of course, they were many faithful men always talking about these things but they don't cater to the ever shifting convert world.
The High Priests were not able to just thrust themself into that position. They were ordained by God to be in that role. These High Priests would not only offer an atoning sacrifice for the people's sin, but for their own sin. This is a marked difference from Christ's priesthood, since Christ has no sin that He has to some for. But in taking your sin on Himself, He shares in your experience.
Now Jesus does sanctify Himself as High Priest in John 17. The High Priests would consecrate themselves by applying the blood of the covenant to themselves. This will come up again in Hebrews 10. But this is not the same as Christ choosing Himself to be High Priest. He was chosen by God to be a Melchizedek Priest, not a Levitical Priest of the Old Covenant.
The author wants to get deep. The reason I love Hebrews is because of how it deep dives into Covenant Theology. He will define what the elementary principles of the faith are in the next chapter.
Hebrews 5:
These things you can read about in the Gospels and in Paul's letters. This dates the epistle a little. It assumes, not a full, but an approximation of the NT canon. Another important clue about when Hebrews was written will come up later.
Here is a warning against apostasy. They put Christ back on the cross. The strongest wording here is "impossible to renew them to repentance." Not "very hard." Impossible. If they hear the Gospel and have enjoyed some of its benefits, what hope do they have if they deem the Gospel not good enough for them?
But before someone might say that Christians may not have assurance of their salvation nor confidence in Christ's mercy, the author asserts his assurance of their salvation. God is not stingy and He keeps those who are His.
This is the self-attesting nature of the Word of God. There is no higher standard, so it must necessarily be self-attesting. You may recall this episode from Genesis 15, when God cuts the covenant with Abraham.
God cannot lie and His oath guarantees He cannot lie, since His Word cannot be broken. You've heard the phrase "He's as good as his word" but this is taken to a whole other level when you apply it to God. Men swear by oaths, and they often break them, but God who cannot break His swore this oath to give absolute assurance that He would fulfill His promise to Abraham, by which we have obtained the Gospel and have received our Lord Jesus Christ.
This hope, this promise of God, enters within the veil, into God's presence. Into God's presence, Jesus has already entered to represent us, reconciling us to God. The author will describe what the Melchizedek priesthood really is and what it's qualifications are in the next chapter.
Melchizedek, King of Salem. Literally, King of Righteousness and King of Peace. Is Christ not both of those?
Here is where the author lists out the qualifications of the Melchizedek priesthood. If someone does not meet these qualifications and they tell you they are a Melchizedek Priest they are lying to you. Mormons especially are guilty of this. Ask any of the priests you meet if they meet these qualifications. The qualifications are so strong that some even consider Melchizedek to be Christ, or a theophany of some sort. I'd say that is a strong possibility.
The Levitical priests received a tithe from the people but Abraham paid a tithe to Melchizedek. The Levitical Priesthood is therefore lesser than the Melchizedek Priesthood, since the Levites descend from and were represented by Abraham.
This argument follows similar logic to his Sabbath argument. In Psalms, God speaks of the Melchizedek Priest, Christ. This was already after the Levitical Priesthood was established in Exodus. If the Levitical Priesthood could actually accomplish our salvation and perfect us, why is God looking forward to the Melchizedek Priest in Psalms?
By law, he means the rites and qualifications of the priesthood, as well as the covenant. For the Levitical Priesthood was ordained to be the priesthood of the Mosaic Covenant, but the Melchizedek Priesthood is the priesthood of the New Covenant. You cannot be saved in the former but you will be saved in the latter.
Jesus is from the tribe of Judah but He does not have His Melchizedek Priesthood on account of lineage, as the Levitical priests were supposed to, but on the basis of His indestructible, immortal life.
The Law could tell you what to do and what not to do, but it was not baked into the Law to change your hearts. This is why God's Grace, as communicated through the New Covenant, is absolutely necessary. We must be forgiven before we can be good.
Notice the stark contrast. Many Levitical Priests vs One Melchizedek Priest. When the Levitical Priests would pass on, so would their priesthood. But Christ never passes on His Melchizedek Priesthood because He is immortal, He holds it without succession.
Since Christ holds His Priesthood permanently, He is able to save to the uttermost, forever, those who draw near to God in Him, in His representation and His Covenant, since He lives forever to make intercession for them. Those who are in Him have such a High Priest who always intercedes for them before God. Fundamentally, this is why I don't believe that anyone in Christ's care can be lost, this and John 6. If Christ is constantly interceding for His people, how can any of them be lost?
The "once for all" in Hebrews often gets abused and taken out of context. It is a temporal term. Once for all time. This is in stark contrast to those priests who make daily sacrifices. It happened on One Day. Christ's once for all time sacrifice was sufficient to save His people, and that sacrifice was when He offered Himself up on the cross.
Christ told the Apostles "It is better for you that I go" so that He would send the Holy Spirit and be Himself our heavenly High Priest. When He was on earth, He was not a priest nor would He be if He remained since the Jews had their priests still occupying the Temple, carrying out the service. That worship was revealed by God to Moses but was only a copy of the heavenly service that Christ performs. Now the shadow has passed and only the true heavenly worship that Christ performs remains.
Better covenant, better promises. Not same covenant, same promises. Nor same covenant, different administrations. What is the fault of the first covenant? I believe it is the Law's inability to change the heart. It could tell the people what to do and what not to do but it didn't change the heart. So the New Covenant is better because the Gospel does change the heart. Now, the people actually want to do the Law because they've been saved through the Gospel. Not as a begrudging obligation but out of the freedom that the Son has purchased for them.
You see? He found fault with "them." But the Law was still powerless to change their hearts.
Everybody agrees that there is both continuity and discontinuity between the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant. But in case some press on too much continuity, I show them this. The New Covenant is not like the Mosaic Covenant, especially in one very important respect.
We didn't cover Jeremiah but this is what Hebrews is citing from. In the New Covenant, God's Law becomes an inward, spiritual reality. God Himself converts people into the New Covenant, makes them born again. The Law is no longer written on stone tablets for those who believe, but now it is written on the tablets of their heart, as Proverbs says. Those who are in the New Covenant love the Law.
No one can turn away from the Lord in the New Covenant as they could in the Old.
The New Covenant is wholly salvific, everyone in it is saved. You could have a preacher tell you to believe in God and you go to his church, but that's not the same thing as knowing the Lord as in this text. It isn't until you truly put your faith in Christ and love God that this text becomes true of you, since God is the one who does the soul winning in the New Covenant. Not everyone in the Mosaic Covenant was saved, many of them perished. Not so in the New Covenant. Everyone in the New Covenant knows the Lord, refer back to John 6:45: "It is written in the Prophets: ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me."
This is what constitutes the New Covenant: the forgiveness of God. There is nothing but mercy in the New Covenant. Wrath is reserved for those who are on the outside.
Now the first is obsolete with regard to salvation, but not with regard to it's wrath. For the Temple, not long after Hebrews was written, was destroyed and the Mosaic Covenant's system of worship along with it. It is impossible to worship God according to the Mosaic Covenant in these last days. Yet, God's Law still remains to take vengeance on all who oppose the Lord.
This is showing that, in the old covenant, sacrifices were made in the (long since destroyed) temple to atone for sins.
This explains why we no longer make temple sacrifices (well, besides the inconvenient detail Titus and his Roman army destroyed the temple back in A.D. 70), because of the sacrifice Christ made on the cross for us.
9:27 Shows that there is no reincarnation; we die only once, then we face God.
I don’t think that we need the Dead Sea scrolls to “prove” anything.