Hebrews

We do not know who wrote this letter but the content shows that he loved Jesus so much. He described Jesus as being superior to everybody else, and His work as superior to every other way to Father God's heart. Jesus is the subject, content and object of this letter. It was designed to have special meaning to Jewish believers who may have been tempted, through persecution or false teaching, to stop trusting in Jesus. But it will refresh all of us.

Who is Jesus? That is as important a question for everybody today, as for Jewish-background believers in the 1stC AD. They needed to be confident about His identity if they were to withstand persecution from people who wanted to drag them back into Christless religion. Although many saw Jesus Christ as a very good and wise man, the religious leaders knew He claimed to be God (John 10:33). The Son of God has always been God, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit.

Angels really exist. They are God's servants and messengers: mentioned 103 times in the Old Testament and 39 times in the New Testament. However, some people think they should be adored like a god, but that is wrong. False teachers in the early church encouraged the worship of angels and Paul warned the church not to do it (Colossians 2:18).

While many religionists focus on angels, this letter shows Jesus to be far superior in every way. The writer has contrasted angels (God's servants and messengers) with the Son of God (Hebrews 1:4-7). Now he describes the Son of God by using God-authorised statements from the Old Testament. Father God said that the Son was also God, seated on a throne as in Psalm 45:6-7: it was a picture of God's Messiah-King.

Drifting away is a gentle and easy process; it is hardly noticed until it is too late. The Hebrew believers from a devout background came from one of two main positions: they were either legalists who tried to be in God's favour by keeping the law, or they were mysticists who sought supernatural experiences and help from angels – perhaps thinking that they were more accessible representatives of God's presence. But Jesus is fully accessible to us and to Father God.

We do not now see the 'world to come’. God sees it perfectly because He is outside of time and knows the end from the beginning. In Psalm 8:1-9 quoted in this chapter, human beings are described as the apex of God's creation. Although God appointed them to that responsibility in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1:26), they forfeited their right.

This title seems perhaps too familiar to describe the Lord Jesus Christ who is God the Son, the Ruler of everything. Our unholy sinful nature shies away from getting too close to God, who is infinitely holy. For that reason many religions offer surrogate mediators who seem more accessible; but Jesus is the only mediator we need, and the only One who can mediate between God's purity and our impurity (1 Timothy 2:5).

Salvation is God's family business. The Father has loved us, and the Son has died for us - so that all who receive the Son are also accepted as children of the Father (John 1:12), with Jesus Christ as our elder brother (Hebrews 2:11). The great enemy of God, is also at war with His children.

Angels do not need God's help, or salvation through Christ. They have not been infected by the fall of mankind, polluted by the world, twisted under the control of Satan or faced an eternal peril. But human beings have been, and are. That is why we need saving.

This letter is all about Jesus. He is uniquely wonderful. Having just described Him as the only One who can bring sinners to glory (Hebrews 2:10) and the elder brother of all God's children (Hebrews 2:11, 17), the writer now calls Jesus 'our Apostle' and 'High Priest’. 'Apostle' means 'sent-out one'.