Author: Jim Cantelon

Key Verse: Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

If we were to poll your local church and its members for definitions of faith, we might get as many definitions as people giving them. We’d hear everything from, “faith is religion” to “faith is a feeling”. Or we might hear something like a young boy’s definition in Sunday school one day, “faith is believing something you know isn’t true!” What is faith?

Look at the writer’s definition — faith is something: the substance and the evidence of something we hope for. That hope (as yet “unseen”) is that God “exists and…rewards those who earnestly seek Him” (v.6). And the hope is more than wishful thinking — it is rooted in “two unchangeable things”, His promise and His oath, that make it “an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (6:13-20).

So faith is something substantial and evidential, based on something unseen but at the same time “firm and secure”. Still a bit fuzzy? We need a good illustration. The writer gives us several. First of all, he refers to Noah who, on the basis of “things not yet seen” (in this case, a promise from God that there would be a flood), “built an ark”. It seems pretty silly to be building a huge boat and to the scores of years to do so when you haven’t even seen a drop of rain! But, on the basis of hope, Noah acted differently than his neighbours. The ark was the substance, or evidence of something he hadn’t seen as yet. In a very real sense, Noah’s ark was his faith.

The writer then goes on to cite may other examples of people who acted on the basis of hope. In each case, they did something because of what they believed. Their hope spurred an action which became the cause of change. Faith always causes change.

Soren Kierkegaard captured this truth well when he said, “Mere mental assent to a doctrine is not enough Where there is not transformation there is no Christianity”. We’ve got to be more than “hearers of the word” — we’ve got to be “doers”.

Key Verse: Hebrews 10:10 “And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (NIV).

Let’s follow the writer’s reasoning in the first part of this chapter. The Mosaic Law, and the animal sacrifices it requires for sin, are only a “shadow” of the heavenly reality. Perfection is not achieved incrementally, year after year, but is given to the faithful by God once for all. All that the annual sacrifices on the Day of Atonement do is remind the believer that he/she is still a sinner and still guilty. Why? “Because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (vv.1-4).

The writer tells his readers that Jesus said He had come to the world because the Father was not pleased “with burnt offerings and sin offerings” (v.6). Jesus came to “set aside” the “shadows” and establish the “will” of the Father. That is, through the sacrifice of His own body Jesus would make men holy “once for all” (vv.5-10). And, after He had done this, Jesus “sat down at the right hand” of the Father. There, in that place of ultimate authority, the Lamb that was slain makes his enemies His “footstool” and eternally makes perfect “those who are being made holy” (vv.11-14).

So, in the eternal dimension, those who are covered with the blood of the Lamb are seen as forever perfect. In space and time, we are in the process of “being made holy”. Presently, we are being cultivated and pruned. Eternally, we are “the planting of the Lord”.

Jesus has taken “the wage of sin” upon Himself. We are no longer in need of animal sacrifice. The Lamb has become the Priest, and because He lives forever, those who put their trust in Him no longer have any need of “sacrifice for sin” (vv.15-18). In Christ we are forever saved from eternal death.

Key Verse: Hebrews 9:14, 15 “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance — now that He has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (NIV).

God, for His own reasons (most of which are unknown to us), chose to link forgiveness of sin with the shedding of blood (v.22). In the Old Testament days, no one was allowed into the Holy of Holies, with the exception of the high priest, who entered only once a year “and never without blood” (v.7). The shed blood “of goats and calves” (vb.12) was critical for the covering of the high priest’s sins in order for him to enter “the Most Holy Place” without dying himself. God is altogether Holy and will not tolerate sin in His presence. But when He sees the sacrificial blood, He withholds the “wages of sin” and sees holiness in the supplicant.

But, says the writer of Hebrews, there’s a problem — the sacrificial blood of animals is “not able to clear the conscience of the worshipper” (v.9). “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean” (v.13). So the outside is covered, but what about the inside?

That’s where Jesus comes in. His blood cleanses much more than the outer man. His blood cleanses the conscience (v.14). He creates a new person on the inside, whose actions on the outside are forever changed. This new creature is able to turn away from “acts that lead to death” and embrace service to “the living God!” (v.14b).

The first covenant showed us what miserable sinners we are, but it gave no long-term relief. The new covenant, on the other hand, sets us free from the penalty and dominance of sin and gives us the glorious hope of an “eternal inheritance” (v.15).

This is all possible because of Jesus, who “has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (v.26).

Key Verse: Hebrews 8:6 “But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which He is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded in better promises” (NIV).

In verse seven, the writer say, “if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no placed would have been sought for another.” The covenant he refers to is the “expanded” version — that is, it refers not only to God’s promise to Abraham, but to the Ten Commandments given to Moses and the Law that resulted. It’s the covenant that was to “perfect” Israel through the mediation of the Levitical priesthood (7:11). And the writer has the effrontery to suggest that something God initiated was imperfect.

The problem was not with God. The problem was with the other signatories, the people — “But God found fault with the people…” (v.8a). He was faithful, but they were unfaithful. He was keeping His part of the contract, but they were defaulting on theirs.

So what does God do? Instead of satisfying His justice by  destroying the defaulters. He chooses instead to send His Son to suffer the “wages of sin” and give the faithless ones a second chance for redemption. He kills Jesus as a penalty for our sin, and then He raises Him up again and seats Him at “the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (v.1), in order that Jesus be not only the “Lamb that was slain” but also the Priest who “always lives to intercede” for us (7:25).

What’s more, God then extends the parameters of His grace by writing His “laws in their minds and…on their hearts” (v.10b). He makes “a new covenant” that depends no on the faithfulness of man but on the faithfulness of the Son.

Suddenly, legalism gives way to liberty. Law gives way to Grace. Our new High Priest transcends “copies” and “shadows” (v.5) and serves us where only he serve us best — “in the sanctuary” (v.2).

Key Verse: Hebrews 7:15, 16 “And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestors but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life” (NIV).

Who was Melchizedek? There are only two references to him outside of the book of Hebrews (Gen.14:18; Ps.110:4). In the Genesis account, he appears in the context of a conflict between nine kings (four against five). The area of battle was Sodom and Gomorrah. The winners, under King Chedorlaomer of Elam, carried off the spoil of Sodom and Gomorrah, including Abram’s nephew Lot and his family. When Abram heard about it, he set out after Chedorlaomer with an army of 318 trained men. He pursued the king to the upper Galilee region and defeated him in the area of Dan. On the way back, Abram met the King of Salem, Melchizedek. Melchizedek blessed Abram, and Abram responded by giving him a tithe of all he had gained in defeating Chedorlaomer. In the Psalms reference, David, looking ahead to the rule of Messiah, sees him as “a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek”.

Now, let’s attempt to trace the writer’s thinking in Hebrews about Melchizedek as he relates to Jesus. I use the verb “trace” because that’s something we can do, whereas understanding his thinking may be something else.

The writer speaks of Melchizedek as “without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life…” (v.3). What is he telling us here? If he intends us to take it at face value, he’s telling us that Melchizedek is God (for only God has no parents, no genealogy, no beginning or ending). We can reject that interpretation outright. The only alternative is that Melchizedek is a mystery because there are no extant records of his history. And, as a mystery, he becomes an excellent figure or “type” of the greatest mister of history: Jesus Christ, the God/Man/King/Priest.

Because he’s writing to Hebrew believers, the author now attempts to help them over a major hurdle — the fact that this new “Priest” is not of the priestly tribe of Levi but of the tribe of Judah. In chapter six, he has already reviewed the promise (or covenant) God made to Abraham. He speaks of God’s oath, where He “swore by Himself”, that is, God “signed” the contract with His own Holy Name. These “two unchangeable things” (God’s promise, and God’s oath) are the basis for the hope which “anchors” the soul (vv.18-20). Jesus has become both the mediator and the personification of that hope — He has “entered the inner sanctuary behind the Curtin” and “has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek”.

The writer uses the typology of Melchizedek purposely. In Hebrew tradition, only those of the tribe of Levi had the calling and right of priesthood. But, when Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek, he was giving it to someone “who did not trace his descent from Levi” (87:6). Well, how could he? Levi hadn’t been born yet! That may be true, says the writer, but Levi was there in Abraham’s seed (v.10). That seems to b stretching it a bit; why go to such lengths? Only because in Hebrew religion any “perfection” that could be gained by the faithful had to be “attained through the Levitical priesthood” (v.11a). So any other route to perfection (as “if perfection could have been attained” — 11a) was seen as bogus, which meant that Jesus was an interloper.

Not so, says the writer, not if Jesus was like Melchizedek. Even Levi gave a time to Melchizedek (albeit rather indirectly — v.10). And what made Melchizedek special? He was someone whose right to ministers based not in genealogy but on the “pow3er of an indestructible life (v.16b). In the light of the resurrection, Jesus’ indestructibility is forever established. Whereas other priests die, Jesus “lives forever” and “has a permanent priesthood” (vv.23,24). “Therefore He is able to save completely” (v.25a) whereas “the former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect)” (v.18, 19).

In Jesus we have a better hop and a better covenant (v.22). He’s the best of priests — for “He always lives to intercede” for us (v.25b).