Hebrews - Week 1

So that was a spectacular fail, wasn't it?!

I committed to blogging every day for the eight week's Hebrews project...oops! I managed the first day.

Sorry everyone.

But can I add anything by way of overview of the first two chapters of Hebrews (Hebrews 1:1-2:18)?

I think so...

Firstly - these two chapters, as we heard from Paul Ayers in church, are deeply Christological. (Christology is the part of theology (which is the study of God) which looks at what it means for Jesus to be Christ - the saviour, the King.... what it means for Jesus to be Jesus. When you ask a question like 'Was Jesus God?', or 'What was Jesus' birth all about?', or 'Did Jesus really get tempted?'...you are asking a Christological question). But secondly, these chapters are about worship, which is our response to God.

When I stop and really think about who Jesus is one thing happens - I want to worship him.

I want to worship him because of his NATURE. He is so amazing: so different to me, and yet so like me. In these two chapters we think of Jesus' divinity - how he is God (see my blog on Heb 1:1-4); but we also consider his humanity - how he is a human, like you and me. In Hebrews 2 it says: "he (Jesus) shared their humanity" (Heb 2:14), and "he had to be made like his brothers in every way" (Heb 2:17), and "he himself suffered when he was tempted" (Heb 2:18).

But I also want to worship him because of what he has ACHIEVED. The passage doesn't just say - Jesus was God, and Jesus was human. It says something about what he's done for us.

I don't know how your average week pans out, but there's one rule about every week for me. I will always stuff up, somehow...and usually because I have given in to temptation. These passages tell me that the awesome God, has stepped into my shoes and knows about this struggle - he knows precisely how this feels. And yet he is now "crowned with glory and honour because he suffered death" (Heb 2:9). Yes he was human and divine - but this has had an impact on what he DID.

It's not just about his nature, but about his accomplishments, and chief amongst these is that God "left nothing that is not subject to him" (Heb 2:8b). In saying 'God left nothing not subject', means he has made all things subject to Jesus - everything. There is nothing, absolutely nothing Jesus is not Lord over. The writer to the Hebrews has already said this in chapter one: Jesus is the "heir of all things" (Heb 1:2) - ALL THINGS!

Finally, in this passage I'm told that I am CREATED FOR GOD. The writer to Hebrews slips in the simple, but beautiful phrase, "God, for whom and through whom everything exists" (Heb 1:10). My desire to worship God may, in fact, be something God has hard-wired into me to do...?

WOAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stop what you are doing - please!

In these chapters we are told clearly: that God made us for himself; that his Son, Jesus, is God completely; that Jesus is also completely human; and that as a result his death is for everyone (Heb 2:9) by making us clean - purifying us (Heb 1:3) from our sin (Heb 2:14-17).

This is such GOOD NEWS.

I am made for a purpose.
Jesus made me for a purpose.
And although I've failed to keep myself clean for that purpose, Jesus has come (as a Human) to die so that I might be kept for that purpose.


Can you begin to understand why the writer sticks the following in the middle of the two chapters:
"How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" (Heb 2:3)

Yes, indeed. It is a GREAT SALVATION. What's your response?