Christ is above all creation, but He humbled Himself so that the Old Covenant might be fulfilled, the New Covenant might be revealed, and so that we can draw near to God, declaring His goodness over us.
Hey y’all! Here’s an essay I wrote on the book of Hebrews. Enjoy!
Christ is above all creation, but He humbled Himself so that the Old Covenant might be fulfilled, the New Covenant might be revealed, and so that we can draw near to God, declaring His goodness over us. The book of Hebrews is meant to stir believers up “to love, and good works” (10:24). The way in which the author does this is by pointing the readers again and again to Jesus, who is to be the focus of all life in heaven and on earth.
The author of Hebrews fills his letter with the idea that Christ is above all. In a seemingly throwaway line, he says in 1:2, “through whom also He [God] created the world,” he emphasizes not only the eternal power and authority of Christ, but His oneness with God as well. William Barclay, in his book, The Letter to the Hebrews, writes, “The prophets grasped part of the mind of God; but Jesus was that mind.”
This point is especially driven by the author noting Christ’s superiority over angels. The rhetorical question is asked throughout chapter 1, “To which of the angels did God ever say…?” The point of Christ’s superiority is again hammered in by comparing Christ with the Levitical priesthood, which was no match for Christ since they were “prevented by death from continuing in office” (7:23).
It ought to shock the reader then to hear the author speak of the humble form which Christ took, albeit only for “a little while” (2:9) and of His death. The One for whom angels were created to worship becoming lesser than them is a great shame. The high priest becoming the very sacrifice which He is tasked to bring before the throne of God seems almost unjust.
This begs the question, why would Christ bring Himself to such a lowly state? The author brings insight to this when he writes, “For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.” (9:16)
At the time of Moses, Israel made a covenant with God. With this covenant came blessings to the one who could fulfill it, and curses to the one who could not. The greatest of men tried and failed. For 2,000 years, Israel brought curses upon itself because there was not one found among them who could fulfill man’s side of the covenant with God.
But God, steadfast in love and rich in mercy, decided that He Himself would become a man so that He would fulfill both sides of the covenant, allowing man to be the recipient of all the blessings which the Mosaic covenant would offer the one who could keep it. Thus, we see Christ, the author and sustainer of all creation, making Himself lower than the angels, becoming a man, living the life we could not, and dying the death we deserved.
There was only One who was a worthy sacrifice and a worthy high priest. God had to become a man, or else the rest of us would be trapped in a covenant we could not fulfill. John MacArthur writes, “If God had never become man, He never could have been a high priest, a mediator, or an intercessor.”
But even greater than the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, we are now beneficiaries of a New, which is “enacted on better promises” (8:6). We are no longer under a Levitical Priesthood which is confined to a temple made of earthly things. Now “this Jesus is seated in the real holy place, where he shares the very throne with the Almighty.”
The author of Hebrews emphasizes the supremacy of Christ to show us that “the Mosaic dispensation mediated by the angels throws into bold relief the ultimacy of the salvation proclaimed by the Lord and by those who heard him.”
To use the vernacular, Jesus killed two birds with one stone: He fulfilled the Old Covenant, releasing all of its benefits, and He established a New Covenant in which man is no longer cursed should He fall short of God’s glory. In the Old Covenant, Israel was commanded, “You shall not…” But in Christ, God says, “I will…”
So what now? The New Covenant is here, Christ is in heaven interceding for us, and we have been made perfect in Him. What was the author’s intention in writing Hebrews?
The author gives us the answer when he writes, “let us draw near…” (10:22). The whole point of the Gospel, the Covenants, even creation itself, is for us to draw near to God. N.T. Wright notes in his book, Hebrews for Everyone, the pattern which the author of Hebrews uses, constantly pointing his readers forward to something. And “again and again the ‘something’ it points forwards to turns out to be Jesus”. Martin Earl-Jones, in his book titled A Merciful and Faithful High Priest, writes, “He came and he did what he did, he suffered and endured for one reason only, and that was to make possible this ‘great salvation’ (2:3).”
Earlier, we asked why Christ would bring Himself to such a lowly state. The answer to that question is so simple that we often miss it. It is because God loves us. Countless times throughout the Old Testament, we read how Israel cheated God. But countless times, we see a God, steadfast and immovable, showing mercy to His children. The Song of Solomon paints the picture of a man who is so in love with a woman that her gaze overwhelms him, and he begs her to avert her eyes (Song of Solomon 5:6). If Solomon can write of a love like that, how much greater is the love of the only God who is love.
The point then of the book of Hebrews, and of the entire Bible, is this: God made a way for us to be with Him. His hand is stretched out, His arms are wide open, but you have to accept Him.
But how do we accept Him? A Christian might think, “I’ve prayed the prayer, and I’ve gone to church. What now?” Now we confess it. The author of Hebrews writes, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” (10:23)
To confess something is to speak it out loud. It does not mean we are to feel as though we believe it. We are to “hold fast” our confession despite our feelings. To draw near to God, we must confess our hope in Christ, our righteousness in Him, and our identity as free, guiltless, holy children of Almighty God. Deuteronomy 30:14-15 says, “But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” Note how Moses mentions the mouth before the heart. Belief and confession are intertwined.
Christ humbled Himself as the lowest servant, even to be a sacrifice, so that we could be with Him. To confess otherwise is to declare that Christ’s work is not complete.
Let us meet together then, so that we will not waver. For we glorify God by drawing near to Him. We draw near to Him by confessing our standing with Him. And we hold fast to our confession by stirring one another up (10:24). Proverbs 18:1 says, “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” If we are to apply the book of Hebrews to our daily lives, let us meet together. It was not too long ago that it was common for a family to meet around the dinner table together, for friends to visit each other, and for Bible studies and prayer groups to meet weekly. God understands the nature of man. He knows that if we stir each other up to love and good works, then Christ would not have died in vain.
Barclay, William. The Letter to the Hebrews. Presbyterian Publishing Corp, 2002.
Garrard, David J. The Epistle to the Hebrews. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2023.
Lane, William L. Hebrews 1-8. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 2017.
MacArthur, John F, and Louis Evans. Hebrews. Thomas Nelson, 2003.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones. A Merciful and Faithful High Priest. Crossway, 2017. https://ereader.perlego.com/1/book/2890454.
Wright, N.T. Hebrews for Everyone. Presbyterian Publishing Corp, 2023.