mong the books of the New Testament, the epistle to the Hebrews is one of the most exciting to study. Its message of the supremacy of Jesus Christ and the salvation He died to obtain for the world is powerful and gripping. In the opening paragraph the author of Hebrews takes no time to declare himself and his purpose; like a man warning of immediate danger, the message bursts forth God has spoken, and we must heed His words.
But before we look at the meaning of this message to us, we should find out when, to whom, and for what purpose it was originally declared. The following passage provides some clues:
"We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come" (Heb. 13:10-14).
The author's use of the present tense in the first two verses the priests serve, the blood is brought implies that the work of the temple was still being done at the time this letter was written. This dates Hebrews sometime before AD 70, when the temple was destroyed by the armies of Rome.
The author mentions that the body of the sacrifices were burned outside the camp, and that Jesus suffered outside the gate of Jerusalem. His alternating use of the words camp and city imply that he is referring to the same place, i.e. Jerusalem. The writer urges the readers to follow Jesus outside because the city of Jerusalem is not a continuing one. The author of Hebrews anticipates Jerusalem's impending doom, of which Jesus had warned His disciples, and so wrote this letter in part to warn the Jewish believers of the approaching danger.
Another allusion to the coming destruction can be seen in this passage:
". . . not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching" (Heb. 10:25).
Perhaps due to a fear of persecution at the hands of Jewish rulers, the Hebrew Christians were tempted not to assemble together. The author tells them to exhort one another to continue meeting, especially as they see the signs of the approaching Day. This cannot mean the day of individual death, which is common to all men and does not often give evidence of its approach, nor the future Judgment Day, which to the original readers was still centuries distant. It must therefore refer to the day of Jerusalem's judgment, the day of destruction upon the Jewish nation, which the disciples of Christ were taught by Him to look for within their generation (Matt. 24:34).
What then was the purpose of this letter? It was written to encourage the Jewish Christians to leave behind Judaism, which was "ready to vanish away" (8:13), and to prepare them to begin, in earnest, the evangelization of the world. The author plainly declares this to be one of his basic themes this is his message:
"For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels" (Heb. 2:5, emphasis added).
The author was writing about the subjection of the world under the New Covenant the world wherein his blessing come no longer through the defunct Jewish nation, but through the Christian church. This world is made subject to Jesus Christ as the church carries out her mission to disciple the nations. This message is made clear in Hebrews by the author's use of the Old Testament. He goes on to quote Psalm 8:
"But one testified in a certain place, saying: `What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.' For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him" (Heb. 2:6-8).
The author of Hebrews tells us here that though God has made all things subject to man, we do not yet see all things subject to him. But in faith we do see all things subject to Jesus, who was made lower than the angels in His incarnation, but crowned with glory and honor in the ascension.
Jesus was aware that all things were made subject to Him, for before His ascension he declared, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28:18).
The Father has subjected all things to Christ. This subjection of the world is made manifest in history through the work of the church, for Jesus continues, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Paul applies this verse to the reign of Jesus in a similar way in 1 Corinthians 15:24-26.
This, then, is the purpose of the book of Hebrews. It is a New Testament Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy was given to remind Israel of what God had done for them by setting them free from Egypt, and to prepare them for the coming invasion of the promised land. The book of Hebrews was written to remind the New Israel the Christian church of what God has done for us in setting us free from sin, and to prepare us for the conquest of the world, which is accomplished through the preaching of the cross. This will be shown in more detail in the coming issues.
