Hebrews #2: No religion can save you… only Jesus does!

Hebrews #2: No religion can save you… only Jesus does!

Chapter 1

As far as my imagination goes thinking of Jesus, He is far above, He has no equal but God, no heavenly and human created being can compete…

Why all this?

Important reminder: community with the temptation to say that Judaism was still better…

Community

made up of believers of Jewish origin.

second wind

They are persecuted and the euphoric time of the beginning gives way to normality and difficulties.

1)

Followers?

If the community is made up of believers of Jewish origin, the words of the epistle seem to assume that it is also made up of people who have followed, without necessarily really attaching themselves to Christ.

Example:

Even a disciple followed without fully joining, Judas.

The crowds who listened to Jesus saw miracles, even benefited from the miracles of Jesus, like the 10 lepers:

Healing along the way, he was a Samaritan.

Luke 17:11-19 / 

NJEB2111. On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus passed between Samaria and Galilee.12. As he entered a village, ten lepers came to meet him. They stood at a distance13. and began to say to him: “Jesus, master, have mercy on us!”14. When he saw them, Jesus said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” As they went there, they were healed.15. One of them, seeing himself cured, retraced his steps giving glory to God in a loud voice.16. He fell face down at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. He was a Samaritan.17. Jesus spoke and said, “Were not the ten healed? And the other nine, where are they?18. Has only this stranger been found to come back and give glory to God?”19. Then he said to him, “Get up, go, your faith has saved you.”

The crowds have heard, they have sometimes endured hunger; did all who composed them belong to Christ?

How many actually followed him?

Parable of the lands:

“Persecution because of the Word”

Matthew 13:20-21 / 

NJEB2120. He who received seed in stony ground is he who hears the word and immediately accepts it with joy;21. but he has no roots in himself, he is a man of a moment and, as soon as difficulties or persecution arise because of the word, he stumbles.

And US?

And us, our community?

Only God knows our heart!

2)

Details

Attention, « brother » can also have 2 meanings:

• brother before the cross is mostly brother of nation;
• Hebrew or Jewish brother

And we can find both meanings after the cross, all the more so when this epistle is addressed to people imbued with Jewish culture and most certainly favorably Jewish.

The author identifies a lot with them, even himself is probably Jewish…

3)

pride background

Very proud that the law was transmitted by angels, heavenly « deliverers », Jesus is « at the home » of the one who sends,

He is neither the delivery man, the angels yes

It’s neither the parcel, it’s the law

He is neither the recipient. It’s Moses & the Hebrews

Above all beliefs

Jesus is above all beliefs whatever their origins, He is God!

For example:

Would there be a very established belief in the world that would have been brought by spirits?

Jesus is above…

0)

Consequences

Stay attached to Jesus by the message we have heard, otherwise we are always lost.

Let us remain firmly attached to Jesus and to the message which presents Him to us.

And let’s reject the sirens who might make us believe that it was better before, in the days of the law and the sacrifices in the temple.

Angels bring a tool of judgment

The angels were God’s means of bringing the law which, on the one hand, was a kind of tool, an evaluation grid, a technical check to know if we were on the same wavelength as God.

By his means, all disobedience, all sinful transgressions received the punishment that those offenses deserved.

XXL consequence with Jesus

Much more so, as Jesus is superior, imagine the consequences if we turn our backs, that we are negligent in relation to what Jesus did, to the Salvation He accomplished.

Comparison logic:

the angels are much smaller than Jesus;

the law is transitory, whereas with Salvation all is accomplished;

the law giving no gift to sin, imagine the consequences of neglecting such a great Salvation…

Salvation announced by Jesus

Remember, salvation was not announced by angels but by the Lord Jesus, it is another dimension.

The law, it was made by the angels.

Many witnesses

The salvation accomplished by Jesus is not

• fad,
• a legend
• an imaginary daydream,

since many witnesses guarantee to have heard it.

The righteous law through Moses…

The Trinity

Much better, the rest of the Trinity,

• God the Father,
• the Holy Spirit

allowed these witnesses to guarantee the authenticity of their affirmations concerning the salvation accomplished by Jesus by showing the divinity of this message by the same signs

• amazing,
• Miraculous

than Jesus, as given to them by the Holy Spirit.

text

Hebrews 2:1-4 / 

NBS211. That is why we must cling all the more to the message we have heard, lest we be dragged down to our ruin.2. Indeed, since the word spoken through the angels has been confirmed and every transgression and disobedience has received a just sanction,3. how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? This salvation, first announced by the Lord, has been confirmed to us by those who have heard it.4. God backed up their testimony with signs, wonders, and various miracles, and with the gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will.

Madness of a step back

Honestly, it’s not serious to think that a step back would be profitable…

Regression

It is a regression, a spiritual archaism.

Greatness?

It is a misunderstanding of the greatness of Jesus and of what He has accomplished FOR US!

Nothing of the same caliber

We might sometimes, in reverie,

imagine that other beliefs (some for example have the nerve to put the writings of their founder on the same level as those of the Bible, of the work of Jesus), than material goods and our earthly life

are more serious than our life of faith and deserve more attention and time than the priority of faith.

Low-perception

These ramblings denote a small vision of the greatness of Jesus and what He has accomplished.

Leveling

Didn’t this type of daydreaming perception put Jesus and what He did on our level?

Another argument: submission of the future world

Divinely inspired, the author of the epistle presents a new fact which underlines the preeminence of Jesus compared to the angels.

The future world, to whom will it be subjected?

To the angels or to the Son of Man (Jesus)?

Argument rooted in TA

To do this, he quotes a landmark text of the Jewish faith (found in the Old Testament), Psalm 8. 5-7 , to show that it has always been in God’s mind.

Incarnation. God. Is / Was / Will be

Another point concerning Jesus, if He was incarnated, it is therefore that He is originally God.

Subtly this quote from Psalm 8. 5-7 presents the Son of Man as being

• He who was (before the incarnation),
  • who embodied
  • and who will be…, that is, God.

Revelation 1:4-5 / 

NIV4. From John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be to you and peace from [God,] who is, who was, and who is to come , from the seven spirits who are before his throne5. and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the head of the kings of the earth! To him who loves us, who has washed us from our sins with his blood

Read

Hebrews 2:5-8 / 

NIV5. Indeed, it is not under the authority of angels that God has subjected the world to come of which we speak.6. Someone has given elsewhere this testimony somewhere: What is man, that you remember him, or the son of man, that you take care of him?7. You lowered him for a little time below the angels, you crowned him with glory and honor [and gave him dominion over what your hands did], 8. youhave everything under his feet. Indeed, by submitting everything to him, God left nothing that escaped his authority. Now, however, we do not yet see that everything is submitted to him.

Indeed, by submitting everything to him, God left nothing that escaped his authority.

Submission is not a reality

Obviously, if we look around us, we can see that the submission of all things has not fully returned to the facts and it will be the restoration of all things; however as it is a fact

• certain
• and established,

following the work of Christ, following his triumph over death and sin; the author refers to it.

(Just as our salvation is an established fact through the work of Christ, so its expression will be there also at the restoration of all things when we are by Christ saved from wrath and judgment).

Assure as the death of Christ

And the author of the epistle is going to put forward one of the aspects of the work of Jesus to recall all the validity, that of the death of Jesus.

Historical fact

Perhaps because every good Jew was aware of this historical fact

Luke 24. 18

One of them, a man named Cleopas, answered him:

Luke 24 / AJV21 18. One of them, a man named Cleopas, answered him, « Are you the only one staying in Jerusalem who does not know what has happened there these days? »

Moreover, this one does not need to be justified.

His death covers him with glory

But it is also for other reasons that the author relies on the death of Jesus:

the foundation of Jesus (by the incarnation) did not last,

since afterwards He was crowned with Glory;

it’s because of His death.

His death brings perfect atonement

Why did this death crown Him with Glory?

Because it was a perfect atonement for all mankind, what sin deserves has been paid…

The link restored

By this atonement,

• humans can be linked to God again,
• to be the children of His people
• and enjoy His glory.

Sacrifice and beneficiary same source

What is extraordinary for someone of Jewish origin is that the author shows something unique in Jesus:

• It’s just the sacrifice
  • and the one who benefits from the sacrifice are of the same condition, of human condition…

In animal-human AT

While the sacrificial system that the TA presents to us, it was an animal which was sacrificed for the benefit of a human, one and the other not being of the same condition…

In Jesus same condition

Here, it’s the same human condition

• for the sacrifice,
• as for the beneficiary.

The same condition, guarantee of the same context

When God, through Jesus, calls us His children, it is because the same condition has been shared; thus it is not a spiritual representation, by means of an animal, which intervened for the sin.

But it is Jesus Himself, as a man who shares our same condition and who intervenes to solve the bondage of sin.

This same condition is a guarantee that what has been overcome is the same problem that we are facing. Death no longer has the same power.

End of the reign of sin

And so

• dominance,
• the reign
• and the dictatorship

of the Devil’s Machiavellian plan in bringing sin into mankind is spiritually over.

Angels can’t mediate

Therefore, when the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews is led by the Holy Spirit to show the infinite greatness of Jesus in the eyes of the angels, He points out to us that the angels, by their condition, could never have done anything to solve our central problem, that of sin.

Not the same condition

Not sharing the same condition, they would have been, like the animals, a spiritual representation but in no way could they have allowed the human condition to pay « from within », in themselves, the just sanction for

• the transgression
  • and disobedience

men.

Through Jesus there is

• a perfect presentation
• and a perfect victory.

Read

Hebrews chapter 2

Now, however, we do not yet see that everything is submitted to him.

Hebrews 2:9-15 / 

NJV219. However, he who was humbled for a little while below the angels, Jesus, we see him crowned with glory and honor because of the death he has suffered. Thus, by the grace of God, he knew death for every human being.10. Indeed, he for whom and by whom everything exists wanted to lead many sons to glory; it suited him therefore to qualify perfectly by suffering the author of their salvation.11. In fact, he who procures holiness and those who benefit from it all have one and the same origin, therefore he is not ashamed to call them his brothers.12. when he says: I will announce your name to my brothers, I will praise you in the midst of the congregation.13. And again: I will trust in him. And finally: Here I am, me and the children that God has given me.14. Since these children have the human condition in common, he himself also shared it, in a similar way. Thus, by his death, he was able to render impotent the one who exercised the power of death, that is to say the devil,15. and to free all those whom the fear of death held for their life in slavery. .

extra points

Another aspect which shows that the work of Jesus is not a spiritual tinkering but a divine realization.

sacrifice and priest

We have just seen the importance of Jesus as a sacrifice, but Jesus is also

• the priest,
• the high priest

whose mission was to make the link between the people and God.

Knowing the man

Jesus is this link, it is not a scoop but Jesus makes this link by knowing our condition.

So it’s again,

• validly,
  • inside,

that He understands what we are up against.

The temptations we face, He knows what they are, but He has never yielded to them.

path to victory

He knows the way against temptations,

He knows the triumphant way,

it is not fair:

“it must not be done! »

aim :

 « I know where to go! »

Read

Hebrews 2:16-18 / 

NJEB2116. Indeed, certainly, it is not to angels that he helps, but rather to the descendants of Abraham.17. Therefore he had to become like his brethren in every way in order to be a compassionate and faithful high priest in the service of God to make atonement for the sins of the people.18. Indeed, as he himself suffered when he was tempted, he can help those who are tempted.

What to get out of it?

Can we draw some implications for ourselves?

« Heavenly » Belief

All beliefs whose core action is only heavenly are of no use to sinful man, because there is not really the human condition involved.

Fallen Human Beliefs

All beliefs whose heart of action is on the same level as us, sinful humans, are of no use.

Because as famous as the sinful man may be at the initiative of this belief, he is inadmissible by God and the problem of sin remains in the end, he does not leave much choice… There is only Jesus.

At the time a step back?

For the first recipients of this letter.

They understood by these first two chapters that

• the reflection,
• the idea

to return to Judaism was a regression.

Or, as we say in Monopoly, back to square one…

Another context for us

We are not in the context and the Jewish culture of the time, but the same principle remains.

Always the dead end

Thinking that another belief could be interesting for his life,

it is to be interested in a dead end.

A name

We understand better this verse that we had seen in 

Acts 4 / NJV21 12. There is no salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

This name is Jesus.

There is no one or other means in other cultures that God would have used.

It is not a cultural or identity problem.

We know it well, for us, Jesus is not from our culture.

Never mind.

Only Jesus saves because no one else in history and forever

• Perfect,
• Divine,
• did not die for sin
• and rose again.

What’s more

And only Jesus understands us without heavenly distance.

Because, like us, He lived here below.

Interesting

So the screams,

« Nobody Understands Me »

are a lie…

Jesus understands you much better than you…

Moreover, Jesus carried the darkness of your sin that you are not even aware of.

Not to make you pay the bill to sink you a little more, because He paid it perfectly.

But to get up, beyond your navel-gazing desires but by opening up a promising horizon for you, His.