Bible Survey: Hebrews
The theme of Hebrews is that Christ is better. God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1–2). Christ is better than the angels, better than Moses, and a better High Priest than Aaron, a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec (Hebrews 5:6).
The book does not name its writer, though there is good reason to think it was Paul. It was written to Jewish Christians who were tempted to go back to the temple and its sacrifices, and within a few years that temple would be destroyed. Those sacrifices had only ever pointed to the cross. Christ entered heaven by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12), and he ever liveth to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25). As Coleridge put it, Romans shows the necessity of the Christian faith, and Hebrews shows its superiority.
Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek long before the law was given, so tithing did not begin with Moses. Chapter eleven is the great chapter of faith, and chapter twelve calls us to lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us (Hebrews 12:1), for even things that are not sinful can slow us down. Chapter thirteen says, Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge (Hebrews 13:4), a verse widely ignored today.
Hebrews also holds some of the sternest warnings in the Bible. They do not teach that a saved person can lose his salvation, because the Bible never contradicts itself and it promises everlasting life to whoever believes. They are warnings to all who profess Christ, and not everyone who professes is saved. But the writer was confident of his readers: we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul (Hebrews 10:39).
Next in the series: James.
Taught by Brother James Barker in Sunday School at Naples Independent Baptist Church, May 30, 2021. Watch the lesson.
