Hebrews

The Mandate

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Conversations, Panels, and Sermons

Lesson: 1-33

Genre: Lecture

Track: 01

Dictation Name: RR198A1

Location/Venue:

Year:

Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Thus saith the high and lofty one who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit. To revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. If thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him. If thou shalt seek him with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

Let us pray. Our Father we give thanks unto thee once again for all thy mercies and thy providential care. We give thanks unto thee that from all eternity thou hast been mindful of us, and unto all eternity we have our place in thee and in thy kingdom. Be merciful unto us that we who have known such great mercies and blessings are often impatient, and weary easily in waiting on thee. Make us strong in faith, zealous in thy service, and ever willing to serve even where we would not serve. Grant us this in Christ’s name, amen,

Our scripture is Hebrews 1:1-4. We begin now our study of the epistle to the Hebrews. A very important work, although much neglected.

“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, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:

 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.”

Our subject in these four verses is the mandate. That’s our subject, the mandate. And it’s a good name for what the whole of the epistle to the Hebrews constitutes.

Now it has been said of Hebrews that it is first, the least known of all the New Testament Epistles, second, it requires a knowledge of the 5 books of Moses, and of course this alone may impede knowledge of Hebrews with many people. Third, the classical view of the epistle is that it was written to a congregation, and implicitly to other congregations like this particular one, a congregation of Jews that was in danger of returning to the synagogue, and temple worship. There is another matter of considerable importance, the unending controversy about who wrote Hebrews. I don’t think that it can ever be resolved, but I am fairly sure that there is a reasonable answer.

More than a few of the greatest champions of the faith including John Calvin, denied Paul’s authorship. The reason for this is that the style of the Greek is somewhat different from Paul’s other letters. However, Badcock, an English scholar, rightfully spoke of a plural authorship, and he said: and I quote “Except for the single conventional phrase, “and what shall I more say for time will fail me,” the whole is written in the plural number until we come to the personal messages of the last chapter. So though it is convenient to speak of the author, it would be more correct in regard of the main bulk of the epistle, to speak of the authors.”

Now I believe Badcock is thoroughly right. There was a crisis in the life of one church which was also a concern elsewhere. For Paul alone to have addressed this letter to the church and to the churches elsewhere would have been to make it controversial, because Paul was a very controversial figure especially among Jewish believers. For Paul alone to have written this would have weakened its force with too many readers. I believe Hebrews was written as a summary statement by the Apostolic fellowship, a group of apostles and other missionaries, and like the decision of the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, was given added authority to the churches because it was not the voice of one man. Except at the very last, where a personal note is appended to the body of the letter, and where we have the singular, I; it clearly is written as a collective letter written by a group.

The last chapter gives us the personal comments and greetings of Paul. But it is not there alone that Paul’s hand appears. It’s throughout. And Joseph McAuliffe has called my attention to the personal note in Hebrews 10:34 that clearly echoes Paul.

Now, Hebrews is emphatic in declaring the absolute and sole sufficiency of Jesus Christ, and this again echoes the Pauline letters. In line with this is a fact which the Australian scholar, Noah Weeks, called attention to. And I quote: “The stress of Hebrews is that the age to come has already come with the coming of the Lord. The future age is not set over against the New Testament age, the future age begins with the New Testament age. However from the standpoint of Israel in the wilderness, that age was definitely in the future.”

Now, remember. In verse two, we are told: “In these last days.” Now Paul very commonly speaks of these last days as the days from the cross of Christ to the end of the world. Modernists have tried to say that means they were expecting Christ to come back any minute. But that’s not true. Very clearly, these last days means from the time of our Lords death and resurrection to the end of the world. Why? Well, we will see in a minute or two and as we go through Hebrews. Today we have Christians longing for the rapture or the millennium, and forgetting that the cross and the resurrection are our victory. And therefore we now have a task of applying that victory to every area of life and thought.

When Hebrews speaks of these last days, it is because we are in histories last era, the application of Christ’s victory to every area of life and thought. That’s our calling. Christ has won the victory, we now apply the victory. Hebrews 11 tells us of the Old Testament saints who fought but did not receive the promise, Jesus Christ, in their lifetime. We are now in the last and great shaking of things, the things which are, by which the things which cannot be shaken may alone remain, Hebrews 12: 26:27 tells us. We have received a kingdom, the New World Order, which cannot be moved.

Therefore we must with grace we are told in verse 28, of Hebrews 12, serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear. Christ has won the victory, we now have to apply it. Those who are planning to defect back to the synagogue are reminded: “Our God is a consuming fire.” In Hebrews 12:29. They are told of the pilgrimage of Old Testament Saints, and of their problems, sins and grief. Hebrews was written while the temple was still standing in all its splendor, and the churches were small groups, meeting in home. The writer in Hebrews 13:23 and 24, is writing from Italy and is free, and Timothy who was just freed. This clearly refers again to Paul.

This indicates a date before the Jewish Roman War, and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. So it is before 66 A.D. The victory of these last days is cited repeatedly in the Psalms, the Prophets and throughout the New Testament. Some of these are important as reminders to us that ours is the great victory, as 1st John 5:4 tells us. For example, in Daniel 7:14: “And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Matthew 11:27 “All things are delivered unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father. Neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him.”

Again in Matthew 28:18 “And Jesus came and spake unto them saying: “All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.” In Luke 1:32 “He shall be great, and shall be called the son of the highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.”

Then John 3:35 “The Lord loveth his son, and hast given all things into his hand.” Then in Romans 14:9 “For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be lord of the dead and the living.” Then in 1st Corinthians 15:27 “For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith that all things are put under him it is manifest that he is accepted which did put all things under him.”

Well, I can go on and on with verses just from the New Testament. Martin J. Weingarten in the Future of the Kingdom in Prophecy and Fulfillment, goes through the Old Testament, and has a volume of declarations that say: “Christ with his death and resurrection will bring in the last era of history, and the time when all things shall be put under his feet.”

Now Calvin in commenting on these verses in Hebrews, called attention to the thesis, the stress on fulfillment, by arranging verses 1 and 2 in this fashion. And this is how Calvin gives it: “God spake. Formerly by the prophets, now by the Son. Then to the fathers, now to us. Then at various times, now at the end of the times.” In other words, there is a finality here. The implication, as Hebrews develops its argument is very, very clear, and extremely important. If Israel had simply remained on the Arabian side of the Red Sea, there would have been no promised land. Similarly, if we as Christians do not move on in terms of our salvation by Jesus Christ, to occupy all things in his name, we will remain in our own wilderness, and without the fullness of victory. The age to come is ours, if we act in His name and power.

It will be clearly, not a struggle free or trouble free battle. But it will also not be victory free. It will lead to victory. Hebrews therefore is a summons to victory. We cannot understand Hebrews, if we see it simply as contemplating and concentrating on the victory of Christ on the cross and over the grave.

What Hebrews tells us is: This is the beginning of the victory. And what Hebrews makes clear is so radical, that if he had not concentrated on the typology of the Old Testament, for us to understand that it meant: This means that Rome cannot stand, nor any state, nor any order, church or state that stands in the way of this fullness of victory. Discouragement is real, but victory is certain. So that Hebrews does not concentrate on the cross and the resurrection, but tells us: This is where your victory begins; now go and apply it.

Hebrews 12:12 commands us as a result: “Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees.” It’s a long battle, people are going to get discouraged. They are going to be exhausted. But remember, there is victory ahead. A much sharper word would apply to those who refuse to march, and want instead to be raptured out of the battle. So, this is an explosive letter; to those who want to go back to the temple and the synagogue, to those who want to be raptured out, and those who are going to sit back and wait for the end, as though they had nothing to do but ot believe and to wait. What these verses that introduce Hebrews to us say, is that the key to life and history is the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Now at the same time there is a curious fact about Hebrews. The actual number of times that either the name Jesus or the term Christ are used are not many. Although Jesus Christ and his person and work in their meaning are the central subject of Hebrews. Why? Because Hebrews makes clear that Jesus Christ cannot be comprehended simply in the person of one who walked about Palestine. He is not so much referred to as presupposed as the center of all things.

Previously Hebrews tells us: God had spoken by or rather, in the Prophets, in the prophets themselves as the vessels of divine inspiration. Now In Jesus Christ we have God the son revealed, so we have to see more than the person who walked around the holy land. We have to see the one who from all eternity was a person in the Godhead, who was maker of heaven and earth, and who is now at the right hand of the Father.

The worlds were created by the triune God, which means that God the son not only made all things but is all designate the heir of all things. The focus is not on the person of Jesus of Nazareth, but on who he was, God the son. The maker, The sustainer, the Lord over all things. The implication is very clear: Leave Christ and you leave life. You must see in Jesus, God the son.

Now, here we come to a matter which is a common heresy in many Bible believing churches. They talk about Jesus and when they say God they mean the Father. But God means God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And it is subordinationism, which is heresy. To act as though when you say God you do not mean all three persons. And that’s what Hebrews is stressing. Jesus Christ is God the Son, from all eternity.

Then in verse three we are told five things about the incarnate Son. First, he is the brightness of God glory. The word brightness is better rendered perhaps by the word: Effulgence. He is the expression, or open manifestation of Gods glory. We are told that the person of Jesus Christ was the focus of more than ever met the eye, so that if you had been there, let us say, when the Sermon on the Mount was preached and you were looking at Jesus, what Hebrews tells us, to know him truly you would have had to say: This is God the Son, who is both here and in all eternity reigning. Then second, Jesus was the express image of Gods purpose, the substantial nature of God, the reality of Gods being. Then third Jesus Christ upholds all things by the word of his power. He sustains all things, and all things move in terms of his decree. All things mean all things in creation. The world was called into being by the triune god, and moment by moment it is totally sustained by God the son, the heir of all things. Do you remember when Mary, seeing the resurrected Christ reached out to hold hi,, and he said: ‘Stop clinging to me I am no longer to be known as you once knew me, because my mission is now more than that of a person who walked around you. You must know me in all my glory.’

Then fourth, Jesus Christ, by himself, purged us of all our sins, he is our redeemer, he made atonement for us. Then fifth Christ is now the right hand of God, seated or in session, because he is our ruler and our judge as well as our mediator. We have lost a great deal of the meaning of the word session. Session is a technical word in origin meaning a Judge, holding court. A king on the throne adjudicating matters. So that to be in session was to be on a throne or a bench with all the power that that office involved.

Verse four connects us to the next passage by its reference to angels. Jesus Christ, when before his incarnation was God the Son in all eternity, was so much better than the angels, was now by his redemptive work, gained a more excellent name then they. The angels are servants of the most high, but Jesus Christ surpassed all Angels and certainly all men in his work as Gods servant. So that, God in the person of the son has done more as a servant, as one who serves, than the Angels whose task it is to serve, and men. His was the greatest possible service. Gods right hand, the place of intercession and judgement will be the place of Jesus Christ until all things are subdued unto him. he will continue as king when his work intercessor and judge has ended.

Verse 2 tells us that Jesus Christ is the appointed heir of all things. Paul in Romans 8:17 tells us that we are joint heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with hi,, that we may be also glorified together. Hebrews is a summons to make the age to come Christ’s kingdom in all its fullness. We are not handed a ticket to easy living with our salvation, but a summons to disciple all nations for Christ. Our goal is gods great Sabbath. In verses one and two we are told that God has spoken. We do have a revelation, and this revelation has its finality and perfect expression in Jesus Christ. Leon Morris rendered the phrase in verse three as: “The exact representation of his, Gods being.” And another version renders it “The very stamp of his nature.” Barkley pointed out that the Jews of our Lords day divided all time into two ages, the present age and the age to come. The day of the Lord would divide the two ages. As against these Hebrews sees that the New Age has dawned with Jesus Christ. So from the beginning Hebrews declares unequivocally that Christ’s work is done, and we now have a work to do. We must conquer our Canaan in name and power. Hebrews is a mandate for action.

Much of this is set forth in typology by references to old Testament history, but there is also much direct admonition. Hebrews thus constitutes marching orders for Christians. Let us pray.

Our Father we give thanks unto thee for thy Word. We thank thee that Thou hast spoken clearly and unequivocally. Remove the clouds from our minds that we may hear and see and know what Thy mandate for us is. In Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes.

[Audience Member] Yes, You had mentioned about these last days, in Hebrews 10:25 it says 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. Is Paul here talking about the day of the final destruction, the final wiping out of Israel, because you had mentioned earlier in your sermon that obviously this was written before that day had come.

[Rushdoony] Yes, I’d rather postpone that until we come to that, because everything you are going to see between now and that chapter and verse starts expounding what that day means. And we will begin very shortly as he discusses the meaning of the Sabbath to see something of what that means. But that is very astute to catch that particular reference, because it is a key part of the development. Any other questions and comments?

To understand Hebrews as I said at the beginning, knowing the first five books and the Law is very important, because marching orders come from the whole word of God and certainly from the law, and Hebrews is giving us marching orders. It tells us that these last times are when we work. Christ did his work in the cross, our work is still ahead of us. Yes?

[Audience Member] I’m not quite sure I understand the last part of verse four, it says as he has inherited a more excellent name; as opposed the angels, I’m not quite sure what that means.

[Rushdoony] The Angels are servants, messengers, they are people who are sent out from the throne. Well, Angels throughout the Bible function, although we have very few references to them directly, but we are told they are servants of God, they do things for him. well, Christ has done the greatest service of all, he is the suffering servant. He has given his life, died on the cross, the most excruciating form of death ever devised by man. So he has gained a more excellent name than they as a servant.

Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience Member] When it says that he sat down in the right hand of the majesty on high, I always had the image and was raised a Methodist so I think we thought there were three individuals, and so I had an image in my mind that there sat God, and on the right hand side was Jesus. So if they are all one, when we see them as one, can we also see them as three separate entities?

[Rushdoony] Well, the right hand image is derived from earthly thrones. The person on the right hand of power was the one who had equal power with the one on the thrown. So to be seated on the right hand of God is an image derived from human experience. It doesn’t mean that there is a literal throne or thrones there, so it tells us that he exercises with equal power all the power of the Godhead. Yes?

[Audience Member] Would there maybe be a parallel there, you were mentioning the earthly image, of the chancellors of England for instance, they always spoke in the name of the king, would there be a parallel image there?

[Rushdoony] Yes, although he was not of equal nature in power. But it is a good analogy. Any other questions? Well, if not let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father we give thanks unto Thee for this thy Word, which speaks to our requirements as Thy people, the need to serve, the need to exercise dominion, to go into all the world and into every area of life and thought and to exercise the Crown Rights of Christ as King. Make us zealous in thy service, joyful in Thy Word, and prompt in obedience. And now go in peace, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you, this day and always, amen.