Hebrews
The Mediator
Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony
Subject: Conversations, Panels, and Sermons
Lesson: 3-33
Genre: Lecture
Track: 03
Dictation Name: RR198B3
Location/Venue:
Year:
Let us worship God. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Let us Pray. Our Lord and our God we come into Thy presence again mindful of how great Thou art, and how great is our need of Thy providential care. We thank Thee that Thou art mindful of us, that our every need, great and small, is subject to Thy care and Thy oversight. Give us grace therefore to trust in Thee, to know that it is not our fretting, our mindfulness, our care, our concern, that will govern our today’s and our tomorrows, but Thine omnipotent government and love. Teach us Thy way, give us faith and patience in all things, grant that we stand still and see Thy salvation. Grant this in Christ’s name, amen.
Our Scripture is from Hebrews 2:1-8. Our subject: The Mediator. Hebrews 2:1-8
“1Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
2For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
3How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
4God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
5For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
6But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him?
7Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:
8Thou hast 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 see not yet all things put under him.”
A mediator in the modern world is a neutral person who arbitrates between two sides in terms of a given law. Or, a contract between the two sides. His neutrality is necessary because he does not meditate his own law. He is supposed to be an outsider to both parties. But this is not the case here with Gods mediator. The god man, Jesus Christ, is the great law giver, and the judge. He mediates the law he has given, and he is not neutral concerning man’s sins and transgressions. So we must understand of this mediator, unlike all human ones, there is no neutrality in him.
This is important to remember in reading Hebrews. Gnostic, semi-Gnostic and Apocalyptic ideas were current in the Jewish world of thought. Angels and emanations and such thinking were not absolute judges nor law givers, and the result was at best a diffused responsibility and culpability for man. Such thinking was elitist. It appealed to man’s pride to be a possessor of a secret knowledge, not of a law. He did not know law, just secret knowledge, occultist thinking. But with Jesus Christ as mediator man was face to face with a judge whose law was transgressed and broken.
The answer thus was not Gnosis, or Knowledge, but repentance for sin, restitution, and pardon from the throne of glory. We face a mediator with total power, not a neutral stance without much force. It is dangerous therefore to neglect the son, the mediator. We must earnestly heed his ways and his every word, as we are told in verse 1: “Lest at any time we should let them slip” or, literally, run out as leaking vessels. Because the gospel comes from the highest possible source, the throne of the triune God, we are under the most urgent necessity to hear and to obey.
The angels of God had a hand in the revelation of God’s Law. It was not their law, but Gods. According to acts 7 verse 53, and Galatians 3:19, the Angels had a part in the revelation of the Law to Moses. That law was steadfast, proved sure, founded on and expressive of Gods holiness, so that Jesus Christ said of it, that till heaven and earth passed, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law. Gods justice required the punishment of every transgression or disobedience, according to Matthew 5:18. Given this fact, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Which was declared by the Lord and confirmed to the Church by those around Jesus Christ.
This is the warning of verse three. This witness by Jesus Christ and the apostolic company was confirmed by signs wonders and miracles, and also by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will we are told. The will of the Holy Spirit is stressed here. He is fully a person, a person of the Trinity of the Godhead, His will is his own, and yet it is in total unity with the will of the Father and of the Son. The (World to still come?) Which means the triumph of the new creation in time and eternity, is not in the control of Angels. It is not in subjection to them, so that any exaltation of them is an exaltation of servants over their Lord, verse 5 tells us. The signs, wonders and miracles as well as the gifts of the Spirit did not confirm the power of Angels, but the Lordship and mediation of Jesus Christ.
In verse 6 we are told that Jesus is the son of man and of the messiah, in verse 9 it is he who suffers, making atonement for our sins. The angels underwent no such passion, nor did they surrender any heavenly status, as did God the Son in becoming our redeemer and mediator. Man is the recipient of God’s grace, man is the recipient also of Gods salvation, because man is the creature called into being by Gods creative word, to exercise dominion and to subdue under God the creation he has made.
Angels were not called to that task of dominion, there is no redemption of fallen angels, to restore them to any task. But man was called to dominion, therefore man is called into Christ. To be a member of his new humanity as the last Adam, so that He might undertake again the task of dominion, and to subdue under God the creation He has made.
The two key points in this cosmic battle are Man the creature, and God the Son, in his incarnation. At this point, Hebrews cites Psalm 8, a Messianic Psalm. It looks to the certain triumph of the Messiah and of his people. It allows man no place for self pity, but speaks rather of his calling to dominion in the New man and the last Adam, Jesus Christ. According to Psalm 8 and Hebrews as well, man’s triumph in Christ is inevitable. It is predestined by God. The world is not to be under angels, but to be under man. All things are to be placed under subjection to man in Christ. He is our last Adam. And he is to rule over all the works of Gods hand, together with us. Thou hast put all things in subjection under him.
Marvin Vincent commented on this and I quote: “The writers object is to show that the salvation, the new order of things inaugurated by Christ, is in pursuance of the original purpose of creation, to wit that universal dominion was to pertain to man, and not to angels. The great salvation means Lordship of the world to be. This purpose is carried out in Christ, who in becoming man became temporarily subject to the earthly dispensation, of which angels were the administrators. This was in order that he might acquire universal lordship as man. Being now exalted above angels, he does away with the angelic administration, and in the world to come will carry humanity with him to the position of universal Lordship. This thought is developed by means of Psalm 8.”
Since man’s calling is universal lordship in Christ, it is Christ man needs and not angels. To worship angels is to demean himself. The king of all creation is Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of all believers, and Lord over all things. In Hebrews the theme is the finality of the revelation in Jesus the son of God. To turn aside from Jesus Christ to angels is like throwing away gold for copper. Our mediator has total power, and in him we are heirs of all things. Should we forsake wealth for poverty?
The psalmist raised the question in Psalm 8: “What is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man that thou dost visit him?” The answer is given in the Psalm, and Hebrews can be called an expansion of this psalm. “Because thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.” Wherein that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. What the Psalmist says, and what Hebrews says, is this: Christ comes as the new Adam. He destroys the power of sin and death. By his regenerating power, he creates a new humanity. We are now children of the last Adam, members of his new human race. We have a calling which angels do not have, we have a calling to put all things under His, Christ’s feet.
Psalm 8 is used by Paul in 1st Corinthians 15:24-28. In a sense like that in Hebrews, here and elsewhere. In Corinthians we are told that all things will be put under Christ’s feet before the end, and then death itself shall be destroyed, it is coming. This means that the power of sin on earth is replaced by the power of Jesus Christ, and then the fullness of Gods new creation, and eternal kingdom, replaced the fallen world order. This is the purpose of Hebrews. To bring the Church to an awareness and knowledge of its purpose and goal in Christ; it is far, far more than the salvation of our souls, important as that is. The purpose of our salvation is to recall us to the creation mandate, to exercise dominion. We are not saved as Isaac Watts, in one hymn said, for flowery beds of ease. But for God holy purpose, a new creation wherein justice reigns.
It does not have us as its focus, but rather the Kingdom of God and his righteousness or justice. And Jesus Christ is our only mediator with God, not Judaism, nor the Church, nor Angels. To seek anything less is dangerous, and an abandonment of our savior. The goal is the new creation, the glorious world order, but men go apart from Christ to seek it. They go to their religion or their church or angels, and now a days to politics. They’re going to save the world, through legislative acts.
Someone whom I was reading yesterday observed it was strange, the closer they bring us this glorious condition they are working for, the less freedom we have, and the more crime there is in the street. Obviously they are seeking the wrong thing, and even more obviously, as long as any group or any person looks to the wrong mediator as the way to the good and the happy, the trouble free life, as long as they seek it anywhere outside of Jesus Christ they are not creating a paradise on earth, but hell on earth.
Let us pray. Our Father, we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy word. We thank Thee that Jesus Christ is our mediator, our redeemer, and the head of this new humanity of which he has made us members. Make us faithful in serving him, and joyful in the eternal deliverance and joy that is ours, in his name we pray, amen.
Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?
[Audience Member] I’m still not sure I understand in 7 when it says: “Thou madest him a little lower than the angels.” I’m not sure after all we’ve discussed, did that just mean that He’s taken a physical human form on earth, that at that particular time the Triune God in Christ’s form is a little lower than the Angels?
[Rushdoony] What it says about man--- the Psalmist is speaking about man. But it is also speaking of Christ as the head of the new humanity, described in Psalm 8. “Thou madest him a little lower than the Angels, Thou crownest him with glory and honor, and did set him over the works of Thine hands.” We have been created to be over Gods creation. And this is why Psalm 8 is both a psalm about man and a psalm about Christ, because Christ is the head of the humanity which will accomplish this great work. Does that help? Any other questions or comments? Yes.
[Audience Member] I wasn’t aware that there are religions that worship angels?
[Rushdoony] There have been a great many, especially in New Testament times and thereafter, and somewhat earlier. Angels have had an appeal because there was no law given by angels. And this is why Angels are again popular as we saw last week. Because of the current interest in a lawless religion, we see many books that are now printed about angels, and never mention God. We have a new postage stamp which features an angel, which is the best seller of any stamp out for some time I am told. People are interested in Angels, it is a feel safe kind of thing, because angels have no law to judge you. And in an Anti-nomian culture, Angels have a great appeal. Any other questions or comments?
As you can see, both Psalm 8 and Hebrews looks ahead to the triumph of the faith. All things are to be put under Christ’s feet, we are to exercise dominion in all spheres. We are to rejoice in that, and elsewhere in scripture we are told that there will be a long period of victory and triumph when the people of the lord, from pole to pole, govern all things. And then the end shall come when the last enemy, death, is destroyed. And so Hebrews is saying that you are called to this battle, to this goal. And as I said two weeks ago, or three, whenever I dealt with the first verses of this book, it is the most neglected book in the New Testament. And you can see why. People want to be saved and then to relax: “I’ve got it made, I’m going to heaven, so don’t talk about my obligations to me. Isn’t it enough that I come to church and prayer meetings?” well, what Hebrews says is, that there is a job to be done. We look for a city whose builder and maker is God, and the whole earth must be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea.
If there are no further questions, let us conclude with prayer. Our Father we thank thee that Thou hast called us to a task, a glorious task. A task with repercussions throughout all eternity. Make us joyful therein, give us grace to do those things which we ought to do, and to study thy word, every joyful that Thou dost command us. 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.