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The Divinity of Jesus in the Letter to the Hebrews | Richard Bauckham · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine trying to convince a strict 1st century Jewish
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monotheist, someone whose entire worldview rests on an absolute
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unbridgeable gap between the Creator and the Created, that a
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crucified Carpenter from Nazareth belongs on the
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Creator's side of the line. Yeah, that sounds impossible.
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It really does. But one ancient writer pulled
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off the greatest theological heist in history to do just
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that. Welcome to reformed thinking.
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Today we are opening up a rigorous investigation into how
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early Christians understood the divinity of Jesus.
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And we are pulling our insights for this deep dive from a
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brilliant chapter by academic Richard Baucum titled The
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Divinity of Jesus in the Letter to the Hebrews.
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The goal today is to look at how the author of Hebrews used
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highly sophisticated Jewish scriptural analysis along with
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Hellenistic philosophical concepts to prove Jesus shares
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the unique identity of the God of Israel.
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OK, let's unpack this. Sounds good.
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Why should you, the listener, care about this ancient text?
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Well, because understanding this structural blueprint shifts how
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you read the entire New Testament and redefines who you
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understand God to be. What is so fascinating here is
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how the early Christian movement did not simply invent new
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categories for Jesus, right? They didn't create a, you know,
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a secondary tier of divinity or come up with a new
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classification for a semi divine hero.
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Instead, they placed him directly into the most exclusive
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category of the universe. The unique identity of Yahweh.
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Precisely. They took the established,
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incredibly strict boundaries of Jewish monotheism and realized
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Jesus belonged inside those boundaries.
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But before we can understand how Jesus is God, we first have to
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understand how a 1st century Jew defined God.
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Yeah, that is a crucial starting point.
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Because if we bring our modern assumptions, or even later Greek
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philosophical assumptions to the text, we're going to miss the
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argument entirely. I think we need to look at the
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cultural background. These were people whose
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ancestors had literally died rather than compromise their
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monotheism. Yes, and to grasp that we have
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to look back to events like the Maccabean revolt just a couple
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centuries before Christ. Right with Antiochus Epiphanes.
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Yeah, when the Greek king Antiochus Epiphanes tried to
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force the Jewish people to worship Greek gods and sacrifice
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a pig on the altar in Jerusalem, thousands of Jewish people chose
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torture and death rather than yield.
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Wasn't just a theological debate for.
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That no, not at all. Their devotion to the one true
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God was not an abstract theory. It was a matter of blood and
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survival. They drew a massive,
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impenetrable line in the sand between the Creator and
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everything else that had been created.
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So when we talk about defining God in that context, we are not
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talking about Greek philosophy. We often default to Greek
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metaphysical ideas today, right? We ask questions about nature or
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substance. We want to know what God is made
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of in a philosophical sense. But you wish monotheism in the
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Second Temple period approached the question entirely
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differently. They focused on identity.
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That distinction is everything. Greek philosophers like Plato or
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Aristotle were obsessed with the mechanics of being.
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But Jewish thinkers wanted to know who God is, and they
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defined God by outlining his unique, exclusive
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characteristics. They distinguished the God of
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Israel from all other reality by pointing to specific things only
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God can do and specific attributes only God possesses.
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So Baucom lays out the key markers of this unique divine
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identity, right? He does.
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First, God is the sole creator of all things.
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Everything else in existence was created by him.
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Second, God is the sole sovereign ruler over all things.
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All other beings, no matter how high-ranking, are subject to His
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rule. Exactly.
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Third, God alone may and must be worshipped.
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Since worship is the ultimate acknowledgement of God's sole
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deity, giving it to anyone else is idolatry.
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Yeah, that makes sense. And fourth, God alone is fully
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eternal. He is the 1st and the last
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completely self existent from past eternity to future
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eternity. Let's ground this with an
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analogy for you, the listener. Think of it like identifying the
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CEO and founder of a massive multinational corporation.
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Oh I like this. If you walk into the towering
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headquarters in Manhattan and you want to figure out who the
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CEO is, you don't identify them by taking ADNA sample to see if
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they have like CEO substance in their blood.
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Right, that'd be the Greek philosophical approach.
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Yeah, the Jewish approach is looking at their exclusive
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actions and authority. They're the only one who founded
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the company. They are the only one who has
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absolute veto authority over the board of directors, and they are
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the only one whose signature validates the $10 billion
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corporate acquisitions. If you find the person doing
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those specific exclusive actions, you have found the CEO.
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Building on that, the early Christians created what Baucom
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calls a Christological monotheism.
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OK? They built a framework where
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Jesus performs the functions that are completely exclusive to
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the CEO. Yeah, in the New Testament,
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Jesus is the agent of creation, and he is the sovereign ruler of
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the cosmos. Wow.
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Now, if monotheism is going to survive, and these early
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believers were fiercely monotheistic, then Jesus cannot
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be a subordinate employee. He cannot just be a middle
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manager given a temporary promotion.
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Because if he is doing the things only the CEO can do, he
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must be part of the unique identity of the CEO.
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Spot on. He cannot function as God
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without being God. That is a massive paradigm
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shift. It really is, yeah.
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And we see this taking shape at the very dawn of the Christian
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movement. Baca points out that one of the
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earliest ways Christians express this was by using Psalm 110,
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verse one. That is the one that says, the
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Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your
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enemies your footstool. Yes, the early church
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universally applied this to Jesus, but sitting on the cosmic
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throne at the right hand of God is not a delegated task, right?
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God's rule over all things defines who God is.
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When Jesus is seated on that throne, he is placed
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unambiguously on the divine side of the line that separates the
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Sovereign One from all creation. So he is sharing the unshareable
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rule of God Precisely. And while all early Christian
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writers shared this view, the letter to the Hebrews executes a
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highly original variation on this model.
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The author does this by assigning Jesus three specific
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titles or categories of identity, Son, Lord, and High
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Priest. Yes, those 3.
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Now here's a detail from the source that caught my attention.
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Each of these roles requires Jesus to be both truly God and
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truly human. It is a dual requirement.
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And the author of Hebrews establishes the divine side of
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that requirement immediately if we look at the opening lines of
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the letter, A section scholars called the exortium.
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That covers Hebrews 1.2 B through 4, right?
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Correct. We find a carefully constructed
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narrative identity of the Sun. There, the author packs 7
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compact descriptions of the Sun into just a few sentences. 7
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descriptions. Yeah, and almost every single
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one of these descriptions is designed to place Jesus firmly
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inside that unique identity of God we just talked about.
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Let's slow down and look at those descriptions, because the
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density of the theology here is staggering.
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It really is packed. 1st the sun is a pointed heir of all things.
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2nd through the sun God created the world.
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Third, he is the reflection of God's glory and the exact
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imprint of God's very being. 4th He sustains all things by his
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powerful word. Fifth, he makes purification for
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sins. 6th he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on
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high. And 7th, He's become as much
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superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more
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excellent than theirs. Notice how the author uses
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monotheistic language throughout that list.
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Phrases like all things and the world's were specifically used
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in Jewish thought to distinguish God from the rest of reality.
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OK, yeah, God is the one who rules all things, and Jesus is
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the appointed heir of all things.
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God created the universe, and Jesus is the agent through whom
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the world's were created. And Jesus is sustaining all
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things. He is exercising providential
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sovereignty over everything that exists.
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Yes. I want to stop and push back on
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that 7th description though, because this causes a lot of
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confusion. OK, let's hear it.
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The text says having become as much superior to angels as the
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name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
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Now a lot of readers assume the name he inherits is Son.
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Right, that is a common thought. But how can he inherit a name
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that already defines his relationship to the father?
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He is already introduced as the son in the very first sentence.
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Inheriting the title of Son seems entirely redundant.
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That is a widespread assumption, and Baucom addresses this head
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on. The name that is more excellent
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than the angels is not Son. It's not no.
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The name is the Tetragrammaton, the divine name of the God of
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Israel, YHWH. Think about it logically.
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The Son is the one who inherits from his Father.
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What he inherits must be something that belongs to his
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father. Son is uniquely the Son's title.
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He inherits the Father's name, the divine name, precisely
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because he is the eternal Son. That makes so much sense.
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The angels cannot inherit that name because they do not share
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the Father's eternal identity. You have to pause here and
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appreciate what you were seeing in the text.
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As a listener, this shifts everything.
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It really does. When you read the word Lord in
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the New Testament applied to Jesus, you are not just reading
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a title of respect like calling someone Sir.
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No, not at all. You are watching the earliest
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Christians take the sacred, unutterable name of the Creator
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of the universe, name so holy that the High Priest only spoke
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it once a year inside the Holy of Holies, and apply it directly
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to Jesus of Nazareth. They are handing him the name
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that belongs to God alone. And that application, the Divine
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Name, is the absolute proof of his superiority over every other
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being in the cosmos, especially the angels.
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Which brings us to a massive structural element of the first
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two chapters of Hebrews right the constant, almost relentless
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comparison between Jesus and the angels.
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Yes, the text repeatedly compares Jesus to angels, which
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leads us to a crucial question about the layout of the cosmos.
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There is a common academic debate out there.
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Some scholars have argued that Hebrews contains what they call
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an Angel. Christology, right?
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I've seen that the idea is that the author of Hebrews view Jesus
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as just a really high-ranking Angel, maybe an Archangel who
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was given a special promotion. Does the source material support
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that idea at all? Balcombe utterly rejects that
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theory based on a close reading of the text.
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The author of Hebrews is not introducing angels to suggest
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Jesus is like them. Quite the opposite.
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OK, So what is the author doing? We need to define a term here
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ontological status. Ontological status.
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When we say ontological, we're simply talking about the
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fundamental nature of being. What category of existence does
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something belong to in a Jewish cosmological worldview?
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Height indicates ontological status.
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Oh, so status and physical location in the cosmos were
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intimately linked? Yes.
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The Cosmic Throne of God was understood to be placed above
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the heavens, at the absolute summit of reality, far above all
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the ranks of angels. So the angels are not there as
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peers, they are there as a measuring stick.
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That is a great way to put it. Let's introduce another analogy
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to make this crystal clear for you.
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Think of the angels as the sea level of the universe.
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Sea level. They represent the Absolute
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highest tier of the created order.
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If you want to figure out where someone stands in the grand
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scheme of reality, you check their elevation relative to sea
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level. To be seated above the angels
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means you transcend all created reality entirely.
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You have broken through the atmosphere and entered the realm
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of the Creator. You are God.
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But to be temporarily lower than the angels means you have dived
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below the surface. You have descended into the
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crushing pressure of the Marianas Trench, the mortal,
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physical suffering condition of earthly humanity.
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The angels mark out the cosmic territory, and Hebrews uses this
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spatial logic perfectly. How so?
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In chapter 1, Jesus is exalted far above the angels, sharing
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the Father's throne, proving he shares the divine identity.
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But then in chapter 2, the author uses Psalm 8 to show
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Jesus was made lower than the angels for a little while.
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He descended below that cosmic sea level.
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Exactly to share the common identity of earthly humans in
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birth, suffering and death. It is a stunning visual of
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descent and exaltation, and the angels provide the exact
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boundaries for that movement. To prove this absolute
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superiority, the author of Hebrews builds what is called a
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catina, a chain of 7 Old Testament quotes in chapter.
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One yes, the catine. It is a highly meticulous, rapid
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fire sequence of scriptures designed to prove Jesus is
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completely above the angelic sea level.
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This chain is a master class in 1st century theological
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exegesis. And by exegesis we simply mean
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the critical explanation or interpretation of a text, right?
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Pulling the true meaning out of the scripture.
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Yes, the author takes texts of Davidic kingship and links them
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with text describing the cosmic rule of God over all things.
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But the most staggering piece of exegesis in this chain is the
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quotation of Psalm One or Two. OK, Psalm one O.
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Two. This is the 6th quotation in the
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chain found in Hebrews 1 verses 10 through 12.
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When you really look at the mechanics of what he's doing
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with Psalm one O 2, it is mind bending.
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Walk us through how he modifies the text.
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Well, to understand this, we need to know about the
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Septuagint. The Septuagint is the ancient
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Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.
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And it was the primary version of the scriptures used by the
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early Christians. Right now, the original Hebrew
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PS Psalm One O 2, 2 is a prayer of an afflicted person crying
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out to God, praising God's eternal nature in contrast to
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human frailty. But the author of Hebrews takes
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this prayer addressed to YHWH and applies it directly to
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Jesus, and he alters the word order of the Greek text to make
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a massive theological point. What does he change it to?
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He changes it to read literally you in the beginning, Lord.
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Wait, by adding in the beginning, he is throwing the
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reader straight back to Genesis 1.10.
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Yes, and that is intentional, Yeah.
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He is directly placing Jesus into the primordial eternity of
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Genesis 1. That is incredible.
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The text goes on to say you founded the earth, and the
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heavens are the work of your hands.
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They will perish, but you remain.
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You are the same, and your years will never end.
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The author is using these scriptural words to attribute to
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the sun precisely what distinguishes the one God from
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all creation, full eternity. Because all created things,
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including the angels, are transient.
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Yes, they wear out like old clothing, but God alone, and
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here Jesus is explicitly included in that identity, has
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inherently indestructible life. Furthermore, earlier in that
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same chain of quotes, the author quotes Deuteronomy to show that
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all God's angels were of the sun, and then quote someone O 4
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to show that the sun actually created the angels to be his
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servants. So Jesus created the angels, he
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rules the angels, and he receives worship from the
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angels. That completely demolishes any
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idea of an Angel Christology. It does in three key respects,
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creation, sovereignty, and worship.
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The sun relates to the angels just as God does.
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The angels themselves acknowledge His unique divinity
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by falling down and worshiping Him.
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So Jesus status as the eternal Son and the cosmic Lord clearly
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aligns with his divinity. He rules, He creates, he
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receives worship. Jesus is the cosmic CEO ruling
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from the throne. But a ruler doesn't solve the
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problem of human frailty. A ruler judges, a priest
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mediates. Right, which forced the author
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of Hebrews into a theological corner.
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Which brings us to the third major category, high priest.
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If a high priest job is to represent frail humans, to offer
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sacrifices for human sin, why does the high priest need to be
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God? Earthly high priesthood
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certainly does not belong to the unique identity of God.
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This is where Hebrews makes its most original contribution to
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Christian theology. You are spot on.
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Ruling all things from the throne of God means you are God.
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Yeah, but being a high priest on earth or in heaven does not
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inherently carry that implication.
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An earthly high priest is just a human representing other humans.
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Right, a regular guy. So why did the ultimate final
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high priest need to be divine? To answer that, the author of
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Hebrews brings in a bizarre, incredibly obscure figure from
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the Book of Genesis to make a brilliant point.
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And that figure is Melchizedek. Let's recall his story for a
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second. He shows up in Genesis 14.
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Genesis 14, Yeah. Abraham has just won a major
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battle and suddenly this guy Melchizedek, the king of Salem
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and priest of God Most High, walks out to meet him.
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He shares some bread and wine, blesses Abraham, receives a
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tithe of the spoils and then vanishes from the narrative.
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He is never mentioned again in the historical books.
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Just go. But then Psalm 110 verse 4 says
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to the Messiah, you are a priest forever after the order of
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Melchizedek, and the author Hebrews latches on to this.
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He really does. But here is the part that trips
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people up. In Hebrews 7.3, the author
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describes Melchizedek like this. Without mother, without father,
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without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor
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end of life. Are we supposed to believe this
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historical guy in Genesis just spawned out of thin air?
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Was he an Angel? If we connect this to the bigger
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picture of the ancient world, the puzzle pieces fall into
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place perfectly. OK, what's the missing piece?
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Bochum relies on the findings of a scholar named Jerome Nere, who
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demonstrated that this specific phrasing in Hebrew 7 is actually
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Hellenistic true deity language. Hellenistic true deity language.
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Unpack that for us. Well, in the ancient Greek
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philosophical world, especially in intellectual hubs like
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Alexandria, writers had specific vocabulary they used to define
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what it meant to be a true deity.
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OK, they needed this vocabulary to distinguish the one eternal
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God from all the lesser semi divine heroes or Roman emperors
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who demanded to be treated as gods after they died.
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A true deity in the fullest philosophical sense is eternal.
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They have no origin in the past and no end in the future.
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So Greek philosophers used words with what we call alpha
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primitives. Alpha primitive.
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Yeah, words starting with an A to denote a negative, like how
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typical becomes atypical in English, right?
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They use words like apatur, meaning without father, emoter
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meaning without mother. And again, it was meaning
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unoriginated. This vocabulary explicitly
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distinguished a true eternal God from lesser beings.
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OK, but Hebrews is a Jewish text.
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Why is a Jewish author borrowing Greek philosophical language to
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describe a guy from the book of Genesis?
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Because Jewish writers living in the Hellenistic world realize
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this Greek vocabulary perfectly matched their own Jewish
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understanding of the eternal nature of Yahweh.
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That makes sense. Writers like the Jewish
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historian Josephus, the authors of the sibling oracles, and the
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writer of the Apocalypse of Abraham took this Greek
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philosophical language and re functioned it for monotheism.
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They took terms the Greeks used to define a true deity and use
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them to define the one and only true deity.
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I see. So how does that apply to
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Melchizedek in Genesis 14? The author of Hebrews is doing
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something incredibly clever here.
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He is using a common Jewish technique, an argument from
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silence. Because Genesis doesn't mention
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his parents. Exactly because Melchizedek
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simply appears in the text of Genesis without any mention of
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his parents, his birth, or his death, the author uses that
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silence to make a theological point.
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The textual Melchizedek has no recorded father, mother, or
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genealogy. He has no recorded beginning of
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days or end of life. The author is not saying the
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historical man was an immortal alien.
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He is saying the way Melchizedek is presented in Scripture
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perfectly resembles the Hellenistic description of a
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true eternal deity. So he is treating the silence of
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Genesis as an intentional prophetic setup.
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Yes, and he applies this language to Jesus to prove a
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massive point about his priesthood.
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In Hebrew 7.16 the author says Jesus became a priest not
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through a legal requirement concerning physical descent, but
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through the power of an indestructible life.
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He uses another Greek alpha primitive word there, a
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catalutos. Jesus qualifies for his never
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ending priesthood because he possesses the fully eternal,
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indestructible life of God. He could be a priest forever
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'cause he inherently exists from eternity to eternity.
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You have to step back and look at the sheer intellectual
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horsepower of what is happening here.
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It is brilliant. You are watching a 1st century
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writer masterfully blend an argument from scriptural
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silence. The fact that Genesis doesn't
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mention Melchizedek's parents with highly sophisticated Greek
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philosophy to prove Jesus's priesthood is based on his
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indestructible eternal divinity. It is a stunning piece of
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theological architecture. And this brings us to a
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beautiful paradox in the text. As a divine high priest, Jesus
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has no father or mother or genealogy.
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He is eternal. But as a human high priest,
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which Chapter 2 makes clear he must be, he shares the same
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origin and the same flesh and blood mortal nature as his
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fellow humans. The author is holding these two
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realities together, full divinity and full humanity
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required for this one unique office.
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Having established the eternal nature of this high priest, we
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now have to look at what this high priest actually does in the
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heavenly sanctuary, because the location of his priesthood is
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just as vital as the nature of it.
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To grasp this, we have to look at the Jewish concept of the
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heavenly throne room. In ancient Jewish thought, the
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throne room of God was not just a political command center.
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What else was it? It was both the political center
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of the universe, where God rules, and the ultimate cultic
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sanctuary where God is worshipped.
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And when we use the word cultic here, we are not talking about a
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modern cult with brainwashing. Oh no, not at all.
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In historical terms, cultic simply refers to the formal
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system of religious worship, rituals and sacrifices.
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Right, the earthly Tabernacle with the Ark of the Covenant was
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just a small all scale copy of this heavenly reality.
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So when the author of Hebrews talks about Jesus entering
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heaven, he is entering the true Holy of Holies.
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Let's contrast this with the Levitical High priest on Earth.
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Under the Old Covenant, the High priest had a very specific,
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terrifying job on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur.
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The sensory experience of that day was intense.
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Once a year, the earthly High Priest would take the blood of
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the sacrifice and passed through the thick heavy veil into the
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Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood before the Ark of the
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Covenant to make atonement for the sins of the people.
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It was an atmosphere of supreme reverence and fear.
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Unbelievable fear. The priest wore robes with bells
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on the hem so people could hear him moving inside.
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Terrified he might be struck down in the presence of God's
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holiness, he would enter, perform the strict ritual, and
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then leave immediately. And there is one thing the
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earthly High Priest never ever did inside the Holy of Holies.
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He never sat down. Never.
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There were no chairs in the Tabernacle.
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None. The priest never sat down for
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two reasons. First, the work was never
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finished. The sacrifices had to be offered
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year after year, day after day, because the blood of bulls and
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goats could not permanently take away sins.
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It was an endless cycle of temporary covering, right?
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And 2nd, no human being could ever dare to sit in the presence
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of God, let alone sit on God's throne.
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That would be an act of supreme arrogance and blasphemy.
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Which brings us to the theological shockwave of Hebrews
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chapter 10, verse 12. Oh yeah, the text says.
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But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for
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sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
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He didn't just linger in the sanctuary.
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He didn't just stand there to intercede.
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He sat down. This raises an important
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question. What does sitting signify in
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this context? Well, as we discussed earlier,
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sitting on the Cosmic Throne has only one meaning.
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It signifies absolute sovereignty.
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Exactly. It means participating in the
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unique rule of God over the world.
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By sitting down as High Priest, Jesus makes a permanent,
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unchangeable declaration. His once for all sacrifice is
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complete. The work is finished.
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So he fuses the two concepts together.
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He fuses them entirely. His atoning sacrifice is now
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permanently part of the divine rule over the universe.
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His high priesthood belongs to the unique identity of God just
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as much as his kingship does. Because he sits on the throne as
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a priest who has suffered and died for humanity.
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The Cosmic Throne of Absolute Authority is now permanently
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transformed into the Throne of Grace.
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The throne of grace. It is a place where frail,
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failing humans can approach with boldness to find mercy, because
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the one ruling the universe is the same one who bled for them.
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The fusion of eternal rule and eternal priesthood brings up
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massive questions about time itself, because if he is
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reigning forever based on a sacrifice made in time, how do
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those temporal events relate to his eternal nature?
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Yeah, time gets tricky here. This leads us to one final
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textual puzzle that Baquem unpacks, and it revolves around
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the concept of time. The author of Hebrews frequently
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deals with the intersection of eternity and human time, and
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it's caused confusion for readers both ancient and modern.
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Let's look at a famous verse quoted twice in Hebrews in
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chapter 1 and chapter 5. It is a quote from Psalm 2,
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verse 7. You are my son today.
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I have begotten you. Now on a surface, reading the
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word today implies a starting point.
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It implies a specific moment on a calendar.
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Does this mean there was a time when Jesus was not the Son?
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Did He become the Son at a certain today in history, like
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at his baptism or his resurrection?
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That is a highly debated created question, but Balcomb clarifies
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this beautifully by returning to the Hellenistic God language we
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discussed earlier regarding Melchizedek.
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OK, let's go back to that. Remember the vocabulary used to
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describe true deity unoriginated without beginning.
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In that philosophical parlance, true deity was also described as
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self originated or unbegotten. Wait, self originated?
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Sounds like it still has an origin, just that the deity
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caused it themselves. It sounds like that to modern
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ears, yeah, but in ancient philosophy the idea of a deity
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creating itself in time was considered incoherent.
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That is not what the terminology meant.
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So what did it mean? To be self originating was just
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another way of saying you were fully eternal.
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You owe your existence to no one else.
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Jewish writers adopted this language too.
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Oh. Right, the Sibilian oracles
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described the one eternal God as self produced and unbegotten.
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The Apocalypse of Abraham calls God self originated.
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So how does that help us understand?
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Today I have begotten you. Familiarity with this language
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allowed the author of Hebrews to read Psalm 2.7 not as declaring
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A temporal origin for Christ's sonship, but as a statement of
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His eternal nature. So the Today isn't a literal
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day. The Today in this context does
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not represent a temporal Tuesday or Wednesday in human history.
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It represents the eternal today of the divine eternity.
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Eternal today. Sonship is the eternal truth of
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His very being. He is perpetually, eternally
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begotten of the Father. It is not a status granted at a
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specific moment in time. It is who He's always been.
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And that concept of unchanging eternal identity is cemented at
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the very end of the letter. In Hebrews 13.8, the author
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writes one of the most famous verses in the New Testament.
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Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
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Now people often quote that is just a nice slogan about
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reliability, my ability like Jesus is dependable guy.
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He won't change his mind on you. But the source material shows it
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is doing something much heavier than that.
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It is doing something significantly heavier.
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The phrase yesterday, today and forever is not just poetic
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phrasing. It is a specific threefold
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formula used in ancient literature to describe full
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divine eternity. Really.
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Greek hymns used it to describe Zeus.
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Josephus used it to describe the God of Israel as the beginning,
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middle and end of all things. But it goes even deeper than
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just a general description of eternity, right?
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Yes, and this is where the historical context shines.
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When this threefold formula was used in a Jewish monotheistic
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context, it was actually understood as a translation or
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an interpretation of the divine name YHWH.
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We see this in the Targums. Let's define the targums for a
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second. The Targums were the spoken
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Aramaic paraphrases and explanations of the Hebrew Bible
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that rabbis use in the synagogues.
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Because Hebrew was becoming a liturgical language and the
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common people spoke Aramaic. Exactly.
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In these targums, the rabbis would expand on the text, and
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they often interpreted the name of God to mean the one who was
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and is and will be. And we also see in the Book of
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Revelation. Yes, where God is called the one
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who is, and who was and who is to come.
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By applying this exact threefold formula to Jesus in Hebrews
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13.8, the author is once again conferring the divine name upon
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him. Here's where it gets really
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interesting. If you look closely at Hebrews
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13.8, it says Jesus Christ the same.
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That specific phrase the same perfectly mirrors the quote from
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Psalm one O 2 that the author used way back in chapter 1 in
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Hebrews 1.12. Quoting the Psalm, he says of
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the Son, You are the same, and your years will never end.
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That is the structural brilliance of the letter.
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It is an inclusio bookends that wrap the entire text.
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Work ends from chapter 1 to chapter 13.
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The author asserts that Jesus retains his divine identity
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throughout all eternity. He's not just reliable in his
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promises, His very ontological identity is unchanging.
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He remains himself eternally. Let's.
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Pull all of this together because we have covered a
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massive amount of theological ground.
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We really have. What we have seen today is that
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the author of Hebrews didn't just toss a few complimentary
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titles at Jesus to make him look good.
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They didn't just call him a great teacher or a noble martyr.
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Far from it. Using surgical, sophisticated
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exegesis of the Hebrew Scriptures combined with the
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precise philosophical language of their day, the author placed
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the crucified and risen Jesus of Nazareth squarely into the
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unique eternal identity of the Creator of the universe.
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They proved that as the Son, He shares the eternal nature of the
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Father, as the Lord He shares the absolute sovereignty and
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creative authority of Yahweh. And as the Melchizedekian High
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Priest, He takes his human experience of suffering and
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permanently fuses it with the divine rule, sitting down on the
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throne of the cosmos to offer grace to humanity.
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It is an incredibly tight, rigorously argued blueprint, and
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I want to leave you with a final thought to Mull over as you go
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about your day. Next time you open up the Old
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Testament, whether you're reading the Psalms or the
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prophets in the history of Israel, look closely at the
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references to the Lord, to the Creator, the eternal King.
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Ask yourself how the earliest Christians using this framework
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we just discussed read those ancient passages.
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They didn't just read them as descriptions of a distant,
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abstract God, they read them as direct, intimate portraits of
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the eternal Christ. The one who is waiting to step
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into human history. Right lower than the angels for
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a time, to bring us back to the throne of grace.
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That perspective entirely changes how you approach the
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text. It certainly does.
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Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into the letter to the
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Hebrews. We will catch you next time on
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Reformed Thinking.