Hebrews 1:1-14

DOCTRINAL HINTS.

In this Epistle, as in the Gospel of John, the doctrine is based on the Divine nature of Christ, and on His incarnation. As in the Gospel (John 1:1-18) it is said that the Word was God and became flesh, and this double truth pervades the book, so in the Hebrews the Deity and the humanity of the Son form the foundation of the entire treatise, and give strength and consistency to its teaching. The double truth is not worked as a pattern on the surface, it forms part of the texture.

In this last dispensation God is said to speak to us in His Son. The Son is the medium of the revelation. As revealer He has as His associates the apostles. But this office of Christ is quite subordinate. His true character is that He is Himself the revelation. To know God and His Son Jesus Christ is eternal life. God in Christ, Christ as God, redeeming, renewing, sanctifying, is the saving doctrine of the Gospel.

There is a double Trinity in Scripture the Trinity of the Old Testament: the Trinity of the eternity that precedes the incarnation, wherein Christ shares the glory He had with the Father, wherein He made the worlds; the Trinity of the New Testament, wherein He, as incarnate Son of God, becomes Messianic King, and regains with accumulated honours His original glory the second founded on the first, revealing it in clearer colours, with greater tenderness, and in closer relation to ourselves; again, perhaps, to become subordinate to the first, when God Himself in His essential nature shall be all in all (chaps. 1 and 2.).

PRACTICAL HINTS.

Hebrews 1:1. God is the chief teacher of the Church, and what He taught of old has still its authority and its lessons even under the Gospel (Hebrews 1:5; Hebrews 1:8, etc.).

Hebrews 1:2. The author of the Old Testament is also the author of the New. It is God who gives Christ the supremacy. To put Moses or some ‘son of David' above Christ is to disobey God. By whom: Christ, then, is a distinct person from the Father, and yet He is Creator of all things.

Hebrews 1:3. As the sun is manifested only by its effulgence, so the Father is revealed to us by Him who is Light of Light, God of God. He who upholds all things is our Redeemer and sacrifice. The atonement of sin is effected not by our doings or sufferings, but by Christ, and was completed by Him before He ascended....

Hebrews 1:4. Names are qualities and character when God gives them.... To give angels the worship that is due to Christ is to frustrate the Divine purpose, and to give to the servant what belongs only to the Son or the Father.

Hebrews 1:5. In the first age of the Church, Scripture determined what was truth, and that is its province still.

Hebrews 2:2-3. Not to believe the Gospel is a greater sin than to break the law.... When men are warned or exhorted, the first person is more impressive than the second, ‘How shall we escape?'

Hebrews 2:4. The rejection of the Gospel is rejection of the doctrine which Christ and His apostles preached. Post-apostolic doctrine has no Divine authority.... The doctrine is Divine which miracles confirm; the miracles are false when the doctrine they support is not Divine.

Hebrews 2:6-7. The Gospel, which is sometimes said to libel human nature, so darkly does it paint our character, gives man highest dignities, and raises him to the greatest blessedness.

Hebrews 2:9. Faith is insight, and sees much that to the unbelieving remains unseen.

Hebrews 2:11. The poorest, feeblest Christian who is sanctified and believes is recognised by Christ as a ‘brother.'

Hebrews 2:13. Christ Himself is a believer, one with us in the covenant of grace. He lived a life of faith even as we.

Hebrews 2:15. There is a natural fear of death in man not always felt, but easily wakened. Christ's death delivers man from the danger of death, and from the fear of it. None but the true Christian is really free.

HOMILETIC HINTS.

Hebrews 1:1-2. Revelation progressive and complete. (Trench, Titcomb). The possibility and necessity, the certainty, the characters, the methods, the perfections of Divine revelation (B. W. Williams). Divine revelation variously communicated (Dr. Ryland). The personal ministry of Christ a revelation of God (Chandler). The Gospel preached under the Old Testament (Mather).

Hebrews 1:1-4. How the New Testament fulfils the Old (Maurice).

Hebrews 1:1-12. The Son, the Creator and Ruler of the worlds (Bishop Hobart).

Hebrews 1:3. Providence (Dr. Collinges). Christ's sufferings the purging of sin (Is. Ambrose). The Feast of the Ascension.

Hebrews 1:5-6. Messiah the Son of God. Messiah worshipped by angels (John Newton). The adoration of Christ vindicated from the charge of idolatry (Pye Smith). The similarity and contrasts of the first and second advents (Auriol).

Hebrews 1:8. Christ's sceptre on earth a sceptre of uprightness and a source of gladness (J. H. Stewart).

Hebrews 1:13-14. The nature and ministry of holy angels (H. Wilkinson, W. H. Mill). Michaelmas (Bishop Bull, Tillotson, Conybeare, Wesley, R. Hall).

Hebrews 2:1. The great danger of carelessness in religion (Stillingfleet, Chalmers, Guthrie).

Hebrews 2:3. The great salvation (Keach, Conant, J. Superville, S. Walker, E. Cooper, Melville, etc.).

Hebrews 2:4. Miraculous evidence as proof of the truth of the Gospel (Collyer, Maltby, Conybeare, etc.).

Hebrews 2:5-9. The ‘world to come' subject to Christ (M'Neile). The just prerogative of human nature (Dr. Snape).

Hebrews 2:8. Missions (R. Wilberforce). Succour in Christ for the tempted (H. Alford).

Hebrews 2:9-10. The reasons and end of the sufferings of Christ. Sufferings necessary to perfection (Jones of Nayland). Good Friday (S. Walker, Jay). Christ (rather God) preparing His people for glory (Blunt). Christ made perfect through suffering (Sheppard and Vaughan).

Hebrews 2:11. The mystery of godliness (Newman). The condescension of Christ (Balmer).

Hebrews 2:14. The incarnation and its design (Dr. Peddie, Simeon).

Hebrews 2:14-15. The fear of death (Saurin, Three Sermons), and deliverance from it (Usher, Bishop Hall, Dr. Bates, P. Norris, Dr. M'Crie).

Hebrews 2:16. Fallen man redeemed (South, Berriman). Discriminating mercy (Hyatt).

Hebrews 2:16-18. The merciful High Priest (M'Cheyne).

Hebrews 2:17. The incarnation of Christ and its purpose. The reconciliation of sinners by the death of Christ (Winchester).

Hebrews 2:18. Christ's temptations (Girdlestone). Christ's power to succour the tempted (Simeon).