God, who at sundry times
and in diverse 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
Himself purged our sins, sat down
on the right hand of the Majesty
on high
Hebrews 1:1-3
Yesterday I was unable to write my blog as I had to be out of time to see the doctor about surgery which fortunately I do not need at this time. Long trip, much time to think and to meditate upon God, Jesus Christ, and about faith. Sunday my good friend past away and before she fell into a coma and to receive only comfort care until death, I was able to speak to her about our faith in God and in His promises. Today I begin to continue to write according to the books of the Bible and about faith as this has been the thrust of previous blogs. Hebrews is a book much about faith and it will serve us to read this carefully and grow in our faith. So I begin this study on the book of Hebrews.
Who wrote Hebrews, a question that has agitated various questions and answers. Another question is why should this book be placed into the canon of the Bible? The internal evidence of this letter gives strong evidence that it is an apostolic epistle, not a discourse or some dissertation. This letter was written to Hebrew Christians in Palestine and at this time Christians were undergoing persecution in various areas of the Roman Empire. Hebrews was originally written in Greek the language used commonly by people and has testimony from the early Church fathers. Was it written by Paul as some would say? Well, we have no name as to who wrote this letter. Those who say it was Paul state that the name was not given to be Paul due to prejudices against him by some Hebrew Christians. The composition of Hebrews is highly wrought and the language more finished than Paul's other letters, although there is some warrant that Paul wrote this letter due it the letter bearing some of the peculiar and distinctive feature of Paul's other letters. Also the Hebrews shows that the writer was very familiar with the Mosaic system, the treatment of subject by the writer, the same fullness of thought, the devotional spirit of the letter. All this may point to Paul as the writer but we must not get sidetracked into this rabbit trail to find out who the writer was, rather we must look into this book and see whether or not it can be considered inspired by God for us and all Christians. We must, if we consider this inspired by God to see what God has revealed so that we can deepen our relationship to Him and to Jesus Christ, to grow our faith.
God has spoken throughout history to men who revealed by this inspiration of God what God would have know about Him and His purpose and promises, the same is true of the book of Hebrews for God is revealing to us what He desires for us to known and to execute in our daily living, our our faith. Notice this, God has spoken in "theses last days," as all Christians throughout all history have been in the last days and looking for the coming of Jesus Christ. Yes, in time, we are in the last days, for God has promised to send to us Jesus Christ and to end this world and make a new world where there is no sin. Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, being found in the likeness of man, was appointed to be the Savior and by this salvation to appoint us to be heirs. Jesus Christ is not only the heir of all things it was by God's Wisdom that the world was made and is the manifestation of God, His brightness, His glory, and is the exact expression of His person, and by Jesus Christ all things are upheld by the power of His word and sits down as the right hand of the Father now that His work on earth is finished, the satisfaction of the Justice of God, and makes eternal intercession for all of God's children. The Greek word for exact expression is the where we get our English word, character, and character is the exact expression according to something or someone else. Exact, not similar, exact, for Jesus Christ is God, the Second Person of the Trinity, and as the Wisdom of God, the Only Begotten Son of God, we can know that our faith is built upon truth, and God has revealed this truth in all that has been inspired to be written.
Our Christian faith, Authentic Christian Faith is not some blind faith, some hope that it is true, for we are not agnostics, we are not one who wavers, we are not tossed around by the whims of this world. As some in the early Church did waver, and some taught heresy, false teachings, we have those in our present age, but by taking time to study His word we can come Authentic Christian Faith. We need not to worry if we can know, we can, we have the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. That is, if we allow Him to lead us. That is our responsibility. Will you take charge of that responsibility?
The wise in hearth shall be
called prudent; and the
sweetness of the lips increaseth
learning. Understanding is a
wellspring of life unto him that
hath it: but the instruction
of fools is folly. The heart of the
wise teacheth his mouth, and
addeth learning to his lips.
Proverbs 16:21-23
Faith comes by hearing the word of God
Richard L. Crumb
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