Deeper Waters

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. I again ask for your continued prayers in the areas I’ve mentioned as I work on overcoming fears and learning to be more loving and be the man that I ought to be. There’s a lot I don’t post about here, but God knows the needs. Anyway, we are now going to continue through our Trinitarian Commentary and tonight look at the eighth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. Tonight, we’ll be in chapter 8 and viewing verses 1-6:

¹The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,²and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.³Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. ⁴If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. ⁵They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” ⁶But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

In our last blog, we spoke of the nature of the high priest that Jesus is as the true Melchizedek priest. While Melchizedek was a type of the Christ who was to come, in reality, we do have the real deal. To go with the idea of Melchizedek is to go with a type over the actuality.

Our writer reminds us of what Jesus did in the first chapter of his epistles. When Jesus was done, he sat down at the right hand of the throne of Majesty. Other high priests could do no such thing. They were always working. Jesus sat down because his work was done.

Jesus is not only a superior priest, but he serves in a superior sanctuary. Moses was told to make everything according to the model. The earthly sanctuary was to be a mirror of the heavenly one. While I am not saying I believe there is a literal sanctuary in Heaven, I believe there is a model of some sorts.

The writer wants us to know that the covenant is also superior. Now I haven’t quoted that passage, but it’s the longest quotation of the OT in the NT. In this passage, the writer points out that the old covenant was getting ready to disappear and Jesus is the bringer of the new covenant.  The writer wants the readers to know about the superiority of Christ in all areas. He is bringing a superior covenant into a superior sanctuary because he is superior to all other mediators. He is not just a priest, but he is the very holy one himself. The only one who could truly make intercession for us is YHWH himself, and this he did in Christ, who bears the nature of YHWH.

We shall continue our study of Hebrews tomorrow.

 

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. I ask for your continued prayers for me. I’m still seeking truth on an important matter and it’s being a personal struggle for me as well. Still, truth is worth seeking in all cases and I appreciate your prayers as well as the prayer that God will work in me that I will be the man I need to be. Tonight, we’re continuing our Trinitarian Commentary in the book of Hebrews. We’ll be in chapter 7 and looking at verses 23-28.

²³Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; ²⁴but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. ²⁵Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

²⁶Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. ²⁷Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. ²⁸For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

A large difference between the priesthood of Jesus and that of the other high priests. The others all died, and so a new priest would have to come and make new offerings to keep interceding for the people. Jesus, however, will never die again and can always be making intercession for the people.

Notice the description given of Jesus however and compare this to the Mormon claim with their elders who say they have the Melchizedek priesthood. First, how many Mormons can make the claim of holiness, particularly with their soteriology?

Contrast this to Jesus who asked his opponents if they could convict him of sin. Keep in mind also the Levitical statements that show up numerous times of “Be holy because I am holy.” Remember the angels worshipping YHWH in Isaiah 6 and their constant cry is that YHWH is holy.

Blameless. Can this be said of them? Yet it is said of Christ. He is without fault in all that he does. An object could be holy, but Jesus is not just an object. He is a person who lived a perfect life. He went through the human experience and came out spotless.

Pure. He was not contaminated by the world around him. He lived that life without receiving stain from them. In fact, the way he lived, he made that which was unclean to be clean, such as the story of the lady with the bleeding condition who touched him.

Set apart from sinners. Jesus cannot be included in the category of the sinful. He never has been. He has lived that life and therefore now lives a life where he is no longer walking here on Earth in the very presence of sin.

And finally, exalted above the heavens. Which Mormon missionary will claim this for himself? Yet this is claimed for Jesus as our Melchizedek priest. What can this mean about him but anything less than his status as deity? He has gone beyond the Heavens. He is exalted above them, for he is greater than them. He has the nature of YHWH himself.

Because of this, Jesus is the high priest who is able to meet our needs and he has been made perfect forever. As we said earlier, this is about vindication. It is not about a time when Jesus was not perfect, but about his righteousness revealing his perfection.

We shall continue on through this book tomorrow.

 

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters as we continue our Trinitarian Commentary in the book of Hebrews. Before doing that however, I of course wish to thank everyone who is continuing to pray for me. It is an ongoing quest for truth and finding out, as I go along, that there’s more than just right arguments that really matter and I believe this experience is being used to help shape me into the man God desires me to be. Tonight, however, to get to the text, we will be looking at the first three verses of Hebrews 7:

¹This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, ²and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” ³Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.

We’ve been bouncing around the idea of how Melchizedek is a type of Christ and tonight, we’re going to really look into that. In the historical narrative, Melchizedek is a strange figure who shows up in Genesis 14 after Abraham defeats some evil kings to free his nephew Lot. Melchizedek comes to Abraham as a priest of God Most High.

Abraham gives Melchizedek a tithe, indicating that Melchizedek is greater than Abraham was. Also, Melchizedek was the one who was bestowing the blessing on Abraham, once again indicating that Abraham was the lesser as the lesser is always blessed by the greater.

Melchizedek was also the king over Salem and Salem means peace. His name also means he is a king of righteousness. Thus, Melchizedek is both a king of peace (Or maybe we could say a Prince) and he is a king of righteousness. In both of these ways, he is like Christ.

Now it’s important to keep this in mind. Christ is not like Melchizedek. Melchizedek is like Christ. Christ is the prototype. Melchizedek is the one meant to point us to Christ. In what ways then is Melchizedek like Christ the savior?

First, he shows up in the narrative and there’s no record of his ancestry. Who are his parents? We do not know, something very rare in a culture where you were identified by your parents and whose family you were. However, we do not see this for Melchizedek.

In the same way, Jesus in his nature does not have mother and father in the biological sense. He has always been. He is begotten of the Father, yes, but again, it is not in a biological sense. In essence, his existence is not explained through natural means.

As for genealogy, Melchizedek has none. Jesus also doesn’t in his deity.He has always been meaning you cannot say that there was a line of deities through which Jesus came, as you could in say a system such as the Mormon system where God was once a man and became God.

Instead, Melchizedek is said to be without beginning of days or end of life. He is a priest forever. The same is said of Jesus. Jesus did not have beginning of days nor does he have end of life. Once again, keep in mind that Melchizedek is like the Son of God. The writer wants that to be shown for Jesus is greater than Melchizedek and is a greater mediator.

We shall continue our look in Hebrews tomorrow.

 

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. Again, I’d like to ask for your continued prayers in a certain area. There is a lot of work going on and it involves a search for truth on a controversial topic. I do long for your prayers and hope that the truth will be reached so all parties involved can be at peace and walking in the way of righteousness. For now, let’s return to our Trinitarian commentary where we’re in the book of Hebrews. We’ll be looking at verses 7-10 tonight.

⁷During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. ⁸Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered ⁹and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him ¹⁰and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

At this point, the writer moves to the earthly sojourn of Christ and the suffering that he had. Let this be a note to many in the Word of Faith camp. The perfect Son of God when he was here on Earth suffered. His faithfulness is never called into question either.

Note that he was heard because of his submission. Jesus willfully submitted himself to the Father. When Jesus came, he did live a life of obedience to the commands of God like everyone else. He lived that obedient life for us that we could not live so we could be made righteous before God. For his obedience, God did not allow him to stay captive to death but granted him the resurrection from the dead. He offered himself up to God the Father and the Father was pleased with the offering and raised him up again.

Jesus learned obedience however? This should not be a shock to us as Luke 2:52 tells us that Jesus grew in wisdom in knowledge as a human. He did progress in his knowledge and underwent as a human for the first time what it meant to live an obedient life to the Father.

However, we are also told that he was made perfect. What does that mean? It does not mean that he was not perfect before. However, what was said of him could not be said of any other high priest. No other high priest was said to have been made perfect. Only Jesus reached perfection to the point that his work was done, which is what happened in Hebrews 1 when he sat down at the right hand of God.

Rather, Jesus was vindicated as being perfect. His perfection was revealed in that he lived a sinless life and became the righteous sacrifice. It is the same as the idea in Acts 2:36 of Jesus being made Lord and Christ. The idea is of vindication and not of a perfection being reached that was not there before.

Because of this perfection, we can be sure of our salvation. Our salvation is not rooted in our work, but rather in the work of Christ. It is because he was righteous that he was designated to be a high priest beyond the Aaronic priesthood, but rather one in the priesthood of Melchizedek.

We shall continue tomorrow.

 

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. I’d like to ask for your continued prayers, especially wisdom in a certain area that the right decisions will be made in the search for truth. I am looking at a controversial topic and I want to make sure I make the right decision. For now however, let’s continue our Trinitarian commentary. We’re going to be looking at Hebrews 5:1-6.

 ¹Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. ²He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. ³This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people.

 ⁴No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was. ⁵So Christ also did not take upon himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to him,
   “You are my Son;
      today I have become your Father.” ⁶And he says in another place,
   “You are a priest forever,
      in the order of Melchizedek.”

The writer is continuing the point about the high priest that he introduced in his last section. The high priest is appointed from among men and represents them in matters relating to God. The high priest is able to be gentle with them and help those who are going astray. He is not ignorant. He himself has the same struggles that they have. However, he must offer up a sacrifice for his own sins as well as the sins of the people.

Does this mean Jesus isn’t able to empathize with us however since he doesn’t have to offer sins? Not at all. Jesus knows the temptation even if he doesn’t have the experience of giving in to the temptation. There will be more on this point as we go through this chapter.

The main point that is brought about by the writer however is that no one takes this honor upon themselves. The high priest is rather called by God to that position. This was the way that it began back in the book of Exodus with the Aaronic priesthood through the tribe of Levi. (And in saying that, let me be clear I do not mean different kinds of priesthood in the way the Mormons do.)

Christ didn’t take that honor upon himself either. He was called by God. The Son submitted to the will of the Father to come to the people and live among them. In doing so, he was chosen by God to be the high priest and thus it follows that the time came when he was vindicated as the Son of God.

He was also given a greater priesthood in that he is a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. We’ll be looking more at this figure in particular in chapter 7, but already, we have the last of the great mediators being brought up for the Hebrews writer to deal with.

Our point is that Jesus is chosen as the high priest. Now there’s nothing specifically involving him being deity in that, but we will see as we go through the book that this is a vital role for Jesus to play in relation to who he is. This is simply laying the groundwork.

We shall continue tomorrow.

 

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. I’ve just had a great evening with an excellent Christian apologist who I shall leave unnamed, but a lot of what he said really resonated with my soul. I appreciate all that he’s done for apologetics and for myself. I do still ask for your continued prayers. Moving on, we are going to skip to the fourth chapter of Hebrews tonight and discuss what it means for Jesus to be our great high priest. We’ll be looking at Hebrew 4:14-16.

¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. ¹⁶Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

This is the first reference to the high priest, which happens to be the next mediator in the line of Alexandrian thought at the time. Jesus is said to be this high priest. The major functions of the priestly ministry of Jesus will be discussed as we go further through the epistle so we shall save them for when we get to them.

Jesus is the one who has gone through the Heavens. For those who are wondering if Jesus is still flying through the cosmos after his ascension, no. Yes, for any who are wondering, I have actually seen a number of skeptics use this line and ask if Jesus is traveling at supersonic speed or something. Jesus’s work is done.

This high priest is not just anyone. This high priest is the Son of God. He is also referred to by the name of Jesus, so that the writer wants us to be sure who we are talking about. As we will see later, he was not just chosen by random, but he was rather appointed by God. The new high priest that mediates for us before God is the very Son of God.

Interestingly, this high priest is not aloof from the people. He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses. The writer tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way but was without sin. As we have said earlier, this does not mean that Jesus was tempted with every single sin known to man. It means Jesus was tempted in every kind of way one can be tempted to each kind of sin.

Yet Jesus was without sin. However, because he was tempted, he understands what it means to be tempted and he is able to give us grace. He knows what it means to resist temptation. If we fail, he knows what it means to forgive. If we are struggling, he is able to give us the grace we need so that we can go on and avoid the sin. He can do this because he is the perfect and righteous Son of God.

Or rather, he has the nature of God himself.

 

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters. I thank everyone again for their prayers and I ask that you keep them up please. Things seem to be on an emotional roller coaster here. I don’t want to give too many details, but I’m just waiting for things to get back to a joyous way I remember. Anyhow, let’s get back to the text. Tonight, we’re going to start Hebrews 3. We’re going to be looking at verses 1-6.

¹Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. ²He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. ³Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. ⁴For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.⁵Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. ⁶But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

I said at the beginning that in the church the writer of the Hebrews was addressing, they had a system of mediators set up who interceded for them with God. Angels were one such group of mediators. Another one was Moses. The writer moves on to tackle this one.

Jesus is here seen as the high priest and apostle. This is the only time he’s called an apostle, which means a sent one. Jesus was sent by God. High priest will be a theme played throughout this book and it will be one addressed further later on.

Now a comparison is made to Moses. Jesus was found faithful to YHWH just as Moses was. However, Jesus is worthy of even greater honor than Moses. The writer makes the comparison to the builder of the house being greater than the house that is built.

If there is a house, it is built by someone. God, however, is the builder of everything so what about Moses? It is obvious that God is greater than the house that is built since a builder is greater than the house as the Hebrews writer has said. (The writers of the New Testament were quite logical in their argumentation.)

Moses was faithful in all of God’s house. In other words, Moses was a servant of YHWH, but his position was just limited to being within the house. However, it is at this point that we find the distinction between him and Christ.

Christ is the one who is not a servant in the house, but he is rather over the house, which could be referring to him as builder of the house as well. The writer then tells us that we are members of that house which also would include Moses. The point in the comparison is that Jesus is not just a servant of the house. He is not even a member of the house. He is put in charge of the house and so is therefore greater than the servants in the house, including Moses.

Conclusion then: Do not reject the mediator of Jesus for that of Moses. Jesus is far greater.

 

Hello everyone. Welcome back to Deeper Waters. We are going through our Trinitarian commentary on the Bible now and in the New Testament and more specifically, in the epistle to the Hebrews. I also thank you all for your continued prayers as I am working on learning more in an area that I need to learn more in. Keep them up please. Going to the text however, we’ll be looking at chapter 2, verses 14-18.

¹⁴Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— ¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. ¹⁶For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. ¹⁷For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

In the work of salvation, those who Christ came to save have flesh and blood. In order to save them then, he became like them. Note that he became like them in that he was fully human but he was also without sin. It is not essential to being human that we be sinners. We just all happen to be. Jesus is the one who lived a truly human life in that he acted the way a human is supposed to act. The rest of us act less than human.

He came to save those who were held in slavery by their fear of death. Death has always been scary as its been the unknown. It is because of Christ that we can say that it is no longer the unknown but rather the known. Now we do not know it yet in the way of personal experience, but we do know it in the way of having information from one who has been there, which would be Christ of course.

Christ does not help angels but Abraham’s descendants, indicating that angels are beyond salvation. That’s because angels do not share a common essence. Humans do. Each angel is its own species essentially. Michael exhausts all that it means to be the archangel Michael. For Christ to save angels, he would have to become each angel. For us, he can partake in a common essence as we can be differentiated by matter.

It is because of this that he is able to be a high priest for us. He took on the temptations that we face every day and yet, he overcame them. Now this doesn’t mean that he faced every temptation, but rather that he faced every kind of temptation that there is. He overcame and because he did such, he is able to help us when we are being tempted. He is also able to make atonement for us for he alone is the pure and spotless one.

And that should be a comfort to all of us.

 

Hello everyone. I hope everyone enjoyed going through old blogs while I was away and I do see that several of you appreciated my tribute to the Curtmudgeon. We all miss him and we’ll see him again someday, but I am sure if there’s one thing he’d want, it’d be for me to keep going on my blog and teach the Trinity. He was always caring for others after all. I thank you all for your prayers as well as I’m having to overcome a lot of self-doubt and fear and anxiety and other such things. I ask for your continued prayers as I overcome this greatest hurdle in my life. For now, let’s get to the Trinitarian text for tonight, Hebrews 2:10-13.

¹⁰In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. ¹¹Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. ¹²He says,
“I will declare your name to my brothers;
in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.” ¹³And again,
“I will put my trust in him.” And again he says,
“Here am I, and the children God has given me.”

Perfect through suffering? It’s a thought we don’t like to think about. When you are going through suffering, it isn’t always comforting to know that this will be used for good. Many of us would say “Forget the future good and just end my pain now!”

But how is Jesus made perfect? Jesus is made perfect not in an ontological sense but in the sense that he is entirely human and undergoes the gamut of human suffering. He is the one who truly lives a human life and he lived one of intense suffering. The very Son of God in Isaiah 53 after all is described as a man of sorrows.

We are also of the same family as we are called the brothers of Christ. Now this is not in the sense of brothers by nature but brothers by adoption. He is holy and we are made holy. He is holy by his nature as the Son of God and we are made holy by participating in his holiness.

Jesus is seen as the missionary here as it were coming to his brothers and saying that he will declare God’s name to them. Jesus was the only one who could truly do this because he is the only one who truly knows the name of God.

The next two verses go together. They are from Isaiah 8 calling the people of Israel to remember that their God is the one they are to regard as holy. Holiness as we will see is a constant theme throughout the book of Hebrews as it should be a theme throughout the life of the Christian. It is by putting our trust in YHWH that we are made holy and then are made children of God that come before him through Christ.

We shall continue with more in Hebrews tomorrow.