Messages from the Epistle to the Hebrews | Page 2

untimely, nor that only one class of book or one
aspect of truth can be eminently timely at one time. But it seems
evident that the foreseeing Architect of the Bible has so adjusted the
parts of His wonderful vehicle of revelation and blessing that special
fitnesses continually emerge between our varying times and seasons on
the one hand and the multifold Word on the other.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is in some remarkable respects a book
timely for our day. It invites to itself, if I read it aright, the renewed
attention of the thoughtful Christian, and not least of the thoughtful
Christian of the English Church, as it brings him messages singularly in
point to some of the main present needs of his spiritual life and its
surroundings. It was written manifestly in the first instance to meet
special and pressing current trials; it bears the impress of a time of

severe sifting, a time when foundations were challenged, and individual
faith put to even agonizing proofs, and the community threatened with
an almost dissolution. Such a writing must have a voice articulate and
sympathetic for a period like ours.
We will take into our hands then, portion by portion, this wonderful
"open letter," and listen through it to some of the things which "the
Spirit saith" to the saints and to the Church.
We now contemplate in this sense the first two chapters. We put quite
aside a host of points of profound interest in detail, and ask ourselves
only what is the broad surface, the drift and total, of the message here.
As to its climax, it is JESUS CHRIST, our "merciful and faithful High
Priest" (ii. 17). As to the steps that lead up to the climax, they are a
presentation of the personal glory of Jesus Christ, as God the Son of
God, as Man the Son of Man, who for us men and our salvation came,
suffered, and prevailed.
Who that reads the Bible with the least care has not often noted this in
the first passages of the Hebrews, and could not at once so state the
matter? What is the great truth of Hebrews i.? Jesus Christ is GOD (ver.
8); the Son (ver. 2); absolutely like the Father (ver. 3); Lord of the
bright Company of Heaven, who in all their ranks and orders worship
Him (ver. 6); creative Originator of the Universe (ver. 10), such that the
starry depths of space are but the folds of His vesture, which hereafter
He shall change for another (ver. 12); Himself eternal, "the same,"
transcendent above all time, yet all the while the Son begotten, the Son,
infinitely adequate and infinitely willing to be the final Vehicle of the
Father's voice to us (verses 1, 5, 6). What is the great truth of Hebrews
ii.? Jesus Christ is MAN. He is other than angelic, for He is God. But
also He is other than angelic, for He is Man (verses 5, 6, 7). He is the
Brother of Man as truly as He is the Son of God (ver. 11). He has taken
share with us in flesh and blood (ver. 14), that is to say, He has
assumed manhood in that state or stage in which it is capable of death,
and He has done this on purpose (it is a wonderful thought) that He
may be capable of dying. This blessed Jesus Christ, this God and Man,
our Saviour, was bent upon dying, and that for a reason altogether

connected with us and with His will to save us (ver. 15). We were
immeasurably dear and important to Him. And our deliverance
demanded His identification with us in nature, and His temptations (ver.
18), and finally His mysterious suffering. So He came, He suffered, He
was "perfected"--in respect of capacity to be our Redeemer--"through
sufferings" (ver. 10). And now, incarnate, slain, and risen again, He,
still our Brother, is "crowned with glory and honour" (ver. 9). He is our
Leader (ver. 10). He is our High Priest, merciful and faithful (ver. 17).
Thus the Epistle, on its way to recall its readers, at a crisis of confusion
and temptation, to certainty, patience, and peace, leads them--not last
but first--to Jesus Christ. It unfolds at once to them His glories of
Person, His Wonder of Work and Love. It does not elaborately travel
up to Him through general considerations. It sets out from Him. It
makes Him the base and reason for all it has to say--and it has to say
many things. Its first theme is not the community, but the Lord; not
Church principles, not that great duty of cohesion about which it will
speak, and speak urgently, further on, but the Lord, in His adorable
personal greatness, in His