God’s revelation through his Son (1:1 – 3)
The Son, so much better than the angels (1:4 – 14)
Taking care not to neglect God’s revelation through the Son (2:1 – 4)
The Son of God incarnate (2:5 – 18)
Man’s destiny restored in Christ (2:5 – 9)
Christ, sharing our nature (2:10 – 13)
Overcoming death for his people (2:14 – 18)
The Son, worthy of more glory than Moses (3:1 – 6)
The danger of unbelief (3:7 – 4:13)
An Old Testament example of unbelief (3:7 – 19)
Ensuring that we enter into God’s rest (4:1 – 11)
God’s scrutiny of our hearts (4:12 – 13)
Our merciful high priest (4:14 – 5:)
A sympathizing high priest (4:14 – 16)
The function of a high priest (5:1 – 3)
The calling of our great high priest (5:4 – 6)
Our perfect high priest, the author of eternal salvation (5:7 – 10)
The need for spiritual progress (5:11 – 6:20)
Unskilful in the word of righteousness (5:11 – 14)
The rudiments of the faith (6:1 – 3)
A solemn warning of falling away (6:4 – 8)
The duty of gaining full assurance (6:9 – 20)
Encouragement from God’s past dealings (6:9 – 10)
Diligent pursuit of assurance (6:11 – 12)
God’s provision for confidence in his word (6:13 – 18)
The believer’s entitlement to strong hope (6:19 – 20)
Of the order of Melchisedec (7:1 – 28)
Made a type of Christ (7:1 – 3)
Greater than Abraham (7:4 – 10)
The shortcomings of the Levitical priesthood (7:11 – 12)
Christ’s superior priesthood (7:13 – 28)
Our more excellent high priest in the heavens (8:1 – 5)
The new covenant (8:6 – 10:18)
Christ our mediator (8:6)
The weaknesses of the old covenant (8:7 – 9)
The security of the new covenant (8:10 – 13)
The meaning of the old covenant symbols (9:1 – 10)
Christ, the high priest of a greater covenant (9:11 – 28)
The efficacy and superiority of the new covenant (10:1 – 18)
Our response to the new covenant (10:19 – 39)
Boldness and assurance (10:19 – 23)
The seriousness of apostasy (10:24 – 31)
Retaining confidence to the end (10:32 – 39)
Examples of faith (11:1 – 40)
The nature of faith (11:1)
Faith that God approves (11:2)
Faith understands hidden things (11:3)
Faith makes us acceptable to God (11:4)
Faith delivers from death (11:5 – 6)
Faith heeds God’s warning (11:7)
Faith leaves behind the familiar (11:8)
Faith sees this world as a foreign country (11:9)
Faith looks for what is enduring (11:10)
Faith receives great blessing (11:11 – 12)
Faith takes hold of heaven (11:13 – 16)
Faith obeys hard commandments (11:17 – 19)
Faith accepts God’s choice (11:20)
Faith reads the future (11:21)
Faith encourages God’s people (11:22)
Faith counts on God’s protection (11:23)
Faith identifies with God’s people (11:24 – 26)
Faith sees him who is invisible (11:27)
Faith escapes God’s judgment (11:28)
Faith triumphs over its enemies (11:29)
Faith sees the fall of strongholds (11:30)
Faith transfers allegiance (11:31)
Faith’s many exploits and tribulation for the Lord (11:32 – 38)
Faith’s receiving of the promise in Christ (11:39 – 40)
Incentives for holiness and faith (12:1 – 29)
The examples of faith (12:1)
The finished work of Christ (12:2 – 4)
The discipline of the Lord (12:5 – 11)
Recovery from a spiritual low (12:12 – 13)
Reaching our final goal (12:14)
Concern not to harm the church (12:15)
Avoid profane conduct (12:16 – 17)
Coming to Mount Zion (12:18 – 24)
The danger of failing to value the gospel (12:25 – 27)
Our immoveable kingdom (12:28)
Final warning (12:29)
Practical exhortations (13:1 – 25)
Expressions of love (13:1 – 4)
Love for the brethren (13:1)
Love for strangers (13:2)
Remembering the prisoners (13:3)
Love within marriage (13:4)
Living near to Christ (13:5 – 6)
Imitating faithful church leaders (13:7 – 8)
Guarding against strange doctrines (13:9 – 14)
Our role in this world (13:15 – 16)
Offering the sacrifice of praise (13:15)
Service for Christ (13:16)
Solid assurances for the soul (13:20 – 21)
Final exhortations and greetings (13:22 – 25)
- to confirm New Testament revelation
- to establish the glorious offices and work of our Lord Jesus Christ
- to teach the surpassing greatness of Christ over all others
- to teach the relationship between the Old and New Testament
- to compare and contrast the old and new covenant
- to show converted Jews the superiority of the new covenant
- to persuade converted Jews to let go of the ceremonial law
- to give faithful warning against turning away from Christ
- to describe the priesthood of the new covenant
- to show the limitations of the ceremonial law
- to interpret the types and shadows of the law
- to show that all things are fulfilled in Christ
- to encourage faith in God’s people with all their unique privileges
Bible Commentary on The Epistle to the Hebrews
by Dr Peter Masters, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London (adapted from sermons) with content from Bible Notes
The Epistle to the Hebrews is a truly majestic document, an astonishing document, written while the temple still stood. Here are all the ceremonials in the temple at Jerusalem, or many of them, explained, and the prophetic role made clear, even while many of these things continued. The letter we believed was written before the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, and it was not till then that the temple was destroyed, so the Levitical rites were still being practised, even as this inspired letter was issued.
Hebrews has a number of purposes. It establishes almost more than any other New Testament book the glory and the offices and the work of our Saviour Jesus Christ. It shows more plainly, the fulfilment of the Old Testament in the New and the change of church order between the Testaments. It explains so fully, some of the privileges of Christians. It has a great deal about covenants: the covenant of the old order, and the covenants of grace which of course is operative at all times, and how it is to be distinguished from the covenants in the Old Testament, its character and its blessings. There are so many pastorally uplifting passages.
Then perhaps the most remarkable feature of Hebrews is the way it walks a tightrope as a book. There is a great debate as to who the author really was. It is described in our King James Version as the epistle of Paul, the apostle to the Hebrews, but that superscription about Paul the apostle is not in the original documents, and so these debates continue. Calvin was quite convinced it was not by the apostle Paul and so was Luther, who suggested perhaps a little remarkably, that it was by Apollos, and other ideas have been put forward; there are arguments on either side. There are one or two verses in the letter to the Hebrews which suggest it could not have been by Paul, and there are others that suggest it well could have been. But there is one feature of the book that heavily suggests that Hebrews was by Paul and this is the way it walks this tightrope.
It is written to Jews perhaps, though even that is not absolutely certain. People say, ‘There is so much explanation of Jewish ritual, showing how it was fulfilled in Christ. This book is burdened with the kind of things that converted Jews would be concerned about, or unconverted Jews might need to know about before their hearts could be opened to the gospel. And while that is true the way Jewish ceremonies are described in such detail – and this is what I mean by a tightrope – they are clearly described for Gentiles. The writer of this epistle had to be very, very careful. If he went too far in explaining to Gentiles how the Jewish ceremonial worked, and in what way it was predictive of Christ and was fulfilled in Christ, he would appear to be talking down to Jews and patronising them. He could not explain these things to Gentiles in such a manner that this epistle would be offensive to Jewish people, because it is written to them too. ‘I am trying’, the inspired author seems to say to himself, ‘to show the Jews these things: that their ceremonial is at an end and it is fulfilled and met by Christ entirely. I am also concerned’, he seems to reflect, ‘about the influence of the Judaisers, who want to convince the converted Gentiles that they should take up to Jewish law, and I have got to show them why the law is irrelevant. But they do not know about the Jewish ceremonial so I have got to explain it in sufficient detail to make these things plain to the Gentiles, while at the same time helping the Jews and yet without offending them.’ And the magnificent literary success of the letter to the Hebrews, is that it accomplishes both tasks. It explains to the Jews, the transition from Judaism to Christianity and the fulfilling of their ritual without talking down to them. And yet it somehow manages to explain their ritual in such plain terms that Gentiles will understand. When you think about this, the ongoing power of the book to both parties is evident and clear. You think to yourself, who could have written this book under the inspiration of God other than the apostle Paul, a highly educated Jew and yet the experienced apostle to the Gentiles, somebody who thought for both. So when you look at the book as a whole, the old superscription, ‘The epistle of Paul the apostle to the Hebrews’ could make a lot of sense.