1. God spoke to men through prophets and through Jesus Christ. (1:1, 2.)

      2. God bore witness to the apostles of Christ. (2:4.)

      3. God subjected all things to Christ. (2:8.)

      4. All things are for God and through God. (2:10; compare Rom. 11:36.)

      5. God made the plan of "bringing many sons unto glory." (2:10.)

      6. God made the Author of our salvation (Christ) perfect through sufferings. (2:10.)

      7. God built all things. (3:4.)

      8. God is a living God (not, as some even to-day seem to think, a figurehead--a deaf, dumb, dead, powerless being). (3:12; 9:14; 10:31.)

      9. God has a people. (4:9.)

      10. "There is no creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him." (4:13.)

      11. We have to deal with God whether we wish to or not--"him with whom we have to do." (4:13.) [217]

      12. God called Christ to the high-priesthood. (5:4-6, 10.)

      13. God blesses him who brings forth good fruit. (6:7.)

      14. God is not unrighteous or unfair. He does not forget our work and our love toward his name, which is manifested in showing kindness and doing service to his children. (6:10.)

      15. God assured the heirs of the promise by two immutable things--his promise and his oath. (6:17, 18.)

      16. It is impossible for God to lie. (6:18.)

      17. God found fault with the people under the old covenant, and announced a new covenant, in which they should be recipients of greater privileges and mercies. (8:7-12.)

      18. God, toward one who meets him in guilt, is a terrible avenger and judge. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (10:30, 31.)

      19. God's soul has no pleasure in him that shrinks back. (10:38.)

      20. God is. (11:6.)

      21. God is "a rewarder of them that earnestly seek after him." (11:6.)

      22. God is the builder and maker of our heavenly city. (11:10, 16.)

      23. God has special favors for those who trust in him. (11:4, 5, 7, 11, 16, 19, 32-40.) [218]

      24. God chastens and scourges his sons in wisdom and love, that they may be partakers of his holiness. (12:5-10.)

      25. God is the Father of Spirits. Our earthly fathers are represented, by way of contradistinction, as the "fathers of our flesh." (12:9.)

      26. God will shake and remove heaven and earth. (12:26, 27.)

      27. Our God is "a consuming fire." (12:29.)

      28. God will judge all adulterers. (13:4.)

      29. God will in no wise fail us or forsake us (if we love and trust him rather than money), and will be our helper (in such emergencies where people usually depend upon money for help). (13:5, 6.)

      30. God is well-pleased with such sacrifices as praise, benevolence, fellowship with brethren in earthly things, if they are offered through Christ. (13:15, 16.)

      31. God is "the God of peace." (13:20.)

      32. God raised Jesus from the dead. (13:20.)

      33. God can and will make us "perfect in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ." (13:21.) [219]

      Christ is held up from first to last. The writer sees in that the only hope of rescue for the half-hearted Christians. Look to Christ. Consider Christ. Space would fail if the teaching concerning Christ were as particularly itemized as that concerning God above. But let the student draw up a list of things taught concerning Christ in this Epistle, making an effort to note down every particular statement, in reverence and godly fear. Here only some main facts can be given.

      Chapter 1. Christ the agent through whom the world was made, the heir of all things, the upholder of all the universe (verses 2, 3)--therefore, first, last, and middle; God's spokesman, (verse 2) and perfect representative ("image"--verse 3); made purification of our sins; sitting at the right hand of God--the place of honor of the universe; far greater than the angels (verses 5, 6, etc.); called "God" (verse 8) and "Lord" (verse 10) in the old Scriptures (from which these words are quoted).

      Chapter 2. Was made for a little while lower than the angels, but now crowned with glory and honor; tasted, by the grace of God, death for every man; was perfected through [220] suffering to be the author of our salvation; made common cause with us, having taken human nature upon him and calling us "brethren;" was made like us; was tempted and suffered that he might be able to succor us.

      Chapter 3. He is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession; worthy of more honor than Moses; a Son over God's house (whose house we are).

      Chapter 4. Christ is a great High Priest, the Son of God, and has passed through the heavens (into God's presence).

      Chapter 5. Christ fulfils in himself the characteristics of the true high priest; but is not after the order of Aaron, but of Melchizedek. He had to learn obedience through sufferings, and (thus) became "the author of eternal salvation to them that obey him."

      Chapter 6. Jesus is our forerunner, entered within the veil, by right of his being high priest forever "after the order of Melchizedek."

      Chapter 7. He is not made priest "after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life." He is "the surety of a better covenant," and "able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." [221]

      Chapter 8. He is the minister of the true tabernacle, the real sanctuary in the heavens; the mediator of a better covenant.

      Chapter 9. Not only high priest, but also sacrifice, his blood cleanses us; his death began a new testament, and he "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." Christ "shall appear a second time, apart from sin, to them that wait for him, unto salvation."

      Chapter 10. Christ brought a sacrifice of a spotless body surrendered to perfect obedience unto God, unto death, according to the will of God. "By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." "Yet a very little while, he [Christ] that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry."

      Chapter 12. Jesus as a perfect example of the life of faith. (verses 2, 3.)

      Chapter 13. Through him (only) our praises and good works are acceptable to God. He is "the great shepherd of the sheep," whom God raised up from the dead. Through him God works in us "that which is well pleasing in his sight."

      Now in like manner go over the chapters and see where the Holy Spirit is mentioned and [222] what is said of him. (2:4; 3:7; 9:8, 14; 10:15.)

      Look again at the chief admonitions, warnings, exhortations. (2:1-4; 3:7 to 4:11; 5:11 to 6:20; 10:19-39; 12; 13.)

      Note most especially what God teaches us on the right way of dividing his word.

      1. Main division. (1:1, 2.)

      2. Who first spoke our salvation and who confirmed it to us? (2:3, 4.)

      3. Christ became the author of our salvation after he had been perfected through sufferings and had been named high priest after the order of Melchizedek. (5:9, 10.)

      4. Change of law followed the change of priesthood. (7:12.) When did Christ become priest? (7:28.)

      5. The old and the new covenant. (8:6-13; 10:9, 10; 12:24.)

      6. After Christ's death, a new testament. (9:16, 17.)

      7. The old law, but a shadow, figure, and testimony to the new. (3:5; 8:2, 4, 5; 9:8, 23.)

      The keynote is "Behold the Christ;" and faith is pointed out as the great thing needful. The words "boldness," "glorying of hope," [223] "confidence," "strong encouragement," "hope," "faith and patience," "not shrinking back," "counting God faithful," "looking unto Jesus"--these are expressive of the one great need of the lukewarm, faint-hearted, backsliding Christians, and are in their connection but descriptive of simple faith.

      Repeated reading of Hebrews will now bring you richer returns than ever. New meanings will reveal themselves, obscure places become plain, seemingly insignificant phrases become important, new trains of thought be discovered; a word here and there recurring arrests your attention, and you begin to note how often and in what senses it is used. Do not drop Hebrews now simply because these lessons are ended. Now is your reaping time. Read it and study it and meditate on it in view of the God who spoke it, reverently, prayerfully. Every hour thus occupied will be an hour in which you shall be kept from sin and during which you are being fortified to resist sin at some future time.

      Holy Father, thy word is an exceedingly great and precious gift to the humble, contrite soul. So full of sweetness and love and truth, the expression of thy divine mind, it fills us with peace [224] and assurance and power to serve thee. Its wealth of truths and wonderful revelations is unsearchable. Truly thy thoughts are as much higher than our thoughts as the heavens are high above the earth, and through them thou dost lift us up to thyself. Grant unto thy children that the healthier desire of thy word, the true food of the soul, may supplant the perverse appetite for the poor wisdom and news of this world which is passing away. Having now arrived at the close of these lessons, we commend our work and study into thy hands for blessing and results; and may this be the beginning point with us of more earnest and thorough study of that word which is able to build us up and give us the inheritance among the sanctified, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. [225]

[LOH1 217-225]