Tied on tight

God and man
There’s clear concern here for the readers, who like a boat coming loose from its moorings and floating slowly away on the tide might drift away from the knowledge of salvation (vs 1–4).

The author of Hebrews, as well as portraying Jesus’ divinity, also wants to stress the importance of his humanity. Jesus is God himself, but readers are reminded that he is also a man who came to earth and died, tasting death for everyone and receiving glory, honour and authority.

Living with sin
Although the Father has given all authority to Christ, human beings are rebellious and don’t always submit to it. We live with the tension between seeing that, although Jesus was and is victorious over sin and death, the world is still full of it, and we have to deal with the effects of it day by day in ourselves and others.

In the face of evil our own moorings can easily come loose. We can become angry or disillusioned or feel hopeless, especially if the kind of work we do exposes us to things we’d rather not know about. Being in the world but not of it isn’t easy but with Jesus it’s always possible.

‘We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.’

Today’s opening verse underlines the importance of paying attention. We have heard and continue to hear God through reading the Bible and prayer. This is exactly why WordLive was created. However, keeping WordLive running, and full of creative ideas to help you engage with the Bible, comes at a significant financial cost.

We believe WordLive should be free to use for everyone to deepen and strengthen their relationship with God. Therefore, we are completely reliant on your gifts and generosity and we thank everyone who has already given to maintain this ministry. But the financial need to keep WordLive running doesn’t go away, so we always need your support.

Please consider donating to WordLive, to help with the ongoing costs associated with this multimedia ministry. Click here and choose either a single or regular donation.

Pray about any struggles in faith you or anyone you know is having. Ask the Lord for a sense of his presence and upholding.

 

Most of us who read these notes are not facing the kind of persecution that threatened the original readers. The drifting of verse 1, however, is a very real danger for many Christians. Here is the first of a series of warnings in this letter. Today’s reading gives us a good opportunity to clear our minds, tune out the distractions, and ask some basic questions. Tom Wright asks: ‘What evidence is there in your own life, and in your church, that the gospel message of Jesus is true and powerful? If you find that question difficult to answer, could it be because you or your church have begun to drift?’¹

In Psalm 8, the psalmist wonders, ‘What are human beings that God cares for them?’ In today’s reading the writer takes ‘man’ (the Greek is singular) to be referring to Jesus. Here we have a beautiful example of divine ambiguity in the Scriptures. The Greek can be understood either way, and the writer slides from one sense to the other in these verses. Different translations handle this in different ways. J Kögel comments: ‘The Son and the sons belong together … Humanity and Messiah stand in close, indissoluble unity with one another.’²

Everything is not at present subject to him. We are living by faith in that already-and-not-yet time, when God’s purpose for the world is only partly fulfilled. But Jesus is risen, has conquered death, and is crowned with glory. He identified and identifies with us, and there is our hope.

Glory, in the Scriptures. is often seen in the context of suffering. This is so foreign to the way we naturally think, but so pertinent to the argument of Hebrews. Suffering in any form, momentous or trivial, unites us with Jesus who suffered. Let’s make sure that our faith is firmly anchored so that we don’t drift.

¹ NT Wright, Hebrews for Everyone, SPCK, 2003, p41

² Quoted in P Ellingworth, Hebrews, NIGTC; Eerdmans, p152

Read the Bible in a year:

Leviticus 19,20
 
Psalm 21