Introduction
The
postscript of Hebrews says that it was written to the Hebrews, that is the
Jews, by Timothy from Italy so he obviously visited Paul. Even though the
letter doesn’t have the opening of Paul’s name tradition says it was spoken by
Paul and put to paper at Timothy’s hand, Paul’s amanuensis or secretary in this
case. Paul must have wanted to clear up some of the ignorance and confusion of
the Jewish believers.
The ending
may suggest he is writing to the Jewish Christians in Judea. Paul prepared this
profoundly theological letter carefully and probably Timothy lent a hand. This
is a more polished treatise than his other letters and shows, scholars tell us,
careful deliberation and excellent grammar. It is a controversial book as not
everyone agrees that Paul wrote it but I do, and am convinced that he did. Let’s
begin.
Hebrews,
chapter 1
Hebrews 1:1 ¶
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in
these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir
of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his glory,
and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of
his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand
of the Majesty on high;
In the history of the Hebrew people, the
people of Israel, the Jews as we commonly call them, before Christ, God sent
prophets to instruct, to admonish, to correct, and to warn His people, Israel. There
was Moses, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others listed in the pages of the Old
Testament.
But now, God has sent His Son, His visible
image, by whom all creation was made as He is the Word, capital W, of God.
Genesis 1:1
¶ In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth. 2 And the
earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.3 ¶ And God said, Let there be light: and there
was light.
Here are the three parts of God in
verses one, two, and three of Genesis. In verse one there is God the Father,
the soul of God, so to speak, the seat of will and self-identity.
Psalm 11:5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked
and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
In verse two we have the Spirit of
God, His particular vehicle for acting upon and through His creation, also
called the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Ghost as God Himself. The Holy Ghost
operating as the Holy Spirit is the very mind of God.
For contexts where the Spirit of God or the spirit of man can be
synonymous with the mind of God or man please see the following;
Romans 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what
is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh
intercession for the saints according to the
will of God.
1Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Ephesians 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Philippians 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh
the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may
hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in
one spirit, with one mind striving together for the
faith of the gospel;
2Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit
of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
In verse three of Genesis, chapter
one, we have God’s spoken Word, the beginning of all life, the origin of life,
the beginning of light, and the origin of light. Here, the universe is being
created, the UNI-VERSE, one spoken sentence. God is the author of it, the authority
of it, as my wife, Beth, pointed out to me.
John 1:1 ¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. 2
The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him
was not any thing made that was made. 4
In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 ¶
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
The Lord
Jesus Christ, as any reading of John will attest to, is the Word, capital W,
translated from a Greek word, Logos. Some
philosophies of the Greek world used the word, Logos, to describe the creative
force of the universe. John here makes it clear that the Logos is not an
impersonal force but a person, an entity, also linked to the use of the English
word and Greek logos as speech and a decree. A knowledgeable Greek or Roman,
who had heard Sophist preachers speak on this, would have understood what John
was saying, at least in part, even if they did not agree.
So, the Word was here in the beginning
of time. It was with God, coexisting. In fact, it was that very God, here in
the beginning with Him. How could this be you ask? The Bible, rather than
traditional theology which talks of three persons in one that sounds vaguely
polytheistic, makes this clear. These three parts acted in unison.
Genesis
1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Genesis
3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the
man is become as one of us, to know
good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree
of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Genesis
11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not
understand one another’s speech.
A self-conscious, aware being is
composed of three parts; a spirit, which is our very mind with its reasoning,
emotions, and inclinations, a soul, which is the seat of its will and
self-identity, and a body, which is how it interacts and knows the physical
world around it. There are overlaps in all of these parts. I not only am but I
know that I am because I have a soul. I think and understand to my capacity
because I have a spirit. I exist in space-time and interact physically with my
surroundings because I have a body. God interacts with us in all three of these
locations.
Jesus is the physical image of God,
the body of God, if you will, so we have three parts of one God; soul, body,
and spirit.
Colossians 1:15 Who is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:…2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily.
Here in Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and
upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long
time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou
then, Shew us the Father?
Three
parts to one God with one will, not three individual persons with separate
wills.
Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
John 10:30 I and my Father are one.
Christ is the appearance of God;
the angel of the Lord, His presence.
Isaiah
63:9 In all their affliction he was
afflicted, and the angel of his presence
saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and
carried them all the days of old.
Galatians
4:14 And my temptation which was in my
flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
Who led the Hebrews out of Egypt.
Judges
2:1 ¶ And an angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I
made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you unto the land which I
sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will never break my covenant with you.
We
are created in such a manner, having a body, a soul, and a spirit.
1Thessalonians
5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember also that Christ, in the flesh, had a
human spirit, being fully God and fully man. We discussed that in the comments
on the Gospels.
No comments:
Post a Comment