2 Corinthians 5:18:

¹⁸And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

After Adam and Eve’s fall from grace, after their transgression had become a separation between God and themselves, God made one of the most awesome promises in the Bible, one that is repeated, or mentioned, throughout most of the Old Testament – the promise of salvation.

God loves us, He doesn’t want to be separated from us by anything, and thus He came down to our level and broke the barriers that kept us back, moved the mountains that hindered us from coming to Him.

Christ’s ministry on earth was one of reconciliation – the healings, the exorcisms, the teaching – all of it was about reconciling man to God.

Man had lost sight of who God was, they had become too overwhelmed by the things of their God, that they forgot the God of the things.

They were religious – that’s true, but God doesn’t want religion, He wants a relationship, He doesn’t want rites and rituals, He wants you!

By healing the masses He showed them God’s love, by casting out demons He showed them His power, by teaching the crowds He showed them God’s heart. Through His parables He explained His kingdom to all who would listen.

By enduring the cross, through His tortures and torment, through His perseverance, He has freed us, giving us the freedom to choose between life and death. He gave us the option to choose that which He has shown us to be good – life in the kingdom of God – or to stay where we are, immersed in death.

Christ came to give us a new and living way.

He came to reconcile us to Himself!

That’s what it’s all about – God wants you to be in right relationship with Him.

For the Jews life revolved around the Tabernacle and the Laws of Moses – their worship, as stated before, was centred on the Tabernacle, and they offered sacrifices according to Divine regulations.

If Jesus is proven to be superior to Aaron, and to Moses, then logic must stand to reason that He has also given us a superior Tabernacle, a superior law, and a superior Sacrifice. He has given us a superior Covenant.

1 Corinthians 11:25:

²⁵After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

In Hebrews 8 we read the following regarding Christ:

⁶But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. (Hebrews 8:6)

Christ said, in another place, that He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it – to put the law in our minds, and write it on the tablets of our hearts.

Christ sealed a new covenant with His blood – a contract – and through this contract He has with us, we are free. We are free from the burden of the law, that is to say – the law has no condemning power over us, but the law has now become a part of us.

The law revealed God’s ways, and His will to man, and Christ sums it up saying – a new commandment I give unto you – love God and love one another as I have loved you!

Once we accept Christ and receive His Spirit, His law is put on our minds, and the more we hunger and thirst for righteousness, the more it is written on our hearts.

This new covenant is superior to the old one, just as Christ’s priesthood is superior to Aaron’s.

We read in Hebrews 9:1: that the first covenant also had ordinances of divine service – God’s regulations regarding sacrifices and worship – as well as an earthly sanctuary.

The Tabernacle consisted of two Holies – the first containing the candlestick, the table and the showbread – this one being called the Sanctuary.

The second was the Holiest of all – the place where God’s presence lived.

On a daily basis the priests would do their duties in the court and in the sanctuary, but once a year the High Priest would enter into the Holiest of Holies to offer an offering for his sins and for the sins of his people.

He entered the Holiest of all, once a year, never without blood.

Christ, being our High Priest, and of a superior Tabernacle, entered into the Holiest of all but once, and not with the blood of an animal, but with His own.

He entered into the Holiest place, but once, and paid for our sins forever.

Because of all of this, He is the mediator of the New Covenant that we have in His blood.

In Isaiah 1:18-19: we read:

¹⁸Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. ¹⁹If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

Hebrews 10:4:

⁴For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

We find that God has promised to wash our sins away! He has promised to make that which was as scarlet as white as snow, and to make that which is as crimson as wool.

He has promised to purify and cleanse us, but the blood of bulls and goats only covered the sin – the blood of Christ washes away, cleans and purifies.

Christ is the superior sacrifice – He is the spotless Lamb of God, and through His blood our sins are washed away, through His wounds our infirmities are healed, and in His sorrow He bore our burdens.

Glory to the Lord Christ Jesus – our High Priest, the Superior Sacrifice through whom we partake in the Superior Covenant.

Hebrews 10:22:

²²Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Our sins were as scarlet, but now are white as snow.

Jesus, The Seed of Abraham

Psalm 8

^“1O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. ²Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. ³When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; ⁴What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? ⁵For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. ⁶Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: ⁷All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; ⁸The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. ⁹O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”

In Exodus God expresses His desire to dwell in our midst – in the midst of His people. His desire is, and has always been, and will always be, to restore us to that perfect relationship with Him. To restore us in righteousness, for we are His beloved. He loves us so much with a love ever enduring and all-encompassing.

It’s all about love. God wants to draw near to us, He wants to envelope us in His love, He wants to be our rock, our refuge, our salvation! He wants to be our healer!

For this reason Christ took the seed of Abraham upon Him (He is in every way the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham – Gal 3:1-18, Matt 1:1, John 3:16, 2 Cor 1:20), took all our burdens and the wages from sin – destroying every contract and oath recognized by the authorities and principalities of darkness – tearing asunder the bondage of death and sin and restoring us, renewing us in righteousness and giving us the true prosperity which is the shalom of and with God.

Isaiah 53:3-6:

^“3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ⁴Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. ⁵But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”

Jesus, Superior to Moses

When we read about Jewish culture we find that one of their greatest leaders, historically speaking, was Moses – the one who had acted as an agent of God – a prophet speaking by the LORD’s unction. We find great importance attached to him, and we see his legacy running through to the New Testament as well, where the Jews were still clinging to his laws and ways, his writings.

The author of Hebrews however comes, writing to the Christian Jews, teaching that the man who builds the house has more glory than the house – that the One who established Moses as an important figure, the One who established Moses as a man of greatness, is greater!

In Hebrews 3:3-6: we read –

^“3For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. ⁴For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God. ⁵And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; ⁶But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.”

Moses was a servant in the house of the Lord, but Christ acts as a son over His OWN house. That is to say – He has authority over His house.

It is also important that we take note of that last part in the above mentioned passage – we are His house if we hold fast the confidence and hope we have in Him.

From verse 7 onwards the Holy Spirit urges all who read not to harden their hearts as in the provocation – where the Israelites tempted God and were denied entry into the Promised Land. They tested Him and He swore in His wrath that they would not enter into His rest. He was grieved with them because they knew not His ways, because they erred in their hearts.

One of the goals of the office of Christ was so that we could know God, so that He could reveal Himself to us, so that we could draw near to Him.

He wants to lead us into His rest – He came to do just that, and that is one of the areas where Moses had failed, for He could not move the people into God’s rest, which brings us to Joshua.

Jesus, Superior to Joshua

Hebrews 4:9-11:

^“9There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. ¹⁰For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. ¹¹Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

Rest is defined in the Webster’s Dictionary as:

A state of quiet or repose; a cessation from motion or labor; tranquillity; as, rest from mental exertion; rest of body or mind.¹

In Psalm 95 David speaks regarding the day of provocation in which Israel tempted God and saw His works for 40 years – and he also states – ‘if you hear His voice today, do not harden your hearts’, and this is an indication that there is hope. We can move into the rest of God – the rest of God being a cessation (an end) of our own works, of our own will, a state of quiet and response to the will of God.

Joshua, as Israel’s Commander in Chief during the conquest of Canaan, led the Israelites into the Promised Land, into God’s promise, but not into the total rest we have in Him.

Christ comes and calls us to move into the promise of restoration and salvation – the promise of a new life with God – He invites us into His rest and gives us His Spirit, our guide, our comforter and our teacher, so that we can find our rest, in His.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary states that this rest of God isn’t a Sabbath like rest, but rather a state of blessedness, and this corresponds with verse 11 where the author states – let us labor to enter into that rest!

Let us work to attain that state of blessed dependence upon God, let us work and strive for righteousness, hunger and thirst for His ways so that we can move into His rest!

Hebrews 4:11:

^“16Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Let us seek God with all boldness, just as He commanded Joshua – without fear.

Christ in relation to the angels:

In the book of Hebrews we find two passages concerning Christ in relation to the angels.

The first is Hebrews 1:4-14: which describes Jesus, the exalted Messiah,as higher, or better, than the angels.

The second is Hebrews 2:5-9: which describes Jesus, the Son of Man, as lower as the angels.

Angels played a very important role in Jewish culture and religion. One Rabbi is quoted as saying that every blade of grass has its angel.

Therefore – because angels are so important to the Jews – the author of the book of Hebrews compares Christ to the angels as to shed some more light on who He is.

The idea of these passages are to show the immortal and eternal aspects of the Messiah veiled in the mortal flesh of the Son.

We see the fullness of God revealed in the frailty of Jesus as man – the infinite folded into the finite, the Creator in the form of His creation.

The author of Hebrews uses the angels as a sort of teaching tool by which a basic Christology can be shared to the Jewish people specifically. As gentiles, though, and modern readers (although we were not the intended target audience), we can still glean very important insight if we read these passages intentionally and in context.

 

Christ: Higher than the angels

In Hebrews 1:4-14: we see how Christ is higher than the angels:

In verse 4 we read that Christ has, by inheritance, obtained a much greater name, a more excellent name.

In Ephesians we read the following:

Ephesians 1:19-22:

^“19And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, ²⁰Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: ²²And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church…”

Peter, before the council of Jewish elders and rulers, in Acts 4:12: states that there is no other name in Heaven or on Earth by which to be saved – that the name of the Lord Christ Jesus is the name of Salvation.

Reading this we realize that His name is the only name, and the most excellent name, that there is no other name worthy of exaltation and glorification – no other name than Jesus.

Christ is often called the Son of God, as He is from the Father – He is the Father. None of the angels have the privilege of being called the Son of God, and none of the angels share in this glory. Later on we read that Christ is like a Son in His house – meaning He has dominion and authority. The angels have no authority except where God allows it, but Christ – having the name above every name – has total dominion. (Verses 5-6)

And then we read (In verse 6) that when God brings the Firstbegotten, Jesus, into the world He says – Let all the angels of God worship Him.

In Psalm 18:3: David writes:

³I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

Earlier we read that there is only one name! One name through which we have our redemption, our salvation, our freedom – and that is the name of Christ! Jesus Christ, being God, is worthy of all the praise and honor, worthy of al exaltation and adoration, magnification and glory! Christ is worthy!

The angels bow before His throne, and worship Him.

Who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire? In verse 7 and 14 we are taught that angels are but ministering spirits –that they are sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation.

In Psalm 91:11-12: we read –

¹¹For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. ¹²They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

God commands His angels concerning us – to guard us in all our ways – to keep us from harm – but they are not Mighty to Save. They cannot save us from death and sin and disease. God uses them to minister to us – that is true – but Christ is salvation and healing and freedom! Christ is the one and only High Priest and King.

In verse 8 we find that Christ is God – and God Himself confirms it – we read:

⁸But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

God Himself says unto the Son – Thy throne, O God, is for ever!

Deuteronomy 6:4: and John 1:1: it is confirmed – God is one and we know that He would never do or say anything contradictory His word – therefore Christ is God!

In the same verse also we read that ‘a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom.’ Christ lived a spotless life on Earth – unblemished and pure – He lived a righteous life. In Psalm 1 we read that it is the righteous man who is like a tree planted by mighty rivers – but that the wicked is like chaff blown in the wind. This translates into life as follows – He who is firmly rooted in Christ (The source of Living Water) shall live a righteous life (Being as a tree planted by the Living Waters). Righteousness is the core of His teaching, His life and His ministry and is therefore also the centre of His kingdom – the Scepter of His Kingdom!

We also find that He authority over all things – if righteousness is the Scepter of His Kingdom – than He must be the King. In verse 13 we read:

¹³But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?

And Peter on the day of Pentecost shared the following with the crowd:

³²This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. ³³Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. ³⁴For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, ³⁵Until I make thy foes thy footstool. (Acts 2:32-35)

It is Christ who is the exalted right hand of God – the Holy One who saw no corruption – who loosened the pains of death. Jesus – being raised up in glory and seated on the Throne of God.

In verse 9 we read that Christ has been anointed with the oil of gladness by God – because He has loved righteousness. Christ is the Holy and Anointed One. He is the Priest, Prophet and King of the world!

He is the eternal and unchanging one.

Hebrews 1:10-12:

¹⁰And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: ¹¹They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; ¹²And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

Daniel has this vision in Daniel 7:13-14:

¹³I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. ¹⁴And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

We see once more His authority in the Daniel passage, but we also read in the fourteenth verse that His kingdom is everlasting – that His kingdom, His dominion, shall not be destroyed, nor shall it ever pass away.

The author of the book of Hebrews states that all things may perish, but Christ shall never perish – that His dominion is forever. He states that all things will grow old and fade, and may be folded by Him and changed – but He is the same forever!

Eternal and unchanging.

In verse thirteen the question is asked – to which of His angels has He said, at any time – sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool?

In verse 9 we read that God has anointed Him, has chosen Him above His fellows, but in the thirteenth verse we find that He is exalted above His enemies as well, that they are His footstool. Glorious!

Christ has been chosen, anointed, above all things – every living creature, and principality – He has been exalted above all things on Heaven and in Earth.

Ephesians 1:21-22: testifies of this fact when Paul states that Christ is:

²¹Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: ²²And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

Finally, in verse 14 we read that the angels are but ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary (Easton, 1897) has the following to say about angels:

“a word signifying, both in the Hebrew and Greek, a “messenger,” and hence employed to denote any agent God sends forth to execute his purposes. It is used of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14: 1 Sam. 11:3; Luke 7:24; 9:52), of prophets (Isa. 42:19; Hag. 1:13), of priests (Mal. 2:7), and ministers of the New Testament (Rev. 1:20). It is also applied to such impersonal agents as the pestilence (2 Sam. 24:16, 17; 2 Kings 19:35), the wind (Ps. 104:4). But its distinctive application is to certain heavenly intelligences whom God employs in carrying on his government of the world. The name does not denote their nature but their office as messengers.”

As an example we will read from Luke 2:8-10:

⁸And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. ¹⁰And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary goes on to say this about the nature of angels:

“As to their nature, they are spirits (Heb. 1:14), like the soul of man, but not incorporeal. Such expressions as “like the angels” (Luke 20:36), and the fact that whenever angels appeared to man it was always in a human form (Gen. 18:2; 19:1, 10; Luke 24:4; Acts 1:10), and the titles that are applied to them (“sons of God,” Job 1:6; 38:7; Dan. 3:25; comp. 28) and to men (Luke 3:38), seem all to indicate some resemblance between them and the human race. Imperfection is ascribed to them as creatures (Job 4:18; Matt. 24:36; 1 Pet. 1:12). As finite creatures they may fall under temptation; and accordingly we read of “fallen angels.” Of the cause and manner of their “fall” we are wholly ignorant. We know only that “they left their first estate” (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 12:7,9), and that they are “reserved unto judgement” (2 Pet. 2:4). When the manna is called “angels’ food,” this is merely to denote its excellence (Ps. 78:25). Angels never die (Luke 20:36). They are possessed of superhuman intelligence and power (Mark 13:32; 2 Thess. 1:7; Ps. 103:20). They are called “holy” (Luke 9:26), “elect” (1 Tim. 5:21). The redeemed in glory are “like unto the angels” (Luke 20:36). They are not to be worshipped (Col. 2:18; Rev. 19:10). (3.) Their functions are manifold. (a) In the widest sense they are agents of God’s providence (Ex. 12:23; Ps. 104:4; Heb. 11:28; 1 Cor. 10:10; 2 Sam. 24:16; 1 Chr. 21:16; 2 Kings 19:35; Acts 12:23).”

Angels are agents of God’s providence – that is to say – His intervention. They are messengers called to carry out God’s redemptive work – not His work of total redemption, but to minister to those in need and danger – to deliver God’s children from afflictions and tribulations.

This being said – it is of utmost importance that their ministry greatly differs from the redemptive ministry of Christ. Their call is to minister to those who will inherit salvation.

Hebrews 1:14:

¹⁴Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? (Emphasis own)

And also, we read in Zephaniah 3:17:

¹⁷The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. (Emphasis own).

Christ is the mighty one who will save! The angels minister to those who will inherit salvation, but Christ is salvation.

To summarize we find that Christ is regarded higher than the Angels for the following reasons:

• He has inherited a more excellent name. (v.4)

• Christ is the Son of God – and has authority as such. (v.5)

• He is worthy of praise and adoration, and the angels worship Him. (v.6)

• The angels are ministering spirits but Christ is the anointed messiah – the chosen savior. (v. 7-8)

• Christ is God. (v.8)

• Christ is totally righteous – pure and unblemished – the spotless Lamb of God. (v.8)

• Christ is the King. (v. 8)

• Christ is the Holy and Anointed one. (v.9)

• He is eternal and unchanging. (v.10-12)

• He is above all – the sovereign Lord. (v.13)

• The angels are ministering spirits to the inheritors of Salvation, but Christ is Salvation!

Hebrews 1:1-3:

¹God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, ²Hath 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; ³Who 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 John 1 we read about God’s word – that the Word was with God, and that the Word was God! We also read, in that same passage, that the Word became flesh.

Now, in this passage from Hebrews we read that God has spoken to us by His Son – Jesus Christ, who is the Word become flesh, the same Word by which He created the Worlds – that is to say, everything that was, is and will be.

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians he teaches that Christ is, was, before all things, and that in Him all things consist – exist – are!

We find thus that Christ, being the Word, is the Creator, and if that is true, it must mean that He is God, that He is the Most High! This is important, because it plays an important role in our salvation – the salvation that Christ bought for us on the cross.

If Christ is God it makes the whole nature of our salvation, His mercy and grace, more wondrous than it is already – beyond our comprehension – that God Himself would incline to man, come down to our level. How amazing, how awe-inspiring to think that God – the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the one who holds the Universe in His hands – would step down from His throne, to take our sin upon Him and nail it to the cross. To think that He took our poverty so that we could be rich – that he took our disease and infirmities so that we could be strong. He took our blindness, and our sorrow, our every burden – and freed us. He broke the chains and set the captives free.

Who better to reboot, to bring us back to the blueprint for our lives than the One who designed it in the first place?

Truly – God is great and His great love endures forever, that He loved us while we were still wretched sinners.

The Psalmist asks – From where does my help come? And this is the question we all ask at some point – as we turn our eyes towards the hills – and the answer today is the same as it was then. My help comes from the Creator of Heaven and Earth!