For every High Priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. (2) He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weakness.  (3) Because of this he is required as for the people, so as also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins.  (4) And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was. (5) So also Christ did not glorify Himslf to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him:  “You are my Son, Today I have begotten You.”  (6) As He also says in another place “You are a Priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek”

The author of the letter to the Hebrews is unknown.  The letter was written to Jewish Christians who were facing persecution for their Christian beliefs and were tempted to revert to the Jewish religion to escape trials.

In our verses today – and in the next six chapters of the letter – the author is using scripture to point to Christ Jesus as the perfect and forever High Priest as the mediator between sinful man and God.  Under the Jewish system, the High Priest was appointed by God.  A sinner – all men are sinners – could not approach God without a Priest.  Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies and that just once  a year, to offer sacrifice to atone for sin.  This imperfect system foretold God’s plan for a perfect, once and for all High Priest who would make man right with God.  Jesus  Christ alone  fulfilled that requirement.  Christ was without sin and was true man as well as true God.  In His perfect and acceptable sacrifice on the cross – the resurrection is witness to the acceptability of His sacrifice – Christ is now our High Priest and is the cause of salvation for all who believe in Him – Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of salvation by faith, not works.

In Christ the ancient priesthood is abolished.  The Jewish sacrificial system was a shadow of reality that Christ is the fulfillment of every Old Testament prophecy.  Our salvation depends on the priesthood of Christ.

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  (15) For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with out weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. (16) Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

The author of the letter to the Hebrews is unknown. The Jews who had converted to Christianity were wavering in the face of persecution and the letter was written to warn and encourage them to remain steadfast in their belief in Christ Jesus. Our verses today now tell the readers of the benefits Christ’s priesthood has brought them and us which is we now have access to God in Him; in His advocacy our sins are covered and we will obtain the mercy of God.

The Jews had no problem with the concept of a High Priest as they were accustomed to the Levitical priesthood and now they see in one man, Christ Jesus, we can be made right with God.  Jesus was one of us, a true man, tried by human infirmities – we have no need to dread our mediator since He is our brother.  The whole argument is what we know by faith – what Christ is to us.  He put on human nature and also human feelings because otherwise we could not comprehend the care He feels for our salvation.  Christ as true man experienced our physical infirmities and also our emotions.  We experience these infirmities because of our depraved nature but Christ because He was sinless did not – instead He took them upon Himself  Christ was not just a man but took on all of human nature and became the perfect sacrifice acceptable to God for our salvation.  There was no further need for another High Priest.

In our verses today there are two commands:  to hold fast to our confession of faith and to draw near to God, both based on who Jesus is.  He is our great High Priest and He is the Son of God.  Christ Jesus will help in time of need to obtain all things necessary for our salvation.  Now is the acceptable time ; in season; today.  C.s. Lewis writes in the Great Divorce that “There is no other day.  All days are present now.  This moment contains all moments.”

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  (13) And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. 

The author of the letter to the Hebrew is unknown.  The letter was written to a mostly Christian Jewish audience warning them of the dangers of reverting from their Christian beliefs to the non persecuted and allowed Jewish religion.

In our verses today the Hebrew Christians are warmed of the dangers of cultural Christianity – the Jews had historically failed to enter God’s rest because they did not trust or obey God’s word.  All of God’s revelation including that which came from his Son, Christ Jesus, is recorded in Scripture so the jews had God’s word but disregarded it.  The word of God is living and cannot be despised with impunity – – punishment for unbelief and obstinacy will be the fate of Hebrew Christians if they abandon their conversion to Christianity.

The gospel is life to believers and no creature is hidden from the eyes of God.  God, not man, is searching our hearts and souls and we should tremble at this for nothing is hidden from God.  Complete surrender to the word of God which imparts life to dead sinners is demanded in faith.  God’s word is active, effectual and accomplishes what God wills. It is not cultural nor relative.  God is the ultimate and authorative judge of thought and intention of the heart and mind – God knows the totality of the inner person.

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. (10) For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing  many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.  (11) For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren

The author of the letter to the Hebrews is unknown and the main theme of this letter, written to Jewish Christians, concerns endurance under trials. These people were being persecuted for their Christian beliefs and were tempted to revert to the Jewish religion to escape trials.  This letter argued that the faithful are saved now but the glory is ahead in Christ.  The Jewish Christians were warned not to let present heat cause them to neglect or ignore the great salvation in Christ Jesus. They (we)  are to continue in faith and hold fast.

The Jews thought the Messiah would be a conquering figure and of this world.  God’s plan however, was to use Jesus suffering and death to glorify Him and by God’s  grace to justify those who believe.  Man cannot earn salvation – no works by man are sufficient and salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone.  Our verses today affirm the humanity of Jesus; He was true God and true man.  He had to become fully human to save humans.  In verse 11 we are told that Jesus sanctifies – He is the whole of salvation – which means that He had to be without sin and also fully God.

The doctrine in our verses today is  Christ Jesus became man to save us – to bear the penalty for man’s sin as true man and true God becoming the perfect sacrifice.  Only in Christ are we justified and made right with God.  The message of Hebrews is you can’t go back.  Christ Jesus is God’s final word to us.

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!  (2) Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.  (3) Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire.  You have heaped up treasure in the last days.  (4) Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of the Sabaoth.  (5) You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.  (6) You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

James, half brother of Jesus and head of the ancient church at Jerusalem, wrote these verses in a letter sent to the persecuted faithful for two reasons; to remind the reader of the enduring, eternal spiritual existence in Christ and to encourage the endurance of the faithful by contemplation of the sure judgment of God of all men – the faithful have been made right with God in Christ – and the destruction of all of this world

In our verses today, James is not calling the rich unbelievers  to repentance but he is pointing out to the poor and oppressed faithful of the early church that wealth without God is futile. James does not mean to indiscriminately condemn all who are rich but only those who have been corrupted by worldly offerings. James ridicules the ephemeral riches of this world and the fruitless pursuit of money, power, luxury and excessive ease – the snares of this world.  James goes on to condemn the cruelty of avarice – the cheating and abusing of others for the foolishness of worldly riches and approval which will not last.

In our culture today we are living in a crowd – solitude is hard to find and less than desirable. Now Christianity is not meant to be a solitary affair but beware the collectivism of secular life which exists for our natural goals; safety, education, etc.  but not for our supernatural life.  The faithful have one foot in both worlds and can easily be tempted and trapped by the lure of a life of pleasure, power and celebrity in this world.  Money itself is not evil – the apostle Paul called it a root of all sorts of evil – but money and power and pride can corrupt.  James is warning the early Christians to keep their eyes on the ball.