Hebrews

Review: Hebrews

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Cover image of "Hebrews" by Amy Peeler.

Hebrews (Commentaries for Christian Formation), Amy Peeler. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802877383) 2024.

Summary: A commentary for Christian formation focused on the greatness of Christ, Christian faithfulness, and Christian community.

The Epistle to the Hebrews alternately inspires, puzzles, and sometimes alarms. It’s portrayal of Christ’s greatness ands great saving work leaves us in awe and wonder. Yet we don’t know who wrote it and the discussions of sacrifices and covenant takes some background understanding. Meanwhile, the warnings for those who drift away are alarming, especially to those of tender conscience. Amy Peeler, in this contribution to the Commentaries for Christian Formation, addresses all these aspects and more.

The series focuses on Christian formation, the fostering of growth in faith, holiness, and Christian discipleship that ought to be the aspiration of every believer. Peeler does this, albeit at a level of scholarship that is accessible, but will probably stretch many lay readers. The commentary takes sections of the text and first gives a brief overview and then walks through the text verse by verse, using Peeler’s translation. What is striking is her readable prose, which is not simply notes elaborating the biblical text. In addition, she offers an introduction to the book, thoroughly covering the ground, but not excessively. Finally, there is a concluding section, framed in the form of ten questions that both offer a thematic summary of the commentary and address pastoral concerns in Christian formation. The final question focuses on how one might prepare to teach Hebrews.

There were three great themes I noted running through her commentary. First, was her development of the superior character of the person and work of Christ, greater than angels, greater than the levitical priesthood, ushering in a new and greater covenant through the greater sacrifice of himself as high priest of the order of Melchizedek. Yet his greatness embraced humility and learning obedience.

Second is the theme of Christian faithfulness and the warnings to “sluggish” Christians not to drift, not to harden their hearts, and especially not to apostatize. In this regard, Peeler addresses both the tender conscience wrestling with sin, and the complacent, who need to be concerned lest they presume upon God. Rather, Hebrews offers this vision of the race of faith, inspired by the cloud of witnesses who have run ahead of us, foremost being the Lord Jesus himself.

Finally, Peeler emphasizes that this is a sermon to a community. Already we have our solidarity with those who ran before us. But in addition, there are those who run with us and the call to instruct and encourage one another. We are to continue in love, and to imitate the way of life of our leaders.

Peeler, in her concluding summary, addresses the “liminality” of Hebrews. She notes the parallel between the audience of Hebrews and being a Christian in the present time. What does it mean to live faithfully in this “in between” space? How do we neither retreat from nor accommodate the culture? What does it mean to keep confessing Jesus and our great salvation in him alone? These are questions that arise because of the portrait of the person and work of Christ in Hebrews, and its call to Christian faithfulness. These are questions I will continue to ponder….

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Hope Ain’t a Hustle

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Cover image of "Hope Ain't a Hustle" by Irwyn Ince

Hope Ain’t a Hustle, Irwyn Ince (Foreword by Christina Edmonson). InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514005743), 2024.

Summary: A series of messages from the book of Hebrews making the case for the confidence we may have in Christ, our great high priest who endured the storm, who sustains our hope, and calls us to enduring faithfulness.

There are a lot of hustles out there–on the streets, in business, and even in our email. Sometimes even Christianity has appeared to be a hustle, promising a good life, as long as one enriches the congregation’s coffer. Irwyn Ince contends that this is not true of God when he writes:

“But God is not a hustler. And the hope he calls us to cannot be built on naive expectations that people will start seeing the things the way we do. Our longing cannot be built on the arrogant assumption that we are completely right in the positions we take. It cannot even be built on an expectation of steady improvement. If the arc of the moral universe does indeed bend toward justice, that arc will never be smooth and straight from a human perspective. It will have twists and turns, ups and downs, starts and stops. Our hope, if it is to be enduring, must be rooted in the glory of Jesus Christ.” (p. 9).

In this book, Pastor Ince works from the book of Hebrews to show that hope grounded in the person and work of Jesus will never disappointment and will sustain us through the greatest of life’s challenges.

The book is organized in three parts. The first, “The Storm Before the Calm” addresses the storm the readers of Hebrews may be facing and the supreme authority of Jesus as Son amid the storms. Not only that, Jesus was made like us and entered the danger zone where we live. He came to liberate, to intercede, and to help as high priest and son over God’s house, superior to Moses. Through our hope in Jesus. we may rest in the danger zone, like John Lewis and Diane Nash as leaders of the Nashville sit-ins. As we rest in Jesus who went before us, we may rest while we suffer, knowing we will share in the rest of his glory.

Part Two, “Keep Hope Alive” begins with those words from Jesse Jackson at the 1988 Democratic Convention. Ince explores the unreasonable hope of Abraham and the arc between Melchizedek and the greater high priest Jesus, reflecting on unreasonable hope in the face of prison and plundering that the Hebrews faced, and the assurance they have in a great high priest who offered himself. He was the high priest who became perfect for us through his obedience, who is able to perfect us. His ministry, covenant, and promise are better than all who came before him. There is no better place to go, no better person in whom to find hope, than Jesus. To him we need to return, and he will keep our hope alive.

Part Three, “In Need of Endurance” speaks of the dogged persistence our hope in Jesus sustains. Endurance is built on upward confidence, inward confession of hope, and outward commitment. Ince points to the teaching of Hebrews to endure by faith, in need, and in joy. He uses the example of Superman’s X-ray vision to describe the kind of faith that sees Jesus through the challenges we face. Those who endure by faith live for the heavenly city, the better country, like Freedom Rider Jim Zwerg who suffered a terrible beating while praying to remain nonviolent and to forgive his attackers. Those who endure run through exhaustion by staying with the crowd, by dropping the weight of sin, by keeping our heads up, and fixing our eyes on the future with gratitude, lighting up the darkness.

Pastor Ince writes a book on hope that doesn’t see the world with rose-colored glasses. He writes how the hope that doesn’t hustle that we have in Jesus helps us face dark times without retreating into either fantasy or despair. For those dismayed by the slow progress toward justice in so many aspects of life, he bids us to keep hope alive through Jesus who went there before us and is both the son who reigns and the great high priest who intercedes. He challenges us that hope endures. It never gives up, so certain is it in the promise of God. Through the text of Hebrews, tales of courage from the Civil Rights movement, and personal life, Pastor Ince offers the gritty instruction we need to live into our hope in a “wearying world.”

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: The Most Holy Place

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The Most Holy Place, Jeremy D. Vogan. Staunton, VA: LightPath Publishing, 2023.

Summary: Day-by-day prayers based on a verse by verse reflection on the Book of Hebrews.

I’ve followed Jeremy Vogan’s blog, God, Life, and Beauty for several years and deeply appreciated his poetic reflections on life and faith. So I was intrigued to receive a copy of his new book The Most Holy Place.

It is an ambitious piece of work. it consists of 312 prayers that are reflections on the text of Hebrews. That works out to 52 weeks of six prayers per week. Each prayer takes a verse or part of a verse and does what C.S. Lewis once suggested we do with the Lord’s prayer–to festoon the prayer with our own petitions around the theme of each clause.

Vogan does this, often beginning by addressing the Lord, meditating on his character, contrasting that with our own failings, and expressing trust in the Lord’s sufficiency. Each statement or “verse” in the prayers is set off from the next. Many of the verses either are direct quotes or allusions to other scriptures. This is so fitting of Hebrews itself which either quotes or alludes to so much Old Testament material as well as the gospel of Jesus. It reflected a life deeply soaked in scripture that recognizes so many thematic connections.

Here is one example from Hebrews 11:21 (copied from the author’s page on Goodreads):

Hebrews 11:21  “By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.”

Faith sees, Lord

Faith knows

But most importantly, faith obeys

Long did Jacob walk with You and see Your wonders, until his heart learned Your ways

He saw the ladder that stretched from earth to Heaven, and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it

He was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place!” And he named it Bethel

Laban dealt shrewdly with him, and Jacob learned the value of truth

But he accepted the yoke of servitude, and you made him many through Rachel and Leah

You made him rich and increased his wealth on the earth

Your Spirit kept Laban from doing him harm, and protected him from Esau

You wrestled with him until the breaking of the day, and he prevailed

And You appeared to him again, and said, “Israel shall be your name; be fruitful and multiply”

So at the end of Israel’s life, they brought his grandsons to him, the older one Manasseh on the right and the younger one Ephraim on his left

But Israel obeyed Your Spirit, and crossed his hands to bless the younger as the greater

In faith he obeyed, because it is God alone who raises up and who sets down

For one day You would reject the tent of Joseph, and not choose the tribe of Ephraim

And You would choose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which You love

You would choose David your servant to shepherd the tribe of Jacob with upright heart

For the salvation of all who would trust in You

Amen

I noted several themes running through the prayers. One is the arc between old covenant and new, of anticipation anf fulfillment, one inadequate to transform but pointing to the great high priest and king who would. There is recognition of our insufficiency, the ways we self-deceive, and sin and the utter sufficiency of Christ. And there is the bracing call to faith-obedience, to press on and not drift away.

A scripture index might have been helpful to see the breadth of scripture cited or drawn from. The layout of the prayers on a single page per day in the verse format required a smaller point size for fonts than some readers might find comfortable. There is a Kindle version that circumvents this problem.

These daily prayers are rich and give one so much to think about, so much biblical truth to turn over. The content varies with the verse. This makes for a rich, year-long devotional, simultaneously praying through Hebrews and reflecting on the whole of scripture. If you are looking for a good devotional resource for next year, this is one worth taking a look at!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author.

Review: The Paradox of Sonship

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The Paradox of Sonship (Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture), R. B. Jamieson, foreword by Simon J. Gathercole. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2021.

Summary: A discussion of the use of “Son” in Hebrews proposing that it is a paradox, that Jesus is the divine Son who became the messianic “Son” at the climax of his saving mission.

The very first verses of the book of Hebrews present us with a challenge. What does the author mean when he refers to Jesus as “Son”? Verses 1-3 seem to describe one who is the eternal Son, the second person of the Trinity, eternally God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Yet verse 5, quoting Psalm 2:7 and the parallels in 2 Samuel 7:14; 1 Chron. 17:13 seem to suggest that Jesus is given the title “Son” at the point of his enthronement, after resurrection and ascension. This has resulted in at least three approaches: 1) that Jesus only becomes the Son, an adoptionist, less than eternally divine, approach, 2) being the Son and becoming the Son are irreconcilable, resulting in a Christology at tension with itself, and 3) Jesus is always and already the Son, a divine Christology approach.

In this work, R.B. Jamieson proposes an alternative. He sees a paradox in which both meanings are true. Jesus is the Son who became the Son. Jamieson begins his argument with highlighting six Christological concepts that he contends are part of the classical Christological toolkit: 1) Who Jesus is? A single divine subject, 2) What Jesus is? One person with two natures, 3) When this Jesus is? Eternal divine existence and incarnation in time, the last times, 4) Theology and economy, or “partitive exegesis,” that is distinguishing passages speaking of Jesus as eternally divine, and those speaking of his incarnation, 5) Twofold or reduplicative predication, a complement to number 4 in focusing on the incarnate state, and distinguishing what passages reference Jesus divine nature an what his human nature, and 6) paradoxical predication: the communication of idioms, that seemingly incompatible qualities must be ascribed to the single person of the Son. He roots these in conciliar Christianity and proposes that these, although an unusual exegetical strategy, actually allow one to read with the grain of Hebrews.

In succeeding chapters then, he unpacks his argument of the Son who became the Son. Chapter 2 focuses on the use of Son as a divine designation of his mode of divine existence, distinct from the Father and the Spirit, and as a reference to his deity. Chapter 3 turns to the Son’s incarnate mission, fully divine and fully human, and that his life, suffering, death, and resurrection are not fissures in Christology but reflect tension and resolution. Chapter 4 focuses on the enthronement of Jesus upon completion of his saving mission, confirming his messianic rule, in which he is designated messianic Son. Then, the unique twist of chapter 5 is that Jesus could only become the messianic Son because he is the divine Son incarnate–only the God-man can fill this office.

In the conclusion of the book, he first returns to the “toolkit” and shows how the Jesus of Hebrews is the Jesus of Chalcedon. He then proposes in brief that one might extend his approach to at least two other passages: Acts 2:36 and Romans 1:3-4. Finally, he points to the pastoral implication of his argument, that in the Son who became the Son, we have been given all we need in Christ.

I thought this book a marvelous example of theology and biblical studies in conversation. We see in careful study of Hebrews the questions and data about the nature of the Son that became the substance of conciliar discussion. And we see how the “Christological toolkit” of the councils offers resources for making sense of the biblical data. What I also appreciated was the carefully organized and articulated argument of this book. Jamieson “shows his work,” enabling us to follow him with clarity of language and steps in his argument. Scholars of other persuasions will have to show why theirs is a better construction of the text than this well-argued case.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.