Christ of Hebrews and other religions, The

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2003 by Osborne, Grant R

It is clear that the author wants them to do three things: repent of their spiritual weakness, put Christ first in their lives so they can begin to grow spiritually, and find a new spirit of communitas so they can endure their struggles together. There is a vertical and a horizontal dimension to the solution for apostasy as demonstrated in the three hortatory subjunctives in the conclusion to the string of comparisons in 10:22-25 (vv. 19-21 effectively summarize the first ten chapters on the significance of Christ). First, they must "draw near to God" (cf. 4:16; 7:25; 11:6; 12:18, 22), meaning a new commitment to the centrality of God in every area of their lives. Second, they must "hold unswervingly to the hope we profess," combining two major terms in the epistle, "confess" (cf. 3:1; 4:14) as the corporate profession of the lordship of Christ and of faith in him, and "hope" (cf. 3:6; 6:11, 18; 7:19; 11:1) as the future orientation of the believer to the salvation secured by the high priestly activity of Christ. Third, they must develop a caring community centered on love and good works. There are two sides of this in Hebrews, both flowing out of the use of parakalein in the book. Here in v. 25 this will mean "encouraging" one another, and in 3:13 it will also mean "admonishing" one another in light of "sin's deceitfulness" in their lives.

The vertical aspect is the complete surrender of themselves to God and Christ, as demonstrated in every parenetic section of the book, e.g. "so great a salvation" in 2:3, "the promise of entering his rest still stands" in 4:1, the need to "be taken forward to maturity" in 6:1 and to "make your hope sure" in 6:11, the centrality of believing that God "exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" in 11:6 (cf. 11:7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, 20, 25, 26, 35b, 40), "run with endurance the race that God has set before us" in 12:1, "keeping our eyes on Jesus in 12:2, "submit to the discipline of our heavenly Father" in 12:9, and "see to it that you obey God" in 12:25. DeSilva calls this "responding to the divine benefactor,"24 believing that the author is building on one of the great social forces in the Roman world, the necessity of the average person to depend on help from a patron to whom they would owe allegiance and gratitude. This theme of reciprocity would remind these Christians how much they owe God and Christ. The horizontal aspect is a caring community that will enable them to help one another through the troubled times, as seen in "we have come to share in Christ" (3:14), "imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised" in 6:12, "you stood side by side with those who were so treated" in 10:33, 34, "look after each other" in 12:15, and especially "mark out a straight path for your feet" in 12:12, 13, which pictures the strong members of the church holding up the weak members when they are about to stumble. The two aspects are summarized in chapter 13, with vv. 1-5, 7, 16-17 centering on corporate caring and vv. 6, 8-15 concluding the emphasis on looking to God and Jesus for help.