“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (Jam. 1:27). In a sermon preached in 1999, John Piper took this…
“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Heb. 13:16) “… that which is pleasing in his sight” (Heb. 13:21) Hebrews 13 alludes to two passages in which Christians…
“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” (Heb 12:1) This is one the greatest exhortations in the New Testament perseverance. Employing an athletic metaphor, the author of Hebrews urges us to run “with endurance… the…
“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1) We are of “those who have faith” (Heb. 10:39). Faith is the Christian’s distinguishing mark. But what is faith? Hebrews 11 answers it:…
McCheyne blog “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:12) When Christ ascended into heaven, he sat down. This indicates more than one idea:…
This chapter stands at the beginning of the central theological argument of Hebrews: that Jesus is the great high priest who is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him. In this chapter, the writer…
“I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.”-Philemon 10 Why would a personal, even private, letter like this be included in the Bible? What was the Holy Spirit doing when he…
One of our favorite family movies was “Up,” the wonderful Pixar film that came out a couple of years ago. One of the key moments in the movie came early: after the child Carl meets Ellie, she comes to his…
While the end of Hebrews 4 points us to our great high priest Jesus, we learn in the first ten verses of Hebrews 5 that the greatness of Jesus is that he was a priest who cried out. And he…
Most Protestants are not used to thinking about priests and especially about what makes a good or superior priest. And yet, the language of priesthood is all through this letter to the Hebrews to this point (1:3; 2:17-18; 3:1) and…
