Don’t Drift From Him Who Is Better Than the Angels
When you are in a boat and attempting to come into a harbor or to make landfall from offshore, out in the ocean, you have to be diligent. You need to know where you are going, to recognize from offshore the place you want to go. You need to be aware of the current, its direction and flow, and how it may be taking you away from your intended goal. There might be hazards in the way, such as rocks or sandbars, that could strand you or sink you. And if you’re in a sailboat, dependent on the wind, then you also must be calculating how you will use the wind, particularly if it is heading you and you are having to beat up into it to make it to shore. But whether your vessel is small or relatively large, whether using sail or motor to propel you, you must be on the alert, you must be diligent. It is no time to just drift along and expect that you’ll just make it safely into port. And if there’s any inclement weather or rough seas, then how will you escape disaster if you aren’t paying attention? You may well end up on the rocks, your life forfeited, because you were simply drifting along.
Maybe you have never sailed in a boat or ship, so my picture may not ring any bells with you. But you know how you can easily pass an exit on a freeway if you aren’t paying attention. Or perhaps you have known what it is to briefly, ever so briefly, start to fall asleep at the wheel and suddenly wake up as you start to drift into another lane or onto the shoulder. Driving requires alertness. It’s easy to end up missing your intended goal or, worse, be involved in an accident and perhaps a life-threatening accident at that, if you don’t pay attention.
It’s easy to drift in life in various ways, and that drifting may cost you dearly. The author of the letter to the Hebrews was a wise and mature man. He knew that those to whom he was writing were in danger of taking their eye off the goal and perhaps missing their goal. So he wrote,
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. … How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (Heb 2:1, 3)
The Jewish believers to whom the pastor was writing had made a good voyage of faith thus far. There had already been some terrible rough water for them but they had stayed afloat and avoided shipwreck. They were personally acquainted with persecution and had
… endured a hard struggle with sufferings … sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated … and (they) joyfully accepted the plundering of (their) property. (Heb 10:33, 34)
But they were worn out and were in danger of drifting. They were facing more difficulties and thus were being tempted to take their eye off the goal and possibly floundering in their journey. Confronted with persecution, they were considering returning from where they had come, of going back to the shadows of Judaism.
Part of the temptation to let go and return to Judaism was the fact that it looked like a safe harbor from their weary trials. But they were also being tempted to drift away from Christ and their salvation because Judaism had some claims to glory. The Apostle Paul wrote as recorded at Romans 9, verses 4 and 5,
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
That’s quite a list of benefits, quite of list of gifts from God that marked them out as his special people and possession in the world. Christianity is not a new faith, but is the fulfillment of the promises of the older period or dispensation of God’s gracious dealing with men. Abraham is the father of all the faithful; those who have fled to Christ are members of the true Israel of which physical, Old Testament Israel was but a type, a foreshadowing, of what was to come. Abraham is your father in the faith if you are a Christian. But Judaism that rejects Christ is not the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, nor the faith of Moses and Samuel and David; nor is it the faith of Elijah and Elisha and all the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours (1 Pet 1:10) as well as the faith and salvation of these Hebrew believers. But let me get back on track and not drift from the text.
Listen again to what Paul wrote: to the Israelites belong … the glory (Rom 9:4). To them also belong the worship, all the worship of God associated with the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, and the pastor is going to address that. And to Israel was given the law, and the pastor is going to address that also as he turns to Moses. These were gifts from God that other nations and races did not have. We might sum it all up as the glory which God poured out upon them. It was indeed, in the Old Testament period of God’s perfect unfolding of his perfect purpose and plan of redemption, it was indeed glorious!
But the glory has a particular reference to the glory that was associated with the manifestation of God. It was the brilliance of God’s presence made visible to men. When the Tabernacle was completed and set up, and after all had been sanctified and set apart with the sprinkling of the anointing oil and blood (cf. Heb 9:21, 22), we read of God’s presence descending upon the Tabernacle.
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. … the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. (Exod 40:34, 35, 38)
There was also the glory of God that appeared between the cherubim, above the mercy seat that covered the ark. And collectively, the ark and the mercy seat with the cherubim was the glory of Israel (cf. 1 Sam 4:21). But it was all the manifestation of God’s presence, the brilliance of his presence, that was the glory of which Paul was referring.
What was this brilliance? It is known as the shechinah. That word isn’t found in Scripture, but it means resting place. This visible manifestation of God’s presence rested upon the Tabernacle, and later the Temple when it was dedicated by Solomon (cf. 2 Chron 7:1-4), and particularly, as I’ve just mentioned, in the Holy of Holies above the mercy seat. But this glorious light was associated with angelic beings who continually wait upon and surround God Almighty. And in particular, angels were present and through them was given the Law to Moses and Israel.
We read at Acts 7:53 — and this is the conclusion of Stephen’s ‘sermon’ to the Jewish leaders leading up to his martyrdom — let’s begin at verse 52:
Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.
And we read at Galatians 3:19 from Paul’s pen once again and jumping into the middle of his train of thought,
Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.
The intermediary was Moses, but the Law was given through angels.
What was Stephen and Paul talking about? Well, we read at Deuteronomy 33:2, part of Moses’ final blessing upon the people of Israel,
The Lord came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Param; he came from the ten thousands of holy one, with flaming fire at his right hand.
Other passages speak of the angelic hosts being like fire in appearance, such as when the hosts of the army of heaven appeared to Elisha and his servant,
Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see.” So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:17)
So when God gave the Law to Moses as well as all the other regulations and instructions concerning the Tabernacle, God was attended by, surrounded by, the myriads upon myriads, the ten thousand upon ten thousand angelic beings (cf. Heb 12:22). And this is at least part of the glory, the glorious light of the manifestation of God’s presence. And thus Scripture speaks of the Law being given through angels.
And all this is part of the glory of the people of Israel, and part of the temptation to turn back. It looked as though Christianity was rather drab. There was no glorious appearing of angels when Christ sat down upon the mountain and preached. Yes, angels had appeared to the shepherds on the night of his birth, and his conception was announced to Mary and Joseph by Gabriel, but by and large the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth looked rather ordinary compared to the glory of God’s presence in the Older Testament record.
So the pastor, who had just declared that Christ was the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb 1:3) moved right into speaking about angels, for they were closely associated with the giving of the Law and all the regulations concerning the Tabernacle, including the Levitical priesthood and the Aaronic high priesthood, as well as all the sacrifices that were continually repeated day after day. His readers were in danger of drifting away from the glorious Savior, missing the only safe harbor and the true, eternal realities, because the glitter of the types of the Old Testament was looking pretty good to them. So the pastor’s attention turns from the declaration of the glory of Christ to showing how he is better than the angels, and thus his message and mission of salvation is better than that which was delivered through angels.
How is Jesus better than the angels? The pastor answered that in two ways in the evidence that he mustered from the Scriptures: Christ is better than the angels in his eternal being, and Jesus the God-man is better than the angels in his office. These two aspects of the Savior being better than angels are interwoven in these various quotations.
Some of the Scripture passages that the author-pastor cited are clearly dealing with Christ as the eternal second person of the Godhead. Take a look, for example, at verse 10. This is a quotation from Psalm 102. Through this psalm, God is addressed as Yahweh, the “I Am” of Israel. So here in verse 10, applying it to Christ, the pastor is declaring that Christ
… laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
The Son of God is on the Creator side of the Creator / creation divide. He was already there in the beginning and before the beginning. All there is has come about through the powerful, creative activity of the Word, the living Word. Hear again the familiar words of John 1:3,
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
As the Creator of all things, he was the creator of angelic beings. Thus he is greater than the angels for he is their maker.
And if there is any doubt of his eternal nature, consider the quotation from Psalm 45 in verse 8 of Hebrews 1:
… of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.”
This is God addressing the Son as God. There is no doubt that Christ is deity. As God in his eternal deity, all creation, including the angels, owe him worship. He is seated on the throne, but the angels of God are but servants before the throne. Look at verse 7:
Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.”
Indeed, as the pastor rightly points out in verse 14 of chapter 1,
Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
This is a subject that the author-pastor is going to return to at verse 5 of chapter 2, but it’s a strong argument: the angels are servants not only of Christ from all eternity, but they are sent out to serve … those who are to inherit salvation. They go forth from the throne of Christ in service to him for the sake of God’s people. They minister to the flock of Christ.
But not only is Christ better than the angels intrinsically because he is God himself, the eternal second person of the Trinity, “the same in substance” with the Father and the Spirit, and “equal in power and glory” with the Father and the Spirit (cf. WSC 5). He is also better because he is the mediator of the Covenant of Grace, who accomplished salvation in his three-fold office of Prophet, Priest, and King, and fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament.
At verse 6 we read a quotation from the Greek translation of Deuteronomy 32:43, which includes a line not found in the Hebrew text,
Let all God’s angels worship him.
The context is from the Song of Moses, and it rehearses Israel’s disobedience following their deliverance from Egypt and their wilderness wanderings. But there is a promise of ultimate deliverance found in verse 23:
He repays those who hate him and cleanses (or atones for) his people’s land.
How would that happen and come about? Through the Messiah. And thus the pastor to the Hebrews states in verse 6 of chapter 1,
And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
This is God Almighty Incarnate, who at the right time was sent into the world, the fulfillment of all the Old Testament.
We have another reference to the incarnate Son of God in verse 5, taken from Psalm 2.
For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? (Heb 1:5)
Certainly the eternal Son has been eternally God’s Son. And today can refer to eternity. But listen to Paul as he preached at Pisidian Antioch as recorded at Acts 13:32 and 33.
And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you.”
So the Spirit has applied this passage, Psalm 2:7, to the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of Christ did not constitute Jesus as the Son of God; it did not make him the Son of God. Rather, it declared him to be the Son of God, it proved him, demonstrate him to be the Son of God. This is the same language we find at Romans 1.
… his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom 1:2-4)
Jesus is better than the angels not only in his deity, better than the angels because he is the eternal God, but also because he is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises and shadows that were all pointing to him.
God’s revelation by the prophets at many times and in many ways, verse 1, was all about Christ. He made
… purification for sins, (and) he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Heb 1:3)
He is the one who accomplished all that the message mediated through the angels foretold and to which it pointed ahead.
The believers that this pastor was writing to were looking back at the shadows. They were indeed glorious, but the message that the angels brought in the Old Testament was meant to pass away. The older revelations of God through the prophets and even through the angels in the giving of the Law and in the glorious manifestation of God in the shechinah glory were but reflections of the true light that dawned with the coming of Christ into the world, the incarnate Son of God. The angels are made, but the Son is eternal in his deity and when he came into the world the angels worshiped him. The angels don’t sit on the throne, but the Son does. He rules, they serve, and they serve those who are heirs of eternal glory with Christ.
And so he urged his readers, his fellow believers facing trials and persecution,
Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? (Heb 2:1-3)
The pastor is arguing from the lesser to the greater. The message and revelation of God’s Law in the older dispensation was glorious. How could it be otherwise, for it was all speaking of their great need and God’s gracious provision for it, accompanied by many glorious manifestations of God’s presence as well as his power, even mediated through angels. But it was spoken through types and shadow and promises yet to be fulfilled. Now the very Son of God had appeared and he drives away the shadows. We need to pay even closer attention to him and to what he has revealed as the fulfillment of all those types.
They were taking their eyes off of Jesus, the author and perfecter of their faith (cf. Heb 12:2), in danger of drifting and even missing the goal of eternal salvation. They were being enthralled by glories of the older dispensation rather than the glory of Christ who accomplished salvation.
And you, too, Christian need to pay much closer attention to the voyage you are making in this life as Christian. We, too, may drift away from it.
Can Christians be lost? Can we lose our salvation? No. The work of Christ is effectual for all those for whom he died. Jesus didn’t die to make salvation simply a possibility, but to accomplish and secure salvation for his people. That is even intimated in verse 14 when instead of speaking of those who are saved the author speaks of those who are to inherit salvation. The heirs are already secure in Christ, and the angelic hosts are sent forth from the throne in service to Christ on behalf of all those who are co-heirs with him of eternal glory. All those whom the Father has given to the Son will certainly obtain their inheritance.
But this is not simply a hypothetical warning, as if the pastor was winking as he said to these Christian believers, “Yes, you need to get your eyes back on Jesus and don’t be fascinated with the angels who are but creatures and ministering servants. I don’t want you to drift away from the faith, wink, wink, even though we know you cannot be lost.” No, that would be a gross perversion. The perseverance of the saints, your eternal security, is not in spite of drifting from the faith, but rather through diligent efforts to persevere in the faith. And that, too, is a gracious gift from God. We can never separate our salvation from the fruit of God’s regenerating work in us.
Some of you may be drifting. Yes, you have heard the glorious good news of salvation accomplished by Jesus Christ. Perhaps you heard it from your earliest years from Christian parents and have always been members of the visible people of God.
But are you diligently seeking to pay all the more attention to Christ and the word that he brought? Do you even seek to learn more about him, to keep your eyes focused on him? How often do you decide that even an extra hour of looking into God’s Word with his people during our continuing education hour is something you don’t need? Now if you were frequently searching God’s Word to learn more about Christ and the message of such a great salvation, verse 3, then perhaps you might be able to say that you are not in danger of drifting. But I know, and you know, that many of you don’t do that. How would you answer the question, “Are you seeking to see Jesus and to pay careful attention to his word every day?” And so do you think that you are immune to drifting? And what will keep you in the hour of temptation and in the day of trial? How will you stand up should you be persecuted for your faith in Christ? How will you escape and make it to shore, so to speak, if you don’t diligently, and all the more diligently, seek to lay hold of Christ and the salvation unfolded for us in him throughout the Bible?
The provision for your perseverance, saint, are the means of grace, but that is simply saying what the pastor here at Hebrews 2 said. The means of grace — the Word, the Sacraments, Christian fellowship and prayer — those are all simply ways of paying close attention to Christ and the message he brought of such a great salvation. The way you will not drift in times of trial is to use those means of grace now in a time of relative calm.
And Jesus Christ, on the throne, continues to aid and comfort his people, and he does so, in part, through the ongoing ministry of angelic beings that he sends out to serve the people he purchased. What a grand incentive for you, saint, to strive to pay all the more attention to Christ, to learning from him at his feet, to speaking to him and your heavenly Father with the mysterious aid of the Spirit who helps us in our prayers. Christ sends forth his flaming ministers to help you, Christian! I intend to speak more to that subject this evening, Lord willing.
But in the meantime, saints, adore and worship your Savior who is better than the angels and who is the bringer of the good news of such a great salvation. Don’t drift from him who is better than angels.
