Hebrews presents a realistic but hopeful paradigm to make sense of your daily experience: like the Israelite generation who left Egypt with Moses, your life is a trek through a hostile wilderness, en route to a homeland that transcends this sin-stained earth.

A Treasury of Truth and Encouragement

Hebrews is a rich treasury of life-transforming truth and heart-sustaining encouragement. Do you long to know Jesus of Nazareth? Hebrews introduces him as the eternal Son who radiates the glory of God (Hebrews 1:2–3), the royal Messiah whom God calls “God” (Hebrews 1:8), and the Creator of earth and heaven (Hebrews 1:10–12). Hebrews also shows how close this glorious divine Son has come to you, sharing your human flesh and blood (Hebrews 2:9–16), enduring suffering and trials like yours (Hebrews 2:17–18), and empathizing with your weakness to help you in crisis (Hebrews 4:15–16).

Do you long to see why Christians base all their hopes—and risk their lives—on this paradoxical union of divine majesty and human frailty in the person of Jesus? Hebrews reveals the perfection of Jesus as the one and only mediator between God and humanity, who secures our communion with God (Hebrews 7:22; 8:6; 9:15). God created you for his friendship, but your bad choices have stained you to the core, creating a chasm of estrangement that you cannot cross. The Son came into the world to do God’s will, enduring temptation without sinning and offering his body as the blameless sacrifice that cleanses your conscience and brings you home (Hebrews 4:15; 7:26; 9:14; 10:5–10). This same Son was raised from the dead (Hebrews 13:20), “crowned with glory and honor” (Hebrews 2:9), and enthroned at God’s right hand (Hebrews 1:3, 13; 8:1). There he lives forever to pray for you (Hebrews 7:24–25).

Drawing on the dominant biblical-theological themes of Hebrews, this addition to the New Testament Theology series explores how Jesus fulfills perfect priesthood as he calls believers to hold fast to him amid persecution.

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