Recently I ran across the claim that when Hebrews 2:10 and 12:2 describe Jesus as our archēgos (ἀρχηγός) it means, essentially, that Jesus was the first believer. Like Baxter and Shepherd, the idea being taught is that Jesus had faith and works and Christians have faith and works. The underlying conviction is that Jesus’ faith and works are essentially the same, in important respects, as our faith and works. This is, of course, classic moralism. 

There has long been an attempt in certain segments of Christianity to make Jesus into the first Christian. Thomas Jefferson did it. He removed the portions of the New Testament that he did not like, especially those parts that taught the divinity of Christ and that showed him doing supernatural acts. A bit later see it in the Liberals, who denied Jesus’ deity and re-made him in their own image into a “do-gooder” and a teacher of morals. The Social Gospellers did the same. Dissatisfied with a Savior who saves sinners from the wrath to come, they made him into a this-wordly savior. Norman Shepherd, in the words of Cornel Venema, treats Christ as “little more than a model believer.”

Recently I ran across the claim that when Hebrews 2:10 and 12:2 describe Jesus as our archēgos (ἀρχηγός) it means, essentially, that Jesus was the first believer. Like Baxter and Shepherd, the idea being taught is that Jesus had faith and works and Christians have faith and works. The underlying conviction is that Jesus’ faith and works are essentially the same, in important respects, as our faith and works. This is, of course, classic moralism. It is the very thing that Machen opposed in the liberals. It is Pelagian and it is utterly confused about who Jesus was, what he did, and who we are and how we are saved. Further, it quite misunderstands Hebrews.

There is no question among orthodox Christians whether Christians must seek to imitate Christ. The questions are why and to what end? The orthodox Christian doctrine is that Jesus is the Savior and Christians are the saved. The orthodox Christian doctrine is that Jesus had, as Turretin put it, fides generalis (general faith) and we have fides specialis (special faith). The distinction grounded in the fact that Jesus did not believe God for salvation as we do. We Christians obey God out of gratitude for what Jesus did for us. Jesus obeyed his Father on our behalf, as our substitute. There is a great difference between these. See the linked essay that explains this distinction at length.

Nevertheless, despite the clarity of Scripture on this and the precision of the Reformed churches (in their confessions) and orthodox theologians on this, the urge to make Jesus into a “model believer” persists. In this instance it was implied that the pastor who wrote to the Hebrew Christians (i.e., who sent them a sermon) was teaching them that Jesus was a believer just as we are and we ought to imitate his faith and works.

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