Hebrews has all the trappings of an epistle of Paul, although it is not directed to the Gentiles or the Church, but rather it’s directed to the Hebrew believers "Christians". There has always been a lot of controversy over this epistle as to its authorship, and as to its time of writing and so forth. We're not a theologian, so we don’t have to get hung up on any of these big heavyweight arguments. We just tell what we think it is, and we believe the Apostle Paul is definitely the author of the Epistle of Hebrews though at times Clements or Luke's hand can be found in it's language or one of them may have wrote it for Paul.
Secondly, we feel that it was one of his earlier letters, if not the earliest. We read something in the past confirming that, and that is in some of the earliest or ancient manuscripts of our New Testament, the Epistle of Hebrews followed I and II Thessalonians. Now everyone is pretty much agreed that the Thessalonian letters were the first of Paul’s writings, and so if Hebrews in the ancient manuscripts followed Thessalonians, then that falls right in line.
Another thing we think we have to realize of Hebrews, is that there is absolutely nothing of Church language. In other words, we won’t find a Roman road to Salvation in Hebrews. There is not a Hebrews road to Salvation, so, "What’s the theme of the Epistle?" The theme of this Epistle of Hebrews is two fold.
1. We’re being shown a constant comparison of how this economy or dispensation or Age now under Grace is so much Better than anything that went before. And we’ll be looking at this over and over throughout this Epistle. We’ll see this is better! Yes, the Law was good, but this is so much Better.
2.More preeminent in importance is that Hebrews is going to point out Who Jesus Christ really is and that after His ascension we change the arrangement of His name to honor Him and His finished work, to Christ Jesus. Because He is declared by God to be the Son of God and is now our High Priest-King in the order of Melchizedek. It uncovers the veiled secret that God had hidden within His heart and which He called a mystery, as He revealed them to Paul and Paul alone.
This tremendous Epistle to the Hebrews, that it is not a book of Church doctrine, as we won’t find a single word in here about redemption or Salvation based on Christ’s death, burial and resurrection, or any reference to the Body of Christ, the Church nor any reference to faith + nothing as we see so often in Romans through Philemon. Nor is it a Book of corrections and admonitions like the Book of Galatians is. The Epistle of Hebrews is going to just show us what a tremendous important the personage Christ Jesus really is and His Ministry to us, in us. We have to remember, the Bible doesn’t tell us everything we’d like to know. "But the Bible does tell us everything that we need to know." The whole Epistle of Hebrews is written primarily to the Hebrew people who had turned to belief, trusting faith in Christ, and to prove to them that this Jesus of Nazareth, whom most of them now were in the throws of rejection in unbelief saying, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" And yet this Epistle of Hebrews is proving that Christ, the Son of God, is better than anything that had gone before. We hear of people that have been in a cult or even the main line churches, for maybe 40, 50, 60, or even 70 years, and then the Lord begins to show them the Truth of this beautiful Gospel of Grace, and they begin to grasp it, but yet there is that constant nagging, that pulls, with the thought, "What if I was right and this is wrong?" So most have that constant pull to go back into that which they had drummed into them for a lifetime.
We'll see these people to whom Paul was writing were in that same set of circumstances. They’ve been steeped in Judaism since way back in the days of Moses. They’ve been in Judaism and the Levitical Law-keeping as a nation of people throughout their whole lifetime, and now, to suddenly have this brought before them; that they were to turn their back on all that, because they’re no longer under the bondage to that Law, that God the Son has now finished the work of redemption, and faith alone is all that’s needed. Their no longer under the works as a belief system, of their forefathers, but rather a trusting in the Word which brings obedience or a doing of it. So we can see where a change to that would be tough. Just watch for that flavor throughout the Epistle of Hebrews. These Hebrews are trying to be pulled back into that, which up front, they can see is now behind them.
As a means of introduction to Hebrews let's take a look at another letter, this one will be Peter's letter: II Peter 3:15
"And account (or understand) that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom (divine illumination) given to him has written to you;" Let’s qualify who are the "you" that Peter is addressing. Well come back to I Peter chapter 1, and there we see very plainly that Peter is writing to the Hebrews, not Gentiles, not even a mixture of each. He is writing to Hebrews of the dispersion, the ones known as “Christians”.
I Peter 1:1
"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia."
So who is he addressing? Hebrews of the dispersion who had already been scattered away from their home area of Jerusalem and Judea, some of them from the Babylonian time. So now coming back to II Peter chapter 3, let’s finish our thought. Peter is letting them know that these people to whom he is writing have received letters from the Apostle Paul.
II Peter 3:15-16
"And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given to him has written to you;" (Hebrews) Then we go into the next verse, and if anyone is tempted to feel that Paul’s writings do not belong in our Bible, then here is proof by the writing of the Apostle Peter, inspired by the Holy Spirit, like any other writer of Scripture, that Paul’s letters are all Scripture. They carry a heavier glory than did Moses.
II Peter 3:16
"As also in all his epistles (Paul's), speaking in them of these things; (these things which pertain to Redemption leading through our Salvation up there in verse 15) in which are some things hard to be understood, (even Peter at his late date had a very hard time comprehending these doctrines of Grace that had come from the Apostle Paul’s pen, but nevertheless, he is still agreeing, that) which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction."
Now when we say the other Scriptures, after talking about Paul, what does it make them all? Scripture! So Paul’s letters, even by the inspiration of Peter’s pen, are still all Scripture. So if anyone ever tells you, "Well I don’t think much of Paul’s writing," then we just take them right to these verses. This is as plain as it can get that Paul was just as much a writer of the Word of God as Moses, Isaiah, or John, Peter or anyone else.
On our way to Hebrews lets look at one of Paul's statements found in Romans:
Romans 1:16
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it (the Gospel of God's Grace) is the power (remember this word power) of God to salvation to every one that believes; (now what is the process?) to the Jew (Hebrew) first, and also to the Greek."(or Gentiles)
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