The supremacy of Christ

In our current Family Bible Study curriculum we are studying through the book of Hebrews. As someone who loves Old Testament, I enjoy teaching and studying through Hebrews, since much of the book draws on OT teaching and imagery. Teaching it to elementary students, however, can be a bit of a challenge. Going through the process of preparing lessons for younger learners forces you to think about the essence of what the Bible teaches, and to clarify your own thinking about BIblical passages.

The last several lessons have focused on the comparison between Christ and the OT sacrificial system. Often when adults study through the middle of Hebrews, we get hung up on Melchizedek, how Jesus fulfilled OT types and images, and just to whom Hebrews 6:4-8 is referring. The big picture can get lost in a sea of really interesting details.

What is that big picture? Jesus Christ is superior to all systems of religion. While Hebrews explicitly deals with the OT and with the Judaism of the first century, I think it is fair to take the author's teaching even further and state that Jesus is superior to all other religious systems. There is something genuinely unique about Jesus.

Religion teaches us how we ought to relate to whatever god or ultimate reality is "out there." We engage in a variety of rituals, prayers, sacrifices, and other elements in order to align ourselves with that god. This can even be true of Christians; we can easily fall into the pattern of thinking our standing with God depends on how well we play the religious game.

Despite our best intentions, though, we fail to do everything right, and we have to keep going back again and again hoping to appease our god and to regain a positive standing with him/her/it. Nothing we do can permanently assure us that we are indeed right, or that we have any guarantee of going to heaven or its equivalent.

Jesus is different. First, what He did had nothing to do with what we do. Jesus became both the perfect sacrifice and the perfect high priest, offering the one sacrifice that does have permanent effect. It doesn't matter how we act, what we do, or how religious we are; Jesus' work was done by Him and accepted by the Father apart from anything any one of us has ever done. Second, when we accept Jesus and His sacrifice, and make Him the Lord of our life and our ultimate concern, we are assured we are right with God, since that staus isn't dependent on us and our behavior.

This doesn't mean we live any old way we want to. Hebrews will go on to discuss how the change that Jesus brings to our lives should change the way we live. What it does mean is that I am always forgiven, because the penalty for my sin has been made "once for all." I'm not dependent on my religiosity or works to earn or pay for my salvation. I am dependent on what Jesus has already done, and I can neither add to nor subtract from that.

This fundamental reminder keeps us on the right track as we seek to live our lives for the Lord. It also makes us different from any religious viewpoint (including ones calling themselves Christian) that would tie us to keeping the Law, following rules, or trying to do more good than bad in order to be right with God. As Christians, we should want to do what Christ commands out of love and gratitude, but our relationship with God ultimately begins and ends with Jesus, not ourselves.

Some consolidation

Due to policy changes on some sites I've been using, I'm attempting to pull the information from this blog, the Finding My Way Around the Fathers blog, and the Pastor Steve's Study Wikispace onto a new site. This is a work in progress, and I don't expect to finish anytime soon. (Having two jobs and a family will do that!) I will keep the two blogs intact (and hopefully I'll post on them from time to time), but to have a unified access point you will want to visit this site:

The "new" Pastor Steve's Study

Thanks for all your continued interest and support!