Hebrews, Christ and the New Covenant
Hebrews is a key New Testament book that explains the work of Christ as the foundation of the new covenant along with its implications for the lives of Christians and the Christian church. A study in this book will get one to the heart of the New Testament’s understanding of the Old Testament.
In many ways, Hebrews is foundational to our expression in our Statement of Faith in Article 4 referring to the person and work of Christ as “Israel’s promised Messiah.” This becomes the hermeneutical center for Christians as they read, study, understand and apply the Scriptures in a Christo-centric and Christo-telic manner.
A number of years ago D. A. Carson taught through the book of Hebrews at one of our EFCA One national conferences. It was incredibly rich.
This teaching is now made available more broadly through the release of the second installment in the TEDS Lecture Series which consists of D. A. Carson’s teaching on “The Book of Hebrews,” which was recorded from the spring 2013 “Acts, Pauline and General Epistles” course at TEDS. Four lectures with accompanying transcripts are included in the links below. The brief explanations come from the TEDS website.
In these four lectures, Dr. Carson covers the basic questions involved in interpreting Hebrews such as authorship, date of composition, and intended audience, as well as covering its content and focusing in particular on major themes of Christology. Hebrews is unique in the New Testament in its explanation of Christ’s high priestly work and its extended application of Yom Kippur imagery to Jesus’ death and resurrection. Dr. Carson highlights the unique, once-for-all quality of Jesus’ sacrificial death as presented by Hebrews as well as the reality of Christ’s ongoing high priestly ministry on behalf of believers.
In the first lecture (video and transcription) of this four-part series on the Book of Hebrews, Dr. Carson looks at the introduction to the book, the significance of the idea of “better,” and explores Old and New Testament occurrences of the phrase “You are my Son; today I have become your Father.”
Carrying on in the Book of Hebrews (video and transcription), Dr. Carson highlights the Biblical trajectory of entering God’s rest, walks through understanding passages in a moralizing and typological way, discusses how to preach particular passages in Hebrews, and points out what he sees as the definition of a true Christian.
Dr. Carson’s third lecture (video and transcription) on Hebrews focuses on perseverance and preservation of the saints, with discussions on the doctrine of Christian assurance and its implications for pastoral ministry and evangelism. He also begins to lay the groundwork for the next lecture on the king-priest figure of Melchizedek.
In the final lecture on Hebrews (video and transcription), Dr. Carson digs into what the Old and New Testament writers say about priesthood, law, covenant, and sacrifice, and the “once-for-all” effect of the death of Jesus.
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