present economic and social welfare, on the promise, and thus on the yet-future inheritance (it is the “treasure” in heaven). Hebrews styles salvation as a reward in keeping with the competition between present and future gain, present prosperity and a future inheritance. It is part of the effort to draw their attention to the city to come, and to put all their eggs in that basket. The overall framework of salvation—not least the fact that God unilaterally struck the decisive blow once-for-all in the offering of the Son, without reference to any prior cause than his goodwill—excludes the possibility of interpreting the “reward” as achieved anywhere else than in the Son’s work “by the grace of God,” and then derivatively in the faith that participates in the Son’s salvation. The Son is the “heir of all things,” and he shares his inheritance with the children given to him.
It remains evident from the logic of 5:11—6:12 (cf. 10:26–31; 12:15–17) that while the grace of God is prior and perennially unconditioned, and while it is efficacious in cleansing the conscience and qualifying for the approach to God through Jesus, it is not efficacious in the sense that it causes all of the “ground” on which it showers to produce the intended harvest. When the ground proves to be unfruitful—the mystery of sin!—that ground is rejected and burned. This does not involve the entailment that the ground that does bear fruit is “deserving” of grace, however. Such ground simply continues to receive the incongruous, prior, effectual, superabundant grace. Consequently, it simply does what comes natural: it produces good plants. It belongs to the power of God in creation and salvation that it, the creature, does produce—the creature is the subject of the verb “produce”—but only because and as created in Christ.42
Salvation as Covenant
For Hebrews, the clock of history is measured less by planetary movements than events of divine speech, with the underlying continuity provided by the promise and sequential change provided by the covenants that give the promise expression. This is not a matter of glossing “real” history with theological interpretation, as in the dominant conception of modern culture’s outlook. For Hebrews, covenant precedes cosmology; as goes the tabernacle, so goes the world. The word of God always leads, being that by which all things where made and that by which they are borne up and along to their goal. And that word is finally spoken not only in but as the Son, the heir of all things, through whom the universe was created.43
Along with Ps 110:4, taking pride of place among the divine utterances is the prophecy of the new covenant in Jer 31. Well before it is quoted in Heb 8:7–13 it looms behind the language of Hebrews (see on 2:10–18; 7:12, 22). Not only does this text serve to signal how God’s earlier speech announced the true nature and limits of the Mosaic covenant from within that earlier history, but it established the hope that the very idea of a covenant that is securely grounded, authentically realized by both parties, and permanent in effect was not merely a dream. When God determined to establish his eternal covenant, it would not be by sheer divine fiat, imposed from above. It would not be a sham or charade, boasting harmonious relations while one side lived in open rebellion. The human partner would keep the covenant fully and perfectly, showing itself to be fully worthy of the favor of its Lord. This the Son-who-is-Jesus did, when he chose the will of his Father in the act of accepting a human body for the sake of making it an offering and redeeming his fellow children; this he did when he learned obedience through suffering, never sinning; and on account of the suffering of death he was crowned with glory and honor. In that very movement of obedience he cleared the ground for the children of promise who had been given to him, the seed of Abraham. His obedience took the form of an offering that was at once the inaugurating sacrifice of the covenant and the great Day of Atonement. By dint of this there was total remission, redemption, cleansing, and atonement. Not only was the slate clean, but a new beginning was inaugurated that gave them a share in the Son and his Spirit of obedience. The law was now written on their hearts.
It is this—fully accomplished once-and-for-all—that constitutes the beginning from which the future unshakeable kingdom proceeds, but it is this same beginning that already now finds expression in the faith-obedience that falteringly, stutteringly, but resolutely plots its course on the line of that promise.
This history is the story that occupies Hebrews and it is no accident that on the heels of the Son’s obedience (10:1–10) it is that prophecy of the new covenant that is recalled once again by way of closing the central exposition of 5:1—10:18.44 From that point on (10:19—12:29), the sermon revolves on the faith-obedience that is the emblem of the members of this covenant, and it is not in passing that the opening words of that last section characterize the Son’s salvation as the new and living way (10:20). This way is not merely one of a vertical “going up” to approach God in worship, but a “going out” to bear Christ’s shame (13:13), and a “going on” to the city that is coming, Mount Zion.
The Wrinkles in the Plot
In order to deepen the story in which Hebrews participates but to do so in brief compass, it is necessary to borrow language from elsewhere in our theological lexicon. The risk is that we flatten out the telling and even prompt misunderstanding where Hebrews either does not use a particular image (e.g., “new creation”) or uses similar language in distinctive fashion. But if interpreters appeal to the larger pattern of thought within Philo or the Qumran community to read between the lines of Hebrews, it seems warranted to do so by appealing to the larger patterns of apostolic thought in which Hebrews so manifestly participates. Our conviction—with the caveats just noted—is that these distinct apostolic witnesses do in truth focus one gospel, one reality.45 At the very least, the following will put our cards on the table, indicating how the following commentary understands these things.
Viewed from one angle, Israel, the Jewish nation, is (always, only by gracious act of God) a people that is “near” in contrast to the Gentiles who are “far”; the advantage of the Jew is “much in every way”; Israel represents the native olive tree in a way that is not true of the Gentile, who is a wild olive branch that must be grafted in “against nature.” It would seem that the people of promise, the seed of Abraham in the Jewish people, somehow shared in the incarnation of the Seed, at least by derivation. The Jew is never this by nature or possession, but by virtue of the promise given to this people, the promise formalized in the covenant and all its attendant blessings, the promise always and only received in faith. But the Jew is this. Yet from another angle, Israel is as far from God as the Gentile. There is no distinction. For both, the way can only be as radical as death and resurrection. The Jew, no less than the Gentile, must be adopted if they are to become genuine children of this family; the Jew, during the time under law, is no different than a slave. All are equally in need of cleansing, forgiveness, perfecting.
It is also true that the history of Israel is not only her history, but the history of humanity. Abraham was chosen not for the sake of the salvation of the Jews, but the salvation of all people. The God who chose Abraham was and is the God of all peoples, the creator of heaven and earth. We then take to heart how Canaan and the temple were a new Eden, as it were, a new beginning to the story of the world. But whereas Adam’s story ended in judgment and death, Israel’s would end in life from death—via judgment, that brought the old story to an end, to its intended outcome—and thus would bring the new story to birth, unlocking what was promised Abraham for his seed, a seed comprised of Israel and all nations. It is, then, the hope of Gentiles to be grafted into Israel’s history, which necessarily means into the history of Israel and the promise given to her forefather, Abraham. In Hebrews, then, all of Christ’s brothers and sisters are the seed of Abraham.
Yet again, the history of the world is divided into the history before and after Jesus Christ. Before is the time of Moses and his covenant. After is the time of Jesus and his covenant, which has made Moses’s covenant old. But then we see that this new covenant is nothing less than the new
