Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-bzg56 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-08T09:10:24.794Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

7 - Human faith in Hebrews

from Part IV - Participating in the new story

Matthew C. Easter
Get access

Summary

Introduction

This chapter is the culmination of everything we have covered thus far, and so will benefit from a quick review. In the opening chapter I laid the theoretical groundwork for a narrative approach to reading Scripture and understanding human identity. I argued that human identity is narrativally oriented, such that we can understand ourselves as part of a story. In Part 2 of the study (Chapters 2–3), I investigated the “default human story” according to Hebrews. We found that God intended human beings to receive glory and honor, but these good purposes for humanity have not been realized. Instead, the default human story is a pessimistic one, characterized by unfaithfulness and leading to the assured conclusion of eschatological death. We found that this story held true even for the heroes of faith in Israel’s tradition: they all died without receiving what was promised (11:39). Part 3 (Chapters 4–6) then addressed the story rewritten in Christ. There we found that Jesus, who participated fully in the human story, wrote a new story by faithfully enduring to the point of death and by enjoying the eschatological hope that was previously unrealized by humanity. As illustrated most clearly in 12:1–2, Jesus pioneered faith by faithfully enduring the cross and he perfected faith by realizing life beyond death. The story rewritten in Christ is characterized by faithfulness and concludes assuredly in eschatological life. This new conclusion is not assured for all people, but only those who are participating in the rewritten story. What “participating in the rewritten story” looks like is our concern in this chapter.

Type
Chapter
Information
Faith and the Faithfulness of Jesus in Hebrews , pp. 181 - 214
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Hughes, Graham, Hebrews and Hermeneutics: The Epistle to the Hebrews as a New Testament Example of Biblical Interpretation, SNTSMS 36 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 80Google Scholar
Rusche, Helga, “Glauben und Leben nach dem Hebräerbrief: Einführende Bemerkungen,” BibLeb 12 (1971), 103Google Scholar
Attridge, Harold W., “Giving Voice to Jesus: Use of the Psalms in the New Testament,” in Psalms in Community: Jewish and Christian Textual, Liturgical, and Artistic Traditions, eds. Attridge, Harold W. and Fassler, Margot E.. SBLSymS 25 (Atlanta: SBL, 2003), 108–109Google Scholar
Schoonhoven, Calvin R., “The ‘Analogy of Faith’ and the Intent of Hebrews,” in Scripture, Tradition, and Interpretation: Essays Presented to Everett F. Harrison by His Students and Colleagues in Honor of His Seventy-fifth Birthday, eds. Gasque, W. Ward and LaSor, William S. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978], 106Google Scholar
Koester, Craig R., “God’s Purposes and Christ’s Saving Work According to Hebrews,” in Salvation in the New Testament: Perspectives on Soteriology, ed. van der Watt, Jan G.. NovTSup 121 (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 372Google Scholar
Kamell, Mariam J., “Reexamining Faith: A Study of Hebrews 10:19–12:14 and James 1–2,” in The Epistle to the Hebrews and Christian Theology, eds. Bauckham, Richard et al. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 423Google Scholar
MacRae, George W., “Heavenly Temple and Eschatology in the Letter to the Hebrews,” Semeia 12 (1978), 191–95Google Scholar
Marshall, I. Howard, Kept by the Power of God: A Study of Perseverance and Falling Away (London: Epworth, 1969), 146–47Google Scholar
Söding, Thomas, “Gemeinde auf dem Weg: Christsein nach dem Hebräerbrief,” BK 48 (1991), 184Google Scholar
Spicq, Ceslas, L’Épitre aux Hébreux I – Introduction, EBib (Paris: Gabalda, 1952), 269–80Google Scholar
Yoder, John Howard, For the Nations: Essays Public and Evangelical (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 149Google Scholar
Mitchell, Alan C., “Holding on to Confidence: ΠΑΡΡΗΣΙΑ in Hebrews,” in Friendship, Flattery, and Frankness of Speech: Studies on Friendship in the New Testament World, ed. Fitzgerald, J. T. (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 205–17Google Scholar
Four Views on the Warning Passages in Hebrews (2007)
Schreiner, Thomas R. and Caneday, Ardel B., The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance & Assurance (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2001), esp. 142–213Google Scholar
Allen, David M., “The Irrevocable Nature of Salvation: Evidences from the Book of Hebrews,” Testamentum Imperium 2 [2009], 22Google Scholar
Burnett, Gary W., Paul and the Salvation of the Individual, Biblical Interpretation Series 57 (Leiden: Brill, 2001), 23–87Google Scholar
Moule, C. F. D., “The Individualism of the Fourth Gospel,” NovT 5, no. 2–3 [1962], 185Google Scholar
O’Grady, John F., “Individualism and Johannine Ecclesiology,” BTB 5 [1975], 260–61Google Scholar
Malina, Bruce J., Christian Origins and Cultural Anthropology: Practical Models for Biblical Interpretation (Atlanta: John Knox, 1986), 19Google Scholar
Malina, Bruce J., “The Individual and the Community-Personality in the Social World of Early Christianity,” BTB 9 (1979), 126–38Google Scholar
Roloff, Jürgen, Die Kirche im Neuen Testament, GNT 10 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993), 279CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bockmuehl, Markus, “The Church in Hebrews,” in A Vision for the Church: Studies in Early Christian Ecclesiology in Honour of J. P. M. Sweet, eds. Bockmuehl, Markus and Thompson, Michael B. (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1997), 138Google Scholar
Marshall, Christopher D., “One for All and All for One: The High Priesthood of Christ, the Church, and the Priesthood of Believers in Hebrews,” Journal of the Christian Brethren Research Fellowship 129 (1992), 10Google Scholar
Fernández, Víctor M., “La Vida Sacerdotal de los Cristianos según la Carta a los Hebreos,” RevistB 52 [1990], 146Google Scholar
Leithart, Peter J., “Womb of the World: Baptism and the Priesthood of the New Covenant in Hebrews 10.19–22,” JSNT 78 (2000), 49–65Google Scholar
Guthrie, George H., “Conclusion,” in Four Views on the Warning Passages in Hebrews, ed. Bateman, Herbert W. (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 441Google Scholar
Verbrugge, Verlyn D., “Towards a New Interpretation of Hebrews 6:4–6,” CTJ 15, no. 1 [1980], 67Google Scholar
Osborne, Grant R., “A Classical Arminian View,” in Four Views on the Warning Passages in Hebrews, ed. Bateman, Herbert W. (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007), 99Google Scholar
Lofland, John and Stark, Rodney, “Becoming a World-Saver: A Theory of Conversion to a Deviant Perspective,” in Religion in Sociological Perspective: Essays in the Empirical Study of Religion, ed. Glock, Charles Y. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1973), 47Google Scholar
American Sociological Review 30, no. 6, December 1965
Kox, Willem, Meeus, Wim, and ‘t Hart, Harm, “Religious Conversion of Adolescents: Testing the Lofland and Stark Model of Religious Conversion,” Sociological Analysis 52 (1991), 238CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stark, Rodney, The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 18Google Scholar
Gallagher, Eugene V., “Conversion and Community in Late Antiquity,” JR 73, no. 1 [1993], 14Google Scholar
Grässer, Erich, An die Hebräer. 3. Teilband (Hebr 10,19–13,25), EKKNT XVII/3 (Zürich: Benziger, 1997), 29Google Scholar
Grässer, Erich, “Rechtfertigung im Hebräerbrief,” in Rechtfertigung: Festschrift für Ernst Käsemann zum 70. Geburtstag, eds. Stuhlmacher, Peter et al. (Tübingen: Mohr, 1976), 91Google Scholar
Mosser, Carl, “Rahab Outside the Camp,” in The Epistle to the Hebrews and Christian Theology, eds. Bauckham, Richard et al. [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009], 383–404Google Scholar
Walker, Peter, Jesus and the Holy City: New Testament Perspectives on Jerusalem [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996], 217–20Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×