Jesus is Better

What’s better than Jesus? What about the angels, Moses, the Levitical priesthood, and the blessings and promises of the old covenant? In the first few chapters of Hebrews, the author highlights these contrasts, pointing to the glory of Christ and his work on our behalf. His claim that Jesus is better sets the groundwork for what the rest of the sermon unpacks: a better covenant with better promises and a better mediator. In this new White Horse Inn series examining the book of Hebrews, Michael Horton is joined by Justin Holcomb, Bob Hiller, and Nick Brennan.

Quote:

“But then [the author of Hebrews] uses [angels] in a really interesting way, because by speaking about how Jesus is so much better than them, he’s talking about the eternality and the divinity of the Son as creator above these creatures. But then he’s going to turn around at the end of this passage and say, ‘It’s actually not just that the Son’s greater than angels, that in a way, the sons—Christians—have become greater than angels, because they’re those who actually have become like who that Son has become like, by sharing our nature. We’re the heirs of all the riches that Jesus has earned as the Son. . . . He can talk about Jesus being greater, but then also becoming less in the incarnation. So it’s really a very clever move and a way of starting to get his main point, which is really just to draw our eyes to the greatness of Jesus.”

Nick Brennan

On This Episode:

• Michael Horton is White Horse Inn’s founder and co-host. In addition to serving as a J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California, he is a minister in the United Reformed Churches. He is the author of more than 30 books.
• Justin Holcomb is a Senior Fellow with Sola Media’s Theo Global. He also serves as a professor and Episcopal priest. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books.
• Bob Hiller is the Senior Pastor of Community Lutheran Church in Escondido, California. He is also the author of Finding Christ in the Straw.
• Nick Brennan is Associate Professor of New Testament at Westminster Seminary California and author of Divine Christology in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Dig Deeper + Check Out This Month’s Offers:

The Old Testament in the Book of Hebrews

Free download written by Dennis Johnson

The ‘Better’ Is the Best: Essays on the Book of Hebrews

Free physical booklet (international requests will receive a PDF download)

Divine Christology in the Epistle to the Hebrews

Book by panelist Nick Brennan

Subscribe to Modern Reformation

A production of Sola Media