Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever. |
Subject: The absolute deity of Jesus Christ |
Bible Note: In this verse we are told in plain, unmistakable language that Jesus Christ is indeed the great I AM, the Eternal, self-existent One who inhabits eternity. One of the most awesome messages of the Bible is the fact that Jesus Christ is indeed the Mighty God of Isa. 9:6. This unequivocal fact is spelled out for us in Hebrews 13:8 with a force that cannot be gainsaid. First of all, let us examine the term “the same.” This term is also used of Jesus Christ (“the Son”) in the first chapter of Hebrews, verse 12. Notice the context beginning in verse 8: “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” It is clear that this passage is being quoted from the Old Testament. One of the places referred to is found in Psalm 102:25-27: “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.” Carefully consider this quote taken from The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible concerning the phrase “thou art the same” in Psalm 102:27— “…or ‘thou art he’, the everlasting I AM, the unchangeable Jehovah; immutable in his nature and perfections; in his love and affections to his people; in his power to protect and keep them; in his wisdom to guide and direct them; in his righteousness to clothe them, and render them acceptable to God; in his blood to cleanse them, and speak peace and pardon to them; in his fulness to supply them, and in his intercession for them…” The Hebrew word translated “the same” in Psalm 102:27 is used in other places in scripture as a term by which God identifies Himself as the Great I AM, the Eternal, self-existent one. Consider Isaiah 48:12-13: “Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.” In conjunction with this also notice Isaiah 41:4: “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.” And finally, consider Isaiah 43:10-13: “Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, that I am God. Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?” In each of these three passages in Isaiah the same Hebrew term is used that was used in Psalm 102. In Isaiah the translation is “I am he;” in Psalm 102 the translation is “thou art the same.” When the inspired New Testament writer declared that Jesus Christ is “the same,” he was telling us that Jesus Christ is Yahweh (Jehovah), the I AM, the self-existent Eternal One. The words that follow “the same” —yesterday, today and forever— correspond exactly to the meaning of God’s sacred covenant name as revealed to Moses (“I AM that I AM”): I always have been (the same as) what I now am and (the same as) that which I ever shall be. (See Ex. 3:14.) Notice how this precisely parallels the testimony of Jesus Christ in Revelation 1:1-18: “The Revelation of Jesus Christ… I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty….” Hebrews 13:8 is one of the most emphatic theological assertions of the absolute deity of Jesus Christ in the Bible, actually linguistically linking the OT Sacred Covenant Name to the NT Sacred Covenant Name! Copyright Statement The New John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible Modernised and adapted for the computer by Larry Pierce of Online Bible. All Rightes Reserved, Larry Pierce, Winterbourne, Ontario. A printed copy of this work can be ordered from: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1 Iron Oaks Dr, Paris, AR, 72855 |
Up | View Branch | ID# 200777 | ||
Questions and/or Subjects for Heb 13:8 | Author | ||
|
JWeaver | ||
|
10ECPreacher |