From the start of Hebrews, we are not talking about Christ’s performance, what He did on the cross. Instead of performance, we are talking about the position of Christ. The author is not talking about what Christ does. The author is talking about who Christ is.

I’m going to be dealing with the theme of Today in Hebrews. This is already a series on Patheos. So I’m just going to be sharing snippets of some of the sermons as vlogs, over the course of the next few weeks. The first one centers in on Hebrews 1.5. In that particular verse, there’s a tension that rises between performance and position. It’s really between the performance of Christ and His position, and what that means for us.

Performance vs. Position

For to which of the angels did God ever say,

“You are my Son;
today I have begotten you”?

Or again,

“I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son”? (Hebrews 1.5, NRSV)

i. Hebrews 1.5

This is very impressive doctrine about Christ. We call it Christology. It’s at the beginning of Hebrews. The doctrine of Christ is tied to Today or to The Now throughout the book of Hebrews.

Let’s look at it simply. If I look for one simple explanation, the author is clearing things up by saying who Christ is, by saying what Christ is not. The author is contrasting Jesus to lesser beings.

Christ is not the angels. Christ is more. Jesus is not only God, He’s begotten in some way as human. We can imply the flip-side of that, by saying that Jesus is not only human, He’s also begotten as God’s Son.

ii. Performance vs. Position

Our world today is caught up in the tension of performance vs. position. What Christ accomplishes through the salvation plan is not based on . . . well, it’s not based on what He accomplishes.

It’s not based on His performance, but upon His position. He’s the Son of God. It’s because of His position as the 2nd Person in the Trinity, it’s because of His position of Sonship, that He has the right to connect with us. He offers us that same kind of position.

He offers us what He has, and that is Sonship. He offers us a position of becoming the children of God. Like Christ, we are God’s sons and daughters.

Dr. Sanket Mehta | Father and Son | 02.15.14 | creative commons

I wish that in our world today we could realize that our value is not tied to our performance. Our value rests in our position.

I wish I could convince the church of this, because the world would see us as far more attractive if we did understand it. Your value does lie in your performance. It rests in your position. There’s a difference between striving to perform for Christ, and resting in who you are in Christ.

Jesus extends this grace to us. If we accept His good work, not ours . . . the Father says to us, You are my son and my daughter; Today.