(3) The Christian Life.— The 'great salva- tion' (2^) wrought by Christ is variously described in the Epistle as the realization of man's lordship over creation (2^- ^), deliverance from the fear of death {•2^'*-^^), entrance into the perfect Sabbath- rest of God (4:^). But its essence consists in cleans- ing and consecration, the taking away of sin (9"), and the opening of a \vay of free access into the Divine presence (10-"), or, as it is expressed in one passage, ' the perfecting for ever of them that are sanctitied by the one ottering of Christ' (lO''*). In one sense this ' perfecting ' is already accomi)lished (TeTeXelcoKev, 10"). From another point of view it is regarded as a hope yet to be realized. For there is nothing mechanical about its working. Each individual Christian must make it his own. If Ave are to be perfected, our will must be united with the will of Christ in perfect surrender to God {5^ 10^"). Seen from this standpoint, the Christian life is a progressive sanctihcation (2" 10" 12"), which may be figuratively represented as a race or a pilgrimage. Hence arises the need of solemn ^varnings. It is possible to drop out of the Chris- tian race before the goal is reached, or to set out on the pilgrimage and yet never arrive at the heavenly city. The great danger which besets the Christian is faint-heartedness {dma-ria, 3^-), the loss of the vision of the land of eternal things, and want of confidence in Him who leads us to that land. The Christian safeguard is ' faith.' Faith is the power which helps us to grasp the abiding realities which lie behind the world of sense, and to test the existence and character of things which are for us as yet unrealized (11'). It is the faculty by which, for example, we recognize the eternal issues which were decided by the earthly life and humiliation of Christ, and the futility of all hopes that stand apart from Him. The practical result of such faith will be unswerving devotion and obedience to our Captain in the face of all trouble and difficulty (5^), for He Himself has run the race before us and stands waiting for us at the goal (12^). If our eyes are fixed on Him, and all things which might impede our progress are thrown aside. He will make perfect the faith which He has given (122), jjg y,^ii grant us the 'full assurance of hope' (6"), which will bring us safely along the path which He has trodden to the end, where the fullness of His salvation is revealed in the eternal sanctuary, tlie very presence of God (cf. 6'^- -").
i. Date. — The first generation of Christians had passed away (2^ IS'') ; members of the Church had already sutiered persecution, imprisonment, and loss of property (10'^--^*); the relation of Gentile and Jewish Christians Avas no longer a burning question of the day. The Epistle cannot therefore have been written long before A.D. 70. On the other hand, it cannot be placed much later than A.D. 90, for it was extensively used by Clement of Rome in his Epistle to the Corinthians, c. A.D. 95- 9(3 (cf. ad Cor. 9, 12, 17, 36, 45).
Any more precise determination of the date must rest chietiy on the view taken of the crisis with which the first readers of the Epistle were confronted. If the approaching 'day' (10-') be taken to mean the Final Coming of Christ, the exact date of the Epistle must be left uncertain. But if it be riglitly interjireted as an allusion to the inevitable culmination of some national move- ment already active — a movement whicli forced upon the readers a final choice between Christian-
ity and Judaism — it is most naturally regarded as referring to the outbreak of the Jewish war which led to the Destruction of Jerusalem. The date of the Epistle would then fall between A.D. 63 and 70.
No chronological argument can be based on the fact that the writer of the Epistle generally uses the present tense in speaking of Levitical institu- tions (78- ''° 83- * 98- 9- 13 1310). The use of the present tense does not necessarily imply that the Temple was still standing when he wrote. Similar lan- guage is frequently emjjloyed in reference to the Temple service in writings much later than A.D. 70 (e.ff. Clem. Rom. ad Cor. 40-41 ; Justin Martyr, Dial. 117; Epistle of Barnabas, passim). But Avhat the writer to the Hebrews has in mind is not the service of the Temple but that of the Taber- nacle. 'The references [of the Epistle] to the Mosaic ritual are purely ideal and theoretical, and based on the Law in the Pentateuch' (Davidson, op. cit. p. 15).
Some commentators have found a further indica- tion of date in the writer's application of the words of Ps 95 to the circumstances of his own day (3'"'^). Special emphasis is laid on the fact that he departs from the construction of the original passage in connecting the words 'forty years' with the pre- ceding clause ' they saw my Avorks,' instead of with that which follows. It is suggested that the change was made intentionally, because the writer Avished to point out that, as he Avrote, another period of ' forty years of seeing God's Avorks ' Avas rapidly draAving to a close, namely, the forty years Avhich folloAA'ed the Crucifixion (c. A.D. 30-70). Yet, even if it be permissible to take the number forty literally, tliis argument has little value. The language of the Psalm might equally Avell be applied to the period A.D. 30-70 at a much later date by a Avriter Avho considered that the ' to-da.y ' of unbelieving Israel's opportunity closed Avith the Destruction of Jerusalem. The passage has even been used to prove that the Epistle must have been Avritten some years later than A.D. 70 (Zahn, Introd. to the NT, Eng. tr., ii. 321 If.). But it seems unlikely either in the original Psalm or in the quotation that 'forty years' means any thing- more definite tlian the lifetime of a generation.