An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828)/Hebrews
AN
EXPOSITION,
WITH
PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS,
OF THE
EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.
Completed by Mr. W. Tong.
CONCERNING this epistle we must inquire,
I. Into the divine authority of it; for this has been questioned by some, whose distempered eyes could not bear the light of it, or whose errors have been confuted by it; such as the Arians, who deny the Godhead and Self-existence of Christ; and the Socinians, who deny his Satisfaction: but after all the attempts of such men to disparage this epistle, the divine original of it shines forth with those strong and unclouded rays, that he who runs may read it as an eminent part of the canon of scripture. The divinity of the matter, the sublimity of the style, the excellency of the design, the harmony of this with other parts of scripture, and its general reception in the church of God in all ages—these are the evidences of its divine authority.
II. As to the divine amanuensis, or penman of this epistle, we are not so certain; it does not bear the name of any in the front of it, as the rest of the epistles do, and there has been some dispute among the learned to whom they should ascribe it. Some have assigned it to Clemens of Rome; others to Luke; and many to Barnabas, thinking that the style and manner of expression is very agreeable to the zealous, authoritative, affectionate temper that Barnabas appears to be of, in the account we have of him in the Acts of the Apostles; and one ancient father quotes an expression out of this epistle, as the words of Barnabas. But it is generally assigned to the apostle Paul; and some later copies and translations have put Paul's name in the title. In the primitive times it was generally ascribed to him, and the style and scope of it very well agree with his spirit, who was a person of a clear head and a warm heart, whose main end and endeavour was to exalt Christ. Some think that the apostle Peter refers to this epistle, and proves Paul to be the penman of it, by telling the Hebrews, to whom he wrote, of Paul's having written to them, 2 Pet. 3. 15. We read of no other epistle that he ever wrote to them but this. And though it has been objected, that since Paul put his name to all his other epistles, he would not have omitted it here; yet others have well answered, that he, being the apostle of the Gentiles, who were odious to the Jews, might think fit to conceal his name, lest their prejudices against him might hinder them from reading and weighing it as they ought to do.
III. As to the scope and design of this epistle, it is very evident that it was clearly to inform the minds, and strongly to confirm the judgment, of the Hebrews in the transcendent excellency of the gospel above the law, and so to take them off from the ceremonies of the law, to which they were so wedded, of which they were so fond, that they even doted on them. Those of them who were Christians, retained too much of the old leaven, and needed to be purged from it; the design of this epistle was to persuade and press the believing Hebrews to a constant adherence to the Christian's faith, and perseverance in it, notwithstanding all the sufferings they might meet with in so doing. In order to this, he speaks much of the excellency of the Author of the gospel, the glorious Jesus, whose honour he advances, and whom he justly prefers before all others, shewing him to be All in all, and this in lofty strains of holy rhetoric. It must be acknowledged that there are many things in this epistle hard to be understood, but the sweetness we shall find therein will make us abundant amends for all the pains we take to understand it. And, indeed, if we compare all the epistles of the New Testament, we shall not find any of them more replenished with divine, heavenly matter than this to the Hebrews.
HEBREWS, I.
CHAP. I.
In this chapter, we have a twofold comparison stated: I. Between the evangelical and legal dispensation; and the excellency of the gospel above that of the law is asserted and proved, v. 1..3. II. Between the glory of Christ and that of the highest creatures, the angels; where the preeminence is justly given to the Lord Jesus Christ, and clearly demonstrated to belong unto him, v. 4, to the end.
GOD, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2. Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3. Who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Here the apostle begins with a general declaration of the excellency of the gospel-dispensation above that of the law, which he demonstrates from the different way and manner of God's communicating himself and his mind and will to men, in the one and in the other; both these dispensations were of God, and both of them very good, but there is a great difference in the way of their coming from God.
Observe,
I. The way wherein God communicated himself and his will to men under the Old Testament. We have here an account, 1. Of the persons by whom God spake his mind under the Old Testament; they were the prophets, that is, persons chosen of God, and qualified by him, for that office of revealing the will of God to men. No man takes this honour to himself, unless called; and whoever are called of God, are qualified by him. 2. The persons to whom God spake by the prophets; to the fathers, to all the Old-Testament saints who were under that dispensation. God favoured and honoured them with much clearer light than that of nature, under which the rest of the world were left. 3. The order in which God spake to men in those times that went before the gospel, those past times; he spake to his ancient people at sundry times and in divers manners. (1.) At sundry times, or by several parts, as the word signifies, which may refer either to the several ages of the Old-Testament dispensation—the patriarchal, the Mosaical, and the prophetical; or to the several gradual openings of his mind concerning the Redeemer: to Adam, that the Messiah should come of the seed of the woman; to Abraham, that he should spring from his loins; to Jacob, that he should be of the tribe of Judah; to David, that he should be of his house; to Micah, that he should be born at Bethlehem; to Isaiah, that he should be born of a virgin. (2.) In divers manners, according to the different ways in which God thought fit to communicate his mind to his prophets; sometimes by the illapses of his Spirit, sometimes by dreams, sometimes by visions, sometimes by an audible voice, sometimes by legible characters under his own hand, as when he wrote the ten commandments on tables of stone. Of some of these different ways God himself gave an account in Numb. 12. 6, 7. If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream. Not so with my servant Moses: with him I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches. Observe,
II. God's method of communicating himself and his mind and will under the New-Testament dispensation, these last days as they are called, that is, either toward the end of the world, or the end of the Jewish state. The times of the gospel are the last times, the gospel-revelation is the last we are to expect from God: there was first the natural revelation; then the patriarchal, by dreams, visions, and voices; then the Mosaical, in the law given forth and written down; then the prophetical, in explaining the law, and giving clearer discoveries of Christ: but now we must expect no new revelation, but only more of the Spirit of Christ to help us better to understand what is already revealed. Now the excellency of the gospel-revelation above the former consists in two things:
I. It is the final, the finishing revelation, given forth in the last days of divine revelation, to which nothing is to be added, but the canon of scripture is to be settled and sealed. So that now the minds of men are no longer kept in suspense by the expectation of new discoveries, but they rejoice in a complete revelation of the will of God, both preceptive and providential, so far as is necessary for them to know, in order to their direction and comfort. For the gospel includes a discovery of the great events that shall befall the church of God to the end of the world.
2. It is a revelation which God has made by his Son, the most excellent Messenger that was ever sent into the world, far superior to all the ancient patriarchs and prophets, by whom God communicated himself to his people in former times. And here we have an excellent account of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1.) The glory of his office, and that in three respects:
[1.] God hath appointed him to be Heir of all things. As God, he was equal to the Father; but as God-man and Mediator, he was appointed by the Father to be the Heir of all things; that is, the sovereign Lord of all, the absolute Disposer, Director, and Governor of all persons and of all things, Ps. 2. 6, 7. All power in heaven and earth is given to him; all judgment is committed to him, Matt. 28. 18. John 5. 22.
[2.] By him God made the worlds, both visible and invisible, the heavens and the earth; not as an instrumental Cause, but as his essential Word and Wisdom. By him he made the old creation, by him he makes the new creature, and by him he rules and governs both.
[3.] He upholds all things by the word of his power; he keeps the world from dissolving, by him all things consist; the weight of the whole creation is laid upon Christ, he supports the whole and all the parts. When, upon the apostasy, the world was breaking to pieces under the wrath and curse of God, the Son of God, undertaking the work of redemption, bound it up again, and established it by his almighty power and goodness. None of the ancient prophets sustained such an office as this, none was sufficient for it.
(2.) From hence the apostle passes to the glory of the person of Christ, who was able to execute such an office; he was the Brightness of his Father's glory, and the express Image of his person, v. 2. This is a high and lofty description of the glorious Redeemer, this is an account of his personal excellency.
[1.] He is, in person, the Son of God, the only-begotten Son of God, and as such he must have the same nature. This personal distinction always supposes one and the same nature. Every son of man, is man; were not the nature the same, the generation would be monstrous.
[2.] The person of the Son is the glory of the Father, shining forth with a truly divine splendour. As the beams are effulgent emanations, of the sun, the father and fountain of light, Jesus Christ in his person is God manifest in the flesh, he is Light of light, the true Shechinah.
[3.] The person of the Son is the true image and character of the person of the Father; being of the same nature, he must bear the same image and likeness. In beholding the power, wisdom, and goodness, of the Lord Jesus Christ, we behold the power, wisdom, and goodness, of the Father; for he hath the nature and perfections of God in him. He that hath seen the Son, hath seen the Father; that is, he hath seen the same Being. He that hath known the Son, hath known the Father, John 14. 7—9. For the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son; the personal distinction is no other than will consist with essential union. This is the glory of the person of Christ; the fulness of the Godhead dwells, not typically, but really, in him.
(3.) From the glory of the person of Christ he proceeds to mention the glory of his grace; his condescension itself was truly glorious. The sufferings of Christ had this great honour in them, to be a full satisfaction for the sins of his people; by himself he purged away our sins, that is, by the proper innate merit of his death and bloodshed, by their infinite intrinsic value; as they were the sufferings of himself, he has made atonement for sin. Himself, the glory of his person and nature, gave to his sufferings such merit as was a sufficient reparation of honour to God, who had suffered an infinite injury and affront by the sins of men.
(4.) From the glory of his sufferings we are at length led to consider the glory of his exaltation; when by himself he had purged away our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, at his Father's right hand. As Mediator and Redeemer, he is invested with the highest honour, authority, and activity, for the good of his people; the Father now does all things by him, and receives all the services of his people from him. Having assumed our nature, and suffered in it on earth, he has taken it up with him to heaven, and there it has the high honour to be next to God, and this was the reward of his humiliation.
Now it was by no less a Person than this, that God has in these last days spoken to men; the dignity of the Messenger gives authority and excellency to the message, and therefore the dispensations of the gospel must needs exceed, very far exceed, the dispensation of the law.
4. Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. 3. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son? 6. And again, when he bringeth in the First-begotten into the world, he saith. And let all the angels of God worship him. 7. And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. 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. 9. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.
The apostle, having proved the pre-eminence of the gospel above the law, from the pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus Christ above the prophets, now proceeds to shew that he is not only much superior to the prophets, but to the angels themselves. In this he obviates an objection that the Jewish zealots would be ready to make, that the law was not only delivered by men, but ordained by angels, (Gal. 3. 19.) that they attended at the giving forth of the law, the hosts of heaven were drawn forth to attend the Lord Jehovah on that awful occasion. Now the angels are very glorious beings, far more glorious and excellent than men; the scripture always represents them as the most excellent of all creatures, and we know of no being but God himself that is higher than the angels; and therefore that law that was ordained by angels, ought to be held in great esteem.
To take off the force of this argument, the penman of this epistle proceeds to state the comparison between Jesus Christ and the holy angels, both in nature and office, and to prove that Christ is vastly superior to the angels themselves. Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Here observe,
I. The superior nature of Christ is proved from his superior name. The scripture does not give high and glorious titles without a real foundation and reason in nature; nor would such great things have been said of our Lord Jesus Christ, if he had not been as great and excellent as those words import. When it is said, that Christ was made so much better than the angels, we are not to imagine that he was a mere creature, as the angels are; the word γενόμενος, when joined with an adjective, is no where to be rendered created, and here may very well be read, being more excellent, as the Syriac version hath it. We read γινέσθη ὁ θεός ἀληθὴς—let God be true, not made so, but acknowledged to be so.
II. The superiority of the name and nature of Christ above the angels is declared in the holy scriptures, and to be deduced from thence. We should have known little or nothing either of Christ or of the angels, without the scriptures; and we must therefore be determined by them in our conceptions of the one and the other.
Now here are several passages of scripture cited, in which those things are said of Christ that were never said of the angels.
1. It was said of Christ, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee; (Ps. 2. 7.) which refers either to his eternal generation, or to his resurrection, or to his solemn inauguration into his glorious kingdom at his ascension and session at the right hand of the Father. Now this was never said concerning the angels, and therefore by inheritance he has a more excellent nature and name than they.
2. It is said concerning Christ, but never concerning the angels, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son; taken from 2 Sam. 7. 14. Not only, " I am his Father, and he is my Son, by nature and eternal promanation;" but, "I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son, by wonderful conception, and this his son-ship shall be the fountain and foundation of every gracious relation between me and fallen man."
3. It is said of Christ, When God bringeth his First-begotten into the world, let all the angels of God worship him: that is, either when he is brought into this lower world, at his nativity, let the angels attend and honour him; or when he is brought into the world above, at his ascension, to enter upon his mediatorial kingdom, or when he shall bring him again into the world, to judge the world, then let the highest creatures worship him. God will not suffer an angel to continue in heaven who will not be in subjection to Christ, and pay adoration to him; and he will at last make the fallen angels and wicked men to confess his divine power and authority, and to fall before him; they who would not have him to reign, must then be brought forth and slain before him. The proof of this is taken out of Ps. 97. 7. Worship him, all ye gods, that is, "All ye that are superior to men, own yourselves to be inferior to Christ in nature and power."
4. God has said concerning Christ, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever, &c. v. 8—12. But of the angels he has only said, that he hath made them spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire, v. 7. Now, upon comparing what he here says of the angels with what he says to Christ, the vast inferiority of the angels to Christ will plainly appear.
(1.) What does God say here of the angels? He maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame