To Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, is commonly, and we believe rightly, attributed the epistle addressed to the Hebrews, to which, contrary to his usual practice, he did not affix his name. Awaiting Timothy’s return, with whom he hoped shortly to see them, he wrote beforehand to build them up in the faith.
Part of God’s ancient people, with hopes proper to that people, a land assigned them by God for their inheritance, with a ritual of divine appointment, and a revelation addressed directly through Moses to Israel, a Jew on becoming a Christian had to surrender much which a Gentile had never possessed. Not that he was giving up mistaken teaching and misplaced hopes; for he turned his back on the temple-worship appointed by God, on Judaism, and on the land in which he was dwelling, as that which was no longer to be his portion, his home. For a Jew, then, to become a Christian involved the surrender of cherished hopes, and that position once assigned them by God of complete separation, socially and ecclesiastically, from admixture with Gentiles. Yet if he gave up much that he had valued, and as a Jew rightly valued, he gained far more than he had lost, though at the expense of certain trouble, probably persecution, and, it might be, a martyr’s death. Hence if those once Gentiles needed encouragement (1 Thess. 2:14,15; 2 Thess. 1:5), how much more those who had been Jews. To encourage such the apostle wrote (4. 6. 10. 12), and this he did in the most effectual way by ministering Christ; first, truth about His person as God and man (1. 2); then truth about Him as the apostle of our profession, and as to His present service as High Priest (3.-8); and then truth about His atoning sacrifice (9. 10), followed by exhortations, and grounds for encouragement to persevere on to the end. The baneful errors of Judaizing, Paul had exposed when writing to the Galatians. The surpassing excellence of Christ above Moses and Aaron, and what as Jews they had valued, he unfolds in this letter to the Hebrews.
For centuries God had been silent. Between the days of Malachi and those of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, we have no record of any communication in words between Jehovah and the earthly people. But now that silence had been broken-and God, who had spoken in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, had in the end of the days (i.e. of the age before Messiah should appear in power) spoken unto His people in the Son. Prophet after prophet had come:at last He sent His well-beloved Son. Thus, writing to those who once formed part of God’s earthly people, the apostle connects all previous revelation to Israel with that which had been graciously vouchsafed in the day in which he and they lived. God “hath spoken to us,” he writes, “in the Son.” Then, like a master in the art of painting, who with a few bold strokes with his pencil presents the object he desires to the eye of the observer, the sacred writer, inspired of God, traces out for his readers, briefly but most clearly, the past, the present, and the future of Him here called the Son.
As to the future, God has appointed Him to be Heir of all things; as regards the past, by Him God made the worlds; and as to the present, He has sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High, having first by Himself purged sins. The Son, then, is both God and man. As man, He died; as God, He sits now on high, perfectly and everlastingly a man, yet God too, blessed for evermore-two natures in one person.
(* The best authorities leave out “our “before sins. The point here is what the Son has done, and not who those are who reap the benefit of it)
Turning to the Old Testament Scriptures, the Hebrews are instructed in the teaching which they afford concerning the One here introduced as the Son; first, as to His Sonship; next, as to His divinity; and then as to His humanity. As regards His Sonship, He is here viewed as Son born in time. Hence quotations are made from Psa. 2:7, and from 2 Sam. 7:14, in proof that God owned Him as His Sox; and from Psa. 97:7, and civ. 4, to show that though a man, He is superior to, and quite distinct from, angels. But more, He is God as well as man; and from the lips of Jehovah this truth has been proclaimed in a psalm (65:6, 7), in which, describing Him returning to earth in millennial power, Jehovah addresses Him as God, and yet speaks of His God. But more, though Son as born in time, there never was a time when He did not exist; for He is Jehovah and the Creator, who laid the foundations of the earth, the heavens too being the work of His hands. They shall perish, but He remains. He is the same, and His years shall not fail (Psa. 102:25-27); and He sits where no angel can sit, at the right hand of Jehovah, until He makes His enemies His footstool. (Psa. 110:1) How clear the Hebrews must have seen was the old testament teaching relative to His divinity who had by Himself purged sins. Hence it behooved all who heard not to neglect so great salvation, which began to be spoken by the Lord, but was confirmed unto them by those that heard, God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will.
Following upon this exhortation, Old Testament witness to the humanity of the Lord is brought out. Of Him Psa. 8 spoke as the Son of man, under whom all things are to be put. As Son of man He will be above angels. By His death He became lower than them. Of His humanity He Himself is the witness. God attested His divinity, as we have seen. He proclaims His humanity, as the quotations from Psa. 22:22;18. 2; Isa. 8:18, make plain. How fitting was this! Who but God should attest His divinity? On the other hand, how suitable that He should identify Himself as man with some of the race of Adam. Of some we say, because He only here identifies Himself with those who are saints; “for He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one:for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren;” i.e. those who are God’s children. They were partakers of flesh and blood, so He took part of the same; i.e. became really a man, that through death He might annul him that had the power of death, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. What results flow from His death! He tasted death for everything. (9) Thus creation is concerned in it. By it He has annulled him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. The arch-enemy of God and man is affected by it. By that same death He has wrought deliverance for the saints; and as a consequence of it He has made propitiation for the sins of the people. (14-18) But this introduces His priesthood, which is Aaronic now in character, and Melchizedekhian in order. And so as Aaronic in character He has taken up the question of sins before God, and intercedes for the people before the throne.
In a double character then the Lord has appeared. God has spoken to us in the Son. He is the Apostle of our confession, He is also High Priest, and has made propitiation for the sins of the people. “Consider then,” we read, “the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as also Moses was in all His house.” (3:1, 2) Now these words are addressed to “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling.” Abraham and Israel had an earthly calling. Christians have a heavenly calling. Now this first spoken of by the Lord (Matt. 5:11,12; Luke 6:22,23;12. 33) is developed necessarily in this epistle, which addresses those who once had been Jews, but who had given up all for Christ’s sake. He then is set before them as surpassing Moses. Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a, servant; but Christ as Son over His, i.e. God’s house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. (3:5, 6) Such language intimates that these Christians were, as it were, like their fathers of old, on the march through the wilderness. So suited exhortation follows. (3:7-4:11)
God had spoken in the end of the days in the Son. The coming kingdom therefore might not be far off. And living in the end of the age ere the Messiah would appear in power to establish the kingdom, the language of Psa. 95:7-11, addressing the remnant of the future, was language suited for the Hebrews in the day this epistle was indited. “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” (3:12-14) The psalm speaks of a rest-God’s rest-into which His people shall assuredly enter; not rest of conscience, but rest from all toil and work, as God did when He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He created and made. (Gen. 2:3) “He that hath entered into his rest hath also ceased from his works, as God did from His own.” (4:10)
This clears the passage from misinterpretation. God’s rest clearly is rest from all work. Hence for His saints it is future, and those who have believed are on their way to it. Further, attention to the forms of exhortation in this passage will show the reader that no doubt is cast on the future of believers, though they are exhorted in the strongest way to bestir themselves. When exhorting the saints not to stop short, he says “you.” (3:12; 4:1) When exhorting them to press forward he says “us” (3:14; 4:14), classing himself with them. He could not read their hearts. But each, as he, should know if he was really converted. So addressing them on the ground of profession he necessarily says “you.” But each and all were to be diligent to press forward, and he shows that by writing, “Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” (4:11)
C. E. S.