Law and Gospel Compared; Dignity and Glory of Christ. A.
D. 62.
1 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
delivered 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 spoke 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 spoke to men in those times that went before
the gospel, those past times: he spoke 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 Mosaic, and the prophetic;
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 though 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 Num. xii. 6-8, 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.
II. God's method of communicating his mind and will under the New-Testament
dispensation, these last days as they are called, that is, either towards
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 Mosaic, in the law given forth
and written down; then the prophetic, 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:--
1. 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 befal 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 his will 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, the sovereign Lord of all, the absolute disposer,
director, and governor of all persons and of all things, Ps. ii. 6, 7.
All power in heaven and earth is given to him; all judgment is committed
to him, Matt. xxviii. 18; John v. 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.) 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. 3. 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 xiv. 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 in these last days
spoke to men; and, since the dignity of the messenger gives authority and
excellency to the message, the dispensations of the gospel must therefore
exceed, very far exceed, the dispensation of the law.
The Dignity of Christ. A. D. 62.
4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance
obtained a more excellent name than they. 5 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. 10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast
laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine
hands: 11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax
old as doth a garment; 12 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.
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 show that he is much superior not only 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. iii. 19), who attended at the giving
forth of the law, the hosts of heaven being 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 genomenos, when joined with an adjective, is nowhere to be rendered
created, and here may very well be read, being more excellent, as the Syriac
version hath it. We read ginesthe ho Theos alethes--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 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. ii. 7), which may refer 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 was 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.
vii. 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, 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. Those 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. xcvii.
7, Worship him, all you gods, that is, "All you 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 forever 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 of fire. This we have in Ps. civ. 4, where it
seems to be more immediately spoken of the winds and lightning, but is
here applied to the angels, whose agency the divine Providences makes use
of in the winds, and in thunder and lightnings. Observe, [1.] The office
of the angels: they are God's ministers, or servants, to do his pleasure.
It is the glory of God that he has such servants; it is yet more so that
he does not need them. [2.] How the angels are qualified for this service;
he makes them spirits and a flame of fire, that is, he endows them with
light and zeal, with activity and ability, readiness and resolution to
do his pleasure: they are no more than what God has made them to be, and
they are servants to the Son as well as to the Father. But observe,
(2.) How much greater things are said of Christ by the Father. Here
two passages of scripture are quoted.
[1.] One of these is out of Ps. xlv. 6, 7, where God declares of Christ,
First, His true and real divinity, and that with much pleasure and affection,
not grudging him that glory: Thy throne, O God. Here one person calls another
person God, O God. And, if God the Father declares him to be so, he must
be really and truly so; for God calls persons and things as they are. And
now let who will deny him to be essentially God at their peril, but let
us own and honour him as God; for, if he had not been God, he had never
been fit to have done the Mediator's work nor to have worn the Mediator's
crown. Secondly, God declares his dignity and dominion, as having a throne,
a kingdom, and a sceptre of that kingdom. He has all right, rule, authority,
and power, both as the God of nature, grace, and glory, and as Mediator;
and so he is fully adequate to all the intents and purposes of his mediatorial
kingdom. Thirdly, God declares the eternal duration of the dominion and
dignity of Christ, founded upon the divinity of his person: Thy throne,
O God, is for ever and ever, from everlasting to everlasting, through all
the ages of time, maugre all the attempts of earth and hell to undermine
and overthrow it, and through all the endless ages of eternity, when time
shall be no more. This distinguishes Christ's throne from all earthly thrones,
which are tottering, and will at length tumble down; but the throne of
Christ shall be as the days of heaven. Fourthly, God declares of Christ
the perfect equity of his administration, and of the execution of his power,
through all the parts of his government: A sceptre of righteousness is
the sceptre of thy kingdom, v. 8. He came righteously to the sceptre, and
he uses it in perfect righteousness; the righteousness of his government
proceeds from the righteousness of his person, from an essential eternal
love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity, not merely from considerations
of prudence or interest, but from an inward and immovable principle: Thou
lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity, v. 9. Christ came to fulfil all
righteousness, to bring in an everlasting righteousness; and he was righteous
in all his ways and holy in all his works. He has recommended righteousness
to men, and restored it among them, as a most excellent and amiable thing.
He came to finish transgression, and to make an end of sin as a hateful
as well as hurtful thing. Fifthly, God declares of Christ how he was qualified
for the office of Mediator, and how he was installed and confirmed in it
(v. 9): Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of
gladness above thy fellows. 1. Christ has the name Messiah from his being
anointed. God's anointing of Christ signifies both his qualifying him for
the office of the Mediator with the Holy Spirit and all his graces, and
likewise his inauguration of him into the office, as prophets, priests,
and kings, were by anointing. God, even thy God, imports the confirmation
of Christ in the office of Mediator by the covenant of redemption and peace,
that was between the Father and the Son. God is the God of Christ, as Christ
is man and Mediator. 2. This anointing of Christ was with the oil of gladness,
which signifies both the gladness and cheerfulness with which Christ undertook
and went through the office of Mediator (finding himself so absolutely
sufficient for it), and also that joy which was set before him as the reward
of his service and sufferings, that crown of glory and gladness which he
should wear for ever after the suffering of death. 3. This anointing of
Christ was above the anointing of his fellows: God, even thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Who are Christ's
fellows? Has he any equals? Not as God, except the Father and Spirit, but
these are not here meant. As man, however, he has his fellows, and as an
anointed person; but his unction is beyond all theirs. (1.) Above the angels,
who may be said to be his fellows, as they are the sons of God by creation,
and God's messengers, whom he employs in his service. (2.) Above all prophets,
priests, and kings, that ever were anointed with oil, to be employed in
the service of God on earth. (3.) Above all the saints, who are his brethren,
children of the same father, as he was a partaker with them of flesh and
blood. (4.) Above all those who were related to him as man, above all the
house of David, all the tribe of Judah, all his brethren and kinsmen in
the flesh. All God's other anointed ones had only the Spirit in a certain
measure; Christ had the Spirit above measure, without any limitation. None
therefore goes through his work as Christ did, none takes so much pleasure
in it as Christ does; for he was anointed with the oil of gladness above
his fellows.
[2.] The other passage of scripture in which is the superior excellence
of Christ to the angels is taken out of Ps. cii. 25-27, and is recited
in v. 10-12, where the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus Christ is declared
as it appears both in creating the world and in changing it.
First, In creating the world (v. 10): And thou, Lord, in the beginning
hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of
thy hands. The Lord Christ had the original right to govern the world,
because he made the world in the beginning. His right, as Mediator, was
by commission from the Father. His right, as God with the Father, was absolute,
resulting from his creating power. This power he had before the beginning
of the world, and he exerted it in giving a beginning and being to the
world. He must therefore be no part of the world himself, for then he must
give himself a beginning. He was pro panton--before all things, and by
him all things consist, Col. i. 17. He was not only above all things in
condition, but before all things in existence; and therefore must be God,
and self-existent. He laid the foundations of the earth, did not only introduce
new forms into pre-existent matter, but made out of nothing the foundations
of the earth, the primordia rerum--the first principles of things; he not
only founded the earth, but the heavens too are the work of his hands,
both the habitation and the inhabitants, the hosts of heaven, the angels
themselves; and therefore he must needs be infinitely superior to them.
Secondly, In changing the world that he has made; and here the mutability
of this world is brought in to illustrate the immutability of Christ. Observe,
1. This world is mutable, all created nature is so; this world has passed
through many changes, and shall pass through more; all these changes are
by the permission and under the direction of Christ, who made the world
(v. 11, 12): They shall perish, they shall all wax old as doth a garment;
as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed. This our
visible world (both the earth and visible heavens) is growing old. Not
only men and beasts and trees grow old, but this world itself grows old,
and is hastening to its dissolution; it changes like a garment, has lost
much of its beauty and strength; it grew old betimes on the first apostasy,
and it has been waxing older and growing weaker ever since; it bears the
symptoms of a dying world. But then its dissolution will not be its utter
destruction, but its change. Christ will fold up this world as a garment
not to be abused any longer, not to be any longer so used as it has been.
Let us not then set our hearts upon that which is not what we take it to
be, and will not be what it now is. Sin has made a great change in the
world for the worse, and Christ will make a great change in it for the
better. We look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Let the consideration of this wean us from the present world, and make
us watchful, diligent, and desirous of that better world, and let us wait
on Christ to change us into a meetness for that new world that is approaching;
we cannot enter into it till we be new creatures. 2. Christ is immutable.
Thus the Father testifies of him, Thou remainest, thy years shall not fail.
Christ is the same in himself, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for
ever, and the same to his people in all the changes of time. This may well
support all who have an interest in Christ under all the changes they meet
with in the world, and under all they feel in themselves. Christ is immutable
and immortal: his years shall not fail. This may comfort us under all decays
of nature that we may observe in ourselves or in our friends, though our
flesh and heart fail and our days are hastening to an end. Christ lives
to take care of us while we live, and of ours when we are gone, and this
should quicken us all to make our interest in him clear and sure, that
our spiritual and eternal life may be hid with Christ in God.
