Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 6.djvu/705

Rh 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