Page:An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828) vol 6.djvu/706

700 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