(2.) Tf it respect a person, it may be “ex uno homine,” “ of one man;” that is, of Adam. They are all of one common root and stock, he and they came all of one, Adam. Unto him is the genea-
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418 _ AN EXPOSITION OF THE _ [CHAP. IT.
logy of Christ referred by Luke. And as a common stock of our nature he is often called the “ one,” the “one man,’ Rom. v. And this, for the substance of it, falls in with what will be next con- sidered.
2. It may be taken in the neuter sense, and denote one thing. And so also it may receive a double interpretation :—
(1.) It may denote the same mass of human nature. ’EE évic pu- pdwaroc, of one and the same mass of human nature; or, 2& évds aiwaros. So itis said of all mankind that God made them 2% évis aiwaros, “of one blood,” Acts xvii. 26, of one common principle; which gives an alliance, cognation, and brotherhood, unto the whole race of mankind. As the making of all mankind by one God gives them all a relation unto him, as saith the apostle, “ We are also his offspring ;” so their being made of “one blood” gives them a brother- hood among themselves. See Acts xiv. 15. And this interpreta- tion differs not, in the substance of it, from that last preceding, inasmuch as the whole mass of human nature had its existence in the person of Adam; only it refers not the oneness mentioned for- mally unto his person, but unto the nature itself whereof he was made partaker. And this sense the apostle further explains, verse 14; as he also observes it, Rom. ix. 5.
(2.) By “one,” some understand the same spiritual nature, the principle of spiritual life which is in Christ the head, and the chil- dren his members. And this, they say, is that which is their peculiar oneness, or being of one, seeing all wicked men, even reprobates, are of the same common mass of human nature as well as the children. But yet this is not satisfactory. It is true, indeed, that after the children are really sanctified, they are of one and the same spiritual nature with their head, 1 Cor. xii. 12, and hereby are they differenced from all others: but the apostle here treats of their being so of one that he might be meet to suffer for them; which is antecedent unto their being sanctified, as the cause is unto the effect. Neither is it of any weight that the reprobates are partakers of the same common nature with the children, seeing the Lord Christ partook of it only on the children’s account, as verse 14; and of their nature he could not be partaker without being partaker of that which was common to them all, seeing that of one blood God made all nations under heaven. But the bond of nature itself is, in the covenant, reckoned only unto them that shall be sanctified.
It is, then, one common nature that is here intended. He and they are of the same nature, of one mass, of one blood. And hereby he came to be meet to suffer for them, and they to be in a capa- city of enjoying the benefit of his suffermgs; which how it answers the whole design of the apostle in this place doth evidently appear.
First, he intends to show that the Lord Christ was meet to suffer
VER. 11-18.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 419
for the children; and this arose from hence, that he was of the same nature with them, as he afterwards at large declares. And he was meet to sanctify them by his sufferings, as in this verse he intimates. For as in an offering made unto the Lord of the first- fruits, of meat or of meal, a parcel of the same nature with the whole was taken and offered, whereby the whole was sanctified, Ley. ii. ; so the Lord Jesus Christ being taken as the first-fruits of the nature of the children, and offered unto God, the whole lump, or the whole nature of man in the children,—that is, all the elect, —is separated unto God, and effectually sanctified in their season, And this gives the ground unto all the testimonies which the apostle produceth unto his purpose out of the Old Testament; for being thus of one nature with them, “he is not ashamed to call them brethren,” as he proves from Ps. xxii. For although it be true, that, as brethren is a term of spiritual cognation and love, he calls them not so until they are made partakers of his Spirit, and of the same spiritual nature that is in him, yet the first foundation of this appel- lation lies in his participation of the same nature with them; without which, however he might love them, he could not properly call them brethren. Also, his participation of their nature was that which brought him into such a condition as wherein it was needful for him to put his trust in God, and to look for deliverance from him in a time of danger; which the apostle proves in the second place by a testimony out of Ps. xviii.: which could not in any sense have been said of Christ had he not been partaker of that mature, which is exposed unto all kinds of wants and troubles, with outward straits and oppositions, which the nature of angels is not. And as his being thus of one with us made him our brother, and placed him in that condition with us wherein it was necessary for him to put his trust in God for deliverance; so being the principal head and first- fruits of our nature; and therein the author and finisher of our sal- vation, he is a father unto us, and we are his children: which the apostle proveth by his last testimony from Isa, viii, “ Behold I and the children which the Lord hath given unto me.” And further, upon the close of these testimonies, the apostle assumes again his proposition, and asserts it unto the same purpose, verse 14, showing in what sense he and the children were of one, namely, in their mutual participation of “ flesh and blood.”