III. Such was the unspeakable love of Christ unto the brethren, that he would refuse nothing, no condition, that was needful to fit him for the discharge of the work which he had undertaken for them. ‘hy
Their high priest he must be; this he could not unless he were made like unto them in all things. He knew what this would cost him, what trouble, sorrow, suffering, in that conformity unto them
VER. 17,18] . =‘ EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 473
he must undergo; what miseries he must conflict withal all his life; what a close was to be put unto his pilgrimage on the earth; what woful temptations he was to pass through: all lay open and naked before him. But such was his love, shadowed out unto us by that of Jacob to Rachel, that he was content to submit unto any terms, to undergo any condition, so that he might save and enjoy his beloved church. See Kph. v. 25, 26. And surely he who was so intense in his love is no less constant therein; nor hath he left any thing undone that was needful to bring us unto God. But we are yet further to proceed with our explication of the words,
5. The apostle having asserted the priesthood of Christ, describes in the fifth place the nature of the office itself, as it was vested in him: and this he doth two ways. (1.) By a general description of the object of it, or that which it is exercised about: T& pig rv Osév, “The things pertaining unto God.” (2.) In a particular instance taken from the end of his priesthood, and the great work that he performed thereby: “To make reconciliation for the sins of the people.”
(1.) He was to be a high priest in “the things pertaining unto God ;’—that is, either in things that were to be done for God with men, as the apostle speaks, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us,” 2 Cor. v. 20; or in things that were to be done with God for men. For there were two general parts of the office of the high priest: the one, to preside in the house and over the worship of God, to do the things of God with men. This the prophet assigns unto Joshua the high priest, an especial type of Christ, Zech. iii...7, “Thus saith the Lorp of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts;” and to Christ himself, “Even he shall build the temple of the Lorp; and he shall bear thé glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne,” chap. vi. 13,—that is, “the high priest of our profession,’ Heb. iii. 1. He was set authorita- tively over the house of God, to take care that the whole worship of it were performed according unto his appointment, and to de- clare his statutes and ordinances unto the people. And in this sense the Lord Christ is also the high priest of his church, ra apdg riv @<év, feeding and ruling them in the name and authority of God, Mic. v. 4 Yet this is not that part of his office which is here intended by the apostle. The other part of the high priest’s office was to perform the things toward God which on the part of* the people were to be performed. So Jethro adviseth Moses, Exod. - xviii, 19, pridysn zara) py> NAS AY1,—“ Be thou unto the people before God:” which words the LXX. render, Vivou od r® Augi r& apie rby @zév, in the phrase here used by the apostle, ‘Be thou unto the
ms s ‘ Ta mpos Tov Osa.
474 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. II.
people in things appertaining unto God.” And this was the prin- cipal part of the office and duty of the high priest, the other being only a consequent-thereof. And that it was so as to the office of Christ, the apostle manifests in the especial limitation which he adjoins unto this general assertion; he was “an high priest in things pertaining unto God, sig rd iAdoneobu: rds &mapring rou aod,’ — to reconcile” (that is, “make reconciliation”) “for the sins of the people.”
(2.) Two things are to be considered in these words:—[1.] The ob- ject of the priestly action here assigned to the Lord Christ; [2.] The action itself which with respect thereunto he is said to perform.
[1.] The first is, 6 Auds, “the people.” That is, say some, the seed of Abraham, whose interest in the mediation of Christ, and their privilege therein, the apostle here minds them of, to provoke the Hebrews to constancy in their faith and profession. And so also they limit the term “brethren” before used; not, as they say, that the elect among the Gentiles are excluded, but that he expressly mentions only the first-fruits in the Jews. But this sense is not necessarily included in the words. The intention of the apostle in the expression, is only to give some light into the effect of the priest- hood of Christ, from the office of the high priest under the old tes- tament and the discharge thereof; for as he had a peculiar people for whom he made atonement, so also hath Christ,—that is, all his elect. 3