so we confidently (by faith) put our trust in Christ, and through Christ in the Father. The argument is very important against the merit of men's works. But Christ exhibited this confidence not for Himself, for He and the Father are one, but for His own people, ver. 16. Every instance of present assistance gave assurance of assistance for the future (comp. Phil. i. 6), until He obtained a complete victory over death and the devil. — idol— o Qsog) Is. viii. 18, LXX., in the same words. He calls them iraidta DH7*j children, sons, using an expression well becoming the First-begotten, who intimates that the same are both His brethren and His inferiors (juniors) ; and He presents all these, to be glorified alike with Himself, before God, who has given them to Him to be saved.
14. 'E'TTSI ovv ra <7ra/c>/a, forasmuch then as the children) The children here, ra -ra/5/a, is not a noun denoting a natural age, but is brought down from ver. 13. The Messiah here could not be suitably placed in the company of the children according to the flesh ; He is speaking of His spiritual sons ; out, therefore, is an inference from ver. 10, etc. — /cgxo/i>wi»jx£i> a'/ftarog KUI ffapxbg, were partakers of flesh and blood) The past, in respect of the greater part, who had already lived at the time of the testimony given in the psalm. He mentions brethren in the psalm, children in Isaiah : in relation to that time in which David and Isaiah pro phesied, many of the brethren and children were then living, and had lived, whom He was to reconcile unto God. These are not excluded but included. Koimvsu, with the genitive, Prov. i. 11, where also, ver. 18, pers^ca is used with the same meaning : xotvuvfiGoig odou, Job. xxxiv. 8. In this passage, however, the change of the words is elegant ; so that JUST'S #%& may express the likeness of one to the rest [here, of Jesus to those whose nature He took part of] ; xoivuveft, to the likeness of many among one another. 2a^J xa/ «///,« are sometimes used by metonymy for man, Gal. i. 16 ; but here they are more properly taken in the abstract, as in 1 Cor. xv. 50 : although in that passage of Paul to the Corinthians <ra/>J xa/ afpa include the notion of the oldness of the corrupt nature. Elsewhere, as we have just now seen, cap% xai afya is the expression used (is the order of the words), the principal part, viz. flesh, being put first, which is also some times written alone : here «/,W xa/ ffap'% (although some have