The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 67

II. TIIE EARLIER REVELATION WAS CONFIRMED DY SUPERNATURAL AND TERRIBLI!! SIGNS, THE LATEH BY MORE NUMEROUS AND GRACIOUS SUPERNATURAL SIGNS. Very awful and alarming wero the extraordinary phenomena at the givin~ of the Law. "The mount burned with fire," etc. (eh. xii. 18-21). "And Mount Sinai was altocrether on a smoke," etc. (Exod. xix. 18). But the gospel revelation is more abundantly ~nd more convincingly colifinned. "God also bearing witness, both with signs and wonders," etc. (ver. 4). 'fhe miraculous confirmations of the Christian revelation were: 1. More nume- rous than those of the revelation of the Law. The Saviour's public ministry was marked by an almost unbroken series of miraculous works. 2. More marvellous. To raise the dead to life again with a word is far more wonderful than all the fire and smoke, the thunderings and trumpetings and tremblings of Sinai. 3. More various. The miracles of Sinai seem to have been limited to the phenomena and forces of nature. But those which were wrought by our Lord and his apostles related to nature's forces, to nature's products, to diseases of the body, to diseases of the mind, to evil spirits, to life and death. 4. More beneficent. At the giving of the Law the miracles were amazing and alarming, and fitted to impress and awe an uncultivated people. But the miracles associated with the promulgation of the gospel, while even more amazing, were also gracious and helpful, beneficent and rich in blessing, and fitted, not to terrify, but to attract and exalt and purify. As confirmed by these superior signs, the gospel revelation is higher than that of the Law. 11!. THE EARLIER REVELATION WAS IN TIIE LETTER, THE LATER WAS IN A LIFE. The Sinaitic Law was written; but the revelation made by the Lord was not merely in word, but in tone and accent, in gesture and expression of countenance, in involun- tary influence and voluntary action. '!'be greatest revelations are never verbal, but al ways vital. The deepest emotions cannot be expressed in any words. The highest truth far transcends the utterance of the loftiest eloquence of the tongue or the pen; it can be expressed only as it is lived. Thus "the greatest truth of the gospel is Christ himself -a human body become the organ of the Divine nature, and re,·ealing, under the conditions of an earthly life, the glory of God." And when even his life in the human body could not adequately express the riches of the ~race of God, he laid down his life, and perfected hill revelation• by voluntarily dying, "the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." And now "God commendeth his own love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." IV. THE EARLIER REVELATION WAB OF LAW ONLY, THE LATER IS OP A II GREAT SALVATION." "The word spoken through angels" consisted chiefly of commands and prohibitions; it expressed the authoritative" 'l'hou shalt," and" Thou shalt not;" and it promised to the obedient life and prosperity, to the disobedient punishment and death. But ours is a revelation of grace. The gospel does not abrogate moral law; it rather insists upon its sacred authority, its great comprehensiveness, its intense spirituality, and its pure benevolence. We have law still, but it is law steeped in love. The i,?:ospel is also a revelation or forgiveness or sin for the penitent, or o. new life for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and of inspiration and power for those who dc~ire help to serve Goel; in a word, it is the free offer of a "great salvation." Let us briefly contem- plate this" great salvation." It is: 1. Salvation from great evils. ,ve have gazed upon the crumbling ruins of what was once a spacious and massive castle, or upon the venerable remnants of some ancient temple, and while we have pictured to oursel \·es the scenes of which they had been the theatre in olden days, a feeling of mournfulness bas stolen over us. We have thought of the brave doings connected with the old castle- hunting, fighting, feasting, singing, dancing, love-making-all gone. We have thought of the earnest and eloquent pleadings of the servant of God in the temple, of the waves of musio from pealing organ and living voices, of the devout, yearning, sorrowing, rejoicing hearts of worshippers, now all gone. Nought but ruins remRin. How mourn- ful and oppressive 1 These are faint pictures of the calamities which have befallen our nature through sin. The original dignity and glory, heroism and harmony, purity and peace of human nature have been lost by sin. And by sin it has become subject to guilt and fear, shame and sufferin",0 death and dread of measureless woe hereafter. Ilut most terrible of nil is sin itself. 'l'he sinfulness, the degradation, and prostitution of our powers and our being,-these are our greatest curse. Can this fallen temple be rebuilt? etc. Is there a salvation great enough to deliver from these dread evils? Yes; "ao 68 THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. [en. n. 1- 18.