The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 76

Generation obtains amongst men, but not amou..,st ano-els. We are born with an inclination, a bias, to that which is evil. Were bit not for the grace of God that iucline.tion wo1;1ld be irresistible. If Christ had not come to our help, we must'have been utterly rumed by reason of a transgression for which we could not possibly have been in any way responsible. Here, then, we have a very powerful reason why God should provide redempt.ion for man rather than for angels. III. BECAUSE THE PREFERENCE SHOWN TO MAN FURNISHES A STRIKING ILLUSTRATION OF DIVINE JUSTICE, wmcH EXERCISES A SALUTARY INFLUENCE ON BOTH UNFALLEN ANGELS AND REDEEMED MEN. Had the preference been given to fallen angels it would not have set forth the justice of God. It could not have been just to have provided help for the guiltier race while leaving the less guilty race to perish; or to have redeemed those who individually consented to the rebellion, while resigning to ruin untold millions who took no part in the sin by which their race fell. But in the pre- ference given to fallen man, we have a clca.r manifestation of the justice of God. 'l'he fact that he has left fallen angels to their righteous doom, being known to the unfallen universe, will bind the good more firmly in their allegiance to the Almighty. And a knowledge of the great price with which fallen men were redeemed will so impress the saved with the evil of sin, and the justice of God, and the benevolence of the Divine Law, and the love of the heavenly Father, as to secure their everlasting and ever- growing loyalty to God. Thus even we, with our dim perceptions and feeble reason, can discover wise and worthy reasons for the Divine choice of lost man for redemption rather than of lost angels. "Just and true are all thy ways, thou King of saiuts;" " 0 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God I " etc. (Rom. xi. 33-36). Two inferences of great importance are deducible from our subject. 1. That the gv.ut of those wlw re;'ect the proffered hel,p of Christ is greater than that of fallen angels. How great soever the guilt of demons may be, they have not incurred that of rejecting the gracious offers of pardon and restoration. But those men who neglect the great salvation must quench the Holy Spirit, harden their hearts against the drawings of the Saviour's love, and the iuace of the Divine Father, etc. Of such sin even demons are not guilty. 2. That the blessedness of those v1ho accept the help of Christ will be greater, in some respects, than that of holy angels. Angels have many joys, but the joy of redemption they know not; man alone knows that joy; and it appears to us that of all joys it must be the deepest, tenderest, intensest. Let us personally avail ourselves of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.-W. J. Vers. 17, 18.-0ur great High Priest-his functions and qualifications. "Where- fore in e.11 things it behoved him," etc. I. THE FUNCTIONS OF oro GREAT HIGH PRIEST. 1. To make atonement for man as a sinner. "A High Priest . . . to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Various are the renderings of this clause. Revised Version," to make propitiation;" Alford, "to make expiation;" Ebrard, e.nd Stuart also, "to make atonement." Ebrard says, "'IAet(ncecrBcz, comes from 1Aczos. ••• •1Aczos denotes, not the internal dis- position of God towards man, but the actual, positive expression and radiation of that feeling which first becomes again possible towards the redeemed; and 1Adcr,cecr9cz, means to make it again possible for God to be 1Aaos, i.e. to make a real atonement for real guilt." Whence arises this need of atone!11ent? ~ot because God was indisposed to forgive and save man. It has been well said ey Delitzsch, "As the Old Testament nowhere says that sacrifice propitiated God's wrath, lest it should be thought that sacrifice was an act by which, as such, man influenced God to show him !!:race; so also the New Testament never says that the sacrifice of Christ propitiated God's wrath, lest it may be thought that it was an act anticipa~ory of God's graci_ous pury:,ose, which obtained and so to speak, forced from God, prev10usly reluctant, without bis own con- currence' gra~e instead of wrath." The death of Jesus Christ for us was the expression of the Jo~e of God towards us, and not its procuricg co.use. Why, then, was the sa.crifice of the cross necessary to the forgivecess of our sin and tho sanctification of our being? (1) To maintain th(j majestic authority of God's Law. Obedienco !-0 le.w is e.n indispensable condition of moral well-oeing. Man cannot be saved except m harmony with it. The perfect obeaicnce 01 our Lord, who was "obedient even uuto death, yea, the death of tho cross," is the most strikmg and significant testimony "that the Law OH, II. 1-18.] THE EPISTLE TO 'l'HE HEBREWS. 67