The Pulpit Commentary — Hebrews — Section 377

W!IE shut out from intercourse with the rest of the world; but our fellow-citizens under the new covenant e.re: (1) The holy angels: "myriads of angels, a festal assembly" (vers. 22, 23) ;-the cherubim e.nd ser11phim, all the princes, -potentates- and rulers of the celestial hierarchy. (2) The saints on earth: the "Church of the l<'irstborn who arc enrolled in" the album of heaven. Israel was mustered and numbered nt Sinai; nnd so the New Testament Church, although dispersed all over the world, forms but one society of firstborn ones, eACh of whom is a prince of the blood of God. (3) The belietJers of the ancient <Jhurch: "the spirits of just men made perfect." The disem- bodied. souls of the Old Testament saints could not be made perfect "apart from us" (eh. xi. 40); and thus we now form one brotherhood with them, as well as with departed. believers who lived in Christia.n times. 4. .Access-givin_g. At Sina.i "the people stood afar off." They could not draw near to God. 'l'he presence of his attending angels brought them no confidence. The mediation of Moses could not remove the ba.rrier of their guilt. But now the great invitation is, "Come." The sum of gospel privilege is expressed in the words," Ye are come" (ver. 22t Believers have been admitted to the mount and city of God, to the companionship o, his angels, to the fellowship of his redeemed saints, and into his very presence as the righteous "Judge, the God of all." And to what are we indebted for this access? We have come to God, because we have come "to Jesus," and have been sprinkled with his "blood" (ver. 24). Christ and his blood are the ground of all our blessings, and the sum of all. The nail-pierced hand of a better Mediator than Moses has opened for us the door of access. 5. Genial. The scene at Sinai was terrific ; but all is peaceful in the sunny garden-city of Zion. It is true that the punishments connected with the new dispensation are far more dreadful than the merely spectacular terrors of the old ; but these occupy the background of the picture, while at Sinai the terrors were in the foreground. And all who really come "to the blood of sprinkling" are safe. The atmosphere of the new covenant is balmy and genial by reason of the merit of that blood. Abel spoke (eh. xi. 4) by his sacrifice only of a coming atonement and a future redemption ; but Christ's blood certifies that these blessings have been secured. And so the whole panorama of Zion is genial and attractive. lts verdure is unfading (Ps. lxxii. 6); all is winsome and gladsome and serene. 6. Final. " The heavenly Jerusalem" is" the city which hath the foundations" (eh. xi. 10). The life of the Church now is no longer a tent-life. It has exchanged the tabernacle for the true -temple. The covenant of which Jesus is the Mediator is a" new," i.e. (according to the Greek in ver. 24) a fresh covenant, one that shall never become stale or old. The kingdom of heaven is a" kingdom that cannot be shaken" (ver. 28). As this whole picture embraces the entire history of the Christian Church, its truthfulness will be more and more appreciated as the centuries roll on, and most of all in the times of the latter-day glory. CoNCLUBION. The practical improvement of this graphic and pregnant passage is indicat.ed in the solemn verses which follow. Vers. 25-29.-Tl.e final appeal. The body of the Epistle seems to conclude with these verses, eh. xiii. being of the nature of a postscript. The solemn warning which they utter breaks forth abruptly. It drops like a thunderbolt out of the sunny sky of Zion. L Ocra NEW TEsTlllENT PBIVILEGES. 1. God speaks to us from heaven. (Ver. 25.) At Sinai, and while the Jewish dispensation lasted, God spoke as it were "on earth," by an earthly mediator, Moses; and largely by means of material forms, which were only "copies" (eh. ix. 23) of the great spiritual realities. But now God speaks "from heaven,"-from his home at the heart of the universe, and therefore from the heart of truth ; and by his Son, the Divine Mediator, who is " in the bosom of the Father." The whole Epistle is clasped together with the emphatic declaration-in its opening sentence (eh. i. 2). and here at its close-that the Lord Jesus is the Prophet. of the new covenant. 2. God has removed the things that were shak1J11. (Vera. 26, 27.) It was only " the earth" that shook at Sinai. And that convulsion speedily subsided. Indeed, the Jews became lulled into the delusion that the Levitical institutions would llever be overthrown. But Haggai predicted (Hag. ii. 6, 7) that the shaking which was to accompany the introduction of Christianity would affect "the heavens, and the earth,  THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 371