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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
H E B R E W S.
CHAP. I.
In this chapter we have a twofold comparison stated:
I. Between the evangelical and legal dispensation; and the excellency
of the gospel above that of the law is asserted and proved,
II. Between the glory of Christ and that of the highest creatures, the
angels; where the pre-eminence is justly given to the Lord Jesus
Christ, and clearly demonstrated to belong to him,
| Law and Gospel Compared; Dignity and Glory of Christ. | A. D. 62. |
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1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets,
2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he
hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the
worlds;
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express
image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high;
Here the apostle begins with a general declaration of the excellency of
the gospel dispensation above that of the law, which he demonstrates
from the different way and manner of God’s communicating himself and
his mind and will to men in the one and in the other: both these
dispensations were of God, and both of them very good, but there is a
great difference in the way of their coming from God. Observe,
I. The way wherein God communicated himself and his will to men under
the Old Testament. We have here an account,
1. Of the persons by whom God delivered his mind under the Old
Testament; they were the prophets, that is, persons chosen of
God, and qualified by him, for that office of revealing the will of God
to men. No man takes this honour to himself, unless called; and whoever
are called of God are qualified by him.
2. The persons to whom God spoke by the prophets: To the
fathers, to all the Old-Testament saints who were under that
dispensation. God favoured and honoured them with much clearer light
than that of nature, under which the rest of the world were left.
3. The order in which God spoke to men in those times that went before
the gospel, those past times: he spoke to his ancient people at
sundry times and in divers manners.
(1.) At sundry times, or by several parts, as the word
signifies, which may refer either to the several ages of the
Old-Testament dispensation–the patriarchal, the Mosaic, and the
prophetic; or to the several gradual openings of his mind concerning
the Redeemer: to Adam, that the Messiah should come of the seed of the
woman,–to Abraham, that he should spring from his loins,–to Jacob,
that he should be of the tribe of Judah,–to David, that he should be
of his house,–to Micah, that he should be born at Bethlehem,–to
Isaiah, that he should be born of a virgin.
(2.) In divers manners, according to the different ways in which
God though fit to communicate his mind to his prophets; sometimes by
the illapses of his Spirit, sometimes by dreams,
sometimes by visions, sometimes by an audible voice, sometimes by
legible characters under his own hand, as when he wrote the ten
commandments on tables of stone. Of some of these different ways God
himself gave an account in
If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known
to him in a vision, and will speak to him in a dream. Not so with my
servant Moses: with him I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently,
and not in dark speeches.
II. God’s method of communicating his mind and will under the
New-Testament dispensation, these last days as they are called, that
is, either towards the end of the world, or the end of the Jewish
state. The times of the gospel are the last times, the gospel
revelation is the last we are to expect from God. There was first the
natural revelation; then the patriarchal, by dreams, visions, and
voices; then the Mosaic, in the law given forth and written down; then
the prophetic, in explaining the law, and giving clearer discoveries of
Christ: but now we must expect no new revelation, but only more of the
Spirit of Christ to help us better to understand what is already
revealed. Now the excellency of the gospel revelation above the former
consists in two things:–
1. It is the final, the finishing revelation, given forth in the last
days of divine revelation, to which nothing is to be added, but the
canon of scripture is to be settled and sealed: so that now the minds
of men are no longer kept in suspense by the expectation of new
discoveries, but they rejoice in a complete revelation of the will of
God, both preceptive and providential, so far as is necessary for them
to know in order to their direction and comfort. For the gospel
includes a discovery of the great events that shall befal the church of
God to the end of the world.
2. It is a revelation which God has made by his Son, the most excellent
messenger that was ever sent into the world, far superior to all the
ancient patriarchs and prophets, by whom God communicated his will to
his people in former times. And here we have an excellent account of
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1.) The glory of his office, and that in three respects:–
[1.] God hath appointed him to be heir of all things. As God, he was
equal to the Father; but, as God-man and Mediator, he was appointed by
the Father to be the heir of all things, the sovereign Lord of all, the
absolute disposer, director, and governor of all persons and of all
things,
All power in heaven and earth is given to him; all judgment is
committed to him,
Matt. xxviii. 18; John v. 22.
[2.] By him God made the worlds, both visible and invisible, the
heavens and the earth; not as an instrumental cause, but as his
essential word and wisdom. By him he made the old creation, by him he
makes the new creature, and by him he rules and governs both.
[3.] He upholds all things by the word of his power: he keeps the world
from dissolving. By him all things consist. The weight of the
whole creation is laid upon Christ: he supports the whole and all the
parts. When, upon the apostasy, the world was breaking to pieces under
the wrath and curse of God, the Son of God, undertaking the work of
redemption, bound it up again, and established it by his almighty power
and goodness. None of the ancient prophets sustained such an office as
this, none was sufficient for it.
(2.) Hence the apostle passes to the glory of the person of Christ, who
was able to execute such an office: He was the brightness of his
Father’s glory, and the express image of his person,
v. 3.
This is a high and lofty description of the glorious Redeemer, this is
an account of his personal excellency.
[1.] He is, in person, the Son of God, the only-begotten Son of God,
and as such he must have the same nature. This personal distinction
always supposes one and the same nature. Every son of man is man; were
not the nature the same, the generation would be monstrous.
[2.] The person of the Son is the glory of the Father, shining forth
with a truly divine splendour. As the beams are effulgent emanations of
the sun, the father and fountain of light, Jesus Christ in his person
is God manifest in the flesh, he is light of light, the true Shechinah.
[3.] The person of the Son is the true image and character of the
person of the Father; being of the same nature, he must bear the same
image and likeness. In beholding the power, wisdom, and goodness, of
the Lord Jesus Christ, we behold the power, wisdom, and goodness, of
the Father; for he hath the nature and perfections of God in him. He
that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father; that is, he hath seen
the same Being. He that hath known the Son hath known the Father,
For the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son; the personal
distinction is no other than will consist with essential union. This is
the glory of the person of Christ; the fulness of the Godhead dwells,
not typically, but really, in him.
(3.) From the glory of the person of Christ he proceeds to mention the
glory of his grace; his condescension itself was truly glorious. The
sufferings of Christ had this great honour in them, to be a full
satisfaction for the sins of his people: By himself he purged away
our sins, that is, by the proper innate merit of his death and
bloodshed, by their infinite intrinsic value; as they were the
sufferings of himself, he has made atonement for sin. Himself, the
glory of his person and nature, gave to his sufferings such merit as
was a sufficient reparation of honour to God, who had suffered an
infinite injury and affront by the sins of men.
(4.) From the glory of his sufferings we are at length led to consider
the glory of his exaltation: When by himself he had purged away our
sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, at his
Father’s right hand. As Mediator and Redeemer, he is invested with the
highest honour, authority, and activity, for the good of his people;
the Father now does all things by him, and receives all the services of
his people from him. Having assumed our nature, and suffered in it on
earth, he has taken it up with him to heaven, and there it has the high
honour to be next to God, and this was the reward of his
humiliation.
Now it was by no less a person than this that God in these last days
spoke to men; and, since the dignity of the messenger gives authority
and excellency to the message, the dispensations of the gospel must
therefore exceed, very far exceed, the dispensation of the law.
| The Dignity of Christ. | A. D. 62. |
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4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my
Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a
Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
6 And again, when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the
world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
7 And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits,
and his ministers a flame of fire.
8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever
and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy
kingdom.
9 Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore
God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows.
10 And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation
of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:
11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall
wax old as doth a garment;
12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be
changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.
13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my
right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister
for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
The apostle, having proved the pre-eminence of the gospel above the law
from the pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus Christ above the prophets, now
proceeds to show that he is much superior not only to the prophets, but
to the angels themselves. In this he obviates an objection that the
Jewish zealots would be ready to make, that the law was not only
delivered by men, but ordained by angels
(Gal. iii. 19),
who attended at the giving forth of the law, the hosts of heaven being
drawn forth to attend the Lord Jehovah on that awful occasion. Now the
angels are very glorious beings, far more glorious and excellent than
men; the scripture always represents them as the most excellent of all
creatures, and we know of no being but God himself that is higher than
the angels; and therefore that law that was ordained by angels ought to
be held in great esteem. To take off the force of this argument, the
penman of this epistle proceeds to state the comparison between Jesus
Christ and the holy angels, both in nature and office, and to prove
that Christ is vastly superior to the angels themselves: Being made
so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a
more excellent name than they. Here observe,
I. The superior nature of Christ is proved from his superior name. The
scripture does not give high and glorious titles without a real
foundation and reason in nature; nor would such great things have been
said of our Lord Jesus Christ if he had not been as great and excellent
as those words import. When it is said that Christ was made so much
better than the angels, we are not to imagine that he was a mere
creature, as the angels are; the word genomenos, when
joined with an adjective, is nowhere to be rendered created, and
here may very well be read, being more excellent, as the
Syriac version hath it. We read ginesthe ho Theos
alethes—let God be true, not made so, but acknowledged
to be so.
II. The superiority of the name and nature of Christ above the angels
is declared in the holy scriptures, and to be deduced thence. We should
have known little or nothing either of Christ or of the angels, without
the scriptures; and we must therefore be determined by them in our
conceptions of the one and the other. Now here are several passages of
scripture cited, in which those things are said of Christ that were
never said of the angels.
1. It was said of Christ, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten
thee
(Ps. ii. 7),
which may refer to his eternal generation, or to his resurrection, or
to his solemn inauguration into his glorious kingdom at his ascension
and session at the right hand of the Father. Now this was never said
concerning the angels, and therefore by inheritance he has a more
excellent nature and name than they.
2. It was said concerning Christ, but never concerning the angels, I
will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son; taken from
Not only, “I am his Father, and he is my Son, by nature and eternal
promanation;” but, “I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son, by
wonderful conception, and this his son-ship shall be the fountain and
foundation of every gracious relation between me and fallen man.”
3. It is said of Christ, When God bringeth his First-begotten into
the world, let all the angels of God worship him; that is, when he
is brought into this lower world, at his nativity, let the angels
attend and honour him; or when he is brought into the world above, at
his ascension, to enter upon his mediatorial kingdom, or when he shall
bring him again into the world, to judge the world, then let the
highest creatures worship him. God will not suffer an angel to continue
in heaven who will not be in subjection to Christ, and pay adoration to
him; and he will at last make the fallen angels and wicked men to
confess his divine power and authority and to fall before him. Those
who would not have him to reign must then be brought forth and slain
before him. The proof of this is taken out of
Worship him, all you gods, that is, “All you that are superior
to men, own yourselves to be inferior to Christ in nature and
power.”
4. God has said concerning Christ, Thy throne, O God, is forever and
ever, &c.,
But of the angels he has only said that he hath made them spirits,
and his ministers a flame of fire,
v. 7.
Now, upon comparing what he here says of the angels with what he says
to Christ, the vast inferiority of the angels to Christ will plainly
appear.
(1.) What does God say here of the angels? He maketh his angels
spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. This we have in
where it seems to be more immediately spoken of the winds and
lightning, but is here applied to the angels, whose agency the divine
Providences makes use of in the winds, and in thunder and lightnings.
Observe,
[1.] The office of the angels: they are God’s ministers, or
servants, to do his pleasure. It is the glory of God that he has
such servants; it is yet more so that he does not need them.
[2.] How the angels are qualified for this service; he makes them
spirits and a flame of fire, that is, he endows them with light and
zeal, with activity and ability, readiness and resolution to do his
pleasure: they are no more than what God has made them to be, and they
are servants to the Son as well as to the Father. But observe,
(2.) How much greater things are said of Christ by the Father. Here two
passages of scripture are quoted.
[1.] One of these is out of
where God declares of Christ, First, His true and real divinity,
and that with much pleasure and affection, not grudging him that glory:
Thy throne, O God. Here one person calls another person God,
O God. And, if God the Father declares him to be so, he must be
really and truly so; for God calls persons and things as they are. And
now let who will deny him to be essentially God at their peril, but let
us own and honour him as God; for, if he had not been God, he had never
been fit to have done the Mediator’s work nor to have worn the
Mediator’s crown. Secondly, God declares his dignity and
dominion, as having a throne, a kingdom, and a sceptre of that kingdom.
He has all right, rule, authority, and power, both as the God of
nature, grace, and glory, and as Mediator; and so he is fully adequate
to all the intents and purposes of his mediatorial kingdom.
Thirdly, God declares the eternal duration of the dominion and
dignity of Christ, founded upon the divinity of his person: Thy
throne, O God, is for ever and ever, from everlasting to
everlasting, through all the ages of time, maugre all the attempts of
earth and hell to undermine and overthrow it, and through all the
endless ages of eternity, when time shall be no more. This
distinguishes Christ’s throne from all earthly thrones, which are
tottering, and will at length tumble down; but the throne of Christ
shall be as the days of heaven. Fourthly, God declares of Christ
the perfect equity of his administration, and of the execution of his
power, through all the parts of his government: A sceptre of
righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom,
v. 8.
He came righteously to the sceptre, and he uses it in perfect
righteousness; the righteousness of his government proceeds from the
righteousness of his person, from an essential eternal love of
righteousness and hatred of iniquity, not merely from considerations of
prudence or interest, but from an inward and immovable principle:
Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity,
v. 9.
Christ came to fulfil all righteousness, to bring in an everlasting
righteousness; and he was righteous in all his ways and holy in all his
works. He has recommended righteousness to men, and restored it among
them, as a most excellent and amiable thing. He came to finish
transgression, and to make an end of sin as a hateful as well as
hurtful thing. Fifthly, God declares of Christ how he was
qualified for the office of Mediator, and how he was installed and
confirmed in it
(v. 9):
Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of
gladness above thy fellows.
1. Christ has the name Messiah from his being anointed. God’s anointing
of Christ signifies both his qualifying him for the office of the
Mediator with the Holy Spirit and all his graces, and likewise his
inauguration of him into the office, as prophets, priests, and kings,
were by anointing. God, even thy God, imports the confirmation
of Christ in the office of Mediator by the covenant of redemption and
peace, that was between the Father and the Son. God is the God of
Christ, as Christ is man and Mediator.
2. This anointing of Christ was with the oil of gladness, which
signifies both the gladness and cheerfulness with which Christ
undertook and went through the office of Mediator (finding himself so
absolutely sufficient for it), and also that joy which was set before
him as the reward of his service and sufferings, that crown of glory
and gladness which he should wear for ever after the suffering of
death.
3. This anointing of Christ was above the anointing of his fellows:
God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows. Who are Christ’s fellows? Has he any equals? Not as
God, except the Father and Spirit, but these are not here meant. As
man, however, he has his fellows, and as an anointed person; but his
unction is beyond all theirs.
(1.) Above the angels, who may be said to be his fellows, as they are
the sons of God by creation, and God’s messengers, whom he employs in
his service.
(2.) Above all prophets, priests, and kings, that ever were anointed
with oil, to be employed in the service of God on earth.
(3.) Above all the saints, who are his brethren, children of the same
father, as he was a partaker with them of flesh and blood.
(4.) Above all those who were related to him as man, above all the
house of David, all the tribe of Judah, all his brethren and kinsmen in
the flesh. All God’s other anointed ones had only the Spirit in a
certain measure; Christ had the Spirit above measure, without any
limitation. None therefore goes through his work as Christ did, none
takes so much pleasure in it as Christ does; for he was anointed with
the oil of gladness above his fellows.
[2.] The other passage of scripture in which is the superior excellence
of Christ to the angels is taken out of
and is recited in
where the omnipotence of the Lord Jesus Christ is declared as it
appears both in creating the world and in changing it.
First, In creating the world
(v. 10):
And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the
earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. The Lord Christ
had the original right to govern the world, because he made the world
in the beginning. His right, as Mediator, was by commission from the
Father. His right, as God with the Father, was absolute, resulting from
his creating power. This power he had before the beginning of the
world, and he exerted it in giving a beginning and being to the world.
He must therefore be no part of the world himself, for then he must
give himself a beginning. He was pro panton—before
all things, and by him all things consist,
Col. i. 17.
He was not only above all things in condition, but before all things in
existence; and therefore must be God, and self-existent. He laid the
foundations of the earth, did not only introduce new forms into
pre-existent matter, but made out of nothing the foundations of the
earth, the primordia rerum–the first principles of things; he
not only founded the earth, but the heavens too are the work of his
hands, both the habitation and the inhabitants, the hosts of heaven,
the angels themselves; and therefore he must needs be infinitely
superior to them.
Secondly, In changing the world that he has made; and here the
mutability of this world is brought in to illustrate the immutability
of Christ. Observe,
1. This world is mutable, all created nature is so; this world has
passed through many changes, and shall pass through more; all these
changes are by the permission and under the direction of Christ, who
made the world
(v. 11, 12):
They shall perish, they shall all wax old as doth a garment; as a
vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed. This
our visible world (both the earth and visible heavens) is growing old.
Not only men and beasts and trees grow old, but this world itself grows
old, and is hastening to its dissolution; it changes like a garment,
has lost much of its beauty and strength; it grew old betimes on the
first apostasy, and it has been waxing older and growing weaker ever
since; it bears the symptoms of a dying world. But then its dissolution
will not be its utter destruction, but its change. Christ will fold up
this world as a garment not to be abused any longer, not to be any
longer so used as it has been. Let us not then set our hearts upon that
which is not what we take it to be, and will not be what it now is. Sin
has made a great change in the world for the worse, and Christ will
make a great change in it for the better. We look for new heavens
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Let the
consideration of this wean us from the present world, and make us
watchful, diligent, and desirous of that better world, and let us wait
on Christ to change us into a meetness for that new world that is
approaching; we cannot enter into it till we be new creatures.
2. Christ is immutable. Thus the Father testifies of him, Thou
remainest, thy years shall not fail. Christ is the same in himself,
the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever, and the same to his
people in all the changes of time. This may well support all who have
an interest in Christ under all the changes they meet with in the
world, and under all they feel in themselves. Christ is immutable and
immortal: his years shall not fail. This may comfort us under all
decays of nature that we may observe in ourselves or in our friends,
though our flesh and heart fail and our days are hastening to an end.
Christ lives to take care of us while we live, and of ours when we are
gone, and this should quicken us all to make our interest in him clear
and sure, that our spiritual and eternal life may be hid with Christ in
God.
III. The superiority of Christ to the angels appears in this that God
never said to the angels what he has said to Christ,
1. What has God said to Christ? He has said, “Sit thou at my right
hand, till I make thy enemies thy footstool,
Ps. cx. 1.
Receive thou glory, dominion, and rest; and remain in the
administration of thy mediatorial kingdom until all thy enemies shall
either be made thy friends by conversion or thy footstool.” Note,
(1.) Christ Jesus has his enemies (would one think it?), enemies even
among men–enemies to his sovereignty, to his cause, to his people;
such as will not have him to reign over them. Let us not think it
strange then if we have our enemies. Christ never did any thing to make
men his enemies; he has done a great deal to make them all his friends
and his Father’s friends, and yet he has his enemies.
(2.) All the enemies of Christ shall be made his footstool, either by
humble submission and entire subjection to his will casting themselves
down at his feet, or by utter destruction; he shall trample upon those
who continue obstinate, and shall trample over them.
(3.) God the Father has undertaken for this, and he will see it done,
yea, he will himself do it; and, though it be not done presently, it
shall certainly be done, and Christ waits for it,; and so must
Christians wait till God has wrought all their works in them, for them,
and by them.
(4.) Christ shall go on to rule and reign till this be done; he shall
not leave any of his great designs unfinished, he shall go on
conquering and to conquer. And it becomes his people to go on in their
duty, being what he would have them to be, doing what he would have
them to do, avoiding what he would have them to avoid, bearing what he
would have them to bear, till he make them conquerors and more than
conquerors over all their spiritual enemies.
2. What has God said to the angels? He never said to them, as he said
to Christ, Sit you at my right hand; but he has said of them
here that they are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for
those who shall be heirs of salvation. Note,
(1.) What the angels are as to their nature: they are spirits, without
bodies or inclination to bodies, and yet they can assume bodies, and
appear in them, when God pleases. They are spirits, incorporeal,
intelligent, active, substances; they excel in wisdom and strength.
(2.) What the angels are as to their office: they are ministering
spirits. Christ, as Mediator, is the great minister of God in the great
work of redemption. The Holy Spirit is the great minister of God and
Christ in the application of this redemption. Angels are ministering
spirits under the blessed Trinity, to execute the divine will and
pleasure; they are the ministers of divine Providence.
(3.) The angels are sent forth for this end–to minister to those who
shall be the heirs of salvation. Here observe,
[1.] The description given of the saints–they are heirs of
salvation; at present they are under age, heirs, not inheritors.
They are heirs because they are children of God; if children, then
heirs. Let us make sure that we are children by adoption and
regeneration, having made a covenant-resignation of ourselves to God,
and walking before him in a gospel-conversation, and then we are heirs
of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.
[2.] The dignity and privilege of the saints–the angels are sent forth
to minister for them. Thus they have done in attending and acting at
the giving forth of the law, in fighting the battles of the saints, in
destroying their enemies. They still minister for them in opposing the
malice and power of evil spirits, in protecting and keeping their
bodies, pitching their tents about theirs, instructing, quickening, and
comforting their souls under Christ and the Holy Ghost; and thus they
shall do in gathering all the saints together at the last day. Bless
God for the ministration of angels, keep in God’s way, and take the
comfort of this promise, that he will give his angels charge over
you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you up in their
hands, lest you dash your feet against a stone,
Ps. xci. 11, 12.
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