Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition)
HEBREWS X.
i',7€ Wi'skness of the Law Sacrifices.
God has no Pleasure in Burnt Offerings.
Colossians 1.22. More probably "opened mine ears." means opened mine inward ear, so as to be attentively obedient to wliat God wills me to do, viz., to assume the body He has prepared for me for my sacrifice, so Job, Margin, 33. 16; 80. 10 (doubtless the boring of a slave's ear was the symbol of mieh willing obedience); Isaiah 50.5, "Tlie Lord God hath opened mine ear," i.e., made meofce-
Gospel remission, on tlie contrary, is so complete, that sins are " remembered no more" {v. 17) by Goci. It is unbelief to "forget" this once-for-all purgation, and to fear on account of " former sins" (2 Peter 1. U). The believer, once for all bathed, needs onlj' to "wash" his hands and "feet" of soils, according as he daily contracts them, in Christ's blood (John l:S. 10). 4. For—Reason why, necessarily, there is a continually recurring " rememl)rance of Sins" in the legal sacrifices (d. 3). Typically, "the blood of bulls," &c., sacrificed, had power; but it was only in virtue of the power of the one real autitypical sacrifice of Christ; they had no power in themselves; they were not the instrument, of perfect vicarious atonement, but an exhibition of the need of it, suggesting to the faitliful Israelite tlie sure hope of coming redemption, according to God's promise, take away—"take off." The Greek, v.
dieri Hii attentive as a slave to bis master. Others somewhat similarly explain, " Mine ears hast tliou digged," or
"fashioned," not with allusion to Exodns 21. 6, but to the true office of the ear—a willing, submissive attention to the voice of God (Isaiah 50. 4, .5). The forming of the ear implies the preparation of the body, i. e., the incarnation this secondary idea, really in the Hebrew, thongli less prominent, is the one which Paul uses for his argument. In either explanation the idea of Christ taking on Him the form, and becoming obedient as a servant, is implied. As He assumed a body in which to make His self-sacri-
11, is stronger, explaining the weaker word here, "take away utterly." The blood of brutes could not tiflje away the sin of man. A man must do that {Notes, ch. 9. 12-14). 5. Christ's voluntary self-ofl'ering, in contrast to those inefficient sacrifices, is shown to fulfil perfectly "the will of God" as to our redemption, by complet'ely atoning " for (our) sins." AVlierefore—Seeing that a nobler than animal sacrifices was needed to " take away sins." when fice, so ought we present our bodies a living sacrifice (Romans 12. 1). 6. bnmt offerings— C'rrtA:, "7vhole burnt offerings." tlioii liast had ho plenswre—as if these could in themselves atone for sin: Go<l had pleasure in (Greek, "approved," or "was well pleased with") them, in so far as they were an act of obedience to His positive command under the Old Testament, but not as having aa lie Komctlx— Greek, "coming." Tlie time referred to is the period before His entrance into tlie world, when the inefficiency of animal sacrifices for expiation had been proved. [Tholuck.] Or, the time is that between Jesus' intrinsic eilicacy such as Christ's sacrifice had. Contrast Matthews. 17. 7. I come—rather, "I am come" (Note, v,
5). "Here we have the creed, as it were, of Jesus: 'lam come to fulfil the law, Matthew 5. 17; to preach, Mark 1. 38; to call sinners to repentance, Luice 5. 32; to send a sword, and to .set men at variance, Matthew 10. 34, o'); I came down from heaven to do the will of Him that sent me, John 0. ;5S, 39 (so here. Psalm 40. 7, 8); I am sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15. 24; I am come into this world for judgment, John 9. 39; I am come that they might have life, and might liave itmoreabundaiitly, John 10. 10; to save what had been lost, Matthew 18. 11 to seek and to save that which was lost, Luke 19. 10; cf. 1 Timothy 1. 15; to save men's lives, Luke 9.56; to send fir© on the earth, IiUkel2. 49; to minister, Matthew 20. 28; as "the Light,'" John 12. 40; to bear witness unto the truth John IS. V.' See, reader, that thy Saviour obtain what He aimed at in thy case. Moreover, do thou for thy part say, wliy thou art come here? Dost thou, then, also, do the will of God? From what time? and in what way?" [Bengei..] "When the two goats on the day of atonement were presented before the Lord, that goat was tobeotfered as a sin ottering on which the lot of the Lord should fall; and that lot was lifted up on high in the hand of the high first dawning of reason as a cliild, and the beginning of His public ministry, during which, being ripened in liumau resolution. He was intently devoting Himself to tlie doing of His Father's will. [Alford.] But the time of "coming" \s present; not "when He had come," but "when coming into the world;" so, in order to accord with Alpobd's view, "tlie world" must mean His PUBLIC ministry: when coming, or about to come, into public. Tlie Greek verbs are in tlie past: " sacrifice, Ac, thou didst not wish, but a body tliou diilst i)repare for me;' and, " Lo, / am come." Tlierefore, in order to harmonize these times, tlie present coming, or about to come, with the past, "A body lliou didst prepare for me," we must eillier explain as Alfokd, or else, if we take the
])eriod to be before His actual arrival in the world (the eartli) or incocnaton, we must explain \\\e past tenses to refer to God's purpose, which speaks of wliat He designed from eternity as though it were aheady fulfilled. "A body thou didst prepare in tliy eternal counsel." This seems to me more likely than explaining "coming into the world," COTni/i(/ iH/o })»6/ic, or entering on His public ministry. David, in Psalm JO. (liere quoted), reviews liis past tronblesand God's having deli vered him from Miem, and his consequent desire to render willing obedience to God as more acceptable than sacrifices; but tlie Spirit puts into liis moutli language finding its partial application to David, and its full realization only in the Divine Son of D.wid. "The more any son of man approadies the Incarnate Son of God in position, or ol Hce, or individual spiritual experience, the more directly may his holy breathings in the power of Christ's Spirit be taken as utterances of Christ Himself. Of all men, tlie ))rophetking of Israel resembled and foreshadowed Him the most." [Alfokd.] a body liast tUon prrgtai'td mc Greek, "thou didst JiU'or me a body."' "In thy counsels thou didst determine to moke for me a body, to be given up to death as a sacrificial victim." [Wahl.] In Un: Jlebrew, Psalm fO. 0, it is " mine ears hast thou opened," or "dug." Perhaps this alludes to the custom of boring the ear of a priest, and then laid upon the head of the goat which was to die; so the hand of God det.e>-mined all that was done to Christ. Besides the covenant of God with man through Christ's blood, there was another covenant miideby the Father with the Son from eter)iity. The condition was, "If Hesliall make His soul an ollering for sin. He shall see His seed," Ac. ( Isaiah S. 19). The Son accepted the condition, "Lo, I come to do Ihy will, O God." [BrsilOP Peaiwon.1 Oblation, intercession, and benediction, are His three priestly odices. In tlie volume, &c.—lil., " the roll:" the parchiiient MS. being wrappi-d around a cylinder headed with knobs. Here, the .Scripture "volume" meant is the 40th Psalm. " By this very passage ' written of me,' I undertake to do thy will [viz., that I should die for the sins of the world, in order that all who believe may lie saved, not by animal sacrifices, v. 6, but by my death]." This is the written contra<;t of Messiah (cf Neliemiah 9. ;i8), whereby He engaged to be our surety. So complete is the inspiration of all that is written, so great the authority of the Psalms, that what David says is really what Christ then and there sai<l. 8. Chrl«t. onci-IOee, Ac—The oldest MSS. read, " .sac?-fC('.» and offe,-^ ings" (plural). This verse oomiiines the two clauses prnviously quoted distinctly, v. 5, (!, in contrast to the sacrtslave u'hi.' volunteers torcmain under his master when he might be free. Christ's assuming a human body, in obedience to the Father's will, in order to die the death of a slave (eh.
2. II), was virtually the .same act of voluntary sulimission to service as that of a slave suH'erlng his ear to 1)^? bored by his master. Jl\>i irilling obedience lo the Father's will is what is dwelt on as giving especial virtue to His sacrifice flee of Christ with which God was well pleased. 9. TI«n» said Ike—"At that time (?;f>., when speaking by David's mouth In the 40th Psalm) He hath .said." The rejection
(V. 7, H, 10). The preparing, or fitting of a body for Him, Is not with a view to His mere Incarnation, but to His expiatory sacrifice (u. 10), as the contrast to "sacrifice and ollenng" requires; cf. also Uomaiis 7. 1 ; Epueslans '2. 10; 466 of the legal sacrifices involves, as its concomitant, the voluntary oUTer of Jesus to make the self-sacrifico with