《Collected Writings of John Nelson Darby (Volume 28)》
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Notes on the Epistle to the Hebrews
All of One Hebrews 2
"What is man?" Hebrews 2: 5-18
Perfection Hebrews 6
Christ's Work and its consequences Hebrews 9 and 10
Christ's Coming, Faith's Crowning Hebrews 9: 27, 28
Faith Hebrews 11
Burning and Eating the Sacrifices Hebrews 13: 7-19
Obedience: the Saint's Liberty Hebrews 13: 17-25
Brief Exposition of the Epistle of James
Notes on the Epistle of James
Reading on 1 Peter 1 and 2
Sanctified, Purged, and Kept 1 Peter 1: 1-9
Our Pilgrimage, Priesthood, and Suffering 1 Peter 2
Are you brought to God? 1 Peter 3: 10-18
Grace and Government 2 Peter 1
Partaker of the Divine Nature 2 Peter 1: 4
Notes on the First Epistle of John
Notes on the Second Epistle of John
Notes on the Third Epistle of John
Fellowship with the Father and the Son
The Positiveness of Life in Christ
The Love of God, the Love of Saints, and Overcoming the World.
The Three Who are Witnessing: "The Spirit, and the water, and the blood."
Notes on the First Epistle of John
Epistle of Jude
On the Apocalypse
Outline of the Revelation
Notes on the Epistle to the Hebrews
J. N. Darby.
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Chapter 1Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7 / Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
The Epistle to the Hebrews presents to us the continuation of the testimony, by Christ Himself, of the Old Testament prophets. At the same time, this epistle unfolds the glory of Christ according to the testimony which these prophets have attributed to the Person of Christ the Messiah. He, Son of God and Son of man, came down here as an Apostle, bringing to us the divine truths; then returned to God from whom He has received the mediatorial office of Priest, waiting for the moment when He shall come in the governmental glory of Messiah. To this present glory of Jesus as High Priest in the heavenlies is conjoined a change of great importance in the operations or actings of God. A heavenly call takes the place of the earthly Jewish dispensation. This change of dispensation is one of the principal features of the book.
In this epistle Israel is acknowledged of God as a people, but is only recognised as such as seen in the remnant. Accordingly this remnant is not separated from the whole of the people, as the church is, but presents itself under the figure described in the emblem of the olive tree (Rom. 11), forming the branches upheld there by God. It crosses the period of Christianity, partaking of the blessed promises with the Gentiles who are also admitted on the olive tree during that time. We are put, we Gentiles, by the doctrine of Romans 11 into the place given to the believer in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The church is not at all in question in this epistle, unless in chapter 12, where only it is named amongst those gathered by God for glory. The church is a heavenly body formed outside the arrangements of God in the ways of His government on earth. It is not a continuation of anything that preceded down here. Amongst the blessed families of God it is the one nearest to Himself. The remnant of Israel, alive during the period of the gospel, belongs to it; it partakes of the nature of the new man (Eph. 2), in which it ceases to keep its distinctive character of remnant of Israel. But the doctrine of the Epistle of the Hebrews gives it that character, and this gives a double place to this class of saved ones, namely, the one of remnant of Israel on the earth, and the other of members of the church united to Christ in heaven.
2 By the fact of a heavenly call resulting from the setting up of a new dispensation, confided to the Messiah in the heavenlies, the Epistle to the Hebrews pours upon the remnant a blessing which is also heavenly. And besides this blessing adapting itself to the purposes of God towards His people Israel, the epistle unfolds to us the privileges of the second covenant, which can already be realised under the present state of things, although in truth the covenant may only receive its accomplishment in the future. What is also remarkable is to find some expressions speaking of a blessing which could have a fulfilment only after the rapture of the church.
There is no mediator for the church; it is seen in Christ and perfect; but the saints, seen as individuals, receive succour from the Mediator: this shews that in them there may be weakness or failure.
Let us remark also that the Holy Spirit, in putting under the eyes of the Hebrews these numerous developments concerning the change of dispensation, purposes by it to detach the remnant from the first covenant, in order to bind it in heaven to a heavenly Christ.
Chapters 1 and 2 unfold those glories of Messiah which pertain to His apostleship. It is, although a new feature, joined in chapter 2 to the humiliation of Christ. The Prince of salvation, for the benefit of the children of God He is bringing to glory, has borne the suffering of death and passed through afflictions. By this He is made bearer of the qualities necessary to priesthood. Accordingly in these two chapters are laid the foundations of His apostleship and also of His priesthood: of His apostleship in that He as God came Himself to bring the word to men; of His priesthood in that He as man passed through the experiences of the God-fearing man.
Hebrews 1.
Verses 1, 2. "God spake to us in his Son," not in the Son as instrument of His word, but Himself, God the Son, by the prophets, but in [the] Son.
"In these last days." At the end of the prophetical period God Himself spake to us: His testimony follows that of the prophets, but His is necessarily superior to theirs. As to "the worlds," the Greek word in the Epistle to the Hebrews is used in a general sense to indicate all that is in existence: it is used in the plural again in chapter 11: 3.
3 Verse 3. "The exact expression of his substance"; Christ, "the image" of the invisible God. He has revealed down here by His presence the God who dwells in inaccessible light. All His acts did shew that He was God. He shewed His grace when He pronounced the forgiveness of a sinner, and His kindness when He took little children in His arms, etc. "Having made by himself the purification of sins." The purification of our sins is here attached to the divine title of Jesus; it is part of His divine glory as much as the creation and preservation of all things. The title is the same also when it is mentioned a little further on: "He sat down."
Verses 4-14. The Son, who brought us the word, is put in contrast with the angels by whom God dictated His law.
Verse 4. "Having become" or having taken a place. These words indicate the place taken by Jesus at a given time, without looking at what He was previously.
Verse 5. "Thou art my Son: to-day have I begotten thee." Scripture speaks of Jesus as Son in two different aspects: as Son of God, born in the world, and Son according to the eternal relationship. This verse refers to the first of these: Jesus is seen here not in His glory as essentially divine, but in His glory as born Son. Nevertheless it is very important to consider the glory of Jesus as Son of God before His incarnation; for we could not speak of the love of God as we do, if the One He gave us was not His Son.
Verses 7-9. "Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." It has pleased God to give to these agents of His power this nature of spirits. But as to the Son it is said, "Thy throne, O God!" God, in the exercise of His will, makes of His angels spirits, or flames of fire; but of the Son we do not read that God makes anything of Him. God said of Him, "O God!" This Son exists or subsists in the divinity. Though the angels are in a state superior to that of man, they are, notwithstanding their glory, in a condition very inferior to that of the Son.
In these three verses the Lord is seen in a personal glory higher than what is shewn in verses 4-6. There we have the Son begotten of God, here He is God Himself. "Thy throne O God, is for ever and ever." How much doth this raise the dignity of Messiah! Nevertheless the same One, who is God, is anointed by God. He becomes man and is in a condition where He finds companions. Wonderful link of man with God in Christ!
4 "Thy throne"; not the Father's throne, but the governmental throne of Messiah. "Thy companions," or, as in Psalm 45 from which these words are quoted, "thy fellows." When Christ is in the humiliation of the cross God calls Him His Fellow (Zech. 13); when He is in glory, God then gives us to Him for companions.
Verses 10-12. Here is a higher degree of Christ's glory. He is the eternal God, creator of all things. It is no more Godhead hidden in the anointed Man, but the Creator-God - Godhead fully revealed. Thus, there is no room for misconception as to the Person of the Messiah.
Verse 13. The superiority of Jesus over the angels is doubly established. The Holy Ghost, after having put Him in contrast with the angels as regards His divine Person, views Him as man; "To which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand?" This contrast of the Man-Messiah with the angels goes on in the next chapter.
Hebrews 2.
Verses 1-4. This is an exhortation of the Holy Ghost brought in parenthetically. We must keep close to the word of God, the more so as having been pronounced by the Lord Himself. How shall we escape if we neglect it? This greater privilege imposes greater responsibility. It is the preaching of a great salvation, made by the Lord Himself when on earth; not the gospel preached and the church united after the death of Christ. This testimony consequently goes on to the millennium without speaking of the church, a fact to be noticed not only in these verses but in the whole epistle.
We find also in this exhortation that the testimony of the apostles is swallowed up in the apostleship of Christ. Paul is apart from it; thus we see a difference between the testimony of Paul and that of Peter. In Peter's discourses in the Acts he never presents the Lord as Son of God. In conformity to the testimony addressed to Israel, he presents in Jesus the Man approved of God down here, risen afterwards, and glorified by God in seating Him at His right hand, "as Lord and Christ." Whilst Paul, who was brought in outside the teaching of the twelve to reveal that free grace of God which forms a church united to Christ in heaven, sets himself from the beginning of his testimony to shew clearly that Jesus is the Son of God.
5 Verse 5. "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come of which we speak." This is millennial glory. The words "the world to come" do not apply to heaven, but there will be a change on earth. Angels are the instruments of the providential government of God during the present period. We are still in the age which existed before the coming of Christ - an age which began with Noah. But we must notice the two principal phases of it: Moses and Sinai, the time of separation from the age for Israel; and Nebuchadnezzar in whom God entrusted the power to the Gentiles when He declared His people Lo-Ammi; "not my people."
Verse 9. "A little inferior to the angels for the suffering of death"; "a little" refers to the degree rather than time. Jesus went down to the lowest of creation to be able to grasp it all. But this point is not unfolded here; it is only said that He went lower than the angels. Notice that in this place the death of Jesus is attached to God's grace; "By the grace of God," it is said, He suffered death for all. It is the Man who died to accomplish the grace of a God of love. Other passages present, in the death of Christ, the Man falling under the judgment of God.
Verse 10. "For it became him for whom are all things," etc. The first object was to bring many sons to glory; but it was necessary that the One who presented Himself before the majesty of God for man should bear the consequences of the state in which man was found. "It became him," God, "for whom are all things and by whom are all things." It became His Majesty that the Prince of salvation should pass through the suffering of death.
Verse 11. "For both he that sanctifieth and those who are sanctified are all of one." Christ is a separated Person and exercises a sanctifying power. We, as children of faith, are sanctified by the double fact that we are separated in Him, and we receive of His power a new life. What He is as man, we are by the new life in us. When on the earth He was dependent on His God, obedient, separate from evil, etc.: we are such also by a moral fact, and become so practically.
6 "Are all of one." We are in the same condition as the Head of this new family, which could not be the case with angels. The first time we see Jesus identifying Himself with man is when entering His public career. At John's baptism He identified Himself with those in whom grace had produced the first movement of faith in answer to the testimony of God. He did not place Himself with the infidels who despised the testimony of John and refused His baptism, but with the pious remnant in whom, though very weak at the beginning, grace was operating. That class of people, put aside by John's baptism, formed at the time the sanctified ones, "the saints in the earth" on whom the good pleasure of the Lord was resting; Psalm 16. But it is not said of Jesus and of men, that they are all of one: it is said, "He that sanctifieth and those who are sanctified are all of one."*