id="pgepubid00004">SUMMARY.

I. The Revelation in a Son: i. 1–3.

1. The previous revelation was in portions; this is a Son, Who is the Heir and the Creator.

2. The previous revelation was in divers manners; this in a Son, Who is (1) the effulgence of God’s glory; (2) the image of His substance; (3) the Sustainer of all things; (4) the eternal Priest-King.

II. The Son and the Angels: i. 4–ii. 18.

1. The Revealer of God Son of God: i. 4–ii. 4.

2. The Son the Representative of man: ii. 5–18. (1) He is crowned with glory as Son, that His propitiation may prove effectual, and His humiliation involves a propitiatory death. (2) His glory consists in being Leader of His people, and His humiliation fitted Him for leadership. (3) His glory consists in power to consecrate men to God, and His humiliation endowed Him with this power. (4) His glory consists in the destruction of Satan, and Satan is destroyed through the Son’s humiliation.

III. Fundamental Oneness of the Dispensations: iii. i–iv. 13.

1. Moses and Christ are equally God’s stewards.

2. The threatenings of God under the Old Testament are in force in reference to apostasy from Christ.

3. The promises of God are still in force.

IV. The Great High-Priest: iv. 4–v. 10.

1. His sympathy.

2. His authority.

V. (A Digression) The Impossibility of Renewal in the Case of Scoffers: v. 11–vi. 8.

Their renewal is impossible (1) because the doctrine of Christianity is practical, and (2) because God’s punishment of cynicism is the destruction of the spiritual faculty.

VI. (Continuation of the Digression.) The Impossibility of Failure: vi. 9–20.

VII. The Allegory of Melchizedek: vii. 1–28.

1. Melchizedek foreshadows the kingship of Christ.

2. Melchizedek foreshadows the personal greatness of Christ.

3. The allegory teaches the existence of a priesthood other than that of Aaron, viz., the priesthood founded on an oath.

4. The allegory sets forth the eternal duration of Christ’s priesthood.

VIII. The New Covenant: viii. 1.

1. A new covenant promised through Jeremiah: viii. 1–13. The new covenant would excel (1) in respect of the moral law; (2) in respect of knowledge of God; (3) in respect of forgiveness of sins.

2. A new covenant symbolized in the tabernacle: ix. 1–14.

3. A new covenant ratified in the death of Christ: ix. 15–x. 18.

IX. An Advance in the Exhortation: x. 19–39.

X. Faith an Assurance and a Proof: xi. 1–3.

XI. The Faith of Abraham: xi. 8–19.

1. His faith compared with the faith of Noah.

2. His faith compared with the faith of Enoch.

3. His faith compared with the faith of Abel.

XII. The Faith of Moses: xi. 23–28.

1. Faith groping for the work of life.

2. Faith chooses the work of life.

3. Faith a discipline for the work of life.

4. Faith renders the man’s life and work sacramental.

XIII. A Cloud of Witnesses: xi. 20–xii. 1.

XIV. Conflict: xii. 2–17. Faith as a hope of the future endures the present conflict against men.

1. The preparatory training for the conflict consists in putting away (1) our own grossness; (2) the sin that besets us.

2. The contest is successfully maintained if we look unto Jesus (1) as Leader and Perfecter of our faith; (2) as an example of faith.

3. The contest is necessary as a discipline in dealing with (1) the weaker brethren, (2) the enemy at the gate, and (3) the secular spirit.

XV. Mount Zion: xii. 18–29. The revelation on Sinai preceded the sacrifices of the tabernacle; the revelation on Zion follows the sacrifice of the Cross. Hence—

1. Sinai revealed the terrible side of God’s character, Zion the peaceful tenderness of His love.

2. The revelation on Sinai was earthly; that on Zion is spiritual.

XVI. Sundry Exhortations: xiii. 1–25.

CHAPTER I.
THE REVELATION IN A SON.

“God hath spoken.” The eternal silence has been broken. We have a revelation. That God has spoken unto men is the ground of all religion. Theologians often distinguish between natural religion and revealed. We may fairly question if all worship is not based on some revelation of God. Prayer is the echo in man’s spirit of God’s own voice. Men learn to speak to the Father Who is in heaven as children come to utter words: by hearing their parent speak. It is the deaf who are also dumb. God speaks first, and prayer answers as well as asks. Men reveal themselves to the God Who has revealed Himself to them.

The Apostle is, however, silent about the revelations of God in nature and in conscience. He passes them by because we, sinful men, have lost the key to the language of creation and of our own moral nature. We know that He speaks through them, but we do not know what He says. If we were holy, it would be otherwise. All nature would be vocal, “like some sweet beguiling melody.” But to us the universe is a hieroglyphic which we cannot decipher, until we discover in another revelation the key that will make all plain.

More strange than this is the Apostle’s omission to speak of the Mosaic dispensation as a revelation of God. We should have expected the verse to run on this wise: “God, having spoken unto the fathers in the sacrifices and in the prophets, institutions, and inspired words,” etc. But the author says nothing about rites, institutions, dispensations, and laws. The reason apparently is that he wishes to compare with the revelation in Christ the highest, purest, and fullest revelation given before; and the most complete revelation vouchsafed to men, before the Son came to declare the Father, is to be found, not in sacrifices, but in the words of promise, not in the institutions, but in holy men, who were sent, time after time, to quicken the institutions into new life or to preach new truths. The prophets were seers and poets. Nature’s highest gift is imagination, whether it “makes” a world that transcends nature or “sees” what in nature is hidden from the eyes