Hebrews 12:27 Komentář

The apostle, in this chapter, applies what he has collected in the chapter foregoing, and makes use of it as a great motive to patience and perseverance in the Christian faith and state, pressing home the argument, I. From a greater example than he had yet mentioned, and that is Christ himself (Heb 12:1-3). II. From the gentle and gracious nature of the afflictions they endured in their Christian course (Heb 12:4-17). III. From the communion and conformity between the state of the gospel-church on earth and the triumphant church in heaven (Heb 12:18 to the end).

INTRODUCTION TO HEBREWS 12 In this chapter the apostle presses to a constant exercise of faith and patience, amidst the various afflictions the saints are exercised with; delivers out several exhortations useful in the Christian life; and shows the difference between the legal and Gospel dispensations. Having in the preceding chapter given many illustrious instances and examples of faith, he makes use of this cloud of witnesses, as he calls them, to engage the Hebrews to drop their unbelief, and run with faith and patience the race set before them, Heb 12:1, and which he further urges from the example of Christ; from his concern in faith, being the author and finisher of it; from what he suffered when here on earth, both the contradiction of sinners, and the death of the cross, for the joy of having his people with him in heaven; and from his glorious state, being set down at the right hand of God. Whereas, as yet, they had not been called to shed their blood in their warfare against sin, Heb 12:2. And that they must expect chastisement, and should bear it patiently, he cites a passage of Scripture out of Pro 3:11 which suggests, that those who are the children of God, and are loved and received by him, are chastened and scourged, Heb 12:5. Wherefore this was no other than dealing with them as children; and should they not be thus dealt with, it would be an argument that they were bastards, and not sons, Heb 12:7. And next the apostle argues from the right of parents to chastise their children, and the subjection that is yielded to them; that if the corrections of them, who were the fathers of their bodies, were quietly submitted to; then much more should those of the Father of their souls; and the rather, since the chastenings of the former are only for temporal good, and according to their fallible judgments; whereas the latter are for spiritual profit, and an increase of holiness, Heb 12:9. And though it must be allowed, that no chastening, for the present time, is matter of joy, but of grief; yet the effects of them are the peaceable fruits of righteousness, to them that are exercised by them, Heb 12:11. Wherefore the apostle exhorts the believing Hebrews to encourage themselves and others under afflictions; and to behave in such manner, and carry it so evenly, that they might not be an occasion of stumbling to weak believers, Heb 12:12. He exhorts them in general to follow peace with all men, and particularly holiness; which is absolutely necessary to the beatific vision of God, Heb 12:14, and to take care that no heresy or immorality spring up among them, and be connived at, and cherished by them, to the troubling of some, and defiling of others, Heb 12:15, and particularly, lest the sin of uncleanness, or any sort of profaneness, should be found among them; of which Esau, the brother of Jacob, from whence they sprung, was guilty; whose profaneness lay in selling his birthright for a morsel of meat, and whose punishment was, that he should be deprived of the blessing; which decree was irrevocable, notwithstanding his tears, Heb 12:16 and to enforce these exhortations, the apostle observes to these believers, that they were not now under the law, but in a Gospel church state. The terror of the legal dispensation they were delivered from is described by the place where the law was given, a mount burning with fire; by circumstances attending it, blackness, darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet; by the matter of it, a voice of words, which they that heard, entreated they might hear no more; and by the effect the whole had upon. Moses himself, who quaked and trembled at what he saw and heard, Heb 12:18. The happiness of the Gospel dispensation, or of the Gospel church state, is expressed by the names of it, called Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the new Jerusalem; and by the company the saints have there, and their fellowship with them; angels innumerable; elect men, whose names are written in heaven, and whose spirits are made perfectly just; God the Judge of all, and Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant; whose blood being sprinkled on their consciences, spoke peace and pardon to them; such as neither Abel's blood nor sacrifice could speak, Heb 12:22. From whence the apostle argues, that care should be taken not to neglect and despise the voice of Christ, who is now in heaven, and speaks from thence in his Gospel and ordinances; seeing they escaped not who rejected him that spoke on earth, at Mount Sinai, which was shaken by his voice; and the rather, since it appears from a prophecy in Hag 2:6, that under the Gospel dispensation, not only the earth but the heavens would he shaken, Heb 12:25 which is an emblem of the shaking and removing the ordinances of the ceremonial law, that Gospel ordinances might take place, and remain for ever, Heb 12:27. Upon the whole, the apostle exhorts the believing Hebrews, that seeing they had received the immovable kingdom of grace, and were admitted into the Gospel dispensation, or church state; that they would hold fast the Gospel of the grace of God, and serve the Lord, according to his revealed will, with reverence and godly fear, which would be acceptable to him; or otherwise he would be a consuming fire; as he is to all the despisers and neglecters of his Gospel and ordinances, Heb 12:28.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved,.... Not the kingdom of glory; eternal glory is a kingdom, and it is an immovable one; and is a free gift of God, and may be said to be now received; God's people are called unto it, and are made meet for it, and have a right unto it, and have it in faith and hope, and in Christ their head and representative: but the kingdom of grace, under the Gospel dispensation, is meant: there are several things in this dispensation which are called a kingdom; as a Gospel church, the Gospel itself, and the privileges and blessings of grace bestowed, especially spiritual and internal ones, Mat 25:1 and the whole dispensation is called the kingdom of heaven, Mat 3:2. Christ he is King, believers are his subjects, the Gospel is his sceptre, and the ordinances are his laws and appointments, and all are immovable; and a man may be said to receive this kingdom, when he is delivered from the power of darkness, is regenerated, and has the blessings of grace actually bestowed on him, and is brought to Zion: let us have grace; by which is meant, not thankfulness for so great a blessing, though this is highly requisite and necessary; nor the favour of God, though, as the reception of the kingdom springs from hence, a sense of it ought to abide; nor the habit or principle of grace in the heart, unless particularly the grace of faith, and the exercise of it, should be designed; but rather the doctrine of grace, the Gospel, is intended; and the sense is, "let us hold it", as the Ethiopic version renders it; let us hold the Gospel fast, and a profession of it: the Vulgate Latin and Arabic versions read, "we have grace"; this goes along with the immovable kingdom; all that have truly received the one, have the other: whereby we may serve God; God is to be served, and not a creature, nor the elements of this world, the ceremonial law, and its rites: nor is he to be served in any form, only in a spiritual way; and without holding to the Gospel, there is no serving him in an evangelic manner; the true and right way of serving him is as follows: acceptably; in Christ, in the Gospel of his Son, and by faith in him, without which it is impossible to please God: with reverence; of the majesty of God, with shame for sin, and with a sense of unworthiness: and godly fear; which has God for its author and object, and which springs from his grace, and is increased by discoveries of his goodness; and which is consistent with faith, and spiritual joy; see Psa 2:11.

There have been two remarkable transformations of the human way of life in the course of the world's history. These two are called two "covenants" and, so famous was the business involved, two "shakings of the earth." The first was the transition from idols to the law; the second, from law to gospel. The gospel also tells of the third "shaking," the change from this present state of things to what lies unmoved, unshaken, beyond. An identical feature occurs in both covenants. The feature? There was nothing sudden involved in the first movement to take their transformations in hand. We need to know why. It was so that we should be persuaded, not forced. The unspontaneous is the impermanent—as when force is used to keep stems or plants in check. The spontaneous both lasts longer and is more secure. It belongs to despotic power to use force; it is a mark of God's reasonableness that the issue should be ours.

"But now hath He promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things which are shaken, as of things that are made." All things therefore will be taken away, and will be compacted anew for the better. For this is what he suggests here. Why then dost thou grieve when thou sufferest in a world that abideth not; when thou art afflicted in a world which will very shortly have passed away? If our rest were to be in the latter period of the world, then one ought to be afflicted in looking to the end. "That" (he says) "those which cannot be shaken may remain." But of what sort are "those things which cannot be shaken"? The things to come.

That is why Paul says elsewhere, "For the form of this world is passing away." So that the temporary may pass away and the eternal may come.

Quite rightly on the basis of the prophetic verse does he establish the instability of the present order and the steadfastness of the things which shall be later. For the "shaking" shows that he is proclaiming the alteration of the present order exactly as it will be. And by adding the word once he shows that what will be afterwards cannot be changed.

Based on the voice of the prophet he proves both the change from the things that now exist and the establishment of the things that follow. For the promise "to shake" makes clear that they will change altogether in the future. By the addition of the word "once and for all" he shows clearly that thereafter they will be unchangeable.

"as of things that are made," that is, those suffering according to nature. For since it takes a beginning and reaches an end, he says, as of things that are made. For since it has been made, and it began from motion, that which comes from non-being to being will reasonably be shaken and moved again in the change. "so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain." The creation shakes and alternates, so that the unshakable may remain; that is, those that will no longer be shaken or changed; as if it were saying: Therefore, it shakes and alternates the creation, so that in the future the unshakable may remain in its place, no longer subject to shaking or changing. The unchanging, therefore, rightly will no longer be subject to shaking. For once it has received the first change, it will be incorruptible.

That is, the change of corruptible creation, which by its very nature is capable of wavering; since it was created, that is, received a beginning of existence, it undoubtedly also has an end. For everything created received a beginning, and therefore, by its very nature, also has an end. And the angels are not infinite by nature; but they received immortality by divine grace. "That which is unshakeable may remain." That is, the future blessings. For when everything corruptible is changed, then all that is appointed for the righteous will be incorruptible and unshakable, subject to no "shaking" or change.

721. – Then when he says, This phrase, 'Yet once more,' indicates the removal of what is shaken, he explains the words of the prophecy; and he lays great stress on the phrase, Yet once more. For in saying, yet, he shows that they are moveable; but in saying, once more, he indicates that they are to be changed from the state of movability and corruptibility to a state of incorruption and immutability. For if they were to remain in a state of changeableness after that change, he would not have said, once more, but 'again and again.' This is against Origen who believed that the world will be renewed an infinitude of time and be recovered. He says, therefore: and in that he says, 'Yet once more,' he indicates the removal of what is shaken, to a state of immovableness. And as though someone were asking whether God can do this, he adds, as of what has been made. For all things made are subject to God's power; hence, just as God made them from nothing, so He can change them as He wills. And this in order that what cannot be shaken may remain, i.e., that are immovable, i.e., that they remain immovable as to their essences, but changed as to certain accidental dispositions: 'As a vesture you will change them, and they shall be changed' (Ps. 101:28). This has been explained in chap. 1. From all this it is clear that although the things of the Old Testament were moved, it was not to a state of incorruption and immutability; but this is done only in the New, to signify that the promises of the Old Testament were changeable, but not those of the New.

Having so many incitements to holiness, patience, and perseverance, we should lay aside every hinderance, and run with patience the race that is set before us, taking our blessed Lord for our example, Heb 12:1-4. These sufferings are to be considered as fatherly chastisements from God, and to be patiently submitted to on account of the benefits to be derived from them, Heb 12:5-11. They should take courage and go forward, Heb 12:12, Heb 12:13. Directions to follow peace with all men, and to take heed that they fall not from the grace of God, Heb 12:14, Heb 12:15. References to the case of Esau, Heb 12:16, Heb 12:17. The privileges of Christians, compared with those of the Jews, by which the superior excellence of Christianity is shown, Heb 12:18-24. They must take care not to reject Jesus, who now addressed them from heaven, and who was shortly to be their Judge, Heb 12:25-27. As they were called to receive a kingdom, they should have grace, whereby they might serve God acceptably, Heb 12:28, Heb 12:29.

The removing of those things that are shaken - The whole of the Jewish polity, which had been in a shaken state from the time that Judea had fallen under the power of the Romans. As of things that are made - That is, subjects intended to last only for a time. God never designed that the Jewish religion should become general, nor be permanent. Those things which cannot be shaken - The whole Gospel system, which cannot be moved by the power of man. May remain - Be permanent; God designing that this shall be the last dispensation of his grace and mercy, and that it shall continue till the earth and the heavens are no more.

EXHORTATION TO FOLLOW THE WITNESSES OF FAITH JUST MENTIONED: NOT TO FAINT IN TRIALS: TO REMOVE ALL BITTER ROOTS OF SIN: FOR WE ARE UNDER, NOT A LAW OF TERROR, BUT THE GOSPEL OF GRACE, TO DESPISE WHICH WILL BRING THE HEAVIER PENALTIES, IN PROPORTION TO OUR GREATER PRIVILEGES. (Heb. 12:1-29) we also--as well as those recounted in Heb 12:11. are compassed about--Greek, "have so great a cloud (a numberless multitude above us, like a cloud, 'holy and pellucid,' [CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA]) of witnesses surrounding us." The image is from a "race," an image common even in Palestine from the time of the Greco-Macedonian empire, which introduced such Greek usages as national games. The "witnesses" answer to the spectators pressing round to see the competitors in their contest for the prize (Phi 3:14). Those "witnessed of" (Greek, Heb 11:5, Heb 11:39) become in their turn "witnesses" in a twofold way: (1) attesting by their own case the faithfulness of God to His people [ALFORD] (Heb 6:12), some of them martyrs in the modern sense; (2) witnessing our struggle of faith; however, this second sense of "witnesses," though agreeing with the image here if it is to be pressed, is not positively, unequivocally, and directly sustained by Scripture. It gives vividness to the image; as the crowd of spectators gave additional spirit to the combatants, so the cloud of witnesses who have themselves been in the same contest, ought to increase our earnestness, testifying, as they do, to God's faithfulness. weight--As corporeal unwieldiness was, through a disciplinary diet, laid aside by candidates for the prize in racing; so carnal and worldly lusts, and all, whether from without or within, that would impede the heavenly runner, are the spiritual weight to be laid aside. "Encumbrance," all superfluous weight; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, and even harmless and otherwise useful things which would positively retard us (Mar 10:50, the blind man casting away his garment to come to Jesus; Mar 9:42-48; compare Eph 4:22; Col 3:9-10). the sin which doth so easily beset us--Greek, "sin which easily stands around us"; so LUTHER, "which always so clings to us": "sinful propensity always surrounding us, ever present and ready" [WAHL]. It is not primarily "the sin," &c., but sin in general, with, however, special reference to "apostasy," against which he had already warned them, as one to which they might gradually be seduced; the besetting sin of the Hebrews, UNBELIEF. with patience--Greek, "in persevering endurance" (Heb 10:36). On "run" compare Co1 9:24-25.

this word, Yet once more--So Paul, by the Spirit, sanctions the Septuagint rendering of Hag 2:6, giving an additional feature to the prophecy in the Hebrew, as rendered in English Version, not merely that it shall be in a little while, but that it is to be "once more" as the final act. The stress of his argument is on the "ONCE." Once for all; once and for ever. "In saying 'once more,' the Spirit implies that something has already passed, and something else shall be which is to remain, and is no more to be changed to something else; for the once is exclusive, that is, not many times" [ESTIUS]. those things that are shaken--the heaven and the earth. As the shaking is to be total, so shall the removal be, making way for the better things that are unremovable. Compare the Jewish economy (the type of the whole present order of things) giving way to the new and abiding covenant: the forerunner of the everlasting state of bliss. as of things . . . made--namely, of this present visible creation: compare Co2 5:1; Heb 9:11, "made with hands . . . of this creation," that is, things so made at creation that they would not remain of themselves, but be removed. The new abiding heaven and earth are also made by God, but they are of a higher nature than the material creation, being made to partake of the divine nature of Him who is not made: so in this relation, as one with the uncreated God, they are regarded as not of the same class as the things made. The things made in the former sense do not remain; the things of the new heaven and earth, like the uncreated God, "shall REMAIN before God" (Isa 66:22). The Spirit, the seed of the new and heavenly being, not only of the believer's soul, but also of the future body, is an uncreated and immortal principle.