--- title: "John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible" author: "John Wesley" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 374 of 398 url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/374/ cite: "John Wesley, John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible, section 374. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/374/" --- # John Wesley's Notes on the Whole Bible *John Wesley* Wesley's short, plain notes on the Old and New Testaments, verse by verse. ## 374. Hebrews · 4 of 7 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/374/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-wesley-notes-on-the-whole-bible/374/#p-N [¶0] Errors - That is, sins of ignorance, to which only those atonements extended. [¶1] The Holy Ghost evidently showing - By this token. That the way into the holiest - Into heaven. Was not made manifest - Not so clearly revealed. While the first tabernacle, and its service, were still subsisting - And remaining in force. [¶2] Which - Tabernacle, with all its furniture and services. Is a figure - Or type, of good things to come Which cannot perfect the worshipper - Neither the priest nor him who brought the offering. As to his conscience - So that he should be no longer conscious of the guilt or power of sin. Observe, the temple was as yet standing. [¶3] They could not so perfect him, with all their train of precepts relating to meats and drinks, and carnal, gross, external ordinances; and were therefore imposed only till the time of reformation - Till Christ came. [¶4] An high priest of good things to come - Described, Heb 9:15. Entered through a greater, that is, a more noble, and perfect tabernacle - Namely, his own body. Not of this creation - Not framed by man, as that tabernacle was. [¶5] The holy place - Heaven. For us - All that believe. [¶6] If the ashes of an heifer - Consumed by fire as a sin - offering, being sprinkled on them who were legally unclean. Purified the flesh - Removed that legal uncleanness, and re - admitted them to the temple and the congregation. Nu 19:17,18,19. [¶7] How much more shall the blood of Christ. - The merit of all his sufferings. Who through the eternal Spirit - The work of redemption being the work of the whole Trinity. Neither is the Second Person alone concerned even in the amazing condescension that was needful to complete it. The Father delivers up the kingdom to the Son; and the Holy Ghost becomes the gift of the Messiah, being, as it were, sent according to his good pleasure. Offered himself - Infinitely more precious than any created victim, and that without spot to God. Purge our conscience - Our inmost soul. From dead works - From all the inward and outward works of the devil, which spring from spiritual death in the soul, and lead to death everlasting. To serve the living God - In the life of faith, in perfect love and spotless holiness. [¶8] And for this end he is the Mediator of a new covenant, that they who are called - To the engagements and benefits thereof. Might receive the eternal inheritance promised to Abraham: not by means of legal sacrifices, but of his meritorious death. For the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant - That is, for the redemption of transgressors from the guilt and punishment of those sins which were committed in the time of the old covenant. The article of his death properly divides the old covenant from the new. [¶9] I say by means of death; for where such a covenant is, there must be the death of him by whom it is confirmed - Seeing it is by his death that the benefits of it are purchased. It seems beneath the dignity of the apostle to play upon the ambiguity of the Greek word, as the common translation supposes him to do. [¶10] After he is dead - Neither this, nor after men are dead is a literal translation of the words. It is a very perplexed passage. [¶11] Whence neither was the first - The Jewish covenant, originally transacted without the blood of an appointed sacrifice. [¶12] He took the blood of calves - Or heifers. And of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop - All these circumstances are not particularly mentioned in that chapter of Exodus, but are supposed to be already known from other passages of Moses. And the book itself - Which contained all he had said. And sprinkled all the people - Who were near him. The blood was mixed with water to prevent its growing too stiff for sprinkling; perhaps also to typify that blood and water, John 19:34. Ex 24:7,8 [¶13] Saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined me to deliver unto you - By this it is established. Ex 24:8. [¶14] And in like manner he ordered the tabernacle - When it was made, and all its vessels, to be sprinkled with blood once a year. [¶15] And almost all things - For some were purified by water or fire. Are according to the law purified with blood - Offered or sprinkled. And according to the law, there is no forgiveness of sins without shedding of blood - All this pointed to the blood of Christ effectually cleansing from all sin, and intimated, there can be no purification from it by any other means. [¶16] Therefore - That is, it plainly appears from what has been said. It was necessary - According to the appointment of God. That the tabernacle and all its utensils, which were patterns, shadowy representations, of things in heaven, should be purified by these - Sacrifices and sprinklings. But the heavenly things themselves - Our heaven - born spirits: what more this may mean we know not yet. By better sacrifices than these - That is, by a better sacrifice, which is here opposed to all the legal sacrifices, and is expressed plurally, because it includes the signification of them all, and is of so much more eminent virtue. [¶17] For Christ did not enter into the holy place made with hands - He never went into the holy of holies at Jerusalem, the figure of the true tabernacle in heaven, Heb 8:2. But into heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God for us - As our glorious high priest and powerful intercessor. [¶18] For then he must often have suffered from the foundation of the world - This supposes, That by suffering once he atoned for all the sins which had been committed from the foundation of the world. That he could not have atoned for them without suffering. At the consummation of the ages - The sacrifice of Christ divides the whole age or duration of the world into two parts, and extends its virtue backward and forward, from this middle point wherein they meet to abolish both the guilt and power of sin. [¶19] After this, the judgment - Of the great day. At the moment of death every man's final state is determined. But there is not a word in scripture of a particular judgment immediately after death. [¶20] Christ having once died to bear the sins - The punishment due to them. Of many - Even as many as are born into the world. Will appear the second time - When he comes to judgment. Without sin - Not as he did before, bearing on himself the sins of many, but to bestow everlasting salvation. [¶21] From all that has been said it appears, that the law, the Mosaic dispensation, being a bare, unsubstantial shadow of good things to come, of the gospel blessings, and not the substantial, solid image of them, can never with the same kind of sacrifices, though continually repeated, make the comers thereunto perfect, either as to justification or sanctification. How is it possible, that any who consider this should suppose the attainments of David, or any who were under that dispensation, to be the proper measure of gospel holiness; and that Christian experience is to rise no higher than Jewish? [¶22] They who had been once perfectly purged, would have been no longer conscious either of the guilt or power of their sins. [¶23] There is a public commemoration of the sins both of the last and of all the preceding years; a clear proof that the guilt thereof is not perfectly purged away. [¶24] It is impossible the blood of goats should take away sins - Either the guilt or the power of them. [¶25] When he cometh into the world - In the fortieth psalm the Messiah's coming into the world is represented. It is said, into the world, not into the tabernacle, Heb 9:1; because all the world is interested in his sacrifice. A body hast thou prepared for me - That I may offer up myself. Psa 40:6 [¶26] In the volume of the book - In this very psalm it is written of me. Accordingly I come to do thy will - By the sacrifice of myself. [¶27] Above when he said, Sacrifice thou hast not chosen - That is, when the Psalmist pronounced those words in his name. [¶28] Then said he - in that very instant he subjoined. Lo, I come to do Thy will - To offer a more acceptable sacrifice; and by this very act he taketh away the legal, that he may establish the evangelical, dispensation. [¶29] By which will - Of God, done and suffered by Christ. We are sanctified - Cleansed from guilt, and consecrated to God. [¶30] Every priest standeth - As a servant in an humble posture. [¶31] But he - The virtue of whose one sacrifice remains for ever. Sat down - As a son, in majesty and honour. [¶32] Psa 110:1. [¶33] He hath perfected them for ever - That is, has done all that was needful in order to their full reconciliation with God. [¶34] In this and the three following verses, the apostle winds up his argument concerning the excellency and perfection of the priesthood and sacrifice of Christ. He had proved this before by a quotation from Jeremiah; which he here repeats, describing the new covenant as now completely ratified, and all the blessings of it secured to us by the one offering of Christ, which renders all other expiatory sacrifices, and any repetition of his own, utterly needless. [¶35] Jer 31:33 [¶36] Having finished the doctrinal part of his epistle, the apostle now proceeds to exhortation deduced from what has been treated of Heb 5:4, which he begins by a brief recapitulation. Having therefore liberty to enter, - [¶37] By a living way - The way of faith, whereby we live indeed. Which he hath consecrated - Prepared, dedicated, and established for us. Through the veil, that is, his flesh - As by rending the veil in the temple, the holy of holies became visible and accessible; so by wounding the body of Christ, the God of heaven was manifested, and the way to heaven opened. [¶38] Let us draw near - To God. With a true heart - In godly sincerity. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience - So as to condemn us no longer And our bodies washed with pure water - All our conversation spotless and holy, which is far more acceptable to God than all the legal sprinklings and washings. [¶39] The profession of our hope - The hope which we professed at our baptism. [¶40] Not forsaking the assembling ourselves - In public or private worship. As the manner of some is - Either through fear of persecution, or from a vain imagination that they were above external ordinances. But exhorting one another - To faith, love, and good works. And so much the more, as ye see the day approaching - The great day is ever in your eye. [¶41] For when we - Any of us Christians. Sin wilfully - By total apostasy from God, termed "drawing back," Heb 10:38. After having received the experimental knowledge of the gospel truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins - None but that which we obstinately reject. [¶42] He that, in capital cases, despised (presumptuously transgressed) the law of Moses died without mercy - Without any delay or mitigation of his punishment. [¶43] Of how much sorer punishment is he worthy, who - By wilful, total apostasy. It does not appear that this passage refers to any other sin. Hath, as it were, trodden underfoot the Son of God - A lawgiver far more honourable than Moses. And counted the blood wherewith the better covenant was established, an unholy, a common, worthless thing. By which he hath been sanctified - Therefore Christ died for him also, and he was at least justified once. And done despite to the Spirit of grace - By rejecting all his motions. [¶44] The Lord will judge his people - Yea, far more rigorously than the heathens, if they rebel against him. Deut 32:35