Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 11:39
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
39. having obtained a good report through faith ] “Having been borne witness to through their faith,” i.e. though they had this testimony borne to them, they did not see the fulfilment of the promises.
received not the promise ] See Heb 11:17; Heb 11:33, Heb 6:15, Heb 9:15. They did not enjoy the fruition of the one great promise.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith – They were all commended and approved on account of their confidence in God; see the notes on Heb 11:2.
Received not the promise – That is, did not receive the fulfillment of the promise; or did not receive all that was promised. They all still looked forward to some future blessings; notes, Heb 11:13.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Heb 11:39-40
These all received not the promise
What of the saintly dead prior to the coming of Christ?
It is altogether probable that among the Jewish Christians there would be great anxiety to know what had been the condition, in the unseen world, of their saintly forefathers who had died before the coming of the Messiah. It is probable, too, that on this subject revelations may have been made by the apostles which were not recorded in Holy Scripture, because their chief interest and practical importance would cease before the true tradition of their teaching had been corrupted and passed away. An incidental sentence of this kind seems to imply a knowledge, in primitive times, of the state of good men who had died before Christ came, which has disappeared from the memory of the Church. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
The argument:
Your fathers, the greatest of them, while they lived, and after they entered Paradise, were waiting and hoping for the coming of Christ. Neither on earth nor in heaven could they be made perfect until He came. Till His birth, till His death, till His ascension to glory, their life was a life of faith; and yet you are ready–though the Divine promise is already in part fulfilled–to surrender your confidence in God, because the complete fulfilment is still delayed. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
The promise of incompleteness
There was a plain mechanic in a little town in Scotland who feared God; and built houses for a livelihood. He never had more than three months of schooling in his life. Let us draw a circle round the seventy-five years of that life, and look at it merely by itself. Measured by the ordinary standards of the world, how cramped it is I how insignificant! But then can we look at that life in that way? It is plain that we cannot; for every life establishes connections and creates consequences. It is with a life as it is with a large estate. It cannot be closed up at once upon the death of the testator. Certain obligations have a given time to run. Certain outstanding amounts of capital may not be paid in for years. Indeed, it is doubtful if the real sum total of any mans life can be stated until the end of all things. This humble mechanic, for instance, was the father of a son whose name is known and honoured wherever the English language is spoken. To James Carlyles life must be added the sum of Thomas Carlyles life and the influence of his writings, and the influence of the men whose thought has been stimulated or shaped by those writings. I have taken this familiar illustration as containing in itself the substance of my text to-day. The truth it gives us is that no mans life can be estimated by itself, but helps to complete the past, and is completed by the future. These people–Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the rest–were the spiritual heroes of an earlier time, representing the nations moral high-water mark. They were powers, and society acknowledged and bore witness to their power. Yet there was a good in store, which, though they contributed to it, did not come to them. There was a promise infolded in their life which was not fulfilled to them, but to those who came after them. If their life is to be estimated only in itself, if its record is to cover only the sum of its years, then this state of things seems unjust and cruel, and the life itself of little account. But you at once see that the writer is taking a far wider view than this. He is contemplating these early heroes, not only by themselves, but as links in a great succession of men of faith. He is viewing the results of their life as parts of the great development of humanity at large. Now, the recognition of this as a law of life has a vast influence upon any mans character. It shapes a man of a different type from one who regards his life as an end to itself; and it is here set down to the credit of these Old Testament heroes, as an element of their faith, that they apprehended this larger law and lived by it; that they put mere personal considerations out of sight–were content to be merely stages, and not finalities, in the great growth of human history. So far as this world is concerned their life goes to minister to other lives, and is simply a factor in the progress of mankind as a whole. This is a far wider conception of faith than we commonly form. We are disposed to make faith exclusively personal, to trust God mostly for what He will do for us, or for those most closely bound to us. We say to ourselves, We must trust God for daily bread, for provision for old age or sickness, for a place in heaven; and so we must. So Christ commands us to do; but, at the same time, He teaches us to give faith a much wider range. We are parts of a great Divine economy, of a great march of ideas and character; builders on a great building of God, each carving his stone, or laying his few courses of brick; husbandmen in Gods vast domain, each tilling his few acres–one sowing, another reaping; one planting, another watering. No mans faith is perfect which regards merely his own salvation; no mans prayer is according to Christs standard which leaves out Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thus identifying ourselves with the interests of Gods kingdom–the whole development of our race–we find ourselves identified with a process. The perfect man, the perfect society, are not created out of hand. They have not come yet, but they are slowly coming, and coming through much crudeness and imperfection by the way. Thus, then, the kingdom of God is no exception to the law which obtains in other kingdoms–that growth involves imperfection and destruction. Take the law as it holds in nature. Growth comes through death. The corn of wheat brings forth fruit only as it dies. In natures processes we find much which serves merely as the step or the scaffolding to something better and greater and more beautiful, and which, when its purpose is accomplished, passes away. There is the worm. It crawls in the sun, and lies upon the leaf, and then wraps itself in the cocoon; and then springs forth the butterfly in all the glory of gold and purple: and the worm-life and the cocoon-life have done their work, and have given that beautiful creation to the air and the flowers, and they pass away. Go higher up, into the life of man. A perfect, healthy child, how beautiful it is! how winning! how innocent! how natural and graceful its attitudes! What parent has not found himself looking back to the years of infancy with a feeling that the years which have made his children men and women have robbed him of something ineffably sweet and precious? Childhood is only a stage: so is youth, with its flush of hope, its high aims, its fulness and vigour of life; and so manhood, with its strength and achievement. In a normally developed life each stage as it passes away hands over to its successor something better and stronger. Does the process end with old age? Is there not something better beyond the line which we call death? So of society. It passes through crude conditions, which give place to higher and better conditions. One life is spent in evolving the powers of electricity: the man who comes after reaps the full benefit of the telegraph and telephone. A Columbus discovers America, we enjoy it. Go still higher, into the region of religion and worship,. The same law holds. Religion is not given to man full-grown. The true faith works its way into shape and power out of a mesh of false faiths. One by one these fall off and die, leaving only what is essentially true to be taken up into the new and higher form. Not one of the men mentioned in this catalogue in the eleventh of Hebrews can be held up as a perfect model of character for the men of a Christian age. The New Testament morality is higher than that of the old. The humblest Christian believer has what Samuel and Elijah had not. And as to worship, we say, God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. We come to God without priest or victim or symbol; but what a stretch between our standpoint and that of the Israelite!–a stretch strewn with broken types. Prophet, priest, king–one after another, God breaks these types in pieces as the fulness of time draws on, when Christ, the Teacher, the great High Priest, the Lord of lords, is to come into the world.
II. We come, then, to the second truth of our text. Having seen the fact of imperfection, WE SEE THAT ALONG WITH THE IMPERFECTION GOES A PROMISE. You notice the peculiar word here, received not the promise. It is noted as a mark of the faith of these good men that they saw a promise of something better in the imperfection of their own age. Christ bears witness to this in the words, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad. In like manner Moses saw a nation in the rabble which went out of Egypt. To him the desert meant Canaan. So in nature, the seed, even in its falling into the ground and dying, utters the promise of the corn: the blossom, as it is borne down by the wind, promises the fruit. Even the falling leaf, as it settles down to its new task, promises next springs juices and leaves. So in the moral progress of our race. Paul tells us that That is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, that The first man is of the earth, earthy; but in these he sees the promise of something better. Afterwards, that which is spiritual. As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption. Society in its best development to-day is imperfect: the ideal form of government is yet to be revealed; but as we turn over to the vision of John on Patmos, we see a perfect society, a holy city, a heavenly Jerusalem, a faultless administration. Now, the practical question for us is, What is our true attitude toward these two facts of imperfection and promise? Our text tells us, by the example of these men of old. There were imperfect men; they saw a possible good which was not for them: but through faith they accepted the imperfection and made the best of it, and cheerfully gave their energy, and endured their suffering, to make the coming man and the coming time better than themselves and their time. We are on the same line. We and our time are simply a stage toward something better. With all our boast of high civilisation, elaborated jurisprudence, rich spiritual acquirement, and vast knowledge, there is something better for the men of the coming time. They will know more, and enjoy more than we do. They will be better men than we are. They will have greater riches of spiritual culture. It is a high test of faith for a man to do his best under temporary conditions, as a mere faction of a great whole, as a mere means to the development of some better thing in a future which he is not to enjoy; and yet that is the lesson which Gods administration teaches us. How much care and skill and beauty go into merely temporary things! Take a wheat-corn, that very thing which is to fall into the ground and die, and split it open, and put it under a microscope, and what a perfect and beautiful organism it is! Look at that apple-blossom, which in a few days will be blown away by the wind, and what perfection of form, what delicacy of texture and tint! Each one of those living motes which dances for an hour in the setting sunlight is finished with all the nicety of your own anatomy. Nature is prodigal in her apparent waste of beautiful and perfect things. So, when God gave a temporary system of worship to carry men over to Christ, how carefully selected were the types; how stringent the insistence on details which seem trivial to us! Cannot we read this lesson? Shall we refuse our best because our best is to be merged into something better? Or shall we not rather feel ourselves at once stimulated and honoured by being allowed to contribute our best to the great result which is by and by to gather up into itself the best of all the ages? You have read how, in the old border-wars of Scotland, the tidings of invasion and the summons to arms were carried by the fiery cross. One runner took it and went at full speed to a certain point, telling the news as he went, and then gave it to another, who ran on in like manner. It was not for the messenger to whom that summons came to sit down and prepare for the defence of his own house and the protection of his flocks and herds. He must take the cross and run for the next stage. The message of Christs Cross points us beyond ourselves and our own interest and our own time. It lays on us the charge of the coming time. It bids us do our best in our own time, as a means to making that Cross the central fact of the future time. Our stage of life contains a promise for the next stage that it shall be better and higher for our faithful toil. Our problem is to push that promise nearer to its fulfilment. Thus, then, let us take the promise of the better thing into the inferior, incomplete conditions of to-day. Let us accept the fact of incompleteness, not passively, nor idly: that were to exclude faith, and faith is the very keynote of this lesson; nor, on the other hand, despairingly nor angrily that were presumptuous and useless as well. But let us recognise in it a promise of completeness, a stage towards it, and a call to promote it. No one of us can be more than a factor in the worlds history. The power of each factor will appear only when the whole column shall be cast up. The sum total will be greater than any factor, but for the very reason that it will include all the factors. We must be slow, as one remarks, to judge unfinished architecture. Truthfully said the old Greek poet, The days to come are the wisest witnesses. If there be truth in that theory of development, so widely ,accepted in this day; if we are living in an incomplete physical universe, no less than in partly developed moral and spiritual conditions, that fact goes to show that one law holds from the natural up to the spiritual. That holds out the hope that all the apparent waste in nature will one day be accounted for and shown to be no waste. That points again to the larger hope, that the imperfect work of true men, the imperfect teaching of half-taught men, the imperfect moral development of primitive men, and all the disappointed aspiration and seemingly fruitless toil, and rejected testimony of Gods workmen in all times, will be found again, revealed in its true value and power. It was a profound remark of a modern essayist, that the continual failure of eminently endowed men to reach the highest standard has in it something more consoling than disheartening, and contains an inspiring hint that it is mankind, and not special men, that are to be shaped at last into the image of God; and that the endless life of the generations may hope to come nearer that goal of which the short-breathed three-score years and ten fall too unhappily short. The present, for each of us, bears the sign of the Cross. The crown is in the future. (M. Vincent, D. D.)
An increasing purpose
I. THE BOND UNITING US WITH PAST GENERATIONS.
1. The question then agitating mens minds was, Is not this new faith in Christ Jesus the destruction of Judaism? And the writer of this Epistle answers the question by the broad assertion that Christianity is the real Judaism, and that the true line of succession runs through the Church, and not through the synagogue. Fancy a stiff Pharisees face, at hearing a Christian teacher claim Abraham, Jacob and, most audaciously of all, Moses for his side! But why did he do so? Because the foundation of their lives was faith. The writer will not allow any difference, except that of development, between the call of prophet and psalmist, Trust ye in the Lord for ever, and the preaching of apostles, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There has never been but one way to heaven, and faith has always been one, however different in completeness its creed.
2. It is but applying the same principle in a slightly different direction to say that all in Christian ages who have the same spirit of faith are one. All who lay hold of the same Christ with the same confidence are knit together. But it must be the same Christ, the Divine-human Christ, the worlds Redeemer; and the faith must be so far the same that it leans the whole weight of mans weakness on that Incarnate Strength, and hangs all its hopes on that one Lord.
II. THE BETTER THINGS FORESEEN FOR US. There is no such advance within the limits of Christianity as separated it from the earlier revelation. The further light which each age has a right to expect is to break forth from the Word already given. The Christ that is to be is the Christ that was, and is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. He is for ever, as being complete. As for truth, all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Him, and may be drawn from the deepening understanding of the principles embodied in His life, death, resurrection and reign. All theology, morality, sociology, lie in Him as gold in ore, or diamonds in a matrix. As for powers, all that can be needed or done for the regeneration of the world and of single souls has been done and supplied in the work of Christ. What remains is but the application of the power which has been lodged in humanity. But while objective revelation is complete, and Gods treasures contain no better thing than the unspeakable gift once bestowed and ever possessed, there is meant to be an advancement in understanding of the truth, and in appropriation of the power. Jesus is inexhaustible. No one man can absorb Him all; no one age can. A thousand mirrors set round that central light will each receive its beam at its own angle, and flash it back in its own fashion. So true progress will consist in a fuller understanding and firmer grasp of Him as Son of God and Redeemer of the world, and in a more complete reception of His Spirit, manifested in more Christlike characters and more Christ-pleasing services.
III. THE YET BETTER THINGS IN RESERVE FOR OUR SUCCESSORS. Naturally the progress is not to stop with us, but will go on as long as there is a Church on earth. We too have but partial light, and have partially appropriated the gifts, and discharged the duties given and enjoined in the partly understood gospel. The Church of the future will have broken down all sects. Religion will one day be harmonised with science. Christian principles will be applied to social and national life with revolutionary effects. There will be a fuller baptism of the Spirit on the happier Church that is to be, resulting in more consecrated lives, in more missionary and evangelistic effort, and in a finer harmony of nature, and a more systematical and majestic development of capacities in the individual and the community.
IV. THE FINAL PERFECTING IN WHICH ALL ARE UNITED. The saints of the old and the believers of the new covenant are not to be perfected apart.
1. There is to be a perfect union of all in the common joy of possession of the common gift. On the march the pilgrims were widely separated, but in the camp their tents will be near each other. Just as Dante saw Paradise under the symbol of a great rose, whose many petals were yet one flower, and just as astronomers tell us that the giant nebulae, consisting of infinite numbers of suns, are yet each one whole, though we cannot imagine what forces bind together across such bewildering spaces, so all who, in solitude here, and amid misconceptions and diversities have yet loved the one Lord and followed the one Shepherd, shall couch round Him above, and in some mysterious, but most blessed manner, know that they live together, and all together with Him, as the bond of their unity, and perhaps the medium Of their intercourse. There will be a united perfecting in the common possession of the whole Christ.
2. There will be united perfection in enjoying the consults of the long unfolding through the ages of the fulness of Christ. Here one generation originates and another completes. But the time comes when all the workers shall share in the gladness of the finished work; when all who, separated by long ages and thick walls of mutual misconception, and divergence in practice and opinions, have yet been unknowingly toiling towards the same end, shall clasp inseparable hands in the great result which contains all their work. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The greatness of faith:
The point in these words on which we wish to fasten is, that it was through faith that the worthies, of whom St. Paul speaks, obtained a good report. There is here a distinct assertion that faith, and nothing but faith, gained for the most distinguished saints their high pre-eminence; that if they enjoyed a larger than the ordinary share of the Divine favour, it was in consequence of their believing with a more than common steadfastness. Neither does our text stand alone in furnishing such a representation. Throughout Scripture faith is represented as most acceptable to God, and as securing to man the highest privileges and recompenses; and it is on this very account that the gospel is so distasteful to numbers, that numbers would reject it, and devise a better theology for themselves.
I. Now it is very easy, but very unfair, to speak of faith as an act of the mind, which only follows where there is testimony enough, and over which, therefore, a man has little or no control, and which, consequently, ought not to be made the test or criterion of any moral qualities. We call this unfair because it takes no account of the influence which the affections exert over the understanding, in consequence of which a man will readily believe some things, and positively disbelieve others, though there shall be no difference in the two cases in the amount of furnished testimony. Just think for yourselves: if I bring you intelligence of a matter in which you have no personal concern, which you have no interest whatever in either proving or disproving, the mind is likely to be fairly impartial, and to give its decision on a just estimate of the evidence which I adduce. But suppose the intelligence to be of an obnoxious and troublesome character; suppose that if proved true it will compel you to exertions or sacrifices which you shrink from being called upon to make. Here is a widely different case. The strongest feelings of a man will be at once up in arms, and we shall find it needful to make assurance doubly sure before we can gain credit for the unpalatable truth. Apply this to the matter of revealed religion. Let, then, the Bible, with all its credentials, be submitted for the first time to a man whose reason is in full vigour for investigating truth; is he likely to feel any pleasure in the doctrines of the Bible? Are they such as he can be supposed to feel any wish to find and prove true? No; these doctrines present him with a portrait of himself whose accuracy he must undoubtedly be unwilling to admit. And though, indeed, the Bible, not content with exposing to him his condition, offers him a remedy, nevertheless this remedy itself is offensive to his pride. Now tell me, is it fair to say of a man who receives as true a document, thus humbling to himself, thus imposing duties from which nature shrinks; is it fair to say of him that he merely yields to a certain amount of testimony, which left him no choice? Nay, this is altogether wrong: even the evidences of the Christian religion are not such as leave no option to the student; they are such as will be sure to prove convincing, where there is diligent and candid inquiry; where there is a wish to ascertain truth, and a determination to obey it when once ascertained; but it is not such a testimony as is sure to prevail, even in the absence of all such qualifications. It is not a testimony addressing itself to the senses, graven on the earth, or glaring from the firmament, and forcing conviction alike on the careless and the diligent. It is, on the contrary, a testimony which may be overlooked by indolence, and overcome by prejudice. It will not ordinarily commend itself to the man who sits down to its investigation with hostile feelings and bitter prepossessions, hoping to be able to reject it as defective. Therefore you cannot say of the man who yields to this evidence that he only submits to what could not be withstood. He might have resisted, he would have resisted, had he not brought to the inquiry a teachable spirit, a sincere wish to discover truth, and a fixed resolve to conform to its dictates. But go beyond the evidences, go to the truths which revelation unfolds, and you will see still more clearly that believing presupposes the possession, or requires the exercise of dispositions which are confessedly excellent. There must be humility in him who believes, for from the heart he confesses himself unclean and undone. There must be the submission of the understanding to God, for much has to be received which cannot be explained. There must be a willingness to suffer, for Christianity summons to tribulation; there must be a willingness to labour, for Christianity sets a man about the most arduous duties. We do not know any achievement so remarkable, so little to have been expected from a proud, prejudiced, and depraved creature, such as man naturally is, as the believing in a record so humiliating, so condemnatory of lust, so rigid in enjoining duties, as is the gospel of Jesus Christ. You might tell us of great exploits, of splendid deeds, which have earned for those who wrought them surpassing renown; but we should not fear that any of the heroes had done a nobler or a more admirable thing than is effected by any one who exercises the faith of which my text speaks. Yes, give place, ye great ones of the earth, who have drawn the homage of your fellow-men by penetrating the secrets of nature, improving the arts, advancing the commerce, strengthening the institutions, or subduing the enemies of your country. We would bow before a lowlier and, nevertheless, a more illustrious throng; we would find a higher title to respect, and we see that throng, and we acknowledge that title in those of whom an apostle could say, These all obtained a good report through faith.
II. Let us advance a step further; let us proceed from the preliminaries, as they may be called, to the consequences of faith, and we shall find fresh warrant for that good report of which our text speaks. For faith, you observe, cannot be a barren or an uninfluential principle. It is not so with regard to inferior truths, much less can it be so in regard to the truths of the Bible. Let us fasten on certain of the doctrines which God has revealed, and certain of the virtues which God demands, and let us see whether faith in the one will not be of necessity productive of the others. For example: it is a portion of the Scriptural revelation that God is omniscient and omnipresent; that nothing can be hid from His scrutiny, but that He is ever at hand, a vigilant inspector, to note human actions, and register them for judgment. Can this be really believed, and yet the believer fail to be intently earnest to approve himself in Gods sight? Will be ever think himself in a solitude, ever act as alone and unobserved? Will not rather his faith produce a holy reverence, an awful fear of the Almighty? The Bible tells him, moreover, of an amazing scheme of rescue, planned and executed by God, on behalf of himself and his fellow-men. Can this be believed, and yet the believer not glow with intense love towards a gracious and benevolent God, who has done such surprising things for his good? Yea, and toward his fellow-men, seeing that they are objects of the same mercy with himself, and therefore equally precious in the sight of his Creator? Oh! will not faith, genuine faith in the mighty truths of redemption, make a man feel as an affectionate son towards God, and as an affectionate brother towards all men? And yet further, along with the revelation of this amazing scheme of mercy, the Bible sets forth conditions, apart from which we can have no share in the blessings procured by Christs death, imposing duties, on the performance of which our future portion is made to depend, and annexing promises and threatenings, just as though we were to be judged by our own works, irrespective of the work of the Redeemer. It tells us of a heaven, and it tells us of a hell, and dealing with us as accountable creatures. Faith in these things must animate to effort, to obedience, to self-denial; and he who is really a believer in the revealed truths as to mans everlasting state, and the indissoluble connection between conduct here and condition hereafter, will necessarily be one who struggles for mastery, and wages continual war with the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is no strangeness, then, at all. Faith is precisely that condition of the soul which such a Being as God might have been expected to approve; for having given the revelation contained in the Bible, to require faith in its disclosures is to require that the understanding submit itself, that pride be cast down, that the flesh be crucified with its affections and lusts, and that every energy be consecrated to His service. Where, then, is the marvel if He have been pleased to ordain that it should be through faith that men obtain a good report.
III. Finally, to impress, it possible, the argument on every hearer, we will represent the nature and achievement of this principle of faith. We, you and I, live in the midst of allurements and temptations, what is without conspiring with what is within to bind us to earth, and make us cleave to it as our home and our all; and whilst we are thus entangled there comes a revelation from the invisible God, a revelation of amazing truths connected with His nature and with His purposes to ourselves, His guilty and depraved creatures; in this revelation you and I are bidden to believe–bidden on the express declaration that in return for our faith we shall be admitted into privileges which thought cannot measure. And is it an easy thing to believe? Easy! it is to lay aside prejudice, it is to become as little children, it is to submit implicitly to Gods authority. Easy! it is to abandon what we love, to forego what we desire, to do what we dislike, to endure what we dread! Easy! it is to cut off the right hand, pluck out the right eye, wrestle with principalities and powers, to despise death, and anticipate futurity! Easy! do it, ye who count it so easy. Ye who make so light of believing–believe. Ye who represent faith as a mere nothing, have faith. You would invite us to some great and hard achievement, we invite you to a greater and harder; we match believing against all your doing; we match it in difficulty, we match it in results. There is nothing which you admire which we may not attempt in our own strength, but we must have the power of the Lord God Almighty ere we can believe in Him whom He hath sent. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Christ, the prime promise, not received by true believers
Of the believers before mentioned, and of others that lived before Christ, it is said they that received not the promise, that is, saints, under the Old Testament, had not an actual exhibition of Christ. This was one of the promises, concerning which it was said of the patriarchs, they received not the promises (Heb 11:13). In this respect it is said that many prophets and righteous men desired to see those things (Mat 13:17), namely, Jesus Christ incarnate, living, preaching, working miracles, &c., and that the prophets inquired and searched diligently about those things (1Pe 1:10). Therefore they did not enjoy them. God was herein pleased to manifest His wisdom in reserving such a promise to a fulness of time Gal 4:4).
1. That His goodness might by degrees increase, as the sun doth, and so be the better discerned. For by degrees it was more clearly revealed.
2. That so great a blessing might be the more expected, inquired after, and longed for.
3. That the patience and other graces of saints might be the better exercised.
4. That Christ Himself might be the more honoured, in that He was reserved to the latter age of the world, as being a blessing which surpassed all other blessings before it.
(1) Hereby we have instruction in the nature of faith, which is to rest upon promises for things future, as if they were actually accomplished.
(2) This doth much amplify the faith of former believers, in that they did and endured so great things for Christ before they enjoyed Him.
(3) It checks our backwardness and dulness in believing, who live in the times wherein the promise may be and is received.
(4) This should stir us up to seek to excel them, in that we have received the promise which they received not. (W. Gouge.)
Borne better thing for us
Something better:
Thus faith makes character. The Pyramids of Egypt are dead stone. The pyramids of Israel are holy men. Worldly fortune most of these heroes and heroines had none. Fame indeed came to them; but they did not march up to Fame and say, Be thou my god. And what was that fame? Not that of eloquence; nor did they gain the laurels of war; they obtained a good report. Their virtues lived after them. Thus faith achieved the great result. And faith in what? A promise. Seeing, then, that faith in a promised Saviour is so good a thing, what can be better than such a promise? The apostle is speaking of the promise fulfilled. We live now not under the promise, but under the full revelation of the Christ.
I. A GLORIOUS REVELATION OF THE CHARACTER OF GOD. Something better. The works of man often show decrepitude, wasting genius, failing power. Witness Turner in art, and Sir Walter Scott in literature. But all Gods works show development–onwardness. Creation in its physical aspect does. Look at the crustaceans and at the silurian fossils, &c. None can fail to see progress–some-thing finer, nobler, better. Look at the moral world! Look at Gods revelations of righteousness and truth! How wonderfully superior the light which David had to that which Abel had! Then, as the course of inspiration rolled along, the devout Jew heard descriptions through Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah, which filled in the sublimely prophetic history with the story of Messiahs sufferings. In the incarnation and redemption of our Saviour we still see something better. And then our Saviour tells us that there is still something better. He says, It is expedient for you that I go away, then the Comforter Shall come. Life is not to be a mere obedience even to Christs words, but a spiritual potency within, Gods Spirit in the inner man. The unprejudiced mind is bound to see in all this a revelation of Gods character–of His interest in man, of His wisdom, His pity, and His grace! We ought to make history a ground of trust and hope in God, so that in looking back we may say, I will trust, and not be afraid.
II. A GLORIOUS INTERPRETATION OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. The path of the Christian is like that of the Church, from strength to strength, from glory to glory.
1. Learn to interpret life by the key of this principle. It is the only one that can solve the mysteries of pain and sorrow, or that can soothe the heart in agony and trouble. The motto, It is better, cannot be ever on our lips, it is true. We should act a lie as if we were false enthusiasts. We cannot say, I see or feel this to be good; but we can say, I believe it to be so. Faith trusts. Faith rests upon the Divine order!
2. This principle of interpretation is supported by human histories. Life only blossoms by slow degrees, and only when it is in full bud do we see how suitable the soil, how perfectly adapted the atmosphere. We would not have had Stephen stoned, but it was better that his dying testimony should aid in turning Saul the persecutor into Paul the apostle, and better for Stephen himself to enjoy so early the welcome where Christ Himself rose from His throne to receive him. It is when the fabric is woven that we see what colours were best to let pass through the loom. It is when the temple is complete that we understand why the crooked stone that puzzled us was placed in its appointed spot. It is when the haven is reached by a circuitous voyage, and a strange tacking to and fro in troubled waters, that the captain tells you all about the sand-banks and the sunken rocks.
3. This principle of interpretation explains the providence of earth. Pitiable are those conceptions of life which treat the universe as though we moved only in some meaningless cycle. There is progress in all that makes for the enrichment of thought, the amplification of life, the elevation of the common lot. It is better to live now than in the old times before us. Nations, as well as men, do rise on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things. Doubtless as the waves of the incoming sea seem sometimes to recede, so there appear to be periods of drawback and disheartening. But progress is made. The islands once in darkness do see great light. The gospel does spread. Law does become more equitable. Sanitary science does triumph. Intercommunication between great nations in travel and commerce does increase. Education does spread.
4. This principle of interpretation explains the Saviours preparation of heaven. The very same word is used–I go to prepare a place for you. He has foreseen all that, and made ready the home. We cannot see the occupations and delights of our departed ones, but we know that they are blessed; we know that where they are there is something better; and we know that this prepared home will be soon ready for ourselves. There knowledge is freed from earthly limitation. There love is no more enfeebled by divided affection. And what mean these words? That they without us should not be made perfect. The temple is incomplete. The table is not full. They are blessed, but our home-coming will add intensity and fulness to their joy. How transfigured would human life be if we studied this text in all its breadth and beauty–if we remembered, as students, that God disciplines human life, so that the golden corn of experience may afterwards be a harvest for others; that as servants the heroism of our faith is remembered in that which is least as well as in that which is greatest, so that something better is coming than any earthly reward; that as worshippers, when thrilled at times with the glories of spiritual song, we are nearing the fellowship of the great multitude which no man can number! (W. M. Statham, M. A.)
The believers portion–something better
I. WHAT IS THIS PORTION?
1. Religion here in all that constitutes it.
2. Religion future in all its glorious prospects.
II. BETTER THAN WHAT?
1. Certainly better than the world at its worst–in its degrading pleasures, selfish purposes, hatred, and strife.
2. Better than the world at its best.
(1) In the achievements of science.
(2) In art.
(3) In literature.
(4) In its friendship, sympathy, love.
3. Better than the best things of the Patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations.
III. IN WHAT RESPECTS BETTER?
1. In that it includes Gods care and attention, and our help cannot fail.
2. In that it forms His highest and most costly provision.
3. Now it
(1) Provides for every man.
(2) Fills every holy desire.
(3) Is spiritual in character.
(4) Is certain amid a changing world.
(5) Grows continually better.
4. In the future
(1) It ends in heaven.
(2) Its blessings will be eternal.
Learn:
1. To be sure you are the heirs of this portion.
2. To think of it often.
3. To walk worthy of your vocation. (E. Jerman.)
The disposal of the times and states of the Church
I. THE DISPOSAL OF THE STATES AND TIMES OF THE CHURCH, AS UNTO THE COMMUNICATION OF LIGHT, GRACE, AND PRIVILEGES, DEPENDS MERELY ON THE SOVEREIGN PLEASURES AND WILL OF GOD, AND NOT ON ANY MERIT OR PREPARATION IN MAN. The coming of Christ at that time when He came was as little deserved by the men of the age wherein He came as in any age from the foundation of the world.
II. Though God gives more light and grace unto the Church in one season than in another, YET IN EVERY SEASON HE GIVES THAT WHICH IS SUFFICIENT TO GUIDE BELIEVERS IN THEIR FAITH AND OBEDIENCE UNTO ETERNAL LIFE.
III. It is the duty of believers, in every state of the Church, to make use of and IMPROVE THE SPIRITUAL PROVISION THAT GOD HATH MADE FOR THEM, always remembering that unto whom much is given, of them much is required.
IV. GOD MEASURES OUT UNTO ALL HIS PEOPLE THEIR PORTION IN SERVICE, SUFFERINGS, PRIVILEGES, AND REWARDS, ACCORDING TO HIS OWN GOOD PLEASURE.
V. IT IS CHRIST ALONE WHO WAS TO GIVE, AND WHO ALONE COULD GIVE, PERFECTION OR CONSUMMATION UNTO THE CHURCH.
VI. ALL THE OUTWARD GLORIOUS WORSHIP OF THE OLD TESTAMENT HAD NO PERFECTION IN IT; AND SO NO GLORY COMPARATIVELY UNTO THAT WHICH IS BROUGHT IN BY THE GOSPEL (2Co 3:10). VII. ALL PERFECTION, ALL CONSUMMATION, IS IN CHRIST ALONE. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and we are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (John Owen, D. D.)
That they without us should not be made perfect
Man perfected through fellowship
I. THE FUNDAMENTAL GIFTS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE CAN BE RECEIVED BY THE INDIVIDUAL IN HIS SEPARATION AND OBSCURITY. We may be ready to ask the question, Was it not hard that these early believers, who had so nobly satisfied Gods demand upon their faith, should be shut out from their full and final blessedness for ages? For the present let it suffice to reply that they received, without a single exception, compensations that in the meantime more than filled up the measure of their desires. Each Old Testament saint was assured by some sign or other that he had become acceptable to God. Their comparative ignorance and detachment did not bar them from the possession of this precious rudimentary grace. These religious heroes, upon whom the seal of Gods clear approval and acceptance was set, did not belong to great devotional and educating fellowships. They lived apart. In the brain of many a Bedouin sheik, who canters across the desert-sand to-day, you might find a more elaborate theology than in some of these patriarchs. If we, with our modern wealth of learning and abstract divinity and scientific illustration, could have conversed with Abraham or Isaac or Jacob, we should probably have been repelled by the crudeness of their views. Their expectation of the Deliverer had more in it that was akin to inspired instinct than reason. But they were entirely loyal to its leading, and God sealed their faith. In the absence of the fully accomplished promise, a witness of some sort was vital to their sustained fidelity. The God who had called them to His service could not well leave them destitute of it. He could not prove Himself an Egyptian taskmaster, and command His servants to form characters fit to be built into the universal temple, without granting one of the first requisites for the strengthening and consolidation of character, the sense of His favour and acceptance. It was through this assurance that the first believers became capable of an ever-growing fidelity. And then God could not leave an unnecessary burden on the conscience of His people. No organ or faculty of a mans nature can compare with conscience in its sensitiveness. To deny conscience the rightful assaugement of its pain would be a barbarity akin to torture. Whatever disabilities and tribulations might be laid upon the fathers of the Jewish Church, they were brought at least into the light of Gods unshadowed favour. They lived in that light, and the light was not quenched when they passed away.
II. THE CROWNING GIFTS OF THE COVENANT ARE VOUCHSAFED TO MEN IN THEIR MUTUAL FELLOWSHIPS. That they without us should not be made perfect. The worlds gray fathers and the youngest child in the latest term of time must be glorified together. The firstborn cannot outrun or anticipate the last. The life of nature is social, and its different parts are perfected together. God does not fashion isolated orbs to shine in solitary splendour. He kindles systems and galaxies and constellations. In all parts of nature there is community of development, fellowship of life and ecstacy. The rapture of one type of life is timed to the ripeness of another. The skylark carols over the springing corn. The nightingale pours its liquid love-plaint into the red heart of the rose. There is a co-perfecting of all the kingdoms of life. God seems to delight in the magnificence of aggregate effects. And is it not so also in the spiritual world? Not till the golden chime is heard that proclaims the approach of Gods ripe summer will the life of all the separate ages receive its highest glory and development. We are only in solitary training for the anthems that will usher in the coronation of our common humanity. True music will never be heard till the blended song of Moses and the Lamb awes the listening spheres. The higher you ascend in the scale of life, the more pronounced is this principle of interdependence. The whole of humanity is, after all, one organism. It is very significantly described as one body. The description is almost as true if looked at from the commercial or political as if viewed from the religious standpoint. Humanity is being slowly bound into an economic whole. With the setting up of the new dispensation some new effusion of light and knowledge and spiritual victory has come to the Old Testament saints in the region of the unseen. The basis of faith must be laid in life; but faith can increase in ever-expanding progression after life has ceased. In respect to all these, of whom it is said they have received together with us the better things of the promise, the basis of faith was well laid in life. They through their faith had received, without exception, some sign of Gods approval. And now, in ways unknown to us, they have entered into the fulness of the promises desired and waited for by kings and righteous men of old. In what way were the believing dead spiritually perfected, and made to enter into the fulness of the promise through Christs manifestation amongst men? They were perfected in knowledge, in conscience, and in character. By that blood of sprinkling to which they came in common with their fellow-believers in the flesh, they learned that the forgiveness of sin was no piece of unthinking indulgence on the part of the Judge of all the earth; they came to recognise a higher significance in sanctity, and to feel their obligations of worship and service measured by a higher ideal of sacrificial love and unselfishness. Besides the richer effusion of joy that came to the first generation of Gods servants through the work of Gods incarnate Son, their joy is further perfected with the progressive perfecting of human history. The first promise to Abraham looked forward to the blessedness of all nations through his seed. The promise is not fully brought to pass, nor is the large hope of the father of the faithful fulfilled till that has been accomplished. The highest victories of the Church in heaven are only consummated by the victories of the Church on earth. We shall miss nothing by dying. The sunshine will come to us in the far-off land. We shall not be cut off from the supreme triumph. Just as the air of the polar and the equatorial regions is ever changing places and bringing about fresh and tempered atmospheres essential to all life, so between the different epochs of the human race there are grand and consolatory equalisations always going on. The perfecting will be common. Abraham and David and Daniel waited for us, and we in our turn shall wait for others. The perfecting is common for the Church of all ages. Within certain limits we hold in our hands the blessedness of Gods servants of olden times, and we work in trust for the dead. Others will one day work in trust for us. There will be no supreme perfecting till the saved whole is brought in. The text suggests that there is a larger fulfilment of the covenant in the last great day, for which the spirits of the old and the new dispensation must alike wait. Before the crowning touch can be put on our destinies we must needs tarry till the most distant heir of the promises and the latest born of all Gods sons has come into the horizon. God treated the race as a unity in Adam, He treated it as a unity in Christ, and He will treat it yet again as a unity in the consummation of all things. It is said that sometimes swallows arrive on our eastern coasts before the winter has quite passed away, and the great tide of migration set in. These stray birds have been observed to gather together and fly south, probably to the coast of Spain, for a few days or weeks, till the spring temperature has come, and the carnival of vernal life has begun to quiver in the air. They have had to turn aside to balmier climbs for a little space and await the coming of the rest. So with the saints and prophets and martyrs of the earlier ages. They have passed into the unseen before Gods summer sun has begun to shine upon the universe. In some sphere of temporary rest and blessedness, in a more genial land than this, their spirits are refreshed, and they await the completed number of the elect. The rearguard and the vanguard, the sowers and the reapers, the fathers and the children. The quick and the dead, will be gathered into one common circle to share the matchless manifestations of the great day of God. The splendour to which the latest ages have come will flow back into the earliest. The last perfecting benediction will not alight upon us in our isolation, but as members of a countless assembly. The lowliest believer of the coming ages will not be shut out from the consummated bliss and triumph. All parts of humanity, all races, all generations, possibly all hidden worlds of the unknown universe, will be closely and significantly interdependent in their final blessedness. The fact that God should have determined to perfect the men of all ages together shows how much He thinks of those great principles of mutual association and fellowship which we sometimes esteem so little. He shows honour to those lowly disciples and followers of His Son whom we do not sufficiently honour. He will not crown them apart. Their services have been obscure, their prayers secret, but their recompense shall be in presence of all worlds and all generations. Be prompt to recognise Gods law of community. He will put supreme honour upon that law by blessing and glorifying at His appearing all members of the saved humanity together. God will not honour those who set aside that law. In helping our brethren we are helping ourselves. Their progress and perfecting is necessary to ours. God seems to be teaching us in this way the humility which can be best learned and exercised through fellowship. It is a check to our pride to be reminded that we can only be crowned in common with the rest. We cannot be crowned alone. The honour would be too high for us to safely sustain. It might imperil the balance of our moral life. And then by perfecting His servants together God seems to remind us of the graciousness and beauty of patience. Disembodied saints of the olden time are waiting for us, and we shall have to wait for them. They had their blessed compensations here, and receive yet better compensations in the presence of their redeeming Lord; but they still wait till the last convert from savagery has been won, the last backsliding disciple reclaimed, the last weak and inconsistent servant of God strengthened and sanctified. They are in the van of the pilgrimage, but they have learnt so much of the gentleness and patience of Christ, that they wait about the fountains of life for the fading of the worlds last twilight and the coming up of the last straggler in the far-off rearguard. Do not let us think ourselves isolated pilgrims or travellers. We belong to the sacramental host. Let us watch against selfish hurry and impatience. We shall have to await the weakest for our final blessedness. Let us wait for them with more Christlike patience here, and help them along the pilgrim path. And then God has ordained that the perfecting of our destinies shall be in common, because He wishes to set forth His grace and power upon a scale of incomparable magnificence. How splendid the perfecting for which the holy spirits of so many epochs wait! How sublime the destiny into whose effulgence all elect souls shall be together gathered! (T. G. Selby.)
The interdependence of all saints
The apostle had been speaking of the saints of the Old Testament. He had been building the triumphal arch of Old Testament history. The names of the worlds spiritual conquerors are written there, But at the close of this triumphal commemoration you cannot fail to notice the unexpected turn of the text. The conclusion towards which this whole chapter of faiths heroism seems to move would be an ascription of our indebtedness to these valiant servants of the Lord who have made it a world for us. Without them, the writer of this sacred history would naturally have said, Without them we are not made perfect. But instead he said, That apart from us they should not be made perfect. We hardly transcend the text, we do but follow the inspired Word out to its larger revelation, when we say, Each Christian generation is necessary to all before; the last saint belongs in some measure to the first; the better thing of each age is for all who have lived and died; not only is it true that we inherit the lives of the saints, but they are to inherit ours; we are for them as well as they for us; neither they nor we are to be made perfect apart; the last century of human history shall crown all the centuries; the consummation of the world is the perfection together of all the saints. This is hardly our customary thought of the saints. We think of them as passed beyond all participation in this worlds history, withdrawn from its trials and having no concern henceforth in its warfare and victories; made perfect in their own pure hearts, and their lives elsewhere no more bound up with this worlds destiny. We remember with grateful love what they had been to us in the years gone by; we remind one another in our public places of our common inheritance in the lives of good men; we build monuments to the memory of the brave who died for their country; we draw inspiration for youth front the illumined historic page, and the spirit of the martyrs blends still with all sacrifice of love. But while we remember these worthy and sainted ones, we should not forget that we too are to be for them, as they have been for us. If you contemplate, for example, any sacred character from the Old Testament, you will observe that such character is never held apart either from the men of God who went before it, or from the servants of the Lord who are to follow after it. Each of these characters is put in the Bible into relation with all before and all after it–as a link in a chain; all personages that carry on Gods gracious revelation, are as links in one continuous chain–and both ends of this unbroken chain of sacred history, running through the ages, with its many links of lives interlocked in one purpose of redemption, are bound to the throne of God, the beginning of it by the first Divine act of creation, and the final end of all in the glory of the Son of Man at the right hand of the majesty on high. The interdependence of all saints, the living and the dead, and those who are to be, appears in certain events in the life of Christ, and may be inferred also from certain inspired hints in the apostolic writings. It is clear from the narrative of the transfiguration, that Moses and Elias had not been cut off by death from personal interest and anticipation in the progress of Gods kingdom on earth. What was done here upon a place called Golgotha, was to be done for them also there in that place called Paradise. And it is deeply significant and suggestive that the apostle Peter who was one of the two to witness this revealed intimacy of the saints of the old and the new, and to see upon the Holy Mount this close contiguity of two worlds, is the same apostle who has dropped in his epistle quite incidentally, and as a matter of course, that word concerning Christs preaching to the spirits in prison, and again concerning the preaching to those that are dead. The Lords life here, and the life of the dead there, were and are correlated; the history of the two spheres, the realm of the dead, and the kingdom of God on earth, were and are in some way ,connected and parallel histories; the two lands are contiguous, and one Lord passes back and forth across their boundary-line, to-day in the body, to-morrow in the spirit, and the third day risen again, and seen by the disciples; and He has the same administration of perfect justice and grace in both worlds. There is hardly anything more contrary to Scripture than is our common exaggeration of the importance of death. Do we not remember how Jesus seemed always to be putting death into the background as a very secondary and even incidental thing in the history of a soul which has attained the true, the eternal life? He minimized death when He called it a sleep. We magnify it when we call it destiny. The apostles, catching Jesus diviner tone, called sin death, and love life. Death in the apostolic speech was turned into a metaphor; it served to illustrate something far greater and more important than itself. Conversion to them was the great change; to die may be the greatest event which can happen to a man; but to die is one of the least important things which a man does; to repent of sin, to surrender to God, to live unto Christ–this is the great thing for a man to do. We think of death as a vast gulf between friends; as a great barrier between hearts that would go on loving and being loved for ever; as a wall of adamant suddenly reared by a Divine decree between mother and child, husband and wife; and with the years the great silence widens between men and women who were friends. But when one who had been taught of Jesus had occasion to refer to death, he thinks not of chasm or adamantine wall, but of the veil of the temple–the mere veil between the holy, and the holiest place. And this hope, he said, enters within the veil. Does it not revive us like a breath of the Spirit to know this truth of All Saints day, that we all shall be made perfect together, and none apart; that in Gods plan our lives and theirs, whom for a little while we do not see, have been interwoven, and still run on interweaving their threads and colours; that still we are living for them, and they for us in the one kingdom of our Lord; that they in their rest, or in their new activities, are resting, or are ministering, not apart from us, as we in our toils and in our dreams still are living and still are loving not without them; that whatever in higher spheres is transpiring in their lives has also its worth yet to be revealed for us, as our thought and love may have growing worth for them; that whether in some silence in Divine light round about them they are becoming holy and radiant with perfect love in their own pure hearts, or whether along some way of God they are now made strong to run with some glad tidings, or whether with the Lord Christ they be permitted with their dear hands to give some added grace and human, homelike touch to the places in His many mansions which He has gone to prepare for us–still, still, they think, they fly, they rest, they love, not apart from us, and in them and their large happiness the great God thinks also of us; that without us they may not be made perfect in that final unspeakable perfection of all the saints in the last day. And we too–herein is a comfort which we must not suffer any man to take from us–we also are living for them; as the early Church before its Latin corruption did not hesitate in its childlike faith to express in its prayers for the sainted dead this most Christian sense of the mutuality of the believers lives both here and there. We also are living for our fathers, for our friends who have passed before us, for all the saints, if indeed we are living truly and unselfishly; if we are ripening for their companionships, and becoming strong and pure for celestial thoughts and deeds in the ages of ages. Another lesson from this truth of All Saints day lies close at hand. I shall have spoken in vain if you do not perceive once more the truth that to be a Christian and to be saved is not merely to become perfect for ones self, and to carry off a crown of glory at the judgment day. It is rather to come to the end of self, and to begin to be a member of a blessed society of spirits. No man is to be saved apart from all the saints. Gods law of salvation is a social law, the law of a redeemed society. The social life of the Church, therefore, the social unity of the Church, is not an adjunct or accessory of the Divine constitution of the Church; it is an element of the Divine idea of the Church; it belongs to its essential Christianity. And hence it follows that churches are not revived, and do not grow, if this Divine idea of the covenant of believers and the household of faith, is lost sight of, or practically ignored. Once more, let the lesson come home to us from what I have been trying to say, that individually we cannot grow in grace apart from all saints. There is a beautiful Scripture, the most important clause of which we are too apt to hurry over as we read it: That ye may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth. The condition of knowledge of the love of Christ is that we find it and share it with all saints. Yet this is just what many of us sometimes are not willing to do. We would know the love of Christ with our favourite saints. With all saints, said Paul. It was Paul, to whom were given personal revelation above measure, who felt the need of learning the love of Christ with all the saints, those unknown saints, those humble saints, those poor saints, untaught, unlearned, are to be your fellow-helpers to the truth. There are faces among them–I have seen some such–in whose light we may learn more of the secret of the Lord than from any books. Oh, when will we understand that our Christ is the universal Christ? (Newman Smyth, D. D.)
The one true Church
1. There appears to be little doubt, that the persons here spoken of are the Old Testament believers–all of them, not only those mentioned by name in this chapter, but those whose history is more comprehensively alluded to. These all, having obtained a good report through faith. True religion was always the same, in every age of the world–that is to say, in the substance and vital saving truth of it–however the outward expressions of it may have varied,
2. But now consider, in the next place, what the apostle says concerning these men. He says that they obtained a good report through faith; they were well witnessed of, in consequence of the life they led, and that life was a consequence of their faith. The same vital principle which enabled them to rest implicitly on the Word of God, and thereby to be justified in His sight, enabled them also to overcome the world. It rose superior to the attractions and solicitations of sense, to let their light shine before men, so that all could see their good works, and glorify their Father which is in heaven. By faith they were enabled to refuse every inducement which would have driven them off from obedience to their God. By faith they held all personal interests and all natural feelings, the fear or the favour of men, subservient to the one great duty, obedience to the living God. Their works, then, were their credentials upon earth, and by them their profession was justified–the profession of sincerity in the service of God. What a proof was there of the power over them of real religion, that raises man above the fear of his fellow, and gives him holy communion with his God! This, and this alone, in any age, is religion. These men, then, received a good report through faith. But how agrees this with the fact that they were persecuted, that they were stoned, that they were sawn asunder, that they were cast out as evil? The two things agree well. Their conduct, by contrast, condemned the world; this is expressly recorded of one of them–Noah. Men of the world, condemned by the contrast, resent the affront;and so they that are born of the flesh persecute them that are born after the Spirit. To be commended by the Church is only one-half of the good report of the saint; to be condemned by the world is the other half. The Old Testament saints obtained a good report both ways by faith. And are there not in our own times, and in our own country, men who have thus obtained a good report through faith–men who have resisted the tide of the times, and what was manifestly the rising tide of advancement and advantage among men–men who have refused to dilute their testimony for Gods truth, and have calmly and patiently, and with their eyes open, preferred honourable neglect, yea, contempt and scorn, to any crooked management, any disingenuousness, aye, or any concealment of their sentiments, for the purpose of conciliating compromisers in high places?
3. But now, returning to the Old Testament saints and to the language of the text, we inquire, for further explanation, what it is that the apostle denies them. He says they received not the promise. And here we must distinguish between the words containing the promise, and the thing promised by the words. The apostle uses the expression in both senses, as you will see readily by a comparison of the thirteenth and seventeenth verses of this chapter. At the thirteenth verse he writes, These all died in faith, not having received the promises. One of the persons referred to is Abraham. Then in the seventeenth verse the apostle writes thus: By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Abraham was one of those who had not received the promises, and yet he had received the promises; that is, he had received the words in which the promises were conveyed, but he had not received the things promised. Now, what are we to understand here by the thing promised, which was not then received? Light will be thrown upon this by the language of the apostle, in some of the stirring acts of his true life of faith. See Act 23:6; Act 24:14; Act 26:6-8. Mark how the apostles mind was fixed upon the great promise of the resurrection of the dead. No doubt the promise generally signified Messiah, but especially that blessing which remains to be enjoyed, previously to His second coming–the resurrection of the dead. It was the great hope of the Old Testament saints. Hear one of them. I know, said he, that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. Nothing can be more distinct than this expression of his hope. And another of them said, I shall be satisfied when I awake up in Thy likeness; expressing his hope nearly in the same words with the apostle–We wait for the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. Observe the one hope of the Church; that as there was one Lord, as we have seen, in the Old and in the New Testament, and one faith in Him, and one baptism by the Holy Ghost for the remission of sins, so there was one hope, and they were called in one hope of their calling. This doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was indeed denied by some of the Jews. There is no truth, however plainly revealed, which will not be denied by some men. The Sadducees had learned a strange secret–to admit the Old Testament, and yet deny the resurrection of the dead. They came to Jesus, and gave Him opportunity to set the matter in its true light; for they came with what they conceived to be an unanswerable difficulty. If by saying that all live to God with reference to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, our Lord had intended merely to say that their souls were alive in the presence of God, it would have been no argument at all against the Sadducees. The question was the resurrection of the body. But if our Lord meant to say that the spirit of Abraham is not Abraham, but only part of him, God having made him of both matter and spirit, that when God called Himself the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, He called Himself the God of the men, and not of the spirits of the men merely, and then added, He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to Him, then it is to the point, for the bodies of those men shall yet live, as well as their spirits; and so it was an answer to the Sadducees. The resurrection was indeed the hope of the Old Testament if properly understood. But this promise was not received by the saints under the Old Testament. They obtained a good report through faith, as we have seen, but they received not the promise. They were kept waiting in abeyance. The whole scheme is imperfect as yet.
4. And then follows the reason: God having provided some better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. The preliminary and preparatory steps are given seriatim, to member after member; they are born into this world, they are born again, they are justified, they are in their measure sanctified, they are separated from the flesh; their souls, made perfect, are in felicity with their Lord; but there remains a step, which is not so given: God having provided some better thing for all, that some without the rest should not be made perfect. Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, must wait for Moses and David; and they must wait for Isaiah and Jeremiah; and they must wait for Peter and James and John; and they must wait for Polycarp and Ignatius and Athanasius; and they must wait for Luther and Calvin and Crammer; and they must wait for us; and we must wait for others, till He has accomplished the number of His elect, and then all, in the twinkling of an eye, shall receive the promise at the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Here we see, then, the true communion of all the Church–the true oneness of the one true Church–the mystical body of the Lord Jesus, gathering from time to time, in all the preliminary, preparatory steps of it, and all ready at the appointed time to stand up in perfection, in the likeness of the Son of God. It is with this body that we now have communion by faith; not with those around us here upon earth only, but with them that have fallen asleep also, and with them in two divisions, if I may so speak. With some among them we hold communion through memory, as well as faith, for we knew them while they were here. They were faithful and true, and our hearts loved them. They have been taken from us, hidden for a little season from our sight, and are waiting for that better something which God hath prepared for all that love Him. With others we have communion only by faith; memory has nothing to do with it, for we never knew them; but by faith we know what their characters were. They, too, have fallen asleep, and they too are waiting for that better something which God hath prepared for us all. There is consolation, as well as instruction, in this. Every other association must be broken up; every other tie must be snapped asunder; all our business associations, all our social, domestic ties must give way; death is no respecter of any of us; they are all suddenly broken. Here is an association, from which nothing can separate us, the communion of the Church of God, the fellowship with those that have obtained a good report through faith, and are waiting for that something better. Must we, too, leave this sunny world, with all its enjoyments, with all that remains so attractive to the natural heart, in defiance of the disappointment, the mourning and lamentation and woe that prove it to be a fallen world? Must we be drawn from the little family circle, in which it is our delight now to dwell? Ah! remember, it is not to go among strangers; it is to join a larger circle of the same family–it is to be transferred from a small and a suffering circle to a large and a rejoicing circle of the same brotherhood, the First-born in the midst of them. (H. McNeile, D. D.)
The future perfecting:
When all whom God has foreknown and predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, shall have fought the good fight of faith, then will come the perfecting–the day of the manifestation of the sons of God. At present all who have died in the Lord wait the fulfilment of the promise. Abel, Noah, and Abraham are not to be perfected in glory by the redemption of their bodies until the last soul has been converted to God, and the valley of the shadow of death has been traversed by the last pilgrim. When the top stone of the building has been brought in with shouts of Grace, grace unto it, from all the redeemed and angelic hosts, then the glory of the Lord will descend upon His spiritual temple and transfigure it with everlasting light. Then, to change the figure, the saints in one glorious company, with no member of the Christ-named family absent, clothed upon with their spiritual bodies, shall enter the gates of the New Jerusalem, and celebrate the marriage supper of the Lamb. There they shall recount their trials and victories, compare their experiences of redeeming love, and drink together of the river of Gods pleasures. There is something very sublime in the spectacle presented to us of this ever-gathering host. Daily, nay hourly, the number which no man can number is being increased. If the saints waiting for the resurrection are permitted to hold fellowship with souls as they arrive from this world of sin and sorrow, how they must have lifted up their heads of late years as sinners from earths remotest end have come bending at the feet of Him who has redeemed them with His blood. Surely His kingdom is increasing, they must think, when from India, China, and the islands of the Pacific saints of God are being gathered in, when the chariots of fire bring up martyrs from heathen lands. This plan of God, to confer redemption on all the saints together, none anticipating the rest, must give Abel, the oldest saint in heaven, an intense interest in the youngest born of the heavenly family, whose birth into the kingdom will herald the long-looked-for day of Christs appearing. Christians on earth may feel that they have divided interests, but when waiting for the day of glory they must feel that their interests are one. Party names, earthly distinctions, how completely lost these must be in the expectation of this glorious hope. (E. W.Shalders, B. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 39. Having obtained a good report (having been witnessed to; see Heb 11:2) through faith] It was faith in God which supported all those eminent men who, in different parts of the world, and in different ages, were persecuted for righteousness sake.
Received not the promise] They all heard of the promises made to Abraham of a heavenly rest, and of the promise of the Messiah, for this was a constant tradition; but they died without having seen this Anointed of the Lord. Christ was not in any of their times manifested in the flesh; and of him who was the expectation of all nations, they heard only by the hearing of the ear. This must be the promise, without receiving of which the apostle says they died.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The apostle returns in this verse to the proposition laid down in the second verse, which he had been proving by all these examples, and with it shuts up the history of them.
And these all; all these elders, mentioned from Heb 11:2 to this verse.
Having obtained a good report through faith: , strictly, is having been martyred, or made martyrs; specially witnessing to the death for Christ, have a testimony given them, by way of eminency, by God himself in his Scripture record, that through faith they pleased him in their glorious achievements and sufferings, and were Gods faithful witnesses to the world, glorifying him in it; though reproached and ruined by the world, yet they were too good to live in it, and were fit to live with him in heaven, as Heb 11:2,5,16,35.
Received not the promise; yet these worthies, as Abraham and his believing seed, did not possess the land of Canaan, though they had the promise of it in their time, Heb 11:13; others did obtain the grace and good things promised for their time, Heb 11:33, but none of these had fulfilled to them in their day the manifestation of the Messiah in the flesh; though they saw his day and coming by faith, and did rejoice in it, yet none saw him so come as Simeon did, Luk 2:26,29; though, as to the eternal benefits by Christ, they did as actually receive them, as those since his perfecting the work of redemption have received them, even eternal blessedness and glory by him, Act 15:11.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
39. having obtained a goodreportGreek, “being borne witness of.” Thoughthey were so, yet “they received not the promise,” that is,the final completion of “salvation” promisedat Christ’s coming again (Heb9:28); “the eternal inheritance” (Heb9:15). Abraham did obtain the very thing promised(Heb 6:15) in part,namely, blessedness in soul after death, by virtue of faith inChrist about to come. The full blessedness of body and soulshall not be till the full number of the elect shall be accomplished,and all together, no one preceding the other, shall enter on the fullglory and bliss. Moreover, in another point of view, “It isprobable that some accumulation of blessedness was added to holysouls, when Christ came and fulfilled all things even as at Hisburial many rose from the dead, who doubtless ascended to heaven withHim” [FLACIUS inBENGEL]. (Compare Note,see on Eph 4:8). The perfectingof believers in title, and in respect to conscience, took place oncefor all, at the death of Christ, by virtue of His being made by deathperfect as Saviour. Their perfecting in soul at, andever after Christ’s death, took place, and takes place at theirdeath. But the universal and final perfecting will not take placetill Christ’s coming.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And these all having obtained a good report through faith,…. This may either be limited to the sufferers in the preceding verses, who were martyred, or suffered martyrdom for the faith, as the words may be rendered; and who are called martyrs or witnesses, in Heb 12:1 and so the Ethiopic version renders the clause, “and all these were witnesses concerning the faith”: or it may be extended to all the instances of faith throughout the chapter; and so the apostle reasserts what he had said, Heb 11:2, having proved it by a variety of examples; [See comments on Heb 11:2].
received not the promise; not that they did not receive the promise of the land of Canaan, for so did Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, c. nor that they did not receive the promise of deliverance and victory, for so did Joshua, the Judges, and others or that they did not receive the promise of eternal life, for that they all did; but the promise of the Messiah, that is, the Messiah promised: for they had the promise, but not the thing; who is called “the Promise”, emphatically, because he is the first and grand promise; and because in him all the promises centre, and are yea, and amen: him the Old Testament saints received not; they, greatly desired to see him in the flesh; they saw him by faith; they believed in him, and rejoiced in the expectation of his coming; but he was not exhibited to them incarnate. Now since these saints so strongly believed, and so cheerfully suffered before Christ came; the apostle’s argument is, that much more should the saints now, since Christ is come, and the promises received, go on believing in him, and readily suffering for his sake; see Heb 12:1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
These all ( ). The whole list in verses 5-38. Cf. verse 13.
Through their faith ( ). Here rather than as so often.
Received not the promise ( ). First aorist middle of . The Messianic promise they did not live to see (11:13), though they had individual special promises fulfilled as already shown (11:33).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And these all,” (kai houtoi pantes) “And all these,” these who endured testings, trials, and even death, dying in the faith of Abraham, Rom 4:3; Rom 4:16; Gal 3:6-8.
2) “Having obtained a good report,” (maturethentes) “Having obtained a good witness,” testimony or report, as the twelve spies upon their return from Canaan, Heb 11:2. Joseph of Arimathea had the report or reputation of being a good man and a just counsellor, Luk 23:50-51; Dorcas was a woman full of good works, as was also Barnabas, Act 9:36; Act 11:24.
3) “Through faith,” (dia tes pisteos) “Through the faith,” the system of revealed truth that had been committed to them. There exists first, the gift of faith, by which a sinner is saved and which should thereafter increase in him, Eph 2:8-9; Joh 1:11-12; 1Co 13:13; Luk 17:5; then “the faith” refers to the system of doctrines our Lord gave his church, Jud 1:3.
4) “Received not the promise,” (ouk ekomisanto ten epangelian) “Obtained or received not the promise,” Luk 1:68-73; or the promised one. Although this royal roster of the heirs of Jesus Christ, all died in full faith, trust, or confidence in their redemption thru the coming one promised as the seed of Abraham, David, and of the woman, Eve, their lives were not lived in vain. He came and is yet coming again. Thru that same kind of saving, obedient, and sojourning faith we too can go on, knowing our labors are not in vain in the Lord, Heb 10:36-37; 1Co 15:58; Gal 6:9; 1Th 4:13-18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
39. And these all, etc. This is an argument from the less to the greater; for if they on whom the light of grace had not as yet so brightly shone displayed so great a constancy in enduring evils, what ought the full brightness of the Gospel to produce in us? A small spark of light led them to heaven; when the sun of righteousness shines over us, with what pretense can we excuse ourselves if we still cleave to the earth? This is the real meaning of the Apostle. (241)
I know that Chrysostom and others have given a different explanation, but the context clearly shows, that what is intended here is the difference in the grace which God bestowed on the faithful under the Law, and that which he bestows on us now. For since a more abundant grace is poured on us, it would be very strange that we should have less faith in us. He then says that those fathers who were endued with so remarkable a faith, had not yet so strong reasons for believing as we have. Immediately after he states the reason, because God intended to unite us all into one body, and that he distributed a small portion of grace to them, that he might defer its full perfection to our time, even to the coming of Christ.
And it is a singular evidence of God’s benevolence towards us, that though he has shown himself bountifully to his children from the beginning of the world, he yet has so distributed his grace as to provide for the wellbeing of the whole body. What more could any of us desire, than that in all the blessings which God bestowed on Abraham, Moses, David, and all the Patriarchs, on the Prophets and godly kings, he should have a regard for us, so that we might be united together with them in the body of Christ? Let us then know that we are doubly and treble ungrateful to God, if less faith appears in us under the kingdom of Christ than the fathers had under the Law, as proved by so many remarkable examples of patience. By the words, that they received not the promise, is to be understood its ultimate fulfillment, which took place in Christ, on which subject something has been said already.
(241) This is materially the view taken by Beza, Doddridge, Scott and Stuart. The “promise” is deemed to be especially that of Christ. The ancients heard of him, believed in his coming, but did not witness it. The “some better thing” is considered to be the same with the promise, or to be the Gospel as revealed, or in the words of Stuart, “the actual fulfillment of the promise respecting the Messiah.”
Still there is something unsatisfactory in this view as to “the promise,” as Stuart seems to intimate. There are two verses, Heb 10:36, which seem to throw light on this subject: by the first we find that “the promise” is future to us as well as to the ancient saints; and by the second, that “the better thing” is the atoning death of Christ, which was to the ancient saints an unfulfilled event, but to us fulfilled and clearly revealed, and yet its benefits extended to them as well as to us.
The “promise” throughout this Epistle is that of “the eternal inheritance” and “the promises” in Heb 11:13 include this and others, and especially “the better things,” that is the Gospel, or fulfillment of what was necessary to attain the inheritance, even the death and resurrection of Christ; or we may say that it is “the better hope,” (Heb 7:19) or the “better covenant, which was established on better promises,” (Heb 8:6.) The verses may be thus rendered —
“
And all these, having obtained a good report through faith, have not received the promise: 40. God having foreordained as to us something more excellent, so that they without us might not be perfected;” that is, in body as well as in soul.
The sentiment seems to be this, — “the ancient saints believed God’s promise, respecting an eternal inheritance after the resurrection: they died in hope of this, they have not yet obtained it, and for this reason, because God had designed to fulfill to us what he had also promised to them, even the coming of a Redeemer; it is necessary that this more excellent thing than what had in this world been vouchsafed to them, should take place, as on it depended everything connected with the promise of the ‘heavenly city:’ so that without the more excellent thing fulfilled to us, their perfect state, in body as well as in soul, was not to be attained.”
Their souls are perfect, for we as Christians are said to have come “to the spirits of just men made perfect,” (Heb 12:23😉 they who die in the Lord are said to “rest from their labors,” and are pronounced blessed or happy. (Rev 14:13.) But they are not in possession of the inheritance promised them, neither the ancients nor those who now die in the Lord.The promise as to both will not be fulfilled until the glorious day of the resurrection. Then all the saints, whether before or after the coming of Christ, will at the same time, with pure and immortal bodies, united to pure spirits, be together introduced into their eternal inheritance which he promised to Abraham and his seed, when he said that he would be their God. Christ referred to that declaration as an evidence of the resurrection. (Luk 20:37.) Then the Patriarchs believed that there would be a resurrection. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(39) Having obtained a good report.Now that the history is concluded the word of Heb. 11:2 is resumed. That in such a faith as was described in Heb. 11:1 the elders received their witness from God, the records themselves have shown; yet these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise, i.e., the promised blessing. There are three passages of the Epistle which must be kept togetherHeb. 6:15, And so, having patiently waited, he (Abraham) obtained the promise; Heb. 10:36, Ye have need of endurance, that having done the will of God ye may receive the promise; and the present versa. To the saints of the Old Testament the promised blessing was future; they obtained it, but not within the limits of this present life. To us the promised blessing is present, revealed to us in its true nature, obtained for us once for all; for we know that eternal redemption has been won through Christs entering for us once for all into the heavenly sanctuary (Heb. 9:12), and to us the perfection has come, in that through Him we draw near to God (Heb. 7:11; Heb. 7:19). That (1) the full personal appropriation of the gift is for every one of us still future, and (2) the full revelation belongs to another state of being, is true, but not inconsistent with what has been said.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
39. Recapitulation and conclusion.
These all The whole list, taken generally from Heb 11:32, yet applicable to all the examples of the chapter.
Report Being divinely witnessed to, or attested, by God himself. Received not (the fulfilment of) the promise For the fulfilment of that promise completely takes place at the resurrection of the just. Many a specific fulfilment of promise was obtained by various worthies, but by none the final promise. Abraham found a fulfilment of a special promise in the birth of Isaac, (note, Heb 6:16😉 and others in the present chapter (Heb 11:33) obtained promises; but for the bodily resurrection the old worthies and we are still alike waiting. Progressively, indeed, ever since the advent, the promise has been in course of consummation, but the bringing in of its full fruition closes with the final mediatorial act. The spirits of the just waiting in paradise have attained a fulfilment. They are (Heb 12:23) the spirits of the just made perfect, as blessed spirits, but not as perfected men.
The Conclusion ( Heb 11:39-40 ).
‘And these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided (literally ‘foreseen’) some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.’
This summary brings together what has been the emphasis of the chapter. It describes men and women of faith, and it emphasises that they were looking for the fulfilment of the promises, for it was those on which their faith was centred. For it was not faith in just a general sense that they revealed, it was faith in the fact that God is, and that His promises are totally reliable.
Yet none of these heroes of faith, although they had witness borne to them through their faith (for God Himself bore witness to them and they were entered in the records of God’s people by the Holy Spirit), received the fulfilment of the promise of the Messiah. They had believed, and they had persevered against all odds on the basis of a future expectation, confident that God would not fail in His promise. Yet they had not received the very best. They did die in hope, for they are to be made perfect along with us. But this great privilege of entering into the promise had been reserved for the time when the writer was writing, and for those to whom he was writing, and for their fellow-Christians, and for us who follow on who enjoy the ‘better thing’ which God has foreseen and provided for us. In the words of Jesus, ‘Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see, for I say to you that many prophets and kings desired to see the things that you see, and saw them not, and to hear the things which you hear, and heard them not’ (Luk 10:23-24). How responsive they and we should therefore be. How ready to face up to the persecution and opposition of the world.
But now, says the writer, all that was pre-purposed in the purposes of God has come about. Thus are we privileged to be one with them in making up the complete number of those who are truly God’s as we await the final fulfilment of the coming of the Messiah.
‘God having provided (literally ‘foreseen’) some better thing concerning us.’ For we have received a better thing. We have received what was contained in the promise of the Messiah, for which they could only continually look in faith. We now have Jesus Christ Himself. So if they persevered then, without seeing the fulfilment, how then can we who have entered into that fulfilment, fail to also persevere in faith? For we have received the something better. For, as we have seen throughout the letter, ‘better’ is the description regularly used for what Christ has brought.
‘That apart from us they should not be made perfect.’ Here is the cap on all that he has said. They with us, though not without us, will be made perfect. For while the spirits of righteous men made perfect (Heb 12:23) are now in Heaven, they are not ‘complete’ in full perfection until we join them, and none of us are complete until the bodily resurrection has taken place and we are all finally united with Christ in His glory, and God is all in all (1Co 15:20-58 compare Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 21:22 to Rev 22:5).
Summary Hebrews serves as a summary and application to the previous passage in Heb 11:1-38 in which he tells us that all of the men of faith in the old Testament put their faith in the “the promise” of God. This promise has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
Heb 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
Heb 11:39 Heb 11:39 Comments Heb 11:2 and Heb 11:39 serve as book ends for the list of Old Testament individuals who lived by faith in God as they open and close this list of testimonies.
Heb 11:2, “For by it the elders obtained a good report.”
Heb 11:39, “And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:”
Heb 11:40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
Heb 11:40 1Co 15:23, “But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”
The author’s conclusion:
v. 39. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise,
v. 40. God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
In this respect the believers of old serve as excellent examples: And these all, although they were testified to through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that without us they should not be perfected. It is true, indeed, these heroes of the Old Testament are excellent examples; God Himself gave testimony in their behalf that their faith was of the genuine kind which He expects from all men that confess Him. Their salvation, therefore, will be as perfect as that of any of the Christians of the New Testament. And yet the inspired writer says that God has provided something better for us; for, whereas all these believers of whom he has written were living in the time of type and prophecy, we Christians are living in the time of the fulfillment. Our knowledge of Christ is not obtained from figures and signs and sacrifices, but we have the full account of His life, His ministry, His Passion, His death, His resurrection and ascension to the right hand of power: we have the perfect revelation of the Son, in His perfect covenant and His perfect sacrifice. Surely, if the faith of the patriarchs and prophets and all the true Israelites of old was so firm and steadfast, how much more ought we, to whom God has given the perfect revelation, be examples of faith to all men!
Summary
The inspired author gives a brief definition of faith, citing the example of the patriarchs and of many of the prophets and kings of the Old Testament in corroboration of the truths offered, as an incitement to the Christians of the New Testament.
Heb 11:39-40. And these all, having obtained, &c. “All these pious heroes, in different ages, were supported under their respective trials, severe and extreme as they were, by the exercise of a firm and lively faith in the fidelity of God, and the invisible rewards and glories of a future state: and it was by this, under divine grace, that, having obtained a good report, they persevered to the end: but they did not receive the full accomplishment of the promise made to their fathers; God having, according to the counsels of his infinite wisdom, provided something still better for us in the gospel revelation; that sothe beauty of his conduct and administration might be the more apparent, and that they without us might not be made perfect, but that all might end with the greatest dignity and propriety to the glory of God in Christ Jesus.” See Act 13:32-33.
Inferences.Let the many glorious examples of faith which are here set before us, animate our souls to imitation, and excite in us a generous desire of acting upon that noble and sublime principle, without which it is impossible to please God. And O, may what we call our faith be not merely a speculative and ineffectual assent to the truth, even of the most weighty propositions; but a firm persuasion of their certainty, and a deep conviction of their importance and of our interest in them, that we also may obtain a good report.
May we believe in God as the Former and Upholder of universal nature, as most assuredly existing, and as most bountifully rewarding all that seek him with sincerity and diligence. So shall our sacrifices be acceptable to him, as those of Abel were, while with him we look to that great sacrifice and atonement, of which his victim was the appointed representation. Like Enoch, we shall then be animated to walk with God, and favoured with divine intercourse and communications; and, like Noah, find our safety in the midst of a dissolving world, and, while sinners are condemned, be found the heirs of righteousness. And while our faith is thus viewing him, let us look with pleasure to the Blood of sprinkling, which places us under his protection; which introduces us to his favour; which secures us from the destroying angel. He will lead us on safely to his heavenly Canaan, if we fall not by unbelief. He will open our passage through seas of difficulty; he will send down upon us every suitable supply, and would much sooner command the skies to rain down bread, or the flinty rock to melt into streams of water, than desert his faithful people in the wilderness. Let all his wonders of power, and of love to Israel of old, animate our faith; and let them all quicken our obedience; and under a sense of our own weakness, and the importance of this leading, this princely grace, let us daily pray, Lord, increase our faith. In vain were all the terrors of persecuting rage and cruelty opposed to these triumphs. They submitted to imprisonment, and banishment, how dear soever their liberty and their native country might be; they quitted their commodious habitations for rocks and caves, and their comfortable apparel for sheep-skins and goat-skins. And when desarts and dens could no longer shelter their wretchedness, but they were seized by their blood-thirsty enemies, they beheld, and endured, undismayed, the most horrid instruments of death. When the piercing sword entered their vitals, when overwhelming stones dashed them in pieces, when the torturing saw was tearing out their very entrails, there was a principle within superior to all these, which nothing could pierce, which nothing could rend away, which nothing could overwhelm. God hath done an honour to our nature in raising up such illustrious persons, of whom the world was not worthy, and whose distinguished worth could never have been manifested in the eyes of their fellow-creatures, had it not been called out to such rigorous trials. Well might they rejoice on any terms in their dismission from a state of existence so far beneath the elevation of their views. And though their names may be perished from among men, and the distinct history of each lost in the crowds of countless multitudes, yet are they all in remembrance before God; and the death of each of his saints, in such circumstances, peculiarly precious in his sight. They are now bathing in those rivers of delight, which flow through the celestial paradise, and waiting the full consummation of their hope in that better resurrection, in the views of which they suffered so bravely.
REFLECTIONS.1st, We have,
1. An account of the nature and effects of divine faith. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, giving such a realizing view of the promises, and such a subsistence of them to the mind, as if they were actually in our possession; and the evidence of things not seen, demonstrating the certainty of the invisible things revealed in the divine word, with such a full persuasion, as to act upon the mind, in a great measure, as if they were present.
2. All the saints, from the beginning, have lived under its blessed influence: For by it the elders obtained a good report, and were enabled so to walk as to obtain God’s approbation of their conduct, this from the first being the divine principle on which alone any work acceptable to God could ever be performed.
3. One of the first articles of faith is this, That the worlds were framed by the word of God, who spake them into being, when nothing existed before; so that the things which are seen, even all the visible objects of creation, were not made of things which do appear, but from that chaotic mass, which was originally brought into being at the word of the Almighty.
2nd, The apostle begins to instance the power of divine faith in many of the eminent servants of God, and he begins with the antediluvian worthies. 2. Enoch. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, caught up to the paradise of God in body and soul, instantly undergoing the change that fitted him for an eternal mansion in glory; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation to the realms of bliss, he had this testimony, that he pleased God, in a course of humble and holy walking under the influence of divine faith in the expected seed of the woman; see Jud 1:14-15. But without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that cometh to God, in any act of religious worship, must believe that he is such as he hath revealed himself to the sons of men; and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, in the use of all the ordinances which he hath appointed. Note; (1.) No service can please God, but what springs from faith as its origin. (2.) God is the portion and exceeding great reward of all his faithful people. (3.) There are appointed means, in which God hath told us, they who wait upon him shall assuredly obtain his blessing; and in the use of them we cannot be too diligent.
3. Noah. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, which reason could never have suggested, nor mortal known but by divine revelation, moved with fear and religious awe at the apprehension of the approaching judgments, prepared an ark according to God’s direction, in defiance of the scoffs of the men of that generation, to the saving of his house from the approaching deluge; by the which he condemned the world; his preaching and labours in building the ark witnessed against that unbelieving world who paid no regard to his works or word during the space of a hundred and twenty years, and thus he left them without excuse; while he himself became hereby heir of the righteousness which is by faith, entitled to the salvation which the infinite merit of that Redeemer in the fulness of time should purchase, whom the ark represented and he by faith apprehended. Note; (1.) God sends his warnings before his judgments: the latter come not till the former have been despised. (2.) Faith begets holy fears, silences all objections, and sets us to work for God in defiance of all opposition. (3.) They who will ever be saved from the deluge of wrath, must by faith take shelter in Christ their ark, for out of him there is no hope.
3rdly, From the antediluvian patriarchs the apostle passes on to consider the case of the great father of the faithful, an example that should have peculiar weight with those who valued themselves on being his descendants. 2. His sojourning in Canaan. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, though proprietor of it by the divine grant, yet not holding the least part in possession; dwelling in tabernacles, without any settled abode, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, Jacob being fifteen years old at Abraham’s death. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, even the state of eternal glory above, which is represented as a city, (Rev 22:14.) whose builder and maker is God, he having prepared the heavenly mansions for all his faithful saints. Note; (1.) The saints of God are here resident in tabernacles of clay, but mansions of glory await them in a better world. (2.) Faith, which realizes our hopes above, necessarily draws forth our affections and desires after that blest world to which we are tending. (3.) All the trials of this mortal state will be regarded by us as light and transient, when we abidingly keep in view the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
3. The faith of Sarah is observed as closely connected with that of her husband Abraham. Through faith also Sarah herself, though naturally barren, and now past the time of child-bearing, received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, being ninety years old; because notwithstanding she at first hesitated and laughed, as if the thing was impossible or improbable, yet her faith soon got the better of her unbelief; for she judged him faithful who had promised, and that he was able to perform what he had said. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead through old age, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore innumerable. Note; Nothing is impossible with God: when he promises, we may trust, and not be afraid.
4. These all, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Jacob, died in faith, not having received the promises, neither possessing the land of Canaan, nor having seen the Messiah incarnate; but they rested in the fullest assurance that what God had spoken, was as good as done, and sure in the event, having seen them afar off, looking forward to the distant ages when the time of their accomplishment should arrive; and were as fully persuaded of them as if they had lived to see them fulfilled, and embraced them with confidence and holy joy; and, under the influence of them, confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, regarding themselves as such, looking for their heavenly home, and living above the world on the glorious hopes which God through Christ had given to them. For they that say such things, and professedly and practically die to the world, declare plainly that they seek a country, and took to a better world as their native land. And truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned to Ur of the Chaldees again; but now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly, even that inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, which God in Christ, as their covenant God, had revealed unto them, and which they by faith embraced. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, in a peculiar and most endeared relation: for he hath prepared for them a city, a glorious abode with himself, eternal in the heavens. Note; (1.) In this world we live by faith, not by sight; and yet the certain approach of the promised inheritance can even here, as if possessed, fill us with joy and peace in believing. (2.) True faith has ever this effect, to make us overcome the world, and live as strangers and pilgrims on the earth; we place not our affections upon it, but pass through it as a foreign land, with a holy indifference about its gains, honours, or interests; contentedly put up with any accommodations which we meet with, hasten on with diligence towards our native home, consort with our own countrymen who are travelling the same road and speak the same language, and are happy the nearer we arrive to that land where our affections are placed, and whither our footsteps bend. (3.) The heavenly country may well be the object of the believer’s desires, when every thing there is so infinitely preferable to what can ever be found in this miserable world. (4.) They who perseveringly live in faith, will die in faith; that which carries them victorious through the conflicts of life, will make them triumphant over the terrors of death. (5.) If God be our God, therein is comprehended all possible blessedness: more the heart cannot desire, nor imagination conceive.
5. The apostle returns to mention another and the most eminent instance of Abraham’s faith. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, as never mortal was before, to prove the strength and truth of his faith and obedience, offered up Isaac, took every step which evidenced his intention fully to comply with the divine command (see Genesis 22.): and he that had received the promises, offered up his only-begotten son, in whom alone these promises were to have been fulfilled; of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called; amidst innumerable objections, which sense, reason, nature, even religion, might seem to suggest, he staggered not: looking to the uplifted knife, we still shudder with horror and distress; and what must he then feel that stands ready to plunge it in that dear sacrifice, thy son, thy only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest! We start from the scene; but Abraham dares obey; his faith triumphed over every suggestion, accounting, (, ) reasoning and concluding from the most substantial grounds of evidence, that God, by whose command he knew with the most infallible assurance that he now acted, was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure; he knew that God could as easily re-animate Isaac on the altar, as produce him from the bodies of his parents, that were, in this respect, as good as dead; and he rested in the fullest confidence that the divine promise should somehow or other receive its accomplishment. Note; (1.) God knows the purposes that are in the hearts of his people; and what they design in obedience to his will, he regards as acts really performed. (2.) Where God commands, we must stop our ears to all the reasoning of unbelief, fear and selfishness. Duty is ours; events are in his disposal. (3.) Isaac was the figure and type of the death and resurrection of Christ. (4.) We marvel at Abraham’s obedience to God’s command, though his son is spared; with what astonishment and wonder then should we contemplate the love of God, who spared NOT his own son, but even for us sinners gave him up to death, even the death of the cross?
4thly, The apostle proceeds to other eminent instances of faith. 2. Jacob. By faith in the promises of God to Abraham, Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, by a prophetic spirit foretelling the superior greatness of Ephraim, crossing his hands designedly that his right hand might rest on the head of the youngest; and worshipped God, leaning upon the top of his staff. Note; (1.) The worship of God will be the faithful believer’s exercise to the last: when old age and weakness will not permit him to bend his knees, he will still bow upon his bed, or lean upon his staff, and pour out his humble prayer. (2.) Patents cannot more properly finish their course than by leaving with their children, that surround their dying beds, the profession of their faith, and their final benediction.
3. Joseph. By faith Joseph, when he died, firmly persuaded of that inheritance in Canaan which was assigned to Abraham and his seed, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel out of Egypt, and gave commandment concerning his bones, solemnly charging them, under the sanction of an oath, that, when in the expected future day they departed to possess the promised land, his bones might be carried thither. The dust of Canaan was more eligible in his eyes than the noblest sepulchres of Egypt. Note; The testimony of dying saints to the truth of God’s promises, is a happy means to confirm the faith of their surviving brethren.
4. The parents of Moses. By faith Moses, when he was born, ordained to be the great lawgiver and deliverer of Israel, and a most eminent type of Jesus their spiritual Redeemer, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, or fair to God, eminently beautiful, and probably some divine tokens appeared of his future greatness; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment, though, if discovered, their lives had paid for their disobedience to his bloody edict. They were persuaded that by a Hebrew, God would work their deliverance; and probably by some divine intimation perceived that this child should be the person. Note; (1.) When parents are eminent for their faith, there is a happy prospect that their children will rise up heirs of the same grace. (2.) In days of suffering we may lawfully use every prudent means for our preservation. (3.) An ingenuous countenance often bespeaks the ingenuous mind.
5. Moses. Much is spoken of him; for he is famous among the worthies, and has his name in the first rank. Four eminent instances of his faith are here recorded.
[1.] By faith in the promises made to his ancestors, and in the blessings of a better world, Moses, when he was come to years, arrived at maturity, highly honoured, and eminent for wisdom and learning, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, with all the dignities and advantages thence arising, perhaps even of succeeding to the throne of Egypt; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, as a despised Hebrew, than to enjoy all the glories of the highest human grandeur, and the pleasures of sin, however alluring, which are but for a season, and must in their issue plunge both body and soul into eternal misery; esteeming the reproach of Christ, and all the contempt, scorn, and persecutions, which for the sake of their fidelity to his worship, and faith in his promises, Israel endured, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, and what in the issue would prove unspeakably his gain in the eternal world; for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward, and looked off from the tempting objects of a flattering but deceitful world, to the substantial portion which he expected in the enjoyment of God for ever and ever. Note; (1.) Faith appears then most gloriously triumphant over the world, when, in the midst of greatness and grandeur, the soul can look down on these trifles, and be ready to part with all for the sake of Christ and his cause. (2.) The pleasures of sin, of the sweetest sin, are momentary; but the punishment of them is eternal. They judge therefore as wisely as religiously, who live in holy self-denial. (3.) As the greatest advantages cannot pay us for the least sin, so are the greatest sufferings to be chosen rather than to offend God; and we shall never see cause to regret what we forego or endure for our fidelity to him. (4.) The reproach of Christ is our truest honour: far from being ashamed of it, we should glory therein as our greatest riches. (5.) There is a recompence of reward, the prospect of which should ever animate our souls, and teach us to count every thing else comparatively as dung and dross, so that we may but gain the glorious prize.
[2.] By faith he forsook Egypt, carrying up with him the children of Israel, confident of the Lord’s protection, and not fearing the wrath of the enraged king, nor the mighty hosts with which he pursued them in their way; for he endured undismayed and unshaken, as seeing him who is invisible, higher than the kings of the earth, and able to save to the uttermost. Note; (1.) They who will be faithful to God, must expect troubles, and be fearless of the wrath of man. (2.) A believing view of the invisible God will strengthen us, amidst all present difficulties, steadily to persevere.
[3.] Through faith in God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt, and of the greater redemption which should be obtained for Israel by the Lamb of God, the great Messiah, he kept the passover, and observed the peculiar rite then enjoined of the sprinkling of the blood on the door-posts of their houses; lest he that destroyed the first-born of the Egyptians, should touch them, if the blood prevented not his entrance. Note; (1.) Christ is our passover. (2.) His blood upon our consciences is our only protection from the wrath of God.
[4.] By faith in the power and promise of God, Moses stretched forth his rod, and the divided waters opened a passage for the discouraged hosts of Israel; and under his guidance, while he led the way, they passed through the Red-Sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians daringly assaying to do, were drowned, the waters closing upon them, and every man of that terrible host perished. Note; They who persecute God’s Israel, only rush upon their own ruin.
6. By faith, which Joshua, Caleb, and others exercised in God’s power and veracity, the walls of Jericho fell down of their own accord, when they blew and shouted, after they were compassed about seven days, according to the divine command. Note; (l.) When God is for us, all opposition must fall before us. (2.) The weakest means in his hands are sufficient to bring about the greatest events.
7. Rahab, a woman, a Canaanite, brings up the rear of these faithful worthies: By faith in the promise that God would assuredly give the land of Canaan to the Israelites, the harlot Rahab, now turned unto God, whose grace abounds toward the chief of sinners who return to him, perished not with them that believed not, of the Canaanites; but with her whole family was preserved, when she had given that real proof of her faith, in that she received, concealed, and dismissed the spies of Israel in peace. Note; (1.) The ruin of sinners is their unbelief. (2.) They who cleave to God’s people, and faithfully determine to share their weal and woe, will never have reason to repent their choice.
5thly, Unable to enter particularly into the case of every eminent believer recorded in the Old Testament, the apostle recites a cluster of distinguished names, and of the mighty effects which their faith produced. 2. He mentions many of the glorious acts of faith, which these and other worthies like them, shewed; and any one conversant in the book of God may apply them to several there recorded: Who (1.) through faith subdued kingdoms, as Joshua, David, &c. (2.) Wrought righteousness in their private and public capacities, governing with equity; and in their conversation were examples of every thing good and gracious: (3.) Obtained promises, God remarkably appearing for them, as he had assured them he would in the hour of trial: (4.) Stopped the mouths of lions, as David, Sampson, Daniel; and still the same faith will produce the same effects, in stopping the mouth of the old lion, that he cannot devour: (5.) Quenched the violence of fire, so as to remain unhurt in the midst of the flames, (Dan 3:13-27.) (6.) Escaped the edge of the sword, when in the most imminent danger of their lives: (7.) Out of weakness were made strong, their national affairs restored from the nearest prospect of ruin; their bodily health recovered, when their disease seemed desperate, (2Ki 20:1-7.) and though, in comparison with their foes, weak as infancy, yet, in divine strength, they became more than conquerors: (8.) Waxed valiant in fight, and, trusting in the Lord, marvellously overcame in the day of battle: (9.) Turned to flight the armies of the aliens, though more, and, to human view, incomparably mightier than they: (10.) Women received their dead raised to life again, as in the cases of the widow of Zarephath and the Shunamite: and with respect to the power of faith, as evident in the most acute sufferings, we read that, (11.) Others were tortured, willingly submitting to the most dreadful torments, not accepting deliverance, when only to be obtained at the price of their conscience and some base compliances, rather welcoming death itself than deny the faith, that they might obtain a better resurrection, the prospect of eternal glory raising them superior to all the pangs of nature, and all the terrors of death: (12.) And others had trial of cruel mockings, ridiculed, treated as despicable, and loaded with every opprobrious name; and withal smarted under severe scourgings, yea, moreover, endured the pain and shame of bonds and imprisonment: such has been the portion of saints, more or less, in every age: (13.) They were murdered in a variety of ways: They were some of them stoned; they were sawn asunder, as the Jewish traditions affirm Isaiah was, at the command of the cruel Manasseh; they were tempted to deny their profession and save their lives, by complying with the commands of their persecutors; they were slain with the sword of tyrants and blood-thirsty men; and, where some escaped the fury of their foes by flight, their life was embittered as far as man could embitter it, and made scarcely preferable to death itself: for, (14.) They wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, having no better covering to protect them from the inclemency of the skies, being destitute of any abode, of clothes, and necessary food, afflicted with various miseries, and tormented with endless insults and abuses, (of whom indeed the world was not worthy,) nor deserved so great a blessing as their examples, prayers, and admonitions; and by the wicked they were treated as unfit for human society, and driven out from among men to dreary solitudes; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth, seeking refuge among wild beasts, more hospitable than their savage persecutors; and in the midst of all their sufferings, faith enabled them to persevere, and brought them at last to their eternal rest. For,
3. Their faith was at last crowned with the enjoyment of that Redeemer in whom they trusted. These all having obtained a good report through faith, enrolled in the sacred records as names held up for imitation to the latest ages, received not the promise, saw not that Messiah incarnate in whom their faith centered; God having provided some better thing for us, the manifestation of his Son in the flesh, to whom they had constantly respect, that they without us should not be made perfect; since not by the legal sacrifices, but by the offering of the body of Jesus, both their sins and ours were expiated; and by the same grace revealed in us by his Spirit, we may be saved under our higher dispensation with a greater and more complete salvation. According therefore to the peculiar advantages which we enjoy under the gospel, a peculiar obligation is laid upon us, that our faith should be suitably operative, engaging us to all cheerful obedience, and making us willing sufferers for our Redeemer’s sake.
Heb 11:39-40 . General remark in closing.
] And these all . Refers back to the totality of the persons named, from Heb 11:4 (not merely, as Schlichting, Hammond, and Storr suppose, to those mentioned from , Heb 11:35 ).
] although by virtue of their faith they received a (glorious) testimony (in Scripture).
] did not bear away the promise (wrongly Ebrard: the aorist stands “pro plusquamperf.”), i.e. attained not, so long as they lived, to the possession of that which was promised, namely, the Messianic blessedness.
DISCOURSE: 2333 Heb 11:39-40. These all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
WHEN we hear or read of the saints of old, we excuse our want of resemblance to them, from the idea that they were more highly favoured than we; and that it would be unreasonable to expect from us of these later days, such high attainments as they made by reason of their peculiar and more exalted dispensation. But this excuse is altogether founded on a mistake: for the disparity between their dispensation and ours is altogether in our favour, as we are expressly told in the passage before us; which will naturally lead me to shew,
I.
What good things God vouchsafed to his people of old
God has been gracious to his people in every age:
1.
He gave them exceeding great and precious promises
[The promise given to Adam in Paradise was gradually unfolded by successive revelations, till there was such a body of prophecy as exhibited the Saviour with the utmost possible precision. His person, work, and offices were all set forth so minutely; that, if the detached prophecies were collected and arranged, there would be found in the Old Testament as just a representation of him as in the Gospel itself. These formed a ground of hope to the Lords people, who were thus instructed to look to their Messiah as their Prophet, like unto Moses, to instruct them; their Priest, after the order of Melchizedec, to make atonement for them; and their King, who, sitting as on Davids throne, should reign over them, and in them, for evermore.
2.
He enabled them to live by faith upon these promises
[Faith, in whomsoever it is found, is the gift of God: and it was richly bestowed on many, as appears from the chapter before us. We are even astonished at the strength with which it was exercised in many instances, and at the realizing views which it gave of invisible things to those in whom it was found. The instances recorded of it are still the brightest patterns for the imitation of the Christian Church [Note: Reference may here be made to two or three of those contained in the preceding context.] ]
3.
He testified his acceptance of their faith so exercised
[This is noticed in the beginning of this chapter, and again repeated at the close of it [Note: ver 2. with the text. See the Greek.]. God testified his acceptance of their faith by invariably accomplishing those objects which he had encouraged them to expect, so that in no single instance was any one believer ever disappointed of his hope. However hopeless or even impossible the events might appear according to the judgment of man, every difficulty vanished, and every expectation was fulfilled, as soon as ever the faith of his people had been sufficiently tried, and the time for Gods interposition was arrived. He further testified his acceptance of it by the witness of his Spirit in their souls. There can be no doubt but that they enjoyed in their souls a peace flowing from their affiance in God, and a sense of his love shed abroad in their hearts, together with an assurance of his approbation in the day of judgment. This appears from their looking for a city which hath foundations, and a heavenly country, as the recompence of their reward; and from their refusing deliverance from present trials in full expectation of a better resurrection to life eternal. And what a testimony has he given in the record which is contained in this chapter; a record which will transmit their names with honour to the end of time!]
But, that we may form a just estimate of our blessings, I will proceed to shew,
II.
What better thing he has provided for us under the Christian dispensation
Certainly our privileges are far superior to theirs; for,
1.
We have in possession that Saviour whom they only looked forward to in the promise
[The first advent of Christ was held forth to them as an object of faith and hope, just as his second advent is to us. But the promise relating to that is now fulfilled. We have seen him accomplishing every prophecy, and performing in himself all that was shadowed forth in the infinitely diversified types of the ceremonial law: and we have, in this very circumstance, such a proof of his Messiahship, as no considerate and candid person can withstand. We have heard all his gracious instructions relative to the way of life; and have already seen his kingdom established in the world. We have seen the stone that was cut out without hands, becoming a mountain, and filling the whole earth. 2.
We have in perfection those blessings which they enjoyed only in their commencement
[They knew not what solid peace was: their sacrifices, however rich and abundant, could not impart this blessing: they were rather remembrances of sin, than real expiations; and could make no man perfect as pertaining to the conscience. The law made nothing perfect; but the bringing in of a better hope did [Note: Heb 7:19.]. Their access to God was that of a servant, who keeps at a distance; ours is that rather of a child, who comes to the very bosom of his father [Note: Eph 3:12.]. Their communications from him were as darkness, in comparison of the light which we enjoy [Note: 1Co 2:9-10. 1Jn 2:8.]. The prophets themselves did not understand their own prophecies, as we do [Note: 1Pe 1:12.]. Not even John the Baptist, who pointed out Jesus as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, had such just conceptions of him as we have: in this respect even the least believer that is to be found in all the kingdom of God, is greater than he. All, not excepting even the Apostles themselves, till the day of Pentecost, had a veil upon their hearts, so that they could not behold the glory of God in the face of their Divine Master: but we, with open and unveiled face, behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, and are changed by it into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord [Note: 2Co 3:18.].]
In the view of these glorious advantages, I would yet further draw your attention to them in a way, Of solemn inquiry
[What report does God, and what report does conscience, give respecting us? Are we walking in the footsteps of the saints of old, even of those saints, who by faith obtained a good report? We are not to imagine that, whilst faith wrought so powerfully in them, it will have no visible influence on us. Be assured, that its operation is the same in all ages. Let me then ask, What effects it has wrought in you? Take the examples of Noah, of Abraham, and of Moses, as set forth in the preceding part of the chapter, and see what resemblance you bear to them How inferior to them are we in our practice, notwithstanding the superiority of our advantages! Have we not reason to blush and be ashamed at a review of our past lives, and at our misimprovement of the advantages which we enjoy? ]
2.
Of affectionate admonition
[If ever you would be made perfect, you must both live by faith, and die in the faith. To be walking by sight, when you should walk by faith only, will surely bring you to a far different end from that which you desire and expect. Oh! listen not to flesh and blood; but obey unfeignedly, and without reserve, the commandments of your God. Set before you the invisible God, who marks all your ways, and tries your very reins and heart. Set before you also the invisible realities of the eternal world, the glories of heaven and the miseries of hell; and consider which of them is the portion prepared for you. What a lamentable thing will it be in the day of judgment to see such an one as Rahab, an accursed Canaanite and a harlot, admitted into the kingdom of heaven, and you yourselves cast out! I pray you avail yourselves of the advantages which you enjoy; and let them not issue in your heavier condemnation. The promise of Christs coming to judge the world will as surely be fulfilled, as that of his coming to save the world has been. And if you look forward to that event, and to the everlasting separation of the righteous from the wicked, O think what manner of persons ye ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness; and be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. ]
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
Ver. 39. Received not the promise ] viz. Of Christ’s incarnation.
39 .] And these all (‘these, every one of them.’ would be ‘all these.’ All, viz. all that have been named or referred to throughout the chapter: not only, as Hammond, al., those since Heb 11:35 ), borne witness to by their faith (the emphasis is on , not on : and the sense is rather ‘ though borne witness to,’ than ‘ being ’ or ‘ because , borne witness to.’ On the word and its import see Heb 11:2 ; Heb 11:4-5 ), did not receive the promise (many promises indeed they did receive, Heb 11:33 ; but not THE PROMISE , the promise of final salvation, or as it is called ch. Heb 9:15 , . : the perfection, to which without us they were not to attain. “But,” says Delitzsch, “do we not read ch. Heb 6:15 , of Abraham, ? Certainly, he has obtained the promise, yet not this side the grave, but, as we there maintained, in his life on the other side the grave: the general and actual salvation of the N. T. is, in their heavenly estate, the joy of the patriarchs. And this view is confirmed by looking forward to ch. 12, where the O. T. believers translated into heaven are called the , or at all events are included in that designation. And another question arises. It is said of the O. T. saints, that they did not obtain the promise: but is it not plain, from ch. Heb 10:36 , that is for us also a thing future? Doubtless, but with a significant difference. For them, final salvation was a thing purely future: for us, it is a thing present as well as future: present, in that it is once for all brought about by Christ’s offering of Himself, future, inasmuch as the unfolding of all the fulness of that which we possess, and the taking possession of it, when unfolded in its fulness, is for us yet to come: cf. ch. Heb 9:28 with Heb 10:14 ”),
Heb 11:39 . , “And these all,” that is, those who have been named in this chapter, “although they had witness borne to them through their faith,” as has been recorded (Heb 11:2-38 ), “did not receive the promise,” that is, as already said in Heb 11:13 , they only foresaw that it would be fulfilled and died in that faith. But this failure to obtain the fulfilment of the promise was not due to any slackness on the part of God nor to any defect in their faith; there was a good reason for it, and that reason was that “God had in view some better thing for us, that without us they should not be perfected”. The is that which this Epistle has made it its business to expound, the perfecting ( ) of God’s people by full communion with Him mediated by the perfect revelation (Heb 1:1 ) of the Son and His perfect covenant (Heb 8:7-13 ), and His better sacrifice (Heb 9:23 ). And the perfecting of the people of God under the O.T. is said to have been impossible, not as might have been expected “apart from the Son,” but , because the writer has in view the history of the Church, the relation of the people of God in former times to the same people in Messianic times.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Heb 11:39-40
39And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
Heb 11:39 “having gained approval” This links back to Heb 11:2 (cf. Heb 2:11). Lives lived out in faith even amidst terrible circumstances, please God.
Heb 11:40 God’s promises unite all believers of all ages, all races, all socio-economic strata, all educational levels (cf. Gal 3:28; Col 3:11). All these OT persons looked forward to God’s new day. It has come in Christ at Bethlehem and will be consummated in Christ from heaven bursting open the eastern sky! His resurrection is the hope to which all believers, OT and NT, look forward in faith (cf. 1Jn 3:2).
“better” See full note at Heb 7:7.
“perfect” See full note at Heb 10:1.
received. Same Greek. word as in 19. See Note there.
39.] And these all (these, every one of them. would be all these. All, viz. all that have been named or referred to throughout the chapter: not only, as Hammond, al., those since Heb 11:35), borne witness to by their faith (the emphasis is on , not on : and the sense is rather though borne witness to, than being or because, borne witness to. On the word and its import see Heb 11:2; Heb 11:4-5), did not receive the promise (many promises indeed they did receive, Heb 11:33; but not THE PROMISE , the promise of final salvation, or as it is called ch. Heb 9:15, . : the perfection, to which without us they were not to attain. But, says Delitzsch, do we not read ch. Heb 6:15, of Abraham, ? Certainly, he has obtained the promise, yet not this side the grave, but, as we there maintained, in his life on the other side the grave: the general and actual salvation of the N. T. is, in their heavenly estate, the joy of the patriarchs. And this view is confirmed by looking forward to ch. 12, where the O. T. believers translated into heaven are called the , or at all events are included in that designation. And another question arises. It is said of the O. T. saints, that they did not obtain the promise: but is it not plain, from ch. Heb 10:36, that is for us also a thing future? Doubtless, but with a significant difference. For them, final salvation was a thing purely future: for us, it is a thing present as well as future: present, in that it is once for all brought about by Christs offering of Himself,-future, inasmuch as the unfolding of all the fulness of that which we possess, and the taking possession of it, when unfolded in its fulness, is for us yet to come: cf. ch. Heb 9:28 with Heb 10:14),
Heb 11:39. , and all these) A pathetic Symperasma (Summary. See Append.)-, having obtained a good report) Heb 11:2, note.- , the promise) i.e. the promise of the heavenly inheritance, ch. Heb 10:36, note. Flacius says: It is probable, that some degree, so to speak, or accumulation of blessedness was added to holy souls, when Christ came and fulfilled all things; even as at His burial the evangelists testify that many rose from the dead, who beyond all doubt ascended into heaven with Him. Even Christ Himself was altogether made perfect in the death of Christ, ch. Heb 2:10; and the living and the dead have obtained this perfection, ch. Heb 10:14, and the perfecting of individual believers takes place at their death, ch. Heb 12:23; but the universal and final perfecting of believers will take place at the coming of the Lord, of which the passage here speaks.
Heb 11:39-40
SUPERIOR LIGHT AND PRIVILEGES
OF BELIEVERS UNDER THE NEW
COVENANT
Heb 11:39-40
Heb 11:39 —And these all, having obtained a good report through faith,-That is, all the persons referred to in this chapter, whether named or unnamed, from Abel onward. All these, though they did not live to see fulfilled the promise relating to the personal coming of the Messiah, were nevertheless through their faith in God enabled to do and to suffer what has obtained for them a good report; a reputation for noble daring and patient endurance, which gives them a place in the first rank of moral heroes. The Apostle does not mean to say that they were all justified and saved by their faith in God and in the promise of a coming Redeemer. Not at all. His object is simply to illustrate the marvelous power and efficacy of faith in the word of God, whether that word relates to the building of an ark, the crossing of the sea, the compassing of a city with rams horns, or anything else. These men all believed in God as the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and through this faith they wrought many wonderful works, for which they have obtained a world-wide reputation. But with many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness (1Co 10:5); and others were overthrown elsewhere on account of their impiety. Many of them, however, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, persevered to the end in well doing; and so after they had patiently endured the toils and sufferings of this life, they obtained the promise of the heavenly rest. See note on Heb 6:15.
Heb 11:39 —received not the promise:-They received many promises. Abraham, for instance, received the promise of a son by Sarah; the Twelve Tribes received the promise of the earthly inheritance; and Gideon, Barak, Samson, David, and Daniel, received many other promises during their earthly pilgrimage. But none of them lived to see the fulfillment of the promise relating to the personal coming and reign of the Messiah.
Heb 11:40 —God having provided some better thing for us,-The better thing here spoken of is evidently the new and better covenant which was established on new and better promises, including all the superior blessings and privileges of the Gospel dispensation. This, the patriarchs saw afar off; for Abraham, says Christ, rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad (Joh 8:56). But none of them saw it, as we now see it, and as the Hebrews in the time of Paul saw it; for I tell you, says Christ, addressing his disciples, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. (Luk 10:24.) The Gospel economy could not be fully inaugurated until after the incarnation, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and coronation of the Lord Jesus; and hence it was seen by the ancients, but as through a glass darkly. For says Paul, quoting from the evangelical Isaiah, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But he adds, God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, yea the deep things of God. (1Co 2:9-10.) And hence even the least in the kingdom of heaven is said to be greater than John the Baptist, in this respect, that he now lives in the actual enjoyment of what John and the ancients perceived only by faith. (Mat 11:11.) For the Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified (Joh 7:39)). Nor did even the Apostles yet understand that Jesus must suffer, and rise from the dead, in order that by the grace of God he might become unto us wisdom, and justification, and sanctification, and redemption. See Mat 16:21-22; Luk 18:33-34; Joh 20:9.
Heb 11:40 —That they without us should not be made perfect.-Without us in what respect? And perfect in what respect? These queries have been answered very differently by the commentators. It is alleged (1) that the Apostle refers here to the final consummation, when the spirits of all the saints, Patriarchal, Jewish and Christian, will, in their glorified bodies, enter together upon the full fruition of the eternal inheritance (Macknight, Moll). But against this interpretation it may be urged (a) that it does not well harmonize with the context. The object of the Apostle is manifestly to excite and arouse his Hebrew brethren to the exercise of more patience and greater diligence in their Christian course, by reminding them that their privileges and opportunities were greatly superior to those of the ancients. Nay more, the perfection of the ancients depended essentially on those very blessings which the Hebrew Christians were then enjoying through the incarnation, sacrifice, atonement and mediation of the Lord Jesus. It is therefore difficult to see what bearing an appeal to the final consummation could have on the Apostles argument, (b) It seems to be inconsistent with what is said in 12:23. Here, it is plainly taught that the spirits of all those faithful ones, who, like Abraham, had persevered in well-doing to the end of life, were even then perfect when Paul wrote this epistle. (2) Many able expositors maintain that previous to the death of Christ, the spirits of these ancient worthies were still in a state of condemnation, under the dominion of Death: and that their being made perfect consisted in their being delivered at that time by Christ himself from the power of Death, and so admitted to a participation of the joys, honors, and privileges of the heavenly Jerusalem. Not without us, says Riger, could they be made perfect; and with us, they have already been perfected. Christ went to them to open for them the gates of Deaths kingdom, and thence to lead them forth with himself. And now henceforth, the souls of all who die in Christ go at once to him, and enter Heaven, there to await re-union with the body at his second coming. Such is also the view of Ebrard, Delitzsch, Alford, and many others. Alford says, The result with regard to them is, that their spirits, from the time when Christ descended into Hades and ascended up into Heaven, enjoy heavenly blessedness, and are waiting with all who have followed their glorified High Priest within the vail, for the resurrection of their bodies, the regeneration, the renovation of all things.
That no sinner was ever made perfect without the blood of Christ, is of course admitted. See notes on 9: 15. But that the spirits of the ancient saints were all shut up in the kingdom of Death, until after the resurrection of Christ, is a hypothesis which but illy accords with many passages of Scripture. Everywhere, the Bible represents Abraham and his spiritual seed as being justified by faith; which implies of course that they were henceforth treated by God as just and righteous persons. And in Rom 3:25-26, we are told that God in the fullness of time, set forth Jesus Christ as a propitiatory sacrifice for a demonstration of his justice in passing by the sins of these faithful ones, and treating them as if they had never sinned. And accordingly we read in 6: 15, that after Abraham had patiently endured the toils and afflictions of his weary pilgrimage, he obtained the promise. For even while here he was constantly looking forward to the heavenly city (verses 10-16). That the happiness of these faithful ones may have been increased by the work of Christ and the full developments of the Gospel is, I think, quite probable. (Rev 5:8-10.) But if Elijah and Enoch were taken directly to the heavenly country (2Ki 2:1 2Ki 2:11), it seems most likely, that all the saints of the Patriarchal and Jewish ages, were also, immediately after death, transported to Heaven, or at least to a place of high spiritual enjoyment. The Popish notion that Christ, after his death, went down into Hades to convert anyone, is a mere figment of the imagination. When Dives died, he went to his own place, and so also did Lazarus. And in his parable concerning them, Christ teaches very plainly that any subsequent change in their allotment is morally impossible. (Luk 16:19-31.) If the tree fall toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. (Ecdes. 11: 3.) The fact is, that when Christ died, his spirit went, not into Hades, but into Paradise (Luk 23:43); and Paradise, as Paul tells us, is identical with the third Heaven (2Co 12:1-4). Christ does not say as in our Common Version, Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell [Hades], but, Thou wilt not leave my soul to Hades (eis hadeu); that is, thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades. Compare Mat 16:18; Rev 20:14, etc.
The hypothesis of Ebrard, Delitzsch, and Alford, in regard to the intermediate state of the Old Testament saints, is therefore not correct. And even if it were, it could have no place in the solution of the question which we have under consideration. For it is manifestly of the relative privileges of the present state, and not of those of the intermediate or future state, that our author speaks. The ancients while here knew but little, and enjoyed but little of the economy of Gods grace. They depended for salvation on what we now see and understand. But nevertheless they persevered in well-doing even to the end. And hence it is but reasonable that we should be at least equally faithful, under like trials and afflictions ; seeing that we are now in possession of that better thing, to which they had all to look forward for salvation. The phrase without us may therefore be taken as equivalent to without the religion which through Christ we now actually enjoy. For Christ himself is the essential bond of union which binds together the saints of all ages. Those that are united to him are also united to one another. And as the ancients were not, and could not, be perfected without the cleansing efficacy of his blood, it may be truthfully said, that they were not perfected without us and the better thing which we by the grace of God now actually enjoy.
REFLECTIONS
From this section, we may learn, with many other valuable lessons, the following:
1. We see in the first place the great value and importance of faith. This is shown (1) by the unusual amount of space which our author devotes to the discussion of the subject; and (2) by the great influence which faith has on the lives and fortunes of those who possess it. Reaching, as it does, far beyond the narrow limits of time and sense, it enables the soul to appropriate to itself, in a good degree, the riches, honors, glories, and blessings of the invisible world; and so qualifies it for the great trials, achievements, and conflicts of life. It makes a man feel confident that God is with him and for him; and that nothing can therefore successfully resist or oppose him, in his works of faith and service of love. He knows that so long as he remains faithful all things must work together for his good. And hence it is that the men of faith have always been the greatest of moral heroes. We search in vain, among the worlds most renowned heroes, for such men as Abraham, Moses, David, Daniel, Paul, and other kindred spirits, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, and turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Though dead they speak in reasons ear,
And in example live:
Their faith, and hope, and mighty deeds,
Still fresh instruction give.”
2. We learn also from this very instructive and encouraging section what is the nature of faith, and also on what it rests as its only true and proper foundation. Where there is no revelation from God, there can be no faith. Without this, there may be enthusiasm and fanaticism, but no faith; for faith always rests ultimately on the word of God, and on nothing else. (Rom 10:17.) The evidence, too, must be such as to produce conviction in the understanding that such and such is the will of God; and that he has thus and so commanded or promised. This is manifest from all the examples that are given in this section. But more than this is manifest. It is equally clear from these same examples, that the faith which is here commended is not a mere conviction of the understanding. It begins with the understanding of course; but it does not stop with it. Through the intellect, it pervades also the heart; and through the heart, it moves and influences the will; and through the will, it controls the life of its possessor, bringing the whole man under subjection to the will of God. The true believer may, like Saul of Tarsus, have to inquire of the Lord what he would have him do; but having obtained an answer from God, he deems this sufficient. He no longer confers with flesh and blood; but like Abel, he brings and offers as a sacrifice just what God has himself prescribed; like Noah, he builds such an ark as God has directed for the salvation of himself and his house; like Abraham, he offers if necessary his own son, or even his own life, in obedience to God’s will; and like Moses, he makes all things according to the pattern that was showed to him in the mount. Faith then is a living, active, all-pervading, and fruit-bearing principal, which, by uniting us to God through Christ, makes us partakers of the divine nature, and enables us to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. It is the appetite of the soul which brings us to the bread and water of life; and so enables us to eat and drink and live forever.
3. It seems evident from the examples and illustrations given in this chapter, as well as from many other parts of the Holy Bible, that the faith of many of the ancients was quite equal to that of the more highly favored moderns. In point of knowledge, we have as a matter of course greatly the advantage of both the Jews and Patriarchs. Christ has come: and by his resurrection, he has brought life and immortality to light. The mystery of redemption is now so fully revealed to us in the Gospel, that even the least in the kingdom of heaven knows more of the economy of Gods grace through Christ, than did even Abraham or John the Baptist. (Mat 11:11.) But it is very evident that we cannot boast so much of the superiority of our faith. In this respect, those of the ancients who had a revelation from God, will compare favorably with the most enlightened Christians of the nineteenth century. We look in vain among the living for brighter and more illustrious examples of faith than those of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and even the Mac- cabaean heroes; many of whom suffered even unto death rather than violate what many would now regard as one of the very least of Gods commandments.
Why is this ? Without attempting to give an exhaustive reply to this question, which would carry us far beyond the proper scope of these reflections, we may I think safely conclude that it is owing largely to the influence of human traditions on the one hand, and of human philosophy on the other. By the former many have been led to trust more in the Man of sin than in the Lord of life and glory; and by the latter, many others have been induced to lean entirely too much on their own understanding, and so to walk by sight rather than by faith. This strange proclivity of human nature is as old as the fall of man. It was first manifested in the eating of the forbidden fruit. When the woman saw, or thought she saw, that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. (Gen 3:6.)
This one melancholy illustration of the unspeakable folly of neglecting the plain teachings of Gods word, and relying on anything else as the guide of life, we might reasonably hope would suffice as an example of warning and admonition to all subsequent generations. But not so. Soon after this, we see manifested in Cain the same rationalistic spirit which, through hs mother Eve, brought death into our world and all our woe. He too thought he saw something better and more becoming than the sacrifice which God himself had prescribed and appointed. And instead of bringing a bleeding lamb as an offering to God, he brings no doubt a very handsome present of the fruits of the ground; ridiculing perhaps at the same time what he evidently regarded as a weakness on the part of his brother, who it seems was simple enough not to lean on his own understanding, but to bring just such an offering as God himself had commanded. So too the faith of Noah was no doubt a subject of ridicule among the proud, self-righteous, self-reliant, would-be philosophers of his day: while, at the same time, many of the more ignorant and superstitious would rely with more confidence on the silly tales of false priests and false prophets than on the inspired oracles of the living God. And just so it has ever been, in some measure, in all ages and in all nations.
Tradition and philosophy have both served to undermine the authority of Gods word, and so to weaken the faith of myriads. During the dark ages, tradition had the ascendency. The Man of sin then sat in the temple of God, and issued his decrees to superstitious thousands who received them as the oracles of Jehovah. But with the reformation of the sixteenth century, the spirit of Rationalism again revived. And it gives us pleasure to know and confess that it has done much to free the human soul from the bondage and tyranny of the many forms of superstition which were then prevalent; for all of which we of course feel devoutly thankful.
But the trouble is, that Rationalism, as well as Tradition, has transcended all the bounds of decency and propriety. Like the Man of sin, it claims for itself all the honors and prerogatives of the Deity. In its unbounded pride and arrogance, it deals with the inspired oracles of God, just as it deals with the absurd delusions and dogmas of the Mother of harlots. It is true, for instance, that the Bible says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. But what of that? Since Rationalism has discovered that nothing can be made out of nothing, it must go! The word of God must be made to harmonize with the oracles of this new Divinity. And so it is, that the Bible is now divested of much of its power and authority in the popular consciousness: and its miracles are treated by many as the mere myths of ancient fable.
It is evident therefore that the great want of the present age, is a return to the simple faith and practice of father Abraham and the primitive Christians. Let Traditions and Rationalism be each confined to its own proper sphere, and let men everywhere bow to the authority of God’s inspired word, and very soon the Church will appear without a spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. (Eph 5:27.)
Commentary on Heb 11:39-40 by Donald E. Boatman
Heb 11:39 –these all having had witness borne to them through their faith received not the promise
If these had the light of grace and were faithful, how much more should we be. We have the full sunlight of Gods grace upon us. If a spark led them to seek the promise, the full light should enable us to attain.
Heb 11:39 –the promise
What is it? There is in the future a promise to be fulfilled, in the future to us and to the ancient saints.
The better thing, Heb. 10:40, Cf. Heb 9:15, the atonement.
The ancients died without obtaining either.
a. We may experience both.
b. This may express the idea that they are not yet in possession of the inheritance promised them.
c. Then all saints, whether before or after the coming of Christ, will at the same time come into the inheritance.
Heb 11:40 –God, having provided some better thing concerning us
This must refer to the atonement through Christ, Newell expresses it as our heavenly calling.
Heb 11:40 –that apart from us
What God has planned for all mankind, He will do for all mankind at the same time. When it is done, whatever it is, I have faith that it will be done right.
Heb 11:40 –they should not be made perfect.
This is done through Christ. Heb 12:23 : We are come to the spirits of just men made perfect.
a. This perfecting looks forward to that salvation consummated at the coming of Christ. Heb 9:28 : To them that wait for Him unto salvation.
b. It includes the redemption of the body. Rom 13:11.
Newell: Enoch has already been made perfect. Heb 12:23 refers to him: Ye are come unto the spirits of just men made perfect. Spirits are made perfect, but bodies are not. Someday, however, we will have a glorious new body. 1 Corinthians 15.
Study Questions
2405. What is the significance of Heb 11:39?
2406. What witness was borne?
2407. What promise is referred to?
2408. Can we infer by these verses that they have not yet gained eternal life-that they are still in the tombs?
2409. What better thing is referred to in Heb 11:40?
2410. Is God going to bless all, the faithful of the past, and us at the same time?
2411. What is meant by perfect? Cf. Heb 12:23.
2412. Was Enoch made perfect. Will we be coming to him and others?
2413. What form will we have when we are perfected? Cf. 1 Corinthians 15.
, , .
Heb 11:39-40. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise; God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
There are, in this close of the apostles discourse, which is an observation concerning all the instances of the faith of believers under the old testament, and his judgment concerning their state, four things considerable:
1. Who they are of whom he speaks; and that is, All these.
2. What he allows and ascribes unto them: They obtained a good report through faith.
3. What he yet denies unto them; which is the receiving of the promise: They received not the promise.
4. The reason of it; which is Gods sovereign disposal of the states, times, seasons, and privileges of the church: God having provided, etc.
There is not any passage in this whole epistle that gives a clearer and more determinate sense of itself than this doth, if the design and phraseology of the apostle be attended unto with any diligence. But because some have made it their business to bring difficulties unto it, that it might seem to comply with other false notions of their own, they must in our passage be discarded and removed out of the way.
1. The persons spoken of are, All these. That is, saith Schlichtingius, all these last spoken of, who underwent such hardships, and death itself. For they received not any such promises of deliverance as those did before mentioned, who had great success in their undertakings. He is followed in his conjecture (as almost constantly) by Grotius: Others, saith he, received promises, verse 33; but these did not, who could not abide peaceably in the promised land. To which Hammond adds, They did not in this life receive the promise made to Abraham, had no deliverance in this life from their persecution. But, under favor, there cannot be a more fond interpretation of the words, nor more contrary unto the design of the apostle. For,
(1.) Those of whom he speaks in this close of his discourse, that they obtained a good report through faith, are the same of whom he affirms in the beginning of it, verse 2, that by faith they obtained a good report; that is, all those did so whom at the beginning he intended to enumerate; and all those did so whom in the close he had spoken of: of any distinction to be made between them, there is not the least intimation.
(2.) It is said expressly of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that they received not the promises, verse 13, as well as of those now mentioned.
(3.) It is one thing to obtain promises, , indefinitely, promises of any sort, as some are said to do, verse 33, and another to receive , that signal promise which was made unto the fathers.
(4.) Nothing can be more alien from the design of the apostle, than to apply the promise intended unto temporal deliverance and freedom from suffering. For if it be so, God did not provide some better thing for us, that is, the Christian church, than for them; for the sufferings of Christians, without deliverance from their persecutions, have been a thousand times more than those of the Jewish church under Antiochus, which the apostle hath respect unto.
Wherefore the all these intended, are all those who have been reckoned up and instanced in from the beginning of the world, or the giving out of the first promise concerning the Savior and Redeemer of the church, with the destruction of the works of the devil.
2. Of all these it is affirmed, that they obtained a good report through faith. They were well testified unto. They were Gods martyrs, and he was theirs, he gave witness unto their faith. See the exposition of verse 2. That they were all of them so testified unto upon the account of their faith, we need no other testimony but this of the apostle; yet is there no doubt but that, in the several ages of the church wherein they lived, they were renowned for their faith and the fruits of it in what they did or suffered. And,
Obs. It is our duty also, not only to believe, that we may be justified before God, but so to evidence our faith by the fruits of it, as that we may obtain a good report, or be justified before men.
3. That which he denies concerning them, is the receiving of the promise: They received not the promise. And what promise this was we must inquire.
(1.) It is affirmed of Abraham, that he received the promise, verse 17. And that promise which was given, which was made unto him, is declared by the apostle to be the great fundamental promise of the gospel, Heb 6:13-18; the same promise which is the object of the faith of the church in all ages. Whereas, therefore, it is said here that they received not the promise, the promise formally considered, as a promise, must in the first place be intended; and in the latter it is considered materially, as unto the thing itself promised. The promise, as a faithful engagement of future good, they received; but the good thing itself was not in their days exhibited.
(2.) Some say, the promise here intended is the promise of eternal life. Hereof, they say, believers under the old testament had no promise; none made unto them, none believed by them. So judgeth Schlichtingius; who is forsaken herein by Grotius and his follower. But this we have before rejected, and the folly of the imagination hath been sufficiently detected.
(3.) Others, as these two mentioned, fix on such an account of the promise as I would not say I cannot understand, but that I am sure enough they did not understand themselves, nor what they intended; though they did so as to what they disallowed. So one of them explains, or rather involves himself, on verse 40, after he had referred this promise which they received not unto deliverance from their persecutors: God having determined this as the most congruous time, in his wisdom, to give the utmost completion to all those prophecies and promises, to send the Messiah into the world, and, as a consequent of his resurrection from the dead, to grant us those privileges and advantages that the fathers had not enjoyed, a rest after long persecution, a victory over all opposers of Christs church; that so what was promised unto Abrahams seed, Gen 22:17, that they should possess the gates of their enemies, being but imperfectly fulfilled to the fathers, might have the utmost completion in the victory and flourishing of the Christian faith over all the enemies thereof. Besides what is insinuated about the effects of Christs mediation, or consequent of his resurrection, which whose shop it comes from we well know, the promise here intended is expounded not to be the promise made to Abraham, which it was, but that made to his seed, of victory over all their enemies in this world; which, as it seems, they received not, because it was not completely fulfilled towards them, but is to be so unto the Christian church in the conquest of all their adversaries. And this in the verse foregoing is called a deliverance from their persecutors. But whatever this promise be, the apostle is positive that they did not receive it, but that the Christians or believers in Christ in those days had received it. But we know, that not only then, but nearly three hundred years after, Christians were more exposed to persecutions than ever the church of the Jews was; and so did less receive that promise, if any such there were, than they. Something is indeed interposed about the coming of Christ, further to cloud the business; but this is referred only unto the time and season of the accomplishment of this promise, not unto the promise itself. Wherefore such paraphrases are suited only to lead the mind of the readers from a due consideration of the design of the Holy Ghost.
(4.) It is therefore not only untrue and unsafe, but contrary unto the fundamental principles of our religion, the faith of Christians in all ages, and the design of the apostle in this whole epistle, to interpret this promise of any thing but that of the coming of Christ in the flesh, of his accomplishment of the work of our redemption, with the unspeakable privileges and advantages that the church received thereby. That this promise was made unto the elders from the beginning of the world; that it was not actually accomplished unto them, being necessarily confined unto one season, called the fullness of time, only they had by faith the benefit of it communicated unto them; and that herein lies the great difference of the two states of the church, that under the old testament, and that under the new, with the prerogative of the latter above the former; are such sacred truths, that without an acknowledgment of them, nothing of the Old Testament or the New can be rightly understood.
This, then, was the state of believers under the old testament, as it is here represented unto us by the apostle: They had the promise of the exhibition of Christ, the Son of God, in the flesh, for the redemption of the church. This promise they received, saw afar off as to its actual accomplishment, were persuaded of the truth of it, and embraced it, verse 13. The actual accomplishment of it they desired, longed for, looked after and expected, Luk 10:24; inquiring diligently into the grace of God contained therein, 1Pe 1:10-11. Hereby they enjoyed the benefits of it, even as we, Act 15:11. Howbeit they received it not as unto its actual accomplishment in the coming of Christ. And the reason hereof the apostle gives in the next verse.
Heb 11:40. God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
Having declared the victorious faith of believers under the old testament, with what it enabled them to do and suffer, and given an account of their state as unto the actual accomplishment of that promise which they lived on and trusted unto, in this last verse of this chapter he compares that state of theirs with that of believers under the gospel, giving the preeminence unto the latter, with the reason whence so it was. And there is in the words,
1. The reason of the difference that was between the two states of the church; and this was Gods disposal of things in this order: God having provided.
2. The difference itself, namely, some better thing that was so provided for us.
3. A declaration of that better thing, in a negation of it unto them: That they without us should not be made perfect.
In the exposition of these words, Schlichtingius proceeds on sundry principles, some whereof are embraced by his followers, as others of them are rejected by them:
1. That the promise intended, verse 39, is the promise of eternal life.
2. That under the old testament believers had no such promise, whatever hopes or conjectures they might have of it.
3. That both they and we at death do cease to be, in soul and body, until the resurrection, none entering before into eternal life.
4. He inquires hereon how God did provide some better thing for us than for them; which he pursues with such intricate curiosities as savor more of the wit of Crellius than his own.
But the whole of it is senseless and foolish. For if when any one dies he is nothing, or as nothing, so as that unto him it is but as one moment between death and the resurrection, as he contends, the state of all as unto eternal life and an entrance thereinto is absolutely the same, nor is the one in any thing better than the other, although they should die thousands of years one before another. But as all these things are openly false, and contrary to the chief principles of Christian religion, so they are utterly remote from the mind of the apostle, as we shall see in the exposition of the words.
Those of the church of Rome do hence fancy a limbus, a subterraneous receptacle of souls, wherein they say the spirits of believers under the old testament were detained until after the resurrection of Christ, so as that they without us were not made perfect. But that the saints departed from the beginning of the world were excluded from rest and refreshment in the presence of God, is false and contrary unto the Scripture. However, the apostle treats not here at all about the difference between one sort of men and another after death, but of that which was between them who lived under the old testament church-state whilst they lived, and those that live under and enjoy the privileges of the new; as is evident in the very reading of the epistle, especially of the seventh chapter, and is expressly declared by himself in the next chapter to this, verses 18-24, as, God willing, we shall see on the place.
These open corruptions of the sense of the words being rejected, we may be the more brief in the exposition of them.
1. The first thing in them is the reason of the difference asserted. And that is, Gods providing things in this order. The word properly signifies foreseeing. But Gods prevision is his provision, as being always accompanied with his preordination: his foresight with his decree. For known unto him are all his works from the foundation of the world,
Act 15:18. Now this provision of God is the , Eph 1:10, the dispensation or ordering of the state, times, and seasons of the church, and the revelation of himself unto it; which we have opened at large on the first verse of the epistle, whereunto the reader is referred. And,
Obs. 1. The disposal of the states and times of the church, as unto the communication of light, grace, and privileges, depends merely on the sovereign pleasure and will of God, and not on any merit or preparation in man. The coming of Christ at that time when he came was as little deserved by the men of the age wherein he came as of any age from the foundation of the world.
Obs. 2. Though God gives more light and grace unto the church in one season than in another, yet in every season he gives that which is sufficient to guide believers in their faith and obedience unto eternal life.
Obs. 3. It is the duty of believers, in every state of the church, to make use of and improve the spiritual provision that God hath made for them; always remembering, that unto whom much is given, of them much is required.
2. That which God hath thus provided for us, that is, those who in all ages do believe in Christ as exhibited in the flesh, according to the revelation made of him in the gospel, is called something better; that is, more excellent, a state above theirs, or all that was granted unto them. And we may inquire,
(1.) What these better things, or this better thing is;
(2.) How with respect thereunto they were not made perfect without us.
(1.) For the first, I suppose it ought to be out of question with all Christians, that it is the actual exhibition of the Son of God in the flesh, the coming of the promised Seed, with his accomplishment of the work of the redemption of the church, and all the privileges of the church, in light, grace, liberty, spiritual worship, with boldness in an access unto God, that ensued thereon, which are intended. For were not these the things which they received not under the old testament? were not these the things which were promised from the beginning; which were expected, longed for, and desired by all believers of old, who yet saw them only afar off, though through faith they were saved by virtue of them? and are not these the things whereby the church-state of the gospel was perfected and consummated, the things alone wherein our state is better than theirs? For as unto outward appearances of things, they had more glory, and costly, ceremonious splendor in their worship, than is appointed in the Christian church; and their worldly prosperity was for a long season very great, much exceeding any thing that the Christian church doth enjoy. To deny, therefore, these to be the better things that God provided for us, is to overthrow the faith of the old testament and the new.
(2.) We may inquire how, with respect hereunto, it is said that they without us were not made perfect. And I say,
[1.] Without us, is as much as without the things which are actually exhibited unto us, the things provided for us, and our participation of them.
[2.] They and we, though distributed by divine provision into distinct states, yet with respect unto the first promise and the renovation of it unto Abraham, are but one church, built on the stone foundation, and enlivened by the same Spirit of grace. Wherefore, until we came in unto this church- state, they could not be made perfect, seeing the church-state itself was not so.
[3.] All the advantages of grace and mercy which they received and enjoyed, it was by virtue of those better things which were actually exhibited unto us, applied by faith, and not by virtue of any thing committed unto them and enjoyed by them. Wherefore,
[4.] That which the apostle affirms is, that they were never brought unto, they never attained, that perfect, consummated spiritual state which God had designed and prepared for his church in the fullness of times, and which they foresaw should be granted unto others, and not unto themselves, 1Pe 1:11-12.
[5.] What this perfect, consummated state of the church is, I have so fully declared in the exposition of the seventh chapter, where the apostle doth designedly treat of it, that it must not be here repeated; and thereunto I refer the reader.
I cannot but marvel that so many have stumbled, as most have done, in the exposition of these words, and involved themselves in difficulties of their own devising. For they are a plain epitome of the whole doctrinal part of the epistle; so as that no intelligent, judicious persons can avoid the sense which they tender, unless they divert their minds from the whole scope and design of the apostle, fortified with all circumstances and ends; which is not a way or means to assist any one in the right interpretation of the Scripture. And to close this chapter, we may observe,
Obs. 4. God measures out unto all his people their portion in service, sufferings, privileges, and rewards, according to his own good pleasure. And therefore the apostle shuts up this discourse of the faith, obedience, sufferings, and successes of the saints under the old testament, with a declaration that God had yet provided more excellent things for his church than any they were made partakers of. All he doth in this way is of mere grace and bounty; and therefore he may distribute all these things as he pleaseth.
Obs. 5. It was Christ alone who was to give, and who alone could give, perfection or consummation unto the church. He was in all things to have the pre-eminence.
Obs. 6. All the outward glorious worship of the old testament had no perfection in it; and so no glory comparatively unto that which is brought in by the gospel, 2Co 3:10.
Obs. 7. All perfection, all consummation, is in Christ alone. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and we are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power.
The Family of God
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Heb 11:39-40)
Here God the Holy Spirit tells us much about the family of God. The family of God, the church of God, and the kingdom of God are synonyms. All who are chosen by God the Father, redeemed by God the Son, and born again by God the Holy Spirit are members of his church, his family, and his kingdom.
Family Members
Who is in this family? You will notice that Paul first speaks of these all, referring to all those he has described in this 11th chapter of Hebrews. But he is not limiting himself to those who are specifically named. He is talking about all those men and women who believed God in the Old Testament era. Then he speaks of us, referring to all who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in this gospel age. Then he speaks of them and us being made perfect together.
In other words, he is telling us that the whole family in heaven and in earth, the family of God (Eph 3:15), the church of God, the kingdom of God is one great family, a family more numerous than the sands upon the seashore and the stars of the sky.
The family of God is made up of all Gods elect, all true believers, all the redeemed. The church of God really is one body, one indivisible family, one holy kingdom. All who are in Christ of every age, nationality, and language, throughout all the ages of time, and throughout all the earth are one family. It includes all the blessed company of the redeemed. The family of God is known and spoken of by many names in the Book of God. This family is the body of Christ and his bride, the temple of God and the household of faith, Gods royal priesthood and holy nation, the church of the Firstborn and the Israel of God.
Membership in “the family of God,” does not depend upon anything earthly. It does not come by natural birth, but by new birth. No preacher can bring you into this family. The waters of baptism cannot immerse you into this family. Parents cannot bring their children into the family of God. You may have been born to the most faithful parents in the world. But you were not born an heir of heaven. To belong to the family of God you must be born again. No one but God the Holy Spirit can make you a living member of this family. It is his special function and prerogative to bring chosen, redeemed sinners into this family by the washing of regeneration and the gifts of life and faith in Christ.
The mere exercise of your will cannot put you in the family of grace. A beggar may sooner become a kings son by his own choice than you and I could become the sons of God by our will. Entrance into the family of God is Gods work alone (Joh 1:11-13; Rom 9:15-16; Gal 4:4-7; Eph 1:3-6; 1Jn 3:1-3)!
One Family
The Scriptures describe all Gods people as one family (Eph 3:15). Why is it important for us to realize that Gods church is one family? Why does God the Holy Spirit refer to all who are in Christ as the family of God?
All true believers are called a “family” because we all have one Heavenly Father. We are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. We are all born of one Spirit. We are all sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. We have all received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba Father” (Gal 3:26; Joh 3:8; 2Co 6:18; Rom 8:15). We no longer look upon the holy Lord God with a cringing dread and fear. We no longer think of him as One always ready to punish us. Rather, we lift our eyes heavenward and look up to our God with tender confidence, as our reconciled and loving Father, as One who has forgiven all our sins, put away all our iniquities, and received us graciously for Christs sake. We see Him now as One who is full of compassion and pity. We came to him like the prodigal. And He ran, fell on our necks, and kissed us. Those words, “Our Father which art in heaven,” are no longer merely the words of a prayer we learned as children in Sunday School. They are the sweetest words imaginable to our hearts.
All true believers are called the “family” of God because we all rejoice in, have confidence in, trust in, and are named after one great and glorious name (Eph 3:15). That name is the name of our great Head and Elder Brother, Jesus Christ the Lord. Just as a common family name is the uniting link to all the members of an earthly clan, so the name of Christ unites all believers together in one vast family in heaven and earth. As living members of Christ, we all, with one heart and mind, rejoice in one Savior. Every heart in this family is built upon Christ as the only object of hope. Every tongue in this family will tell you that “Christ is all.”
Gods people are all called the family of God, because as the sons and daughters of God and brothers and sisters of Christ, all true believers are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom 8:14-19; Joh 17:1-5; Joh 17:22). And we are called the family of God because there is such strong a family resemblance among all who are born of God (Php 3:3).
The Fathers Promise
What has God our Father promised to do for his family? We are told in Heb 11:39-40 that our brethren in the Old Testament could not be made perfect (The family could not be completed and finished.) without us, because God has provided some better thing for us. The Lord God has promised to make his family perfect! What does that mean? How are we to understand this?
The Lord God shall complete his family. Every adopted son shall be brought into the fulness and joy of sonship by Gods sovereign grace. Every elect, redeemed sinner shall be brought into the blessed union of life and faith with Christ. Before God gets done with this world, all Israel shall be saved (Eph 1:22-23).
All the family shall be made perfect in Christperfectly oneperfect before Godperfect in heart and soul, mind and body! Yes, when God gets done, his whole family shall honor him forever (Eph 2:1-7).
faith
The essence of faith consists in receiving what God has revealed, and may be defined as that trust in the God of the Scriptures and in Jesus Christ whom He hath sent, which receives Him as Saviour and Lord, and impels to loving obedience and good works Joh 1:12; Jam 2:14-26. The particular uses of faith give rise to its secondary definitions:
(1) For salvation, faith is personal trust, apart from meritorious works, in the Lord Jesus Christ, as delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification Rom 4:5; Rom 4:23-25.
(2) As used in prayer, faith is the “confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us” 1Jn 5:14; 1Jn 5:15.
(3) As used in reference to unseen things of which Scripture speaks, faith “gives substance” to them, so that we act upon the conviction of their reality. Heb 11:1-3.
(4) As a working principle in life, the uses of faith are illustrated in Heb 11:1-39.
Heb 11:2, Heb 11:13, Luk 10:23, Luk 10:24, 1Pe 1:12
Reciprocal: Deu 32:52 – General Pro 22:1 – name Ecc 7:1 – name Mat 13:17 – That many Luk 5:39 – General Luk 7:28 – but Joh 1:17 – grace Joh 8:56 – rejoiced Joh 20:29 – blessed Rom 3:25 – remission 2Co 1:20 – all Gal 3:17 – the covenant Gal 3:23 – the faith Eph 3:5 – in other Heb 9:9 – the time Heb 9:15 – promise
Heb 11:39. Good report signifies they were well spoken of on account of their faith. The passage says they received not the promise which refers to the promise of the seed of Abraham who was to bless the nations of the world. It means they did not live to see the fulfillment of the promise, but their confidence in the promises of God was so strong that they maintained their faith until death.
Heb 11:39. The Bible is largely a history of faith, its deeds and sufferings and rewards; pre-eminently of the patience and perseverance which belong to it, and which seem essential in a world where virtue is militant. These all having had witness borne to them through their faith, i.e though they had all this noble attestation, had still to wait for the fulfilment of the promisethe promise of final and complete salvation (chap. Heb 9:15).
God having provided, or rather, having looked forward to, some better thingthat salvation which the Lord has accomplished and made known, which God reserved for our economy, and which Old Testament saints receive only when we receive it too. Our economy completes the former. To give up the Gospel and go back to the Law is to return from what is perfect to what is preparatory; and to sever ourselves from the blessedness for which the patriarchs died.
That is, “All the fore-mentioned scripture saints, with others that lived from the beginning of the world, and the first giving out of the promise of the Messiah, Gen 3:15 all and every one of these obtained a good report through faith, that is, a good testimony that they pleased God; nevertheless they received not the promise, that is, the actual exhibition of the promise, Christ, the promised Messiah; the promise they had, but not the thing promised, this was not in their days exhibited, Christ was not then come in the flesh: this promise was made by God to the elders from the beginning, but not actually accomplished untill the fulness of time.”
Learn hence, That the Old-Testament saints had from the beginning the promise of God concerning the exhibition of Christ in the flesh from the redemption of the world; which promise they were persuaded of the truth of, embraced it with desire, longing for the actual accomplishment of it, and thus enjoyed the benefit of it as well as we.
Heb 11:39. These all, having obtained a good report , being witnessed unto, as persons who did or suffered great things by faith. The expression does not imply that all the Israelitish judges, captains, and other worthies mentioned in this chapter, as well as the ancients, were truly righteous persons, justified by their faith, and made heirs of eternal salvation; for the apostles design in this part of his epistle being to show, by examples from the Jewish Scriptures, the influence which faith in the divine revelations and promises hath to excite men to perform those difficult and dangerous enterprises which he assigns to them in particular, the witness which was borne to some of them means only the praise which was given to them in Scripture on account of the faith which they showed in performing these particular great actions. Received not the promise The great promised blessings, namely, Christ the promised seed, come in the flesh, as the accomplishment of all the types and shadows, whether of the Mosaic or the patriarchal dispensation. They received the promise that the Messiah should come, as is said of Abraham, (Heb 11:17,) but did not receive the accomplishment of it. This the apostle positively asserts; but that the Christians in his days had received it, as is signified Heb 11:40. It is therefore not only untrue and unsafe, as Dr. Owen observes, but contrary to the fundamental principles of our religion, the faith of Christians in all ages, and the design of the apostle in this whole epistle, to interpret this promise, as some do, of any thing but the coming of Christ in the flesh, of his accomplishment of the work of our redemption, with the unspeakable privileges and advantages that the church hath received thereby. That this promise was made to the elders from the beginning of the world, that it was not actually accomplished to them, being necessarily confined to one season, called the fulness of time, and that herein lies the great difference of the two states of the church, that under the Old Testament and that under the New, with the prerogative of the latter above the former, are such weighty sacred truths, that without an acknowledgment of them no important doctrine, either of the Old Testament or of the New, can be rightly understood. This then was the state of believers under the Old Testament; they had the promise of the exhibition of Christ, the Son of God, in the flesh, for the redemption of the church; this promise they received, saw afar off, as to its actual accomplishment, were persuaded of the truth of it, and embraced it, Heb 11:13. The actual accomplishment of it they desired, longed for, and looked after, (Luk 10:24,) inquiring diligently into the grace of God contained therein, 1Pe 1:11-13. Hereby they enjoyed the benefits of it, even as we do; yet they received not its actual accomplishment in the coming of Christ, the reason of which the apostle gives in the next verse.
Heb 11:39 f. In two closing verses the lesson of all this heroic past is summarised. By their faith the great men of Israel had received praise from God in His holy word; yet they did not obtain that promise, the hope of which had inspired them. The reason was that through the long past God had been leading up to the future, planning a fulfilment in this closing age in which our own lot has been cast. In our time the whole bygone history was to be rounded off and consummated, so that only through us could the faithful of the past attain their goal. The thought has to be understood in the light of the writers conception that the history of Gods people in all ages forms a single whole. Some better thingi.e. the final realisationwas destined for the Christian period, and until this had come the brave endeavour of the past fell short of its aim.
Verse 39
Received not the promise; they did not realize the promised coming of the Messiah.
11:39 {16} And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received {y} not the promise:
(16) An amplification taken from the circumstance of the time: their faith is so much the more to be marvelled at, by how much the promises of things to come were more dark, yet at length were indeed exhibited to us, so that their faith and ours is as one, as is also their consecration and ours.
(y) But saw Christ afar off.
Those faithful believers who died in Old Testament times have not yet entered into their inheritances. This awaits the future, probably the Second Coming when Christ will judge Old Testament saints (Dan 12:1-2; cf. Isa 26:19). We will have some part in their reward. We will do so at least as Christ’s companions who will witness their award ceremony. Their perfection refers to their entering into their final rest (inheritance) and rests, as ours does, on the sacrificial death of Christ (cf. Heb 9:15).
"God’s plan provided for ’something better for us.’ The indefinite pronoun leaves the precise nature of the blessing undefined. The important thing is not exactly what it is but that God has not imparted it prematurely. ’Us’ means ’us Christians’ . . ." [Note: Morris, p. 132.]
Heb 11:39-40 summarize the chapter by relating the list of exemplary witnesses to the audience’s experience, and they provide a transition to the argument of Heb 12:1-13.
God intended this inspiring chapter to encourage us to continue to trust and obey Him in the midst of temptations to turn away from following Him faithfully. The implication is that our reward, as theirs, is eschatological.
". . . it is the future, and not the past, that molds the present. . . .
"The men and women celebrated in the catalogue of attested exemplars all directed the capacity of faith to realities which for them lay in the future (cf. Heb 11:7; Heb 11:10; Heb 11:13; Heb 11:27; Heb 11:31; Heb 11:35-38). They found in faith a reliable guide to the future, even though they died without experiencing the fulfillment of God’s promise (Heb 11:23; Heb 11:39). . . .
"The most distinctive aspect of the exposition is the development of the relation of faith to suffering and martyrdom." [Note: Lane, Hebrews 9-13, pp. 394-95.]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
While we wait for this happiness, let us endeavour to approve ourselves the genuine children of Abraham, the father of the faithful. Ever attentive to the divine call, may we, in obedience to it, be willing to go forth, though we do not particularly know whither; and with an intrepidity like his, may we even be ready to exchange worlds at the command of God, ignorant as we are of what lies beyond the grave; thinking it enough, that we know it is a land which God hath promised as the inheritance of his faithful children. It is indeed a city that hath foundations, in comparison of which all the most magnificent and established buildings of the children of men are but mean and moveable tents.
God glories in the title of its Builder and Maker, having formed and fashioned it for the highest displays of his glory and his love; and in reference to it he is not ashamed to be called our God; for by bestowing it upon his faithful people, he answers all which that high and glorious title might import. May we ever desire this as our better country, and live as its citizens ought; confessing ourselves, in reference to it, to be pilgrims and strangers upon the earth. And though we here receive not the accomplishment of the promises, may we keep our eyes on the objects they exhibit, how distant soever they seem; and being persuaded of them, may we embrace them; embrace them even with our dying arms, and breathe out our prepared and willing spirits, in full assurance that we are going to receive and possess them.
2nd, Let these glorious instances of faith be preserved in our memory, and have their due influence upon our hearts. When God calls us to resign our greatest comforts, let us think of that heroic act of faith by which Abraham offered up Isaac, and seemed in him to sacrifice all the promises as well as his son. Yet he therein acted a part the most strictly rational; as rightly concluding, that God could with infinite ease call him back to life again, and make a person, who had poured forth all his blood on the altar, and been reduced to ashes there, the father of many nations. Let dying parents commit their children to the care of the ever-living God, like Jacob; and worship him who hath fed them all their lives long, and who will never forsake those that put their trust in him. Let those who are called to glorify God by opposing the unjust commands of great and powerful men, remember the parents of Moses, and remember their illustrious child. Does he now repent that wonderful choice which he made at an adult age? does he now wish that he had been called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, rather than the servant of God, faithful in all his house? does he wish that he had secured the treasures of Egypt, and the temporary pleasures of sin, and declined that reproach of Christ, which has ended in eternal glory? Our hearts, our consciences will soon answer; let us then, like him, have respect unto the recompence of reward. Let us endeavour more frequently to direct our regards to God, and live as seeing him who is invisible.
3rdly, Is it possible that we should read this animated chapter without feeling our hearts glow with a sacred ambition of acting as becomes those who have heard such tidings and beheld such examples? If the triumphs of faith in Rahab, and Gideon, and Barak, and Sampson, and Jephtha, cannot move us, nor even those of David and of Samuel; if we are insensible of the martial prowess which they exerted in firm dependance on the Lord God of hosts; let us behold other combats, in which they who seemed weaker, became yet more gloriously victorious. Let us remember, not only the mouths of lions stopped, but the violence of fire quenched, when the faithful servants of God were thrown into it. Yea, let us behold those who endured its unquenched violence, and turned all those painful and terrible sensations, into an heroic occasion of expressing the superior ardour of their love to God, and the steadfastness of their faith in him. Let us remember those women, and youths, and children, among the rest of these worthies, indeed among the worthiest of them, who were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
1. Abel. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, who only brought of the fruit of the ground, but offered no atoning sacrifice in acknowledgment of his sins; whilst Abel to his mincha, or meat-offering, added the blood of the firstlings of his flock, the type of the great atonement whereon his faith relied; by which he obtained witness of God that he was righteous, either by some visible token, as fire from heaven on his sacrifice, or by the witness of the Spirit in his heart, God testifying of his works, that they were accepted through the righteousness of faith; and by it he being dead, yet speaketh; the record of it in the scripture instructs us, that, since the fall of man, the only way of access to God is through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus; and also that vengeance awaits the murderer and persecutor, against whom the blood of innocence and the cries of oppression call for judgment. Note; (1.) The only access to God for sinners, from the beginning, was through the blood of Jesus. (2.) There is a great difference between those who worship God in formality, and those who worship him in faith. It is not the act, but the way and the spirit in which we present our prayers, which makes the acceptable offering. (3.) They who are righteous by faith, and have obtained witness from God, may expect the world’s enmity. The first most eminent saint recorded in scripture, was a martyr for religion.
1. He mentions Abraham’s call. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out from the land of his nativity into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed without hesitation, fully persuaded of the truth, power, and grace of God to fulfil his promises: and he went out, under divine guidance, and trusting on divine direction; not knowing whither he went, neither the country itself, nor the way which led to it. Note; (1.) Implicit faith is due to God’s word; and though we know not how, yet we may be assured, however improbable it may appear to sense and reason, it shall be fulfilled in the appointed season. (2.) They who would go to the heavenly Canaan, must, at God’s call, come forth out of a world that lieth in wickedness.
1. Isaac. He had been mentioned before; another instance of his faith is given, when, in the confidence of the promise, he left his parting benediction with his children, and by divine determination, though undesignedly, being blind, conveyed the principal blessing to his younger son. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come; to Esau he gave the fatness of the earth, but to Jacob the unspeakable honour of being a progenitor of the Messiah.
1. He recites some of their distinguished names. And what shall I more say, when the field is so vast? For the time would fail me, if I enlarged on every individual,to tell of Gideon and his noble exploits, recorded (Judges vi, vii, 8:;) and of Barak, who before him was eminent for his faith and victory, (Judges 4.) and of Sampson, in life and death so signally remarkable, (Jdg 14:19; Jdg 16:27-30.) and of Jephthae, before whose faith the routed Ammonites fell, (Jdg 11:23-33.) and of David also, so famous in sacred history for dependance on God, (2 Samuel 23 l-5.) and Samuel, and of the prophets, who acted and suffered so nobly in the cause of God and truth, under the mighty influence of divine faith.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
THE ADVANTAGES ENJOYED UNDER THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION
What an unspeakable advantage is this! If Abraham rejoiced when he saw only by faith, and very indistinctly, the days of the Son of man, what reason have we to rejoice in having this adorable Saviour fully revealed in all his beauty, and excellency, and glory! Well does our Lord himself congratulate his believing people, saying, Blessed are your eyes which see the things which ye see, and hear the things which ye hear [Note: Luk 14:23-24.].]
1.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)