06.09. Appendix 3 -The Son Calling His People Brethren
APPENDIX.
SCRIPTURAL EXPOSITIONS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
III. The Son calling his People Brethren.
“For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.”— Hebrews 2:11-13.
THERE is probably an allusion in this passage to the condition which the Jewish law annexed to the right of redemption. The redeemer must be a kinsman of the party whose person or whose property was to be redeemed (Leviticus 25:25, Leviticus 25:48-49). This condition was doubtless designed to guard against fraud, and to secure that the interference with the ordinary course of law which the right of redemption implied was really, in good faith, an act of grace. When, therefore, the Son undertakes the office of redeemer on our behalf he must be in a position to claim kindred with us. That is not his original position. As the Son, he is the Father’s “fellow;” not ours. But he becomes our fellow, our kinsman. And he does so even though it involves his taking our place under the law which we have broken; answering for us in the judgment; sanctifying or cleansing us by his blood. “For which cause,” in respect of his so thoroughly identifying himself with us, and making common cause with us, “he is not ashamed to call us brethren.” It is a strong expression. He is not ashamed, because his calling us brethren is more than a bare verbal acknowledgment or formal salutation: it involves the conferring of real and substantial brotherly benefits.*[1]
It is to confirm this view that the three texts from the Old Testament are here introduced. It is to show not only that the Messiah does call his people brethren, but that there is no reason why he should he ashamed to do so. It is to prove,—not only generally that this relation of brotherhood between Christ and his people is asserted in Scripture,—but in particular that it is asserted in such a way as to make it not nominal merely, but substantial and real.
I. The first passage quoted here (Hebrews 2:12), “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the church will I praise thee,”—is from the twenty-second Psalm (Psalms 22:22). That psalm is strictly Messianic. It is literally fulfilled in the sufferings of Christ and the glory which followed. No doubt the inspired author uttered his own sentiments when he composed the psalm. The spiritual man also, using the psalm now, does the same. The oneness with Christ which the Spirit works, through faith, implies as much. But it is Christ himself; not of course Christ standing alone and apart from his Church; but Christ representing his people, and taking them all to be his body;—it is he who speaks; first in his agony (Psalms 22:1-21), and then in his triumph (Psalms 22:22-31). The beginning of his triumph is the verse here cited. The first fruit of his victory is, that it places him in the best and most favourable position for declaring his Father’s name unto his brethren, so that in the midst of the church or congregation composed of them he may praise the Father. This is no new purpose on his part. He has been all along, in all his earthly ministry, keeping it in view. So he appeals to his Father before his death,—“I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it” (John 17:26). But at this crisis, after his death, when he is passing from his finished work to its reward,—he can say, as he could not fully say before, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren.”
Yes! “Unto my brethren!” The emphasis lies there. And accordingly, as a simple historical fact, it is worthy of notice that it is after his resurrection that Jesus for the first time uses this expression concerning his disciples,—my brethren.”*[2] To the women the risen Saviour says, “Go, tell my brethren.” To Mary he says, “Go to my brethren and say.” How is this to be explained? In the first place, Jesus now enters upon that state in which he can fully declare the Father’s name. He can now unfold the character of God his Father in a light in which it could never before be adequately seen; and he can thus raise in the church a new song of praise. Never before, never otherwise, could the name of God— his nature, his character, his mind and heart, as the Righteous Father—be so declared as the Son is now in a position to declare it. He can declare it fully and effectually. He can declare it fully. He can declare it as it shines forth, in all its light and love, in himself personally, and in his work now finished and accepted. He can declare it effectually. He has received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost to teach his people all things. Hence the propriety of the profession coming from his lips now. Passing from his cross to his crown, the Lord is now most thoroughly able, both by revelation to his disciples and by inspiration in them, to declare the Father’s name, and lead among them the Father’s praise. By revelation to them;—for he has his own wondrous person, as the God-man, and his own gracious work, as the mediator, the ransom, the bleeding victim, dying in their stead, and owned in his resurrection as not having died in vain;—he has himself, in short, and his cross, to be the means or medium for declaring the name of the righteous Father. By inspiration also in them; for, ascending up on high and receiving gifts for them, he gives the Holy Ghost, by whom they are taught to know the name of the righteous Father, as the Son declares it, and to praise him as the Son praises him.
But, secondly, this is not all. There is a still closer connection to be traced between the Lord’s calling his people his brethren and his declaring to them the Father’s name. It is not simply said,—they are my brethren, because I declare unto them thy name; but I declare thy name unto them as my brethren. They are my brethren when I declare unto them thy name. It is as to my brethren that I declare unto them thy name. Their becoming my brethren is the condition of my declaring unto them thy name, and the means of my doing so. Not otherwise could I do so. For the discoveries which I have to make to them concerning thee, 0 righteous Father, are such as I could not make to any but my brethren. They must occupy the same position that I occupy, and be one with me, as my brethren, in my relation to thee and my acquaintance with thee. They must see thee from the same point of view from which I see thee. They must come to know thee by the very same sort of experience of thy love by which I know thee. I must have them to be my brethren, if I am to declare unto them thy name. For this name of God the righteous Father,—this essential nature of his, as the righteous Father,—the holy love that is in his heart, as the righteous Father,—never can be known at second hand. Even the Son cannot make us know it, except by making us one with himself—one with him in his personal, experimental, loving knowledge of the Father, in whose bosom he dwells. He says this, I think, very clearly on three different occasions.
1. (John 1:18), “No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” But how has he declared him? Not merely through his “dwelling among us, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14); but through our “receiving of his fulness, even grace for grace” (John 1:16); grace answering and corresponding to his grace; the very grace of which he is full, as “the only begotten Son dwelling in the bosom of the Father.” It is as dwelling himself in the bosom of the Father that he sees the Father; so sees him as to be able to declare him to us. And it is by making us partakers of his own grace,—by causing us to dwell, as he himself dwells, in the bosom of the Father,—by embracing us in his own filial oneness with the Father and filial fellowship with the Father,—it is thus that he declares to us the Father.
2. (Matthew 11:27), “No man knoweth the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” And to whom is it the Son’s pleasure to reveal the Father? To whom but to “the babes” to whom the Father himself reveals “the things which he has hid from the wise and prudent?” And the babes! Are they not the new-born babes, the little children, who alone can see the kingdom of God? They are those whom, as born again,—born like himself of the Spirit,—Jesus may call his brethren. As such, they are placed by him in the very same position of advantage for knowing the Father which properly belongs to himself alone. None can know the Father but the Son, and those to whom, by making them his brethren in his sonship, the Son reveals the Father.
3. (John 17:25-26), “0 righteous Father, the world hath not known thee.” Sad, but not strange. How should the world, lying in the wicked one and estranged from the Father, know him, so as to enter into his mind and heart, understand his real character, and do him justice in judging of his ways. Is there no one then to whom the Father can look? none to know, to understand, to sympathise with him? “I have known thee,” says the Son of his love. And not only have I known thee. There are others who have “known that thou hast sent me.” To them “I have declared thy name,” and will yet more fully “declare it.” “The love wherewith thou hast loved me,” and whereby I have known thee, shall “be in them, and I in them.”
Thus the Son undertakes to declare the Father’s name to those whom in virtue of his incarnation, his obedience, his sufferings, his death, and his resurrection,—all on their behalf,—he is not ashamed to call his brethren. And it is “in the midst of the church or congregation” composed of them, that he now praises the Father. “I will praise thee,” he says to the Father. But not alone and apart will I praise thee; as if I only, rightly knowing thee, could worthily praise thee. I have now got a church or congregation of brethren with whom I can associate myself, and in the midst of whom I can praise thee. The praise is on account of prayer answered and signal deliverance experienced. “I will praise thee,” I who but yesterday “made supplication, with strong crying and tears.” The sharp cry of agony is changed into the triumphant language of praise; praise, however, not as for myself alone. “In the midst of the congregation I will praise thee.” For these, the congregation of my brethren, are interested in the deliverance on account of which I have to praise thee;—in what way, and with what depth and intensity, they will begin to understand and feel when I fully “declare unto them thy name.” But for that they would be incapable of any sympathy with me, either in my song of praise, or in the terrible experience that preceded and evoked it; and I must go apart and be alone in my joys as much as I once was in my grief. In the garden they all slept;—on the cross, they all forsook me and fled. They could not go with me into my sufferings; they could not enter into the meaning of my shame and sorrow. To call them, in these circumstances, brethren,—to expect them as brethren to sympathise with me,—would scarcely have been reasonable or fair. I might have been ashamed then to call them brethren. And in point of fact, I had to make allowance for them, as for a feeble flock, in whom the spirit was willing but the flesh weak; the scattered sheep of a smitten shepherd; to be pitied rather than to be blamed. But it is not so now. I have declared and will more fully declare unto them thy name. I give them such a discovery of thy character, such an insight into thy heart, 0 righteous Father, as casts a flood of light on all that I have had to do and to suffer on the earth. The evil of earth’s sin—the awful justice of heaven—the dread reality of an atoning sacrifice—the shedding of blood for the expiation of guilt— the substitution of the holy one in the room of the guilty, and the laying of their iniquities upon him;—all this they can now enter into and sympathise with, whatever might be their inability before. And therefore, also, in the joy and triumph which follow upon the anguish ended and the victory achieved, they can now with heart and soul participate. I need not now be solitary in the utterance of my thankful acknowledgments, 0 righteous Father. I have brethren who now at last can go along with me and be one with me, first in my agony and then in my triumph; who know “the power of my resurrection” because they know “the fellowship of my sufferings.” There is a congregation now gathered around me; the congregation of those to whom as my brethren I declare thy name. In the midst of that congregation, and carrying their full sympathy along with me, I now, 0 righteous Father, will praise thee.
Surely, on such terms, he need not be ashamed to call them brethren.
II. The propriety of the second reason why Christ is not ashamed to call his disciples brethren, is not at first sight very apparent. The saying quoted in the first clause of Hebrews 2:13, “I will put my trust in him,” may be found in more than one Messianic passage, and I am not disposed to fix very dogmatically on any one. I am inclined to regard it as a sort of general reference;—though I do not at all object to its being held to be a version of that word of Isaiah, in the passage to which the next quotation refers, “I will wait upon the Lord” (Isaiah 8:17). That certainly is equivalent to “1 will put my trust in him.” But the more material question is; how does our Lord’s use of either of these forms of speech, or of any similar language, prove that he is not, and need not be, ashamed to call his disciples brethren?
Plainly such language as this—“I will wait upon the Lord,”—or “I will put my trust in him,”—is not, and cannot be, the expression of any sentiment or feeling proper to the original and everlasting relation subsisting between the Father and the Son. Never, at any time, could the coequal and coeternal Son, with reference to his own divine nature, as one of the Persons in the everblessed Trinity, thus speak of the Father. That he should be found in a position to use such language is an instance of wonderful condescension. And that he should use it in a position of oneness with us,—as regards our state of dependence upon God and the necessity of our continually exercising faith or trust in God,—is indeed a proof of his conferring upon us so great and substantial a benefit as may well make him not ashamed to call us brethren.
“I will put my trust in him.” Is not this the motto and grand heading of the entire human life of the Saviour? Is not this the spirit and embodiment of his whole conduct here below? He did not live by the exercise of his own prerogative or power, but as other men, by bread, or whatever God might be pleased to ordain. His miracles were not done to support or relieve himself. As to all that was personal to himself—what he was to eat and drink—wherewithal he was to be clothed—where he was to lay his head;—as to all his personal experience, and especially as to all he had to suffer from first to last;—he had the very same occasion for the exercise of trust or faith that we have amid the anxieties and perplexities of our utmost helplessness and want. And was not this faith on his part sufficiently put to the test? Was not the extent to which he could go in saying,—“I will put my trust in him,”— thoroughly tried and proved? And is he not therefore well entitled to call us his brethren, and to ask us as his brethren to learn of him? Can we ever be in circumstances in which it can be more hard for us to say, I will put my trust in God, than it was for him, in the wilderness, in the garden, on the cross? And let us remember that the very fact of his having power to deliver himself must be regarded as enhancing the severity of such trial of his faith, and so enabling him all the more to sympathise with us in the trial of our faith. The consciousness of his being able, by a mere word, to extricate himself out of all his troubles, must be taken into account as an element of aggravation, when we see him willing to face them all—naked as we are—dependent as we are—submissive as he would have us to be—in the spirit of implicit resignation and reliance,—“I will put my trust in God.”
Surely He is one who need not be ashamed to call us brethren! He is indeed a brother—a brother born for adversity! He is our brother, being our companion in tribulation!
Hast thou a struggle, 0 poor soul, in saying “I will put my trust in him?” So had he. Thou hast brotherhood in thy struggle with him. Hear his loud cry; “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name” (John 12:27-28).
Ah! this language of acquiescent and submissive reliance,—“I will put my trust in him,”—has a peculiar pathos and emphasis imparted to it, when it is used as language in the use of which we have brotherhood with Jesus. For it is because he has been in a position to use that language himself—and knows how hard it often is to use it,—that he is not ashamed to call us brethren. We imagine sometimes that this trust in God—this willingness to leave all that concerns us to God—ought to be always an easy and almost spontaneous exercise of soul with one who really knows the Father’s name, and has got such cause to praise him as we have got. But who knows the Father as the Son? Who praises the Father as the Son? And yet he, in the days of his flesh, found it difficult enough to say, “I will put my trust in him.” It cost him “prayers and supplications, strong crying and tears.” Why should we count it strange if it cost us the like? Rather let us be thankful that on this very account he is not ashamed to call us brethren, because at the very worst, in our utmost extremity,—when we find it the hardest of all tasks to say “Thy will be done,” “I will trust in thee,”—he can, as a brother, understand our case; he can enter into it. He can bring his own personal experience forward for our encouragement. He can meet us as a brother in every trial; and ever as he meets us, and has fellowship with us as a brother, he can give us courage, with whatever effort, to murmur,—“I will trust and not be afraid,” “Though he slay me I will trust in him.”
III. The third reason given for Christ’s not being ashamed to call us brethren is founded on a passage in Isaiah (Isaiah 8:18), which is apt to be misunderstood, both as it stands there, and as it is quoted here. It is given substantially in the same words by the Prophet and the Apostle; “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me.” This text, as recited in Hebrews, is sometimes held to be an instance of our Lord’s calling us his children. But he is never represented as sustaining that relation to his people;—not at least in any other sense than that in which Abraham is said to have a seed. And at any rate his being so represented here would be quite foreign to the writer’s argument, and, indeed, inconsistent with it. Even as used by the prophet originally, the saying has no reference to his own children, though some have so applied it. It has a far higher import, as will be seen if its connection is considered.*[3] The prophet is describing the times in which he lives. There is a general confederacy for evil among the people. They associate themselves in defiance of the Lord. Are there none found faithful among the faithless? Yes, replies this man of God. “I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him” (verse 1). Nor am I alone. I have brethren willing to be fellow-witnesses, and, if need be, fellow-victims with me. “Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.”
Such obviously is the meaning of the words, as originally uttered by Isaiah. And such also is their meaning when put into the mouth of the Messiah. “Behold I and the children,”—the little ones,—“whom thou hast given me;”—given me to be my brethren. Thus viewed they are expressive of intense filial and brotherly affection.
Observe, in the first place, how lovingly he speaks of them to the Father. They are “the children”—the little ones. It is the language of endearment. The elder brother presents to his Father and their Father the little ones, mere babes, infants who can but lisp thy praise, 0 Father; of whom I said, Suffer them to come unto me. They are the little ones—the children. As such I love them, and delight to have them as my brethren. I have revealed to them things hidden from the wise and prudent; I have declared to them thy name. They are the congregation in the midst of which I rejoice to praise thee; for “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings I have perfected praise.” I teach them to put their trust in thee, as I have done, 0 righteous Father. Then how dear are these little ones to their elder brother, as given to him by his Father;—given to him in covenant from everlasting;—given to him in right, as bought with his blood;—given to him in reality, being born of the Spirit, in some sort as he was himself! With what overflowing fullness of love,—the love of a true son and a true brother,—does he present them to the Father! They are mine—these children—these little ones; mine, by thine own gift, 0 Father. “Thine they were, and thou gavest them me,” that I might be “the first-born among many brethren.” Be to them what thou art to me; not indeed as thou hast been to me from everlasting, but as thou art to me now;—now that I have become one with “the children whom thou hast given me;” now that they have become one with me. “Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:11). And now, secondly, observe for what end He presents the little ones as his brethren to the Father.
Certainly, in the first instance, it is for present work and warfare on the earth. So the original setting of this gem indicates. He presents them to the Father to be jointly with himself “for signs and for wonders in Jerusalem from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.” Thou art not to be without signs, 0 righteous Father;— without witnesses of thy character and purposes and plans, in the world which knoweth not thee. Here am I for one. And here also are these, the little ones, whom thou hast given me; whom I scruple not to associate with myself in this office of being signs. I am not ashamed to call them, in that view, my brethren, and to offer them to thee, O righteous Father, as my brethren, to be witnesses for thee, as I have been. I have fitted and qualified them, as my brethren, for that mission. I have given them the very knowledge which I have myself of thy glorious name. I have put my own song of praise into their lips. I have made them partakers with myself in that grace of simple trust which carried me safely through the pains and perils of my witness-bearing. They are willing to be “for signs.” And “for wonders” too. They are willing and able, by the help of the blessed Spirit, to be a very world’s wonder; to bear reproach, obloquy, persecution; to seal, as I have done, their testimony with their blood. So I present them along with myself to thee, 0 righteous Father, to be “for signs and wonders” in the church and in the world. But we need not limit this gracious presentation to the present scene of trial We may carry forward our view to the day when the Lord Jesus shall appear, “to be glorified in his saints) and admired in all them that believe.” At that day it will be seen that he has indeed no cause to be ashamed to call us brethren;—that he has well sustained a brother’s character, and well performed a brother’s duty; that he has kept back nothing of his Father’s light or his Father’s love from us, for all things that he has heard of his Father he has made known to us; that he has upheld us by his sympathy in the same faith which upheld himself; that he has made us bearers of the same testimony that he bore for his Father, and signs of the same grace that he manifested, in the midst of a world of “despisers that can only behold, and wonder, and perish.”
Surely it is no vain thing to have the Son of the Highest calling us brethren. He comes forth from the Father to us as his brethren, and carries us back with him as his brethren to the Father, that we may know the Father as he knows him, and praise the Father as he praises him. He is with us as our brother in all that calls for meek patience, for quiet and simple trust, throughout our whole pilgrimage and warfare here on earth. He presents us to the Father as his brethren,—to be fellow-witnesses with him of the Father’s grace now, and fellow-heirs with him of the Father’s glory hereafter.
Such an elder brother is Christ to thee, 0 child of God; truly one who need not be ashamed to call thee brother. Such an elder brother thou wilt find him to be, thou poor prodigal, whosoever thou art, if thou wilt but suffer him to act towards thee now a brother’s part. Far unlike that elder brother in the parable, this elder brother comes to thee in the far country of thine estrangement from God; deals with thee, pleads with thee, expostulates with thee; seizes thee, lays hold of thee, will not willingly let thee go, until thou lettest him take thee home with himself to his Father, waiting to be thine. Come, he cries, I will declare to thee our Father’s name; it is love. I will show thee his nature; it is love. I will open to thee his heart; it is love;—love to thee. Thou hast not known him. Thou hast misunderstood him. Thou hast not done him justice. Thou hast suspected, dreaded, disliked him. But see, here am I to tell thee what he is, and how he feels toward thee. Behold, in me, his gift to thee—to be the propitiation for thy sins—how my Father loveth thee. Yes, 0 my poor brother sinner, chief of sinners as thou art, believe me. Believe, and join me, and join all my redeemed, in the grateful song of praise. Let me have thee, as my brother, to be one of the congregation in the midst of which I am to praise our Father evermore.
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[1]*The same thought is suggested elsewhere in this Epistle. “But now they”—the patriarchs—“desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:16). The meaning evidently is, that God would have been ashamed,— he would have counted it unworthy of himself,—to assume or accept, with reference to his people, a merely nominal and empty title, that did not secure to them a substantial benefit. The meaning is the same here.
[2]*I do not consider the Lord’s reply to those who told him of his mother and his brethren standing outside of the crowd, desiring to speak with him, as at all a parallel or equivalent instance;—“Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? . . . . Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:48-50). Evidently the Lord means nothing more than that the moral and spiritual tie which binds him to all his Father’s obedient subjects, is stronger and more sacred than any mere family bond, however close and tender. There is nothing special in the expression “my brethren” or “my brother,”—any more than there is in the expressions “my sister” or “my mother.”
[3]* For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me, that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself: and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary: but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in Mount Zion (Isaiah 8:11-18).