Hebrews 13 finishes the epistle; it is principally filled with exhortations founded on the Hebrew Christians’ portion. Brotherly love founded on their place as brethren, members of the Father’s family, was to continue. This is not the highest place we have, still it is the highest place given in this Epistle. They were not to be forgetful to entertain strangers, seeing some had entertained—as Lot and Abraham—angels unawares. Prisoners in bonds were to be remembered, as bound with them; those also in adversity, the Hebrew Christians themselves being in the body. If we have good health we are apt to forget this sometimes. Marriage was honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers, God would judge. Their general behavior was to be without covetousness, being content with such things as they have for He had said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we can boldly say, The Lord is my Helper, I will not fear what man can do unto me. Oh, the many troubles Christians would save themselves from if they carried out this rule, having faith in the promise. There would be no grasping after things which they have not the power to get without running into debt, if this were so. What is the secret of more than half these efforts? -COVETOUSNESS. A man lusts for something that is not his own, and which he has no power to get but by running into debt, using unlawful means to do it. He is not content with what he has. He takes himself out, as it were, from the Father’s care, and therefore loses the enjoyment of the promise, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. May God heal His people from this festering sore, which is eating out the very life of his assemblies, and fast hastening on the Church to judgment.
The Christians were to remember those who had the rule over them -their leaders, who had spoken to them the Word of God; following their faith, considering their conversation: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Everything outside Him was diverse and strange doctrines. Christ was all and in all: Savior, Priest, Leader, Head; they were complete in Him. Meats, and drinks and ordinances with which the Jews were occupied, were not Him, nor grace, and they never profited any one.
Christians also had an altar of which they had on right to eat who served the tabernacle, any more than the Jew had a right to eat of the bodies of those beasts whose blood was brought into the sanctuary for sin; they were burnt outside the camp. (Lev. 4:1-21; 6:30; 8:14-17). But this was a type of Christ. He was cast out of Jerusalem -the camp- that He might separate the people with His own blood. The alter of Christianity then was set up outside Judaism. This being so, the apostle would have the Hebrew Christians separate forever from the earthly priesthood, the earthly sanctuary, the earthly covenant, indeed everything of Judaism, to a Christ crucified, cast outside the camp, bearing His reproach. This was their alter. Here they had no continuing city for Jerusalem, having put Christ outside, must be handed over to judgment, but we seek that which is to come. But Christ not only died outside Jerusalem and Judaism, but He rose again, and went up on high; they were then by Him to offer up the sacrifice of praise to God continually, the fruit of their lips, giving praise to His Name, being separated as worshippers, to a heavenly Christ.
Let us recapsulate some of His glories. He was the Son of God, Son of Man, their heavenly Leader, leading them to the heavenly glory (chap 1-3); their heavenly High Priest to sympathize with them and intercede for them whilst passing through the wilderness, who was also going to return to bless them (chap 7-8); their heavenly Center of worship, ministering to them in a heavenly sanctuary presenting their praises to God; the Mediator of a better covenant, established on better promises than the old one (chap 8) and sealed by the blood of Christ, which on the one hand gave them a full title to the very presence of God, and on the other hand purged their conscience from every taint of sin (chap 9-10). The Hebrew Christians must now decide between one system and the other. God had long been bearing with the Jewish nation, but now having rejected the Messiah and resisted the Holy Ghost, the mass was handed over to judgment, and the Hebrew remnant separated from the mass of the Jewish nation to a heavenly Christ was now really the only hope of the Jewish nation (Rom. 11). God was now calling out a heavenly people; they were to be the exhibitors of His grace and goodness and blessing to a poor world. To do good, therefore, communicating to the wants of others, they were not to forget, for with such sacrifices God was well pleased. Practical separation to a Christ rejected of the world and received up into glory, worship of God through Him, and doing good to others, were the three chief marks that the apostle would have on these believers.
Now my dear reader, I pray you consider these things. I feel God speaks by His Son solemnly from this Epistle. In this day when Christendom is fast apostatizing from the truth, real Christians should have their eyes wide awake, and the Epistle become of more and more importance to them. On the other side there was the system of Judaism, which God here calls the camp, and on the one side there was Christianity. In the one the blood of the first covenant of the alters of Judaism had separated the nation to law, the earthly sanctuary and the earthly priesthood; on the other hand, the blood of Christ now separated the believer from all these things to a heavenly Christ; Son of God, the Son of Man, who was now the heavenly High Priest ministering in a heavenly sanctuary, and who had set aside the earthly priesthood and taken its place, as the center of Christianity. The apostle insists on an entire break with this earthly system that had crucified the Lord (chap 13:10-14). And yet, with all this staring Christians in the face, we find an earthly set-apart clergy raised up again, like the Jewish priesthood, without whom the assembly cannot draw near for worship to God. These men minister in gorgeous earthly sanctuaries, which are called the house of God in defiance of what Stephen says (Acts 7:48) often offering many sacrifices on a table which they call the alter, and so setting aside the perfect value of the one sacrifice of Christ. The law is also preached there instead of Christ. I know there are modifications of all this in the various sects, but I ask every sober-minded reader to consider whether the law, the set-apart clergyman, and the earthly house of God, does not constitute largely the religion of Christendom, instead of Christ, the heavenly sanctuary, and the covenant of grace. What is sanctification in the Epistle to the Hebrews? It is separation from the one to the other. It is separation from the earthly to the heavenly; of which Christ is the Center. I tis no longer Messiah on earth accomplishing the promises made to the fathers, and setting up a glorious earthly kingdom, but the same Person, rejected of Judaism, and crowned with glory and honor in heaven. A heavenly people are called out, associated with Him there as His brethren, and going in company with Him and the Holy Ghost to the heavenly glory. Christ truly is coming again to make good the promises made to the Jewish nation, upon repentance, at present He is rejected, and our place is now to be outside the camp with Him. As pilgrims and strangers in this world, we are called to follow Him through the wilderness; and as heavenly worshippers, we are called to gather round Him in the holy place. The world is a wilderness; the holiest of all (heaven) our sanctuary; God’s rest, our home. May God open the eyes of many by this Epistle to see their right position, as separate from everything that pertains to Judaism in the professing church.
Obedience to their leaders was also to characterize these Hebrew Christians. These leaders watched for their souls as those that must give account. Such men, raised up by God Himself in the assemblies, are of the highest value, and the saints should seek that such should be manifested. If so, they were to submit themselves to such. This is not a rule in the flesh, like Saul, but a rule in conjunction with Him, who is the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls (1 Pet. 2).
In the sense of this responsibility which he himself largely felt, he asks the saints to pray for him. He was able to tell them he trusted he had a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly. If we, as laborers, lack these things we cannot claim the prayers of the saints of God. He prays them also the rather to do this in order that he might be restored to them the sooner.
In ver. 20-21, he commends them to the God of Peace. His anxiety for them, their own restlessness and instability, would well commend such a title to them. He brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. What is more peaceful looking than a flock lying down in green pastures, under the eye of a kind powerful shepherd? Here the God of Peace is joined to the Great Shepherd. Under the eye of Him who had gained the victory over death and the whole power of the enemy, the flock ought to lie down free from anxiety and care. What could be more calculated to calm of the fears of these poor trembling Hebrew Christians? What can be a more blessed picture for the poor distracted, divided Christians of Christendom, whith the eye off the Shepherd and the God of Peace, and occupied with the law and ordinances, biting and devouring one another? Oh believers, for shame! Hush your murmurs, your bickerings, your fightings. Behold the God of Peace raising the great Shepherd of the flock by the blood of the everlasting covenant, and gathering His poor scattered silly sheep around His own Center. Fix your eye on that heavenly Shepherd which displayed His goodness in laying down His life for the sheep (John 10) and is soon coming again to give His rewards to His faithful carers of His flock (1 Peter 5); and may that God of Peace perfect you in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
The apostle prays the brethren to suffer this word of exhortation, for he had written to them a letter in a few words. He gives them to know that Timothy had been set at liberty; with whom, if he came shortly, he would see them.
Salutations to them who had the rule over them and the saints, and conveyance of the salutations of those in Italy, finish the Epistle. Let only grace be with them all. Blessed be God it is an Epistle of grace. May the reader profit by it. Amen.