SERMON II

CHRIST THE MINISTER OF THE CHURCH

"A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man."-HEB. viii. 2

HE discourse of the Apostle here turns on Jesus, the

THE

high priest of our profession, whose superiority to Aaron and his descendants he had established by most powerful reasoning. In the verse preceding our text he takes a summary of the results of his argument, deciding that we have such an high priest as became us, and who had passed from the scene of earthly ministrations to "the throne of the majesty in the heavens." He then, in the words upon which we are to meditate, gives a description of this high priest as at present discharging sacerdotal functions. He calls him " a minister of the sanctuary," or (according to the marginal reading) of holy things, "and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man." We think it needful, if we would enter into the meaning of this passage, that we confine it to what Christ is, and attempt not to extend it to what Christ was. If you examine the verses which follow, you will be quite satisfied that St. Paul had in view those portions of the

mediatorial work which are yet being executed, and not those which were completed upon earth. He expressly declares, that if the Redeemer were yet resident amongst men, he would not be invested with the priestly officethus intimating, and that not obscurely, that the priesthood now enacted in heaven was that on which he wished to centre attention.

We know indeed that parts of the priestly office, most stupendous and most important, were discharged by Jesus whilst sojourning on earth. Then it was that, uniting mysteriously in His person the offerer and the victim, He presented Himself, a whole burnt-sacrifice, to God, and took away, by His one oblation, the sin of an over-burdened world. But if you attend closely to the reasoning of St. Paul, you will observe that he considers Christ's oblation of Himself as a preparation for the priestly office, rather than as an act of that office. He argues, in the third verse, that since "every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices," there was a "necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer." And by then speaking of Christ's having obtained "a more excellent ministry," he plainly implies that what He offers as high priest is offered in heaven, and must, therefore, have been rather procured, than presented, by the sacrifice of Himself.

We are anxious that you should clearly perceive—as we are sure you must from the study of the context-that Christ in heaven, and not Christ on earth, is sketched out by the words which we are now to examine. The right interpretation of the description will depend greatly on our ascertaining the scene of ministration. And we shall not hesitate, throughout the whole of our discourse, to consider the apostle as referring to what Christ now performs on our behalf; taking no other account of what He did in

His humiliation than as it stands associated with what He does in His exaltation.

You will observe, at once, that the difficulty of our text lies in the assertion, that Christ is "a minister of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Our main business, as expounders of Scripture, is with the determining what this "true tabernacle" is. For, though we think it ascertained that heaven is the scene of Christ's priestly ministrations, this does not define what the tabernacle is wherein He ministers.

66

Now there can be but little question, that, in another passage of this Epistle to the Hebrews, the humanity of the Son of God is described as "a tabernacle, not made with hands." The verse occurs in the ninth chapter, in which St. Paul shows the temporary character of the Jewish tabernacle, everything about it having been simply a figure for the time then present." Advancing to the contrast of what was enduring with what was transient, he declares that Christ had come, "an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building." It scarcely admits of debate that the body of the Redeemer, produced as it was by a supernatural operation, constituted this tabernacle in which He came down to earth. And we are rightly anxious to uphold this, which seems the legitimate interpretation, because heretics, who would bring down the Saviour to a level with ourselves, find the greatest difficulty in getting rid of the miraculous conception, and are most perplexed by any passage which speaks of Christ as superhumanly generated. It is a common taunt with the Socinian, that the apostles seem to have known nothing of this miraculous conception, and 1 Heb. ix. 11.

that a truth of such importance, if well ascertained, would not have been omitted in their discussions with unbelievers. We might, if it consisted with our subject, advance many reasons to prove it most improbable, that, either in arguing with gainsayers, or in building up believers, the first preachers of Christianity would make frequent use of the mystery of Christ's generation. But, at all events, we contend that one decisive mention is of the same worth as many, and that a single instance of apostolic recognition of the fact suffices for the overthrow of the heretical objection. And, therefore, we would be earnest for the interpretation of the passage to which we have referred, defining the humanity of the Saviour as a "tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building." And if, without any overstraining of the text, it should appear that "the true tabernacle," whereof Christ is the minister, may also be expounded of His spotless humanity, we should gladly adopt the interpretation, as sustaining us in our contest with impugners of His divinity.

There is, at first sight, so much resemblance between the passages, that we are naturally inclined to claim for them a sameness of meaning. In the one, the tabernacle is described as that "which the Lord pitched, and not man;" in the other, as "not made with hands," that is to say, "not of this building." It is scarcely possible, that the coincidence could be more literal; and the inference seems obvious, that, the latter tabernacle being Christ's humanity, so also must be the former. Yet a little reflection will suggest, that however correct the expression, that Christ's humanity was the tabernacle by, or in, which He came, there would be much of harshness in the figure, that this humanity is the tabernacle of which He is the

minister. Without doubt, it is in His human nature that the Son of God officiates above. He carried up into glory the vehicle of His sufferings, and made it partaker of His triumphs. And our grand comfort in the priesthood of Jesus results from the fact that He ministers as a man; nothing else affording ground of assurance that "we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities." But whilst certain, and rejoicing in the certainty, that our Intercessor pleads in the humanity, which, undefiled by either actual or original sin, qualified Him to receive the outpourings of wrath, we could not, with any accuracy, say that He is the minister of this humanity. It is clear that such expression must define, in some way, the place of ministration. And since humanity was essential to the constitution of Christ's person, we see not how it could be the temple of which He was appointed the minister. At least we must allow, that, in interpreting our text of the human nature of the Son of God, we should lie open to the charge of advocating an unnatural meaning, and of being so bent on upholding a favourite hypothesis, as not to be over-scrupulous as to means of support.

We dismiss, therefore, as untenable, the opinion which our wishes would have led us to espouse, and must seek elsewhere than in the humanity of Christ for "the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man." The most correct and simple idea appears to be, that, inasmuch as Christ is the high priest of all who believe upon His name, and inasmuch as believers make up His Church, the whole company of the faithful constitute that tabernacle of which He is here asserted the minister. If we adopt this interpretation, we may trace a fitness and accu1 Heb. iv. 15.