2dly. Hereby was atonement made for sin, the church was sanctified or dedicated to God, the law was fulfilled, the threatenings of death executed, eternal redemption obtained, the promises of the new covenant confirmed, and by one offering they who were sanctified are perfected for ever.
3dly. Hereon not only way was made for the dispensation of grace, but all grace, mercy, peace, and glory, were purchased for the church, and in the purpose of God were necessarily to ensue. Now the head and well-spring of the whole dispensation of grace, lies in the bringing of Christ again from the dead. That is the beginning of all grace to the church; the greatest and first instance of it, and the cause of all that doth ensue. The whole dispensation of grace, I say, began in, and depends on, the resurrection of Christ from the dead; which could not have been, had not the things before mentioned been effected and accomplished by the blood of the covenant. Without them he must have continued in the state and under the power of death. Had not the will of God been satisfied, atonement made for sin, the church sanctified, the law accomplished, and the threatenings satisfied, Christ could not have been brought again from the dead. It was therefore hereby that he was so, in that way was made for it unto the glory of God. The death of Christ, if he had not risen, would not have completed our redemption, we should have been “yet in our sins;” for evidence would have been given that atonement was not made. The bare resurrection of Christ, or the bringing him from the dead, would not have saved us; for so any other man may be raised by the power of God. But the bringing again of Christ from the dead, “through the blood of the everlasting covenant,” is that which gives assurance of the complete redemption and salvation of the church. Many expositors have filled this place with conjectures to no purpose, none of them so much as looking towards the mind of the Holy Ghost in the words. That which we learn from them is,—
That the bringing back of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the shepherd of the sheep, from the state of the dead, through the blood of the covenant, is the great pledge and assurance of peace with God, or the effecting of that peace which the God of peace had designed for the church.
The reduction of Christ from the dead, by the God of peace, is the spring and foundation of all dispensations and communications of grace to the church, or all the effects of the atonement and purchase made by his blood.—For he was so brought again, as the shepherd of the sheep, unto the exercise of his entire office towards the church. For hereon followed his exaltation, and the glorious exercise of his kingly power in its behalf, with all the benefits which ensue thereon, Acts 5:30, 31, Rom. 14:9, Phil. 2:8–11, Rev. 1:17, 18; and the completing of his prophetical office, by sending of his Holy Spirit to abide always with the church, for its instruction, Acts 2:33; and the discharge of what remains of his priestly office, in his intercession, Heb. 7:25, 26, and his ministering in the sanctuary, to make the services of the church acceptable unto God, Heb. 8:2; Rev. 8:3, 4. These are the springs of the administration of all mercy and grace unto the church, and they all follow on his reduction from the dead as the shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the covenant.
All legal sacrifices issued in blood and death; there was no recovery of any of them from that state. There was no solemn pledge of their success. But their weakness was supplied by their frequent repetition.
There is, then, a blessed foundation laid of the communication of grace and mercy to the church, unto the eternal glory of God.
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