And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New
Testament,
&c.] (See Gill on Hebrews
7:22), (See Gill on Hebrews
8:6), (See Gill on Hebrews
8:8). This may refer both to what goes before, and what
follows after; for Christ, that he might offer himself to God,
and by his blood purge the consciences of his people from dead
works, that so they might serve the living God, became the
Mediator of the New Testament, or covenant; and also he took upon
him this character and office,
that by means of death, for the redemption of the
transgressions
that were under the first testament, they which are called
might
receive the promise of eternal inheritance;
Christ became the Mediator of the New Testament, and assumed
human nature that he might die, and by dying might obtain
redemption for his people; not only for those that were then in
the world, or should be in it, but also for all those that had
been in it. "The first testament" is the first dispensation of
the covenant of grace, reaching from the first promulgation of it
to Adam after the fall, to the death of Christ; "the
transgressions" that were under it are the sins of the saints who
lived under that dispensation, froth Adam to Moses, and from
Moses to Christ, and takes in all their iniquities of every kind:
and the "redemption" of these, or from these, by Christ, at and
through his death, does not suppose that there was no remission
of sins, or justification from them, under that dispensation; or
that the Old Testament saints did not go to heaven, but were
detained in a prison, till redeemed by the death of Christ; or
that their sins were only redeemed, not their persons; for
transgressions may stand for transgressors; and so the Syriac
version renders it, "that by his death he might be a redemption
for them who transgressed the first testament"; so the Jews say,
that the Messiah must die (twba
ta twdpl) "to redeem the fathers" F2: but
the sense is, that though legal sacrifices could not atone for
sin, nor ceremonial ablutions cleanse from them; yet the sins of
Old Testament saints were expiated, their iniquities pardoned,
and they justified and saved, through the blood of Christ, the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; whose death is a
redemption from transgressions past, present, and to come; whose
blood is the ransom price for them, and was shed for the
remission of them, even of sins that are past through the
forbearance of God; who took the surety's word for the
performance of all this, which in the fulness of time he strictly
fulfilled, to the satisfaction of law and justice; see ( Romans 3:25 ) and the
ultimate end of Christ's being a Mediator, and dying for such
purposes, was, that called ones might receive the promised
inheritance: by the "eternal inheritance", is meant heaven, which
is by gift and bequest, belongs to children only, and comes
through the death of Christ; and is a very substantial,
plentiful, and glorious one; it is incorruptible and undefiled,
and that fades not away, and as here, "eternal"; it was prepared
from the foundation of the world, and will continue for ever; and
it may be so called, to distinguish it from the inheritance of
the land of Canaan, or any temporal one: "the promise" of this
was made before the world began, and was put into the hands of
Christ, the surety of the better testament, by whose death the
heirs of it come to enjoy both the promise, and the thing
promised; and they are such who are "called", not merely
externally, but internally and effectually; by whom were meant,
not Abraham and his natural seed, nor the Old Testament saints
only, but all that are called with an holy calling, whether Jews
or Gentiles, and who will enjoy both the promise of the
inheritance, and that itself, in a way of "receiving": every word
shows this affair to be all of grace; it is an "inheritance", and
therefore the Father's gift; it is by "promise", and so of grace;
and it is "received", and so freely given, and not merited; and
only such who are "called" by grace possess it; and yet it is
through the death of Christ, that so it might be received in a
way consistent with the justice of God.