V. 5.— For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.
For unto the angels.— Here the Apostle returns to the subject of Christ’ s superiority to angels. The Apostles reasoned from the Scriptures, not because their own authority was insufficient, confirmed as it was by the miracles which they wrought, but to show that the Old and New Testaments are in perfect harmony, and that the latter is the fulfilling of the former. Believers are, also, thus taught to prove everything by the Word of God. If the ambassadors of Christ proved their doctrine by the Scriptures of the Old Testament, much more should uninspired men prove what they teach by the Word of God. What is not contained in Scripture is no part of Divine truth.
World to come.— This is evidently the new, or Gospel dispensation; and, perhaps, in contrast with this the Apostle speaks of “ this present evil world,” Galatians 1:4, from which Christ came to deliver His people. The first, the earthly or natural Adam, was at the head of the first world. The second, the heavenly and spiritual Adam, is at the head of the new world, which God foretells by the prophet as a new creation. “ For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Isaiah 65:17. God made the worlds, both the present and that which is to come, by His Son. Hebrews 1:2. We have seen that the old dispensation was subjected to the angel of the covenant; but He rules the new dispensation, in the character of the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh.
The great object of the epistle is the development of the glory of the new dispensation, and he begins by giving the most conclusive proof of the superiority of its Author to the angels of God. We enter the first world by birth; we are introduced to the second by being born again. Adam, the head of the old creation, was of the earth earthy; Christ, the head of the new, is the Lord from heaven.
Whereof we speak.— The Apostle’ s object was to speak of the things belonging to the world to come, the new creation.
{"canonical_mapping_status":"native_coordinates_only; no canonical mapping inferred","footnote_boundary_status":"whole_native_row_preserved; no independent-note segmentation or note-count claim","html_tags":{"br":3,"p":2},"id":"sqlite3:e2c67c115bea27de56a77b3df5055badba7a7c7a47f4d2f11c01e37412e26570:commentaries:147","native_body_column":"text","native_module_metadata":{"$context_sha256":"4d9a3c83183199d100c8b5c124c5640fe95b8e810b05485b6c38dec3947f0997"},"native_reference":{"book_number":650,"chapter_number_from":2,"chapter_number_to":2,"verse_number_from":5,"verse_number_to":5},"native_rowid":147,"native_table":"commentaries","projection":"HTML character data with explicit block newlines; no text-node deletion or whitespace folding; original HTML retained","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"native-verse-keyed-module-record","semantic_kind_reviewed":false,"source_family_classification":"sermonindex","source_html":{"$text_sha256":"38bde6af87c4038acb4ce33a5ae898bd183abab739a8efa07aacff1b86bb82e2"},"source_html_sha256":"38bde6af87c4038acb4ce33a5ae898bd183abab739a8efa07aacff1b86bb82e2","source_locator":{"$context_sha256":"f09779fc877e039a5f889a3d0225c9bba9062625d14e26763d3dc752288273f5"},"source_origin_path":"SI-JHALDANE.commentaries.SQLite3","source_sha256":"e2c67c115bea27de56a77b3df5055badba7a7c7a47f4d2f11c01e37412e26570"}