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that have been called may receive ... Vulg. ut morte intercedente in redemptionem earum praevaricationum quae erant ... The Old Covenant had been proved incapable of bringing men to perfection. God therefore provided them with fresh and more powerful help. At the same time He opened to them a nobler view of their end. In place of a material inheritance He shewed them an eternal inheritance. And the aim of the New Covenant was the attainment of the spiritual realities shadowed forth in the temporal blessings of Israel.

But the establishment of a New Covenant, a new and permanent relation between God and man, required as its preliminary condition the discharge of man's existing obligations. The sins which the Law had set in a clear light could not be ignored. The atonements provided for sin under the Law could not but be felt to be inadequate. They were limited in their application and so to speak arbitrary. Christ at last offered the sacrifice, perfect in efficacy and moral value, to which they pointed. This sacrifice was the characteristic basis of the New Covenant (Heb. 8:12).

Thus the death of Christ appears under a twofold aspect. His Blood is the means of atonement and the ratification of the Covenant which followed upon it.

For genevsqai eij" compare Mark 14:4 eij" tiv ... gevgonen ; and with different shades of meaning Lk. 13:19; Matt. 21:42 (LXX.); Rom. 11:9 (LXX.); 1 Cor. 15:45 (LXX.); Apoc. 8:11; 16:19; Acts 5:36; 1 Thess. 3:5; 1:5; 2 Cor. 8:14; Gal. 3:14; Eph. 4:32. Gen. prov" occurs 1 Pet. 4:12.

The phrase eij" ajpol. tw'n ... parabavsewn is remarkable: for redemption from the transgressions ...from their consequences and their power. The genitive expresses in a wide sense the object on which the redemption is exercised (‘redemption in the matter of the transgressions,’ ‘transgression- redemption’). So it is that elsewhere the genitive is used for that which is delivered: Rom. 8:23 th;n ajpoluvtrwsin tou' swvmato" . Eph. 1:14 eij" ajpol. th'" peripoihvsew" .

The transgressions are spoken of as ‘the transgressions that were under the first covenant.’ The phrase is general in its application. It includes all transgressions committed on the basis of Law, all transgressions against the revealed will of God made known as Law. jEpiv expresses the conditions, the accompanying circumstances, under which anything takes place, see Heb. 9:10.

In this connexion the covenant with Abraham (Acts 3:25) does not come into consideration. It was of the nature of a universal promise. The ‘first covenant’ was that between God and the Jewish people represented by Moses: the ‘new covenant’ that between God and men represented by Christ.

When the necessary condition has been satisfied ( qanavtou genomevnou eij" ajp. tw'n ... parabavsewn ) scope is given for the positive fulfilment of the Covenant, that they that have been called may receive in fact what had been promised before. Compare Heb. 6:12 klhronomouvntwn ta;" ejpagg. 6:15; 10:36; 11:13, 39; Gal. 3:14.

The blessing is no longer limited to a particular people. It is for all to whom the invitation has been sent (Acts 2:39; comp. 3:1).

The phrase oiJ keklhmevnoi , which occurs nowhere else in the epistles, is an echo of the Parables: Matt. 22:3, 4, 8; Luke 14:17, 24; comp. Apoc. 19:9. The word klhtoiv , though not very common, has a wide range (Rom., 1 Cor., Jude, Apoc.).


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