Jenkyn:

Obs. I. Grace whereby we are changed, much excels grace whereby we are only curbed. The sanctification wherewith the faithful were said to be adorned, was such as cured sin, as well as covered it; not a sanctification that did absconders, but abscinders; not only repress, but abolish corruption. The former, restraining grace, is a fruit only of general mercy over all God’s works, Psal. cxlv. 9; common to good and bad, binding the hand, leaving the heart free; withholding only from some one or few sins tying us now. and loosening us by and by; intended for the good of human society, doing no saving good to the receiver: in a word, only inhibiting the exercise of corruption for a time, without any real diminution of it; as the lions that spared Daniel were lions still, and had their ravenous disposition still, as appeared by their devouring others, although God stopped their mouths for that time. But this sanctifying grace with which the faithful are here adorned, as it springs from God’s special love in Christ, so it is proper to the elect, works upon every part in some measure, body soul, and spirit, abhors every sin, holds out to the end, and is intended for the salvation of the receiver. It not only inhibits the exercise of corruption, but mortifies, subdues, diminishes it, and works a red change; of a lion making a lamb; altering the natural disposition of the soul, and making a new man in every part and faculty.

William Jenkyn, An Exposition Upon the Epistle of Jude (London: Samuel Holdsworth, Paternoster Row, 1839), 12

Jenkyn:

Two things are here principally contained. 1. A duty; “1ooking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ:” where he sets down, 1. What was to be regarded; “the mercy of Christ.” 2. How it was to be regarded by “looking for” it. 2. An inducement encouraging to the performance of that duty; eternal life.”

In the first branch two thin are to be explained. I. What the apostle means by “mercy,” and “the mercy of Christ.”

2. What by “looking for” it.

1. What is meant by “mercy,” to eleos. I have discoursed on those words, ” Mercy to you,” p. 26, 27. To avoid needless repetition, I only say, that mercy as attributed to man is such a sympathy or compassion of heart as inclines us to relieve the miserable. But as attributed to God and Christ in glory, as here, it notes either,

1. A gracious disposition or in for sympathy and compassion, they are not, as learned Zanchius observes, essential

to mercy in itself, but accidental to it, in regard of our present state.

2 The effects and expressions of mercy, or the actual helping of us out of our distresses; and so God is said to have mercy on us, and show mercy to us.

Now these effects of mercy are either common or special. Common, such as are afforded to all men and creatures, Psal. cxlvii. 9; Luke vi. 36, &c. Special, bestowed upon the elect, who are the vessels of mercy, and who only have the inward effects of mercy, in preventing and following grace; the outward, in justifying and glorifying mercy bestowed upon them. And thus mercy is principally to be taken in in this place, and that peculiarly for those gracious expressions and discoveries of mercy which shall be shown toward the faithful in acquitting and delivering them at Christ’s second coming, or coming to judgment. And this is called mercy in Scripture, 2 Tim. i. 18, where the apostle, speaking of Onesiphorus, says “that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.” And deservedly it is so called…

William Jenkyn, An Exposition Upon the Epistle of Jude (London: Samuel Holdsworth, Paternoster Row, 1839), 346.

Hughes:

1) Hebrews 2:9:

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels [Phil 2:7. 8, 9.] for [or by] the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour [Acts 2:33.]; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man [Jn 3:16 & 12:32; Roms 5:18, & 8:32, 2 Cor 5:15; 1 Tim 2:6, 1 Jn 2:2.].

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels: this second application of the psalmist’s words demonstrates Jesus, the gospel Prophet, to be the man or Adam intended by the Spirit there; and his humiliation and exaltation to be the matter asserted of him: see ver. 7.

For the suffering of death. crowned with glory and honor: the reason or end of his diminution, in respect of angels, for a little while, and of his necessity of his being man, was, that he might be crucified and die, Phil. ii. 7-11, and thereby merit for himself n crown of honor and glory. This was given him for his giving himself to be a sacrifice for sin, and by his own blood to expiate it.

That he by the grace of God; the principle determining. which was God’s good pleasure; he alone, out of his free love and favour to sinners, ordered this, as John iii. 16; 1 John iv. 9. Therefore the Hebrews had no reason of being offended with him as they were, 1 Cor. i. 23.

Should taste death; a metaphor to express to die as a sacrifice, making satisfaction to Divine justice, and expiating sins, Isa. liii.10. All his sufferings in body and soul, which were many and bitter, are here intended, and their completion by death, Matt. xxvi. 39, 42, intimating by his taste of this deadly cup, his sipping of it, but not having swallowed it: and it is a metaphor allusive to the Grecian customs, who put men to death by giving them a cup of poison, as the Athenians executed Socrates.

For every man; to render sin remissible to all persons, and them salvable, God punishing man’s sin in him, and laying on him the iniquities of us all, Isa. liii. 4-6; 1 John ii. 2; and so God became propitious and pleasable to all; and if all are not saved by it, it is because they do not repent and believe in him, 2 Cor. v. 19-21: compare John x. 15. This was evident to and well known by these Hebrews,, as if they saw it, the work, concomitants, and effect of it demonstrating it. And this now in the gospel is evident to faith: it was so certainly visible and evidently true, as not to be denied but by infidels. [Some spelling modernized; italics original; and underlining mine.]

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Otes:

But to leave this, note that Christ here is called our Lord; which he is two ways:

Iure creationis.
Iure redemptionis.

First, By right of creation [Heb. 1:2.]: for by him God made the world, that he gave his only begotten Son to save the world [John 3:16.]: Hereupon says Fail, “Ye are bought with a price.” Now redeeming is either by price and paying, or by power and force. Christ has done both; he gave a price to God, “And gave himself a ransom for all men,” [Titus 2:6.] “He came by water and blood,” [ 1 John 5.] not by water only, but by water and blood. In water, is signified washing; by blood, redemption.

Secondly, by his Power he redeems, and has taken us from the Devil. So faith the Author to the Hebrews, “He has delivered us from death, and him that has the Lordship of death,” [Heb. 2.] And says John says, that “he saw a great battle in Heaven, Michael and his Angels fought against the Dragon, and the Dragon fought and his Angels, but prevailed not, neither was their place any more found in Heaven,” [Apoc. 12:7.]. It was a greater matter to Christ to redeem the World, than to make the World. He made it in six days, but he was thirty and three years in redeeming it; he made all with a word, and the host of them by the breath of his mouth. “By the word of the Lord were the Heavens made, and the host of them by the breath of his mouth,” [Psal. 33:6.]. For the letter (He) in Hebrew is but a breath: But he redeemed it with a great price, not with silver and gold, but with blood, not with blood of Bulls and Goates, but with his own precious Blood [1 Pet. 1:18.]: Gold and silver are but red earth, and white earth, which the error of man has made to be esteemed; but the blood of Christ was so precious, that as a Father, Tanti quid vales? what is of equal value price with it? The least drop of Christ’s blood was of such value, in regards of the person, that it was able to redeem ten thousand world; but less than Christ’s blood could not redeem one Soul.

And there were divers and sundry effusions of his blood. The first blood he shed was at his Circumcision, when he was but eight days old; which S. Bernard calls Maturum martyium, a timely martyrdom [De passione Dom. cap. 36.]: to which he further adds, Vix natus est Coeli glorlia, Coeli divitae, deliciae dulcis Jesus, & ecce recenti ortui crucis dolor copulatur; Scarce was sweet Jesus come into the world; who was the Glory, the Riches, the Delight of Heaven, but he underwent the painfulness of the Cross.

The second effusion of blood was in his Agony, whereof Saint Bernard speaks thus, Ecce quam rubicundus, & quam totus rubicundus, Behold, how red, and how wholly red he is? For Saint Luke affirms, that his sweat was like “Drops of blood” trickling down to the ground.

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