The City Of God
THE CITY OF GOD
HEBREWS 12:18-24
Have you accepted God’s invitation to come into his presence? If so, are you honoring God by enjoying all he wants to give you?
The seriousness of the issues involved is now brought out with a reminder of the inauguration of the old covenant. At Mount Sinai there were various fearful phenomena that are listed for us (12:18f.). The people who heard it all begged that they receive no more such messages (12:19), and even Moses, the man of God, could say, “I tremble with fear” (12:21). It is clear that the scene was one of terrifying grandeur. It emphasized the truth that God is not to be taken lightly.
But the purpose of drawing attention to Mount Sinai is not that we may concentrate on the terrors. They are there, but in the background. The emphasis is instead on the graciousness which is the characteristic of the new covenant. Not Mount Sinai but Mount Zion is the place to which Christians have come, and this is described as “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (12:22). There is a grandeur about this concept. We see this in the references to the angels, the inhabitants of heaven, and especially to God, now described as “a judge who is God of all” (12:23). While the author is stressing the graciousness of the new covenant, he does not lose sight of the fact that it includes elements of seriousness and even severity. The issues involved are of deep and lasting consequence. When we preach the gospel, we should not think that we are playing a kind of game in which it does not greatly matter who wins. We are offering people salvation from a lost eternity. And as every person must stand before the “judge who is God of all,” no one can evade the challenge.
But the climax is reached in the reference to Jesus Christ (12:24). There is one reference to him as the mediator of the new covenant, and one to his blood (which, as it brings blessing and cleansing, “speaks more graciously” than the blood that pleaded for revenge, Genesis 4:10). In a few words, the author has managed to include much meaning about the graciousness of Christ. Christ’s way is one of full salvation for us by free grace.