Marching to Zion
THE CONTRASTS (12:18–24): Two mountains are contrasted.
A. Mount Sinai (12:18–21)
1. The person (12:21): Moses.
2. The principle (12:18–20): The law of God.
B. Mount Zion (12:22–24)
1. The person (12:24a): Christ.
2. The principle (12:22–23, 24b): The grace of God.
We are marching to help
We are marching to hope
We are marching to the heavenly
The contrast between the earthly Mt. Sinai (vv. 18–21) and the heavenly Mt. Zion (vv. 22–24) is marked as strongly as in Gal. 4:24–26; the first is characterised by terrifying objects, the second by helping people
The innumerable angels to whom reference is made populate the scene and show God surrounded by his servants. This is what impresses most in this scene. God is no longer non-approachable or awe-inspiring. He dwells among a worshipping society. The reference to angels is particularly relevant in view of the discussion in chapters 1 and 2 on their relationship to Christ. These angels are the ‘ministering spirits’ sent out to serve.
Mount Zion. This is one of the hills on which the city of Jerusalem was built. It sometimes stands for that city (Matt 21:5), and stands here, of course, for that city as the home of God’s people. It is also called “the heavenly Jerusalem” and “the city of the living God.” Elsewhere in the NT there is the thought of the Jerusalem above (Gal 4:26, where again there is a contrast with Mount Sinai; cf. also Rev 3:12; 21:2, 10).
Seven successive goal posts are cited in ascending order of importance. They are flung from the pen of the writer like flitting shadows as the racer glides by them to the home base where he receives the award of immortality.
Up to the present moment the author has employed the oft-repeated exhortation, “let us come,” in one form or another. Now the exhortation has changed to the reassuring encouragement, ye are come. These believers are regarded as having their spiritual position in Christ. They are but to seal it with the confirmation of their hope. A series of contrasts between the Old and the New are suggested. They have not come to the terrors of Mount Sinai, but to the glories of Mount Zion. They have not come to the perishable materiality of the temporal, but to the imperishable spirituality of the eternal. They have not come to the exclusions and distance of the law, but to the inclusions and access of God’s love. The believers are at last come to the final superiority of Christ and Christianity: ye are come … to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel (v. 24). Here for the twelfth and last time the word better appears in the epistle. They have come to Jesus, who through His humanity made their final access to God possible, and there is none better than Jesus in all the universe, for He is God.
The first of the new glories to greet the believers’ vision as they enter the homestretch at the end of life’s race is Mount Zion, the symbolical location of the New Jerusalem, and the dwelling place of God Himself.
Second, in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (v. 22), is embodied and fulfilled all the glorious realities prefigured and promised by the earthly and temporal shadows that were cast before. The earthly Jerusalem was a city of dead sacrifices, a city of antiquated legalism that kills (2 Cor. 3:6). The heavenly Jerusalem is the city of the living God where those who have been resurrected unto new life in Christ dwell with Him forever. Barclay says, “There awaits him a new creation. This world with all its impermanence, with all its fears, with all its mysteries, with all its separations is gone; life for the Christian is recreated and made new”170 (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:1, 4–7).
In the third place, the innumerable joyful general assembly of the servant hosts of angels greets the winner’s gaze. Theirs is not the joy of salvation, but the shared joy of the saved (cf. Luke 15:7). They have faithfully ministered to the heirs of salvation during their course of life (cf. Heb. 1:14), and now they assemble to welcome the victorious believers into the eternal haven.
Fourth, the victorious believers had come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven (v. 23). It is the opinion of some that the ones constituting the church of the firstborn are those who were saved from the pre-Christian era by anticipatory faith in the Messiah. However, this hardly seems a likely view when considered in the light of Hebrews 11:39–40. A more probable view is that the term firstborn refers to Christ Himself, who was “the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29b), and the church is His body which has conformed to His image (cf. Rom. 8:29a). The firstborn received both the inheritance and the honor from his father. Since Christ is “the heir of God” His Father, and believers are “joint heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17), this brings all believers into the inheritance of Christ. Their inheritance is made secure by reason of their position as citizens of God’s kingdom—they are enrolled [registered] in heaven (cf. Matt. 6:33). Thus these victorious believers realize their common heritage with all other believers who have gone on before.
In the fifth instance, they are come to God the Judge of all (v. 23). The writer is ever aware of the fact that at the end of the road of life man will meet God. Christ’s death on the Cross judged sin once and for all, as it also established righteousness. Therefore man will stand ultimately in the presence of the just and righteous God of the universe. How he stands will depend on what he has done with Christ in this life. If he has come to the end of the race of life through faith and hope in Christ as His Savior and Great High Priest, he will stand approved before God, the Judge of all. If he has not come in the righteousness of Christ, he will not stand in that judgment (cf. Ps. 1:5). The holiness and glory of God are ever commensurate with His justice and righteousness.
Sixth, they had come to the spirits of just men made perfect (v. 23b). Three words characterize these men who have realized the final purpose of redemption. They are spiritual beings in their perfected state. Their transitory temporal bodies were not subject to perfection because they did not constitute the real man. They were but temporary tabernacles that housed their real spiritual personalities for a little time on earth. Now those spirits are perfected in their spiritual bodies. This is what Christ died to accomplish. It is the ultimate purpose of the whole redemptive plan. It is that which the author had in mind when he said “let us go on unto perfection” (Heb. 6:1).
But these are said to be the spirits, or spiritual personalities, of just men made perfect. This expression has definite theological content. These are men who have been justified, or made just or righteous, through faith in the merits of Christ’s death (cf. Rom. 5:1). Subsequent to their justification, their redeemed souls were perfected in divine love and grace.
Seventh, they had come to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel (v. 24). While Jesus is the ultimate goal of the Christian race, He is also the course that leads to that eternal life (John 14:6). He is at once the end or objective of the Christian life and the means that leads to that end. He is the mediator of the new covenant who made possible man’s redemption and reconciliation to God through the merits of His shed blood (cf. Heb. 8 and 9). Christ’s blood, referred to here as the blood of sprinkling (cf. 9:18–22), is set in contrast with the blood of Abel’s sacrifice. The blood of Abel’s sacrifice spoke prophetically of the blood of Christ. But Christ’s blood speaks both forgiveness and cleansing to the soul. Once more, and for the last time, Christ is revealed as better than all the Old Testament types and shadows. Abel’s sacrifice marked the first shedding of blood in sacrifice for sin by man. But it was only the blood of an animal, and thus it could do no more than point to the real sacrifice which was yet future. Christ, the God-man’s sacrifice, was the last, the real, and the final sacrifice made for sin. This He did by the shedding of His own blood for the salvation of all men.
