Hebrews Lesson
212 September 23,
2010
NKJ Psalm
119:11 Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You!
We are in Hebrews 12 and in this section we’re dealing with
the tale of two mountains, which I began last time. So open your Bibles to
Hebrews 12:18. We’ll pick up there
as sort of a reminder of where we ended last time. We only got to the first
part, the tale of two mountains dealing with Sinai last week, Zion this week.
While you’re turning there, you might remember me in prayer
over the next couple of days. A friend of mine who we had on our prayer list
for the last 6 or 7 months went to be with the Lord about Sunday a week ago.
They’re having the memorial service on Saturday morning at 11 o’clock. I’m not
participating in the service but we need to pray that the gospel would be made
clear. I hope it will be. It’s a Presbyterian Church. I’ve read their doctrinal
statement. I think the pastor will probably present the gospel from what I’ve
read on the website. Then I’m also going to be running into as I do at these
things I think four or five men that I was in ROTC with in college. That’s
always rather interesting, and I was talking to one today. In fact last time I
was thinking that if he showed up, I was going to have to take the time to see
if he was saved. When I was talking to him today I asked him if he would be at
the service.
He said, “No, he was going with his church on a missions
trip down to Mississippi to help, you know, rebuild some houses and whatever
was destroyed in Katrina.”
So that’s a partial answer. I’m not sure what church he is
in or anything so that’ll be sort of interesting to follow that. I’ll see him
at a reunion in about a month. It is always interesting when God keeps bringing
people back into our lives that we knew at one point and gives us the
opportunity to continue to be a witness to them.
As we come to this section here, this is the last part of
this exhortation section that began at 12:1 goes down to 24. Then we have a
warning in verse 25. To understand the significance of what is going on in 18
to 24 we have to have some idea of where this is headed. I want to take a
moment just to focus our attention on the challenge (the warning) that comes up
in 25 through 28. I’m going to read that first.
After we go through this section where we talk about the
fact that “you didn’t come to the mountain”, which was characterized by fear
and terror which was Mt. Sinai, "but you have come to the mountain of
God", which is Zion which is characterized as the eternal Jerusalem and
the presence of the saints of all the dispensations, there is a warning then
related to that that comes in 25 to 28.
NKJ Hebrews
12:25 See that you do not refuse Him who
speaks
The “Him who speaks” is the God who spoke at Sinai and the
God who again is one that speaks in relation to Mt. Zion. He is the judge
mentioned in verse 23 from Mt. Zion.
NKJ Hebrews
12:25 See that you do not refuse Him who
speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth,
That is Mt. Sinai.
much more shall we not escape
That is those who are related to Mt. Zion.
if we turn away from Him who speaks from
heaven,
NKJ
Hebrews
12:26 whose voice then shook the earth; but
now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth,
but also heaven."
That
is a statement of judgment. So God is spoken of as God the judge in verse 23.
Then that is developed in those last 4 verses. That is where we’re headed.
Verse
18 begins the contrast. This is a parallel contrast here that’s set up where
the hearers that he’s addressing who are Jewish believers in Christ. They have
trusted in Jesus as the Messiah.
We’re
told in Acts 4 that many priests came to accept Jesus as the Messiah –
believed in Jesus as the Son of God as a result of the message of John and
Peter during those first days after Pentecost. So it’s believed that a number of these priests were
probably those who had been believers since then and some who had been led to
the Lord secondarily by them and yet now they’re under persecution and pressure
from others. So they want to give up and bail out of their Christianity.
They’re
being reminded of the contrast once again between the Old Covenant and the New
Covenant; the Old Covenant represented by Mt. Sinai and the New Covenant
represented by the heavenly city of God (the heavenly New Jerusalem, Zion the
Mountain of God.)
So
initially the statement is that they did not come to the mountain.
NKJ
Hebrews
12:18 For you have not come to the mountain
that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness
and tempest,
19
and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged
that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.
The characteristic here is gloom. It is painted in a dark
picture with words that indicate something that is very not only somber but
also that has a very frightful, fearful kind of context.
There’s a parenthetical explanation then following in verses
20, 21.
NKJ Hebrews
12:20 (For they could not endure what was
commanded: "And if so much as a beast touches the mountain it shall be
stoned or shot with an arrow.
Actually I didn’t address that last time. That’s not in the
best manuscripts; and it’s only in the TR. So you’ll only find it in the King
James or the New King James translation, and it is deleted from the Majority
text. So all that you have there is “if so much as a beast touches the mountain
it shall be stoned.
NKJ Hebrews
12:21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses
said, "I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.
The point here is fear is what is the result of the
encounter with God’s law. Why? Because man can’t keep it. That was the whole
point of the law is not to show that this is a way to get to heaven; but that
it’s impossible to keep all of the Law. That’s why you have to have the
sacrifices. That’s why you have to have the Day of Atonement every year. Man
can’t keep the Law. There is no way we can acquire the kind of righteousness tsedaqah
that God requires in order to go to heaven.
NKJ Isaiah
64:6 … And all our righteousnesses are like
filthy rags;
Then there’s a contrast with Mt. Zion defined as the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.
So 12:18 focuses on that first mountain, the mountain of
Sinai where the Mosaic Law was given. Then the next section focuses on the New
Jerusalem. Now the New Jerusalem is most fully explained in Revelation
21:9-22:5 which we covered just recently in our study of Revelation.
Now just in terms of a summary of the section from 12:18
down through 21, there are 5 things that are mentioned there.
Now at this point we have the contrast and we’re going to go
forward. But before we go forward into the next section I want to take you to a
parallel passage (or a similar passage) in Galatians 4. Hold your place here in
Hebrews 13 and turn back to Galatians, Galatians 4.
Galatians is a wonderful short epistle. It is very easy I
think to understand Galatians. There are two parts to it, the first 2 chapters
and the last 4 chapters. The first 2 chapters have to do with the true gospel
and how a person is justified; the 4 chapters following have to do with how a
person is sanctified.
The key verse in Galatians actually comes across in
Galatians 3 when the apostle Paul says:
NKJ Galatians
3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in
the Spirit,
…in terms of their spiritual rebirth.
are you now being made perfect by the
flesh?
Or complete. Whenever you see the word translated “perfect”
in your Bible most often it is from the teleios word group and it means being made
complete.
So Paul says, “You started by the Spirit. Are you now trying to grow by the
flesh?”
And he draws a contrast between the flesh (which is the sin
nature or just human ability) to please God apart from the Holy Spirit and the
Holy Spirit. The problem that they faced was that there were these Judiazers
that came in behind Paul and Barnabas when they made the first trip to southern
Galatia and they went to Iconium and Lystra and Derbe. They were preaching the
gospel, preaching the gospel in synagogues, and they had a number of people who
trusted in Jesus as the Messiah.
But then these Jewish antagonists came in behind them who
were called Judiazers and they said: “It’s great that you get saved by just
faith in Jesus, but that’s not enough to really experience the fullness of
everything God has for you.”
I state it that way because that’s usually how you hear this
kind of thing expressed today. “You didn’t get it all at the cross. You need to
have a little fuller gospel. You need to get a little more of the Spirit, a
little more of God or something.” And so there is something that you didn’t get
at salvation that you have to work for or earn or get through ritual or
mystical experience or some other means.”
What the Judiazers were saying is that you can get saved by
faith alone in Jesus but you’re really not going to experience what God has for
you unless you also are circumcised and enter into the Abrahamic covenant with
God as a Jew. That’s why they were called Judiazers because they’re bringing
them back basically under the Law as the means for spiritual growth.
So Paul sort of stops here with this terminology. Notice the
key words here are spirit and perfect and flesh. The next time you see those
words appear together is in Galatians 5:16 when Paul says that we are not to
walk by means of the flesh but by means of the Spirit.
NKJ Galatians
5:16 …Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not
fulfill
There is that word again, teleioo – to bring to completion.
the lust of the flesh.
So you have teleioo for completion and then Spirit.
Then he goes on to talk about the battle between the flesh
and the Spirit and the importance of walking by the Spirit who then produces
the fruit of the Spirit in the Christian life. It’s not by law. It’s by means
of walking by the Spirit.
But he spins from 3:3 to 5:16 basically developing his
argument of why the Law can’t produce spiritual maturity. He covers this and
talks about justification by faith and that we are justified by faith alone and
not by the works of the Law. That’s the question he asked in Galatians 3:2.
NKJ
Galatians
3:2 …Did you receive the Spirit by the
works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Then he develops that. Then he comes down to Galatians 4
starting in verse 21, he’s going to draw a contrast between law and grace; and
he’s going to use sort of an allegorical application from Hagar and Sarah.
NKJ Galatians
4:21 Tell me, you who desire to be under
the law, …
That means the Judiazers, those who were influenced by the
Judiazers, those who think that in order to have the full experience, the full
blessing from God you have to enter in back under the Law.
NKJ Galatians
4:21 Tell me, you who desire to be under
the law, do you not hear the law?
NKJ
Galatians
4:22 For it is written that Abraham had two
sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman.
NKJ
Galatians
4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman
That is Ishmael who is the son produced through Hagar.
was
born according to the flesh,
It was Abraham’s attempt to fulfill the promise of God by
his own efforts apart from just being relaxed and trusting in God to provide
what He had promised through Sarah.
and he of the freewoman through
promise,
God had promised Abraham He would give him a son through
Sarah. Abraham and Sarah tried to do it according to the flesh.
NKJ
Galatians
4:24 which things are symbolic.
Literally, it’s which things are allegorical. So this is the
only time where Scripture uses allegory, which is taking a literal event and
then taking it to have a representative or symbolic significance.
For these are the two covenants: the
one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar –
That is, the Mosaic Law gives birth to bondage because you
have become a slave to works. You’ve become a slave to trying to please God
recognizing that at any moment you could commit some sin or some act for which
you could not have forgiveness and for which you would have to pay eternal
punishment.
So being under the Law is related to bondage and slavery;
and that is identified as Hagar.
NKJ Galatians
4:25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in
Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her
children --
…talking about the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the
Jewish establishment in Judea that had rejected the free offer of grace through
Jesus Christ.
NKJ Galatians
4:26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which
is the mother of us all.
So here we see two different Jerusalems; an earthly
Jerusalem and a heavenly Jerusalem.
NKJ Galatians
4:26 but the Jerusalem above is free, which
is the mother of us all.
NKJ
Galatians
4:27 For it is written: "Rejoice, O
barren, You who
do not bear! Break forth and shout, You who are not in labor! For the desolate
has many more children Than she who has a husband."
This is where Paul is taking in verse 27 a quote from Isaiah
41 and applying it to the situation that it is God who is the one who produces
life in the barren womb just as He produces spiritual life where there is
spiritual death.
NKJ
Galatians
4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are
children of promise.
Church age believers are children of promise because we are
trusting in Christ and Christ alone for salvation in contrast to the Judiazers
who are trusting in the law for salvation or for sanctification. What we see
here is this contrast between the Law, which is Mt. Sinai, and the heavenly
Jerusalem, which is going to represent grace because it represents the future
destiny of all believers.
I pointed out when we studied through Revelation 21 down
through 22:5 that our destiny isn’t in heaven. We sort of muddy the waters when
we say when we die we’re going to go to heaven. Well that’s true because we’re
face-to-face with the Lord and we’ll be in a heavenly destiny for a short
period of time for the Judgment Seat of Christ and during the time that the
tribulation is going on on the earth. But then we return to the earth and our
presence will be on the earth during the Millennial Kingdom ruling and reigning
with Christ. Then the New Jerusalem will come down to the earth in eternity. We
don’t spend eternity in heaven; we spend eternity in the New Jerusalem –
Revelation 21.
This is related then in this contrast between Mt Sinai and
Jerusalem; Mt Sinai and Mt Zion, the Old Covenant of the Law and the New
Covenant.
Last time I stopped in looking at the New Covenant which is
identified in Jeremiah 31:31-34.
NKJ Jeremiah
31:31 " Behold, the days are coming,
says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah --
Now this is quoted verbatim in Hebrews 8 so the writer of
Hebrews has already reminded his readers that they have seen that the New
covenant is called the New covenant because it replaces the Old covenant.
That’s the only reason he quoted it is to emphasize the fact that if it weren’t
called the New covenant then maybe the Old covenant would be seen as having
more permanence. But because it was called the New covenant and it’s said here
in verse 32 that “it’s not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of
Egypt.” We see that the New covenant was intended on the basis of Old Testament
revelation to replace the Old covenant. So the Old covenant was always intended
to be temporary; and it’s inadequate in terms of providing for salvation or
providing for eternal destiny or for sanctification.
So the New covenant is that contract that God initiates with
the House of Israel and the House of Judah. The sacrifice for the New covenant
is the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross. The New covenant doesn’t begin.
It’s not instigated or inaugurated (those are the terms that are used –
very important to understand that distinction) until Jesus returns. It’s at
that point that the New covenant goes into effect.
Now we’re going to get a lot of this a lot of study on this
as we go through Acts because one of the first big issues we run into in the
study of Acts is in Acts 2 when Peter quotes from Joel 2 and says, “This is
what the prophet Joel spoke of,” when he’s talking about their speaking in
languages on the day of Pentecost. He identifies that with what Joel said Joel
2, Joel 2:28-32. That is in relation to the coming of the day of the Lord and
the establishment of the kingdom in the future. That’s when the New covenant
goes into effect.
There’s a lot of discussion on this because people want to
say, “Oh, see the New covenant went into effect on the day of Pentecost, but
not completely; it is partially here.”
So the term theologians use is “It’s already here, but not
yet.” It’s a dualism. It’s dialectic. It’s partially here; but it’s not fully
here. I always wondered about that and there’s a lot of confusion and a lot of
fuzziness in the way people talk about this.
They’ll try to say: “Well, the New covenant is here
partially because we see that there’s knowledge of the Holy Spirit and there’s
the forgiveness of sin. So that part’s here. But the rest of it’s not.” That
just doesn’t do justice to how the passages read. So we’ll get into that as we
get into the study.
Paul says, “We’re ministers of the New covenant because
that’s where we’re headed just as we are headed for the New Jerusalem the Zion
City of God. But we’re not there yet. But look at how this is mentioned when we
get into 12:22.
NKJ
Hebrews
12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion…
Are they there yet? No, they’re not. It is a perfect tense
verb, which indicates completed action, because once they trusted Christ as
Savior their eternal destiny is so secure that it can be spoken of as having
become a completed action even though they’re not actually there yet. So the
very fact that he uses a perfect tense verb here supports the whole doctrine of
eternal security – that because they were already saved or justified by
putting their faith alone in Christ alone; then their eternal destiny is
secured. It’s not going to change. It is certain.
NKJ
Hebrews
12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…
That is all one phrase that refers to the same thing. This
is the same city that Abraham was seeking and looking forward to in Hebrews
11:10.
NKJ Hebrews
11:10 …waited for the city which has
foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
This is the first indication here that Mt. Zion (and this
city of the living God) is not the earthly Jerusalem. This is the future
Jerusalem. This is the heavenly Mt. Zion.
There’s another place to go to here to show that Mt. Zion
here does not refer to the earthly Mt. Zion but to the heavenly Mt. Zion.
Now some of you may be wondering where in the world Mt. Zion
is. Well when you go to Israel and you are there at the Temple Mount, that is
not Mt. Zion. It is believed that the Temple is built on Mt. Moriah, which is
where Abraham was to have sacrificed Isaac. If you are facing the Temple from
the south, then there is a little bit of a higher ridge line up to your left
that would be to the west of the Temple Mount, and that is Mt. Zion. Mt Zion is
the location where the Jebusites had a fortress where David took it back in the
early days. It’s also right there at Mt. Zion you enter into the old city
there. That’s the Mt. Zion gate.
If you are going in that gate those of you who have been there that’s where
they had all the bullet holes. It’s just all shot up because that’s where there
was a tremendous amount of fighting during the Israeli War for Independence in
1948 as various Jewish outfits were trying to penetrate into the Old City which
was under the control of the Arab forces; and they were trying to rescue about
2000 Jews that were basically isolated (had been isolated) and starving. They
were trying to get in there to deliver them. They never fully succeeded in
regaining control of the Old City at that time. It wasn’t taken until 1967.
That is the literal earthly Mt. Zion.
Let’s turn into the Old Testament to Psalm 50 where we see
one of several examples in the Old Testament where Mt. Zion is not just applied
to the earthly Mt. Zion, but is also applied to the heavenly abode of God.
Psalm 50 is a psalm of Asaph.
NKJ
Psalm
50:1 A Psalm of Asaph. The Mighty One, God
the LORD, Has spoken and called the earth From the rising of the sun to its
going down.
It begins speaking of Him as the omnipotent one, the
all-powerful one. God is the generic term El. Then He’s identified by His individual name
YHWH indicated in your Bible probably by small caps. Whenever you see God or
Lord in small caps that indicates it’s a translation of the Hebrew word Yahweh which
is the personal name of God taken from the verb hajah, the Hebrew verb hajah,
meaning to be.
God said to Moses when Moses said, “Explain to Me your name
so that I can tell people who sent me,” God said, “I AM that I AM,” indicating
that He is the eternally existing one, the self existing one. He had no
beginning and no end.
So the psalm begins: NKJ
Psalm
50:1 A Psalm of Asaph. The Mighty One, God
the LORD, Has spoken
Again emphasizing that God is the one who speaks. He speaks
and everything comes into existence. He also speaks in judgment, which is a
theme of this psalm.
and called the earth From the rising of
the sun to its going down.
NKJ
Psalm
50:2 Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty,
God will shine forth.
This is out of heaven, which is God’s abode. Zion here
speaks of the heavenly throne room of God, speaking of God as the judge.
NKJ
Psalm
50:3 Our God shall come, and shall not keep
silent;
He’s coming from somewhere. He’s not coming from Jerusalem.
This is written in Jerusalem speaking of God coming from His heavenly abode,
which is referred to as Zion.
A fire shall devour before Him,
So this is referring to God’s coming in the future in
judgment and devouring fire indicating His judgment on mankind.
And it shall be very tempestuous all
around Him.
NKJ
Psalm
50:4 He shall call to the heavens from
above, And to the earth, that He may judge His people:
That is Israel.
What He cries out is given in verses 5 and 6.
NKJ Psalm
50:5 "Gather My saints together to Me,
Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice."
That would be a reference to the Mosaic covenant. He’s
calling to Israel.
NKJ
Psalm
50:6 Let the heavens declare His
righteousness, For God Himself is Judge. Selah
So here we see the emphasis of righteousness related to the
character of God because righteousness is the basis of His judgment. When does
judgment take place? This is related to the judgment that will take place I
believe at the end of the Tribulation period where the angels go forth and will
gather to Israel all of the surviving Jews upon the earth, the elect and the
non-elect; and then they’re going to be separated.
NKJ Psalm
50:7 "Hear, O My people, and I will
speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you; I am God, your God!
8 I will not rebuke you for
your sacrifices Or your burnt offerings, Which are continually before Me.
9 I will not take a bull from
your house, Nor
goats out of your folds.
10 For every beast of the
forest is Mine,
And the
cattle on a thousand hills.
11
I know all the birds of the mountains,
And the wild beasts of the field are Mine.
He says here that He is not going to judge them on the basis
of their sacrifices but on the basis of their relationship to Him. That is seen
when you get down to about verse 22.
NKJ
Psalm
50:22 "Now consider this, you who forget
God, Lest I tear you
in pieces, And there be none to deliver:
They have forgotten God. So the issue is as we’ve seen many
times in the Old Testament is that God does not want their sacrifices. He wants
their trust. He wants them to be
obedient to Him. Disobedience would refer to those who forgot Him, indicated as
the wicked earlier back in verse 16.
So here we see turning back to Hebrews that Mt. Zion
represents the heavenly abode of God and where God dwells.
NKJ
Hebrews
12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to
the city of the living God, …
…which is identified then as the heavenly Jerusalem. We have
seen in Galatians 4:23-24 a reference to the heavenly Jerusalem. Revelation 21
talks about the New Jerusalem descending on the earth, and that is what this is
describing.
We are going to see another dimension here or reference to
the inhabitants of the New Jerusalem. Now we studied that when we were in
Revelation 21, but we get a little bit different viewpoint here. This has to be
a reference to something that is yet future.
The first inhabitants of the New Jerusalem that are
mentioned here are the innumerable company of angels. This “innumerable
assembly” some may say are of angels. These are the holy or elect angels.
There’s a little bit of a translation issue here that doesn’t always even
always come through in the English.
But I think they’ve tried to include that in the meaning of the word
“company.” It is this word paneguris, which comes over into the English, and it indicates a
festive gathering or it can indicate an assembly.
So we have this assembly of angels. The word translated
innumerable is the same word that we have over in Revelation 4-5 when you have
myriads upon myriads of angels. They are an innumerable number. You can’t
number them. However it is a finite number but it is beyond the scope of man’s
ability to comprehend. So the first inhabitants of the New Jerusalem are going
to be angels.
Now we saw in our study of Revelation 21 that there are
angels who are stationed at the 12 gates around the New Jerusalem. They are
present in the New Jerusalem. We have the first group here that’s the
innumerable company or group or assembly of angels.
The Greek text is a little difficult and the scholars are
split as to whether that word that is translated "company" is applied
to this clause or the next clause. I think it probably goes to this particular
clause and that we are talking here about this assembly of angels that are also
spoken of in various places in the Old Testament as gathering together in an
assembly.
So they come together; they sing for joy; they praise God;
they worship God, as we see in Revelation 5:10-11. Also another example of
this, the angels singing praise to God would be in Daniel 7:10 – this
joyful assembly that is praising God. That is the first inhabitant of the New
Jerusalem.
We come to verse 23, and we have the second group.
NKJ Hebrews
12:23 to the general assembly and church of
the firstborn who
are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just
men made perfect,
Sometimes this is translated assembly here; but it's ekklesia. It
is the Church of the Firstborn. Now that term firstborn is an important term to
understand. It is applied to Israel back in Exodus 4. But in the New Testament
especially in Hebrews 1, the phrase firstborn is a term that relates to Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ is the firstborn. He is the firstborn in Hebrews 1:6
because of His preeminence among men in His humanity. So firstborn does not
always indicate first in terms of order, but it can indicate preeminence in
terms of position. This word is used and applied to Christ in passages such as
Colossian 1:15, 1:8 and Hebrews 1:6. These refer to Jesus in terms of His
preeminent position by virtue of His being the God-Man and having died on the
cross for our sins.
This first phrase “the general assembly and the church of
the firstborn” is a phrase that applies to the same group. Not only are angels
present in the new heavens and new earth, but we also have church age believers
who are going to be present in the new heavens and new earth under this category.
This is their presence. Let me go back to previous
verse.
NKJ
Hebrews
12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion…
That's a physical location and within that location you have
the angels you have the church age believers and you also have God who is the
judge of all.
Now we saw in Revelation 21 that God the Father and God the
Son and God the Holy Spirit will take up residence on the earth during the new
heavens and new earth. The text in Revelation 21:3 says that there's no need
for a temple in the new heavens and new earth. There is no need for a temple
because God is taking up His abode with us, and the land.
So here we have a reference to God as the judge of all who
is present in the new Jerusalem.
We have the angels (number one), we have church age saints
(resurrected, rewarded saints) in the new Jerusalem, and we have the presence
of God in the new Jerusalem. Then the next category says:
to
the spirits of just men made perfect,
That again is the word teleios, the idea of already being made complete.
This is a description of Old Testament saints and tribulation saints as well.
The church age believers are in the category General Assembly of the church of
the firstborn. Then the believers from the Old Testament and the Tribulation
period are just men made perfect.
Now how do men become just? They become just only by
receiving the imputation of righteousness. Genesis 15:7, the Scripture says
that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him or imputed to him as
righteousness. This is repeated again several places in the New Testament and
is a foundation for understanding that righteousness or justice is ours only by
virtue of it being given to us is a gift by faith, not by works. Old Testament
saints and Tribulation saints are indicated here because they are not members
of the church—that’s only during this dispensation—they are
indicated as just men made perfect. They have now entered into phase 3
glorification and are present in the heavenly Jerusalem.
Genesis 15:6 is the basis understanding justification by
faith alone.
Then we have the presence of Jesus, Jesus the Mediator of
the New Covenant. So we have God the judge being God the Father and now of
Jesus the Mediator of the New covenant. He is the Mediator the New covenant by
virtue of His sacrifice on the cross where He paid the penalty for sin. That
sacrifice is a foundation for the New covenant. It is His death, which is
indicated by the word blood.
Now when we see this phrase, the blood of Christ, the shed
blood of Christ or, we are saved by the blood, is a metaphor in Scripture where
blood represents something. Shed blood represents a violent death, and so blood
represents death of some kind. When we read “to the blood of sprinkling,” it
really speaks of a death that has occurred. It is not Jesus physical death that
saves us from sin. It is His spiritual depth. His spiritual death occurred when
He separated judicially from God the Father. Scripture tells us that He who
knew no sin was made sin for us in 2 Corinthians 5.
NKJ 2
Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin
to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Jesus does not become sinful. He is not corrupted by sin. He
does not become personally sinful. He receives the imputation of our sin so
that He can bear the punishment for us as our substitute but He remains
personally impeccable. He never sins; He just bears the penalty. It is a legal
transaction where God assigns to Him our sin.
Now that's very important to understand terms in terms of
the parallel. Jesus in terms of His character never becomes a sinner. He never
becomes unrighteous. In the same way that when we are justified and His
righteousness is credited to us, we don’t become experientially righteous, do
we? We are still experientially sinners and sinful and fallen. We still have a
sin nature, and we are still corrupt. But legally we have been assigned His
righteousness so that it is His righteousness that’s the basis for God's
judgment of us that He declares us to be just, not because of our character but
because of Christ’s righteousness. So if we flip that around when Christ is on
the cross His character never changes; He remains impeccable or sinless. It is
just that He is legally credited with our sin so that He then pays the penalty
for that. That occurred in those three hours between twelve noon and 3 pm when
darkness came over Golgotha and over the city of Jerusalem so that men could
not see Him suffering bearing the penalty for sin on the cross. It is the only
time He screamed out when He was on the cross.
NKJ
Mark
15:34 …My God, My God, why have You forsaken
Me?"
It is during that time that He bore the penalty for sin. But
He doesn’t die physically. When it is over and the payment has been made, then
Jesus died physically. That’s not to say His physical death wasn't significant
or didn't play a role; it does, but not in our salvation. It is not His
physical death that pays the penalty for sin.
NKJ
Hebrews
12:24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new
covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
That is he uses the word “sprinkling” here to connect what
happens on the cross back to the sacrifices of the Old Testament where when the
lamb was killed when his throat is cut and the blood from the lamb was
sprinkled (or "splattered", which is probably a better translation)
upon the altar indicating that there is a payment for sin. It is the death of
Christ on the cross that speaks “better things than that of Abel.”
Now it is interesting.
He doesn't go back to Moses, does he? He doesn't go back to the
sacrifices in the Mosaic Law. Now we might think that's what he would do
because he's contrasting Sinai with Zion. So why doesn't he go back to Moses?
Why doesn’t he go back to the Levitical offerings? Why doesn't he go back to
all of those sacrifices or the Day of Atonement sacrifice that are within the
Mosaic Law? Why does he go all the way back to Abel? The reason he goes all the
back to Abel is that's the first mention of a sacrifice in the Old Testament
and by going back to the very first one he is including the entire sacrificial
system that predated and anticipated the sacrifice of on the cross. It would have
been wrong if he had just gone to the Mosaic sacrifices because that could have
been distinguished from the non-Mosaic sacrifices that preceded it. So by going
all the way back to Abel, what the writer is saying is that the death of Christ
on the cross is superior to any animal sacrifice leading up to the cross. It is
at the cross that sins are truly and actually paid for.
The bottom line is that Sinai represents law; it represents
slavery; it represents something that is impossible for man to achieve. In
contrast now, we have salvation and free grace; we have an eternal destiny that
is secure. It is ours not on the basis of an animal sacrifice, but on the basis
of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.
Then he is going to make the application as we go into the
next section, which we’ll get to next time. He then applies it. He says, “So in
light of all of this:
NKJ Hebrews
12:25 See that you do not refuse Him who
speaks.
Don’t become negative towards God. Don't turn your back on
God. When God commands, then we need to listen.
NKJ Hebrews
12:25 See that you do not refuse Him who
speaks. For if they did not escape …
And they didn’t. Remember the Exodus generation was
grumbling and complaining in the wilderness. Because of that and because of
their disobedience, because of the fact that when they got to Kadesh Barnea and
they did not trust God to give them the victory in Canaan when they went in
that when the 12 spies came back and only two of them said, “Yes, we can do
what God said because God’s going to fulfill His promise."
The other ten said, “No, we can't because there are giants
in the land, there are too many of them and they have fortified cities.”
The right people said, “No, we can't trust God.” So because
of that they went into the sin unto death. They did not escape the judgment of
God.
So verse 26, we’re reminded that God is going to bring
ultimate judgment upon the earth. This is the focal point of 26 down through
verse 28.
Then in verse 13 we’re going to go into the concluding
exhortation, which begins with a series of commands. It is just a list of
spiritual and moral imperatives that are to characterize the Christian life. So
we will come back next time and focus on the last part of Hebrews 12.
Any questions? Jeff
Jeff : “In imputations it seems like you’re saying two
imputations one judgment and one sin.”
No. The imputation is that our sins are imputed to Christ,
then they are judged by God; He is judged by God. So the judgment is not an
imputation; the judgment is on the imputation.
Jeff: “Are you saying that the imputation was judged in our
place but He had to receive us sins to be judged?”
Right, right. The judgment is the condemnation or the legal
penalty. The imputation is what Jesus received from us so that then God legally
credits to Him so then God can legally judge them.
Let’s close in prayer.