Hebrews 12:18-29 - From Judgment to Safety from Sin

Hebrews 12:18-29

The Glorious Company

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. 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.” 21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 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, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Hear the Heavenly Voice

25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, 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.” 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.

We who have come to be in Christ do not come for judgment, but knowing we are born under judgment on our sin inherited from Adam and daily exercised in willing disregard of disobedience, knowing this we come to find forgiveness and reconciliation through repentance and faith to the redemption of our sentence being commuted by Him.  Unlike God’s people quivering in fear at the door of the mountain of Sinai where the moral Law of the Ten Commandments was written by the finger of the Almighty Himself amidst a fearful display of lightning and thundering of His holy voice from above, we have heard from the suffering and death of His sacrifice for us on the tree of our curse (Colossians 2:14) as the requirement to earn salvation by keeping the Law was nailed to that curse with Him who atoned for our sin once and for all time if we believe and receive Him and His work there for us.  Moses himself was protected but still admitted that he was “exceedingly afraid and trembling.”  We, however, accepted Him who spoke to us from the place of suffering on that cross and have escaped the wrath of God who shook the earth at Sinai and at the death of Jesus Christ (Matthew 27:50-51) on that smaller but more significant hill of Golgotha (John 19:17-18).  He here promises to yet once more shake the entire earth (Haggai 2:6, Isaiah 34:4) along with heaven above when all this sin stained corrupted creation has the sin taken away from our presence to leave only what He makes new along with us in Him with incorruptible bodies guaranteed by His own resurrection preceding ours to come.  Since we know and are assured that we are to receive this unshakable kingdom, we can have and show grace to serve our God in a way that is acceptable to Him in our godly fear with divine shock and awe at His mighty hand in action for all creatures and creation.  Truly our God is a consuming fire (Exodus 24:17, 2 Peter 3:10, 12) who will make all things new!  Trust Him.  Follow Him in willing obedience while standing firm on grace worked by Him alone for our sakes in His righteousness alone.  We have been called out of the darkness (1 Peter 2:9-10) of sin to safety from judgment in Him and His work on the cross to guarantee the promises to make us His people, redeemed and made new.  We did not refuse when He spoke the gospel of deliverance from His wrath on our sin and are rewarded with knowing Him and our assured standing promised by unmerited grace of His good favor to buy us back from our hopeless state.  Trust Him alone!