An Unshakable Kingdom

Hebrews 12:18-24

Main Idea: Those who endure in the faith come to Zion, the mountain of God’s new and better covenant mediated through Jesus Christ. His blood satisfies God’s wrath and permits God’s people to enter God’s presence freely and confidently.

1. Mount Sinai (12:18-21)
   1. The scene at Sinai
   2. A dramatic scene change
2. Mount Zion (12:22-24)
   1. Reading eschatologically
   2. Joining the angels and the firstborn
   3. Hearing the better things of Jesus’s blood

This passage is the climactic point the author has been building toward for the last eleven chapters. In Hebrews 13 the author makes closing application points and exhortations similar to the way Paul normally ends his letters, but the real culmination of the letter occurs in the final verses of chapter 12

Mount Sinai

Hebrews 12:18-21

The word for requires the reader to look backward. It grounds what the author is about to say in what he has just finished saying in verses 12-17. This section, therefore, provides the reason why Christians can strengthen their tired hands and weakened knees and make straight paths for their feet. They can do these things because they have not come to Sinai. They have come to a better mountain: Mount Zion.

The Scene at Sinai

The reference to Sinai also requires the reader to look backward, this time all the way back to the Old Testament. The phrase “not come to what could be touched” points the reader back to the origin of the law at Mount Sinai (Exod 19). Mount Sinai was the mountain Moses climbed to receive God’s law on behalf of Israel. The Lord commanded Moses to warn the people of Israel not to go up the mountain or to touch it, lest they die (Exod 19:12). They could not touch the mountain because God’s presence consecrated the place and set it apart from the sinful people. If an uninvited sinner touched the mountain when God was present, he or she would be put to death. When the Lord was present on the mountain, it was consumed by a thick smoke, earthquakes, thunder, and lighting (Exod 19:16). It was wrapped in smoke and trembled greatly because the Lord had descended on it in fire (19:18). Furthermore, the mountain resounded with a very loud trumpet blast, one that grew louder with every blow (19:16,19). All of this demonstrated the presence of God on the mountain. It represented his incomparable power, might, and sheer holiness. Thus, this mountain was a place of awe and terror for Israel. As they stood before it, they trembled in fear. This was the mountain to which the people of Israel had come.

Hebrews 12:19-20 continues expressing the terror related to the encounter and its effects on the people. When the Lord spoke from the midst of the smoke covering the mountain, the people begged for Moses to speak to them instead (Exod 20:18-19; Deut 5:24-27). The congregation was even commanded to stone to death any animal that touched the mountain (Exod 19:12-13). The severity of this command demonstrated the costliness of uncleanness in the midst of God’s holy presence. The Israelites feared for their lives. The author of Hebrews uses the command to execute animals to show just how incomprehensibly terrifying God’s presence on Sinai was for the people of Israel. It was so fearsome that even Moses was afraid.

A Dramatic Scene Change

Israel had come to this terrifying place; they had come to Mount Sinai. But this is not the mountain to which Christians have come. The word “not” in verse 18 is key to understanding the radical difference between our experience with God and Israel’s experience with him. “Not” draws a stark contrast between the old and new covenants, the law and grace, and the promise and fulfillment.

The claim that Christians have come to Mount Zion would have shocked the original audience. Jews defined themselves and their history through Sinai. That mountain is where the Israelites met God, but it’s not where Christians meet God in the new covenant. That’s the point the author is trying to make by portraying the horror and dread the Israelites felt at the foot of Mount Sinai. He paints this terrifying picture of Sinai for his readers in order to make the contrast with the radiant, glorious, and gracious new covenant. The awful terror of Sinai, which is not the mount to which we have come, shows the radical mercy of Zion. At Zion God embraces us with his grace and administers to us a covenant where he does not merely write the law on tablets of stone but on the tablets of our hearts.

Mount Zion

Hebrews 12:22-24

In the Old Testament we find that the earthly Zion was part of Jerusalem, captured by David (2 Sam 5:7). Mount Zion eventually was so identified with Jerusalem that it became synonymous with the city. Here, however, the author is not connecting Zion with the earthly Jerusalem; he’s connecting it with the eschatological new Jerusalem. One of the reasons the author contrasts Zion with Sinai is to emphasize what Zion represents. As we have already noted, the Jews saw Zion as synonymous with Jerusalem. Zion was the city of promise and peace.

Furthermore, the distinction drawn between Sinai and Zion shows us that Christ perfectly fulfilled what Sinai represented. Christians do not come to Sinai, since Christ fulfilled the law of Sinai. Jesus did not nullify or invalidate the Old Testament law. Rather, he did what no sinful human could do: he perfectly obeyed and fulfilled the law. He fulfilled it in its letter and its spirit, which means that he obeyed it externally and internally, with his behavior and in his heart. Thus, because of Christ’s work Sinai now stands as a mountain of fulfillment. And this fulfillment, of course, occurred on Zion, in Jerusalem, for Jesus accomplished his saving work and resurrection from the dead in the vicinity of Jerusalem. Thus, God’s people no longer identify with the place that God’s law was given, but with the place that God’s law was fulfilled.

Reading Eschatologically

A proper reading of verses 22 and 23 requires that we interpret them through the lens of the already-not yet tension we find throughout the New Testament. The kingdom of God is inaugurated (already) though not consummated (not yet). In other words Christians can experience, in part, the fulfillment of God’s promises even as they await the complete experience of those promises in the new creation. This is the tension we feel between this age and the age to come.

We have already seen the author speaking in terms of the already-not yet in Hebrews 2:8. The writer speaks in similar terms here in Hebrews 12:22-23. Coming to Zion hasn’t been fully actualized in our experience, but it is a certain and promised reality. We’ve already come to the city of the living God in one sense, but that reality is not yet fully consummated. In other words, we’ve already come to Zion, but we’re still waiting to get there.

Thinking in eschatological terms also helps us understand the word city. The word city is significant because it reveals an important point about God’s kingdom. God reigns in his kingdom, but he doesn’t just reign from any old place; he reigns from “the city of the living God.” Speaking of the city reminds us that it will be the seat of the kingdom. Even as Jerusalem was the capital of Israel, so the heavenly Jerusalem will be the capital of God’s kingdom. In coming to Zion, we have come to the chief city of God’s kingdom and reign.

Joining the Angels and the Firstborn

Whom will we join there? We will join innumerable angels in festal gathering. This is something we can’t possibly imagine. The city of the living God is filled with countless angels shining in the glory of God. Such a picture is indescribable, but it is nonetheless a picture of what awaits those who endure until the end.

Remember how Hebrews began. It opened with the author identifying Christ as the One superior to angels and the One with a name more excellent than theirs (1:4). But this doesn’t mean that angels should be considered worthless in light of Christ. Angels are still superlative creatures in that they radiate the glory of God and testify to God’s saving acts in Christ. In the heavenly Jerusalem, myriads of angels will joyfully gather to celebrate and worship the Lord. We’ve come to a city populated with tens of thousands of angels in festal gathering. We will join them in eternal citizenship and in the eternal worship of God.

Who are “the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven”? In one sense, the author is referring to those he held up as examples of faith in Hebrews 11, those who trusted Christ even before his incarnation. But in another sense the assembly of the firstborn is much more than that. In Hebrews 12:1 the writer tells his readers that a great cloud of witnesses surrounds them. As we have already seen, those who were faithful to God and his promises even before Christ came make up this great cloud of witnesses. As we also saw, the author tells his people then—and believers today—that they are united in faith with those who have gone before them, with the firstborn enrolled in heaven. Because we are a part of the heavenly Jerusalem, we are a part of this congregation. We have already joined in eternal membership with the congregation of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. This is the church eternal and the church universal, and it is the church to which we have come.

Coming Before the Judge and to the Spirits of the Righteous

Verse 23 also tells us that we have come to God himself, the Judge of all. Just imagine the day in which all human beings in the history of humanity will be judged. For those who are righteously judged on account of their sin and never knew salvation in Christ, the day of judgment will be a day of unmitigated horror. Eternal hell stands on the other side of that day. But for those who have turned to Jesus Christ in faith and repentance and trust in his condemnation in their place, the day of judgment will be a day of unmitigated glory. Eternity with the only infinitely righteous, gracious, and merciful God stands on the other side of that day. The author of Hebrews talks about this day as if we’re already there. We’re already standing before God, the Judge of all. We’re already standing before his throne.

Finally, the writer says that his readers have come to “the spirits of righteous people made perfect.” This is speaking of all who come to Zion. There will be no one who is imperfect in heaven. No unrighteous or imperfect person will be in the heavenly assembly. We will not be righteous or perfect by our own accord. Our righteousness and perfection depends entirely on the imputed righteousness of Christ. His perfection is our perfection. His righteousness is our righteousness. There is no human righteousness in Zion. There is only Christ’s righteousness.

Hearing the Better Things of Jesus’s Blood

The author’s list of things to which we’ve come climaxes with Jesus Christ. Now we’ve come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that says better things than the blood of Abel. Jesus’s priestly work is the foundation of this city, so it is fitting that the writer caps this list by drawing our attention back to the blood of Jesus.

As we have already seen, the triumphant list of the faithful in Hebrews 11 begins with Abel (v. 4). God evidently ordered Abel’s sacrifice of blood, and Abel obeyed. His obedience testified to his faith in God and his word, but his sacrifice of blood could not save him. The blood spilled through the animal sacrifices restrained the wrath of God for a time, but those sacrifices did not satisfy the wrath of God forever. The blood of Christ, however, accomplished what the animal sacrifices never could. His blood is sufficient to forgive sin and to save us from the judgment that sin deserves. Therefore, Jesus is the mediator of a new and better covenant. By his sacrifice and his sacrifice alone, we come to Zion and to the sprinkled blood that says better things than the blood of Abel. Christ’s sprinkled blood says better things than Abel’s because Jesus’s blood saves. It completely washes away our sin and satisfies God’s wrath once and for all.

This paragraph is the crescendo of the book of Hebrews. It reminds us in both poetic and prosaic terms that we are not going to that old mountain ever again. Sinai has been displaced and the old covenant has been fulfilled. We’ve come to a new mountain and a better covenant. We’ve come to Zion. God does not call us to a mountain we’re not allowed to touch. He calls us to a Savior, the same Savior who told Thomas to place his finger in the holes of his hands and to place his hand on the wound in his side (John 20:27). In Christ, the old law has been annulled and a new one has been ratified. This new law does not condemn or judge us. Rather, by Christ’s better blood, it guarantees for us an eternal inheritance and secures final forgiveness of sins. His blood brings us to Zion and into the glorious presence of the living God. These are better things indeed.

Reflect and Discuss

1. How does this passage relate to 12:12-17? How does the fact that you have not come to Sinai help you put into action the author’s imperatives in verses 12-17? Think about each imperative in particular.
2. Why does the writer juxtapose Mount Sinai with Mount Zion?
3. How does the author use the command to stone an animal to draw out the severity of the scene at Sinai? How has Jesus displaced this command in the new covenant?
4. In your own words, explain why the use of the word not in verse 18 is so critical to understanding this passage and our relationship to God in the new covenant.
5. Why is Sinai no longer the mountain on which Christians define their experience with God? On what basis do Christians now come to Zion?
6. How should Christians think of the old covenant in light of Christ’s fulfillment of it?
7. Explain why a proper reading of verses 22 and 23 requires reading through the lens of the already-not yet tension.
8. What is the significance in connecting Zion to the eschatological new Jerusalem? How does the author’s usage of the word city play into this significance? What does it tell us about God’s kingdom?
9. Why is Jesus’s blood superior to the blood sacrifice offered by Abel? Why does the author compare the blood offered by Abel with the blood offered by Jesus?
10. How does the glorious picture of Zion in this passage help you endure in the faith? Why do you think the writer chose to use this picture to motivate his readers to endure until the end?