Hebrews 12:18 - Meaning and Application

The apostle now urges the professing Hebrews to keep going in the Christian life and fight, and not fall back into Judaism. He does this by showing them how different the gospel church is from the Jewish church, and how much it resembles the church in heaven. For both reasons, it deserves our care, patience, and steady perseverance in the Christian way.

He first shows how much the gospel church differs from the Jewish church, and how much better it is. He gives a very full picture of the church under the Law of Moses, in Hebrews 12:18-21. It was a very outward and physical kind of church state. Mount Sinai, where that church state was set up, was a mountain that could be touched (Hebrews 12:18), a real, solid place. In the same way, that whole system was mostly external and earthly, and so it was heavier and more burdensome. The gospel church on Mount Zion is more spiritual, reasonable, and easy.

It was also a dark system. On that mountain there were blackness and darkness, and that church state was covered with shadows and symbols. The gospel state is much clearer and brighter. It was also a frightening and terrible system. The Jews could not bear the terror of it. Thunder, lightning, the sounding trumpet, and God’s own voice speaking to them filled them with such fear that they begged not to hear that word spoken to them in that way again, Hebrews 12:19. Even Moses himself said, “I am trembling with fear.” The best people on earth cannot come face to face with God and his holy angels in that way. The gospel state is gentle, kind, and gracious, suited to our weak human frame.

It was also a restricted system. Not everyone could come near that mountain, only Moses and Aaron. Under the gospel, we all have bold access to God. It was a very dangerous system too. The mountain burned with fire, and any man or beast that touched it had to be stoned or shot through with a dart, Hebrews 12:20. It is still dangerous for arrogant and wild sinners to draw near to God, but it is not immediate and certain death as it was there. That was the condition of the Jewish church, meant to awe a stubborn and hard-hearted people, display the strict and fearful justice of God, and wean God’s people from that system so they would more readily embrace the sweet and gentle order of the gospel church and stay with it.

He then shows how much the gospel church resembles the church triumphant in heaven, and how much fellowship there is between them. The gospel church is called Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, which is free, in contrast to Mount Sinai, which leads to slavery, Galatians 4:24. This was the hill where God placed his King, the Messiah. So when believers come to Mount Zion, they come into heavenly places and into a heavenly society.

They come into heavenly places, first to the city of the living God. God has made his gracious home in the gospel church, and for that reason it is a picture of heaven. There his people find him ruling, guiding, making them holy, and comforting them. There he speaks to them through the gospel ministry, and there they speak to him in prayer, and he hears them. There he prepares them for heaven and gives them the first payment, or guarantee, of their inheritance.

They also come to the heavenly Jerusalem, as people born and raised there, as free citizens there. In the church, believers get clearer views of heaven, stronger proof that heaven is theirs, and a greater fitness for it, along with a more heavenly mind.

They also come to a heavenly society. They come to an innumerable company of angels, who belong to the same family as the saints, are under the same head, and are largely employed in the same work. They serve believers for their good, keep them in all their ways, and camp around them. Their number is countless, and their order and unity make them a glorious company. Those who by faith belong to the gospel church are joined to the angels, and in the end will be like them and equal to them.

They also come to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, that is, the whole church, no matter how scattered it is. By faith we come to them and share fellowship with them in the same head, by the same Spirit, and in the same blessed hope. We walk in the same path of holiness, face the same spiritual enemies, and move toward the same rest, victory, and glorious triumph. There will be the great assembly of the firstborn, the saints of earlier times who saw the promises of the gospel age but did not receive them, as well as those who first received those promises under the gospel and were brought to new life through it. In that sense they were the firstborn, the first fruits of the gospel church, and therefore given greater honor and privilege than the rest of the world. In truth, all God’s children are heirs, and each one shares the rights of the firstborn.

Their names are written in heaven, in the church records here. They have a name in God’s house, are counted among the living in Jerusalem, and have a good reputation for faith and faithfulness. They are entered in the Lamb’s book of life, as citizens are listed in the rolls of a city.

Believers also come to God the Judge of all, that great God who will judge both Jew and Gentile according to the law they are under. By faith believers come to him now, make their requests to their Judge, and receive a sentence of forgiveness in the gospel, and in their own consciences now, so that they know they will be declared right before God later.

They come to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, to the best kind of people, the righteous, who are better than their neighbors, and to the best part of the righteous, their spirits, now made complete. Believers are united with departed saints in the same head and Spirit, and they have a right to the same inheritance, which those on earth are still heirs of and those in heaven already possess.

Finally, they come to Jesus, the Mediator, that is, the one who stands between God and us, of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than Abel’s blood. This is one of the strongest reasons to keep going in the gospel state, since it is a state of fellowship with Christ the Mediator of the new covenant, and of sharing in his blood, which speaks better things than Abel’s blood. The gospel covenant is the new covenant, distinct from the covenant of works, and it now stands under a new order, different from that of the Old Testament.

Christ is the mediator of this new covenant. He is the one who stands between God and man to bring them together in this covenant and keep them together, even though the people sin and God is rightly displeased with sin. He carries our prayers to God and brings God’s favor down to us. He pleads with God for us and pleads with us for God. In the end, he will bring God and his people together in heaven, and he will be the mediator of their full enjoyment of God forever. They will see and enjoy God in Christ, and God will look on them and bless them in Christ.

This covenant is sealed by the blood of Christ, which is applied to our consciences, just as the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the altar and the offering. Christ’s blood turns away God’s wrath and cleanses human consciences. It is speaking blood, and it speaks better things than Abel’s blood. First, it speaks to God on behalf of sinners. It does not cry out for vengeance, as Abel’s blood did against the one who shed it, but for mercy. Second, it speaks to sinners in God’s name. It speaks pardon for their sins and peace for their souls, and it calls for their strict obedience, highest love, and deepest thankfulness.

The apostle has now shown enough about the argument for perseverance that comes from the heavenly nature of the gospel church. He ends the chapter by pressing that point in a way that fits its weight: “See that you do not refuse him who speaks” (Hebrews 12:25). God speaks by Christ’s blood. He speaks not only in a different way from the blood of Abel, which cried from the ground, but also in a different way from the voice given through angels and through Moses on Mount Sinai. Then he spoke on earth, but now he speaks from heaven.

When God speaks to people in the most excellent way, he rightly expects the closest attention and respect. In the gospel, God now speaks in the most excellent way. He speaks from a higher and more glorious throne, not from Mount Sinai on earth, but from heaven. He also speaks more directly, by his inspired word and by his Spirit, which bear witness for him. He is not giving new truth, but by his Spirit he drives the same word into the conscience.

He also speaks more powerfully and effectively. Then his voice shook the earth, but now, by bringing in the gospel age, he has shaken not only the earth but also the heavens. This does not mean he shook hills and mountains only, or human spirits, or the civil order in Canaan, though he did that too to make room for his people. It means he shook the world and also the Jewish nation in its church state, which had been, in Old Testament times, like a heaven on earth. By the gospel from heaven, God broke apart the civil and religious order of the Jewish nation and brought in a new church state that cannot be removed. It will never be replaced by another on earth, but will remain until it is made perfect in heaven.

When God speaks in the most excellent way, the guilt of those who refuse him is greater, and their punishment will be harder to escape and harder to bear (Hebrews 12:25). The different way God deals with people under the gospel, in grace, shows that he will deal differently with those who despise the gospel, in judgment. The glory of the gospel shows itself in three things.

First, the gospel trumpet shook and removed the former church order. Should we despise the voice of God that brought down a church and state that had stood so long and had been built by God himself? Second, the gospel trumpet set up a new kingdom for God in the world, one that can never be shaken away. This was a change made once for all. No other change will come until time ends. We have received a kingdom that cannot be moved. It will never be removed or give way to another way of dealing with God’s people. The Bible is now complete, the spirit of prophecy has ended, and God has finished the mystery he was carrying out. He has put the final touch on it. The gospel church may become larger, more prosperous, and more purified from pollution, but it will never be changed into another dispensation. Those who perish under the gospel perish without remedy.

For that reason, the apostle rightly concludes several things. First, it is necessary for us to seek grace from God so we can serve him in a way he accepts. If we are not accepted under this dispensation, we will never be accepted at all. All our religion is wasted if God does not accept it. Second, we cannot worship God acceptably unless we worship with godly reverence and fear. Faith and holy fear are both needed for acceptable worship. Third, only God’s grace enables us to worship rightly. Human nature cannot rise to it. It can produce neither the precious faith nor the holy fear needed for acceptable worship.

Fourth, God is the same just and righteous God under the gospel that he showed himself to be under the law. Even though he is our God in Christ and now deals with us in a kinder and more gracious way, he is still in himself a consuming fire, a God of strict justice who will avenge himself on all who despise his grace and on all who turn away from him. Under the gospel, God’s justice is shown in an even more serious way, though not in so visible a way as under the law. Here we see divine justice seize the Lord Jesus Christ and make him a propitiatory sacrifice, that is, a sacrifice that turns away wrath, with his soul and body offered for sin. That shows God’s justice more clearly than what was seen and heard on Mount Sinai when the law was given.