Sunday, October 21, 2012

An Innumerable Company of Angels


But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 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, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24, NKJV).

Instead of a mountain that may not be touched, a burden of performance that cannot be met, an assembly of terrified sinners surrounded by blackness and darkness and tempest, and an earthly city which served as the palest shadow of its heavenly counterpart (even in its halcyon days under David and Solomon), the New Covenant brings us to a very different destination to be in fellowship with our God.

Through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we come to a mountain filled with glory, majesty, light and life, a city not of this Creation, and, instead of a congregation of unrighteous sinners, an innumerable company of angels.

The Bible says many things about angels. They were created before mankind. They are powerful and immortal. Those who retained their first estate are holy, worshipful and serve the living God with fidelity and fervency. A third of them rebelled, led by the archangel Lucifer, and are forever condemned with no chance of redemption. 

They can appear as beings of light or as human beings. They are messengers and harbingers, warriors and nursemaids, and they look upon human redemption as a marvelous mystery, astounded by the mercy and grace of God our being saved entails.

While not of this world they can be in this world, and have intervened in human history on many occasions. Angels are glorious in power and can instill in mere mortals an urge to worship which must be denied. Neither are they to be prayed to or in any way mistaken for Divine. 

One day, born again Christians will judge them.

Modern skeptics view angels with a kind of condescending dismissal, relegating them to fairy tales or wishful thinking. In their arrogant intellectual superiority, these unbelievers discount any belief in these spiritual beings as symptomatic of mental weakness or faulty character or ignorant superstition. They do the same with Satan.

That is of no matter, for a thing's reality is utterly independent of any opinion any fallen human being may hold.

In the verse above, among other things, this innumerable company of angels serves as a heavenly welcoming throng, celebrating the entrance of even the lowliest saved sinner. 

I picture these magnificent beings as embodying all the characteristics we attribute to noble heroes of old - self-sacrificing, courageous, willfully subservient to their God and King, filled with immeasurable joy on our behalf.

So then, as Christians, not only will we be citizens of the most unimaginable Kingdom, residing in an unimaginably glorious city, but we will also be in joyous company with beings beyond our current ability to fully comprehend. And they will look upon us as treasures.

And that is just the start. There is much more.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

The Heavenly Jerusalem


But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 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, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24, NKJV).

Why Jerusalem? 

Not too long ago, this earthly city commemorated its 3000th year. Did you get that? 3000 years! And I write "commemorated", not "celebrated", because there is little from the human perspective that Jerusalem can celebrate in these troubled times.

In essence, Jerusalem is at the center of a cosmic battle between God and man. It is a small municipality, as far as dimensions go, in a nation the size of New Jersey, and yet - and yet - it is the focus of the three major Monotheistic religions with billions of adherents worldwide. It is the epicenter of rancid hatred and desperate desire. It is all these things precisely, and only, because God has so ordained it from before the foundation of the world.

There is nothing special about Israel or Jerusalem except that God has put His seal upon her. He has called her the "apple of His eye". He has called her the place of His eternal throne, and He has used her as both a symbol and a foreshadowing of the promised heavenly City of Peace, for peace is the fundamental meaning of the city's name.

(If you doubt the perspicacity of Scripture or the very existence of God, look to Jerusalem. She is ground zero of literally thousands of Biblical prophecies, all of which - all of which - have either been fulfilled in the past, or will soon be fulfilled in the present or near future.)

We, who are the Children of God by faith, have come to this city of the Living God, this Heavenly Jerusalem, by His invitation; really by His imploring us to come, so that we can obtain the destiny, and receive the eternal inheritance, that is ours by faith in Christ.

Do not take this for granted. The earthly counterparts to Mount Zion and this heavenly city are fraught with danger and death. When the Law came forth on Mount Sinai, to come near that place, to even touch it, was a capital crime resulting in summary execution, and the earthly Jerusalem is a battle-scarred place bloodily divided by the nations on the world stage. These are places not of peace and invitation, but war and prohibition.

In their symbolizing the eternal promises of God they are shown as stark contrasts to the majesty and security of what Christ's death on the Cross has put freely within our reach. Unlike the Jews of history, and unlike those today who seek salvation by the works of the flesh, relying upon their own righteousness, the entry price into our destiny has been paid in full for us by the Savior Himself. Our reservations are irrevocable; our right of entrance guaranteed. The result is not death, but life.

This is what we have in Christ. This is the refrain of the Book of Hebrews: the superiority of Christ in every conceivable aspect.

Through Him we are guaranteed better promises, a superior High Priest, a perfect relationship with God, and an inconceivable inheritance and destiny.

The heavenly Jerusalem, that city not made with hands, not of this creation is now, and will forever be, our place of rest and life. We are its citizens by rebirth, a citizenship for which we have done nothing, but which is nonetheless freely ours through Christ - forever.

Nothing in this life compares. Nothing. Not health or wealth or success or relationships or travel or luxury or comfort or anything.

All those earthly things we strive to obtain, attain, and keep are worthless piles of dung in contrast.

Whatever we hold onto in this life we are certain to lose.

As has been written: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” 

Saturday, October 06, 2012

The City of the Living God


But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 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, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24, NKJV).

Most of us are stuck.

We are held fast to the world by the things of the world and our perceptions are centered on the world. This is as natural and understandable as can be, but so is sin and death. Understandable does not make something right or beneficial or good.

To a certain extent, of course, our geocentric viewpoint is almost invisible, like the air we breathe and walk through. It is so much a part of our human nature, and so pervasive, that it is almost too difficult to notice and call it a thing.

Again, that doesn't make it right, just harder to change.

The passage above from Hebrews is written to remind us that we Christians inhabit two worlds, and have two natures. We are slowly, but surely, being weaned and transformed from the one, so that we can be full citizens of the other. Sometimes the transformation hurts, and we reflexively resist, but the more we resist, the more painful it becomes.

At other times, the shift in perspective and essential nature is so subtle we don't even notice until suddenly it seems a veil is ripped from our eyes and we see things as they really are, as we KNOW they must really be - without doubt or shadow - and the shock and awe lays us flat on our faces.

In turn, this may lead to a compulsion to repent in dust and ashes, like Job or Peter or Isaiah, when God grants us a view of Himself, as He really is. That is indeed a good, if terrifying, thing.

But be assured, however it happens, we who are Christ's are being conformed to His image by whatever it takes, because He WILL finish that good work He has begun in us, whether kicking and screaming, or in trusting surrender. 

For our citizenship is in Heaven, and the contrast between Heaven and earth is what the text above is emphasizing; that, in fact, all of Hebrews has been emphasizing by extolling and detailing the superiority of Christ to all that has come before and could ever come in the future.

Instead of Mount Sinai, an earthly location where the Law of sin and death was given in fire and darkness, we - through faith in Christ, have come to Mount Zion, a place in an altogether different realm, a realm that makes our present three dimensional existence in time and space a mere shadow, a vapor, in comparison to where we are destined to spend all eternity.

In this life, in the world where Mount Sinai exists, the dwelling places are man-made, mundane, faulty. Our cities are filled with corruption and decay, however deceivingly presentable they may appear on the surface.

There, in the life to come,upon Mount Zion, is the city of the living God; a place fashioned by Him for His glory. The very phrase should send thrills of pleasure and anticipation through the very core of our being.

To be in the loving Presence of the living God is an inbuilt longing in each and every soul, corrupted and disguised by sin, but cleansed and reborn when we come in faith to Christ.  As His children, made alive together with Him, the poignant longing for that something - that someplace - that cannot be adequately described or imagined, fills our hearts with an unspeakable (because there are no words) and holy desire.

This verse in Hebrews at least puts a name to it - the city of the living God, and will provide us with a further glimpse of what that place entails - its glory, perfection, and majesty.

But this one final thought is, for me, the most comforting, the most reassuring, the most astounding.

This city of the living God is our one, true, home.