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).
Believers are exhorted to come to Mount Zion, to the city of the Living God, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, and now to God the judge of all.
Notice the invitations and the dichotomy between their precursors before Christ. Mount Sinai, the precursor to Mount Zion, was a place of darkness and tempest and death under the Law. To come to it, to even touch it, was to receive summary execution, and to live according to the Law was an impossibility meant to teach our unequivocal need for a Savior.
In contrast, Mount Zion is a place of eternal life in the heavenly Jerusalem where grace, not Law is operative - the grace that comes through faith in Christ's death and Resurrection as Lord and Savior.
Now, we are boldly invited to come to God who is judge of all. This is an invitation fraught with danger and the certainty of punishment, if - and this is the key point - the invitee is guilty. But our guilt has been washed away by Christ's sacrifice. We have been justified - declared innocent - by His death, and the punishment we deserve has been placed on Him in our place.
Coming to the Judge, then, under these conditions, and among other things, serves to confirm, not our punishment, but our reprieve. When we stand before God, our sins have been imputed to Christ, and paid for on His Cross. In their place, His righteousness has been imputed to us, and we stand guiltless and free before God.
This is an invitation that makes sense only for the believer, for God IS the judge of all, and without Christ, we are all guilty before Him, and will receive eternal punishment.
The world hates such thoughts, and hates God and the true people of God because judgment is to be avoided at all costs, and it is the fear of judgment that motivates every aspect of human behavior without Christ.
This hatred takes many forms, from legalism to fanaticism to hedonism to materialism to naturalism.
The legalist is so afraid of judgment that he or she lives according to a stringent checklist of do's and don'ts, which must be adhered to at all costs, and which forms the basis of judgment for everyone else not so shackled.
The fanatic religionist desperately attempts to annihilate all other influences and people that are perceived to be displeasing to a divine, graceless tyrant whose every dictate and tenent of doctrine must be absolutely obeyed, while those who refuse to follow suit must be destroyed.
The hedonist rejects all external morality and follows the deadly course of self-gratification, despising all things and people perceived as obstacles to his own pleasure.
The materialist worships not a sovereign Deity but the forces of intellect and so-called science, believing that judgment is an unscientific myth blindly held by lesser intellects.
And the naturalist worships the creature rather than the Creator, able to see the value of the made, without reference or acknowledgement of the Maker, and holding in contempt all who are not likewise enlightened.
Underlying all these antiGod philosophies and lifestyles is a gut wrenching terror of judgment feeding a hatred of all that even hints at such an end.
Divine judgment must be denied or avoided at all costs and the hatred of it makes perfect sense for everyone who WILL NOT accept the forgiveness of guilt offered in Christ.
Vehement rebellion occurs because every human being KNOWS he or she is guilty before God and, in pride and terror, must go to whatever lengths necessary to continue living under the inevitable sentence of eternal death without being paralyzed with fear.
But the writer of Hebrews is extolling in brilliant and concise fashion, a better way, a new and living way, available through Christ and His loving redemptive work.
The contrast between the way of Christ and the way of the world could not be more stark.
It is the "bottom line". Without Jesus Christ all is lost by default. With Him, nothing good is ever lost.
Without Christ, life is worse than futile - it is the gateway into everlasting torment. Thus, He Himself declares it would be better never to have been conceived.
With Christ, no matter what happens in this life, we, as children of God, inherit everything that is Christ's by virtue of our relationship with God the Father through Him.
But first we must recognize our helplessness and hopelessness. We must surrender our broken and perverse will to His, coming in faith to the Cross, knowing it is the only remedy, the only way of reprieve.
For many that is a surrender that is considered far too costly.
Ironically, it is only through such surrender that victory over sin and death is achieved.
