To Encourage You

Hebrews 12:18-24 “For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, ‘If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.’ Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’  But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

Often the Bible uses contrasts to help us to understand God’s eternal and magnificent Truth.  It uses contrasts like the old versus the new, the evil versus the good, and the earthly versus the heavenly.  It is so often by such contrasts that God helps us to see what we otherwise would be blind to.  For example, a person standing in the light of day can’t even see the beam of light cast by a flashlight, but put that person in the inner recesses of the blackest cave and then turn the flashlight on.  It is then that a person can gain an appreciation of the wonders of light like he or she might otherwise be oblivious to. 

Have you seen the posts on the internet of a colorblind person that is given a special set of glasses that allows them to see color for the very first time? The typical response of a person who has lived their lives up to that point in a color-muted world is utter amazement to the point of shedding tears.  It’s that person that appreciates color like most others, who may take the gift of color vision for granted, never do. 

In the passage above from Hebrews 12, we are given a contrast that should, likewise, overwhelm us.  It’s the contrast between the Law of God and the grace of God.  It speaks first about the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai.  It was a terrifying moment in which God touched the mountain with His glory.  He made the Israelites aware of His presence by the appearance of blazing fire, darkness and gloom, a tempest, and the blast of a trumpet. And then He spoke audibly with a sound and message that filled the hearers with terror, so much so that they begged for His voice to stop.  In all of this God was demonstrating to the world that He is utterly unapproachable on the basis of the keeping of His Law.  You see, the Law condemns (2 Corinthians 3:9; Romans 5:18). Its purpose is to reveal man’s sin and the terrifying judgment that awaits those who violate it.  The appearance of God on Sinai pointed to the perfect justice of God and what awaits those who disobey what He has commanded.  Man, who is made in the image of God, delights in justice when it applies to someone else, perhaps someone who has sinned against them.  However, we do not like to have that justice turned toward us in our sin, for as the Bible tells us plainly, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31), especially in light of the fact that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). 

One of the ways the passage above speaks of this is how the blood of Abel, the first person ever to be murdered, “speaks.” If we turn back to the incident where this occurred, God comes down to the murderous Cain and says, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). It was a voice calling out for justice, and it was a voice to which God would most certainly respond.  The truth is that since each one of us has broken God’s Law, the record of our sins likewise cries out to God for justice – and that justice means our eternal death (Romans 6:23).  

But then for the contrast!  Wonderfully, there is something else – it’s called the grace of God, and its reality, for the repentant sinner, is greater than God’s Law and justice as the heavens are above the earth.  The passage above likens it to another mountain, Mount Zion.  It’s pointing to the Mount Zion of Jerusalem, “the city of peace.” But beyond that it’s speaking of the heavenly Jerusalem, the very dwelling place of God.  It speaks about it in terms of “the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”  With these words, God is pointing to the blood of His only begotten Son, Who shed His blood for us on the cross and by it satisfied God’s unrelenting justice that awaited all our sins.  It is because of this, and only because of this, that we don’t need to hide in terror from an unapproachable God. Rather, the way has been opened for us to “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). It is because of the sprinkled blood that we can become part of the very family of God and someday soon take a place alongside the rest of His saints and the angels themselves, glorifying our gracious God forever. 

So, have you seen your sin set against the backdrop of the contrast of God’s Law to God’s grace? Have you seen your sin for what it really is and the forgiveness that is available for that sin in the striking contrast that divides them?  It’s the contrast of light versus darkness, heaven versus hell.  But if you’ve never yet seen this, may God open your eyes today!