III. Final Contrasts. (Verses 18-29.)

      Let us consider our privilege. We are not [188] come to Mount Sinai, with its awful phenomena, its terrible voice which dismayed the people and made them to plead tremblingly for a mediator. (Deut. 18:16.) We are not under the law, but under grace. We have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry: "Abba, Father." That covenant looked backward to the tangible, material mount (the "mount that might be touched"); but ours looks forward to, and centers in, Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, invisible, spiritual--"not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation." It is not simply a thing future and distant, whither as strangers and pilgrims we travel; we have already come to it in a sense. We are connected with it, in fellowship with it. Our citizenship is there. (Phil. 3:20.) We are in communion with God, the Judge of all (Rom. 8:33), and Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant; in contact with the sanctifying blood--better than that of Abel's sacrifice and all sacrifices like it; put in relationship with innumerable hosts of angels (compare Heb. 1:14; Ps. 34:7); in fellowship with the spirits of just men made perfect--the saints of God, who lived by faith in bygone days, and who are now awaiting the day of their glorious resurrection--and with the whole [189] church of God, the assembly of the firstborn (James 1:18), whose names are enrolled in heaven.

      The lesson, however, which God in those days of rudimentary teaching, under the former covenant, first impressed on his people--the greatness, power, awful glory, majesty, and consuming holiness of his presence--was not to be forgotten. True, we have come to know the tender mercy and love of our God, but that fundamental reverence and fear is the groundwork of all our faith. God has not changed. If he was terrible then, so is he now. But our attitude toward him has changed. We have fled to him, instead of from him, and his terror has become our defense and our refuge. We are in Christ, clothed with a perfect righteousness, delivered through the blood from that wrath which must surely fall upon every sinner. Woe unto him that forsakes his fortress! The liberties of the new covenant are not of the nature of license to sin. Its wonderful privileges furnish no immunity to the willful sinner. "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things that were heard, lest haply we drift away from them. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a [190] salvation?" (Heb. 2:1-3.) "A man that hath set at nought Moses' law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For we know him that said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense. And again, The Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (Heb. 10:28-31.)

      It is evident, then, that the greater glory and privilege of the new covenant is coupled with graver responsibility. We dare not, must not, think of turning back. Behind us is only destruction--the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. "Remember Lot's wife." Our hope is in pressing onward, forward, at any cost, nearer to God, on to perfection. Let us say with Paul: "This one thing I do." Let no one be discouraged over failures past or present; only press on. You cannot fail if this is your motto. Look ahead; go ahead. Hell is behind, heaven before.

      The old covenant, indeed, was a covenant of slavish fear and terror; but while the slavery has been abolished and we do not dread God as a taskmaster, but rather love and serve him as [191] a Father in nearness and confidence, we need to cling close to him, lest, becoming presumptuous and neglectful, we should yet have to meet him as Judge and Avenger. God forbid it! With greater authority, greater power, greater glory, comes now the call of God from heaven. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh." If it was a serious matter under the old covenant, it is yet more so now. (Heb. 12:25.)

      Now he points us on to the end of things. "Yet once more"--only once more--will God shake, not the earth only, but also the heaven--a final shaking, in which all that is human and subject to ruin shall fall into ruins. "For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof." "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up." Then where shall the Esaus appear--who lived on the earth, were of the earth; whose aspirations were for the earth; whose hopes, pleasures, and treasures are in the earth? But you--"seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be [192] in all holy living and godliness?" (2 Pet. 3:10-13.)

      Not simply will it be a destruction, but a removal of all that is thus shaken. (Compare Rev. 20:11.) "The first things are passed away. And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." (Rev. 21:4, 5.) Then will be a new heaven and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness; and then shall we have our place in the heavenly Jerusalem, amid the innumerable hosts of angels, with God the Judge of all and with Jesus the Savior, and shall go out from there no more.

      That Jerusalem is the glorified church, and pertains to the kingdom which cannot be shaken. If, then, we deem it a prize worthy of our life, "let us have grace [for without it we can not hope to attain], whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire."

      Keep thou before our eyes, our Father in heaven, the hope of our calling, and the riches [193] of the glory of thy inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of thy power to usward who believe, which has been manifested in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. With such assurance of help and grace, and with the view of thy eternal promises and the glory of our Father's house, let us walk in thy love and in the fellowship of Jesus. Help us to realize that if we turn away, it is only to darkness and despair, without a single ray of hope to lighten its path; and if we press on unto perfection, it is light and glory and joy, without a single shadow of cloud or menace of hell. Father, preserve us from the eternal failure; we flee unto thee for refuge. Keep us unto thy heavenly kingdom, and set us before the presence of thy glory without blemish in exceeding joy, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

      Heb. 13 is a chapter of various exhortations and admonitions, and the concluding chapter. What is the importance of brotherly love? Who entertained angels without knowing it? What application does he make of the quotation in verse 6? [194]

[LOH1 188-194]