The Epistle to the Hebrews

[Resource Manager]

CHAPTER XII

 

Wherefore—Running the race—Sinai and Zion—The heavenly Jerusalem—A kingdom which cannot be moved.

 

THE argument of the epistle and the definition of faith being finished, the rest is taken up mainly with exhortations arising out of the subject-matter already considered. Generally very little is needed in the way of exposition in regard to what remains.

 

The twelfth chapter opens with “Therefore,” a word which emphasises the connection between the foregoing argument and summary, and the following verses. Of the Greek word toigaroun it has been said: “Toi affirms the conditions of fact, gar grounds on them, oun follows thereupon, so that the whole amounts to an earnest ergo.” ¹ It does not occur elsewhere in the epistle, the English words “therefore” and “wherefore,” which are used so frequently, representing other Greek terms on every other occurrence. Evidently special emphasis was intended to be conveyed by the use of the word.

 

Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb. 12:1 and 2.)

 

The language is that of one who realises that the object of his writing had been achieved. The aim had been to prove the excellency of Jesus, and the superiority of the new covenant. That Jesus had “sat down on the right hand of the throne of God” was a supreme evidence of the fact. Of none in the past could such a thing be said. The angels were God’s “ministers” (Psa. 103:21), “ministering spirits sent forth to do service” (Heb. 1:14). Moses had died and was buried in the land of Moab, Aaron died, and so did every successor; Jesus also had died, but had been raised from the tomb to the Father’s right hand, there to await the time for every foe to be subjected to him. He had attained the position consequent on his endurance, hence the appeal to “consider him that hath endured such gainsaying of sinners against himself” as an antidote to weariness in the race.

 

The basis of the exhortation was the old Grecian games in which athletes contended for mastery. Not only did they for the race dispossess themselves of clothing, they also, by a process of training, reduced all superfluous flesh. Both these ideas are involved in the terms used. “Every weight” refers to the superfluous flesh, whilst the “sin which doth so easily beset us “answers to the clothing, which in many cases was entirely discarded by the competitors. The combination of the two furnishes a comprehensive indication of the duty of those who would attain to the prize of their calling—crucifying the flesh, and casting-off sins. The example of Christ himself is held out as the ground of confidence, that we may look unto and follow him who has already won in the race.

 

In the course of the race for life eternal the competitors must endure much hardship. “Striving against sin,” and endurance under chastening, are specifically referred to; the absence of the latter being a proof that the individual has not attained to true Sonship. On the other hand, the patient endurance of chastening leads men and women to become partakers of God’s holiness, yielding peaceable fruit to all who are exercised thereby. In the midst of these exhortations there is a warning:

 

Looking carefully lest there be any man that falleth short of the grace of God; ... lest there be any fornicator, or profane person as Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his own birthright. For ye know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing he was rejected (for he found no place of repentance) though he sought it diligently with tears. (Heb. 12:15-17.)

 

This warning leads up to a kind of summary that gathers up the preceding argument with the exhortations and warnings of the chapter before us.

 

For ye are not come unto a mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them: for they could not endure that which was enjoined, if even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned: and so fearful was the appearance that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake: but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that of Abel.”

 

It is the contrast between old and new, the religious associations of Moses and of Jesus. Sinai and the Law, and the terrors with which that Law was inaugurated, were of the old; the new associated Jesus with Mount Zion, the city of the living God. The church of the firstborn (Christ “the first begotten from the dead”) takes the place of Israel of old Yahweh’s firstborn (Exod. 4:22).

 

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¹ Toi, asseveration; gar, assigning a reason; oun, certainly or accordingly. The only occurrences of the combined word are 1 Thess. 4: 8 Heb. 12:1.

[Resource Manager]

Orthodox applications of this passage to heaven and immortal souls are quite beside the point. The heavenly Jerusalem is in the heavenly country which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sought (Heb. 11:16); it is the city which hath the foundations whose Builder and Maker is God. That Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, is to be in Zion needs no proof here. He is to sit upon the throne of his father David; for God will set His king, the Messiah, upon His holy hill of Zion (Psa. 2:6). This fact has already been involved in the proof set forth in support of the argument that Jesus is greater than the angels, where the immediate context of the Psalm is quoted. It is the literal Jerusalem in its glorified state with Christ enthroned therein:

 

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, Is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, The city of the great King.

Walk about Zion, and go round about her:

Tell the towers thereof.

Mark ye well her bulwarks,

Consider her palaces;

That ye may tell it to the generation following.

(Psa. 48.)

 

Why, then, is it said, “Ye are come unto Mount Zion”? As the city is one “which is to come” (Heb. 13:14), it must be understood in a sense which can be harmonised with that idea. Clearly the intention of the passage is that in coming to Christ and the new covenant we come to a constitution of things related to the future glory of Messiah’s kingdom. In a sense we are “translated into the kingdom of the Son of His [God’s] love” (Col. 1:13). Really it is but potential, the end is viewed as already experienced. God’s purpose must be realised, hence the definite character of the statements. This understanding of the matter coincides with the other items of the passage before us. For example, “the general assembly and church of the firstborn” with “innumerable hosts of angels” recall the visions of the Apocalypse, where the saints are in symbol represented as singing a new song in praise of him through whom they are to reign as kings and priests upon the earth:

 

And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands: saying with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honour, and glory, and blessing. (Rev. 5:11 and 12.)

 

Therefore

are they before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun strike upon them nor any heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life; and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Rev. 7:15-17.)

 

They enter into the city with the Lamb, who is also the King of Glory (Psa. 24), when the throne of the house of David is again set up.

 

The “therefore” in the latter quotation is that they had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, “the mediator of the new covenant,” whose blood is “the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than the blood of Abel.” From these considerations it will be seen how this summing-up arises out of the subject-matter of the epistle. It speaks of the time when the “spirits of just men made perfect” shall have obtained “the better thing” provided, when this corruptible having put on incorruption, mortality shall be swallowed up of life.

 

The correctness of the application of the passage to the things of the Kingdom of God is further proved by the quotation which follows from the prophecy of Haggai. Emphasising the necessity of listening to the message, the writer said:

 

If they escaped not when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from Him that warneth from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven. And this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming fire. (Heb. 12:25-29.)

 

It is the same antithesis that has run all through the epistle. As the priest “made after the power of an endless life” (chap. 7:16), who “ever liveth to make intercession” (verse 25), takes the place of priests who had infirmity (verse 28), and who “were not suffered to continue by reason of death” (verse 23), so in the result a kingdom which cannot be moved is to supplant the old order of things. Neither Israel nor the nations have experienced such a kingdom. All are constantly changing and passing, and must continue so doing until the time referred to by the Psalmist. “The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted” (Psa. 46:6). Then the city of God, of which it is declared “she shall not be moved” (verse 5), will be established, for “God will establish it for ever” (Psa. 48:8). It is the day when “the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him” (Dan. 7:27).

[Resource Manager]

CHAPTER XIII

 

Final exhortations—Our altar—The closing prayer.

 

THE final chapter contains sundry exhortations to love of the brethren, hospitality, sympathy, chastity, and contentment. Ecclesial order is alluded to, in the recognition of those who exercise oversight in the ecclesias and whose faith leads to a good “issue of their life.” Warning against false teaching is also given, primarily, of course, against the Judaising tendencies of the times, but equally necessary to-day against the Gentilisation of the ecclesias—if such a word may be allowed.

 

This leads to another comparison of the old and new orders in reference to the altar and the offerings. Our altar is the Lord Jesus himself; he too is the offering and the priest. Those who served the tabernacle had no part in the Christ-altar; they might not, therefore, partake of the Christ-sacrifice unless they became associated with the altar in the appointed way. The sacrifices under the Law provided for their sustenance (see, for example, Lev. 6:14-30); necessarily they gave no right to any participation in the things of the new covenant. The reason for this is thus expressed:

 

For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered without the gate. (Heb. 13:11 and 12.)

 

Christ as the antitype suffered “without the camp” of Israel; “he came unto his own and his own received him not,” he was rejected by them; “a reproach of men, and despised of the people” (Psa. 22:6). That being so, there was a distinct cleavage between those who served the tabernacle, who were the instigators of the national rejection of Jesus of Nazareth, and those who “went forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” Ever since, all who have become associated with the new covenant have had to respond to the exhortation which follows: “Let us therefore go forth unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (verse 13). It is no light task, and needs much encouragement. The remembrance of the fact that in so doing they are treading the same path as their Master is the greatest incentive by the way.

 

The needful encouragement is furnished in the hope set before us—the hope of a “city to come” (verse 14). The reference is a return to the subject of two previous references—the city that had foundations for which Abraham had looked, the city of the living God to which, by faith, they had already come. Really it was a city to come. Just as the saints’ constant petition is “Thy Kingdom come,” so they look for the city to come. In its extended application it leads on to the closing references to this city as “the bride, the wife of the Lamb,” the “holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God” (Rev. 21:9-11). The combination of the reproach and the hoped-for coming of the city—the sufferings and the glories that shall follow, find their effect in the “sacrifice of praise” and doing good.

 

With more exhortations we pass to the closing prayer, in which the main theme of the epistle is yet once more introduced. “Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep, with the blood of the eternal covenant, even our Lord Jesus, make you perfect in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” It is a natural conclusion to the epistle. It has been shown by the victim-mediator that the blood of the new covenant has been sufficient to give resurrection from the dead to eternal life (not the mere renewal of mortal existence), so that Jesus hath brought life and immortality to light. The prayer for the perfection of the sheep is on this basis an exhortation and incentive to let the work be perfected in them unto life eternal, recognising all the time that “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

 

On the last four verses no comment is needed. Reviewing all that we have considered, we may “bear with the word of exhortation” the epistle contains: “For yet a very little while, He that cometh shall come, and shall not tarry.”

 

The Epistle to the Hebrews Boulton.pdf