Monday, April 12, 2010

Boldness or Fear?

"And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake" (Heb 12:21)

The author of the book of Hebrews goes to great lengths to prove to his readers the superiority of Christ to every aspect of Judaism they had heretofore known. In the culmination of his argument, the author hammers home this point very graphically.

Judaism was about law keeping. In chapter 10 we learn that the priestly ministrations legislated by the covenant were over when Jesus “offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, [and] sat down on the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12). In chapter 12 the author places the new covenant foretold by Jeremiah and the old side-by-side for comparison. “For ye are not come unto the mount that … burned with fire, nor unto … the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words…For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant” (Heb 12:18-24).

How remarkable a contrast! On the one hand, a mountain of fire upon which if any beast should tread, they should be put to death! On the other, the City of God; “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven” (Rev 21:2). This new city on Sion, wherein “a Lamb [stands]” (Rev 14:1), by whose light “the nations will walk, and the kings of the earth” (Rev 21:24) is the heritage for “the one who conquers…and [God] will be his God, and he will be [God’s] son” (Rev 21:7).

John Bunyan, in his work The Pilgrim’s Progress describes Sinai this way: “it seemed so high, and also that side of it that was next the way-side did hang so much over, that Christian was afraid…lest the hill should fall on his head; … There came also flashes of fire, out of the hill, that made Christian afraid that he should be burnt.” This is the guilt which comes from the law: that “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).

Contrarily, this city on mount Sion is one wherein we may “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16). RST

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