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Wednesday, 23 November 2016

Hebrews 12:23-25 - Do not refuse Him who speaks

12:23
"The firstborn" is plural. Jesus is the first of the firstborn. We all share the same inheritance. We are enrolled in heaven, our names are written in the book of life. In Christ believers are made righteous. This has a twofold meaning. We are justified now, fully acceptable to God. We are being made righteous, i.e. a process of transformation is taking place. This has started now and will be completed on the last day.

12:24
Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. No one else, nothing else, is needed. He is the perfect mediator, as the writer spent part of the earlier sections of the book explaining. He has purified us through His blood. The blood of Abel cried out for vengeance, the blood of Jesus cries out for forgiveness.

12:25
All this is wonderful, but it has severe consequences for all of us, it faces all of us with a serious choice. The gospel is not merely an offer that we can choose to take advantage of or not. It is a command from God, we are commanded to respond to the gospel. The choice is whether we choose to obey or not. The old covenant had very serious consequences for those who disobeyed, something we see again and again in the Old Testament. People often think, well that was just the Old Testament, things are different now.   The old covenant pointed forward to the new, and in the new everything is greater. The forgiveness is greater, we can now know God personally, He comes to live within us, He transforms our lives. But the judgement is also greater, the consequences of refusing the gospel are greater, eternal damnation. The Old Testament shows us that God is deadly serious about judgement, and a proper reading of the New Testament shows that judgement most certainly has not gone out of the window.

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