Continual Burnt Offering: Daily Meditations, December 4 (12:22-24)
“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, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel” — Hebrews 12:22-24.
IN the latter part of this twelfth chapter of Hebrews we have law and grace set before us in vivid contrast as two distinct circles, one centering in Sinai, “the mount that burned with fire,” and the other in Mt. Sion, which speaks of God’s sovereign grace. Linked with this is the heavenly instead of the earthly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, where dwell an innumerable company, a full gathering of angel hosts, whose delight it is to serve those who belong to the assembly of first-born ones—all heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. There God Himself dwells, and there, too, Old Testament saints, now perfected through the work of Jesus, the Mediator of the covenant of grace, whose blood speaks not of vengeance but of mercy. This is the circle of God’s favor to which all believers have come.
— J. G. Deck.