Hebrews 12: Holiness Maintained

"For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel."  Hebrews 12.18-24

But even as we declare that we have come to a better mountain, we must be careful how we view the old.

This is what I mean. This passage opens with a depiction of the holy, dreadful Mount Sinai, in fire and darkness. This is the image of justice and wrath, righteousness and punishment, all according to the law given Moses there. This passage ends with a depiction of Mount Zion, the new Jerusalem. Here we find images of mercy, and peace, and reconciliation, and forgiveness, all according to the forgiveness of Christ.

Our temptation, then, is to believe these mountains to be mutually exclusive. The first has passed, that the second may come to be. Yet Jesus, speaking of the law, tells us that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

You see, as verse 23 reminds us, God remains the judge. His holiness is maintained. The God of the old mountain is not a half-way revelation of the God we discover in the new. God's holiness, and therefore his judgment and wrath, is not a primitive view of God now superseded by Christ. It is an accurate view of God then and now. He remains utterly holy, pure, and opposed to sin, utterly demanding of perfection. God must be so holy, so opposed to sin, and injustice, and evil, for otherwise he would not be God, nor would he be loving. It is in his holy hatred of sin, injustice and evil that we see how loving our God is- without hating these things, God could only ever be less than loving. Perfection must be required,

God's holiness, and therefor his justice, is maintained. And yet He is also loving. The difference between these two mountains is not the nature of God's judgment, but how that judgment is applied. For in the old, man was left unsure of his end. What would come of his unrighteousness? Could any sacrifice truly ransom a man from his ways?

But in the new mountain we discover that the spirit of the righteous [are] made perfect. Perfection is still required- but now we discover how it is achieved. It is given. And this is the essence of the new mountain. Not a lessening of God's holy wrath- not a lessening of God's demand for justice- but a full satisfaction of God's wrath in Christ, and the gift of perfection to us by the same. God's holiness is maintained, yet we are changed, by the word of Jesus Christ.

If a woman walks into a fantastic party wearing muddy sweatpants, the experience of that party will be entirely different than if she enters the party wearing a smart new dress. Has the party changed? No. But she has been changed; the same party which caused shame and embarrassment now fills her with joy and excitement.  The same power of that occasion, once crushing the woman beneath its weight, now exalts her. Or imagine a boy in the waves. Alone, the force of the waves pose a great threat to him. But with a board beneath him, that same threatening force is simultaneously a power unto exhilaration.

The Lord of the old covenant is no different than the Lord of the new. He has not changed- but we have changed before him. His all-consuming holiness neither shifts nor gives way; instead, we have been changed. In Christ the fire that once annihilated us now warms us unto new life. As we learned last week, the blood that once condemned us now cries out for our salvation. The holiness which excluded us from any proximity to God now envelops us in His wonder. His holiness is maintained, it is our condemnation that is transformed into communion by the working of an external force upon our lives and hearts. This is the gospel, the good news: not that God has changed Himself so as to welcome the unrighteous, but that He has changed the unrighteous so as to welcome them to Himself. He has not changed, but we have, and that is very good news.