PERFECTION

PERDITION

OR

`But ye are come unto mount Sion, AND unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, AND to myriads of

angels, a full assembly, AND to a church of firstborn ones, having been enrolled in heaven, AND to God the Judge

of all, AND to the spirits of righteous ones having been perfected, AND to the Mediator of the new covenant -

Jesus, AND to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel' (not AV JP).

It will be seen that a due observation of these `ands' will help us to keep each feature in its place.

The A.V. leads one to read: `To the general assembly and church of the firstborn', as though it were one

company. Paneguris, the word translated `general assembly', means an assembly met together for some festal or

joyful occasion, and the construction of the passage necessitates the translation: `And to myriads, a festal assembly

of angels'.

We learn that myriads of angels were associated with Sinai and the giving of the law: `The chariots of God are

twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: The Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place' (Psa. 68:17; see

also Deut. 33:2). If these angels were at mount Sinai, they shall also be at Mount Sion, and there they will be a

`festal assembly', for `the marriage of the Lamb' will have come.

This church is the church of the firstborn, a special company, those who did not despise their birthright, nor

barter it away for a morsel of meat. This same company is referred to as: `The spirits of just men made perfect',

each expression having been used in the context of chapters 11 and 12. In 12:9 we read of `The Father of spirits'; in

chapter 11 `the righteous' are in view (10:38; 11:4,7,8), and in 11:40 it is the perfecting: `God having provided some

better thing for us, that they without us should not be perfected'.

The close association of the `better thing', the `better country' and the `better resurrection' with this perfecting

shows that here in Hebrews 12 we are taken to that time when this church of the firstborn shall be complete and

enter into its inheritance and become the Bride, the Lamb's wife. Here Abraham will set foot in that city for which

he looked; Moses will receive that reward unto which he had respect; all who believed, yet died, not having received

the promise, will enter into their birthright. The mediator is not Moses, neither is the blood the blood of bulls and

goats: `Jesus' is the Mediator of the New Covenant, and this blood of sprinkling speaks better things than that of

This heavenly Sion is before the apostle right through the epistle. The `so great salvation' of 2:3 is connected

with the `age to come' of which he wrote in 2:5, and the `glory' unto which the Captain of salvation was leading

(2:10). The words: `He is not ashamed to call them brethren' (2:11), the thought of the Captain being `perfected'

through sufferings (2:10), find their echo in the word: `God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath

prepared for them a city' (11:16), and the `perfecting' of the spirits of just men in 12:23.

It was toward this goal that the apostle urged the Hebrew believers to `go unto the goal (perfection)'. The

weights which they were counselled to lay aside would include those things mentioned in 6:2, a passage we have

already seen in close connection with Esau and his vain seeking for repentance (6:4-6; 12:16,17).

The section closes with a word of warning, very similar to the warning that precedes chapter 11. In the structure

we show it thus:

C 10:26-31. `He that despised Moses' law died without mercy ...

how much more ...'.

`They escaped not who refused Him that spake on

earth, much more ...'.

Here we return to the teaching of chapter 2. In that passage the comparison is between the words spoken by

angels and the words spoken by the Lord, and the question is put: `How shall we escape if we neglect so great a

salvation?' In the other passage the angels are omitted, and the comparison is made between the seriousness of

refusing him who spoke on earth, namely, Moses, the servant, and of refusing the Son Who has since spoken from

The epistle opens with the fact that God has spoken, and that He has spoken in two ways; once through His

servants, and now in His Son. The Hebrews were in danger of minimizing the sin of refusing to hear what the Lord