 |  |
Turning to Heb. 12:, we have a more specific statement concerning the heavenly
Jerusalem, and the structure will be useful in showing the development of the theme.
Hebrews 12: 15 - 25-.
A | 15. | a | Looking diligently.
b | Lest any man fall back.
B | 16, 17. The birthright bartered (Prototokia).
C | 18-21. Ye are not come. Six "ands". SINAI.
C | 22, 23. But ye are come. Seven "ands". SION.
B | 23, 24. The birthright enjoyed (Prototokos).
A | 25-. | a | See.
b | Lest ye refuse.
Heb. 12: 5-25- is occupied with a twofold theme. Verses 5-14 deal with sons, but
verses 15-24 deal particularly with the firstborn and the birthright. The section dealing
with "sons" speaks of those things which all are partakers, whether sons or firstborn. The
section dealing with the firstborn, however, deals with what the firstborn may attain unto,
with warning that a birthright can be exchanged for a mess of pottage. When dealing
with the New Jerusalem, we are not dealing with salvation, but with those things that
accompany salvation, which are essential to the attaining to this added blessing of the
second sphere. Just as Ephesians is concerned with the gift of grace, and Philippians with
the added prize, so Romans is concerned with the gift of grace, and Hebrews with the
added prize, the only difference being the dispensations in which they obtain, and the
spheres in which they operate: they are parallel but not identical (see previous study on
pages 7 and 8). While salvation is by grave and therefore "sure", the very nature of a
race and of running for a crown introduces contingency; "So run, that ye mat obtain";
"Not as though I had already attained". So Heb. 12: 15-25- opens with the warning,
"Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God". It does not say "fall from the
grace of God", but uses the word hustereo, "to come short", as found in Heb. 4: 1. Not
sonship simply, but the birthright in particular; not deliverance from Egypt, but
triumphant possession of Canaan is before us.
In contrast with Sinai Heb. 12: places Sion.
"But ye are come unto Sion, and unto the city of the living God . . . . . and to the
church of the firstborn . . . . . and to the spirits of righteous ones having been perfected"
(Heb. 12: 22-24).
The structure of Heb. 12: 15-25-, already given, places in correspondence "The
bartered birthright" and "The birthright enjoyed", for, as already noted, the two words
"birthright" and "firstborn" are respectively prototokia and prototokos, the warning being
to those who, for a brief period of ease in this world, forfeited the crown of faith in the
next. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, though heirs of the land of Canaan, "dwelt in tents";
though rightful possessors, were willing to be "pilgrims and strangers". Moses had in
view the difference between the pleasures of sin for a season, and the recompence of the
reward. The second sphere, the heavenly Jerusalem, therefore, is largely associated with