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Articles 2021-2023
Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.
The peace we desire to have with others must be linked to living sanctified lives before the Lord. Without a life separated unto Him, we will not be able to see Him. Since everyone will see Him when they stand before Him at the final judgment, the writer here must be referring to the experience of beholding Him in this life. While we certainly want peace with all men, yet it must not be based on compromising our relationship with Him. Some things are simply non-negotiable. And so, our first priority is not our relationship with others around us but with our God. And as we give Him precedence in our lives, as we separate ourselves from the pull of the sins of this world, we will discover an intimacy with Him that will then put our relationships with others on the proper foundation. Or, as Jesus said, the pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5:8). Others will only see this present world through soulish eyes.
But all relationships are fraught with the possibility of failure and pain. And when someone hurts us, our tendency is to react with anger. But for those who humble themselves, God will supply the grace to find Him in what is occurring.
See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
God will give us the grace we need to walk in a godly manner in our relationships. But if we do not lay hold of the grace needed to forgive others, that unforgiveness will take root downward in our hearts and mature upward into bitterness. Then our lives will become a tool for the enemy’s strategy of defiling many. At that point, the failures of others will be our focus instead of Christ.
An Old Testament example of one who came short of God’s grace was Esau; he simply did not discern accurately Heaven’s priorities. He sold his birthright, something precious to God, for a single meal. And later when he tried to change the results of his decision, he was unable (Hebrews 12:16 - 17). Then, both through Jacob’s deception and through Esau’s reaction, the enemy succeeded in bringing defilement into their relationship.
The reason we must take such great care in our relationships is because God has brought us to His holy mountain, the spiritual Mount Zion. Though it is not a place of blazing fire, gloom, whirlwind, and terribly fearful sights as was Mount Sinai when God gave the Law to Moses (Hebrews 12:18 - 21), yet it is still His holy mountain and it is now worldwide. It is here that the city anticipated by Abraham is coming into view.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels…
Heaven’s city has been designed by God, it is under construction by the power of the Holy Spirit, it is accompanied by myriads of angels, and it is emerging from heaven among men. Indeed, all of heaven is involved in bringing forth on earth this God-designed project. And this city is to be discovered wherever the assembled believers of Christ gather to Him. For we have come:
to the general assembly and church 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, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.
God’s firstborn son on earth under the Old Covenant was Israel (Exodus 4:22). But in this New Covenant, His firstborn Son is Jesus. And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, “AND LET ALL THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM (Hebrews 1:6).” Jesus, the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29), the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15), and the firstborn from the dead (Colossians 1:18). His assembled disciples are enrolled in heaven and gather to our God who is the Judge of all the earth.
Here the spirits/the hearts of men and women who have been made perfect (Greek, TELEIOO – who have been brought to completeness of character, who have been fully developed, who have reached the end of their course, i.e., they are spiritually mature) have great influence among the believers. Probably because their only agenda is Him. Lord, may it be that the truly humble among us would have the greatest influence in our midst rather than those who simply have the most visible ministries.
In this assembled gathering, Jesus is central and continually causes us to see the glories of His New Covenant where His sprinkled blood of cleansing pleads for mercy on our behalf while Abel’s cried out only for justice.
See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven.
Scripture reveals the repeated pain that Israel reaped when she failed to heed Moses’ instruction and his warnings against sin. But since Christ, the greater Moses, has now ascended to the right hand of God with all authority in heaven and on earth, how much more ought we to listen carefully to what He is saying and to honor Him as central both in our individual lives as well as in our gatherings in His name.
And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “YET ONCE MORE I WILL SHAKE NOT ONLY THE EARTH, BUT ALSO THE HEAVEN.”
God powerfully shook the earth at Mount Sinai. The giving of His Law, written on stone, changed the course of history and affected not only the nation of Israel but all of civilization. Then through the prophet Haggai, He promised to bring an even greater shaking – not only of the earth but also of the heavens as well as then of every nation on earth (Haggai 2:6 - 7). The result would be that multitudes would come with the wealth of all nations (NASB), i.e., the souls of men, or as the NKJV states it, they would come to the Desire of all nations. In other words, many would turn to the only One who could fulfill the deepest longings of men’s souls.
That promised shaking of all creation that Haggai saw by looking forward in time took place at Calvary and commenced with Christ’s resurrection. Though that event was in the prophet’s future, it was now in the Hebrew believers’ past. Here are Haggai’s words.
”For thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. ‘I will shake all the nations; and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD of hosts.
In the first part of the above verses, God’s shaking of the creation would occur in a little while and it would cause many to come to Him. But the last phrase then reveals what would precipitate those events. He would fill the rebuilt temple in Haggai’s day with His glory.
When the builders of Haggai’s day saw the rebuilt temple as unimpressive compared to the former one in Solomon’s day, God saw that they needed encouragement. His promise was not that the second house itself but that its glory would be greater than the former one. The glory of the former temple was God revealed in a cloud; the glory of the second one was God revealed in flesh.
The precipitating event to cause the influx of people from all over the earth would be when the rebuilt temple of Haggai’s day would be filled with the glory of God. That second temple was filled with the greatest expression of God’s glory in all of history when Jesus of Nazareth walked into it.
Then when He went to the cross, His death and resurrection shook the whole creation. The writer to the Hebrew believers wanted them to know that everything that was now unfolding from heaven would be established in permanence and was based on that one singular event.
This expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.
It would take only one creation-shaking event, the repercussions of which would then be the ongoing shaking of all nations. At that one event, God would definitively defeat the powers of hell and of sin to begin the removal of everything that could be shaken, everything not built on the proper foundation. Based on Calvary, God’s unshakeable kingdom began to come into clarity among the Jewish believers.
Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show (Greek, ECHO – to hold, possess) gratitude (Greek, CHARIS – grace) by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.
Two thousand years ago, as God’s people began receiving His kingdom, the writer wanted the Hebrew believers to know that the key to their success in embracing it was that they lay hold of the grace of God. Only then would their service/their worship be acceptable to Him. All service not rooted in His grace would be consumed by fire.
Donald Rumble – October 2021
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