Welcome to week two of our summer series, meditating on Hebrews 12:28-29:
Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire.
Therefore, let us…
Therefore, on account of all previously stated concerning who God is, and what He has done and is doing, but especially in chapter 12, verses 18-27. The author of Hebrews has already shown many ways in which Jesus Christ fulfilled the law, and is a better Prophet, Priest, and King, ushering in a better covenant rooted in better promises. He is both the sacrifice for our sins, and our forerunner into our hope, our eternal inheritance. Here then, the author contrasts the unshakeable kingdom with the beginnings of the temporal and shakeable kingdom of Israel. When called out of Egypt, and having come to Mount Sinai, all the people, including Moses, were filled with fear at the display of God’s presence, and His thunderings, and His speaking. And, they had no place to go.
That is not the mount we have come to, we have come to someplace far better.
Home, we were created by God to be at home in His garden. After the Fall, men and women still have the profound calling to fill the earth and exercise godly dominion, bringing His order, peace, beauty, goodness, and abundance wherever they settled. And they couldn’t; the call cannot be fulfilled by us in our fallen state, we fail–we wander–we disrupt–we dismantle–we cower in fear–we grow lazy and cynical–we grow proud and power hungry–we all fall short.
But we all still have this longing for home, for a place of peace, safety, rest, delight, order and meaning and purpose.
Metaphorically then, we’ve been called out of Egypt, and have come to a far better place:
Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the myriads of angels, 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.
The contrast is law and gospel, our residence in the first Adam, and our home in Christ (the second and true Adam). In the law there is no rest, only the fearful expectation of being under the wrath and curse of God as consequent of my sin. In that state, not one person wanted to hear God speak.
In Christ, where have I come to? What have I received? And do we, like so many of the disciples, hear His Word and wonder at the gracious words falling from His lips (see Luke 4:22); do we hear and sit at His feet, knowing it is where we belong (see Luke 10:40-42) delighting to hear His words of eternal life (see also John 6:66-69)?
In Christ, I have received all that cannot be shaken, all that will remain. Or as Paul puts it, all the promises are ours in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 1, Ephesians 2:11-22).
In His unshakeable Kingdom, we have confident and continual access to our King! This is not anything like a flippant come and go attitude, nor by all means related to the sense of entitlement so many display in our generation. This grateful, confident access; in which we come to the throne is a source of a delight and assurance and perseverance for all the saints.
Showing Gratitude
May our words and our deeds be aligned, which is a fruit of the Spirit at work in us. We must not merely be thankful inwardly; if it is truly in our hearts, it will be displayed. We will show gratitude.
We will not merely silently pray “thanks Lord.” Though it will involve our words, our thoughts, our prayers. When is the last time you awoke in the morning, and before reaching for your phone, offered up a prayer, thanking God for life, for His new mercies, for His constant presence in your life?
Our lives will be lived in constant communion with our Triune God, the source of all we have and all we are. In Him is LIFE! And we will live gratefully. Will I act as one who has earned accolades, and deserves respect? Or will I live like one created by God to live in communion with Him? WIll I live in light of having been given this life, given this hope, given the indwelling Spirit, given all that I have in His unshakeable kingdom?
Will this gratitude then impact how I work, how I enjoy my family, how I partake of fellowship in His Body in my local church, how I love my neighbor? Will this gratitude curb my sinful tendency toward the old habits I inherited from my forefather (the first Adam; see 1 Peter 1:17-22), and help me to continually put on Christ, walking in the Spirit rather than the flesh? YES!!! Beloved, this call to show gratitude is part of our gospel obedience that will impact all of life.
Gratitude and Service
This life of gratitude leads to our acceptable service. The author of Hebrews has spent a lot of time on the Old covenant way of approaching and serving God. In this new covenant, in Christ, gratitude undergirds our service, our “acceptable service.” He grants us the faith to see Him, know Him, believe His love, and abide in that love. He fills us with the grace we need to persevere, and to walk in His ways, to repent and follow Him, to take up our cross daily, live in His strength.
In the same way, Romans 12:1-2 teaches us about our spiritual service, and about knowing what is acceptable:
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
We present ourselves, we show gratitude as we do so–thankful for this life, for His redeeming work in us, for His renewing our minds, for His faithfulness to teach us what is acceptable, for our belonging in this unshakable kingdom. We present ourselves, ready–and as discussed last time, keeping our lamps trimmed and ready, knowing we are transient stewards.
As the Son came to do the Father’s will, so we too serve:
But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. Romans 7:6
The letter produced in us only fear, a terrible knowledge of falling short of God’s glory. The Spirit draws us into true prayer, reliance on Him, and works in us that which pleases God. We serve in the newness of the Spirit! We do so as spiritually alive, as filled with His love (Romans 5) because of His Spirit who has poured it into our hearts, as the firstfruits (Ephesians 1), proving, or displaying to the world, the image of God renewed in us (Colossians 3). Living by the letter brings despair, and cannot do for us what Christ has (see Romans 8 especially!)
No longer bound by sin, death, idols, false masters, false loves, false identities–we are freed to live! “Therefore keep standing firm, and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery…but I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh [which] sets its desire against the Spirit…if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” (Galatians 5) We do not tremble in fear of God’s wrath, rather we lean into Him, resting and abiding, and we live in Gospel Obedience.
Keep memorizing this passage with me, beloved; and let us meditate on this beautiful call to offer to God an acceptable service.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash