Hebrews 12:24

Hebrews 12:24

The Messenger of the Covenant and its Seal.

I. God's revelation to us is in the form of a covenant. The promises of the covenant are, full forgiveness as the foundation of all, and built upon that knowledge of God inwardly illuminating and making a man independent of external helps, though he may sometimes be grateful for them, then a mutual possession which is based upon these, and then as the result of all named first, but coming last in the order of nature the law of His commandment will be so written upon the heart that delight and duty are spelt with the same letters, and His will is our will.

II. Jesus Christ is the Executor of this covenant. Because God dwells in Him, and the Word became flesh, He is able to lay His hand upon both, and bring God to man and man to God. (1) He brings God to man. Nowhere else is there found the confidence in the Father's heart which is the property of the Christian man, and the result of the Christian covenant. Jesus Christ brings God to man by the declaration of His nature incarnate in humanity. (2) On the other hand, He brings man to God, for He stands by each of us as our true Brother, and united to us by such close and real bonds as that all which He has been and done may be ours if we join ourselves to Him by faith. And He brings man to God because in Him only do we find the drawings that incline wayward and wandering hearts to the Father. And, still further, He is the Mediator of the covenant in so far as He Himself possesses in His humanity all the blessings which manhood is capable of deriving from the Father, and He has them all in order that He may give them all. Here is the great reservoir from which all men may fill their tiny cups.

III. Note the sprinkling of blood which seals the covenant. If Jesus had not died, there would have been no promises for Us, beginning in forgiveness and ending in wills delighting in God's law. It is the new covenant in His blood. The death of Christ is ever present to the Divine mind, and determines the Divine action.

A. Maclaren, Paul's Prayers,p. 124.

References: Hebrews 12:24. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. iv., No. 211; vol. xii., No. 208; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 108; Homilist,4th series, vol. i., p. 181; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. viii., p. 144.Hebrews 12:24; Hebrews 12:25. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxxii., Nos. 1888, 1889.