The last passage in the Scripture reading above, Hebrews 12:22-24, was poorly translated in the Chinese version of the Bible. A more appropriate translation should be, “But you have come forward to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; and to myriads of angels, to the universal gathering; and to the church of the firstborn, who have been enrolled in the heavens; and to God, the Judge of all; and to the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant; and to the blood of sprinkling, which speaks something better than that of Abel.” Eight items are mentioned here, joined by the same conjunction. First, there is Mount Zion; second, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem; third, the myriads of angels, the universal gathering; fourth, the church of the firstborn, who have been enrolled in the heavens; fifth, God, the Judge of all; sixth, the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect; seventh, Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant; and eighth, His sprinkled blood. These eight items are joined by seven ands.
Let me explain a little about these eight items. The first item is Mount Zion. We know that this Mount Zion does not denote the Mount Zion in the city of Jerusalem on earth. Rather, it denotes the Mount Zion in the heavens. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews was saying, “You have come forward to Mount Zion in the heavens.” Please consider: Where were the recipients of this Epistle—on earth or in heaven? Obviously they were still on earth. However, the writer of the Epistle was saying, “Although you are on the earth now, you have come forward to Mount Zion in the heavens.” This passage of Scripture does not say that believers will go to heaven in the future. If this passage spoke about the believers’ going to heaven, then they had already gone to heaven before they died, since the writer of the Epistle said, “You have come forward to Mount Zion.” He was referring not to the Hebrew saints who were dead but to the saints who were alive and were reading this Epistle. Therefore, we are clear that this passage does not concern the believers’ going to heaven after their death.
Then what is the meaning of Mount Zion here? We know that the book of Hebrews was written at that time to the Hebrew believers, the Jews. The background of the Jews was the Old Testament. One day, when Moses led the children of Israel to Mount Sinai, God descended upon it. The mountain was set on fire, and there were darkness, gloom, a whirlwind, the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words. None of the children of Israel could bear that dreadful situation (Exo. 19:11-18). Today, however, in the New Testament age, we are no longer under the condemnation of the law but under the grace of the new covenant. Therefore, the author of the book of Hebrews seemed to be saying, “Today because you believe in the Lord, you have not come to such a place as Mount Sinai to inherit the law, but you have come to Mount Zion in the new covenant to receive grace.”
The second item is the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. In addition, there are the myriads of angels, the universal gathering, and the church of the firstborn. These firstborn ones have not gone up to the heavens, but they have already been enrolled in the heavens. These are the New Testament saints. Besides these, there are God Himself and the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect. The righteous men who have been made perfect obviously were the saved ones in the Old Testament. However, these saved ones did not belong to the old covenant but to the new covenant. Why is this? It is because, although they lived in the Old Testament age, they still belonged to God’s eternal covenant, the covenant God made with Abraham. The covenant God made with Abraham was a covenant of grace and an eternal covenant. Later, because the children of Israel did not know the covenant and rejected that covenant, God enacted on Mount Sinai another covenant, the covenant of law, which is the old covenant. Under this covenant, there is only Mount Sinai with thunder, lightning, fire, the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of the words of God. Under this covenant, no one can be saved.
The old covenant we often speak of denotes not only the old covenant under the law; sometimes it also denotes the entire age of the Old Testament. According to the old covenant of the law, there were certainly no saved ones, but according to the entire age of the Old Testament, there were still many saved ones. For example, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were all people in the age of the Old Testament, but they were all saved. However, they were not saved under the old covenant of the law. They did not belong to the old covenant of the law but to the eternal covenant God made with Abraham.
Please remember that the new covenant is the continuation of the covenant God made with Abraham. This matter is clearly explained in Galatians 3 and 4. Originally, there was the covenant of Abraham. Then the covenant of law was added, and following this, the new covenant. The covenant of law inserted in between was temporary. In time God recovered the covenant of Abraham, which became the new covenant. Therefore, there are saved ones only under the covenant of Abraham and the new covenant; there are no saved ones under the covenant of law. Under the covenant of law, what men saw was Mount Sinai. This mountain had fire, darkness, gloom, a whirlwind, the sound of a trumpet, and a terrible voice. Yet in the covenant of grace, including the covenant of Abraham and the new covenant, there are Mount Zion in the heavens, the city of the living God, the angels, the church, the God who judges all, the spirits of those who were saved under the covenant of Abraham in the Old Testament age, Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and His sprinkled blood. These are all matters of the new covenant.
The author of the book of Hebrews mentions these eight items here for us to see that today we have not come to Mount Sinai of the old covenant law, but we have come to Mount Zion of the new covenant grace. He is not talking about going to heaven at all. Therefore, it is incorrect to suppose that this passage concerns the believers’ going to heaven. I say again that if this refers to going to heaven, then those who read the Epistle had already left the earth and gone up to heaven before they died. I believe these words are clear enough.
This is a little bit of biblical exposition. I hope that you would not see expounding the Bible as something simple. Gradually you will see that expounding the Bible is a great matter, not simple at all.