The Old Gospel that Protects From the New

 The new trend in handling “the gospel” (the good news of salvation) is to relate to it in self-justification instead of in self-denial. People who do not want to be saved from their sin self-justify why God is okay loving them with their sin intact. 

The original way (the genuine way) was to see the gospel as the good news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.[1] Sinners would hear this good news and feel such poverty of spirit over their sinful condition that they would call out in mourning and meekness, with a hunger and thirst for the righteousness they did not have, and cling to the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope of being saved from the condemnation of their sin and into the adoption as sons of the living God.[2] 

The new way of relating to the gospel is to treat it like Jesus came into the world to find good people to help be better. Now we have “good” people (by their standard, not God’s) admitting they have a few things they need help with (only the ones they admit to) and claiming Jesus is here to help them do better, to feel better, to get healing for the hurt feelings of life, and to just love everybody the way they are. 

The original way of the gospel called people to deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Christ.[3] The denial of self came when people heard the good news and knew they were the sinners Jesus came to find.[4] This gave them hope because admitting they were sinners meant their hearts were open to the Savior. By admitting their sin, they found themselves being found by Jesus.[5] And being found by Jesus meant they were now entering the very life God created them to experience. 

The new way of the gospel calls people to self-justification, rejecting the conviction of the cross, and inviting Jesus to follow them through life helping them and their mates feel good about themselves. You know, participation ribbons for everyone no matter how well or poorly they actually ran the race. 

So why is the original gospel “good news of great joy”[6], while the new gospel (which is nothing new at all) is the scariest thing in the world? Or, put another way, why is the original gospel filled with the message of life while the new gospel is condemned and anyone who preaches it, “let him be accursed”?[7] 

The answer is in Jesus’ words, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”[8] The new gospel is designed by Satan, the thief, who uses it to steal, kill, and destroy people in the condemnation of their sin for their utter destruction. The original gospel is the means by which Jesus gives life of the “abundantly” variety. 

The new gospel is actually a deception called “cheap grace”. Grace is central to the good news of salvation, but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus his death in our place; it costs us dying with Christ and being buried with him in order to be raised into the newness of life in the kingdom of God.[9] 

“Cheap Grace” is the belief that God is so loving and gracious, and he has done all the work of salvation through Jesus Christ, that there is no judgment on God’s children for anything they do wrong. The belief is that God’s grace does everything, and we are not expected to address or deal with the sin in our lives because Jesus “paid it all”, and there is nothing more to do (only partly true). 

This was something the church faced way back in the first generation of believers after Jesus’ death and resurrection. God was teaching his church that, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,”[10] and the leaders had to deal with the challenge, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?”[11] And what was the answer to such an absurd question? “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”[12] 

You see, it was absolutely true that, when Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and when he comes to sinners now through the original gospel, the grace of God in the gospel super-abounds in relation to even the very worst of sinners so that anyone can hear the good news and know there is more than enough grace to cleanse them from any amount or degree of sin. This is why it is noted in God’s word that it was people like the prostitutes and tax-collectors who were repenting of their sins and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord. They understood that God’s grace was super-abounding over the horrible regrets of their sins. And that grace drew them to leave their sin and love the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The point is that this grace gives people hope of cleansing from sin and acceptance with God, not condoning of sin and a nod and a wink from a manmade grandfatherly figure who let’s the kids get away with what the parents have forbidden. 

One way to think of the accountability of the original good news is that the salvation by grace through faith fully saves a person without any contribution of good works at all, but when the dead sinner is made alive in Christ (like spiritual CPR), the newness of life in the abundant life of God’s kingdom calls them to live as obedient children of God rather than disobedient children of the evil one. 

My point in sharing this today is simply that I have been watching the new gospel[13] make inroads into groups who call themselves Christians. It is nothing new. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians and his letter to the Galatians address this false gospel in great detail. The apostles also make repeated warnings about the false gospel all through their writing of God’s breathed-out words. 

I am at the point of pleading with people to please measure your heart and mind against the original gospel, the genuine gospel. Have you experienced Jesus Christ delivering you out of the domain of darkness, leaving behind your sin, and transferring you into his kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, or are you trying to convince yourself that God sees enough good works in you that you don’t actually need the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross? 

If any of your security for salvation rests in anything at all that you have done or are doing, it is a false gospel. But if you have trusted in Jesus Christ alone to save you, and you know that he has done everything required of God for you to have eternal life, then I “urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,”[14] by walking with God’s children in “the obedience of faith”.[15]

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] I Timothy 1:15

[2] Romans 8:1-2, 15, 23; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5

[3] Luke 9:23

[4] Luke 19:10

[5] The three parables of Luke 15 show the joy of God when Jesus finds sinners and brings them home.

[6] Luke 2:10-11

[7] Paul condemns any new and divergent and progressive gospels as utterly contemptible in Galatians 1:6-10 because they make people think they are saved when they are still in their sins.

[8] John 10:10

[9] Romans 6:3-4

[10] Romans 5:20

[11] Romans 6:1

[12] Romans 6:2

[13] The “new gospel” is actually an oxymoron because “gospel” means “good news” and this new gospel is the worst news ever. The original gospel gives life by grace through faith, which is good news of great joy, and the new gospel, which is no gospel at all (because it is not good news) secures people in the condemnation of their sins and the judgment of God over their sin.

[14] Ephesians 4:1

[15] Romans 1:5; 16:26

To Imitate Jesus in Death and Life

I am continuing to process the contexts of I Peter 2 and 4 in relation to us entrusting ourselves to God in our suffering the way Jesus entrusted himself to his Father during his suffering. These are the two Scriptures I am considering: 

I Peter 2:23	I Peter 4:19
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.	Therefore let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

The theme is, how do I entrust myself to our faithful Creator in the things I suffer as I imitate Jesus who entrusted himself to his Father as the perfect judge? The attachment involved in entrusting has captivated me. 

Today I am here: 

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.[1] 

I am considering the impact of Jesus bearing my sins in his body on the tree, “that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” The “dying” and the “living” are extreme contrasts! 

First, that is a horrendously huge demand on me that cannot be ignored. Jesus’ direct purpose in dying for me was that I might die to my sin and live to righteousness. This is not an option, but the whole point of his death. As Paul said, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”[2] We can only become the righteousness of God as we become dead to sin. 

Second, baptism is when this is sealed in us, as Paul said, 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.[3] 

This means that EVERY baptized believer alive in the church today (the church knows no other kind of believer) has already died to sin and been raised from the dead to live like Jesus in our love. Bitterness belongs to the old life; love belongs to the newness of life. 

Third, this verse really helped me see where God is taking this with me: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”[4] God loving me WHILE I was a sinner requires me to love others WHILE they are sinning, and especially when they are sinning against me! 

Fourth, this verse sealed it for me, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”[5] Laying down our lives requires dying. That’s what Jesus did. And even though we cannot do this redemptively, we can do it comparatively. I can be like Jesus in loving others. 

Conclusion: God is not promising me how long this WHILE will be that I must love people WHILE they are sinning against me. However, I know I would rather feel the spiritual satisfaction of agapè-hesed-loving[6] like Jesus than the sarky[7] satisfaction of harboring bitterness against people for their injustices against me. 

Jesus bore my injustices against him to satisfy God’s justice against me, and I confess my willingness to be like him even though I must feel the sorrow of suffering unjustly as I entrust my soul-care to God and continue to do good.

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] I Peter 2:24

[2] II Corinthians 5:21

[3] Romans 6:3-4

[4] Romans 5:8

[5] I John 3:16

[6] “agapè” is the Greek word used in the New Testament for God’s love for us and our love for others, including our enemies. It is all-encompassing over all other loves (family love, marriage love, friendship love, brotherly love). “hesed” is the Hebrew word used in the Old Testament referring to God’s covenantal love, often translated “steadfast love”. Together, these words summarize the glory of God’s unfailing love and guides us in how to love as the Triune God has loved us.

[7] The Greek word translated “flesh” in the New Testament sounds like “sark” or “sarx” so I have become accustomed to referring to our fleshly desires and feelings as “sarky”.

The Wonder of Covenant with God

 

A long time ago, a favorite author presented this quote: “Out of wonder, worship is born.”[1] I have proven this true so many times as discovering some treasure of wisdom and knowledge in God’s word fills my heart with wonder at such gifts of grace that I can’t help but express worship to God for making himself known to me. 

This was once again God’s gift as I considered the amazing expression about Jesus: “I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people”.[2] What struck me this morning was that the very concept of a covenant with God was more magnificent than my soul had yet considered (I love it when that happens!). It was as though a familiar scene in the Divine Tapestry suddenly drew me to look closer at the threads that wove the story. And as I looked at the fine artistry of the weaving, wonder quickly took my hand to led me on the journey. 

The first thing I considered was the definition of “covenant”.

Covenant: covenant n. — a contractual arrangement between God and a person, or between human beings, which required binding action from one or both parties; one party often had higher status in the arrangement.[3]

Just to consider this description made me feel a wave of reverence and awe at the loving determination of God to make it happen. But it also made me want to know how a covenant was “a contractual arrangement” but was not limited to a contract. I looked and found this: 

What is a Contractual Agreement? 

A contractual agreement is a legally binding agreement between two parties. The contract's terms and conditions will require the parties to either do or refrain from doing specific actions. A contractual agreement is legally enforceable if it meets these specific requirements: 

Offer and Acceptance: One party must make an offer, and the other party must accept that offer. 

Mutual Consent: Offer and acceptance must occur mutually and without coercion.

Consideration: Consideration means that something of value is exchanged between the parties, whether money, goods or services. 

Competence: Parties entering the contract must be legally competent. Parties cannot be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, mentally deficient, or a minor. 

Legal Purpose: The contract cannot require any unlawful action.[4]

So a covenant is a form of “contractual arrangement” but is beyond it, or greater than a mere contract. What then is the primary difference between a contract and a covenant? Answer: a contract is null and void if someone breaks it, while a covenant continues even when it is broken. Wow! 

In the overwhelming perfection of the steadfast love of God, God himself ordains a covenant that will not fail EVEN WHEN WE BREAK IT!!! It is permanently secure because of God’s side of the arrangement. It is “HE who began a good work in you” who “WILL bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”[5] And it is God “who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,” so that, “to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”[6] 

This new covenant in Jesus Christ would so outshine the old covenant that when Jesus said, “It is finished!”,[7] the covenant between God and his elect could never be null-and-void!!! 

As the pondering of God’s covenantal love overwhelmed me, I was drawn to another thread that seemed to be woven all through the Divine Tapestry: “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.”[8] 

When I looked at this in context, I felt the wonder grow into even deeper layers of worship. When God searches me and knows me, and when he knows when I sit down and when I rise up, and when he discerns my thoughts from afar and searches out my path, and he searches out my lying down and is acquainted with all my ways, and even before a word is on my tongue he knows it altogether, even then, knowing all that about me, he is faithful and determined and love-consumed to hem me in both behind and before, and lay his hand upon me as a Father putting his hand on his son’s shoulder in the securest love ever.[9] 

I share this in the hope that the wonders of the new covenant in Jesus’ blood will move you with how secure the child of God is because of the finished work of Christ. We can never empty the ocean of God’s grace by all our drinking of its undeserved provisions. 

But I also share this in the hope that you will desire to spend time with God in his word and prayer every day of your life because the wonders of God never cease as we attach to him in faith. As God himself says, his mercies are new every morning, and the best way to find them is by opening the spotlight of God’s word to shine light on the glories of his covenantal love.

 

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] G. Campbell Morgan (not sure where I found it)

[2] Isaiah 49:8

[3] Bible Sense Lexicon from Logos Bible Systems

[4] https://www.contractscounsel.com/t/us/contractual-agreement

[5] Philippians 1:6

[6] Jude 1:24-25

[7] John 19:30

[8] Psalm 139:6

[9] Paraphrasing the context of Psalm 139:1-5

When Christ is Formed in Us

The past couple of days I have been meditating on the parallel between a prophecy of Jesus being “formed” in Mary’s womb[1] and Paul’s use of the imagery of childbirth to speak of Jesus Christ being “formed in you!”[2] Here they are side-by-side: 

Isaiah 49:5	Galatians 4:19-20
And now the Lord says,     he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him;     and that Israel might be gathered to him— for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,     and my God has become my strength—	It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

There aren’t enough words to convey the glory of this, that in a rhyming thought to the way God formed Jesus in Mary’s womb, he is at work to have Christ formed in us. 

One thing I have often been in trouble for is making everything about Jesus. People have accused me of not having normal interests like everyone else (ignoring my love of writing, songwriting, gardening, woodworking, photography, guitar playing, backroad drives, hiking, camping, exploring the seashore, and playing with my little friends in our daycare). 

However, when I consider the anguish Paul described as he felt like a woman in labor, I can’t see how he would have accused me of being too much about Christ. He knew that the Galatian Christians were being led astray to a works-based religiosity that completely nullified the gospel of grace through faith. What was being formed in them was a message of despair, a toxin poisoning the womb, so to speak. 

Paul’s message was that, while the false teachers were making much of themselves and their so-called brilliance in designing a gospel that added the old covenant to the new, Paul was urging the Galatian Christians to get their eyes back on Christ so that Christ himself would be formed in them. 

To show how all-encompassing this was in Paul’s mind, here are the words from a couple of commentators to help you see where I’m going with this. One describes “Christ is formed in you” as meaning, “that you may live nothing but Christ, and think nothing but Christ, and glory in nothing but Him, and His death, resurrection, and righteousness.”[3] 

Another expands on this to mean, 

…until Christ be formed in you, that is, until your whole inner being proclaims Christ’s being and his ways, so that you will trust fully in your Savior, will be like him in your thoughts, wishes, and aspirations, and will reflect him in the common words you speak, in life’s common looks and tones, in intercourse at hearth or board with your beloved ones, in brief: in the entire gamut of your existence and manifestation among men.[4] 

What this tells me is that the concept of Jesus Christ being formed in us is all-consuming. It does mean that our lives are all about him. And Paul wanted us to know that the apostles felt anguish as a woman in labor, seeking that the life of Christ would be birthed in the children of God as fully as is possible this side of heaven. 

But when Paul says “again”, it speaks of this impossible picture of a child turning away to deadly things and the mother somehow having to go through the same anguish of childbirth all over again to bring the child back to life. Paul was perplexed as to how it had happened that these people needed to be brought back to Jesus when they had already welcomed him into their lives. 

One of my life-themes has been God calling me to suffer for people when they are not willing (or able) to do anything for themselves (that’s what babies are like, after all). When we are burdened for the lost who don’t care one little bit about their eternal destiny, or church folk who had started so well in their love for Jesus grow cold and don’t seem to care how they are doing, God burdens our hearts to love these people like a woman would go through the anguish of labor all over again if she could bring her rebellious child back into the life of Jesus Christ. 

Paul’s mentoring makes it clear that God wants us to let ourselves feel the anguish of childbirth as we labor over the lost and deceived to seek their turning or returning to Christ. For starters, that means expressing this anguish-of-childbirth in a willingness to feel anguish in prayer as we agonize over our intercession for others. 

However, we do this with the expectation that the Holy Spirit will also orchestrate ways for us to do this in person. And when he does, we join God in his work like a woman who desperately wants to give birth and welcome the child for which she labored!  

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] Isaiah 49:5

[2] Galatians 4:19

[3] Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 2, p. 334). Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[4] Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of Galatians (Vol. 8, p. 176). Baker Book House.

The Glory of Forgiveness of Sin

I am now going through Psalm 65 applying the first verse to the whole rest of the Psalm. The first verse identifies Zion as the place where God’s children give him our praise, and each verse highlights different aspects of the praiseworthiness of our God. 

This morning I began here: 

1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,     and to you shall vows be performed.

3 When iniquities prevail against me,     you atone for our transgressions.

What filled me with awe and wonder was the “everyday” sound to this. It wasn’t referring to David’s big sin with Bathsheba and his manslaughter charge against her husband. It was just describing a generic experience of being overcome by sin. 

Under the Old Covenant, Zion was the place where God atoned for the transgressions of his people. David didn’t say, “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day”[1] because he perfectly kept the Ten Commandments. He rejoiced in God’s law because it had provisions for any kind of sin that could overcome him!

If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities,

    O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness,

    that you may be feared.

(Psalm 130:3-4) 

This has been a favorite expression in the Psalms for a long time. I like the way the NIV expresses verse 3, “If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand?” If God had a record book where he marked down our iniquities, sins and transgressions, rhetorically speaking, who could possibly stand in his presence?! 

But everyone under the old covenant knew there was forgiveness of sins. Every conceivable way someone could sin had a provision for it in the covenant. The people simply had to have the faith to obey and observe what was required, but they knew that it was their God, glorious in Zion, glorious in the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle, who forgave their sins through the death of a sacrifice. 

It is fascinating to me that I felt compelled to begin a journey through the scriptures to learn why Christians, especially us Gentile ones, could appreciate what it means in Hebrews that, “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem…” What is the imagery of Mount Zion that would give us so much hope and encouragement even when being persecuted and beaten down by worldly authorities? 

I have already gained so much from this journey, and stopping at each viewpoint to take in whatever new facets of Zion are revealed in the scriptures, but today’s vantage point is to see the praise that is due to God in Zion because that is where the Tabernacle was, and that is where the people observed all the sacrifices that provided for the forgiveness of their sins, and that is where my mentor would go whenever he was overcome by sin, iniquity and transgression, absolutely assured that Yahweh God would forgive him. And for that, Yahweh was worthy of overwhelming praise! 

And that was all under the Old Covenant! 

Under the New Covenant, we have so much more!!! 

On the night that Jesus would be betrayed by Judas, deserted by all the disciples, and denied three times by Peter, our Savior said these words, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”[2] What Jesus’ death the next day would provide forever was a new covenant in which we would never again need to bring a sacrifice for sin in order to receive forgiveness. Jesus himself is that sacrifice, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”[3] 

The point in this is that we must bring David’s expression, “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,” and let it attach to our own experience of, “When iniquities prevail against me,” so that we are all the more convinced that “you atone for our transgressions,” under the New Covenant in Jesus’ blood than David understood under the Old Covenant in the endless sacrifices that were required. 

After all, that is the point of the passage in Hebrews 12 that spurred me on to make the journey through scripture to get to know Mount Zion. We have not come to Mount Sinai where the Old Covenant with all its laws was given to Moses. 

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly 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 that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.[4] 

This reality gives us every bit as many reasons to praise Yahweh and Jesus Christ in the heavenly Zion as David worshiped with sacrifices of praise in earthly Jerusalem. God still forgives sin, but by a much greater sacrifice than David had ever seen. 

It is no wonder that Hebrews would conclude with such a glorious expression of praise as this: 

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.[5] 

 And all God’s people said, “AMEN!!!!!!!”

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] Psalm 119:97

[2] Luke 22:20

[3] John 1:29

[4] Hebrews 12:22-24

[5] Hebrews 13:20-21

Zion: The Place of Praise and Vows

If there was only one thing I could teach anyone, it would be how to attach to God in his word and prayer on a daily basis. After all, faith comes from hearing, and hearing comes from the word of Christ, and letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly rhymes with being filled with the Spirit, and since the righteous shall live by faith, why not attach to the person and words that give us the faith to live! 

I am continuing on a journey of understanding Zion throughout the whole Bible. This originates in what the writer of Hebrews expresses when he reminds persecuted believers that we have not come to Mount Sinai with all its terrifying revelations of God but “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem”.[1] I realized that Jewish believers of the time would have had a much clearer idea of what this meant, but Gentile believers would need to know the background to such a description. And that is how I began my journey. 

At present, I am working through Psalms that refer to Mount Zion by name (there are so many others that speak of it in other ways). Each reference is like a viewpoint on a trail that leads around Mount Zion, and each time I stop to take in the view, I learn new things about what it means for us today, while also seeing themes developing to reinforce why even Christians today would be so encouraged by the reminder that we have come to the Mount Zion of heaven. 

Today I moved on to the next reference to Zion, and it is this: 

Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,
    and to you shall vows be performed.[2] 

Zion was Jerusalem, and David is picturing the people coming before God in Zion, the place where the Tabernacle expressed God’s presence with his people, soon to be replaced by the Temple. 

My main focus was on “praise” and “vows”. If Christians come to the heavenly Mount Zion, and praise and vows are the characteristics of our relationship to the Triune God, it says, on one side, that Yahweh is worthy of all our praise and all our vows, and, on the other side, that praise and performing our vows is how we relate to him. 

I found a parallel between this verse and another passage: 

Who shall ascend the hill of Yahweh?

    And who shall stand in his holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

    who does not lift up his soul to what is false

    and does not swear deceitfully.[3] 

The “hill of Yahweh” and “his holy place” also mean Zion, Jerusalem, the Tabernacle/Temple. 

“Clean hands” and “a pure heart” signify both the inner and outer expressions of faith. Our hearts are pure in that we truly have faith and love for God. And our hands are clean in that what we do in our actions expresses our faith and love for God. 

Also, under both the old and new covenants, this did not mean that people didn’t sin, but that they dealt with sin as the covenant required. Under the old covenant this means performing appropriate sacrifices; under the new covenant it meant confession and repentance of sin, what we call “keeping short accounts with God.” 

The application is that when Christians are reminded that we come to Mount Zion, the city of the Great King, we must continue to see God as worthy of praise even while the world goes to hell in a handbasket, as they say, and we must perform our vows to God (things we have agreed with him about over the years that are his will for our lives), and continue to live by those vows no matter what we see happening around us. 

I am thankful to see how this journey of exploring Zion in the scriptures is helping me get the picture of why the writer of Hebrews wanted to remind persecuted Christians that this is where we come today as the one new man in Jesus Christ. Zion is where the only true God resides, and he is so glorious and good that praise is due to him no matter how bleak things look on earth, and no matter how the name of Jesus Christ is blasphemed all around us. We keep praising him, and we keep performing our vows of faith to his glory.

 

 

© 2023 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8

Email: in2freedom@gmail.com

Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.)

 

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[1] Hebrews 12:22

[2] Psalm 65:1

[3] Psalm 24:3-4