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28 So let us be thankful, because we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We should worship God in a way that pleases him with respect and fear, 29 because our God is like a fire that burns things up. ~ Hebrews 12:28-29
Today, we conclude our study of Hebrews 12. In light of the fact that the Lord will, at the end of time, shake this world, we can be most grateful that we have been included in His family by believing in His Son for the forgiveness of our sin. Even the faith which enables our hearts to see God is a gift, and, therefore, we should be the most grateful people on the planet.
Gratitude and happiness seem to stick together, like two tight-stitched friends. Where we find one, we find the other. God's kingdom which He has granted to us who believe on His Son as our Savior from the effects of sin is a kingdom that cannot be disturbed by enemies or upset by disaster. His kingdom is secure and safe and strong forever, and, it is ours!
These young Hebrew Christians to whom the writer of Hebrews wrote, knew about a kingdom that can be shaken. They knew public persecution, imprisonment, and desertion. In fact, they knew years of no earthly blessings at all. Yet, it was in that miserable context, they were given the opportunity to evaluate aright. They were given a reality that made it most conducive for them to conclude that which is most substantive in this life.
According to v.28 of today's passage, our gratitude is the product of "having a kingdom that cannot be shaken." This verb is a present participle, and thus it is best understood as "we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken." These words are in confirmation of the fact that the temporal things of this world will be shaken out of existence. That which will remain is the "kingdom that cannot be shaken." Based on the fact that this lies ahead for the believer in Christ as a certainty, "let us be thankful."
G.K. Chesterton converted to Christianity at age 48, because he was thankful, but he didn’t know who to thank. He famously wrote, "The worst moment for an atheist is when he is really thankful and has no one to thank."
Biblical gratitude is grounded in God’s love for us who are undeserving. Our English word "gratitude" derives from the Greek word which means "grace." This term most often translated as "thanksgiving" in the Bible is the Greek word which literally means "good grace." This isn’t a coincidence for at the heart of gratitude is the positive response to the incredible and indescribable grace of God.
Interestingly, God doesn’t need our thanks. After all, the God of the Bible is self-existent, which means he has no needs. In the community of the Trinity, God is completely secure and satisfied, lacking nothing. He suffers not from loneliness, lack or insecurity. God calls us to give thanks not for His benefit but for ours. He trains us to be grateful people, because gratitude is good for our spiritual health and maturity.
The second half of v.28 reads, " We should worship God in a way that pleases him with respect and fear."
Refusal to give thanks to God leads to the poisoning of our souls. When we block up the reservoir of gratitude, we open the sea of corruption that deeply infects our souls. Once again, in Romans 1:21 Paul wrote, "They knew God, but they did not give glory to God or thank him. Their thinking became useless. Their foolish minds were filled with darkness." The lack of gratitude leads us to disdain the wrong person, it leads us to disdain God.
In addition, according to Ephesians 5:20, gratitude is one of the keys to being "filled with the Holy Spirit." Paul tells us that to be filled with the Spirit looks like "always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God." And, gratitude is the central cure for anxiety. Paul writes in Philippians 4:6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
In v.29 of today's passage we read, "...because our God is like a fire that burns things up."
When God revealed Himself to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, He did so in memorable fashion. The people were not allowed to come near the mountain, as it shook and burned with fire. God shared the ten commandments in such a way that fear invaded the hearts of the people so that they pleaded with Moses to speak to God to not speak to them again. They did this because they thought they would die if God spoke to them again.
Throughout the Bible, God is frequently connected with fire, and, it is not just His presence that is frequently associated with fire, but fire is also connected with God’s wrath against sin. One of the earliest instances of this is when the people made and worshipped the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai. In response, God said, "Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them."
We do not like to think of God as wrathful, executing judgment on the wickedness of the unrepentant. Too often we misunderstand the wrath of God. We think of Him as being wrathful for the sake of being angry. All too often we wrongly think God is angry and needs appeasing. This is not a biblical understanding of the God of the Bible. In fact, God says He is slow to anger and is merciful and gracious.
Essentially, God’s wrath is the revealing of His holiness against sin and we have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. For God to be a consuming fire means He is so holy that he is unapproachable by sinful man. And, for those whose sin has not been atoned for, He will wipe them out along with their evil.
God’s wrath should motivate everyone to seek His forgiveness for it is against Him that we have rebelled. The perfect question is raised in Revelation 6:17, "For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" According to Revelation 7:13, those who will in the end stand before the throne of God are "those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Salvation from the coming wrath of God can only be found in being joined with the Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world through His sacrifice on the cross.
Only when we have come face to face with God’s wrath can we appreciate God’s love. We cannot fully appreciate that we can be freely justified through the blood of the Lord Jesus until we understand we are sinful and are deserving of the wrath of God. Due to the fact that all of mankind is wicked, we all must access the grace of God so that we can stand before Him on the day of judgment and find grace rather than fire.
