“Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels, a festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a Judge, who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the blood of Abel.”

The Hebrews writer develops a final, astounding contrast between the Old Testament law and sacrificial system and the gospel of Christ. While the messages of the two are inter-dependent (see Hebrews 11:40), certainly the greatness of the new covenant symbolized by Mt. Zion where God resides greatly exceeds and even overshadows the old covenant revelation at Mount Sinai.

The Hebrews writer declared that under the new covenant it’s like getting a glimpse of heaven! With the new covenant believers encounter God. Mediated by the blood of Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit, Christians on the Earth share in worship with innumerable angels and the great assembly of those who have come before and died in faith and are already in God’s presence.

And it’s awesome! The Hebrews writer explained that in contrast to the old covenant symbolized by Mt. Sinai where God’s presence terrified the Israelites, the new covenant symbolized by Mt. Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, is a festive place!

The “blood of Abel” refers to the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. After Cain murdered his brother, Abel, God told Cain, “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” Abel’s blood symbolically cried out for vengeance, justice, and retribution. In contrast, Jesus’ blood symbolizes grace, mercy, and forgiveness under the new covenant.

So, we now live at the intersection of time and eternity where the Divine Purpose has crossed the path of human history. This celestial collision of heaven and earth, this cosmic convergence of the temporal and the eternal, has now been activated by this new covenant in the lives of those who have faith in Christ.

And it is the point in time and space where your eternal life begins!

Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. (Revelation 21:3, CSB)