by Chadwick Brewer<\/p>\n
“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire<\/em>” (Hebrews 12:28-29).<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe Hebrew writer has spent considerable time telling us that Jesus is a great High Priest. In fact, He is the greatest High Priest who could ever be. He was born in the flesh and thus knows our frame. He lived as a man, knows the power of temptation, and sympathizes with our weakness. He has made the perfect sacrifice for sin that can fully and utterly cleanse us.
\nKnowing this, and seeing the great love with which He loves us, we can be lulled into a false sense of security, believing God to be tame and harmless. The Hebrew writer saw this pitfall and warned us: “Our God is a consuming fire<\/em>” (Hebrews 12:29). He warned us earlier, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay<\/em>” (Hebrews 10:30) and, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God<\/em>” (Hebrews 10:31). He reminds us how God dealt with sinners in the Old Testament and then tells us that He “is the same yesterday and today and forever<\/em>” (Hebrews 13:8). The same God who invites us near is not safe to treat lightly.\n“Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in His kindness<\/em>” (Romans 11:22).<\/p>\n
“Thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe<\/em>” (Hebrews 12:28),.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Chadwick Brewer “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29). The Hebrew writer has spent considerable time telling us that Jesus is a great High Priest. In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[352],"class_list":["post-95343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-fear"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":48124,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-the-hebrew-writer-contrast-mount-sinai-with-mount-zion\/","url_meta":{"origin":95343,"position":0},"title":"Why does the Hebrew writer contrast Mount Sinai with Mount Zion?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Jeffrey, I hope you are doing well. I have a question regarding Hebrews 12:18-29. Why does the writer use the example of the events in Mount Sinai (verses 18-21) and contrasts them with Mount Zion and the heavenly Jerusalem and everything else in verses 22-24? What is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90615,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-melchizedek-be-without-father-and-mother\/","url_meta":{"origin":95343,"position":1},"title":"How could Melchizedek be \u201cwithout father and mother\u201d?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bob Prichard Melchizedek is one of the more mysterious figures in all of scripture. He is mentioned only in Genesis 14, Psalms 110:4, and in the book of Hebrews. The writer of Hebrews demonstrated that Melchizedek foreshadowed the ministry of Christ, serving as both priest and king. After the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94158,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/once-for-all-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":95343,"position":2},"title":"Once for All","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 22, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh DeLong \"For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28835,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-the-levitical-priesthood-replace-the-priesthood-of-melchizedek\/","url_meta":{"origin":95343,"position":3},"title":"Did the Levitical priesthood replace the priesthood of Melchizedek?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: \"For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law\" (Hebrews 7:12). Did the Levitical priesthood replace the priesthood of Melchizedek? Answer: Under the Old Law of Moses, priests came from the tribe of Levi and, starting with David, kings came from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26445,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-jesus-hear-our-prayers-before-god-hears-them\/","url_meta":{"origin":95343,"position":4},"title":"Does Jesus hear our prayers before God hears them?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How does Jesus send our prayers to God? Does he hear them before God hears them? How exactly does it work? Does Jesus listen, and then verbally repeat your prayers to God? Answer: Speaking of Jesus, the writer of Hebrews said, \"Therefore He is also able to save to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85542,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/god-was-manifest-in-the-flesh\/","url_meta":{"origin":95343,"position":5},"title":"God Was Manifest in the Flesh","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Tim Coffey via Guardian of Truth XL: 5 p. 8-9, March 7, 1996 Paul proclaimed, \"Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh\" (I Timothy 3:16). For those who saw Jesus in the flesh, the difficulty was not in believing that he was man, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}