The church

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, - Hebrews 12.22-23 

This is one of my favourite church verses. I love the majesty of it and I love the idea of looking forward to day when it comes to fruition. It is forward looking – but it addresses it with such surety that it might already have happened. 

It speaks of the future day in heaven when we shall see, gathered together:

The innumerable company of angels

The general assembly and church of the firstborn

God the judge of all

The spirits of just men made perfect

What an assembly that will be! All of us gathered together after all the troubles of this world when the victory is complete. 

I like the second thing a lot. The entire assembly and church of the first born all gathered together. Believers from all through the ages and all types of assemblies and all sorts of man made labels for their local assemblies gathered together as one. One in Christ in a ‘general assembly.’ One church; united and undivided as THE church of the firstborn. We are His church and His alone and one day all of the differences will be done away with as we stand before our God as justified men finally made perfect. 

While we are the the church is widespread and scattered and even divided. We divide over petty issues. We divide over nationalities. We divide over skin colour. We divide over politics. We divide over so many things. 

But one day all the dividing will be done as we stand with the angels in the presence of our God, the Judge of all. We will be just men made perfect by the grace of God and all the junk that divides us today will no longer mean anything. 

What a day that will be.