Hebrews 12:23

General assembly. Literally, “festal gathering.” Here the term appears to be synonymous with “church.”

Church of the firstborn. That is, church of first-born ones, here referring to born-again Christians. Reference here is to the church invisible.

Written in heaven. Or, “recorded in heaven,” that is, in the Lamb’s book of life (see on Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5).

God the Judge. God was the lawgiver at Mt. Sinai; on Mt. Zion He appears as “the Judge of all” men, to judge them by the law He proclaimed from Sinai. It will be no less awe inspiring to stand before God when He judges all men according to the standard of the law.

Spirits. Greek pneumata (see on verse 9). The idea that the word pneuma (pi, pneumata) denotes some supposedly conscious entity of man capable of existence apart from the body is not inherent in the word itself nor can such a meaning be derived objectively from its usage in the New Testament. Such a concept is based exclusively on the preconceived opinions of those who believe that a conscious entity survives the body at death and who read this preconceived opinion into such words as “spirit” and “soul.” For comment on ruach, the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek pneuma, see on Ecclesiastes 12:7.

Just men made perfect. These are mature Christians (see on Matthew 5:48). The words “ye are come” in Hebrews 12:22 are addressed to living Christians, as the context makes evident. The writer is not addressing the righteous dead of ages past, as if they were actually assembled before “the Judge of all” men on “mount Sion” in “the heavenly Jerusalem” (verses 22, 23). All will agree that it is only in a figurative sense that living Christians can assemble before the throne of God as pictured in verses 22-24. It is in this same sense that in chapter 4:16 he invites them to “come boldly unto the throne of grace.” In this same figurative sense living Christians find “the spirits” of all other “just men made perfect” assembled there in spirit, not in an imaginary disembodied state. To make “the spirits of just men made perfect” refer to supposedly disembodied “spirits” would be to set the writer of Hebrews at variance with the clear statements of the Holy Scriptures concerning the state of man in death (see on Ecclesiastes 3:21; 12:7; John 11:11; cf. on Genesis 2:7).