Hebrews 12:28,29 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Wherefore we Who believe in Christ; receiving Or having received, through the gospel; a kingdom which cannot be moved A dispensation (frequently called the kingdom of God) which shall never be changed, but shall remain to the end of time, (2 Corinthians 3:11,) and which opens before us an assured and bright prospect of a reign in eternal glory; let us have grace Let us ask and receive it. “As grace is so freely offered to us, let us not be so wanting to ourselves as to fall short of it.” So Dr. Doddridge paraphrases the clause, and adds in a note, “This” (namely, that grace is freely offered) “is strongly intimated in the words of the exhortation, else there could be no room for it. And this oblique intimation, in which it is, as it were, taken for granted that we may certainly have grace if we take proper methods for obtaining it, appears to me peculiarly affecting.” Εχωμεν χαριν may be properly rendered, let us hold fast grace; for it is as necessary to retain it as it is to obtain it; and this we may do as well as the other; whereby we may have both inclination and power to serve God acceptably Ευαρεστως, in a manner well pleasing to him, making his will the sole rule of our conduct, of our tempers, words, and works, and his glory the end thereof, and from a principle of love to him, endeavouring to glorify him in our body and spirit which are his; with reverence Μετα αιδους, literally, with shame, or modesty, arising from a deep sense of our unworthiness; and godly fear A tender, jealous fear of offending God, arising from a sense of his gracious majesty. For our God In the strictness of his justice, and the purity of his holiness; is a consuming fire Though he manifests himself in the gospel with the beams of such mild majesty, he is still possessed of that tremendous power which was so awfully displayed at mount Sinai, and will break forth as a consuming fire against all those that presumptuously violate his laws and despise his gospel. See Deuteronomy 4:23-24, a passage which the apostle had now in his eye, where Moses, giving the Lord this appellation, reminded the Israelites of the fire which came forth from him to destroy Korah and his company, Numbers 16:35. Wherefore, by adopting his words, the apostle brought the same instance of vengeance to the remembrance of the Hebrews, that they might be deterred from apostacy, disobedience, and all irreverence in the worship of God: who, though he appears so full of mercy in the gospel, is as much determined to punish the rebellious as ever.