What does "church of the firstborn" mean in Hebrews 12:23?

The church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven

Travelling yet farther into the depths of glory we come by faith to the assembly of the firstborn which are written in heaven. In this vast system of heavenly glory there are those who have a special and distinct place. They are spoken of as the firstborn, giving the thought of pre-eminence. Seven times in Scripture Christ is spoken of as the Firstborn or First-begotten, for He must ever be pre-eminent. Here the word is in the plural, and refers to the saints who compose the church. They will have a pre-eminent place among the heavenly saints, even as Israel is called Jehovah's firstborn as having a pre-eminent place among the nations (Ex. 4:22). The names of these firstborn ones are registered in heaven, speaking of their heavenly home; for we belong where our names are written. As the heavenly Jerusalem, the church is seen administering blessing in connection with earth; so the assembly of the firstborn, the church, is viewed as worshipping in connection with heaven.

Further, the Christian Hebrews are said to have come "to the assembly of firstborns enrolled in heaven." There need be no hesitation in identifying this heavenly company. It is the church of God, of which we hear so much and of the deepest interest in the Acts of the Apostles and the other Epistles, as the Lord when here below spoke of it as about to be founded (Matt. 16:18), so that Hades' gates should not prevail against it. The day of Pentecost (that followed His death, resurrection, and ascension) first saw the new sight. It is described here according to the divine design of the Epistle. This accounts for putting forward the aggregate of those who compose it, firstborn ones, rather than the elsewhere familiar figures of the body of Christ, and of the temple of God — His habitation by the Spirit. And those who compose it are here characterised: (1) in relation to Him who was carefully shown us in Heb. 1 to be the Firstborn, the established Heir of all things; (2) in relation by grace to our proper and destined sphere of glory, heaven, and not earth where Israel as such rightly look for their blessedness and triumph under Messiah's reign. Those who are holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, being children, are heirs also, heirs of God and Christ's joint-heirs. He is Firstborn, alone in personal right and result of His work; but they are also firstborn truly though of divine grace. And further, they are enregistered or enrolled in heaven by divine counsel and the same grace, citizens of heaven which justly pales every other citizenship and lifts above it.

We are come to the Assembly of the Firstborn (ones) enregistered in heaven. The Firstborn is a designation of rank and dignity. Just as our blessed Lord, as Firstborn, takes the chief place in regard to all creation, so His Assembly takes the chief place of blessing and glory in relation to all the companies of saints from the different days of God's dealings — each with its own distinctive testimony. We are come to God, the Judge of all, for all in the world to come will be subject to Him. His will shall be supreme. His administration shall be universally recognised and acclaimed, and we are now come to Him. He is our God. We are come to the spirits of just men made perfect. The spirits of all the pre-church saints are blest indeed. They are now in the good of the finished work of Christ. Redemption's work has been done, they know the righteousness of their blessing and attribute it to the death of Christ. Yet still they await the consummation of blessing. Perfect as to their spirits the just men are waiting for that moment when the power of God's salvation shall touch their bodies at the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are come to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant. In the spirit of that Covenant we are blest now. We have received everlasting mercy from His hands. Those hands that shall dispense world-wide blessing in the day of His Kingdom have been stretched out to us and that mercy flows righteously through the blood of sprinkling. Assuredly it speaks better things than that of Abel which cried for vengeance.

Having named Sion below, the author turns naturally to Jerusalem above, but this carries him into heaven, and he finds himself with all the people of God, in the midst of a multitude of angels, the great universal assembly of the invisible world. There is however one peculiar object on which his eye rests in this marvellous and heavenly scene. It is the assembly of the firstborn whose names are inscribed in heaven. They were not born there, not indigenous like the angels, whom God preserved from falling. They are the objects of the counsels of God. It is not merely that they reach heaven: they are the glorious heirs and firstborn of God, according to His eternal counsels, in accordance with which they are registered in heaven. The assembly composed of the objects of grace, now called in Christ, belongs to heaven by grace. They are not the objects of the promises, who, not having received the fulfilment of the promises on earth, do not fail to enjoy them in heaven. They have the anticipation of no other country or citizenship than heaven. The promises were not addressed to them. They have no place on earth. Heaven is prepared for them by God Himself. Their names are inscribed there by Him. It is the highest place in heaven above the dealings of God in government, promise, and law on the earth. This leads the picture of glory on to God Himself. But (having reached the highest point, that which is most excellent in grace) He is seen under another character, namely, as the Judge of all, as looking down from on high to judge all that is below. This introduces another class of these blessed inhabitants of the heavenly glory: those whom the righteous Judge owned as His before the heavenly assembly was revealed, the spirits of the just arrived at perfection. They had finished their course, they had overcome in conflict, they were waiting only for glory. They had been connected with the dealings of God on the earth, but — faithful before the time for its blessing was come — they had their rest and their portion in heaven.

The word "first-born" is here in the plural, and may be thus rendered. It applies to those of whom the Church consists, not in this text to the One to whom the Church belongs.

In scriptural usage, the term "firstborn" signifies pre-eminent rights with regard to paternal authority, status, property, and the like. It means, therefore, first of rank in the family, and this foremost rank may or may not arise from order of birth or primogeniture (see 1 Chron. 26:10).

We must here remember that the title of "First-born" does not necessarily speak of priority in time, but of place and dignity. The actual first-born might lose his place, and another obtain it, as we see in Jacob and Esau, Reuben and Joseph; and so God says of David, "I will make him My first-born, higher than the kings of the earth" (Ps. 89:27). So with the "assembly of the first-born ones, whose names are written in heaven" (Heb. 12:23), which is without doubt the Christian assembly, in plain distinction from the "spirits of just men made perfect," who are the saints of the Old Testament. Yet it is the latter who are the first-born in time, while the former have the precedence in place and privilege. And it is thus I understand the language in Colossians 1:15, where, speaking of the Lord, the apostle calls Him the "image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature." Here, it is in manhood that He declares the Father; and He who has thus become man, yet is Creator of all, as the apostle goes on to say, if He take His place, in marvelous condescension and love, in His own creation, must needs do so at the head of it. It is His pre-eminence, not priority in time, as many have thought, that is asserted. That "He is before all things," the seventeenth verse plainly declares.

As to this oft-repeated expression, "Church of the firstborn," it is always used to convey the idea that the scripture uses the term church in a larger and more general sense. This is not the case. The most extended idea given of the church is where this is used, firstborn being a title of the whole body called the church. The expression "church of the firstborn" is found in Hebrews 12:23. "The general assembly and church of the firstborn who are written in heaven" - the fullest, largest expression about the church in Scripture. The word translated general assembly means the "assembly of a whole nation," especially for a public festival, or the like. And to make of firstborn a distinctive special limitation of a certain class, who come in before others, is a mere delusion. It is the character and privilege of the only body called the church in Scripture (that is, God's assembly in the Christian sense of it).

The object next presented, is the Church or assembly of the first-born, who are written or enrolled in heaven. In this passage only has the Spirit used this remarkable description of the Church. Most aptly is it found in an epistle, one great end of which is the instruction of the Christian in the characteristic blessings and glory of his calling. A title which is elsewhere only given to the Lord, is here conferred upon that Church which is His body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all (Eph. 1:23). The Head and His mystic members form the perfect Christ (1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 4:13). Union with Him who is at God's right hand, is now the blessing of every believer. It was not always thus. Until the Holy Ghost came down from heaven to reveal the Saviour in His heavenly exaltation, this truth, though partly spoken by the Lord to His disciples, was a hidden and inoperative thing. The fathers, who embraced the promises from far, could not discern the future calling of the Church of the first-born. For God reserved it as a secret in Himself. It was not divulged to any of the sons of men, until, upon the final gainsaying of Israel, God reached His chosen opportunity for the revelation of the mystery of Christ (Eph. 3).

In strictness of dispensational limitation, the Church of the first-born seems properly to describe those who live and die in Jesus crucified, between His former and His latter advents. It is distinguished in the present passage from the "just men made perfect," of whom mention is afterwards made. The peculiar force of first-born as a relative title has been discussed in the remarks on Hebrews 1:6, when examining it in its immediate application to the Lord. As Jesus takes precedence of His many brethren, not only in all other things, but also as the First-begotten from the dead, so there appears to be assigned to the Church a corresponding relation to the multitude which must yet be born, and whose time of birth is postponed in Scripture to the second advent of the Lord. The Church is a kind of first-fruits of God's creatures. The nation of Israel is to be born, as in a day, to life in Immanuel at His appearing. Through them the Gentiles will receive the full measure of their promised blessing. This subject has already been so frequently before us, in the progress of these Notes, that I am unwilling to dwell longer on it in this place.

But now follows not only the glory of God seen above supremely, but first an unexpected sight: those who, expressly as lost ones saved irrespectively of special promises (after all seemed a hopeless ruin of Jew no less than Gentile in the cross of Christ), were brought into the nearest association with Him for heavenly places. "And an assembly of firstborns, enrolled in heaven" by sovereign grace as angels are not, and called to reign with Christ which a created angel never is. If we do not hear of them as Christ's body and bride of the Lamb, as the apostles Paul and John speak elsewhere, their being heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ is here recognised in the remarkable title of these as individuals. Contrary to nature which admits of but one in human limits, here they were all and equally first-borns, as He who in His own right infinitely above them deigned to treat them as His "fellows," in no way ashamed to call them "brethren" (chaps. 1, 2), His holy brethren partakers of a heavenly calling, not like Israel of an earthly one however grand. They were enregistered in heaven as their proper fatherland in sovereign grace.