Mount Sinai, Mount Zion: Living in the Freedom of Grace
📖 "For you have not come to a material object all ablaze with fire, and to gloom and darkness and storm and trumpet-blast and the sound of words." —Hebrews 12:18 (WEY)
The contrast between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion is a striking picture of the difference between life under law and life under grace. Mount Sinai represents the old covenant—a place of terror, trembling, and impossible demands. The people of Israel stood before it, overwhelmed by God’s holiness, yet utterly incapable of meeting His standard. Every command given at Sinai pointed to their inability, exposing their desperate need for something greater.
Yet, in Christ, we have not come to Sinai. We have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, where the work is finished, and our standing is secure. Zion is a place of festal joy, where the firstborn in Christ are already registered in heaven, surrounded by angels in celebration. It is not a mountain of demands but of delight—not a place of striving but of resting in all that Christ has accomplished.
And yet, how often do we live as if we are still at Sinai? Even while knowing we are not justified by the law, we subtly fall back into its principles—trying to attain what has already been freely given, measuring our closeness to God by our performance, and feeling burdened when we fall short. This is the struggle of Romans 7: the experience of a soul that knows the law is good but realizes it has no power to fulfill it. Only when we surrender entirely—ceasing from self-effort and embracing our full dependence on Christ—do we enter the glorious reality of Romans 8, where there is no condemnation and the Spirit Himself enables us to walk in the freedom of grace.
Imagine a prisoner who has been legally pardoned, yet he remains in his cell, still trying to earn his release. The door is open. The papers have been signed. And yet, because he cannot accept the reality of his freedom, he stays behind bars. So it is with many believers who still live under the weight of Sinai’s demands when Zion’s celebration is already theirs.
The invitation of Hebrews 12 is clear: stop striving at the foot of Sinai and step into the joy of Zion. We are not working toward a righteousness we lack; we are resting in the righteousness we have been given. God has not called us to a covenant of terror but to the fullness of life in Christ.
Reflection Questions
In what ways do you find yourself living under the principles of Sinai—striving rather than resting in Christ’s finished work?
How does understanding Mount Zion change the way you approach your relationship with God?
What does it mean for you, practically, to embrace the freedom of Romans 8?
Prayer of Confidence
Father, I rejoice that I have not come to Mount Sinai, but to Mount Zion—the place where Christ’s perfect work has secured my standing forever. I am not under a covenant of demands but under Your abundant grace. You have already given me all that I need in Christ, and I walk in that reality today. I lay aside the striving of self-effort and embrace the life of rest in Your finished work. Thank You for making me righteous, accepted, and complete in Jesus. My life is not one of trying to attain, but of joyfully receiving what is already mine in Him. Amen.
📸 Photo Credit: Unsplash
đź“ť Devotional Credit: Abide Above