Hebrews 12:23

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

and congregation of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous, who have been made perfect,

Additional Resources

Referenced Verses

  • Exod 4:22 : 22 You must say to Pharaoh,‘This is what the LORD has said,“Israel is my son, my firstborn,
  • Luke 10:20 : 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names stand written in heaven.”
  • Ps 94:2 : 2 Rise up, O judge of the earth! Pay back the proud!
  • Gen 18:25 : 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing– to kill the godly with the wicked, treating the godly and the wicked alike! Far be it from you! Will not the judge of the whole earth do what is right?”
  • Heb 6:10-12 : 10 For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love you have demonstrated for his name, in having served and continuing to serve the saints. 11 But we passionately want each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of your hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.
  • Heb 11:40 : 40 For God had provided something better for us, so that they would be made perfect together with us.
  • Eph 1:22 : 22 And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave him to the church as head over all things.
  • Eph 5:24-27 : 24 But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her 26 to sanctify her by cleansing her with the washing of the water by the word, 27 so that he may present the church to himself as glorious– not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.
  • Phil 1:21-23 : 21 For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. 22 Now if I am to go on living in the body, this will mean productive work for me, yet I don’t know which I prefer: 23 I feel torn between the two, because I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far,
  • Phil 3:12-21 : 12 Keep Going Forward Not that I have already attained this– that is, I have not already been perfected– but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, 14 with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Therefore let those of us who are“perfect” embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways. 16 Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard that we have already attained. 17 Be imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and watch carefully those who are living this way, just as you have us as an example. 18 For many live, about whom I have often told you, and now, with tears, I tell you that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, they exult in their shame, and they think about earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven– and we also eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.
  • Phil 4:3 : 3 Yes, I say also to you, true companion, help them. They have struggled together in the gospel ministry along with me and Clement and my other coworkers, whose names are in the book of life.
  • Col 1:12 : 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.
  • Col 1:24 : 24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body– for the sake of his body, the church– what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.
  • 2 Thess 1:5-7 : 5 Encouragement in Persecution This is evidence of God’s righteous judgment, to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which in fact you are suffering. 6 For it is right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to you who are being afflicted to give rest together with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.
  • 1 Tim 3:5 : 5 But if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for the church of God?
  • Jas 1:18 : 18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
  • 1 Pet 2:23 : 23 When he was maligned, he did not answer back; when he suffered, he threatened no retaliation, but committed himself to God who judges justly.
  • Rev 7:14-17 : 14 So I said to him,“My lord, you know the answer.” Then he said to me,“These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! 15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. 16 They will never go hungry or be thirsty again, and the sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat, 17 because the Lamb in the middle of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
  • Rev 13:8 : 8 and all those who live on the earth will worship the beast, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life belonging to the Lamb who was killed.
  • Rev 14:4 : 4 These are the ones who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from humanity as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb,
  • Rev 20:15 : 15 If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.
  • Heb 9:27 : 27 And just as people are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment,
  • Heb 11:4 : 4 By faith Abel offered God a greater sacrifice than Cain, and through his faith he was commended as righteous, because God commended him for his offerings. And through his faith he still speaks, though he is dead.
  • Ps 96:13 : 13 before the LORD, for he comes! For he comes to judge the earth! He judges the world fairly, and the nations in accordance with his justice.
  • Ps 98:9 : 9 before the LORD! For he comes to judge the earth! He judges the world fairly, and the nations in a just manner.
  • Ps 111:1 : 1 Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the godly and the congregation.
  • Eccl 12:7 : 7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the life’s breath returns to God who gave it.
  • Jer 31:9 : 9 They will come back shedding tears of contrition. I will bring them back praying prayers of repentance. I will lead them besides streams of water, along smooth paths where they will never stumble. I will do this because I am Israel’s father; Ephraim is my firstborn son.’”
  • Matt 25:31-34 : 31 The Judgment“When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 Then the king will say to those on his right,‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
  • John 5:27 : 27 and he has granted the Son authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
  • Acts 20:28 : 28 Watch out for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son.
  • 1 Cor 13:12 : 12 For now we see in a mirror indirectly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known.
  • 1 Cor 15:49 : 49 And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us also bear the image of the man of heaven.
  • 1 Cor 15:54 : 54 Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen,“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
  • 2 Cor 5:8 : 8 Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
  • Exod 13:2 : 2 “Set apart to me every firstborn male– the first offspring of every womb among the Israelites, whether human or animal; it is mine.”
  • Exod 32:32 : 32 But now, if you will forgive their sin…, but if not, wipe me out from your book that you have written.”
  • Deut 21:17 : 17 Rather, he must acknowledge the son of the less loved wife as firstborn and give him the double portion of all he has, for that son is the beginning of his father’s procreative power– to him should go the right of the firstborn.
  • Ps 50:5-6 : 5 He says:“Assemble my covenant people before me, those who ratified a covenant with me by sacrifice!” 6 The heavens declare his fairness, for God is judge.(Selah)
  • Ps 69:28 : 28 May their names be deleted from the scroll of the living! Do not let their names be listed with the godly!
  • Ps 89:7 : 7 a God who is honored in the great angelic assembly, and more awesome than all who surround him?
  • Ps 89:27 : 27 I will appoint him to be my firstborn son, the most exalted of the earth’s kings.

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Heb 12:22
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    22But you have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the assembly

  • Heb 12:24
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    24and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than Abel’s does.

  • Heb 13:20-21
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    20Benediction and Conclusion Now may the God of peace who by the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus,

    21equip you with every good thing to do his will, working in us what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

  • Heb 1:13-14
    2 verses
    69%

    13But to which of the angels has he ever said,“Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

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  • Heb 8:1-2
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    1The High Priest of a Better Covenant Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We have such a high priest, one who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,

    2a minister in the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that the Lord, not man, set up.

  • Heb 2:10-12
    3 verses
    68%

    10For it was fitting for him, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

    11For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy all have the same origin, and so he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,

    12saying,“I will proclaim your name to my brothers; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.”

  • Heb 3:1
    68%

    1Jesus and Moses Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, partners in a heavenly calling, take note of Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess,

  • Heb 1:6-7
    2 verses
    68%

    6But when he again brings his firstborn into the world, he says,“Let all the angels of God worship him!”

    7And he says of the angels,“He makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire,”

  • Heb 9:23-24
    2 verses
    68%

    23So it was necessary for the sketches of the things in heaven to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves required better sacrifices than these.

    24For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands– the representation of the true sanctuary– but into heaven itself, and he appears now in God’s presence for us.

  • Heb 11:13
    67%

    13These all died in faith without receiving the things promised, but they saw them in the distance and welcomed them and acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth.

  • Heb 10:21
    67%

    21and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

  • Heb 11:40
    67%

    40For God had provided something better for us, so that they would be made perfect together with us.

  • 1 Pet 3:22
    67%

    22who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers subject to him.

  • Heb 9:11
    67%

    11Christ’s Service in the Heavenly Sanctuary But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things to come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation,

  • Heb 6:20
    67%

    20where Jesus our forerunner entered on our behalf, since he became a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

  • Heb 10:14-15
    2 verses
    66%

    14For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are made holy.

    15And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after saying,

  • Heb 10:19
    66%

    19Drawing Near to God in Enduring Faith Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus,

  • 1 Pet 1:4
    66%

    4that is, into an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you,

  • Heb 12:1-2
    2 verses
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    2keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set out for him he endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

  • Heb 7:26
    66%

    26For it is indeed fitting for us to have such a high priest: holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

  • 2 Cor 7:1
    66%

    1Self-Purification Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that could defile the body and the spirit, and thus accomplish holiness out of reverence for God.

  • 1 Pet 1:17
    66%

    17And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one’s work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence.

  • Heb 4:14
    66%

    14Jesus Our Compassionate High Priest Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.

  • Heb 11:16
    66%

    16But as it is, they aspire to a better land, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

  • Heb 7:19
    66%

    19for the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

  • Jude 1:24
    66%

    24Final Blessing Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling, and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, without blemish before his glorious presence,

  • Heb 6:1-2
    2 verses
    66%

    1Therefore we must progress beyond the elementary instructions about Christ and move on to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God,

    2teaching about ritual washings, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

  • Heb 2:2
    66%

    2For if the message spoken through angels proved to be so firm that every violation or disobedience received its just penalty,

  • Phil 3:15
    65%

    15Therefore let those of us who are“perfect” embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.

  • Heb 6:4-5
    2 verses
    65%

    4For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit,

    5tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age,

  • Heb 9:8
    65%

    8The Holy Spirit is making clear that the way into the holy place had not yet appeared as long as the old tabernacle was standing.

  • Heb 13:14
    65%

    14For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

  • Heb 12:9
    65%

    9Besides, we have experienced discipline from our earthly fathers and we respected them; shall we not submit ourselves all the more to the Father of spirits and receive life?

  • Heb 12:27
    65%

    27Now this phrase“once more” indicates the removal of what is shaken, that is, of created things, so that what is unshaken may remain.

  • Heb 12:18
    65%

    18For you have not come to something that can be touched, to a burning fire and darkness and gloom and a whirlwind

  • Heb 1:2
    65%

    2in these last days he has spoken to us in a son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world.

  • 1 Pet 4:6
    65%

    6Now it was for this very purpose that the gospel was preached to those who are now dead, so that though they were judged in the flesh by human standards they may live spiritually by God’s standards.

  • Heb 12:14
    65%

    14Do Not Reject God’s Warning Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness, for without it no one will see the Lord.

  • Heb 5:10
    65%

    10and he was designated by God as high priest in the order of Melchizedek.