Next, Hebrews 12:23, 24 says “and God the Judge of all, and the spiritual lives [footnote, spirits] of righteous ones who have been made perfect, and Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and the blood of sprinkling, which speaks in a better way than Abel’s blood.” So God is the judge of all, including the 144,000 enrolled ones. The prospective members of the glorified “congregation” must therefore pass through a judgment period before they are approved by Jehovah the Supreme Judge. This is why, right after mentioning him, the verse goes on to say, “and the spiritual lives of righteous ones who have been made perfect.” It is the members of the spirit-begotten Christian “congregation” who have been justified by faith. (Rom. 5:1; 8:1-4) For this reason they are referred to as “righteous ones who have been made perfect.”

Further limiting all of Hebrews 12:22, 23 to apply to the spirit-begotten Christian congregation, Paul goes on to say, “and Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and the blood of sprinkling, which speaks in a better way than Abel’s blood.” (Heb. 12:24) The spirit-begotten congregation is in that new covenant and consequently Jesus is their mediator. They are the ones upon whom the “blood” of Jesus Christ has been sprinkled in a spiritual way so that it produces better effects with them than the blood of martyred Abel would do. (Heb. 11:4) That is to say, they are really justified or declared righteous now by their faith in that blood.​—Rom. 5:9.