For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
Hebrews 12:3 NASB
Endurance for the race
Life wears me out – daily and year to year. My faith fades into a fog of uncertainty as I wonder if the Lord has any use for me at all. I am weary of sin and sinners, my heart broken and soul suffering. How will I endure this marathon of mortal life?
Can you relate to that? Do your days run endlessly with all around you asking you to sprint to their end rather than endure the race of hope to finish?
It was no different for a persecuted church, yet in Christ we have found our Hope and Light to victory over death and the joy of the prize.
The author of Hebrews has just connected a genealogy of Jewish faith where ‘faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now he urges us to continue in Christ by faith.
Lay aside every burden
Cast your burden on the LORD,
Psalm 55:22 CSB
and he will sustain you;
he will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
Many know well the comfort of our Lord’s invitation to give to Him the great weights of our lives which hold us down.
At that time Jesus said,
“All things have been entrusted to me by my Father.
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
excerpt from Matthew 11:25-28
The author of Hebrews has just shown us many witnesses who have gone before us in this long journey of faith. He has provided the evidence.
Hebrews 12:
Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us.
Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.
Hebrews 12:1b-2a CSB
Clear imagery of our remaining days, as well as the persecuted lives of the early Christians to whom the author of Hebrews wrote his letter. We are not in the race alone, but have run it with Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, the many Prophets of God and all the others.
We have received a baton of hope from our forefathers, which we may place gently into the hand of our children by faith. Jesus, the Messiah is our hope of winning the prize joyfully awarded by our Heavenly Father.
Fix your eyes upon Jesus
It bears repeating: Jesus IS our pacesetter. He has run this same race of mortality before us.
Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
ἀφοράω – aphoraō
- to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something
He exhorts us to turn away from things that are not part of the race of eternity and fix our eyes on the finisher of our faith.
The once-familiar hymn based on this passage expresses the authors same desire.
O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
2
Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
O’er us sin no more hath dominion
For more than conqu’rors we are!
3
His Word shall not fail you, He promised;
Believe Him and all will be well;
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!
Do not lose heart
These three verses appear as an introduction to Hebrews 12, but they comprise the heart of the author’s conclusion continuing in chapter 13.
3 For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up.
Fix your eyes upon Jesus. Our race is not ended, but Christ our Redeemer assures our victory!
Striving against Sin
Have your forgotten the exhortation, the admonition and encouragement of scripture?
Proverbs 3:11 Do not despise the Lord’s instruction, my son,
and do not loathe his discipline;
12 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.
7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?
Are you an obedient son or daughter of God our Father? The author of Hebrews continues with the example of earthly fathers. They discipline their child because the love them. It’s just for a few days, but God’s discipline to our holiness ‘yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.’
Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees…
Hebrews 12:12 CSB
Walk the straight and narrow so that your woundedness may be healed.
ἁγιασμός – Sanctification
We are all broken though perhaps we have not yet shed blood for the sake of God. Our lives, disjointed by the sin that surrounds, wander the paths of unrighteousness.
What is needed? How will a sinner like me ever get to the holiness required of heaven?
The writer of Hebrews will continue to chastise us as a loving father when we continue in chapter 12.
To be continued…
A thousand years before Paul the powerful King Solomon of the empire of the the United Kingdom of Israel had written: