Call to Commitment

 (An expository study of the book of Hebrews)

 Chapter 12, part 2

 12. Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,

13. and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.

14. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

15. looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;

16. lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

17. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

 

Healing preferred instead of removal

 The therefore that starts verse 12 connects with the first verse in this chapter. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Therefore… It is very obvious that the Holy Spirit is using parts of the body to illustrate the condition of the church… the Hebrew church, first of all, but then, whatever church that can be found in the same situation that they were in. He is still speaking of a spiritual marathon.

 In verse 1, we have another quote from the Old Testament; this one is Isaiah 35:3 and a few years ago, I commented on this chapter 35:  “Because the book of Hebrews applies this promise to its readers, this principle lives throughout the church age. Discipline may fall heavily upon man’s spirit, but the final, godly intention is to bring healing. The ministry of Isaiah cannot be estranged from his character. His name is Isaiah, God is salvation, and therefore his message speaks to the anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you” (Is.35:4). He would come in the person of Jesus Christ and “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Is.35:5,6)”.

  

(An expository study of the book of Hebrews)

 

Chapter 12, part 1

 1. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

2. looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

4. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.

 

Patient endurance

 Therefore, chapter 12 begins, sending us back to the last verse of chapter 11: “God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us”… therefore… We are part of this great plan of God, surrounded by Old Testament people, who were carried by faith. The witnesses are figurative, not literally looking down upon the church in the 21^st Century. However, we have just witnessed their race in chapter 11. We are inspired by the faith, of which they testify, and that leads us also, states the writer, to rid ourselves, not only of the sin, to which we are so vulnerable, but also of weights caused by legitimate things. John Wesley includes “the sin of our (physical) constitution, the sin of our education, the sin of our profession.” If it is our passion to finish this race, we are to remove everything that keeps us from that, which is most important… our particular race of faith towards the eternal reward. We must just press on, when everything in our constitution cries for rest and relief.

 Let us run, not with speed, but with patient endurance, because we are running a marathon. I am learning that this is a very important part of Christian living. John wrote of it in Revelation 1:9. The same Greek word expresses it: “I, John, both your brother and companion in the… patience of Jesus Christ.”  There was a need for patient endurance, exiled on the Isle of Patmos, and there was a need for endurance against the opposing forces in Asia Minor. We have too many sprinters in the church, who wear out after a short dash.

 We learned of Moses in the last chapter, who “endured as seeing Him who is invisible” (11:27). Moses ran for 80 years; first of all, for 40 years of trials, keeping his father-in-law’s sheep and then for 40 years, leading Israel through the desert. He had his eyes fixed on the invisible Jesus and that gave him the faith that carried him over those many years. Paul wrote in Romans 15:4: “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” 

 As Moses, we must gaze fixedly on the author and the finisher of faith (Our is not in the original and neither is the article the. They should not be in the text). If a believer turns to the world, he will be left without hope. If he looks to the church, he will find much to discourage him and if he looks inside himself, a mountain of evidence will arise to condemn him. The secret of endurance is to look unto Jesus without distraction from any other direction. Looking to Jesus gives us courage to patiently press on: There is no disappointment in Him.