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1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ~ Hebrews 12:1-2
Today, we transition into Hebrews 12 wherein the writer of Hebrews instructs us on how to live in view of the faith of all those Old Testament men and women of faith whom he wrote about in Hebrews 11. Based upon the testimonies of those Old Testament saints, we are called to run the race of faith in the God of the Bible. This is not a race that we run, the Lord Jesus ran it for us. When we run we are positioned to realize His run in our lives.
In v.1 of today's passage we read, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."
I know, we are commanded to run. We run the race but we do not earn it. We do not achieve the victory. That is what the Lord Jesus has done for us. And, we apply these principles of throwing off those things which keep us from Him in order to realize the victory the Lord Jesus has already earned for us.
The phrase "since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses," means the lives of those Old Testament believers in Hebrews 11 tell us we ought to lay aside everything that hinders our faith pursuit in the God of the Bible.
Now, the word "race" in v.1 is a metaphor which means we are engaged in a race, doing all we can to pursue the Lord Jesus. The word "race" literally means agony. As believers in the Lord Jesus, we are to agonize in our pursuit of knowing the Lord Jesus. And, this race that we are involved with is not a sprint. This race is a marathon; it is a faith race.
The writer of Hebrews writes, "let us throw off everything that hinders." This is not referring to sin. This is a reference to those good things in this life that hinder us in our total pursuit of the Lord. These young Jewish believers were being hindered by their religion. They were pursuing the rituals and the ceremonies, but not the Lord Himself. They were running like overweight people who were going to collapse in a pile of their own legalistic duties. This race is run by faith plus nothing, and anything we hold onto from past religion that is made up of pointless ceremonies, traditions, rituals, and rules only slows us down.
The writer of Hebrews also writes, we are to "throw off the sin that so easily entangles." The sin here is the sin of unbelief; the failure to take the revelation about the reality of Christ in our lives seriously. When we lack eternal perspective, we tend to value things which are not to be valued as much. And, the key to our success spiritually is an ever increasing intimacy with the Lord Jesus.
In v.2 of today's passage we read, "...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
The secret to our persistence is found in this phrase, "fixing our eyes on Jesus." It is quite instructive to discover the Encyclopedia Brittanica uses 20,000 words to describe the life of Jesus Christ. Take all of the words used in the Encyclopedia Brittanica to describe the lives of Caesar, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Buddha, Confucius and Mohamed and the Lord Jesus' life required more.
It is also very instructive to learn that ancient history heroes were identified as those who vanquished their enemies. But, the Lord Jesus was the one who changed it, He changed the definition of the hero. Now, we consider the hero as the one who lays down his life for others. We go out of our way, today, to thank the first responders and the nurses and the doctors who save lives, and, all the while risk their own.
Anyone who has ever run a race knows that we have to keep our eyes on our goal. We can not run effectively looking at our feet or behind us. The Lord Jesus must be the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. He Himself ran the race. He laid aside every weight, every restraining hand he brushed aside that He might resolutely vanquish our foes. He set his face against the popular sin of unbelief and walked on in patient perseverance, trusting the Father to work everything out for Him. He set the example.
We are to look daily to the Lord Jesus because He only can do what we and the others mentioned in Hebrews 11 could not do. They can inspire us, but only the Lord Jesus empowers us. Moment by moment, when we look to Him we discover the secret to our success. He is the secret. The faith of the Lord Jesus made Him alienated from God, to bear all the sins of all the people throughout human history who would eventually believe, and to emerge triumphant. The triumph or the race has already been won at His cross. He is the One who enables us to win the race of total dependency upon Him and this is Christianity.
