Hebrews 12

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Many Protestants in North America, and perhaps especially in the southern United States, are part of the revivalist tradition that stresses the need for a personal decision for Christ. As such, we invite people to come to the cross, to bow our hearts and minds and, indeed, all that we have and are to the lordship of Jesus Christ, to repent of our sins and to receive Him as Lord and Savior. I am part of this tradition and gladly so. I firmly believe that it is right and good to ask people to accept Christ, and insofar as the decision for Christ is not understood to be a magic mantra or some sort of verbal talisman, I believe it is God-honoring and absolutely necessary.

We should call men and women and boys and girls to come to the foot of the cross and be saved.

But what we cannot do – what we must never, under any circumstances, do – is explain and present the cross in such a way that it is seen as a necessary factor in our salvation but an otherwise unnecessary factor in the Christian life. Put another way, the cross should be seen by Christians as not only vital to their justification but likewise to their sanctification. Put yet another way, the cross should not be spoken of ever and only in the past tense. To be sure, the event of the cross, what happened on the cross, was singular and happened in the past. But the reality of that singular act should be before the eyes of believers every day, every moment. The cross should have an abiding influence on and in the Church. This dynamic is spoken of by the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 12:1-4.

The cross, for Jesus, was the path of pain that ended in eternal joy.

At the heart of this text is a theological statement about Christ’s obedient embrace of the cross.

² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

This is a fascinating insight into the mind and heart of Christ as He approached the cross. He endured the cross “for the joy that was set before him.” On the other side of the cross, Jesus saw joy awaiting Him. How so? He saw first the joy of obedience. “My food,” Jesus said in John 4:34, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” Obedience to the Father was sustenance for the Son, and it was a joyful meal at that.

What is more, Jesus had joy set before Him on the other side of the cross because of the salvation that His work on the cross would win for all who would come to the Father through Him. In Luke 15:7, Jesus said, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Here, joy is seen as the reaction of Heaven to salvation, and the salvation give to the sinner who repents was secured by Christ on the cross and through the empty tomb. The joy that was set before Jesus was therefore the joy of Heaven over all those who would be saved through the cross of Christ.

This means that the joy set before Christ was also the joy of His victory over Satan. The 4^th century commentator and hymn writer, Ephrem the Syrian, put it beautifully when he wrote:

Let us look not toward human beings for the perfection of our faith…Rather let us look into “Jesus Christ, the pioneer of faith,” who was made our leader and “the perfecter” of our faith, because he began from the Jordan the fight against the enemy, then continued it in the desert, and finished it in Jerusalem through the cross, which was erected by the persecutors on Golgotha.[1]

Yes, He finished it in Jerusalem. Specifically, He finished it on the cross. Through His saving work on Calvary and the empty tomb, Christ defeated Satan, and that was a joyous victory! In it, the great enemy of mankind, the serpent of old, was defeated and was served his eviction notice. This was part of the joy awaiting Christ on the other side of the cross.

Our text provides us with yet another element of this joy when it tells us that Christ “is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Part of the joy of Jesus is His position of authority at the Father’s right hand. It is His rightful place. The obedient, sovereign, saving Son knew that the right hand of God awaited Him. His road there was the road of the pain of the cross, but it ended in the sovereign position of authority that He has possessed from eternity past and will possess forevermore.

The cross, for us, is the saving sign of Christ’s obedience that calls us all to freedom from sin and endurance throughout the trials and temptations of life.

For Christ, the cross was the painful path to joy. But this statement is not made by the author of Hebrews as a mere theological assertion. Rather, we are told to consider this here and now in the present moment of our Christian experience. We are told to do so because doing so will greatly aid us as we follow Jesus.

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

The author of Hebrews begins chapter 12 with the word “therefore.” This word tells us that we need to consider what happened in chapter 11. Hebrews 11 is the great “Hall of Faith” chapter in which the examples of great heroes of the faith and, in particular, martyrs for the faith are pointed to and honored. This is important to understand, for these great heroes of the faith comprise the “cloud of witnesses” spoken of in Hebrews 12:1. These, and all past heroes of the faith, all who have gone before us, fill the stands of heaven, watching and cheering us on. They call out to us, encouraging and cheering us on, calling us to endure, to press on in the race, and to keep our eyes fixed on Christ.

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

We are called and encouraged and enjoined to run the race with endurance! John MacArthur points out that the word for “race” is agon from which we get our word “agony” and that the word for “endurance” is hupomone which means “steady determination to keep going.”[2] William Barclay says that this word “endurance” “does not mean the patience which sits down and accepts things; it does not mean the weary patience which sits with bowed head and folded hands and mind resigned and lets the tide of things flow over it and past it. It means the patience which masters things.”[3]

This is anything but the sedentary life that too many Christians experience. This image of the cloud of witnesses cheering us on while we run with endurance the race in which we find ourselves demolishes any idea that the Christian life is limited to a moment in the past, a moment when we came to Christ and simply sit at His feet never again to move. In point of fact, we are not called to sit at the feet of Jesus, we are called to follow Jesus.

Imagine the cloud of witnesses – these great men and women and boys and girls of the past who gave all to follow Christ – calling out to a Christian who is sitting cross-legged on the track while the other runners run ahead. I imagine the conversation going something like this.

“What are you doing?” they call

“I am on the team!” the lone, sitting Christian responds.

“What?”

“I’m on the team!”

“Ok…wait…what?!”

“I’m just saying that I’m on the team. I joined the team 30 years ago at Vacation Bible School when I accepted Christ.”

“Well…ok…but…”

“Being on the team is so amazing! I know that I’m saved, that I’m born again, that I’m on the team!”

“Yes, but what are you doing on the team?”

“Doing?!”

“Yes. What are you doing on the team? Why are you running?”

“Running? I don’t believe I’m on the team because of my running. I’m on the team because of what Christ has done for me.”

“Yes. That’s true! But what Christ did for you on the cross was die and rise again so that you can be on a team that runs! You’re not on the team because of your running, but you should be running now that you’re on the team.”

“That sounds like works righteousness to me. I did not earn my way onto this team.”

“Yes! We know! Of course you didn’t. Nobody can earn their way on the team. Only Christ could earn your place on the team. And He has done that! Your spot was earned for you. But now, because of the blood of Christ, you are on the team, and the team is a team in a race, therefore you should run.”

“I do not have time to run! I am busy worshipping the Captain of the team!”

“But the Captain of the team wants you to follow Him, to run the race toward Him. He did not save you so that you could sit. He saved you to run!”

Church, we are to run and we are to run toward Christ. This is where the abiding power of the cross of Christ enters the picture. The writer of Hebrews says that consistent and intentional consideration of the cross of Jesus, of Christ crucified, will spur us on to the endurance we need to run well the race to which He has called us.

² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. ⁴ In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

It is Christ crucified that enables us to press on, to not quit, to reject the siren song of the shore that calls us off the sea of followship and into the safe and quiet harbor of inactivity and resignation. Church, you were made to endure and press on, and it is the sight of Christ’s obedience and endurance above all other sights that will serve as the catalyst for our doing so.

“Looking to Jesus…Consider him…”

Specifically, consider the fact that Christ “endured the cross,” that Christ “endured from sinners such hostility against himself.” That is, consider Christ crucified.

This is what we mean when we say that the cross should not be spoken of only in past tense terms. It is should be embraced today, here and now, as a force of motivation and as an enduring call to press ever onward and upward. Ray Stedman writes, “Moment by moment, day by day, week by week, year by year, as we look to him, we shall find strength imparted to us. He is not ‘out there’ somewhere…he is within us, by faith.”[4]

Why else would the Lord Jesus make one of the two physical ordinances He left for the Church an ordinance of remembrance of the cross. I am speaking of the Lord’s Supper. Could Christ not have left an ordinance for His Church in which we are called to sit quietly while holding rocks that remind us of the empty tomb of Jesus? Could we not have each taken and eaten a small piece of bread as a symbol of the multiplied fish and loaves and thereby remember that God provides? Could we not pass around a small piece of lamb’s wool that would remind us that Christ is the good Shepherd and we are His sheep?

All of these are apt symbols and powerful remembrances, but they are not what Christ left for us. Instead, He left for us bread to be broken and eaten and juice to be poured and drunk. Why? Because it is the cross He wants us to remember. It is the cross He wants consistently before the eyes and minds and hearts of His Church.

Christ calls us ever and again to the cross. Not because the sacrifice of the cross, the event of the cross, is ever repeated. It is not. But the reality of the cross must be consistently and constantly brought to mind. It must be so because we cannot progress in the Christian life without it before us. We must keep Christ and His cross before our eyes.

He is at the finish line. He beckons us to press on. And He beckons us with nail-pierced hands.

Let the cross be ever before your eyes!

 

[1] Erik M. Heen and Philip D.W. Krey, eds. Hebrews. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament. Vol.X. Gen.Ed. Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), p.210-211.

[2] John MacArthur, Jr., Hebrews. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary. (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1983), p.372-373.

[3] William Barclay, The Letter to the Hebrews. The Daily Study Bible. (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1966), p.196.

[4] Ray C. Stedman, Hebrews. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Vol.15 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), p.137.