Perfector

Hebrews 12:1-29

Welcome! Today we come to Chapter 12 in our series on Hebrews. Now if you are like me, it is impossible to read these verses without a certain Scripture song coming to mind. Don’t worry – we will sing this song at the end of today’s service. But I think that I, more than most people, have a portion of my mind that is constantly offering me a background music track to my life, perhaps because so much of my life has been involved with music. Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out why my always-trying-to-be-helpful brain picks the songs that it picks. On Wednesday, I gave an exam to my online class, and immediately after that, I went to Clemson’s Greenville campus for a meeting. On the way, I found myself wondering how my students did, and I was a little worried, based on what I was seeing on homework and quizzes. Most worrisome was the fact the students didn’t seem concerned, as they weren’t coming to office hours. As I was thinking about these things, an old Disney musical song was going through my mind, but I couldn’t figure out the connection. The song was Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid. Finally I figured it out – instead of s-e-a, my always helpful brain was thinking about the letter grade C. “Under the C, under the C, yeah, we in luck here, down in the muck here, under the C.” Welcome to my brain.

 

Before we get into our passage for today, let us pray – in part that our brains do not distract us, but instead help us to pay attention and see how to apply what we hear to our hearts and lives. [Pray]

 

Now for the last two weeks, we have gone through Hebrews 11, the chapter well known for its long list of Old Testament people who were commended for their faith. Chapter 12 brings us, among many other wonderful truths, the point or purpose of Chapter 11. To get more of the context that Hebrews 12 is built upon, Let us revisit Chapter 10, verse 19: 

 

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. – Hebr. 10:19-23

 

Because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross, we are called upon to draw near to God, being confident that we can do so because of our faith in Him. When we think about God, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe, and we think about ourselves, an infinitesimally small part of His creation, people who have sinned and repeatedly fallen far short of what God wanted us to be, a natural response is to say, “Who am I that I should come into His presence at all?” This is not an unreasonable question, and it would be entirely appropriate, if it were not for Jesus.

 

Repeatedly we see in Scripture the response of people when they come into God’s physical presence – they say, “Woe am I”, they fall facedown, and they expect to die, for “no one can see God and live.” God is indeed perfectly holy and infinitely powerful and awesome, and this truth makes it even more amazing what Jesus has done for us, as because of Him, we can choose to draw near to God. How do we do this? By faith. The difference between wanting to stay away from Him, even hide from Him, in fear, and wanting to draw near to Him, be with Him, experience Him, is faith. And so a good question to ask is “What is this faith?”

 

Hebrews 11 answers this question with a definition and with many examples from the Old Testament. Here is the definition, from verse 1:

 

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. – Hebr. 11:1

 

I call this a “working” definition, because it describes faith in terms of what it causes. I want to point out that there is always something behind faith. The Old Testament persons in Hebrews 11 were commended for their faith, because with little to go on, far less than we have, they nevertheless made life-altering decisions based on the little they did know about God or had experienced with Him. Think of Noah making the multi-year decision to build the ark – what did he have to go on? A short experience with God giving him directions. But was it really God? Maybe it was his imagination, or a weird dream due to the pickles he ate at dinnertime. Abraham had a great life in a great city – a short contact with God, and he packed up, leaving his family, without even a destination – God only told him He would show him where to go. These are only two of the many examples in Hebrews 11. For each, I have found it instructive to imagine myself in their places, with as little to go on as they were given. Would I have enough faith in God to upend my life as they did? Would you? 

 

And yet, Hebrews 12 calls us to do exactly this. Starting with verse 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, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. – Heb. 12:1-2a 

 

The author of Hebrews is getting his listeners to imagine a great race. This is a long race, like a marathon, not a sprint. And in the stands are all these witnesses from the Old Testament, there to cheer us on, even if we cannot audibly hear them. When I watch the Star Wars movies and see the ghosts of Obi Wan and others encouraging Luke, I am reminded of these verses. What is this race a symbol of? Life, our daily life, day after day. And this passage tells us there are three things we must do.

 

First, we must throw off everything that hinders. If you have watched a marathon, or indeed, any running race, you know that the athletes travel light. They don’t run with backpacks on, or while pushing a shopping cart. And so we are told that we too must travel as light as possible. What might hinder us? Choosing priorities in life other than God. Yes we are to work, providing for ourselves and our families, but we are not to become slaves to our work, or prioritize work over spending time with God, with our families, and with our brothers and sisters in Christ. What else might hinder us? Worries. Instead of worrying, we can be praying. Or at least pray while you are worried. The pleasures of life can also hinder us. Does this mean we cannot enjoy life? Not at all. But any pleasures in this life should only make us long even more for the life that is to come, whose pleasures will be infinitely greater than anything we can experience now. Another thing that can hinder us are unhealthy thoughts and ideas we cling to from our past. We even call these things “baggage”. Remember that Jesus says, “come to Me all you who are weary and heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.” Depending on the nature of this “baggage”, there are different ways to leave it behind. If it is feelings of guilt or regret, if we have confessed our sins to God we need to leave these things behind because God forgives us. Why would we not forgive in ourselves something that God has already forgiven? If we are somehow “wounded” from the past, we need to open ourselves up to the healing and healthy thinking patterns that are available through Christ. This may be easier with the help of a good friend, a pastor, or a counselor. Note that we are to cast off everything that hinders, not just a few things. 

 

Second, we are told to throw off the sin that so easily entangles. I take nearly daily walks/runs for exercise, and sometimes I go at sunrise. If it has rained the night before, all the spiders (and there must be an awful lot of them) seem to build new webs or strands going across my path, right before I go. Because I go so early, I am probably the first person to walk across these webs. It is a very unpleasant feeling to walk through web after web after web. I sometimes feel like Frodo going into the den of Shelob. Sin is like this. It entangles us. It pulls upon us, preventing us from moving forward with the ease that should be available to us. How do we cast off the entangling webs of sin? First by confessing our sin and then by no longer continuing in it, asking God to give us His strength to choose Him over our temptations. With regards to my walks, I have learned in certain places to walk on the right side of the path and on others the left so as to avoid many of the strands. Note that Hebrews presents an even better situation for us – we don’t have to figure out the best path on our own; instead, we need to simply follow the path “marked out for us”. The webs of sin are the results of straying from that path. And how is the path marked out for us? Through Jesus. If we continue to seek Him each day, spending time with Him in the Word and through prayer, our path will be much easier. 

 

And third, we are to run. Run! I think of the scene in the Incredibles when the boy is told by his dad that, at last, he can run. Run! There is something I have only experienced a little, but I have experienced it, called the runners’ high. It is a sense of euphoria when your body is working as it was made to work, an incredible running machine. Your body produces endorphins (which are like natural opiates) and you feel no pain. You have to run some distance before you feel this. God calls us to run with perseverance – so this is a long run, not a sprint. We are to run! The path is clear, set out before us. We need to only run after Jesus – setting our sights continually on Him, and we too will feel joy as we do what we were made to do.

 

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. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. – Heb. 12:2b-4

 

I would say that, spiritually speaking, Jesus lights our path. Jesus feeds us on our journey. Jesus encourages us to go on. And Jesus even carries us when we feel that we cannot. How does He do this? Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, which helps us in our weakness. It is the Holy Spirit that opens up passages like this, enabling them to reach deep into our hearts. 

 

For the joy set before Him He endured the cross. Years ago, Fred gave a powerful message on this single thought. Does Jesus really love you? Yes! There was nothing remotely joyful about the agony Jesus went through for us. But yet, knowing how it would redeem His beloved (that’s us), it gave Him joy to think of what that agony would accomplish. That is how much He loves you! 

 

Reflecting on His love for us demonstrated by what He did for us on the cross can feed you, revive you, sustain you. It’s not so much that Jesus is an example to follow – the whole, “If He could do it, then so can I” kind of thing. Instead, I believe it is more about realizing that if He loves us this much, then as a result of our deep love for Him, we find ourselves able to do far more than we would have ever guessed. We find that out of the joy set before us, we can endure, we can not grow weary, we can not lose heart. 

 

Let’s talk about that last verse. At some point in the past, I thought maybe that it meant that we were somehow supposed to resist to the point of shedding our blood. But I don’t think that is what this means. I believe the point is simply that Jesus has gone through infinitely more than we will ever have to. Knowing this should make us love Jesus more, and again, this love will empower us to reject the temptation to sin and instead to follow after Him.

 

And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son.” – Heb. 12:5-6

 

This passage quotes from Proverbs 3. It points out two errors when experiencing God’s discipline over sin. The first is to make light of it, that is, to ignore it, to not take it seriously. The second is to lose heart, which is the opposite error, to treat it as if it were some kind of permanent, eternal rejection. As a parent, we would not our children to make either error when we punish them, and God is no different. Discipline should not be ignored – it should lead to a change in behavior. In fact, chastening, a word that is rarely used today, means exactly that, to discipline with the specific purpose of seeing a resulting change in behavior. God chastens everyone He accepts as His son. And so what is the appropriate response? Repentance, in prayer, and then in resulting action. We are to take His discipline seriously – which we most often feel as a pain of conscience in our hearts – and then we go forward in the forgiveness and love that He offers us. 

 

Now I think it is important to point out that God doesn’t always cause a particular discipline to happen as a result of a particular sin; that is, He doesn’t tell us that a particular negative circumstance is a consequence of our sin. Often, hard things simply happen in this life. The early believers dealt with terrible persecution, as do many believers today in particular countries around the world. Does the fact that we don’t experience that kind of persecution in America mean that we are less sinful? Absolutely not! More likely, the opposite is true. So why do some people experience terrible hardship in their lives as Christians?

 

God allows this hardship to happen because He wants to use it to help us grow to maturity in Him. There are many passages that talk about this explicitly, but we don’t have time to go into them today. My point is simply that, in this passage, as well as in what follows, I believe God is talking about these general kinds of hardships as well as specific disciplines for specific sins. 

 

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as His children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. – Heb. 12:7-13

 

The word translated as discipline over and over here is paideia which is a rather specific word that, appropriately, refers to training up children. It’s not so much about punishment, like a prison sentence, but about regular frequent correction that leads to better behavior, like a parent would do with their young child. It includes, but is not limited to, protecting a child from doing something dangerous. More than that, it is teaching a child to be sensitive to the needs of others, behaving and responding appropriately to others, doing what has been tasked to them, and so on. 

 

For discipline of this kind to be effective, it is important that the child know that the parent loves them and does this for their good; that is, the child needs to trust the parent, even if he or she doesn’t like the current discipline. In the same way, we need to trust that God knows what He is doing, and that He is doing it for our good, as it says in the passage. We will reap a harvest of righteousness and peace! 

 

The last few verses here bring us back to the picture of running the race. I’m certainly no expert at running, especially over long distances, but even I have noticed that my ability to run depends to a surprising extent on how I position my arms. Conversely, when I am exhausted, my arms drop and indeed feel feeble. As for weak knees, at the last Faithwalkers some of us took a pretty huge hike, with significant change in altitude. The hike was made much harder by the presence of a huge amount of wet, slippery leaves, which made us have to lift our legs high and constantly be prepared to slip. The risk of slipping was especially bad on the way down, and I noticed that my legs were so worn out that my knees would actually shake. Once you are in a race, it is really too late to fix problems due to your not being in adequate shape. There was really nothing I could do about my knees. You need to train before the race. And that is the idea of this passage – God trains us through various hardships and trails so that we can then be strong enough to run His race. 

 

Now, I believe there is one slight weakness to this translation of verse 13. The “your” is not there in the Greek. More literally, it says to strengthen feeble arms and weak knees. In conjunction with the next sentence which says to “make level paths” so that the lame are healed rather than disabled, the point here is that the author is not addressing individuals, but the church, that is, the local body of believers. So not only are we to strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees, but we are to do the same for others who similarly struggle. This goes back to things mentioned in chapter 10: We are not to forsake assembling together, and we are to spur one another on to doing good deeds. So yes, God is training us, but we need to embrace the training, and encourage others likewise to embrace it.

 

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done. – Heb. 12:14-17

 

The phrase “make every effort” in Greek continues the running analogy – it literally means to pursue, to run after. We are to pursue living in peace with everyone – that is, loving people – and holiness – that is, loving God. We are to take this seriously, like if we were running a long race. Now, a good parallel verse to this is Romans 12:18, in which we are told to live in peace with all men as much as possible – that is, as much as it is up to you. And although that idea is not specifically mentioned here, it is certainly implied. It takes two to have peace. The idea here is that we do all we can from our side of things. 

 

Falling short of the grace of God – what does this mean? I think it means that someone participates in a local body of believers but never actually personally gives their life to God; that is, they still mistakenly rely on works for their position with God rather than on the grace that comes to those who believe that Christ died for them.  

 

As for the bitter root, I think there is an interesting parallel passage in Deuteronomy chapter 29.

 

Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison. – Deuteronomy 29:18 

 

Both passages again speak of the idea of addressing people as a local body of believers together. We are to lovingly watch one another, see how we are doing, and so on, to make sure that all who join a local body of believers are in fact living by grace, through faith. People who reject the gospel and yet rise to a position of prominence in a church can cause incredible damage. We will talk more about this in an upcoming series. 

 

Esau is a powerful illustration of someone who had something of incredible value available to them but who threw the opportunity away because it meant nothing to them. In Esau’s case, the item was his inheritance, which he traded for a bowl of lentil soup. Once the trade was done, it was done, too late to undo it. In a similar way, people have something of incredible value available to them: they have an inheritance available only through faith in Christ. But they too do something as foolish as Esau – rather than appropriating their inheritance through salvation, they choose the temporary pleasures of this world, and they do so until they die, at which time it is, like it was for Esau, too late. And as for the tears, Jesus repeatedly describes those who reject salvation as those who are outside, weeping and gnashing their teeth. Let us all heed the lesson of Esau.  

 

Now we come to what is our fifth warning passage in Hebrews. These have been warnings primarily to nonbelievers who were attending a local gathering of believers. For one reason or another, they were holding back from taking steps of faith. Each warning deals with a particular reason. The first reason, in chapter 2, is neglect. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? The second reason, in chapter 3, is unbelief. They are described as having an evil heart of unbelief – unbelief is not an unbiased position, especially for someone who has heard of the Lord, seen the fruit of believers, witnessed the wonders of God’s creation, and so on. The third reason was tradition; for the Jews this meant holding on to various practices like ritual washings, described in chapters 5 and 6. Today I think it would also apply to those who use their age as an excuse for not giving their hearts to Christ. The fourth reason I might call fair-weatherism. This is found in chapter 10, among those who see the persecution of believers, have experienced a little of it because of their association with them, but then refuse Christ because they don’t want to endure that. And there is a fifth reason in the following verses: 

 

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” – Heb. 12:18-21

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. – Heb. 12:22-24

 

What a contrast! Two mountains, very different. One under the Old Covenant, the other under the New. The first was only a shadow of the second. The first only provided a temporary solution to the sin problem; the second is eternal. The first does not change the hearts of those who sin; the second does, because the Holy Spirit comes to live in us. The first communicates fear; the second, joy. At Sinai, the mountain has burning fire, darkness, gloom, and storm. It sounds like hell! But at Zion, you come to heaven, the heavenly Jerusalem! At Sinai, the angels kept you out. But at Zion, you join them in their celebration party. At Sinai, you were separated from God. But at Zion, you come to Him. As I said, what a contrast!

What about the blood of Abel? What is this about? If you recall from Genesis, Abel made a sacrifice to the Lord from the best portions of the firstborn of his flocks. Cain also made a sacrifice, but it is simply described as “some of” the fruits of the soil. I believe God was not impressed with Cain’s sacrifice, because it was more a sacrifice of leftovers, rather than of the best that he had to offer. In any case, God was impressed with Abel’s sacrifice but not with Cain’s. This made Cain angry, so angry that he killed Abel. 

 

Abel is a picture of Christ. He was killed even though he did not do anything wrong. I’m not saying he was without sin, as only Jesus owns that description. But with regards to the sacrifice, Abel did it right. This made Cain jealous, similar to how the Jews in Jesus’ day became jealous of Jesus because of the good things He did – the healings, the teachings, and the miracles. Both were killed. Abel died, and he stayed dead. Jesus also died, but He did not remain dead; He rose from the grave. Even death could not hold Him. And so the blood of Jesus indeed speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.  And now we come to the warning:

 

See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven? At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”- Heb. 12:25-29

 

And so what is the fifth reason people were rejecting Christ as Savior, rejecting faith in Him? In essence, they chose Sinai over Zion. Not for reason of tradition, here, but more one of identity. You can almost hear them say, “We are Jews. Our identity is tied to the Torah, to Exodus, to Sinai.” The problem is that that identity means that you are still under the law. You will still be judged for your own sins. You have no savior, no Lamb of God who takes away all your sins, once for all. 

 

Identity has become a big deal in our modern culture. I do not want to disparage the concept of identity. But if identity becomes so important that it impedes your coming to Christ, then your identity, whatever it is, is an idol. At the end, as the passage says, there will be a great shaking, or sifting, or separating, as Jesus described it in the gospels. Identity is one of those things that will be shaken, and I do not believe it will remain, at least not as something that divides. In heaven we will all be brothers and sisters in Christ, equals before God. Some, we are told, will be shown greater honor, but this will be because of how they served Christ while on this world, storing up “treasure in heaven” as it says in Matthew. Martyrs will receive special honor. But identity, what group you were born into, your physical characteristics, and so forth, will not matter. Indeed, the last will be first and the first will be last. Let us not abandon identity but keep it in perspective. And let us embrace our new identity, the one that truly matters – by grace, through faith, we are children of the King of kings and Lord of lords. We are the redeemed ones, the forgiven ones, lowly servants and yet honored sons and daughters of the living God.